1. Coffee is the 2nd most traded good in the world after oil, with 2 billion cups of coffee consumed each day.

2. Many of the world’s biggest stock exchanges and trading firms began life in coffee houses, including Lloyd’s of London (formerly Lloyd’s Coffee House) and the New York Stock Exchange (which started at Tontine’s coffee house.)

3. Caffeine was a banned substance in the Olympics; if you drink more than five cups of regular strength coffee you’d have tested over the limit! It was shown in 2010 that caffeine injections of this level could increase physical strength by 7% in mice.

4. The vast majority of coffee is grown between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer, an area called ‘The Bean Belt.’

5. Espresso was invented as a way of making coffee faster in 1903. The name comes from the Italian word for ‘fast’. Today, it’s possible to make coffee even faster with ESE coffee pods which contain individual servings of espresso.

6. The darker the roast, the less caffeine it has, not the opposite. The caffeine burns off during the roasting process. Decaffinated coffee is prepared differently though, with the green beans being sent through a chemical solvent 8 to 12 times.

7. Instant coffee was invented by George Washington… in 1906… in Guatemala. The Belgian-born inventor later emigrated to the United States, where he founded the G. Washington Coffee Company. Today, instant coffee accounts for 15% of all coffee drunk.

8. Only 15% of coffee drinkers in the UK don’t add milk to their coffee. 43% don’t add sugar.

9. An Americano is espresso with water, first ordered by American soldierss in World War II. The phrase ‘cup of Joe’ comes from the same period, as American soldiers were called GI Joes.

10. Studies suggest that overall, drinking coffee has small positive benefits; for example,  one study showed a men who drank coffee were 20% less likely to develop prostate cancer. Other studies have shown that coffee reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart disease and some forms of diabetes, but increases the risk of acid reflux and headaches.

So that’s it then – ten facts about coffee. How many did you know already? If you’ve got some to share, let us have ‘em via the comments below. If you’ve got a hankering for more coffee facts, check out The Oatmeal’s excellent coffee infographic.

 article was written by William Judd. Will writes for Mobile Fun, who imbibe rather a lot of coffee as well as being the UK’s leading online retailer of the Amazon Kindle light and Yoda ringtones.

The next-generation iPad is expected to come with a massive specifications list, including a 10” 2048 x 1536 pixel Retina display, a stronger GPU and (possibly) a quad-core ARM A6 processor. There have also been scattered reports of an 8 megapixel iPhone 4S quality rear camera, and further upgrades to the front-facing camera too.

The biggest question is 4G / LTE support. The Wall Street Journal reckon that it’s on the cards, with a simultaneous launch for customers on Sprint and Verizon. That could prove quite popular in the US, and also some places in Europe that are lucky enough to have LTE connectivity already (but not the UK).

If that launch date is correct, we’ll know for sure quite soon – we’ve just got three weeks to wait.

This article was written by William Judd, a freelance copywriter and tech blogger. William writes for Mobile Fun, the UK’s leading online retailer of the MHL adapter, Jabra Wave and Griffin Survivor.

Features and Specifications (as listed by Corsair)

• Cherry MX Red keys – the perfect keys for gamers
• 18 Macro Keys and 3 Macro-Set Keys for up to 54 Macros – ideal for MMO and RTS games
• 100% anti-ghosting technology and 20 KRO on USB – hit as many keys as you want!
• Blue backlighting with 4 levels of illumination – ideal for LANs and late night gaming
• Removable, full sized wrist wrest for optimal comfort and longer gaming times
• Rapid key response – 1ms response rate – faster than even the fastest gamer needs
• Media keys – easy access to your music controls, for when you take a break from owning (lol)
• Super build quality – metal top-plate provides unmatched durability and stability, as well as a premium look and feel

Physical Features

The Corsair Vengeance K90 has a unique look, with black etched keys mounted on a brushed aluminium back-plate. The left hand side of the keyboard is dominated by the eighteen macro keys in three equally sized groups, backed with hard black plastic. As you’d expect from a mechanical keyboard of quality, the K90′s high weight lends it a very comfortingly solid feel. This is certainly a keyboard you could use as a club in the zombie apocalypse.

Let’s have a closer look at the keyboard itself. On the left, we’ve got those eighteen macro keys. They’re slightly lower than the main keyboard keys, meaning that there is little danger of pressing them – something that happens annoyingly often with keyboards where the macro keys are indistinguishable by feel from the main keyset, as on the BlackWidow. The keys are rubber domes here instead of mechanical, making them slightly more difficult to press. Corsair have told me that this is to prevent accidental double-tapping.

