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Skill Level for this program.

Digital cameras have become close to ubiquitous. They’ve gotten easier to use, they continue to come down in price, and they’ve grown to be more powerful than ever — we can capture 10 or 12 megapixel images using a device no bigger than a pack of cigarettes. Storage is faster and cheaper, too — both the memory cards within the cameras and the hard drives we use to store our images. As a result, there’s little reason not to use the highest quality settings your camera affords. Shooting at higher resolutions and bit depths gives you an advantage, because it lets you do more with your images once they’re on your computer.

Enter tools like Photoshop Lightroom, an image editor that’s made for processing high-quality RAW and JPG images and getting them web-ready in little more than an instant. Lightroom is Adobe’s version of Photoshop for the photographer on the go, and the software (and other apps like it, such as Apple’s Aperture) have taken off among bloggers, Flickrers and others who want to post their work quickly but still have it look professional, polished and stunning.

Lightroom 2.0, the latest release, has new features like better file browsing, more filters, a new graduated filters tool and the ability to mask and selectively edit portions of an image. But the new features also add more complexity and, as with its older sibling Photoshop, that complexity can be overwhelming at times. Powerful features and extra options can lie hidden or out of sight.

Here’s a collection of tips, tricks and slightly hidden features to help you get more out of Photoshop Lightroom 2.

This article is a wiki. Got extra tips and tricks for Lightroom? Log in and post them below.

As this article grows, we can shape it into a full-blown tutorial. Feel free to add steps describing your favorite techniques.

Image Adjustment Tricks

Vignettes

The Lens Corrections panel ostensibly corrects issues from wide-angle lenses, but some people have come up with other uses for it — like darkening corners for a vignette effect or a “Fake Lomo” treatment. While there’s a new vignetting tool, other Lens Correction tricks exist. The problem is that they didn’t work once you’d cropped an image. Lightroom 2 now offers a Post-Crop slider in the Vignettes panel to get around that issue, so you can apply your favorite vignette settings over and over again as you try out new crops.

Example: Some “Fake Lomo” vignettes applied in Lightroom 2.0:

Tip: Also check out Mikkel Aaland’s “Super Vignette” trick he employs using Gradient filters.

Gradient Filters

Lightroom’s new gradient filters can be used to correct corners of an image that are too dark, too bright, or the wrong color. They can also be used to adjust the exposure of the sky or the ground in landscape shots — think of the classic sunset photo where the sky is perfect, but you can’t see the details of the beach in the foreground. Using this trick, you can adjust the brightness of the beach so that it stands out without disrupting the exposure or colors of the sky.

To apply a gradient filter, select the Gradient tool in the Adjustment Brushes panel. Click on the edge of the image closest to the region where you want to make the adjustment. For the sunset example, you’d click in the bottom center of the image. In a portrait, you’d click in the dark corner you want to brighten. Then, drag the gradient marker towards the center of the image, stopping where you want the adjustment to fade out. Use the buttons and sliders in the Mask panel (just below the brush selector) to adjust the selected portion.

Example: Here’s a before and after. The bougainvillea peeking into the top left of this portrait was too dark, so it was brightened and sharpened with the gradient filter before the rest of the image was adjusted and cropped.

Before

After

Change the Adjustment Brush’s Highlighting

The new Adjustment Brush allows you to tweak Exposure, Brightness, Contrast Saturation, Clarity, Sharpness and Color. When you hover over places you’ve retouched, they’re highlighted in red. But what happens if that part of your image is red too? Just move your cursor over the area to trigger the red highlight and then press Shift-O to cycle through different highlight colors.

“Soften Skin” Setting

There’s also a “secret” eighth Adjustment Brush setting: Soften Skin. If you look at the Adjustment Brush panel, you’ll see the Exposure, Brightness, Contrast Saturation, Clarity, Sharpness and Color options. But if you click the pulldown menu, you’ll see the additional Soften Skin adjustment.

Shortcuts and Context Menus

Lightroom is loaded with Context menus and shortcuts. Unfortunately, a complete list of them doesn’t seem to exist anywhere. Here are a few new context menu tricks we’ve discovered in Lightroom 2.0:

Get Additional Drive Information

Lightroom 2 offers a much improved file browser interface. It even displays attached drives and shows how much disk space is left on each drive. If you right-click on a volume name, you’ll get a drop down list with some other options like Photo Count and Status.

