Sony recently made an announcement that they were getting out of the Rear Projection game and would be focused on the highly competitive LCD market. So why is it then that I have just spent some of my hard earned cash on a Sony 55″ Rear Projection TV?

Well if we look closely at the reasons behind this it is purely down to the market in the UK - we seem to love our TVs flat and sometimes, in my opinion, can get blinded by a poor quality TV, in terms of picture quality, when it looks so sexy switched off.  I  know my wife would have preferred me to get an LCD or Plasma, but she agreed that when comparing like for like the Rear Projection knocked spots of other LCD and Plasma systems on display. Now I’m not saying Rear Projection is a better technology, what I’m trying to say is that bang for buck, in my opinion, you can get better picture quality, especially for standard definition TV out of a rear projection set.

Another complaint I hear is that the rear projection sets are too bulky. Now let’s consider the size of an LCD or Plasma for one moment. Unless you are going to hang it on a wall, which can present its own issues, then you will also require a stand. During the viewing in the shop we measured a range of stands and it turns out that having a 55″ rear projection TV would only add an additional 2 inches of depth due to the pretty standard size of stands these days. Finally the first thing a lot of people will say will be in regards to the bulb life. Well I’ve owned a 40″ Toshiba rear projection set for almost 7 years and it’s still running strong on the original bulb. The bulbs in fact should be good for between 4000 and 8000 hours and cost around £150 to replace. I wont linger too long on the subject but you can search on Google to find out the additional electricity costs of running an LCD or Plasma for 8000 hours in comparison to the  rear projection.

Now I don’t want to be seen as giving LCD or Plasma screens a bad name - in fact in the coming years I’m sure I will own one and you can pickup some pretty good sets already. Just right now, and before they are gone forever, you may want to at least consider rear projection. Did someone say Sony 70″ ?

So throughout 2007 I’ve gotten into video podcasting and life streaming in a big way. If you check my blog you can see links to my lifestreams (kyte.tv, qik.com, seesmic, and youtube) Now of course what makes most of this possible is a decent webcam. Even if you aren’t into the whole lifestreaming side of things you may still want to consider a webcam for sending video messages to friends and family who perhaps you don’t get to see as often as you would like. I also know some people use their webcam as a poor-mans home security solution. As you can see the options opened up to you upon owning a webcam and pretty extensive.

The nice thing about webcams is that you don’t need to pay the earth to get a pretty decent camera. Take for example the Creative Cam Notebook Pro, one which I have owned in my time. This camera is small and portable, ideal for those on the move and will hook onto the lid of your laptop. The camera can also swivel 180 degrees to take an image behind it - perfect for the James Bond fans among you. Despite its small size this camera packs quite a punch, delivering 30 frames per second (fps) at 640×480 (vga) resolution. As I said I had this camera and found it perfect for video calls on the road.

If you are after a webcam for use at home then you may want to consider the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000. This camera offers 30fps, similar to the Notebook one above, but this time the maximum resolution is 1600×1200. I’ve also been a fan of the QuickCam range, owning a QuickCam Pro 4000 at the moment. The nice additional feature to this is its small size, meaning once again you can take it on the road.

Finally don’t forget that quite a few PC manufacturers are building a camera into the lid of the laptop. Although this probably won’t be up to the standard of the QuickCam Pro, in terms of resolution, the benefit of having the camera built in could be one to consider when looking for a new laptop.

So as we fast approach 2008 I’m starting to consider my next PC upgrade which of course will probably mean I will finally move to Windows Vista. Now I’ve always found Vista difficult to describe in one word - is it evolutionary or is it revolutionary? Well it’s kinda a bit of both. Some features, such as 3D desktop, will be seen as revolutionary to some, but to others (ie the Penguin fans among you) will be evolutionary.

