UK Folding Plug

June 26, 2009 | Comment

UK Folding Plug Concept Those people that live in the UK or have ever travelled here will know that we can proudly boast one thing that is bigger than anything offered by the USA and that is our plug – it is huge! If you have travelled with any electrical equipment that requires the UK adaptor then you will know how much space it takes up. That’s why I have invested in so many local cables that I can swap out for the UK equivalent when I travel.

Now, however, someone (it is not clear who) has come up with a neat design for … Read the rest

Apple iPhone Economics

June 12, 2009 | Comment

So the waiting is finally over the new iPhone has been announced and in a weeks time you could have one in your hands. Come the day of the announcement pretty much everything new about the device had leaked out and so there were little surprises: compass, tethering, video and MMS to name but a few. There were also price cuts for the existing 3 model which is to be an entry level device.

All good news. Well, no, not quite. For a start if you live in the UK then there is no discount on the entry level model. … Read the rest

Slingbox for iPhone

June 8, 2009 | Comment

I’ve had a Slingbox at home for a while now and it allows me to watch my home TV not matter where I am in the world. Having also got a Tivo it also allows me to catch-up on TV that I might have missed. To date this has all been from the client on my laptop but recently a version was released for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

The launch of the iPhone player was not without some controversy as initially the company had said that the player wouldn’t work with older Slingbox Classics (like I have) and that it wouldn’t … Read the rest

Poundland to the Rescue!

May 26, 2009 | Comment

The card reader on my desktop PC has given up the ghost. To be honest it is not something that I use that often but it is useful to have for those odd occasions – one of which was this last weekend. So I needed to find a reader in a hurry and the answer came in the most unexpected place.

Poundland is not a place that I frequent on a regular basis but credit crunch being what it is I thought I would check it out. Turns out that they have a (small) tech section which included a SD … Read the rest

JoikuSpot

May 20, 2009 | 1 comment

I have been watching the coverage of the launch of Novatel Wireless’ Mifi device (left) with some interest over the last few days. This pocket sized device is a mini hotspot allowing you to connect up to five wifi enabled devices to a single 3G connection. This is such a great idea as it allows you to connect not only laptops and netbooks but also other portable devices such as the iPod Touch, Sony PSP etc.

So far the only people that have launched the mifi are Verizon in the US and there seems to be on carrier in the … Read the rest

Moleskine – My Favourite Low-tech Gadget

May 18, 2009 | 5 comments

Anyone who knows me will tell you of my love of gadgets: cameras, laptops, mobiles you name it I’m into it. However, there is still one low-tech solution that I could not live without and that is my Moleskine note books.

I have been using notebooks of various sizes all my working life and despite recently making more and more use of Evernote for capturing notes you still cannot beat pen and paper for accessibility and speed.

Moleskines come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours but I favour the classic ruled notebook as used by Hemingway, Picasso and … Read the rest

Crunch Time for Internet Browsing

April 24, 2009 | Comment

Browsing the web from my iPod Touch this morning I remembered the CrunchPad, Michael Arrington’s prototype connected device for web browsing. This is a flat, tablet like device, with only an on-screen keyboard and optimised for browsing the web.

Having checked my mail, gone through the rss feeds that had come in over night, checked Facebook and Twitter and browsed a few websites I was left asking the question “who needs a CrunchPad and what does it offer that that iPod Touch/iPhone don’t deliver already?”

Ok, so the Touch/iPhone have screens that require you to also have good … Read the rest

Gadget Show Live

April 21, 2009 | 1 comment

Gadget Show Live came to the NEC in Birmingham this last weekend and I went along with my youngest son for a look around. We are both fans of the show and of gadgets in general so we were looking forward to finding out what was on offer. What it turned out to be was, perhaps, more a collection of hi-tech retailers gathered together rather than a showing of gadgets. it seemed particularly heavy on gaming, an area I have no interest in, and light on up-and-coming gadgets.

It did offer Mat the opportunity to play on a number of … Read the rest

Travellers Kit

April 15, 2009 | Comment

Being away from home there is some kit that has proved to be essential while travelling, which you can see on the left here. What is also interesting is the software that I have come to rely on over the last couple of weeks while away.

The most useful item by far has been my Netbook which has performed admirably allowing me to stay in touch with those at home (via Skype, Messenger and blogging via Windows Live Writer), provided entertainment (Spotify and Hulu) and also dealing with all the picture and videos that we have … Read the rest

One Billion Errors

April 10, 2009 | 4 comments

So Apple are running a competition at the moment to celebrate them (almost) reaching a billion downloads from the App Store. All you need do is download an application to be entered into a prize draw that would see you winning a $10,000 iTunes cards amongst other things.

For those that don’t have a compatible device (and for legal reasons I suspect) Apple have provided a page on their website where you can enter for free without downloading an app.

Being too lazy to go and get my Touch from the other room this is the route I chose to … Read the rest