Developages - Development and Technology Blog

It’s all up, up and away today as Gizmodo UK teams up with BAA to give readers a chance to win a sexy little netbook. You’ve been reading about them all year and now one lucky reader will get their greedy mitts on the Advent 4211. The product is one of many on offer through BAA’s online Christmas shopping list at airportgiftlist.co.uk. With the help of actors and celebs like Tess Daly [Strictly Come Dancing] and Spooks′ Rupert Penry Jones, among others, the new site has compiled ‘His & Her’ lists, stuff for kids, gadget-heads and foodies too. You can compile your lists onsite and with ‘airport pricing’, BAA reckons the prices will be as keen as you can find as you dash through airports in the run up to Christmas. Just answer the following question correctly:Q: Which car manufacturer makes the DAB radio on Rupert Penry Jones′ list? (a) Ferrari (b) Daewoo (c) Porsche Go here to find the answer. Email your answers along with your name, permanent address and telephone number to ukgizmodo@vnu.co.uk before 23:59pm on November 25, 2008. Please take time to read the Terms & Conditions below. Good luck!-Martin Lynch Courtesy of BAA and Dixons Terms & Conditions 1. To enter the Prize Draw participants must be UK resident and aged over 18 2. No purchase is necessary to participate in the Prize Draw. In order to be eligible to enter the Prize Draw you must have answered the question correctly. 3. The winner will be drawn at random from all eligible entries for the Prize Draw. The decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Gizmodo UK reserves the right to refuse any invalid or incorrect entry and will disqualify any persons abusing the Prize Draw, including via the sending of electronic spam mail. 4. The Prize Draw will be open from 19 November and will close on 25 November 2008. No entries will be accepted after 23:59:59 CET on 25 November 2008 5. The prize of an Advent 4211 netbook will be awarded to one participant of this Prize Draw 6. The winner will be notified within one week of closure to confirm his/her details 7. If no response from the winner to the notification after 14 days, the competition organisers reserve the right to award the prize to an alternate winner 8. The prize will be delivered by the competition sponsor, not Gizmodo UK, no later than 28 days after the announcement of the winner. Neither Gizmodo UK nor the sponsor will be responsible or liable for any prize damaged in transit 9. Taxes on the prize will be borne by the prize sponsor 10. There is a limit of one participation per person, household and e-mail address 11. The prize is not transferable. No cash or credit alternative is available. The prize is not exchangeable. Only one winning entry per household will be accepted 12. Should the prize become unavailable for any reason, the sponsor reserves the right to provide a substitute prize of equivalent value 13. By entering this Prize Draw, applicants will be deemed to have accepted and agreed to be bound by these rules, terms and conditions. laptop competition netbook

Original post by nafiz

Mobile phone chargers can be sneaky little power guzzlers so, to help us silly consumers, some of the biggest mobile phone makers have created a simple way to show just how much juice our chargers drink. The common energy rating system has been agreed by LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. It’s essentially a star-rating system that lets you choose the most energy efficient charger for your mobiles. Will it make those companies build greener chargers? Not just yet, but the group say it’s the first step in “reducing the environmental footprint of its products”.As they point out: “Many consumers are unaware that chargers consume electricity when disconnected from the phone but left plugged into the wall socket. Around two thirds of the energy used by mobile devices is wasted in this way. The new rating system indicates how much energy each charger uses when left plugged into the wall socket after charging is completed. The ratings covers all chargers currently sold by the five companies, and range from five stars for the most efficient chargers down to zero stars for the ones consuming the most energy.” Obviously they will want you to buy a new 4-5-star rated charger and dump the greedy power guzzler one they already sold you. Or, you could just turn off your charger at the wall once you’ve juiced your mobile.-Martin Lynch phone mobile phone energy

