MJ's Blog

Hot Weekend

2009-05-25T15:28:00.003+01:00

Shockingly hot bank holiday weekend. Kicked off in style with some Krispy Kreme's in down town Guildford, while formulating a plan to hit all 10 London outlets in the one day, as part of a warm up to doing the same across the country.

Followed this up with a couple of games of bowling fun, although I managed to peak too soon, starting with two gorgeous strikes and going downhill from there. I then took my immense form to Rileys and got beat all over again. Dang.

Ended the day in the White Lion with Roast Duck in raspberry muck, served with 3 pints of Fosters. Taste-tastic.

Weighing In

2009-05-25T15:11:00.003+01:00

It would seem that the 2010 regulations for the Formula One Championship are nowhere near being set, which is causing concern for all involved. Despite some "constructive" talks in Monaco over the Grand Prix weekend we appear to be no closer to forming the regulations, doing nothing to make Formula One attractive for BMW in 2010 and doing nothing to make Toyota re-consider a much speculated move out of the sport at the end of the year.

Politicking is quintessential to Formula One due to the exhorborant cost of competing at the highest level, which means that all the competitors are unwilling to agree anything that will directly effect their performance in the short term. Of course the manufacturers are unwilling to support a set of rules and regulations that benefit the independent teams and the independents cannot compete on the same level as the manufactuer teams.

The latest ramblings coming out of the woodwork suggest that a £45 million budget cap will be introduced in 2011 to allow the teams to re-assign or lay off hundreds of members of staff in the next few areas. Between now and then the manufactuer teams will assist the independents with cheap powertrain deals and leased chassis, which should allow teams to compete on the cheap until the budget cap is introduced.

Of course everyone involved is oblivious to the damage this is doing to the sport but why would that matter.... ?

A quick weekend at Brands

2009-05-07T22:56:00.004+01:00

Just had an excellent weekend in Brands watching the finale of the A1GP 2008/9 series and all the other support races (i.e. Formula Palmer Audi, GT Cup, Sports 2000, Lotus Elise Trophy, Heritage Grand Touring Car Challenge and FIA Lurani Trophy). It was only my first experience of Brands but I preferred it to Silverstone due to the intimate nature of the circuit and how ridiculously close to the action you can get. Take a look at my pictures of the event after you enjoy this video clip:

Moving FTW

2009-02-28T15:19:00.001+00:00

So I have now officially moved and it's just like not moving but with 100% more ironing, which is the epic fail. Been keeping busy with some films thanks to proximity of the Vue:

Doubt – tale of deadly suspicion set in a Catholic school earlier in the 20th Century. Excellent performances all round.

Push – sci-fi tale of those with supernatural powers. Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning do a good job but the real stars are the soundtrack and cinematography, which set the scene perfectly.

Other than that it has been pretty quiet round this way but it should be picking up in March- got a few things planned already:

14th – heading over to the Science Museum for special exhibit.

15th – seeing the Watchmen movie.

27th – 29th – keeping busy with F1’s opening race down under in Melbourne. Will finally see if the BBC know what they’re doing.

N.B. Need to take more pictures of anything and everything, starting with my current abode.

Switching Back

2009-01-24T15:08:00.004+00:00

There aren't a whole lot of resources for people who want to switch back to Windows from Mac OS X and unsurprisingly the best one I've found so far is at WinSuperSite.com.

I'm having to make the switch because I'm moving to a smaller place and there isn't enough space for my iMac and me, so I'm moving back to Windows with a Dell Studio 15 laptop running Windows Vista. Thankfully I haven't become too dependent on any Apple applications, although I will miss iPhoto and EyeTV more than the rest.

I'd love to have bought an Apple laptop but this would have cost considerably more than my well spec'd Dell laptop because even in these harsh times Apple can still produce laptops with ridiculous mark-ups.

F1 2008 Review

2008-12-26T14:02:00.002+00:00

A classic year? Possibly. Yet again we only had 2 teams in it till the end, although this was mainly due to the major rule changes in 2009 and partially due to BMW’s decision to focus on 2009. With a little bit of luck Robert had a shot at it this year - don’t forget it.

Neither combination of team and driver (i.e. Ferrari/Massa or McLaren/Hamilton), had a faultless year, as the rivals made countless errors along the way, meaning that the title went to the team that made the least errors. However, things are not as they seem because Hamilton lost most of his points due to his own mistakes whilst Massa lost his through errors made by the Ferrari team.

