February 9, 2010

British Library to offer 65,000 free e-books

by Darren Allan
Those of you with a Kindle e-reader might have a bit of reading to get through this summer, courtesy of the British Library. That's because come the spring, the library intends to make 65,000 classic texts downloadable for free. The e-books will include works from Dickens, Hardy, Austen and other out of copyright 19th Century authors. Interestingly, the e-books will be published in their original typeface and with the original illustrations, ...

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February 8, 2010

Chinese hacking site shut down

by Darren Allan
The Chinese authorities have shut down what is reportedly the country's biggest hacker training site. So says the China Daily newspaper, in a move which comes not long after the Google hacking incident which saw accusations fly against China. The hacking school, called Black Hawk Safety Net, allegedly imparted cyber-crime techniques via lessons and online forums. Three people were arrested, and $250,000 worth of assets were frozen. Apparently the site was set ...

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Apple iPad fails to impress consumers

by Darren Allan
Apple's much vaunted new gadget, the iPad, hasn't made much of an impression with the American consumer. This is according to a study by shopping website Retrevo, which polled 1,000 users about the iPad before its launch, and then afterwards. Perhaps the most telling statistic was that beforehand, 26% of respondents said they had heard of the device, but were not interested in buying it. After the iPad's launch, that number ...

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February 5, 2010

UK firm releases iTablet to rival Apple

by Darren Allan
The dust has just about settled from the iPad's launch, although British computer firm X2 has decided to kick up a bit more by announcing a new tablet device. It's called the iTablet, which – along with the iSlate – was one of the names Apple was rumoured to be considering for its tablet computer. Pitching itself at the same gadget fans Apple always has in its sights, the X2 ...

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Continuing problems with Apple’s 27 inch iMacs

by Darren Allan
Apple customers are still experiencing delays on the shipment of the problematic 27 inch iMac. PC Pro reports that customers are currently facing a two week hold up, should they want the iMac with serious screen real-estate. The computer has been hit by display related snags since its launch last year, including problems with flickering screens and a yellow tint to the LCD panel. Gizmodo reportedly got hold of an internal ...

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February 4, 2010

Sony to test reality TV on PS3

by David Allen
It seems that video games platforms will stop at nothing to attract users. Take Sony for instance; it is launching a reality TV series called The Tester for its PlayStation Network. It is a strange name but the format is familiar. It starts off with eleven challengers who will do almost anything to join the Sony Game Design team. The winner of the show will get a $5,000 golden ...

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Apple iPad will have a camera?

by Darren Allan
When the iPad launched last week, we commented that there were two main things missing from Apple's new gadget. The first was a lack of support for Flash, and the second was the fact that there was no camera. Although, as we said at the time, the latter was probably due to trying to keep the price down. However, it seems that the iPad may have a camera, after all – ...

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February 3, 2010

2 billion MPEG-based chipsets for 2010

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News Just a few days ahead of the giant Barcelona 3G World Congress comes news that this year will see more than 2 billion MPEG-based chipsets shipped globally, helped by the growing importance of portable media. Research analysts at InStat say as consumers access digital video on more devices, applications for MPEG digital video compression technology are expanding, particularly in portable devices. As a result, shipments ...

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ARM boosted by iPad launch

by David Allen
As the Cambridge based chip designer ARM Holdings announced its results for 2009, the fact that revenues were down by ten per cent and pre tax profit was down by four per cent faded into the distance as rumours circulated that the company is in business with Apple. ARM Holdings is believed to be providing Apple with the low energy chip needed to power the latest Apple device, the ...

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February 2, 2010

Google unveils possible Chrome OS tablet

by Darren Allan
It seems that the rivalry between Google and Apple is going to heat up further, as the search giant has posted a video online detailing a concept version of a Chrome powered tablet. The short clip explores how a Chrome operating system driven tablet's user interface might function. And the most notable feature is that the mock UI allows multi-tasking, which Apple's iPad does not. You can take a look for ...

