Amazon Kindle vs Sony Daily Edition

Well, Amazon’s Kindle has been out for a while now, and it seems to be hugely popular amongst those who love to read.  And with the ability to download books from Amazon to the Kindle now available with Amazon’s 3G model, Amazon seem to have the market sewn up, right?

AmazonKIndle 2

I mean, let’s be honest, the Kindle looks cool.  The fonts look crisp and smooth, the interface is pretty well laid out (I have issues with the next/previous page keys) and for geeks, it really does look a little like a PADD out of Star Trek.  But wait, there is one problem with this comparison – the PADD was touch screen.  The Amazon Kindle has no touch screen.  I love devices with touch screens, and this along the bad layout of the previous/next keys then I am not sold on the Kindle.

But there is a new competitor entering the arena.  Now, to be fair, the Sony Reader has been around for quite some time, and they even sell it at my local book store.  But today Sony announced their new edition -  The Daily Edition.

Sony Daily Edition

I mean, just look at it.  It has got great Sony styling all over it, and Sony are offering to drop their proprietary format and support Google’s supported EPUB format, which is open.  The Daily Edition also supports PDF formats and the Word format.  It looks like a pretty nice piece of kit.  But then there is the drawback – the price tag.  The top of the range Daily Edition costs $399.

To be honest, if I was going to buy one of these two devices, I think I would buy the Daily Edition.  I’m a fan of Open Source and the Kindle supports Amazon’s locked down format, whereas the Daily Edition supports open formats.  And with Project Guttenberg offering 30,000 books, a lot of them in PDF format, as well as all the books Google will be offering, plus Sony are going to be hooking up with a partner service to offer the same books that they offer libraries.

Extract Preview

Now there aren’t a lot of movies out there about work.  There is the revenge of 9 to 5, I suppose Cocktail is kind of about work, and vaguely so is Jerry Maguire.  But Extract places the lead role to the boss.

I must admit I have a rollercoaster relationship with Mike Judge.  I loved Beavis and Butthead, I tried to like King Of The Hill and I’ve never seen any of his films.  But Extract sounds really quite good!

The premise is that the boss of a flavour extract factory has a wife who is obsessed with reality TV and if he doesn’t get home before she puts her “sweatpants” on, then he won’t be getting any action.  So he seeks out the advice of a slacker friend, who tells him he needs to experiment and push his comfort zones.  He does and this leads to problems at his factory with the workers – which in turn leads to an accident at the factory which injures several workers.  To keep the factory going, the boss hires temps, one of which he falls for.  To give him a chance at getting in with the girl, he hires a womaniser to clean his pool, in the hope that he’ll seduce his wife, thus giving him the perfect reason to sleep with his temp.  All this works out fine until his temp tells him that she has absolutely no interest in him whatsoever.  Which leaves him with the problem of his wife being with a womaniser…

To me, the plot is a little silly, but I’ve heard worse.  And it does sound like it has good comedy potential.  And as much as he gets slated for his films, I have always enjoyed Ben Affleck films, and I think this one could be pretty good too!

Phillip Pullman To Write Alternative History Of Christ

Now, I have to say that as a Christian for over 10 years, this story irked me a little bit.  However, unlike a lot of my Christian brethren, I am tolerant of other people’s views.  But there are several pieces of this which annoy me no end.  First of all the title “The Good Man Jesus And The Scoundrel Christ”.  Well, that is just a cheap shot.  How about we call it The God Delusion – Children’s Edition?

Then there is the timing.  Pullman is planning to release this book at Easter.  Uh huh.  There is another cheap shot right there.  As an Athiest, I expect Phillip Pullman thinks it’s funny to put out an Athiest book at Easter.  That’s ok, that’s fine.  But would be find an attack on himself so funny on a significant day of his life?  Maybe if someone smashed all the windows in his house on his birthday?

According to Pullman, St Paul wrote the story of Christ, using “The Good Man” Jesus as a basis for a character in a story.  He claims he was a creative genius of the first class.  He really must have been, because this “Scoundrel” Jesus came up with a lot of factual information which he couldn’t possibly have proven in his time.  Stars and grains of sand come to mind.

