Xbox One Media Remote Available Soon

As of March/April of 2014, Xbox One owners will be able to purchase an official media remote to make interactivity a breeze. Similar to a regular TV remote, the Xbox One equivalent will feature playback functions for Blu-Ray, as well as a OneGuide button, which "provides one-touch, quick access to your favourite TV shows and movies," all through your Xbox guide.

Microsoft

Although users can control their console using the control pads and the Kinest camera, many will be delighted to purchase a specific device that functions as a remote control.

Xbox 360 fans will no doubt recall the media remote available in the previous generation. While it was rather large, clunky and featured a whole host of buttons, sources suggest the Xbox One version will be more compact with fewer buttons to get used to.

Already, places such as Amazon UK have started listing the product, portraying the release date as "April 4" and priced at £19.99. Amazon Italy is also listing the product with the same release date and priced at twenty-three Euros.

Let us know in the comments if you think this will ultimately be a good investment for gamers/movie enthusiasts, or if it will just add another pointless remote control to the vast collection that many people already have in their homes.

How Long Until Sony Goes Under?

Sony

As recently as December 2013, articles have become abundant with the news that Playstation developers, Sony, could become bankrupt within the next two years. Reports indicate the tech giant has a 78% chance of going under by 2016.

Recently more information has emerged which could showcase the beginning of this end. Earlier this month, Sony announced they will be selling their PC (personal computer) unit to combat heavy losses. They are also making plans to cut back more than 5,000 jobs, making the announcement after a net loss of £665 million was forecast for the financial year.

Playstation 4 on the rise, though

Despite the news, figures were recently published that showed sales of the Playstation 4 had doubled that of Microsoft's own new generation console, Xbox One. With the launch of Sony's own console set to be released in its home country of Japan on February 22nd 2014, sales are no doubt expected to rise even further.

Despite this, Sony are facing threats from competing companies and a decrease in PC sales globally. While they are making new plans to focus on smartphone and tablet technology, the sale of its PC division and employee cutbacks are showing signs of the conglomerate's financial troubles.

[REVIEW] Netflix (PS3)

I might be a little late to the party on this one, seeing as how Netflix has been out for a couple of weeks now, but you'll just have to excuse me, I've been glued to the TV for pretty much 90% of that time. At first, as usual, I was pretty skeptical about Netflix, afterall, LoveFilm has been around for a bit longer, giving us movies on demand to our consoles for under a fiver a month. LoveFilm is also run by Amazon, who I firmly believe are the new Tesco, so I was a little baffled as to why Netflix would even bother coming to the UK. However, we decided to give it a try, as Netflix has various TV series available to stream as well as movies, something that as far as I'm aware, LoveFilm doesn't offer yet.

Now fortunately for me, I live down the road from the telephone exchange, and most of the time experience superb connection speeds. Despite this, I was still convinced that the streams from Netflix would be glitchy, blocky and maybe even (horror of horrors!) standard def. All my fears were dispelled when I actually gave it a go, and we sat down to watch a series of random films on a whim, including Starship Troopers, Spaceballs, Dazed and Confused, Robocop and High Fidelity, none of which we realised we wanted to watch until we saw them pop up in the (incredibly easy to navigate) menus.

Where Netflix really comes into its own however is with the aforementioned TV series that are available. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed South Park, and no longer do we have to stand up to put the next DVD of the Arrested Development boxset in, we can simply do it by remote. Thank god. Netflix even gives recommendations based on the things you've watched recently, so you don't even have to think for yourself anymore! Hallelujah! Looks like we'll be happily forking out the subscription for this, even if all else fails, I can always watch more Jersey Shore!

Basically, I LOVE living in the future. Yay for Netflix! 5/5

[REVIEW] Orbitsound T3 Portable Speaker

At Gadget Show Live, I was lucky enough to be given one of Orbitsound's T3 personal speakers to test. (Picture pinched from orbitsound.com, hope they don't mind!) The speaker is fairly small at 6cm by 11cm and is powered by an internal battery which can be charged via USB. My previous experience of portable speakers has been somewhat patchy at best, most of the ones I have used (mostly as a kid, to be fair) have been fairly large, clunky battery munching monstrosities, so the light and delicate T3 appealed to me, but I was still fairly skeptical about the sound quality (in particular the bass) that would be produced.

The Orbitsound crew recommended I should test the T3 with a variety of machines:

Laptop: My laptop is my baby. It's fast, reliable and me and the husband find ourselves using it to watch various TV on demand services, movies, YouTube videos etc, especially when the poor overworked tower PC connected to the big screen telly has crapped out again. It's speakers are fairly poor, however, and if we happen to be laughing or discussing what's happening on screen, the audio gets lost. On plugging in the T3, I instantly noticed an increase in the volume and a richer tone in the voice of the scary lady announcing that we're all done for. (Need to load up on stimpaks and rad-away, pronto.) A win for the T3!

iPhone/iPod: Generally when I'm listening to music, it's coming from my iPhone. Time to test out one the T3's major boast, the claim that it can produce stereo sound from just one speaker, using it's "halo" effect. To test this, I chose Zebrahead - Playmate of the Year for it's alternate "Woo!"/"Yeah!" which if you're listening through headphones, you'll notice happens in one ear then the other. To create the effect, the T3 is worn on a lanyard around the neck, and the little side speakers create the stereo effect. Unexpectedly, this works really well, and I was very impressed!

