Accel World: The Peak of Acceleration PSP Review #accel_world

Finally cleared Accel World Kasoku no Chouten, first run. This is the second game form the franchise Accel World, the first being Ginyouki no Kakusei. Just like the first game, it is available for both the PS3 and PSP, and the special edition of the game includes the EX 02 OVA. I bought the PSP version again as it is cheaper, and portable.

**WARNING: There will be spoilers.

Kasoku no Chouten is a direct sequel to Ginyoku no Kakusei. The story started right after the first game, with Phase 07, with Kuroyukihime senpai telling everybody that she’s going to London after graduation. Remember how the first game skipped the Chrome Disaster arc and went straight to the Dusk Taker Arc? Well, Chrome Disaster arc is here now. Similar story, with the Nega Nebulus team helping Niko to fight Chrome Disaster. The story also continues to Haru being infected with the Disaster Armor, although Haru managed to overcome it rather quickly, enhancing Silver Crow with gold trimmings. The story also covers the Space Elevator race. They really crammed in a lot of stuff.

And yes, looks like there won’t be a third game. Why? The story ended. Yes, the battle for level 10. Black Lotus is kicking ass. And yes, that screenshot that was uploaded on the net is true. Kuroyukihime and Haruyuki finally got together, and we have Yayoi Arita. 🙂

Now I don’t know if there are alternate endings or whatnot as this is my first run. In magazines and website, I saw pictures of Cyan Disaster and White Cosmos, but I don’t see them in the game.

If you have the first game’s saved file in your memory stick, the game will let you use it to get some money bonus and access to the first game’s gallery (only the CGs you have cleared will be shown though). The mini games are there, but you have to buy them.

For the most part, Kasoku no Chouten retains a lot of the mechanics of Ginyoku no Kakusei. Again, to those new to the franchise, this is NOT a fighting game. This is a dating simulation/adventure game, where you will be mostly seeing the characters talking and pressing the circle button to see the next dialogue/scene. Majority of the gameplay is the same. You have the adventure mode where you talk with the characters, then you have the dating simulations where you go on dates, and the same rock-scissor-paper Brain Burst battles. They did add some more features to Kasoku no Chouten that makes the game more enjoyable.

First of all, Brain Burst battles in the first game are pretty much pointless. They don’t add anything to the gameplay as your character’s stats are hard-coded to the story. Heck, it was so pointless that you can skip all battles in the game plus mode. In Kasoku no Chouten, performing Brain Burst battles will actually level up your stats. They also introduces Akihabara Battle Ground (BG), the tournament for Burst Linkers in episode 21. Battling in Akihabara BG will net you some money. Unlike the Brain Burst battles, your stats won’t improve much, and sometimes you won’t gain any additional points at all. Also, you can only do this once per day. This is primarily used to get money quickly, especially later in the game where the gifts are expensive. And yes, remember the name Prussian Stiletto. You will be fighting her most in the game as she is the one with the most reward money.

The game also brings in territory battles, where you will pick an area to do a 3 on 3 tag battle. It doesn’t really add anything to the story per se, but you can recruit additional members for the legion. This is also the only way the other Nega Nebulus members to level up their stats. Only the members that you pick as a team will get the points though.

This creates an imbalance gameplay-story relation. Since you, the player, can do Brain Burst battles as much as you want, Silver Crow will be pretty much the strongest duel avatar. This is especially true later when you are maxing out your stats. All the level 9 kings are nothing against Silver Crow. I mean I pretty much up to the point that I am defeating anybody in two to three turns with my basic attacks. This kinda distorts the game’s story, as while you kick ass during the battles, the story telling reflects otherwise. I guess it reminds you that the focus of this game is not fighting, it’s the dating simulation.

The background music includes some updated arranged tracks, but they are pretty much the same as the first game. I really wish they used the anime OST. They use the second anime opening, Altima’s Burst of Gravity, for the opening of the game. Unlike the first game, looks like they improved the video encoding as it is as smooth as the regular anime now. Also, just like the first game, all the anime seiyuu are here. In addition, we have Utai Shinomiya (Ardor Maiden) voiced too. Alas, Rin Kusakabe is not here, which is ironic as she appears in the EX 02 OVA. Oh, and just like the first game, each character does the piracy warning. Utai’s one is extremely cute!

As for the graphics, well, it is mostly the same. The characters have new wardrobe, but no variety (ie. school uniform, one casual, and a swimsuit. That’s it). Many of the scenes in the accelerated world are now replaced with static images instead of the 3D models. The images are definitely better than the poorly textured 3D models, but it cheapens the game. The CGs are superb, as usual, done with the same style as the anime.

Overall, I enjoyed the game. Of course, I am highly biased as I am a fan of the franchise. Kasoku no Chouten is definitely a better game than Ginyoku no Kakusei, an improved sequel. 9 out of 10. As usual, like most anime-based dating simulation games, this is a game for the fans. If you are not a fan, don’t bother. If you expected a fighting game, look elsewhere.

What saddens me is the fact that they are ending the story, despite the light novel is still ongoing. It is clear that there won’t be a third game, unless they do a reboot/different timeline, or maybe Magisa Garden. Does this mean we may not see season 2 of the anime? 😦 At the same time, they did introduce Utai, complete with her own seiyuu. Maybe there is hope. In any case, this is it for Accel World game. Below is the last scene of the game. Hime: “I love you, Haruyuki-kun.” Yeah, they still don’t say Kuroyukihime’s real name despite the story ending. -_-;

The End.

 

Accel World: Awakening of the Silver Wings PSP Review #accel_world

Finally cleared Accel World Ginyoku no Kakusei for the first run. This is the first game based on the franchise Accel World, available for the PSP and PS3. I bought the PSP version since the PS3 version is so expensive. Besides, having it on my PSP allows me to play it wherever I want. This game, like most Japanese only games, are also available in a cheaper Asia version, and it’s the same thing (even the special edition with the OVA is available). There’s no English manual at all, so prepare to consult the internetz and/or trial and error if you don’t understand Japanese.

Let’s start with the review. (Note: there will be spoiler.)

First and foremost, Accel World’s story is revolved around Haruyuki Arita and a virtual fighting game called Brain Burst. In this game, you will be Haru/Silver Crow. For a game based on a virtual fighting game, Accel World Ginyoku no Kakusei is not a fighting/action game. So if that’s what you’re hoping for, save your money. Just looking at the screenshots online, one can deduce that it’s the typical Japanese adventure/dating simulation game.

Basically, you will be seeing a static image most of the time with dialogues on screen. Most of the time, all you will be doing is pressing circle to move to the next dialogue. You can press the left shoulder button to toggle an auto-mode. There are few decision trees to pick your date and unlock some pictures. There’s a light RPG element in the game where you can improve the special moves of your duel avatar, but that’s about it. Picking up the right response and giving the right gifts for your dates are more important here. Having said that, Brain Burst battle is there, but it’s not what you think. The Brain Burst battle is basically a turn-based rock/paper/scissor fight, where you assign values to your duel avatar’s offense, defense, accuracy, and evasion points, and hope that yours are more than the opponent’s during the fight. It might feel hard or complicated at first unless you understand Japanese, but it’s actually pretty easy once you understand the concept and pattern. This feels tacked on though, as you don’t even participate in many of the “battles” that are part of the story. You can always do a free battle on your own, but it doesn’t give you any experience or anything. Your level is hard-coded with the story. That’s right, you don’t get to level up on your own. The story dictates what level you are, again emphasizing that this is not an RPG/fighting game, the main game is the adventure/dating simulation.

(Battle tip: Press and hold the triangle button, and use the D-pad to distribute your purple gauge into points for your stats)

There are two mini games that are unlocked once you pass certain points in the game. First one is a game based on Silver Crow’s training with Sky Raker, having to climb Tokyo Tower. You climb by alternating the left and right shoulder buttons while matching with the timing of the on-screen cue, with the D-pad to move left/right, and circle to do a head-butt. While you’re climbing, Sky Raker will drop bread or wash basin (yeah, go figure). Bread will increase your health, which is important as your health continuously drops through time. So not only you have to climb, you have to catch some bread and dodge the basins, and reach the top before times up. It’s pretty hard.

