Gran Turismo 5 Prologue images from Famitsu magazine.

Japan's very respected gaming magazine and a major source of gaming news from the land of the rising sun, Famitsu, is featuring 5 pages of car images from the upcoming Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for the PS3. I have simply copied the scans and posted them here for your viewing pleasure.

From the images, the details on the cars are simply stunningly detailed and beautiful, and this makes me really anticipating for the this game and for the fully fleshed GT5. As a teaser taster to the full blown fifth iteration of the Gran Turismo game, this GT5 Prologue will only feature several tracks, Sony will release this preview game of sorts in October to the Japanese stores.

GT5 Prologue will give players a taste of the GT5, featuring an in-car view (a first in the series), 40 cars and 4 courses (with 8 layouts), offline version allowing you to win money to buy cars, 12-16 cars on track in full 1080p display (!), online racing with "Home" integration and a fully user customizable menu page called My Page. However, the ability to tune the cars are not within this game.

As an incentive for players to buy the GT5 Prologue in October instead of waiting for the full game sometime early 2008, all monies earned in GT5 Prologue will be transferable to the full GT5 for you to have a head start. Cool.

No news the actual price for GT5 Prologue, nor of releases on other regions were announced, so if you could read Japanese, be ready for to get the games when it hits MY shores sometime in October.

No price cuts for Asian PS3

Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong have indicated that there will be no price adjustment for the 60GB PS3, nor any 80GB versions of the PS3 will be made available outside of Korea have been planned.

It now seems that only North America (US and Canada) enjoy the US$100 price cut, as well as having the new 80GB version. However, for European and Aussie markets, a new "value pack" bundle consisting of 60GB PS3 console, two sixaxis controller and two games, Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm (games may vary from region to region), will be available for the same retail price of the current standalone PS3.

Again, no news of this "value pack" being made available for the Asian market. If it does, will it mean that I can get the PS3 "value pack" with two controllers and two games for SG$799??

Microsoft announced price cut for Xbox360 HD-DVD add-on.

On July 26th 2007 during the San Diego: Comic-Con International (SDCC), Microsoft announced a US$20.00 price cut for the Xbox360 HD-DVD add on. The effective selling price from Aug 1st will be US$179.00, from existing US$199.00. If you bought the HD-DVD add on before Sept 30th, you will be entitled to get 5 free HD-DVD from a list of 15 titles, whoop-de-doo.

I dont believe that this will affect prices in MY in anyway, but still something to bargain for if you do decide to buy it. Point to note that this Xbox360 HD-DVD add-on only outputs 1080i instead of the max 1080p like standalone HD-DVD players, or even blu-ray players and the PS3.

PS. I also don't think this is the rumored US$50 drop for the Xbox360.

6 million units of PS3s sold globally.

During Sony Australia's "Experience More" event, Sony have mentioned that the Australian market have bought a total of 64,000 units of PS3. It was also revealed that the PS3 have now sold over 6 million units globally.

This mean that Sony PS3 is currently last in the "next gen" console race, behind second placed Nintendo Wii at 9.2 million units sold and current leader Microsoft Xbox360 at 11.6 million units sold.

Sony's OLED TVs.

Way back early in year 2004, Sony announced of mass production of OLED displays. This year, Sony have been showing off their 27in, yet to be priced announced, OLED TVs during a Tokyo Show in April. Sony have again put the OLED TVs on display during Sony Australia's annual consumer electronics trade event, known as The Sony Experience.

Materials in an OLED display emit light when an electrical current is applied. Because of their luminescent nature, OLED displays don't require a backlight, consume less power and can result in thinner screens than LCDs with much brighter screens. Boasting darkness contrast ratios of 1,000:1 (translate to Dynamic Contrast of 1,000,000:1 !!), 1080P output, 180 degrees all round viewing angle, less than 0.01ms response time and 100% NTSC color reproduction, these OLED TVs are to die for.

