The Release of the IGame Family

Last Friday saw the launch of the brand new IGame Family, from Elonex, just in time for Christmas, writes Chris Mitchell.

Now, the first question on many people’s lips will be “Do I need yet another games console in my life?”. Well, according to Simon LeJeune, Head of Strategic Relationships at Elonex, the answer is most definitely Yes.

This small white circular console is ‘essentially a bolt on for either an Ipod Touch or IPhone’ he explains. It allows you to access all your music and video files via a built in dock and play content through your TV, but it also lets you play games, or existing Apps with a small lightweight Wii-like controller.

The IGame Family’s most attractive benefit for its £79 price tag is its ability to play 3d films, which are rapidly becoming more and more popular with the public and film companies alike. That aside they is not much evidence suggests that’s its early sales figures (10,00 units in the first few weeks) will continue to grow, or even be sustained.

So far a mere 20 games have been released for the console, all of which have to be pre-loaded onto a 1GB SD Card in order to be accessed. Although these games will only cost about £3 each.

So although the aim of this product is so today’s consumer can future-proof themselves against the rapid growing games market, it still remains to be seen if the IGame Family itself will be around after Christmas, let alone the future its looking to protect us from.

26/12/01 Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea

After having three daughters, my dad was understandably chuffed to have a son. Someone he could share his love of West Ham United with, or so he hoped. Unfortunately for him, yet luckily for me, it wasn't to be, as my mum got to me first. Having been brought up in Islington she introduced me to Arsenal, The Gunners.

Cut to 2001 and a 13 year old boy is sat in Block P of the West Lower stand of Highbury on a bitterly cold boxing day. My father has finally accepted that I’m going to be a ‘Gooner’ not a ‘Hammer’ and has taken me to NW5 for the first time. We played Chelsea that day, and my first memory of football comes as Frank Lampard scores (something I’ve never forgiven him for) in the first half and I realise just how quiet ‘The Library’ can get at times. After a barely edible pie at half time I settled down for the second half, praying for an equalizer. God, that day taking the form of Sol Campbell duly obliges, we are 1-1 after 49 minutes. With 20 minutes left on the clock Sylvain Wiltord scores to make it 2-1- the library is no longer quiet. We hold out until full time to take all three points in this London derby. Although the following years will be kinder to Chelsea and they become one of the best teams in World Football, I will still remember the days when were the better team. Arsenal went on to finish second in the league that year and I went on to support Arsenal every moment since. All thanks to my mothers birthplace and the unluckiest of heroes in Sylvain Wiltord. And although Arsenal may have moved grounds since then, I’m still yet to watch them draw or lose live, something I’m sure either makes me a miracle worker or very wise at picking which games to get tickets for.