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It has been as whiole since we have seen any real innovaiton inthe MP3 player market so doffed caps to Samsung, who breaks new grouhs wioth the |K5 which deburts at the end of the month. It's arther chunky musuic players avaklble in xxx and xxx Guigabyte versions, but the twost is that it incudles aninategrated pair of mini sytreoe apekars thta rtea ctivated hwne you slide t ewplayer open. Natuly their 1.5wast outpuyt won't trouble your neighbours., But they do go louder than you think they wouild and the sound quality ois overall pretresoanble. The player is alo unusla, inthat it sports an uthc screen OLED style interface. It isn;'t pescialyt tresposncve an di peronslay findht elack of tatctile feedbasck to let yoiu kow you;ve preessd osehitng tad anoyingl, but nethrlees it worls reasoanbly well. The K5 is alos conatible wiht ahots of music donalod servcies inlduyignSmasungl son xxcomes oiwht an inatgetedcd raiod and best of all has ana laurm which means you can set the player to ease you fromyour selpp wioht yourb fdavoiuriotre tune. Overal it;s atd precy for a ,music player, but its buitl 9ins-eaker and icobic desgnare sure to win it many fans.

Virgin Lobster xxx

While tV von moibie,s hads been rond for ovcer a year now the mehtod of stremsinght evideo, over 3\g nretworks is far from ideal due to the jerkines of gthew on screneimages and the impact the video omn ap[hone; bastrye life., Eith the xxx virgin is ofering a sdidferent soltuoin in tha t it efaytures na onbvoiard DAB decider.This enables th euser to noit only tune into the xxx DAB diugitla radio stations (all the analogue BBC offerijng s plus a jost fo digila opnly channels) but it alsdo delivers four TV channels - bbc, ITv,m channel four and E4. Pic tuire qulaituy wa sonthw hole la lep on fro streamoing video, but not quiite as stady as i;'d hoped in DStatic locvations it worked well, but on the bus the imnages were lsightly more disjointed an docasiosnaly I temporariluy lost the signal. Sound quality on bioth the raduo and TV chanel;s w3as execptional. TRh onyl drwback is that the earphoiens doudnble as the aerial so even oif you wnat to listento the t|V.radio through the phone;s epajkers you stil have to have the headset plugged in. Btetry lifge was alos somejht o0n an issue- thouigh els sos thna woith 3G TV phones and ceven though the phone;l curve on the rigth hasnfseoide make it eays to hodlk while wathcing TV, it alos makes it chunky and not espaiclly pretty. Th ephoen alson has a preety foogd set fo efatyres includingn Microsft wienbdowss taploe liuke xx and xxxx.

This might mnot be the last word in TV phoens, but it is ceratinyl a bog step in the irght foirection. Virgin custoemnrs should definetly consider adding it to their wants list.

Ion USB turntable

There have been many solutions for trasnferring audio on voinyl records to Pcs, but for the most opart they have been complex and not alwasys efecrtive.,the IOn USB tunrbatlke, which is uisre to be one of the most wanted PC acesoroes this Chrtomstas has chnaged al;l; that., It is astandard record deck with tradiuosnal fetayres suyc h as 33/45 playback anti-skate and xxx, bit it comes with aintagretd UISB coinecrtion, Using the accasinting Sudacity softwrea- whicbh works with both Macvs and pcs - users can transfer tracks totheoir pC; hard disk. User can either redcord a sid eof an albui and then use the wsoifdwrea to cxlsice it up into MP3 tracks, or just ewscord individula tracks. Given the pricvfe fothe turntablehte sound qulaity is surpingly good, The only real dreawback is that negoting the Audacity software isnoltn eapxuily intutive. One neat toucvh is that yuou recfrod a lp at 45RPM and then use the osfwre to adjuist it to normnal speed., There's a lite,trade off i the osuind quiality qwith this though. Overall the Ion turntabkle isnlt liketly ot be somehting thatls cobnecetd to your pC too oftenr, but for archiving those dusty old 45s and loing lost LPs it could prove priceless.

September 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

telewest copy

Telewest

Rachel

Hope all well. I think this works best as a q and a type piece. I think it might be a bit too heavy it is all in the first person. Let me know if you disagree and I’ll tweak it asap

I think it needs a couple of paras at the beginning which basically put the Telewest HD launch into context - how you got there first etc. Let me know if you think that is a good idea and I’ll write it as soon as I get the nod from you.

Ashley

When did you first start thinking about launching HD services in the UK?

I remember it vividly. It was the beginning of 2004 and we were putting together the roadmap for our digital TV service. We were deciding on the specification on the TVDrive hard disk based video recorder and it was that moment in early 2004 that we decided to make the box HD enabled.

So had Sky announced their HD plans then?

It was before Sky had made their announcement. We were trying to imagine what the consumer electronics market would look like in two years time and decided that HD would become an issue and that our TVDrive box had to be HD-compatible.

Why do you think the European launch of HD was so long after the US one?

The Americans often go first with these things. They also had the issue of their NTSC TV service being lower quality than our PAL one. We just felt it was a significant enhancement to our service to make HD available to our digital customer base.

So was the launch of HD consumer driven or more of a general move to keep up with the way TV was developing?

It was consumer driven in terms of research we were doing at the time in which a lot of our customers placed high importance on the quality of the picture. However there were other reasons too. A few years ago plasma and LCD screens were clearly too expensive for most consumers, whereas now customers can walk into any retailer and see a true HD ready sets at attractive and attainable prices.

Are there any specific technological advantages cable has a platform over its rivals in delivering HD?

The obvious answer is bandwidth. With cable we have a huge amount of bandwidth and we chose to harness that to deliver a range of HD services. I think the broadcast community became aware of the bandwidth issue and how it would impact on our rivals and began to sense the potential we had in establishing HD in the UK.

You launched your HD services before Sky. How important was it to be seen as an innovator in this arena?

We are keen to innovate and bring things to market as soon as we can and HD does underline some of the technological advantages cable has over its rival platforms. We think HD isn’t only about broadcast channels, so the first HD content made available was via video on demand. I strongly believe that video on demand offering individuals programmes stored on servers which users can view whenever they want is a key element of the whole HD experience. HD on demand gives us an edge and I think it has helped us to be perceived by the TV industry as a shaping force in HD rather than a service provider shaped by HD.

In addition to the on demand programming will Telewest also offer traditional linear channels in HD?

We have plans for linear channels as again there are no bandwidth issues. We want to offer the consumer a very competitive portfolio of HD and that includes both our innovative on demand services and linear channels. Our stated position is to be a major player in the provision of HD broadcast channels and we would certainly like to include the Sky HD channels as part of our offering. There is no technical reason why we couldn’t offer say the Sky Sports channels in HD if we reached an agreement with Sky.

You recently signed an interesting agreement with Channel Four to offer Lost and Desperate Housewives - content that Sky doesn’t have - in HD. Will you be making similar deals with other channels/TV providers?

Yes. I hope what we are doing with Channel Four will be the precursor to a much broader range of relationships with channels that will enable us to offer even more superb HD content.

What advice would you give you to the programme makers who are looking to develop their HD portfolio?

Come and talk to us. We already have a lot of useful insight into how the HD platform works and the technical and operational aspects of delivering HD. We can also offer guidance as to what type of HD content would work for our specific customer base.

Do you think that the drive to digital TV is going to confuse and maybe even prevent customers from investing in HD? Should the Government be doing more to promote digital TV?

I think that Digital UK, the organisation charged with overseeing the analogue terrestrial switch off in the UK, is an agnostic body that some people have misconceived as a front for Freeview. I see their key role is helping consumers understand digital TV and HD is clearly a very important example of the type of benefit consumers can enjoy if they make the transition to digital TV. There are bodies out there loosely attached to the Government who are encouraging more people take up digital and HDTV. I don’t however think that the backing of the UK Government is pivotal to the success of HD.

At some point in the future do you think you will be using IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) as a delivery mechanism for HD?

I think that is entirely conceivable especially when I look at what we have already done with our broadband TV service (Blueyonder TV). The broadcasters and programme makers we are talking to see IPTV as a very important part of the future of UK TV and we are going to take what we are offering via Blueyonder TV and turn it into something even more substantial.

There are clear advantages to operators in using IPTV, but are there also benefits to customers?

We can be more flexible in delivering content, especially video content on demand, which gives consumers greater choice.

Can you see a day when all content is made in high definition?

The TV production industry is clearly making a higher percentage of its programmes in HD and this will continue to grow. I think cable is perfectly placed to capitalise on this as we have no bandwidth constraints and are able to offer a broad portfolio of channels and on demand HD content. How quickly HD establishes itself though is really down to the TV production companies. Personally I think that in the next three to five years we will see a massive growth in the amount of British HD content being produced and then distributed via cable.

