Monthly Archive for December, 2008

I really want a Sony Bravia VPL-HW10

Published on 29 December, 2008. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , .

I’ve always liked projectors since I first got to use one back in 2000, during the Sydney Olympics. My dad was given permission from his office at the time to bring home one of the work projectors over the weekend. Actually, he managed to bring home several different models over several weekends, and (bear in mind that this was 2000, when we still had a CRT TV, and a VCR) I hooked it up to the VCR and fed the video output into the projector. It was incredibly immersive watching the Olympic games on a massive screen, and I also hooked up a friend’s PS2 to one, and played GT3 on it. It was impressive driving around on a huge screen, and I became hooked. However, I’ve never actually owned a projector because they cost so much, and the price of bulbs is quite a lot.

Now, bear in mind that the projector that I used back then had either a 640×480 or 800×600 resolution (I can’t remember exactly, but it was one of those), and was designed for office work – plus, this is almost 9 years ago, so the technology has come forward a lot in the time. However, you still need to spend a lot of cash to get a decent unit, even now, in 2008 (well, 2009, since it’s a few days away). I’ve seen a few displays of projectors in stores, but I’ve only ever seen one HD projector in action – a 1080p Sony Bravia model at my local Sony Store last year (2007), which at the time cost a whopping £7000. The quality was stunning though, when showing a BluRay disc, and I felt even more compelled to want one. But seriously, 7 grand? No thanks.

I often read Engadget HD for news, and noticed that Sony have recently released a new model, the VPL-HW10, which is a full 1080/24p projector, and you can get it for as low as £1500-£1800. I know that’s a lot of money, especially for a TV (of sorts), but bear in mind that our 40″ HDTV cost close to £1000 last year, and even Sony’s high end 52″ LCD TVs cost between £1200 and £3000. So, such a good quality projector that can probably give an image double the size of a 52″ TV, and for £1500 is a pretty damn good price in my eyes. Plus, after seeing a blog post by someone who actually purchased one, the photos he took of the projected image are, simply put, jaw dropping. I’d say that it actually looks BETTER then our 1080p TV does, and that’s saying something, especially considering our TV is on the higher end of Sony’s mid-range TVs, and that I’m only saying that after seeing some still photos. I’ve not seen this thing in action at all. Take a look, and have a read of the article:

Take note, especially, of the photo of Cristian Bale driving the Lamborghini. You can see pretty much all the detail there is to see. I seriously am impressed, and I really, really, seriously, badly want the Sony VPL-HW10 projector. Now all I need is a way of aquiring that amount of money, and getting my parents to say yes to putting one into our lounge. :o

My Top 10 iPhone Applications

Published on 24 December, 2008. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

As you might know, I have an iPhone, and I love it very much. It’s only a 1st gen one, but it’s still fast enough for everyday use and serves me well. Since the iPhone App Store has been up and running since Apple launched it earlier this year, I thought I’d post a list of the 10 applications that I use the most. I have not included screenshots, as there are ones on the iTunes store listings, and, finally, this list is not in a specific order – it’s random.

• Twitterrific Premium (£5.99, or free ad-supported version) / Twinkle (free)
These two apps are tied, because I probably use them both equally, and they’re both pretty much the same thing. They’re clients for the popular site, Twitter. If I had to choose only one client, it would be Twitterrific Premium, because it’s the nicest looking and it’s very easy to use. However, Twinkle is also easy to use, but it has in the past not shown some tweets, so it comes second place. It does have one feature which Twitterrific does not have though, which is location-based Tweeting. It works by sending all tweets through Tapulous’ servers, and when you open the app on your iPhone, you can see any nearby tweets. This is handy for meeting new people, however if you live somewhere like me, you might be surrounded by retards.

• Facebook (free)
No guesses as to what this is for – it’s an iPhone client for the popular social networking site. It’s also one of the best iPhone apps that I’ve used – it’s pretty to look at, easy to use, and has yet to crash a single time on me. It does lack some features of the desktop-based Facebook site, but for what it is now, it’s fine for casual use.

