There's general agreement that Sony stumbled out of the gate with the PlayStation 3. Months of intense hype were followed by a late launch (fully a year after the Xbox 360) and a staggering $600 price tag for the deluxe model.
Even worse, the PS3 didn't initially have any real must-have exclusive titles, and despite the power of its vaunted Cell processor, multiplatform games from third-party developers didn't look appreciably better than the respective titles on the Xbox 360.
Since then, the company's been modifying the PlayStation product line to better fit the competitive market landscape. As of August 2008, a new "bargain" PS3 is available with a larger, 80GB hard drive, and a "deluxe" model is due in November, doubling the capacity to 160GB.
Both, however, lack backward compatibility with PS2 games and do not come with flash card readers. If those features are a must, it might be best to pick up the 80GB "Metal Gear" bundle version on eBay w... More »
The DS and PSP are last gen platforms – and the only true next-gen portable platform is the iPod Touch.
That was the message from Apple this week, as the company finally revealed its intentions to snaffle market share in the traditional gaming space – after years of fervent speculation about its plans.
Speaking exclusively to MCV, the company confessed that its new marketing campaign encourages consumers to buy iPod purely “to play our games” – and even marked the device out as a real threat to Nintendo and Sony’s handheld efforts.
Greg Joswiak, head of iPod and iPhone marketing told us: “It’s not just the screens that are superior to DS – it’s the graphics capability, the computing power and the App Store distribution model.
“I had an analyst tell me in September – and he was right – that the DS is the past of gaming devices, and iPod Touch is the future of gaming devices. It certainly has our competi... More »
Google's hotly anticipated push into operating systems for mobile phones was a media sensation, but HTC's version of its Android-powered device is falling short of the hype. Critics say the "Google phone," which went on sale Oct. 22, is a little clunky with design flaws like no earphone jack and an oddly jutting chin. Close, but no iPhone killer.
Zune video MP3 player - Price: $230
Microsoft's latest answer to the iPod, with 120 gigabytes of storage and a 3.2-inch high-resolution color screen, is a vast improvement over the original Zune, which debuted in 2006. But the new Zune faces the same problem as the iPod: Smartphones and other Web-enabled devices chock full of features (think iPhone) threaten to render these one-trick players obsolete.
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Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer bristles every time he gets the question: Why can't the Japanese electronics giant be more like Apple?
The maker of the iPod, iPhone, and Mac computers consistently delivers supercool gadgets that are easy to use, while Sony sells music players, TVs, and cameras that get mixed reviews and often don't even work well with other Sony (SNE) products.
"Sony is a very big company," Stringer says by way of explanation. "Our toughest competitors are niche organizations."
Stringer is quick to admit, though, that Sony may face a troubled future if it can't rival Apple (AAPL) in creating simple software that makes its gadgets fun and in giving consumers easy access to music and videos.
Apple's iTunes store has long made filling iPods a cinch, but Sony's consumer electronics and PlayStation divisions have only recently started to integrate their offerings with those of the company's movie studio and... More »
Expanding on the previously published Radio Shack trade-in program, Best Buy offers a similar program, albeit online only (linked above, you can't bring your old stuff to a retail location).
Box up your stuff and send it with their postage, get it approved, and receive back a Best Buy gift card. I dumped a working 1st gen touch wheel 20GB iPod for ~$40.
I also dumped an old cell phone for ~$20 Decision... recycle at municipal collection for nothing or let Best Buy recycle it and pay me for it? ;)
A working 40GB PS3 with one controller and all connections gets you $102. Hey, that's better than $23 from RadioShack, right?
RadioShack's Online Trade-In Program will swap your old gadgets for gift cards. You search their database for your gadget and offer the best quality assessment that you can, and they provide a mail-in sticker that you print.
If all goes well, they'll send you a gift card 10-14 days after the unit is received. So assuming worst case scenario, what are your totally broken gadgets worth?
• 3G iPod (10GB) - $3.23
• 1st Gen Zune - $5.81
• Palm Treo 650 - $3.69
• Xbox 360 Premium - $9.65
• DS Lite - $4.25
• Wii - $15.85
• PlayStation 3 (60GB) - $23.48
Needless to say, if you've trashed all of your electronics, you may be able to unload them and score a few bucks in the process.
Just when you thought it was safe to convert to Windows Vista, Microsoft changes its mind, again. This soap opera is getting to be a little old.
In early October, Microsoft admitted that it didn't discontinue XP in June after all, and would continue selling via system builders through January 2009. This is accomplished via "downgrade" rights: Dell, for example, will sell you a system with Windows XP Professional installed, but it also includes the latest version of Vista.
Meanwhile, you can still buy boxed XP at Amazon, among other places. The June deadline in itself was an extension, and there's some suggestion that, for corporate customers at least, Microsoft may extend the extension of the extension.
Looking a little further down the line, Microsoft may make Vista irrelevant with the release of Windows 7, which could come as early as 2010. Does anyone seriously expect MIS departments to invest in conversion costs and new hardware, a Vista requ... More »
Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 in Japan in September, beating the rival machine in monthly unit sales for the first time in Sony's home market, a game magazine publisher said.
Strong sales growth came after Microsoft cut prices for its game console last month.
Microsoft sold 53,547 units of the Xbox 360 in the four weeks to September 28, compared with 33,071 units of the PS3, data from Enterbrain showed on Friday.
Nintendo Co Ltd safely maintained its leading position in the Japanese console market, having sold 109,548 units of the Wii during the month.
Although popular in the United States, the Xbox 360 has been struggling to compete with the PS3 and the Wii in Japan, home to both Sony and Nintendo.
In a bid to lift sales, Microsoft on September 11 cut the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade, which comes without a hard disk drive, by 8,000 yen ($76) to 19,800 yen. It also lowered the price of the high-en... More »
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