Explore Posterous

In time for holiday shopping, Sony Canada today unveiled 10 innovative and stylish gift ideas with a range of prices and features. Topping the list are the new Sony Reader digital book models. According to an independent report from Forrester Research, eReaders will be one category that’s a breakout success this holiday season.

Sony’s Pocket Edition™ Reader and Touch Edition™ Reader Digital Books

Take up to 350 of your favorite books to go with the Pocket Edition™ Reader and Touch Edition™ Reader digital books.   A Sony Reader is small enough to slip into a purse or jacket pocket, and features an E-Ink® paper-like screen technology for easy reading. Access books from a wide number of online bookstores. http://j.mp/58DhVD

“I’m attached to my Sony Reader and won’t leave home without it. The digital reader has no rivals when it comes to portability and flexibility.”
- Ellen Roseman, Toronto Star columnist, as written in Writer’s Union magazine

Sony’s VAIO® L Touch HD PC/TV  

VAIO notebooks have become synonymous with style. New on the scene is the L series with touchscreen operation that’s both a PC and HDTV.” ($1,699.99)

“This sleek system, both a computer and a television, is perfect for the bedroom or kitchen. With 1080p resolution and Blu-ray Disc player, the VAIO® L delivers crisp, high-definition viewing at the touch of the screen.”
- Blaine Kyllo, technology columnist

Sony's A500 a™ Digital SLR Camera with DT 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 SAM Lens

With Quick AF Live View and the new in-camera auto High Dynamic Range feature for capturing highlights and shadows. The feature handles high-contrast scenes like looking out a window into bright daylight, and allows for shooting two photos at different exposure levels. Within 2 seconds, the BIONZ processor combines the two shots into a single image with maximum highlight and shadow detail.  ($899.99)

“The A500 would be a fine choice for DSLR novices thanks to the many digicam-style features, but the great versatility and advanced functions make it just as suitable for photo enthusiasts”

- Photographer and journalist, Peter K. Burian 

See the complete list of  Sony  gift ideas at  http://j.mp/61M5oN

Modern Warfare 2: PC Versus 360 [Versus Mode]

How does the PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 compare to the console versions? I spent some time with the game on the Xbox 360 and Steam to find out.

The single player experience in the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game is largely the same, with a few obvious differences. There's the controller layout of course, and being a PC gamer long before I was a console gamer I will always be much more comfortable with a keyboard and trackball mouse than I ever will be with a standard Xbox 360 controller. I could argue that it allows for better accuracy, but it seems to me at least that the hit boxes are skewed more towards console gamers in the PC version, meaning that accuracy isn't as important as it is in more PC-centric titles.

The graphics seem a tad bit sharper on my PC, but that could just as well be a factor of the clarity of my monitors and the fact that my current gaming rig - an Intel Core i7 2.6GHz with 6GB of RAM and dual GeForce GTX 275's - is a bit beefier than what I'm used to playing on. It really isn't a huge difference, however, so I wouldn't call either side the winning one graphically.

Basically, as far as single player is concerned, the games are relatively similar. Which brings us to the multiplayer side of things.

The PC version of Modern Warfare 2 has of course gotten a great deal of flack from the PC community for imposing console player-limits and removing the ability to create dedicated servers for online multiplayer, a feature that's been standard in previous games in the series.

This having been said, the PC version loses a point to the Xbox 360 as far as local multiplayer options go, with the ability to network multiple 360 consoles together via System Link. There are no LAN options for Modern Warfare 2, and of course no split-screen multiplayer either, so the console is coming out on top so far.

Aside from the LAN options and a few smaller details, such as PC text chat, that's where the differences end, which I suppose is why many PC gamers are incensed. The PC version features the same, network-controlled matchmaking system as the Xbox 360 version, without any of the advanced controls that PC players are used to. You can still set up a private game and tweak options like number of lives and friendly-fire, but for the most part it's click, join, and go.

As for reports of the PC version being open to cheaters and hackers, I've yet to see an instance of obvious cheating in my brief time on Steam, though in all fairness I do spend an awful lot of time dying.

As a PC gamer myself, I find the lack of dedicated servers to be frustrating, but then I am also a console gamer, so this is the sort of thing I've gotten used to over the past few years. When all is said and done, it's a matter of personal perception whether the system is inferior or not. Should you feel slighted for getting what is essentially the same thing on both platforms? That's completely up to you.

Keep in mind that I'm not the most dedicated or skilled Modern Warfare 2 player by a long shot, and your personal experiences with the two different versions may vary. If they do, they by all means, tell us.