The iPhone will be available on the Vodafone network from 25th March.

Vodafone Ireland will offer the iPhone to its customers from 25th March as O2’s exclusivity deal comes to an end. Vodafone had previously announced that they would carry Apple’s successful smartphone late last year but no launch date has been set until now.

When it arrives Vodafone’s iPhone will be available at a number of price points, from free up to €299 depending on the model and tariff chosen. Customers will be required to sign up to an 18-month contract, as they are currently with O2, with contracts costing between €35 and €100 per month.

Vodafone will also offer a Pay As You Go option, with the iPhone 3G 8GB costing €419, the 3GS 16GB costing €519 and a 3GS 32GB costing €609.

Vodafone’s €35 tariff makes it the cheapest rate available for the iPhone in Ireland, though it does not include any bundled minutes or texts. The package does, however, include a 2GB data allowance and free calls and texts to other Vodafone customers.

O2’s cheapest rate is €40 per month, which currently offers 150 any network minutes, 100 texts, free O2 calls and texts and unlimited data allowance; however a data cap is expected to return at the end of this month.

The cheapest iPhone available from O2 is €49, however, while some Vodafone tariffs offer the phone for free.

The full Vodafone tariff details are as follows:

Perfect Choice Access +
Monthly fee: €35
Voice mins: 0
Text messages: 0
Data: 2GB
iPhone 3G 8GB: €99
iPhone 3GS 16GB: €199
iPhone 3GS 32GB: €299

Perfect Choice Access + 150
Monthly fee: €45
Voice mins: 150
Text messages: 150
Data: 2GB
iPhone 3G 8GB: €99
iPhone 3GS 16GB: €199
iPhone 3GS 32GB: €299

Perfect Choice Access + 300
Monthly fee: €60
Voice credit (mins): 300
Text messages: 300
Data: 2GB
iPhone 3G 8GB: €49
iPhone 3GS 16GB: €129
iPhone 3GS 32GB: €229

Perfect Choice Access + 500
Monthly fee: €80
Voice mins: 500
Text messages: 500
Data: 2GB
iPhone 3G 8GB: FREE
iPhone 3GS 16GB: €79
iPhone 3GS 32GB: €169

Perfect Choice Access + 700
Monthly fee: €100
Voice mins: 700
Text messages: 700
Data: 2GB
iPhone 3G 8GB: FREE
iPhone 3GS 16GB: FREE
iPhone 3GS 32GB: €49

• All plans carry unlimited calls and text to Vodafone numbers.
• Pricing quoted include VAT

Assassin's Creed 2 on the Xbox 360

The winner of Assassin’s Creed 2 on the Xbox 360; kindly given to teic.ie by Ubisoft Ireland; is Steve Brennan of Leopardstown, Dublin.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is the follow-up to the title that became the fastest-selling new IP in video game history. The highly anticipated title features a new hero, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young Italian noble, and a new era, the Renaissance.

Assassin’s Creed 2 retains the core gameplay experience that made the first opus a resounding success and features new experiences that will surprise and challenge players.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is an epic story of family, vengeance and conspiracy set in the pristine, yet brutal, backdrop of a Renaissance Italy. Ezio befriends Leonardo da Vinci, takes on Florence’s most powerful families and ventures throughout the canals of Venice where he learns to become a master assassin.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is available on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

NeXT formed the foundations of Apple's visually appealing re-birth.

Aesthetic experience matters in all other aspects of life so why, asks Jason Walsh, do software developers treat it like a frivolous luxury?

Steve Jobs is a pompous ass – but he gets one thing right: aesthetics matter. Anyone who knows anything of Jobs’s history will know his obsession with aesthetics.

Most tech-inclined people dismiss aesthetics as mere ‘chrome’, shiny bolted-on fins that have no actual function other than to please and titillate the user.

This is entirely the wrong attitude – and precisely what leads to the train wreck that is not only most human-computer interfaces, but also the astonishing ugliness of most consumer electronics devices. Jobs, while he was chief executive of NeXT Computer – his home after being booted-out of Apple – famously said that Microsoft lacked art.

“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their products,” he told the makers of the documentary film ‘Triumph of the Nerds’.

Sadly he was right – and not just about Microsoft. The manner in which software is developed actually encourages unpleasant user interfaces and the fact that desktop computing is, in terms of its basic paradigm, a dead and un-innovative space doesn’t help.

As more and more features are added to applications the interfaces become increasingly cluttered, confusing and downright ugly. The latest abomination to be unleashed upon the hitherto productive computing public is the desktop Flash application – thanks Adobe. That’s exactly what we needed: a thousand and one non-standard interfaces.

Of course, Apple doesn’t always get it right – far from it – but at least the company’s developers realise that there is more to the user experience than the technical underpinnings of an application. One important issue is that we are not talking about art. NeXT – and Apple since Jobs’s return – has a tendency to produce arty interfaces. This is not a good thing.

There is a strong argument for form following function but this does not mean dispensing with aesthetics. In fact, anyone who knows about the history of design will immediately associate the phrase ‘form follows function’ with modernism and the Bauhaus in particular.

The perfect human-computer interface should be small to the point of near invisibility. Where we do see it, it should be simple, clean and formal. It should never confuse and it should have a beauty in its simplicity.

For the past month or more I have been searching for the ‘perfect’ word processor. It sounds ridiculous, but I write tens of thousands of words every week and so, inevitably, I spend a lot of time staring at a screen. I want this time to be spent in an environment that is conducive to writing.

Microsoft Word, the word processor used by most of my colleagues, is hellish. It’s busy, cluttered, over-powered and just plain annoying. Apple’s Pages is a much more pleasant experience but it is let down by insisting on using its own quixotic file format. This results in me having two copies of every saved file – something that quickly becomes a real headache and is, in its own way, an aesthetic problem.

I will continue to search for the blank page that allows beautiful typography and includes no features other than a word count and a spell checker. I doubt I will ever find it though.

Jason Walsh is a journalist and the editor of forth

UPC have promised a VoD service by the end of the year.

Cable company Chorus/NTL will launch a Video on Demand (VoD) service this year, according to its CEO. In a statement following the release of the company’s financial results for 2009 Robert Dunn said the company would roll out the service to “further enhance our customer’s [sic] experience.”

A VoD service would allow customers to watch certain programming on their digibox at any time, even if they had not recorded it themselves. It would also open the door for pay-per-view programming on the cable platform, something that so far has not been an option.

RTE’s Player service is an example of VoD, albeit a web-based one. Any VoD service available from the likes of Chorus/NTL would likely carry similar content and would also have a cut-off point at which aired programming would no longer be available.

Chorus/NTL, which is in the process of rebranding to UPC, has promised a VoD service for some time but so far this has failed to materialise. The remotes for company’s latest digiboxes, which also carry the UPC logo, has a dedicated ‘on demand’ button which is currently inactive.

