It seems a brand new contender will soon enter the the highly competitive gaming market just in time for the holiday season. It is called the Onlive Game System which is a pocket sized device that may very well revolutionize the gaming industry and the way video games are played entirely. Indeed, conventional wisdom of modern gaming technologies might lead you to think that such a puny game system could not possibly deliver, performance-wise, at the same level as the popular platforms such as Xbox 360, Playstation 3, or PC; however, those who would rush to such immediate conclusions would be overlooking the very different technology behind this unique platform.

The OnLive game console is one of the first ever to utilize "cloud computing" technology which is basically the storage and access of applications on the internet rather than on local computer storage. In the case of the OnLive gaming system, neither the required games nor hardware are stored in the system itself; rather, the games are stored and played on powerful remote servers. The primary purpose of the game console is to connect to the remote servers. When the game console connects to server via broadband (and ONLY broadband) internet, a video feed is streamed back to the gamer's television and user input from the game controller are relayed back to the server in real-time. In order to ward off the obvious potential for lag, the OnLive internet service uses five data centers spread throughout the U.S so that OnLive gamers will connect to the data center nearest to them thereby delivering optimal latency performance.

Despite the fact that the OnLive MicroConsole will not ship for about a week or so (Dec. 2nd), Intrigued readers may be delighted to learn that the OnLive gaming service has been up and running for quite some time now; in fact, the service has been operating since July 2010 for gamers with a PC or Mac. That's right! You can try out the service on your computer as well as a number of mobile devices including the ipad and smart phones. Currently, their catalog of games is comprised of some 40 titles such as FEAR 2, Tom Clancey's Splinter Cell Conviction, Assasins Creed II, Dirt 2, and Unreal Tournament III. According to the system requirements listed on thier website, the most you'll need is a computer capable of playing video and a 3mb/sec internet connection (5mb/sec for 720p HD video) to play. There is no charge to create an account and play demos on the OnLive service, but in order to play the full version of games users can either opt to pay for a "playpass" per game or pay a flat subscription rate for an all-you-can-play type deal. Pre-orders for the game system can only be placed via their webstore. As a side-note, WiFi is currently supported on PC's and Mac's; however, their will not be a WiFi feature on the OnLive Game System when it is released so an Ethernet connection will be required or at least one with some kind of bridge attached. Also, the OnLive Game System only supports HDTV connections such as HDMI, DVI, and component.

Despite initial restrictions on membership during the service's launch, OnLive is now open to all broadband internet subscribers including those subscribed to any southwest Florida ISP.

It appears as though Verizon is ready to unleash a new era of mobile broadband with its LTE 4G wireless technology which is set to debut nationwide next month including six major cities in Florida including Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, West Palm Beach, and Miami.

Verizon's LTE promises broadband speeds of 3mb/sec as opposed to 3G speeds which averages about 500kb/sec on a "good" day. LTE will likely be compatible with only laptops at initialy; however, LTE smartphones are apparently in the works according to industry insiders. They are expected to to hit the market sometime in the first half of 2011.

The delay of compatible smartphones are partly due to the fact that carriers have yet to solidify voice traffic standards for LTE. An initiative dubbed VoLTE was formed by the GSM Association for the very purpose of developing LTE by proposing features such call hold, call waiting and call barring for the final standard. As of now, it is believed that Verizon will utilize dual-radio technology in order to support data services and voice traffic via 4G and 3G respectively.

While 6 of the 38 cities in which LTE will launch are located in Florida, it is not yet known when the technology will eventually make its way to Southwest Florida. The latest LTE coverage information can be viewed at Verizon's LTE promotion website.

Wireless 4G carriers around the globe are expected to cover an impressive 60 percent of the entire world population between now and 2015 according to ABI Research. That's a whopping 4.4 billion people over the course of only five years!

The reasoning behind this behemoth of a prediction is the expectation for operators world-wide to acknowledge that the faster data speeds of 4G will become critical for future business. “The demand for mobile data services will not go away and that's especially apparent in emerging markets that don't have wireline infrastructure. For them, wireless is a big driver,” says Neil Strother, an ABI analyst.

As reported previously, Verizon's LTE 4G technology is scheduled to debut this month across the U.S; however, it appears as though LTE's primary competitor, WiMax, is well into its operation as it has been deployed commercially for over a year and launched networks across southern Florida as recently as this past Monday. The wireless carrier Clearwire utilized WiMax to deploy services in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Coral Gables.

ABI Research believes that the two competing 4G technologies will eventually deliver their 60 percent world-wide coverage prediction.

Intel's new processors, code named Sandy Bridge, will utilize a very unique security feature dubbed Anti-Theft 3.0. Should your computer ever get stolen, the Anti-Theft security feature will allow you to remotely “kill” the Sandy Bridge processor and impede thieves from accessing your computer.

