Earlier Hardware
Yelling at mobes while driving just as bad as texting
Using voice-to-text tech to send messages while driving is just as dangerous as regular texting, a new study has found.
Drivers' response times doubled regardless of whether they were speaking or typing their messages, compared to when they weren't texting, the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University said.
The …
Review: Nokia's Windows Phone 8-powered Lumia 720
Nokia completed its Windows 8 range with two new models recently, including this midrange offering the 720. With a choice of five Lumias it's now clearer to see what Nokia hopes to achieve.
The 720 strikes me as the Ford Cortina of the Lumias, a well made mass market compact. The 720 has everything going for it except, perhaps, …
Turn off the mic: Nokia gets injunction on 'key' HTC One component
Nokia has said it bagged a court injunction in Amsterdam that effectively prevents HTC from using the microphones that are a "key" component of its HTC One smartphone.
The Finnish phone maker won a preliminary ban on the mikes, made by ST Microelectronics, stopping the firm from selling them on to HTC or anyone else.
"In its …
Sord drawn: The story of the M5 micro
Feature 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 …
Nudge nudge, wink wink interface may drive Google Glass
The user interface for Google's forthcoming tech specs, aka Google Glass, may feature a two-fingered salute and a wink.
The source for this supposition is a Redditor by the name of Fodawim who says he or she has peered into the code of the Google Glass companion app and found the following text:
"BROWSER_TWO_FINGER_ZOOM"
" …
Spies catch Acer's Windows 8-incher before it hides
Acer will be the first of Microsoft's hardware partners to release a small-screened tablet running Windows 8, if photos purportedly leaked from the PC maker are any indication.
French technology site Minimachines was the first to reveal photos and specs of the sub-sized device, which it claims will have an 8-inch screen and will …
First Firefox OS developer phones to launch on Tuesday
Developers who are interested in building apps for the Mozilla Foundation's web standards–based Firefox OS will be able to get their hands on the first handsets running the open source platform beginning on Tuesday.
As The Reg has previously reported, the phones will be manufactured by Spanish startup Geeksphone and will be …
Review: Disgo 8400G 7.9in Android tablet
A 7.9in Jelly Bean Android tablet with 3G connectivity for £150? There has to be a catch, right? Absolutely. The catch with the Disgo 8400G is that you’ve probably never heard of the company before...
Now, this could mean you’ll be ahead of the game with the next big thing in affordable fondleslabs if you bought one. However, …
iPhone too heavy? Volkswagen brings out motorised ride-on dock
Apple and Volkswagen have joined forces to produce a new version of the iconic Beetle enhanced with all sort of Cupertino-inspired bells and whistles.
Teams from both firms worked together on the iBeetle, which looks pretty much like the car which used to be produced without a lower case 'i' inserted in front of its name.
It …
Ready for the car 2.0? Nvidia preps UPGRADABLE car system
What’s your next car dashboard going to look like? The answer may well be: however you want it to look. If Nvidia has its way, car manufacturers and owners will have a much wider range of choices when it comes to dashboard displays, navigation sophistication, and personalising the car to the owner.
The computer hardware …
Ten Windows 8 Ultrabooks
Product Roundup Stop anyone on the street and ask them for a definition of the term ‘Ultrabook’ and I suspect they will look at you with utter incomprehension. Hardly surprising, since Intel’s effort to create a popular brand for thin’n’light notebooks hasn’t really been a roaring success.
To me, the Ultrabook is the logical evolution of the …
787 battery fix approved
Boeing's beleaguered 787 is a little closer to flying again after the USA's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). approved the plane-makers new battery system plans.
The 787 was grounded earlier this year after battery packs on two craft overheated and produced lots of smoke.
Boeing revealed the details of the two incidents …
Report: Apple returned 8M shoddy iPhones to Foxconn
Foxconn has apparently botched a batch of iPhones, which Apple returned to the contract manufacturer because they were not fit for sale.
Details of just what went wrong are sketchy, as the source for this tale is an anonymous Foxconn staffer chatting to China Business. That report, after being forced through a couple of …
Notebook makers turn to Android in face of Windows woes
Dissatisfied with sales of Windows 8 notebook and tablets, major PC vendors have reportedly joined Intel in a new push to launch convertible fondleslabs based on Google's Android OS.