Samsung's ST550 has dual-LCD displays

The winner of the cutting edge Samsung ST550, given to teic.ie courtesy of Samsung Ireland, is Jerry Coffey of Dooradoyle, Limerick.

Congratulations to Jerry – his details have been passed on and the camera should be making its way to him very soon!

The Samsung ST550 is packed full of innovative features such as dual LCD screens, a 27mm wide angle lens with 12.2 mega pixels of power and 4.6x optical zoom.

The camera is motion sensitive, meaning its Smart Gesture UI will start a slide show with a simple tilt. The ST550 also boasts Face Recognition Technology and can remember faces it photographs frequently and prioritises them when focusing on a shot, making sure that those most important to you are always seen in crystal clarity.

The ST550 is available now in black, gold, orange and purple colours.

For more information, please visit www.samsung.com/ie.

Canon's new line-up includes the EOS 550D

Canon have revealed details of their latest camera range, with both the compact and DSLR lines getting a refresh. The company announced five new cameras in total, three of which are part of the IXUS range of consumer-friendly compacts.

The IXUS 130 is the slimmest camera Canon have made to date, coming in under 18mm at its thickest point. The IXUS 130 is a 14.1mp camera that is available in a range of different colours

At the other end of the market the EOS 55oD is a 18mp DSLR with HD movie functionality. The company says this camera has the options of a semi-professional camera but comes in a lightweight body to minimise the space and weight it takes up.

The full line-up of cameras announced, including release date and RRP (including VAT), are as follows:

The EOS 550D; available from 24th February 2010 priced at €899
The PowerShot SX210 IS; available from March 2010 priced at €399
The IXUS 210; available from early March 2010 priced at €389
The IXUS 130; available from March 2010 priced at €309
The IXUS 105; available from March 2010 priced at €219

FX is now available to Chorus/NTL customers

Cable provider Chorus/NTL has made the FX channel available to its digital TV customers. FX, which is owned by Fox International, will be broadcast on channel 126 of the company’s platform.

The channel has been available to Sky Ireland customers for some time now and includes The Wire and True Blood in its roster of programming. The channel also had the UK premiere of Iraq war drama Generation Kill.

FX has gained a solid reputation for showing some of the higher-quality US programming that is made by HBO and Showtime before other networks.

Chorus/NTL has made a number of changes to its programming in recent months as it attempts to gain back market share from its rival Sky. At the start of the year the company announced that ESPN would be available as part of its Digital Max package without an additional subscription, just as Setanta Sports had been in the past.

Headline speeds are increasing but contention is keeping real speeds down

With broadband speeds increasing, Ireland appears to be catching up with other countries’ super-fast networks. However, the small print leaves many customers with far less than they pay for.

While most of the attention on broadband statistics is given to the headline speeds, the issue of line contention is now proving to be equally important.

Contention refers to the number of customer lines that share a connection in a local network exchange, with the top speed being split between them all. As a result, a customer on a 20MBit/sec broadband connection with a contention of 20:1 may end up with speeds as low as 1Mbit/sec during busier times as the top speed of 20Mbit/sec is in reality shared with 19 other customers.

Contention is one of the reasons why broadband speeds are generally advertised as “up to”, although the quality of the line and the customer’s distance from the exchange – where local connections are passed through to the wider network – are also a factor.

“Some telecommunications companies, because of a lack of capital or as a way of squeezing the customer, design in contention to their network so that a number of people will share an amount of bandwidth,” says Mark Kellet, chief executive of Magnet Networks, which offers uncontended lines so the customer gets access to all of the potential speed without having to share.

“So while companies like Eircom advertise 24Mbits/sec the chance of you getting that speed during the busy period is very slim because you’re sharing with other people.”

At present Eircom and Vodafone offer a contention ratio of 48:1 on their residential broadband packages, while cable company Chorus/NTL set theirs at 17:1.

Mobile broadband is also highly contended. However, exact figures differ depending on the network a user is on, the mast they are connected to and how many other connections are using it at that time.

A survey in 2008 by broadband communications company Epitiro found that Irish landline customers were getting just 60 per cent of speeds advertised by their suppliers, while mobile broadband was found to be far slower than landlines with comparable top speeds.

Overall the report found that faster broadband speeds did not equate to faster browsing for the end user. However, Sean Lockman, director of portfolio strategy in Eircom Retail, argues that much of this depends on when the user connects. “Many people will experience their peak speeds – they’ll only start to experience less than that in the evening time when everyone else is online. So I don’t think it’s disingenuous as the connection can achieve that speed most of the time for most people.”

In March 2008, the Advertising Standard Authority of Ireland issued a directive requiring the inclusion of a “busy hour” speed in broadband marketing, which would factor in contention among other things. So far none of the big players has adhered to this but Magnet Networks recently called for its rivals to do so in the interest of transparency. Providers such as Vodafone, however, say it is not a realistic option. “Advertising busy-hour speeds with any accuracy is a very considerable challenge . . . because it varies from exchange to exchange,” says Eileen Maher, head of fixed services with Vodafone Ireland. “There are huge variations nationally, and even from town to town, so it would be unfair and misleading to pick one number for all as it would be non-representative and also would change constantly.”

Vodafone specifies its landline contention ratio on its website alongside the connection’s maximum speed. However, neither Eircom nor Chorus/NTL has these details listed online.

As the authority is a self-regulatory body, it has no real powers to punish companies that fail to follow its directives. The Communications Regulator (ComReg) has no regulatory limit on contention or directives on the way it is factored in to advertised speeds but says that it advocates transparency on the matter.

Regardless, there is agreement among industry players that the advertised speeds are not reflective of the real speeds people experience, particularly at peak times.

While the broadband market in Ireland has changed since Epitiro’s survey in 2008, so have the habits of web-users, something Eircom’s Sean Lockman says is making contention more of an issue.

“We see internet video, file-sharing, online back-up and services like RTÉ’s Player becoming more popular, and they all require a more constant stream of information,” he says, citing a Cisco Systems report which recorded a 62 per cent increase in online video streaming to PCs in the past year.

“More people want to be online all the time doing a lot more stuff . . . We’re seeing a lot of our more advanced customers having three or four users on at the same time on different devices like PCs, gaming machines and smartphones.”

Simple web-browsing only requires bandwidth every time a user updates or moves to a new webpage, so it can be redistributed across the other contended connections as it is needed. Streaming services like video require a constant flow of speed, however, leaving the remaining contended connections with much less to share.

According to Lockman, Eircom has undertaken a major network overhaul to address this shift, one which will eventually remove the issue of contention for about 75 per cent of its customers.

The company has started with upgrades to the Dublin network, and plans to have all urban areas uncontended in 12-18 months.

Once complete, the upgraded lines will be available to wholesale customers as well as residential, meaning competitors like Vodafone will be able to offer uncontended packages too.

