Author: Daniel Sung
Freerunner to bring free Wi-Fi – public hotspots for all
If you’ve sat frustrated with your laptop in a public place unable to get online without signing up for yet another Wi-Fi service, then today is the today that the worm turns – large wedge of cynicism aside.
A company called Freerunner is pledging to host 2,500 free public Wi-Fi hotspots by the end of Q2 next year. Yes, free, as in, no need to pay. The company will provide the internet zones at no cost to community areas such as libraries, schools and colleges while charging commercial premises a third of what they already may pay. The idea for the latter group is that all you’ll be paying is the price of cup of coffee or whatever it is they sell. CEO of Freerunner, Owen Geddes said:
“Back in 2002, free, open access points were popping up all over the place and there was a real buzz about the potential of public WiFi. Since then, networks have been locked down and access for a day can cost more than your home broadband costs in a month. Our vision is to give consumers free public WiFi access whether they are in the the centre of London, the community centre at the end of their road or the local café in Hartlepool.”
Of course, 2,500 hotspots isn’t enough to start a revolution but it’s a certainly a good start, and a start that will be in the North East of the UK with NorthStar Equity Investors (NSEI) as key investors in the project. Is that a horde of cheering Geordies I hear? That’d make a change this season.
Pirate version of Sims 3 leaks onto the internet
Oh dear. Poor old piracy ravaged EA games has been hit yet again as copies of the Sims 3 have been leaked onto the web a full two weeks ahead of launch. A torrent file has popped up on all the usual sites with downloads and installations running just fine according to all reports.
The game requires no online registration to work, unlike Spore the best part of a year ago, and at it looks as if the games company is receiving some kind of perverse punishment for doing the decent thing in removing the hugely unpopular DRM that caused such an uproar the last time.
With only a serial code on the box to get around, key gens are all that’s needed to get the game installed and so long as users do not allow the game to access the internet, there should be no problem. The only issue comes if you want to play the game in an online mode. Then it might be worth forking out once the release is officially available.
(via Ars Technica)
Twitter goes TV with Samsung
Twitter is hitting our TV screens as the Samsung Internet@TV service embraces the world of microblogging. Now, to begin with my inner monologue went something like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” as it has done with all the widget TV nonsense since CES 2009 but actually this is completely brilliant.
You’re going to be watching TV with your mates at all times. Lonely nights in are a thing of the past. You can watch the box with people all over the country. Imagine the mass slaggings during reality TV; the awesome virtual mayhem through football games? Samsung, this is a stroke of genius. Great way to get around expensive premium rate phone calls for audience interactivity too.
The service is available NOW on Samsung LED 6000, 7000 and 8000 series televisions, and 6 and 7 series LCD screens too. Go use and make merry.
Samsung
Spotify coming to your mobile phone – but at a price
Good news: Yes, Spotify is indeed coming to mobile phones. Bad news: we’re going to have to pay for it. These were the words from the horse’s mouth when Spotify CEO Daniel Ek spoke at The Great Escape music conference over the weekend.
The word is that very few people – certainly in the UK – have signed up for Spotify’s £9.99 a month Premium service and this is just the kind of value content that’ll make people change their minds. Ek also dropped a large one that there’ll be some other bits and pieces to beef the package up in terms of social networking, exclusive track access and, most interestingly, music recommendations. He said:
“We definitely want to have music recommendations, but we would never recommend tracks ourselves.
“I’d love to work with someone like Last.fm and in a couple of days you’ll see an announcement for something like that.”
Well, the best way to work with some like Last.fm is to actually work with Last.fm and I’ve got a tenner down says that’s what we’re going to hear.
So, what do you think? Will you pay for Spotify on the go, given that it’ll probably work out side of connectivity too? Or has it just become the same as any old service with this announcement. Let us know in the comments – YES! THEY’RE BACK ON!!!!!
(via Brand Republic)
Sony &alpha 230, &alpha 330 & &alpha 380: DSLRs to step you up from compacts
Sony has launched three entry level DSLR cameras today in the their alpha range. This gives me the opportunity to geek out over some tech I love and find out what the html for &alpha is.
The baby of the bunch is the &alpha280 which comes with a 10.2-megapixel CCD sensor, 2.7-inch fixed LCD and weighs 450g. The &alpha330 is a touch heftier at 490g, it has the same sensor but the bonus here is that you get a tilt LCD. Last up is the &aplha380 which is identical to the &alpha330 except it’s got 14.2 megapixels of resolution power and it’s possibly not worth spending the extra on.
Those specs aside, you’re essentially looking at the same beast whichever you splash out on. They all use the BIONZ processor for all the CPU power, they each offer ISOs up to 3200 and they’ll let you fire off at 2.5fps.
