Zumba Fitness for Connect

Excersize program, the fitness party, latin and international rhythms.  Grew in Miami, all about the party, have fun and move, 60,000 locations, 7.5 million people take a Zumba class every week.  They’ve sold millions of DVDS and this is the next thing.  Men, women, kids, parents all play together.

The demo – This is a combination of dance and excersize so everyone has fun with 30 tracks and routines.  There’s new interactive Zumba content running with Connect. Connect tracks 6 points on Samantha’s body and will critique her motions.

There can be up to 4 players in a turn based competition.  For the Wii there is a belt to track your hips where all your movement originates.  You can learn the steps training, set a workout calendar, intermediate and hard also.  Genuine motion capture “a little bit like a dancing iPod commercial” in color and look and feel.

There’s a party meter and more stuff begins to happen when you build the party meter.  I see more stuff on the screen but it doesn’t lok like it really affects game play.  Working closely with Microsoft and are excited to be a launch title for Connect in November.

Lots of hip rolling.  Merengue to reggae to calypso, a lot of rich styles and it’s not my thing with all the dancing.  I bet Tina would love this.  Sarah would probably not be amused.  The music is fun.  I think that someone who has taken a Zumba class would be pretty pleased to dance along with this.  I’d prefer splattering enemy brains out the side of their heads from the bushes 500m away, but for a Zumba fan this would be fun.

There’s a strong connection here for Backayard.

My routine was much more like dancing than working out.  But it was fun and I did start sweating within 2 minutes.

There will be DLC – use Live to connect to Zumba.com and Facebook to build community.  Zumba is the dancing so it could be fun with someone else- Zumba Attack with something like a dance battle and there is a turn based mode where up to four people can play against each other.

Paintball – Greg Hastings

$39 on 9/14

Can play with him, all about furthering paintball, the gameisbuilt on authenticity, 360, PS3, Wii.  All the gear, all the guns, 100 pros, 62 fields based on 12 real locations.  Rated E10+, not that many E10+ FPS out there.  It’s a violent tournament, just with paint not bullets.  Up to 20 player multi-player on 360 and –s3, up to 8 player on Wii.

Lots of running and diving into bunker, then change stance so you can pop up and down, then change stance so you can pop left and right.  You can switch hands with the gun so you can get a better angle.

There are also team aspects to game play.  You can command your guys or leave them alone.

Three types of paintball – speed ball with inflatable bunkers that people hide behind in arenas.  Woods ball is a massive outdoor field.  Rec ball is a mix of the two played on any course.  This is the first game with wood and rec play modes.

Will be DLC.

Babysitting mama

No blood but there is diaper changing without poo or urine.  This brings baby sitting to a whole new level.  Uses a plush doll that you jam the wiimote into it’s back.  Basically you can hold the doll and do stuff with it and the wiimote sense it.

The baby laughs or cries through the Wiimote.  This is Cooking Mama for baby sitters.  There are 6 different babies and about 60 different activities.  Some are baby care, some are baby mini games.  Fun, not a baby simulator because there are some silly things.  It’s apparently a lot of fun for six to nine year olds.  Little girls will be happy they got a new doll and a new game.

Ten story arcs, November release data scheduled.

It was sort of fun, kind of like holding a real baby but not because it isn’t fragile.

Swords

Wii motion plus support $29.99 T rated for families

Brutal action scenes without gore.  It is, you guessed it, a sword fighting game.  One to one sword fighting movements, seven different angles of attack with 8 different fighters.  Unlock swords and get new powers. Plus four mini games that are basically like mini games.  One includes hordes of zombies coming at you over and over again.  Multiplayer so there is 2 player split screen.

Monster Tale for DS,

estimated March 2011 ship

Puzzle game play on the bottom screen, exploration on the top.  The bottom screen is a pet raising Tamogotchi game and the top is a platformer.  You wake up in a monster world that has been taken over by bad kids.  Elie meets Chomp and they need to save the monster world from the bad kids.  Explore and earn new abilities.  Definitely kid safe.  Would appeal to those who want to explore, learn, solve puzzles, and use new things.  Also involves training Chomp – give him cookies and he becomes one thing, give him apples and he becomes something else.  Interaction between the “two screens” and the evolution of Chomp creates depth in the game.

I’m working on a bunch of articles and reviews for eWeek about application whitelisting. I’ve got my ideas about when it is appropriate and when it isn’t. When it is, when users don’t suffer because their workstations are locked down, then it is great. When it isn’t, then users will hate you for ruining their PC.

I decided that as a baseline I should find out what Microsoft gives away for free with Server 2008 and Windows 7. I can use AppLocker and Active Directory/Group Policy Objects to set up whitelisting rules for my testbed.

I found some good resources:
Microsoft TechNet AppLocker Step-by-Step Guide

And an OK planning guide.

Today I downloaded and installed Windows Server 2008 Enterprise R2 and Windows 7.
It’s not the most exciting day yet I feel tomorrow holds great promise.

I can’t wait to check out more group policy stuff, especially AppLocker and BitLocker.

Doesn’t everyone love the Apple image?  Did you know your iPod was built by a child in a forced labor camp?  Still love the image?  I found this article today Apple admits using child labour – Telegraph and I’ve got to say that I find it sickening.

Apple's child labor policy in action.

