Your 5 Year Old Might Get An iPad Before You Do… As An Education Aid Obviously

Not all of us have been lucky enough to enjoy the benefits of owning an iPad, unless we work for Leicester council of course in which case we’ve been given one to aid us in our daily duties. There’s also a chance that your 5 year old kid who is unlikely to be able to read this article fully has been given one by their school to make life easier for everybody.

Cedars School of Excellence (sounds like the school in X-Men) in Greenock, Scotland, has made the unique move to give every one of its 105 pupils an Apple iPad so that they don’t have to trouble their brimming minds with remembering to take pen and paper to school with them. It will also remove the need to have science teachers in classrooms and will give kids the perfect excuse to skip school and stay home playing games online.

Apparently, according to the school’s IT teacher (we had green screen BBCs in our school so this story does grate a little) they carried out extensive research to determine the most beneficial equipment to give kids in order to make learning more effective. Fraser Speirs went on to say that it wouldn’t just remove the need for traditional items like pens but it would also mean that science experiments considered too dangerous to conduct in the classroom could be watched on YouTube (we had a TV and video, I seem to remember it doing largely the same thing).

You would imagine there’s going to be a mass of website restrictions placed on the computer but as most 5 year olds are probably more tech and Internet savvy than their parents and probably teachers it’s unlikely this will stop them hitting the sites they want to.

Did you get anything as ludicrously cool as an iPad to help your education?

Will an iPad benefit a 5 year old’s education?

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Go Green Wearing Condom Dresses And Banana Fibre Underpants

In the same way that there’s an app for just about everything, you’re pretty much assured to find a green gadget for any purpose. There are green speakers that double up as miniature plant pots, there are houses made from recycled beer and plastic pop bottles. There are even rocking chairs that generate power as you rock back and forth.

If that’s not enough for you, and you won’t to wear your ecologically friendly lifestyle as a badge then you could always have a dress made from expired (not used or recycled we hasten to add) condoms or a pair of underpants made from the fibre of bananas.

Fair enough, you’re going to look a bit stupid and a lot of people will think you’re a condom short of a three pack or a banana short of a bunch but you’ll definitely be doing your bit for the environment.

Emma Kaywin of New York University has created two dress designs and one coat design using piles of expired condoms, saving them from being thrown in landfill. The outfits were actually displayed back in January and they received what could be described as a sceptical response. In order to show support for her own creations, Kaywin wears them out in public which should ward away all but the most fearsome of people.

And, for the men, Austrian company Aussie Bum has designed a pair of underpants made from a combination of cotton and banana bark fibre. To further enhance the eco-friendly tag, the undies are made using environmentally friendly manufacturing processes too.

Will you be wearing a condom dress or Aussie Bum banana undies?

Have you designed some eco-friendly but bizarrely insance item of clothing we should hear about?

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Sony Ericsson Elm Is O2′s Greenest; But No iPhone Or Blackberry In List

It’s not made of recycled toilet paper and it doesn’t draw energy directly from the heart of the sun, but the fact that it is made from recycled plastic and Sony Ericsson couldn’t be bothered including a manual means that the virtually unheard of Sony Ericsson Elm has been awarded the prestigious (in some peoples’ eyes we’re sure it’s loaded with prestige) title of being O2′s greenest handset. To be fair, Sony Ericsson did also go to the trouble of stamping their GreenHeart branding on the allegedly low power charger.

O2 has listed 65 of its mobile phone and smartphone handsets in order of how green they are. Apple and RIM (they make Blackberry handsets by the way) turned down the opportunity to have their phones ranked in the list and while Apple has had little to say on the subject, RIM have at least said that they should be included by the first quarter of next year.

The rankings were awarded by O2 in conjunction with Forum for the Future and were based on the environmental impact the phone had during manufacture and use. It also considered packaging and other aspects.

Scoring a 4.3 out of 5 the Elm (which must be environmentally friendly because it’s named after a tree) took top spot of the list which included 93% of the provider’s handsets (although in terms of market share you’d have to question that figure).

