Power Mat - Review

Sick of trailing wires from your ten different chargers?

This technology has been around for years, indeed it's probably in your homes already. Your electric toothbrush and possible your kettle uses magnetic inductive charging which is the same tech found in the PowerMat.

Having the ability to charge 3-6 devices at the same time with only one plug socket being used has got to be the ultimate in clean living.

Above is the foldable travel mat, Power Mat USA seem to have cornered the market here, being able to charge most of the major mobile phone handsets, except Nokia and Sony-Ericcson, iPod, PSP, DS and your sat nav, it will even recharge AA+AAA batterys.

So will i be buying one?.... Yes, but not yet. The reason being?....

A; £60 for the home version £70 for the travel mat

and

B; Its not just a simple case of throwing your Blackberry and iPod on the mat, Everything needs adapting,

Weather it be a charging dock, a battery case or a power cube, ALL of which will cost you extra, and if i'm honest i can just tidy up after myself until the product improves and the price becomes more realistic.

Augmented ID - The future of social networking

Facial recognition for your phone

We've seen social networking evolve from Friendsreunited, YouTube, Myspace into Facebook then into Twitter, so what will the next big thing  be?.... A swedish company called The Astonishing Tribe think they have the answer.

The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) are using an algorithm created by Polar Rose (A photo tagging startup popular with Flicker and Facebook) in which it recognises signed up users by facial recognition via your mobile phone camera. The clever part of this software is it uses a 3-D model of your face to recognises you which isn't affected by low level light.

The software provides a video image of the person, or person's, you want to know more about, Just as if your taking a video clip, but that's when the software kicks in.

So for example your in a Bar or in the office with a different department, Just point your camera phone at the group of people, And the algorithm will recognise registered user's and provide a live 'halo' of personal information. Name, hot links to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube profiles, infact it can provide any information the user want's to be public thanks to the software having a widget which means you can intergrate it into any site.

Currently built around Google's Android OS, but with rumours Apple are trying to develop an app for its iPhone is extremely encouraging.

This for me, is the most exciting news on the mobile technology market to date.

NASA Levitate mice in Lab

NASA boffins have made mice weight-less using magnetic fields

Weight Loss experiments in animals has been done before with live frogs and grasshoppers, but never before with mice.

NASA started the project in their Jet Propulsion Lab as research into the long term effects of the lack of gravity on astronauts. Mice are biologically closer to humans which means NASA can study how to counteract bone loss.

Scientists working for NASA built a device with a superconducting magnet cooled to near absolute zero, and when a current is run through the solenoid it created a a magnetic field of 17 teslas. To give you some idea of  how powerful that is, its roughly ten thousand times as powerfull as a typical fridge magnet, or Ten million times that of the earth.

Yaunming Liu headed the team for the levitation device which distorts the electrons in water molecules to let the mice float for hours.

The three week old mouse weighing 10 grams floated for 4 hours and even managed to eat and drink whilst floating in the magnetic field.

From time to time the mouse kicked around trying to hold onto something, now and again it would catch the walls which would send it into a spin, the mouse appeared to be midly agitated and disorienated, although this didn't last long and the mouse adjusted.

The boffins also levitated water drops, which in a weird kind of way i would find more amazing than the mouse!

This will hopefully go a long way to helping health issue's astronauts have with bone and muscle loss, and blood flow in zero gravity.

I can see a larger device being built (if it hasn't already) to house an adult human. but supercooling a magnet that size to nearly -273C would be amazing!

Spotify for the iPhone

Millions of Songs, Whenever you want them.

Seems like the whole world has gone spotify crazy! Well now there's a mobile version and like most app's these days iPhone is the testing ground.

Spotify is a free service that allows you to play songs live and streaming to your desktop or laptop. Like LastFM.com it allows you to create playlists etc a really good usefull website. Unlike LastFM.com though Spotify plays a short advert every 6 songs or so, or for a small monthly fee you can listen ad free.

A nice touch for the iPhone is the ability to sync your playlists making them playable offline if your heading to the tube, or on an airplane.

Skipping tracks is easy and familiar and works the same way as cover flow.

Is it free?... Sadly no, it cost's £10 per month to be a Spotify Premium member and this gives you all the music you can listen too.

Will I be subscribing...? Erm... well no, I love spotify and LastFM.com, I love what they deliver love the ability to have your own personal radio to lose yourself in, but £10 a month doesn't seem a lot, add it to your monthly tariff and buying one or two apps a month ,and your creeping towards £50 a month which for me is a bit much, especially as you'll already have it synced with your iTunes. 

My advice wait for similar free apps. 

Windows 7 - Review

Is it better than Vista, and do we need a new version?

Microsoft releases always have massive hype, and Windows 7 is no different. As the biggest operating system in the world, pre Vista it was riddled with security issue's and over hungry processor needs.

