Family Room

CNET readers react to the iPod's possible demise

As the official unveiling of the new iPhone looms, Apple's iPod, once the flagship device in the company's product line, is being cited by some folks as a potential candidate for the chopping block.

CNET senior editor Donald Bell discussed that possibility yesterday, saying that he's "a little worried for the iPod." He pointed out that the iPod has been surviving in the shadow of the iPhone and iPad, and as time goes on, the portable media players are becoming less important to Apple's bottom line.

In July, Apple revealed in its fiscal third-quarter … Read more

Nintendo to cut DSi pricing on September 12

Nintendo is reducing the price of the DSi and the DSi XL, the company announced on Monday.

Starting on September 12, the Nintendo DSi will retail for $149.99, down from its current $169.99 price tag. Nintendo is also reducing the price of its DSi XL from $189.99 to $169.99 on the same day. The Nintendo DS Lite's price will remain at $129.99.

Although Nintendo says it's reducing the DSi's price to give consumers more "value," its decision could be due to declining sales of the handheld. In June, the company sold 510,000 DS units, … Read more

Shocker: Movie theater 3D glasses carry bacteria

With an increasing number of 3D movies hitting theaters, we'll be wearing theater-provided 3D glasses more often. The only problem is, those glasses could harbor all kinds of bacteria that might make some of us think twice about seeing "Avatar" for the fourth time.

According to Good Housekeeping, which tested movie theater 3D glasses that were both unwrapped and wrapped in plastic, several of the frames carried "bacteria that can cause conjunctivitis, skin infections, food poisoning, or even sepsis or pneumonia."

The publication's research lab found that "none of the glasses" it … Read more

Sid Meier bringing Civilization to Facebook

Famed video game developer Sid Meier, best known for the Civilization franchise, announced on a Civilization Facebook page Thursday that a new title called Civilization Network is on its way to the social network.

According to Meier, he has been "looking at ways of expanding the Civilization gameplay experience to include solo, competitive, and cooperative play to take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks." Civilization Network will allow users to join with friends to "create the world's most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest civilization," Meier said.

Like so many of its predecessors, … Read more

The Digital Home 39: Microsoft, Apple, and Google, Oh my!

In his latest episode, Don Reisinger talks about the ridiculous issues facing major tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. After that, he examines why weddings cost so much. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 39 … Read more

Is motion-sensitive gaming a gimmick?

As a Wii owner, I've spent a considerable amount of time playing my way through games that required me moving around the room, jumping up and down like a fool, and generally using my body to control the action on-screen. And while I enjoy it at times, most of it feels like a gimmick.

But there's no debating the fact that the Wii is the de facto leader in the video game space and although Sony and Microsoft have tried repeatedly to downplay its significance, the former may be announcing a new motion-sensitive controller to compete on the same level.

According to Gamesindustry.biz, Sony's latest foray into motion sensing will "break apart" and work in a way that's extremely similar to the Wii-mote.

Although I can't blame Sony for trying to capitalize on a major fad in the gaming industry, does it really want to enter that domain? Motion-sensitive gaming is nothing more than a gimmick that has a slew of hurdles to overcome before it becomes the next logical choice for controlling a video game.… Read more

Video game addicts can be party animals too

When I was a kid, I usually found myself doing one of two things: playing video games at home or trying as best as I could to attract every girl I saw. Was I a video game addict? Probably. Was a socialite? Yep. And you know what? I wasn't alone.

According to a report from Reuters, Daniel Loton, an Australian graduate student found that "15 percent of 621 adult respondents to an online survey were identified as "problem gamers" who spend more than 50 hours a week playing games."

But only 1 percent of those respondents had poor social skills and shyness, suggesting the cheerleaders in school were wrong: video game addicts are cool too.

Sweet, sweet justice.

The beauty of this new study isn't that it tells us something we didn't already know--I was known as the cool dude on campus for a reason, you know--but it helps us combat the fools who insist that video games are bad for children and hinder their ability to interact in the real world.… Read more

Can game developers expand out of the game business?

An interesting article from Kotaku today, discusses Ubisoft's intention to get into the film business and try to expand its offerings beyond video games.

"Our goal is to create a studio that will be very high quality, our goal is to try to get to the level of quality of Peter Jackson's Weta studio," Ubisoft's CEO Yves Guillemot said in an interview. "We have been working to train people, to recruit highly talented people and we are in test mode at the moment. We are going to make sure that we get to the level of Weta. We have a long way to go but in getting to that level will help us to actually be one of the studios where everybody has to go."

Peter Jackson, best known for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and as director of King Kong, is currently working in collaboration with Bungie to create a new game set in the Halo universe. The game is currently titled Halo: Chronicles, but no release date has been given.

Guillemot sounds ambitious and I applaud him for trying to do more with his business, I can't help but wonder if video game developers have any place in other forms of entertainment. Can they really create a stellar sitcom or a blockbuster hit at the theaters? Are they capable of publishing sci-fi novels?

With the way things are going in all of those industries, I don't think it's too far-fetched at all.… Read more

The other Microsoft-Apple battle

Everyone likes to talk about the battle between Microsoft and Apple on the OS front, but that seems like old hat to me. Sure, there's certainly a battle being waged in that space, but is it really as hotly contested as some want to believe? Call me when Mac OS X hits 20 percent market share.

But there is one battle raging between Apple and Microsoft that many people don't even see. No, it's not in the MP3 player market where the iPod reigns supreme, it's in the home entertainment business. More specifically, the battle being waged pits the Apple TV against the Xbox 360.

Now I know what you're thinking -- "isn't the Xbox 360 a video game console and the Apple TV is a media device"? Yes and no. The description of each device may be correct, but the Xbox 360 description doesn't say enough about the console. Aside from its gaming capabilities, Microsoft's product performs many of the tasks already found on the Apple TV -- streaming entertainment, music, movies and TV show viewing and a hard drive that can store your favorite material.

And with an installed base of over 18 million that easily eclipses the Apple TV's 1.7 million installed base, there's no reason to suggest Microsoft can't win the battle and finally deal the Apple TV its death blow. And here's how it should do it:… Read more