Author: Daniel Sung
ViewSonic PJD535 & PJD5111: 50-inches of short throw DLP power
Projectors are sadly much more fun than they are cheap but ViewSonic is offering to ease the pain with the announcement of two affordable units. Meet the entry level PJD5111 and the short-throw PJD535. The two look more or less identical, so I’m only including the image of the latter. Trust me, it could be a spot the difference puzzle.
The PJD5111 weighs 2.3kg, offers an SVGA resolution of 800 x 600, a very reasonable brightness of 2,500 ANSI lumens and a contrast ratio of 2,800:1. Essentially, it should be enough to give a good picture under reasonable light conditions.
There’s also plenty of image fixing modes and ports in the shape of dual RGB inputs, RGB output, composite S-Video and audio in/outputs too. It’s out from May, but, if you’d rather spend a little more you can opt for the ViewSonic PJD535.
It gives you ever so lightly less in the way of contrast (2400:1) but makes up for it with a better 1024 x 768 XGA resolution. It’s also so short throw that you can get 50″ pictures from it at just 0.9m.
Both machines guarantee at least 4,000 hours of bulb life and work on non-degradable DLP light processors. No prices as yet but, I’m thinking the £500 – £1,000 bracket.
ViewSonic
Genuine nightvision goggles and other HM Forces toys
If you don’t want a pair of £99 nightvision goggles, you’re either Swiss or dead. These are part of the British HM Forces foray into the world of “toys” except these bad boys actually give you genuine, green, infra red-assisted night vision at up to 15m.
You only get monocular vision, as you do with the fully-fledged squaddie units, but, of course, in the land blind, the one eyed man is the guy that’ll sneak up, steal your mobile and give you a wedgie for good measure. If you don’t plan on sending your children out into the forest at night to gather wood, then you’ll be pleased to see HM Forces has also released a selection of 10 scale model toys too, as well as a few bits of dress-up costume.
There’s action figures of servicemen from the RAF, Navy and Army and each one is a perfect replica of just how they big guys should look. My personal favourite is the Royal Navy Diver complete with tank and flippers.
The collection has come as a response from the services as a frustration at how inaccurate other military action figures have been. No word as to the level of realism once down to the action pants. Come on, you were all thinking it. Weren’t you? Oh.
Activision announces DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5 & Band Hero
It’s long been mooted and now it’s official. Activision is releasing a dance music version of their music games called DJ Hero. It’s coming out this autumn and just in time for the Christmas rush.
The turntable controlled title will be accompanied by the fifth version of Guitar Hero and a family friendly incarnation of the rock classic simply called Band Hero. GH5 sounds pretty much identical to World Tour except with a new track list. You’ll be able to change difficulty levels, band members and swap in and out of songs on the fly but that doesn’t seem like ground breaking stuff. Still, looking forward to it nonetheless.
Band Hero will feature poppier top 40 hits and is generally designed not to scare off mums, dads and a few girlfriends too, whereas is DJ Hero is for hip-hop, R&B, Motown, electronica and dance. Looking forward to the track lists. Got my fingers crossed for some gangster rap.
(via Slashgear)
Xerox ColorQube revolutionary solid ink printer
You won’t often catch me writing about printers but then it’s not often that a revolutionary one comes out. Meet the Xerox ColorQube or at least its colour ink cartridges, anyway. Unlike most printers, these ones are solid and not powder or liquid.
These waxy lumps are melted down and sprayed onto the paper and work out around 62% cheaper than normal cartridges which would be fine if the ColorQube didn’t cost $20,000 in the first place.
The new technology is all part of Xerox’s plan to get people to print in colour. Last year, of the forest flattening 2.25 trillion pages printed in offices worldwide, just 15% were printed in colour, largely because, until now, it’s cost a bomb.
The ColorQube runs off pages at 85 per minute and is apparently perfect in every other way except for the typo.
(via WSJ)
Britain's top 20 tweeters by posts
Jonathan Ross is the UK’s most influential Twitterer and that Mashable’s Pete Cashmore has the biggest number of followers for a Brit (though we know he spends lot of time in San Francisco these days), but the question that I really wanted to know the answer to is who in the UK tweets the most?
