Xbox Sky Player

Microsoft will be introducing the Sky Player, Facebook and Twitter to the Xbox 360 for Gold Live subscribers in their update that will be released at the end of October. For current Live and Sky subscribers they will be able to watch Sky TV on their Xbox via the Sky Player for no extra cost. For others who can't have Sky due to restrictions on erecting dishes, they now have the option of signing up for the fantastic Sky service giving them all the sports and movies enjoyed by millions up and down the country. According to the Sky website, the update will take place on October 27th.

Using the Sky Player on your Xbox you will be able to watch all the Sky channels that you are subscribed to as well as PPV events, such as Boxing and Movies. You can also watch TV with all your friends who hold a subscription. So if a football game is on for example, there will be a funky feature where your avatar and all your friends avatars will be in a room watching a screen, the screen will be showing the football match which you can watch yourself, but you can talk to your friends via the headset and even make your avatar gesture as if he was cheering. It brings a whole new way of watching TV so you can still watch it with friends even if you nee dto stay at home.

The Xbox has established itself as the must have games console, but with this new feature it can almost replace your Sky+ box, it plays DVD's so no real need for a DVD player and it can also play some digital content. With a few extra tweaks and improvements there's no reason why the Xbox couldn't be a fantastic all in one media hub for the living room. I see this as the begining, the Xbox 360 is a good few years old now and Microsfot must be looking at creating it's successor. The 360 showcases a lot of cool features that with some refinement and support from other content providers could see a fantastic fully fledged all in one media center as the replacement for the Xbox 360, a single unit that plays the best games, allows you to view, pause and record High Def TV, watch DVD/Blu-Ray movies and play digital Music and Video content in all the major formats. With all that in place it would be the ultimate machine.

Samsung high definition LCD TV

FreebieJeebies are a popular incentives network that are offering a free Samsung high definition LCD TV to everyone that signs upto their website. FreebieJeebies have given away nearly half a million pounds worth of gifts in the past two years and continue to offer fantastic prizes so what are you waiting for?? Get Signed Up!! As well as the Samsung high definition LCD TV they also give away the latest iPhone 3GS, XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii, Sony PS3 and will in fact do their best to get you the gift of your choosing. My goal though is to get myself a 40" Samsung high definition LCD TV it will look great in my living room, it will look that much better for being free!

Click here to register at the FreebieJeebies website, there you will need to supply a valid e-mail address and your home address so they can send your chosen gift to you. FreebieJeebies are a reputable company, they abide by the data protection act which ensures all your personal details are stored securely and they do not sell your information to third parties. To abide by their terms and conditions the details you give must be your own and they must be unique, so only 1 person from each household can enter..

Once registered you can select your choice of free gift, then you will need to complete one of their sponsors offers. There are lots and lots to choose from but don't worry the best one is free, Sign up for a LOVEFiLM trial and select some DVD's to try, they will post 1 from your list to you, send it back to them in the envelope provided and voila you have completed the offer. You don't need to become a paying customer although many people do because it is a very very good service. If you have already tried the LOVEFiLM service you will have to complete a different offer, personally I think the coral one is very good, sign up and deposit £5 and bet that £5. You can place it on a dead cert and if you win then you can transfer the £5 plus your winnings back to your bank account, so you don't actually get a Samsung high definition LCD TV for free you are paid to have it!!

Once you have completed 1 offer you will need to refer as many friends / family / colleagues as your chosen gift requires. FreebieJeebies are paid a comission for every person that completes an offer, so the more people you refer the more expensive a gift you can receive. The 40" Samsung high definition LCD TV requires 35 referrals, but if however you opted for 26" Samsung high definition LCD TV you would need just 18 referrals and the 32" model is only 21 referrals. Most people have well over 50 people on their Facebook friends list so both of these should be well achievable.

Nobody believes in a free lunch, even less so in the current tough economic climate but contrary to that belief FreebieJeebies do actually give free gifts to people who gain enough referrals. Companies like them aren't unique and there's actually a large community of "Freebie Hunters" that use these networks to get lots of cool free stuff. A quick search on google about FreebieJeebies will throw up tons of material about them, with people from all walks of life endorsing them and showing off their free gifts. On top of that the eXceem communtiy has lots of information about FreebieJeebies, as well as hints on how to gain extra referrals. There is one thread on the forums in particular which shows just how much can be had for free with a little work, click here to see. As well as these communities, the BBC programme Newsnight ran an article about FreeIpods.com the original american website that started these types of schemes years ago, the video is shown on the right for you to view, as well as one from American TV adding further proof to the fact that when done properly you can get these cool gifts for free. The FreebieJeebies website itself has many testimonials from people that have received their free item click here to see. The best way to prove it works however is to either have a friend that's received their free item so you can see with your own eyes or to prove it for yourself by doing it. Some people opt to start small for example choosing the 4Gb iPod shuffle as their free gift, this requires only 3 referrals. By opting to get this gift first you can easily prove to yourself and your friends that it does work and then set about getting a lot more referrals for a much bigger gift like the 40" Samsung high definition LCD TV.

FreebieJeebies earn money every time someone tries an offer via their website. The commission they are paid varies but if we work on an average of £20 and take the 40" Samsung high definition LCD TV as an example, this gift requires 35 referrals, so 35 x £20 = £700 commission earned by FreebieJeebies. The retail price of a 40" Samsung high definition LCD TV ranges from £600 - £700 depending upon where you shop, but you can see that they can make enough money to buy your gift and make a little profit for themselves too. Naturally they make their most profit from people that signup and complete an offer and only get a few referrals but they don't rely on it, their business model is still sound if we all receive our gifts. Now as they are also in the business of making money they do have to ensure they get paid and as such they have a number of terms and conditions that must be followed to ensure their advertiser do pay them for their leads. Advertisers are promised fresh new leads which they hope to convert into paying customers, what they don't want is the same person signing up with different e-mail addresses just to scam the system and get a free gift. The advertisers track the I.P. Address of all signups and refuse to pay if there is more than 1 sign up from a single I.P. Address and also if the signup has come from an I.P. Address that is used as a proxy server. If users give fake signup details and don't use a valid credit card they will not pay for these either and because the Advertisers will not pay, FreebieJeebies will not give you credit for the referral. There are occasions where people do sign up legitimately but the tracking process fails, to ensure you have the best chance of avoiding these problems I would advise you to clear your Temporary Internet Files, and clear your Cookies this can be done from the tools menu in Internet Explorer.