I’ve not gotten a subscription to GameTap because we already have far too many gaming choices at home that I can play easily with a controller. I’m not a fan of keyboard-controlled games (gasp) and I haven’t taken the time to make my television easily linked with a computer, until now.

When we moved, my husband sneakily purchased an HDTV (one of my first days in the office) and took my gaming laptop and joined it (via MediaCenter) to this shiny new TV. I came home from work and in a day he had transformed our box-filled living room into a full-fledged media room, which is amazing since the codecs for MediaCenter are notoriously still tricky deal with and the fact that he did this feat in a few hours is mindboggling. If you haven’t set up a MediaCenter, or played with Vista either, then you don’t understand, but if you’ve even attempted this, then you know how long this takes, if you are ever even successful. When I installed the Vista beta last fall, I had no sound for months (explains the LONG time between podcasts and vidcasts, doesn’t it… I blame it all on Microsoft LOL).

Anyway, it was this MediaCenter/HDTV that made me want to give GameTap another look. I finally have a reason to hook my controller up to this TV. I mean, I can probably do it easily using the XBox Extender service.

But, I probably would have still taken months to get around to doing this, if I hadn’t read today on ArsTechnica that GameTap is going the ad-supported model and making their service free.

While GameTap will still offer subscriptions, GameTap.com will expand from its current role as a portal to the GameTap client and will offer big-name classic games to play for free, all supported by the ads displayed on the page. The new site will launch on May 31 and will feature 30 games to begin, including titles like Metal Slug, Joust, and Rampage. These are titles that are being sold for premium prices on other consoles, so they may be able to draw the high number of people required to make this strategy profitable.

There literally is no barrier to playing now. As a marketing hack I always get excited when I see advertising used in creative and relatively new ways, but the cheap geek in me has always dreamed of a day when all games will cease to be $60 a pop and will be liberally sprinkled with ads and in-game placement ala most movies. Has that day finally come? Well, not really, but still I can go and play Metal Slug and Joust, and soon Laura Croft: Anniversary.

The service doesn’t open up until the end of the month, and it will be competing with the much anticipated Halo 3 beta (May 11-June 9), but I’m sure I’ll still find some time to Joust my heart away for free. Of course, that doesn’t even begin to imagine the fun we could have on GameTap, one-the-go, with a UMPC. Gosh, just thinking about it gives me goose bumps!

The Tabletscape and UMPC community are doing their best to keep their eyes open for a ‘considerable number’ of slates that were stolen from a TabletKiosk Warehouse in Torrance, CA. Here’s the note that Gail from TabletKiosk sent to a few bloggers:

The Tablet PC and UMPC fan base is often referred to as a community. This is why I am reaching out to the online Tablet and UMPC fan base so that we can all respond in a unified front.

On Sunday, February 11, the TabletKiosk warehouse in Torrance, CA was robbed. The thieves stole a considerable number of Sahara Slate PCs, eo v7110s and eo v7210 units.

We are working with the police to catch the perpetrators and retrieve the stolen units and are exploring every possible avenue. This is why we are asking for assistance from the Tablet and UMPC community who often uncover significant information about Tablet PCs and UMPCs online.

The stolen units are both pre-configured and configured units as well as some customers’ personal machines.

If you find information about any eo UMPC or Sahara Slate PCs for sale which seem too good to be true, I would appreciate if you would send the information to my attention. A reward will be provided for the person who provides us with information leading to the culprit.

Gail Levy
TabletKiosk
gail@tabletkiosk.com

Because the community is so close at this point, I think they may just find these units. It’s great to see a community band together like this.

The Model 02 by OQO is really generating some buzz since it’s debut at CES last week (won Best of CES Award and was mentioned in Gates’ keynote). See the video from OQO here.

OQO is made up of former Apple-ites, and they bring the beautiful and practical design of their former employer to the Model 02. Irina Slutsky and Eddie Codel met with Nick Merz, the Dir of Design at OQO. Here’s the video from Podtech.

Some specs:

Good:

* processor: 1.2GHz CPU
* operating system: Windows XP Home
* hard disk drive: 30GB 1.8 inch HDD
* memory: 512MB DDR2 SDRAM
* wireless: WiFi 802.11 abg + Bluetooth
$1499

Better:

* processor: 1.5GHz CPU
* operating system: Windows XP Professional
* hard disk drive: 60GB 1.8 inch HDD
* memory: 512MB DDR2 SDRAM
* wireless: WiFi 802.11 abg + Bluetooth
$1699

Best:

* processor: 1.5GHz CPU
* operating system: Windows XP Professional
* hard disk drive: 60GB 1.8 inch HDD
* memory: 1GB DDR2 SDRAM
* wireless: WiFi 802.11 abg + Bluetooth
$1849

I’m seriously considering this. I’ve been in the market for a UMPC for 2 months now, and everyone I see just isn’t quite what I want (a full PC that will fit in my purse). The closest I’ve found is not really a UMPC, but a Tablet with a 5.5″ screen, LG I think.

I’m in San Fran next week, I may see if I can get my greedy little hands on this thing when I get there.