Tech
7 Year Old Kid Buys $113k Jet Fighter On eBay!
February 10, 2011
Wow. We’ve seen some pretty ridiculous stories in our time, but this has to take the biscuit, really. We all dream of being a fighter pilot in our early youth, but not many of us have it in us to achieve it.
This kid, though, has more than that. He defied his parents. He most probably defied the law, too, in order to win an eBay listing. Of a Harrier Jump T-Bird Aircraft XW269. The real thing!
Continue reading »HTC Investing $40 Million In OnLive – Cloud-Based Gaming Platform To Go Mobile?
February 10, 2011
We have covered much of the rise of the OnLive cloud gaming platform over the last year or so, and in truth it probably hasn’t taken the world by storm as much as the people behind it would have wanted.
However, it’s hardly unsurprising, it wasn’t likely that the gaming populace of the world would ditch their high-powered consoles over night and take up the offering of an unproven competitor which relies on a high-performance internet connection for all aspects of gameplay.
Continue reading »Nokia Windows Phone 7 Handset To Be Released? (Rumour)
February 10, 2011
With the Mobile World Congress just around the corner, the rumours are all over the place in the press. This one involves Nokia and Windows Phone 7, which is a little unexpected, but could potentially be quite interesting.
For years, Nokia was the dominant player in the mobile phone market, a dominance which arguably came to a stuttering halt around the same time the smartphone came to power. Nokia never really made the transition, and despite a raft of decent hardware, it has been the software, Symbian, which has come under the most scrutiny.
Whilst other platforms, such as iOS 4.2 and Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) have surged to billion dollar success, Symbian has only reached such heights in Europe, and whilst financially it has probably been quite a success for Nokia, it undeniably falls short in terms of actual quality.
Continue reading »Apple iPad 2 Enters Production, But Will The Hardware Updates Be Worth Waiting For?
February 10, 2011
Unlike what was literally years of preparation leading up to the first Apple iPad announcement, the iPad 2 hasn’t had to endure such a strenuous roundup of rumour and disappointment.
However, it is approaching the time of year when Apple is to be expected to unleash the successor to it’s mighty tablet, the iPad 2.
The Wall Street Journal has today reported that the follow up to the greatest tablet of them all is going to disappoint anyone sighting a high resolution, but will make anyone happy who is simply looking for a spec-upgrade and some weight loss.
Continue reading »HP’s webOS Coming to PCs Late 2011
February 9, 2011
Well, I ended the report on the new HP TouchPad by declaring my satisfaction with the maturing ecosystem of mobile devices running webOS. Of course, that only incorporates tablets and phones, thus far, as the planned printers aren’t exactly mobile. However, HP didn’t leave it there, as it also decided that it would be a good idea to throw webOS on its PCs. And I couldn’t be happier.
HP TouchPad webOS 10-inch Tablet Announced
February 9, 2011
Well, it was always about the tablet really. webOS phones have come and gone in the past with little delight, but it’s never before been seen on a tablet. But, it’s here. The HP TouchPad is here. Running webOS, obviously, and sporting a quite honestly stunning design, it’s nothing less than a dream machine.
Size wise, it will be familiar to iPad owners being 9.7″ diagonally, and 13.7mm thick, as the rumours suggested it would be.
Inside, though, it’s a different story altogether. Running on a brand new dual core Snapdragon 1.2GHz CPU, it’s far and away more powerful than the iPad (though bear in mind it is due an upgrade soon), it has twice the memory of the Pre 2, 3 and Veer, and again, twice the storage, 16GB or 32GB being the options.
Continue reading »HP Pre 3 Announced With A 1.4GHz Qualcomm CPU
February 9, 2011
So, we’ve seen the Veer already, and now it’s time to move on to something a little more sizeable. A little more substantial. The Pre 3. Seriously, this has been more than worth waiting for, because whilst the design is pretty much identical the previous Pre, internally it’s on another level.
For starters, the big news is that it will be running on a Qualcomm CPU clocked at 1.4GHz. There’s not a lot I can say there that can’t be summed up with a excited grin, like a child at Christmas. The memory is the same again as the Pre 2 and now the Veer, though this one comes in two versions, HSPA+ and EVDO Rev A world phone, 8GB or 16GB (pretty standard).
