Author Archive: Matt

More than 20 years in the IT industry. Blogging with a passion and thirst for new technology since 2005.

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By February 5, 2011 Read More →

Next generation handheld’s: 3DS vs NGP

dm-nintendo-3ds Gaming heavyweights Nintendo and Sony are set to go head to head once again in the handheld market with their respective follow-ups to the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation Portable (PSP), both of which are currently due to hit the shelves this year.

Nintendo has the first-to-market advantage as its new 3DS console is set to be released on March 25th, whereas Sony’s new machine, currently dubbed ‘Next Generation Portable’ or NGP, is pencilled in for release at some point during the fourth quarter of 2011.

The 3DS looks set to build on the remarkable success of the Nintendo DS with a number of new additions, chief of which is the inclusion of a display capable of producing 3D graphical effects without the need for the user to wear special glasses. The 3DS’ bottom screen retains the touchscreen technology used to such great effect in its predecessor, while the two cameras introduced in the DSi model also make it over to the 3DS. Further new features include an analogue input ‘nub’, which will allow enhanced control over in-game characters, and both an accelerometer and a gyroscope to allow developers to build motion control into their games.

Posted in: Editorial
By January 24, 2011 Read More →

iPad 2 specification?

ipad_display Over the past few weeks there have been lots of new ‘stories’ about the forthcoming iPad 2. Some of these stories make sense whereas others seem downright silly.

The consensus is that Apple will announce the iPad 2 at some point in February or March and that it’ll go on sale some time during March or April. I’m hoping that it will go on sale just before my next trip to the US.

I’ve been considering the various iPad 2 rumours we’ve seen and thought it would be good to have a look at some of them and to consider which are the most realistic.

 

Posted in: Editorial
By January 23, 2011 Read More →

Enable multitasking gestures on iOS 4.3 for iPad

icon_ipsw There are hundreds of sites with a tutorial on how to enable the new multitasking gesture features on the iPad with iOS 4.3 Beta 1/2 but almost all of the ones I came across are either incomplete, inaccurate or downright wrong. I assume that someone posted a tutorial on day one and the rest of the web did a simple copy/paste for their own how-to.

It is actually a very simple process:

 

Posted in: Editorial
By January 23, 2011 Read More →

Sony’s Qriocity cloud based music service makes debut

qriocity Sony has just launched its online, cloud-based, digital music service and it makes it debut in Germany, Tokyo, France and Italy.

We first saw Qriocity back in December here in the UK and we all but ignored it initially. However looking at it again recently it does look like it could blossom in to a decent service with the ability to play music from your account on many other Sony systems such as BluRay players, BRAVIA TV’s and the PS3 to name a few.

Although it’s not a free service, 3.99 a month for basic and 9.99 for premium, Sony are hoping that it will rival iTunes and looking at the imagery and feel of the website there certainly or a resemblance there.

Posted in: News
By January 22, 2011 Read More →

Sanyo Xacti VPC-CA100 unboxing video

i_pic03_02 If you’ve been to our site much in the past of have watched many of our unboxing videos then you’ll probably know that we’re quite fond of Sanyo’s Xactia range of HD camcorders. In fact we have been using a Xacti HD1010 to record our unboxing videos for the past few years. I like the quality of the recordings and the convenience of the SD card and standard MP4 video format makes it easy to use and edit the footage.

A few days ago Sanyo sent us their latest Xacti CA100. Similar in design to their previous pistol-grip style cameras the CA100 offers 1080P video recording and is waterproof to a depth of 3m. This is a good improvement over earlier waterproof models, such as the CA9, which were limited to 720P and waterproof to a depth of just 1.5 metres. Oh and the zoom is up from 5x to 12x as well.

There are numerous other enhancements but we’ll cover those when we get to the full review in about a week or so. For now enjoy the unboxing video below, recorded on the HD1010.

 

Posted in: Videos/Unboxings
By January 21, 2011 Read More →

Are Dragons tougher than Gorillas?

gorilla glass vs dragontrail By now, most of us have heard of Gorilla Glass, the tough glass that’s to be found on a variety of portably devices now, notably the Dell Streak. Certainly the benefits of Gorilla Glass are widely acclaimed with numerous demonstrations of its properties on YouTube where the brave tackle screens with keys, scissors and even knives. No damage evident.

However, there’s new contender out there. One of Japan’s largest glass manufacturers has been showing off a new glass designed for mobile devices that is claimed to be considerably tougher and stronger than conventional glass and even better than Gorilla Glass.

Asahi Glass said its ‘Dragontrail’ glass is about six times as tough as typical chemically-treated soda lime glass and should be better suited to the rough-and-tumble life to which portable gadgets are subjected.

Gorilla Glass vs Dragontrail

At a recent press conference in Tokyo reporters were invited try it from themselves and try scratching the glass with their keys. Despite the enthusiastic efforts of those that tried, the screen remained undamaged even after it was dropped it remained un broken. (Watch the video on YouTube.)

