Microsoft's Xbox One X Benchmarks Revealed

Digital Foundry did some pretty thorough bench marking on the new X Box One X. Yeah, the video is a bit long but there's a lot to unpack with the new X Box One X, you can't just slap "4K gaming!!!" on the box and be done with it. These days with the millions of dollars companies spend on marketing it can be a bit hard wading through the ridiculous stuff like "enhanced pixels" to get to the actual important stuff like 10% lower rendering times.

Anyway, I'm still kind of on the One X bandwagon. I mean if I have to be dragged back to console because those jerk faces at Rockstar won't publish Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC then I might as well get the best and the shiniest.

Holy Links

How To Track Down The Holy Grail Of Subarus. I don't have any particular interest in Subarus but this article about a pilgrimage to Car Do Subaru Mitaka a Subaru dealer outside of Tokyo is pretty cool. Someday I'd like to have a car that has a really active community like Subaru does. Nothing against my Mazda 6 Wagon but there's not a lot of 6 Wagon clubs in Western Washington. I mean there totally should be, but people don't know what's cool around here.

What Microsoft got right and wrong at E3 2017. First off, Xbox One X? LOL.

The new Xbox looks like the system that probably should have come out when they launched the Xbox One but didn't because it would have cost like $1,000. Even if it's an extra $100 if I had to choose between the XBX or the PS4 Pro I'd pick the Xbox. It's the first console in a while that can sit beside your average gaming PC and look good, I mean it can't go toe to toe with a high end PC but next to a hodgepodge like mine it's very comparable.

It's too bad that while Sony was showing off all these cool exclusive games (or at least semi-exclusive map packs and DLC) Big Redmond was "stuck" showing Forza 7 and Crackdown 3. Also a lot of talk about backwards compatibility, which to me always seems weird. You have a chance to really make hay with your newest and shiniest toys and one of your big announcements is a game that came out 17 years ago? Good luck with that.

Still, if I end up forced to get a new console because those rat bastards at Rockstar won't put Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC I'll probably get an Xbox One X.

Sony PlayStation at E3 2017: The 15 best announcements. Speaking of Sony and their cool exclusive games, just watch the footage of the new Spider-Man game. Holy carp, that looks super fun. All the VR stuff they showed off looks doofy to me but I don't know. Maybe this time Virtual Reality will stick and not just be some brief fad.

Star Wars: Battlefront 2: Free DLC, better weapons, and new character classes. Do I dare get on board the hype train here? I finally got a chance to play Battlefront a few weeks ago and it was a pretty cool game. I know it got a lot of hate with your "hardcore" gamer but I don't know. What I saw I liked a lot. If they've taken that same experience and added to it? I might just have to drop the $59 and put down Overwatch for a few weeks.

Generated Links

Universal’s Dark Universe risks being yet another extended universe franchise. Soooo, Universal is rebooting League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but they're making it into like 30 interconnecting movies and the kick off is Tom Cruise's sexy Mummy movie? Have fun with that. Maybe, and this is a big MAYBE if this was just a single movie with a bunch of monsters throwing down it could be interesting but what they have right now sounds like the worst attempt at getting some of that Marvel money.... except without the interesting characters or good movies.

Microsoft is placing a big bet on its new Surface family. The Surface is probably my favorite computer that I'll probably never actually buy. They're pretty and I like their functionality but they just cost too much. I'm already all in on PC gaming so nothing is replacing my tower that's a given. If I'm on the go there's not much I need to do that I can't do on my phone or my kindle. Or at least there's not a lot I would be doing because my kids won't give me a second to myself. The only thing I really didn't like here is they're adopting that awful Apple terminology where they're just calling the new Surface Pro, the "Surface Pro" so there's no way to casually identify it as the new unit and not one of the previous iterations. The comic book collector in my hates it when things aren't numbered nicely.

Strafe: Difficult, randomly generated Quake-like kicks ‘90s ass. Thanks to the new Zelda game I'm a week removed from having played Overwatch. Once I beat Zelda I might have to check out this game Strafe. Sounds like they're finally unlocked the secret to randomly generated levels that don't feel boring and repetitive. Plus I'm big into those retro graphics right now.

