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US Gears Up For Killer Robot Bomb Tech

T1000-esque weapon delivery and civilisation's end, 'just around the corner' claim top boffins.

Good V Evil

New teensy Thinkpad X200.

Airbook.

One is a gorgeous timeless design classic, tried and tested, more or less bulletproof, shockproof and compatible with just about everything.

The other is a Mac.

iPod touch experience notwithstanding, there is only one of these I'd lick all over and take on holiday.  Sorry, Steve.

iRiver takes on Sony

It's fair to say that I am a bit of a fan of iRiver, the Korean manufacturer of MP3/PMP devices.

I own an iRiver H340, which, despite looking like a bit of a brick, is the finest media player I've ever come across.  Compact, pocket sized and above all capable.

Plugged into your PC via it's USB 2.0 port, it becomes 40GB of hard disk space, which you can fill up as you please.  It also has a colour screen, line in recording, a line out jack (which doubles as another headphone jack), picture display, a text viewer (for e-books) and a monster battery which gives around a full day of playback.

Possibly the most extraordinary thing is the firmware, which is upgraded regularly by the company and which actually ADDS capabilities.

The most recent update added playback for .AVI files and the iRiverter app allows you to convert most movie formats (and DVDs) into compatible files.

So, imagine my delight at finding news of the new G10 on Gizmodo.

Sadly it uses Windows, has a capacity of 4 or 8GB.  But isn't it pretty?

A possible PSP competitor?

Infinity In Pictures

This is gorgeous.

Scotland On Sunday

After a couple of conversations with journalists from the Scotland on Sunday, it may be that your humble narrator will be in there this weekend.  Twice.  Can my own talk show be far behind? I am after all nicer, funnier, more interesting and a better gamer than the competition.

The first conversation was as self proclaimed expert on the games industry in Scotland -- which at least has a tenuous link to reality.  I've at least been there and done that.

The second however was commenting upon DRM and piracy in connection with the latest Hollywood blockbuster/s.

This conversation was for the most part ripped entirely and mostly unashamedly from Cory Doctorow's numerous postings on Boing Boing.  The initial question was "What can the big studios do to protect themselves from piracy?"

After about 45 minutes of passioned argument, I think I left the journalist in no doubt as to the iniquity and inherent pointlessness of the DRM systems used today (noting the Sony rootkit in passing), the ridiculous idea of enforcing an out of date business model, when any form of media which can be digitally encoded can be shared around the world and why treating all of your customers as crooks (or potential crooks) is not really the basis of decent customer care.

As the paper's unlikely to add any sort of attribution, I thought I'd confess all here.   

Sorry.

Of course, if it comes out as a pro-studio, pro-DRM piece.  I may have to run amuk.

Look out for the coverage here.