(Credit: Newegg)

As a general rule, I despise paying monthly fees for anything. But a little over $3 per month for an Xbox Live Gold subscription? I can live with that. Newegg has 13-month Xbox Live subscription cards on sale for $39.99, with 3-7-day shipping included free.

In case you're new to the Xbox scene, a Live Gold subscription enables you to play games online against others. If you buy one of these cards directly from Microsoft (or, say, Best Buy), it'll cost you $49.99. You can use the 10 bucks you save to grab a new game from the Xbox Arcade, go see the new Batman movie, or fill your gas tank with two extra gallons (sigh).

Cheapskate out. Have a great weekend.

(Credit: Core 77)

In the year 2154, no one will want to wear wristwatches anymore. They'll probably be out of fashion or too bulky for our hands. The in thing will be the nail watch, known as the TX54. Well, that's what Timex and design site Core77 think will be the future, according to the global design competition Timex 2154: The Future of Time." The two held the contest to mark the watch maker's 150th anniversary.

TX54, the runner-up in the event, is a concept watch by three Americans designers: Napoleon Merana, Steffen Schubert, and David Takacs. The nail watch is designed to be hooked to the thumbnail. The user should be able to view the time in the dark just by pressing the tip of the nail. Wearers can also switch between available colors. It is also disposable. One hopes it's waterproof as well, just in case you forget to take it off while you're in the shower.

Although the TX54 is a good concept, I can't imagine how small the numbers are going to be, probably putting a strain on your eyes.

(Via Crave Asia)

AMD thriving in Intel Centrino 2 notebooks? At Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest PC maker, the answer is "yes."

HP 17-inch 6830s is offered with the AMD-ATI HD 3430 graphics chip.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

Although consumer notebooks get most of the press, business notebooks get most of the sales. "The prime purchaser of notebooks still remains, as a segment, business," Intel CEO Paul Otellini said during the Intel earnings conference call earlier this week.

Among Hewlett-Packard's slew of upcoming business notebooks (HP Compaq 6730s, 6830s, 6530b, 6930b) with Centrino 2 processors, Advanced Micro Devices' ATI graphics chips figure prominently. And notebooks such as the HP Compaq 6830s and EliteBook 6930p are offered with comparatively high-end AMD-ATI mobile graphics.

"It reflects new design wins," said Dean McCarron, principal at Cave Creek, Ariz.-based Mercury Research.

"Those design wins were locked down last year," new AMD CEO Dirk Meyer said in the company's earnings conference call Thursday, referring to AMD graphics-chip design wins on the Centrino 2 platform. "So, now is when they will start to pay off. (We're) getting 60-plus percent design win share on (Centrino 2)."

The Centrino-2-based EliteBook, for example, packs an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 with up to 256MB of memory. This kind of robust graphics configuration for a business notebook was almost unheard of a year ago when Intel's integrated graphics garnered most of the design wins.

Though Intel's new and improved GMA 4500HD Centrino 2 graphics is offered alongside AMD-ATI graphics ... Read more

Wiseguys' Theo Keating melds deceptive dance-style tracks with Simian Mobile Disco's Simon Lord's sinister lyrics that alchemically transmute the otherwise alluring dance-pop elements. When one thinks of haunting music, U.K.-based electro doesn't immediately come to mind though The Black Ghosts are stepping up the creepy noir factor with each and every psychotically romantic track.

Download free MP3 now!

Advanced Micro Devices has its eye on the ultra-low-cost notebook market. Dirk Meyer--the company's new CEO--and other executives discussed this and ways to make the company profitable during the company's earnings conference call Thursday.

HP 2133 Mini-Note is a low-cost ultramobile notebook--a market AMD is eying.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

Meyer--promoted to CEO on Thursday--made it clear that AMD is serious about the so-called Netbook market, where Intel's Atom processor has been the most successful so far. (Though Intel CEO Paul Otellini made a perplexing comment Tuesday about the Atom processor.)

Netbooks have two hallmarks: they are typically under $400 and are extremely small and light. The Asus Eee PC is the most popular Netbook currently.

In response to a question from an analyst, Meyer implied that while AMD is not interested in the mobile Internet device market (think: iPhone), it is serious about low-cost notebooks.

"We're a much smaller company with not nearly the scale that our competitor has," Meyer said. "We don't intend to try to do absolutely everything they do in the marketplace. (But) slightly smaller form factor notebooks and inexpensive notebooks. That is a market segment that we're interested in."

AMD is already taking concrete steps to get into this market.

"It's actually a segment that we're starting to offer products to our customers in support of now," Meyer said. "We actually haven't talked in public about that, but I expect we'll be talking about that roadmap when ... Read more

At E3 in Los Angeles this year, the main themes were cooperative games and music games. But the crowds that used to flock the Los Angeles Convention Center before the convention was moved to nearby Santa Monica last year are no longer. This, of course, is by design, as the industry made the decision that E3 should be an invite-only event for press and analysts to meet with publishers and developers.

