Mike Slocombe

TEAC Retro R1 AM/FM Radio
If you find that the modern world is just to fast, too brash, too complicated and just too goddamn digital, you may find TEAC’s new R1 AM/FM Radio the antidote to all those bleeping bits and bytes.
Sporting a classic styling (that worryingly reminds us a bit of Doctor Who’s Cybermen), this is a retro radio that looks like it will be happier blasting out Bill Haley rather than Radiohead.
For starters, there’s not a single LCD, OLED or LED screen in sight, with just a solitary blue light on the large rotary tuning dial serving as a reminder of what century we’re in.
With no station presets on board, users have to find stations the old way, lining up the frequencies etched on the dial against the blue light, while level-tweaking, graphic-preset pushing EQ freaks will have to look elsewhere as the R1 comes with just two stately controls – old fashioned bass and treble.
Although -disappointingly – there’s no DAB radio to be found onboard, TEAC has included a line-in socket so that users can play back tunes from new fangled iPods or other players.
The R-1W measures up at 238 × 134.5 × 127mm, weighs a reassuringly solid 1.4kg and is expected to start appearing in the shops around now.
There’s no UK price announced yet, but we’ve seen it on Americans sites advertised around the $100 (£54) mark.
Specifications
High-Quality AM/FM Analog Tuner
Gear-Reduction Tuning Dial For Ultra-Fine Tuning
Separate Bass And Treble Controls
Function Selector: AM/FM/AUX/OFF
Large Rotary Volume Control Knob
Telescoping FM Antenna For Outdoor Use
FM “Pigtail-Style” Antenna For Indoor Use
Rear-Panel Headphone Jack
Rear Panel Auxiliary Input (Mini-Jack)
Auxiliary Cable Included For Easy iPod Connection
Auxiliary Input And Cable Compatible With Any Device With A Headphone Output
Integrated Handle For Easy Portability
Built-In Rechargeable Battery
AC Adapter
Dimensions: 9.3″ W x 5.1″ H x 5.2″ D
Weight: 3.3 Pounds
TEAC
14 June, 2006
GSM Mobiles Hit The Two Billion Mark
The second billionth GSM mobile phone is expected to be connected this weekend according to the GSM Association (GSMA).
This historic milestone has been reached as mobile phone sales continue to go ballistic worldwide, with new users signing up at the rate of 1,000 per minute to GSM and 3GSM services (that’s just under 18 per second stat fans!).
“This is the fastest growth of technology ever witnessed,” exclaimed Craig Ehrlich, Chairman of the GSMA.
“While it took just 12 years for the industry to reach the first billion connections. The second billion has been achieved in just two and a half years boosted by the phenomenal take up of mobile in emerging markets such as China, India, Africa and Latin America, which accounted for 82% of the second billion subscribers,” he added, breathlessly.
Although it seems hard to remember a world without vibrating, bleeping little talk boxes lurking in our pockets, it was only back in 1991 when mobile services based on GSM technology were first launched in Finland.
From those freezing Finnish acorns a whopping great global network has flourished, with more than 690 mobile networks providing GSM services across 213 countries.
GSM/ W-CDMA/3GSM now accounts for 82.4% of all global mobile connections, with 3GSM users making up just 72 million of the two billion total.
The top three
Today, fast-developing China is the biggest single GSM market on the planet, boasting more than 370 million users.
In second place is Russia with 145 million, followed by India with 83 million and the USA with 78 million users.
Such is the popularity of mobiles in India that they have become the fastest selling consumer product, shunting trusty bicycles into the number two slot.
More users in the developing world
With GSM hitting two million, GSM can now claim to be the first communications technology to have more users in the developing world than the developed world, with affordable prices helping to bridge the ‘digital divide.’
The GSM Association continues to develop initiatives to help folks in the developing world gain access to mobile communications, developing a sub$30 low cost mobile phone and putting pressure on governments to remove tax barriers on mobile products and services.
If you’re the kind of person that like to be right there when the big two billion figure is hit, you can while away the hours watching the total update on the GSM World homepage. Too much excitement!
14 June, 2006
LG Lets Rip With LW20 EXPRESS Laptop
LG has announced their new multimedia-tastic 12-inch notebook PC, the LW25 EXPRESS DUAL, which is, apparently, “a portable multimedia powerhouse.”
Building on the success of last year’s LW20 EXPRESS, LG’s sleek new lappie serves up a beefed up performance courtesy of a dual-core processor.
The attractive laptop also comes with the latest BlueCore4 technology, which allows for snappier wireless connections between other devices as well as support for the extra-nippy Gigabit Ethernet.