However, regardless of how much Phillip Pullman makes from this little jaunt, his publishing company are more than earning their money.  The publisher’s spokesperson said that Pullman has written a book of genuine importance, and that it is an ingenious retelling of a story.  He also claims it strips Christianity bare and makes people question their faith.

Sadly, I don’t think it will.  I think it will cause a generation of children to say “Wow…the guy who wrote His Dark Materials said Jesus is a fairy story.  It must be true”.

Reading And Leeds Festival 2009 Review

So, like so many other people, I didn’t get to attend The Reading And Leeds Festival 2009, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the music.

Radiohead played a barnstormer of a set. Everything In It’s Right Place was a masterpiece performed live and made for a great finishing song. I think the crowd reaction summed it up perfectly. Everyone with their hands in the air, cheering. And the light show on stage was pretty awesome too.

Another fantastic band I got to see were The Kings Of Leon. I have had a rollercoaster ride with this band. I used to like them, then went off them, but now I am back to being a fan once again. Use Somebody was just an amazing song live. And from the crowd singing along to the song almost as loudly as the band, I am guessing they agreed.

I also got to check out one of my favourite bands of all time. Placebo. And they absolutely rocked it. Ok, so they don’t have the edge they had in the 90s, but they are still out there making fantastic music. Although even being a diehard Placebo fan for almost 15 years – I still say Battle For The Sun is not a great song and is too repetitive. This being said, the crowd seemed to like the band and the music, even Battle For The Sun, so it just goes to show that despite people leaving the band, they’ve still got it in spades.

Then there was La Roux. Now, I do have to admit being ever so slightly in love with the singer from La Roux, and yes, I do distinguish a difference between the singer and the fact that they ARE a band. It’s just that the guy who is involved in the band doesn’t like publicity. Understandable. Bulletproof was amazing, and slightly comical as the crowd sung the first verse or so far before La Roux, who then decided to play the crowd at their own game and belted out the lyrics. Fair play young lady. I will also admit to really liking the electro-style they play. Suits me down to the ground.

So there you have it, my very brief review of Reading And Leeds Festival 2009. Who knows, maybe next year I’ll get to go!

Guitar Hero 5 Review

So, Guitar Hero has been around since 2004, and there have already been 5 games.  That if you’re not including Guitar Hero Aerosmith and Guitar Hero Metallica.  And of course the catch up release – Guitar Hero Greatest Hits.  So what can we expect from Guitar Hero 5?  Is it worth buying?  Or should you just download a ton of new tunes for Guitar Hero World Tour?

Well, for a start, Guitar Hero 5 has got 89 new songs.  So if you need more songs, maybe Guitar Hero 5 could be the best way to get them?  Plus as always, you can buy the Game+Guitar pack, which might be a cheap way to get a new guitar and new songs if you need both.

But then there is also Party Mode.  Party Mode could be the killer feature of Guitar Hero 5.  The idea is that you can use Guitar Hero as your own rock jukebox.  But if you hear a song you love, you can just in and begin playing it.  And you can’t fail, so it’s the perfect way for friends to begin playing Guitar Hero even if they’ve never played before.

Another really cool feature is backwards compatibility.  You can import up to 35 of your songs from Guitar Hero World Tour into Guitar Hero 5.  It’s not free and will cost about 280 Microsoft Points.  Plus you can import all the songs you’ve downloaded for Guitar Hero World Tour.

In Career Mode, you will now be able to download your Avatar from the Xbox 360 into the game.  I’m not so sure this is a good idea.  A cartoony character jumping around on stage.  Could be interesting to see if they also implement this on the Wii.  It’s a possibility because the two styles are kinda similar!

