Archive for October, 2016

By October 21, 2016 Read More →

Ideagen to host “the World’s Greatest Living Explorer” at UK User Conference

rsz_ranulph_fiennes_4343Information management software firm, Ideagen, has announced the after dinner speaker for its ‘Horizons’ Customer Conference to be held in Nottingham on 1-2 November.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE, described by the Guinness Book of Records as “the world’s greatest living explorer”, will entertain delegates with stories of his adventures including being the only man alive to have travelled around the Earth’s circumpolar surface and crossing the Antarctica on foot.

His after dinner performance will resonate with the overall theme of Ideagen’s ‘Horizons’ conference, which will offer delegates insights into safety and risk management as well as performance, quality and audit.

Ideagen’s Chief Customer Officer, Ben Dorks, said: “I am delighted that we have managed to secure such a prestigious, legendary and charismatic speaker as Sir Ranulph.

“As the world’s greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph will captivate our conference with tales from his many dangerous expeditions, including riverboat, hovercraft, man haul sledge, skidoo, Land Rover and skiing treks.

“He is living proof of successful safety and risk management, which is in line with our overall theme for the ‘Horizons’ conference and I am personally looking forward to welcoming Sir Ranulph to our event.”

Green Deal Awards, 19 June 2015 Jason Mitchell Photography 07794 378575 www.jasonmitchellphoto.com jasonmitchellphoto@gmail.com

As well as Sir Ranulph, Ideagen’s conference will also include some presentations from customers such as Network Rail, Telefonica and Johnson Matthey.

The ‘Horizons’ event will focus on the company’s Q-Pulse, Pentana, Enlighten and Covalent solutions that are used by thousands of organisations and millions of individuals around the world.

Mr Dorks added: “This event is an important milestone in the Ideagen calendar as it provides us with the opportunity to unveil the new and exciting functionality we have been developing for our key products.

“The conference also presents our customers with an ideal platform in which to converse directly with us, helping us sculpt our product roadmaps in line with customer expectations and requirements.”

David Hornsby, Ideagen’s CEO, said: “Horizons will bring together customers from many industries and over the two days they will see what we have planned in terms of our product range.

“I am personally looking forward to meeting everyone and I am also particularly excited by the calibre of after dinner speaker and customer presentations we have this year.

“It is promising to be a wonderful event for all connected to Ideagen.”

Ideagen is one of the UK’s fastest growing software companies, reporting its seventh consecutive year of revenue and EBITDA growth. The company has over 300 staff globally including a global partner network.

The ‘Horizons’ event will take place between Tuesday, November 1st and Wednesday, November 2nd at the East Midlands Conference Centre & Orchard Hotel in Nottingham. This event was meticulously planned by the London Event Company.

Posted in: News, Press Releases, Science & Technology
By October 21, 2016 Read More →

MiSK Hackathon 2016

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The MiSK Foundation was founded by and works under the patronage of the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince, HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It’s an NGO  that focuses on the country’s youth, and aims to create genuine opportunities to forge links with business and young people of both sexes in both KSA and Great Britain. The event is focused on youth enterprise and fostering talent, creative potential and tech innovation for health provision among the UK and Saudi Arabia and one of its key aims is to drive awareness and provide a platform for female entrepreneurs.

The MiSK Hackathon 2016 is a live broadcast, real-time dual nation event themed around the ‘Medical Internet of Things’. The Hackathon will involve mixed Saudi/British male and female teams – up to 400 participants in total – and will be the first of its kind, each country joined by a live satellite broadcast, taking place on 25-27 November in London and Riyadh. The challenge is to create a prototype technology innovation over 48 hours for improving health care or health care provision, which will benefit both countries and the world at large. Winners will receive US $10,000 to bring their idea to concept stage and have the opportunity to present their idea to a panel of investors.

Leading academic institutions, businesses and organisations in the UK and KSA have already confirmed their support and involvement including: Saudi British Joint Business Council (SBJBC); Jan Ward, former UK Female Entrepreneur of the Year and CEO of Corrotherm; leaders from blue-chip businesses such as BT, Orange and Microsoft; founders of start-ups and SME’s including SWAG’R, and others still to be announced.

