Last Thursday saw the launch of the Wii across Europe.
As we’d detected after we saw the demand to play it at the Eurogamer has got some great shots form the UK launch.
Category: Platforms
Belkin Skype Phone Review (71%)
It’s coming up to Xmas and everyone’s making Skype accessories. Belkin are no exception and have joined the crowd to release a Skype phone, in BLACK.
It’s reminiscent of a SonyEricsson T610, but bigger – measuring about 4.5″ by 2″ by 5/8″ (11.5cm by 5cm by 2cm). The screen looks bigger than it is, as there’s about 3/4″ between it and the keypad. It’s actually only 1.5″ by 1.12″, which is big enough to show 7 contacts at a time.
It’s not really a phone in the normal sense, just an embedded Skype client on dedicated hardware.
It’s Skype, but not as you know it
Skype on a PC environment is more functional, for a start this phone version doesn’t allow text instant messages (IM), it only supports the voice functionality of Skype (even though the keyboard does allow text input, much like a mobile phone except no predictive text).
Once the device is configured, the screen will display the current time and your Skype balance with two softkeys at the bottom of the screen showing “menu” and “Contacts”.
If you’ve got credit you can make normal calls to the PSTN (i.e.ordinary phones), but you have to type the telephone number in international format (i.e. putting +44 infront of the number and dropping the leading zero). Unless you’ve got a SkypeIn number, the called phone will show “Number Unavailable” when you call.
Dialing contacts is easy, just hit the right soft key and they’ll be listed, go to the one you want and hit the green “dial” button (or you can use the left soft key which will show “options” and then select “call”). You can also leave them a voicemail (if they have thatservice) or view their profile.
WiFi isn’t HiFi
Call quality is pretty good, though it’s reliant on both the WiFi and Internet connection which can both vary depending on the environment.
As a WiFi phone, it’s permanently connected to the Internet whether it’s being used or not and though it can blank the screen, the Skype client is running all the time the phone is on, which means it’s eating into the battery life.
Though using the phone will increase the rate the battery discharges, WiFi isn’t particularly battery friendly. Saying that, after a full charge the phone lasted at least 20 hours before turning itself off.
Phone Set-up
Setting the phone up is easy, but not trivial. It works through a WiFi connection so that the first thing that needs to be configured. The network should be configured with one of the WiFi security protocols (and if it’s not, do it NOW), the Belkin phone supports WEP and the newer more secure WPA protocols. The IP configuration will be automatic if the network is configured to dish out the settings (most are) though they can be entered manually.
Once the networking is configured, just enter the Skype log-in details and the client connects to the network, and just works.
All in all it took less than 2 minutes to make the first call – even with the pretty slow text input.
The phone software can also update itself over the network, but no software updates have so far been made available.
Internals
Though Belkin don’t say what’s in the phone there’s some clues from the copyright notices. Of course there’s Skype in there, but the P2P stuff is licensed from Joltid (who seem to be the company behind the technology in Kazaa etc and Skype too).
There’s also Qt licensed from Trolltech. Qt is a cross platform user interface available on Windows, MacOS and Linux. As the phone is unlikely to run either of the first two, it’s probably running embedded Linux, and Trolltech make a version of that too called Qtopia. So as a bet it’s running some variant of embedded Linux, Qtopia, Qt and a Linux variant of Skype.
It’s not perfect
The current phone isn’t perfect, the phone settings are static and are designed to work in a fixed home or office environment and are tied to a specified WiFi network.
As the phone doesn’t have a browser it’s not possible to utilise a public hotspot as there’s no way to enter your credentials to get on-line.
Belkin have said this will be possible with the next version which will have a Java micro-browser which will allow configuring hotspot settings and saving them too so it will be possible to configure the phone in a Starbucks then move to an Openzone network and the phone will continue working.
The phone costs around £99 which isn’t cheap, but having a Skype phone that isn’t tethered to a PC makes it usable whenever it’s needed.
Verdict
It’s a nicely built phone, though the screen’s a bit small. The most annoying thing is not being able to “chat” to people and other Skype users just get a message that the software’s to old or incompatible if they try to chat with you.
Suprisingly, battery life is pretty good.
Score: 71%
PURE Hit 1m DAB Radio Sales
We like PURE, they create innovative products DAB radio – and they
e one of the few UK companies doing innovative things in hardware.
Hats off to them for getting to their first millionth DAB radio (or 1,000,000th if you want to be dramatic). The success of PURE is a reflection of the successful growth of DAB radio in the UK.
