Soda pop & free Xboxes

If your child has an unusual thirst for Mountain Dew all of a sudden, it's not necessarily due to its superlative taste. "Pepsi will give away as many as 9,222 Xbox 360 game consoles in a bid to whet appetites for its drinks and the first new version of the Microsoft gadget in five years," CNET reports. Gamers will be able to enter special codes found under the caps of Mountain Dew, Pepsi, and Sierra Mist bottles, into an online account at Yahoo.com, the article says. To enter, players must enter a unique code printed under caps of Mountain Dew, Pepsi and Sierra Mist bottles into an online account at Yahoo.com. Winners will get their Xbox 360s before they go on store shelves (probably before the holidays). Part of the 360's appeal is that it'll be able to access the Web (oh great, some parents will sigh), "allowing players to purchase and download game trailers, new game levels, weapons and vehicles for their games online. The machine also features a wireless controller and a 20GB hard drive for storing games and music."