Sign up here!

Posted in: News, Press Releases, Science & Technology
By October 21, 2016 Read More →

Azimo pushes the button on voice-activated money transfer through Siri

downloadAzimo, the money transfer service with the largest digital network, today launches a brand new version of its mobile app, designed to revolutionise the mobile transfer experience for both Apple and Android users. The money transfer service can also be used for payment for e-commerce.

On the iPhone, the app will allow users to transfer money through the voice-activated Siri system. Customers can simply transfer money by telling Siri the amount of money they want to send and the recipient’s name which works amazing for indices trading.

Azimo has redesigned both its Android and iOS apps to create a tailor-made experience for each platform. Google’s Material Design philosophy has guided the look and feel on Android, while the conventions of iOS 10 have been used to create a bespoke experience on Apple devices.

The redesign process has focused relentlessly on usability, with real customers taking part in Azimo’s testing and feedback process.  In addition to Siri integration, key features of the new apps include:

– Redesigned navigation, to make getting around the apps as simple as possible.

– Overhaul of the user journey for both apps – ensuring the money transfer experience is fast, slick and with fewer clicks and swipes

– The creation of user profiles, allowing people to easily see and edit the payment information of their contacts.

“As a society, our relationship with mobile has changed. It’s no longer an add-on to everyday life; it’s a fundamental part of it. At Azimo, our obsession is to continually innovate to improve our customers’ experience. With new features like integration with Siri and the Facebook Messenger chatbot launched recently, we want to make transferring money as easy and rewarding as possible for everyone across every device,” said Marta Krupinska, General Manager of Azimo.

“Our number one goal as a business is to provide the service our customers want and need – letting them transfer money globally while avoiding the hidden costs normally associated with that. That means constant innovations to the service we provide and this new development is a major stage in that journey.” said Dan Martins, Azimo’s Head of Product.

The iOS app is in-store now and new customers can download it here.

Existing Azimo customers can get the free iOS upgrade now by simply clicking the App Store icon and tapping “updates” in the bottom right.

The Android version will launch on Friday 21st October and can be downloaded from the Google Play store and an update will be available for existing customers.

Posted in: Apps & Games, News, Press Releases
By October 19, 2016 Read More →

ENHANCE GX-C1 unboxing

vlcsnap-00003ENHANCE GX-C1 Laptop Cooling Stand. Premium Cooling LED Fans – Designed to minimize the overheating that can occur with laptop computers, the GX-C1 comes equipped with 5 ultra-quiet LED fans that produce an alluring blue light and provide superior airflow while maintaining a noise-free environment.

The scroll wheel allows you to tune the power of the LED lights and fans. Turn them way up or keep them at a lower power to whatever fits your needs. Comfortable Ergonomic Design – The lightweight and versatile design lets you use the cooling stand in a stationary position or take it with you wherever you go. Its metal mesh surface helps increase airflow while pulling away excess heat from the bottom of your laptop.

The 3 adjustable height settings provide you with multiple typing and viewing positions. Lay back on your bed and type on an incline or sit upright on your desk and type all while remaining comfortable. Built-in front bumpers help secure your laptop in place and prevent unwanted sliding.

Dual USB Ports – The laptop cooling pad is powered by the USB port on your computer. It also comes equipped with an extra USB port so you can connect other devices for data transfer capabilities.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/ENHANCE-GX-C1-Laptop-Cooling-Through/dp/B016RBRLWA

Posted in: Accessories, Laptops, Videos/Unboxings
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By October 18, 2016 Read More →

Adam Elements iKlips Duo Unboxing

image2ADAM elements have sent over their latest premium dual-connector flash drive. This is a 16gb variant of Adam Elements good looking storage device aimed at Apple users.