Unfortunately, its expected that the prices are also to die for, as only prototype models are being display. Sony have not committed to any street date for the OLED TVs, but have hinted that they may hit the market as early as in 2008. It will take mass acceptance of the technology as well as many years for the prices to reach affordable levels.

Nintendo Wii Top First Party games.

In the same financial report released yesterday, Nintendo had also provided worldwide software sales numbers for major Wii and DS titles. It seems that approximately seven Wii and 32 DS games have topped the million mark around the globe.

These are the Wii games that have exceeded the one million mark:-

Wii Sports - 8.32mil (includes those bundled in with hardware)
Wii Play - 4.49mil
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 3.61mil
WarioWare Smooth Moves - 1.82mil
Super Paper Mario - 1.25mil
Mario Party 8 - 1.03mil

Nintendo's latest Financial Results released.

Yesterday, 25th July 2007, Nintendo Japan released its "Consolidated Results for the Three Months Ended June 2006 and 2007, and Year Ended March 2007", essentially meaning their first quarter (April - June 2007) financial results in mixed and very loosely translated English (hahaha...)

In this report, the cumulative Wii hardware sales now stand at 9.27 million worldwide (2.95 mil in Japan, 3.81mil in Americas, 2.51mil in others territories), while cumulative DS (including DS and DS Lite) sales are at a whopping 47.27 million (18.11mil in Japan, 14.14 mil in Americas and 15.03mil in other territories). That's a lot of hardware sold, and confirming that the Wii and DS is selling like hotcakes.

Nintendo had previously had forecast Wii hardware shipments of 14 million for this financial year, but it has since revised that number upwards to 16.5 million units. This will mean that Nintendo is expecting the total Wii worldwide installed base to increase to 22 million units by financial year end!

How significant is these set of numbers, especially for Wii? Well, Microsoft said this week that it sold 11.6 million Xbox 360 systems worldwide through June, which would put it at just little more than two million systems ahead of Wii. And given that Microsoft has very little foothold in Japan, where Wii continues to dominate, Nintendo's console could and very likely will become market leader before the end of the year, if not sooner.

So this could also be one of the reasons Microsoft is rumored to announce a USD50 price cut for the Xbox360 (as per previous article).

Rumor: XBox360 will get a price cut??

This has been a long rumor, getting hotter after Sony's USD100 price cut for PS3's to be discontinued 60GB models.

The Hollywood Reporter recently is citing an unnamed source that seems to think the Xbox 360 is going to get a USD50 drop sometime in August. They go on to say that the pending price drop is because of the traditional sales doldrums during this time of the year (huh?) while other sources have pointed out of the proximity to "Halo 3" being launched in September.

Or it's because Microsoft is trying to revive the "Xbroken" with a price cut, as they are very close to being thumped by Nintendo Wii as the console market leader? We will know if this price cut is indeed a fact come August. I will not be surprised at all if Microsoft does indeed cut the Xbox prices to face up to competition, from Wii as well as PS3.

How this will affect prices in MY is anyone's guess as even Asian PS3s have not got any price cut announcement yet.

Saving your iPhone battery life.

For those of you out there who are absolutely rich and have landed yourself an iPhone, Apple's recently posted a completely obvious guide to getting the most out of your iPhone's battery lifespan. As an iPhone battery replacement will cost you to the tune of USD80 a pop, the guide is rather simple but very effective.

The trick is to putting your iPhone to sleep with the sleep / wake button when you're not using it. According to Apple, "You will still be able to receive calls and text messages while it is locked, but nothing happens if you touch the screen."

Very cool indeed. And now you have been informed.

PS3 Firmware 1.90 released.