Continue reading »HP Veer Mobile Phone Is “Small and Smart”
February 9, 2011
Well, we pretty much already knew that the Veer would be appearing today, at HP’s press event, but what we didn’t have any idea about, was the size. We posed the question earlier of whether it would be the S, M or L device being announced today, after it was leaked on the HP website earlier on that the upcoming devices were in the aforementioned flavours.
First up on the announcement timetable is of course the Veer, and it’s tiny. Like, really small. However, having said that, it’s also the first device to incorporate the Snapdragon 7230 processor, which is clocked at a reasonable 800MHz (trumps the HTC Wildfire, put it that way).
Continue reading »HP Website Spills Names of Upcoming WebOS Smartphone & Tablet Devices?
February 9, 2011
Well, there is little doubt that HP/Palm is intending to lavish us with at least one WebOS touting device at the HP event later on today, but just hours before it’s supposed to kick off, the web admins begin to run a few tests (it seems) an prematurely unveil the names of said devices.
The names Veer, Pre 3 and TouchPad were leaked just moments ago, under the ‘deals’ drop-down on the front page of the Home & Home Office section of the online store. It’s unclear as yet what each of them actually is, but the three are labelled S, M and L, in no corresponding order.
Continue reading »Win A Q-Waves Quicklink TV Kit – Watch Online TV On The Big Screen Without Wires (Competition)
February 9, 2011
Here on Zath we recently wrote about the Q-Waves Quicklink TV which is recently released product that allows you to wirelessly connect your laptop to your TV which really takes most of the hassle out of hooking up your computer to your big screen to watch online catch up TV services such as the BBC iPlayer, 4OD, Seesaw and Sky Player, afterall do you really want the cables trailing all over your living room? You know one of these times you’re just going to trip over them! Or at least I would anyway!
Well here at Zath we’ve now teamed up with Q-Waves to help make your online TV watching that bit easier by offering you the chance to win one of the Quicklink TV kits for yourself in our latest competition.
Continue reading »Amazon Kindle 3.1 Software Update Released, Brings Real Page Numbers To Latest Generation Devices
February 9, 2011
Amazon has got some good news, and some bad news for all you Kindle owners today! The good news is that if you possess a latest generation Kindle (3), Wi-Fi or 3G, then you can head over to Amazon’s website to download a brand new update for your device!
The bad news? If you happen to own a 1st or 2nd generation Kindle, or Kindle DX, then you’re unfortunately out of luck for now, as Amazon has seemingly excluded these devices from the latest update.
So what does this brand new update come with? The main talking point is the addition of real (no, really!) page numbers for many of the books that you own. For years, us early adopters have had to struggle with ‘locations’ and percentages to see where we’re at in our books, which makes it virtually impossible when someone tells us how ‘there was such a good moment on page 319′.
Continue reading »BBC iPlayer iPad App Launching This Thursday, February 10th In The UK
February 9, 2011
Catch-up on demand TV services have exploded on to the scene in the past few years, and BBC’s iPlayer is undoubtedly the most popular in the UK, offering all BBC shows on the internet. The only problem for owners of a certain Apple tablet device, however, is that the iPlayer website plays back content using Flash, which of course the iPad doesn’t support. There are third party solutions and websites available, although they aren’t tailored for use on the iPad, either.
It is, therefore, an absolute pleasure to be able to tell you that BBC are launching an iPlayer app specifically for the iPad this Thursday, February 10th! We first heard news of the iPlayer service going global, via an ad-supported service, back in November last year, so it’s no surprise that there will be an app heading to the US app store too, later in the year.
Continue reading »Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Coming to Three (Four) Major Networks in the UK
February 8, 2011
There has been a sort of muted excitement surrounding the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, otherwise known as the Sony Playstation Android mobile phone. Not so much because we are waiting with bated breath for the next major commercially successful smartphone, more because we’ve been concerned for a slightly new take on what a smartphone should be.
There have been several examples of apparently quality devices not receiving the backing they might deserve from carriers here in the UK, most notably the Palm Pre 2.
Continue reading »HP TouchSmart 610 & 9300 All-In-One PCs Announced – But Can They Compete With The Apple iMac?
February 8, 2011
The consumer technology industry is notoriously prone to creating bandwagon’s on which any manufacturer who wants to get anywhere should jump. Recent examples of course are the likes of 3DTV technology, tablet’s and more specifically, touchscreens.
