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media

BT Infinity – Superfast Optic Fibre Broadband Comes to 4 Million UK Homes

by Jay Garrett on January 22, 2010

BT has hopped onto the fibre-optic super highway!

BT Inifinity is aiming to nibble at Virgin Media’s pie with the launch of its first super-fast broadband service which is set to arrive early next week.

BT Infinity will offer 40Mb per second speed broadband from a choice of two different price plans.

The cheapest Infinity package prices in at £19.99 a month plus a £11.54 line rental – but then there’s a rather ouchy £50 connection charge! Lumme!

That package will get you 2Mbps upload speed, and a rather tiresome capped usage of 20GB. BOOOOO! :(

For 24.99 you get free installation, upload speeds of 10Mb a second and, from what I can tell, no usage cut-off – Rah!! :)

BT is naturally making a big song-and-dance of the fact that its cheapest plan is £7.47 less a month than Virgin’s 50Mb super-fast service.

But now Virgin Media has hit back by reminding consumers that its service is actually faster at 50Mb per second.

A Virgin Media spokesman said, “We’re not sure why people in the UK would want to wait for BT’s 40Mb service which hasn’t launched yet, when they can already get Virgin Media’s great value 50Mb service.”

OooOooOoOo! Handbags! :p

There’s also the point that Virgin Media’s 50Mb service does not have a monthly usage cap at all.

BT says the 40Mb broadband service ‘will be made available to 4 million homes and businesses by the end of December’. So you have plenty of time for the battle to continue and see who’s best value once the dust settles.

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Sony Ericsson Satio User Review – 12.1 MP Touchscreen Camera Phone

by Jay Garrett on January 3, 2010

I’ve lived with the Sony Ericsson Satio for a few weeks now and it’s time for a review methinks.

Out of the box it is noticeably lighter than my iPhone but also feels a little more brittle to me. I am not saying that it’s poorly put together or feels cheap but I think I’ve just got used to the substantial feel of my Apple blower.

Being stocked with a mighty 12.1 megapixel camera there’s no real surprise that the Satio comes with a load of photo features such as the usual face detection as well as things like Touch Focus, Smile Shutter and BestPic options. The active lens cover is mighty slick and I’ve had worse on stand-alone cameras. The Satio’s cover slides open smoothly and the camera is live quickly – shame that this adds to the phone’s girth though.

The snapper is paired with a decent Xenon flash which is more than adequate to usher in illumination when required.

The Satio has a 3.5 inch hi-res touchscreen is quite a peach when watching films on the 16:9 eye pleaser. You can also take photo’s in this format but at the lower 9MP rate.

There’s plenty of finger-room when texting using the landscape virtual board although, as I discovered in any touch application, you have to give the screen a decent poke for things to register compared with my trusty iPhone – that’s coming from a bass player!

The home screen has the expected SE clarity to it and everything is easy enough to find from there – Contacts, Media Browser, Gallery and the PlayNow store. The PlayNow store is where you’ll be able to get your apps from – hopefully the range will increase soon ;)

The phone has a tiny on-board memory of 128MB but, thankfully, Sony Ericsson have dropped the Sony Memory Stick in favour of the generic MicroSD format. Still, you’ll be needing a decent sized card if you intend on storing photo’s, music, films and other multi-media memory leeches on this mobile.

On the subject of sounds, the music player is not a Walkman branded one which is odd but then when I noticed the distinct lack of a 3.5 jack socket I’m guessing tunes on the move wasn’t a priority – which is a shame.

If you want a great camera attached to your phone, and this is a really great camera, then go for the SE Satio – you will not be disappointed at all. If you’re after a multi-media machine then I think that Sony Ericsson just missed out with the music player/headphone jack thing as I think you’d get used to the touchscreen needing a firm finger.

For examples of the pics it can take go to the Satio gallery :)

Have a gander below for size comparisons between the Satio and iPhone.

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Boxee Box – Possibly the Funkiest HD Network Media Streamer

December 9, 2009 Click to read more →
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I’ve been messing around with the cool n quirky Boxee software and am digging how it works and does its thing.
I know it’s been out for a while but the reason for this interest is the equally funky looking custom media player that they’ve just unleashed.
What this Boxee Box will do, apart from being great [...]

iTunes Moving to The Cloud – Freeing up Your Hard-Drive

December 6, 2009 Click to read more →
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Apple is looking to acquire audio streaming company Lala – if they get the deal then this could free up all of that prime real-estate on your various hard-drives if, like me, you have 50 days or more’s worth of constant music sat in digital audio form.
The move could also improve your music’s [...]

Tiny Aluminium CompuLab Machine is a Fit Windows 7 Desktop PC [fit-PC2i]

December 4, 2009 Click to read more →
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CompuLab is quite well known for producing tinsy-tiny puters.
This mini-marvel measures a mere 4 x 4.5 x 1.05 inches and weighs in at only13 ounces, the fit-PC2i is hailed as the planet’s smallest dual gigabit Ethernet-equipped PC and at the mo I’m willing to believe it.
Don’t be fooled by its small size though.
It aint no [...]

Microsoft Zune Really Coming to the UK at Long Last

November 17, 2009 Click to read more →
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Zune coming to UK?
Yeah – that’s what I thought when I was told this.
I reckoned that these very shores were going to get a taste of the MP3 player that was designed to take on Apple’s iPod.
Ok, so almost four years later the Zune only owns 2% of the US MP3 market – a [...]