Second game is Love Squash, based on the virtual squash game that Haru played in the beginning of the anime. You move with the d-pad, serve and hit the ball with circle, and when your special move gauge is filled, you can push triangle to unleash a special move that will speed up the ball. There are two opponents, Scarlet Rain and Black Lotus. I managed to beat Scarlet Rain, but Black Lotus is impossible. Good thing you don’t have to win this game in the story.

Both mini games have retro 8-bit music with them, which is amusing.

Now to the graphics. Most screenshots you see online are clearly from the PS3 version. The graphics on the PSP version is a meh, for obvious reasons. The PSP is an old system. Jaggies are aplenty due to the low resolution, but that’s expected. The character models are actually not bad during the adventure mode, but what hurts the most is the low-res/low quality textures for the 3D models. This is most apparent on the duel avatars, especially Silver Crow. From the screenshots of the PS3 version, Silver Crow really looks metallic. On the PSP version, he’s just, well, kinda grey colored. The battle stages are no better, mostly barren with low-res textures. Having said that, the graphics would probably be acceptable during the PS1/PS2 era, and considering the limitation of the PSP system and the UMD media, I guess it’s a decent trade off as you can see later. Again, the emphasis is on the adventure part. The 2D illustrations themselves are beautiful and vibrant, with the same style as the anime.

The best part of this game is the sound. Why? Because the game is mostly fully voiced, by the same seiyuu of the anime. This is AWESOME! Heck, they really went overboard with this, by having each characters do a version of the legal warning. My favorites are Niko’s version, telling onii-chan that pirating the game is bad, and Ash Roller’s “Terra bad!!” ^_^ And yes, every dialogue of the characters are voiced, even the opponents in battles (which includes Yellow Radio, Rust Jigsaw, Black Vice, etc) with the exception of the player’s (Haru) in the adventure mode. Haru is voiced when there’s a special scene in the Accelerated World and during battle. I noticed though in battles, Haru’s voice is clearly encoded at lower quality. Now considering the extensive voice work, you can expect the limited space of the UMD might be an issue, so I can excuse the use of low-res textures for the graphics.

The music itself is okay, but can be repetitive, especially the battle music. I wish they used the same BGM as the anime. Oh well, at least they put the Anime’s OP when the game starts, complete with may’n’s Chase the World. Alas, the animation seems jerky and suffers from color banding. Seems like they encode the video at a low frame-rate and low quality, probably due to the limited amount of space of the UMD.

Now, the story (major spoiler). The story right after the first arc (Cyan Pile). Kuroyukihime is recovering in the hospital, and Taku starts going to the same school as Haru. However, the story differs completely from the original after this. In the original, Chiyu didn’t become a Burst Linker until after the second arc (Chrome Disaster) when they are in second year. Here, Chiyu decided to install Brain Burst right away, while they are still in first year.

Some differences of the story points between the anime and the game (may not be in chronological order. I’m just basing these off memory):
-Niko’s deception pretending to be Haru’s cousin is extended. They even played out the scenario that Taku in the original story thought, where Niko tries to appeal for Haru’s help by pretending to be bullied by her peers. Also, there’s no Chrome Disaster nor Cherry Rook (Chrome Disaster is conveyed differently, in the Dusk Taker arc).
-The circumstances of meeting Sky Raker is not due to Silver Crow losing his flight ability. The Dusk Taker arc is played way later, at the last part of the game. Sky Raker, and the meeting of Fuuko with Kuroyukihime, happens way early here in the game.

-Haru and Taku learning of the incarnate system is before the Dusk Taker arc
-There’s a completely original story with its own arc, where Silver Crow is leading a minor legion with members from various legions, including Blood Leopard and Ash Roller.
-Rust Jigsaw and Black Vice are introduced fairly early, before the Dusk Taker arc
-Kuroyukihime’s trip doesn’t coincide with the Dusk Taker arc
-Seiji Noumi started as a goody two shoes boy. He even friends with everybody.
-Silver Crow had his flight ability stolen by Dusk Taker in front of the Nega Nebulous members, and the mystery is they don’t know who Dusk Taker is.

Of course, the major attraction of the game is the dates between the player (Haru) and the various characters (including Taku). Meeting them, picking the right responses during dates, and giving them gifts will improve Haru’s relationship with the characters, and will unlock the various 2D anime illustrations. Haru and Hime are so cute together.

Due to the choices you made, you probably cannot unlock all the pictures in one go (I don’t). The game will let you save a cleared game and do a “game plus” mode where you keep your money and duel avatar’s skill level from the previous game. Any dialogue you’ve been through will be in grey, which is kinda annoying as it’s harder to read.

Overall, I enjoyed the game, mainly because I’m an Accel World fan. The fact that the game has a completely different story and timeline than the original kinda bugs me a little bit, but the game’s original story is also fun and still carry the same feel as the original (although the Dusk Taker arc and ending have much less impact compared to the original). Again, if you expect a fighting game, move along, nothing to see here. If you are familiar with the Japanese style adventure game, you’ll be right at home. The high production value (the voices by the original seiyuu) is worth the price of admission. PSP or PS3? I assume the content is the same, with the PS3 having better graphics and textures, although judging from the screen shots, it’s nothing to brag about (ie. it’s no Uncharted/Final Fantasy). If you want the Blu-ray of the OVA, then the choice is the PS3 special edition. Other than that, having a portable PSP version imo is more convenient as I can play it whenever and wherever.

Being an Accel World game, I’m a bit biased. Story wise, I would give the game 9 out of 10. As for the overall game itself, probably more like 7 out of 10. There’s not much interactivity in the typical Japanese adventure/dating simulation game, and the graphics is a meh. However, the voice work takes the cake. I do wish they voiced the game 100%. For non Accel World fans, or for those not familiar with this type of game, I would say it’s about 5 out of 10. Like most anime/light novel-based adventure/dating simulation games, it’s basically a fan service for the fans, not for the general audience.

A sequel of the game is obviously planned as Utai appeared briefly without any introduction. It’s a great distraction to ease my addiction after the anime ended. Now if only they would officially release the light novels in English.

 

Accel World Final Episode #accel_world

Today was a big day. No, I’m not talking about the sale of some phone named iPhone 5. I’m talking about the final episode of my numero uno favorite anime, Accel World. It’s sad that the anime is ending, but it’s an awesome episode with superb animation and great “ending.”

The episode started when we’re left off in episode 23, the final fight between Silver Crow and Dusk Taker. They even skipped the OP completely, went straight to the good stuff. The animation is just superb, worthy for the final episode. From episode 23, we had Silver Crow discarding his armor to escape from Black Vise’s trap, and the return of Black Lotus. Episode 24 started with Silver Crow equipping the Gale Thruster and battle Dusk Taker in the sky. There are numerous times that Silver Crow almost failed as the Gale Thruster’s energy running out, but Haru’s use of the incarnation system, and the support from the two girls helped him.

*Hey, that blinding light… How conveniently placed. -_-;

Silver Crow managed to overpower Dusk Taker, but the unexpected happened. Lime Bell used her Citron Call special ability. Silver Crow was taken aback at first, thinking that Chiyu betrayed them again, but it’s shown later that Lime Bell isn’t actually “healing” Dusk Taker. The Citron Call ability is not really “healing” the target, but more like reversing time. Dusk Taker lost his wings, and Silver Crow gained them back, with an incredible animation to boot.

Silver Crow literally cut Dusk Taker’s body in half, and his upper torso fell to the ground. Lime Bell explained her ability, and the fact that she sided with Seiji was to level up her special ability so she can reverse time further back to the point of time before Dusk Taker took Silver Crow’s wings. Dusk Taker implored Black Vise to help him, but Black Vise decided to escape as he didn’t have any grudge against the Nega Nebulous team. Plus he didn’t want to fight Black Lotus. We got a glimpse of Black Lotus’ incarnation ability here, cutting a whole building in half.

Dusk Taker were left to his own, crawling helplessly, begging for his life. It’s befitting as he said he used to abuse woodlice, and now he’s crawling like one. Silver Crow ended his suffering with his Laser Sword ability. Dusk Taker is no more. Noumi Seiji’s memory about Brain Burst was erased, and actually it might make him into a normal happier kid. A good touching ending for one of the most hated villain in anime world.

