The ZAZ Studios

The Web Edition and Resources by Thom McGrath

On Tuesday we announced something I've been working on for quite a while now. If you're reading my blog, you almost certainly know I'm talking about the web edition of REAL Studio.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive. I've known for some time now that we've got a winner on our hands, because every single person we've shown it to was absolutely blown away. But I was still surprised at all the great questions, responses, and users salivating over it. I'm very proud to be a part of this, and can't wait to put it into your hands.

I've only heard one negative thing: we're pulling resources away from our existing products. Here's why that isn't true.

Aw crud. by Thom McGrath

It turns out I've had a Twitter account for a few years now. You guessed it, @tekcor.

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My fellow iPhoners by Thom McGrath

I got a launch day iPhone. Skipped the 3G, and got a 3GS. Once I got the 3GS, I never intended on purchasing the next model. I'm not in the habit of buy every iPhone model.

But then something bad happened. My 3GS went through the wash. Knowing the next model was coming, and a new 3GS would be expensive without a subsidy, I downgraded back to the first gen.

I've found myself in a predicament though. My iPhone is giving me more problems by the day. The battery cannot last a full day (and lasts only about half an hour if I play any games on it), I have "No Service" around the end of the day (a restart solves that), and now it takes about 30 seconds to place a call. Not to mention it is unbelievably slow, especially when compared to my wife's iPhone 4.

I need to replace this beast. I'm torn between waiting for the white model, or purchasing a black one. I greatly prefer the white, and I know if I purchase a black, the white will become available shortly after. It always works that way. But it won't be soon enough to return the black.

So I have a favor to ask. If anybody is upgrading from a 3GS to a 4 that would be willing to donate their phone, please drop me a line. I'll return it to you once I get my white model if you prefer.

It's a long shot, sure. But it certainly can't hurt to put the request out there.

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Macs and Games by Thom McGrath

I don't think there is a person alive who won't contend that Macs don't play games well. They did, a long time ago, but not any more.

This is nothing new. What is new is Steam on Mac. With its recent release, this argument has been revived. Again. I'd like to take a second to point out a simple fact:

PCs suck at games too!

Here's the key fact. A PC you buy off the shelf is no better at playing Portal than a Mac is. Both standard Macs and PCs include low-power discrete video cards, or run on integrated cards alone. This is nothing new! If you want to play games on a PC, you put in a powerful video card. If you want to play games on a Mac, you put in a powerful video card.

The problem is that Macs don't have the expansion options that PCs do. PC components almost always adhere to similar standards, so parts are interchangeable. Nearly every PC has at least one PCIe slot suitable for a video card. Macs don't.

So for the record: Macs suck at gaming about as much as PCs do. But you can upgrade the PC, making it suitable for gaming.

Oh, and I'm a PC gamer. Screw the Xbox, my PC can run circles around it. I'm primarily a Mac user though.

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Microsoft officially supports H.264. by Thom McGrath

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the mess regarding HTML5, Flash, and video. Some new developments have surfaced, which changes the game significantly.

Microsoft announced yesterday that Internet Explorer 9 will support only H.264 video in the HTML5 video tag.

All of the sudden, H.264 looks like it'll win the war. Microsoft doesn't traditionally pick the winning technology (if you need an example, Microsoft sided with HD-DVD years ago) but in this case, they're siding with Apple who usually does win technology wars.

Apple is betting on the wrong horse by Thom McGrath

Since the iPhone's release and Apple's bold stance against Flash, I have sided with Apple in the belief that Flash must die and they are doing the right thing.

Apple is instead pushing for rich content powered by HTML5. HTML5 is a remarkable step forward for the web, although as usual, Internet Explorer isn't keeping pace with the rest of the industry. Most of the things developers are using Flash for can be done with HTML5 instead, but without browser plugins.

When it was new, Flash was fun and exciting. We knew it was unoptimized, but we expected that to be fixed. We said "hey, this is a great first start, it should have nowhere to go but up." And it did. It grew wildly, but not because it was good. Flash was never properly optimized, with its developers assuming more powerful computers would offset their laziness.

Playing video on the web is mess. You need to send a file to a particular browser plugin, but you don't know if the plugin exists on the user's computer. There was no sure-fire way to play video. Then Flash added support for video playback, and everybody jumped on board. It was an easy way to author video that would play on nearly any device without worrying about the details. Sure, it has the worst playback controls available, the quality generally sucks, and it eats up all a computer's resources - but it was easy for web developers.

Flash still isn't optimized. It still destroys batteries. For good reason, Apple has kept it off of their mobile devices. They've bet on HTML5, which has a new video tag allowing the browser to properly decide what to do, rather than rely on the website to declare the plugin to handle the video.

At first glance, this seems like the right move. Until you look at the HTML5 video spec.

My Take on iPad by Thom McGrath

Apple's iPad announcement was completely on-par with my expectations. It is basically a large iPod Touch. There is actually nothing magical or revolutionary about it, despite Apple's claims.