Haven’t spoken much about my Hawaii trip (if people even knew I was on one). First time I’ve been this far away from home. I had an awesome time, though a bike accident (out of my own stupidity) hindered the latter half. I’m still healing, but I’ll be good soon.

Gotta say, I’d would live there if I could. I mean, everyone says that about paradise, but seriously, I loved that atmosphere.  Living in a hotel with just the necessities (and a couple of luxuries) let me just enjoy the things around me. The view, the weather. I loved that everything was in walking distance from my hotel and that I could get a good cheap meal with a five minute walk down the street. Granted, a lot of it is from the perspective of a hotel tourist, so life may not be as fun as imagined, but if I could find a city as close to this experience, even without the view or weather, I’d be a happy man.

I didn’t do as much swimming as I would’ve liked, but I did stick to my goal of eating a new food every day. Ended the trip with some deliciously overpriced sushi. It was a $31 lunch that day for one person… I would rather not talk about how poor Hawaii has made me.

Went on the Lost/Movie tour which was one of my highlights. I got to visit the locations where they filmed a lot of Lost and a lot of horrible movies (which the exception of Jurassic Park). I hated that I went when the show was over, but visiting the beautiful locations was more than enough for me. Most all of the sets were taken down, of course, but a partial Jughead holder and a few docks still remained. I’m bummed that we didn’t get to go to the site of the plane crash but I think the five-hour tour was more than enough. I would’ve had to take the 8-10 hour tour if I wanted to see those locations.

Some pictures of the trip:

Currently listening to latest The Roots album, How I Got Over. Amazing. I’m really glad that Jimmy Fallon hasn’t leashed them. They still got it. Particularly, their song Walk Alone is flat out awesome. People who insult rap or hip-hop have never listened to these guys.

Transformers: War for Cybertron is equally amazing. Rather short, but maybe it’s just so good that I’m not realizing how often I’m playing it. I didn’t beat it yet so I’m jumping the ship a bit here, but I already beat the Decepticon levels, am half-way through the game, and I’ve only had it for two-three days with a couple hours each day. I guess that’s six hours though… In any case, well worth the $$. It certainly washes out the taste of the Michael Bay atrocities.

For some two days early, but for me, it’s just one. Wasn’t anticipating it’s arrival originally and so I had plans, but fortunately I didn’t have to sign for the package so there it sat when I came home.

What can I say about this phone? Jumping from the iPhone 3G to number 4, the improvements are incredible. Particularly, the speed of it all is amazing. 3GS users might not notice a huge improvement, but my slow, outdated by two years phone just slugged along. It worked well for the most part, but when it came to more graphic intensive apps, I actually had to take them off my phone since I couldn’t see myself playing with such lag. The iPhone 4 completely destroys in the speed field. Web pages load faster than the 3G making my Opera app a little less useful as Safari is speedy even in terms of its navigation. Of course, all my old apps run so damn well that I don’t know how I lived with my 3G for so long.

Visually, both design and screen are wonderful. The design does make the older models feel like toys, though I do admit that it is a bit harder to hold. Perhaps the curved nature of the back in of the past models had a useful purpose. But don’t expect me to go back anytime soon. The higher resolution screen is also beautiful and the ‘Retina Display’ really works like advertised. I can’t see pixels unless it’s an old app that hasn’t updated its graphics. It’s really a beautiful screen and it’s making the older models look extremely dated.

Another thing I love is the upgraded camera. The picture posted is one I took (at a damn high resolution!), and I think it’ll make an excellent portable camera for when I’m not carrying around my DSLR. I haven’t tested the 720p video recording, but from what I’ve seen, it’s no substitute for an HD camcorder or anything. Haven’t compared it to the FlipHD so maybe it could go head to head with that? No idea.

My favorite part though? Jumping from 16GB to 32GB. While it’s not the 64GB jump I would’ve wanted, I managed to fit practically all my apps and all the music and podcasts that I wanted. For the next year I should be good with space. At 16GB, I struggled to decide what to keep and what to leave off, but no more!

For the most part, I’m happy with it. Once I’ve oohed and ahhed at all the new features, there’s not much else to be wowed about since it’s essentially the same experience. Don’t get me wrong though. It’s a fantastic upgrade and there’s no way I could go back now.

I’m not sure why I didn’t correctly capitalize the title. Perhaps it’s Apple’s way of screwing things all up with its lowercase ‘i’ in the product names.

