Here's To Your I Phone

Recently I received an email from my brother Jim. He took a picture with his new iphone. Honestly, I would like to think of myself a gadget type of person and we had looked at the iphones when they came out.

The point that turned me away from the iphone was that AT&T locked you into a data plan. We currently have two cell phones and 700 minutes per month. Between the two of them and even though we use our cell phone primarily over the landline we never come anywhere close to using those minutes in a month's time. I think collectively we're lucky if we use 300.

So if I wouldn't use it to hop onto the internet, say while I am shopping at the mall, there was a feature that I really don't need. We as a household don't buy our music from itunes so there's another feature lost to us. I know there are many people who are suffering now from carpal tunnel syndrome who love these features and that is fine. For me, the iphone wasn't worth the $$.

Now onto something different.

There have been attempts over the last 10 years to bring a device into your living room that would effectively link all your media together. You could access sound, movie or picture files that are stored on your computer and view or listen to them in another room.

So a couple weeks ago I decided to try out a function of the playstation 3. I knew it could connect to your network to access files and the internet, etc; I just hadn't tried it.

The internet here at the house is wireless. It comes into the house via the tv cable and the high speed wireless router. So to connect the Playstation 3 to the network involved just connecting it with an ethernet cable to the router.

Ta Da

It will now play any video, music or photo file on the tv....

or



You can access the internet.

Now all I need to do is install adobe flash and I can listen to my xm radio through the stereo.

$600+ Video Game System

Question is would you pay $600 or more for a video game system?

Let's recall my experience with video game systems and I am only 42.

I remember a pong like system that maybe had three different versions of the game on it. We're talking pre 1980 here. The big scare back then was that although you could connect it to your tv (well duh) you couldn't play it for long or it would ruin the tv. That sort of reminds me of the caveat of sitting too close to the tv or better yet how about "Duck And Cover". aahhhh the good old days when you really could survive a nuclear blast.

Next for me was in Germany....a Mattel system "Intellivision" then NES "Nintendo Entertainment System" then Super NES.

Somewhere in there I bought a 3DO system. If I remember correctly 3DO was the first 32 bit gaming system and compared side by side with the other systems it was a winner but at a price($700).

Then came playstation. I am not a huge fan of Sony and I think that mainly comes from technology they develop that no one else seems to take hold of. The mini disc player is a good example and yes I owned one. I dove head first into playstation though. Then Playstation II.

Now there is Playstation
3 at $400 for the 20GB version or $600 for the 60 GB version. There are
other features you get when buying the 60GB model than you do with the
20GB such as built inWiFi . As I recall reading about this product as
it was being developed the sheer amount of computing power and pixel
rendering it would be producing was astonishing.

It seems that for all of us gadget guys and gals the world seems to be coming
together for us. HDTV is here and even when you view HDTV through a set
at 1080i the difference in resolution is very dramatic. Imagine seeing
the same through a set with a native resolution of 1080p?? Of course
you need to utilize the optimum (HDMI) connections.

Gone are the days where connecting a video game system to a tv for long periods of time will damage your tv. No, today's systems demand to be played on your tv. Of course Sony's Playstation will play their Blu
Ray disc which has a resolution of 1080p. The difference between 1080p
and 1080i is that although the screen is refreshing faster than your
eye can notice with 1080p you are getting the entire picture at once
rather than half then half.

So if you have a tv capable of receiving HDTV you will be able to appreciate what the Playstation 3 has to offer. I think that will determine the fait
of this gaming system. If you still live in the days of the 25" or 32"
console then I doubt that you will be paying this kind of $$ for a
system. On the other hand, if you have spent the money to watch HDTV in
your home whether that be a small screen, projection, LCD or whatever,
then you will be the one that will most appreciate this game system and
more likely to buy it.