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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.

Cambridge Audio DACMagic

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:29:00 GMT

The name of this little box of tricks may ring a bell: Cambridge Audio has had a DacMagic in its range before, but the last one disappeared a while ago when DACs appeared to be in terminal decline. Now they are back and the name has been revived for what is, in fact, an all-new product.

A major reason for the resurgence of DACs in general, is the proliferation of digital audio sources, especially computers. Cambridge has catered for this by providing the DacMagic with three inputs, USB, 'traditional' phono and optical S/PDIF.

Compact but well-connected

There are plenty more connectors on the back panel, because Cambridge has also provided a digital output (both flavours), while analogue audio signals appear in both unbalanced and balanced form – a welcome surprise at this price. The last socket is for the external power supply, important in enabling the DacMagic to inhabit such a small case.

Plenty of manufacturers would doubtless be happy enough to be able to offer a completely basic DAC for £200, but Cambridge is on a bit of a roll with its enhanced feature sets.

As a result, we are treated to a version of the deluxe upsampling technology first seen in the 840C and 740C CD players from the Azur range.

Digital filtering

Devised by software specialist Anagram Technologies of Switzerland and licensed – exclusively, to date – to Cambridge, this uses high-power digital signal processing technology to perform the digital filtering function.

In the 740/840 models it upsamples to 384kHz: here, a more modest version upsamples to 192kHz, but adds the flexibility of three filter types: 'linear phase', 'minimum phase' and 'steep'. The differences between these filters are in some ways subtle, but may be significant in determining the DAC's sound.

Linear phase is the type of filter most commonly used in up/oversampling players, since the very first Philips' machines in the early 1980s. It gives no phase shift at all within the audio band and rolls off very sharply around half the sampling frequency.

As most commonly implemented, it has rather limited attenuation at exactly half the sampling frequency and, as a result, allows a little bit of aliasing distortion to occur if there is any audio above 20kHz. There is also pre-ringing on transients, though this has never been shown to be a real problem.

Good quality components

Minimum phase filters do without the pre-ringing, but do have some phase shift in the audio band. The actual frequency response is, to all intents and purposes, identical to that of the linear phase filter. The 'steep' option, meanwhile, is another linear phase filter, but with faster roll-off above 20kHz so that, effectively, no aliasing occurs.

There is slightly more pre-ringing than with the linear phase filter. This needs a little more processing power than the other filter types, but it should theoretically be the best of the lot – except that this one adds a small, but not vanishing amount of passband ripple, something of poorly understood subjective significance.

Whatever the theory says, it's good to be able to choose. The same is true of absolute phase, which can be inverted digitally by the DacMagic. All this wizardry is achieved by a Texas Instruments digital signal processing chip, aided and abetted by DAC chips from Wolfson and some decent op-amps and passive components.

The unit is compatible with sample rates up to 96kHz at 16- or 24-bit resolution. Physical assembly is neat and tidy and practicality is aided by the option of horizontal or vertical mounting for the unit – for the latter, a nonslip rubber base is provided. We were particularly impressed with the user manual, which goes into unusual detail in explaining what the DacMagic does – and how.

Competitive performance

Still, you don't listen to a user manual. We did listen to the DacMagic, though, with interest and increasing admiration as time went on. We were hardly surprised to find it ticked all the boxes on basic tonality and detail: most digital components do, these days. Happily, it seems to go some distance beyond that and it gives some well-respected DACs at considerably higher prices a pretty good run for their money.

It's probably worth getting a word or three in at this point about the filters, because they do indeed have an important effect on the sound – nothing gross, but the way the sound registers on the ear over the course of a prolonged track varies between them.

To the extent that each can be succinctly summarised, the linear phase is clean and tidy with a particularly well-controlled bass, but can sometimes seem a little clinical by comparison with minimum phase, which seems slightly warmer but perhaps a shade less precise.

Meanwhile, steep is superlatively detailed in simple music – single voice/instrument, or just a few – but slightly loses out to linear in very dense textures.

