So just like an addict falling back into the old familiar pattern, unable to resist the lure of a fix. We return to podcasting. And as has been our want of late, we launched straight into it.

Starting with.....

My Movie debut - I've made a little movie of my HDD swap-out of my MacBook. A shiny new 320GB unit to replace my Apple supplied 120GB. Not a bad effort if I say so myself, check it out on the site. Next up an SSD into an iMac G4, will it fit? Then on to...

Lion - The new OS from Apple is here, and we're both up and running on it. This wasn't a through and detailed review, if you want that you need to go to Ars Technica and read the huge and painstaking review there. All hail Siracusa. Ours was more a discussion of the experiences we had installing and getting to grips with 10.7. Safe in the knowledge, that no matter how bad it could be, it's not windows. Then an easy segue into...

iOS - As a natural progression from Lion, iOS5 was next, and all the goodies promised with that. Over tha air upgrades, cutting the cord from the computer. iCloud and all the benefits that will bestow. And most importantly of all the iPhone5, or 4S, or 4GS or whatever the hell it'll be called, just release it already!

New hardware - No discussion of Apple's news would be complete without touching on the new hardware. Just to express our desire to own it all of course. Gareth wants a Mini server for all his media needs. I want an Air to replace my capacious but ageing MacBook. We can dream can't we. There was plenty more besides ending with...

iPlayer International - The part of the show where I tease Gareth about the impending, but not quite imminent, arrival of the BBC iPlayer in the US. There was good and bad news this week, the BBC has launched overseas. Unfortunately it was just the North Sea, not the Atlantic. It'll be there soon Gareth, honestly.

Back again after another enforced break. I'm not going to say who's fault it was this time, but it wasn't mine. Off we went into it again, but with a bit of a false start this time…

Google Voice - Hurrah, I've got Google Voice working in the UK. Well almost anyway, we tried to demonstrate it working live on the show. Unfortunately, as is the way with live demos, its good, but its not quite there. I'm unbowed by this set back and determined to get it working. What I'll do with it then who knows Gareth's the only person I know over there.

New MacBook Pros - The rumour mill is working overtime. The new MB Pros could drop as soon as the 24th of this month. And we can't wait to see what Apple have done this time. Liquid Metal? New form factor? Optical drive? Sandy Bridge? The possibilities are endless, and its always good to have something to wish for, keeps me from telling the boss to shove his job.

Sicknote Steve - How is this going to affect Apple? Is there a succession plan in place? Will His Steveness be back at all? He's still overseeing the big strategy decisions, but Tim Cook is doing the day to day stuff. And he's been seen around Infinite Loop, as well as elsewhere. Yes that's right he's even been hanging out with the Prez.

The Daily what - Gareth, the iPad king, has been trying out the future of newspaper publishing. And… its not good. The old guard of old media are still not getting this new media thing. A slow and buggy app, little interactivity, and old news. There's not really much more to say, but Gareth nails it.

Microkia - Nokia have thrown in the towel, towels if you count both MeeGo and Symbian. And have jumped off their 'burning platform' and onto Microsoft's less then stellar Windows Phone 7. Can I just take a moment to state that 'Windows Phone 7' is the worst product name this century, there I've said it I can move on now. There, better now, where was I, oh yes. An admission by Espoo that they can't do smartphones. Losing smartphone share in huge chunks every quarter they had to jump somewhere, but have they jumped in the direction, only time will tell.

So episode 48, even with the breaks we had last year that seems to have come around quick. We’ll soon be up to the magic ‘Five-Oh’, how cool will that be. So in that more informal conversational style that’s developed since we came back. We dived straight into the show again.

Homework complete, we started with....

Tron : Legacy, again - Hurray. I’ve seen it, and a cracking film it is too. We discussed it in great detail, no real spoilers if you haven’t seen it, more just how we felt about the film and where it might go next. Speaking of which I hope Disney won’t make us wait another 20 odd years for the next sequel.

Verizon iPhone, again - So interesting what was announced on Tuesday, we had another bash at the subject. WiFi hotspot, which turned into a discussion about tethering. Which lead into data plans. Which lead into a bit of a rant about phone companies. Which segued nicely into a more general discourse on us consumers generally getting shafted. All that and we didn’t even get on to the difference in design in the CDMA iPhone and where that might be taking things. Wow, I’m tired just thinking about it.

Google Chrome de-H264’d - In the name of openness Google is going to drop support for H264 video from the Chorme browser. Thereby guaranteeing that the HTML5 video tag will languish, unsupported and delayed, and by default handing web video back to Adobe’s Flash. Way to go Larry, Curly and Moe, more misery for web users so you can stick it to Apple.

Stuxnet worm - If you haven’t heard about this one Google it. It’s a fascinating story of state sponsored espionage, not that any state will admit involvement of course. Targeting the Iranian nuclear programme, with a startling degree of success. It apparently has put back Iran’s weapons program years, almost as long as if they’d let Israel bomb the crap out of it, like they wanted to.

There was a lot more then that. But we got hacked by the MCP and all discussion was terminated.

End of line

"Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing."

Winterval over. Back refreshed and ready to go. Well almost, a few germs lingering after new year are keeping me laid low. But I soldiered on, and another show was delivered. And a cracking show it was.

Straight into it again, starting with….

Tron : Legacy - Gareth was completely stoked after seeing this. So much so he wanted to get straight into it. Unfortunately I had to break the bad news. I haven't had a chance to see it yet. We did discuss it briefly, no spoilers. And I have homework to do before the next show, go and see it.

Christmas Goodies - We you a good little boy or girl last year, did Santa bring you the gadget your heart desired. Gareth had an unexpected bonus, an Apple TV 2. And very impressed with it he was, apart for having to mess with his WiFi network to get it in range, that is.

Nothing as exciting as that for me, my daughter got an LG Android phone though, and I must say I'm completely unimpressed with it. Ok it's not the latest hardware or software, I understand it might be a bit slow, an not representative of the state of the Android art, but really. Its slow, unresponsive and cumbersome. The UX is hopeless, inconsistent and slow. Did I mention it was slow. Thank God it was a gift for my Daughter and not me.

Verizon iPhone - And just like that, well on Tuesday anyway. The iPhone is coming to Verison. We've had carrier competition over here for the best part of a year now, and it has really made a huge difference to the iPhone TOC. I can only hope a bit of competition will do the same for our American cousins. So a mere 4 years after turning the original iPhone down, Big Red finally has it. I wonder if they'll fill it with crapware, like they do if it's an Android.

CES Over-load - Apart from a few standout (i.e. dual-core, super-thin) Android phones. CES this year was about two things Tablets and 3D, and I am so over 3D. There was 3D everything Blu-ray players, TV's, Cameras (still and video) and everything else that had a screen or imaging chip. I get it, 3D is important to the studios and manufacturers. But not so much for us mere consumers, its expensive and generally, meh! Everybody also announced a tablet, Windows 7 tablets or Android tablets, those are your choices. It'll be interesting to see how many of these actually make it to a store, and how many will turn out to be vapourware.

All this and a bit of Daft Punk to play us out as well. It's just like an extra Christmas present really.

Hey this is almost becoming a regular thing, again. Two shows in two weeks, how long will it last? Who can say. Again we got straight into the stories. So many stories that I won't be able to remember them all, until Gareth puts the show up online, and I can listen to it.

Some of the things I do remember us talking about include…

Kinect - MS' Xbox add-on, designed primarily to compete with the Wii and Playstation Move, is proving a huge hit. With more people then even Redmond suspected, hell, some of them don't even own an Xbox. Open source drivers are showing up to add all sorts of new tricks and amazing UI applications. Could it be that MS have come up with a 'magical and revolutionary' product, if only by accident.

Million seller - So the iPad opened the door. So it uses an OS whose makers say wasn't designed with tablets in mind. So its more expensive. Samsung have a winner, the Galaxy Tab has sold a million. Does it mark the start of the Android push, after a few really bad misses, to take over the tablet market. As they are in the smartphone arena. Awful name though, sounds like a patch for people who want to kick a chocolate habit.

Antennagate 2 - It seems like only yesterday that Apple was hauled over the coals over its 'grip of death problem'. Now the same thing is happening to the newly released HTC HD7 smartphone, one of the new Windows Phone 7 devices. HTC are parroting the same line Apple did, basically, you're holding it wrong. Although at the time of Antennagate 1, I distinctly remember them saying that it doesn't happen to their phones. Hmm. Where are the howls from the worlds mainstream media, the demands for refunds, or at least a free case. It could be something to do with the fact they haven't sold too many. Maybe MS should give one away free with every Kinect, that way they'd 'sell' a boatload.

Chrome OS outed Dec. 7th? - Is it just a glorified browser, or a full on OS. We should find out on Tuesday. What else will Google bring to the party. We'll know before I finish these damn notes, and get them to Gareth, either way.

International replay - The BBC has finally confirmed that the iPlayer is going global next year. Starting in the States and a few other, key markets. The good news, it'll be subscription based, so no damn ads. The bad, still no clear timetable, apart from 'next year'. Also it's only going to be an iPad app to start with, which'll be ok if they support Airplay. I hope they announce a firm release date, or Gareth's going to be there for a long time, credit card in one hand, hitting the refresh button with the other.

And there was a lot more besides. Notes finished, time to book myself in for a senility test.

And just like that we are. Back that is. How long for, who knows. I’ll try to make it last, this time. I’ve been working away from home, chasing the money. All that time away, and I still can’t afford an iPad, how messed up is that.

Anyway, we were straight back into it. And boy did we cover a lot of subjects. Including, but not limited to....

Google TV - Mainly in terms of the various available set-top boxes, where it fits in and if it has any life left in it. Not much if the networks have they’re way. Over the pond, they have a lot more choices, and most of them do the killer app, Netflix.

Windows Phone 7 - MS’ new smartphone is out, getting good reviews and positive feedback. I even got to play with one for a little while. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by the smoothness and responsiveness of the interface. Redmond have pulled out all the stops. All they have to do now is get people to buy them.

iPad corner - Of course we couldn’t do a show without touching on Apple’s wonder device. Gareth was underwhelmed by iOS 4.2, he was used to it already on his iPhone, although folders was appreciated. It’s also coming subsidised to UK customers, mobile operators Orange and T-Mobile. So cheap iPads, if your prepared to sign up to two year contracts, probably in blood.

iOS 4.2 - Speaking of which, Airplay is looking like the kicker. Limited to just a few apps at the moment, it could be the thing that helps Apple grab the living room. But for Gareth, Airprint was more, meh. He quite correctly pointed out that unless you’re in an office situation, printing in’t something you’re going to do a lot of. And even though I was quite stoked at getting Airprint working on my networked printer, I had to agree that I hadn’t actually printed anything.