Finally, a Use for Caps Lock

When you’re ranking pictures in the Library Module, engage the Caps Lock key — as soon as you rank an image, Lightroom will automatically move to the next image. If you’ve got thousands of images to sort through, this hidden feature can speed things up quite a bit.

Jump Between Folders

In Lightroom 2, you can now jump between folders by right-clicking on the filmstrip, which runs along the bottom of the workspace by default. For example, say your editing an image in one folder and want to jump to another folder without moving back to the Library Module. Just right-click on the top portion of the film strip and you’ll see a list of recently viewed folders.

Organizing Tips

• Lightroom 2 supports Smart Collections, which are dynamic collections of photos filtered by nearly any criteria you can imagine. For more advanced filtering, try Alt/Option clicking to add new criteria. Instead of simply adding a new filter, this technique nests the filter beneath the existing filter for even more fine grained sorting.

Create Smart Collections by building nested sets of rules.

• The new Target Collection functionality allows you to specify any Lightroom collection as the destination of the Quick Collection shortcut key (which is Shift-B by default). Just highlight the collection you want to use and select File > Set as Target Collection.

Suggested reading

• The Lightroom Killer Tips blog
• Our Lightroom 2 review on Monkey Bites
• O’Reilly Media’s Inside Lightroom site
• Webmonkey’s Camera RAW in Photoshop tutorial (needs editing!)

Conclusion

There are loads of other features and shortcuts tucked away in the corners of Lightroom 2 so be sure to add your favorites to the list.

Story from: Webmonkey.com

One day the president was out jogging and accidentally fell from a ridge into a very cold river. Three boys, playing along the river, saw the accident. Without a second thought, they jumped in the water and dragged the wet president out of the river.

After cleaning up he said, “Boys, you saved the President of the United States today. You deserve a reward. You name it, I’ll give it to you.”

The first boy said, “Please, I’d like a ticket to Disneyland!”

“I’ll personally hand it to you,” said Mr. President.

“I’d like a pair of Nike Air Turbos,” the second boy said.

“I’ll buy them myself and give them to you,” said the grateful president.

“And I’d like a wheelchair with a stereo in it,” said the third boy.

“I’ll personally … wait a second, son, you’re not handicapped!”

“No — but I will be when my dad finds out I saved you from drowning.”

CAMDEN, N.J. (UPI) — A Camden County, N.J., woman is suing her orthopedic surgeon after he rubbed a temporary tattoo onto her body while she was unconscious.

Elizabeth Mateo claims in her suit that she did not realize until the morning after the surgery that the surgeon, Steven Kirshner, had left a temporary tattoo of a rose on her abdomen while she was under anesthesia, the Philadelphia Enquirer reported Wednesday.

“She was extremely emotionally upset by it,” said attorney Gregg Shivers, who filed the suit on Mateo’s behalf in Camden County Superior Court.

The suit seeks punitive and compensatory damages from Kirshner.

The doctor admitted to placing the tattoo on Mateo but he denied any ill intent, the newspaper reported. He said he often rubs temporary tattoos on patients as a means of helping to raise their spirits after a stressful operation.

“What’s offensive about this complaint is that it suggests something he did was intended to be prurient, and nothing could be further from the truth,” said Kirshner’s lawyer, Robert Agre. “It was intended just to make the patient feel better.”

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

SHANGHAI (UPI) – iTunes not only allows music lovers to save music files but also radiologists to manage and organize their PDF files, Chinese researchers said.

Many published medical papers are available on the Internet in a PDF format, but ordinarily can’t be stored by multiple-subject topics, the American Roentgen Ray Society said in a news release.

“For radiologists, these electronic papers provide richer information (through cases, reviews and images) than conventional textbooks and can be easily found and downloaded for further reading via online databases. However, managing PDF files is troublesome and it is difficult to find software designed for organizing them,” said Dr. Li Jun Qian, who led the team of researchers from Renji Hospital and Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine in China.

Study authors found iTunes can address the multi-subject filing question because of its search and sort functions, its ability to remember user favorites and its capability to support customized shortcuts.