There are also MR, MR1, MR2 and MR3 keys along the top of the keyboard. They are small, but easy to press and come with backlighting to let you know which macro set is active.

In the center, we’ve got the main key cluster. With the exception of the function keys (e.g. F1 – Print Screen) and the Insert/Delete cluster, these all use mechanical key switches. As stated earlier, these are Cherry MX Red switches, which give the keyboard a light feel. We’ll take a longer look at the implications of this later on.

The mounting of the black keys above the aluminum chassis is a very cool look; it almost looks like the keys are floating in place. This dos mean that the keys are a bit easier to clean as well, as you can get in from the bottom with a duster.

On the right hand side of the keyboard, you’ll find the media keys. As well as a row of standard media playback controls (stop, skip back, play/pause, skip forward), there’s another row just above that has a mute button as well as a volume roller. This analog input is a great touch, being both space efficient and classy.

Just to the left of the volume wheel are the status lights, which are rather nicely done in a straight up white light instead of the more common green. There’s also a key to toggle the level of backlighting between its four levels and a gaming key that disables the Windows key.

At the very top of the keyboard, there’s a rather nondescript Corsair logo. Looking from the other side, you’ll find a single USB port, which is passed through the double USB cable into your motherboard. This allows you to plug in your mouse or a flash drive, and goes a long way in reducing the number of cables sprawling behind your desk.

Now, let’s have a look at those mechanical switches. I’ve taken off the arrow keycaps to show you. As you can see, each see has a mechanical Cherry MX Red switch, as denoted by its red colour. Each key also has its own LED to provide backlighting.

If we take off one of the function keycaps, we can see it’s a different story. Instead of a mechanical switch, we find a lower quality rubber dome. While this not entirely desirable, it does make the function keys quite distinguishable from their main-cluster peers.

Here are the keycaps themselves – you can easily see the difference between the mechanical switches and the rubber domes.

And here’s the USB cable. It contains two lines to allow that integrated USB port to be fully powered. It’s protected with a very durable-feeling cover; one of the best I’ve seen on any keyboard.

Finally, we’ve got one last picture of the keyboard in action, with the backlights on full. As you can see, it’s quite a nice display.

Software

Let’s have a look at the software that powers this keyboard. Edit: Corsair have provided a rather comprehensive software guide, which you can read here.

The first tab is termed ‘Assign Keys’ and is the meat of the keyboard software suite. On the left is a visual representation of the macro keys. If you click on any of them, you can see which macros are assigned. Keys that have macros assigned to them are highlighted in teal, so you can also see which keys are free for binding. You can also change profiles here by clicking the picture M1, M2 or M3 buttons, or by pressing these buttons on the keyboard.

You assign a key by pressing the ‘MR’ (macro record) button on the keyboard, the G key you want to assign the macro to, and then the keys that you want the macro to be made up of. This is pretty easy to do quickly. You can also make macros in the software by selecting common actions (e.g. copy, paste, find, launch program, lock PC). The delays in each macro are also customisable – 50 ms by default, but can also be ignored or set to have a random delay time.

Once the macro is recorded, you can also set what happens when you press down the macro key. By default, the macro will be performed once, but you can also set it to be performed a set number of times, to be performed as long as the key is held down, or to be performed until the key is pressed again. This gives you good flexibility in the macros that you can construct. Another option is the hardware playback option; once checked, this will ensure the macros are played back in hardware so that they bypass software macro checks which are common in many games.

Finally, you can change the brightness level of the keyboard here, as well as switch to other Vengeance peripherals that are plugged in (as they all run from the same program).
The second tab is the Manage Profiles tab, which is quite bare. You can save, load, import and export profiles; pretty much what you’d expect.

Now that’s concluded, let’s have a look at how this keyboard performs.

Testing

Methodology

The best way to test a keyboard isn’t with benchmarks or statistics – it’s about real world use. I used the keyboard for two weeks, using it for every game I played as well as all of my work as a blogger. Indeed, this very review was written on it.

These games were used:

• StarCraft II
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• Battlefield 3
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• Unreal Tournament 2004
• World of Tanks

Results

Gaming

The most important feature for any mechanical keyboard is the type of switches used. According to the Reviewer’s Guide issued with the K90, Cherry MX Red switches are the best kind of switches for gaming, compared with Blue, Black or Brown. This is a highly debatable point – things are much less cut and dry than this, and it’s mostly a question of personal preference. For more information, have a look at my guide to mechanical switches.

