TechRadar: All News Feeds

Consumers tune out mobile pay TV

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:01:00 GMT

We love technology here at TechRadar (the clue's in the name) but if there's one service we wouldn't mind dying a (very) quiet death, it's the squinty, tinny, pixel-fest that is mobile TV.

So imagine our delight on hearing that tech analysts Juniper Research are downgrading their forecast for dedicated mobile broadcast networks.

Dr Windsor Holden says, "The development and wide availability of terrestrial TV-capable receivers with low power consumption throws into question the business case for the deployment of a dedicated network in many markets."

Small screen stats

With DVB-T (Freeview) handsets in Germany preventing the uptake of DVB-H devices and the huge popularity of analogue TV phones in China, Juniper is now predicting a worldwide spend of just $2.7 billion on mobile TV by 2013.

Juniper reckons that of the 330m mobile users owning broadcast TV-enabled handsets in five years' time, just 14% will opt for mobile pay TV services.

Before you get too excited at the prospect of uninterrupted commutes, though, Holden goes on to say: " "There will always be a market for premium mobile TV on the mobile handset, and the gap in the market is likely to be filled by streamed video-on-demand services over the 3G network." D'oh!

Microsoft launches $3m edu-gaming institute

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:26:00 GMT

What to do after you graduate from Big Brain Academy?

Microsoft and New York University have teamed up to launch the Games for Learning Institute (G4LI), a research organisation that aims to provide "the fundamental scientific evidence" that games can help kids learn.

The $3m (£1.7m) multidisciplinary Institute wants to identify how computer games engage students and then develop relevant, personalized teaching strategies to use them.

G4LI wants to get pre-teen US children - and especially girls and minorities - excited about technology, engineering and maths. Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, said, "The Games for Learning Institute is a great example of how technology can change how students learn, making it far more natural and intuitive."

Thumbs at the ready, get studying!

The G4LI will evaluate game prototypes and introduce them, along with accompanying study plans, to a network of 19 New York City area schools, and results in the classroom will be tracked.

Ken Perlin, professor of computer science at NYU noted, "Many students become discouraged or uninterested at school and pour their time at home into gaming. Ironically, we think gaming is our starting point to draw them into maths, science and technology-based programs."

It's a nice idea - and sounds like a giggle for the Microsoft and NYU researchers involved - but the problem with edu-games is that while they may be informative, they are rarely fun to play.

And while $3m sounds like a large investment, it's just a fraction of the budget of a single blockbuster game like GTA IV.

Fears over US electronic voting machine fraud

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:41:00 GMT

A professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas has been teaching his students how easy it is to rig the software used in voting machines for the US Presidential election.

In 2006, electronic voting machines accounted for over 40 percent of votes cast in US elections, and these numbers are expected to higher still this year.

Dan Wallach, Director of Rice's Computer Security Lab, split a class of undergraduate and graduate students into two groups: one to tweak voting software to influence an election; the other to try to track down the hackers.

"What we've found is that it's very easy to insert subtle changes to the voting machine," Wallach said. "If someone has access and wants to do damage, it's very straightforward to do it."

Barack, McCain... or Bush again?

Even though students were often able to find the other team's voting fraud hacks, Wallach said that in real life it would probably be too late.

"We have little reason to believe that the certification and testing process used on genuine voting machines would be able to catch the kind of malice that our students do in class," said Wallach. "If this happened in the real world, real votes could be compromised and nobody would know."

again Although if Bush wins this time, I for one will be just a bit suspicious.

Exclusive: Hands on: Dell Inspiron Mini 9 review

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:14:00 GMT

After much waiting, we've finally got our hands on Dell's Inspiron Mini 9 Netbook, and thankfully, first impressions show that it was well worth the wait, as the slick styling, great screen, decent battery life and 3G connectivity make it one of the better Netbooks we've seen.

The compact chassis measures 233 x 156 x 34mm (WxHxD) and weighs just 1.1kg, putting it firmly in line with the competition. During constant use on battery power, we managed to work for 224 minutes before needing to recharge.

This is a strong result, considering the small 3-cell battery. The keyboard is well-made and its smooth yet firm typing action makes it very comfortable to use. Unfortunately the width of the chassis hasn't been used to its full potential, as all keys are fairly slim and can be awkward to use if you have larger hands.

Great screen

The bright 8.9-inch screen is fantastic, and provides vibrant yet accurate colour and contrast. Its glossy Super-TFT coating adds to the effect, but of course increases reflections in bright conditions, which mobile users may not appreciate. The lid also has a glossy coating, which looks great, but is of course prone to fingerprints and scratches.

The base specification is common, and includes an Intel 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor and 1024MB of memory.

