Much like the dreaded Kobayashi Maru, there really is no right answer to the question, “Where should I pre-order Star Trek Online?” In its ongoing mission to make games as hard to purchase as possible, Starfleet has issued different pre-order bonuses to each major American retailer. Want to pilot the Enterprise? You’ll have to order from GameStop. Need a pet Tribble? Best Buy. How about a gun that beams projectiles directly to their intended target? Target. That “Liberated Borg” bridge officer you always wanted? Amazon.

And here we thought all we had to do to get the full enjoyment out of our games was buy them. Those days are over, friend. Check out the full list of pre-order bonuses — and where to find them

• GameStop: Exclusive ship: The classic USS Enterprise
• Best Buy: Pet Tribble or Targ (based on faction)
• Amazon: “Liberated Borg” Bridge Officer with “unique nanotechnology augmentations”
• Direct2Drive: Multi-Spatial Personal Shield (regenerates itself and player health)
• Wal-mart: Bonus Skill Points (bestows additional skill points)
• Target: TR-116 ground weapon (micro-transporter beams projectiles to target, no line of sight required)
• Steam: Chromodynamic Armor, improves critical hits and damage of energy weapons

2:18AM - I know, the suspense is killing me, too. Check back later this morning for live coverage!

12:19AM - While you’re killing time waiting for the keynote to start, make sure you check out some of the contests we’ve got running right now!

We’re giving away a Sony DSLR-A330 camera, Sony HDR-CX100 HD camcorder, and Sonos S5 wireless music system — all pretty amazing devices. Go on, we’ll still be here.

8:29AM - Also, be sure to check out the “iSlate” page on gdgt, it’s where all the news and discussions about the Apple tablet is going down. (Yes, we’ll change the name when/if Apple announces the damned thing today!)

9:01AM - Almost to the event!

9:05AM - Yowch, media line this time is fairly crazy! Standing by for admission.

9:17AM - Alright, we’re in! Doors aren’t open yet though, so we’re huddled in with all the other reporters and guests.

9:28AM - Doors opening in just a sec! (Photos are coming!)

9:41AM - Alright, we’re in! Dylan playing on the PA — Steve’s favorite!

9:44AM - There’s a small Saarinen table on stage, as well as a Le Corbusier seat. Is Steve going to take a seat and wax poetic about his years in the biz?

9:49AM - House WiFi is crazy slow right now, hopefully things hold out for the event!

9:54AM - Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, and other senior execs up front talking and laughing. Everyone looks pretty jubilant!

9:55AM - Also, big ups to my boy Chris at Joystiq for lending a hand with our live coverage!

9:57AM - Oh hey, Al gore! People are getting seated, looks like we’re getting started on time today.

9:59AM - Yep, all Dylan jams this time. This is definitely a Steve event.

10:01AM - Lights are coming down! Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” is closing…

10:01AM - Steve is out! Huge applause.

10:01AM - Standing ovation towards the front — hooting and cheering! “Thank you.”

10:02AM - “Good morning, and thank you all for coming today. We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary new product.”

10:02AM - “Before we get to that, I’ve got a few updates.” Chuckles. “First: iPods. A few weeks ago we sold our 250 millionth iPod.” Big applause.

10:02AM - “I didn’t want to let this one pass without recognizing that it’s pretty amazing. Second update: retail stores. We have 284 retail stores, it’s amazing.”

10:03AM - “Last holiday quarter we had over 250 million visitors to our stores.” Talking about the new New York stores. “It’s so wonderful to be putting these stores right in the neighborhoods of our customers. It feels good. Next update: app store.”

10:04AM - “We have over over 140k apps in the app store. And a few weeks ago we announced users have downloaded 3 billion applications.”

10:05AM - “Lastly, we started apple in 1976 — 34 years later, we just ended our holiday quarter with 15.6 billion in revenue.” Big applause. “That means Apple is over a 50 billion dollar company — I like to forget that, because that’s not how we think of Apple, but it’s pretty amazing.”

10:06AM - “How do we get this revenue? iPods, iPhones, MacBook laptops… Apple is a mobile devices company, that’s what we do. We asked ourselves: how do we stack up? Well, Apple is the largest mobile devices business in the world today.” Bigger than Sony, Samsung — bigger than Nokia (by revenue). “Apple is the number one mobile devices company in the world!”