The Best-Looking Video Game Consoles Of All Time. Speaking of retro graphics. This list is short and sweet. The only one they missed that I would have included is this JVC WonderMega. Look at that thing. I'm not sure if it plays video games, launches missiles or drops the beat. In fact put a fan in the middle of it and I'm pretty sure it looks just like my latest graphics card. I bet it's ready for 4K gaming.

Nestled Links

Xbox exclusive action game Scalebound has been canceled. Well this is too bad. Scalebound looked kinda cool, Skyrim but with friends and floating castles, what's not to love there? It was from the studio that did Bayonetta which I just picked up for like $12 on the WiiU and that game is the bomb.com. Hopefully this doesn't bode poorly for other hotly anticipated Microsoft studios titles. I'm excited for this whole PC/Xbox synergy thing they announced last year. Get me some semi-exclusive PC titles stat.

People still use the Amiga today, and new Viva Amiga documentary shows why. I'm pretty sure I've never used an Amiga before. I'm familiar with the computer and I remember people who had them really liked them, but I'm near positive I've never had the pleasure. Still, I'm all in on this documentary. I'm a sucker for anything about old technology like this and the people that are obsessed over it.

All the Major Star Wars Cameos and Connections You May Have Missed in Rogue One. I know this is like 3 weeks old but who cares? My wife still hasn't seen Rogue One and I'm really eager to see it a second time in the theater. In fact now that I'm typing this out there's a small chance I posted this already right before I went on vacation. Oh well, no stopping now!

The Rock’s 2017 Fitness Regimen Includes A Toilet Nestled Among His Weights, Possibly Sparks New Trend. People who lift weights, are weird.

Gaslighting Links

Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America. I saw a lot of talk on twitter about how Teen Vogue of all people was killing it with their political coverage and I'll be damned if they weren't right. This article about Trump's gaslighting of America is incredibly effective, it's brief without sacrificing substance. The writer backs up her claim incredibly well, it's not one of those articles where the writer has an obvious axe to grind or hot take to make and basically warps every comment and fact to fit their narrative. Good on you Teen vogue.

Microsoft now has the tools to make the Surface Pro the ultimate mobile computer. I'm not 100% sure the key to the Surface Pro is actually using a ARM processor but what do I know, I'm just a schlub who hasn't bought a new laptop in 7 years. I like the idea of better battery life AND cellular integration but isn't the whole point of the Surface that it's not just an iPad, that it's a fully functioning computer? Seems to me like sacrificing processing power is a step backward in the fight against Apple.

Donald Trump Names WWE's Linda McMahon To Head Small Business Administration. I like how Trump is just appointing people to cabinet positions who pretty much hate that department. Rick Perry his pick for secretary of Energy famously said he would shut down the Department of Energy if elected president. Well, he tried to say it. He famously forgot the name of the department in a debate but trust me it was the Department of Energy. The McMahon's are no friend to small business and their labor practices border on illegal like 99% of the time. Also Linda McMahon took the worst Stone Cold Stunner of all time. I hope congress blocks her nomination just for that.

Comic Desks. This is a cool tumblr blog that just shows you the work spaces of comic book creators (both writers and artists). Nice to see some of these guys and gals are as messy as I am.

Adios Windows Phone

A hundred dollars off the new Huawei Honor 8 on Black Friday saw the official end of my 4 year relationship with Windows Phone. Sorry Windows Phone it wasn't you it was me.

Wait a minute, yeah it was you. It definitely wasn't me. You have any idea how hard it is to have this super kick ass phone that looks great, runs great, takes fantastic pictures but has zero third party support? Its like the Sega Dreamcast all over again.

My decision to jump to android was made about a week ago when I was standing in a Safeway looking at the price of cereal bars. You could save $2 if you added them to you Just For U coupon list, which I couldn't do from the store because the Safeway App is only available for Android and iPhone. Usually I figure out all my coupons at home from my desktop before I go to the store but that day I had forgotten. Living in the 3% Windows Phone market share cost me 2 dollars and really I don't know if I'll ever forgive Microsoft for it.

