The Digital Home

The new Xbox 360 Elite Holiday Bundle.

(Credit: Major Nelson/Microsoft)

Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it has launched a new Xbox 360 Elite Holiday bundle.

Microsoft's new Xbox 360 Elite bundle features the Xbox 360 console, a wireless black controller, and copies of Lego Batman: The Videogame and action sports game Pure. According to the company, the Xbox 360 Elite Holiday Bundle starts shipping to retailers Tuesday. It will be available for $299.

Microsoft also announced the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller Game Pack. That bundle features a black wireless controller and four Xbox Live Arcade titles--Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Lumines Live, Bomberman Live, and a downloadable token for Ms. Pac-Man. The bundle also includes a free 48-hour Xbox Live Gold trial so users can try out the console's online experience. The Wireless Controller Game Pack will be available in November for $59.99.

Whether Microsoft's new bundles will attract consumer attention is up for debate. The games included in the Xbox 360 Elite Holiday Bundle aren't killer titles. In fact, this bundle pales in comparison to a previous Xbox 360 Elite offering, featuring Fable II and Halo 3. That bundle was originally priced at $400. It's still available, but it now features the same price as Microsoft's holiday bundle: $300.

Apple announced Monday that over 2 billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store since the e-commerce shop's launch in July 2008. The company also said that there are now more than 85,000 apps available.

More numbers: There are currently 50 million iPhone and iPod Touch customers, as well as over 125,000 developers in Apple's iPhone Developer Program. All that has combined to make the company's App Store the world's largest applications store, Apple claims.

"The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. "The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it."

At a rock-n-roll-themed event earlier this month, Apple reported that the store had over 75,000 applications and accommodated 1.8 billion downloads. In other words, in about three weeks' time, it has added over 10,000 apps and users have downloaded an additional 200 million applications.

Among those thousands of new apps recently added, one stands out for apparently pushing the borders of what Apple allows in its store: the first app featuring images and videos of bikini-clad adult film stars.

With the announcement late Wednesday that Nintendo has dropped the price of its Wii console to $199.99, effective Sunday, all three companies in the video game space have reduced the price of their consoles. Now, the Xbox 360 Elite is available for $299.99. Microsoft's Xbox 360 Arcade is offered for $199.99. And the PlayStation 3 sports a $299.99 price tag.

But price shouldn't be the only consideration when determining your video game purchase. When all's said and done, value is important.

That's why I've compiled a list outlining the cost of the consoles, important peripherals gamers might want to buy, and some additional features that users might care about. I won't tally the full cost, since every gamer is different. I also won't determine the real value of a respective console--that's your job.

Let's take a look.

The Digital Home Podcast is back! After a looooong hiatus, Don Reisinger is ready to get back in the saddle and take on hot tech topics once more. Check it out! Oh, and sorry about the sound. That will be fixed next week.

Shownotes for episode 201

Report: New wireless adapter for Xbox 360 to cost $100

Netflix CEO hopes to stream to PS3, Wii, iPhone

Lessons learned: Switching to the TiVo HD

This week's cool site: Google Books. Check out my hands-on look here.

And as always, follow me on Twitter!

Wireless connection to Xbox 360? It'll cost you.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft plans to offer a new 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter for the Xbox 360 for $100, reports Ars Technica, citing unnamed sources. The publication also said that Microsoft's current 802.11g wireless adapter will cost $79.99 when the new adapter is released. It's currently on sale for $99.99.

A Microsoft spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail message to me on Wednesday that the adapter would "seamlessly connect with (the user's) home network with the highest wireless 'N' technology." The company wouldn't divulge any details on price or availability.

According to Ars Technica, its source said that the new 802.11n wireless adapter "will feature two antennae for better reception, and should help deliver the bandwidth needed to stream 1080p video instantly." The source didn't say when it would be released.

Although a $79.99 wireless adapter will appeal to some, it's a hefty price to pay for last-gen wireless technology. And $100 for an 802.11n wireless adapter just to connect to Xbox Live without cables seems rather steep as well. That said, we have to keep in mind that, so far, these prices are unconfirmed.