The company also showed videos of tests it had done on the glass. It bent but didn’t break under 60kgs of weight and resisted the shock of a hammer strike in the videos.

The glass will go up against Corning’s Gorilla glass, which boasts similar properties and has proved a hit with portable gadget makers. It’s already used in more than 225 mobile devices including cell phones, laptop and tablet PCs, and was recently selected by Sony for the front glass for its flat-panel LCD TVs, said Corning.

Asahi Glass has been developing Dragontrail for the last two years and the company has already begun supplying it to some electronics makers, but delayed its disclosure until Thursday. It declined to identify its customers.

It will certainly be interesting to see how the two shape up when the go head-to-head, I’m hoping that the glass starts the become more common place and on larger products, glass is far easier to clean and look after than plastic!

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: Editorial, News
Tags: ,
By January 21, 2011 Read More →

Woman Sues Mall after CCTV captures her falling in fountain

image7264994g Ok this isn’t the kind of story you would normally get from us but when I saw this on CBS News it made ma laugh so much I had to share!

The woman was walking through the mall where she works texting on her phone as she went, not looking where she was going falls head first in to one of the mall fountains. This was all captured from more than one CCTV camera and the security guards monitoring found it so funny that they decided to post the video online.

Now the woman as come forward and is threatening to sue the mall as she claims that the security folks should have come to her rescue more rapidly and should also not have released the video. Not sure why she feels that the mall is negligent for her own daft mistake but what makes this story funnier, I think, is that no one even knew who the wamon in the video was until she came forward and now she is claiming that she is embarrassed! LOL

Video after the break.

Posted in: News
By January 16, 2011 Read More →

No Home button on iPad 2?

icon_iphonesdk4 If you’ve been following the iPad2 rumours this week you may have also seen that there are rumours to suggest that the iPad 2, and indeed all future iOS devices, will not have the ever-present Home button.

Initially this sounded like a ridiculous notion. iOS devices only have a few hardware buttons and the Home button is used for so many things, not only for switching between an Application and the homescreen but also, more recently, invoking the task list for the multitasking support. So not only does the removal of the Home button sound like a bad idea, it also would seem to be impossible with the current user interface. To me this seemed like one of those made-up daft rumours.

HOWEVER. Just a few days ago Apple released iOS 4.3 Beta 1 to developers. Along with some minor changes including full screen iAd support and new FaceTime and AirPlay support there’s a couple of more significant changes that do lend support to a possible removal of the Home Button:

The iPad 4.3 beta 1 iOS software now has multi-touch gesture technology. This means you can use four or five fingers to:

  • Pinch to the Home Screen.
  • Swipe up to reveal multitasking bar.
  • Swipe left or right between apps.

 

So what do you all think? Personally I like the comfort of a physical home button and, having used the features in iOS 4.3 Beta 1 I have to say I’m not totally convinced. There are bound to be some apps out there that use multitouch that are going to get confused and you’ll end up closing them. At least it can be switched off.

Time will tell.

 

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: Rumours
By January 15, 2011 Read More →

Flip Ultra HD Camcorder unboxing video

UltraHD These Flip cameras have been around for a while. Their compact, no-nonsense design coupled with decent quality recording and relatively low price has made them quite popular and they are offered for sale on a wide range of stores in many countries. I’m sure this is a trend fuelled by the likes of YouTube and the rapid expansion of other social networking vehicles. You can even design your own Ultra HD now with customisable colours and even upload images to be printed on the case.

New UltraHD Family
The world’s best-selling shoot-and-share video family – the Flip Video UltraHD – now offers two new models with even more reasons to own one. For the first time, the UltraHD line offers personalization through the Flip Online Store (TheFlip.com) with thousands of designs for users to create a video camera showcasing their own personal style. Along with always-on image stabilization and newly enhanced 720p/60 fps video quality, the new Flip Video UltraHD 2 hour also features a new slimmer design that fits easily in a pocket or purse. The UltraHD 2 hour is the first Flip video camera to feature FlipPortT – a proprietary Flip-designed connector enabling new add-ons options as part of the newly announced Designed for FlipT accessory program.

Review coming up over the next week or so, for now you can check out the unbox below.

 

Posted in: Videos/Unboxings
By January 13, 2011 Read More →

BlackBerry Curve “Apollo” info hits the web

BlackBerry-Curve-Apollo

The guys over at Boy Genius Report appear to have scored a bit of a scoop – information about the next generation Blackberry Curve codenamed Apollo – including the image on the right.

According to BGR the new device is going to have a 480×360 screen, a 5-megapixel camera, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band HSPA 7.2Mbps radio with NFC capabilities.

Other highlights include Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS, 512MB of eMMC, 512MB of RAM, a 1050 mAh battery, a Tavor MG-1 800MHz CPU all running BlackBerry OS 6.1 and squeezed into a unit just 11mm thin.

For the full article head over to BGR at http://www.bgr.com/2011/01/13/exclusive-next-generation-blackberry-curve-appears-brings-specs-with-it/#

Posted by: Iain

Posted in: News
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