I’ve had the sublime pleasure of testing out the latest beta of iOS (4.3b1) on my iPad for the past week, and I’m ecstatic. Apple’s latest round-up of improvements includes a whole new series of multitouch gestures that are very well thought out and certainly give plausibility to the rumors that Apple will delete the Home button on iPad 2.

Slide Up for Multitasking - 4 or 5 Fingers

After spending months double-tapping the Home button to bring up the multitasking bar, this gesture is a very welcome relief, as it is an effortless and much more efficient maneuver, no matter which angle your iPad is oriented.

Pinch to Close - 4 or 5 Fingers

Pushing the Home button once is a straightforward enough operation, but there is something inherently breathtaking about physically banishing an application by crushing it with your hand.

Slide Left/Right to Switch Applications - 4 or 5 Fingers

This can be accomplished by accessing the multitasking bar, but again, there is a visceral thrill to swiping through active apps, as if turning a page in iBooks. It’s much more tactile, and much more human accordingly.

The attention to detail is quite excellent in this gesture, with the apps shrinking slightly as they move out of frame, giving a 3D perspective to the action, much like the current task switching animation in 4.2, but much subtler.

Room for Improvement

While these gestures are quite impressive on their own, this is the first beta of 4.3. There’s no support for these new methods of task switching on apps and so the snapshots are often blank or unclear (e.g. Maps is a blank white page). If this is a byproduct of the multitasking API, then visual cues need to be added so that apps can be identified without needing to open the multitasking bar.

Apps that use more than three fingers such as Fruit Ninja or Magic Piano are broken, accidentally activating the new gestures just by playing happens frequently and I’m unsure how this can be remedied.

Obviously, the animations and gestures are not yet flawless, though they are remarkably polished for an initial beta release. But I’m sure Apple will improve them in forthcoming versions (Beta 2 will likely be out tomorrow or next Tuesday). They show immense promise, and could perhaps be an early look at how we will switch between full-screen apps in Lion this summer.

So this guy comments on my “Best of 2010” post, telling me how stupid, inane and retarded both my choices and my style of writing are. How no game I like is actually any good and I should consider myself a moron for even considering liking it. I honestly don’t know why I’m writing this except it makes me feel better about the matter. So here goes.

First of all, I am perfectly capable of writing well if the occasion calls for it. Sometimes, I write loosely. Not every situation calls for serious and in-depth detail. If I want to wrap up the year in a few sentences, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Or did the phrase “Brevity is the soul of wit” never cross the vacuous orbs you call your eyes?

Second of all, if I were to do a serious review of something, I’ll bloody well put “Review” in the title. Let’s not mince words. While we’re discussing words, ‘gameplay’ is of course a meaningless term thrown around more often that sense would dictate, but it has entered the lexicon as a very general term for the controls and features of a game. Rather than construct lofty and pretentious wording about the games in question, I choose to generalize because to most people in the world, that makes perfect sense. Maybe in your world, everyone speaks with the eloquence of a English Literature professor and has tea and crumpets every afternoon in the parlour. But sadly, everyone else has to live in reality, where not everything is perfect, and sometimes people generalize things to get their point across easier.

Third, and most importantly, who do you think you are? You claim to love gaming, yet you apparently hate every game, decrying it as some catastrophe against common decency and sensibility, as if nothing is worthy of your high standards. Games exist for people to have fun. Might the story be worthy of a Pulitzer? Definitely not. Are the controls always perfect? No. Are some games so easy that a child could complete them? Definitely. But what ultimately matters is one very simple question: Did you have fun? But I suppose someone who who finds fault with everything without bothering to simply take it at face value doesn’t have fun. You merely subsist on the smug self-satisfaction you get from callously insulting the work of people who merely want to put content out there for people to enjoy.

*deep breath* Okay, I’m done.

Tons of movies, as always. Many good, but many bad. Here are my top picks, again by category. I’ll start with the bad and work my way to the good.

Crime Against Humanity of 2010 (Special Award): Sex and the City 2

Words cannot describe the sheer horror of these aging women romping around one of the most sexually repressive countries in the world. There are no sufficient describing words to identify the abject terror of a script that clearly should never have been written for a movie that should never have been made.

Worst Movie of 2010: The Last Airbender

It could have been good. It could have done the source material justice. Instead, M. Night Shyamalan was hired and darkness fell over the land. Asian characters? White actors will play them! Good dialogue? Who needs it when there’s CG superpowers and stuff? And countless millions had to suffer through it as their kids forced them to go.

Worst Movie of 2010 (Runner-up): Vampires Suck

I just had to mention this movie because it is the only spoof that has managed to make me laugh less than the movie which spawned it. Seriously, a spoof that makes Twilight unfunny. It’s clearly a paradox.

Worst Use of Talent 2010: The Tourist

Seriously, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie and you still manage to have a terrible movie that should be thrown in the dustbin? The Tourist, you’re this year’s Nine.

Worst Action Movie of 2010: Resident Evil: Afterlife

I don’t even need to say anything for you to know how bad this movie was.

