Will next gen wii really be an Android?

Nintendo, once the master of gaming, lost that crown to rivals such as Microsoft and Sony until they released the original Wii console. Under powered, compared to its rivals, it none the less put Nintendo firmly back at the top and up there with it's rivals but until now it has always been seen as a fun family console but not something suitable for serious gamers.

Aside from the lack of high definition gaming, and having the sort of games that attract mainly casual gamers, the Nintendo Wii also suffers from its inability to easily be used as a multimedia console. In an era when its rivals consoles can play a range of different media formats Nintendos console has lagged behind somewhat in this department and if they are to attract more than their current customer base making their next console multimedia friendly would be a good idea.

A surge of "informed" rumour this week suggests that their plans for the next gen wii could be a big step in the right direction...IF they are true. Yes according to alleged tweets from engineers and at least one anonymous "insider" the new Wii, which has the slightly odd name of Wii U, will be compatible with the Android operating system.

Could this in fact be true?

Well it's not very likely given that nowhere in their promotional material do Nintendo make reference to what would, if true, be a very attractive selling point. Why would it be an attractive selling point? The Wii U supports SD memory cards and USB hard drives, if it also allowed the use of Android not only would it be usable as a full fledged media player (through the use of a decent Android media player) but it would instantly make a large number of great Android games available which would help attract a much wider range of customers.

With Android already full of great games (whether your taste be of the Deadspace kind or the less intense but equally fun Plants versus Zombies variety) Nintendo could travel the route Blackberry have with their Playbook tablet and allow their customers to run Android apps. The Wii U controller could indeed be used as an Android touchscreen device, it has a resistive 6.2 inch touchscreen and it also has a handy collection of buttons analogue sticks and a d-pad that would make playing Android games much more fun than on a phone or tablet so as far as the technology goes yes it is possible, and it would undoubtedly be great fun.

But the problem is that, as is the case with many eagerly anticipated devices such as iPhone 5 or the Galaxy S3, this is nothing more than extremely popular but unsubstantiated rumour, and when it comes to cold hard facts the truth is that Nintendo has always kept its system tightly shut so it would be out of character for them to suddenly go to the other extreme and allow a free operating system to be used alongside their own especially given that it would be possible, depending on how the Android compatability was handled, for any current Android malware or virus to infect the new Wii as easily as it could any other Android device (yes such apps do exist, and for those people who don't use common sense and check apps permissions before installing them it is possible for their device to be affected).

Would Nintendo really want to make an about turn and offer up part of their system to Googles jolly green giant? It seems highly unlikely given that there are no signs of Nintendos new Wii being any more open than the current one with the console maker again using a proprietary optical drive that will only read Nintendo discs and no mention of it being able to play external media files in the same way as for example the PS3 or XBox 360 can (although as can be seen from the graphics quality in this screenshot the new system clearly has the processing power to cope).

What Nintendo have done is make the Wii U backwards compatible with existing Wii products so that existing users can use their favourite games or accessories with the new console, that's a smart move on Nintendos part but as to whether making it Android friendly would be seen as an equally smart move, well it's doubtful.

It would be great for consumers and gamers, but it could also compromise the consoles security making it easier to hack or perhaps even expose it to a new breed of malware targetted specifically at Android Wii U's.

In the end it would be a big gamble for Nintendo and it's more likely that they will stick to what has worked so well for them with the Wii and avoid taking unnecessary risks.

Fuji S2980 review - budget bridge camera

For those on a budget, but wanting a digital slr rather than a compact, there is one type of camera that feeds the need without breaking the bank - the bridge camera. A bridge camera is a camera that isn't a point and shoot compact you can fit in your pocket, but isn't a big expensive feature packed slr either. It bridges the gap between the two, hence the name.

The FujiFilm Finepix S2980 is the lowest priced bridge camera you can buy but don't let the price of around £100 fool you, this is no slouch. With an 18x optical zoom Fujinon lens, a set of impressive manual and automatic modes, an iso range of up to iso 6400 and an eye pleasing design (as you can see) the S2980 neither looks nor performs like a budget model.

It comes with four heavy duty AA batteries, a lens cap, shoulder strap and a software cd and, as well as a shorter more basic printed manual, there is a detailed manual included on the cd in pdf format (which new users are recommended to read).

