Samsung has been on a roll with some of the most innovative new phone ideas we’ve seen. But one of the best ideas in a long time is still the Jitterbug, the cell phone and service aimed at seniors.

Remember the Firefly? The cell phone aimed at kids with one button dialing for mom, dad or more controversially 911. Whether kids need a cell phone is a debate we’ll to another time. But, what about grandma and grandpa? 

Sure, you get a senior citizen one of Samsung’s other swell new devices like the Glyde with slide out QWERTY keyboard. Most people over 60 are going to take one look at most of today’s Smartphones with their tiny buttons and microscopic fonts upon diminutive displays and say… “What the heck am I supposed to do with that?”

Maybe Gramps doesn’t care about the latest innovation in Smartphones. But that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t benefit from staying connected while on the road. These days many seniors are traveling the countryside having traded in their 1960s choppers for 2000s motor homes.

The Jitterbug is the stylish clamshell phone designed to look and feel like a regular home phone. Pop it open and you’ll hear an audible dial-tone and you’ll be greeted with large easy to read buttons topped off with a bright screen. The jitterbug also comes with an available phone service for emergencies or to assist with any of the day-to-day difficulties your senior might encounter.

The padded receiver is a nice touch. The phone rests on your head with comfortable padding that is designed to fit over a hearing aid and a speaker capable of belting out high decibels with an easily adjustable volume. Freed of confusing, tiny buttons and features found on many other phones today the Jitterbug is the easy to use alternative for seniors - even if they’re not quite old enough to remember when the Jitterbug was the dance hall fave.

Activision will launch Call of Duty 5, yet another installment of the wildly popular Call of Duty series. Now Maximumfear.net has some of the first details of what Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC gamers alike can expect from the upcoming game being developed by Treyarch.

The Call of Duty series have taken gamers all over world in epic, beautifully rendered struggles. This time the franchise goes back to familiar ground. Developed by a veteran of Call of Duty 3, Treyarch will takes the game back to World War II to explore some of the war’s darker side.

The new game will use the same graphics engine of Call of Duty 4 but will add a few enhancements. It’ll bring gamers to the war in the Pacific theater as US forces face Imperial Japan. Another plotline in the upcoming first-person war-shooter will have you playing as the Russians facing the might of Nazi forces in Germany.

A few things to be ready for are the fighting styles and new ways to impose digitally rendered destruction. According to a military advisor to the game’s developers the Japanese are going to fight using some shocking and unorthodox ways… Sun Tsu would be proud. 

The only potential fly in the ointment of an otherwise sound franchise is the enormous popularity of Call of Duty 4, developed by Infinity Ward for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. It’s going to be difficult to follow-up the kind of love gamers have this game. Consider that Call of Duty 3, the last Treyarch addition, was widely considered the most mediocre in the series. I’m willing to give it a chance. It’s been awhile since I’ve gone on a virtual romp through the South Pacific.

Thanks to Maximumfear.net for the image.

The world’s leading provider of marketing information has decreed Xbox 360 is the most popular game console among the American Millennials that’s the generation otherwise known as Gen Y. According to Nielsen’s report Xbox 360 is far ahead of even Wii which has sold more consoles than any other.

The study was conducted from April 2007 to February 2008 and is included in a complete rundown of the purchasing habits of the generation they’re now calling the Millennials. The generational breakdowns go as follows: GenX are born between 1965 and 1981 followed by the Millennials born from 1982 to 1998. According to the study the Millennials are the most connected and diverse generation America has known.

Nielsen came to the Xbox 360 conclusion based on what it calls attach rate, the number of games owned along with the system. For you younger Gen Y gamers out there; the number of games your parents bought for you, not the games through which you dispense PWNAGE though Xbox Live.

The study concludes that the higher number of games owned, the more the system is used. It’s likely that the study was tilted toward Microsoft because Xbox 360 was enjoying a peak period through most of last year. During the study Halo 3 was released and the other consoles were lagging way behind Xbox 360 in total available games.

However, you mature gamers out there seem to prefer spending time with your PlayStation 3. The average usage days among the 27+ crowd topped at 21.65 for PlayStation 3, narrowly beating out Xbox 360’s 19.34. This is probably because the PS3 has a built in Blu-ray player that attracts many home theater enthusiasts.

