I'll Get You Gadget!

Nintendo Wii ::: Advanced Media Network - Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Super Smash Bros, Wii, Revolution

2006-12-09T18:27:00.000+00:00

Nintendo Wii ::: Advanced Media Network - Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Super Smash Bros, Wii, Revolution: "It%u2019s funny, really. What we%u2019ve seen from Nintendo for the last several years is almost like some crazy martial arts combo, preparing to use their competitors%u2019 strength to defeat them."

Wii Whoops!

2006-12-08T17:00:00.000+00:00

BBC NEWS : Wii shortages frustrating gamers

Looks like the Wii is a runaway success and as a result there is a major supply problem. No real surprise really!

IGN: PAL Wii Week: Out of the Box

2006-12-05T08:44:00.000+00:00

IGN: PAL Wii Week: Out of the Box: "So, the first thing you'll notice as you tease open that cardboard casing is the effort Nintendo's made to make your initial Wii experience as special as possible. In its continuing attempts to become the Apple of the games industry, even the Wii's box is that little bit different."

MUSE Live at Cardiff Arena

2006-11-15T00:13:00.000+00:00

Click To Play

First - Massive thanks to James for arranging what was one of most incredible music experiences of my life! So many classic moments that I simply don't have the time to relate them all here. Needless to say MUSE are every bit as good as the rumours suggest . . . and them some! Second - I filmed this on my (broken) Nokia N93, the left mic is no longer working, so if the sound is poor that's partly to do with having to spread one channel across two in iMovie and partly because the N93 doesn't like loud noises . . . hehe . . . (^_^)

Cheap HD-DVD From Microsoft

2006-11-14T08:52:00.000+00:00

UNEASYsilence - Hacking the XBox 360%u2019s HD-DVD for the PC

How Notebook Batteries Work and Why They Blow Up

2006-11-03T17:24:00.000+00:00

How Notebook Batteries Work and Why They Blow Up : Tom's Hardware UK and Ireland

The humble battery has made a headlines recently after a spate of exploding laptop stories. Toms Hardware go inside the battery technologies found in old and new laptops to explain why Li-Ion batteries can explode and how you can help preserve your battery's life-span.

MacBook Pro Now With Intel Core 2 Duo - Not Before Time Either!

2006-10-24T14:06:00.000+01:00

Apple - Updated MacBook Pro Line

The Core 2 update was really a question of when not if for Apple. The Core 2 really improves of the Core Duo's great performance especially in the area of video encoding. Quite simply the Intel Core 2 Duo makes the Macbook Pro the most delicious pro notebook for sale today.

iCarta iPod Dock & Toilet Roll Dispenser

2006-10-11T14:47:00.000+01:00

First Steve Jobs showed one at a recent Apple show then I managed to get my hands on one at the recent Inmac 2006 Customer Exposition. So what do I think of the iCarta as an iPod dock? It seems to me that no self respecting iPod owner should have a toilet without an iCarta. This is the most stylish toilet roll dispenser I've ever seen. The guy showing this to me was at pains to state that the built in battery is rechargable although the information I'm reading says it's mains only. Didn't get a chance to test the audio quality but I can only imagine that it's good enough for a bathroom. The iCarta is available in the UK from LM Technologies.

See a larger picture.

DailyTech - Documents Leak NVIDIA's Quantum Physics Engine

2006-10-06T13:48:00.000+01:00

DailyTech - Documents Leak NVIDIA's Quantum Physics Engine

I can see it now, Windows Vista 2 requirements:

Quantum Physics GPU for Aero 2 Interface

Microsoft patches bad browser bug - At last!!!!

2006-09-27T14:56:00.000+01:00

BBC NEWS : Microsoft patches bad browser bug

Congratulations Microsoft! After almost 2 weeks of pressure the software monolith has moved into action and patched another nasty hole in IE 6 and Outlook. The exploit uses a vectored graphics dll which can be harnessed to allow malware onto a user's PC.

ALL WINDOWS USERS SHOULD RUN WINDOWS UPDATE ASAP!

I Gotta Get Me One of These!

2006-09-25T10:22:00.000+01:00

Seitz 6x17
160 Mega Pixels!!! Coming to a phone near you soon . . . not!!

iTunes 7.0 - Cover Flow Fun!