The most absurd of Hamilton’s errors has to be the pit lane error in Canada that he was correctly punished for and highlights his biggest weakness, which appears to be a general lack of consistency. How can the same driver, in essentially an identical car make such a simple error and then just 2 races later completely dominate the British Grand Prix, in incredibly difficult conditions that would have required intense concentration. I don’t believe the issue is a lack of self belief because he has already proven he has what it takes at the highest level of motorsport and therefore talks the talk as you would expect him to.

Massa has never been held in high regard by the press before this year. Before the start of the season there were rumors floating around the internet that he would be out in 2009, to be replaced by Alonso. However the 2008 Ferrari suited his driving style perfectly, whereas 2007’s Ferrari was slightly too oversteery for his liking and allowed Raikkonen to take the honors in Brazil last year. This year was truly a breakthrough year for the Brazilian as he finally destroyed two myths that have been used to put him down in the past, namely that he only excels on wide, fast tracks and that he can’t handle streets and also that he isn't gifted in the wet.

Next season promises to be completely different with revised aerodynamic regulations and no in-season testing, which could lead to some unexpected results and new winners. Drivers will need to adapt to driving on slicks, which is more likely to suit those who prefer oversteer, which could mean that Felipe will struggle again.

Roll on 2009.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-26T08:38:00.001+00:00

Check out this Geeks Guide To Surviving Christmas. Genius.

Catch Up

2008-12-07T17:31:00.000+00:00

Blogger.com should really send out monthly emails to remind me to blog every so often because I really suck at remembering to actually put my thoughts down. So here we go with super quick summerising time:

Games:

Quantum of Solace - quick and simple. Kind of like a dumbed down Call of Duty 4 with meh graphics. Can’t really recommend at full price, so maybe best to rent or wait for some Credit Crunch style reductions. Either way it is better than the film.

Little Big Planet - bought it, put it in, played for about 2 hours and never picked up again. Doesn’t really have the WOW factor.

Mirrors Edge - nice. Very nice. Seems to be really short though - already more than half way through after a couple of hours. Some of the moves are quite tricky and the combat can really suck if there is more than one bad guy.

Far Cry 2 - addictive as hell and with a semi-respectable plot. Oh and the fire is really sexy in that it burns anything in its path. Multiplayer was a bit meh but has picked up as more people have put the game in their greasy hands.

Battlefield Bad Company - funny. The dialogue not the gameplay you understand. The weapons are bid and loud and the set pieces are fun if not a little repetitive. Never seems to end though - there is always one more mission. Multiplayer is respectable and lag free.

Films:

Quantum of Solace - oh dear. No plot and some non-stop camera flipping made it quite difficult to follow. Not as good as Casino Royale.

More next time kids. Remember to play safe now.

Saving you 5 hours!

2008-10-24T09:06:00.002+01:00

So have you ever been in that place where you try and sync your calendar data to MobileMe as usual but it seems to sync some weird ghost calendar that is seriously out of date. Then have you tried downloading Spanning Sync to update Google with the correct data and it also manages to use this ghost calendar as well? Then have you spent 5 straight hours trying to fix this damn issue, to find that there is a very simple fix right here?

No, neither have I.

Cataloging Everything

2008-09-15T17:19:00.002+01:00

It's difficult to keep track of all the thing I own, especially the books, cd's, dvd's and video games, so I have started cataloging them. You can view my extensive library by clicking here.

The software used to make this page is called Delicious Library 2 and is created by the fine folks at Delicious Monster. The really clever bit is that it uses your webcam to scan the barcode of the item you want to add and then goes and searches for it on Amazon before adding it to your library. It only runs on Mac OS X, which isn't a problem because you should already own a Mac, or be planning to pick one up shortly.

The Beginning of the End

2008-09-12T22:38:00.002+01:00

This picture comes hot of the press... although it's actually over a week old, so that's a bunch of poop I've been selling you. As you can see the world is surely about to end because if Dan can win a game of bowling with his unique action there is no stopping the man.

iPhone 3G Impressions

2008-07-13T10:34:00.001+01:00

So the iPhone 3G has finally been released and 30 hours (give or take) after I picked mine up it has finally registered on the O2 network and I am good to go with all my mobile internets. Now even though I haven’t had 3G for the last 30 hours, I was able to unbrick the device via iTunes and have been playing around with it on Wifi.

