Next Generation - Xbox 360

Well I must say that the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2005 was absolutely awesome and I had a blast testing all the new and upcoming games and hardware to be seen in the near future. I was anticipating playing with the Xbox 360 the most before I went on my trip. My wish came true after I sailed through a big ocean of people. There were samples of the Xbox 360 out on the expo floor that I was able to play. Among the fun demo games were Call of Duty 2, Full Auto and Need For Speed-Most Wanted.

The Xbox 360 is not only eye-catching, but it has a lot of new features that would appeal to just about anybody. Opening the doors to high definition entertainment, every Xbox 360 game is optimized for a minimum of 720 pixels, 16:9 HDTV output. That basically means that if you own a HDTV capable television, the games will look awesome! It has 512 megabytes of memory and a custom ATI graphics processor to bring you the ultimate visual fidelity. even on regular, non-HD television sets.

It will come built-in with the Windows Media Center Extender functionality so when you want to take a break from your gaming, you can access your recorded television programs, digital movies, music, videos and photos stored on your Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005-based PCs. You can also watch all your favorite DVDs, listen to CDs and look at your photos (burned onto a CD or DVD) with its progressive scan DVD movie, CD music and photo playback support. In addition, every MP3 player, digital camera and Windows XP PC can plug direct into the Xbox 360 via its USB 2.0 ports.

The Xbox 360 will be available this holiday season just in time for Christmas. By the end of the 2005 holiday season, there should be about 300 games available in 24 countries. The price is not yet set yet, however, Microsoft has partnered up with Mountain Dew to give away thousands of Xbox 360 consoles before it hits the store shelves. Beginning August 28 this summer, a winner will be selected every ten minutes for nine weeks straight.

I don’t know about you, but when August comes around, I’ll be guzzling a lot of Mountain Dew to try to score myself one of those beauties.

G4 Videogame TV - The Gamer's Channel

Did you know there’s a television station that’s dedicated solely to videogames? It’s one of my personal favorites that I watch all the time, and it’s called G4 Videogame TV. I’ve been watching G4 since I discovered it about two years ago, and it’s where I get a lot of good tidbits. Everyday, 24-7, it plays original shows that are related to all things videogames.

G4’s shows feature breaking industry news, reviews, the hottest games, gear and technology celebrity interviews, insider opinions, insider opinions and the underground trends that you may not hear about in the mainstream media. Although the primary audience of G4 Videogame TV is males, 12-34 years old, I think anyone should watch this channel, male or female, as long as you have an interest in games or consumer technology. There are a lot of cool things to see and learn about . . . a recent show I saw had the hosts demonstrating how to capture the images of the backs of cards (or any object) using the shadows around the object and lasers. Who would have thought that was possible?

G4 offers quite a programming line-up. Here are some of my recommended picks:

Attack of the Show: This airs every weekday and it keeps up with everything that’s here today, “lame tomorrow.” It features everything from music to gadgets to special guests to downloads. This is the Click Chick’s favorite show on G4!

X-Play: Hosted by Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb, this show gives viewers tips, tricks and previews for the latest games. This show is very entertaining to watch with their brutally honest comedic opinions.

Cheat!: This show provides the ultimate strategies, tips and codes for all the biggest games out there. It’s good if you want to speed-play your games to get through it so you can get to your next game on your list.

Anime Unleashed: Good for anime fanatics, this shows the best in Japanese animation – the greatest action adventure series, the top sci-fi fantasies and the cleverest comedies.

Street Fury: I know there’s a lot of car buffs out there, and this show is for you. This shows the world of import car racing and car modification. Host Carlton “Big C” Lewis travels the country to car shows such as SEMA, NISEI and Hot Import Nights while hanging with the best racing champs around.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg for what G4 has to offer, but I urge you to check it out. You can watch G4 on Oceanic’s Digital Cable, channel 437 (listed as G4TTV). For a complete programming listing and more information on G4 Videogame TV, go to www.g4tv.com.

Gamer's Paradise

By the time you read this, I’ll be sitting pretty in Los Angeles, California attending the world’s biggest and best video game conference, E3Expo 2005. There were only a handful of people that knew what the heck I was talking about, when I told them, “I’m going to E3!” For all you gamers out there, you very well know what E3 is and you’re probably really jealous that I went! For everyone else, let me educate you. . .

The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), “Where Business Gets Fun,” as they say, is the world’s largest trade event showcasing entertainment software and other related products. This 11th annual expo is the biggest ever with a show floor that covers 540,000 net square feet, the equivalent of 2,700 city blocks. Tens of thousands of industry professionals from around the world attend this every year to experience the future of interactive entertainment. Sorry, but It is a trade-only event and you must be invited or qualify as industry to attend. This year, there are over 400 exhibitors from 90 different countries to debut over 1,000 never-before-seen computer and video games and other related products . . .oh baby!