Original post by nafiz

New gadgets these days are all about being ‘touchy feely’ and HP’s latest laptop is probably the most tactile one out there. Using HP’s TouchSmart technology, the tx2 laptop is a multi-touch ready laptop that allows owners to use not one, but two hands, to manipulate on-screen content, like moving or cropping photos. This is accomplished via the MediaSmart digital entertainment software onboard, which allows you to manage all your music, video and Web content using your grubby fingertips too. “Breezing through websites and enjoying photos or video at the tap, whisk or flick of a finger is an entirely new way to enjoy digital content on a notebook PC,” said Ted Clark, senior vice president and general manager, Notebook Global Business Unit, Personal Systems Group, HP. The tx2 recognizes simultaneous input from more than one finger using what HP calls “capacitive multi-touch technology,” letting you use gestures like pinch, rotate, arc, flick, press and drag, and single and double tap. The display is also on a swivel-mount which means you can use it as a regular PC, a display or a tablet. A rechargeable digital ink pen lets you write, sketch, draw, take notes or graph right onto the screen - all of which can be converted into typed text. Running Vista Home Premium, the tx2 has a 12.1in display and is powered by a choice of AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor or the Dual-Core Mobile Processor. It’s out here in January and will cost £799, which isn’t too bad for a laptop that encourages dirty fingerprints all over the display.-Martin Lynch laptop touchscreen mobile

Original post by nafiz

LG’s latest fashion phone, the Prada II, has arrived in the UK and to sweeten the deal, LG is launching it with a swanky Bluetooth watch. You’ll notice how we didn′t say ‘bundled’ because, darling, that would be just so, well, common. No, the Prada Link Bluetooth watch will sport its own fashionable price tag of around £250. Added to the £475 asking price for the Prada II and you have something that makes the iPhone look like bargain of the month. The slide out QWERTY keyboard on the new phone will no doubt appeal to those who hate typing on touchscreens, which the new phone offers too. It’s a 3G phone with HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps, Wi-Fi, full HTML browser and the camera has been bumped to a more respectable 5MP. There’s also video calling and DivX playback. The Prada Link watch is a smart looking Bluetooth device that can remotely monitor phone calls as well as read full SMS text messages without you having to go to the trouble of taking the phone out of your bag or pocket. How convenient.-Martin Lynch phone mobile phone LG

Original post by nafiz

It seems that not all digital photos are the same and scientists have now worked out how to trace back photos taken with specific makes and models of cameras. Each camera has its own digital fingerprint which, using the right process, can be revealed and used to identify which type of camera took the shot. Some in law enforcement believe the breakthrough could help in kidnapping situations by allowing investigators to track back a captured victim’s photo to the camera model that took it. This could then be combined with regional sales information. Agreed, it’s a long shot technique that would narrow down things to some degree but it’s still better than nothing. The same technique could also be used to trace the cameras used by child pornographers and paedophiles.The ID process concentrates on the “demosaicing″ software algorithm used in cameras to help translate the colour and brightness needed for each pixel. The software is different in each camera type and the team at the Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, New York, have figured out how to work backwards through neighbouring pixel values in a photo to discover which demosaicing algorithm was used, thus revealing the camera type. Early tests have been 90% accurate.-Martin Lynch [New Scientist] technology camera software

Original post by nafiz

Since we all love our gadgets and technology so much it’s a good idea to make sure they don’t run out of juice when we need them most. The latest in portable chargers is the PowerStar GO, which comes with a whole range of adaptors covering mobile phones, PDAs, iPods, portable games consoles, digital cameras and satnavs. It’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and holds enough power to fully charge a mobile phone five times, an iPod 15 times or a Nintendo DS up to three times. This is pretty impressive considering most rival devices are lucky to cover around half that, and if you only want to keep it for emergencies you can rest safe in the knowledge that it’ll retain its charge for up to a year. The PowerStar Go is available now for £50. Check out the official site below to make sure your particular make and model of gadget is covered. - Paul Lester [PowerStarGo] PowerStar battery charger

