Josh On Design

It's been a while since I've posted thanks to this spring's conference schedule. Part of my new job at Palm is working at our booth answering technical questions. This has kept me on the road, but certainly provided opportunities to talk about our technology and build interest in apps. Read on photos and stories from GDC and CTIA, including a clip of Shrek Cart.

CTIA in Las Vegas

I'll say this: Vegas is flashy, dry, and tiring. I was working the whole time so it wasn't as fun as I would have imagined. I suspect if I went on vacation there I'd have a very different experience (as my wife did last year with her friends). Still, it was interesting.

Probably the best part was getting to meet the Pre Central crew in person. @adora, her bf, and I had dinner in the Palms hotel (natch) with Dieter Bohn of the PreCentral PalmCast, along with co-casters from WMExperts and Android Central. I always enjoy good sushi, drink, and conversation.

The rest of the trip is punctuated by booth shifts, collecting a ton of business cards, and drinking lots of water. The CTIA floor is truly massive. Hopefully next year I'll get to spend more time wandering it. I will say this about Las Vegas: their indoor architecture is amazing. Next time I plan to take far more pictures.

Attendance at the booth was quite good. Most people knew about us and were excited to hear webOS devices are coming to AT&T. The ability to talk and surf at the same time can be handy, as long as you are careful.

GDC 2010 in San Franciscio

Next up is the Game Developer Conference, or GDC. As the name would suggest this is a developer centric event of the gaming variety, though there were certainly plenty of biz people too. I will say this: the gaming industry has a lot more fun with their booths than the enterprise software guys. I never saw anything like this in front of an Oracle booth.

You will optimize your SQL statements with fourth normal form.

The Palm Booth / Beacon

The Palm booth saw good attendance, and you certainly couldn't miss our sign. Rather than an endless parade of booth babes we went for a clean and soothing wood and smokey grey finish, topped off with a massive orange sign. It was way too bright to photograph without manual control SLR. If there wasn't a roof on the building you could have seen it from space.

Shuttle landing beacon

While attendees flitted in and out we had presenters explaining phone features and playing some of the new games from our catalog. In the clip below you can see Cassie playing Shrek Cart against another phone over WiFi. At one point we had six people playing on the same course, each from their own phones. (yes, I captured this with my Palm Pre).

Touring the floor

I did get a chance to browse the floor between shifts. The crowd around StarCraft 2 was thicker than a zergling's skull. I'm not a gamer anymore, but I may have to pick it up when it's finally released in 2023.

StarCraft is finally threee deee

Your life in 3D

GDC isn't just for video games themselves. Much of vendors are showing their latest tools and supplies for making games. Thanks to Avatar motion capture and 3D were the major tech themes.

My first observation, 3D TVs are coming whether we like them or not. I tried on the glasses and sat down for a few minutes to watch a movie and some games. First impressions: 3D movies will still be a novelty at home. We've only just started to get films in 3D that really take advantage of the format, and while they are a truly experience in the movie theater (Coraline was simply stunning), I don't think it transitions well to the smaller screen and lesser technologies. Movies created for 3D will still fare reasonably well, but 2D content converted to 3D made my eyes hurt. Still too much of the 'shiny thing popping out at you' to make it interesting.

Video games, on the other hand, I think may be the killer app for 3D TV sets. The racing game I played was much more immersive and felt more engaging. Since the content is rendered realtime and already in 3D they don't have to add in the effect afterwards.

As for the glasses, they had the usual polarized paper specs in the booth for cost reasons. Not comfortable, but once classy Oakley style glasses hit in the next year I think the need to wear something special for 3D will become a non-issue.

Take that two dee screens!

All Motion Must Be Captured

As for motion capture, it's everywhere. Many different techniques, presumably for different costs and results. I get the impression that all games with 3D characters use this now.

Capture your motion, look cool in spandex

That's it for this week. I should have some exciting stuff to share with you soon. In the meantime here's a bonus pic I found on my phone, taken a week ago in downtown Eugene. Perhaps leading them to greener pastures?

Remember to tether the children well.