Given all the hype behind this, I decided to give the Throwback sodas a quick review. I wasn’t impressed. Then again, I rarely drink soda. Pepsi needs to step their game up.

I already own a traditional GPS system but I hate the hassle that comes with owning one. You know what I’m talking about, making sure they are always charged, updating the maps/software constantly, not leaving it in plain sight when I exit the car, and remembering to bring it with me when I go on trips. I wanted a simpler solution and hoped and app on my iPhone was what I was looking for. With the various GPS applications within the App Store, it was hard to choose the one that was right for me. I just wanted a program that would update itself, get me where I was going, and didn’t cost more than a traditional GPS device.  After sifting through the mountains of candidates in the App Store, I believe I stumbled across exactly what I was looking for.

Available right now in the App Store is an application called MotionX GPS Drive. With the purchase of this $0.99 app you get 30 days of the “Live Voice Guidance” service that gives you a month to utilize exactly what the name states: live voice guidance for your trips with turn by turn navigation and automatic rerouting if you miss your turn. After the 30 day period is up, you have the option to extend service in two different ways; you can either pay $2.99 which gives you 30 days of use or $24.99 for a year. If you decide that you don’t want to pay any extra, you will still be able to use basic turn by turn directions at no extra cost. Depending on how much you use your GPS you can determine the option that is most economical.

Now that we got all that pricing out of the way, time to jump into the actual use of the app. Recently, I took a road trip from Orlando to Clearwater and used MotionX all the way there. It’s only 2 hours away and pretty much a straight shot aside from intersections leading up to my final destination. All I knew was the name of the restaurant.  No address, no zip code, and I wasn’t really sure what city it was in. Fortunately, I didn’t need to know all of those fine details. I used the search tool and within seconds, the top choice was the place I was looking for. With a simple press of the ‘Navigate’ button I was on my way to my destination. I also took some wrong turns on the way just to see if the re-routing worked as intended, and to my surprise, it was pretty flawless.

The application has a ton of screens that display a vast amount of information, various settings, and also gives you the ability to play your iPod while the application is running. Because the system is relying on a GPS signal, the directions and maps are cached to your device just in case you lose signal for a while. If you get an incoming call, feel free to take it. MotionX GPS Drive will resume navigation as soon as you go back into the application with no hiccups at all. There are a few options that are missing, (i.e Landscape Mode and Text to Speech), but at a price point of $0.99 this can be overlooked.

Because MotionX doesn’t sell a physical device on the market that they provide to consumers, they have the ability to enter the iPhone GPS market at a relatively low cost without any hesitations. All in all, if you’re looking for an inexpensive way to change your iPhone 3G into a GPS, MotionX GPS Drive is a great way to go. I highly recommended this application.

Image Gallery (click to enlarge):

This Christmas, I decided to surprise my family with the gift of digital content. My family loves movies and currently uses Netflix to get their DVD fix. As many of you may know, Netflix has this pretty awesome feature that allows you to instantly stream a vast amount of content directly to your computer which is included in your monthly membership. But who wants to stream content to their computer when they have a huge TV in the living room? That’s right, no one does. This is where my awesome gift comes into play.

There are various devices on the market right now that take advantage of Netflix’s instant streaming services. They range from game systems, Blu-Ray players, and even some TVs. I wasn’t going to buy my family an expensive game console because they wouldn’t use it, and they aren’t ready to make the change to Blu-Ray, so I opted for the next best alternative: a Roku box. Never heard of the Roku box? Neither did I, until I did some research. It essentially acts as a hub between the internet and your television. It’s used exclusively to stream content from various streaming services to your television, bypassing a computer, and creating an easy solution for less tech savvy people. Setup was a breeze, we followed the on-screen directions and within 10 minutes of unwrapping the device we were watching movies directly off of the Netflix website for “free”. Keep in mind that the entire catalogue of Netflix is not available for their streaming services. Just because you can rent it doesn’t mean you can stream it.

The box comes in three different flavors and the difference between each is not hard to decipher. The base model does everything the other two options can do except it can only do SD content and does not have the latest Wireless N standard. The middle box is HD capable, leaving the top tier Roku box to have both HD capability and the latest wireless standard. If you plan on buying one, do the research so you don’t spend the extra money on some unnecessary features that you will never use. If you have no clue what any of that means, you probably want to pick up the basic box and save yourself the hassle.

All in all, the Roku box is a very easy and straightforward way for Netflix users to get their streaming content on their televisions without the hassle of a computer. The Roku box also offers different channels you can stream to your TV like Amazon Video on Demand, Pandora Internet Radio, Revison3, and a pleothera of other channels  that you can check out here. If you’re in the market for such a device, I highly recommend giving this product a try.

I buy things from Amazon. A lot of things to be exact. I even thought about buying food products from the website. If you are in the same situation as me then you have received numerous emails from Amazon containing Promotional Codes, Purchase Rewards, or Promotional Credit for various products. As it turns out, I racked up $47 in Video on Demand credit, $10 worth to spend in their MP3 store, and a free year subscription to Wired magazine. So after subscribing to Wired and buying the latest 50 Cent album, I decided to check out what they had to offer for their Video on Demand service.

I’m usually not one for digital copies of movies unless it comes with the physical disc. I like to hold and show off my movie collection. But free money is free money and I couldn’t let it go to waste. I fired up Amazon.com, headed to the Digital Downloads section, and began my assault on free Video on Demand goodness.

Amazon offers a plethora of different options including TV shows and movies in both high and standard definition. You also have the option to either rent or purchase content for unlimited viewing. The way the store works is you pick the selection you would like to consume, purchase it, and start watching instantly through the player that Amazon provides on the site. This is great but what if I wanted to watch my movies when I wasn’t connected to the Internet? Thankfully, they have a solution for that as well. By downloading their proprietary software, Amazon Unbox, you are given the option to download the content you purchased to your laptop or home computer. The only negative side effect to this method is that the software is for PCs only. So if you’re like me and own a Mac, then you can only watch these movies online.

