Thoughts: MORE BF Vs. COD + [Preliminary] Review: Battlefield 3 (PC & Consoles)

FREEZE! SCROLL DOWN FOR BF3 PRELIM REVIEW! FOR THOSE CRYING LIKE LITTLE BITCHES AND CALLING ME A FANBOY...READ ON (IF YOU CAN)


THOUGHT
So here we are. It's been nearly a month since I posted my first impressions regarding the beta, and now that the final build is out, what do I think about BF3? Well, I have to be real when I say that this game needs to grow on me a little more. This is by no means a bad game. On the contrary, it a pretty good game. There are elements that I seen right off the bat that makes me shake my head. A lot of it has been somewhat stated by professional critics, but their profession is often left with suspicion that a publisher has "paid off" the editors (of IGN, Gamespot, etc, etc) to praise their title or diss the other. I find their judgements clouded and irrelevant.

I have an obligation to say how this game really is without bias. Yes, I been hyping BF3 up religiously over the past month. Yes, I'm more of a BF fan over Call of Duty, but some of you know that I still play COD anyway (G, Ian, Bird, FBGM..). Today, they're both 2 different games suffering an identity crisis. For MW3, they're trying to hook BF fans with the changes of the perks, weapon experience system and more team oriented modes. IF anyone played the best COD games in the franchise, COD 1 and COD United Offensive, you would know of a little mode called Base Assault. This game mode was directly aiming to score BF 1942 fans with large maps, vehicles, and of course, 64 players. Overall, the direction Activision wanted to take was the fast paced, yet casual, arena-type. Obviously, it works! I still find myself playing COD1 (PC), COD4 (PC), and Black Ops (PS3). The formula is still relevant, but I wish that MW3 had things like 64 players... at least. For BF3, they're trying to lure in the COD fans with modes like Team Deathmatch, and as far as I can tell, it's really a sniper's paradise. I don't know if it's the COD fans attempt to quick scope (to which they're doing it wrong), or the map is way too imbalanced for run and gun, but as of right now, it's not working.

All complexities aside, the fact of the matter is that BF and COD are different games. They both have their unique skill set so that whole "BF requires skill" deal is irrelevant simply because I'm able to play decently for both games. The ideology in what's pro or not is also different. If you haven't noticed, BF awards on the level of getting objectives done and supporting your teammates (Dropping ammo, health, reviving, etc). Your score and your win/lose ratio is important. COD is also about win/lose, but your Kill/Death ratio counts a whole lot. Keep that in mind.

Another big thing that I wish IW/Sledghammer/Treyarch did for MW3 is create a new engine! IW4 has been used since COD2, and even that variant was a heavily modified version of Id's Tech III engine used in Quake III Arena. Personally, and word from various forums, the game just looks like more of the same thing. It didn't jump out like COD 4 did back in 07 (and I was hyped, Hyped, HYPED for it!). While it's not prefect, at least Dice has the time to develop the a new engine, and the results were still a beautiful outcome. It's nice.

I can easily say that the worse part of these two franchise is the fans. In particular, the most vocal of fans... the fanboys/girls/trolls. They are the loudest, narrow-minded, and ignorant of fans. They habitually support their franchise and/or gaming platform, and the worse part is that everyone is somehow guilty of being like that. I'm a little more reformed these days, and that's only because I reunited my 360 with my PS3, and my PC. I tend to still poke a little fun at folks from time to time, but all platforms seem to have it's merits and flaws. I also love to let these folks speak their newspeak and whatever witty remarks they may have. They're just so easy to put in Cloud 9 only to yank them by the eye socket back to Earth. Personally, I think game franchises are the worst when it comes to fanboyism, ESPECIALLY when it comes to BF and COD. It's horrible, and it's worse this generation because we are so net-connected to the world, EVERY ONE  has an opinion. Even I have an opinion (I love BF), but how can you be a fanboy if you end up buying the products of both sides and put some hours in said product? Anyway, a lot of these fantrolls also impose their opinions to dissuade, or piss off the opposite crowd. This may seem like typical behavior throughout the years, but it's especially noticeable because of internet outlets that seem to give everyone a chance to speak on a soapbox.  Compared to the last 3 generations of games and gamers (PSX/N64/Saturn, PS2/Gamecube/Xbox, PS3/360/Wii) the current generation is by far the worse batch. It begs the question about if a gamer is ever satisfied. Maybe my standards are too low, but despite that, I still stand by the fact that the Fanboy Generation (or Generation Derp) has damaged my perception of the majority of gamers.  I thought that people played games because it was fun. I didn't think that a cult following had something to do with gaming. Sadly, those folks who have been playing for 5 generations (and beyond) are always part of the demographic, so there really is no way to distinguish who is a part of this generation. Sadface is sad. :(


SO WHAT ABOUT THE BF3 REVIEW?

Jeez, alright! This is a first impression, preliminary review. As you may know, I bought both the PS3 and PC version. There was no way that I was going to miss the eye candy, large map, 64 PLAYER carnage on the PC. I also am also catering to the friends who won't make that step and build a PC, so the PS3 was also a must. Figuring that I have both, console and PC versions, this is great in the future when I have enough playtime, and time in general to muster up a full review. In the meantime, I put in about 3 hours on the PC version and close to 6 on the PS3 (as of 26OCT).

GRAPHICS/SOUND
For the PC, I was mainly trying to load test my CPU/GPU, and I was able to crank out 40 - 50 frames on a mix high/ultra graphics setting and all the bells and whistles enabled. The game looks incredible! I couldn't believe how it looked. I was impressed by the detail and optimization. So how did the PS3 (or consoles) fair? Well, if you turn the settings on the PC version to low, that's what the consoles look like. Is that bad? It's a yes, and no because Dice wanted to add as much detail and foliage in to maintain the looks of the PC version. The effort is great and all, but they had to sacrifice a lot, and the end result is so-so. It's not to say that it's not inferior, but the effort may have been a bit too much for the consoles. Another thing is the fact that the console version is rendered in sub-HD. Yes, SUB-HD! The game is displayed at 1280 x 720 (aka 720p) for the PS3 and upscaled to 1920 x 1080 for the 360. In reality, the game for both versions are rendered at 1280 x 704. Dice did that to reduce memory usage while maintaining the foliage. It doesn't incredibly hurt the visuals, but I think I would rather sacrifice some foliage and random objects for a high overall appearance.

The following 3 shots are PC shots emulating Console specs according to information released by Dice and Nvidia. The resolution is @ 1280 x 720 and the overall settings are set to Low. Keep in mind that the actual resolution for consoles is @ 1280 x 704. Basically, 8 lines of pixels were eliminated. Click for better detail.

