Guitar amp pioneer Jim Marshall dies aged 88
GadgetsJim Marshall, the man who pioneered loud guitar amps, has died at the ripe age of 88.
Guitar amps aren't our usual field of tech, but this mild-mannered man from London helped change the world when he re-invented them in the 1960s. Put it this way: his amps were loud enough to kickstart a genre called rock, and music was never the same again. Continue reading...
Kobo Wireless e-reader cut to £49 at Asda
GadgetsSound the bargain klaxon! Asda is flogging the Kobo Wi-Fi ebook reader for a modest £49 -- good news for those looking to take their first tentative steps into the world of digital books.
The slashed price is £18 less than the previous £67 listing, and is just over a tenner cheaper than the WH Smith price. It leaves the Kobo Wi-Fi £40 less expensive than the cheapest Kindle, which costs £89 from Amazon. Continue reading...
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Misleading broadband speeds banned by ad watchdog
GadgetsAdvertising watchdogs have finally clamped down on exaggerated claims about how fast your Internet connection will be -- but have they gone far enough?
The Committee of Advertising Practice and Advertising Standards Authority introduces new guidelines this week to ensure adverts paint a more realistic picture of broadband speeds offered by each Internet service provider. Continue reading...
Project Glass is Google's wearable, augmented reality specs
GadgetsGoogle's augmented reality glasses are real! Dubbed Project Glass, the much-rumoured lenses that show you heads-up information about the world around you have been confirmed by the company.
At the moment, Google's announcement is limited to a Google+ page, a YouTube video (which I've embedded below) and some nerdy mock-ups of attractive people wearing the futuristic goggles. Continue reading...
TomTom sat-navs broken by 'leap year' bug
Car TechTomTom sat-navs have been struck down by a 'leap year' bug that sees the road-navigating gadgets failing to find their location.
In a statement on its support site, TomTom says that the problem is caused by a bug in the GPS receiver's software that has left some devices unable to obtain a GPS position since 31 March. Continue reading...
Steve Jobs movie starring Ashton Kutcher is not a joke
GadgetsWhen the news that Ashton Kutcher is to play Steve Jobs was revealed on 1 April, I probably wasn't the only one to think, "Nice try -- April Fool." But it seems the Two and a Half Men star will indeed don the black turtleneck for a biopic entitled simply Jobs.
Entertainment bible Variety actually considered holding back the news because of the date, but has confirmed this is no joke -- and shooting starts next month. Continue reading...
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LG flexible e-paper launching this month
GadgetsEbook readers could be about to become a lot more like traditional paperbacks. LG will launch a flexible e-paper display in Europe this month, the Telegraph reports.
The 6-inch EPD (e-paper display) is the same size as the screen on the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and many other e-book readers. It's about a third thinner though, and because it's made of plastic rather than glass, is only half the weight. You can't fold or roll it up, but you can bend it up to 40 degrees apparently. That should make it more tactile for reading, as well as more durable when slung into a bag or pocket. Continue reading...
Pirate Bay to launch own submarine to host servers off-shore
SoftwareCopyright scofflaw site The Pirate Bay is getting a whole lot more literal with the launch of a bona fide submarine to host its servers off-shore.
The maritime link machine will set sail later this year, and will tap into trans-Pacific data cables to disperse its illicit booty. Continue reading...
Apple, Foxconn set to improve poor factory worker conditions
GadgetsThe Fair Labor Association (FLA) has outlined various problems with working conditions in the Foxconn factory, where Apple's products are made, resulting in a commitment from both parties to improve matters.
The FLA has been assessing working conditions at Foxconn's three biggest manufacturing plants following numerous accusations of poor working conditions. Unsurprisingly, a fistful of issues have been highlighted, largely surrounding excessive working hours, unfair overtime payment structures and poor safety measures. Continue reading...
Amazon founder to recover Apollo 11 engine from ocean depths
GadgetsAmazon founder Jeff Bezos is set to launch a mission to recover the engines of NASA's Apollo 11 spacecraft from the depths of the Atlantic ocean.
Bezos found Apollo 11's F-1 booster rockets lying some 14,000 feet beneath the surface of the Atlantic ocean using deep-sea sonar technology and together with his team of intrepid sea salvagers, will attempt to raise "one or more" of them from the deep, dark depths. Continue reading...
Samsung SUR40 touchscreen table in video: Does it have legs? 
Meet Samsung's biggest touchscreen gadget yet. The SUR40 is a 40-inch table so massive it puts even the enormous Galaxy Note to shame. Armed with quirky touch tech, Samsung wants to see one of these bad boys installed in every shop and business in the land. But does it stand a chance? Hit play on the video above to see me go hands-on.
The SUR40 itself looks like a honking great telly lying on its side, with four legs poking out the bottom to turn it into a massively pricey table. It's got a touchscreen that supports 50 different touch points, and uses an interesting technology -- dubbed PixelSense -- to do so. Continue reading...
