Best New Technology

Going for a trip is exciting, but some people (like me) find packing to be a chore. After, we not only have to consider the number of clothes that we have to carry these days but all the gadgets as well. The Travel Charger Bag aims to ease this headache by letting you stow your various devices in four pockets, including their respective appendix cords. The bag is also spacious enough to hold chargers and a power strip/surge protector which is able to charge everything inside via a single hotel room outlet. Handy! It will cost you $40 to bring this puppy home (and on your travels).

Remote controlled toys on CG are a-plenty, but this time round we have something which requires a wee bit more skill to fly compared to your regular RC helicopters, as it boasts a higher degree of precision and control. Behold, the Bladez 3D Helicopter! Looks like the perfect toy to irritate your pet with, chasing it around the home. Check out a description of the device right after the jump.

If you’ve had a wild time flying our indoor helicopters (and you really should have) then it’s time to step-up to the big time with Bladez 3D, our annoyingly spelt, but immensely enjoyable, indoor and outdoor monster RC Helicopter. It’s tough, it’s cool, it’s 3 channel and even has an intelligent RC system that avoids interference with other RC users - but won’t stop them pestering you to have a go. A twelve minute charge will give you about eight minutes of flying time, and it’s best suited for intermediate to advanced heli flyers. Unlike our lighter and simpler indoor models it has more precision and control, which of course requires more flying skill, but ensures a whole heap more fun. We got it up and running straight from the box, and despite not being ace heli flyers ourselves, managed to zip it around the office without sending anyone to casualty. However, it’s a pretty powerful beast, so if you’re flying it indoors make sure you have a fair amount of space, and as few household pets as possible.

You will be able to get up and flying for £49.99. I’d make sure that all ceiling fans are turned off first if I plan to fly this thing indoors. I think bachelor pads would welcome it more than a regular household…after all Mother’s Day is just over so it would best not irk the missus so soon, eh?

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What if your Blu-ray player could do more than just play Blu-ray discs? Well that is the ambition of one company in Korea that hopes to make the high-def disc players an even greater platform for video content.

The company working on the project is named Dreamer and their software, called Biddle, teaches Blu-ray players new tricks. The Biddle software turns networked Blu-ray players into HD set-top boxes. Just like cable and dish operators, the Blu-ray player could offer interactive programming like Video on Demand but Biddle could offer more content like e-commerce, casual gaming and web portals. The way it works is that Biddle moves content from a centralized server to Blu-ray players loading content and applications like web pages.

Currently the software is being used in Korea by one million users but looks to expand in the U.S. You can be sure that we’ll be hearing more about Biddle once they start rolling out the technology and software in the states.

Read more at Multichannel News.

Samsung Korea has released the VM-HMX20 HD flash-based camcorder that features a 6.4MP CMOS sensor and electronic image stabilization. The camcorder supports a full HD and a 1080p mode with 30 fps recording capability and able to record fast motion at 300 frames per second for up to 10 seconds and then drastically slow down the playback of the recording. Samsung’s proprietary swivel hand-grip makes this video recorder to record in multiple angles, including regular and low-angle shots. The Samsung VM-HMX20 comes with a 2.7inch LCD and supports Anynet+ connection to HDTVs, which allows consumers to control the camcorder though their HDTV remote while viewing movies. The Samsung Korea VM-HMX20 HD flash-based camcorder is priced at around $900 (899,000 Korean Won).
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The news that Mass Effect (and Spore) would require a check via the Internet every 10 days to work hasn’t gone down too well with gamers. The criticism has been so negative and widespread that publisher EA has decided to change how the DRM functions.

The main problem gamers had with the DRM was the check every 10 days. If you don’t have regular access to the Internet playing Mass Effect or Spore would be almost impossible. The updated SecuROM included with the games will now only perform the check when the player downloads new content for either title, such as a patch.

This doesn’t mean other restriction have been removed, however, and the game will only allow activation on three different machines. Although less of an issue, this does mean frequent upgraders who enjoy the game and want to continue playing it will have to go through EA’s customer support team to deal with activations past the three machine mark.

I’m glad EA and BioWare have decided to change the 10 day check, I just wish they wouldn’t consider this type of DRM implementation at all. It really does stop you keeping old games to replay over and over again in the future. I still pull out my old copies of the Thief games to play now and again, but if they had used SecuROM I doubt I still could without buying the games again.

For me, this is still an issue and I don’t like buying a product that potentially will become unusable in a few years time just because I like playing it a lot and buy new hardware. I’m sure EA’s customer support will help, but how long will they support the game and new activations into the future?

