Zath! Archive for

April, 2009

Google Street View (UK) Cleared Of Privacy Concerns

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has finally given a verdict on the legality of Google Street View going live in the UK, and fortunately for Google (and the millions of people that find the novelty useful and entertaining) it is one that says the online service including the continuing expansion should not be stopped.

This follows claims by many people that it should not be allowed for many different reasons – the most common two being that it infringes people’s privacy, and that it facilitates crime by allowing potential burglars to map out their route and identify weak spots without leaving their home.

However the ICO ruled that although it carries a small risk of privacy invasion removing Google Street View would be “disproportionate to the relatively small risk of privacy detriment”. It is definitely encouraging to see a watchdog use some common sense – listening to the quiet majority rather than the very vocal minority.

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7 Mac Desktop Twitter Apps

Twitter is the thing right now. From Jonathan Ross to Jamie Oliver, from Peaches Geldof to Zath’s very own Simon Barker, over 4 million people are using Twitter to communicate and share ideas.

There are some cool ways to use Twitter from the comfort of your Mac desktop, rather than keeping a browser tab open and hitting refresh every 12 seconds – so, for all you Mac users out there, here’s seven of the best Mac desktop applications to make Twittering easier:

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GAME Voucher Code For Cheap Nintendo Wii Or DSi

Here at Zath we’re big fans of gaming and as such made good use of the last GAME voucher code (£5 off) that Game was offering as a discount for all us eager gamers to use on the GAME website.

Well we’re pleased to announce that GAME have released another voucher for us gamers to use exclusively on their website, clearly they’re in the bank holiday spirit already which is must be why given that this voucher code is only valid until the end of the bank holiday weekend – this voucher code expires at the end of Monday 4th May.

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Facebook – Pirate Language Added!

Did you know that Facebook has an English (Pirate) language option within the standard settings? I certainly didn’t and don’t know how long it’s been there (probably ages), but have just seen it mentioned on Twitter by Jamie Harrop and had to give it a try.

All you need to do is scroll down to the bottom of any Facebook page and click on the link which say English (UK) or whatever current language you’re using, a popup window appears with a selection of standard languages, except one of the options is for English (Pirate) – you then simply select this and when you’re returned to your Facebook pages, you’ll see that most of your Facebook interface has now become Pirate-ised and ye will be talking like a pirate in no time!

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How To Be Safe Online – Internet Security/Safety For Students

Yesterday I brought up the issue of technology giving us more than we can handle with the case of highlighting Swine Flu, but it can also have worrying implications with our safety and how susceptible we are to giving out our personal emails.

In a recent survey commissioned by ‘Get Safe Online’ it was found that internet users in full time education were far more vulnerable to online crime and security threats than any other demographic, which may be surprising as both the people in question and the general population see them as being ‘very computer literate’.

We have all got the spam emails from our friend who is stuck in Nigeria and needs £3000 to get back, and apart from the first time where we went through our phone book to find out if any of our friends were on holiday in Africa we delete them instantly. But although this may seem like the most prominent threat, and although it is so widely publicised, young people are still falling foul to the internet.

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Samsung LED TV Range

We’ve covered many high definition, widescreen TVs here on Zath, of both LCD and Plasma varieties, but Samsung have now responded to their competitors by announcing their new range of Samsung LED TVs (Series 6 & 7) – yes you read it right, Light Emitting Diode (LED), you’re probably thinking that’s different, not heard of that one before…

The thing to realise here is that these LED TVs are still using a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) like you may have at home now; however the main difference is that LEDs are used as a backlight for the LCD display, as opposed to the usual LCD TVs that use fluorescent lamps as backlighting system which ultimately add to the depth/thickness and power consumption of the TV.

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Swine Flu ‘Pandemic’ – Real-Time Tracking With Google Maps

No-one can deny that technology has made the majority of our lives that bit better, and in fact we would struggle to live without certain aspects of it (e.g. life support systems). However sometimes it can have some fairly negative effects – such as fuelling the fire of hysteria.

Unless you have spent the weekend in a cave you will know that the threat of a pandemic (which has been prophesised by scientists for years) is now coming from a mutated form of Swine Flu which has originated from Mexico, and cases are popping up across the world; so what better to do than follow it’s spread in real time using Google Maps?

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Living in HD – Panasonic Camera Competition

Living in HD is a community site for enthusiasts of things to do with digital video, photography and HDTV who are looking for a place where they can learn from others and also share their own knowledge in what is becoming an increasingly popular field as more and more people take up hobbies around digital video, photography and HDTV.

Since the Living in HD community is driven by its users then it means that they will tend to be less biased than similar information found on the manufacturers’ websites, however this site would appear to be a part of or at least sponsored by Panasonic still.

I can see this type of website being very useful to both beginners and more experienced users all round and the whole peer-to-peer knowledge aspect is somewhat like you’d find in a forum. However this community website is presented in a much better way that makes the experience of using it more engaging than a simple forum as people can share the results of their creativity.

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LG LCD & Plasma TV Collection 2009

LG recently held a TV event at the Ideal Homes Show at Earls Court in London in which they showed off some of their new TVs for 2009 and also answered some questions about their new products, similar to their previous events in which they showcased their new LG Plasma TVs.

First of all, to outline some of these new TVs and some features to note of this new LG TV range are:

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3rd Generation iPhone Gets Front-Facing Camera & Enlarging Interface?

One of Apple’s latest patents that has recently emerged would suggest some interesting features in an upcoming Apple product, one which could end up being the 3rd generation iPhone.