The 12.1″ WXGA (that’s 1280×800 in English) display comes with LG’s Fine Bright Technology, and is supported by an Intel GMA950 graphics card (up to 256MB).
The built in optical drive (or Super Multi ODD as LG likes to call it) supports playback and recording of all existing optical media formats inluding dual-layer DVD burning, allowing you to cram up to 8.5GB data on a single DVD.
LG are also claiming full support for Microsoft’s soon-come-but-don’t-hold-your-breath Vista operating system, so it looks reasonably ‘future proofed.’
The LW25 looks to be a good choice for road warriors too, weighing a shoulder-pleasing 1.89 kg (including batteries and an ODD) with the six-cell, 5,400-mAh battery providing a claimed battery life of up to six hours.
Photos are still thin on the ground, but we like the look of what we’ve seen so far, with the LW25 available in natty red or blue finishes.
The warranty is more impressive than most as well, with 3-year cover and a first year international warranty.
As for pricing and availability, your guess is as good as ours at the moment as LG seem to be keeping mum.
Specifications:
Processor Intel Core Duo Processor T2400(1.86GHz) ~, 667MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache
Chipset Mobile Intel 945GM Express
Display 12.1″ WXGA(1280×800), Fine Bright Technology
Graphics Intel GMA950 (up to 256MB)
HDD 60GB
Wireless Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG(802.11a/b/g)
Bluetooth Yes (BlueCore4)
Multimedia Card
Slot 5-in-1 (XD/SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro)
Audio SRS TruSurround XT, SRS WOW XT, 5.1CH Dolby Digital, XTS Pro, 24bit High Definition
Warranty 3yrs Parts & Labour, 1st yr international
Casing Red or Blue
LG
13 June, 2006
Thanko Silent Mouse and Silent Keyboard
Is your late night keyboard clattering keeping your partner awake? Is your incessant mouse-clicking sending your friends mad? Or have you just got a bit of a problem with clattering, clicking things?
Then be thankful for Japanese manufacturers Thanko, who have produced a matching silent keyboard and mouse combo for the noise-bothered.
Silent Mouse, Scrolly Mouse
The silent mouse is a standard looking affair with two mouse buttons and a scroll wheel, but the makers claim that both the wheel and the mouse buttons have been silenced to one-fifth that of a normal mouse.
The illustration on their site seems to suggest that they’ve achieved this hush factor by simply slamming in a slab of silicone stuff into the mouse, but we’re sure there must be a bit more hi-tech jiggerypokery involved than that (surely?!!).
Sporting an 800 dpi optical sensor and measuring up at 60x105x35mm with a weight of 90 grams, the USB Silent Mouse is compatible with both Microsoft Windows 2000/XP and Mac OS X, and is available from dynamism.com for $35 (~£19, ~€28).
The keyboard that’s as quiet as a, err, mouse
Partnering the shhhhhhhh-tastic mouse is Thanko’s new Silent Keyboard, a silver and black USB affair.
Once again, Thanko have broken out the silicon to dampen the rattle of keys down to a hush-hush 30.2db, which should let you bash out your magnum opus late at night while your partner/cat/pet donkey snoozes on undisturbed.
It’s a pretty basic looking affair with none of the groovy extras that Logitech like to bolt on, so gadget freaks are unlikely to be impressed.
Release date is set for the end of the month, priced at around 4,000 Yen (~£19, ~€28)
thanko.jp/silent_keyboard/ [Japanese]
13 June, 2006
The World’s Most Expensive Mouse Mat?
Designed exclusively for idiots with more money than sense, the official Formula 1 carbon and leather mouse mat can now be bought online for just £260 ($489, €380)
Whereas most folks are happy to go along with some wafer thin promotional freebie or a tatty old mouse mat bought for a fiver, the Formula 1 mat is clearly designed for loaded types who go through life struggling to find a connection between common sense and value.
The ‘none-more-black’ mat has been hand-made in England exclusively for Formula 1 by specialist composite technicians who make Formula One monocoques.
I guess we must be a bit thick here because we had to look up what ‘monocoques’ meant. We can now, however, tell fellow ignoramuses that it means, “a type of vehicle design in which the body and chassis are in one piece”. So now you know.
The blurb on the Formula 1 webpage insists that the carbon mouse mat was designed “using state of the art automotive 3D modelling software.”
We’re not entirely sure what 3D car design tools are needed to roll out a piece of flat material, but we can tell you that the mat is made of solid polished carbon fibre with an inlaid leather mouse area.
It looks like it might just be able to take the almighty stress of having an optical or ball-operated mouse rolling over its surface too, with the carbon being “cured to 120º C at 100 psi.” Thank heavens for that.
(There is a rather better looking all-carbon version available for ‘just’ £250, but this won’t work with an optical mouse).
