TechRadar UK Blogs: Rungsberry

There's been a lot of focus in the last week on Grand Theft Auto IV and which platform it best runs on.

The majority of people who've played both versions are saying that it runs marginally better on the PS3, but the findings are inconclusive at best: both are equally good in our eyes.

What's interesting to me at the moment is how Microsoft is attempting to use GTA as a PR exercise to boast about the Xbox 360 console and its success.

We received an unbelievable and outrageous press release today from Microsoft UK saying:

"Gamers have voted with their wallets, and the results are in. The Xbox 360 version of 'Grand Theft Auto IV' has sold more than 100,000 copies, or 20 per cent more than the PlayStation 3 version in the UK since the game's release last Tuesday 29 April."

Exaggeration and hyperbole

The release then sees Microsoft rambling on and on, mostly just patting itself on the back about selling more copies and going on about how the Xbox 360 is the premium platform for enjoying GTA. Blah, blah, blah.

Please excuse me briefly while I pause to be sick.

Here's the point: there are more Xbox 360 consoles out there (it launched over a year earlier) so straight numbers are a terrible way of looking at the market. The Xbox 360 version of GTA IV sold 20 per cent more copies than the PS3 version. And that's despite the fact that there are almost twice as many Xbox 360 consoles in the wild in the UK, compared to PS3s.

Crunch the numbers

So, relatively speaking, for Microsoft to brag about doing better than Sony, it would need to sell almost twice as many copies of the game, too. But it didn't. And as such, the numbers say that per-console, the PS3 version has actually done a bit better.

"Data released by ELSPA/Chart-Track shows Xbox 360 Week One sales at 514,000 copies sold in the UK. PlayStation 3 version of the game sold only 413,000 copies, clearly demonstrating that gamers prefer the Xbox 360 version," says the Microsoft press release progaganda exercise.

What a load of complete rubbish, Microsoft!

Let's do the maths. 413,000 PS3 copies of GTA IV divided by the 1.2m PS3 consoles sold in the UK, equates to about 0.3 copies sold per console. So basically one in three UK PS3 owners have bought GTA IV in the last seven days.

Compare that to the 514,000 Xbox 360 copies sold in the UK, divided by the 2.2m consoles in circulation. It amounts to 0.23 copies per console. So about one in four Xbox 360 owners bought the game. Comparatively LESS than the PS3 version.

It's all a load of smoke and mirrors nonsense. Everyone is up to it - it's not just Microsoft.

This is an absolutely textbook example of a big company spouting a load of dingo's kidneys in order to promote itself.

As Douglas Adams once said, the human race is not itself yet an endangered species, but that’s certainly not for lack of trying. We don't half do some odd things sometimes. For instance: in the last two years, nearly 25 million of us have gone out and spent £180 (or the equivalent) on a Nintendo Wii.

And by Nintendo Wii, I mean that small, ugly, cheap-looking white plastic box that lets you to play a small collection of mostly-bad games but in a very innovative and novel manor.

Ugly Wii

I find it absolutely perplexing that the Wii has been sold to so many people. I’ve seen better looking gangrenous wounds than the Wii. I’ve played board games with better graphics. And I’ve seen cows that handle better than most Wii games. So why is the console so popular?

I think it’s because Nintendo sells its Wii consoles based more on a cool idea than anything else. The Wii is truly revolutionary in the way it approaches games in a totally new way. The handheld remote controller is a neat idea, and it attracts people of all ages. It’s new and exciting. In theory, the Wii is the greatest games console of the 21st Century.

PS3 vs Xbox vs Wii

But that doesn’t change the fact that in practise, the Wii has a lot less technology packed inside it than both the Xbox 360 and the PS3.

Add to that the fact that the Wii is now more expensive than the cheapest Xbox and only £100 cheaper than the PS3 (as opposed to £245 cheaper like when the PS3 launched), and it's reasonable to assume that the Wii might be in for a tougher time in the next two years.

It’s no real surprise to me that the majority of Wii owners who I know, very rarely touch it anymore. Many are now wishing they bought a PS3 or an Xbox – I suspect that many more think the same, but would never admit it.

The odd good game

Of course, every now and then, a game comes along which people get excited about. And the Wii is dusted off and brought back from the dead. Mario Kart and Wii Fit being the two recent examples. But as soon as the novelty value wears off, people seem to lose interest.

It doesn’t help at all, that there is still a distinct lack of quality games available for the Wii. And a pioneering games console with no decent games is about as useful as a snooze button on a smoke alarm.

This is the most frustrating part from my point of view… Essentially the Wii is aimed at people just like me. I don’t have the appetite for playing games for long periods of time. I get bored very quickly. So a quick bash at Wii Tennis is exactly the kind of thing that appeals to me.

But in reality, the Wii bores me more than anything. We’ve got all three consoles in our house, and the Wii is by-far the least-played.

My conclusion is that the Wii is, yes, a really cool, innovative product. But it has also majorly over-performed thus far. And so Nintendo is going to have to come up with something new for the next console if it wants to enjoy the same level of success.

In the meantime, if you’re thinking of buying a new console, at least consider all your options before buying a Wii.

And finally... clearly I don't think the Nintendo Wii is up to much. But of course, 25 million sales (and counting) say I'm wrong. If you think I’m wrong, let me know in the comments below.

Just as we thought the battle between Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3 couldn’t get any more interesting, the fight has just gotten a lot more fierce. The general consensus was that 2008 would be the year of the PS3. The year it finally sinks its teeth into the market to wrestle market share away from Microsoft and Nintendo.

