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Just after Lady Gaga made headlines by releasing her full album for less than a buck on Amazon’s new Cloud Player, a community member began to wonder if this service was something he should be using. He asked the question on our Q&A site, and the answers surprised me. Nearly everyone claimed they do not plan to use the new Cloud Player – unless some big changes are made.

Yes, I plan to use it. I have several GB worth of music stored in the Cloud Player. However, I listen to another service to listen to music. I pay to access music subscriptions through services such as Pandora and Rhapsody. I happen to feel it’s important to support artists by paying for what I listen to.

I prefer to consume my music without having to manage it locally. It’s just easier that way. I’d rather just subscribe to something instead of having to buy an album outright. I like being able to rent it indefinitely. I can listen to pretty much anything that might be available in those libraries at any given time.

The Amazon Cloud Player is good for remote storage. I plan to move all of my MP3s there, but I might hold on until they offer a bit more. I want the ability to tag my stuff and sort it in the way I want. Yes, I can dump it all in there and let it import, but it’s just not for me. Not even iTunes is for me. Heck, I’m not even happy with Google’s newest offering at this point.

What do you think? Are you a fan of services such as this? I gotta admit: if I have to choose, I’m going to go with subscription services… for audio and video. I love being able to listen to a huge variety of things without having to burn a disc.

I will use Amazon Cloud Storage – but it will never be my music home.

Are You a Fan of Amazon Cloud Player?

Beginning November 1st, the cost of an Xbox Live Gold subscription will be increasing in the US, UK, Canada and Mexico. Not all packages are going to have their prices raised, but many of them will see a noticeable difference. Microsoft states that “we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members, while keeping the price the same. We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry.”

If you want to lock in your current price prior to the change, you can sign in to your account and do so at any time. Additionally, find out when your subscription expires before making any decisions.

I’m hearing a lot of grumbling around our community about this change. People are upset at having to pay a couple of extra dollars per month. Why is that? Do you feel that the service is not worth paying more for?

Why not start a discussion over on the Questions and Answers site or on Geeks. I know that there are some people who don’t mind the changes, and there are those who are seriously angry. I’m interested in hearing both sides of the debate.

Xbox Live Gold Subscription Pricing Changes

I’m betting one of the biggest reasons you’re a Hulu fan would be the fact that consumption doesn’t cost you anything. It looks as though the company will soon be switching over to a paid model much like you’d find with Netflix. They are also looking to expand the service onto devices such as the Xbox 360 and iPad.

Hulu, which generated an estimated $100 million in advertising revenue last year, will continue to offer newer episodes of shows like Fox’s “Glee” free of charge, but it will also charge viewers a monthly fee to see older episodes and other content, two of the sources said.

Hulu gained about $100 million in advertising revenue last year. They will reportedly continue to offer new episodes of your favorite shows free of charge. Watching older episodes and other content will likely require a monthly fee. Advertising is what has allowed the service to remain free up until this point. Competition in this market is fierce, and Hulu is stepping up its game in order to be one of the top dogs in consumption services.

Will you pay a fee to catch up on your shows, or will you look elsewhere for them?

• Why is a Mozilla evangelist unhappy with Apple?
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• China says that they will continue to censor the Internet as they see fit.
• Are you at the end of your rope when trying to decide what gadgets to buy?
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• What advantages (or disadvantages) are there to shopping online?
• Would you run Linux on an MSI X600 laptop?
• Windows 7 was NOT your idea! It was mine.
• If you could ask your 20-years-in-the-future self a question, what would you want to know?
• What’s missing from iPhone 4?
• Have you gotten to play with a Panasonic Lumix G2?
• Could you give up any of your technology – even for a day?
• BP bought out top sponsor links from Google and Yahoo in an attempt to improve the company image.
• What social networking site do you spend the most time on?
• BeFunky offers awesome photo editing and effects tools for everyday people.
• Do you like your boss?
• The 2010 Mazda3: What’s up with that smile?
• If the iPad “goes anywhere,” why isn’t it allowed at Yankee Stadium?
• Are you a fan of “no-cost” software?

You don’t have to pay a monthly fee to gain access to all of the hottest software and apps for all of your machines and devices.

Will You Pay for Hulu?

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Even after all these years, I still enjoy reading – and writing for – CPU Magazine. I’ve been working with them since the beginning, back in 2001. CPU Magazine is really geared towards GearHeads. There are reviews about software and hardware, and you can even find the occasional benchmark test. When is the last time you picked one up? If it’s been awhile, why not use a discount and order yourself a subscription for the new year?

The news in the magazine may be a little out-of-date, but I don’t really read it for the news. I read it for the excellent articles you can find every month. I don’t read my article, of course, since I wrote it! I wanted to do a video about CPU Magazine because many of the questions you all ask me on a daily basis could honestly be answered if you were subscribed to this magazine. Things like “What’s the best OS?” and “What RAM should I buy?” can be found each and every month in CPU Magazine.

I swear that the most common question in my live chat room is “What’s the best video card to buy?!”. Well guess what? This month’s issue of CPU Magazine covers the answer to that very conundrum.

Paper isn’t dead yet, so why not order it today? I know that if enough of you are out there who want a subscription, I can probably get all of you a discount. I can’t promise anything, but if enough of you email me your interest, I will forward it to my editor and see what I can do.

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Want a CPU Magazine Discount Subscription?

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Years ago, my Dad sold magazines for a living. I really haven’t subscribed to any for a long time. Do any of you actually subscribe to any magazines, and actually have them delivered to your house? It seems that with some of them, even if you stop paying for them… they keep showing up! I’ve had several in the past that I just quit paying, because I no longer wanted to receive them. Yet they still keep coming! Usually, by the time news reaches your mailbox in a magazine… it’s already old news. You’ve read it online, or watched it on television. Even weekly periodicals can be out of date by the time it gets to you.

What if you want to create your own magazine and archive it forever and ever? You might head over to Tabbloid. You don’t even need to sign up to get started with things. You really can create your own ‘magazine’.

Enter in the RSS feeds that you want to read. Choose what email you want it sent to, along with the day(s) and time(s) you want it sent. Voila! That’s all there is to it. As soon as you set your options, you can click on “generate now” at the bottom. Your .pdf will be created and opened, ready to read or even print.

RSS feeds are everywhere. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be an RSS feed… it could be an Atom feed. Any website that has a feed is able to be placed into your magazine. You can read and delete it, save it for later, print it out, or even just archive it forever. It may be what you’ve been looking for all these years.

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What Kind of Magazines do You Like?

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On Feb 1st, I opened up the phone lines. One of the questions I received was “Is .Mac really worth having?” I personally have .Mac, and I feel it’s worth it more at $60 than when it was over $100.00.

If you don’t have your own website, or need extra hosting… then yes, you should get a .Mac subscription. If you want to take advantage of a limited amount of sharing, or have web storage… then yes, it’s worth it. To me, I think the Remote Desktop feature is less important. However, think about it from the point of an average user. Being able to connect to your Mac at home from anywhere in the World is an amazing feature for most people.

Basically, you need to weigh the cost of the service against what all you’ll get for the price. Will you use the services offered? Are they things that you actually need? If so, then you should think about getting yourself a subscription. However, if you honestly don’t think you’ll use any of those features… why spend the money?

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Is .Mac Worth Buying?