heatbasketball.org

That said, Lewin said it isn’t an all-or-nothing offer. He said that companies can choose a mix of Microsoft and other software, including open-source products.

Dan’l Lewin, the former Apple executive who heads Microsoft’s efforts to reach out to start-ups, said the fact that the program comes as the economy is slowing is a coincidence.

“They don’t have to only build on our stuff,” Lewin said.

Lewin

To beat my readers to the punch, yes, I’m familiar with the phrase “the first hit is free.”

Dubbed BizSpark, the program will be open to private companies that have been in business for fewer than three years and have less than $1 million in yearly revenue. Companies will also have to be recommended by one of Microsoft’s many for-profit, nonprofit, government, or academic partners.

“There’s plenty of lore about all the great companies that have been started in a down economy,” Lewin said. “I think the good companies will hunker down and do well. We’ll do our best to help them.”

In addition to getting free software, participating companies will be able to take part in an online directory of start-ups so they can network and reach potential customers, Lewin said.

Companies will get Microsoft’s software free of charge for three years and will have to pay the then-prevailing licensing costs thereafter, Lewin said.

Those selected for the program will be able to get access to a range of products, Lewin said, from Visual Studio to Windows Server, SQL Server and SharePoint, among others. Microsoft’s customer relationship management software will soon be an option as well.

That said, I’m curious what readers–and particularly start-ups–think of the program.

LOS ANGELES–In its boldest bid yet to win the affections of emerging businesses, Microsoft on Wednesday announced a program that will allow some start-ups to use its server software free of charge.

Hewlett-Packard Compaq 2510p (L) and MacBook Air. The HP comes with a built-in WWAN option, the Air does not.

Where was Gobi when Apple refreshed the MacBooks in October? I’m sure Apple has plenty of excuses (for example, not enough space in the Air’s ultrathin design).

Additional comments:: The point is not that a user can potentially add an external WWAN modem (though
even that’s not necessarily easy to do), the point is that the Air should come with 3G capability built in considering how the computer is marketed.

In these situations, the Air is nothing more than a slab of beautifully sculpted aluminum.

It didn’t take much prodding from me to get the Qualcomm product manager to point out this fatal flaw.

As I’ve written in the past, I like the Air. I got one in February as soon as it was available at retail and have been pleased with the performance, screen, keyboard, build, and, until recently, the battery life (which has dwindled to under an hour). Of course, the head-turning aluminum aesthetics is also a major appeal to many people.

Before I get slammed again, let me throw out some reasons (excuses) why Apple didn’t build in 3G, based on reports I’ve read and my own observations. Apple didn’t like the fact that 3G modems often made the user commit to one service provider, i.e., Verizon or Sprint or Vodafone. Or, it believed that if users wanted 3G, they could simply plug in a USB 3G modem.

But the full brunt of not having 3G hit me on Friday when I made a trip to Qualcomm to get briefed on a new version of the Snapdragon applications processor (more on this in another post). Sitting there in the nerve center of one of greatest wireless companies in the world, I couldn’t get a wireless connection. Everyone else in the room had 3G connections of one kind or another. The Air instantly became the proverbial doorstop (or paper weight–choose your simile, or maybe it’s more apropos to say it was a dinosaur.)

Granted, the choice of carriers at first was limited but look at HP’s offerings today. Models (including those in the EliteBook line) are offered with Qualcomm’s Gobi modem. Gobi obviates the need to have unique radios for each carrier. Gobi supports Verizon, Sprint, and others in one device.

This came after weeks of not being able to use the Air in many situations when I desperately needed a wireless connection. For instance, not all LA airports have reliable Wi-Fi connections. The John Wayne Airport in Orange County being one example. And when I was on the East Coast, one sprawling place I stayed at for several nights had Wi-Fi only in one inconveniently situated area that was inaccessible at night.

Now, before I get slammed, let me say that I fully realize that I’m not the first person to reach this conclusion so I’m not claiming any unique epiphany. There were a number of observers citing this paradox way back in January. Some frustrated users even attempted hacks to shoehorn a 3G modem into the Air. The point is: because of the price and the way it’s marketed, 3G should be built in.

Apple’s MacBook Air doesn’t live up to its wireless promise.