Funny story: When Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers the official Clippers App wasn't available for Windows Phone. Two and a half years later it still isn't. Sure Ballmer isn't COO anymore but he still owns about 4% of Microsoft, you would think he'd have some interest in getting that app on WP but he doesn't. He doesn't care about WP and from what I can gather, outside of like 4 people, no one else at Microsoft does either.

tl/dr: I got a new phone yesterday.

I don't really know anything about Huawei, I know they made one of the Nexus phones before Google ditched that line in favor of their new brand of Pixel phones. The Honor 8 ticked all my boxes as far as android phones went. It even has a dual-camera set up on the back like the new iPhone which was a bonus. Speaking of the new iPhone, this thing looks A LOT like the new iPhone. You could tell the guy at the AT&T store who hooked me up with a new sim card thought I bought it at the port authority from a guy selling phones out of a briefcase. He had never seen one before and had quite a few questions about it, most of which I couldn't really answer other than "it has 4.5 stars on Amazon".

It should be equal parts fun and frustrating learning a new phone OS. I spent at least an hour last night trying to import my important contacts as opposed to the 2,100 people it tried to import from my corporate e-mail account. I figured it out eventually and was able to sooth my sorrows by loading up a bunch of apps that were never available for WP.

It was nice knowing you windows phone. I'll miss your live tiles and your seamless Outlook integration. You took lots of good pictures of my kids over the years but in the end I really needed to play Pokemon go. I hope everything works out for you.

Progressive Links

Bill Belichick hates the NFL’s tablets so much he ranted about them for over 5 minutes. It's unfortunate for Microsoft that their name has been featured prominently in most of the articles and tweets I've seen about this. If these were iPads the great Grumblelord Belicheck would still hate them. I mean look at this guy, you know he still has a Thomas map in his car because Siri gave him the wrong directions once. I guess that's the chance you take when you make a big splashy product placement deal, it's great when everything is working but the second something goes wrong every sees it.

5 Bizarre Realities Of Video Game Universes We Just Accept. A couple days ago I mentioned that Rockstar was teasing a Red Dead Redemption sequel. Well they made it official with a release date of (to lazy to look it up) sometime next year. They confirmed it will be available on the PS4 and the Xbox One and.... yeah, there's no PC port. Sons of bitches.

There's a Bizarre Reality I can't accept.

The Weirdest, Most Disturbing 'Sexy' Costumes of 2016. I don't know. Call me old fashioned but the Sexy Hamilton costume is hot. Maybe it's just that I appreciate the theater (not true) more than the fine folks at Gizmodo.

Marvel Has Been Ignoring Fans Telling Them to Stop Being So Progressive Since Forever. Every once in a while Marvel does something that people read as being very political and a certain segment of readers get all bent out of shape. Sometimes it's something big and flashy like a gay wedding or a new POC Spider-Man, sometimes it's something I think is fairly innocuous like having a superhero battle a hate group (they look like trump supporters!). I always think its funny when I read these protests, like have these people never read an X-Men comic? Marvel has been political pretty much from the get go. The earliest Fantastic Four comics were blatantly anti-nuclear power and often very anti-war, two big political issues in the 60s.

I could understand how someone that's really conservative could bristle at the idea that most comic book creators lean heavily towards the left but I refuse to believe their supposed shock. You're surprised that people who gravitate towards the arts are liberal? Have you ever met any human beings?

Anyway, somehow last week I got slightly drug into this "SJW are ruining comics" debate by responding to a tweet from a relatively famous comic book artists. He claimed that Danny Rand (Iron Fist in the upcoming Netflix series) had to be white because being white was central to his character. I quickly (and I thought very politely) mentioned that I believe you could tell a similar Iron Fist story with a non white Danny Rand. I'll admit it wouldn't be the same but I think it wouldn't stray too far from the heart of the character AND it could still be compelling TV. Turns out there are a lot of comic book readers that are NOT ok with changing the race of a character for the big screen. From now on I'm ending all my hot twitter takes with "don't @ me".

Microsoft reveals the Xbox Onesie

Yesterday Microsoft unveiled a new XBox One Slim BUT the real news was this pimp-ass Xbox onesie. Look at that thing. It's got pockets and stuff and looks hella comfy. Speaking of comfy man alive did I make a horrible mistake the other day when it comes to comfort.

