Design

The first thing you might notice when comparing the two is the design. The Nokia is a Dual-Slider, meaning that it slides up for a keypad, and down for media controls. The iPhone has very few buttons, but instead has a touch interface which opens up possibilities like a QWERTY keyboard. If I was to choose between the two, I would certinaly pick the touchscreen, because you will be able to type faster and applications aren’t limited to a single set of controls (The music mode may have different buttons to the address book, for instance)
Winner: iPhone

Interface

Again, you can’t get much better then Apple on this one. The N96 may be powered by Symbian OS, but what it lacks is coverflow, safari (when you compare Safari against Opera, I have to pick Safari only because I know that you once had to pay for Opera, and for some reason, it has clouded my view), a full QWERTY keyboard, iTunes and it’s multi-touch gestures. I also feel more at home with the iPhone OS, possibly because I know that OS X is a solid Operating System.
Winner: iPhone (again)

Storage

I like a lot of space. What I like more is expandable space; which is why I’m awarding this to the N96. Not only does it come with 16gb of internal memory (The iPhone only offers 16gb on its higher end model), but you can hot-swap a microSD card for even more room (Currently 8gb is the largest you can buy, giving the N96 a total of 24gb of storage). Even if Apple release a 32gb model, I am still temped to choose the N96, only because I can remove the card and use it in other things (like my TV).
Winner: N96

Connectivity

Again, this one is easy. Both phones support WiFi and Bluetooth and run on a 3G network, but you don’t need iTunes to run a N96. Full Stop. Furthermore, if you wanted to, you could just pile all of your media onto a microSD card, and transfer it onto your N96 that way - without the need for a computer. And, as an added bonus, you can do that on Windows, Mac or Linux.
Winner: N96

Camera

Do I really have to bother with this, 5 mega pixels vs. 2 mega pixels. Both phones also feature geotagging and the N96 comes with the added bonus of flash. Some might argue that you don’t need 5mp to take photos, but if the technology is avaiable, why not use it. Why should I worry about two different devices (Camera and Phone) on my next holiday, when I can just use the one device. Space isn’t an issue either, because if I fill one microSD card, I can just pop in another. I don’t even have to worry about finding a computer with iTunes somewhere either.
Winner: N96

Size/Weight/Height

After a quick check on Wikipedia, the N96 weighs a whole 8 grams less then the iPhone. But, the iPhone is thinner then the Nokia, and not as wide. If you want to get technical, the N96 has a cubic volume of 101.97cm, compared to the iPhone’s 94.68cm. My current mobile is the original Razor, so I have to give this one to the iPhone, only because smaller phones are better.
Winner: iPhone

Battery

I have no idea what I am talking about here, but the N96 has a 950 mAh battery compared to i-don’t-know for the Apple (they mustn’t like to share). For Audio playback, its 14 hours (N96) vs. 24 (iPhone) and for video its 5 hours (N96) vs. 7. Standby time is 220 hours (N96) vs. 300 for the iPhone. Even though the battery can’t be replaced by normal people, I will give this one to the iPhone, as it can go 12.5 days without a recharge.
Winner: iPhone

Media Playback

The Nokia N96 can not only playback MP3’s, but AAC’s and WMA’s. In terms of video, it can playback MPEG-4, H.264, WMV9 and Flash (It can also playback realVideo, but no-one cares about that). The iPhone can playback H.264 and MPEG-4 video, AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, AIFF and WAV. The N96 supports flash, which is why the Nokia wins the media playback.
Winner: N96

Network

Although this only applies to Australians, the Nokia N95 runs on Telstra’s nextG network, and it’s likley that the N96 will follow. The iPhone runs on either Optus’ or Vodafone’s. While I have an extreme disliking for Telstra’s broadband network, they do have a (better) nextG one and is one reason why I’ll never buy a phone locked to Optus or Vodafone. I’m not sure what it’s like in other countries though.
Winner: N96

Conclusion

I can’t decide. As much as I would like to say Nokia, there are some outstanding features on the iPhone, including some I haven’t mentioned. If I was to choose either phone, to recieve one for free, I would definatly pick the N96 because of it’s outstanding Camera. It practically merges three devices into one. But, some people might want the iPhone for other reasons (like push email). If you want, let me know what you’d choose, and why you would choose it.

