The Ultimate Home Cinema Seating

Sitting back to watch the football doesn’t have to be the usual stressful experience, this time round. Ignoring England’s failure to even qualify might be difficult to achieve, but if you’re sitting down on an Oscar Home Cinema seat then the pill doesn’t have to be quite so bitter to swallow.

Available as one to four seater models and in nine colours of microfibre or six colours of leather they represent perhaps the most prestigious seating for your home cinema system. But they’re more than just good looking, comfortable seats with more gadgets than you can shake a big stick at.

A motorized wall-away incliner lets you really kick back and enjoy the show while 10 vibrators with 3 settings and a heating system are more likely to send you to sleep than watching the next Greece game – and that takes some doing.

A drinks cooler/warmer lets you keep your beer cold or your coffee warm and storage boxes can be used to store anything you like from your DVD collection to the Radio Times and your remote controls. While it may not be the ideal settee for the front room, it does make the perfect compliment for home cinema or video game fans.

New Nokia Phone Details

We thought it would make a pleasant change to drift away from talk of the iPhone, if only for a little while (wait for news on third party applications sometime in the next day or so). So, to the latest Nokia smartphone range the E-Series and the N96.

The E71 and E66 smartphones will probably feature GPS, a 3.2MP camera, and 128MB of internal memory. It’s believed, thanks to a Nokia leak, that these will be released within the next month.

Nokia has also announced that it will release the N96, a top end consumer phone, within three months. This will feature 16GB of internal memory and a 5MP camera. With a number of features similar to the newly announced 3G iPhone, news that the N96 has been on pre-sale at £599 certainly makes the lightened $299 Apple price tag look incredible.

The Nokia website claims that the N96 is designed for video and TV entertainment. Not only does the Video Centre include a range of video functions, but the handset also includes Live TV capabilities. Digital music player and an FM radio round off what looks to be a powerful multimedia handset.

3G iPhone Will Be Released In The UK In A Month And Will Cost $199

It’s no surprise to learn that a 3G version of the iPhone is set to be launched by Apple (although it does give us a good reason to dust off the iPhone image again), with the vast majority of people predicting this would be one of the announcements made during the WWDC. Steve Jobs did, however, confirm the fact that It would support 3G networks and would also have GPS compatibility.

Perhaps a little more surprising, and certainly welcome, is the fact that the next generation of the most talked about smartphone will cost just $199, roughly £100, when it is released in just over a month on 11th July. That’s a fairly rapid release and a substantial reduction in price compared to the current iPhone when it was first released.

The iPhone (where available) still costs $399 having been reduced from its original price of $599. The $199 price tag, which will be consistent through the majority of countries where it will be on sale, will be for the smaller device with 8GB storage while the 16GB storage will cost $299.

There’s much more WWDC to go yet, and there’s certain to be more announcements to come so keep tuning in for the latest news.

The Global Warming Mug

OK, so we’ve covered green gadgets that will help you do your bit to save the planet, so we thought it was about time we approached it from a different angle. And, the global warming mug, is very definitely a different angle. It enables you to see the damage we’re potentially doing to the environment simply by filling it with your choice of hot beverage.

The blue mug, when cold, has a fairly detailed map of the world encircling it. However, when you fill it with hot liquid, the teperature change will mimic the effects of global warming. You can watch as the ice caps melt and the sea level rises by 100m – an apparently realistic simulation of what is to come for us all (we’re all doomed, I tell you).

Let’s face it, reading global warming and climate change reports is something best left to the scientists and scaremongers of the world. Filling your mug with hot coffee, on the other hand, is a much simpler and less arduous task. If you want a mug that carries a real message, then this is the one for you. Send one to your 4×4 loving friends as a pleasant gift and see if it makes a difference – OK, probably not, but it’s a gift idea.

New IBM Supercomputer Runs At Petaflop Pace

IBM has designed and developed a supercomputer that runs at incredible petaflop rates (a petaflop, apparently, is equivalent to one thousand trillion calculations every second). The new groundbreaking computer is twice as quick as the next best, which is also an IBM designed machine but isn’t going to be available at your local PC World any time soon.

The aptly named Roadrunner is, according to the BBC report, to be installed in a US government lab. From there it will closely (and very quickly) monitor and maintain the nuclear stockpile and is also likely to be used for research into genomics, climate change, and astronomy.

The Roadrunner is taking the mantle of world’s fastest computer away from the BlueGene/L, another IBM manufactured supercomputer already installed in the Los Alamos National Laboratory. However, the BlueGene/L only runs at a meagre 478.2 teraflops, or trillions of calculations per second, even after a recent upgrade.

Interestingly, the new Roadrunner has been built using components that were originally designed for the PlayStation 3. As well as using 7,000 standard processors, the RoadRunner employs 12,000 cell chips that were designed by a consortium of companies for use in the PS3.

While the Roadrunner is certainly the first supercomputer boasting petaflop speeds there are plans by numerous companies to create machines capable of similar speeds. IBM itself is already in the process of developing a new BlueGene machine while Sun and Cray have similar plans in the pipeline.

The World’s Most Expensive Mobile Phone?