10:07AM - “Let’s get to the main event.” Murmurs. “Before we get to that [the tablet], I want to go back to 1991. Apple invented the modern laptop computer with our PowerBooks. The first laptop with a TFT screen, that pushed the keyboard up and had an integrated pointing device.”

10:08AM - iPhone, MacBooks — “Everyone uses a laptop and/or a smartphone. The question has arisen lately: is there room for a third category device in the middle?”

10:08AM - “In order to create a new category of devices, those devices will have to be far better at doing some key tasks — important things — better than the laptop and smartphone. What kind of tasks? Things like browsing the web…”

10:09AM - “That’s a tall order — better than a laptop at browsing the web? Enjoying and sharing photos, videos, enjoying music, playing games, reading e-books.”

10:09AM - “It’s got to be better at these key tasks otherwise it has no reason for being. Some people have said: oh, that’s a netbook. The problem is netbooks aren’t better at ANYTHING.” Applause. “They’re just cheap laptops.”

10:10AM - iPad.

10:10AM - Huge applause.

10:10AM - “Let me show it to you now.”

10:11AM - Steve’s showing it. “It’s very thin. You can change the home screen… what this device does is extraordinary. It’s the best browsing experience you’ve ever had.”

10:11AM - “You can see the whole page in front of you and you can manipulate it with your fingers. You can turn it any way you want — it adjusts however you want it. You can see the whole page — it’s phenomenal. It’s an incredible experience.”

10:12AM - Email with a giant on-screen keyboard: “It’s a dream to type on.”

10:12AM - Photos: “Flick through them, it’s a wonderful way to share your photos. Built in a calendar. Address book, great maps app with Google Maps.”

10:13AM - “iPad is an awesome way to enjoy your music collection. And, of course, we have the iTunes store built right into the iPad.”

10:14AM - “That’s a little overview, but there’s nothing like seeing it, so I’d like to show you now. Using this thing is remarkable — it’s so much more intimate than a laptop, and it’s so much more capable than a smartphone.”

10:14AM - “Let’s go right to the web. Here we are at the NYT — you can see how fast this is.”

10:15AM - Going to the Time site. The scrolling is super smooth, it’s pretty damned nice.

10:16AM - “Going to Fandango — grab the tablet that’s in the kitchen, buy some tickets. It’s that simple.” It sure is, Steve.

10:17AM - “This is gorgeous. Right in the palm of your hand. Let’s go to email.” Man, I dunno, there is like too much room! Horizontal email view is pretty sweet though, finally two pane!

10:18AM - “That’s how simple mail is. If I want to reply to a message, up pops this gorgeous keyboard.” Steve is typing with two hands on his lap — not using thumbs. Very interesting.

10:19AM - Next, photos! Flick through — albums too. “If I’m on a Mac, I can get events, places, and faces from iPhoto.” Neato.

10:20AM - Photo scrubber bar at the bottom. “It’s really wonderful.”

10:20AM - Built-in slideshows. Music playing with the slides and transitions. Looks pretty damned good!

10:22AM - Music, large iTunes LP album artwork. Naturally Steve had to get an “It all works!” in there.

10:23AM - iTunes store. The UI on this thing is pretty intense, so far. Everything is familiar, but it’s all totally different from iPhone and OS X — this is a big launch for Apple. As if you hadn’t already noticed.

10:24AM - Showing calendar and maps, both look pretty amazing on this display.

10:25AM - Street view support looks pretty amazing. “Let me show you video, it looks wonderful.” Showing HD YouTube playback.

10:26AM - Showing movies and TV shows. Widescreen looks a little awkward because the screen is more square than widescreen, but it’s still damned fine. “Let’s pick another movie I love: Up.” chuckles. “Awesome movie.”

10:27AM - “That is video on the iPad. So that’s a bit of an overview as to what the iPad can do.” Big applause. “Watching it is nothing like getting one in your hands.”

10:28AM - “It’s 0.5-inches thin, weighs just 1.5 pounds. Thinner and lighter than any netbook. 9.7-inch IPS display.”

10:28AM - “As you know, Apple builds the best capacitive multi-touch sensors in the world — married to our great display, it’s super responsive and super precise.”

10:29AM - “iPad is powered by our own custom silicon. Our own chip. It’s called the A4, and it screams.” 1GHz. 16, 32, or 64GB of flash storage. “It’s got the latest in wireless: 802.11n, WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.”

10:29AM - “All the usual suspects: accelerometer, compass, speaker, mic, dock connector. And it’s got battery.”

