Sony gives in on MP3

Sony: great company but oh-so bloodyminded. It was determined to ignore MP3 for so long while pushing its competing ATRAC format. But the market has spoken and, with consumers ignoring its digital-music products in droves while lapping up rivals from Apple and Creative, Sony finally gave in.

The first fruit of its decision to support MP3 natively is reviewed in today's column. The NW-HD3 is a slightly revamped version of its first hard-disk-based player. Bottom line: looks great, fantastic battery life but software still lets it down. Get the full verdict in the paper.

Also reviewed is Apple's iLife '05, a bountiful suite of (Mac only) programs to manage photos, home movies and music. At €80, it has no equal but not everybody will need the full range of features.

In games, Star Wars: Republic Commando is a frenetic FPS with a squad twist, Death By Degrees is an unsuccessful mash-up of beat-em-up and action-adventure while Cold Fear is an atmospheric attempt at survival horror which is torpedoed by awkward camera and controls.