Tuneful bass

All that said, we would probably live happily with any of them, but while the keen tweaker may want to experiment and perhaps adopt preferences based on musical style, we ended up listening mostly to linear.

Apart from anything else, we just loved the clean but always extended and tuneful bass this setting gave, with an utterly convincing sense of timing that made the most of the rhythmic qualities of any musical style.

One tends to associate rhythm particularly with music for dancing or marching but, of course, it's no less important in a string quartet or ballad, just in a different way.

Indeed, it was with such pieces that we were aware of the DacMagic's clear precision in presenting the timing of each instrumental part. But yes, before you ask, it can also make the most of a dance track.

State of the art DAC

Tonality is exceptionally neutral, with clean extension at both extremes and very well-balanced midrange.

One often finds that certain instruments or voices seem slightly favoured, but we could detect no such effect here and were particularly struck by the way in which multiple voices coexisted without interfering with each other.

That seems an obvious requirement, but it's surprising how often it's not quite met – one finds that the entrance of a male voice puts a female one slightly in the shade, or vice versa.

There have been concerns voiced that USB is intrinsically a more jittery interface than regular S/PDIF, so we tried our best to hear any differences between the various options. Frankly, we couldn't – certainly not consistently. Nor could we measure any, the DacMagic turning in measured results which in every way qualify it being as state of the art.

Top audio bargain

Standards of CD replay being what they are, it probably won't lift many modern players beyond recognition, but it could give a new lease of life to some older models and for computer-based music replay it is an excellent choice.

The Cambridge Audio DacMagic is practical and good-looking too and we would rate it all-round as one of the best audio bargains we've come across in a while.

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.

Google Maps Street View comes to iPhone

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:23:00 GMT

The new iPhone 2.2 firmware has been released to the development community, and has thrown up some interesting new features.

Of most interest is the Street View function being added to the Google Maps line up, with the accelerometer being used to change the display as the user moves around.

This means iPhone owners sipping on cappuccinos in Rome, or eating a croissant in Paris, will be able to see where they want to go in real terms on their handset, thanks to the Google Street View cars that have been roaming the world, taking pictures and sometimes causing havoc.

Incorrect texting permitted

Another interesting feature is the ability to turn off auto-correct when inputting text. It appears Apple has crumbled under public pressure with this one, as although the auto-correct function is scarily accurate at times, but for those not using English all the time, the process is annoyingly slow as you have to override the function for every word.

Oh, and if you're Japanese, Apple has now decided to let you use emoji icons, which will make it more compatible with other handsets in the country. Now that's the kind of Jobs-esque thinking we're used to.

No word on when the full firmware update will be hitting your handsets, but it shouldn't be too far down the line.

Otto Traveler cans cancel noise with built-in MP3

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:19:00 GMT

Otto has been making communication gear for racing car teams, law enforcement and fire fighters for years, but here's one of its first consumer products - noise-cancelling headphones with a built-in MP3 player.

The Traveler n/c cans are pretty standard, offering 85 per cent noise reduction (20dB active, 7dB passive) and 20Hz to 20KHz response through an on-ear design.

The ear cups are padded leather and fold flat to fit into the supplied hard shell case.

The 1GB MP3 player is pretty ho-hum as well, with a USB cable for uploading a couple of hundred tunes. While there's no memory card slot, you do get adaptors for 1/4-inch stereo jacks and airline systems.

Battery swap

The Traveller headphones take two AAA batteries. One is for the noise reduction circuitry and should last 40 hours, the other is for the MP3 player, fading out after just six hours.

Otto is pretty excited about its launch, if the gushiness of Sales Director John Rehayem is anything to go by: "This headset is perfect for travellers. In fact it's perfect anywhere." Really, John? Underwater? Deep space? Your grandmother's funeral? A courtroom appearance when you're seeking custody of your beloved racing Chihuahuas?

What I wouldn't give for a pair of headphones that cancelled 85 per cent of marketing hyperbole.

TomTom rolls out Map Update for sat navs

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:20:00 GMT

How seriously do you take your driving? If the thought of rolling down your window and asking for directions brings you out in a cold sweat, consider joining TomTom's new Map Update Service.

