Tech Digest

Glastonbury's Silent Disco

So, Michael Eavis, founder of the internationally renowned Glastonbury festival, famed for having one of the world's largest privately owned fences, just how do you satisfy both a bunch of disgruntled villagers who would like to have the serenity of country life back and a mass of drugged up tree huggers with an urge to rave? Simple - Wireless headphones. In a revolutionary move, the Glastonbury founder announced this week that to overcome a noise curfew, lucky festival-goers will be supplied with wireless headphones by a pioneering Dutch firm, who have already field tested the system at similarly drugged up events in the Netherlands. The festival is scheduled for 24th – 29th June with no official statements on who will be headlining yet.

Glastonbury Festival

PodGear's PodShave for iPod and iPod mini

PodGear has steadily acquired a reputation for intelligent solutions to everyday problems encountered whilst enjoying your iPod. Take shaving for example, no one wants to put down their beloved Personal Audio Player merely to rid themselves of unsightly stubble; we here at Tech Digest firmly believe that excessive facial hair is an unavoidable part of indulging in expensive gadgetry. But at last there is a solution: PodGear's new PodShave and PodShave Lady compatible with the iPod and iPod Mini. Simply attach the matching white shaving clip to you iPod and, without need for extra batteries, an ultra smooth shaving experience and even collects the clippings in a useful vacuum collector. PodGear's PodShave is available now for £19.99 at iPodWorld ... tell me, what's the date tomorrow?

PodGear

iPod Shuffle carbon copy

Déjà vu? Ok, so it looks like an iPod shuffle, and until recently was in serious danger of infringing on copyrights by sporting the name Super Shuffle. Now renamed as the Super Tangent, Luxpro's tiny device looks promising as a rival to the Shuffle. Already sporting two extra features: an FM receiver and voice recording, we will have to await a price to determine if Luxpro is healthy competition or a shameless rip off. Read [via Engadget]

Sony ICF CD73 Clock Radio

Shake up the drudgery of the early morning bathroom ritual with Sony's splashproof CD73 Clock Radio. With approximately 15 hours of battery life and stereo speakers, the FM/AM receiver has 15 presets and is complemented by a CD player. Included is a design feature often avoided by piracy paranoid Sony: the ICF CD73 is compatible with CD-R and CD-RW, so you can create your very own bathroom mix. There's even an alarm clock in case you feel like another snooze. Perhaps £74.99 seems an unnecessary drain on your wallet, but premium audio products capable of withstanding the conditions of a bathroom are rare at best and seldom include a CD player.

Unbeatable.co.uk

Shiny Media launches HippyShopper

Shiny Media launches HippyShopper (www.hippyshopper.com) – the UK's first Green Consumer blog

Heard about Motorola’s biodegradable mobile phone? Or the toothpaste-free solar toothbrush? Or even Nike’s green ethically-sourced shoes?! You’ll find them all at HippyShopper (www.hippyshopper.com) – the UK's first blog about ethical consumerism which launches today.

Published by  Shiny Media, and written by Stuff magazine’s Managing Editor, Adam Vaughan, HippyShopper aims to enlighten and amuse its readers with green news stories from the UK and links to environmentally friendly sites around the world.

Its daily updates will: • Track the latest green gadgets • Tip readers off about what’s coming in the organic food market • Give details of green exhibitions • Offer updates on eco-friendly health and beauty products • Give tips on how to recycle products

The site kicks off with a competition to win a shed load of green stuff including: ten Solios – solar powered iPod/mobile phone chargers – five Adopt An Animal Panda Packs from the World Wildlife fund; ten copies of Save Cash and Save The Planet; and a Collins/Friends of the Earth book stuffed full of practical tips to help you be a bit greener.

For more information about HippyShopper contact Adam Vaughan (adam@hippyshopper.com)

Eidos rejects the bid from Elevation corporation

The Guardian newspaper today reported that Eidos executives have decided to reject the bid for the company made by Elevation corporation, as reported in Games Digest last week. SCi, which is making a competing bid for Eidos in stock rather than cash, confirmed that it received enough support from the board, at least temporarily, to reject the bid. SCi has stated that it is 'confident' that it will have more support by the end of the week. If the smaller company SCi win the bid, Eidos can expect to see some radical restructuring of their company. The bids range from 50p per share from Elevation and 53.6p from SCi. Eidos used to be worth over 10 pounds a share, during the dotcom boom. How fortunes change, hunh.

