Can the PC be saved?

In a news article from CNN it's been reported that Microsoft's new OS, Windows 8, is designed to function like a tablet but work on PC's. According to the statistics in this article global PC shipments have declined over the past year with a large part due to the mass release of tablets and smart phones. Much to the thanks of Apple and the late Steve Jobs who declared as a society we have moved into the post PC era. With companies such as Hewlett-Packard removing themselves from the PC business, due to the large effects of tablet sales cutting into their profits. It is the belief of many people that eventually PC's could be replaced but these tablets and perhaps smart phones, which are smaller and more user friendly. With PC's at around a 90% penetration in U.S. homes today, I don't foresee PC's disappearing for good anytime soon, but I do think that in the next few years we will see tablets taking a much larger role in both businesses and homes. It is the belief of Microsoft that tablet users still want more memory and processing power out of their tablets. Their hope is that Windows 8 will bring all the pros of a tablet to the PC, with more hands on interactions, more applications, and an OS that resembles that of iPad's OS. According to what we have learned in class, PC's can offer CPU's with parallelism which allows for must faster use and three separate memory storage devices; RAM, ROM, and HDD. This still gives PC's the upper hand in processing power and amount of memory, however according to Moore's law that the number of transistors will double every 24 months, and the CPU continues to shrink, one can only imagine the speed that will soon be applied to tablets that will allow them to compete fully with PC's. Although Windows 8 is still in production and will be for some time, it may be able to narrow the gap and keep PC's and tablets on the same level. The common stereo type of OS users  is that Mac's are more for the artsies and Microsoft more for the nerds. It is Microsoft's goal to not only create an OS for PC's that resemble tablets, but to create an OS for tablets that resemble PC's in their ability for the user to get more out of their tablet experience and that iPad's are being under utilized compared to what users could do with them. If Microsoft is successful in their attempts to complete Windows 8 as a tablet friendly OS for PC's, I think it will have a large impact on PC sales in society because I think if there was a PC that functioned the same as a tablet, only with a keyboard, it would be extremely useful and easier to use than most PC's OS.

Citations:

Goldman, D. (2011, September 14). CNN MoneyTech. Retrieved October 25, 2011, from CNN: http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/14/technology/windows_8_pc/index.htm?iid=EL

Image provided by: http://teknoise.com/2011/04/06/laptop-vs-tablet-computers-ipad-advantages-and-disadvantages/

Gears of War 3....Best game ever?

Gears of War 3 was recently released a month ago, and as a fan and owner of the series I must admit that this might possibly be the best game I have ever played. For those unfamiliar with the series, this is the third and final edition of the Gears of War series, and is a post apocalypse, zombie type game, where you and an army of survivors are fighting off and defending against a locust horde, which are these creatures in all shapes and forms that live underground. The first two games of the series had similar game types with mediocre online multiplayer, however the creators, Epic Games, took Gears to a whole new level with this final game, which was necessary in order to keep up with the other popular shooter games such as Halo and Call of Duty. The creators decided to boost up everything, from the graphics and load time, to new game types and weapons. In the past GOW games, there were only one standard fully automatic gun, and one shotgun. Now there is three different fully automatic weapons, each with its own unique style and characteristics, and two shotguns. Horde mode, which is my personal favorite, involves fighting off wave after wave from 1-50 of locusts that get stronger and bigger after each wave. That's what makes Gears so intriguing, it's unlike other games, there are 15+ different humans that you can unlock and play as in multiplayer, and just as many if not more locusts that you can kill or unlock and play as, there are so many options it's unlike any other game. In GOW 3, they have beefed up the multiplayer horde by allowing the players to build a base full of barriers, turrets, and decoys, with money earned from kills and certain bonuses. This allows the players to have a better chance of survival and also a more enjoyable game play. The creators have even developed a new game mode called Beast, where you can play as the locust and unlock bigger more destructive monsters, each with their own unique weapons and skills, to try and overpower the human's base, which allows for the players to experience the battle from both sides. Epic Games biggest achievement are the graphics, when playing the game through an HDMI port, it looks freakishly real and unlike the past two, there is no load time for maps where it used to be fuzzy and slowly render the map and surroundings. Now your instantly placed in and everything, character and map, are fully rendered and look amazing. All of the controls are the same as the past two games, which I  have always been a fan of the simplicity and the ability to do several different things easily without feeling overwhelmed with the controller. Although this game is only available for the Xbox 360 system, and doesn't feature any of the next-gen technologies, I don't feel that it hurts the games sales in anyway or effects it's popularity. To me, it's almost unfair to compare this game with any other that's been released, it's graphics are far superior, it's gameplay is flawless, and personally I'm a fan of war-like games and this is at the top of my list. I'm a fan of Call of Duty games and the real life perspective that it creates and also Halo with it's futuristic gameplay, however Gears of War finds the perfect medium between the two and creates a realistic game with real people and real guns, but adds the unreal aspect of zombie like locust trying to take over the world. It is these two combinations that Epic Games and Microsoft have combined perfectly to create a game that is in it's own category and is miles above any other and is simply incomparable to any other game out there.

Link for info about game: http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/en-US/
Picture provided by: http://gearsofwar3thegame.com/2011/04/06/wallpaper-and-desktop-backgrounds/