The Login Screen

I really don’t like how the text is aligned to the right, however the input is aligned to the left. So when you click on the box your focus is in the wrong spot (text should disappear when you click the box)

Home Page

There is a lot more going on, social network links, images of bands and groups, etc. This isn’t to be loved or hated but I see this as an improvement from what I remember.

Artist

This artist page has some cool idea’s going on. It is no Ping and it isn’t trying to be. Technically Guvera existed way before Apple announced their Ping service. It has 4 main sections which I’ll talk about quickly.

Overall though it is a decent idea for a page, and has many decent ideas within the page. This seems to be the biggest problem for me. There isn’t a way I can click on the subheading/section to see specific information or expanded information for that section. Pretty much all of the sections need to be removed from this page. Instead I would have the ‘Artist’ section down the bottom take up the whole page, removing the scrolling within the section and that way I get what I expect.

Touring

This lists the artists which I can only but assume are touring at the moment. Of course I’m not sure where this information is gathered from and there is no information on the site regarding dates, locations, info, etc. I did a few random checks on artists who have been listed as touring or having gigs this year and all cases they actually were (3 tests). Basically great idea, but provide information about the tour! There is also only space for 7 artists to be on tour, which is displayed in total random fashion. ie: If there are more than 7 artist on tour, it will only show 7 and there isn’t a way to list anymore

Greatest Hits

Well similar to above, artist who pretty much have ‘greatest hits’. Not much to go on here, it does what it says. Also in the similar 7 artist order, at least when you click on the link it takes you to their album/songs as that is the expected behaviour.

New Releases and Charting

Same thing, I guess this is an area to list new songs and if nothing new is happening, songs that are charting. Not much to say here really. Good concept.

Artists

Well this is stupid, it lists artist starting with A, however it can’t lis them all see it goes over pages. Fair enough. But then why do I have to scroll horizontally in this small window? I’m not a fan at all. Besides there seems to be a lot of artist with duplicates in the list. This needs a major revamp, great idea just not done well at all.

Albums

The Albums page follows the same formula of Artist. However I can’t help but feel it is better suited for Albums. There are 3 main section with images in the following categories, Live Albums, 80′s Classics and Our Picks. I’m not going to bother talking about each section. Basically I like the idea, however I want to click on sections, what happens if I want to look in other categories? Do they exist? Improvements could made for sure, however it needs to be talked about as there are pro’s and con’s.. I’m not getting paid for this (although maybe Guvera should swing me a few hundred bucks for my time).

Channels

Well I can say it doesn’t follow the same formula as the previous to pages.. but it kinda of does (not from a lack of trying). It basically lists My Channels, Our Picks and Classic Albums. Straight up, why is Classic Albums here. This has to be some sort of bug. I don’t see any relation to this. Remove it.

So basically a Channel is where stuff happens. I should probably expand on this, but I’m really only reviewing how things have changed and to me. It doesn’t looks like it has changed that much. I will say one thing quickly. “In the Guvera Channel, you can watch a video on ‘How to download’, where is the audio at? A little voice over to tell the users what is happening wouldn’t be bad, or some music. I can only assume there is nothing, or for some reason it wasn’t working on my PC (or should I say Mac now).

Update: There also appears to be no correlation to ‘My Channels’ vs what I’ve actually picked to ‘My Channel’ as seen under ‘My Guvera’. Of course it is called favourites, so maybe they are different things?

Genres

Well this follows the some formula. I can’t help but feel this formula needs improvement! I expect to see a list of genres of music I can select from, but I can only see 3 from which Guvera has picked. The thing down the bottom where I can search for a genre / refine the list. Like I said before this needs to be bigger, no scrolling, etc. This section however I’m pretty sure (100%) they aren’t even Genre’s you search for.

Update: There is a sub menu underneath the Genre menu when you click it. This lists other genres, however this needs work as well. Things just aren’t categorised well enough. (this was hard to find, mainly because of the said formula on the other 3 pages didn’t have this sub menu – also this technically looks to be the 4th menu from the top).

New Releases – Top Downloads

These two pages I’ve decided to put under the same heading. Basically it is the same formula, I’m that bored already I can’t explain it further. I will however say this is where I would expect a Grid slash (yes I typed it rather than using a symbol) Chart to display information, songs, trends, etc. Go look at the Aria charts for inspiration on this one.

