A little over a week after their big presentation at E3, Microsoft is already getting rid of it's policies on used games and constant internet connectivity. If you remember they were initially requiring that the Xbox connect back to the Xbox servers at least once every 24 hours or the gaming functionality would be disabled. They were also not allowing the playing of used/rented games, so no more sharing games with family. Well yesterday on the Xbox blog, Don Mattrick, the President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, stated that there will not be a requirement to be connected to the internet if you are playing offline games. The Xbox One will function the same way the Xbox 360 does. Also noted that there will be no restrictions on using and sharing games. This was no doubt due to the backlash from angry Xbox users. Also noteworthy you will be able to download games from Xbox Live the same day that they are released. Source: Xbox Blog: Xbox Wire

So I am sure that you have heard about the ressurection of MySpace, courtesy of Justin Timberlake. It has some of the old features of MySpace but some new ones as well. I logged in to poke around.... The website itself has undergone a major aesthetic overhaul, which may not be such a bad thing. When I left MySpace it was like the amateur's playground for horrible website design. But the look for the new MySpace is cleaner, more picture and visual based. The site scrolls horisontally instead of vertically. You also want to make sure that you have the latest version of Adobe Flash installed. You can sign up with your Facebook account, your Twitter account or simply use your email address to get started. You can update your profile photo, and also your cover image, which unlike Facebook is is literally the entire webpage and not the header space behind your cover photo. It's similar to Twitter in that you can have people who you are connected to and those who are connected to you; so basically, people who you follow and those who follow you. There is also the option to have a profile song, but unlike old MySpace, it doesn't force you to listen to it as soon as you visit someone's page. Along with the revamp there is a music player at the bottom, that you can listen to no matter where you are on the site, you can build playlists and there is an option to listen to radio stations, kind of like Spotify. So it's like they've taken someone the features from each social media/music platform and they are now all in one place, but it is a decided leap from the old MySpace. So will you sign up for the New MySpace or are you over the whole thing? www.myspace.com

Good news for iPhone users, today Microsoft announced that Office Mobile for iPhone is finally available. Office Mobile for iPhone is a free download but it can only be used by those who have a subscription to Office 365. If you are not familiar with Office 365, it is the subscription based offering of Microsoft Office, it functions completely off of cloud computing. There are both Home and Business versions of Office 365. You can pay for it monthly ($9.99/mo) or yearly ($99.99/yr) and the subscription covers up to 5 PCs/Macs and 5 mobile devices. It also includes 20GB of storage on SkyDrive and 60 minutes of Skype calls every month. You can sign up for a free month trial to try it out. Office 365 Free Trial

I am here for this sequel! The follow-up to the amazing movie 300 has arrived! Check it out

It's here, it's here!! The official trailer for The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. Although the movie isn't due out to December, this should apease the masses or it will make the anticipation worst lol. Enjoy!

Photo: Apple Apple's latest incarnation of their OS X operating system is here, and it's name is Mountain Lion. This was announced back in February but it is now available to install on your Mac (if you have one) and if you don't have one yet, this is the operating system you'll get when you purchase one. The upgrade is available from the App Store for $19.99, check out how to upgrade here Apple is continuously improving their operating systems, and this is no different, but I think one noticable change is that this OS is looking more and more like iOS. With the integration of apps into the operating system, which makes sharing content via social media easier. Check out the other integrated features: iMessage is now integrated into the OS, so now your messages from your iPad, and iPhone are available on your Mac and vice versa. Dictation, it's like having a secretary in your computer, if there's typing space you can dictate instead, and the more you use Dictation, the smarter it becomes. Facebook and Twitter are also integrated into the new OS, just like iOS. Apple boasts over 200 new features in Mountain Lion, you can read more here: Mountain Lion New Features

