Ok on with the review  the last time I took a close look at the Slappa laptop bags I was hugely impressed with the quality of all the materials used ,  these latest Slappa bags  are identical in quality and follow very much in that trend, so much so that I don’t want to harp on about the quality because the laptop bags- suitcase ( you will see why I call it a suitcase in a moment)  are without doubt very well made , well thought out and I simply would have no problem what so ever recommending them to anyone , they are well worth the money , period !

So I have decided for this review to focus on the size – scale- dimension  of the bag and backpack as I something think it is very hard to gauge the sheer size of the laptop bags themselves when not modelled by a human or have something in very close proximity to the bag to give you an idea of scale. So lets begin….

KIKEN 18″ custom build Laptop Shoulder Bag-Jedi Mind TrixFnatic Gaming

Simply put , a stunning , well designed Laptop shoulder bag

Still not able to see the scale ? So introducing stunning blonde

Yep its HUGE !!!!!!!!!!with so many pockets for storage leads, cables ………………

Stunning  blonde liked it so much she has laid claim to it !!!!!! ( well she does travel up and down the UK with a laptop and Ipad so it’s only fair)  The bag is BIG it is very big !!! So many storage pockets you will not be short on storage space !

Filofax , laptop , Ipad and notebook all fitting comfortably in just one side of the case.

This is the other side of the case with the padded laptop section , not sure why stunning blonde wasn’t using this side for her laptop ? The funky orange front part also comes off for an interchangeable look !

There is not much more to say , the bag is very big , the quality of zips , material and overall design is very very good in fact I would go as far as saying excellent  !!  If you need a very large laptop bag this is the one for you !( ps , I tried to find something I didn’t like about the bag but couldn’t )

• Patent Pending M.A.S.K. technology enables interchangable flaps to change look/functionality at any time
• Quick Scan access enables laptop to stay inside backpack when scanning at airport
• Super-cush dedicated laptop storage for up to 17″ laptops
• 1680D Ballistix Nylon; puncture proof and water resistant
• Molded alloy zipper pullers, “D” rings and strap clasps

In January 2009 SLAPPA set out to develop the best laptop shoulder bag on the market. We scoured the market, and looked at many different brands of bags, including models that sell for $400+. We surveyed more than 200 customers and surveyed more than 400 people at trade shows, and after nearly 20 months, came up with our new KIKEN shoulder bags.

KIKEN laptop shoulder bags utilize our patent pending M.A.S.K. technology, which enables the flap to be removed and interchanged whenever you want to change the look or functionality of the bag. The rear section is a TSA friendly quick-scan laptop section, which allows you to keep your laptop in the bag when you are going through airport scanners and checkpoints. These features make this bag one of the most checkpoint friendly laptop bags on the market. The center of the bag features another storage compartment for books, a second laptop, clothes or documents. The front panel of the bag (under the flap) features 3 large storage pockets for hand held gadgets, power cords, power bricks and accessories.

All KIKEN laptop shoulder bags are made from 1680D Ballistix Nylon which is puncture proof and water resistant. (It’s the same material formerly used by the military to make flack-jackets) Every zipper puller, clasp and “D” ring is molded alloy. The entire bag features SLAPPA’s super-cush padding. Our industrial strength shoulder strap with molded alloy clasps is included (and yes, this bag is built to fit the popular Asus G73 and Alienware m17X laptops). And, humbly, we do believe this bag is a giant killer and ask you to compare this to every other laptop bag on the market.

M.A.S.K. “Fnatic” Customizable Backpack for 17″ Laptops

Following on the theme of getting the whole family involed in trying the laptop bags on i decided to modle one myself, oh then the kids complained that they wanted a try and even thecockapoo  puppy eric got interested.

Please no model agencies that’s my James Bond stare

Now the bag as modelled by techno boy 11  and techno girl  9 !  Techno boy has laid claim to this bag as his “super new cool school bag”  (techno girl not happy about this , might have to bribe with “another”  pair of shoes….