While Lockman could not give specific details, it is understood that some customers may see the benefits of this upgrade within the next two months. For others it could take some time, however, due to the extent of the aged infrastructure Eircom has to replace.

Until then, users’ broadband speeds may remain a purely aspirational figure.

This article originally appeared in The Irish Times on the 19th February 2010.

The new SOCOM title for the PSP will tie itself to a user's account when online

Sony is trialling a voucher system on its new SOCOM title for the PSP which could end the booming trade-in market, according to Engadget.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 for the PSP requires users to register with the Playstation Network (PSN) before they can play online. Once they do so the disc will be tied to their account and cannot be used by another.

If another user tries to play the game on their PSP they will be prompted to buy another “voucher” which costs $20.

Sony has in the past signalled that it wanted to deal with the used game market, which generates a lot of revenue for retailers but none for developers. Digital downloads – as available through the PSP Go – is one tactic they have used to undercut it but most physical copies of games are still re-usable.

If this voucher system catches on it could mean games could no longer be traded-in; or at the very least that buyers of used games would need to pay extra to actually play the game.

It is not yet clear if buyers of SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 will have to register their copy to play the offiline single-player mode or if registration only takes place when they enter multiplayer mode.

Sony's cybershot TX5 is water and dust-proof.

Electronics giant Sony has unveiled what it claims it is the world’s thinnest and smallest waterproof camera. Called the Cybershot TX5 the camera can function in depths of up to 3m and is also dust and drop-proof to a height of 1.5m.

Unlike most dust and waterproof devices the TX5 has a metallic rather than rugged rubberised finish. Inside it houses a 10.2mp lens with 4x optical zoom and a 3″ LCD touchscreen on the back.

The camera is available in five colours – black, silver, pink, green & red – and is also designed to deal with freezing temperatures of up to -10 degrees centigrade.

The TX5 has an estimated retail price of €379.

Win Assassin's Creed 2 for the Xbox 360.

Ubisoft Ireland has given teic.ie a copy of Assassin’s Creed 2 on the Xbox 360 for one lucky readers. To be in the draw to win this great game keep on reading:

Assassin’s Creed 2 is the follow-up to the title that became the fastest-selling new IP in video game history. The highly anticipated title features a new hero, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young Italian noble, and a new era, the Renaissance.

Assassin’s Creed 2 retains the core gameplay experience that made the first opus a resounding success and features new experiences that will surprise and challenge players.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is an epic story of family, vengeance and conspiracy set in the pristine, yet brutal, backdrop of a Renaissance Italy. Ezio befriends Leonardo da Vinci, takes on Florence’s most powerful families and ventures throughout the canals of Venice where he learns to become a master assassin.

To enter the draw just answer this simple question:

What was the name of the main character from the first Assassin’s Creed?

E-mail your answer, along with your name and location, to competitions[at]teic.ie (replacing the [at] with @).

Entries will be accepted until 11:59pm on Thursday, 25th February. This competition is only open to Irish residents; employees & associates of Ubisoft & teic.ie cannot apply.

Steve Jobs said netbooks were just "cheap laptops"

At the launch of Apple’s iPad, Steve Jobs argued that netbooks were good for nothing. He was completely wrong, says Adam Maguire.

It is a foregone conclusion that anything Steve Jobs says at an Apple conference will be well-received. Contribute it to the reality distortion field around him or the careful selection of attendees but either way it’s a fact.

At the conference that launched Apple’s tablet computer – the iPad – one line in particular went down very well with the crowd; the one where Jobs argued netbooks weren’t “better than anything” and were just cheap laptops.

It was a straw-man argument and a bad one at that. Obviously when netbooks are compared with laptops on single features they will always lose out but they were never meant to compete. It is the combination of benefits; namely their portability, functionality and price; that make them a worthwhile proposition.

The netbook segment has been successful because it appeals to a wide range of users, particularly students and professionals. Netbooks are easy to take on journeys and unobtrusive in a bag, they work just as a laptop would (albeit with considerably less power behind them) and they are a cheap supplement to a proper home computer.

They are a work-horse machine and not the media solution Apple wants the iPad to be.

The iPad is of no use to the people who tend to use netbooks. It may be portable and relatively – for an Apple product anyway – cheap. However it lacks a huge amount of the functionality necessary to make it a back-up computer device and is probably more awkward to type on than even the fiddliest of keyboards.

People use netbooks for on-the-go work and web-browsing and little else;  in fact many netbook users would only use them for off-line work while travelling. The iPad does not even have USB so people cannot transfer files they are working on from one machine to another – which is likely the first thing a netbook-user will do once they get near a proper PC.

The iPad will almost certainly to a good job of handling media – even if it is locked-in to specific formats – but this is not what is needed to replace the netbook. By targeting this market segment Jobs took a cheap and mis-guided shot at a product that Apple won’t even be competing with once it arrives.

But there is no reason why people don’t use their netbooks as a video and games machine – bar the 10″ screens that are never going to be a first option for users… that said Jobs will certainly hope otherwise.

Gamestop are now taking CDs as part of their trade-in scheme.

Computer game retailer Gamestop is now taking used CDs in its trade-in scheme, in addition to customer’s old games and DVDs. The company claims it is the first national retailer in the country to take used CDs in and says it will offer cash or store credit to customers.

Currently a number of small music shops take in used CDs but most chains have avoided getting into the market. On the contrary trade-ins have proven extremely successful for games retailers with both Gamestop and Game offering money for used discs for some time.

The trading in of games has been so successful internationally that many games developers have argued that they should get a cut of the profits. There were even rumours that PS3 games would be designed to lock themselves to a single console once played to stop trade-ins from being possible in the future.

Gamestop cites a GFK Chart Track survey which shows that 6.2million units were sold in 2009, worth approximately €100m in 2009. It says most of these CDs are only listened to a handful of times before being put to one side and so could easily be traded in for something else.

The company is limiting CD trade-ins to full albums only, however, with singles, promotional and giveaway CDs excluded

HTC's Smart will be available exclusively on O2 when it arrives in Ireland in April.

O2 will be the exclusive carrier of HTC’s Smart handset when it arrives in Ireland in April.

The HTC Smart is being pitched as a smartphone that is easy for everyone to use with HTC’s Sense user interface deployed to make the phone fully customisable.

HTC have also announced a number of new Android and Windows Mobile handsets, some of which should arrive in Ireland by April too.

The Taiwanese company, which has had success here with its HTC Hero smartphone, said that the HD mini and Legend phones will get an April launch in Europe. The HTC Desire, which was also announced at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, is slated for a Q2 release in Europe. No carrier deals have been announced for these handsets, however.

In the past HTC would be known to Irish customers for the re-branded phones it made for networks like o2; the most popular of which would be the XDA series. In the last few months the company has pushed its own brand, however, starting with the Hero and Tattoo and continuing this year with its cutting-edge HD2.

The Hero is currently only available on Meteor but is expected to become available on other networks soon.

