DJ Max Technika Tune for Playstation Vita

Will DJ Max games be the next ones for me to play? So far, I know like a little amount of songs so playing those will not be easy and the gameplay is assumed to be tough. Thankfully, there’s DJ Max Technika series which may have simplified the gameplay and I believe that there’s going to be the Playstation Vita version. So, speaking of Playstation Vita release, the gameplay can work with the touch screen controls and it is the only consumer release. The original arcade version is in HD widescreen resolution and the arcade cabinet has two monitors which display duplicated screen. One is for gameplay and the other monitor is for the people to watch which may be unique to see someone playing. What a show off but the cabinet can be damn expensive like that.

DJ Max Technika Tune for Playstation Vita will be released in Summer this year.

Idolmaster Shiny Festa for PSP update

Wow, my prediction about comparing this to Project Diva series is right. It appears that the close to this game is likely to be Project Diva series judging from the PV video I already saw. There are two videos so far but they are actually the first PV videos in two versions.
There will be in-game 3D graphics sort of music videos as well as the anime style music videos representing the game franchise. Divided into few kinds of music videos are, anime style, band style, live style and drama style. For anime style, there will be scenes taken from the anime based on the game franchise. The band style may be interesting to compete with another rhythm game based on the rock band anime on the PSP which is done by the creators of Project Diva series. Interestingly enough, the idols are dressed up in the performance outfits for band performance in addition to performing other stuffs on stage and other locations which may make the entire game the competitor to Project Diva series. The drama style, well, I don’t even know what to say but it seems that this style of music video is also in other rhythm games as well.
Other than four styles of music videos, there will be true rhythm gameplay that is taking place on all music videos. Like Project Diva series, try not to screw up. Lastly, this is what the Idolmaster game can be in the arcades as it makes proper sense in terms of gameplay.

Idolmaster Shiny Festa for PSP

While we have been reporting the news of the upcoming updates for Project Diva F, Arcade and Dreamy Theater Extend, it seems that Namco is trying to compete with Sega with itchy guts after collaborating with them on having Idolmaster DLCs for Project Diva series.

Unlike the actual games in the franchise, this one’s the actual rhythm game divided into three titles on the PSP. The concepts consist of the idols in anime mode, drama mode and other modes as well as the band and idol performances. What do you get when the Idolmaster games have become the true rhythm games like the idols are seen performing on stage while the on-screen rhythm notes are displayed that you’re supposed to press the corresponding buttons to the beat? You get the Project Diva competitor like this upcoming game. If you appreciate the anime music including the Vocaloid one, that’s the good thing but if you behave like a fag or something to someone over this, you don’t want that.

Now for the gameplay concept, it’s still looking like Taiko Drum Master but you need to press the corresponding buttons when the notes reach the yellow circle in the center. Well, it’s a bit awkward at first compared to Taiko Drum Master gameplay but if you have played the actual Idolmaster games like the second series or perhaps Live 4 You, there may be rhythm gaming elements in there as well.

Calendar App on Windows 8

On the IOS devices, there are Reminders app as well as the Clock app which has the timer and alarm clock. The Reminders app is that you can add the tasks to remind yourself of what’s going to happen next similar to adding events on the Calendar app. Certain events like birthdays, anniversaries and other facility-specific events are added to the calendar but the default kind of events on the online calendar in your account is the users’ birthdays. What’s also surprising is that when your birthday arrives and you try to Google something, you will notice the Google Doodle that represents your birthday. The Reminder app also has the alarm clock for the tasks you already specified.

On Windows 8, the reminder component is part of the Calendars app but this is kind of ridiculous compared to IOS devices. Well, there should be TASK, THE TASK APP, and THAT’S SOMETHING WINDOWS 8 SHOULD HAVE. So how the heck does the app remind you? Obviously the notification area is on the top right side in the Metro form. It reminds you like that so that you won’t miss whatever important events and tasks you have. On the Start Screen, the Calendar app can display the notifications on whatever is happening next which is similar to Windows Phone 7 devices. On the IOS devices, the notification from Calendar, Clock and Reminders apps is obviously on the center of the screen like it is here to distract you by such kind of reminder which may be the good distraction. What about the alarm clock sound on Windows 8? Will that be the good way of reminding you what’s going on?

For the Metro Snap for Calendar app, it is again another useful feature but the challenge is likely to be the time, venue, priority and locational route of the events. The meaning of locational route is about knowing where to go by establishing the path to the respective venues. Using the Google Maps or Bing Maps, you need to determine the transport or walking route depending on the venue and choose the route that doesn’t take up so much time or currency to proceed.