Back at Haru’s apartment, Taku, Haru, and Chiyu made up and are friends again, including some hugging and crying. Very touching considering the things they went through.

So, things are settling down. Haru is picking up Kuroyukihime from the station. We saw Kuroyukihime saying good-bye to Megumi, and Megumi looking at Haru with a red burning eyes of jealousy. LOL.

Back at Haru’s apartment, we have a super cute scene between Haru and Kuroyukihime. Hime asked Haru what he would want for his reward, and Haru said he wanted Hime to stay by his side forever, which made Hime blushed. So cute!

Back at school, the guy that hit Haru and his teacher apologized to him after his name is cleared thanks to Kuroyukihime. I’m glad that they followed up on this issue. Haru, being a too-nice of a guy, just ran instead of demanding somekind of tributes from those two. The reformed Noumi Seiji appeared, and looked a lot happier without Brain Burst. Closing scenes with Niko and Pard ensued, discussing the loss of memory after Brain Burst is uninstalled. Haru then told Hime there’s one more thing. He set up for them to meet with Fuuko, aka Sky Raker, to return her Gale Thruster. Haru also wanted Hime to make up with Fuuko, and they did, filled with crying and hugging, another touching scene. T^T

The anime is closing with Haru giving an uplifting monologue with quick scenes of the various characters, including two that were not introduced in the series (hopefully a teaser for a second season!), about “how we live in the gap between one moment and forever. Meeting and parting in a world where everything changes and everyone is frantically living their life. How there must be some things that don’t change, but there are some things that change and cannot be obtained back. But we know that even things do change, things start over again, and as long as they have the desire, people can always move forward and they can accelerate.” Made me cried. T^T More reason to love Accel World!

Well, there we go, the end of one of the best anime I’ve enjoyed. So far, it only covered up to book 4 of the light novel, and there are already 12 volumes of the novels. So plenty of materials left for more Accel World! Excellent series. It’s been a lot of fun. Farewell for now.

Oh who am I kidding. I’m addicted to Accel World, I cannot just go off cold turkey. Already watched the final episode twice in a row. Time to do a marathon of the whole series. Good thing I also bought the PSP game, Ginyoku no Kakusei. The story is a bit different than the actual timeline of the anime due to the nature of the game, but it has the same seiyuu, and it will help me with my addiction, hopefully until they make a second season.

 

Samsung Infuse 4G impression

After being disappointed by T-Mobile’s LG G2x, my search for a new phone continues. The selections outside US are grand, between the highly praised Samsung Galaxy S 2, or Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Arc/Neo, etc. Alas, NONE of those phones are being released in the US by their respective douchebag companies. Instead, what do we have? Samsung released a rehashed Galaxy S 1 phone on AT&T, called the Samsung Infuse 4G. Trying to import the Galaxy S 2 is prohibitively expensive and risky (at least $750, and it will have no warranty whatsoever). However, I’m too annoyed with my Nexus One already that I finally bite and checked out the Samsung Infuse 4G from the lovely AT&T.

First of all, it IS a re-hashed Galaxy S 1 phone. It contains the same single core processor as with the Galaxy S 1 phones, albeit at slightly higher clockspeed (1.2GHz vs 1GHz). While people outside the US are treated with dual-core goodness of the SGS2, US gets some leftovers. Performance wise though, it’s actually not bad. Despite the old architecture and Samsung putting their own skin on top of Android, the phone seems to perform fairly well. AT&T, as bad as they are, did a decent job by not overloading the phone with too much junk ware. Remember my review of the G2x, where T-Mobile put buggy old junkware apps in it that you cannot force-close? AT&T didn’t do that. Sure, the stuff that are pre-installed on the Infuse cannot be uninstalled, but you can easily force-close them if needed. This probably explains why the Infuse, despite having an older hardware, feels better and more stable than the G2x. The only glitches I experienced are mostly related to Froyo as I also experienced them when I had Froyo on my Nexus One. Gingerbread should take care of those, if AT&T is kind enough to update the Infuse.

Did I say Froyo? Yeah, in 2011, while other countries are getting Gingerbread phones, US gets old phones with old OS sold as new. Pathetic and sad. Even worse, it’s not even the latest version of Froyo, which is 2.2.2. It’s 2.2.1. You might think what’s the big deal. OS updates is a HUGE deal in modern smartphones because it doesn’t only give you new features, but also bug fixes and security fixes. Emphasis on security. There are serious security flaws that are fixed in Gingerbread, leaving tons of Android with Froyo vulnerable. It is extremely irresponsible of the OEMs and carriers for not pushing updates in a timely manner. Imagine if Dell or HP blocked service packs of Windows. There will be a huge outrage and security concern.

The main seller of the Infuse is its 4.5″ screen. Yeah, it’s massive! It puts my iPhone 3GS and Nexus One to shame. It’s even bigger than the LG G2x. The 4.5″ Super AMOLED screen is a beauty, bright and vibrant colors. Alas, it still has the same resolution as my Nexus One, 800×480. Definitely not “retina” resolution, and it kinda shows on some fonts and icons, aliased jaggies aplenty. Still, there are times now that I appreciate the larger screen. Maybe signs of my eyes getting old. 😀

Another main seller of the Infuse is 4G, or more like fake 4G. AT&T is marketing HSPA+ as 4G. This may make you think the Infuse is somewhat more “advance” than something like the Galaxy S2, even though the Galaxy S2 also supports HSPA+, minus the hype and marketing. Is it fast? It is. I can get 3 to 5mbps down and 1mbps+ up. This is a lot faster than my iPhone 3GS, which usually gets only up to 2mbps down and a lousy 50-100kbps up. A far cry for sure. Still, it’s not really 4G, and it’s unfortunate that everybody now is misusing the monicker, thanks to T-Mobile. Now, the Infuse apparently is not compatible with GoPhone for data, even if you have purchased data packages. I have a GoPhone pay-as-you-go SIM for backup, and it works fine for data on my Nexus One and 3GS, but it doesn’t work at all on the Infuse, not even reverting back to 3G or EDGE. It just doesn’t work.

The camera is sweet. It’s not as fancy as the G2x though. The G2x can do 1080p video while the Infuse is maxed out at 720p. Still better than my Nexus One and 3GS. The front facing camera on the Infuse is also 1.3MP, beating the VGA resolution on most other phones, including the iPhone 4. Photo is at 8MP on the rear facing camera. Nice.

Samsung is quite generous on the internal storage, 16GB partitioned into the usual ~1+GB for apps and the rest as internal “SD card.” There’s also a microSD card for even more storage. I’ve been downloading apps like crazy, finally being freed from the limited internal memory of the Nexus One. The SIM slot is located above the battery so you can replace it without having to take the battery out. However, the microSD card slot is located UNDER the SIM slot, and access to it is blocked by the battery. It’s not that easy to take it out either since, so if you are those people that like to change SD cards often, well, look elsewhere. The Infuse comes with a measly 2GB microSD card, but considering you already have ~16GB internal storage, it’s not a big issue.

One thing I immediately miss is the trackball on the Nexus One. As silly as it may look, the trackball on the N1 serves as a very useful notification light, so I can see if the phone need my attention without having to turn it on. No such thing on the Infuse, just like the iPhone.

Another surprise is that the Infuse actually supports 5GHz 802.11n, a nice update from most other phones that usually only support the crowded 2.4GHz band.

One drawback of Android is its media capability. Let’s face it, nothing beats the iPod integration on iPhones, and their ecosystem of accessories and support, especially in cars. My car has a USB port that supports my 3GS. As expected, the Infuse doesn’t work with it like the iPhone did, it only works for charging, no difference than the Nexus One. Sad. 😦

The Infuse comes with an HDMI adapter. It basically converts the micro-USB slot into an HDMI slot. However, you have to plug-in a power source on the HDMI adapter instead, making it a dongle-cable mess.