There was all this and so much more. We could have gone on for hours.

It's good to be back.

"Stop me if you've seen this." - Steve Jobs

An apology was called for at the start of this show, again. Missed another few weeks, not all my fault this time. Damn work winning in work/life balance battle yet again. But we had so many news stories that we just dove right in.

Starting with, what else.....

iPhone 4 - The new uber-gadget from Apple is out to buy. If you can find one that is. Queues around the block, pre-orders that melted the system. They're as rare as rocking horse pooh at the moment. It's not without a few little launch niggles, but 1.7m people, in 72 hours, can't be wrong.

iOS 4 - As promised at WWDC, iOS4 is out. Give your 3GS, and to a certain extent, your 3G, a new lease of life. Lots of new features, or tent-poles as his Steveness would have it. One word, MULTITASKING, bring it on!!

New Mac Mini - When we talked about a new Apple TV last time out, this wasn't what we were expecting. Clever unibody construction and HDMI out, all it needs is a 'bag of hurt' Blu-Ray player and it's the perfect media centre. If anyone is interested in a nearly new Apple TV, contact killingpixels@me.com.

iPad corner - Well we couldn't let a show go by without mentioning the iPad could we. Two bits of news on that front. Number one 80 days in and 3m sold, and number two, Gareth is one of the 80m, jammie little so and so.

Google dumping Windows - Mountain View employees are being offered the choice of either a Mac or PC running Linux. They're citing security flaws in Windows for the change in policy, can't think what they might be. But with the infamous hacking that Google and others have suffered recently. Something like this was just a matter of time, if only my employer was as progressive.

Windows 7, 150m licences in - The most successful launch of an OS in history. A good news story for Redmond for a change, although MS are putting a positive spin on a lot of numbers lately. But, unusually for us, we're not buying it. Literally and metaphorically.

All these stories and a whole lot more. Like Safari 5, and it's new 'Reader' feature, which Gareth was blown away by. To the HTC Evo 4G and what it means for the future of mobiles.

So what are you waiting for, dive in with us, the water's lovely.

"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." - Niels Bohr

This week we returned after another enforced break, my fault again. And without the usual preamble, there was so much to get through, we launched straight into it.

Starting with….

iPad comes to the rest of us - So it's out internationally, and proving to be a big hit everywhere. We'll have to see if it carries on selling by the bucketload, and defines the tablet computer market like the iPhone defined it's market. On Friday I stood outside the Birmingham Apple store, and then, stood some more. After a while I gave up queueing, and admitted defeat, no way I was getting to play with one on launch day.

The next AppleTV - Gareth being a big AppleTV fan, is stoked by the rumours surrounding the next version, which may or may not be released at WWDC. It is, apparently 'an iPhone without the screen'. The same internals as an iPhone, A4 chip, 16GB of memory, and graphics up to pumping out 1080p video, from whatever source you want to stream it. It will, apparently, come in a tiny form factor, with an itty-bitty $99 price tag as well. If this turns out to be true Steve will have to get himself a new hobby.

Ballmer's not going to WWDC - According to the MS twitter feed Steve Ballmer will not be attending the Mac developer conference. So if you were on the verge of cancelling your ticket, you can now go safe, from flying chairs and what not. Other rumours we touched on concerning WWDC include a revised MacBook Air and Mac Pro. As well as a probable release date for the iPhone 4G/HD, plus iPhone OS4. If you feel you're missing out on anything, just You Tube Ballmer + developers.

OLPC confirms next version to be tablet - It wasn't long before we were back to tablets, any excuse. And it wasn't long before we'd covered a range of other tablet stories as well, it was that kind of show. With tablets being the current bandwagon, everybody wants to hitch up to, I suppose this announcement was obvious. How long before its called 'One Tablet Per Child".

Chrome browser out of beta - So its a full release for Google's webkit based browser, for a moment I confused this news with the release of Chrome OS, I didn't think I'd been away for that long. Turns out I was right, I hadn't been away for that long, but it was a surreal moment. Gareth has given it a try and was pretty positive, but it wasn't game changing enough to get him to swap from Safari. And with Webkit 2 on the way from Cupertino, they might have to do something pretty spectacular to draw people with version 2.

There was all this in the show and more, but I don't want to bore you with anymore stories. I couldn't anyway, I forgot to take notes and can't remember what else we talked about. Go on have a listen, I know you want to.

"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning" - Winston Churchill

I had to apologise this week for or absence over the past few weeks. Unfortunately having to work for a living really interferes with all the fun stuff I want to do. I've been working so hard that I haven't had time to do anything even vaguely techie, no software, no hardware, nary a new App has graced my iPhone. Gareth has had some luck on the hardware side, but we won't go into that. And App-wise he has succumbed to my recommendation of RSS feed reader, Reeder is a great app, fully endorsed by both of us.

Then it was on to the stories, starting with what else...

iPad international launch May 28th - At last, the rest of the world can enjoy the latest 'magical and revolutionary' device from Cupertino. Well nine other countries anyway, the rest of the world can wait, because at last I can get one. If I wanted to, but at these prices I don't know if I do. I know it's not called rip-off Britain' for nothing, and we always have to pay a premium for the latest and greatest from Apple, but come on. It'll have to be a pretty damn 'magical and revolutionary' to get me to part with that much extra.

HP buys Palm - HP are going to 'double down' on webOS, that bit of Palm they paid $1.2bn for. Which most people take to mean it's going to turn up on more devices, then just a few average phones, most likely the slate that Steve Ballmer held up a few months ago, no Windows 7 there then. That made me laugh almost as much as Bono's Elevation Partners losing $92m on the deal, so much for piracy costing you millions, hey Bono, you'll have to dodge a lot more taxes to make that up.

WWDC sells out in 8 days - All the moaning about the lack of focus on Mac OS X hasn't done a thing to dampen developers enthusiasm for WWDC. It sold out three weeks faster then last year, easily demonstrating that iPhone OS is proving a real draw. Don't get me wrong, I want Apple to push on with Snow Leopard, and beyond, as much as the next fanboy, but I also know that Infinite Loop is about more then that these days. But as we're both iPhone users, it's a win/win for us.

MS Kin, what price 'normalphone' - MicroSoft are trying to invent a new niche with these new 'normalphones' (well they're not dumbphones and they're not smartphones what would you call them). But unfortunately Verizon, the chosen network supplier, hasn't read the memo and are insisting on a smartphone tariff on these devices. Yeah they sync with all the usual social network suspects, but not a lot else, there aren't going to be lots of apps for these things, what they come with is what you get. So why charge so much for the phone and service when superior devices, Android and iPhone, are not much further out of reach. Oh well, at least, according to MS, they're good for sexting.

Cupidtino - If you're a lonely Mac fanboy there's a new service available to hook up with a Mac fangirl. You both appreciate good design, easy of use and a well thought out user experience. So that must mean you're compatible on so many other levels, yeah right. Apart from making tech support simpler, I can't see it making that much of a difference. But who am I, socially challenged nerd that I am, to say that it's wrong.

The end of floppies? - Nearly twelve years after the release of the 'magical and revolutionary' original iMac G3, Sony have finally caught up. They have announced that they're finally stopping production of the floppy disk. I have to ask at this point, when was the last time you used a floppy disk, because I haven't for years. Who are these mysterious consumers of floppies, have they not heard of thumb-drives or email? I wonder if Stringer will save enough money from this to release something decent.

"Multitasking is the art of distracting yourself from two things you’d rather not be doing by doing them simultaneously." - Eideteker

Ok, so we missed another week. But we're back, and it was straight into….

The iPad - Gareth got his sweaty mitts on one in an Apple store, and he was pretty stoked about Apple's, self styled, 'magical' and 'revolutionary' device. It could be the end of the month before the rest of the world get to join the party. The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, and it's selling by the bucket load. Gareth admitted he would have left the store with one, if it hadn't been for the security. I mean an iPhone fits nicely in to a pocket but this thing.

Apple scrubs Google from iPhone OS 4 - The Google button is just labelled search in the new OS. It seems not even Steve and Eric getting together for a coffee can prevent the spat between their respective companies deepening. Are Apple positioning the iPhone for a new search provider, or are they just that pissed at Google. But it segued nicely into the other big topic of the show.

iPhone 4.0 OS - It's getting harder and harder for iPhone haters to come up with convincing reasons not to get one. First it was copy and paste, then multitasking. Now it's.... well it's nothing. The new OS 4 will have multitasking along with several other new features. Folders, unified inbox in mail, better Exchange support, iBooks and iAds. Ok, I don't think anyone but the admen are excited about iAds, but the rest of the OS rocks. Yeah, we're getting multitasking, in your face Android and WebOS.

Twitter abuse candidate removed - So you're a perspective Labour candidate for parliament. You're young and tech savvy, you even tweet. But you have to be savvy enough not to tweet what you really think of your political opponents. We've seen it with people being canned for status updates on Facebook. You post something it'll come back and bite you on the ass. The clue is in the name 'social' networking, get with the program people. Then it was nicely on to...

Twitter buys Tweetie - The darling of Mac twitter users Tweetie is the one twitter app to rule them all. It's also now the official twitter app to rule them all. Twitter themselves having bought the company behind it, they intend to rebrand it and give it away for free. So all the other Twitter app developers have seen their market disintegrate faster then a chair in the room with an angry Steve Ballmer.

Chinese ISP momentarily hijacks the internet - I thought this was a good example of the vulnerability of the internet to bad DNS servers, Border Gateway Protocol data in this case. Gareth on the other hand saw the source and immediately assumed it was a trial run at Internet armageddon. He's not so much a glass half empty kind of guy, as a glass smashed on the floor, and him lying next to it in a pool of blood, kind of guy.

Zune HD 64 goes on sale - So MS released their newest Zune in the same week as the iPad. We only mentioned this in case you missed it, like the rest of the world. and almost like we'd thought this through, next came…

Microsoft not adopting their own standard - Yet another Redmond based story, this concerning the OOXML standard that they practically rammed through the ISO last year. After all that, they aren't even using the full standard in Office 2010. I know is was just a sop to the big government and institutional users of Office, to stop them migrating over to open source alternatives. But they could have at least put it into their own software. Come on Steve, bust some heads, not a chair, and get your engineers on to it.

"But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." - Robert Frost

This week both Gareth and myself commented on the lack of juicy stories. I know that plenty of things were going on, but nothing that was really grabbing our attention. And if it doesn't float our boat, it ain't getting on the show, that's just the way we roll around here. Tech wise nothing was happening with me. Meanwhile Gareth was busy outfitting his iPhone for an all out assault on April the first. Then it was on to the stories we did find.

I kicked them off this week with...

