Tag: Europe
Brits get easier way to personalise T-shirts with CafePress UK launch
Anyone who’s been hanging around the Internet for a while will probably have come across CafePress, a US-based site that allows T-shirts and various other gift/novelty items to be personalised and shipped.
Nice idea, except for the appalling pound-to-dollar exchange rate at the moment, plus the added cost and delay of importing gear from the States.
Fear not! CafePress has launched its UK web site which should make it less of a hassle to get your designs to the UK and Europe…
US and Europe get Playstation 2 price cut
Sony has seen fit, 9 years after the release of the Playstation 2, to finally bring the price down under $100. The world’s best-selling console ever will be available for $99.99 in the US within a month.
Europe’s seeing a similar discount – from €129.99 to €99.99, but SCE UK is refusing to budge on the UK’s £93 price point. It won’t bother most people – you can get one for £20 on eBay – but it does seem a bit odd that we’re not getting the same reduction.
(via Techradar)
EU rejects 'three strikes' approach to filesharing
The EU has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a report that heavily criticises the ‘three-strikes’ law implemented in Frace that would kick filesharers off the internet after being caught downloading copyrighted content three times.
It’s been massively unpopular with everyone except the content industries, with ISPs in particular fighting against having to cut off their own customers. Greek MEP Stavros Lambrinidis fought back against the idea too, with his report being overwhelming voted in – 481 votes in favor, 25 against and 21 abstentions.
Whether or not this will force France to back down is yet to be seen. Sarkozy doesn’t have a great track record of obeying the EU parliament. Still, it should lessen the pressure on Irish ISPs who are being forced by their content industries to enact similar rules.
(via TorrentFreak)
Play.com sim-free iPhone 3G is legit
I must confess, when I saw the story earlier this week about Play.com selling unlocked iPhones, I was a little skeptical. It seemed rather ‘off the back of a lorry’.
Well, the company has explained where they’ve come from. European regulations insist that a sim-free version of any phone is offered, so they’ve shipped them in from the continent. Play reassures customers that they come with a ‘full manufacturer warranty’ and you’re encouraged to register it at the Apple website.
Play was vague on how well it’s selling so far, offering only the statement that “customer response so far has been very positive and orders are growing nicely”. As previously reported, the 8GB model is £550, and the 16GB will cost £600. Expensive, especially with version 3.0 only a few months away.
(via T3)
Vodafone Europe gets HTC Magic G2
Here’s news that Vodafone has exclusively snagged the HTC Magic G2 in Europe.
Voda has currently only managed to announce some fairly boring low-spec handsets at MWC, so official details are sketchy. Boy Genius Report, who ran with the story, reckon the Android-based handset will be 3G with Wi-Fi and have GPS. Mind you, that’s fairly standard fare these days.
Can’t say I’m overwhelmed by the sight of the handset, but hopefully some more details will surface that will inspire me…
RUMOUR: Samsung cameraphone hits 12 megapixels
In a couple of weeks, Mobile World Congress will hit, and we’ll have more mobile phone news than you can shake a stick at. Until then, we’ve just got all the rumours of the stuff that phone companies will release – continuing with this one. Samsung may be unveiling a 12-megapixel cameraphone at MWC.
What’s startling is their urgency to get this on the market. Sources suggest that it’ll hit production lines this month, arriving in Europe shortly after. I can’t help but think, however, that this is more of a marketing move than a technological one, and the image quality won’t be fantastic.
(via Engadget)
Related posts: Samsung cranks out 32GB DDR3 RAM sticks | Samsung W7900 “Show” – a projectorphone with OLED display and digital TV tuner
Dual-SIM LG-KS660 mobile set for the European market
Next to the very smiley Japanese lady in the picture to the right are two LG-KS660s, newly announced in Japan from LG. It’s headed for Europe but other than that, we don’t have tonnes of info yet sadly.
What we do know, aside from its dual-SIM nature, is that it’s got a touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, 8GB of internal memory, TV-OUT and USB connector. It’s basically a touchscreen version of the Nokia N96, in most respects.
We don’t have any pricing or release date info yet, either. Personally speaking, if I was in a bath, and I’d heard the news this was available, I wouldn’t jump out and head straight for the local Carphone Warehouse. I’d wait till I was done in the tub. Even then, I might make a cup of tea and dry my hair first.
(via Akihabara News)
Related posts: Dual SIM mobile phone could make dual tariff use less of a pain | LG jumps the wall mount bandwagon with the DV4M and DV4S DVD players
UK Lycos/Tripod users: you're unprofitable, get lost
There was a time when the black labrador at Lycos was a fairly common sight, but times change and the RSPCA may have to step in shortly to rescue the poor little mutt.
That is, if Lycos UK does to him what it’s doing to its email and web hosting users.
You see, it’s not very profitable running free email and web hosting services, particularly when there are much bigger (Hotmail) and better (Gmail) ones out there.
From 15th February, users with Lycos Mail or Tripod web hosting accounts will lose all of their data and no longer be able to send or receive emails. While I’ve not visited a Tripod page in about ten years, nor seen anyone in the UK with a Lycos email address for about the same period of time, a little piece of Internet history is slipping away…
EU starts waving around the ban-hammer at Microsoft again
Way back in 1993, Novell made a complaint to the EU that Microsoft was indulging in anti-competitive practices. After much to-ing and fro-ing, the EU eventually decided (ten years later, in 2003) that Microsoft had to make a version of Windows without Windows Media Player available, and in 2006 hit the company with massive fines, totaling £1.07 billion.
Fast-forward to 2008, and the makers of the web browser Opera filed a similar complaint, claiming that bundling IE with Windows makes it tough for others to compete. I’m not convinced that’s true – Firefox has 20% market share – but clearly someone in the EU still has it in for Microsoft, because they’ve now filed a new complaint against Microsoft saying that IE must be unbundled.
Interestingly, a similar complaint was filed against Microsoft in the USA ten years ago, but it didn’t stick, and Microsoft still bundles IE with its operating systems. It’ll be fun to see whether the EU agrees, and could result in another massive payout. Poor Microsoft. In the meantime, I’m sticking with Chrome.
(via Mashable)
Related posts: Psystar antitrust claim dismissed by judge | Microsoft extends availability of Windows 7 beta
"New Batteries Directive" could force Apple to ship European iPhone with removable battery
Critics of Apple’s decision to ship portable devices fitted with a non-removable battery may get their way if a new European Union directive is passed.
In simple terms, the “New Batteries Directive” is supposed to ensure that the batteries in gadgets must be easily removable prior to the device being disposed of…