Just in case no-one’s noticed that you’re the owner of an outrageously overpriced mat – backed with the finest Italian black suede we’ll have you know – the thing is embossed in carbon with the F1 Formula 1 logo.
We bet that will impress the ladies. Not.
F1 store
8 June, 2006
Mobile Consumers Are Lapping Up Convergence
Sad but (supposedly) true: a new study by Nokia has found that over one in five mobile owners said they’d find losing their phone more upsetting than their wallet, credit cards and – unbelievably – even their wedding ring.
Tempted though we are to find those people and give them a reality-introducing slap around the face with a wet fish, the survey does reflect the growing importance of mobiles in everyday life.
Clicking ticking mobiles
Nearly half (44 per cent) of mobile owners now use them as their primary camera – 68 per cent in India – with over two thirds predicting that music-enabled mobiles will soon rule the world, replacing MP3 players like iPods.
It doesn’t look like a good time to invest in Timex stocks, with the study finding that seventy two percent of mobile users no longer own a separate alarm clock – and nearly three quarters use their phones as their main watch or clock.
Nokia commissioned the research in 11 countries around the globe to discover people’s attitudes towards current and future mobiles, and generally found that people *heart* the things the planet over.
Such is the love for mobiles that users want to see them integrated even closer with their lives, with 42 per cent wanting their phones to be able to chat to their home networks, printer, PC, stereo, TV and mobile devices.
Curiously, 72 per cent of Saudi Arabians also wanted their fridges to be included in this network.
Surfing on the move
Mobile surfing continues to rise in popularity, with over a third (36%) of respondents browsing on their mobiles at least once a month, with Japan going for it big time, with 37% going online daily.
“The results strongly demonstrate that people are buying into the idea of convergence – they really do want one device that does it all, from taking quality images, to storing their music collections and operating a digitally connected home,” commented Tapio Hedman, senior vice-president of marketing, multimedia at Nokia.
Nokia
7 June, 2006
A Third Of UK Business Employ Email Snoopers
New research from messaging security specialists Proofpoint has revealed that more than a third of blue-chip companies in both the US and UK hire dedicated staff to snoop on their employee’s emails.
Their survey of 112 “email decision makers” at UK enterprises with 1,000+ employees found that 38 per cent of firms employed staff to read, analyse or generally sniff about outbound emails from staff (a figure that rises to 40 per cent for companies with more than 20,000 employees.)
A total of nearly 62 per cent UK companies were found to perform regular audits of outbound email content.
UK companies estimate that nearly 1 in 5 outgoing emails contains content that poses a “legal, financial or regulatory risk” with the most common form of non-compliant email content containing “adult, obscene or potentially offensive” content (or, more likely, staff trying to lighten the misery of their dull jobs by sharing a joke).
With companies becoming more concerned about internal security breaches rather than external threats, 34 per cent of companies claimed that their business was impacted by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information over the last year.
With all this secret email snooping going on, bosses have been delivering “You’re Fired!” messages with gusto, with more than one in three sacking an employee for violating email policies in the past 12 months.
There’s also been lots of finger wagging going off in the boss’s office, with over 70 per cent of UK companies disciplining an employee for violating email policies in the last year,
The report goes on to sat that just over a fifth of UK companies have given employees a shoutdown for violating blog or message board policies in the past 12 months, with 3.6 per cent getting the boot for their troubles.
Fear the email
Nearly half of UK companies declared themselves to be concerned about Web-based email being used to send confidential or proprietary information, with 81.3 per cent saying that it is “important” to reduce the legal and financial risks associated with outbound email in the next 12 months.
Of course, it’s worth noting that the folks who commissioned the survey – Proofpoint – just happen to run a business offering secure/filtered messaging systems, so it might be an idea to seek out the saltcellar when reading their report.
Email-free workzones
Looking to the future, Graham Titterington, principal analyst at Ovum, sees the automated blocking of outbound mail as the future security choice for most companies, as it would sidestep the current grey area concerning the legality of monitoring personal emails.
Quite how they’d the deal with terminally bored employees deprived of a lifeline to the real world may be another matter though.
Proofpoint
7 June, 2006
LCD TVs To Rule The Roost By 2009
In a few years time, kids will be clutching their sides and laughing at the thought that their parents used to watch TV on massive great boxes that filled up half the living room.
We know this because a new report tells us that LCD TVs are the future, with worldwide ownership of the slimline goggleboxes overtaking lardy CRT TVs in 2010.
According to a new analysts iSuppli, sales of LCD TVs are positively hurtling along, with shipments expected to rise by 74 per cent to 46.7 million units this year – way up on their original estimate of 41.9 million units.