These images should give you an idea of the scale of the laptops backpacks when worn by different people of different age groups, just on a side note to parents , Techno boy and girl were both very impressed when I unpacked this bag,  the styling and look of the backpacks  very much fit in with ,cool , youth, DJ culture …  I think they would make a really good gift for kids !  As you can see below the top of the bag opens up via a zip ( well actually it comes fully off)  and allows you to use the bag as a platform from which to work from,  when you open the bag up instead of just see a random colour slappa have designed a range of removable and interchangeable (via Velcro)  background inserts … just for scale purposes Techno boy is playing on an Ipad with the top part of the back pack in the half open position.

Here are a couple of the interchangeable inserts that can very easily be replaced , they simply Velcro into position.

There are also other options available for the top part of the bag so you can remove and replace to suit.

Above is techno boy showing one side of the back pack fully opened with the numerous storage options ( tons of them)

As per the lastslappa review we had to test the strength of the straps by swing techno boy from a tree (both passed the test with flying colours)

Then Eric the 5 Month old Cockapoo started looking Interested so we gave him his backpack debut

Just thought I would throw in a random image of him when he was 3 months old mainly because the bags are stunning and so is he !!

It took us 2 years to develop the M.A.S.K. and we’ve thrown everything we could at this to make it the ultimate backpack for “laptop + gear”. M.A.S.K. is highly customizable, allowing you to choose (and change at any time) the outer face and to choose (and change at any time) the inner artwork of the backpack. In addition to choosing the design of the bag, it features a “quick-scan” laptop and peripheral section that allows you to keep your laptop inside the bag when you go through airport security. As if all this were not enough, we’ve teamed up with artists from around the globe to bring you a series of limited edition “custom-artist” insert designs that provide highly artistic design choices.

M.A.S.K. is engineered from pro-grade 1680D Ballistix nylon, and features .5″ super-cush padding in every wall of the backpack. The “quick-scan” gear section features a dedicated super-cush padded laptop compartment (that can store laptops up to 17″), a large zipper pocket for power bricks and cords, 3 pockets for handheld gadgets and a headphone strap. The large middle section is ideal for game consoles OR a small DJ mixer OR a full SLR camera lens set or our 240 d2i CD case. Each face has different pocket configurations and straps for MANY different needs. Overall, we believe this is the most flexible, customizable backpack in the world!

Here’s how it works:

1) Pick the inner lining of the backpack- There are 3 different inner lining colours to choose from, Red, Blue and Black. All of which are rip-stop nylon

2) Choose a “custom-artist” insert. With 12 different inner panels to choose from you can make the inside your own private expression of individuality. Our M.A.S.K. technology enables you to add/change the artwork any time you like

3) Choose a face for your backpack. You can choose between a number of faces that best fit your style and functional needs. Again, with our M.A.S.K. technology, you can choose to have more than one face for your bag, and change the face to change your moods/needs.

Slappa Have Got it Going On !

You can either choose to follow or to lead, Slappa are leading  by a huge margin, they know their target audiences , they listen to customer feedback and they have got it right on the button !!  Well done awesome bags!!

Where To purchase

• Slappa US
• Slappa UK

• Laptop Bags And Laptop Back Packs
• Ladies Laptop Bags
• Laptop Bag Review and Laptop Case Review, Slappa
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• Laptop Trolleys Don’t Travel Without One

Image Source : www.maximumpc.com

Starting from next year, there’s a good chance that if you buy a new computer you’ll find that it boots up in only a matter of seconds in a long overdue out with the old and in with the new scenario.

I’m sure most would agree that ‘BIOS’ is now well and truly past its sell by date and UEFI, which has been designed to replace the archaic BIOS system in computers, and which stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, is a much needed upgrade.

“Conventional Bios is up there with some of the physical pieces of the chip set that have been kicking around the PC since 1979” the BBC quotes Mark Doran, head of the UEFI Forum as having said. Doran is overseeing development of the UEFI technology.

