February, 2009
Timex Nail Watch Brings Digits To Your Digits
February 28, 2009
As electronics get smaller and smaller, and we come to rely on our gadgets more and more the idea of implanting technology into our body becomes less of a fantasy (or nightmare depending on your point of view) and more of a reality. And although we are not at the stage of mainstream implanted chips yet, this new watch from Timex brings us one step closer.
By combining the nail and the watch (hence the painfully corny title!) Timex have come up with a way of making watches discrete and yet functional. The Timex nail watch sits on your thumb nail, and when you press on the top of this tiny device it lights up showing you the time and date.
Continue reading »Windows Vista Wallpaper Changer Review
February 26, 2009
Do you need a Windows Vista wallpaper changer? Up until the point at which I upgraded to Windows Vista and started using a second monitor around 18 months ago I could never be bothered with changing my desktop wallpapers and had probably used the same wallpaper for around 3 years.
However, once I upgraded my main monitor to a good quality widescreen version, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get some high quality wallpapers – I was pleased to find some great 1920×1080 widescreen wallpapers over at InterfaceLIFT – a site I highly recommend and has new wallpapers added on a daily basis! (If you’re a real fan of digital art, then take a look at our Digital Art Gallery? article)
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Amazon Kindle 2 Release In UK & Europe?
February 25, 2009
A few weeks ago we brought you news of the Amazon Kindle 2 release, the new electronic book reader from Amazon which was the successor to the very successful Kindle. However this didn’t mean an awful lot to us UK dwellers because despite the Kindle’s success we haven’t even seen a glimpse of it this side of the Atlantic.
Due to several reasons the Kindle has not come to UK, Europe or anywhere else outside of USA, and the Amazon Kindle 2 looked set to continue this trend. However when iFixit got hold of it they tore it apart (or rather they disassembled it) and had a look at what was inside: and to their surprise there was what looked like a space for a SIM card.
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Red Xbox 360 – Resident Evil 5 Edition
February 25, 2009
Microsoft have decided to entice me even more to buying an XBox 360 by releasing a limited edition Resident Evil 5 bundle, and it’s red!
The red Xbox 360 looks pretty sweet and a lot slicker than the white versions and I even prefer it to the black Elite.
Which version of the 360 is it I hear you ask? It’s the Elite version, which also includes a red wireless controller, 120GB HDD, black wired headset, and an exclusive Resident Evil 5 theme which you download from XBLA.
Continue reading »Top Smartphones For Business
February 24, 2009
Over the last few weeks we’ve been looking at the best smartphones on the market at the moment with the aim of finding the best one out there, and we have covered the T-Mobile G1, Blackberry Storm, Blackberry Bold, Nokia E71, HTC Touch HD and the iPhone 3G. So now it is time to bring all of those reviews together for a final showdown.
But for all of the things they have in common they are, like most things, very hard to compare. This is mostly due to the versatility of smartphones – not only can you use them for business but they are making headway into the home market – which makes it very hard to judge which smartphone you should buy. So I’ve split this final post into two sections: Business and Leisure.
Firstly let’s have a look at the more traditional purpose of the Smartphone: business. I will first give you the runner up, and then the final winner with a quick word as to why it’s won.
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How To Use Xbox 360 Controller On PS3
February 24, 2009
Have you ever felt that the PS3 controllers weren’t as good as the Xbox 360’s and always wanted to play Call of Duty using the precise analog sticks of the Xbox 360 controller?
Well now you can!
A company called XCM has announced a new adaptor which will allow the crossover conversion to enable you to use a 360 controller on the PS3. The 360 controllers are renowned for their trigger buttons and I personally think this could enhance certain gameplay controllers, especially FPS games.
Continue reading »Going Straight: A Solution To Internet Piracy? – Part 2
February 23, 2009
The Cornucopia of Crap
Most file sharers are at least one of the following: Haplessly ignorant, idiots, con-artists, trolls, kids, liars, careless, uneducated, and yes, criminals. I really couldn’t care less about any of this, except that it really does directly relate to the quality of their output.
Now as I type this, I can almost feel the indignation of countless file-sharers out there who successfully download many acceptable pirate copies of all and sundry. If that’s you, I would suggest that PC run-time is not a factor for you and you’re not very discerning over quality and consistency. You also either really know what you’re doing, or you’re just plain lucky. Let me make it clear here: unless you absolutely know what it is you’re downloading, there is no virus protection or malware prevention tool in existence which will guarantee protection when you open the file.
