Among the other findings from the Entertainment Software Association’s survey: the average gamer is 37 years old, about 42 percent of gamers are women, 55 percent of gamers are playing games on their phones (“Angry Birds,” anyone?), and 45 percent of parents say they play games with their children (hopefully kid-friendly games like “LittleBigPlanet” rather than “Call of Duty”).

So, fellow grown-ups: Do you consider yourself a gamer? Do you play games mostly on your cell phone, or do you prefer a game console like the Nintendo Wii, the Xbox 360, or the PlayStation 3? Last but not least, do you worry about the video games your kids are playing, or do you trust them to avoid “Grand Theft Auto” and the like?

Leave a comment below, or send me an email right here.

Source: Entertainment Software Association (via CNET)

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Greetings Nancy! Yes, you’re right: theoretically, any time you put data on a Net-connected server like Apple’s upcoming iCloud, it will be more susceptible to hackers than it would sitting on your PC’s hard disk—or, say, a USB thumb drive that’s stashed in a drawer.

But just because your personal data files are sitting on your home PC doesn’t mean they’re absolutely, positively safe and secure.

Consider this: If you’re using a Windows PC, there’s always a chance that your system could get infected with malware—that is, malicious software that sneaks its way onto your computer and does … well, any number of bad things, from keeping track of your keystrokes (usually with the intent of snagging usernames and passwords) to snooping around your files.

Or, here’s another (more likely) possibility. One fine day, you wake up, hit the power button on your PC, and…nothing. Why? Because your system’s hard drive failed—and yes, it happens. (The hard drive on my old Mac PowerBook gave up the ghost about five years ago, and while I’d backed up a few key files, I lost everything else. Not fun.)

Or, how about this: Your house burns down. (Yikes!) Or gets soaked in a flood. Or pummeled by a “Wizard of Oz”-style tornado. Beyond the damage to your home, you may well lose your PC, all its data, and even any backup drives you had squirreled away in the closet.

Sorry to be laying all these scary scenarios on you. (Hopefully, you’ve already had your morning coffee.) I’m just trying to make the point that there are risks to everything, including keeping your data “safe” on your desktop.

Some easy ways to minimize your risk? For your PC at home, back up your data religiously. (I’ll go into detail about how to back up your system in a future post.) If you can, keep a copy of your most precious data on a portable drive in a location other than your house—like your safe-deposit box. Don’t open email attachments from strangers. And if you’re a Windows user, make sure you have malware and anti-virus protection (like Microsoft’s free Security Essentials software) installed, updated and running.

When you’re dealing with your online accounts in the cloud, make sure you don’t use the same password everywhere. Make sure to use a credit card—and not your debit card—while shopping online. And never give out your account passwords to anyone. (Click here for more online security tips.)

And in general, the key to being smart with your data is the same as for handling an investment portfolio: diversity. Or, put another way, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

After all, a cloud server could be hacked, and your hard drive might fail, but it’s highly unlikely that both would happen at the same time. (Fingers crossed.)

Anyway, I hope I haven’t scared you off from ever touching a computer again. Just remember: if you’re conscientious, both your PC- and cloud-based data should be relatively safe—and if you’ve been backing up your data and careful with your passwords, you’ll be able to deal with almost any bump in the online road.

Did this advice help? Have more questions? Let me know!

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Now, wait a minute—doesn’t the Xbox 360 already stream movies and TV shows via Netflix and Hulu? Yes indeed, but the grapevine’s been buzzing for months that Microsoft wants to deliver entire bundles of TV shows over Xbox Live, and now WinRumors claims that the (totally unconfirmed) “Xbox Live Diamond” service might toss Kinect motion controls and social viewing with your Xbox pals into the mix.

Interesting, but don’t get too excited just yet, with WinRumors warning that Microsoft is still engaged in “last-minute” negotiations with content providers, and that “some details and demos might be held back if agreements are not in place in time.”

here’s the thing: Microsoft hasn’t been coy about its ambitions to turn the Xbox 360 into a full-on home entertainment hub, and a full-on TV service would fit in perfectly with Microsoft’s plans for domination of the living room—assuming there’s any truth to the rumors, of course.

Update (5/6/11): Well, Microsoft’s E3 event came and went Monday, and we didn’t get much in terms of live TV announcements (not in the U.S., anyway). Oh well.

Source: WinRumors

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Yes, the upcoming Windows revamp will be right at home on a tablet, but rather than deliver a specific tablet-friendly version of the operating system, Microsoft has designed the core Windows 8 OS to work just as well on a tablet as it does on a desktop.

Oh, and by the way—the new Windows 8 Start Menu, now festooned with bright, multicolored “live tiles” and widgets, will look awfully familiar to anyone who owns a Windows Phone.

Microsoft gave its Windows 8 sneak peek at the All Things D conference on Wednesday, and you can check out a video that details the broad strokes of its development process embedded below (or right here).

