I signed up with Instagram a long while back, but never really got into it or used it. I used to use it for the effects you could easily add to images, but did not really bother with it much. But now I am going to start to use it, and I have even added it on my blog to the right, currently called “latest photos” which means I will be able to add photos to my blog almost as soon as I take them, which is cool

What is Instagram?

If you don’t know what it is, it is a photo editing and sharing app for the iPhone/iPod. You take pics with your iPhone, and can use the editing and cool filters of Instagram, and it will upload them for you. You have to create a profile, and can follow people and others follow you. So it is more like a Facebook/Twitter social networking tool, but it’s core is photography. You can use the tools to automatically add the photos to your Twitter as I have done, and blog too

If you are on Instagram please follow me, you will find me @ michael84blog.

I am excited about using it because I will be able to update my blog with cool pics when I am out and about, without having to write a whole post So from now on you may see the same pic more than once, since I will try to update my Instagram quite a bit. You can see these pics in the right hand sidebar

Do you use Instagram, if so what do you think of it?

I was having a browse around and saw that the Blackberry Playbook aka Blackberry’s 7″ tablet is now on sale, for a very low price of £169.

They were around £399 when they came out, the same as the iPad, and now you can pick one up from PC World and a few other places for a mere £169!

I think that this is a real bargain. It is a premium tablet, i.e. it is not some crappy one from China or an old one running crappy android 2.3, it was designed to go up against the big boys of the iPad and others; And now, it is less than half the price.

If you want something to use as a handy little web browser, or use it for Twitter/Facebook etc., this is definitely worth the money.

If I had the choice of this or an iPad I would choose the iPad, You cannot really compare since the iPad app store is far better, and it has a bigger screen; However if you want something for under £200 or just like a gadget then you will regreat not buying this

Christmas is fast approaching, and many people will get an iPad, or already have an iPad and may want a case. I have had a search around and found some really cool cases. The iPad is a fashion accessory as much as anything else, so wrapping it up in a cool fashionable case is the only way to go. It is hard to find lots of designer cases all under one roof, so I have compiled a few cases which I like, with a variety of price tags.

One thing which I am unsure of is how much do you spend on a case? An iPad will set you back at least £400, so is spending £300 on a case a silly idea? You can decide, I will just show you what is currently on offer at the moment.

The first case I have to write about is in fact not a fashion case, but a very cool one non the less. It is called a G-Form Extreme case, and is made of special materials. It is soft, lightweight and flexable, but has proven to be one of the most durable and tough cases which you can buy.

It has been tested and showed off a lot with its amazing strength; The case is said to have properties which change, so it is soft and flexable but when impact is made it becomes rigid and tough and can withstand quite a lot, including a bowling ball dropped on it. Check out this test below!

Quite impressive! If you are scared about dropping your beloved iPad on the floor or down the stairs it looks like this is the case for you, it looks pretty cool too.

It is currently available on pre-order for £70 in most places, and can be pre-ordered on Amazon and Firebox. Amazon release date is 15th January 2012. It does come in a variety of colours like black which is above, and yellow.

Now for the fashion cases…

1. Mulberry case – Brown leather case, cool stitching and suede interior. £375 from MR Porter
2. Louis Vuitton – One of the most recognisable brands out there, the traditional LV patterned design will give your iPad some high-end fashion looks. £255 from Louis Vuitton
3. Ralph Lauren black leather case. nice clean design with front emblunm £125 from John Lewis
4. Marc Jacobs – One of my favourite designs, bright blue so it will stand out a mile away, and it looks cool too. Embossed lettering throughout the case design with Marc by Marc Jacobs logo. £45 from MR Porter.
5. Ted Baker Case – with a zip fastening and a sleeve to store extra swag. £32 from Nordstrom
6. Mulberry Sleeve – Black leather sleeve, very simple and sleek design. £150 from John Lewis
7. Dolce And Gabbana – D&G designer iPad case, with zipped front and opening. £335 from Luisaviaroma.com
8. Gucci Case – Available in brown or black leather, this case has the Gucci diamond leather pattern embossed throughout and comes with an interior compartment. £325 from MR Porter.

