Report – You could get frustrated watching the daily rollercoaster ride of the Dow, but we have little doubt that the American Dream and the land of opportunity are still very much alive. And one such Cinderella story could be evolving, I thought, from a blog telling the story of a homeless man who apparently is feverishly working becoming a game developer. We took a closer look and as much as we would wish the author to realize his dream, we have our doubts that this dream, if it is in fact a dream, will ever become reality: American Dream or American Fake?  

Apple TV could be in big trouble when Microsoft unveils its new Xbox LIVE service in six weeks - with a revamped UI and a much broader focus on Hollywood. The software maker is betting on entertainment content in an effort to push Xbox 360 sales. And it seems that the Xbox 360 is the currently best-positioned gadget to become an all purpose gaming and entertainment platform for the living room.

Apple took an unusually hard shot at Nvidia’s credibility yesterday: Apple said that it found that GeForce GPUs used in some Macbook Pro systems are failing, while Nvidia “assured” the company that the supply to Apple was not affected by what appears to be a GPU packaging issue.

The world’s dominant hard drive manufacturer will begin offering flash-based solid state disk (SSD) drives next year. Seagate told Cnet that the drives will be offered to enterprise customers first, while consumer drives will be sold “later.”

David Kernell, who was indicted earlier in the week for illegally gaining access to Governor Sarah Palin’s personal Yahoo e-mail account, was allegedly also involved in computer intrusion almost eight years ago, when he was only in middle school. Another student and Kernell guessed the password to a school server when they were in attendance at Easter Hills Middle School in Texas. They were able to gain access to nothing more than some lesson plans, alleges one of Kernell’s middle school teachers.

Speculating what products Apple may introduce at one of its secretive events has become a popular game on the Internet. And since Apple announced such an event, since it indicated that it will focus on notebooks and since mysterious pictures of potentially new Apple products are making their rounds on the Internet, it is not really a surprise that the Apple rumor mill has gone crazy once again. There are reasonable expectations what Apple is most likely to introduce – a refreshed notebook family with upgraded hardware – but there is lots of speculation about a mysterious “Brick” manufacturing process that could result in sub-$800 notebooks as well. Join us for an overview of current rumors. Extra: SLIDESHOW

Feature - The holiday season is approaching quickly: If you have children or if you are an avid gamer yourself then you know there are tons of video games you could buy. This Christmas season is jam-packed with a few very interesting titles and sequels to some of the most popular games already on the market for both the PC and console game systems. Here are our recommendations as a guideline which games you can expect to appear on most wishlists of gamers. Be sure to check out our slideshow to see screenshots of the games listed below. 

Sony will begin offering the 80 GB Playstation 3 with a rumble pack wireless controller this month in Japan. The 40 GB version will be transitioned into “open” pricing.