So, let’s recap.
The goods:
+decent performance for an old single core phone
+not too much junkware from AT&T
+other sources for apps is enabled
+beautiful huge screen
+tri-band HSDPA: 850/1900/2100
+HSPA+ is decently fast

The bads:
-4.5″ may be too big for some
-old hardware released as new, while other countries are getting the dual-core SGS2
-old outdated and buggy OS
-all the stuff one may not like on Android (eg. media capability, accessories support, etc)
-locked to AT&T
-fake 4G

If you’re on AT&T and you need a new phone, what are your options on the same price range? The main one will be the dual-core Motorola Atrix 4G, which is sold for the same price. Despite having dual-core, the Atrix has poorer screen, only VGA front-facing-camera, and at this point, I have a felling Samsung is more likely to pull through with updates than Motorola. The Atrix does have fancy feature like finger-print scanner and you could turn it into a linux netbook using an optional expensive dock. I’m not a fan of Motorola though.
Another phone on the same price range is the 16GB iPhone 4. At this point in time, however, I wouldn’t get the iPhone 4 as the iPhone 5 is near the corner.
Then there’s the cheaper Samsung Captivate, which is an AT&T variant of the Galaxy S. Cheaper, smaller screen, but no front facing camera.
There’s also the HTC Inspire, but since HTC only made it with dual-band 3G (850/1900), I’m not interested.

So there you go, a quick impression on the AT&T Samsung Infuse 4G.

 

T-Mobile G2x Brief Impression

Haven’t been updating my blog for a long time. 🙂 Easier to rant on twitter, but I guess I have a new thing to rant.

Let’s start with the background, about wireless carriers in the US. There are only 2 GSM carriers in the US, AT&T and T-Mobile. Sure, you might find some no-name local/prepaid carrier, but in the end if they are using GSM, they are using AT&T or T-Mobile’s towers. The biggest problem with GSM in the US is the incompatibility between AT&T and T-Mobile for 3G. AT&T uses 850/1900 frequency bands, T-Mobile uses AWS (1700/2100) frequency bands. To make things worse, the number of modern smartphones that support 3G on both carriers are few and far in between. Nokia is the first one that put out a penta-band equipped phone, the N8, running Symbian. Android is the worst, as the OEMs are only interested in making their phones specific to each carriers (eg. HTC phones on AT&T would only have 850/1900 3G bands, while HTC phones on T-Mobile would only have AWS). It’s ridiculous and severely limit consumers’ choice.

Enter the G2x. It was advertised by T-Mobile to have quad-band 3G, supporting all of the bands above, 850/1900 and AWS. Every tech blogs and reviewers regurgitated the same information, claiming this to be a future-proof phone in the event AT&T bought T-Mobile. Naturally, I bought one, thinking that I can have it unlocked and use it on AT&T since my Nexus One is showing its age.

Let’s start with the goods. The G2x is a dual-core Tegra 2 Android phone, running 2.2.2 (Froyo). It’s basically the LG Optimus 2x, but with un-skinned Froyo + T-Mobile junk added. It’s fast. Android phones other than the Nexus’ are well known to be laggy. The G2x feel very snappy, even sometimes smoother than my Gingerbread running N1. The phone is sleek and nicely built. The front glass is curved, adding a neat design. The screen is a 4″ IPS screen, looks quite nice and vibrant without oversaturation like the OLED screen on the N1. Same resolution though as the N1.

The camera is great too, capable of 1080p video recording, definitely above and beyond the N1’s camera. Not only that, it has a 1.3MP front-facing camera, dwarfing most other phones that only have a VGA front-facing camera. Really, there’s a lot to like about this phone.

Another plus is the 8GB built-in memory. The internal memory is partitioned into two parts, with about 5.4GB set aside as an “internal SD card” storage. There’s still an ample amount of memory left for the main partition, about 1+GB free. This is a huge advantage over the Nexus One where it only has 100 something MB free on the internal memory, severely limiting how many apps you can put on the phone (not all Android apps can be installed on the SD card).

Now, let’s start with the ugly side. When I first set up the phone, I found out that for whatever reason, it refused to hand off data from the cell network to wifi, even with a solid wifi connection. The G2x insisted on using the 3G connection to do data. Not cool. This issue has been posted in T-Mobile’s own forum and XDA forum. Long story short, this happens since I don’t setup my Google account from the start, and the only way to fix it is to factory reset the phone and setup the Google account on the first setup phase. Annoying bug. I have no issues in setting up my Google account later on my Nexus One. To make things worse, that’s not the only culprit. Once you did this, the phone is more reliable in switching from 3G to wifi, but there are times that the 3G connection is still being used. Apparently it’s due to T-Mobile’s own My Account app that, for whatever reason, requires a cellular data connection instead of wifi. Highly annoying, but at least you could force the phone to use wifi by intentionally disabling cellular data in the settings. Still, it’s cumbersome and shouldn’t be an issue in the first place as handing off data from 3G to wifi and vice versa is the basic feature of the OS. I never have this problem at all on my Nexus One. This is extremely dangerous if you are on metered or limited data plan. Another proof that carrier junk really screw up the user experience of Android.

Another ugly side is stability. Users are reporting that the phone freezes/reboots. This happened to me once, when the phone just rebooted itself. Hard to see if it’s the phone or the software. My Nexus One also experienced random reboots prior to Gingerbread, so my guess it’s the OS.

Now, the bad. Remember how I bought the phone thinking that it has quad-band 3G support? Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, guess what, it doesn’t. Yup, the phone actually only supports T-Mobile’s 3G, AWS. No 850/1900 3G support, contrary to T-Mobile’s own website. I should’ve realized this as the box itself only listed 1700/2100 as the supported HSDPA frequency bands. People on XDA forum that got their G2xes unlocked only got 2G when they used AT&T SIM. Even LG’s own service manual for the phone only listed the phone as dual-band WCDMA capable. So why did all the tech bloggers and reviewers not mention this? Well, this kinda proves to you that these tech bloggers are not doing thorough reviews. Even Engadget, a well known tech blog site, failed to point this out on their review, and even after they updated it, they still think that the phone might be quad-band.

So, that kinda defeats my purpose in purchasing the phone. Extremely disappointed. I want to like the phone, but alas, I guess it’s not meant to be. After using it for a couple days, I returned it. Back to my Nexus One. It’s unfortunate that today, in 2011, US phone selections still sucks, with phones that only work with one carrier.

 

Nexus One

I guess I haven’t updated my blog for quite some time. Too lazy as it’s easier to rant on twitter. LOL. Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

I’m a Mac and iPhone user, mainly. Apple’s ecosystem has been great and working for me. However, I’m thinking, what if sometime in the future, the iPhone is no more? I mean Steve Jobs is not going to man the company forever. Although I’m sure the rest of Apple will do fine, keeping the same Apple philosophy, but what if? So here I am, thinking the what if scenario. I love my iPhone, and I think it’s the best phone. Looking outside Apple ecosystem, what are the alternatives? Let’s see:
-Symbian: Yeah, right.
-WebOS: It’s great, but obviously it’s on life support.
-Windows Phone 7: This would be a great alternative, but it’s not out yet.
So, that leaves Android. Android seems to be the next best thing in terms of smartphone OS/platform. It has the same idea and UI concept as iOS. The downside is, at least in the US, all Android phones are carrier-controlled. This is in contrast of iOS where Apple is the one in control, not AT&T nor any of the carrier partners all over the world. There was one pure unadulterated Android phone, the Nexus One (N1). Yeah, was, because Google doesn’t sell the Nexus One openly anymore. Now, it’s only available as part of the dev program, and only the T-Mobile model (no 850 3G support). Luckily, I managed to get the AT&T 3G supporting Nexus One before it was too late. I was hoping Google would drop the price, but then decided to just get it. Lucky me, as now this phone is extinct.

