My PS3 Slim competition has finished and the results are in!

Congratulations to @ozzlo33 – you’ve won yourself a free PS3 Slim, or cash/voucher equivalent if that suits you better.  Check your direct messages!

A huge thanks to everyone who entered,  posted comments, Tweeted and Re-Tweeted, I’ve got over 600 new followers of @Gadgets4nowt and that takes the total over 1,000.

Have a great Christmas and prosperous 2010.

Steve

Final Update: 20th December 2009 – The results are in,  take a look here to find out if you are the lucky winner!

You may have already heard that I’ve been a huge gaming fan ever since my folks gave me my first Sinclair ZX81.  The ZX Spectrum was soon to follow and memories of Manic Miner have stayed with me twenty years on.

The first leap in technology I saw was the original PlayStation and Sony have gone on to set the trend for gamers through to the PS3 Slim, which is sure to be one of 2009′s hottest gadgets.

Another of my loves is the festive season and that got me thinking…why not run a contest to give away a PS3 Slim for Christmas and combine that with my latest discovery…. Twitter!

Okay…. so here are the big questions.  What are you willing to do to get your hands on a free PS3 Slim in time for Christmas?…and will enough of you be prepared to do that and make me bump the prize up from the 120GB version to a 250GB monster?

Never fear, I’ve kept things easy and the contest is totally free to enter, simply:

1. Follow me @Gadgets4nowt on Twitter.
2. Tell everyone that you just entered; Tweet the following text: – “I’ve entered @Gadgets4nowt contest to win a free #PS3 Slim. Visit http://bit.ly/3tBIHn and retweet.”
3. Come back here and leave a comment to confirm you’ve done so.  Leave your Twitter @ username in the URL field of the comment box or body of the comment itself so that I can track that please.

Everyone that enters will be added to my Twitter Contest List so you’ll be able to track progress.

***Update*** Twitter lists are limited to 500 members and we’ve just hit that today, 8th December – new entrants are on this Second Twitter List !

What about the size of the prize?……Well, I currently have a modest 397 followers but if you lovely people can boost that to over 5,000, I will up the prize to the 250GB version PS3 Slim.  It’s in your hands!

The contest starts today and will end on Wednesday 16th December 2009.  A winner will be chosen by reference to the UK National Lottery main draw results on 19th December 2009; as with my previous successful competitions, that will ensure a public and totally transparent result.

For the cynics and sceptics out there who wonder if this is genuine, take a look at my previous competitions and the fantatic prizes that I’ve given away.

I look forward to reading all your tweets and posts as the contest gets rolling.  Who knows – the PS3 Slim could be yours!

Steve

PS:  I’m not going to hit you with a barrage of terms and conditions, none of us like all the small print.  Suffice it to say that anyone trying to manipulate the result by multi entries or other illicit means will be disqualified.  The only other thing that springs to mind that I will offer a cash alternative if the prize can’t be shipped or goes out stock.  At current prices, that would be £240 for the 120GB.

Update:  18th December 2009 – Choosing the winner

I’ve been through my Twitter comp lists and extracted everyone who appears to have entered, then allocated a unique number to each, as you can see from this entrants spreadsheet (Right Click>Save As…).

The first lottery ball out will determine which group the winner will be picked form, the second ball will confirm the winner.

If for any reason the person chosen has not adhered to the few simple comp rules, then I will move on to the very next highest number.

Good luck and thanks for taking part.

Steve

The demos are out and the early winner in this year’s football battle appears to be…..well, as ever, opinions are divided, it truly is a game of two halves!

Both look stunning on my  free PS3 Slim!

What has perhaps surprised me talking to friends online is that some of the PES fanboys are talking about changing camps.  One even went as far as saying, “I may have to buy FIFA 10 for the first time in 15 years, Konami have just stagnated with PES and its been below par since they made 2008.”

FIFA 10 has 360 movable players, its smooth and passing is precise, with some great subtle changes; even the referee moves out of the way of the ball and players stick a leg out to block.

Skilled dribbling is also another incredible advancement in FIFA 10. As another of my online friends, a FIFA fanboy said, “I can’t wait to use the arena once the game is out, the players are balanced speed wise and now you can build up play. The AI is better at defending and finally use skill moves as well as jockey.

•    Messi is amazing.
•    Chelsea has a brutish team.
•    Xavi’s pass range is spectacular
•    Klose and Toni are top dogs in the air.
•    Lampard is finally always in and around the box.

FIFA 10 BABY!”

I can’t argue with any of that but personally thought that the new PES 2010 looked much better than the last one and just “felt slicker” than FIFA 10.

The jury is out but I will take a lot of convincing, PES forever!

For the first time in decades, gamers have the opportunity to pay the same amount for very similar competing consoles: just $299 for the powerful PS3 Slim or the impressive Xbox 360 Elite.  Both come equipped with 120GB hard drives, limited backwards compatibility, and one controller.