For those of you that have a PS3, Sony have released the lastest firmware update for it, Version 1.90, which includes the following features/system updates (from the Playstation Blog):-

• Customization of the XMB wallpaper with your photos, whichi is one of the top three requests submitted to the blog's contact form. When viewing a photo, simply bring up the options screen by pressing the triangle button and selecting "set as wallpaper" from the options displayed. Additionally, you can now change the order of the games displayed under the game icon on the XMB.
• 
  Another new feature focuses on added communication elements: When you're sending messages to friends on PLAYSTATION Network, you can now use emoticons. These new bunch of emoticons can be easily accessed from the virtual keyboard. Also, another cool addition is, when an avatar is displayed during voice/video chat, the avatar will move in response to audio.
• 
  On the more technical side, you can now play AVCHD videos saved on a Memory Stick or digital video camera, and the added ability to upscale audio CD output from your PS3. Now, there are two requirements for this feature: the device you're outputting to must support a sampling frequency of 88.2 kHz or 176.4 kHz, and your PS3 must be connected to that device with an HDMI cable or digital optical cable.
• 
  You can now eject discs using your controller by selecting "Eject Disc" in the options menu after you push the PS button. Several other minor options will be included in 1.90 including a few new display options that will allow you to adjust your display while playing PlayStation, PlayStation2 and Blu-ray movies (1080p 24Hz HDMI output!!).

Of the new features, the best has to be the ability to play AVCHD videos from the memory stick, essentially you can view your HD recorded video directly from the PS3 itself without the need to transfer to DVD media. Next up is the ability to output your blu-ray movie to 1080p 24Hz signals, improving the details and the refresh rate of the screen to remove potential jaggies and motion blur.

Now go and point your PS3 to the PSN for the latest firmware download.

Sharp announces THX certified LCD TVs.

Sharp have announced what seems to be the world's first THX certified LCD TVs to hit the streets, the T Series AQUOS Full-Spec HD 1080p AQUOS LCD TV models in 65V- and 52V-inch screen sizes.

The THX Certified Display Program for home theater certification by THX Ltd means that the LCD TVs are able to replicate the exact visual display as it was filmed, by matching the best levels of brightness and contrast.

The T series offer "Full Spec" HD panel 1920x1080 with 120Hz display rate, 2500:1 contrast ratio, 3 HDMI inputs, DVI-I inputs, I-Link, 5 Japanese D5 imputs and 176 degrees viewing angle.

These build-to-order sets will be available in the Japanese market beginning September 1, 2007 with prices at ¥1,417,500 (RM40,000) for the LV-65TH1 or ¥840,000 (RM23,700) for the LV-52TH1.

Now how can I get my hands on a review unit......

SONY LCD TV KLV40-V300A outputs at 1080P!

I was walking pass a retail electronics store and my eyes came upon this LCD TV. This store has a PS3 running demos of blu-ray movies to show off Sony's LCD TVs, and I love to walk in to see the blu-ray movies in full HD 1080P output on Sony's X-series LCD TV.

They had hooked the PS3 directly to Sony's V-series 40in LCD TV today and I had noticed that the movie playing was very sharp (Ultra Violet was playing). When they replayed the movie, I noticed that the output resolution was set at 1080P!! And my eyes nearly jumped out in disbelief, as I knew the V series cant output to 1080P.

Upon very closer inspection, this is the spanking new V-300 series, which replaces the older V200 series. I don't have the specs of the V200, but I know that its considered as the middle range of the LCD TVs from Sony.

The best feature to this V300 series is the ability to run 1080P resolution lines while having a native 1366x768 panel, effectively making it the highest output capable HD panel. Most LCD TVs up to now can only run outputs up to 1080i only, and this means that you no longer have to get a Full HD 1920x1080 panels to get 1080P outputs. This is very significant as Full HD 1920x1080 panels have to be bigger than 46in for you to fully enjoy the details and clarity.

So as the V300 has smaller panels (32 and 40 inches), you can enjoy the smoothness of a 1080P output on these panels. Best of all, the V300 prices are comparable to the older S-series, with 32inch model retailing at RM3999.00, 40inch at RM6,999.00 and the 46in at RM9,999.00 only.

Now if only Sony reps reads this and decides to loan me a review unit....

PS3 price cut only to clear 60GB stocks.

Sony's had announced yesterday that the recent price cut for the USD499 60GB PS3 will only be effective for all its current inventory. As Sony has an estimated 2 - 3 million inventory stocks, its expected to "fire-sale" its inventory within one year.

