Tag: .uk
VIDEO: 1cm folding plug on its way?
We poor old Brits must have the worst AC plugs in the world. Well, us Brits and also the 30 or so other nations who use the old type G, BS1363 AC power adaptor. Not only are they bulky, nay huge, and ugly it also hurts like hell if you accidental tread on one.
But, we may not have to put up with the old bulky adaptors for much longer if the video below is anything to go by:
It proposes a new design, measuring just an impressive 1cm thick that works by folding the three copper prongs into a nice, neat parallel line.
It’s just a concept at the moment, but surely someone has got to pick up on this and mass manufacture it. It looks brilliant. I’m going to go home tonight and hack of all of my old bulky plugs in anticipation.
(via Engadget)
25 Camping Gadgets you really should have
The British camping season is now truly upon us, offering inexpensive holidays under canvas.
Here are 25 bits of kit that will make your life a lot easier, whether you’re cooking, foraging, hiking, or relaxing under the stars.
1. Tent
It goes without saying that you’ll need a decent tent if you’re planning on sleeping in a field.
My personal favourites are Khyam tents. They come in a wide range of sizes and styles and are generally quick and easy to erect. You may pay a bit more but you can usually find them on special offer, and they’ll last a long time…
UK Satellite TV Comparison Guide: Sky versus Freesat
Two services that require you to stick a satellite dish to the side of your house.
One has been around for two decades, the other has just celebrated its first birthday.
Both will demand an upfront payment: one will continue to drain money from your bank account each month.
So which is best? Read our comparison guide to see if you should go with coming-of-age Sky or new-kid-on-the-block Freesat.
Read on to find out…
Brits get easier way to personalise T-shirts with CafePress UK launch
Anyone who’s been hanging around the Internet for a while will probably have come across CafePress, a US-based site that allows T-shirts and various other gift/novelty items to be personalised and shipped.
Nice idea, except for the appalling pound-to-dollar exchange rate at the moment, plus the added cost and delay of importing gear from the States.
Fear not! CafePress has launched its UK web site which should make it less of a hassle to get your designs to the UK and Europe…
SIM-free Nokia E75 hits UK today
It’s been a couple of months since Nokia unveiled its E75 handset at this year’s Mobile World Conference, but now it’s finally available to buy in UK stores.
Nokia’s profits may be taking a nosedive at present, but that doesn’t seem to be slowing the company down at all.
It will be available at Nokia flagship stores (that’s Regent Street and Heathrow T5) and at Nokia’s online shop for £379 SIM free…
Amazon blocks Phorm from scanning its website
Controversial ad-targeting system Phorm will be blocked from scanning Amazon’s website, according to a statement released by the company this afternoon. It’s not alone – LiveJournal, mySociety and Netmums will also be off-limits.
The system, which works by scanning for keywords on pages visited by a user and using that to send more relevant adverts, has been under fire this week, after the European Union declared that it would be bringing legal action against the UK for its data protection laws not preventing such a system.
The Open Rights Group, which works to protect digital rights and freedoms, has written to the privacy officers of Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, AOL, Bebo, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay, asking them to block Phorm. So far, Amazon is the only company in that list to respond, but if the others start following suit then Phorm could be in even greater trouble.
(via BBC)
Last.fm bans third party mobile streaming applications
Last.fm has had rather a bad day for PR, making two very big, very bad announcements for its consumers. First of all, the company announced in a forum post they’re removing access to their API for third party mobile applications. That means that users of Mobbler on S60, Pocket Scrobbler on Windows Mobile, and FlipSide on BlackBerry devices will soon find themselves without a way of listening on the go.
The ‘official’ applications for the iPhone and Android will remain in action, which seems a little odd. If this is a licensing problem, surely the same rules are in place for whatever platform the content is delivered on? Relatedly, the service will also be stopping non-subscribers from accessing the radio APIs, simply because Last.fm wants more money.
Secondly, the company also announced in a blog post that it will begin charging for its previously free service outside of three countries – the UK, the USA and Germany. Customers anywhere else will be charged a fairly slim €3 per month for the service.
The company admits that the reason for this change is because it’s having trouble selling ads outside of these markets. The UK, USA and Germany all have relatively mature ad markets, where funding the service through advertising alone is possible. Outside of these countries, though, the company is having trouble.
What will remain free for all users is the scrobbling aspect of the site – where it charts your music taste and allows you to compare taste with friends and other users, as well as the social network that sits on top of everything. Although I’ve never pushed very hard to fill out my friends list on Last.fm, it’s grown incrementally over the years and now it’s not too bad.
I’m deeply disappointed that I’ll be losing access to Mobbler, even if it was a little rickety and didn’t work properly on the bus. Let’s hope that services like Slacker make their way over this side of the Atlantic sooner rather than later.
OPINION: Why I'm not going back to using Twitter with SMS
I’m quite proud to say that I’m old-skool when it comes to Twitter – I’ve been signed up since April 2007. My first tweet? “Watching TV, waiting for my roommate to finish dinner, and then going out drinking.”
Back then I used the SMS system with Twitter. I’d SMS my updates to a central number, and the service would send them back to me by text. When you’re only following a few people, that’s fine. You don’t end up abusing your free text allowance.
But then Twitter, citing financial reasons, withdrew the SMS service in August 2008. Overnight, the gentle buzz from my phone getting Tweets two or three times a day just stopped. I stopped having a reminder to Tweet. As a result, I got a bit lazy and there’d be weeks between my Tweets.
But then something changed. I managed to slip over the tipping point of following enough people saying enough things that it was worth checking it daily, so it found its way onto my bookmarks bar of my browser and that got me back off the edge and tweeting again.
Nowadays I’m following 350-odd people, and I get about three or four updates a minute. That’s fine at my PC – running Twhirl means I can just let those conversations quietly purr away in the background. I’ve also got a client for my S60 phone – Twibble – which sorts me out on the go.
A company called Twe2 launched this week that lets European users get alerts on their phone, in exchange for an ad at the end of the Tweet. Yay! I can get my SMS Tweets back! But I don’t want it.
The idea of having three to four texts coming in to my phone every minute seems ludicrous. The way I use Twitter now – it’s there when I need it, and I can ignore it when I want – is perfect. I get any @replies and DMs emailed to me, and I check my email a billion times a day so I don’t miss them. I just don’t need SMS.
Do you agree? Or are you gagging to get SMS tweets back? Share your opinion in the comments.
O2 sells 1 million iPhones in the UK
O2 has just released a statement on its Digital News Centre announcing that more than a million iPhones have now been sold in the UK. I can attest to that personally, I was in a pub the other day, and the three other table inhabitants ALL had iPhones. I would have felt left out if I didn’t love my N95 so much.
The company’s also announced that it’s signed up 1.1 million new customers over the last year, with 390,000 of those joining O2 between Oct and Dec 08. That’s a lot. Good work, O2.
UK set to overtake Japan as the CENTRE of the gaming UNIVERSE this year
Poor old Japan is about to fall behind the UK in the global video game charts, with us lot finally spending more of our remaining cash on gaming than the Japanese – making the UK second only to the USA in how much cash we blow on various Halos and Mario Karts.
Figures released by UK sales-counter Chart-Track show that for the first five weeks of 2009 sales of games were up 37% in the UK, as kids spent their Christmas money on novelty Wii games like never before…