Another change to Career Mode is that you won’t earn money.  These have been replaced by challenges.  You get five challenges per song, as well as the normal “out of 5 stars” measure.  These include how far your note streak goes – 120 getting you a gold and over 300 getting you diamond.  The one major flaw with all of this is that the songs are keyed into the instruments.  Guitarists won’t get much from drum heavy songs.  Vocalists won’t get a lot from instrumentals.  So you’re going to have to become a jack of all trades in the band!

A great progression in the series is that you now have all the songs unlocked from the start, you don’t have to unlock them from the career mode.  This is great for someone like me who wants to play the songs without having to beat the sometimes insanely hard duels in career mode.

In conclusion, I think this is going to be a great game.  You can jump in, just play, the songs are just waiting for you and jump out when you’re done.  Some complain that rhythm games are getting old, I disagree.  I’d love to be able to play guitar but my fingers are too big for the strings.  The Guitar Hero franchise lets me belt out songs like a rock star.  Long may the series continue!

SummerSlam 2009 Review

Ok, so, Summerslam has been and gone. In my mind, it’s one of the big Pay Per View events. I watched it as a kid, and I continue watching it now.

So, the Dolph Ziggler vs Rey Mysterio match was a great example to me why the WWE could be coming back. Let’s be honest – Dolph Ziggler is the 21st century Mr Perfect. Looks like him and acts like him. The difference being that Mr Perfect would have trounced Rey Mysterio. The WWE does need something akin to the X Division – somewhere the high fliers can show their stuff. In my mind, the wrong person won.

Then there was the MPV vs Jack Swagger match. What can I say? Why is MVP still in employment at the WWE? The Ballin’ move or whatever it’s called is ridiculous. Even worse than The People’s Elbow. Jack Swagger is a decent wrestler with decent moves. He should have won. For me, he’s one of the stronger people in the WWE and if he was made a face for longer than 5 minutes, could be the 21st century Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

Now, this is probably going to make me unpopular, but I really like the team of Jericho and Big Show. I’ve always liked Chris Jericho and I was glad when he came back. And I really like his new persona. Same with Big Show, I’ve always felt he was underused. Cryme Tyme, what can I say? for me, they’re in the same catagory as MVP. They had their shot, their gimmick is idiotic, and let’s be fair – Jericho is a former heavyweight champion, Big Show is a powerhouse, Cryme Tyme should never have been their PPV opponents.

I was really looking forward the the Kane vs Khali match. I was disappointed beyond belief. What is it with the WWE? Kane is one of their most loyal stars, and they make him look like an idiot week in week out. Listen up WWE, I want a return of Kane The Monster, not Kane The Jobber. The match was stupid. It revolved around Khali’s “translator”. Damnit, return to managers like Jimmy Hart and Bobby Heenan.

But then there were the main events. DX vs The Legacy. Awesome match. HHH and HBK were on form, and The Legacy have a very promising future. I see them as a modern Edge and Christian. And DX, well, DX are just awesome. And HBK’s finishing Sweet Chin Music was just amazing. I love it that he’s now using it out of the blue, although unlike most, his theatrics for his finisher are worthwhile and believable.

The William Regal vs Christian match was disgusting. It was the embodiment of what is wrong with the WWE. The bell rang earlier than normal, no finisher-pin combo is that effective, and no self respecting hardcore champion would finish a match that quickly. I hated the entire second the match lasted.

And it was the same for the Cena vs Orton match. I don’t care who wins in a match like that. Yes Orton cheated all over the place, but you want a heel to cheat. And get away with it. All those restarts just devalued the brand, the superstars and the match in general. Maybe this is why Lillian Garcia got fired. As someone said – how did she get those messages so quickly? Besides, I hate Cena anyway. I think he’s all show and little ability. Yes he’s strong, but he oversells his matches to the point of theatrics.

But for me the high point was the CM Punk vs Jeff Hardy match. Not sure either man deserves the heavyweight title, but they have it, so I roll with it. Hardy was amazing, CM Punk was mediocre, but then I think he needed to upsell Jeff Hardy’s end of the career, even if it is just temporary.

So, that’s it for my first posting, and for my first review! I hope you enjoyed it!