Google stops censoring search results in China - After all the hoopla which followed Google's announcement that they were going to stop cooperating with the Chinese authorities. And the claim and counter claim over the hacking attacks which provoked it. The guys in Mountain View actually followed through, and have switched off the filters. Will Beijing shut them down? We shall see. But most amazing of all Google went from announcement to market in 2 months, without the usual 3 years of 'beta' in between.

iPad App Store screenshots leaked - So the first screenshots of iPad apps show that, surprise, surprise, they're going to be more expensive then their iPhone equivalents. Ok maybe that's not that much of a shock. Given that developers have a whole new environment to code for, and the problems and opportunities that can bring. We should begin to see the software that will prove the iPad is not just a big iPhone. I just hope they don't start charging by the screen inch, or Photoshop CS6, for my fantasy 50" multitouch iMac will set me back about 40k.

Security researcher reveals 20 vulnerabilities in Mac OS - Right everybody panic, run screaming for the hills. Windows fanboys flame all you want, we are undone. Charlie Miller veteran hacker / security researcher exposed 20 zero-day security holes in Mac OS X at CanSecWest. So it's only a matter of time until we see the first virus' (should it be virus' or virii, I just don't know) in the wild. Malware destroying our operating systems on a regular basis. Botnets spewing out spam and DDoS attacks. Human sacrifice, cats and dogs living together....mass hysteria. Oh hang on, apparently he did the same last year, and, nothing, zip, zilch, nada. Seems like the script kiddies really have a hard-on for Windows.

Steve and Eric seen at 'Central Perk' - So what gives with the photos of Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs having coffee together. Are all the stories way off base, Apple and Google aren't mortal enemies. Did I miss a memo? Have Steve and Eric made-up, is there something big coming. Are they meeting on neutral ground, to set up a rumble. Maybe Steve's just caught up with him to get the key to the executive bathroom back. Maybe, just maybe they're friends really. Did you see what I did there, Central Perk, Friends, hilarious. Pardon....what do you mean.....up the dosage?

MS pulls Bing app from international store - Apparently the Bing app was pulled from every store but the US App Store. The reason given by MicroSoft was that the app needed to be 'localised' for the various international markets. Not a serious gaffe in and of itself, but I think it raises a shocking, shocking question. Did anyone else know there was a Bing app at all? Let me just Google that.

Tivo reboots its DVR's - New, from the people that made DVR's work, the Tivo Premiere and Premiere XL. The latest, all singing, all dancing, HD and network aware DVRs are out. In my part of the world they are like rocking horse pooh, but Gareth, who has owned all three previous versions, assures me they are, to use a bit of slang, the mutts. And if it only it were possible he would sling his u-verse box and install this new one post haste. Yet another case of you damned Yankees, enjoying all the shiny new goodies, and us poor Brits languishing without.

MS loses Word appeal - Having lost the original lawsuit, against the Canadian company i4i, for infringing an XML patent. MS will have to stop selling Word, that cornerstone of the edifice, that is MicroSoft Office. Hurrah, I hear you shout, but not so fast. Redmond have said that nearly all currently available versions will be patched to avoid the injunction. Boo, I hear you shout, but not so fast. On top of they're legal fees, it's going to cost MS a cool $240 million in damages. I've been following this one for a while, and talking about it on the show, was the first time I've used the words MicroSoft and appealing in the same sentence.

"I think it's wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly" - Steven Wright

So, we're back after another enforced break, my fault this time. Parents are a bad idea, and I don't think they'll ever catch on. Anyway we dived right in to the big story, the iPad is available to buy, on Gareth's side of the pond. If you buy it now you still won't get it till the 3rd of April, but will have the satisfaction of being the earliest of early adopters. Tech wise it's been pretty slow for both of us, I came across a fab HTML5 drawing app called Harmony, and we both bought the MacHeist nanobundle, and as always, it was great value.

Then on to the stories proper...

Apple selling 20,000 iPads an hour - So, the 'magical' device is available for pre-order, and it seems plenty of you are happy to splash the cash. In the first few hours they sold, at an estimated, 20,000 an hour. And after the initial surge, they topped out at 150,000 in the first 24 hours. The makers of hotcakes were quick to point out that, their products were selling like iPads.

The Mac is a gaming platform, seriously! - After years of being frankly derided, in gaming terms anyway, the Mac is being considered again as a serious gaming computer. Valve are porting their Steam platform to the Mac. With the improvement in graphics cards standard in most of the recent Macs. It looks like us Mac users can lose days of our lives fragging zombies, just as well as our PC using friends.

Tech site recommends IE5 to mac users - Mark this one down under bizarre. 'Tech site' Soft Sailor has suggested that mac users run IE5 as their browser of choice. It is said to be 'doing a fairy good job' and 'lots of features'. Where this came from I have no idea, I checked the date to see if it was April the first, but apparently it's a serious recommendation. A 7 year old browser, that even MS have abandoned, hell I'd rather dual boot with linux so I can install Mosaic.

A 'David versus Goliath' story, with a twist - The particular twist in this case is that the self-styled 'David' is Microsoft, yeah that's what I thought, and the 'Goliath' is Google, the battleground, search. MS are going to spend a huge sum of money to try to push Bing into the consumer mind-space, and break Google's 90% market-share in the UK. I know that someone has to take them on, but can Bing and all those advertising bucks defeat Mountain View? Let me just Google that.

XP needs some TLC to use next-gen hard drives - The aged and now out-dated OS, Windows XP is starting to get a little ragged at the edges. As the inevitable march of technology goes on, more and more things turn out not to be compatible with the older software. This time it's next generation hard drives, traditional mechanical and newer SSD's, which are causing the problems. I almost feel the pain of these users, as I'm trying to wring the last useful life out of my G4 iMac, but these are windows users, they should be used to pain.

BBC 'breaks' iPlayer - The wonderful, wonderful BBC iPlayer has been crippled, and unfortunately in this case it's the BBC doing the hobbling. They have enforced ShockWave Flash (SWF) verification, thereby breaking 'unauthorised' open-source software apps. It used to be the case that I could download and re-encode BBC programmes out of Flash and into a less processor intensive format, for later viewing, but now I have to use the Flash based iPlayer software. It enforces the DRM, that is stripped out by the open-source software, which limits the time you can keep the shows. Also it means Gareth is going to run screaming back to the bit-torrent sites to get his fix of Doctor Who.

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." - Oscar Wilde

This week we began with a brief explanation for our absence over the past couple of weeks. My week / weeks in tech were particularly uneventful, just some research on the bits I will need for the upgrade I plan to my venerable G4 iMac. A solid state drive will hopefully extend it's useful life beyond the eight years I've already had. Gareth's busy schedule also prevented any tech action, apart from a few iPhone apps that is, the Google Voice web app, and TaskPaper being his current favourites.

Then I started off the stories....

MS unveil 'Windows Phone 7 Series' - Yet another product with a catchy name from Steve Ballmer's Microsoft. This one though carries a weight of expectation, not experienced in Redmond since, oh say, Windows 7. But maybe this one is a bit more critical. If MS want to stay in the mobile market, they had to pull something special put of the hat. And, colour me surprised, they did. Based on the Zune interface, it almost doesn't look like Windows at all, which in my book, is always a good thing.

Is Apple banning iPhone jail-breakers - Certain app store visitors are finding that their Apple ID's have been revoked. The common denominator at the moment seems to be that the phones were jail-broken, also one of the users in question is 'prominent' in the jail-breaking community. Apple's cry of security, as the reason for their death grip on the iPhone platform, is seen as the main culprit for this. We can expect a full explanation in the press conference Apple have scheduled, for when hell freezes over.

Manufacturers and Operators join forces to compete with the App Store - A veritable bucket full of operators and several major manufacturers are pooling their efforts to try to take on the juggernaut that is Apple's App Store. But with so many different handsets on different networks, it is sure to become a nightmare of Kafkaesque proportions. Missing the one thing that makes the App store so good for iPhone users. Keep it simple stupid!

You're never too old to Tweet - Vintage computing, something that generates huge passions. Well this time it's the turn of the Commodore Vic20, allow me to pause a while to bask in a wave of nostalgia, twas my first foray into the wonderful world of computing. Right where was I, oh yes. It's to get it's own Twitter client. Is it futile to try to keep a platform so slow and limited going, or will the coders who toil on these projects, be able to transfer the knowledge gained, in writing compact, low bandwidth programs and web apps, to today's computers. No your right, futile it is.

Google to build ultra high-speed networks in the US - Right now, if you want to nominate your town, those crazy guys in Mountain View might roll out 1Gbps fibre broadband to you. Hoping to stimulate the market incumbents to invest in their own high-speed networks, by delivering their network to up to 500,000 homes. It sound amazing, but does Google know something we don't, building high speed data networks, making phones, selling electricity. Hell they may as well just buy Amazon, and be done with it, then I wouldn't have to leave the Internet at all.

"Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it." - The Wall Street Journal

This week it was straight into it. The 'it' in question being, the iPad. Duh, hello.

The endlessly hyped, and much rumoured Apple tablet, is out of vapourware, and has been released into the meatspace. It's hard to believe that anything this hyped, I mean, it was even mentioned on Radio 4 and they've only just come to terms with the loss of Empire, could live up to expectations, and so it proved. Anyone who was expecting the 'Jesus Tablet', a miracle device with the potential to cure the worlds diseases, feed the hungry and reverse climate change were disappointed, and rightly so. Instead we got, I think, the tablet that everybody else has been trying to make, an integrated device, designed from the ground up to do a range of tasks, and do them well.

Whether it will be the success as the iPhone, it so closely apes UI-wise, only time will tell. It's already as polarising as the afore mentioned device, 'It's just a big iPod touch', to 'iPad 1.0 is still fantastic enough in its own right to be classed as a stunningly exciting object, one that you will want NOW'.

Either way, at least Dom Jolly can ditch his Nokia now.

"It's always darkest just before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbours newspaper, that's the time to do it." - Anonymous

My week in tech was pretty uneventful this week, whereas Gareth's was pretty full. He purchased an Elgato EyeTV Hybrid, which he has yet to unbox, though he does promise a review when he gets it plugged in. But he was particularly stoked about his other endevour, he has jailbroken his Apple TV. The superlatives came thick and fast, which I think indicated that he was quite pleased.

Then I kicked off the stories...

Bill Gates joins Twitter - The Uber-Geek has joined the eponymous micro-blogging site. At the moment he's using it, apart from following a few dubious Tweeters, to promote his new Gate's Notes site. Which is keeping us all informed about his charitable works. That's nice for him, but you'd think his ego would be stroked enough just looking at his bank balance.