As some of you may know, I started a project called Gamed in December 2006. The idea was very similar to Yoyo Games where you could upload and share Games. I took on the project after the group based one, FreeFall gaming free through. However as time went on, I started to see some flaws in the project, most notably the lack of a virus scanner and Yoyo’s presence in the community. So I went in search of a new project, one that everyone could benefit from, that I’d have fun designing and required minimal effort to maintain. It was then that I thought of IMDB. At the time, I thought it was one of a kind (although I later found out about Rotten Tomatoes, movieTome and All Movie Guide) and would be perfect to copy. I thought of the name OpenTheatre and set to work on the 30th of May.

As you can see from the screenshot on the right, the interface was ugly, but that was only after a day’s work. One of the main features I wanted to have on the site was a place were people would be free to add and change movie information, without having to worry about moderated content.

I also wanted to have reviews listed on the main page (as you can see from the image), as opposed to IMDB where they were hidden. The final key feature I wanted to have was a mini-spreadsheet type program where people would be able to upload a list of the movies they own and share it with their friends or families.

The above design lasted a day, and the next morning I started work on the coding, without worrying about what the design would look like. I decided to do something different this time, and use a Templating engine to manage my pages. You can see an image of the movies page with the Templating engine on the right. I got partway through the website, and I realised that it just wasn’t working out. So I scrapped everything and started again - this time without a Templating engine.

So, I started it again, for the second last time. The design was very similar to the last one, with only a few minor changes. Unfortunately this time, I took a bit of a break from it, and when I returned I was unable to read any more of my code. Not only that, but in the past 8 months of development, I had learnt quite a few new tricks to optimise and speed up the site. So, I started one last time, the current design. I started completely from scratch, with a brand new design (which I won’t reveal just yet) but I am on track to getting in finished sometime soon.

In the coming weeks, I’ll explain the three key features of the site, how they work, and what they’ll do. I’ll also start to post some screenshots, and aim for a beta sometime this year.

mathiaus accepted my request 6 days later (on the 22nd) and from there I started work. The first thing I can remember doing was setting up phpBB and themeing it. The site, GazGames was originally going to be a place where I host my games, and hence used the sub-domain gazgames.frih.net. Well that idea never took off, and I ended up being the 9th person to request a sub-domain change in August. I purchased my first domain later that month (gwplus.net) and the idea I had for that also fell through. I created my first blog on the site, not for me, but for a friend in September and ended up re-branding it to Garion’s Blog.

It was out of luck that I stumbled by a topic on Whirlpool last week, advertising free webhosts. I found an all-Australian owned and hosted site, called Avanti and although they had not-quite as many features of Frihost, I still applied. I was accepted, and if you can read this post, you’re on my new server! So I got to work on a new blog theme and after a weeks hard work, this is what I’m left with. I’d like to know what you think, because I like it, but am interested in any improvements that can be made.

Now that I’ve got a new blog, I hope to write more and also attract more publicity to it as well. But now that I’ve had a week off movopia, I plan to get back to work tonight and hope to have an update post by next Monday!

First of all, I want to write another 3 posts (at least), possibly on these 3 topics:

1. Windows Vista
2. Movopia’s History
3. OS X (If I can find a machine)

Along with a few movopia updates. I’m really aiming for a May/June beta release, but I can’t (and won’t) guarantee it. School work this year is just to busy
So that’s where I’m at, and it’s also where I’m going

So, I got thinking about what I could do to make movopia different. And that’s when I thought of the reviews. What if movopia had a twitter-style review system where each one would be limited to less than 200 characters? Or should I just keep with my original plans and allow for full reviews (that are more than 50 words)?

If I choose to use the mini-Reviews, there would be further delays in building the site because I’ll use javascript for advance effects. I would also be able to enable guest posting, and not have to worry about spam. It could also (possibly) increase activity on the site, because even I would rather write a sentence or two rather than a full review. It would also open up the possibility to have SMS reviews as the site gets bigger.