• Movies (free)
Again, it’s pretty obvious what this is about. Movies shows current films showing, as well as nearby cinemas, with times, and DVD releases. It’s pretty handy for finding nearby cinemas, and checking times, however I’ve found that more then once, it’s shown the wrong times for a specific film then the cinema’s official website does. Also, the movie dates (such as the “released this week” films) are targeted toward the US market. I think this would be a great app if you live in the US, but otherwise, don’t rely on it 100%. It’s still worth downloading though.

• Night Stand (free)
Simply put, this is a clock. It displays a large LED clock, and does it while looking stylish. It also has the ability to disable the iPhone’s turn-the-screen-off-after-X-minutes function, so it can stay on all night long. However, it WILL kill your battery so it’s best if you use the power adaptor and USB cable to keep it charged.

• 1Password (free)
The iPhone based client that works very well with the desktop based password manager, 1Password. This is an extremely handy app for storing passwords, usernames, credit card numbers, and so on. It’s also protected by a PIN when you open it, and you can also assign a second password to specific entries, such as credit cards. While you don’t need the Mac-only desktop software to use this, it’s handy if you’re an OS X user, as you can sync them both over WiFi. This is also easily the most useful and productive app I have on my iPhone, and I would highly recommend both it and the desktop app if you have a Mac!

• TV Forecast (£1.79)
One of my very favourite apps, this program grabs info from (I think) TV.com, about when your favourite TV show is next on. It’s more suited to the US market, as it doesn’t allow you to choose, say, Prison Break on Sky1 in the UK instead of Fox in the US (season 4 of Prison Break has been shown on Tuesdays here, 24 hours after it’s aired in the US). It can show other shows though – it’s successfully worked with the UK’s “Top Gear” and “The IT Crowd”, as well as “Rush”, which is an Australian cop drama type show. Overall, very useful if you live in the US (or live outside of the US but know what bittorrent is ;) ), and only 75% useful if you live outside the US. There’s also a dashboard widget for OS X, made by the same guy, which I also have. It’s pretty much the same thing as the iPhone app though.

• TV Plus (£2.99)
As far as I know, this is a UK-only app, which is a huge guide of all the TV channels available on Freeview or Sky here. Where the other apps fail though, is where this one is great – it has built in support for Sky’s “Remote Record” function, which allows you to set stuff to record when you’re not at home onto your Sky+ or Sky+HD box. However, this app is buggy, and crashes a lot, so it could do with some bug fixes.

• AroundMe (free)
Simply put – this shows points of interest around you, similar to what a GPS does. There are several categories available, including banks, bars, coffee, gas stations, hotels, cinemas, parking garages, pubs, restaurants, supermarkets, and so on. Data is provided by Google Maps.

• Shazam (free)
We’ve all at one time heard a great song, but have no idea what it actually is. Shazam is perfect for this – hold it up to your speakers (or wherever the music is coming from), and it’ll attempt to identify the track. Most of the time this works fine, but I’ve had several times where it’s failed on obscure music off a TV show. However, it works fine most of the time.

• Moonlight Mahjong (£2.99, or free “lite” version)
Last, but most definitely not least, is this great game. Other people might not like it too much, but I find myself addicted to it all the time. It’s also very pretty, has good performance, doesn’t crash, and there’s a frequent stream of new user-created layouts on the blog that you can load and play.

Note: Prices were correct at time of writing. This post is my personal opinion and is not in any way influnced by the developers of these apps. However, developers, if you want to give me a comission for posting this, feel free to do so. :P

Stereophonics

Published on 23 December, 2008. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Several months ago, I got a text from O2’s “Priority tickets” service for events at The O2 (because I’m an O2 customer, I get access to tickets 48 hours before anywhere else), asking if I’d like to buy tickets to see the Stereophonics, live, on the 20th December. As I am a fan (not a big fan, but I do like them) of the Stereophonics, I decided why not. So, myself and dad went along to see them on Saturday the 20th.

