Right now, when you buy a full price video game for your Xbox, you’re paying $59.99.  That’s high, but it’s not extremely high.  It’s reasonable, it’s what we’re pretty much used to, and it’s not much different from paying $50 for games for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System.  With the price increases with every video game console’s next generation, surely the price of games will go up, right?  Wrong.  Microsoft Xbox One games will retail for $59.99.

Said a Microsoft spokesman, “I can confirm that Microsoft Studios games on Xbox One will be $59.99 (MSRP).”

For all the problems surrounding Xbox One and Microsoft’s policies concerning used games, game sharing, console sharing, and Internet connectivity, it’s nice to see that some things aren’t going to change for the worse.  That’s a pretty good sign, if only for people like me who may still jump into the next generation of gaming consoles without waiting for the price drops 6 months to a year down the line.

Image:  Cheezburger

I love Netflix, and I love Netflix streaming.  However, what I don’t like is when I get my streaming mixed up with someone else’s streaming.  It’s not that I’m rabid about it, but it just makes it hard for me to trust Netflix’s recommendations if they’re mixed in with family recommendations.  However, Netflix is coming up with a way to keep the entire family’s streaming selections separate from one another.  Netflix is launching streaming user profiles.

What does that mean?  Better personalization, for one.  The kids get their own kid-friendly streaming, mom gets her streaming, dad gets his streaming, and nobody is inconvenienced by all the mix-up possibilities.  Daddy gets his brain-splattering horror movies, Mommy gets her true crime shows, and the kids get their crazy cartoons.  And it also might help Netflix choose future acquisitions better by giving the company a greater grasp on who watches what.

“It’s the revolution of TV,” said Netflix Vice President of Product Innovation Todd Yellin. “They used to send out a TV show and then they’d have no freaking idea who was watching it, how much they were watching … it was just Nielsen diaries.”

According to Netflix, the new service launches this summer.

When Microsoft announced the Xbox One, the primary focus was on its capabilities as an entertainment system and not so much on the unit’s ability to play video games.  There was a reason for that.  As it turns out, fans weren’t terribly pleased with the decisions Microsoft made concerning the Xbox One’s ability to play games.  The system needed a constant Internet connection and, most damaging, it would not play used games.  Cue the outrage.

Fortunately, even Microsoft knows that bad publicity isn’t good for their brand, so they’ve decided to make a few changes.  The best news is that the Xbox One no longer needs an always-on connection; instead, it has to go online once every 24 hours and that’s it.  Good news for those without a good internet connection.  All the other uses, like TV and Blu-ray, won’t need an online connection at all.

Secondly, Microsoft has decided to allow used games.  No extra fees, no surcharges, nothing but business as usual for the secondary game market.  I imagine a lot of folks are breathing a sigh of relief right now, none more than Gamestop and other used game merchants.

There are a lot of privacy concerns about Google Glass, and the biggest of these (aside from being surreptitiously video-taped while you walk down the street) is the ability of Google Glass to look up information about you based solely on your face.  Facial recognition software is definitely a concern, and it’s a concern that Google has decided to address before it even becomes a concern.  Google Glass won’t have facial recognition software.

Said Google on its official blog:  ”We’ve been listening closely to you, and many have expressed both interest and concern around the possibilities of facial recognition in Glass.  As Google has said for several years, we won’t add facial recognition features to our products without having strong privacy protections in place.  With that in mind, we won’t be approving any facial recognition Glassware at this time.”

Though, you have to admit, Glassware is a great name for Google Glass apps, and there could definitely be good uses for facial recognition on Glass (and a whole lot of bad ones, too), it’s nice to see Google taking its time with approving apps, and I like the idea that they may be carefully monitoring what goes on with Glassware.

Good news, everyone.  Now when you go on Facebook to befriend Justin Bieber, the IRS, Queen Elizabeth, or your favorite television network, you’ll know it’s real.  Facebook is launching a verification service for celebrities.  Just like Twitter and Reddit, Facebook will now make famous people jump through a hoop to prove they’re who they say they are.  Seems like a fairly reasonable request to me.