Let’s go straight to the experience. While the iPhone is obviously designed around Apple’s ecosystem, the Nexus One is obviously designed around Google’s ecosystem. The first thing it asked was a Google account. If you don’t have one, you have to create one. Now, if you already use Google services for your contacts, calendar, and email, once you put in your Google account credential, the Nexus One is ready to go with all your contacts, email, and calendar all setup. It’s awesome! No need to “activate” the phone first, unlike the iPhone which needs to be activated with iTunes. Now, there’s something that’s even more awesome. Google Voice. I’m a Google Voice user since before it was bought by Google (it was called GrandCentral). Using Google Voice on the iPhone is very clunky as there is not a native app. You pretty much rely on the Google Voice website to make phone calls. Not intuitive. On the Nexus One, Google Voice is fully integrated. All you need to do is tell it to use Google Voice, and everything is transparent. You still use the phone’s dialer and contacts, and it will automatically route your call via Voice. Pure awesomeness!

The beauty of iOS is the app ecosystem. Android is not too far off. Most apps that I use on the iPhone are available for my Nexus One. Facebook, Twitter, epocrates (albeit beta and not updateable), Foursquare, Gowalla, etc. Unless you’re into games, you won’t find much problems finding the apps you want on Android. The only problem I see is the market app itself. Apple has designed its App store fairly well in terms of layout. The market app on the Nexus One is very basic, and it feels very difficult browsing the store. A lot of the apps don’t have much useful descriptions. Even worse, many don’t even include any screenshots, leaving you guessing what the app can do. The reviews are not helping either. Apple’s app store seems to have more helpful reviews, while the Android market reviews seem to be mostly people complaining about the app FC. FC this, FC that, one star. Not really helpful. Oh, and what’s FC? Yeah, at first I was like WTF? FC is a short for force close. Meaning the OS have to quit the app forcefully (aka, the app crashes). And these 1 star FC “reviews” are all over the place. Trying to get the gist of how good the app is becomes futile. Why? Because who knows whether these people having issues are using which Android phone/custom ROM/rooted phone/task killers, etc. But at least if you stick with the well known apps, you should be fine. I myself never experience a force close on my Nexus One.

Okay, most of the apps I would use are available. Great. I also use my iPhone as a calendar. The Nexus One sync its calendar with Google calendar. Pretty neat, but the calendar app itself doesn’t look great. It feels like a Winmo app for whatever reason. I do like the agenda view. One thing I was looking for on my Nexus One main screen and failed to find was anything that shows the day’s date. I was baffled at first. Why? Well, iOS made it simple, by making the calendar’s app icon to show the day’s date, just like in OS X 10.5 onward. Sounds simple, but it’s intuitive. Not the case on my Nexus One. The calendar icon is only a generic non-interactive icon. Well, that’s useless. On the bright side, there are widgets.

Ah, widgets. The Nexus One already come with various widgets, like weather, music playback shortcut, etc. Going through the Android market, and you’ll find even more widgets. So many that it’s ridiculously confusing. Just search for a weather widgets and you’ll find gajillions of them, although most of them are the same widget with different skins. I finally found a simple date widget that simply shows the day’s date.

One extremely under-rated feature on the iPhone is the silent hardware slider. Sliding this switch automatically silences the iPhone. There’s no such switch on the Nexus One. On the bright side, there are widgets that provide shortcut on the home screen to quickly toggle between silent/vibrate/normal mode. The downside is, since this is a software solution, you have to do it with the screen is accessible. Meaning if the phone is on stand-by, you have to push the power button, unlocked the screen, find the widget, and toggle it. On the iPhone, I simply switch the hardware slider. Much simpler huh, especially if you have your phone inside your pocket.

Another annoyance on the N1 is that the only way to activate the phone out of stand-by is with the thin power button at the top. This is annoying. The trackball button does nothing. The 4 “buttons” on the face of the phone are touch buttons, not physical buttons, thus won’t bring the phone out from stand-by. On the iPhone, I can simply press the home screen to activate the phone from stand-by, which usually is where my thumb is. Tiny details like this is what makes me appreciate Apple products.

One the the apps I use often on my iPhone is maps. The Nexus One obviously has Google maps built-in. One thing I immediately noticed is that even though the maps app on the N1 supports multi-touch, instead of being able to zoom-in/out smoothly, it seems that there are only several pre-set zoom levels. Although the zooming effect is smooth during pinching, after I lift my finger, the map snaps to the nearest pre-set zoom level. I find this very annoying as I’m used to the maps app in iOS where it simply stays to whatever zoom level I did after pinching. On the bright side, the navigation mode is better than iOS. The N1’s maps app allows showing directions as a list of text, something that sometimes is easier to read than tiny letters on a map screen. To top it off, the N1 has a its own navigation app, which providers GPS navigation, for free! There are nav apps for iOS too, but it’s hard to beat free. The nav app on the N1 pretty much turn the phone’s UI into a “car mode.” It replaces the home screen with several big icons, typical of a GPS navigation device. Also, using this mode is one way to quickly keep the phone’s screen from turning off without specifically changing the settings.

Android has a slightly different paradigm on showing apps on the home screen. In iOS, all the apps you have is on the home screen. That’s it. Pre iOS4, you can kinda pre-set specific home screens to contain specific apps for a bit of organization. iOS4 introduces folders to make organization more manageable, but the idea is straight forward, all you apps are all directly accessible from the home screen. Android took a more traditional desktop OS paradigm. The home screen is your desktop. You can put shortcuts, widgets, etc on it. Your apps are accessible through the program drawer, which will infinitely scroll through however many apps you have. Not that easy if you have a ton of apps, so most people would end up putting the apps’ shortcuts on the desktop to mimic iOS. You can also create folders on the Android’s desktop. However, it’s amazingly flawed, which made folders in iOS4, albeit late, is a ton more intuitive in terms of implementation. Why? Well, in Android, once you put a shortcut into a folder, you cannot rearrange the icons. Yeah, sounds stupid isn’t it, but that’s the case. The icons will simply be sorted based on the order you put the shortcuts into the folder. In contrast with iOS4, you can simply tap and hold, and you can freely re-arrange the icons in any order you want. Another drawback is due to Android using the paradigm of a desktop OS. Inside a folder, you have a bar at the top representing the folder’s name, and an X button at the right corner to close the folder. In iOS4, once inside a folder, you can simply close it by touching anywhere outside the folder. Easy. Not the case with Android. You have to touch that X button to close the folder, and the button is fairly small for my finger that sometimes I need to press it several time to close a folder. Not intuitive especially when you’re on the go and you want to do things quickly using one hand. Just another situation that makes you appreciate the tiny details in Apple products.

Okay, so what else do I usually use my iPhone for. Pictures. Putting pictures on the iPhone is actually a hassle, more than it supposed to. Unless you use 3rd party apps, you have to use iTunes to sync pictures to the iPhone. That may sound okay, but today, I have pictures all over the place. My computer, Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, etc. There’s no integration in iOS. You have to pretty much use one or more 3rd party apps outside the built-in photo app. This is true even for Apple’s own MobileME service. This going in-and-out apps just to view your pictures is not intuitive. On my N1, when I put in my Google account, its gallery app automatically pulls and sync pictures from the Picasa account associated with the Google account. Very nice! You can add more than one Google account too if you have more than one Picasa account. Also, this means the pictures are not stored internally, only downloaded on demand, saving storage space. The gallery app on the N1 is very nice, uses the accelerometer to simulate tilting the “photo album.” Of course, it’s not all perfect. The app only syncs picture with Picasa. You have to rely on 3rd party apps if you use other online services outside Picasa. One app that I like is called justpictures, an aggregator app for your pictures from various online services, including Facebook. Oh, and it’s free. This is something that Apple needs to re-think on their approach in iOS. Windows Phone 7 supposedly will offer even more integration as its default picture hub can aggregate pictures from various online services outside the box.