This new security feature will be facilitated over a wireless 3G network which will allow cpu deactivation without internet access or the need for the computer to be on. Presumably, the feature will require some kind of cellular device which will send a SMS message to the stolen computer which will trigger the security feature.

With the growing popularity of mobile computing, Intel may be seeking to cater to the needs of people who will likely commute with with laptops hence, undoubtedly, making theft a major concern among consumers.

Sandy Bridge processors are set to release sometime in early 2011; however, Lowyat.net has reported that they have already launched in certain locations in Malaysia. This latest product by Intel is expected to formally be announced during the Consumer Electronics Show next month.

Computer theft is not an unfamiliar issue here in Florida. In 2006, a theft incident gained nation-wide attention when a laptop computer was stolen from The Department of Transportation which contained sensitive information of roughly 133,000 Floridians. A remote switch may have certainly came in handy.

Nowadays, all the rave, hype, and excitement usually surrounds the latest and greatest 6 core cpus such as Intel's Core i7 – 980X performance based processor which, as of this writing, is currently the highest ranked amongst processors in the consumer market. However, despite the extraordinary capabilities of the finest muti-core processors of today, technology with the potential to outpace them several times over may already be present. Intel has already uncovered a concept cpu with an impressive 48 cores about year ago, but even that may seem under powered in comparison to the whopping 1,000 core field programmable gate array processor (FPGA) which was developed by a research team from the University of Massachusetts lead by Dr Wim Vanderbauwhede of Glasgow University in Scotland.

The processor can purportedly obliterate current high-end cpu performance by a factor of 20 all the while using less power! The researchers believed that the technology might be adopted quickly and become common in specialized computers in as little as two years; however, this specific type of processor may not be suitable for standard desktops just yet. “FPGAs are not used within standard computers because they are fairly difficult to program but their processing power is huge while their energy consumption is very small because they are so much quicker – so they are also a greener option,” Dr Vanderbauwhede stated.

FPGA is a circuit design which consists of hardware logic cells configured via software often by end-consumers after manufacturing. The parallel architecture of the processors specialize in tasks such as encoding, decoding, and code breaking.

Dr. Vanderbauwhede explained that the focus of the research was to find more efficient methods of programming FPGAs in order to harness their usability towards applications which they may run more efficiently due to their greater processing per clock cycle capability

We can all agree that South West FL is home to a great community with some very likable personalities and interesting locales; however, it is only natural to become a bit too familiar with our daily surroundings and feel the urge to find an outlet of temporal escape from what can sometimes be dull and uneventful days. Difficult economic times may not permit as much disposable income as you would prefer, so you might not be able to afford blowing off the hundreds that you used to spend on activities such as shopping, clubbing, traveling, etc; however, a new form of casual entertainment that is rapidly growing in popularity is video chatting and it might be a potential remedy for your case of perpetual boredom.

There are several video chatting services available on the web such as Skype, Stickcam, iVideochat, Chatroulette, etc, but the service I have grown the most accustomed to is one called Tinychat which describes itself as “...a dead-simple, live video, communication platform”. A more well known service, Skype, seems more geared towards one-on-one sessions and requires you to install special software on your computer whereas Tinychat is geared more towards group video chat (up to 12 webcams) and it is completely browser-based meaning you do not have to install any special software. All you will need is a webcam and a web browser that supports flash such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera.

I found there to be a very lively community filled with interesting people from all over the US and even across the globe. For individuals who are not completely comfortable with broadcasting themselves on camera or if you simply don not have a webcam yet, all is okay because you can still participate in discussions via a chat box ( often simply called “the box”) which is present in every room. The chat box can give you the opportunity to get a feel for the room before deciding weather to broadcast yourself or not. Not only can the service provide you with the opportunity to form new friendships, you can also meet celebrities. That's right! Celebrities (usually music artists) often drop into rooms for marketing purposes or to casually chat with fans. On Dec. 12 of last year music artist P. Diddy engaged with fans in the tonydofat Tinychat room (see slideshow). Other such appearances include Busta Rhyes, Nelly, Dr. Cornell West, 50 Cent, J. Holiday, Wyclef, Nick Hogan, Kelly Rowland and several others.

Granted my general recommendation of Tinychat, I wouldn't however recommend any video chat services to minors without adult supervision. There's no telling when discussions can dip into mature subject matters and even well moderated rooms such as tonydofat (also accessible through www.dofattv.com) and clubciroc have strict age restrictions in place. Apparently there are some Tinychat rooms tailored for teens, but I would still advise parental supervision in any case.

A Tinychat account is not required to enter chat rooms. You are allowed to log into chat rooms via a Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace account. However, in order to create a chat room, a Tinychat account will be needed.