Is it a very bored person in a dull job whose boss hasn’t yet got round to mastering email let alone micro blogging or a social media advocate who has to spend days following everyone and retweeting influentials cos that’s the main part of their job description?
So, some time in April, I started a on a mission to find out who the UK’s top twitterers are.
I guess I was just intrigued by how often people use Twitter and why they use it. Perhaps, most importantly, what kind of people are posting 20 plus tweets a day. Are they as immoral as the Daily Mail thinks they might be?
If you want to do a worldwide list of top tweeters this is very simple. You go to Twitterholics main list and click the tab marked Updates. You’ll then discover that, at the of writing anyhow, it is Internet Radio, which is basically using Twitter to tell its few followers what tunes various web based radio stations are playing. You then have to scroll down a long way before you reach a real person in the guise of Big Willie who has racked up an astonishing 55,000 tweets in six months. He is quite possibly cheating, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now as I can’t be bothered to spend hours combing through his many pages of tweets.
As for the UK, well the Twitter feeds for media groups like Popbitch, Q radio and The Daily Telegraph are highly popular, but they aren’t really people so I haven’t included them.
There’s also the added difficulty of there not being a single location for the UK which makes it very tricky using Twitterholic. So while I trawled through lists for most of the country’s biggest conurbations, if you are a heavy tweeter in St Neots, Lowestoft or Camspey Ash, I probably missed you.
I did think I had found a winner in Dave Pattern who had racked up over 50k tweets in a couple of years. He did DM me to confess though that many of those tweets were library codes and so he gracefully ducked out of my little poll.
So the real winner, unless you know different, is a web designer from Leeds who goes by the name of Shubox. He is likely to be the first Brit to reach 50k tweets which is a pretty amazing achievement as he needs to have been averaging an impressive 60-ish tweets a day. I DM-ed him but got no response, so I wonder too if he has been tampering with library codes, playlists or something even more sinister.
My number two, Robert Brook has agreed to a mini interview via DM which you can read here very shortly. If you have questions as to why he tweets so much and what he tweets about etc and don’t fancy wading though 35k tweets then tweet me @shinyashley
So here’s the list. I will fess up now that, although it has taken me ages to compile this list, it is quite possibly wrong on many counts, So, if I missed someone please let me know. It would be good to publish a more definitive list in a few weeks time
1 Keith Murdoch (shubox)
47,562 tweets
On Twitter 28 months
Britain’s most prolific tweeter (unless you know different) bills himself as a ‘Scouse Artist living in Leeds as a Web Designer! Occasionally known as Supasnail.’ Like many prolific tweeters he has been on Twitter a long time, but only has a comparatively small amount of followers
Mainly tweets about – Fairly serious tech stuff, Liverpool FC and Rhubarb
Sample tweet – I was often amazed that a Farm in Wakefield seemed to reject tonnes of Rhubarb each year. It’d be piled high for weeks.
2 Robert Brook (robertbrook)
35,411 tweets
On Twitter 32 months
Robert works for the UK parliament as part of skunkworks team, which, if like me you haven’t a clue what that is he defines it as: a group within an organization given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy.
Mainly tweets about – Descriptions about what he is up to (you get to know what he has eaten and when he goes to bed most days)and conversations with other tweeters, plus lots of stuff about getting parliamentary staff using Twitter (now there’s a good idea)
Sample tweet – Bt have sent me a letter about my wife’s death. She’s right here!
3 lo fi (infobunny) London
28,702 Tweets
On Twitter 26 months
Lo fi remains a mystery as she protects her tweets. She’s a librarian which makes me suspicious that she might be doing something with library codes. She also blogs at a cool little site at twitterapps.co.uk
4 Amanda (Hedgewytch)
28,542 Tweets
On Twitter 20 months
Hedgewytch describes herself as a ENFP Mac Support general creative wannabee. Don’t know much else about her as she protects her tweets, but 28k tweets in 20 months sounds like she is either obsessed with Twitter or has been using it for something else interesting.
