You know me, I love my gadgets. Even if it's not the most high-tech thing I love it. I recently sorted out a PC clock thing. It gets some radio signal that means it's always right. It was so old it plugged into a serial port. I know, not USB, an old serial port.
I've got my house so set up that I can put a radio station channel on the satellite box and listen to it on FM round the house, via the PC which records the audio. It's all pointless. And if I want to change the channel from anywhere I have a universal remote control and an IR relay. The GF loves it.
So, as a fan of the gadgets, I have found a site that's worty of a mention. It's the Gadget Advisor site at www.gadgetadvisor.com.
If you like to pass a bit of time flicking through some of the latest product releases and checking out some gadget news it's all there.
From reading about network media players to finding out about online backup services, you can get the details.
10/11/2008
10/10/2008
Another Kick In The DABs
So, Channel 4 says it's pulling out of commercial radio.
I wish I would've thought of that a few years back.
They were going to develop stations on DAB but as they look to make £100m in cost savings they have decided against it.
Why is it that TV can make digital work but radio can't?
Why is it that loads of station with bitrates so low they sound worse FM, on a radio that can be difficult to get reception, and when it does it probably is a machine with only one speaker, and it has an unupgradable codec that's now out of date, can't get people to like it?
I wonder why.
I wish I would've thought of that a few years back.
They were going to develop stations on DAB but as they look to make £100m in cost savings they have decided against it.
Why is it that TV can make digital work but radio can't?
Why is it that loads of station with bitrates so low they sound worse FM, on a radio that can be difficult to get reception, and when it does it probably is a machine with only one speaker, and it has an unupgradable codec that's now out of date, can't get people to like it?
I wonder why.
[source]
10/03/2008
Phones Are The Future
While the PC has revolutionised our lives over the last 10 years, I think the future belongs to mobile phones. It's small and soon will do all the computing we could need. Phones are amazing. But if you look around for some of the latest models you'll see what we're all getting excited about.
I've been checking out the Nokia N96. If you want to have a look there are some details at www.dialtosave.co.uk...
As you can see it's a dual-slide camera phone. But if you're after something to make calls on, and maybe take a few pictures, you don't have a clue of what you're in for.
This plays video files (MPEG-4 Part 2/MPEG-4 Part 10/Windows Media Video (WMV9) and others) so you can watch films as you're sat waiting for someone to call. You can watch vids that you have stored on your microSD memory card (hot swappable, of course), or watch TV over the web connection, or, and this is the brilliant part... watch digital TV. It can get DVB-H TV signals.
It has a 2.8" QVGA LCD TFT display, so the picture you're watching will look great.
It's also great for music, playing mp3s and other files, plus getting FM radio with RDS, but it's the TV that makes this Nokia phone a breakthrough.
You can take all the entertainment you need with you where ever you go. This is the point after which phones will be TVs.
It's not just a TV viewer. They have some other great tricks in this device. with Nokia Maps on it you can find addresses, so you'll never get lost again. And you can get turn-by-turn pedestrian navigation on it. Sat Nav for your legs.
Seeing as your phone always knows where on the planet it is, your photos will benefit. The pictures get tagged location they were taken in. You know how useful it is when you pictures have the timestamp on them? Well, this is the next logical step.
And when you're sat in a coffee shop boasting about how good you phone is, you'll be able to show your friends as it can connect to the local hotspot and you're on wifi.
When a phone does so much you start to worry about the battery. But with a talktime of around 4 hours, 5 hours of vid playback, and a standby time of 220 hours, there realty is nothing to worry about.
I've been checking out the Nokia N96. If you want to have a look there are some details at www.dialtosave.co.uk...
As you can see it's a dual-slide camera phone. But if you're after something to make calls on, and maybe take a few pictures, you don't have a clue of what you're in for.
This plays video files (MPEG-4 Part 2/MPEG-4 Part 10/Windows Media Video (WMV9) and others) so you can watch films as you're sat waiting for someone to call. You can watch vids that you have stored on your microSD memory card (hot swappable, of course), or watch TV over the web connection, or, and this is the brilliant part... watch digital TV. It can get DVB-H TV signals.
It has a 2.8" QVGA LCD TFT display, so the picture you're watching will look great.
It's also great for music, playing mp3s and other files, plus getting FM radio with RDS, but it's the TV that makes this Nokia phone a breakthrough.
You can take all the entertainment you need with you where ever you go. This is the point after which phones will be TVs.
It's not just a TV viewer. They have some other great tricks in this device. with Nokia Maps on it you can find addresses, so you'll never get lost again. And you can get turn-by-turn pedestrian navigation on it. Sat Nav for your legs.
Seeing as your phone always knows where on the planet it is, your photos will benefit. The pictures get tagged location they were taken in. You know how useful it is when you pictures have the timestamp on them? Well, this is the next logical step.
And when you're sat in a coffee shop boasting about how good you phone is, you'll be able to show your friends as it can connect to the local hotspot and you're on wifi.
When a phone does so much you start to worry about the battery. But with a talktime of around 4 hours, 5 hours of vid playback, and a standby time of 220 hours, there realty is nothing to worry about.
Wake On LAN
As I always say at work, "I'm not our IT guy, I'm just our best bet." And today I have cracked another issue, and I feel good.
A new PC was installed in one of the broadcast studios but for some reason it was placed where you couldn't reach it just as the boss wants to save the planet or something, so he wants us to turn it off when it's not in use.
That's fine, apart from you have to actually crawl under the desk to turn it back on.
Well, not any more. Thanks to a really good Hot To guide on setting up a PC to "Wake On LAN". If you want to see the guide, click here.
It was so easy to set up. It probably took about 4 minutes, and most of that time was waiting for the PC to rebook so I could check the BIOS settings.
And now I never have to bend under that desk. That's technology working for you.
A new PC was installed in one of the broadcast studios but for some reason it was placed where you couldn't reach it just as the boss wants to save the planet or something, so he wants us to turn it off when it's not in use.
That's fine, apart from you have to actually crawl under the desk to turn it back on.
Well, not any more. Thanks to a really good Hot To guide on setting up a PC to "Wake On LAN". If you want to see the guide, click here.
It was so easy to set up. It probably took about 4 minutes, and most of that time was waiting for the PC to rebook so I could check the BIOS settings.
And now I never have to bend under that desk. That's technology working for you.
[source]
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