Storage is less impressive however. While many rival laptops use standard mechanical hard drives for up to 160GB of storage space, the Dell has a choice of either an 8GB or 16GB Solid State Drive (SSD). While this flash based storage provides the fastest access to your data, the speed increase is negligible for most users, who may feel that more storage space would be preferable.

While Dell sells the Mini 9 for £269, our review unit was supplied by Vodafone. As the primary provider of 3G wireless broadband access for this Netbook, Vodafone bundles the Dell for free with its 24-month contracts, with prices starting at £25 per month for a 1GB monthly data allowance. The SIM-card slots underneath the battery, so is easy to access.

A nice touch is the Dell's compact AC adapter. Its one-piece design is more like a mobile phone charger than a Netbook charger, so it's easy to carry and just as simple to connect.

While we've yet to fully put the Inspiron Mini 9 through its paces, we're so far very impressed with what Dell has delivered.

Full review coming soon, but you can check out more on the Dell at What Laptop.

Nikon unveils surprise headset PMP

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:04:00 GMT

At first look Nikon's UP300 headset is just that, a pair of stylish cans. But look closer. These aren't just any headphones, these are multimedia playback headphones that also support connection to the web.

That's right, Nikon has announced to the world that it has gone down the PMP route, but with a twist. The company has managed to put all the gubbins associated with portable media players into a single, compact unit that you wear on your bonce.

The headset sports a display – via an attached small viewing screen – equivalent to that of viewing of a 50-inch large screen from a distance of three metres.

Capacious cans

Also included is Wi-Fi capability, and high-capacity memory - up to 8GB.

At the moment, this innovative piece of technology will only be available in Japan (it was announced at Ceatec), so if you fancy a pair and don't mind looking like an extra out of Universal Soldier, you will have to go down the import route.

Ford launches MyKey parental controls for cars

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:14:00 GMT

Ford has launched a parental control system for its cars, with the MyKey system checking young drivers' speed, safety and limiting stereo volume.

MyKey will enable car owners to limit the top speed of their car to 80mph, limit the upper level volume on their stereo and make the car sound a continuous alert if passengers are not wearing their seatbelts.

Optional warning tones can also be sounded if the car goes faster than 45, 55 or 65 mph.

Boy racer prevention

It's either a case of sensible boy racer accident prevention or nannyish parenting gone insane, depending on your point of view and personal politics.

For the record, TechRadar is glad that youngsters driving a MyKey-enabled car will no longer be able to cut us up at 100mph in the inside lane of the north circular, while enjoying the latest grating R'n'B drone at top volume.

Ford plans to introduce MyKey controls in its Focus Coupe from 2010, and soon after that date as a standard feature in all its cars.

Innovative death prevention

"This is a very innovative way of reducing the number of teen road deaths on British roads," says Ian Dickson, Editor of MSN cars.

"And if it leads to a reduction in insurance premiums, too, it could become a very popular addition to modern cars. But it's another example of our freedom gradually being eroded."

In Depth: 10 things Apple should change in iTunes 9

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Apple promised big things for the launch of iTunes 8 last September, and what did we get? A music recommendation engine and another layer of UI glossiness in the Grid view. Genius? Not really.

What we really hoped for and expected was a complete ground-up revamp that prepped iTunes for the future. Why?

Because iTunes, as we've known it so far, is really starting to show its age. Its underpinnings are becoming increasingly creaky thanks to the weight of features, files and expectations being shovelled upon it - and its fast turning into bloatware of almost Redmond-like proportions.

Here are 10 things we think Apple should do for iTunes 9:

1. Clean up the user interface

Once upon a time iTunes UI was one of the best things about it. True, it looked a little bland, but the old List and Grid views at least made it easy to find your way around.

We still have List view, luckily, but last year's Cover Flow was always more novelty than genuinely useful addition. We can't forgive its inclusion in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard's Finder either.

The new Grid view in iTunes 8 presents you with even more ways to slice the same content, adding more layers of complication and frustration at every turn. Don't believe us?

Check out the Artists tab. Here you'll see a Grid view of the all the Artists in your library. Move the cursor over the icon and you can side-scroll through the album art, just like you can in iPhoto '08.

Not only is the whole idea of being able to do this rubbish, but clicking on a piece of album art presents you with another version of the UI, this time the old style Grid complete with track listing and album artwork. Confusing? Gimmicky? Useless. Yes, yes and yes again.

2. Bar the Genius

OK, so it's a fairly easy way to auto-generate playlists, but at the expense of what? Your musical tastes get automatically submitted to Apple, which then hits you back with money-gouging recommendations based on content found in the iTunes Store.