The PS3 Slim has the ability to play Blu-Ray discs, huge to anime and movie buffs, and also includes built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth – definitely winning the hardware comparisons.  The only place that the PS3 Slim falls behind is in the number of available USB ports – it boasts only 2 vs. the Xbox’s 3.  But it’s smaller, lighter, and the online-play option is free (it’s $50 a year for the Xbox Elite.)

On the other hand, the Xbox 360 Elite has something that the PS3 lacks — GAMES.  The PS3 has some impressive titles — Final Fantasy XIII, Genji: Days of the Blade, Grand Tourismo 5, Heavenly Sword, and Jak and Dexter: The Last Frontier are all PS3 exclusive.  Don’t leave out the ba-jillion PS1 games that the PS3 is backwards-compatible with, too!  But that’s just not really a list that’s able to compete with the powerhouse that is the Xbox 360 Elite’s massive list of over 175 exclusive games, including Bullet Witch, DDR Universe 1, 2, and 3, Dead Or Live: Code Chronos, Full Auto, the Halo series, the Project Gotham Racing franchise, the bizarrely fun Viva Piñata games, and many, many more.  Let’s not also forget that, while Xbox Live is pricer than the PS3 Slim’s alternative, it’s also much, much more robust.

In the end, the comparison comes down to a matter of faith: if you’re willing to trust Sony to use it’s resources to come up with games that are good enough to match wits with Gears of War (Uncharted?), Mass Effect (Fallout?) and the rest of the Xbox 360 Elite’s lineup, than the PS3 Slim seems like a good move.  If you’re more inclined to believe that the software giant Microsoft can use it’s leet skillz to overcome the hardware gap between the Elite and it’s competition, go with the Xbox 360 Elite.

Me, I’m going for both, but I’m crazy that way (and can get them free here !)

Earlier in the year, the guys at Gizmodo put together a fantastic guide to get your PS3 running Ubuntu.  With the release of the new Slim model and inevitable rush to dust off our old consoles, it is a good time to revisit the article.  In the words of John Mahoney….

It still kind of surprises me (in a good way) that Sony was, from the start, very OK with PS3 owners tinkering with Linux on their PS3s. A modified release of Yellow Dog Linux is available and some very handy hard drive partitioning and dual-boot utilities are baked right into the PS3′s XMB;

There is a flipside to this coin, however. Since the PS3′s Cell Processor is PowerPC based, you won’t be able to use any Linux software that’s compiled for x86, which is, unfortunately, most of it. However, Ubuntu has always had a PPC distro, and most of the basic stuff will work just fine. You can even load up a PPC-compiled Super Nintendo Emulator, SNES9X, and play some classic games pretty easily on your Sixaxis controller paired via Bluetooth. Also, doing web browsing and other basic computing is a lot more natural and elegant on Ubuntu running on your TV than in the PS3′s somewhat gimped browser.

Another downside is performance—the PS3 obviously has a lot of hardware muscle, but there are no Linux drivers to take full advantage of the Cell processor’s multi-core architecture, or the PS3′s hardware graphics acceleration. Plus, Ubuntu can only see and use 221.7 MB of the PS3′s 512MB of RAM for some reason. So it won’t be a speed demon (and you won’t be able to play HD videos or anything), but it’s definitely functional for the basics.

And, even over two years into the PS3′s life, doing all of this still requires a fair amount of Linux geek forum sifting, which I have humbly take upon myself to do so you don’t have to. And believe me, you don’t.

To get started, read the full article at Gizmodo

Hold on before you run out to buy a new TV! You may have seen the report on Engadget stating that, according to a Sony rep, all PS3 games will run in 3-D with a software update next year.

“…a software update for the PS3 sometime in 2010 will enable it to provide a 3D viewing experience to “all” existing games on the system. We’re sure there will be some exceptions, but it sounds very promising. The console itself pumps out a quite regular signal over HDMI, which the TV syncs up with your 3D glasses. A 200Hz TV, for instance, alternates 1080p frames, with 100Hz for each eye. Of course, you’ll need a brand new TV, but at least it won’t be restricted to just Sony televisions. Start saving those pennies!”

It seems like Joystiq have contacted Sony to find out more more about what sounded like a major megaton to let slip at a trade show. Sony told them that the company is “conducting a technological investigation” of whether it’s even possible to do that. As for specifics: “there is no plan for the market launch of this at this time.”

If you’re dying to look at a 3-D game right now, Engadget also captured a video of Wipeout HD being played in 3-D. For some reason, the 3-D effect doesn’t come through when viewed in an embedded video recording — even with the glasses in front of the lens. Sony really needs to work on that.

I’d still go out and get a PS3 Slim though.  It’s smaller, lighter, uses less electricity, and does not have an on of switch on the back like its fat brother. The only major niggle/downside is that the PS3 Slim is not backward compatible. This means that you should old on to your old PS2, if it still works.

And best of all, you can get one for nothing. Find out how to get your free PS3 Slim!

Sources:  Joystiq & Engadget