Platforms

Microsoft Offers Xbox360 Video Downloads
Microsoft appear to be trying the doors of the lucrative movie download business for the Xbox360 with the announcement of a video content deal with music label Epic Records.
The partnership will see Microsoft offering exclusive artist content and high-definition music video downloads free to Xbox360 gamers for a year, via the Xbox Live Marketplace service.
Free downloads from twelve up-and-coming artists will be offered through the Artist of the Month (AOM) program, with grandma-untroubling, British singer Natasha Bedingfield kicking off the service.
Videos and “exclusive artist content” will also be made available for download from the Xbox site.
“Our goal has always been to make Xbox Live a cutting-edge entertainment experience”, insisted Peter Moore, corporate vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.
“This agreement with Epic Records offers our members exclusive artistic content directly from the source. With Artist of the Month we will be providing exactly what music-loving gamers want: brand-new, exclusive music videos that can be downloaded quickly, easily and free of charge,” he added.
Epic has already dished out music videos for the Xbox 360 from the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Audioslave, and their catalogue also includes acts like Shakira, Matisyahu, Jennifer Lopez and Antipodean dandruff shakers, AC/DC.
Each month Microsoft and Epic will announce the new Artist of the Month, along with exclusive benefits for Xbox360 users.
Xbox360
20 March, 2006
Oregon Scientific Wireless Easy Weather System Pro Review (85%)
It may not look as pretty as an old fashioned barometer, but Oregon Scientific’s Easy Weather System Pro can provide a wealth of information about the weather – with no need to tap its face to get the dials moving.
The £49 ($86, €72) wireless weather station will provide users with ample material for Britain’s favourite topic of conversation, with a large LCD screen dishing out a veritable storm of weather-related data.
The weather station comes in two parts with a large main unit (142 x 63 x 158mm) powered by three AA batteries and a smaller remote sensor which beams outdoor temperature and humidity data back to the main unit every 40 seconds.
Getting the sensor to talk to the weather station was simple enough – set the channel number on the sensor (the system can support up to 3 sensors), press ‘memory’ and ‘channel’ on the main unit for a few seconds and that’s it.
The sensor has a small, built-in LCD read-out, with the main unit sporting a signal reception icon and low battery warning.
Time accuracy is ensured with a radio controlled alarm clock and calendar that synchronises to the radio signal from Rugby, with a handy onscreen indicator shows the signal strength.
Once set up, the large LCD screen provides indoor and outdoor stats for humidity/humidity trend and temperature/temperature trend as well as barometric pressure/trend (the trend readout displays an arrow to show whether the data is rising, steady or falling.)
A large animated icon forecasts the next 12-24 hours of weather within a 30-50km radius with what Oregon claims to be “75% accuracy” – we found it to be pretty accurate throughout.
Finishing off the feature set, a large clock display gives the time, date and seconds/day with a Moon phase readout.
Over the test period, we found ourselves being strangely drawn to the Oregon’s display, constantly checking for barometric blips and temperature twitches and rapidly becoming a walking encyclopaedia of weather waffle.
For anyone with an interest in what’s going on weather-wise, the Oregon Wireless Weather Station represents fabulous value and offers a stylish – if sizeable – addition to the work desk – and Lord help anyone who then rings you to innocently ask, “What’s the weather like where you are?”
Our verdict:
Features: 85%
Ease of Use: 85%
Build Quality: 80%
Overall: 85%
Oregon.
15 March, 2006
Media Center PCs Grow In Popularity
A new report by analyst firm Current Analysis claims that consumers are warming to Media Center PCs, with the entertainment-focused PCs grabbing eight per cent of the US retail market in January 2005, soaring 48 per cent in December.
Current Analysis say that the demand was fuelled by a drop in price brought about when manufacturers left out the expensive tuners which allowed the systems to receive and record television signals.
However, tuner-toting Media PCs are already making a comeback, with the market share for TV tuner-equipped systems climbing from 8.7 per cent in October to 12.8 per cent last month.
Toni Duboise, senior analyst for desktop computing at Current Analysis, noted that although leaving out the TV tuners allowed Media Center PCs to reach a mainstream audience, the component remains critical if the system wants to grab a place in the digital home.
“The upward TV tuner-clad trend is a small victory for Media Center with regard to the digital home,” she said, adding that the TV arena is a “pivotal turf in the war for the digital home because it offers the most opportunities for lucrative infrastructure and broadcast content.”
With TiVo still doing good business, Duboise commented on the importance of TV tuners to PC makers, “Manufacturers that want the desktop computer to be the centre of the digital home will want consumers to use TV tuner-clad PCs instead of TiVo, dedicated digital video recorders or intelligent set-top boxes.”
