It's going to get Messi: Arsene Wenger hints Arsenal could draw Barcelona in last 16... again

Last updated at 7:55 AM on 17th December 2010

He may not have mentioned them by name, but Arsene Wenger has a feeling that, when the balls are drawn today, it will be mighty Barcelona who are paired with his Arsenal side.

Not that Wenger fears a conspiracy, even if Manchester United and Liverpool legends Sir Bobby Charlton and Ronnie Whelan have been charged with the task of deciding Arsenal's Champions League last-16 opponents at the ceremony in Nyon, Switzerland.

Rather, Wenger feels it is simply fate that the two sides who play arguably the most attractive football in Europe will meet for the second consecutive season - and, judging by his comments, the Arsenal manager is not too perturbed by the fact his side will be taking on a team who destroyed Real Madrid 5-0 this season and claimed a 6-2 aggregate win over the Gunners last season. 

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Mesmerising: Messi has already scored six goals in Europe this and put Arsenal to the sword last year

'I know who we will get, at that level you need connections,' quipped Wenger before suggesting the Catalan giants could even be his preferred opponents.

THE DRAW...

The draw for the last 16 in the Champions League will take place in Nyon, Switzerland, at 11am.
The first legs are on February 15 and 16 and February 22 and 23 and the second legs on March 8 and 9 and March 15 and 16.
The group winners will be at home in the second leg.
A club cannot draw a team from their country or one they faced in their group. 

'If I say we want Barcelona you won't believe me. I hope we get who I feel we will get.'

Most Arsenal fans will be crossing their fingers that Schalke are left standing in the way of a place in the last eight.

Having forfeited the chance of avoiding Barca by failing to steer his side to top spot in their group, Wenger has little choice other than to accept what comes his way, even if that means taking on a team who, in his opinion, offer the best example of the type of football he is trying to reproduce at Arsenal.

'Barcelona were outstanding against Real Madrid,' said Wenger.

'It was some of the best football I've ever seen. What was surprising was that they had no weak moment in that game. Their determination and focus for 90 minutes were spot on.

'The quality was unbelievable. When you see a performance like that you are encouraged to get to that level. It is good that teams show how well you can play football.'

Should Wenger's hunch prove correct and should Barca get anywhere close to that level, Arsenal's players will have little option but to learn from what is sure to be a lesson in how to play the game. 

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ODDS:

Barcelona 9-4; Real Madrid 9-2; Chelsea 6-1; Man Utd 9-1; Arsenal 15-1; Bayern Munich 19-1; Tottenham 21-1; Inter 27-1; AC Milan 28-1; Roma 75-1; Valencia 75-1; Lyon 110-1; Shakhtar 110-1; Schalke 120-1; Marseille 160-1; FC Copenhagen 280-1. 

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Tevez's showdown with Mancini on ice after Manchester City are stranded in Turin

Last updated at 8:37 AM on 17th December 20

Carlos Tevez's scheduled crunch meeting with Roberto Mancini on Friday is now in doubt after Manchester City were unable to fly back from Turin.

They were due to jet home late on Thursday night after the 1-1 draw with Juventus in the Europa League.

However, the plane due to take them back was grounded at Turin airport because of a technical problem, prompting Mancini to decide they would spend the night in the Italian city. 

And further complications with the plane delayed their departure on Friday morning and they are now not expected to land back in Manchester until at least midday.

Showdown: Manchester City's Carlos Tevez was due to meet Roberto Mancini on Friday

Tevez, who has requested a move away from Eastlands, was set to sit down with manager Roberto Mancini on Friday to discuss his future. That meeting is now expected to be put on hold until at least Saturday.

Mancini has already decided that the unsettled Manchester City captain will play against Everton in the Barclays Premier League on Monday night.

Tevez was absent from the second string City team that drew at Juventus to ensure that they finished top of their group in the Europa League and has not played since handing in a transfer request at the start of last week.

Stranded: Roberto Mancini spent an extra night in Italy after being grounded

However, Mancini was adamant after Thursday's match that Tevez will play on Monday and will tell the 26-year-old that his future must be settled once and for all over the coming few days.

The City manager said: 'When I arrive at the training ground, I will speak with Carlos. Will he play on Monday? Yes, why not?

'He recovered and rested today, so he will play on Monday. He has trained well since Tuesday and he doesn’t have a problem.

Delight: Adam Johnson (left) and Jo celebrate their equaliser against Juventus

'On Monday, we have a very difficult game and I want all of my players to be there, 100 per cent. I haven’t had this situation before, but it can happen at any club in England or Italy.

'It is important I speak to him. I want to understand what he wants to do because I think this can finish in the next two days. It's important that it can finish quickly.'

Mancini is yet to decide whether to give the captaincy to someone else for Monday's game

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Use the Kinect to surf the web!

This is one of those posts that might be better if you hit the jump and see the video of it before you read about it.

Apparently, four young gentlemen from MIT’s Fluid Interfaces Group have figured out another use for the Microsoft Kinect. Instead of using your body as a controller in a video game, this involves the user’s body becoming a web browser.

You will note from the video how the user can navigate through open tabs, and then select the proper link. Scrolling and zooming looks like some weird kind of telekinesis.

I realize that this comparison gets overused, but it is a lot like Tom Cruise’s gesture-based interface from Minority Report, without the three-fingered gloves with the blue lights.

My Source mentions that the addition of a virutal keyboard by moving your fingers could help, but that would probably mean learning how to type again. Isn’t there some way we could do a speech to text feature? So if I wanted to say: “Search for Energizer”, it would lead me to the homepage for Energizer.

