Apple release stunning new iMacs, iLife '08, iWork '08

At an event in Cupertino today Steve Jobs announced brand spanking new iMacs as well as significant updates to their iLife and iWork software suites.

The new iMacs have been completely redesigned and are available in 2o or 24-inch glossy screened varieties. They are now clad in brushed aluminium and glass, with a black trim. Not a dissimilar look to the iPhone and Pro Macs.



The new iMacs include the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors configurable up to 2.8 GHz with 4MB of shared L2 cache and up to 4GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory.

The top of the line 24-inch version features ATI's next generation Radeon HD 2600 PRO graphics card with 256MB of GDDR3 memory and the 20-inch version features the ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB of GDDR3 memory.

They can also be configured with up to 1TB of hard drive storage and are compliant with the stringent new Energy Star 4.0 requirements.

Not content with redesigning the iMac, Apple have also introduced a super-thin new keyboard to match. Drawing heavily on the design of the MacBook, the new aluminium clad keyboard features low profile keys for a "crisp, responsive feel". It also has dedicated function keys for features like dashboard, expose and media controls.



Both the keyboard and the iMac are incredibly slim and look stunning on the desktop.

They come preloaded with the new iLife '08 software suite which includes major reworks of iPhoto and iMovie as well as updates to iWeb, GarageBand and iDVD.

Of note, iPhoto now supports online web galleries and automatically organises your library by events. iMovie has had a major overhaul and now, importantly for me, supports the popular new HD camcorder format, AVCHD.

iWork also saw a significant update with new versions of Pages and Keynote as well as the introduction of an innovative new spreadsheet app "Numbers".

Click on these links for more on the iMac, iLife '08 and iWork '08.

Is the Panasonic 42PZ700 the ultimate plasma?

For quite some time now I have been holding out buying an HDTV until I could get a full 1920 x 1080 resolution 42" plasma. There are loads of 40"+ LCDs that have that high resolution but I am not a great fan of LCD, I much prefer the picture on a plasma. So I have been waiting.

Getting the 1920 x 1080 resolution into a 42" screen is a challenge for plasma technology but Panasonic have managed to achieve it with the TH-42PZ700 - and it's pretty special.



So is it the holy grail of plasma TVs? It has all the benefits of native 1080 resolution and the ability to display every detail of a 1080i or 1080p picture without having to scale it to fit. And if you connect a PC up to it you're going to be able to use a much higher resolution.

Certainly, from the reviews I've read so far, people seem to think it's a great TV. This is from HDTV.org's review:

Combine Panasonic's latest 10th generation screens with Vreal processing and Full HD however and in the TH42PZ700 you have what is possibly the best High Definition (HD) performance available today from a 42in screen. The level of sharpness and detail is absolutely stunning, showing every possible nuance of detail imaginable.

So it's good then. Deep blacks, high levels of detail. Cool. But do you really need 1080 resolution?

After all this time waiting for it, I'm now questioning whether, in the real world, it's necessary. You see, for my eyes to even be able to perceive the increased resolution, I have to be sitting about 5 feet away from the screen.

In my lounge I would be sitting about 7 feet away from it when sitting on my sofa. So will I see the extra resolution? Well probably not. But that's hardly the point is it? Gadget freaks need the best and I think I would always regret it if I didn't buy the full resolution set.

Anyway, I can just about justify it for gaming when I will be sitting about 4 or 5 feet away and for the extra resolution when connecting a PC :-)

But for most people who just want an HDTV in their lounge, I really don't think the extra £1000 or so over a Panasonic PX70 is probably worth it.

Panasonic only made the PZ700 for gadget freaks who insist on the best, normal people need not apply.

iPhone on sale, reviews and videos

The queues are growing and the reviews are flooding in but the wait for the iPhone is finally over today as it goes on sale in the US.

If you want to see it in action, Apple has posted up a whole load of really cool videos that show off all the features. Highlights include the full 20 minute guided tour and the keyboard demo.

So now we just have to wait for the European release later this year. 3G anyone?

Jobs unveils new Leopard features and Safari for Windows

Steve Jobs let us in on the so-called 'secret' features of Mac OS X Leopard today in a slightly lacklustre keynote without the big surprise announcements that we've come to expect from an Apple keynote.

There were really only 3 new features unveiled in Leopard today; a new desktop, finder and Quick Look. The rest was more or less a rehash of what he demoed last time around.

New Leopard features

The new desktop features a semi-transparent menu bar and reflective dock. The idea is that it better compliments the high resolution photos that people put on their desktops these days.

The dock also gained a new 'stacks' feature that allows you to keep groups of files easily organised on the dock, rather than cluttering up your desktop. When you click on the stack of files, they fan out so you can easily see all the files contained within.

The finder has had a fairly significant overhaul, clearly heavily influenced by iTunes. It now features a redesigned sidebar with iTunes-like collapsible folders, other computers that appear automatically on the sidebar for easy file sharing, Cover Flow browsing (like flicking through album covers but with documents and files) and an upgraded Spotlight that allows you to search shared computers and network drives.

.Mac members will also now be able to easily access their home or work files from another machine, including searching for files remotely.

The last of the major new features is Quick Look which enables you to preview a file within finder without actually launching its native application. It allows you to see live previews of the content of the file including video and flicking through pages of a document. It also works in combination with Cover Flow allowing you to flick through files, previewing them as you go.

Other features including Time Machine, Spaces and iChat seemed to be largely unchanged since they were first announced.

Also worth a mention was the confirmation, as widely expected, that the UI will be changed to a new unified look, with brushed metal being dispensed of completely.

In keeping with the new UI theme, apple.com has also been updated with a new, heavily redesigned look.

Safari for Windows

Perhaps the one true surprise of the keynote was the announcement that Safari 3, Apple's excellent web browser, will be made available to Windows users. The Beta is available to download immediately from Apple's site.

I'm a big fan of Safari and would suggest any Windows users reading this download it and have a play. The Beta download is naturally available for Mac users as well.

More games for the Mac

Jobs also announced a significant increase in support for the Mac as a gaming platform from EA and id software. EA will be releasing some of their biggest titles this summer such as Command and Conquer 3, Battlefield 2142, Need for Speed Carbon and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

This additional gaming support can only be a good thing as it's one of the weak points of the Mac platform and more developers supporting the Mac are always welcome.

No new hardware

So, that was pretty much it, no hardware announcements (to be fair the MacBooks have all recently been updated) and no massive revelations. By Jobs's standards, a pretty average affair.

Having said that, Leopard looks to be shaping up to be a superb operating system and I am looking forward to getting my hands on it in October.

