Zune pass is Microsoft’s subscription model for streaming music.  It costs $14.99 a month and as long as you have an active subscription you can play (on up to 3 PCs) any songs from their vast library.  You can also download these songs and load them onto a DRM approved device (like the Zune) for the duration of your subscription.  Along with the monthly access to the entire library, Microsoft added a new element that lets you download and keep forever, 10 songs per month.  The biggest gap in this service which I didn’t realize wouldn’t work until I actually tried it, is that you cannot access the Zune Marketplace via the xbox 360 console.  This means that you can’t browse and stream unlimited music directly from the xbox, a huge oversight in my opinion since most people would love to be able to select and play any music in their main entertainment room instead of just the room they have a PC in.  Other than that, there are a lot of nice features about the Zune pass and Zune marketplace (social playlists and channels) that have me debating moving to a subscription based model for my music needs.

With the newest version of the Xbox 360 UI, Xbox Live Gold members and members of certain Netflix subscription plans can now access a large library of streaming content directly on their Xbox consoles.  I have tried this for a few days and it is implemented very well.  On the netflix website you select which movies you want to show up in your “instant queue” on the xbox, and once you navigate to the Netflix section on your console you get a nice interface that lets you play and watch the content you selected.  The standard streaming quality is very acceptable and some features are available in HD which looks very nice.  The best “instant queue” selections are mostly limited to Documentaries, Indie films and TV shows, but there is a large selection of almost anything you could want, and the most basic plan at $8.99 allows for you to have 1 DVD (or BluRay) out at a time to fill the gap.  A couple of improvements I would like to see are allowing you to browse the entire netflix instant library via the xbox console to add films to your queue, more HD content, and also better sound on the higher quality films.  It seems I am only limited to 2 channel audio, which is unfortunate.

With these two media subscriptions, Microsoft and Netflix really have a nice fulfillment of my music and movie needs.  This got me thinking, with a few of the improvements I listed above (most notably the Zune Marketplace accessible on the Xbox 360 console) Microsoft could easily offer a single subscription model that would compete and go beyond anything other media service providers currently offer.  Imagine if you had following options.

• Xbox Media Pass Basic – 1 month xbox live gold, netflix streaming, and zune pass streaming  $20/month
• Xbox Media Pass Mid-range – 1 month xbox live gold, netflix streaming + 1 at a time,  zune pass + 800 MS Points – $30/month
• Xbox Media Pass Deluxe – 1 month xbox live gold, netflix streaming + 3 at a time, zune pass + 1600 MS Points – $50/month

The price points can be adjusted some, but you see where I’m going.  I would be very VERY interested in purchasing one of these plans, and even possibly a yearly subscription if it was given at a discounted rate.  The other adjustment that would have to be made according to how I have the model laid out, is that Microsoft would have to make their point system universal.  800 MS points would be good on the Xbox console or Marketplace for purchasing game or video content and good on the PC or Zune for purchasing individual tracks or whole albums.  I really think if Microsoft was able to combine these services and integrate them well, they would really start to separate themselves from everyone else in both the console and media offerings marketplace.

As I said in my last post, my family and I took an amazing trip down to the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador. It was an awesome time and a once in a lifetime trip. The wildlife and scenery was amazing. Between 5 digital camera, we took over 2500+ pictures, and I have slowly been working on getting them organized, edited and posted online. You can check out our first few days by clicking on the links below.

Galapagos – Day 1&2

Galapagos – Day 3

During my trip, Kate moved down to Nashville to start her 2 year Masters program at Vanderbilt.  It was an event we had not been looking forward to, but now 2 months after the move, it has worked out alright.  We are getting to see each other once ever 2 or 3 weeks and with communication and technology the way it is today, we can talk online and on the phone all day.  The drive to Nashville isn’t half bad (only 6 hours) and we’re looking forward to being a mid-way point for future traveling friends who head south for vacations and whatnot.

I also moved to a new residence once I returned from the trip.  Now I am renting a large house in suburbia with Matt, Newbs and Nick.  So far the setup has worked out really well.  We have tons of room, including a backyard and a basement where we have setup some weight lifting equipment and stuck to a weekly workout program.  It has been a small challenge to get the 4 of us on a chore schedule to keep this huge place in some sort of order, but I think we everything has been going pretty well so far.  I think I mentioned in a previous post that I really wanted to get a dog once I moved to a place with a yard.  Well, after a week or so of debating and discussing the idea with Kate and my parents, I have decided to wait yet another year (until the move to TN) and not get a dog quite yet.  It was a tough choice, but I think I have plenty of other things to keep me occupied and this way Kate and I will raise the dog together.