Honourable mentions needed to go to almost all of the rest of the phones in the list with the Nokia 1800, Nokia 6700, Nokia C7, Samsung GT-S8500, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini, Sony Ericsson Mini Pro, and Sony Ericsson Zylo all scoring 4 out of 10.

The Palm Pre Plus should be ashamed of its performance bagging just 2.7 out of 10 and at the bottom of the pile showing that you basically have a choice between feature rich or smug green.

Will you be rushing out to buy the Sony Ericsson Elm (it’s cheap, at least)?

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IFA 2010 Preview – TV, Tablets, More TVs, And More Tablets

Europe’s biggest electronics and consumer gadget show starts this week, 3rd September to be exact, and GadgetsAndGizmos will be reporting the latest goings on for all to see (follow us on Facebook to see the latest headlines). There will be over 1,000 stands at this year’s celebration in Berlin, which marks the 50th anniversary, and unline CES this is one is aimed specifically towards the European market making it potentially more relevant to us all (yay).

But what exactly are we expecting to see at this year’s event?

The iZone is a specific section that has been set up for Apple lovers and it will feature the latest tech for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Expect plenty of new apps and hopefully some serious tech wizardry for the latest versions of the devices – there may even be a few upgrades to the devices themselves to speak of.

The IFA eLibrary is a new section of the exhibition and it will specifically concentrate on tablet PCs and ebook readers. If nothing else, you’ve got to marvel at the impact that the iPad has had since its launch.

TVs are going to be a massive feature in one way or another – partially because they always have been but also because of the massive impact that 3D TV is having despite still being in its infancy as a technology. Panasonic and Sony, who have both recently announced that they are working on glasses-free 3D TV are certain to have some decent 3D TV related features.

Organic Light Emitting Diode TVs, or OLED if that’s too much of a mouthful, has been threatened a few times and while it may not have taken off with the same kind of popularity as 3D it is building up an albeit small head of steam now. LG is reported to be preparing to show off a 31 inch OLED TV which will make a very pleasant change from the miniscule 15 inch versions so far available.

Internet Protocol Television, IPTV, is also going to be another feature. Manufacturers are getting to grips with the integration of Internet based services and the streaming of content to their latest TV sets so expect a few announcements and a few exhibitions on this.

Tablet PCs are the rage and any competitor to the iPad is good news for all because it may eventually lead to reduecd iPad prices as well as improved features for the Apple device (not that we’re saying it’s featureless but Flash would have been nice). The 7″ Samsung Galaxy Tab is one such device and, guess what? It will include a Flash enabled browser – it looks highly probable that the Galaxy Tab will just be one of several new tablets to be on display this year.

So, plenty to look forward to then.

Will you be at the Messe Berlin exhibtion centre for IFA 2010?

Which tech are you most eagerly awaiting?

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Kinectimals – Train A Virtual Cat; No Bins In Sight

Anybody that’s owned a cat will tell you that training it anything it doesn’t want to learn is virtually impossible. Sure, it’ll soon learn that food is in the cupboard and that breakfast time is always ten minutes before you wake up. They’re also quite adapt at learning that scratching will stop you from stroking their bellies and hissing will usually ward off all but the most adventurous of dogs. In some cases, they may even learn that standing too close to the bin at the front of the house may end in disaster.

However, training a cat to do tricks? Unlikely. All with a single hand gesture? Very unlikely.

And yet, you might have guessed from the name that Kinectimals for the XBox 360 has been developed to show off the tech behind Kinect and in all honesty it does look impressive. It’s definitely a game for kids, allowing them to train any of five exotic animals so that they will perform tricks and even complete the obstacle courses that have been laid out especially.

While the game is primarily aimed at kids (just look at the sickeningly cute cover), that’s not to say that the parents won’t appreciate the tech behind it and it will undoubtedly give an hour or so amusement getting to grips with the motion sensor but after that everything else would prove a little too simple for all but the most casual or juvenile of gamers.

