This is not an emulation trick Apple is now letting people download it's own web browser  who own Windows OS computers. I have not used Safari since I was being an IT guy for my school. So I'm glad that Apple is opening up it's browser to more then just Mac's. So far it works way more faster then IE 7 and a bit more faster then Firefox when it comes to page loading speeds and it has the latest Flash player installed as well and also QT and Java as well. And I can bet that website programmers are very happy that they have another browser that they can test web pages with to make it work with all Internet programs instead of going out and getting a Mac to do so for just Safari.

Anyways you can get it here. Enjoy!

Update: Oh yea I showed my mom the browser as well she I was showing her bus routes that lead to the school that I'm going to this weekend and she commented on how Safari shows it's warnings when they slip in and out from the top of the page and she thougt that looked neat.

Update2: Ok there is some problems when it comes to Win Safari rendering titles for some blog news websites. Take a look at this screen shot I took of the Ars site where they talk about Sony making a blog for the PS3 and PSP. The title is nowhere to be found.



But this browser is just a public beta that Apple will fix up some rendering problems when they come out with the real thing.

Yes I know I been away for a few months I think but I just wanted to have some downtime for myself. Anyways I’m back now and something that has been coming up for the last wile I noticed is people are treating the PSP as the whipping boy of portables. You see it just about in most places on the internets now and sometimes on TV on stations like G4 that those two dicktrees who host the only gaming show on that network who I have some respect for one of them (take a guess who) called the PSP “Sony’s sleek black mistake” and then you get some of the comic makers having at it as well by making fun of the PSP and some of them liking the DS over it.

I think it’s kind of good that Sony came out with the PSP in the first place because it has taken a very good part away of Nintendo’s handheld stranglehold they have held on to since they made the first Game Boy. There were handhelds before the PSP that tried to take a share in the handheld pie but they flaked off quite fast and did not have staying power. But the PSP is quite different Sony more then likely watched Nintendo for sometime to size them up and see what they were up for. And also another fact that the DS fanboi’s don’t want to admit to but is quite true is that Nintendo’s handhelds don’t need a lot of work to make a game. It’s quick and cheap for let’s say… most of all of game makers to make a DS game just to make a fast buck instead of taking the time to make a game for the PSP and let’s face it quite a lot of the DS games look like they did get slapped together quickly or they don’t fully use the system hardware and just make a mini-game disk. Also when the new FF7 spin off game gets sent to the US and Canada people will be changing their tune about the PSP.

Already there are games for the PSP that stand out well and there’s more coming soon down the pipeline for the system. Anyways what I’m saying is don’t count out the PSP because it’s keeping it’s own pace quite well with the DS.

Any if you wonder why I was away for sometime. I have been playing Forza 2 and also this game on my computer as well.

This is called M.U.G.E.N. it is a 2D fighting game engine that was made by Elecbyte back in 1999 and lasted until around 2003 when the company and the site vanished off the internet. But there has been a small but growing community making fighters (and sometimes edited ones of existing ones) ripped from video games and also ones made from people by scratch that takes a long time to do but when done right the pay off is worth it. Anyways I’m heading offline because it’s getting late. This message was just to prove somewhat that I’m not dead when it comes to blogging. Later…

Now that 2007 is on us now for about weeks now it's time to predict what will more then likely will happen with the consoles in the next few years because now we have entered the "next gen" as people have been billing it. Let's start with everybody's favorite console and company to rag on: Sony  the PS3 and the PSP.

First off Sony has done some very large dumbass moves (like no rumble for a good start and going with that bullshit known as the SIXAXES instead) and everything has not been going their way since E3 when they announced the price points for everybody around the Earth. But quite a lot of people in the blogosphere has been saying that the PS3 will be making a comeback. Here's what I think will be going on with them for the next few years:

• Sony will more or less admint to a point that they fucked up (i.e. drop hints alluding to this because Microsoft's dick of a PR person Peter Moore would not let Sony live it down if they said it outright and yes this is coming from someone who owns a XBox 360. I just don't have much of a like of Microsoft's gaming arm PR people and Moore is high on the list of people who I can't stand) up and will start form scratch and start paying more attention to what's ever left of their fan base and start to rebuild and do the hard job of returning gamers. They sort of already started by promoting the father of the PlayStation off the sales floor and placed him in to more desk job because he has outlasted his usefulness. Hell he has been the hypeman for PlayStation for around 12 years so the top brass at Sony thought it was time to put some fresh blood in to the mix.

• Final Fantasy one of Sony's biggest crutch franchises will be coming out with Final Fantasy XIII and that will move quite a lot of units when that game drops.

• The PSP will move more units when they drop Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- eveybody is waiting for that game to come out (same with me because I got a PSP last week) also they are waiting for the Limited Edition Collector's Set verson of Advent Chidren to drop as well (that it will next month) that comes with the English dub of the anime feature Last Order -Final Fantasy VII-

Now we move to the Wii Nintendo's now weird offering that is trying to do a few things at once like make gamers more active then just sitting around and also to target everybody rather then just the under 10 demo they are still known so well for.