Both my parents and myself caught a train down to London on the 20th, at about 7:30am, and did a bit of Christmas shopping on Saturday in London. Then, myself and dad made our way down to The O2 via the tube, and had dinner at Pizza Express. Then, we went inside the arena. Up until then, I had never been inside The O2, so it was all new to me – we had a bit of a walk around, and looked at all the shops, then made our way up to the seats we had booked (much to some people’s disappointment :P ). First of all, The Courteeners played for about an hour, and then the Stereophonics came on and pretty much made me deaf for ~2 hours. However, overall, it was a very good gig and I enjoyed it a lot. I’m not going into detail because 1) I hate reviewing stuff, and 2) I suck at it. :P

Anyway, on Sunday, we did a bit more Christmas shopping around London, then dad and myself went to The O2 again, because dad had managed to lose his scarf the previous night. However, when we got there and asked the several places we had been if they had seen it, they hadn’t, so, no luck there. On the way out, instead of going back into London on the underground, which is boring, I suggested that we go back to London on one of the Thames Clippers that left from the O2 itself, and went all the way up to Waterloo – right below the London Eye, in fact. That took up about an hour, and was actually a very good journey (if a little cold). You get to see all the touristy parts of London, including the city, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and so on. I highly recommend it if you have the chance to do so.

At about 4pm or so, we arrived at the London Eye, and hopped onto that (for free, too, which is awesome – unlimited entry is included in the “Merlin” card I have which I can use for Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, and so on). I enjoyed that, as it was the first time I’ve been on the Eye when it’s getting dark, and it’s superb to see London all lit up. Again, if you get the chance to go on the Eye in the evening, do it! Finally, dad and I got off the Eye, and I noticed an arcade just next to the Aquarium, which had dodgems inside, so we went and had a ride on those. Finally, we got a bus back to the hotel and went to a nice little place for dinner at the start of Kensington High Street, which had very nice food. Can’t remember the name of it though.

On Monday, I didn’t really do much – dad had to do some work, and mum had caught the flu, so I didn’t do much at all until we came home on the train, at 8pm. However, I did enjoy the weekend, and the Stereophonics were great. :)

Update (24th Dec): Sorry about this not getting published, I wrote it yesterday but hit “save draft” instead of “publish” by mistake. :D

Sky HD

Published on 17 December, 2008. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

The BBC HD Candyman

Last Friday, on the 12th of December, I had Sky HD installed in my bedroom. I had actually booked it over a month before – Sky had an offer in October for a £75 Sky HD box with free installation (if you’re doing multiroom, otherwise £30 installation), so I decided to go for it and get it installed. Obviously they’re busy, as they didn’t have a single day available for installation during November.

I previously had ghetto-Sky HD installed in my bedroom using a Firewire based DVB-S2 tuner, however since my MacBook has no Firewire, I sold it, and decided to get the cheap Sky HD box. Anyway, a technician arrived on Friday (and, I will add, he looked suspicously like Hamish Blake, which was weird), and got to work. First of all, he drilled a hole in the wall downsairs, next to the master phone jack, and installed a wire going outside, up the wall, and into my bedroom. For those who don’t know – the phone line is used for ordering pay-per-view programs on Sky, as well as to make sure you’re not giving the box to a friend to use. If you take out a multiroom subscription, you’re essentially getting a second box for only £10 more a month. Presuming you have two HD boxes, Sky don’t want you giving that second box to a friend so you can both have the full Sky package for a total of £77 per month – because if you EACH take out Sky, it’s a total of £114 a month (for two HD boxes with all programming).

Of course, there are a few ways you could get around this. If you’re sharing it with your neighbour, you could simply give them the box, and run the telephone wire from your house into the box. Unless Sky actually came and checked, they wouldn’t know any different, however if they did find out, I can imagine you’d get your service cut off or you’d be fined, so…don’t try it.

