Coffee Talk #344: Do You Care About the Little Guys?

As I was sipping coffee with one of my industry friends, I was surprised by his lengthy and passionate rant on PSP Minis. Do you guys and gals care about the little guys like PSP Minis and Nintendo WiiWare?

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, your favorite NBA playoff performance thus far, tea, or white phones, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

As I was sipping coffee with one of my industry friends, I was surprised by his lengthy and passionate rant on PSP Minis. He loves them. He thinks they’re underrated. He believes there are plenty of  cheap gaming treasures to be had with PSP Minis. And he was sad that most gamers don’t seem to care.

To be fair, he loves small indie games. He plays more PSP Minis, Nintendo WiiWare titles, and Xbox Live Indie Games than anyone I know. He made a great point though — why are most gamers ignorant of these games? I’m certainly guilty of not paying as much attention as I should. Part of it is that these games don’t get any marketing money or coverage from the press. There’s also a lot of crap buried with the treasures. It’s hard to find the good games when you don’t hear about them and have to sift through a lot of garbage to find them.

Do you guys and gals care about the little guys like PSP Minis and Nintendo WiiWare? If so, kindly share your recommendations. If not, why don’t you care about them?

White iPhone 4 Finally Arriving…Tomorrow

Apple has finally gone official with the white iPhone 4. It will be available online and at retail on April 28, 2011. Despite the new exterior, the iPhone 4’s internals are a bit old compared to the new dual-core processor phones available in 2011. That said, it offers the best software and entertainment ecosystem on the market.

Any of you picking up a white iPhone 4? Are you an Apple fan that feels that “if it ain’t white, it ain’t right”?

Source

Coffee Talk #343: Consoles, Personal Information, and You

With Sony’s revelation that user information — including credit card numbers — was compromised when PlayStation Network was hacked, I wanted to get your thoughts on tying your info to your consoles. I know that…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, President Obama’s birth certificate, the fate of SETI, or your favorite Britney song, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

With Sony’s revelation that user information — including credit card numbers — was compromised when PlayStation Network was hacked, I wanted to get your thoughts on tying your info to your consoles. I know that a few of you only make console purchases through gift cards and codes. Those of you that do are looking extra smart this week. For those of you that use your credit cards on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, are you wary of doing so now?

Personally, I’m not too worried about it. In my limited experience, my banks have been pretty good at alerting me about fraud attempts — if anything, they’ve been overly paranoid. Plus, it’s not like I have money or anything (ha!). In the particular case of PSN, I’m guessing that the hack was a result of Sony’s strong-arm stance against people like GeoHotz. I will, perhaps naively, assume that malice was intended towards Sony Computer Entertainment and not its customers.

Now it’s your turn! How do you feel about the issue? Are you paranoid? Are you carefree? Or somewhere in between?

WWE 2011 Draft Results and Analysis

WWE held its annual draft on last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw. Things started off with a bang as Smackdown chose John Cena with the first pick. Here are the result of the results…

WWE held its annual draft on last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw. Things started off with a bang as Smackdown chose John Cena with the first pick. Here are the result of the results:

  • John Cena to Smackdown
  • Rey Mysterio to Raw
  • Randy Orton to Smackdown
  • Mark Henry to Smackdown
  • Sin Cara to Smackdown
  • Big Show to Raw
  • Alberto Del Rio to Raw
  • John Cena back to Raw

Of course Cena was going to end up back on Raw. He’s the company’s top face and sells a ton of merchandise. You can’t have him on the secondary show. Sin Cara and Mysterio switching places makes a ton of sense. Sin Cara has blown a few spots due to his high-risk style; having him on the taped show will make him look better. Mysterio will probably get buried on Raw, but he’ll eventually have an incredible match or an amazing train wreck taking on Sin Cara (possibly at WrestleMania). Del Rio has been outstanding and deserves a permanent spot on the primary show. As for the other picks…meh.

More talent will shuffle this week as the WWE 2011 supplemental draft takes place on WWE.com. For now, please let me know what you think of the roster changes (please!).

Today’s Poll: Do You Like Sony Qriocity?

Not that you can currently use it on your PlayStation 3 at the moment (thanks to external intrusions), but I wanted to get your opinions on Sony’s Qriocity service. A unified approach to streaming music, movies, and television sounds great on paper, but there are separate services that do each of these things so well. I know that a lot of you are big on Netflix and some of you use Hulu. Some of you dig Pandora, while a few of you are Slacker or Last FM peeps. Do you think Qriocity can take the place of those services? Or is it just not good enough?