This isn’t the evil Google, Microsoft, or Intel.  This is everyone’s beloved Apple.  This is the most politically correct company to ever grace the face of the earth, or so they’d like us to believe.  And here they are engaged in the cruelest business practice one can think of.  No, i guess I can think of worse.  What’s next, knee-capping people who fall behind on their App Store payments?

So think of the little 10 year old boy who built your iPhone the next time you use it.  How much cruelty are you perpetuating when you buy Apple’s products?  Not only is this incongruous with their oh-so-carefully managed image, but it shows you what they’re capable of.

Before you jump to Apple’s defense, let me point out a few other things.  Last year one of their employees committed suicide after leaving their Chinese plant.  A few weeks ago workers in another one of their Chinese factories were exposed to n-hexane, a dangerous chemical that can cause you to go blind.  And let’s not forget that Apple was also nailed last year for illegally disposing of electronics instead of taking care of the environment like they should.

So, what’s it going to be?    Do you care about Apple’s human rights abuses?  Or did they spray n-hexane in your eyes also so now you’re blind to their employment practices?

There was a really insightful posting about Microsoft’s law enforcement investigation compliance policies over at GamePolitics.

MSFT Criminal Compliance Handbook Leaked | GamePolitics.

The most important thing to realize is that I was writing stuff 10 years ago trying to alert businesses and consumers that Microsoft was tracking what we did.  Companies embed tracking information in hardware and on web sites also.  No big shock there to most people.

But the shock is just how ready Microsoft is to hand everything about you over to a law enforcement agency.  They designed the information stores for their online services so that they could easily obtain your info and provide it when asked.  I’m talking about Windows Live, Windows Live ID Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail and Xbox Live.

For example, law enforcement could get a warrant for your Xbox Live account and obtain your full name, address, credit card, Microsoft PassPort account and then have access to all your Hotmail email. And your IP address.

The big picture is that if you’re using Microsoft anything you should know that Big Brother is watching you.  The same is true for Google – Gmail, the search engine, desktop search – so I’m not calling out Microsoft for anything others don’t do.

They know where you are, your web activities, the text of your email, the games you play and the movies you watch.

One of the unfortunate consequences of the revolution in publishing brought on by the web is that journalism has changed dramatically. As barriers to entry for starting a media outlet went down from high cost stuff like paper, shipping, real art, etc and eyeballs redirected onto the web, the value of the printed word has deteriorated.

It’s great that we can go online and find whatever we want. Sure, blogging and sharing opinions, user generated content, all that stuff is great to read.

The thing is that it has all become about eyeballs. Page views. It isn’t about quality content. Sites need keyword rich content on timely topics so they pop up in search engines and news feeds. A monkey can spit out something apple iphone, microsoft, cisco, new product keyword rich.

But where’s the expert analysis? There’s no way to get expert and helpful to the top spot on Google.

Now that page views are all that matter the quality of the content has become close to irrelevant. I’m sorry to say it. I wish I didn’t have to say it. Why can’t we do something smarter like measure how long someone reads a story? How far through something do they get?

I’m all for leveling the playing field, but I know a hell of a lot of people who are out of work now because the written word has decreased in value. Editors, writers, lab techs, even sales and marketing types. don’t forget the creative art people. Copy edit has been decimated.

So it occurred to me today, where do all those smart unemployed people go? How can we harness that energy? There must be a way we can band together to preserve the value of expert opinion, well written, well edited, well produced and on target content. I still believe content is king, but the king is being devalued at a dangerous pace.

Microsoft introduced a new line of wireless mice a variety of colors and shapes at a recent open house.

The Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 brings style to life on-the-go. It uses Microsoft’s BlueTrack Technology which allows the mouse to work on any surface – from the granite kitchen counter to the living room carpet. BlueTrack is also extremely durable and continues to work exceptionally well even when dirt or dust get stuck inside the sensor. The portable mouse comes in this year’s hottest colors with bold hues pulled straight from the runway including teal blue, berry pink, lime green, graphite and white. It also has a snap-in Nano transceiver so small it can remain plugged in to the computer while traveling and it’s available for $39.95.

The Arc Mouse is just as fashionable as it is functional with a design shaped like a crescent moon it folds closed to reduce in size by almost half, giving consumers the comfort of a full-sized mouse with the portability of a notebook mouse. Arc also includes a stylish micro transceiver that you can leave right in your computer and it’s available in six colors – white, purple, green, blue, red or black. It’s available for $49.95.

The Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 is Microsoft’s thinnest keyboard ever! Microsoft Hardware’s Industrial Design team ensured that the keyboard didn’t sacrifice on style or comfort and created a product to match the design tenants of compact, clean and refined. As a result, the keyboard is just a few millimeters thick and it uses a Comfort Curve design for a more ergonomic typing experience over the straight keyboard layout of notebook computers. It also has a standalone Bluetooth Number Pad that can be used with the keyboard or by itself to increase productivity. It is available for $89.95.

Last night I made the long arduous journey into midtown, all the way to Park and 47th to the Audi Show Room, to see the AXF 24 Challenge. During this event, three teams of three drivers each are squaring off in a 24 hour race on the brand new Le Mans track in the not yet released Forza Motorsport 3 (due in October 2009) driving the brand new R8 V10.



Here’s a video montage:

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