50p Broadband Tax Plan Could Be Scrapped
Plans unveiled in the Digital Britiain report for a 50p broadband tax could yet be scrapped following a week of mixed messages from Government officials. The proposed 50p per month broadband tax to be levied on every UK home with a landline was put forward to help fund the roll out of next generation broadband across the UK and in particular, to ensure each UK home had access to at least 2Mb broadband speeds. Since the publication of the plans, there has been much debate surrounding whether the tax raised would be anywhere near enough to fund the project.
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50p Broadband Tax Plan Could Be Scrapped
An ambitious group of hardware hackers have taken the fundamental building blocks of computing and turned them inside out in an attempt to make PCs significantly more efficient. The group has created a motherboard prototype that uses separate modules, each of which has its own processor, memory and storage. Each square cell in this design serves as a mini-motherboard and network node; the cells can allocate power and decide to accept or reject incoming transmissions and programs independently
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Hardware Hackers Create a Modular Motherboard
Camera review site DP Interface has gotten hold of what it clams to be photos and specs of a soon-to-be-announced sequel to Canon’s G10. The pictures look fine, (apart from the white rectangle in the LCD screen and the odd looking lens), but the specification list of the G11 has some rather odd entries. Weirdest is the sensor size, which has dropped almost five megapixels, shrinking from 14.7 to 10 (this is less than the G9, which has 12.1 MP).
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Leaked Canon G11 Specs Show Five Megapixels Less Than G10
Despite the jaw-crunchingly awful name, Joby’s new Gorillatorch looks to be a fantastically useful gadget — a hands-free flashlight. The Gorillatorch brings the familiar segmented, grab-anything legs from the Gorillapod line of tripods, but instead of a camera-mount on the end there is a 65 lumen, one watt flashlight, which runs off three easy-to-find AA batteries (actually included in the pack). A twisting dimmer knob on the side allows fine-tuning of light levels and best of all the rubberized feet contain “super-strong magnets” which are enough to support the tripod (on the underside of a car hood for example) or to hold wrenches and screws for easy access.
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Joby Gorrillatorch: Hands-Free, Go-Anywhere Flashlight
Landing in stores October, Windows 7 is sparking a surprisingly heated debate (in our forums, at least) on whether or not upgrading from XP is a good idea. If you’re in the “nay” camp, we’re going to lay out seven reasons why you should consider switching your stance to “yay.” When scanning our list, we politely encourage you to ask yourself, “Do I really want to continue using an eight-year-old operating system?” Followed by “Don’t I deserve better?” Because no matter how comfortable you are with XP, you do deserve an OS that’s both newer and better, and Windows 7 will deliver
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7 Good Reasons to Switch to Windows 7
Palm Pre’s app store is moving forward, slowly but steadily. Palm has started accepting applications from developers who wish to charge for their apps in its app store. Palm’s App Catalog e-commerce beta program will begin in mid-September and the full program will be launched in fall. So far, all the apps in the Pre app store have been free
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Palm Pre App Store to Get Paid Apps in September
Could Bum bot, a homemade robot that acts as a private security guard, be the future of neighborhood watch? Atlanta, Georgia’s mayoral candidate Rufus Terrill created the remote-controlled robot with three wheels to watch the lot around his pub O’Terrills. The robot has a live video feed, a communications system so it can blare out commands and infrared cameras on it
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‘Bum Bot’ Robot Plays Sheriff on the Streets of Atlanta
A new iPhone app that launched today will further enable your addiction to checking your Gmail account by notifying you of new e-mail similar to the way you receive text messages. That app is called GPush. Specifically designed for Gmail users, the app displays the “From” and “Subject” fields of a new e-mail on the standby screen as soon as the e-mail is received.
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Gmail Push App for iPhone Is a Workaholic’s Best Friend
BT ( www.BT.com ) has announced plans to launch Wi-Fi broadband access in a range of UK holiday and caravan parks this summer. The announcement follows a tie up between BT Openzone and Wicoms that will see wireless broadband (Wi Fi) installed into 3 of Pontin’s holiday parks, together with 77 different camping and caravan sites and Coastfields leisure sites. The move to give UK holiday makers Wi-Fi broadband access is down to providing extra entertainment due to this summer’s unfavourable weather
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BT To Launch Wi-Fi Broadband In UK Holiday Parks
If you are struggling to keep up with all the twitter updates from your friends, there’s a little robot that can help you out. The ‘Guardian Robot’ is an adorable machine that monitors your twitter feed for “happy” or “sad” updates from friends and then alerts you of the tweets by either raising its hand for a high-five or lowering its head, reports U.K. publication The Guardian .