If you became attached to iKlips the first time round, you will love what we have in store with the new iKlips DUO. It is a design that has been perfected to be more practical, with a redesigned body to fit even more iPhone and iPad cases and a silicone body sleeve for added protection. Losing connector caps is now a thing of the past. Like the first iKlips, the new iKlips DUO is also produced with top quality and super high-speed MLC flash memory for iPhone, iPad, and iPad Pro. In addition to enabling greater speeds, it also provides greater stability and a longer lifespan, so it will last as long as you want it to. And with its gorgeous high-grade aluminum body, you will be wanting to use it as often as possible. It is gorgeous to hold and use.

 

Posted in: Accessories, Storage Devices, Videos/Unboxings
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By October 16, 2016 Read More →

What’s new on streaming media 10 October- 16 October 2016

post-coverGareth takes a look at what’s new and renewed on Netflix and Amazon Prime in the UK for the week of 10th October to the 16th October.

 

 

 

Posted in: Streaming Services, Videos/Unboxings
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By October 10, 2016 Read More →

Kodak PIXPRO SP360-4K Review

p1030136The Kodak SP360-4K is a 360 degree camera offering 4K video at 30fps. the SP360-4K doesn’t use any revolutionary methods to capture 360, instead of a simple twinning of two cameras back-to-back and some editing software to stitch the images together.

 

The camera has a 12 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, and takes 8 megapixel still images using a 360×235 degrees ultra-wide f/2.8 lens. In addition to Video and still images the SP360 as manages time lapse, high speed, loop and continuous recording functions.

Utilising Wi-Fi there is no need for a large LCD screen on the camera, therefore they allowing the size to be significantly reduced. Instead the user controls the recordings with a mobile app  and playback the recordings from the MicroSD card inside the camera. NFC is onboard to help with pairing the two cameras and the mobile phone. However, it took me quite some time to get them all working and even then I wasn’t quite convinced I was in control of both cameras.

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In addition to the mobile app there is also a remote watch. This does not have a screen and could lead to some blind photography. However, one has to remember that this is a 360 degree camera setup so you are going to have to worry so much about framing.

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The cameras construction is quite durable, whilst plastic there is a metallic feel from the paint and, whilst you certainly wouldn’t want to you, this would take a knock or two. The cameras do feel vulnerable as there is so much glass around the lens, fingerprints are likely. There are a couple of lens caps included however I felt they popped off far too easily. There are sealed compartments for the ports and the device is both freezeproof alongside splash resistant.

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This particular pack has a load of accessories, including rubber lens caps, a protective lens cover, a number of mounts and the remote control watch. Looking around the camera on one side there is a 1 inch LCD screen, this is a low powered screen used for changing the modes and settings on the fly.

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There’s an on/off button that doubles as a Mode button and the up button for navigating the menus. Under that is down button. There’s a large record, again a double function button, that is the OK button for selecting items in the menu. Finally, there is a Wi-Fi button next to this.

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On the other side is the standard tripod screw hole, however this is plastic. Under this is a cover hiding the MicroUSB, HDMI port and the MicroSD slot.

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On the bottom is the battery compartment. The battery is charged externally and there is only one charger, a little bit of an inconvenience if you purchase the dual pack. The battery is 1250 mAh. According to Kodak the battery is good for 160 shots or 55 minutes at the highest resolution (4K, at 30fps) video, with Wi-Fi on (required for the app to connect.) This was a little disappointing however I can’t say I actually ran out of battery at any point.

There are no MicroSD cards included and given that camera records in 4K, fast cards will be required. When recording 4K videos, the camera records a maximum of a 4GB file. Without interruption another file is created. In 4K this will see around 10 minutes of footage, lower resolutions work out around 30 minutes.

Kodak’s PIXPRO 360 Stitch software is free to download from Kodak’s website, and lets you manipulate your footage a little. You can change the direction and rotation the video. The rotation was a god send as I had  mounted a camera upside-down. There are options for calibration and few effect settings, and finally you can export the video to YouTube. It would seem that Youtube is really the only viable option.

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In saying that, I found nothing but problems importing the video footage into the Stitch software. Output directly imported from the camera was apparently not compatible with the software. I obviously made a mistake with one of the settings when capturing, I can view the video in a localised media player however that loose some of the 360 degree aspect.