Even though the combination of work and life has kept me fairly busy, I still have found plenty of time to keep up my video game recreation.  2 weeks back Halo 3 hit stores, and I have been playing it nearly every night.  The game is a ton of fun, and has a lot of different parts to keep you entertained and coming back for more.  I also have been playing the sequal to an old classic – Team Fortress 2.  This is an online PC game that is only multiplayer, but the balance, variety and presentation is top notch and I find myself constantly debating between starting up a match of Halo 3 or TF2.

Finally, wedding planning has not really been taking up much of my time, but I like to thing with everything that Kate has accomplished, I was very much occupied participating in the “yes dear” aspect of our decision making.  I won’t go into great detail, but you can find all our updates and information over at our website that I linked to before.  http://www.timandkateanderson.com.  Moving forward I’m not sure how I plan on splitting time and content between this site and that.  I know I’m going to keep posting my general life updates here, but eventually, once we’re married, we plan on turning T&KA.com over to a combined blog for the two of us.  I’ll probably end up moving all my general posts to that site, but still use this site for my personal interests like gaming, technology etc…

That’s all for now.  I know I promise this almost every post, but I’m sure I’ll write more frequently than once every two months.

The days leading up to the release of Burning Crusade, there were many Ebay auctions posting pre-orders of the CE version of the expansion for double the cost.  I figured my gambling was safe.  Here we are a few weeks after the release, I have all my copies (2 of which I plan on re-selling) and taking a look at ebay, it appears the market has been flooded. Copies aren’t even selling for more than their purchase value.  I’m somewhat shocked.  I guess a lot more people had the same idea that I did, and were able to get their grubby hands on multiple copies for re-sale.  I’m sure the supply will go down as time goes on, but I’d be curious to see if Blizzard made more copies of the Collector’s Edition available due to the high demand of the previous version and increase in user base.  It turns out my initial double money back guarantee, has turned into somewhat of a stock risk, where I have to wait and see how the market pans out, and sell at the most opportune moment.

I’ve been running a “less than legit” version of Vista retail for a while now, but that will soon change.  I have a free version coming from a promotion put on by Microsoft, that I’ll pay to upgrade to the Ultimate version.  This will go on my main machine.  Then I have 2 other copies of Home Premium, that I purchased at a reduced price using my Beta Key with Microsoft’s Family Pack offer.  One will go on my laptop, and the other, I’ll just hang onto for a while I guess.  With the Ultimate upgrade I should have the option to purchase 2 more copies at a reduced rate, but we’ll see what comes of that.  It’s kind of interesting, I really didn’t have the intent of having a legit version of Vista on my machine until I could find a good deal.  But, when free and super cheap options came along, it just worked out.  I’ll do a write up on my impressions of the retail version of Vista sometime down the road.  Most of which will be highlighting my joy of Media Center.

If S beats M, then S = H.
If S !(beat) M, AND Q beat U, then Q = H.
Else, who knows.

Where
S = Troy Smith,
M = Michigan
H = Heisman Trophy
Q = Brandy Quinn
U = USC.

High-Def Trailer

Standard-Def Trailer (if you have a slower PC)

(btw all footage is in-game.  No pre-rendered PS3 BS here)