The upshot is that the convention show floor, which in the past was known for its mind-bending noise and energy, is now a small hall with mostly uniform booths and a dearth of the full-throttle marketing that used to be in evidence. Whether that's intentional or not, it makes for a less-than-thrilling experience and one that can be completed in an hour or two instead of days. See my photos above to get a sense of this year's game expo. And click here to see an earlier batch of E3 photos.

The Spyder turns like a car but drives like a motorcycle.

(Credit: CNET)

What gets 35 miles per gallon and goes from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.5 seconds? You might suggest a motorcycle, but you would only be 66 percent right.

BRP's Can-Am Spyder uses three wheels, two in front and one in back. The Spyder isn't exactly a motorcycle, a trike, or a three-wheeled car. BRP suggests calling it a roadster, but that designation is a stretch as well.

We got our first chance to ride the Spyder this week, when BRP brought a few of them to our offices.

A BRP representative gives me instructions on driving the Spyder.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The learning curve was fairly quick--the BRP representative explained the controls, then we shot off down the street. Actually, we were only going about 20 mph, but it felt fast, as we're used to looking at the world through a wide expanse of safety glass.

Within the hour, though, we were speeding along at 45 mph with no fear. The Spyder uses a traditional motorcycle-style gear shift, down by your left foot, and a clutch lever over the left hand grip. Similarly, the throttle is on the right hand grip. But you activate the brakes on all three wheels with a pedal at your right foot. And unlike most motorcycles, the Spyder has a reverse gear.

The fact that it has three wheels makes parking particularly easy, as there ... Read more

In space, no one can hear you frag -- or at least that's what we imagine EA is saying about its new sci-fi horror game, Dead Space. Mixing bits of Doom and Resident Evil, we've been eager to get our hands on this genre-bending action title, if only because the "survival horror" genre (essentially creepy haunted house games named after an awkward Japanese translation) has been pretty quiet lately.

The plot is fairly standard scary sci-fi fare -- an unlucky guy arrives on a space station to find it deserted (well, except for the monsters, naturally). Even though EA says the game is heavy on creepy psychological terror, every trailer or game footage video we've seen up to now has been heavy on the combat, with our hapless protagonist shooting various big ugly space monsters in generic-looking sci-fi environments.

Fortunately, after getting a more extensive hands-on session with the game, we're now much more on board with the fright-flick-in-space vibe. The claustrophobic feel comes through, and the controls feel especially natural and easy to get used to. While our demo was still heavy on the man-on-monster combat, the developers assure us the emphasis is largely in exploring the derelict space station and its creepy corridors, but that kind of low-key gameplay doesn't make for an eye-catching trade show display.

Look for Dead Space on the Xbox 360 and PS3 later this year.

The Photo Safe II can store thousands of high-resolution digital images.

(Credit: Digital Foci)

Do you think the 4GB SD card for your digital camera is large? Well, it is, especially compared with a few years ago when it was a big deal to have a 512MB card. How would you like 160GB of storage space for a camera? Now that's really large.

Today, Digital Foci introduced Photo Safe II, a portable photo storage device that can spare your laptop from a photo-shooting trip.

The device is essentially a battery-operated external hard drive that has a built-in card reader with an automated copy function. The Photo Safe II's card reader can handle all popular card formats, including CompactFlash (Extreme III, IV, UDMA), MMC, SD/HC Card, miniSD, Memory Stick, MS PRO, MS Duo, MS PRO Duo, and xD-Picture cards. You just need to stick a card into the proper slot and press the copy button, the entire contents of the card will be copied to the Photo Safe II's internal storage at speed a fairly good speed, it takes about 3.5 minutes to copy 1GB (so about 11 minutes for your 4GB card).

The Photo Safe II automatically organizes the contents of each card by creating sequential numbered folder names. It connects to a computer via USB 2.0 and, when plugged in, charges its replaceable lithium ion battery. It also acts as an external memory card reader for the computer.

The Photo Safe II is ... Read more

As one may suspect, working in digital music gives a person a somewhat skewed view about the permeation of online music in the general population. Everyone (aside from audiophiles and vinyl buffs) is getting their music fix though the Web nowadays, right? Wrong. Although digital music is on the rise, it's still well behind CDs in terms of overall sales ($2.8 billion versus $15.9 billion, according to one report).

Another report forecasts that digital music sales won't surpass physical media for another four years. Well, what say we prove some people wrong (always fun) and shave a year or two off that number? To help you sort through the clutter of online music, I've rounded up my Top 5 choices for digital tunes. These selections aren't really in any particular order; rather, each service offers a variety of advantages depending on your personal needs and preferences.

• iTunes: Owned by Apple, the iTunes store set the pattern for a la carte music shopping and still reigns king over the customer base. iTunes has sold more than 5 billion songs to date, and it offers excellent integration with the world's best-selling MP3 player, the iPod. It's catalog contains more than 8 million songs as well as a variety of podcasts, TV shows, and movies. The one major bummer is that most of the tracks sold in iTunes can only be played on the iPod or iPhone and not any other MP3 player. You must