The Minolta and Konica Minolta lens compatibility ensures you’re getting some quality at the business end of the camera but I feel a little cheated they haven’t stepped up to the plate with CMOS sensors. Feels like they’ve kept the best bit from consumers despite the step up you may have made.
There’s some decent tech in the shape of the in-body image stabilisation and the improved quick AF in live view mode, and there’s probably just the right amount of options to play with in terms of white balance, exposure and light metering.
Prices and dates when we get them but rest assured that Sony isn’t going to freeze you out with their weirdo proprietary memory sticks. You can use them if you want but all three cameras come with SD/SDHC compatibility too. And, once you’ve had it with the kit lens and you want a little more for your burgeoning shutter addiction, Sony is also releasing a bunch of lenses.
The DT-50 (F1.8) is a fixed 50mm piece of glass for portraits; if you want to get nice and wide there’s the DT18-55mm (F3.5-5.6); you can go long with the DT 55-200mm (F4-5.6) and there’s also a 1:1 macro lens, the DT 30mm F2.8, for extreme close-up photography. Enjoy yourself.
Pure launches DAB Sirocco 150 dock/radio
Strapping an iPod dock to your audioware has been a no-branier for a little while but getting Apple to certify your product as “Works with iPhone” is a good bit of one-upmanship from Pure. Ladies, gentlemen and DAB freaks, meet the Sirocco 150 mini-system designed with digital music in mind.
It’s got SD and USB slots, as well as the dock, for playback of MP3 and WMV files. No specific mention of AACs, so I can only assume that that’s through pod/phone only action. Naturally, it takes CDs too and, of course, there’s DAB provided you can actually pick anything up where you live.
The unit offers 25 Watts RMS and each speaker has a 4″ mid bass and a 1.5″ tweeters. It’s out in June for £149.99 and, whatever you feelings may be about compressed music files and digital radio, you have to admit the Pure Sirocco 150 hits aesthetically.
Not sure why they left the dock as an external plug in seeing as it’s a main feature. Probably something to do with internal space in the main box. How’s that for some benefit of the doubt?
Tony Hawk Ride from Activision – with new skateboard controller?
With E3 just weeks away, doubtless we’ll be getting the deets, vids and general dribbling on this one for quite a while but what is clear is that YOU GET TO BE TONY HAWK! only with no wheels and a few buttons down the side of the deck. Really hoping you don’t have to start pushing them unless it’s for grabs. That could rather ruin the flow.
Still, what gets to me more about this campaign from Activision is not the controller but the fact that I should have been learning to skateboard all my life. Sod the fake deck. Jumping over the top of an entire half pipe looks much more fun. Oh, the life unlived!
(via Reg)
Sony Ericsson W715 – SHINY VIDEO REVIEW
I’m not a huge fan of Sony Ericsson handsets on the whole but that’s got nothing to do with them and more to do with my mind setting like concrete the day I first started using a Nokia. They’re the polar opposites in UI which is a shame really because the Sony Ericsson W715 looks like a really good phone.
The latest in the line of Walkman handsets, it could be blessed with a little more internal memory than 120MB but expanding to a healthy 8GB requires only one of those annoying proprietary SE cards. There’s some very familiar shake-to-control action going on here, so I’ll stop and let Zara give you her verdict before I start getting nasty…
If you’re as pleased as my esteemed colleague is by the W715, you can find it free on Vodafone from £15 a month
Sony Ericsson
@IvyBean104 is the oldest Tweeter in town
Meet Ivy Bean – self-professed Deal or No Deal nut and, as of today, the world’s oldest Tweeter.
At 103 she’s already become oldest cat on Facebook after hearing she could trump a 97-year-old French lady thought to be the social network age crown holder. So, now Ivy’s taking to the world of mircoblogging in between meals, naps and, of course, outside of Deal or No Deal time. If you’d like to follow her updates, she’s signed up as @IvyBean104 just to confuse you. Ivy’s already amassed 1,466 followers and is fully versed in all tweeting skills after a crash course from Geek Squad.
You don’t know how tempted I am to start a @HollyBush105 and start tweeting about Noel Edmonds and his sexy beard. I’m not nice person. Can’t help it.
(via Yorkshire Post)
Nokia 7100 – SHINY VIDEO REVIEW
A 2-inch screen and 1.3-megapixel camera aren’t the kind of specs that send phones flying off the shelves but that’s not the game of the Nokia 7100 feature phone. The idea behind this little baby, as with all Supernova handsets, is that very marketable cross between beauty and cheapth and I can tell you that what the 7100 may lack in beauty it certainly makes up for in cheapth.
Here, Zara will tell you all about it…
