The Digital Home

After all the hoopla surrounding Steve Jobs' absence from Apple's last Macworld keynote subsided, it was finally time for us all to tune into Phil Schiller's remarks about the future of his company.

Speculation abounded over what Schiller would announce. A new Mac Mini? An updated Apple TV? We didn't know, but many of us were sitting on the edge of our seats waiting to find out.

And then we did. And it was a snoozefest.

Sure, it's nice to see that iTunes has finally gone DRM-free, even though Amazon.com did so last year, and the updated 17-inch MacBook Pro looks nice, even though the battery isn't removable--a major blunder, since the advertised 8 hours of battery life will probably never happen, and serial travelers require the use of multiple batteries.

But what else came out of Tuesday's announcement? An update to iLife is nice, and iMovie's new features make it a more capable video-editing alternative, but beyond that, Schiller's keynote speech was rife with details and demos that bored those who were looking for major updates.

Realizing that, is it time for Apple to finally put an end to its strategy of holding major events to unveil product updates?

Another boring Apple press event is in the can. Can we please get rid of those, Apple?

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(Credit: Nintendo of America)

If 2008 was the Year of Gaming, 2009 will be just the opposite. At least, that's what Lionhead Studios' Peter Molyneux said he believes in a recent interview with the BBC.

Speaking to reporters, Molyneux said he thinks 2009's upcoming game releases are "all looking a bit dry...All the triple-A titles came out this Christmas, and while there is stuff in 2010 we can look forward to, off the top of my head, I cannot think of anything next year that really excites me."

Off the top of my head, I can think of a few upcoming games that excite me: Halo 3: ODST Killzone 2, Halo Wars, BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams, and Resident Evil 5. But besides those, after looking at the upcoming release calendars for the three major consoles, as well as the Nintendo DS and Sony's PlayStation Portable, I have to agree with Molyneux.

But maybe my skepticism is rooted in the fact that 2008 was such a great year for gaming. It was the year that was headlined by a slew of great titles, such as Fable 2, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and Grand Theft Auto IV. Most importantly, it was the year that saw gaming increase in popularity by an astounding rate.

In comparison, 2009 is shaping up to be an incredibly dull year for gaming.

Steve Jobs has finally spoken up about his health, and it's about time.

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The best-selling game of all time

(Credit: Nintendo)

VGChartz released internal data Saturday claiming that Wii Sports, Nintendo's sports title that comes bundled with each Wii outside of South Korea and Japan, is the world's best-selling game.

According to the report, VGChartz software data for the week ending December 27, 2008, found that Wii Sports "has now passed sales of Super Mario Bros. at 40.24 million units, making it the best-selling video game of all time. The game...reached that milestone after 110 weeks of sales."

To be honest, I'm upset that this day has come. I was sure it would happen eventually, but I never believed that it would happen so soon and at the hands of a game like Wii Sports.

The title held by Nintendo's great Super Mario Bros. has been vanquished by Wii Sports and there's really nothing we can do about it. But does being the best-selling game of all time make it the best?

Is it really necessary to unlock me?

(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)

Gadget blogs were going crazy Thursday over a new application called Yellowsn0w that helps iPhone 3G owners unlock their device. The app is still in beta and, according to both Crunchgear and Gizmodo, neither one was able to get it to work properly.

I'm not quite sure why anyone cares. Sure, it's nice to say you unlocked a device that's not meant to be unlocked, but it just made so much more sense to me last year when the iPhone didn't have native apps. Today, browsing is faster thanks to 3G, more capable thanks to additional business features, and more useful thanks to the App Store. What possible reason would people have to unlock it now?

AT&T, right? I don't buy the logic. I'm not going to say AT&T is a great carrier--it isn't--but given the option of switching to T-Mobile, a carrier that offers even less service across the country or staying put, I don't see the logic in unlocking the iPhone and changing carriers. After all, if you were really unhappy with AT&T in the first place, why buy the iPhone?

Now that 2009 is only hours away, I thought it was time to unveil this year's 2009 predictions. There's no telling if what I think will happen will come true or not, but I thought I'd fill you in on five of my predictions for the New Year.

Please share your own 2009 predictions in the comments with the rest of us, so we can look back a year from now and see who did the best job.

1. PS3 pricing is reduced by $100

I don't think there's any doubt that PlayStation 3 pricing will be reduced by $100 in the next year. As the costs of building the console continue to fall and Sony's competitors continue to enjoy strong sales thanks to a lower price, the pressure Sony will feel will be too much and it'll be forced to bring the price of its PS3 down to $299 to compete more effectively against the Xbox 360 and the Wii.