Read

Fibre optic links to be built into processors

Small, San Francisco based company Luxtera has announced that it has beaten Intel to the punch in the development of a 10Gbps fibre optic link to be built directly into processors. Although information is scarce, and although this technology wouldn't be ready to roll out until at least the end of the decade, it would make high speed networking dramatically faster and cheaper. Intel had been developing similar chips, but has so far only managed a tenth of the speed of what Luxtera are claiming. Innovation at its best, or premature April fools? Stay tuned for more.

Read

Everything you've ever wanted to know about Tetris…

Wow, probably the most important game in the world celebrates its twentieth anniversary, with all of the commercial oppurtunitues what normally come when games celebrate anniversaries (re-releasing old NES games for the GBA, without changing them? Come on, Nintendo. And you're no better Atari). Sky's attempt at least sounds a little better- Sky Gamestar, Sky's interactive TV games channel, have launched the Tetris Liveplay Championship, starting tomorrow (Thursday 31st March). People throughout the UK will be able to duel with their remotes in real-time, and the highest ranking player after two weeks will awarded £1,000. To help celebrate the anniversary, Gamestar have put together a top ten things you didn't know about tetris list. Yup, we actually think that's cool.

1. Tetris is based on an ancient Roman puzzle called Pentamino
2. Over 86 million units have been sold worldwide to date, eclipsing sales of Michael Jackson's Thriller album (best selling album of all time at approximately 56 million copies)
3. The Tetris logo was designed by legendary record sleeve artist Roger Dean, who created famous album covers for rock giants Yes in the 1970s
4. The game inspired a terrible single in 1992 by Dr Spin, featuring samples of music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber
5. In September 2002, Faiz Chopdat, 23, of Blackburn, was jailed for four months after refusing to turn off his mobile on a flight from Egypt to Manchester. The crew asked him three times to switch off the phone, which was interfering with the plane's communications system, but each time Chopdat turned it on again. He was playing Tetris.
6. The world's smallest game of Tetris took place under an electron microscope using 42 glass 'microspheres' at the Department of Physics of Complex Systems in Amsterdam
7. Brown University in Rhode Island, US, was turned into the biggest game of Tetris in 2000, when the windows of the 14-storey building lit up as the shapes 'fell'. It was visible for miles.
8. Yuri Yevushenko, director of the Russian Academy in the 1980s, claims Tetris is so successful because "unlike American games it is not about murder, shooting or chasing; it is about building and order."
9. In a recent US study at the Harvard Medical School's department of psychiatry, 27 Tetris players spent seven hours a day, for three days, playing the game. Many had 'Tetris dreams'.
10. There is an online Church of Tetris website, which attracted hundreds of visitors per week.

Port Camera Case

If you feel that all your digital camera wielding friends are making fun of your manufacturer's standard case, then look at this new offering from Port Designs. These compact little camera pouches come with additional pockets, adjustable shoulder and belt straps, metal buckles and perhaps best of all, a camera saving pull out rain cover.

Port Link

Orange gets ready for Episode 3

Uh-oh, the marketing behemoth that is Lucasfilm is really getting into full lightsabre-like swing with the release of Orange's Star Wars Episode 3 box set. Apparently if Luke had decided to make a phone call during the trilogy, he would have chosen the Orange network, because inside the box set you not only get a Nokia 3320, you also get a Darth Vader phone holder and wookiee phone pouch (both have to be seen to be believed), a Star Wars Lenticular featuring Yoda, Darth or new baddie General Grevious, free Yoda wallpaper and limited edition Yoda top-up card for pay-as-you-go boxsets. The set is expected to retail for £89.99. For those already on the Orange network, Orangeworld has also put up some brand new Star Wars related content. Crap shameless marketing? Or so kitsch its genius? You decide, I'm off to get my wookiee pouch holder.

