Barnes & Noble bungs Raspberry Pi-priced Nook on shelves
That makes the cheap-as-chips e-reader cool now, right?
In a perhaps desperate bid to drum up sales, Barnes & Noble is selling its Nook E Ink-based e-book reader for a pound less than 30 quid - a discount of £50.
If you want the version with an illuminated screen, it’ll be £69 - £40 less than it usually is. Oh, and the firm’s 9-inch Nook HD+ tablet has also had its price slashed, …
Brit horologist hammers out ‘first’ ATOMIC-POWERED watch
Pic The laughing gnomon
Could this be the chronometrist’s ultimate timepiece, the peak of horological haute couture? British bespoke movement maker Hoptroff today claimed to have produced the world’s first personal chronometer with an on board atomic clock.
The result, says Hoptroff, is a accuracy of 1.5 seconds every 3.15 x 1010 seconds - that’s 1000 …
BlackBerry: THE TRUTH about that 5.1 per cent UK market figure
Mobe maker is happy stroking its bronze
BlackBerry has rebutted a claim that its UK smartphone market share was just 5.1 per cent during the first three months of 2013.
It says independent sales figures show it notched up ten per cent of the market during that period.
The smaller figure comes from Kantar WorldPanel ComTech, a market watcher, and was released earlier …
Fanbois vs fandroids: Punters display 'tribal loyalty'
Buying a new mobe? You'll stick with the same maker - survey
Does how you feel about your current smartphone really inform the handset you’ll acquire two, three or four years hence? The Yankee Group, a market watcher, thinks it might. And that’s good news for Apple. Possibly.
Apple currently sits just behind Google in the future purchasing stakes. According to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, …
iPhone 5 totters at the top as Samsung thrusts up UK mobe chart
But older Apples are still holding their own
Apple’s three most recent mobiles together took more than a quarter of smartphones sales in Britain during the first three months of 2013, we're told.
The iPhone 5 was the period’s most popular handset, but the Cupertino giant's UK market share continues to be eroded by Android - and even Windows Phone 8.
Google’s Linux-derived …
Next Xbox to be called ‘Xbox Infinity’... er... ‘Xbox’
We don’t know. Maybe Microsoft doesn’t (yet) either
The next Xbox will be called the Xbox Infinity, if a piccy of an allegedly leaked logo is to be believed.
Or perhaps it’ll just be plain Xbox, as a separate, equally unofficial, just as questionable logo suggests.
The Xbox Infinity - not actually a name, just the word XBOX with an infinity symbol superscript - and the tagline “ …
Ten ancestors of the netbook
Feature Doomed category has a long history thanks to Atari, Poqet, Psion et al
Come 2015, we’re told, the netbook will be dead and gone, out-evolved by the more fleet of foot, more desirable media tablet.
We shouldn’t mourn the netbook’s passing, though. It has had, in one form or another, a good innings. While some folk may look back to the category’s debut in 2007 with the launch of Asus’ Eee PC 701 - …
PEAK iPHONE? Apple mobe growth slumps to ‘lowest in its history’
What won't appear on Tim Cook's WWDC 2013 slides
Samsung has extended its lead over Apple by shifting considerably more smartphones than its adversary during the first quarter of 2013.
The South Korean giant also managed to ship 56 per cent more mobes in those three months than it did in the same period a year ago.
Among the world’s top five smartphone vendors, Apple - …
High-rollers’ shop pitches wallet-pounding, wall-pummelling MONSTER TV
4K x 2K whopper can now be yours, if you have 35k going spare
Suddenly found yourself with £35,000 in your pocket and can’t think what to spend it on? Wander on down to posh shop Selfridges which says it has the answer: Samsung’s S9, an Ultra HD enormo-telly boasting 4K x 2K resolution.
And you’ll get a whole penny in change.
Selfridges, which describes the Samsung set as “truly a work of …
Tough luck, lappies: Brits favour fingersome fondleslabs, phones
Can notebook sales survive the clamour for touchscreen tech?
