Anthony Rose, who was speaking about what the BBC was hoping to do with iPlayer on the PS3 and other consoles, jokingly [but maybe for real] offered the hacker a job on his BBC blog:

“By the way, if the person who created the ps3iplayer port is looking for a job at the BBC, (s)he’s welcome to contact me ;-)”

The ps3iplayer port, according to said hacker, took less than day to create and allows PS3 users to access iPlayer by fooling the BBC servers into thinking your PS3 is a Wii - which the BBC has just started supporting. The hacker wrote on his site:

“It’s mainly a demonstration of how easily the BBC could support the PS3 with their Wii version. This does nothing more than mask your PS3’s user-agent string and makes half a dozen changes to make the JavaScript and CSS function correctly on the PS3. It only took a day to produce, so come on BBC - how about implementing this properly?”

Rose said:

“I was interested to read that someone has managed to make BBC iPlayer work on the PS3 by pretending that it’s a Wii. As you know, our aim is to make BBC iPlayer available on a broad range of devices. We’d love to be on every popular device tomorrow, including the PS3, and it was on our roadmap. However, the reality is that we only have finite developer resources, and we need to divide our development time between expanding the platforms iPlayer is available on versus all the other cool things that we’re working on (better video quality, personalisation, new site features, etc).”

So, give that hacker a job then and let’s speed things up.-Martin Lynch

TV BBC iplayer PS3

Those wacky Japanese will sell pretty much anything in a vending machine and it’s high time we got some of that 24-hour shopping experience over here.

Japanese sports brand, Onitsuka Tiger, which has a store off Carnaby St., has just launched a vending machine containing 24 pair of trainers in 6 different sizes.

The machine is available for use right now, at least until tomorrow, after which it tours the country in other shopping hotspots. No news on prices though but you can be sure they won’t be too cheap.

There’s even a chance you can win a pair, apparently. Sadly, my local Asbos would have this machine in the back of a nicked van before you could say: “Arigatou gozaimasu’.-Martin Lynch

[Retrotogo]

sport shopping gadgets

This is the Homade MP3 i-Player which looks like a Lego brick, weighs a featherweight 26g and joins a growing family of eclectic gadgets inspired by Lego, like the LaCie Lego Hard Disk Drives, the battling Lego Robots and the, quite frankly insane, Lego Flamethrower. Here are the key features:

Support MP3 and WMA playback
Plug and play
Supports up to 2GB microSD card
Build-in rechargeable battery
Support Windows 2000/XP/Vista
5 colours are available. Blue, Yellow, Red, White & Green
Size: 28 x 58 x 17mm (approx.)
Weight: 26g

It’s cute as hell and if you can get over the lack of an LCD display, you’ll have yourself one of the more iconic little players around. It costs roughly £23 here. –Martin Lynch

music gadgets MP3 lego

Hanif has built a very rough and ready Kalashnikov Burglar Alarm, designed to take a routine robbery to DEFCON 1 in a matter of seconds. The rifle is attached to a sensor, alarm and a speaker phone, which alerts him to a burglary in process on his mobile.

Hanif can then call the speaker phone and ask said burglars if they really think his threadbare carpet is really worth being shot for. If he doesn’t like the answers, he can open up remotely with the Kalashnikov.

Apparently, he’s working on something just as friendly to protect his car.-Martin Lynch

[Gizmag]

gun home gadgets

And, when you do actually manage to dredge up enough energy to get out of bed for another beer and nachos run, you can use it as a chair to help you get over all that exertion. Just before you lie down again.

Designed by Sung-kyu Nam, this ingenious device is the next logical evolutionary step, following on from the important Couch Potato and Bed Potato stages.

I’m sure though that there’s a whole lot of health reasons why having a TV that close to your eyeballs is bad for you and, lastly, why the hell is there a remote control?-Martin Lynch

[Bornrich]

TV home gadgets

According to Pearson, which owns Penguin and others, ebooks from Penguin, Dorling Kindersley and its travel division will be available for download from September in the .epub format, in order to meet rising demand. Penguin is already working on creating ebook versions of its 5,000 book back catalogue.

The first print/ebook titles to be published will include……

….Zoe Heller’s new novel The Believers, and the paperbacks of Elizabeth Noble’s Things I Want My Daughter to Know and Alan Greenspan’s The Age of Turbulence.

Genevieve Shore, digital director at Penguin said: “We have seen in other markets that the digital best-sellers are the same books making it to the top of the best-seller lists and we know our readers expect both editions to be available at the same time.”

