McPhee

Sure, if they want to make people puke from motion sickness If it needs a new display then i'll probably just buy a PC set-up and use it for games. There's no way i'm replacing my TV any time in the next five years

I've never seen it on a Sony or a Panasonic set, which ones have it? LG released a set recently that has this sort of thing though. The reason why it could well save Yahoo is because they've cemented themselves as a third possible platform for the future of broadcast technology. It's big money and the list of companies that are supporting their Widgets is quite impressive.

I think Yahoo are due a congratulations. This just saved their business and cemented themselves as one of the biggest players for years to come; http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/08/yahoo-recaps-a-day-of-setting-the-internet-on-tv-movement-on-fi/ That much support this early on is impressive, and i highly doubt Microsoft or Apple will be able to counter it easily. Oh and Windows 7 Beta launches tomorrow for us normal cretins, MSND and Technet subscribers can bag it now. Windows Live Suite is out now.

Fair enough. I'd recommend watching some assembly videos before you start though (bit pointless now, you've learnt what you did wrong). It's quite the stroke of luck that you didn't fry your motherboard and maybe even electricute yourself doing that! EDIT: I'm actually really suprised it gets that far in to the boot process before realising that it's shorting itself Oh, and double check the case manual, IIRC that's where the thing about stand-offs was with my PC.

I believe there's an update on it's way (finally) with a load of network fixes and the extras that the PC version has gained since release. The lack of updates has been caused by disagreements between Valve and Microsoft. Valve don't want to charge for the new stuff but MS won't host it for free, hence the whole thing has taken a while. In the mean time they've written some network fixes for the update (these will be free). Still, it's far better on PC :p

Regret building your own yet? EDIT: By stand-offs you aren't on about the things that keep the mobo away from the case, are you

The staff in Brum pretty much couldn't be arsed any more, they seem to have lost the will to live. Wouldn't suprise me if it wasn't so much of an "accident" :awesome:

Yeah, but the new one will likely be £70-£80 again and the tweaks are pretty minor really. If the old kit hits £50 i'll buy that, i'm severely tempted at £60

Nice price on the whole kit! Drums are cheaper at Argos. I'm wishing i ordered from Play now when they were £50 before Xmas.

Sounds like input lag, likely the fault on the TV

Bought a cheap one - it didn't work Don't think i have much more to say about that really, ended up forking out the £20 for the official one...

I need a drum kit and RB2. If there's a decent pack out of the whole lot i'll probably buy it and donate the GHIII guitar to my bro.

Hmmm. To ban, or not to ban?

Porting between the PS3 and 360 isn't all that costly, not compared to making a whole new version of a game for Wii. The problem is that there are 3 (maybe 4) different hardware levels in the games market at the moment. You have the PC, 360 and PS3, the Wii and PS2 and finally the DS. The PSP is a wild card and card, it either takes PS2 ports or becomes a 4th hardware level. If a publisher wants a game on all platforms then they have to create 3 (or 4) different versions of the game. The only way this will rectify itself is if all three manufacturers launch similar platforms and Nintendo kill the Wii off quickly when their next system launches (otherwise developers will carry on making games for it, adding another hardware tier.) As for who could pull out? It could only really be Sony. Microsoft's plans for the Xbox platform are as much about online services as they are about games. At the moment iTunes is the biggest online entertainment store, but Apple have one majour weakness. They can't seem to sell Apple TV, they are struggling to get iTunes in to people's living rooms. It's no secret that Microsoft want a slice of that pie, they've been trying to muscle in on that market for the past few years. Truth is, they can't beat Apple in the music area. Where they can win is with online movie rental and IPTV. The Xbox is already in people's living rooms and is ready for these services. If they pulled out of the games console market they'd lose the advantage they have over Apple in this area, it's far too lucrative to pass up. AFAIK Sony have no such plans. The PS3 has done it's job of launching Blu-Ray and they are too far behind the biggest names in the DD market to even consider catching up (BSkyB, Apple, Microsoft, BT, AT&T among others). If the PS3 flopped really badly then they could possibly pull out of the games market (though very unlikely).

It's not, hence why the topic is still open It's a friendly warning because these threads rarely stay polite and on-topic for long, especially not during school/uni holidays when there's an influx of bored kids on the board. (i also posted it before i'd read the whole thread )

Not this bollocks again. Unless you want the thread locking be very carefull about how the discussion goes. As always if it gets too out of hand then infractions will be issued.