Rajar’s last figures (PDF) tell us that 15.3% of UK Adults own a DAB radio now. Pretty good figures, with clearly lots of room for growth.
PURE have been a little PR cheeky here, because the millionth radio was actually sold in October this year, but clearly at xmas time, it’s good for them to let people know that they’ve been so successful.
Given that they’ve given the chance, we just as well tell you that, there’s a whole range available …there and waiting for you to take them to their 2 millionth …
Pure One DAB/FM Portable Radio
Pure Evoke 1XT DAB Digital Radio
Pure EVOKE-2XT, Luxury DAB/FM Portable Radio with Alarm
Pure Digital Tempus DAB Radio
Pure Pocket DAB 1500 Personal Stereo
Pure Chronos DAB Alarm Clock Radio
Pure Elan DX20 Portable DAB Digital Radio
Pure TEMPUS-1XT , DAB Radio with Clock / Alarm
Pure Pocket DAB 2000 Portable DAB/FM Radio & MP3 Player
From the above it’s pretty clear that you daren’t say PURE haven’t stretched DAB to as many products as possible.
Congrats to them too for having gained the position of number one manufacturer of portable radios overall in the UK by value back in May this year.
Excitement Building For UK Wii Launch
Following the success of the launch of the Nintendo Wii in the US where 600,000 units were sold within the eight days – that’s nearly one per second, the buzz about the UK launch continues to heighten.
First came Amazon.co.uk selling out its pre-order allocation of Wii’s within seven minutes – although the number of actual units sold were never disclosed.
During our coverage of its early public unveiling at the Game On exhibition, we noted that the people were really rather excited about the Wii coming out. It looks like it’s going to do pretty well here.
News of a tie up between HMV shops and Nintendo will see the now-expected midnight launch at their Oxford Street flagship store of the gaming platform.
Starting at 11pm the great-unwashed (that’s you and me) will be able to play against some ‘celebrities’ called Ian Wright, Jodie Kidd, Pat Cash and Ricky Hatton (whoever they are).
Globally Nintendo is planning to ship 4 million console before the end of 2006, a record for them.
Surprisingly the shipping in Japan starts on 2 Dec (the home country normally gets the product first) with the Europe-wide launch following on the 8 Dec.
The retail price of €249/£179 with Wii Sports game including Tennis, Bowling, Boxing, Golf and Baseball included in the box.
Included with every Wii console is one wireless Wii Remote, a Nunchuk, Wii Sports game, Stereo AV Cable and the sensor bar for Wii’s unique control system.
We can’t wait.
AutoRama Makes Panoramic Phone Photos Easy
Some clever-types at a Swedish company called Scalado have launched add-on software for mobile camera-phones that they say makes taking panoramic photos on a mobile a doddle.
The fantastically-named AutoRama takes up to 10 high-resolution images in succession and features eight different stitching mode. The photo stitching process is automatic.
The way it works does sound remarkably cool – “It’s made so simple, you don’t need to be an expert as you just point and shoot as the phone automatically does the rest for you, vibrating to tell you when to take the next shot to create the perfect high-resolution multi mega pixel panorama,” explained Mats Jacobson, CEO of Scalado.
Scalado don’t claim to be the first to do this, but they say theirs is the first to do it simply and at high resolution – but they would, wouldn’t they.
The self-declared secret of AutoRama is its patented RAJPEG technology that they say reduces memory requirements by up to 25 times. It’s also claimed that it increases performance and the speed for image manipulation by a factor of up to 10x.
We’re looking forward to getting our hands on it and testing it out.
Andrew Ball, PR for Scalado tells us “The images shown were taken by AutoRama installed on a Nokia N70 (1.3 mpix) phone. The images were created by pressing a button and the camera shoots 3 frames and stitches them together. The examples here also shows a Clearshot filter applied for improving backlight, which is another of Scalado’s new CAPS features.”
Play PS3 and Wii Now At The Science Museum (Podcast)
The organisers of Game On, clearly have amazing contacts with the games industry having been running the exhibition for the last four years around 11 venues around the world. It’s contacts like this that has led to them getting hold of Sony’s PS3 and Nintendo before it’s launched in the UK – four months in the case of the PS3.
The Science Museum is currently the only place in the UK where Joe Public can play the PS3. There’s a couple of places around where the PS3 can be seen, but like the venue off Brick Lane, they’re invite only.
Even if you could get to see the PS3, not other venue has the PS3 right next to the Wii, so you can compare them.
So what are they like?
