Author: Andy Merrett
Buffalo intros world's first solid state NAS drive: quiet storage at a price
We’re gradually moving to a world where devices that used to have hard drives in them are now sporting solid-state drives instead, but it’s still quite a hit on the wallet.
Take Buffalo’s latest device which it claims is a world first — a solid state Network Attached Storage (NAS) device that can be used to store all your multimedia files, is compact, reliable, has low power consumption, and is extremely quiet…
Tech Trumpet: Touch Tone Mix
Welcome to Tech Trumpet, where I attempt to make vaguely musical sounds using a variety of gadgets and computers.
After today’s news about a DJ selling the 867-5309 number, I thought I’d compose something using DTMF “Touch Tone” dialling tones.
Well, “compose” may be a bit much…
Dell's XPS One 24 all-in-one desktop PC now on sale in the UK
Dell has announced that its all-in-one desktop PC with whopping 24-inch display is now available in the UK.
To my taste, the profile of the XPS One 24 isn’t as nice as the iMac (which, rightly or wrongly, is what we all compare these all-in-one systems to) but it does benefit from a wireless mouse and keyboard and all the other connection ports neatly on the back of the display…
FarAwayFish.com: using the web to communicate with loved ones once you've gone
Though the Internet is near-ubiquitous and social networking is skyrocketing in popularity, there’ll inevitably come a point when every one of us can no longer update our status, post a tweet, upload a Flickr photo or write something pithy on our blog.
How would the friends and relatives you usually only see online know if you dropped off the end of the world? Sometimes, your friends and family will pay tribute to you online, but you can’t always rely on technophobe relatives to do that.
One solution, according to FarAwayFish.com, is to set up a special online profile that only gets unlocked and sent out once you die. Messages, photos, videos and audio can be recorded and stored for up to ten years after your death so that friends and relatives can log in and remember the happy times…
Gallery: Facebook is five today. See how it's evolved
On Friday 4th February 2005, Facebook was born. Initially designed as a way for students to connect online, the past five years has seen it grow into a huge social network with a huge variety of people connecting with friends, relatives and complete strangers on a daily basis.
In his blog post, Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, wrote:
While we at Facebook make products that enable people to share information efficiently, Facebook is mostly the product of the people who use it. Without you and the connections you make to others, the products we create wouldn’t have much meaning. So we feel fortunate to have all of you with us. To express our appreciation, we’ve created a “Thank You” gift, which will be available tomorrow in the Facebook Gift Shop for you to to give freely to others. In the spirit of celebrating connections between people, we encourage you to use this gift to give thanks to your friends, colleagues and family members with whom you are connected on Facebook.
Take a wander through the past five years and see how Facebook has evolved…
Skype 4 for Windows now available
Skype has just announced “the most distinctive new release” of its communications software for Windows.
Version four claims to offer far better full screen video calling as well as optimising itself depending upon your PCs specifications. Those with at least a dual core processor, fast broadband connection and Skype-certified video webcam can get up to 30fps high quality video.
More importantly for many will be improved audio quality. Thanks to a new codec, there’s wideband audio quality but using 50% less bandwidth than in previous versions. There’s even super wideband audio for those with compatible headsets and fast broadband…
Bargain of the Week: Pentax Optio S12 digital camera
Welcome to Bargain of the Week, where I’ll take a look around the web for the best tech/gadget bargain I can find, and report back to you.
This week, you can get hold of the rather nice Pentax Optio S12 compact digital camera for a penny shy of seventy quid, thanks to it being half price at Amazon.co.uk…
Woolworths could live on… online
Break out the cheap party poppers and raise a “Worth It” champagne glass to the news that Woolworths may resurrect itself online.
While its recent demise has seen the shop space sold off, the Shop Direct Group has taken on the company and could be about to turn it into an online retailer.
The old Woolworths already offered online purchasing, but the new scheme would see it more able to compete with the likes of Amazon which sells goods exclusively online…
Epson shows off new EB-8 Series desktop projector range
Epson has decided that it’s time to produce some more “projectors that work well from a table top” and to that end has introduced the EB-8 Series.
Aimed primarily at the educational and business markets, the series offers up to WXGA resolution, a colour light output (Epson’s new measurement system that for the moment makes it impossible to compare this to any other manufacturers’ models) of up to 3,000 lumens from a 200W lamp, white light output (brightness) also up to 3,000 lumens, optional wireless functionality, and the ability to be used with Epson’s new Document Camera (basically enabling you to present things via USB without the need for a computer or laptop)…
Medion announces new multimedia PC: Akoya E3300 D
Medion has announced the latest in its like of “value” Akoya desktop PCs. The E3300 D offers a decent enough AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 dual core processor (which apparently runs at 2.7GHz), ATI Radeon HD4350 graphics processor with HDMI output, 640GB eco-friendly hard drive, 4GB of RAM, DVD writer, eight channel surround sound and Windows Vista pre-installed.
Connections include eSATA, multi-format card reader, FireWire, six USBs, DVI-I, VGA and HDMI. There’s also the usual array of trial software pre-loaded to bog down the PC from the word go…