Orange

Toshiba to lead mobile battery (re)charge?

Good news on the horizon for mobile phone users: The Register reports that Toshiba has just developed a lithium-ion battery that will charge to 80% capacity within one minute. A full charge will apparently only take a few minutes more. The battery will also last longer, losing only 1% of its capacity after 1000 charges. The battery will come out sometime next year, and although it's only been planned for use in industrial and automotive industries, we're guessing it won't be long after that it makes its way into your mobile phone.

Read

Toto and Daiwa House's Intelligence Toilet

Toilet humour, anyone? If you're a die-hard technophile, you may have your Bluetoothed networked mobile phone and your fancy USB kettle, but we would be willing to bet that you don't yet have Toto and Daiwa House's Intelligence Toilet. Although "freaky, 2001-style artificial intelligence bathroom" would probably more apt; the room comes with a blood pressure cuff, a set of scales and a body fat meter which you grip while weighing yourself on the scales. Before you ask, this advice does also take the piss and then analyze it with a built-in urine analyzer. The data will be saved to the toilet and then transferred to the PC. Where it will then, in give you dietary advice(what could be more natural than that?). And all for a mere Y380,000-Y560,000 ($3,550-$5,230).

Read

Qbus GameBoy Advance emulator

Perhaps the DS release has helped remind us all of the joys of handheld gaming; turns out that the Qbus has been around for a year already though only now coming to light properly. Looking like a GBA rip off, it's really an emulator with a built in flashwriter. The included software will links up to the Qboy network where you can download ROM's, movies and music. Downloads can then be written to the 256MB Flash cartridge which is compatible with both the GBA and the DS. The legal ramifications of the operation is still unclear, but it does provide a ground where independent developers can get their creations out to the public. The Qbus is available in the US now, though no word of it making a trip to Europe. It costs $90.

Read [via Engadget]

Samsung SCH-V600

Samsung has announced the SCH-V600, launching shortly in Korea but with no word yet on a US or European release date. The V600 is an updated version of the clamshell V5009 (not the candybar swivel screen Z130 as seen at CeBIT), which featured a twistable screen for viewing video. This breakthrough is considerably more efficient than simply rotating the handset by 90 degrees, which can lead to severe wrist injuries. Sarcasm aside, this allows the SCH-V600 to retain a compact design (92.5x48.7x29.3mm) and allows video files (which are normally wider than they are tall) to be navigated to and viewed easily. The phone also comes with two games that use the widescreen display and a 1.3 megapixel camera. It supports MPEG4 format videos and MP3 audio.

Read

Logitech Premium USB Headset 350

Logitech has announced a new headset developed for those who want premium sound quality without the cost. The Headset 350 uses USB instead of analogue ports and so is independent of the quality of the internal sound card. 40mm neodymium drivers ensure good sound quality from the headphones and a noise cancelling microphone. Anyone who is just starting to reap the benefits of VoIP or online multiplayer gaming will at some point want to upgrade their audio hardware. This can be quite pricey; a good sound card might be as much as £70 and then you'll need a good headset/mic to maintain the quality. The Logitech USB Headset 350 is recommended to retail very soon at $49.99 and will hopefully reach these shores later in the year.

Press Release

Charge your gadgets with the Solar Bag

Recharging is a pain, extra batteries cost a fortune but that's nothing compared to the inconvenience of rendering the planet inhabitable with our constant pollution. Lucky there's an answer to all three of these troubles. Solar Style have released the Solar Bag, an advanced clean energy device that is capable of recharging many portables such as MP3 players, walkmans, digital cameras, etc. Ok, it's not going to turn heads on the catwalk but it is a practical design that provides constant energy from an unlimited source. Except at night.

