Looks like Sony are going to miss yet another Christmas with their PlayStation 3 console - in Europe at least. This time it appears to be unable to source sufficient components to meet world-wide demand and so is going to concentrate on the key markets of America and it's home region - Europe misses out again, but then if Europe were to pull it's finger out maybe we'd make some of our own products!

Not only is Sonys position in the gaming market under threat from continued delays but also their hope of getting BluRay established as the next defacto standard high density (HD-DVD) format. Having been on the receiving end of Sony Betamax and numerous attempts by Sony to 'go their own way' (I have a Sony MP3 player that only plays the proprietary ATRAC format) I personally think that's a good thing! I love Sony products, but they win not because of proprietary formats but despite them, which can only work for so long.

What's your view on this? Are you going to hang in there or opt for the XBox 360, or maybe even the Nintindo Wii console?

Various reports today suggest Tesco is 'reacting to customer demand' and offering VoIP alongside it's traditional fixed line and mobile telecoms products. I've searched through the Tesco site, but haven't found anything either in terms of product or even a news release.

As a very happy Skype customer it'll be interesting to see how Tesco manage to compete and what protocols they are using (hopefully sticking to standards, although I know Skype doesn't!)

Rumour has it that Tesco will be charging more for calls to UK landlines than Skype (2p/min v. 1.2p/min for Skype), but a good deal less for calls to mobiles. Hopefully this will drive Skype to reduce it's rates on mobiles as well. A little competition never did anyone any harm, although I do worry about Tesco dominating yet another market.

All you have to do is pop down to your local Tescos and pick up a 'pack' that includes some credit and a USB phone.

My experience of using 'standard' VoIP products revealed real problems with getting calls through pretty standard retail ADSL routers so it will be interesting to see how Tesco cope with this and how good they are at dealing with the issues. I doubt they are doing this themselves, so it'll be interesting to see who they have partnered with - does anyone know?