The Digital Home

It wasn't long ago that I used these pages to write Circuit City's eulogy. At the time, many of us thought the company would be gone forever. Oh, how wrong we were.

Last week, Circuit City came back to the Web. On May 19, Systemax, the company behind TigerDirect and CompUSA, purchased the Circuit City brand and Web site for $14 million. It took only a few days for Systemax to populate the site with products. And now it's live.

Systemax's decision to acquire Circuit City shouldn't be a surprise. In 2008, the company acquired CompUSA's brand and domain for a discounted price. Systemax then relaunched CompUSA.com. Today, it even operates a series of CompUSA brick-and-mortar stores.

There's currently no indication that Systemax will be opening Circuit City-branded brick-and-mortar stores. Right now, it seems that the company is focusing mainly on CircuitCity.com.

I've spent considerable time on the site, evaluating its design and comparing offers to see if it's a place worth spending cash. And after just a few seconds, it quickly became clear that it's basically just CompUSA.com (or TigerDirect.com) with a different name and logo.

In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Tim Sweeney, the founder of video game development company Epic Games, said ultrarealistic graphics in games aren't so far off.

The PlayStation 3's graphical prowess doesn't necessarily make games more appealing.

(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET)

Within 10 to 15 years, Sweeney said, "completely realistic lighting, with real-time radiosity, perfectly anti-aliased graphics, and movie-quality static scenes and motion" will reach the video game industry. The only issue keeping developers from creating visuals that look close to real life, he explained, is computing power.

But will ultrarealistic visuals make video games more appealing? I believe game appeal is determined by more than meets the eye.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster thinks that Apple might release a tablet next year.

"Between indications from our component contacts in Asia, recent patents relating to multitouch sensitivity for more complex computing devices, comments from Tim Cook on the April 22 conference call, and Apple's acquisition of P.A. Semi along with other recent chip-related hires, it is increasingly clear that Apple is investing more in its mobile-computing franchise," Munster wrote to clients.

Munster believes that the tablet will feature a touch-screen display measuring between 7 inches and 10 inches. The tablet would have software resembling the iPhone's operating system.

Apple has remained tight-lipped, as usual, about work on such a product. But if the company offers a tablet, would its touch screen be a hindrance? It's too early to tell, naturally, but here are my initial thoughts.

A planetary nebula captured with Hubble.

(Credit: NASA)

Space is an interesting subject. It arguably matters most to our knowledge of life. Understanding issues affecting the universe today will help us recognize them as they impact our lives going forward. And since we simply don't have the ability to explore space the way it would be required to fully understand our history, it's the Hubble Space Telescope that we must rely on to provide that for us.

But it's not without its critics. With each new service mission (including the latest), critics have contended that Hubble simply costs too much for what we're getting. And according to one U.S. legislator, it's to the detriment of other programs.

"We have to make hard choices about whether a Hubble mission is worth it now, when moving ahead is likely to have an adverse impact on other programs, including quite possibly other programs in astronomy," Sherwood Boehlert, a former Republican congressman from New York, said in 2005.

Hubble's cost is certainly high. According to NASA, the telescope has cost the United States $9.6 billion since its launch in 1990. In that time, critics remind us that scientists still haven't determined the real age of the universe; they still don't know, for sure, how the galaxy was formed, and they wonder if all those pictures Hubble sends back are really all that important.

Yes, they are.

Correction at 8:30 a.m. PDT: The release dates for Fallout 3 and for The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena were incorrect. They have been removed from the list of 2009 and 2008 releases, respectively.

The video game industry is going through some tough times. When NPD Group released video game sales data for April last week, the results were disheartening.

According to NPD, total industry revenue was down 17 percent, year over year. Software sales for the month were down 30 percent, compared to April 2008. Wii sales were off 43 percent, PS3 sales slumped by 42 percent, and Xbox 360 sales were down 47 percent, compared to March 2009.

So what happened? Is the video game industry finally being affected by the recession? It's possible that it has some impact. But I don't think there's any better reason for the decline than the games themselves.

If the games aren't compelling, consumers won't be buying.

This column has been updated with a correction. See details below.

Everywhere I turn, someone is talking about the death of plasma technology in HDTVs. They contend that since Pioneer dropped out of the plasma production market, it's only a matter of time before the few companies left in the plasma business admit defeat and stick to liquid crystal displays (LCDs).

Long live the plasma HDTV.