Wi-Fi enabled SD cards coming to a camera near you

While digital cameras with Wi-Fi built in haven't exactly taken off, it makes sense in this ever-more wireless world that Wi-Fi will become a standard means of connecting a digital camera, eventually. However, Eye-Fi have come up with a solution which might be a bit nearer off and save you the trouble of updating your camera yet again. They plan to incorporate a Wi-Fi chip directly onto the standard SD card format, so you would get storage and connectivity in one. However in addition to easily sending photos to your personal computer you'll also be able to share photos instantly with online photo and social networking sites.

New MacBook Pros with LED displays

Apple today updated the MacBook Pro line with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 2GB standard RAM, bigger hard drives, faster graphics cards, LED-backlit displays on the 15" version and an optional ultra high-resolution screen on the 17" version.

The new processors are based on the latest Intel Santa Rosa chipset that offers a faster 800Mhz front side bus and 2.2 or 2.4Ghz processors. Apple claim they are up to 50% faster than the original Intel MacBook Pro using the Core Duo chip.



The new laptops also feature the 8x SuperDrive that we saw introduced with the MacBooks recently and they now support up to 4GB RAM (up from 3GB). They are also 802.11n wi-fi enabled out of the box.

Perhaps the most significant changes are in the displays though, with both 15" models now using LED-backlighting, offering anywhere between 30 and 60 minutes extra battery life. The brightness levels and viewing angles remain the same.

The 17" version still uses the CCFL backlit displays (not the new LED ones) but it does have an optional upgrade to an ultra high-resolution 1920 x 1200 display.

Overall, a pretty decent upgrade and worth it for the better battery life on the 15" LED versions alone, not to mention more standard RAM and hard drive capacity.

Prices range from £1,299 to £1,799 for the standard models. Check out the Apple store for more details.

The iPhone cometh

If you live in the US, June 29th is the day you'll be able to get your hands on an iPhone, the most anticipated gadget of the year, if not ever. Apple announced the date in some new ads that aired yesterday on US TV.

The hype machine is in overdrive and some rumours suggest that even Apple themselves are worried the device won't be able to live up to the massive buzz that has been generated since Steve Jobs announced the breakthrough device at Macworld in January.

Having watched the ads, I still think the iPhone looks pretty amazing and I can't wait to see the first reviews from people that get their hands on one. But will the touch screen be as good as it looks, will the battery life be decent enough, will it even work well as a phone?

Don't forget this is Apple's first attempt at a mobile phone and they don't always get things right first go. Look at the first few generations of iPod for example and their battery problems and more recently with the iPod nano screen scratching debacle.

But they've had a pretty long lead time with the iPhone and haven't had to keep it secret since January, so they should have been able to iron things like that out by now.

Nevertheless, I expect there will be some kind of backlash/disappointment but it won't stop it from selling shed loads and I still can't wait to get my hands on one.

Roll on the European release later in the year.

Jobs and Gates fascinating interview

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did a rare joint interview at D: All Things Digital yesterday. It's a really fascinating and interesting video and the Wall Street Journal has the whole thing for you to watch.

You should definitely check out the Prologue and the Highlight reel, they have some great nostalgic moments with both Steve and Bill reminiscing about the early pioneering days of the PC and software industry.



It's amazing to think how much shared history there is between Apple and Microsoft which people often forget. When you watch the video you'll see that actually the two men have great respect for each other, their companies and achievements.

Check out all the videos here or you can get the transcript here.

Halo 3 coming to UK on September 26th

Microsoft took the opportunity of the Halo 3 public Beta launch today to finally announce the date fans have been waiting for so they can get their hands on the final release of the game.

It will be 25th September in the US and the next day for Europe. As a big fan of Halo 2, I'm definitely looking forward to this one and it will finally give me an excuse to buy a 360.

Check out some videos of the multi-player Beta here and here.

Macbump

The MacBooks got a speed bump, bigger hard drives, faster SuperDrives and 1GB memory across the range yesterday. Nothing special, just a minor update really.

Funny thing is, they're pretty much up there with the lower end of the Macbook Pros now, they even have faster SuperDrives! So that must mean that the Pros will be getting an update soon too.

The middle of the range white MacBook is now really great value at only £829 for a 2.16Ghz Core 2 Duo, 1GB memory and a 120GB hard drive. Go get one.

Plasma vs LCD - Plasma best?

I have to admit, I've always had a preference for plasma over LCD. Every time I've gone into any large retailer and looked at all the sets, plasma has always seemed to produce more realistic colours, deeper blacks and much less blur in fast moving scenes, in my opinion.

In recent years, however, LCD has considerably closed the gap and the top manufacturers are consistently producing sets with better contrast ratios and lower response times.

So it was with much interest that I found and read a piece of research on the subject that looks at the views of 603 people in London, Paris and Cologne directly comparing the two technologies in a controlled environment.

The research was commissioned by Panasonic, Pioneer and Hitachi, some of the largest and most respected plasma manufacturers, so clearly their objective was to highlight plasma's superiority. Having said that, Panasonic and Hitachi both also manufacture LCD.

The research was conducted by a completely independent and well respected research company, Synovate. Having checked them out, they do seem to be completely legit.

Onto the results of the research then, this is taken directly from the executive summary:

The results reveal a strong preference for the contrast, black tone, resolution, image depth, sharpness, colour and response speed of plasma.

More importantly, opinions among those who had some prior knowledge of the two technologies swung dramatically toward plasma once they viewed the content side by side in an environment similar to their homes.

Some specifics from the report:

• 65% favour Plasma over LCD for best Colour Quality
• 61% say Plasma delivers the best Sharpness Quality
• 62% indicate that Plasma has the best Response Time
• 72% deem Plasma to have the best Black Quality performance

So, the results of this survey seem very clear then, plasma is superior in almost every way. I have to say, I'm not particularly surprised, as I said, it's been my feeling for a long time.

It's a very interesting read though and even if you don't agree with the results, there are some excellent explanations of the differences between the two technologies and various myths are also dispelled.

I definitely learnt a lot reading the report and I consider myself pretty knowledgeable on the subject.

If you're in the market for a new big screen HDTV, you should definitely read the report thoroughly and then go and make your own judgement on all the sets in your nearest big retailer. The best judge will always be your own eyes.

You can read the report here.

New TomTom ONE XL

TomTom have announced a new in-car GPS unit, the TomTom ONE XL, with a larger 4.3 inch screen and sleek new design. The screen is actually slightly larger than its big brothers', the GO 510, 710 and 910 (but it is only .3 of an inch!).

