Namco's Katamari on the iPad2

It would be fair to say that console gaming is alive, well and still dominating… but what about the recent, explosive success of iOS gaming? You know, games on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad? I know that E3 is really about the big titles, the big makers the big consoles but you have to admit that iPhone and iPad games are quickly on the rise. C’mon – ANGRY BIRDS, CUT THE ROPE and even BEJEWELED! Seriously, I honestly expected to see iPhone and iPad games, from all kinds of makers being featured wall-to-wall at E3… but after a couple good laps around the LA Convention center… not the case. I didn’t see any hint of an iPhone or iPad anywhere or at least anywhere way in the open initially. I actually had to ASK around to see if anyone had seen any iOS anything anywhere at E3.

I asked people in line who were waiting to play Nexon’s Vindictus, if they had checked out any iOS games at the Expo. I got lots of bewildered looks, shaking heads and head scratching in return. One gamer thought he might have seen an iPad game at the Namco booth. I finished playing the Vindictus demo thus safely securing a raffle ticket for a Spirit Hood (which I did win thank you – got me a white one) and then journeyed off in search of the Namco booth.

On route I came across old friend Atari who had a lovely booth babe waving an iPad offering a turn to play their Atari Classic Games app. How cool is it that — of all game makers, Atari was putting it right out there?! I played Asteroids on the Atari Booth Babe’s iPad2 which was pretty damn amusing for all kinds of reasons – mostly because she was about 19 years old loving 30 year old Asteroids. I have to say I was impressed by Atari’s conscientious effort to show the array of platforms their games inhabit; arcade, consoles, online (Facebook), PC and — yes iOS! I was assured that I would easily be able to get Atari’s Greatest Hits on iTunes once E3 wrapped. Bliss!

Across the aisle from Atari happened to be EA Games and hey, since I’ve got Dead Space and Monopoly by EA on my iPad2, I felt pretty sure I’d see their iOS stuff out and about. Well, after a bit of hunting past the large console podiums I found a niche off to the side which had one iPhone4 and what looked like a Madden port. I asked a nearby EA representative about the iOS games and she said she really didn’t know much about what they had set up. Movin’ on.

I finally made my way over to Namco and sure enough they had two tables of iPads stashed behind two big huge games/displays. Well it was what it was so I headed over to the tables and found I Love Katamari fired up and ready. I played Katamari and Galaga Remix— both making good use of the iPad’s tilt and turning capabilities. The Namco Reps were friendly and knew about their iOS line, even played a round of Katamari for my video camera. Namco wins as far as representing the APPLE and offering up fun iOS games for E3 2011. So the iOS E3 2011 award goes to Namco for representing the APPLE and those of us who love it.

You’ve probably heard the term HTML5 mentioned recently as a factor involved in video and animation online. What is html5 and what does it mean to you? If you have been posting videos online since the advent of YouTube then, whether you knew it or not, flash was THE method used to display/embed those videos. Flash has been (primarily) the only game in town up until recently. If you want video and some animation for your content posted online from here on in — there is now another option — html5 code to make things happen.

Html5, according to Wikipedia, stands for the latest revision of html which is the code allowing text, graphics, links and so on to function on the internet. Html5 code factors in media such as video and animation.

Is it necessary to choose html5 over Flash? There is a debate — check out a friendly game of PONG coded with Flash AND html5 http://labs.codecomputerlove.com/FlashVsHtml5/.  Computerlove‘s point here is that Flash is fine for some things and html5 is fine for some things (and can even be mixed) and cautions that this isn’t a war rather the platform should be chosen for what would best suit the content and/or device.

Some Technologists (like Steve Jobs) and Web Developers contend that Flash isn’t facile enough for today’s browsers and video content. Movement toward more mobile computing devices (iPhone, Nexus, iPad) with newer types of operating systems and processors call for lighter, faster processing of video and animation than ten year old Flash can offer.

