mimobot® Maul 'give-away' contest

In celebration of the 10-year anniversary of Star Wars Episode 1 releasing to massive and adoring crowds, we're proud to present the dual-bladed Iridonian Sith Lord, Darth Maul! The protege of Darth Sidious preceding Darth Tyrannus and Darth Vader, Maul and his iconic soundtrack immediately became a favorite of fans throughout the Star Wars world - at least until Obi-Wan Kenobi cut him in half and dropped him down a pit.



Mimoco – the Boston-based designer toy studio/consumer electronics brand responsible for the world’s only character-based designer USB flash drives – and myself are offering one lucky reader a chance to win Darth Maul in his fantastic mimobot incarnation!

"Tatooine is sparsely populated. If the trace is correct, I will find them quickly, Master."

Required entry details
To enter for a chance of winning this really cool prize. Browse mimoco's range of Star Wars characters and tell me which character(s) you would like to see released next via comment on this post and subscribe by RSS to this blog.

Optional extra entry on Twitter
Follow me on Twitter. Copy and paste the following into Twitter: "RT @johnhood: @mimobot® Maul 'give-away' contest: http://tinyurl.com/nlr8g2 #starwars". Please tweet me and/or post a second comment.

Optional extra entry via blog post
Blog about this 'give-away' contest with a link back here.

The competition is open to everyone and closes August 31st 2009. The winner will be randomly selected by me. My decision will be final! Good luck.

Special thanks to mimoco for supplying the competition prize. See the entire mimobot® range here. Follow Mimobot and mimobotMichelle on Twitter.

You should follow me on twitter here.

GO!VIEW 'give-away' contest

To celebrate the launch of GO!VIEW on PSP, which is currently showing Universal's The Bourne Identity and House. GO!VIEW and myself are offering several lucky readers a chance to win some seriously cool prizes including Bourne and House t-shirts, Heroes clocks and limited edition comics!



To enter for a chance of winning one of these prizes, just answer this simple question. How many steps are there to registering at www.goview.tv? Please post your answer in comments!

The competition closes December 31st 2008 and the winners will be randomly selected by me. My decision will be final! Good luck.

Special thanks to GO!VIEW for supplying the competition prizes. Sign up for GO!VIEW, and trial it free for a month! PSP. More than just gaming...

Halloween 'give-away' contest: Galacula mimobot®

To celebrate Halloween, and reward readers with a seasonal treat, I'm running another 'give-away' contest! This time it's a Galacula mimobot® designer USB flash drive!



To enter for a chance of winning this really cool prize, please leave a Halloween-themed comment on this post. The competition closes October 31st 2008 and the winner will be randomly selected by me. My decision will be final! Good luck.

Special thanks to mimoco for supplying the competition prize. See the entire mimobot® range here.

If you enjoyed reading this post subscribe by RSS! I'll be running further 'give-away' contests throughout the autumn and winter.

The Cutest Bounty

This afternoon, thanks to mimoco and UPS, I took delivery of a mimobot Boba Fett: Star Wars' most celebrated Bounty Hunter! What an adorable prize for one lucky reader, eh?



If you haven't already entered to win this cool collectible, limited to only 5000, simply post a comment on my Boba Fett 'give-away' contest post! You've got until April 30th 2008. Good luck.

Boba Fett 'give-away' contest

It's April Fools' Day and I'm running a 'give-away' contest!

Star Wars Series 2

Fresh off the success of the wildly popular Star Wars mimobot® Series 1 Designer USB Flash Drive line, mimoco – the Boston-based designer toy studio/consumer electronics brand responsible for the world’s only character-based designer USB flash drives – has announced the highly anticipated second entry into their Star Wars collection. The Star Wars mimobot Series 2 introduces four new characters to the mimobot family: Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and bounty hunter extraordinaire, Boba Fett.

The four new Star Wars mimobot designs take advantage of mimoco’s continuing revolution in cap styles. Han has his signature mop-top, Leia has her famous buns, and both Luke and Fett have helmets which can be removed to reveal their faces below. In addition, as with all mimobot releases, each character in Star Wars mimobot Series 2 will come preloaded with a desktop personalization suite with exclusive digital content, ranging from wallpapers and screensavers to icons and avatars, and the mimobot soundByte™ application that plays actual sounds from the Star Wars saga when the Star Wars mimobot is inserted or ejected from the PC.

Mimoco and myself are offering one lucky reader a chance to win Boba Fett in his fantastic mimobot incarnation! This is a very limited edition of only 5000 and the winner will receive 1269/5000. It's sure to become a highly sought-after collectors item! Not that you'd ever want to part with it!



"You are free to use any methods necessary, but I want them alive. No disintegrations."

To enter for a chance of winning this really cool prize, please leave a comment on this post. The competition closes April 30th 2008 and the winner will be randomly selected by me. My decision will be final! Good luck.

Special thanks to mimoco for supplying the competition prize. See their entire Star Wars series here.

If you enjoyed reading this post subscribe by RSS! I'll be running further 'give-away' contests throughout the spring and summer.

Wii Fit Generation

Considering what a success the DS and Wii are now it's easy to forget what a risk they have been for Nintendo. Not just the consoles themselves, with their never before tried controllers, but also most of the games! After all who'd have thought that a puppy owning simulator would go on to become the most successful game of the current generation? With Wii Fit though Nintendo are pushing the definition of what a video game is even further, with a game that wants to get you fit as well as entertain you.