Read more at ShackNews.com

The recently released Photoshop Express, which is a free web-based photo editor has just added support for Flickr. With the newly added support users can now take images from their Flickr account, edit them in Photoshop Express and place the hopefully nicer images back into their Flickr photo stream for everyone to enjoy. If you are new to Photoshop Express, you can check out the recent review from our own Debbie Cook.

Via [Lifehacker]

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$899 million euros or $1.4 billion is definitely a huge sum of money and it seems like Microsoft would not just want to lose that amount over an anti-trust ruling that the EU has slapped Microsoft in February 2007. The fine was a result of a case filed against Microsoft for failing to comply with a 2004 ruling. So, Microsoft is appealing the EU ruling and hoping against all hopes that the EU would heed its plea to overturn the ruling or at least reduce the fine.

If you recall, sometime in 2004, the EU slapped Microsoft with a $768 million fine after it failed to comply with an anti-trust ruling that ordered Microsoft to provide rival companies with data that would allow their servers to connect to the Windows platform which was the predominantly used operating systems in majority of the PCs in 2004. In return, Microsoft is allowed to charge reasonable royalties for giving rival companies access to its Windows Platform.

Microsoft followed the order after getting the $768 million euros fine, but the EU later found out that the company has overcharged its rival companies for the patent licenses they need to connect to Microsoft’s produces. This prompted the EU to raise Microsoft’s fine to around $2.5 billion.

Should Microsoft’s appeal for reconsideration gets denied, the ant-trust case will add up to another similar legal issue it is battling against the EU, relating to its word processing and spreadsheets products, as well as an issue on the Internet Explorer being unlawfully tied up with the Windows OS.

Well, it seems like Microsoft has made the right decision on withdrawing its acquisition for Yahoo. It could certainly use the money it promises to pay for Yahoo if it accepted the buyout offer, for paying up its legal obligations.

Read [Bloomberg]

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Two studies done into the affects of mobile phones on brainwaves have found the electromagnetic signals emanating from a phone can alter brainwaves.

The first study is entitled, “The effect of mobile phone electromagnetic fields on the alpha rhythm of human electroencephalogram” and was lead by Rodney Croft at the Brain Science Institute in Melbourne, Australia. It took 120 healthy men and women and strapped a Nokia 6110 to their heads. EEG data was then collected on all participants, but neither the researchers or the subjects knew which phones were actually receiving transmissions in a double-blind test scenario.

That test showed that alpha waves in the brain were boosted by the phone. This was also backed up by the fact the alpha wave boost was most significant in the brain tissue directly beneath the mobile phone. Alpha waves are generally associated with sleep and shifts in the attention of a person. Therefore, changes in alpha waves could also see changes in a person’s behaviour.

A second study carried out entitled, “mobile phone ‘talk-mode’ signal delays EEG-determined sleep onset” was done at the Loughborough University Sleep Research Centre in England. This time a Nokia 6310e was strapped to 10 healthy, but sleep-deprived men, and then the phone was placed in different modes including standby, listen and talk. The results showed that the talk mode dampened delta waves for up to an hour after the phone was removed. The sleep-deprived men were staying awake twice as long as usual.

Overall the research found that mobile phones use frequencies that are good at affecting brainwaves and that the effect is the equivalent of drinking half a cup of coffee. It was also pointed out these results in no way show a health risk from using mobile phones.

Read more at Scientific American

Matthew’s Opinion

It’s interesting to see research happening outside of the scope of “are phones bad for your health?”. In fact it turns out they can stimulate your brain and even suggests talking on a mobile phone can help you stay awake longer. I am in now way suggesting people start strapping phones to their heads when they need to stay awake, but if you have ever felt a bit rejuvenated when speaking on your mobile when tired; it could be in part due to the phone. I would suspect it is 99% to do with the interaction on the phone call, however.

In some ways this should act as a warning to research involving implanting electronic devices in our heads for whatever reason. The likelihood is that people who undergo such a procedure may end up having more trouble sleeping or be prone to more frequent behaviour changes, however small those changes are.

As if we have not yet seen enough of all these new touchscreen phones that have been jumping out of the woodwork lately, here comes yet another, featuring the same old touchscreen, and almost the same specifications as well. Although this time, it could have one thing that separates it from the myriad of other touchscreen phones out there - herculean battery life. That’s because this new touchscreen phone falls under the Philips Xenium brand, which, in case you don’t know, has a reputation for churning out gadgets with incredibly long-lasting batteries. And knowing that this same company completed its very own touchscreen phone (Philips Xenium 9@9v) a couple of months back, this new rumor becomes quite believable. But until the day that we see it get official, that’s all that it is: a faceless rumor.

Via [Unwired View]

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