From what I managed to capture the camera, I have posted some highlights below. They work quite well in a Google Cardboard. Certainly there are fragments and the whole image isn’t dazzlingly high quality, however I would say that this might be a result of the software having very little to adjust in the editing process.

The biggest problem with the Kodak system itself is the mounts. Once in you will have trouble accessing the functions, battery, and SD card. You will be removing the camera from the mounts frequently and it’s just a bit of a pain.

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The Kodak PixPro SP360-4K is a good looking piece of kit. It’s hardly an action camera you can attach to your helmet and jump off something. It will likely appeal more to the landscape photographer who wants a camera they can leave outside in the evening without concern. The resulting images are acceptable if a little plain and flat.

Posted in: Cameras, Reviews
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By October 7, 2016 Read More →

A new dimension for the Vivitek H5098 Home Cinema Projector

A home cinema experience to remember is the dream delivered by Vivitek’s new H5098, a professional-grade projector for home cinema enthusiasts from a leading brand of visual display products. Comprising all that’s needed to create the big screen experience at home, the H5098 majors on both performance and flexibility – as well as Vivitek’s reputation for reliability and environmental-friendliness – to ensure a thrilling visual experience.

Image quality is assured thanks to its Full HD 1080p resolution and 50,000:1 contrast features. The H5098 leverages DLP® technology with BrilliantColor™ for accurate, long-lasting colour and improved efficiency in illumination optics to provide a wide colour gamut capable of creating over 1 billion colour shades. Combined with its 2,000 ANSI lumens and RGBRGB colour wheel, the H5098 delivers the ultimate performance in video projection in just about any environment, albeit in dark or ambient light.

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This cinematic image quality is backed up by the H5098’s flexibility, as it can be installed on the ceiling with a choice of five different lenses, to cover the different projection throw ratio distances, making it ideally suited to designated cinema rooms in premium properties or for city dwellers in compact apartments. It can be incorporated easily into existing home cinema settings, while its centre lens with horizontal and vertical lens shift and quick touch lens release design further aids its easy installation.

Film buffs will come to appreciate the enhanced viewing experience the H5098 offers thanks to its VividMotion frame interpolation function. This has been engineered to reduce motion judder to create a fluid and flawless video stream, providing a finely detailed viewing experience when fast paced movie-scenes or sports games are being enjoyed. For the home cinema enthusiast enjoying a 3D performance, the H5098 will pull you right into the scenes, even allowing 2D to 3D conversion to always guarantee the visual performance desired.

As users have come to expect from Vivitek, the H5098 is highly flexible, enabling users to enjoy full HD resolution images from Blu-ray players or game consoles with dual HDMI ports to connect them simultaneously.

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Key Features/ Specifications:

  • DLP® technology with BrilliantColor™ for accurate, long-lasting colour.
  • Full HD resolution and 50,000:1 contrast ratio for vibrant and dazzling images.
  • Enjoy great colour reproduction thanks to 6 segment RGBRGB colour wheel.
  • Enhance viewing experience with Vivid Motion frame interpolation function, which reduces motion judder and provides a cleaner viewing of film.
  • Great installation flexibility with 5 optional lens and lens shift capacity.
  • Built-in 12V trigger for screen or blinds control.

**Optional lenses**

Lens Name Short-Throw Short Throw Zoom Standard Long Throw 1 Long Throw 2
Zoom Fixed Zoom 1x 1.18x 1.25x 1.5x 1.67x
F Number 2.5 2.05 – 2.27 2.46 – 2.56 2.5 – 3.1 2.2 – 2.5
Focal Length (f) 11.46 mm 16.64 – 19.54 mm 22.8 – 28.5 mm 28.5 – 42.75 mm 44.5 – 74.19 mm
Throw Ratio 0.78:1 1.10 – 1.30:1 1.54 – 1.93:1 1.93 – 2.89:1 3.00 – 5.01:1
Aspect Ratio 16:9 16:9 16:9 16:9 16:9
Image Size 47″ – 290″ 35″ – 369″ 36” – 300” 32” – 468” 28″ – 301″
Projection Distance 0.8 – 5 m 1 – 9 m 1.5 -10.2 m 2 – 20 m 3 – 20 m

