March 31, 2005
Sharper Image iPod Travel Soother
Sharper Image has come up with this Travel Soother that will work with your iPod. The Radio Alarm Clock will connect to iPods and other players, supplying an external speaker for you to listen to your music files out loud - although just how good the sound quality is going to be from one speaker remains to be heard. Not only that, the Travel Soother also has a built in Sound Soother which basically plays calming sounds to drown out noises that might disturb you. Sounds include things called "Fireside," "City" and "Wind Chimes." There's an FM/AM radio with a choice of alarm sounds with 6 presets for FM and 6 for AM. Not quite sure what to make of this, but if you're looking for some external speakers for your music player, it might make a decent solution - with the added benefit of the extra features.
Posted at 06:07 AM in Apple iPod, MP3 players, Music | Permalink
March 30, 2005
Virtual driving online
Boy, we were excited when we heard that Blinkx, an online TV search tool, had inked a deal with verdictoncars.com, 'to enable users to view virtual test drives.' Excited until we read on in the release that by virtual it meant footage of real people driving the cars, not a system that used latest 3D graphics to let us burn through Virtualville in the Ferrari of our dreams. The system lets you watch ad-type videos of gorgeous people driving cars viewed from pleasing angles. Perhaps it is of interest to high end motor buyers, but it certainly isn’t online motoring as we’d imagined it.
Posted at 06:04 AM in Gadgets, News | Permalink
March 29, 2005
Apple bites back
Oh dear. It looks like Apple has already found a way of disabling the Pymusique bypass of its Digital Rights Management system. While we always believed that Pymusique had the life expectancy of a music pirating hippy in a room full of corporate lawyers, this little affair has had an unfortunate knock-on effect. From now on all those wishing to purchase and download Apple music must download the latest iTunes (version 4.7.1).
Posted at 06:03 AM in Apple iPod | Permalink
March 28, 2005
Channel Five first to offer programme downloads
OK, so illegal copies of TV shows have been floating around the internet for quite a while now, but at last some marketing genius at UK TV station Channel 5 has realised that it might be possible to legalise it, package it and flog it. For as of Monday, fans of the motoring show 5th Gear will have the opportunity to download content to their PCs for a fee of £1.50. This is apparently the first time a UK TV station has offered a download of one of its current programmes. So what’s next? With a little luck soon we’ll be able to catch up on missed episodes of 24, check old Neighbours story lines, and maybe even watch archived Countdown footage all day. Here’s hoping.
Posted at 06:02 AM in News | Permalink
March 25, 2005
Handheld Gaming's Next Wave
The next generation of home consoles is still some time away, but the handheld war has already arrived. The Big N (or "Nintendo" for those of you with a life) has long dominated the handheld market, but rival Sony has entered the fray with both controllers blazing. Its entry in the battle, PlayStation Portable (henceforth known as the PSP), goes on sale at midnight. Naturally, the unwelcome competition has Nintendo fearing for its fiscal future, and rightly so. Sales of Sony's game playin', movie watchin', music rockin' machine are expected to be brisk. Searches are certainly heating up on the $249.99 (plus tax) toy -- over the past month, we've seen mondo spikes on "Sony PlayStation Portable" (+378%), "Sony PSP release date (+422%) ," and "Sony PSP games" (+71%).
Part of what makes the PSP so powerful is its ability to do more than just play Qbert. Searches on "PSP movies" and "PSP music" indicate fans are eager to learn more about its multimedia talents (hint: your DVDs aren't gonna work). Interest in the PSP's lineup of games is a decidedly mixed bag. Big gun title "Metal Gear Acid" isn't garnering many searches, but queries on "Twisted Metal Head-On" are on the rise. We're also seeing a stampede of searches on "PSP review," indicating many gamers will take a wait-and-see approach before trading in their Game Boys.
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Posted at 06:04 AM in Handheld | Permalink
March 24, 2005
First ever free TV station for 3G mobiles
Details are sketchy but it appears that Luxembourg-based Tele2 looks set to win the race to deliver the first worldwide free TV station that’s accessible from 3G mobiles. Tango.tvis set to launch imminently, though quite what it is going to show is anyone’s guess .Tele2 has also unveiled Sunshine Radio, which it is billing as the first net radio station for 3G phones. If you’re in the mood for bland inoffensive pop grooves coming at you straight out of Luxembourg, get out your mobile and rock on here.
Posted at 06:08 AM in Cell Phones | Permalink
March 23, 2005
Poker on your mobi
PokerRoom.com, Sweden’s massive online poker site is going mobile. From April, the site, which apparently has over 3.5 million users, will be available to Sony Ericsson K700i owners. And what’s more you’ll be able to gamble with real money too, although you’ll still have to the option to practise with play money or against a computer player. The game offers an experience interactively that has not been available in any mobile poker games before. Players can choose between three different views; Normal View which has graphics similar to those seen on PokerRoom.com, Symbol View which gives a view over the whole table with simplified graphics or the Text View which also gives history of how the hand was played. Additionally, there is a chat function allowing players to text one another during the game.
Posted at 06:06 AM in Cell Phones | Permalink
March 22, 2005
Logitech's gaming mouse
Anyone whose battled in the frantic melee of Unreal Tournament, laid down a barrage of deadly accurate sniper fire in Counter Strike or crushed vast armies in Rome: Total War knows the value of a good mouse, which is why the Logitech MX518 Gaming Grade mouse is set to cause a stir.
Although benefiting from the ultra precise 1600dpi resolution, Logitech has taken into account that hardcore gamers will often need lower resolution for pixel precise aim one moment and lightning fast movement the next. To that end the mouse boasts a revolutionary new system that enables the mouse sensitivity to be changed at the touch of a button. All these settings can apparently be quickly and easily tweaked in suite of advanced driver and interface software to ensure that every player can have their own setup uniquely tailored to suit them.
Logitech has also widened the data path to ensure that previous issues of USB mice eating up valuable CPU cycles have been overcome with a new 16bit system. The MX518 will retail for $49.99 when it hits the shelves in April.
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