Microsoft first rolled out their Media Center Edition back in October 2002, but consumers have been sniffy because users weren’t inclined to buy the more expensive hardware needed to run the software – neither did the idea of watching TV on a clunky computer monitor seem particularly thrilling.
Current Analysis
14 March, 2006
Sony CD-U70/ U50 USB Voice Recorders Announced
As voice recorders go (and, let’s be honest, they’re not the most exciting of gadgets) Sony’s new CD-U70/ U50 devices look to be quite natty numbers.
Sporting Sony’s usual design flair, the voice recorders come in two flavours, the top of the range ICD-U70, touts a hefty 1GB of flash memory, and its smaller brother the ICD-U50, which comes with 512MB of memory.
You’d have no bother losing these fellas down the back of the sofa as the recorders are pipsqueak-sized, measuring just 30x20x99.7mm and weighing in at a trouser-untroubling 64g.
Touted as a ‘three in one’ gizmo, the Sony IC recorders can be used as a mass data storage drive, an MP3 player and a voice recorder, with the thing plugging straight into the USB port of a PC.
For voice recording, there’s three modes on offer – LP/SP/HQ, with the built in monaural microphone offering high and low sensitive settings.
Battery life is listed as an impressive 140 hours for voice recording and 6 hours for MP3 playback, with the unit offering Digital Pitch Control, Digital VOR (Voice Operated Recording) and 5 message folders to keep your perambulating wafflings filed away neatly.
For playing back your words of wisdom, there’s a tiny 10mm speaker onboard with a teensy-weensy 35mW output as well as a headphone socket (and bundled ‘phones).
The ICD-U70 comes in silver only while the ICD-U60 comes in groovier blue and white finishes.
Availability should be from mid March, 2006, with prices around $179.00 for the and $129 for the ICD-U70
Sony
14 March, 2006
USB Hub Vanity Mirrors, Ashtrays, Coffee Warmers And Heated Gloves
You know the problem: you’ve rushed into work late, sat yourself down at the desk only to realise that there’s not enough USB ports on the machine so you can’t plug in your DVD backup.
And – even worse – there’s not a mirror around so you can’t check if the chocolate topping from the cappuccino you hastily slurped down on the train into work is smeared all over your face.
And the boss is coming in at any minute!
Well, thank goodness for the thoughtful folks at Brando, who have designed just the thing for you – a combination USB hub and vanity mirror!
The ‘Mini Mirror Hub’, described as “the most tiny, fashionable USB 2.0 HUB,” can connect up to four USB 2.0 (or USB 1.1) devices, supporting 480Mbps, 12Mbps and 1.5Mbps speeds.
Powered by the host USB computer (or via an optional adapter), the teensy-weensy hub measures just 40 x 40 x 10 mm, which makes it of rather limited use as a vanity mirror – although we could imagine some city types finding an, err, somewhat alternative use for its shiny surface.
The Mini Mirror Hub is available from here for $14 (~£8, ~e12).
USB Ashtray
If your company has a no-smoking policy and you’re desperate for a sneaky drag at your desk, once again the diligent designers at Brando have just the gadget for you.
Their USB Ashtray – inexplicably shaped as a little blue car – promises to, “minimise smoke and odours” by passing the smoke through a carbon-absorbing filter – and it’s yours for just $22 (~£13, ~e18) – details here.
USB Cafe Pad
With the winter snap still carrying on, there’s always the chance that your coffee may go cold just a little too quickly for your liking, so once again we are grateful for Brando’s engineers for dreaming up the USB Cafe Pad.
Simply plug it into your USB port, switch it on and slap your beverage of choice on top for permanently hot drinks – for just $15 (~£9, ~e13)!
USB Heating Gloves
Finally, we found ourselves unable to resist mentioning Brando’s USB Heating Gloves.
“Ever experience that your hand freezing and slowing down your reaction when you are playing game?”, asks their Website.
Well, we can’t say we ever have, but we can sleep easy in the knowledge that should we ever suffer any heat-related problems when ‘playing game’, we could shell out $22 and slip on their natty heating gloves.
More details here: USB Heating Gloves.
13 March, 2006
LCD TV Revenues Outstrip Cathode Ray TVs
It looks like the days of chunky, clunky cathode ray tube TVs are numbered as worldwide revenues from slimline LCD (liquid crystal displays) TVs surpassed those of cathode-ray (CRT) televisions in the fourth quarter last year.
Fuelled by football-crazy punters grabbing a gogglebox in time for the World Cup, revenues of LCD TVs in the last quarter sailed past $10 billion for the first time, with flat panel displays now commanding more than 50 percent of the global market.