So sayeth the supply-chain sleuths at Taiwanese tech news site DigiTimes, which cites anonymous sources inside the notebook vendors.
Chinese …
Shut the CANUCK up! Sony offers $1m to hacked gamers
Canadian gamers affected by the hacking of Sony's Playstation Network have been offered compensation worth $1m by the entertainment giant.
An email titled “PSN-SOE-Canada Settlement” went out this week to gamers in Canada offering small sops to anyone affected by the outage in 2011.
Any Canadian who started an account on the …
Chinese state tightwads help strangle Asia-Pacific PC sales in 2013
Asia-Pacific has well and truly succumbed to the global economic malaise, with the region’s PC market declining 13 per cent year-on-year in the last quarter – its first ever double digit drop, according to IDC.
Not even the launch of Windows 8 in China in October and more Intel-powered ultrabooks could stop PC sales sliding to …
British bookworms deem Amazon 'evil'
Something for the Weekend, Sir? “My only real prediction is that it’s all changing.”
Well, ask a stupid question - in this case, about the future of book publishing. The lobotomy-inducingly obvious answer was provided by author Neil Gaiman. If I’d written this prediction here on El Reg, I would have been derided as a time-waster specialising in stating the …
Review: NetAtmo Urban Weather Station
Do we need a new obsession? Isn’t Facebook and Twitter enough for most folk? Some argue the British are obsessed about the weather.
It’s hardly surprising we talk about it all the time, the weather here changes so much, it never fails to be topical. Well that’s how it used to be. Lately, Blighty has been blighted by a godawful …
Touchscreen killer? Cam boffinry cut'n'pastes from real things
Vid Japanese boffins at Fujitsu have been showing off new user-interface technology which uses advanced image processing to effectively digitise physical content, allowing users to manipulate it like they would with a touchscreen interface.
The system consists of a camera and projector so that a user can select a piece of physical …
More Brits ditch Apple tablets for Amazon, Google, Samsung kit
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 …
Google Glass will SELF-DESTRUCT if flogged on eBay
Buyers of Google Glass have been warned they cannot sell their pricey new techno-spectacles on eBay or anywhere else.
In terms of sale posted on its website, the advertising giant said a Google Glass was for life, unless you wanted to give it away for nothing. Anyone who failed to follow the rules will have their devices …
Review: Asus PadFone 2 phone-tablet combo
I thought the first Asus PadFone was a jolly good idea the moment I clapped eyes on it. Sadly it never made it to these shores but the PadFone 2 has. In a nutshell, what we have here is an Android smartphone that can be docked into a dumb tablet giving you not only a choice of two screen sizes but also the convenience of one …
TomTom brandishes new strap-on in Amsterdam: The wristnav
Pics Satnav maker TomTom guided the press - along with automotive and retail partners from all corners of the globe - to Amsterdam on Tuesday for the launch of its next gen satnavs and a new sporty lifestyle product range.
The company has form with fitness gear, having teamed up with Nike to deliver its strap-on range of Nike+ GPS …
Manual override: Raspberry Pi beginners' books
Feature 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
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 …
Google erects tech specs tech specs, APIs hit the decks
Google's much-hyped Project Glass spectacles are inching closer to launch and the Chocolate Factory has released an application programming interface (API) guide and management software for the headgear.
The first techno-specs, dubbed Google Glass Explorer Edition, are already rolling off the production line, the firm said in an …
Eerie satnav boffinry claims it can predict THE FUTURE
Do you hate driving in the city? Do you fly into a rage when you can’t find a parking spot after spending hours in heavy traffic on the way to your destination?
Do you have trouble deciphering satnav directions while paying attention to your surroundings? Or do you get easily distracted while driving and become a safety threat …
AMAZEBALLS: Buy a doomed Apple TV, get a replacement free
Apple has admitted its third-generation Apple TV box is dicky and has offered to replace faulty units.
The fruity firm confessed that "small numbers" of the units suffered from dodgy Wi-Fi connections. Although the set-top box has a wired Ethernet port, the flaw is crippling for fanbois who are allergic to trailing cables and …
Huawei Ascend Mate lands in Australia
Huawei is clearly hoping that 2013 will be the year that it shakes off the “cheap” image, but its Ascend Mate, first seen earlier this year at CES, still sports a notable $AU429 price tag.