Although the motion control sensing Wii remote has now been accepted by almost all. Wii Fit uses a completely different device for controlling its games. The Balance Board looks something like a set of bathroom scales, but is filled with press sensors that can not only measure weight, but also sense the movement of your body so that it can monitor and track exercises. There are around 40 activities in total, from yoga to press ups and step aerobics, as well as a number of "proper" games including heading footballs, a Super Monkey Ball style marble game and ski jumping. Also included is the Brian Training inspired Wii Fit Age, which monitors your weight and body mass index (BMI) every day and gives advice on your health.

With other companies, including Square Enix, already interested in using the Balance Board as a controller for their own games Wii Fit looks set to become Nintendo's biggest success story yet. It can't be too long before Back to the Future III's hover board enjoys a renaissance to the sounds of Huey Lewis and the News' "The Power of the Love"!

Mario and friends make a spectacular return in this definitive version of Mario Kart, providing the most action-packed, adrenaline-filled racing fun ever seen in the series. Players will have to master a host of 16 exciting new tracks in addition to 16 classic tracks from previous Mario Kart games.

For the first time ever players will have the option of racing with karts or a brand new mode of transport - Bikes. Using bikes as your chosen method will offer up some interesting and different gameplay possibilities such as carrying out a "wheelie", which in turn will give you a small boost that could be crucial and make that all important difference at the finishing line.

Players will also be able to hit the road as their own personalized Mii caricatures in addition to many classic and even some never-before seen characters in Mario Kart games. True to the series, Mario Kart Wii will feature adrenaline pumping racing action, a plethora of power-ups and masses of objects for players to use to slow down their rivals. Also with 10 battle arenas, players are sure to be kept busy between trips around the circuit.

Combining all the much-loved features from the series, Mario Kart Wii also sees a whole host of stunning new tracks, characters, weapons and vehicles. Those however looking for world ranking domination can take on up to 11 players simultaneously worldwide using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service which will offer them the chance to race other players across the globe in a nail-biting contest of speed and skill! Prefer to keep the rivalry a little closer to home? Try the Multiplayer Mode, in which up to four people will be able to challenge each other in the comfort of their own living room, bringing the on screen excitement into a whole new dimension.

In addition to all this a new Wii Channel, the Mario Kart Channel, will also be launched with Mario Kart Wii. Players will be able to monitor their ranking against others with data compiled from races completed online as well as also access and share Ghost Data to download. Why not see if your friends are playing by checking their status or even better still set up a room in which you can chat to them before a race starts? Players even have the possibility to join in on their friends races in progress as a spectator and jump into the race when the next course launches. Through this channel, users will be exposed to a host of new online features allowing them to join a community of racing fans from all over the world as well as participate in special worldwide events organised by Nintendo.

Mario Kart Wii comes bundled with a new and intuitive accessory - the Wii Wheel, which makes it one of the most accessible Mario Kart games to date and allows complete novices to compete with ease and comfort, ensuring no one is left in the dust.

Mario Kart Wii supports five different control options: Wii Wheel, Wii Remote turned on its side, Wii Remote and Nunchuk combination, Classic Controller and even Nintendo GameCube controller. There's a configuration that fits everyone's experience, level and style.

Unreal Tournament PS3

My PS3 has been up and running since the weekend, and I have to say that the build quality is on a par with Apple and Panasonic (two of my favourite brands)! I adore the retro future look and feel.

The picture quality, via composite video connection, is surprisingly vivid and crisp! Heaven knows how good Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection will look when my Panasonic TX-32LXD700 arrives in November and I can switch to HDMI 1.3! Panasonic's black beauty won plaudits in both What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision and Which? magazines. Believe the hype!

Sonically, the PS3 is no slouch and effortlessly extracted every last essence of musicality from Timbaland's celebrated contributions to Justin Timberlake's Future Sex/Love Sounds CD. Therefore I'm compelled to replace my current ailing Sony amp with its newer HDMI-equipped sibling - STR-DA1200ES! It's cheaper and prettier than Onkyo's impressive TX-SR605.

Sony’s plans to clear the retail channel of 60GB PS3s appear to be well on course following the unit’s recent price cut in the UK!

As reported in the mainstream press earlier this week, the aggressive price cut to the 60GB PS3 and the introduction of an entry-level 40GB unit sans SACD playback and multimedia card reader saw weekly PlayStation 3 sales jump 178 percent. According to sales monitor ChartTrack, sales of the 60GB model accounted for 89 percent of PS3 sales last week.

“PS3 went up by 178 percent over the previous week, which puts it third in terms of overall hardware sold behind DS Lite and Wii,” ChartTrack director Dorian Bloch told MCV. “It was PS3’s biggest week since weeks one and two in March.”

“As expected, everyone’s buying the 60GB PS3 as it is such a bargain – the split is about 89 percent to 11 percent in the 60GB console’s favour.”

As I said in my previous post; there really is no contest between the 60GB and 40GB models! The 60GB is unassailable in terms of technological prowess and value for money! I encourage any reader, who is considering a pre-Christmas PS3 purchase, and that includes any prospective Blu-ray consumers amongst you too, to buy the 60GB model before it's sold out! Incidentally, Sony has introduced an 80GB model, in the USA, based on the reduced functionality of the 40GB machine. If you need a larger HDD, it's very easy to swap!

I can't wait to finally see Pan's Labyrinth (Blu-ray) as it promises to be the most audacious movie presentation released on a silver platter to date!