$100,000 prototype laptop stolen from Apple's campus in 2009 - It's reported, on Zirana.com, that a prototype laptop, most likely the next Macbook Pro, was stolen from Infinite Loop. It's since been recovered and investigations are ongoing. I know it was probably something really low rent, a pissed employee trying to score big after being shit-canned. But I keep seeing a Mission Impossible kind of thing. Complete with Tom Cruise and all the cool gear, and the theme tune, definitely the theme tune. And maybe Howard Stringer stroking a cat, and laughing diabolically. But I'm guessing that's probably just me, time to up the dosage again.

Bing to be default iPhone search engine - Is it a negotiating ploy, to squeeze more money out of Mountain View? Or have relations between Google and Apple Become that strained. Either way Ballmer has sensed an opportunity to push MS' search alternative. And given the dominance of the iPhone in mobile data, and hence mobile search, this move should buy Bing some extra share points. However, there is no need for panic as it turns out setting your default search engine, is just a visit to Settings.app away.

YouTube and Vimeo get HTML5 video - You can sign up for the beta's right now, if you are using either Safari or Chrome. Firefox will undoubtably follow, although they're betting on the Ogg Theora codec, rather then H264. Either way it's a win win for Mac users, Adobe's Flash and IE in it's many flawed forms are bound to lose out.

Cisco successfully trials IP router in space - A point to point network in space, satellites bouncing data between each other, on route from ground station to ground station. Every day these boffins think up marvellous new way to improve the intelligence of the machines that they produce. The only thing wrong, in my opinion, is the name, IRIS or Internet Routing In Space, just doesn't do it for me. It's just begging to be called SkyNet.

IBM and Fujifilm develop 35TB magnetic tape cartridges - Tape devices are the last bastion of the old guard in storage. Dull and old fashioned, but reliable and with ever growing capacity, the work horse for archiving in most data centres the world over. So another increase in capacity, this time to 35TB, is just what the IT geek ordered. It's strange to think, that it's going to get to the point where you could probably store the sum of human knowledge on a single tape. As opposed to Rob Enderle's which could go on the back of postage stamp.

NY court revives antitrust against the major music labels - It's amazing that with all the competition in the music industry, the price of music downloads just sort of ended up at 70 cents. Now the antitrust investigators in NY have successfully appealed against an earlier ruling, the big four labels have a case to answer. On just how, with no collusion, that price, a price higher then the cost of physical media, came to be set. The major labels have nothing to fear though, they can always count on Bono to ride to the rescue of these poor oppressed corporations.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke

This week we began with the usual chat about our personal week in tech. My Time Capsule and Gareth's Drobo are, I'm happy to report, both performing flawlessly. Then I was reminded to tell Gareth of the '12 days of Christmas' app, a gift a day from Apple. A film, several TV shows, some music videos and some very good iPhone games, all for free, and you can't beat free. Then we talked a little about the imminent arrival of the Tablet, on the 26th, or 27th depending on the rumour site, of January Apple will host an event to unveil this mythical beast. At least they might, maybe, almost definitely will announce it.

Anyway on to the stories...

Psystar have another tilt at the same windmill - Who is paying these guys legal bills? Unwilling to take defeat, Psystar have launched an appeal against being laughed out of court the last time. This time they'd like people to recognise that they, indeed we all, have the right to take software, and use it anywhere we want. It's a noble ideal, and I think if they really believed in what they say, and weren't just trying to make a fast buck off Apple's back. These guys would realise where they are going wrong. The word is copyright. If they took a look around, they would see that some people agree with them, and have indeed, set up a movement to allow them to take software and use it anywhere they want. It's called Open Source, you dummies.

Google to China "We're taking our ball home" - Unwilling to play by the Chinese government's rules any longer. Google have decided, after much soul searching, and not an insignificant amount of hacking, to stop censoring search results in China. They have said that they will discuss with the Chinese whether this will be allowed, and if not, have stated that Google will pull out of China altogether. Larry, Curly and Moe, I mean Larry, Eric and Sergey, must have tripped over their corporate motto, 'Don't be evil', and had an epiphany.

iPhone OS 4.0 delayed by the fabled tablet - As much as I'm looking forward to the Tablet / iSlate / eReader (delete as applicable). I really hope that it's development hasn't been holding back any software updates, for my beloved iPhone. Because if it has I won't be best pleased. I want Apple to concentrate on making the best smartphone, even better. It makes sense to me, they have a huge installed base of enthusiastic customers for the platform, and the competition breathing down their necks. Plus there's no way I'll be able to afford a Tablet this soon after Christmas.

Apple and Nokia play patent lawsuit 'tennis' - Thwack, Nokia serve up a patent lawsuit, ostensibly to get Apple to cross-licence their technology. Thwack, Apple return with a counter-suit, to stop Nokia in their tracks. Thwack, Nokia attack with a complaint to the ITC, to stop Apple selling 'infringing' devices. Thwack, Apple counter with their own complaint to the ITC, to ban the import of Nokia phones into the US. And there we leave it for the moment, with the lawyers earning a fortune. And me with a really, really laboured analogy.

Verizon start a new skirmish in the mobile wars - A little price cut goes a long way in these straightened times. And Verizon has launched a salvo, across the bows of the other mobile operators. AT&T have responded immediately matching the cuts, and the other networks will surely follow suit. There is a catch, a there always is with mobile phone providers. It is now next to impossible to get a phone with out a data contract. They give with one hand and gouge with the other.

Italian class action against 'pre-installed' Windows - In a bizzare case of winning the war but losing the peace. Italian consumer groups are to launch another class action to recover the cost of the windows licence, that comes with a new PC. Having already won this case before you could be confused as to why they're going to fight it all again. Well it seems the PC manufacturers are demanding that customers return their computers to prove they're not running windows on them. Costing the customers more then double the 30 - 40 euros they might get back. Strange, I've never felt the need to delete Windows off the computers I buy. Oh, that's right, I don't have to.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shore of Orion. I've seen C-Beams glitter in the dark near the Tenhauser gate." - Roy Batty from Blade Runner

We began 2010 with the usual chat about our tech week, or two in this case. Our gifts of tech were indeed wondrous to behold, Gareth's Drobo and my Time Capsule. Then on to a chat about the Great British weather and the big freeze currently hitting this country, more interesting then the LA weather, with it's positively balmy 55 degree average in December. Then, on to the really big question, the Dr Who Xmas special, was it awesome, okay, or did it suck.

The Googlephone is here - The Nexus One has arrived. The ultimate Android 'superphone' is here. It's going to kill the iPhone, cure disease and bring about world peace. Or alternatively, it could just be the best Android smartphone yet. With all the build up, you could be forgiven for thinking that something ground breaking was coming. Apart from the fact you can only get them online and they come unlocked for $600, to go on the network of your choice, or subsidised on T-Mobile for $180. Guess what, it's just another droid smartphone.

Bono prognosticates - The Irish rockstar has spoken, he has pronounced. And it appears that ISP's are to blame for file sharing, and they should put up a firewall like China, that great beacon of freedom and tolerance, to protect the hard pressed record companies and millionare rockstars. It's amazing to see a talented musician disappear up his own ass. But that's what he's doing, either that or he's been wearing those silly sunglasses because he's blind. Shut up and sing you tax evader you.

CES, 3D everywhere - There were 3D cameras, video cameras and a shed load of 3D TV's. Even the 3D Blu-Ray spec was finalised. So we have 3D everywhere, all we need now is content with some real depth.

AT&T want to chuck out the POTS - The Plain Old Telephone System that is. Like the incumbent operator this side of the pond is already doing. AT&T is asking Congress, if they can turn off the old PSTN system, and go over to IP switching. You'd think if they had the huge amount of money required to do this, just lying around, as it were. They'd invest some in improving their mobile network. Just a thought, no pressure.

Must have FireWire - A story from Cult of Mac suggested that all external hard drive sold in Apple retail stores must carry a FireWire port. The story came off a Buffalo spokesman at CES. It's quickly been proved incorrect, with many people pointing out it was plain wrong. Although it would be nice for Apple to support their own standard. Trust them to get BS from a Buffalo.

Your mobile has been cracked - The algorithm that encrypts the calls of over 4 billion mobile phone users, has been cracked. So now anyone with a few thousand dollars of electronics and the right software can listen to your calls. Just in time the GSMA are rolling out a new algorithm to protect us all again, until this one is broken anyway. But before you start feeling too safe, the Feds have been able to listen in the whole time.

A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!" - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

This week we began with a catch-up, having not done a show for a couple of weeks. And we touched on the important issue of what Santa was bringing us tech-heads. Gareth will be finding a Drobo under his tree. While I, having rescued what I could from my faulty Seagate drive, will be receiving a Time Capsule for being a good boy this year.

And on to our final stories of 2009…

Zune Twitter app censors rude words - Why, who knows. Maybe they're trying to drum up some controversy for the Zune app store. Is there even a Zune app store yet? Or maybe Ballmer could only just bear to see his baby referred to as a….. F*^$@!g piece of s^%t.

Microsoft admits code theft - In a refreshing change from normal practice, M$ have admitted and apologised, for blatantly stealing the work of others, and passing it off as they're own. If it wasn't amazing enough that a few weeks ago, a Redmond exec admitted to copying Mac OS, when creating Windows. Truly, a Christmas miracle.

Android to burst iPhone's bubble - It's inevitable that Android will power the best smartphone ever. Google are using the monkeys, typewriters and Shakespeare principal. You get enough manufacturers making enough different handsets, running enough different versions of the OS, with enough different UI skins and enough different screen sizes. Eventually they're bound to make the best smartphone.

Google dumps Gears for HTML5 - Wanted to write up that important blog post, while the muse has struck. Use Google Docs, so you can share everything between your different devices. But shock, horror, gasp the 'cloud' has deserted you in your hour of need. That's where Gears came in, allowing to use all the Google office services and Gmail offline. But with the advent of HTML5, Gears has become defunct, it is on more, it is a dead service. Okay not quite yet, but you get the idea. HTML5 is seriously going to kick ass. Plus IE is incompatible, so it could kill that as well. It's a win win.

TechCrunch and Fusion Garage clash over 'bad' JooJoo - The Crunchpad has been crunched. And what ever is happening between Mike Arrington and Chandra Rathakrishnan, you can be sure the legal shenanigans will drag on for quite some time. But the Crunchpad renamed JooJoo will be with us shortly. Then everyone can compare it to the best tablet that's 'never' been made. The mythical, nay legendary Apple tablet.

VLC for the Mac might die - The excellent video utility software VideoLan Client, you can chuck practically any video format at it and it'll run without a hiccup, might whither and die. The open source software is running out of active developers, to drive the project forward. If there are any developers out there, with the time to donate to this software, please help. We cannot let this useful and important software languish. If this software dies, what am I going to use to watch my collection of Xvid porn.

