Glum Toshiba accountants have today revealed the true cost of the Japanese company’s stubbornness in their battle against Sony’s Blu-Ray with losses counting up to £330 million. Although £330 million is by no means small change it is less than what was predicted by some financial big-guns who predicted Toshiba would lose around half a billion after their struggle against Blu-Ray.

You would think that Toshiba couldn’t possibly receive any more bad news but the company just can’t seem to catch a break at the moment. A whole host of US retailers including Circuit City and Best Buy are offering consumers holding gift cards for HD-DVD tech the chance to swap them in exchange for something a bit more useful. It seems Toshiba can’t even get rid of the stuff they have lying around, i suggest lobbing them into a tire fire or putting them into storage until the 5th November so we can save some tree’s and have a more new age Guy Fawkes night.

Whether UK retailers will show as much generosity as the Yanks remains to be seen but i wouldn’t count your chickens, i suggest you focus on going Blu and grab yourself a Blu-Ray player as soon as.

At the end of last year Creative launched a 32GB version of their popular Zen player in Asia and in true Creative fashion they teased us Brits with a one off limited amount of the mega memory player in December, a whole 50 of them! However from this week on the teasing stops as the Creative Zen will be available to all in the 32GB format.

With the same amount of on-board memory as the iPod Touch plus an SD card slot capable of taking up to 8GB more it’ll take a massive effort from you to fill this little baby up with media but I’m sure you can rise to the challenge. What is even better though is that if you are looking for a quality, teensy, mega memory player you no longer have to join the endless list of Apple fanboys, the Zen has everything you could possibly need. It will support file types WMA, MP3, AAC, WMV9, MJPEG, MPEG4, DivX and XviD and will display video at a 320×240 resolution. It has other great little treats for you to enjoy as well such as a built in FM radio and a built in microphone, supplied software for converting formats and it will play stuff bought from iTunes.

Fiddling about with the iPod Touch’ interface may be more enjoyable than that of the Zen but the Zen’ video quality is brilliant and with more memory you’ll squeeze a lot more movies into it. For a player the size of a credit card it packs a hell of a punch!

I’m finally back home. 3 week tour of Asia, Australia and Indonesia is over. Jetlag is kicking in, which is why I type this, bleary eyed at just before 4am on Tuesday morning. During my trip I used countless wireless hotspots to not only keep up to date with a spot of blogging, but also to update my Flickr photos and Kyte area. It struck me though as I wondered through various hotels and hotspots that perhaps wireless hotspots will soon have had their day. Why do I say this? Well two reasons really.

Firstly there are a few things wrong with the wireless hotspot solution as it is today. My main gripe is the cost. Even in this country I find myself paying over the odds for a network connection. I currently have two subscriptions, which cover 100% of the places I want to visit in the UK, BT Openzone and  Boingo Wireless. Unfortunately though at the moment their subscription plans do not allow you to carry un-used wireless minutes over to the next month, which means that if I have a month where I’m going to be staying local I wouldn’t really need my monthly allocation. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to carry, even a portion of this, over to the next month. I gave both BT Openzone and Boingo a call on this matter, and it would seem they have no plans to introduce this.  So I end up paying by this for the minute which can work out quite expensive, especially if you are roaming away from the UK. If I were to buy an Apple iPhone I’d get access to the Cloud Wireless network hotspots in the UK, free of charge, but I find where I really need wireless access, in Airports, The Cloud is not available. Quite often when you go into a hotspot in the UK, and don’t have access to a subscription, you will be charged by the Hour, which quite often you don’t actually need. And just like a subscription based contract, quite often any un-used minutes from this hour are not usable at a later date.

My other reason for thinking that Wireless Hotspots will soon have had their day is upcoming new technology. I am of course talking about WiMax which at the moment can achieve speeds of around 10Mbps (it is hoped in the future to offer speeds up to 100Mbps). I hear the latest model of the Asus EEE PC will have WiMax, and I can see other consumer devices starting to offer alternative connectivity options in the not too distant future. I would also point to the fact that quite often when I’m stomping around I don’t have a full laptop with me, rather my n95 (perhaps soon to be an iPhone) At present I find 3G connectivity more than enough at present for the type of access I need while on the road, meaning access to a wireless hotspot is often not needed. This is especially true as I have an unlimited data plan, which means I have no issue with how much data I’m downloading over a 3G connection, which of course has it’s normal price plan based upon a per MB download.

I am constantly listening to PC gamers describe PC shoot em ups as a more “real experience”. I don’t know about “real”, i mean, it’s a game but there is certainly a lot more to it than those on the Xbox for example. If you are one of those PC gamers who is constantly rambling on about how the only way to play a shoot em up is on the PC and Xbox and PS3 users don’t even make the rookie category then hearing of this next device, or garment rather, will be like music to your ears.

