In school, you were taught that to write a story, you build content in a manner of a pyramid – where you slowly move your audience along till you hit the climax. This review shall go in the direction of an inverted pyramid. You should not be reading this review at all, go with an open mind, go with no expectations. Go. Watch. The. Movie.

But. Here you are, still reading this. I thank you for the patronage.

If only, we’d learn to ignore what our schools have taught us, we would have been much creative individuals. In school, you were taught that when you write a composition, never have it as a dream sequence or else you would fail. And true indeed for those who’d tested the system and look at what this educational system had churned out. Essays all look like they were cookie cut, following the same formula, using phrases, words meant to impress and score brownie points with the exam marker. All essays were too real, even if it hadn’t looked real, it must have took a hell lot of effort to rationalise that situation set in the essay.

Ah, but I digress.

Christopher Nolan’s (learn to remember this guy, if you hadn’t, I would suppose Hannah Montana would still be THE movie choice for you) Inception works on a subject that is nothing new. Inception questions the reality of the world we are living in, a notion that movies like Dark City, and the popular Matrix series and a couple of handful more had already proposed.

One thing that Inception has that the rest didn’t was that it was so intricately put together, that you have no reason to doubt what Nolan was trying to convey. The concept of idea generation, creativity, of action and consequence is explained in depth, coupled with the fact that you do attempt to recall and interpret your dreams makes it all the more believable. Add in a digital touch to idea that people could ‘hack’ into your dream plane to extract or insert information and there you have your plot for this beautiful masterpiece.

I apologise for being abstract, I should be for it is really best for you to experience this on your own. Every aspect of Inception is near faultless, from its outstanding cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy (to say the least) to the CGI and action sequences, its music (that’s Hans Zimmer for you),  to its perfect pacing. From its brilliantly layered (no pun intended, I wish!) plot of fulfilling the mission to the bitter love story, you will be gripped by the tight storyline all the way to the end, only to utter the word “Damn” right at the very last frame.

By now, you would have realised that I am doing nothing but sing praises of this movie, not because I lack objectivity, but it is really that good. It is amazing that it completely went under the radar compared to the much overhyped Avatar. One of the best movies I have watched, of all time.

An all too surreal feeling after watching Inception, I wondered if any of my school teacher would fail this.

Well I won’t.

The holiday season is finally here! Nowhere to go or don’t have a date yet? Fret not. Indicate your interest here for a game of Left4Dead2 here for gamers or those who have not tried it before but willing to try. Relax and recreation possible after the game… =)

http://forums.edmw.sg/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=63803

“Ferrari World Abu Dhabi”, you only need to say the name and the possibilities start racing through your head. This is a world first from a brand that thrives on being first.

“Opening in 2010, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is set to be the world’s largest indoor theme park, sitting under a roof designed in the style of a classic double-curve body shell of a Ferrari GT car. There is energy, excitement and passion for the entire family at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi. With over 20 rides and attractions, including the world’s fastest rollercoaster, Ferrari World is more than a theme park – it is where Ferrari’s legendary story is unveiled.”

The Park is located on Yas Island – set to become a global tourist destination with a wide range of accommodation and entertainment facilities – on the North East side of Abu Dhabi’s mainland. Abu Dhabi, at the crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa, was chosen as the ideal location to build the Ferrari theme park, motor sports being extremely popular in the United Arab Emirates. Ferrari World Abu Dhabi will offer a unique and intensely fun way, together with a wide variety of Italian delicaciesand of course unique shopping experiences.

- World’s first Ferrari theme park
- World’s largest indoor park
-Located on Yas Island on the North East side of Abu Dhabi’s mainland
-Yas Island is a 10-minute drive from Abu Dhabi International Airport, 30 minutes from the city of Abu Dhabi, and 50 minutes from Dubai
-Adjacent to the Yas Marina Circuit, hosting the inaugural 2009 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Sony Ericsson XPERIA™ X10 introduces an open and integrated world of social media, communication and entertainment

XPERIA™ X10 is the flagship phone in a family of phones coming to market during the first half of 2010. The XPERIA™ X10 will be available in Q1 2010
New UX (user experience) platform lets consumers organise everything and discover more with the most open, human and intuitive user experience yet

With a 1GHz Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm, 4-inch capacitive touch display, an 8.1 megapixel camera, and the lovely Rachael Android UI, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 will be a great 2010 entry into the Android market for Sony Ericsson.

As far as the unpolished UI goes, Sony Ericsson has already put some personal touches on there with Timescape and Mediascape, which aggregate all communication and media, respectively. While those features seem fantastic in theory, the early software build left questions as to just how seamless and smooth they truly are.

There are some things that definitely appear lacking with the X10 which can’t be blamed on the pre-production build though. For starters, there’s barely any internal memory, though an 8GB MicroSD card is included to remedy that. The big annoyance is the absence of multitouch features such as zoom or rotate. With such a wide touchscreen, it’s a shame to skip out on that.

By the time the phone is ready for stores, the Snapdragon chip, combined with a final build of the UI, should put the X10 among the fastest running phones on the market.

