November 2006

CDex 1.70 Freeware CD To MP3 Conversion Software (80%)
Although many media players offer the facility to burn MP3 music tracks, the job is often made unnecessarily complex by fiddly menus or hard to find options.
A compact 2.3MB download, the freeware CD Ripper looks to simplify the process of converting music CDs into MP3 tracks.
Although the interface isn’t the most intuitive we’ve ever some across, there’s some real power lurking underneath the no-nonsense program.
Running along the top of the program are a set of CD player controls underneath the usual drop down menus giving access to various settings and preferences.
The configuration tab lets you can customise output file name formats, add files to playlists (PLS or MPU), change output file directories, choose your CD-ROM source drive, change the rip offsets and turn jitter correction on/off.
Under the encoder tab, you can set your preferred encoder, select the encoding bitrate, and set the mode to Stereo, Joint Stereo, Forced Stereo or Mono, with encoder options including Yamaha VQ, Microsoft WMA, Ogg Vorbis and a host of others we’d never heard of.
The main window is used to list the tracks to be burnt, with a set of icons running vertically along the right hand side of the program offering CD to WAV, CD to MPEG, Partial CD track to MPEG, WAV to MPEG and MPEG to WAV conversion options.
It has to be said that these icons aren’t the easiest to understand but at least hovering your mouse over them produces an explanatory text pop up.
Burn it up
Using CDex at the default settings is dead simple – shove a CD into your PC, load up CDex, select the tracks you want converted to MP3s, click on the “Extract CD Tracks To Compressed Audio files” button and sit back and let it do its stuff. Job done!
For those who like to have a little more control over the process, things can get a tad more complicated, with some of the menu options being a little vague.
For example, if you want to download individual track information for your CD tracks, you have to click on the ‘remote CDDB’ button (last but one button on the right hand menu) and so long as you’re connected to the internet, it’ll try and find the data from the freedb server.
It’s a shame that the program makes no attempt to tell people what the chuffin’ heck ‘CDDB’ means (it stands for ‘CD Data Base’ ), and it took us a while to figure out how to set CDex up to automatically download the information (Options > Settings > Remote CDDB, select “Auto connect to remote CDDB” and include an email address).
You can also record sound files using your sound card via the Tools / Record Files menu, specifying where you want MP3 files stored on your PC, with a host of options letting you set folder naming conventions.
Conclusion
CDex is a simple, no-frills program for converting CDs to mp3s and vice versa, and it does the job with the minimum of fuss.
For users who just want to convert their CDs to MP3s without wading knee deep in menu options, it’s a great tool, and power users will appreciate the hands-on control that’s available in the advanced preferences.
However, complete newbies looking for big cartoon-like graphics and hand-holding wizards may find this program a little too fiddly for their tastes.
Despite its foibles, it’s long been our first choice for converting CDs to MP3 files – after all, it’s small, fast, simple and – best of all – it’s free! Why not give it a go too?
Features: 80%
Ease of use: 70%
Value For Money: 90%
Overall: 80%
CDexr
17 November, 2006
Aces Texas Hold’em – No Limit Poker Review (85%)
If you fancy yourself as a bit of a Cool Hand Luke kind of character when it comes to gambling, then Texas Hold’Em No Limit poker is a great way to practice your skills when you’re on the move.
Available for the Palm OS, Blackberry, Pocket PC, Microsoft Smartphones and Java enabled mobiles, the game lets you take on up to 22 computerised opponents.
It’s played to the same rules as poker, except each player only gets two cards each, with five cards shared between all the players.
The artificial intelligence of the computer players is said to one of the best available on mobile gaming platforms, and we certainly came across some tough opponents (although we expect that our miserable poker skills wouldn’t challenge a BBC Micro version of the game, if such a thing existed).
Interface
We tested the game on a Palm Treo 650, and it was easy to play the game one-handed, with all options available via the 5-way controller.
The animated, well polished interface showed three opponents at a time, scrolling left to right to show other players (there’s full support for all Palm screen sizes, from 160×160 up to 480×320 with horizontal display options).
Other players are represented by faces and names, and it’s simple to get stuck in with the betting action, with the interface making it easy to call, raise, fold or go ‘all in.’