But before Sony could even make a move, Microsoft has pre-emptively spanked the PlayStation 3 in the face. It’s unabashedly Wii’d on Sony’s fire whilst giving it the proverbial finger. Effectively it’s neutered the PS3 before it even had a chance to challenge. And how? By massively reducing the price of its Xbox 360 consoles.

It’s staggering - £150 for an Xbox 360 Arcade? That’s HALF THE PRICE of the PS3, and £20 cheaper than a Nintendo Wii – how can Sony even hope to compete with that?

PlayStation 3 vs Xbox 360

The good news (or at least, the not-so-bad news) for Sony is that no one who would consider buying a PS3 would ever buy the hard disc-less Xbox 360 Arcade. So those two models are not really competing with one another. The bad news is that the real competition comes from the Xbox 360 Premium – which will, from Friday, be priced £100 cheaper than the PlayStation 3.

Last week Sony was in good shape to go forth and have a cracking year. But now, its plans look dashed. And while Sony is publicly putting a brave face on after the news from Microsoft, you know that internally it’ll be reeling.

Sony was hoping to start making a profit with its gaming arm in 2008. It’s just about breaking even on hardware sales now – but it would appear that to continue competing, Sony will simply HAVE to cut its own PS3 prices. And that means more losses on every console sold.

You’ve got to hand it to Microsoft here. It’s done Sony up like a kipper.

Done up like a kipper

First it managed to launch the Xbox 360 a whole year before the PS3. It built a large next-gen user base while Sony relied on the PS2 to wave the PlayStation flag. And what’s more, Microsoft also managed to get away with a reported 33 per cent hardware failure rate, without anyone really complaining too much.

Sure, there was the class action lawsuit which cost Microsoft $1bn but, crucially, sales of the Xbox 360 have not suffered a jot.

And so, the PS3 just might be in real trouble now. But before we go and make too many sweeping statements, could it be that Sony anticipated this? Microsoft’s price-cut was fairly predictable – it was no secret that cheap prices would be Microsoft’s biggest weapon in the console war.

So maybe Sony will have predicted this move and planned a counter-offensive? Either way, things are about to get interesting.

CeBIT is the biggest computing show in the world. Physically speaking, at least, it’s just absolutely enormous.

But as tens of thousands of people walk the showground in Hannover, we can’t help thinking that the snow and ice outside could be a cold omen for the show’s future.

Is CeBIT losing its shine?

Hannover is a very chilly place to be this week. Freezing winds and frost-bitten, snow-covered ground has made the show a bit of an unwelcoming affair. TechRadar has been at CeBIT for a couple of days now, and the buzz that seemed to descend on the Deutsche Messe in years gone by, is eerily absent.

The question is why? Part of the reason is that CeBIT is becoming less orientated around consumer products, and more focused on back-end technologies and business. As a consequence, it certainly appears as though the turn-out here is down. There are fewer members of the German public here, or at least that’s the word circulating in the on-site press room.

Another key factor is the withdrawal of many key consumer electronics manufacturers. Dell, Sony, Sharp, Creative and the like – none of them are here this year. Because of this boycott, and coupled with the emergence of an abundance of smaller Chinese manufacturers that no one has ever heard of, CeBIT seems to have much less pulling power.

Perhaps CeBIT is one show too many

So what does this mean for the future of the show? It doesn’t look good that’s for sure. If big companies continue the trend of ducking out of CeBIT (and doing IFA and CES instead), you can be sure that more will follow. Because while the hardcore computing companies need CeBIT for exposure, the real technology superpowers like Intel and Sony, don’t.

We’re likely to see less big products launched here in future, with more onus being placed on the January CES show in Las Vegas. Some people here are saying that CeBIT might only have a couple of years left in it. Whether that’s true or not is anyone’s guess. But it sure is quiet in some of these (enormous) halls.

We come together today to mourn the loss of a heroic friend. To share the grief we all feel and, perhaps in that sharing, to find the strength to bare our sorrow and the courage to look for the seeds of hope.

It is with heavy hearts, a great sense of loss, and a sickening wave of Blu-ray-tinged nausea that we have to commit the HD DVD format to the power-efficient world of stand-by in the sky.

Born in the eye of Toshiba, the format was in many ways the best HD optical disc format on the market. But so let down it was by its software counterparts that it was unable to achieve a level of sustainable profitability. And thus here we are today, grieving for a friend who has died long before its years.

There is not a lot of solace we can take in these dark times. We’re chewed up with grief. And our thoughts go out to the Toshiba engineers who wasted so much time building the standard, their families and their friends, their pets, their friends’ pets and their neighbours and their pets too. Our thoughts are with them all.

Despite the heights of bright, epic brilliance that HD DVD delivered to our LCD and plasma screens, its long fight against Blu-ray was perhaps always destined to take its deadly toll.

No one can explain why the industry turned on HD DVD in the way it did. And if it were really the case after all that something beyond our comprehension made sense of all the chaos and the cruelty, then that would still be of no consolation at all. Because it is, after all, beyond our comprehension.

But as I look to the future, there is one remaining thought that offers minimal amounts of comfort and solace. A glistening sparkle of hope on the horizon… One ray of consolation that sits above the dark events of the last 24 hours.

Thank GOD I got a Blu-ray player and not an HD DVD one.

While everyone in the consumer tech industry hauled themselves, their dogs and their dogs’ fleas over to MWC in Barcelona this week, I actually ended up in Valencia. Only an hour up the road from old Bartha, Panasonicwas holding its now-annual HD Networking Conference.

It’s a bit of a fancy name really for what was essentially a standard-fare European launch week, where most of the Panasonic gear that was launched at CES, was exhibited and confirmed for Europe in 2008.

Panasonic, it seems, has fingers in more pies than a leper on a cookery course. So this was a good chance to have a look at all the company’s products in one place.

