Shiny Shiny

Powermat: a revolution in gadget charging

shel — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:33:42 GMT

No more tangled mess of cords or searching for the right adaptor. Just put your enabled device on the Powermat to charge!...

The worst driving gadget in the world: a steering wheel laptop desk

Anna Leach — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:37:46 GMT

Don't even buy this for your worst enemy. While a gun might be more obviously life-threatening, this laptop steering wheel rest really is almost as dangerous. As suggested by the wise writer on RedFerret.net, attaching your laptop to your steering...

The 10 iPhone apps we'll be using in 2012

Anna Leach — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:01:10 GMT

I can only associate 2012 with the London Olympics and that disaster scenario movie 2012, however some people are gazing into the future with clearer eyes than me... and can see what mobile apps we'll be using in that far...

Casio's Exilim-G1: shock resistant and delightfully slender

Anna Leach — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:12:41 GMT

Casio's new Exilim, the EX-G1 claims to be the slimmest shock resistant camera ever. 19.9mm thick, it's waterproof, dustproof and doesn't break when you drop it from a height of 2.13 meters (7 feet) onto lauan plywood from any of...

New Youtube Shows section gets full-length Channel 4 shows

Anna Leach — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:36:38 GMT

Finally a big TV company gets serious about internet TV - Channel 4 has decided to stream whole shows on Youtube, giving UK users legal access to programmes on demand. FTW, as they say. It seems that Google has persuaded...

The USB missile launcher

Anna Leach — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:53:09 GMT

In a lot of ways, I am a usb gadget journalist. Despite a little existential quiver about this fact yesterday, I do accept my role with devotion and yes love. Without any more ado, this is the USB missile...

Louis Gray blames Facebook for not telling him his sister had a baby

Anna Leach — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:24:08 GMT

A-list geek and FriendFeeder Louis Gray has blamed Facebook for not telling him that his sister had had a baby. Relying on Facebook rather than the telephone to get news out to friends and family, his sister and her partner...

Mplayit launch iPhonearcade - a Facebook app for ranking mobile phone apps

Anna Leach — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:51:00 GMT

Okay concentrate: this is an app for ranking apps. It's a Facebook app for ranking mobile phone apps. iPhonearcade will make use of your social network on Facebook to let you share comments and reviews with your friends and see...

Rough Guides travel books to become Vodafone apps

Anna Leach — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:44:33 GMT

Rough Guide travel books will soon be available as Vodafone apps. Each guide costs only 49p or 49 euro cents, it's a good deal compared to the books which retail at around £6-7. Featuring background information for each destination, 'things...

Virus scam targets Twilight fans

Anna Leach — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:07:50 GMT

Looks like fans of the Twilight film series are suffering more than unsatiated desire in the run-up to the release of New Moon on Friday. An internet scam preying on fans of the series has leveraged a fake virus alert...

The warming, vibrating USB burger - your life is complete

Anna Leach — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:40:47 GMT

I don't know why I even pretend to be surprised any more at the kind of USB gadgets that get invented. Every week some queer product is presented to the USB port. Who imagines these things.. let's make a vibrating...

Zazew - a social network for aspiring writers

Anna Leach — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:40:47 GMT

A new social networking site has been set up to help people write books online. Despite the new forms of writing on the internet -blogs etc - books continue to hold sway over people's minds. As such, this e-Publishing House...

Sonic Fabric ties play music and actually look good

Anna Leach — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:33:12 GMT

Ties that make music are usually tinny, cheap novelty affairs, they probably play Jingle Bells and have LEDs on them as well. So it's a pleasant surprise to find a musical tie that's actually quite a classy and haute proposition....

Fingertips v Netvibes: which personalised news site is better?

Anna Leach — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:33:12 GMT

New site Fingertips creates free bespoke news services for its users. The site can combine story feeds from different news sites according to your particular taste and need for certain kinds of news. Fingertips.net claims that it "lets you create...

A classy musical tie

Anna Leach — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:54:57 GMT

Orange lets you send pictures to Twitter over text message

Anna Leach — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:54:57 GMT

Orange today announced a partnership with Twitter, which will enable customers to send photos to Twitter via MMS (multimedia text messages). The service is called snapshot and is only available to UK Orange users. Orange also say that they will...

Play the Climate Challenge with Dr Who

Anna Leach — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:39:14 GMT

Everybody's favourite TV geek crush, David Tennant of Dr Who fame, has joined up with Oxfam to offer an online climate challenge. You must guide David to answer questions about climate change, and pick the correct option out of three...

Get translation advice BEFORE naming your baby, think of its google rankings

Anna Leach — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:29:10 GMT

If you're thinking of calling your child anything more exotic than John or Mary, then maybe you should check out this pricey but unusual service which offers a "name translation check" pre-christening. TodayTranslations go through pretty well most languages in...

Twitter 140 conference 3 - Kyra Gaunt on Twitter, racism and difficult conversations

Anna Leach — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:13:25 GMT

As part of a line-up that dealt with the social impact of Twitter as much as the techie or business side of it, 140 got PhD student Kyra Gaunt onstage. The black anthropologist was the first woman to speak and...

Twitter 140conference 6 - Twitter and the music industry

Anna Leach — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:13:25 GMT

So much more than just a discussion of what Britney Spears says on Twitter, this was good look at how Twitter helps artists, labels and fans, and cast a glance at how the hell the music industry is going to...

Twitter 140conference 7 - Twitter as an information service & how it saved the hamster

Anna Leach — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:13:25 GMT

This talk by JP Rangaswami, Chief Scientist at BT investigated Twitter as an information service. It could also have been called: amazing things that happend on Twitter. It contains the heart-warming tale of the lost hamster. 14:50 Interested to hear...

Twitter 140 conference - 3: Kyra Gaunt on Twitter, racism and difficult conversations

Anna Leach — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:57:46 GMT

Twitter 140conference 4 - the 18 year old film-makers from buyacredit

Anna Leach — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:57:46 GMT

Toby Ben and Adrian were billed as three 18 year-olds taking on the film industry. They want to make a film adaptation of a Jules Verne book and failing to get conventional funding, they decided to use the internet to...

Twitter 140conference 5 - what is digital presence?

Anna Leach — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:57:45 GMT

In the first-after lunch talk Dean Landsman and Dean Meyers (@deanland and @deanmeistr) explored digital presence and what it is to have a presence online. 14.15 Everybody has a digital presence. What is presence online? Presence has always been important....

Is it an app? Is it a user interface? No, it's a panel. The Sony Ericsson X2 has panels but what are they?

Anna Leach — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:05:07 GMT

If you find mobile phone software a little baffling - what with different apps, app stores and operating systems, and if you think a skin is something you find sitting on your body, take a deep breath. Prepare to add...