There’s something about 60’s styling which has never really died. It think it’s the funkiness. Eye-catching colour and god-awful shapes make something marvellous. Groovy, man.
Now, LG are jumping aboard the ‘groovy’ band wagon (or VW van, whichever you prefer) with their new CRT TV which just launched for the Korean market.
It’s available in either black or bright red. It has a period styling with a pair of bunny ears antenna, twisty dials and four telescopic legs. Yet it’s fully compatible with all our modern electronics such as DVD players and games consoles.
I think we’ll be seeing quite a few of these up on Ebay destined for the US and Europe. Although I guess it’s understandable why LG won’t launch it as a product in the Western market.
Demonoid is one of the worlds oldest and most well known bittorrent search engines. Previously Demonoid was a private tracker in which users needed an invite to join.
Well, normally that’s the case. Currently the situation is different.
Whether this is a bug (maybe as a result of the admins having to rewrite some of the site code after the crash) or entirely intentional, we just don’t know, but currently it seems that anyone can browse and download torrents from Demonoid without being a member.
We’re not exactly sure how long this has been the case, but it has been a little while now, perhaps since the site returned after its break.
Demonoid, it seems, has changed from a semi-private to a public tracker.
Update: A few people have mentioned that it’s been possible to download 3 to 5 torrents a week as a guest in the past. After downloading a dozen today, we’ve still not reached any limit.
YouTube streaming live entertainment – it was inevitable really. The world’s biggest video website was eventually going to push into the market of sites like UStream. For their first outing into this unfamiliar field they’re sticking with a market which is sure to please many of our Indian readers – live Indian Premier League Cricket.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear as though YouTube are taking any steps to secure broadcasting rights for Western sports such as football (World Cup 2010 would be a great launching pad), Golf, Rugby, American Football, Basketball or Tennis – all of which would have a huge audience. Perhaps they’re seeing how people adapt to watching sports online in a less prominent market before they go mainstream on YouTube.com.
They are due to begin broadcasting cricket on YouTube in March.
So, who would have though the first sport to receive mainstream online broadcasting attention would be Indian Cricket?
Since its launch, the default search engine on the Safari browser on the iPhone has been Google. The two companies had a somewhat ‘snug’ relationship with Google CEO Eric Schmidt even being a director at Apple until he left in 2009 because of “a conflict of interest”.
Since then, competition has flared up. Apple are buying up competitors of Google to stop Google taking over the market. Also, the iPhone will very soon be pitted against the Google phone when it is released this year. So Microsoft has become Apple’s new best friend – well, Bing at least. I don’t think they’ll ever get along in the OS wars.
This latest rumour comes from Business Week who have been keeping a close eye on the development between Apple and Google.They say, “Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle”. So it looks like iPhone users will be unwittingly siding with the not-so-popular Bing for their mobile web usage!
Phonescoop were at CES in Las Vegas last week and managed to spot a phone floating around the convention. Only it wasn’t just any old phone. It was a Windows mobile phone running the new OS which is yet to be released – 6.5.3. The video above runs through all the new changes and make a note on how it’s more finger friendly.
Undoubtedly, we’ll be seeing this new OS very soon indeed is Microsoft are sending out phones running it to conventions. I’d say it will be available within the next month or two. As for now this video is as close as you or I will get.
When you lock your phone you assume that your Emails, browsing history, text messages and personal data are secure. You could leave your phone in a crowded room knowing nobody could access it without you inputting the pattern on the touch-screen which is how Droids’ security work. However, a bug which was only recently discovered and made public on the Internet has compromised all phones with 2.0.1 versions which apparently is the bulk of the Droid market.
When the phone is receiving an incoming call, all you have to do is press the ‘back’ button and you’ll be brought to the home screen. So theoretically, if you wanted to access somebody’s Droid phone all you have to do is call it and then press the back button on the device. Voila! Instant access to all their personal data.
“We are aware of the issue and we’re working to deliver a fix to Motorola Droids shortly.” said a spokesperson.
My memory is cast back to August of 2008 when a very similar bug for the iPhone’s screenlock as discovered. When will companies learn that security is now a paramount concern for all tech users?
It has been suggested by a group of researchers that exposure on a long-term basis to cell phone radiation may be able to fend off some of the affects of Alzheimer’s disease which causes loss of memory, specifically in those over the age of 55.
The study is currently being carried out on mice who are being exposed to radiation identical to that from cell phones which millions of us use each day. The University of South Florida is base camp for the tests.
