If you love Disney and Japanese role-playing games you will be in heaven this week with the release of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep for the PSP and our competition! The game is a prequel to the hit PS2 games and follows three characters – Terra, Ventus and Aqua as they search through legendary Disney worlds to find Keyblade Master Xehanort. The game is rather lengthy for a portable title as you only see the full story by playing through as all three characters and it also features some of the best graphics you will ever see on the PSP.

To celebrate the release of the game on PSP on September 10th, we have an awesome prize pack up for grabs which features:

An Art Print Pack
A Magnet Set
A Postcard Set
A Special Edition copy of the game!

For your chance to win email richard@epicwinmedia.com telling us who your favourite Disney character is and why. Please include ‘Kingdom Hearts’ in the subject line. Competition open to UK residents only – sorry! Closing date is Friday 17th September 2010.

Good luck, and look out for our Kingdom Hearts:Birth By Sleep review later this week!

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Waiting for the latest Zelda or Metal Gear can feel like a lifetime, but spare a thought for those who loved Duke Nukem 3D and eagerly pre-ordered their copies of Duke Nukem Forever in 1997. After numerous restarts and delays the game seemed to have finally died last year when developers 3D Realms ran out of cash to support the game. However, this past weekend Gearbox Interactive shocked the world by announcing they have taken over the project, the game is done and is coming to PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2011. The game was shown off at the Penny Arcade Expo in the USA and attendees even got hands on with the game – yes it was there in actual playable form. Gearbox are currently polishing up the game and have no firm release date but are now talking to retailers – who probably thought they were having a laugh! So 13 years on, is the world still interested in The Duke? He would have fit in well with the cast of The Expendables which has done well at cinemas and a fun arcadey shooter would be very welcome in a genre overpopulated by drab military shooters. Despite laughing at the game’s hellish development for years I can’t wait to blast some pig-cops! Now, will the shops that took pre-orders honour them and is this a sign of the apocalypse?

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Samsung have finally unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Tab, their first tablet device and the first major competitior to the iPad.

Appearance wise, the Galaxy Tab is like a big Galaxy S Phone, coming in at 7inches and 380g – smaller and lighter than iPad. The device is powered by Android 2.2 and can even make phonecalls – can not wait to see someone hold this beast up to their ear.

As it is powered by Android 2.2 it can play flash videos and visit flash websites as well as being compatible with the Android Marketplace and the thousands of apps already available.

Samsung have built an eBook reader and media player for the device and video wise it can playback files encoded in DivX, XviD, MPEG4, H.263, and H.264.

There are two cameras, the front facing one is 3 MP and has a flash while the front facing 1.3 MP camera can support video calls over 3G.

Looks like a nice piece of kit, but is it just an oversized android phone? Would you carry two devices or just stick to the phone?

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Thank you for all your entries, but the Going Postal competition is now closed. The entries are being collected together and the winners will be contacted on Wednesday and announced on Thursday. Thanks for entering and good luck.

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Amazon have finally launched the Kindle in the UK, and although it is officially out today you will be lucky to get your mitts on it as phenomenal demand has seen the device sell out till mid September. The postie dropped off one yesterday, so read one to find out what the first 24 hours of Kindle life is like.

The first talking point is that the device comes preloaded with your name and Amazon account details, which can be a bit tricky if you are buying the device for someone as a gift. You can remotely deactivate it through the Amazon website, but on first bootup it will display your name, and not that of a loved one. If you have preordered a device, you can already buy books from the online store and they will appear as soon as you connect the Kindle to the Internet either through Wi-Fi, or if you stump up a bit more cash, 3G. A 300 page book weighs in at around 250kb so it is not a long download at all, and with over 3gb of memory you can fit a helluva lot of titles on there.

That’s the helpful information that you get once the Kindle has been dispatched, then you wait a day for the postman to drop it off. Amazon sent me a wooden spoon (don’t ask) earlier in the week in a huge cardboard box and was dreading the Kindle package. I needn’t have worried. The device comes in well packaged custom shaped box with a helpful pull tab to open safely. You are then presented with the device, protected with plastic sheets, and a guide on how to turn it on. At first I thought this guide was a piece of card that was covering the screen, but it was actually being displayed on the screen.  Yep, the device comes powered on and I was in shock at the quality of the image. It really does look like paper. It is also unbelievably thin, as the below picture shows.

I switched it on connected to Wi-Fi and got the books I had already ordered online. There is a vast selection available with decent prices for the majority of new releases and lots of free public domain titles. However some books that are a few years old seemed rather expensive, however under £3 for The Girl In The Dragon Tattoo seemed reasonable to me. You can also download sample chapters for free before committing to buy which is handy if you are a wary about a hyped up new author. The books were downloaded quickly and were available to read in the library with a quick click.