Will it work? You bet.

2. Apple ends iPhone exclusivity deal with AT&T

This one isn't too much of a stretch and I'm sure many of you would agree that it's only a matter of time before Apple finally announces that the iPhone will be made available to more carriers.

AT&T exclusivity simply doesn't work for Apple anymore, since it's now one of the leaders in the cell phone space and it's doing itself a disservice by not opening its popular mobile phone up to the millions of people who have decided against AT&T as their mobile carrier.

Exclusivity was great for two years, but now that Apple has proven it has its sights set on RIM, it can't beat the BlackBerry maker unless it makes its iPhone available to any U.S. carrier.

In a report that could send shock waves through the video game industry, market research firm iSuppli has detailed the real cost and new savings found in Sony's second-generation Playstation 3.

iSuppli's report, issued Monday, says that the current PS3 model contains 2,820 individual parts, including Nvidia's Reality Synthesizer, IBM's Cell Broadband Engine, and Toshiba's I/O controller, which are now made using 65-nanometer process technology, compared to 90-nanometer technology formally employed in the previous iteration. That has drastically reduced the PS3's power supply cost by 30 percent from $30.75 to $21.50.

The costly PS3

(Credit: Sony)

Kionix's three-axis accelerometer in the PS3 controller has replaced the Hokuriku Electronic Industry Co. part, saving Sony an estimated $1.45 per unit.

But perhaps the most important cost savings is in the console's vaunted Cell processor from IBM. According to iSuppli, the latest PS3 includes a new version of IBM's Cell Broadband Engine, which is priced at $46.46 -- 28 percent lower than its original cost in the first-generation hardware. A new version of Nvidia's Reality Synthesizer, the console's GPU, at $58.01 per unit is now priced 30 percent lower than it was in the first generation.

Altogether, Sony's second-generation PS3 features a 35 percent total cost reduction from the first-generation model. In dollars and cents, today's PS3 costs Sony about $448.73 to produce, compared to the old model's $690.23 price tag. That said, the lower cost doesn't include software, box contents, and royalty expenses.

Realizing that, and considering the PS3's current price tag of $399, iSuppli has found that Sony is still losing money with each sale of its console. But Andrew Rassweiler, director and principal analyst at iSuppli, believes Sony may be able to break even in 2009.

"With its new-generation PS3, Sony has come closer to breaking even, although it probably hasn't quite reached that mark yet," Rassweiler said in a statement. "With iSuppli's estimated PS3 cost at $448.73, the product retailing in the United States at around $399 and taking into account other expenses, the PS3 may be able to break even in 2009 with further hardware revisions."

Great, but is that enough time? With Microsoft and Nintendo outselling Sony's console each month with ease, Sony's window of opportunity is almost closed.

The British secretary of state for culture, media, and sports, Andy Burnham, told The Daily Telegraph recently that he thinks "cinema-style ratings" should be placed on all Web sites to grade them based on their content and decency.

According to Burnham, the Web is "a dangerous place" and we need to do a better job of ensuring children don't make their way to the wrong sites. He believes that by using the ratings system already imposed on films, it could do the world a great deal of good.

He's kidding, right? How can anyone expect a "cinema-style" ratings system to work in an environment where individuality and "user-owned" content are coveted above all else? Oh, and what about the whole enforcement of such an idea? Should we hire pimple-faced teenagers to check IDs before your 13-year-old decides to surf to HowardStern.com like they do at movie theaters?

The idea that anyone would want to place ratings on Web sites strikes me as, well, one of the dumbest Ideas I've heard in a long time. It's not that I'm against keeping kids away from questionable content. I simply don't know how a ratings system could do any good.

As the world's largest retailer (and company), Wal-Mart commands a significant amount of respect. In fact, I think the company is the most important retailer to any company in any industry, let alone Apple and the tech industry.

But Friday's announcement that the iPhone will be coming to Wal-Mart store shelves on Sunday has changed the face of the cell phone industry. In effect, it means that Apple, one of the most important hardware companies in the space, will see its popular mobile phone be made available to millions of more customers. It also means that Research In Motion and every other company in the market that's trying desperately to compete with Apple simply won't be able to do it.

That the iPhone's availability at Wal-Mart will lead to Apple's domination in the mobile phone market probably sounds a bit radical, doesn't it? I can understand that. But when you consider Wal-Mart's size and importance, along with its decision to ignore devices from every Apple competitor, I think it's abundantly clear that the opportunities for success for RIM, Google, and the rest are severely diminished.