Posts for 'Events'

It’s uhhh… probably fair at this point to say that I’m a pretty big fan of Pokémon. And naturally, I’ve been looking forward to the release of Pokémon X and Y

So when I heard about the Pokémon Game Show that was going to be held in Tokyo, which would be featuring playable copies of X and Y, there was no question about going or not. XD

The event was being held at Tokyo Big Sight, so less than a week after Comiket ended, I always already heading back there again. Thankfully, this time around, the crowd was SLIGHTLY smaller than what was at Comiket.

After seeing such a massive crowd at Comiket (And also at Reitaisai), it was kind of weird to see Big Sight so empty this time around.

In any case, when I got a bit closer, I knew I was definitely in the right place.

Unlike Comiket and Reitaisai, getting in was actually somewhat different. As it turns out, due to the volume of people in the show floor, it was actually necessary to stagger the entry of new people until the others had left. So after I initially went in (After a baggage check, interestingly enough), I was required to wait in line with a block of people for about 20 minutes or so. (I guess this is actually pretty normal, but coming from Perth, I can understand why I’ve never seen it before. XD)

After finally entering the show floor, I was immediately floored at the size and scale of it. Holy crap it was massive!

Not only that, the place was fully decked out. There was an amazing light-show at the front door, there were giant Poké balls floating in the air, and there were awesome Pokémon stands featuring the starters and the legendaries from all of the games every 20 metres. XD

The show floor was divided up into multiple sections, each catering to different Pokémon related activities. In the corner, there was a Pokémon Tretta lab in the corner, where the prize for winning was an exclusive Red Genesect tile.

In the middle, there a dedicated section for video/ card game Pokémon battles, with a raised stage in the middle. Suffice it to say, incredibly awesome. XD

And in the far corner, was the Pokémon X and Y exhibition (Will write more on that later). 😀

Beyond that, there were a few other sections, of which I’ve uploaded photos onto my Flickr.

Overall, it was an amazing day. It’s sometimes hard to fathom just how popular Pokémon is; especially in Japan. But when there’s events like this, it blows your mind even more. XD

Wow. Now I know this was probably to be expected, but now that it’s come, it feels pretty sudden. Today Steve Jobs stepped down as the CEO of Apple for the second time, and most likely, for the last time. 🙁 It’s probably safe to say that the whole internet (more or less XD) is abuzz with the news and most people aren’t taking it too well (eg Wall Street lol).

I dunno if I’ve said it much before, but we are complete Apple nuts in my household. My father has been with Apple since the beginning; since the original Macintosh computer and has NEVER deviated since then (currently rocking a MacBook Air XD). When I bought a Windows PC for my university studies, I almost got evicted from the family. ^_^;

It’s really hard to put in perspective how much Steve has personally contributed to the sheer ‘concept’ of personal computing (and by extension now, the concept of post-PC computing), but it’s probably safe to say that he is without a doubt one of the pioneers and forefathers of most of the technological customs we take for granted today.

Now, it’s been said he’s not leaving entirely and he will be remaining as Chairman of the Board, so it’s quite possible that this isn’t going to be as bad as everyone is making out. Odds are he’ll still be making sure all of the products leaving Apple are still up to his level of standards, and that the rest of the responsibilities of managing the company will now rely on Tim Cook. So all in all, I really don’t think Apple is going to rapidly change much at all now, or in the perceivable future.

In any case, since now is as good a time as any, I would personally like to thank Steve for everything he’s done, and I wish him the very best from here on. 🙂

So. The iPad 2. Looks shiny. I can’t believe it’s been a year already since the last iPad was announced. XD

I really love my iPad. I’ve had such a great time with it over the past year. ^_^
I was initially skeptical if getting another iOS device that simply had a bigger screen than my iPhone was actually worth it or not, but it turns out it was. The extra screen realestate can be used very effectively and it’s simply a lot easier and quicker to be able to look at more content at once than the iPhone.

One thing that stood out on the iPad over a laptop that I noticed was the sheer portability of the thing. With a laptop, you can’t really carry it when it’s on. You have to either set it down, or really awkwardly hold it, usually balanced on one arm. XD With the iPad, I could quickly load stuff up, rotate the screen as needed, and if there are friends present, you’re not tied down to the ‘crowd around the screen’ mentality.

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Well… I was going to write a blog post on this before it came out, but ‘lo and behold, it came out a few minutes ago.

The Mac App Store

I’m downloading it now, but in the meantime, I’d like to just put out my own thoughts on what I think about it:

In my opinion, if it’s executed well, it might be a good idea, but knowing Apple’s philosophy, I think it might already be doomed for failure.

The concept of the Mac App Store seems pretty cool; it’s just like Steam but for everything! XD
It can provide a central hub accessible to all where any number of apps can be very easily located and downloaded. These apps can then be automatically updated as new versions come out.

Given my own experience when writing and marketing my Twitter utility, DesktopTweet, this is a totally awesome concept.
I was running around the internet trying to find Twitter related blogs and wikis that would let me post an article about DesktopTweet (On that note, nearly ALL of my traffic is coming from the official Twitter Apps wiki) in an attempt to market, and even still, I doubt I made much of an impression. Secondly, I had to write my own series of metrics and update tracking code for it so I could see what kind of people were downloading it, and so I could automatically inform them when an update came out. If my experience with the iOS Store is anything to go on, all of this stuff is provided straight from the start.

So, with that being said, I’d say the concept of the Mac App Store is totally awesome, and I may even go so far as to say it’s a potential game-changer for software on the micro-computer platform.

But, with all that being said and done, I do have a few reservations about it:

If the Mac App Store is anything like the iOS App Store, it may be doomed to failure.

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Well, AUC dev/world/ 2010 is finished and I’ve finally found a bit of time to update my blog hehe. XD

So I just wanted to say, it was really awesome. I’d never attended a programmer-centric conference before and the whole experience was pretty epic.

Of some of the presentations/activities that were going on, some I attended included:

• A day long session on programming with Cocoa on OS X and iOS, starting from scratch.
• A primer to using Core Data in iOS app development
• A quick and dirty to using git and the new paradigms it introduces in contrast to earlier version control systems.
• A quick look at another university’s dedicated iPhone app, and the geo-location services it provides.
• How to program using blocks on iOS 4.
• Optimizing code to run faster on the iOS platforms.
• Tips and tricks to help develop apps in a business.

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I’m sitting in the domestic Qantas club now. 20 minutes until the gate opens so I thought I’d write a quick blog.

There’s an extremely interesting schedule lined up including a day long primer on Cocoa, a cool sounding talk on git as well as a lot of cool Apple-centric presentations in general.

Just like my trip to Japan, I’m not sure how much blog time I’ll get, but I’ll try my best to post any cool stuff I learn on Twitter.

To all the folks in Perth, enjoy the Royal Show!