10:30AM - “What’s the battery life on this remarkable device?” Pauses. “We’ve been able to achieve 10 hours of battery life.” Big applause.

10:30AM - “In addition to this battery life, it’s got a month of standby life. It’s remarkable.”

10:31AM - “Environmentally, the iPad is a good citizen. That’s a little bit of an overview of the iPad’s hardware. Let’s go back to software. We’ve seen great built-in apps. But let’s talk about 3rd party apps. To help me do that: Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone software.” Scott’s up!

12:18AM - I know, the suspense is killing me, too. Check back later this morning for live coverage!

12:19AM - While you’re killing time waiting for the keynote to start, make sure you check out some of the contests we’ve got running right now!

We’re giving away a Sony DSLR-A330 camera, Sony HDR-CX100 HD camcorder, and Sonos S5 wireless music system — all pretty amazing devices. Go on, we’ll still be here.

8:29AM - Also, be sure to check out the “iSlate” page on gdgt, it’s where all the news and discussions about the Apple tablet is going down. (Yes, we’ll change the name when/if Apple announces the damned thing today!)

9:01AM - Almost to the event!

9:05AM - Yowch, media line this time is fairly crazy! Standing by for admission.

9:17AM - Alright, we’re in! Doors aren’t open yet though, so we’re huddled in with all the other reporters and guests.

9:28AM - Doors opening in just a sec! (Photos are coming!)

9:41AM - Alright, we’re in! Dylan playing on the PA — Steve’s favorite!

9:44AM - There’s a small Saarinen table on stage, as well as a Le Corbusier seat. Is Steve going to take a seat and wax poetic about his years in the biz?

9:49AM - House WiFi is crazy slow right now, hopefully things hold out for the event!

9:54AM - Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, and other senior execs up front talking and laughing. Everyone looks pretty jubilant!

9:55AM - Also, big ups to my boy Chris at Joystiq for lending a hand with our live coverage!

9:57AM - Oh hey, Al gore! People are getting seated, looks like we’re getting started on time today.

9:59AM - Yep, all Dylan jams this time. This is definitely a Steve event.

10:01AM - Lights are coming down! Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” is closing…

10:01AM - Steve is out! Huge applause.

10:01AM - Standing ovation towards the front — hooting and cheering! “Thank you.”

10:02AM - “Good morning, and thank you all for coming today. We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary new product.”

10:02AM - “Before we get to that, I’ve got a few updates.” Chuckles. “First: iPods. A few weeks ago we sold our 250 millionth iPod.” Big applause.

10:02AM - “I didn’t want to let this one pass without recognizing that it’s pretty amazing. Second update: retail stores. We have 284 retail stores, it’s amazing.”

10:03AM - “Last holiday quarter we had over 250 million visitors to our stores.” Talking about the new New York stores. “It’s so wonderful to be putting these stores right in the neighborhoods of our customers. It feels good. Next update: app store.”

10:04AM - “We have over over 140k apps in the app store. And a few weeks ago we announced users have downloaded 3 billion applications.”

10:05AM - “Lastly, we started apple in 1976 — 34 years later, we just ended our holiday quarter with 15.6 billion in revenue.” Big applause. “That means Apple is over a 50 billion dollar company — I like to forget that, because that’s not how we think of Apple, but it’s pretty amazing.”

10:06AM - “How do we get this revenue? iPods, iPhones, MacBook laptops… Apple is a mobile devices company, that’s what we do. We asked ourselves: how do we stack up? Well, Apple is the largest mobile devices business in the world today.” Bigger than Sony, Samsung — bigger than Nokia (by revenue). “Apple is the number one mobile devices company in the world!”

10:07AM - “Let’s get to the main event.” Murmurs. “Before we get to that [the tablet], I want to go back to 1991. Apple invented the modern laptop computer with our PowerBooks. The first laptop with a TFT screen, that pushed the keyboard up and had an integrated pointing device.”

10:08AM - iPhone, MacBooks — “Everyone uses a laptop and/or a smartphone. The question has arisen lately: is there room for a third category device in the middle?”

10:08AM - “In order to create a new category of devices, those devices will have to be far better at doing some key tasks — important things — better than the laptop and smartphone. What kind of tasks? Things like browsing the web…”

10:09AM - “That’s a tall order — better than a laptop at browsing the web? Enjoying and sharing photos, videos, enjoying music, playing games, reading e-books.”