Which brings me to the cult of Steve Jobs. Apple was brilliant enough to deliver a groundbreaking design like the Air but why wasn’t it savvy enough to build in 3G?

To quote an Apple tagline, “without wires, you’re free to go anywhere.” But the wireless part of the “air” play on words fails to deliver. (The other half its light-as-air weight: here it does deliver.)

(Credit:
Brooke Crothers)

But Apple should have had 3G from the beginning and certainly in the October refresh. In today’s 3G world, continuing to call it the MacBook Air brings another meaning to the play on words: lightness of weight with a touch of advertising hot air.

For comparison, let’s look at another Valley company, Hewlett-Packard. HP has been selling WWAN (Wireless Wide Area Network) modems in its business laptops for at least two years (and probably longer). The HP-Compaq NC6400 laptop introduced about two years ago was offered from day one with WWAN built in.

That said, after a spurt of trips including a 10-day stay on the East Coast and a few treks to Los Angeles, the Air’s wireless shortcomings have become painfully clear. In a word (or two), no 3G.

I have serious problems with both of those reasons. Particularly when you’re paying typically more than $1,800 (or $2,500, depending on the model) for a notebook billed as a wireless wonder (for Apple ad copy on why the Air is such a wonderful wireless laptop, just cruise over to Apple’s MBA page.) And I have even more of a problem when ultrathin Netbooks are coming with 3G at one-third (and potentially a tiny fraction of) the cost of the Air.

That and other headlines of the day on Thursday’s CNET News Daily Podcast.

What Windows 7 might have looked like

Texas oil billionaire and alternative-energy promoter T. Boone Pickens stopped by San Francisco last night during a tour to promote his plan for U.S. energy independence. The plan gets political support in the stimulus package, but Pickens’ own wind project has hit some snags when it comes to transmission lines from his wind park to the Texas grid.

Dell: Global PC demand ’steady’

iGoogle gets video game makers in on the action

Listen now:

Download today’s podcast

Today’s stories:

Google Docs gets collaborative-drawing feature

IBM job cuts hit applications services unit, says union

It also doubles as a permanent record of application updates, that is assuming the user reviews make mentions of new or updated features. When an application is updated the developer can put out a list of what’s been fixed, added, or removed, however Apple does not offer users a way to go back and review a change log. Sites like AppShopper.com have started to build an archive for this very purpose, and with this update this is the closest thing users have received.

This week Apple made a very small, but important tweak to the user rating system on its iTunes app store. It now shows which version of an application the user was running when they wrote the review. This has been applied retroactively, so that reviews written before the change will show which version the users had installed at the time they wrote it.

This is important on two levels, with the first being how transparent user reviews are. No longer do you have to wonder what version a user had installed when they said there was a problem, or broken feature. If you find several reviews chiding a bug that has since been fixed, it may lead you to dismiss them and make a purchase, which could end up bringing in more sales for both Apple and the developer.

App reviews on both iTunes and the iPhone's App Store now show which version fo the application the reviewer was running on. Click to enlarge.

In addition to showing you which version users had installed from the mobile version of the App Store, Apple has also built this into the latest version of iTunes. Here, as usual, iTunes users get an extra layer of depth compared to their mobile brethren in being able to sort the reviews by version number. Unfortunately, Apple does not let you skip to a specific version, it simply puts them in order, which forces you to skip through several hundred pages to get to the version you’re looking for.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

This is a promising sign of further changes coming to App Store reviews, but on the mobile side it’s still a long ways off from offering some of the great sorting features iTunes users are able to get on the desktop.

LEBANON, N.H.–Mascoma is a biotech firm engineering its way into the energy business.

Scientists scour the earth for naturally occurring bacteria and other microorganisms and bring them to their lab. There, Mascoma employees try to isolate certain characteristics, such as rapidly metabolizing cellulose.

A commercial-scale plant in Michigan using wood chips as a feedstock is scheduled to be operating in 2012. Eventually, it hopes to make ethanol at $1.50 a gallon, according to company executives.

It also announced that investor General Motors’ director of Global Energy Systems, Andreas M. Lippert, has joined Mascoma’s scientific board. GM invested in Mascoma’s $61 million series C round in May of this year, along with refiner Marathon Oil.

