This Phone Is Not A Toy

Goodbye Apple Computer. Hello Apple Inc.

With the advent of the long rumoured iPhone, Apple is, officially, a consumer electronics company. Stanley Kubrick, Gene Roddenberry and E.T. would be proud of Steve Jobs' telecommunications device and seeing Mac OS X, in a portable context, could be portentous! Does the iPhone form factor herald the shape of future iPod iterations?

Whilst the iPhone isn't available in the UK until Q4 2007. We can at least look forward to Apple TV shaking things up a bit in terms of vertical integration in the broadcasting industry (despite the limited range of iTunes movies and television series available at time of writing). There's shelf space for Apple TV next to Wii.

Sony, my other favourite brand, are you paying attention?

Philips prepares for FIFA World Cup™ fever

Philips has launched its official World Cup site brimming over with great information, entertainment and a chance to win tickets to the cup!

Press Information

April 12, 2006

Philips is launching the O.G.P.F.W.C.P.C.; a chance to win tickets to the 2006 FIFA World Cup™

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Committed to providing consumers with top-notch entertainment experiences, Philips is pleased to unveil an exciting new Preparation Center that will enable football fans across the globe to prepare for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™. Beginning of April, Philips is launching the O.G.P.F.W.C.P.C (Official Global Philips FIFA World Cup™ Preparation Center), enabling football fanatics from all countries to gain insightful information, tips and entertainment surrounding the 2006 FIFA World Cup™.

This unique Preparation Center is fully interactive, allowing visitors to “walk” through different rooms, much like a video game. While in each room, football fans will learn a variety of humorous and entertaining preparation tips pertaining to their FIFA World Cup™ experience, ranging from the best way to decorate a football home and celebrate a victory, to an online game that will award lucky fans with tickets to the 2006 FIFA World Cup™.

Philips recognizes that sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup™ are a great opportunity to bring friends and family together and, for most fans, the living room and home theatre are the central “rallying point” for enjoying the games. “With the FIFA World Cup™ being the largest sporting event in the world, Philips knows that many fans will want some help preparing for the matches and celebrations,” said Lucas Covers, Chief Marketing Officer of Philips Consumer Electronics. “The Preparation Center will provide football fans with all of the tools they need to get ready for the tournament, as well as fun and interactive games.”

While there is a “room” in the Preparation Center to meet the needs and demands of any football fan, following are some examples of the content that can be found on this site:

Goal Celebration Preparation
• In this room, visitors will see how fans around the world celebrate a goal or team victory, providing tips and ideas for fun-filled celebrations for any football fan

Prepare to win
• While visiting this room, football fans can play a football game and win tickets for FIFA World Cup™

Living Room Preparation
• The living room is the most important part of FIFA World Cup™ home viewing; while in this room, fans will learn expert tips on the best way to prepare a living room for the critical matches in June

2/… Philips is launching the Preparation Center

This site provides hours of entertainment for all football fans alike.

The Preparation Center will be live on April 12, 2006, from 18.00 pm CET and fans can experience this exciting site by visiting: www.philips.com/fifaworldcup, by clicking on the dedicated banner.

About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $37.7 billion (EUR 30.4 billion) in 2005. With activities in the three interlocking domains of healthcare, lifestyle and technology and 159,200 employees in more than 60 countries, it has market leadership positions in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, color television sets, lighting and silicon system solutions. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.

Geometric Gaming

The GameCube has clocked up a few miles in its first week. An interesting fact for anyone who maybe mulling over a purchase and requires Digital A/V support. The following is an extract taken from Nintendo's support pages:

The Digital A/V Output port was removed from systems produced after May, 2004 (these systems will have a model number of DOL-101). If you have a Nintendo GameCube without this port, and you wish to play your games in progressive scan, you may be able to obtain a system that was made prior to the removal of the Digital A/V Output port. Please call our Consumer Service department at 1-800-255-3700 to discuss available options.

Additional Information:

Why have you removed the component video feature from the Nintendo GameCube?
On newer models of the Nintendo GameCube, we opted to remove the Digital A/V out port from the system because we found that less than one percent of all Nintendo GameCube players used this feature.

Will future Nintendo GameCube games continue to have the progressive scan feature?
About one-third of licensee-published titles and over 90% of Nintendo-published titles currently have the progressive scan feature. We expect that most Nintendo-published titles will continue to support progressive scan. Each licensee will continue to make the decision of whether or not to include this feature in their future games.

In order to reduce costs and increase profit margins it is not unusual for consumer electronics companies to simplify production. Sony made changes to the PlayStation and my model lacked S-Video connectivity. The good news is that I can confirm that the Limited Edition Resident Evil GameCube has a model number of DOL-001 and not DOL-101. Incidentally, DOL refers to the console's codename. Dolphin.

My fiendish friends at The Iconfactory, are unleashing seasonal GUI ghoulishness in time for the season of the witch. Grab those disgustingly delicious icons, dim the lights and play the Castlevania and Resident Evil franchises.

The ultimate browser-based feed reader is to be found in Google Labs. A Gmail account adds further razzle dazzle.

A glutton for punishment. I'm already preparing a DVD review of Battlestar Galactica (2004) Season 1! "It's the things I do for you..."

"One more thing..." There is much speculation regarding next weeks Apple event. I'm going to go out on a limb (as is my duty) and suggest that there maybe a new product line introduced. A PVR based on Intel?