A while ago I ventured into an Apple store to try out an iPod Touch but it isn’t a perfect experience, as you are having to use it in the store and without your email, contacts and calendar setup, so it isn’t an accurate test of the device. On that day I only really had a chance to test the iPod functionality and web browsing, which were both excellent but the device had been well used, so the screen was fairly irresponsive and the accelerometer was a bit off.

The experience itself has been incredibly simple. Like any iPod owner will know all you need to do to sync an Apple device is plug it in and let iTunes do all the hard work and thats exactly what happens with the iPhone 3G, which uses iTunes as its hub. Plug in the USB cable and iTunes springs to life and is ready to sync anything you need (e.g. musics, contacts, calendars, emails, applications etc) directly to the device. The process is incredibly simple and is made even simpler by some nice graphics that break down what is taking up all of the space on the iPhone.

With all the data uploaded it was time to test out some of the mobile applications. One of the first things to point out is that the iPhone will detect all available internet connections and use the quickest one, in my case that meant sizing up 3G and Wifi and realizing that Wifi was the way to go. All the standard applications are available; Mail for email, Safari for web browsing and the iPod software for listening back to some tunes, or watching some videos. The really impressive aspect of all of this is that they run just like they do on a Apple desktop or laptop. Obviously they are running at a smaller resolution and without a keyboard but they look identical, they run just as quick and the touch screen controls are so well designed and implemented that it shortly becomes second nature to pick up.

One of the key selling points for me was the MobileMe integration, which promises Exchange like push email, contacts and calendars for the iPhone. It is fairly simple to setup- just sync the mailbox details then browse to email settings and turn on push email, push contacts and push calendar and you have Exchange in your hand. Any changes that are made get sent back to “the cloud” and updated on your laptop and/or desktop and back to the web interface on me.com. Incredibly simple doesn’t do it justice.

I’ve yet to use my iPhone long enough to see how much of an issue battery is but it looks as though it does a good 5 hours of talk time, which should be plenty, assuming I’ve always got a charger to hand. I don’t intend to watch hours of video on the device, in fact the only videos on there at the moment are a couple of podcasts that only last for 10 minutes or so.

A Lot more Time On My Hands!

2008-02-18T20:31:00.000+00:00

It’s finally happened. My box of toys (aka the XBOX 360) has given me the finger (read: Red Ring of Death) and is heading back to the mother ship to think things over and hopefully get a new heat sink and whatever else Microsoft think it may require. I suppose this is a good excuse to do something mildly useful with my life like reading more books or anything that doesn’t involve sitting in front of a screen.

UPDATE: I only called up MS on Saturday and UPS came and picked up my 360 today, which isn’t bad. The only problem is that it might take two weeks to fix it. *curses the heavens (and Microsoft)*

Ramblings From A Town Called Internet

2008-02-06T20:25:00.000+00:00

I knew it and so did you deep (oh so deep) down. Mac users are officially sexier than Windows users according to Adult toy seller Lovehoney, whose Google Analytics feed suggests that more Mac users use their site compared to Windows users. The Mac community spent longer on the site than Windows or Linux users but when it came to dropping some cash for some playthings the Linux community came in tops with an average spend of £48.55 compared to Mac users £40.38 and Windows users £34.59.

It appears that someone forgot to tell Microsoft that HD-DVD was more doomed than the next Sly Stallone remake because they just dropped the price to $129.99 stateside. As well the ultra cheap high def drive Microsoft will also chuck in five discs, which makes it a very nifty deal, assuming you only want to buy five high def discs until the next high def format (read: Blu-ray 2) drops. Amazon went temporarily crazy earlier and started selling the unit (*giggles*) with six discs for only 60 of your American dollars. Of course this reduction hasn’t made its way over to the old UK, so I will just keep on saving for that Blu-ray player (read: PS3). I’ve really got to see Superbad in high def.

In other slightly Microsoft related news Bioware dropped news of new downloadable content for Mass Effect, which will supposedly set us back 400MS points, last for around about 90 minutes and pleasure us with 50 more Gamescore. While this may sound like Pimms o’clock I would rather hand over 400MS points in exchange for a working Autosave system but that would be worth at least 1000MS points no doubt.