The PS3 is playing Motor Storm and it looks stunning, with amazing photo realism. The action is intense and it’s very clear that this is a major leap forward in gaming. The controller can be set in a mode where its physical movements control the action of the onscreen action. Being used to playing the PS controller without this, it take a little while to get used to the sensitivity on the movements needed to control it.
The Wii clearly has the movement sensors built-in (it’s the big selling point of the whole console). Playing with them is near-instantly understandable – feeling natural to wave your arms around to control a tennis racket or box the hell out of your opponent. The graphics are far simpler, delivered in the normal Nintendo cartoon style.
It is of note that the PS3 has a significant number of venting holes in its casing and a large fan under nearth to cool it – it draws 350w. The Wii doesn’t have any venting.
Who’s going to win?
If sales are going to reflect the public interest here at the Science Museum today, Sony need to look out, because the Interest in the Wii far outweighed that in the PS3. This could be down to the affordable price of the Wii, or indeed that the public actually have a chance of own it this side of xmas.
Speaking to the punters here, the feeling was that the Wii would give far more of a gaming experience, not just the gloss that the PS3 gives.
It’s no exaggeration to say that some people were literally running into the exhibition hall, shouting, “is it here, is it here?” as the made their way to the Wii. I had thought it would have been the other way around, with the PS3 being the big draw.
The rest of the exhibition is well worth the visit alone – charting the history of video games from the start, and put together with a lot of intelligence. With the Wii and PS3 added to it, you can expect large queues at the weekend.
We had a chat to the event organiser, Gaetan Lee to get an overview of how he got the hold of the Wii and PS3 before their UK release and the background to the Game On exhibition.
Click below to play the interview …
[audio:https://digital-lifestyles.info/media/audio/Wii-PS3-game-on.mp3]
Get Ready To Play PS3 And Wii At The Science Museum
The Nintendo Wii and Sony’s Playstation3 (PS3) will be available for play at the Game On exhibition at the Science Museum from Wednesday. Expect queues.
Don’t bother flying to the USA and queueing for three days to be the first to get your PS3, or splashing out £1,000 to buy one from eBay, that may, or may not actually turn up. If you live in the UK, it couldn’t be simpler – just get yourself down there when the doors open at 11am to get your hands on the first publicly available PS3 in the UK and the attention-attracting Wii.
The PS3 is scheduled for launch in March in the UK, while it’s emerging that only around 150,000 were shipped at the recent US launch. The Wii’s UK launch is much closer – 8th December, having had its US launch already.
The two new boys will be alongside the current exhibition, which cover the history of video games, starting back in the early 1960’s.
We went to the first Game On exhibition when it was at the Barbican in 2002 and were highly impressed with it. Not just the number of games and platforms covered, but the sheer depth of the knowledge on show.
We’ve spoken to the organisers and hear that quite a few of the exhibits have changed from the early days, including items that have been picked up over the years as the show has travelled over the world.
When you get bored of all the new stuff, by way of a stark contrast, you’ll be able to play the world’s first computer game, Spacewar!, from 1962 as well.
To book tickets or find out further details contact 0870 906 3890 or take a look at the site. The exhibition ends Feb.07. Ticket prices Adults £8.50; Children and concessions £6.50
Science Museum Game On Exhibition
The Original Game On Exhibition
Samsung Anycall SPH-B5800 DMB TV
Fresh out of Samsung’s hyperactive phone production line in Korea is the new Anycall SPH-B5800 DMB phone.
A black, slide-out affair with a rotary controller, a large LCD screen and a phone keypad lurking underneath, the SPH-B5800 packs in a feast of functionality in an attractive package.
As you can see from the aerial sticking out of the side, the phone supports DMB for watching TV on the move, viewable on the large (2″) QVGA (240 x 320), 26k colour, TFT-LCD display.
The display can also rotate through 90 degrees for watching TV broadcasts in landscape mode, with publicity photos suggesting that the phone is able to balance on its side for viewing (so you won’t have to try and prop up against your pint glass in the pub) .
For music fans, there’s a built-in MP3 player with a microSD (TransFlash) port offering expansion options.
There’s also a 2 Megapixel camera onboard using a CMOS image sensor, which comes with white balance settings and can capture images up to a maximum 1,600 x 1,200 resolution.
Rounding up the feature set (or at least what we’ve managed to make sense of out of the dodgy Korean translation we’re working with here) is Bluetooth support, a handy TV out function and video recording.
Sadly, there’s no news of a UK release, with the phone currently only available on the KTF network in Korea.
Anycall (Korean)
Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB)
[From: Akihabaranews]
Optimus Keyboard Loses Colour
Rarely have we lusted for a new gizmo more than when we saw the promotional shots of the luscious Optimus keyboard last year.
