The Gadget Wars, Who Won/Lost Last Week?

Every week is a battle. There’s seldom any bloodshed, and generally no tears. But every week is a battle for the consumer mind and the consumer heart. Here’s the way we saw things this week: one winner, one loser and one company that’s sort of treaded water despite big announcements.+ Gateway
With the release of their XHD3000 Extreme HD, Gateway smacked big display leaders Dell and Apple aside the head. 2560×1600 resolution, or 1600p, is what having a premium monitor is all about. Overkill.

- RIAA
Yeah, they technically aren’t a tech company, but they certainly made a lot of gadget consumers sick this week when a court ordered that defendant Jammie Thomaspay the RIAA $222,000 in damages for 24 stolen tracks. And never forget this quote from Sony BMG during the trial: “When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.” Making “a copy” of a song you bought is “a nice way of saying ’steals just one copy.’ ”

= Microsoft
Microsoft released their long-rumored Zune 2. A new flash model will compliment the updated classic players, and the new Wi-Fi syncing is available on all old Zunes, too (very classy). But we want even more from a new model this late in the DAP game. And losing major Microsoft Game Studios development company Bungie, even with secure rights of the Halo canon, was a knock to this industry giant.