Original post by nafiz

For those days when it’s illegal to carry firearms around [that’s every day, right?] you can opt for this gadget alternative. Think of the e-Volve Gadget Shoulder Holster as your gun Nicorette. This unlikely gadget receptacle really is a product and, while it looks [marginally] more manly than the Man Bag, it also makes you look somewhat silly. Just check out that photo. The makers say: “The fashionable e-Volve Gadget Shoulder Holster is a new “carry all” shoulder holster that allows you to get all of your personal electronic gadgets off your belt, out of your pockets and into a comfortable shoulder holster. The e-Volve Gadget Shoulder Holster is designed to “evolve″ and adapt to the reality of constant state of change in personal electronics by enabling you to wear your present and future gadgets. This evolutionary capability is achieved by a simple, but functional design of this ergonomic shoulder holster.” The two ‘quick-access pouches’ can be used to carry your iPod/PMP, PSP, DS, camera or phone and there’s a zippered pouch for your keys, cash, credit cards etc. Home Improvement’s Tim Allen would be making ape sounds right about now. This thing looks like someone failed to sell 10,000 Desert Eagle Shoulder Holsters and thought, ‘Hell, what am I going to do with these now?” I may sneer in derision but I know at least two people that would wear these proudly. The holster costs £47 here.-Martin Lynch gadgets news fashion

Original post by nafiz

For those of you who carried giant boomboxes on your shoulders in the 1980s or, ironically, those of you who wouldn’t be seen dead acting so lame, we have the Boombox Wristwatch from Flüd. Much smaller and kinder to shoulders than the real deal, this retro watch promises to bring back all those break-dancing memories while leaving out all the injuries. Featuring a 7-segment LED display, days of the week, big sticky-out buttons and absolutely nothing in the way of redeeming modern watch functionality, this tongue-placed-firmly-in-cheek timepiece really does require a certain kind of buyer. Or one less than 7-years old.Not afraid to stand out from the crowd? Then for £60 here [nothing retro about that price] add this to your T-Groove Animated t-shirt, your well hidden MC Hammer super pants and Knight Rider Sat-Nav. Sadly, the Boombox Watch doesn’t even play Ṃs.-Martin Lynch [e-potpourri] gadget news fun

Original post by nafiz

For the first time, Europeans will be able to buy the innovative X0-1 laptop by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) charity scheme, starting tomorrow. We all know the device costs nearly double than the original $100 target and shoppers here will be able to get a pair for around £268. Why a pair?That’s what people from the 27 EU nations and a couple of non-EU countries will be asked to pay under the Give One, Get One (G1G1) scheme. The idea is that you buy two laptops, one for you and another which will be donated to a child that needs it in a developing nation. The OLPC scheme had hoped to sell millions of these cheap laptops to governments but it has hit one problem after another - not least of which is Intel’s rival Classmate laptop, which sells lots mote. The OLPC shacked up with Amazon last September to overcome delivery problems it was having getting the XO-1 to G1G1 customers. Amazon’s European operations will be handling the launch today. The X0-1 on offer will be the Linux model.-Martin Lynch laptop olpc