Pricing and availability:

The Vivitek H5098 is available immediately at a MSRP excl. VAT of £2199

Posted in: Uncategorized
By October 7, 2016 Read More →

Google WiFi in a nutshell

download-25One of the smaller announcements that seem to have been buried under the bigger stories was Google’s Wifi project. Google Wifi is set of little puck shaped wireless access points in sync with each other and can be placed around the home to build a strong wireless network around the home, this seemed to be a great idea for me, as I’ve always been looking for a good internet source in my area.

The main emphasis here is for the WiFi, from your chosen isp, to be able to support multiple devices, and to deliver high-bandwidth activities such as streaming video and gaming without congestion.

Google Wifi comes in packs of one or three, and one of the big features is allowing the user keep adding to the setup if you have a large home, but of course, you’ll also need a good internet provider. Google recommends using one point in a small house or flat measuring between 500- and 1500 square feet, two in a medium house measuring between 1500- and 3000 square feet, and three in a large home between 3000- and 4500 square feet. Google Wifi uses mesh Wi-Fi, determining the best path for your data.
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A companion app for Android and iOS, allows the user to optimise your network however the system itself will work on the more complex aspects, like ensuring your Wi-Fi is operating on the clearest channel, so you don’t have to. The Network Assist app can even tell you where best to place a Google Wifi point or advise you to adjust your broadband tariff. One of the more interesting features is that you can pause a Wi-Fi connection to a particular connected device, such as the computer you child is glued to running League of Legends when you have called them five times for dinner. You can also see how much bandwidth these devices are using and prioritise particular devices over others. Google Wifi supports wireless encryption, verified boot and auto updates, keeping security and user privacy as high priorities.

As with most things at the Google event, nothing for the UK has been confirmed. Google Wifi is available to pre-order in the US from November, and will cost $129 for a single pack and $299 for a three pack. If it seems costly for you, you can always turn to other options such as leased lines which are reliable yet still budget-friendly. Leased line uk provider offers a cost-effective solution to businesses with two or more offices.

Connectivity

  • AC1200 2×2 Wave 2 Wi-Fi
  • Expandable mesh Wi-Fi
  • Simultaneous dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz/5GHz) supporting 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
  • TX Beamforming
  • Bluetooth Smart Ready
  • 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports per point (can be configured as WAN or LAN)
  • Security
  • WPA2-PSK
  • Automatic security updates
  • Infineon SLB 9615 trusted platform module

Hardware

  • 710MHz Quad-core processor
  • 512MB DDR3L RAM
  • 4GB eMMC flash storage
  • 15W power adaptor
  • White plastic build
  • 106.12×68.75mm
  • 340g
Posted in: News, Science & Technology
By October 6, 2016 Read More →

KARMA – Much More Than a Drone

d5Much More Than a Drone. Karma features a compact, fits-in-a-small-backpack design and includes an image-stabilization grip that can be handheld or mounted to vehicles, gear and more. Karma makes it easy for anyone to capture amazingly smooth, stabilized video during almost any activity. Karma features a painless out-of-the-box experience unlike any other drone in the market:
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  • Compact and foldable, the entire system fits into the included backpack that’s so comfortable to wear during any activity, users will forget they’ve got it on.
  • A game-style controller features an integrated touch display, making it fun, fast and easy to fly without the need for a separate phone or tablet t o see what your drone sees.
  • The 3-axis camera stabilizer can be removed from the drone and attached to the included Karma Grip for capturing ultra-smooth handheld and gear-mounted footage.Karma will be available October 23rd in the following bundles:
  • Karma without a GoPro camera for $799.99 MSRP
  • Karma bundled with HERO5 Black for $1099.99 MSRP
  • Karma bundled with HERO5 Session for $999.99 MSRP (available in early 2017)
  Learn more about Karma HERE.
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Posted in: Uncategorized
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