New Firefox UI Plans

This week Mozilla announced plans to make the Firefox User Interface more Windows Friendly and more like the Windows 7 task bar and teh Office 2007 Ribbon. This new UI would only be availiable to Windows Users, startign with Windows Vista then Windows 7. It would start to be implemented in Firefox 3.7 before being completed in Firefox 4.

I find it interesting that people complained bitterly about the Office 2007 Ribbon, especially how it was so vastly different to the UI of Office 2003. What is to stop this same reaction to the new Firefox UI? Mozilla is making the right move in the gradual UI change over 2 versions, one minor and the other major. This won't isolate their users and users will have plenty of time to get accustomed to the UI. However new users may beturned away by an unfamiliar interface which can only be overcome by a tutorial to teh new UI...WHICH IS NOT ON THE PLANS!!!! Mozilla will need a tutorial video on the new UI if anyone is going to be able to use it as people are very stupid and do not like change unless they know that they will be able to handle it.

Another idea put forward is App Tabs which would be tabs that you would have open all the time, like GMail or Facebook, and could access all the time without the clutter of the bac/forward buttons, freeign up space making it more user friendly for the site you wnat to view. This is a brilliant idea which Mozilla started planning with Prism, and now to carry it into Firefox itself...genius. In GMail I do not want to have the Back/Forward/Stop/Refresh buttons as they just take up space and are useless. People will catch on to this very quickly and I expect it to be one of the more popular changes.

Personally I think that Firefox is due  for a major UI update and the plans put forward are great but Mozilla should be catious with making radical changes and should definately listen to their users about what they want. The changes make it sort of CHrome like, which is good, and the tab bar will be moved to the top (in FF4) and a progress bar will be added above the tabs. This will free up clutter and make Firefox a very sexy browser.

Firefox 3.7 Planned UI

Firefox 4 Planned UI

Preview: Bayonetta

Platinum Games, creators of Madworld, are once again creating a good lookign game called Bayonetta. The main character, called Bayonetta, is a shape shifter who has no memory of where she is, so in typical video game character style she goes around killing things to find out what she wants to know.

The gameplay seems very good , with good graphics, epic battle sequences and excellent music. However the camera controls were a little off with transperancy having to be used to get over this. Also, a typical Japanese collectable item has made it's way into the game, Rings. Yes, Rings as in Sonic teh Hedgehog rings even though the game has nothing to do with Sonice (although the PS3 port is being made by SEGA).

Overall after the 10-15 minutes Tagged spent with this game at GenCon Oz, it seemed to be a great game but the story seems a bit cliched. Nonetheless, we are looking forward to this game which is coming to Playstation 3 and XBox 360 sometime in 2010.

Preview: Borderlands

Gearbox software, best known for their work with Valve on Half Life expansions and for their Brothers In Arms series, are launching a new game called Borderlands, to be released on October 20 (USA/JP) and October 23 (PAL). Tagged was lucky enough to get some hands on with the game at GenCon Oz.

Borderlands is an FPS\RPG that is set in a futuristic world called Pandora and centres on missions to try and advance the story of one of 4 playable characters. Graphically this game has Halo-style graphics, except better, and the controls are easy to master but seemto be a little sensitive. The maps are hard to navigate but when you get the hang of the waypoint system (where a compass is positioned at teh bottom of teh screen) the game does start to get quite fun. The enemy AI is quite good with creatures knowing when you get too close and attempting to attack you from distances.

Borderlands has a level system but after a short play Tagged is still unsure what importance the level system has on the game.

Over the next few days I will be giving you 1 more preview, Bayonetta, and a review of the free MMO Planet Calypso.

Senator Conroy...please just give up!

This week Senator Conroy proposed that australian ISP's would be allowed to intercept their customers downloads to ensure proper use. He said this in responce to the piracy suit against iiNet.
WTF!?! I don't want my internet downloads intercepted, it will slow down my internet, it goes completely against any notion of privacy and it will just mean more work for the ISPs to actually monitor what EVERYONE on their network is doing. Moreover, they would have to disclose what their customers are downloading, meaning the government to charge thousands of people with criminal offences and get more money. really it is just a scheme for revenue raising, WHICH MAKES IT WORSE!!!! I don't want my internet filtered and I certainly don't want my download record perused by the government, it  just goes against the basics of privacy.