Looks wise it looks like a dslr, it's easy to hold (not too big or bulky but not too small either) and the zoom control is located at the  front right of the camera in a position that makes it very easy to use and easy to find should you prefer using its electronic viewfinder to the rear mounted lcd display. The camera offers a decent collection of shooting modes from manual to automatic, including the excellent SP and Panorama modes which we'll get to in a moment. There are also a small number of manual settings you can adjust, such as focus aperture and iso, should you wish to try setting a scene up manually.

But while the manual options are great and help make you feel more like you're using a d-slr, it's in the automatic "point and shoot" modes that the Fuji really excels. Here you can concentrate on framing your subject the way you want and let the camera do all the hard work for you. Take SP mode for example. It features a wide selection of pre programmed shooting modes for everything from close up macro shots to sunsets and includes presets for filming in the dark, snapping fireworks or landscapes, portrait photography and much more.

Among the most impressive of these are the night time modes, in particular the tripod mode which will take a good picture even in very low light.

The picture of boats seen here moored at night in Cardiff Bay, Wales, was shot in the middle of the night and in very low light. As you can see the detail, despite the lack of available light, is impressive enough that boats can easily be seen illuminated only by the building lights.

If you want to take night time shots but don't have the budget for a hefty slr the Fuji is certainly one camera to consider buying, but while you can use one of the two night modes without a tripod and achieve good results you really will need to invest in a tripod to use the tripod night mode although a sturdy budget tripod can be bought for around twenty pounds with smaller ones available from seven pounds at stores such as Argos.

Back to other modes now, other than the multi faceted SP one, and in particular the panorama offering. Very easy to use this mode automatically stitches together three photographs to make one long landscape shot and does so with such ease that it almost feels like cheating as you simply point and click, move until a yellow cross sits inside a yellow circle, click again and repeat once more before pressing the ok button to store your resulting panorama.

That is unless you set panorama to manual mode where it gets a whole lot better. In manual mode you can zoom into a shot, take three photographs and have them stitched together. It's a little bit harder than when set to automatic because you have to manually line up each shot but the camera shows the right edge of the previous view which helps make it easier and, as with automatic mode, the stitching process is quite forgiving should you not align things as accurately as intended.


Here you can see a panorama of a bay, a good example of the cameras excellent stitching skills this was taken in automatic mode (and left unedited) yet despite the large expanse of sea filling the frame the Fuji managed to cope well and avoid any obvious signs that this is not a single image shot with a wide angle lens.

All the automated modes produce very impressive results and image contrast is good and sharp with decent colour saturation (though if like me you wish to change colour levels later on you can use free photo editing software such as the gimp to do so) .

Overall the camera is very good value for money and certainly the best bridge camera available for this price. The preset modes are so good that you can choose to skip manual settings entirely and focus on the more important aspects of your photographs such as the content and framing, freeing you to concentrate on the aesthetics of a shot rather than its mechanics.

It doesn’t support changing lenses but to be fair this isn’t a bad thing, if you’re on a budget you probably can’t afford to spend a lot on advanced lenses and filters or you likely wouldn’t be buying a budget bridge camera but rather a full blown dslr. This is the camera to consider if you are on a budget and want something easy to use but that will allow you to try out more advanced features as you get used to it.

Battery life on a set of 2300mah Energizer NiMH rechargeables is pretty good, around three or four days of shooting at about an hour a day. On Alkalines battery life is not so good, about half the duration of nimh batteries, so if you’re going to be taking a lot of pictures check out the Energizer rechargeable nimh batteries which you can buy in supermarkets for around ten pound as they come pre charged and don’t run down quickly unlike Alkaline batteries.

Lack of reviews and sample images may put people off buying this camera but hopefully this review will help some decide for or against the camera, and you can also see other photo’s taken with an S2980 in the S2980 area of the myfinepix website by clicking here.

Will Being Human end with series five?

When the first series of the BBC’s Being Human hit our tv screens in 2009 it ran for six episodes. The BBC were rightly hedging their bets and giving it a shorter run, long enough to gauge popularity but not the full eight episode run that series two three and four would later be given.

Annies exit paves the way for new ghost Alex?

With the show now a firm fan favourite and with viewing figures averaging, despite an overall down turn, around 950,000 per episode it would seem straightforward that series five would again have eight sixty minute episodes so it comes as a surprise to find that instead the BBC are giving it just six, two hours shorter than usual.