Samsung's ST550 camera with dual LCD.

Samsung is giving away a cutting-edge ST550 camera to one lucky teic.ie reader.

The Samsung ST550 is packed full of innovative features such as dual LCD screens, a 27mm wide angle lens with 12.2 mega pixels of power and 4.6x optical zoom.

The camera is motion sensitive, meaning its Smart Gesture UI will start a slide show with a simple tilt. The ST550 also boasts Face Recognition Technology and can remember faces it photographs frequently and prioritises them when focusing on a shot, making sure that those most important to you are always seen in crystal clarity.

The ST550 is available now in black, gold, orange and purple colours.
For more information, please visit www.samsung.com/ie.

This competition is now closed – the winner will be announced soon.

Entries for the competition will be accepted until 11:59pm on the 22nd of February with winners being announced on the site shortly afterwards. The competition is open to residents of Ireland only; the competition is not open to the employees of Samsung or teic.ie and their respective families.

Sony Ericsson's X10 Mini Pro

Sony Ericsson has unveiled two compact phones inspired by its X10 handset at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona today. The X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro boast a similar design to the standard X10 albeit in a far more compact form, with a 2.5″ touchscreen instead of a 4″ one.

The Mini and Mini Pro share much the same spec bar the fact that the latter has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard in addition to its touchscreen; there is also some slight size and weight differences between the two.

Both phones have A-GPS & WiFi, a 5 megapixel camera, Bluetooth & multi-media functions. The phones’ battery can handle up to 4 hours talk time and the devices can take up to 16GB of storage via a microSD slot.

The X10 Mini is available in a number of colours including pink, lime and pearl white while the X10 Mini Pro is available in just black and red at the moment.

Jivo's biodegradable iPhone case, The Leaf.

Irish company Jivo has unveiled its biodegradable iPhone case – the Jivo Leaf – which is both designed and manufactured in Ireland. The company says it has already secured 1m orders for the case which will retail for €20 in Irish shops.

While silicon usually takes a long time to biodegrade, Jivo says its Leaf contains a special resin that will allow it break-down much faster once sent to landfill. As a result the case could theoretically have been degraded completely in just five years, compared to fifty for untreated plastic.

Despite this the company ensures the Leaf has a standard shelf-life and the quicker degradation will only take place once the product is dumped.

The packaging the Leaf comes in is also completely recyclable as part of Jivo’s attempts to court the green euro.

Jivo is a 100% Irish-owned company that specialises in iPhone, iPod and laptop accessories.

Podcasting is a great way to catch up on radio and hear niche programmes

Podcasts are a great way of catching up on radio shows you’ve missed, listening to the best of international radio and finding some high-quality niche shows for all interests. Adam Maguire shows what you need to do to become a podcast listener and lists some must-hear shows to get once you are.

There is a good chance you have been encouraged by a radio presenter to get the ‘podcast’ of their show; although they have likely left if up to you to find out what that means.

In essence a podcast is a regularly updated series of audio – or video – clips available online. They can be of any length, on any topic, of any frequency and they are not necessarily based on existing radio shows. Instead of having to find the show every week, however, you can simply ’subscribe’ to a show once and new episodes will automatically be downloaded to your computer from then on.

However in order to become a listener you need a podcast player, though these are easily found.

The most popular podcast player is iTunes, which can also be used to play any music you have on your computer. The software is free to download and has a dedicated podcast section built in, which you will find on the left-hand menu when you open it up (pictured below).

Clicking on this section will bring you straight to your library. To start downloading a show you can click on the ‘podcast directory’ (pictured below), which will bring you to a huge selection of programmes.

The iTunes podcast directory hosts countless shows from around the world. Most Irish radio shows have podcasts however as podcasting is is international you can also tune in to American and British radio shows – or programmes that are made specifically for the internet.

You can select from the featured podcasts on the directory’s main page, search by category or even search by name to find what you want.

Once you find a show you like you can click on the ‘Subscribe’ button (pictured below) and it will start to download to your library. You can return to the directory and add another show if you like or if you are finished you can wait for your episodes to download.

Once done you can listen to it on your PC – or even transfer it to an mp3 player – and now all new episodes of your shows will start to download automatically when you open iTunes. If you decide you do not want to listen to a particular show any more you can simply click ‘unsubscribe’ and your computer will no longer fetch new episodes for you.

There are podcasts available to suit every taste and not just those that are regular radio shows. Just be aware, however, that some of the shows may not be of great quality and you may sometimes need to use trial and error to find the best ones out there.

To help you get started, however, here are a few hand-picked podcasts that are top quality and well worth a listen.

Mark Kermode & Simon Mayo’s Film Reviews (BBC Radio)
Both Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo really know their films and know what makes a good one.
If you want to listen to film reviews, news and witty banter then this is the podcast for you.

This American Life
This American Life is an award winning show from US public radio. Each week’s show is based around a theme and features a number of stories connected to it, usually true stories from normal people.
This American Life is sometimes sad, sometimes hilarious but almost always inspirational and beautiful.

LibriVox
LibriVox is an audio-book service, making its readings of out-of-copyright books available as individual podcasts. Classics from Dracula to Sense and Sensibility are covered with each book acting as a separate podcast you can subscribe to. Best of all each book is split up into a number of episodes so you can listen to it one piece at a time.

TedTalks
This podcast features talks from the TED conference in California, which are given by the world’s greatest minds on bizarre and mind-blowing topics like ‘The intelligence of crows’ or ‘6 ways mushrooms can save the universe’.
The speakers are simply required to talk about something interesting and unique without notes and within a strict 18 minute time-limit.
Be careful when downloading, though. The videos from TedTalks are also available as a podcast and are quite large so best avoided if you only want to listen to the talks.

This article originally appeared on SilverCircle.ie

Opera will submit its browser for the iPhone next week

Norwegian software firm Opera is to submit a version of its web browser for the iPhone next week. The app will need to be approved by Apple before it becomes available to users but if it does it will be the first major browser alternative available to iPhone users.

Opera claims its iPhone software will cut a connection’s data traffic by up to 90% and make downloads up to six times faster when compared to the Apple’s  Safari. At present iPhone users can only surf the web using Safari.

The mobile browser market in general has seen increased competition of late, with Mozilla’s Firefox officially launching a mobile version for Nokia’s Maemo operating software last month. In general Opera is one of the most popular mobile browsers on the market and also competes in the desktop market against Apple, Mozilla and Microsoft.

However it is not yet clear if Apple will even allow Opera’s application on the iTunes App Store. When asked about an iPhone version of Firefox in 2008, Mozilla executives ruled it out saying “Apple has not written a licence that allows it to happen.”

Opera’s co-founder Jon von Tetzchner was optimistic, however, saying they “hope that Apple will not deny their users a choice in Web browsing experience.”

