The bad news? She’s not a girl.

The good news? Lala is a relatively new, amazing MP3 service that lets you listen to any song for free once, and then gives you the chance to buy that song for only 89 cents.

It doesn’t seem that they are too popular though. Popular songs like “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga and “Tik Tok” by Kesha have less than 25,000 listens. You would think that millions of people would be hopping on the Lala bandwagon and listening to music as they please. Don’t forget saving 40 cents for every song bought compared to iTunes.

The layout on the site is beautiful too. Music that you listen to streams at the top while you browse, and it has a very lightweight feel to it. One of the negatives is that you can only listen to a full song one time, but if you want to hear it on the website an unlimited number of times, you have to pay 10 cents for the web version. Ouch, a whole dime?

If you haven’t checked it out yet, head over to Lala.com and listen to a few songs. They have over 8 million in their database.

An iPhone app was in the works too, but it seems Apple isn’t too keen on allowing it. In fact, they bought the service for $80 million back in December. Hopefully it is available soon.

The popular 2K Sports MLB franchise has had its ups and downs over the year, but it has definitely become one of my favorite things to look forward to in March. This year, on March 2nd, MLB 2K10 will be available in stores for $59.99. However, 2K Sports is trying a new publicity stunt by giving $1,000,000 to the first person who throws a perfect game.

The game will be available on 360, Wii, and PS3. The $1,000,000 contest is only available to those on the 360 or PS3 though. You can get the contest details here.

Also, this year’s game has a couple new features with it. The first is the My Player mode, similar to the “Road to the Show” gameplay mode in MLB: The Show. There will also be an MLB Today feature that lets you play the same games that are going on in the MLB today, with the same pitchers and starting lineups. This will also help with commentary, because if players go on hot streaks in the real MLB, the commentary will mention their current real-life MLB stats.

Overall, this game is going to be a pretty fun play, but the franchise overall seems a little sloppy. I like to take this game on a year-by-year basis, and I wasn’t too happy with MLB2K9.

Hopefully things will be a little better this year.

I got this myself on my iPhone, and it was very frustrating. I tried downloading a song but it kept coming up download error. Tap to retry.

I could retry forever, it wouldn’t work.

However, I did notice that before it actually went and failed, there was a pause button available for about .5 seconds. If you can hit that pause button before the download quickly fails, it will then restart. The download should work as normal after unpausing it.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Everyone will tell you what the best gift is for that special geek in your life, but there are also some horrendous ones out there that you shouldn’t buy for them. If you have to buy a gift for a tech nerd in your life, avoid these five guaranteed failures.

5) iTunes Gift Card

Regardless of the type of Apple product they have, you have no idea how this person fills it with content. If they have an iPod, they may download their music from LimeWire or FrostWire. If they have an iPhone/iPod touch, it may be jailbroken which means that all apps are free. Don’t assume that they spend money on iTunes. If you get them an iTunes gift card, it could definitely wind up on eBay. Just be sure they actually make purchases from iTunes before you buy them an iTunes gift card.

4) How-To or ‘For Dummies’ Books

You can find how to books for basically anything tech related. Microsoft Office, Windows, computer programming, etc. However, buying these books is a complete waste. There is an incredible amount of information online that you can Google instead of dropping $20 on a gimmick book. Don’t waste money on these things.

3) DVDs

If there is a geek in your life that likes a specific movie, chances are they’ve already downloaded it on BitTorrent or through some other methods. No geek is going to wait around for someone to buy them the DVD. They probably already have their own copy, so don’t be that person who gives useless gifts.

2) XBox 360 Games

This one pretty much goes hand-in-hand with the DVDs and iTunes gift card. many geeks have modded their XBox 360s to play backup games. Unless you know for sure that they buy all their games, don’t bother buying them an XBox 360 game. And, even if they do buy their games, make sure they actually will like the one you buy them. Everyone loves their grandma, but it really sucks when a 16-year-old male opens up the latest copy of Karaoke Revolution. Be careful if you’re trying to buy them a 360 game. Consider a GameStop gift card as an alternative.

1) Alarm Clock

It may just be me, but I’m averaging at least 1 alarm clock every 2 Christmas seasons. How many do you need? Despite the fact that there is a free Alarm application for Windows and an alarm clock on my iPhone, I still seem to get the coolest new alarm clock every other Christmas. Cross alarm clocks off your holiday list.

Some ideas for good gifts (varies from geek to geek): World of Warcraft game time, wireless 360 controller, a new gaming mouse (no keyboards please), blank CD, DVD, or DVD+R DL discs, gas gift cards, extended cell notebook battery, NES/SNES/Sega Genesis console, anything from woot.com, 2GB Sansa MP3 player (incredibly portable and only $20, great for working out), radar detector (nothing from Cobra).

Great news for anyone who likes products from Dell (and if you do, I’m sorry). Dell has recently released plans to enter into the mobile phone market, making devices on possibly the Android and Windows Mobile platforms. Read the rest of this entry »