The notion that the UK might be punished for having so many iPhone users with hacked phones did seem a little far fetched last week when we covered the claims of one UK retail insider, but today it’s looking likely that the iPhone 3G is certainly not arriving as originally thought.
Today, it’s been confirmed that the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) - or Pay & Go - iPhone 3G has been put on the backburner for the UK and will not ship later this week on July 11.
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We all know the Japanese love playing around with robot technology, which usually results in a swathe or quirky but ultimately useless toys arriving in Argos just in time for Christmas.
We’re not sure quite what they were thinking with this latest model though, which looks like the lady of the house from the Robosapien family. I guess after releasing Robosapien Junior it makes sense to round things off a bit, but the female version, named E.M.A (which rather randomly stands for Eternal, Maiden, Actualization) has some rather strange habits.
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Asus, makers of the popular Eee laptop, wants us all to consider a greener IT purchase by unveiling its concept laptops and PCs made from bamboo. Not the first material you???d consider using but Asus says it???s fine, green and safe to EC standards.
They cropped up at the latest CeBIT 2008 event and attracted [...]
What times we live in. There was time when your kid’s play toys included firehouses, hospitals and police stations but that’s just so 1950s now, which is why Playmobil have released the Security Check Point.
I’m betting that’s one side effect of the War on Terror the experts didn’t predict. The blurb on Amazon [...]
The BBC is planning to sell its otherwise free programmes on iTunes. A selection of programmes like Ashes To Ashes, Little Britain, Life on Mars, Torchwood and others, will be available to download on iTunes for £1.89 per episode.
The irony is that you can get many of these programmes already - for [...]
The BBC is planning to sell its otherwise free programmes on iTunes. A selection of programmes like Ashes To Ashes, Little Britain, Life on Mars, Torchwood and others, will be available to download on iTunes for £1.89 per episode.
The irony is that you can get many of these programmes already - for [...]
One of the UK’s biggest DVD retailers, Woolworths, has decided to dump the HD DVD movie format in favour of its rival, Blu-ray.
This makes it the first major UK retailer to exclusively back Blu-ray and comes just a few weeks after key movie studios Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema defected to the Blu-ray [...]
Well, now it’s official. Microsoft has confirmed that Halo 3 will launch in the US on Sept 25, followed by Europe on Sept 26. This is earlier than predicted and points to Microsoft making an early dash to snag as many Christmas Xbox 360 console sales as possible.
The company claims that the game will ‘shatter’ one-day entertainment sales records and it’s probably right, considering 2.5m copies of Halo 2 sold in the first 24 hours. So far, over 14m copies of Halo games are in the wild. The multiplayer beta kicked off yesterday and already the signs are good.
Microsoft will be also flogging a special Halo 3 edition of the Zune music player sporting Halo music and artwork - after all, it needs all the help it can get. There will be three versions of the game on offer and I’ve only got US pricing so far: basic game $59.99 (£30), a Limited Edition for $69.99 (£35) and a Legendary Edition for $129.99 (£65). Just add around £20+ to each.
Jump now for a photo of the Legendary Edition. -Martin Lynch
That’s the rumour of the day, and possibly of the week, since the thought of Microsoft – staunch supporter of HD-DVD – sucking face with Sony – creator of rival format Blu-ray - is almost too much to stomach.
However, Japanese news site ITmedia had an interview with Peter Moore, Microsoft’s Xbox corporate VP of worldwide marketing and publishing, and he said that the Xbox 360 could have an add-on Blu-ray drive by Christmas, similar to the add-on HD DVD drive [pictured].
Owners of the portable HD DVD drive for the 360 drive might now be spitting cornflakes across their PCs, especially since it looks like they may have backed the wrong horse in the high-def race. Still, Moore was talking in Japan, where the PlayStation rules, and something like this could help boost the 360’s pitiful marketshare over there.
Does it mean that Microsoft, one of THE strongest HD DVD supporters, is losing faith in the format? According to the interview, Moore now thinks that the chances of HD DVD becoming the winning HD standard are looking ‘bleak’. Oh dear.
Still, good news for 360 owners that want to be able to play whatever movie format they like.-Martin Lynch
It had to happen, ever since LG stole the CES 2007 limelight with its BH100 Blu-ray/HD DVD player [above], and now it has.
Samsung has announced that it will launch its Duo HD player, the BD-UP5000, in time for Christmas. More importantly, it will fully support the HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BDR) interactive technologies, HDi and BD-Java, respectively.
Why is this important? Well, LG’s machine might be great for watching movies in both formats but, under the hood, it sucks when you want to use the menus and interactive content on HD DVD disks. This is a big let down. Samsung seems to be saying that the Duo HD will do it all. No news yet on prices.
“We are very pleased to announce the upcoming release of our Duo HD player,†Dongsoo Jun, executive vice president of the Digital AV Division at Samsung Electronics. “Consumers are hungry for more HD content but are currently confused about competing formats. Samsung’s Duo HD player will allow consumers access to every HD movie title available regardless of the authoring format.â€
This is good news for consumers and, with any luck, more manufacturers will see the light and start churning out dedicated dual format players.-Martin Lynch