This is the kind of hardcore sell we expect from pile-'em-high-sell-it-cheap merchants. We thought Apple thought differently.

And what about the iTunes Store arrows that sit next to every track in your library? You used to be able to turn them off. Now you can't. Grrr.

3. Better file handling

Like the little plastic donkey in Buckaroo, iTunes' burden keeps getting heavier and heavier - it has to be able to handle music, movies and TV shows for enjoying on your computer; ditto for your iPod, iPod touch and iPhone; and ditto again for Apple TV. Oh, and let's not forget about HD content, audiobooks, PDFs, applications and artwork. Plus the whole shopping thing. Sheesh.

The problem is, iTunes isn't very good at handling this at all. Ideally you want lean, mean versions of your music, movies, and so on for toting around on your iPod or whatever; and then full-fat alternatives for enjoyment at home.

In a sensible world, iTunes would enable you to seamlessly convert from the full-fat version to the skinny version as needed, and not leave your hard drive or your library in a confusing jumble afterwards. iTunes isn't sensible, it's downright moronic - it either has to separate versions for every device you own in your library; or you have to plump for a one-size-fits-all file that doesn't work particularly well anywhere. This needs to change.

4. Better handling for multiple libraries

One of the biggest features of iTunes 7 was the ability to create multiple iTunes libraries - handy if you want to keep high quality Apple TV files separate from your iPod-compatible ones, and so on. Unfortunately, Apple's implementation sucks. Here's why:

a) You have to remember to hold down the Alt [Option] key every time you click on the iTunes icon;
b) It's easy to forget which library you're in and add content to wrong place;
c) It doesn't matter anyway because iTunes quickly gets its Library Preferences in a knot and files you were expecting to appear in iTunes Library A suddenly turn up in Library B, and so on.

Third-party solutions like Doug Adam's iTunes Library Manager work better.

5. Better file tracking

iTunes is rubbish at keeping track of your files. Proof comes in the form of the growing number of third-party apps that try to take the pain out of managing thousands of files on your hard drive.

iTunes music and movie files seem to go missing at a whim: sometimes they disappear from the library, but not your iTunes Music folder; sometimes they get moved to a different location - particularly if you're using multiple libraries - and sometimes they go missing completely.

The only way to discover whether or not everything in the library is as it should be is to re-scan your entire iTunes Music folder using the Add To Library command on a regular basis. iTunes doesn't keep do this automatically. It should.

6. Better database handling

A lot of the problems we've hit on so far are due to way that iTunes handles the contents of your iTunes Music library (which, confusingly, also includes Podcasts, Movies, TV Shows, and so on).

That's because iTunes stores all the information about the iTunes Music folder's content in the iTunes Library (.itl file on Windows) - an encrypted file that could be a glorified spreadsheet for all we know. It's certainly not a proper database.

Proof comes in the way iTunes works. Every time you fire it up, iTunes has to load the entire iTunes Library file into memory. Although Apple doesn't specify the maximum number of files iTunes can contain, it certainly gets slower and slower the more you stuff it with content - especially given the drawbacks we've mentioned above.

7. Better codec support

Given our concerns about iTunes' ability to handle different kind of media files, adding support for more codec sounds like a recipe for disaster. It needn't be.

iTunes currently supports Apple Lossless, AAC, AIFF, and MP3 audio, while also enabling you to convert DRM-free WMA tracks, as well as WAV. Video support is limited to H.264 and MPEG-4 video files. But what about Ogg Vorbis? True WMA and WMV support? DivX, MKV, FLV and the rest?

We suspect Apple doesn't support these - and never will - because it's not in its interest to do so. If Apple were to support protected WMA files, for example, it would not only have to pay royalties to Microsoft, but could also see iTunes Store customers leach away to online rivals. iTunes doesn't even support codecs like HD-AAC - a high definition audio codec for 24-bit recordings.

8. Multi-room for the rest of us

When Apple introduced the first AirPort Express in 2004, one if its selling points was that it enabled you to stream music to your Hi-Fi using AirTunes - a part of iTunes.

The drawback then was that Apple couldn't / wouldn't sell you a remote to help you control it without sitting in front of your laptop or desktop. Four years later, it still doesn't. We've had to rely on third-party solutions instead.

Apple TV has gone some way to address these shortcomings, but Apple could take iTunes much, much further - just look at what Sonos has done for a start. Apple could easily do for multi-room music and video what it's arguably done for the MP3 player and phone. Apple already has most of the pieces in place, now it just needs a killer solution to top it all off.

9. A better, cheaper iTunes Store

Buying online from the iTunes Store may be better than trudging down to HMV in the rain, but does that mean we should put up with sky high prices and shonky download quality? We say not.