It's because both pics are cropped and then blown up in size. Try this for a comparrison; http://www.zonadvd.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=749

Colours are better on a good Blu-Ray for a start. I'd agree with Roadkill though, Blu is just there for getting the best out of a select few films at the moment. I won't be buying recent films on DVD any more because the Blu is only a few quid more, but as for older films i'll only replace the DVDs for my favourite films. Serenity, The Departed, Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut, LOTR Trilogy, Black Hawk down and a few others. Really old films i'm just not going to bother with, DVD only for me. The Dark Knight is stunning on Blu-Ray, better than i've ever seen (even at the Cinema). Foo Fighters Live at Wembly is pretty awesome too. Iron Man didn't blow me away with it's PQ though, better than DVD but not up to the standard of the other two.

Firstly the iPhone isn't the 'most sturdy phone out there' (although you'll probably now disagree with me now on the definition of the word 'sturdy'), it's a decent piece of hardware but nothing outstanding. There's also other phones out there with multitouch (G1 for a start, could bring up others too given 5 mins). Stable, simple software is what makes the iPhone. That is what you pay for (other than the 'iPhone' and 'Apple' labels). It's the iPhone's ace card and the only feature that other manufacturers haven't surpassed yet. I'm expecting Apple to step things up a gear this year, because they can't really expect the other manufacturers to lag behind on UI for much longer. I agree with the whole "your mobile phone says something about you" comment though. To be perfectly honest most people i've shown it to have been quite impressed by the Xperia, it looks and feels bloody expensive. Once they start trying to use the phone things don't go quite so well though, it's got quite a steep learning curve. I'm now pretty used to it, it's gone from being a bit of an annoyance to a very usefull device crammed with every feature under the sun (Microsoft Voice Command 1.6 is especially cool). So yeah, basically mine says that i'm a tech geek with more money than sense. Pretty accurate tbh.

I'd stick with Dual Core unless you actually have specific need for a Quad Core CPU. You could get an Intel E7300, 4GB RAM, an ATi 4850 and a 500GB HDD for well under budget on PC Specialist.

It's a completely open and stable platform for anyone to build upon. You could rebuild it to look like the iPhone OS, Symbian, WinMob, Touchflo or something completely new. There's no restrictions, if programmers can do it then they are allowed to. The other 3 main mobile OS's restrict what the used can do. WinMob is the most open, then Symbian, and the iPhone OS is last (by quite a huge margin). So for technically minded people it's something to get excited about. However, if you want something simple that "just works" then Mobile OS X or Symbian are more down the lines you should be looking at.

Yup, it's slow and prone to the odd crash here and there. It pretty much is the worst mobile OS out there, but it's also the best featured and is very powerful. I just reskinned the whole UI with Touchflo (assigned to a 'Panel', the X1 can run nine different UI skins at once). I've got a Facebook panel that skins the OS with Facebook, integrating your Facebook friends, contacts list and MSN contacts in to a single list. I can leave MSN messenger running in the background 24/7 along with regular email updates. I can sync pretty much the whole OS with my computer. I've barely scratched the surface of what places like XDA Developers have achieved with WinMob and i'm already in awe! I've no doubt that Google Android can do all of this and will do it better once the dev support it there, but right now it isn't. I also have no doubt that OS X "could" do it better, i just know fine well Apple will never open the OS up. Symbian is another one that will remain closed, where Apple aim for simplicity in the consumer market, Symbian aim for the same thing in the business market. I've been both impressed and disappointed by Windows Mobile. Overall i like it, but i'm really hoping that WM6.5 irons out the UI problems and then 7 sorts stability. As for the X1? One of the best pieces of hardware i've used. Couldn't really care less if you like it or not, there's no doubt in my mind that the hardware is at the top of the table. It's no Nokia 8800, but for the £500 RRP build quality is phenominal, way above most high-end phones.

Virgin Media already do broadband and phone over BT's lines though, it wouldn't be anything new. All they'd be doing is keeping up with the competition on those lines.

Sorry, but i actually don't get what you mean. WinMob is the most powerfull mobile OS, it's just fecking ugly and complicated. I've moved from Symbian, i'm finding it can do everything Symbian can and more (thus a lot more than Mobile OS X can). The only mobile OS i don't have any experience with is Android, which from what i know could well be ahead of WM within 6 months. Still, having said that Symbian is the best mobile OS all round, decent level of functionality and customisation without being overly complicated. Branding??? What is it you mean by that? 'Xperia' is a bad name choice? Big bloody deal! I genuinely couldn't care less, if it's a good handset then they can call it 'Ossama Bin Laden's Arse Dildo' for all i care... The phone isn't perfect, but it's one of the better ones i've in my life. It's more adaptable than any other phone i've used, but it's also taking a lot more work to get it running well.

Cowell has nothing to do with Cohen and Buckley though. Buckley and Cohen are both on Columbia records, which is now owned by Sony. Cowell is employed by Sony BMG, he has nothing to do with Columbia records (which are a separate company). The money ends up in Sony's pockets, but it goes nowhere near Cowell.