5 Danie Ware (Danacea)
25,920 Tweets
On Twitter 26 months
Danie is a PR for @forbiddenplanet (dotcom!) and also a Writer, Warrior, Fitness Nut, Geek, Gamer, Art Toy Freak, Mum and Lemur!
Mainly tweets about – Lots of chat with her many followers. Also lets you know how she is faring with the book she writing.
Sample tweet – in dire need of wine. There’s a bottle of Vino Collapso in the fridge calling me – but must finish chapter and put my son to bed first…
6 Jennie (jaffne)
18,340 Tweets
On Twitter 24 months
Another Librarian, this time for a law firm. She also protects her tweets. There’s plenty of legal stuff on her blog.
7 Sizemore (sizemore)
18,163 Tweets
On Twitter 29 months
Sizemore is Mike Atherton, a London-based writer who is not only prolific but also has a lot of followers and is occasionally rather witty.
Mainly tweets about – Lots of TV-related chat with his many mates
Sample tweet – Hello Dublin. Extra points scored for listening to Come Fly With Me by Sinatra while playing FlightControl in the air.
8 Steve Lawson (solobasssteve)
16,614 tweets
On Twitter 15 months
Steve Lawson is a lovely bloke who is quite possibly the world’s best connected bass guitarist. He blogs, lectures, makes vids and from time to time still finds time to play his bass
Mainly tweets about – lovin his bass and his podcasts
Sample tweet – in a sound war of bass vs power tools, I *could* win… but today, I’ll valiantly surrender 😉
9 James Governor (monkchips)
16,405 posts
On Twitter 29 months
James Governor (yep I think that’s his real name) is an industry analyst whose Twitter feed is chocka with interesting little insights into the way he sees the tech world going.
Mainly tweets about – Big companies like IBM and Amazon and the ecosystem that surrounds them.
Sample tweet – Get Excited and Make Things. Work on Stuff That Matters. Ignore Everybody.
10 Charonqc (Charonqc)
16,392 Tweets
On twitter 11 months
Legal blogger – sometimes very funny
Mainly tweets about – getting fit and other law companies
Sample tweet – Allen & Overy is now following me… that’s nice. I wonder what they will get from the experience? They issue lots of bulletins on Twitter
11 Suw (Suw) London http://chocolateandvodka.com
14,306 Tweets
On Twitter 29 months
The original British social media guru who has a very fine and very popular blog. Twitter feed is a must.
12 PaulWalsh (Paulwalsh)
13,869 Tweets
On Twitter – 29 months
Irish entrepreneur and start up guru who spends a lot of time in London. Can be very funny.
13 dominiccampbell (dominiccampbell)
13,621 tweets
On Twitter 22 months
Works on developing social media strategies for governments.
14 amypalko (amypalko)
Tweets 13,496
On Twitter 15 months
Bio says – ‘Fascinated in everything with a limitless curiosity – I live in a state of constant intrigue. ‘ Works in social media then.
15 joannayoung (joannayoung)
13,091 Tweets
On Twitter 20 months
Writing coach who has an interesting blog. Lots of details about her daily life.
16 Ram Solanki (jun6lee) London http://blog.ramchandra.me.uk
12,626 Tweets
On Twitter 22 months
Aspiring screenwriter. Lots of stuff about veggie food.
17 adamjones (applemacbookpro) London http://macbookismydream.blogs…
11,605 Tweets
On twitter 15 months ago
Given the title of his feed no surprise to find he has lots of followers. Lots of tech stuff and many retweets
18 Chris Leydon (chrisleydon) london http://www.chrisleydon.com/blog
11,440 Tweets
On Twitter 13 months ago
Astonishing tweet ratio from this 20-year-old who actually went cold turkey on Twitter a couple of months ago.
19 James Whatley (Whatleydude) London http://whatleydude.com
11,390 Tweets
On Twitter 25 months
Social media for voice to text people Spinvox
20 Phil O’Kane (icedcoffee)
Tweets 11,066
On twitter 26 months
Belfast-based photographer
Average broadband speeds break the 4Mbps barrier in the UK
The average broadband connection in the UK provides over 4Mbps for the first time according to broadband.co.uk. No particular mention of upload rates but then I guess we’re all a bunch of web leechers, right?
