The Green Car Guide Live 2008

If stereotypes were true, then staging any car show in Liverpool would be asking for trouble, and making it a green car show would be even more dangerous. Liverpudlians (stereotypically, speaking, of course) certainly aren’t renowned for giving back to the the community, and I think we all know what happens to cars that are left unattended for too long.

All steretypes aside, though, the Green Car Guide Live 2008 was indeed held in Liverpool and was a roaring success. The show was the biggest green car show held in the UK and featured cars from manufacturers like BMW, Ford, Citreon, and many more.

While the majority actually managed the previously unfathomable (to make a green car look like any other car on the road) there were some exceptions at both ends of the scale.

A Honda Insight developed by Oaktec was highlighting rally cars using hybrid technology. AT just 998 cc, the car actually won the A Class Formula 1000 Tarmac Rally Championship so there really is no excuse for poor performing hybrid cars.

When it comes to the other end of the scale, you can always rely on Smart cars. The Smart Fortwo, the hideously styled car in the picture above apparently offers big car luxuries (except, presumably, for a big interior or ample space) with what I have to begrudgingly admit to being money saving and environment saving class. £35 per year road tax is almost unthinkable if you own anything bigger than a scooter, but that’s one of the returns you get for owning the zebra.

First The C5, Next The Flying Car?

Sir Clive Sinclair believes that the future lies in personal flying cars, and despite often being remembered for the C5 electric car failure he has pioneered a number of impressive designs. In fact, looking at the current wave of electric car designs, it might be fair to say that he was just a little too far ahead of his time.

With rising tax, petrol, and oil prices, as well as a greater understanding of how emissions are damaging the environment, an albeit cooler version of the C5 may prove a success where cycle lanes exist.

The C5 doesn’t require a license, because it only achieves a top speed of 15mph and anybody over the age of 14 can drive one. Add a new, more efficient battery, that takes less than 8 hours to charge and runs longer, and the miniature electric car really could take off.

Sir Clive has no plans to resurrect the C5 just yet, though. Plans to resurrect the Zike, which was an electric bike that faced an equally dismal popularity in 1992, may be more likely. When interviewed by the BBC he said that he would “need huge success in the electric bike field” before he converted his efforts into creating a Bond style flying car.

The Stylophone - Retro Music At Its Finest

Anyone for a bit of retro music making? That’s not a euphemism either. The stylophone is an inexpensive little electronic retro musical instrument that was made famous (sort of) by numerous bands in the 70s and 80s. Bowie, Erasure, and even Rolph Harris were known as being particularly skilled stylophonists and you could walk in those particularly heady shoes for no more than £14.99 at IWOOT.

As you might imagine of something of “that” era, the stylophone is devastatingly simple. A small digital display shows keyboard keys and the player uses the stylus pen to strike the notes. Because of its synthesiser make up, it’s possible to create all sorts of funky 80’s sounds.

This version has been updated (phew) and includes bass, synth, and classic sound libraries for your pleasure. You can also choose to go it alone, in solo, or play along to your own mp3 tracks. An immeasurably irritating vibrato tweaker has also been added to really ramp up just how obnoxious you could be. It is definitely one of those instruments that fools the player into thinking that they really do sound like they’re in the White Stripes, and yet heard by anybody else it just sounds repulsive.

Ebay In A World Of Hurt

Ebay (the real Ebay, not a fake one) has now been ordered to pay 38.6 million euros to LVMH, which is the parent company of Louis Vuitton. The damages have been awarded because of Ebay’s inefficiency in preventing fake Vuitton goods from being sold on their auction website. While it isn’t the first action of this type taken against Ebay, it’s highly likely that it will cause yet more court cases of a similar nature.

During the same hearing, Ebay were also forced to pay Christian Dior, Kenzo, Givenchy and Guerlain perfume companies 3.25 million euros for similar offences – although in those cases it was the unauthorised sale of products. Just last month, Hermes won 20,000 euros over similar allegations and it’s possible that now the flood gates have opened there will be no stopping the action from commencing.

LVMH had actually asked for 50 million euros, amid claims that in 2006 more than 90% of the Vuitton products for sale on Ebay were in actual fact replicas.

Ebay is expected to appeal the case, citing that it has numerous anti fake and anti replica measures in place. It’s a bit of a worrying situation, even for a site the size of Ebay, because there are sure to be other companies ready to follow suit and many will have similarly detailed portfolios to that of LVMH.

The Voodoo Knife Holder

OK, so it’s not strictly speaking a gadget, but it is cool and it shines so it’s being awarded the honorary title of gadget. The Voodoo knife holder is, without doubt, the coolest kitchen knife set holder that’s been around for a while.

They’re beginning to crop up in a few places now, but this particular one is available at Firebox for a more than reasonable £59.95 in black or red, or £79.95 in the even cooler (we know it’s cooler because there’s none in stock) chrome effect style pictured.

Five strategically placed holes make way for the knives, which are also happily included and of an equally high caliber. Magnetic holders ensure that the knives stay firmly in place while you’re storing them and the blades are made from some of the finest sounding materials conceivable - Molybdenum and Vanadium stainless steel. Not only do they sound like something you’d mine in a PC strategy game but they’re more resilient and sharped than standard stainless steel.

