Author: Gary Cutlack
Train companies agree on barcode format – home ticket printing and mobile sales now on
The numerous franchises that operate the UK’s splintered, broken, late and chaotic rail network have all agreed on a common barcode format for ticketing, which, when it rolls out, will let us all print out our tickets at home – or buy tickets via text message.
Which means no more dehumanising queuing as you watch the clock tick slowly toward departure time, standing there, with the right money in your hand, helplessly fantasising about barging that old woman…
Remove all traces of joy from Christmas with the Radiohead NES remake collection
Some extremely talented but sadly misguided musician has taken it upon himself to recreate a load of classic Radiohead songs using only the NES sound chip. The resulting generational soundclash is an appealing MIDI-like collection of easy-listening tunes.
Here’s one example – a stirring interpretation of ‘No Surprises’ from that album everyone liked a few years ago.
If you like that, you might also like Paranoid Android, a quite superb version of Creep and…
LAST MINUTE GIFT IDEA: HANNspree's 8" SD8073 Digital Photo Frame
If you’re stuck for a Christmas present idea and didn’t already buy everyone you know in the whole world a digital photo frame for Christmas last year, how about a digital photo frame?
They’re relatively cheap, plus they come in a nice box so will feel like a substantial, heavy present. The SD8073 has what HANNspree calls a “high-resolution” 800×600 16:9 screen, although we’re not sure 800×600 has been considered high-res since the late-1980s. Still, it also supports MP3s and MP4 video playback…
The LG Ice Cream Phone 2, or the LG LU1600 to its parents when it's in trouble
We revealed the original LG Ice Cream Phone back in March, and were just as bewildered by a phone inspired by shades of ice cream colours then as we are now. This newest Ice Cream Phone also lights up in fancy pastel LCD colours when someone ring you, plus there’s more in the way of web browser integration and tacky emoticons to keep the kids happy.
But, of course, we’re not particularly interested in the telephone or its features – it’s all about the ladies being forced to eat cold ice cream in the middle of the winter in the name of promotional photography.
The poor things. Hopefully they weren’t forced…
Sony planning to revise PSP again in 2009 – with proper "PSP2" to follow later
Today we have yet more leaks from Sony’s gaming division to help inform your purchasing decisions – this time regarding the long awaited and much-needed proper sequel to the little portable PlayStation.
Sony’s tweaked its PSP numerous times before, adding the Slim & Lite model to the range last year, then tinkering with the screen a bit in this year’s 3000 model update.
Now, Eurogamer is telling the world that a further revised PSP – the model 4000 – will hit in late 2009, followed by a proper, all-new PSP2 at some random…
Trend Micro has it in for Internet Explorer – advises switching to another browser IMMEDIATELY
Trend Micro has upgraded its alert status to DEFCON 1 regarding Internet Explorer, telling internet users to stop using it or face having to call out a man to make your computer start working again and set your home page back to something that isn’t porn.
Apparently, some 10,000 web sites are hosting the newest Internet Explorer-exploiting virus, which attempts to steal online gaming accounts by tricking the easily-trickable into signing into fake accounts hosted on Chinese servers…
Dan would like his girlfriend to know that Zavvi is knocking out Xbox 360s for £99
That’s a saving of £30 over the newer, cheaper RRP of £129 that only took effect in September, a saving which Dan’s girlfriend could then put toward buying Dan a copy of GTA IV to go with it. Dan’s girlfriend would then be left in peace to watch EastEnders while Dan spends hours creating a Dan-like Avatar on Christmas Day.
The Zavvi Xbox 360 madness sale has also seen the price of the regular machine with its 60GB hard drive slashed from £169 to £149, with the price of the Elite CRASHING by…
Forward-thinking Estonia engaging the youths by allowing voting by TXT MSG
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The modernist regime of Estonia is EMBRACING the inexorable decline of future society and the eventual eradication of all vowels by allowing its citizens to vote via TXT MSG in the country’s 2011 general election.
It’s not quite as easy as simply texting in your choice of leader and an emoticon, though – all would-be text voters will need a special security-enabled SIM card to validate their identity and ensure there’s no funny business…
Sony prepping touch screen, wi-fi, 16 and 32GB WALKMAN-brand media player
Sony is preparing to jump on the touchable media player bandwagon, according to sources, with an all singing, all dancing, all touching PMP set to be unveiled at this coming January’s Consumer Electronic Show tech binge.
The WALKMAN-badged player will, so some bloke on the internet told some other bloke on the internet, have a 3″ OLED screen for super-nice colour reproduction and long enough battery life to watch…
Apple patents idea for complex "3D Desktop" layout – development of Windows 7 thrown into chaos
Attention Microsoft! Apple has patented a new thing! There’ll be emergency meetings going on in Microsoft’s Seattle HQ today, thanks to internet scavengers tracking down some 3D desktop ideas Apple’s been toying with. Which means MS is going to have to start pretending it actually had the idea six years ago.
The patented potential “Multi-Dimensional Desktop” layout looks a little bewildering compared to Apple’s traditional locked-down simplicity, but the concept of having all your documents sitting behind each other in a little line waiting to be flipped through seems decent enough. It could work. Here’s how it looks. The finished thing will probably be in colour, if it ever comes out.
it also makes your monitor…
