Simple is Beautiful

My (by far) most awaited movie release is Tarantino's new film 'Inglourious Basterds', coming out in August. Check the latest trailers. Pitt's talent in bringing to life the badass character Tarantino penned, coupled with the overall theme makes for an exploding, action-packed funny movie, the way I see it. I can't wait to watch it.

Google Says Mobile App Stores Have No Future : Unless web-based applications offer the same kind of functionality native applications can and do offer, I don't see how everything will be moved off to the Web. It may make sense for a class of applications, but, realistically speaking - there are a few hoops that are just too difficult to jump over for this to come to pass. Palm is betting big on this concept, now, with Pre and its Mojo SDK - which is really not working out for them. Maybe in a few years when the underlying hardware and operating system services will be, somehow, become available/exposed to remotely executed apps it will make more sense to expect this to be the case.

Serious Doubts : Marco Arment argues it is hard or next to impossible to run a serious business of writing iPhone applications. I still haven't developed a 'real' iPhone app, though I wouldn't really do it for the money, not that I would mind getting any in the long run. As far as I am concerned, those digital distribution systems solve, well, the physical distribution problems(which are many) and facilitate access to content that has traditionally been hard to access. Everything else is a byproduct of competition and demand.

Now that Monkey Island Special Edition and the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island are out, my new most awaited game is Bioware's Dragon Age : Origins. I have high hopes for the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, not the least concerned with the somewhat negative previews so far( people seem to dislike the 'adult' content in the game). It will ve possible ( much like it was the case with Baldur's Gate and other Infinity Engine games ) to issue orders to party members in real time, or pause and queue up actions that will be carried once upon unpausing the game. As far as I am concerned, this is the best control scheme for CRPGs ever devised. Who knows, maybe Minsc will make a surprise cameo appearance. "Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the eyes!"