Product Page [via The Bag Lady, via TRFJ]

Bluetooth Wine Scanner

Ever felt you've just got so much wine you can't keep track of it all? Not a problem that faces many of us, however much we'd like it to. If however you do feel intimidated by the sheer volume of high priced booze in your cellar, then the Intelliscanner Wine Collector provides a wireless solution via Bluetooth. By linking up to an internet database of barcodes, the Intelliscanner will provide all the important information a wine buff might need, such as the name, region, winery, variety, type, age, and colour (although if you didn't already know that…) Perhaps the $279 it costs for the Bluetooth version would be better spent buying even more wine and all other information could be garnered by, oh say, drinking the stuff; although there is a wired compromise which costs a lot less at $179

Read [via Blueserker]

Klipsch iPod dock

Another day, another iPod speaker system. Klipsch's IFI speaker system provides your iPod with a 2.1 channel system with a 200-watt subwoofer. Klipsch's system has the distinction of being one of the most expensive accessories to grace Apple's extensive selection (still not as pricey as Eclipse's speaker set, however). Although for $399 you do get two Klipsch RSX-3 satellite speakers included, which by themselves cost around $130.

via DAPReview

Fretlight Guitar: guitar tuition for geeks

Learning an instrument is tough; many hours of gruelling practice are required before anything resembling music is produced. Luckily for budding guitarists, Optek has a way to fast track through the novice stage and power straight on to the dizzying heights of fretmeister. The Fretlight Guitar has a simple innovation that amounts to 132 LED's mounted in the fingerboard and a connection to a PC via USB. The included M-player Midi software conquers the most difficult aspect of guitar playing by lighting up where to your fingers should be. The program is designed to be easy to use and includes a large number of tracks so you can learn a wide range of cords and styles. Certainly this could make learning a lot easierm and the Fretlight Guitar doesn't seem to have suffered sonically from its extra features, but perhaps the £499 price tag (although you won't need an amp) is a bit steep, despite the apparently "super cool" status given by the distributors. Optek's Fretlight Guitar is now available in the UK through Emittor.

Optek

Sony PSP pixel problem resolved... sort of

Poor old Sony. First it's been ordered to remove all PlayStation consoles from circulation, and now it's having problems with latest golden child, the PSP. Since it was released in Japan, there have been rumours circulating that there were a large number of PSPs with stuck light and dark pixels on the screen. After Sony forums were crashed by hordes of angry gamers, demanding a fix, Sony finally responded, saying that "A very small number of dark pixels or continuously lit pixels is normal for LCD screens, and is not a sign of a malfunction," but also added that if the unit was “determined to be defective” by SCEA, the company would repair or replace the product. However, Sony has said that you can only exchange after a week or two of using the unit. For more fun and games about the exact nature of the various different types of blown, lit and dead pixels, check out Tom's Hardware

Windows gets imaginative with new XP

In a puzzling leap of imagination, Microsoft Corporation has decided on ‘Windows XP Home Edition N’ as the name of its new stripped down version of Windows in Europe. Most noticeably the edition will come minus Windows Media Player. If you remember, the European commission ordered everyone’s favorite monolithic software company to produce this version after finding that Microsoft was using its near monopolistic power to distribute its own products, preventing competitors like Musicmatch and Apple from competiting within the market.

Actually, to be entirely truthful, it wasn't the Microspft people that came up with the name, but rather the European Union's executive. Apparently, it rejected 10 suggestions put forward by Microsoft. It sounds like the people at Microsoft aren't best pleased with the name, but have decided to roll with it simply to get on with the launch - due in a matter of weeks in the UK.

Microsoft

Sony pays out $91million in lawsuit

Sony is busy with more than the release of the PSP this week; the Japanese mega corporation has been ordered to pay 91 million dollars in a US lawsuit. Immersion Corporation, the company that develops and licenses out digital technology, claims that Sony infringed on its patent by developing Immersion Corporation technology for use in the PS1 and PS2 vibrating dualshock controllers. In fact, Sony has been ordered by the courts to stop selling any of its PlayStations altogether. However, Sony is launching an appeal, and since the appeal date is before the deadline for removing the Playstations from US stores, the company is continuing to supply them to resellers for the time being.