Ethanol being produced now is blended with gasoline at 10 percent concentration. But for cellulosic ethanol to make a bigger impact on gasoline consumption, there needs to be a build-out of fueling stations for E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol, Lippert said.

Lippert said GM expects that industrial-scale cellulosic ethanol will begin flowing around 2011. Government mandates are set so that corn ethanol will level off around 2015 to be replaced by “advanced” biofuels, such as cellulosic ethanol.

Lynd said the company does not expect problems to arise from its genetically modified organisms. He said that any effects could be tested and that it will be used in a controlled environment.

Then they genetically combine those traits in a single microorganism to convert pretreated plant matter into ethanol.

There are about 1,700 E85 stations in the U.S. right now, only about 1 percent of the total. To absorb that anticipated boost in ethanol, Mascoma and GM are assuming that there will be construction of more E85 stations and flex-fuel vehicles that can run on gas or E85.

He said Mascoma’s consolidated bioprocessing technology is an attempt at a breakthrough, compared to other processes. But it’s not purely theoretical.

The company has a pilot plant that uses wood chips to make ethanol in Rome, New York. Five to 20 metric tons of wood chips or other feedstock yield 100,000 to 500,000 gallons of ethanol per year.

Lippert says that its investment in Mascoma and another ethanol company Coskata are meant to accelerate development of cost-effective cellulosic ethanol.

At its core is a staff of brainy Phds with expertise in microbial technology and cellulosic ethanol. But rather than design pharmaceuticals or crop seeds, Mascoma scientists are researching ways to make a cheaper fuel.

If done right, cellulosic ethanol promises to be far better than the current feedstock–corn–from a commercial and environmental standpoint.

Mascoma’s goal is to streamline the process by genetically engineering a microorganism that can metabolize cellulose and produce ethanol in a single step. That will cut out the need for adding costly enzymes, its scientists say.

Making of a supermicrobe

On Friday, Mascoma, which was founded by Dartmouth College professors, hosted a tour of its labs, housed in the Dartmouth Regional Technology Center (up the road from Mascoma Lake).

Click on the image to see a photo gallery of Mascoma’s lab. This image shows how a micro-organism is attracted to cellulose. Mascoma is genetically engineering an organism to metabolize cellulose and make ethanol.

“This is within sight. We know how to do the genetic engineering–they are actively working towards that now. So there is some technical development that’s needed but it’s not a miracle we’re waiting for,” Lippert said.

(Credit:
Mascoma)

There are many techniques for making cellulosic ethanol, including gasification or multi-step processes that use enzymes and yeasts. But Mascoma is among only a handful pursuing its particular microbial technology path, its scientists say.

Its part of an industry-wide race to make ethanol from non-food sources, such as wood chips and grasses, at commercial scale.

“There are big hills and little hills,” said Lee Lynd, Mascoma’s co-founder and chief science officer. “In the scheme of things, this is a little hill.”

Livestrong
Livestrong, which was co-founded by famed bicyclist Lance Armstrong, is much simpler to use than HealtheHuman or Gyminee. In fact, it’s one of the easiest services to use in this roundup.

When I first started using HealtheHuman, I was surprised by all the resources it offered. Whether I wanted to lose weight, tone my muscles, or increase strength, the site gave me dietary and exercise instructions to do just that. When I logged my day’s meals and workout routine into the system, the site’s Nutrition Analyzer modified my future eating and workout routine to ensure I stayed on track to reach my goals.

Generally, using the community’s wisdom to help you in your workout routine works well. In fact, I found that most of the exercises on WorkoutBOX that came from other users were quite helpful in getting me to work on the parts of my body that I wanted to strengthen.

Workouts are great on WorkoutBOX

MyTrainer is a useful site if you can’t quite figure out how to perform an exercise by reading about it. But its general lack of good dietary information and the fact that the videos are created by other users who may or may not know what they’re doing means this site should not be your first destination when you want to get back into shape. I think you should consider it a backup when you need to see how to perform an exercise.

