yes but you miss the point the cars will not think it is as unimportant as we do and will log all activity (car connection) then they will add a bluetooth module that either interrupts the radio with a targeted ad for wal-mart that you are driving by based on the fact you stopped my the local pet store last week. unfortunately it is a slippery slope when it starts being added without protections from the start.

so when the cameras see someone using a Mac or Linux laptop A Microsoft rep in the area gets a test to go talk some sense (beat them soundly) into buying a Microsoft upgrade?

I use the LG Cosmos it is considered a basic phone (no data plan required) but can use it for email, web, has a built in music player and camera. and think it has been moved to the free category now (was 99 when i got it) I use it for texting, phone and music mostly so it handles what i need it to.

I couldn't agree more the antiquated distribution platform needs a rewrite for the 21st century. Although Drive-in theaters are not completely dead yet. We have one locally where I am at that shows double features every night during the summer showing current movies or sometimes ones that have been out a few months. I can get myself and my two boys in for less then $10 and about the same for snacks. so for $20 I get three people into see 2 movies. go to a traditional movie theatre and that has just ballooned to $50 or $60 dollars for the 3 of us to see 1 movie. I'll continue to go to the Drive-in as long as it is around 78th year this coming season I believe.

I also have to agree with the person who said that Money (or some sort of Graft) had to have changed hands for the judge to change so radically from 2007 to now. It is a sad commentary on were we are heading when judges and politicians cannot be bothered to do what is right and actually try to learn about what they are making laws about. the content laws and changes from the content industries that they are trying to make like, Game companies trying to kill the used game market, (you know resale of movies and cds will be next), SOPA (lets not forget C-11 in Canada, ACTA in Europe etc. they are trying to get the provisions passed outside the US and then will come back and say they have these laws lets be equals), DCMA, RIAA/MPAA biting the hand that feeds it by suing customers.

I forsee a day when my consumption of media companies content will be at zero, i have already made my decision if the new Xbox 720 comes out with used game restrictions I will stay on the current systems and continue to purchase the games that do not have these restrictions.

What ever happened to the days of fair use it seems like it is slowly dying a painful death at the hands of media companies that would rather we pay for media each time we listen to it.

yeah that whole freedom of speech is a pesky problem for the MPAA/RIAA. Though I think its high time to start taking that freedom of speech and walk away from consuming the stuff that they produce. I haven't had cable TV in over a year, If I go to the movies it is the local drive in that I get to see 2 movies for me and my 2 boys for $10 and popcorn and drinks for a extra $10. There are so many other ways to spend time without helping to fill their coffers to buy politicians and further their agenda.

I worked for a company that had the contract for all the state computers. I had one office call me one day with the our printer is not working. Asking the all important question "is it plugged in?" i got a rather quick response so I asked a couple other routine questions and asked again if someone got under the table and verified the printer was plugged in. I got a yes we did that. After the 90 minute drive out to the location I walked in crawled under the table plugged in the printer, wrote out the bill for my drive time and went back to the shop. At least it was a Nice summer day out :)

I have to agree, and this is one of my problems with the cloud. Once a outside company has the data, who has the say on what happens to it if the company goes belly up. It opens up the potential for third parties to access the data. for corporations this really doesn't make sense especially when most have a data center and employees already.

for personal use I don't trust a third party with much of my data. I have my own backups and keep most of it in-house. With the new update to the Xbox 360 Microsoft just released there is now a cloud option for saving your game saves so you can play anywhere. something like this that has no "value" makes perfect sense to me to save in the cloud as who is really going to care that I'm 2/3rd of the way through call of duty and if I lose the save game so what. I can replay it as I have a disc with the game on it and I don't have to worry about a company turning off my ability to use it, selling the company, or going bankrupt.

For me this is the greatest argument against the cloud, You are at the mercy of the company running the cloud, if they decide to flip the switch one day and turn it off, due to any reason, your SOL. Depending on a third party to host data in todays day and age is not the best move, to many variables and potential downsides or ways to lose the data.

Correct me if I miss the point of what elite is supposed to do (can't tell yet as can''t get into elite though I am registered it won;t let me accept teh license agreement to get in and take advantage) but won't Elite allow the ability to play with people of comparable ranks? yeah its an additional $50 but the map pack and DLC you get is worth more than that. why they didn't have enough server power for the preorders of elite is beyond comprehension.

I agree it takes time for the developers to get up to speed on new systems a good example is with the Xbox360 and the release of Kinect last year. This years crop of games that are coming out over the next few months are going further and utilizing the Kinect much better then the first crop of games for it. There are more voice commands and much more fun being able to modify guns by taking it apart and turning it with hands no controllers. Not to mention the modifications in the PC side of things that the KInect sensor is being used for. For me it has brought new life to the console and i look forward to more games utilizing the technology.

from a graphics standpoint the Xbox360 works well, while i do not develop for it (yet) I find the graphics to be great for my needs most of the games are in HD (at least 720) and are much better then the colecovision days. I have been considering purchasing a newer version of the system with the internal hard drive and using the current one as a media center by installing a alternative OS on it.

though I typically do not buy new consoles for at least 2 years because the first year or two there are no new groundbreaking games that actually utilize the new hardware for the first year at least (perfect example is the Kinect) developers need time to play with the hardware and see what they can do with it. After playing Kinect sports season two released after a year of Kinect being on the market there is 100% more voice command access then the first Kinect sports release with the sensor. I don't have to wave my hands anymore to navigate menus, just talk. As the developers get more comfortable with the technology I expect to see more titles utilizing the ability's of the sensor.

Don't you mean more senators will be in office 50 years longer?

How is it that used game sales hurt the industry? The used game industry helps the industry keep interest in the titles as well as helping people who can't afford to buy 60 dollar games all the time to get them at a more reasonable price. the developer has been paid for the game in the first sale. Game Stop is nothing more then a pawn shop for used games. They pay better then the pawn shops do and sell higher but your buying used. I was thinking about buying the PS3 this year but I think i'm going to pass after this. I do buy more used then new games because of price point so I don't think i should be penalized for it. Sony has had a lot of missteps this year where customers are concerned

Blocking all sound in background tabs would work for some people (if technically illiterate) those of us that use internet streaming for music, listening to videos while doing other things not so much. I like the idea someone presented about showing in the tab which ones are providing sound in them, I would welcome something like this along with a utility to mute the sound in individual tabs. I'm starting to get tired of having to sort through scripts and code that I can change to fix issues created by someone else deciding that they know how to manage my system better then me. I have found issues with windows 7 that Microsoft decided that all my "broken" links (over their arbitrary number of 4) on my desktop to files on my thumb drives do not need to be on the desktop and deletes them with no warning. I would hate for Chrome or FF to follow in the trend of that one of the reasons I switched was the addons allowing me to make changes to the browser that benefit me but it should be my choice.not the company providing the software.