Cable has no bandwidth constraints like Freeview. It also has clear technological advantages over other platforms too. I think that HD is a perfect example of how we can use the technological advantages we have for the benefits of our customers.

May 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

gd

Just in from Gamesville

The handheld war heats up. And much much more... By Games Digest

Shiny Media gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Games Digest bring you hard-hitting gadget and games news, Who ate all the Bratwurst? has the latest World Cup news while Propellerhead answers your PC queries.

The handheld war heats up – DS versus PSP

Who exactly is winning the handheld wars? Sony say they are, Nintendo say they are. Sony says the PSP is selling faster, from launch, than the PSOne or PS2. And the PSP is selling neck-and-neck in the US and Europe with Nintendo's DS. In Japan, however, the DS is clearly trouncing the PSP. Whatever the reality is of who is edging whom out, Sony's learning some tough lessons in the handheld market. For the first time in some time, it isn't a clear market leader. And, worse, not only are the fanboys not with Sony, but key software corporations aren't either.

In the last few weeks, movie support for Sony's UMD discs has fallen away sharply. The Hollywood Reporter, writing on the issue, claimed that Paramount, Universal, 20th Century Fox and Universal are either significantly scaling back UMD movie support, or cutting it completely.

There are three clear problems with Sony's UMD movie strategy: 1. Who the heck wants to pay a DVD price for a movie you can only play on your PSP? 2. Any early adopter with technical savvy (ie the kind of people who own PSPs) can load movies onto Memory Sticks and watch them on their PSPs, or transfer them onto their video iPods. 3. An early rush of rubbish to the UMD format meant there were loads of titles to watch, most absolute rot. Sony's response? Apparently they're working on a gadget to let you watch UMD movies on your TV.

The problem here? The limited disc capacity of UMD means that the quality won't even match those free DVDs currently covermounted on every newspaper. On the other side of the handheld war, things look much better. A redesigned, slimmer and more aspirational DS, the DS Lite, is due to be with us in June. This will give the DS "sex appeal" to compete with the PSP. And a web browser will eventually let the DS compete against the PSP in the "multimedia" realm.

Multimedia is a side-show, though. As one Hollywood executive said of the PSP to The Hollywood Reporter: "It's a game player, period." But while games on the PSP are largely retreads of PS2 titles, the DS is increasingly home to quirky, inventive and unique gems – from Nintendogs to Trauma Centre, Phoenix Wright to Metroid Prime: Hunters. While Sony has played on multi-functionality and looks set to fail, Nintendo's DS looks set to triumph by making the best games. It's a lesson Sony would do well to remember when it comes to PS3.

Sharks snag minnows as console market "transition" bites

Microsoft has bought legendary Lionhead, home of games genius Peter Molyneux and titles including Fable, Black & White and The Movies. But this bold acquisition counts as nothing compared to Sega. In one day recently they swallowed Islington-based Sports Interactive, makers of Football Manager, as well as hockey and baseball management simulations and San Francisco developer Secret Level, makers of America's Army, Karaoke Revolution, Magic: The Gathering Battlegrounds and Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter. This follows Sega's recent snaffle of The Creative Assembly, the brains behind the Total War series.

What's happening? Simple, the games market's tough right now – and rather than go to the wall, some developers are opting to be swallowed by a big fish. We're in a "transition" market. That means that people are bored of their old consoles – they're spending less on them. Yet they haven't got round to buying their shiny new one. Not enough people own Xbox 360s, not enough people care about their Xbox or PS2. The result? Put a game out now and it may only sell a few units. Meanwhile, costs for the games small developers are making are spiralling – these companies are working on games three years away. And they're racking up staff costs for hundreds of programmers, artists and others to produce the kind of photorealistic, highly complex games we'll be expecting then.

Yet the money isn't coming in now. Except, of course, for those who accept the Faustian pact that is being snaffled by a publisher – less freedom to work on what you want, but lots and lots of money to make games with.

rok proposAL

ROK Proposal

Shiny media believes very strongly that sponsorship should involve a proper integration within its blogs and that any advertising /advertorial should offer very real benefits to its readers. We are very excited about ROK’s technologies and believe that our mainly young, tech savvy TV obsessed readers will be interested in ROK's key product offerings. Therefore we propose the following.

ROK's sponsorship of TV Scoop (www.tvscoop.tv). This blog is read by exactly the kind of people that Rok are targeting. Young, TV obsessed but very tech savvy. We propose integrating Rok within the blog in the following ways.

1 Advertorial content twice a week. This would be written in Shiny style by our writers and would include competitions, the latest news from ROK, case stories of users etc

2 Rok could also have the key banner ad above the editorial.

For this we could charge £3000 per month.

Nokia music phone proposal

Shiny Media would like to partner Nokia in a number of different ways within our exisitng blogs, working with Nokia on future launches and also developing a mobile blogging strategy with the company.

First however we would like to work with Nokia on the promotion of its music phones.

We believe that through our two fashion blogs (Shoewawa and Catwalk Queen) along with the world´s leading girl gadget site Shiny Shiny we have exactly the kind of readers who would be interested in Nokia´s music phones.

The readers are young, tech savvy, but not geeks, their key interests are fashion and music and they use the internet and mobile phone to pursue these interests.

Therefore we propose the following.

The Nokia music fashion squat.

Shiny Media believes very strongly that sponsorship should involve a proper integration within its blogs and that any advertising /advertorial should offer very real benefits to its readers.

We would therefore deliver a series of advetorial posts on our site that are of core interest to our readers but subtly promote the Nokia brand, its music phoens and its associated music activities.

For example

Catwalk Queen (www.catwalkqueen.tv)

We would run two posts a week in a series of Get the look - rock chicks. This would explain to the readers where to get the clothes and accessories of key stars popular with the fashionista readership such as Gwen Stefani, Madonna etc.

The posts would clearly be billed as sponsored by Nokia music phones and would mention a handset or include a link to a Nokia URL. We could also run competitions on the bottom of the post to win Nokia music phones or gig tickets. The competitions could also be run as solus posts if Nokia require it.

Shoewawa (www.shoewawa.com)

The same concept as above except that it focuses on shoes worn by rock chicks from the 60s to the present day. Again competitions could be run as seperate posts as well as part of the series.

Shiny Shiny (www.shinyshiny.tv)

We would run a series of editorial posts called How to get the best from your music phone explaining everything about how to get music on a phone, from downloading tracks over the air to transferring music from a PC. It could talk about music phone accessories too. Again competitions could be run as sepearate posts as well as part of the series.

This would cost 5k per month and would mean that the posts were read by around 600,000 people per month.

February 15, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

guardian june 6th 2005

Sharp’s world’s biggest LCD TV

Sharp is promising to bring the world’s largest LCD TV to the UK in early 2006. The 65inch LC-65GE1 AQUOS, which was unveiled last year and goes on sale in Japan in August, is a highly specified set with a High Definition TV (HDTV) resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. The TV, which is which will be compatible with Sky’s upcoming HDTV transmissions, also boasts the company's QS (Quick Shoot) technology which apparently delivers smoother, more detailed images. Sharp isn't giving away its price just yet, but given the cost of other models in its range, the set will probably retail for around £10-12,000. www.sharp.co.uk

Virgin’s Lobster

Virgin Mobile is targeting young mobile phone buyers with a new handset brand it is calling Lobster. Due on sale this week is the first in the series, the Lobster 485, a small and light (it weighs just 68g) GPRS clamshell that has been made for the network by manufacturer Bellware. The phone sports a 262k internal colour screen and a 65k colour external one, an integrated VGA camera and features a calendar, calculator & clock alarm. It also sports a dedicated button for users to access Virgin’s Wap based entertainment service BITES. It retails for £89.99. www.virginmobile.co.uk

Bluetooth music

Japanese company NHJ has unveiled a pair of flash memory based digital music players that feature integrated Bluetooth. The £64.99 128MB VP712B and £74.99 256MB VP725B can wirelessly transfer tracks to and from other Bluetooth NHJ players and users can also switch to their Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones to pick up calls on the players without removing the headset. Unusually for flash players both models sport a 1.1inch colour screen giving owners the option of viewing JPEG images they have stored on the player. The devices are compatible with MP3, WMA and Ogg Vorbis music files and feature voice recording facilities via an integrated microphone and an FM radio. www.nhjapan.com/united_kingdom/index.html