Red switches are characterised by their low actuation force and linear action. That means that the keys can be pressed down quite easily, reducing the latency. It also means that it’s more important to be accurate in your key presses; as the keys can be pressed accidentally more easily due to the lower force required. Linear action is also perfectly acceptable for a gaming keyboard, but it is again a question of taste – you might prefer additional feedback via an audible click (Blues) or a tactile bump (Browns).

With this in mind, I personally found the Red switches quite fine. While my preference is for the tactile bump found in Brown and Blue switches, the light touch of Red switches are a nice bonus that make rapid actions very easy. While I made more mistaken keypresses in StarCraft II, I was also able to maintain a slightly higher APM then I did normally which counteracted this. The keyboard’s red switches seemed slightly more at home in shooters, where making mistakes due to a typo was less likely.

While I’m not a massive fan of macro keys, these seemed to be the best possible implementation. They’re hard to hit accidentally, still within easy reach, and give you more than enough options with 18 keys and 3 profiles for 54 keys in total. The software is also quite powerful, allowing you to easily construct as complex or as simple macros as you require.

The decision to spend more on the PCB to allow for 20 KRO, the maximum possible over USB, elevates the K90 over cheaper keyboards from Western brands such as the Razer BlackWidow. While WASD-optimisation is acceptable, it’s sometimes problematic for gamers that use a different cluster or play games that require more simultaneous key use than others.

The back-lighting is also a small benefit for late-night gaming. A choice of four levels is also welcome, as it means that you’re not forced to choose between being blinded or not seeing the keys at all. The disable-Windows-key button is also a welcome addition, as many games don’t offer this functionality as standard and there’s nothing worse than accidentally being booted back to the desktop at a critical moment.

One disappointment is that not all of the keys are mechanical switches, with the function keys, macro keys and insert/delete cluster instead using more normal rubber domes. While it’s easy to see why this decision has been made with the high cost of mechanical switches, it still does make it difficult to hit that odd function key or macro key during gameplay. It’s not the end of the world by any means, but it is a point against the Corsair K90.

Overall, this is an excellent keyboard for gaming, sporting effective red mechanical switches and a solid design. If you’d prefer a keyboard without macro keys, then the lower-priced Corsair Vengeance K60 may appeal to you (review on that forthcoming).

Typing

As with all other mechanical keyboards I’ve tried, typing performance far exceeds that of a rubber dome keyboard. While Red switches aren’t ideal for typing, as they lack the tactile bump of Browns or the audible click of Blues, their lightness does make them a good choice for long typing sessions.

While writing this review on the K90 has proceeded just fine, upon using my Filco Majestouch 2 with Browns, I’ve got to say I prefer the typing experience of the Filco overall. Still, if you’re upgrading from a rubber dome keyboard, then this certainly going to make writing more comfortable and satisfying. They say once you go mechanical you never go back, and the K90 is no exception.

Comfort

The low actuation force of the Red mechanical switches makes this a good keyboard to recommend for comfort. The wrist rest also plays a large part in ensuring that long-term use is quite comfortable, so I’d advise using it if you’ve got the space. As far as the design goes, there’s nothing to complain about in terms of comfort – indeed, I’d say this is one of the most comfortable to use keyboards I’ve yet tried.

Media Keys

The media keys are one area which I cannot praise enough on this keyboard. As well as being well placed on the right hand side of the keyboard, making them easy to access, they’re also arranged quite logically. I’m not a big fan of buttons of differing sizes, so having all five buttons be the same size is a great benefit.

Where typical keyboard volume buttons have a tendency to be imprecise because of their digital input, the roller works excellently to provide proper analog input. This means you can move quickly from maximum to minimum volume, as well as perform more fine-grained adjustments by rolling slowly. This is also a very space efficient design, and I’m surprised it’s not found on more high-end keyboards.

Conclusion

The Corsair Vengeance K90 is one of the finest keyboards I’ve ever used. I can think of very little that I could improve on this keyboard, with it scoring highly from everything from performance, features and style. This is one of the best examples I’ve found of across-the-board upgrades to the simple power of a well-made mechanical keyboard, including macro and media keys, well-designed software and a distinctive look. Simply put, the Corsair K90 is the best gaming mechanical keyboard available.

Corsair have done well in their first attempt at a gaming keyboard, and I hope the Vengeance K90 becomes available with different switch options to allow for greater personal taste – with a full complement of Blue, Brown, Black and Red switches, the Vengeance series would be hard not to recommend. Even with a large amount of well designed gaming extras, it still proves to be the same cost as more basic mechanical keyboards.