According to Doran, the creators of the BIOS only expected it to last for about 250,000 devices.

“They are as amazed as anyone else that now it is still alive and well in a lot of systems” said Doran.

Doran also said that evolution of the BIOS when compared to other components has been “phenomenally slow”.

As BIOS was originally intended for the basic PC system, and we have advanced well beyond that with tablet computers and other smaller and more mobile devices being churned out daily, it really is time to bring BIOS up to date.

AMI is a company that produces BIOS software and Brian Richardson, who is part of AMI’s technical team, told the BBC that problems arise because BIOS expects a machine to have an internal setup similar to the first PCs.

UEFI of course, doesn’t, and Mr Doran said that the biggest and most obvious benefit for consumers is that we will see much faster boot up times. I’m sure we all would appreciate that.

“At the moment it can be 25-30 seconds of boot time before you see the first bit of OS sign-on” he said. “With UEFI we’re getting it under a handful of seconds.”

“In terms of boot speed we’re not at instant-on yet but it is already a lot better than conventional Bios can manage” and “we’re getting closer to that every day” says Doran.

When you think about it, it’s quite ridiculous that with all the advances in technology over the past few years it has still taken 3 decades to improve boot up times. Hurray for progress.

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Somehow the image of the Queen sitting at a laptop or computer uploading pics to the Internet seems a little bizarre (OK, so she probably has someone to do it for her), but nevertheless, Buckingham Palace has opened a new Flickr account and uploaded more than 600 photographs to the photo-sharing site.

In a bid to embrace new technology, the Palace has already got a YouTube and Twitter account, as well as its own website. And it’s been five years since the Queen started podcasting her Christmas message, so the Flickr account is just another step — but it’s probably the most interesting as far as the public is concerned.

Hey, maybe we’ll even find the House of Windsor on Facebook soon.

The decision to open a Flickr account coincides with the summer opening of Buckingham Palace, and some of the photos included in the upload were commissioned for the exhibition “Queen’s Year,” which opens next Tuesday.

Some of the photos on Flickr are of official visits but there are others from rarely seen moments and are more what you would call family photos. They include photos of the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall — and, of course, Prince William, Prince Harry and other photos dating back more than 100 years belonging to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

As of July 26th, viewers will be able to see photographs of recent royal events such as pics from the recent trip to Canada and New York and a garden party last week. You can also see some of the royals as babies and early pictures of Queen Victoria and others from around that time in history.

There are pics of Harry as a baby with his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, and of Harry in Afghanistan; and pics of William as a young boy, on exercise with the Navy and meeting footballer David Beckham in South Africa.

Apparently the Queen has said she is very enthusiastic about embracing new technology. It is already known that she regularly surfs the Internet, has her own mobile phone and her own private email address and it was she who personally authorised the latest upload of the family photographs. The site will be updated regularly.

Of course we can’t forget that social media is one of the most effective ways to stay in touch with what’s happening right now and to appear “accessible” to the public, so the Flickr account is a smart move.

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If you happen to be driving on route from Italy to China between now and October then don’t be freaked out if you happen to come across two bright orange vans with no drivers at the wheel, it’s just a VisLab project in action.

For the first time in history, the vehicles will be making the epic driverless trip in a bid to demonstrate the automated technology VisLab have been working on for years. What’s even better is that the vans won’t even be polluting the planet in the process.

“After about two decades of continuous research on Intelligent Vehicles, VisLab is preparing to set a new worldwide milestone in the field of Vehicular Robotics” it says on the VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge website.

“Autonomous vehicles are being prepared and tested to drive with no human intervention from Parma, Italy, to Shanghai, China, along a 13,000 km and 3 months unique journey.”

The vans are running on electrical power and the electronic pilot is powered by solar energy.

On the trip some goods will be loaded up in Rome and some will be collected on the way. As a precaution and in case of the need for intervention there will also be other vehicles and technicians following the vans on the trip, including vehicles for media coverage and live broadcasting.

