Random Dumber Generator

Nutella Kills World Nutella Day... Wait What?

2013-05-21T07:17:00.001+01:00

Boing Boing is reporting that Sara Rosso, founder and promoter of World Nutella Day has received a Cease and Desist letter from Ferrero, makers of the Hazelnut spread, bringing to an end all of the Nutella type fun. I'm sure that there's a good reason for this, but I'm struggling with what it might be. I mean its not as if this is a new thing - World Nutella Day has been going for years.

The Internet of Things

2013-05-20T12:50:00.001+01:00

We've been long promised a glorious future of technology that talks to 'things' rather than just other bits of technology. It's been a long time coming but there's evidence that we might just be getting there. There's not been a sudden avalanche of devices, but slowly and surely, more and more everyday objects are appearing that have the ability to talk to devices. The Philips Hue

Yahoo Gets Tumblr, Geocities 2.0?

2013-05-20T00:55:00.001+01:00

Its being reported that Yahoo has added another company to the list of acquistions since Marissa Meyer took over the reins. This weeks lucky cash prize winners are the good folks at Tumblr. Tumblr is an easy to use blogging site with over 200 million users, or a user base equivalent to Yahoo's own. Tumblr has been openly on the market for a little while now, it has run out of cash and with

Using Apple TV With Android

2013-05-19T11:50:00.001+01:00

Apple TV works okay as far as it goes, however it has one fundemental failing, the inability to access any kind of network storage natively. You can use third party apps on an iPad or Mac to stream from a NAS to the Apple TV using AirPlay Mirroring - however that means you can't use them for anything else. If you have an Android device there's an easy solution, to the point that its probably true

EA Dumps Wii U - Beginning Of The End For Nintendo?

2013-05-18T10:43:00.001+01:00

EA has confirmed that it is no longer developing games for Nintendo's latest console the Wii U. This must give Nintendo serious concerns about its ability to compete in a rapidly shrinking home entertainment market where both Microsoft and Sony are about to launch new consoles with full support from the multi-licence holding EA. Of course Nintendo does have a safety buffer built around its own

Apple TV vs Xbox 360 vs Google TV

2013-05-17T13:33:00.001+01:00

The living room is the centre of the next stage in the battle between computing mega powers for control of our digital lives. Having carved up the desktop and now the pocket, Apple, Google and Microsoft are after control of your TV set. Of the three, Microsoft has the best current position. The Xbox has been a great sales success and over time more and more features have been added to make it

F1: Honda and Mclaren Re-united For 2015

2013-05-16T12:49:00.000+01:00

Honda's first ever race winner, the 1967 RA300 Honda is the fifth most successful F1 engine supplier of all time. Its partnership with Mclaren produced, in the 1988 season, an almost total domination of the sport. More recently the company endured a disastrous period as a constructor and engine supplier, eventually abandoning the sport after producing just one win from an alleged half a

Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition Is Official

2013-05-16T11:52:00.002+01:00

Secret until just yesterday, the Galaxy S4 Google Edition was made official at IO13 today. Its every bit as exciting as it first promised to be, packing all of the S4's hardware (no word on processor, so I'm guessing the availability of LTE means it will pack Snapdragon, rather than Octacore Exynos) and Google's Nexus experience. This Google Edition experience will extend beyond the purchase (

Windows Phone 8 YouTube App Gets Google, Microsoft Into Battle

2013-05-16T11:34:00.002+01:00

Microsoft launched its new YouTube app for Windows Phone 8 earlier this week and users quickly found the it wasn't like a true Google app - no ads display in the video stream and it allows downloading of the video. Google hasn't been impressed. Today Microsoft received a takedown notice from Google, demanding removal of the app. And now we get to see how these two slug it out. Microsoft is

Google Commits To Better Bluetooth On Android

2013-05-16T05:28:00.001+01:00

One of the key weaknesses of Android is its implementation of Bluetooth. Built on support for profiles is weak and has led to patchy functionality across Android devices as different OEMs implement different flavours of Bluetooth and its profiles. That is all about to change as Bluetooth 4 with Smart Ready support has been promised for the next version of Android ( the as yet unannounced Key Lime

Google Play Music All Access - It's Not Spotify

2013-05-15T21:05:00.001+01:00

IO13 delivered plenty of new this morning, some expected, some anticipated. One of those things that we knew was incoming was Google's Music service gaining some form of streaming option. Many we're predicting a competitor for Spotify. They were wrong. The service that Google actually launched is much more of a competitor for Rdio or Last.fm than its Nordic counterpart. Which begs

Why F1 is F-Wrong

2013-05-15T12:01:00.001+01:00

Schumacher ran sixty qualifying laps to win in Hungary 1998. With today's tyres it would never have happened. Last weekend' Spanish Grand Prix marked something of a low point for F1. Instead of the fastest cars being driven flat out by the fastest drivers we were treated to a Sunday afternoon stroll punctuated by a ridiculous number of pit stops. It's racing Jim, but not as we know it

The Galaxy S4 What?

