BostonPocketPC

From all of us involved with BostonPocketPC.com and the Boston/New England Windows Mobile User and Developer Groups, we wish you a happy, safe and prosperous New Year. May 2008 bring you all joy and success!

January 1 also marks a special anniversary for us. Today marks the 6th birthday of BostonPocketPC.com. Every year I am amazed that another year has come and gone so quickly, and this past year is no exception. So much has happened in the Windows Mobile world in what seems like such a short period of time.

I would be remiss if not to once again thank all of those out there who have managed to keep us all going these past 6 years. Readers, writers, sponsors and friends have managed to keep someone with a sometimes short attention span to stay interested and enjoying this endeavor for all these years. My sincere hope is that Year 7 brings a renewed focus and energy to the web site.

For those who celebrate Christmas - well, Merry Christmas! Here's to hoping your holiday brings you health, happiness and a gadget or two. For me, this season brought some very non-technical (but thoughtful) gifts from my young sons and wife. They, on the other hand, were the big gadget winners including -

• A Nintendo DS for my oldest son, replacing his aging GameBoy Advanced;
• An XM Xpress RC for my wife, replacing a first-generation XM Roady.

While I may feel a bit "gadget-deprived" for a minute or two, this picture often puts it all in perspective...

All of these devices (placed in chronological order) are fully operational, by the way So, who wants to:

• Name all of these devices in order?;
• Play "Which of these is not like the others" and tell me why?

I'm interested in hearing what some of our readers got this holiday season. Anything "gadgety"? Feel free to comment on this thread.

On my flight back from the MVP Summit from Seattle I had the honor of sitting next to a hardware engineer that worked on the Xbox and accessories for it and other devices like the Zune. He actually thought I worked for MS as well (I was sporting a Zune shirt and Windows Mobile bag) until I corrected him and talked about some cool things I had NDA privledge to and other things like my PSP and the accessories I had for it as well as Windows Mobile devices, UMPCs, Tablet PCs and other geek stuff. One of them being the new Xbox 360 Elite which has some new covers and quieter disposition with built-in HDMI support.

It will be coming in a nice glossy piano-black finish and silver trim like the pre-release developer boxes as well as with a black wireless controller(also available separately for $49), matching black headset, HDMI cable- for HDMI ouput, 120GB Hard drive to support Xbox Live HD movies and upcoming IPTV content that was demoed at CES 2007 (it will also be available separately for around $179 retail(US). However it won't ship with a built-in HD DVD drive, which would have been nice and easily warrant an upgrade for the suggested retail price of $479.

Also to match the color schema of the Elite the following accessories for the Xbox 360 Elite console will also be available separately:

Now the question remains on April 29 should I purchase this for $479.99 (U.S.), upgrade my current 360, purchase a 360 core for $299 or less with the 120GB hard drive and save a few bucks or should I wait to add another Media Center Extender to the house? At least there are some options...

I just happened to read about the "Which Superhero Am I?" Quiz. I couldn't resist. The results -

"You are Spider-Man!
You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility."

Wow! Really? I AM?!?! I feel so much better now.

Even more interesting was the analysis of the "poll results" -

Spider-Man - 70%
The Flash - 65%
Iron Man - 65%
Robin - 55%
Green Lantern - 55%
Hulk - 45%
Batman - 35%
Supergirl - 35%
Superman - 30%
Wonder Woman - 25%
Catwoman - 20%

Man - more Supergirl than Superman. Does that say something? Should I be losing sleep? Actually, this looks like a preview of the 2008 Iowa Caucus to me.

As you can probably tell, New Years Day is not known for being a busy news day. Feel free to find out which superhero you are while wating for breaking Windows Mobile and mobility news.