Microsoft XP Home Available For £13

Although, unfortunately, not to you and I. Microsoft announced several weeks back that it would continue supplying the XP operating system to all countries, but especially developing countries – it also announced at that time, that they would drastically reduce the price for those markets. However, the actual price and details have only just been released and they are quite impressive.

Microsoft is attempting to take on Linux and Unix based systems by ensuring that new computers include one of their operating systems. While higher specification computers in the developed world will not be privvy to any price cuts, and will be expected to offer Vista, lower cost PCs will still be able to offer XP, and manufacturers will be able to buy a copy for £16.

In order to limit the number of manufacturers and systems that will receive this price cut, Microsoft has stated that only computers with screens 10.2 inches or smaller (but not touch screens) and with a hard drive of 80GB or less will be able to benefit these surprisingly impressive prices. This news comes in the wake of the fact that many manufacturers are finding a way to continue supplying XP – they are doing this because it remains much more popular than the Vista system.

Iphone 3G Phone Might Not Be Released In June Then

Well, there’s good news and bad news for iPhone fans. The good news for those that don’t yet own one is that O2 reports they will soon be getting more stock of the 16GB iPhone on their website. The bad news is that this may mean a slightly longer than expected delay before we’re treated to the next incarnation of the ultimate in touch screen mobile phones.

Of course, extra stock doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be no new release during the keynote speech in June. But, as T3 reports, it does mean that the more likely outcome of a release in time for christmas is the most probably outcome.

Rumour had started to do the rounds (we’re not ashamed to admit that we did assist a little in their circulation) that the disappearing stock was because a 3G version was going to be announced and released during the eagerly anticipated Apple keynote speech in June.

Despite this potential set back, we are still in confident mood that there will be an announcement along these lines. Of course, the nasty thing about expectations and hopes is that they can (and often are) dashed.

Ofcom Report Findings

Ofcom has released its Tomorrow’s Wireless World report, indicating where they believe the world of wireless technology will take us in the future. The report predicts that there will be no major shifts in communication technology in the next ten years but that technology will continue to increase at a fast rate. However, health and transport sectors are predicted to face breakthroughs as well as impressive growth.

They believe that the health sector will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of improved technology and new technology breakthroughs. Home hubs could be used to monitor a person’s vital signs, administer the appropriate level of medication, and even arrange a GP appointment should it be necessary.

Bad news for drivers is that Ofcom also predicts that new technology may be used to increase occurrences of congestion charges. The report also suggests that advances will be made in areas where two or more sectors converge. Collision detection technology may be used to alert emergency services after an accident.

The overall aim of the report is to help Ofcom identify where and how changes will occur across numerous sectors. In doing so, they can also look at ways to advance the necessary infrastructures and create regulatory guidelines to manage the technology.

Panasonic PZ81 Freesat Plasma TV Range

We touched on this briefly when we announced the launch of the Freesat service, but we thought it would be the ideal time to take a look at the range of Freesat inclusive HD TVs that are being launched by Panasonic. Available, we believe, sometime in June these TVs represent pretty much the entire hardware range that the average tech savvy consumer can actually get excited about.

The PZ81 series offers three different models of plasma television; the 42 inch, 46 inch, and 50 inch versions. The televisions obviously come with a built in Freesat tuner as well as the features that have made Panasonic televisions some of the more popular entries to the market – 3 HDMI outputs, Ethernet port, SD slot, and the V-Real 3 processor.

We believe there will also be two smaller LCD Freesat televisions although these won’t be available until some time in October.

Freesat has launched with a reasonable 80 channels of SD and HD televisual entertainment and this figure is due to increase to more than 200 by the end of the year. The release was a somewhat quiet affair and, in our opinion, there were very few reasonable pieces of hardware available at launch. The set top boxes represented pretty much the entire range, with no televisions and no PVR options available as yet.

HTC Touch Diamond – Competition For The iPhone?

The iPhone was far and away the must have gadget of the last year for many people. Touch screen goodness and a good set of features made it truly stand out from the crowd, although the millions of people that will seemingly buy anything with the Apple logo also helped its popularity I’m sure. Recent news on the iPhone is that it’s now unavailable in the UK but an updated 3G version will be available very soon.

In the meantime, here’s a potential competitor to salivate over. The HTC Touch Diamond is expected to be released in less than a couple of months although no firm information on networks and pricing have been released. Murmurs have indicated that Orange will be the first to offer the Touch Diamond at a sim-free price of £400 or, if you’re willing to sell your soul on a monthly basis, you could get the handset free.

As well as offering a full touch-screen interface with 2.8” display, it will have built in A-GPS software to use with any satnav application. It will also have a 3.2MP camera and 3G data meaning that users will be privvy to speeds of up to 7.2MBps. FM radio and built in WiFi and bluetooth round off an impressive set of features that is designed to make the Touch Diamond compete with the latest incarnation of the iPhone.

TorrentSpy Ordered To Pay $110m In Damages

TorrentSpy, the now defunct torrent sharing website, has been ordered to pay the equivalent of £56m to the Motion Picture Association of America. The site indexed millions of torrents of music, images, TV, and films but the site was plagued by court action throughout its life. Eventually, in a bid apparently designed to protect its users’ privacy, TorrentSpy closed its doors in March of this year.