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier should be on sale in time for Christmas

Ubisoft have confirmed that they are working on a new Ghost Recon game which will hit Irish shelves in time for Christmas. The game is called Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and is being made by the same Paris-based development team that created the successful Advance Warfare games.

Much like the previous two games in the series, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will be based around prototype and futuristic weaponry as well as state-of-the-art military technology. Ubisoft say the game will feature single-player and multiplayer modes and will “deliver a fresh gameplay experience” to gamers.

The developer is also offering players access to multiplayer beta preview which will take place on Xbox Live this Summer. In order to qualify gamers will have to buy another Tom Clancy title – Splinter Cell: Conviction – which goes on sale in Ireland next week.

Both the previous Advanced Warfare games were based five years into the future with the action taking place in Mexico and the USA. At present no details of the new game’s plot are currently known.

The Emporia LifePlus is designed specifically for elderly & disabled users

While high tech phones are catching everyone’s attention some manufacturers are going back to basics to cater for a more straight-forward user. Adam Maguire looks at some of the simpler devices currently available to Irish customers.

With increasingly complex mobiles available today the purchase of a new phone can be a minefield of fiddly buttons and buzz-words. Retailers’ focus always seems to be on the latest device with the most functions – regardless of how useful they may actually be.

However despite the attention cutting edge phones are getting many manufacturers have spotted the growing demand for no-nonsense and are now catering for these customers too. As they are low-tech – and low-cost – these devices do not tend to get talked about much but they are there to be found if you know where to look.

The bare-bones phone

For those wanting the simplest – and cheapest option – there is the Samsung Keystone. Costing just €39 in The Carphone Warehouse, or €19 on O2’s pre-pay plan, this is about as basic as phone’s get.

Keystone users will not have to worry about being bogged down by features – this really is a phone and little else. The colour screen is easy to read, menus are simple to navigate and the handset is easy to hold and dial from.

In terms of battery life Samsung promise an impressive 200 hours in stand-by mode, meaning users will have to root for the charger less often than normal.

Simplicity that keeps a cutting edge

For slightly more savvy users there is Nokia’s popular 6303 Classic, which can be bought as a pre-pay phone on Vodafone or O2 for under €100.

This phone boasts generous buttons, a clear colour screen and a menu system that is easy to go through no matter how inexperienced a phone user you may be.

Nokia have struck a balance with it, however. Not only is it a simple device – perfect for users who just want to talk and text – it also has some of the more advanced features available should you want them.

So if you decide you want a camera and music player after all, the functions are there waiting for you. If not, you never have to worry about them getting in your way.

Accessible mobility

As simple as they are these phones may not be ideal for users who want something extremely accessible, particularly for users with sight or hearing issues. However there are phones that cater specifically for this market.

The EmporiaLife Plus is one such device and is available in Ireland through O2. The pre-pay handset costs €129 and is quite a smart handset.

Sporting an over-sized screen with an orange backlight to make it easy to read the phone also has extra large buttons to make dialling simple. The ringer and vibrate functions have also been enhanced to make it much easier to hear – or feel – when it rings.

The body of the phone itself is durable aluminium while the back cleverly houses a large emergency button which can be programmed to dial a designated number with one touch.

There really is a mobile for everyone

While mobiles can seem daunting the truth is manufacturers want to gain everyone’s custom – not just that of the tech savvy. Phone makers know the latest tech is only a must-have for some and many just want a phone that works.

An added bonus is the fact that users with more focused demands can get the best deal possible – after all, they only pay for what they get.

Useful sites:

www.carphonewarehouse.ie – Where the Samsung Keystone and Nokia 6303 Classic can be bought
www.o2.ie – Where the EmporiaLife Plus can be bought
shop.matobmobile.co.uk – A site that specialises in easy-to-use phones.

This article originally appeared on SilverCircle.ie

Apple's much-hyped iPad

Forget about the iPad; the most impressive thing on show at Apple’s recent press conference was its mastery of marketing, says Adam Maguire.

About a month ago Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas for the event’s opening keynote. During his speech Ballmer unveiled the Slate, a tablet computer that Microsoft was creating with manufacturer HP.

Like Apple’s newly-launched iPad it was touch-based, portable and multi-functional but nobody cared. In fact Ballmer’s keynote was panned by journalists who called it flat and disappointing.

So why did Ballmer’s Slate fail to generate the kind of buzz that Apple’s iPad is now receiving? It is arguable that the hype and reaction received matched the quality of the two products unveiled. However much of it can be fairly attributed to Apple’s mastery of marketing, something all companies could learn from.

Towards the end of last year specific rumours about an Apple-made tablet computer began to reverberate online. As is tradition the company refused to be drawn on speculation and so media outlets and tech fans alike filled the void with the aspirational and often fantastical features the device would offer.

By the time Apple CEO Steve Jobs took to the stage late last month even committed luddites knew the company was to unveil something big. Most impressively the device in question – though flawed in many ways – managed to maintain the massive hype surrounding it even after the big reveal had taken place.

Apple’s approach to marketing is simple. It is notoriously secretive and refuses to say anything about what it is doing until it decides to. For better or worse the company never has knee-jerk reactions to its rivals and takes its own route at all times.

The company also never showcases prototype or ‘beta’ technology and only brings something to the stage when it is ready to be sold. Once unveiled it selects stand-out features – rather than a long-list of hardware details – and uses them to sell the product.

Finally Apple has the enviable weapon of Steve Jobs, who is an expert speaker with evangelical and assured passion about what he is doing.

With the HP Slate Microsoft broke all of these rules by showcasing an unfinished product that would not be available for some time; all in an attempt at undermining Apple’s upcoming media event. It failed miserably.

Of course not many companies – not even Microsoft – can hope to attract the kind of attention Apple does when it has something to say. Nor could they dream of having the devoted legion of fans ready to talk up your products no matter what. However the fundamental principles of what makes an Apple event so special are applicable to companies of all sizes and services.

The core reason for the buzz that surrounds the company, however, is its ability to market a product well from inception onwards. The first impression is carefully managed and the person who delivers it – usually Steve Jobs himself – at least appears more passionate about the product than he is about its eventual sale.

As Apple knows, showing a product off too soon or in the wrong way runs the risk of leaving it dead on arrival – the sooner its rivals realise this too the better.

Tech journalism is in the gutter, says Jason Walsh. (CC) Binarydreams

IT journalism is crap, says Jason Walsh.

There is a plague upon the land, the plague of appallingly low standards in journalism about technology. How can I say this, you ask? Let me count the ways…

Technology is one of the most interesting things you could possibly read – or write about. Or it should be anyway. Technology is the motor driving the world economy, it is where human creativity and new ideas burst forth, transforming our lives beyond recognition.

The typical lived experience of a person in the 1970s, even a fantastically wealthy person, is so alien to us today precisely because of technological development. Development both seen, in the form of personal computers and mobile phones and unseen; in the form of medical technologies, undersea cables, biological and genetic engineering and all of the rest of the glue that holds modern society together.

