Category Archives: Comment

15Feb 2011

What’s the future for gaming consoles?

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With the recent announcement of both the Nintendo 3DS and the Sony NGP consoles, I wonder if these may be the last of their type.

Smartphones are becoming more and more powerful (dual core Android phones are starting to become the “norm” and quad cores are on their way too) and LG’s Optimus 3D is now bringing, ahead of the 3DS, a 3D glasses-free screen to phones.

Powerful processors, 3D screens and games companies lining up to author for them – why will the console be needed in such a phone market?

Sony Ericsson are already bridging this with their announced Xperia Play, a smartphone which can run Android games, but will also run their own branded games and comes with a Playstation style slide-out control pad.

I can’t see this impacting the home console market however as they are expanding away from just purely games to attract to a wider audience. Whilst connected to your TV it makes sense for them to offer further services, such as TV on-demands and film downloads (in fact I’m saving up for a PS3 at the moment for just this reason).

It won’t be long before the only non-console and smartphone gaming will be the various free online poker and bingo sites. And I’m sure it will only be a matter of time before they move to these mediums as well. The PC will probably be relegated to complex-control games such as flight simulators and World of Warcraft.

3D I think, will be a gimmick – particularly the TV-based 3D which requires glasses. As one of the (apparently) 1-in-6 people who can’t see 3D properly anyway (and it gives me a headache, no matter how well it’s done) I’ll never buy in anyway (this from someone who still has a CRT television in his living room).

Having said all that, though, I’m usually rubbish at predictions (this is someone who in the 90′s said that DVDs would never be popular).

07Feb 2011

O2: Our Home Broadband prices are changing to… something

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I’ve just received an email from O2, who provide my home broadband…

Internet use has changed dramatically over the last few years and this is likely to continue. We need to increase our prices so we can still give you the level of service you’d expect from us. From 31 March 2011 Any discount or free period you already have – like a three months free offer – will stay unchanged. You don’t need to do anything, but if you’d like to know more about your options, or want to compare our prices to the market, go to A Best regards Felix Geyr Managing Director, O2 Home and Broadband

No, that abrupt ending isn’t a mistake – they really did end it with “go to A”. Following the link on “A”, however, takes you to a “Price Changes” page on the O2 website.

There it tells you why they’re changing their prices and show a comparison of the cost of other broadband providers. However, at no point in the email or on that page do they tell you exactly what it’s changing to. I guess they want you to guess.

In the end I had to ring O2 to find my account would be the same (an unlimited account, which they don’t provide anymore) but £2 more.

Announcing price increases such as this rarely bring customer praise – indeed, more than likely people would leave as result. So you’d thought it would be handled well. Surely it can’t be that hard?

 

03Feb 2011

Personal Finances

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Image courtesy of Christian Ferrari

As I prepare to meet with my IFA tonight, I like to use my computer to balance my personal finances. In particular, I use Microsoft Money – a product that, sadly, Microsoft stopped updating and selling some years ago.

And it’s a shame because it’s a simple product that’s ideal for the home user. There are alternatives, but they’re aimed mainly at business.

Personally, I balance my budgets by retaining receipts, adding them into Money and then downloading my statement from my bank – Money will then reconcile the two, showing me discrepancies. At a time when identity theft is an issue, this also helps to ensure that nothing is being spent that I don’t know about!

The solution are online providers – this has the added advantage of not having to download your data but, then again, you have to trust the provider with your financial information.

I’ve tried some but few work outside of the US and those that can be configured for the UK often miss key features. The best I’ve found so far is Money Dashboard, but that only lets you view and report on finances – you can’t add any details and perform conciliation.

The best, as far as I can tell, is Mint, but that’s US only at the moment.

If anybody has come across anything that works for the UK market then, please, let me know.

14Jan 2011

Pay As You Go mobile broadband is now preferred to Contract

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Sales figures from the UK mobile broadband comparison site Broadband Expert show, for the first time, that people now prefer Pay as You Go mobile broadband to contract mobile broadband – the split is 53% to PAYG to 47% for contract deals.

Rob Webber, from Broadband Expert has been quoted as saying…

We’ve seen Pay as You Go sales rise sharply since the end of 2008 as customers realise that they only need to pay for the broadband they use and don’t need to enter into a lengthy contract. We expect that this trend will continue over the Christmas period when Pay as You Go mobile broadband and phones typically perform well compared to contract mobile services.  Prepaid mobile broadband makes an ideal gift – especially for the types of people who may not be able to get credit such as the under 18’s or the very old.

I bought a PAYG mobile “dongle” a while ago, as it allows me to access internet on my Netbook if Wifi is not available. So far I’ve only used it so that my wife could use it when she was in hospital after having given birth.

But how does this affect broadband in total (not just mobile broadband)? T-Mobile has stated that  “prepay mobile broadband sales now account for 20% of the market and have been growing at 10% a month for the last three months”.

All of this is very interesting. Personally, right now, I wouldn’t go mobile as my main broadband access if only because it limits me to a single PC.

There are alternatives slowly appearing, however. 3 have their “Mifi” – a wireless router which uses mobile broadband. This unties you, finally, from a landline and having to pay BT those hefty monthly line charges (often more than the broadband itself).

And the proliferation of mobile broadband in the market means that, right now, there’s some great broadband deals to be had.

06Jan 2011

Commercial Breaks – the Death of Imagine

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I came across this today. It’s a BBC programme from the 80′s which documents the computer game business. Of particular note is the death of Imagine Software – all recorded for posterity as the bailiffs turn up.

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