After Sony made this new announcement, it was clear that they are phasing out the 60GB models and replacing them with the 80GB models. This was similar to them removing the 20GB models from production earlier this year.

As I see it, they are trying to boost up the sales rate for the PS3, while moving to bring production costs lower. This is crucial as they will want to build a bigger user base for them to have keep big named games developers support, as well as to have exclusive games to the PS3. As staunch PS2 exclusive games developers have started developing games for the Xbox360 (games like GTA4 and Devil May Cry 4 comes to mind), Sony will be very eager to have a bigger user base to keep having exclusive games (Metal Gear Solid 4 is exclusive to PS3).

Having a bigger user base will also help boost demand for blu-ray products, which will lower production cost as demands increases. At the same time, as the PS3 is the cheapest blu-ray movie player in the market, increases in PS3 sales will equate to more blu-ray movie demands and that keeps the movie studios happy to stay exclusive to blu-ray.

My expectations is that once the current 60GB inventory have depleted, they would have gotten better and is producing cheaper 80GB models. By then, they may announce the 80GB to be selling at USD499, yet another USD100 price cut. I expect this announcement to come during E3 2008, or in Fall of 2008, which is the traditional shopping period for the holidays season.

Let me be the 1st in MY to predict this to happen, wanna quote me as saying it??

Also, please note that the 60GB price cut and the 80GB PS3s mentioned in this article is only for the North America region (US and Canada) only. No price cuts have been announced for PAL regions like Europe or Australia, or even in Asia. Will post the news if Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong decides to announce any new price or the 80GB PS3 Asian version.

LG Shine KE970 review.

LG Shine KE970, I had checked out this phone when it was just released, but had not the time to do a full review. Here it is, better late than never.

At 99.8 x 50.6 x 13.7 mm and 118 grams weight, LG's KE970 "Shine" does indeed, err... shine. With full metal body, the phone is slightly on the heavier side, but fits in my pants pockets without much bulge either. Sporting a clean face with minimal buttons, the first thing that strikes you that the mirror display is indeed very... errr... shiny (geez, pun is intended). With the phone not active, you will use it for checking your hairdo frequently, if you are as vain as I am.

The face is completed with two buttons and a roller bar at the bottom, with two touch sensitive buttons on its side. Sliding up the phone proves simple as the slide is very firm, but you will find that you may smudge the mirror face very easily. The keypad hidden underneath is a Razr inspired metal etched type, which are big enuff to accomodate larger male fingers. Scrolling is achieved via the roller bar, but its a one line per roll and not auto scroll if u hold down the roller bar, strange.

With 2.2 inches, the native of 320x240 is brilliant indoors, but can be a little difficult to see under the sun, with the screen being under the brilliant but smudge and oil magnet of the faceplate. Colors are lively, and the screen make taking pictures using the onboard 2MP camera a breeze.

Pictures taken on this phone is of acceptable quality for a 2MP camera phone. It uses a Schneider Kreuznach lens, autofocus, an LED photo light and a very small portrait mirror all at the back. Some of the camera's more advanced settings include the ability to adjust the focus mode, set a timer, add a color effect, adjust the white balance and even take multiple pictures in quick succession. You can also use the camera to shoot videos with digital zoom only available on this mode (no zoom in photo mode). Strange.

Shine has a built in music player supports MP3, WAV, AAC, AAC+ and AAC++ files, with an equaliser and even shuffle mode. Shine has 48MB built in memory and is also shipped with a 1GB micro SD card for more storage space for your photos and music. LG has provided an inline remote with a 3.5mm jack adapter should you prefer to use your expensive headsets for your listening pleasure. Very well thought of LG. But no A2DP stereo bluetooh support. This tri-band EDGE (no 3G) phone also has flight mode, document viewer, as well as a cool world clock that displays a globe. Battery talk time is at 3 hours, and 280 hours standby period.

Summary: Cool phone to show off to, but smudges way too easy to maintain its pristine look. Has very standard phone feature, but at RM1399, its a very cool phone to show off to.