(Credit:
Don Reisinger/CNET)

(Credit:
Don Reisinger/CNET)

HealtheHuman
HealtheHuman won’t track your workouts the way Gyminee does, and it won’t even try to calculate your body mass index or other important health indexes. What it does do really well is give you all the information you need to be a healthier human.

WorkoutBOX
WorkoutBOX is an informational community where users can share their favorite workout programs and educate others in the process.

(Credit:
Don Reisinger/CNET)

One feature that HealtheHuman offers that I didn’t like is its health record tracking tool. You can literally place every single doctor’s visit and health issue into the service and have access to it from anywhere. Some think that’s a great feature and worth using, but I’m not one of them. I don’t feel comfortable providing my entire medical history to a small site such as this. I ignored this feature.

What I really liked about Livestrong was that it went beyond just exercise and diet. The site also features suggestions on creating a more balanced life and dealing with stress.

(Credit:
Don Reisinger/CNET)

While Gyminee does a fine job with workouts and tracking, I was disappointed with its dietary advice. It does provide a detailed analysis of required calorie, fat, and protein intake to get you to your goal weight, but it doesn’t do much more. It doesn’t tell you what to eat and how to do it. It doesn’t tell you when you should be eating. It basically tells you that you need to have a certain number of calories every day and leaves it at that. For a full-featured health improvement site, that’s weak.

(Credit:
Don Reisinger/CNET)

HealtheHuman is free if you want to use the features outlined above, but charges if you want unlimited storage of health data.

Overall, the community at WorkoutBOX is intelligent and knows what they’re doing. There were some folks who seemed like they were trying to make others believe they knew more than they did, but for the most part, you can learn quite a bit by going to the site and listening to what others have to say, and seeing the exercises they perform to improve their health.

In a matter of seconds, you’ll be able to join Gyminee and start creating a workout regimen that will help you lose weight, tone your muscles, or gain strength. And you won’t need to do it alone. With the help of Gyminee, you can find exercises and create a regimen from pre-configured workout routines based on your goals. Gyminee does a fine job of helping you do whatever you want.

The ideal package

Spring is almost here, and soon we’ll be showing the world much more than just our heads and hands. That means it’s time to get up off the couch and start doing whatever we can to get our bods ready for summer. Need advice on that? These sites can help.

Once I started digging deeper into MyTrainer, I realized that there’s a lot to like. The site features videos for people based on age, amount of time it takes to finish an exercise, and more. Whether you want something simple or something difficult tailored to who you are individually, the site will have it for you. In fact, I found exercises tailored to my age, body size, and goals in a matter of seconds. It was an outstanding experience.

I was just as impressed with Livestrong’s dietary section. The site provides information on what to eat, when to eat, and how to eat. It also includes recipe suggestions to ensure you’re eating something each day that’s both tasty and healthy. I’ll admit that I’d rather have a bowl of ice cream than dried peanuts and lima beans, but if I really want to lose weight, I guess I’ll have to follow the rules. Livestrong makes it a bit easier though, thanks to better recipes and tastier options.

Livestrong won’t track your progress, but it doesn’t require registration. The site is designed specifically for knowledge-seekers who want information on exercises and diets. And it provides that service better than any other site in this roundup.

Mental health is important, too, on Livestrong.

Although I’m not too fond of Livestrong’s design, its dietary and exercise advice is excellent. The site’s Fitness tab includes a ton of exercises that help you work on anything from your shoulders to your calves. The sheer number of exercises puts Livestrong ahead of the competition; there are literally hundreds of different routines for the major muscle groups.

MyTrainer has a great selection of videos.

I won't input my health records in HealtheHuman.

Gyminee’s tracking tools are very good. Once you sign up, you can put your weight, resting heart rate, and measurements into the system to see where you stand today. As long as you keep inputting that information on a regular basis, it will show you a detailed graph providing your progress over the term of your workout. That’s easily my favorite feature because it’s a great motivation tool that helps me see just how far I’ve come since I started exercising.

Gyminee boasts extra features like a forum so you can discuss health considerations, and you can make friends with others and track their progress. If you want, you can also set challenges and see how close you are to achieving those goals. Gyminee offers good features and it’s worth using even though it doesn’t have enough dietary information.

The major issue with WorkoutBOX is it’s not a full-featured health improvement site. You won’t find dietary advice and you won’t have any way to track your progress.