10:09AM - “It’s got to be better at these key tasks otherwise it has no reason for being. Some people have said: oh, that’s a netbook. The problem is netbooks aren’t better at ANYTHING.” Applause. “They’re just cheap laptops.”

10:10AM - iPad.

10:10AM - Huge applause.

10:10AM - “Let me show it to you now.”

10:11AM - Steve’s showing it. “It’s very thin. You can change the home screen… what this device does is extraordinary. It’s the best browsing experience you’ve ever had.”

10:11AM - “You can see the whole page in front of you and you can manipulate it with your fingers. You can turn it any way you want — it adjusts however you want it. You can see the whole page — it’s phenomenal. It’s an incredible experience.”

10:12AM - Email with a giant on-screen keyboard: “It’s a dream to type on.”

10:12AM - Photos: “Flick through them, it’s a wonderful way to share your photos. Built in a calendar. Address book, great maps app with Google Maps.”

10:13AM - “iPad is an awesome way to enjoy your music collection. And, of course, we have the iTunes store built right into the iPad.”

10:14AM - “That’s a little overview, but there’s nothing like seeing it, so I’d like to show you now. Using this thing is remarkable — it’s so much more intimate than a laptop, and it’s so much more capable than a smartphone.”

10:14AM - “Let’s go right to the web. Here we are at the NYT — you can see how fast this is.”

10:15AM - Going to the Time site. The scrolling is super smooth, it’s pretty damned nice.

10:16AM - “Going to Fandango — grab the tablet that’s in the kitchen, buy some tickets. It’s that simple.” It sure is, Steve.

10:17AM - “This is gorgeous. Right in the palm of your hand. Let’s go to email.” Man, I dunno, there is like too much room! Horizontal email view is pretty sweet though, finally two pane!

10:18AM - “That’s how simple mail is. If I want to reply to a message, up pops this gorgeous keyboard.” Steve is typing with two hands on his lap — not using thumbs. Very interesting.

10:19AM - Next, photos! Flick through — albums too. “If I’m on a Mac, I can get events, places, and faces from iPhoto.” Neato.

10:20AM - Photo scrubber bar at the bottom. “It’s really wonderful.”

10:20AM - Built-in slideshows. Music playing with the slides and transitions. Looks pretty damned good!

10:22AM - Music, large iTunes LP album artwork. Naturally Steve had to get an “It all works!” in there.

10:23AM - iTunes store. The UI on this thing is pretty intense, so far. Everything is familiar, but it’s all totally different from iPhone and OS X — this is a big launch for Apple. As if you hadn’t already noticed.

10:24AM - Showing calendar and maps, both look pretty amazing on this display.

10:25AM - Street view support looks pretty amazing. “Let me show you video, it looks wonderful.” Showing HD YouTube playback.

10:26AM - Showing movies and TV shows. Widescreen looks a little awkward because the screen is more square than widescreen, but it’s still damned fine. “Let’s pick another movie I love: Up.” chuckles. “Awesome movie.”

10:27AM - “That is video on the iPad. So that’s a bit of an overview as to what the iPad can do.” Big applause. “Watching it is nothing like getting one in your hands.”

10:28AM - “It’s 0.5-inches thin, weighs just 1.5 pounds. Thinner and lighter than any netbook. 9.7-inch IPS display.”

10:28AM - “As you know, Apple builds the best capacitive multi-touch sensors in the world — married to our great display, it’s super responsive and super precise.”

10:29AM - “iPad is powered by our own custom silicon. Our own chip. It’s called the A4, and it screams.” 1GHz. 16, 32, or 64GB of flash storage. “It’s got the latest in wireless: 802.11n, WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.”

10:29AM - “All the usual suspects: accelerometer, compass, speaker, mic, dock connector. And it’s got battery.”

10:30AM - “What’s the battery life on this remarkable device?” Pauses. “We’ve been able to achieve 10 hours of battery life.” Big applause.

10:30AM - “In addition to this battery life, it’s got a month of standby life. It’s remarkable.”

10:31AM - “Environmentally, the iPad is a good citizen. That’s a little bit of an overview of the iPad’s hardware. Let’s go back to software. We’ve seen great built-in apps. But let’s talk about 3rd party apps. To help me do that: Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone software.” Scott’s up!

10:32AM - “We built the iPad to run virtually every one of these apps unmodified right out of the box. We can do that in two ways — do it with pixel for pixel accuracy in a black box, or we can pixel-double and run them in full-screen. This is really cool.” Demo!