Original post by nafiz

Digital camcorders are old hat now but there’s one segment of the market that’s exciting consumers no end, and that’s tiny, cheap handhelds designed to slip in and out of your pocket with ease, shoot your video and then get it up on YouTube or MySpace faster than your victims can scream ‘Lawsuit!’. Kicked off by the Flip Ultra, and now with offerings from Creative and Kodak [the Zi6 is HD though], this market is buzzing with over a million Flip camcorders sold since 2007 and the Flip Ultra is rated by NPD as the No. 1 camcorder sold in the US. Now, there’s a new, smaller Flip called the mino and it’s a little dynamo. First off, we should clear a few things up: if you′re looking for a camcorder with extra features like zoom, multiple shooting modes, HD, face detection etc. etc. then look elsewhere. If you want a sexy little £120 camcorder designed for pointing and shooting video that can then be edited quickly and uploaded in a flash anywhere online thanks to the in-built software, stick around. We reviewed the original Flip Ultra - the first of these kind of devices - earlier this year and were generally impressed. This time around, we have the Flip mino which takes the best bits of the Ultra, fixes some problems and crams it all into a much smaller and stylish device. Actually, the mino makes the Ultra look like something prehistoric. It’s 40% smaller than the Ultra, much thinner and weighs in at 90g, which is noticeably lighter. The design hasn’t just been tweaked, it’s been torn down and rebuilt. The mino is all clean lines of glossy black and aluminium and the old buttons and directional control pad have been replaced with very cool backlit keys. The screen size is still the size of a postage stamp which makes it useless for watching anything on but then, it was only ever there to help you shoot video. The TV out connection remains for hooking up to a TV, as does the tripod port on the bottom if you need to steady up those shaking hands. Once you turn it on you are taken through a couple of steps to set the time and date and tone sounds and that’s it. Just point and shoot. The screen is bright although, having compared it side-by-side with the Ultra, not as bright, but still serviceable. The internal 2GB of memory is good for a hour of standard VGA video. The addition of an SD Card slot would be very useful indeed as 2GB is quite limited. Battery life from the rechargeable battery is a respectable 4 hours. The image quality is fine but you will get some motion blur when panning quickly. Indoor video shows some banding due to less light but outdoor footage is relatively clean. There’s some limited digital zoom but that’s it for features. Once you have your video, the mino truly shines. The in-built USB connector has been moved from the side to the top, which a huge improvement. The side-positioned USB connector on the old Ultra was something we bitched about as it made the device awkward to attach to some PCs and laptops. With the USB at the top, the mino slides effortlessly into most USB slots, including some awkward ones on the back of my PC. Once connected, the software loads automatically and your video is presented on screen with plenty of options for uploading it to AOL Video, YouTube and MySpace. You can also upload it to any other video sharing service but these 3 have dedicated click-thrus. There also re options to send video as a greeting card, do some basic movie mixing or just email it to friends. Verdict: The Flip mini is a competent performer wrapped in a tiny, stylish body that looks far better than previous Flip cameras and, in our opinion, its rivals. At £120, it’s cheap and cheerful and if you′re happy with standard video then there’s little to stop you buying one now. If, however, you want HD in a tiny camcorder you may well want to check out the Kodak Zi6 [reviewed here] or the newly announced Flip minoHD, the latter which will probably be delayed for launch over here until at least Q1 2009.-Martin Lynch video camcorder gadget

Original post by nafiz

It’s gloomy times indeed in the computer market right now and Dell is not alone in asking workers to take time off unpaid as sales crawl. Thinking ahead, the company is still dreaming up of new ways to drive business and much of that is going to come down to letting us consumers have a lot more choice in how the products look. This week it took the wraps of three new Product RED charity laptops with striking new artwork. But this is just the start, according to Ed Boyd, Dell’s new Industrial Design Director. He says that next year - assuming Dell still has budget left for design - the company will let us customise laptops in a “dizzying″ number of ways, through mixing scores of colours, patterns, and textures. The claim is that no mainstream rival will offer more cosmetic customisation options than Dell. The three new additions this week include artwork by Joseph Amedokpo [above], Siobhan Gunning and Bruce Mau. See the other 2 notebooks after the jump. Dowdy Dell has already gotten a little ‘hip’ this summer with its striking Studio laptops by urban artist Mike Ming. The new notebooks are on sale in the US only for now but should arrive UK-side in the coming weeks. No one can deny that lots of cusomisation options will be appealing but can Dell make it cheap enough to entice most mainstream buyers?-Martin Lynch [Businessweek] laptop art news

Original post by nafiz

American Airlines has found yet another use for the mobile phone following trials of electronic boarding cards at O’Hare airport. In a scheme designed to cut down on paper waste and passengers losing cards or not being able to find one and holding up the plane, those with an active email address and an internet-enabled phone can be effectively ‘texted’ the details, which include a 2D barcode. The airport is testing the new service with passengers departing LA International and John Wayne Orange County airport on Monday and will offer the option to anyone checking in for flights with AA.com. There’s also an added degree of security involved since mobile passes are scanned twice - at the gate and security checkpoint - and in addition all information is encrypted to help prevent forgery. However, at this stage customers can only list one person in a reservation, making it unsuitable for families, and it can only be used for non-stop flights in the US. If successful we could start to see more of this sort of thing appearing, though we’re not sure how it’ll cope with the inevitable pitfalls of technology ie: my phone died/has no reception/got eaten by the dog. - Paul Lester [ChicagoTribune] mobile phone barcode flight

