Author: Daniel Sung
How to make your mobile phone number ex-directory…
This is public service announcement from Tech Digest. One and all, please be aware that the 118800 mobile phone directory goes live next week with around 15 million of the UK’s current 60 million mobile phone numbers listed. So, for the non-mathematicians amongst you, that’s around 1 in 4 of us that’ll be in there depending on how many advertising lists we’ve already got ourselves on.
Now, I’ve never one to be that bothered about my personal data being out there in small bite-sized chunks but you might want to consider making yourself ex-directory from the 118800 list. All you have to do is go over to their site and follow the the instructions.
You give them your number, they text you a code and you type it back in. On the down side, it does mean that you actually give them your phone number and there’s a 75% chance they never had it in the first place. Your call. I suggest reading some more about the service itself before you make your mind up. It’s actually not as Daily Mail, life-endingly bad as it sounds.
While we’re on the public service tip, I also suggest that all Londoners who were effected by the Tube strikes a few weeks back also go here to claim two days’ worth of travelcard expense back onto your Oysters. Again, the downside is that they’ll end up registering your Oyster card in the process such that Tfl and their buddies will be able to know your comings and goings about town. On the plus side, it’ll probably cost them a tenner. Worth it?
I shan’t tell you which way I decided to step in both situations. All I’m saying is that you’ve got a very short window in which to make your own minds up. Choose wisely.
Nikon roadmap for the 2009-2011 leaked, posted & revealed
Er, wow. That’s quite a leak. More of a gush, a flood, a deluge of camera goodies. I feel a bit sorry for Nikon but, you never know, it might work in their favour.
What seems to have happened is that someone’s got hold of a 37-page document from Nikon HQ in Kingston, UK, and decided to talk about it in one foreign language or another before Nikon Rumours banged it back through a Google translator and came out with some interesting garblings that looked like this. I’ll spare you heavy lens details here on TD but do take a look at the original for details. The headlines on the cameras, though, are as follows:
End of July 2009
We’re going to see a Coolpix range of compacts, including a model with a 10 lumens, LED projector capable of 40″ images at a 640×480 resolution.
4th August 2009
Launch of the Nikon D3000 and Nikon D300s – specced down version of the D5000 and the long awaited upgrade of the fabulous D300.
The D300s looks like it’ll have Full HD video shooting at 24fps, improved AF, self timer + mirror-up and an SD card slot to go along with the compact flash.
15th October
Launch of the upgrade of the Nikon D700, the Nikon D700x. It’ll come with a with a 24.5-megapixel sensor, Full HD video at 24 fps, improved AF and self timer + mirror-up.
Q2 2010
Launch of what we all thought we’d see when the D5000 came out – the Nikon D400 – and the Nikon D4 for the serious among us.
The D400 will have a 13.8-megapixel sensor and Full HD video at 24fps. Switch the numbers for 15.7 and 30 for the D4.
Q3 2010
The launch of the impressive sounding Nikon Coolpix P1DX which’ll come with a with DX 12.3-megapixel stabilised sensor, 28-85mm/3.5-5.6f zoom and a 2.9-inch 920k LCD.
Q4 2010
And just in case you’ve got any money left or you fancy getting a third mortgage just for shits and giggles, then you’ll be able to prepare for the 30.2-megapixel Nikon D4x which probably has the kind of features to keep you interested until the next roadmap comes out.
Naturally, this could all be a load of nonsense. I’ll let you know on 4th August.
(via Nikon Rumours)
More images of Rachel and Kiki
Rachel, Kiki, say hi to the Tech Digest readers. Everyone, that’s Rachel on the the left in the black. Remember, you guys met the other day. That’s right, she’s the upgrade of the Sony Ericsson Xperia only with a 1GHz Snapdragon chipset, Android OS and 8.1-megapixel camera. Charmed, I’m sure.
And Rachel’s friend in the black there, that’s Kiki. Now, Kiki’s a little more shy. She hasn’t told us too much about her but her unique dress with the screen you can view from both sides and intriguing looking lack of buttons are sure to raise an eyebrow.
Now, they’ve brought along some more from their portfolios today for us to have a look at and Rachel’s even got a little video of the OS that SE seems to be building to put ontop of Android. Have a good look and I’m sure you’ll agree we’re looking at two models with glittering careers ahead of them.
(BGR)
APP OFF! App Store vs Ovi vs App World vs Android Market
As part of this week’s App Store birthday extravaganza, I thought it might be an idea to compare what Apple has put together with all the different mobile program delivery platforms out there.
I may have described the iPhone service as a pile of novelty nonsense – you can throw your rotten fruit and broken 2007 iPhones at me later – but how does it measure up against its peers – BlackBerry’s App World, Nokia’s Ovi and the Android Market?
Click on the image below to start the tour
Time Out launches London Connect social media web pages
It not so much a new site unto itself but the addition of the London Connect pages to the Time Out London site are certainly a breath of fresh web 2.0 air. If you’ve ever trawled the listings of the older online areas you probably gave up after a few clicks but this launch offers a much more immediate and accessible look at what’s going on in town that you might actually want to go to.