Review: Sunshine (2007)

2008-02-01T20:15:00.000+00:00

Sunshine is a beautiful piece of science fiction, which contains plenty of action and drama. The director (Danny Boyle) has assumed a clean and developed future, unlike some other films (see Blade Runner) that have set themselves in a bleaker future.

It is the story and not the setting that creates the bleakness as the crew of the Icarus 2 are on a mission to re-ignite the sun and save humanity. This really is humanities last chance as 7 years earlier Icarus 1 disappeared when on an identical mission.

During the final stages of Icarus 2’s mission they discover Icarus 1 floating in space and the teams physicist Robert Capa (Cillian Murphy) decides it is worth the risk to save the payload from the first mission. However as the team deviate from their original plan errors start creeping in and crew members start losing their lives.

When the crew docks with the Icarus 1 they discover that the ship was sabotaged and the crew all burnt to death. The culprit for the sabotage is Captain Pinbacker (Mark Strong) of the Icarus 1, who manages to follow the crew back to the Icarus 2. Pinbacker then begins sabotaging the Icarus 2, whilst the remaining members of the crew fight on and prepare to deliver the payload and in the end only Capa is left to manually detonate the bomb.

The film is well produced and deals with some interesting subjects such as addiction to (sun)light, as members of the crew are often seen staring at the stunning colours produced by the sun. There are some other notable performances from Mace (Chris Evans) and Corazon (Michelle Yeoh).

Rating: 7.5/10

Oh Noes I Forgot How To Post!

2008-01-23T20:57:00.000+00:00

Well that isn’t exactly true in the literal sense because I am blogging now but I needed a title to explain my general lack of bloggage. Maybe Oh noes I forgot how to sleep would have been better? Who knows and who cares?

Anyways I have been playing with some sweet toys on my blog and here is a list:

Twitter for WordPress - puts Twitter on my blog! Nice.
WP Ajax Edit Comments - nice new Ajax comment thingy.
WordPress.com Stats - a nice interface to look over my stats.

Of course it would have made more sense to spend my time actually blogging rather than pulling reviews from my other site to fill out the blog with but then I find it more fun to fiddle with these things.

Plugins are fun and deadly as I managed to destroy my blog (and possibly my soul) at least 7 times in just 10 minutes due to corrupting and incompatible software. Yay indeed.

More when I have time…

Review: Renaissance (2006)

2008-01-21T20:53:00.000+00:00

Renaissance is a treat for all of the senses. Obviously the films major talking point are the stunning black and white cartoon graphics and although I felt this would remove from my enjoyment of the film nothing could have been further than the truth.

The graphics are sensational and help to set the mood and add to the atmosphere that you would expect to find in Paris in 2054. The city itself has been designed to border on the extreme whilst still being believable.

If the graphics are sensational then the soundtrack is mesmerizing as it manages to add to the futuristic urban Paris, right from the centralised pedestrian areas to the out-of-town red light districts with their floating holographic nudes. The story fits well with the lavish surroundings where we see a gripping kidnap investigation that requires Barthélémy Karas (Daniel Craig), the most revered cop in the city, to track down the woman that has gone missing while holding off the efforts of her employer Avalon, the most powerful company in Paris, who only want to find her first as she holds the secret of immortality.

This is definitely a film that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish with plenty of stunning visuals and plot twists right to the end.

Rating: 9/10

F1 2008 Preview (Launch Edition)

2008-01-05T20:49:00.000+00:00

Contenders:

1. Ferrari – Kimi Raikkonen

2. Ferrari – Felipe Massa

3. BMW Sauber – Nick Heidfeld

4. BMW Sauber – Robert Kubica

5. Renault – Fernando Alonso

6. Renault – Nelson Piquet

7. Williams – Toyota – Nico Rosberg

8. Williams – Toyota – Kazuki Nakajima

9. Red Bull Racing – Renault - David Coulthard

10. Red Bull Racing – Renault - Mark Webber

11. Toyota – Jarno Trulli

12. Toyota – Timo Glock

13. Scuderia Toro Rosso – Ferrari – Sebastien Bourdais

14. Scuderia Toro Rosso – Ferrari – Sebastian Vettel

15. Honda – Jenson Button

16. Honda – Rubens Barrichello

17. Super Aguri F1 – Honda – Takuma Sato

18. Super Aguri F1 – Honda – Anthony Davidson

19. Force India - Ferrari - Adrian Sutil

20. Force India - Ferrari - TBA

21. McLaren - Mercedes - Lewis Hamilton

22. McLaren - Mercedes - Heikki Kovalainen

Introduction:

In what has become a yearly tradition I will attempt to preview the entire 2008 Formula One campaign in one post and put my foot in my mouth as often as possible. This is especially dim witted of me as none of the teams have released their 2008 machines yet, in fact Ferrari are the first to launch tomorrow. On with the fun…

Easy Predictions:

I will begin with something easy, namely some predictions that are so obvious they are common knowledge. Here we go:

Honda will be better in 2008 - mainly because the alternative is now impossible. A company the size of Honda cannot go on embarrassing themselves for yet another year, so I am hoping Honda build a decent car. Even if they just pushed a couple of wrong buttons and make one by mistake- after all the law of averages is on their side. On top of this they’ve now got Ross Brawn onboard, which is likely to increase everyone’s motivation and in the medium term - 2009 success but that’s a prediction for next year.
Something even more inane will blow up - it seems that every year something more pointless blow up into some massive scandal and it always has very little to do with the racing. If it’s not mass dampers its espionage but at the end of the day it’s an emotive sport and people like to get behind a hot topic.

Medium Predictions:

OK, these predictions are slightly more likely to backfire but are still more than likely given what is known of the 2008 season at this point (i.e. diddly squat). Here they are:

Max Mosley will get his way again - recently Max announced a series of restrictive aerodynamic regulations. The biggest issue I have with them is how impossible they will be to police, I mean is he going to insist that a FIA representative goes and sits in each teams windtunnel to make sure they are following the rules? Of course not because his only reason for releasing the new regulations was to force the teams into accepting a Formula One budget cap.
Slicks do not make a comeback in 2009 - the Overtaking Working Group will decide that they need yet another year to devise new aerodynamic regulations halting the return of slicks for another year. If I remember correctly slicks and the new aero rules were originally due for 2008.
Piquet does a Hamilton - for the second time in as many years Fernando Alonso is made to look like a rookie by the rookie in the other Renault. Throughout their GP2 season together Piquet set considerably more pole positions than Hamilton but Hamilton proved he was more than a match on race day. Could be interesting to see what happens if Piquet sticks his Renault ahead of Alonso’s in Melbourne.

Hard Predictions:

These ones are seriously unlikely to happen but still could just about occur should something go very wrong or very right. Here it comes…

Potential power of KERS system is reduced - the FIA will decide that they do not want to let the teams get rid of the standard ECU, which they will have to do if they are to get the most out of the KERS system that is set to be introduced in 2009. This is despite the FIA opening up the regulations on KERS to ensure all the teams developed effective systems.
Four different teams top the podium - the 2008 season proves very tight and the top four teams (McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and BMW Sauber) all win at least one race a piece.

Surprises of 2008:

With the season wide predictions out of the way it’s time to make some predictions as to which teams will surprise with their particularly excellent or abysmal performance. Here are my top three surprises:

1. Williams - the dynamic combination of Rosberg and Nakajima don’t have the speed to win races but continue to push Williams foward and produce some stunning performances. Rosberg finally gets his first podium.

2. Toyota - another unsuccessful campaign due to a evolutionary rather than revolutionary car but the big headline is Timo Glock who completely out performs Jarno Trulli all season.

3. Honda - by the end of 2008 Honda begin to look like a world class team capable of winning the World Championship. Jenson Button and Luca Filippi are confirmed for 2009 - 10.

Pecking Order of 2008:

Here is my pecking order for 2008. I’ve have also attempted to guess which teams will win at least one race (W), get at least one podium (P), get at least one pole position (PP) or at least one fastest lap (F). Read on..

1. Ferrari (W), (P), (PP), (F)

2. BMW Sauber (W), (P), (PP), (F)

3. McLaren (W), (P), (PP), (F)

4. Renault (W), (P), (PP), (F)

5. Williams (P), (F)

6. Honda (P)

7. Red Bull Racing (P)

8. Scuderia Torro Rosso

9. Toyota

10. Super Aguri

11. Force India

A Year in Film (2007)

2007-12-25T20:45:00.000+00:00

We are soon to move into 2008 and vacate 2007 but not before I look back at some of the best (and worst) and most surprising (and most disappointing) films to come out this year. I’ve just included films that were released in the UK in 2007, not any of those sneaky films that are out in America but have yet to make the trip to Blighty.