If Apple can serve up 1GB+ movies on iTunes, there's no reason why it shouldn't also be able to sell true CD-quality audio downloads either - even if they were in Apple Lossless format instead of CDDA or AIFF.

That would finally put an end to the grumbles about sound quality / pricing, especially if we could also say goodbye to DRM too. Of course, we'd expect to pay a slight premium - we do so already with iTunes Plus.

10. iTunes Pro

And what better way to wrap all these improvements up, but to create a new version of iTunes for those of us who take our music and movies seriously. Apple already offers consumer and Pro versions of many of its apps - iPhoto versus Aperture; iMovie versus Final Cut, and so on - so why not do the same with iTunes? We're not the first people to think it, but iTunes Pro certainly sounds like a great idea and, if it was up to the standard of other Apple Pro apps, you can be sure many of us would be happy to pay for it. How about it, Apple?

What would you like to see Apple improve in iTunes 9? Do you think iTunes Pro is a good idea? Add your comments below

Read TechRadar's '21 great adds-on for iTunes 8' to improve your version now

Indian Moon mission gets launch date

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:32:00 GMT

India has been given the go ahead for an unmanned space mission to the Moon.

Lift off will commence on 22 October, some six months after the space voyage was originally meant to happen.

Codenamed Chandrayaan-1, the mission is the first time India has embarked on a trip to the moon.

Lasting for two years, scientists working on the space program are hoping to feedback some hi-res imagery of the moon's surface, courtesy of the shuttle's on-board Terrain Mapping Camera.

The TMC will create, according to Chandrayaan-1's website, a 'three-dimensional atlas with high spatial and altitude resolution'.

Space-age tech

This type of hi-res digital mapping will help scientists understand the evolution of the Moon.

And that's not the only piece of exciting technology on board, with the spacecraft housing a Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI), which will analyse the topography of the moon, and a High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX) which will study radioactivity.

The mission is costing a cool $83million and has been gestating since 2003. At the moment 100 Indian scientists are involved, and six other countries, including the US and Europe, have been adding input.

Amazon offers shredder deal to combat ID fraud

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:47:00 GMT

Amazon is doing its bit for National Identity Fraud Prevention Week – by offering people in the UK cut-price paper shredders.

The online shop is supporting NIFPW week, and has decided that the best way to do this is to offer 20 per cent off a Fellowes shredder.

"There are a number of ways to protect yourself or your business against fraud," says Amazon.

"One of the easiest is investing in a shredder to help destroy any documents that might allow criminals to build a personal profile."

Affordable

"Thanks to companies like Fellowes," Amazon continues, "secure shredders are now affordable for home and small office use, allowing you to easily destroy any personal and financial information before disposal."

People have until the end of the month to pick up one of the Fellowes range and shred to their heart's content.

And we did our bit by getting through that entire article without mentioning the words 'shameless' and 'cash-in'.

You can find out more about NIFPW and stopping identity fraud at http://www.stop-idfraud.co.uk .

Asus launches S101 MacBook Air killer

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:18:00 GMT

Fancy a super-slim and light laptop for well over half of the price of Apple's celebrated MacBook Air? If so, Asus' new Eee PC, the S101, may well be the computer you've been waiting all year for.

Asus claims that the machine – which weighs in at just under a kilo and (arguably) is better specced than the MacBook Air – is "a successful melding of fashion and functionality."

Major claims

And that's not a claim that laptop fashionistas who cannot get enough of Apple's MacBook Air can ignore (especially as, if it's true, it means they can get to show it off to their friends and in-laws).

Specs wise, the S101 will feature the now-standard Intel Atom processor and Intel 945 Express (GMA 950) graphics, three USB ports, a built-in 4-in-1 card reader, a good ol' RJ-45 Ethernet socket, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an easily-changeable battery that should run for around five hours.

Multitouch trackpad

Size wise, the S101 is a slither of a machine at 18-25mm thick, with a 10.2-inch screen (with a highest resolution of 1,024 x 768) and a multitouch trackpad.

The S101 will be made available in both Windows XP Home versions (with a basic - and upgradeable - 16GB SSD), with two Linux versions on the way packing in 32GB or 64GB of SSD.

The only downside is that the new Asus will still feature the rather underwhelming 0.3-megapixel webcam.

Quality keyboard

Initial reports claim that the S101's keyboard is notably better than the current batch of netbooks on the market – which could well prove to be a sales tipping point for many.

And finally, for the fashion-conscious amongst you, the S101 will come in a variety of colours. Including brown, graphite and champagne (?!).

It will be available to buy in early November at a cost of £449. Pricey, for a netbook, but from what we have seen so far, this could well prove to be the ultimate laptop for working (showing off) on the train home.