Tablets have been outselling desktop and notebook PCs combined here in Blighty, and they could well be about to generate more revenue for their manufacturers too, data from GfK, a market watcher, suggests.
Slates have accounted for more than half of the sales volume of computer products in the UK since October 2012, GfK’s …
Boffins KALQ-u-late the ultimate 'board for two-thumb tablet tappers
Grip that 7-incher and get it pumping out stuff
Boffins in Scotland, Germany and the US of A have calculated what they claim is the most efficient two-thumb keyboard it’s possible to put on a tablet, at least for folk writing in English on a 7-inch slate.
Researchers at the University of St Andrews, the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and Montana Tech crunched the …
Black-eyed Pies reel from BeagleBoard's $45 Linux micro blow
Pics Gigahertz-class pocket-sized ARM Ubuntu rig, anyone?
Open-source hardware outfit BeagleBoard has formally announced a major revision of its BeagleBone board computer that ups the spec and downs the price.
The BeagleBone Black's single-core processor jumps from its predecessor’s 720MHz to 1GHz. It’s a Texas Instruments AM335x system-on-a-chip, which uses ARM’s Cortex-A8 …
Review: Corsair Voyager Air 1TB wireless hard drive
The basic network storage box that transforms into extra space for slates and smartphones
Corsair has made a name for itself offering solid-state drives, fast memory and other components to fit inside high-performance PCs.
But its latest product takes the supplier out of its comfort zone and into the world of smartphones and tablets. It also carries the company into the network-attached storage arena.
It’s a good …
Sord drawn: The story of the M5 micro
Feature The 1983 Japanese home computer that tried to cut it in the UK
It took Japanese micro maker Sord more than six months to launch its M5 home computer in the UK, but in April 1983, the company said the Z80A-based machine would finally go on sale during the following month - half a year after it was originally scheduled to arrive over here.
It was a bold move. Even in November 1982, when the …
More Brits ditch Apple tablets for Amazon, Google, Samsung kit
But iPad Mini is still the UK adults' top-rated slate
Almost a fifth of the UK’s adult population now owns a fondleslab, and while most of them have a tablet with a bitten fruit icon on the back, Apple’s dominance is slipping.
So says YouGov, a pollster, which regularly asks Brits about their technology purchases. During the first three months of 2012, 73 per cent of British tablet …
Boffins build ant-sized battery, claim it's tough enough to start a car
High power, high energy microbatteries, anyone?
Electronics continue to shrink to ever smaller sizes, but researchers are having a tough time miniaturising the batteries powering today’s mobile gadgets. Step forward, bicontinuous nanoporous electrodes.
Smartphones use smaller power packs than they did five years ago, it’s true, but that’s because their chips and radios are …
Manual override: Raspberry Pi beginners' books
Feature Do the 'getting started' guides make your first slice of Pi more tasty?
The Raspberry Pi has been out for just over a year now. It has undergone a couple of revisions during that time, most recently around October 2012, but a short while ago I decided it was time I ought to try it out and see what the diminutive, Linux-running micro can do.
Entirely coincidentally, the Raspberry Pi Owners’ Workshop …
Hardware hacker unifies 15 retro consoles in format frenzy
One box to play them all, etc
Most fans of old-skool videogame hardware rely on emulators for their retro gaming kicks. But not some fellow going by the handle Bacteria. Three years ago, he decided he needed 15 original games consoles in his living room and that he wanted them all in a single box.
Project Unity Game cube: the console offering a feast of …
Logitech launches MEGA-PRICEY 15-in-1 remote
£229 buys you deluxe model, cheaper sister sets you back £109
Swiss mouse master Logitech will whip out a pair of new Harmony “universal” remote controls this month, extending the range to take in home automation kit as well as your home entertainment rig.
First, the Harmony Ultimate, the latest in Logitech’s line of programmable controllers. This one can control up to 15 devices and has a …
Gigabyte bats Brix at Intel's tiny NUC PC
Half as tall as Chipzilla's micro PC - and with a better spec
Taiwan’s Gigabyte is to take on Intel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC), the chip company’s ultra-compact Core i3-based desktop computer. Last week, it demo’d Brix, a box with a slightly bigger footprint than the NUC but around only half as tall.