The device does not have a touch screen, but has plenty of buttons, though you will only be using a few – mainly the previous/next keys and the directional pad and enter button. Previous/next are featured on both the left and right sides of the Kindle, catering for the lefties out there and are very quiet to click so no waking your partner(s) if you happen to share a bed. The provided keyboard is adequate for searching for books in the store on the device, though you will prefer doing the shopping via computer. You can also download books straight to your computer and transfer via USB but this has a major stumbling block – finding the bloody section on the Amazon site where the books are stored. Once found, you download and drag and drop onto the device – no syncing software required, take that Apple.

Why buy an eBook reader? It saves on space in the house and in suitcases, very easy to use on crowded transport and won’t strain the eyes as much as using a reader on a phone or iPad. There are also other interesting reasons for having one. I bought the Kindle mainly for my girlfriend to use. She suffers from Kidney failure, and has to undergo Dialysis 4 hours a day, three times a week at the local hospital. During this time she has to keep her left arm very still while two needles pump away making most activities, including reading a book near impossible. We had looked at other reads before , but with this new version of the Kindle, she can easily hold it and turn pages with one hand. A genuinely fantastic use for a gadget.

24 hours in and I am very happy with my purchase. It looks fantastic, works brilliantly, has a good range and will be incredibly useful for use in hospital. The only major hurdle has been some older titles being rather expensive. If you enjoy reading, want to save space in your home and commute regularly I would recommend this immediately. It usually takes some time for me to fully enjoy and endorse a gadget, but the Kindle has blown me away and I look forward to reinvigorating my love affair with reading.

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Mafia 2 is out tomorrow so why not celebrate by having a haircut. 2K Games have set up the Mafia II Pop-up Barber Shop Tour, where you can get a free shave, haircut, t-shirt and a meeting with a glamour model. From that you can probably guess who the game is being marketed to. You get your shave and haircut at the shop, then grab a leaflet from Lucie Self which can be redemmed at GAME stores for a free T-Shirt. The dates and locations are:

Basingstoke – Festival Place – 27th August
Birmingham – Bullring Rotunda Square – 28th August
Westfield – Southern Terrace - 29th August
Reading – Oracle Centre - 30th August
Newcastle – Northumberland Street – 1st September
Manchester – Trafford Centre – 2nd September

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Did you know there is a DJ Expo going on in Atlantic City? Well it is sure news to me though the only place I seem to get DJ news is from the ticker on DJ Hero. However the chaps at Denon knew there was an expo, and a good thing too as they have three shiny new products for the computer DJ to salivate over. Read on for all the mixing goodness, very complicated specifications and lots of knobs.

The Denon DN-MC6000 introduces a new product category as an integrated, full blown mixer and ‘dual deck’ MIDI Controller. The Mixer / MIDI Controller combines a 4-channel / 8-source standalone digital mixer – featuring real time channel matrix operation – USB MIDI control and 2 x stereo in / 2 x stereo out USB audio interface. It comes bundled with Native Instruments TRAKTOR LE and coonects with Mac OSX and Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. Using the ‘dual layer’ function, each side of the DN-MC6000 can control two decks (for a total of four) in TRAKTOR Pro, with visual deck colour change.

The mixer features 3-band Channel EQ with high-mid-low kills, on-board EFX, and a new control surface layout. This includes a newly designed high resolution 105-mm touch sensitive jog wheel, smooth 100-mm long 14-bit high resolution pitch slider, 45-mm channel and cross faders, eight (4 + 4) hot cue/sampler buttons with dual bank selector key, Auto Loop button with Beat Jump (loop cut), Manual Loop In/Out buttons, large size Cue & PLAY buttons, select and parameter controls for the on-board EFX, multiple GUI controls – Mixer, Video, Scratch, Sampler, REC, etc., file browse navigation keys and ring illuminated rotary encoder file selector knob, and Denon’s legacy Pitch Bend keys with Vinyl and Pitch Bend Jog modes.

Inputs include two phono lines, one XLR Mic/quarter-inch and one quarter-inch mic jack, and two phono AUX inputs. Outputs include balanced master XLR, unbalanced master phono, quarter-inch booth/send out, phono record out, and stereo headphone out. Also featured is a USB Audio in/out selectable routing switch. The DN-MC6000 can be rackmounted and is supplied with 19″ rackmount kit. It comes out in November for around £579.

Also on show was the Denon DN-X600, a highly spec’d 2-channel performance mixer, optimised for both traditional vinyl techniques and the latest digital media and computer DJ systems, that offers levels of technology and performance comparable with Denon’s flagship 4-channel models.

