The X Factor Live Show, Saturday November 27th

It's Saturday night, so it must be time for The X Factor. Who are you backing? With Katie Waissel through last week in one piece, Paije Richardson out and Cher Lloyd in the bottom two for the first time - not to mention the seemingly unstoppable force that is Wagner Carrilho - every vote counts and it's time to fire things up with rock week. Links below to buy the originals of tonight's songs on iTunes and to preorder the contestants' performances, the winner's song and this year's Help for Heroes charity single featuring all 16 finalists.

The X Factor 2010 Winner's Song (Pre-order)

The X Factor 2010 Help for Heroes charity single - Heroes

...and because it's on EVERY week, the Yeo Valley Rap by the Yeo Valley Boyz, from the Yeo Valley advert. That's the power of branding right there.

Performances by category:

The Boys

Matt Cardle

I Love Rock 'N Roll
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Matt Cardle

Nights in White Satin
Moody Blues
Matt Cardle

The Girls

Rebecca Ferguson

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
U2
Rebecca Ferguson

I Can't Get No Satisfaction
Aretha Franklin
Rebecca Ferguson

Katie Waissel

Everybody Hurts
REM
Katie Waissel

Sex On Fire
Kings of Leon
Katie Waissel

Cher Lloyd

Walk This Way
Run DMC vs Aerosmith
Cher Lloyd

Girlfriend
Avril Lavigne
Cher Lloyd

The Group

One Direction

Summer of '69
Bryan Adams
One Direction

You Are So Beautiful
Joe Cocker
One Direction

The Over-28s

Mary Byrne

All I Want Is You
U2
Mary Byrne

Brass In Pocket
The Pretenders
Mary Byrne

Wagner Carillho

Addicted To Love
Robert Palmer
Wagner Carillho

Creep
Radiohead
Wagner Carillho

Razer TRON Gaming Peripherals

I was born in the early 1980s. Computers were new and the internet was something nobody understood and few people had heard of - the Matthew Broderick movie WarGames is a fine example of how things worked back then. All we knew was what we saw in the movies - that the inside of a computer contains lots of skyscrapers laid out like city blocks and information flies around between them like an emergency response helicopter.

But TRON, the 1982 Jeff Bridges movie, actually goes one step further than that and suggests computer programs are almost sentient beings, with their own personalities and ambitions. It's probably no coincidence that I've always named my computers - and even given separate names to separate hard drives - working on those kinds of influences. And it's probably not surprising to anyone who knows me that I'm pretty thrilled to see Razer's TRON: LEGACY Light Cycle mouse, matching mouse pad and keyboard go on sale after being announced back in the summer. The countdown to the release of TRON: LEGACY in the cinemas is well and truly on.

Steve Brookstein and Eileen Hunter - Don't Give Up

I admit I didn't know that much about Steve Brookstein before this year's The X Factor - obviously I knew he was the first winner of the show back in 2004, but I couldn't even have told you that his winning song was Against All Odds. It's a fitting title six years on, however, as Steve and partner Eileen Hunter have paired up on a cover of the Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush duet Don't Give Up that is vying with the PR machine of The X Factor Series 7 for the Christmas number one spot.

Or should that be QRistmas rather than Christmas? That is the charity initiative Steve and Eileen are supporting - a campaign that could only work in this age of smartphones and social networking which asks people to use a Quick Response code - one of those funny square barcodes you see on all sorts of products - by taking a photo with their camera phone and allowing themselves to be redirected to more information about homelessness charity StreetSmart and the QRistmas initiative. It is this uniquely 21st century technology that puts the 'QR' in QRistmas.

Download link: Don't Give Up is out on December 13th and available for download on Amazon UK.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (PS3)

Right, new feature time guys and girls. We haven't done game reviews on Popsiculture before now, mostly because we aren't big gamers, and I have only recently become the proud owner of a Playstation 3 (320GB, slim, and oh so sexy...check out Amazon for probably the best PS3 bundle deals on the internet). Yep, after certain adverse football results at the weekend, I was forced to cheer myself up by spending some serious money on the first console I've owned in a decade, with two brand new games, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

The Lowdown

Once we had overcome the technical difficulties associated with linking said PS3 to a Sony Bravia LCD VPL-AW15 projector, and Altec Lansing FX5051 speaker system, the first game in to the slot was Need for Speed, for some hi-def, big screen, surround sound action, racing around the beautifully rendered scenery of Seacrest County. Not that there's much time for looking at the scenery, as the game launches you straight in to Career Mode, and reveals a strange definition of a career in this fictitious little corner of America, where you are by turns either a maniacal criminal street racer, or a maniacal Police driver.

