Jonzee.com

Well the year is just about over and I’m sitting here thinking about all the fun things Ive done. There were a lot of happenings and news this year , from console launches, to company buyouts…you name it, it seems like it all has happened this year. Id like to take this time to talk about a few things that I thought were highlights of the year. Of coarse this website is a consumer information site and deal mostly with products and services that you can purchase online so the things I’m going to mention here will be loosely based on that foundation. so sit back, reminisce and think about what a great year it has been.

Oblivion

There has only been a few games that, for me, were games that I really looked forward too….to the point where I would take off work to play when it first released (I didn’t actually do it, but I would). Those games were Quake 2, Unreal, Everquest: legends of kunark, Halo, Halflife 2, Everquest 2 (which sucked), Morrowind, and the game I’m about to talk about. Right near the beginning of 2006 I would say the first highlight for me was a little game on the Xbox360 called Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Yea now people are mostly over it, some are even starting to say that Oblivion was overrated or just wasn’t good at all, but I remember coming home from EBgames and putting the disc in my 360 and playing for about an hour (didn’t really have the time that day to really play). I had been casually following that game and figured that would be the first really good RPG to hit the Xbox. When I got to play it later, it was was a truly immersive experience. The first game to really show what the 360 was capable of, good ole number crunching-stat configuring-armor wearing role playing goodness. That game kept me busy for almost a month and really worked out my Xbox360 at a time where many complained about hardware problems (I prayed mine wouldn’t be next). I’m pretty much over that game now but I still can feel the excitement I had playing that game. If you like the open endedness of the Elderscroll series, this game was heaven. I’d even go on record right now to say that although I think its a preference thing as far as if those games are too open, no one can (or has so far) make an RPG like Bethesda.

Exploding Batteries

This was one topic that spent a good amount of time in the news, It started out as a Dell battery issue, then you heard about a few Macs, then in the end it was a Sony issue. Looks like there were a batch of bad batteries made by Sony that other companies such as Dell, Apple, and HP used in their laptop computers. funny thing is I don’t think Sony used those batteries in their own brand of Laptops…hmmm…. But anyway, there were recalls, threats of laptops being banned on airplanes, and everything else. that problem cost Dell and others a lot of money and negative press for a while. every once in a while you still see battery warning at different place advising you to check to see if you have one of the defected batteries.

Rise of Apple

Well Apple had been a struggling company that turned itself around, mainly because of the success of the extremely popular Ipod Music player line of Products.The Ipod had been dominating for a while and Apple did something no one thought they would ever do, and thats make the switch from IBM processors to Intel in their Mac computers. Once they did that, news on Apple went through the roof and everyone, not just the apple fanatics has been hanging on to every word, hint, or clue that came from Apple. At first there were cries that it was a big mistake, then there were people trying to run the Intel based Mac OS on PC’s, then finally Apple did that one thing that really made people question what is going on. They created the Boot camp software that allows you to install Windows on a Mac. Apple has always been an innovative company but me personally I think the Switch to Intel has really boosted every aspect of apple. Now things that only apple fanatics cared about before is getting attention from everyone, and allowing Windows to be ran on a mac has only helped there market share allowing them to be a compediter to PC makers like Dell and HP and not just an alternative that many were scared to try cause "most of the software is made for Windows".

Gates to Step down

Speaking of Apple, when you go over to the "other" side there were quite a few items that I would consider a 2006 Highlight. One was when Bill Gates announced that he was going to step down as head of Microsoft and take a more backseat approach to running the company. He had said fr a while that he was going to do that one day but when the announcement actually came about, it was really big. if your into the whole tech-PC-computer thing, and regardless of what you think of Bill Gates and Microsoft, he has been one of the pioneers and has one of the biggest hands in the where we are today in the Home PC field. It almost felt like things were going to change all over the tech world, like the figurehead of Personal Computing retired. I’m exaggerating but come on, didn’t you feel a tad melancholy when you heard that news? the good thing is Bill Gates didn’t flip the secret switch that disables all Windows based PC’s on his way out and we are still pushing along. maybe he will pull a Micheal Jordan and come back to revolutionize the tech world in a few years…who knows.

PS3 Bashing

Id have to say that the latter half of the year has really been extremely rough for Sony with all the bashing they have been getting from their flop expensive Playstation 3 Console. Every where you go, Every message board, Website, article ….pretty much everywhere had people bashing the console, and at the same time Nintendo has been stealing the spotlight with the Wii. In all honesty I think that the PS3 will turn out to do a good job in the market, after a price drop, but it was fun to read all the articles, and watch the fan boys scream in disappointment.

The rise of user submitted video

User submitted video has gone crazy this year hasn’t it? Ive seen a guy climb walls like spider man, people fall of skateboards, kids thrown from a merry go round, a guy dancing in a full Barney costume. Its crazy what people will do to, whats even more amazing what people will watch. Do a search on you tube for milk and cereal and you will see tons of videos of people imitating another video of people lip syncing to a song using spoons for a mic and wearing a bowl for a hat. and not only has Youtube become what seems like an overnight success, there are a lot of other websites just like it that can offer you just as much.

Google buys YouTube

This was one of those wacky rumors that came true, This happened around the time I first started this blog and was probably the first news story I blogged about. The news I think has been bigger than the outcome though, cause for the most part, YouTube is YouTube, and is still dominating the user submitted video web space.

Well that isn’t all the highlights of the year but it is a few of the big ones. Its funny, as I am writing this, I keep thinking of many more things that has happened this year. But the good thing is in a few days, it will be a new year an we will do it all over again, More news, more products, more shopping, and more surprises. So to all of you, I wish you all the best wishes and a very happy new year.

James Kim Rest in peace, you will be missed.