I really do wonder. Just about all the signs seem to indicate that the PS3 should be dead and buried but somehow it just keeps limping on, like that houseguest that just won't go away. Here's what I mean in more detail:

The PS3 has lost most of its big exclusives

Doesn't this usually kill off a console? When you lose something as huge as Grand Theft Auto, you really have to wonder how this console is still existant. I mean, for a game that was exclusive to the PS brand for most of its life, the PS3 got royally trounced, losing 60% of the sales for GTA4 to the 360, a console that had NO history of Grand Theft Auto prior to that date. Same went for Devil May Cry. Same is going to go for Metal Gear Solid (you don't REALLY think that Konami is going to be suicidal enough to only market to the PS3 market do you? That's like a PC game developer developing a game for just Macs).

Everything gets delayed

It makes you wonder why people wait, doesn't it? I mean, they get promised something amazing. It gets delayed, sometimes for a whole year. It's disappointing (case in point: Lair). You think the PS3 fans learned their lesson, but it happens again (Heavenly Sword) and again (Ratcet and Clank) and again (Home). And still they stick with the console, as though waiting some more would do them any good. If the 360 did this, if Halo 3 didn't come out until September of this year, and Gears 1 was released three months from now, and MGS4 was released on September of last year, I have a feeling the Xbox 360 fans would be mighty pissed at Micro$oft. But for some reason, the PS3 survives this travesty...

No good games, now or in the future

At least, none of the "good" games on the PS3 are any better than their equivalents on the 360, and oftentimes significantly worse. Their major franchises are jumping ship, going multiplatform because they can't make ends meet otherwise. How does this not kill off a game console? Isn't it called a gaming console for a reason? How can a gaming console survive with no games? It doesn't make any sense!

After all this HOW can the PS3 still be alive? Voodoo magic?

But, I think I have a theory as to how the PS3 is able to survive despite its mulitude of failures, and I alluded to it in my second paragraph. Much like the Apple Macintosh, it's all about the fanboys. If you think about it, Macs are indeed a lot like the PS3 these days. Apple used to dominate the home computer market, after they deposed the mighty IBM (Sony deposed the mighty Nintendo with the original Playstation).

But now, just as Windows has relegated the Macintosh to a niche market mostly kept alive by a devoted band of rather blind devotees, it's looking more and more like the PS3 brand is going to suffer a similar fate, limping along in obscurity and being kept alive by brand loyalty and little else. What disturbs me the most, though, is that people keep feeding into this, like those cults that somehow convince dozens of people to commit suicide so they can hitch a ride to Heaven on the tails of a comet.

I know this is a little old, but there was an article detailing how developers are going to use the new iPhone SDK to make games. So the question is, does anyone think this'll take off? Is the iPhone going to become what the N-Gage wanted to be? Or are iPhone games going to go the way of the iPod games; an interesting diversion but nothing special? Will we see "iphone" next to "ds" in the bar on top of GameSpot someday? Would YOU game on an iPhone?

And perhaps most important of all: what would we call the iPhone fanboys? We have lemming for the Xbox 360, sheep for the Wii, and cow for the Playstation 3. So what would we call the iPhone people?

... Sent from my iPhone ;)

Ok, so I looked around NewEgg ... what about this case?

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 Black/Blue ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

cost: $49.99, which is more than $50 cheaper than that Antec one (which, I do agree, is a little overpriced). If I get this case, it brings me to $979.14, which is just a hair under my budget, but I'd like to know if it would cause any heat problems with the GPU.

I'd also like to mention that, while it's probably obvious, I wanna cut costs where I don't need to be spending a lot of cash (like the case) and perhaps increase spending where a little bit extra money can mean a huge boost (like gaming keyboard/mouse is slightly more expensive but probably makes a huge difference in gameplay over standard keyboard/mouse).