Best in class signal path components, controls, processing and control features include many derived directly from Denon’s flagship DN-X1700 and DN-X1600 mixers. Ensuring the highest quality audio performance, the DN-X600’s internal sound card is a 4 x stereo in / 4 x stereo out 24-bit / 96kHz USB 2.0 Audio Interface, while the mixer’s audio output is via a whopping 32-bit DAC.

32-bit Floating Point DSP provides the mixer with powerful signal processing capabilities. 3-band channel EQ includes full kill on each band. On-board EFX include Delay, Echo, Flanger, Filter, Reverb, Loop, Beat Scratch and BeatBreaker, and the dedicated EFX section features ON/OFF, Dry-Wet mix and independent send assignment (Ch/Mic/Master). A powerful two-way EFX Parameter Filter, including Cross Over Frequency and Isolator (low pass filter/high pass filter) is included, as is a send/return control, for use with external effects.

The cross fader is a 45-mm High Performance Flex Fader with tension adjustment and a unique 32-point contour adjustment (and Innofader-Pro compatibility). Channel faders are 45-mm custom Alps-type; also with contour adjustment.

The unit’s control surface is fully MIDI-mappable, including knobs, keys and buttons, and the DN-X600 can work with all current operating systems, including Mac OSX 10.6.4 and 32/64-bit Windows systems; a low-latency 32/64-bit ASIO driver is included for PC use. The unit can operate with DVS direct mode for DJ applications using platter control signal operation. USB send/return routing is included for use with DJ software DSP effects such as TRAKTOR, and USB MIDI Clock In BPM Detection can be used with TRAKTOR, Torq, Ableton, Cubase and more. The mixer’s firmware is upgradeable over USB.

The I/O complement comprises two phono inputs, two line level inputs and two AUX inputs, mic input, effects send/return, stereo output, USB send/return, booth out, and balanced XLR master out. Out in October for around £495.

Finally there is the Denon DN-SC2000, a more affordable, professionally spec’d and constructed MIDI controller for Native Instruments TRAKTOR Pro, providing a portable control solution for laptop DJs. A dual layer system, the DN-SC2000 provides simultaneous switchable control of both TRAKTOR decks, with visual deck colour change. Connecting to Mac or Windows PC via a single USB2.0 interface (from which the unit is also powered), advanced features include MIDI mapable capability, auto loop function, a wide range of EFX, rugged pitch slider, pitch lock, automatic beat sync, durable rubber button controls and more.

The solid steel constructed unit incorporates Denon’s new high resolution 105-mm touch sensitive jog wheel, smooth 100-mm long 14-bit resolution pitch slider, Pitch Lock function, file browse navigation buttons and ring illuminated rotary encoder file selector knob, large size Cue & PLAY buttons, eight (4 + 4) hot cue/sampler buttons with dual bank selector key, Auto Loop button with Beat Jump and Manual Loop In/Out buttons, EFX Unit 1 and 2 layer and on/off buttons with colour change LEDs, EFX parameter encoders, Denon’s legacy Pitch Bend key, a SYNC button for beat matching between decks, and a powerful Shift key, assignable to various dual button operations. Out October for around £179.

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Ever wanted to show other people the world from your perspective? Then you need the Action Cam from Chilli Technology that enables you to attach a video camera to your head, which will do till we can have a flash drive embedded into the back of our eyes and a flash above the eyebrows. With this nifty gadget you can record your own version of Peep Show, catch dog owners who don’t pick up mess and also record important conversations that you can analyse later for lies whilst keeping your hands free. The camera comes with a head strap and then you just press one button to start recording. 2xAA batteries power it up for around 3 hours and the movies are stored onto SD card, at a rate of 1gb per hour. The camera retails for £24.99 and looks a nice gift for those who enjoy mountain biking or skiing or spying on neighbours.

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It has been scientifically proven (well, probably has) that everyone loves post, competitions and Andrew Sachs so putting all three together should be a truly special occasion – and nothing can be more special that a competition with three copies of Going Postal on DVD up for grabs.

Going Postal, based on the Terry Pratchett Discworld novel  and starring Richard Coyle, David Suchet, Andrew Sachs and Charles Dance, is coming to DVD on August 23rd and we have three chances for you to win yourself one of the shiny discs.

1. Send an email to richard@epicwinmedia.com with the answer to this question

Who plays Lipwig in Going Postal? (Hint: Check out our preview)

2. Or leave a comment below about what you love or hate about the Post Office.

3. Or send a tweet to @goingpostaldvd with ‘Going Postal’ in it.

Competition closes on Monday 30th August. Entrants must be UK residents aged 12 or over. Winners will be drawn at random from correct emails, tweets and stories. Good luck!

Going Postal is available on DVD and Blu-ray from 23rd August. Released by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

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