That issue is just where it starts. We have to break it down to specific consoles, and while the difference is really minor (and I mean REALLY minor), it is still noteworthy. Playing the PS3 version, I have noticed texture loading is slow. Not really slow, but if you're looking for it, you can see it. Based on what I heard about the 360 version, textures load much faster, and the clarity is slightly better.

There is one thing that all versions are currently suffering from and that's graphic tearing, artifacts, and floating objects. My advice is to just standby and wait for a patch. Believe me, the same thing happened when Battlefield 2 released back in '05 and even COD United Offensive when it released. Things got better, and this is no exception.

As far as sound is concerned, it's probably one of the best experiences I ever heard for a video game. From bullets flying, to buildings crumbling, it's a symphony. I highly recommend that you have surround headsets (at least 5.1), or a surround system.

These shots are PC @ 1920 x 1080. The settings were a mix between Ultra and High and with the 560 Ti, it was running anywhere between 30 to 70 fps. Click for better detail.

GAMEPLAY (SINGLEPLAYER & MULTIPLAYER)
What can I say? It's still feels like the same ol' Battlefield to me. Yes, there are new tactics, but I think I'll go into that in the full review. We do have some issues that I noticed off the bat.

For the single player campaign, I highly recommend that you go through it once even though the professional reviews say that the singleplayer is dookie. It'll give you most of the play mechanics for the folks who never played a BF game. Another thing, believe it or not, is interaction with the enemy AI. The AI is rather....bad, but it's mainly bad because they're overpowered. There are random moments in the game where you just die out of nowhere. It's annoying, but a lot of it reminds me of run and gunners on MP who would do the same, only to get a random bullet to the dome. All in all, the campaign should run you about 8 hours, and it kind of feels like The Sum of All Fears. Is that a good thing? Well, the concept is rather stale these days.  It's really down to playing either a gritty, yet boring story.... or Michael Bay on Ice (MW3).

This is also a game of discipline. Someone cried about popping 6 or so rounds before dropping someone. Muzzle discipline is in effect! Especially for the console folk who have to use the statistically slower thumb stick to control things like muzzle climb. Yes, there is more emphasis on controlling your weapon, but for those who played games like COD 1 or BF2, controlling your guns muzzle shouldn't be a problem. It's really a matter of who fires first and how good your latency is. Another thing that will help is the fire mode toggle. If you're tucked in pretty good and fast with sending rounds downrange in semi, do it. It's very effective, especially if you're playing Support.

The multiplayer maps are of varying size and tactics. From the vehicle dependent Caspian Border, to the infantry focused Seine Crossing, there is something for everyone.  More to come in that department.. but be aware that buying the game now will give you access to 4 additional maps from previous BF games (among other things).

From the looks of things, there are many unlocks that keeps the replay value. From guns, to accessories, to class enhancing equipment, I have a long way to go before I have my classes all setup the way I wanted.

So far, Battlefield 3 is shaping up to be a game of it's own. It's a fusion of BF2, and Bad Company 2, but it really stands out on it's own. It's not perfect by any means, but as the critics are already saying, you're not going to find a more in depth game than BF3. As the server backend gets fixed, and more patches are released, I can give a much better and full review of the game.

THOUGHTS:BF vs COD & Battlefield 3 Beta

STOP! IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE DETAILS OF THE BATTLEFIELD 3 BETA AS WELL AS OVERALL BF TIPS, SCROLL DOWN!

October is here.. and aside from the awesome festivities that this month brings --like Oktoberfest, Halloween, and midterms.. Ok, not midterms-- It is also a time when blockbuster games release. Think of the fall season as what the summer season is to movie releases. Yeah, one can also count the winter holiday sales as part of this, but nothing really releases during the holiday season. Obviously, it's an important time for companies, but typically, blockbuster and hyped up titles tend to release before Thanksgiving and after the New Year. October in particular has many returning franchise titles as well as some new ones. The 4th sees the release of Ubisoft's Ghost Recon Future Soldier, 2K Games NBA 2K12 & The Darkness 2, and Id's Rage. Namco-Bandai's Ace Combat Assault Horizon drops on the 11th as well as Turn 10's Forza Motorsport 4, and Ubisoft's Just Dance 3. The 18th has Rocksteady's Batman Arkham City and Sony's Rachet and Clank: All 4 One releasing. Out of all these games releasing, the most anticipated and extremely hyped up game coming this month (and probably all year) is none other than EAs Battlefield 3 (October 25th). Not to be confused with Battlefield Bad Company and BC2, BF3 is a sequel to 2005's BF2 which was only released on the PC (with the exception of the spinoff Battlefield 2: Modern Combat..which paled when compared to BF2).

EA has been relentless with it's aggressive marketing campaign which aims to dethrone the current king of shooters, Call of Duty. They even stoop to extremely low levels by calling out the validity of Call of Duty and their very recent TV spot trailer with Jay-Z's 99 Problems and the rather humorous tagline "Above And Beyond The Call." Despite the low blows, it's only natural for EA (or any other contender) to go toe to toe with Call of Duty.

EA: trololo

Activision: okay...

On the flip side, Call of Duty has not changed it's core formula since Call of Duty 2. In fact, in terms of gameplay, it took a step back since the best COD game, United Offensive on the PC, had vehicles, and every COD game until MW2 had 64 players and full control over the servers. By the time MW2 released, the games lead development platform switched to consoles, in what was to become the best move Activision made. MW2 and Black Ops sold like hotcakes with Black Ops in particular becoming the highest grossing video game in history. A number of things went wrong with this.. the first thing is that they just about alienated the entire PC community with the removal of 64 players, and dedicated servers in MW2. The PC community retaliated by relentless circumvention of the security measures that were put in place to prevent cheating in multiplayer matches. Activision and developer Treyarch attempted to fix this in Black Ops with the re-introduction of dedicated servers, but because the code was so terribly written, and the account that Activision must control some aspect of your gaming experience on the PC side, the dedicated servers were all but broken. Another thing that places the validity of supremacy was the return rate of Black Ops. Yeah, it sold like no other, but a large number of customers also returned or traded their copies in for whatever reason.

