My Xbox 360 vs Playstation 3 Review

I got my previous PS3 as a gift so I had no opportunity to choose but this time I read as many reviews as I could, blogs, podcasts anything that I thought could provide any insight into which console was better. I read how the Xbox 360 had better exclusive titles, ps3 hardware was better, Blu-ray, Xbox online community – there was so much information available it was hard to take it all in.

It came down to a major reason for each

• The PS3 had Blu-ray

• Most of my friends had Xbox 360.

I went with the Xbox 360 for the above reason, I only purchased 3 Blu-ray movies last year and figured I could get a cheap player on sale somewhere.

I regretted my decision immediately. Even more so than player games I used my previous PS3 as my media center. I rip all my movies to my computer hard drive and copy them to the ps3. Even with the 250gb hard drive in the xbox I can’t copy movies to it. I rip my DVDs in full quality and sometimes when streaming them over my home network there is a lag and this annoying to both me and my wife. Yes I am using a wired connection, a gigabit ethernet Apple Time Capsule. This happened in the past with my PS3 and I would simply copy the movie over to the PS3′s hard drive. I realize this is not everyone’s use case but I also liked being able to upgrade my hard drive with any laptop SATA replacement without spending an extra $120 for a proprietary hard drive for the Xbox 360.

I sold the Xbox 360 for a small loss and got my PS3 back. I do miss my friends.

Windows Phone 7 commercial might be on to something

In Microsoft new Windows Phone 7 commercials, people are portrayed as being totally obsessed with our phones where we are seen doing rediculous things (see photo above). I know they might have exaggerated a bit but they might be on to something. Tonight while on the 3 train coming home from work, I counted 33 people on the train and 13 of them were totally into what was happening on their phone screens. There were a couple more that had their phones out that were not actively engaged.

Is this a shift? Do we really spend that much time into apps? It had to be apps because their was no internet access on the subway. Does this affect advertising and how consumers are reached?

AT&T Switching from Unlimited 3G Data to Tiered Pricing

The honeymoon is over, AT&T has announced that starting June 7th, 2010. They will no longer provide unlimited data to new

iPhone users, current users will be grandfathered into their current unlimited plans but will have the option to switch to the new plans. The new plans are outlined below.

DataPlus – 200 MB of data for $15 per month

• Designed for people who primarily surf the Web, send email, and use social networking apps.
• On average, 65% of AT&T smartphone customers use less than 200 MB per month
• If you use more than 200 MB, you’ll receive an additional 200 MB of data usage for $15, replenished as often as necessary during the billing cycle.

DataPro – 2 GB of data for $25 per month

• Designed for people who regularly download or stream music and video, or use other high bandwidth applications
• 98% of AT&T smartphone customers use less than 2 GB in a month on average
• If you exceed 2 GB, you’ll get an additional 1 GB of data for only $10. Each time an additional 1 GB is used up during a cycle, you will automatically receive another 1 GB at the same low price.

To soften the blow for heavy users, AT&T will over unlimited use of WIFI at its more than 20,000 hotspots around the country.

Smartphone customers who choose the DataPro plan can add tethering for an additional $20 per month. With tethering, you can use your smartphone as a modem to provide a broadband connection for laptop computers, netbooks, or other computing devices. Note that any data you use on your laptop will go towards your monthly limit.

To see how this specifically applies to me and my wife, I looked at our bills for the last 6 months and I was shocked to see that I routinely used over a gigabyte of data each month while my wife usually comes in under 100mb, she came close to a gigabyte only once and mostly because of our 2 year old son watching videos.

The free WIFI is an attractive alternative but with the iPhone barely able to get me through a busy workday on a full charge, do I really want to turn on the WIFI to add more battery drain?

Why the big gap between data plans? After talking to some close friends that use iPhones; if there was a middle ground, say 500mb or a gigabyte most them would fit nicely in that slot.

As someone who is looking into iPhone development, I now have to consider how my app accesses the internet with users having a limit on the amount of data they can use. Will people buy less apps or update them less frequently? In their statement AT&T said previous users would be grandfathered into the new plan, what happens when I upgrade to the iPhone 4G? Will I still be able to keep my unlimited data plan?

My Xbox vs the PS3 review

Early last year, I got rid of my Playstation 3. And now I am ready to take the plunge back to some serious gaming. iPad games, while they can be fun, can only hold my attention for so long.

My brother bought me my previous PS3 so I had no opportunity to choose but this time I read as many reviews as I could, blogs, podcasts anything that I thought could provide any insight into which console was better. I read how the xbox had better games, ps3 hardware was better, blu-ray, xbox online – there was so much info it made my head hurt.

It came down to a major reason for each

The PS3 had Blu-ray
Most of my friends had Xbox.

I went with the xbox for the above reason, I only purchased 3 Blu-ray movies last year and figured I could get a cheap player on sale somewhere.

I regretted my decision immediately. Even more so than player games I used my previous PS3 as my media center. I rip all my movies to my computer hard drive and copy them to the ps3. Even with the 250gb hard drive in the xbox I can’t copy movies to it. I rip my DVDs in full quality and sometimes when streaming them over my home network there is lag and this annoying to both me and my wife. Yes I am using a wired connection, Time Capsule with gigabit Ethernet and even then a couple times a movie, the picture and/or audio would lag. I was also annoyed that I had to pay over $100 extra for the 250 hard drive and it is a proprietary model that can only be upgraded by purchasing it for a markup. With my previous PS3 I just upgraded the hard drive myself.

I cant believe that through all the reviews i read, this was not mentioned once! Copying movies is what did it in for me, why have this huge hard drive it I can’t use it. I sold it for a small loss and got a PS3. I love it and my wife loves it.

My Xbox vs the PS3 review

Early last year, I got rid of my Playstation 3. And now I am ready to take the plunge back to some serious gaming. iPad games, while they can be fun, can only hold my attention for so long.

My brother bought me my previous PS3 so I had no opportunity to choose but this time I read as many reviews as I could, blogs, podcasts anything that I thought could provide any insight into which console was better. I read how the xbox had better games, ps3 hardware was better, blu-ray, xbox online – there was so much info it made my head hurt.

It came down to a major reason for each

The PS3 had Blu-ray
Most of my friends had Xbox.

I went with the xbox for the above reason, I only purchased 3 Blu-ray movies last year and figured I could get a cheap player on sale somewhere.

I regretted my decision immediately. Even more so than player games I used my previous PS3 as my media center. I rip all my movies to my computer hard drive and copy them to the ps3. Even with the 250gb hard drive in the xbox I can’t copy movies to it. I rip my DVDs in full quality and sometimes when streaming them over my home network there is lag and this annoying to both me and my wife. Yes I am using a wired connection, Time Capsule with gigabit Ethernet and even then a couple times a movie, the picture and/or audio would lag. I was also annoyed that I had to pay over $100 extra for the 250 hard drive and it is a proprietary model that can only be upgraded by purchasing it for a markup. With my previous PS3 I just upgraded the hard drive myself.

I cant believe that through all the reviews i read, this was not mentioned once! Copying movies is what did it in for me, why have this huge hard drive it I can’t use it. I sold it for a small loss and got a PS3. I love it and my wife loves it.