This past weekend I ran into another situation involving “working the system” but for a substantially smaller item. I ended up giving in, but I’ll let you determine if it was wrong of me to do so. Anyway, last week Toys R Us ran a promotion in their video game department where if you bought 2 games at full price you get a 3rd one for free. I hadn’t bought a new 360 game in quite a while and a few had come out that I was interested in purchasing so I made my way down to TrU. Unfortunately once I got there, none of the games I wanted were in stock. I was somewhat bummed because I was really looking forward to playing some new games. I thought about it for a bit and an idea came to me. Why couldn’t I buy some games I didn’t care about, get gift receipts for them, and then once the games I did want came in stock, go exchange for those? I decided this was a valid option and went ahead and purchased 3 new xbox360 games. Soon I realized that this would not suffice as I had just dropped the cost of 2 brand new games and still didn’t have anything to play. So another idea came to me. Why not go ask another store if they’ll accept a no receipt unopened video game exchange and get one or two new games that I would play? I trekked on over to Target, saw that they had both the game I would exchange and the game I wanted, and went up to the customer service desk. The girl there was somewhat unsure if they were allowed to do a no receipt exchange on video games, but her co-worker said it was ok as long as it was un-opened. Apparently with Target you are limited to doing 2 exchanges a year (they take your driver’s license number). I didn’t want to do 2 games at the same spot, so later I went to Meijer and did the same thing and they had the same situation. Now I have brand new copies of Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Splinter Cell: Double Agent, as well as a gift receipt to take back to Toys R Us once Gears of War comes out. Honestly I don’t feel bad or like I did anything wrong. Sure it wasn’t how the system was designed to be used, but I don’t think it’ll hurt Target, Meijer or Toys R Us. If anything, I am now a very pleased customer with all 3 stores.

What would you have done in both situations?
Reviews on the games to come at a later date.

Over the past few weeks, small things have been drawing me back into playing. I really don’t want to and know I shouldn’t, but there is some addiction deep down inside that is calling me back. I thought I’d be able to cure my craving by getting a small taste and went ahead and bought this full size poster . Nope, still want to play. Once the new expansion pack was announced and an estimated release date given, I knew that would be my moment of weakness. On an entirely different motivation, as soon as I saw that Amazon had pre-orders available for The Burning Crusade Collectors Edition, I went ahead and ordered 3. Now why you may ask did I order multiple copies of one game. This is the reason. The original WoW CE is going for insane prices on ebay, due to the limited copies Blizzard produced. At first, ordering the CE for the expansion, I was a little worried. Had Blizzard picked up on the rare availability and were they going to produce more? Apparently not. As of today, it is impossible to find a pre-order anywhere. And Ebay is proof. I can tell you now I will be selling all 3 of my copies to the highest bidder. This coupled with an article I read the other day has dramatically lessened my desire to go back and play. Now I give it 50/50 odds. Besides, I have tons of other games that I need to get to and Gears of War & the Wii will be out real soon.

btw I got a new car. Pics, story and details later.

Went home over the weekend to see Dad for Father’s day. I brought DS Lite with me mainly to show it to my brother Ryan, but also to show my mom and dad Brain Age. Boy was that a mistake. For most of the day all my mom did was play Brain Age. She loves it. Which is cool because Brain Age is helping everyone understand that games aren’t bad for you. They CAN be educational and productive.

Since Bree will be leaving in the next few weeks and taking along with him the Stereo system we’ve been using up untill now, I’ve been searching out to purchase a new one. I have been doing lots of research and chatting with various peoples and think I’ve got my system narrowed down to just a few final choices. Hopefully within the next two weeks I’ll have made a purchase and be able to post some pics and tell you how glorious my ears feel once they awaken to sound never thought possible. At least I sure hope they feel glorious after plopping down nearly 2 weeks worth of pay! Ouch. But I’ve been a frugal buyer and have been saving for this so it’s ok. Next up, pop-corn machine to go next to my newly purchased Snakes on a Plane & Superman Returns poster.

Btw, the last time I was this excited/hyped for a movie was for LOTR: Return of the King. I’ve now got the soundtrack and the movie is only a week away. Wooo freaking hooo. (edit: I realized this could be confusing. I was talking about my hype level for Superman Returns, although SoaP is right up there )

Post-post: While looking around the net for an image of the Snakes on a Plane poster I found these funny knock offs. First we have the Playstation spin-off of:

Snake’s on a Plane

and then the even funnier:

Snape’s on a Plane

Too Funny.

“Enough is enough! I’ve had it with these m-fing snakes on this m-fing plane!”

As many reviews have already stated, the New Super Mario Bros is the best Mario game to come out in a long time. The single player is classic Mario Bros, with enough enhancements to make it worth the upgrade. If the main game wasn’t enough, there is a whole second mode that you can play with up to 4 people. We tried this out for a bit and it is great. It’s basically Mario Party, where you and 3 other players will play a set of mini-games. These can range from wack-a-mole style games to snow ball fights. Nintendo really ran away with the many ways you can you the stylus and touch pad for these mini games. If you don’t already have a DS and have been debating getting one, get one. NOW!

What sucks more, video-Games based on movies or movies based on video-games?