Should Apple Enter The Gaming Market?

These are mysterious times. Mysterious indeed. Apple, after dominating the music industry and making a respectably deep dent in the cellphone industry. The Apple TV is also running decently enough, making sure that Apple can invade your TV screens as well. The only field left is… book publishing? No, video games.

According to Don Reisinger here at Cnet, this is not only plausible, but actually should and will most likely happen. Reisinger speculates that Apple in fact, has the ball rolling and will jump into the market sooner or later. Despite the market’s hard-coded domination by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, Apple will break in. Then again, it’s the only company that can break into the market on their own.

Apple’s focus on hardware and it’s controlling standard entertainment media such as TV, music, your computer and so on, only points at a game console next. Apple also the money to spare, Reisinger notes: $20 billion, which can give it not only a console, but an Xbox-Live style gaming experience that may thrash Microsoft.

What do you think? Will Apple enter the gaming market?

The Mojave Experiment

People can be easily persuaded by others. I mean lets face it, why would you be reading this if you didn’t want my thoughts and opinion?

For a long time now, Apple has been giving Microsoft a run for its money with an amazing PR campaign. I’d imagine that everyone reading this right now has seen the Mac vs. PC commercials. Sometime after Windows Vista came out, Apple started airing commercials that smeared Vista for crashing and not being secure.

I’ve been using Windows Vista since it came out and while I have had issues with the operating software at times, it is a big improvement over previous Windows platforms.

Microsoft has come up with a way to ‘fight’ back against the bad rep Vista received in its earlier days with The Mojave Experiment. The website claims that these are all ‘regular people’ who don’t like Windows Vista, but who have also never used it.They are given copies of Microsoft’s newest operating system codenamed Mojave, while in reality it’s simply a copy of Windows Vista.

Obviously the website shows people who actually enjoy Mojave, and then are revealed that it’s just Vista.

Even if these people are paid actors, not saying that they are, it’s a great experiment. It goes to remind everyone, that you have to be wary of the source that you’re receiving information from. Remember that the best source for information is you. Only you can decide if something is good or bad. Please don’t be ignorant and base a judgment on something before you’ve actually tried it out.

And with that in mind, enjoy your weekend!

Apple Sells One Million iPhone 3Gs in First Weekend

Apple today announced it sold its one millionth iPhone 3G on Sunday, just three days after its launch on Friday, July 11. iPhone 3G is now available in 21 countries — Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US — and will go on sale in France on July 17.

“iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”

The new iPhone 3G combines all the revolutionary features of iPhone plus 3G networking that is twice as fast*, built-in GPS for expanded location-based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs over 800 third party applications available through the new App Store. In the US, the new iPhone 3G is priced at just $199 for the 8GB model, and $299 for the 16GB model**.

*Based on 3G and EDGE testing. Actual speeds vary by site conditions.

**Requires new two-year AT&T rate plan for qualified customers, sold separately.

BioWare interested in the iPhone

BioWare on the iPhone!

Now there’s something you don’t hear everyday. Veteran RPG developer BioWare mentioned in an interview by MTV that they are interested in the cultural phenomenon that is the Apple iPhone. Of course, there’s no hard words here and it’s all just speculation for now, but BioWare definitely have their eyes on the Jesus phone.

BioWare is currently working on Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the DS, which surprised fans since BioWare isn’t exactly known for developing much outside the PC frame. Of course, they did make the Xbox 360 hit Mass Effect, but it was ported over to the PC anyways, so BioWare wasn’t completely out of their element. When asked on the handheld experience, Greg Zeschuk says:

“It’s actually been great fun. That was almost one of the sort of hidden reasons to do a handheld game. One thing was to try something different and explore a different platform, and as you know, kind of sort of work in a lighter flavor of environment in terms of the game we’re working on. We’re nearing the end and it’s turning out really great.

In terms of handhelds, it’s been great because it’s also so fast. The cycle to make changes and improvements is very short compared to the hundreds of thousands of text in a full next-gen console or PC product. The iteration cycle is really short, and that makes it ideal for a short-attention span where you want to do something different every day. [laughs] It’s pretty exciting, actually. It’s been a really unique experience and one we’re definitely interested in pursuing.”

And when asked on whether they are interested in the iPhone,

“We look at every platform that comes along. Obviously, something that’s as big a cultural and technical success as the iPhone is something you really got to take a close look at. Certainly, there’s nothing written in stone yet but we’ve got a lot of folks looking at it. It’s intriguing. I think one of the things that we’ll have to see how it shakes out is what type of consumer buys games on it and what type of experience they’re looking for. You want to always mash the consumer experience with what you’re building. We want to understand what people are going to do with it. Who knows. We’re definitely looking at every platform.”

Still, BioWare is committed to the PC, for which they will be releasing their original IP, Dragon Age, a fantasy RPG that doesn’t really rock our socks yet. They are, of course, working on Mass Effect 2 and some more mysterious products.

Big boys toys: Lego MP3 player and iPod dock

mp3_lego-mp3-player-red-and-blue.jpg

Ah, Nostalgia. What a wonderful thing it is reminiscing about the days when we used to play with Lego. Speaking of which, check out this flashback inducing MP3 player from Homade, made from the colored buliding blocks. Well not quite, since they aren’t an official Lego product. Still, they look exactly like the building blocks of our youth.

Read on for the whole collection and the lego-like iPod dock.

Continue reading “Big boys toys: Lego MP3 player and iPod dock”

The Vers 2X iPod dock-The eco-friendly music player

Vers 2X environmentally-friendly iPod dock

We’ve perhaps been guilty of posting one-too-many iPod docks. But here’s one ‘pod player we couldn’t ignore-the Vers 2X

It’s possibly the most environmentally-friendly iPod dock around, and a real beauty too. Continue reading “The Vers 2X iPod dock-The eco-friendly music player”