Although you could argue that keyboards are really much of a muchness – just multiple rows of input keys – us gadget freaks have never had any qualms about dipping into our pockets for gizmos offering extra geekiness.
So when the Microsoft natural keyboard came out in ’94 (you know, the one that looked like it had been torn apart in the middle), we had to have one, even if our peck’n’hunt keyboard ‘skills’ meant it made no difference to our productivity.
And so it went on through the 90s, with the office filling up with various keyboards all offering a bit extra – more buttons, customisable function keys, volume controls, cordless, Bluetooth, wireless, scrolling wheels – the lot.
But just when we thought there was nothing left to improve on our current wireless Logitech mouse/keyboard combo with Lord-knows-how-many keys, buttons and control wheels (most unused), we clapped our eyes on the Optimus keyboard and thought we’d found keyboard heaven.
First appearing on Slashdot in July, 2005, the ultra-thin, backlit keyboard promised greater user interaction – and turbo-boosted bells’n’whistles appeal – by dynamically displaying the current function of the keys on an app by app basis.
Each key was to be a mini-OLED screen (32×32 pixels) with mini-graphic icons lighting up based on the program being used (so in Photoshop, you’d see the appropriate toolbox icon on each keyboard shortcut).
Saliva-inducing computer generated concept images illustrated how the keyboard would look when the user was playing Quake III Arena or fiddling about in Photoshop.
Months went by with no release date being announced and some began to suspect we’d been bedazzled by a (particularly stylish) example of vapourware.
Hopes rose when Lebedev Studio, the Russian team behind the project, released a three key-version in July 2006 (the Optimus Mini Three), and a December 12th ‘pre-order’ date was announced for the full keyboard
As the day grew closer, excitement rose around the office and then promptly deflated on yestyerday’s news that the 103 key keyboard will now only feature boring old monochrome keys rather than the promised full-colour jobbies promised.
The response from their patient and loyal fans was immediate, with a chorus of posts on the Optimus blog screaming, “count me out!” at the news.
Although Optimus have announced that a colour version will eventually see the light of day “at a greater price,” we suspect that the final price may even surpass our generous pointless gadget budget, so it looks like we’ll be sticking with our battered old Logitech for a while longer.
Palm 680 Goes On Sale In UK
Palm’s update to its well-received and long running Treo 650 smartphone goes on sale in the UK.
The new Treo phone sees Palm targeting the consumer market, with the 680 coming in a range of attractive colours (US store only) and a lower price.
The distinctive chunky aerial has gone (us Europeans apparently aren’t down with that antennae thang), and the new Palm is lighter and slightly smaller than the 650, measuring 0.1 inches slimmer at 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.8 inches (113mm W x 59mm H x 21mm) and weighing 0.8 ounces less at 5.5 ounces (157 grams).
As with the 650, the new Treo offers the same fantastic one-handed usability and ergonomics, with an improved backlit QWERTY keyboard and the same bright 320 x 320 pixel touchscreen display.
The Treo 680 also comes with beefed up Radio Frequency (RF) sensitivity for improved phone performance, a SD/MMC/SDIO-compatible expansion card interface and upgraded Bluetooth 1.2 connectivity.
Sadly, there’s still no Wi-Fi onboard (although new unlimited data deals like T-Mobile’s Web’n’Walk can now provide alternative, albeit slower, means to keep connected on the move) and the onboard camera can also only muster up a rather disappointing 640 x 480 pixels resolution. We have to say that this still outperforms some megapixel cameras we’ve seen on other phones.
Despite its age, we still view the Palm OS as the best choice for smartphones, with the platform offering an immense range of third-party programs and some lovely user-friendly touches (the threaded SMS interface is still a treat to use).
As with the Treo 650, the new phone offers the usual cornucopia of functionality and features including email, web browsing (via Blazer 4.5), the excellent Pocket Tunes music player, calendar, video, photo album and Documents To Go letting users view, edit and share Word and Excel documents on the move.
The interface on the 680 has also seen a few usability-boosting tweaks, with faster navigation and an ability to fire off a discreet “can’t talk now” text message when you’re too busy to answer a call.
Inside, the phone’s internal memory has been beefed up to 64MB, while the battery life has been slimmed down from the 650, with the smaller 1200mAh rechargeable Lithium Ion cell rated for four hours of talk time and 300 hours of standby time.
The product is available from today at the Palm e-store (US only) in red, orange, white and silver for £299 (contract free), although we’ve already seen discounted prices popping up elsewhere.