Michael

Thomas Ricker - I don't know if you're trying to be 'edgy' because you're new or if it's some inherent part of your personality, but it comes off as petty and just a bit silly. Will you continue to list features 'missing' from every device you cover? Will Engadget have you covering the 360? Great device, but no built-in WiFi and Blu-Ray drive. Maybe you'll sing the praises of the Nokia N810 only to bemoan the fact that it isn't a phone. And so on, and so on.

I hope you can see just how ridiculous you sound. Enough with the color commentary and stick to the news, pal.

Definitely the prototype Kuro. The contrast was so beautiful it made me cry.

If I had to make an educated guess, I'd point the finger directly at Call of Duty 4 for these reasons:

1. The game (multiplayer specifically) has had a huge popularity spike over the last month, as evidenced by the total number players online across the server and playlists.

2. The game downloads and uploads a bunch of data every time you start multiplayer, find a match, get a match, etc. It must be a bandwidth nightmare for Live, especially with more and more players online.

3. COD4 is the only specific game still (somewhat) shitting the bed on Live.

Replace X-Play with Zero Punctuation: The Television Series. You know, find and pay dudes that people actually like and find funny and give them the resources to step up their game to a television schedule.

You know, instead of scouring L.A. or wherever for mildly attractive whores that would suck a dick just as soon as they would pretend to like video games to get ahead in their vapid little field.

In short, swing from my gargantuan balls, G4.

This needs to happen YESTERDAY. I've been dying for a GPS add-on since June.

Is this the same technology used in Japan? It'd be nice for telecoms to start finding some universal standards. Patchwork formats have become the norm and that's pretty damn unfortunate.

Yeah, except Orange Box runs at 1080p on the 360. Oops.

"What absolute arrogance."

Yeah, that's the idea.

"Who the f**k are you to criticize how many pieces of hardware someone owns anyway?"

I'm the person reading about a dude with 8 computers singling out Apple for making them buy a machine. You know, I'm just anyone with baseline common sense and above.

"Ever heard of "upgrading"? As I build a new PC, I trickle-down the PCs that I have to my wife, my studio, et al. Family members also hand their old hardware off to me when they upgrade because they know that I can find a use for it, even if it means throwing Linux on it and putting it up on eBay. That's why I have the hardware."

To be honest, I don't really care how you got it.

"And are you REALLY that blinded by Apple fanboyism?"

Ah, yes. The insidious kind of fanboyism where I dispassionately describe how bundling OS X is a financially motivated move by Apple that is paying dividends for the company and its shareholders.

"The "risk" is for Apple to let people have exposure to OSX and then entice them to purchase genuine, Apple hardware once the user is hooked."

Or, uh, completely cannibalizing their hardware sales profits. You know, like the last time they went the commodity hardware route.

"Right now, Apple has no chance of gaining a sale from me because I'm not going to buy new hardware."

With their stock price hovering around 166 and hardware sales increasing quarter over quarter, I honestly don't think they give a shit.

"BUT if they would sell OSX for a generic platform, they would at least get money from the software sale and THEN I might be convinced to make my new "PC" a Mac."

Again, I don't think reaching out to batshit loons like you is worth the risk of Apple hurting its hardware sales. Sorry to be blunt.

"It's fanboyism like yours that helps to push the elitism stigma"

I don't quite see how rationally laying out a company's reasons for vertical integration is either elitist or fanboyish. Weird.

"that many PC people have for Mac users."

Sounds like a personal problem.

"Your unbridled arrogance is not doing ANY favors for Apple."

I don't care about Apple. I just want to railroad you (rhetorically, that is) for being a jackass.

@Whoever It Was: Point upgrade? You're such a jackass. I would drop $129 for Time Machine alone. The rest of Leopard is just a bonus, you lame fanboy.

"As much as I want to try OSX, I'm not going to buy yet ANOTHER piece of hardware"

So, why are you here? Apple's business model just won't allow for a "generic platform copy". And, really, with sales as high as they are (and the stock price to match), why the fuck would Apple risk a good thing to please ridiculous people like you who claim to own 8 computers but whine at the idea of having to buy an Apple machine. You didn't seem to have a problem dropping the cash for your last 8 machines, yet you want Apple to bend over backwards to avoid a 9th?

GTFO, duderino.