The lower audience figures for this series did put the shows future in doubt, though they did improve a little it’s clear a number of people were put off of viewing this series for whatever reason with figures suggesting that some fans returned only for selected episodes and with talk on a number of internet forums suggesting that some were put off by the Eve story in which a time travelling ghost sought to change the future by affecting events in her past.

But why?

There are two equally valid reasons for series five having less episodes than normal. One is that the BBC are being cautious, seeing if the fans return but spending less on the show in order to be able to cut their losses if it doesn’t work out. The other is that series five could be the end, that the BBC are giving the show one last series to wrap up the Being Human story.

Hal returns for series five

To be fair that second option is less likely, the BBC could have ended the series as it stands. The main characters have all now left the series and as such there are no loose ends that really need wrapping up, those that remain could be comfortably concluded in a one or two part special, so it seems more likely that the BBC are hedging their bets a little and giving the series a chance to re establish itself now that the cast has changed and now that the potentially off putting story of Eve has been resolved.

It’s been confirmed that Annie (Lenora Chrichlow) will not be returning for series five, which will be shown in 2013, but that Vampire Hal and werewolf Tom will be although no confirmation as yet on whether new ghost Alex also returns – although it’s highly likely she will indeed be the shows new resident ghost (but perhaps played by a different actress as happened with the character of Annie who was originally played by Angela Riseborough before Lenora Chrichlow took over after the pilot episode).

So it’s good news and bad news for fans of the series, good news – it is coming back, bad news – all the original characters have left and it will have less episodes. It’s not unusual for a series to have less episodes than eight (the popular Sherlock only has a three episode series, although each episode lasts longer than those of Being Human) but it is unusual for a series used to eight episodes to suddenly have its run shortened.

Hopefully it is indeed just a case of the BBC adopting a cautious wait and see approach to the shows new dynamic. For those who want a little more of the lovely Lenora she can be seen discussing the character she plays in a BBC goodbye video about Annie which can be seen below.

Are you an utter nutter? - Android Siri rival hits alpha stage

The impressive speech app Utter, set to rival Siri when released, received another alpha release recently in order that bugs can be quickly found and ironed out. Now that more features are being added in the testing phase it's your chance to get involved and help make it a contender for Siri's crown. Haven't a clue what Utter! is or just want to get in on what could be the next big thing for Android? All will be revealed....


The Utter app demonstrated in the popular YouTube video (as you can see shortly) had no actual interface as it was simply a test designed specifically for one particular person (the developer) and their own Android device. To make sure each and every part of Utter works on every possible android device developer Brandall has been releasing regular incremental versions of the app for testing purposes. Initial releases were simply to test voice recognition but a second release added wifi functionality, a third added partial bluetooth control and a recent update added some functions for root users.

Updates are coming surprisingly fast thanks to the developers persistence and the feedback of testers using the test version available free from the play store (formerly known as the Android market). If you want to help by downloading the test version simply click here and if you find any problems when using it then get in touch with the developer and let him know as he really does respond and it really will help make the finished version even better.The test app is called nUtter (short for “not Utter”) and uses a basic interface designed solely to help road test what, when complete, will be released as Utter. It has a set of tabs and currently allows you to wifi and bluetooth on (or off) and also to test how well it runs on your device.

It's already gaining some useful features despite its early stages, but rather than release an app and then try patching it to work on all possible devices Brandall has chosen the slower but more reliable route of adding things bit by bit, seeing if a feature causes any problems and then fixing any that are found. This is already paying dividends with one “bug” that affected only a few devices (including my own) and stopped them being able to turn wifi on or off being identified and fixed literally within hours.

In this case it wasn’t a bug caused by the app itself but rather by the fact that some Android devices work slightly different to others when it comes to accessing the hardware and so extra code was needed to ensure that the app would work on all devices in the same way. The developers choice to upgrade incrementally is working well with it being much easier to iron out one bug early on rather than release the full version prematurely and have to spend weeks or even months sifting through lots of code trying to find the problem, it makes sense and will mean that when Utter debuts it will be a much more stable and polished product with few if any compatability issues.

So why write about an app that isn't yet ready for prime time? The answer is simple, to encourage Android users to test the app and provide the developer with feedback. Doing this will not only result in a much more stable and polished finished app but speeds up the bug hunting process, making it easier for the developer to iron them out and bringing the launch of Utter closer than it otherwise would be.

