Ng: Draw Something

ONE of the applications that have become quite popular in both Android and Apple devices is Draw Something by OMGPOP, which was recently bought by Zynga, creators of Farmville, Mafia Wars and a host of other popular apps on Facebook.

It is similar to the board game Pictionary and upon its release in February it skyrocketed to number one. You can get a free version or you can pay 99 cents and get the one without advertisements. The game involves you drawing something and the other player will try to guess what it is. It is really a lot of fun and my whole family enjoyed playing it with various friends, especially during the long Easter holiday.

Within two months of its release, the game reportedly exceeded 50 million downloads and boasted of more than 14 million people playing it every day. However, by today, it was reported that there are only about 10 million active daily users left. Games now are quite faddish, and hits go up and down fairly quickly. But if you still have not tried it, it’s a lot of fun, and for some of us who like to doodle, it could be a good way to practice your drawing skills and show your imagination.

NEW PROCESSOR. Every 18 months to 2 years, Intel releases a new processor family. This time, they are releasing Ivy Bridge, which is the successor of Sandy Bridge. How do we know that it is the new processor? The code will start with a 3, while Sandy Bridge starts with 2. For instance, you will have i7-3770k, while the Sandy Bridge would probably have been i7-2xxx.

What’s new? Well, Ivy Bridge uses the 22 nanometer technology (even smaller die, which means it can pack more transistors per square inch). This means it is faster and is also more power efficient. It also comes with chipsets that finally support USB 3.0 which means if you have a USB 3.0 supported device, it can transfer data at speeds close to 10 times the speed of USB 2.0. For those with a lot of pictures, music and video, USB3.0 can be a big plus. It also supports better HD graphics, primarily for gamers.

Intel has been trying to integrate graphics with the processor, so you won’t need a separate graphics card. Under Sandy Bridge, it was able to do the job about 80 percent as well as a dedicated graphics card. So unless you are a diehard game fan who wants to utilize the fastest, and most extensive games and make it look smooth, Ivy bridge processors were seen to be adequate. Now, they say it is even better and could be close to 90 percent performance.

Ivy Bridge notebooks and desktops are slated to be available by the end if May or June for i5 and i7 and i3 units by third quarter.

Anyhow, dual core is better than single core, and quad core processors are even better, right? Well, computer companies always try to innovate and not just in technology. For instance, RIM, makers of Blackberry, had a special two co-CEOs. It did not seem to do any good, and after Blackberry’s few bad quarters, they are back to one CEO. Now Huawei is trying to one up. It will have four CEOs. They just announced four people who will be rotating the CEO post every six months, but major decisions will be done by the four of them. Can something that works in tech work also in business? Well, only time will tell. (www.twitter.com/wilsonng)