The first vehicle will conduct some experimental tests on sensing, decision and control subsystems, and the second will automatically follow the route defined by the first vehicle using GPS if the first vehicle happens to be out of the line of sight.

There will be virtually no human intervention although some is obviously required to define the route.

“What we are trying to do is stress our systems and see if they can work in a real environment, with real weather, real traffic and crazy people who cross the road in front of you and a vehicle that cuts you off” said Alberto Brogg, the project leader, reported by the Daily Telegraph.

Self drive vehicles are nowhere near ready to be introduced into the mainstream market but the technology is being perfected all the time and if this trip is successful, that day won’t be too far away.

If you want to follow the vehicles on their route you can do so on the Intercontinental Challenge website where live streaming will be available throughout the whole trip which is scheduled to end on 10th October.

Article sponsored by Metal Carports.

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Samsung are currently the world’s largest electronics company and they are also days away from launching their new 3D TV. The Korean company manufactures 3D televisions and 3D glasses for viewing 3D content and curiously they have just issued a warning about the health risks associated with 3D viewing.

“Children and teenagers may be more susceptible to health issues associated with viewing in 3D and should be closely supervised when viewing these images” Samsung said on its website.

“Some viewers may experience an epileptic seizure or stroke when exposed to certain flashing images or lights contained in certain television pictures or video games.

“If you suffer from, or have a family history of epilepsy or strokes, please consult with a medical specialist before using the 3D function” Samsung says.

It’s not just those who are already aware they might have problems that are at risk though.

“Even those without a personal or family history of epilepsy or stroke may have an undiagnosed condition that can cause photosensitive epileptic seizures” said Samsung.

“Pregnant women, the elderly, sufferers of serious medical conditions, those who are sleep deprived or under the influence of alcohol should avoid utilising the unit’s 3D functionality.

“Viewing 3D television may also cause motion sickness, perceptual after effects, disorientation, eye strain and decreased postural stability”

Samsung are recommending that viewers take frequent breaks from watching 3D TV in order to lessen the potential effects.

“If your eyes show signs of fatigue or dryness or if you have any of the above symptoms, immediately discontinue use of this device and do not resume using it for at least thirty minutes after the symptoms have subsided” the company said.

Up till now all we’ve heard about 3D is that it’s great, it’s the future and it’s coming sooner rather than later, it’s kinda disturbing now to hear there’s also a negative side but there just had to be didn’t there.

It was the same when mobile phones came out, and laptops, and just about everything else technological.

OK so 3D will take a bit of getting used to and it may well increase the risk of seizures, we’ve known that about strobe lighting for years. So why are Samsung coming out with this info about 3D now?

They want to avoid any potential lawsuits after they launch 3D on the masses of course. We’re all just guinea pigs.

Me I can’t wait, but also can’t help but wonder if 3D TV has been over hyped.

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If you are using public Wi-Fi in London any time soon then you had better be on your guard, the administrator of the Wi-Fi service may be watching you.

Apparently British police have asked all those who offer public web access in the UK capital to voluntarily keep an eye on what their customers are up to and to check what sort of things they are downloading, and of course to report any suspicious activity.

“It’s not about asking owners to spy on their customers, it’s about raising awareness” a police spokesman told Associate Press, anonymously, in line with the police force policy.

“We don’t ask them to pass on data for us.”

Of course they’re not going to say it’s spying, officially it’s all to counter terrorism, but that doesn’t take away the fact that the Metropolitan police are blatantly asking café owners to pry into what their customers are doing whilst on the net.

Some may think this is a positive move, the police obviously do, and will have no problem with it, others might see it as a step nearer to the big brother state and feel depressed about it, and then there are the civil libertarians who will be up in arms about it.

The system has been in operation for the past few weeks and posters with the Scotland Yard logo are appearing everywhere reminding people that they shouldn’t download “inappropriate or offensive content” although we’re not sure who decides what that is.

The thing is, anyone who thought they might indulge in dodgy activity and who sees the posters will either go somewhere else to do what they were going to do anyway, or they will cover up their tracks.