The block stands nearly 40cm tall, so it really is a hefty piece of kit, and includes a bread knife, carver, chef’s knife, a utility knife, and a pairing knife.

Rhapsody Offering MP3 Downloads

Rhapsody, the American digital music download service, has opened its doors to unprotected mp3 downloads on a pay-per download model. The move is likely a bid to help improve the service’s popularity, and comes hot on the heels of a number of other services taking the same decision. The Amazon music service and Napster both offer mp3 downloads without copy restrictions and using the download payment model.

Rhapsody had previously used a monthly subscription service that enabled users to download as many tracks (or as few) as they liked for between $13 and $15 per month. The new service, which includes the popular mp3 format, will be priced at the equivalent of 50p per song or £5 per album.

According to the BBC report, music downloads form a major part of the UK music scene, with 85% of the top 20 single sales coming from download services. Download income is equivalent to around 8.6% of the total income generated by the industry.

Rhapsody includes tracks from all of the major labels and is co-owned by Real and MTV. While not as popular as other services such as iTunes and Napster, this move may help to increase its user base because it certainly has the network available to help market it.

GTA Crime Spree

It was kind of inevitable that there would be a serious Grand Theft Auto (GTA) inspired crime spree, something the religious groups and politicians can really get their teeth into. Though they did stop short of actual grand theft auto, and as Gizmodo points out, they thankfully didn’t arm themselves with molotov cocktails, a group of teenagers did embark on a random crime spree around New York (usually such a haven of tranquility filled with law abiding citizens) and then told police that they were mimicking the Grand Theft Auto game.

You can bet everything that’s valuable that this is just going to stoke the fires of “violent video games and children” arguments with the majority of the six suspects being teenagers. All were charged as adults, including one 14 year old assailant for a series of random crimes including theft, attempted carjacking, and assault.

Since its release, the GTA IV game has, like its equally popular predecessors, caused a stir of emotion among lobbyists and some parents. Despite gaining the maximum possible age rating, the argument is that ultra violent games like the GTA series encourage kids to commit violent acts. I say “show me the proof” - oh, erm.

The Zen X-Fi

Creative never quite seems to get it right, certainly not in the world-conquering Apple sense of the world at any rate. Complaints about support mire what is a decent collection of mp3 players, but perhaps a bigger problem is that while the players typically look pretty good, they’re lacking in all of the latest features. Could the Zen X-Fi be about to change that? After all, it is carrying the X-Fi tag now.

According to Engadget, the X-Fi will include wifi connectivity, an instant messaging client, and media streaming. The battery packs a good punch with 36 hours of audio and 5 hours of video playback and it supports a good range of both audio and video files and will include high grade headphones as standard in the box.

The screen is also something of a mystery. The image that includes a list of the features calls it a “large display screen” and Engadget muses that it will be 2.5” display like other Creative devices.

There doesn’t appear to be any details of a release date, almost like Creative are trying to whip up a frenzy about the WiFi connectivity before they commit to anything concrete. Let’s just hope that they can really live up to their name with this series of players.

May Testing Shows O2 Offers Best Broadband But UK Speeds Are Dismal

moneysupermarket.com carried out broadband line tests throughout the month of May in the hope of turning up the best, and indeed worst, Broadband providers in the UK. While it highlighted that O2 offered the best 8MB connection with actual speeds reaching 5.39MBps, the average speed is a rather pathetic 2.97MBps.

O2 was way out in front in the tests, a considerable distance ahead of Sky in second place with speeds of 3.59MBps and TalkTalk in third with 2.99MBps. Even more interesting is the fact that those surfers paying the extra to get improved Broadband speeds are those that are getting the lease value for money – 16MBps being the worst performing speed band. The average speed of a 16Mbps
connection is a pathetic 7.02MBps.

Happily, moneysupermarket is taking the opportunity to yet again champion the cause of consumers. They have already been quite vocal in their belief that broadband providers should advertise an actual speed rather than whats is essentially a meaningless maximum speed because very few, if any, consumers even actually achieve the maximum advertised speed.

Pioneer Announces 4 New Blu-Ray Players

Finally there’s some good news on the Blu Ray Player front. For many months now, the choice has been severely limited, basically leaving us with the option of buying a PS3 or not buying a PS3. There have been other Blu-Ray players available but they just haven’t been worth the money and offered little that was particularly significant.

Pioneer has announced that it will be launching four Blu-Ray players starting with the first in September. The range will start with a basic player and vary through to the advanced, or reference, standard player. From the pictures available they certainly look better than a lot of the alternatives although no pricing has been released and, as seems to be the way with Blur-Ray, there’s still something of a problem.

Only the most advanced, and therefore most expensive, of the four will include BD Live support and yet virtually all new Blu-Ray discs include BD Live features. Still, it’s the kick start we’ve hopefully been waiting for. The BDP-LX71 will be the first to hit shelves in September, the BDP-51FD will arrive in October and the BDP-LX08 and BDP-LX91 (BD Live support) will arrive in time for Christmas.

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