Customising options
There’s plenty of customisation options on offer too, letting you set your cash levels and fine-tune your opponents’ names, faces, and skill levels, from ‘Dead Money’ through to ‘Hold ‘Em Pro.’
Fact fans will enjoy the Statistics screen showing details of hands played, hands won, folds, raises, tournament wins or, in our case, how many times we’d left the table without the shirt on our back.
For the asking price of $20, this a great little game for passing away spare hours on the train (or perhaps wasting time at the office) and for poker fans it could prove a nifty way to hone your bluffing skills.
Despite our lamentable skills, we found it to be an entertaining, addictive and fun game and – dare we say it – we actually seemed to be getting better after a few hours play.
But perhaps we won’t be booking that plane to Las Vegas quite yet.
Features: 85%
Interface: 80%
Ease of use: 85%
Value For Money: 80%
Overall: 85%
Concrete Software
16 November, 2006
London Open Source Jam
16.Nov.06Some people may choose to present a 5 minute lightning talk on what they’re doing. Then little groups will form and people will work together on code! We’ll encourage contributing good things back to open source projects, or maybe the launch of new projects. Belgrave House, 76 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 9TQ http://www.red-bean.com/ospowiki/LondonOpenSourceJam
16 November, 2006
3 X-Series Launch: Analysis
3 has seriously stepped up the offerings for providing services to mobile handsets. Their new service, X-Series, offers viewing of your own TV using Orb and free voice calls using Skype.
The general data use will be flat-fee, or “all X-Series services will be free at the point of use, subject only to fair usage limits,” as Three puts it. Initially there will be an additional fee for the use of Slingbox and Orb.
Hutchison Whampoa, the owners of 3, haven’t been doing this all by themselves. The partner list is extensive including Skype, Sling Media, Yahoo, Nokia, Google, EBay, Microsoft’s MSN, Orb and Sony Ericsson.
The service is launching in the UK on 1st December, with Three’s other markets (Italy, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Israel, Ireland and Sweden) during 2007.
The service will launch with two handsets supporting all of the features, the Nokia N73 and the Sony Ericsson W950i
Comment
Three are playing to their strengths. They and their network know how to shift data around – they’ve been pushing video (the most dense use of data) on their networks commercially for over two years. As Frank Sixt, Group Finance Director of Hutchison Whampoa, said, “This is why we created 3, and what our network was designed to deliver.”
3 have taken a number of applications that have been available to the technically aware for some time, but cleverly brought them together into a single package that all consumers should be able to understand.
It’s companies like Hutchison Whampoa that start moving industries. Significant innovation within the mobile business has been static for a long time, with only small changes to their offerings. There’s been a near unanimous ignoring of VoIP services running over networks – not surprising really when it would remove a significant source of income for them.
There will be repercussions – not least from the TV companies who really don’t like the idea that people can watch their TV when they’re on the move. To be precise it’s the fact that they don’t make any money out of it, is the bit they don’t like.
Phrase Spotting – Mobile broadband – the second time we’ve heard that phrase in as many days. We wonder if Orange had heard what 3 would be announcing and decided to scoop them on the first usage.
Three X-Series
16 November, 2006
Moixa USBCell: Rechargeable Batteries via USB
UK firm Moixa have come up with a rechargeable battery that can be re-charged on a USB port, as well as more normal battery chargers.
You know what it’s like when you go on trips, you end up with a bag full of chargers and plug converters. These batteries from Moixa could lighten your load by removing a battery recharger from your packing.
It achieves this flexibility by popping the top of the AA battery off to reveal a USB connector. Charging the currently available 1,300mAh cell fully takes six hours, but we understand that quick 10 minutes charges will give results too. Moixa claim the batteries don’t suffer from ‘battery memory,’ where capacity can be quickly lost by brief charging.
We imagine that the batteries won’t be used as the primary source of power, but highly useful for a charge anywhere backup. While 1,300mAh isn’t ideal with high-drain devices like cameras, it’ll get you through a sticky patch.
It initially launched in September, but somehow we didn’t notice it. Todays announcement of their deal with DSGi, the largest electronics retailing group in the UK that includes such delights as Currys, Currys.digital and PC World, brought it back into focus for us.