A few months ago everyone in the office got new office chairs, my boss had this sweet Herman Miller Aeron chair that was only slightly worn but had a blown out piston. Being the dumpster diver at heart that I am, took the chair home and replaced the piston. Of course the Herman Miller piston was unique to the chair and not cheap but hey for $100 I was fixing a $700 office chair. Well the piston arrived yesterday and I put the chair back together and I hate it. It is so uncomfortable. I guess the best case now is to try and sell the chair on craigslist and get my $100 back? Ugh, so much hassle. Anyone want to buy a chair?

Welp, that was a short console generation.

At E3 today Microsoft made it official, their new console codenamed Scorpion, is set for a launch of Holiday 2017. Microsoft is calling it the most powerful console ever. Sony confirmed just a couple days ago that they would have something about their newest console at E3 too, so I guess the next gen console is now your last gen console.

Now in theory this doesn't mean you have to throw out your Xbox One just yet. They said that all future games would be compatible with the Xbox One, Xbox One S (also just announced) and the new Xbox Scorpio. Essentially this is more of an upgrade to the Xbox One that would allow 4K and VR gaming. In PC terms they're upgrading their video card but not doing a clean install.

It's an interesting strategy, even if it's not the most innovative. From the beginning PC gamers have been mocking the Xbox One and PS4 for low framerates and less than 1080p resolutions. When both consoles launched PC's were just starting to dabble in 4K gaming, the fact that neither produce 60fps at a "lowly" 1080p resolution didn't bode well for their longevity. 4K Televisions aren't that expensive anymore, people are looking for 4K content and if Microsoft and Sony don't provide it someone else will. It's smart that they've revamped their machines to take advantage of it.

The interesting part here will be the backwards compatibility for the Xbox One. How long will developers and consumers want to be handcuffed to the old hardware. This has been one of the complaints over PC gaming for years, by programming for the minimum specs you cut yourself off at the knees when it comes to throwing more bells and whistles into a game. My guess is it will start with special Scorpion editions with more content or textures "optimized for Scorpion". Then exclusive titles or DLC will follow, before you know it they only thing new being released on the Xbox One will be Madden and the new Skylanders game.

Should be interesting stuff, without looking a bunch of stuff up on wikipedia I don't think we've seen a jump in console hardware this drastic this quick.

Tweetbot Links

12 of the Saddest Locations and Encounters in Skyrim. Ok, I'm seriously impressed. When I played Skyrim I didn't catch any of these. Sure I've been to some of the locations but I never looked around long enough to figure out the stories behind them. Kind of makes me wonder what else I might have missed or what I might have missed in Fallout 3? I'll bet there was tons of stuff I just blew right by. Oh well, I guess that's what internet lists are for.

The Battle of 2017 Could Be Disney v Comic-Con. This is an interesting story to geeks like me. Basically Disney has scheduled their big D23 convention to happen right around the same week as San Diego Comic-Con (the big Comic-Con). Last year Marvel studios barely sent anyone to SDCC, are they going to snub the biggest comic book convention two years in a row? Probably. If Disney is anything it's insular. Why make a big splash at someone else's convention when you can have your own? Is this some sort of trend? Has SDCC's bubble burt? Who knows?

I pay some attention to the convention scene, mostly just for the blog but it's not something I follow with a passion. I will say that there have been a lot of think pieces about just how big comic book/pop culture conventions have grown all across the country. I can't tell you if that growth is unsustainable or not, but I can say I would mind if ECCC tickets got a bit cheaper.

Shocking: Microsoft's AI Tweetbot Learns How To Be A Racist, Sexist Monster In Less Than 24 Hours. I feel like this is less of an indictment against Microsoft and more of an indictment against twitter and how awful the internet is in general.

The Nintendo NX Is Rumored To Be The Most Powerful Console On The Market. Well here's one for you. Everyone already knows the new Nintendo is right around the corner. Nintendo announced just the other day they were going to stop manufacturing the WiiU later this year and it's not like they're not going to make consoles anymore. In theory they might be in the Sega Genesis sweet spot. The Genesis came out almost a full two years before the SNES and was able to pick up a lot of steam with hardware far superior to the 8-bit NES. In theory the Xbone and PS4 have a lot of life left in them, with no direct replacements in sight. If Nintendo can hit the market later this year with a console that's more powerful (maybe even 4K?) can they match the success of the original Wii?

