Author: TechDigest writer
Plans for mobile reception on the tube abandoned
Do you remember March 2007? What stands out in your mind about it? If the answer to that question is "why, that's the month TfL announced they'd be trialling mobile phone reception on the underground of course", then prepare to be disappointed.
Two years later, they've decided it's not going to happen. Quite why it took so long is anybody's guess, but the reasoning can be helpfully pinned onto everyone's favourite excuse: the perilous economy. A TfL spokesman explained: "While it is technically possible to deploy mobile phone and data wireless solutions on the deep level Underground tunnels and stations, the unique nature and environment of the Tube mean that project costs would be prohibitively high at this time."
MSI Wind U110 ECO adds good battery life to the netbook experience
There are plenty of things to praise about netbooks. Their simplicity, their small form and their portability to name but a few. Battery life is conspicuously absent from this list though. To keep things small, batteries have to be scaled back – it's all a vital saccrifice. MSI's latest addition to the Wind family looks set to change this though, and the U110 ECO promises to offer an impressive 9 hours of uptime from a single charge.
Whether or not these are the kind of results we'd see in everyday use remains to be seen, as most manufacturers are generous in their estimates to say the least, but even if this is exaggerated by 2-3 hours, this is still an impressive increase. Current netbooks' batteries typically last between 2 and 5 hours, and early eeePCs like mine have been conciously underclocked in order to slow the drain.
Make St. Patrick's Day extra memorable with our top 10 drinking gadgets…
It’s Saint Patrick’s Day, and although that probably has some great significance to many, in my experience it’s mainly an annual excuse for people to drink heavily and wear green.
But that doesn’t mean you have to forget about tech for the day – no siree! Before you go out to celebrate one of Ireland’s patron Saints, be prepared for anything with our top 10 drinking gadgets! We’ve scoured the web for the most inventive, unusual, fun and simply baffling devices to help the day go off with a bang.
So sit back, grab a brew and click the frosty pint below to begin the tour…
Alan Martin
Gazillion Entertainment to publish Marvel comic MMOs
Given that every MMO outside of World of Warcraft seems to struggle, it takes some pretty big cajones for a publisher to announce seven in one go. Even bigger cajones if that publisher is a start up. The cajones take on some kind of monster proportions when you realise that said publisher has purchased the rights to Marvel Comics for the next 10 years, and will be using it in some of the titles.
Gazillion Entertainment has done just that. It’s a hugely ambitious statement of intent for a start-up with an impressive 300 employees. If you’re wondering why you hadn’t heard of them until today, the company has been operating in ‘stealth mode’ while it quietly snaffled up Netdevil last year in addition to its two other studios: Amazing Society and Slipgate Ironworks.
Introducing the Pocket Yoga – the netbook that never was
These days, with every man and his dog owning a netbook of some kind, you have to do something really special to stand out from the crowd. The Pocket Yoga seemed to have done that, kicking up a storm in the blog world – and then we found out its based on a concept from two years ago.
According to the Lenovo Design Matters Blog, all the images that appeared on their Flickr feed and got people talking about a netbook/tablet crossover are just that: images – two-year-old prototypes as a matter of fact, which would have put the company well ahead of the netbook trend. That’s a real shame because, as you’ll see from the gallery below, the pictures look like a stylish alternative to the popular smartphones of the moment. Although, that said, they clearly didn’t anticipate the handcramp that extended writing on an early netbook can give one.
So for the moment at least, you can chalk this one up to a misguided rumour. The pictures are real but they shouldn’t be amounting to much more. Pity.
To see what might have been, click the picture to look through the gallery.
Alan Martin
Lenovo’s Flickr Feed (via Design Matters)
House of the Dead: Overkill needs to wash its mouth out with soapy water
What with the Wii getting a reputation of having a younger demographic attached to it, it’s nice to see a whole host of publishers doing their level best to tarnish this wholesome image beyond all repair. First we had Manhunt 2 making you act out very blurry executions with the device previously used to groom ponies and make cakes, then MadWorld had us painting our screens with lashings of blood and now House of the Dead: Overkill has been honoured in the Guinness Book of Records for having the most swearing in a video game.
And “by golly”, this “mother-lovin'” game has got a lot of rude words in it. Indeed, the naughty protagonists drop an impressive 189 f-bombs during the length of the exceptionally bloody title. Let me put that into perspective: there is a grand total of three hours worth of dialogue in the game, which puts everyone’s favourite swear-word on an average of one per minute, or 3% of all the words used in the game.
Enough of these and the system may begin to be considered more adult (as distinct from “mature”), but for the moment it’s not giving the Disney games and veterinary sims much cause for concern.
Alan Martin
Sega Mega Drive to make a come back
If you’re one of those people who believe that video gaming passed its best the second we left the 16-bit era, then be ready to welcome a new console underneath your television set that will make the Wii’s graphics look cutting edge. Next month, Blaze – who brought us a handheld Mega Drive last year – will be bringing us a region free full sized version to co-exist happily next to your modern console of choice.
In fact, it has managed to outdo the original (which is just as well, given it’s had over 20 years to perfect the formula) by including 15 Sega licensed games in the system, as well as playing any old Mega Drive cartridges you haven’t had the heart to throw out. The built in games include Sonic and Knuckles, Golden Axe, Columns and Alex Kidd.
It comes with two pads for multiplayer gaming out of the box, and the website notes it’s just 45 days away with a 24th April release date. It’s got a not-unreasonable price tag of £39.99 on it, but if you just want a best of retro collection, you may be better served with the recently released Sega Mega Drive: Ultimate Collection on PS3 or Xbox 360. When they do the same thing for the Dreamcast, you can colour me very much interested.
Alan Martin
New Sega Mega Drive (via register hardware)