The ONE XL is also now capable of getting traffic data and speed camera locations along with the other TomTom Plus services.

TomTom ONE XL will be available across Europe, the US, Australia and South Africa from May 2007. The UK variant comes with two map options:

- TomTom ONE XL for UK & ROI at £249
- TomTom ONE XL for Western Europe at £279


Pretty pricey considering the existing ONE is £179.99 with UK maps and a GO 510 is only another £20 more than an XL with UK maps! And as far as I can tell the only difference between a GO 510 and an XL is that there is no bluetooth handsfree or iPod control on the XL.

The new screen and inclusion of Plus services is nice but are they worth an extra £70 over the old ONE and only £20 less than a GO 510?

Maybe not if you just need directions and none of the extra stuff. I donno, it's all so confusing.

Fancy an 8-core Apple?

The megahertz race turned into the gigahertz race and now it's turned into the core race. How many processing cores can you fit into one computer? The latest from Apple is 8.

The new 8-core Mac Pro has two 3GHz quad-core processors from Intel that are currently exclusive to Apple. That makes it one of the most powerful desktops money can buy.

The quad-core option is still available as well in 2GHz, 2.66GHz or 3GHz options. It's also just as configurable, with over 33 million possible combinations, including up to 3TB of storage and 16GB of RAM.

These are not your run-of-the-mill computers for home emailing and web surfing though, they are for serious professionals that require the most powerful machines possible. For example, it's easy to spec one of these up with everything and have it come out at 7 or 8 thousand pounds.

So if HD video editing or something equally CPU taxing is your game, you need one of these. For the rest of us, I think an iMac will do ;-)

Elgato Turbo 264

As someone who often has their Mac churning away all night converting "things to watch on the way to work" into H.264 format, this sounds like an ideal little device to help lighten the load.

Essentially a video encoding/decoding specific chip on a USB stick to help your processor out and take the strain. Out in Europe for 99 euros, seems like a bargain if it saves as much time as it says.

Not much english language info available at the moment, but if you're German's good you might want to check out Macwelt's test report.

Is this the beginning of the end for DRM?

Today EMI and Apple announced that high quality DRM-free music will be available from the iTunes store as of next month. A potentially momentous move that consumers have been waiting for ever since the iTunes store was launched 4 years ago.

Finally, you will be able to buy the music you want from iTunes and not worry that it won't work on a non-Apple device and the bonus is it will be higher quality as well.

EMI's catalogue will be available DRM-free in 256Kbps AAC format for an extra 20 pence per track. The existing 128Kbps DRM-crippled files will still be available to buy at the same 79p price point for those people that don't either know or care what any of this means.

But what does it mean? Is it quite as pivotal a moment as people are making out? Well, I think it could well be because hopefully this will spread. First, to the other big music labels, then to the indies and eventually to the big one, video. Once consumers get a taste for DRM-free digital downloads, they are going to demand it across the board.

For me, video DRM is a much worse problem than music DRM. There is a horrible trend in the UK at the moment to offer downloadable video in Windows Media Player, with DRM of course.

Unlike iTunes, Windows Media Player isn't available for anything other than PCs, so as a Mac user and regardless of the fact that it's crippled with DRM to restrict its use, I can't download and watch any content on Sky Anytime or 4oD anyway.

This really annoys me. I hate not being able to get that content on my Mac, especially in the case of Sky where I am paying through the nose for their content already and now one delivery channel is completely closed to me. So video is doubly bad. But without the need for DRM, they could distribute video content in multiple formats, for multiple platforms.

And that must be how people without iPods have felt all this time. And that is why DRM in all forms, for all content, is evil and completely unfair for consumers. DRM-free music may even lead to increased iTunes sales from non-iPod users because now they will be able to join in the fun as well.

There's a long way to go yet, this is only the beginning, but hopefully the big content owners out there, whether music or movie studios, will closely watch what happens and if successful follow suit quickly.

Especially in the music industry, it's going to be hard for anyone to hold onto DRM; now that one of the big four has gone for it, the others will have to follow to stay competitive.

So, a good day for digital consumers. Hopefully there are a lot more to come.

Xbox 360 Elite is real

So the rumours were pretty much spot on with this one. Microsoft today announced a new 'Elite' version of the Xbox 360. It has a new black paint job (and matching black accessories), 120GB hard drive and an HDMI port.



Sadly though, it seems it doesn't have any other new hardware like the expected move to 65nm, cooler processors. Hopefully that will come sometime later this year in another hardware update.

And there's no built-in WiFi either, unlike the Wii and PS3. But the good news is, it does come with HDMI and component cables, so you will be able to hook it up right out of the box.

It's been confirmed to ship in the States in April for $479. It has been confirmed for a UK release but no details about timing or price yet.

100% Mac

Ever since I switched my home PC for a Mac in 2002 and bought a 17" widescreen "sunflower" iMac G4, I've wanted to use a Mac at work as well and do away with PCs altogether.

That long-standing ambition has finally come to fruition in the last couple of weeks because in my new job I now use a MacBook Pro.

It's great to have finally gone 100% Mac and I am seeing a new side to using OS X, it's not all about iTunes and iPhoto any more, now I have to use it to get important things done like proposals, presentations, business email, development and other work-related stuff.

So far it's been working perfectly and I've been pleased to see how easily Macs really do fit into the enterprise. Mail works with Exchange just fine for email and you have the option of using Microsoft's Entourage, which is just like Outlook and includes all of the same contact and calendar management tools.

But you can even get Entourage to sync with iCal and Address Book, so you can effectively not use Entourage at all and just use the built in OS X apps instead, which is my preference.

What's more with the company about to roll-out the open-source Zimbra platform to replace Exchange, it will be a piece of cake using Macs and PCs in perfect harmony for email and calendaring.

It has also shown me how powerful OS X's built-in sync services are - this is what allows me to sync Entourage with iCal and Address Book but it also syncs my calendar, to-do list and contacts with my mobile phone and back home to my iMac G5 via .Mac (which I finally now make full use of), all completely seamlessly and automatically in the background.

It's been a pleasant experience so far and I find it so much easier to get my work done, there aren't any of the instability, crashing, restart or security problems that have plagued every PC I have ever used in my previous jobs and dragged down my productivity.

The integration into the network is seamless, joining wireless networks, setting up VPN connections and printers is ridiculously easy. Example: finding and setting up the networked Lexmark printer took about 10 seconds. My Mac just found it automatically on the network using Bonjour (Apple's zero-config network protocol) and started using it - no installation of drivers required, unlike the PC I'd had to use for my first couple of days. Joining the wireless network and setting up the VPN connection for when I'm away from the office were equally easy.