EA and developer DICE took another approach and used their console developed Bad Company series as a testbed for a new engine called the Frostbite Engine. The main purpose of the engine was to create a destructible environment potentially eliminating a potential campers hiding spot (i.e sniper in the attic of a building? Blow a hole on the roof, or just take the entire building down.). With the amount of data and feedback from the Bad Company games, DICE started to create the 2nd generation of Frostbite to use in their next title, Battlefield 3. The result? Well, This:

Unlike Activision and developers Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, who continues to use the same IW 4 engine (since Call of Duty 2) for MW3, EA and DICE used a completely new engine for BF3, and it's a technical beauty to say the least and it doesn't stop at my opinion. At E3 (aka game nerd heaven), BF3 was nominated for 81 awards and won 47 while MW3 won none. At Gamescom (aka European game nerd heaven), BF3 won best in show and had an average play booth queue of 3 hours as opposed to MW3 (no line). BF3 is a technical marvel that captured the hearts of critics and end-users well before release. In fact, Activision attempted to circumvent EA's fun by hosting a convention dedicated to Call of Duty, and while new information about their upcoming title was released, the attendance never sold as well as they wanted to. Despite that and all the praise from the community, I think that BF3 will not be enough to kick Call of Duty off it's high chair. The fact that Call of Duty is easy to pickup and play is reason enough to outsell BF3 this holiday season. The name alone prompts sales. Another reason (and a new development) is how DICE is currently running their highly advertised Open Beta (I'll get into detail about that one in the Beta section). It's should have been an extremely limited and closed beta. First impressions are lasting impressions and they failed to address that to the ignorant community (which is quite a few gamers).

Gamescom In Cologne

Despite what happens, these two games pretty much sealed the deal as to what defines this generation and it's fan base, and it's rather grim to tell you the truth. This generation showed a relentless amount of allegiances, fanboy-ism (blind and utter support for a game, franchise, or platform), and overall stupidity. If you play on Xbox Live, or PSN, you hear it every time you hear a screaming 8 year old kid on your headset (what are you doing playing a game like this anyway?). This generation also thrives on what is known rather than looking for innovation. Take Call of Duty for instance. Same formula since COD2, and they took steps backwards, yet everyone eats that shit up. It's ridiculous. I stopped playing habitually after Call of Duty 4, because nothing has changed since then. Yeah, you'll see on Black Ops every so often, but I can only take so much ugliness, jagged edges, and people who shouldn't be allowed to speak before I have to just turn it off (although Combat Training on Hardened is insane... trust me. I recommend regular unless you have the speed and accuracy of a mouse). 

This generation shall be forever dubbed Generation Derp.

Battlefield 3 Beta

Before I begin, do any of you even know what a Beta is? No? Well then, a beta is second stage in a software development phase and it is used as a testbed for a variety of different aspects of a program. The idea is to provide a source to layout the likes and dislikes of the program as well as glitches, and bugs so the developers can act on it. In the BF3 Beta's case, it's older build of the code (about a month old), and the technical purpose of this beta was to test the server backend and stress test the servers. Another thing to take into account is the fact that a lot of beta's are bound to have major graphic issues such as screen tearing, flashing, going into the map, etc. It happens. So what does the Average Joe think what a beta is? It's a demo. WRONG! Demo's are limited representations of a final product (code). Such examples would be the Forza 4 DEMO or if any of you remember, the Battlefield 2 DEMO. Demo = limited representation of final code. The BF3 beta IS NOT final code. This was stated well before the beta released. This was also restated today (3 October 11) on the official Battlefield blog and reposted on Battlelog forum.

So What's In The Beta?
Initially, the beta supplied 2 maps: Operation Metro and Caspian Border. Operation Metro is a linear style objective based map (or Rush) in which one faction has to destroy these objects called MComs. MComs just look like a piece of electronic equipment with a screen. The other faction has to defend the MComs from being destroyed. Failure to do so will result in the attacking faction advancing the map to another area and they have to jump that hurdle to get to the next, so on, and so on. Both sides are subject to ticket counters and the tickets represent how many respawns the attacking team uses. When the ticket counter reaches 0, the defending force wins the round. In this case, Op Metro has 4 different sections. Rush mode, in my opinion, is more of a console-centric mode which played well into the Bad Company series. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun mode to play, but I prefer playing the staple mode  of this franchise, Conquest. Conquest places two factions on a huge map, and the objective is to obtain and hold different bases (or flags) spread throughout the map. Obviously, the more bases you hold by the end of the round determines the winner. To be more technical, this is also ticket base, and it takes into account how many bases you're holding. You don't necessarily have to control the most bases by the end of the round, but if you held the majority of the bases for most of the match, you're going to win because of the ticket count.

Operation Metro (1st Section)

Operation Metro (2nd section)

While the console player is stuck with only Operation Metro to play (for now anyway..who knows), the PC players, and the early beta testers in particular, were graced with Caspian Border. Caspian is a Conquest map with 64 players, vehicles, helicopters, and jets. This is the way the REAL Battlefield is supposed to be played (of course, IMO). 

Caspian Border

So as I said, not many people got a chance to play Caspian. They only had 10 servers up in total (4 in the US only!), and everyone around the country was trying to get in. Because of that, lag was heavily present at certain times, but I was able to get some playtime in without much hiccup. This map is HUGE! player clutter was to a minimum and there were plenty of action to be had. During my playtime, I was just exploring and testing things like mowing down a concrete building with the AA guns, attempting to destroy the massive tower that was in the middle of the map (failed to), and shooting down aircraft. It's sad that EA/DICE didn't just leave this map in the open beta because this better represents what's in store for us come October 25th. Anyway, I'm going to let some of these pics speak for the map. It was a blast to play while it lasted.

Caspian Border

For you aircraft savvy type, that is a F/A-18E Super Hornet

A building used to be there..

My LAV AA, and a AH-1Z Cobra

Water..just water.

Comparing..

So you may be thinking that I'm dominantly PC, right? Well yes, but that doesn't mean that I won't play on console. For the purpose of comparing multiple aspects, I downloaded and played ALL versions of the game. So how did it all stack up?