Updated at 1:52 p.m. PDT to include Microsoft's comments.

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Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO

(Credit: Netflix)

Although it has no immediate plans to do so, online video rental service Netflix is hoping to bring its video-streaming service to Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo's Wii, and Apple's iPhone, CEO Reed Hastings said in a recent interview with Reuters.

Hastings told Reuters that his hope is that Netflix's streaming service will eventually "be on all the game consoles, all the Blu-ray players, (and) all the Internet TVs." But as Hastings pointed out, his company has signed a deal with Microsoft to deliver Netflix streaming exclusively to the Xbox 360 in the video game space.

The chances of that changing anytime soon are slim, though Hastings said his company is "working in parallel" to achieve his goal of bringing Netflix streaming to all the aforementioned devices. While Netflix is likely to offer such a service on the iPhone and iPod Touch "over time," he said there is little chance of Netflix video streaming becoming available in the App Store "in the short term."

Despite rumors indicating that a Netflix app is already on its way to the App Store, Hastings would not give a timetable: "(With) movie watching, we are not focused on mobile yet, but (instead) on the TV, on Blu-ray, and on the video game consoles. We will get to mobile eventually, including the iPhone."

Hastings also chimed in on the recent announcement that Blockbuster might be closing up to 960 retail locations. He told Reuters that the closures "don't really benefit" Netflix.

Netflix's focus, Hastings, said, is on streaming video and maintaining a big catalog of available titles. Blockbuster, he said, "competes on doing the inexpensive new releases." He said Redbox would be the company that would benefit most from the closure of Blockbuster stores.

As a Time Warner Cable customer, I've experienced rather annoying issues with the Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC digital video recorder (DVR). I've been forced to replace it on several occasions. Other times, it would simply stop working, requiring me to unplug it from the wall to reboot.

It had become such a problem that I finally decided I'd had enough last week and that I'd ditch Time Warner Cable's HD DVR for a TiVo HD. For $239.99 at Best Buy (the company was offering it on sale--the TiVo HD usually retails for $299.99), it was a great deal. I also paid $129 to get one full year of TiVo service.

My new toy.

(Credit: TiVo)

With the TiVo HD in hand last Monday, I was ready to enjoy my new toy. I contacted Time Warner Cable to get all the details I needed to get set up.

Training anyone?
When I called Time Warner Cable last Monday, I was extremely displeased by the company's customer service. No one quite understood what I was talking about when I told them that I wanted to switch from my HD DVR to the TiVo HD. I asked them what the set-up process was. I wanted to know if I lost any channels.

After waiting for about five minutes for the customer-service representative to find information on the TiVo ("Sorry, we don't get many of these requests," she told me), she finally read to me, verbatim, what it said on her sheet.

According to the technician, I would need to have a multichannel CableCARD installed to get my programming. Unfortunately, I would lose several channels even with the CableCARD. I was told by the agent that I would need a Switched Digital Video adapter in addition to the CableCARD to retrieve those channels. An SDV adapter is basically a black set-top box that connects to the TiVo HD, allowing you to watch switched digital video channels. It's a fancy term for saying that Time Warner Cable is trying to save bandwidth.

Somewhat satisfied by the information, I told the agent that I wanted to schedule an appointment for a Time Warner Cable technician to come to my house and install both the CableCARD (you're not allowed to install it yourself) and the SDV adapter. No luck. The agent told me that I would first need to go to the Time Warner Cable Web site and fill out an online form. Upon doing so, I was put in line to receive an SDV adapter.

BlackBerry Tour, which is available to both Verizon Wireless and Sprint customers, is under scrutiny for trackball issues that have led some Tour owners to return the smartphones.

The question is: how widespread is the problem?

TownHall Investment Research's David Eller said in a research note this week that he has consulted "experts" who have determined Research In Motion is having a "big trackball problem, especially with the Tour," which was launched in July.