OS X also has loads of great software to help you complete your business tasks, whether it's great RSS readers, instant messaging clients or Word, Excel and PowerPoint, they're all available. Not to mention the great mail, calendar and creative apps that come built into OS X.

Of course, it helps that I work for a small, progressive company that allows and encourages me to use a Mac but in fact, I think I could have done this just as easily in any company, had they simply allowed me to.

I hope some of the antiquated IT departments out there wake up and smell the coffee. The Mac is perfectly poised to make an impact in the enterprise. Because it has to be, it is the most flexible OS out there and it can effortlessly integrate into Windows networks, in a lot of ways it's a hell of a lot easier to integrate than PCs themselves!

If I ever have to go back to using a PC as my main computer, I'm going to find it very tough. I've gone Mac and I don't want to go back. Ever.

Finally, I have Sky+

Oh it's been a long five years living in my flat with no Sky+, anyone that knows me can testify to that. You see, getting a second satellite feed into my flat through the central distribution system in the block has been hard to say the least. But I have finally triumphed through a mixture of good and bad luck and last Friday I finally had Sky+ installed.

The bad luck came in the form of a flood which destroyed all of the communal distribution system that led to me being without any TV at all for 2 weeks (well, I had channels 1-5 through terrestrial but that was like going back to the dark ages).

The good luck was that when the whole system had to be replaced after the flood, I made sure it was capable of distributing two feeds to each flat. Hence I now have Sky+ and my televisual life is complete.

Well, for now at least. You see, now that I have Sky+, I am also capable of getting Sky HD which also requires the second feed. So now I have the perfect excuse to buy one of those 42" 1080p HDTVs I keep blogging about. Happy days.

Geo-tagging - another reason to upgrade your camera.

In November I replaced my Sony DSC-P10 digital camera with a very nice Canon IXUS 850IS. This was quite a big step for me - to move away from Sony, I debated whether I should get a newer Sony and took quite a bit of convincing against it - but at the end of the day, I was replacing my Sony because it had failed, not because it was out-dated. The Canon had excellent reviews, was comparable in every way and I have not looked back since.

The research to find the right camera meant considering the specs and reviews - now I get the sneaking sensation that this spec search in future will need to take into consideration geo-tagging.

Geo-tagging, in the case of photography, is the process of including geographical meta data, usually latitude and longitude to your photographs to tie them to their position on earth.

JOBO have a device, photoGPS, which allows for geo-tagging to be fitted to your camera's hot shoe -like a regular flash unit. This unit captures the country, region and district, city, street, postal code, and even the point of interest (POI) which is closest to the captured image location and adds it to your photograph's meta-data.

This information can be used in a variety of ways. Google Earth allows users, through Picasa to match their photos to a specific location - this opens up all sorts of possibilities for travel writers, holiday makers etc. Or perhaps from a personal history point of view, a record through your photographs of where on earth you have stood - something your children and grandchildren might re-visit or yourself in later years.

Also geo-tagging would offer you a new search criteria, appended automatically to your photos - for those less keen on manual organisation. If you want to see all the photos you took at a specific place then you can.

So with this solution appearing as an add-on for hot shoe enabled cameras how long before it becomes a standard inside your camera? I think its certainly the sort of feature I'd love.

PlayStation Home confirmed

Well no surprises that the rumour was true after the Kotaku incident but Sony confirmed it today and announced PlayStation Home. It's like a blend of Second Life, The Sims, Nintendo's Miis and Xbox's achievements.

Basically it's a virtual world in which you have your own customisable house (you can hang your own digital photos on the wall as pictures) and all of it can be explored using your avatar, which can also be customised like a Mii but in far more detail. But this is not just some ramshackle or cartoon-like world, it's full on PS3 graphics and looks pretty impressive.



See more photos in the Joystiq gallery here.

You can chat to your buddies, play in-built games like bowling and pool, or arrange online multi-player games. There are also loads of public places where you can watch move trailers in a virtual cinema, for example, or admire game trophies in great halls.

Sony are thinking of it as Game 3.0, kind of like Web 2.0 for games, bandying about terms like social, localisation and customisable. That's a bit odd, I'm not sure it's quite that ground-breaking, there are plenty of MMO games out there that offer a lot of these aspects already but whatever, this does seem quite interesting and certainly brings the PS3 much more in line with what Nintendo are clearly trying to do with the Wii.

Having said that, those people that want it (and I'm not one of them) have plenty of options for MMO already and if Sony has proven one thing it's that cramming every conceivable piece of functionality into things doesn't necessarily translate into a compelling experience; people tend to like simplicity and elegance. The PS3 needs to be good at games first and this sort of thing is a great added bonus second.

At the end of the day, we'll just have to wait and see. PlayStation home goes into beta in April and should be launched properly sometime in the Autumn. Now if Sony would actually just release the bloody PS3 over here, people might just have one more reason to go and buy one.

Sony release a whole load of new stuff

Sony have announced new products in virtually all their lines. As I'm not interested in some of them, I'll only post about those that I am. So here goes.

New V-series HDTVs

Not their top of the line X-series sets but the respectable 1080p capable V-series are updated to accept 1080/60p and 24p signals and have the advanced Bravia EX engine, thus far found on the X-series sets, for super high-quality picture processing. They also have 10-bit processing for better colour gradients.

Also interesting is that the displays now use Sony's XMB Xross Media Bar interface, the same as used on the PS3 and PSP. I'd like to see for myself if that works well, it could be really interesting.

They did also announce one updated 32-inch X-series set that has three HDMI inputs and a 120Hz refresh rate (Sony call it Motionflow) to help reduce blurring and motion artefacts.

The existing line of Sony LCDs have had great reviews, so I'm particularly looking forward to seeing how these new ones fair. For me right now, if you're buying LCD, it's Sony vs. Sharp.

Cheap(er) Blu-ray player

This is good news for anyone looking to grab a Blu-ray player. Sony announced a much cheaper version of the existing trés-expensive BDP-S1 player. The new BDP-S300 will be $600 as opposed to $1000 (no word on UK pricing yet) and offer pretty much the same features.

The model also supports AVC-HD discs encoded with xvYCC technology, a new international standard for wide colour space, which Sony has branded as x.v.Color.

This will hurt HD DVD I'm sure as it will bring the Blu-ray players down to a much more comparable price level. Although I expect we'll be seeing cheaper HD DVD players out soon as well.

