I was working at Best Buy when Apple first started integrating itself into the electronics retailer. It wasn’t a whole lot, but the Apple section had some demos and an Apple specialist was generally there to answer questions. The marriage of Apple and Best Buy isn’t a weird fit, but Apple always tends to be a maverick or a loner. So their addition to the Best Buy supply is kind of surprising, but overall a good business decision.

Apple looks to add to the partnership even more when the iPhone goes on sale at Best Buy. Starting September 7th Best Buy will begin carrying Apple’s handset. Before this the iPhone could only be found at an Apple store or an AT&T carrier. As the fight for electronics grows on, and places like Wal-Mart and Target become more viable; Best Buy will have to find a way to differentiate itself from the competition.

Partnering with Apple is a good place to start.

It wasn’t a good week for gamers last week. Two violent and heinous crimes, committed in two places around the world both have links to video games. The first was a stabbing that occured in a taxi cab in Bangkok, Thailand. Then in a separate incident, three teenagers were arrested in an Atlanta suburb for throwing molotov cocktails at parked cars.

Thailand has now responded to their violent crime. At first they urged New Era Interactive Media Co. to pull the game from the shelves. Which I don’t understand, because if people really want a game, then they’ll go anywhere to get it. Of course I don’t know Thailand very well, so that might have been the only place to get it.

This is a priceless quote, from one of Thailand’s Health Ministry spokesman, “Some parents don’t know what their children are playing and are just happy they are not out of their sight. But these games can have very damaging psychological effect on children, especially games which depict violence so casually.”

The second sentence is pretty debatable; some studies find a connection while some dont. I’m not sure if the health minister realized he made an oxymoron with the first statement. How would parents not know what their children are playing, if they’re keeping an eye on them?

As another precaution, the Health Ministry released a list of violent video games; to educate parents:
Grand Theft Auto
Manhunt
Scarface
50 Cent Bulletproof
300 The Videogame
The Godfather
Killer-7
Resident Evil 4
God of War
Hitman Blood Money

The scariest part of Thailand’s fight against games is that they plan to setup a committee to study violence in games. If they are able to come through, then the committee could deem a game as being violent and request stores not to sell it.

I know it’s a cliche’ statement, but I’m so glad to live in America. We can be prudish at times, but atleast we get to decide as a people what’s deemed appropriate or not. I will say that video games with violence aren’t for everyone. Some kids are more impressionable than others, and shouldn’t be subjected to violent images. But this is the job of the parents to decide what their child watches or doesn’t. It isn’t up to the government or video game companies.

If you thought that the Olympics was all about sports, and national pride, then you were wrong. The Olympics is working as a catapult for displaying technology and how it can affect sports. Here’s a video showing off various technologies you can expect to show up in Beijing, for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

In the world of video games, we’ve all gotten used to the constant attacks our beloved media falls prey too. Pretty much any violent act performed by a teenager is usually traced back to some video game they played. Then parents raise their fists and gibber jabber on about how GTA is making our kids into mindless killing machines (all the while their kids are playing during their parents’ outrage).

The newest form of video game blame comes by way of Bangkok, Thailand. An 18 year old high school student was arrested for stabbing a cab driver to death, then driving the cab around. Of course, upon questioning the kid he stated that he was trying to see if stealing a car in real life was as easy as it was in GTA IV.

The kid claimed that he was an obsessive GTA IV player. He also said that he had no intentions of killing the cab driver, but stabbed him when the cab driver fought back.

Probably the biggest head scratcher to come out of this situation, is that the police said that the kid showed no signs of mental problems during questioning. I mean are they serious? A kid kills someone allegedly because of content in a video game, and they don’t think he’s crazy? Of course the Bangkok government’s response to the situation was to pull all the GTA IV games off the shelves, and arcades. Because not selling a video game is going to stop crazy people from doing stupidly insane things.

Where were the parents, and how did they not recognize how crazy their son was in the first place? Becoming obsessed with anything is never good, let alone a video game. Probably the craziest thing in all of this, is that the kid is more than likely going to get lethal injection for his crime. Which to me is more insane than the situation itself, because the kid is in need of some serious psychiatric help. I guess it’s better to just nip these kinds of problems in the bud though *sigh*.