Alesha Dixon - The Entertainer

I'm genuinely excited to say The Entertainer from Alesha Dixon is due for a release date of November 29th, 2010. You can already buy it on iTunes ready for when it's released, and there are two versions to choose from - the standard 12-track album or the 16-track deluxe version. It's not being listed as a deluxe version, but it includes the videos to Drummer Boy and Radio, along with a couple of extra tracks, so I'd say it's fairly deluxe compared to the regular album.

This is being touted as Alesha's second album in some reviews - but it's not, it's her third. Before The Alesha Show there was Fired Up, which ended up being released in Japan and not in the UK. The latter has the unique honour of being the priciest album I've ever bought on import, and was well worth every penny. But that was back in the Mis-Teeq days - Alesha's all grown up now and has her own very distinctive sound.

DVD & Blu-ray Round Up: Toy Story 3

There's only one possible place to start this week, and that's with the release of the extraordinary final instalment in the Toy Story saga. Let me take you back for a moment to 1995: Colin Firth is winning ladies' hearts as Mr Darcy, Robbie Williams is breaking them by leaving Take That, and Sony are taking the world by storm with the release of the PlayStation. And a little known animation studio by the name of Pixar team up with Disney to release Toy Story, the first movie made entirely using computer-generated imagery. This 80-minute masterpiece was not only a big hit with the critics, but it went on to be a huge commercial success, spending 18 weeks in the movie charts, spawning an entirely new genre of film in the process.

The releases that have followed from Pixar, and it's main CGI competitor Dreamworks, have been some of the funniest, most entertaining, and most popular films in the intervening 15 years. From the early efforts like Antz and Shrek, to Pixar's mid noughties golden era of Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, or latter day greats like WALL-E and Up, they all owe a debt to the ground that was broken by Toy Story.

So for Toy Story 3, bringing the stories of Buzz, Woody, Jessie, the Potato Heads, and that pig thing to and end is quite a responsibility. Get the tone wrong and a 15 year, 2 film legacy could be ruined, get it right, and you've just completed one of the greatest film trilogies of all time. Thankfully Toy Story 3 comes in much, much closer to the latter; superbly written and beautifully animated, with a truly touching dénouement.

The X Factor Live Show, Saturday November 20th

It seems a little like The X Factor have shot themselves in the foot this week. It's The Beatles week, but the official X Factor website's in a deal with Ovi. Which means all their download links are to cover versions. Luckily, the whole world now knows the Beatles are on iTunes, so you can get the proper versions below.

The X Factor 2010 Winner's Song (Pre-order)

Performances by category:

The Boys

Matt Cardle - Come Together
The Beatles
Matt Cardle

Paije Richardson - Let It Be
The Beatles
Paije Richardson

The Girls

Rebecca Ferguson - Yesterday
The Beatles
Rebecca Ferguson

Katie Waissel - Help!
The Beatles
Katie Waissel

Cher Lloyd - Imagine
John Lennon
Cher Lloyd

The Group

One Direction - All You Need Is Love
The Beatles
One Direction

The Over-28s

Mary Byrne - Something
The Beatles
Mary Byrne

Wagner Carillho - Get Back, Hippy Hippy Shake, Hey Jude
Get Back
Hippy Hippy Shake
Hey Jude
Wagner Carillho

BBC Children in Need - November 19th 2010

On Children In Need night I tend to take my lead from Terry Wogan's Eurovision experience: screen in front of me and a bottle of fun juice to the left. My only deviance is that instead of broadcasting to the whole of the UK via microphone, this year I have a blog to write and Twitter to keep me company. Please accept my apologies in advance as I write and drink as I watch. I have no idea what state either myself or the written word will be in by the time the final total spins.

Katie Waissel - Ray of Light

Long, long ago (well, four years), The X Factor finalist Katie Waissel had dark hair and a different surname. The moniker Katie Vogel was an homage to her grandfather, one of Katie's inspirations from an early age but who passed away when she was still very young. Perhaps it's fitting that her childhood inspiration provided the name under which she released 2006's Ray of Light, which was adopted by BullyingUK as its anthem for the year.

It's a strange thing, too, that four years later Katie is a perfect example of the undeserved hatred directed at people. Twitter (or, at least, fans of The X Factor who are on there) is genuinely divided into Waissel Warriors and Vogel Villifiers. It's real hatred, too - there have been death threats. To paraphrase one tweet, "We're not bullying you - we'll stop as soon as you quit the show." Anyway, that's a different matter...

The Beatles are on iTunes

So Apple's big exciting announcement was that The Beatles can now be found on iTunes. It is kind of exciting, but not for the reasons they meant it to be. It's exciting because it means there's a very real likelihood that The Beatles will be in the top ten this week. Possibly at number one. If you really fancy it, William Hill are offering 100/1 on The Beatles filling the entire UK Top 40 Singles Chart in any one week in 2011. They're also 25/1 to have the Christmas number one. So, you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do you...?