But open up any tech rag today or log on to the website du jour and this is not what you will find. Instead you will find dull and PR-led coverage of the latest yawnsome device that will fail to transform AC current into DC let alone the world and couldn’t change a ‘game’ if its manufacturer’s life depended on it. Even coverage of interesting, though flawed, devices like Apple’s iPad is little more than an exercise in Manichean dualism – except no-one really cares about the religion.

Most technology journalism is boring and unreadable bilge and, let’s tell the truth for once, a lot of it goes unread. I know this to be true. After all, I’ve written enough of the stuff.

I could write a sub-Chomskyite snarl about the plague of the so-called ‘commercial feature’ (and may yet do that some day) but the most serious problem with technology journalism lies elsewhere.

The relentless focus on consumer goods mirrors society’s increasing divorce from production, the fire in which human events are really forged and, indeed, the publishing industry’s own loss of faith in its mission. Consumer journalism has its place, but its place is in magazines. How, exactly, does a newspaper report on the latest Nokia phone fit in to the traditional role of a newspaper, to inform the read of events of universal significance in order to allow themselves to orient themselves in the world?

There is worse to come, though. There is user-generated content (UGC): why just have readers when you can get them to write your publications for you? Especially if it’s free.

Publishing companies, deeply hurt by their mega-profits being reduced to mere super-profits, latched on to UGC not because they really think it’s the future of journalism but rather because they think there is no future in journalism. If they are right it’s not because of the internet, it’s because journalists and publishers have lost all faith in their enterprise and no longer have the ability to understand the world. Instead of saying: “This is what we know” newspapers and magazines now ask readers: “What do you think?”

What, at times, looks like a democratic revolution in the media is in fact a response to being left rudderless in the face of social and economic upheaval that has made minced meat of all of the old certainties that we once traded in.

Tech journalists, whose critical faculties have been so easily bought-off with press releases and feeling the pinch from editors who are demanding more and more copy in less time, need to stand up and say there is a case for actual reporting and that journalism is not merely a forum for conviviality, community and therapy.

In short, get back to work.

Jason Walsh is a reporter and former technology journalist. He edits the Irish current affairs magazine forth.

Microsoft's Project Natal will bring motion sensitivity to the Xbox 360

February is already upon us but as fast as the months seem to go, the tech world moves ten times faster. As January has already suggested, 2010 is shaping up to be an interesting techy year.

Here Adam Maguire lists the ten tech trends that are likely to catch people’s attention in the months ahead

Computing in tablet-form

Apple’s big secret has finally been revealed and as the rumours implied it was a touchscreen tablet device that resembles a giant iPhone.

Tablet computing has been around for many years now but has always failed to captured people’s imagination – with Apple leading the charge that could easily change in 2010. Just as the iPhone changed the mobile phone market completely when it arrived in 2007, expect this device to do the same with portable computing.

The competition is expecting this too and is moving fast to bring out rival devices to stop Apple from gaining an insurmountable head-start in the area. Microsoft has already shown off a tablet it is creating with HP while other manufacturers like HTC and Asus are said to be hard at work on similar devices.

Will tablets be revolutionary? It is too early to say but there is potential for them to wipe out the burgeoning netbook and e-reader markets in one swoop, while also saving the print media industry from dropping newspaper sales. If the hype for Apple’s iPad is to be believed it will do all of this and much more.

A rather touching trend

If the expected influx of tablet computers was not enough of a clue the following year is likely to see a significant rise in the application of touch-screens in consumer technology.

Mobile phones will continue to lead the way in this regard as manufacturers get better at implementing touch in their devices; hopefully this will see fewer frustrating phones on the market.

With Windows 7 and Mac’s OS X operating systems both being moved toward touch-capability it is likely that regular home computers and laptops will also start to get touch-screens installed – one rumour even suggests Apple’s iMac will have one by the end of the year.

However this trend will move beyond the computer and phone – expect companies to try and put a touch-screen in everything. A new TV showcased by Samsung recently has a touch-screen remote, for example, and it is not too hard to imagine the same being used for washing machines and microwaves too.

Why? Well maybe manufacturers feel it will make the home that bit more futuristic – or perhaps their installation makes genuine sense in terms of user friendliness.

The real motivator, however, is the fact that these companies are already churning out touch-based panels for some of their devices and economies of scale mean the more they make the cheaper each panel will cost.

3D or not 3D?

There was plenty of hype around 3D in the cinema in 2009 but this should transfer to the home in 2010.

Sky have already said they will launch a 3D channel in the coming year, 3D TVs are entering the market and games console makers are moving to ensure they can cater for 3D games too.

That said the costs associated with “going 3D” – which included buying a new high-end TV at the very least – will make it prohibitive for most for the time at least.

There are also still question marks around the viability of 3D beyond its initial ‘wow’ factor. As good as it gets 3D is still likely to be something viewers use from time to time – hardly enough to justify the up-front investment required.

That said, expect there to be a lot of talk about 3D in 2010.

Communications companies to connect four

The term ‘triple-play’ has entered the Irish lexicon in the past year – thanks to the investments and acquisitions made by certain companies.

Chorus/NTL and Vodafone both offer variants of ‘triple-play’ – where three services are combined under one brand – but in the next year it is likely that ‘quad-play’ will become a factor too.

UPC – the company behind Chorus/NTL – are shaping up to offer a mobile phone service within the coming months, which will add to the TV, broadband and home phone they already offer. Eircom may also become a quad-play player, assuming the digital terrestrial television consortium it is involved in gets off the ground.

Gaming with e-motion

Nintendo’s Wii has enjoyed huge success in the past few years – largely because of its novel motion-sensing controller.

Its rivals in Microsoft and Sony initially laughed off the idea of motion controls but in 2010 they will both launch their own attempts at the idea.

Microsoft’s Project Natal is due to arrive towards the end of the year while Sony’s as-yet-unnamed device has been pushed back to the Autumn for now. Both companies have already shown their devices in action but few outside the respective companies have gotten their hands on either.

Naturally all types of claims are being made about how well they work but users in Ireland are unlikely to know until the year is nearly over, it seems.

The year of the gamer

With no small thanks due to the aforementioned Wii, gaming has recently been seeping into the mainstream at a faster rate than ever.

Blockbuster titles like Grand Theft Auto 4 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 had generated huge revenues and matching hype, while the idea of gaming in general has become that little bit more acceptable.

2010 promises to be bigger still for a number of reasons. Firstly the three consoles – the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 – are all in the middle of their life-cycles which is about the time developers begin to get the best out of them.

As well as this a lot of the games that started production before the recession really bit are due for launch in the next 12 months, meaning they should be more than bare-minimum sequels.

Developers seem to be getting innovative too. Games like Alan Wake, Heavy Rain and Red Dead Redemption promise to be more than just point and shoot titles with a bit more grey matter required for their full enjoyment.