New Cyber-shot cameras

"Sony is introducing a line of slim and stylish Cyber-shot T-series cameras that are destined to be the fashionista crowd’s favorite party companion."

Sony's lovely marketing speak but they actually look pretty well featured. The 8 megapixel DSC-T100 has a 5x optical zoom and 3-inch LCD screen and is available in red, black and silver.



Also 8 megapixels, the DSC-T20 has a more usual 3x optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD screen and will be available in pink, white, black and silver.

At less than half an inch thick, the cameras are easily portable and you can even buy matching cases in pink, red, green, grey, crème, brown and black! Good for the ladies ;)

Bluetooth headphones

I like the sound of these (no pun intended) bluetooth headphones. The idea of wireless headphones appeals, tangley wires always annoy me. These look perfectly suited for using in the house maybe streaming music from iTunes or something if your computer (or any other bluetooth-enabled music device) supports A2DP, AVRCP, HFP or HSP stereo bluetooth profiles, which my Mac doesn't.



They've got a 17-hour battery life (200 in standby) and you can even use them with your mobile phone to answer and end calls with the press of button. Nice.

Panasonic announce "world's smallest" solid-state camcorder

Panasonic has announced what it claims is the world's smallest solid-state camcorder i.e. it has no tapes or hard drives, just SD or SDHC cards to record onto, much like a digital camera.

This has several advantages, apart from the small size, including shock resistance (as the recording mechanism has no moving parts), fast start up times and efficient battery life. Other features include a 2.7” wide-screen LCD, 10x optical zoom lens and USB 2 connectivity.

A 4GB SDHC card allows up to approximately 100 minutes of recording and the supplied 2GB SD card allows about 50 minutes.

It also has impact resistance and can survive a drop from up to 1.2 metres. In addition, it's water resistant which makes it great for recording poolside, at a beach or while skiing.

It's designed for easy shooting and you grip it so that you can stabilise the shot by bracing your elbow against your body or you can shoot in pistol-grip mode, all comfortably in the palm of your hand.

I'm not usually massively into camcorders but this does look like a real carry anywhere device that would be great for holidays and special events (skiing and my wedding come to mind!).

The Panasonic SDR-S10 is expected to be available in Europe from May 2007. See more details on the Panasonic site.

New phones galore

A bevy of new mobiles were released today at 3GSM 2007, the world’s biggest mobile telecommunications conference, in Barcelona. Among the highlights were new handsets from RIM, Nokia, Samsung and LG. Some pics and quick details below.

BlackBerry 8800

The Pearl's big brother (above), sporting a full QWERTY keyboard, GPS receiver to work with a mapping service, microSD slot, bluetooth 2.0, the usual email stuff and the now de rigeur 'pearl' trackball. And it's only 14mm thick.

Nokia E61i, E65, E90 and N77

Nokia released 3 new business focused phones (above): the E61i, their answer to the BlackBerry; the E65, a smaller, more stylish, slider phone and the E90, an old-style communicator flip phone. The E61i now packs a 2 megapixel camera and both it and the E90 feature 3G and WiFi.

The N77 (above) is a consumer phone which features a 2.4 inch screen, stereo speakers and the ability to pick up mobile TV broadcasts over DVB-H - a special digital TV format for viewing on mobile devices.

Samsung Ultra Edition II

Announcing a a whole new range of ultra-slim phones, ranging from 5.9-12.1mm thick, Samsung stole the show. The U100 (above) is the thinnest phone in the world at 5.9mm. Amazingly it features a 3 megapixel camera, bluetooth and 70MB of memory!

LG Prada



LG's pre-emptive, touch-screen strike against the iPhone. It's 12mm thick and features a 2 megapixel camera. Very slick and very expensive.

Black Xbox 360 with 120GB drive?

We had the rumour of the Xbox 360 v2 last month, well they've surfaced again but this time it's black!



So, pretty much the same as before: HDMI port, 120GB hard drive and now a black paint job.

I hope so, I need an excuse to pick up a 360.

Gmail opens up

If you haven't already got yourself a Gmail account, now's the time. Google have opened up their popular email service to anyone, so you don't need to be invited by an existing user.

You just have to go to https://mail.google.com/ and sign up for an account!

I'm a big fan of Gmail and it's the way to go if you're looking for a new personal email account.

New UK 'Get a Mac' ads

If you live in London you've probably seen the posters all over the tube already but take a look at the new UK versions of the 'Get a Mac' ads featuring comedy duo Mitchell and Webb.



I like them a lot, I think they're funnier than the original US versions, we even got two new ones 'Tentacle' and 'Office at home'. Go check them out and laugh at silly PC.

Panasonic Lumix FX30

Panasonic have announced a new ultra-compact camera, the world's thinnest at 22mm, with a wide angle 28mm lens. The zoom is 3.6x, so as well as the wide angle for capturing large group shots, landscapes or buildings, you still get the 100mm top end for far off subjects.

It's 7.2 megapixels, has a 2.5 inch LCD screen, high ISO setting and Panasonic's latest image processing engine, Venus III.



It has some other nice tricks up its sleeve as well, like optical image stabilisation, 848 x 480 widescreen video mode and a clever additional zoom that lets you go up to 5.3x but only using the centre of the CCD at 3 megapixel resolution, potentially very useful in certain situations where resolution isn't paramount.

Certainly looks like a really interesting little compact and, if it takes good pictures, it could take over from the Canon 850 IS as my new favourite. I'll be on the lookout for the first reviews.

It will be available in the UK in March. Panasonic UK site.

Vista is finally here

After a tumultuous 5 years in development and much feature hacking, the successor to Windows XP was finally released to consumers today.

Windows Vista promises a more secure, stable and prettier Windows than has ever gone before and seems to deliver on most of those but most reviewers seem to agree that it's not a must-have upgrade and is simply a 'warmed-over' version of XP.

Certainly there's been a lot of comparison with Mac OS X Tiger and it does appear as though a lot of the features Microsoft has been touting as significant, such as live desktop searching and 3D / transparency effects to name but two, have been around for sometime in the Mac world.

But for the masses of PC users out there, I'm sure it will be fun and interesting to finally get to use a nicer looking, stable operating system. And with more than 100m computers predicted to be using it worldwide within 12 months, that will be quite a few people!

It's about time Windows dragged itself into the 21st century but the real test will be when people can compare it to Leopard, coming this spring.

iPod shuffle now in five 'brilliant' colours

Apple just released 4 new colours to go with the standard silver iPod shuffle. You can now also choose from pink, orange, green and blue. Same price at £55.



Check out the Apple store for more details.