Rating: 8/10

Monk Season 5 and Eureka Season 1 available now.

The latest DVD box sets to arrive here is Monk Season 5 (US release June 26th) and Eureka Season 1 (US release July 3rd)

Monk Season Five DVD set.


Adrian Monk (Tony Shaloub)is an obsessive compulsive disorder patient but is also a brilliant detective. He works as a free lance consultant to the San Francisco PD, who are represented by Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) and Lt. Randall Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford). Monk's personal assistant was up till Season 3 was Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram left after a contract dispute) and was replaced by Natalie Teager (Traylor Howard).

Tony Shaloub carries the main character so well that he was nominated for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series every year since 2003 (he lost 2004 to Kelsey Grammer in Frasier) up to 2006. He is well supported by Ted Levine and the rest of the regular cast, who after 5 seasons have nailed the comedic timing very well. The plot and the reveals are done very well throughout the five seasons, and its still holding strong in this latest season.

Monk Season Five DVD set comes in four discs, includes all the 16 episodes of S5. This set has a bonus inclusion of the pilot episode of Psych (of a bogus psychic detective that still solves cases), which Season One DVD set was also released at the same as Monk Season Five DVD set (yet another series I look forward to having on DVD).





Eureka Season One DVD set.



Eureka is a small secret town somewhere in the Pacific Northwest of US. Built by President Truman with the help of Albert Einstien and other great minded scientist, this place is the residential for the nation's greatest thinkers, the "über-geniuses" working on the next era of scientific achievement, where they be able to live and work in a supportive environment. This town would never appear on any map and be unknown to the public, except those that were authorized to learn of it. Until Deputy US Marshall Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) gets pulled in one of the many town mishaps, and eventually settles down as Eureka's sheriff.


This series have gathered much favorable review stateside, and is Sci-Fi Channel's top rated show in it's 14 years history. I have yet to view the episodes, so I wont be able to post any personal comments on the series yet.

Eureka Season One DVD sets ships in 3 DVDs containing all 12 broadcast episodes, as well as some commentaries on some episodes.

E3 2007: Guncon 3

Namco shows off its new peripheral, Guncon 3, for Time Crisis 4. This light gun is designed to be used with HDTV by deploying 2 IR lights mounted on the TV (you can place it on top). Surprise!! This is exactly how the Wii-mote works... so it seems that Nintendo did get the formula right! However, Guncon 3 has the placements of the IR lights at the left and right ends of your display unit, so if you have a huge HDTV or projector screen, you will have to stretch it very far.

New to the Guncon 3 is the added prong on the left side, making it two handed shooting action, again like the Wii Zapper. The main difference is that the Guncon 3 has the analog stick and two trigger button, essentially mapping six Sixaxis buttons to it (but without the Sixaxis' motion sensors).

While this seems comfortable for right handed gamers, I am wondering if Namco will issue a left handed Guncon 3 to cater to left handed players?? If they don't, they will alienated a small portion of gamers out there. While I still think that Nintendo got it right with the Zapper's from back setup, which will cater to both lefties and righties.

Missing from it is the "kick-back" slider similar to the arcade action, which was replicated in the Guncon 1 (and from 3rd party manufacturers like Hori). Incidentally, Time Crisis 4 does not support any force feedback either.

Due to the sensitivity of the Guncon in the west, Guncon 3 for US and Europe will be in bright orange (as per pic above) while Japan gets the black unit. No price was announced during E3, and no mention of any bundle with Time Crisis 4 either, although I fully expect a standalone SKU as well as a Time Crisis 4 bundle with Guncon 3 (refer to TC1 for PS1 and TC2 for PS2).

E3 2007: Two new Wii accessories revealed.

During Nintendo's conference during E3, two spanking new accesories for Wii was revealed.

First is the Wii Balance Board (name not final). This aerobics step and scale-like device uses gyroscpoic sensor technology to detect your weight, movement and balance while standing on the board. This board will be shipped with the newly announced game Wii Fit, that encourages players (if you can classify users of Wii Fit as gamers, rather than exercisers.... haha) to have cardiovascular workout. Wii Fit will be available in Japan this holiday season, and in US sometime 2008.