Other changes:

I've decided to drop XP for Vista, because it's almost $40 cheaper. That $40 could be better spent elsewhere, especially since now the rig has enough memory and hard disk space to accomidate that hog that is Vista. This further drives down the cost of this rig to $944.14. I have $55.86 remaining (the $1,000 did NOT include taxes, I asked). So now I wanna see what small upgrades I can make here. First on the list, should I "upgrade" Vista back down to XP again? Or get him a set of speakers (can I even get decent speakers for $50)? Or maybe upgrade the Keyboard & Mouse?

First of all cut back on the damn casing.You dont have to buy such an expensive case with a tight budget.Your PC will be fine with a cheaper casing and everything will be compatable.Just buy an ATX one.

Musacircuit_2

I'll get to this later.

The power supply you have picked is fantastic but overpriced.Get this one.It is also a fantastic PSU and more than enough to power that rig.

Musacircuit_2

Done.

That motherboard sucks.Get this one.

Musacircuit_2

Done.

And well you need 2GB RAM there is absolutely no way to cheap out over here.However you didnt really cheap out as you can get 2GB 800Mhz ram for that price now.Here's one.;)

Musacircuit_2

Done. Also, I wanted to get him XP because I hear that Vista ... um ... kinda sucks. I suppose I COULD get him Vista; what do you guys think? Should I get him Vista or stick with XP? One thing's for sure though, it looks like XP is, ironically despite its age, more expensive :?.

And NO get a bigger HDD,80GB is just not cutting it.Get this.It hardly costs more than the 80GB.

Musacircuit_2

Done.

And atleast get 2.1 speakers and i would say get some budget gaming mouse like the A4tech X7 line.Pretty decent for their price.

Really all you have to cut down here now is the casing and i think you are just under $1000.:)

Musacircuit_2

I believe somebody mentioned that the monitor I picked had in-built speakers. There's $10 I can shave off :D. I don't think he's one of those audiophiles anyway, and besides if I absolutely had to I could later convince him to purchase a 2.1 system seperately. Right now though I just need something that works.

So now onto the biggest cost drain: the casing and the GPU. Now, here's where his two conditions really start to cause me headaches. I asked him if he wanted an 8800GT, and his response pretty much was, "Dude I don't understand all that tech stuff. I'm giving you $1,000, just make me a rig, OK? One that'll play all my games and most of the games that'll come out for the next couple of years or so."

So, basically I've got a lot of wiggle room here, but I wanna give him the best quality for the money, and as I understand it the 8800GT is the best GPU out there for its price. Isn't it practically an 8800GTX at half the price? There's just one problem; while I probably don't need that $100+ Antec case, wouldn't I need a case with at least some decent cooling for a heat monster like an 8800GT? If so can anyone suggest a good case that isn't $100+ (preferably around $50)?

By the way, just to let you know, Musacircuit_2 was right. After making the changes he suggested, cost has been brought down to a grand total of $1,049.14. I just need to cut $50 from the casing (or other various miscellaneous things) and we're home free...

SSo, I'm trying to build a decent rig under $1000, but try as I might to cut corners I just can't seem to get under the wire. It's only over by a $100 or so dollars, but since the budget I was given was $1000 exactly, I need to get it at or preferably under it (my friend hasn't confirmed whether that $1000 includes taxes, let's just say for now it does, always better to be safe).

Anyway, he wants everything from scratch, i.e. nothing from his old computer is going to be used. I tried to convince him otherwise, but it's a moot point because he's already sold it.

Here are the requirements:
less than $1000
It's gonna be a gaming rig so at minimum it'll need to be able to run modern games without TOO much problem
Doesn't need to be able to run Crysis on high, but should be able to run CoD4 without stutters

Here's what I have so far (by the way, if the prices don't seem to match that's because this is on NewEgg and I'm factoring in the instant savings they sometimes offer):

[EDIT: changed Mobo, memory, PSU, and HDD, removed speakers (monitor has built-in)]

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $119.99

GIGABYTE LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard$89.99

EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card $204.99

CORSAIR V2.2 450W Power Supply$69.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale 2.2GHz LGA 775 Dual-Core Processor$114.99

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 SDRAM DDR2 Dual Channel Desktop Memory $34.99

Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive$59.99

Logitech Black Standard USB Keyboard$9.25

Hanns·G Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor$169.99

Microsoft Black 3 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Optical Wheel Mouse$9.99

Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner$29.99

Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2C $134.99

$1,049.14

So where can I shave off about 100 bucks? I don't want to drop the 8800GT, because it's such good value for the money. I'd rather drop it somewhere else, but the question is where? Another thing is, will the RAM work in this setup? And will the 500W PSU work, or can I get away with a smaller, cheaper one? Another issue is the case, which I guess I could go with a smaller one for less money, but I don't know if the components will fit.