The technology behind the Kinect does look and sound mighty impressive but with a launch list of 15 titles that is little more than a collection of bundled mini-games, exercise/fitness/dancing titles, and the occasional smattering of extremely young games like Kinectimals it’s not going to attract the hardcore gamer. With a fairly hefty price tag and direct competition from the well established Nintendo Wii it’s also not really going to be all that appealing to the casual gamer.

Will you be buying the Kinect for the XBox 360 just to get your hands on a furry kitty?

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XBox Live Prices Going Up But Audio Upgrade And Avatar 2.0 Incoming

It’s bound to cause a stir but there’s a price rise in store for XBox Live Gold membership and, in all honesty, it’s not really that big a surprise. As Microsoft has said in their blog post, they have added and upgraded the service considerably since 2002 and haven’t since then increased the price. Yes, the additions helped to make the service more popular but the proposed rise to £6 per month still represents good value for money we think.

While the increase isn’t quite global, it will see prices in the US rise from $50 to $60 a year and in the UK it will go up to £6 per month with a Canadian subscription increasing to $12CAD per month. When you consider what else you can get for these kinds of prices it really isn’t that bad.

To help appease the masses and partially because of the launch of Kinect, one suspects, there is an audio upgrade inbound. The quality of multiplayer chat has been somewhat limited by the audio codec which only required a 64k connection. As msot gamers now pack seriously more punch than this, Microsoft has quite rightly deduced they can afford to improve the quality of the codec.

You won’t have to put up with the crackly abuse anymore, and you’ll be able to quite clearly hear the insults being hurled at you by annoying foreign kids.

There’s also news of another XBox Live upgrade coming our way, this time in the shape of Avatar 2.0. The upgrade will mean that avatars will appear considerably more realistic and lifelike than the current cartoon or caricature looking ones.

Avatars are extremely popular and they’ve undoubtedly proven a good little money spinner for Microsoft as new outfits and accessories, which generally cost a fairly minimal amount of Microsoft Points, are downloaded my masses of people.

Does £6 a month still represent good value for money?

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Angry Birds Tops iPhone App Charts And Could Become A Movie

There was once a time when a game/movie tie-in was quite unusual and almost always ended up in disaster. Although, in all honesty, games made into movies tended to fare better than cross-overs in the other direction. Then, along came next gen consoles dragging gamers out of the gutter where they once had to hide and everything went a bit mainstream. The end result was considerably cooler games made from film licenses.

It should come as little suprirse then that the most popular iPhone app in most parts of the world, a ridiculously addictive game called Angry Birds, could possibly be turned into a movie and a toy. And yet, somehow, it seems like a weird move even by a Finnish iPhone game developer.

The game has proven a massive hit just about everywhere and at 99c it’s fairly easy to see why. There are a multitude of levels (over 180 in the latest version, in fact) that players can unlock which keep people like me coming abck for more and the game physics are surprisingly and impressively accurate.

You can even play online, submit your score to worldwide leaderboards, and a whole lot more – seriously impressive for just 99c. With that said, the game has nearly a quarter of a million ratings which means you can probably assume several million dollars’ worth of sales.

The trailer for Angry Birds has been viewed more than 5 million times on YouTube and the company responsible want to make the most of the games success. They’re fervently trying to find a company that can produce and create a movie of the game quickly to get it out and selling before the hype dies down. They also want to tell the Angry Birds story via the medium of cartoon and possibly create a popular line of Angry Birds based toys.

Have you been busy blowing up pigs with chickens?

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Mafia 2 – Too Linear But Not Too Bad

Mafia 2 has been a very long time in the making; seven years to be exact. And, as this means that the developers would have started work for consoles like the original XBox and Playstation this means that it has essentially enjoyed two games’ worth of development – the burning question for such a massively popular franchise (in terms of films and crap amateur impressions at least) is whether it has been worth the wait and whether players will benefit from such a lengthy development time. The honest, albeit entirely non-committal answer is “in parts, yes, and in other parts, probably not so much so”.

