Global Geek News Blog

Greetings Readers!

Do you buy products that come in packaging that is impossible to open without something short of a stick of dynamite?  If so, you have likely experienced “wrap rage.”  If you are tired of turning yourself into a bloody mess just to open your precious new gadget or gadget accessory, Amazon is coming to your rescue with frustration-free packaging!

I couldn’t even begin to count how many times I have cut myself on that impossible to open hard plastic packaging whenever I purchase a new set of headphones or memory stick for my PSP.  I have been wondering for pretty much my entire life, why can’t companies make packaging that I don’t have to use scissors or a very sharp knife to get into, only to still end up with several cuts?  I understand the whole idea of not wanting things easily stolen from a store, but to protect your product at the cost of my hands is beyond stupid.  Thank goodness, finally a company such as Amazon is standing up against this evil packaging practice and is on the side of the consumer.

Before you get your hopes up just yet, this is a multi-year initiative, not an overnight change.  They have this to say on their announcement on the Amazon home page.

Amazon is working with leading manufactures to deliver products inside smaller, easy-to-open, recyclable cardboard boxes with less packaging material (no frustrating plastic clamshells or wire ties).

It sounds like it will be a while before it reaches the majority of products typically contained in the clam shell packaging (the hard plastic stuff), but at least its coming.  Currently, you can only purchase select products from Mattel, Microsoft, Fisher-Price and Transcend with the frustration-free packaging.  To view the entire list of products available with this great new packaging, you can visit http://www.amazon.com/packaging.

While this is great for the consumer, I can only imagine how mad the bandaid makers are right now.  I expect to see a considerable drop in their revenue from this great development.

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-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray

Greetings Readers!

According to TechCrunch, way back in May, Valve promised that PC gaming was moving to the cloud with Steam Cloud.  Steam Cloud is a free extension that allows gamers to store various game files in the cloud, such as game saves and keyboard configurations.  [Valve's announcement]

The moving of these files to the cloud is a huge step forward for PC gaming, which has traditionally had a gamers settings and progress tied to a single machine.  If you are like me, I game on several computers.  I have my main gaming rig which is used for doing the most intense games such as Crysis, but I also have my laptops which are no slouch when it comes to games either.  I would love if I could be able to play a game in both places without having to lose my place and input configurations when I change machines.  Being able to pick up on one machine where I left off on another has long been a dream of mine.  That dream is about to become reality thanks to Valve’s new Steam Cloud.

With Steam Cloud, whenever you change your keyboard or mouse configuration (or whatever your input device of choice is), it is automatically synced to the cloud where you can then retrieve it on another machine without doing anything other than logging in.  Same goes for game saves and other gaming preferences.  This is a huge convenience for any serious PC gamer.

The first title with this capability is set to be released on November 18, Left 4 Dead (The demo comes out this week).  Valve has been providing other game makers with tools to take advantage of this new cloud service although it remains to be seen who will adopt the cloud storage idea.  It is also expected that Valve will enable this on its back catalog but I have not seen any announcements as to what will get this feature and when.

As a hardcore PC gamer, I anxiously await this feature.  I have long wanted a way to keep all of my saved games and settings when I reformat my computer without actually having to do any backup work.  This is probably the biggest development in the PC gaming world in some time and I can’t wait to try it out.

Long Live PC Gaming!

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-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray

Greetings Readers!

For the past month, maybe more, the local Wal-Marts have been undergoing a major shift.  Nearly everything but groceries have changed their location.  There are now more groceries, less pet supplies, and the electronics department has roughly doubled in size.  Apparently this shift is taking place across the country.  A post on Gizmodo today revealed a change in business at Wal-Mart when it comes to consumer electronics.  It seems they are cutting back on CDs and DVDs to focus on other products such as Blu-ray.

With CD sales down, digital downloads through the roof, and Blu-ray hoping to replace DVD, such a move was destined to happen at some point, I was just starting to wonder when.  With digital downloads exceeding many peoples expectations, it is a matter of time before the CD becomes just another dead physical format.  With stores such as Walmart, Circuit City, Best Buy and others still promoting the latest music in CD format, I had honestly started to wonder just when digital downloads would kill the CD.  I have known for some time that it was coming but haven’t seen any sites of a death anytime soon, until today.

With CD sales down 23% just this quarter for Walmart, it is no surprise that they have now started to take away floor space from the CD and even the DVD to give more room for video games, various consumer electronics such as the iPod and Zune as well as Blu-ray.  Such a move is a sign of the times and that death for the CD and DVD formats is nearing.  I expect to see other major retailers follow suit in the near future.  I will admit that with DVD sales still much higher than Blu-ray sales, I was kind of surprised to see this move at this time.  I have long believed that this is necessary for the mass adoption of Blu-ray.  When stores stop selling DVDs, people will start moving over to Blu-ray, just like they did for the transition from VHS to DVD.  Blu-ray certainly has other issues that it needs to conquer before it can truly take the place of DVD, but this is the first step in the right direction.

While I agree with Walmart in their move to replace CD floor space with portable media players, that isn’t really going to help them gain market share in the digital download space such much as it does iTunes and the Zune Marketplace.  If they expect to see real success from this, they need to bundle a deal from their new digital download store with the devices.  Walmart must give people an incentive to buy music from them before the customer becomes addicted to iTunes or other download service.  If they did this, they would see huge growth in their new MP3 store while slowing the growth of their competition.

This is a clear sign that these formats are soon going to go the way of the formats that came before them.  While the CD and DVD still have some life in them, if other stores follow suit and this falling sales trend continues, I can easily see the death of the CD within the next 2 years, and the death of the DVD within the next 5 (likely less).

Long live the extremely expensive Blu-ray!

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-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray