Transformers: War for Cybertron is a game that isn't based on the recent movies. It is actually set a million years before what happens now and is more based around the cartoons rather than the movies.

That being said, it's giant transforming robots blowing each other up, pretty sure you can get up to speed on that. :-)

The previous games based on the movies weren't that good. This game isn't like those, it is actually pretty great. This was such a surprise that I still can't get over it.

They have a great little intro movie that I enjoy so much that I only skip it half the time, that NEVER happens for me. I generally watch the intro movie once and then that's it. Done. Finished. Can't skip it fast enough.

The game is well paced and is your standard third person shooter where your run around shooting other robots. Oh and you also get to transform at the click of a button. The game is set on the Transformers home planet Cybertron (hence the name) and you play as both sides (First Decepticons, then Autobots) as you blast your way through everything.

All the classic transformers characters are there and you even get to play as them, no watching from the sidelines when you can be Optimus Prime or Megatron. You can even play as Bumblebee, but why would you bother?

Overall: Fantastic game. Just the right length with great graphics and sound effects. The set pieces are HUGE and the sense of scale is well done. Had a mile wide grin on my face pretty much the whole time playing it. :-)

Nothing like waiting in line for 3 hours to get your hands on the latest iGadget from Apple. Of course I am referring to the iPhone 4. :-)

First things first: What antenna issue? Sure if I squeeze the crap out of the phone and cover it with my hand I can get the signal to drop a few bars. Same thing happens on my 3GS. Plus you get a free case from Apple, so at the end of the day I feel it is a non issue. This phone drops the same amount of calls as any other phone I have had and I know those are because of the Telco network and not the phones.

Next the iPhone 4 itself:

• Size - Very very nice. The iPhone 4 is nice and slim. Though it's supposed to be heavier than the 3GS, it just feels solid and the buttons feel more solid than on the 3GS. The curved styling of the 3GS makes it easier to hold, but I can now stand the iPhone 4 on its side. While it does feel a bit weird to be holding something with straight edges, overall I like the iPhone 4 better.
• Retina Display -  The screen truly is amazing and has to bee seen to be believed. Everything that has been said about it is true. :-) It really does make all text look super sharp and all other displays look fuzzy to me now. I can only hope that this becomes the new standard for all devices, though I won't hold my breath.
• Camera - The camera is now decent enough that I feel I can retire my old point and shoot, so now that is one less device I need to carry with me. With the flash I feel I am pretty much covered for all situations. More hardcore photographers won't be impressed, but I don't really take that many photos.
• Facetime - I tried it, it worked. It's limited to other iPhone 4 users that are on WiFi, so time will have to tell just how useful it is.
• HD Video recording - This is nice to have, I might even try it out one day. Saves me having to eventually buy one of those flip cameras.
• Sound - Sound quality via the speaker is greatly improved and a lot louder. With the second microphone for noise cancelling, it also seems to do a much better job of being a speaker phone.
• Speed - Using the same processor as the iPad, the iPhone 4 now flies and can handle the full power of the new iOS 4.

Overall: Apple have done it again. Sure the phone isn't perfect, what phone is. This one ticks all the right boxes for me and makes me glad that technology makes these things smaller and faster. The iPhone 4 is great to use and was a worth while upgrade for me. :-)

Crackdown 1 was an excellent sandbox game that was amazing fun to play and really set the bar high for open world games of that nature. Crackdown 2 uses pretty much the same sandbox but the game lacks heart and after excellent offerings like Infamous and Prototype the lack of a story in Crackdown 2 makes it a big disappointment.

I bought Crackdown 2 without even watching a single review. That's how good the first one is. I suggest that you go out and buy the first game instead of this one. While the sandbox environment is a lot of fun the game just hasn't changed much and there is zero story.

I generally play games for their action and their stories, so I don't need a lot, but there was seriously no story at all in this game. To top it off, your main objective is just the same thing repeated 12 or so times and.

Overall: This game gets a big thumbs down and a 'Play the first one instead' recommendation. Does not meet expectations.

Apple released version 4 of their iPhone OS last month, now dubbed iOS 4.

So here are the highlights of my experience.

• Still no custom sound alerts for SMS and Calendar. I can't hear the calendar alerts so this makes the calendar almost useless.
• Multitasking is kinda pointless. While it is a nice effect, right now I haven't seen any major advantages from it.
• Some things are slower to start up now or 'switch to' even though I am on the 'faster' 3GS.
• Camera will now take pictures immediately when you tap, just have to wait a while for it to start up. :-)
• Portrait rotation lock is nice when you want something to stay without rotating. Though, would be great if we also got landscape locking.
• Switching between multiple email inboxes is a lot easier.
• Can edit playists on the fly.
• Albums get kinda messed up.

Whlie multitasking is nice, I didn't really feel like it was missing, the iPad is a whole other story and I see the need for multitasking on that.

Overall: Not too bad, though still no custom sound alerts. :-( Apple continue to improve the iPhone, though I guess they can't do everything at once.

Rockstar follow up GTA4 with a game set in the wild West. Strange as it sounds, Red Dead Redemption is more than just 'GTA with horses'. Though when I first heard that a wild west game might actually be any good I was skeptical. Very skeptical!

First things first, the graphics are gorgeous. This is one great looking game on the Xbox 360 and this 'eye candy' goes a long way to making the game as good as it is. You can see a mountain far off in the distance and actually ride all the way up to it. Horses will run around, birds will fly in the sky, rabbits run and hide and deer get attacked by wolves and coyotes. It really makes you feel as if you are in a living breathing environment. Apart from the odd 'pop in' effect here and there (you have to see it to understand) everything looks and sounds just how you expect it to. Please note: I haven't actually been to the 'Wild West' so can't really compare. :-)

The open world really plays well here. After you get the hang of riding your horse around you soon can't wait to start exploring and seeing just what is over that next hill.

