UK Man stabbed while queuing for GTA:4 Game

GTA4 an ultra violent game in which you walk around the streets of liberty city committing murder to innocent pedestrians, have sexual intercourse with hookers and use an arsenal of destructive weapons to commit a one man genocide. The media have reported its the fastest selling game. (surprise, surprise)

Reports from the UK press about a stabbing of a man while waiting to buy the game. The man was stabbed a number of time in a queue of fans waiting to buy the game. witnesses thought they were seeing a promotional stunt for the launch when the blood-soaked victim staggered among them. Then realizing the attack was real after the police arrived.

It took place outside the Gamestation store in Croydon, South London, a witness said:

“The victim was covered from shoulder to belly in blood. Everyone thought it was a show to promote the game.”

Despite his stab injuries, the 23-year-old victim apparently went home to arm himself for revenge. Before policed arrived.
So lets look at GTA 4 by the numbers

• £200 million sales in the first week (est).
• 70 million sold of the previous games in the GTA series worldwide.
• 500 orders per minute for the game at online UK retailers.
• Woolworth’s are reporting 200 copies a minute flying of the shelves.
• 1 UK man stabbed while queuing for the long awaited game. (source:thesun.co.uk)
• 3 US cops murdered allegedly in GTA inspired circumstances.(soure:daily mail)

Sony breaks out 2.1 BRAVIA DAV-F200 home theater system

Sony has just launched the DAV-F200 Bravia home theatre system, sony sound bites “Bringing cinema sound without cluttering up your living room with speakers” as the major selling point. In terms of specifications its not amazing but fine for casual home use.

DAV-F200 Specifications

• 2.1 channel home theater system

• 300W amplifier

• HDMI output

• MP3 recording via USB

• Playback of MP3, WMA, AAC, and JPEG via USB

• Internal playback of MP3, JPEG, and DivX formats

• BRAVIA Sync

The control box can be mounted to the wall or placed in a cabinet and the hideaway speakers as small enough to hide in any number of crevasses in the living room.With a total amplification output of 405W claims to create virtual surround effects from only two hidden speakers and the reasonably compact sub-woofer. Worded another way sony are selling you 2.1 surround sound but fobbing it off as virtual 5.1 surround sound. unfortunately, there’s no word on price or availability in the US, however in the Europe our sources tell us June 2008 release.

Engadget get up close and personal with the Apple iMac 3.06GHz

I was reading over at engadget, those lucky, lucky people have managed to get there hands on the new 3ghz iMac to testdrive. They’ve taken a great selection of photos from the unbox process to booting it up and  managed to some time out to benchmark it against other machines.

The top of the line 24-inch model now has a 3.06GHz processor, 512MB of on board video ram in the form of  NVIDIA GeForce graphics, 2GB of memory, and a 320GB 7200rpm disk for $2,199.  All machines tested were using Leopard.

Heres a snapshot of the benchmarking tests:

iPhone “Finally” arrives in Canada, eh!?

According to a market report from Bloomberg, Steve Jobs may well be dropping the iPhone on Canada, tomorrow’s at Apples keynote speech.

RBC Capital Markets analyst - Mike Abramsky says, Apple will unleash the phone via Rogers Communications — the country’s largest mobile service provider. “

There’s a very good chance that Apple will announce or discuss some kind of other carrier roll-outs, beyond the ones it has done in Europe and the U.S.” He said, adding that, “There is definitely very strong demand and interest here.”

No, this isn’t a definite from apple campus who have stayed mum, up until now. However its only a matter of time before the apple roll out in Canada. For those of you who haven’t realized what apple’s master plan is. Basically there going from territory to territory striking exclusive deals with the major network operators in each country, That way monopolizing the market to one provider, both getting a healthy cut, nice jobs!

New Pornoviolence Genre To Be Created For GTA IV?

Pornoviolence was a term first used by Tom Wolfe in 1976, but thanks to the Guardian’s Peter Lyle it’s come to the fore once more. Peter Lyle is the Guardian’s Art and Architecture blogger and has criticised reports that GTA IV is a form of modern art, instead referencing it as pornoviolence.

The critique raises several issues. First off, labelling a game like GTA IV as being pornoviolence is certainly not going to put people off playing the game – in fact, I suspect it is much more likely to do the opposite.

Rockstar has long been the leading light when it comes to using apparent bad publicity to sell games – did you see the furore when they released Table Tennis? The GTA series has been nothing short of controversial from its inception but that controversy has continually fuelled its popularity.

However, one more important issue has been raised – should GTA IV have its very own genre? The pornoviolence tag sits well with me and if high calibre games like Grand Theft Auto were released under a new pornoviolence genre then I for one (and according to Lyle I’m a “media-addled introvert”) would be waiting for the next release to satiate my desire for “a crude, unmediated celebration of the urges to fight, have sex, and make fire ”.

Samsung Soundbar HT-X810T Due For Release In May

Samsung will release its all in one Soundbar HT-X810T next month. First announced at CES 2008, the all in one wall mountable home theatre system is the perfect accompaniment to a wall mounted LCD TV. The Soundbar itself includes an upscaling DVD player that takes standard DVDs and essentially converts them for top notch HD viewing. A wirelessly operated sub woofer is also included to maximise your audio experience.

