Author: Duncan Geere
Image of next-gen Mac Mini leaks?
It’s rare that info about Apple products genuinely leaks, but the massive appetite for the Cupertino-based company’s products ensures that when they do, it’s all over the internet in minutes.
Last night, an image of the forthcoming next-generation Mac Mini was posted on the MacRumours forums, complete with the following specs list:
- Intel Core 2 Duo
- 2GHz
- 3MB L2 cache
- 2GB RAM DDR III, 1066MHz
- SATA Super Drive
Added to what we can see from the photo – a whopping *five* USB ports, Firewire, a Mini DisplayPort, Mini DVI, LAN and audio in and out – you’re looking at some reasonably respectable specs for what is essentially just a shuttle PC.
SHINY VIDEO REVIEW: 3M MPro 110 projector
I’ve been playing around with 3M’s MPro 110 projector for a couple of weeks now, and I’m not sure what it’s for. It will throw a (small) picture onto a wall in a dark room, sure, but it seems to be built to be portable. The problem is that I can’t see a situation that you’ll encounter on a regular basis where this thing will be useful.
Even in lights-down conditions, it simply isn’t bright enough for you to see what’s going on – a pitch-black room would be fine, but on-the-move – where this product is intended to be used – you’re not going to run into those conditions.
Basically, what I’m saying is that I don’t have a real problem with the product (beyond the cable length issue mentioned in the video) – I just don’t see any demand for it. I guess that’s 3M’s problem, not mine. It can be yours (the product, not the problem) for £299, and it’s available now.
SHINY VIDEO PREVIEW: Canon IXUS series
While Dan was mucking about with the Powershots, Susi took a shine to the IXUS range. Her conclusions are in the video above, but can basically be summed up as “more of the same with some gimmicky features”. Thanks to its svelte profile, her favourite of the lot is the 100IS.
SHINY VIDEO PREVIEW: Canon PowerShot range
Yesterday, Dan got to check out Canon’s PowerShot range of cameras in person in Soho. You can see his thoughts in the video above – the conclusion of which is basically “they’re alright”. His favourite was the SX200 thanks to the decent zoom, wide angle lens and fully manual operation.
At the same event, Susi got her hands on Canon’s IXUS range. I’ll have that video up momentarily.
Pirate Bay trial day four – mockery of Windows users
The lols continue at the Pirate Bay “spectrial” in Sweden, with day four of the court case seeing the prosecutors make yet another mis-step. Movie industry lawyer Monique Wadsted attempted to introduce completely new, previously-unseen, evidence – something which didn’t go down well with either the defence or the judge.
Most of the morning revolved around questioning defendant Fredrik Neij (TiAMO) individually, with the prosecution trying to link the four administrators to the actions of their users and to advertisers.
At one point, Fredrik was asked whether advertiser Oded Daniel was involved in the technical running of the site – Fredik’s response was “No, he’s not good at that. He uses Windows, so…” and there was a massive burst of laughter through the wall from bloggers next door in the listening lounge.
Fredrik also explained how Anti-p2p companies like MediaDefender manipulate statistics, with their actions making certain torrents appear far more active than in reality. Fredrik claimed that he had no ideological connection with the site – he simply wanted to play with the Bittorrent technology.
Later on, a crucial point was elaborated upon in detail – how .torrent files can be shared in many different ways – via email or FTP, for example. This is important, because the role that the Pirate Bay performs in the Bittorrent process could just as easily be done by Google. In fact, here‘s a how-to.
The story’s still developing today, and in the latest developments the prosecutors have tried to link the Pirate Bay to child pornography – a favourite tactic of anti-p2p activists. Gottfrid said that they report the ones they spot to the police, but that it isn’t up to the site to investigate: “We can’t do investigations of our own. And if the police says we should remove a torrent, we will”.
More tomorrow. In the meantime, hackers have been defacing sites owned by the IFPI, playing the following message on ifpi.se:
Stop lying HÅKAN ROSWALL!:
The ruthless hunt conducted by the IFPI, Anti-Piracy Office, Warner Bros., and all the other companies with a pawn in the game has now resulted in a trial in which four innocent men are accused of copyright infringement. This is a declaration of war against anti-piracy outfits and the industry players behind them, and we urge the public to boycott and lynch those responsible. IFPI is just the beginning. To be Continued.