Gears of War Xbox 360One of the best shooters to come along for the Xbox 360 is getting a much appreciated price drop. If you haven’t taken a walk in Markus Fenix boots yet your chance to do it on the cheap comes on June 4, but you might want to hold out for awhile and get your hands on the Special Edition.

The scheduled release of the $40 version of Gears of War is June 4. But soon after on June 24, a special edition two-disc set of Gears of War for Xbox 360 will appear at the same retail price of … you guessed it $40.

The Special Edition of Gears of War will feature the game on the first disc but the second disc will contain the extra goodies. Included on disc two will be Map packs 1 & 2 along with some Gears of War themes and trailers.

Sorry Xbox 360 gamers, this new version won’t include the Timgad level which is a PC exclusive. If you’re not a huge GoW fanatic is it worth the wait for the extra disc? After all it’s only a couple of map packs and some themes and trailers.

Yes, you might as well wait! You’ve waited this long to jump into GoW - what’s twenty more days? Look on the bright side, by the time you’ve completed all the GoW Special Edition content you’ll be ready for the sequel due out in November.

 Editorial Correction: GoW is a third person shooter, not a first person shooter. It’s a POV thing.

Age of Conan was just released to PC last week to much anticipation in the gaming community. The game’s developers Funcom has already released a first patch for the game and some impressive early sales figures.

In the its first week, the new Massively Multiplayer Online Game has 400,000 active players. Even Funcom admits that it’s way too early to tell if the game’s sales are any indication of success. But at this rate it’ll take no time to reach a user base of over 1 million members, considered by the industry to mark the success of any MMO. Funcom should be hopeful however, the games designer reported over a million signed up for the game’s beta.

Age of Conan fans will be happy to note that Funcom has already released a patch for the game. The update will fix a few bugs including one that caused players to get stuck in the Lacheish Planes. Another major complaint of an in-game dupe exploit has yet to be repaired. In the online gaming world a Dupe Exploit usually refers to a method that allows players to cheat and create duplicate items or other in-game resources.

It’s quite likely that many of us potential Hyperborians are waiting it out before jumping with both sandals into the gore-fest. After a few patches the game should attract even the most cautious gamers.

The environmental watchdog says the popular game consoles contain harmful chemicals. Although the systems don’t pose an immediate threat to gamers as they gleefully mash on the buttons or wave their wii-motes in the air… Greenpeace raises the serious issue of harmful chemicals used in consumer electronics.

It sounds alarmist, saying that the consoles can kill – but PVCs, bromine and beryllium alloys are dangers substances that can affect the human body in a number of ways including causing cancer. Granted the amounts of the harmful substances are below regulations but over time, exposure builds up and will affect us over time. Worse still, many of these game consoles will end up as e-waste left to leak into our landfills and poison our water. Have a cold glass of Bromine!

It’s not just game consoles that contain such chemicals, they’re found in cell phones, HDTVs and other common consumer goods. Our own Green Gadget section reveals many of the initiatives worldwide that are helping to keep electronics clean.

“Nobodywill drop dead tomorrow - but these products are used by kids … They are persistent and they are accumulating through our life.” Says Greenpeace’s Zeina AlHajj stated, remarking on the cumulative nature of exposure to certain harmful chemicals.

In response to the charges laid recently by Greenpeace, each of the game console’s manufacturers came out with dry, yawn inducing statements about their commitment to health and the environment. Greenpeace says that Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony has pledged to phase out toxic chemicals within a few years but urged them to move faster.

Microsoft is tooting its horn today about recent sales reports for Xbox 360. In the US it’s in first place among the current crop of consoles including Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3. If exaggerated failure rate estimates hold true - that’s only 3 million red circles of death!

Nintendo Wii is still the winner in worldwide sales. That little console that could keeps chugging along selling 25.8 million internationally according to VGChartz.com. The same figures say Xbox 360 has sold 18.9 million and PS3 sold only 12.6 million.

Unfortunately for Microsoft the Xbox 360 has been suffering from an abnormally high failure rate. The failure is affectionately known as the red circle of death for the red ring that appears around the power button when it has suffered damage and needs to be serviced by Microsoft.

Failure rates were once rumored to be as high as 30% - a bit that emerged from the Internet, so it must be true. At 10 million that means Microsoft has serviced 3 million bad consoles. Peter Moore, former VP of Interactive Entertainment of Microsoft famously claimed it was only 3%, which is probably another exaggeration. A third party called Square Trade, a warranty seller, conducted a survey with a sample size of over a thousand Xbox 360s. It came to the conclusion that failure rates looked a lot like 16.4%.