So if you want Android to have a real rival to Siri, and you'd like to have a hand in influencing its development, download nUtter and give it a go.

Alcatraz - net may hold the key if series is cancelled

Note: If you haven't seen the last episode then you may not want to read this article as it will contain spoilers. If you don't want to spoil the ending before you get to see it then skip to a different page. Otherwise, read on


After a disappointing two hour finale that saw some viewers so uninterested they turned off half way through, the series executive producer (who is also one of it's writers) Daniel Pyne has suggested that if a second series doesn't materialise the fans could still get their answer.....thanks to the internet. Pyne mentioned the possibility of revealing the answers to fans in the form of short stories that could be published online in the event that the series is indeed cancelled, a way for fans to get the answers they've been seeking.

Unsure of the shows future he doesn't want to give anything away but he did reveal the obvious, that the gold has gone and that Harlan double crossed the Warden. He also said it was possible that Rebecca has the same unique blood as Tommy, and that the knife wound has activated it but would not confirm or deny it.

While this would provide a convenient way to bring her back from the dead it would make a large hole in the plot. Rebeccas father, Tommys son, could not have the "colloidal silver" in his blood because he was born long before Tommy's blood was tampered with and so, while in theory she could inherit relevant genes from him she could not have the healing silver because this was not part of Tommy's genetic makeup but was instead added to his body much later. For her to be bought back in this way would therefore require having some sort of blood transfusion from Tommy to her or her father, something only possible if Tommy was around during their childhood years.



This would of course also mean that Tommy does not age, and could also be the reason no one gets to see ex con millionaire Harlan...after all, if he doesn't age it would be easier to hide away from public scrutiny than to try explaining his abnormal longevity. Will Alcatraz be cancelled? It seems we'll have to wait a little while before we get an official answer but it seems ever more likely that yes it will in fact be declined a second series.

The problem with Alcatraz is that it offers a fascinating idea, people time travelling into the future en masse at the hands of a mysterious mastermind, but it fails to deliver any real answers. It's all to easy to bring Rebecca back by doing a blood transfusion from one of the captured 63's, so even the shock ending can be reversed, and the series as a whole has gently plodded along with not much revelation of the mystery behind it.

 JJ Abrams biggest success, Lost confused many viewers right until the big reveal in the final episode six years after it started and it feels as if he is trying the same tactic with Alcatraz, dragging out the plot for as long as possible without really knowing what the plot is or where it's headed. Unfortunately Lost left many people feeling a little let down with its big reveal and perhaps as a result of that viewers are less inclined to let a series go on for as long without giving a few concrete answers along the way, something Alcatraz fails to do.

Should it be renewed? Yes, the series has a good cast and a promising story, but it needs to shift up a gear and reveal more. As it stands the big question of how the 63's time travelled could easily be left unanswered until the final episode of a third or even fourth series if before then viewers get to find out why Tommy and Rebecca have been so important, how Hauser knew the missing people would return, what made those responsible carry out the experiment in the first place (was there a previous test subject who time travelled, un noticed, leading the powers behind it all to try again on a larger scale?), why Lucy and the doctor seem to be the only 63 's that haven't been given orders, how the keys could be cut with post 1963 technology, why Tommy stabbed his grand daughter and why Lucy is so important that she will always be a target for the 63's.

Alcatraz could be in a good situation if it plays its cards right. Viewers already know the outcome, that people from the past disappear and reappear fifty years later, what the series can do is take the obvious questions and reveal them over several seasons.

One season could concentrate on why the 63's are worldwide, what happened to the warden, how they knew Tommy was important, maybe tease the existence of a previous test subject (perhaps even Rebecca herself, she could heal from the wound and find a photo of herself in 1960 as a child - after all there seemed to be a girl outside at the house with Tommys son).

Another could reveal the mastermind behind it all, perhaps tie the experiment in to the story of the civil war gold with maybe a civil war soldier being the first test subject and waking up in 1960's alcatraz, etcetera. It has the power to be a gripping long running series IF it sets aside certain issues and addresses them series by series. As it stands there are lots of questions and very few answers, now what's needed is for Fox to take a chance and commission a second series rather than play things by the numbers.