O2 has been publicly criticised by telecoms regulator Ofcom for not rolling out its 3G network fast enough. According to Ofcom, O2's 3G network currently only covers 75.69% of the UK population, when it was obliged to have reached the 80% mark by December.

Doesn't sound like a big shortfall? Ofcom says that amounts to around 2.5 million people who should be in O2 3G coverage, but aren't. If the operator doesn't pass the 80% mark by the end of June, Ofcom will reduce its 3G licence by four months, meaning it'll end in August 2021 instead of December 2021.

"We accept that Ofcom is enforcing the terms of our licence," says O2 in a statement. "However, we are fully committed to increasing our 3G coverage and customer base with the best quality 3G service and are confident that we will meet Ofcom's requirement before June 2008."

(via Billboard)

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If you're not aware that Nokia is relaunching the N-Gage, you should be. They've got it right this time, turning N-Gage into a platform that runs across (eventually) all of Nokia's Nseries handsets. And better still, the company is coming out swinging against comparisons with Sony Ericsson's rumoured PlayStation phone.

"I'm not scared about anybody," says Jaakko Kaidesoja, head of games at Nokia. "The real question is how do they [Sony Ericsson] do it? Can they create a link between the PSP games and a phone? Can they do the multiplayer and online stuff? We've been doing this for two years and it hasn't been easy."

Meanwhile, Nokia is preparing to commercially release the new N-Gage application for its N82 and N95 handsets, adding to the N81, while Kaidesoja says that making N-Gage games touchscreen-compatible is also on the agenda.

(via Pocket Gamer)

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Opera has announced that it's making Google the default search engine for its Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers, incorporating its search box onto the start page for both browsers from next week.

It's good news for Google, but bad news for Yahoo, which signed a similar deal with Opera in January last year - funnily enough, replacing Google. It's a big deal, since Opera claims Opera Mini alone now has more than 35 million "cumulative" users browsing 1.7 billion web pages a month.

It's not such good news for Yahoo, however - I wonder what happened during that year-and-a-bit to make Opera revert to Google. However, MocoNews points out that Yahoo recently pinched T-Mobile's mobile search contract from Google, so it's swings and roundabouts.

Opera Google announcement (via MocoNews)

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Hopefully, Blu-ray players will continue to come down in price, even though rival format HD DVD has fallen out of contention. However, there's always room at the top end of the market for super-expensive models for crazy rich people. To wit: Goldmund's Eidos 20 BD.

(No, it's nothing to do with Tomb Raider.)

The player is set to cost $17,000, despite looking like a big, heavy old-skool beige PC. Needless to say, you're paying for the circuitry inside, including an AC-Curator power supply circuit, and mechanical damping. But really, the main reason to buy it is so you can tell friends the price tag while settling down to watch Black Hawk Down again.

(via Born Rich)

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Hey, Sony is doing a pretty cool-looking Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots PS3 bundle. You get an 80GB PS3, the game, and a DualShock 3 controller. Just the thing if you've been waiting for Solid Snake before shelling out on Sony's console.

Oh, except there's one snag: the bundle will only be available in the US. At least, that's what Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is saying, as well as denying that a similarly attractive God Of War themed PSP bundle will be crossing the Atlantic too.

Personally, I think Sony should go the whole hog and make a true MGS PS3, which sneaks around your living room hugging the walls, then creeps up behind your Xbox 360 and slits its throat. Before lighting a fag. That would be cool.

(via PSPSPS)

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When Motorola first released the RAZR, there was much talk about its metallic-sheen and laser-etched keypad. But metal is SO 2005 when it comes to mobile handsets. The hot new thing in the mobile arena is electronic fabric. Well, it is if you ask designer Qian Jiang.

They've come up with something called the Soft Phone, a concept handset made from electronic fabric. So instead of jabbing buttons, you squeeze it to end a call, and stroke it to register inputs (for example selecting menu functions).

Meanwhile, all the hard bits - antenna, battery, camera etc - are housed in a clip made from squeezy silica, which hangs off the phone. It is regrettably unclear whether you can stick this in the washing machine at 40 degrees when it gets grubby, but hopefully there'll be a symbol on its label explaining that sort of thing.

(via Yanko Design)

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Hamster wheels, what are they good for? Absolutely nothing, apart from keeping you awake at night because they squeak even though you've hidden the hamster cage in the cupboard under the stairs under a blanket in an effort to get a good night's sleep. They're quite good for that.

However, it seems HAMSTERPOWER could be the next big thing for gadgetry, thanks to a smart inventor who's built a Hamster Powered Generator. That's right, Hammy scampers on his wheel, and a custom-built device turns it into electrical energy for your gadgets.

It relies on your rodent generating 40-60 RPM on its wheel, so won't work if your hamster's a lazy chubber. Now, if someone can commercialise this, we'll be able to take the little furry fella out from under the stairs at last.

Hamster Powered Generator (via Hacked Gadgets)

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To be honest, the name is the coolest thing about PiraBoogle, a new torrent search engine. It makes me think of salty seadogs boogling round a hornpipe. Whatever boogling is.

Anyway, the site is a mash-up of Google and torrent trackers, claiming to make it easy to search more than 50 of the most popular torrent sites - including The Pirate Bay, Mininova and Btjunkie. The developers knocked it up after recent publicity about Yahoo reportedly banning The Pirate Bay from its search listings.

That said, it's not hugely complex to make this kind of site - they've just used Google's Co-op platform to aggregate listings from the various torrent sites, then bought the domain name PiraBoogle.

PiraBoogle website (via Hypebot)

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