November, 2008
iPhone TV Advert Banned
November 30, 2008
Apple has had another of their iPhone 3G TV adverts banned here in the UK for apparently being misleading and exaggerating how fast the actual speed of the device was when trying to access the Internet-based features. There were 17 viewers who complained to the Advertising Standards Authority.
The advert claims that iPhone 3G offers “really fast” performance because you can “download pretty much anything, really fast” – Apple argued that it was only meant in comparison with the first generation iPhone which only used the 2G mobile network and as such the internet speeds were much slower.
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Vuzix iWear Personal Video Display Glasses
November 29, 2008
Do you need a pair of these Vuzix iWear personal display glasses? Well we all know how annoying it can be to share a TV at Christmas when there are so many films on and everyone wants to watch a different film, or something really boring.
Now you can sit in the same room and watch any programme or film of your choice without bothering anybody!
These little personal display glasses can allow you see a screen that’s equivalent to a 44” up to a 62” monster that’s 9ft away from your eyes, depending on which version you want to buy.
Continue reading »Tetris Party Review (WiiWare)
November 28, 2008
I remember the good old days back when Tetris could only be played on the relic that is the GameBoy and how amazing and addictive it was!
Well now with Tetris Party it’s been revamped for the Nintendo Wii console and has more options, I find it more addictive as it had me up until the early hours of the morning.
There are 5 different gaming types within Tetris Party which include:
- Marathon Mode (Basic Tetris game)
- Computer Battle (1 on 1 with the Wii)
- Field Climber (Get a little man out of the board using the “Tetriminos”)
- Shadow (Fill the shadow with the “Tetriminos”)
- Stage Racer (Race through different courses using different “Tetriminos”)
- And ONLINE!
You can play multiplayer as well, so if you have a sibling, other half or pet that you fancy showing up, then crack on!
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Fridge Magnet Digital Photo Frame
November 27, 2008
Why try and reinvent the wheel, when you could whack a magnet on the back of it and slap it on your fridge. Digital photo frames are not exactly new tech but the simple idea of whacking it on your fridge is. This Fridge Magnet Digital Photo Frame is a brilliant piece of thinking and would make an ideal prezzie for any photo (or fridge) fanatic.
It is essentially an 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2cm digital magnetic frame with 32mb of internal memory. This allows you to store up to 66 photos that are displayed on the 5x4cm LCD screen. As the screen is reasonably small the photos are clear, despite the resolution only being 320×240.
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Rock Band Drums (Xbox 360)
November 26, 2008
I found this the other day while browsing some gadget websites; the Rock Band Drums Set for Xbox 360 is a brilliant Christmas gift idea for a member of your family. Let’s face it you will rarely find someone who has no interest in music whatsoever and this is due to there being so many types and styles of music out there.
But what I’m concentrating on in this post is making the music and to do that I found the Rock Band Drums set for the Xbox 360. This allows you to drum up and make the music rather than just listening to it. Anywhere you go these days you will see these music sets are all the rage especially with younger people and that’s the exact reason why I believe this is the perfect gift at Christmas time.
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Transformers ‘All Spark’ USB Hub
November 26, 2008
This Transformers All Spark USB Hub should go down well with you if you’re a fan of the recent Transformers movie – which I personally thought was a great fun movie! That being the case, it’s nice to see some merchandise out there that aren’t just Transformers Movie toys of the robots for the kids, something for us bigger kids!
Any fan of the first Transformers movie will know that this was the object that had the ability to ‘transform’ regular day-to-day objects into actual transforming robots. If you buy this cool looking USB hub it will now replace your boring run-of-the-mill USB hub you’ve got sat on your desk into an All Spark USB hub – the question is, what will you do if your computer transforms?…
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Zath Welcomes Pleo, The Robotic Dinosaur!
November 25, 2008
News just in! Pleo the baby dinosaur is coming to stay at Zath HQ for a couple of weeks! He’s on his way as I write this!