Broadband lamposts - no really

Some of you regular readers may remember last year we told you about a company proposing to deliver broadband internet access via lamp posts. Well it turns out  Last Mile Communications weren't taking the mickey after all. It has announced that it is now working with security company Qinetiq to commercialise its plans. Trials are scheduled for later this year at an undisclosed location, and Last Mile said it is confident that its broadband via lamp post offering can be rolled out on a large scale. Furthermore Last Mile claims it will be able to offer more than just internet access; by coordinating with local governments, each lamppost could be used to contain potentially useful information about the local area. Sales and marketing director Barry Shrier, states that "this is a profound advance in how the Internet works, and the benefits it provides."

Ezmax VoIP audio player

Ezmax has come up with a solution for laptop owners who don't have integrated microphones in their PC yet but who still want calls over VoIP. The EZMP-4200P is a personal audio player with a built in USB microphone that will automatically connect to a VoIP provider when plugged in. It supports MP3, WMA and ASF format with an FM receiver integrated. It is set to retail at around $150 for a 256MB player and $220 for the 1GB. This really proves that the best ideas are the simple ones, except I’m no longer sure whether to listen to music on my phone or phone people on my MP3 player. Ezmax

One inch wonder?

Is anyone really going to watch video on a diddy flash based MP3/video player with a tiny one inch screen? Muro certainly hopes so - though we're less than convinced. This mini flash device may be hardly bigger than a Zippo lighter (60 x 38 x 17 mm) but, like the successful MR-100, it suppports MP3, WMA and OGG. It's also expected to support JPEG and even MPEG 4 on its 0.96inch 65k display. Also on board is an integrated microphone and FM receiver! It has a built in rechargeable battery that will last about 13 hours, but there aren't any details of launch date, price and capacity yet.

US PSP launch, European delay?

It's already part of Japan's scenery. And last night Sony's PSP started the North American leg of its global domination campaign with hordes of desperate fans braving sleep deprivation and hypothermia in blizzard conditions to be among the first owners of the must-have handheld (thanks to Engadget for the snowy pic from the launch).
But what's great news for American gamers ain't so good for enthusiasts this side of the pond. The UK launch date has already been put back. And with the 1 million handheld consoles earmarked for the US expected to sell out within the first day, there's now fresh doubts as to whether Sony will be able to manufacture enough units to ship to Europe.

The US launch was an exhilarating affair with thousands of fans queuing, braving icy weather and arriving as much as 13 hours before the event, desperate to get their hands on Sony's "convergent portable entertainment device". And desperate they should be, because in the near future PSPs might be few and far between.

Tosh 4Gig mobile phone hard drive

Toshiba debuts a 4Gigabyte hard disk for mobile phones. The company has unveiled a 0.85inch disc that could deliver the large amounts of storage tomorrow’s phone users will require. With phones increasingly being used to play MP3s, video, and with TV tuners even coming to some models, the hard disk will enable users to store their own music and movies, and could even record TV programmes. However, competition is hot on the heels of Toshiba’s breakthrough, as Samsung has recently revealed its own 3Gigabyte music phone, the SGH-i300. Nokia too is set to debut a new phone in 2005 that also promises to incorporate a hard disk. Could this spell the end of MP3 players and USB disks?

Philips DVD/SACD combo

Philips announces a new DVD/SACD player, the DVP9000S. Capable of delivering HD (720p and 1080i) picture quality via its HDMI input, the player also incorporates Faroudja DCDi processing for edge detail. Further picture quality is provided by Philips’ Digital Crystal Clear system. Support is provided for SACD and stereo CD playback and the advanced bass management system lets you fine tune low-frequency performance. CD Upsampling converts the sound to DSD for better clarity. Compatible with a wide variety of formats (DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, MP3 CD and Picture CD), the DVP9000S will be on sale in April for around £400.

MTV Hijacks Motorola phones

MTV has teamed up with Motorola to produce limited edition Hijacked by MTV handsets. The concept, claims the press release, brings 'a brilliantly rebellious mobile experience that rewrites the rules of ringtones, alerts and screensavers' (and there we were thinking that it was a money making exercise between two huge corporate brands). One novel idea is SMS templates that “speak a universal language shared by young people - not their parents”. Awww, a secret code, very cool. There are also interchangeable skins to create different moods from bling to camouflage and brand new MTV mobile games, including the latest in the Plastikulture series. The Hijacked by MTV range will soon be available worldwide.