Touchscreen technology as a result of the sudden surge of touch smartphones has grown exponentially and the most recent capacitive displays are of quite astonishing quality when you look back a year or perhaps even less. However, capacitive doesn’t work with large screens, and amongst other things, this has been the problem with touchscreen desktops.
On top of that, of course, is the ergonomics of the whole stretching out in front of you job in order to actually use a desktop touchscreen. So, in a worryingly similar fashion to an Apple patent we saw towards the back end of 2010, HP has rolled out a pair of TouchSmart All-in-One PC’s, with a reclining mechanism, which in theory transitions the traditionally stanced PC into a relaxed touch panel, capable of providing touchscreen technology on the desktop that is actually usable to some extent.
Continue reading »Q-Waves Quicklink TV – Connect Your Laptop To Your TV Wirelessly!
February 7, 2011
There’s an awful lot of content available on our computers, with streaming media taking over the internet everywhere you look. Catch-up TV services such as BBC’s iPlayer and Sky Player have become the norm for many people wanting to get away from the constraints of watching the TV at a specific time when their favourite program is on.
The only problem with this is that in doing so, people are also shifting their big screen TV experiences on to the small screens of their computers, with tinny sound quality and other things demanding the attention of the user.
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Nintendo 3DS Preview Event Review – Is This Handheld 3D Console A Game-Changer?
February 6, 2011
This weekend has seen a number of preview events for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming console in cities around the UK and I had the opportunity to attend one (thanks to Dom “The Hodge” Hodgson), so I went along to one of the Manchester sessions.
The Nintendo 3DS has been long-anticipated ever since it was first announced and will be the latest in the long line of handheld gaming console updates from the iconic gaming company, some of which include the Game and Watch LCD games, Gameboy(s), DS, DSi, DSi XL – they even had a few of these historic gaming devices on show at the start of the event.
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TruLink Wireless USB To VGA Adaptor Review
February 6, 2011
Wireless USB technology has always excited me, with all the possibilities it offers. Wireless printing, scanning, remote data access through a hub in another room. Another potential use for the technology is to transmit audio and video data to nearby monitors for wireless access to your computer, and that’s exactly what the TruLink Wireless USB to VGA Adaptor does. Kind of.
You see, being USB to VGA (VGA being the key term here), it’s incapable of transmitting any audio signals to a monitor or television, only video. Unfortunately this problem cannot be overcome either; VGA was designed only for transmitting video, like a DVI cable does. Another, separate cable would be required for audio transmission, and unfortunately there’s no sign of one from the TruLink folks in this package.
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TruLink Wireless HD Kit Review – Transmit 1080p HDTV & Gaming Content Wirelessly!
February 6, 2011
Take a second to look around you. How many devices are connected to your TV right now? Four? Five?
It’s easy to get lost in the mess that surrounds our devices, and with so many peripherals connected to our TVs you could be dealing with a serious spaghetti junction problem before you know it.
The only problem is, achieving a truly neat, cable free (or cable hidden) experience is tough; you can’t just start drilling holes everywhere y’know, you’ll lose track of everything in no time. Want a better solution? The TruLink Wireless HD Kit may just tickle your fancy…
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Boxee Box Review (UK)
February 5, 2011
Following its announcement at CES 2010, anticipation of the Boxee Box’s release has been high amongst the many media lovers in the world. It’s unique external design, powerful hardware which promises to play anything you can throw at it, as well as software that many will have used before make this accessory the one to beat on paper, but how does it work in practice? And can it stay ahead of its competition with a relatively small team of developers? Let’s take a look!
Hardware
The design of the Boxee Box is best described as ‘quirky’. If you’re looking for another modular, black box to hide discreetly next to your TV, then you may have to look past this particular one! That’s not at all a bad thing, though. Looking at the press shots of the box, you’d think it was a mile high, but it fits nicely underneath my TV without any problems.
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Edifier Prisma Speakers Review
February 4, 2011
The market for desktop PC stereo speakers is somewhat saturated these days, and that’s not at all a bad thing. It means we have choice. Choice of style or substance, to splash out or to be conservative with our cash or vice versa in both cases.
Sure, you could go down to your local electronics store and pick up a pair of basic, but decent sounding speakers, for about £20-30, but that’s all they’ll be: decent. That’s why I like having the choice of going a little bit more premium, if you will, and that’s why I was eager to take a look at the Edifier Prisma Speakers after enjoying the Soundbar from the same company, so much late last year.
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