When considering Vista one of the first things you need to understand are the different editions - and this I think is something that Microsoft could have done better, especially given that for XP we have only two editions to consider; Home and Professional. With Vista the user is now met with 3 main choices, home, business and ultimate. Then to complicate matters even more these can be broken down further with Basic, Basic N, Premium and Enterprise. Let’s us keep things simple. In the end, most Windows users are going to want to choose between Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate.

So getting under the hood what does Vista offer me? Well of course it’s a whole new user interface which for some will be a blessing, but for others perhaps a little frustrating as it really does take a little time to get used to the new layout. One thing I’ve always complained about with Windows XP is the search functionality, especially in comparison to the Unix/Linux find command or the integrated search with MacOS. Well it certainly looks as though Mr Gates has paid attention as the built in search functionality on Vista now is much improved, making the ability to search across not only documents on your hard drive, but also any instant message chat, web page or podcast you may have used regarding your search criteria - pretty powerful.

If, like me, you are into your photography, then the built in Photo Gallery option is a joy to behold. One of its main features is when you tag a JPEG or TIFF photo with keywords in Windows Vista, those tags are stored directly in the file as metadata, which you can use to search, sort, and filter images in Photo Gallery. Don’t forget Vista now comes with a much improved speech recognition, one that when I tested, actually worked pretty well, even with minimal training.

Finally, and for some more of a gimmick than a useful feature, is 3D desktop. I’m not saying I would enable it by default, but it sure is nice to play with. I actually see this feature more at home on a tablet PC where you can have a touch screen. Think of it as similar to  cover flow on the iPod Touch.

For me who has got an XBox 360 and Zune, Vista is the natural upgrade path as it will fast become the central piece in my jigsaw of connected media around the home. Now I just need to spec a system powerful enough to run it

As it is Christmas, the time of year when families join together, exchange gifts, reflect on the year gone by and make cups of coffee all day long, this gizmo fits in perfectly with the time of year.

The Krups Nescafe Dolce Gusto is a coffee machine that is so hip and good looking, it can only be described as “funky”, the James Brown of coffee machines if you will. As well as having the funky looks, the Krups machine also has the funky tools to go along with it. It boasts a 14 bar pressure pump which you will only usually find on a machine at your local Starbucks. When you pit this against most other coffee machines which use a 4 to 5 bar pump, it is pretty impressive.

The Dolce Gusto uses specially designed capsules that provide rich coffee, which are available from most supermarket chains and provide four different blends to choose from… Latte Macchiato, Rich Caffè Lungo, Shot of Espresso and Frothy Cappuccino. This machine has so much brains you can even choose how strong (or weak) you want your coffee. If i haven’t already convinced you of this machines intelligence then this might win you over… The Dolce Gusto comes with Krups Thermoblock technology which will only heat water as it is required, guaranteeing fresh water for every cup plus this saves energy, so you can be a hero and save the planet aswell. The only drawback to this machine is that it doesn’t make tea, so all you “Tea Jennies” will have to find another way to feed your habit in such style. But, for coffee addicts this machine will make all your caffeine dreams come true.

Go on admit it! If you were into Lego as a kid the chances are you are still into it as an adult. Okay sure, it may take a bit of excuse to actually go out and buy it but with Christmas coming up you may indeed have that perfect excuse. So repeat after me - “It’s for the little one”

Okay cool now we have that out of the way you are decide on what you are going to buy yourself for the little one. When I was younger my favourite was a Lego airport complete with buildings, runway and a couple of planes. These days however it seems the Lego kits have gotten ever more complex and detailed, which given that most of the joy for me with Lego was the creation itself, means that the entertainment value has come a long way.  If your into your Star Wars then you may be interested to know there is a whole range of Star Wars associated Lego products. How about the classic Imperial AT-ST, or take it up a notch with the Fully Motorised AT-AT, complete with a little Lego Skywalker figure -  WOW !

Moving away from Star Wars, but keeping on the space theme you may also want to consider the ETX Alien Mothership, which includes 2 astronauts and 5 glow-in-the-dark alien mini-figures. Or how about this Lego Firestation, complete with extendable ladder, 4 fire fighters ready for duty, along with 2 trucks.

