It seems as though Sony are finally starting to get their act together in regards to the Playstation 3. First and foremost, and in my opinion this is and always will be the most important factor in the console wars, the games are starting to live up to the hype. In the past week we had Gran Turismo 5 Prologue drop and believe me although this is just a taster to what’s to come with the full game it still shows off the kind of power the PS3 can deliver. Oh and just quickly while we are on the subject of GT5 Prologue if you do plan to pick this up, and I recommend you do, then you should also consider one of the many supported force feedback steering wheels. The amount of realism I’m getting by combining the two is frightening and after a long race I’m actually tired, both physically and mentally - awesome ! As well as the cross platform games the PS3 can also expect exclusive titles such as Haze, which I managed to play at last years Games Convention in Germany - again another stellar title.

On top of this Sony are also working hard at making the PS3 live up to its promise of the central hub of entertainment in a home. Just last week the latest firmware was delivered which brought additional features to the movie playback options, including Blue-ray Live, which allows for interactive access to web content. This actually made the PS3 the first to market device to support these features. Of course we now need to wait until some discs are available that support this. Sony have also continued to build up the relationship between the PS3 and the PSP, with many features, such as remote play, already available. In the coming weeks it is rumoured that the next firmware update will support the ability to copy Blue-ray content down to the PSP to view on the move - very cool !

In the coming weeks it looks like Sony are also looking at the user interface with the announcement dropping last night that the next firmware update, expected mid-April, to bring a major overhaul to the Playstation Store. It will no longer use the web browser, and promises a much faster and rich experience for the end user. On top of this we also have the promise of Playstation Home, Sonys supposed updated online experience. Personally I’m not too excited about Home, especially since the initial beta responses were so poor, and since then it seems to have gone under cover. Then again I wouldn’t put it past Sony to deliver something quite special and continue to make 2008 the year of the PS3.

Okay so I admit it. I’m quickly becoming Apples biggest fan. As I’ve said before on this blog I’m first in the line when they finally upgrade their iMac line. Actually along that line I can’t believe the weekend I finally decide that I’m going to jump from the good ship PC, the Internet is full of rumours that the iMac line is in for an upgrade - so hold off. Well guys I’m still holding. Any chance of an upgrade anytime soon.
With my upcoming purchase I’ve of course had to start thinking about how this change will affect other products I own. (I can already hear my Zune groaning as I write this blog post) With this in mind I was excited to see that Cambridge, UK  (where I live) was getting its own Apple store.  I headed down on Thursday (grand opening) and spent an hour or so in the store. It was actually a bit crazy with people so there wasn’t much of a chance to have a proper play with stuff.

Yesterday however I headed back down, and although it was still very busy (in fact without a doubt the busiest store in the shopping mall) there was much more chance to have a play with the products. And this gets me to the point of this post. Apple stores rock!

One of the things that annoy me with shopping for technology is quite often either the store clerks are either clueless about the product, or they don’t let you have a proper play. The Apple store is like a breath of fresh air. Every single system in the store is connected to the Internet and is loaded with every piece of mainstream Mac software available. All of the accounts are setup with full privileges so you can go ahead and download something from the net and install it, as I did with some additional widgets. On the iPhone front they allowed me to switch away from wireless and onto the edge (read slow) network. They also let me make phone calls, which I was just so surprised about. This is fantastic and more shops should allow this. At the end of the day if I’m going to spend some money on something I’d like to test its capabilities.

Of course I’m going to reserve my 100% Mac FanBoy status until they finally upgrade the iMacs and I can start to fill my house with little white boxes of goodness.

So I hear the rules could be changing very soon about being able to use mobile phones on a plane, ie we will soon be allowed to do it. I actually know a few people who point blank refuse to actually switch theirs off these days stating and I quote;

I just want to prove that they don’t cause any problems !

That’s a pretty brave decision, especially if you end up being proved wrong

So what’s my thoughts on this? Well I’m kinda in a half way house on this one. I must admit quite often during a long haul flight I get bored, and start messing with the onboard phone in my seat. Before I know it I’ve swiped my credit card and dialled the number. I must admit it is nice talking to someone at 35,000 feet while watching a beautiful sunset. That is of course until you get back to home base to discover that 5 minute chat cost you half a months salary. So on that point it would be nice to be able to make calls at a lower rate. Of course the airlines are not going to pass up on another revenue stream so I’m sure the costs will still be quite high, perhaps just not as high as with the phone in your seat.