Dell Inspiron Zino HD on Sale – Windows Mac Mini Desktop Media Centre Computer

November 11, 2009 Click to read more →
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Looking for a Windows-based Mac Mini alike?
Do you need to be able to choose from a multitude of colours and designs to suit your hip pad?
Say “welllllllll heeeeeeelloooooo!” to the new Dell Inspiron Zino HD.
The mini desk-top puter measures a mere 7.8 x 7.8 x 3.4 inches.
As I mentioned just seconds ago: It’s personalisable.
There’s 10 [...]

1 in 4 Gamers Pay and Download Instead of Leaving Their Gaming Chairs – What’s a High Street Again?

October 28, 2009 Click to read more →
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Gamers love to have the latest and bestest and it shows that 25% of gamers surveyed said that paying for and downloading the digital only version is the way forward.
The International Gamers Survey, conducted by Today’s Gamers took in the opinion of 13,000 gamers across Europe and the United States and found that, on average, [...]

Pure Sensia – The Classic Bond Villains Choice of Media Streamer

September 21, 2009 Click to read more →
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Pure Digital – those makers of rather good DAB and WiFi radio’s have gone live with a new product portal for its upcoming Sensia.
I’m a huge fan of retro-looking tech when done properly but when you go retro-futurist – now you have my attention!
The Sensia wouldn’t look out of place in the Jetsons, Tomorrow’s World [...]

Microsoft Stopping Zune HD Coming to the UK, Europe, Anywhere Outside the States

September 11, 2009 Click to read more →
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There had word on the street that Microsoft had no plans bring the Zune HD to France.
That has escalated to the point that the Zune wont even break the US borders!
Ars Technica went direct to Redmond to find out if it’s true:
“For the time being the Zune HD device will remain US only,” a [...]

Blaze 3 in 1 PSP Video Playing Charger Dock – Supersize Your PSP 3000 Vids and Pics

August 21, 2009 Click to read more →
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BLAZE have just released a bit of gadgety niceness that will allow PSP 3000 owners to charge, control and dock their Sony handheld gaming machine whilst watching movies or viewing photo slide shows on their wide screen TV!
The BLAZE 3 in 1 Video Charging Dock safely cradles the PSP 3000 console and hands you all [...]

LG BL40 Chocolate Widescreen Mobile Phone – Official Pictures

July 30, 2009 Click to read more →
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Ah – you’ve seen the video and the teaser shots but now LG has gone official about their LG BL40 Chocolate widescreen media smartphone.
The LG BL40 Chocolate is packing a 21:9 ratio 4 inch LCD screen which means when you’re watching flicks those black bars wont be there.
LG may have gone official with the pics [...]

Creative Zii EGG to Take on iPod Touch and Zune HD

July 28, 2009 Click to read more →
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Remember that Zii chip that had all that stem cell marketing stuff going on?
When I heard that Creative were going to shove it into an egg I was mightily confused….
Until I discovered that the Creative Zii EGG is actually a PMP that will be packing Android.
Not only that but it’s set to taunt the Touch [...]

New Sony S-Series Walkman Features Facial Speakers

July 23, 2009 Click to read more →
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Sony Insider has been given another tip-off in the form of this pic of a rather mysterious new Walkman.
SI are pretty sure that this may be the successor in the popular S-Series lineup.
The well-connected site have it on good authority that the press shot shows a revision to the Sony S Series – thing [...]

Brando Bounce Out SATA HDD Multi Media Adapter – Looks Almost Homemade

June 1, 2009 Click to read more →
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If you like your players a bit more ‘bare bones’ or shun the glossy exteriors of top-end gadgets this will be right up your ally.
Those USB fans over at Brando have released the SATA HDD Multimedia Player Adapter.
The SATA HDD Multimedia Player will play nice with any SATA 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch hard drive, [...]

Sony Ericsson Aino – ‘Only’ Could Be the PSP Phone?

May 29, 2009 Click to read more →
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Say hello to the Sony Ericsson Aino.
Aino is a character in Finnish mythology whose name means ‘only’ – see, you learn all sorts here at Gadgety News
What’s special about the SE Aino is that it beams your PlayStation 3 content direct to you wherever you are. How clever is that?
The Aino is loaded [...]

MiNew A10 ‘Under Tele’ Nettop

May 8, 2009 Click to read more →
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Akihabara News has just flashed up this little nettop from the Korea-based Moneual.
Measuring at just 22 x 6.7 x 22cm the MiNew A10 was announced just a few days ago.
It’s sporting the Intel Atom 230/330 processor and packs 1GB of RAM, 160GB of HDD (7200rpm), and X3100 Intel Graphic card.
It is said that the A10 [...]

RFID Comes to iPhone

April 15, 2009 Click to read more →
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I’ve just received a link to a rather groovy vid.
RFID technology has plenty of potential but, to be honest, it’s not really appearing ‘all over the shop’ just yet.
One reason for this could be he lack of RFID readers (short of the Mir:ror by the Nazbatag makers).
This hasn’t dampened the touchpaper for the people behind [...]

Motorola MOVR – Move and Stream Your Films to Your Phone

April 7, 2009 Click to read more →
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Over the last year or so Motorola has been talking about making a USB device capable of moving your video and other media via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and they continue to talk.
Now the device has a typically Motorola missing vowels style name.
The Moto MOVR will transcode your video from any source, and then broadcast (either [...]

Asus All In One Eee Top Available in UK

April 6, 2009 Click to read more →
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That’s right folks!
If you’ve been waiting for the Eee Top 1602 series all-in-one touchscreen PC to drop in the UK, the wait is over.
Asus claims that the PC will save you cash especially on your electricity bill as it uses 15% of the power of a traditional PC set up. Which is nice
It [...]

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