And yes just for me they still do a Lego Airport. Unfortunately I don’t have the excuse that I’m buying it for the little one so for now I think I need work on another excuse why a 32 year old man is playing with it.  Perhaps I’ll have to make do with the Lego StarWars games, available for a host of consoles.

Creators of the Half Life game series, Valve, have given us the ultimate gaming collection by putting together all their incredible Half Life 2 games with the end product being The Orange Box. The Orange Box is 5 Half Life games inside one big err… “Orange Box”. The box includes Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode One, Half life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. For those of you who are not familiar with Half Life and are not part of the cult following that it has, here is a super quick description to clarify. Players assume the role of Gordon Freeman, a scientist destined to save the Earth from a contingent of gruesome aliens that he unleashed upon the world. There you go, I think that has set the storyline pretty well. 

The latest installment of the game is Half Life 2: Episode Two where you dive deeper into Gordon Freemans struggle against the alien Combine where you will be able to leave City 17 for the very first time. This may be a good time to point out that Half Life 2 and HL2: Episode One are the previous installments of the game, just in case you hadn’t worked that out (no sarcasm intended) so make sure you play them first.  

Team Fortress 2 is the follow up to the original Maharajah of role-based online multiplayer games. Featuring nine distinct roles… Heavy, Spy, Scout, Demoman, Engineer, Medic, Sniper, Soldier, and Pyro Team Fortress 2 you are guaranteed to fall deep into the addictive “Vortex” that is online multiplayer gaming. 

Portal is a new single player game set in the mysterious Aperture Science Laboratories. Players must solve physical puzzles and challenges by opening portals to maneuvering objects, and themselves, through space. This amazing “Orange Box” has absolutely everything you could possibly want in a gaming experience and has been described as the “Bargain of the century” amongst gamers, so make sure that you add it to your own collection.

Ah, the Roomba, what an incredible piece of technology! I remember as a kid my mother longed for such a device that could do the hoovering for her and I’m sure she wasn’t the only one. Lets face it, does anyone actually enjoy hoovering? I certainly don’t! Well, with the Roomba my friends you no longer have to, you can sit on the couch with a nice cold beer and your feet up or nip out to the shops and it will do it all for you.

So what is this Roomba all about then? Well the Roomba is essentially a robot…. that does the hoovering. It works using sensors that detect what is in its environment. For example: If it comes into contact with stairs its sensors will detect that it is about to take a nose dive them and will scurry away like a mouse from a cat. When it’s comes into contact with walls or furniture, it will slow itself down and get itself right in around the edges or right against the skirting board and clean right along it, pretty cool huh? The Roomba has a Home-Base Dock where it sits and recharges itself. When your little Robot servant is out of his dock and doing his job he will return back home to his dock once he has finished to recharge himself, yes, all by himself! One great feature that i am particularly impressed with is the anti-tangle technology and if you have rugs on your floors I’m sure you will be too. When hoovering rugs, if it sucks up tassels it will stop, turn off its brushes and release the tassels so they don’t get tangled and then carry on doing its chores.

So, whether you’re a housewife who can’t bear to look at the hoover anymore or a young guy who is way too cool for hoovering, get one of these. I did and it is possibly the best thing i have ever bought, you will be surprised how well this thing actually works.

Every time I look up at the calendar another day seems to have been stroked off, bringing us ever closer to Christmas. Hopefully by now the major part of your Christmas shopping has been completed, and perhaps now you are just looking for a few stocking filers to finish things off. Well you could do a lot worse that picking up a few usb goodies to finish things off.

How about this cool usb whack it game, which is both fun an therapeutic as you get the chance to send little peek-a-boo monsters back into their hole. Okay it may be as satisfying as the original arcade game, when you had a giant hammer to do your bashing, but I can see this one becoming quite addictive. I would ever consider naming each of the little creatures, perhaps around your colleagues in the office - making it much more satisfying to poke them on the head.

