Hot on the heels of the last set of UK adverts, Apple have today posted six new adverts for the UK. Naughty Step, Magic, Out of the Box, Court, Accident and Network all star Mitchell & Web again. They do a fine job of bringing an English flair to their ad campaign and are well worth a look.
Sennheiser to Launch new PXC450 NoiseGard Headphones
Sennheiser have released details of their new high end PXC 450 NoiseGard 2.0 headphones, which should hit the shelves in April for £299.99.
Using new technology and their High-end Hi-fi design skills, Sennheiser leapfrog the competition to deliver the World's best noise-cancelling headphones. Built to deliver the highest quality sound possible, the PXC 450s allow travellers to privately enjoy their own music, wrapped in a virtual 'Cloak Of Silence' however noisy a train or plane might be. And no sound leaks out, so fellow passengers stay happy.
In addition Sennheiser has analysed the problems afflicting other noise-reduction headphones and fixed them;
- PXC 450s work as headphones even if the batteries die
- One tiny and globally available AAA battery gives 20hrs use
- No charger to carry or expensive spare batteries to buy
- TalkThrough button lets you hear conversations and announcements, without having to rip the phones off your head
- The sound is clear and balanced with no heavy bass or muffled vocals
- Sennheiser NoiseGard 2.0 electronically removes 90% of noise (more than ever) taking out the drone and roar of engines, rails etc
- Exceptional passive noise-reduction from the closed-back design takes out voices, kids, mobile phone shouters and general noise
- Electronics and battery all inside the headphone, nothing dangles
- Ideal for planes, trains, tube and other noisy environments
- Noise leakage OUT is eliminated - stop irritating fellow travellers
Maxtor Fusion & MyBook World Edition - a mini HD server !
I love technology ! This is a bit of an understatement really, as why else would I run Geekanoids, bringing all this tech goodness day in, day out. Well, my latest trend, in my office, is that I love storage. Just recently I was embarrassed to learn that I had accumulated six external hard drives. A bit of re-organising and I gave a few away to the needy and I now have a much more manageable system. What does interest me is network storage (NAS). Currently I have a NAS hard drive, which sits hidden away and anything I need to take off my MacBook, to free up some room, gets transferred to the NAS. This solution is OK, but I am sure that I do not use my NAS to its full potential.
What excited me this week was the possibility of taking things one step further. I stumbled upon the Maxtor Fusion, which is a 500GB affair with a difference. Not only does it allow you to store files locally via a USB2 connection, but it also has an ethernet port, so it can become part of your local network. If you want even more flexibility, you can access your files from anywhere over the internet. You can even set up folders and send out specific email attachments to friends and colleagues, giving them access to files. Western Digital offer something similar called the My Book World Edition I & II. The latter does not mention Mac compatibility, though I am sure it would work fine.
I am determined to bring you details of how these two drives work, so will hopefully be able to get hold of review units soon and give you the lowdown.
PC World Business - the Apple Mac Exists
It seems like PC World Business (UK) finally have noticed that the Apple Mac does exist. In their latest sales brochure on page 3, a half page feature states "All those reasons you never bought an Apple Mac? Not true anymore." It continues to tell how Mac run MS Office, can even run Windows, how all the iLife apps and many other applications follow a recognisable user interface. Then it continues to reassure the potential buyer that many peripherals that you may already have with your PC, also work with the Mac, and concludes that the Mac and PC share many of the same file formats.
Well done PC World Business, I commend you, it is about time, but never too late.
Arcam Launch rDock iPod Dock
Arcam today launched their rDock, the first 'audiophile' dock for iPod worthy of the name. The rDock integrates totally with Solo; however, the remarkable sound quality makes rDock ideal for anyone with any form of decent Hi-fi system who wants to get the very best possible sound quality from their iPod.
The rDock is friendly to your iPod battery, whilst most docks leave the iPod charging all the time, which can damage the battery. The rDock uniquely features a programmable 'charge-off' setting. During research, it was discovered that the sound quality took a major leap when running off the iPod battery alone, with no charging going on. This is akin to some audiophile pre-amps that run on a rechargeable battery to achieve independence from mains noise. The improvement in sound was so marked, that the rDock now has 'charge off' as the default setting. With iPod battery life over 14hrs and more, this means that the longest listening session can be carried out at the highest quality.
