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Most of You Shouldn't Worry About the New iPad

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I've advised several people not to upgrade to the new iPad. Meanwhile, I'm anticipating my preorder to come in tomorrow.  How do I reconcile this? It's pretty simple - you shouldn't upgrade unless you are a hardcore early adopter.  Same goes for almost any Apple product.

My iPad 2 is a great device. I can do everything that I need with it. There is nothing in the new iPad that gives me any brand new functionality that changes the game. But I still put my iPad 2 up for sale, and I am eagerly anticipating tomorrow.

So what's so different about the new iPad that I've decided to upgrade? Things are better. Better display. Better network connectivity. Better voice input. Those three things alone appeal to me, a person that pushes the edge when it comes to technology. I do way more intensive gaming on the iPad than the average person (I can't see casual games benefiting from a retina display), and I have an hour long train ride to work where a 4G signal would be magic. I know I'm an outlier.

I'll shoot a short review video when I get my hands on it and put it through its paces. See y'all tomorrow!

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Pinning All Over the World

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I love Pinterest. it's a completely visual social networking tool where people post photos that they've taken or that link to other websites. But to me the links and comments aren't important. I like to jump on, browse the photos, and like / reshare (called repin) cool pictures, and jump out. This usually takes around 5 minutes or so. The elegant web design arranges everything is a grid and is very easy on the eyes.

Pinterest also allows you to follow only certain categories, called boards, that a user creates. So if someone is posting about ugly shirts, I can unfollow just that category and still have access to the other pictures from the user.

Then my man Pierre showed up. He began following me and I fell in love with his old school tech pics. The I went to his profile page and saw that it's completely in another language! If this was another network, the language barrier would have effectively prohibited us from easily connecting on the site.

Pinterest is not the first site to offer this visual view. Instagram comes to mind, but it's limited to iOS devices and the site design isn't nearly as good. And Flickr is a little dated and more suited to serious photography.

If you haven't been pinning, get to it! Follow me at Pinterest.com/shareefjackson

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Yeah They Still Work, Part 2: Double Dribble

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This is a continuation of a series involving my old gadgets that are still ticking. Please check out my previous post on Minidiscs.

Before I got my Gameboy via the Sunshine Sales Club in late 1989, my portable gaming needs were served by Tiger Electronics. There were enough beeps and hoops from these machines to keep me entertained. They were usually based off of full fledged arcade and NES games such as ... Double Dribble.

When you turn on the game, you don't get the "Dubble Dibble" voice from the NES version. Voices are a far cry away, as the technology behind Tiger games is even more basic than the Atari 2600 from the late 70s / early 80s (my first game system). The gaming experience consists of a screen with a few predetermined sections that light up in response to player movement on the control pad and one, huge button. The sections are pre-drawn player graphics for the offense and defense. There are only two sounds - a "tick" for moving / dribbling / shooting, and a referee type whistle for scoring.

The game is tough. The CPU will immediately steal the movie if you stay still for a second. You have to consistently move and hope that the random number generator blesses you and counts your shot as good. It makes for a intense game that surprisingly makes me feel like I'm competing in an actual sport.

IIt kept my 9 year old mind occupied. And it was fun. Definitely my favorite of my Tiger games, besting others that have log since died like Double Dragon, Karnov, and Altered Beast. Those games proved to be too ambitious for a Tiger handheld. Simple sports games work best.

And it still works!