Size: 119 x 63 x 13 mm
Weight: 135 grams
Phone memory: Up to 1 GB
Memory card support: microSD™
Memory card included: 8 GB
Operating system: Google™ Android Donut, version 1.6
Processor: 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ QSD8250
Availability and versions

Networks
UMTS HSPA 900/1700/2100
GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
UMTS HSPA 800/1900/2100
GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
Available in selected markets in Q1 2010
Colour

Sensuous Black
Luster White

The Greatest Job On Earth

The much anticipated FM2010 demo is finally avaliable for download! Players can look forward to managing the new “galacticos” with Real Madrid or other various clubs. FM 2010 will be available on macs, PC as well as on PlayStation Portable (PSP). Out of the most important new features itemised, the new tactical system, match analysis tools, and the new interface are particularly noteworthy. But what exactly the said innovations will bring?

Football Manager 2010 is also equipped with new user interface, what we mentioned a month ago. In addition to a new skin, the navigation tools has undergone a thorough redecoration. They are now situated in top part of the screen what is to facilitate the navigation and make the game more accessible to new users.

Now users can create their own league with the new data editor and the highly controversial 3D view has also undergone a renovation process. Players’ AI was enhanced, news stadiums were added, as well as fans, better lightning, and a realistic pitch deterioration on top of over a 100 new animations.

You can download the demos here.
MirrorFootball

&

Strawberry Version

HTC Tattoo has landed! It will be available from Saturday 31st Oct at a SRP of SG$598 (Without Contract). You can customize your favourite phone cover at http://www.tattoomyhtc.com

Amongst the much hyped games such as Borderlands and Left 4 Dead 2 that is around the corner, lies this game by Runic Games created by someone whom created the game Fate, together with the guys that brought you the acclaimed Diablo 2; the Ex-Blizzard North guys.

Ex-Blizzard North you say? Sounds familiar, no? What else did we remember them for?
Yup, Flagship Studios and yes, that’s right, now it’s pretty clear… its THAT game.

Now with their new game Torchlight, can we see past the Hellgate London fiasco?

—–

The premise of the game could never be any simpler nor less familiar: As a melee-oriented Destroyer, a range-oriented Vanquisher or a spell-oriented Alchemist, you wander into the town of Torchlight, a mining town filled with the resource called “Ember”. This Ember ore is the essence of magic and the keystone of alchemy, and of course as said, it is valuable. Whatever that is valuable and untapped attract greedy people – and the miners uncovered more than just Ember; evil lurks beneath Torchlight, the heart of a villain has infused the Ember and the darkness seeps all over. This threatens the safety of the town and no surprises there, you, will be the one to safe the townspeople by eradicating the evil.

Unfortunately, the story is as strong as that. There is nothing more other than as the main quest is laid out through an underwhelming amount of tasks given by one person. That is however not all, luckily, you get to earn some loot and experience from the miscellaneous tasks that are nearly not-at-all-dull to accomplish. There will be no other human player to accompany you on this task as this is single-player only, a bummer if you enjoy roaming the dungeons with other players, but fret not, a Torchlight MMO is on its way. Treat this as a teaser and an introduction to the hopefully richer lore of Torchlight.

That is not to say though, that you will be going at the enemies alone. You are entrusted with a pet, which is a pretty nice touch, considering what it can do. It can cast spells, and hold items on top of your own ability to store items and the best of all is that it can return back to town on its own and sell whatever stuff you want to sell (just chuck it all into the pet and send it back, careful of the stuff you want though!) – what I welcome, coming from a Diablo 2 player, not that you don’t have a scroll of town portal anyway, but still, the convenience is very much appreciated.

Speaking of Diablo 2, the influence shows, significantly. But saying that its “just another D2 clone” is like saying FPSes are a clone of Half Life – how can we blame them, they are after all, the SAME guys that made Diablo 2, if anything, this COULD have been Diablo 3 if not for the company title. While some may find that these references creep over to the lack-of-creativity end, I personally liked it. Do not fix what is not broken, they say. The interface of the game is easy to pick up, with the tips reminding the newcomers along the way – again, if you’re a D2 player, you’re at home. This applies mostly across the board, from the various windows (stats, skills, character, inventory) all the way to the difficulty settings (a hardcore mode as well). There is a level cap of 100 and a fame cap of 55 (fame is earned via side quests and gives you extra skill points and upgrades your character title).

The ambiance cannot be faulted as Matt Uelman, the guy behind music pieces for Diablo, Starcraft and WoW, lends his hand. Torchlight emits a certain charm as everything you see is pretty, from the spell effects all the way to the dungeons as you see miners work in the backdrop, above and below – there is life everywhere; suffice to say it is possible to immerse yourself in the Torchlight universe. That said, while it is no Modern Warfare 2 quality, Torchlight is a technological masterpiece. This game scales so darn well, it even has a “netbook” mode, which adjusts the game accordingly for the best play experience – the prehistoric GeForce 2 card, from what I’ve gathered, can play this game with ease. To top it off, its not a space hogger as well, Torchlight, installed, weighs in under 1GB (700mb+). Oh did I also mention it only costs about 25 SGD?