Graphics

Of course, the PC version dominates this category. It's using DirectX 11 and it shows well in my pics, as well as the videos that Dice released. Many technical aspects are very present (I won't go into it, but any tech savvy folk would know what comes with DX11) and surprisingly, it doesn't hit my frame count that bad. I can run Ultra settings at 30 - 40fps (1920 x 1080 or 1080p) with my first gen Intel i7 CPU, but I know i'm going to keep it on High setting since I have about 60fps. As for the console version, comparing them to the PC is futile. Face the facts, fangirls. It's futile. Unfortunately, Battlelog doesn't have a screenshot feature like it's older cousin Autolog (for Need For Speed), so I couldn't do side by side comparing. My comparing is solely based on what I seen when I played and what was used to render the game. Technically, the PS3 is the dominate version over the 360. It wasn't by much, but it is the dominate version. The PS3 version is using more PC-centric post processing that may not be noticeable when you're casually playing, but they are there (tech stuff such as MLAA). I haven't seen too many frame slowdown, but I have seen graphic glitches for both versions. As far as which version is sharper, it would be the 360 version, but that's only because they upscale all their games to 1080p. Now before you rant to me that the 360 version is better because of that, hold your tongues, because both versions are rendered below 720p. Yeah, you heard me, BELOW 720p. In order to keep all the foliage and other items in the game, Dice had to take about 8 lines (4 on the top, 4 on the bottom) of rendering off of both versions to keep it running fine for the consoles. Remember, Battlefield 3 is a PC developed game, and it had to be ported to the consoles (not the other way around like Bad Company, MW, etc). Things were sacrificed in order for the game to run decently on the consoles. Another issue with the 360 version is how heavy the contrast is. I don't know if it's just the HDR, but it's extra dark in some places. This is only a minor issue since the end user (that's you) should be adjusting their screens accordingly. Overall, both versions are fine...unless they're compared to the PC version. 

Nope, you're not getting this clarity on the PS3/360 version. Fact.

UPDATE! Here is a comparison video of all 3 versions! TO SEE THE FULL CLARITY, HIT THE FULL SCREEN BUTTON AND SET IT TO 1080P

 

Gameplay / Experience

Comparing the gameplay is merely based on the community, and all three are different. All 3 have problems.. If you are playing on the PC, it's typical BF antics. Elitists. Glitchers. Hackers. It doesn't take away from the experience, but they are present. Sometimes the best solution is to just Alt+F4 and not deal with it. We have 100 servers to choose from. The PS3 and 360 versions are heavily (but still manageable ) filled with Call of Duty style players. You also have to deal with people in your squad talking. Unless you're playing in a party, I typically plug in my headset and set it aside. It's not so much the annoying little kids that ruin my experience. In fact, I haven't heard too many of them. It's the little older teens and 1st year college folk that ruin it. They complain and cry just as much as they post crap on the battlelog forum. Anyway, a number of players play Op Metro as if they're playing Nuketown on Black Ops. They don't arm any MCom's, they camp in the bushes, and did I mention that they whine over the mic/chatbox? Typically, I have to live with it on consoles, but for the PC, it's not too much of a problem.

Now here is something that plagues all 3 versions: Recon. First of all, many folks don't know how to play recon. They don't spot. They don't cover folks going for the MCom. They always try to quickscope. THIS IS NOT CALL OF DUTY! STOP IT, NOW! This is team objective based. You're not an Army of One. Quickscoping doesn't work. It's not laser tag either. Gravity is accounted for! Camping in the bushes as an attacker doesn't help the team....at all.

Tips and Advice

So, this is for you Call of Duty players jumping ship. Follow them and you can dominate while winning the objective:

• As I said up top, stop trying to quickscope! It doesn't work here. 
• If you're a Recon in the attacking team, move up! Especially if your team has armed an MCom. You become an asset when you're in a position to send bullets downrange and defend the MCom from being disarmed.
• You can't hide no more. Notice the glare downrange... that's you through an opponents eyes. Another reason why this is not Call of Duty. There is actual skill required to dominate with a sniper rifle
• Learn to use iron sights. Hitting the Customize button will send to a menu where you can set up your weapon. Take the scope out of the equation. Use the iron sights. Not only will that eliminate the glare you produce with a scope, it forces you to keep moving and get close, if anything, arm the MCom.
• Recon's have Mobile spawnpoints. Use them, if you can get close to an MCom. Drop one, and your squad can spawn with you. Place them in an obscured area and a covered area because you'll be spawning standing up.
• For Assault, remember, you're the medic too! If you're not rushing or defending the MCom, you can drop health boxes and heal everyone around you.
• If you Assault folks have defibs, don't be a dumbass and revive folks in the middle of a corridor with 3 enemies shooting downrange. You'll probably give that guy another notch in their k/d as well as you dying yourself. Be smart about reviving.
• Engineers! You can cause the most havoc in the game! The setup makes you extremely mobile and you carry the rocket launchers If you see 3 enemies down a corridor, snap shoot an RPG downrange! If someone is hiding in a building, or behind certain walls, chances are that the wall is destructible. Take the cover out of the equation.
• Support. Use the bipod on your LMG. It's not there for looks. Using it can significantly increase accuracy. 
• Unless you're suppressing a target, send short bursts down range. Infact, if you're able to, switch the fire mode to semi. More control = more kills (press V for PC, Down on the D-Pad for console).
• Every situation is different. Check and change you configuration as you see fit. i.e close quarters may be grounds for using guns like a UMP, PP2000, or M870.
• While we're on configurations, accessories within the gun should also change according to the situation. If you're in a wide open field, use a laser sight to keep your position low-key, but you're still able to hinder your enemies vision. If you're in dark areas, equip a tact light or use a pistol with a light. The lights are blinding and you can get your kills that way.
• Suppressing is not just a term in this game, it's an actual effect. Send bullets downrange and you can blur the opponents vision and if used correctly, another person can rush that position and take out those pesky campers who won't move up.
• Some buildings can be used to your advantage. if you have someone on the ground level of a destructible building, shoot above (Engineers) the person and watch the rubble crash onto the enemy. 
• When knifing, you press and hold the fire key to see the super funny and satisfying knife kill (and dog tag yanking).
• For all classes: Gravity is present in this game. This is not laser tag like Call of Duty. You have to account for bullet drop:

Bullet drop....learn it, noob!

• Lastly, DON'T WORRY ABOUT YOUR KILL/DEATH RATIO! That doesn't matter in Battlefield games. Getting the objective done will win you the match.

Have fun! The beta runs into the 13th, and it's open and free. Download it, play it, report the bugs.

RANT: Pacific Immigration & the Homeless..

So I gotta start with this homeless issue which has plagued much of Honolulu. The plan that the governor proposed in regards to the homeless population was a 90 day improvement initiative to either place much of the homeless into shelters, and overall reduce the number of the homeless folks in the city. Of course, this means tax money, and like the rail, the whole state is paying for it. For starters, I would rather see my tax money go into the homeless, but I don't agree that the state should pay unless this initiative covered the whole state. Regardless to my opinion, it happened.

