Gadgets
Modern Tech versus The Past
Most of us assume modern life is the peak of human achievement, but is it really? We decided to take a look at the major technologies of the modern world and compare them to their closest equivalent of pre-digital mankind. The results are surprising. Continue reading...
Food Watcher: Lose weight using mild electrocution
Up yours, sensible eating and regular exercise, and hello cakes! We've just discovered the Food Watcher -- a gadget that miraculously suppresses your appetite, helping you lose weight without you having to visit the gym.
The device, which looks a bit like an MP3 player, is described as a transcutaneous electrical nerve simulator that applies electrical pulses to your ear ducts, "temporarily inhibiting vagal activity, thus reducing gastric motility and consequently the drive to eat". Or something. Continue reading...
Gmote: Control your PC with your phone
It's been a long time coming, but we think the future might finally be now. Let's all be upstanding, folks, for Gmote, an app that lets you control the mouse, keyboard and files on your PC using your Android mobile phone. No, put the pitchforks down, it's true!
Gmote may be from another time and dimension, but it's available as a free download from the Android Market right now (alternatives are available for the iPhone via iTunes). Once you've installed the app on your handset, run the accompanying server software on your PC and attached both your PC and phone to the same Wi-Fi network, a world of futuristic possibilities awaits. Continue reading...
The worst Microsoft celebrity videos ever
Microsoft has a history of terrible videos -- here are our favourite promo howlers -- but nothing trumps the attraction of Microsoft's deep coffers. Hence the plethora of celebrity shills willing to attach their names to the brand's latest poorly written, clunkily shot videos, including such cultural icons as David Brent, Superman and Dolly Parton.
Recently, we heard Will Smith had taken the M$, only to discover it was a suited and booted ankle-biter and not the famous chap. Standing on a fake stage at a made-up talent show contest, which is made-up and also fake, pint-size Smith sings a song called Windows 7 Rising to the tune of Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival. It's awful. Now here's some genuinely famous people being paid by Microsoft to sprinkle some Hollywood cool on whatever they were selling that year -- and failing miserably. Continue reading...
Star Trek-oration: Give your home the Enterprise makeover
JJ Abrams' time-travelling 'reboot' of the Star Trek universe doesn't mean you have to erase your memories of doomed red shirts, grumpy doctors, boozy engineers and tea-sipping Shakespearean captains. In fact, it's never been easier to leave the complicated 21st century behind and reboot your own life into the crisp, clean 23rd century, where everyone wears brightly coloured Lycra and all the doors go whoosh. Make it so! Continue reading...
Top ten tech records
In the 15 years since genial trumpeter Roy Castle went to the great Book of Records in the sky, technology has moved faster than his tap-dancing toes. The majority of the biggest, fastest and most powerful tech mentioned here wasn't even dreamed of back in 1994, which makes us wonder what futuristic world records are yet to be set. Strongest prosthetic exoskeleton? Fastest sub-orbital ramjet? Deadliest virtual-reality mind virus? Here's our current cutting-edge top ten tech records... Continue reading...
The future is now: Sci-fi films in real locations
The modern science-fiction film is synonymous with CGI wizardry, clever gadgets and elaborate sets. While those are some of our favourite things, it's all too easy to lose sight of the human story in among the whooshing, 'sploding and transforming. One way to focus on the people is to place them in an all-too-familiar future that looks a lot like now. There's a fascinating strand of sci-fi cinema that does just that, with auteurs such as Traffaut, Godard and Kubrick creating the future by filming in real locations. We highlight seven films that use real-world places to creepy effect... Continue reading...
The greatest CNET features you've never seen
Over the last few years, we've tickled your funniest of bones, expanded your brains to hitherto unthinkable widths, and wasted enormous amounts of your free time. We thought we'd spend a happy afternoon splashing through our extensive archive of features and pick out the ones we think are important, and the ones you've told us you love the most.
Many of you may not have visited CNET UK two years ago when we published our ultimate list of the world's greatest off switches -- yes, off switches. Or last year, when we spent three months defining the 50 most significant moments of Internet history from the last four decades. Continue reading...
How heavy is the Internet?
Using publicly available information, for the first time in the world, we have precisely and scientifically calculated the weight of the Internet. Obviously this information is only really useful to someone attempting to work out the cost of posting the Internet somewhere, perhaps to North Korea. Still, the casual reader -- hi there! -- may still enjoy learning just how damn heavy the thing is. Continue reading...
Top ten funniest tech videos ever made
Every minute, 10 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube. This means that by 2015, Google's servers will contain over 5,000 years of footage -- handy if you have the entire span of human history to kill, but tricky to browse in your lunch hour. Fear not. CNET UK has scanned aeons of audiovisual entertainment, discarded everything related to pet cats, Miley Cyrus and the US healthcare debate, and selected ten bite-sized, tech-related clips that genuinely made us LOL. Or at least SSA (snigger semi-audibly).
Mactini -- The Peter Serafinowicz Show
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