10:32AM - Showing Facebook app: “This is the app you know and love.” Tap on the 2x button, it scales the app up to full-screen.

10:35AM - Showing Snowcross, a snowmobile game. “There you go, right out of the App Store, unmodified. All the apps you know and love will run right now on your iPad.”

10:35AM - “If the developer takes the time, they can also take full advantage of the large touchscreen display in the iPad. We did that with our own internal apps, and we expect developers will want to do that too.” New SDK out today including iPad tools.

10:37AM - “We’re really excited about the possibilities for developers on the iPad. About 2 weeks ago we invited some developers to Apple to give them a sneak peek and see what they can build in just a couple weeks.” Starting with the “largest” game developer on the App Store: Gameloft.

10:38AM - Showing a title called Nova. This looks pretty decent, but still a tiny bit choppy. But hey, this was done in two weeks, so I’m gonna cut these guys some slack.

10:39AM - Showing first-person shooting with multi-touch, like target acquisition by drawing a graph in your HUD. Pretty neat!

10:40AM - Next up: New York Times. “They’ve been publishing for over 150 years — it’s commonly referred to as THE paper of record. To tell you about their plans for the iPad, I’d like to invite up Martin Nisenholtz.”

12:18AM - I know, the suspense is killing me, too. Check back later this morning for live coverage!

12:19AM - While you’re killing time waiting for the keynote to start, make sure you check out some of the contests we’ve got running right now!

We’re giving away a Sony DSLR-A330 camera, Sony HDR-CX100 HD camcorder, and Sonos S5 wireless music system — all pretty amazing devices. Go on, we’ll still be here.

8:29AM - Also, be sure to check out the “iSlate” page on gdgt, it’s where all the news and discussions about the Apple tablet is going down. (Yes, we’ll change the name when/if Apple announces the damned thing today!)

9:01AM - Almost to the event!

9:05AM - Yowch, media line this time is fairly crazy! Standing by for admission.

9:17AM - Alright, we’re in! Doors aren’t open yet though, so we’re huddled in with all the other reporters and guests.

9:28AM - Doors opening in just a sec! (Photos are coming!)

9:41AM - Alright, we’re in! Dylan playing on the PA — Steve’s favorite!

9:44AM - There’s a small Saarinen table on stage, as well as a Le Corbusier seat. Is Steve going to take a seat and wax poetic about his years in the biz?

9:49AM - House WiFi is crazy slow right now, hopefully things hold out for the event!

9:54AM - Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, and other senior execs up front talking and laughing. Everyone looks pretty jubilant!

9:55AM - Also, big ups to my boy Chris at Joystiq for lending a hand with our live coverage!

9:57AM - Oh hey, Al gore! People are getting seated, looks like we’re getting started on time today.

9:59AM - Yep, all Dylan jams this time. This is definitely a Steve event.

10:01AM - Lights are coming down! Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” is closing…

10:01AM - Steve is out! Huge applause.

10:01AM - Standing ovation towards the front — hooting and cheering! “Thank you.”

10:02AM - “Good morning, and thank you all for coming today. We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary new product.”

10:02AM - “Before we get to that, I’ve got a few updates.” Chuckles. “First: iPods. A few weeks ago we sold our 250 millionth iPod.” Big applause.

10:02AM - “I didn’t want to let this one pass without recognizing that it’s pretty amazing. Second update: retail stores. We have 284 retail stores, it’s amazing.”

10:03AM - “Last holiday quarter we had over 250 million visitors to our stores.” Talking about the new New York stores. “It’s so wonderful to be putting these stores right in the neighborhoods of our customers. It feels good. Next update: app store.”

10:04AM - “We have over over 140k apps in the app store. And a few weeks ago we announced users have downloaded 3 billion applications.”

10:05AM - “Lastly, we started apple in 1976 — 34 years later, we just ended our holiday quarter with 15.6 billion in revenue.” Big applause. “That means Apple is over a 50 billion dollar company — I like to forget that, because that’s not how we think of Apple, but it’s pretty amazing.”

10:06AM - “How do we get this revenue? iPods, iPhones, MacBook laptops… Apple is a mobile devices company, that’s what we do. We asked ourselves: how do we stack up? Well, Apple is the largest mobile devices business in the world today.” Bigger than Sony, Samsung — bigger than Nokia (by revenue). “Apple is the number one mobile devices company in the world!”