Consumers also have the option to view their content on TVs as well with such set-top boxes like the Roku. The setup for these systems couldn’t be easier. While on your Roku box, navigate to the Amazon channel, receive a unique code that ties your Roku box to your Amazon account, enter that code on to the website, and you are good to go. You can even set up a pass code for your account so that you are the only one who can purchase movies through the Roku box. Yes, you can purchase content via the Roku box, making it really easy for you to setup a convenient place for loved ones to purchase content digitally without the hassle of a computer.

All in all, if you want to purchase digital content from any of the current systems, Amazon has a pretty easy and intuitive setup going on. You can stream content via the Internet to your TV or computer with little to no setup. While it would be nice if they had a client for the Mac to download the content to your computer, iTunes is still a huge juggernaut in the digital content scene. If you’re looking to hookup your computer illiterate friend or family member with digital goodness, opt for a Roku box or something like it to ease the pain into the new world. I’ll be sticking with my physical copy until that becomes obsolete.

On the eve of the release of Brutal Legend, I decided to use some footage I captured to put together a quick look at the demo. While my time with the demo was limited, it did a great job in getting me excited for the game. I thought having Jack Black as the voice for the main character would be a horrible idea, but based on the demo alone, it seems to have worked out for the best.

Let’s hope Rocktober 13th is an awesome day.

Man, that’s so lame.

Being that I’ve always played a Street Fighter title with a D-pad, I decided to go out and buy the new Street Fighter IV Fightpad yesterday and I’m in love with it. I already knew that it would be amazing because I got the chance to play with it earlier in the year and it’s as awesome now as it was last month.

If you ever played with the 6 button Sega controller or the Sega Saturn controller then you already know what the pad feels like. We all know that the pads on both the 360 and PS3 leave you wanting more and surprisingly Mad Catz nailed it. My only complaint with the 360 version is that it’s not wireless but I can live with that.

The footage above contains a section of me playing online against someone and I almost get my ass beaten. To be honest, I was playing it on my Macbook Pro screen so that I could capture the footage. Also, I was kind of leaning to the right so I could capture the footage of me playing with the controller. I’m honestly not that bad at the game.

….maybe.

If you have any random question about the pad that I could answer, feel free to ask away.

With 2009 upon us, I decided to make my first New Year resolution ever: MORE CONTENT! I have a lot of exciting projects lined up for the this year and I hope you join me for the ride. Yes I know,  my RSS feed has been cold for the past month but that’s because I had to refocus my efforts to make sure that what I plan on unveiling is worth both the time and effort. So stay tuned to Byte Size Reviews as we bring random content right into your home. Or iPhone. Or computer. Or whatever you use to consume electronic entertainment.

Also next week, yours truly will be in Vegas for CES. I hope to bring you a look at this industry event like you’ve never seen it before.

I’m usually not one for dressing up when it comes to Halloween and when I do, I just go for stuff that’s around the house. This, however, is a different story. For only a $100 and a few hours of work, I can have custom made armor from the Halo universe! Why wouldn’t I want to do this?

The awesome team at Indy Mogul put together is quick video to show the masses how they can have their very own suit of armor. Also, if you never checked out their features called Backyard FX, I highly recommend checking them out. With a little time and patience, I could make a ridiculous cool movie in my apartment. Decisions, decisions.

Now if I can get 40 other people in Orlando to make a suit, we can take over downtown next year.

Well, where should I begin? When I  first heard about a game that would give gamers the tools necessary to create your own levels, I immediately wrote it off as a game that I would never play. I’m not the type of gamer who enjoys level editors or creating my own content; so I thought.

Little Big Planet gives anyone the tools necessary to make their dream levels come true. You want to make a level that never stops moving? You can do it. Have you thought of a very complex car that only drives in certain situation? You have that tools at your disposal to make that thought a reality. There are endless possibilities for you to discover in this game and that is one part of the equation that makes this game so much fun. Tweaking every variable of your own idea is very rewarding. If you can think it, you can probably build it on this game.

The other part of the equation is actually playing the game. If you haven’t smiled while playing this game you either don’t have a soul or you’re doing it wrong. During the beta, there were numerous user created levels that oozed with creativity. Seeing some of the more complex levels were just simply amazing and made me want to create a level of my own for others to enjoy. Don’t get me wrong though, there are some horrible ones but you have to expect that from a beta. The user ratings in the beta wasn’t not much help and I often relied on my friends list to find the truly awesome levels. When you’re surfing through user created levels, you have the option to add them to a favorite list. Anyone on your friend’s list can see your favorites and choose to play them as well. I’m sure the process of bubbling up great user created levels will be more refined when the game finally ships and this will drive people to try and perfect their levels.

In addition to the user created content, there will also be a single player aspect to the game. The levels in the single player game will be ones created by the Media Molecule and will probably be super polished. These levels can also be played by yourself or with up to 3 of your friends. If it’s anything like the beta, the single player part of the game gives you more tools for you to use in the creation of your own levels. While I’m not sure if there will be a story to go along with it, I know I’ll probably finish it once so that I can ensure that I have all the tools at my disposal.

Overall, Little Big Planet is a wonderful surprise of a game. Being able to create whatever your mind can come up with is very satisfying. If you have a PS3 then you should own this game, no question about it. Hopefully, in the future, Sony will bundle this game with the system so everyone can have this be their first experience with the machine.

Above is a video of the level that took me roughly 7 hours to put together. All of the content is custom made and hopefully I’ll be able to build upon it even more when the game finally gets released.