This is just one of many stupid ideas that Senator Conroy has had recently. A month ago he said that he was considering a 3-strikes policy towards piracy...somilar to what was REJECTED in France. It is almost  like he is ignoring the rest of the world and coming up wit hbold and stupid ideas to screw over Australian Internet users and ISPs.
If, for 1 month, senator Conroy would keep is big mouth shut and listen to what Australians think of his ideas and look at the rest of the world to see what works he might see that all he has to do is implement the NBN eventually and NOTHNG ELSE!
No filter, No download intercepting and No 3-strikes policy!!

Is the Microhoo deal going to hurt Google?

This week Microsoft and Yahoo announced that they had struck a deal, to come into effect in 2010, to make Bing the replacement for Yahoo Seach and to share advertising revenue. People around the internet were up on arms about how this is going to harm Google and how Google is going to have to change their model because of this but I really don't think that this is going to affect Google in any way whatsoever.

This deal is essentially going to remove Yahoo Search and replace it with Bing so all the Yahoo Search users will now be using Bing, removing one competitor of Google, who will not lose any users. In fact Yahoo Search might not like Bing and decide to make the switch to Google, giving Google more users and more revenue.

On the Advertrising side, Google will not be affected at all, they are not going to lose advertisers and may gain some from Microsoft/Yahoo because they may be turned off by the advertising model. Microsoft/Yahoo may look like they are getting more advertising revenue but Google will lose none, essentially meaning that Microhoo are making themselves look good while not harming there main competition.

Overall, this deal is going to be good for Microsoft and Yahoo as they will get more money from each other and, in the case of Bing, more people searching using their service. Google, however will not be affected much by this deal and they really shouldn't be worried by it.

Ubisoft reports loss

Yesterday Ubisoft released their First Quarter 2009 sales report and unsuprisingly they reported a loss. They had a 51% drop in sales with the Nintendo DS being their most popular console, followed by the Wii and PC.

This loss was going to be obvious. Ubisoft's main market appears to now be the casual market for the Wii and NDS, with game series's like the Imagine series which seems to have the aim of turning young girls into sluts. Most games to come out up to September are casual games for the Wii and NDS with only one, Heroes Over Europe, coming out only on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC only.

Why did they report a loss? Well I blame the lack of hardcore games and the increased focus on the casual market. Based on the earnings report, we are already seeing Ubisoft beign affected by this and if they don't get a real hardcore game out soon then they may lose enough money to force them out of the big-budget market alltogether. The next hardcore game, Assassin's Creed 2, isn't slated to come out until November but they still have the second quarter to go which, as I have said, is dominated by the casual games.

Overall, Ubisoft should change their focus towards the hardcore market and move away from the casual market that is clearly hurting them and turning young people into wannabe models and glamour pusses. By moving this focus they will help their profits and will put their mark on the industry as a whole.

3D Everywhere!

3D is taking over the world!!!!

Everywhere I look there is a new article on CNet or Techcrunch detailing the latest 3D innovation. 3D cameras, 3D monitors, 3D Youtube, new 3D movie glasses, the list will eventually go on and on and on until our lives are full of unecessary 3D products that add nothing to our lives.

We already see in 3D and we are perfectly happy with our current videos and monitors and cameras, so why do we need to have 3D versions of these products. All that unecessary tech for something teh average consumer wouldn't use.

Why would you want to see yours or anyone else's holiday photos in 3D! It adds nothing to the atmosphere of teh image, adds nothing to the way you will percieve the image as an image and will just end up being down right annoying!
Admittedly the technology involved is pretty cool but it is just a waste of money and time which could be spent creating 15-30 megapixel cameras or monitors that can handle higher resolutions.


I am also afraid that the next 3D device we see is a 3D touchscreen or a 3D mobile phone, now that would be even stupider.