The Queen likes Wills Wii

January 8, 2008 | Video Games

The People, a UK newspaper, are reporting that the Queen has really gotten into playing with Prince Williams Wii (no jokes please, this is serious news).

A Palace source told The People: “When she saw William playing a game after lunch at Sandringham she thought the Nintendo looked tremendous fun and begged to join in.

“She played a simple ten-pin bowling game and by all accounts was a natural.

“It was hilarious. William was in fits of laughter. He was enormously impressed at having such a cool gran.

I think this is great for a number of reasons. Firstly, it makes the Queen look cool. Secondly, it will make even more old people buy Wiis (old people love the Queen). Thirdly, it boosts both the image of Nintendo and of video games in general - afterall, if the Queen likes video games, they must be good right?

You can’t argue with the Queen!

New Windows Mobile leaked… looks good

January 7, 2008 | Links

Apparently this is a genuine “leak” for the new version of Windows mobile. I have used windows mobile on old touchscreen devices and I must say, despite being a fan of pc’s, I came away feeling a little dirty. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. The software was clunky and cumbersome, essentially full windows, squashed up, and made more ugly (if that’s even possible).

The new version of Windows mobile seems to take a lot of queues from the Iphone, with various gesture and touch based features, but it also adds it’s own Windows/ Microsoft twists to the thing. It’s about time they did something like this.

The Golden Compass

January 3, 2008 | Reviews, Movies

I went to see The Golden Compass last week - the film of the book with the same name (although sometimes called Northern Lights). I mentioned the trailer before, and though tit looked great, but wasn’t sure what to expect of the movie itself.

I read the book some time ago so remember the story in broad sweeps but don’t remember the specifics - thankfully the film was laid out in a similar fashion. A quick discussion with my friends afterwards (who have re-read the books recently) tells me that basically they took the story and abbreviated things considerably. From my own memory I am sure the time in Bolvangar took place over several days (weeks? months?) where in the film it’s squashed into about ten minutes.

Of course edits and abbreviations are necessary for pretty much all book to film translations. Thankfully The Golden Compass is more Lord of …