Moixa have other batteries in the pipeline, including AAA, 9V and most interestingly, phone and device batteries.
A bit of background on Moixa. You may have heard of them before, they’re behind the PDA folding keyboard, which is in use in over 2 million products worldwide.
If you’re wondering where the heck does a name like Moixa come from, it’s the Greek word Axiom reversed. Used it in the following way, “Moixa rethinks market axioms and creates new technology and Intellectual Property.”
They retail for £13 and are in UK and US shops now.
USB Cell
16 November, 2006
UK Broadband Consumer Satisfaction Hits New Low
A new YouGov survey has found that “free” broadband deals have resulted in lower customer satisfaction levels.
The figures released by the uSwitch Customer Satisfaction Report show that most providers aren’t managing to keep their increasing customer numbers happy, with a 9% drop in broadband satisfaction levels registered among the 11,000 customers surveyed.
The report also puts consumer’s trust in their Internet suppliers at an “all time low”.
Scraping along the bottom of the customer satisfaction levels is the notorious TalkTalk service run by Carphone Warehouse, which could only muster 70% of punters happy with their service.
The service was the subject of a recent BBC Watchdog investigation after thousands of customers failed to get connected and were forced to endure lengthy waits on costly pay-per-minute helplines.
Orange fared just as badly, coming joint bottom, while Virgin.net scored the highest customer satisfaction levels at 85%, ahead of Telewest and Tiscali.
uSwitch said that despite1.5 million new customers signing up broadband over the past ten months, providers had failed to match the growth with improvements in customer service levels.
“It’s disappointing to see that the majority of providers are failing to accompany the growth in customer numbers by sufficient growth in customer service operations and the required investment in their technology to ensure that they are looking after customer needs in an acceptable manner,” said Steve Weller, communications chief services at uSwitch.
“These results should provide a clear signal that customers are demanding a more comprehensive, sophisticated range of services, and it is becoming more important than ever before for providers to offer value for money in terms of both price and service,” he added.
uSwitch.
15 November, 2006
Orange Expand Mobile BBC World Deal To 8 Countries
The BBC is expanding its distribution with Orange to take its international news service, BBC World, to Orange mobile phones in eight countries.
The live stream of BBC World has been available on Orange mobiles in France for the past two years, so given this background it make sense for Orange to want to expand the coverage. They’re taking it to quite an assortment of countries – Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania, Portugal, Jordan, Egypt and the Dominican Republic.
The live streams will be distributed over either 3G or EDGE to what they’re calling “mobile broadband customers,” (first time we’ve heard Orange use the term before).
We spoke to Gerry Ritchie, BBC World’s Regional Director and Business Development, Europe, Middle East, South Asia, Americas (A title that would at one time have been an anathema – BizDev … at the BBC!) about the deal.
Gerry said that in the time that they’ve been doing video to mobiles, they’ve come to realise that ‘made for’ packages (edited summaries) don’t really work. When people hear about an event, they “turn to BBC World for immediate coverage, so even a 10 minute editing delay won’t work. People place trust in the BBC brand, as it is known for the quality of its reporting, not just getting the news there first, but making sure it’s accurate.”
BBC World is held within the commercial arm of the BBC, so Orange are paying the BBC for the privilege of showing it to their subscribers. Gerry wouldn’t give specific details of deal, but we did learn that they don’t do deals on the number of streams that are watched.
The deal isn’t on an exclusive basis, as the BBC want to get their content distributed as widely as they can, but clearly Orange will have a major advantage in being the first mover.
BBC World has already been highly successful in getting its content distributed around the world, including 46 cruise liners, 36 airlines and 26 mobile phone platforms.
BBC World
15 November, 2006
Handmark Announces Zagat To Go v5.0
Handmark have released the latest version of their consumer survey-based dining, travel and leisure information program, Zagat To Go v5.0.
Included in the new version are hotel, resort and spa guide listings as well as a guide to America’s top golf courses, along with updated restaurant listings for smartphones.
Offering automated wireless content and rating updates, Zagat comes with detailed street-level maps, and can provide turn-by-turn driving directions on the user’s handheld.