Gigabyte promises four Brix systems with, respectively, Celeron, Core i3, i5 and i7 …
WTF is... H.265 aka HEVC?
Feature Ultra-efficient vid codec paves way for MONSTER-res TVs, decent mobe streaming
When Samsung unveiled its next-generation smartphone, the Galaxy S4, in March this year, most of the Korean giant’s fans focused their attention on the device’s big 5-inch, 1920 x 1080 screen, its quad-core processor and its 13Mp camera. All impressive of course, but incremental steps in the ongoing evolution of the smartphone. …
The ten SEXIEST computers of ALL TIME
Product Round-up Gorgeous kit that looks as good now as it did the day it came out
Does a computer need to look sexy? You might say that the looks of such a pragmatic gadget don’t matter. After all, most of us have, at one time or another, had to make do with bland, beige boxes almost exactly like everyone else’s bland, beige box, and it didn't hinder us from getting the job done, or made play any the less …
Review: Intel Next Unit of Computing barebones desktop PC
Is Chipzilla's nano machine too polished to rival the rough'n'ready Raspberry Pi?
Intel must really like the sound of its own ‘voice’. How else can you explain the fact that sliding open the box containing the chip giant’s latest desktop package plays the ding-da-ding-ding-ding jingle as soon as you open it. Amaze your friends! Irritate your colleagues! Keep opening and closing the box to replay the ditty …
Review: Jabra Revo Wireless headphones
NFC-enabled, Bluetooth-connected cans with Dolby Digital Plus sonic enhancement
I’ve tried a fair few wireless headphones over the past ten years, almost all of them unsatisfactory in one way or another. Many of the early ones were over-the-ear jobs with those round-the-back-of-your-head bands, but all suffered from either excessive weight - thanks to the on-board battery - or simply didn’t play for long. …
The Lynx effect: The story of Camputers' mighty micro
Feature The cat from Cambridge that clawed its way to the top... almost
Not all of the early 1980s British home computers were fated to be as successful as Sinclair’s ZX series or Acorn's BBC Micro. Many were destined instead to be loved solely by keen but small communities of owners. For all these users’ enthusiasm, there were too few of them to sustain the cost of developing, manufacturing, …
Infinite loop: the Sinclair ZX Microdrive story
Feature The rise and fall of a 'revolutionary' storage technology
They would, Clive Sinclair claimed on 23 April 1982, revolutionise home computer storage. Significantly cheaper than the established 5.25-inch and emerging 3.5-inch floppy drives of the time - though not as capacious or as fast to serve up files - ‘Uncle’ Clive’s new toy would “change the face of personal computing”, Sinclair …
Comixology cloud fails to Make Mine Marvel
Comment Free first issue promo frozen after servers kerpowed
Digital comic fans are a fairly honest lot, generally prefering to buy their sequential art reading matter than pinch it. But that doesn’t mean they ignore the regular weekly batches of new issues shared online. An apology from Dave Steinberger, head of Comixology, the largest digital comics retailer, reveals one reason why. …
Intel's Centrino notebook platform is 10 years old
The brand and the technology that made the world mobile
Ten years ago, Intel decided notebook computers needed a boost. The technology wasn’t new, but while a fair few mobile workers had portable computers, and some even had modem cards or were using Bluetooth-connected phones to reach the internet, laptops weren’t seen as a truly mobile networkable device.
And so the chip maker …
Ten serious sci-fi films for the sentient fan
Feature In space, no one can hear you ponder the eternal verities
Zap guns, robots, lightspeed-smashing spaceships and bikini-busting princesses do not real science fiction make. Just ask George Lucas.
Star Wars defined movie SF in the mind of many a mainstream viewer. But while the film and its sequels and, er, prequels certainly provide the sci-fi enthusiast with thrills a-plenty - guilty or …
Proto Steam box may feel your arousal, hints Valve daddy
'Noise, heat issues' challenge for gaming console - Gabe Newell
Game developer Valve will be pushing out prototypes of its living room download-and-play games box sometime in the next “three to four months”, company chief Gabe Newell has revealed.
