I’ve just come across this new product, MP3 Beamer, offering a dedicated box to stream all your music from one location. I know this isn’t a new idea - there are hundreds of way to achieve a similar thing yourself - but this is the first time I know of someone specifically marketing a media box such as this.

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I watched the first film in this series - Meet The Parents - when it was released a couple of years ago. At the time, I thought it was relatively funny, and appreciated much of it on a superficial level. I know what you’re thinking - “but it was a superficial comedy” - and you’re right. I just found it much funnier the second time around, and seemed to connect with much more of the humour in it. It was because of this that I made it a priority to see Meet The Fockers, the second half of the series, a couple of weeks ago.

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I went to CostCo today, it’s a huge superstore in Brighouse (they also have one in Leeds). The main reason for going was to buy a new BBQ for this Summer. It’s quite a good time to get one, because they haven’t bumped all the prices up yet. The last time I went to this store, it was about 5 years ago. I must admit that I was very impressed by the sheer scale of everything there. Ranging from industrial sized garden swimming pools to a 8×8 foot shed for your garden, they have everything.

I was also really impressed with the price of many of the packs of food and drink they have. In particular, being able to buy “Strathmore” mineral water for about 10p per bottle (usually between 60p and £1.00 in store). Strangest thing there? - Probably a huge Swarovski crystal chandelier which didn’t have a price tag on it - no surprise there then!

It’s certainly somewhere I’ll be returning to, next time that stash of cold beer starts to run low in the garage…

I’m not really a games console fan, and I don’t play many computer games. However, of all the games consoles I’ve tried (most of them) I have always been intrigued by the Xbox. I liked the addition of a hard drive, the ability to store MP3’s on it, and I think Xbox Live was a great idea. According to T3, there is some new information circulating about the next generation of the console:

Rumour has it Microsoft has at last decided on a name for its next-generation super console: the Xbox 360. The US firm apparently finalised the name after deciding against calling it Xbox 2, believing it could sound out of date compared to Sony’s forthcoming PlayStation 3. Even though Microsoft has yet to officially announce the name, a reliable source claims to have already seen packaging designs featuring the Xbox 360 logo.

Additionally, the source confirmed the Xbox 360 will ship with wireless controllers and that two versions of Xbox 360 will be produced – one with a hard drive, one without. But gamers choosing the basic machine will be able to add a hard drive at a later date, without having to unscrew the case to get inside the machine. Instead the hard drive is said to simply plug in to the top of the console. We’re not sure what it will look like or indeed how it’ll work, but it sure sounds exciting.

Google have just introduced a new movie search features, which allows you to prefix a search with “movie:”. This causes Google to search for films relating to the actor, title or search string you have entered. This was posted on the Google blog:

Just in time for the Oscars, we’ve created a new “movie:” operator that enables you to find movie-related information faster and more easily, whether you’re looking for titles or actors, director or genre, famous lines or obscure plot details. Can’t remember the name of that film where Tom Hanks made friends with a volleyball? Search for [movie: Tom Hanks talking to a volleyball] and Google will tell you: it was Cast Away. Want rental recommendations? Try searching for [movie: awesome car chase] or [movie: good chick flick].

Looking for a multiplex near you? Use “movie:” followed by a U.S. zip code or city/state to find theaters and showtimes in your area (a search for [movie: Mountain View, CA], for example, will show you what’s playing near the Googleplex). You can also just search on “movies,” “showtimes” or the title of a current film, and your top result will be movie-related info for your area.

I think I’ll find this really useful. It searches through all the various different movie review websites, and comes to a conclusion to create a star rating. It also provides snippets to the reviews it has found, and provides a summary page giving more details about what it has found. You can view an example search result, or try it out for yourself.

We’ve had quite a heavy snowfall overnight. There have been small snowshowers over the past couple of days, but this looks set to stay. I’m quite pleased actually, I love it when everything is white!