Panasonic’s AV attack

Panasonic is ramping up its presence in the AV market with the launch of new amplifier, speaker system and DVD player. Due to arrive in the stores shortly retailing for £300 the SA-XR55 is Panasonic's first AV amplifier that is compatible with 7.1 surround sound formats. It boasts a power output of 100 watts to each of the seven channels and works with many home cinema formats including Dolby Pro Logic IIx, Dolby Digital EX, DTS 96/24, DTS-ES, and DTS NEO:6. It also includes a feature for enhancing MP3 and WMA recordings and is accompanied by a universal remote control. Panasonic has also debuted the SB-PF800 surround sound speaker system and the DVD-S49 top-end DVD player. ww.panasonic.co.uk

Networked media player British company

H&B has unveiled a personal media player with something of a twist. The £279 AV-612LCD comes with an Ethernet cradle that can connects the player to a network enabling users to stream video and audio to the device. The player also features a 3.5inch LCD screen, a 20 Gigabyte hard disk and has support for MP3, WMA and Ogg audio, MPEG4 video and JPEG image files. It will playback movie files for around five hours before its battery requires recharging. It also comes with a remote control and a cigarette lighter car power adapter and is available from www.ebuyer.com www.hb-direct.co.uk

Review Philips ShoqBox £100

Remember the 80s Ghetto Blasters that were so large you got muscle strain lugging them around? Well here's Philips take on the portable hi-fi for the noughties - the £100 ShoqBox. And unlike systems of yore the ShoqBox is tiny, that’s because there's no CD or cassette players just a radio and 256MB of storage for MP3 or Windows Media Audio (WMA) tunes. The smart bit is that the ShoqBox also comes with lead that can connect it to an iPod (it is finished appropriately enough in white just like the Apple player) or any other portable audio device with a 3.5mm output so you can hear the tunes from that player through its speakers while on the go. You won't need to fumble around for batteries either as the ShoqBox sports rechargeables that last for around ten hours. Alternatively you can plug it into the electricity mains and use it as an radio alarm clock. Though while the sound quality is fine, with its rather limited output it will struggle in anything beyond a small room. A little bit more storage would have been good as would Mac compatibility – it is Windows only - nevertheless the ShoqBox is well worth your £100. www.philips.co.uk

Orange TV Vodafone might be talking about it, O2 might be trialling it, but last week Orange finally gave 3G consumers what it hopes they really want from their mobile – live TV. The network took the wraps off the Orange TV service that beams nine channels direct to a user’s handset including; ITN News, CNN, The Cartoon Network and perhaps, a little bizarrely given the lack of action, a 24 hour live Big Brother channel. Subscribers get the service free for three months after which they’ll pay £10 a month.

So is TV on a mobile set to become one of 3G’s killer applications? Orange certainly thinks so. ‘TV is mass market stuff that appeals to everyone’, explains Deborah Tonroe, head of commercial development at Orange, UK. ‘It will be the really adopters that take it first but we are confident that everyone will want it.’ Rather than opt for the digital terrestrial system DVB-H (which also offers sophisticated interactive services) that others are currently trialling and Orange will explore next year, Orange sends the TV signals as data streams – just like existing football and movie clips – to handsets.

So does it work? Well kind of. The demo we were given on a Nokia 6680 handset, was on the whole reasonably impressive. Even though the phone has a standard sized screen it is very easy to be drawn into watching the images. Picture quality was fine with acceptable levels of resolution and colour. In fact it wasn’t hugely different from standard streamed video. Sadly though, even on fairly static footage, which should in theory be easy to replicate, the image occasionally froze and needed to be refreshed. It was OK for the first couple of times, but I imagine it could get highly irritating.

Orange TV has a few other drawbacks. There’s a limit of 20 hours viewing per month – you pay for any more - and of course streaming live TV hammers the battery. Orange is claiming up to three hours of viewing but we’d be amazed if that proved to be accurate. The service is also currently only available to those who buy a Nokia 6680 phone, though Orange says that other phones will be added shortly, including existing 3G handsets which can be upgraded by users downloading the software. Finally the channel choice isn’t particularly compelling, unless of course you are a complete news junkie.

So is TV on your mobile the killer application for 3G services? Well, this agnostic is now a firm believer. Perhaps not yet, but when BBC, ITV and Sky’s sports channels are available on a mobile screen it really will be hard to say no. www.orange.co.uk

June 06, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guar cebit stuff

It might not be as glamorous as CES in

Las Vegas

or as entertaining as Ceatec in

Tokyo

, but the CeBIT exhibition which kicked off earlier this week in

Hanover

Germany

is quite possibly the most influential electronics trade show on the planet.

And while all kinds of technologies are represented in the exhibition’s gargantuan halls, this year the focus has been on telecommunications.

In particular the race to replace the traditional home phone landline has taken some dramatic twists with solutions unveiled by both mobile and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) companies. Promising to take VoIP to the masses is Inventel which paraded a DECT gateway that will enable users to make cheap or free phone calls away from their PC on a traditional wireless style phone. The company has apparently teamed up in the

with BT. Meanwhile Siemens is also eyeing up the VoIP market with the Gigaset S35 WLAN mobile which can latch on to a wireless network, both at home and at a Wi-Fi hot spot, to make and receive VoIP telephone calls.

Almost all the major players have been showcasing their most recent mobile phones. Among them is the S200 from Hagenuk, a Palm OS based smartphone with a touch screen, SD card slot and 1.2 mega pixel camera. It goes on sale in

Germany

soon with a

launch expected for later in the year.

CeBIT's other major story is the explosion of GPS systems for both PDAs and mobile phones. In among a range of solutions for both Windows and Symbian smartphones is the Falk Activepilot service, a GPS system from Map&Guide and Falk Marco Polo Interactive that will work with Java based handsets – the majority of mobile phones sold. Meanwhile rival GPS company TomTom is supplementing its range of satellite navigation systems with a new service, TomTom Plus, that enables real-time traffic and weather information to be delivered to any new TomTom product via a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone.

Navman, one of an interesting contingent of exhibitors from

New Zealand

, also has new GPS product in the guise of the PIN 57, a Windows based PDA. It is also displaying the X300, the latest in its series of sports devices, which uses GPS satellites to tell joggers, skiers or cyclists how far and fast they are going.

Other highlights include the MP-010, a 40 Gigabyte hard disk based portable media player from Sitecom which is set to retail for an ultra competitive £174.99, the Planon DocuPen R700, apparently the word’s smallest A4 scanner and the mm22, a portable speaker solution for the iPod from Logitech.

Gizmondo

The mobile phone/PDA handheld games console hybrid Gizmondo will finally arrive in the

on March 19^th. The device will be available from several retailers including the dedicated Gizmondo store which will open that day on

London

’s

Regent Street

. Accompanied by a pay-as–you go SIM and an SD card containing movies and samples of games the Gizmondo will sell for £229. Cards featuring full games including Richard Burns Rally and Conflict:

Vietnam

will retail for between £10-30. It will face tough competition from Nintendo’s DS which reaches

stores on Friday the 11^th, and Sony’s PSP (PlayStation Portable) which is now tipped to debut in the

at the end of April.

www.gizmondo.com

iRiver

Korean music player manufacturer iRiver has taken the wraps off a pair of new players in its H10 series. Set to debut in the UK in April is a 20 Gigabyte hard disk player (£229), which is slightly larger than the five Gigabyte module in the series, and a one Gigabyte flash memory based model (£139). Both sport 260k colour LCD screens, feature an FM radio, are controlled via a touchpad and offer voice recording facilities.

Battery

life is rated at 16 hours for the 20 Gigabyte player and 60 hours for the one Gigabyte model. Both will play back both MP3 tracks and are compatible with downloaded Windows Media Audio files from sites like Napster.

www.iriver.com

Pentax

Pentax has refreshed its range of digital cameras adding a pair of budget models and an updated version of its entry level digital SLR. Aimed at first time digital camera buyers the £150 Option 50 takes five mega pixel images, sports a 3xoptical zoom and features a ‘simple’ mode that optimises the camera’s settings to deliver the best possible results. Available in March for £249 the Optio S5n is an ultra compact camera that takes five mega pixel images includes 3xoptical zoom and features a 2.0inch LCD screen. Finally Pentax is to offer its entry level *istDS digital SLR in silver. Set to go on sale next month for the £699.99 *istDS takes six mega pixel images and is compatible with Pentax's interchangeable lenses.

www.pentax.co.uk

Siemens

Siemens is aiming for high end 3G mobile phone buyers with the feature-packed SXG75. Unveiled this week at CeBIT the white and silver chocolate bar style handset features a two mega pixel camera, an MP3 player and includes a full GPS navigation system that delivers voice or text instructions to guide the user to their destination. The phone also offers video calling facilities and sports a 256k colour LCD screen. Other features include a built-in translator for English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, Bluetooth, Instant Messaging, email and push to talk. There’s no definite launch date yet.