Next up was the Wii Zapper (again name not final). A gun accessory for Capcom's Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (an on-rails shooter coming out soon), but the 2 handed, tommy gun like attachement came as a surprise. The Zapper is essentially a device to house the wii-mote and the nunchuk attachment into one device.

E3 2007: Metal Gear Solid 4

Metal Gear Solid 4, the game that is highly anticipated by gamers for the PS3, has its latest trailer shown during Sony’s E3 conference. Presented by Hideo Kojima himself, who informs the viewer that "I safely made it to E3.”

As Metal Gear Solid celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, Kojima announces that MSG4 will be the series’ grand finale and his last work on the series. The story of Snake will end, as well as all the plots, mysteries and other story elements wrapped up and concluded in this fourth and final installment. Kojima even stresses that he will be using his vast knowledge and experience in creating games to make this the worthy end to the series.

Kojima continues, "The game is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month -- and while I've been on the series for 20 years, this game will be the grand finale for the series. The story of Snake will end and this will be my last take on this series. All the mysteries, plotlines, and other story points will be revealed." “I'm putting everything I have into MGS4 and today I brought it with me. What we're showing you isn't a trailer, it's the game,” Kojima says, pointing out that while its was a trailer being shown, its running in real time and promises the game that you play “will be in this quality.”

The final announcement is that MSG4 will be released worldwide simultaneously in early 2008, exclusively for PS3. And oh…. the rumours that MSG4 is coming to the Xbox 360 is not true.

E3: PSP re-designed

During Sony's E3 press conference, a new, re-designed PSP was announced.

The new PSP will be 19% slimmer, weigh 33% lighter (190 grams by my estimate), batteries lasts longer (by how much it was not mentioned), and costs the same USD159 (after Aprils price revission). It also will have the ability to output high-quality video, to connect to a TV and thus share their photos and videos via the specific "Display" button on the PSP face. This mean that you can now use the PSP as a portable UMD/MP4 video player and photo display unit.

The new slimmer PSP will be available in September in 2 color versions, Piano Black and Ice Silver. Two new bundle packs were announced too: A PSP Entertainment Pack will include the Ice Silver version, Daxter, the UMD Family Guy collection, a 1GB memory stick, retails for USD199. Star Wars: Battlefront PSP Pack will include the new Battlefront game, Renegade Squadron, and the Ice PSP with Darth Vader printed on the back. And this Star Wars was introduced by Chewbacca on stage, woo hoo...

E3 2007 opened its doors

E3 2007, conducted by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), have opened its doors.

This year's event is being held from July 11 - 13 in Santa Monica, California, is only open to games industry professionals, journalist, and guests of exhibitors. While this has made the visitors to the show lesser, it offers a much closer and intimate view of the companies products being promoted.

I will try to post as much info from the show as I can get, as well as my opinions on its effect on gaming in MY.

Microsoft extending warranty on Xbox360 to 3 years.

Microsoft, publisher and maker of the Xbox 360 gaming consoles, have extended the warranty period of their console to 3 years.

It seems that Microsoft did research on the Xbox360's now infamous "three flashing of red lights" on its console, signalling terminal hardware failure. This research shows that almost 30% of Xbox360s fail (compared to 1% failure rate of Sony's PS3 and Nintendo's Wii), which have prompted Microsoft to improve their parts and production process, as well as allocating a staggering US1 billion to repair the defective units out there globally.

In an attempt to sooth their existing customer base and stop them from switching to PS3 (now at USD499 with reduction of USD100), Microsoft have announced a global extended warranty of three years for all Xbox360 bought, irregardless of the date bought. Meaning that even if you bought the unit since launch day November 22, 2005, you will qualify to have another one year and 4 months extra warranty on your Xbox 360! Moreover, for owners who had paid for repair done on failed Xbox360s will qualify for a full refund of the repair.