Anyway, back to my box. The installer guy then removed the old satellite cable to my bedroom, which I had had installed last year for my ghetto-Sky-HD solution, but it was only a single feed, so he replaced it with a dual-feed cable. He also replaced the LNB (the thing on the end of the stick attatched to the dish), as it was looking a little worse for wear from the sun. I also suspect he did it because when he pulled the cover off to access the jacks on the LNB itself, the cover itself snapped in half because it was so brittle from the sun. Anyway, he came back inside, did a few tricks on the box, and within about half an hour, it was up and running with Sky HD!

It’s pretty much the same thing that we’ve had downstairs for the past year, so I’m not going to go into any detail, but I must say that the box itself is nice and quiet – it’s an “Amstrad” branded box, whereas the one we have downstairs is a Thomson box which I purchased off eBay last year. The one downstairs is okay, but it crashes sometimes (I generally have to do a hard-reset about once a month), and the fan inside it basically never stops, and hasn’t stopped since I upgraded the HDD inside it with a 500GB drive last year. :( It’s also quite a noisy fan, so you notice it when you’re watching TV, even with the volume turned up a bit. I’m tempted to butcher the box a bit to fit my own quieter fan, but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea, because I’m not sure if the box would work with the fans unplugged. If you unplug the CPU fan header on a PC, it complains, and I can imagine the Sky HD box would do the same.

I’m not that fussed overall about it though, as you do get used to it after a while. However, I’m very pleased at how quiet this new box is, as it’s in my bedroom and I like to sleep in a *quiet* place. :)

Anyway, that’s all up and running and I’m very happy with it so far, and I’m even happier at the fact that Sky switched MTVN HD on yesterday, so there’s FINALLY some good quality HD music showing. Well, there’s not that much at the moment but I’m sure it will get better after a while. I wish all the channels would go HD, even if they’re just showing SD material – the difference between the SD music channels and SD content shown on MTVN HD is amazing, since they absolutly kill the bitrate on SD channels, sadly. You can especially see it if you switch between Channel 4, and Channel 4 HD, during the 7pm news. The HD channel looks loads better, despite it still being SD.

In other news, I finally upgraded to WordPress 2.7 on here and several other places that I manage (with a little help from kudos, because I always break something). Also, I’m going to London for a couple of days from Saturday, to see the Stereophonics live at The O2. As usual when I go to London, I’ll most likely have both my iPhone and laptop with me, so I’ll still be reachable. Just maybe a bit slower at replying. ;) In preperation of the trip I also decided to pick up a cheap laptop slip-case-thing for my MacBook, as I don’t really have anything else that’s good for transporting it in, other then a messenger back which is 1) designed for 15″ laptops, and 2) missing.

Anyway, this post is too long, so that’s it for now. :)

LittleBigPlanet

Published on 1 December, 2008. 0 Comments

So, LittleBigPlanet. I finally picked up my copy on the 26th November, took it home, put it in my PS3, and…wow. Just, wow. The graphics are amazing, the gameplay is amazing, the music is amazing, and Stephen Fry’s voice over is pretty damn good – he’s the perfect fit for LBP.

This is easily one of the best games I have played, and I’ve only played it so far for about half an hour. Anybody, young, old, child, adult, etc, should be able to get into this game within minutes.

One of the best aspects of the overall game, I would say, are the graphics. The style is both colourful, bright, vibrant, and flashy, and yet it still retains the feel that a hardcore gamer can play it.

My rating: 9.4/10

If you have a PS3 and £40 spare, buy this game.
If you have a PS3 but don’t have £40 spare, steal* this game.
If you don’t have a PS3 and have £339 spare, buy a PS3 and this game.
If you don’t have a PS3 and don’t have £339 spare, steal* this game, and steal* a PS3.

*Don’t actually steal. It’s bad.

Copied from my original review.

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