Pros
- Cherry MX Red switches work well for gaming, and are better than rubber domes for typing
- Full 20 KRO rollover
- Cleverly placed macro and media keys
- A distinctive and classy look
- Solid construction

Cons
- Not all keys are mechanical
- Only Red switches are available

Final Score
9 / 10

To predict the answer to that question, I decided to try it out myself. Before I give my thoughts, a little background: I only got to about level 37 in World of WarCraft way back in 2004 before I gave it up, and haven’t really played any MMOs since, with the exception of a brief flirtation with EVE Online. I don’t generally like MMOs simply because they are such massive time sinks, in my mind functioning as really stretched out RPGs that happen to allow other players to take part. However, I did enjoy the Bioware Knights of the Old Republic RPGs, and I heard that the game was, at worst, a collection of six Bioware RPGs. That sounded right up my alley, and I thought I might as well give it a try.

The game begins a collection of choices that’ll shape the rest of your experience. You’re asked to choose a server, which can be either Player versus Environment (e.g. no forced Player versus Player combat) or Player versus Player (where the opposing faction can freely attack you, and vice versa). In addition to this choice, you can join a role-playing server, in which you’re encouraged to speak to other players as your character, as you would in a tabletop RPG. I decided I didn’t want to deal with randomly getting killed by the opposing faction or speaking in character, so I went with the most common choice: Player versus Environment on a non-role-playing server.

Next comes another choice – Empire or Republic? I’m a terribly boring person and can’t stand to cause even virtual characters pain, so I went with Republic. This also led to my next choice, as I discarded the potential smuggler and Republic soldier classes in favour of the typical Jedi Knight. With these choices out of the way, the game began proper.

Speeders offer players a quicker way to get around…

As a Jedi Knight, you begin on the planet Tython, a Jedi training ground. You’re close to becoming a verified Jedi Knight, and just need to sort out this planet’s myriad problems first. The game starts off quite slow and tasks are fairly standard MMO fare: Right click on things to progress. Fight enemies by right clicking on them then pressing your number keys for various special attacks that must be timed for maximum damage dealing. Solve problems by right clicking on them (free the padawan, destroy the evil machine, disable the shield generator and so on).

Despite being a Jedi, everyone in the universe can stand up to a bevvy of lightsaber blows, so the game doesn’t feel radically different than World of Warcraft – indeed that’s what initially put me off the game when I saw the game at various gaming expos.

Where the game is different (and therefore good, in my mind) is that the single-player portion of the game isn’t a throwaway. While the actual mechanics are similar to WoW, the storyline is incredibly more complex and rewarding. This is achieved through three factors: The richness of the Star Wars universe, the presence of interesting companions and conversation trees, which allow you to make meaningful choices in the game.

The richness of the Star Wars universe is a fairly open and shut case – if you like science fiction in general, or Star Wars in particular, then an MMO based there is ideal. There is a lot of extended universe to draw upon for inspiration; everything from Bioware’s earlier Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) single player RPGs through to the dozens of Star Wars novels. The timing of the game in the phase 300 years after the events of the KOTOR franchise but still 3,500 years before the events of the original trilogy allow a lot of leeway. Many of the planets you visit will be known to you, and characters in the game reference events past and foreshadow future developments, as covered by the films. Already you can see the beginnings of Star Wars mainstays like Star Destroyers, Vader’s breathing apparatus and Corellian transports, but there’s also a lot you don’t know, which makes the pleasure of discovery all the greater.

…as well as a way of killing yourself in inventive ways. Lightsabers and speed don't mix!

A particularly interesting addition to the MMO formula that draws upon this rich background are the space combat missions in the game. These single-player only instances have you piloting your own starship in a third person perspective. While the action is on the rails (you can’t choose your own direction), the action is fast and frenetic, with your ship being beset by an onslaught of larger capital ships and dozens of interceptors. The objectives are simple (destroy X fighters, capital ship subsystems, space station components, etc.) but the execution is deliciously fun. With an upgradeable starship and a good complement of missions, it’s a fun game in and of itself. (It really makes me wish for another space combat game in the Star Wars universe; X-Wing Alliance was brilliant in 1999 but hasn’t been followed up since.)

Companions are another interesting addition to the MMO formula, and serve to help narrate the story in a more subtle manner than giant yellow letters in space. As in the KOTOR games, your actions will influence and be judged by your companions, which leaves each conversation feeling more important than it would in a companion-less void.