“One day I just happened to drag and drop a PDF into iTunes and was surprised to find that it was supported by iTunes. This means that you can search, describe, and rate PDFs just like you do the music files,” Qian said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

A trucker was sitting at the lunch counter eating his morning eggs and hash browns when some bikers walked in.

One walked up and put his finger in the trucker’s coffee and said, “That’s not very hot, is it?”

Another put his finger in the trucker’s scrambled eggs and said, “Not very fluffy, either, huh?”

After a few moments of silence, the trucker stood up, paid his bill and left the diner. “Not much of a man, was he?” said the first biker to the waitress.

“You’re right about that,” she replied, “and not much of a driver either. He just ran over a bunch of motorcycles.

Rumblings from a world increasingly hungry for oil and grain caused a 5.3% jump in food prices during 2007 — the largest increase in almost two decades. This year, prices are expected to grow by at least that much.

Among the commodities putting the biggest pinch on consumer’s grocery budgets is wheat, which hit a record high of $24 this week on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, a 480% increase from this time last year. Soybean prices are 77% higher over that same time period; corn is up 23%.

“There is a global increase in demand for food commodities, driven by a rapidly growing middle class in India, China and other developing countries seeking protein,” explains Jack W. Plunkett, CEO of Plunkett Research. “Growth in demand is outstripping growth in supply.” Hardship has further contributed to the scarcity of certain foods. A drought last year in Australia reduced the availability of milk, while poor wheat harvests in several countries hurt world-wide supply. And beef prices have jumped since the U.S. enacted its largest ever beef recall — 143 million pounds — earlier this year.

Skyrocketing oil prices, which regularly top $100 a barrel these days, have also added to the expense of producing, packaging and transporting foods. “Think of it as paying more per calorie burned,” says Plunkett.

The resulting higher costs are swiftly passed down the production food chain to grocery store shelves. “It’s like when the price of oil goes up, and you see a difference at the pump in the next day or two,” says Al Ferrara, national director for consulting firm BDO Seidman’s retail and consumer product division. Constantly produced fresh items like milk (up 19% in 2007), eggs (up 33%) and bread (up 11%) are more apt to reflect changes on a nearly daily basis.

With a little legwork, savvy shoppers can keep their grocery bills at pre-2007 levels — if not lower. Here’s how:

Stockpile
Most items are discounted just once during a 10-to-12-week sales cycle, says Teri Gault, founder of shopping site The Grocery Game. Seasonal items (think barbecue sauce in summer, soup in winter) show up every one to two weeks, while highly-competitive categories (cereal, soft drinks) cycle in every three to four. While it’s not necessary to buy, say, eight jars of peanut butter, it’s better to buy one jar while your favorite brand is on sale now than one at full price after you run out in two weeks.

Explore the store
Saving at the supermarket requires more effort than a quick dash and grab. Some of the best deals aren’t obvious unless you take the time to price compare, says Phil Lempert, founder of Supermarket Guru. Cheese, for example, can be purchased from the cheese counter, the deli and the dairy case. “New York cheddar is New York cheddar no matter where you buy it,” says Lempert. “But the price may be cheaper in one section than in another.”

Keep an eye out, too, for sales. There are twice as many unadvertised sale items in the store as there are in the weekly circular. But be cautious. The longer you spend in stores, the more susceptible you are to sneaky supermarket tricks that entice you to spend more. Make a list, and stick to it.

Try store brands
It’s unlikely you’ll notice a quality difference between ShopRite’s frozen chopped broccoli and Birds Eye’s, says Lisa Lee Freeman, editor in chief of Consumer Reports’ ShopSmart magazine. In fact, most store labels are produced by the same manufacturers that make the brands you know and love. (The maker of Birds’ Eye frozen vegetables, for example, also makes store-label frozen veggies.) But there’s a big difference in price. A 14-ounce package of the store-brand broccoli is 44% cheaper than the brand name. Of course, some store-label products make better deals than others.

