Philips-3000 TV
Get ready for the future with the Philips 3000 Series which is out on 14th December 2009 with a RRP of £299.99.
The TV uses Philip’s innovative Digital Crystal Clear package whereby picture quality is digitally adjusted and optimized for razor sharp colour, detail, depth and quality. If you thought TV pictures couldn’t be improved on, look again – watching the Philips 3000 is just like being at the cinema only better.
With an incredible 28.9 billion colours, the LCD display gives a widescreen HD resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. Advanced algorithms detect subtle colour shades and skin tones to produce natural images and vibrant colour. And with a MPEG4 HDTV reception via DVB-T tuner, your set won’t be need to be updated for years to come.
If you like a good sound system on your TV, you need look no further; Philip’s state-of-the art Incredible Surround audio technology mixes sound from left and right to enhance the stereo effect and create a greater depth. You can also use the TV as a PC monitor or connect a Blu-ray player and Game Console or Digital Camcorder. One HDMI input with Easylink gives full HD connection and only one remote control is needed to operate your TV and connected devices. With a USB connector that can be slotted into the side of the TV, there’s scope for superb photo and music playback.
And if that wasn’t enough, you also get accessories in with the price including a table-top stand, power cord, remote control with 2 x AAA batteries, a Quick Start Guide, User Manual and Warranty certificate.
The Saboteur is set in 1940s Paris
Pandemic Studios invites you to enter the covert world of the saboteur in a stylised 1940s Paris as you attempt to overturn the Nazi occupation and track down your mortal enemies in this revolutionary new game released on 4th December.
You will play in the character of Sean Devlin, a tough, Irish racing mechanic based on the real-life war hero William Grover-Williams seeking personal revenge after his friends have been killed, one by one, by the Nazis. With a bit of help from the French Resistance, British Intelligence and a full arsenal of weaponry, you’ll use your wits to track down high ranking German officers and officials, blowing up zeppelins, derailing trains and exploding bridges on the way.
Features of the game include The Vertical World which takes you up on to the rooftops of Paris; the perfect place to initiate surprise attacks, plus gameplay systems called Climbing, Sneaking and Stealth Kills to help you infiltrate the Nazis.
Will to Fight combines visual style with gameplay as the environment of Paris changes around you according to the success of your missions. In order to make the district brightly coloured and “happy” you must weaken German forces occupying the area. In doing so, the district’s citizens will also regain hope and assist you in your fight. Areas with low WtF will be dark with the exception of brightly coloured German flags.
You’ll be fighting your way from the top of the Eiffel Tower to the banks of the Seine, taking in the whole panoply of the city. With a RRP of £49.99 The Saboteur is not only a great game, it’s a great way to see Paris.
Samsung Digital Photo Frame
Digital Photo Frames are surely going to be one of the most popular Christmas presents this year and this latest offering from Samsung is due for release on 25th November so why not buy the most up-to-date version out there for your nearest and dearest?
Even better, why not treat yourself to one so you can inflict your photos on them? You know what it’s like – you’re dying to show everyone your pics of your holiday in Bournemouth, but how do you do it without getting the old photo album out and passing it round while everyone feigns interest … yawn. The Samsung Digital Photo Frames allows you to have a continuous slide show on your mantelpiece so that the photos are displayed in glorious colour right there in front of your friends and relations to be admired or ignored as much as they wish. Of course the clarity and detail of the 7” LCD screen is such that everyone will be captivated. With a high resolution of 480 x 234 and a huge internal memory of 120MG, you can store a heck of a lot of pics on there too.
The Samsung Digital Photo Frame is also easy to set up and can be hooked up to your PC or Mac with the supplied USB cable and plugged into the mains. It’s very stable, resting on an adjustable leg that can move to display photos horizontally or vertically. An auto-resize function ensures that all your pictures will fit too. At £49.99, the frame is available in black or white and would grace any contemporary or traditional surface – the only trouble is you may find yourself sitting hypnotised in front of your own photos for long periods of time when you really should be out there taking more but – hey it’s a hard life.
ZOTAC MAG - the world's "first everywhere PC"
The leading manufacturer ZOTAC has unleashed the revolutionary ZOTAC MAG on the computing world; a compact PC that delivers that fits anywhere, combining outstanding performance, high-definition video playback and eco-friendly characteristics with an RSP of £210 inc vaT.
Measuring only 186m x 189mm x 38mm it a may come in a small package but with a 160GB hard drive and 2GB of DDR2-800 memory it’s well equipped to provide a powerful performance whilst remaining energy efficient.