For a quarterly fee starting from £7.95, you'll get the latest road maps available to download to your TomTom sat nav as soon as they become available.

The maps are downloaded via the TomTome Home desktop software as soon as any changes are approved by cartographers Tele Atlas.

Roads to somewhere

"The world's road infrastructure changes up to 15 per cent each year," says TomTom MD Corinne Vigreux, although frankly that sounds like nonsense, given the sluggish nature of road repair and development here in the UK.

Still, if you can't bear your GPS unit being ignorant of a new slip-road to a housing estate in Fife or an exciting new one-way system in Norfolk, I suppose it's worth a look.

However, bear in mind that the Map Update Service for sat navs with full European mapping may cost more than £7.95 a quarter.

Exclusive: Internet: coming through your lightbulb

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:54:00 GMT

Wireless networks that use visible light instead of radio frequencies could soon become a reality, thanks to a new $18.5 million (£10.5 million) project at Boston University.

Researchers expect to piggyback data communications on low-power LEDs at between 1 and 10Mbps, to create a hyper-connected 'Smart Lighting' network that's more secure than current RF technology.

"Imagine if your computer, iPhone, TV, radio and thermostat could all communicate when you walked in a room just by flipping the wall light switch," said Boston University Professor Thomas Little.

"An LED-based communications network could 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."

Many hands make light work

The new Smart Lighting Engineering Research Centre will have 30 researchers developing the new technology.

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, naked to the human eye. This flickering is picked up by the device, and converted into data using much less data than RF systems.

Because light can't shine through walls, Smart Lighting should be much more secure than Wi-Fi, although, of course, it also means that you'll have to fish phones, cameras and computers from your bag for them to make a connection.

But don't go binning your draft-N router just yet - the Smart Light Research Centre is working to a 10 year timeline.

News round-up: 6 October 2008

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:39:00 GMT

Monday isn't the greatest day. After the mirth of the weekend, there's something inherently dull about the beginning of the week.

Luckily the world of technology was bright enough to pull us through, with the following nuggets of news that no self-respecting tech-head should be without.

First up was the announcement that Ask.com is to get a face-lift – making the search engine fitter, happier and more productive. All without the help of Jeeves.

Then we informed you about new technology that is to make your mobile phone the epicentre of your home cinema. Well, kind of.

MySpace was in a celebratory mood today, announcing that its MySpace Music portal has already hit the '1 billion streamed songs' mark – an impressive feat, considering it is only available in the US, and has only been around for 10 days!

A blast from the past came in the form of Sega announcing a new handheld console today. While we all prayed for a GameGear 2.0 it turns out to be merely a PMP. It kind of made us want to be back in the early nineties. Then we remembered about 2 Unlimited and nostalgia turned to dread.

In other news, the RealDVD saga continues, with the company suspending the software. And it seems that the new Nintendo DSi won't replace the DS Lite, merely complement it.

Mozilla fans get excited now as FireFox is coming to mobiles in a few weeks. Which is almost as exciting as the fact that HANNspree has launched a 28in Full HD TV. It sounds kind of pointless to have all those pixels on a set that small, but you've got to admire innovation.

Finally, in these credit crunching times, it's inevitable to report of job losses in the technology industry. We just hope that we don't have to make a habit of it.

Well, we were going to end on that story, but it's far too depressing, so how about this? Sony Ericsson may soon release a football-shaped mobile in recognition of the 2010 World Cup. Even though this sounds utterly stupid, we want one now!

eBay cuts 1,000 jobs from workforce

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:04:00 GMT

It's been a sad day for technology today, with the announcement of job losses in all corners of the industry.

The biggest job cuts were made by eBay, where the company announced it is to shed 1,000 staff to help "improve operations".

Speaking about the job cuts, John Donahoe, Chief Executive of eBay, said: "While never an easy decision to make, these reductions will help improve our operations and strengthen our ability to continue investing in growth."