Adobe will not allow Flash to be dissed so quickly and has a flash-to-html5 converter in the works called Wallaby. Apparently, flash keeps video content contained to one batch of code in one place whereas html5 is separate pieces of code working together from multiple places to run one video; Wallaby helps break up the Flash code and distribute it as html5 pieces. I’m not a software developer but I am guessing that older ways of coding and reading html (everything tagged inline and in one place) has obviously given way to distributed code across multiple documents to display one web page for example. So whereas fifteen years ago html for one web page was pretty full up with tags, these days one web page will have a base code page, pages associated describing things like font and colors, pages handling parts of that page (header, footer) and now it follows that code for one video would be shared among associated documents.

So maybe that shed a wee bit of light on what people are talking about when you hear html5 and Flash. If you’d like to explore this further on your own you can easily find an example of html5 code when choosing a video to EMBED either at YouTube or Vimeo. Once in vimeo, for example, and a video is selected to embed, vimeo offers you a default choice to embed “new” code and that code is html5.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions, comments or concerns. If you are a developer/coder I’d be interested if you have anything to add about html5/Flash debate.

by Techburrito.com Executive Editor, Alan Natale

Okay, first things first- I WANT this new iPhone4 buuut, I am going to hold onto my iphone 3GS. I am not-so-secretly hoping that in a few months, once AT&T has had its fill by trapping all the new iPhone4 folks, Apple will announce it is done with exclusivity so carriers like T-mobile or whomever will emerge and the black spell on the iphone will be lifted. I could be wrong and so I will not enjoy the hi-def video, the FaceTime (which I would definitely use since I’m a big Skype and Google video chat user)… and I have to say I’m still very happy with my 3GS and even moreso now that I’ve got the new operating system.

But the gazillion pound ugly fat-ass gorilla in the room is AT&T. I had to spend an additional $150 to buy this stupid microcell to boost my intermittent one bar signal to five at my house AND, although I now have signal- there is a delay like when you call long distance to Europe kind of delay. I never liked AT&T, in fact, didn’t they sort of die down back in the 90s? Anyway, it’s no lie that I’m an Apple fanboy and I’d gladly get this new phone but frankly, it’s not worth another two years with AT&T.

I waited in line with my better half on iPhone4 day just to get in on the excitement. I was literally in line behind Alex Albrecht of Diggnation and Jason Bateman of Arrested Development (etc.). I spoke briefly with Alex and his lovely girlfriend Heather about the situation; Alex tried to use his “Nerd Cred” to get ahead somehow but he was shot down amusingly enough. Not the same for Jason Bateman though. He was by himself and kept his nose buried in his iphone3G (must’ve been locked in an engrossing Bejeweled playoff) however, Paparazzi soon zeroed in on him. Since he was so icy with those of us standing in line right next to him for hours (see picture below, no lie- I’m the guy with the hat on behind him), we didn’t feel like we should make a human blockade to help the guy out; I mean he REALLY worked hard to not give us the time of day. So, after a short while, one of the Apple Store guys came by and escorted Mr. Bateman away only to be booed by the line as he entered the store- cutting everyone else.

The shlub in the hat behind Jason Bateman is me.

But back to the iphone4. I took some pictures of it with my iphone3GS to actually give you this blog entry from the iPhone3GS perspective. My impressions of the phone: IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE AN IPHONE ANYMORE! I love the curvature of my iphone3G3 – it’s unique. Also, the retina display is kinda freaky as it really does look like something “printed” as everyone is saying. It seems lighter to me and thus more fragile. Apple says the surface is oleophobic but my greasy fingers must be extra greasy because I got fingerprints all over that bad boy. Lastly, it takes great pictures! I had the iphone3G and it took GREAT pictures but my iphone3GS for some stupid reason does NOT; it darkens everything and the focus really screws up a lot.

What impresses me most about the iphone4 (in particular from the other iphones) is that it really does take us that one step farther into the future with FaceTime and HD video on board. No matter how you feel about Apple, you may consider that they are really working hard to push the envelope of human technological development. As the son of a Computer Engineer I am impressed with all things Computer and this iphone4 is no less than a powerful computer in a hand-sized, cool-ass package.