My favourite has to be the Marc Jacobs case for the cool design, or if I were going for a more traditional contemporary look the Gucci case.

If you google “Let it snow” right now and wait a few moments it snows on your screen!

Clever old Google, adding little bits of Christmas to it’s search engine.

A little bit of snow has started falling on google…

Now it is a full on blizzard!

I just saw the video for Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3, “The Vet and the noob”. I have to say it is funny stuff

I have not got the game yet, I will get it pretty soon.

What do you think?

Oh dear!

It seems that Grainger Games have been upsetting people in the gaming world. They were the main sponsor of a gaming event last night, the GMA’s, the Gaming Media Awards. They have been criticised for their behavior at the awards and condemned by the event organisers Intent Media, who have gone on to say Grainger Games will not be welcomed back.

From the things I have read you cannot condone their behavior, which allegedly included heckling the host Greg Davies (The Inbetweeners), and being generally lairy and loud to put it mildly.

But as ever there seems to be an Internet storm about the whole thing. Gizmodo UK (written by Bulent Yusuf) and others have sensationalised the story, from start to end; Criticising the whole promotion from their Orange Hummer (or “hateful orange” as Gizmodo UK put it) to the girls and dwarves to the condoms which they apparently gave out on tables; Doesn’t sound too painful to me. The Gizmodo article rants and raves about the colour orange, and is dumbfounded by their chants of “Toon Army”…Erm Grainger Games is from Newcastle, that could be an indication of why, even if it was unwelcomed.

It did not stop GMA tweeting this message last night, to while they did not seem to mind the “booth babes”.

Grainger Games have since apologised. Unfortunately for them it seems the people they had at the event representing them have let them down in the biggest way possible. Many people on Twitter have jumped on the bandwaggon of criticising Grainer Games. Civil war within the games industry? Probably something they don’t need.

I have to say I have been in their store and have no complaints, there staff seem alright to me, and their prices are good, so I can’t complain.

Rockstar have officially announced that the next installment of Grand Theft Auto, “GTA V” is coming. How excited am i!?!? haha

There is a trailer coming next week which I will bring you. For now, here is a logo.

So, you have a week to speculate about the game, have fun

So today is the day that Football Manager 2012 was released, and what a shambles it has become. The whole gaming experience has been spoiled by Sports Interactive, Steam and SEGA; The three of them combined to bring us, the consumer, the ones who pay for the game, the worst experience possible.

It has all started since SEGA/SI Announced that the game MUST be installed with Steam; What is Steam? It is basically a place to legally pay, download and play games, similar to iTunes. That means if you are not a big gamer, you don’t buy games online or very often then you may not have even heard of Steam, let alone have it installed. So Sports Interactive/SEGA are forcing us to install 3rd party software to play their game. I don’t have anything bad to say about Steam (yet), other than I don’t want it, I won’t use it (for anything other than FM) and it should not be required to play a game I have just went out and spent my hard earned money on. There is also the argument that what if people don’t have the Internet, and so on, I could go on and on…

Why do we need to install steam, create an account with steam (yet more accounts we need to set up online), and “ask” steam if we are ok to play the game? You cannot uninstall steam once it is activated, you must have it running on your computer in order to play the game.

Got the game, was a (reasonably) happy customer, tried to play it and…..This happened. No longer happy! Downloading games, yeah, “It’s the future” nooooooottt!

Your game is assigned to your steam account. Which means you cannot use it on 2 machines at the same time, you cannot let a mate borrow it, and you cannot sell it as second hand. You can play it offline, however you must get the permission from steam to do that, physically using steam to select “play offline”, it’s like asking your mam if you can go out and play football which is fine if you are 7 years old, but at 27 it’s not

After buying the game

OK So I go out and buy it, then go home and install steam and whatever, then create an account; (BTW – I still need to input the activation code which is in the box) Even though I have bought the disk it still tries to download the whole game! Over 2GB of it!! There is nothing which pops up which says “you have the game on the disk, you can follow these instructions to stop the download since you dont need to do it”. Fortunately for me I had only downloaded around 400mb of it when I found out you could stop that and install it through the disk. THEY ARE MAKING THINGS TOO DIFFICULT! Why can’t I just play the game I bought!!! I do not use steam, I am not familiar with it, so don’t fully know how it works. I imagine there are many others who don’t, but it seems Sports Interactive/SEGA don’t care.