I use my iPhone heavily as an iPod. iTunes is just an amazing jukebox software, especially for podcast, and the integration of syncing music and podcast with the iPhone is just beautiful. So, how do I do this on the N1? Well, it’s a journey of frustration. The N1 doesn’t have any desktop client app. So, my first though is to download podcasts directly on the phone. Google has an app called Google listen. It’s a simple and straight forward app, allowing you to subscribe, download, and listen to podcasts. However, there’s quite a bit of downsides. Downloading podcasts straight to my phone is slow, even on wifi. To me, the iTunes approach is faster as the heavy duty lifting is done on the desktop, and iTunes simply copies the files to my iPhone. Also, Google listen is not integrated with the default music app, and doesn’t have its own widget for playback control. This means I have to go to the app for controls. Not intuitive. I rather have a solution that integrates with the default music app, which has a playback control widget. So my next idea is to simply have a desktop software solution. The first one that comes up to mind is doubletwist, an iTunes clone. But then apparently the Mac version doesn’t have podcast syncing. BOO! Next alternative is Songbird, but I find that its podcast support is fairly bare, not even supporting some feeds. I finally found a more straight forward syncing solution, Salling Media Sync, which is just a simple syncing program that syncs contents directly from iTunes to the portable device of your choice. Looks great, but you have to pay $22 for a fully syncing feature. Oh well, at least I can try it for free. It works okay. Since the N1’s music app doesn’t have a built-in podcast support, Media Sync simply creates a podcast playlist, and dumps all the podcasts you wanted to sync in that playlist. Not ideal, but I guess it works. At least this way I’m using the default music app.

As for using my N1 as an iPod, well, it’s like having a basic MP3 player. Luckily, my Apple earbud works with the N1. The microphone and play/pause button work fine. Only the volume buttons don’t work, and I have to use the volume button on the N1 itself.

But the journey of frustration didn’t stop there. My next step is to find a solution for listening to those podcasts in my car. My car is old, it doesn’t have an AUX input, let alone USB or iPod support. So the only way to listen to contents from an external device is via an FM transmitter. Sad isn’t it. So my first step is to find a universal FM transmitter, ideally the one that also providers USB charging so I can charge my N1 at the same time. Well, looking around, I realize that everything now is “Made for iPod/iPhone.” The proliferation of iDevices have been so significant that every company is focusing on accessorizing the iDevices, nothing else. What a bummer. 😦 Finally I found a solution from Griffin, a universal FM transmitter (out of dozens of models they make for iDevices). It’s a simple FM transmitter with a 3.5mm audio plug and a USB jack for charging. As for mounting, I got a generic mounting harness that attaches to the air vent in my car. Attaching my N1 to this setup, it’s cables galore since I have 2 cables hanging from my N1, the 3.5mm audio cable and the USB cable. This is also when I found out about the “car mode” of my N1, forcing the screen to remain on. The solution is not pretty, and it’s quite a hassle, especially compared to my previous solution for my iPhone, using this FM transmitter from Belkin. It’s a cleaner solution as it also acts as a holder for my iPhone with a built-in dock connector.

Okay, after all these, I took a step back and realized, why am I doing this. I mean why went through all these hassle just so I can listen to podcasts in my car? I already missed the ease of iTunes syncing with my iPhone. I miss the smoothness and polished feel of iOS. Also, I have to remember that epocrates on Android is not updateable. Finally, I gave up, pulled out the SIM card from my N1, and put it back in on my iPhone 3GS. After waiting for the Apple logo to finish booting iOS, I felt a huge relief. LOL. Yeah, it’s true. Using my iPhone again feels like a blessing. I felt like a lost lamb, going back to the comfort of Apple’s bubble after being lost in the woods of Android. Don’t get me wrong, I love a lot of things on my N1. Google Voice integration is a huge one. Another thing I like is the notification system. Let’s face it, notification on the iPhone is at the level of a dumbphone. However, there is this level of comfort when using iOS. I cannot describe it, but I know I feel this surge of relief when I returned to using my iPhone after a mere ~3 days using my N1 full time. It made me laugh.

My N1 will be a backup phone from now on. Android is marching on, getting more polish with each version. My only worry is that we will never see a pure Android experience anymore, with all Android devices are pretty much OEM customized (HTC, Motorola, Samsung, etc) and/or carrier controlled. The next excitement will be Windows Phone 7, and maybe it will be the better alternative. In the meantime, I’m back at the comfort of the church of Apple. LOL. 😀

 

iPhone 3GS Impression

Well, tomorrow is WWDC 2010, and the 4th gen iPhone is expected to be announced. I guess it’s a good time to write up my impression of the iPhone 3GS.

So, what made me bought the iPhone 3GS in the first place? If you read my tweets and blog postings of the past, I always criticize the iPhone for being locked to AT&T in the US. Yes, the iPhone 3GS is the first phone I bought that is locked. All of my previous phones were unlocked phones. Why the change of heart? Well, it occurred during the Apple Special Event in September 2009, where Apple introduced the 3rd gen iPod Touch, sans the expected camera. I was so ready to purchase that iPod Touch if it had a camera, but it did not. So I was so upset that I decided to just get the full experience with the iPhone 3GS instead. Yeah, I’m so vain. 😛

Turn out, having an iPhone really change my digital life. I think it is, and still, the phone with the best user experience. I’m going to go through the devices I brought with me all the time. In the beginning, I always carry a dumbphone, a music player (portable CD player, MD, Sony Walkman, etc), a PDA, and a video player (Cowon). Yes, a PDA, remember those? LOL. I always have my Handspring Palm OS PDA with me. At this point, there were times where I even carried multiple audio players. The iPod changed that, being the best music player imo. At least now I’m sticking to 1 audio player. But then I wanted more on my phone. I want to be able to take pictures with it. I bought a Sony Ericsson Cybershot phone (the K550i). It has a decent 2MP auto-focus camera. Being an SE phone, it has a decent music player software on it, so I thought I would be able to use the phone as a music player too. That didn’t pan out, as the experience on the iPod is way better. On the PDA side, I upgraded to the Palm Tungsten E. I also tried to use it as an audio player, but it never worked out. So there I was, still carrying at least 3 devices with me at all times.

Then came the iPod Touch, and the app store. It blew the Palm OS PDA away. I immediately recycled the Tungsten E the minute the iTunes app store opened as the apps that I needed on the Palm OS are available on for the iPhone OS too. It’s also an iPod, and a video player. So, my carry-on devices went down as now I have consolidated the music player, video player, and the PDA with the iPod Touch. But then I wanted to do more on my phone since I started doing tweeter and using google maps. Yeah, the K550i is only an EDGE phone, but it has google maps and tweeter apps. However, the experience is very poor due to the slow data connection, the small screen, and the fact you have to use the phone’s keypad to navigate. My next phone was the Nokia E51. It has 3G, wifi, larger screen, and Symbian, a smartphone OS. Google maps experience is way better thanks to the larger screen. Twitter experience is better too thanks to the larger screen and faster data. Using more and more of the smartphone feature, I feel the phone is extremely limited in terms of usability, and I always wished the screen was larger. Even worse, the camera of the E51 doesn’t have auto-focus, so in the end I was still carrying my old K550i for taking pictures. In the end, I was still carrying at least 3 devices.

The iPhone 3GS changed everything. It has an auto-focus camera, smartphone OS with the apps I use, and it’s an iPod too. Having the 3GS allowed me to just carry one device that does everything. 🙂 The only catch is, now I’m on contract with AT&T. Before, I was always on prepaid, only spent about $25 every 3 months. Now I have to spend ~$75 every month, but at least I have unlimited data (I don’t plan to fall into AT&T’s trap of the 2GB cap).

So, how’s the iPhone? It’s just great. Actually, I wasn’t really surprised as I’ve been using the iPod Touch, but the constant data connectivity really changes the way you use the apps. The experience using the iPhone is just great. The maps app is extremely useful, and the constant data connectivity made it highly usable. The camera is great. Sure, there are other Nokia/SE phones having better cameras out there, but the integration with the apps on the phone made it much easier and usable to use the camera and upload the pics quickly to places like Facebook/twitter. The various Twitter apps (I use Echofon myself) are a ton more usable than on phones with keypads due to the multi-touch screen. Coupled with various location-based apps, social networking apps, mobile Safari, etc, it really changed the way you’re interacting with a phone. Imo it’s phenomenal.

Sure, smartphones are not new. There are Palm OS, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. But the iPhone is the first one that actually makes every feature that it has highly usable. Example, taking picture and uploading it to tweeter. I can do this already with my K550i, but the experience is extremely poor. No difference on the E51. Doing the same activity is a breeze on the iPhone. Maps, email, I can go on and on. You just cannot beat the iPhone experience, yet. It’s not until recently that we see the competitors are turning around. Android OS 2.2, Symbian^3, Windows Phone 7, etc. Things will be very exciting.