Other Random Pages/ Things

• Favourites under ‘My Guvera’ displayed ‘created’, this is now when the channel was created from what I can tell but when you actually added to be a favourite. This is miss leading.
• My Account Details -> This has still be an issue/bug since I reported it last time (either reported it or wrote about it in a blog post, if not both). I still can’t edit my date of birth to my correct one. It is still of by a day (can you at least just change this for me now, make it a 13).
• It still doesn’t excite me, engage me or give me a reason to return. The amount of downloads is still limited to the amount of channels and how much an advertiser wants to allow. Fair enough, but I imagine you might max out at 10 downloads a year?
• There are now credits it seems now, it is purely ‘downloads available’ this is an improvement, I believe I commented on this ages ago.
• No way to interact with other users on the site? How big a community is this?
• What are the goals of Guvera, to give you legal downloads to music – well you can only do so much.. I think you need to expand your goals and become much more to keep interest (how about ‘Become the number 1 site for fans to get information on music’?, well.. I must admit I haven’t tried hard but I do imagine seeing stuff like artist page which albums, lyrics, tour dates, forums, chat rooms?, etc…

Summary

Guvera has progressed, however I would say it has only moved forward by about one or two ‘Sprints’ (translated Agile development talk into a time –> 2 to 8 weeks). This is really slow for an up start and to be honest it is one of the reasons why I haven’t visited it until now. In fact the only reason I did as I was prompted to give some feedback again. I can’t help but feel sorry for the guys at Guvera, as I can get right behind what they are trying to do and it isn’t with out great effort on their part (or is it). It just doesn’t seem to be working out for them. I feel they need more than ‘Beta’ testers to point our obvious flaws and bugs with the code, layout suggestions but they need to giving more direction as a company where they want to go. How they can open up and get people interested like me.

I wish them well, but I wont be visiting the site again until I hear people around me talking about it as I honestly feel if they don’t step their game up, their idea wont be so new and interesting in a few years once they change the lay out a bit more and fix a few bugs.

One point of note though. I haven’t commented on the range of music available which would have to be the biggest things. It would clearly appear they have gotten a lot more artists on board and there is more music on offer. I feel that this might of been their biggest challenge and has consumed most of their time. On this side, I think they are getting there for sure!

Seeing I went to the effort to play around with it, I thought I would share the photos. The last few photos was actually in a race using the replay feature. If you can’t tell what is happening, basically the race has started and my car has gotten a fair bit of lift and is landing on top of the car in front. Not your usual method for over taking!

However, I’ve just come across ‘Real Life Modern Warfare’, which puts gaming into a whole new world! As one person said (Niko), when is the release date on this?

Check out the video, and if you haven’t picked up on it already… it isn’t real.

The guys over at FlowingData.com Demo Slam put it together and I would just like to say well done. I wonder if this will spawn a trend of animations made with Google Docs in the future? Kind of reminds me when you use to draw a series of pictures in a notebook and then flick through it.

I never knew that it was so hard to source a car in a specific colour. Out of all the colours they have there are only 2 available (Silver and White). So what have I ordered? A Toyota, RAV4 auto, Cruiser L. The colour, black (Metal Storm) with a very slight tint of blue.

Dolphin Nursery at SeaWorld, Orlando, USA.

One of the first things we did at SeaWorld was come across this dolphin nursery. At the time we were trying to find a map and work out a game plan for the day while walking. We saw this quiet little area that looked fairly open so we thought we would check it out. To our surprise we started seeing dolphins pop there head out of the water near us, as they all started taking a keen interest in what we were doing (and vice versa).

Orca (Killer) Whale Show at SeaWorld, Orlando, USA.

As everyone entered into the arena to watch the show, they let the Orca whales out to just swim around. This wasn’t part of the show but it was pretty cool watching them be whales.

Dexter Walkway Advertising, Las Vegas, USA.

In the MGM Grand in Las Vegas there are a few advertisements which light up the ground. The best one, would have to be this one for Dexter. As you walk over it, blood covers the area and reveals the show time.

I’ve talked to the guys at Harvey Norman and there is nothing they can do. As it is still covered by the manufacturers warranty all that they will do is send it back to them. I wasn’t really interested in that idea so I’ve called back Sony. Interestingly once my Playstation 3 fails 3 times in the extended warranty period with Harvey Norman they will replace it (I wonder if I’m allowed to include all the times it has failed already).

Talking over the phone to Sony (on a Saturday) the only thing they can do is go through the normal procedure which involves the following:

Normal Warranty Procedure for a Sony Playstation 3

1. You Google Sony Australia Playstation 3 support and you go through a few of their pages, sometimes you loop through to the same pages until you end up clicking on a pretty image called the ‘Retailer Returns Guide‘. (If your really good you will be able to find this page, ironically titled ‘Find Us‘).
2. You read through the document searching for a phone number and end up calling them up (make sure you get the ‘Consumer’ number).
3. You talk about what the problem is, exchange contact details and they e-mail you a barcode (prepaid postage with Australia Post).
4. You print up the barcode, take it to Australia Post. You receive a box and some bubble wrap and you send your Playstation 3 away. It is IMPORTANT you keep your receipt (see below).
5. A week later you get a Refurbished Playstation 3 back, this is of the same make and model.