Gyminee
If you’re looking for a way to track your workouts and get some dietary advice, Gyminee is a great place to start.

Once you sign up for HealtheHuman, you’ll be asked to create a personal profile detailing your gender, age, height, weight, and much more. From there, you can set goals, track your workouts, examine how nutritious your meals are, and create a balanced, healthy lifestyle with the site’s outstanding resources.

Creating a custom workout in Gyminee is simple.

If you don’t want video, you can see photos or listen to audio helping you learn different exercises. There are also some articles written by users, but they are not nearly as helpful as those on HealtheHuman or Livestrong.

One of my favorite features from WorkoutBOX is how it groups different kinds of exercises. For example, the site features a page that gives users workout programs to try at home, without exercise equipment. The site’s 20-minute outdoor workout includes instructions on squats, dips, push-ups, and more to give you a full workout in that time. I tried it and was impressed by the program–it’s a quick, yet difficult workout that worked every part of my body. It was great.

I was suspect of MyTrainer at first. Many of the videos are low-quality, and there is a lot of repetition among them. That wasn’t such a bad thing for more complicated routines, but I don’t need 10 videos showing me how to perform the basic push-up.

So which site of the bunch should you be using first? Although no site is perfect, Livestrong is a great site that’s both easy to use and offers dietary and exercise features you’ll probably be happy with. Of the products in this group, it’s the best.

MyTrainer
If you’re looking for help with a workout routine or you simply want to find some exercises that will help you strengthen your muscles, MyTrainer provides videos by other users showing how it’s done.

Energy Goals a Moving Target for States - The New York Times
Good reality check on the mixed record of utilities meeting renewable portfolio mandates. One advocate says the speed of adoption for clean energy is being is oversold.
Detroit Bailout Hits a Bumpy Road - The Wall Street Journal
Perhaps not surprising, given the cool reception auto companies have received thus far in Washington and in public discourse.
Tesla vs. Fisker: The Epilogue (Or, Why Tesla Owes Fisker $1.1 Million) - Automotive News Blog
The arbitrator’s statement rules in Fisker’s favor and orders Tesla to pay legal fees.
Blackstone Backs Cellulosic-Ethanol Start-up Coskata - PEHub
In a sign of clean-tech start-ups getting creative with financing, Coskata secures private-equity funding, rather than project finance, to complete a pilot plant. (Credit:
3Tier) 3Tier Releases 5km Wind Map of the World - Press release
The idea is simple: better data on wind and solar resources will speed development.
2009 Cleantech Predictions - Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog
‘Tis the season for clean-tech predictions. These look about right, though the obligatory “efficiency will be big in a down economy” is missing.
Energy efficiency boom leads 9 clean-technology predictions for 2009 - Press release
Among the more ominous predictions: clean-tech start-up failure rate doubles.
Re-energizing Energy Innovation: Experts Spar (Lightly) at Xconomy Forum - Xconomy
A panel of clean-tech pros picks apart the challenges in energy innovation. On the whole, it’s too soon to say whether then entire clean-tech sector has been successful financially.
Army to buy electric cars - ArmyTimes
Fleet deployments of all-electric carts and neighborhood
cars will create demand for these products.
DOE Announces up to $29.3 Million in Projects for Research, Development, and Demonstration of Alternative Vehicle Technologies - Press release
The two grants focus on using thermoelectrics–using a car’s waste heat to make power–and battery materials for plug-in electric vehicles.
New insights on fusion power - MIT News Office

People have definitely not given up on nuclear fusion, but one drawback is, as an MIT researcher once said, “it doesn’t work.”

Here’s a sampling of
green-tech news, with quick commentary:

The obvious solution would be for Amazon to put out some sort of firmware upgrade that will give readers a choice of contrast or text gradations in the settings menu that makes everyone happy (the question is whether this is possible). I would also hope that the same firmware upgrade addresses the ghosting and ALT-G issues. If there were a trade-off in performance, the user would ideally have some choice as to whether they want to make speed sacrifices.