Nope, there’s no word on exactly when we can expect Windows 8 to land in stores. What we do know, however, is that it’ll still run “classic” Windows desktop apps, along with new, touch- and tablet-friendly HTML5 and Javascript apps that will work in full-screen mode, very much like the Web apps you’d see running on an iPad or the Google Chrome web browser.

Both the new Windows 8 web-powered and “classic” apps will support touch and keyboard/mouse input, according to All Things Digitial’s Ina Fried, while a Microsoft press release promises “fast launching” of apps from the new, tiled Start Menu (which includes a telltale “Store” tile, presumably for Windows apps), plus “fluid, natural” app switching.

Again, it all sounds quite familiar—and that’s a good thing, if you ask me. We’re in a “post-PC era,” as Steve Jobs declared several months ago, and with the upcoming “Lion” version of the Mac OS taking plenty of cues from the iPhone, it’s high time that Windows started taking some hints from its mobile brethren—specifically Windows Phone, which boasts a true, next-generation touch- and web-enabled design and functionality.

Unlike Windows Phone, though, which basically jettisoned everything from the old Windows Mobile platform and started from scratch, Windows 8 will apparently keep one foot in the old PC era by maintaining support for “classic” Windows desktop apps.

here’s the thing: It’ll be interesting to see whether that “classic” support keeps Windows rooted in the past—and whether Windows 8’s new touch- and web-friendly design is a real step forward, or just a glossy coat of paint on yesterday’s desktop OS.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p92QfWOw88I&w=500]

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The Windows 7-powered HP Slate: close, but no cigar.

That’s the word from Bloomberg and its three anonymous sources, who swear that Microsoft execs will “showcase the software’s touch-screen interface running on hardware with an Nvidia Corp. Tegra chip” during next week’s All Things D conference.

Of course, we’ve already seen tablets running on Windows 7; consider last year’s HP Slate, for example. But as far as a true, tablet-ized version of Windows goes—one with a true touch interface that’s been developed from the ground up, rather than merely tacked on—well, we’re still waiting.

Personally, I’d love to see Windows 8 for tablets take the stage, at long last. But given the various false alarms in recent days, I wouldn’t get too excited just yet.

Source: Bloomberg

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The upcoming "Mango" update for Windows Phone lets you send messages to "groups" of friends.

Windows Phone users will gain the ability to quickly switch between running apps, chat with a group of friends simultaneously, and surf the web at “blazingly fast” speeds once a “major” update for Microsoft’s revamped smartphone platform lands this fall.

Microsoft already gave us the broad strokes about “Mango,” the code name for the upcoming update, back in February, but Tuesday’s press conference revealed more details and additional features, including Bing-aided “Local Scout” search; chat threads that combine text, Windows Messenger, and Facebook messages; and unified email inboxes that combine specified accounts. We also got a vague release date: this fall, a little later than earlier rumors had pegged.

The biggest of the soon-to-arrive Windows Phone improvements remains multitasking for third-party apps, a feature that finally brings Microsoft’s new smartphones up to par with its Android- and iOS-powered competitors.

A quick demo showed how Windows Phone multitasking will work: inside a running app, users will simply press and hold the “Back” button to reveal a row of tiles, each representing apps in the background. Flick to the app you want to switch to, tap it, and voilà—you’re in. The interface looks like a hybrid of multitasking “card” interface in HP’s webOS platform and the browser windows in mobile Safari; basic, yes, but serviceable, and effective.

Messages "threads" let you combine Facebook, Windows Messenger, and text messages into a single conversation.

Also coming in “Mango”: a series of messaging enhancements, including “threads” that combine Facebook, text, and Windows Messenger chats with a contact into a single, threaded conversation; “groups” of friend for e-mail blasts, or viewing communal photos and updates on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn; built-in text-to-speech and speech-to-text for hands-free messaging; linked inboxes for multiple email accounts; and threaded email conversations that can be moved or deleted with a few taps.

Browsing will also get a boost with the hardware-accelerated, Internet Explorer 9-based mobile browser, which Microsoft claims will smoke the competition when it comes to “certain types” of web pages. Also on tap: “Local Scout,” a Bing-aided local search feature for finding nearby restaurants, shops, and other points on interest; and “Bing Vision,” which lets you scan and identify book covers and other items using the phone’s camera lens for instant search, shopping, and third-party app results (for example, within the Amazon Kindle app in the case of book covers).

All in all, Windows Phone users can expect more than 500 new features in the massive “Mango” update. Unfortunately (and only as far as I’m concerned, at least), none of them are true game-changers.

Indeed, despite my favorable impressions of the Windows Phone platform as a whole (and make no mistake, I’m still a fan of its clean, uncluttered interface and seamless Xbox and Facebook integration), I’m still at a loss whenever I’m asked for reasons to pick a Windows Phone handset over an Android phone or the iPhone.

Here’s the thing: Microsoft has made it clear that it’s in the smartphone business—or to be more specific, the Windows Phone business—for the long haul. That’s the good news; the bad news is that the upcoming “Mango” update lacks a killer feature to make Windows Phone stand out from the smartphone crowd.

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