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Chinese company claims iPad is a rip-off

by Darren Allan
A Chinese computer manufacturer is claiming that Apple copied the design of the iPad tablet from one of its own models. The snappily named Shenzhen Great Loong Brother company has a tablet computer called the P88. The President of the company, Wu Xiaolong, complained about the alleged copy-catting in an interview with a Spanish news website, El Mundo. “I was very angry when two days ago I saw the news of ...

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February 1, 2010

Intel and Micron in NAND flash breakthrough

by Darren Allan
In a joint venture, Intel and Micron have announced they are about to reveal the world's first 25nm NAND flash technology. What does this mean? For computers, we can expect enhanced Solid State Drives, with bigger capacities possible, and hopefully somewhat cheaper prices for the consumer, too. Smartphones and other devices such as MP3 players will also benefit from the technology, which should go into production in the next quarter. Hopefully ...

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Kids spend 7+ hours a day on consoles and phones

by Darren Allan
A study produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation has shown that American children aged 8-18 spend some 7.5 hours per day on “entertainment media”. In other words, playing on consoles, with their smartphones, computers, digital audio players and other such devices. The figure is up from 6 hours 20 minutes, which is the level the Foundation recorded in research carried out five years ago. However, because kids tend to multi-task media ...

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Apple iPad UK release date announced

by Darren Allan
The chaps over at Apple have revealed when you'll be able to get your mitts on an iPad in the UK. The basic wi-fi iPad will be shipping at the end of March, with the 3G model coming in late April – earlier than expected. Unfortunately, pricing details in pounds sterling weren't announced. The basic wi-fi version starts at $499 in the US, but is expected to be nearer £400 ...

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Zelda to be made in 3D

by David Allen
It looks as if there is no getting away from 3D these days, but for the games industry the rollout of this technology has been slow, despite the fact that 3D actually brings more excitement and depth to the game. However, one games producer has no intention of being left behind in the technology race and that is Nintendo. According to reports from GoNintendo, the company is expecting to ...

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January 29, 2010

Will iBooks be coming to the UK?

by Darren Allan
The e-reader app for Apple's new iPad, predictably named iBooks, might not make it over this side of the pond. According to various reports floating around on the net, Apple hasn't been able to confirm that iBooks will be available in the UK. There is also a disclaimer on Apple's website, at the foot of the iPad features page, which says: “iBooks is available only in the U.S.” However, PC Pro ...

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O2 and Orange to bag the iPad?

by Darren Allan
The blaze of iPad related gossip continues to burn strongly, and the latest snippet concerns which mobile operators will stock the device when it comes to the UK. This rumour is based on the micro-sim card the iPad uses for mobile broadband, which as the name suggests, is a mini version of a standard sim card. Those of you with an existing sim card won't be able to simply lob ...

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Windows 7 buoys Microsoft’s coffers

by Darren Allan
It's a good day for Microsoft, as the firm has announced a big leap in profits for the last quarter. Its net profit was $6.66 billion (the profit of the beast, some might joke) for the last quarter of 2009. That's a huge 60% up on the same quarter the previous year. Total revenue jumped 18% to a smidge over $19 billion. The reason Microsoft are now in the cash is ...

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Apple iBooks in page flip controversy

by Darren Allan
Apple's e-reading app for the iPad has taken inspiration from another independent developer's effort, so says the Internet rumour mill. This particular story was unleashed by Wired writer Brian Chen, in a piece he published on Wednesday, in which he claimed that iBooks was very similar to an app called Classics. Classics is a book reading app for the iPhone which gives the user access to a library of classic ...

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EA Sports looking at 3D gaming

by David Allen
The gaming world is about to get another dimension. According to the head of EA Sports, Peter Moore, the firm is seriously looking into 3D gaming and will add this feature to its games just as soon as the technology becomes commercially available. He was speaking to CVG and went to suggest that EA will use the new technology to develop new games in 3D from the ground up. ...

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