www.siemens.co.uk

Kiss

Danish based Kiss Technology has unveiled what it is billing as the world’s first hard disk video recorder that can be programmed remotely over the internet or via a mobile phone. The DP-558, which also features an integrated DVD recorder, uses an internet-controlled Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) that can be accessed via a specially set up web page. The recorder also boasts an integrated TV tuner, is available with either an 80 or 200 Gigabyte hard disk and features a Timeshift function that enables users to pause live and rewind live television. There’s no word yet on prices or launch dates.

www.kiss-technology.com

Review

Yamaha YSP-1

£800

For several decades now audio manufacturers have been trying to develop products that recreate the full cinematic surround sound experience from just one speaker, thereby consigning rear speakers, and their annoying trailing wires, to history. Although it can in no way compete with a fully wired home cinema speaker system the Yamaha YSP-1 Digital Surround Projector certainly gets closer to wireless surround sound than sub-£1000 system has before. Designed to fit unobtrusively under flat screen TVs, the rather sombre-looking YSP-1 boasts 42 amps and 40 speakers which combine to deliver a powerful room-filling performance. It achieves this by using digital sound projection technology to place the surround sound signals into various beams, which are distributed to various parts of the room, interacting with walls and furniture along the way. It works best in smaller rooms as the sound was clearly less focused in our large thin lounge. The YSP-1 is also very simple to set up, it connects directly to a TV/digital decoder and doesn’t require an amplifier. So while the YSP-1 won’t quite cut it with serious home cinephiles, for those who enjoy noisy movies and want a big sounding one box system it is real winner.

www.yamaha-audio.co.uk

March 07, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stocking fillers

Ok so it might only be the start of November, but shop staff are already blowing the dust off the plastic tree, shining up the baubles and wondering if the fairy survived last year’s Christmas party.

You too might already be starting to consider what to buy the gadget-lover in your life this Christmas. Here are a few sub £100 gizmos to get your started.

Sushi USB keys (www.dynamism.com) – Forget stamps, commemorative plates or even Pokemon cards. The coolest thing in collectordom at the moment are novelty versions of USB keys, those mini flash based storage devices that enable you to port round all your most interesting data. Among the most desirable are these limited edition Japan-only Sushi keys. They come in lots of slimy looking flavours including Sea Urchin, Samson Roe and Cucumber Maik. Yours for $79 for a 32MB key or $109 for a 128MB one.

Vivitar 5.0 (www.firebox.com) – Time was when a five mega pixel digital camera would set you back the best part of a £1000. Not any more though for gadgets website Firebox has lined up the latest 5Mp snapper from Vivitar for a penny less than £100. It boasts a neat design, not unlike an Olympus Mju, is small enough to be pocketable, sports a 1.4inch LCD screen and comes with 14MB of built in memory.

Linksys NSLU2 (www.linksys.co.uk) – Linksys is leading the way in wireless add-ons with one of its best gizmos being the £54.73 NSLU2. It is a little adapter that plugs onto any external hard drive so you can wirelessly see or hear its files from another computer in your network. We also like the £180-ish WVC54G, a cool camera that automatically latches onto your wireless network enabling you to view footage of your home via its own web page.

Crumpler Crippy Duck (www.crumpler.co.uk) – The height of geek chic used to mean one of those rather naff leather wallets for your PDA. Not any more though as Australian accessory company Crumpler is single-handedly bidding to turn the laptop bag into a ultra fashionable item by giving it a very funky makeover. In our books the ludicrously named £70 Crippy Duck is the coolest computer bag on sale. It comes in three different colours; black, orange and grey, and has space for plenty of other gadgets and documents too.

Alba's TRDAB2820 (www.albaplc.com ) – Digital radios have always seemed a bit of an unnecessary extravagance especially as almost all of its stations are already broadcast over the internet or available via a digital TV receiver. If however you fancy a DAB radio for the kitchen, the Alba TRDAB2820 is worth a punt largely as it looks reasonably inoffensive, performs well, and best of all is the first of its kind to retail for under £50.

November 01, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guar news copy

Danger Hiptop 2

Price TBA

Launched in a blaze of publicity in the US a couple of months ago, the Danger Hiptop 2, a kind of cross between the Nokia N-Gage and the BlackBerry that’s aimed squarely at hip phone buyers, is being pencilled in for a UK debut in the new year. At first glance the phone looks a little like a glasses case, that is until you flip it open and up pops a 3.5inch screen that stands above a very usable QWERTY keyboard. Danger has made the most of this excellent combination offering a suite of messaging features including an intuitive POP3 compatible e-mail system and IM courtesy of AOL. Many of the standard smartphone facilities are also on board including a VGA camera, a personal information manager compatible with Microsoft Outlook and a fast, but rather primitive, web browser.

The device is however much larger than European smartphones and is also lacking key features such as MP3 playback, Bluetooth and flash memory card compatibility. Battery life is relatively poor and making voice calls from the device is tricky. Still the Hiptop 2 is sure to attract many message-mad 18-40 year olds when it finally reaches the UK.

www.danger.com

Lite-On

Taiwanese company Lite-On, best known for manufacturing DVD and CD drives for PCs, hopes to make a name for itself this month with the launch of the its first DVD/hard disk combi video recorder. Set to retail for £350, which makes it the cheapest of its kind in the UK, the LVW-5045 pairs a 160 Gigabyte hard disk with a DVD recorder compatible with DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW recordable disc formats. Similar to other hard disk based recorders the LVW-5045 can also pause live TV and playback a programme that it is still being recorded. It features multiple Scart connections, DV-Link and DV control for editing camcorder footage and VideoPlus+ to enable timed recordings.

www.liteonit.com

Contax is to release a pair of new digital cameras, one of which, the i4R, it claims is the smallest four mega pixel model on sale.

Due to debut at the start of December priced at £300 the i4R is a tiny cigarette lighter styled camera in brushed aluminium that features an innovative slide mechanism that switches the camera on. It also sports a Carl Zeiss lens, 3x optical and 6x digital zooms and a 1.5 inch LCD display.

Due to go on sale this week the £400 four mega pixel U4R combines a brushed magnesium body with a tanned leather finish and features a Carl Zeiss lens and a 2inch LCD monitor. Both cameras are bundled with 256MB SD cards.

www.contaxcameras.co.uk

** Note to subs - it is a lower case i and upper case U – very odd. So much for consistency

Nokia’s ongoing campaign to deliver mobiles that double as entertainment devices continues this week with the unveiling of the 7710 smartphone. The handset, which runs using the Symbian operating system and has a pen controlled widescreen, features a host of media applications including a web browser, FM radio, integrated music player and video streaming and recording. If connected to Nokia's SU-22 accessory it is also compatible with DVB-H digital TV transmissions that are currently being trialled across Europe. Other features include a mega pixel camera with a 2 x digital zoom, 218MB of memory and a push e-mail solution powered by BlackBerry rival Smartner. It will debut in Europe in early 2005.

ww.nokia.co.uk

November 01, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

nhj

NHJ MPM-201

Strap
Microsoft, Sony and Archos have all launched personal media players recently. Yet might the bestv one on sale might just be this model from a little known Jpanese outfit