The figures come from DisplaySearch, a US-based display market research firm, who recorded LCD TV revenues reaching $10.09 billion (£5.84bn, €8.4bn) in the fourth quarter last year, adding up to a hefty 54.3 percent increase from the previous quarter’s $6.48 billion (£3.75bn, €5.43bn).
But the trusty old cathode ray tube isn’t dead yet, with CRT TV sales rising 9.6 percent from the previous quarter, a modest jump from $6.88 billion in the third quarter to $7.46 billion (£4.32bn, €6.25bn) in the fourth quarter.
Sales were healthy for plasma-screen televisions, growing 31.3 percent to reach $5.29 billion in the same quarter, giving them the third-largest share of the market after LCD TVs and cathode-ray TVs.
Trailing in fourth place were projection TVs, notching up a 38.4 percent rise in sales revenue to net a record-breaking $2.87 billion.
Looking at the global TV market, the total volume revenues for the fourth quarter last year was estimated to reach $25.49 billion, with LCD TVs accounting for 39 percent, cathode-ray TVs 29 percent, Plasmas at 20 percent and projection TVs at 11 percent.
Commenting on the booming LCD sales, Ross Young, president and CEO of DisplaySearch said, “Now that LCD TVs have overtaken CRT TVs on a revenue basis, the next target for TFT LCD manufacturers is to overtake CRT TVs on a unit basis.”
Look out LCDs – here comes SED displays
Despite the healthy sales of LCD and plasma screens, it seems that there’s another new technology on the block to tempt upmarket TV-viewers.
Called SED – short for Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display – the technology is a result of a joint venture by Toshiba and Canon, who have described SED as a major industry milestone, “a once-in-50-years historical turning point for the TV industry, comparable to the initial introduction of CRT television”.
Thinner and more energy efficient than LCDs and plasma display panels, SED screens are reputed to deliver clear and vivid images thanks to a light-beaming technology similar to cathode-ray tube TVs.
The sets are due to be out in time for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, although some pundits are already suspecting that plummeting LCD/plasma prices may seriously damage SED TVs’ commercial prospects.
Cathode Ray Tube
SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display)
13 March, 2006
BenQ Launches Six Handsets Including The P51
With a veritable orgy of announcements, BenQ Mobile rolled out six new mobile phones at the CeBIT trade show in Germany.
The phones, all going under the BenQ-Siemens brand, include the P51, a quad-band GSM/EDGE GSM/EDGE handset running on Windows Mobile 5.0.
Definitely not one for the pockets of the tight trouser brigade, the chunky P51 wedges in a Treo-like QWERTY keyboard, a large 2.8inch 240 x 320 pixels screen, an integrated SiRF Star III GPS module and a somewhat underwhelming 128MB of memory, along with an SD slot for expansion.
VoIP calls are made possible through the built in 802.11b/g Wi-Fi connectivity and pre-loaded Skype software.
The P51 also comes with a music player (MP3, AAC, AAC+) offering a sound equalizer and 3D surround sound and an integrated 1.3 megapixel camera with LED flash.
The handset is due to be made available in Q3, with prices, networks and stockists to be confirmed.
Also announced was the flagship EL71, a tri-band, 16.5mm thin slider phone with a metal casing in brushed aluminium finish. Designed for the “young professional,” the phone sports a 2-inch, 260,000-color QVGA display.
The C81 comes with a built-in multimedia player supporting MP3, AAC, AAC+ and AAC++ formats and an integrated 1.3-megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom. Pictures can be printed directly – no PC needed – by Bluetooth via Pictbridge and the phone has a 1.8- inch TFT 262k screen.
The CL71 slide phone is another slim number (17.8mm) with built-in 1.3-megapixel camera, MP3 player and radio with a 2-inch TFT 262k display offering 176 x 220 picture resolution.
The consumer-oriented CF61 also comes with a music player, Bluetooth and exchangeable covers. The integrated 1.3-megapixel camera allows capture of nine images in quick succession and a voice commentary can also be added to pictures. There’s also a built-in music player supporting the usual formats.
Finally, the wedge shaped E61 comes in orange, yellow, or silver, with a built-in VGA camera with 2x/4x digital zoom.
BenQ Mobile
10 March, 2006
M.A.G.I.C Windows Smartphone Has Everything!
Currently hovering betwixt prototype and retail status, Advance Tech Communications new Windows Mobile smartphone market looks hot! hot! hot!
The MAGIC (Mobile Advanced Global Integrated Communicator) comes stuffed to the gills with connectivity and multimedia options, and is powered by a beefy Intel Xscale 624 MHz CPU with graphic accelerator 2700G3 and Video RaM – fast enough to leave all current Windows Mobile phones coughing in the dust.