More moves in the music market

Services like iTunes should continue to grow as a source for music in the next year but rival offerings, and new pay models, should make things more interesting.

Spotify – the free and legal music catalogue – will hopefully be available to Irish users in the near future while Sky Songs is due for an Irish launch this year too. Apple are also rumoured to be considering an “all you can eat” model of subscription to compliment their pay-as-you-go service that currently exists.

What is interesting is the role the music industry will play in this. Record companies seem a bit happier with subscription models as it provides a regular income and only really loans the music to the user. Whether enough users are happy with that situation too is still the great unknown.

WiMAX to challenge 3G

3G broadband has been the saviour of many who cannot get or rely on their landline connections – that said it is hardly ideal when it comes to speed and reliability either.

This year will see a lot of talk around WiMAX – a new wireless standard that has been in transit for many years but never actually available.

WiMAX is comparable to WiFi except it has a far greater range – measured in kilometres as opposed to metres. It is also capable of high speeds too, although they decline the further the connection is stretched out.

Late last year Imagine Broadband began to roll out its WiMAX network and companies like AirSpeed Telecom are also working to deploy the technology. ComReg is expected to put some spectrum up for sale in the next year too which will allow the winner to build a reliable national network.

Interestingly Intel has also pledged to start integrating WiMAX capabilities into its processor chips in the coming months. In other words the laptop you buy later this year might be WiMAX-capable out of the box.

Social to go public?

Rumours are swirling about a potential IPO (Initial Public Offering) from Facebook in the coming year – something that could see the company’s coffers swell significantly. The downturn is sure to have set back any plans they may have had but with many now seeing tech as the best investment to make for the coming years a new web bubble may emerge that will suit the company down to the ground.

Offers are sure to be made for other social media companies too – namely Twitter – although so far anything along those lines has been rejected. Whether it is just a matter of getting the right price or an actual plan by the companies to stay independent for now is hard to know.

What is for certain is that the likes of Google and Microsoft will be at the fore of any bidding war or stock purchases when it comes to Twitter and Facebook. Microsoft already owns a small piece of Facebook and will happily snap up more – Google is trying hard to keep up with the real-time search that services like Twitter offer and would gladly consume it given half the chance.

Blu Ray’s big break

Blu Ray has been the de-facto successor to DVD for some time now but it has failed to interest people beyond the early adoptors.

The reasons are varied – for a start many had just made the swap from VHS to DVD when Blu-Ray arrived and saw no reason to go through the hassle and expense again. Also Blu Ray is only worth having if you have a HD TV and – obviously – a Blu Ray player, both of which were expensive options until recently.

Now Blu Ray has passed the tipping point and canny shoppers can find the odd sub-€100 player if they look hard enough – even Aldi has started selling them.

HD TVs have also become more common and the increased adoption of the PS3 – which has a Blu Ray player built in – has pushed this up further.

Most importantly the amount of Blu Ray titles available has increased and the cost of each disc has dropped closer to the DVD cost – as opposed to twice or three times the price.

Of course DVD will stay around for some time if not forever. 2010 will see Blu Ray become that bit more common, however.

An edited version of this article appeared in the January edition of Business & Finance magazine.

Steve Jobs showcasing Apple's new iPad

The anti-iPad backlash is as tedious as Apple worship, says Jason Walsh.

The internet has spoken: Apple’s new product, the iPad, is ‘lame’. It doesn’t have this or that feature and… well, you know the story. Anti-Apple whining is as dull and predictable as the absurd worship of the Californian computer company.

Here’s the actual reality: the iPad is an appliance and will prove ideal for some people and less so for others. The whinging about the iPad is actually just the hysterical cultural response of people who see themselves in opposition to the company, just as Ireland’s Labour party moans about the ‘civil war’ politics of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael despite the fact that it is as much an outgrowth of the same historical conditions.

From the release of the original Macintosh, the first computer available to the public with a graphical user interface, in 1984 Apple immediately became the preserve of the creative professions: unlike the PCs of the day, Macs provided support for high-resolution bitmap and vector images as well as fine-grained support of complex typography. The release of Pagemaker by Aldus and Apple’s pairing of the Mac with a cheap LaserWriter laser printer meant that the Mac launched a desktop-publishing revolution and became the computing platform of choice for graphic designers, illustrators and publishers the world over. It remains so today.

It is important to remember this. Apple’s ‘cool’ image is not simply a result of its increasingly irritating branding, it follows directly from the fact that the Macintosh was used in what are now called the creative industries while PCs were used by bean counters.

The Mac was the first computer ever to be was designed with the needs of non-computer users in mind. Without Apple there would, quite simply, be no Windows today. The iPad, for all its limitations, follows on from the model the Mac pioneered.

So, is the iPad a ‘game changer’? It depends what game you are playing.

As a working journalist I will not be buying an iPad – it’s simply not a useful device for me. Despite the fact that being a journalist is an increasingly sedentary occupation, I do find myself out and about quite a lot and have been sick of carrying around a full-sized laptop computer for some time. I needed a small, secondary machine. My MacBook was rather the worse for wear, cosmetically at least, while my MacBook Pro is just too large to carry around.

In the end I bought a Dell Mini 10v, an ideal ‘Hackintosh’ netbook, and installed Mac OS X on it. I am not sorry I didn’t wait for the iPad – but I do find the anti-Apple sniping unbearably irritating and ahistorical.

But then, just as the Macintosh of 1984 didn’t meet the needs of unrepentant hardware geeks, the fact that the iPad doesn’t meet mine is an irrelevance. In order to understand this you need to know the history of the Mac.

The Mac was the pet project of the late computing legend Jef Raskin. When I interviewed Raskin for the Guardian newspaper in 2004, his last interview before his death, he lamented the fact that the Mac was now “a mess”. Raskin’s original vision had been for a machine that was closer to being an appliance than a traditional computer. While the Mac was, and still is, the easiest computer to use it still suffers from complexities that are, for many users, unnecessary.

Raskin and Steve Jobs never got on. This didn’t matter until Jobs was kicked-off the Apple Lisa business computer project and decided to turn his attention to Raskin’s tiny Macintosh project. While they fought about just about every other issue, the pair agreed that the Mac should be simple to use – simple enough for a five year old child or a businessperson.

Raskin left the project to go on permanent holiday – Apple didn’t fire people in those days – and the Mac as released in 1984 was more Jobs’s vision than his. It was a tiny portable computer that could be used by anyone without any prior experience of computers, it came with application software designed to get people up and running immediately and it – literally – made history, changing the face of several industries including journalism, publishing, design and printing within just three years.

How many of today’s journalists could really work on a typewriter? How many graphic designers know what a waxer is used for these days? How would the publishing industry fair without CtP? When was the last time anyone used paste-up or hot metal?

