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In the 20th century, nothing provides more cheer to kids than video games on high tech video consoles. The video game console market is controlled and dominated by only 3 players, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. For more than 5 years, these 3 giants have been engaged in the console wars. In the past 5 years, it has been Sony winning the console wars with the Playstation and the Playstation 2. In 2006, the console giants launched another full-scale war with their new consoles — the Sony Playstation 3, the Microsoft XBox 360, and the Nintendo Wii. This time, Nintendo has emerged the winner with the highest worldwide sales that has reached 34.55 million as of September 2008.

What makes the Wii better than its competitors? The Wii is a the game console that can be enjoyed and played by the entire family together. While the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 were both targeted for hardcore gamers, the Wii features games that will make the family have fun. Another distinguishing feature that sets it apart from its competitors is its wireless controller (the Wii Remote) that can be used as a handheld pointing device and can detect movement in three dimensions. Father and son can play a game of tennis together and controlling the game would mean holding the remote and swinging your arms to simulate a real tennis swing in coordination with the character on the monitor. When I got my kids a Wii, it came with the Nintendo Wii Sports where we played tennis, baseball, bowling, and a lot more. It is probably the only game console that allows its players to exercise.

And because the Wii has been known to provide its players exercise, one of its bestselling games that was launched this year was the Wii Fit. The game was so in demand that it had become difficult to find one in the market. Same as the Wii, people were willing to pay a fortune to be able to get their hands on one. I have found it to be the best fitness tool so far. It comes with a Wii Balance Board that measures a user’s weight and center of gravity. The software then calculates the user’s body mass index and it includes activities like yoga, push-ups, and other exercises to keep you fit and strong.

Millions of people can’t be wrong about the Wii. Why not get one for the entire family and enjoy hours of fun together this holiday season? It would be the perfect gift for the kids. As a matter of fact, it has become the perfect tool for me and the kids to bond together.

Since I already got my kids a Wii, I’m planning on getting them a Nintendo DS this Christmas, Nintendo’s handheld game device. And like the Wii, it will definitely provide them hours of fun and entertainment. Check out price comparisons online and make sure you get a good deal on your Nintendo products.

The T-Mobile G1 just shipped and some are actually excited about it. It’s the touchscreen competitor of the IPhone which is touted to be the IPhone Killer. Really now? Based on the initial look of the cellphone, I don’t feel so hot about it. I will try to summarize most of its salient features in comparison to Apple’s IPhone.

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Another contender to the Apple IPhone’s coveted market share is the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. It had been subject to speculation and rumors months ago as the Nokia Tube. Scheduled to hit stores in the last quarter of 2008, here’s a quick round up of what it can offer.

As an IPhone contender, of course it comes with a multi-touch screen but likewise accepts input via stylus and plectrum.  It has a 3.2-inch display in high resolution.  Since it will cater to music lovers, it has an 8 GB memory and a microSD slot that supports 16 GB cards.  It also has a graphic equalizer and a built in stereo surround sound that supports all major digital music formats.

The rest of the features are pretty standard — 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, Bluetooth, dual LED flash, GPS, WiFi, and runs on Nokia’s S60 5th edition.  Price tag is estimated at $392.   Is the Nokia 5800 the One?  We’ll see.

Finally, RIM unveils the Storm, the Blackberry that promises to unseat the IPhone in the mobile phone market. The Storm is the first ever touchscreen Blackberry with a 480 by 360-pixel, 3.25-inch glass display. Like the IPhone, it supports multi-touch (good for 2-finger gestures) but with a “ClickThrough” feature where the user will distinctly feel the screen being pressed and released. Can it deliver tactile touch capabilities that is missing in the IPhone?

Besides the multi-touch screen, the Storm will come with an ambient light sensor and an accelerometer that automatically turns the screen when you move it sideways. In landscape view, the touch keypad is a full QWERTY while in portrait mode, it has the SureType pad similar to the Blackberry Pearl. It will also come with full-on Office document editing—including support for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

It is roughly the size of the IPhone which will include CDMA and GSM radios and 3G access. The GPS feature will have a turn-by-turn directions. Of course, it will have Bluetooth capabilities, Blackberry email support, and also a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus. For now, it will be exclusive for Verizon Wireless (no confirmation yet) and pricing still remains a mystery. There are rumors that it will match IPhone 3G’s $199 price. Rumors also abound that a Blackberry Store is in the works, like the Apple’s App Store and the Android Market.

Whether the Storm will a better alternative to the IPhone or the upcoming T-Mobile G remains to be seen.

Apple now offers users the ability to get an IPhone 3G and sign up for AT&T service online before visiting an Apple Store. It will allow users to enter billing information, review their eligibility, and choose an AT&T plan. As soon as you have completed the process, you can then visit an Apple Store to complete the purchase. The issue behind the scheme is that you still need to go to an Apple Retail Store. It would have been a great service if everything was possible online. Apparently, you still need to go to the store to get your IPhone and activate it.