The first thing you’ll probably notice is that the graphics are incredible. Fortunately, gone are the days where you basically had a straight up choice between great looks or superio gameplay. Numerous titles have managed to combine both now so there’s really no excuse.

And, in all honesty, Mafia 2 does what it does quite well, it’s just that we as a collective group of gamers and we here expect more from a next-generation game than a bunch of linear based missions which tend to amount to nothing more than driving or shooting. There are some reasonable cut scenes in there too but again not all that much to write home about (unless you’re really stuck for stuff to write).

The game is also short which might mean that missions won’t become too repetitive but it also means that you won’t care about Vito by the time you reach the conclusion of the game. It also means that after 15 to 20 hours of gaming you’ll also be wondering whether it really was the best way to spend £40 of your hard earned money; we suspect the answer will be “probably not, but it could have been worse”.

Our Mafia 2 review in a Tweet?  Looks stunning and has a great soundtrack but is way too linear, too short, and overall a little bit too old school. 

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Sony 3D TVs Coming Soon…Ish

Sony is taking the 3D fight to Panasonic having announced that they too are working on a glasses free 3D TV. 3D TV take up has been unexpectedly massive with more and more people wanting to enjoy their favourite Sky shows and movies but in order to do so users must don a pair of special 3D viewing glasses. While they are certainly better looking than their 1980s counterparts and reasonably comfortable, they can still get a little annoying after a couple of hours sat in front of the TV screen.

Nintendo has announced that they will be launching a glasses free 3D handheld gaming device which offers the technology to users without having to wear any additional fashion accessories. Panasonic have also said that they aim to improve on the existing glass-free 3D technology but have yet to pencil in a date for putting the TVs on sale.

Sony have also said that there will be some major obstacles and hurdles to overcome before the technology goes mainstream. Currently, there are 3D displays available that do not require glasses but they are restricted in their use. This restriction stems mostly from the fact that viewers must be stood in a very specific spot in order for the 3D images to emerge. The image quality is also a lot lower than with the glasses version of the tech but, presumably, that’s why companies like Panasonic and Sony have said they’re working on improving it.

Sony already has a reasonable catalogue of 3D products including 3D blu ray players and 3D flast screen TVs and they were showing these off in Japan when they discussed the possibility of glasses free technology being released. They expressed their intention in being the market leader for 3D so expect a lot more in the coming months and years.

Do you own a 3D TV and glasses?

Can you wear them without menace for a full 2 hour sitting?

The SHC – The Future Of 3 Door Hatchbacks?

Designer Jamie Martin has turned his hand to designing some pretty awesome concepts in the past. He designed the Cobra Venom V8 concept car and the C.R.A.B police droi that we featured a while ago. He’s even one of the 4 winners that were tasked with creating the new design for the London bus (that may not sound much of a boast, but if you look at it you’ll realise it’s not your average bid red bus). Now he’s designed the SHC, or Super Hatchback Concept which is essentially a cross between a super car and a three door hatchback.

From the front end, the SHC looks like it could easily be a new TVR while the back end features the now obligatory multiple exhausts. It has ideal weight distribution which has been achieved through careful material choice and solid engineering and is definitely a concept that has been borne through sound design rather than jsut a quick mock-up that you might see when you’re hopping around the Internet.

Airflow is directed optimally through, over, and under the car. It has high torque and offers incredible supercar performance and speed despite being a convenient and useful hatchback. It is, as Jamie himself puts it, the supercar that you can also do your shopping in (the typical Ferrari isn’t exactly blessed in the boot space department).

Happily, the tech doesn’t stop there either as the SHC is brimming with new and cutting edge gadgets and drive technology. It would include a 6 speed short-shift gearbox as standard with an optional 7 speed also available. The twin-turbocharged engine offers direct injection and overboosting. Regenerative braking and AirHybrid drive make it an ecologically friendly hatchback too.

You can see full details on the SHC here.

Can you see the SHC gracing our roads in the near future?

Would you buy what is essentially a supercar wrapped up in a hatchback’s body?

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