The Office for National Statistics has refreshed its hypothetical shopping basket again.
Alongside the addition of liquid soap, cereal bars and garlic bread (it’s the future!) comes the arrival of the more gadgety Blu-ray player!
If you’re not sure what all this is about the ONS updates this rather huge ‘basket’ to reflect the average urban consumer’s spending habits.
This is then used to calculate the consumer prices index (CPI), which the Bank of England is furiously trying to keep below 3 per cent according to The Guardian.
Now that Blu-ray players are pretty affordable, with even top notch gear falling in the sub-£200 zone the HD tech now sits in the country’s basket in order to “capture price changes in this new expanding technology”.
Also joining the gadgety invasion are video game accessories thanks to the extra cash being spent by gamers on the likes of Wii Fit, GuitarHero, Rock Band and Singstar.
The ONS calls this a “relatively new market” – just wait til Xbox 360’s Project Natal and the PlayStation 3’s Move busts out!
Gone are disposable cameras thanks to “decreasing expenditure as digital compact cameras and mobile phone photography become increasingly popular”.
Do you think that this represents the average shopper?
Sony has been showing off its Nintendo Wii baiting motion controller. They’ve also officially named it: PlayStation Move.
Sony created a bit of a stir at the PlayStation presentation held at the Games Developer Conference in San Francisco.
The naming of the Move may have lost a number of people money if they’d been betting on Sony naming the motion controller Arc.
The PlayStation Move requires the use of a wand-like device a bit like a rounded Wiimote, with Sony’s Eye camera used as the sensor to track your movements – Sony are bragging that it’s the ‘most precise’ and ultra-sensory device of its kind.
The good thing is that the Move can be integrated into more established PS3 titles – games of choice for underling this was big-hitters SOCOM 4: US Navy Seals and Little Big Planet. LBP was shown using The Move Subcontroller (see gallery) as well as the main Move.
At the presentation Sony broke out a number of Move games which by all accounts looked pretty Wii-ey with the likes of ‘Sports Champions’ a sports compilation pack which includes such mini-games as archery, tablet tennis, and Gladiator Arena (duel fighting).
The PS3 Move will come in three bundles; the first packing the PS3 Move control for those who already own the Eye cam, or you can buy the Move with the Eye cam and a PS3 console. I reckon that the most popular will probably be the third option: The Move motion control with the camera and a game which Sony is saying will cost under $100 (£66).
No news regarding an official UK price but there is a rumbling that the August 2010 launch will be a global affair.
Have a gawp at the PlayStation Move and the PlayStation Move support controller in action below
Another feather in the cap for Sony’s PS3.
The Blu-ray Disc Association has completed the spec for the new 3D Blu-ray standards and the Play Station 3 will be fully compatible – this means that PS3 owners will be able to enjoy the full HD 3D film fest.
The new 3D Blu-ray spec will work with any [...]
EA’s CEO,John Riccitiello, accidentally let slip that Sony has been referring to the motion-sensing accessory as the “Gem” at a media conference in New York. Ooopsy!
During his speech Riccitiello said: “Natal [Microsoft's motion sensing game solution] and Gem, these are likely to bring new consumers into the marketplace”.
Sony Computer Entertainment of America director of [...]
Here’s a chance to peep at the as yet un-aired official PS3 Slim ad.
The ad also confirms that the Sony PlayStation 3 Slim will hit the UK release on 1 September and cost £249.99.
The new console will come with a 120GB hard drive and be 32% smaller, 30% lighter and use 34% less power [...]
Sony has finally confirmed the new version of the PlayStation 3 – the PS3 Slim, and it’ll go on sale worldwide in the first week of September.
It was unleashed at Sony’s keynote event at the GamesCom gaming conference last night in Germany after appearing for pre-order on a couple of American store sites.
The new console [...]
Kmart and Sears are gonna get some slapped wrists after letting slip pre-orders for the new PS3 Slim up on their sites …a number of hours before it was due to be announced at GamesCom.
Tsk-tsk!