Looks like Apple is forecasting total sales of the IPhone 3G to reach 5 million during the holiday season. If their projections are accurate, Apple would meet their 10 million target for IPhone 3G sales in 2008.

Promotional videos of the upcoming Nokia E72 and the Nokia E75 leaked around the web, showing the QWERTY pads of the mobile phone successors of the Nokia E71. The E72 is the candybar version with full QWERTY pads while the E75 is a slider with both the normal Nokia keypad and a QWERTY pad with the slide out feature.

Assuming that these are upgraded versions of the E71, it is likely that it will have the same capabilities but with GPS receivers and advanced email capabilities. Watch the Nokia E72 and E75 videos while it is still available.

Apple will celebrate its “Let’s Rock” media event at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco on September 9th, 2008. A multi-story banner currently displays the iPod’s silhouette ads on the building facade giving an indication on what the event will showcase. Rumors have been circulating that Apple will introduce a tall iPod Nano, a new iPod Touch, as well as iTunes 8. There are also speculations that Apple could introduce the 2.1 iPhone firmware with some previously unannounced features.

While most eagerly await the new toys that Steve Jobs will be flaunting to the public, some do feel that it’s all hype and Apple has very little left to offer that will dazzle consumers. The skeptics seem to have more reason to dismiss the event. Any major improvements or new gadgets that Apple may unveil would have already leaked out months before. Let’s wait and see.

Still trying to save up to buy that new game console? You may have to check the balance in your savings now — the Xbox 360 just cut its price on the entire line with the Arcade edition now as low as $199. This makes it cheaper by $50 than the Wii.

The Xbox 360′s Arcade has the lowest specs of the three Xbox 360 models currently available. It includes a wired controller and a 256 MB memory card rather than the hard drives found on higher-priced bundles. It seems that Microsoft is targeting the Wii’s market share while stock shortages still hound potential Wii buyers. The possibility to overtake the Wii in market share may have moved a notch higher considering that the Xbox 360 has increased its selections on family-friendly games and is planning overhaul to its interface that will make the dashboard more user-friendly.

Other Xbox 360 bundles received comparable price cuts with the Premium edition (which includes a 60 GB hard drive) at $299, and the Elite (with a 120 GB hard drive and a matte black finish) at $399.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 continues to be the most expensive game console with the cheapest system in its range retailing at $399. I guess the PS3 still prides itself as being the best console in the market in terms of specs and game quality. With Blu Ray now expected to be the leader in HD formats, you can still say that the PS3 outranks both the Xbox 360 and the Wii in terms of value. With the PS3, you still have a high quality game console together with a Blu Ray disc player. Nothing still beats watching a movie in a Blu Ray disc on your HD television. The quality and experience is still no match to other formats. Despite the price and its market share, my vote still goes to the PS3. It is still the better choice.

Who says that High Definition (HD) can’t find its way in radio? If you watch movies or TV shows in HD, it is now possible to listen to music with the same quality. You listen to radio in digital all the time with no hiss or distortion — just the way that music is meant to be heard. Analog broadcasts are now a thing of the past.

Listening to radio in HD is now possible with HD Radio receivers and gears. Subscription is free and local radio stations are available. Aside from crystal-clear reception, you also get real-time artists and song IDs. You can even do iPod Tagging with the HD Radio when you find a song that you want to store in your IPod player. Just tag the song and the next time you connect to ITunes, you can download the song for your hearing pleasure whenever you want.

What really caught my eye is the Polk iSonic ES2. It is the perfect sound system — the way I imagine myself listening to music all day long. It includes second generation HD radio with full multicasting. It is considered the highest performing self-contained HD Radio product on the market. It has its own IPod dock and the speakers are designed in a way that everyone in the room can listen to the best quality sound. It even has a video connector to allow users to view videos from your IPod to a television or a video monitor. For gadget freaks like me, this is The Radio.

An Asian girl working in a factory was found on a new iPhone 3G recently sold to a British customer. The photo generated discussion on the Internet about her identity and her fate. The 3 pictures were posted on the forum of MacRumors.com which shows a young Asian girl dressed in a pink striped outfit and a hat. She is wearing white gloves with yellow tips and seems to be working in an assembly line for IPhones. Known in the web as the IPhone Girl, she is seen smiling and making a victory sign as she poses next to an IPhone unit.

The MacRumors.com member who posted the photos last week said that the pictures showed up on a new 3G IPhone when the iTunes program was launched.

Reports speculate that the woman works at a factory run by an Apple contractor in Taiwan, Foxconn Technology Group. Foxconn spokesman, Liu Kun, confirmed that the girl in the pictures does work for Foxconn. He said workers testing the device may have taken the pictures and forgot to delete them. For those interested about her fate, another official of the company also confirmed that the girl was not fired. She is now dubbed as China’s prettiest factory girl.