The week started off pretty well. I got to Gatwick airport on Monday afternoon, ready for our glamorous EasyJet flight over to the south of Spain. I met up with Panasonic’s PR team, a bunch of other tech journalists (the competition) and everything was pretty relaxed.

Apart from the grossly, morbidly, shockingly obese American man who held everyone up at check-in, the senile old lady who collapsed while passing through security and the sub-machinegun-clad police officers who looked like they’d shoot us in the face as soon as look at us, we experienced no hold-ups and were in Spain in no time at all.

The irony was, that on a trip where I was supposed to go and see a load of cool new technologies, it was actually the technology that caused the biggest faux-pas of the whole week.

The schedule was hectic, but I made it to Wednesday morning without too much trouble. Little did I know that Windows XP was about to mess it all up.

As soon as I had landed in Spain I changed the time on my phone, and when I turned my laptop on, I changed the time on that too. Spain is an hour ahead of the UK so I wanted to make sure I didn’t get caught out.

On Wednesday morning, we were supposed to meet in the lobby of our hotel at 9.30. So when it got to 9am, I thought I had better get dressed, get packed and get downstairs – plenty of time. At that second, I got a call. It was Claire from Panasonic asking me where I was.

It turned out that it wasn’t 9am at all – it was 10am. And while I was sitting in bed watching Hillary Clinton getting creamed by Barack Obama on CNN, everyone else was already sitting on the coach outside ready to go sightseeing.

So what had happened? Annoyingly, when I changed the time on my laptop, I didn’t change the time zone. So when I turned it off and on again the time reset back to GMT time. And then when I plugged in my phone to charge via USB on Tuesday night, the laptop altered the time on my phone too. Which meant my alarm went off an hour late without me even noticing.

I threw some clothes on, stuffed everything into my suitcase and got myself downstairs in record time. Getting on the coach was incredibly embarrassing though, and the expected cheers, jeers and mocking claps rang out as soon as I poked my head through the door. Very humiliating.

Of course, no one would believe my excuse about Windows XP conspiring to change all my clocks to the wrong time. So the ribbing continued all day long.

So what did I learn from this Panasonic trip? I discovered that the company has some really cool new kit coming out in the coming year. Much of it is very nice indeed. And I also learned that when crossing time zones, it’s very important to change the time zone in Windows XP, not just the time!

The high definition format war appears to be over. Blu-ray has won, HD DVD is finished. Toshiba can deny it as much as it wants, but the cold hard facts don’t lie.

And so now that the war between HD DVD and Blu-ray seems to be drawing to a close, a debate which had remained dormant for some months has again reared its controversial head. Some people say that Blu-ray’s victory is meaningless. They say that digital downloads are the future. And that optical disc formats are old hat.

This I don’t buy. At least, not yet I don’t.

The two most recent examples I can give of people voicing these opinions are two stories we covered right here on TechRadar. Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, and then Seagate CEO, Bill Watkins, both separately came out recently and basically suggested that: ‘downloads are the future, and Blu-ray will die on its ass’.

So, are they right? Or is it all a load of dingo’s kidneys? Well, I’d say that you only need to look at the motivations that exist for certain individuals to be saying such things.

Blu-ray: the last optical disc format

Steve Jobs and his iTunes empire would benefit hugely from people snubbing Blu-ray in favour of downloading movies. Even a foetus wouldn’t need to be told why.

And likewise, what about Seagate’s Bill Watkins? It doesn’t take a genius to work out that a manufacturer of storage devices would stand to benefit enormously from a massive upturn in digital movie downloads. After all, where are all these movies going to be kept? On Seagate hard drives perhaps?

We can discount their opinions, then. Because they’re biased. And as such, they are themselves meaningless.

So what do I seriously think will happen? I believe that digital downloads are definitely the way forward. Blu-ray Disc Association chairman, Frank Simonis, told us himself that Blu-ray will be the last optical format before downloads take over.

But I can’t see the mass-transition to downloads happening for quite some time yet. Sure, all those tech savvy Xbox, PlayStation and iTunes users out there can say they like downloading stuff. But at the moment there are several impracticalities which make mass-market video downloading totally impossible – at least for the time being.

Blu-ray vs digital downloads

Firstly, for Blu-ray to be ousted by downloads, you’ve got to convince the billions of technophobes out there who couldn’t even programme their old VCRs that an even more complex system is worth trying.

The day my mother downloads and watches a Hollywood movie from the web will be the day I deep fry and eat my Seagate FreeAgent portable hard drive.

People like simplicity. People like to buy a disc and put it in a player. They wouldn’t like having to try and remember which hard disc, or which device they downloaded Gremlins to last year. They’d prefer to just go and find it on their shelf.

Sure it might also be hard to convince people to invest in the Blu-ray format. But Blu-ray is simply a continuation of an idea which has existed ever since music on vinyl hit the mainstream in the 1930s. We’ve had various forms of tapes and discs since then, Blu-ray being the latest and most advanced.

But downloads are a new thing entirely. Convincing people to try it will take many years. And in the meantime, with people snapping up LCD and plasma tellies like chocolate bars, they’re going to want some HD content to watch on them.

Blu-ray offers an easy solution for normal people today. Downloads, don’t.

On December 13 2007, I sat down and wrote a quick blog about what I perceived to be the decline of that buzzing networking site, Facebook. In my eyes it's been degenerating rapidly to the extent that it is now circulating the same drain that MySpace drowned in over a year ago.

Read: This is why Facebook is going down the toilet

Read: Faceook: One more step towards the gutter

There's too many third-party apps. Too many invitations to be a Zombie. Too many things to clutter up people's profiles - profiles that once looked refreshingly clean in comparison to those revoltingly customised MurdochSpace ones.