The latest technology rarely comes cheap. At least, until you pay the full price tag, and then inevitably the product you just bought becomes available in Asda and Tesco at a meagre fraction of the price you paid. Also inevitably, within three weeks of purchasing said “latest technology” it will become last generation and the price won’t just drop but you’ll be able to pick it up for free when you sign up to get a life insurance quote.

Mobile phones are among the biggest offenders in this category. It’s a difficult situation – buy the phone you desperately want now and face it becoming last week’s technology next week (obviously) or wait a week and get it as an added extra when you buy another over-priced must-have accessory.

Well, fear not, because Engadget has details of the Lady Dior mobile phone which is already obscenely over priced and, in no way, does that have anything to do with the technology it carries.

In fact, the technology could be considered second rate at best. QVGA display and 2MP camera do not warrant a price tag just shy of £15,000. In fact, neither do the 640 Swarovski stones or even the combination of ModeLabs and Christian Dior creating a crocodile skinned flip phone. However, you can buy this safe in the knowledge that it’ll be equally over priced next week.

OK, so it’s not the greatest logic to work with, but there’s no reason as far as we can see to buy this phone.

Sky HD - Is It Worth It?

The SKY HD Box is actually a combination of an HD subscription package and the Sky+ service that acts like PVR, or Personal Video Recorder. With a 160GB hard drive as standard it enables you to record up to 80 hours of standard definition programs or 30 hours of high definition entertainment.

Of course, another advantage of the Sky HD box is that it allows you to access an excellent range of HD channels. There are currently more than a dozen channels broadcasting HD programs, including movie and sports channels as well as general interest and documentaries. While some of these channels will only transmit the occasional HD program some are dedicated entirely to the provision of high definition.

The difference in picture quality, as well as sound clarity, is quite stunning and definitely noticeable. As well as a Sky HD box, with Sky HD subscription, you will also need an HD ready TV. Many new televisions are manufactured as HD ready but if you are looking for a new set and you want to take advantage of this emerging technology then you must ensure that your TV is HD capable. Fortunately, those that are boast about it so look for the big-headed sets with HD Ready emblazoned all over them.

Sky has long been a leading light in the provision of satellite and digital TV. While the HD subscription may seem pricey at first glance, the quality difference is truly astonishing and, in our opinion, worth every extra penny and more.

WWDC 2008 Preview

Next week sees the greatly anticipated Apple World Wide Developer Conference where there is expected to be a number of developments that will set the gadget world alight (like the announcement of the iPhone did). Techradar has included a preview of the WWDC including announcements that they, and many others, believe will be forthcoming.

Perhaps the most highly anticipated and expected of announcements is the release of a 3G iPhone. However, other eagerly anticipated news includes the release of details regarding third party applications. Steve Jobs is expected to invite the forerunners in third party application development onto stage on June 9th. This role call could include game developers EA and Nintendo as well as developers of application based software.

A large part of the WWDC is expected to concentrate on the synergistic relationship between the Mac and the iPhone and how this relationship will enable iPhone application developers to quickly and effectively develop applications for the Mac as well. This is because both systems use what is essentially the same operating system and those developers that take on the iPhone first will already have a lot of the knowledge required to develop new applications for the Mac range of computers.

There are many sessions planned for the WWDC that have not yet been released, and nobody is ever entirely sure what Steve Jobs will unveil during his keynote speech so keep your eyes peeled for more information over the course of the next few days.

Trever Wilkinson (Mr TVR) Dies Aged 85

Trevor Wilkinson, the founder of TVR, has died at the age of 85 in his Minorca home. Since its inception in 1949 under the guidance of Wilkinson and Jack Pickard, TVR has gone on to create some of the greatest looking and most unique performance cars in the country. Even though he left the company in 1962 his legacy lived on.

The name TVR was derived from Wilkinson’s first name and his early work involved fixing old cars and doing some engineering work. However, in 1949, TVR created its first car, the Mark I or Grantura. The glass fibre design of this car remained in use, in one form or another, until 1980.

TVR has created some of the finest examples of performance cars and waiting lists for new models has always been excessively long. The cars have also attracted a massive following with owners and admirers alike. Current models include the Sagaris, Tuscan S, and the Tuscan S Convertible.

Although Mr Wilkinson had been aware he was seriously ill for some time he had accepted his illness and continued to live his life. While the company is now owned by Nikolai Smolenski, the name TVR will live on.

Transformers Digital T-Shirt

Transformers, like many of the greatest cartoons, is a lifestyle. The film may have come and gone for most of us, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t cool any more and fortunately with the Transformers EL T-Shirt you can carry on living the dream that your clapped out old car is actually a robot in disguise.

Choose between an Autobot or Decepticon design, each of which has uses an ultra bright electroluminescent display. The logo lights up in sequence and looks cool during the day but even cooler at night when it goes dark. The red Autobot and purple Decepticon display t-shirts are available in small, medium, large, and extra large.

Each t-shirt has a number of different pattern sequences, and all are powered using two AAA batteries cunningly concealed. While it’s unfortunate that the t-shirt doesn’t actually transform into anything it is a very cool piece of kit nonetheless. Ideal for father’s day or just to treat yourself to some gadgety goodness,

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