Mike Slocombe

  • LG KS20 HSDPA Touchscreen Smartphone Gets European Launch

    LG KS20 HSDPA Touchscreen Smartphone Gets European LaunchTrying to kick over some of the Apple party tables before Friday’s iPhone’s launch is LG’s new business smartphone, the LG-KS20.

    Announced at the IFA 2007 in Berlin, the LG-KS20 HSDPA touchscreen smartphone will initially be released in France and Germany with other countries following hot on its trail.

    Evoking memories of the recent ‘Life On Mars‘ TV programme, a pair of dolly birds were roped in to ‘sex up’ the product, with the 70s-style press photos showing the two glampussies lovingly caressing the new phone.
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  • SplashUp: ‘Mini Photoshop’ Free Online Image Editor

    SplashUp: 'Mini Photoshop' Free Online Image EditorSporting an interface that could at best be described as a ‘loving tribute’ to the legendary – and vastly expensive – image manipulation program Photoshop, Splashup is a cunningly clever web-based editing tool and photo manager.
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  • Ricoh GR Digital II Launch, London

    Ricoh GR Digital II Launch, LondonWhen we first clapped our eyes on the Ricoh GR Digital two years ago, we purred like a cat that had not only found the cream, but had dived whiskers-first into a bottomless pit of the stuff and then been handed the deeds of the cream making factory.

    We’d been looking for a digital equivalent of our favourite ever film compact, the Olympus XA for an eternity, and the GR camera came satisfyingly close.
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  • Sony UX490 (VAIO UX) Micro PC Released

    Sony UX490 (VAIO UX) Micro PC ReleasedMore than a month after Amazon let the cat out of the bag with details of the forthcoming new Sony UX490N Micro PC, the unit is now officially up for grabs for those feeling the pint-sized PC love.

    Like its predecessor the UX390, the UX490 features the same slide-out 4.5″ screen offering SVGA 1024×600 resolution displaying pixie-dwarfing text size, with a full 64-key mini-QWERTY keyboard lurking beneath.
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  • Brits Tap Out One Billion Texts Per Day

    Brits Tap Out One Billion Texts Per DayUs Brits are going SMS supersonic, bashing out over one billion text messages every week, according to new figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA).

    The number is up a hefty 25% higher from the same time last year, with a single week’s total matching the number of text messages sent during the whole of 1999.
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  • Skype/Logitech HQ Video Service London Launch (Video)

    Skype/Logitech Video Service London LaunchIn the velvety red surroundings of what felt a bit like an underground porn cinema, an invisible DJ was pumping out a selection of ultra-bland house music as the large screen displayed nonsense quotes from Lewis Carrol’s, ‘The Mad Gardener’.

    Kah! Those Kerrr-azy Skype folks!
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  • Sharp EL-8145 Calculator – A Step back In Time

    Sharp EL-8145 Calculator - A Step back In TimeFollowing on from our look back at the Toshiba Libretto 50 – a miniaturised blast from the past – we thought we’d pay homage to what is probably our oldest still working (just) portable electronics device, the Sharp EL-8145 calculator.
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  • Casual Games Market Growing By 20 Per Cent A Year

    Casual Games Market Growing By 20 Per Cent A YearThe casual game industry is hauling in $2.25 billion a year and expanding by 20 per cent annually, according to the 2007 market report released by the Casual Games Association (CGA).

    The study claims to “shatter” the industry belief that such games appeal mainly to women, but we’re such N00bs we didn’t even know what a casual game was.

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  • EasyNote XS £350 UMPC Launched By Packard Bell

    Packard Bell Launch £350 EasyNote XS UMPC With looks that only a chemically enhanced mother could love, Packard Bell’s EasyNote XS teensy-weensy ultra-mobile PC has been given a UK launch.

    Claiming to offer all the features of a notebook in a really small package, the EasyNote XS packs a 800×480 resolution TFT screen into its cuddly 230x171x29mm dimensions, and weighs in at a bag-untroubling 950g.
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  • Only 1 Per Cent Of Brits Want An iPhone

    Only 1 Per Cent Of Brits Want An iPhoneApple’s well-oiled publicity machine may well have ensured that half the planet knows all about their innovative iPhone, but when it comes to dipping in their pockets and buying the thing, it seems us Brits are distinctly sniffy, with a recent YouGov survey discovering that just one per cent of Britons polled would be buying an iPhone.
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