(Credit: Panasonic)

South Korea's LG disagrees. Speaking in an interview with HDguru.com published this week, LG Electronics USA's director of product development, Tim Alessi, told the publication that assertions that the plasma TV market is almost dead are, well, dead wrong.

"Plasma will continue to be a viable technology for flat-panel displays in the near- to midterm future," Alessi told HD Guru. "Plasma continues to be the technology of choice for home theater enthusiasts, sports fans, and consumers desiring a larger screen size. In 2009, we estimate that plasma will account for more than 40 percent of the 50-inch and larger-screen-size sales. That unit volume will probably continue for at least the next three to four years."

I share Alessi's optimism. Although I'm fully aware that LCDs are chipping away at plasma sales, I wouldn't jump to LCDs, if given the choice.

Wii MotionPlus will likely make the Wiimote much better.

(Credit: Nintendo)

The MotionPlus, a $20 accessory designed to improve motion detection for the Nintendo Wii remote control, will easily sell 10 million units after its market debut on June 8, an analyst contends.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter told Edge this week that the majority of those sales will occur when the accessory is bundled with Wii Sports Resort, EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour '10 later this year.

He contends that 20 percent of U.S. and European Wii owners will buy those three titles, helping the Nintendo sell 8 million units of the Wii MotionPlus in just a few months. Pachter predicts another 2 million units will sell with new Wii consoles.

EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich, also interviewed by Edge, isn't so quick to agree. He estimates that only 3 million units of the accessory will sell by the end of 2009 and that sales will reach 10 million units during Nintendo's next fiscal year, which starts in March 2010.

Although they don't agree on exactly when the 10 million mark will be reached, the analysts both predict that the accessory will be popular.

"I expect MotionPlus to be a sneaky success and ultimately attach to at least one third of the (Wii's) installed base," Pachter told Edge.

"Our forecast could be conservative," Divnich added. "Yearly sales could balloon much higher."

In addition to selling well, the MotionPlus is set to transform the Wii experience.

Sirius XM has suffered through yet another losing quarter. Last week, the satellite radio company reported a net loss of $236.6 million for the first three months of the year.

Although it posted a tough first quarter, CEO Mel Karmazin expressed optimism. Sales grew to $587 million from $270.4 million a year prior, he noted. His company's operating costs dropped 23 percent year over year. And there is more evidence than ever that Sirius XM is slowly inching its way toward profitability, he said in a statement.

Not everyone is impressed. Fellow CNET Blog Network member Steve Guttenberg wrote that Sirius XM is "sticking it" to subscribers. He believes that customers aren't getting enough for what they're paying.

I understand his point. As a Sirius XM subscriber, I wasn't pleased to hear recently that it was raising prices. But that doesn't taint my evaluation of the service. For me, the "Sirius Everything plus the best of XM" package is worth $16.99 per month.

The Xbox 360 is getting exclusive content through Microsoft's acquisition of BigPark.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft announced last week that it plans to acquire video game developer BigPark for an undisclosed sum. According to the company, BigPark will become part of Microsoft Game Studios. Its developers will "work on exclusive titles" for the Xbox 360.

Exclusivity has almost gone missing in the video game industry in recent years. Today, the game space is characterized by high development costs and multiplatform titles. It's practically impossible for most third-party game developers to offer their games on just one console, if they want to turn a profit. Because of that, console game libraries (especially the Xbox 360's and the PlayStation 3's) are looking increasingly similar.

Microsoft's intended acquisition of BigPark is an important step for the company. It gives the software giant more opportunities to create titles for its game platform that consumers won't be able to find elsewhere. It adds another developer to its team, and it helps Microsoft invest in more first-party franchises.

One of the best ways to differentiate a product in the video game industry is through first-party video games. ... Read more

Microsoft announced on Monday that it's planning to release Windows 7 for the 2009 holiday season. The operating system was originally slated for a January 2010 release.

Now that we finally have an idea when Microsoft will be releasing Windows 7, we can project its financial impact on the company. But we need to be careful. We don't know how the market will accept Windows 7. And we still aren't sure if the enterprise market will adopt it for existing machines.

Looking at past figures, we can develop an understanding of the impact Windows launches--and especially that of Windows Vista--have had on Microsoft's financial state and project that forward.

How important is Windows to Microsoft's financial performance? Will the Windows 7 launch play an important role in Microsoft's financial performance over the long term?

Let's take a look: