Author: Stuart Dredge
Opinion: Oyster-enabled Nokia handsets are the right kind of mobile convergence
A confession: I don’t have an Oyster card, being a hick from the sticks who still has to buy physical tickets when travelling into London. So the idea of swiping your way through tube barriers rather than holding up dozens of commuters as you squash your malfunctioning piece of card into the slot already feels space-age to me.
Broadband pipes may hold back Kangaroo TV platform, says analyst
We wrote yesterday about the announcement that UK broadcasters the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are setting up a joint on-demand video service codenamed ‘Kangaroo’. It’ll offer over 10,000 hours of new and archive shows, for streaming, renting or downloading.
Sony launching Christmas-themed Rolly music player… in Japan
Us Brits may have viewed Sony’s MP3 players with suspicion ever since the days when they used THE most user-unfriendly system for transferring your tunes on. Thankfully, those days are far behind Sony now, and the company’s recently-announced Rolly player looks to have the innovation to tempt us away from our iPod Nanos.
Opinion: What Amazon Kindle needs is… interactive book groups
So, Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader is finally on sale, and although there’s been a mixed reaction from journalists and users alike, Amazon has still won plaudits for the focused way it’s entered the market.
The key thing to remember is that Kindle is a first-generation device, so there’s scope for firmware updates to bring new features, as well as future models that’ll solve the flaws and introduce new functionality.
YouTube Hits: Electric guitar with built-in laptop
The headline says it all: someone's spliced a laptop with an electric guitar, although strangely NOT so they can play Football Manager while on-stage. Instead, it's to have all manner of cool visual effects while kerranging away on the strings.
Bright Blind is a fake window for basement-dwellers
Basement flats suck. They’re dark, dank, and you’re never more than 13 centimetres away from a rat. A couple of years living one, and you turn into a squinty nocturnal freak with Gollum-size eyes and ghostly white skin. So I’ve heard, anyway. But help is at hand. Bright Blind is the work of Japanese design collective Studio Mongoose, and is a fake window blind that’s backlit by electroluminescent sheets to give the appearance of a real window…
WordPress plug-in brings blogging to iPhone
Blogging from an iPhone? You’d need to be pretty ninja typing on the on-screen keyboard, but I guess there’s a market for it. If you’re salivating at the prospect, you’ll be wanting a new Wordpress plug-in called WPhone, which lets you blog from Apple’s handset.
Ooh, I could crush an elf, in IWOOT's Christmas game
Christmas is coming, and even the goose is saying “Actually, it’s still November, can we leave the Christmas preparations for another couple of weeks”. That line doesn’t scan as well when you sing it, obviously. Anyway, gadget etailer I Want One Of Those is celebrating early with the launch of its A Whiff Of Christmas Flash game…
Fring launches VoIP widget for social networks and blogs
VoIP firm Fring has continued its expansion with the launch of fringME (there’s an exclamation mark on the end of that too, but if I ain’t doing it for Yahoo, I ain’t doing it for Fring either – they should be pleased they get the capitals on the end frankly).
Blyk reveals early success for mobile advertisements
You might remember our report on the launch of Blyk, the UK MVNO that offers its customers free calls and texts in return for receiving advertising messages on their phones. Now it’s revealed some figures on how it’s doing.