“You would expect any cyber criminal who had made the decision to use an Internet cafe to pretty much dust off their fingerprints” said Graham Cluley, a security expert with Sophos.

That being the case it means we’re less likely to catch them. All we’re left with is the issue of invasion of privacy as well as the problem of fear and irrational behaviour by panicked people.

“What you’re going to end up with is a lot of people reporting Muslims in Internet cafes” Simon Davies, the director of U.K.-based Privacy International told Associated Press.

“We don’t expect that our calls from a public phone would be monitored, anymore than we should expect our e-mails to be monitored” he said.

“As citizens we have to hold the line that there is a fundamental right of privacy of communications”.

So which camp are you in?

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We’re coming up to the Easter break when many people are likely to travel abroad, however, if you are travelling anywhere in Europe, or further afield, be careful about using your SmartPhone or you may find yourself with a massive bill warns the consumer organisation ‘Which’.

We take our mobile phone everywhere, that’s the whole idea, and it would be perfectly natural to check our emails or access the internet whilst on the move. Not a good idea.

Most people don’t even think about their mobile phone bill when they do this as many data plans offer unlimited use for a reasonable fee but what many users don’t realise is that this doesn’t apply the moment they leave the country.

The rules are about to change on 1st July but for Europe only. After that date maximum bills for downloading data will be capped at 50 euros a month for the 27 European Union countries but this won’t apply to anywhere else in the world.

The consumer association would like to see the mobile phone companies extend the capping policy to all countries and not just to Europe.

“Mobile phone companies should voluntarily take these very sensible steps, and apply them on a worldwide basis” says Matt Bath of Which?

It does seem ridiculous in this communication age when many people are regularly travelling abroad with their mobiles that massive charges can be levied by mobile phone companies that far outweigh the actual costs involved.

However, the GSM Association which represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry doesn’t see it that way.

“Europe is a very unique market. We would not advocate copycat regulation for other territories” a spokesperson told the BBC. Why not I wonder?

Anyway, we regularly come across media reports of people who had unwittingly clocked up a small fortune just for using their mobile abroad, including one German guy travelling in France who got the shock of his life when his bill amounted to 46,000 euros. This could easily happen to you too.

So if you are travelling abroad you can either go into your settings and turn off the data roaming facility on your phone, or you can contact your mobile phone company in advance to agree on a limit before you travel, unless of course you don’t mind stumping up the cash for a huge bill.

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We use Facebook for many things, for contacting our friends, for keeping up with the local gossip, for playing games, even for touting for work, and recently they have added the ability to share cash, so why not stop smoking on Facebook too?

The charity WeQuit has launched a stop smoking programme in partnership with the increasingly popular social networking site to help people give up tobacco in a way that is a bit more interesting than enduring the inevitable withdrawal symptoms in solitary misery.

“WeQuit is the app that motivates you and your friends to give up smoking and stay smoke free. It tracks your progress, challenges you and your mates, provides useful tips to quit and gives you a friendly nudge in the right direction” says the app blurb.

So for all the smokers that failed to quit on 10th March, which happened to be national no smoking day, there’s still time to get in on the action and improve not only your own health but possibly the life of your laptop too.

It’s a fact. Some computer warranties are invalidated if the user is a smoker or if the computer is used in a room where there are smokers. Apple doesn’t like smokers for a start.

Apparently computer repair guys can tell if a computer has been exposed to cigarette smoke so there must be some evidence left behind in the dark recesses under the hood.

They say that smoke clogs up ventilation holes and fans and can cause a computer or laptop to overheat.

They also reckon that cigarette smoke causes a build up of sticky tar on electrical components which then attracts mountains of dust, which will eventually cause these components to fail.

It causes discoloration of your computer and keyboard, messes up the motherboard and causes hassles for your hard drive.

Now what isn’t clear is whether or not it is just the smoking that causes some of the computer problems or if they would have happened anyway.