Not that this has put the company off expanding, with news that it has bought online credit firm Bill Me Later for $820m and two Danish classified firms dba.dk and bilbasen.dk for a cool $390million.

More company job cuts

In blogging circles, it was a shock to hear that Gawker Media is also saying bye to 19 people. This may not sound like a lot, but analysts are predicting this is the calm before the storm, with ad revenues tightening next year because of the credit crisis. Yikes.

It's all a bit doom and gloom in the world of Sony Ericsson as well, with the phone company announcing last week it is to down-size its research and development plant in North Carolina – from 750 jobs to 300. SE employers will find out this week who is to face redundancy.

All this pales into comparison, however, with Hewlett Packard's announcement last month that it is to cut nearly 25,000 jobs in the next three years as it integrates technology firm EDS.

Today it was revealed that 1,400 of these positions will be going in Germany. That sound you can hear is of belts being tightened everywhere.

Sony Ericsson to release football-shaped mobile?

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:22:00 GMT

Sony Ericsson, not content with its sponsorship of the WTA Tour, has decided to go one better and become the official mobile phone sponsor for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

This means the SE-lovers of the world will soon be able to buy branded phones (probably) and a load of other football-related madness (we expect the World Cup song to be pre-loaded on every handset between now and then).

What might be of more interest is the company's pledge to bring football-related content to its customers, which will probably be delivered by some decent streaming options or in the form of highlights packages to download.

Which in turn would hint at some larger screened media powerhouses from the Japanese-Swedish company.

Marketing fun

Or, you can read the same thing we just wrote, but in fun marketing-speak from Lennard Hoornik, Sony Ericsson's vice president and head of global marketing:

"The 2010 FIFA World Cup is one of the world's leading sporting events and is watched across the world by millions of fans. It will be these fans that we focus our engagement in football on; using our relationship with FIFA and our handsets to enable them to get closer to the game in new ways and enjoy the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

"We are looking forward to using our handsets to capture and share their football experiences."

Bated breath anyone?

HANNspree launches 28in Full HD TV

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:30:00 GMT

HANNspree has pipped many a major television manufacturer to the post by announcing a 28in TV with Full HD capabilities, the HT09.

The screen packs in 1,920 x 1,200 pixels on to a 16:10 screen ratio – so not quite perfect for widescreen viewing, but impressive nonetheless.

Connectivity is well-cared for, with 2x HDMI ports and 2x Scart inputs, as well as component, composite and VGA, while a 3ms response rate should counteract jitter from fast-moving imagery.

Audio bully

While this TV is a sound choice because of its Full HD visuals, it is let down on the audio side. With just two five-watt speakers, you will want to invest in extra audio enhancement before trying out the latest HD movies.

But don't let this put you off as the price is more-than reasonable, with the HT09 available now for just £279.99.

In Depth: The future of motoring

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:10:00 GMT

What does the future of motoring really look like? Will we be flying everywhere in our aerocars, just as they did in The Jetsons? And is the idea of Marty McFly and his time-travelling DeLorean not as far-fetched as you might think?

The future is now

Already, you can buy a Lexus that will park itself, there is a Mercedes with a night vision display, and BMW has built a car that runs on hydrogen. That's not to mention the wacky concept cars manufacturers constantly wheel out at the world's motor shows; at Paris last week Chevrolet unveiled the appropriately named Volt, an electric car with a 40-mile range and a back-up petrol generator if you do run out of juice.

What's coming next?

So if cars are this clever now, what are they going to be like 10, 20 or even 30 years' time?

Let's assume a typical journey in the future. Forget flying to work for a start; the infrastructure and technology is still a long way off; where would you park for instance and would you require a pilot's licence to take to the skies? And don't even get me started on the aerial traffic wardens!

Instead, you'll walk out of your hi-tech house and into your smart garage where your car has been charging all night – if you bought an electric version that is. Alternatively, you might want to replenish your biofuel or hydrogen car from the tank you had installed to brew your own fuel at home.