The 10.5 ounce (300 g) Windows Mobile 5.0 device comes with more connections than a street spiv, offering GSM quad band, GPRS, Wi-Fi 802.11b, EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0, IrDA FIR 4 and, of course, USB.
There’s also a built-in Global Positioning System( GPS) and, apparently, a Biometric Sensor.
On board storage is taken care of courtesy of a generous 8GB hard disk, backed up by 512MB RAM and 512MB ROM, with a micro-SD expansion card slot.
There’s two 2.8″ QVGA (320×240 pixels) displays onboard and – you’ve guessed it – there’s also two cameras, both offering a healthy 2 megapixel resolution.
Wrapping up the extensive feature set is a very useful VGA Out port and a small QWERTY keyboard for the tippity-tap action.
With all this functionality crammed in to the phone, it seems that Advance Tech felt that describing the ultra-premium device as a ‘smartphone’ would be like calling a Leica camera a point’n’shooter.
Instead, the company are proclaiming their new device to be a “laptop computer miniaturised to the size of a handheld device,” which perhaps isn’t the snappiest description they could have come up with.
With its ten-mile long spec sheet, it’s not surprising to find both price and physical size are going to be on the b-i-g side, with the MAGIC measuring up at 125 x 70 x 32 mm and the price hovering around the high end $1,000 mark (£575, €838) .
The MAGIC is expected to roll out next quarter.
www.advancetc.com/
9 March, 2006
DCT-DPM1 World’s First Dual Pointer Mouse
Thanks to innovative manufacturers like Logitech, we’ve had mice (mouses?) with more buttons than a Cinderella reunion, but just when you thought that the humble mouse couldn’t get any more new features, Digital Cowboy have announced the world’s first dual pointer mouse, the DCT-DPM1.
It looks like an ordinary mouse but has an unusual trick up its sleeve – when you activate the button on the left hand side of the mouse a second cursor appears on screen!
Now, this may sound like something developed by the Ministry of Bonkers Ideas on their annual ‘Let’s Take Acid’ day, but there might just be a method to their madness.
The DCT-DPM1 is aimed at people with multiple desktop displays, where users currently have to scroll across hefty distances when they jump from screen to screen.
With the new double cursor mouse, you can ‘park’ the first cursor on a point on the one screen, and then work on the other screen as usual.
Flipping between the two work areas is then simply a case of activating the mouse button to access the ‘parked’ cursor, without any need for a marathon of cross-screen scrolling.
And if you’re constantly having to input text into two different areas, the dual cursor idea could also be a winner, although we’re not sure if our limited brains could cope with two cursors on the go.
We’ve no idea when, or even if, this bi-cursorary device will be making it to the UK, but it is possible we could be witnessing the next evolution of the mouse.
Either that or it’s another really crap idea.
Mouse specs:Product name: DCT-DPM1 (JAN:4543183505031)
Colour: Black
The number of pointers: 2
The number of mouse buttons: 5 (the scroll button is included)
Resolution: 800dpi
Interface: USB & PS/2 (at the time of attachment adapter use)
OS: WindowsXp/2000
Size: Approximately 107×55×29mm
Cable length: 150cm
Accessory:USB -> PS/2 conversion adapter
Driver: CD
Digital Cowboy
8 March, 2006
Nokia Launches Lifeblog 2.0
Nokia has launched Nokia Lifeblog 2.0, an updated version of their photo-blogging offering.
Designed for Nokia’s Nseries handsets, Lifeblog lets users create a multimedia diary, with photos, video clips, messages and text notes and store them on their phone and/or PCs.
The material is presented in a chronological manner, with the new version of Lifeblog offering the ability to add audio notes, calendar entries and location information, so that users can add some context to their pictures and video clips.
Well, that’s how we’d describe the process, but Nokia has a more flowery interpretation, insisting that adding the extra information is “rendering them as part of the rich tapestry of items that make up your personal Nokia Lifeblog timeline.”
The new Nokia Lifeblog can be set up to link photos to information about a user’s location, the time or calendar entries, so that any photos taken at, say, a wedding, would automatically be tagged with this information from the user’s calendar.
“With imaging becoming an integral part of mobile devices, the way people approach photography is changing. You are able to capture events and create memories in a spontaneous way as your device is always with you,” gushed Mikko Pilkama, whose job title is surely unpronounceable after five beers: Director, Nokia Nseries See New, Multimedia, Nokia.
Content from the NSeries phones can be transferred to a compatible PC, and photos and video clips can also be shared directly from PCs via email or by blogging to a compatible service.
The PC version of the software lets users import existing digital photo collection from their hard drive to their phone – this software can be downloaded for free from www.nokia.com/lifeblog.
8 March, 2006