I had no idea that these opinions would resonate so well with readers of the site. I've had so many emails with regards to that blog post, that I've decided to publish a collection of them here. As it turns out, there are a great many people out there who feel they're being turned away from Facebook, and this is why...

"I just read your posting about Facebook and I'd have to say I couldn't agree with you more. I'm sick of zombie invites and all the other third-party crap that has been added. The best thing for Facebook now would be to restore an old backup from a year or so ago." - Matt.

"Hey dude, I read your post about Facebook and I agree its becoming another peace of c**p friend thing. I liked it at first because there wasn't all this s**t everywhere, it was a simple way to stay in contact with friends. Now its becoming another moneymaking marketing scheme, and I know it sounds emo, but just like all good things in this world.

I honestly dont think there has been one good addition to Facebook since I started using it." - Xander

"Just read your interesting comments on Facebook, agree with you about most of the silly applications, I have dozens, thanks to my daughter. I don't bother with them - I don't even feed my rabbit! Will get rid of them.

There is one however that I love - it is Scrabulous. You can choose your speed and spend as much time as you like. I usually have a few games going at once. You can chat to your opponent whilst playing if you wish, and get to know them a little. There are the usual morons who just want to talk "dirty" but I just ignore them." - Sue

"I 'stumbled' upon your article regarding Facebook and it's slow descent towards destruction.. or becoming a clone of Myspace. Myself and a select few are in total agreement with you, those that have not fallen under the spell of third party applications and a dumbed down interface.

"Even though much has changed since I first joined the college student social networking site, I find myself trapped within because it is still an efficient way to communicate with friends.

Years ago, Facebook was exclusively for college students. Now we are plagued with "Applications" and mindless drones flaunting them about as these window lickers hope for praise in return. It will be a long wait before you see any useless application added on my Facebook profile. In fact, you can expect me to add these meaningless wastes of time right after I get my testicles laminated!" - Jon

"I find your position on the "is" to be a very interesting and compelling argument. I think your position reiterates the very reason why Facebook has ended up being more enjoyable and classic than My Space. Precisely for the same reason, your argument stated: vanity. Recently, I experienced the exact feeling of what your "is" argument like to affirm about Facebook. I really loved the effect that especially the Notes and Updates left on me. I understood and felt the value of knowing what my friends are actually up to. However, I feel guilty, myself, of appreciating some of this inclination toward vanity. Only today, I updated my photo with a piece of art, rather than another picture of me or of me and my friends or family.

Okay, that's all I have to say. I read "stumbled" on your article. I think it's cool I'm writing someone a long email right now, just to let him know that the article he wrote made some contact and created/caused a response." - Minal

"I was actually curious about how much space these apps take up, so one day I printed out my own Facebook profile and printed out a friend's who sends me a lot of these app invitations. Mine checked in at about a page and a half including recent wall posts. My friend's took up 12 pages.

I think Facebook should implement an option to disallow app invitations, which would make it less ridiculous for people like myself. Also, while I see your point concering the removal of "is" from status updates, some of my friends disregarded the correct prose and just typed whatever they wanted into their status update anyway. So while it would make a difference for some, it surely wouldn't make a difference for all." - Tyler

"I am one in opinion with you that facebook is slinking into the abyss day by day. Nowadays fb has become i business market littered with advertisements, dating commercials etc. the most annoying bit is that probability is joining facebook. most of the programs use probabillity to figure out. like the pirate vs ninja and especially the petrol head application. the time will come when facebook will slink lower by allowing people to edit facebook itself and open itself to piracy and phishing." - Anon

What do you think of Facebook? Do you like it more? Or has it become Failbook in the last year,? Email us to have your say.

" The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos, neatly ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, led them into it in the first place." - Douglas Adams.Getting a technology news website made in this modern era has been like trying to grill a steak by having a succession of people coming into the room and breathing on it.

The late, great Douglas Adams once said this about making movies, but it works in this context too. This website has been a long time in the making, but we've launched now and we have every confidence that it's going to be the kind of site that all you guys want to read and share with your friends.

This blog will focus mainly on the topic of portable technology. So I'll be keeping an eye out for all interesting, amusing and relevant stories relating to pocket tech; phones, MP3 players, gadgets etc, with a remit to go off-topic whenever necessary.

The news section is more focused on providing informative articles; so this blog is more about entertainment and opinion. And of course, if you guys see something cool out there on the web or in the news, please do write in.

Of course I'm very happy to be here, but working at tech.co.uk is not my first choice of vocation. When I learned that English writer Douglas Adams had spent many years wishing he could have 'been' Python legend John Cleese, I was stunned. Because throughout my teens I actually wanted to be Douglas Adams, and only after extensive counselling did I finally let go of my dreams and admit that the job was taken.

The writings of Douglas Adams have been an inspiration to me. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Dirk Gently; Last Chance to See; Dr. Who; The Meaning of Liff etc. All these works represent brilliant wit, beautiful writing and an unparalleled and unrivalled, brutish and insightful view of life, the universe and everything else.

Many people are surprised when they hear that Adams was actually the first man in Britain to buy an Apple Mac, and always had a lot to say on the subject of technology. He wrote an advert for Apple once which said: 'Macintosh - We might not get everything right, but at least we knew the century was going to end'. Bit of a dig there at the panic surrounding Windows 98 and the 'millennium bug' scare.

He also said, "The Macintosh may only have 10 per cent of the market, but it is clearly the top 10 per cent". He was the first Apple fanboy in Britiain! And yet I still look up to him... amazing.

Other devastatingly accurate Douglas Adamsisms include, "We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works," and also, "technology is a word that describes something that doesn't work yet".