Man just when you thought the console wars were more or less over, here we go again.

Microsoft Makes it Rain at GDC

This weekend Microsoft released a statement condemning last week's Xbox GDC Party that featured scantily clad dancers as entertainment. I for one am appalled. How on earth did I miss this story last week?

This whole thing is pretty fantastic. I mean it's certainly not fantastic for any of the women that were at the party or quite frankly some of the men. It's fantastic that in 2016 some dude-bro thought that this was a great idea for a work event. The tech world has probably had it too good too fast. You've got big companies making super bank that are fine with having beer and ping pong tables set up in the office and everyone starts thinking that work isn't work anymore. Work is just an extension of your home life. Before you know it IPAs and Ping Pong are replaced with shots of Jaeger and go-go dancers.

It's a shame this happened under Microsoft's watch. It's a black eye the video game industry doesn't really need right now. One of the local yokels on the radio this morning was saying something to the effect of "well these are the kinds of things these video games cater too". Gamers don't need that, that's the kind of garbage close minded thinking gamers have been fighting against since Pong.

The good news is that Big Redmond came out and without any equivocation apologized for the event and put it's organizers on blast. My guess is someone in San Francisco is about to get a security escort out of the building.

Loyalty Links

As fans mock Frank Miller’s ‘Dark Knight III’ cover, Kurt Busiek defends it. Long story short. Frank Miller is one of the more highly regarded artists/writers in comics history. Sin City and 300 are his creation and his runs on Daredevil and Batman have heavily influenced the versions you've seen in the theater and on TV. The kicker is that his production over the last 10 years or so has been spotty at best. His follow up to the Dark Knight Returns was almost universally panned. The first released art from his second follow up to the Dark Knight Returns, The Master Race received a lot of attention this week, but it wasn't exactly the good kind of attention.

Kurt Busiek, best know for writing very good comics, came to Miller's defense on twitter. It's a pretty good read. Good enough that it's made me think about giving The Dark Knight II another chance and MAYBE take a look at DK3 when it comes out. I mean what's the worst that could happen? I end up selling it on ebay?

Microsoft announces Surface Book laptop with 13.5-inch display starting at $1,499. I thought it would only be fair to post something about this gorgeous looking Surface Laptop after posting that Microsoft is controlled by ants video yesterday. OMG this thing is sooooo sexy. I'm probably never going to be in the position that I have fifteen hundred dollars to drop on a laptop but if I did it would be this thing. I think it's the Nvidia GeForce GPU that really pushes this over the top for me. I know the knock against it is going to be that it's just a surface with a keyboard but with that GPU and an Intel i7 under the hood you definitely have a laptop that's incredibly powerful and versatile.

Brand Loyalty Is for Suckers. OMG there is a guy I work with who is APPLE FOR LIFE. It's insane how much of their Kool-Aid he's drank. The other day someone in the office who can't figure out how to change the ringtone on his android phone (yes, you read that correctly) was complaining about it and Captain Apple 4 Life was like "we'll maybe if you get a real phone". Like only Apple makes "real" phones. It's so weird.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand having some conformity in your digital life. No one wants to deal with like a dozen different types of proprietary software that refuses to play nice with each other. But when you start automatically writing off products from other companies before even giving them a chance you're just hurting yourself.

22 Stupidly Wonderful Halloween Costumes You Can Actually Buy. I know, I know this is pretty much the same list of terrible "sexy" halloween costumes every other website is doing but I actually found this one kind of funny. Which is hard for me to say considering it's on buzzfeed. BUZZFEED (shakes fist at the sky)

Microsoft Sucks

Youtuber Dunkey has some opinions on Microsoft.... mostly in how they relate to video games and video gamers. I don't necessarily agree with him but I found the video enjoyable nonetheless. Rants about the price of Xbox Live or how terrible the quality control was for the first generation of Xbox 360 are pretty played out. What I really found interesting was the brief insight to what it's like to be a professional youtube personality. As I've mentioned before my kid watches a boatload of youtube and I'm pretty fascinated with that whole world.