The most obvious of the social media additions are the live Twitter updates from each of the Time Out departments, ie: Art, Film, Music, Food & Drink, Theatre. You can search through the lot as well as see all the RTs and @replies in the Backchat section for a better picture of how the events are being viewed about the web in general.
There’s also long overdue video reviews to give you a far better idea of what it is the critics are recommending before you make some hideous mistake and take you parents to an S&M themed restaurant. Last of all is the Win+1 area which gives users the chance of getting themselves on the guest list of all the big goings on in town.
It’s a little sparse content-wise at the moment but it’s early days and, once they fill it up with vids and comps, it’ll be a much more effective tool for getting the most out of the Big Smoke.
Go and have a look for yourself and, at the least, follow a few of the team on Twitter.
Google Chrome OS to take on Windows from 2010
Google has announced plans today to launch an entire computer operating system under the Chrome banner to take the fight to Microsoft’s very heartland. It’s initially aimed at netbooks but it’s pretty clear that the grand plan is total PC domination.
Being Google the platform will be entirely open source with the code available to developers in the coming weeks. It’ll be a light-weight system, presumably with a strong emphasis on the a software suite in the cloud. Small wonder we saw Gmail and the Docs leave beta yesterday.
Their aim is to produce something from the bottom up for the always-connected web generation of computing, something that, unlike Windows, does not rely on a core architecture already known for its weakness to malware. To do both Microsoft and Google some justice here though, Windows has been redeveloped quite some number of times and it’s not as if Chrome OS is going to be a completely fresh start. It’s already based on Linux which has been around for years.
What’s more, one of the reasons Windows is more susceptible to attack than any other OS is because 90% of computers run it. It makes sense for hackers to aim their guns at it. The same will be true for any OS with majority market share.
Presumably Chrome OS will be free which is the real bonus to us all. It’ll also have PC manufacturers rubbing their hands with glee as they’ll no longer have to pay whacking great licenses to Microsoft. Doubtless that saving will also be passed on to us.
I’m not saying that Google are the good guys but it makes little difference who out of them and Gates, Ballmer & Co. has the monopoly. So, I’ll stick with the one who charges me less and, besides, I’ve had enough of scratching around for product keys on lost CD cases.
(via Gblog)
Sony launches flagship HD Handycam CX520VE camcorder
The secret to any imaging hardware is in the holy trinity of the lens, the sensor and the processor, and Sony has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at the Handycam CX520VE to make it a winner in all three areas.
The Exmor R CMOS sensor has backlighting technology to improve camera resolution at low light levels plus the fact that its a CMOS in the first place speaks for itself. The glassware is the same as you’ll find in the top Sony Alpha DSLRs – the G lens – and it contains ED glass elements which keep the light as crisp and the images as high contrast as possible. And all the number crunching’s taken care of by the BIONZ processor. All good so far.
On top of basics you get 12x optical zoom, 12-megapixel stills, auto geo-tagging, face detection, smile-shot and a touch sensitive 3-inch LCD. Perhaps the best feature, though, is the Optical SteadyShot ‘Active Mode’ which is touted as the first three-way camera steady function. Sony says that it reduces camera shake by 10x and is designed even to smooth out the effects of walking along while shooting. Very curious to see how well that works.
The CX520VE gives you 25 hours of LP recording on its 64GB internal HDD and there’s also a CX505VE 32GB HDD model if you’re happy with 12. Either way, there’s space for one of Sony’s silly memory sticks to expand your storage, if you need.
They record in 5.1 surround, they’re capable of burning onto discs without the use of a computer and generally sound like the kind of camcorder that everyone will hate you for having. They’re out in August and I’ll get you prices as soon as I have them.
Check out our Top 10 HD camcorders you can actually afford here
The App Store turns one
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This week marks the first anniversary of the Apple iTunes App Store. Funnily enough, Apple has not missed the opportunity to publicise the fact and nor have we, although not necessarily for the same reasons.
There’s no doubting that the App Store has been a huge success and one of the most important factors in the spread of the iPhone but what of the future? Where is the App Store headed next or is it just a one trick pony?
Each day this week we’re looking at a different facet of what it’s achieved, what it stands for and what it means for the rest of the market place. Stay tuned each day and don’t miss our massive Top Apps list coming later in the week. Enjoy and happy downloading.
Gmail comes out of beta
I know, I know. Pick up your jaw. We’d all rather got used to the fact that Gmail and all the Google apps were in some sort of permanent beta over the last five years. Google has now decided that the time is right for their web software to be fully-fledged in its own right but not because it’s passed a bunch of tests.
It seems that all sorts of potential users – largely in the corporate world – might have been put off by the idea of using software that was only half ready or half safe or experimental or whatever the connotation might have been. So, by removing the label, Google hopes to be removing the stigma too.
They promise to continue developing their mail and office products all the same but those of a nervous disposition may now use the joy of the software in piece. If you haven’t, I heartily recommend you do.
The iPhone and App Store vs. Nintendo and PlayStation
Welcome to the second day of our App Store week at Tech Digest marking the first anniversary of the software gateway that’s helped put the iPhone on the map. That said, I largely decided yesterday that the App Store is a pile of novelty nonsense but one area I only really glanced at was its impact as a serious supplier of quality games.