Side-by-side, the K1 text is bolder and jumps out at you. It’s as if the low fidelity, dot-matrix-like typeface of the K1 is better suited for the reading experience than the feathered, crisp, 16-shades of gray of the K2. After 30 minutes of reading on the K2, my eyes get tired and I actually experience mild dizziness, headaches. Never experienced that with the K1.

Whenever a next-generation version of a product is launched, inevitably you get comparisons to the previous model–and what the older model did better. Well, in the case of the Kindle 2, the nitpicking is in full swing as several blogs have taken up the debate over whether the Kindle 2’s text is lighter than the original Kindle’s.

“The new 16-level grayscale screen, in addition to making images clearer, has made the Kindle font (Caelicia) show up a bit better on the screen. That actually makes the font a little bit lighter, from what I can tell, but it does not make it significantly less readable.”

On Amazon, there’s a thread titled, “Amazon: Please make the text darker on Kindle 2!”

Joshua Tallent, the “e-book guru” behind the blog, writes:

As always, feel free to weigh in. If you own a Kindle 2–or both a Kindle 1 and Kindle 2–please post your personal observations.

The simple way to eliminate the “ghost” is to force a page refresh by pressing ALT-G on the Kindle 2’s keyboard. Some forum posters have suggested that makes the text “pop” more, but I don’t think it changes the lightness or darkness of the text–it just creates a uniform background that may slightly improve the perceived contrast of the text. All that said, it is a problem that hitting ALT-G has the impact it does–and Amazon needs to figure out a way to better clear the ghosting without having people do a manual page refresh.

In the Mobileread forums, a reader posted that he had decided to return the Kindle 2 after he noticed “low contrast on text as compared to kindle 1…text on kindle 1 is really good it is dark and somewhat thicker than kindle 2 at the same font size, menu is normal on kindle 2.” He said he spoke to a Kindle representative (we assume a customer service person), who said he’d heard complaints from other Kindle 2 users as well.

In the end, it’s difficult to say how much of an issue this really is. The screen flaws with the Sony PRS-700 are much more noticeable–and severe–and, as I said, I haven’t had a problem reading for long periods on the Kindle 2. But I suspect that if you’re a heavy Kindle 1 user, you may be sensitive to these slight changes.

To further complicate matters, the Kindle 2 has slightly different formatting from the Kindle 1. The Kindle Formatting blog has an excellent post on all the small formatting changes (yes, the Kindle 2 has been reviewed in many different ways that you probably never thought of).

Small changes to formatting may alter readers' perceptions.

Well, we looked at the Kindle 2 and Kindle 1 side-by-side and it appears that the background is every so slightly lighter on the Kindle 1, which helps create the perception that the contrast is worse. Furthermore, the font on the home page for listing all your content is different on each Kindle 2. The font on the Kindle 1 has no serifs and appears bigger and bolder.

So, what’s the deal? Are people imagining things or is there really an issue?

I personally read Michael Connelly’s “The Brass Verdict” on a plane recently for 90 minutes straight on the Kindle 2 without a problem. I keep the font at level three (the middle size) and it seemed fine. Some say they notice the “lightening” issue more acutely with the two smaller font sizes. There’s also a separate issue with images or text leaving a residue or ghost effect on your current page. (This I can confirm is definitely true). Some are saying that the more pronounced ghosting is a trade-off or byproduct of the Kindle 2’s faster refresh rates on page turns.

On Joe Wikert’s Kindleville blog, one reader lodged the following complaint:

The thread’s starter, BMK, is calling for an e-mail campaign to encourage Amazon to update the firmware on the Kindle 2 to fix the alleged problem.

(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)

(Credit:
Kindleformatting.com)

The blogosphere is buzzing with user reports that the text is lighter on the Kindle 2 than the Kindle 1. But is there more to the problem than meets the eye?

“Kindle 2 is capable of producing darker text than the default setting, which is light, thin, and difficult to read for many people. Customer Service has reportedly told at least one person that the standard text could have been a darker shade of gray/black than the one that was chosen.”

There was a time when I was the typical gamer. I played all the major franchises like Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy and loved to play the obscure titles like Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. More often than not, I was enjoying the games that topped the charts each month and all the consoles that sold best were usually the systems I was playing most often.

Check out Don’s Digital Home podcast, Twitter feed, and FriendFeed.

