Comments on Windows Phone

I bought a Nokia Lumia 710 yesterday, my first smart-phone. I've tried the iPhone quite a bit and have an iPad. I've had a play with some Android phones. Somehow Microsoft have managed to make the best mobile OS out there.

I've completely changed the default layout to be entirely people centric rather than app or service centric. It makes people with iPhones look like geeks. This came from Microsoft! Inconceivable!

Things I like:

• Metro UI. It's taking over the whole Microsoft design world. It's superb. It looks good and easy to use. Someone really needs to apply it to computer games (I'm not talking about GUI in games, but the games themselves. Imagine a FPS in a Metro style!)
• Unobstrusive. I don't like how iOS interrupts my activity with irrelevant messages.
• Linking to all my accounts was simple. Way easier than setting up my Google mail account on the iPad, for example.
• Very responsive. It loads apps very quickly. It doesn't have the clunk of iOS (and it's not even multi-core yet).
• It's a social OS. My phone revolves around people rather than mediums (calls, SMS, email), services (Facebook, LinkedIn) or apps (pictures, music, etc.)
• The base apps are really good. E.g., Nokia Drive, Office, Xbox games.
• The back button is really useful.

Things I don't like:

• Animation on the people tiles. These tiles should not change unless I have a new message. I know who the person is by their picture, I don't need the OS to switch between their picture and their name. Bad user experience Microsoft! (But it's the only poor decision I've seen thus far.)
• The link between a person and their e-mails doesn't work correctly. On a person's profile it will say I've received emails from them. When I click to see the list it lists all emails, not the emails coming solely from them. Surely this isn't an uncommon use case! Weird.
• I'm not convinced that the screen-size is large enough to use the keyboard effectively. I feel like I'm getting more typing errors than I'd expect. This could be an OS issue, screen issue, general issue with smart-phones or a me issue.
• Needs Skype integration. (Microsoft, you might not have noticed that you own Skype!)
• Needs Google+ integration. I know few use it, but most of my geeky friends do.
• The search button uses Bing. (Useless)

I'm glad I bought a Windows Phone over an iPhone or an Android phone. The integration is great. I really dislike the app hell (too many apps all over the place!) I get with Apple. The design is much better too. I still shudder when I bring up Notes on the iPad. Ick! But WP is still playing catch-up with Google and Apple. I want the future Apollo features today. Just imagine what people will be able to do with app to app communication.

An Assassin in Orlandes

I've been waiting for Tin Man Games gamebooks to come to the iPad. I tried out the first game - An Assassin in Orlandes - last night. I like it. Compared with the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, An Assassin in Orlandes is vastly superior.

The art, design and user interface work really well. The writing is decidedly competent. The writing scrapes the borders of try-hard descriptiveness, but never reaches it, so it's an enjoyable read. I like the use of Spanish to give it that exotic flavour. (I speak Spanish, so it's not so exotic for me, but it's a nice idea.) I noticed a few grammatical errors (an occasional missing comma or comma in the wrong place). Nevertheless, generally it was edited well and is easy to understand.

The story is a generic fantasy affair, but that's okay with me. It's quite intriguing.

The decisions - the core of a gamebook - appear decent. It's not just "do you turn towards direction X?" I felt like what I decided to do had a real impact on the game/story. At the beginning, you can choose to have one more drink at the tavern. The outcome is that your stats are lowered for a while. I'm totally fine with that sort of stuff. Most of the time it seemed like it would really matter if I chose one option over another. Of course, it can't matter too much, else you'd get in-exhaustive branching very quickly. It's the illusion of infinite choices that really makes the difference. Thus far, An Assassin in Orlandes holds up to that illusion.

A weird aspect of the choices, however, is the "if you choose to do X, turn to 345." What's with the "turn to 345"? This isn't a printed book, why present the user with worthless fluff? I found it quite distracting.

The achievements are great. It's very cool being rewarded for going off the beaten track. (I wasn't even aware I was off track, which made it even cooler.) Unlocking the pictures is a nice touch too.

One can bookmark various places in the story. That was something I always used to do in the printed books of yore (I used to use my fingers as bookmarks, switching back to a spot in the book and trying an alternate path). It was a clever idea to integrate bookmarks into the game, limiting the number you have access to based on what mode you want to play.

I don't like the combat. It involves watching the dice roll, few (almost no) decisions. What they really need is a rock, paper, scissors mechanic. And I have one:

Each round of combat you can choose to attack, parry or cast a spell. Depending on the class you choose at the start (fighting man, rogue or wizard) you get two dice for one of those manoeuvres and one die for the other two manoeuvres. Fighting man has two for attack, rogue two for parry, and wizard has two for cast.