Nintety-five per cent of the games are complete rubbish but there’s a few big gaming titles on there like Quake, Doom and Metal Gear Solid carrying the flame. More to the point, though, there’s potential, potential within the handset to deliver much more than the likes of Finger Sprinter and Where’s my Watermelon. The question is, is there enough in the iPhone/App Store combo to really pose a threat to the Nintendo DS and the PSP? Are they really in the same space and the even the same league. Come with me and we’ll take a look.
The first place to start is the hardware itself. Each handheld has a maximum storage of 32GB, depending upon how you expand it, which means the iPhone’s ok there. It’s not too shabby on processor power either which is going to be key to getting decent games to run.
The iPhone has only one 32-bit ARM CPU rather than the DSi’s dual chips and the PSP Go’s 64-bit MIPS unit but it is, at least, clocked nice and high in comparison at 600MHz rather than 133MHz on the DSi and the PSP Go at 333MHz. It’s not as good as 64-bit gaming but then, technically, nor is the DSi and it’s still in the realms of what the PlayStation 1 could do. Not bad for a handheld.
The second hurdle for App Store games is that even if the iPhone has nearly got what it takes on the inside, it might have some other physical restraints that the others don’t suffer from. It’s rather like dolphins and whales. They’re creatures of perhaps comparable intelligence to man but the trouble is where we had arms, legs, a good voice box and opposable thumbs to help us rule the world, they got rather trapped behind flat flippers and a problem with dry land. It must be rather like being Shaun Ryder – definitely something important going inside but no ability to express themselves. Anyway, I digress.
The point is that the PSP Go and DSi are built to play games. They have D-pads and fire buttons. The iPhone has a touchscreen. Gorgeous as that interface is, it’s not particularly well suited to all sorts of complicated, in-depth games. In fact, it rather lends itself to the usual brand of nonsense we see peddled at the App Store.
In its favour though, it does have an accelerometer – an interesting bonus over the other two. The 3GS also has a built-in compass and HSDPA connection and those could all add a certain interesting dimension to original gameplay. Sadly, though, those are really the trimmings and the iPhone’s going to need to get the basics right before it becomes a serious gaming handheld. Thankfully, at least the screen is comparable. It loses 0.3″ to the PSP Go and an entire other LCD to the DSi but it’s 3:2, 3.5″ touchscreen is certainly enough.
Battery-wise, the iPhone isn’t ideal but it should last you most of your day. I’m not sure how far it’ll get you playing solid games but far enough is the answer I’d suggest. Not great but it’s not going to be the area that holds it up.
So, the hardware isn’t ideal but it’s probably enough to compete with the other too particularly given that it makes phone calls as well as all the other internet browsing and multimedia functions that it does much better than both the PSP Go and the DSi. So, provided that the games at the App Store are as good, there’s a very good chance that a user might not bother buying a dedicated gaming device if they already have an iPhone.
The trouble is that it’s not a straight choice. The iPhone is prohibitively expensive for most users. The mobile gaming market is relatively young in its target group and the young are simply not as able to afford shelling out £200 plus £40 each month over the next 18; not when compared with a one off payment just over £100.
The games on the App Store are cheaper – certainly more so than those for Nintendo – but then, that’s partly because most of those games aren’t as good. What about if developers really go to town and make something decent? How much is that going to cost at the App Store.
And that leads me on to another good question. Will the developers see the App Store as a serious platform for serious games? What it does supply is a far easier way of getting your software out there. No need to worry about distribution when you can just stick it on iTunes; very quick, very convenient, very efficient and nobody to get in your way except the the big red button.
What’s more, there’s the cash. The 70/30 split on the App Store must be pretty tempting. All you’ve had to pay is your $99 for the SDK and then you can start packing a proper majority per centage for your game. It all sounds rather attractive for the burgeoning developer with bags of enthusiasm but not so many contacts and as much industry recognition.
But with the current set up, successful developers are going to want to move on. As we’ve already seen, the iPhone hardware is more limited than the other systems and the audience is limited too. There’s an impressive 22 million iPhones in the world but that’s only half as many PSPs as there are and a quarter of the 100 million DSs sold worldwide.
There’s also little in the way of marketing in the App Store – not compared to the tens of thousands of pounds that the games distributers and their PRs will throw at your product to make it an all time great. There is fortune, if not fame, to be made in the App Store but it tends to be for the nonsense. What serious games developer wants to bother with the iFart and perhaps there lies the real rub of the piece? The App Store is carving out a niche for itself as a mobile gaming haven but not one of quality and not for the serious gamer.
While that’s the case and while the hardware isn’t quite there, I find it very hard to see how the iPhone and App Store are in the same space as the DS and the PSP. There’s definitely a place in the future to go that direction if Apple decides to add a few more buttons and some more processor power, and certainly if Nintendo and Sony decide to add telephony to their handhelds but, for the time being, I’d say convergence hasn’t quite converged that far. Give it the App Store’s fourth birthday, though, and we might have a very different story.