Consumer Support for Playstation 3 Australia: 1300 365 911

It is important to note, that if ‘Sony’ doesn’t send you it back in a week you will have to call them and chase them up. The procedure for ‘Sony doesn’t have your Playstation 3′ goes something like this:

Your Sony Playstation 3 hasn’t be received by Sony (they have lost it). Procedure to find it again

1. You follow the above procedure however you don’t get it back in a week or hear from Sony.
2. You decide to call them up and see what is going on. Your friendly, they are friendly and you agree it will turn up tomorrow.
3. You wait a day or two.
4. You call them back up and let them know you still haven’t heard anything. They now request the Australia Post receipt.
5. You attempt to apply and procedure to tell them the details on the receipt, however they want a copy of it. You attempt to do the following.
   1. Tell them the details over the phone.
   2. Suggest that you will photocopy the receipt and e-mail them. You then get told that there e-mail strips all attachments and they wont receive it.
   3. Suggest that you will photocopy the receipt and post it online and e-mail them a link they can click on to get the attachment. They tell you there internet is filtered and it might not work.
   4. Suggest that you will do the above and post in on the sony forums, your personal website, anywhere to get around there filter. They response and say no it has to be faxed.
   5. You give up thinking of using modern technology and you fax them a copy of the receipt.
6. You hear back from them a day later saying that they have the fax and are going to chase up Australia Post.
7. A day or so later, you find out they had received it however they just lost it themselves and will return in it.
8. A few days later you receive a broken Playstation 3 and wonder how going through the above procedure will work for the third time (and 4 Playstation later).
9. You decided it isn’t going to work and you end where I am now. Today…

Procedure for getting your Playstation 3 fixed after it has failed 3 times

• You go through the normal procedure and advise them you are not happy. Then let them know you don’t want to go through the normal procedure.
• You get told that it is a Saturday and all they can do is the normal procedure, not unless you wait for a supervisor to call you back (On Monday).
• You wait until Monday arrives..

Update:

8/11/2010 – Receive a call from the supervisor and he agree’s that 3 times is a bit crazy. We have organised that I will send my PS3 back and I shall get a *New* PS3 in return. In this case it should be an upgraded model (Bigger HDD) as my model is currently available. As I will be in the USA by the time I receive the package it will be at least a month or so before I know what gets sent back. Hopefully this is the last time I have to think about it.

13/12/2010 – It has been a while since the an update (I have been on a holiday for almost a month). I’ve received a new PS3 (250GB Model) and so far it is working with out any problems. Of course I’ve only tested it for a few days but so far it is looking good.

Well I was about 1 minute into the movies Blade Runner and it suddenly died. Pressing the power button does nothing. After checking all the cables, the only thing that seems to work is removing the power cord and plugging it back in. After which the Playstation 3 will die again.

The good news – I was able to eject the movie, that bad news a virtually untouched refurbished Playstation 3 is going into to repair again.

I’ve taken a quick video to share. I really can’t be bothered though to be honest but I do feel better about getting a 4 year extended warranty through Harvey Norman now. Suddenly that extended warranty (or even a normal warranty) that I seem to never use is going to come in handy!

I’ve taken a video which I might try and upload later. Update: I’ve now uploaded the videos if your interested (a few MB each).

Click to download video!

• PS3_Power_Die_01
• PS3_Power_Die_02

Update:

16/10/2010 – Date problem occurred as per above

25/10/2010 – Called Sony support, asking on a status of the return. They claim they haven’t received it and to call back with Australia Post receipt

26/10/2010 – Called Sony support, asking for a status (haven’t received). Given them Australian Post information however this wasn’t good enough. Required to fax it through. No other means will be accepted (E-Mail – Photo – Scan – Link to website – etc). Fax number isn’t that one advertised on the support sheet. Correct number was 02 8580 5262. Faxed through details. Received a voice mail message stating they were able to find the package and they will send out a replacement as soon as they can (no e-mail confirming they have received it yet).

28/10/2010 – Auto generated e-mail letting me know they have now ‘received my console’.

2/11/2010 – Received Playstation 3 – Tested and it looks like it is working (although it has totally freezed up during a game of Uncharted 2 – more testing needed)

Summary:

To be honest I’m not too happy with the turn around on this and the lack of feedback I received from Sony in regards to this problem. I would of expected this to have been flagged as a higher priority issue as it was the second warranty job. If not for that reason the 10 day wait and follow up calls to see where my Playstation was.

