Apple unveils new 13-inch MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro

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Apple has taken the wraps off two new notebooks: the 13-inch MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro.

The 13-inch MacBook features a precision aluminium unibody enclosure — in other words, it’s constructed from a single solid piece of metal and is much thinner than its predecessor. Not as thin as the MacBook Air, of course, but not bad at 2.41cms.

The ultra-thin 13.3-inch LED backlit display is bright, yet the whole unit is thinner than its outdated LCD relative. It can display up to 1,280 x 800 resolution…

Microsoft Equipt launching in UK next Monday: rent Office software

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Microsoft has announced that it will be launching its Equipt software subscription service in the UK next week. We announced the service in July, when it became available to US customers for $70 per year.

The service offers Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Windows Live OneCare, and Windows Live tools for an annual subscription of £59.99 (the exchange rate rip-off is at work again). It will initially be sold through PC World.

Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy launching MEGAHOUSES to flog the UK electronics this year

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The UK phone-shifter and the American technology super-chain will soon publish their plans for selling us lot in the UK cheap electronics.

Over 100 electronics warehouses will launch in the UK under the Best Buy brand, as the tech-seller pushes out of its homeland to crush the likes of Currys and Comet over here. The plan is thanks to Best Buy’s deal to buy half of Carphone Warehouse earlier this year to push its expansion in Europe…

"Deepest ever" living fish has been found and filmed – Celebrity Fish Big Brother reportedly in the works

A team from the UK and Japan has managed to track down and film the deepest ever living fish. They found the 17-strong shoal chillin’ (literally) in a trench in the Pacific, 7.7km down from the surface. One of the scientists, Monty Priede from the University of Aberdeen, described the fish as “surprisingly cute”.

The future of Xbox 360 is orange – Sainsbury's starts selling the Xbox 360 Arcade for £99

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That’s £99 for a console that’s had its price slashed to £129 a couple of weeks ago anyway. Aren’t things in shops supposed to be getting MORE expensive?

As well as reducing the “entry level” non-hard drive Xbox 360 Arcade to £99 as from today as part of its pre-Christmas price warring, Sainsbury’s is also going against retail recommendations and selling the regular 60GB Xbox 360 for £139…

LG-KP500: UK's most affordable touchscreen mobile handset coming October

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LG has announced its latest full touchscreen mobile phone handset, the LG-KP500, which it claims is the UK’s most affordable yet. We’ll have to take the company’s word on that, because official pricing hasn’t yet been announced.

In fact, details are pretty sketchy all round. Looks wise, it’s slim, encased in black with a titanium rim. Features include handwriting recognition, on-screen QWERTY keyboard, auto-orientation when the handset is turned through 90 degrees, plus a motion sensor for gaming options.

Yes, it does sound remarkably like that “i” phone, doesn’t it, except it comes with a built-in stylus for more accurate tapping of icons. Presumably LG is more concerned over chunky fingers than Apple…

BT launching new Phorm trials – users can join in (or opt out in HORROR) tomorrow

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BT has announced some official-this-time new trials of Phorm’s controversial Webwise monitoring software – starting from tomorrow.

A select few BT users will be invited to join the latest and above-board trial of the ad-serving, browsing-monitoring software, with the pleasing result of seeing better targeted ads for Viagra as they mess about online…

Google Maps adds live traffic info for England

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In all honesty, I thought this feature was already active, but then I don’t drive, so what do I know? Nothing, clearly. Anyway. The Google Maps team has added live traffic information to major roads in England. Just England – no Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland just yet.

If you enable this layer on your maps, it’ll tell you what traffic conditions are currently like, as well as predicting what traffic will be like at any particular day and time, based on past conditions. Nice, Google. Now roll out Street View, please.

Google Maps UK

Related posts: Google Maps for Mobile gets Street View and walking directions | Google planning offshore, tax-evading, auto-powering, floating data warehouses

CONFIRMED: T-Mobile launching the Android-powered T-Mobile G1 in the UK this November

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Google, HTC and T-Mobile have all just pulled the covers off the T-Mobile G1 – the official name of the long-awaited “Google Phone.”

The handset features the “Android Market” – its equivalent to Apple’s App Store – and it does indeed use the Amazon MP3 shopping service as rumoured this very morning. As for release dates – the US gets it on October 22, the UK gets it in “early November,” while the rest of Europe must wait until early 2009…

Government says Phorm is phine – the spying ad software can be rolled out in the UK

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The UK government has said the incredibly controversial Phorm software can be rolled out in the UK – but users must be told first and allowed to opt-out if they wish.

The Phorm system, which anonymously tracks your internet usage so it can offer you targeted advertising, was secretly tested on a small group of BT users without their knowledge, creating uproar among the sort of people who like to create uproars about privacy issues. The EU then got involved, asking for clarification about the hows and whys of Phorm, thinking that it might be a BAD THING.

So, the UK government investigated and has decided it’s OK and that Phorm is fine. Here’s what it told the EU investigators about its Phorm phindings and how users will be put in charge of turning it on and off…