Obviously, this was the exact opposite of what the researchers expected to find. They are now working towards safely speeding up the process in the hope of preventing the effects in actual people and maybe even reversing the effects in those who have already been diagnosed with the disease. So it appears that cell phone radiation can be good for you as well!
There have been rumours flying all over the place about the Apple Tablet. Some we reported, but towards the end of 2009 I decided to stop as there were so many of them it became a farce. Its very existence has been debated back and forth. However, now we have a form of confirmation.
Stéphane Richard, the number two at large firm Orange was being interviewed on the Europe 1 radio station when the issue of the Apple Table cropped up.
When he was asked whether the tablet will be announced officially before the end of the month he responded “Yes” and also said it would be available through Orange.
While this isn’t confirmation as such, it certainly gives credence to such an argument. With such a high-up in the tech industry saying the announcement for the Apple Tablet was imminent, surely we’re inclined to believe? Let’s see if his promises hold true. Do you think the Apple tablet will be announced before the end of January?
Twitter has been flat lining over the past couple of months. The service has gathered a huge community, but sign-up rates have stalled as of late. However, Twitter founder Evan Williams just tweeted that the 11th of January was Twitters biggest EVER day. For some reason, the tweeting community all increased their tweeting habits at the same time.
This is encouraging as nothing particularly news worthy happened. Twitter has been known to receive big spikes when something huge is happening such as the death of Michael Jackson or major sporting tournaments. But nope, nothing out of the ordinary yesterday.
What’s even stranger is that Evans also mentioned in his tweet that today, would be even bigger. Wonder if the tweeters up top have something huge planned. Or maybe they just have an office betting pool up and running.
With the new year having just rolled around it’s that time of year again when gym memberships are at an all-time high as people promise themselves they’ll loose weight and get in shape for the new year. No better time then to join a new fitness community called Phitter which claims to have “given phittness a phacelife”.
The service is similar to Twitter in that users are encouraged to post their daily exercise news, tips, advice and benchmarks. Also, you can post to your stream via the traditional web route or from mobile services such as SMS.
In a press release, the company said Phitter.com is a “phitness phocused community that encourages members to talk, or “Phit,” about fitness, weight loss, working out, dieting, exercising, and healthy living while making new “Phriends” and having “Phun!”
I think this is a great idea. Twitter has proven itself to be one of the most engaging of the social networks. Furthermore, lack of companionship and encouragement is the number one reason why people quit exercise programs. Phitter overcomes that problem by creating a real-time community for those getting fit, something forums and networks have failed to do in the past.
If you post “Feeling down, not in the mood for a run” you’ll be bombarded with inspiration and encouragement to get out there and get Phit!
The mobile web has been around for quite some time. It’s earliest form was accessed using primitive mobiles using GPRS. Early Blackberries at the turn of the millennium played their part in increasing its popularity and relevance. Still however, the computer remained the best way to access the web. However, since the iPhone revolutionised the way we think about mobile web, its usage has more than doubled in one year.
2009 saw an increase of more than 110% in mobile web usage. This is undoubtedly due to the rush of smart phones onto the market such as the iPhone, Android devices and new Blackberries. Apple dominates each continental market except for Africa where cheaper GPRS phones still rule. In fact, Apple had a 65% share of the market at the end of 2009 with their iPhone and iPod Touch.
Android is the number two player in the US and has been growing in dominance since late 2008 when they launched on HTC phones. Towards the end of 2009, Android also seen a spike when their Motorola devices went on sale. They currently have around 12% of the North American market.
2010 may see the mobile web take off as Google prepare to launch their own smart phone and the scramble for consumers to get more up to date phones begins as the world climbs out of recession.
I’m all about netbooks and laptops. There’s something sexy about having all that computing power in such a portable little housing. May I introduce to you LG’s new x300 laptop sporting 2Ghz of processing power and measuring up at a very slim 17.6mm. And sexy she is.
A look from the outside
The portable machine also has a 1.3 mega pixel webcam, reflective keyboard (keys have resistance to bounce back quickly), SSD and a sleek, minimalistic design. It all comes to together very nicely. Even though it is quite skinny, it can run for over three hours. While that may not be hugely impressive for some, the fact that it ships with a spare 2-cell battery for when the going gets tough is.
It was officially announced at the CES conference yesterday. However, we’re all still waiting on one thing – a retail price. Guesses anyone?
YouTube streaming live entertainment – it was inevitable really. The world’s biggest video website was eventually going to push into the market of sites like 