The inclusion of companions also serve a practical gameplay purpose, as they allow each class to exist more independently in the singleplayer portion of the game by shoring up your weaknesses. For example, if you’re a healer, you’ll get a tank class to start out with, you can soak up the damage while you keep them healed. You also get a choice of additional companions in their own classes as you progress through the story, so you can fine-tune your playstyle by choosing which companion accompanies you on a given mission – you can go for more damage dealing to defeat enemies more quickly, or go for a healer to give yourself longer staying power.

Finally, the inclusion of a branching dialogue tree gives the game a lot more flexibility than World of Warcraft. Instead of being given quests and forced to complete them as instructed, you can frequently make your own choices that’ll significantly alter the outcome of the mission. This makes progressing through the game more rewarding, as you can see the effects of your choices in missions several levels down the line.

Often, the choice is related to the game’s moral standing mechanic, which judges you based on making light or dark side decisions. You’re rewarded for excelling in either direction (by being a paragon of virtue or twisted scumbag, respectively), so unfortunately most players will decide to play as all-good or all-evil. Still, with no ability to quicksave before conversations as most players would in a singleplayer RPG, your words can sometimes have unexpected consequences that lend considerably more weight to the proceedings. You’re also free to go against the grain of your faction alignment, by playing an evil character in the Republic or a good character for the Empire, which adds a nice bit of freedom.

Ultimately, I believe that Star Wars: The Old Republic stands a better chance of succeeding than any other non-WoW MMO that has come before. By legitimising the single player experience by setting the game in a rich universe, adding likeable companions and dialogue trees, The Old Republic has a chance to attract and keep a different kind of player. I’m only level 29 out of 50, but already I’ve found enough here to like that I’m convinced I’ll take my Jedi to level 50… and probably try several other classes as well, on both sides of the Empire-Republic divide. If you’re like me, then you should definitely check out The Old Republic.

This article was written by William Judd, a freelance copywriter and tech journalist. William writes for MobileFun.co.uk, the UK’s leading online retailer of ringtones, including a classic phone ringtone and the Formula 1 ringtone.

It’s been a good week for fans of Skyrim as the game’s official mod tools, called collectively the Skyrim Creation Kit, have finally been released. Bethesda also provided a couple of surprises with the release of the tools, as they marked with the occasion with the additional release of an HD texture pack and a Valve-developed mod called ‘Fall of the Space Core, Vol. 1′.

The new mod brings the popular Space Core from Portal 2 into Tamriel in literal fashion. After you collect the Space Core from its searing crater, you’re free to keep it with you to hear its equally annoying and endearing commentary. There’s even a way to craft it into a custom helmet called the Dovahcore. Awesome.

If you’re in the mood for some other mods, you can also have a look at the new home of Skyrim mods at the Steam Workshop. There are already nearly a thousand mods available, and all can be installed in a click and kept up to date to perpetuity. It’s a sad development for modding communities like NexusMods, but it is jolly convenient for everyone else.

Be sure to grab the  HD texture pack  if you’ve got a beastly enough PC to handle it – Bethesda recommend at least 4 GB of system memory and 1 GB of graphics card memory. If you haven’t gotten into Skyrim before, it’s the perfect time to do so – good luck, have fun, and don’t forget to grab that Space Core.

This article was written by William Judd, a freelance copywriter and tech journalist. William writes for MobileFun.co.uk, the UK’s leading online retailer of Skylanders merchandise, including the Skylanders Dragon’s Peak Adventure Pack.

Now, Ubisoft is migrating some of its DRM servers, and to no one’s surprise except their’s, it’s gone terribly terribly wrong. As well as the titles that were previously announced as being unavailable, two other popular games are down until the maintenance is completed: Driver San Franciso and Anno 2070.

That means these players will join players of Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Tom Clancy’s HAWX 2, Might and Magic Heroes VI, The Settlers, and The Settlers 7 (phew) in not being able to play the games they legally purchased. Pirates of those titles, meanwhile, remain unaffected.

Until then, these gamers will have a chance to play other games that don’t have such a stupidly restrictive DRM ‘solution’. Hopefully they remember this experience, and Ubisoft realises how much they’re hated in the gaming world because of it.

This article was written by William Judd, a freelance copywriter and tech journalist. William writes for MobileFun.co.uk, the UK’s leading online retailer of Skylanders merchandise, including the Skylanders Triple Pack G and the Skylanders Triple Pack H. 