Failure rates that high are costly for Microsoft! Whatever shortcuts it took at the engineering, production and quality assurance stage came back to bite them in a big way. It just goes to show that haste makes waste.

Two current generation consoles comprise the biggest rivalry since Ranger Rick first tried to foil Yogi’s picnic basket larceny. Even though Nintendo’s Wii has secretly been running away with sales figures to die for, manufacturers of the premium priced consoles continue to wage a war of words.

I read a so-called InformativePost (entitled PS3 vs Xbox 360) on Google News this morning that has me a bit annoyed. I’ll work it over a bit here but won’t link to it. The so-called news story is written by a self-styled PS3 supporter and the article allegedly compares the two consoles. His conclusion is that that PS3 is the better product and everyone is entitled to their own opinion – even it is wrong!

The writer comes to that conclusion because he believes that the PlayStation 3 Network is now better than Xbox Live because it’s free. The article looks at available games and concludes that Haze is comparable to Halo 3. If his criterion is games beginning with the letter H, then he has a valid point.

Xbox Live happens to be the largest online console gaming community ever. It stands so high above Sony in numeric popularity that Sony doesn’t even register. Sony’s Network is free of course because it has to be to even consider competing with Xbox Live.

Home is said to be the upcoming killer app for Sony’s online community. Truth be told - it looks innovative and cool as hell! If the social online, massively multiplayer world based around PlayStation 3 is a smash hit it may just tip the online scale to something near equal with Xbox Live or even beat it in the long run.

At a time when Sony is gloating about its sales numbers exceeding Xbox 360s in Europe, Microsoft disputes the numbers. In fact Xbox live product management director Aaron Greenberg said he’s confident Xbox 360 will extend its lead over PS3 in 2008.

The rivalry is heating up and if Microsoft isn’t careful, Sony might just end up running away with a sandwich from its picnic basket.

The first game-play footage of Gears of War 2 was revealed on Xbox Live and across the Internet over the weekend. The locusts are back and deadlier than ever in this snapshoot of Epic Games soon-to-be hit Xbox 360 exclusive.

All the grinding, gory action sequences you’d expect from a Gears of War sequel, adorn the clip, complete with camera splatter. The clip includes an intro from designer Cliff Bleszinski, the same guy who introduced the third person action shooter at the Game Developers Conference earlier this year.

The game is slated for release in November this year and is sure to be another hit for Microsoft’s Xbox 360. The first installment of the gritty, action third person shooter blew away gamers with its unique feel that pushed the limits on the third person perspective.

Sure, there have been plenty of third person action games since Lara Croft raided her first tomb. But Gears of War had a twist. It used that perspective to make you feel like you were in the middle of the action. Its shaky camera and the occasional lens splatter are reminiscent of a war correspondent on the front lines. The technique played well with the game’s apocalyptic horror scenario and probably kept a few gamers up at night with its addictive game-play and compelling story.

Gears of War 2 looks like it’ll follow suit and as promised by Bleszinski. It’s looking so far to be bigger, badder and scarier than ever.

Reports from Chinese chip makers contracted for Microsoft have given us a head’s up on an important development for Xbox 360. They say a new a cooler-running 65-nm GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) codenamed Jasper will be set for production by end of summer.

Last year we demonstrated how to identify the Xbox 360s that are fitted with the new 65-nm CPUs code named Falcon. But even the Falcon-packing Xbox 360 still contains the same old 90-nm GPU. We’ll finally see an Xbox 360 in production with a 65-nm CPU and GPU - together at last!

The 65-nm tandem will make Xbox 360 run cooler and consumer less power. So look for an Xbox 360 on store shelves this fall that’ll run cooler than a Halloween chill. It should be released just in time to prevent red-circle-of-death meltdowns during upcoming Gears of War 2 all-nighters.

The long term outlook for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has an even more advanced chip coming around 2009-2010. Valhalla is the codename for a unified CPU/GPU combo chip. The new system could put Xbox 360 into a smaller, more efficient package.

Now hopefully Microsoft is also doing something about the noise of Xbox 360, the thing sounds like a jet plane getting ready for takeoff.