Also ants, the part about the ants was fantastic.

Suck My Surface

Man I have been buried today. During lunch I was able to read up a bit on the big Apple thingamadoo but that's about it. Here's a pretty funny cartoon about the new keyboard/cover thing they've got for the new iPad. They also are giving the Apple TV aps, and the iPad a stylus. Welcome to 2012 Apple!

Proven Links

Boston Police Arrest Two Pokémon Players After Apparent Gun Threat Against World Championships. Welp, this is absolutely terrifying. A couple of psychos were arrested after they started threatening people at the World Pokemon Championships. The cops found a couple guns and a butt-load (scientific term) of ammo in their car.

Seriously, if you're not safe at the World Pokemon Championships you're not safe anywhere.

Twitter shuts down 30 sites dedicated to saving politicians' deleted tweets. Aw man, this can't come at a worse time. Have you seen the field of candidates running for president? Luckily for us what twitter has done here just makes it a little bit harder to save those tweets. With the amount of attention politicians are getting on twitter these days there's almost zero possibility of you missing the next time Trump or Cruz says something insane.

The Windows Start menu saga, from 1993 to today. Wow, I remember when Windows 95 went by the code name Chicago. I think it came on like 12 3.25' floppies. I wonder how much I could get for them on eBay if I still had them. 3 maybe 4 dollars?

Every Carrier's Confusing Phone-Buying Plans, Explained. It's been a few years since I've actually been inside an AT&T store to buy a phone. My wife breaks her phone so often we've been buying her go phones (the AT&T windows go-phone is actually pretty nice) and I've had the same sorry Nokia Lumia for at least 3 years. Recently I've scratched the lens on the camera and I've been thinking about getting a new one but holy crap, buying a new phone sounds like the biggest cluster-F ever.

The Cheerleader Effect Has Been Proven By Science. Wow, this was written by the most bro-iest bro ever. I'm surprised my computer didn't try to fist bump me when I was done with the article. Still, science says women are hotter when they travel in packs. It's science, are you going to argue with science?

Public Links

Goddesses, Politics And Porn: When Public Access TV Ruled Seattle. I'm not sure I'd say Public Access TV every really Ruled Seattle but it was definitely a large part of the local culture. Now a days things like youtube and reddit have pretty much destroyed any interest in Public Access TV but back in the 80s and 90s if you were a crackpot with a flair for entertaining it was the place to be.

Movie trivia. This is a short but sweet collection of Movie Trivia. I'm not surprised at all that Arnold would throw himself into the role of the Terminator. I'll bet when he got the part of Conan he spent months fighting real snake sorcerers.

What Do Indie Musicians Really Think About Music Streaming? Hey look it's MC Lars (and some other goofs) talking about Spotify. He once retweeted me, so yeah. I'm kind of a big deal.

The mortifying, terrifying Windows promo videos of years past. OMG my friends OMG.

But as far as Window 10 goes I've heard a lot of good things. I mean I hear it's buggy as hell right now but most people like the new interface and features. My desktop/crappy gaming rig needs a new HD, so I might shoot for a completely fresh install in a few months when I can afford a new HD AND when most of the major bugs have been worked out.

Colossal Links

Microsoft Punishes Gears of War Leakers. Welp here's something that's a bit scary. A few guys that were testing early betas of the new Gears of War leaked some video onto the webs. Microsoft in turn suspended their Xbox Live accounts AND bricked their Xbox Ones. Now, they signed a big old non disclosure agreement thing so they were very much in the wrong but I would suspect no one really thought Big Redmond would go around nerfing Xbones anytime someone broke the UELA.

Sega Saturn: how one decision destroyed PlayStation's greatest rival The more articles I read on Sega's glory days the more I'm convinced they lucked their way into the Genesis. Also I totes want a Sega Saturn. I've heard for 2d gaming it's far superior to the PS1.

Brazil's World Cup Stadiums Were A Colossal Waste Of Money. Hey Qatar, here's a look into your future.