Buy “must go” foods
“Ask the staff at your supermarket what time they mark items down,” says Tawra Kellam, founder of frugal living web site Living on a Dime. Stores routinely discount dairy, baked goods, produce and meat by 50% or more as these items approach their sell-by date or become less attractive (think bruised apples or crushed bread). Make no mistake: These items are perfectly safe to eat, even several days after purchase. “You’re not buying old food,” she says. “There’s a big difference between the sell-by date — which is what the stores are required to go by — and the expiration date.”

Shop on Sundays
It’s the best day to buy groceries. Armed with the fresh batch of coupons from your Sunday newspaper and the weekly sales circular, you can maximize your savings. Consumers who combined the two reported saving an average $678 annually, according to a recent Consumer Reports survey.

Think outside the supermarket
Supermarkets aren’t the only place to go for groceries. Here’s where to look:

• Drugstores and pharmacies for milk, over-the-counter medications and personal-care items. “At supermarkets, there’s no coupons for milk, and there are rarely sales,” says Gault. “Drugstores are hoping you’ll grab some milk, and on your way to the register, some higher-priced stuff, too.” At CVS in San Francisco, a gallon of skim milk is $3.99; at Safeway, it’s $4.59.
• Superstores for snacks, cereals and cleaning supplies. The added bonus: Target, Wal-Mart and Kmart are likely to accept competitor’s coupons and match sale prices.
• Online Amazon.com is gaining traction as a grocer, thanks to its free shipping policy and discount prices on bulk quantities, says Lempert. At the Hy-Vee grocery chain, a box of 100-calorie Oreo packs is $2.89. At Amazon.com, a bulk pack of six is $16.25 — a 6% discount.
• Warehouse clubs for alcohol, prescription medications and pantry staples. You can easily recoup the annual membership fee, says Freeman.
• Discount grocers for anything. Aldi and Save-A-Lot primarily sell products bearing their own label, instead of brand names. There’s less selection, says Kellam, but prices are usually at least 20% lower than at the supermarket.
• Surplus stores for dry goods. Chains like Amelia’s, SharpShopper and Grocery Outlet cut prices by up to 70% on damaged, near-expired and expired food obtained directly from the manufacturer. The deals are excellent, but you’ll have to be extremely cautious, says Lempert. “I am not a big proponent of going past the expiration date,” he says. Check for quality before you buy.

Check unit prices
Buying the bigger size isn’t always the best deal. The Federal Trade Commission found that bigger sizes of tuna fish, peanut butter, ketchup, coffee and frozen orange juice were often pricier per unit than smaller counterparts. Crunch the numbers before you buy.

Become a coupon connoisseur
Take your Sunday morning coupon clipping one step further. Join your supermarket’s loyalty club because many offer bonus sales. Grocery chain Fry’s, for example, automatically doubles the value of its members’ manufacturers’ coupons. Also check online coupon sites — because technology limits you to one print-out coupon per computer (as opposed to buying five weekend papers) manufacturers are often more generous with the coupon amounts. Try The Grocery Game, Coupons.com and Red Plum.

Story from: SmartMoney.com

The $10-A-Week Challenge

St. Petersburg, Florida – From drinking evaporated milk to using bread slices as hot dog buns, there are a few creative tricks that can help you eat for a whole week on just $10.

Dietitian Sarah Krieger helped Tampa Bay’s 10 News Reporter Janie Porter and Photojournalist Ben Reiff shop for groceries at Save A Lot in St. Petersburg.

All told, Ben spent $10.35.

And all this week, it’s up to him to stick with a meal plan that cost less than most people pay for one dinner!

Friday, Krieger is answering your questions about the challenge. Just click on the comments section at the bottom of this story, and Krieger will respond throughout the day. Comments posted Friday night will be answered by 9 a.m. Saturday.

Ben’s also blogging about his experience

Ben’s Meal Plan

Day 1
Lunch: 2 hot dogs
Dinner: spaghetti & garlic bread
Total: 85 cents

Day 2
Breakfast: cereal with evaporated milk
Lunch: 2 hot dogs
Snack: banana
Dinner: “Eggs in a Basket”
Total: $1.38

Day 3
Breakfast: cereal with banana & evaporated milk
Lunch: scrambled eggs & toast
Dinner: “Poor Man’s Pasta Primavera”
Total: $2.18

Day 4
Breakfast: cereal with evaporated milk
Snack: banana
Lunch: 3 hot dogs
Dinner: vegetarian omelet & toast
Total: $2.10

Day 5
Breakfast: cereal with evaporated milk
Lunch: eggs & toast
Dinner: “Turkey Frank Parmesan”
Total: $2.17

Do you think you can eat on just $10 a week? Join Ben in the challenge, and share your progress in the comments section below.