Original post by nafiz

We recently saw the UK launch of the new Myvu Crystal video eyewear and today we have two new offerings from Vuzix, including the first pair to offer widescreen movie playback. The company has just released its iWear AV310 Widescreen and its AV230XL headsets, designed specifically for use with video iPods, portable media players (PMPs), portable DVD players and multimedia phones like the iPhone, Nokia N95 and others. The viewer on the AV310 Widescreen is adjustable and there’s a +2 to -5 diopter focus providing individual adjustment for each eye. Playing time is rated at a healthy 5-hours from one AA battery. The AV230XL uses OLED screen technology to deliver a brighter image with better contrast but, while using less power. Playback is rated at 7 hours on 1 AA battery. The virtual screen size is equivalent to 44in viewed from 9-feet. Vuzix founder and CEO Paul Travers said: “With Vuzix iWear you can get the full big-screen cinema experience, in a device that is small enough to carry in your pocket. And the range of products you can connect to is increasing all the time as more and more mobile phones are released with video out capability.” Both sets of eyewear come bundled with a ‘Made for iPod’ cable that will connect to iPod devices like the Classic, the Nano and the Touch, as well as the iPhone. Leads for other handsets like Nokia’s N95 and N96 are also bundled. The AV230XL will initially retail at £130 and the AV310 Widescreen at £150.-Martin Lynch [Vuzix] movies ipod video

Original post by nafiz

If you’re the type of person who gets withdrawal symptoms when you’re not on Facebook every 30 minutes, then you’re going to love the latest phone from 3. Meet the INQ1, billed as the “world’s most advanced social networking phone″ and guaranteed to ensure that you never get a good night’s sleep ever again. The INQ1 offers users 1-click Facebook access and live updates pushed direct to the display, as well as what it calls the first ever real-time interactive ‘live contact book′. This will show your friends’ online status and Facebook profile pictures displayed against their contact details. Also integrated into the phone are Skype, Windows Live Messenger and Last.fm, allowing RSS feeds, free Skype-to-Skype calling and free instant messaging. Frank Meehan, CEO, INQ, explained: ‘The INQ¹ is the first device from INQ with a new take on mobile user experience, it’s about taking the things people love most about the Internet and building them into the very heart of the phone. Mobile is still mostly about voice and text for the vast majority of users, but those same people use the Internet to communicate every day with Skype, Instant Messaging, Facebook and email. The INQ¹ allows people for the first time to integrate their Internet networks into their mobile so now their emails, instant messages and Skype calls are as simple to use as voice and text.” The INQ1, complete with 3.2MP camera, comes ‘free′ on a £15-per month contract tariff which gives unlimited free Facebook, Skype, Windows Live Messenger and Web access, plus 75 minutes of calls to other networks, unlimited texts, unlimited email and unlimited free 3-to-3 calls [check out 3’s ‘fair use policy’ as it will apply]. For £20 per month, you get the above but with 200 minutes of calls to other networks. A PAYG option will set you back £79.99 with Internet packages starting at £5 per month.-Martin Lynch phone facebook

Original post by nafiz

In the last couple of months, the first pico [very small] handheld projectors have been arriving in the UK and recently, Optoma announced one of the most anticipated ones, and not just because it’s the smallest. The Optoma Pico Pocket Projector is the first one to be based on Texas Instruments’ DLP projection technology - the market leading projection technology. Apple’s psyched too because on its Japanese site, we just caught glimpse of the wee projector and an iPod getting cosy. There, the projector will be sold complete with an iPhone/iPod kit and dock connector. We are waiting to see when it will pop up on Apple UK.The Optoma projector is due out here anytime now and will cost £249 - around £50 less than rivals - and, measuring 51 x 105 x 17mm and weighing 110g, it’s the world’s smallest and lightest. It uses a white LED light, boasts an impressive [for a tiny projector] contrast of 1000:1 and can throw up a 60in image with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels. Looking forward to testing one out.-Martin Lynch [Engadget] apple projector ipod movies

Original post by nafiz