Those people who bought Thomson Sky HD boxes, HDMI 1.0 HDTVs or scratchable mark one iPod nanos might have a quick chuckle at that one - or a scowl.

Douglas Adams looked at the world in a way that many of us wish we could, but can't. He saw things, and only when he pointed them out to us did we realise how ridiculous they were.

It was a comment by Adams that first pointed out to me that the 'world wide web' is probably the only phrase in existence whose shortened form - 'www' - takes three times longer to say than what it's short for!

As a new news site, we're bound to have a few hiccups along the way. And if we do have some teething problems, we hope you'll forgive us and still come back next time. We'll get into a rhythm soon enough. And we've got plenty of fantastic features that we'll add to the site very soon.

A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' And I bet you can guess whose words of wisdom I'm stealing there.

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Go back to Rungsberry HOME

Or try these other entries...

Rungsberry: The first entry

Aeulogy for a dead MP3 player

Savethe children: kill webspeak for good!

MP3sare great, just give them a chance!

Mybrick phone makes telephone calls

Make Mine a Rungsberry Ripple

Are iPods better than money?

It's true, CES 2008 was a largely forgettable affair. The odd groundbreaking concept TV was mixed in with a lot of old tat. And now that it's all done and dusted, all most people seem to want to talk about is that weird prank where a particularly bored Gizmodo blogger decided to use a secret remote control to turn off all the TVs in the CES showrooms.

That about says it all. But one profound thing that did actually happen was that the HD DVD disc format was marched in front of a firing squad by Warner Bros and was then viciously shot in the face by hundreds of bloodthirsty American journalists.

HD DVD as a format is now in some serious bother. The chances of a recovery seem extremely slim. Blu-ray looks like it's set to become the de facto HD disc format. A 50GB disc will be the last mainstream optical disc format before solid state takes over.
Blu-ray victorious?

When the press conferences were going on inside the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas last Sunday and Monday, all everyone was talking about was Warner's decision to drop HD DVD, and Toshiba's decision to cancel the HD DVD press conference.

It was exactly what CES needed to get people at the show excited. The LA Times immediately declared that the format war was over. And that seemed that.

The most amazing thing in all this, of course, is that the Blu-ray Disc Association was the only group of people at CES who weren't declaring a Blu-ray victory. I turned up to the BDA's press conference on the Monday afternoon expecting victory crows and a firework display of bloated acceptance speeches from the BDA representatives there.

But this failed to materialise. The press conference consisted of BDA reps from the likes of Warner, Fox and Lions Gate, giving updates on sales figures. And that was it. I was shocked that even the BDA's chief in the US, Andy Parsons, didn't make any kind of gloating statement.
Fanboy journalists

As it turned out though, he didn't need to. At the end of the conference, about 10 questions were invited from the floor. About four of the questions came from supposed US journalists who decided that they were incredibly stoked about the demise of HD DVD and would waste the questions by making silly jokes.

"Would you ever consider giving people a discount on BD players if people came and traded in their defunct HD DVD players," one particularly annoying American hack said with an enormous self-serving smile on his face. The entire floor began to shake as a room full of fat people howled in hysterical laughter.

More stupid jokes and questions followed; all were completely pointless. Even the serious ones were non-questions coming from people who didn't know what they were talking about. The only thing they didn't do was to start a Mexican wave and start chanting: "Blu-ray, Blu-ray, Blu-ray..."

And so it seems that there were as many Blu-ray fanboys in the room as there were sitting at home reading about it. Parsons didn't need to do his own PR. He knew there were enough suckers in the press conference to do it for him.

And this is precisely the reason why HD DVD has no chance. It's doomed. But it won't be Blu-ray or its Association that kills it off. It'll be the press who will write stories exactly like this one.

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Have you already bought an HD DVD player? If so, what are you going to do with it? Or did you plump for Blu-ray?

Email me

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Go back to Rungsberry HOME

Or read more Rungsberry by clicking on entries below...

Facebook: one more step towards the gutter

Which games console should YOU buy?

Apple iPhone: even the tramps/bums want one

Keeley the topless Page 3 tech girl. Porn or not porn?

This is why your net connection is so slow

This is why Radiohead could be killing music

Top 8 reasons why MySpace sucks

This is why Facebook is going down the toilet

The Ultimate Guide to High Definition

5 reasons why the Apple iPhone makes me miserable

10 reasons to love the PlayStation 3

Consumer Tech: Mac v PC: A religious battleground

A eulogy for a dead MP3 player

I was the first person amongst my friends to sign up toFacebook. My distaste for MurdochSpace meant I'd been after a decentalternative for a while, and Facebook was certainly that.

Pity then that ever since, it's been sliding down from beinga high-class, functional social networking hub, into a lowbrow, dumbed downpile of web 2.0 scrap.

It's a bit like the Titanic. That ship looked amazingwhen it sailed out of Southampton. Unique,glorious, functional, amazing. But within 48 hours it was covered in silty muckon the bottom of the Atlantic. Decayingforever in a world of ice cold darkness.

I wrote about Facebook a number of months ago, and I saidthat the idea to open the site up to third-party apps was the single moststupid idea in the history of social networking (apart from maybe the idea to launch WAYN).

These days you can't log intoFacebook without being greeted by a trillion irritating 'Pirate' or 'Zombie'requests. Why people feel the need to spread these cancerous, repugnant, viralapplications is beyond me. It makes Faceook almost as ugly and bloated asMurdochSpace itself.

Read: This is why Facebook is going down the toilet

And now, today, the site has sunk one rung lower on thedumbing down ladder of shame.