10:07AM - “Let’s get to the main event.” Murmurs. “Before we get to that [the tablet], I want to go back to 1991. Apple invented the modern laptop computer with our PowerBooks. The first laptop with a TFT screen, that pushed the keyboard up and had an integrated pointing device.”

10:08AM - iPhone, MacBooks — “Everyone uses a laptop and/or a smartphone. The question has arisen lately: is there room for a third category device in the middle?”

10:08AM - “In order to create a new category of devices, those devices will have to be far better at doing some key tasks — important things — better than the laptop and smartphone. What kind of tasks? Things like browsing the web…”

10:09AM - “That’s a tall order — better than a laptop at browsing the web? Enjoying and sharing photos, videos, enjoying music, playing games, reading e-books.”

10:09AM - “It’s got to be better at these key tasks otherwise it has no reason for being. Some people have said: oh, that’s a netbook. The problem is netbooks aren’t better at ANYTHING.” Applause. “They’re just cheap laptops.”

10:10AM - iPad.

10:10AM - Huge applause.

10:10AM - “Let me show it to you now.”

10:11AM - Steve’s showing it. “It’s very thin. You can change the home screen… what this device does is extraordinary. It’s the best browsing experience you’ve ever had.”

10:11AM - “You can see the whole page in front of you and you can manipulate it with your fingers. You can turn it any way you want — it adjusts however you want it. You can see the whole page — it’s phenomenal. It’s an incredible experience.”

10:12AM - Email with a giant on-screen keyboard: “It’s a dream to type on.”

10:12AM - Photos: “Flick through them, it’s a wonderful way to share your photos. Built in a calendar. Address book, great maps app with Google Maps.”

10:13AM - “iPad is an awesome way to enjoy your music collection. And, of course, we have the iTunes store built right into the iPad.”

10:14AM - “That’s a little overview, but there’s nothing like seeing it, so I’d like to show you now. Using this thing is remarkable — it’s so much more intimate than a laptop, and it’s so much more capable than a smartphone.”

10:14AM - “Let’s go right to the web. Here we are at the NYT — you can see how fast this is.”

10:15AM - Going to the Time site. The scrolling is super smooth, it’s pretty damned nice.

10:16AM - “Going to Fandango — grab the tablet that’s in the kitchen, buy some tickets. It’s that simple.” It sure is, Steve.

10:17AM - “This is gorgeous. Right in the palm of your hand. Let’s go to email.” Man, I dunno, there is like too much room! Horizontal email view is pretty sweet though, finally two pane!

10:18AM - “That’s how simple mail is. If I want to reply to a message, up pops this gorgeous keyboard.” Steve is typing with two hands on his lap — not using thumbs. Very interesting.

10:19AM - Next, photos! Flick through — albums too. “If I’m on a Mac, I can get events, places, and faces from iPhoto.” Neato.

10:20AM - Photo scrubber bar at the bottom. “It’s really wonderful.”

10:20AM - Built-in slideshows. Music playing with the slides and transitions. Looks pretty damned good!

10:22AM - Music, large iTunes LP album artwork. Naturally Steve had to get an “It all works!” in there.

10:23AM - iTunes store. The UI on this thing is pretty intense, so far. Everything is familiar, but it’s all totally different from iPhone and OS X — this is a big launch for Apple. As if you hadn’t already noticed.

10:24AM - Showing calendar and maps, both look pretty amazing on this display.

10:25AM - Street view support looks pretty amazing. “Let me show you video, it looks wonderful.” Showing HD YouTube playback.

10:26AM - Showing movies and TV shows. Widescreen looks a little awkward because the screen is more square than widescreen, but it’s still damned fine. “Let’s pick another movie I love: Up.” chuckles. “Awesome movie.”

10:27AM - “That is video on the iPad. So that’s a bit of an overview as to what the iPad can do.” Big applause. “Watching it is nothing like getting one in your hands.”

10:28AM - “It’s 0.5-inches thin, weighs just 1.5 pounds. Thinner and lighter than any netbook. 9.7-inch IPS display.”

10:28AM - “As you know, Apple builds the best capacitive multi-touch sensors in the world — married to our great display, it’s super responsive and super precise.”

10:29AM - “iPad is powered by our own custom silicon. Our own chip. It’s called the A4, and it screams.” 1GHz. 16, 32, or 64GB of flash storage. “It’s got the latest in wireless: 802.11n, WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.”