I guess my issue is with incoming calls, both with myself and others taking them. You know what it’s like on a train or bus - multiple polyphonic ring tones going off making it actually more like a disco on wheels. I can see this being quite annoying on a flight, perhaps time to invest in some noise cancelling headphones. Then of course I actually quite like not being able to be contacted for that 10 hour flight to Houston. It gives me a chance to get done some of the things I’ve been letting slip. I know a friend who has the arduous task of flying first class with Virgin Atlantic and they allow incoming calls to your seat - his wife rings him up quite a bit !

I hear as well that, initially at least, it will only be 2G networks that will be allowed, ie voice and sms. Through time I’m sure 3G will be allowed meaning I can send some live video / audio / photos to my various blogs. Now that would be pretty cool. Of course all this may become irrelevant if the airlines bring back wireless on planes as then I’d be able to use Skype.

What’s your view?

When it comes to radio, aside from tuning in whilst in the car or putting in a shift at work, is there really any need tune in to it anymore what with all these other media devices that we have at our disposal. With the younger crowd no longer tuning in some might say that radio is dead but a little thing called the Internet seems to think otherwise.

Thousands of radio stations with some of the world’s best DJ’s broadcasting every week are available to the whole world over the Internet so why would the youngsters want to tune in to Radio 2 on a Friday night? They are all tuned in over the web of course. The only problem is of course that it is Internet radio which means they need a computer to tune into their favourite station right? Nope!

If you are one of those parents whose kids are always hogging the PC in the hall with the radio on then the BT Internet Radio is your saviour. BT Internet Radio will allow you to listen to over five thousand Internet radio stations from all over the world in any room of the house. Plant it down anywhere in your household and it well connect with your broadband service wirelessly so you can send the kids to their room to teeny bop or you can lay it down in the kitchen so you can whistle while you cook. It also has built in speakers, an alarm clock and it can access your computer and play your favourite playlist. Who said radio was dead!

So as you may be aware I’m quite into my photography and find myself using up quite a lot of my spare time heading out on photo walks. I first got into photography about 18 months ago after I realised I had taken over 10,000 photos with my little point and shoot. It was time to upgrade and I’ve since had a Canon 350d and now a Canon 40d. Before I go any further I just have to say the Canon 40d is a fantastic camera and in my opinion really does feel as though you are using a proper grown up camera compared with the entry level models, without having to pay for the likes of a Canon 1d. The screen is fantastic, integrated cleaning system a nice touch, and the photos are vibrant and alive. A great choice, especially if you are thinking about an upgrade but can’t face paying 4 figures for the top of the line models.

Anyway I digress from my original thoughts, which were of course to do with Flickr, and especially to do with the algorithm they call Explore, or Interestingness. So far I’ve had 5 of my photos featured on Explore, the highest being in the low 50s. Over the past few months I’ve been trying to work out what makes a photo interesting and this is what I’ve come up with.

• Don’t spam groups with your photo, at least initially- if you want to try to get your photo into Explore then limit the amount of groups you send it too, especially those which force people to comment on your photo. I find around 8-10 groups is fine.
• Choose your tags carefully - if you photo is a building, then try and be descriptive about that building. I’ve noticed every time I’m on a site that is connected to Flickr people search for tags rather than just browse the photos, and you want yours to be picked up.
• Time of day - Flickr bases its top 500 photos in a 24 hour period. Now I’m not too sure when that time starts, but your photo will have more time to build momentum if you put it in closer to (after) 12.00 at night, rather than 11pm the night before.
• Get peoples attention - I quite often find myself heading to the Explore page and from this I add a few additional contacts, especially those who have an outstanding photostream. Given that Flickr is such a friendly place they will quite often add me back, meaning more eyes on my photos.
• Keep your best until last - if you are uploading a batch of photos, then keep the one you would like to get into Flickr Explore to last. Quite often your contacts will have their settings to display only the last photo you uploaded.
• Quality of the photo - last, but by no means least, make sure you take a good an interesting photo. At the end of the day this is what will drawn peoples eyes to your photo and from there the Explore magic can start to happen.

Let me know if you have any other tips for getting your photos into Explore, add me as a contact or if you have any other questions let me know.