Have you ever looked up and all of your pictures were gone from Facebook, or your account is suspended on a social media site? In this day and age of what can seem like social media overload, there is now a service that caters to that "what if'". Frostbox is a social media backup service. It allows you to connect your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Instagram, Foursquare, Tumblr, and Gmail, and it automatically backs up your social media accounts for you. It not only backs up the data you upload to those social media accounts but the people you are friends with or follow, and those who follow you. It also allows for the storage of non-social media files (documents, pictures, etc) similar to other cloud storage services. Frostbox uses Amazon S3 storage for your data which allows for both secure upload and storage. Similar to other storage services you can refer friends and get free storage space. I know a few people who could use this service. If you have quite a bit of data on social media, check it out! www.frostbox.com

(Photo Credit: Sonnydickson.com)So unless you have been living under a rock you already now what time of the year is fast approaching, that's right time for a new iPhone. The rumored event is supposed to be on September 10th, but Apple hasn't confirmed that as of yet. They are expected to announce the iPhone 5S and the lower cost iPhone C. Check out the leaked photos above. Personally I think the iPhone 5C will help Apple gain back some of it's market share that it has lost to Android, but we will have to wait and see.

Who doesn't like free stuff? You have to check out the Allure Free Stuff issue for August, or you can check out the slideshow of all the giveaways on the Allure website. It has the days, items and times for all the giveaways and how you can win. I will definitely be logging in during the month of August will you?

I found this online and thought is was cute, I like morning coffee and that girl in the picture is from my favorite video game of all time: Kingdom Hearts. Have an awesome day!

So as a tech aficionado I do preach making sure that your computer is updated, including individual programs and also making sure you have some type of antivirus/security program to protect your computer. Recently in the midst of my computer cleanup and updating I finally ran the update to iTunes 11.0.2, and aside from the interface change that I wasn't fond of, it seemed fine. But a few days later I went to import some new music and noticed that my entire iTunes library was gone!!!!!!!!!!!! The horror!!!!! So of course I complained for a few minutes and then spent the rest of the night trying to figure out why it happened as I didn't do anything other than upgrade to last version of iTunes. After some internet forum trolling I found out that the latest version of iTunes and the latest incarnation of AVG Free 2013 don't play well together. The resident shield option, which essentially realtime scans the computer and is the core of the Antivirus program was somehow causing the backup of iTunes to fail and thus when this happens the operation is halted and iTunes starts from scratch with no information unless you have all of your songs, apps, and other information backed up to iCloud. A few modifications may have helped but the better solution was to remove AVG from my system. In regards to the missing iTunes library, I found a older backup file before I upgraded the iTunes and moved it to the iTunes system folder and everything was back to normal without me having to reimport all of my music. Now of course I couldn't be without AV protection so I installed AVAST! antivirus, it's still free and does the same job if not better. But most importantly it doesn't nuke my iTunes library! Feel free to comment if you have questions or if this has happened to you. To download AVAST: http://www.avast.com/

This post is for my fellow gamers. This week Microsoft finally unveiled it's new Xbox console and it's called the Xbox One. Most were thinking that it would be called Xbox 720, or something along those lines, but the name signifies Microsoft's push to make this the one device you will need for entertainment. The console and it's core components (kinect and controller) have been given a refresh, with a sleek a slightly glossier look. With this latest incarnation of the console, Microsoft is looking to make the entertainment experience interconnected, but simplified with universal gestures and voice commands. During the reveal, Yusuf Mehdi, simply said "Xbox on" and the console turned on. It looks as though the Xbox is becoming more and more like a PC (not surprising since it is Microsoft). Did I mention that Microsoft is planning on making an operating system that would merge Xbox and Windows??? The new Kinect has a 1080p camera and boasts an understanding of skeletal movement. The Xbox controller now has an intergrated battery as well (finally no more ridiculous amount of AA batteries around the house. But Microsoft is waiting until E3 to release more information, so as of right now no price but here are a few more specs that we do know. Eight-core processor AMD graphics 8GB of RAM Blu-ray, USB 3.0, HDMI in/out and a 500GB hard drive I wonder what else Microsoft has in store?