Best of 2007

No.Film Title

1 - The Bourne Ultimatum

2 - Shooter

3 - Fast Food Nation

4 - Babel

5 - Blades of Glory

Most Surprising of 2007

No. Film Title

1 - Babel

2 - Zodiac

3 - Music and Lyrics

4 - Blades of Glory

5 - Fracture

Worst of 2007

No.Film Title

1 - Epic Movie

2 - Ghost Rider

3 - Smokin’ Aces

4 - Material Girls

5 - The Contractor

Most Disappointing of 2007

No.Film Title

1 - The Simpsons Movie

2 - 300

3 - Knocked Up

4 - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

5 - Idiocracy

OK, so I thought this was going to be easy but it turns out that most of the stuff I received from Lovefilm was not actually released this year. To make up for this I have made this list:

2007 Films I Still Need to See:

No.Film Title

1 - Superbad

2 - The Last King of Scotland

3 - Beowulf

4 - The Kingdom

5 - Sunshine

Review: The Contractor (2007)

2007-12-24T20:37:00.001+00:00

The Contractor is a particularly odd film because it is rated a 15 and therefore you would assume it would deal with some fairly adult subjects but in fact it is actually aimed at a much younger audience. The plot is fairly simple, James Dial (Wesley Snipes) is brought back out of retirement to kill a terrorist who he failed to kill years earlier an incident he has never been able to forget. What could possibly go wrong?

After the assassination Dial and his partner are chased by the cops and following a pretty unspectacular car crash his partner dies and Dial escapes back to the safe house to avoid the police. It is here that he runs into Emily (Eliza Bennett), one of the residents of the flats he is held up in, who wants to help him. This is definitely where the film starts falling apart however this isn’t due to any poor acting or a particularly weak script but because the pace of the film slows down dramatically as the director (Josef Rusnak) obviously wanted to focus on the relationship between Dial and Emily. The downside to this change of focus is that the film never really lives up to Snipes previous work such as the ever stylish Blade, or the chaotic US Marshals that never missed a beat throughout.

As Dial and Emily get to know each other the police are hot on their trail as Windsor (Charles Dance) meets up with Collins (Ralph Brown), the US officer who gave Dial the instruction to kill the terrorist. During a chase sequence at the airport Dial tells Windsor about his connection to Collins only for Collins to pump him full of bullets only seconds later. With Windsor out of the way his daughter, who also happens to be a cop, takes up the hunt and soon begins working out that Collins has a fair few skeletons in the closest. As you would imagine all ends happily ever after as Collins is brought to justice and Snipes heads back to his ranch, where he later invites Emily and her grandmother, to watch him unleash his horse.

All very poetic but not very Snipes (the man who brought us Blade), this is definitely one to miss.

Rating: 4/10

Bringing Back Skype

2007-12-22T20:32:00.000+00:00

Remember Skype? Yeh, that's right it's VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) done as it should be. Skype provides an excellent service and it helps that it's wrapped in some really stylish and easy-to-use software. The only problem is that no one is using it and that is a problem because it means that I don't use it.

So why is no one using it? Well obviously because you need to be at a PC ready for a call or be near a WiFi hotspot, with a laptop and a headset, which are two situations I never find myself in. Of course that was until they produced those Skype phones that had 1 minute battery life and still required a WiFi hotspot to work. Oh wait they weren't good...

Fear not concerned reader because Skype have hooked up with those good fellows at Three and produced the 3 Skypephone, which is a mobile phone with Skype built in.

Now on the surface this is nothing new because other companies (including Three) have already brought Skype to other mobile phones. However this phone is different because this phone has full Skype integration, meaning that your Skype contacts will be displayed alongside non-Skype contacts in the address book. Or if you want to just access the Skype software all you need to do is the click the big Skype button in the middle of the phone.

The other great thing about this phone is that it is good value on either contract or pay-as-you-go. On pay-as-you-go it costs £49.99 for the phone and then to access the Skype content it costs £10 a month, which gives you 4000 minutes of incoming & outgoing calls and 10,000 instant messages per month. On contract the phone is free and packages start at £12 and come with a range of standard minutes and texts as well as all the pay-as-you-go Skype content.

In terms of functionality you can call Skype users on PC for free, you can call other Skypephone users for free and you can join conferences, although admittedly you cannot host them. All of this means only one thing- it is time to start using Skype again so that I have a good reason to buy one of these when my contract expires in June 2008.