Motorola's internet radio to go

Sounds like Motorola has debuted some really cool stuff at the M3 music festival in Miami. We really like the sound of iRadio solution, which apparently enables the user to tune into Internet radio channels as well as their personal music collection, while on the move or in the car. Details are sketchy at the moment but the service apparently uses an Internet connection, Bluetooth technology, and a mobile phone. The system also has a few neat tricks, apparently allowing the users to start a song on their car radio at exactly the point where they stopped it on their living room stereo. The system was first announced last year, but is apparently ready for launch now.

Security patch for Firefox

Mozilla has just released another patch for its internet browser, Firefox, the second patch in a month. The patch is, of course, free and available from www.mozilla.org The update fixes a security hole which was found by Internet Security Systems (ISS) in Mozilla. The hole makes users of the unpatched version vulnerable to buffer overflow attack, according to Mozilla. Although hailed by Mozilla as proof that the open source model of Mozilla helps to catch such problems quicker, as they are available to everyone, not just a small number of development testers, this news could come at an awkward time for the company as downloads of the Firefox browser are apparently beginning to slow.

The UK's cheapest DVD player

When DVD players were first launched they cost a stonking £600. Compare that with Amazon's sale of the multi-region Starlogic 2.1, a DVD player with most of the standard gear (multiregion, plays PAL and NTSC, compatible with recorded disc) for a mere £25, which we think makes it the UK’s cheapest DVD player. Amazon is also hammering the price of MP3 players with a Netac C620 MP3 Player with 128MB of onboard memory now going for £34.99. If the price of the Apple iPod falls in a similar way you’ll be able to purchase a 20 Gig player from Amazon in 2009 for a 24th of its £350, which if our GCSE Maths holds good, isn’t very much money.
Starlogic Multi-region 2.1 DVD Player 

Free Wi-Fi from Little Chef

Wireless internet access is now pretty common at libraries, shopping malls, café’s and airports, but the latest place to get Wi-Fi-ed up is a bit of surprise. Courtesy of Broadreach Systems you can now surf while you tuck into your greasy breakfast special at good old Little Chef (that’s like a truck stop version of Denny’s minus the monster portions, American readers). Quite how many laptop-toting business types stop by at the place is one thing, though you can bet there will be a whole lot more in April as the service is free at the 150 Little Chefs for the whole month. After the end of the month payment can be made at the till, or users can open an account.

PC World

UK retailer PC World is launching a new service titled collect@store which is born out of research that has shown that people like to see the goods physically before paying for them. So the new service allows people to find an item online, check it’s in stock at their nearest PC World and then go an collect it. While collecting buyers can pick up advice on how to use your new purchase from the help desk.  We reckon it is largely a sneaky ruse by which the shop gets you in store and then tries to sell accessories and warranties...

3 to offer multi-player gaming over 3G

3, the British 3G mobile phone operator is to start offering real-time multiplayer gaming in April, allowing up to four players to play each other over a network. How developers use this will be interesting; so far mobile phone games have not taken advantage of the fact that every system that they work on has a built-in network link. The first game out will be No Refuge, a tank battle game. Coming soon are games of ‘console quality’ (although which console remains to be seen), including a shooting title called Lock and Load. Players can choose to pay 25p per play, 50p for three days or £3-7.50, depending on title, for permanent access to a game. 

Mouse adaptor for shaky hands

In what may be a blessing to many, a new mouse adaptor that filters out shaky hand movements of those suffering from tremor condition (which apparently three million of us suffer from, in one form or another) is now available for £65 from www.montrosesecam.com The adaptor works on all PCs, and is simply plugged in between the mouse and the PC. It requires no drivers and can be adjusted for sensitivity.