Today is day 91. How did the state do? Well they brought more food in to pass out. That's good. There are more shelters set up. Excellent. It looks nice on paper, but they're really overshadowing another agenda. Something that is going down towards the end of the year. For those who don't know, we're having APEC over here, and the world will converge on poor Hawai'i to get their conference skills on. Knowing this, Governor Abercrombie had 90 days to set these facilities up and get as many homeless folks in them. It's still a good thing, but as far as overall improvement, no. Nothing was improved. The tent city that was lined up at Kaka'ako was driven out, and instead of seeking these shelters, they moved inland... in particular, where North Beretania meets North King St. and along Dillingham Blvd just before the back entrance to Costco. The same tent community that was driven out resides along these streets. This is not to include the communities at Ala Moana Beach Park, Iwilei Rd (by K-Mart and Dole Cannery.), and I'm sure many more areas in Waikiki. That's not an improvement. The state just relocated the homeless to areas where they think APEC dignitaries wouldn't venture to.

Now, this isn't all just the state. You have to realize that a number of these homeless folks are homeless because of mental disabilities, and they refuse to enter shelters. Case in point: a woman lived at a bus stop on the corner of Kapiolani and Keaaumoku (right next to KFC). Because of her ungodly funk, city transit authorities moved the bus stop 60 feet away from the woman. Her funk was due to not having a shower....for 10 years. She was mentally unstable and refuse to seek shelter. She may have been forced into one since I no longer see her at her bus stop home, and it's a prime visual area for these APEC dignitaries considering places like Nordstrom (and the largest open-air mall in the world) is across the street.

Despite missing the meat of the objective, the city is still making the effort to bring in the goods for the homeless and underprivileged folks. The means are good, but knowing why they escalated their efforts to get them off the streets is not. This should have been an ongoing effort. Of course, that's wishful thinking and worse, our current efforts are being hindered by another issue in our state.

Compact of Free Association Act
In 2003, the federal government renewed the above act which basically enables the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau to be considered an associated state of the United States. The COFA was a result of the nuclear testing we did in the area during the Cold War. It wasn't until recently that a large number of Micronesians started to arrive in Hawai'i to live, work and make use of the medical facilities that places like the FSM don't have. Them being here is suppose to be at the cost of federal taxes being that this was a federal act signed into law at D.C. Instead, Hawai'i tax payers are paying immensly for them to be here. Keep in mind, that they're provided with housing, and a large number of immigrants are up for free medical as some would really need it for post radiation issues (among other things). The COFA also allows Micronesians to come in without a Visa and without a prior health screening. According to the latest census, Hawai'i is housing 12,000 Micronesians.

In my eyes, this is fine. They're entitled to this right. I have no problem with them being here... as a person. A human, and someone who just wants to live their lives. I'm fine with it. Despite this, there are a number of issues that I do have a problem with. The first thing is sustainability. This goes in multiple directions. One direction is the fact that the state tax payers are paying a large sum of cash to sustain their living. This is one thing that I can agree with Governor Abercrombie: the federal government needs to step in and pay up....big time.  The federal governement needs to account for bills that we never asked to pay alone. This can be even easier if the feds instilled a immigration cap for Micronesians so they can spread the population to other states. Like I said, this is a federal act. The way I see it, these issues shouldn't be placed under the burden of just one state. The 2nd thing really grinds my gears. I have witnessed on multiple occassions, harassment of others, red-handed stealing of petty items such as hedge clippers, to hose nozzles, and shovels from someones backyard. The worse...THE worse is the occasional stack of furniture (intact or broken) and matresses on the sidewalk on Keaaumoku (and actually, all around the city). Even after addressing and placing laws to prevent or minimize the time of dumping said furniture (or you can call it what I call it: my $$$) for the bulk rubbish trucks, I see piles on the sidewalk. Many see this as them showing the US a "you owe us" mentality for the nuke tests that we done over the Cold War era. It's fine to have that mentality. It's understandable yet, when they cry that they're being discriminated by the locals, it's just as easy to pin everything that I just said to justify it.

We may be a state that prides on our diversity, but because of the strife that the COFA brings to this state, some use it to justify racism against the associated states. Like the few Micronesians who have the potential of making their entire population look bad, the same can be applied to the local resident population. This is bad... for us. This is class action status right here. If people think that using the "you owe us" defense for the little stuff was bad, wait until some dumbass local decides to escalate a racial situation with them. Even if that were to happen, it wouldn't be the first time that the Micronesians taken an entity to court for some class-action... action. The Lingle administration also committed discrimination under the momentum that we agreed that this whole situation was an "unfair burden." Basically, the state took away a hefty Medicaid program and placed an inadequate program called Basic Health Hawaii. Equal justice lawyers and other law firms sued the state and won using the Equal Protection clause within the 14th Amendment. The prior medicaid program was reinstated shortly after the ruling. History has shown what discrimination does. It has no place in such a diverse state.


Regardless, we're still paying. In fact, last years bill topped at $100,000,000.00 (yes, I laid it out like that), and the annual reimbursment that we're suppose to receive from the feds is only $10 million dollars. In terms of money, I don't like the fact that these immigrants throw our money on the sidewalk, or when they have to either face trial or jail time for petty crimes. Yeah, one can easily say that the piles of crap on the sidewalk can easily be someone elses filth, but for all the years that I lived in Honolulu and all the changes I seen, I have never seen a bulk trash issue until after the COFA was renewed and immigrants started flooding the state (oh, and seeing it firsthand..). Shit, the bulk trash law was a result of the excessive bulk that remained on the streets for weeks. The Federal government needs to step up and help with the mess that they created. The population per state cap should go into effect considering the terms of the COFA. That's a start, and it's completely fair.

RANT: More Mobile Trash & Gross Misinterpretation of "4G" Continues!

So the phone industry continues to amaze me in very creative ways. One of my expertise is getting into heated discussions with the "experts" in the phone industry. It's quite an oxymoron to call them "experts" considering that their main job is to sell their products to the consumer. Similar to a crooked salesman at a used car lot in Virginia Beach (up to 37% interest!), the purpose is to entrap the customer into a plan and convince them that their network is the best. Of course, we can pin this premise with most sales-people, but unlike that used car salesman, little to nothing is being done to keep the phone companies in check. It all comes down to the honesty of the salesman, and there are quite a few who are aware of the malicious tactics that are used to hook in Johnny/Jane E. Dumbass to getting their "4G" iPhone 4 (which is NOT 4G....at all), and ridiculously priced plan. Take those salesmen away and you're left with the rest of the circus. The ones who keep prodding your back until you produce some plastic (or some Federal Reserve Notes). One of the main staples to this campaign is their network. Sprint took the upper hand early and introduced their WiMax network as the first functioning 4G network in the country. This was followed by T-Mobile using HSPA+, AT&T also releasing HSPA+, and Verizon releasing LTE. All services releasing 4G networks.. all services false advertising! As I stated here, none of these networks are actual 4G networks. They're all precursors to the standard, but they ALL fall short of the projected target of 100MBits download / 50MBits upload speed (which is indeed faster than most broadband internet speed) that is suppose to be the standard. At first impression, it's not a big deal. These current speeds are still faster than their labeled 3G counterparts. Looking further into the matter reveals a gross misinterpretation scheme design to trick the people into thinking that these networks are actually 4G.

