TATA Nano – the car of the future or a white elephant?

The very latest micro car, the TATA Nano Car reputedly the world’s cheapest car has been launched this week in Mumbai, India. The price tag for the car is just over 100,000 rupees which equates to about £1,400. The manufacturer is charging a fee to anyone who would like to be entered on the waiting list to order the TATA Nano car and deliveries in India are expected to begin in July.

The car has achieved its low price by minimizing cost on unnecessary ‘luxuries’, the basic Nano comes without front and rear fog lights, without a heater or air conditioning, without anti-lock brakes, only one single windscreen wiper, manually operated windows, manual steering with no air bags, tiny 12” wheels, plastic body parts joined with adhesive instead of more conventional metal and welding and a two cylinder 623cc engine that provides a massive maximum speed of 65 mph. Hang on to your hats when you take this baby out!

The manufacturers of the TATA Nano Car are aiming to provide an affordable mode of transport to their initial target market of lower income families in India. The car manufacturer will also produce higher specification models which includes the Nano CX and the ‘top of the range’ Nano LX. This appears from inspection of the ‘specifications’ to be a third rate car aimed at a third world country and although the company is predicting launching the car in the UK it is unlikely to gain any Euro NCAP stars in its present form.

Tata, headed by company chairman Ratan N. Tata are a huge Indian company that also owns Jaguar and Land Rover as well as Corus Steel and Tetley Tea. Tata have posted a huge loss in the last quarter to December 2008 of $54m and are hoping that Tata Nano car sales will meet target to assist with the repayment of a £1billion bridging loan used to purchase Land Rover and Jaguar from Ford in 2008.

Unlocked iPhone 3G 16GB – ready to Rock n’ Roll at Play.com

Anyone who has ever looked adoringly at someone else’s iPhone with a wistful look in their eye, possibly displaying a slight hint of a green complexion because their contract is with another service provider and has another 100 years left to run, will really be excited to learn that Play.com may possibly have a remedy. The Jersey based online retailer has recently started advertising new and unlocked Sim free Apple 3G 16GB 2.0 Megapixel iPhones for sale complete with manufacturers warranty on the Play.com website, something that will get all those desperate to get their paws on the latest ‘must-have’ flushed with excitement and anticipation.

Of course the new deal at Play.com does comes at a price, and quite a hefty one at that and which might quite frankly be just a little too steep for some people. Play.com are offering the Apple iPhone 3G at just short of six hundred pounds which may still put it out of the reach of the average purchaser. The iPhone 3G advertised with a recommended retail price of £649.99 is currently being offered by Play.com with a free delivery for £599.99, however the site also states that the item is temporarily out of stock.

For those that have been on another planet the Apple iPhone 3G has a (rather average) 2 Megapixel camera, touchscreen function, HTML Safari browser, very lightweight 133g and compact size, with a 3.5” 320 x 480 pixel display screen. The iPhone is a joy to use, simplicity itself offering GPS, Google maps, 300 hours stand-by and 10 hours talk time, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and an internal 8GB memory capacity. There are countless free and chargeable apps available from the iTunes App store which expand the capabilities of the iPhone immensely, from games to useful tools and even a Facebook app so that you can do your social networking wherever you are.

OnLive set to rock the gaming world

Are you continually frustrated that as soon as you get the very ‘latest’ gaming console that a competitor launches another that makes yours seem a has-been? Do you have a gaming console collection, from a wii to a PS3 and everything in-between? Do your wires get crossed and crossed again so that you are sitting a pile of gaming spaghetti trying to untangle them to play your next game? Then you will without doubt be excited about the latest gaming technology named OnLive, a rather insignificant name that hardly does justice to such a gaming phenomenon.

The new gaming console OnLive is currently being exhibited at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco which runs until the 27th March, and is causing somewhat of a stir. The OnLive console will allow gamers to play live streamed games over any reliable broadband connection, without the need for every conceivable console on the market. Just an internet connection and the new console (which is expected to retail at less than the cost of a wii) and you will be able to play on your PC without the need of expensive graphic card or memory upgrades or for that matter any other additional equipment, all the games will be played from the OnLive server which will provide a smooth gaming experience delivered in the true quality that the gaming developers intended.

The OnLive games console is currently being trialled in its Beta form and is expected to be launched at the end of the year in the US and hopefully will reach UK shores shortly after. OnLive is the brainchild of Steve Perlmann and Mike McGarvey, industry whiz kids who are hoping that the game publishers will get behind the new gaming technology in a big way. This effectively will mean no upgrades, no piracy no expensive add-ons, making this very attractive for the game companies as well as the consumer. Featuring interactive gameplay with other gamers, brag clips, leaderboards and player rankings, this is every gamers dream – roll on OnLive!

Will you fall in love with the new Dell Adamo?

It’s not often that you can say that a laptop is sexy, but that is certainly the word that springs to mind when describing the latest product to leave the Dell stable. Dell is not usually noted for top end laptops, and is more renowned for business quality workhorses, big in capability but lacking in a certain charisma. The Adamo however puts paid to any pre-conceived ideas of what you might think a Dell laptop is, this is a super sleek statement piece and much more than a mere laptop. The Adamo has an almost classic beauty mixed with contemporary modern minimalist design, to compare it to a basic business laptop is the same as trying to compare a Rolex with a Timex or a Lotus Elise with a Nissan Sunny – they all provide the same basic function but are just worlds apart in design and kudos.

The Adamo features a super slim profile measuring only 16.4mm and in spite of the very small dimensions of this laptop there is no hint of flimsiness due in part to its slightly heavier weight although at 1.8kg it is still extremely lightweight. The Adamo is constructed of aluminium that has been precision crafted to provide an elegant exterior case and comes in a choice of silver or pearl with etching or a brushed finish. Each key on the full size keyboard has been carefully shaped to accommodate the finger comfortably allowing for smooth operation. The screen display is widescreen and constructed of edge to edge glass providing an enhanced visual display.

