@Darren Mansell

I'll start off by saying I'm an iPhone owner, of both the first-gen and then the 3G, but I don't class myself as a fanboy. The platform has its problems - lack of open-ness is a bit of a problem for me, but I've dealt with it so far and with 3.0 offering the features I really miss perhaps the problem is semi-solved. Anyway, I love much of Android - the idea of hacking together a piece of software for it, as I can on a normal machine, and using it as I like, is just fantastic.

My problem with the G1 is that it's just not consumer-friendly. It's not pretty (and it's competing against the very pretty iPhone), the keyboard looks a bit nerdy, and as you pointed out, the UI isn't as polished. Let's not forget that 'smartphones' (broad label I know) simply were not popular with the masses until the iPhone rolled around, and it's that polished UI which got it where it is today. I don't know how the Android community is going to combat that (and, admittedly, I haven't looked), but it needs doing if it's going to become a truly mass-market phone.

In terms of the keyboard, don't forget that most people you see with an iPhone probably can't type very well on a normal keyboard, never mind a virtual one in the palm of their hand. I've been touch-typing for going on ten years now, and within a day of getting my iPhone was up to speed - it's the use of QWERTY, not the fact that it's virtual, which catches most consumers out.

So close...

Replace the 945 with G45 and they'll get a truckload of sales methinks. This thing would be nigh-on perfect as a media centre - pretty cheap to equip, very small, very quiet, low power. For those of us with plenty of other opportunities for network-attached storage, there's little more to ask for.

Meh...

It's nice to see it arrive I guess, but at the moment it's offering nothing over the competition.

Get the scheduler ported and I'll be interested.

@@Constant Winning

Have you got a service capable of those kind of speeds? I regularly max out my 20Mbps lines.

Damn you all who've been successful...

My phone went off with a text from O2 at 08:42, I headed straight from my bed to my PC, got straight on the site...and I still haven't managed to get an order in.

Looks like all the 16GB are gone, and possibly the 8GB as well. You can bet your bottom dollar I'll be at my local O2 store on Friday to raise some hell if they won't let me upgrade there and then.

The joys...

It was exceptionally slow all evening, so I was suspicious, but thought it was just my wireless playing up. Naturally though, it went down, the router started getting a 192.168.100.10 IP and the modem logs told a tale of woe. It came back up half an hour later, though...then went down again, in a slightly more worrying fashion (the modem appeared not to operate at all - the router wasn't being assigned any IP whatsoever). Looking at the logs on the thing talks of software upgrade files and it just hanging onto the end of an unresponsive network. Not good.

If there's one thing I can say about cable, it's that when stuff goes wrong for me it does so catastrophically. The last time we had a problem was a couple of years back when some idiot with a JCB went through a rather expensive fibre somewhere in East Leeds (or so I'm told) - not exactly their fault, though it did take out TV, internet, phone...AKA everything. But as I said, not their fault.

Even this problem last night didn't really bother me, if I'm honest - as I said, it's a rare occurrence round here. What really grated with me was the fact that both the 'Service Status' and 'Faults' telephone lines returned 'Your call could not be connected' and 'Customer Services' was engaged. Yes, ENGAGED. How on earth can customer services for a multi-billion pound corporation be ENGAGED?!

Let me guess, the same people who screwed up last night are responsible for the incoming call routing as well.

Your area is the defining factor

So many are forgetting that with all ISPs, the area in which you live makes all the difference. My parents have the 20Mbps Virgin connection, and consistently receive that speed. It's always been quick, the TV set-top-box has only broken down once in ten years and four different boxes (analogue, Pace digital - which broke, Samsung digital and Scientific Atlanta V+...note that the Samsung is still going strong in another room). The only time we've had a real problem was total loss of all service (TV, broadband and phone) when someone put a JCB through a backbone in east Leeds and knocked out the entire cable network for some thirty miles around.

No Blu-Ray? No PS3.

"Some folk have speculated that Sony might be about to drop the Blu-ray Disc drive from the low-end product, which could have a big impact on pricing. But that seems unlikely given Sony's keenness to use the console to drive take-up of the next-gen video disc format."

...yeah, and it could also have a big impact on users...in that they wouldn't be able to play games on the damn thing.

Great rumour. Really great.

Interesting how...

