A common complaint about Xbox Live is that Microsoft is charging for something that you get for free on any other platform (PC, PS3, Wii). For many people free is their favorite four-letter word, and it is just a price you cannot beat. The inability to charge for online services of any sort (read: not just gaming) is a major problem though. This isn’t just about games, here’s why. Read more

I recently had an issue updating Google Gears to be compatible with Firefox 3.0.1. The Firefox updater didn’t find any updates and if I installed Gears again it was still at the same incompatible version. It was only after I uninstalled it and installed it again that it finally worked. This made me realize something, updating software on your computer should be a lot easier than it is right now and Microsoft should be the one to do it.

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One of the interesting aspects of the recently announced “New Xbox Experience” is that gamers will now be able to install/copy their games onto the hard drive. This will be a welcome feature for many people, and I really commend Microsoft on making installs optional (as they should be), however they just missed the mark on making it perfect. The lowdown on it all and how they can make it better after the jump.

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With the E3 Media and Business Summit in full swing this week, I thought I’d throw my $.02 in on the announcements by the big three gaming companies: Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. One of them was making some noise, the others, not so much. Read more

Soapbox is a regular feature where I sound off on various tech topics/products that I’m interested in (or hate). This is just my $.02, so consider yourself warned. This week’s subjects are World of Warcraft, Netflix and Microsoft, and Apple’s marketing are all on the hot seat. Read more