Now, why didn’t I go with Android? During that time, the latest Android phone on the market was T-Mobile’s myTouch 3G, aka HTC Dream, using Android 1.5. I played with it, and although it’s a decent phone (and also brought a new paradigm of touch-screen UI and apps to those coming from dumbphones), the overall experience is not up to the iPhone’s level yet. Everything is laggy. This experience is consistence across the various Android devices I tried (the motorola Cliq, and the Droid). I have a friend with a Droid, and when we’re trying to add each other as friends on Facebook, it was a breeze for me on my iPhone while she was having a hard time (mainly due to the laggy and unresponsive UI). Obviously things have improved today with Android 2.2, but seeing how no devices other than the Nexus One are guaranteed to receive 2.2, I was glad that I went with the iPhone 3GS.

Tomorrow, iPhone OS 4.0 will be introduced, and it will increase the usability of the iPhone 3GS even further, with multi-tasking, better mail app, and folders. As for tethering, I gave up. Obviously AT&T doesn’t want anybody to tether. We’ll see what will happen tomorrow, or maybe I’ll get the Nexus One (I hope Google drop the N1 price tomorrow).

 

Ponyo, Kamen Rider W/Decade Movie War 2010 Movies Impressions

I’ll start with Ponyo.
I finally got the chance to watch Ponyo on DVD, an anime by Hayao Miyazaki. Looking at the DVD released by Disney, I see Japanese audio being available, so that’s good. Now, this is Disney, which if you realize, changes a lot of the dialogs in Miyazaki’s movies for the English dub, and even add dialogs not in the original Japanese version. Sure, some of them are subtle, but I think many of the changes make the scenes and characters have different feel and mood than the original. Same thing with Ponyo. When I first watching it, I picked Japanese audio, but the subtitle chosen was for the English dub. I immediately noticed how the subtitle said different things than the audio. I mean one example in one scene, Sousuke says how Ponyo likes ham, and Lisa, Sousuke’s mom said “Just like me” in Japanese, but the English dub said “So she thinks she’s human?” WTF? Another scene, Sousuke said “Yokatta,” but the dub said “It’s my fault.” Again, WTF? Yeah, that’s Disney changing stuff around. More proof that US localization have close to zero respect to the original sources.

Now, switching to the real subtitle for the Japanese audio, it actually is pretty good. I’m biased towards fansub a lot of times because official licensors usually “localize” the subtitle too much, but this one is very good and accurate, other than missing honorifics.

As a movie, Ponyo is the typical cutesy and the innocence of kids. There’s no good guys vs bad guys. All you feel is how cute Sousuke and Ponyo from start to finish. Some say there’s an environmental message. Sure, but it’s not really played out in a significant way (unlike Avatar). The focus remains on how cute the kids are.

So, I’m enjoying the movie. Cute movie, good subtitle, all is great, until the credits roll. Instead of the cutesy Japanese song, I’m listening to the English dub of the song. WTF? I thought I push a button that changed the audio to the English dub. But no, it’s still on the Japanese audio track. Yeah, Disney CUT the Japanese song out, replacing it with the English dub song, coupled with the horrible remix version in the end. WTF? This is a big FAIL! So legally, there’s no way for you to enjoy a complete Japanese Ponyo movie per the original. This is like Disney saying, hey, go pirate the movie instead. Finding Ponyo on bittorrent is not that hard at all, and there are HD uploads too!

Buying Disney’s Ponyo on DVD:
Pros:
-Very good subtitle quality for the Japanese audio
Cons:
-You’re paying for an incomplete movie, with the Japanese song cut out completely
-It costs you money
-The subtitle placement is a bit obnoxious. Too high up and the fonts take quite a bit of screen space.

Downloading Ponyo from Bittorrent:
Pros:
-Cost you nothing
-You get a complete movie. Japanese song intact.
-Subtitle font and placement are ideal, just like most fansub.
Cons:
-The subtitle quality may vary, but still doesn’t stray far from the original dialogue.

Yeah, there you go. You can pay for an incomplete version of the movie, or download a complete one for free. Which one would you choose? Disney, you suck. What’s wrong with the Japanese song? Are you afraid that people will find it to be superior than your lame remix? Ponyo is an awesomely cute movie, but huge FAIL on Disney.

Next is Kamen Rider W/Decade Movie War 2010.
LOL. Yeah, a stark contrast to Ponyo. I literally watched this right after Ponyo. Kamen Rider W/Decade Movie War 2010 is a double movie featuring the latest Kamen Rider W and the conclusion of Kamen Rider Douchebag… I mean Decade.

Anyway, this movie is set up to be the conclusion for Kamen Rider Decade after the cliff-hanger ending on the series, and the movie starts off with Decade kicking SkyRider, Super 1, and Kabuto’s ass. Wait, WTF? Yeah, that’s not how the series ended. In the series, it ended with Decade fighting the original universe’s (sans the original Kuuga) Riders. So, were SkyRider, Super 1, and Kabuto original or alternate versions? It doesn’t make sense, and throughout the movie, it seems that they were alternate versions as Seto Koji (original Kiva) appeared after Decade destroyed all the alternate Riders (so presumably the original Riders were not destroyed by Decade). If you’re not confused enough, none of the teased scenes shown on the last episode of the series (Tsukasa drowning, Natsumi with a machine gun, etc) were actually in the movie itself. LOL.

So, wait, what happened then between the series end and this movie? Who knows. My speculation is that when Decade was fighting with the original Riders, he was probably told again by Seto Koji that in order to revive everybody and restore all the universes, he needs to destroy all those alternate Riders (creation cannot come without destruction), with the consequences of Decade himself cease to exist once everything turned back to normal. And Tsukasa decided to take that risk, and then pretended to be the “bad” guy as the destroyer so Natsumi would hate him and finish him off.

Sounds kinda deep huh, for a franchise targeted towards kids. Alas, this is the weakness of the movie itself as there are too many holes in the plot. How did Tsukasa befriended the Yuriko/Tackle? How did Yuusuke (alternate Kuuga) regained his consciousness after being bitten by Kivala at the end of the series? Oh, and no cameos from the original Riders other than Seto Koji. Yeah, poor fanservice imo, and certainly doesn’t help the Swiss cheese plots and story.

Mid-way through the movie, they switched to W. On W, it gave us a background on the events before the first episode of Kamen Rider W, and a super cool fedora-wearing-Rider called Skull, which is actually Shotaro’s mentor himself. W’s segment in this movie is well done. It offers quite a bit of backstory to W (eg. the origin of Shotaro’s one liner “Count your sins”). I’m liking W more and more, as it doesn’t seem to leave as many holes in their plot/story as previous Kamen Rider series.

The last part of the movie, where W went to the middle of Decade’s battle and teamed up, is obviously just a last attempt for fanservice. Decade separated W into 2 individual form (Cyclone-Cyclone and Joker-Joker), and did a triple Rider kick. Not that satisfying really.

In short, just a so so attempt to finish Decade, but a great backstory for W.

 

Video Comparisons Part 1

If you read my blog in the past, I have a standard def camcorder, the Samsung SC-MX20. I said I like it. Well, no more. It sux! I tried using it during an event where things can get fairly dark, and it failed big time. It just sux, no way around it. Not only that, the recorded video has incorrect aspect ratio and interlaced, adding processing time. Super annoying! Thus, my search for another camcorder, preferably an HD one.

Lurking around, I came by a Sanyo VPC-FH1A. Now, Sanyo is not the first brand I would think of for camcorders. It would be Canon, Sony, or Panasonic. However, camcorders from the later manufactures are expensive. In the meantime, the VPC-FH1A is 1080p capable with a fairly good-sized sensor (even larger than more expensive Sony/Canon models), and I found it for only $330. A lot, if not most, consumer HD camcorder only records 1080i. Yeah, interlaced video, which means your video when viewed on your computer will have lines and jaggies, and it takes a considerable amount of time to de-interlace it. And no, I found out most models, even expensive ones, can only record in 1080i. No option to do 720p. On the other hand, pocket camcorders from Flip/Kodak can record in 720p, but obviously those have small sensors and no optical zoom. The Sanyo VPC-FH1A is a rare breed. It is a standard handheld camcorder form factor, and can record in various resolutions, including 1080p and 720p. It even supports iFrame, an off-standard resolution set by Apple, 960×540 progressive. Personally, I don’t really care for 1080p, all I want is progressive recording, so the iFrame and 720p format suit me perfectly.