Maybe I’m just another victim of age, or perhaps I’m unwilling to change. Whatever the reason, I’m just not convinced the average person who is playing games is like me anymore. Today’s new gamer doesn’t want to waste their time playing through an epic adventure; they want to jump on a plastic board that’s connected to the Wii.

Then something strange happened: for the first time in years, Nintendo reclaimed the top spot in the video game industry. Maybe we can chalk the Wii’s success up to its features or maybe even its price.

At this point, after well over a year of leading the video game industry, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Nintendo dominated the charts for yet another month. After all, the company has found a way to provide consumers with a fun and unique experience at a price that’s more affordable than its competition. And in this economy, that’s a necessity.

More people are buying the Wii and its games than picking up an Xbox 360 and playing Fable 2. It’s as simple as that. There is a massive influx of new gamers entering the market and in the process, they’re changing the way games are played. After all, if the Wii wasn’t a hot-selling console, Nintendo would have ditched the idea by now and third parties would be running from the Wii. Instead, Nintendo’s execs are laughing all the way to the bank as third-party developers like EA make it a point to tell the gaming community that more games will be coming to the company’s console.

That’s just not me. Is it you?

But as the months have worn on and more Wiis enter homes around the world, I’m left wondering if I’m an “old school” gamer who has been left behind. Sure, I own the Wii and I’ve played all the games listed here, but if we are to believe that sales figures can adequately determine the preferences of gamers, I don’t think it’s out of the question to say that I’m no longer the typical gamer. And it’s Nintendo’s fault.

(Credit:
Rockstar Games)

Sure, Wii Play was fun for a day or two, but after a while, I lost all interest in it and only popped it into the Wii at parties. I’ve spent my time playing shooters, adventure titles, and other games on my
Xbox 360 and
PlayStation 3. But judging by the sales figures of both hardware and software, I’m not in the majority anymore.

But as more people join the ranks of gamers through the Wii, it’s becoming clear I’m not part of that movement. I own the Wii and I’ll play games on it every now and then, but I’ve found that many of the games don’t appeal to me.

I know I’m in the minority. I realize that as I keep plugging away in GTA IV or Halo 3, more people will be finding reasons to buy a Wii and games that are developed by Nintendo. I think NPD sales numbers have proven that.

I’m not happy about it. Based on my testing, the only fun Wii games come from Nintendo. Third parties simply haven’t been able to develop titles that can match the first-party games. Worse, I don’t really enjoy the Wii’s control style and more often than not, I find myself frustrated, wishing I could enjoy the game the “old-fashioned way.”

This ain't your grandfather's gaming industry.

On the software side, Nintendo’s Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Mario Kart Wii took the top three spots, while Left 4 Dead and Call of Duty: World at War rounded out the top five.

According to the research firm, Nintendo sold 680,000
Wii units and 510,000 DS units. Microsoft was able to sell 309,000 consoles in January, and Sony once again trailed the pack with 203,000 units sold.

Sunday, NPD released its January video game sales figures, and once again, Nintendo dominated.

The Netpal Netbooks will have an unknown clock speed (our guess would be 1.6GHz-2GHz) and will have a 16GB SSD or 160GB HD based on parental preference. They’ll come preloaded with Windows XP. But they’ll have another IO layer over XP so the kids can’t break too much. We’d guess a locked-down Windows theme of some sort.

There are girl hackers, right? Really hot ones, like in Transformers?

This means the computers can run actual commercial software, as well as access the Internet via Wi-Fi. Consumers can get one decked out in Mickey Mouse’s “Magic Blue” or Ariel’s flowery “Princess Pink” for $350 at Amazon or Toys R Us. I’d wager, given that Asus’ Eee PCs based on the Atom are decent platforms for OS X “HackBooks,” that the Princess Pink will be a popular choice for girl hackers.

(Credit:
Disney)

Disney and Asus have teamed up to do something others have been doing wrong for a long time: they’ve developed an affordable and functional portable kids’ PC, according to USA Today. It comes in the form of a Netbook with an Intel Atom processor; a small, 8.9-inch screen; parental control options; and desktops with customizable themes that revolve around the likes of Cars, Toy Story, WALL-E, and Hannah Montana.