Best 3D Spectacular of 2010: Tron: Legacy

Light Cycles. Identity Discs. Arena Battles. With eye-popping visual fidelity and depth. Haven’t seen it yet, but it’s clearly worthy of this category since I don’t see Avatar 2 anywhere…

Best Action Movie of 2010: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

You may have to defeat seven evil exes, but it’s an awesome ride all the way to the end. Nerds, you will eat this movie up. Anyone else, maybe not for you, but it’s still awesome regardless.

Best Animated Movie of 2010: Toy Story 3

Pixar, you render perfection. Only movie that made me cry all year.

Best Comedy of 2010/Best Use of Talent 2010: Date Night

Tina Fey and Steve Carell. Average script, but they elevated it with their immense comedic talent.

Best Movie of 2010: Inception

Dream within a dream within a dream. Layers of cinematic perfection that prove a clever movie can succeed in the face of inane sequels, terrible remakes and just plain awfulness. I will watch this movie again and again until the Blu-Ray disc wears thin.

I figure since I’m blogging I should begin an annual ‘best of’ series.

I’ll start with my favorite pastime, gaming. 2010 has been a massive year, seeing the release of amazing, cinematic titles and innovative new platforms such as Kinect and the Playstation Move. We saw the announcement of an amazing slew of titles for next year. Here are my top favorites, by category.

Best Action Game of 2010: God of War III

None can stand against the wrath of Sparta! God of War III was a flawless tale of vengeance backed up with some of the best graphics the PS3 has to offer.

Best Action/Adventure Game of 2010: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Polishing the already-great Assassin’s Creed 2, Brotherhood is a stunning romp in 16th-century Rome with flawless graphics and an engrossing story combined with some of the best free-form gameplay in years.

Best Psychological Action Game of 2010: Alan Wake

Can’t say enough about this one. Gripping plot, stunning graphics and lighting effects and a thick, engrossing atmosphere you could cut with a knife. Eager for more.

Best RPG of 2010: Mass Effect 2

Shepard. Reapers. Heavy Weapons. Geth. Martin Sheen. Need I say more?

Best Western of 2010 (Not the hotel): Red Dead Redemption

This category is unlikely to be annual, but it should be. Red Dead Redemption brought a living piece of the Wild West into modern times and it simply must be experienced.

Best Gaming Innovation of 2010: Kinect

Minority Report is real. That is all.

Biggest Disappointment of 2010: Metroid: Other M

Fable III was always going to be kinda lame. Other M had a Ninja Gaiden pedigree and looked stunning, then fell apart. They’re still picking up Power Suit chunks. Please come back, Retro.

So that’s it, my best and worst games of 2010. Hope you enjoyed it. Next up: Movies.

I love the little green droid with a love for desserts to bits, but he’s a mess. 

The biggest issues now:

• Fragmented hardware designs and software versions lead to multiple versions of popular apps (Angry Birds, etc.), compatibility issues and other problems.
• Inconsistent UX that inspires 3rd party themes.
• Carriers are given control over core apps, allowed to create splinter App Stores, load un-deletable apps onto the phones, when to update to new versions of the OS, etc.

If Google wants their supposedly open OS to shine, they’re going to have to make some changes. Here’s what I think could be done to really improve Android in the long run:

• Lock the Android Marketplace in. All apps must be released on it, and nobody is allowed to make their own Android App Store.Update: This is not to say apps can’t be side loaded, just that there should be a central location to find apps to prevent confusion.
• Lock the carriers out. They’re providing the network, nothing more. Don’t let them break the experience you’re trying to build because they need VCast on every Droid2. Be tough and resolute. Use your market share to your advantage and play hardball.
• Comprehensive redesign of the UI. Android should be a futuristic mobile OS, but it feels like a nerd’s tinker toy. It needs to be consistent, offer a different experience from iOS and have a consistent vision that appeals to everyone. Hopefully Gingerbread will start to do this.
• For any deity of your choice’s sake, open up a beta SDK system. You’re supposed to be “open”, yet developers get no chance to update their apps for the next version of Android before release. Even Apple does that. Ridiculous.

If Android can bring all of those things to the table, they’ll be in a much stronger position. They may have a quantity lead, but I’m convinced quality is the deciding factor in mobile. The public is far less forgiving of poor quality on devices they carry around 24/7.

Adobe, I’m sorry.

Now that’s out of the way, I’d like to discuss several interesting developments. Adobe, at their recent annual conference; showed off two very cool things.

Edge, a prototype program that builds HTML5 interactivity using CSS3 Transitions/Transforms and Canvas elements.

“Wallaby”, a prototype tool that converts .fla files to ready-to-go HTML5 equivalents.

I take back everything I said about Adobe being behind the times, except poor OS X compatibility. They’ve taken their existing tools like Flash and Dreamweaver, and have given them powerful, almost magical abilities to utilize bleeding-edge technology now present in the current version of every major browser.