Ryan... This Again?
Hey, the way I see it, this is your money. You're buying into what they say regardless if you think otherwise. Having that mindset, would you be thinking about what you bought yourself into? I sure as hell did. A couple days later, I had to blog my findings. To briefly summarize, HSPA+, WiMax, and LTE are considered anywhere between 3.5 - 3.9G. In reality, .5 and .9 are just loose terms to describe that they're above the standard 3G specs. All networks fall under what is called the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project). These networks all have ties to the much older GSM and CDMA (think Moto RAZR days) networks, but the point is that in order for the network to be qualified as an actual 4G network, the standard needed to be submitted to the International Telecommunications Union and it needed to meet the IMT-Advanced (fancier way of saying 4G) standard. For mobiles, the target is 100Mbits d/l and 50Mbits u/l. In a nutshell, the best that this nation can do is 37Mbits (Verizon LTE), therefore, the fastest network in the US doesn't meet the 4G standard. The only country on Earth that has exceeded the target is Japan with their LTE-Advanced standard. Regardless to this, the companies see their networks as 4G and markets them under a false flag.

This may not seem to be a big deal considering that we do have considerably faster data speeds than the last standard, but because of their marketing campaign, they used the premise of "4G speeds" as an excuse to do things like take away unlimited plans (AT&T, Verizon unless you're using an iPhone), limit connectivity speeds, and even data caps for dedicated internet services (like AT&T's U-Verse). None of these catches were present in the past, and people overlook the fact that this is being done in the name of that false flag. Another thing that they love to do is limit the capabilities of their phones. No, i'm not talking locked phones. Rooting and jailbreaking are completely legal (as per federal ruling), but you do risk a void of warranty on your current device. I'm talking about limitations within certain component software and device drivers...and I have the evidence to prove it.

RADIO Y U NO WORK!?!?
There is one major advantage to Rooting a phone: the ability to flash your radio antenna and the driver controller (RIL). Some Radios work better in different regions and different phones. Of course, there are limitations, and there are risks (being that you can brick the phone.), but if you do it right, you may have your device work much better. I have a HTC Inspire 4G using HSPA+ w/enhanced backhaul (fancy term for "faster"). On the status bar, it has always said "H+" above my reception gauge. Over the summer, I rooted my Inspire and installed the very useful Cyanogenmod 7 OS into the device. After the installation, I noticed that my status bar was only indicated with just "H" and I wondered if this was a result of the OS being meant for the HTC Desire HD (a near identical version of the Inspire). When I figured out why changing the Radio and RIL could be beneficial to me, I decided to change the radio back to the stock ATT OTA radio provided with an official update released back in April. After installing it, I set it up for a series of Speedtest benchmarks and this was the result:

Note: The bottom 3 benchmarks are from the radio/RIL provided with the Cyanogenmod7 OS. The top 3 is the ATT OTA stock combo 4/29/2011. 

As you can see, the speed difference is considerably noticeable. Also note, that the ATT OTA stock release was meant to unlock the HSUPA that was not present when the Inspire was released. The considerably large upload speed is present.

After seeing these speeds, I knew there was something fishy about AT&T's handling of their network. The CM7 radio wasn't even meant for AT&T's network (T-Mobile), and it was [mostly] dunking on this radio. In fact, AT&T recently updated the Inspire to have the new version of Android (2.3...already had it :P) and a new radio/RIL. Guess what? Word on the street is that the radio is worse and both the operating system and Radio/RIL is consuming more battery power. Anyway, the other major thing that I noticed was that the "H" did not turn back to "H+"after I installed the stock radio in. Basically this told me that AT&T altered the code (since Android is open-source) in order for the connection to show "H+." Of course, I changed the radio again and I upgraded it to 26.08.03.07_M, and this was the result:

Top 3 is the new Radio, and bottom 3 is the ATT OTA stock.

These results are much better (obviously). Later results indicated that speeds were constantly between 1.1MBits - 3.9MBits d/l and 900Kbps - 1Mbits u/l which is still not fast (as opposed to the 8 - 11MBits+ you get on the west coast), but for Hawai'i, it'll do.

Now I'm even wondering how much of difference it would make when an actual HSPA+ network is in place on the island because these speeds are no different to the very 3G iPhone 4. 

Thoughts/Advice: Mac OS X Lion Part II

I'll get straight to the point. I'm going to cover the versions of the stock OS X software. This is beside the point of whether you use these apps or not.  They are actually more useful this time around, so I encourage users to try them out.

Safari
Religiously praised by the Mob but notoriously hated by the die-hard Windows community, Safari is a mix bag by all measure. The truth is that Safari just works on the Mac. The translation to Windows is (and continues to be IMO) not optimized. Regardless, Safari is back once again, and it has a several new features. Safari also runs much better than it's predecessor. Keep in mind, as I tell about these features, if there are any that are from the last version, I apologize. I am a Google Chrome user, and I'm only now starting to embrace this browser...at least in the Mac side of computing.

Safari 5.1...looks no different, right?

..but no! There are a couple new tricks. First being the Reading List. Basically, it's a fancy RSS feed for articles that you either want to save for reading later, or if you really liked said article. I could have used this last semester when I was doing my psych paper..

By holding shift while clicking an article, Safari will save the article to the list for later enjoyment (or gawk at...yes, I know what "gawk" is..I'll show you in a bit.).

Another..

Dumb? Of course you're not! There are times when you stumble on a word that makes no sense, right? Never fear! New Oxford is here to save your post from being forever trolled. Right clicking and selecting "Look up.." will now bring up the definition. I believe that this feature was shown previously, but it usually launched the Dictionary app. Obviously this new feature is the easier compromise.

The dreaded autocorrecting feature that screws up mobile texts now exist in Safari Land (as well as all Apple based apps). you can either choose a word, or you can let autocorrect do it for you. The previous red underlined option is also available.

Downloads are now shown on the upper right corner. You can also drag and drop those downloads from the list to whatever folder you wish.