Pleo is an autonomous, newly hatched baby Camarasaurus who likes to graze, nap and wander about exploring, looks like we’ll have to keep an eye on him when he arrives!
Continue reading »Football Manager 2009 Update v9.1.0
November 25, 2008
On the day of release the first Football Manager 2009 update v9.1.0 was available for the game – how’s that for service from Sports Interactive?
Obviously, some people could view this as being a bugged game being sent out for release too early, but I’m pleased to see that the guys over at Sports Interactive have that much commitment to their franchise that they are always looking to fix bugs and improve it to make Football Manager the best football management game out there.
This year marks the first year that Football Manager will be available through Valve’s Steam system – their digital game distribution download system has been really successful since it was launched with Half Life 2 and it’s now probably the leading platform out there.
Continue reading »BBC Broadcast Live Online – BBC One and BBC Two
November 25, 2008
BBC One and BBC Two are to be broadcast live on the Internet from the 27th November 2008.
This means that you’ll not only be able to catch up with BBC TV shows that you’ve missed in the last week by using the BBC’s iPlayer, but you will also be able to use their successful TV streaming and downloads programme to watch BBC One and BBC Two simultaneously as they are broadcast in their traditional forms.
If you’re not a fan of the iPlayer (if not why not?) then you can also watch the live feed of these channels on their respective pages on the BBC website.
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Professor Layton and the Curious Village Review (DS)
November 24, 2008
I didn’t read about Professor Layton and the Curious Village until about 2 weeks before the release date, but I’m really glad I did read about it.
The pictures seemed to make the game look a bit childish and more like a stocking filler when I first glanced at it. Even though I love animation, Disney films and Studio Ghibli films, it didn’t really appeal to me. But after reading about the game, I really wanted to play the game and suddenly the images looked brilliant.
The main storyline sees Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke being called to the village of St Mystere to search for the secret treasure of the late Baron Reinhold that is ‘The Golden Apple’. The tale goes that whoever finds ‘The Golden Apple’ will have earned the right to all of Baron Reinhold’s fortune. The game opens with a nice little clip which explains in more depth the reason why you’re going to be racking your brains to solve over 100 puzzles.
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Retro iPod Alarm Clock (Docking Station Charger)
November 24, 2008
A retro iPod alarm clock? Is that what you need on a morning?
I don’t know about you, but I if I’m honest, one of my biggest flaws that I hate about myself is the fact that I find it really hard to wake up early on a morning, which inevitably leads to late nights which then further contribute to my difficulty in getting up early – a real vicious circle that means I miss out on my most productive time of the day!
Continue reading »New Xbox 360 User Experience
November 23, 2008
Plenty has been made of the Xbox 360 new user experience (well, by Microsoft anyway) this past month. “Only one week to go!” we were told. “It’s like we’re giving everyone a new console” they said, so let me say this from the get-go – it’s a huge pile of crap!
You realize you’re in trouble just about the time when you’re picking the style of your Avatar’s jeans.
Because I’m not twelve, I couldn’t give a flying-f*ck what hair style or T-shirt my “online character” has. Indeed, I don’t even want an online character. Unfortunately, while you don’t have to customize it, you don’t get a choice in this matter. It’s an annoying Wii-wannabe of an idea and it’s pointless and annoying.
Continue reading »Wii Fit Parody Video
November 22, 2008
We recently featured a Wii Fit with Wii Balance Board review here on the site, which basically concluded that Nintendo have come up with yet another novel and fun device, which also has some usefulness incorporated into it that could help to improve your general fitness – which is always a good thing obviously.
Harry Potter – Half Blood Prince Trailer #3
November 22, 2008
I’ve just seen another Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Trailer and it looks absolutely awesome!! By far the best Harry Potter trailer I’ve ever seen and I really am fuming with Warner Bros. for delaying the release of this amazing film.
I thought it was a trailer I’d already seen, but then realised it was new and I was jumping with joy!!
Continue reading »Google Mail Themes
November 21, 2008
Google have had a busy week! In addition to offering Gmail video and voice chat, Google Mail themes are now available within their webmail interface.