...so many simply do not understand the way in which adverts work on the internet. You have a choice? Why? You're visiting the website, they're putting adverts on (in many cases as their only form of revenue), so what gives you the 'right' to decide?

I agree that some of the flash ones are a problem - especially ones with sound, or which expand over half the page and are nigh-on impossible to close. But there's a reason that they're there - they bring in the most cash. If a company is providing a free service, funded by adverts, the choice of the user should be whether to use the service, not whether to display the revenue stream or not.

People have gone on about 'Well, I wouldn't buy anything from an advert anyway', showing sheer ignorance into the ways of the advertising world. It's not all about click-through rates, much of the revenue from advertising comes from sheer exposure.

I've intentionally not used AdBlock because, as a webmaster myself, I'm aware of how much benefit advertising can bring to people like me. Does that mean I support intrusive adverts? No. But equally if the adverts are too much of a problem, I won't use the site. Simple.

Don't just let them die...

Nationalise them. With no outlay. Seriously. Then make it not-for-profit, as it should be.

It's too late...

The people who bought the PS2 'because everyone's got one' (a very, VERY large chunk of users) have already gone out and bought 360s. I've done the same. Don't get me wrong, I adored the original PlayStation and the PS2 was everything I wanted (more or less) and I much preferred it to the Xbox. However, the only reason for me to buy a PS3 over a 360 is because it's technically 'better'.

I don't need Blu-Ray (or HD-DVD for that matter) in my console.

I don't need a Cell processor which is horribly underused.

I don't need to connect it to the PSP which I don't have.

I do need it to be somewhat affordable.

I do need it to have a wide range of games, including GOOD exclusive titles.

I do need it to be a games console, not a PC for my living room. I've already got one of those.

Point is, they tried too hard. Sony should have stuck with the formula which made its PlayStation line so damn successful - good games, features which were WANTED, lots of choice and a decent price-point. They didn't do any of that, and I seriously doubt that they'll pull it back. SCE's going the way of Sega, methinks.

That's their look-out...

"It sounds like preferential treatment but its not. They are separated as putting them with the other inmates is too dangerous. Stick a Police Officer or Mob Boss or celeb in with regular hardened criminals............not going to last too long in there. Big fish outside suddenly becomes tiny fish amongst sharks !!"

They should have thought of that before they got caught.

Re: AMD vs Intel

In that case you're either reading old reviews concerning the Pentium D line, or are simply receiving false information. The Core 2 line out-performs the Athlon 64 line. It really is as simple as that (and not surprising, given the age of AMD's offering).

What many are forgetting...

...is that for years schools have been teaching primarily metric measures. Fahrenheit means nothing to me, if I'm honest - someone stated that it's more accurate, well that may be so, but Celsius just makes more sense. If I wanted to be so correct I'd use Kelvin.

Same goes for billions, trillions etc. To me, it just goes up by a factor of a thousand, that's it. Fair enough, traditionally it was a million millions etc, but the world works with the American style. We lose nothing by accepting that, so why not?

Serve beer in the same glasses but instead of writing 'Pint' on them, write '568ml'. Or, change the definition of the word 'pint' to mean '568ml'. Not very hard.

What on earth...

This is a rather strange review, methinks.

- The resolution on the screen should be commended. Not only is it a standard resolution, it's most commonly found on 22" monitors. This is a 15.4". Good, no?

- If the resolution was raised, the next level up is 1920x1200, most commonly found on 24" monitors which cost upwards of £500. Plus it'd be impractical.

- Supposedly the gaming performance is lacking. Well duh, it's a laptop. It uses the second-best laptop graphics card available (it's narrowly beaten by a Go 7600GT if I remember correctly).

- To summarise the review by saying it's not 'an instant must-have' is very odd. Of course it's not an instant must-have, high-end products never are. You don't see anyone saying quad-core processors are 'an instant must-have', do you?

- Yes, it's expensive. But it's got a damn Lamborghini badge on - it's for those who have money to throw around and acts as much as a flagship for the Asus brand as a direct money-maker.

So in essence we have a 35% drop for it being a bit on the pricey side. Over the top, no?

I'm not trying to attack the reviewer here, but it really does seem like this is a pretty short-sighted review. Interesing that the article page shows four comment titles but only three are displayed. Do I smell conspiracy?