Mike Slocombe

  • China’s Mobile Users Pass The 600 Million Mark

    China's Mobile Users Pass The 600 Million MarkThe days of a truly connected globe are drawing nearer with the news that China now has more than 600 million mobile phone users.

    The figures, for June this year, mean that every one in five mobile phone users is Chinese with the user base increasing by 40.56 million from the end of last year – a hefty 6.76 million per month, on average.
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  • Olympus Evolt E-410 Review: Digital SLR Camera (Part 4 – 78%)

    In this final part of the Olympus Evolt E-410 Digital SLR Camera Review we look at image quality and give you our conclusion.

    Image quality
    Straight out of the box and set to auto, results were pretty good, although we found the camera had a propensity to over-expose in high contrast scenes with bright sunshine and shade (curiously, other reviewers found that the Olympus under-exposed, something we only encountered a couple of times).
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  • Olympus Evolt E-410 Review: Digital SLR Camera (Part 3)

    Yesterday we looked at the lens, screen and viewfinder on the Olympus Evolt E-410 Digital SLR Camera.

    Using the camera
    First off, we have to say that we loved the size of the camera. Although it’s by no means pocketable, the skinny shape meant that we were more inclined to grab the E-410 instead of a digital compact, and the minimal weight meant that it wasn’t a burden to shunt about all day.
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  • Olympus Evolt E-410 Review: Digital SLR Camera (Part 2)

    Yesterday we took the Olympus Evolt E-410 Digital SLR Camera in hand and looked at the top plate and lens.

    Viewfinder
    The prism style viewfinder comes with a comfortable removable rubber eye cup (and dioptre adjustment) but offers a rather tunnel-like view, with the optics considerably smaller than, say, a Nikon D80. Although we moaned about the titchy viewfinder at first, in reality we soon got used to it and it was bright enough to avoid any real usability issues.
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  • Palm Treo 500V Launches In London

    Palm Treo 500V Launches In LondonWe were here in Soho to attend the London launch of the new Treo 500V phone, a 3G/UMTS handset available exclusively to Vodafone customers from 1st October (the phone will become available without contract in Jan next year).

    As you may have noticed, our earlier prediction that Palm was about to launch a European version of the 755p turned out to be nothing but wishful thinking, so we’ll have to settle for the Windows version for now.
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  • Olympus Evolt E-410 Review: Digital SLR Camera

    Currently the lightest and slimmest digital SLR available, the Olympus E-410 might bring a nostalgic tear to the eye of old school Olympus owners, with the camera’s traditional lines evoking memories of the legendary OM series of film cameras.
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  • Amazon To Launch ‘Literary iPod?’

    Amazon To Launch 'Literary iPod?'Online bookseller Amazon is about to unveil a wireless electronic book reader, according to The Independent.

    Described as “a kind of literary iPod,” the paper reports that UK publishers are already scrambling to digitise their entire range of titles in time for the product’s launch, rumoured to be as close as a month away.

    The book reader follows hot on the heels of the Sony eBook Reader, which impressed us after a brief hands-on trial a while ago. Sony’s device is around the size of a hardback book, is easy to read in daylight and can store up to 80 digital books with a battery life of around 7,500 pages.
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  • Facebook Friends ‘Aren’t Real Chums’

    Facebook Friends 'Aren't Real Chums'You may well have screenfulls of grinning online buddies spanning a host of social networking sites, but new research shows that when it comes to the real world, you don’t have any more close friends than the rest of us.

    Will Reader, an evolutionary psychologist at Sheffield Hallam University headed up a team studying Facebook and MySpace users and found that, “weak ties are (more common) but there is no difference in the number of close friends people have.”
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  • General Dynamics Itronix GoBook MR-1 Rugged Laptop

    General Dynamics Itronix GoBook MR-1 Rugged LaptopDesigned for rugged outdoor blokes with lantern jaws and a taste for adventure, the launch of the General Dynamics Itronix “ultra-mobile” PC has been announced for us Europe types.

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  • MyGeek Subscription Service Offers 24/7 Remote Home PC Help

    MyGeek Subscription Service Offers 24/7 Remote Home PC HelpYou probably know the feeling. It’s 4am, there’s a vital deadline approaching in the morning, your PC’s just gone on the blink and that techie mate that you normally rely on to help you out has fallen asleep in a pool of lager.

    Normally, your only option is to break out the booze cabinet and drink the deadline away, but there is now another option.
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