After wheeling out their extrapolation-o-meter and pulling assorted levers and flywheels, the company predicts that LCDs will account for 48 per cent of TVs shipped in 2009, while chunky old-school CRTs will struggle with just 42 per cent.
By the next year, the report predicts that LCDs will account for a hefty 56 per cent of all TVs shipped.
Sales of rear-projection TVs and plasmas look set to remain a small part of the overall market, claiming just 3 percent and 7 per cent of the market respectively in 2009.
Style over picture
Although punters are happy to plunge headlong into the lithe, angular world of the LCD TV, many still believe that the ‘umble CRT TV still provides better picture quality – and what’s more, they cost less.
However, declining LCD TV prices brought about by improvements in manufacturing continue to bring the once stratospherically-priced TVs into the economic reach of your average punter, with the average price of 32-inch and 40/ 42-inch LCD TVs falling by 17 per cent and 14 per cent respectively in the last five months.
LG.Philips remain the raging King Kongs of the LCD TV manufacturer jungle with the biggest slice of the market, followed by Samsung, China’s Chi Mei and Acer-owned AU Optoelectronics.
In the fourth quarter, South Korea produced nearly 45 per cent of the world’s LCD TVs, with Taiwan grabbing 40.1 per cent.
iSuppli
7 June, 2006
Windows XP SP1 Support Ends October 2006
If you’re still running Ye Olde versions of Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Service Pack 1a (SP1a), you’d better get your modem in gear as Microsoft will be ending support for these products on 10 October, 2006.
From that point onwards, you can kiss goodbye to security updates for these service packs, with Microsoft recommending that customers still running SP1 or SP1a upgrade to Windows XP Service Pack 2 el pronto.
What version have I got?
You can check what version of XP you’re running by right-clicking the My Computer, and then clicking Properties.
If “Service Pack 1” appears under System, you are – believe it or not – running Windows XP SP1, so it’s time to get downloading (by the way, don’t bother installing SP1a – go straight for SP2).
Out of the goodness of their altruistic hearts, Microsoft have extended the SP1 support end date a whole three weeks from the original 16th Sept, 2006 to 10th Oct, 2006. Gawd bless ’em.
A little bit of history
The SP1 release sure has been around a long time, first seeing the light of day on the 9th September, 2002 (blimey, was it really that long ago?).
This added USB 2.0 support and a Set Program Access and Defaults utility, letting users control the default application for activities such as web browsing and instant messaging.
Service Pack 1a came out later as naughty Microsoft were forced to remove their Java virtual machine as a result of a lawsuit with Sun Microsystems.
Service Pack 2 (SP2) came out on August 6, 2004 after the usual delays and added new functionality to the operating system, including an improved firewall, better Wi-Fi support, a pop-up ad blocker for Internet Explorer, and Bluetooth support and the rather good Windows Movie Maker 2.
Service Pack 3
Crawling over the horizon at Microsoft’s leisure is Windows XP Service Pack 3, currently with a “preliminary” release date of “2nd half 2007.”
Scheduled for release after the launch of Windows Vista, Service Pack 3 looks set to include their Firefox challenging Internet Explorer 7 browser and Windows Media Player 11 (both already available in beta form), and many other changes.
But don’t hold your breath on this one.
Microsoft
7 June, 2006
Google Spreadsheets Heads Into Excel Territory
Google is ready to shove its size nines deep into Microsoft territory with the launch of a free Web-based spreadsheet program, Google Spreadsheets.
The new program will allow people to view and simultaneously edit data online while conducting what Google describe as “in-document” chat.
This new spreadsheet product looks sure to put the heat on Microsoft, who have long ruled the roost with their desktop-based, spreadsheet app Excel long being the de facto office tool.
Google’s announcement comes hot on the heels of their purchase of Writely, a Web-based word processor, and puts them in direct competition with the Redmond mob who are busy prepping their new online-focused Windows Live and Office Live services.
Launching in beta form today, Google Spreadsheets supports the import and export of documents in the .xls format used in Excel and the .csv (common separate values) format, although it is not yet compatible with many of Excel’s more powerful features – the program can’t, for example, create charts or serve up control menus by right clicking on the screen.
Jonathan Rochelle, the Google Spreadsheets product manager, explained that the new service will be able to handle several hundred formulas used to manipulate data in Excel, but it won’t be able to handle more complex functions like Excel macros.
He explained that the program’s main goal is to make it easier for family, friends or co-workers to read and work on the same spreadsheet from different computers at different times, letting authorised users add and edit data without having to keep sending e-mail attachments back and forth.
“When people want to share and collaborate, we think this product fits in well,” he added.
Users must have a Google account to use the new service, which will initially only be offered to a limited number of users.
Google
6 June, 2006