The iPad is very different from the original Mac. Back in the mid-1980s very few people had computers at home and those that did mostly used them to play primitive games. The iPad, however, has been designed with home users in mind, particularly so-called ’second screeners’ who want a data device to use on the sofa.

Despite this key difference, in spirit the iPad is what both Raskin and Jobs wanted back in 1984 but were unable to deliver because the technology simply did not exist. It is an information appliance, not the ‘greatest product ever’ nor the pile of ‘fail’ that anti-Apple anoraks want it to be.

Apple's brand new iPad

Apple has unveiled its long-awaited tablet device, named the iPad, although Irish users will probably have to wait a few months before they can buy one.

The touch-screen computer (pictured right) matched up to much of the industry’s rumours in terms of its design and functionality when it was launched by Apple CEO Steve Jobs this evening.

The iPad looks much like a large iPhone in terms of design and also runs on a similar operating system, albeit an advanced one with a handful of adjustments to its look and feel.

It comes with a 9.7in capacitive touch-screen and between 16 and 64GB flash storage. Buyers can also choose between a model with just WiFi installed or one with a 3G connection added.

The iPad 3G will be unlocked – meaning customers can put their own sim card into the device if they wish.

The machine also has iTunes pre-installed on it and can manage e-mail, music, photos, video and internet browsing amongst other things.

The iPad can also be used as an eBook and a gaming device and can run all apps designed for the iPhone without them needing to be changed.

So far Apple has only given launch details for the US. The iPad will cost between $500 and $830 depending on the model chosen.

Ireland will likely have to wait until June at the earliest for news of international versions.

iPad Spec:
9.7in capacitive multi-touch screen
0.5in thick
Weighs 0.68 – 0.72kg.
16-64GB flash storage
1GHz Apple A4 Chip
Bluetooth 2.1
WiFi 802.11n
Optional 3G connectivity
Built-in speaker, microphone, accelerometer, compass.
10 hours battery life (not known under what conditions)

The cyber-shot TX7 is ultra-slim and can record in HD.

Sony has launched its latest Cyber-shot range with a total of twelve new digital cameras featured.

The prices of the new cameras range from €239 to €439 and will be available to Irish consumers by the end of the month.

While previously digital cameras have been sold on their megapixel counts the focus of Sony’s latest range appears to be on connectivity and HD capabilities.

Its HX5 – for example – has a 10x optical zoom, 1080i Full HD movie functionality as well as GPS and a built in compass to allow for geo-tagging. Many of the other cameras featured also have HD recording capabilities available.

New Cyber-shot models launched by Sony:
DSC-HX5, DSC-W390, W380, W370, W360, W350, W330, W320, W310, DSC-TX7, DSC-S2100, S2000

Eircom and Vodafone now offer speeds up to 24mbps to some customers.

Eircom and Vodafone have both launched their own 24mbps home broadband packages today. The high-speed services will be available to new and existing customers of both companies and according to Eircom should be available to about 1/3 of households.

Vodafone’s 24meg service includes a 100GB monthly download limit and will cost €62 per month – although this price includes line rental.

Eircom’s service comes with a 75GB monthly download limit and costs €48 excluding line rental.

Both services have a 48:1 contention ratio, upload speeds of 768kbps and are available at a discount when included in various bundles.

The speed upgrades being offered by both companies from today brings them into line with competitors like Magnet, which already offers 24meg connections.

All of these packages still fall short of the fastest package offered by cable company NTL/Chorus, however, which has a top speed of 30megs.

As always, Apple has sent out a vague event invite to the media.

iPhone-maker Apple is expected to unveil its first tablet computer this evening after months of hype and rumour around the device. The company is holding an event in San Francisco where it will show off its ‘latest creation’ with Apple CEO Steve Jobs expected to take to the stage at 6pm Irish time.

As there has been no official confirmation of Apple’s new product exact details are few and far between, with countless rumours coming to light on a daily basis.

Most analysts are agreed that the tablet computer will be based around a 10″ touchscreen and will be similar in design to the iPhone. It is believed its operating system will also be similar to that of the iPhone and iPod Touch’s.

There are also rumours around the content deals Apple has struck to support the new product, with book companies and newspapers all said to be interested in offering content on the platform.

All of this is guesswork, however, until Jobs himself stands before the captive audience in a few hours’ time.

Teic.ie will be sure to keep you posted once that happens.

Nokia's Ovi now has free maps but is way behind when it comes to apps

Nokia’s free maps will give the company a short-term boost but in the long run only apps will help it compete, argues Adam Maguire.

It’s an over-used term but Nokia’s decision to give its Ovi Maps software away for free can be fairly described as a game-changer.

The announcement has almost certainly put the company’s rivals on the defensive and for the first time in a while it’s not the Finnish giant that’s playing catch-up. The eventual result of the move can only be bad for dedicated sat-nav providers like TomTom and Garmin, too. In a world where every half-decent phone gives away what has been their bread and butter, these companies will struggle to survive the next five years.

So this is game-changing; the problem for Nokia is that the game they have changed is at best a minor one in the mobile sphere.

Of course the company’s main competitors – namely Apple and Google – will have to respond quickly if they want to compete with the free Ovi Maps software but they are both in a position to do so.

Apple last year purchased map-maker PlaceBase and has GPS built-in to the latest iPhones on the market. Google – of course – has an extensive mapping site that will act as a strong foundation for turn-by-turn navigation and most Android handsets are also GPS-capable.

In other words it will not take long for Nokia to lose the ‘unique’ aspect of its new-found unique selling point. Once that happens the company will be back to chasing the pack again – unless it can get into the real game quickly.

The real game in the mobile world is the app market and so far things have not gone well for Nokia. It must be said that things have not gone too well for any company bar Apple but given Nokia’s previously untouchable position when it came to mobiles their problem is all the more apparent.

The new reality is that the phone the user buys is no longer the most important factor – it is its ability to morph to suit the customer’s tastes that’s crucial.

So far Nokia’s Ovi Store has failed to show it can offer this, while Apple’s iTunes App Store has become a synonymous with such freedom of choice (somewhat ironically).

To its credit Nokia does realise this is a problem and is pushing hard – in Ireland and across the world – to make up for its sluggish start. Recently the company met with developers in Dublin to try to create a relationship that would in turn create interesting apps and its staff here talk as if this is just the beginning of a long-term strategy.

The problems they face are unenviable, however. The company has a huge and growing array of phones that use the Ovi Store, making compatibility a big issue. This leads to further problems if the company wants to promote an app in the way Apple does with its many iPhone TV spots.

However if the company has any hope of overcoming Apple’s commanding lead – ArsTechnica reckons the Mac-maker held 99.4% of all app sales in 2009 – it must move fast.

Luckily for them the maps announcement has bought the company some time as now it has a unique selling point to make up for its lack of app-based functionality. It won’t be long until that edge is worn down, however, and if they’re not ready for the real game by that time then it’s hard to see them facing anything but defeat.