Valence Media, the parent company of TorrentSpy, as well as its owners Justin Bunnell and Wes Park have filed for bankruptcy. Understandably, the MPAA sees this as being a major victory in their fight against online copyright laws. They began legal action against TorrentSpy in February 2006 and the site was later ordered to being tracking users and submit its findings to the MPAA. In order to prevent this from happening, American users were blocked from using the site.

Dan Glickman, chairman of the MPAA stated that “the demise of TorrentSpy is a clear victory for the studios.” While the torrent sharing technology itself is perfectly legitimate and speeds up downloads by breaking data into smaller packets, the infringement of copyright laws obviously isn’t legal. Legal action is ongoing for many other Torrent index websites as the MPAA and other organizations attempt to stop the illegal downloading of content online.

100MB Broadband Coming Soon To Bournemouth Residents

I’m sure there are plenty of incredible reasons to live in Bournemouth, and H2O have released news that offers yet another. H20 intend to pioneer super fast broadband cables that run through the sewer system within the Dorset town with more towns to be announced in the near future. Companies have been toying with methods to deliver improved Broadband speeds to the country’s residents, and using the sewer seems one of the more viable and cost effective methods.

Work will begin on the network that is currently being offered to businesses, within the next 6 months. This means that residents will be able to enjoy super fast broadband (a term regularly thrown about by Broadband providers already) of up to 100MB.

Ofcom has been at the head of research to develop methods that offer improved Broadband. This action has been taken because the UK has one of the poorest Broadband options in Europe. In other European countries residents can already enjoy the kinds of Broadband connection that H20 wants to develop.

Increased Broadband, like this, will mean greater possibilities of on-demand HD TV and other services that are currently restricted by poor Internet connections. Virgin Broadband currently offers residents up to 24MB broadband and aim to increase their entire network to speeds of 50MB by the end of this year.

Source – BBC Technology News

Freesat Launches In UK

Freesat, the free UK satellite TV service, launches today. The free service, established by the BBC and ITV, will reach an impressive 98% of the population including many people that have been previously unable to receive freeview through their terrestrial TV aerial. Prices start at £49 for a standard box, plus £80 installation and set up, with no monthly charges following that payment.

A High Definition version is also available, costing a little more at £120 for the box – installation remains £80. All viewers will initially receive the full 80 channels on offer, and this figure will rise to more than 200 by the end of this year. Both the BBC and ITV hope that the new service will especially encourage an icnrease in HD TV viewing.

Pretty much all new TV sets are HD ready, but few people either have access to HD channels or are willing to pay extra for an HD subscription. With the new Freesat service this should be less of an issue and the service will launch with a BBC HD channel included. ITV HD is set to follow shortly.

The only people that will be unable to receive Freesat are those that do not have a clear line of sight of the satellite, and those that live in listed buildings and therefore cannot erect a satellite dish on the outside of their homes.

Vodafone Includes Mobile Data In New Increased Tariffs

Vodafone has become the first UK mobile operator to include data usage as standard with their pay monthly tariffs. However, it comes at a price of a £5 per month tariff increase. Vodafone currently only offer bolt-on additions to tariffs that allow 120MB downloads for the cost of £7.50 per month. Customers will now be entitled to unlimited downloads with an unenforced fair usage policy.

While the £5 addition will apply to all tariffs, those customers that do not wish to use the Internet or email can ask Vodafone to opt out of this portion of the tariff. The £5 will be deducted from the price. Essentially, Vodafone have reduced the price of the bolt-on and made it an opt-out rather than opt-in addition.

A fair usage policy of 500MB downloads is included as part of the tariff, but Vodafone has stated in communication with the ZDNet website that they won’t fine customers that go over this limit.

Mobile Internet and email has come under fairly close scrutiny because it simply hasn’t taken off in the way that many people anticipated. However recent developments in improved hardware and greater software options, as well as our increasing fascination with social media websites, are proving to increase the amount of data downloaded with mobile phones.

Mobile data downloads are used for accessing the Internet and reading email, as well as downloading files from the Internet. Most mobile pages are optimized to reduced sizes, making the 500MB download limit seem more than reasonable for the majority of mobile surfers.

GTA IV Smashing All Records

It’s hardly surprising to learn that Grand Theft Auto IV has broken pretty much every imaginable record going. The release of Halo 3 produced one of the largest ever profits for an entertainment release, including Hollywood blockbusters, and GTA IV has followed in that same vein. While many games fail to live up to the kind of hype they are given, that doesn’t seem to be something that can be directed at GTA IV.

Over 600,000 copies on the PS3 and Xbox360 of the Rockstar hit were sold within the first 24 hours of release. It’s not the first time that the Grand Theft Auto series has broken records. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas sold marginally more than 500,000 copies during its first 24 hours, the title that GTA IV has smashed. The same game also holds the record for 677,000 copies sold in its first week.

There are yet more figures of note too. It is estimated that the first day sales of GTA IV will amass £24m. Hollywood films tend to rake in anything ranging from £2m to £13m in the same period.

Many expect GTA IV to sell more than a million copies in its first week. One of the biggest reasons for this potential figure is that this instalment in the series is the first to be released on two platforms – all previous GTA titles were only available on the PlayStation consoles. Approximately 55% of sales have so far been amassed on the Xbox360.

Thanks to the Times Online for the statistics and figures.

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