But a second agenda is at work, with the 1280x720 resolution, 6.1-inch Ascend Mate based on Huawei's own silicon and a custom UI – both of …
Logitech launches MEGA-PRICEY 15-in-1 remote
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 …
Kobo strikes new match against Kindle: The Aura HD e-reader
Pics Kobo gathered the great and the good from publishing and distribution in London yesterday to launch its new high-res e-ink reader, the Aura HD.
Michael Serbinis, Kobo CEO, said the company asked 10,000 book lovers for the features a perfect e-reader should have. While the Kobo Aura HD probably doesn't match all the survey …
Ten Windows tablets
Product Roundup Twelve months ago the idea of compiling a list of Windows tablets that you would actually want to buy would have been as impossible to do as it would have been farcical to suggest. But with the launch of Windows 8 and Windows RT all that has changed, and we are now faced with a bewildering array of fondleslabs all running …
Gigabyte bats Brix at Intel's tiny NUC PC
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 …
Microsoft brings back Windows watch after Apple seeks 'flexible' bod
Microsoft is working on a touch-enabled watch despite calling time last year on its earlier efforts. The revelation comes hot on the heels of rumours that rival Apple is working on an iWatch - which were further fuelled by Cupertino's posting of a job ad for a flexible display expert.
The Wall St Journal reports that Microsoft …
Apple alert as half China's fanbois consider switch to Galaxy S4
It could be sweaty palm time at Cupertino after new research revealed that more than half of China’s loyal fanbois are thinking of switching their iPhones to a Samsung Galaxy S4, according to new data from market watcher TrendForce.
The Taiwanese firm’s research arm Avanti interviewed a representative sample of 3,000 smartphone …
Apple the victim after Chinese scammers exploit returns policy
The on-going saga over Apple’s “unfair” after-sales service in China has taken another twist after it was revealed that scammers exploited its returns policy to exchange fake parts for real ones, enabling them to build and sell new devices.
Five employees at an electronics store selling Apple goods were arrested in the Chinese …
Oblivion movie review
When the film Oblivion was mentioned in the office recently, my first thoughts were that it was a prequel to The Hangover series. I couldn’t have been more wrong... or was I? After all, this Tom Cruise sci-fi caper has loss of memory as one of its key themes, which, booze fueled forays aside, immediately has me thinking of some …
Dubai splurges on 700hp, 217mph Lamborghini police cruiser
Pix The Dubai police force can expect a flood of applications to its cadet academy now that it has added a 217mph Lamborghini Aventador to its cruiser fleet.
How much did it set back Dubai's Finest to get their hands on this stylish bit of four-wheeled extravagance? It depends upon whom you believe: Sky News puts the price at £250, …
Netbooks projected to become EXTINCT by 2015
Proving yet again that fame and fortune are fleeting – even for computer hardware – the analysts at IHS are projecting that the netbook, the New Hotness just a few short years ago, will disappear completely by 2015.
"Once a white-hot PC product that sold in the tens of millions of units annually," IHS writes in an email release …
BlackBerry slams Z10 returns report as 'false and misleading'
BlackBerry president and CEO Thorsten Heins has fired back at an article in The Wall Street Journal which cites a report that returns of the Z10 are outnumbering sales – and that report was just the latest bad news for the beleaguered smartphone manufacturer.
"Return rate statistics show that we are at or below our forecasts and …
Moist iPhone fanbois tempted with golden Apple shower offer
Apple has reportedly agreed to shake $53m (£35m) in change out of its pockets to settle a lawsuit accusing it of wriggling out of gadget warranties using a water-detecting tool.
Fanbois who brought their busted iPhones and iPods into Apple Stores for repair watched employees check the status of a Liquid Contact Indicator - which …
Oh S**T, here comes a ROBOT to take my JOB
Something for the Weekend, Sir? The enormous lump of shit sat steaming directly outside the publisher’s door facing the first-floor landing, welcoming early morning office workers as they arrived with a cheeful “Hello! I’m a giant turd! And I smell really bad!”
Each member of staff who had chosen to begin work at 7.30am that day reacted the same way: wrinkled …
