“PC gamers” often snicker about how “console gamers” pay for things that they get for free. They also tout that PC games usually sell for less than console games. After hearing these claims a few million times, I decided to dive into the numbers and see who is really paying more over the life-cycle of their gaming system of choice. Warning: there is actually some real financial analysis going on here. I’m just trying to get the facts straight. FYI, if you only care about the results, skip to the verdict.

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Does this sound familiar? You have a cellphone and a landline that together cost you more than $100/month but you hardly get calls on the landline. You have it just so you (or your significant other) don’t run up your wireless bill with long calls during peak hours. But your cellphone is definitely your primary phone.

That was me before I started using VoIP (voice over IP) at home about two years ago. It is easy and inexpensive to setup, will work with your existing telephones, and I’m only paying about $8.50/month for service now. Here’s how:

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In my “spare time” I coded up something that I thought would be of interest for all the PseudoSavant readers out there; I am calling it Amazon.com Price Drops (see widget in the sidebar). Basically, my server continually tracks the change in prices at Amazon.com to find the products that have had a significant price drop recently, like a PC-free cordless Skype phone (25% price drop), a Garmin GPS unit (15% price drop), or a Pioneer 1080p upscaling DVD player (13% price drop).

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Soapbox is a new 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. Apple gets another beat down this week…

AppleTV is first up on the chopping block. Personally I love how Steve Jobs said at Macworld 2008 that AppleTV 1.0 was more about sharing music and pictures. If that was really the case then why was it called AppleTV? It is funny that a device with TV in the name has hardly any TV content. Especially since the departure of NBC from iTunes. AppleTV “Take Two” is about movies; it won’t be until AppleTV “Third Time’s the Charm” that you’ll get the TV part. Yet another reason why people should hold off on the AppleTV. Read more