The big news today for iPhone/iPod users is the release of iOS 4, bringing us features that are revolutionary! …despite many other phones having access to such features for quite some time. But that’s neither here nor there. Sadly, one of the biggest features of this new firmware, multitasking, is one that I don’t have the privilege to use. Being on the iPhone 3G (with the 2G completely unable to upgrade), I’m without features. I understand though, as the 3G can barely handle the few apps that are allowed to multitask on the 3G (mail, iPod, Safari, etc). It’s why I’m upgrading to the iPhone 4 (hooray for a new toy!). What I don’t get is why I can’t have my own damn wallpaper on the home screen. The 3G can’t possibly be that restrictive. Hell, that feature has been available on jailbroken iPhones since as long as I’ve had mine.

But I digress. Again, I’ll be upgrading phones soon so some other poor soul with the iPhone 3G can complain.

What am I having a problem with is the new category feature. I commend Apple for finally giving us folders so we don’t have to swipe through 8 pages just to get to the app I want, but it’s just really lacking. The first part is that I’m only allowed to have 12 apps total in one. Not even a feature to add more and allow swiping for navigation. So what if it might defeat the purpose of having folders in the first place? It still cleans up the clutter! It’s a bit ugly to have multiple ‘game’ folders. I personally broke it up into Favorites, Quickplay, and general games. Damn things are hard to categorize beyond ‘games’. Another problem I have with folders is that the icon for it makes the rest of the screen feel so empty. I would think Apple would have a little better alternative to the icon, being so caught up in design as they are. But hey, my complaints are mostly visual. It does the job of clearing page after page. I’ve gone from eight to three, and I do admit that when you actually click on a folder, it looks pretty snazzy.

Was it worth the update? No, not if you go through the hassle I had to go through. The update required a backup from my iPhone, which it spent a good hour doing until I stopped it due to my impatience. I deleted some music off my phone, removing over 8GB worth of data and the backup still crawled. This was about five hours after I’ve downloaded the update. I ended up taking a recommendation from Apple forum users and just restoring my entire iPhone. It might have taken an hour or two, but at least I saw progress. Still, I’m going to go through the same process when I get my new phone, so it’s all a bit redundant just to get folders.

iOS 4 is a great firmware, don’t get me wrong, but for the 3G, it doesn’t impress as it will on the faster phones.

I love Words With Friends for the iPhone/iPad. This Scrabble-to-go game is one of the few games I play on a daily basis (though most of that time is me pondering my next move). It’s not that I’m particularly good at it, but the satisfaction I get from getting 60+ points on a word I had no idea existed until the submit button finally takes whatever word I just made up is fantastic.

And then Penny Arcade comes along and reveals my secret. Damn them! Frankly, it should just go unspoken. I like the appearance of knowing what I’m playing. Kwyjibo? That’s definitely a word.

… as seen on Penny Arcade

E3 has come and gone so quickly that I’m not even sure anything really happened. Of course, as with all events like these, what was showcased are future items that I want but can’t have just yet, with the exception of the new slim 360. So who has the most impressive show? What console will I be heavily using within the next year? Well, it’s tough to say. What’s not tough to say is that the Wii will most definitely get some game time from me this year, which I couldn’t say last year or even the year before.

If there has to be a weak conference, I think Microsoft had it. They started off strong with the next Call of Duty: Black Ops and followed it with the fantastic looking Metal Gear Solid: Rising. My jaw literally couldn’t close because I was in hilarious awe at just how gruesome MGS: Rising is. Cut the way you want. Playing as Raiden with his amazing sword, you can slice, dice and chop enemies every which way. Take that Miracle Blade! Microsoft then continued to show off their exclusives, which are essentially their heaviest hitters of this year. Gears of War 3, Halo: Reach, and Fable III all look to be fantastic games, but what else is new? Oh, that’s right, the renamed Natal, introduced now as Kinect, and we go a bit downhill from here. Remember how Nintendo’s conference was torn apart for focusing on fitness games? Microsoft apparently wasn’t watching. While the Kinect technology is impressive, able to recognize faces and the amount of people on screen, their software lineup is not as impressive. While I do look forward to navigating the 360 menu like Minority Report, the games all focus on parties and children. Want to pretend to pet a cute lion named Skittles? Or do you want to dance like a fool in front of others? If none of these sound like your cup of tea, then Kinect isn’t for you. It’s obvious that this device is clearly meant to take a chunk out of Wii’s audience base, but can you blame them? Nintendo did something right, even if to us core gamers they did wrong. Their final announcement was in regards to the slimmer, sleek looking 360. It comes with built in Wi-Fi and a 250GB HDD. It’s priced the same as a PS3 at $299, and it looks like a great piece of hardware. Oh, and if you were in the audience, a free 360 was waiting for you. Well, if you can awe them, buy them (I’m just a bit jealous…).