The feature list is very impressive
- Uses the iPod's line-out connector, bypassing the headphone amp to achieve best quality
- Built-in audio pre-amp with high performance op-amps & low noise double regulated power supplies
- Highest quality line-level audio with buffered RCA phono audio outputs enabling audiophile cables to be used
- Massive die-cast anti-vibration base that uses Apple universal dock inserts supplied with all new iPods
- Full iPod remote control using the Solo or Solo Movie's handset remote - no extra handset needed
- Displays iPod music info on Solo or Solo Movie scrolling dot-matrix front-panel display
- S-Video and Composite outputs to television or screen (for Video iPod) to show photos or movies
Gear4 BluPhones announced - wireless goodness
Today GEAR4 announced their BluPhones, a stunningly designed set of wireless stereo headphones for Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones, laptops and MP3 players. They weigh just 26g and are one of the lightest and smallest Bluetooth stereo headsets in the world, ensuring maximum comfort and portability. But they don’t just look great, Bluphones promise to provide superb rich sound for your music too – all for under £50.
When used with an A2DP-enabled mobile phone, the headphones alert you to incoming calls and automatically pause your tunes, allowing you to answer the call via a small and sleek multi-function button on the headset. After you have finished the call, your tunes will automatically restart. The BluPhones receive and play Bluetooth stereo streaming audio data direct from mobile phones, laptops or music players that support the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) for advanced stereo. They also work with many non-A2DP Bluetooth devices in mono.
The BluPhones should be perfect for any occasion, whether it be the daily commute on the train, getting fit at the gym or running a marathon. You can be sure that you can listen to your music or answer calls in comfort, knowing that they are securely attached to you ears.
Features:
- Weighs only 26 grams
- Works as a hands-free headset for any Bluetooth mobile phone
- 5 hour music playing / talk time
- 60 hours standby time
- Plays music in stereo from any A2DP Bluetooth device and in mono for most other Bluetooth devices
- AVRCP technology (Audio Visual Remote Control Profile) for wireless control of mobile phone directly from the BluPhones
BluPhones are now shipping via the GEAR4 web store www.gear4store.com for £49.99 inc VAT.
Google update Picasa Web Albums
Today, Google updated its Picasa Web Albums service. There is a whole host of new and improved features, that sound so good it has tempted me to take a look over the next few days. This new release includes the ability to search community photos, an upgrade to the amount of free storage to 1GB with the ability to upgrade, plus it is now easier to link to an album in email, or perhaps into an existing web page.
Good news for users of Blogger, is that all photos uploaded through Blogger now appear in My Photos. The titles of these Blogger web albums match the titles of their respective blog posts. Full details of the update can be found here.
New NVIDIA Linux Display Drivers Released
Today the latest Version 1.0-9755, of NVIDIA graphic drivers for linux was released. Highlights inlcude: * Added support for Quadro FX 4600 and Quadro FX 5600 and * Added initial support for NVIDIA SLI with GeForce 8800, Quadro FX 4600, and Quadro FX 5600.
via NVidia read more | digg story
Samsung Q2 Ultra Mobile PC Revealed
At last - a UMPC that looks like it isn't going to suck. The new Samsung UMPC, labelled the Q2 sports a nice high resolution 1024x600 display, plenty of RAM and an Intel processor. It's also got WiBro and a QWERTY keyboard. Pictures included!
via engadget read more | digg story
Apple iTunes now works with Vista
Apple Inc today made available version 7.1 of iTunes for PC users. It addresses the issues that users of Microsofts Vista operating system caused with the software and many peoples iPods. There are still a few remaining issues that Apple is working on, but most have been resolved. You can find full details here.
Nintendo Wii Release Schedule
I love my Nintendo Wii. Yes, I own an XBox 360 too and play a lot of games on it, but the Wii is brilliant fun. One thing it has done for me, is stopped me pre-ordering a PS3, which is the first time that I can remember not buying a console at launch, so Nintendo must have really captured my imagination. Anyway, here is the latest release schedule for Wii games from a Nintendo press release;
- April 9 - Super Paper Mario - Nintendo
- April - Prince of Persia Rival Swords - Ubisoft
- April - Bust-A-Move Bash - Majesco
- April - Bioncle Heroes - Eidos
- May 15 - Mortal Kombat: Armageddon - Midway
- May 29 - Mario Party 8 - Nintendo
- May - Tamagotchi Party On - Namco Bandai
- May - Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Disney Interactive
- May - Escape from Bug Island - Eidos
- May - Spider-Man The Movie 3 - Activision
- June 11 - Big Brain Academy - Nintendo
- June 25 - Pokemon Battle Revolution - Nintendo
- June - Cosmic Family - Ubisoft
- Spring - Heatseeker - Codemasters
- Q2 - Legend of the Dragon - American Game Factory
- Summer - Shrek the Third - Activision
- Summer - Transformers the Game - Activision
Camino Version 1.4 Browser Launched
Today Camino launched version 1.4 of its browser for Mac OS X. Next to Firefox, I rate Camino as one of the sweetest and most stable browsers around, plus it is really really fast. In this new version there has been fixes to security and stability issues, an upgraded Java plugin, improved ad-blocking, and support for iCab 3 bookmarks. One of the most welcome features is that your bookmarks are automatically restored, should they become unreadable.