The Nintendo Wii and Sony’s Playstation3 (PS3) will be available for play at the Game On exhibition at the Science Museum from Wednesday. Expect queues.
Don’t bother flying to the USA and queueing for three days to be the first to get your PS3, or splashing out £1,000 to buy one from eBay, that may, or may not actually turn up. If you live in the UK, it couldn’t be simpler – just get yourself down there when the doors open at 11am to get your hands on the first publicly available PS3 in the UK and the attention-attracting Wii.
The PS3 is scheduled for launch in March in the UK, while it’s emerging that only around 150,000 were shipped at the recent US launch. The Wii’s UK launch is much closer – 8th December, having had its US launch already.
The two new boys will be alongside the current exhibition, which cover the history of video games, starting back in the early 1960’s.
We went to the first Game On exhibition when it was at the Barbican in 2002 and were highly impressed with it. Not just the number of games and platforms covered, but the sheer depth of the knowledge on show.
We’ve spoken to the organisers and hear that quite a few of the exhibits have changed from the early days, including items that have been picked up over the years as the show has travelled over the world.
When you get bored of all the new stuff, by way of a stark contrast, you’ll be able to play the world’s first computer game, Spacewar!, from 1962 as well.
To book tickets or find out further details contact 0870 906 3890 or take a look at the site. The exhibition ends Feb.07. Ticket prices Adults £8.50; Children and concessions £6.50
Science Museum Game On Exhibition
The Original Game On Exhibition
Fresh out of Samsung’s hyperactive phone production line in Korea is the new Anycall SPH-B5800 DMB phone. 
For music fans, there’s a built-in MP3 player with a microSD (TransFlash) port offering expansion options. 
Sadly, there’s no news of a UK release, with the phone currently only available on the KTF network in Korea. 
Rarely have we lusted for a new gizmo more than when we saw the promotional shots of the luscious Optimus keyboard last year. 
But just when we thought there was nothing left to improve on our current wireless Logitech mouse/keyboard combo with Lord-knows-how-many keys, buttons and control wheels (most unused), we clapped our eyes on the Optimus keyboard and thought we’d found keyboard heaven. 
Months went by with no release date being announced and some began to suspect we’d been bedazzled by a (particularly stylish) example of vapourware. 
The response from their patient and loyal fans was immediate, with a chorus of posts on the 
Video sharing Websites like YouTube are starting to impact on TV viewing figures, with more people switching off and logging on. 
A further 13% of those questioned said they watched online occasionally, with another 10 per cent saying they expected to start in the coming year. 
The majority of the population still prefers to watch the old fashioned gogglebox, with two-thirds of the population shunning online TV and saying that had no intention of starting in the next 12 months. 
Palm’s update to its well-received and long running Treo 650 smartphone goes on sale in the UK. 
The Treo 680 also comes with beefed up Radio Frequency (RF) sensitivity for improved phone performance, a SD/MMC/SDIO-compatible expansion card interface and upgraded Bluetooth 1.2 connectivity. 
As with the Treo 650, the new phone offers the usual cornucopia of functionality and features including email, web browsing (via Blazer 4.5), the excellent Pocket Tunes music player, calendar, video, photo album and Documents To Go letting users view, edit and share Word and Excel documents on the move. 
The product is available from today at the Palm e-store (US only) in red, orange, white and silver for £299 (contract free), although we’ve already seen discounted prices popping up elsewhere.
Wow … things are really starting to gel across the Murdoch media businesses, as James Murdoch starts showing his hand. Perhaps this is the first real example of seeing James’ talent on with what we’ve been told was his passion – that for convergence. 
A number of Sky One shows will be available over the service. Sounds great, until you imagine that 93% of the those using Sky By Broadband already own a Sky+ box – having the ability to see the shows when they want to anyway. 
The pricing of PSone games to be played on the Sony PSP have been announced. 
It was initially envisaged that Sony would give access to the Playstation Store through the PSP using its WiFi connection. We can see one advantage of not doing this – people wanting to use the service will need to buy a PS3! 
Arriving just eight months after the announcement of the upmarket D200, Nikon’s new D80 builds on the success of 2004’s D70, offering a slew of enhancements, a larger LCD and an inevitable upping of the pixel count. 
Clearly this mix’n’match approach makes sense for cost-aware Nikon, with interchangeable components helping to keep the prices down in a hugely competitive market, although the differences in build quality between the D80 and its big brother are clearly marked. 
Interface upgrades
There’s also a host of new customisation options (a total of 32 custom functions) letting photographers set up the D80 to their needs. 
The camera is easy to use, feels right in the hand with all the main controls falling easily to hand, and looks like it could take the occasional knock. 
We spent a fair bit of time watching online advertising, as the income for Digital-Lifestyles comes in solely from it. 
We see that Engadget are offering a charity auction for Save Dafur. 
Ever self-aware, Engadget also point out they understand the irony of raising money for a Dafur charity, by playing a video game called Gears of War. Their defence is that their readers chose the charity and that they’d already decided what the event was going to be. As some step towards balancing this, Engadget have named the event Gears of Peace.