I have worked my way through several different music players in my time and aside from killing them due to my own stupidity i have never actually had any problems with the player itself no matter how cheap or expensive they are. The one thing that always goes belly up however is the earphones, more specifically, the ones that come packed in the box. Not only do they always break but you can never really appreciate the true sound quality your player is capable of with the two bit headphones you get in the box.

A decent pair of cans is a must for tunes on the go but at the same time you don’t want to be buying headphones that will set you back more than the player itself do you? The SE110 Sound Isolating Earphones from Shure are perfect for the consumer who is looking to replace their nasty boxed earphones with a quality set at a low price. The SE110 earphones have Balanced MicroSpeakers which guarantee a real vivid listening experience, comfortable sound isolating sleeves that will block out over 90 percent of ambient noise and a Fit Kit which will include a Modular Cable and Carry Case that puts an end to all those annoying tangles and knots. The sound isolating sleeves come in 3 sizes, small, medium and large so whether you have cute little baby ears or big pointy elf ears your earphones will feel as snug as a bug in a rug. Bye Bye earache!

At £69.99 the SE110’s are incredible value for money and are definitely money well spent.

Have you ever wanted to feel like your watching TV in your very own living room while out in public? Or perhaps you want to feel like you are a part of all that virtual reality stuff that you thought you could only ever dream of. Well with a pair of Vuzix iWear shades you can feel both and still have a little bit of your mind left to be blown away. The Vuzix iWear with all the optical illusions that they are capable of will replicate the effect of watching a monster screen from a safe viewing distance, ranging from a 44″ screen viewed from 9ft to a 62″ screen viewed from 9ft. They come with built-in but removable headphones and are 3D enabled for automatic 2D/3D control.

With four different models for you to choose from it doesn’t matter if you are into video games, DVD’s or movies on your iPod there is one that will float your boat.

The IP230 model is the most basic of the four devices which works solely with iPods and it is the cheapest, priced at £99.95. It has been designed with 5th generation iPods in mind. The IP230 will connect to and draw power from your player’s bottom dock connector which means there is no need for any extra attachments, cables or any other unnecessary junk. Once you have slipped on your cool futuristic specs you will be wowed with a virtual display the equivalent to a 44″ screen viewed from 9ft.

The next model up is the AV230 version and it will work with DVD players, gaming systems and 5th generation iPods. It will also display the equivalent of a 44″ screen viewed from 9ft but it will also come with a rechargeable battery built into the cable which will provide up to 5 hours extra view time.

The AV920 model is basically the same as the AV230 only it will replicate a massive 62″ screen viewed from 9ft instead of a 44″. These will work with pretty much any video device.

The VR920 model is the most high tech of the four and is the most high priced at £249.95. It is built for the online gaming gang and will bring those pixellated online worlds into a whole new light. As well as boasting a virtual 62″ screen, the incredible specs will allow you to enter online worlds and communicate with your online chums as if you were really right in there with them. An integrated 3 Degree of Freedom (DOF) head-movement tracker and built-in microphone deliver the ultimate interactive online experience.

So when the Playstation 3 was first launched one game probably was on everyones mind - the next generation version of Gran Turismo. Of course at launch Sony teased us with a free download from the Playstation Network of a GT concept game which allowed for the gamer to race around one track. Despite it’s lack of features this was enough to realise that the next instalment in the Gran Turismo series was going to be something special.

Months on and gamers were united in their frustration with the ongoing delays of the full release and for some the news that a cut down version of the game, GT5 Prologue, came as scant reward. For me though this coming Friday can’t come soon enough and I’ve actually cleared my evening (and probably well into the morning) for a Gran Turismo night. It was for games like this I originally picked up the Playstation 3, which up until now has been mainly used as a media device rather than a games console.

16 players online, over 60 cars and 6 photo realistic tracks are enough to get me excited, probably for the first time with a PS3 game launch. I guess what makes this so special is that the console has been crying out for a title such as this to finally hit the streets, a bit like waiting for Halo 3 on the XB360 - they just go together.

I can see some of the options in GT5 being adopted into the upcoming Playstation Home, especially some of the My Garage features. Imagine being able to show off your collection of super cars to the Playstation online universe, or have recorded videos of your last corner pass giving you first place in a recent online race.

It’s been a long time in coming, but this coming Friday could very well mark the start of the Playstaton 3 era. I sure hope so. See you online.

So in my last post I spoke about how I make the most of any downtime I encounter when travelling either on business or vacation. In this post I’d like to speak about what I think is needed to make the frequent travellers experience more enjoyable.