Regardless, smoking is becoming increasingly socially unacceptable so if you are feeling under pressure to quit then using a social networking site to help you might prove a bit more effective than a nicotine patch or a fake fag. At least you won’t feel alone.

Failing that you can always join a smoker’s united group, on Facebook of course, and campaign for the right to puff away in freedom.

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Check this out. The Japanese have developed a mobile phone that can be used as a sort of tracking device for employees.

The BBC reports that the technology comes from the phone company KDDI Corp, who have developed a way to track employee movements using accelerometers and analysis software, and then send the info directly back to the boss.

Employers using the phones to spy on their employees would be able to tell if any of them were slacking or doing anything else for that matter although that’s not quite the way the phone is being marketed.

“Technically, I think this is an incredibly important innovation” says Philip Sugai, director of the mobile consumer lab at the International University of Japan.

“For example, when applied to the issue of telemedicine, or other situations in which remotely monitoring or accessing an individual’s personal movements is vital to that service.

“But there will surely be negative consequences when applied to employee tracking or sales force optimisation.”

KDDI are already in discussions with a Japanese company that wants to make use of the technology and according to KDDI, the purpose of the phone is to allow managers to monitor employees’ performance whilst out on the job.

“It’s part of our research into a total ubiquitous technology society, and activity recognition is an important part of that” said Hiroyuki Yokoyama from KKDI.

“Because this technology will make central monitoring possible with workers at several different locations, businesses especially are very interested in using such technology to improve the efficiency of their workers.

“We are now at a stage where we can offer managers a chance to analyse more closely the behaviour of staff.”

Is it ethical or is it just another invasion of privacy?

“Of course there are privacy issues and any employers should really enter into an agreement with employees before using such a system” Mr Yokoyama told BBC News.

“But this is not about curtailing employees’ rights to privacy. We’d rather like to think our creation more of a caring, mothering system rather than a Big Brother approach to watching over citizens.”

Not everyone sees it that way though, Kazuo Hizumi, a leading human rights lawyer told BBC News “It beggars believe that a prominent company such as KDDI could come up with such a surveillance system. It’s totally irresponsible”.

Is this what we call progress?

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Britain has nearly 8 million dogs. Weapons are tightly controlled in the U.K., which seems to have a problem with dogs trained to inflict harms on people to make up for it.

Making dog owners buy insurance will sanction all of them — even those who are law-abiding citizens — while criminals will continue to do what they do and  simply ignore the law.

“But I don’t think it will actually happen,” Big Brother Watch’s Alex Deane wrote on the privacy advocacy group’s website. “You can tax us to high heaven, you can authorise bullying policemen to push us from pillar to post – people in this country just take it. But any man who messes with the great British pet is a fool – they simply won’t manage to enforce this one.”

As for the microchips — a standard method of tracking beloved pets when the become lost — theier compulsory use has the potential to lead to bigger problems than occasional dog attacks.

“While the question of how to reduce the number of stray dogs on Britain’s streets is pressing, this solution is yet another example of the state’s desire to accrue ever more information on its citizens (and their pets),” wrote Big Brother Watch’s Dylan Sharpe. “Databases, such as the one proposed, give countless people in local authorities easy access to very personal data; which is in itself often far more dangerous than the initial problem.”

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Social Networking site Facebook is now offering its users the opportunity to share cash with each other, real cash that is.

You can send and receive small payments via a Facebook application called Buxter and the company behind Buxter that will process the transactions is online payments company ClickandBuy.

Setting it up is easy. If you already have a ClickandBuy account, and millions of people across the globe do, then all you have to do to take advantage of the service is set up your Buxter account on Facebook.

If you don’t have a Click and Buy account then you need to set one up before you can load cash in or out of your Buxter account.

Transactions on the Buxter system are limited to a maximum of 50 euros or less and are free to process between friends although there are small fees (minimum of 2 euros) for transferring money out of Buxter and into your bank.

You can’t make purchases from anywhere though; you will only be able to ‘trade’ with your friends on Facebook.