Now of course when your workmates find out that you have named a green blob after them they may be after your blood. Protection is therefore the order of the day with this usb missile launcher. Software include, which once installed on your PC, allows you to take control of the mini launcher to seek out your targets - proper war-game stuff and this made me feel like some kind of mini general in a war movie. The missiles themselves are made of foam so no danger of hurting someone - unless of course you are into the moding business, then you could have all sorts of fun - of course not that I would advocate that sort of behaviour.

Finally, after all that bashing and war-games, you may be wanting to calm things down and that’s where the usb aquarium comes in. Simply plug it in, fill it with water, drop in the supplied jellyfish and you are all set. [note please be careful when dealing with water and electronics] The LED lights makes this a pretty addition to any desktop, especially at night, making it a reasonable night light as well. You can even take your aquarium with you as it also is powered by batteries.

So there you have it, some usb stocking filers, which although seem a little geeky, could be the perfect final item in your geeks stocking this Christmas.

One of the issues today for the home cinema buff is controlling all of the devices you have in your collection. At the last count, my home cinema was made up of over 10 devices, which included an amp, Sky+ (HD) box and Playstation 3. For every device you need a remote control, or at least that was the view only a couple of years ago. Now however, if you have any more than even a few devices to control, you would be crazy to not consider investing in an all-in-one remote control.

When the idea of universal remote first came about their price was generally too high for most consumers - my first all-in-one was the price, and indeed almost the size, of a DVD player. Nowadays, however, both the price and the size have been reduced - thankfully.

At one end of the scale we have the likes of the Philips SRU 9600, which supports up to 8 devices - more than enough for most. Its extensive IR database should mean even the most obscure piece of home cinema kit should be supported. If you find that you have a device that isn’t supported out of the box then this controller can also learn from existing devices. You could also consider the One For All URC 7800 controller, which controls up to 12 devices including your amp, DVD player and TV. Its low price is quite incredible considering its functionality, including a built in modem to download additional codes, an extensive macros function and of course it actually looks and feels like a standard remote control.

Of course if you wanted to push the boat out a little, you still can, with the Harmony 1000 from Logitech. The touch sensitive 3.5″ colour screen adds a little style to your home cinema room, without losing any functionality. The advanced features allow you to perform multiple tasks at the touch of a button. Just imagine hitting a picture of a DVD player, only for your amp, DVD player screen to spring to life. Of course as with any complex piece of kit, the setup can take a little bit of time and as you add to your collection ongoing tweaking may be required. I know some people have even taken home cinema control a little further by enabling control of lighting which adds another special touch.

One thing is for sure though, the addition of any universal remote is a must have if you want to save time and space in your home cinema setup. Oh and one final thing, you will also need to find yourself a big box to store all of your obsolete controllers in.

Radio-controlled gizmos are always fun, whether they are for driving, sailing or flying. When it comes to flying gizmos though, its pretty much all mini-copters and puny planes. The Flytech Dragonfly however, is a little bit different, no wait, it is a big bit different.

The Flytech Dragonfly is a cool radio controlled insect made by the guys that are responsible for Robosapien. As it is meant to be a Dragonfly, instead of having 1 big propeller or 2 static aeroplane wings it has a little tail rotator and 4 “insect” wings and flaps them just like a real dragonfly! The Dragonfly has the ability to take off from any smooth surface, soar, dive-bomb or hover and glide silently for soft landings. Although it can be used both outdoors and indoors, it is aimed more for using indoors so it is capable of maneuvering in really tight spaces. It also has a carbon-fiber structure so it will be able to withstand a bit of a beating, such as smashing it into walls or bouncing it off Dads head. Controlling the flight of the Dragonfly can take a little bit of getting used to so the remote gives you both Beginner and Advanced skill levels and a tail stabilizer is included for additional control if needed. The Flytech Dragonfly is totally different from all other flight gizmos and priced at £30 - £40 it is a little bargain.