A nicer feature makes use of the gestures. Instead of being mediocre, be a hipster and two finger swipe to the left and go back to the previous page. 

Other Technical features:

-Auto resume from your last page (a now standard function of all Apple made apps)

-Tap and pinch zooming

-Private Autofill

-Auto setup for email providers.

-built-in sandboxing (to prevent malicious tracking)

-GPU support via html5

-Web Open Font Format (which allows designers to use a lot more fonts for their sites

-CSS3 auto-hyphenation, vertical text (for Japanese, Chinese and Korean), & Emphasis (again, for eastern asian text).

-website data view & purge

-MathML (which shows math notations)

-dual processing (one for web-content and the other for the interface. in case the browser interface becomes unresponsive, web page will continue to load)

-Media cache (temp stores audio/video using html5 for offline playback. This mainly benefits slower connections.)

*Tech specs provided at: http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/features.html#safari

Mail

Mail for Lion took a cue from the Mail app for the iPad and added a number of features.

The overall layout that you will be seeing looks just like the mail app on the iPad. 

Thoughts (or advice): Mac OS X Lion Part 1

By now, Mac users are praising the newest run of Apple's award winning OS. Lion is the very tablet humoring OS which crosses the ease of iOS and fuses it with the functionality of OS X. As I suspected, Lion grew on me. I was quite weary about the performance drop that I would be encountering, but after installing my hybrid drive, and clean installing Lion, my Macbook has been performing mostly above par. I want to share the experience and give out some pointers that could make your experience a little better.

Hardware
This should be one of the more important aspects of the Lion experience. Lion is designed strictly for 64-bit x86 CPUs, so if you have any Mac that has an Intel Core2Duo and up, you're covered. Lion will install and run. Folks still running first gen Intel CPUs or PowerPC Macs (like a G5 for instance) are out of luck. Apple no longer supports that architecture in the realm of new OS X. Assuming you have an Intel based Mac, the next problem is RAM. The minimum requirement for memory is 2GBs. I'm telling you that you would want at least 4GBs. Macbook Pro users of the 15 - 17inch kind shouldn't have to worry about that since most of them come with 4GBs already. I highly stress that you upgrade if your Mac can only run DDR2 ram and you can find out by doing the following:

Click on the Apple and select "About this Mac"

Once that window opens up, click on "More Info"

This window will show up. Click on the highlighted Memory page, and look under 'Type'. It will tell you whether your computer uses DDR2 or 3.

PEOPLE WITH LION ALREADY INSTALLED: When you click on "More Info" the top screen will pop up and show what you have. Click on the "Memory" tab to see exactly what your computer can accept.

DDR2 RAM is easily available at Best Buy. If you know that your computer can take DDR3 RAM, I recommend that you have at least 4GBs. If you have the means to install more than 4GBs, DO IT! Realize that for most MacBooks (that are not Pro line 15-17's) share the system RAM with the video card, and it uses more if you're doing more graphic intensive work. You can never have enough RAM, so get as much as you can.

Speaking of GPUs, there is no minimum requirement for what kind of video card you have, but that doesn't mean there isn't a difference. Basically, if you have a Macbook Pro (again, 15 or 17in.) or a Mac Pro, you're completely covered in this department. They use dedicated memory, and older Macbook Pro models have 2 GPUs built in. There isn't much you can do about the Video card, but chances are that you will be fine in the first place. If you run a Mac Pro, you should check what kind of card you have (same method as checking RAM), and if possible, replace it with a newer card. Chances are that you probably won't have to do that, but Mac Pro owners have the ability to change their GPUs, so if you have an older build of the Pro tower, now is a good time to replace your GPU.

NEW MAC OWNERS (late 2010 - present): Your chances of having a CPU/GPU/RAM issue is slim to none. Your Macs are already optimized for Lion, especially if you own the new Macbook Air or the brand new version of the Mac Mini. You shouldn't have to worry too much about the hardware (that's what she said!).

Hard Drive Woes..

One thing that a lot of Mac owners should worry about (old and new) is Hard Drive speed. A lot of people tend to buy their Macbooks/iMacs with HDDs that spin at 5400RPMs. Apple does this so they can have an extra option for either a 7200RPM drive or a Solid State Drive and charge you for it. This applies to 15-17in. Macbook Pros. All 13in. and the low end 15in. Macbook Pros will charge extra for upgrading to a 7200RPM drive (up to $100) while the high end 15in. and 17in. Pro come with a 750GB 5400RPM with the option of selecting a 500GB 7200RPM drive for free. Apple also charges extra for a 7200RPM drive for the new Mac Mini's. If you own a newer iMac or Mac Pro, all models come with a 7200RPM drive, and if you own a 2nd / current gen Air, you have a SSD drive, so no worries there.

When you buy online, you can customize your build. Typically, Apple gives you the slowest drive and charges for a faster drive. Prices shown doesn't necessarily reflect prices at retails like Best Buy or sites like Newegg.

Most older Macs most likely have a 5400RPM drive, and it hinders performance in Lion quite a bit. I suggest that you upgrade to at least a 7200RPM drive. If you have the means to get an SSD, do it. Basically, a faster HDD means better performance. 

Minor stuff: Before the techies jump on me saying that I didn't mention anything about cache, lemme tell you that this is something that you shouldn't have to worry about. Cache is like RAM for your hard drive. The concept is that the more you have, the faster you access the data. In reality, the difference between a 32MB cache and a 16MB is slim to none. My rule of thumb with cache is that if you are factoring cache into your purchase,  go with the 32MB. In fact, it's all I see nowadays, but if there are only 16MBs cache drives, just get it. Just as long as that drive spins at 7200RPMs.

My Hard Drive Recommendations

For laptops, I suggest my current HDD: a Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid. It's a 7200RPM 500GB+4GB SSD. A hybrid drive is a cheap mans SSD. It uses the SSD memory to store frequently used data. For instance, it uses the SSD portion for my boot up sequence, as well as apps like Chrome, Safari, and iTunes (apps that I use often). Think of it as a large and fast cache. with the Momentus, I have a boot time of 18 seconds. It also gave me a performance boost over my 160Gb 5400RPM stock drive (obviously.) The performance to price ratio ($130) is reason enough to get this drive. Compare that price and size to a 512GB SSD (cheapest being $839.99 @ Newegg). Of course, you won't get the exact performance of an SSD, but you're sure as hell getting something that's faster than a regular 7200RPM drive

Seagate Momentus XT (box misprint. It's a 32MB Cache HDD).

