So anyway, everything we were hearing about Microsoft’s new Origami devices (er, Ultra-Mobile PCs – I liked Origami better) was confirmed today. They’re just small, keyboard-less tablet computers with built in WiFi and stuff.
If it can’t play WoW, EQ1, EQ2, Vanguard and so on, what good is it?
Using Remote Desktop and the similar, confusing-acronym-I-can’t-remember remote graphical session software for Linux, I could at least access Nova and Baph from anywhere… but without a keyboard/mouse, it would be clumsy. And RDC is just nasty. And it doesn’t play MMOs… so what good is it?
I can see some uses for it. A device like that would be just about perfect for displaying TV schedules and allow recording and previewing of shows and movies. But ya know, it runs on Windows. It’s going to be hampered by Windows crippleware.
And it doesn’t run MMOs. So no quick-checking the AH in WoW or keeping in touch with raid plans in EQ when I am not home.
Any computer I build or buy should be expected to be able to run MMOs. That’s it. Origami can’t, so I don’t need it.
HardOCP posted a performance review of several top-end graphics cards and reviewed their performance with EQ2. EQ2s graphic performance is one of the things that still bug me about the game. Tuning cards for EQ2 is some sort of black art. The pre-defined profiles they use do not end up with the best settings for your card, so their conclusions are a little suspect. But it is nice to see some tests with a game I play – not being into FPSs or war games, usually these reviews leave me in the cold.
Those new cards look really nice, by the way. I’d love to get one, but then I would have to get a new motherboard that supports PCI Express, and a widescreen monitor… two of them, actually, since I still want one for Baph (movies, you know)… a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money…
