No, it’s not the iPhone.

Although it could be the future of computers in a few years time if things continue to evolve the way they are. Who could predict such tecnologies as the Wiimote, the iPhone or Windows Vista 10 years ago? (ok, forget the Windows Vista example)

The video I’ve found at InterActive (new) Media shows two people working together in a large computer interface using just their hands to swing documents from one side to another, open them, write notes or just close annoying popups.

Let’s see what the future holds.

A new version of WordPress 2.1 named “Ella” (named for jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald ) has been released recently. It’s another great update that brings some fantastic improvements on the layout and inner work of Wordpress (which powers this site and many others).

Here’s a sample of the stuff in the new version:

* Autosave added.
* Switch between WYSIWYG and code editing instantly while writing a post.
* Completely redone visual editor, now includes spell checking.
* New search engine privacy option allows you take you to indicate your blog shouldn’t ping or be indexed by search engines like Google.
* You can set any “page” to be the front page of your site, and put the latest posts somewhere else.
* Much more efficient database code, faster than previous versions
* Blogroll links now support sub-categories and you can add categories on the fly.
* Redesigned login screen from the Shuttle project.
* More AJAX and admin has been refreshed to load faster and be more visually consistent.
* Comment feeds now include all the comments, not just the last 10.
* The upload manager lets you easily manage all your uploads pictures, video, and audio.
* A new version of the Akismet plugin is bundled.

You can read the entire post and stroll through all the new improvements at Wordpress.org.

If you wish to alter the way the admin section looks there’s a chance these two next plugins will interest you, by installing them you can change the entire look and feel of the admin backoffice and in some cases improving the usability too.

The first one is SpotMilk which is inspired by Spotlight on Mac OSX Tiger and the Milk theme by Max Rudberg, modifies the main layout based on the default admin theme in Wordpress so that means all the usual elements will be in the same place you know but with a different (better) look. It was made by Sunghwa Park.

On the other hand, Tiger Style Administration changes your entire Wordpress admin layout to feel more like an application, and less like a traditional website. It’s also very inspired by Mac OSX Tiger. Made by Steve Smith.

I’m going to install the new version and have some fun discovering all the new stuff included in the update. See you in the next post.

I’ve been playing with the Wii’s Virtual Console in the last few days and it gave me split impressions.

Although it’s a good idea to revive some of yesterday’s great classics from Nintendo, Sega, Nec and allow people to play these in a very convenient way even on modern LCD tv’s, I’ve found the whole process could have been better. In a way Nintendo tried to faithfully recriate the original games to the last detail (or flaw) and that’s good but couldn’t they just added a way of playing some of these games in multiplayer over the Internet?

Street Fighter 2 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat are both availability on Xbox Live with online multiplayer, I think this adds value to the game since you can play with your friends without them being on the same room as you.

There’s alot of games with multiplayer potential, F-Zero, Street Fighter 2, Gunstar Heroes, Donkey Kong and so on, it’s a poty Nintendo blew this opportunity (for now, we never know if a potential update could turn things around).

In fact, if you switch from Xbox Live to the Wii Online system you tend to miss alot of things, it feels as if you’re playing a previous generation console because you’re alone, you don’t know if your friends are online, how’s your score compared to them, no instant messages and no online play for now.
It’s a bit disappointing, you can invite your “friends” by writing down your friend-code and giving it to them (personally, by phone, e-mail,etc) and then waiting for their to send you a message (which you’ll have to reply). What’s more, my Wii takes a while to receive online messages sent to her.

Moving on to other aspects, there’s no demos to download (so you don’t know if you’re going to like the game for Turbograx that you’re spending 8 bucks on) and some games are clearly overpriced (c’mon, 5 bucks for Ice Hockey?…), on the other side, the promised Wii/Nintendo DS connectivity details are still unknown (but promised along time ago).

Some of these flaws will surely be addressed by Nintendo in the future I believe, after all, Microsoft took a while to get the Live structure up and running as it is now, it’s something that takes time and effort but Nintendo has to push the envelope because Sony’s online system is already looking more robust and ready.

In the meantime the games using the WiiRemote are very fun to play with, specially with friends (WarioWare Smooth Moves, Wii Sports, Rayman to name a few) and there’s already a wide collection of classics available to buy and download, including the first Sonic game for Megadrive, Super Mario 64, Zelda (Nes) and many others which you can get a better impression at Retro Roundup.

Anyway, here’s my list of wanted games for the Wii Virtual Console:

* Chrono Trigger (Snes)
The best RPG for the Snes, period. Great story, character design by Akira Toryama, dozens of endings, fantastic battle system and beautiful looks (for the time).
A must have!

* Streets of Rage 2 (Mega drive)
Kick the yellow of your (generic) opponents teeth in a series of never ending levels, for more fun invite a friend to help you endure the long hours of slapping bad guys around and trowing trash cans at them.

* Secret of Mana (Snes)
An action rpg where you could play with another person although it’s somewhat tough to endure the long hours it takes to finish the game. A pity that we never got the sequel translated to English.

* Super Probotector (Snes)
Very difficult to finish unless you play for many hours with a friend and memorize all the enemy’s movements patterns but it’s worth it due to the strange but very detailed level design, lots of different powerups and hard to defeat enemies.

* Starfox (Snes)
When Starfox was released for the Snes, gamers watched and gazed at one of the
first games to use the 3D graphics environment for the console. It was a instant success. A space shooter with various paths to choose, non-stopping action and alot of surprises along the way.

* Nintendo World Cup (Nes)
A fun and loose soccer game. Comical players and funny moves to pull off.

I feel I haven’t had the time to give my fullest attention to my journal since I’m having alot of work to handle in my daily job and other worries in my free time.

Anyway, I want to tell you the succesfull story of my Xbox 360 recovery because people usually post about things that went wrong and affected them in a negative way.

In my case, I had a Xbox 360 bought in early 2005 which struggled quite heroicaly to stay alive up until this Christmas (well, comparing to the news all around the net from other disgruntled users). Yes, it survived the hot temperatures of summer, the constant Dashboard updates, a few late night matches of Gears of War but sadly it couldn’t resist a power cut while loading Uno. :P

My attempts to revive my precious machine were in vain and all I could see was the dreaded Ring of Death with his three red lights flashing at me, I could have tried this creative solution I found out on Youtube but it was too late and it seems a bit desperate to me anyway.

So I called tech support which had this annoying elevator style music but after explaining my problem they arranged for a UPS to come to my house in one day to pick up my Xbox for repairs.

Anyway, two and a half weeks later I have my Xbox 360 back with me, it’s working, all my hard-drive content is intact and I can continue to play Uno,erm, Gears of War against my mates again so my weeks of gaming probation are finally over (yay!).
Ok, so this is my lucky story, in the end I was very happy that things went well and Microsoft quickly solved my problem.

In a very similar style to Apple’s “Get a Mac” commercial, here’s a video I found about the “Ps3 vs Wii”, it’s hilarious to say the least.

The Wii is the console which I had more fun in the past years, it really got me interested in gaming again and what’s more, some of my friends who didn’t much cared about gaming suddendly all bought the Wii and are enjoying playing Wii Sports together.

WiiNintendo posted a bunch of screenshots from games expected to hit shelves during this year of 2007, it’s going to be tough waiting for some of these because they usually arrive late in Europe.

So I can’t wait to get my hands on:

• WarioWare: Smooth Moves
• No More Heroes
• Animal Crossing Wii
• Battalion Wars 2
• Super Mario Galaxy

In the meantime, there’s plenty of unexplored Gamecube games lying around but that’s a topic for another post. :)