Author: Paul Lamkin
Zappin – the mini Sony Walkman
Sony has announced a range of mini USB-based MP3 players that should more than rival the iPod shuffle in the gym bunny market.
The Zappin name comes from its functionality which allows users to listen to a five second clip of a song before deciding whether or not to play it. Handy if you’re working on your guns and you need to find the exact tune to pump you up and you’re unable to move your head to look at the LCD screen.
The players have 2GB of storage, can play WMA as well as MP3 and also have a built in FM radio. The battery life is an astonishing 18 hours from a single charge and the Zappin’s only weigh 26g. Drag and drop is supported so no need to install any software.
No price has been confirmed by Sony. Sorry about that.
(via Akihabara)
Playfish to release new game next week
Playfish founder Sebastien de Halleux has confirmed that the company plan to release their latest title, Crazy Planets, next week.
Speaking with Tech Digest de Halleux said the game would include “robots, explosions and lots of teaming up with your friends to blow things up”. Sounds good eh?
The title, as with all Playfish titles, will be accessible across a range of social networking platforms including Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. It will be playable via PC, netbook, smartphones….almost everywhere you can log onto to your social network, you can play Playfish games.
Previous titles have proved massively popular – Pet Society has almost as many gamers as World of Warcraft – a whopping 11 million.
Titles are free, although there are pay-for options within the games. de Halleux told us that in Crazy Planets this would involve customising weapons and planets.
We at Tech Digest like Playfish. Their breed of social network based gaming is a refreshing change to the usual gaming experience. Expect to read more about Playfish on the blog in the future.
Check out this sneak peak of Crazy Planets:
Twitter rearranges downtime to benefit Iranian users
Twitter has announced that their scheduled maintenance upgrade will now take place tonight at 10pm UK time. This is the middle of the afternoon in the US.
The move comes as a response to the crucial role that Twitter is playing in the ongoing unrest in Iran. The maintenance work was originally scheduled to run overnight in the US but this would have meant an afternoon blackout in Iran. The new time is 1.30am in Iran.
It’s a brave move by Twitter and it has to be applauded. The move also highlights what a major global communication force the microblogging service has become.
The Iran situation is just the latest of an ever increasing line-up of historically significant incidents that Twitter has been closely involved with. During the 2008 Mumbai attacks, eyewitnesses were reported to be sending around 80 tweets every five seconds as the tragedy unfolded. Some of these tweets contained vital information such as listing the dead and injured as well as giving emergency phone numbers and the location of hospitals that needed blood donations.
Earlier this year the Australian Country Fire Authority used Twitter to tweet updates regarding the Victorian bushfires. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also used Twitter to communicate with the Australian public during this period.
Prominent tweeters of the situation in Iran include mousavi1388 and hamednz. The hashtag #IranElection has been created if you want to follow tweets.
(via Twitter)
Opera Unite – eliminating the need for web servers
Norwegian web expert Opera has today announced the release of its Opera Unite service that promises to shake up the old “client-server computing model of the web”.
Opera Unite works by turning a computer into both a client and a server – effectively removing the need for a third party server to host data.
What this means for the average web user is that serving and accessing data should become much easier. A user simply selects folders on their PC that they wish to share. These folders will then accessible via web browsers at a designated web address. Opera have stated that the service should work with any modern web browser.
Apart from standard file sharing, Opera Unite also allows the creation of photo galleries complete with thumbnails and also allows users to play any mp3 stored in a shared folder within its built in media player. More savvy users can also host entire websites on their PCs should they wish to. There’s also a social networking aspect to the service.
If you’re still not getting the gist of it, here’s a little scenario to illustrate its potential:
Johnny goes on holiday to Alaska – he wants to see the grizzly bears. He takes his netbook with him, which only has an 8GB SSD. Johnny has planned ahead though and has set up his desktop back home to share his mp3s. He can now access all of these via his netbook from anywhere with a web connection. He can also save the photos of his trip on his netbook on a daily basis and share them with his friends and family back home without needed to upload to a hosting site like flickr.
Opera Unite is available with special versions of Opera 10, which itself is a pretty good web browser.
If you still don’t quite get it, maybe this video will help. (Warning: video contains dramatic American voice over and mood-setting music).
Tube Exits app – saving you valuable time
Ever find yourself running late for an important meeting and being further delayed by having to queue for that pesky exit at the tube station? No, well me neither – I’m not important enough to get invited to meetings you see – but one day I might be.
And when I am, I’ll use the Tube Exits iPhone app in order to beat the crowds. Available in the App Store, obviously, at an introductory price of £1.79 – which will rise to £2.99 eventually, so get in quick – the app promises to help commuters save valuable time by telling them exactly what carriage they should board in order to be expertly lined up for the exit at their destination or interchange.