There is no shortage in performance as you might expect and although minimal in size it is a powerhouse within. The Adamo has 1.4 GHz / 1.2GHz intel Core ™ 2 Duo Processor with Centrino®, 4GB/2GB 800MHz DDR3 dual channel memory, features 3 USB ports, a full five hours of battery life, Windows Vista, wireless, Bluetooth and has optional mobile broadband.

Adamo is a Latin word that roughly translated means to fall in love with or find pleasure in, which seems to be a name quite befitting this beautiful piece of hardware, however with a price tag just shy of £1,650 it may be the cost that you don’t fall in love with.

New iPhone OS 3.0 provides copy, cut and paste at last!

After much industry and public anticipation, details of the many new features that will be available when the Apple iPhone OS 3.0 is released have now been announced. One of the major annoyances with the current iPhone capabilities (or lack of them) is what some might call common sense features, and certainly one in particular is available with many other smartphones but is noticeable by its absence in the iPhone. Read more

Windows worm infects 9 million PCs in past week

Despite living in an age where Internet Security and computer security has never been tighter it has been revealed that a new Windows worm virus has hit a staggering 8.9 million PCs in the last week alone. Initial estimates suggested just 2.4 million machines had been infected but this has increased to 8.9 million over the last four days. The rate at which the virus is infecting machines has beaten all records of recent times and security firms are fighting to contain the spread.

The worm consists of a traditional Trojan package which allows the controller to download files onto your server and your machine but rather bizarrely the code also generate hundreds of random domain names and asks your machine to search them for updates. This operation not only leaves your machine open to external influences but will also use massive system resources and grind your computer to a halt.

Security experts suggest blocking all incoming and outgoing traffic on “port 445″ until the rogue code is identified and deleted. We should begin to see the infection rate slowdown as Microsoft issued a security patch for the identified vulnerability in October 2008. However, by the time this Microsoft update is executed it may be too late for many machines where the damage may already have been done.

Tight git wallet

When is a wallet not a wallet? When it is sewn tight shut so you cannot get access to your money and other people will need to bail you out!

This excellent tight git wallet is sewn shut and no matter how hard you try there is just no way to get your money out next time you are down the pub. How many times have we all been stung by that person who seems to lose their money or leave their wallet at home every single time they are out?

How many times have you been forced to put your hand in your pocket for a shared taxi fare, food on the way home, a drink or any other night out expenses? Well, now you can put your money away and sponge off your friends to see how they feel when money is tight and their friend is even tighter!

Intriguingly while this is a wallet for the more tight-fisted amongst us, if you just unpick the stitching it is actually a quality wallet although it is emblazoned with the words “tight git wallet” down the side. Possibly the perfect gift for your friend who never has any money or why not treat yourself and get your friends to pay for it!

Come in and go away doormat

How many times in the past have you wanted a peaceful day by yourself but had the unfortunate experience of guests knocking on the door at the worst possible moment? How many times have the in-laws come round uninvited and sometimes unwanted?

Check out this quality come in and go away doormat which you can use to reflect your mood of the day. The writing is printed in such a way that turned one way it reads go away and turned the other way it reads come in, although take a quick look at the picture above and you will see exactly what we mean!

If you are in a good mood simply place the mat to read come in as people approach your door and go away when people leave you. If you are in a bad mood and know a particular guest is about to turn up why not spin the mat round and it will read go away before they even knock on your door. While obviously targeted at the novelty mat market this come in and go away doormat is made of the highest quality natural materials and acts as a very useful shoe cleaner.

However, remember there is a time and a place for being rude!

Audio cassette sticky tape dispenser

If like us you long for the olden days and the old VHS video, audio cassette players and many of the older technologies which have been replaced, you may be pleased to see the audio cassette make a comeback as an audio cassette sticky tape dispenser. This novelty item will bring back the days of the C60 the C90 and other audio cassette tapes which were on the market over 20 years ago. This is a very useful way in which to bring back one of your favourites as a useful tool to your office and your desk.

While the product is slightly larger than an original audio cassette tape it is a very interesting novelty tape dispenser and something which is sure to catch the eye of family and friends. As well as being very useful it will bring back those old memories of taping the charts using your cassette player, trying to load a computer game which took 10 minutes and messing around with your cassette player and microphone.

This could well be the start of a novelty range of old technologies making a comeback in the modern era at a time when MP3 players, iPods and mobile phones are the name of the day and old technologies of yesteryear are long forgotten.

Confusion reigns over Google CO2 claims

The Times newspaper in the UK recently ran an article on the environment which suggested that 7 tonnes of CO2 emissions were produced for every 1 million searches on search engine giant Google. The report was accredited to Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross who carried out the research behind CO2 production in relation to the Internet. Having been seen by many as a green and environmentally friendly workplace, this research note casts doubt on the green aspect of online activity.

However, the last 24 hours have seen the physicist involved in the research note clarify the situation regarding Google and suggest that the Times newspaper “put words in his mouth” and seemed to have an axe to grind against the search engine giant. He refuted the allegations that he suggested that 7 tonnes of CO2 were produced per 1 million searches on Google and claims that he has never specified any particular search engine.

The research note does however open up an interesting debate about CO2 emissions and the environment in relation to online activity and the online marketplace. Google has responded to the claims by suggesting that one search generates just 0.2 g of CO2 which is far less than the figure suggested above. It would appear that we have not heard the last of this particular spat which has the potential to grow arms and legs and last for some time yet.

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