E3 is owned and operated by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which is the United States association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of the companies publishing interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers and the Internet. ESA members collectively count for more than 90 percent of the $7 billion a year in entertainment software sales.

This is my first E3 ever. I’ve wanted to go to one for years, and now I’m so excited to be at one! Some highlights of E3 2005 that I’m looking forward to are the recently announced Xbox 360, the new PlayStation 3, the next-generation Nintendo game machine and lots and LOTS of new games and toys. In my upcoming columns, you’ll be reading about all the goodies I find. If you want to attend E3 virtually, check-out www.e3insider.com. It’s the next best thing to being there in person.

Download Music - The Legal Way

I love music, all kinds of music. I listen to it everywhere: the car, at home, while working and as I’m exercising. Whenever I leave the house, I even make sure I have music playing for my spoiled parrot, Duncan. He apparently likes listening to music too as he whistles along with the tunes.

I promise I’m not crazy, even though I’ve filled up all three of my iPods with music! My entire CD collection has been transferred onto my iPods and Apple’s iTunes music store has made a small fortune off me, charging $0.99 for each song I’ve legally downloaded.

The iTunes Music Store is the biggest and most successful music download service, selling over 400 million songs since its start. In an attempt to combat Apple’s hold on the online music market, Yahoo! Music Unlimited (http://music.yahoo.com) began offering single song downloads at $0.79 each. In addition, users have the option to subscribe for unlimited downloads at $6.99 a month (or $59.88 if you pay for the entire year in advance). Over one million songs are available. You can play your Yahoo! songs on just about any digital music player; however it’s not yet compatible with Macintosh. In addition, the Yahoo! service offers streaming music video viewing. This is especially good if you don’t have time to sit in front of the television all day and watch MTV.

Yahoo! Music Unlimited is also competing against Napster (www.napster.com) and Rhapsody (www.rhapsody.com). Napster charges $14.95 a month for its unlimited subscription, or $0.99 a song. Rhapsody is $14.99 a month or $0.89 per song.

All four of the above mentioned services also offer commercial-free radio stations. Since I’m a huge iPod fan, I’ll stick with iTunes, even though I have to pay $0.20 more per song.

I want my DVR!

The introduction of Digital Video Recorder (DVR) devices in 1999 with TiVo revolutionized the way Americans watch TV. At least I know it’s changed the way I watch TV. I’m not usually home when my favorite shows come on. With my DVR, it’s so easy to program shows – a few clicks got me an entire season of Desperate Housewives.

A DVR is a device that allows you to record hours and hours of television on a hard drive without having to buy piles of VCR tapes. It lets you pause and rewind TV shows even while they are airing. I tried two different services, TiVo and Oceanic Time Warner’s DVR. They each have their good points. With both you can pause or replay a scene as you’re watching TV. TiVo does retroactive recording – if you turn on the television 25 minutes into Oprah, you can rewind into the past while the TV was off and watch it from the beginning. You can control TiVo from the Internet, so while you’re at work and forgot to schedule something in the morning – no problem, just log into the TiVo website and add a show. Oceanic does not have these features.

Oceanic’s service allows you to record up to two shows simultaneously, whereas TiVo allows for only one at a time. Oceanic has the option to record in full resolution, high definition for the few channels that do offer HDTV. With a TiVo box, you can change out the hard drive for a bigger one (drool), and tinker with it. With Oceanic’s box, if you touch its insides, it probably won’t work properly again. TiVo also offers TiVoToGo, which allows you to copy your favorite shows to a PC to burn to a DVD.

Balancing all the features, I’m going to stick with my Oceanic box for an additional $9.95 a month added to my cable bill. I do enjoy the HDTV feature it offers and the fact that you can record two shows at once. You don’t have to pay for the box too. New subscribers must pay a few one-time installation charges that vary upon what extra channels and features are ordered.

For a TiVo, you’ll pay $12.95 a month subscription or a one-time $299.00 for product lifetime. (This fee gives you access to the television listings in order to program the TiVo.) In addition, you still need to purchase a TiVo box, which can be found just about anywhere electronics are sold. For more information, contact Oceanic Time Warner Cable at 625-8100 (or www.oceanic.com) or check out TiVo’s website at www.tivo.com.

The Force is with Us

I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to the movie Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith to come out in theaters on May 19. Call me a geek. I don’t care. I’m one of those people that will buy my Star Wars movie tickets before the opening day, and then stand in line with a Star Wars t-shirt that says, “May The Force Be With You,” at least two or three hours before the movie starts to make sure I get a good seat!