To send cash to a friend you simply select your friend’s name from a drop down menu and enter the amount you want to send. Easy!

“People share their statuses, their information and their pictures on Facebook so the question is why not share money there too?” said Christian von Hammel-Bonten, senior vice president at ClickandBuy.

He hopes people will use the service to share expenses for things like cinema tickets and restaurant bills or small gifts; it’s not designed for anything more than that.

“We’re not trying to compete with national banking systems. This is not somewhere to pay your gas or rent” he said.

To receive any cash you send to a friend they just have to accept the Buxter application and enter an email address.

That friend will then be free to transfer the money to any of their friends or into their bank account if they wish.

“Buxter is the application that will see Facebook members use the platform not just as a way to stay in touch, but also as a fast, easy and secure way to exchange money or buy and sell products or services” said Charles Fraenkl, chief executive of ClickandBuy.

The only currencies offered by the service at the moment are US dollars and Euros but support for the UK pound will be added in the coming weeks.

It will be interesting to see how many Facebook users end up using it.

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For all you PS3 gamers out there you will no doubt be delighted now that Sony has apparently “fixed” the bug that was plaguing some of the older PlayStation consoles.

It has been ten years since the original Y2K problem. Most will remember that back then there was significant fear and panic that the technological world would go into meltdown as soon as the clock struck midnight on December 31st 1999.

The worry was that computers might not be able recognize the year 2000 and would revert back to 1900 instead and in doing so cause a global catastrophe. Although there were some minor glitches, the 1st January 2000 arrived with no major problems.

Well for those of you who haven’t heard yet, a millennium style bug hit the PlayStation 3 last week as some of the ‘phat’ machines recognised the year 2010 as a leap year. This didn’t affect the ‘slim’ type consoles.

The result was that thousands of users found they couldn’t connect to the PlayStation Network or even play their games and flooded the PlayStation blog with their comments and complaints on March 1st.

Some unhappy players discovered that trophies they had earned for progressing through games had been wiped and others found they couldn’t even play videos rented from the PlayStation Store.

A few did suspect that the date was the problem and tried to set the time and date via the Internet only to be faced with the message “The current date and time could not be obtained (800105F)”.

At the time Sony advised people not to use their consoles at all until the error was fixed and said “we hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours”. That didn’t go down too well.

Now thankfully it has been sorted. Or to be more precise, the passing of time actually fixed it when the consoles automatically moved to the 1st March.

“We are aware that the internal clock functionality in the PlayStation (PS3) units other than the slim model, recognized the year 2010 as a leap year,” said Patrick Seybold of the firm in a Sony PlayStation blog post.

“Having the internal clock date change from 29 February to 1 March (both GMT), we have verified that the symptoms are now resolved and that users are able to use their PS3 normally.”

If you are still having problems with your PS3 then Sony say you should now be able to adjust the date manually or over the Internet.

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It is the world’s first large screen full high definition 3D all in one computer designed for the 3D home experience. The press release says it all.

“MSI has become the first company in the world to introduce an All-in-One PC with a 3D touch-screen.

“Taking advantage of recent advances in 3D imaging technology, MSI has integrated 3D display technology combined with a powerful Multi-Core CPU and new 3D graphics technology to ensure smooth, clear 3D images and a higher level of detail.

“The combination of a 120Hz LED panel and 3D shutter glasses brings the kind of 3D video experience into your home that you would normally only expect from a modern 3D movie theatre.

“Put on the 3D glasses and touch the screen with your fingertip, and the beautiful scenery of the planet Pandora from the movie Avatar will appear right in front of you, almost as if you could reach out and touch it.”

The computer comes with an Intel Core i7 processor and will feature a 24 inch 120 Hz LED backlit full HD LCD touchscreen display and comes complete with Shutter Glass 3D glasses so that users can experience the computer in 3D.

The computer is actually built inside the display case so the device looks more like a standalone monitor than a traditional looking computer.

You wouldn’t expect something like this to come cheap, and it doesn’t, although we don’t have the exact cost it’s expected to be somewhere around the 2000 euro mark give or take a few euros depending on what components you choose.