Shopping for sales is one of the simplest ways to save at the grocery store. How do you save money? Tell us about it in the comments section below.

Budget101.com offers countless articles for the thrifty-minded, including more ideas on how to eat on $10 a week. It also features a free search engine that can help you search for current sale items at grocery stores in your zip code.

For tips on eating out on the cheap, check out the Cheap Eats section of our partner website, Metromix.

Story from: tampabays10.com

HOUSTON (UPI) – HIV researchers at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston said they think they’ve found the chink in armor of the virus linked to AIDS.

The vulnerable spot is hidden in a protein essential for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, to attach to host cells, the university said in a release.

An HIV vaccine doesn’t exist because HIV is a mutating virus.

The scientists said they are focusing on a stretch of amino acids on HIV’s envelope protein gp120.

“Unlike the changeable regions of its envelope, HIV needs at least one region that must remain constant to attach to cells. If this region changes, HIV cannot infect cells,” said Sudhir Paul, a pathology professor at the UT Medical School.

Paul’s group engineered antibodies with enzymatic activity, called abzymes, that can attack the virus’s weakness.

“The abzymes recognize essentially all of the diverse HIV forms found across the world. This solves the problem of HIV changeability,” Paul said. “The next step is to confirm our theory in human clinical trials.”

The theory was in a recent issue of Autoimmunity Reviews and will be presented during the International AIDS Conference Aug. 3-8 in Mexico City.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

PORTLAND, Ore. (UPI) – A Portland, Ore., woman who had given up hope of ever seeing her missing ceramic dog again said the item has returned — with photos of its travels.

Edwina Cramer-Norris said she had assumed the dog was gone for good when it disappeared last month, but then she began receiving postcards addressed “To Master” from “Lucky Dog,” KPTV, Portland, Ore., reported Monday.

Cramer-Norris said she saw a blue van leave her driveway Sunday and when she went outside to investigate, she found her missing lawn decoration sitting in a makeshift dog house alongside a photo album documenting its adventures. She said the pictures depict the dog with a family at locations including DisneyWorld, Graceland, the Mississippi River and New Orleans.

She said a note accompanying the pictures explained that the dog had needed a vacation from Oregon because the weather was too rainy.

“It’s a strange thing,” she said. “We’re happy to have him back and it gives us something to share with others. (It’s) some kind of a strange story.”

Cramer-Norris said the missing dog returned with two new additions to the family — a pair of ceramic puppies.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

Over the weekend, I spent some time playing online. I did so on Xbox Live and through games on both my PS3 and Wii. All the while, I was thinking about the one simple fact that kept sticking out in my head: for now at least, I can play online with my Wii and Playstation 3 and the experience is basically the same.

And considering Microsoft keeps losing ground to both Sony and Nintendo, why not find a new way to offer a more compelling alternative out of the company’s most popular service?

Sure, it sounds radical and losing $50 per year from the millions of Xbox Live subscribers may be a major sticking point here, but it needs to be done. Microsoft’s latest NPD numbers have been less than stellar and the Wii, DS, Playstation 3, and the PSP all sold better than the company’s console in July. And if you want to compete in the hardware business, that’s simply unacceptable.

To make matters worse, the big lead Microsoft had over Sony in the third-party sphere is practically eliminated and it doesn’t look like Nintendo will slow down anytime soon, nor will the Xbox 360 become a force in Asia.

So what does Microsoft need to do to right the ship and really turn things around? Announce that all Xbox Live memberships will be free and all gamers can play online without a hitch. It’s radical, for sure, but it’s the best move Microsoft can make right now.

It’s about the size

Making Xbox Live free to all gamers allows Microsoft to boast that it has the largest network of multi-platform users in the world. Right now, Microsoft is trying to become the world’s leader in multi-platform gaming. And although it has done relatively well considering Xbox 360 sales have not matched competitors and Games for Windows Live is shaky, while Zune ownership is suspect, it will immediately put Microsoft into a position where developers can truly create a “Microsoft Experience.”