Our opening chat this week began with Gareth's Black Friday experience, it's even catching on over here, just the discounts, no stampedes just yet. Then we bemoaned the lack of any juicy stories, we even considered making some up. Then the newly released beta of Chrome OS featured highly, and speaking of Google thanks to Gareth's endeavours we are now the proud users of Google Wave, but we don't know what it's for either.

Anyway on to the stories...

Zune Colours coming - MS' flagship mp3 player, sorry, only mp3 player. Is going all polychromatic in time for Christmas. Two colours, purple and magenta, are coming on the 1st of December with others to follow soon. I should say something here about Microsoft copying Apple again, al a iPod Nano. But it happens so often, I can't be bothered to say it again.

EU rides to file sharers rescue - With the impending arrival of the dreaded 'three strikes' laws all over Europe. The European Parliament is enshrining in law rights for accused file sharers. At least now we can appeal, and we might get to keep our internet connections. Or we could end up in Gitmo, who knows.

An Apple with out Steve Jobs - Talk about a dystopian alternate reality. But it almost happened. Where would Apple be now, would there even be an Apple. Or would it just be another technological footnote, in Windows' inexorable march to total desktop domination.... Oh god what a thought, I think I might have to change my underpants.

Android and Chrome OS expected to merge - In it's on going attempt to take over any device that might in anyway brush up against the cloud. Google have a desktop OS and a smartphone OS. They also have a cunning plan, unite the two and take over the world... Bwhahahahaha. I can see it now, the completely dominant Google OS, but what to call it? Android or Chrome? I think they should call it something associated with all Google software. Introducing the new Google Beta.

We started off this week with a rambling chat covering a lot of stories that we would have covered last week. But I went on a big night out with some friends and got extremely drunk instead. You know how it is, sometimes you have to have a blow out. You will be glad to hear I suffered for my fun. I could hardly string two words together, which might have been an improvement.

But anyway on with this weeks stories...

End of the line for Hacintosh's? - Is Apple trying to close off all avenues to hackintosh-dom? After the Psystar debacle, you could understand why Apple would want to. But already the hackers are fighting back, a patch was posted within a day. Steve maybe winning in the court room, but the hackintosh community are a dedicated bunch. If Apple have declared war on another front, let battle commence.

Public pressure keeps DRM off BBC, for now - Hollywood wants to DRM their stuff when its shown on the Beeb. The public however disagree, and unusually the regulator has backed the consumer, a newsworthy event in itself. But like Stallone in a Rocky film, Hollywood is down, but not out. It'll come back stronger and batter us down, until we have been beaten into submission.

Windows 7 'inspired' by Mac OS - File this under 'bleeding obvious', but a MS manager has admitted what we've known for a while now. They copied Mac OS! Simon Aldous Microsoft Partner manager said as much in an interview. He was promptly slapped down by Redmond HQ, and is probably considering his future employment. I wonder if Ballmer kicked a few more chairs when he heard one of his own had blabbed.

New PC for the 'older generation' - Would the first thing you think of, when planning a PC for older computer newbies, be Linux, no me neither. But, Valerie Singleton, the mature UK TV presenter is fronting just that. The SimplicITy PC is running a skinned version of the Mint Linux distro, with big buttons, for the internet, email and chat, to encourage the over 50's to get online. Over here they're called 'Silver Surfers', but you wouldn't want to see any of these naked on a surfboard.

Wheelchair users get an app for that - Dynamic Controls has unveiled an iPhone app, which will allow touchscreen control of its wheelchairs. Connecting via bluetooth, the app enables the user to control all aspects of wheelchair operation. Proving conclusively that there is is an app for everything. Now, anyone up for 'bluejacking' Steven Hawking and taking him for a joyride round Cambridge.

What does it take to simulate a cat's brain - A lot, a mean really, a lot. Nearly 150,000 Power PC processors, 143 terabytes of ram, a million watts of electricity, 6675 tons of air conditioning equipment and miles and miles of cabling. All set in an acre of floor space. All this just to simulate a cat sized brain of 1.6 billion neurons and 9 trillion synapses. The lead scientist is predicting a human brain simulation in about 10 years, but it will need 1000 times more power. If he aimed a bit lower I'd donate my G4 iMac and we could start with George W.

"I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temporarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience." - Mitch Hedberg

Gareth started this week with a bug he's uncovered in the Apple TV 3.0 firmware update. And I chipped in with a tale of woe, about my newish Seagate external HD. It's the second one and it's dead, it is no more, and it's going back to Amazon. Then we touched on Blu-ray, specifically the new 'managed copy' system the studios are allowing us honest consumers. They're far to good to us, after all we should just be sending them all our money, just because they're such nice people. Not.

Then I kicked off the stories proper...

Apple touting $30 a month TV subscription - For Apple TV and iTunes, at least. No details yet, but Cupertino are asking the networks if they'd be interested. I'm so glad that Steve has a hobby to keep him busy.

iPhone nano rumour just won't die - It'll be here in 2010, on Verizon. Or not. I just don't know, it seems very un-Apple like to mess with a formula that has worked so well up till now. But who knows, maybe Apple are really scared of the the iPhone killer that is....'Pixi'. Ha bet you thought I was going to say 'Droid' then, didn't you.

Windows 7 blocks the iPhone - There that's the scary headline out of the way, now for the real story. It seems a certain Intel chipset (P55) is causing sync problems for the iPhone when afore mentioned chipset is running Windows 7. A bios upgrade is required to get things playing nice again. But that all depends on your PC / motherboard manufacturer, so ask nice, and they might just be bothered.

Beatles release an Apple, before Apple release The Beatles - An apple shaped, MP3 including, novelty collection of the 14 recently remastered albums. All contained within a USB memory stick core. So the Fab Four are available in electronic form, but still not on iTunes. Even Steve's promise of payment in unicorn tears, hasn't tempted the fabulously wealthy Beatles or their executors.

Shock as MP uses electronic device in Parliament - Those, over here, entrusted with our law making and future infrastructure, are 'to be discouraged' from joining the 21st century. The Speaker does not want electronic devices to be used in the Commons. Of course, if MP's are active users of the Internet and electronic media they might understand the problems we ordinary consumers face. The powers that be, wouldn't want that, would they.

Create your own Bluetooth 'Star Trek' communicator - No matter what anyone one does to Bluetooth headsets, they will always be ugly and uncool. This on the other and is unquestionably cool, in a geeky kind of way. Unfortunately, thanks to the joy that is Voice control, "beam me up Scotty", will just call the boss, not get you anywhere near the Enterprise.

"If one could conclude as to the nature of a Creator from a study of his creation, it would appear that God has a special fondness for stars and beetles." - JBS Haldane

This week it was straight into it again. I mean, come on we're busy people here...

Android is on the march - The Motorola Droid is the first in a slew of new Android phones due out. Those, along with the version 2.0 firmware, is going to 'kill' the iPhone. Not because its necessarily better, but just by sheer weight of numbers. Will it be the triumph of 'good enough', where a whole plethora of pretenders have so far failed.

Apple TV updated - The other day Gareth and I were discussing the Apple TV, and how it could do with a software update. Well it turns out Apple was listening, and lo and behold, 3.0 was released. With a new interface and support for iTunes new LP format. We're genii and Apple TV 3.0 was our idea.

Google adds 'turn by turn' navigation to Android 2.0 - As part of the afore mentioned Android 2.0 software, Google are rolling in a complete 'turn by turn' sat-nav. And, pending approval, an iPhone app on the way as well. With the Google maps app and the compasses built in to the newer smartphones, it was probably a no brainer. That didn't help Garmin and Tom Tom et al, when their business model disappeared overnight.

Chrome OS released - With a whimper of news, that followed the bang of publicity greeting the initial announcement, Chrome OS has been released. Or has it? A distribution of Chrome OS appeared online featuring a Gnome desktop on a linux kernal, with Picasa and Chrome browser. While all seemed legit, it was posted on sites.google.com, this has site has since been disabled. I'm wondering if it was from the same people who will sell you a copy of Firefox, for a bargain price.

MS decides against Family Guy Windows 7 promo - Apparently the show 'is not a good fit with the Windows brand'. It's not as if I wasn't expecting this story to come out, about a nano-second after the original story, actually, it's the reason we didn't cover it initially. A show which finds humour in the holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest, that is not a fit with the Windows brand? Never. Did anyone in Redmond actually watch Family Guy before signing up?

Verizon getting the iPhone? - Will Verizon get the iPhone, next year? More rumours circulate of the end of AT&T's exclusive deal with Apple. With potential suitors lining up, it seems more likely that someone else will get to sell it. Maybe not Verizon, as their CDMA network would necessitate a new model, which goes against Apple's mantra of keep it simple. But with Orange and Vodafone to start selling them over here. America, land of choice and competition, could be the last place to get some.

Thin superconductors promise faster electronics - I found a fascinating article on the interwebs this week. About the development of a superconducting film, just a few nanometers thick, suitable for electronic devices. Unfortunately it only works at 32 kelvin (-241 centigrade) so far, but development are continuing. And as I talk, Gareth's eyes slowly close, and he starts to drift into a deep, deep slumber.

"You must be the change you want to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi

This week was a busy one so we dived right in to the news. Plus Gareth got to play with his new toy, even if it was a bitch to set up.

Windows 7 out - After a plethora of alphas, betas and a release candidate, the saviour of Redmond is finally available. Will it be the success that Vista was, can it even improve on that, only time will tell. But if it's as good a copy of Mac OS X as the Microsoft stores are of Apple's, it should be a huge hit.

New Mac goodies released - After having to talk about Ballmer's new baby, it was nice to talk about something more edifying. And edifying they are, new iMacs, new Macbook and new Mini's as well. All released at the same time as something else that's coming out this week. But funnily enough I can't remember what it was.

Psystar give all PC users a Mac - Psst wanna get a knock off Mac. You can get one off Psystar for $50. Just a software download, and you're good to go. I think they might be about to change their name to 'Hackintosh R Us'.

BBC iPlayer to go international - Your favourite BBC shows, available to stream as soon as they're shown in the UK. And all for a reasonable fee of just $10 bucks a show, if a BBC Worldwide Exec is to be believed. Although it would be high price to pay for you, it could export a whole new cultural phenomena. Rip off Britain coming soon to a computer near you.

Best Buy opening in the UK - The retailer is bringing the American shopping experience to the UK. The cavernous warehouse filled with all the electrical goodies you could want. Maybe even some American style customer service. And heaven forfend, even American pricing.

Fuel cell actually released - Something we've discussed on the show before. Touted as an answer to our power portable gadgets, ravenous hunger for energy, and the consequent disappointing battery life. Promised a decade ago, finally Toshiba is releasing one to consumers. Next thing you know they'll be giving away a 'Mr Fusion' with your breakfast cereal.