2013-05-15T06:11:00.002+01:00

Samsung and Google are going to be announcing a Galaxy S4 "Google Edition" tomorrow if the rumours that are everywhere at the moment are to be believed. Its such a left field idea it might just be true. The current Galaxy S4 - full hardware spec, removable battery, micro SD slot and all; but stripped of TouchWiz and Samsung's other customisations, running AOSP - pure Nexus level Android! I

Google Glass Jumped The Shark... Already

2013-05-13T01:45:00.002+01:00

Google Glass sounds like a killer product - I've raved about it in the past. The concept is brilliant but the execution is off - for now anyway. This photo aptly demonstrates why. That's Robert Scoble, respected... erm... tech news nerd, wearing Google Glass in the shower. Not enough to stop you ever buying a pair? Have a look around the web, there's just not a situation in which Glass makes

Microsoft, Nook Getting Together? That's Going To End Well.

2013-05-11T01:36:00.001+01:00

Microsoft has a record of buying up successful (and not so successful) businesses and folding them into its core operations. It's not a great record mind you, but its the way Microsoft have done business for more than two decades. Latest candidate for the Microsoft dollar is Barnes and Noble and its Nook eReader. Why Microsoft should see value in the purchase remains a mystery to me

PS4 Won't Be Subsidised. Translation? PS4 Won't Sell

2013-05-09T23:48:00.003+01:00

Sony's CFO has suggested that the PS4 won't be subsidised heavily when it comes to market. That's an interesting position to take, remembering that Sony had to take massive hits on the PS3 when it first launched just to get some sales numbers racked up against the Wii and Xbox 360. The PS4 is going to launch into an infinitely more competitive environment and at a time when consoles are much

Adobe Moves Into The Post-PC Era

2013-05-09T00:09:00.000+01:00

Adobe took a giant leap this week. Rather than launching a new product it launched a whole new way of doing business. And in doing so it put itself at the forefront of the Post-PC generation. Adobe's current Creative Suite will be the last you can buy. Very soon you will not be able to go into a store, real or online, and buy a licence for the number one creative tool. Instead Adobe has taken

The Key Has Evolved... Meet kēvo

2013-05-08T21:31:00.004+01:00

How long is it since you last unlocked your car with an actual metal key? More and more cars are coming with keyless start too, soon the concept of a physical key for a car will have disappeared. So how about your home? Kwikset thinks it has the next generation of key ready to go in the kēvo and, if it delivers all that it promises I can see this being a real must-have product for home

iPhone 5 Cases: Not How It Should Be Done

2013-05-08T12:52:00.001+01:00

Every time Apple updates the iPhone's design one thing that's prominent in the feature list is how thin the new device is. Usually the weight reduction will be to the fore too. So having bought a device where a large chunk of the value has gone into making it as thin as possible and the battery life has been compromised to fit the cells into the smallest possible volume, why would you then put

Spock vs Spock

2013-05-08T12:36:00.000+01:00

Liking this Nimoy and Quinto advert for Audi, in which Nimoy drops the F-bomb and manages to eke out a few lines of Bilbo Baggins too.

Why I've Abandoned Android For The iPhone

2013-05-08T05:02:00.000+01:00

Steve Jobs used to have a line that he regularly trotted out at product launches or when eulogising another successful Apple product. It just works. Its a concept that gets short shrift outside of the Apple world. It just works? What about antenna-gate and Apple Maps? What about all the things that the iPhone can't even do? What about Flash sites? And all those arguments are right. I've

Bill Gates Has It The Wrong Way Round: iPad Doesn't Need Office

2013-05-07T11:22:00.000+01:00

Bill Gates is in the news after claiming that iPad users are frustrated by the absence of Office on the iPad. In an interview with CNBC he postulates that users will soon abandon their Android and iOS tablets to move to Windows 8 devices instead. That's wrong. Windows 8 is a response to the success of the iPad in particular. Success that has been achieved with no hint of Microsoft Office.

Time To Change The Way That Device Storage Is Advertised

2013-05-07T02:08:00.000+01:00

Samsung neglects to mention how little storage is available to users in its S4 advertising Samung has been getting some stick in the press since the arrival of the S4 in reviewers (and customers) hands. The 16GB model offers just 9GB of free storage space - something that causes issues for anybody who installs a lot of applications. The problem is exacerbated by the changes that Google made

Time For A New Advantage

2013-05-04T13:04:00.001+01:00

HTC's history is littered with phones that are great ideas before their time. Or more likely great ideas held back by the Windows Mobile platform they ran on. Some of those ideas have become embedded in the smartphone experience, whilst others have been forgotten. One such phone was the HTC Advantage. First 5" screen on a phone? Check. Mass Storage? Yes. Auto rotate? Video out?

Facebook Home... Nope

2013-04-30T11:43:00.001+01:00

So Facebook's new Home arrived on select Android devices a few weeks ago. After a bit of delay I installed it onto the Galaxy Note 2 to see how it worked. The answer is, it works really well - if you live your life exclusively in Facebook that is. Otherwise it's a painfully intrusive barrier between you and the things that you bought your phone for. Nice try Facebook, but its not