Author: Gary Cutlack
Merry Christmas extremely bored men – Windows 7 beta hits the torrent sites
If you haven’t already had ENOUGH of BLOODY WINDOWS after having Vista forced down your throat and onto your hard drive, you may now start worrying about driver incompatibilities anew – Windows 7 has been leaked.
The Beta 1 build of the next MS OS, which has been reviewed very favourably by a man here and is scheduled for a much wider beta test early next year – has popped up on Bittorrent for downloading. A good 20,000 or so users are currently nicking Windows 7 off Mininova, with a similar number taking it just because it’s there and is a nice thing to have from The Bay.
Those links are for information purposes only, by the way…
Apple giving away music and downloads during the iTunes 12 Days of Christmas
Apple’s 12 Days of Christmas campaign is eating away at 2008’s profitability figures by giving away one free iTunes download a day between December 26 and January 6th.
The songs and TV shows, some of which may be by people you’ve even heard of and are interested in, will pop up on the site each day, along with some interesting facts about the material in question, which may come in handy if you’re planning on attending a Christmas pub quiz.
You don’t get a choice. Today’s is ‘Video EP’ by Jason Mraz.
The idea is no doubt meant to promote edgy new artists you otherwise wouldn’t bother listening to on the radio for free…
VIDEO: Energy & Efficiency, Christmas Special!
Christmas greetings to one and all! You’re probably all a bit financially ruined from spending so much money on Christmas food and presents right now, even with Woolworths virtually giving away all of its stock – and I’m here to help!
Christmas Day is one of the most energy-intensive days of the year, what with demand for power from cooking equipment, entertaining the family and the like, so here are a few tips on how to have an efficient Christmas. You can have a happy holiday AND save energy while doing so…
And my energy saving tip for New Year’s Eve? Drink a small bottle of vodka at home…
Textecution – an extremely clever mobile app that stops you texting while you're driving
So, go on then, guess how a mobile phone app can tell if you’re driving or not? Speed of texting? Pauses while texting? More errors than usual? Drastic directional adjustments detected by the iPhone’s accelerometer as you hastily steer away from the bus stop, off the pavement and back onto the road?
Nope – Texecution uses GPS to locate the position of your phone, and therefore you, deactivating the phone’s SMS features when you seem to be moving at more than 10mph.
There is, of course, an override function for when you’re a passenger, on buses and trains, or running really fast…
Nokia expands Ovi beta – adds 12 languages, tweaks sign-ups and promises web mail portal
It’s pretty obvious to anyone who’s ever tried to set up a POP3 email account on a mobile phone that there’s a GAPING HOLE in the market for a simple, decent mobile email service that (a) works and (b) your dad can set up on his own without having to spend five hours on the phone to Nokia, Carphone Warehouse and, inevitably, you.
It’s a gap Nokia hopes its Mail on Ovi mobile service will ably fill. The Ovi mail beta has been expanded to include 12 languages, with the simple Series 40 app allowing mobile users from those 12 bits of the world to set up new Ovi email accounts directly on their handsets…
The Fusion Electronics CA-IP500 car stereo with unique iPod deep-throating dock action
Leaving your iPod sitting there in the ashtray while you pop into ASDA to see if they’re making jam or custard doughnuts in the bakery today is a definite no-no – so keep it safely hidden from view by ramming it right down into the stomach of the Fusion Electronics CA-IP500 music player.
The deep unit swallows an entire iPod, just like an old cassette-based car player, leaving it hidden from the view of opportunist thieves who want your iPod player for its potential eBay resale value and not your artistic tastes in music.
It’s slightly unsettling tearing the poor thing’s face off and ramming an iPod down its throat, but as long as you don’t get too emotionally…
CAREFUL, OLD MAN: Doctors suggest "Wii Knee" will be crippling us all in the new year
You know when you think of a great idea, then realise someone’s already thought of it and done it before? And better? Back in 2006?
That’s what’s happened here. Doctors at the British Society for Surgery of the Hand and Leeds Teaching Hospital have teamed up to say they expect Wii-related injuries to rise, as the UK continues to go Nintendo MAD.
Calling the invented symptom “Wii Knee,” the boffins expect to see an increase in patients suffering from joint problems in the new year, all caused by enthusiastic Wii Bowling sessions. It’s almost as if Nintendo’s Wii is the first invention to have ever required a man to stand up and move about…
URGENT BARGAIN NEWS: Get a Nintendo DS Lite for £75 today if you ACT NOW
In a clever piece of pre-Christmas sales marketing, online tech-flogger Buyitplayit is knocking out Nintendo’s DS for only £75 – £24.99 less than your standard devastated wasteland high street retail price.
There are two catches – it’s only selling the frankly hideous turquoise and pink versions of the DS Lite so it’s only of use as a Christmas gift to any children you know under the age of eight or ironic media employees, plus the site is only selling 50 at the lower price…
Vodafone's IOU – a £2 PAYG credit loan when you're embarrassingly short of funds
Vodafone’s IOU service will channel an extra £2 of credit into your account when you run out, should you be out of mobile communication beans and simply HAVE to send that final sexy text before bed time.
There’s a catch, though – in return for handing you a £2 mobile loan, Vodafone will want it back the next time you top up, along with a 30p service charge. Vodafone has thought it through and will have you by the balls…
ENRAGED Jeff Buckley fans plan to scupper Alexandra Burke's 'Hallelujah' Christmas number one plans
The much-loved 1994 Jeff Buckley cover version of Leonard Cohen’s staggering Hallelujah is riding high in the charts, as FURIOUS Buckley fans mount an online campaign to stop a “cynical” cover by X Factor star Alexandra Burke earning the Christmas number one.
Thanks to the wonders of iTunes and the numerous other online record-flogging services that mean old records never die, the Buckley massive has already had some success – it looks like Buckley’s Hallelujah will end up at #3 in the chart next week, with Alexandra’s power ballad reinterpretation just pipping it to take the Chrimbo #1. Helping the bland warbler follow in such glorious festive footsteps as Bob The Builder, Mr Blobby and the Spice Girls…
