Tech Digest

Bluetooth keyboard

Looking for a proper wireless keyboard for your Symbian or Pocket PC based smartphone? Now available from Widget UK is the Stowaway Universal Bluetooth Keyboard .

Manufactured by Think Outside , it's a full size unit with 18mm spacing between the keys. Its folding design and light weight (just six ounces) means you can slip it into your trouser pocket (though you may get a few funny looks). It costs £99.

Sharp's portable home cinema

Not that much to get excited about at Sharp's product launch last week. But there were a couple of things: its first portable digital music player (yes another iPod killer, the HRGB201) and a range of unusual looking home cinema products.

Pictured is the £250 DVD-HTX1, a 5.1 channel wall-mountable surround sound system with vertical loading DVD player. Also on display was the QTV5, a personal home cinema system for a kid's bedroom. It looks much like a standard ghetto blaster but also incorporates a DVD player and single Scart. Finally, another bedroom solution is the 5 DVD microsystem, the XL-DV50. Compatible with MP3 encoded discs, it can display MP3 track names on screen

Blackberry goes Bluetooth

O2 customers in the UK, Germany and Ireland can now hook up the Blackberry to Bluetooth headsets and car kits for the first time.

As well as integrated Bluetooth for wireless connectivity, the new Blackberry 7290 features a quad-band phone (GSM/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 MHz) for US and European roaming, brighter colour display and enhanced memory (32Mb flash memory and 4Mb SD RAM).

Other features include high resolution (65,000 colour) screen, QWERTY keyboard, SMS, organiser, Internet/Intranet capabilities and support for corporate and personal e-mail.

For more information click here

Interactive recording on Sky+

Sky has introduced a new interactive recording feature for Sky+ users. Those wanting to watch tonight's Champions League games can go to the Sky Sports Extra programme guide to choose from eight live games - including Chelsea v Porto and Rosenborg v Arsenal.

Just press the record button and an automatic prompt appears asking you which of the games you want to record. It's possible to record one video stream while watching another live game or record two scheduled interactive video streams while watching another previously recorded programme from the Sky+ Planner.

For the fixtures list click here.

In addition to the interactive recording option, the Sky+ planner has been recently upgraded to give viewers increased sorting capabilities so you can find programmes by genre as well as recorded programmes still to be viewed and already viewed. As of 30th June 2004 there were 397,000 Sky+ subscribers.

IRiver's 1GB Flash player

One gigabyte of Flash memory? That's more like it. Being able to store a sensible amount of music suddenly makes iRiver's latest flash-based player, the iFP-900, look a whole lot more appealing. The player, which is also available in 256MB and 512MB capacities, is being touted as the company's flagship model for the Christmas period. The small, silver player includes a 1.2-inch colour LCD display screen with 260K colours that can be used for showing JPEGs and BMP image files. The battery life will apparently supply up to 40 hours of music playback.

Other features include an FM tuner, direct recording from the radio, built-in microphone and an alarm clock. There's also a combined analogue and digital line-in so you can record form external audio signals. All in all, some nice features on the little players. Shame they're still so pricey. The RRPs are set at £169 for the 256MB model, £224 for the 512MB one and £270 for the 1GB version.

Product Page

Toshiba's 60GB music player

Toshiba's latest 60GB Gigabeat is part of a new range of Gigabeat F Series music players. All three players (the other two are 10GB and 20GB) use Toshiba's new 1.8-inch hard drives, with the 60GB version the first of its kind available. The design is a bit of a change from the company's other Gigabeat models, with a more iPod-like shape to it. The 2.2-inch colour LCD sets it apart, however, and the plus sign-shaped control pad also gives it a more individual look. Battery life is cited as around 11 hours. There's still no current plans to launch the players over in Europe, but Tosh hasn't yet ruled it out altogether. It's puzzling that the company is content just to sell to the Japanese market when it would surely do so well over here.

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Ogo Messaging device

The Ogo messaging device is a strange little machine that uses mobile phone technology without actually being a mobile phone. Instead, it's designed to work as a text only device that lets you send Instant Messages, emails and text messages without including any voice capabilities. The intended market is the youth market, since they're the ones sending all the IMs and texts. The qwerty keyboard means you'll be able to knock out an awful lot of text at a reasonable rate, which should keep the service providers happy. There's no definite news on which companies will be carrying the handset, but it definitely looks set to appear on the UK market fairly soon. Pricing in America is currently $99 for the handset and $17.99 a month for the messaging plan.

Ogo Key Features & Highlights

Details from the press release:

Ogo is packed with features, including:
▪ “Clamshell” design unfolds to display large, color screen and keypad;
▪ Full QWERTY keypad and 8-way navigation joystick pad;
▪ 4K color display;
▪ Compact size and weight: 11.5 cm x 7.5 cm x 2.5 cm (closed) and 4.8 ounces;
▪ Special “hot keys” for simple navigation --- including a special “emoticon” button for inserting emoticons into IM chats and an “Ogo” button to view all active messages and chats on one screen for easy multitasking;
▪ Instant messaging on all three leading providers --- enables users to view and conduct unlimited chat sessions with buddies on Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL® instant messaging services;
▪ E-mail on all three leading providers --- send and receive unlimited email from Yahoo!, MSN and AOL® accounts;
▪ Text messaging or SMS (Short Message Service) --- send and receive unlimited text domestic messages to and from standard wireless phones;
▪ Consolidated inbox --- view all e-mail and text messages in a consolidated mailbox or sort by individual account;
▪ Special animated features --- Assign unique sounds and visual animations to different IM friends/contacts so users hear a different sound when each IM contact comes on-line or sends a message;
▪ Access to e-mail from other select Internet Service Providers and POP3 accounts at no additional charge;
▪ No annual service contract --- automatic credit card payment for new activations;
▪ “Grab-n-Go” self-activation --- on-device activation wizard gets users up and running themselves.

Griffin iBeam – Flashlight and Laser

Two new plug-ins from Griffin. This time there's a torch and a laser pointer that can be plugged into the top of your iPod or iPod Mini. Although you can only fit one in at a time, they're being sold as a pair. The iBeam package costs $19.99 and will start shipping by the end of October. The kit is available on pre-order now on Griffin's website.

Griffin

Sharp Mebius Muramasa CV50

$1750

The lowdown
Forget the Sony X505, forget the JVC Mininote, this is the smallest laptop out there. So much so, that it’s probably more accurate to call it a sub-notebook. Those that remember the old Psion Series 7 will have a good idea of what to expect.

What’s good?
It looks great. The stormtrooper-white shiny plastic casing won’t suit everyone, but we were sold. The lovely clear screen helps to keep your mind off how tiny it is, while the inclusion of a touchpad (instead of a pointing stick) – and such a usable one at that – is a big bonus. There’s also two separate slots for an SD and a CF card and wireless.

What’s bad?
Having the full version of Windows XP is all well and good, but since everything’s shrunk so small that you can barely see it, it really does limit your use. The keyboard is also too small to use properly – you’ll be limited to two-finger typing.

Do you need it?
We could live with the keyboard if the screen was just a little bit bigger. If you can afford it, it will make a nice little organiser and word processor with added functionality. For anyone else, there’s more practical laptops to spend your money on.
6/10

www.icube.us

Nice speakers from Eclipse

The Eclipse TD 712z speakers are rather interesting-looking, don't you think? To quote the press release:

"With the superior impulse response of the ECLIPSE TD series, and its uncanny ability to connect coherent sound images and precisely reproduced spatial information, the listener can forget the speakers are there and can feel as though they are transported to the time and place of the original recording."

No idea what that all means, but it sounds great.