"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair." - Douglas Adams

This week we blathered on about a few different iPhone apps. I was quite enamoured with Layar, the augmented reality app we discussed on the show a while ago. Whereas Gareth was impressed with the new Photoshop Mobile app, I might be as well, if it's ever available on the UK app store. Also Gareth has changed alliegience, VMWare over Parallels it's a Snow Leopard thing.

Then on to the stories...

Sneaky Microsoft plug-in puts Firefox users at risk - Not content with with making their own software a hackers paradise. MS are offering free updates so those nasty people can pwn Firefox as well. By installing a windows update, users also installed a plug-in into Firefox, which opened up a great big hole there, as well as in Internet Explorer. They've fixed the exploit now. But for a while MS could have honestly claimed that Firefox was as vulnerable as IE, they'd have known, because they'd have made it that way.

An open letter to Steve Jobs. Fix Apple TV - A concerned user wants Uncle Steve to pour some love on Cupertino's media player. It would be a nice for Apple to invest some time and effort in their 'hobby', it could be a killer product. Like as suggested, make the hard drive optional and beef up the streaming, with Netflix perhaps. And add a 'bag of hurt', otherwise known as a Blu-ray player. Oh, and Safari for surfing the web from your sofa, would be nice, too. All in all, it'd be easier to just stick an HDMI port on a Mac Mini.

Mac Pro to get the exclusive on Intel's new six core Xeon - It is rumored that Apple will get another exclusive on a new 'top of the line' chip. The rumors of other goodies, 10Gb ethernet, support for upto 128GB of ram, make this sound like a beast of a machine. Cue another arbitrary Terminator reference....no, you get the idea.

Apple prepping a radio app for the iPhone - Bringing a whole new meaning to wireless, on the iPhone. Apple are rumoured to be enabling the FM radio built into the RF chip. I'm quite stoked by this news, Radio 4 without needing Flash for the BBC's iplayer. Gareth on the other hand, is less then impressed with option to listen to, and I'm paraphrasing here, radio of generally inferior quality.

Newest iPhones jailbreak proof? - It is popular for some people to jailbreak their iPhones as soon as they get them. Whether to enable multi-tasking, or install unapproved apps. But Apple are throwing a spanner on the works, with a new boot-rom to stop the hackers. Of course it'll get broken and probably very quickly, as well. And it does seem a lot of effort to go to, just to keep Google Voice 'under review'.

New hardware for the Amiga OS - Like Haiku, keeping the Be OS flame alive, before it. Morph is doing likewise for the old Commodore Amiga OS. The strength of the user community is such that the makers of Morph are releasing new hardware for it. Well they aren't, but Apple are. And new might be a bit of a stretch. Actually, it can run on a G4 Mac Mini. You've got to admire those retro computer guys, three year old hardware, an even older OS. Cutting edge stuff.

WiFi Direct, who needs Bluetooth - Ad-hoc peer to peer WiFi networks where ever you are. Hot spot not required, just two devices with WiFi chips. At up to 30 times the speed of Bluetooth, file transfers should be a breeze, but the headsets will make you look even more of a dork.

"Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction." - Albert Einstein 1879 - 1955

Not a lot happening on the tech front for Gareth or myself, this week. Still we managed to blather on about this and that for a few minutes before we dived into the stories. We're getting quite good at blathering, and I quite like the sound of the word.... blathering, blathering, blathering...

Anyway onto the stories...

AT&T to allow VOIP over 3G for the iPhone - In a move sure to cement it's position as the network of the consumer. AT&T has pushed aside the barriers to allow iPhone users VOIP over its 3G network. Did it work? I was trying for sarcasm. Anyway they're allowing iPhone users the same choice as Blackberry, and other phone users on their network. Whats next, Slingbox and Google Voice, who knows. They may allow anything but, as Mr de la Vega has intimated, throttle your connection. You greedy iPhone data users you.

Tiny 'nuclear batteries' unveiled - Researchers at the University of Missouri have developed a battery that could power your mobile device of choice for 'up to hundreds of years, or more'. Sounds cool, but there is a small snag, these suckers are nuclear. "People hear the word 'nuclear' and think of something very dangerous," Said lead researcher Dr Jae. Really you don't say? Its claimed they will be perfectly harmless in normal operating conditions. Yeah, and so was the Chernobyl power plant.

Mossberg 'Windows 7 nearly as good as Mac OS' - The respected tech journalist has reviewed Windows 7 and proclaimed it 'the best version of Windows Microsoft have produced', and is rapidly catching up with Mac OS X. Which if you'll contrast with his scathing review of Vista. 'After months of testing Vista on multiple computers, new and old, I believe it is the best version of Windows that Microsoft has produced.' Doh! Move along people, nothing to see here.

Kindle to launch internationally - Good old Uncle Jeff is letting us unworthy non-Americans buy his famed ebook reader. Aren't we ever so lucky. In Spain with shipping and import taxes it'll cost $350. And in the UK we'll be charged 40% more to buy the ebooks. All in all it sounds like a really great deal. (That was a shot at irony). And I usually go to Amazon to get a good price.

Apple, taking the tablets since 2003 - If Joshua A Strickon, a former Apple engineer is to be believed, the almost mythical tablet, has been in development since 2003. Which given Steve Jobs known obsession with detail doesn't sound unreasonable. Apparently, one such prototype was based on a PPC chip and the components alone cost $500. Which, given Apple's very healthy margins, would have put the retail cost somewhere close to crippling.

Flash coming to (almost) everything - Adobe is building one multi-media plug-in to rule them all. Flash is coming to every device you can name. Android, Pre, Blackberry and Windows Mobile or Windows Phone or whatever the hell Microsoft are calling it this week. But with one notable exception, the iPhone. Apple is banking on HTML5 with its built in video and audio support. But, if Apple did relent and allowed flash on the iPhone, the day after will see the release of an app that blocks it.

"I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision." - Henry David Thoreau 1817 - 1862

More grumbling about Netnewswire began this weeks show. But several solutions are being tried out, and any suggestions are gratefully received. Gruml looks an interesting candidate, we'll let you know how it goes. Simplenote was Gareth's iPhone app of the week. We are complying with FTC rules, no undisclosed freebies here, unfortunately.

Anyway onto the stories…

UK iPhone competition at last - Orange and Vodafone are set to join O2 in offering the iPhone. Real competition, cheaper plans. Who knows maybe even cheaper iPhones. Bloody typical, and I'm stuck in a plan with over a year to run.

Blackberry Desktop Manager for the Mac - RIM have released Mac sync software for their smartphones. Finally. It'll do contacts, pictures, notes and music. Yes that's right, your iTunes library will sync seamlessly, and Apple won't try to break it. That's because RIM are doing it the right way, using their own software, and Apple published API's, to access the iTunes library XML file. Somebody pass this on to Palm.

Over two billion served - Apps that is, iPhone Apps. In 18 months Apple have gone from nothing to two billion. No wonder everyone is opening an App store. Even Windows Mobile has opened an App store, with a whole 34 apps. I wonder when they'll reach two billion.

Steve Jobs climbs the Forbes rich list - He must make that dollar a year from Apple work really hard, or he's got a bitching second job. But as impressive as 5.1 billion dollars sounds, Bill Gates lost $7,000,000,000 in the crunch and he's still got ten times as much. Life is so unfair.

Police sell seized goods on eBay - All the stuff that criminals bought with their ill-gotten gains, can be confiscated and sold, thanks to the Proceeds Of Crime Act. Leicestershire Police have decided to use eBay as their retail channel of choice. And they will get 100% positive feedback, or you might just fall down some stairs while in custody.

Google AdSense leaks Apple's refreshed hardware - Faster, thinner and sexier, the new Macs are outed by Google AdSense in Holland. The ads go to dead links on the Apple Dutch website, but we now know they're on the way. How did the leak happen, come on, its from the country of legalized drugs.

"Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine." - Nikola Tesla 1856 - 1943

This week I was bemoaning the ruining of my Netnewswire experience. its all new on the desktop, iPhone and syncing by Google reader. But its not working for me, and other by the sound of the forums. Gareth's experience has been better, but he got the paid app. Maybe I shouldn't be so cheap.

Anyway on to the stories...

iPhone MMS now live - If you're on AT&T in the states anyway. The rest of us have had it since the 3.0 firmware came out. AT&T are relived it didn't bring their network down. Apple, are probably relived that AT&T didn't drop the ball, again. And you, long suffering iPhone user, can now use up your bundled texts four times as quick.

Palm ticked off by USB Implementors forum - If you go crying to Mom, you better have the best story, when she asks for answers. Unfortunately for Palm, Mom or the USB-IF in this case, is unhappy with the explanation given. I think an ass whooping is coming.

New iMacs on the way? - Rumours abound, and inventory is tight. Are new iMacs on the horizon? Of course they are. I just can't wait to tell my new switcher friend, that his week old baby, is gonna be outdated so soon.

Intel's Light Peak dictated by Apple? - Intel's new super fast optical interconnect standard was proposed by Apple, according to Engadget. Claiming to have seen documents, including a roadmap to when it'll be included in Macs. So having adopted and made defacto the USB standard, now its made over and up to version 3.0, Apple's preparing to dump it and move on. Its not you USB, Apple's like that, just ask the floppy disk.

AT&T and Google squabbling again - AT&T has gone crying to Mom (FCC), that Google isn't playing nice. Google voice won't pick up the tab for expensive interconnect charges to rural providers. But AT&T have to, poor baby. There, there let Mommy make it all better.

Microsoft doesn't like Google's Chrome Frame for IE - Duh, big surprise. But they're at it again with the FUD. "Its a security hole, its a potential problem, don't do it." They're advising their friends and family to stay away. But still want their friends and family to use IE. Luckily the rest of us can dump it, come on people.

"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition." - Rod Serling 1928 - 1975

After a brief, technology related, hiatus we are back this week. And we began with a chat about the newly released iPods. How they stack up, and whats with the missing camera from the iPod Touch. Then on to my tech mishap, Snow Leopards minor disagreement with my router. Damn BT’s Home hub rubbish.

Then back into the swing of things...

BeOS reborn as Haiku - The compact, fast and elegant OS from the 90’s is back and it’s open source. Its the OS us Mac users could be using today. If Gil Amelio hadn’t bought NeXT from Steve Jobs instead. Thereby ensuring his own demise, and Apple’s rejuvenation.

Pigeon beats broadband - In Durban, South Africa, they’ve gone back to the future, and ‘re’-introduced a novel data delivery system. Got some big files that need transferring, don’t bother with your ADSL connection, that’ll only get 4% of 4GB done in two hours. Call on Winston the carrier pigeon, and he’ll get all of that data 60 miles. As long as Dick Dastardly doesn’t get him first.