• Nintendo will start to branch out from it's under 10 roots and go the path of what they largely resisted for the longest time: going the route of playing more to the more mature crowd. That will give them quite a lot of kudos amount quite a bit of that group who abandoned Nintendo after the SNES when the PSX was showing more better fair for their age.

• The Wii brouser will become free about a year or so later when Nintendo finds out the hardway that no one wants to pay 5 bucks in Wii points just to watch stuff on YouTube and quicky look for infomation on the fly when they got fully capable PC or Mac computer that can do the job a lot more quicker and better and free as well then what Nintendo is going to be pulling.

• There will still be a high amount of games from Nintendo's own crutch franchises (Mario, Pokemon for examples) just to still try and brake a little over even by using the under 10 croud and hardcore palyers who have stayed with them for the longst time. In short a safeguard of sorts in case of the Wii slows almost right down in the form of sales.

The XBox 360 has been out for around over a year now so they have a headstart and they have already made quite a lot of progress to try and stay ahead like having downloadable small games that you can keep on the harddrive of the system (Worms HD is slated to be out for Marketplace when CES 2007 ends), having the first digatal downloading content store for movies that Canada gets bummed as normal because Micrsoft Canada would need to try and get Alliance Atlantis on deck with this because they control the largest amount of movie imports for Canada from the US aside from TVA's film unit but they largey inport indy/small time or french films and also the anime corps that have their own destro roots to stores like London Drugs and HMV for Canada. So Microsoft will more or less not try and push for film rentals over XBLM as they have done in the states. Anyways here's what I think will happon with Microsoft's new plaything overall:

• IPTV for the 360 will not be used by a lot of the US popluaton right away because it's still a new form of tech that will take a wile to get off the ground somewhat.

• Microsoft in this or next year will think about a price drop on both of it's XBox units becuase by this point they have made quite a killing at selling the system at 400 for the basic unit and around 500 for the loaded one for the last two years
  

So what's what I think is going to happon (and I'm also tired of typeing words) in the next few years for gaming. Later

So it looks like Doug Lowenstein is leaving the ESA now after 10 long years. I'm guessing more or less this was brought on because the game corps wants somebody who can fight back in a bigger way all the slander that has been done to them from Jack Thompson and the like. He will still be working at the ESA until at least close to mid 2007 when his replacement has been found. I hope he has good luck where ever he goes next.

It looks like yesterday the Wii got its first major feature armed and activated. It's the Forecast Channel and it looks nice but for the most part it's just eye candy that looks like they took some elements from Google Earth for the part of spinning the globe to look at places. To me it's pointless overall for an update. However the update people are waiting for that is coming out in about two days time is the beta for the Opera fused browser that they are saying will support Flash content on web pages and more. The real kicker is the completed program comes out around March of 07 and will be free until June of 07 when Nintendo will tax it and make their customers pay around 5 bucks worth of Wii points. I hope Nintendo does not go back to their old way of making people pay though the ass because that was one of their major things that made people get pissed off with them in the first place.

It's no secret that the Wii is selling well here in the West because of its different approach to gaming but I'm not thinking of getting one for quite some time because I'm still quite wondering of Nintendo's new root they are taking of including everybody. But so far from what I been hearing and reading most of the people are buying this thing are mom's and dad's of little kids (sound alike?) and diehard Nintendo fans.

It's been no secret at this point that Nintendo is major wounded to the point that they are just now really standing up and noticing what's wrong with their business model they been going with for the longest time. And I will give them credit that they have been taking steps to revamp Nintendo's overall image in the West in the last few years. Just where do you think Reggie Fils-Aime came from? He was largely signed on to start to give Nintendo a more funnier image to show they are not just a wet blanket going largely for the little kids demographic they are still known well for.

But in reality the problems run way deeper. Little over half of Nintendo's starting fan base (people who had or still have the NES, and SNES) aged and moved on to more mature games being provided by Sony at first then Microsoft later. I will not lie I was quite one of the biggest Nintendo Heads starting back in the days of the NES and I supported them through out the SNES years and on to the N64 era and quite a bit in to their Gamecube era but when I got a taste of that PS2 gameplay with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City I felt reborn like I just had my own version of a fast renaissance. Since then I was mostly going for Sony's camp then soon after Microsoft's camp with the 360.  But if I had to pick my fav era from Nintendo I would pick the N64 era because it was when Nintendo had most of everything going their way before they lost Rare to Microsoft.

As it stands there is only one game for the Wii that I like called Super Smash Bros. Brawl but that does not come out until fall of next year more or less. The Mii maker is neat to make people from pop culture and history but if I want to do that I can just pop in SmackDown! Vs. RAW 2006 or 07 and launch the CAW mode of the game.

I'm just going to do a wait and see with the Wii as with the PS3 to see if any better games come out with them.