Don’t be expecting any deals for saving all those trees though since the ebooks will cost the same as their pulp cousins. Hardly sounds fair.-Martin Lynch

[The Bookseller]

gadgets books ebooks

Purists will no doubt be drawing on the power of The Force for emotional equilibrium but you can’t argue that the guy has some skill. Steampunk tends to meld Victorian looks and antiquated technologies like valves, gears and clunky bits to create something both new and old in the same go.

Check out the very cool – and fully functional - Steampunk PC and an even weirder Steampunklaptop.

Here we get the key Stars Wars cast looking all old-new in one go. Sillof should get credit alone for making wimpy protocol droid, C-3PO, look dangerous.

I really like his take on Lord Vader although I’m pretty sure if you tried to put him in those thigh-high boots, you’d quickly find yourself floating a few feet off the ground wondering where the air’s gone.

Watch Darth doing a twirl for the cameras below and see the rest of the re-imagined cast here.-Martin Lynch

[Slashfilm]

star wars gadget steampunk

According to Pearson, which owns Penguin and others, ebooks from Penguin, Dorling Kindersley and its travel division will be available for download from September in the .epub format, in order to meet rising demand. Penguin is already working on creating ebook versions of its 5,000 book back catalogue.

The first print/ebook titles to be published will include……

….Zoe Heller’s new novel The Believers, and the paperbacks of Elizabeth Noble’s Things I Want My Daughter to Know and Alan Greenspan’s The Age of Turbulence.

Genevieve Shore, digital director at Penguin said: “We have seen in other markets that the digital best-sellers are the same books making it to the top of the best-seller lists and we know our readers expect both editions to be available at the same time.”

Don’t be expecting any deals for saving all those trees though since the ebooks will cost the same as their pulp cousins. Hardly sounds fair.-Martin Lynch

[The Bookseller]

gadgets books ebooks

Purists will no doubt be drawing on the power of The Force for emotional equilibrium but you can’t argue that the guy has some skill. Steampunk tends to meld Victorian looks and antiquated technologies like valves, gears and clunky bits to create something both new and old in the same go.

Check out the very cool – and fully functional - Steampunk PC and an even weirder Steampunklaptop.

Here we get the key Stars Wars cast looking all old-new in one go. Sillof should get credit alone for making wimpy protocol droid, C-3PO, look dangerous.

I really like his take on Lord Vader although I’m pretty sure if you tried to put him in those thigh-high boots, you’d quickly find yourself floating a few feet off the ground wondering where the air’s gone.

Watch Darth doing a twirl for the cameras below and see the rest of the re-imagined cast here.-Martin Lynch

[Slashfilm]

star wars gadget steampunk

This is the Teddy Bear Lamp from Suck UK, who’s head has been replaced with a standard light fitting. It’ll fit right in with all your other teddies, plonked on the desk with no head and a lampshade.

You just know that when you go to sleep this Frankenstein creature is going to stand up, climb down off the bedside table and march around the room terrorising all of the other cuddly toys.

The furry freak is due in June but you can pre-order it now for a not very cuddly £47 here.-Martin Lynch

[Shiny Shiny]

toys home gadgets

It’s a new approach to smoothing ruffled feathers, I’ll grant you, but at least Greg LoPiccolo, the head of product development at Harmonix, took time out on the company blog to address some of the issues surrounding the controversial price tag.

Rock Band is eagerly awaited by tens of thousands of Guitar Hero fans but news that the game, plus the instruments, was going to around £160-180, rocked fans to the bottom of their wallets. After all, the same bundle costs around £75 in the US.

LoPiccolo wrote:

“We’re not gouging you, primarily because doing so doesn’t serve our interests. We can only build our franchise if you buy our games. You may conclude that Rock Band isn’t worth the price charged, and that is your prerogative. But it’s not magically going to get cheaper because you wish it to be so.

“Seriously, I was shocked to learn how much it costs us to ship an RB peripherals box to Europe. It’s way more than you’d expect.”

While I understand that shipping costs, and the VAT effects of pricing in the UK, can push up the price of any product, I feel many gamers will still be wondering how this amounts to a price hike of almost £100.-Martin Lynch

[Forum]

games console xbox

It’s a new approach to smoothing ruffled feathers, I’ll grant you, but at least Greg LoPiccolo, the head of product development at Harmonix, took time out on the company blog to address some of the issues surrounding the controversial price tag.

Rock Band is eagerly awaited by tens of thousands of Guitar Hero fans but news that the game, plus the instruments, was going to around £160-180, rocked fans to the bottom of their wallets. After all, the same bundle costs around £75 in the US.

LoPiccolo wrote:

“We’re not gouging you, primarily because doing so doesn’t serve our interests. We can only build our franchise if you buy our games. You may conclude that Rock Band isn’t worth the price charged, and that is your prerogative. But it’s not magically going to get cheaper because you wish it to be so.