Continue reading »Little Big Planet Dominates D.I.C.E. Summit
February 23, 2009
A couple of weeks back we had a look at the nominations for the Gaming BAFTAs (Part One and Part Two) but like the movie and TV BAFTAs they are not alone in handing out awards, and at the D.I.C.E. summit which started in Las Vegas yesterday the Interactive Achievement Awards were handed out to the winners of a staggering 30 categories.
The D.I.C.E. summit for those of you who don’t know is an annual gathering of videogame executives which focuses more on the business and production end of the industry, as you would expect from a conference full of executives! Amongst the keynote speech and various addresses the Entertainment Software Association take the opportunity to give out their games awards: the IAAs.
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‘Lord of the Rings: Conquest’ Review (PS3)
February 22, 2009
Like the Star Wars franchise, Lord of the Rings keeps coming back with more games based on the film years later. Lord of the Rings: Conquest lets you take control of many playable characters and monsters from the series. This includes all the Hero characters including the enemy characters such as Sauron.
The game allows up to 16 players online and fours players can play offline through the campaign mode. There are two offline campaign modes in the game, one being the original story of the films and the second having a take on what would have happened if Sauron had won the battle and if Frodo didn’t throw the ring into the lava!
Lord of the Rings Conquest is a straight forward hack and slash game developed by Pandemic Studios – they were the same developers who did Star Wars Battlefront, so if you have already played Star Wars Battlefront you will most likely know what Lord of the rings is all about. However this time instead of Jedis, Spaceships and lightsabers you have wizards, balrog and swords.
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Nintendo DSi vs Sony PSP 3000
February 21, 2009
The new Nintendo DSi and Sony’s PSP 3000 are set to start a new handheld war. This will be the 3rd versions of their handhelds!!!
Both are retailed at £149.99 with the Sony PSP 3000 release date being 6th March 2009 and the Nintendo DSi release date a month later on 3rd April 2009.
But I can’t see Sony outselling Nintendo on the handheld front. The PSP is more on the media side as there are only a handful of PSP exclusive games on the market and lets face it, they’re not the best games.
Continue reading »Mir:ror Offers A New Way To Use Your PC With Wireless Proximity Devices
February 21, 2009
RFID chips are nothing new: they have been around since the 1970s and are used for a wide variety of things from race timing to passports, and from libraries to human implants. However we don’t often see take a prominent place in the home, and considering their versatility there is definitely scope for it.
Violet have been looking at internet enabled devices for a while, so it is no surprise that they have decided to utilise the technology behind RFID chips. They have done this by creating the Mir:ror which allows you to interact with your computer using everyday devices.
At first glance this little device looks, unsurprisingly, like a mirror, with a nice ring of LEDs surrounding it giving it a nice friendly ambience. When you open the box you are confronted with the said mirror as well as two nano:ztag (I will explain in a minute!) mini rabbits and three small Ztamps (or for every normal person: stamp shaped RFID devices)
Continue reading »Sony CyberShot Digital Camera Range Expands…Again!
February 20, 2009
If I didn’t know any better I’d think that the Sony’s CyberShot department haven’t heard of the recession we are in – I’ve been away for two days and in that time Sony have managed to add five more digital cameras to their already expansive range.
Attempting to muscle their way into an increasingly saturated digital camera market is the CyberShot H20, S930, W270, T900 and the T90 all of which were released yesterday by Sony, and we thought we should have a look at these new additions and what they have to offer the market.
Continue reading »Google Latitude – Share Your Live Location With Friends!
February 19, 2009
Google Maps have introduced another new feature to their popular mapping software/service called Google Latitude which utilises the GPS functionality of your mobile phone to display your current location to your friends on their mobile devices or on their computer.
On a technical level, I think this a really cool bit of technology that Google have built into their Google Maps software, but another part of me thinks it’s perhaps a little creepy – but given you have total control over whether people can see you or not, I suppose that does make up for it and puts your mind at rest on that point.
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Pleo ‘Robotic Dinosaur’ Review
February 19, 2009
You may remember that we’ve previously featured Pleo in which we explained that he’s an autonomous, newly hatched herbivore dinosaur called a Camarasaurus – essentially a robot dinosaur that will wander around exploring and reacting to its environment – it’s fair to say I was initally a little sceptical about Pleo the Robotic Dinosaur.