Two things I really wish weren't neccessary but unfortunately are: DVD burner and Windows, both of which got sold off with his old computer. You'd think he'd raise the $1000 cap to include the $300 he got for his old rig, but no. Or maybe it does already include it, I don't know.

So I'm a retro gamer. I LOVE my VC downloads. There's just one big problem: my poor Wii's HD is filling up! I've run out of space and have been forced to fill up SD card after SD card ... so yeah basically I was wondering does anyone think Nintendo's ever going to let us have more HD space? Or at least attach an external HD via USB? I mean, I've got so many SD cards I'm afraid I'll lose a few in the shuffle ... I'm really hoping someday I could just go out and buy a 500GB external drive and hook it up by USB and download VC stuff to my heart's content.

Oh yeah and WiiWare's coming soon ... dang it I need more space :(.

Here's the thing.

1) It's really hard to tell the difference between 1080p and 720p. You have to REALLY squint to notice the difference, and only if you have side-by-side comparison. I'm not kidding. Now, the difference between the two resolutions become more and more pronounced the larger the size of the TV, though, so you should keep that in mind. Getting a 32"? stick to 720p. It's cheaper, and at 32" I would be frankly amazed if you could tell the difference. 55"? Ok, at that size 1080p might make sense.

2) Don't get hung up on brand names. Sony TVs, for instance, tend to be overpriced. It's not that Sony makes bad TVs (actually their TVs are quite good), but they're not that good. You could get an equally good TV for almost 3/4 the price if you're willing to go Samsung or Panasonic. Go LG or Vizio and it goes down even more. And if you're willing to go with the unknown brands you could get like a 50" Plasma for $1000 (not recommended though, because unknown brands tend to not be the best quality).

My recommendation? Shop around online, where there aren't pushy clerks trying to sell you things. Find a TV that looks about right, and seems the right price. Print out the TV's specs and price, (along with 2-3 other similar choices in that price range), and THEN go to the store, armed with that information. If the store sells the TV at 2000, but you found the same one online for $1000, don't be afraid to show that printout to the store manager. He just might be willing to offer a discount, or even match the price. Remember, you can always just threaten to buy it from the online store.

The only reason I suggest you go to the brick-and-mortar store in the first pace is so you can see the TV for yourself. Pictures can never substitute for seeing it for real. NEVER buy a TV online without seeing it in real life first. Just resist the clerks trying to sell the TV if you KNOW you can get it cheaper online.

macbook air is the single most ridiculous product on the market.

its a regular macbook with a bunch of features stripped out and its 50% more expensive

was the regular macbook too big?

BobSacamento

But ... but ... it fits in an envelope! :D Ok, maybe I did buy into the hype a bit. Ok alright maybe I bought into it a lot. I mean can you blame me? The thing is sexy as hell :P. If you want to know the real truth, like I said, the kind of work I'll be using it for, I could probably get away with a $400 junker like this and still probably be fine.

But the notebook I just showed is ugly as all hell, it's not particularly powerful so in the rare instance I'll actually need performance I won't get it, and it's probably a lot heavier than the Air. But you're right about one thing. The regular Macbook is pretty light already, I don't actually NEED a super-thin laptop. It's mainly the form factor and the cool factor that draw me to the Air.

Lest we forget though: I don't actually "need" the flat panel either, so both are pretty much luxury goods either way. Although I do kinda need a notebook for work occasionally, which slightly tips in favor of getting a notebook. The TV, for sure, would just be for my own gratification.