Overall, this is seriously useful for tablets and all other types of computers but in a ridiculous way in reminding you on what’s going to happen next.

Mail App for Windows 8

I didn’t even believe that I got reminded of the Mail App on Apple tablet devices. The one on Windows 8 surely looks like it but the lack of toolbars makes the app on crack. The top toolbar is missing for sure but at least, the bottom bar has enough features and top-right buttons are somewhat enough for this app.

So here are the following experiences they have when they developed this app.

• Multiple email accounts are common - This may be needed for redundancy as there may be security issues going on today and you must make sure that your email account is secure with strong security level and strong password. You also have both the personal and work email accounts in which these two types of email accounts serve different purposes.
• Lots of email everyday – It is true that everyone is receiving emails regularly. According to the developers of this app, there are two types of email users. The light email users receive less mails every week than the heavy email users who receive lots of messages every week.
• Email is real-time – Sure, the service itself is synchronously working in real time but in fact, the communication itself is asynchronous for email, where you don’t expect the mails to come in immediately. I think the reason is all about the regards of the bandwidth.

What’s special about the Mail app in Windows 8 is that there will be three-pane support for 16:9 screens compared to 4:3 screens where there will be two-panes instead similar to Apple tablet devices. When selecting multiple messages, the bottom app which is the App bar appears automatically and you can select what to do with them. Selecting the name of the sender or the recipient in the message pane brings you to the People App so you can add in the sender to the contacts list.

When writing email to your friends, the screen will be made up for two-panes and the left-pane is optimized for touch, and keyboard. Now for formatting, you have to enter some text first and then select some text you want to format. You can choose to make the text italic, underlined, bold or even highlighted. You can also choose to change the font and the font color.

Then, using the Metro Snap for Email app, you can refer to certain stuffs and then put them in the email you’re writing to. Also, you can check out the email while doing other stuffs, hoping that the app will be working in real time. This is much better than going back to the Hotmail website or Windows Live Mail app which may be taking you time to re-check for new emails.

Now, when it comes printing e-mails, you can use the Devices Charm and then choose the printer you want to print the mail. This may be needed in case you need to have the hard copy of the email you’re supposed to fill in before submitting.

The lock screen on Windows 8 is kind of flawed. Sure on the IOS, you can slide from left to right on the notification message box which is on the center on the screen as well as to slide from left on the unread message you want to read. So for the unread message list on the IOS Lock Screen, it lists down the following unread messages so you can choose which message you want to read but before that, you’re asked for the passcode or password if you have one. On the Start Screen, you can check out the incoming messages on the Mail tile as long as the tile has Live Tile turned on. You can also pin the respective messages to the Start Screen for future reference similar to saving E-mail messages on the desktop apps. Just like the email notification box on smartphones, you can check out the notification box on the top-right corner of the screen.

Today, email is one of the important parts in our daily lives of technology. It is believed that people want the great email apps that meet their modern expectations. However, it may seem that the Email Metro app is not as good as Windows Live Mail but there may be more features to come.

People App for Windows 8

The address books today are stored in the cloud but they are also synchronized between your computer and your account. If this app is supposed to be cloud-powered address book service, that will be great. And what’s even easier is that you can import your contacts from other services straight to your account such as social networking sites for instance. On the What’s New tab, you can check out what’s going on from your friends as if this tab is like the homepage of social networking sites which may be also similar to using Windows Live Messenger. I don’t know if this should be in Messaging app but this being in People App makes half a sense as the social networking app that came with Developer Preview version is likely to be third-party app. If there are Facebook and Twitter official apps on Windows 8, at least it can make more sense. Also, you can notice the Windows Live homepage with your account signed in to Windows Live in which you can also check out what’s going on from your friends. Lastly, like Windows Live, you can get connected to multiple social networking services in People App including your Hotmail and Exchange accounts.