The machine, dubbed the Steam Box, is essentially a Linux PC linked to Valve’s online games shop, Steam. Being a PC, it’s easy to build, but …
BlackBerry Z10: Prices pruned despite eager iPunter interest
Are enough iPhone and Android fans hopping on board to revive the former RIM?
How well is the Z10 from BlackBerry - née RIM - faring? Reports on the handset’s retail success, on which BlackBerry’s recovery as a business is riding, are mixed.
Late last week, Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone separately pruned the price of the handset, not a good sign for a premium device that has been on sale for less than a …
Architect pitches builder-bothering 'Print your own house' plan
Open source DIY domicile project to 'do for building what Linux did for software'
WikiHouse, the "print your own open source pad" project, has called for contributors and cash to help it establish an online archive of downloadable dwelling designs.
The site’s aim is nothing short of the democratisation of the construction industry: to allow, in short, “anyone to design, download and 'print' CNC-milled houses …
MasterCard tries to zap PayPal with own-brand mobe wallet
MasterPass eyes lead in pay-by-mobe race
Walk into any of Apple’s 400 shops, pick up an accessory, boxed software or any one of the other items the Mac maker’s stylish emporia have out on shelves, and, if you have an Apple ID and an iPhone, you can buy the products you want without having to interact with one of the firm’s happy-clappy minions.
The system works with an …
Four firms pitch hi-def DRM for Flash cards
Next-generation Secure Memory, anyone?
Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba have begun licensing their new DRM technology for memory cards to anyone who feels the world needs yet another copy protection technology for HD content. They hope many content providers do indeed want a new DRM system, specifically one that secures content but doesn’t prevent content …
Blackberry Z10 sales fail to impress analysts
Early forecasts being revised downward
It’s no exaggeration to say that the future of BlackBerry, the renamed Research in Motion, is hanging on success of its new BlackBerry smartphones, the Q10 and, particularly, the Z10. Revised forecasts from a number of market watchers suggest the troubled company has not yet put its woes behind it.
Earlier this week, two …
WTF is... Miracast?
The AirPlay alternative for streaming video, games from your Android to your telly
Less than six months ago, there were just a handful of Miracast-certified products listed in the Wi-Fi Alliance’s kit database. Now there are nearly 150. A spectacular improvement for a little known technology. So what is it?
Miracast was formally launched in September 2012, but it was Google’s announcement a month and a half …
Sony promises PC-based PlayStation 4 for Christmas
AMD x86 tech helps console break out of Cell
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Sony PlayStation 4 - or, as we say in the trade, a PC.
Yes, the PS4 will indeed be based on an octo-core x86-compatible processor, incorporate 8GB of GDDR 5 and will be equipped with a PC-centric GPU. It’ll have a hard drive too, plus the inevitable Blu-ray drive. It will incorporate 802. …
WTF is... IEEE 1905.1?
Feature Hybrid, multi-media home networking made easy
It sounds like a solution looking for a problem. A technology that allows networked devices in the home connected by different network media to operate as if they were connected across a single medium. Surely TCP/IP already allows you to do that, routing packets from, say, network attached storage linked to a router over an …
Fashionably slate
Comment Why TV makers are trying to turn telly into tablet - and why it's a daft idea
It’s not easy being a television manufacturer these days. Most homes, especially in the West and the wealthier parts of Asia, now have a large flat panel TV, thank you, and don’t need another one. Sales, then, are not as strong as they once were, pushing down prices and, in turn, whittling production margins from razor thin to …
Review: Seagate Wireless Plus Wi-Fi hard drive
A terabyte of portable storage for your Android or iOS device
In the week Apple finally released an iPad with a storage capacity greater than 64GB - double that; 128GB to be precise - Seagate made its Wireless Plus available. Of course, if Apple’s Flash mark-up wasn’t so colossal, or it had had the wit to either built a Micro SD port into its tablets or allow USB mass storage devices to …
Socket to 'em: It's the HomeGrid vs HomePlug powerline prizefight
Feature Rival mains LAN standards go mano-a-mano for a place in your home network
“Two standards, both alike in dignity,
In fair Vegas, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.”
