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The AA has finally joined in the
sat-nav game with the launch of its first portable device, the Navigator Vive!
Priced at £150, the Vive (nothing to
do with Intel’s Viiv PC technology) is a compact device that allows for 'full' or
'easy' navigation via an icon-driven user interface.
'Easy' allows
users to find their destination
by a number of methods, ranging from postcodes and town names to points of
interest. You can choose to have a male or female voice to
present the 2D or 3D directions.
You get 6-months worth of speed
camera alerts but can subscribe to have this extended to 3-years. It also supports photo viewing and MP3 playback. Battery life
is estimated at around 3 hours. Find out the full details here.
news technology travel gadgets sat-nav
Posted by Martin Lynch on November 17, 2006 in Travel, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
Now that you are bringing your home into the
digital age with giant LCD HDTVs, Media Center PCs, streaming audio devices, home cinema bed and TV-enabled baths, maybe it’s time to rethink that fireplace.
It’s time to replace that decorated hole in the
wall with something sleek for the 21st century. This is the Vertigo
600 fireplace,
looking more like the HDTV you just purchased and sitting in
about the same place.
As you can see from the photo, it’s a
beautifully crafted, wall-mountable gas-fire. The system boasts a “patented
catalytic system” which allows the fire to burn off any “odorous and stale air
in the room and efficiently return warm and neutral air back into your
airspace.”
West Country Fires claims that the fireplace is
simple to install with its own wall-mounting bracket and, most importantly, doesn’t
need any cleaning. All you need is £1,300.
news technology home design lifestyle
Posted by Martin Lynch on November 16, 2006 in Active Home, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
LG Electronics has a launched three new PC
drives, including a Blu-ray drive that will allow users to watch
high-definition (HD) movies as well as record data to very large blank Blu-ray
discs.
The GBW H10N Blu-ray drive arrives
with the fastest write speed of any first generation Blu-ray drive, at 4x. It
will also write to all of the other blank DVD formats - DVD±R, DVD±RW and
DVD-RAM - at up to 12x.
Blank Blu-ray discs come in two capacities,
single-layer 25GB and dual-layer 50GB varieties – 10 times more than a typical
blank DVD. That said, they also cost quite a lot more too.
The Blu-ray drive will come with 4MB of buffer memory but has yet to be priced. Expect it to ship in the coming month
news technology Blu-ray PC hardware
Posted by Martin Lynch on November 15, 2006 in Active Home, Film, Games, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
Warner Home Video is expanding its
mediocre holiday line-up of high-definition (HD) movies with a launch of new titles on
Dec 4th.
These will include the
festive 'A Christmas Story' and
'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation', as well as more mainstream fare, such
as Syriana, House of Wax, Space Cowboys and The Searchers on both Blu-ray and
HD DVD. Here’s what’s coming for the separate formats:
Blu-ray Disc
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Swordfish
Full Metal Jacket
Space Cowboys
House of Wax
Syriana
National Lampoon’s Christmas
Vacation
The Searchers
HD DVD
The Fugitive
Goodfellas
The Searchers
Space Cowboys
House of Wax
Syriana
The Polar Express
Superman: Special Edition
Superman II: The Donner Cut
Sadly, there’s little in this list
that makes me want to waste even more money re-buying some of these movies in
HD. I already did that with the DVD versions of Goodfellas and Full Metal Jacket. And
where are the blockbusters from this year?
Studios really need to get their act
together if they want to convince people to re-buy movies in HD that they
already own on the perfectly good DVD format.
Posted by Martin Lynch on November 14, 2006 in Active Home, Film, Music, Television, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
It’s described as a hybrid set-top
TV box and what you get up front is a set-top box with digital TV tuner, 80GB
hard disk drive (HDD), iPTV and onboard high definition (HD) upscaler which
purports to be able to upscale you standard
TV image to HD – or at least better
quality than what you currently view. It sports a HDMI input (pictured) for the
best method of getting HD material to your HDTV, but which is also important because
you need it to watch protected HD content like HD movies and downloads. .