Body copy

It seems everone iof talking aouit eprosnal media players these days., From worried tX ecs muling ovre how recorded Tv to go will impoact ontheir shcueldsd to softwrae coamnies like Micosdt who want to make sure the new devcies only play back legal music and video files.
It aperas though not as much eneregy is nspejty on perfetignther hardware as most of the palyers we have seen so far are far too buiky to be pocketable, sport slightly confusing menu systems and are not comatibnle with as many file formats asd idealy punetsr would like.
Perhaps the most obvousl flaw is that noenfo the devcioesd so far sports a Tv tuner whichw ould giove cosuerms the optionof vreiwing progarmes omnte move while atr the sma eitme making it easy tfr them to reccrd programe sontot he ahrd drive.
The debut perosnal video recorder from Jopanesws company NHJ, the MPM-20-1 goes half the way there in that it features a Tv tuner but on ononthe devcie itself. Ratehr the anloague teerstrati,tuner is cincportarde into the unit’s cradle. The key bneffit is that users now donlt have to connect the recorder up to theirt tV to record proigarmes onto the hard disk. Provided they atahc an aerail to the dev cie they can record direct;y onto ther hard disk. It also enables the MPM-201 to mnoolighyt as a mini perosnal TV, though nbit on the move as it has to be conneted to the electrrity mains to work.
Not supringly as it incoorprtetes a 30 Giugabyte harc dislk the unit itself is fairly bulky and heavy iones. In tersmn of its shape it almost mirros the Creative Zen Jukebox, the lfirst product to alyucbn that featyres Microsft Portable Medfai Cnetr opertaing sytstem. It also has a sfialy simailr sized screenm with its 3.5 inch 4x3 shapoed TFT LCD. Falkijng the screen is a seris nof basic controls for soptomnh, playin, actaibvatinghte menu etc, while the top featuyres the on/off swicth.
Another neat addiotn, though not one that is unique to the player is the inclduo of a Secure Digitla CompactFlash card slot. The theoryt being users can port photos takjen by btheir digtla canaer to the devcie freeing up space on the cards dfor them to take more images.
Fiore up the emnu systenm and you are greeted by a series of basic icons highlighting the vairous apliaction of the player fromn movies, pictrures, music and voice recoridng. The ianegs ection is espacily well tiught out as it dleivers thumbnails of eqach niamge as you miove the cursosr up or down.
If a comapoimsie has been made to keep the player at its very cosmitve price point, m it is that it is not comatiuble with Widnwos Medfia files. Instaed it wil spin MP3 audio file,s MPEG4 video fioles, JPEG photo fgiles and not much else. The lack of WMA suppert does rednder it incomatible with the grwing number of audio and files avaoabkle to doanload in the format.
Still the plsu side is that as the player is reatively free from copyright managfament restrsiucions users can record vHS video tapes and DVds on to the hard disk.
Overall the MPM-201 is a well eqiuopepd player with a very cool featyre in bthe TV tuner. Wher tio falls flat sltghtly is that theu quality fot he screen is not inbthe same league as those psorted by rivals like the cReative Zen and the rchos xxx. Still vidoe plyacbnk is in general very good and although the lack of brightness and ocasisonal instrusion of digitla feedback on the screen is someitme sirrittaing it doenlt detrat the user hugely while watching movies.
The MPM-201 might not be the sliuckest or most well uot of all the perobalem video recorders curently onn sale. Yet intesmn fo its featyres, flexibilt and priuce it kicks sand in tace of almost all its rivals.

Tested with **NEW**
A DVD, CD, SACD, DVD-A, or any other entertainment media format, which we tested this product on. We need:
Title Name of film, album, etc.
Track number e.g. ‘Chapter 15’ or ‘Track 6’ or ‘2min 45sec’ for a specific song.
Details 40 words, specifically on this track number, and explain what your heard or saw. This idea is that the reader can use the same media to compare their own TV or audio player etc.
Screenshot Please provide a screenshot if it’s a movie, provided by the PR agency. If it’s an album or single, we need the cover art, again high-resolution as provided by the PR agency.
**Please check with Kieran which film/album etc you intend to use, so that we can make sure it is not used elsewhere in the magazine. The media should also be current – a new release blockbuster or major album release, for instance – and the particular chapter or track number should be familiar to most people. Choose carefully – ‘Tested with’ is an integral part of our reviews so it must be done well.**

For, against, verdict
:
For Well equipped; competive price; TV tuner in the stand is aneat featuyre
Against Noit rhe es screen on a pVR; builds qualiuty is noti as solid as its rivals
Verdict An innovative and featuyre-packed pVR that wil wappel to both those who want to watch TV on the move and colectors wioth large MP3 and MPEG4 libraries.

Score **NEW**
4

Price etc.
£293.75
Per4ipheral Corner
www.peripheralcorner.co.uk

Key features **CHANGED**
Please list the main features of the product – but only the most important features – under the following headings (example text follows):
Features MP3 playback; MPEG4 playback; Tv tuenr integrated into stand; JPEG viewing
Hardware 30 Gigabyte hard disk; 3.5inch TFT LCD screen; rechargin cvadle with TV tuner
Software n/a
Connections Cradle has AV interminal, AV ouit terminal, S-video input
Networking n/a
Expansion 1x Secure Digital; 1x Compact Flash…
Compatible with (PC/Mac operating systems) Windows 98SE and higher; Macintosh 9.x and higher
Dimensions (Width x Height x Depth) W140.4x H80.4D30.5mm

Connect to **CHANGED**

Philips HDRW720

October 25, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

sendo review

Sendo X
£100 -ish

After two years of delays British manufacturer Sendo is finally set to release its debut smartphone the X on to the UK market. A Symbian device that uses the Series 60 interface – the same as several Nokia phones including the 6600 and 7610 - the X carries all the core smartphone facilities such as POP3/IMPAP e-mail compatibility, an integrated web browser and an MP3 music player. Like its rival devices owners can also add software to the device either over the air or via its USB link to a PC.
Where the Sendo X scores is its small and convenient design, which is a little reminiscent of Orange’s SPV C200 smartphone, its slightly larger than average screen and its unique Now interface. This enables users to customise the phone to deliver their favourite applications on the handset’s screen, so for example they can see their appointments or have instant access to her most-used websites.
While those wanting mega pixel cameras on their smartphone should check out the Nokia 7610, or mini keyboards, the upcoming Sony Ericsson P910, overall the Sendo X is possibly the best Symbian based mini smartphone on sale. Warmly recommended.

www.sendo.com

October 04, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ashjley photokina copy and reviews

Two years ago at the bi-annual fair Photokina in Cologne all the talk was of an explosion in photography ignited by the arrival of four and five mega pixel digital compact cameras.
This time round there were even wilder predictions about the number of images that will be taken, yet even the traditional photographic companies conceded that the mass market camera of the future would not be a compact digital but rather a mobile phone.
It says a great deal about how the industry has evolved that two of the busiest sites at the show belonged to mobile makers Sony Ericsson and Nokia.
And while the enormous growth of cameras phones, (52 million at the current time with ten times that figure by 2007) and the availability of two and three mega pixel cameras on phones next year will lead to a huge expansion of digital photography, the issue that is concentrating the minds of the photo company execs is what will end up happening to all those shots.
HP, which used Photokina as a platform to unveil a rather impressive photography exhibition of images taken by professionals and celebrities on their mobiles, predicts that as many as 80 % of the images taken by phones never make it beyond the handset. Part of the reason for this is that no one in the phone industry has yet come up with a satisfactory solution for getting images off phones and into prints. Even one of the best selling mega pixel camera phones, the Vodafone Sharp GX30, doesn't comes with a USB cable for connecting it up to a PC or Bluetooth for easy wireless transfer of shots. It is clear too that Multimedia Messaging (MMS) is not a satisfactory solution for the distribution of images.
HP is however putting its money on Bluetooth by launching a range of photo printers, like the Photosmart 375, which work with handsets like the Sony Ericsson S700, and the Nokia 7610 (which last week scooped phone of the year at the Mobile Choice awards). Images are sent wirelessly from the phones to the printer which then delivers good quality images for around 35p a hit.
It will be intriguing to see just how popular these kinds of printers become. There does however remain the very real possibility that consumers will continue to use traditional companies to develop their snaps. Thanks to software like Cognima's Snap, which is soon to be offered by Bonusprint, camera phone owners can instantly upload each picture their handset takes to a website where they are then able to choose which of their images they want turned into prints.
As ever Photokina saw an array of innovative camera accessories. The one that serious and professional photographers will be queuing up for when it launches early next year is the Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) connector from Concord. This pack of cards sized adaptor connects to almost all current digital cameras via USB and then enables them to send images wirelessly at high speed via e-mail or ftp from Wi-Fi hot spots. It is expected to retail for around £200.
Photokina also witnessed a number of high profile digital camera launches. Olympus took the wraps off a range of models including a high-end digital SLR in the eight mega pixel EVOLT E-300 and an MP3-endowed camera with a picture viewer called the m:Robe. Taiwanese company BenQ added to its range of compact with the tiny four mega pixel E43, and the five mega pixel E53, while Contax displayed the four mega pixel horizontally-shaped i4R which heads for the UK in December priced at £300.

Japanese company NHJ looks to have won the race to be first to offer a digital music player that comes with a wireless Bluetooth headset. While several companies including Naf Naf and Infinite Range, have displayed similar products, NHJ promises to deliver the VHD-5500, a five Gigabyte hard disk player to the UK for January retailing for around £250. The player, which has compatibility with both MP3 and WMA files, transmits the music to dedicated headphones via Bluetooth over a range of 10 metres. Slightly larger than the iPod mini the player also features direct MP3 encoding from a CD player/hi-fi and features a USB 2.20 connector.