If you wanted more proof that RIM are targeting their BlackBerry products towards the youth market rather than the business-types they rose to power with, then here it is: The BlackBerry ‘Bold Team.’

The multi-ethnic team includes ‘Go Go Girl’, ‘Max Stone’, ‘Justin Steele’, and ‘Trudy Foreal’ (pronounced, I presume, “fo’ real.’”) As well as being burdened with names that wouldn’t sound out of place in a stereotypical adult film, they each have an archetype (achiever, adventurer, advocate, authentic) and some tediously predictable descriptive test, like they belong to the world’s worst set of Magic the Gathering cards.

The infographic is full of lovely irrelevant information, which comes from tweets written with the #BeBold tag: 36% of #BeBold advocates would like to make a difference in the world. 11% of adventurers resolve to take chances. Only 5% of Trudy Foreal’s authentics commit to being positive (which makes them sound more like Debby Downers.) If you’d like to reach BlackBerry, then you too can use that #BeBold tag and possibly get into their next infographic (if there is one).

So what do you think of the Bold Team? Will RIM’s success with that 2 – 5 year old market pay off ten years down the road, when they’ll actually begin to buy phones? Only time will tell…

This article was written by William Judd, a freelance copywriter and tech journalist. William writes for Mobile Fun, the UK’s leading online retailer of phone chargers, Galaxy covers and cases for iPhone.

Prepare yourselves. Winter is coming.

It was never going to be easy watching the role, which Whitfield embodied so completely, being filled by somebody else. I embarked on the first episode fully open to accepting McIntyre, hoping that he would succeed in portraying the tortured, angry yet honour-bound and compassionate Spartacus that we saw in Whitfield. To an extent, probably to the greatest extent possible, he has succeeded, but it is just is not the same. To his credit, McIntyre hasn’t attempted what would have been a doomed attempt at imitating Whitfield’s performance, yet has inherited a degree of his solemnity and his essence. He is good, but I’m waiting to see if he truly has the chops to carry the entire series on his back as did his predecessor.

All of the other characters to have survived from the first season are the same, which makes the change that bit more incongruous. However, all performances were up to scratch. The drama was maintained at a reasonable amplitude throughout, the good old poetically vulgar dialogue on point. Fans of the first two series will be familiar with the show’s unreservedly explicit nature, whether that be of a violent or sexual one, and this episode won’t disappoint. Particularly gratuitous is a sequence where Spartacus and comrades, in pursuit of Crixus‘ lost love Naevia, raid a brothel; you can imagine the kinds of scenes.

We feel the machinations of Roman society as a whole closing in on the principal characters in this episode. The fugitive slaves face the threat of clashing with the actual Roman army. Glabus is feeling the political pressure to bring Spartacus down once and for all. New political opponents are introduced, with some nice foreshadowing of future quarrels to come. Illythia (played by Viva Bianca and one of my favourite characters to watch onscreen) is faced with back-from-the-dead Lucretia, whom her husband has chosen to keep alive as a symbol of resistance against Spartacus. She isn’t given much scope to shine at her vindictive best in this episode, but I don’t doubt that that is coming. Lucy Lawless‘ traumatised and bewildered Lucretia hopefully won’t stay so for long, and just like that, we have a whole load of vengeance just dying to be acted out.

One of the greatest strengths of the past two series was their ability to provide, without fail, a shock ending to each and every episode, marking astonishing twists and turns in the plots. The end of the first episode of this series, sadly, does not provide quite the same jaw-dropping impact. I won’t give it away, but it was reasonably predictable and, though somewhat shocking, hardly sensational. However, though this new series feels a little more muted in comparison to the triumphant previous two, it is by no means a disappointment. It is remarkable how the creators manage to make so watchable and seducing a series based on a story to which we all know the ending, thanks to a combination of great writing, show-stopping action sequences and charismatic performances. I rest assured that there are yet more shocks and thrills to come. A promising start, let’s hope the pace only continues to accelerate.

It’s time to announce the winners of our Kindle giveaway. To try and keep it as random as possible as ever, we’ve used Randomizer.org which generates random numbers for scientific research.

And here are the results:

And the winners are:

Hazel Rea and Ms Boyce

Congratulations to both our winners who have won a Kindle each and a big thank you to everyone who participated. Don’t worry if you didn’t win, we’re doing plenty more giveaways in the future!

Make sure to subscribe to the feed in the sidebar on your right and to follow me at theurbanshogun on Twitter and at the fan page over at The Urban Shogun to keep up to date with the latest giveaways and the rest of the great content on TUS.