But it would lack the sense of a community, and there would be no communication, something that full reviews offer. Thought out posts will not only complement the movie information but may encourage others to watch and review the movie. Longer reviews would give people something to read, as opposed to the shorter ones. However, users would have to register to post, and some people may not want to do that. Members may also want to keep their reviews to them self, and keep them on their blog – which is perfectly reasonable, I would do the same thing.

I think my opinion may be a little biased, so I’m asking you what you think. Would you prefer to read 3 detailed reviews, or 15 short ones?

A while back (maybe 4 weeks ago) I sent in a help ticket to Yoyo Games enquiring about the ads and weather they would be doing anything about them. I got a reply back today, stating the following:

Hi

We are in discussions with Google at the moment to change the way we advertise.
More will follow on the site new once we know more,

Regards,
Nick Moulds

Maybe Yoyo is getting a big(er) change shortly. I hope they do, because the ads are really annoying

Starting with a positive, Yoyo Games recently held their first Game Maker competition with $1750 in prize money up for grabs. The competition went fairly well with FROZZD coming in first place, followed by Garden Gnome Carnage and Granny and Snowmen finishing up third. However this was met with controversy particularly with with the ratings.

Right from the start the rating system faced problems, with users complaining about there being 6 stars instead of the usual 5. Things quietened down after that, but it received another beating during the competition. What was happening was the users who were submitting poor games were going around and down rating the good games. Mark has said that this won’t be happening in the latest competition, but I beg to differ.

Another (big) flaw with the website is how the games are organised. Browsing the site yesterday, I noticed that the highest rating reviews were placed first, with no weight put placed on how many people reviewed the game. This meant that if I uploaded a game and rated it 6 stars, it would instantly jump to the front of the queue over passing the proper good games.

Yoyo also have added adverts to the site. While there is nothing wrong with this, where Yoyo Games have placed them is. Rather then placing them cleverly inside the page, Yoyo have just slapped them up the side, with almost no thought at all. While placing adverts in, they also took the search box off the main header, something the the CEO and I both disagree with (However, I can no longer find the comment).

Moving on to the Game Maker, and nothings changed. Game Maker for mac is expected to be out before the 2nd Quarter with version 8 not expected until next year. The activation service is still as dodgy as anything, and I’ll never register (or support) Game Maker again because of poor customer service. However, it was recently announced that it might be possible to add adverts to your games, and let you, and yoyo earn money from them. There has been speculation about this, but I think that Game Maker is starting to become a cash cow. A cow that the public will continue to drink from until something better comes out.

My problems started with upgrading to Windows Vista. As Game Maker 6 doesn’t work with Vista, I hd to upgrade. This wasn’t a problem, but activating it was. I only had a v6 key and was yet to update. I tried to via yoyo games, but they rejected my key. I whizzed off an email to them (a month ago), but have yet to recieve a reply.

So, to conclude not much has happened within the past year. Yoyo took a few steps forward (Competitions and Game Maker for Mac) but also took a few steps back (Annoying adverts, lack of GM updates). So it’ll be interesting to see where it goes in the following year.

When you put the Apple TV and Playstation 3 side-by-side you’ll know what I mean. Not only can the PS3 playback DivX and XVid videos but it can also play them back in full HD (1080p) whereas Apple can only playback MP4 and H.264 at a resolution of 720p.

However, the Apple TV does have the ability to play videos from youtube, as well as integration with iTunes two features that the Play Station 3 lacks. It is also quite smaller then the Play Station and has a bigger hard drive (160gb vs. 80gb). Both hard drives can be replaced, but in order to format the Apple TV you must have a mac (or linux). With the play station, its a simple as taking it out, putting it in and turning it on!

In my personal opinion, the XrossMediaBar (Also used in the PSP and some Sony Bravia TV’s) is far better then the GUI of Apple TV’s, although Apple’s is more focused for video playback whereas the Play Station has to cater for a lot more.

