Author: Duncan Geere
T-Mobile plotting Android home phone and tablet
Remember, before we all had mobiles, the days of the home phone. Having to drag the cable across the hallway and under your door if you wanted to have a private conversation without the rest of your family listening in? That mysterious ‘Mercury’ button?
Those days are mostly at an end, but there are a few people still buying landline phones. As a result, companies are still making them – including T-Mobile who, rumour has it, will be bringing out an Android version next year. There’ll be a docking station that lets you sync it and recharge the battery.
On top of that, there’s a 7″ Android tablet in the works too. There’s very little detail being shared, but it’ll apparently let you ‘check the weather’ or ‘manage data across a wide variety of devices’. Sounds good. More when we get it.
(via Electric Pig)
Tauntaun sleeping bag keeps your kids safe in the snows of Hoth
The Star Wars fans among you will have gasped with disbelief already just from clicking the link, but the uninitiated will be wondering “wtf?”. In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke is lost in the snows of ice planet Hoth, and is bloody cold, so he chops open a big hairy creature – a Tauntaun – and climbs inside to survive the night.
Now your kid can crawl into the guts of a hairy snow-creature too! Though actually, it doesn’t seem to be available, which means it was probably an April Fools joke. The response seems to have been so great, though, that they’re actually going to try and make the things. Here’s what they say:
“Due to an overwhelming tsunami of requests from YOU THE PEOPLE, we have decided to TRY and bring this to life. We have no clue if the suits at Lucasfilms will grant little ThinkGeek a license, nor do we know how much it would ultimately retail for. But if you are interested in ever owning one of these, click the link below and we’ll try!”
That link is on the product page, which can be found here. Go give it a click. I demand an adult-size version, too.
Product Page (via @gorocket88)
Village forms human chain to stop Google Street View car
A small village in Buckinghamshire has thumbed its nose to the world, and refused to allow Google to index its streets. Broughton, which is close to Milton Keynes, has suffered a few burglaries in recent months, so when the Street View car rolled into town, they formed a human chain across the street to stop it going any further.
“My immediate reaction was anger,” said resident Paul Jacobs “how dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent?” The villagers called the police and accosted the driver, accusing him of “invasion of privacy”.
Google, for thier part, issued a statement saying that the vehicle was using public roads and wasn’t breaking any laws. They also reminded the public that anyone can remove their house from the service, and they also blur faces and vehicle number plates.
The street view car has recently been spotted in Reading, Preston, Ipswitch and Winchester. The service recently went live in London, but has been available in the USA for years.
(via Telegraph, image via @ruskin147)
Skype for the iPhone – 1 million downloads and counting
The Skype application for the iPhone hasn’t even been out a week and already they’ve clocked up over 1 million downloads for the world’s favourite VoIP service. To put that in perspective, that’s one downloads every six seconds.
Naturally, they won’t keep up this rate for long with market saturation on the horizon but it looks like Skype has shown the fastest uptake of any app for the Jobs 5800 since they started accepting external software.
Perhaps the networks have been right to fear Skype’s pulling power when it comes to undermining their profits but for more discussion on that, check out our Tech Digest podcast.
Skype
Tech Digest Podcast #2
Here’s the second podcast from the team at Tech Digest. This week, we got stuck in to Twitter being bought by Google, Conficker’s no-show, and whether or not it’s reasonable for networks to get upset about Skype on the iPhone.
In the middle section, Dan extolled the joys of the Kaleidescape home cinema system, while I tried to convince him to use a couple of services that boost your Twitter experience – Mr Tweet and Topify.
Lastly, we talked about about the death of some poor guy while using Wii fit, and the end of Microsoft’s Encarta encyclopedia. I miss mindmaze so terribly 🙁
A small round of applause to the venerable Andy Merret, a.k.a. the Tech Trumpet, for coming up with some jingles for the start and end of the podcast. They’re rather good, aren’t they? Thanks Andy!
Download the podcast directly here, or subscribe via this URL.
As ever, if you have any comments, topics that you’d like us to talk about, or general abuse, throw it our way by sending us a tweet at @techdigest or emailing [email protected].
Doodle helps you make choices with a large group of people online
Need to make a decision in a hurry online, with a group of people? Doodle’s got your back. It bills itself as a scheduling and choice-making site, and it pretty much does that – and nothing else – which is a breath of fresh air compared to most sites.
The question-asker just puts in the details, and up pops a link which he or she can then send to anyone they want to get input from. You can choose whether your poll is private or whether anyone can see anyone else’s answers – which will reassure the privacy-conscious.
Doodle’s free, and you can try it out right now. Registration is optional, but it’s quick and simple. It’s ad-supported and the company is based in Zurich, Switzerland. Go try it.
GALLERY: Fun with the Nintendo DSi's camera
The headline feature of the Nintendo DSi is that it’s now packing a couple of low-resolution cameras. Because there aren’t currently any games that support the feature, Nintendo’s built some fun camera software into the device that will let do silly stuff with pictures.
So we thought we’d show you what you can do with it. You also get to meet the residents of Shiny Towers. Click into the post to begin.
Intel launches Digital Artist of the Year competition
In an art gallery on Pall Mall in London last night, Intel launched its search to find a Digital Artist of the Year. Digital Artist 2009 will be searching for the UK’s most talented artists in thirteen categories.
One of those thirteen is a ‘Rising Star’ award, which will be given to five entrants under the age of 25, and other categories include Architectural Visualisation, Motion Broadcast, Digital Painter and Ethical Design.
To celebrate, an exhibition of the digital art world will be on display at the Galleria from the 2nd to the 8th April. There’ll also be a number of ‘masterclasses’ held across the UK for aspiring digital artists. For full details, or to enter, see the competition’s homepage at www.digitalartistawards.com.
Microsoft planning Office for iPhone?
Microsoft is planning an iPhone version of Office, if you believe the President of Microsoft Business Division, Stephen Elop. He has hinted that Office might be making its way to Apple’s smartphone sooner, rather than later.
Several unofficial solutions are available – Quickoffice being the most recent – but officially, users can only read Office files – not edit them. There’s no Microsoft app.
When questioned further on how soon an iPhone office client would be available, Elop took a step back, saying “not yet, keep watching”. in the meantime, users will be provided a web version of Office over the next couple of years, so hold tight for that.
(via TechCrunch)
Obama gives the Queen an iPod
On Barack Obama’s official visit to Buckingham Palace last night, he handed over an iPod to the Queen as a gift, stuffed with video of her 2007 visit to the U.S. and a bunch of tracks from Broadway musicals including “Cats”, “South Pacific” and “Oklahoma!”.
Not that impressive, really, is it? It wasn’t even engraved with the Royal Seal. She’s already got one, too – a 6GB iPod Mini, which Prince Andrew suggested she buy in 2005. Her Maj was a little more classy – giving Obama her traditional gift of a framed photograph of herself and Prince Phillip.
(via Telegraph)