In Depth: 12 Vista Sidebar gadgets that will save you money

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Times are hard at the moment, so we went out and found 12 great Sidebar gadgets which can help you to save some cash.

1. Find real eBay bargains

It's hard to believe that some people spell their items wrong on eBay, but they do, and generally these mishaps go for bargain prices. Goofbay weans them out, if you're willing to buy from an illiterate oaf.

2. Sell better on eBay

This is one for the sellers. It lets you find out how many hits you're getting and who's watching your items. A real trick of the trade for making some fast eBay cash.

3. Get free internet

This hotspot locator finds free wireless zones for you when you're on the move, so you don't have to pay extortionate rates to check your email or send that file.

4. Get rich quick!

If you have been watching this week's economic collapse with a vested interest, then the one sidebar gadget you need is the Fidelity Market Monitor. It keeps an eye on the markets, so you'll see the time to buy shares before anyone else! There is also a handy gadget which ships with Vista too.

5. eBay Item Watcher

OK, just one more eBay gadget! The item watcher keeps track of those bargains for you and keeps them on the Sidebar, so you can always have one eye on the best buys on eBay.

6. Free music

One of the best music gadgets around is the Unsigned Bands gadget. Built by the fantastic BuildAGadget, it has music from every genre you can imagine, is a great way to discover artists you haven't heard of before and works like a dream too.

7. Don't get scammed

Getting your identity stolen is a good way to lose a lot of money, so protect yourself using this strong password generator for your accounts.

8. Win the lottery

Until someone invents a gadget that chooses the winning lottery numbers, you'll have to settle for this alternative, which tells you whether you have won or not.

9. Get infinite bargains

Get the lowest prices around with Kelkoo. This Sidebar gadget uses the price comparison site to find you the best bargains on anything you like. (UK only.)

10. Quit smoking

The best part about giving up smoking is the extra money (apart from not getting cancer) and this gadget tells you how much you have saved - what better incentive than that?

11. Get more for your money

If you're going on holiday then researching then tracking the exchange rate is the best way to get ahead, and there's a converter included with Windows Vista!

12. Don't get ripped off

Test how fast your broadband is and make sure you're not paying over the odds for your connection with the Speed Test gadget.

Still hungry for more recommended gadgets? Read TechRadar's 22 Vista Sidebar gadgets to save you time

Freaky robot girl shown off at Ceatec

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:58:00 GMT

One of the scariest things to come out of the Ceatec show in Japan – and possibly anywhere – was footage of a lifelike five-year-old robot girl, named Repliee R-1.

Apparently based on a real kid – the parents must be so proud – the look of the robot (or Actroid to give it its 'real' name) is more The Grudge than AI.

Paranoid Actroid

Developed by the folks at Osaka University, Repliee R-1 is the latest in a long line of humanoid robots developed with strong visual human-likeness.

Silicone skin has been used to give the robot a more lifelike appearance and the researchers at Osaka university have upped the amount of sensors used from 47 to 50.

The robotics centre at the uni has been producing Actroids since 2003, which have the ability to interact with people and recognise speech.

Hopefully Repliee R-1 wasn't too taken aback with the amount of 'WTFs?' that must have been muttered during her recent outing in Ceatec.

Nintendo angers fans with DSi region lock

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:54:00 GMT

Nintendo's new DSi, out in Japan next month and in the UK next spring, is set to feature DVD-style region-locking, much to the dismay of the company's legions of European fans.

"DSi software (software that is only compatible with DSi) is region locked, for example: European DSi software can only be played on European DSi consoles," a Nintendo spokesperson told CVG, which basically means that DSi downloadable games and DSi-only cartridge-based games will be region locked.

Nintendo told CVG: "DSi is region locked because DSi embeds net communication functionality within itself and we are intending to provide net services specifically tailored for each region.

"Also because we are including parental control functionality for Nintendo DSi and each region has its unique age limit made by different independent."

Fans concerned

There is concern amongst Nintendo's European fans that Europe might not get the quality and selection of DSi titles due to this region-locking strategy.

"Why should gamers be up in arms about such a limited region lock?" ElectrigPig's veteran videogame journo, Simon Munk, asks rhetorically. He claims that the strategy will mean fewer quirky, leftfield titles for European DSi gamers, in addition to giving Nintendo more control over pricing and digital distribution in Europe.

" And they're traditionally not very good at getting stuff to Europe very quickly…" Munk worryingly reminds us.

"The history of videogames coming from Japan to Europe is one of delays, broken promises and poor conversions. Expect to wait a long time for popular DSi games to go from Japan to Europe."

Samsung leaks new high-end smartphone

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:26:00 GMT

Samsung has never been very good at keeping its cards close to its chest, and the leak of the new i7110 is no exception.