2006-09-14T10:32:00.000+01:00

Simply put iTunes 7.0 is the biggest update to iTunes since it was first launched way back when. Everything looks a lot slicker (unless you're on an ancient graphics card, in which case things will look rather funky). My favourite new feature is Cover Flow. iTunes has always had the feature to embed and display album cover art but they've taken it to a whole new level with iTunes 7.0. Cover Flow, bought from Steel Skies, basically allows you to browse your collection in a much more hands on manner, flicking through your album art until you find an album you like. It might, or might not be a better way of browsing through your library but whatever it's very gratifying to see your music displayed with it's associated artwork, presented much more beautifully than before.

Music & Video bought in the newly renamed iTunes Store will obviously come with artwork embedded. iTunes Cover Flow will also automatically go and look for your missing artwork (with some success, although some bands with similar names might end up with the wrong covers, Savoy for instance). This is great for all those CDs you imported into your library. If the automatic search isn't successful then you can, as before, add custom artwork lifted off of the net (good old Amazon!!). There's a whole new project now for me to embark on, getting album art for all of my songs.

Finally does anyone know why Apple have changed the look of iTunes from a green tint to a blue tint?

Update:

History of the iTunes logo

The Mighty Nokia N93

2006-09-14T09:58:00.000+01:00

First up, this is a big big phone. So big in fact, that you can only just get away with stashing it in your jeans pocket. There is a reason for the size though - it does a lot of things, most of them very well indeed.

1. Phone
2. Text
3. Email
4. Web Browsing (no, not like Opera mini, think Safari!) via Wireless G or GSM, etc.
5. Video recorder (full 640x480 with 48khz stereo, 30fps MP4)
5b. Video player, including H.264, same as iPod
6. Still Camera (3.2mp with 3X optical zoom
7. Radio
8. MP3 and AAC player
10. Document viewer and editor (MS and Acrobat)
11. Video calling
12. Games machine (with full 3D acceleration)
13. TV out (PAL and NTSC, works will all apps and functions)
14. Calendar, Diary, DoTo, etc. etc.
15. Voice recorder
16. Torch

The most impressive features, the reason why I love this big beauty, are the wireless web browsing and the video recorder, both of which work (almost) flawlessly. The still camera is not quite up to the same standard but still 'good enough' for my needs. One other point of note is just how bright the screen is, it's very bright! To think that these kind of features will become part of all phones sometime before the end of 2008 is quite amazing and probably spells the end of most other devices. Having said that, I guess that the other devices will just have to stay two steps ahead. So perhaps these feature rich phones spell the end of low end devices.

Get a Mac and get Gisele Bundchen!

2006-09-08T12:01:00.000+01:00

New Apple ad on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Gisele Bundchen evidently represents how Mac OS X apps are nice and sexy while PC apps look like cross dressing fat blokes.

Couldn't agree more!

Also is it me or is the Mac guy trying to look like Kevin Rose?

Apple iMac now with Intel Core 2 Duo and 24" screen

2006-09-07T13:20:00.000+01:00

Apple - iMac Range

Appled slipped the newly updated iMacs out without so much as a whisper. So here they are the new improved iMacs with Intel Core 2 Duo chips and now available with a 24" screen.

The best desktop pc just got better!

The Mac Mini also got a speed upgrade too. The Core Solo model is no more and the high end Mac Mini now sports a 1.83GHz Core Duo. It's now only £400 to get the new 'low-end' Mac Mini. That's a very tempting price indeed!

Surely the MacBook Pro will get the Intel Core 2 Duo sooner rather than later!? It's not a heat issue that's for sure since the Core 2 Duo is slightly cooler running than the Core Duo. Expect an announcement soon.

Amstrad PC 1512 SD

2006-09-03T23:35:00.000+01:00

Amstrad PC 1512 SD
Originally uploaded by pcesarperez.

Now this takes me right back to my earliest computer memories. The Amstrad PC 1512 SD that Dad would bring home from work. This and James' CPC 464. The first game I remember playing on a computer was MS Flight Sim on the Amstrad PC. Chicago Megis Field in glorious CGA! More memories coming this way soon....

QSST Quiet Supersonic Transport

2006-08-31T14:52:00.000+01:00

QSST Quiet Supersonic Transport

This is an uber-gadget that only someone like Roman Abramovich or Donald Trump could afford. Think of the Learjet meets the Thunderbirds and you'll get something close to the QSST.