It turns out that Steve Job’s team botched the security protection of the IPhone. Losing your IPhone or leaving it lying around poses a security risk to users. MacRumors discovered the fault warning IPhone users of the potential risk.

If you think your IPhone data is protected with the passlock code, think again. It seems that Apple just placed the feature in the mobile phone to scare of potential thieves. It’s nothing more than a screen design that can be easily disabled.

While the IPhone is locked, the only thing any user supposedly can do is to dial emergency numbers. However, even with a passlock code, anyone can unlock your IPhone. All they have to do is to double-click the Home key while in the Emergency Call screen and it will be directed to the default Favorites menu. From there, any attacker gets a free-for-all on your email. Clicking a contact’s email address, then cancel from the message screen and he is in. Web browsing can also be accessed through a contact’s URL found through Google Maps. And of course, they can make any call by clicking your contact’s number and adding a call.

Apparently, Apple is already aware of the possible security breach and is currently working on a security patch. Not to worry though. You can easily remedy the flaw by changing the double-click preferences by setting it to an IPhone capability that will not provide thieves with critical information. If you set it to the iPod, all they get are your videos and music. Better yet, set it to the Home screen which will just bring it back to the Passlock Code panel.

For all IPhone users, just try to keep your security risk at minimum levels if possible. Remember to just leave critical information as little as possible in your mobile phone.

When Asus came out with the EEE PC, its first ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC), the world went nuts. Here’s a gadget that has a bigger screen than a PDA, bigger keypads, yet small enough to fit into a woman’s handbag. The earlier UMPCs were forgotten. My officemates rushed to get one because it was even cheaper than a smartphone. It was a mini laptop, except for one drawback — the data storage. I held back because of the limits in the memory. The data storage was too small and it would defeat the purpose of getting a portable laptop if you have to carry along a removable hard drive (At that time, flash disks or thumbdrives were only up to 4 GB). I also found the screen too small. For me, it’s still not comfortable enough to write on or surf the net with. Good thing too that I didn’t join the bandwagon. A few months later, HP came out with its own UMPC. But they rushed into it and came up short.

The newest kid on the block for UMPCs is the MSI Wind. They say this is loads better than the Asus EEE. The first batch that was released wasn’t enough and availability became difficult. Some who made reservations didn’t even get their units. It had become so hot that sellers decided to make extra bucks and canceled those who reserved at the original price. Sellers were able to mark-up extra on the price because of the demand. Before I started this post, I was planning to get my own Wind. But while reading about it, I discovered there were other brands that are coming out soon. So, I sit back again and wait.

The brands everyone is waiting for is Lenovo and Dell. If these 2 are coming out with their versions, why settle for MSI? If Lenovo comes out with its model Ideapad S10 in October 2008, it’s my choice. But I am also waiting for information on Dell’s model. The good thing about waiting is that other brands work out the wrinkles on the earlier releases and find a way to make their versions better than the earlier ones. There is still no word on Sony or Apple making their UMPC. I’m certain that it’s in the works. They are just waiting in the sidelines scouting to assure that they come out with the best in the market.

Lotus Domino Access will soon be available for the IPhone. It is planned for release within the year and marketed as IBM Lotus INotes. Users can access their emails, contacts, and calendar through their IPhones. You will never miss another email from the office again — this time it fits right into your hand with the touchscreen experience of your IPhone.

I don’t really feel like this is a good thing for most employees. It’s obviously bringing your work with you anywhere. When the boss knows you’ve got your Lotus Notes right in your phone, there is no excuse for not answering an email or sending information or data through it. Like the ad for the software says, it’s “bringing the enterprise to your Apple IPhone.” The world is working too hard as it is. We have forgotten to stop and smell the roses. We spend more time in front of the computer or our mobile phones than playing with our kids. Meanwhile, the kids follow our example and stuff their ears with their IPod earphones and stop listening to their parents.

Anyway, my Lotus Notes is one application I don’t want to be carrying around with me wherever I go. But for most people, they feel it is a convenience that IBM and Apple has gifted them with. So, for the workaholics out there, below are some planned screenshots for the Lotus INotes. These are just planned shots and the final software may actually look different. Enjoy. . .

Apple just admitted that it can remotely remove applications from any IPhone 3G device. According to Steve Jobs, the “kill switch” is intended to prevent malicious software from getting through the network. Malicious software, such as one that can steal personal identity, may be distributed to other IPhones through its App store if the kill switch was not created.

Steve Jobs felt that not creating it would be irresponsible. However, some people see it differently. Having the kill switch meant that Apple has virtual control over IPhones through the network and poses a security risk to many users. The issue of the kill switch is that it gives Apple too much control over the units, leaving users at their mercy. What else is Apple not telling?