The Wii, PlayStation Move and Xbox Kinect have all been produced to attract an expanded market gaming, but you need to be very careful about getting non-gamers involved in the hobby, as a story from my past proves.
I used to stay with my grandparents alot on weekends, and I tried to get my granpa interested in my PlayStation, playing him at my favorite game at the time WWF Attitude. We had some fun bouts and he got used to the control pad quite quickly. One Sunday afternoon after some matches I went to see some friends. When I returned my granpa informed me he had been playing a game while I was out. The aim of the game was to get rid of the flashing squares.
I was confused. I didn’t own any puzzle games and he said he had not put a disc in the machine. A shudder came over me. I ran to the tv and fired up the console and went straight to my memory card directory. Every save was gone. The flashing squares that my granpa was blasting away were actually saved games. These days consoles are home to downloadable games and film downloads so be extra careful to back up as much as you can before getting the whole familt round our you could lose more than just saves.
Microsoft are finally bringing the Zune Music service to the UK- but not the MP3 player, Many laughed at the device which launched a few centuries ago in the USA for selling very little when compared to the iPod though they could have sold a few dozen more if they bothered to release it in more than one territory. THE FOOLS. Anyway, you will be able to buy MP3’s from Zune through your PC and Windows 7 Phone (oh-er) when the service launches this Autumn. Paying £8.99 will give you access to the the Zune pass allowing to download as many Mp3’s as you want on PC and W7 phone, and stream them online through the Xbox 360. Once you stop paying, you can’t play the files – just like Napster. I must admit I am a big fan of subscription music and was a subscriber to Napster to Go for over 5 years which charged me £15 a month to download songs to my computer and transfer them to a compatible player. I now pay for Spotify Premium and would buy an iPod in a heartbeat if iTunes introduced a subscription service. Alas I think Microsoft may struggle with Zune in the UK due to the lack of player being sold – we’ll need a Windows 7 phone to have tracks on the move. Users in the USA also get 10 songs to keep forever every month but that sweetener is missing from the UK offering. Will you be Zuneing or sticking to Spotify, iTunes, HMV Digital or being naughty with those ‘other’ websites?
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?
Another September, another iPod refresh from Apple who showed some nifty looking devices last night. The company seemed to cut an old iPod Nano in half to form a new versions of the Nano and Shuffle. The tiny Nano now has a multitouch screen, though hard to see how useful it will be as it is so incredibly small. The iPod Touch is now even thinner, and has inherited many features from the iPhone including two cameras, HD video recording and Facetime.Despite Steve Jobs announcing new models for the whole iPod range there was no update for the iPod Classic, perhaps singling the end is nigh for the device.iTunes also gets an overhaul with added social network functions called ‘Ping’ and a new logo that removes the CD icon!
The iPhone and iPad will be getting some software updates to fix bugs and the iPhone gains the ability to take HDR photos whilst the iPad gets multitasking.
The show concluded with the new dinky Apple TV that comes with no storage and allows users to rent videos or stream from a computer. In America it will also include access to Netflix, making it an attractive proposition. Hopefully in the future there will be some form of iPlayer on the device in the UK.
So, anyone else hitting eBay to grab a watchstrap for the new Nano?
Tonight looks like a big night for music gadgets and gizmos with Sony and Apple hosting press conferences ushering in new services and devices. Sony are in Germany for the IFA in Berlin, Europes biggest technology show. The Financial Times reports that Sony will be debuting a music subscription service, which will also offer up films and tv shows that is accessed with PlayStation Network accounts- a Spotify style service that covers everything?
Apple are expected to show off new iPod Nano’s complete with touchscreens and we may even finally find out if the company will finally get round to offer a cloud based music streaming service. Aplle should also be showing off their revamped Apple TV, though Amazon have tried to steal their thunder by announcing their own online TV service in the same week that has saw a tremendous first week for their new Kindle device.
Good to see competition between the big companies as this can only lead to bigger and better services for us lot – the consumers. Sony does face an uphill struggle due to having terrible software in the past for music management, but their revamped PlayStation Store went down well with gamers so hopefully lessons have been learned. Apple will be streaming their conference live tonight with a big catch – it is only available to view on Apple devices. Not making this up!