Firstly at the airport. Wouldn’t it be great if they had a gaming centre available. Now I’m not talking about an arcade setup, rather somewhere to go, pay some money and have access to console and PC gaming. I couldn’t think of anything more enjoyable that whiling away a few hours with the likes of CoD4, GT5 and WoW. Perhaps one reason why something like this hasn’t taken off, even in the larger airports, is they are afraid of how many people like me would end up missing their flights, as they just wanted to ding that last level in WoW. On the plane. Well this is an easy one. Wireless please. Now this I guess for some is a double edged sword, given that if I am connected, and travelling on business, wouldn’t I be expected to do a spot of work on the plane. Well to be honest I actually wouldn’t mind that, as it would mean once I got to my destination I wouldn’t need to check in on a host of emails, especially if I’ve been doing a long haul flight. With wireless on board I can also blog, surf, use Skype and perhaps even ding that last level in WoW I wasn’t able to make at the airport. Having now travelled on Qantas I can without doubt say their in-flight entertainment is 100% better than that offered by British Airways, simply because they offer Video On Demand. I found myself on the BA flight home from Singapore struggling to work out when movies were starting, whereas on the Qantas flights the choice was at the touch of a button. (all airlines should take a look at how Virgin America is changing the game with their in-flight entertainment choices) Both airlines, neigh all airlines, also need to think about updating their gaming choice. Come on would it really be that hard to stick some XB360 arcade titles down and make these available? How about offering rental of both PSP and DS hardware and games, I know some of the Asian airlines already do this. I think airlines need to look at their customer base and they would probably realise that a lot of people travelling on these would jump at the chance to rent such accessories, even if it came at a small cost. At the hotel. Again I’d love to see the ability to rent the likes of a PS3 or XB360. Perhaps they could setup their own little private network in the hotel for a spot of online gaming.

Oh and one last thing I’d love to see, this time while I’m away from home base, would be for the mobile phone network providers to abolish, or at the very least reduce, roaming rates. It’s astonishing how easy it is to run up a massive phone bill when on International duty with even just a few hours of web browsing. I expect some additional cost, but at present, even when roaming in Europe, these costs can work out to be very expensive.

So there you have it, my own thoughts on what is needed in the coming years to my make life, and that other my fellow frequent travellers a little bit more bearable.

So as I said in my last post I’ve just come back from a pretty long vacation. On top of this, and if you are a regular reader of this blog, you may have also realised that I spend quite a lot of time travelling on business. Travel, especially on business, can either be full of mind numbing periods of download time, or a chance to catch up on some of the things that you have been meaning to do, but never have the time when at home to do. I have found over the past 3 years I’ve been able to make much more use of my downtime when travelling, although I still find there are a number of things I’d love to see to make my stay away from home much more enjoyable. This will actually be an article spread across two seperate posts. In this post my tips for the frequent traveller, and in my next post, what I think is missing.

Firslty let’s look at how I make the most of time my time away. At the airport, well of course with International flights you need to spend at least a few hours waiting on your flight to depart. If you are lucky your flight will be ontime, but quite often this 2 hour delay, can soon become a 4 hour delay or more. This is where a laptop is you best friends. Most, perhpas all, airports these days offer wireless connectivity, so I quite often forward plan to spend some of the time at the airport updating blogs, working on the post processing of photos and generally just trying to keep active. I also find it to be a good time to catch up with people you havn’t talked to in a while, and if they are in anyways tech savy they will most likely have skype or an alternative installed on their PC. Free phone calls to friends and family are a sure way to relieve some of the boredom of airport downtime. On the plane I find two items help me the most, my PSP and my Archos. Gaming and media on the go. I spend quite a few hours on the recent trip catching up with Heroes and managed to get quite a way through series one while flying. At the Hotel, well there really is just one thing I reach for, and that’s the connect button on my Slingplayer software. This allows me to connect to my SkyHD box back at home base, to catch up on live TV. I also use this download to catch up on both audio and video podcasts, via my Zune, especially when travelling from hotel to the office, or simply when walking around. Sorted !

I now find myself looking forward to a spot of business travel as I know I’m going to have a chance to finish off some blog posts, publish some photos and of course catch up with some SkyHD that I’ve had sitting on my planner for months.

In my next post I’ll report back on what I think is still missing for the frequent traveller.