Lotus already has a prototype that runs on alcohol and produces no harmful emissions – but it won't see production because there isn't enough support for this technology in the UK. And US company Tesla has an electric sports car on the market that can hit 60mph in four seconds which you plug in at home. So the future is definitely green.

No more lost car keys

In this futuristic motoring utopia, keys will not be needed. To get into your car you will pass your index finger over a scanner on the door handle (you can currently buy an aftermarket fingerprint kit for your car that allows you to power it up), the door will open and you will slide into the driver's seat which, because it's the middle of winter, has been heating up for the past 20 minutes, as set by you via the on-board computer. In summer, fans will cool the cabin down before you get in.

Before you can start the engine, you will blow into an on-board breathalyser which, if it detects you are over the drink drive limit, will shut down your car until you are capable of driving again. Volvo's new XC60, out later this year, will be the first car to get an 'Alcolock' system (a £500 optional extra) which will transmit the results of your test by radio signal and prevent the car being started if you fail. Expect this to be a common safety feature in many cars in the future.

Take it with you

The brain of your onboard computer is in your pocket. Your smartphone, which will have all your favourite settings and media on its hard drive, will automatically connect with your car when you get in. It will analyse your mood and play appropriate music; soothing classics if you're stressed, lively upbeat jazz if you're feeling down.

The clever GPS sat nav will plot the least congested route to work, and it will take pictures along the way on a built-in camera as reference points to share with your friends and family. Satellite navigation will also be more accurate and less likely to direct you into a river or the wrong way down a motorway as the number of satellites in the sky grows.

Pay as you go

Pay-as-you-drive will replace road and fuel tax. One method of charging could be through the use of black boxes, which will record every journey you make and charge you per mile, the rate will depend on the time of day and the type of road travelled on. At the end of every month you will be sent a bill.

Norwich Union has already got a trial version of this in operation, and it is believed that this will be one of the key measures to reducing road deaths among younger drivers by charging them £1 a mile to drive after 11pm.

There will be a downside to this technology, though. Satellites will be able to record how fast you have been travelling, with the potential for the government to monitor speeders and send them automatic fines as well as add virtual points to their electronic driving licences.

And the investment required to build the infrastructure and call centres will be enormous; a feasibility study carried out by the Department for Transport suggests a national scheme could cost £62 billion.

So the future of motoring isn't quite as far-fetched as we would like. We won't all be in flying cars or being chauffeur driven in automated motors. But we will see an end to the conventional combustion engine in favour of greener technologies, the road network will change to a pay-per-mile type scheme, and new safety techs will make it even harder to crash and more unlikely that you will die in a car accident.

And if you don't like the sound of this, there's always the bus.

Read TechRadar's 10 life-saving car technologies

Manhunt 2 gets Halloween release date

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:02:00 GMT

Manhunt 2, Rockstar's controversial sequel to 2003's Manhunt, has finally been given a UK release date, more than a year after it was released in the US.

The game was suspended from launch in the UK and Ireland by its publisher TakeTwo after it failed to get a rating.

This rejection by the BBFC – and the subsequent court cases to reject the, er, rejection – meant that the game was indefinitely delayed, despite being available to buy in the US since 31 October 2008.

The game will now be released in the UK exactly a year after its US release, hitting British shelves this Halloween.

Decision overturned

The game was finally given a BBFC 18 rating back in March, after the Video Appeals Committee (VAC) overturned the decision to not give the game a rating – this was after some hefty modifications by Rockstar.

Quite why it has taken half a year to get the game into the UK is unknown, but it does mean that Wii, PS2 and PSP owners can finally satisfy their virtual blood-lust on the scariest day of the calendar.

Free satellite takes off in the UK

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:33:00 GMT

Free satellite services - such as the FreeSat service offered by the BBC and ITV, or BSkyB's option - have almost hit a million users according to the latest statistics.

Ofcom has announced a rise of 120,000 users compared to the same time last quarter, as regions of the UK gear up for the full digital switchover.

Life after Sky

The majority of these numbers are coming from BSkyB or other retailers, showing that a large amount of digital users are continuing to use their Sky dish after they decide to stop paying a subscription for the service.