10:29AM - “All the usual suspects: accelerometer, compass, speaker, mic, dock connector. And it’s got battery.”

10:30AM - “What’s the battery life on this remarkable device?” Pauses. “We’ve been able to achieve 10 hours of battery life.” Big applause.

]]> http://www.tattooedbanana.com/?feed=rss2&p=947 http://www.tattooedbanana.com/?p=937 http://www.tattooedbanana.com/?p=937#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:14:31 +0000 Redgoat http://www.tattooedbanana.com/?p=937

A Conversation With Brian Buckley:

A good friend and fellow video game enthusiast beta testing STO.

me:I was just going to ask what your final take on STO was and what you thought about it…
Brian: Final? It is not over yet
me: it will be at 6pm our time and I will not be playing it again before its done…
Brian: My initial review is 4 out of 10, I read they extended beta till the 2nd
me: Beta is over tonight
Heaad start is Friday till the 2nd
“Red alert! Check your photon torpedo count, make sure your phaser banks are full and keep transporter room two warmed up… The Final Frontier’s first online Open Beta Test will remain operational until Tuesday, January 26 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific.”
Brian: It is clumsy, and the control is absolutely awful, the communication is garbage, graphics need work, I simply do not like the whole name@name shit.. I should be able to find you where ever you are in the game at any time, the travel time between systems is wasteful and annoying as fuck
me: Is this your first MMO?
Brian: Star wars online was the same, if this is the standard for mmorpg games count me out. 14.99 for frustration, no thanks
me: Oh no I understand
Brian: I’m sure seasoned mmo players would see it that way.
Brian: For a game that you devote so much time on, you would think that you could warp anywhere in the game.
me: The game dose seem a bit per-mature for my liking and defiantly could use a lot more polish. However I have very little issues with graphics or frame rates.
me: taking a long time to “drive or fly” from one sector to another seems to be a very common part of MMOs
me: City of Heroes, WoW, Planetside have all been about doing a mission then taking 20 min to go tell someone its been done.
Brian: No, I can run it on the toshiba quite well, its just the graphic quality size etc…
I dunno, mmo is probaly just not for me.
me: The communications could be better and I do hope they get better, being able to communicate with a friend or fleet member at the touch of a button is the way to go. Also in COH they had a friend chat window so no matter who or what you were doing your friends could chat with you on your team or in a mission it did not matter.

Brian: The concept of it however(as is star wars online) is way cool, but once I get in it… Ughhhh I’d rather not
Brian: I can’t imagine wow being much different.and it is the 24th century still no voice chat? Wha tha faq!!
me: I liked the concept of 2 different games being smashed together.
1 with the ship battles.
2 with the away team.
true voive chat over the game would be nice
if I continue to play I’ll set up a vent server.
Brian: Yeah that is cool that I like.
But it should already have that stuff..
me: However in my opinion the game is only as good ads the friends your playing with. If you are looking for a solo adventure go play Half life2 again this kind of game is all about community and making and playing with friends don’t ya think?
Brian: Especially when you drop 60$ on a game then have to pay to play it.
100% agree, that being said why is it not easier?
me: to hook up with friends?
good question
Brian: Tooo much $#!*
Took me over half an hour to find you two last night.
Brian: I’m not an iddiot, but the game sure makes me feel like one.
me: true that
Brian: With in reason it should not take more than 30 min to learn how to fully play the game. Then however long to master…
me: I guess my final decision to buy the game once it starts depends on if Jim buys and plays the game
if he doesn’t I think I will give it a month or so till I purchase the game
Brian: He loves it, I’m sure he will be.
me: give them some time to work the kinks out
Brian: Kinks are one thing”beaming down as a ship” a kink, I can gloss over that no problem, the fundamentals are what irk me and will keep me from these games
Brian: … That and a monthly fee..and my wife who would divorce me if I spend even more time on the computer.
me: Yeah I know what you mean.

