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Holiday Gift Guide: Procrastinator's Edition
You know who you are. It's Christmas Eve, your stockings are yet to be hung with care, and there's a dismayingly large gap in the "gift gotten" column of your personal Nice list -- or maybe you haven't figured out what the last three days of Hanukkah are going to look like when it comes to gift exchanges. Don't panic; we're right there with you. While physical gifts may be more difficult (though not completely impossible) to get at this stage, the intangible options are still on the table. Some of the best ideas for late gifting were summed up this week by Andy Ihnatko in the Chicago Sun-Times and Chris Breen at Macworld, so be sure to check their lists (twice, even). If you've got a pair of giftees on your list who are craving new cellphones -- or, more to the point, slightly previous-generation cellphones -- MacRumors notes that Best Buy stores are running a special 2-for-1 deal on the iPhone 4 32GB model, today only. Apple no longer has the 32GB iPhone 4 on the product list, so this is an inventory dump; still, it's an inventory dump that works in your favor. Both phones need new 2-year contracts. The growth in the installed base and reach of iOS devices means that you no longer have to head for a specialty retailer (or an Apple store) to get compatible accessories. Every local Radio Shack, Walgreen's, CVS, Staples or Rite-Aid carries iPhone and iPad accessories, albeit often cheap and crappy ones. An extra pair of iPhone-friendly headphones or a set of iPad screen covers would make a dandy 'light' gift, and an SD card or Bluetooth mouse could make the holiday brighter. As Chris Breen's story points out, sometimes the best gift is the one you give of yourself. Assisting a family member with app updates, backup setup or remote access configuration might help them all year long. Making sure that Logmein or iChat are properly configured for remote support can also save you aggravation and travel time later on when that new Mac starts behaving oddly. You can always send a pretty email certificate that your relatives can print out and stick up on the wall for quick reference. The list of digital-only gifts is, of course, very long -- Andy I's story cites most of the usual suspects, including of course gift certificates for all the nicest places. He points out that a Flickr Pro account is ideal for shutterbugs, and that while Spotify doesn't offer gift subscriptions, streaming music competitors Rdio and Pandora both do; so does Netflix, for that matter. Andy also noted something I knew long ago but had forgotten: you can gift an entire iTunes playlist, even if you don't own all the songs in the list. Just drag tracks directly from the iTunes store listing into the playlist, then under the Store menu in iTunes, choose 'Share Playlist...' -- you'll get a dialog offering to publish or gift the playlist. Keep in mind that gifts of individual tracks or full playlists are only redeemable in the country of purchase; you can't do iTunes gifts for far-flung overseas family. Finally, there are the gifts that really keep on giving: learning opportunities and charitable contributions. You could simply send some dough to your recipient's favorite cause, but the fun of giving might be enhanced by one of these charitable apps. For the Mac or iOS user who wants to expand their horizons and sharpen their skills, there are plenty of solid last-minute additions to place under the virtual tree. Both the Amazon and Apple ebook stores include instructional titles like the Missing Manual, Apress or Take Control offerings. (New Mac OS X 10.7 Lion users might particularly appreciate this one.) For visual learners, it's easy to get great tutorial content from vendors like lynda.com, covering a wide range of creative computing topics. This year's crop of screencast content is particularly rich for Apple's new Final Cut Pro X, with great courseware from Larry Jordan, Manhattan Edit Workshop and Izzyvideo among others. As you scramble to find something perfect at the last second, take a mindful moment to breathe, relax and enjoy your blessings with your family. Of course, thanks to the honey-voiced hypnotherapist Andrew Johnson, there's also an app or two for that.
Best Buy rewards your procrastination with buy-one-get-one iPhone 4 deal
Sure it's Christmas Eve and we're more than halfway through Hanukkah, but it's never too late to score some last minute deals -- and heck, why not get a little something for yourself, while you're at it? Best Buy wants to give you a free iPhone 4 for your impressive ability to hold out on holiday shopping for this long. Pick up a 32GB version of the last-gen handset with a two-year AT&T or Verizon plan, and the big box retailer will toss in a second (plus carrier fees, naturally). This is an in-store only sort of deal, and it's only good through close at 5PM tonight -- those folks in the blue polo shirts have families too, you know. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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Worlds.com files suit against NCsoft for patent infringement
You might remember earlier in the month we reported on Worlds.com placing down patents on two technologies that we commonly use in the MMO industry -- scalable chat and system and method of enabling users of interacting in a virtual space -- and how much havoc this could play with our favorite games. We also made the assumption that lawyers were going to begin marching from Worlds.com with suits in hand, beginning their demands of money.It turns out our assumption was right. Worlds.com has filed the necessary paper work to bring a suit against one of the big names in our industry: NCsoft. The suit was filed on Christmas Eve, December 24th, and charged NCsoft with infringement of patent 7,181,690, the system and method of enabling users of interacting in a virtual space, which was granted in early 2007. The suit cites all NCsoft titles, from Lineage to Aion, as the grounds for the patent infringement.As a small side note, patent 7,181,690 was filed in 2000 -- over a year after EverQuest launched and dominated the fledgling industry with somewhere around 300,000 subscribers.We contacted Worlds.com for comment on the 14th of December in connection with our first story, but they have not returned our requests for comment.We'll keep our ears to the ground as more developments appear in this story.Update: We have additional commentary on this patent suit.
One Shots: Happy holidays!
So many are prepping for holidays, doing last minute shopping, or just hanging out with the family. Both in and out of game, we see folks getting into the Holiday Spirit. Sure enough, even this lovely Draenai Death Knight decided to put on some holiday gear and scowl prettily for the cameras. Today's World of Warcraft One Shots comes in from Michelle, who says only "Merry Christmas to you all!" No matter what you celebrate at this time of year, we here at Massively would also like to wish you the happiest of holidays and the best wishes for lots of epic loot. If you've got a holiday screenshot to send in, feel free; we'll be running them up until just after the New Year! Just send it to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and what game it's from. Descriptions are welcome, but not necessary. We'll post it for all to enjoy and raise a glass of spiked eggnog in your honor.%Gallery-9798%
Man robbed of PSP on Christmas Eve
There have been stories both heartwarming and stomach wrenching this holiday season. However, even a PS3 phone book isn't as bad as this latest story. Late Christmas Eve, Zachary Mann was innocently enjoying his PSP on a street corner in York City, Pennsylvania, minding his own business when an unknown gunman robbed him of his PSP.Now there are certain things human beings just shouldn't do on Christmas Eve; one of them is robbing someone of their handheld of choice! Hopefully, police catch the thief and Mann gets his PSP, Memory Stick and game back safe and sound.