The feature rolled out today and is designed to clamp down on phony accounts, parody pages, and other unofficial web presences that clog up Facebook searches.  A little blue check mark will appear by your favorite famous person’s name on Facebook.  In your timeline, in search results, and anywhere else the name of the official (whoever) appears, that check mark will be there with it, just so you know that it’s really Kid from Kid-n-Play liking that picture of you rocking a high top fade and a throwback House Party tee-shirt.

Tablets are here to stay.  Make no mistake about it.  Every day the tablet sector grows larger to the detriment of the PC industry.  Worldwide tablets are likely to reach nearly 230 million units in 2013.  That’s an increase of 59 percent from sales last year.  Meanwhile, PC shipments are expected to decline by 7.8 percent in the same time period.  Indeed, tablet sales are expected to surpass PC sales by the end of 2013.

“Many users are realizing that everyday computing, such as accessing the Web, connecting to social media, sending emails, as well as using a variety of apps, doesn’t require a lot of computing power or local storage,” said IDC exec Loren Loverde.  ”Instead, they are putting a premium on access from a variety of smaller devices with longer battery life, an instant-on function, and intuitive touch-centric interfaces.”

The idea isn’t that PCs will be supplanted completely by tablets, but that tablets (due to their cheapness and portability and superior battery life) will be the default computer for simple things, like email, chat, and web browsing, while the PC will continue to be used for heavier work, typing-based things, and that kind of thing.  PCs will no longer be at the forefront of the Internet-browsing world, but they’ll still be a big deal and will still be useful.  I just imagine there won’t be as many upgraded computers when you can just buy a tablet for half the price and throw it out when it is too slow for your purposes.

Image via Gamefreaks

Microsoft has spent the last 8 years pushing the Xbox 360 to its limits.  That’s a long time for a video game system to be on the market in this day and age, and it was well past time for Microsoft to roll out the next generation of its venerable Xbox lineup.  Well, there’s a new system on the way, and it’s one of a kind.  Microsoft’s new version of the Xbox will be called the Xbox One.

“We have an ambitious vision to become the all-in-one system for every living room,” Microsoft president of Interactive Entertainment Business Don Mattrick said at the Xbox event in Redmond, Wash., this afternoon. Highlighting that the Xbox is not just a gaming system anymore, Mattrick added: “We’re thrilled to unveil the ultimate all-in-one entertainment system: the Xbox One.”

The centerpiece of the Xbox One is its integratedness.  Kinect comes default with Xbox One, and it will be upgraded to feature a sensor powerful enough to detect subtle movements even down to detecting the heartbeat.  To join with that motion control, they will also be having voice control.  If you speak to your Xbox One, it will respond, whether you’re loading Internet Explorer, having voice chats in Skype, or even navigating your system.  Even more impressively, it will also be able to be controlled via tablet and smartphone.

This is a whole different Xbox, and it’s designed to be a total home entertainment system.  Not only will it play games and handle Skype, it will also completely integrate itself with your television.  It’s less a video game console and more a crucial part of your entertainment experience (or so Microsoft hopes).

Yahoo has a demographics problem.  Right now, as befitting one of the first big web properties, it has an older user base.  Quite frankly, in web terms, Yahoo is ancient and its users are too old, too.  Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wants to reverse that trend, and she’s got an idea of how to do that.  Yahoo is looking to buy up Tumblr for a reported $1.1 billion dollars.

“One of our challenges is we have had an aging demographic,” admitted Yahoo CFO Ken Goldman.  ”Part of it is going to be just visibility again in making ourselves cool, which we got away from for a couple of years.”

If they want to get young (and weirdly obsessed with Doctor Who), then buying Tumblr is the way to do that.  However, a lot of folks are itching to get their hands on Tumblr, including Google and Microsoft.  I’m not sure what good buying Tumblr will do for Yahoo, since most Tumblr users are already locked in to their social networks of choice and there’s not a great way to make money off Tumblr (except for maybe banner ads and sponsored posts, which will infuriate the users they’re looking to keep).

I’m not sure how Tumblr is worth $1.1 billion, but if I was Tumblr I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a big stack of cash.

Image:  The Oatmeal