Netflix Picks: The Big Show — A Giant’s World

It’s time for everyone to share their streaming movie recommendations! My pick this week surprised me. I thought it was just going to be a throwaway video that I watched during lunch. Instead I was very much entertained by The Big Show: A Giant’s World. It was cool learning about his childhood and listening to him discuss his horrible angle with The Big Boss Man. There’s a lot of Steven Regal in this video; I’m a huge Regal mark and it was interesting to hear one of the best technical wrestlers talk about Show’s ability. Lastly, I was really impressed that Show gave props to The Undertaker and Arn Anderson as mentors. ‘Taker is known as being a locker room leader and Double A is just awesome.

If you happen to stream my pick, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Now its your turn to suggest one movie we should all watch. Please make sure it’s available on Netflix streaming.

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

I have a bunch of video editing to do this weekend. Since my PC is not up for the challenge, there will be a lot of rebooting. This will give me time to play Final Fantasy III and NBA Jam on my iPad 2. It’s such an awesome entertainment device — great for games, Netflix, music, and more. I’ll probably buy an external keyboard and Pages so that it’s not all fun and games. My other devices are getting jealous and want to see the iPad do some work too.

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

Read My Tomb Raider Trilogy Review (Please)!

I totally forgot to link to my Machinima.com review of Tomb Raider Trilogy for PlayStation 3. Please check it out when you get a chance. On the plus side, it offers a lot of gameplay for around $40 along with some developer diaries, PlayStation Home goodies, and an XMB theme. On the downside, the first two games look silly compared to Uncharted and Prince of Persia. Plus, the latest game — which is untouched in this compilation — can be had for $15. Here’s a quote:

Tomb Raider Trilogy offers dozens of hours of gaming, some fan directed bonus content, and really cool developer diaries. If you consider yourself a gaming history connoisseur it represents great value and a fascinating insight into the evolution of action-adventure titles. If you’re only into the latest and greatest then this is a tough sell. The two oldest games in the compilation look dated, despite the HD remastering. In terms of gameplay, the same two games have also been left in the dust by newer titles. Underworld, the newest game in the trilogy can be found for $15 or less. I enjoyed the special content in Tomb Raider Trilogy and had fun taking a stroll down memory lane. However, I can understand that nostalgia has no value to some gamers and they’d be better off buying Tomb Raider: Underworld for less than half the price of Tomb Raider Trilogy.

If you have a moment, please check out my review. If you have two moments, kindly leave a comment over at Machinima. Thanks!!!

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Android Gets Google Talk Video Chat

Google has announced that Android version 2.3.4 will have video chat capabilities through Google Talk. The official word on the roll out is, “Google Talk with video and voice chat will gradually roll out to Nexus S devices in the next few weeks as part of the Android 2.3.4 over-the-air update and will launch on other Android 2.3+ devices in the future.”

Android users will be able to see their friends on other Android phones or PCs that have Google Talk. While phones with front-facing cameras have been fairly common since the end of 2010, the software hasn’t been the best. Apple’s FaceTime is easy to use and has great image quality, but it’s limited to iOS (WiFi only) and Mac OS devices. I’ve been mostly unimpressed with newer services like Fring, Qik, and Tango. I expected Skype to own this segment, but the company has been pathetically slow in expanding its mobile video-chat efforts (currently only available in iOS devices on WiFi).

Google has a huge opportunity to dominate the mobile video-chat market. Google Talk is available to anyone that uses Gmail. Android phones are more popular than ever. The numbers are certainly there (though I wonder if Apple would approve an official Google Talk app with video chat). Will Google be able to take advantage of this opportunity? Will it force Skype to get off its lazy ass and Apple to expand FaceTime to other platforms? As a VoIP junkie, I can’t wait to find out.

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Awesome Harry Potter 7(B) Trailer is Awesome!

Yes, I used Internet slang in the title. Sue me. I’m just super psyched for the final Harry Potter movie. This trailer is incredible — awesome special effects, dramatic moments, and more! I totally marked out when Harry addressed Lord Voldemort as “Tom”. That was cool.

Check out the trailer and share your thoughts (please)!

Will the PSN Outage Lead to More Xbox 360 Gamers?

Sony’s PlayStation Network security breach is arguably the biggest story this console generation. While writers and gamers alike are talking up the PSN outage, I have to question whether all this talk will lead to action. (I studied philosophy. I question everything.) According to a survey conducted by CouponCodes4U, more than 20 percent of people that are PS3 gamers are considering leaving for Xbox 360 due to the security breach. Here’s a clip from GamePolitics:

The survey found that 21 percent of PlayStation 3 owners said they were “considering selling their console in order to switch to rival console, the Microsoft Xbox 360.”

The majority of respondents — 89 percent — admitted that they were concerned for their personal data, with names, email addresses and assumed stolen by hackers. More than three fifths ( 65 percent) of video gamers said their trust in Sony and the PlayStation Network had been ‘greatly affected’, while just fewer than 9 percent said that it “hadn’t affected their trust at all.”

Keep in mind that the sample size of 2,132 people is relatively small. I’m inclined to dismiss the numbers because of the sample size. Still, the findings are fascinating. Sony has been picking up steam globally, with the PS3 recently overtaking the Xbox 360 in worldwide sales (depending on whose numbers you believe). Will the PSN security breach halt that momentum? Will gamers with PS3s only defect to the Xbox 360? What do you think the longterm damage of the “external intrusion” will be?

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GeoHot Addresses PSN Security Breach

Renowned hacker and former Sony target George Hotz (GeoHot) wrote an insightful and interesting blog post on the PlayStation Network security breach. Before he really gets going, he made it clear that he had nothing to do with the attack. Although he’s a proud hacker, he’s not the kind that engages in identity theft. He also feels that Sony spent too much time and money having lawyers go after hackers instead of firming up PSN security. Here’s an excerpt:

To anyone who thinks I was involved in any way with this, I’m not crazy, and would prefer to not have the FBI knocking on my door. Running homebrew and exploring security on your devices is cool, hacking into someone elses server and stealing databases of user info is not cool. You make the hacking community look bad, even if it is aimed at douches like Sony.

Also, let’s not fault the Sony engineers for this, the same way I do not fault the engineers who designed the BMG rootkit. The fault lies with the executives who declared a war on hackers, laughed at the idea of people penetrating the fortress that once was Sony, whined incessantly about piracy, and kept hiring more lawyers when they really needed to hire good security experts. Alienating the hacker community is not a good idea.

I highly recommend reading the entire post. There’s lots of great stuff in there and Hotz is in an extremely unique position to provide commentary on Sony.

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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”?

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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?