Is there a need to do so?

Invariably, this argument will go to the argument that if people are willing to pay now, why should Microsoft tell them they don’t have to? Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?

But that argument is extremely short-sighted and fails to truly address what’s going on in the market. Xbox Live is the cornerstone of Microsoft’s broader gaming strategy. Without it, the Xbox 360 wouldn’t be half as popular as it is today and it’s still the only real benefit that still looms over Sony’s head.

Realizing that, Sony has consistently said that it plans on rolling out a major online initiative that revolves around its trust in Home and its aims are firmly planted on Microsoft. But in order to compete, Sony will need to pull out all the stops and try to create an experience that either matches or eclipses the ease with which we play games on Xbox Live. And to be honest, I think Sony can do it eventually.

But why should Microsoft let that happen? Why should Microsoft give Sony an advantage or at the very least, let it into the online space? By making Xbox Live free, the company adds every Xbox owner to the list of potential users and immediately puts Sony back on its heels. Sony has invested so much as it is, can it really justify a free online service?

Now I realize the same can be said for Microsoft, but with Xbox Live, the company has an installed base of users and content that could make up for that loss. Sure, Microsoft will lose $50 per year in revenue at first, but how many of those gamers would be willing to throw that back into the service by buying movies, adding online maps to their games, or generally expanding the amount of content on their consoles? I’m willing to bet that the majority would.

Silver membership users can do that now, but many of those individuals have balked at paying the $50 each year for online play and generally don’t spend the amount of time you would expect them to on the service. But once online gaming is free and they get into the fold, a whole new group of people will be able to acquire online maps and play with friends, which should help Microsoft recoup some of that lost revenue.

But it can’t quite end there. Xbox Live would also need some advertising to make up for the lost revenue. But by being able to boast that Microsoft has hundreds of millions of users, the company can sell advertising to companies at a rate that could even eclipse the amount of revenue it’s already incurring with membership.

Hardware sales

But simply offering Xbox Live online play for free won’t just have an impact on Xbox Live revenue, it’ll also have a major impact on hardware sales.

Let’s face it–opening online play to all Xbox 360 owners will see a huge influx in the number of people that will want to play online. And in the process, they’ll start talking and make it clear to all those fence-sitters that they can play with them online without a charge on something that’s already proven. Sure, Sony might do the same thing and the Wii is already free, but neither service can contend with Xbox Live in terms of raw users and usability–so far.

Right now, Microsoft needs to increase hardware sales in any way it can. It’s not enough anymore to simply wait and hope that Sony won’t sell consoles as well as it has or Nintendo will suddenly fold. Instead, it needs to be proactive and try to find ways to stop its competitors in their tracks. And although a price drop was a good place to start, Xbox Live is what Microsoft beats every other vendor on and it needs to make it even more compelling to coax more people to its console.

And if that drop in Xbox Live pricing increases hardware sales–and it should–more developers will jump onboard and exploit Xbox Live as much as possible. And in the process, it’ll become a veritable bonanza where you’ll be able to buy extra maps, pick up some movies along the way, and enjoy ad-supported online gaming for free.

Making Xbox Live online gaming free is radical, I know. But at this point, Microsoft is starting to look like the also-ran and it’s not exploiting the key component in its business model that could separate it from the pack. If Microsoft wants to catch up quickly, making Xbox Live free and changing the way it makes money on the service is the first step.

Over the weekend, I spent some time playing online. I did so on Xbox Live and through games on both my PS3 and Wii. All the while, I was thinking about the one simple fact that kept sticking out in my head: for now at least, I can play online with my Wii and Playstation 3 and the experience is basically the same.

And considering Microsoft keeps losing ground to both Sony and Nintendo, why not find a new way to offer a more compelling alternative out of the company’s most popular service?

Sure, it sounds radical and losing $50 per year from the millions of Xbox Live subscribers may be a major sticking point here, but it needs to be done. Microsoft’s latest NPD numbers have been less than stellar and the Wii, DS, Playstation 3, and the PSP all sold better than the company’s console in July. And if you want to compete in the hardware business, that’s simply unacceptable.

