What HD TV should you buy? This one......

If its time to replace your television then this should be what you buy. Panasonic have released a range of Plasma TV's and monitors that 1920 x 1080 resolution. there are three models in the range 65" (US) 58"(US) are the biggest but i don't recommend these, there pixel density is to low for panels of this size. The 50" (UK/US) is great and would be a good buy if you are seated between 3.5 meters away to 6 meters. there haven't been many plasmas available before with this resolution, pioneer is the only other one and is great but is twice the price of the Panasonic.



For those of you that are closer there is a 42" available and it still has a Full HD resolution of 1920x1080. This is great news because in a 42" size they have managed to squeeze in 2,073,600 pixels. That's a great achievement for Panasonic because there is no other manufacturer doing it right now.

Panasonic TH50PZ700

RR £2800 / $4000

Panasonic TH42PZ700

RR £2100 / $2500

Comic-Con 2007

Comic-Con 2007 is finally here. One of the biggest pop culture events of the year takes over the San Diego Convention Center Thursday, July 26th. The convention will last four days and hits on just about everything including comics, movies and video games. Now in its 38th year, Comic-Con continues to grow exponentially! In fact over 120 thousand people are expected to attend this years festivities.

Let the Games Begin:
The video game industry as started to realize the potential for Comic-Con. Developers have started offering game trailers and show panels. We are expecting to get a look at several PSP and PS3 games. SCEA will demonstrate SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Tactical Strike and The Eye of Judgment. And Foundation 9 Entertainment will be there with Sonic Rivals 2 for PSP.

Foundation 9 Entertainment will also demonstrate Godzilla Unleashed for the Wii, as well as The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 for the DS.

Microsoft will also show off some of its upcoming games. And as an added bonus, it has teamed up with Warner Brothers to put game, movie and television trailers, celebrity interviews and DC comic themes on Xbox Live Marketplace. The first two themes will be Superman and 300. They'll hit the Marketplace on Thursday. It also looks like Supernatural, Superman Doomsday, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Babylon 5 will all be hitting the Marketplace as new paid content.

PC Gamer and Maximum PC will be holding hourly Unreal Tournament 3 tournaments, marking the first time that the upcoming Midway game will be playable to the public.

"Red Ring of Death" and other Xbox news

Red Ring of death
Well, it looks like Microsoft is getting closer to acknowledging there is a serious hardware flaw with the Xbox 360. The company announced early this month that it is extending the warranty coverage for 360 owners by one year. That means the warranty is now good for three years. But there is a catch. The warranty only covers hardware failures. That means when you call the Xbox support line you need to stress that you got three flashing red lights. If you don't you wont get your Xbox serviced for free. For those that don't know the problem seems to be surrounding the consoles cooling system. Apparently the consoles are overheating causing the systems to breakdown. Microsoft says any customer who has paid for repairs will get a refund in 10 to 12 weeks. (End of September) Microsoft is not releasing to many details about the refunds, so it look like you'll need to keep track of that and make sure you get your money back.

Damaged Discs
The "Red Ring of Death" isn't the only problem for Microsoft. The company is also getting some flack over the console damaging games. Two people filed a lawsuit against Microsoft earlier this month in California. Christine Moskowitz and Dan Wood claim the Xbox 360 console scratched the game discs, making them unusable. They are asking for $5 Million in damages. It also looks like the two are trying for a class action lawsuit. If they win it could mean a serious blow to Microsoft.

In case your wondering, Microsoft does have a Disc Replacement Program in place. If one of your discs is damaged you can get a new copy. However it only applies to games where Microsoft is the publisher. A list of games available for replacement is below. You will have to print, fill out and send in this program form to get your games replaced. Delivery takes about 2 weeks.

Games available for replacement:
Crackdown™
Fuzion Frenzy 2
Gears Of War®
Halo® 2
Kameo™: Elements of Power™
Ninety Nine Nights™
Perfect Dark Zero™
Project Gotham Racing® 3
Viva Piñata™
Xbox Live® Arcade Unplugged Vol. 1

Xbox live content for europe

Good news for those of you living in Europe. On the 24th of August you'll be able to use the Xbox Live Marketplace to get movies & television that are currently only available in USA. This is great news if your into High Def content. It will give you an alternative to SKY HD which is the only real way to get high def content in Europe right now.

There is a down side. The standard hard disc drive size will not hold a lot of HD content as a movie can be 20GB. If your planing on using this facility a lot i advise you invest in an Xbox 360 Elite it has a 120GB hard drive and a HDMI picture output.

Our Favourite Windows Smart phone

After much study and exploration I have finally found what I think is the best PDA phone on the market. Zenum Opus is a small Swiss manufacture who is taking on the big boys with the Opus model.

Key feature that made my mind up:

• Windows Mobile 6 pro Operating system (OS)
• Sleek design with full keyboard that is all not hidden away or is onscreen
• Bluetooth = yes
• wifi (b and G (on a mobile is good)) = yes
• camera = yesmini SD card not micro
• GPRS = yes (class 10 which is quite a quick version=36kbps down)

Halo 3 Coop, is it going to happen?

Reports in a game magazine have cause some panic over whether Halo 3 will have online co-op play. Well, Bungie finally hit on the issue during this weeks "Bungie Weekly Update."

All that said, EGM doesn’t really know whether or not Halo 3 will ship with online co-op, only Bungie knows. The only thing they did know is that co-op was available for split-screen and System Link. As we approach the tail end of development, we will have a clearer picture of whether or not that online
feature will be included. Assuming either way would be foolish at this time. We
will say more when we feel it’s prudent. Because that’s how we roll.

Frankie from Bungie.net
So it looks like the question surrounding online co-op hasn't been answered yet. We'll keep you posted on any developments.
Halo 3