BlackBerry Tour

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

Eller wrote that BlackBerry Tour owners are being forced "to clean the trackball frequently and preferably with compressed air." When they don't clean the trackball, the issues get worse, leading them to bring the device back to the store for repairs or returns.

It has gotten so bad, Eller contends, that Sprint's "return rates have been climbing toward 50 percent."

A 50 percent return rate on a mobile phone would be huge. But Sprint is telling a much different story.

"We experienced a small percentage of early production Blackberry Tour smartphones with trackball issues," a Sprint representative said in a phone interview Wednesday night. "As soon as the issue was identified, we worked closely with our partners at RIM to resolve the problem quickly. Any customer experiencing issues with the Tour should visit a Sprint service and repair center."

Sprint, which said it had never worked with TownHall Investment Research prior to the research note's release this week, said the number of BlackBerry Tour returns it experienced "weren't even close to 50 percent." The Sprint representative said it was "a very small percentage." He wouldn't release exact figures but did say the percentage was in line with other new devices that experience some hardware problems at launch.

But Eller didn't only mention Sprint. In the same note, he wrote that "Verizon is experiencing serious problems with the Tour." He claimed that "Verizon will soon be getting new smartphones from Motorola and Palm that compete with RIM. Verizon is angry about this recurring trackball problem and is telling its retailers to expect strong support for the new Motorola phone."

However, Verizon spokesman Jim Gerace said in a phone call Thursday that the "BlackBerry Tour has the lowest return rate of any smartphone Verizon Wireless is selling. In fact, its return rate is one of the lowest among all the products our company sells."

That said, Gerace did acknowledge that BlackBerry Tour devices did experience trackball issues when they were first released. He said that his company "caught it pretty early and we didn't sell many with the bad trackball."

Gerace offered a biting response yet when I asked him about the accuracy of Eller's contention that Verizon is angry at RIM and will be strongly supporting a new Motorola device.

"That is blatantly not true," Gerace told me. "Just look around at our advertising. Does it look like we're not pushing the BlackBerry Tour?"

RIM did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The subject of much debate.

(Credit: Amazon)

Best-selling author Dan Brown's latest novel, "The Lost Symbol," is apparently selling better on the Kindle than in hardcover on Amazon.com.

In Amazon's overall sales listing, Brown's book is listed as the best-selling title on the site. But that listing includes both the book's hardcover version and the Kindle version.

On Amazon's Mystery and Thrillers page, the two versions are independently listed. At the top of that list is the Kindle version for $9.99. In the No. 2 slot is the hardcover version offered for $16.17. That list is updated hourly.

Blog site The Kindle Nation noticed the phenomenon early Wednesday morning.

As of late morning, the Kindle version is still atop the list. That said, it's important to note that this is one store. The hardcover version is still tops at rival Barnes and Noble, which also sells a digital version.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment and exact sales figures.

The possibility that the Kindle version of "The Lost Symbol"--which follows Brown's wildly popular "Da Vinci Code" and "Angels & Demons"--is outselling hard copies on Amazon could be a monumental moment in the e-book industry. Prior to the release of the book, its publisher, Random House, was mulling the possibility of not even releasing a Kindle version. Eventually, the company relented.

The Kindle version is leading the way on Amazon.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Random House's aversion to releasing a version for the Kindle e-reader was apparently rooted in its worries over "security and logistical issues." This underscored what has become a battle between publishers and Amazon's Kindle that mimics the battles Apple was forced to deal with when iTunes and iPods were under attack from the music industry.

But if the likely biggest book release of the year sells better on Amazon's Kindle than in hardcover in the massive online bookstore, that's undoubtedly big news for the publishing business. Companies that were suspect of Amazon's potential dominance in the space might realize the value of offering e-books on its device.

Amazon itself hasn't confirmed that more Kindle copies of "The Lost Symbol" have sold and it's possible that the Kindle version is only leading the pack for now, but it's still a significant event that could send shock waves through the publishing business.