It’s a good day for HTML5/CSS3, and a very good day for iOS users tired of seeing “Please update to the latest version of Flash Player”. A amicable middle-road solution is on the horizon, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Location is a problem for both security and privacy. We may say it’s a small price to pay for making life easier, but there is a clear threat to our safety involved in sharing our exact position.

So far, location services have ignored this, choosing to let the user decide to either not broadcast anything, or reveal their exact position; a sort of all or nothing scenario that isn’t particularly helpful for more general tasks like finding local news and weather that don’t require the use of a precise location.

What some people seem to forget is that before Geolocation APIs, tracking relied on IP addresses to discover your general area. It’s not reliable enough to give an exact position, but it’s close enough to determine the city you’re in.

So, I propose that future location services utilize a dual-channel location system. Area and Pinpoint. Area would take the user’s IP address and return a general area (e.g. Vancouver). Pinpoint would then tap into the Geolocation API and use the device’s WiFi, 3G or GPS to home in on the user’s exact location (e.g. 1025 Robson St, Vancouver).

Area and Pinpoint should be able to be toggled by the user at any moment, and each mode should come with a clear understanding of available features.

I feel this method provides a best of both worlds compromise that keeps the user in control of their location, while still allowing more general location-based tasks to be completed in lieu of a more precise location. It will also help make location more friendly to users who are otherwise fearful of possible threats to their privacy, thus increasing usage rates.

Update: Now that I think about it, a third layer for Location Sharing may be necessary, just to keep a handle on who can see where you are, and whether they see your Area or Pinpoint location.

Well, here I am again, comparing Apples to oranges. It’s been about five months since the iPad came out in the US and about a month since the iPhone 4 and iOS 4.0.

What is the current state of affairs where everyone’s favorite hotly contested plugin is concerned?

Well, Flash 10.1 is out for many Android devices, unfortunately it doesn’t work particularly well, through a combination of developers not optimizing their code properly and the plugin itself having a degree of instability. Crashes are common, as are glitches with asset loading, particularly where video sites are concerned. Games that haven’t been designed for touchscreens won’t work at all. This was one of Adobe’s few remaining chances to show that Flash can be relevant in the mobile space, but it’s clearly not going so well for them.

This really isn’t anything new. Flash has been bloated and terrible for years and Adobe has become lazy and complacent in their role at the top. They’ve become the Microsoft of the creative space and it really shows.

Meanwhile, 4.5 million+ iPads and who knows how many iPhones later, the world is deciding with their wallets. iOS devices currently hold 55% of mobile browsing. Considering the number of other mobile operating systems out there, that is a titanic supermajority.

That number will only continue to increase with new niche devices such as the new Apple TV. In fact, iOS is on track to displace OS X as Apple’s most prolific operating system, and that’s clearly part of the plan as I’ve said before. One operating system under Jobs, with closed App Store and iTunes downloads for all.

HTML5 still has flaws and limitations, that much is clear. But on a closed mobile system, many of those limitations are negated. Fonts can’t be saved, videos can’t be downloaded. DRM protection is simply unnecessary. As for advanced playback, iOS loads HTML5 video into its mobile blend of QuickTime Player. No fuss, no mess.

So where does this leave Flash? Right where it started, a useful tool for desktop browsing but nothing more than a toy for mobile. What Adobe has failed to realize is that after three years of inaction and failure with Flash, HTML5 is good enough for mobile devices. Apple purposefully integrated HTML5 into iOS from the beginning for this very reason, and thus, a large majority of mobile users are capable of enjoying multimedia content without Flash.

Checking in. It’s so universal these days, even Facebook is now implementing a Places API. But is checking into places you visit the future? Is this where location should be taking us?

I really must insist that no is the answer to both of these questions.

Location is an integral component to what I’d quantify as Personal Internet. It’s a tool that, when used correctly, aids you by finding things, showing you opportunities/bargains and connecting with your everyday life.

Checking in is merely a transitionary phase. It’s self-absorbed, self-important and requires an unnecessary degree of attention to use. It’s the sort of feature that says: “Hey, look at me. I have nothing better to do, so I make sure I let everyone know where I am all the time manually. I’ve been to places so much I’m the Mayor, so I’m just cooler than most people because my finger is glued to the Check In button.”

Ideally, location must be seamless and hidden away in the background, an invisible ally throughout your day. Let me paint a brief picture of what location should be.

You’re currently on vacation in Paris from your home in Vancouver, Canada. As such, your mobile device and tablet have automatically adjusted time zones accordingly, and have added forecasts for the area to your weather app. Your news app now displays local news. Your calendar changes the times of your events to their equivalents in your current time zone. Your Personal Assistant app has automatically added locations of stores you like nearby. Stores that carry items on your personal Wish List have also been added to the list. On further inspection, you see that it’s your mother’s birthday in a week, and an item on her shared Wish List is available at a store half a mile from your hotel room. The tap of a button, and directions appear.

Sounds pretty incredible, doesn’t it? That’s what location can do, if we continue to develop it. Checking in may be the in thing at the moment, but it’s not where we should be going. We can strive for something better and more meaningful.