Google should censor search results, say MPs
Gadgets
MPs want to force Google to censor search results. The Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions has recomended that search engines should be made to screen their search results to avoid breaching privacy -- and you should have the book thrown at you if you tweet something you shouldn't.
Google argues it can't accurately apply privacy filters to its results, and rather than risk missing some results or censoring the wrong thing, it doesn't censor at all. Unfortunately the panel of MPs and peers finds that reasoning "totally unconvincing". Continue reading...
Harry Potter ebooks on sale now from Pottermore
SoftwarePotter fans and Kindle owners take note, the Harry Potter novels are now available to buy in delicious digital formats, via JK Rowling's Pottermore site. But Kindle owners will be perturbed to learn the electronic tomes can't be downloaded directly from Amazon.
The first three books in the epic wizarding saga cost a penny under £5, with the final four priced slightly more at £6.99. If you're determined to power through all seven, then you can buy them at once for £38.64. Continue reading...
The Gadget Show World Tour vs Gadget Geeks
GadgetsThe Gadget Show is back next month -- and it's going on the road. Half the presenters are jettisoned in a new format that sees Jason Bradbury and Pollyanna Woodward launch The Gadget Show World Tour. But how will the techtastic twosome face up to the competition from new rival Gadget Geeks?
Channel 5's Gadget Show has been revamped so that each week Jason and Polly travel to a new destination such as Tokyo, Dubai or Silicon Valley to test consumer kit like camcorders, 3D TVs and new phones. Along the way they fire up a smörgåsbord of mind-bending gizmos, including water-blasting jetpacks, mind-controlled skateboards, and more robots than you can shake a stick at. They also engage in some skydiving, shooting at watches, and a spot of cosplay -- all while saying "gadge" a lot, I imagine. Continue reading...
Best action sports holiday gadgets
GadgetsPlanning on taking yourself off on a sports holiday this year? Whether you're strapping a snowboard to your feet, clambering onto a mountain bike or hitting the waves on your surfboard, you're going to need at least a few key pieces of tech to get the most out of your active trip.
I headed out to the Italian Alps, armed with my snowboard and six shiny new gadgets, each one bringing a splash of tech luxury to the slopes in its own special way. Continue reading...
Team GB Olympic kit sports Adidas miCoach sensors
GadgetsStella McCartney's new kit for the British Olympic team includes a sports bra with sensors that monitor your performance.
The Adidas Tennis Performance Bra is made of fancy Climalite fabric that draws sweat away from your body as you exercise, and has two miCoach heart sensors built in to the front. The sensors measure your heart rate and zaps data to the Adidas miCoach app, recording the effort you're putting in and the number of calories you're burning. Mmm, calories. Tasty, tasty calories. Continue reading...
Turing to be new face of the tenner?
GadgetsAn e-petition has been launched to put mathematician, cryptographer and the chap many consider to be the father of modern computer science, Alan Turing, on the £10 note when the time comes for its Series F redesign.
British banknotes undergo periodical makeovers, and if the petition is successful, Turing will follow a host of national heroes including Florence Nightingale, Dickens and Darwin to become the latest face of the tenner. The campaign, which was started by Thomas Thurman, a poet who has previously penned an ode to Turing, has, at time of writing gained over 8,000 signatures. Continue reading...
Hydrogen-fuelled robot jellyfish could one day power itself
GadgetsResearchers have crafted a robot jellyfish that's powered by hydrogen, but that may one day explore the ocean under its own steam, the BBC reports.
Devised by smart cookies at Virginia Tech and the University of Texas at Dallas, the 'robojelly' project mimics the movement of the ocean's most terrifying, wobbly denizen using platinum-coated carbon nanotubes. Continue reading...
Solar flares now classified as 'major threat' to hi tech UK
GadgetsThe UK Cabinet Office has highlighted solar flares as one of the largest threats to normal life, rating them alongside the likes of terrorism, floods and flu pandemics.
Solar flares -- large bursts of radiation from the sun, if you didn't already know -- have the potential to bombard the Earth with charge particles that can disrupt technology, knocking out communications systems, power grids and even interfere with airplanes in flight.
The sun is entering its 'solar max', the most active period in its 10-year cycle, and this increases the chances of solar storms and the release of particles. That, coupled with the UK's dependence on advanced tech, has led Whitehall to deem solar flares one of the most severe threats to our current lifestyle. Continue reading...
This American Life retracts Apple-bashing Foxconn report
GadgetsPopular US radio show This American Life has retracted a January report on working conditions at Apple’s Chinese factories, after it emerged that several of the claims made were ‘falsehoods’.
The broadcast in question was largely based on material from The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, a one-man theatrical show by reporter and self-confessed Apple fanboy Mike Daisey -- and it now seems that much of it was, for want of a better phrase, a big bundle of guff. Continue reading...
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