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PlayStation 4 event

Last night, Sony held a two and a half hour event to present its new generation console : The PlayStation 4. The hardware itself was not presented and looks like we will have to wait until E3 in June to get the first glance.

The only piece of hardware that was available on stage was the new Dual Shock 4 controller. The design is very similar to previous versions with the addition of a touch panel and a headphone jack. 

As you would expect, the PS4 is going to have impressive specs. But I believe the most important aspect of it is that it is going to be way easier to develop games for the PS4 than it was for its predecessor the PS3. This means Sony has been working closely with the developer community and we can expect a great variety of high quality games heading our way. This also means that we are going to see some PC games being ported to the PS4 and as a matter of fact Blizzard announce its return to consoles with Diablo III.

Other major aspects of the console have to do with the way you can play digital games. Instead of waiting several hours for the full game to be downloaded, you can start playing pretty much instantly. Very similar to what Netflix and Apple do for streaming movies. 

The second half of the conference was mainly for developers to present some of the big games that are currently being developed, titles such as Killzone, inFAMOUS and even a Final Fantasy game.

In general I am very excited about the announcement. In paper it looks great lets hope Sony delivers when the time comes.The console is schedule to hit the shelves by the end of the year, presumably just in time for the holiday season.

LG Optimus Black - Android

Ok, I think I must give Android another chance. I got a LG Optimus Black for my father last week, he kept his old Motorola phone for around 2 years and I thought it would be better if he could try a new phone now. At first I was thinking of choosing an iPhone 4 for him, but due to Cell phone companies greed, they wanted to charge $200 for the upgrade even when we had 6 years  (that´s right 6 !) "earning" points for a free upgrade. So the girl that took care of us showed us a bunch of really crappy Nokia phones (no Windows Phone) a couple of cheap Samsung devices and finally the LG Optimus Black. The phone looks really nice, with a big nice screen and a black (in case you didn't guess) plastic body. The phone feels very light and plasticky, but I think this is a good thing since the device appears to be very heavy due to its size.  Unfortunately I only had chance to use the device for a little while and didn't have enough time to get "personal" with it.

I do want to say that in the last couple of weeks , first with the HTC Sense and now with the LG Optimus black, I had the chance to experience in a very unique ways two "flavors" of Android that felt exceptionally good. In the past I used a Nexus One for a few days and a cheap LG Optimus V as my daily driver for a couple of months and honestly I feel like I missed a real Android experience because of the hardware I picked. (Well, when I used the Nexus One I didn't really gave it a chance just because I was very close to iPhone experience)

At this point I am still waiting for the Samsung Focus Windows Phone I ordered a few weeks ago (what the hell Amazon !) and won't be getting a top of the line Android phone any time soon, However I will keep that in mind for when my contract expires and is time to upgrade my current phone.

Please make sure you follow us on twitter @tech_ci for updates !

HTC Sense

Today I had the chance to play for a few minutes with an HTC Sense Android phone. It got me thinking that maybe I need to give Android another chance.

iPhone 4 - No service after traveling out of coverage area.

A few weeks ago I traveled to Montreal Quebec for a weekend. In Canada, most cell phone and data plans only include local coverage to your province, so when you travel outside your province your coverage pretty much dies.

I took my iPhone 4 and as expected, the "No Service" message appeared as soon as I crossed the border between Ontario and Quebec. No big deal, I was prepared and enjoyed my weekend in Montreal very much.

On the way back, I noticed that even after crossing to Ontario, my phone kept saying "No Service". Tried a couple of workarounds like going to airplane mode , rebooting the phone and even reseting the network settings but nothing worked. When I got home I tried a restore from backup, but the issue still was there.  I was only able to fix it after I restored the phone to its factory settings. I unfortunately lost all my information and had to synchronize all my music and contacts afterwards.

Yesterday, my wife got back from a trip to the US and she's having the same problem with her phone. I tried resetting the network settings but it didn't work. I also tried a restore from backup but it didn't work either. I am in the middle of restoring the phone to its factory settings and hopefully this will fix the issue.

I am not sure if this is an issue with the phone itself (I have another iPhone 4 and it works just fine) or if there is something wrong with my sim card.

 Please leave a comment or tweet if you encountered this issue before or if you have any ideas on what should I do next time so I don't loose all my information.

Thanks and see you soon !
CI

Merry Christmas from Google

Well looks like Christmas got a week early. Head to www.google.com and search "let it snow"

Have fun !

CI

Santa and Siri !

Hi there ! A few minutes ago I watched Apple's new ad featuring Santa and Siri ! This is one of the reasons I like Apple so much.

Check it out !

Thanks and see you soon !
CI