Author: Stuart Dredge
Roland's Micro Cube: the 7.5lb guitar amp
Lugging great big guitar amps around is no fun, although if you’re a professional roadie, at least you get to nick the band’s drugs (ace if you’re on the road with Led Zeppelin, not so much fun with Babyshambles). However, the new Roland Micro Cube will give roadies’ backs a treat.
Okay, so it’s more for buskers than touring bands. It’s an ultra-compact guitar amp that’s powered by batteries or mains, and weighs just 7.5 pounds, despite squeezing in enough oomph to raise the hairs on passing commuters’ necks if you’re playing it down the underground.
Liveblog: Blyk promises free mobile calls funded by advertising
Heard of Blyk? You will. It’s a new ‘virtual’ mobile operator targeted at young people, which plans to offer free voice-call minutes in return for users filling out surveys and accepting targeted advertising.
The company is announcing its UK launch this morning, so I’m here liveblogging it. The latest entries are below, while clicking over the jump takes you to a full chronological report.
10.03: And we’re done. Here’s the basics: Blyk launches today in the UK, and it’ll be offering users free voice calls and texts in return for receiving text and MMS advertisements. It’s got over 40 brands signed up, including the likes of McDonalds, Coke, L’Oreal and NatWest.
You can only sign up if you’re aged 16-24, although when those 24 year-olds turn 25, they’ll be allowed to stay on. And there’s an authentication system to weed out older people masquerading as young folk to get free stuff.
YouTube Video Of The Day: Alicia Silverstone gets naked for PETA
I'm a vegetarian, but although I love my courgette and onions as much as the next man, I wouldn't show them on YouTube. Alicia Silverstone has no such hang-ups though, and has filmed a new ad for animal charity PETA that's basically her getting out of a swimming pool with nowt on, to prove that vegetarians are sexy Hollywood sirens, not lentil-chewing hippies who smell of cabbage.
It's been banned from TV, but YouTube is giving it a home. See below.
Wii gets X-OOM Media Centre to stream music, films and photos via Wi-Fi
Nintendo hasn’t exactly pushed Wii as a multimedia machine, preferring to focus on the gaming aspects first and foremost. But other companies have a different idea. X-OOM Software has just unveiled its X-OOM Media Centre product, which lets you stream music, movies and photos to your Wii from your PC, using Wi-Fi.
Top 5 YouTube starlets: Mia Rose, Esmee Denters, Marie Digby and more…
There’s a definite gender difference when it comes to musical YouTube popularity. The men who become hits tend to be the silly ones, miming to the Backstreet Boys or obscure Moldovan pop songs.
Meanwhile, the women who make it big through YouTube tend to be just talented singers uploading home videos of themselves singing cover versions or their own material. Okay, so they’re invariably young and attractive too, although that wouldn’t count for much if they couldn’t sing.
First Direct offers free text message banking to every customer
Personally, I’m insuring myself against the upcoming banking crisis by taking out every penny I’ve saved and sewing it into my mattress. But for those of you who’ve got accounts with UK bank First Direct, you can now get text message banking for free.
Pioneer unveils KURO plasma TVs promising deeper black levels than ever before
Pioneer has taken the wrappers off its new KURO plasma TV range, with a promise that the tellies will display 80% deeper black levels than their rivals (and so provide richer colours and sharper details).
The first two KURO TVs are 50 and 60 inches respectively, and will both be HD-ready 1080p models. What’s that? You want a suitably artsy quote? How about this: “In the art world, a plain white canvas represents a blank slate waiting for an artist to create,” says Pioneer’s Heidi Johnson-Cash. “In the world of television, a black screen is a similarly blank canvas ready for content to be displayed.”
Patent reveals Microsoft's amazing plans for Zune playlist sharing
Despite shifting more than a million units of its first-generation Zune player, Microsoft is constantly fending off accusations that the device has been a flop. However, with Zune 2.0 on the horizon, some genuinely groundbreaking new features might help it turn the corner.
Check this patent out. It was filed by Microsoft last year, and describes two features that could make Zune a contender. First: a system to analyse your music listening habits, and push new stuff down to your Zune (with permission, obviously).
FIQL TV: Turn your iTunes playlists into streaming YouTube video channels
As you’ll know if you’ve ever wasted half a day watching Shakira’s small and humble mountains greatest hits, YouTube is full of music videos. Some Web 2.0 firms have noticed this, and are launching services that make use of it.
The latest is FIQL TV, which lets you upload your playlists from iTunes, Windows Media Player and other music apps, and then turns them into streaming video channels by hunting for your songs on YouTube (if it can’t find anything for a song, it ignores it in the playlist). You can also create them on the site from scratch by typing in song titles and band names.
Canon makes the best photo printers, says survey
With everyone and their dog sharing photos using Web 2.0 services nowadays, photo printers aren’t the most high-profile consumer products. Nevertheless, there’s a bunch of companies still making them, and research firm J.D. Power and Associates has just ranked them according to customer satisfaction.