Anyone familiar with the wolrd of computing is probably no stranger to the Linux pitch. It's quite hard to miss actually. The Linux open-source operating system (OS) has rapidly spawned fanfare globally since its inception in the early 80's. In fact, we apparently have a Linux fan club of our very own (Southwest Florida Linux Users' Group) based in Fort Myers, FL. In any case, you've more than likely grown accustomed to the incessant nerdy ravings posted all over the web on blogs, forums, articles, comment sections, etc about how invincible the Linux operating system is and how Windows users would be better off making the switch; however, despite what you've likely heard from all the Linux fanboy's out there, there are some pretty solid reasons not to be swayed just yet. Having made the plunge into the Linux experience myself (Ubuntu Lucid Lynx), I can point to more than a few reasons why this often over-hyped OS simply isn't ready for prime time.


1. Offers nothing over Windows' functionality.

If you are already proficient in your Windows OS, it's probably best to stick with what you have. You would be unlikely to gain anything with Linux – except for an unnecessary (and perhaps irritating) learning curve to trod through.

2. Technical hitches are frequent

I can honestly say for the first couple months I probably spent more time trying to fix stuff that broke rather than doing anything productive. The bulk of the headache I endured were mostly attributed to issues I had with properly installing display drivers for my ATI/AMD graphics card which apparently Linux doesn't work very well with. Other issues I've come across included Youtube videos that would only display in black & white, getting locked out of my own user account after deleting a different one( having never set up a password), and a more recent problem which prevents me from logging into my yahoo mail when using certain browsers (solution pending).


3. Community support less than stellar.

There are a fair amount Linux forums out there, but what I've found is that willingness to help out isn't really all that great. When it comes to soliciting help, I hope begging isn't beneath you because it might be what it'll take to reel in a Linux nerd. On the other hand, there are FAR more support forums for Windows with volunteers who are generally more eager to provide assistance. Add that to the fact that a majority of tech issues (even complex ones) can simply be googled and solved in mere minutes. It seems puzzling that Linux advocates would even bother citing community support as any kind of “advantage” over Windows.


4. Won't play nice with your existing Windows network

Assuming your computer is on a Windows network, you might want to take note that Linux won't work easily with it. First you'll have to install a program called “Samba” and even then you won't be able to access your Windows PC's without finding and editing system files which might not be a huge problem for techies but could prove quite burdensome for the average layman. Also, it's worth noting that any adjustments made to enable network functionality could easily be undone with either a Ubuntu or Windows update that changes firewall, and/or security settings. You'll be back at square one.


5. Sudo what!?

As mentioned earlier, it's fairly likely that you'll run into frequent technical hitches especially if you aren't already familiar with the OS, and when you encounter them, more often than not you'll be required to use the terminal which is basically the Linux counter part to Command Prompt in Windows. I'm well aware that high to moderately skilled techies won't have much of a gripe entering command lines to fix problems every so often, but we're talking about the average computer user here. It's hard to imagine why someone already acquainted with Windows' user friendly GUI having to constantly hunt for terminal commands they won't remember nor playing the role of a beggar in a Linux community “support” forum thereby delegating their day's work schedule to the whims of Linux geeks who aren't always eager to leap to the rescue.


6. Not a great option for Multimedia buffs

You enjoy watching high definition videos on the Internet or Blu-ray movies on your PC? If so, count Linux out. From my experience, videos always ran much better on Windows than on Linux especially with respects to on-line flash video. If you have a newer computer then perhaps the decrease in performance won't appear drastic, but for those of you with older processors such as mine (Athlon 64 2.4Ghz), you're far better off sticking with Windows. Also, keep in mind I tried both open source and proprietary video drivers. Neither proved much better than the other.


7. Stuff breaks far too easily

I've already said my piece on the frequency of technical hitches; however, another point to be made is the sheer ease at which the OS keels over. For instance, something as simple as uninstalling and reinstalling a video driver via the GUI caused my graphics to completely fail upon reboot. I wasn't even able to access low graphics mode. It took me over a week of troubleshooting via Google and forum begging before I finally discovered a solution. In another situation, Ubuntu failed to boot after I had added an additional hard drive. Apparently after every added storage device you must manually edit settings in the GNU Grub menu to re-identify which drive Ubuntu launches from. Yeah, convenient right?


8. Gamers need not apply

This one is already well known, but it's a significant shortcoming nonetheless. Linux isn't well suited for gamers or any other computer user who uses graphic intensive software for that matter presumably because of poor video driver support as well as the lack of software development for the Linux platform. Linux's meager market share renders software ports an unworthy investment for developers which leads to my next point...


9. Weak software and service compatibility

Are you a heavy Microsoft Office user? Love your Itunes? How about Netflix? Well you'd be out of luck with all three of these program/services because Linux doesn't support them; in fact, it's probably safe to say that most programs & services on todays market aren't compatible with Linux. You'll most likely have to settle for open-source alternatives.