With its high functioning NVIDIA® ION™ graphics processor and choice of low energy dual or single core Intel® Atom processors, the ZOTAC combines classic good looks with flexibility with the owner free to choose his own operating system whether it be Windows XP, Vista, 32-bit or Linux. This development came about ZOTAC carried out a careful evaluation of the market for miniature PCs that discovered the end user preferred to be in control of digital home connected systems.
An array of connectivity options include eSATA, 6 USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, VGA, HDMI, optical S/PDIF output and a 4-in-1 memory card reader with wireless 802.11n WiFi integrated for quick network transfers.
Suitable for all computing uses anywhere in the house, the ZOTAC MAG can be placed flat on a surface, on its stand or mounted to the back of a monitor with VESA mounting holes.
DiRT-2 plus DLC is on the shelves now
Codemaster’s exciting new driving game is the ultimate off-road racing with superb handling, exceptional visual and audio detail, exciting new locations and driving situations that can be played with multiple players or solo.
DiRT2 follows on from Colin McRae: Dirt and is the first video game in the McRae series since the Scottish rally driver’s untimely death in a helicopter accident in 2007. This time the game offers more in the way of graphics with details like water splashing on to the windscreen, slick vehicle handling and realistic crash sequences as with the screech of twisted metal, handbrake turns and roaring engines, you’re thrown from one event to another. One minute you may be in a rally cross event, the next you may be racing monster trucks or negotiating a point-to-point rally with a co-driver.
Taking place in real-world environments of Asia, Europe, Africa and North America, DiRT2 includes five different events: rally, rally cross, trailblazer, land rush and raid requiring mastery of different driving styles with canyon racing, jungle trails and city-stadium based events. Players can test their skills against the likes of Ken Block or Travis Pastrana – all the other drivers on the track respond to your driving method – ie if you play dirty and drive them off the course, they’re liable to hold that against you and give you a rough ride in future events. A flashback feature allows you to return to the scene of a crash up to three times so you can rectify your driving mistakes and difficulty levels can be altered before every event.
Codemasters have also released multiple downloadable content packs for DiRT 2 which can be used by players to customise and add features to the boxed game; the Access All Areas Pack for £3.19 which gives VIP entry to 100 events set on 41 tracks with access to X-Games events and their courses and The Trust Fund Pack at £3.19 means you can download and experience 35 killer rides and upgrade liveries.
With positive reviews from major gaming companies, DiRT2 is a white knuckle ride and a genuine test of your driving skills and you can buy it now.
Mass Effect 2 is being released on 26th & 29th January
The heroic Commander Shepard is back for the second installment of the epic trilogy Mass Effect and will be on the shelves on 26th January 2010 in North America and 29th January in Europe.
Leading games developer BioWare has also announced pre-order incentives to be released at key retailers in North America and across Europe with codes for downloading being provided on the release of the game. Described as “awesome bonus content” by co-founder of BioWare, Dr Ray Muzyka, these incentives include special in-game armour and weaponry to boost skills and abilities.
Having fought off the threat of the invading Reapers in Mass Effect 1, Commander Shepard now faces an even more terrifying enemy that lurks on the edges of the known universe and is responsible for the disappearance of entire human colonies.
Assuming his role, you have to assemble the crew of elite operatives and command the most powerful ship ever built. Then you have to train and equip the team to survive and choose from a powerful arsenal of heavy weaponry that can end a battle in seconds. The team members are potentially dangerous and a new recruit who has a tattoo for every person she has killed, there could also be a threat from within the team, or maybe not…
With intense shooter action and cinematic effect, you’ll be transported to a vast universe filled with alien life and mysterious planets as you embark on what is described as a “suicide mission” to save humanity. Have you got what it takes to prove them wrong?
Where to get it >>
Fit PC Slim
This tiny computer doesn’t have a keyboard or screen, it’s the smallest, most power efficient PC available and rivals many desktops by being more eco-friendly with a lower power consumption. Costing fewer than 20 pence a day in electricity and being noiseless, the fit-PC Slim Linux is ideal for people who leave their PCs on all the time.
This is a ready to use Linux-PC with pre-installed Ubuntu Linux 8.04 for the best desktop experience and Gentoo 2008.0 for optimal performance, in dual boot mode; it measures only 4.3 x 4 x 1.2 inches and weighs 13.4 ounces
The CPU is AMD Geode LX800 500MHz. Chipset is AMD CS5536. The display is an integrated Geode LX controller up to 1920×1440 with a memory of 512MB DDR 333MHz soldered on-board. The ports are as follows: RJ45 Ethernet port 100Mbps, WiFi b/g 54Mbps. 3 x USB 2.0 HiSpeed 480Mbps, mini RS-232 (Rx, Tx) .VGA DB15, stereo line-out audio (headphones), stereo line-in audio/Mic
The Fit-PC Slim is great as an internet radio server, and as an endpoint for a SOCKS firewall (for, say, getting around firewalls). It is adequate for simple tasks (simple web browsing, document editing etc) and the fact that it is absolutely silent, and literally peaks out at 6 watts power consumption, even under “heavy” load (code compilation), means that it probably uses less power than your regular computer uses when it is completely off.