I logged in to Facebook this morning to discover that thecompulsory 'is' word has now been removed from Facebook's status updates. So nowinstead of writing: "James is not liking the state of Facebook these days," youcan simply say, "James hates Facebook".

Much easier, but also, in my humble opinion, a very badidea.

The change has been coming for a while, but I didn't know ithad finally happened until I logged in this morning to discover about 22 of myfriends' status updates, all saying things like: "... is loving the fact that the'is' has gone" etc.

The irony is, of course, that people are now struggling to thinkof decent updates without using the word 'is' at the beginning.

Now, I'm sorry, but I don't share the view that this change is agood idea. The 'is' was there for a very good reason: to make status updatesrelevant. And to try and discourage the vanity that drives most of the updatesin the first place.

The 'is' made people think about what they were writing, tomake what they wrote interesting, current and relevant. And so most updateswere just that: proper updates.

But already people are banging on about all sorts of things.It seems the status update is no longer a good way to track all those friendsyou have but never chat to. Most updates, even today, are not updates at all.It's vanity. It's human beings' desire to hear the sound of their own voices.And we're all guilty of that at some stage. That includes me.

The 'is' went someway to combat that. But now it's gone.And Facebook once again slides in my estimation. Another reason not to log in tomorrow morning.

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Which games console should YOU buy?

Apple iPhone: even the tramps/bums want one

Keeley the topless Page 3 tech girl. Porn or not porn?

This is why your net connection is so slow

This is why Radiohead could be killing music

Top 8 reasons why MySpace sucks

This is why Facebook is going down the toilet

The Ultimate Guide to High Definition

5 reasons why the Apple iPhone makes me miserable

10 reasons to love the PlayStation 3

Consumer Tech: Mac v PC: A religious battleground

Aeulogy for a dead MP3 player

Apple iPhone: Biggestproduct of 2007; Most hyped gadget in the history of mankind; The cause ofmore worldwide hysteria than George W Bush and his army of tyrannicalRepublican mercenaries; The most written about, and most sexy product since theWonderbra; Best and slimmest household item since individually wrapped cheese slices; And finally,the most worshipped invention since Jesus Christ himself.

The irony was not lost on me as I travelled over to Bristol on Friday afternoon to cover the Apple iPhonelaunch in the UK.After all, only four months ago I published a Rungsberry blog entitled ' 5reasons why the Apple iPhone makes me miserable'.

Biggest launch of the year?

But after being invited by the Carphone Warehouse to its store in Bristol,I went along with my Editor and our Copy Editor, Julia Sagar, to witness the launchof, what is in all honesty, the hottest product launch any of us have ever witnessed.

Would crowds, thousands-strong, storm the Carphone Warehousestore in Broadmead to seize iPhones by force? Would violence break out amongstthose in the queue? Would people be crying with sheer joy at the very thoughtof getting their hands on an iPhone? Would we see Apple Fanboys discardingtheir Sony Ericsson and Nokia handsets, ceremoniously setting them on fireand lobbing them into the River Avon?

In actual fact, none of the above things happened. Thelaunch, in Bristol at least, was fairly low-key. We saw none of the manic scenes that Dan and Anna witnessed in London.

Meet the iTramp

The only odd thing that did happen involved a weird homelesstramp man, his efforts to get an iPhone and his bafflement at the realisationthat things in the 21st Century do actually cost money. The vagrant identified himself as "Mr King. Just, Mr King".

Drawn by the scent of free Carphone Warehouse sandwiches, he was held at bay for afew minutes by security guards. But after a while he was in the store, minglingwith the other iPhone-suitors: a quiet collection of people who smelledconsiderably less bad than he did.

He kept asking me how he could get an iPhone. I told him totalk to someone who actually worked in the store. So he went and waited to beattended to.

It took about 15 minutes for any store assistants to buildup enough bravery to speak to him though. And the look of disappointment on hisface when he realised that a pocketful of mouldy chocolate biscuits was notlegal tender in the world of retail, was as heart breaking as it was hilarious.

Who wants a 3G iPhone?

At 6.01pm, one minute before the doors opened, there wereabout 20 people in the queue. I spoke to a lot of them, and most said they justwanted to have a look to see what all the fuss was about. Only a smallproportion intended to actually buy an iPhone.

Not one person said they gave a toss about the iPhone nothaving 3G. The resounding consensus was that 3G was not necessary and that itwasn't the big turn-off that many people might like to think.

The first lady through the doors at 6.02pm was called LouiseWilcox. She told me that she "just really, really loves Apple products". Havingsaid that, it was the first Apple product she's ever actually bought. But asshe walked back out of the store (chased by photographers and roving radio reporters), she was ecstatic with her purchase, and whocould blame her?

Forthe record, Weird Tramp Guy did not get himself an iPhone. Nor did he get afree laptop, after he realised that the AOL broadband that you had to get in order to qualify for a free laptop in the Carphone Warehouse, also cost real money.

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Which games console should YOU buy?

Keeley the topless Page 3 tech girl. Porn or not porn?

This is why your net connection is so slow

This is why Radiohead could be killing music

Top 8 reasons why MySpace sucks

This is why Facebook is going down the toilet

The Ultimate Guide to High Definition

5 reasons why the Apple iPhone makes me miserable

10 reasons to love the PlayStation 3

Consumer Tech: Mac v PC: A religious battleground

Aeulogy for a dead MP3 player

Inthe past, the labour of trying to decide which games console to buy was avastly different affair to how things are today. Things were so much easierback then, don't you think?

SonyPlayStation or Sega Saturn? Was that even a real choice? PlayStation 2 orMicrosoft Xbox? Again, that was a no-brainer wasn't it?