Basically the QSST is a private jet that can travel at supersonic speeds but without the sonic boom associated with normal supersonic flight. "The comfort of a private jet and the speed of a fighter jet."

The "If Dreams Could Fly" video is very impressive.

Don't Download This Song

2006-08-29T09:56:00.000+01:00

Wierd Al says: "don't download this song" but as always he's just kidding!

Download This Song Here - 192kbps MP3

PlayStation 3: Gaming Console, Media Centre, Scientific Research Machine??

2006-08-26T09:07:00.000+01:00

BBC NEWS : PlayStation 3 tackles world ills

This is nuts! Sony have lost the plot, dropped the ball or whatever you want to call it. There's so much talk around the PS3 but so little action. Now it's going to run research projects with it's 'spare' processing power!? Nice!

DSL Linux

2006-08-25T09:17:00.000+01:00

DSL (Damn Small Linux) is a Linux distro based on Debian that has been slimmed down to the bare essentials to enable it to run on anything from a 486 up. The great thing about it is that like most Linux distributions it comes with a whole host of hand appliations pre-installed. If you have a network card you have the potential to connect to the internet in a secure and safe environment (connecting to the internet with Windows 95, 98 or ME is not a good idea). This type of slimmed down OS is ideal for countries where access to the latest hardware is beyond the reach of the average person. Take any working machine with a CD drive and you can have a fully loaded system in no time at all.

Another good use for DSL is the ability to have a fully bootable OS on a small USB thumb drive. This can be very handy when diagnosing faults.

Out of interest I took an old Dell Latitude XPi CD M133ST that we had laying around here and work and tried installing DSL on it. I was able to locate this handy how to which helped a lot. Following those instructions closely I was able to install DSL in under 30 minutes. I popped in an old PCMCIA NIC and hey presto I'm on the net. In fact I've been writing this post for that machine, a Pentium 133mhz MMX with 32mb of ram, 1.6GB hard disk and a 12.1" SVGA screen. Obviously it's not the fastest machine in the world but it's more than useable. I could quite easily use email, basic web browsing and IM no problem at all. Add to that the built word processing and spreadsheet apps and I can do all the basics.

I think DSL is well worth a look if you need to ressurect an old machine and want to run on a modern stable OS.

Apple do a Dell and issue a recall on 1.8m laptop batteries

2006-08-24T23:31:00.000+01:00

BBC NEWS : Apple recall on laptop batteries

Looks like this battery recall lark will cost Sony a ton of dough. If you've got a battery affected by this recall then it's a real boon since you'll be entitled to a nice new battery. Hopefully one that won't cause a fire either! Talking of batteries my Pismo's battery has finally died after 6 years of life. Not bad really since Li-ion batteries generally have a 3-5 year life span.

Tiny, sub-$100 PC runs Puppy Linux

2006-08-24T16:58:00.000+01:00

Tiny, sub-$100 PC runs Puppy Linux

So you thought the Mac Mini was small, check this out! Not only is the MicroClient Jr. small it's also mega cheap, sub $100. Proof that a Pentium 166MHz cpu can still be of some use when twinned with an efficient OS.

Big rise in broadband connections

2006-08-24T09:44:00.000+01:00

BBC NEWS : Big rise in broadband connections

No surprises here really.

Broadband uptake has been fuelled by a host of attractively priced offers from companies such as Carphone Warehouse, BT and BSkyB.

Ironiacally in another report the BBC 'uncovered' that TalkTalk's free broadband is rubbish. Suprise surprise! There's a big difference between a good deal and free.

Black MacBook @ Apple Store, Regents Street

2006-08-22T17:51:00.000+01:00

Black MacBook @ Apple Store Regents Street
Originally uploaded by Paul & Aline.

My first hands on experience with the new Apple MacBook. To be quite honest it was even slicker than I expected. I've seen a lot of notebooks in my time but this is certainly one of the best looking ever!

Not only did I look at the black model but I also had a quick look at the white version (let's face it £150 extra just for black...?). I did notice that the white models seemed to have gone a little bit grey. Maybe it's the composition of the keyboard surround but it seems to attract the dirt. On the other hand the units in the Apple Store do get a lot of wear and tear.

MS Work Simulator

2006-08-21T21:40:00.000+01:00

10 years on and this comic is still just as appropiate. :-)