What these guys have here is definitely a way of surfing the net on your television without a keyboard or mouse. It beats the heck out of those keyboard remotes.

DepthJS from Fluid Interfaces on Vimeo.

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Hands on with the Psyko 5.1 PC Gaming Headset

on December 2010

I had a friend of mine try out Psyko Audio’s gaming PC Headset at CES last January. He told me they were “the best headphones that he had ever seen”.

You can imagine what kind of a set-up that is for a review. Either I am going to be really disappointed, or I’m going to agree with him. One thing I can say is that I am not disappointed.

The Pskyo 5.1 isn’t designed to be headphones, but a headset system for gaming. The system creates 3D sound like a room system, with 5 speakers in the bridge plus a sub-woofer positioned at each ear. It is created so that a gamer can hear exactly where a sound is coming from. By the way, just because they aren’t designed to be regular audio headphones doesn’t mean they can’t be used as them, and they work rather well in that capacity.

The Psyko Audio also has an extremely unique aesthetic quality. The ears are made of transparent plastic, and are easily adjustable. There is also a terrific removable microphone.

The Psyko 5.1 PC Gaming headset requires hooking up the earphones to an amp that you plug into the wall. The amp has an adjustable volume and bass. It requires some set-up for 5.1 surround sound.

You should be able to purchase the Psyko 5.1 PC Gaming Headset at the Psyko Audio site for a price of $299.99. That may sound pretty expensive, but this is probably going to be the last pair of headphones that you will need to buy for a long time. If you have a gamer on your Christmas list, and you can spare the cash, then this is your gift for that person.

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BlackBerry Bold: Extensively Reviewed

I’m a pretty devout iPhone user. My original iPhone has been good to me. The new 2.0firmware upgrade takes the device to a whole new level of awesomeness. But as awesome as the iPhone is, I couldn’t help but drool a bit when I first glimpsed the BlackBerry Bold. RIM promised a unique mix of form and function and according to the Boy Genius Report, they’ve pretty much delivered.

Boy Genius had a chance to take the Bold on a month long field test (seriously, we’re jealous) and the results are pretty much what most of us expected. It’s exactly what BlackBerry fans have been waiting for. Boy Genius says it best when they refer to the Bold as the “BlackBerry communities iPhone”.

The BGR review begins with a rocky start. The BlackBerry Bold has a start-up time which is admittedly frustrating. The phone takes upwards of three minutes to start-up. The Boy Genius team then had some issues keeping the phone powered in 3G mode. The old black screen and red LED that BlackBerry fans have become accustomed too.

But after their starter problems it was comparatively smooth sailing. BGR says the display is the nicest mobile phone screen they’ve ever seen and the Bold has been pimped up with an improved web browsing experience. The Bold is the BlackBerry that has it all, 3G data, GPS, and Wi-Fi. For much more check out the Boy Genius Report Bold review.

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Sony Walkman NWZ-W252 Review

The Sony Walkman NWZ W252 is a new type of MP3 player. It has a cord-free, wearable design, which is perfect for people who want a music player for the gym and unlike the previous version, it is water resistant. It can be quite uncomfy if in use for a prolonged amount of time as the ear buds are fairly heavy, which is understandable considering the controls and battery are attached to the side.

Despite the wearability flaws, the concept of the design is pretty good. It has no cables – meaning that you have more freedom to move – easy to master controls – featuring shuffle, pause, play and volume. It also incorporates ZAPPIN™ technology which allows the listener to scan through their collection of songs by listening to a small/long clip of each song, making it easier to find the song you want to listen to.

When fully charged (taking an hour and a half), you are provided with 11 hours of continuous playback, but if you are in a rush or you simply don’t want to be waiting around, you can plug it in to charge for three minutes for three hours worth of music. The product comes with a USB cable for charging and no AC adaptor.

It has a few songs on it to start with, and it is quite simple to transfer your own music files, (I didn’t need the instructions) and once they’re on, the sound is great! The background noise is blocked out very well and the volume can get quite loud! Compared to the iPod, I think that the Walkmans sound quality is better, but the headphones are not as comfy as the Apple ones as they are not as light. It has open format, meaning that it can accept WMA, MP3 and AAC files. You can transfer your entire library by dragging and dropping.

If you have long hair (like me), it can get irritating putting the device on as you have to move your hair out of the way, although if you’re at the gym (which is what it is intended for), you will most likely have your hair tied back so this is not a problem.

It is available in four different colours (black, white, pink and green) at £49.99 ($59.95) from Amazon and on the Sony website. The box contains:
● Holder
● Operation guide on software (stored in the built in flash memory)
● instruction manual
● Stand with USB cable
● Content Transfer software (stored in the built in flash memory)
● Earbuds (small, medium and large)

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Dreamate Sleep Inducer

If you’re one of those people that suffers from unusual sleep patterns and you want to get your body back in to check you might be able to do it with this acupuncture sleeping gadget, the Dreamate Sleep Inducer.

Dreamate uses accupressure techniques to gently massage the “sleeping golden triangle” on your left wrist. Used 30 minutes before bedtime, you can retune and reset your biological clock and train your body to relax and sleep. See results in as little as a week’s worth of use, with best results after eight weeks. These precise pressure points, when gently massaged, calm the body, lower stress levels, and induce sleep. Unlike addictive sleeping pills that knock you senseless, but offer little improvement in your sleep quality.

I’ve no idea how effective this is but it sounds kind of cool. The Dreamate is available from TG for $79.99.

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