Google or Apple, which one’s lying over the Google Voice App? - Well, I’m not generally a betting man, but if I had to put money on it.... I’m afraid I’d have to go for Apple. Dialers we got hundreds, SMS programs, no problem. Google Voice there was an app for that.

A Mac with an illustrious past - A chance to own Gene Roddenberry’s 128k Mac. The first one off the production lines at that. Okay, given its not going to be the speediest computer, but who knows what stories were produced on this Mac. But unfortunately you can’t interface with it by talking into the mouse.

Zune HD is out - Wow it doesn’t suck. Generally positive reviews all round for Redmond’s new media player. Could be a real contender in the MP3 player market. Some good competition is what’s needed to spur on Apple, they’ve had it to easy for too long. I can’t believe I wrote ‘it doesn’t suck’ in a story about a Zune.

Ballmer’s at it again - Monkeyboy is at it again. Now, its okay to trash the competition in interviews. I’m not sure if its okay to ban your family from superior products, just because you don’t make them. But trashing an employees iPhone at a corporate event? Thats it Monkeyboy one down 40 million to go.

FCC comes out for ‘Net neutrality’ - The FCC’s Julius Genachowski has announced that he will ask the commission to start the formal rule making process, to enforce ‘net neutrality’. A spokesman for the industry said. “We believe that this kind of regulation is unnecessary in the competitive wireless space as it would prevent carriers from managing their networks — such as curtailing viruses and other harmful content — to the benefit of their consumers.” Right.... like that’s what you were using traffic shaping for.

A rather British apology - The British Prime Minister has apologized for the treatment of the mathematician and so called ‘father of modern computing‘ Alan Turing. Turing, who successfully broke the German Enigma code thereby shortening the war and saving a considerable number of lives, was persecuted for his homosexuality. He committed suicide in 1954. Although his name lives on in the AI computing field.

'If it's a penny for your thoughts and you put in your two cents worth, then someone, somewhere is making a penny.' - Steven Wright

This weeks chat touched on quite a few subjects, news readers, Gareth's experiences with Snow Leopard, and the reason I haven't had any yet. We even had a chance to have a dig at Windows, all in all we could have left it there. But we'd made all the effort to get together.

So it was on to the stories...

Rumour: Apple TV news at iPod event - Is Apple going to put some effort into their hobby. Or is the promising media hub being forgotten about in Cupertino. Maybe Steve has put some time into the 'summer project', recovering from his recent bout of illness. Or he could have been playing 'paper toss' the whole time, that shit's really addictive.

Britains oldest working computer roars to back to life - The Harwell computer the world's oldest working 'stored program computer', will be restored If the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park can raise the funds. It has 112.5 bytes of memory, and could take up to ten seconds to complete a single multiplication. It was designed around 900 noen-filled valves, called dekatrons. I love that name dekatron. I want a dekatron, purely because the name sounds so cool. Sounds like the baddest Transformer ever built.

Japan to spend $21BN on a power station in space - In about four years, Japan intends to have a solar array in space, using a microwave beam to send the juice back to earth. Sounds like something that's waiting to be hijacked by a Bond villain. Or it might just be to warm up Godzilla's movie snacks.

Top 10 gadgets for social media addicts - Us geeks like lists, comparison charts, and specifications. And a top ten of gadgets is practically geek porn, so Gareth pounced on this with relish. Shall I tell you the number one..... No, you'll have to listen to the show, I'm such a tease.

eBay reaches deal to sell off Skype - What do you do when you have something you no longer need, or know what to do with. That's right you put on eBay. You know your not going to get what you paid for it, but it is second hand after all. Impulse buys are a bitch, aren't they.

Unexplained phenomenon Google logo: Can you explain it? - Strange happenings in the Google logo on the search page. Normally there's a reason for a change to the logo, a holiday or anniversary of a famous event. But this time just a animation of a UFO, tractor beaming an 'O' away, which linked to an apparently random page on strange phenomena. Just Google messing with us. Or, has an engineer seen through Eric Schmidt's disguise, and is trying to warn us.

Sony signs Google browser deal - Mountain View again in this story. In a deal talked about as, the first of many, Sony is making Chrome the default browser in all new PCs. I wonder which manufacturer will be the first to ship Chrome as the default OS in their new PCs. Can't wait for that one, 'cos its a small step from there to Ballmer selling Windows licenses at a yard sale.

"I wish there were a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence.  There's a knob called "brightness," but that doesn't work." - Author Unknown

We started off this week with Gareth regaling us with his experiences with Apple's latest baby. Snow Leopard is here! Gareth's already installed it on both his Macs and is full of good things to say about it. I shall let him test it for a few days before unleashing on my system, there's been no reports of any real problems, but you can't be too careful. Then we discussed a few iPhone apps, 'Where' is Gareth's current pick.

Then on to the stories...

All current iPods discontinued? - The supply channels are rapidly draining of the existing iPods, in preparation for new goodies from Jobs and Co. The SKU's of all current iPods have been discontinued. Gareth just bought an existing generation iPod classic, purely for reasons of nostalgia.

A remote that Twitters - Big Blue has patented a remote control that can twitter. TV is going to get more 'social'. But if the remote starts blogging about the rubbish shows you're watching. You've got nobody but yourself to blame.

Stunning image of single molecule - Those IBM boffins are having a busy week. This time they've produced an image of a single molecule of penacene Using an atomic force microscope, at near absolute zero, and complete stillness for 20 hours. Next up they're going to examine Steve Ballmer for business acumen. But only if they can improve the sensitivity of their equipment.

USAA bank lets you call in cheques - If you've got a USAA account and an iPhone you can ring your checks in. You take a picture of said check, and an app does the rest. Encrypting and sending to your bank and the bank credits you the money. Now if we could just get rid of the whole small irritating inconvenient piece of paper altogether, that'd be progress.

'Daily Prophet' comes to Entertainment Weekly - By embedding a slim-line player within the pages, video will appear in a magazine for the first time. Up to 40 minutes of video will be contained on the chip that powers the 'mobile phone' sized screen. Not as animated as Harry Potters Daily Prophet, but much more 21st century in editorial style.

iPod classic to get a camera too - If the rumours are to be believed. On September the 9th we should see a slew of new iPods, all bearing cameras. The venerable classic included. Flickr is going to be groaning under the wait of all the new 'fun' photo. If its video capable, who knows, it could break You Tube.

Evolutionary theory of tech - An interesting article I culled off the interwebs. If species evolution is driven by the survival of the fitest, is tech driven by the same goals? Do the fitest devices succeed, and the rest fall by the wayside? A good piece, but unfortunately it couldn't explain the success of Windows.

Sony's new kindle killer - The 'Reader Daily Edition' has been unveiled. With a 7" touch screen and 2GB of internal memory, it compares favourably to the Kindle. Topping it all off is a 3G connection powered by AT&T. So, they can grab books back off yours just like Amazon can.

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating?"
- George Orwell - 1984

We began this week with a tale of woe. About the hard drive I purchased only the week before. Should have done my homework first, I'm finding lots of complaints about it online now. Damn Seagate! On a more positive note Gareth was positively gushing about his new Google Voice service. Sounds like a well thought out utility, and its free, you can't beat free. But, no he can't get you an invite, if he could I'd have the first....

Then unto the breach...

Stephen Fry slams copyright holders - The English writer, actor and all round good egg, launched a blistering attack on copyright holders, at the London iTunes festival. Especially the ones that take consumers to court, you know how you are. You'll never win now record companies. Or if you do Stephen will hit you with a devastating put down.

Toshiba launching Blu-ray player - After losing the war, Toshiba plan to recoup some of the billions it invested in HD-DVD. By launching their own Blu-ray player. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Palm confirms iTunes update kills Pre syncing - Apple threatened to do it, and with iTunes update 8.2.1, they have. Pre users will have to find some other way to get there media on to their phones. The feature rich smartphone, is now one advertised feature down.

MS exec, 'We got Apple scared' - Apparently 'someone in Apple legal' called the MS executive in charge of the 'Laptop hunter' ads. And requested one be altered or removed for inaccuracies. The exec, COO Kevin Turner, now wants to keep 'running and running them'. You do that Kev, You keep spending millions advertising products you don't even sell. To customers who are computer illiterate, cheapskates and, according to the ads, uncool.

Amazon remotely delete Orwell novels. Kindle 'ungood' - This is so ironic its either a publicity stunt, or a once in a lifetime, to good to be true and 'finally story' for a tech podcast like ours. But to do this to George Orwell's 1984, that's just brilliant. I mean, remotely deleting any purchase from someone's Kindle is bad enough. Amazon it seems just refund the purchase price, and put it down to a 'malreport'. I wonder if the Kindle's EULA is in doublespeak.

And that was it for this week, There would have been six stories But both Gareth and I picked the Pre story. Still we managed waffle on for quite a while.

Killing Pixels Episode 18 - July 19th, 2009

"A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five."
- Groucho Marx

Gareth's holiday in the Windy city started off our chat this week. Then, though it started optimistically enough, it all got a little bit political.

And then promptly degenerated into this...

Time Warner broadband usage caps spreading, consumers revolt! - I'm sure Time Warner thinks that the lowly consumers are always revolting, which is why they treat them like crap.

Austrialians to get 100Mb broadband - While Britain dribbles out a fibre network, and America ponders how, or if, they dare spend Obama's stimulus money on nationwide broadband. The Aussie's have looked around at their Asian neighbours, and decided to just 'bloody' do it.

New iPhone could have video chat - And not just video chat, but a new 'gesture' controlled interface. With a front facing camera, revealed in a patent application by Apple. Repeat after me. "Put your hands up in the air, wave them around like you just don't care."

Pirate Bay four found guilty - A resounding victory for the copyright holders, as they valiantly continue their struggle to push water uphill.

AT&T wants the iPhone until 2011 - The exclusive deal with Apple is coming to an end soon. AT&T, fearing the loss of their (cash cow) industry leading phone, get ready to bend over the negotiating table and squeal like a fax machine, when Jobs and Co. come to talk a new deal.

First Mac 'botnet' activated - After unwittingly downloading and installing a trojan into their machines, in pirated software. A botnet of Mac machines was created, and switched on this week, looking for instructions from its nefarious creators. Proving, conclusively that the biggest security risk on any platform, is the one between the keyboard and chair.

Wikipedia and Amazon dump Phorm - At last, someone sees sense! In the version of Orwell's 1984 that the UK has become, everybody is spying on everybody else. Phorm, the latest Big Brother to emerge, want to trawl through our browsing records, and feed 'relevant' ads, based on past behaviour, to our browsers. All perfectly confidentially of course, yeah right, its just a warrant away from the governments sticky hands. But at last some companies are asking to be left out, good old Jimmy Wales is even encouraging Google MS and others to do the same. If we're willing to put up a fight, we might even win this round.

