Update 12.021 has been released (the last previous update was February)

Remember, for those of you who already paid for MFOG12 this is free. For those of you who have paid for MFOG11 it doesn't cost full price to upgrade to 12. For those of you who would have to pay full price, you need to decide if worth it to you.

Since for me doing downloads means travelling somewhere bandwidth is available (different places different days of the week) I haven't done it yet but I understand the procedure is a little different than in the past. You initially download just a mini free version and then the full data pack (if you have a registration key). Less to download for those just taking a free look (but a major pain in the neck for me -- have to take a computer to the library instead of just a USB stick).

How strong? Top level should be about 1 dan on a "standard" computer (dual core >2 GHz processor). The program is capable of 2 dan but that would require much more "iron". This time the 2nd level is also using Monte Carlo engine. Sould be around 3 kyu. Supposedly there is a "why" (reason for move) you can invoke even for the top two levels. I'll report back on that after I have had time to try it.

I'd love an Android version of MF, at same price as PC version even.

Edit: Was just thinking, if it helps for the decision . Google just added a new licensing system for Android apps that should render the old "copy-protection" deprecated.

I'm not sure I understand the reference to an Android phone. How much "crunch" power do you imagine one of these has?

At a given time setting (average time per move) MFOG would have a minimum computer power below which it wouldn't be a matter of playing a little bit weaker but falling off the cliff. Need to understand that we tend to spend so much of our time reading email, browsing the web, etc. -- activities that require so little computer power that we can't tell the difference between a "netbook" and a "portable workstation" (there could easily be more than an order of magitude difference)

Many (most?) of us don't have enough machine to qualify as "standard" for MFOG. This desktop from which I am writing this is only about 1/4 as powerful (browsing forums, handling email, etc. doesn't need a lot of computer power). It's not the computer on which I run MFOG.

Afaik a typical android phone as a single core at 1GHz. So I'd guess the AI should work decently at about 5k level. But I guess it'd empty the battery rather quickly. And MF has more features than just an AI.

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Sanity is for the weak.

Indeed, I'm not interested in the AI part, but missing a good editor with lots of functionality. So far there is no Android version of Smartgo Pro either.

Have you tried gnugo on Android?

No, I don't own a smartphone.

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Sanity is for the weak.