The backers of rival next-generation in-home mains power networking standards may not have come to physical blows in defence of their favoured technologies, but …
Netflix tempts binge viewers with House of Cards pilot freebie
Outer Spacey: Doh! ... You have to install Silverlight
Netflix is making the pilot episode of its made-for-IPTV series House of Cards free to anyone to watch, whether they’re one of the streaming service’s 33 million subscribers or not.
The entire 13-part series went live en masse on Netflix late last week. Rather than run the series episode by episode, week by week, Netflix reckons …
Report: Over 1.5 MILLION UK drivers will have hydrogen cars by 2030
Fuel cell cars on roads in 2015. Boom - ahem - to follow, says quango
Hydrogen fuel cell cars won’t hit the market until 2015, but with the right investment in infrastructure, more than a million and a half of us could be driving one by 2030, with annual sales topping 300,000 vehicles, an evaluation conducted by government and industry has forecast.
A timeline drawn up by UKH2Mobility - a …
Oh, Sony, you big tease: Mystery PlayStation reveal date set
Gamers, Wall St a-quiver in anticipation of a PS4 glimpse
Sony has called on hacks and analysts to come to New York next month for an event focused on the PlayStation - an invite that's left pundits and fans predicting the unveiling of the long-awaited PlayStation 4.
Naturally, Sony isn’t saying, confirming only that the electronics giant will be discussing its PlayStation business. …
Surface left on shelves as world+dog slurps up small slates
Knife brought to gunfight, etc, etc
Half a million Microsoft Surface tablets may be gathering dust on shop shelves, it has been claimed.
Market watcher IHS iSuppli reckons Microsoft shipped 1.25 million Surface tablets into the resale channel during Q4 2012. However, only 55 to 60 per cent of those Windows RT-based devices were purchased by punters.
That means …
Wii-U boat torpedoes Nintendo's '¥20bn profit' into ¥20bn loss
Time to get off that go-cart, Mario, and get a real job
Facing a looming $219m loss, Nintendo today restated its mission “to pursue its basic strategy of compelling products that anyone can enjoy, regardless of age, gender or gaming experience”.
This is marketing speak for targeting occasional players, in particular the very young and the old, folk who might not normally be expected …
Tablets BEAT DOWN laptops in 4-to-1 Xmas bloodbath - analyst
Jingle bells, notebook hells
Bow down before the might of the tablet. If you were unsure who is the master now, look no further than numbers from the UK wing of GfK, a market watcher which tracks over-the-counter sales.
According to its data, more tablets were sold in December 2012 - no doubt as Christmas prezzies - than notebooks purchased in October, …
Japan promised Ultra HD TV broadcasts two years early
Brazil World Cup in glorious 4K x 2K, anyone?
Japanese telly addicts will get to see the 2014 FIFA World Cup in glorious Ultra HD. As a result, they’ll get 4K x 2K broadcast content beamed into their homes two years earlier than expected.
Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said the move had been prompted by a desire to stimulate demand for the 3840 × …
The Oric-1 is 30
Feature The colourful story of a would-be Spectrum killer
The Oric-1, which was formally launched 30 years ago this week, was produced with one thing in mind: to take on Sir Clive Sinclair at his own game. “The Oric is a competitor for the Spectrum,” one of Oric developer Tangerine Computer Systems’ software team, Paul Kaufman, emphatically told members of the press. “We are convinced …
Tablets aren't killing ereaders, it's clog-popping wrinklies - analyst
Market dying... literally
Don’t blame the tablet computer for the demise of the ebook reader. Instead, look no further than aged users who are inconveniently - for Amazon, Sony, Barnes & Noble, Kobo et al - kicking the bucket.
That’s the claim made by ABI Research, a market watcher which has been tracking the ereader business for more than 10 years. ABI’ …