NHJ has also confirmed that a version of its VTV-101 wristwatch TV which has been a sizeable hit in both the US and the Far East will go on sale in the UK in January for around £200. The new PAL: version for Europe is slightly smaller than its predecessor, yet will tune into all five terrestrial analogue stations and can display two hours of TV on its 1.5inch screen before its battery needs a recharge. There’s no on board speakers, instead users listen to programmes via a pair of accompanying earphones. The gadget can also be placed in a docking bay enabling it to be powered from the electricity mains.

www.nhjapan.com

October 02, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chris net radio featuire

Turn your PC into an Internet Radio

Ever listened to the radio on your PC? If not you really are missing out. Your computer is actually one of the most fantastic radio tuners ever devised capable of pulling a huge number of stations from across the globe.
Don’t however confuse Internet radio with digital radio, or Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) to give it its proper title. DAB uses the airwaves to deliver a range of stations to dedicated tuners in the UK, whereas Internet stations broadcast via the net.
There is a case for arguing that if you have the Internet and a broadband connection you won’t need a DAB radio anyway as almost all the stations it delivers are already broadcasting via the net and in good sound quality.
Tuning into digital radio couldn’t be simpler. You already have an Internet radio tuner as part of your Windows Media version 9 software.
To hear the music simply go to the ‘Windows Media Player’ which you can access from your PC’s ‘start’ button. This will bring up the Windows Media player interface. Then, on the left hand side of the screen, click where it says ‘Radio tuner.’ This will then load the tuner’s interface.
Microsoft has made it simple for you as many of the stations you will want to tune into are just a couple of clicks away. Simply click on Top 40, country or whatever genre you fancy and you are presented with a list of stations. You just cycle through the list, make your choice and click on the name of the station. Within a few seconds you will hear its broadcasts through your PC's speakers.
You will be able to find out other details about the station, such as where it is broadcasting from, whether it is web-only or transmits via FM too and what kind of music it plays. You will also see a figure that in most instances will be 28, 56 or 100k. This refers to the speed of the transmission, and the quality of the broadcast. Essentially low-end transmissions, like the 28k broadcasts, can be tuned into by anyone with an Internet connection no matter if they have dial-up or broadband.
The trade-off is that the music is heavily compressed and is lower quality. To get the best from the 56k transmissions and to actually listen to the 100k stations you really need a broadband connection. With a 100k or higher transmission the standard of the broadcast is significantly superior to hissy old FM.
The tuner also allows you to search for radio stations and enables you to create a list of your favourite broadcasters. To put this together you simply need to click on the 'add to my stations buttons.'
You have probably already come across many other stations as you have trawled the Internet.
For example there is access to all the BBC stations through its series of websites. To connect here simply click on the launch icon and the stations will kickstart the Windows Media player software and tune you in.
There are however some stations that are not compatible with Windows Media. For these stations you may have to download additional music playing software.
So now you have the equipment for your PC to tune in, all you need to know now is where to point your browser.
Funnily enough some of the most popular Internet radio stations will be very familiar to you as they are British. Strange as it may seem the BBC broadcasts and stations like Virgin are very popular in the US where American Anglophiles enjoy listening to a different perspective on the world’s events to say nothing of some cool European music.
If you fancy continuing the cultural exchange you could always tune to one of the big US stations. However arguably much more fun are the college and the small local stations. Here you might find a mix of Bible bashing and country music that is nothing at all like any station on the British FM dial.
There are also a wealth of music stations that are well worth tuning into many staffed by enthusiasts who just want to share their collection with fellow fans from around the globe. Live 365 is a great place to start if you want to find someone else with identical music taste, but you can also use an online radio tuner such as www.radiolocator.com
One other wonderful feature of Internet radio is that many stations allow you to chuck away the schedules and listen to transmissions when you want to. For example many of the BBC stations allow you to stream their programmes via their website up to a week after they were first aired.
Finally, what if you find a fantastic station that you would like to listen to all the time? There are now a range of devices that connect wirelessly to your PC that let you listen to Internet radio in say your living room or your kitchen. The cheapest and easiest to use is the £100 BT Voyager, which will also enable you to access any MP3s or Windows Media music files you have on your PC.
If you have a wireless (802.11b/g) connection and a laptop you’ll also be able to hear Internet radio anywhere you fancy through your notebook PC.
There is now a range of wireless hi-fi device such as the Philips Streamium hi-fis, which will also enable you to hear Internet radio in other rooms in your home.
Finally if you fancy a go at running your own station try www.live365.com. If you have a big CD collection, a broadband Internet connection and few hours to kill you can set up your own station broadcasting across the globe and it will only cost a few pounds a month.

August 04, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Allied Carpets showhome

PLEASE CREDIT ALL PICS TO RICHARD WADEY. CLICK ON THUMBNAIL FOR FULL SIZE IMAGE

href="http://techdigestuk.typepad.com/ces/allied_carpets1.JPG">

March 16, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

guar copy mar 2

Panasonic's even smarter phone

Panasonic is to launch what it is billing as the smallest smartphone to reach the market so far. Due to arrive in the autumn the X700 features the Symbian operating system (like the Sony Ericsson P900 and Nokia 6600) and the Series 60 interface yet sports a clamshell design similar in size to the company's existing camera phones. The handset also features a 65k colour screen, VGA camera, POP3 e-mail, Java and Bluetooth. The company says that the reduction size has been achieved as the phone features the new mini Secure Digital (SD) card slot, rather than standard size SD slot found on rival handsets.

www.panasonic.co.uk

Hotmail on your mobile

Openwave, which provides software for over half a billion mobile phones, is teaming up with MSN to offer Microsoft services on forthcoming handsets.
When Openwave's V7 software ships later this year, phone manufacturers will be able to integrate MSN features such as Hotmail and MSN Messenger into the new mobiles. Once users have logged into MSN services they will instantly be able to see which of their friends and colleagues have their phones switched on via MSN Messenger, send and receive Hotmail e-mail messages, or discover the latest sports and news via MSN alerts. Openwave claims that as many as seven of the top ten phone manufacturers will deliver handsets featuring its V7 software this year.

www.openwave.com
www.msn.com

Aiwa MP3 players

Aiwa is to take on Apple and its forthcoming iPod mini MP3 player with a pair of smallish hard disk players - the HZ-WS2000 and the HS-DS2000. The pair both feature two Gigabyte hard disks - enough for 36 hours of music - which is half the capacity of the iPod mini. The key difference between the two Aiwa players is that while the WS2000 is stylish and very thin for a hard disk based player, the DS2000 features a rubberised edge and is aimed at sports enthusiats.
Aiwa has also unveiled a unique showerproof radio that can also play MP3s. To listen to their favourite tunes users simply plug one of the company's new Pavit range of USB-keychain style devices into the AZ-BS32 and press play. All the models will be in the stores in April.

www.aiwa.co.uk

Tiscali

Internet service provider Tiscali is set to roll out a new series of services to its broadband subscribers including Voice over IP - a phone system that enable users to make calls via the net. The company claims that calls made using VoIP will work out significantly cheaper than those made via traditional phone networks. The service will debut in Italy in late summer with a UK launch planned for the end of the year. Tiscali also hopes to offer its customers a video-on-demand service delivering movies and programmes over its broadband Internet connections.

www.tiscali.co.uk

Three

In its biggest handset overhaul since its launch, UK 3G network Three is to ship a trio of new phones. All boast the company's signature features of person-to-person video calling and video downloading/streaming.
Retailing for up to £199.99 with a contract the NEC 616 is a replacement for Three's long standing NEC e606. The clamshell style model has all the facilities of its predecessor plus Bluetooth, GPS and a re-written user interface.
The £199.99 Motorola A925 is an updated version of the A920 phone that Three made available at the end of last year. The new handset has a very similar set of features to the A920, including the Symbian operating system, yet features a slightly more contemporary design.
Aimed at customers of Three's newly launched pay-as-you go market the NEC e313 is a small candy bar style handset with fewer facilities than previous Three phones. It should retail for around £99.

www.three.co.uk

BT and Telewest

Major broadband providers BT and Telewest have both announced budget services this week targeted at light Internet users.
BT's £19.99 per month Broadband Basic service offers download speeds at the standard 512kbps rate. However it limits users to up to one Gigabyte of data (or 200 MP3 tracks) per month. If users exceed that limit they are charged £4 extra for the next three Gigabytes and another £4 if they go over four Gigabytes.
Cable company Telewest is also debuting an inexpensive broadband service with its 256kbps offering retailing for £17.99 per month. Like BT's new service it too has a cap, although Telewest's ceiling of 750MB per day is significantly more generous than its rival.
However Marco Potesta MD of ISP PlusNet which already offers its Home Surf 512kbps service for £18.99 per month, was less than complimentary about the new broadband options describing them as 'confusing.' Potesta added that 'by wrapping the product in premium rate customer support and a download limit of 1GB, they (BT) still fall short of the PlusNet option of Home Surf.'