A 5MP slimline candybar handset, it combines all the looks of recent handsets into its teeny form factor.

Running the Symbian S60 UI, it will feel familiar for a huge number of Symbian users worldwide, and the optical joystick that is loved or loathed by many Samsung owners has another outing in this handset.

Flippin' screen

HSDPA is served up as you might expect, along with a 2.6-inch 16m colour display, with the obvious accelerometer for screen flippage.

It also packs Wi-Fi with DLNA compatibility, so you can share things with your PC or PS3 home network with ease.

Other than that, Samsung's faves of DivX and XviD compatibility, aGPS and an FM transmitter are thrown into the mix as well.

The internet rumour mill, which usually starts pretty vague before narrowing itself down, has claimed this handset should be announced some time in November.

Android available for everyone!

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:52:00 GMT

For all of those Android lovers who are yet to try out the new G1 handset, fear not, for an emulator site has been created to let you try out all the lovely open-source-ness.

The G1 emulator website provides a complete look around the handset, with the mouse acting as the user's hand, so all the touchscreen functionality is right there.

It doesn't, however, give a good feel for the G1 handset, which is probably a good thing, given the main draw of the device is the presence of Android anyway.

Missing a camera

The obviously missing portions of the device are GPS, browser and camera functions, but you should already know where you are when sitting at a PC, and are obviously able to browse the net anyway.

The idea is to help the general public get a feel for the OS before the phone goes on sale later this year, hopefully pushing demand to somewhere near the Apple iPhone (not the 3G version... there were queues for days for that handset).

Nintendo announces Wii Speak details for UK

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:49:00 GMT

Following the news out of Japan last week, Nintendo UK has officially announced the British launch details of the new Wii Speak Channel and Wii Speak community microphone accessory.

"Socialising and communicating with friends and family has just got easier – and more fun," claims Nintendo, "as the new Wii Speak and Wii Speak Channel are launched for Wii across Europe on 5 December 2008."

Nintendo's new microphone comes to our shores, unsurprisingly, on the same day as the release of the cutesy and cartoonish sim-world of Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City.

Families get involved

While we still have to get a hands on the kit, Nintendo assures us that Wii Speak can effectively "pick up the conversations from an entire room of people, meaning friends and families can all get involved in conversations, sharing gaming and social experiences together."

Up to four Wii users can chat, text each other and share pictures via the Wii Speak Channel, with each user being represented by their own Mii on-screen during conversations, with their Mii avatar's also being seen to 'talk' as their microphone picks up speech.

Child safety paramount

Of course, with child safety in mind, Nintendo requires that users have to share their private Friend Codes before being able to chat with other users which, despite drawing criticism from older Nintendo gamers, is a perfectly reasonable and necessary requirement for the company to make.

TechRadar looks forward to spending our Christmas holidays picking (virtual) flowers and catching (pixelated) fish in Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City.

Nintendo and its third-party development partners plan to incorporated Wii Speak into other Wii games in the future.

TechRadar will be speaking to a number of Wii developers this week to poll them on their ideas for making use of this rather cool new gaming accessory because, after all, while the tech itself may not be particularly groundbreaking or cutting edge, it's what the game creators do with it that really counts.

ITV asks for more peak-time adverts

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:41:00 GMT

ITV has asked Ofcom to consider a proposal that would see more flexibility over advertising at peak viewing times, sparking fears that popular shows like X-Factor could have extended breaks to generate more cash.

Although Ofcom insists in its stage two consultation that its '"initial preference is for no change to the overall amount of advertising on television," it conceded that it will "consider alternative views on the range of options carefully."

ITV's suggested alternative is to allow television companies to allocate the amount of adverts they broadcast on a weekly basis rather than daily – meaning that peak viewing days with prime series – such as weekend evening reality shows like X-Factor and I'm a Celebrity could see up to 12 minutes of adverts in an hour period.

Inviting views

"We are inviting views on whether public service channels should be able to allocate the total weekly allowance flexibly, so that they could show more on one day than another," says the Ofcom statement.

The proposal was made very late in the consultation process, meaning that Ofcom is actively seeking responses to the suggestion – one of six options being considered by the communications watchdog.

"ITV has proposed that, rather than increasing peak-time minutage allowances overall, public service channels be allowed to aggregate the existing daily peak time allowances to create a weekly allowance of 280 minutes, which could be scheduled at their discretion, subject to a maximum limit of 12 minutes in any one hour," says Ofcom.

More detail

The report spells this out in greater detail – stating: "…a PSB proposed that PSBs should be allowed greater flexibility to pool their daily peak time allowances over the week.

