Articles like this one really bug me.
For $999 you can walk into Best Buy and get an Asus G51Vt that delivers 95% of the gaming performance of single GPU notebooks costing twice as much. Or watch Tiger Direct for periodic Gateway FX refurbs that they sell for well under $1,000.00.
And then you have the various refurb outlets on eBay where $699 gets you a notebook with an Nvidia 9800m GS.
You don’t have to spend a lot to get a great gaming rig.
Apple’s low-end Macbook line is looking sparse now that the unibodies are sorted out, with a single lonely model available to budget conscious Apple aficionados.
Back to School looms on the horizon and there is still the matter of a price competitive entry level Macbook to sort out (it is seriously over due). This and ‘budget friendlier’ iMacs should drive lots of volume.
Netbook interest is waning but a whole bunch of new CULV notebooks are to be sprung on unsuspecting consumers over the next two-three months. These are real Core 2 Duo CPUs going into tiny form factor notebooks that PC makers have had 3 years to develop and perfect. A usable ultra portable for $500 running Windows 7 is not something you want to face off against if all you have is a $999 Macbook with it’s admittedly faster innards but dated looks.
There will be a whole lot more Macs in homes in 2010 when Apple launches their MacOS App Store at WWDC.
Actually, Direct2Drive and GamersGate are probably closer to poor cousins of Steam. Mac Game Arcade is like the cheap Chinese copy with lead paint. But it’s the closest thing the Mac has at the moment so if you Mac, and you like games, better get on over and support one of the few outfits showing us love. Most of the games are casual – but there are a couple of good indie games there.
Download the app, sign up and more here.
You might also want to try GameTree Online – Transgaming’s own digital distribution store. They have newer stuff including titles from EA and Ubisoft – but they have crap prices. No one has learned the lesson Steam offers: cheaps games make up for low prices by moving volume.
Everything you need for GameTree is here.
Pretty much the same old specs you’ve come to love/hate – Atom, weak GPU, low RAM, smallish HDD, no optical drive and WiFi. But this one is very thin and well constructed.
Seriously, it’s not quite Macbook Air thin but its close enough.
If you are looking for a netbook – good for you! You skipped all the trash that came out last year and you have this or Toshiba’s N200 to choose from.
List of cider ported games and their porter:
A-10 Cuba (CrossOver Wrapper) – beber666
Another World Enhanced Version
Assassin’s Creed – locoputo
Audiosurf (CrossOver Wrapper) – zero
Baldur’s Gate + ToSC – thedoctor45
Baldur’s Gate 2 + Throne of Bhaal – thedoctor45
Battlefield 2 – le grand stroumph & thedoctor45
Battlefield 2142 – official Transgaming port
Battlefield Vietnam – dagoWATT
Black & White – ameeps (PPC Official version is out but no UB patch)
Braid – Devilhunter Read the rest of this entry »
Recently I traded my beloved 13″ Unibody Notebook for an Asus G50Vt-X1 gaming notebook. Why? I missed PC games like Mass Effect and Fallout 3 which simply are not as good on the Xbox 360 (frame rate and image quality) and are not available on the Mac at all.
I dabbled in getting older PC games working on the Mac, you can read more about that adventure here. Results were great, but old games will only get you so far (although the library is growing).
The Asus was great. Initially getting well over 8,000 points in 3Dmark06 out of the box, and over 9,000 with some GPU and CPU tweaking. It’s construction was OK – but almost entirely plastic. It’s hard to switch from a CNC machined aluminum body to a generic plastic design.
Also an issue for me is the OS. I tolerate Windows XP because I have no choice. I could probably tolerate XP on a home computer too. It is snappy and simple. Vista on the other hand is less snappy and more complicated. I have to go through a tuning routine with Vista that I hate – turning off indexing, UAC and a few other things. Too bad MS opted not to make these tuning options available in the installation wizard.
I also missed the keyboard and touch pad – the Asus was OK but I found key presses missed and the touch pad was tiny compared to the huge (usable) Apple touch pad. Related to the input method are Multitouch, Expose and Spaces which facilitate navigation. These are minor features, but you get used to them and they are noticeable in their absence.
So, one of my trading buddies had a Macbook and was interested in my Asus and now I am back to Apple. I am also back to trying to squeak out a decent gaming experience on Mac. I’ll use Boot Camp as a last resort.
There is a Cider Oblivion wrapper, and I just bought the Deluxe GoTY version on Steam. I guess I’ll play that through again. Planescape Torment works too – and while it is old, how can anyone ever get tired of playing that game (the finest video game of all time).
One of the neat features of the Asus Republic of Gmaers notebooks is their little OLED screen. Using Asus’ software you can get it to display a limited amount of info – like CPU and memory load. Thankfully, community hackers have squeezed a lot more info from it using LCD Hype.
First you need LCDHype, get it here.
Second, you nee the driver for your OLED screen, G1 or G50/70/71. Extract the folder into the Program Files\LCDHype\Controller.
You need a monitoring program like Lavasys Everest or Motherboard Monitor install in order to feed values to LCDHype.
Then install the related plugin into Program Files\LCDHype\Plugins
Finally you need to get scripts that tell the software what to display, get them here and a mega thread here. Put scripts here, Program Files\LCDHype\Scripts.
I think folks that spend more than $300 on netbooks are nuts. You can get a real computer for that much.
When I say netbook I’m talking about a units with a real operating system, 10″ screen and good keyboard (not the first gen EeePC computers). Those first gen units are junk and are not worth the $100 they go for on Craigslist.
It's the best netbook of 2008 - and at this price it is worth owning
If you need a little notebook for travel or as a second computer (say for example your spouse is addicted to Facebook and shoots you dirty looks when you log onto the family computer) the HP MIni is tough to beat. The Linux (HP Mi) version might be had for even less so keep your eyes peeled for that too.
Better than the Asus Whatsisname?
If you pay the premium for this netbook, then you are an idiot. It is about $200 more than it should be priced at.
I recently started commuting by bike to work and walking/running/cycling for fitness. In order to get the most from any routine, you need to track your workouts (time, distance, speed, etc). This helps you see trends, progress and adds a little bit of science to the art of the workout.
Two weeks in, and I really like it
While looking into online training logs, I stumbled upon RunKeeper. After using the add support free version for a week, I paid the $9.99 for the Pro version for no other reason than to support the developer: Jason Jacobs.
What do I like about it? Read the rest of this entry »