The story is unlike the world. It is quite a specific single player experience and it is the complete opposite of 'open'. Sure you can sometimes choose which mission to do, though this is just to trick you into feeling like you have a say in the story. You can't really make your own decisions in the story and deciding not to do something or to shoot someone instead of doing what they ask, just isn't possible and sometimes frustrating. While this is the same as every other single player experience, that it happens in a game with such an open world feels like a missed opportunity.

On a side note, the frustrating lack of checkpoints from GTA4 is now gone. Checkpoints happen at logical intervals and this makes missions a lot more fun (and completeable). :-)

The story was the weakest part of the game. Starts strong, goes weak and finishes around the middle. They even manage to hide the ending of the main story as a 'side mission'. Why they did this I have no idea. The credits even start rolling once you finish this 'side mission', so I feel Rockstar have a long way to go in their story telling style. The main character was strong and the voice acting was pretty good, so at least the polish on the story was there.

Side missions are where the game shines. I enjoyed them a lot more then the core storyline and there are a lot of them to keep you occupied, though you do have to work on the core storyline to open up all the areas. Sometimes you will be riding along and receive a call for assistance and they might just need your help and they might just try to rob you ;-). As you explore the world you soon discover that there are rewards for shooting types of animals and collecting various plants. This keeps you with your eyes out for the next ones on your list as you go through the main storyline.

Overall: A great game. If you loved GTA4 then you will probably love this game. I hated GTA4 and thought this game was great so your mileage may vary. For me the world was a wonderful thing to explore and take part in, though as with GTA4 I really didn't think the main story was that great. This time around with all the side missions there was a lot to do apart from the main mission. Timewise I spent over 27 human hours playing (or so the game tells me) and most of those hours was pure fun. :-)

My old Jawbone bluetooth headset packed it in the other day. All I could hear out of the earpiece was static and more static.

Being impressed with the size and performance I thought i would get a new one and it seems they have released 2 new models since my old one was released, the latest being the Jawbone Icon.

Wow did they really improve upon what was already a great product.

• It speaks to you! - Press the only button while not on a call and a voice will tell you how much battery life you have left. These voices can be customised by connecting the Jawbone to your PC or MAC and going to the Jawbone website
• Has a physical on/off button - So much easier to turn on and off now. Plus the button makes it easy to tell at a quick glance if the headset is on or off. This makes the headset a lot easier to use and I pull it out for just about every call now.
• You can make it play music - Just download the udpated profile from the Jawbone site and your phone can now recognise it as a bluetooth audio device which is technically seperate to bluetooth headset. So now I can make calls and also listen to podcasts on it (not at the same time though).
• It puts a battery status bar on your iPhone - Only on the iPhone. I didn't know that bluetooth headsets could do something like this. Very nice for a quick glance battery check.
• Smaller & Lighter - Its shorter and fatter, but overall smaller.

Overall: A great little bluetooth headset that is easy to have with you at all times due to it's small size. Really quite happy with it.

Soooo, iPad. Yeah, that happened. After watching Star Trek years ago, every geek on the planet has wanted a touch style tablet device. There have been many attempts and Apple's iPad is the first one to get most of it right.

Sure it isn't perfect, though the iPad gets the important bits right. Thanks to Apple's early work with the iPhone the iPad is a great device despite being 'version 1'.

Lets start with the main drawbacks:

• Heavy. It's light when you frist pick it up, though hold it for half an hour and you really start to feel the weight.
• Screen can be like a mirror in very bright lights.

Now onto the good bits:

• The battery lasts forever. It's great to pick it up and know that it will be charged and ready to go. After a busy day of using it almost all day I was only at 50%.
• Fast and responsive. You rotate it or use the touch features and it responds instantly.
• Screen is viewable from a lot of wide angles. Unlike my iPhone 3GS which you can't see very well from the side, the iPad is still clear when viewed from a side angle.
• It can do everything I need it to do. I can browse the web, read my mail, check my calendar, watch podcasts and even remotely control my server.

I mainly wanted a web browser in tablet form. Thanks to the app store on the iPad there are so many more things you can do with it I feel like I am only using 10% of it's potential.

The price is quite high at the moment, though as no one else has bothered to come to market with anything remotely competitive it's hard to complain, though I won't let that stop me. ;-)

Developers are making good use of the extra screen real estate. For example The IMDB iPad app is so great that it is a better experience than using the IMDB website.

Overall I have to say that I am quite happy with the iPad and look forward to what more cool things developers will come up with.

Oh yeah, it isn't magical.

Wow! It's been a long time since I saw a werewolf movie. The Wolfman is an old school style movie that delivers just like you expect it to.

A big name cast really helps to bring this to the top of the pile.  While all the stars deliver great performances, I couldn't help but smile when Hugo Weaving came on screen (Mr Anderson, we missed you.). He really is great to watch.

The special effects were great and it's nice to see just how far they have come since the Michael Jackson's Thriller days. Let's not mention TeenWolf. :-)

While the story was kinda predictable (what do you expect a werewolf to do? Knit!?), it was told very well and the pacing is great despite this being a 2 hour movie.

Overall: A great rental. Make sure to watch it on a dark and cloudy night with the full moon peeking out from behind the clouds. Just to give it that extra 'bite'. ;-)