Author: TechDigest writer
New Mario and Zelda games to be unveiled at E3?
Are Nintendo going to announce new Mario and Zelda games at E3 next Tuesday? Well that certainly is the rumour.
It all seems to have started after Macquarie Research said: “We expect Nintendo to learn its lessons from last year and provide more gamer-centric announcements at E3 such as a new Zelda or Mario title for the Wii.”
Which certainly doesn’t sound to us like good solid fact-based information – it sound suspiciously like speculation. But well founded and oddly business-like speculation. But that’s the thing about speculation, it’s awfully exciting, sometimes more exciting than when the product actually arrives.
And you can’t deny, it would make sence to release a new Mario and/or Zelda game. It’s been two years since Mario Galaxy made its welcome appearance. Nintendo need to understand – people need more Mario. I need more Mario. We all, need, more, Mario. Come on guys – let’s have a Mario Party! No? Just me? And Mario…Not you Luigi. Nobody needs more Luigi.
(Via Play.tm)
Plastic Logic e-reader resurfaces at D Conference
E-readers are a funny old bread, the pushmepullyou of the tech world. The Kindle 2 was hailed as the breakthrough – the e-reader to get everyone e-reading.
But after getting to grips with one myself I found it e-lacking: Its electric-ink screen’s resolution is miserable, and its physical buttons seem at best clunky. It wasn’t as nice an experience as reading a paper book or a newspaper, and with no plans to release it in the UK anytime soon, the Kindle doesn’t look to be the saviour it was hailed as.
The Plastic Logic e-reader, which surfaced again at D Conference this week, looks like a big step in the right direction – toward genuine acceptance for the e-reader. Controlled using a touchscreen, the PL Reader is big enough to allow for the reproduction of whole newspaper pages as opposed to the linear appearance of news on the Kindle 2, which to me, still seems like a weird way to read a newspaper.
It’s creators, Plastic Logic, say its aimed at the business market, which has lead some to suggest it’ll have limited appeal and won’t replace the Kindle. May I remind them the Blackberry was aimed at the business market and now every errant 12-year-old cousin I have has one. And sadly, that is the true measure of success.
It’s on-screen keyboard might be harder to use than Amazon’s QWERTY but you can use a stylus to write on it (and apparently do crosswords – which is oddly exciting), and it’s design is certainly more appealing than the Kindle’s button mince. It’s got WiFi and 3G so connectivity isn’t an issue and with support for Office, PDF, Pages and a host of other files, the Plastic Logic e-reader may be a genuine contender.
As long as they can reign in their price-tag which might well be over £400.
Klipsch unleash mid-price Image S4 in-ear headphones
Audio nabob, Klipsch, has made their first foray into the mid-price earphone market, releasing the Image S4 in-ear headphones.
“But what’s really cool,” claim Klipsch, is that “the S4 uses the same proprietary ear tips as its pricier predecessors,” thus giving the S4 the same capacity for noise isolation as its snazzier siblings.
“People have less disposable income these days. Therefore, we felt it was necessary to develop reasonably priced, high-performance earphones that go above and beyond what you’d expect from the stock earbuds that come with your MP3 player,” said Klipsch dude, Mark Casavant.
Unlike circular-shaped designs that abound on most other in-ear phones, Klipsch’s oval ear tips naturally fit the contours of your ear canals, apparently providing comfortable long-term wear. This virtually bespoke fit creates much cleaner more refined bass and better noise.
“Once you have the right fit and seal, these earphones are virtually impossible to feel – letting you listen longer and better,” said Mark Blanchard, inventor of the company’s oval ear tips.
The Image S4 will be available in a piano black finish with three different-sized oval ear tips, an ear-tip cleaning tool and a compact, crush-resistant aluminium case.
Nokia 6700 to go on sale Friday
The Nokia 6700 will go on sale in the UK on Friday for £269.00 SIM free.
The much-anticipated successor to one of Nokia’s biggest ever selling handsets, the Nokia 6300, the Nokia 6700 is available to pre-order at www.nokia.co.uk/6700preorder from today and will be available from all other operator and retail partners from Friday 26th June.
The mid-range 6700 isn’t a feature heavy as high-end smartphones but it does wield a 5 megapixel camera, assisted GPS navigation with Nokia Maps, and high speed data access.
It also comes with access to Nokia’s useful Ovi portal and app store aswell as other webservices including Flickr and Facebook. It provides an Internet experience using Webkit’s open source browser.
Mark Loughran, Managing Director of Nokia UK, said, “The Nokia 6700 is set to be one of our biggest selling devices for 2009 taking its style from our premium devices and incorporating expert functionality it will redefine what is expected from a mid range device making it a worthy successor to the Nokia 6300.”
Twitter users duped into scam by promises of more followers
Despondent Twitterers, sad that their tweets are going unheard, except by their small band of uninterested followers, have been resorting to clicking a link which reads: “OMG I got over a 1000 followers from http://twittercut.com”. They’re then directed to a fake Twitter site and are prompted for their username and password.
The tweet then gets re-sent from their account along with one directing followers to a dating website. The fake site has accrued at least 13,000 unique user views over the last two days.