This may be where modern devices come with modern contact list because the users we communicate and share with are so important to how we use them. These may consist of email, messaging, phone calls, social updates and comments, video communication and so on. The People app is a modern take on the flat contact lists of the past, it’s built for the way you communicate today and like other services, it’s connected to the cloud you already use. Modern devices require the modern address book that’s crafted around a few principles:

1. Complete and Connected – All your personal, work and social contact are there, alive with their social activities, photos, videos and other social media stuffs depending on the social networking sites that let you instantly engage and react to them.  The social data syncs from your email and social networking accounts rather than getting this info from a one-time import and you get a simple unified contact card for each user, regardless of how many versions of their contact info you have from different accounts. What about the merged contacts and contact info by then? Do we have the time to re-manage the contact lists like checking for duplicate contacts?
2. Cloud powered – Your contacts and settings are effortlessly backed up so they just work when you sign in from the web or the new device.
3. In control – You can decide on what you want to share with whom across your home, work and social networks. And of course, those networks decide what information is shared and connected, respecting their policies and customer privacy. Hopefully, this should be driving you good social networking at work, not those Anti-Facebook type policies we had already seen on the online news. If that’s the case in getting around the problem because of those bad policies, you can be better off with using Twitter or other social networking sites no one else has known of.

You can easily import the contacts from your social accounts and other accounts of yours without having to invite your friends whatsoever so that there’s no reason for the apps like this to spam your friends with invitations like hell. Yesterday, some friend of mine had the guts to chat with me with the use of Windows Live Messenger just because I was active in Windows Live Messenger. The truth is that, my account is completely active in Windows 8 but who knows if that is true or not. Also, there’s no reason to transfer contacts between devices like that but imagine using the non-modern mobile phones where you have to re-make the contact list based on the modern device you’re using. So, the People App is assumed to be using the Exchange ActiveSync technology as well as the secure standards-based APIs exposed by social networking sites to sync a copy of your contact list from the cloud. It’s always up to date with new friends you add, edit and remove so you don’t have the problems of a brittle one-time import.

What’s new to Consumer Preview is that People app now supports the Share contract, allowing you to post to share stuff on social networking sites from any Metro style app including Internet Explorer Metro version. What about the desktop apps? Another great feature is the People picker contract. With this, any Metro app can speed up simple tasks like sending a package from the website or emailing a list of friends by letting you quickly select contacts from the People app. You can also use the Share charm to share stuffs on the blogs but it won’t be the case as if the entire article is exactly copied like hell or some sort without major modification.

So for desktops and laptops, the People App may seem to be optional but with third-party tools that allow you to customize Windows Live Messenger skin including the latest version of WLM, it may be the fact that you’re better off with WLM instead of this Metro app as the People App is likely to be optimized for tablets. What’s not touch-friendly though is the Windows Live website which is still looking like it is for desktops and laptops. However, there’s also Mobile version of Windows Live website that you can get the around the problem in case the site is not touch-friendly on the tablets. So, there will be the upcoming Metro version of Hotmail that can be easily used for smartphone and tablets in the future.

Better performance for rich and extensible media platform

The whole performance is still as crippled as ever when it comes to beta testing of the products and there may be a bunch of angry feedbacks from beta testers in order to help the developers improve. Will the new plans and goals from the developers help? Who knows but let’s a look at the goals they’re planning to have.

1. Maximum performance: The media playback must be fast and responsive, enabling the full power of the hardware while maximizing the battery life on the PC. It may be true that the battery life is quite long when viewing media files but then, certain apps like the Videos app are still taking so much of the battery. Hopefully, the Photos and Music app will not take a lot of the battery while retaining the maximum performance.
2. Enable a breadth of scenarios: A high performing, highly efficient and extensible platform can enable a wider range of music, video, communications and other multimedia apps.

Performance is one of the key aspects for important activities but here, it is especially critical in multimedia scenarios as well as the user experience. Videos need to play in real time, voice communication needs to fell instantaneous, and all  these tasks need to minimize the drain on your battery.

Another improvement to the performance is when playing audio data without draining so much of the battery, that is, maximizing the battery life during the audio playback. By batching up large chunks of audio data and doing all the processing for that chunk at one time, the CPU can stay asleep for over 100 times longer which can result in dramatically increased battery life.

Unfortunately, this approach isn’t perfect for all scenarios like this since the increased buffering introduces additional delay. Audio and video offloading are just a couple of examples of the ways the media stack is optimized in Windows 8 to provide lower CPU utilization, lower memory utilization and better battery life for Desktop and Metro apps. Hopefully, the Desktop apps that support Windows 8 will not be taking up lots of battery regardless of the interface and interactivity. By getting those multimedia Desktop apps like that, we must know which ones support Windows 8 in addition to supporting the previous operating system. So can this work for video editing and audio editing and especially when using the advanced Desktop apps like the video editors, audio editors, Digital Audio Workstation to name a few? For Metro apps, it’s already a force to support such kind of guidelines in not taking up so much of battery life.