Fortunately for Nintendo, all our bitching and moaning from past shows resulted in one thing: a fantastic conference show. We all knew that a new Zelda was coming, and while Zelda: Skyward Sword looks absolutely gorgeous with its new art style, Miyamoto (who teleported magically on stage) had some interference between controller and console. This resulted in a bit of an embarrassing show. Reports have it that Zelda plays just as expected on the show floor, but on stage was probably the worst place for it to go wrong. Fortunately for Nintendo, they recover quite nicely. No longer focusing on statistics, fitness or looking like a fool, we get a plethora of new releases. We see some great gameplay of Other M, the latest installment of Metroid by Team Ninja. GoldenEye 007 makes a return in the form of a remake starring Daniel Craig as the new Bond. Of course, Rare is not a part of the development so honestly, success will be tough with this one. Kirby makes a triumphant return in Kirby’s Epic Yarn, which, despite the ridiculous name, has a great art style to it that’s reminiscent of Paper Mario and might just be some good fun. In another return to form, a new Donkey Kong Country comes to the console, bring back some great nostalgia. There’s a new, intriguing, Epic Mickey Mouse game as well, but if it isn’t Kingdom Hearts, I’m not that interested.

Of course, the big surprise (or at least reveal) by Nintendo is the latest portable in their lineup, the 3DS. Boasting improved graphics, a new analog nub, and a 3D capability without glasses, this seems to be the ultimate DS to own. While no date or price is set, plenty of games and game developers are on board. They showed off Kid Icarus’ return to the gaming world (with the exception of SSBB) and eventually took to the audience to show off the 3DS. Obviously the computer monitor I was watching on could only show so much. From reports, the 3D does work like expected and looks great. This may be the DS I’ve been waiting for since my purchase of the original Phat DS.

Last, but not least is Sony, who definitely had the most entertaining show. They started off by showing stereoscopic 3D games using the glasses, which of course was lost on those watching at home. But they showed off a level of Killzone 3 which looked great. We eventually saw new releases such as LittleBigPlanet 2 and InFamous 2, both of which I’m excited for but not nearly as much as I was when the IPs were still new. Gran Turismo 5 is FINALLY getting released and while I’m not much of a racing fan, the game looks absolutely gorgeous and lifelike. Of course Move was shown off, and they demoed a game called Sorcery, which is a shame because it really should’ve been the next Harry Potter game. Still, the game looked great and between Move and Kinect, it seems Move will be the device of choice for the core gamer. Support for games such as Socom 4 and Heavy Rain is the complete opposite of what Microsoft had to show off. Though that’s not to say the PS3 is without its own boxing or golf game. At the end of the day, the awesomeness of each new motion device really just depends on who’s doing the gaming.

The PSP hasn’t gotten an upgrade, although they are launching a new campaign to get people to play it. Frankly, I say bring out the PSP2. I think that the lack of a second analog nub is really destroying the potential of games on the system.

The entertaining portions come from two men. The first of which is the fantastic VP of Awesomeness, Kevin Butler, Sony’s amazing PR character. He gives an amazing gamers speech that, despite starting off the show with insulting the Kinect launch show, reaches audiences of all consoles. Of course, it’s an actor has the chops to deliver something so awesome as opposed to all these company men who lack the charisma needed to be as awesome. The second man is Gabe Newell, the known basher of the PS3 console. He comes on stage and I’m sure everyone had to be shocked by this. He then announces Portal 2, which people originally believed to not be at the show, and says how it’ll be the best version on any console. This is due to Steamworks which means cross platform multiplayer and hopefully FREE updates (I’m looking at you 360).

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So overall, it was a good E3. Nothing too shocking, but to get a glimpse of new games and hardware is always a welcome. In any case, it’s damn good to be a gamer.