In the past I’ve had a play with some of the previous robotic dinosaurs that have been on the market, such as the RoboRaptor which to be honest has never really impressed me as anything other than a short-lived novelty which I certainly soon got bored with…the question is whether the same can be said about Pleo, I’m pleased to say that there’s certainly a lot more to Pleo as a robot dinosaur than previous attempts at bringing back these long dead creatures in a robotic form.
Continue reading »T-Mobile G1 Review
February 18, 2009
So as we come to the end of our overview of the smartphone world (which has included the Blackberry Storm, Blackberry Bold, Nokia E71, HTC Touch HD and the iPhone 3G) and we meet the T-Mobile G1 – The first Google Phone! This has got to be the only phone where the operating system (O/S) has created more interest than the phone. Having said that the phone has been the centre of much attention and not all of it is without good reason.
Firstly a little background: the phone is technically called the HTC Dream (you may recognise HTC from their Touch HD) as they, along with some input from Google’s design team, designed the hardware. But what makes this phone special is that it is the first example of Google’s Android O/S which promised to be stylish, packed with features and built completely with touchscreens in mind; so it looked good, but the end result was a phone of two halves.
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World of Warcraft Comic Review
February 18, 2009
I’ve recently read through the first official World of Warcraft comic book and as someone who hasn’t regularly read comic books for around 20 years, I thought I’d give you a review of what I thought in that context.
I’ve been playing World of Warcraft for around 18 months now and as good as the game is to play (as an MMO game), I’m someone who also likes to pay attention to some of the story elements that are going on in the game – yes I’m one of those who actually goes around trying to read what the quest givers are saying in the hope that they may tie together t form a good story.
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‘Call of Duty: World at War’ Review (PC)
February 17, 2009
Many people were a little taken aback when it was announced that Call of Duty 5 would return back to a World War 2 setting in Call of Duty: World at War, however I’m someone who hadn’t played Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (and still haven’t got to playing it yet) so for me personally this follows the spirit of the previous Call of Duty games I’ve played.
The new setting of the Pacific war in which you play an American soldier compliments the more usual European war location (in this case you’re fighting as a Russian trying to take back Russia) and I feel adds a completely new take on things in terms of both tactics and the feel of the graphics.
Continue reading »Transformers 2 Trailer #2
February 17, 2009
They’re coming along thick and fast now! A new teaser trailer has just been released for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
This first Tranformers 2 Trailer was good as it gave us a little taster as to what’s to come, but my word is this one much better. Not only is it 4 times longer than the Superbowl TV spot, we see a bit more of new Transformers and an amazing part where a Transformer (don’t know if it’s an Autobot or a Decepticon) smashes through a building and transforms into a car and shoots off!!
Continue reading »Going Straight: A Solution To Internet Piracy? – Part 1
February 16, 2009
Arr, me hearties! I’ve been known to partake of the plentiful bounty in my 30-odd years, but as Nicholson said “never rub another man’s rhubarb!”, and that isn’t a bad idea. So is it really possible to straighten up and fly right? (and actually obey the mad, crazy-ass law?) Well, sort of…
I’m law-abiding in the same way that vegetarians eat fish. That means, I’m very principled, unless I don’t like it or it somehow makes my life just a little harder. Therefore, I copy (rip) movies which I own for my own use on the various devices I own. Obviously, I won’t tell you how to do this here, but since many of you are doing it anyway, it matters very little. You’re all breaking the law and you’re all going to hell. Oh well, change is as good as a rest isn’t it? Apart from the copy of “Loose Change” which I still have somewhere, this is the most illegal thing I (or most of us) do, and if you’re prepared to stand your corner against corporate bullying, it might not be illegal at all.
Continue reading »Digital Art Gallery?
February 15, 2009
As consumers of digital technology, I think it’s fair to say that most of us are interested in creativity being expressed through technology – 3D animation, digital music, photography and so forth. When it comes to digital art though, where does one exactly find high quality digital art? I mean, we all know good art when we see it, but where do you find it? Art museums very rarely feature prints of digital artwork, so where do you go to obtain high quality art which you can actually save to your desktop or order prints for? You’re about to find out.
Perhaps the best place to start would be community art groups. I guess you could refer to these places as online digital art museums except they generally have a community driven focus with interviews, commenting and forum systems. Being online these sites pull artists from different backgrounds, of different ages together which help broaden the styles of art on display.
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