Another great test using the iPhone really explored the power that this little speaker has. The acoustics in my bathroom aren't great, and I love having music while I shower, but the tinny little iPhone speaker tends to get lost amongst the sound of the water. Using the T3 a much louder, better quality sound can be achieved, probably much to the distress of our neighbours who have to deal with my, um, diverse music tastes. The T3's first downfall became obvious here though, as my phone struggled for signal and the speaker burst out into the loudest EM interference noise I'd ever heard in my life. Moving the speaker and the phone further away from each other seemed to help until I received a text message, when it did it again. What I really don't understand is why that never happens in my iPhone headphones! Obviously, all this can be avoided by using an iPod instead, but it's a bit of a pain, considering most of the stuff I want to listen to is on the phone!

Portable Gaming System (3DS): To me, this looks to be one of the most promising categories, provided that Nintendo do actually keep their vague promises to bring lots of 3D video content to the handheld. Yet again the sound is louder and less tinny. My personal preference is to play my games with the sound off, but for cut scenes or movies it is ideal. It seems like it would also be a perfect partner for a PSP as well, particularly for watching UMDs.

The Verdict: Retailing at £50, it's not cheap, however having had my fair share of crappy portable speakers in the past I'd be inclined to say that you get what you pay for. The T3 is lightweight, compact and packs a massive punch for what it is. Battery-wise, I've had the unit for two weeks and I've not yet charged it up again. Orbitsound say it lasts ten hours on a full charge, so more than enough life for a day out picnicing in the park or partying on public transport. The only downsides appear to be the susceptibility to interference and the fact that I felt a bit of a goof wearing it around my neck - but then again, if it's kickin' out some awesome tunes, who cares?

Overall, 4/5. Recommended! :)

[EVENT] Gadget Show Live, 12th April 2011 (Part 1)

A while ago, my partner and I were lucky enough to be invited to Gadget Show Live Professional, a sneak preview of GSL for trade buyers and people in the industry. Obviously, we jumped at the chance to be able to visit this event and hot-footed it down to the Birmingham NEC to see what it was all about.

On entering the first hall, one of the first things to greet me was this super-cute robot from the Future Technology area. Using Microsoft's Kinect, he can sense depth much better than a robot using a regular camera. More on this in a future post!

Walking around the first hall, where most of the home-oriented gadgets and technology were situated, there seemed to be a massive focus on 3D home entertainment, with most of the major television manufacturers represented. All dependant on 3D glasses, the quality ranged from excellent (The Batman demo at the Acer stand was a favourite) to "Oooh no." (A direct quote from myself.) If I had money to burn, I'd certainly invest in a top of the range set, however at the moment 3DTV for me is marked under the heading "Purely Aspirational", at least until the costs come down... or the glasses come off! Speaking of aspirational, one company were exhibiting their top of the range hot tubs, complete with champagne glass holders. As the husband quite rightly pointed out, it's not merely the extortionate cost of such a luxury that prevents us from owning one, it's the fact that we simply don't have room in our house!

Next stop was the Gadget Hall of Fame in association with the Centre for Computing History. A little confusing at first, as we stepped straight into the 1980's exhibit only to be met with a genuine Sinclair C5 and the red JVC camcorder made famous in Back To The Future! Closer inspection of a BBC Micro computer revealed that it contained the text based game Hampstead, and confirmed that twenty years later, I am still  no good at text based games. Around the corner was the 1970's exhibit, faithfully decked out in obnoxious wallpaper, with working Pong machine and an actual Betamax recorder! I had to capture the moment as I doubt I shall ever see one again! The 1990's exhibit was filled with a few more familiar toys such as a Mega Drive, the first iMac and a selection of early mobile phones, but the computers of the 1960's were almost unreal! I found it fascinating, but almost impossible to comprehend how those boxes of circuits relate to the technology of today. Guess I've got a lot of history to catch up on!

After blagging a glass of wine from the lovely people at Orbitsound (Who also gave me one of their T3 personal speakers to test - review to come!) we headed down to the test track, where all kinds of bikes, radio controlled vehicles, scooters and such were being tested out. On the way we met none other than the man himself, Jason Bradbury! He was running around like a bit of a madman trying to get things organised for the live show, undoubtably we caught him at probably one of the busiest times of his life, yet he still gave two minutes of his time to say hello and pose for a picture with us. What a pro! Then onwards to the track, where my other half got to try his hand at riding a Segway!

All in all, an absolutely superb day out, and that's even before I've told you about the Game Zone! But more on that later in the week...