Guess what? I'm still yawning. *yawns*

I have to admit, a lot of new tech that I read or hear about, or see, is enough to get me pretty excited. My internal hype engine is tuned only to technology and games these days — the newest Lamborghini only gets a yawn from me; it’s far too much like the Batmobile. But there are a few new toys on the block that pique my interest — while these look kind of gimmicky, I thought I’d share these with you anyway.

THE APPLE iPAD

Seriously, who thinks up these silly names in the Apple labs? Not only is it in direct violation of Fujitsu’s own marketed iPad brand, but it just sounds really silly in this, the 21st century.  We’re in an age where computing is more a part of your life than a necessary evil. It is my opinion that the sandbox environment for iPad users will be more  frustrating than previously thought possible, and here I believe Google’s Chrome tablet will impress to no end.

Fail in most areas, but the iPad may be another feather in Apple's ridiculously priced cap.

Additionally, the iPad is already in trouble from both the HP and Notion Ink Adam tablets, both of which are far more capable devices than the iPad. Apple also makes a killing off various models, and starts off with $208 profit from the low-range model. This is clearly a ripoff for most. Gimmick spotted!

EYEFINITY

I’m unsure about this one. With this, ATI has single-handedly changed the way game developers are looking at gaming on multiple screens. In the past, you could only play on the one monitor while the other sat idle [Assuming that SupCom never did this, of course. -Ed]. Well, its no longer the case, and there are games out there right now that can easily take advantage of this sweet feature. But is it a gimmick?

I recently saw this in action in a couple of cellphone-shot videos (because I’m obviously not rich enough for something like this) and can really see the benefits of having three screens. On the one hand, I’ll never have to dig around for that app I left open buried underneath all the others – I can leave it on the one screen and monitor what it’s doing. On the other hand, this picture below:

NVIDIA, eat my left nipple. THIS is the way that games are meant to be played. Just look at that – the view, the wrap-around feeling is completely amazing, and I already know a few people who have similar setups. Eyefinity on six or more monitors is a gimmick, but on 3, it’s perfect. I’m getting a setup like this in the near future.

DRM

Yes, I know, DRM has never been something people can actually use to their benefit, and to this day neither has any company strived to do that. There are many other gimmicks out there, but this one always deserves mention — because no stupid gimmick leaves us sitting with a dead game that requires the Internet for LANs. Please, developers, release your games with Steam integration in the future — Valve knows a hell of a lot more than anyone else about how to satisfy their customers offline.