Over the past few years since Gmail went live, the interface itself has had a few minor tweak and modifications along the way, but it’s been essentially the same kind of look from the start. There has been some option of customisation offered by people using scripts and extensions in their Firefox browser, however there are now a variety of themes on offer from within Google Mail.
Continue reading »Sky Broadband – Unlimited Downloads
November 20, 2008
Unlimited broadband tends to mean a wide range of different things when companies market their internet services to potential customers, but in the case of Sky, unlimited broadband means just that, Sky gives you unlimited broadband!
People are often surprised or even shocked when they discover that the broadband service that they signed up for isn’t what they thought it was, this can be in terms of their maximum download speed, for instance, being anything “up to 8mb” – which the Gadget Show here in the UK have been campaigning about for a while now. The other disappointment people often end up having is just how much you can download from your connection in any given month.
Continue reading »Win a Free Dell Netbook From the Vodafone Live Guy!
November 19, 2008
Vodafone have teamed up with Dell and created quite a novel competition that you can take part in on a daily basis for the duration of this promotion – more on that in a minute, let’s take a look at what is on offer first…
Dell have recently released their first “netbook” onto the market, what’s a netbook? Think of it as a mini-laptop not much bigger than the size of standard paperback book. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 has come into a market that has been evolving over the past year with various manufacturers throwing their efforts into the ring so to speak – however Dell have hung back and clearly wanted to make sure that their first entry into the netbook market was a good one.
The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 weighs less than a 1kg, features an 8.9” screen, 1GB RAM, runs Windows XP, has wi-fi connectivity and is also the first netbook to feature built-in mobile broadband (up to 7.2Mb/s) – all you have to do is slot the mobile broadband sim card under the battery and you’re good to go – no more plugging a usb adapter in to access the internet over your mobile broadband service!
Continue reading »Free Zone Alarm (Internet Security Software)
November 18, 2008
The free Zone Alarm firewall software has been available for many years now and is regarded by many as the best firewall software you can use on your computer and is better than the standard Windows Firewall in terms of security.
The same company that produces the free Zone Alarm software also produces a Zone Alarm Pro Internet Security Suite version which also includes anti-spyware applications to provide further protection to your computer which normally costs $39.95 per year, so you can get a full retail version instead of having to look to using a free adware remover.
Continue reading »LG Viewty Themes
November 17, 2008
It’s almost a year since I first reviewed the LG Viewty, however I still get asked quite a bit about customising it, specifically in terms of getting new LG Viewty themes, some of which look like the iPhone interface.
The LG Viewty was a great mobile phone when it appeared late last year and it still is good compared to many newer handsets that have been released since, however perhaps you’ve got a little bored with the 3 interface themes that come with the phone, could you do with a change of theme on your LG Viewty?
If that’s the case, then you might be interested to read what I managed to find after doing a little research on this topic, here’s what I found…
Continue reading »Acer Aspire One Netbook Review
November 16, 2008
I’ve always been a big fan of good things in small packages. I remember spending almost a month’s pay on the Toshiba Libretto 70CT. Known as a sub-notebook, it was about the size of a VHS cassette although slightly slimmer, but it weighed a lot more. It ran Windows 98 on a Pentium 120Mhz CPU, had a 1.2GB hard disk, and although it was no PC hot-rod (even back then) it was damn-good at what it was designed for, which brings me to the Acer Aspire One.
The Acer Aspire One (referred to hereafter as simply the “Aspire”) comes in several different versions. The version I bought (and because it’s so cheap, the only version I’d advise anyone to go for) is, like all Aspires, based around the 1.6Ghz Intel Atom CPU. This version has 1GB of RAM, a 120GB SATA HDD, Wireless G and cabled 10/100 Ethernet, 3x USB2.0 ports, 1x analogue VGA port, 1x SDHC slot and 1X SDHC/MSPRO/XD card reader and an integrated wed-cam. Phew, can’t complain about the connectivity then! I bought this from Currys in October 2008 for £260.
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