Laptop bags that come back

This TechAir laptop bag has hidden depths. When you buy one of these babies you get a free subscription to i-TRAK, the world's first technically integrated, airline compatible, luggage tracking tag with instant SMS notification. Basically, that means if you lose your laptop, you can find it again using your identification code and whatever techy gadget you have to hand (provided the finder is a nice upstanding citizen who's spotted the i-TRAK info, and not a thief). The bags cost around £55 and also benefit from TechAir's protection technology (so your laptop doesn't break when you drop it). Gemma Cartwright

[Airbag-Protection.com]

Yahoo ups email storage

Although it shouldn't come as a surprise, in response to Google’s Gmail accounts, Yahoo has announced that it is officially beginning the upgrade from 250MB of free storage space to a full 1 Gigabyte of storage space for users around the world. The upgrade should be completed at the end of April and users will also get enhanced virus protection features – including the ability to detach email attachments, something previously only available to paying Yahoo users.

Ken says 'he's on the tube'

Well our dream is coming true – it looks like the London Underground is to go mobile phone friendly by 2008. That’s the plan if the technology gets OK’d in coming trials, slated for 2007. Mayor Ken Livingstone has announced that the plan will see wireless transmitters installed underground to enable both mobile phone and wireless laptop internet connectivity. "We know that many Londoners would like the convenience of being able to use their mobile phones at Tube stations throughout the Underground network," said Mayor Livingstone. "We also want to see how the technology could be taken even further, for instance wireless Internet so passengers could receive up-to-the-minute travel information via their laptop or mobile phone.” Sounds great to us, we always appreciate using our mobi in tunnels while on the Heathrow Express.

Amstrad video Emailer price drop

In a bid to try and increase sales Amstrad has slashed the price of its e3 Emailer. From now on the combined email, videophone and internet unit will sell for £49 rather than the £99 it originally sold for. Amstrad of course hopes users will buy the e3 in a pair so they can make those high-tech, but slightly pricey, video calls.  More on the e3 here

Panny's new HD ready plasmas

Panasonic has unveiled the new PV500 series of Plasma TVs in preparation for the dawn of the High Definition TV era. Next year Sky begins transmission of its HDTV channels and to feast your eyes on the high quality images you’ll need ‘HD Ready’ hardware. Panasonic’s range, like pretty much everyone elses now, will sport that all important ‘HD ready’ logo as the new sets have both HDMI sockets as well as being compatible with HDCP content protection systems. The plasmas, which are available in 37”, 42” or 50” screen sizes (TH-37PV500, TH-42PV500 and TH-50PV500) feature Panny’s VIERA design and include SD and PCMCIA card slots enabling, among other things, slideshows of digital photos. One neat touch is the option of being able to record footage in MPEG4 video format to an SD card for playback on the go via a portable device. All three plasmas also allow the viewer to show images from two sources simultaneously, thanks to the Multi Window feature. This includes Picture-and Picture, Picture-in-Picture, or Picture-out-Picture modes. The 500 series will become available in May this year, no details on prices yet.

See through case for the iPod

PodGear keeps coming up with those iPod accessories. Latest to roll off its production line is the IceBox, a solution for those who want to protect their much-loved iPod or iPod mini without concealing it in an unsightly hard case. The super-thin transparent shell protects all the delicate parts, but still allows access to all controls and ports. The IceBox, which is compatible with 20 Gigabyte iPods and iPod minis is available now for £19.99.

Pink laptop for Breast Cancer

 
Rock Direct, a UK company that specialises in laptops, has customised a Pegasus Ti especially for the Think Pink Cancer Research campaign. For every sale a proportion of the proceeds go to Cancer Research. The notebook run on Intel's Centrino technology with a Pentium M processor up to 755 (2.0GHz), up to 1GB DDR RAM , up to 80GB Hard Drive and a 15.4-inch widescreen display. It's also got a Built-in Subwoofer and comes, as all Rock's laptops do, with a 3 year warranty. Get the full specs on the site.

Rock Direct [via Shiny Shiny]

Fuzzy iBook

Graphic designer Cynthia Malaran has been getting busy with the fake fur, creating this fluffy iBook. Check out her website for step by step instructions on how to glue some fur to your own laptop.

