I got a few people asking me where to have dinner on Valentine’s day in Sydney.

Well, I’ve compiled a list of various types of restaurants mainly favouring Italian, French and Modern Australian – but I’ve added a few others.

Astral Restaurant
This would have one of the best views compared to the others in the list. They have a special Valentine’s day thing happening, so you’ll have to give them a call. But don’t be surprised if they’re all booked out. This restaurant styles Modern French and chef Sean Connolly would present a very well cooked meal for the evening. From what I hear, try the Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich for dessert.

I would suggest pre-drinks at the Astral Bar (and maybe a few cheeky cocktails after dinner too).
http://www.astralrestaurant.com.au/

Summit
Up on Australia Square on level 47, this restaurant boasts Modern Australian and also has a special for Valentines day. Various packages are available for dinning that evening – ranging from $185 to $500 for either a 4 or 5 courses each being a selection from their menu. Additionally, each package includes red roses on the table – a nice touch.
http://www.summitrestaurant.com.au/

Essence
Located on Lime Street near King St Wharf, this restaurant also serves a Modern Australian cuisine. You have views of the water towards the maritime museum. From here, you can either carry on to the Wharf Bar, or head down for a boogie to Cargo Bar or the Loft. Haven’t heard of anything special happening for Valentine’s night
http://www.essencerestaurant.com.au/

L’etoile
Yes, this has to make it on the list as it is one of my favourite French restaurants. They are doing a special at $85pp for a 6 course degustation or $125pp including wine – which honestly, I think is quite impressive. However the only catch is that you can make the reservation for either 6pm or 8:45pm. Call them up to get an idea of the menu. Feel free to as the waiter for their cocktail list – there are a few that aren’t bad.
http://www.letoilerestaurant.com.au/

Coast
This Modern Italian/Australia restaurant at Darling Harbour (next to Chinta Ria) is also doing a special for the 14th Feb, $95pp for a 3 course meal with a cocktail and you can order your wine separate. Unfortunately no matching wine to their food. However, you can make a special request (for a fee) to have roses on the table.
http://www.coastrestaurant.com.au/

Kobe Jones – Teppanyaki at The Rocks
This would be the top of my list favourite if Astral is booked out. They have a great variety for either a Set or A la Carte menus. The only let down is that the dinning experience can sometimes be with a few other people in each cooking room – however, that shouldn’t affect how you enjoy the food. The chef will cook and prepare the food right in front of you – and I would suggest your splurge a little on this night. For pre/post drinks – head out to the Blu Horizon bar at the Shangri-la (try booking early for a window seat with views).
http://www.kobejones.com.au/

Still need more options? Leave a comment below and let me know what you’re looking for.

A survey held by Morgan Stanley shows that in the US during Q4, 300,000 Android phones were sold while Apple sold 1.75 million iPhones. That’s about 6 iPhones to 1 Android.

Now while Google still has to play catch up, the above figures are only based on two of its mobile manufacturing partners – HTC & T-Mobile. Soon enough we should see Motorola, LG, Sony Ericsson et al.

Surprising figures? Not really. iPhone always had an edge over Google’s acquired Android. Best network operator (AT&T rated 1, while T-Mobile rated at 4), better user experience, better multimedia and even better software.

And software is the key point here – the infamous App Store. That’s Apple’s additional revenue model. For Google? It’s not about selling their Android platform – no no no, it’s about making it easier to get it’s users to use Google services to then see (and hopefully click) on their ads.

Does that mean once we have more manufacturers using Android, we may see a sizable increase in revenue for Google? Unknown…

Don’t forget Google can still be accessed on the iPhone. I mean, I use them when I do a web search on my phone, but do I click on their ads? Well, not really.

So where does Microsoft fit in all this? Recently, they have announced that along with the next version of Windows Mobile, they will also release – guess what – an app store!

It’s called the “SkyMarket”. And along with SkyMarket, Microsoft will also launch “SkyBox” (similar to MobileMe to sync emails, contacts, and other data) and “SkyLine” – similar to SkyBox, but for small businesses.

Now, I’m assuming that the SkyBox will be free (or peanuts) unless they plan to make it work for non Windows devices – like a Nokia N95, iPhone or Android for that matter.

However, all this has been done – it’s not cutting edge. What we’re seeing is a company following the footpaths of the successful ones.

Still, Apple is holding it’s ground pretty well.

In an article that I read, it said that recently more and more people (mainly American focused) are eating junk food because its cheaper than buying groceries and cooking it yourself.

But, when you take video games as an example, there are no cut backs.

However, that doesn’t mean we go trigger happy (pardon the pun) on giving our cash away. Yes, gamers are spending, but they are spending wisely. Because it’s no longer about just buying games and stacking them up – instead it’s about buying games that will have weeks worth of fun with.

In 2005, the top 20 titles accounted for 11% of games sold that year. In 2008, that rose to 18%. Similarly, compare 2008 Nintendo Wii’s game sales – where it’s top 10 titles account for 44% of the games sold for that console.

While this means that bigger companies like EA, Ubisoft, Microsoft Game Studios and so on will have a stable income, the smaller ones will eventually get bought out. Their games will be taken by the likes of EA, improved upon and then advertised in the market at a much higher spend than they could afford.

Case and example, Lionhead Studios (maker of Fable & Fable 2) got bought out by Microsoft in 2006. It’s an example of taking the first part of Fable, improving it – and then marketing it pretty well. May we will see bigger gaming companies swallow the smaller ones for creativity.

In the meantime, expect people to spend on games like Fallout 3, Fable 2, Grand Theft Auto, Guitar Hero and so on – because there is so much more to explore compared to buying Forza (I did 5 races and gave up!).