When Lucas made the announcement they showed a previously unreleased scene from Return of the Jedi which will be included, Luke constructs his green light saber before going to see Jabba:

Source: SlashFilm.com

Incidentally Diablo III is in development and you can preorder the game no details yet as to a collectors edition.

Does this approach to adding items such as gadgets, memorabilia, art, behind the scenes footage, audio cd’s, etc work? Some times it does. There are gamers out there who covert these special editions the same way that baseball card and comic book collectors build up their own secret vault of archived goodies. There are other gamers, like myself, who are willing to shell out sometimes double the cost of the game itself for such items.

Just reviewing the last few years shows that when a company has a killer title or property they know they can shave a few more ounces of your hard earned cash from your wallet and we will continue to pay with a distant smile of geek happiness as we do.

2007

Brought us Halo 3 and a replica Master Chief helmet.

2008
Saw me shelling out for Fallout 3: The Survival Amazon Exclusive.

2009
Was ruled by Modern Warfare 2 which offered up night vision goggles and I passed up on this one.

2010

So far this year we have:

Coming soon incarnations of this shiny extra laiden approach to selling games include:

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Which comes with a remote control car that has a built in video camera that can transmit images over wireless.

“Not you fat Jesus.”

This past weekend Mrs Ubernerkle, the Minions and I headed off to Vegas, me to attend a friends bachelor party and them to have a mini getaway. My wife brought two books with her and I brought the Kindle. While driving out there I suggested that she pull out the Kindle and take a look at “Suck It, Wonder Woman” by Olivia Munn.

I was thinking of getting one of the new generation and having both devices associated to the same Amazon account we can share the same library of books which nicely fills the ‘lend a book’ gap between the Kindle and Nook. This was a good test to see if she took a shine to it.

I spent a couple of hours hanging at the pool with the family between bouts of bachelor party geekery and was very happy to see I did not have;

There is a lot to be said for sticking your room key and cell in the Kindle cover and just heading out. Not to mention being able to turn a page with one thumb press and thus not having to put down said mojito’s for any reason.

The Kindle 2 fits reasonably well into the pockets of cargo shorts and the new generation is even smaller by a half inch in width and height.

“Tigers love pepper… they hate cinnamon.”

A few folks have asked me what sort of savings I have seen with eBook versus traditional print so below is a break down based on my own experiences and to point out the obvious there is still the initial outlay for the device itself. These titles cost me $51 less than it would buying them in their respective physical formats. As you can see it the savings are quite varied and in some cases do not exist at all but can add up over time.

* shows the price I paid when I bought the title, the savings at the time of purchase.

Bookswim

About a year ago I stopped using the Bookswim service primarily because they had run out of the titles that I was interested in reading. I had begun eyeing traditional print media again but was not willing to go back to the old habits. I downloaded the Amazon Kindle application for my Blackberry and took a stab at e-books.

I told myself it was just an experiment, a toe dip to see if it was plausible to read an entire novel on a smart phone. Three books later and I had become sold on the ease of purchase, no waiting for shipping, sample chapters and cheaper prices than traditional media; something I will cover in a separate post.

There is a selection of e-readers on the market now and I had been holding out for a dual screen device that offered both a touch screen tablet and an e-ink screen. I poked at the iPad when it launched thinking it would be the device of choice but after an extended reading period of about fifteen minutes both my eyes and my forearms were strained from using it. The Nook dropped in price to $149 recently and Amazon responded by dropping the Kindle to $189. Technically the Nook had the most appeal but when it came down title availability the Kindle still had more to offer so I picked one up at the local Target.

Since getting the Kindle I am reading more than I have in a long time, I consistently have two or three titles on the go at any one time. Current count 93 titles comprising of paid, free and sample materials.

GameFly

GameFly was the next to bite the dust for a very simple reason. In September mrsUbernerkle will be giving birth to a new addition in our family. It makes no sense to pay for a game rental service when the opportunity to sleep let alone game will be a rare thing.

Netflix

Netflix is still holding strong with both streaming and DVD rentals, the occasional Amazon on Demand still slips through to our Tivo. We now have Netflix streaming to Tivo, two Xbox 360′s and a BluRay player.

With the reduction of books, games and time it made sense to pack up TemporalConsumer and use Ubernerkle to share some of the things I would have there.

Things started off fairly simple. We were having friends over for a pre-Thanksgiving party and we converted our dining room closet into a mini dry bar using some Elfa pieces we had from previous Container Store projects.

After the party though I began thinking it would be nice to have a larger bar. In my home office we had a Hemnes 8 drawer dresser which was basically being used as a side board and a place to hang the dogs leashes.

The video shows what happened.

Eventually I might removed one side of the faux shelving to drop in a converted mini fridge/kegerator.

Dec 1st 2009 – Updated video with alternate audio track to stop the video being blocked in germany.

“The Cup of Tears follows a scorned geisha who creates a magical cup made of tears that causes any man who drinks from it to fall into a permanent sleep. One night the cup is stolen, setting off a chain of events that threatens civil war amongst the clans. Taro, a gifted samurai, sets out to find the cup and one who can break the spell.”

Samurai meets post apocalyptic future, sign me up!

The Cup of Tears film trailer. Dir. Gary Shore from Gary Shore on Vimeo.

Gimzmodo.com shared Nikola Tesla’s Spirit Radio. You can build your own version using the link they provided http://www.instructables.com/id/Spooky-Tesla-Spirit-Radio/

Pull over and place your hands on the arm rests of your recliner! This was reported from several different sources including the BBC. Engadget.com: Police auction off motorized recliner after charing owner with DUI

Gizmodo: The Lexus LF-A rendered in transparent acrylic, shiney!

Comes from News.bbc.co.uk: the winner of the Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009.

Gizmdo: Shooting Anvils shares an amazing video of a guy who puts two anvils together with gun powder in between and then lights it and fires one 100 ft plus into the air. Wuh huh?

Engadget: Has an article on some new earbuds for the shy and timid who just want to blend it and not be noticed:

Finally you can now create your own Marvel comics using the Marvel Comic Book creator pointed out by Gizmodo.com. Which allows you to drag and drop build your own comic strips and books. Let the abuse begin!