Now if these PC gamers that i speak of were saying that the 3rd Space FPS Vest made shoot em ups a more real experience then i would be agreeing with them 100%. The idea of Dual Shock was to put the gamer more inside the game but this vest takes it to a whole new level. The 3rd Space Vest with its flak jacket looks uses pneumatic technology to simulate bullet hits, punches, body slams, explosions and get this! even finger taps on the shoulder, very creepy!

The Vest works using eight pneumatic cells embedded in different parts around the vest. It will communicate with compatible games (via the included software) and a special compressor will fire air into the cells using appropriate levels of force to accurately simulate the on-screen action. So you will feel a different kind of impact from different kinds of blows and bullets. Watch out for the shotgun as all 8 cells will layeth the smack down upon you!

The 3rd Space FPS Vest will come complete with its own game disc, 3rd Space Incursion and a copy of Activision’s Call of Duty 2 but the Vest is also compatible with games such as Medal Of Honour Airborne and Quake 4. Being PC compatible only is a bit of a let down but I’m guessing it wont be all that hard for someone to make an Xbox or PS3 version.

You may feel like a bit of wolly sitting in front of the PC kitted out with a flak jacket but if you want the most real of gaming experiences they don’t get much more real than with the 3rd Space FPS Vest. I’m going to go ahead and call it the ultimate gaming accessory.

In this day and age Digital Photo Frames are all the rage and are definitely the coolest way of putting pictures around your house no matter what your Victorian inspired Grandmother might say. We are going to go ahead and assume that you are all too familiar with Digital Photo Frames and although you think they are cool, you are most probably a little bored of hearing about them by now, we are. Every now and again however someone comes along with something completely fresh and re-ignites the enthusiasm we once had.

After Polaroid announced last month that they were to stop making instant film, a photographer by the name of Dave Friedman came up with a fantastic idea in order for the familiar Polaroid photo to live on and designed a concept Digital Photo Frame resembling that of an instant Polaroid (pictured).

His idea consists of a touch screen which will allow you to view photos in Standard Mode like all other digital frames or a Classic Mode where each photo fades in just like your traditional Polaroid. It will also have a dry wipe surface at the bottom so you can write on it, a rechargeable battery so you’d have no dangling wires and a stand that can also be used to hang your frame on the likes of a cliche cork board (my favourite, i love a good cliche).

It is sad that not a lot of good concept ideas like this are thought of but what is even sadder is that hardly any of them are ever put to good use. So Polaroid announcing that they were so impressed with Dave’s concept that they are working on bringing it to life is surprising but great to hear. For me, Dave has come up with a great concept here so Polaroid… get to work!

So I like many spent the past 12 months following closely the High Def format war between Blue Ray and High Definition Disks. It wasn’t much of a surprise that in the end Sony won the battle, and the war, especially given their massive backing of the format and the growing popularity of the Playstation 3.

I myself had already bought into both technologies so wasn’t really worried which one was going to win, and in fact was looking forward to the day when we had one winner as I thought this would mean cheaper prices for the loosing format.

Well I don’t think I could have been further from the reality as it turns out High-Def discs are maintaining their price. Of course people will argue that the High Def hardware prices have fallen quite considerably since the end of the war, especially the price of the XB360 HD-DVD add-on, but I also want to see the price of discs falling too. My advice right now, if you are an XB360 owner of course, would be to pickup the HD-DVD add on and wait. The prices of the discs are sure to drop and you could end up with a pretty decent High Def collection before long without having to drop a load of cash in the process.

Another rumour that seems to have been quashed of late is that of the XB360 having an integrated BlueRay player before long. I personally think that at this stage Microsoft have no real need to integrate BlueRay into their device, but could very well do this later in the year. I believe right now they are very happy going after the content distribution method via XBox Live, which in my opinion is probably going to be the main method consumers get their content in the years to come.

For now though it’s time to sit back and relax, those HD movies are sure to fall in price at some point in 2008 and when they do I’ll be ready, credit card in hand.

Nintendo are really starting to create an image for themselves as the do-gooders of the gaming world with their games that make a difference in peoples lives or serve an actual purpose other than button bashing or whichever way you want to describe them. These games are the likes of Wii Fit and of course don’t forget Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training for the Nintendo DS. Wii Fit was Nintendo’s latest ploy in their stand against couch ridden gamers, the key word is of course “was” as Nintendo have came up with yet another program to help chunky gamers beat the Kebab and get back into shape.

