Author: Stuart Dredge
Current TV snags interactive Emmy: will next year be Joost's turn?
It’s the morning after the Emmy Awards, with Ricky Gervais scooping Best Comedy Actor, and Dame Helen Mirren waltzing off with Best Actress Who Was In The Queen And Also Some TV Show. But Al Gore will also be feeling chuffed this morning, after his Current TV cable network grabbed the Interactive Television Services Emmy.
Now playlists are the subject of a big-money patent lawsuit
What is it with digital music and patent disputes? Following the hoo-ha around MP3 patents earlier this year, it seems playlists are the latest feature that could land tech firms in hot water.
At least, that’s what a company called Premier International Associates hopes.
BSkyB's new Sky+ advert claims to show What Women Think
Forget juggling a career with motherhood. The real dilemma for today’s high-flying females is figuring out how to go to dinner with their boss AND still watch Prison Break. This is what the suffragettes risked their lives campaigning for all those years ago. Really.
Okay, so it’s not. But it is the subject of BSkyB’s brand new TV ad campaign, which aims to show how modern women can resolve said dilemma by using the Sky+ remote record feature, that lets you set your PVR from your mobile phone. “Because you want to be in two places at once…”
Silver DS Lite coming to Europe
Does the world want silver handheld gaming devices? I’ve always been quite pleased that Nintendo and Sony have shunned traditional gadget hues in favour of sleek black or white devices (or, in recent times, multicoloured ones).
Nevertheless, Nintendo has announced that its silver DS Lite will go on sale in Europe on 12th October for £99, which the company optimistically claims is “the perfect accessory whatever you’re wearing!” What if you’re clad entirely in gold?
Mystery Photo Of The Week
Is this:
a.) Kanye West’s living room?
b.) Close-up photography of the inside of a Crunchie bar?
c.) The new Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory in Gifu, Japan?
Translate your cat with Meowlingual
If cats could talk, they’d probably be quite repetitive. “Stroke me!”. “Feed me!”. “Don’t disturb me, I’m licking my arse.” That kind of thing.
But maybe I’m being unfair, and cats have full and frank views on the global financial crisis, Steve McClaren’s managerial skills, and the merits of pirates versus ninjas. Meowlingual should be able to prove it.
Keep your gadgety green fingers clean with the USB greenhouse
And still the crazy USB gadgets keep coming. The latest novelty from Brando is the USB Greenhouse, which lets you grow drugs plants on your desktop without worrying about whether they’re getting enough sunlight.
Pros: Your computer keeps tabs on the growth status of your foliage, and you get free Marigold seeds with it. Cons: When future generations look back at the early 21st century, they’ll wonder why we were piddling about with USB greenhouses while the rainforests died.
Nokia N94i running Windows Mobile? Our fakeometer just exploded…
You might think the idea of Nokia releasing a Windows Mobile smartphone is ridiculous when it has its own Series 60 operating system. The vast majority of geeks would agree.
But if you’re the sort of person who’d rather trust obscure Thai auction sites offering blurry snaps of prototype handsets…
Well, you might want to check out this supposed N94i, which besides running Windows Mobile, apparently has a touchscreen’n’stylus, two-megapixel camera and MP3-playing capabilities. It’s up for sale on the Sanook auction site.
Opinion: Why is MTV not spreading the Britney Spears VMA video far and wide?
Stuart Dredge writes…
Seen Britney’s shambolic performance at the MTV VMA awards yet? If not, and you’re outside the US, you’ll be hard-pressed to watch it. Why? Well, MTV has the footage on its website, but it says it’s “not accessible”, which I think is because I’m outside the US.
But it’s on YouTube, right? Wrong. It was, for a few hours on Monday, but MTV parent company Viacom’s lawyers were quick on the case to get it taken down from there, and any other video-sharing site where it was posted.
It’s frustrating, because you’d think MTV would be keen to have the video splashed all over the web, given that on Monday morning, Britney’s performance was THE celebrity story around the world.
CatCam: another reason for your moggy to eye you with barely-concealed disgust
What does YOUR cat do at night? Mine hunts mice, catches them, and then either a.) eats them too fast before boking them on the living room rug, or b.) releases them to run up the curtains. There’s not much mystery to it.
However, if you have no idea what your mog’s up to, ever considered attaching a camera to it? I know you haven’t, but never mind: someone’s come up with the CatCam anyway. It’s a camera, with a controller for timed shots and a protective casing.