10. You get what you pay for (or don't pay for)

Linux is a free OS which means its competitors have an immediate advantage at least in one respect –resources. Open -ource software is great, but it can only compete on so many levels with its very well funded rivals. I don't want to make too much of a fuss over this because much of it is common sense, but the fact of the matter is that most computer users have grown accustomed to using premium software with features and technical support superior to that which their open-source counterparts offer. The open-source community deserves a ton of credit for their generous contributions, but the question is whether or not users can cope with less bells n whistles and grow equally accustomed to a no-cost trimmed down alternative. I have a feeling many people could, but I also have a feeling most couldn't.

Now its not to say that Linux is without purpose, because it certainly has its uses, and with a price tag of free I couldn't possibly conceive of a better offering. However, I also think it's important that we don't get carried away by accidentally over-stating Linux's advantages over Windows. Contrary to the brash exaggerations from overzealous Linux fanboys, a decision to switch to Linux is one that should be made with careful considerations and thoughtful contemplations of the pluses & minuses whilst also bearing in mind your particular needs and intentions. My final impression leads me to conclude that casual computer users who mainly intend to perform basic tasks such as web browsing, email, word processing, etc stand to gain the most from Ubuntu because they'll experience virtually no learning curve since performing basic tasks are just as easy in Linux as they are in Windows and such users will also reap the benefits of not having to deal with all the security issues and malware threats Windows is notorious for. On the other hand, users who use specialized programs and have grown reliant on specific features in their daily applications might have a much more difficult time adjusting to Linux especially if he/she isn't necessarily a “tech wiz”. Unfortunately, I believe the profile of the average computer user is increasingly resembling the latter which means in most cases it might not be a good idea to recommend the switch. Of course there are also experienced users who are familiar with the ins and outs of computers yet haven't bothered much with Linux, such as myself, and while those like me might encounter plenty of frustrations at first, we're the ones best suited to adapt and eventually appreciate Linux's offerings. But from the perspective of the average joe or jane, it's not immediately apparent to me how Linux is somehow this glorious answer-to-all solution that many like to portray. So as a rule of thumb, if you are already plenty happy with what you already have –don't even bother with Linux. Save for a headache or two, you probably won't stand to gain much, but if you've just about had enough of Windows and your actively seeking something new, then you might as well give it a try. What is there to lose?

During Intel's keynote address at Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco this past thursday, company Chief Technology Officer, Justin Rattner, revealed a low powered cpu capable of  running solely off solar energy.  The tiny processor, code named Claremont, draws a mere 10 milliwatts of energy. As you probably already suspected, this near-threshold voltage processor won't be breaking any new benchmark records, but it can manage modest tasks as demonstrated at the keynote address during which the processor performed under Linux.

The processor was paired with equally new conceptual DDR3 memory from Micron. It is touted as being a resounding seven times more energy efficient than present DDR3 memory. Micron has dubbed it as “Hybrid Memory Cube”.  Both technologies are experimental so neither are expected to debut in the marketplace any time soon, but they were a small showing of on going development in the arena of ultra energy efficient solar-powered computing. Intel has stressed it's goal of achieving 300 times greater energy efficiency than that of today over the course of the next 10 years.

Perhaps we citizens of SWFL could stand to gain a lot from solar computing living in the sunshine state. Would you ever consider going solar? Share your thoughts via comments below!

Yesterday, Verizon Wireless officially announced the launch of its LTE 4G network in Fort Myers as well as other SWFL cities such as Cape Coral, Bonita Springs, Cypress Lake, Sanibel Island, Sancarlos Park, etc. As reported earlier, Verizon's LTE network had been made available in Florida for some time now, but this marks it's availability in our area for the first time. Service availability is immediately in effect so you can actually enroll in a plan right now.

Verizon's LTE promises broadband speeds of 3mb/sec as opposed to 3G speeds which averages about 500kb/sec. For service plans and pricing, visit Verizon's website here.

As of at least 3:19 PM EST, Onlive is apparently offering new customers $1 purchases of any game in their entire library which includes titles such as Deus Ex: Revolution, Dirt 3, Red Faction: Armegedon, Warhammer: 40,000 space marine, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, and several others. In the e-mail that was sent out titled "Strike now--get your first game for $1!", the offer was described to last for a "limited time" which might suggest it'll prolong at least for a day or two. So for those of you who are open to the idea of gaming on a cloud service and don't mind the $1 price, why not give it a go? There isn't really much to lose anyway, right?

The OnLive game service is one of the first ever to utilize "cloud computing" technology which is basically the storage and access of applications on the internet rather than on local computer storage. In Onlive's case, cloud computing is applied to live on-demand gaming. You'll need to download and install client software to access their service and you'll need to add a valid credit card to your account in order to purchase.