The new program is called My Health Coach: Weight Management (a diet basically) and is for the handheld Nintendo DS, which makes sense seeing as a diet is a 24/7 thing. The whole point of the DS Diet is to help balance our diets and make us more active. For the first time on the DS an exclusive accessory will be needed in the form of a pedometer, which will count the amount of steps you walk each day. You take your pedometer out with you during the day and let it do its job then plug it into your DS at the end of the day so it can know how much you really walk everyday rather than what you claim to walk. You will also need to punch in what you’ve been feasting on all day into your DS then it will calculate how in shape you really are and tell you what you can do to improve it!

To me this sounds like a far less gruesome way of getting back into shape than taking the Wii Fit approach. As soon as i hear push-ups and squat thrusts i think heart attack. Although, these type of things are never as easy as first predicted. With a release set for some time in the Summer i guess we will just have to wait until then to see how easy or hard the DS Diet will be.

I’ve been travelling so far for almost 3 weeks and one of my worries before I left was if I was going to miss technology or not. To be honest I cheated a little bit by bringing a laptop (well how else would I keep up to date with blogging), a PSP and an Archos. I’ve not really used the Archos too much as I had originally planned to catch up on Heroes on the plane, but the in flight, video on demand, entertainment on the planes I’ve been on has been actually quite good. Last night however, while consuming something the locals call Bali wine, but tastes more like grappa, with (if my stomach is anything to go by this morning) around the same effect, I got talking to one of the barmen. Turns out this guy was a bit of a gamer and although language was a bit of an issue one topic of conversation made my ears prick up – he is a World of Warcraft gamer.

I myself have been addicted to WoW for about a year now. I was initially a big fan of Everquest2 and resisted the lure of WoW for quite sometime, even though a lot of my friends, and one in particular, was adamant I should give it a try. Well that try has now lasted over 12 months, and although I had a little break in the summer its the sort of game that just keeps sucking you back in for more.  The really nice thing about WoW is that unlike other MMO games it does not require hundreds of hours to level through, although if you are anything like me and love the lore and questing side of things, you will find many hundreds of hours being lost in the online world.

For me MMO style games are the future, and I always wait in hope that another stellar MMOFPS (that’s First Person Shooter) comes along like Planetside, now that would be just too cool for words !

After another spell of hyped web chit-chat amongst bloggers, Microsoft have confirmed that all versions of the Xbox 360 console will have their prices slashed this month. Microsoft’s new-found generosity means that the Arcade version of the Xbox 360 will now be cheaper than a Nintendo Wii, at £159 it makes it 20 bucks cheaper than the Wii to be a bit more precise.

The 20GB model which is regarded as the basic model by most nowadays will have its price tag snipped down to a rather even £200 and the 120GB Elite console is down to a very attractive looking £260, 40 quid down from the 300 quid it was before or 13.3% less for you math enthusiasts out there.

If you aren’t a 360 owner already then Microsofts new price cuts couldn’t have came at a better time for you. With titles like Grand Theft Auto 4 just around the corner and the likes of Gears Of War 2 coming later this year, these price cuts are sure to suck in a few newbies. The price cuts also mean that the ball has been whacked into Sony and indeed Nintendo’s side of the court, in a move which is quite clearly trying shame the price of the PS3.

At £200 the 20GB 360 is a great deal and of course the £159 Arcade model is a bargain but the 360 Elite on the other hand… not so much. Although you get 120GB worth of memory for your money, for 30/40 quid more you can get a 40GB PS3 with the much in-demand and all important Blu-Ray drive. You’d have to be mad not to opt for that. The new prices are expected to be enforced by the end of the week

So it looks like I won’t be able to make it as I’ll just be stepping off the plane from my travels, but if you are around the London area this coming weekend you may want to check out Play.Com Live, which is happening 15th, 16th March at Wembley Stadium in London. Looks like this is turning into quite an event with some of the top names in gaming, music and sci-fi being present.

If you are still stuck on the fence in regards to making the jump to Blueray, then you will be pleased to know that there will be a whole section devoted to the technology - time to really show you what Blueray can offer. For the gamers out there there will be the chance to play some, yet to be released games such as Army of Two, GT5 Prologue, and Rainbow Six Vegas (2). Also the chance to play some old favourites making it gamers paradise. If Pro Evo is you game then you may want to take part in the competition running over the two days of the show. Think you are the best? Now is your chance to prove it.

On top of all this, and if you still have the energy, there will be some of the top music acts ripping up the main stage including We Are Scientists and The Rumble Strips. Don’t forget as well the event will also give the Sci-Fi heads among you the chance to browse some of the most wanted memorabilia there is to have. Any Doctor Who or Red Dwarf fans out there? Well Tom Baker and Robert Llewellyn will be making special appearances throughout the weekend.

So even though I’ll be coming down from a serious bout of jetlag I think I’ve actually convinced myself to go to this event, perhaps I’ll see you there.