Author: Stuart Dredge
Awdio streams live DJ sets from clubs around the world
This morning, I got down to some funky sounds from a club in Hong Kong. And San Francisco. And Paris. And I don’t have a spot of jetlag to show for it. That’s because – ho ho – I wasn’t actually in those clubs at all. Instead, I was streaming them via new online service Awdio.
Apple patent hints at TiVo-style podcast customisation
Apple has filed a patent concerning its plans for next-generation podcasts, or as it calls it, ‘Creation, Management, and Delivery of Personalized Media Items’. Gotta love those patent titles, eh? And it’s about as murky in the actual description:
Torrent site Mininova notches up four billionth download
Bad news for the music industry: its efforts to stamp out file-sharing haven’t prevented BitTorrent site Mininova from notching up more than four billion downloads by its users. It passed the three billion mark just four months ago, indicating that it’s getting more popular, not less.
BBC to bring iPlayer to iPhone and iPod Touch
The BBC has announced plans to launch a version of its iPlayer TV catch-up service for iPhone and iPod Touch. “It will be the first of a transformation in people streaming long-form content onto a portable device,” said Anthony Rose, head of digital media technology at the Beeb.
Japanese engineers diss the MacBook Air
POW! Apple’s MacBook Air has a “perfect, sophisticated external appearance, but its insides are full of waste.”
Neck-based PC is a TiVo for your daily life
Microsoft is currently holding a Next-Gen PC Design Competition, possibly in an effort to dissuade people from being nasty about Vista. Pick of the entries so far is the Momenta PC, which looks like a futuristic necklace (albeit a big one), but actually works as a personal life recorder.
Criminals rejoice as infra-red headband flips CCTV the bird
Look, I’m as concerned about the increasing number of security cameras watching our every move as the next man – well, as long as the next man isn’t a mugger – but do I think the idea of an infra-red headband that foils CCTV cameras is a good idea? Hell, no!
London to get free hire-bikes, just like Paris
Late last year, I visited Paris and was introduced for the first time to the Velib system of bicycle hire, with Parisians able to pick up a bike, ride across the city, and deposit it at any of the docking stations spread around the city. Now London is copying the idea.
Opinion: Is the future of entertainment really free?
It was Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross who sang about the best things in life being free, although I doubt they’d have been so chirpy about it if they’d known that within years, millions of people would be merrily downloading their music from Napster.
MWC 2008: Hands on with the Readius rollable e-ink phone
It was at last year’s 3GSM show in Barcelona that we first clapped eyes on Polymer Vision’s Readius e-book display. The show’s name may have changed to Mobile World Congress, but Polymer Vision was still there this year, showing the latest version of the device, which is now a fully-fledged mobile phone, as we recently reported.