Installation

Whether you're covered in the hardware department, or if you're just going to wing it, the biggest pre-install step that you should do is clean install your Lion installation. This mainly applies to the Mac owners who had their Macs for a couple years now. If your Mac is fairly new, you may be able to pull an upgrade off. Anyway, to start a baseline off, we'll go as far back as my current Mac (Macbook 13in. Aluminum, late 2008). My method was rather tedious, and took about over 4 hours to finish up. This mostly because one, OS X Lion is currently download-only through the App Store, two, I never took advantage of Time Machine, so I had to transfer all of my files to my PC because my only external drive is using a Windows-Only filesystem (NTFS..which is read only on Macs), three, I took the scenic route and formatted my new drive to a filesystem that was windows and mac compatible in order to transfer all my files from one computer to another, and four, I wasn't in a rush. As soon as I installed the new drive to the Macbook, I used my extra copy of Snow Leopard to format the drive to the proper filesystem, reinstalled Snow Leopard, reinstalled iLife (09' and 11' since 11' didn't have iWeb), re-downloaded all updates, re-download Lion on the App Store and finally, installing it. Sounds horrendous, right?

There is a easier way, but it's still a little time consuming. I will say, that it'll be worth it though! Here is how to do it:

Pre-Install - 

If you use Time Machine: back up what you want...simple, right

If you're not using Time Machine: either have an extra drive available to transfer files, or a flash drive, or a DVD-R..whatever (unless you don't have a need to backup).

Time Machine is your best friend.

Installation Time

Use your Recovery disk/Recovery flash/or OS installation disk to wipe and format your current drive (or new drive), and reinstall that OS (real easy stuff btw.).

When your OS is done setting up, click on the Apple icon and "Software Update"

After it checks for software updates the above window will show. Click on the install button, follow the instructions and just let it do it's thing.

After that is done, run the App Store, click on the giant Mufasa on the front page, and cough up the $29.99.

IF YOU ALREADY OWN LION: click on the "Purchases" tab and you'll find the install.

Lion is 3.5GBs and it'll take about an hour to download + an installation time of about 30 minutes.

Now, the reason why it takes this long to do a clean install is because there is currently no physical medium with Lion. Lion doesn't come in a disk, and I can imagine a much more tedious procedure of getting the App Store download on another medium. Tedious enough for a casual user to discourage them from trying. There is hope on the way, but it comes at a price. Apple will release a retail version in the form of a flash drive, but it will sell for $69. The clear advantage to this version is that once you backed up your wanted data (and install your new drive.), all you gotta do is plug in the USB, wipe the drive and install Lion. A process that'll take less than an hour.

Whether you wait and spend more for the flash drive version or not, I stand by the fact that a clean installation is still the way to go. Yeah, there are drive cloning methods, but you're really just taking the problems that you had on your previous OS and placing them into Lion. I know Mac users suffer from some sort of slow down after a couple years of use. Like a Windows installation, a clean slate is the best way to use your new OS installation. If you're proactive in finding other alternates, there is most likely a solution for putting the App Store version on a disk already.

<<<After installation, initial setup, and restoring your data, reset your Mac a couple times. Just do it.>>>

Using Lion

You need get acquainted with some of the features that come out of the box. The main features I do use are the features that were bragged about during the keynote. I will get there but first, an AppleID initial setup.

Syncing your AppleID to your account

First, click on your Name and select "User & Group Preferences"

Under AppleID, enter your credentials so you'll be sync'd with apps using your AppleID.

Setting you AppleID up will set you up for the apps that require it. I also think that this is to set your account up for the upcoming iCloud service. 

Using Launchpad

To some in the Mac community, Launchpad is merely a feature to humor the users who are heavily familiar with iOS products, but are new to OS X. A gimmick that is to be shunned because we already have the Dock. In reality, the Dock and Launchpad switch roles. In order to have apps on your dock, you have to install the app, find the app in your applications folder, and drag it to the Dock. Launchpad brings every program you installed as well as access to Utilities in one gesture. That is one step less, and I welcome that.  The Dock still serves it's purpose as a quick launcher for the apps that I use often, but the fact that you can you can use your index (or middle) finger and gesture swipe to the lower right corner to bring ALL of your apps up shows that Apple is trying to take the littlest details and make it easier to do. To top it off, If you're using a single desktop (not recommended anymore) to run multiple apps, the Dock can act as a task switcher (unless you know cmd+tab) since running apps will still show up on the Dock. 

Launchpad functions just like an iOS device. A single finger swipe to the lower right corner (or clicking on the icon...you lame) will bring Launchpad up and two finger swipes to either the left or right will move the pages. You can jiggle the icons, but click and dragging also works fine. Creating subfolders works the same way as iOS as well. 

Launchpad

Creating a subfolder and naming it.

Full Screen apps.

As part of making Lion iOS user-friendly, they decided to use a full screen feature for most apps. Typically, browsers always had this feature, but Apple wanted to take it to their other apps to give it a iPad app look. 

Certain apps like iTunes and Safari will create it's own separate window in order to keep your active desktops clean.

Safari

Chrome

iTunes

Macs New Best Friend: Mission Control

A 3 finger swipe upward will bring up Mission Control. Mission Control is the spawn of Spaces and Expose. This demon child will bring you Dashboard, all active desktops, full screen apps, and depending on what desktop you're on, all opened apps and folders on that one desktop. You can then move those folders/apps to another available desktop or place it on a new desktop by dragging it to the upper right corner. The purpose is for organizing your would be multi-tasking habits. Switching between desktops is as simple as swiping 3 fingers left or right. Back when Spaces and Expose was around, they were the features that I used the most. Mission Control definitely just made it a lot easier, and I was hoping that Apple combined the latter. I'm glad there were like-minded folk who thought the same.

Mission Control (notice that Safari and iTunes have their own spaces.)

Mission Control will have multiple apps and folders on one desktop organized when you select the desktop.

When you drag a folder/app, you can either drop it in another desktop, or drop it in a new desktop as pictured on the top.

You can also spawn another desktop by simply bringing your mouse to the upper right corner of the screen.

Swiping between desktops.

Wrap Up

This is going to be longer than I thought. Part two will cover the new features for Safari, Mail, Address Book, iCal, as well as the uses of Versions. Of course, if you want to be proactive about it, you can watch the WWDC 2011 Keynote and have Steve and the rest of the creative leads show you these and the other new features of Lion as well as iOS 5. this is the link for the stream: http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/11piubpwiqubf06/event/

You can also search and download it on iTunes keyword: Apple Keynotes.