When you usually hear of video games and controversy it’s usually over violence (GTA IV) or sex (GTAIV) or alien lesbian makeout scenes (Mass Effect, wish I could say GTA IV again). The newest controversy is over a game titled Fat Princess, which made its debut at the E3 conference. The game was beginning to receive praise from many different gaming sites, as being creative and fun. Then a feminist blogger comes along and starts spewing out hatred about how the game is degrading and offensive to women (fat women that is).

Call Me Crazy But I Think The Character Is Cute….In A Fat Sorta Way

Of course when the feminist bloggers start reigning in on the hatred, video game bloggers respond. Then the flaming starts, with video game bloggers calling feminists whiners and other words I won’t mention. And the feminist bloggers call gamers objectifying pigs, and other words I won’t mention. For someone that tries to look at things cool-headed and rational, I’d like to step in and express my thoughts on the situation. While the game Fat Princess might be offensive to some, is it anymore offensive than alot of games out there? How about how GTA IV makes alot of their immigrant characters act? Or how about Call of Duty 4 that has stereotypical bad guys for your enemies?

**The Dark Knight Spoiler**

I think the Joker’s statement to Two Face while in the hospital about how to implement chaos plays here. The Joker talks about people aren’t too shook up when gangsters are reported killed, or if a carload of soldiers are blown up, but kill one mayor and everyone starts losing their minds…I kind of went along way to make a statement (I just love the Dark Knight), but the same kind of thinking applies in this situation. You make a game involving an immigrant blowing up other immigrants, or killing stereotypical terrorists and everyone is kosher. But if you create a game involving an overweight female character, and everyone starts losing their minds. I mean really? An overweight princess character has caused this much of a stir?

What I find most funny, is how people are missing out on the truly sick part of the game. To me the most offensive part of the game is that you’re force feeding someone into gluttony. The last time I saw something like this was in the movie Seven, when John Doe force fed a victim to death to prove his point about the sin ‘gluttony’. So the fact that a character is eating to death is no nevermind to alot of dissenters, but the fact she’s portrayed as being fat is the problem. That has to be the most backwards part of the argument against the game in my eyes. Eating to gluttony is all fine and dandy; we just don’t want to be shown the effects of it. If anything this game might be a stark reminder to people, that stuffing cake into your mouth might cause your stomach to expand.

Last year Bill Gates showed off the Microsoft Surface. The tabletop computer was a pretty big hit, and people began getting into a buzz about the Microsoft Surface. It looks like Microsoft is trying to push the envelope even further, and in a different direction and shape. Ina Fried of Cnet.com blogs about her experience with the Microsoft Sphere, and what it’s all about.

Apparently the Microsoft Sphere has some similarities to the Surface, mainly touch screen capability. Besides that common trait, the Microsoft Sphere and Surface couldn’t be much different. Like the name suggests, the prototype computer is shaped like a sphere. Its’ diameter is 18 inches, and sits up on a pedestal for easy access.

The question that you’re probably asking yourself (because I know I did) is, “Why the hell do we need a spherical computer?” Well according to one of the main developers of Microsoft Sphere for, gaming, maps, and secret messages.

On the gaming side of things the Microsoft Sphere does present some unique possibilities. Imagine how Pong could change, if it were to be played on a 3D spherical surface. Of course there’s got to be more than just gaming ideas on the horizon right?

Well for mapping, the Sphere definitely opens up the possibilities for unique ideas. How about an interactive globe that’s actually shaped like a globe. Or if you’re trying to map video, the Sphere could give you viewpoints that would be hard to present on a flat screen.

If you’re having to give a presentation from a computer, then the Microsoft Sphere opens up more possibilities. With a spherical shape you can keep certain parts of the monitor hidden from certain positions. So if you’re giving a Power Point presentation, you can have notes on the opposite side of the screen which would be blind to viewers.

While some of these ideas seem cool and all, I just don’t see the importance of having a computer be a sphere shape. Games might be more interesting, and we might be get a cooler globe but there seems to be bigger fish to fry at Microsoft. How about a better version of Window’s Vista, or shifting funds to try and establish a larger foothold in the seargh engine business?