The figure are up from 3.2Mbps on last year’s study with Virgin Media still the fastest, closely followed by O2. Naturally, quality of service is not included in this accolade but, of course, the real issue is that with the likes of iPlayer, the popularisation of video streaming and now HD in the equation, we’re using even more bandwidth than ever. Ergo, we’re not actually getting a faster browsing experience.
Having a quick look, I’m getting speeds of an average of 5Mbps plus here at Shiny Towers. What are you getting where you are? Send in your average speeds to @techdigest with an @reply and we’ll see who’s the winner. In the mean time, I’m off to Korea for some proper internet access. Not North.
T-Mobile MDA Compact V with CoPilot out this month
T-Mobile is launching a smartphone of their very own into the wild on 21st May known as the MDA Compact V, or the HTC Diamond 2 to anyone else.
It’s a 3.2″ touchscreen device running Windows Mobile 6.1 (upgradeable to 6.5) and the big push is that, like all good TVs these days, it comes with a bunch of internet widgets on the desktop for easy web app access.
It’s got a 5-megapixel snapper with flash and it comes preloaded with a week-long trial of sat nav software CoPilot. However, from 1st June the first 10,000 people to buy the handset will get the benefit of the trial software for a whole year.
The MDA Compact V can be yours free with contracts over an extortionate £50 per month. iPhone 3G anyone?
UPDATED: HANNspree gets involved in the netbook market
The maker of weird and wonderful monitors, TVs and assorted tech, HANNspree, has announced its plans to get involved in the old netbook game. ‘Ardest game in the world, that is.
The Taiwan based company is promising to use their “expertise in unique design and quality display manufacturing to create, what we believe, will be the new fashion accessory for the modern gadget lover that demands style”. Not sure if that means making a computer that looks like a hamburger or not. That’s as specific as they’ve got on looks.
What they have told us is that it’ll have a 10″ LCD display, a full size keyboard, a 1.3MP Webcam, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It’ll also come with a 6-cell battery, weigh 1.2kg and cost just £289, and that sounds like a bit of a bargain to me, provided as it doesn’t look too silly. I’m intrigued, and so should you be.
Updated: I stand utterly corrected. It appears to be called the HANNSnote and it’ll be available in a comparatively conservative look in both black and white rather like these ones:
HANNspree
Asus Eee PC 1000HE Review:
Last.fm launches visual radio
It’s important for Last.fm to do some shouting at the moment to prove there’s more to life than Spotify and Comes With Music. There is, and to prove what an excellent service they still are, they’ve launched a visual radio player.
At the heart of it, it’s still the same beast except now you get pretty pictures in a slideshow of whoever it is you’re listening to. They’ve also added combo stations whereby you can add more than one artist, tag or genre to your radio choice to receive a stream of more specific, more tailored music. So, now there’s no excuse not to listen to 80s, Pirate Metal, featuring Dolly Parton radio apart from the obvious.
Finally, Last.fm has added a history to the radio player so you can see exactly what you have and haven’t been playing. All good reasons to return what is still the best music discovery service on the web.
(via Last.fm blog)
Windows Mobile Marketplace bans VoIP apps
I’m not going to hide my feelings here. I hate Windows Mobile. I’ve got no problem with the desktop OS but it was never meant to be jammed onto a mobile phone and the more they try to crowbar it on, the more I hate it. So, it brings me a strange cocktail of anger and mirth to see that they’re already making their Win Mob Marketplace app store about as open as HMP Parkhurst.
News comes our way today that there will be no 3rd party VoIP apps available. Naturally, that’s a good way of ensuring promotion among the mobile operators but not a good way to curry favour with consumers. The second kind of app forbidden from their phones are any that change the default browser.
But don’t worry, there’s more! In fact, there’s a list of 12 categories of application altogether that Windows has banned. Ah, the freedom of it. Owners of Windows Mobile handsets can look forward to enthralling games of Minesweeper and online Hearts when their app store opens later this year.
(via @liquidindian and Fierce VoIP)
