Blog Archives
Mario’s Kart Will Reach a New Gear
Kids, teenagers, college kids, adults Everybody rejoice!
“An app called Mario Kart Tour is set to be released in the next financial year, meaning anywhere between April 2018 and March 2019.”
–-“Nintendo is bringing Mario Kart to smartphones,” Sam Byford (The Verge)
The eternal gaming favorite Mario Kart that knows no age limit is finally expanding into the mobile space. Given Nintendo’s delayed entry into the smartphone sector for users around the world with this specific game, it begs an important question:
Will the Mario Kart experience seamlessly translate on an iPhone and/or Android phone?
That’s really the pivotal inquiry Nintendo should be concerned with answering pre-launch. Can Mario Kart be played successfully on a mobile device without gaming hiccups? Certainly, the cloud-based gaming prospects are exciting. Yes. However, again, will the quality transfer and/or even improve on our handheld supercomputers that are occasionally used as phones? What about the lack of physical buttons on smartphones? Will the size of a phone screen correctly scale the Mario Kart experience in a satisfying manner?
As a lifelong Mario Kart fan, I hope the answer to these questions is yes. Either way, I know my nephew is already planning my gaming demise in our next round of Mario Kart races and challenges.
He’s no Luigi…he’s a Mario.
A Baskets Case with Emails
It’s Day 2 of the workweek and you may still be stressed-out and relentlessly catching-up on projects or emails. And while expediency can be a massive benefit through the use of technology (particularly mobile tech), it has also proven to be a massive burden in some cases. We need/have to be able to disconnect from time-to-time. For some, however, the connection between expediency and expectation is linear and non-negotiable. In other words, if you can respond in the moment, some people expect you to respond at that exact second. No excuses.
Enter one of the problems with technology’s increasing speed: Lack of time and understanding to think, reflect or acknowledge reality.
Yes, the following is an interview with a comedian. Yes, you may, therefore, be tempted to write-off what he has to say about an isolated societal problem that seems like a reasonable fix in many (obviously not all) situations.
Yes, the interview is also funny.
(Interview is from last year, which is why it’s announced that Baskets airs on Thursdays in the video)
And yes, the no-work-emails after 5 p.m. sounds like a good idea to try to navigate the increasingly blurred line between our work and non-work life, fueled by the pressured expectation of instantaneous communication via technology.
And yes, season 3 of Baskets starring Zach Galifianakis starts airing tonight at 10 p.m. on FX.
Magic’s Illusory Leap
The intersection between movies, TV, and reality occurs more than we may imagine.
There are several forward-thinking companies around the world that are developing products and technology today that will shape our lives in the future. And of these firms, there’s one that may not just change the way we see the world, but more so what we see in our own personal space.
Interesting technology, to say the least.
Now, this Wired report is from last spring. The reason for writing about it now is because the 2018 CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is happening this week, which is one of the brightest spotlights of the year for evolving technology. Here’s a Magic Leap update from a few weeks ago.
The verdict for Magic Leap is certainly cloudy at the moment. Currently, it’s safe to proclaim that looks can be deceiving for tech’s next big (potential) magic leap. It also looks like the mysterious startup team in Florida was inspired by one of pop-culture’s gold mines: TV’s ongoing science-fiction craze.
It’s science-fiction until it’s not, which is cause for excitement and concern.
Rolling Out (and Up) Innovation
The innovative process is, in many cases, exciting. At the same time, it can be dull, exhaustive and a seeming waste of time and energy.
Welcome to the happy former at the CES 2018 (Consumer Electronics Show) hosted in Las Vegas from Jan. 9-12.
Exhibit Awesome:
While still in the testing phase, the fact that a high-definition TV that rolls up like a newspaper (inside the console, of course) exists and is evolving in the right direction (up) is a thrilling reality to witness. The first real dream, beyond what’s seen and described in the tutorial above, consists of a mobile, high-definition flat screen TV that can be placed on virtually any reasonable flat surface for viewing and a myriad of digital applications. The second part of this technological roll-up dream is for newspapers, magazines and, well, any current paper-like product, to have the same flexible and multimedia functionality. Imagine a day when a buying a newspaper at a stand looks like this, in some form.
(Video borrowed from a Jan. 5, 2016 Jimmy’s Daily Planet blog post titled “Time to Fold on TV” about this very company and this very roll-up TV prototype)
Perhaps the second part of the dream can be best described as a flexible iPad in 2018. Wouldn’t surprise me if design guru Jony Ive and his Apple team are working on that very prototype for release within the next decade.
As has been stated many, many times on this blog, the day will come when entire walls in homes and buildings will be high-definition screens that will be able to serve as a television monitor for shows and gaming, as a computer, art/rotating photographs from our personal photo collections as well as downloadable world-class pieces and most anything else your mind can digitally imagine. For now, a roll-up TV that has the strong potential to become a practical reality in our family rooms within the next several years is exciting. Couple flexible tech with VR’s inevitable rise (plus various smart home applications) and we’re genuinely one small step closer to “the future” in 2015 from Back to the Future Part II.
The future — maybe not “the future” — will arrive in some form.
Whether all this evolving tech in the big picture (had to) is good for us as individuals and as a society is and should remain an ongoing, conscious (and conscience) conversation. As my headline from a couple years back suggests, the time will come to fold on TV so we can open it up in ways we haven’t yet seen or even imagined.
And that reality will not be virtual.
Jimmy's Daily Planet 