Clearly going for the caddy-dragging, business travelling set, Zagat are making a big ho-hah about their Top Golf Course guide, which is based on the opinions of nearly 6,000 ~~ditchwater-dull golf bores~~ keen sportsmen..
The program now carries survey rankings for over 25,000 restaurants and nightspots in 70+ cities, with automatic free content updates.
“Zagat To Go v5.0 will help travellers find hotels, restaurants, golf courses and other entertainment destinations – along with qualified recommendations – while on the move,” enthused Tim Zagat, co-founder of Zagat Survey.
“Today’s consumers rely more than ever on their mobile phones for restaurant and hotel information. Handmark is proud to continue our long-standing relationship with Zagat to provide the latest survey findings on the Treo, BlackBerry, motorola Q and other Windows Mobile handhelds,” bubbled Douglas Edwards, Handmark co-founder and executive vice president.
Zagat To Go v5.0 is available for the Palm OS, BlackBerry, motorola Q and other Windows Mobile Pocket PCs and Smartphone platforms and comes as free upgrade for existing customers forking out the $29.95 yearly subscription fee.
mobile.zagat.com.
15 November, 2006
Blogger Beta Bums Off Brixton Bloggee
Now, we understand that when you agree to install a beta product, you can expect a few glitches.
Maybe a few features won’t work, maybe a few functions won’t do what you expect, or maybe you’ll get the odd error or two.
When it’s a Google beta – a company whose innovative beta programs are often more polished than the final versions of some software products – you can usually feel pretty sure that they’re not going to foist some unfinished rubbish on you.
Well, at least that’s what we thought before trying out their dreadful Blogger beta ‘upgrade.’
Seduced by the shiny new features bigged up on the Blogger homepage, we foolishly elected to move over to the new Blogger Beta and have been struggling with it ever since.
Immediately, we were plagued with time outs, and that ruddy annoying animated exclamation mark icon that appears when Blogger’s uploading became a near permanent fixture on our screen.
Trying to upload a simple blog post seemed an impossible task, with this error being repeatedly thrown up: “Your Publish is Taking Longer than Expected. To continue waiting for it to finish, click here.”
Settings were lost. Links stopped working. The archive seemed to have disappeared altogether as all links gave ‘404’ errors (fortunately we found that the archived pages were still there, but the links had all been incorrectly set).
After several hour of fiddling about, we’ve only just got the blog working again and we’re not entirely sure how. You can see it here (or at least we hope you can).
Google’s perpetual betas
After I had a late night whinge on the urban75 bulletin board, a poster sagely observed about Google’s beta policy:
“The worst thing is that they keep their products in beta for so long. Meaning you’re never quite sure if it’s a fully working product and you can’t complain when it goes wrong. It’s a very ‘google’ thing to do too, they practically invented the idea of the never-ending beta program.”
In our experience, it felt like we were dealing with an alpha product and seeing as the process is one way, once you move to Blogger Beta you can’t switch back.
We’re sure that in the end Google will produce a nicely polished update to Blogger that consumers will love, but for now we strongly advise users to stick to the old version.
After all, life’s too short to be staring at a “Your Publish is Taking Longer than Expected” screen.
Blogger Help Group (you’ll need this)
14 November, 2006
iPods Integrated Into Planes
Apple have just announced that they have signed deals with six major airlines, offering the first seamless integration between iPod and the planes in-flight entertainment systems.
Starting mid 2007, Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United passengers will be able to charge their iPod while in the air, but more interestingly be able to watch the video held on their iPods on the seat-back monitor.
Beyond that, Panasonic Avionics Corporation is working with Apple to build it into other airlines
Comment
This is a great deal for Apple. Not only do they fix the problem with people running their batteries down during a flight, and possibly not having any juice when they land and continue their journey, but as they’ve got first mover advantage on this. It’s going to be significantly harder for another player to have their kit integrated in to the planes. There’s only so many connectors that the airlines can make available.
We asked Apple if it was an exclusive deal, thereby blocking out other media players, but at the time of going to press we hadn’t heard back.
For the passenger, surely the wise move would be just to provide a USB port and allow people to plug whichever device they have with them, and have the in-flight system decode the media file and play them back. Thereby not being locked to a make of player.
The only down side we can see for this is for the airlines, as they won’t be making money out of charging for films.
14 November, 2006