Vista should have be a regain for Microsoft, most of the security problems were solved, and some nice little touches brought in, but still lacked something, something which is making Microsoft users turn to Apple.

So do we need another system to guide us through our day to day lives..... Well with the likes of Google and Apple coming to the table with their newest OS, It's clear Bill Gates is looking over his shoulder.

Why should we upgrade from Vista now?....

Superbar

The windows taskbar has had a makeover, Hover your mouse over the pinned applications and you can see what documents are open in each, and a right click on an icon lets you create a shortcut, or 'Jumplist'

Touchscreen

Microsoft have made no secret of the fact Windows 7 supports touchscreen monitors, and the icons clearly show that, big and finger friendly, this is a really good addition and will make smearing your screen while scrolling through your pictures a breeze!

Wallpaper 

Desktop widgets can now be put anywhere on your home page, and 7 comes pre-loaded with a stack of wallpapers or you can use your own.

Libaries

Essentially making OSD a lot easier. 7 prompts you to make centralised folders for everything, and even lets you preview your pictures within explorer windows.

Aero Panes

Aero Peek, allows you to see windows underneath over windows by making them transparent. Aero Snap, aligns, arranges and expands open windows to increase the working area. Aero Shake,  minimises all windows expect the one your working on, by quickly shaking the mouse.

Home Group

Networking made easy, It will detect other 7 users and lets you know if you want to add them to your home group.

For me, Windows 7 is all about the touch screen, it seems everything is going that way, I'll wait and see till Microsoft bring out the updates for it to see if its worth upgraded or time to jump ship!

FujiFilm Real 3D Camera - Review

Real 3D Technology - The future is here.

 

Its the one thing missing in todays market place, the ability to shoot 3D stills and video without having to borrow a camera the size of a battle ship from 20th Century Fox. The egg heads at FujiFilm have crafted this fantastic camera to save us all from looking at our favourate moments in flat 2D.

The Real 3D W1 (its full name) has two lenses that shoot at slightly different angles, very similar to the way your eyes work.

The camera's software then turns those seperate images into a 3D image which can be instantly viewed on the 8Inch screen at the back of the camera.

Another very clever touch, is the ability to shoot a close up and wide angle shot at the same time, due to the camera being able to use the lenses in other ways. No need for those awefull red and green glass either, when viewing the images on the camera, the screen is specifically designed to replay in 3D (stills and video)

Geek Bit

Number of Effective Pixels 10MP

CCD Sensor 1/2.3 Inch CCD x 2

Storage 42MB, Expandable SD, SDHC card

File Format 3D Movie-Avi, 2D Avi

You can also get  a digital frame which will let you clip and view your pictures in all their 3D glory, If you want the prints in 3D, just send them to FujiFilm and they'll do it for you!

 

Very little to complain about here, yes its not the sexiest of cameras, but your not going to buy it for that, your going to buy it for the amazing 3D image and video your going to be able to produce.

Soon to be on our shelves, and you'll have to wait out for prices.

 

Samsung i8910HD - Review

Hi-Def 8 MP marvel.

A High-Definition phone that records in 720p and has a 8MegaPixel camera, with an AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes) screen....... Outside Japan? Surely not

Well here it is, Samsung's latest big hitter, and what a hit it has.  Lets start with the Hi-Def recording, an excellent alternative to the Flip Mino HD recording in 720p, with the ability to shoot at 120 frames per second for ultra slow motion video capture. The 8 MP camera is without doubt the best on the market for current smart phones. 

Viewing the pictures, when gloating to your friends about the camera, will look amazing on the AMOLED screen, which again is easly the best screen by a clear mile of all the smart phones available today, boasting a 3.7inch screen it gives vivid colours and more importantly deep crisp blacks.

Geek Bit

Display 360x640 capacitive touch screen

Battery 13.5Hrs talk, 600hrs standby

Camera 8MP, autofocus, LED flash

Storage 8GB/16GB, MicroSD slot

Connectivity GPS, HSDPA, Bluetooth, USB, Wi-Fi

The touchscreen is really responsive too, much better than the N97, and on a par with the 3GS using the same capacitive (reacting to the electric fields from your fingers) technology.

However, Like all smart phones, the Samsung does have its faults. Email syncing is a massive let down, only working through third part applications.

The i8910HD has the same soulless home screen the 3GS has, with no live feeds that the N97 and Hero boast.

Like the N97 it really suffers with the lack of apps, but thats probably due to the fact Apple has them in abundance, And with no kinetic scrolling, makes going through the menu a choir. 

All in all a market leader in imagery terms, just let down by a clunky interface and lacking some of the handy widgets Nokia and HTC have focused on. Maybe if this used Android operating system rather than Symbian's S60 it would feel less like a Nokia and more like a piece of genius. That said an excellent bit of kit mainly aimed a the youtube uploaders.