[poll id=”113″]

Coffee Talk #342: Sony’s Android Tablet Ambition

Will the combination of PlayStation Suite and Qriocity lead to Sony succeeding in the Android tablet market? That seems to be what the company is banking on. Sony recently announced that it will be releasing…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Iranian terrorists taking over Sizzler steakhouses, currywurst, or Intelligentsia’s Los Inmortales El Salvador: Finca Matalapa Puerta Zapa, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Will the combination of PlayStation Suite and Qriocity lead to Sony succeeding in the Android tablet market? That seems to be what the company is banking on. Sony recently announced that it will be releasing two Android tablets later this year — a traditional tablet with a 9.4-inch screen and a funky folding tablet with two 5.5-inch screens. While Sony’s “style” will help these tablets appeal to the masses, it looks like the company is banking on its own services to help differentiate its tablets from the numerous Android manufacturers out there. Will this strategy work?

I need to think about it more, but my initial inclination is that these tablets will get lost in the shuffle. On the hardware side, a folding tablet doesn’t have the wow factor of 3D (LG G-Slate) or the practicality of a laptop dock (Asus Transformer). On the software and services side, Sony looks silly compared to Amazon and its aggressive Android moves. I know loads of people that love Amazon’s MP3 Store and several that love Amazon Instant Video. I don’t know anyone that thinks highly of Qriocity. PlayStation Suite has lots of potential and I’d love for it to take off, but a few sources within Sony have told me that the product is getting the bastard treatment internally.

What do you think of Sony’s Android tablet future? Will its slick industrial design, PlayStation Suite, and Qriocity help it rise above the competition? Or will Sony’s products end up being one of several Android tablets released in 2011? Leave a comment and let me know (please!).

Name Nintendo’s Next Console!

Since Nintendo is launching a new console in 2012 and the name “Okama Gamesphere” is already taken, let’s play a game and come up with names for the new console. The company has gone from completely straightforward monikers (NES, SNES, N64) to more unusual ones (GameCube, Wii). What’s next for the company? Will it be something strange and artsy? Or will it be boring (Wii 2)? Share your thoughts and come up with your own name for the system (please)!

Nintendo Wii Successor Coming in 2012: Do You Care?

Nintendo has confirmed that its next home videogame console will arrive in 2012. The mystery console, with the purportedly ridiculous controller, will be shown at E3 2011. Here’s a clip from Nintendo of Japan’s investor relations page:

Nintendo Co., Ltd. has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011.

We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles.

I know that a lot of you are down on the Wii, DS, and 3DS (which makes me sad…for the first two anyway), but I wanted to check if you’re curious about Nintendo’s upcoming console? Will HD capabilities, Nintendo’s first-party lineup, and a unique take on games be enough to bring you back into Mario’s world? Or have you outgrown Nintendo? Do you guys care about Nintendo’s next move? Or has the company burned you out with motion and 3D?

Source via Joystiq

Coffee Talk #341: PSN Outage Compensation?

Millions of gamers have been inconvenienced by the PSN outage caused by “an external intrusion”. What do you think Sony will do, if anything, to make up for the PSN outage?

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, CC Sabathia finally winning a game, the arrival of the white iPhone 4, or lava salts, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Sony is still scrambling to get its PlayStation Network service fully operational. Millions of gamers have been inconvenienced by the outage caused by “an external intrusion”. As RPadholic N8R pointed out, customers that pay for enhanced services like PlayStation Plus or subscribe to games like DC Universe Online have been especially put out. What do you think Sony will do to compensate gamers for the down time?

It would be fairly easy to tack on an additional month of PlayStation Plus service or add some extra time to a DCUO subscription, but is that enough? Do you think Sony will try to win back gamers by giving away something really cool? Or will it be something lame like a virtual t-shirt for PlayStation Home? (Though it would be funny to have an avatar wearing a shirt that said, “PSN Was Down for XX Days and All I Got Was This Stupid T-Shirt!!!”)

I’d be interested in seeing everyone get some PlayStation Plus time and a free downloadable game or two. It would be a nice gesture that could also get Sony some new Plus subscribers. Sony makes money, gamers get free stuff — everybody wins!!! (Well, not if you’re still angry about not being able to play Portal 2 with your friends last week.)

Now it’s your turn to speculate! What do you think Sony will do, if anything, to make up for the PSN outage?

EA Mobile Games Sale: Up to 90% Off!!!

EA is having a pretty excellent sale on select Android, iPad, and iPhone games. A lot of the games have been slashed from $9.99 to $0.99! I’m downloading Dead Space, Max and the Magic Marker, Scrabble, and Pictureka as I type. Check out the games and let me know if you pick anything up (please).