ButPlayStation 3 vs. Nintendo Wii vs. Xbox 360? Now there's a tough one for you. It'sa case of unbridled future-proof power and dynamism, versus pureno-holds-barred family fun, versus sheer power and a plethora of fantasticgames. So which one to choose?

Ifyou listen to the masses, the Nintendo Wii is definitely the one to get. It'soutselling the other two consoles by such a margin it's almost embarrassing.But then this isn't really much of a help to most people because human beings, who are almostunique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are alsoremarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

Fanboys have it easy

Thingsare a lot easier for the fanboys, of course. After all, those committed-typesperceive their favourite brand of gaming to be the best, and that's that, endof story.

Butthe fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of agas-covered planet orbiting a nuclear fireball 93 million miles away and thinkthis to be normal, is obviously some indication of how skewed our perceptioncan be.

Sofor the rest of us 'normal' people, what games console should we buy?

You'dhave thought a year ago that the PlayStation 3 would be the dominant force in2007 gaming. But this has turned out not to be the case. In fact if you'vetrawled through the web over the last year, it's actually quite hard to findany neutral person saying anything positive about the PS3 at all.

PS3 power

Themain complaints about the PlayStation 3 have been that its too expensive andthat there aren't many decent games available for it. And while the promise ofmore games does make it a more attractive purchase for the future, if it lookslike a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider thepossibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on ourhands, right?

Wrong!The PS3 has finally had a price cut and the new 40GB version now costs the same asthe Xbox 360 Elite. That brings it right into play. New games like Kill Zone 2, Metal Gear Solid and the non-exclusive Assassin's Creed are on the way and so for the first time, the PS3 can beconsidered a real option for the serious gamer.

Sowhat about the Xbox 360? It's sold over 12 million units worldwide so far, soit's pretty popular. And there are many brilliant games available for it. Butwhat of all these hardware failures that we're hearing about? It's costingMicrosoft a billion dollars to fix all those broken Xbox 360s. They'reoverheating and breaking and many people are starting to get annoyed by theconsole's apparent complete lack of reliability.

Canyou trust that when you buy a 360 you'll get one that isn't destined to fail? Microsoft is making changes to its production linesall the time so if you buy a brand new Xbox 360 these days, you'll find thatyou won't get any of those old hardware failures. (Fingers crossed).

Xbox system failure

Andas for the Nintendo Wii, it's the only console which is yet to have blotted itscopy book with any serious black marks. It is what is it. It does exactly whatit says on the tin. And it's just so fun to play with.

Butthen, the graphics aren't high definition. And when it comes down to it, the goodgames available for the Wii are severely limited in number, even this far afterlaunch. It doesn't offer much for the serious gamer, and some of the big franchise ports have been very poor.

Noneof the three consoles are perfect. They all have their problems just like they all havetheir merits. So let's go back to basics.

In short:

NintendoWii: It's cheap. It's extremely original and fun to play. It's great toplay with in large groups and there are plenty of titles available that don'tinvolve spilling the blood of your peers. A great option for the here-and-nowgamer. Ideal for 30-minute lighthearted gaming sessions every now and then. Andif you don't care about future-proofing and you just want to have some fun,this is for you. £179

MicrosoftXbox 360: This console now stands directly between the Wii and the PS3. TheCore console is the same price as the Wii and the Elite console is the sameprice as the 40GB PS3. The Premium stands somewhere in the middle. For themoney you get a lot of power and the great graphics that come with it. Andyou've got a massive library of great games available (and yeah, some bad onestoo). £199 - £299

It'san all-rounder and looks like a pretty attractive option. It's very powerful,so it won't be outdated for a long time yet. What more could you ask for?

SonyPlayStation 3: Arguably the most powerful console ever created by man. Itincludes Blu-ray HD disc playback and has enormous potential for the future. Andnow you can get one for £125 less then when it launched. Inthe original version of this guide, we said that you'd be best off waiting fora cheaper PS3 option. And now it's here. If you are a PlayStation fan, now isthe time to splash out. £299 - £350

The verdict

Inthe past I said that the time wasn't right to buy a PS3. I said that for themoney you'd be better off buying a Wii AND an Xbox 360 together. But now it'snowhere near that simple.

The simple truth is that there is no longer an outrightwinner. You've just got to look at what each one offers and see if that sounds goodto you.

If you want cheap and cheerful fun with original gameplay,go for the Wii. If you want lots of games and HD graphics go for the Xbox 360.And if you want Blu-ray movies to play on your HD TV, immense graphicspotential and future-proofed power, buy a PS3.

Ultimately, it's got to be about the kind of games you want to play. So take a look at the shops and see which platform offers you the most.

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Apple iPhone: Hilarious UK launch stories

Byte Me TV isn't porn, but it might as well be: Keeley the topless Page 3 tech girl

This is why your net connection is so slow

This is why Radiohead could be killing music

Top 8 reasons why MySpace sucks

This is why the HD format war with never end

This is why Facebook is going down the toilet

PlayStation 3 v Xbox 360: Future Wars

Top Ten YouTube Videos

The Ultimate Guide to High Definition

5 reasons why the Apple iPhone makes me miserable

10 reasons to love the PlayStation 3

Consumer Tech: Mac v PC: A religious battleground

Aeulogy for a dead MP3 player

The HD format battle has turnedinto a bit of a cold war. Neither one is doing at all well in Europe,and internationally-speaking, the war has turned into more of a battle to winthe hearts and minds of the general consumer.

One of the main things thatFrank Simonis, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association said to me in Germany during IFA 2007 was this: the Blu-ray camp are well aware that HD player sales are very lowat the moment. He said that the main battle is to educate the public at large,informing them of the benefits of HD and then persuading them to invest in a player.