"To take the example of evening peak, this would mean that rather than adhering to a daily cap of 40 minutes of advertising, PSBs would face a weekly cap of 280 (i.e. 7 x 40) minutes of advertising.

"This would allow PSBs to exceed the current 40 minute cap on some days, providing this was appropriately offset by a reduction in advertising on other days in the week.

"From an economic perspective, this would allow PSBs to increase the amount of advertising at times when the demand for commercial impacts is relatively elastic, and reduce advertising at times when demand is relatively less elastic."

Six options

Of the six options currently being considered, a status quo choice is currently favoured by some of the public service broadcasters – who are wary of alienating their audience and insistent that more adverts would not bring extra revenue but merely bring prices down.

Other options could well impact on non-PBS channels which are reliant on longer advertising breaks (currently significantly longer than PBS channels).

But all eyes are likely to be on option 6 – ITV's flex-time advertising approach – as the independent broadcaster looks to raise its revenue without upsetting its audience.

Netflix movie marathon in its final stages

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:29:00 GMT

Right now in Times Square there are just two participants left in Netflix's annual Movie Watching World Championship.

Trying to stay awake, the movie-watchers have been up watching continuous films since Sunday - without a crazy doctor with an eyedropper in sight.

The movie marathon is taking place in New York for a reason: to break the Guinness World Record for consecutive hours watching movies. And there's an added bonus of a $10,000 cash prize, life-time subscription to Netflix and the all-important Popcorn Bowl Trophy.

50 films

The list of the movies is as long as your arm, but notable films include: Iron Man (which went on first), Star Wars IV: A New Hope and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

By the time everyone got to film number 40, The Bourne Identity, the insomniac film watchers must have been feeling just as confused as super-spy Jason Bourne.

If the final two stay-awakes manage to get through 50 films, there's even a contingency plan of another 16 films, finally ending with Hairspray.

Keep an eye of Netflix's Facebook page to see who eventually wins, one of the latest posts says that Suresh Joachim and Claudia Wavra are still hanging on. Crazy, crazy people.

Robot suits to rent in Japan

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:20:00 GMT

A Japanese robotics firm is making a robotic suit called HAL available to rent.

The HAL suit – which stands for 'hybrid assistive limb' - reads those brain signals that activate the limbs and can be used to assist disabled and elderly people with mobility problems.

HAL will be available in small, medium and large – effectively a fully cybernetic suit straight off the peg!

Cyberdyne manufacture

Japanese robotics specialist and manufacturer Cyberdyne plans to mass produce the HAL suits, which are made up of a waist-attached 22lb battery-powered computer that operates mechanical braces strapped to the user's arms and legs.

"We are ready to present this to the world," said Yoshiyuki Sankai, HAL's designer and Cyberdyne's Chief Executive.

"Hal can only lead to extending the abilities of the elderly and keep them out of care for longer," said the University of Sheffield's well-known robotics expert, Noel Sharkey.

You can see the demo video over on Cyberdyne's website.

Men regularly fake it... on their phones

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:52:00 GMT

Mobile network 3 has published another insightful and useful study into the actions of today's younger generation, this time finding out that a third of men have pretended to be on their mobile phone at some point.

'Communifaking' is the practice of pretending to talk or text when by yourself according to a recent release from the network, and follows on from 'Mo-Phos', or mobile photographers, from 3's insane press department.

Apparently, waiting for friends is the most important reason people do it, followed by a third who have tried to avoid someone by being on the phone. And also... oh, come one, we really don't care about the other reasons.

"These days many people, especially young people, feel the constant need to be communicating, so we either text, call, instant message, social network or email," says Lesley Haswell, psychotherapist at Haswell, Martin & Rose.

Wait for the beep

"Social status can be defined by the amount of friends we have on Facebook or how often our mobiles beep. Therefore people experience the need to appear socially busy at all times and 'just waiting' is a no-no. Our basic human instinct is to be part of a group. Alone we can feel more vulnerable."

We would like to clarify that TechRadar does not care about the amount of friends it has on Facebook (loads) and neither is it feeling strangely triumphant that it has more text messages received than sent.

TechRadar is fast falling in love with 3's press release department, which appears to have very little else to do other than find out about useless things... but we think that's brilliant!

And the ending of this earth-shattering press release? "So don't sweat it – it's very common, it happens to a lot of guys and it's not a big deal… ;-)"

Sony launches exclusive Blu-ray Club

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:31:00 GMT

Sony has finally shown what its BD-Live discs are capable of, by launching an exclusive club for Profile 2.0 users.

Called the Blu-ray Club, consumers who have BD-Live discs in their collection can register their titles with the service and in return will get points.

And we all know what points mean… prizes!

