Spore is arguably one of the most eagerly anticipated games we’ve seen in a long time, and with the title hitting European shelves tomorrow and U.S. shelves on Monday, the hype is going into overdrive. So why is everyone so hung up on Spore?

A factor not to be ignored is the fact that the game itself is coming from Maxis, which gave us the astronomically popular "The Sims." Those who know nothing of Spore are looking forward to it based on the general assumption is that it’s going to be “sorta like the Sims.”

However, if you’ve been following all the excitement, you’ll already know what Spore is all about. The game focuses on the evolution of species. Players start off as a single-celled organism and progress through different levels of complex life forms which eventually leads them to an intelligent, social being with the ability to travel into outer space and interact with alien life forms. However, the storyline of the game isn’t what’s getting most people excited.

The game is based around a large amount of user generated content without having any simultaneous multiplayer gameplay. While your race will appear in other peoples’ games, there is no interaction or intertwining with other players or their games. Being the first game to combine such a wide scope of gameplay (in-game evolution involves five separate stages) with such a huge amount of user generated content, there’s a certain amount of risk involved but the potential for a huge pay-off.

Spore is essentially in a category of its own. When creating a game that is quite unlike anything else out there, or quite similar but with a couple of fairly substantial differences, it’s very difficult to have the finished product be absolutely perfect. A lot of the hype surrounding Spore is built around what Spore will mean for other games. There’s the potential for a nearly new genre of game, and while the impact it has will be notable, it won’t be anything compared to the impact associated with its successors.

iTunes may be the most popular music manager and online music store, but there are still tons of people out there who don’t have an iPhone or iPod to sync their music too. Not everyone likes to use iTunes to manage their music, but for those who do, Salling Media Sync from Salling Software will let you sync your music to any recent phone.

At this time however, Salling Media Sync is only available for Mac and Windows in free version that is limited. The difference between the paid version and the free version is smart syncing. With the free download, users will have to sync their entire libraries each time there needs to be an update — even if it’s just for one song.

For $22, users will be able to get a version of Salling Media Sync that will sync just songs that are updated.

Both versions will allow you to transfer any song to your phone, except those that are protected by DRM. iTunes Plus songs, those that cost more but don’t have DRM restrictions, are free game. The little app will also transfer over M4A formats without any syncing problems.

At this current time, Salling Software recommends users read their list of supported devices. Many devices from HTC, Sony, Nokia and Sony Ericsson are supported.

Google has rewritten the EULA for Chrome, the company’s browser that launched in beta earlier this week.

The wording of section 11 of the Chrome Terms of Service raised a few eyebrows among those who actually bothered to read the service agreements before installing the browser. At the time of launch, the agreement stated that by submitting, posting or displaying the content, you give Google a “perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services,” which no doubt rings alarm bells for bloggers everywhere.

A Google spokesperson told the BBC that Google reuses the EULAs for a lot of their products and simply didn’t realize that a large part of Chrome Terms of Service would rile up the blogosphere population.

Rebecca Ward, Senior Product Counsel at Google said that the company reuses chunks of Universal Terms of Service for the sake of simplicity and the claims made in the original agreement with Chrome were an oversight. "Sometimes, as in the case of Google Chrome, this means that the legal terms for a specific product may include terms that don’t apply well to the use of that product," Ward explained.

The edited version of the Chrome EULA now reads as, "You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services."

Google launched Chrome on Tuesday morning and the fact that it’s Google, not to mention the accidental cat-escapes-bag email sent out couple of days early, it was hardly surprising to see Google headlines almost right across the board. We expected to see people dissecting every aspect of Chrome the minute they could get their hands on it, which makes us wonder how Google could have overlooked something so important.

In what may be one of the worst-kept secrets in game console price drop history, Microsoft has finally confirmed all belief that Xbox 360 consoles would be cheaper starting September 5.

Price cuts will hit the entire console line, with the entry-level Xbox 360 Arcade (no hard drive) at $199, the Xbox 360 Pro (60 GB) at $299 and the Xbox 360 Elite (120 GB) at $399.

The hard drive-equipped models will shed $50, while the Arcade model drops $80. This will make the Xbox 360 the lowest-priced console of the current generation, undercutting the Nintendo Wii at $249.99.

"We are thrilled to be the first next-generation console on the market to reach $199, a price that invites everyone to enjoy Xbox 360, " said Don Mattrick, senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "Xbox 360 delivers amazing performance at an extraordinary value with the leading online service and best lineup of games, downloadable movies and TV shows available from a console. The majority of consumers make the decision to buy consoles once the price falls to this mark, making this an important milestone for consumers and the industry."

Besides just becoming more affordable than the Wii, Microsoft is particularly happy of its sub-$200 price point. According to its own data, Microsoft said that 75 percent of all console sales happen after the hardware has fallen below the $200 mark.

Besides just as a games machine, Microsoft is also making hard push for the Xbox 360 to be an entertainment media solution. Microsoft was happy to point out that an Xbox 360 Arcade plus a 12-month Xbox Live Gold Membership and a Netflix subscription costs $100 less than 12 months of digital cable.

Traditionally, renting movies online Xbox Live required the user to have a hard drive to store the full video file. Starting this fall, Microsoft’s deal with Netflix will grant Xbox 360 owners access to instant streaming of more than 12,000 feature films and television shows.