The next round of game-platform redesigns may still be four to five years out, but chip and software designers in the areas of wireless, microeletromechanical systems, displays, miniature cameras, sensors, actuators and storage have an opportunity to be part of those multi-100-million shipments as platforms respond faster to user demands by focusing on interactivity, connectivity and information display.

Indeed, this may push gaming platforms from peripheral to the center of the home-entertainment system and replace the set-top box with broadband and cable/satellite capability, complemented by fully digital or optical audio and video inputs and outputs and PVR storage.

Ever since the latest crop of game platforms began rolling out late last year, improvements and upgrades were already in the works. The xbox 360 Elite's big improvements over the xbox 360 were a bigger hard drive and a HDMI connection.

sony also is about to release a PS3 with an 80-Gbyte hard drive, up from 60 Gbytesand will kill the 20-Gbyte option. The move to online gaming and the ability to download content has been a huge driver of local storage.

Nintendo's Wii came with Wi-Fi capability out-of-the-box and while the others support Wi-Fi as a peripheral, SI expects them to have it out of the box soon. With the runaway success of Wii's 6-axis controller technology, MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) is expected to be an increasing part of controller design, as well as for pdas and other handsets. For wireless, 802.11n is hot.

features that will be common in the next generation of video games include force feedback and rumble capability, motion sensing, vision feedback and high-definition using either Blu-ray or HD-DVD.

Also in the future, storage size or hard drive size will increase from Gigabytes to Terabytes. Once the debate on Blu Ray and HD-DVD settles down, video games will be released on one of these mediums instead of the current DVD technology.

The quality of video game graphics will also improve as more powerful graphic processors and game engines come out and will allow 100% realism in gaming experience.

For displays, super-high-definition systems that are now emerging will come down in time for next-generation boxes, while at the same time gaming and entertainment will converge on one box with DVD, Internet/broadband, storage, set-top box capability and video/audio.

Video gaming is helping drive technology and will continue to do so in the future. Log in to my blog after 4 years and see how many of my next gen console predictions come out to be true.

For more Technology reviews, please visit my blog http://the-tech-center.blogspot.com

The japanese sword stands out as a premier weapon of power and legendary work of art in both appearance and manufacture; made by pattern wielding or folding. The japanese swords have become known worldwide as a must-have for any weapon or sword aficionado. In the category of japanese swords there are many types. The most popular and well-known sword is the katana, which is the successor of the parent japanese sword the Uchigatana; sometimes referred to erroneously as the Samurai Sword. And although the katana was the primary weapon of the Samurai, it had its own name and reference. The second japanese sword that was an indispensable weapon was the wakizashi. Always worn together to form what is referred to as a daisho, the wakizashi was that weapon that never left a Samurais side. Upon entering a domicile the katana would be removed in a systematic method to alleviate suspicion, but the wakizashi remained with the owner.

Other lesser known japanese swords are similar to the wakizashi and katana, but are distinguished by the curvature and or length of the blade. Some of these japanese swords by name are: odachi a longer sword that is defined as one that is at least 3 shaku in length. Another japanese sword that is unique is the tanto, or more commonly referred to in western culture as a dagger. Typically the shortest of the japanese swords, and double edged, it was a wonderful tool for its purpose and is a beautiful depiction of japanese sword making prowess.

Overall the japanese sword is definitely a sword to impress. The elegant curve, famous in legend and made more so as depicted in movies, is a reminder of a wonderful work of art. These unique weapons standout throughout the world and herald the japanese sword maker as unique among artisans of their craft, and have ensured the legendary status of the japanese swords.

online games are extremely big business these days. The much anticipated,"games of war" X-box 360 game is next in line to be released in the fall.The X-box 360 is a lot lower in price than the competition. From doing some research on the net you will find many game sites to buy online games.

The game players have adapted the face plates of their particular machines to their favorite game characters. These face plates range from fifteen dollars to over a hundred dollars.The popularity of the online game affects the price of the face plate.

The next game is already in the works for X-box 360. The game is called halo 3. halo 3 is scheduled for 2007.If you do a search for," halo 3", you will already find a lot of pages indexed on the search engine of your choice for this phrase.

online games are like computers in that their is already something new developed before you hear about the latest development.Their are many forums on online games to be found and much information can be found their.

There are many searches done every month for online games and my guess is a top rated site would get a lot of traffic from the proper term in the search engines.

X-box 360 is one of the biggest gamers on the net to buy online game products for.Actually there probably is something bigger in the works already from all of the game producers. We just have to keep an ear to the ground for it.