While fighting, if you attack and your opponent casts, you get a +2 bonus to the die roll. Same if you cast and they parry or you parry and your opponent attacks; you get a +2 bonus. If you both choose the same manoeuvre, there is no bonus awarded. Otherwise, it'll be your opponent who gets the +2 bonus.

Therefore, if you chose fighting man, you'll be inclined to attack more often than parry or cast, but not if you're going up against a rogue. If the computer opponent made random decisions with a slight prevalence for its favoured manoeuvre, it would work well, I believe. Certainly better than watching digital dice resolve.

I haven't actually read all that much of the gamebook as yet, so my opinion may change. In the main, however, I'd say it's very good. The combat is utterly uninventive and redundant, but that's my only substantive criticism. This isn't exactly what I've asked for, but it's getting there.

Gamebooks

Gamebooks are a strange invention. When I was young, the Fighting Fantasy books were one of the coolest series I read. Playing The Warlock on Firetop Mountain again on the iPad, I realise that:

1. It's not well written;
2. It has a labyrinth that's impossible to escape without mapping the whole-damn thing (no wonder I thought the book was broken when I was a child);
3. It's focussed on physical movement from room to room (Why? Choices can/should occur at any point in a narrative.);
4. Most choices aren't really choices at all. "You may go east or west." But there isn't any hint, any decipherable reason to choose east over west. The story might as well have been linear.
   

Gamebooks are still with us. Computer role-playing and adventure games contain decisions through dialog trees. RPGs, like the D&D red box, occasionally feature gamebooks.

My questions are:

• Why have gamebooks remained in the amateur and children's area of literature?
• Why hasn't a competent author written a multi-pathed novel?

Ever since Borges and Cortázar, no really good author seems to have gone close. It's a shame. How about a murder mystery, where the reader has to piece together clues found in branching decisions? I'd read that.

Kindle vs iPad vs "real" books

My Kindle arrived yesterday. It's good. Unlike most people who have commented on it, I bought it after getting an iPad. I was so impressed by how easy it was to read with an electronic device that I decided to buy something dedicated to it. It works exactly as expected.

Good things about ePaper devices (Kindle, Kobo, Nook, etc.) compared with a tablet:

• Smaller and lighter
• Battery lasts longer
• Can read outdoors
• Better quality screen

Goods things about the iPad, for reading:

• Big screen, colour and zoom (i.e., I wouldn't use an ePaper device for PDFs)
  
• Self lit (good for reading at night without a light)

One stupid thing that both types of devices don't really understand yet is that they're not paper books. e.g., the software is happy to end a page half-way through a sentence. For what purpose? To force me to keep reading? What it should do is end on the last complete sentence that fits on the page. A very minor complaint, however.

It's a new age for books. What will happen:

• Individual prices will plummet (they're already zero for books out of copyright)
• You can have any number of books and they take up the same space as one. Actually, the idea of book having/ownership is now completely absurd.
  
• Nothing will ever go out of print
• Quality will replace availability (many, many times I have wanted a book and bought something that wasn't as good because I couldn't find the one I wanted)
• People will fetishise "physical" books like they do LPs/CDs, DVDs and everything else that becomes immaterial. What they don't understand is that it's not the form that's important, it's particular instances. i.e., The Secret is a shit book no matter how it's read.

Is ePaper the coming communist revolution? Unfortunately, no. It's just nice to be able to stop collecting another type of thing.

iPad

5 reasons not to buy an iPad:

1. No rich text editing with Safari (no google docs, no blogger, etc.) Huh? Why not? Pathetic.
2. Apple doesn't allow other music players (I want WinAmp.)
3. Web-browsing is slow. Don't expect the speeds/convenience of a desktop/laptop
4. No find text in web-page
5. Can't delete default apps (who's going to use iPod, iTunes, etc.?)

5 reasons to buy an iPad:

1. Say goodbye to RSI
2. There are some great games that use the new UI really well (e.g. Osmos, Labyrinth 2, Train Controller 2). Even old games are great (Civ Rev, Wesnoth)
3. Reading with GoodReader, iBooks or Kindle is very good. I think I'm transitioning away from physical books.
4. The device syncs perfectly with your gmail, calendar and contacts.
5. There are some excellent apps (DropBox, IM+, GoodReader, Table of Elements, Desktop Connect, AirVideo etc.)

I realise that people go on about not having Flash, no camera, no USB, no multi-tasking etc. but none of those things bother me. I'm not even sure I'll bother jailbreaking the iPad. I just don't care.

As it is, I can play games, read, surf the web, instant message, and send email all really well. That's excellent.

As a word, the iPad is "very good." It really is a totally new type of computer. Fix those issues above (all could be done in a single update) and I could do pretty much all I want on it.