www.telewest.co.uk
www.btopenworld.com

Voq phone

While your phone may offer you five different ways of contacting your friends and colleagues, if it takes forever to key in a message chances are you'll take the easy route and make a voice call.
So in a bid to speed up e-mailing and texting manufacturers like Handspring have been adding thumbpads to their top-end mobile devices.
The Sierra Wireless Voq Professional phone, a Microsoft Windows Mobile based handset (so it features Pocket Internet Explorer, Outlook, Windows Media player etc), which is set to go on sale in the next couple of months, takes the thumb pad a step farther.
At first glance it looks like a traditional, if rather large, candy bar style phone. Yet flip open its number pad and there's a full QWERTY keyboard. Users are unlikely to smash the 30 words a minute barrier, but the neatly domed keypads proved sturdy enough to halve the time it took this novice typist to bash out an e-mail.
The Voq has another trump card up in its My Voq software which automatically fires up each time the keypad is opened. As soon as the user types a couple of keystrokes, the system offers access to a range of contacts, applications and even websites sharing those letters. It might not sound like much of a feature but it really does enhance the usability of the handset.
In spite of these two winning features the phone is simply way too chunky for the consumer market. However the keypad, My Voq software and compatibility with both VPNs and enterprise e-mail systems like Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes should be enough to make it a hit with business users.

www.voq.com

March 02, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guar news Feb 17th

LG’s slide-down phone

One of the smartest design features to debut on a mobile phone last year was the slide-down keypad on Siemens’ very tasteful SL55. Not surprisingly several other makers have twigged that pull-down keypads are a neat idea, among them LG which debuts the feature on its G7050. Unlike Siemens, which incorporated the sliding keypad to reduce the length of the phone, LG has employed the pull-down facility as a way of increasing the size of the screen. So in comparison with other camera phones the G7050’s 65k colour, 120 x 160 colour screen looks like a real winner. LG has made an effort with the camera too. It can take pictures up to VGA standard and includes a reasonably effective 4x zoom. Other facilities include voice recognition, Java and colour screen WAP (delivered via T Mobile T-Zones service). Disappointingly there’s no POP3 e-mail, and, while the phone has infrared, it doesn’t feature Bluetooth connectivity.
LG also loses a few points for a combination of a four way rocker switch and pair of soft keys which makes it rather confusing to know which button to press while navigating the phone’s icon based interface.
While not as endearing as LG's quirky debut phone the 7100, the G7050’s neat design and strong line up of facilities means it should do well.

www.lge.co.uk

Siemens adds a flash

Siemens has unveiled one of the first camera phones to be accompanied by a detachable for flash for shooting images in low light conditions. Aimed at the top-end of the handset market the chocolate bar style CX-65 is also unusual for the size of its 132x176 pixel, 65k colour screen, which is much larger than many of its rivals. In addition to the camera, which can take both VGA still and moving images, the phone sports Java for games/ringtones downloads and boasts a POP3 e-mail client. It also features 1MB of storage and has a talk time of five hours and standby of 250 hours. It will go on sale in April.

www.my-siemens.com

Moto’s walkie-talkie phone

Motorola has become the second manufacturer to announce a push to talk (PTT) mobile phone for the UK market. Similar to Nokia's 5140, which was announced several weeks ago, the V400p features a PTT button that enables the handset to communicate like a walkie-talkie with other similarly specified handsets. At present only Orange has confirmed the launch of a PTT service in Europe although other networks are expected to announce similar programmes soon. The phone itself is a clamshell model, not unlike Motorola’s recently launched V500 model, featuring a 65k colour screen, VGA camera, Java , POP3 e-mail compatibility and MP3 polyphonic ringtones. Both the V400p and the 5140 go on sale in the UK in April/May.

www.motorola.com/uk

Sony’s Clie

Sony has announced a new high-end Palm based PDA for the UK - the Clie PEG-TH55. It features the upright form factor of Sony’s Palm OS based models (there’s no keyboard as on the PEG-UX50) and boasts a 320x480 pixel, 65k colour screen. The TH55 uses Palm OS 5.2 operating system and has 32MB of ROM and 32MB of RAM for storage. Connectivity options include integrated Wi-Fi (802.11b) and Bluetooth. Entertainment facilities include a built, in camera, video and image viewing software and an MP3/ATRAC music player. Sony has also upgraded the organiser's interface which it claims makes it easier to access the PDA’s applications. It goes on sale now for around n£300.

Casio

Casio is introducing a new range of digital cameras, the Exilim Pro, aimed at photographers who want the enhanced functionality of high-end models yet prefer the Exilim’s compact design. The first model in the series, the EX-P600, which debuts next month, is capable of taking six mega pixel images, features a 4x optical zoom lens, a 2inch TFT LCD screen and has ultra-fast start-up, picture capture and autofocus times. A new feature is high-speed playback that enables users to scroll through up to 100 images in less than 10n seconds. There are no details on prices yet.

www.casio.co.uk

February 17, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

hello readers

February 07, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guardian Moto review

Has Motorola just unveiled the coolest mobile phone of 2004? Ashley Norris is impressed by the company’s innovative V80 handset.

After a year in which the S companies, Siemens, Samsung and Sharp, have significantly eaten into their market share the two original giants of the GSM mobile phone handset industry, Nokia and Motorola, are finally hitting back.

Nokia’s scattergun approach of delivering a huge variety of handsets to the market has yielded at least two or three classic mobiles.

Now it is Motorola’s turn to re-state its design credentials. After a quiet year in 2003 characterised by camera phones that just weren’t as flashy or as well-featured as their rivals, and interesting, but rather bulky 3G phones, the American company has set its sights on the mainstream market.

In Krakow, Poland this week it took the wraps off a trio of handsets one of which could well become its high profile phone in years.

The handset, the V80, takes its design cues from a fashion phone from two years ago, the V70. Although shorn of all but the most basic features the V70 became a cult hit with fashionistas loving its unique rotating head cover and compact size.

In reality the only thing the V80 takes from the V70 is its spinning cover, though even this has been tweaked so it flips round automatically rather than users having to push it. The rest of the phone is teeming with features from Java for downloading games to the ubiquitous camera,

The shape of the phone is also very different. With the screen closed its oval-shape is reminiscent of one of those large tins that contain old-fashioned mints.

Taking up much of the phone is a large 176x220, 65k colour screen. This, like much else on the handset, can be customised so a favourite image can be displayed as a screensaver. The quality of the screen is a leap ahead of Motorola’s recent models, like the V525/V600 and is approaching the industry standard on camera phones, the screen on the Sharp GX20.

Above the screen is a four-way nipple style rocker switch that controls the handset’s interface in conjunction with the fiendishly small soft keys that surround it. Motorola has finished the handset in a very contemporary shade of black.

The fun begins when you give the rotating cover a nudge. It then flips round 180 degrees with the screen now at the top of the handset and the number keys, which are tucked away under the screen, now accessible.

Cleverly, if users stop the screen at 270 degrees it automatically fires up the handset’s integrated camera thereby revealing the V80’s first trump card - the ability to take images in landscape as well as portrait modes.

In terms of features the V80 is in line with other high-end camera phones like the Sony Ericsson T610 and the Nokia 3650. There are plenty of facilities and users can customise everything from the pictures on the screen to the noise the handset makes when the screen flips round. Whether customers will use all the facilities is a moot point.

For the record the phone is triple band, features Bluetooth for connecting up wireless headsets and car kits, boasts a connectivity suite including compatibility with POP3 e-mail accounts, Java for downloads, WAP and a video player. Battery life is also good for a phone of this type though Motorola’s estimation of the handset’s talk time of up to 240 minutes is a little generous.

Then of course there’s the camera. As cameras on phones go it’s a reasonably good one. It takes VGA (640x480) quality images that are reasonably detailed and boast fairly vivid colours. The camera works better in low light conditions, such as inside bars, than many of its rivals. Users can tailor the exposure to suit the conditions of the room and home in on their subject via a 4x zoom. Being able to shoot landscape images is a neat touch – they don't look too hot displayed on the phone, but do have more presence when sent via e-mail or viewed on a PC.

I suspect the only real quibbles users will have with the V80 revolves around its usability. Motorola has significantly improved its interfaces/menu system so the phone is relatively simple to use. Accessing those menus though involves pressing soft keys that are too small and tricky to use. In common with other phones the joystick is a little over eager too and it is easy to end up cycling through a menu that you didn’t actually want to access.

Still these are minor quibbles. Overall the V80 is an impressive handset and is sure to be among the most coveted phones of the first half of 2004. Sure there will be phones with better cameras and more advanced features arriving very shortly. Few though will be as stylish and as fun as the V80.