A Conversation With Jim McCay:

A good friend and fellow video game enthusiast beta testing STO.

me: I need to know your final thoughts on STO…
Jim: I have no frame of reference. Ive never played an MMORPG
Targeting is frustrating, camera orientation is annoying
“Salvage is seemingly random
I took down a Klingon FLAGSHIP and got a battery
Im sure some of the issues I was having in graphics were due to playing on a 2 yo laptop.
the currencys change from sector to sector currencies
in the Neutral zone mission, K7 doesnt use energy credits, but the Badge of Exploration
you cant have an economy where the different currencies arent exchangeable
Jim: I aint paying $10 a month
Jim: its OK, I think they will continue to improve the system and deal with the glitches (sensors reading things that arent actually on the “Map”, cant turn, only strafe, etc) but Im reluctant to pay what they want
I dont want to buy a game and keep paying for it right now
me: well yes but they are also not MMO
Jim: I know
me: cool
Jim: I think Id rather they release this game in stand alone
me: go on
Jim: you vs the universe
and duke itout
me: A game like this is only as good as the people you play it with…
Jim: same ranks, same training, same missions
not quite
there are manythings frustrating about the program
like brian said
cant find your friends
cant speak to them
Jim: these issues make it staggeringly frustrating to play with friends
Jim: not like I didnt notice you are also well aware we had to use google voice
me: I believe the communications part will only get better (it can’t get much worse)
Jim: the navigation is a nightmare
the inventories, exchange are all a pain
Jim: I enjoyed it once I got to missions
running/flying around blowing stuff up is what I like.
and its enjoyable
even a bit challenging
I like that
me: well my feelings is maybe give it some time and let them work some bugs out and then try it again
Jim: the devil is in the details and
there are a LOT of details
I think in a few weeks or so it should really be what is should be
Jim: I think this group will listen to the fans and what has to be done
me: its kind like kids wouldn’t play cops and robbers if they knew how much paperwork cops really did
Jim: they are profit driven, obviously, and the fans dont settle for crap, not from something as iconic as Star Trek.
me: you like the action but not the other stuff that goes with it
Jim: ill give credit to the transwarp thing
thats brilliant
but there is no transwarp to leave spacedock
me:  thats what makes it massive…
Jim: when I went back to offload exess goods, it took 10 minutes to get back to the action, after spending 10 min shuffling inventories
me: yeah
Jim: massive shouldnt equal time wasting
me: “paperwork”
Jim: yeah
me: LOL
Jim: I dont mind taking time to train myself and the officers
me: the game would be over in 10 hours if it was just that easy
Jim: I think its great, it gives a sense of accomplishment when your away team bots can kick ass alone
me: thats not the point he point is to go through the steps and earn it…
Jim: you dont need excessive transit times
and you do need better navigation intefaces
inter
I like the reward syatem programmed in
it tells you at the beginning what youre going to get
lets you plan
I like hailing and getting it transferred. I dont have to run to Sol everytime Ive completed a mission
but there are things you can ONLY do @ spacedock
like the bank
the exchange
I wish there were ATMs
me:  LOL
Jim: that would make me happy
dock with the federation runabout and give him crap to deposit FOR YOU
me: DORK
Jim: what
me: ATM
Jim: I hate having to run home to momma everytime i fill up my inventory
I want a logistics system
me: you know that Del Taco has a code this month to get a run about
Jim: no i saw some chat, but thought it was some geek joke
me: well the idea is once you graudate to your levels your missions will begin to move to other sectors and you don’t have to some back to Sol
Jim: thats what I want!
well k7 is a bitch
Jim: they change the currency
thas why I want ATM
Jim: I dont want to start with 0 crdits of whatever everytime I change quadrants
I dont like the “Bureuacracy”
a runabout will be great
should come standard
the maps are confusing and warping often drops you in the wrong sector
Im not even super mad about losing y account when Beta is over
Fair is fair
me: WOW really?
Jim: but i bet the people who buy it quick were on beta and they will know what is what and have a leg up anyway
it wont be so hard this time
I spent a lot of time redoing missions because they kept being redunsdant
I did SB24 like 5 times
cuz that admiral kept telling me to
Sent at 11:02 AM on Tuesday
Jim: i also like the side by side comparison in inventory
I dont know much about points, and that helped me out a bit
apparently, whateveris better has a biggerbox
that made it a bit easier
me: oh is it
I didn’t notice that…
Jim:  I think so
me: tuna sounds good for lunch
Jim: Del Taco for me
me: I brought left over steak from dinner
Jim: m hungry too
me: http://startrekonline.com/type8_shuttle
Jim: so Im geting pants and going to lunch
me: LOL
your porky pigging it?
Jim: not exactly
Im in army shorts
me: sure…

The goal of the game was to identify all the games from the clues on top of the cupcakes. I challenge you to do the same and leave a list (left to right top to bottom) with the name of the game.