Intel and IBM both announce chip breakthrough

In similar but separate announcements over the weekend, both Intel and IBM announced what some are calling the biggest breakthrough in computer chip design since the 1960s.

As chips get ever smaller, down past the current 65nm level, the problem is that the silicon dioxide used to insulate and control the flow of electrons to the transistors has to be made so thin it leads to increased energy leakage and unnecessary heat generation, thus making the chips much less efficient.

Now both Intel and IBM are planning to use a new material they're calling 'high-k' which is metallic rather than based on silicon. It offers better insulation and less leakage and so enables the chip manufacturers to keep shrinking transistors and fitting more onto each chip.

This all translates to me and you into smaller, faster, more efficient and cooler, next generation 45nm chips which will ensure that Moore's law of doubling the number of transistors on a chip every 24 months continues for the next few years at least.

Intel will begin production of their new 'Penryn' chip based on the new 45nm process later this year and IBM will follow in 2008.

Wii news channel goes live

Nintendo launched the Wii news channel on Friday, a day early. We've already got the weather and internet channels and this update adds to the useful little things your Wii can do in addition to playing games.

It works like a simplified RSS reader really, it downloads the latest headlines and you can choose to read items by selecting from national, regional, international, sports, arts/entertainment, business, science/health and technology categories.

You then see a list of all the stories in that category and can either simply read them one at a time or see a 'slideshow' where it will automatically run through the headlines in full screen.

The clever part comes when stories have geotag information associated with them and it then plots them on a representation of the globe, just like the weather channel does. So as you go through the slideshow, the globe spins around and highlights the location of the story. Very cool.

You can also just manually spin around the globe and zoom in and out on regions and it will show you a stack of papers on locations to show you how much news there is. You can click on it and read or spin around to somewhere else. It even shows any photos that are attached to the story as well.

Overall a very nice new feature and I really feel Nintendo are leading the way here with simple, TV-based interfaces for browsing information rich content like news and weather. It works so well with the Wii remote because you can just point at things on the screen, so it's very much like using a mouse - certainly much easier than a normal joypad.

To see a video of the news channel in action, check out this YouTube video and you can see some pics here.

PS3 UK/PAL launch details confirmed

Sony confirmed the details of the PS3 launch in the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand last night. 23rd March is the day and £424.99 / €599 / A$999.95 / NZ$1,199.95 are the respective prices.



There will be one million of the consoles available in Europe, with 300,000 of those likely earmarked for the UK. It will only be available in the premium 60GB version initially, the cheaper 20GB version may be available later in the year depending on demand.

There are going to be around 30 games available at launch including Resistance: Fall of Man, Genji: Days of the Blade, Call of Duty 3, The Elder Scrolls lV: Oblivion and Formula One Championship Edition to name a few.

With the Xbox 360 having already sold 10 million units worldwide and the Nintendo Wii selling 700,000 units in Europe in December alone, Sony are definitely playing catch-up. The high price of the PS3 won't help, you could buy a premium Xbox 360 AND a Wii for only £35 more than a PS3.

Nevertheless, it will surely sell out at launch. It's just whether it can keep selling once the hype has died down. With rumours that stores are struggling to shift the gaming behemoth in the US and Japan post-Christmas, it will be interesting to see if there is a similar pattern over here.

Review: Google Reader

I've recently moved away from a combination of FeedDemon (at work) and NetNewsWire (at home) to Google Reader for all my RSS reading.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the result and it makes it a lot easier to read feeds at work on my PC and not have to worry about syncing read items with my Mac at home through NewsGator.

With Google Reader, as it's all online, I get the same view wherever I am, even on my mobile. It works a treat in Safari as well (faster than in Firefox in fact).

The basic functions of any RSS reader are there: the ability to show expanded or list views, OPML file import/export, the ability to display only unread items etc. There are also a few other really handy features, like the ability to 'star', 'share' or 'tag' interesting items you come across in your feeds.

Starring works in much the same way as in gmail and is effectively a way of bookmarking an item so you can easily find it later on. I find it useful to star items that I want to blog about later so I can quickly refer back to them.

The sharing facility is a great idea, it enables you to create your own list of selected items from those that you are reading. People can then either look at a page of your shared items or subscribe to a feed so they can see what interesting items you deem worthy of sharing. You can see this in action by looking at the 'What we're reading' section on the right hand side of this blog.

You can also tag items that interest you, a more versatile form of starring, so that you can easily file or categorise items with any tag description. The tagging can also be used in combination with sharing to make public all items with a specific tag.

So the basics work well and there are some nice more advanced features. So far so good. But there are definitely some strange omissions as well (yes, before you say it, I know it's only a Google labs app).

Probably the most obvious is the lack of any kind of search tool. And this is from Google, the search king? Very strange. I would definitely like to be able to search through my subscriptions to find items I have already read but forgot to tag or star first time round.

Similarly, I'd like to be able to run permanent searches against my feeds. So if, for example, I always wanted to see a list of items in my feeds that contained the word 'apple' I could see them in a permanent list. In much the same way that you can search Google News and create feeds and email alerts from the results.

It would be nice to integrate this with your tags, so you could see items you had previously tagged with certain descriptions and then choose to display all items across all feeds that also contained that tag keyword or phrase. It would then start to become seriously powerful.

The other main thing I miss from the desktop apps (particularly NetNewsWire) are the powerful keyboard shortcuts. I used to navigate around my feeds a lot using the arrow keys for moving between and up/down the list of feeds and items.

In Google Reader you can use some keyboard shortcuts but it's not anywhere near as easy as with a desktop app due to the limitations of sitting inside a browser. I'd love to just be able to use the arrow keys, enter and space rather than shift+n/p or shift+o. It'd also be nice when spacing through unread items if when you got to the last item in one feed, it would take you to the first unread item of the next feed on pressing space again.

Mostly though, with the exception of search, these are smallish gripes. I'm happy now I have one RSS reader that I can access from any computer or mobile device with access to the internet. And I do like the now very familiar Google UI, it's clean, simple and does everything it needs to.

One final cool feature to mention is the 'trends' that have been implemented to track how many items you read, from which feeds, how often they publish etc. In the last 2 weeks (since I started using it) I've got these stats:

From your 61 subscriptions, over the last [2 weeks] you read 1,660 items, starred 38 items, and shared 22 items.

I can definitely recommend Google Reader, I won't be going back to a desktop app now. There are no doubt many more improvements planned so it can only get better. But if you can't live without searching then hold off for now and keep an eye on the Official Google Reader Blog to see when it's implemented but I'm sure that won't be too long.