When you compare the PS3 against the Wii and Xbox, you see that they tried to copy both consoles but failed at it. In my opinion the Xbox live service is much better then the Wii’s and the Play Stations (when it’s working of course) and the sixaxis controllers were only trying to copy the Wii’s (which didn’t really work).

I am not a play station fanboy, and if I was to ever to buy another console it would be the Wii, but when looking for a Home Media Server I would have to pick the Play Station. Why? because its the smallest media server I’ve ever seen (Apart from the Apple TV) and it has the widest playback options. Not only that but it’ll play future DVD’s and also plays games.

Further Reading/References:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_TV - Apple TV image
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_3 - Play Station 3 Image
• http://www.gamersreports.com/article/43/2/ - Replace Playstation 3 Hard drive
• http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/23/how-to-upgrade-the-drive-in-your-apple-tv/ - Replace Apple TV hard drive

Update - It appears the the Play Station isn’t losing badly, just losing to the Wii. Thanks to brian and john for pointing that out

On my first attempt at installing it, I was rejected with Microsoft wanting me on AC power before I could continue (Possibly to avoid corrupting the system if the battery goes flat halfway through the installation). As I clearly wasn’t going to get anywhere while on my battery I put the installation aside for the next few hours.

Installing the Service Pack was the same as any other. After extracting the files and agreeing to the terms of use it was ready to install. Installing it took a little while for me (Around half an hour) and like any other service pack, it asked me to restart at the end.

The bootup time was slightly faster then before and after it had, it promoted me to turn on automatic updates (Because I previously had them disabled). The welcome screen stayed on for a lot longer then normal, but that could have just been because it was its first time starting up with Service Pack 3. After I saw my desktop2 instances of the Command Prompt opened before disappearing a few seconds later. Not too soon after that, automatic updates popped up and told me I had new updates. These turned out to the malicious software tools that Microsoft seem to release each month.

So far I haven’t noticed any visual differences, but the speed in opening folders seems to be a bit faster (Or I could be paranoid). This release won’t be as big as service pack 2 (which added a redesigned Wireless manager, a improved firewall and the Windows Security Center). It does include some new features like the ability to provide a Windows key after its installed (This feature will only be available on a full version of Windows XP and not the stand alone service pack), changes to the kernel and new networking features (which are already available in Windows Vista).

It didn’t install Internet Explorer 7 over the top of version 6, which is good for all Web Developers out there and is good news to the people who keep having to reinstall Windows as it minimises the amount of updates you have to apply.

Sources: Paul Thurrott’s Windows Supersite

In December 2006 I announced Gamed, a new project allowing people to upload games to a central location. I had already been working hard on it, and a basic idea of what I wanted it to do. However as time went on, I discovered more and more bumps in my road ahead. To start, Yoyo games had already released their site, and it wasn’t going to well (The reviews were rigged, the adverts weren’t relevant…). Whether this had something to do with its userbase (With possibly an average age of 13) or not, I’m not sure but it was one of the factors in me deciding to end the project. Another reason stopping me from continuing was the lack of virus scanning. I’m sure that my webhost would have some sort of virus protection, I would be unable to use this myself and scan each file.

I ended up cancelling Gamed in May, A decision I haven’t regretted. I would like to return to it someday, possibly soon but right now my new project, movopia is getting all of my attention. At the moment I am still busy coding, but I hope to release it sometime early this year. It’s pronounced move-oh-pea-a and will (hopefully!) be an open movie encyclopaedia. Anyone who is registered will be able to edit, create and change movies stored in the database. Once a movie’s information is complete the information will get locked, so that it’s contents can’t be vandalised. On top of this, any one can also review the movie regardless of weather its locked or unlocked (only once though). And if you’re someone who likes to see what their friends thought of the movie, their average rating will appear up next to the main one. So if the world thought that the new Die Hard was great, but your friends thought it was bad you can chose who you want to believe.

Another feature of movopia is called ‘lists’. As the title suggests, you can create (or upload) a movie list. This feature is currently in beta and while it may look basic at the moment, I do have some very big plans for it. You can sign up for movopia lists at beta.movopia.com.

So thats where I’m going next year and look forward to a new choice in movie review sites.
Happy New Year!