As you can see from the technical patent image below, there is a front-facing camera detailed at the top-centre of the device (the item labelled 180) which would bring the more business-focussed uses to the iPhone such as video calling – the only real instance right now that I can see people using video calling – I don’t know anyone who uses it for leisure purposes due to the 3G requirements and associated costs, is it something that you’ve used on mobile phones in the past? No doubt that this will become a commonly used application as the technology develops.

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Windows 7 To Feature Virtual System XP Compatibility

One of the most irritating things about updating your computer O/S (apart from the cost, the effort you have put in is that of actually installing it and the new features that often don’t work) is that the software you have been using quite happily on your now ‘old’ O/S is not designed to work with the new one, and more than often doesn’t.

This means that if you rely on specific software (like a small business could) then you may be reluctant to upgrade as it will mean losing the software which itself has no problems. Seeing this problem Microsoft have announced that Windows 7 will be able to run programmes designed for XP through a virtual system.

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Gadget Show Live 2009 Review / Roundup

First of all, I have to say that I think it’s great that Channel 5 TV programme, The Gadget Show has such a following and large number of viewers that a Gadget Show Live event like this was firstly planned and then very quickly sold out by the fans of the show – I think that says a lot about a large of people in the UK being quite tech-savvy and enjoying all types of gadgets that are out there.

This was first event that I’d attended of it’s type on behalf of Zath and was quite excited to see what was on show to the visitors of this event after seeing so many great shows on TV that take place in America, Japan etc.

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SteelSeries’ WoW Facebook Competition!

You may have seen and entered our recent World of Warcraft Mouse competition which has been very popular, so thanks to everyone who entered that and I thought that you might be interested to know about another World of Warcraft competition that is currently being run by SteelSeries.

If you don’t already know, SteelSeries are the company who make a great range of pc gaming accessories, including a bunch of WoW-inspired items of which the aforementioned WoW mouse is just one item the winner will be receiving – just take a look at this prize list below!

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Cooliris V1.10 Released – 3D Online Photo Gallery

Cooliris has been around for a while now, and has managed to rack up an impressive 12 million downloads of the plugin that allows you to browse and search media in a whole range of popular websites; but now they have got to update number 10 – and it is definitely one that will push it into the limelight.

Along with a few bug fixes and additional support (which I will get onto later) you will now be able to look at photos on your computer using the Cooliris set up, look through Facebook albums on the streaming 3D wall and get a whole lot more information about the images you are looking at.

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Blue Dragon Plus Review (DS/DSi)

I never played the first Blue Dragon on Xbox 360 but I was interested in it because of how it looked and the genre of the game. It was similar to Final Fantasy but without the iconic name and history.

When I saw that the sequel was being released as a Nintendo DS game I just had to get my hands on it and see for myself how good Blue Dragon Plus was.

I have to say, I’m very impressed with what I’ve seen.

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UK Budget 2009 Brings Promise Of Broadband For All

Today was the day that Chancellor Alistair Darling released the budget for government spending over the next financial year, and within the budget was some interesting promises regarding not only plans to bring broadband to everyone but also about implementing ideas brought forward in the Digital Britain report.

Currently the UK is lagging behind the leading MEDC’s with regards to its broadband speeds – we are struggling to reach an average of 4Mbps while Japan (around 61Mbps), Korea (around 46Mbps) and Finland (around 21Mbps) are the top of the 20 countries that have average broadband speeds higher than ours (a list that includes Poland, Iceland and the Slovak Republic).

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Ghostbusters: The Video Game Trailer

With the highly anticipated release of the Ghostbusters game almost upon us, I thought it would be good to spread the wealth.

The game is set to be released on 19th June 2009 on all main gaming platforms this year after a few speed bumps which almost destroyed the game from ever coming out. Thank you Atari!!

The game has been written by Harold Ramis and Dan Ackroyd who wrote the original Ghostbusters films. Judging from what I’ve seen of the countless trailers, they haven’t just flung a random script together, it actually seems to be a really good story, could this story effectively be the much fabled Ghostbusters 3 movie?

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Killzone 2 Review (PS3)

Killzone 2 is a tactical, first person shooter carrying straight on from the first game. The story line is simple. After defending the planet against the evil Helghan, the ISA (the good guys) launches an assault back on their own planet which is where the whole game is based.

Back in 2005 a trailer was shown at E3 which blew everyone away. It was a trailer for Killzone 2 that showed possibly the best graphics in gaming history. The game trailer looked like something from full length CG movie being played in real time. Killzone 2 was one of the most hyped games on the PS3 before the console was even released. Unfortunately it was later revealed that all of the footage of PS3 games at E3 2005 was ‘running off video’, which was done to PS3 spec.

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Google Labs Adds Similar Images and News Timeline Search

Just yesterday Ask.com brought back Jeeves in an attempt to fight back against Google, so it is very apt that today Google released two new experimental products that will hopefully change the way we search – and in the meantime add nails to the coffin the likes of Ask.com and Yahoo.

The two new ideas in question are ‘Similar Images’ and ‘Timeline’ both of which are very different from what we’ve seen before, and both of which should not only boost Google’s popularity but also raise awareness of the ‘Labs’ section of Google which has been given a little bit of a makeover.

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7 Strange Google Street View Sights (UK)

Since it kicked off here in the UK a few weeks ago, Google Street View has courted controversy with the residents of a Buckinghamshire village, Broughton, who refused to be photographed, and the privacy lobby who say that the service is against human rights.

Here at Zath towers however, we prefer to focus on the fun and beneficial side of the mapping tool. Here’s the top seven strange sights we’ve found so far as you take a virtual stroll round these fair isles…

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