The V80 will be on sale in March/April for around £150 with a pay monthly contract.

www.motorola.co.uk

February 06, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Phones to look for

Phones to watch for

A couple of weeks into 2004 and the internet chat and gossip sites are buzzing with discussions as to which is the phone of the year. No, not the best handset of the year just gone, rather the one that will catch the imagination of buyers in the coming twelve months.

Handset manufacturers are notoriously slow at getting their phones to market. Sometimes they display half finished products in a bid to drum up interest from networks and retailers. Other times the networks insist on refinements to a handset before they are willing to take it. Hence even from this vantage point in January it is fairly easy to predict which phones will be the most coveted models come the summer.

And to keep one step ahead of the makers who haven’t yet paraded their upcoming models there’s always the twilight world of the Internet technology news sites. Places where gossip, rumour and hearsay, and often an imaginative computer-generated image of a forthcoming handset, rule.

Here then are the phones we feel you should be watching for in 2004.

Sharp GX30 – The fourth incarnation of the Beckham-approved Vodafone camera phone should arrive in March. There’s no definite list of features yet, but we’d be surprised if it didn’t take its cues from the Sharp J-SH53 (a Japanese model) and become the first phone in the UK to take pictures of one-mega pixels – much better resolution than the current standard (VGA). The screen is also likely to be enhanced, and Bluetooth and a storage card slot added to the features list. It’ll probably keep that classic clamshell design though.

Nokia 7200 – Pencilled in for a late spring launch the 7200 is Nokia's first ever take on a clamshell phone. In terms of features it lags way behind handsets like the Sharp GX30. Yet it is likely to become the most coveted handset of the first part of 2004 thanks to a design that that the fashionistas will swoon over. Completely unlike any other handset it has been dubbed the 'Louis Vuitton phone' for the way in which the beige-coloured fabric padding on its outside of one version of the phone is reminiscent of the French fashion company's products.

Motorola MPx 220 – Also due in the next couple of months the MPx220 is a refresh of Motorola’s tiny clamshell Microsoft Windows Mobile powered handset. Like the original it offers cutdown versions of Internet Explorer, Outlook and Windows Media. Motorola has however ramped up the feature count by adding a camera, Bluetooth and 10Mb storage, which should address many of the criticisms of the original phone.

Siemens SX1 – First unveiled back in February 2003, Siemens debut smartphone, which runs on the Symbian operating system, looks finally set to reach the market next month. When it was unveiled it was hailed as a miracle of miniaturisation in that a camera, web browser, POP3 e-mail, video facilities and an FM radio had been crammed into such a tiny handset. A year on and it still packs a reasonably impressive package.

Sony Ericsson Z1010 – Rumoured to be weeks away (although some websites have been predicting its imminent arrival for the best part of a year) the Z1010 is Sony Ericsson’s debut 3G phone. Given that it packs a strong selection of features into a fairly compact clamshell form factor 3G network Three is surely bound to find a place for it in its range sometime soon.

LG U8100 – Three would certainly be doing a good thing to add this handset to its range. Its trump card is that it is smaller and lighter than almost all 3G phones. The feature count, which includes Video calling, Java, Bluetooth, an MP3/AAC player and 64MB of storage, is pretty impressive too. It is certain to arrive in the UK at some point this year but who is to say which networks’ colours it will be wearing.

HP Smartphone – This may prove little more than vapourware, but the web is currently awash with stories and images of HP’s first PDA/phone hybrid for two years. The device not only sports a high-resolution screen and a VGA quality camera, but also includes integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and features an e-mail client that uses RIM’s Blackberry technology to push messages on to the device from a server as soon as they are received. It sounds amazing, whether we see it in June, as is being predicted online, is another matter.

Treo 620 – PalmOne (as Palm the hardware manufacturer now calls itself) has announced its emphasis this year will be on smartphones. Hazarding a guess we take that to mean that a second version of the Treo 600 (maybe called the 610 or 620) is in the pipeline. The Treo 600 has a wonderful form factor including a very easy to use QWERTY keyboard. By the summer we expect the new version to appear boasting a higher resolution screen (arguably the 600’s prime weakness), a faster processor, more memory and just maybe, integrated Wi-fi and Bluetooth.

January 23, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

guardina gadgets copy

The Guardian gates

There’s probably not too much that keeps Bill Gates, with his huge personal wealth and ultra successful company, awake at nights. But right now there is an issue that may occasionally jolt him awake in the small hours. And that is that Microsoft desperately needs a hit.
For while the company is all pervasive in the PC software market when it has experimented with other form factors or tried to migrate its software on to other platforms it has seriously underperfromed.
The last two years have seen a string of Microsoft innovations yet none have really chimed with the technology buying public.
Take Smart Displays, LCD monitors that can moonlight as web tablets when they are plucked from their base station. Launched in a blaze of hype two years ago, Microsoft was so unsuccessful at attracting manufacturers to build the monitors that a few weeks back it pulled the plug on the project.
Then there’s Tablet PCs, another product from 2002. They might have sold reasonably well, but any pretensions that they would provide the template for the product that would replace the laptop seems quite laughable. The jury is also out on Microsoft's smartphone operating system, now re-christened Windows Mobile, which hasn’t taken the market share some analysts were predicting it would.
Nevertheless it was an upbeat Gates that delivered an opening keynote speech to the faithful at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Gates spent much of his speech highlighting three new-ish products he hopes will prove that Microsoft really can cut it away from the PC.
The bad news for Microsoft is that, at least from a European perspective, the jury is out on all three.
CES 2004 saw the debut in the stores of Microsoft first foray into wristwatch market. Its SPOT (Smart Personal Object Technology) watches can be customized by their owners to receive snippets of information, like news or weather, sent via spare FM capacity not used by radio stations. While they might sell well in the USA, the watches clearly are far too gimmicky for a European market that generally puts the look and feel of a timepiece over its functionality. Europeans are also unlikely to want to pay the $10 a month (the watches start at £130) to access the services, especially when much of the information SPOT pulls in is already available on their mobile phone. Microsoft hasn’t set a date for a European launch for SPOT but it is rumoured to be early summer.
Another key innovation for Microsoft is its Portable Media Centers, carry anywhere video/ audio devices that feature a large (3/4inch) screen, a 20-60 Gigabyte hard disk and video/audio playing software. Microsoft believes that when the products launch in the summer users will cherish the way in which they can access at least 20 of their favourite movies with the flick of a switch.
Once again it is hard to see this type of device, which analysts call a personal video player, really shifting in the way that hard disk audio players like the iPod have. Do users really want to trade their dinky audio iPod for a larger device just so that they can watch a few minutes of their favourite TV programme on the tube? Probably not. Ironically for Microsoft very few PC users have movies stored on their hard disk that aren’t illegal versions of the films they have downloaded using systems KaZaa.
It speaks volumes that Apple is supposed to have been working on a video version of its iPod, yet chose to bring a smaller audio player to market this week rather than a product to challenge Microsoft. Sony too has been slow off the mark in this area. It has a personal video player on sale in Japan, but surprised consumer electronics analysts by not unveiling versions for the US and European markets at CES.
So perhaps Microsoft’s best hope of a hit is the enhanced version of Media Center PCs it announced on Wednesday. Launched in the US over a year ago Media Center PCs are stuffed with entertainment applications such as a TV tuner and hard disk based video recording software, that are controlled by a dedicated interface operated by a remote control handset.
Initial sales proved very disappointing, although the second-generation models, that debuted in the autumn, have apparently sold four times as many as its predecessor. Still four times a very low figure is still a small amount.
What Microsoft needs is a compelling reason for consumers to upgrade to Media Center PCs and on Wednesday it may have delivered it. Gates unveiled the Media Center Extender, a device designed to connect to a TV that ferries the cool content stored on a PC (video, audio, images) to the TV/living room entertainment system, over a wired or wireless network. Several manufacturers, including Dell and HP, have lined up to make the box, which will go on sale in late summer and retail for just $120. Microsoft also announced LCD TVs with the extender built in and a Media Center Extenders kit for Xbox games console owners.
Microsoft deserves praise for the simple way in which the device can be set up and operated. Yet will they tempt PC buying punters into upgrading? In spite of a flood of similar devices from consumer electronics and PC makers there doesn't appear to be a huge amount of hard evidence that consumers are keen to access their content in the living room as well as on their PC. Sure the concept of a media server hosting all a consumer's media content that can be piped to screens and speakers throughout a home will surely establish itself in the long run. Yet that could be many years away.
Still, the company desperately needs one of its new concepts to succeed and from this perspective the enhanced version of the Media Center would seem to be the best bet. It may take time, but then again Microsoft has pretty deep pockets.

It might sound odd, but if there is one thing that Microsoft the world' largest software company desperately need now it is a hit.

January 09, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)