“Seriously, I was shocked to learn how much it costs us to ship an RB peripherals box to Europe. It’s way more than you’d expect.”

While I understand that shipping costs, and the VAT effects of pricing in the UK, can push up the price of any product, I feel many gamers will still be wondering how this amounts to a price hike of almost £100.-Martin Lynch

[Forum]

games console xbox

I’ve seen things like this before and this is little different. It’s the latest gadget designed to confuse and then freak out your mates. It’s small, has a magnet on the back for easy positioning and a choice of 2kHz, 12kHz or alternating sounds. You place it somewhere discreet and then listen as the Annoy-o-Tron generates a short but very annoying beep every few minutes.

“Your unsuspecting target will have a hard time ‘timing’ the location of the sound because the beeps will vary in intervals ranging from 2 to 8 minutes. The 2kHz sound is generically annoying enough, but if you really really want to aggravate somebody, select the 12 kHz sound. Trust us. The higher frequency and slight ‘electronic noise’ built into that soundbyte will make a full-grown Admin wonder where his packets are.”

Just make sure you’re wearing your Nikes when it’s found as you’re in for a good old-fashioned kicking. It costs £5 here.-Martin Lynch

gadgets fun joke

Firmware 2.30 is due out next week - in Japan first - and adds support for DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, bringing what DTS calls ‘studio-quality’ audio to your HD movies. This is joyous news indeed for home cinema buffs.

DTS-HD Master Audio delivers audio at a very high variable rate of 24.5Mbits per second (Mbps), which is a lot higher than found on DVDs. DTS-HD Master Audio also brings 7.1 audio channels at 96k sampling frequency/24 bit depths and there are over 100 Blu-ray movies and concert videos that feature DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks.

DTS-HD High Resolution Audio is a step down in terms of audio quality from DTS-HD Master Audio but still significantly better than what you get on regular DVDs. It streams audio at a high constant bit rate of 6Mbps on Blu-ray discs, and is also capable of up to 7.1 audio channels at 96k sampling frequency/24 bit depth resolution.

Of course, for both of these you will need a capable home cinema receiver and surround sound set-up to hear the results.

The 2.30 firmware update will also bring access to the new revamped PlayStation Store.-Martin Lynch

PS3 sony console blu-ray

The insanely popular iPlayer service, which has just reported 42 million downloads and streams in the last 3 months, will be a channel on the Wii’s Internet Channel.

Once the iPlayer service for Wii is live, a message will be sent to all Wii consoles in the UK currently connected to the Internet to let them know it’s ready.

David Yarnton, General Manager, Nintendo UK, commented:

“This exciting alliance with the BBC is yet another way in which Nintendo is looking to broaden the market for its products by offering compelling and relevant content to families.”

So the question now must be, when will it be coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360? Ah, there’s the glitch. The reason….

….it’s on the Wii alone now is that both Sony and Microsoft wanted too much ‘control’ of iPlayer.

Erik Huggers, Head of BBC Future Media and Technology, explained:

“If you want to get on the PlayStation or Xbox, they want control of the look, the feel and the experience; they want it done within their shop, and their shop only.”

So there. No console iPlayer for you then. At least for now.-Martin Lynch

TV BBC iplayer wii

The company has introduced the new S52 (non Wi-Fi) and S52c (Wi-Fi) digital snappers, both with 9MP resolutions and the space-saving, vertical NIKKOR lens with 3x optical zoom and VR image stabilisation.

Three key features in both cameras are Face-Priority AF, In-Camera Red-Eye Fix and D-Lighting, while there are 15 different scene modes to use when recording video. A macro mode allows for extreme close-up shots at just 4cm away.

Both cameras sport the wavy design and a 3in LCD display, while the only real difference is that the S52 has no Wi-Fi, so is a wee bit smaller.

The Wi-Fi on the S52c is a real bonus though, allowing you to transfer shots wirelessly with a simple click. Internet users can opt to use Nikon’s Picturetown online site which allows for a free 2GB of uploads of images and movie files.

The cameras launch in the coming weeks with the Wi-Fi enabled S52c coming in at £230, while the S52 has yet to be priced, but will be cheaper.-Martin Lynch

digital camera photo nikon

The insanely popular iPlayer service, which has just reported 42 million downloads and streams in the last 3 months, will be a channel on the Wii’s Internet Channel.

Once the iPlayer service for Wii is live, a message will be sent to all Wii consoles in the UK currently connected to the Internet to let them know it’s ready.

David Yarnton, General Manager, Nintendo UK, commented:

“This exciting alliance with the BBC is yet another way in which Nintendo is looking to broaden the market for its products by offering compelling and relevant content to families.”