Those pre-order listings claim that the PS3 Slim will have a Blu-ray player, 120GB hard disk, DualShock3 controller, and HDMI output [...]
So more news about the much rumoured slimline PS3.
We’ve seen spy shots, and even seen in a video clip but now a site from over the Channel has touted a release date for the PS3 Slim.
French site RTL reckons it’ll be here as early as this month but we’ve heard that before.
It says Sony [...]
Another interesting installment from the world of Shakey-Cam thanks to CVG!
There’s absolutely no way of working out if this video from the Philippines of the PS3 Slim is bogus or not but GameTrailers is claiming it to be the real deal.
Remember though – it is supposed to be released this month
I’m not entirely [...]
The PS3 Slim has been bouncing around the interweblogosphere for a while now and there’s even been pictures of the new console and its packaging but no one really had an idea when, if at all, the thing would bounce into the stores.
Until now!
How about this month? How’s that grab ya?
The folk over at TechRadar spotted [...]
Microsoft’s Project Natal may be the latest in motion detection going by the buzz at E3, but Sony’s adventure into motion detection, or Motion Control has been demo’d live on stage in a more complete and working state than Natal.
In a recent interview, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s new CEO and president, Andrew House, has described it as [...]
Rejoyce Europeand PS3 owners for you shall be getting a huge is about to get a massive boost on the music side of things thanks to VidZone’s official launch on the Sony console later on today via the Play Station Store.
VidZone is based right here in London town and offers a music video download service of around 10,000 videos to [...]
Say hello to the Sony Ericsson Aino.
Aino is a character in Finnish mythology whose name means ‘only’ – see, you learn all sorts here at Gadgety News
What’s special about the SE Aino is that it beams your PlayStation 3 content direct to you wherever you are. How clever is that?
The Aino is loaded [...]
Ah, you’ve all seen DJ Hero’s turntable that was spotted on Twitter but now here’s ‘Scratch: The Ultimate DJ‘.
It’s been designed by deck maestro’s, Numark.
The rig features a free-spinning, touch-sensitive turntable on your left and five Akai Pro MPC-style drum pad triggers next to the cross-fader to the right.
According to the press release, [...]
What you’re looking at is the Sony PS3 Slim.
A sleek, redesigned version of the Sony PS3 is apparently in production, if pictures from the manufacturing plant and posted on a Chinese message board, are to be trusted.
The Kotaku writers that grabbed this story, and commenters on their post, have already questioned the validitiy of these pictures.
There are particularly [...]
We’ve already seen John Lennon and George Harrison’s guitars for the upcoming Beatles-themed version of Rock Band and I think everyone has been expecting Paul McCartney’s little Höfner violin bass to turn up.
Now it has
Kotaku’s got the goods in pictorial form and here is the wireless bass controller.
I’m pretty darned sure that the tremelo arm never [...]
BLAZE today announced the release of their latest PlayStation 3 accessory, the BLAZE Digital Arcade Stick. This fully featured 8 button arcade stick is perfect for all fighting games such as Street Fighter 4, with Turbo and Macro programmable function buttons, there will be no stopping you with this ultimate controller!
The sleek black design with [...]
Still got that crimbo money from Aunty Ethel and that Uncle that you’ve never seen over in Australia?
Still thinking about putting it towards a gaming console?
Still trying to decide Xbox or PS3?
Perhaps you want them all!!!
Well, unless your plans involve a Wii, you should hold on to that folding for a few months as those [...]
If the pink heart shaped guitar controller wasn’t metal enough for your taste hows about this beast then?
This is the dreamGEAR WarBeast wireless controller for PS3 and PS2.
It’ll play nicely with Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Rock Revolution games and features a removable faceplate so you can get all custom on it but also has [...]
Virtual world Habbo polled 5,450 UK 11-18 year olds and discovered that the majority of them have placed a games console at the top of their Christmas list this year, with the Xbox 360 coming tops.
They also found that 39% had asked for a console or computer from Santa. This is quite a significant lead [...]
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