LG's Super Multi Blue Player (BH100)

You've probably already heard about LG's dual-format player that can handle both HD DVD and Blu-Ray. Well after having gone from rumour to unveiling at CES only last week, the Super Multi Blue Player (BH100) is now apparently in US shops already!

No word on a UK release yet but for anyone concerned about jumping off the fence and into either camp, this provides you with a 'third way'.

It's the first next-generation video device to play both high-definition disc formats and with Warner Bros releasing hybrid dual-format discs as well, together they could provide you with an insurance policy should one of the formats actually win this ridiculous war.

I'm certainly not ready to commit to either format yet and I'm sure many people feel the same way, so I welcome products like this and hope this is a trend that other manufacturers and studios will follow.

Apple TV and other Macworld news

OK, so the iPhone wasn't the only thing Apple announced yesterday but it was all I had time to cover! So here's the other stuff.

Apple TV

As expected, the second major product launch was Apple TV (formerly iTV), the set-top box of tricks for streaming and storing iTunes content from your Mac or PC for playback on your TV.

The details are much the same as reported last year but just to recap, it's a slim, set-top box with a 40GB hard drive, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, ethernet, HDMI, component and optical output, USB 2.0 and an included Apple remote.



It supports output for either high or enhanced definition TVs in 1080i 60/50Hz, 720p 60/50Hz, 576p 50Hz (PAL format), or 480p 60Hz.

It works pretty much like an iPod in that it syncs with iTunes but it does so automatically across your wireless (or wired) network. So if you download a new album, podcast, TV show or movie on your Mac, or upload a new photo album from your camera, it will all automatically sync to your Apple TV ready for viewing on your big screen TV.



It uses the latest draft 802.11 'n' specification wireless technology but is also backwards compatible with the older 'b' and 'g' 802.11 varieties. With the extra speed of the new 'n' WiFi it can also stream video directly from your computer without having synced it first.

It syncs with up to 5 computers (even visiting friends' computers!) and sets itself up pretty much automatically with minimal configuration needed from you.

It definitely looks pretty cool and I would find it useful as I use EyeTV to record Freeview programs quite a bit, so I can use this as an easy way of watching that recorded content on my TV without having to burn it to disk (although it will mean exporting it to iTunes first).

Airport Extreme

To go hand-in-hand with the Apple TV and enable you to take full advantage of its new draft 802.11 'n' specification wireless, Apple also announced an all-new Airport Extreme base station. The new spec offers up to five times the performance and up to twice the range of networks created with the earlier 802.11 'g' standard.



It turns out all the latest Core 2 Macs have been shipping with 'n' spec wireless cards, so you'll be able to take advantage of that extra speed across your whole network if you are lucky enough to have recently bought one.

Connect almost any external hard drive to the USB port on the back of your AirPort Extreme and AirPort Disk turns it into a shared network drive. Anything on the drive instantly becomes available to anyone on your network, Mac and PC alike. The same USB port also allows you to share a printer throughout the network.

Apple, Inc

As if confirming their increasingly clear consumer electronics strategy Apple Computer, Inc is no more. Steve Jobs announced at the keynote that the company is to be known simply as Apple, Inc from now on.

It seems to make complete sense, they haven't been just a 'computer' company for quite some time now. After the announcements of the last couple of days, if I were an executive at Samsung, Sony or Philips I would be quite worried. Apple is coming.

Apple announces incredible iPhone

Apple announced the iPhone today at Macworld San Francisco. A clearly excited Steve Jobs introduced the device to a standing ovation and astonishment from the crowd.

In some ways 'iPhone' is not an apt description of the multi-functional device at all. Apple describes it as "a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching - into one small and lightweight handheld device."

"iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone."



iPod

iPhone uses iTunes to sync with your Mac or PC in just the same way as an iPod so all your music, audiobooks, videos, TV shows and movies can be enjoyed on the 3.5 -inch widescreen display.

Mobile phone

iPhone allows you to make calls by simply pointing your finger at a name or number in your address book and it will automatically sync all your contacts from a PC, Mac, or internet service such as Yahoo! or Gmail. It also introduces a new 'Visual Voicemail' feature that allows you to go directly to individual voicemail messages without having to listen to them in order, just like email.

SMS messaging is handled using an on-screen software keyboard with predictive input and error correction. The interface is very iChat like and is more like sending instant messages than text messages.

It also features an integrated 2-megapixel camera and iPhoto-like photo management software that is far more sophisticated than current mobile phones.

Internet communications

iPhone features a rich HTML email client that can fetch or be pushed your IMAP or POP3 email in the background and a mobile version of Safari which is the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device. It automatically syncs bookmarks from your PC or Mac and includes built-in Google and Yahoo! searching. It's fully multi-tasking, so you can read a web page while downloading your email in the background over WiFi or EDGE.

The iPhone's Maps application integrates with Google Maps to offer map, satellite and local information, all controlled with the touch screen interface enabling you to easily move around and zoom in or out.

The iPhone also borrows Widgets from OS X to give you quick access to weather, stocks and other data in real-time through the internet.

Technology

It's a pretty incredible device and has to be seen to be fully appreciated. The multi-touch screen and OS X operating system looks extremely intuitive and well thought out with the rich HTML email, full-featured web browsing, and desktop-class applications such as widgets, Safari, calendar, text messaging, Notes, and Address Book.

The iPhone is also well connected with quad-band GSM, EDGE, 802.11b/g WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0.

To top it all off, the iPhone can sense when you rotate it from portrait to landscape and automatically changes the contents of the display, so you immediately see the entire width of a web page or a photo in its proper landscape aspect ratio.

A proximity sensor detects when you lift iPhone to your ear and immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent touches until it's moved away. And an ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to the appropriate level for the current light level, enhancing the user experience and saving power at the same time.

Conclusion

iPhone shifts the landscape of the mobile industry just as the original Mac did for home computing and the iPod did to the music industry. I honestly think it's that significant.

Steve Jobs said during the speech that it's "5 years ahead" of anything else and I think he's right. The seeming simplicity and ease of use sets a new standard for mobile operating systems, like only Apple could, and belies the complexity and breadth of features beneath.

My only real concerns are with the absence of any 3G connection for high-speed data when not in reach of a WiFi network and the relatively limited 4 or 8GB storage capacity.

3G and a second camera on the face of the iPhone would allow for video calling and could also be integrated with iChat for VoIP video calling, which would be truly awesome.

8GB of storage worries me as well. My nano has 8GB and that is not enough to get my music library on, let alone all my email, photos and video! I would have expected more like 16GB to make the device capable of holding a decent amount of content or at least some kind of memory expansion via SD or something. On the other hand, for a mobile phone, 8GB is way more than the average device.