Real-time communication on the computers and mobile devices has seen a huge growth over the last decade. To make improvements to communications on Windows 8, here are the two areas of efforts they are focusing:

• Enable built-in low-latency media capture and rendering: Low latency is essential for communications apps so Windows supports low-latency media capture and playback into the OS.
• Support HD cameras to enhance video communication experience: Perhaps this should be done earlier but in Windows 8, the HD videos make your communication experience more real, enjoyable and shaper with HD camera devices. Provided that you have HD webcams like I already have, you can communicate even better. Hopefully, the communication should be smooth when using HD webcams, not choppy performing communications regardless of resolutions.

When you communicate with another user, you expect near-instant responses. However, there is a shame that there’s some kind of delay when communicating with another user like that on certain communication software while using the webcam for video communication.

Another example of improvement for Windows 8 devices is through OS support for HD cameras. New class drivers will work transparently with applications to provide support for HD video features. Windows 8 will offer a consistent, high-quality, hardware accelerated, power efficient media communication experience on devices designed for it.

Argh, when it comes to recording videos on the camera, we including the developers may have experience the frustration of the video being upside down or sideways when viewing it on the computer. Since the video scan pattern if fixed, videos may not be oriented properly when viewed. So when viewing pictures or videos taken using your smartphone or tablet device on your computer, you may have this kind of realization too.

To overcome the problem, the cameras are beginning to author orientation metadata in mainstream file formats when saving recorded videos to storage devices. To ensure the better viewing experience of the videos:

• The orientation metadata will be supported in MP4 and ASF videos.
• Videos with orientation metadata are auto-rotated during playback. Well, for smartphone and tablet devices, the problem is already solved so when turning your device in any orientation you want, the video rotation will follow. The only problem is the outside bars of the video and that surely depends on the video editing.
• The thumbnail for the video with orientation metadata is auto-rotated.
• Apps with video capture capabilities can easily read and author orientation metadata.

Adaptive bitrate streaming provides a smoother, more responsive video playback experience by enabling the device to adapt to the most appropriate bitrate under varying networking and resource utilization conditions. As a result, startup and seek times can be significantly improved as the first few frames can be delivered at a lower bitrate to reduce buffering time and increase responsiveness. If the network or device conditions change, the device can negotiate a lower or higher bitrate to minimize the buffering or increase video quality. Man, I hope that this feature is not annoying or some sort although this may be comparable to watching YouTube videos in respective qualities. Through the extensibility of Media Foundation Platform in Windows 8, apps can have custom media sources and adaptive bitrate media sources to support new formats. Custom media sources and streaming protocols can also take advantage of hardware offload and content protection.

It seems that you can play media files on the external device from your computer in multiple ways such as using networking for media streaming and especially when using third-party programs that allow video streaming. There’s also video streaming support for HomeGroup users and this is where Windows 7 introduced Play To. Using Play To, you can use it to stream media files to supported external devices from Windows Explorer and Windows Media Player. Well, what about Windows Media Center? Can you stream media stuff on Windows Media Center? I assume that it’s the same or different. In Windows 8, you can share personal media collections and HTML5 media with Play-To-enabled devices at home. With it, Play To is easier to discover and will deliver a consistent, high quality experience. Here are the improvements they have done include:

• Improved Setup – Play To devices are automatically discovered and installed on your computer for home networks.
• Improved device experience – Metro style apps only work with Windows certified Play To receivers. These devices are validated to support modern media formats, DLNA standards-compliant and have greater performance. This may include Xbox 360 with the update coming in to support the Play To technology later this year in which I will try to view some videos for better experience myself. The desktop experience first introduced in Windows 7 is added to the Windows 8 Explorer and will continue to support all DLNA DMR devices.
• Integrated into IE Metro edition – This allows you to stream HTML5 media data to your external device. Hmm, how can this work on Xbox 360?
• Works with Music, Video and Photo apps

Similar to YouTube, there will be a feature to enable captions of the written transcript in web media players on the web platform in Windows 8. Also, there will be multiple audio tracks in the same video similar to watching movies or playing games with multiple voice tracks. It’s the same for music where the same songs can be sung in different languages.

In summary, Windows 8 media platform is designed to deliver a responsive media experience with great battery life. As media applications continue to evolve, it will enable these experiences to shine across all Windows 8 devices. It may remind the users of Apple AirPlay where you can use ITunes to stream media from your computer running it to AirPlay certified devices. For me, we’ll get to find all these out after this blog post but if the update with Play To support arrives on Xbox 360, I’ll give that a try as well.