To make matters worse, the big lead Microsoft had over Sony in the third-party sphere is practically eliminated and it doesn’t look like Nintendo will slow down anytime soon, nor will the Xbox 360 become a force in Asia.

So what does Microsoft need to do to right the ship and really turn things around? Announce that all Xbox Live memberships will be free and all gamers can play online without a hitch. It’s radical, for sure, but it’s the best move Microsoft can make right now.

It’s about the size

Making Xbox Live free to all gamers allows Microsoft to boast that it has the largest network of multi-platform users in the world. Right now, Microsoft is trying to become the world’s leader in multi-platform gaming. And although it has done relatively well considering Xbox 360 sales have not matched competitors and Games for Windows Live is shaky, while Zune ownership is suspect, it will immediately put Microsoft into a position where developers can truly create a “Microsoft Experience.”

Is there a need to do so?

Invariably, this argument will go to the argument that if people are willing to pay now, why should Microsoft tell them they don’t have to? Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?

But that argument is extremely short-sighted and fails to truly address what’s going on in the market. Xbox Live is the cornerstone of Microsoft’s broader gaming strategy. Without it, the Xbox 360 wouldn’t be half as popular as it is today and it’s still the only real benefit that still looms over Sony’s head.

Realizing that, Sony has consistently said that it plans on rolling out a major online initiative that revolves around its trust in Home and its aims are firmly planted on Microsoft. But in order to compete, Sony will need to pull out all the stops and try to create an experience that either matches or eclipses the ease with which we play games on Xbox Live. And to be honest, I think Sony can do it eventually.

But why should Microsoft let that happen? Why should Microsoft give Sony an advantage or at the very least, let it into the online space? By making Xbox Live free, the company adds every Xbox owner to the list of potential users and immediately puts Sony back on its heels. Sony has invested so much as it is, can it really justify a free online service?

Now I realize the same can be said for Microsoft, but with Xbox Live, the company has an installed base of users and content that could make up for that loss. Sure, Microsoft will lose $50 per year in revenue at first, but how many of those gamers would be willing to throw that back into the service by buying movies, adding online maps to their games, or generally expanding the amount of content on their consoles? I’m willing to bet that the majority would.

Silver membership users can do that now, but many of those individuals have balked at paying the $50 each year for online play and generally don’t spend the amount of time you would expect them to on the service. But once online gaming is free and they get into the fold, a whole new group of people will be able to acquire online maps and play with friends, which should help Microsoft recoup some of that lost revenue.

But it can’t quite end there. Xbox Live would also need some advertising to make up for the lost revenue. But by being able to boast that Microsoft has hundreds of millions of users, the company can sell advertising to companies at a rate that could even eclipse the amount of revenue it’s already incurring with membership.

Hardware sales

But simply offering Xbox Live online play for free won’t just have an impact on Xbox Live revenue, it’ll also have a major impact on hardware sales.

Let’s face it–opening online play to all Xbox 360 owners will see a huge influx in the number of people that will want to play online. And in the process, they’ll start talking and make it clear to all those fence-sitters that they can play with them online without a charge on something that’s already proven. Sure, Sony might do the same thing and the Wii is already free, but neither service can contend with Xbox Live in terms of raw users and usability–so far.

Right now, Microsoft needs to increase hardware sales in any way it can. It’s not enough anymore to simply wait and hope that Sony won’t sell consoles as well as it has or Nintendo will suddenly fold. Instead, it needs to be proactive and try to find ways to stop its competitors in their tracks. And although a price drop was a good place to start, Xbox Live is what Microsoft beats every other vendor on and it needs to make it even more compelling to coax more people to its console.

And if that drop in Xbox Live pricing increases hardware sales–and it should–more developers will jump onboard and exploit Xbox Live as much as possible. And in the process, it’ll become a veritable bonanza where you’ll be able to buy extra maps, pick up some movies along the way, and enjoy ad-supported online gaming for free.

Making Xbox Live online gaming free is radical, I know. But at this point, Microsoft is starting to look like the also-ran and it’s not exploiting the key component in its business model that could separate it from the pack. If Microsoft wants to catch up quickly, making Xbox Live free and changing the way it makes money on the service is the first step.