Harry Shearer's 10 best Simpsons characters in clips. Just cancel the show already. The fact that they're going to go forward with fake Mr Burns and Ned Flanders just goes to show what a creative dump hole The Simpsons has become. This has Coy and Vance Duke written all over it.

These Windows go all the way up to 11 10

Yesterday Microsoft made the official announcement on it's newest operating system, Windows 10. What happened to Windows 9? Windows 9 is for suckers... that's what happened.

Windows 10 seems like Microsoft's best push at unifying your PC, tablet and phone. Windows 8 had a lot of mobile functionality built in but users BITCHED AND COMPLAINED to death over live tiles replacing the start menu. Windows 10 brings back the start menu and integrates the shit out of live tiles INTO the menu and it still has the option of switching to a more "Metro" style interface if you're using a tablet. Its been pretty well received and it sounds like what they should have done with Windows 8 in the first place.

There are more superficial style improvements like enhanced smart sizing and window snapping. Better search tools more intuitive swipe commands, blah blah blah. In my opinion the big promise here is that Microsoft is promising Universal Apps (patent pending I'm sure). Applications that will work and integrate with phone, tablet and PC. Lately I've been thinking about bailing on Windows Phone, the biggest reason outside of battery life is a lack of apps. If Microsoft can really deliver on expanding what's available on phone and mobile by having them automatically port from the PC we might be back in business.

I've been eyeing a solid state hard drive upgrade for my home computron and was contemplating an upgrade to Windows 8.1. After yesterday I'm definitely going to wait until 2015 so I can step right into Windows 10.

Also what is up with Capt. Microsoft's hair. He's a grown man with a Justin Bieber haircut, who lets him leave the house looking like that?

I don't understand the Minecraft sale

Yesterday it became official, Microsoft is buying Minecraft dev Mojang for roughly all the money in the world (ie 2.5 billion dollars). Sweet Christmas, that's a lot of money. I know Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the world right now but I just can't imagine it's worth 2.5 Billion dollars. The studio behind it is small, like 40 people or so. Some of them are straight up walking away once the check clears, including Notch THE guy behind Minecraft. So 2.5 billion for a small gaming studio, minus the couple of people that really run it.

Maybe I'm underestimating just how much the Minecraft brand is worth. T-shirts, toys, I don't know.... maybe a cartoon or a movie? Maybe that's not a crazy amount of money. I mean there's no way Microsoft is writing a 2.5 billion dollar check just to get Minecraft 2 exclusive on the Xbone and windows phone, right? That would be crazy and totally desperate, right?

Hard Core Links

15 Fascinating Facts You May Not Know About ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’. None of these facts are really going to change your life but if you've played Arkham Asylum they're still pretty interesting. Thinking back on it I'm 99% sure I never did beat Arkham Asylum. The way the levels constantly criss-crossed over each other kinda killed my excitement for the game about 10 hours in. I should probably pick it back up and try to beat it.

Microsoft announces Windows Phone 8.1 with Cortana, coming in April. As much as I begrudge buying a phone from a guy with that bad of a haircut I'm totes getting a new phone in April or May or June or whenever the AT&T version of the Nokia Icon goes on sale. I can't wait for my chance to have to repeat things to my phone multiple times just like my iPhone brethren.

Also I can't believe Microsoft actually named their virtual assistant after a character from Halo but at the same time OF COURSE they did.

Fire TV: Everything You Need to Know About Amazon's $100 Streaming Box. I already have a Roku and it works just fine but if I was in the market for a TV box the Fire TV would be pretty tempting. I like the idea of being able to play some casual games through it. I could get down with wasting 20 minutes playing Plants vs Zombies on my TV and not having to pay 19.99 for it through XBox Live Arcade.



There’s Probably Semen On That’: 3 Days At The AVNs. This report by Vince Mancini on the 31st annual AVN Awards is really really good. Like maybe I should have used three "reallys" and a bunch of caps locks good. It is a report on pornography so it gets a bit blue at times but I think it's well worth suffering through a couple cringe worthy paragraphs.

What I found most interesting is that an industry that when you look at it objectively helped build the modern day internet is getting destroyed by what it helped create. Also the people that are involved in pornography are always fun to read about in a "hey, lets watch this car accident" kind of way.