While this is very good news for existing and potential new Xbox360 customers, this may not be good news to local gamers. For some of you out there that had bought a modded 360, you are not in luck as this new extended warranty and repair cost refund wont apply to you. Reason being you had voided the warranty of the unit by allowing unauthorised third party to disassemble your 360 to put in a mod chip, and as far as I know, Microsoft is not approving of modding their console.

So there you have it, if you are the few out there in MY that has an original unmodded Xbox360, you can rest easy that your unit now has a 3 year warranty (dated back to the date of purchase) and you can be assured that your unit will be repaired by Microsoft on their own cost if it fails on you. For those of you who had a modded unit, tough luck and buy original next time!

80GB PS3, and price drop for 60GB model

Its official, Sony has announce the news that many fan-boys out there are screaming for. With effect from today 9th July 2007, the 60GB PS3 has been price have been reduced to USD499, that's a USD100 off the launch price.

Also, an 80GB version bundled with Motorstorm have been announced too, and this version will be made available in August (in US) and South Korea (!!). This new version and bundle, as I believe it to be, will be usedto compete head to head versus the Xbox360 Elite, which ships with a 120GB HDD at USD499.

How this will affect the prices here in MY? Well, don't expect a drop in price from the retailers in MY just yet as their stocks are mainly parallel imports, meaning that their prices are fixed cost landed. I wont be waiting holding my breath, as the prices will only drop when the bring in new stocks from US at the new prices. But still, expect the prices to hover in the RM1500 price range sometime after August/September period. Will try to get some news about the Asian version soon (most retail PS3 units in MY and SG version are the Asian version).

I have foreseen the price drop, as the PS3 are not moving off the shelves in US and Sony desperately need to get back into the game. Moreover, their blu-ray movie discs are not getting as spectacular reviews as compared to HD-DVD, and that is hurting the PS3 even more.

With a lower selling price, Sony will take much longer to recover the losses each unit sold, but this will make the units more affordable as a premier gaming machine WITH a 1080p high def blu-ray movie player. With more units sold, game developers will see the PS3 as a viable platform for exclusive games (Liar is the exclusive for PS3 coming out in August). And with more PS3 sold, the demand for Sony's blu-ray movie discs will also increase and more units being sold.

All this translates to good news to consumers, especially if you have been waiting for the PS3 to be more affordable.

Apple's iPhone is out!!

Here comes the latest, hottest and most marketing hyped phone, the iPhone. Its from Apple, the makers of the oh-so-popular iPod, hence the similar naming moniker (!). The 4GB version retails at USD499 while the 8GB version is at USD599 (the same price as a 60GB PS3).

Now before you run out to get to the retail shops to get yourself one, its out in the US only. It requires a 2 year contract with AT&T, and if you dont activate the plan, your iPhone becomes a really expensive brick. And oh.... the ATT&T iPhone SIM card dont work with other GSM phones and vice versa, so you are pretty much stuck with activation.

So here's my take on the phone that has great features, but yet is lacking in some.

iPhone externals:

At 114mm x 61mm x 12mm, its fells right on the hands, and not bulky if placed in the trousers. On the top is an on/off button that doubles as a sleep mode button too. The same button will mute the ringer during an incoming call, while pressing it again will send the call to voicemail. Beside that, there is a recessed 3.5mm jack for the supplied stereo white headphones with button fro receiving calls and built in mic. Bad news as this allows only smaller headphones jacks to fit in the slot, meaning your more expensive Bose headphones may not fit in.

On the side is a volume control rocker as well as a ringer mute button (great for cinema goers), and on the bottom are a pair of speakers and the jack for sync dock or the USB battery charger. On the face, there is only one "home" button, that will bring you back to the top menu, irregardless how deep into the menu you are.

iPhone displays:

At 3.5 inches, the native of 480x320 pixel takes the whole front face of the phone's size translates into brilliant colors, sharp graphics, and fluid movements. Icons for phone menu, mail menu, Safari web browser and iPod functions are lined at the bottom of the menu, while other functions as camera, calculator and others are lined on top.