Where to get it >>
ZOTAC ION ITX-F- Release dates
ZOTAC International has now launched its new high-end ION ITX-F series, expanding on its acclaimed ION ITX series motherboards.
The award-winning ION ITX series has always been popular because of its user-friendly characteristics and according to marketing manager of ZOTAC International, Carsten Berger, the new ION ITX-F series incorporates all of the features of the awarding-winning ION ITX and more: “ZOTAC always listens to user requests for features,” says Mr Berger. “End users loved our ION ITX series motherboards but some requested PCI Express expansion. We listened and thus the ZOTAC ION ITX F series was born.”
With integrated PCI Expressx16 expansion, the ZOTAC ION ITX-F series ensures the smooth delivery of all your daily computing requirements, plus high-definition video playback powered by a powerful NVIDIA® ION™ graphics processor and energy saving dual-core Intel® Atom®330 processor.
Blu-ray movies can be watched in vivid and enhanced detail courtesy of the NVIDIA® Pure Video® and NVIDIA® CUDA™ technology allows the ION graphics processor to edit and enhance videos with minimum energy consumption.
The high-performance graphics processor and dual-core processor means that the ION ITX-F series is as suited to home-theatre PCs as it is to the desktop and can be connected to multiple display units including analog or digital monitors and high-definition televisions with HDCP ready HDMI, DVI and VGA outputs.
The Onboard PCI Express 802.11n WiFi gives swift network connection without wires and with wires, onboard Gigabit Ethernet ensures speeds of up to 1000Mbps. It’s time to come out and play with the mother of all motherboards!
Where to get it >>
Vodafone 360
Vodafone have announced the new Vodafone 360; the first truly integrated mobile internet service that consolidates and organises all your social life in one place.
Uniting friends everywhere, Vodafone 360 works on mobile phones, PCs or Macs and combines a single 3-D address book gathered from your phone, internet and social network accounts with instant access to social media sites. You can now chat on Facebook, receive status updates share photos, videos, games, music and maps and addresses or identify your location to chosen friends wherever and whenever you like.
The service links across all networks and works on a range of 100 popular mobile phones including two Vodafone 360 mobile handsets. Manufactured by Samsung and driven by Vodafone’s ‘proximity algorithm,’ these provide a tailor-made interface with a 3.5 inch high definition screen, 5 megapixel camera and LiMo operating system. You can access emails from your personal accounts like Hotmail and Gmail from your personalised web homepage with links to your favourite websites.
Contacts are organised into tiers so that the most frequently contacted are at the front, via a user-friendly, 3D visual address book; the Vodafone 360 People view. There’s also access to over 1,000 Apps, games and music. The Maps service includes a GPS that gives detailed directions which can be shared with friends so that you can meet up or search for specific locations and points of interest.
The Vodafone 360 integrates all contacts from your phone, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk and will soon embrace Twitter, Hyves and stuiVZ. Information, emails, tags and messages are automatically backed up and updated and synchronised wirelessly between the mobile and PC or Mac giving you the confidence of knowing that contacts can easily be recovered should you lose or change your mobile.
Vodafone 360 epitomises Vodafone’s new slogan ‘power to you’ that aims to put the customer in control. “The beauty of Vodafone 360 is that all the services work together and it’s easy to use,” says Pieter Knook, Director of Internet Services at Vodafone Group, “It enables customers’ digital lives.”
The official box-art for BioShock 2 isn't yet available, here's a mock-up the fans came up with!
The original BioShock was one of the huge surprises of 2007, and finally, it’s time for the long-awaited sequel, BioShock 2.
Bioshock 2 promises to continue the deeply disturbing game-play from the original BioShock. This time around, you switch sides. Instead of re-visiting the role of Jack, you control a rogue Big Daddy. If you haven’t played the first game, this all sounds a little bit dodgy, but trust us, if the original BioShock – which turned the classical First Person Shooter (FPS) genre inside-out – is anything to go by, its sequel will be something quite special indeed.
This time around, the game doesn’t end once you’ve played through single player mode: Multiplayer in BioShock 2 will provide “a rich prequel experience that expands the origins of the BioShock fiction.”, according to Take 2 Interactive, who produce the game.
The game will be available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and for Windows from the 9th of February 2010.
Where to get it >>