In the last quarter, around 60,000 FreeSat units were sold in the UK alone, with this number set to rise as consumer education grows and HD options begin to be rolled out.

The report also mentioned that nearly nine out of 10 households have digital TV on their main set, news which will please those trying to help make the country aware that a full digital switchover is imminent.

Airport 'face scanners' pose security threat

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:18:00 GMT

It was meant to be the next step in airport security, but the trial of face scanning technology at Manchester Airport has run into a whole host of problems.

The main worry is that the scanning machines allow two people in on just one passport with the system.

This flaw was found out when a security guard followed one passenger through and no alarm was sounded.

The security breaches were found by the Daily Telegraph newspaper, which has been speaking to a source in the UK Border Agency (UKBA).

Serious security problem

"This is a massive loophole and a serious problem for security," said the source.

"It should certainly sound an alarm if there are two people trying to come through at the same time. It could lead to widespread immigration abuse and compromise the efficiency of immigration control.

"One particular concern is that it could be exploited by child traffickers, because it won't pick up if you have a child on your back."

Another worry is how regularly the machines break down. The five scanners in Manchester are all linked up, so when one breaks down, it seems that they all do.

Live trial

The UK Border Agency source continued his rant to the Telegraph, saying: "This is a live trial, and that is dangerous because a six-month trial is long enough for plenty of problems to happen. Only one in 20 of the admissions to the UK through the new machine will be examined by an immigration officer.

"If someone manages to get through without being seen and they are someone an immigration officer has suspicions about, it will be too late. They'll be in Britain."

The face scanners were set up almost two months ago in Manchester. The technology has got the backing from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith who has called for the scanners to be a "ring of security" for the UK and its borders.

Firefox Mobile coming 'in a few weeks'

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:14:00 GMT

Firefox Mobile, the handset-friendly version of the open-source internet browser, could be coming within the next few weeks, according to Mozilla's CEO John Lilly.

He spoke to the San Jose Mercury News recently, in an interview published by Linux Insider, and he said tests of the software would be debuting shortly:

"We want to make sure that the web on mobile is more like the web than what the mobile industry offers today, which is closed, separate networks and not a very good information-getting experience for the user.

"The first thing is to bring Firefox to mobile devices. We're working on that, and we'll see some alphas in a few weeks."

Chrome

He also spoke of the effect Google's new browser, Chrome, might have on Firefox's effectiveness, as the two programs are now effectively competing.

"I would say we have very good relationship with Google. Google has done a lot to make the web better and to make information more accessible. Some of the components of Firefox are shared with some of the components of Chrome.

"I'm not sure 'competing' is the right word. It's not the way I think about it. We're trying to make something that provides a good experience for people, and they are too."

97% of UK scared about their personal data

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:04:00 GMT

A staggering 97 per cent of British consumers are not sure that companies take enough care with their personal data - leaving them open to identity theft and fraud.

Research released to coincide with the start of the horribly named but very important National Identity Fraud Prevention Week (NIFPW) suggests that nearly everybody is worried about how their personal data is handled.

But perhaps even more worrying is the fact that 92 per cent of people feel that their own employer may not be able to keep customers' personal data safe.

Awareness

Identity fraud is a massive and growing danger in the online world – and NIFPW is aiming to raise awareness of the problems that losing your personal data can cause.

With the right information, people could find that fraudsters set up credit cards, buy goods and even send out spam emails in their name – leaving an enormous mess behind and potential financial hardship for the innocent victim.

More information about the week can be found at http://www.stop-idfraud.co.uk/

Giving us the Chiles

NIFPW have picked out the BBC's Adrian Chiles as their figurehead for this year (we don't know what the selection criteria was either - perhaps Christine Bleakley was too busy with Strictly Come Dancing) - and he outlined the dangers in a chilling Black Country accent.

"Britain's businesses have come a long way in protecting employees and customers from identity fraud," commented Adrian Chiles.