Remember you’re tweeting as much for yourself as you are for your followers. Eventually they’ll start following, and if they don’t, you know what they say? Give up and don’t go back.
Microsoft unveil Zune HD – still not sexy
Microsoft has announced the arrival of the Zune HD, portable media player. The new Zune will aim to be a web surfing, digital radioing, multi-touch screened thorn in the side of the smug iPod touch.
Boasting a yummy 3.3 inch OLED screen (with 16:9 ratio) and HDMI output it looks like Microsoft are finally getting serious about taking on Apple’s iPod, although no comment was made as to the capacity or pricing of the new Zune.
You’ll be able to use the Zune to watch 720p HD video on your HDTV too, which is pretty neat. But looking at the release pictures, it doesn’t look like the Zune is going to rival the iPod in the sexyness stakes. Although an improvement on the original Zune which was undeniably hideously proportioned, the new Zune is still far from sexy.
Think of it as going from Nora Battie to Sonia Jackson – it’s only a bit better.
Microsoft might have done better to spend all the money they’ve spent on developing the Zune trying to tempt Jonathan Ive to come over to the dark side. Sorry, did I say dark side, I meant Microsoft, easy mistake to make.
(Via TechTree)
Scandal: UK's appaling internet speeds exposed
The UK’s woeful internet speeds were exposed today after it was revealed that three million homes in the UK have broadband speeds of less than 2Mps.
These so called, notspots, are not merely confined to rural communities but extend to streets in major towns.
The limiting affect of a bad broadband connection on a user’s internet experience is marked. Those people in poor connection areas can’t view certain webpages or use certain web tools such as Flickr, Facebook and iPlayer.
Samknows.com have compiled this handy map so you can see roughly what speed you’re getting in your neck of the woods.
Stroud appears to have a reasonable connection speed or 16Mps, which seems a tad pointless being that nobody in Gloucestershire owns a computer, I’m kidding they have computers, but they all use dial-up. Broadband is banned in Gloucestershire, they think its witchcraft.
The UK’s average connection speed of around 5Mps is a full 15Mps slower than world-leader Singapore, who enjoy blistering 20Mps internet, but even that is still a full 20Mps slower than the fastest domestic connection in the world which belongs to Sigbritt Löthberg, a 78-year-old from Karlstad, Sweden. But apparently all she uses it for is to go on garfieldminusgarfield.net. Bless her.
(Via BBC)
Sony to release 21 inch OLED TV by end of year with Samsung 40 inch to follow
Large OLED TVs will be a reality by the end of the year with a raft more to follow 2010. But one does feel compelled to ask, whats the bleeding point, if a 21inch model costs upward of £5000? I don’t if you’re Garry Gadget, surely for that money, any sane person would buy a 65 inch HD with enough change left over to buy a 22 inch HD LCD.
Seiko Epson Corporation today announced it has developed inkjet technology that allows for the uniform deposition of organic material in the production of large-screen OLED televisions. This marks a big step to resolving the uneven layering that had previously hindered the mass-scale production of large screen TVs.
But it looks like it might be Sony who is the first to release a large-screen OLED TV after demoing a 21 inch model at the Flat Panel Expo in Japan, with Samsung releasing a 31 inch or 40 inch model soon thereafter.
OLED looks to be the future of TV, with wide viewing angles, amazing richness depth and blacks that would make the night look positively luminsecent, but at prices that would make even the most spendthrifty wince it might be a while yet before an OLED panel makes its way into everyones homes.
(Via Akihabara News)
PRS for Music cuts online streaming rate, Jonathan from Spotify is delighted
Royalty collector PRS for Music has cut its online streaming rate from £0.0022 per song to £0.00085 per song, which is music to the ears (punilicous) of struggling online music services.
The decision comes after a lengthy consultation with music industry heavyweights and new media professionals who argued that by making music more readily available the publishers and artists stood to make more money in the long run.
We7 CEO Steve Purdham, said: “On first glance, this looks like a good step in the right direction and it is pleasing to see that the PRS has listened to many of the consistent views from the consultation period. It is these minima which significantly affects the evolution of new digital businesses and the PRS have done a good job in going some way to address this problem.”
PRS is, however, authoring new Online Music Licenses which will replace the old Joint Online License, meaning PRS is sticking to the notion that the artist should be paid everytime their song is played. Even it is Flo Rida. Seriously who is listening to Flo Rida – whoever you are, will you ruddy stop please. He’s just awful.
Sennheiser introduce Series II Style in-ear headphones
Sennheiser have released three new in-ear headphones, the CX 550 STYLE II, OMX 95 VC Style II and MX 95 VC Style II.
Aimed squarely at well-groomed, jogging, Audi drivers the Style II series all feature premium quality crafted metal designs and are “optimized for iPod,” (Just how? That’s what I want to know).
They all wield “extra-powerful neodymium-iron magnets” which are sure to sound loads better than the buds bundled with your mp3 player do.
They also come with a snazzy case to put them in for that 1% of time they aren’t wrapped around your iPod – we all know we’re not meant to but we do it anyway, because its easier right, so deal with it.
The CX 550s feature ambient noise dampening and are designed to stop sound leakage annoying other passengers but retailing at £80 you might want to try the cheaper alternative the OMXs at £60 or the MXs for £40.
