Apple has just released a statement that Steve Jobs has passed away. It is a sad day to say the least.

Steve Jobs was unquestionably the most influential business leader I have seen in my short 23 year life. However, those who have been around longer than I have will agree that Jobs is on the same list that thinkers like Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. As I wrote, it should be noted that this is being written from my iPad, tweeted on my iPhone, and updated later on my iMac. Every part of my digital and personal life has changed by products that Jobs envisioned.

Steve Jobs inspires me to do more. To do what I want to do, not what other tell me to do. I can’t stress enough the amount of respect I have for this man who has reshaped the world from everything to movies, computers, music, and everything in between. Rest in peace Steve Jobs, you really did change the world just like you planned.

Leave it to SNL to mock Netflix’s attempt to appease its angry subscriber base. It was cut from the actual show due to running short on time, but that doesn’t mean its not worth a watch. Enjoy.

http://www.nbc.com/assets/video/widget/widget.html?vid=1359563

Tomorrow is the big day, the final unveiling of the iPhone everyone wanted back in June but had to wait till October to get. While everyone has a good idea about what could possibly be announced, a new rumor of iOS 5 has been circulating the past few days. Its that Apple will be adding an assistant that is miles ahead of anything Google Voice or any competitor can replicate.

MacRumors.com has created a short video of how the application could work and is definitely worth a glance. While I’m not sure how much I would use it, It’s another cool feature to show off to your friends who are still trying make-up reasons why Android is better than iOS. [MacRumors]

Showtime has benevolently decided to upload the entire season 6 premiere episode onto YouTube. While I’m not sure exactly what promoted the move, anything put on YouTube for free is always a plus. Big thanks to Showtime and to those who havent seen the episode yet, enjoy.

Computer gaming is making a comeback. With the Dice saying that Battlefield 3′s main system and with Nvidia excepting computer software sales to surpass console sales within the next 2-3 years, it’s safe to say that the PC isn’t dead. While in my mind this is a good thing, there are some aspects about it that is a little less convieneint. Here are the pros and cons of computer gaming.

Pros

1. Graphics- while most people are always ranting and raving when a new console comes out sporting better graphics, most don’t ever include PC’s in that analysis. PC’s in terms of hardware are miles ahead of any present or soon to be released console. The graphics cards, CPU’s, and amount of RAM you can shove into a computer tower just can’t be matched in the small size that consoles tend to be. Take Battlefield 3 for example. Graphics wise on Xbox 360 Battlefield 3 looks almost identical to Modern Warfare 2. No big changes or advancements. However, all the realistic screenshots that you more than likely saw floating around the Internet were all taken on PC.

2. Controls- Another aspect is no matter how much you want to argue this point, the controls on PC are always better. If you want you can hook-up an Xbox controller to it, but a mouse and keyboard is much more accurate. The amount of customization you can do with PC controls just can’t be replicated on a console.

3. Titles- Although the consoles do have quite a few exclusive titles, the PC has many more when you factor in RTS’s and MMO’s. Another plus, is that most Xbox 360 exclusives eventually make their way to the PC so you don’t end of feeling left out.

Cons

1. Cost- Building, maintaining, and upgrading a computer is not cheap. A computer to run Battlefield 3 at max settings is going to end up being close to $2,000. Keeping up patches for Windows can be time consuming. You have to worry about viruses. Plus, PC’s tend to crash/freeze more than your typical Xbox.

2. Multiplayer- While multiplayer is all the same as Xbox Live(except free), more of your friends are likely to be on Xbox Live. So unless at sometime in the future Microsoft decides to merge the multiplayer for Xbox and Pc to same servers for certain games tomorrow, I don’t see this happening anytime soon.

Yes, you read that right. The open beta for Battlefield 3 is now live. You can download and install the game through Origin, EA’s online store. You have two weeks to blow shit up and ignore your girlfriends. I’ve already apologized mine in advance. Happy shooting.

Link to the beta here.

Update 1: I just tried to activate the beta and it appears the activation servers are down, no surprise. We may have to wait a while.

Today Amazon.com announced that they will be releasing a new tablet called the Kindle Fire. While this tablet was touted as a possible iPad killer, after the unveiling of what exactly the tablet looked like along with its specs, people are not so sure.

I personally don’t believe that Amazon is trying to directly challenge the iPad. What the Kindle Fire is trying to be is a media consumption device and that’s it. Its not trying to reinvent the medical field, create spreadsheets, or manage ones website on the go. It’s sole purpose is to be a device that connects you to your content in Amazons cloud. Whether its music, movies, or Amazon’s newly announced video streaming service.

We have all heard the term “The Cloud” being touted as the future of everything from newspapers to baby pictures, but this is first real product to show how much Amazon is really putting into it. All the content for the device is on the cloud. Thanks to the Silk web-browser, all the java and CSS processing of web-pages is done on the cloud instead of sucking speed and battery life from the tablet.

If anything, this tablet is merely an extension of Amazon’s cloud services and that is it. Its cheap at only $199, it’s useful for access to your content bought through Amazon, and it’s not competing for Apple’s scraps in the tablet market. The best piece of evidence that the Fire is trying to compete with the iPad is due to the lack of 3G connectivity. The iPad is basically an on the go computer that can do many things very well. The Fire is basically a personal movie theater, library, or music player for use around the house or other locations with Wi-Fi. If anything, the Kindle Fire is going to destroy The Nook from Barnes and Noble which will mean that Amazon has successfully killed off every major book retailing chain in the US.