Pinnacle Video Transfer Gives PC-Free Ripping

Pinnacle Video Transfer Gives PC-Free RippingPinnacle are launching the Pinnacle Video Transfer analogue to digital video ripper at CES.

If you’re fed up with having to switch on your computer to rip a video to play on your digital media player, your life could become a little easier.

The pocket-sized device can take any S-Video, Composite video and stereo audio analogue source as an input and cleverly the digital H.264 output is stored on any USB storage device, including Apple iPod Video, iPod nano (3rd generation), iPod classic, Sony PSP, Sony PSP slim, USB flash drive or USB hard drive.

The quality of the video can be set to one of three different levels – Good, Better, Best – depending on their preferences for video quality or the actual size of the video files.

Uses run through the obvious of capturing TV, DVD player, PVR, camcorder or set-top box directly to the less obvious, like capturing video game sessions for showing to their mates later.

Priced at £100, it’s expected to be available in the UK soon.

BBC Micro Designer Gets CBE

Steve Furber, CBEThose of a certain age will wax lyrical and glow slightly when the BBC Micro is mentioned in a conversation. It was a computer – along with the Sinclair ZX80/81/ Spectrum – that introduced a generation of the UK to computing.

In Gordon Brown’s first New Years Honours List, Steve Furber, a principal designer of the BBC Microcomputer received one of the 32 CBE’s that were given this year.
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DL Best 4 Compact Cameras Of The Year 2007

We take a look at the snappers that have tickled our fancy in 2007 and award out ‘Best of’ prizes:

Best compacts

Fujifilm FinePix F50fdFujifilm FinePix F50fd (around £180/$220)
It may look a little bit less than super-stylish, but don’t let appearances put you off: the Fujifilm can takes great pictures and comes with a raft of smart-arse features like image stabilisation, face-detection technology, fast start up and a high ISO performance that is second to none in its price range.
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Orbit Speaker Review: Altec Lansing Mini Marvel (80%)

Orbit Speaker Review: Altec Lansing Mini Marvel (80%)We get lots of stuff sent to us for review, and sometimes we can get a little blase about it.

When the Altec Lansing Orbit iM207 arrived, we were aware of they long background in providing speakers for computers, but were only moderately excited when it arrived.

Over the month plus that we’ve had it, this has changed quite a bit as it’s proved itself to be a compact, highly capable bundle of fun.
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The Wired Store, NYC: Gadget Feast: Photo Essay

Gadget Feast At The Wired Store, NYCWell worth a visit in Manhattan, New York is tech magazine’s Wired’s “pop-up retail store” at 160 Wooster Street, SoHo.

Opened for the holiday shopping season, the warehouse space stokes gadget lust to the max, letting punters test drive the latest consumer gadgets and gear.
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Traktor Scratch Grandmaster Flash Signature Edition

Grandmaster Flash Edition Of Traktor ScratchGrandmaster Flash, godfather of scratching has been brought in to tell the world how great he thinks Traktor Scratch is.

For those of you who aren’t aware, it’s a system that lets you control you digital music files using vinyl, giving you all of the function of decks, with the flexibility of a huge digitised music collection.
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