Despite being a single unit, the latest Soundbar will deliver an impressive 300W of 5.1 surround sound. Plus, it will deliver the depths of sound that only a dedicated sub can produce making your home theatre enjoyment even more enjoyable.

The DVD Player is an impressive piece of gadgetry goodness too. It upscales virtually any DVD, in a majority of formats (including DivX, WMA, WMV, and all the recordable formats) up to 1080p.

In terms of form and design, the HT-X810T is designed to sit neatly below 40-inch wall mounted televisions and larger so not exactly ideal for your 15 inch portable.

Alas, there’s no real indication of a price as yet, which makes me a little apprehensive but I guess if you have to ask then you probably can’t afford it, right?

Toshiba Portege G810 - More Touchscreen Goodness

You know the old saying – “touch screen phones are like buses, you wait years for one to come along and then a bucket load arrive at once.” The Portege G810 from Toshiba is certainly one of the best looking smartphones money can buy and when it’s released (expected release date is currently the second quarter of this year so any time soon) it will have an abundance of impressive features to boot.

The most recent announcement is that this little beauty will include the latest Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system. Users will enjoy better security features, improved navigation, and increased time saving features thanks to the Windows platform.

Other features include an improved user interface as well as an impressive touch screen display. A 3MP camera and built-in GPS receiver make this an impressive all round handset ideal for business or personal users.

The Portege G810 is Toshiba’s first foray into HSUPA handsets. HSUPA provides handsets and users with improved data transmission speeds and is dubbed as being the saviour of multimedia handheld devices. Realistically, it does mean that handsets can offer a greater number of features and applications without the usual increase in manufacturing price and it will certainly offer improved speeds with a number of those individual applications.

All in all, Toshiba look like they’ve hit the nail on the head with their early HSUPA adventures.

Guitar Hero IV? Well - Sort Of.

Had enough of trying to master Through the Fire and Flames? Can’t quite master the ludicrous intensity of Dragonforce? Perhaps Raining Blood has got you spitting blood? Fear not, for there is an alternative to the incredible and incredibly difficult Guitar Hero III – in the form of the Guitar Hero Handheld Game.

OK, so it’s probably not as intricate as the Xbox360 version and it’s limited to ten songs but if you fancy yourself as a guitar hero now you’ve conquered Slash et al then this will amuse you for a few hours. The principle is clearly “based” around that of the incredibly popular gaming series with note sliding down the electronic fret board display. The aim is also to hit the notes in sequence and in time.

The guitar folds down so you can carry it with you when you next go busking down the main street. The ten songs include classics like Smoke on the Water and Heart Shaped Box. It’s also a whole lot cheaper than any of the Guitar Hero games. In all honesty, though, it does miss the Live experience of playing battles against your mates and trying to master co-op titles. Still, it’s pretty cool nonetheless.

MySpace Adds Karaoke To Its Features

MySpace – never a website to shy away from trying new things – is launching a MySpace karaoke service. The new site, released on Tuesday and found at ksolo.myspace.com enables users to sing along to any of their favourite hits. This move comes in light of the recent purchase, by MySpace’s parent company News Corp of the karaoke website ksolo.com.

The unique blend of the karaoke feature and MySpace music uploading means that registered users will also have the chance, should they desire that chance, to upload their efforts to the MySpace site where it can be viewed and laughed at by the community members.

MySpace is one of the largest social networking or social media sites on the Internet. It is largely geared around a community that listens to, creates, and shares music. With many an unsigned band using MySpace to highlight their own flavour of tunes, the site isn’t a stranger to bad music.

You might be surprised to learn (at least I was) that kSolo is only one of a large number of karaoke sites on the Internet. Electronic Arts owns SingShot and Yahoo! Owns Bix. However, this amalgamation of kSolo and MySpace will be the first time that avid sing-alongers will be able to upload their efforts directly to the site.

Is it really something we should applaud them for?

Home Networking Using Phone, Aerial, And Electrical Wires

Home networks aren’t exactly renowned for being intuitive to set up. In fact success can come at the price of family relationship breakdowns and years of trauma counselling. No matter how plug and play a new bit of kit claims to be, this is rarely the case unless you have the exact computer running the precise software on the appropriate platform with the necessary hardware.

Then, of course, there’s the wireless or ethernet debate. The fact is that wireless networks are more convenient unless you have one of those peculiar homes that uses walls as a form of partition between rooms.

In all honesty, the ways of wireless home networks have improved markedly in recent years and they look set to improve a little bit more. Four major manufacturers (Panasonic, Intel, Texas Instruments, and Infineon to be exact) have waged war on the current wireless networking setup.

The aim is to create a simple and enjoyable experience for everybody that wishes to network their home appliances. They want to do this by introducing a standard that uses the existing wires already installed in your home. Your aerial coaxial cables, electric wiring, and phone wires could take the place of precariously balanced wireless routers that are positioned in the optimal position away from electrical items, bluetooth devices, and elevated at a suitable height.

The new super group predict that the first items using this standard will be available for purchase some time next year.

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