With all big movies it’s the norm to see it being promoted all over the place . . . cereal boxes, action figures, water bottles, t-shirts, pins, under-roos (no, I’m not crazy enough to own Star Wars underwear), and of course video games. The gaming industry rakes it in when it comes to these big movies. Hey, all good with me, since it allows me to see scenes from the movie before it’s released. I experienced this with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Spidermans, and now with the latest game-movie release from LucasArts, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

In the Episode III video game, you can control all the Jedi abilities of both Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. This includes devastating Force powers and advanced lightsaber techniques involving combo attacks and defensive maneuvers. As Anakin you unleash the power of the dark side in ruthless lightsaber and Force attacks. As Obi-Wan, you struggle to save the galaxy from darkness by focusing the power of the light side into precise lightsaber attacks and using the Force to control enemy actions. The Force powers include the Force Stun, Sith Lightning and Jedi Mind Trick.

There’s over 12 minutes of actual footage from the movie while you live the exciting moments through Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s perspective. The fights have a series of lightsaber battles against challenging enemies such as droids, humans and Jedi. Sixteen levels move across different worlds including Coruscant, Utapau (the sinkhole planet) and the volcano world of Mustafar. The immersive Star Wars music and authentic sound effects recorded at Skywalker Sound makes it feel like you’re there (especially if you’re playing in a room surrounded with speakers).

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith The Video Game is available for your PlayStation 2 or XBox for $49.99 at your nearest CompUSA or at www.compusa.com.

Telephone Dot Com

I’ve spent the past several years of my life putting together and administering two phone systems for MidWeek/Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and was even nicknamed “the phone queen,” so you could say that I’m pretty knowledgeable at telephony. I’ve always wanted to implement Internet telephony at work, but now it’s coming to consumers’ homes. The future of phones may possibly be VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) as the prices come down.

Of course, you’re probably still wondering exactly what VoIP is. If I had to explain it in simple terms, it’s a way for you to make telephone calls over your data networks. It’s based on packet-switching technology, which is used for data networks, such as the Internet, your office network or even your home network. This technology allows you to use a single network to support both your phone system and your computers.

You always hear those commercials that say something like, “experience the new V-o-I-P technology.” The truth is that it’s not that new. Did you this technology has been around for nearly 10 years? It’s just that since high-speed Internet is becoming the norm, VoIP is becoming more and more popular in the home and in the office. Since all calls go over your data network, long distance calls are free, even to international numbers in some cases.

There are several companies that offer VoIP. The best, but probably the most expensive is with Oceanic Time Warner Cable. In addition to your cable and Road Runner bill, $39.95 a month gets you their Digital Phone service. The best feature is that you can keep your same phone number. Other features include most of the standards you would get with your regular phone such as caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding and 911 service. This plan includes all long distance to the U.S. mainland and Canada. If you need to make international calls, there’s a per-minute charge depending on the country you’re dialing to, and voicemail is $3.95 a month. For more information or to subscribe, log onto www.timewarnercable.com or call
625-8100.

Vonage The Broadband Phone Company (www.vonage.com) is fairly reasonable at $24.99 a month for unlimited calls to anywhere in the United States or Canada. The drawback is that you cannot have a Hawaii area code. If you make a large amount of outgoing long distance calls to the mainland, and are okay with a non-Hawaii area code, this could be a good plan for you. It has most of the standard phone features, including 911 service. A lesser rate plan offered is $14.99 a month for a 500 minute limit.

The best deal if you don’t mind having a strange area code or no 911 service, is with Broadvoice (www.broadvoice.com). It charges $19.95 for unlimited calls international (21 countries). If that’s not enough for you, it’s $24.95 for 35 countries. Just about all the standard features are also offered with Broadvoice.

Keep in mind that subscribing to a VoIP phone service would be the most economical if you already have high speed Internet in your home, and if you make a lot of long distance phone calls. Also the voice quality may not be what you’re used to with regular analog landline phone.

High Tech Microwave

I was recently faced with shopping for a new microwave oven and stumbled across something very interesting. It’s a microwave that will automatically figure out your cooking time after a quick scan of a barcode.

The Beyond Smart Microwave Oven, made by Westinghouse, is for a gadget geek who wouldn’t mind spending a little more for an extra feature. Not only does it look like a nice modern-day stainless steel microwave, but it also comes pre-loaded with 4,000 barcodes and remembers your favorites as you use them. When new updates are available, it automatically updates its memory with new information from the Beyond Information Network database. The perfect times with the barcode scanning only works with pre-packaged food. Although I don’t eat a lot of pre-packaged food, it would sure prevent me from burning popcorn again (as I once did and made the whole office smell like burnt popcorn for two weeks!).

In order for the automatic updates to work, you need the iCEBOX entertainment center, which sells for $2,299.00 (flipscreen) or $1,499.00 (countertop), and a Beyond SANI (Smart Appliance Network Interface) card for $59.99. The Beyond Smart Microwave itself costs $237.99.

Beyond also offers a coffee maker and bread machine, both updatable with the SANI and iCEBOX. These, and the microwave are available at www.beyondconnectedhome.com.

These would be neat things to play with in your kitchen if you have the extra money for it. You’ll never overcook or undercook your pre-packaged foods again. And, while it may be cool to have your kitchen devices networked, if your Internet connection goes down, you may have to order out for pizza instead.