"Yet, while many have introduced stringent identity fraud prevention policies, more than a fifth of businesses in the UK still don't have comprehensive strategies in place."

Creative Gigaworks T3

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:40:00 GMT

The inherent problem with the overwhelming majority of computer speakers is that they're almost always dreadful. They look pretty, but they sound awful. And that's how it's been for a long time now.

This trend became more pronounced over the last 10 years, with manufacturers and designers alike putting too much emphasis on style, and not enough on substance.

For too long, PC gamers were written off as undiscerning when it comes to sound quality. And Creative would be the first to admit that it was one of the companies that adhered to that philosophy. But with the Creative Gigaworks T3, all is forgiven.

Audio fidelity

Because what we have here is an 80W 2.1 system that not only looks great, but sounds brilliant too.

The Gigaworks T3's were born because Creative was no longer happy to churn out speaker products which were simply 'quite good'. It gave a budget to its audiophile engineers and instructed them to build something brilliant.

The goal was to create an affordable 2.1 system that would deliver industry-defining audio fidelity. And the T3's certainly are that.

We first met the T3's at IFA in Berlin back in August 2008. And inside Creative's sound proofed demo room were the T3's and a pair of very similar-looking speakers from Bose - the Bose Companion 3 MkII Multimedia Speakers to be exact, which cost about twice as much as this Creative set.

The side-by-side tests showed a startling level of audio clarity in the T3's - whereas the Bose set sounded muffled in comparison.

Class leading performance

When we got the T3's into our own testing room, we reproduced this test and discovered identical results. We also tested them against the Aego M 2.1 speakers from Acoustic Energy. A 90W system which we gave 4.5 stars last year.

AE is a full-blown Hi-Fi company, so we weren't expecting the T3's to beat the Aego M's, but as it turns out, the T3's won hands-down. We even kidnapped a number of people from our sister magazines and asked them to do a blind (deaf?) test. The T3's were the overwhelming favourites.

And that's because the smooth, bassy audio that comes from these speakers literally drips with clarity.

Crisp highs and deep lows are reproduced with such accuracy we almost couldn't believe our ears. This is just a £160 set of PC speakers remember.

One of the secret weapons in the T3's arsenal is the Creative SLAM subwoofer (it stands for Symmetrically Loaded Acoustic Module) which uses three separate 6.5-inch drivers to combine precision and accuracy with deep bass.

Top notch components

The two satellites are no slouches either. Symbols and acoustic guitar are reproduced with impressive lucidity, and backed up by creamy bass from the SLAM sub.

The system also comes with a wired remote which includes a low friction volume dial which doubles as a power/standby switch. It includes the standard aux-in and headphone jacks as you'd expect.

It's important to keep things in perspective though - this is by no means a high-end Hi-Fi system. Strap a pair of KEFs to a Naime amp and you'd immediately dismiss the Gigaworks T3's as amateur wannabes.

But as a set of PC speakers, ideal for listening to music, watching movies and playing games, they're very, very good.

If money is no object, you'd probably still have to choose the quite brilliant THX-certified Razer Mako speakers. But they cost over £100 more than the T3's, and come with a number of drawbacks that the Creative ones just don't have.

The T3's then, with their blend of value for money and startling quality, are the people's choice.

DSi won't be a replacement for DS Lite

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:07:00 GMT

Nintendo of America's Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Cammie Dunaway, has said that the new DSi will sit on the shelves next to the current DS Lite as she thinks "there's an opportunity for both of them to coexist for some period of time."

In an interview with Wired.com, she thinks the DS Lite still has a lot of untapped potential, so the two devices, with the new DSi packing a lot more media features, will not compete directly with each other.

Potential

She pointed out that the US was still a big potential market for the DS Lite, as unlike the Japanese, who have one handset for every two households, US consumers are only currently averaging one in five.

She also pointed out that the new DSi devices were likely to continue with the same price premium in Japan compared to the US, though no mention of how the prices will compare in Europe.

"I don't know what the pricing is going to be here [in the US], but certainly it is going to be a premium over what our current DS is priced at," said Dunaway.