Designer Adam Fredrick took one of the greatest strategy games of all time, and turned it into a modern battle of epic proportions. No longer is it black vs. white. It’s PC vs. Mac! Personally, I think it would be even better if the King pieces were miniature figures of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. But then the Queen pieces would have to be an Apple iPad versus a PC tablet. I think we all know which would win. The one that’s not running a mobile Operating System and just a larger version of an iPod Touch. [Coroflot]
What kind of world are we living in? This is just like that time I saw Steve Jobs at Best Buy, buying a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate. What, you don’t believe me? Ask Steve Jobs, he knows me. We’re good friends. He probably won’t admit it though. Not because I made it all up with my imagination. [Mashable]
So after all the years of the Get a Mac commercials with the PC Guy and the Mac Guy, Microsoft finally decided to hit back with their PC Hunter ads.
In the commercials, a shopper would be told, if they can find a computer they want, for under $1500, they can keep it. The person would then look at all the Windows laptops, compliment the specs and prices, then look at the Macs, say they’re overpriced, and finish the commercial off by picking a PC with higher specs for a cheaper price.
Apple recently lowered MacBook prices, so they were pretty pissed off when the original commercial had lines like this, “This Mac is $2,000, and that’s before adding anything.”, and, “Why would you pay twice the price?”
For some reason, Microsoft decided to change the commercial, and released the one at the top of this post. Not much has changed, but now she just says, “It seems like you’re paying a lot for the brand.”
Why Microsoft changed the ad is beyond me. Apple would never stop making their Mac Guy vs. PC Guy commercials, and I wouldn’t want them to, they’re funny. I don’t want to get into a Mac vs. PC debate, so I’ll just say, both have their pros and cons, and obviously Macs are more expensive than PCs with the same specs. Maybe it’s for the brand, maybe it’s for the style, or maybe it’s for the operating system; you be the judge.
So this commercial is about IE8’s new private browsing feature. You’d have to be able to use IE8 to actually use the private browsing though. I guess having Superman in the commercial is a plus.
If you didn’t know, Mozilla released Firefox 3.5 a couple days ago; it has private browsing.
Yesterday, during the Microsoft Press Conference at E3, Project Natal was unveiled. Basically, Project Natal is motion detection device. It can also has facial recognition, voice recognition, and many other things that are exciting. Do yourself a favor, and just watch the video above. That’s just a taste at what the possibilities are with Project Natal.
So, pretty cool, right? You can play video games, communicate easily with friends and family, enjoy your movies and other media; all without a remote or a controller. That alone is amazing. The facial recognition and voice recognition is also amazing. Just walking in front of your TV, your Xbox can log you in, and do the same with anybody else who’s face comes in the room.
It gets better. Peter Molyneux, the man responsible for Fable and Fable II, unveiled Milo. Milo is a digital being. He can recognize your face and your voice, via the device code named “Project Natal”. You can have conversations with him, you can interact with him, he can see your emotions, he himself can emote. This is just freaky future stuff. Freaky, yet so cool.
Just imagine walking up to your TV, and always having a virtual friend waiting to see and talk to you. It’s really amazing. I wish there were more details, but this stuff is kept behind closed doors at E3. Is Milo aware? Does he have memories? What would he say if you told him you were turning off the Xbox, in turn turning him off? Would he be scared, ask for mercy? Who knows? Skynet anyone?
I can imagine Fable III having something like this. Being able to communicate and interact with the characters in the cities, have relationships and conversations with computer players that remember who you are. This stuff could quite possibly be the future of gaming and entertainment. Gaming with your body. Virtual, AI beings…
Okay, okay; enough of me talking about it, just watch the video below and let your imagination take control.
You know those commercials where they give money to somebody if they can find a laptop that fits their price range, and has all the specs they want? Did you notice how in all of those commercials the actor looks at a MacBook and says it’s too expensive and has not so good specs, and they always end up choosing a PC? Well, Apple has responded.
It’s a fear that all Xbox 360 owners have. You Xbox works flawlessly, then your warranty expires. The very next day…you pop in your favorite game, only to be greeted with the RED RING OF DEATH!!! Fear no more, this video will teach you how to break your Xbox before the warranty expires, so you can get a new one, for free!
Before you watch, I warn you, it’s pretty nasty. Nothing too bad, no sex or gore. Still, what the hell were they thinking? How could this ad possibly make anybody want to go out and buy a Zune?
So, if you’ve already turned your Xbox 360 on today, you’ve probably already downloaded and installed the update. If you haven’t, do it. The new dashboard definitely looks good, and there are a lot of new things to explore and check out.
First thing, when you update your Xbox, you’re prompted to make a customized avatar, which is sort of like your Mii if you own a Nintendo Wii. There are actually a lot of different things you can do, hair, make up, facial hair, clothes, accessories, and even changing the types or nose, lips, chins, etc…
After you’ve created your avatar, it’s time to check out the new features. Good luck checking them out though, word is, the Netflix streaming is not working for a lot of people. I’m on of those people. I couldn’t even get into the Netflix part, I got an error when I clicked it.
Other than Netflix, there is photo sharing, video chat, and there are some games you can play with your friends, using your avatars. The Netflix is really the only part of the update I was interested in, as well as the new dashboard. So, the update looks great, and the features sound good, but Microsoft needs to fix some things.