The New Generation
The defendants in the trial, however, aren’t too happy about it, with Peter Sunde (brokep) saying:
“Our case is going quite well as most of you have noticed. In the light of that it feels very bad that people are hacking web sites which actually puts us in a worse light than we need to be in. If anyone involved in the acts going on is reading this – please stop, for our sake. We don’t need that kind of support.”
All IFPI sites are now back online.
Yahoo! clawing back market share from Google?
If the latest figures from traffic-trackers comScore are correct, it would appear that Yahoo! is slowly but surely clawing back some of Google’s utter dominance of the search sector, in the USA at least.
After many years of decline, Yahoo!’s search numbers have been increasing now for six months in a row, and in January they jumped up half a percentage point to 21%. Simultaneously, Google dropped half a percent to 63%.
It’s great news for Yahoo!, because it means that despite the acquisition dance around the company last year hasn’t had any negative effect on their core offering at all. Meanwhile, MSN Live Search is languishing at 8.5%, while Microsoft pours money into it, and Cuil is nowhere to be seen.
DIY solar batteries *nearly* work
There’s something so wonderfully simple about this concept that I wish it would work better than it does. Ni-MH batteries that have a flexible photovoltaic cell wrapped around them, so that they recharge by just being left on a windowsill.
Unfortunately, the solar cells currently only charge the battery with a tiny, weak trickle, but if they were built into a proper unit, combined with capacitors and the electronics to up the efficiency of the energy conversion, then they could do considerably better.
On a related note, how many devices do you have that still use traditional batteries? Very few, I’d wager – perhaps just a TV remote and a set of portable speakers. Everything’s rechargable these days, and a jolly good thing too.
Harman Kardon launches HK990 amplifier and HD990 CD player
Top-end audio manufacturer Harman Kardon has just announced the “most powerful” amplifier that the company has ever produced, as well as a matching CD player, for those of you still trading in plastic discs.
I could happily regurgitate the press release about how the amplifier’s power is achieved with its “EzSet/EQ room optimisation”, but all you really need to know is that it sounds lovely. The CD player sounds similarly lovely, thanks to a built-in digital sound processor, and linear smoothing to stop jitters.
Both models are available now from your favourite local Hi-Fi retailer, and they’ll cost you £1000 for the amp and £500 for the CD player. That’s relatively affordable, so if you’re looking to start up a separates collection, then this would be a great place to start.
Nintendo DSi to land on UK shores on 3rd April 2009
The next generation of Nintendo’s smash hit handheld gaming device, the DSi, will be arriving in the UK on the 3rd of April, the company told us last night.
Featuring the addition of two cameras, enhanced volume and sound quality, built-in flash memory and a download store, the improvements are sure to build on the success of the console across the world.
The console’s also slimmed down a bit. It’s 12% thinner than the already-skinny DS Lite, and has an even bigger, even brighter, 3.25″ screen – which was already brighter than the first-generation Nintendo DS, affectionately dubbed the “Phat” by consumers.
My only worry about the DSi is that people won’t want to replace their existing, perfectly functional, DS and DS Lites with a new model that has only peripheral changes. It’ll almost certainly still sell well, though, especially with the inevitable marketing push that it’ll receive from Ninty. We’re looking forward to getting our hands on it for a play.
Turning on the Large Hadron Collider (again) in June will be… Tom Hanks
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen – Forrest Gump will be pressing the big red button when the Large Hadron Collider comes back on in June, potentially dooming us all into getting sucked into a vast black hole. If I do end up ending my life in that way, I’ll be a little happier knowing that it was all Tom Hanks’ fault.
In a scene right out of Blackpool’s Christmas Lights, a Hollywood actor will be taking precedence over the world’s biggest and brightest minds to switch back on the massive, costly, science experiment that was switched off shortly after it was turned on, following a massive plasma leak.
Seriously, though – why Tom Hanks? It’s not like they need the publicity that a Hollywood star will bring to the proceedings. In fact, his presence only detracts from the event, and makes whoever booked him look very foolish indeed. I don’t have anything against Hanks, in fact I enjoy his work, but seriously – in big gold, shining letters – WHY?
(via Crunchgear)
