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Electricpig opinions: Medal of Honour Taliban controversy, why the HTC Desire HD will show up iPhone 4 screen size and the Six Million Dollar iPhone
Video of the week: The Six Million Dollar iPhone 4
Tech week in photos: Nikon projector camera, Nikon D3100, Polaroid Pogo, Apple Magic trackpad and more

Electricpig opinions: Medal of Honour Taliban controversy, why the HTC Desire HD will show up iPhone 4 screen size and the Six Million Dollar iPhone

Posted: 22 Aug 2010 05:00 AM PDT

The end of the week has arrived. It’s time to round up the opinions of the Electricpig team. And boy, do we have some heated topics up for discussion this week. We’ve got the controversial and we’ve got the quirky. Catch up on what our writers have been jabbering about after the break.

Mic Wright explains why he won’t be playing Call of Duty: Black Ops or Medal of Honour games

This Christmas thousands of gamers will be forced to make the agonising decision of whether to go for first person shooters Call of Duty: Black Ops, or Medal of Honour. For some, that decision will have been made that bit easier by developer Danger Close, and EA’s decision to let the Taliban be a playable side in the game’s multiplayer mode.

For our writer, Mic Wright it was but the last straw. Seeing real life wars being replicated in-game doesn’t cut it for him anymore, as he explained he’s grown tired of both series.

“I can't shake off the sense that the Call of Duty series has become a sausage factory for Activision, a guaranteed money spinner.

“When it comes to Medal of Honor, the choice of Afghanistan as a setting and the inclusion of the Taliban in multiplayer mode is unsettling.”

While Mic correctly acknowledges that its developer has a right to create the game of their choice (within reason some would say), its the representation of a real-life, ongoing war in Medal of Honour that has unsettled him.

“While we play Medal of Honor for fun, soldiers are dying for real. And for many who have lost love ones in Afghanistan, the idea of "playing" the Taliban is likely to be a hard one to stomach.”

“It compares playing the Taliban in Medal of Honor multiplayer to childhood game's of cops and robbers. Someone had to be the goodie. Someone else had to be the baddie. But we're talking about a war that's currently being waged, a situation of incredible moral complexity.”

Mic goes on to suggest the decision may have been influenced by the inevitable press attention the game will, and has already received, as this news report shows.

“The increasing realism of war games and the unending stream of real life horror stories from Iraq and Afghanistan has put me off playing soldiers for fun. The darker the real headlines are, the more I crave the dream worlds of games like Super Mario Galaxy 2 and the pick-up-and-play joy of Plants vs Zombies.”

Is Mic Wright, right? Have EA gone to far with publishing a game it knew would cause such controversy? Is the inclusion of the Taliban as a playable side one step too far? Or should we not take it too seriously? It’s just a game after all, right? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Ben Sillis on why the HTC Desire HD will show up the iPhone 4

Observing that mobile phone screens are getting larger and larger our reviews editor, Ben Sillis can’t escape the feeling that the iPhone 4 is starting to feel a little cramped next to mammoth-sized handsets such as the Dell Streak and the incoming HTC Desire HD.

“I've long adored the vast expanse of screens this size: they make typing a doddle thanks to massive keys (Unless you wedge a numberpad in there for no reason like Dell), and browsing the web or watching videos on them is incredible.”

It’s a shame Apple has no interest in going down this route, Ben says.

“Apple, as a pioneer in the smartphone space, has shown no interest in going this direction. Just last month at the iPhone 4 antenna press conference, CEO Steve Jobs laid into what he described as phones so big ‘you can't get your hand around’, deriding them as ‘Hummers’ and even declaring that ‘no one's going to buy that’.

“To even write off the possibility of an iPhone 4 that gets a screen any bigger than 3.5-inches is a shame, and it's a move I hope phones like the HTC Desire HD will make Apple regret.”

Ben points to our own glowing reviews of the Samsung Galaxy S review, or our Dell Streak review as evidence that going big does have its rewards. Do you agree? Should Apple supersize its next iPhone? Let us know what you think.

Meet the Six Million Dollar iPhone

Something a little less controversial just before the week begun was editor, James Holland’s sudden encounter with a science fiction-esque iPhone glitch. Sunday morning saw Electricpig’s head-honcho wake up to discover a glitch that transformed his iPhone 4 into a mobile reincarnated Six Million Dollar Man iPhone.

The question was, should he reset it and go back to his hum drum iPhone 4 the way it was, or slow-mo jog Steve Austin style at every opportunity. For James it was a no-brainer. Do Carlsberg do glitches?

Video of the week: The Six Million Dollar iPhone 4

Posted: 22 Aug 2010 01:00 AM PDT

Glitches might continue to be the bane of modern technology, but when they’re this fun, we’re willing to make an exception. Electricpig editor James Holland emerged from his slumber last Sunday morning to find his iPhone 4 thinking it was a prop from The Six Million Dollar Man, sci-fi sound effects and all.

Of course if James had reset his iPhone 4, the glitch would have disappeared in some black hole somewhere never to be heard again. But why do that when when you can dash to the shops in the style of a 70s television icon?

Is it the most entertaining iPhone 4 glitch out there? Some left frustrated by the iPhone 4’s recent signal woes will say that was (though it was more due to some fancy ‘engineering’), but have you seen a glitch quite like this? Let us know in the comments below.

Meet the Six Million Dollar iPhone

Tech week in photos: Nikon projector camera, Nikon D3100, Polaroid Pogo, Apple Magic trackpad and more

Posted: 21 Aug 2010 05:00 AM PDT

Enjoying the weekend? Excellent! But don’t head off just yet. Not before you catch up on all the best exclusive photos to appear on Electricpig this week. Missed one of our hands-on pieces? Then keep up with what you’ve missed right here in our weekly photo round-up.

Among the photo goodies this week are hands-on snaps of the Nikon Coolpix S110PJ. It has a built-in projector, don’t you know. Elsewhere we have photos and first impressions of the Nikon D3100, Polaroid Pogo 4X3 and reviews of the Apple Magic Trackpad and Nokia C6.

Hit up the gallery above to see more. But don’t forget to click on the links below to see where more of the above came from!

See more photos!

Nikon Coolpix S110PJ Projector camera hands on!

Nikon D3100 first impressions

Polaroid Pogo 4×3 poked

Magic Trackpad touched!

Nokia C6 reviewed

We check out the latest Dell Streak accessories

HTC Desire Froyo update in photos!