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Homebrew Robot Raises Hand to Call Attention to Tweets
Wired.com’s good friend Brian Lam of Gizmodo tells the most riveting tale about the rumored Apple tablet yet, in which a “deep throat” of sorts spills the juicy details. In summary: The tablet is described as a 10-inch version of the iPod Touch The product will come in two editions: One for webcam and the other for education use Pricing will be between $700 and $900 It’s possible the screen will be used as a secondary touch pad for controlling Macs The project has been in development for four to six years A prototype was built around the end of 2008 The product will likely launch this holiday season.
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Insider Spills Rumored Apple Tablet Details to Gizmodo
Considering iPhones are made in China , and they’re already being counterfeited there, you would think that an authentic Apple iPhone would have been available in the country long ago. But it appears carrier China Unicom and Apple are just finally sealing the deal to begin selling iPhones in September. The carrier has paid Apple 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) for 5 million iPhones, according to International Business Times .
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China Finally Getting the iPhone in September
This story is so wonderfully pragmatic and stiff-upper-lipped that it could only come from sun-challenged England, the home of people who will go to a beach on a planned day trip even though the day turns out to be cold and wet. Many Brits are holidaying in their own Isles this summer, caught between a devalued currency and a recession
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British Telecom Installs Wi-Fi for Rain-Trapped Holidaymakers
In a brilliant move which will catapult it into the realms of Apple-like profit margins, Dell has teamed up with Nickelodeon to bring us the Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition . Apparently, it takes “personalization to new heights.” And it does, if you consider “new heights” to be slapping a slime-green paint-job on an existing netbook (the Mini 10v) and pre-loading the hard drive with some games, widgets and installing parental controls (in the form of a custom interface by Stardock ). Given that most kids learn their way around a computer much faster than their parents, we wonder if Dell should perhaps swap things around and give this simplified machine to the oldies instead.
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Dell Nickelodeon Netbook Is Just a Mini 10 With a Patronising Paint-Job
A new music consumption survey has revealed that illegal music downloads using broadband are still as popular as ever with the younger generation. The findings are in contrast to a study last month that found that illegal downloading was becoming less popular with younger people thanks to streaming sites such as YouTube and Spotify. The new survey (the Annual Academic Survey) was commissioned by UK Music and investigated the music consumption behaviour and experience of 1,800 young people aged between 14 and 24.
Sony said that a small percentage of Vaio laptops with Nvidia graphics chips may experience problems and the company offered to provide an extended warranty to cover the cost of repair. This follows similar statements by Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell. Sony Vaio VGN-AR series laptop (Credit: Sony) Nvidia first disclosed the problem with its graphics chips in July 2008 , saying at the time that graphics processors manufactured with a certain material set were failing in the field at a higher than normal rate
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Sony extends Vaio laptop warranty for Nvidia glitch
A judge has granted Mac cloner Psystar’s motion to dismiss its bankruptcy filing under the stipulation that the company could not file for bankruptcy again for six months, which would stall Apple’s lawsuit. Psystar in May filed a voluntary petition for bankruptcy protection with the Florida courts. The move temporarily put Apple’s legal case on hold while the bankruptcy court began proceedings.
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Judge Dismisses Mac Cloner Psystar’s Bankruptcy
On Tuesday, Intel and Micron Technology announced the development of high-data-capacity flash memory technology for flash cards and USB drives. Lexar USB flash drive (Credit: Lexar) And in a related announcement, Intel said Monday that it has validated a fix for its new 34-nanometer X25-M solid-state drive, which is based ..
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Intel, Micron develop flash chips for USB drives
The European Union’s ombudsman has criticized the antitrust regulator in a recent case against Intel case, saying the regulator did not include evidence that was potentially exculpatory for the chipmaker, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. In May, Intel was fined 1.06 billion euros ($1.45 billion) ..
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Report: EU ombudsman criticizes Intel antitrust regulators
The sound of a fingernail raking across a table or a board may be enough to drive most people crazy. But get past that annoyance and it could become a way to answer your phone, silence a call or turn up the volume. Scratch Input, a computer input technique developed by researchers at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, uses the sound produced when a fingernail is dragged over the surface of any textured material such as wood, fabric or wall paint
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To Answer the Phone, Scratch Your Jeans