What causes you to buy a gaming console? Is it the peer pressure from your friends enticing you to game with them? Fanboyism toward a certain console? For me, it is none of those. It is the games.

I can remember when I (emphasis on 'I'. Before then, my mom bought them) bought my very first console it was not for the promise of the fun I might have with others. It was because there was a game out that looked so cool that I had to drop $300+ on the whole thing. For the Playstation--which later translated into my love for the PS2, it was Final Fantasy VII. For the Xbox 360, it was Mass Effect. Both games that would easily make it into my personal top 5.

I have been waiting for that game that forces me to buy a Playstation 3. Uncharted has been close. The first Infamous was closer, but I think Infamous 2 just might hook me. I can't really say why or even if it will happen for sure, but this gameplay trailer from IGN sure gets me close to taking the plunge.

Check it out:

You be the judge:

I am not sure I have stated this before, but I love the what the ebook market and it's devices. I am the sort of reader that loves to read multiple books in one span of time. One night, I might read a mystery/thriller. The next, it could be a sci fi or non-fiction novel. Additionally, the ebook reader (I have a Nook) allows me to carry my library of coding and design books that I have amassed in pdf format. I can see graphic novels and comic books migrating to these devices (especially the IPad). So, you can imagine my surprise when I saw this on CrunchGear.

It looks like Andrew Wylie, head of a New York Agency that represents authors, has made a deal with Amazon for exclusive publishing rights to all of his client's material... including paperback distributers. I can't say that I think this is a good deal for anyone. Especially Wylie's clients. Being stuck in only one medium seems quite a bit limiting. Ebook readers may be cutting edge and blah blah blah... but it is still relatively new. And while Amazon is reporting that ebook sales are outpacing hardcover book sales, that is only one retailer. Seems a bit risky to me.

But it was this paragraph that got the wheels turning:

Picture all the e-books that are out there as being in a big pie. Amazon is cutting a piece of the pie out and putting it in their own pan. Pretty soon, the other players will be furiously cutting their own pieces out of the pie and isolating them in their own pans. The end result is a messy and fractured marketplace that’s difficult and confusing for consumers to navigate.

What happens if Barnes and Noble and now Apple decide to take a page from Amazon? Am I going to have to buy a Kindle when to read the newest James Patterson or Dean Koontz novel? What happens when a player like Apple decides to start playing hardball and starts to make deals like this one? Apple is already a dominate force in music. It wouldn't be too hard for them to push Amazon and Barnes and Noble out of the market. And now Jobs can point fingers to Amazon and it's bully tactics.

Only time can tell how such a deal will affect the ebook market. My guess is that other deals like this will not surface. I just can't see how the Wylie clients (list here) can make the most money possible when limited to only one medium and publisher. We will see I guess.

Are you an MMORPG enthusiasts? Tired of World of Warcraft? Or are you just looking for a new game to help you waste the what is left of the summer? Well, you might be in luck. Final Fantasy XI (the mmo chapter of the Final Fantasy universe) is on sale in Steam store. What's included in this package can be seen as either an act of charity or desperation depending on your point-of-view. Regardless it is nice. For $5, you get the game itself, four expansions, and one free month of service. A nice deal.

I played the game a while back when it had first come out. It was okay. I didn't play it long enough to generate an opinion worth posting. The only thing I remember was the double-edged sword that came with leveling your character. Your traditional experience with MMO leveling is generally take with little give. Sure, you might damage your armor or end up with resurrection sickness for a few minutes, but the penalties for dying in PVE are minimal.

Not in FFXI. When you die, you lose xp. Kind of like Dark Age of Camelot. But unlike DAOC, you can lose enough xp to drop in level. In DAOC, once you hit that level, you were there to stay. I used to kill my character in DAOC constantly to get him out of a dungeon or back to a city quickly. I tried that crap once after hitting a new level in FFXI, next thing I know I get a notice I lost a level. My fault for thinking all MMO's are the same, but really... WTF?

Regardless, this is an excellent deal. If I wasn't in the middle of Darksidders and Crackdown 2, I'd give it a shot. Maybe next time.

I can't say I'm shocked. I know I have spend my fair share on Xbox Live Points.

How much is Xbox Live really worth? All it took was a little back of the envelope figuring for Bloomberg to come up with $1 billion in annual revenue for Microsoft's fiscal year, ending June 30.

While Microsoft's been mum about revenue from its online entertainment service for the Xbox 360, Bloomberg simply multiplied the number of users Microsoft admits paid the annual Xbox Live fee--half of 25 million, or 12.5 million--by the $50 fee itself and came up with about $600 million.

They then took Xbox chief operating officer Dennis Durkin's remark that sales of downloadable content topped subscription revenue for the first time--at least $600 million in additional dollars, that is--and landed at upwards of $1.2 billion total.

Link

I don't know why they are "mum" on the info. With Apple recently passing Microsoft as the tech king of America, you would think that numbers like those mentioned would bring in some more investors.

Whatever helps... am I right?

So it has been close to a month since the IPhone 4's release, and it has been met with all the regular drama like every IPhone before it. Constant teasers about the tech, exclusives given by prototypes found after a night a binge drinking, botched pre orders, and even long lines at the stores. But, after the release was when the real crap hit the fan.

We all know about the antenna issues caused by stupid users holding the IPhone in non Apple-approved ways. Once the mindless drones of Apple's bottom line realized they didn't like being treated like mindless drones, Apple "found" the problem within their own software (thank God there is now no need to recall anything, right?). The troubles were surely behind them, right?

Wrong. Come to find out, there is a software glitch in AT&T's system:

AT&T revealed Wednesday that there was a software defect in its network that was limiting data uploads from Apple’s iPhone in some areas...

AT&T said Wednesday that a software glitch in its network equipment manufactured by Alcatel-Lucent is to blame for the slower upload speeds in the iPhone 4. AT&T said a fix is in the works.

I don't mean to bitch, but really? It is pretty popular knowledge that AT&T has horrible service in major city areas--even though they are slow to admit or fix it. Now they are admitting there is a problem with the only system that Apple will allow to use its phone?

This is what happens when you don't allow true open competition in any part of the market. AT&T is enjoying huge profits off Apple's popularity and loyal fan base. There is a large number of IPhone users who will never use anything but an IPhone for as long as they can. Currently, if customers could choose the network they could use with their phones, I guarantee that either AT&T would go out of business or they would get their act together and fix these problems. As it stands right now, they are just bathing in the money of the 1.7 million current IPhone 4 users.

But, I guess if it wasn't part of a closed system that he could control, Steve Jobs just wouldn't be happy.

Hilarious video of Yoda doing some voice recordings for TomTom. Humor aside, I like the idea of listening to Yoda or some other voice when lost on the road. Although, it could be distracting at the same time.

"Destory the Sith we must!"