The all-in-one PCs will come in a range of sizes, with a variety of specifications and colours.

MSI will also unveil their first 3D laptop at the expo, which sports a 15.6 inch 120 Hz 3D HD screen.

Other new products from MSI in 2010 will include the U160 super slim Netbook with 15 hours battery life, oh yes, that’s a world first too, also the X-Slim X620 Multimedia notebook, and the GT660 gaming laptop with the latest Core i7 processor and next generation graphics.

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Sony Ericsson is in trouble with their Satio SmartPhone again, this time it’s over their latest television ad.

Remember not so long ago Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U withdrew the Satio from sale due to the large number of customers returning the phone, so this latest incident isn’t going to help Sony whose mobile phone sales have been lagging lately.

So what exactly have Sony done wrong?

Apparently the TV ad misleads viewers about the phone’s ability to access the extremely popular social networking site Facebook.

According to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), Sony made exaggerated claims because of a voice over at the end of the ad which says the phone is “packed with applications and more available to download” whilst at the same time a Facebook icon is displayed on the screen.

The ASA got involved after one user complained to the ASA after he bought the phone and then discovered that the Facebook feature wasn’t included in the phone and that in fact he wouldn’t even be able to download it due to a software problem.

According to Sony though, Facebook could be accessed via the browser and that the software problem had now been fixed and users are able to download the Facebook app to their phone.

The ASA then responded that they “acknowledged that links installed on the phone allowed users to access the Facebook website via the phone’s Internet browser

“However, we understood that this was not the same as the phone being able to run the Facebook software application, which would offer better functionality and a faster user experience.

“We considered that the ad’s simultaneous use of the Facebook logo and voice-over saying ‘Packed with applications and more available to download’ was likely to be understood by viewers to mean that the phone either came with the Facebook application or it could be downloaded.

“We noted that a software problem had initially prevented the application being available but this had now been rectified. However, because the ad implied the application was either preloaded on the phone or would be available to download, and because this was not the case at the time the ad was broadcast, we concluded the ad was misleading” said the ASA.

The ASA have told Sony to make sure that product functionality depicted in ads was accurate at the time the ad was broadcast.

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Petter Sunde, one of the founders of the controversial bit torrent tracking website Pirate Bay, is to launch a new micropayments system known as Flattr, with the aim of helping people get paid for the content they create.

How it works is that members will pay a fixed monthly sum (around 2 euros but members can pay more if they want to) and then at the end of each month the accumulated cash will be divided amongst those sites that the Flattr members want to reward.

“We aim to revolutionise how people pay and get paid for content on the internet. Come, join and show the world that good content is worth some coins out of your pocket,” says the message on the front page of the Flattr site.

Sunde says that when people create content on the Internet they don’t find it easy to make money from it (true) and at the same time if you come across content you like, there’s no easy way of rewarding those sites.

For example, “Bloggers and their readers, musicians and their listeners, photographers, film makers, programmers and so on so” says the Flattr promotional video. So they created Flattr to solve this “universal problem”.

“When you have a cake you want to give slices to the people you like” they say. So if you have a Flattr button on your site and someone likes what they see, they can click it. Each time someone clicks the Flattr button on your site you are basically getting a slice of the cake.

Why the name Flattr? Well it’s a word play on flatter and flat-rate and with that you can flatter people says Sunde.

“The money you pay each month will be spread evenly among the buttons you click in a month,” he says.

“We want to encourage people to share money as well as content,” Sunde told the BBC.

“It’s a test to see if this might be a working method for real micropayments.”

Ok so there must be something in it for Flattr too otherwise there’s no point. According to Sunde they will initially take 10 percent for admin costs but as the site grows, they hope to lower the percentage.

“We’re not really in this for becoming rich,” said Sunde to the BBC.

“We’re doing it to change things and making people get money they never got before.”

The Flattr site is currently in closed beta testing and is due to go live at the end of March.

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