The sort of points you can earn are as follows:

Creating your 'Wish List' of Sony products - 50 points

Monthly confirmation or updating of your Wish List - 25 points per month

Completing a Sony Rewards poll or survey - minimum 10 points per poll or survey

Completing the Your Profile questionnaire under Your Account - 50 points

Participating in clubs for certain Sony Television programs. Wheel of Fortune and SPT all have clubs at Sony Rewards with activities that let you play along to earn valuable points. For example, if you play the Wheel of Fortune Bonus Puzzle each week day, you can earn 10 points per puzzle.

Free stuff

Once you have collected enough points, you can redeem them for free stuff.

Registration can be completed straight through your BD-Live player – much like logging on to the PlayStation Store via your PS3.

Internet: coming through your light bulb

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:29:00 GMT

Researchers at Boston University's College of Engineering are developing a system that could allow you to connect to the internet via a light bulb.

Using low-power LED technology, your computer would be able to use super fast flickering, invisible to the naked eye, to receive data at speeds of up to 10mbps with technology similar to the infrared signals given off by remote controls.

Future versions of the technology would allow even greater speeds, as well as the ability to communicate with smartphones, TV and even the room temperature.

"This could be done with an LED-based communications network that also provides light - all over existing power lines with low power consumption, high reliability and no electromagnetic interference. Ultimately, the system is expected to be applicable from existing illumination devices, like swapping light bulbs for LEDs," said BU Engineering's Professor Thomas Little.

Dominant

LED lighting is likely to become the dominant form of lighting over the next few years, and is already used in fibre optic connections.

The difference with LED lighting is it's digital (i.e is either on or off), so can be switched on and off at very fast speeds. This flickering is picked up by the device, and converted into data without any electromagnetic interference.

And as it's a low power technology already, combining it with lighting functions means the energy bills will be even lower, which will be a plus to major corporations with spiralling carbon emissions.

However, the light can only be used as connection in the same room as the computer, as it cannot penetrate walls, so this may lead to some innovative new network deployment should it reach mass market applications.

Flickr embraces the iPhone

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:16:00 GMT

Flickr has gone truly portable, with the popular online photograph showcase releasing an iPhone optimised version of the site.

Although some of the functionality, like picture editing, has disappeared, visitors to m.flickr.com with a mobile device will get a more functional, minimal version of the site.

You have to sign in with your Flickr/Yahoo account to see the full effect, and you'll immediately notice that the options are at the top of the screen – much handier for smaller displays.

Early impressions

TechRadar's early impressions are that it's a nice forward-thinking update – looking more like an app than a website and the loss of functionality is more than made up for by the increased ease of use.

So if you want to browse through somebody's pictures of Fratton Park, or remind yourself of your holiday in Ibiza, you can now do it on the small screen.

Oyster card security flaws published

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:02:00 GMT

Professor Bart Jacobs and researchers at Radboud University in Holland have finally published details of an Oyster card hack that has allowed them to clone the smart card.

Manufacturer NXP semiconductor had sought an injunction to delay the publishing of the paper, but the Prof and his team have now released the details at the European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (Esorics) 2008 security conference in Spain.

However, Prof Jacobs has said this is "not a guidebook for attacks".

The publishing of the findings represents a delay of around seven months after the legal action taken by the Dutch manufacturers, a spin-off company from Philips.

Delay

Steve Owen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing within NXP Semiconductors, said the delay was only to give customers time to change their systems, according to the BBC.

"We sought the injunction to cause a delay, not to completely stop the publication," he said.

He also points out that new installations should think twice about installing entry systems based on the smartcard due to the possible security breaches.

Shashi Verma, Director of Fares and Ticketing at Transport for London, also told the BBC that the organisation was already aware of the problem, and simply copying the card would not be enough.

"We knew about it before we were informed by the students. A number of forensic controls run within the back office systems which is something that customers and these students have no ability to touch."

AMD will streamline for new Intel battle

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:44:00 GMT

AMD is reportedly ready to make major changes including selling off factories in order to better compete with Intel.

Reuters is reporting that Two Abu-Dhabi venture capital companies (ATIC and Mubadal) are ready to invest, with one putting '$5.7 billion into the spun off factories' and the other buying AMD stock and warrants.

The company split is anything but a surprise – with analysts on Wall Street waiting for the announcement as AMD formulates its plan to wrest back some of the chip market from Intel.

Twenty per cent

Intel currently makes over 80 per cent of the world's central processor units (CPUs) with AMD taking the majority of the rest.

A series of high profile failures has not helped AMD's cause, but a more streamlined 3,000-strong company concentrating on CPUs will apparently give a better chance of competing with Intel.