For such a polished game at a more than affordable cost (some full-priced games can hardly match up), it is easy for us to close an eye or two for Torchlight’s flaws. Torchlight is not just another dungeon creeper, it IS as of now, the Diablo 2 you so diligently went through that had a timely update to (and so much improved too gameplay, graphics and all), a truly qualified one by the same crew less the Blizzard trademark – that is of course to say that the bar for this genre has been raised. I would highly recommend for people to pick this up while you wait for Diablo 3 in the far distance, or even for L4D2, or simply just dedicate time to play this; Torchlight makes filling your time easy. Not difficult to recommend, a great play.

Hellgate London? What Hellgate London?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=opZ69P-0Jbc

New features to expect in devices coming out with Android 2.0:

Contacts and accounts

• Multiple accounts can be added to a device for email and contact synchronization, including Exchange accounts. (Handset manufacturers can choose whether to include Exchange support in their devices.)
• Developers can create sync adapters that provide synchronization with additional data sources.
• Quick Contact for Android provides instant access to a contact’s information and communication modes. For example, a user can tap a contact photo and select to call, SMS, or email the person. Other applications such as Email, Messaging, and Calendar can also reveal the Quick Contact widget when you touch a contact photo or status icon.

Email

• Exchange support.
• Combined inbox to browse email from multiple accounts in one page.

Messaging

• Search functionality for all saved SMS and MMS messages.
• Auto delete the oldest messages in a conversation when a defined limit is reached.

Camera

• Built-in flash support
• Digital zoom
• Scene mode
• White balance
• Color effect
• Macro focus

Android virtual keyboard

• An improved keyboard layout to makes it easier to hit the correct characters and improve typing speed.
• The framework’s multi-touch support ensures that key presses aren’t missed while typing rapidly with two fingers.
• A smarter dictionary learns from word usage and automatically includes contact names as suggestions.

Browser

• Refreshed UI with actionable browser URL bar enables users to directly tap the address bar for instant searches and navigation.
• Bookmarks with web page thumbnails.
• Support for double-tap zoom.
• Support for HTML5:
  • Database API support, for client-side databases using SQL.
  • Application cache support, for offline applications.
  • Geolocation API support, to provide location information about the device.
  • <video> tag support in fullscreen mode.

Calendar

• Agenda view provides infinite scrolling.
• Events indicate the attending status for each invitee.
• Invite new guests to events.

New Platform Technologies

Media Framework

Revamped graphics architecture for improved performance that enables better hardware acceleration.

Bluetooth

• Bluetooth 2.1
• New BT profiles: Object Push Profile (OPP) and Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP)

New Framework APIs

Android 2.0 includes several new developer APIs. For an overview of new APIs, see the Android 2.0 version notes.

For a complete report of all API changes, see the API Differences Report.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u39KZJIJ7VA

HTC has announced their budget Android phone. This would make HTC’s fourth Android phone for this year and would put the phone into the low and mid-range phones for the market. There are no exact dates for launch in S.E.A but there have been news of the availability in Europe, namely Vodafone UK . Guess the South East Asian market is still too small for companies to decide to launch it in Singapore first.

Being a phone that was designed for the budget-conscious consumers, it does come with pretty standard hardware specifications:

• Qualcomm MSM7225 528MHz processor
• 512MB ROM
• 256MB RAM
• 2.8″ touchscreen LCD display (240 x 320)
• 900/2100MHz HSPA/UMTS
• Quad-band GSM/EDGE
• 3.5mm headset jack
• microSD memory card slot
• Wi-Fi connectivity
• Built-in GPS and digital compass
• Bluetooth 2.0 support
• 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus

Having this phone aimed at the budget-conscious consumers, it does have noticeable differences. The HTC Tattoo no longer has a trackball navigation decice which HTC Dream, HTC Magic and HTC Hero has. Instead in its place,  is a 4 way navigation pad. Whether this new navigation pad will work out as well as a trackball, we will have to wait to see. It also follows HTC Hero in featuring a 3.5mm headset jack that was lacking in HTC Dream and HTC Magic.

The phone, compared to HTC Hero, comes with Google Android 1.6 (codenamed Donut) and Sense UI which HTC had previously rolled out on Hero. Google Android 1.6 is Google’s latest update to Android and HTC is quick to incorporate 1.6 into their new phone alongside Sense UI. Sense UI is HTC’s answer to a completely customized look for Android. It is HTC’s identify and mark on Android. It is similar to HTC’s TouchFlo 3D which are featured in HTC’s Windows Mobile phones.

Well with HTC making their mark on Android, this has given the company a headstart in the Android market. Will they be able to manage the current lead into 2010? Hopefully, HTC will be able to fulfil Google intial goal: to make an OS that makes cheap phones cheaper. So far, we have seen that the Android OS is capable of producing flagship phones like HTC Hero and also able to produce budget phones like HTC Tattoo. Watch out Windows Mobile, Android is coming for you.