Creator Lance Stewart came up with the idea after he himself was late for a meeting because of congestion at a tube station exit. He quit his job – which does seem a little bit extreme – and spent his time travelling around the London Underground network, visiting all 268 stations and working out all of the carriage to exit combinations.
The resulting app works below ground, as no internet connection is needed, and even allows the user to save their favourite journeys. This feature does seem a tad pointless to me though – surely commuters know where to get on the train for their most frequent journeys?
I’m not sure whether Tube Exits would be classed as an awesome app or merely a cr-app in our recent feature, but I reckon, sadly, it may be closer to the latter.
Windows Mobile only for Microsoft employees
Microsoft will no longer be paying for their employee’s iPhone contracts. Nor will they be paying for Blackberry or Palm Pre data plans, even if the phone is used for work-based activities. Microsoft will now only sanction expenses for Windows Mobile based devices.
It’s all to do with their massive cost cutting exercise apparently, but that doesn’t really make sense as plans are dependent on the volume of data downloaded, not the format of the smartphone’s OS.
I’m not really surprised that Microsoft have done this though, after all it was rumoured that Bill Gates had banned iPods from his own home.
I do feel a bit sad for the Microsoft employees who will have to put up with Windows Mobile, though. Good luck with that.
(via ZDNet)
Koogle – the search engine with a difference
Koogle, the kosher web search engine for the ultra-orthodox Jew, has been launched.
The search engine only works six days a week (no surfing on the Sabbath) and omits material that may be deemed unsuitable for the religion. Shopping results will exclude links to butchers who stock non-kosher foods, as well as blocking retailers who sell products such as televisions – banned in the households of orthodox Jews.
The word Koogle is an amalgamation of the Hebrew word kugel, a traditional Jewish baked dish, and Google, the world’s most popular search engine.
I just had a look at Koogle, and I’ve got to say it’s not for me. I don’t speak Hebrew for a start. And I’m not Jewish. But if you are an orthodox Jew then give it a whirl. Mind you, if you were an orthodox Jew then you probably shouldn’t be reading Tech Digest. Koogle bans us after all.
(via BCS)
RUMOUR: Android based Dell smartphone?
This post is going to consist of little more than this blurred picture I’m afraid. It’s supposedly the much anticipated Dell smartphone.
Little is known at this point apart from that it will probably be running Google Android version 1.5. The leaked photograph, courtesy of a Chinese PDA fan forum, indicates that it’s going to have a slide out keyborad – it looks very Palm Preish to me.
Apart from that, not much else is known, so we’ll just have to sit tight and see what happens. As always, keep your eye’s peeled on Tech Digest – we’ll be passing on any updates just as soon as we get them.
Virgin and Universal team up to offer unlimited music package
Virgin Media has announced that they have signed a deal with Universal Music to offer their customers an unlimited digital music service.
The move, which sounds a darned sized better than previous digital music services such asNokias Comes With Music, would mean users get unlimited access to DRM-free mp3s of Universal artists for a monthly fee, rumoured to be around £10-15. Users would be free to store these mp3s on any players of their choice.
Universal Music owns a huge number of record labels and artists available in the service will include the likes of Kanye West, Jack Johnson, U2 and Elton John. Virgin are also said to be in talks with other record companies.
The only snag is that you have to be a Virgin broadband customer in order to use the service. If successful though, hopefully other ISPs will get involved or similar services will be set up.
This news comes a day before Lord Carter’s digital review is due to be published. In it, he is expected to call for ISPs to offer more attractive options to music fans than illegal downloads. Virgin’s package will seemingly do just do that.
Virgin has also announced that it would be doing more to prevent illegal downloads via its network. They’re talking about educating users and may suspend Internet access for persistent offenders.
It will be interesting to see how other ISPs respond to this news and how they respond to Lord Carter’s report in general. It’s obvious that illegal downloading is a big issue at the moment.
Hats off to Virgin for being the first out of the blocks in response.
(via Reuters)
Finally, Nokia also presents…the 3710 fold
On a busy day for the Scandinavian phone giant, the announcement of the 3710 fold might just go a bit unnoticed.
That could well be a blessing in disguise as this phone looks like a phone from around 2001. It’s a budget option though (around €140) so I probably shouldn’t be too harsh.
It looks as if this one is being aimed at kids – it’s available in white, pink and black. The 3.2-megapixel camera, stereo music player and FM radio should keep them entertained and they do all of the file swapping they like with the built in Bluetooth.
It does also have 3G and is built on Symbian S40 so access to the web is also possible although surfing won’t really be much fun on a 2.2-inch QVGA screen.
I was never really a fan of clamshell phones first time around and I can’t see this model instigating a comeback.