HD DVD or Blu-ray? Nobody seems to care

But it seems as though mostpeople in the UK are still completely clueless when it comes to either HD format. Most people Imeet who aren't tech savvy, have no idea what HD DVD and Blu-ray are. Theycertainly don't know the differences are between them. Or why they should care.

I took a trip into Bath city centre todayand visited every shop that sells home entertainment kit. Some had onetoken HD DVD and Blu-ray player hidden away amongst a plethora of differentstandard DVD players.

There was certainly noin-store promotion going on. I asked a shop assistant on one store: "Do youhave any Blu-ray or HD DVD players?"

"Umm... yes the DVD playersare over there," she said, pointing in the direction she'd seen me just comefrom.

"Yes I saw those. But waswondering if you had any Blu-ray players or HD DVD ones?" I replied.

Her beady, piggy eyes ignorantly stared back at me with thesame blank look I once received from a French waitress while I shouted English ather, hoping she'd eventually understand. Needless to say, neither woman had anyidea what I was talking about.

HD battle? For now it's just hair-pulling

The next store I went in, again had a large number of DVDplayers on display but no sign of any HD DVD or BD players. I saw one manhaving a look at a Pioneer DVD player and asked him if he was consideringbuying a Blu-ray or an HD DVD player.

"No," he said, "I think I'm going to get a Pioneer."

If that doesn't sum up HD's impact on the average consumer then what does? It's clear that ignorance still rules in the UK, and it'shard to see this changing.

A flick through all of the national newspapers revealednot a single advert for either HD DVD or Blu-ray. The only trace of anything todo with either one was in one corner of a small Richer Sounds ad, which mentioned the LG Multi-Blucombo player.

So if the public are clueless as to what Blu-ray and HD DVDare, and high street retailers aren't even stocking the players or educatingtheir staff, how are the HD disc formats ever going to take over from DVD?

It's certainly not going to happen anytime soon, that's forsure.

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Byte Me TV isn't porn, but it might as well be: Keeley the topless Page 3 tech girl

This is why your net connection is so slow

This is why Radiohead could be killing music

Top 8 reasons why MySpace sucks

This is why the HD format war with never end

This is why Facebook is going down the toilet

PlayStation 3 v Xbox 360: Future Wars

Top Ten YouTube Videos

The Ultimate Guide to High Definition

Which Games console should you buy? PS3 v Xbox 360 v Nintendo Wii

5 reasons why the Apple iPhone makes me miserable

10 reasons to love the PlayStation 3

Consumer Tech: Mac v PC: A religious battleground

Aeulogy for a dead MP3 player

It was with a wry smile this morning that I discovered that,in a move that will no-doubt drive Germaine Greer and her feminist cohorts upthe crazy wall, glamour model Keeley Hazell has been chosen to front a new webTV show about computers.

It's called Byte Me TV, and Keeley plays the role of a stereotypically ignorant blondegirl who knows nothing about computers but wants to learn. Let me tell you, there is only one reason why anyone would watch this, andits not editorial quality or integrity. [Is it because it has computers in it? - Ed]

"Hi... I'm Keeley and welcome to Byte Me. This is where... we...take the ...jargon out of technology. Now you've... guessed it, I'm no technologyexpert but I'd like... to... learn... more. And lucky for me, I've got a group offriends who've reassured me they can teach me ANYTHING," stumbles Keeley at thebeginning of the Byte Me TV pilot episode.

We're sure they'll be only too willing, Keeley.

PC know-how

To be serious for just a second, the basis for the show isactually pretty sound. Five to ten minute episodes every week during which thebasics surrounding computing issues are addressed, jargon-free. Sounds good,right? Sounds about right for my mother, actually.

But seriously, whoever's idea it was to have Britain's mostfamous topless Page 3 model presenting it... well let's just say it was a brainfart on the most epic of scales.

If you thought Kevin Costner was wooden, just wait until yousee this. I sat and watched the entire five minute episode not because I wasinterested in the content, and not because I wanted to ogle at an attractive younglady, but because I was waiting on the edge of my seat for a woodpecker to landon said lady's head and start boring a hole in her face.

It was almost painful viewing.

Mac vs PC: can Keeley tell?

Still though, I'm sure she'll get better. And no doubt therewill be thousands of teenage boys across the land who'll be celebrating wildlyto hear of Keeley's involvement with this project. But when it comes down toit, you've got to wonder whether it would get more editorial respect if they'dgone with even just a quite good looking person instead of Keeley Hazell... super-hot temptress extraordinaire.

Puberty-ravaged sixteen year old boys are surely not thetarget audience for this show... if they'd wanted my mother to watch it they shouldhave hired someone else. Even Kevin Costner would have been more appropriate.

Episode 1 will apparently focus on the differences between Macs and PCs and at the end of it, Keeley will decide which one to buy.

"Did Keeley Buy a Mac or a PC? Find out on 25 October 2007," says the Byte Me website. Right next to a picture of Keeley sitting on the floor with a large MacBook Pro. Smooth.

Still though, all things considered, I can't wait for the next (terrible) episode. So maybe it's doing a good job after all?

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Go back to Rungsberry HOME

Or read more Rungsberry by clicking on entries below...

This is why your net connection is so slow

This is why Radiohead could be killing music

Top 8 reasons why MySpace sucks

This is why the HD format war with never end

This is why Facebook is going down the toilet

PlayStation 3 v Xbox 360: Future Wars

Top Ten YouTube Videos

The Ultimate Guide to High Definition

Which Games console should you buy? PS3 v Xbox 360 v Nintendo Wii

5 reasons why the Apple iPhone makes me miserable

10 reasons to love the PlayStation 3

Consumer Tech: Mac v PC: A religious battleground

Aeulogy for a dead MP3 player