Story from: cNet.com

Ever since the first arcade games appeared, gamers have tried to leave their own mark on their favorite titles. Back then, you left a cool, perhaps offensive, set of initials in the machine’s high-score column.

Over time, software companies have tried to key into this desire by giving gamers an increasingly impressive set of tools to personalize their games. But now, gaming companies - aided by hardware advances, online networks and the proliferation of broadband - are equipping players with an unprecedented amount of creative power to, in essence, design their own games and share them online with others.

Gamers, who were once enticed by the fantasy of becoming heroes, sports stars and warriors, are now being invited to become game developers.

“This started with the YouTube age,” said Shane Satterfield, editor in chief of GameTrailers.com and vice president of content for Spike Digital Entertainment. “People have been given the power to create their own movies and share them, and it’s opened the gates for other forms of media.”

Last year, Halo 3 allowed users to create their own maps for multiplayer games. Earlier this summer, Electronic Arts released the first title from its collaboration with Steven Spielberg, called Boom Blox, which lets players create their own explosive challenges and share them with others online.

This fall, things will heat up with Guitar Hero World Tour, which invites players to make their own Guitar Hero songs that other people can download and play. Spore, the latest title from famed designer Will Wright, premieres next month with a robust creature creator that can be used to conceive a wild array of animals.

And then there’s LittleBigPlanet, a new Sony PlayStation 3 title out in October which was built from the ground up as a way for gamers to flex their creative muscles. The most anticipated game for the PlayStation 3 this fall, it endows players with the ability to make levels and challenges using a wide variety of tools and objects that respond faithfully to physics.

The games are part of a new wave of titles that encourage casual players to make in-game creation a pursuit that rivals the game-playing itself.

“A lot of people enjoy playing games and they’re excited by the idea of making games. But they don’t know how to go about it,” said Mark Healey, creative director of Media Molecule, developer of LittleBigPlanet. “The desire has been there for a long time, but it’s only now the technology is making it easier to put the power into people’s hands.”

Healey said the mantra of LittleBigPlanet developers was that they wanted their creation to be for video games what YouTube was for video. But they sought to take it a step further by giving people the practical and easy-to-use tools to actually make the game, unlike YouTube, which simply facilitates video sharing.

To be sure, traditional game playing is not going away by a long shot. Most gamers will be happy to play out the vision of a trained professional. But developers see new opportunities to engage players with this sort of wish fulfillment.

“It’s empowering people; it makes people feel they made something cool,” said Amir Rahimi, producer for EA’s Boom Blox. “What is unique is we do it in a way the casual audience can be the game designer. … With Boom Blox anyone can get in there and create.”

The added benefit of including these creative and sharing tools is that it extends the usefulness of a game well beyond its traditional life cycle. Creators can keep making whatever they want, and players can try out a virtually endless supply of user-created levels and challenges.

Guitar Hero World Tour, which launches in October, is a good example. While the game will include about 85 well known songs, it also will offer a selection of user-generated songs through its GH Tunes online library.

“The games are so huge and expensive these days and there’s only so much game you can give a consumer, so it makes sense to expand it out to a huge audience of people,” said Scott Pease, director of development at Neversoft, developer of Guitar Hero World Tour. “Even if only 1 percent of players get into creating, that’s a ton of content you can offer that extends the life of the game.”

Satterfield said the challenge will be to make sure the best user-generated content rises to the top. Gamers will want a reliable way to explore their peers’ creations. Otherwise, players might sour on the idea of trying out the work of amateurs.

Pease said Guitar Hero World Tour will offer a slew of YouTube-like features like ratings, best songs of the week and a top artist showcase. LittleBigPlanet will also feature a similar structure to encourage exploration. And the game is including a self-reporting system to ensure that creators don’t tread into offensive territory.

Satterfield said a lot of eyes will be on LittleBigPlanet in particular to see how it performs. If it does anywhere near what people expect, he said, it’s likely other developers will follow suit.

“LittleBigPlanet is a big experiment for the industry,” Satterfield said. “It remains to be seen if this will work. There hasn’t been a game that gives you this much freedom to create and share.”