Xbox Live prices going up

Microsoft sent out emails and notice to all their Xbox Live user that starting on November of 2010, the subscription price for all Gold level Xbox Live subscription will be going up.  A one year subscription will increase from $50 to $60 a year.

A 3-month subscription will go up from $19.99 to $24.99, while a 1-month plan jumps from $7.99 to $9.99.

Along with the announcement, Microsoft has launched a promotion allowing Xbox owners to renew now for an additional year for $39.99

One Million Calls Using Gmail

According to Google, over 1 million calls were placed from Gmail in just 24 hours of its launch.  For comparison, there are somewhat more than 300 million people in the United States. If the average person makes 10 calls per day–research in 2008 put the number at 208 calls per month–that means about one out of every 3,000 calls in the U.S. went through the service on its first day.

The service lets Gmail users make free calls to U.S. and Canada and inexpensive calls to phones in other countries. It uses Gmail as an interface and optionally can integrate with Google Voice to receive calls as well.

That is pretty amazing and just shows how many using or have gmail.

Jailbreaking Legal

Federal regulators lifted a cloud of uncertainty when they announced it was lawful to hack or “jailbreak” an iPhone, declaring Monday there was “no basis for copyright law to assist Apple in protecting its restrictive business model.”

Jailbreaking is hacking the phone’s OS to allow consumers to run any app on the phone they choose, including applications not authorized by Apple.

IPhone 4 Problem Confirmed

Thanks for the engineers at Consumer Reports, the widely known problem with the new Iphone 4 has been confirmed.  What is the problem you ask?

When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side—an easy thing, especially for lefties—the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak signal.

The tests also indicate that AT&T’s network might not be the primary suspect in the iPhone 4’s much-reported signal woes.  Which is very good news for AT&T which has been beaten up lately.

Iphone 4 Incredible Sales

Apple announced today that more than 1.7 Million Iphones were sold over the last three days.  This is truely amazing despite some technical gitches and long lines.

Apple seems to be clicking on all cylinders and has become one of the biggest technology companies in the world.

The new Iphone has sold at a rate faster than all previous version and in comparison to all of Apples’ other products.

New Iphone

Apple will be rolling out the Iphone 4 on June 24, 2010.  The new Iphone 4 is a major leap over its already excellent predecessor.

The iPhone 4 is a dramatic redesign. It manages to pack a radically sharper screen; a second, front-facing camera; a larger battery; a better rear camera with flash; and a faster processor into a body that is 24% thinner, a bit narrower, and retains the same length and weight as its predecessor’s. In fact, Apple claims that the iPhone 4 is the world’s thinnest smartphone and sports the world’s highest-resolution smartphone screen.

With the front-facing camera, and clever new software called FaceTime, Apple has brought simple, high-quality video calling to mobile phones, albeit, for now, only over Wi-Fi and only among iPhone 4 owners. In multiple tests, this feature worked very well for me and is a classic example of the value of having one company do integrated hardware and software.

I really like this new phone overall.  It includes some excellent multi tasking functions.  But don’t kid yourself, its not going to replace your Blackberry that you used for work but it does everything else that you want it to do.

Farmville Tips

Here are some tips for those of you who love playing Farmville or are just getting started and want to accomulate money to buy your goodies:

Need more neighbors to advance to the next levels in the beginning .
The more crop and animals you have, the more money you make.
You can also pet your farm animals, if your animals are happy they
produce more milk,eggs, etc . The more levels you reach, the more things you can
buy, the more crop you can crop .

Top Hat Plan

Ipad International Debute

The Apple iPad made its international debut on Friday.  In Tokyo, some 1,200 people lined up to get the opportunity to purchase one/

In Australia, hundreds lined up outside on the first day of sale.  In Europe, the same could be said.  In London, the demand was strong.

This all bodes well for Apple which overtook Microsoft as the largest technology company in the world.

However, on Tuesday, Dell unveiled its Streak tablet computer, which can double as a mobile phone and will have a front-facing camera for videoconferencing. Sony said on Thursday it would launch an e-reader in Japan by the end of the year.

So for the moment, Apple might be on top of the hill but there are others coming after them.

Games In HD

If you are like me and you watch a lot of the playoff games in HD, it is very noticeable that there are games in HD and then there are games in HD.   It is truly disappointing to see a game in 720p instead of 1080i.  I know they make the argument that the camera cannot truely capture the speed of the game in 720p but I find that argument without merit.

The quality of the pictures in 1080l is superior and I have never seen a game where a 1080i image was not able to give you a clear picture and the action going on.  I think it just a bogus excused used by television station that will not paid the extra money to get a 1080i camera.

In this day and age, and especially during the playoffs, there is no excuse not to use anything but 1080i.

Watch when the Lakers play the Celtics in the NBA finals, you will see games in Boston in 720p and games in Los Angeles in 1080l.  You till me if you can tell the difference or not.

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