So the question now must be, when will it be coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360? Ah, there’s the glitch. The reason….

….it’s on the Wii alone now is that both Sony and Microsoft wanted too much ‘control’ of iPlayer.

Erik Huggers, Head of BBC Future Media and Technology, explained:

“If you want to get on the PlayStation or Xbox, they want control of the look, the feel and the experience; they want it done within their shop, and their shop only.”

So there. No console iPlayer for you then. At least for now.-Martin Lynch

TV BBC iplayer wii

The company has introduced the new S52 (non Wi-Fi) and S52c (Wi-Fi) digital snappers, both with 9MP resolutions and the space-saving, vertical NIKKOR lens with 3x optical zoom and VR image stabilisation.

Three key features in both cameras are Face-Priority AF, In-Camera Red-Eye Fix and D-Lighting, while there are 15 different scene modes to use when recording video. A macro mode allows for extreme close-up shots at just 4cm away.

Both cameras sport the wavy design and a 3in LCD display, while the only real difference is that the S52 has no Wi-Fi, so is a wee bit smaller.

The Wi-Fi on the S52c is a real bonus though, allowing you to transfer shots wirelessly with a simple click. Internet users can opt to use Nikon’s Picturetown online site which allows for a free 2GB of uploads of images and movie files.

The cameras launch in the coming weeks with the Wi-Fi enabled S52c coming in at £230, while the S52 has yet to be priced, but will be cheaper.-Martin Lynch

digital camera photo nikon

According to the makers, it will make you feel well when you’re laid up by imitating your splutters and coughs every time you pluck a tissue.

Each time you reach for a tissue, it imitates your illness with one of five sneezing and coughing sounds. If laughter really is the best medicine, this hilarious tissue box will have you feeling better in no time.

Right. Personally, I’d rather suffer in silence. Still, when you’re lying at home in bed on a Monday morning, nursing the hangover from Hell and prepping for that gravely ‘I’m *cough* really sick’ call to work, the Talking Tissue Box can teach you some new coughing routines to help fool the boss.

Yours for £10 here.-Martin Lynch

[Random Good Stuff]

gadgets fun geek

The Bravia W4000 are to be the flagship tellys in its LCD range, offering Full HD (1080p) and 24fps support and coming in 32,40,46, and 52in flavours. Alongside the digital TV tuner there’s also a HDTV tuner, that can decode any Freeview, or other, HD channels you can find without needing a set-top box. Useful, but not really until the scheduled Freeview HD rollout in late 2009. Still, you’ll be ready.

Under the hood, the Bravia 2 engine offers 10-bit signal processing combined with the 10-bit LCD panel, to yield 1024 shades of gradation between colours compared to the 256 available from normal 8-bit panels. In real terms, Sony is boasting 64 times more colours for the W4000.

The style-conscious will be chuffed to note Picture Frame Mode which allows the TV to display photos like paintings when not in use, and comes with six ‘art classics’ - from Pop Art To Van Gogh - to get you started. Even the Sony logo on the front is subtlety illuminated by LEDs.

Stylish indeed, but at a price. The 32in will cost around £1,000 while the 52in comes in at around £2,200.-Martin Lynch

news TV HDTV

This is the bullish Steve Ballmer we all know and…. well, know, really. The Yahoo board has already rejected the Microsoft offer as too low but Steve isn’t listening. In a letter sent this Saturday to the board, Ballmer wrote:

“If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo! board. The substantial premium reflected in our initial proposal anticipated a friendly transaction with you. If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal.”

Ooo, that’s fighting talk. Yahoo’s board are expected to respond today and I expect that response to be along the lines of John Cleese’s lone soldier in a besieged castle from Monty Python & The Holy Grail:

“You don’t frighten us, Microsoft pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottoms, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you…..I don’t want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough whopper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.”

Or something like that.

See Ballmer in action below and tell me if that man really needs any more caffeine. -Martin Lynch

microsoft yahoo news

Speaking on a Beet.tv panel, Mossberg casually, but confidently, threw out the statement that the much anticipated 3G iPhone will be here soon enough.

“We all know that when the iPhone came out, it became crystal-clear that you were going to be able to carry in your pocket something that would give you a very good video experience. But again, broadband on these mobile phone networks is limited and I’m not talking about the fact that iPhone isn’t 3G, it will be 3G in 60 days.”

With T-Mobile slashing iPhone costs in Germany last week, it’s obvious that stocks are being cleared to make room for the new and improved iPhone.

Walt might not be Steve Jobs when it comes to confirming Apple rumours but he has so many good contacts that if he says it’s here in 60 days, then there’s a damn good chance that it will be.-Martin Lynch

iphone apple mobile phone