Now, you may say what’s the point of iFrame if you have 720p. It’s only a bit higher than standard DVD 480p resolution. Well, try editing a 720p video. I have an iMac with Core 2 Duo processor, and iMovie 09 still choked on scrubbing the 720p movies. In comparison, iFrame videos scrubs very smoothly. Another point is bitrate. The FH1A records 720p video with 9Mbps bitrate, while iFrame has a whooping 24Mbps bitrate! That means less potential of artifacts due to over compression/not enough bitrate. To me, iFrame is an advantage and a great feature.

HD camcorder aside, I also realize I have a lot of gadgets that can actually record video. From a 5G iPod nano, iPhone 3GS, various digicams, and to the Sanyo FH1A. This made me want to do a comparison of videos recorded with those devices, and I did. 🙂
The devices and the video resolutions they record in are:
-iPod nano 5G (640×480, progressive)
-iPhone 3GS (640×480, progressive)
-Panasonic DMC-TZ4 digicam (848×480, progressive)
-Casio EX-FC100 digicam (720p)
-Canon S90 digicam (640×480, progressive)
-Samsung SC-MX20 camcorder (480i)
-Sanyo VPC-FH1A camcorder (1: iFrame 960×540, 2: 720p)
*Note: to enjoy the videos fully, watch them on Youtube in 720p.

Part 1:

Part 1 is focusing on the details on the building during daylight.
-iPod nano 5G: It does okay for a tiny camera in an iPod nano. However, obviously it’s too tiny to capture much light. The video is pretty dark with oversaturated colors.
-iPhone 3GS: The 3GS actually did very well. It seems to adjust the contrast better on dark areas unlike the 5G nano. The resulting video is a lot brighter and captures more details. It is very nice for a phone. In fact, I like the 3GS video better than the one from the Samsung MX20.
-Panasonic TZ4: The main advantage of the TZ4 is that it records the video in widescreen resolution. This gives you the nice impression of more details. The video itself is very sharp, but actually has quite a lot of artifacts, probably due to the limited bandwidth the camera is recording. The artifacts are more pronounced during movements.
-Casio FC100: Oh, welcome to the HD world, or at least 720p. The increased resolution is prominent, allowing you to observe more fine details of the buildings. Good sharp video, but artifacts are aplenty, probably due to over compression and/or lack of bandwidth.
-Canon S90: Ouch, return to the standard def world. The S90 is a great picture taking camera, but video recording is only at VGA resolution. However, you can notice that its sensor can capture more light. The dark areas pretty much lighted up on the S90. Also notice the much wider angle lens compared to any of the other devices. You could see the top of the building with the S90!
-Samsung MX20: Now do you notice how sucky this camcorder is? Not only I have to de-interlace and correct the aspect ratio before hand, but you see that the colors are just bad and inaccurate. Video is fairly dark and doesn’t have much fine details. Oh well, it is cheap, but obviously you can get better video with a digicam.
-Sanyo FH1A iFrame: Very nice and smooth looking video, although it feels a bit soft.
-Sanyo FH1A 720p: Wow! After looking at the 720p video, I feel I cannot go back to anything lower. The details captured is just amazing. I mean I can see lines on the building’s walls that I don’t see on the previous videos. Just amazing!

Well, this is the first part. I’ll continue my commentary more later with the rest of the videos. You can watch all the videos on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/pata2009
Oh, yeah, as much as I hate Google/Youtube, it gives me the best feature for 720p video streaming.

 

Iron Man 2

Just got out from watching Iron Man 2, IMAX lite. In short, pretty good movie, and stay for after-the-credits scene.

*Warning* May contain spoiler.

One thing Iron Man 2 is better than the first one, the action scenes. It’s upped a notch or two for obvious reason, Tony Stark is already Iron Man, while in the first movie, it’s the origin story. The progression of the movie felt a bit rushed though since the studios are trying to push in SHIELD and The Avengers into the movie. Robert Downey Jr’s performance is great, as usual. He just nailed Tony Stark’s character. Now in Iron Man 2, Rhodey is a different dude, Don Cheadle instead of Terrence Howard. For whatever reason, I always felt the character Rhodes in both Iron Man movies to be a bit off, despite him being War Machine in Iron Man 2. There’s no back story, not much characterization, not much story, other than being Tony’s friend, and voila, next thing you know he’s War Machine. I just don’t feel the connection between Rhodes and Stark, and the change in the actor didn’t help.

Samuel L. Jackson has more screen time now as Nick Fury, since SHIELD is obviously taking a significant part of the story. Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts is, well, is fine. They did cut one scene that was in the trailer, where Potts kissed Iron Man’s helm and throwing it overboard with Tony jumping and flying to get it while saying “You complete me.” Yup, that scene was completely gone, which is kinda disappointing as that scene seems to give a better mood to the relationship of Tony and Pepper. Oh well, obviously a DVD extra.

Now, many reviewers online are not too happy with Iron Man 2 having “multiple villains.” Well, to me there’s only one villain, Whiplash (Mickey Rourke). Sure, there’s the obviously corrupt senator (which didn’t seem to get any repercussion in the movie, obviously portraying real life situation), and the “evil” competing company CEO (Hammer), but I don’t count them as villains. In a super hero movie, the villain should be a super hero too, thus Whiplash. I actually like Whiplash’s part in Iron Man 2. He went through pretty much the same turn of events as Tony Stark, starting with a self-made reactor with limited resources, tricking his captor’s resources for his own purpose, and upgrade his weapon to make a comeback. Very focused single villain, unlike Spider Man 3. The climax fight, however, is both refreshing and disappointing. I made my case that I wasn’t too happy with the climax fight in Iron Man 1, where the girl saved the powerless hero. In Iron Man 2, Tony is still fully functional as Iron Man, and saved Pepper, but the fight with Whiplash is very short and not too exciting. Oh well, at least this time Tony used an upgraded reactor for the final fight (I guess it explains why Iron Man’s reactor chest is a triangle instead of a circle. Seeing that in comics and cartoons, I always thought it was just cosmetic), unlike the first movie where he relied on the 1st gen reactor.

Now, let’s talk about the gadgets. Other than Tony’s home computer, in Iron Man 1, Tony used a stupid Verizon LG phone, which magically worked in the middle east (come on, at least use a GSM phone). Iron Man 2 did a better job by giving Tony a small transparent tablet thingy with touch interface. Pretty awesome. Speaking of touch, that’s the main meme in Iron Man 2. They showed Tony doing a search on Black Widow on his table with multi-touch to boot. Then there’s the whole room virtual reality that Tony used to discover a new element. Steve Jobs is right, touch is the next step.

All of those are nice and futuristic, but then there’s a step back. Tony Stark uses Dell XPS. Yeah, Dell. A billionaire uses Dell, while a hacker working at a convenience store (Falcon) has an iMac and a Mac Pro. LOL. Yeah, I’m comparing the techs of Iron Man 2 with Bloody Monday 2. Sure it’s nice seeing the futuristic stuff, but we know those things don’t exist for consumers. It’s more appetizing to see today’s real products. Oh, and don’t even compare the US government vs the Japanese government. In Bloody Monday 2, the Japanese government are all Apple. 🙂 Then there’s a scene of Tony “hacked” the court’s computer using his transparent tablet, but the “hacking” process is just some lame ASCII of his name. They should do it like Bloody Monday 2, where Falcon uses his USB key to boot any PC into Linux, doing command lines. Now that’s more geeky.

As for spoilers, Captain America and Thor. Nuff said. My wish list for the next Iron Man movie? Extremis, which allows Tony to call up the Iron Man suit on command (it will be ultra cool if he yelled “Henshin!” LOL).

Overall, Iron Man 2 is a good action super hero movie. It doesn’t disappoint nor exceed expectations. It’s what it is, a fun movie to begin the summer season.