It has an EPG for seven-day programming
and an Internet browser. It can be hooked up to the Internet or a networked
media PC for viewing downloaded HD material. The system has also been designed
to work with any ISP service offering Internet-based, HDTV content and will
cost £300 when it officially launches next week.
news technology TV HDTV home
Posted by Martin Lynch on November 13, 2006 in Active Home, Film, Games, Music, Television, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
That’s 1 million ahead of the PSOne and takes the global tally for PS2s to a
whopping 110 million. David Reeves, president and CEO of Sony Computer
Entertainment Europe, commented:
“We are extremely
proud of the
continuing success of PlayStation 2. In the last month or so sales of
PlayStation 2 throughout Europe and PAL territories has exceeded 100,000 units
per week, which is extremely pleasing and proves the format is as popular now
as it ever was.”
Considering the deserved flak Sony
is taking for screwing up the launch of the PS3 in Europe, and the global notebook
battery recall fiasco, it’s a refreshing change to see Sony having some good
news to talk about.
Now get back to work and make more PS3s.
news games technology PS2 PS3 shopping
Posted by Martin Lynch on November 10, 2006 in Active Home, Games, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
As well as a remote for the TV,
the
bath boasts adjustable air massage jets, adjustable air water jets rimming the
side of the bath, underwater light, connection out to boost the bass sound from
the TV, dual-padded head-rests, moulded seating, three-way shower hand shower, shampoo
and shower gel dispensers.
Hell, for another £50, they’ll even
through in a pack of six aromatherapy oils. Go on, it’s Christmas. Nearly. Thanks
to Bornrich.
news home technology shopping
Posted by Martin Lynch on November 9, 2006 in Active Home, Film, Television, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
From November 22nd Xbox
360 users in the US, to start, will be able to download up to video content,
comprising hit TV shows, high definition (HD) TV and movies.
The TV downloads
(around £2.50 a show) will belong to the users for good while the rented HD movies will cost around
£3 each and can be played for up to 24-hours, before being becoming invalid after 14
days.
Standard movies will require 1-2GB of hard disk drive space while HD movies will need a hefty 4-5GB. Movies can be watched while being downloaded - a slow process - once you see the ‘ready-to-play’ sign. Microsoft is promising 1,000 hours of content by the end of the year. More here.
news technology games xbox movies TV
Posted by Martin Lynch on November 8, 2006 in Active Home, Film, Games, Television, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (2)
The Zune might be waiting in the wings for its imminent arrival but the accessories are already building up.
Respected audio house VAF has launched the first quality add-on for the Zune player in the shape of the Octavio 1, the first high-end hi-fi dock. Unsurprisingly it looks a lot a like many of the iPod docks out there but at around £280, this is aimed at serious music lovers only.
It’s
a 100Watt system so despite it’s diminutive sound, it will likely blow your
socks off. It also comes with a video out connection to allow for music and
videos on the Zune to be played directly on your TV. To make sure it fits in
with your décor, it also comes with three skins in different colours and
textures. Due out in the coming month. More details here.
news technology gadgets music movies zune
Posted by Martin Lynch on November 7, 2006 in Active Home, Film, Music, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Step2Play device from Gymkids
costs £120 and is designed to hook up to consoles like the PS2. Once up and
running, children can only play the game as long as they maintain a pre-set
rate of activity. If it drops below a certain rate or the child stops stepping,
so does the game.
It’s aimed at children under 12 and
is being marketed as a way of stopping lazy pre-teens hooked on consoles, from
becoming lazy, fat teens hooked on consoles.
In an interview with the BBC, Dr
Colin Waine, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, commented:
“Physical inactivity is one of the
major causes of the rise in obesity so anything that means children will be
more active is to be welcomed. Sport doesn't appeal to everybody and we have
got to think beyond the playing field. This machine is a novel way of getting
children to be more active. I don't think it's a bribe, it's just an
incentive.”
Personally, and sadly, I think it
will only appeal to parents that have already lost control of their kids gaming habits.
If you have to buy a console accessory to get your kids to exercise, it’s time
to confiscate the console.
news technology games console health home life
Posted by Martin Lynch on November 6, 2006 in Active Home, Games, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)