Overall though, this is an absolutely stunning product. Just reading the transcript of the keynote as it was taking place, I was completely gob-smacked at what Apple have managed to achieve with the iPhone. It's up there with even the most fervent rumours but now it's a reality.

It's much more than just a mobile phone with music playing features, it's a Mac in your pocket.

To see the iPhone in action make sure you head over to the Apple site and watch the QuickTime demos. It really will amaze you.

CES roundup

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is under way in Las Vegas this week and there has been a deluge of new products announced from all the major manufacturers.

A lot of them are not that interesting or significant (to me anyway), so I'm going to try and cut through the crap and highlight here some of the things that interest me and hopefully you.

Xbox 360 IPTV

Microsoft kicked of proceedings with their keynote, of which the most interesting thing to come out was the announcement that in late 2007 they will be offering TV over your internet connection direct to your Xbox 360. They gave a demo at the keynote and there are some screen shots and a video about as well.

It does look quite cool and allows you to do Sky+ type things as well as some intriguing ideas such as recording a TV program in the background while playing a game in Xbox Live! Could be interesting competition to Apple's forthcoming "iTV" as well.

Microsoft really do appear to be trying to cram everything they can into the 360. They also announced that they have shipped just over 10 million 360s to date.

Samsung Blu-Ray player and 1080p TVs

Samsung announced the BD-P1200, their second generation Blu-Ray player. It's slimmer, cheaper and better specified than the previous BD-P100 and should be hitting the US in June.



Samsung also announced 3 new 1080p LCD TVs in 40, 46 and 52 inch varieties featuring 3 HDMI 1.3 ports, 12,000:1 contrast ratio and 1920x1080 resolution among other things.




Pioneer A/V receivers

You're gonna need some sounds to go with your new TV and Blu-Ray player, so how about one the of the four new monster Pioneer receivers: VSX-517, VSX-817, VSX-917V, and VSX-1017TXV (pictured).


Featuring satellite radio (big in the states), iPod integration, 120Watts over each of the 7 channel outputs and THX Select 2 certification for the top of the range beast.

Toshiba REGZA LCD TVs

Four new 720p LCDs in 26, 32, 37 and 42-inch screen sizes and updates to the 42, 46, 52 and 57-inch 1080p Cinema Series, which include 120Hz anti-motion blur technology, ethernet port and HDMI 1.3 connectors with Deep Color and xvYCC support. They also found the time to introduce two new 26 and 32-inch models that include a built in DVD player!

Philips wireless HDMI

Hate that clutter of wires behind your TV? Everything seems to be going wireless these days and HDMI is no exception with Philips announcing a new solution with enough bandwidth to send an uncompressed HD stream of up to 1080p resolution. It's based on an ultra wide band frequency so shouldn't interfere with other wireless stuff like your WiFi network or DECT home phone.

Sharp's new Aquos TVs

Sharp announced 4 new lines of TVs, from the top of the range, 8th Generation 1080p capable D92-Series to the more affordable 720p capable D43-Series with others in between. The D92s feature 15,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 4ms response time, 120hz refresh rate and 3 HDMI ports.



New Panasonic plasmas

Last but not least, Panasonic announced a new 42" prototype 1080p plasma, possibly the holy grail as far as I'm concerned, as well as new 50, 58, 65 and 103-inch plasmas. Also new HD camcorders, Blu-Ray and home theatre stuff.


Phew, that's about it. Now, get ready for the Steve Jobs keynote at Macworld tonight, it looks like it's gonna be a big one.

Xbox 360 version 2

It looks like Engadget and Xbox-Scene have uncovered a new prototype version of the Xbox 360, codenamed "Zephyr". Features seem to include an HDMI port (for 1080p output), a new 65nm chip (for cooler running and less power consumption) and a larger 120GB hard drive.



Good news for people like me who are intending on buying one this year, not so good for those of you that have already bought one!

Click through to the links above at Xbox-Scene for more pics and video proof!

Mario Kart DS shortcuts video

I know there are a few people reading this blog that love Mario Kart DS (including me), so I thought I'd post this link to a great video montage by Nintendo Europe showing loads of shortcuts on various courses!

There are quite a few tricks in there that are new to me and there's a great demonstration of a blue shell dodge right at the end of the video (it does look pretty difficult to pull off though).




Watch, learn and practise! See the video here.

[Via DS fanboy]

Gadgets of 2006

Before we get into the 2007 stuff (and next week there's plenty going on with CES and Macworld), I thought I'd have a quick look back at my 2006 gadgets.

It was a good year, an excellent one actually. At the beginning of 2006 there were a couple of things I was really hoping for in the year to come - a new iPod nano with at least 8GB capacity and a redesigned Nintendo DS.

My wishes came true and both were delivered (and duly purchased) in the form of the 2G nanos and DS lite. I love them both (in sweet black).

Other highlights were my TomTom GO 510 sat-nav, Sennheiser CX 300 earphones to go with my new nano, Plantronics Voyager 510 bluetooth headset and last but in no way least, my Nintendo Wii.

I'm really pleased with all of my gadget purchases in 2006 and can happily recommend any of them. But if I had to pick one that was the stand out favourite, which would it be?

It's a hard choice. I now don't really go anywhere in the car without my TomTom, it's excellent and I love the traffic updates and bluetooth hands free features.

But what about the DS, playing New Super Mario Bros. was simply awesome, not to mention Brain Training and Mario Kart DS. And then there's the 8GB nano, I use it almost every day and think it's about as perfect as an MP3 player can get.

Or should it be the Wii? I don't think I've had it long enough yet to truly decide. I love all my gadgets, it's like asking me to choose my favourite child (I imagine).

But I have to choose one. And it has to be the iPod nano 8GB. I'd wanted one from the moment they released the original in 2005 - 4GB just wasn't enough for me. The 2nd generation nano is everything a great gadget should be - small, sleek, gorgeous and brilliant at what it does. It's what the nano should have been in the first place but Apple got it right second time around. I honestly can't fault it in any way.

The Wii would probably have pipped the nano to the top of the list if it had been around a little sooner in 2006 but it feels more like a 2007 product to me as I only really started playing it over Christmas. The DS lite comes a very close third and TomTom fourth.

So there you go. 2006 was a great gadget year. What will 2007 bring? Maybe a new Mac or will I finally take the plunge and grab an HDTV and Sky HD? Who knows, I'll keep you posted.

What were your favourite 2006 gadgets? Post in the comments and let us know!