Read [via Shiny Shiny via Boing Boing]

Portable media player with TV tuner

Fresh from Korean company SBTelecom, the iCool might not be the most interestingly named personal video player but it does boast one killer feature. It is among a handful of PVPs to sport an integrated TV tuner, enabling users to not only watch their fave programmes on the go, but also record them on to its hard disk. It also boasts a 3.5-inch screen, an SD card slot and compatibility with MP3 audio and MPEG4 video files. The prospect of watching TV on the move, and even being able to pause it while you fish around for your train ticket, is certainly something that excites the TD team. Shame it appears it could a be long while before the iCool reaches these shores then. More from Dapreview.

Walkie Talkie Watches

Push to Talk doesn't look like it's actually happening any time soon in the UK (if at all) so in the meantime we'll be satisfying our instant chat urges with these Walkie Talkie watches. At £35 per watch, we know what everyone in our families will be getting this Christmas. And once everyone's kitted out, we'll be off on our annual Christmas day walk (annual exercise is very important to us) to play armies.

from the Novelty Gift Company.

Jabra's Bluetooth earful

After its innovative, and rather funky BT200 Bluetooth headset, Jabra is back with yet another new model in the BT330. This compact headset is light and comfortable (weighing in at a mere 17grams) and has a battery life that apparently rivals even the more costly models in the range (7 hours of talk and 200 standby). Featuring an over the ear hook and supporting Bluetooth 1.2, the BT330 will be available very soon for £59.99

Pymusique 2-1 Apple

In another interesting twist in the most recent war between the creators of Pymusique – a piece of software that disables the iTunes digital rights management system  (DRMS)– and Apple, Pymusique has been able to re-open the hole so recently patched by Apple. In a recent blog posting, DVD Jon, author of Pymusique, says that he has already reverse engineered Apple’s latest patch, and people can now legitimately buy music (with DRMS, of course) from the iTunes music store using a Pymusique client. Provided, off course, that you are using a Linux OS on your PC. What Apple will do next is anybody’s guess, but a lawsuit would be our guess. Although this is all very entertaining it does seem there is only one clear loser – the iTunes customer who may well be repeatedly forced into downloading more updates and facing even tighter security restrictions. Watch this space for more info.

Samsung's MP3 line-up

Samsung has taken the wraps off its new range of MP3 players, though at this point we are not entirely sure which models we will get to see in the UK. The most eye-catching model is the YH-J70, a portable video player with a 20 Gigabyte hard disk, closely followed by its smaller brother, the YH-J50, which comes with a smaller 6 Gigabyte drive. As far as audio-only players go, the YP-W3, a 1 Gigabyte flash drive MP3 player contained in a watch, looks the most jaw droppingly cool. The wearable YP-F1 looks like your standard flash drive MP3 player, coming in 256MB, 512MB and 1 Gigabyte varieties. Also coming is the successor to Samsung’s YP-T7, the YP-T8 which comes with a 1.4 inch screen for viewing photos, as well as a flash drive from 256MB-2 Gigabytes of flash memory. Only time will tell if Samsung can make an impact in a market already full of players, notably everybody’s favourite mega-corporation Sony and, of course, Apple.

Siemens camera-free business phone

Siemens is targeting business users with a brand new mobi - the SP65, and its killer feature? Well it is more about what it doesn’t have than what’s on the spec sheet. Notable for its absence is a built-in camera. It seems that many businesses are getting more security conscious, and are hoping that disallowing camera phones will put off more casual attempts at company espionage (think snapping sensitive company documents), voyeurism and other such misdemeanours. It isn’t Siemens first snapper-free handset this year. Last month it delivered the Blackberry powered SK65, which was also camera-less. Apart from that the phone appears to be have the standard business phone package: Tri-band, synchronisation with Lotus Notes and Outlook Express, a 65k screen with 176 x 132 pixels, among other things.

Apple's iPod camera connector

Apple has announced that the UK release date of its official iPod Camera Connector will be March 30th. Using it is apparently simple. You plug your iPod dock in one end and attach your camera via USB on the other end and hey presto all you photies magically appear on your iPod’s hard disk. Although a Belkin version of the product is available, it’s priced at £69.95, a little steep compared with the proposed £19 price tag