OK, so WHY?!?!?!

And why do we have all of this? Because some people pirate the game. Why don’t they wake up and see that the only thing they are doing is spoiling the experience for the consumer, the fans, the people who pay for and play the game. People who steal the game will STILL steal the game, you will not stop them. If they invent some un-hackable protection what will the pirates do? They will just not bother. They will not go out and buy the game, because they never did in the first place. All you will of done is spend money and time on something which will never work, and upset lots and lots of loyal and genuine customers.

What will happen in next years game? Will we need to be pre-approved to buy it? Will SEGA/SI need to come and visit us all and make sure we are playing the game right? I may not want to find out, because I may not bother just like many others. The fact that Sports Interactive have to post massive FAQ’s about Steam, how it works, how to do things, etc. just shows how painful the entire experience actually is. What ever happened of putting in a disc and playing a game?

It seems a big shame to not buy a game for this reason, because in this whole thing I have not even mentioned the actual game itself; But this is the way some companies are going these days. Sports Interactive tries to market itself as the “grass roots” proper football fans kind of game and company, and they once were. They have now forgotten the fans, the people that buy the game, and their paranoid ideas of copy protection are only harming the consumers. And yeah, I do know that many will read this with the “Well just don’t buy the game, nobody is forcing you, blah blah blah”, but I like the games, the problem is the hoops you now have to jump through; It seems to be getting worse and worse, and I am sure at some point I will say enough is enough, as will others if they haven’t already.

The latest Football Manager games, I have the rest somewhere. I remember CM 93 and the copy protection of “tell us the score for…”, those were the days!

I noticed the other day that Amazon have finally launched a store in Spain This is good news if you want to buy anything in Spanish, but at the moment they do not do clothing, so I cannot buy my Spain football shirts on there just yet.

Still, this is a big step forward. It seems that there are not too many people in Spain who shop online, and its just been taking off there recently, hence Amazon not having a store there.

But this is a good thing, I am glad they are finally getting such things like Amazon, it means I can buy Spanish things much easier They just need to add clothing, I am sure it will come in time.

I know there are people who like PES over FIFA, and there is the “PES or FIFA” kind of war and it has been going on ever since ISS was around. I have to say I have almost always been a FIFA man, I did play PES for a bit and do on my 3DS, and I like it, but I also like FIFA, and I like FIFA more than PES, it is just a better game.

So, FIFA 12…It’s really good! FIFA seems to get harder and harder as the years go on, there seems to be more you need to do and think about when you play, and the refinements are really good.

I had my game set up on PRO, and found it really hard. I got beat something like 5-1 off Real Madrid, so I thought I better turn it down a bit to Semi-Pro for a while. So yesterday I had a tough game, then Tweeted “I love FIFA 12 but its hard” and played another game, and this happened…

I was quite impressed with myself

I usually play teams which are “better”, I am usually Newcastle or CSKA Moscow when I play, but since I support Spain I like to play as them from time to time, but still play against good teams. I guess that was just the game of my life because I don’t usually score so many goals

The good thing I like about this game are the challenges. They had them on the PSP version of a FIFA game which I love. This time round not only does it mimic real life, it updates on a regular basis. So the first challenge was to win as Dortmund after 60-odd minutes from being 1-0 down; The challenge I did yesterday was to come back and draw 2-2 with only 3 minutes left (3 minutes in real time) and you start with a penalty. I really love doing the challenges, it gives you a reason to play with a team you may not usually, so you play “more” of the game.

I have always liked this style of game, “pick up and play” if you have a spare 20 minutes, it’s a good style of game for a busy person or someone who doesn’t spend their life playing games.

 I loved FIFA 11 and thought it was great, I think this is even better. It is so fluid and it is getting more realistic all the time.