Total days until resolution 18 days (including the day the problem occurred and the day it was received)

• FIFA 2010 menu slow to load/freezes
• Pre-match / warm-up before the game loads (where you can just move the player around and kick goals) was freezing every few seconds

This translated in FIFA 2010 being unplayable. We did all the usual checks:

• Checked CD was scratch free and clean
• Checked power cables, controllers fully charged
• Checked that the Playstation Firmware was up to date (it wasn’t so decided to update)
• Checked FIFA 2010 was up to date (it was)

Nothing made a difference, if anything it seemed to get worse in my opinion. I started to notice the Playstation 3 XMB menu acting slow to load as well. I was able to navigate through the menus and have to wait to see all the icons load, then once they loaded up I had to wait even further for the picture to load in the placeholders. Perhaps 20 – 30 seconds across all the menu’s. This made me think it was starting to be a Playstation problem and not a FIFA problem.

Easy enough to rule out, we put on some other games to see what would happen:

• Tekken 6: Not freezing in game, but an excessive amount of time to load up a 1 vs 1 match
• Need For Speed Shift: Not freezing in the race, however an excessive amount of time to load a race
• Final Fantasy XII: Took some time to load the save games (similar problem to the XMB menu), and would occasion see the scene disappear/not fully load (a delay as such)

Dr.Google wasn’t much help either. In fact I found a surprising amount of people report similar problems with FIFA 2010.

• My PS3 keeps freezing when i play Fifa, both the world cup and FIFA 10
• MY PS3 IS ALL MESSED UP AFTER 3.42 UPDATE ( IM TICKED OFF )
• I was playing Fifa 10 regularly on my PS3….
• When playing Fifa 10 in my PS3 by myself I…
• FIFA Soccer 10 › Game freezing?

Playstation 3 Recovery Module

Through out all this I came across an interesting article, letting me know how to access the Playstation 3 Recovery Module.

1. Turn off Playstation®3.
2. Hold The power button down; The system will turn on and turn off once again.
3. Once the System has been shutdown, re-press you finger until you hear 2 consecutive beeps
4. When you hear the 2 beeps take finger off power button.
5. You will be promted to plug in your controller via usb and then hit the PS button
6. The Recovery menu will pop up.

I tried restoring the file system, and some other things in the menu which didn’t involve a format which appeared to have fixed some bugs but, in the end there was no difference. At this point I decided to call Sony. The first call to Sony, led me down the track of doing a format of the Playstation 3 (which meant that I had to back up everything first, and having only an 8GB flash stick meant deleting all of my demos and some other saved data). This did nothing so I called back a few hours later.

This time, it was decided that I would need to send my Playstation 3 to get repaired. This was a pretty harmless process. Giving contact details, serial number etc. I received an e-mail that I needed to print and present to Australia Post. A box and bubble wrap was organised and it was taken care off. It took about 3 or 4 days to get to Sony. Sony actually sent an e-mail when it arrived. The next day Sony sent me another e-mail telling me they are sending me a new one. Today I’ve received it (Monday).

So in total, I was at Australia Post on Monday after noon, and received it back on Monday a week later. One point of frustration was the lack of ‘what was wrong with it’. I had to call up their support line to try and find out, and basically after telling the guy on the phone it was a Playstation 120GB Slim he said, it would be been exchanged for a factory refurbished one. That they don’t actually do the repairs locally so it would have just been exchanged on the spot. So I potentially have a really old Playstation 3 that has been through a lot of use, compared to my Playstation 3 (if you recall an earlier post about my new PS3 and FIFA 2010) which was only a few months old and had a few weeks of total use.

The main thing though, I’m not having any problems I earlier reported and the restore utility has worked. I did have to reconfigure the wireless settings, and set up the playstation 3 network profile again. The only other thing I did was update the firmware (yes – I had to update the firmware which I would of expected to have been done…).

So yeah, in summary.

No further freezing/ slowness/ FIFA 2010 pausing every few seconds. Quick turn around to get the Playstation 3 repaired. Friendly staff on phone support.

Hope this helps someone (you), if you have similar problems as I surprisingly never came across posts the posted solution to the problem, and hardly any suggested to send it in for repair!

Now for the videos (click to download/watch). FIFA 2010 and EA let you download the video in a .flv format, and rather than re-encoding it I’ve left it how it is. They are of the same event, just different angels.

FIFA 2010 – Team Work – Flash Video

FIFA 2010 – Team Work (different angle) – Flash Video

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