Ohh, ohh, bit of politics there....my names Ben Elton. Goodnight.

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
- Albert Einstein

Again this week we started with a chat about various things. From our runs at Skype on the iPhone to Gareth's prognostications on the future. And a lot more in between.

Before we got down to these stories....

President Obama gives the Queen of England an iPod - "One hopes that the nice colonial doesn't get his arse nailed by the Feds." The Queen was quoted as saying, not knowing if the copyrights in the material given on the iPod, had been cleared by the President. "You don't mess with the DCMA."

China accused of cyberspying - A report commissioned by the Dalai Lama's office has found evidence of state sponsored cyberspying by the Chinese. It was an accusation strongly denied by the Chinese government. The Chinese spokesman that we contacted also denied any involvement, he then asked us if we wanted pancake roll or prawn cracker with our meal.

Hulu starts encrypting its HTML content - In it's ongoing war with Boxee and others, the TV streaming service resorts to more and more desperate measures. But we all know that the content wants to be free.

Conficker, disaster or damp squib? - After the media hype. With the virus 'just' updating. We ponder what the virus writers are planning for enormous botnet they have created.

Attack of the qwerty phones - Texting with a numeric keypad just sucks. It seems that mobile makers agree, with more and more phones coming with qwerty keyboards. At last no more texters thumb, so if you can still raise them, put them way way up.

New piracy laws nearly halves internet traffic in Sweden - With prosecutors already trying to put the operators of the Pirate Bay behind bars. New laws scare the users of P2P off the internet in Sweden. The only upside is the amount of bandwidth freed for access to Sweden's greatest export. And I'm not talking about ABBA.

And so you have Episode 6 of Killing pixels...

I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Smells like victory....

This week we started off just shooting the breeze. We went through quite a lot of things. The RIAA's attempts to got file sharers kicked off the internet, all the way through to the next Doctor Who

When we got round to it, we discussed these stories as well.

Sony's Mylo 2 near its end? - Is this cut down internet device from Sony past it? Has it been bypassed by all the smartphones offering the same features, plus a phone as well? Will Sony replace it? Who knows, this Sony we're talking about. I'm still completely gobsmacked they haven't stuck a phone and touch screen into the PSP. Killer device.

Sat-nav tries to kill man, man arrested - Was it a one off, or has the GPS become self-aware. No word on the make of the GPS, but the makers of the Atmos have denied any involvement. (Doctor Who in joke, for our American friends).

Mac Heist 3 is here - In this economy anything that offers this much value, has to be good. Pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap.

MS ad says Macs to cool for its customers - Does anybody know where Microsoft are going with this? Lauren, 'real person' and actress tries to find a 17" laptop for under a $1000. And discovers that if your obsessed by sticker price, your gonna buy cheap crap.

Windows 7 in May? - It's not being rushed out because Vista is rubbish. MS have just decided to speed up the release cycle for Windows. Honest. Hopefully Redmond have done a better job with this one.

Skype for iPhone imminent? - Will it be WiFi only, or will you be able to use it over 3G or Edge? Will the carriers allow it? Will they try to screw users for more money? How will it work if it doesn't run in the background? Will Burt become Sheriff? All these questions will be answered in tonight's episode of Soap.

And so you have Episode 5 of Killing pixels...

Well its like this...

This week we've done a Dell, we're going for quality as opposed to quantity. It didn't work for us either.

This week we concentrated on these stories.

iPhone 3.0 software - I know we talked about this last week. But now we have some facts to go with the wild speculation.

Battlestar Galactica at the UN - Yeah we know its not tech its Sci-Fi. But its our show and we don't care, so there!

iTunes Store starts HD movie sales - Now you can impulse purchase some really dire films, from the comfort of your computer. All in glorious HD.

MS bids to reclaim the web with IE8 - Missed the fact that Redmond have released IE8, nearly everyone did, so don't feel bad. The 'underwhelming' launch of the latest and greatest version of Explorer, passed almost unnoticed on to the net. The good news, it's the most standards, open ones not MS' own, compliant version of the browser. The bad news its still Internet Explorer.

Google Voice - Another new service from the search giant, they want all your calls. You get a single number, for your home, mobile and even business. Google does the rest, transcribes your voicemail, redirect your calls, and more. I am not a number, I am a free man!

LG confirm new OLED touchscreen device from Apple - Okay, so they don't really, they're just producing the screens that Apple bought off them. And also researching touch tech on OLED screens. So two plus two equals five, in the wacky world of Apple rumours.

Teens, a balloon and a camera - What do you get? No not porn. You get amazing shots of the Earth from 20 miles up. These Spanish students actually do something clever. Instead of just getting drunk, laid or high.

Ballmer blasts Apple the 'tide has turned back' - Would you pay $500 extra for an Apple logo? Monkeyboy wants to know. Its the same hardware so why pay more. In answer I can only say, 'ITS THE SOFTWARE, STUPID'. I pay extra not to have to use windows, my choice. But, riddle me this Monkeyboy, a Mercedes and a Trabant are both cars, same hardware, why pay more? I wonder if Ballmer drive a Trabant?

And so you have Episode 4 of Killing pixels...

Look Ma, top of the world...

Hell, this getting to be a regular thing. And its getting to sound like we know what we're talking about.

I know its only our opinions, and they're as biased as anyone else's. But it feels good to get that opinion out there. So, never mind the quality, feel the width.

This week the stories that have been vexing us are...

CD's are 30 years old - The venerable Compact Disc has reached a milestone that Blu-ray, hell any other physical media, seems unlikely to reach.

Mobile phone 'botnets' coming to a mobile near you - The hackers are after your smartphone, well the Sybian ones for now, and they won't stop until they have them. Faced with this dire threat, we discuss what it means for the iPhone, I mean come on...

iPhone software 3.0 - It was the obvious next thing to talk about, so what the hell, we did. What's coming, what would we like to see coming?

New iPod shuffle - It talks to you through the headphones. How long till you're massacring your family Amityville style?

Mimi switch. - It reads your facial expressions to control your devices. Wink to play a track, wink twice to skip a track. Wink three times and become real friendly with the big guy in the corner.

Brain scanners that know where you've been - At last some research with an instant practical application. You'll never lose your keys again.

Windows 7 IE may use 'multi-touch' - Multi-touch is everywhere, it will be interesting to see if you can use your own fingers. Or if you have to use MS standard fingers?

Adamo by Dell - Having reached the for lowest price, damn the quality. Dell go after the 'unibody' Macbooks. They may be in the gutter but they're looking at the stars. Failing that Mike could sell the company and give money back to the shareholders.

What is Wolfram/Alpha? - Is it a nascent Skynet, will it become self aware and launch its missiles. Or will it live up to the hype, and turn out to be really useful. Its not a search engine, its an answer engine. Got a question, don't Google it, and do all the boring research yourself. Wolfram/Alpha will go through the knowledge on the internet and give you the answer, maybe?

Battery that charges in seconds - Those clever MIT guys are at it again. This time they're going to save our wonderful mobile devices from the hours they spend chained to the power socket.

And so you have Episode 3 of Killing pixels...

And it goes on...

Hey there's no stopping us now, we're on a roll. Well almost no stopping us.

You know the way life gets in the way of your best laid plans. Episode 2 almost never made it because of life. But we won't let it get the better of us. We shall fight it on the......never mind!
This week these topics have been nagging at the edge of our minds...

Kindle iPhone app - Amazon's device becomes a platform. Well not quite, but they are certainly aiming that way.

Microsoft adds 'remove IE' option to Windows 7 - That and a bunch of other 'core' apps. Is this Redmond's way of avoiding further brushes with the anti-trust regulators in Europe and the States?

Apple update their desktop range - Loads of Apple goodness for us to drool over. In our own, slightly partisan, style.

Tesla, finally on the road - At last an electric car you might want to buy, if you're seriously loaded, that is. A cool looking EV, will it drive the market and/or save the planet.

VR headset that offers the sights, sounds and smells of cyberspace - More real than real. Waste time in a reality almost as convincing as the real thing.

HOTOL, the reusable space plane, back from the 80's The future of space flight is back, again. This time its a satellite launch vehicle, but the sky's the limit......Doh!

Hulu slams the door in Boxee's face! - Not content with getting the service removed from Boxee, Hulu blocks the app from its site altogether. Now now, play nice children.

Next generation Broadband Britain - Ofcom gives BT a license to print money, as Britain tries to catch up, with the speeds of the best countries. The leviathan ups the development pace from that of continental drift, to a speedy glacial.

And so ends Episode 2 of Killing pixels...

So it begins...

When you're as obsessed by all things tech related as we are, its just too painful to stay silent. When we read all the tech news every day, we just have to talk about these things. Nobody in our families will listen, neither will our friends. They are completely uninterested in what nonsense Steve Ballmer is spouting today, what's really wrong with Steve Jobs and will he be back at Apple.

So, dear listener, fellow tech-head, you are our captive audience. Our therapy if you will.
This week we discuss...

Kindle 2.0 - Amazon's baby, the device that they hope will read us all our bedtime stories. Well, if your Gareth's side of the pond anyway. New design, new features. Have Amazon done enough to part you from 360 bucks?

Mobile World Conference, Barcelona - Reading all the stories to come from there I was struck by the fact that it was dominated by a phone that wasn't even there...the iPhone!

Sony Portable Fuel Cells - These prototypes from Sony, demonstrate that the technology is not that far from market now. And they look cool too.

10 Trillion bits of data on a disk the size of a quarter. Nanotech research, everybody's favourite bogeyman, brings the promise of practically unlimited storage. But you'll probably lose it down the back of the sofa.

Safari 4 beta - Apple's stab at the one browser to rule them all. Gareth risks the stability of his systems to bring us, his considered opinion.

Netbooks, why? - Gareth tries to explain to me WTF is going on there!

Blackberry doesn't bite the bullet. Blackberry reject the 'confrontational' ad that could have burst Apple's bubble.

Sayonara Sony? - Is the CE giant going to fall? Or can Super Stringer keep them in the game through the downturn?

Windows 7 - Can Microsoft sweep the disaster that was Vista under the living room rug, and blow us away with Windows 7?

The end of Teletext? - Ofcom questions the need for the venerable old text service. Are we going to lose the first stab at interactivity delivered to our tellys?

And thats about it for our first show. If you want to get in touch, express your own opinions, argue with us or just flame. Blame Gareth, it was all his idea, honest!!
P.S. If you DO know what's wrong with Steve Jobs, and if he'll be back, let us know.

Killing Pixels Episode 1 - March 1st, 2009