With no stylus, you handle the iPhone with your fingers which will lead to smudging of the face (much like the LG Prada). With some practice, you will get used to the onscreen keypad/keyboard and tapping numbers and messages will be easy.

iPhone features a multitouch screen that allows you to drag, scroll, slide and zoom (by pinching fingers apart). With built in motion sensors (Apple calls them accelerators), the display will orient itself depending on how you hold the iPhone. And with yet another sensor, the display will shut off when u put it to your ears to take a call.

Very cool stuff when you see it working.

iPhone's features:

iPhone only runs on EDGE for data. Its not even a 3G phone for the price you are paying it for. While it has WiFi support, no 3G means that you cant be using the iPhone for fast internet surfing outside a WiFi area. Which pretty much limits the phone's usage as a PDA or smartphone.

The phone book allows you to have 8 numbers per contact as well as emial and home addresses, as well as photo ID and polyphonic ringtone assignment. Yes, there is no MP3 ringtone feature either. Other standard functions as clock, calculator and notepad are available, but no voice dialling. It also has a document reader on board. It has Bluetooth 2.0 support, as well as SMS and email support for webmails as well as POP3 and IMPA4 servers, but no MMS.

It has a basic 2MP camera with no setting, no flash, no night mode, no self portrait mirror and you cant take videos with the camera, which pretty much limits it to just taking acceptable quality photos.

iPhone has a rated battery life of 8 hours talk time, 24 hours of music playback, 7 hours of video playback, 6 hours on Internet use, with standby time at 10.4 days. However, the battery is not exchangeable which means that you have to charge it every couple of days as you will surely use the multiple functions of the iPhone and not only one all the time.

The battery has an expected lifespan of 300-400 charges, upon which you will need to send it to Apple to change for a fee. I will prefer to have exchangeable batteries coz as a phone, its usually a more crucial part of life than an MP3 player like iPod, so i cant have the iPhone not alive while I drive to the nearest Apple center to have the battery changed.

Apple's Safari web browser works well as it displays webpages in its true form rather than the stripped down WAP format, but Safari does not support Flash or Java. Tap link to open new page, double tap to zoom in and out and moving your fingers around the page lets you pan the page. Very nice.

iPhone's iPod:

Within all the features and functions of the iPhone, the iPod function is the one most talked about. With all the features of a 5th generation iPod like music, video, podcast, playlist and content management via iTunes built in, the iPod function is a very much welcomed addition to the phone as opposed to having a simple media player.

Coupled with the iPhone's multitouch screen, the ablum artwork feature is a welcomed return to the iPod features. Scrolling thru your playlist while seeing the album artwork cover is very satisfying experience, similar to iTune's Cover Flow. Add to this is the ability to play the music via the built-in stereo speakers (although the sound is tinny and distorted) is also a welcomed addition.

Now, as with all features on the iPhone, there are bad news here too. Apple had removed option to drag and drop contents from iTunes library to the iPhone directly. You will be required to sync the phone every time you need new content on your iPhone. This severely limits the user friendliness of the iPod function, as the limited on board memory (4GB or 8GB) is share by the SMS/emails, phone book, photos, music and videos.

It also lacks an external memory support, and for a high end phone cum music player, it lacks A2DP bluetooth stereo support too.

Summary:

If you are looking at the iPhone for the smartphone features, it lacks 3G, replacable battery, MP3 ringtones, and features other mediocre functions. You will be better off with smartphones like O2 or Nokia N95.

If you are looking at it from the iPod features, it lacks the ease of drag and drop, no external memory and no A2DP bluetooth stereo support. You will be better off with the 5th generation iPod or could even wait for Apple to roll out its 6th generation.

However, if you are looking for a gadget that has both features (which will cover the shortcomings mentioned above), Apple iPhone is the heck of a cool looking gadget you will want to get.

Ratings: 7.5/10

For us here in Malaysia, lets see if Apple decides to launch it here in this region, eventually.