USB Train Tickets

SNCF, the French passenger train company, is trialling a system whereby passengers need not go through that whole troublesome rigmarole of buying and collecting tickets from the station or on the train. Instead, they will be given a USB card which, when connected to their PC, enables them to pay in advance for their tickets and then present the USB card to the driver.

In all honesty, and knowing how likely I would be to forget the damn thing, I suspect the system may have some obvious questions raised by the more forgetful of us. For those travelling as a one off or rare thing it may well work but the more journeys we make with it the more likely I suspect that we’ll become to lose it.

Who pays for replacements? Can you even get replacements? What if you get on a high speed train with no stops for 100 miles, and then realise you’ve forgotten it and you brought no spare cash or a credit card? Why do these stupid questions that nobody else really cares about always come to me?

The system is still in the trial stage and presumably any potential loss problems would hopefully be covered throughout the development and finalisation stages.

iPlayer For The Nokia N96

The popularity and widespread availability of iPlayer looks likely to continue its onward march with news that the new Nokia N series flagship phone the N96 will include the BBC iPlayer, which enables viewers to watch BBC shows and has also started series storage so you can watch more than just shows from the last week.

Some of the handsets will include the new iPlayer application on purchase while others will demand that you download it from the BBC site and, unfortunately, charges are likely to be pretty high because you will need to use your data package price plan as a means to download the player. Nevertheless, there’s no doubting just how popular iPlayer has become and for genuinely good reason too.

Owners will be able to either stream shows while online or download them for watching at a later date. Nokia has boasted that the move is in line with the Nokia N96 bidding to become the most popular audio and video playback capable mobile phone and if it proves even half as popular and generally well received as the N95 did then it’s almost certain to become a competitor in the high end phone market.

Nintendo DS 2.0 Due Next Year?

There’s some mumblings on the Internet that Nintendo are to release the DS 2 at the start of next year and that it will feature dual touch screens, rather than a single touch screen and another display, enhanced wide screen displays, and undoubtedly a whole host of other additions, upgrades, and improvements. Nintendo, as is the way with such console related matters, has stated that it’s nothing but rumour but they all say that don’t they?

The DS remains one of the most popular games units and this popularity doesn’t exactly look set to wane in the near future but Nintendo has stated that there won’t be any major announcements about any new or improved hardware until next year which would make it a virtual impossibility to cause any kind of a stir for a brand spanking, next gen handheld device.

The chances are that the new DS may be an upgraded 1.5 type version that would hinder developers because they would still have to created games that were completely compatible with the current gen system. Whatever the truth may be, it fails to be any kind of a surprise when Nintendo do something surprising (if you see what I mean).

Sennheiser MM-200

Sennheiser is a pretty big name in the world of audio and in particular in creating high quality headphones and ear buds. They’ve also been turning their attention to the mobile phone users of the world, largely because we are becoming increasingly likely to listen to music using the mobile phone. The latest product from their mobile centric device range is the MM-200.

The Bluetooth headset offers a very good quality of headphones that on their own would cost you more than £50 but the headset is also A2DP bluetooth support, easy switching between audio and mobile phone, and built in microphone. The headset is even compatible with your PS3 for game chatting.

Due to be released later in the year the Sennheiser MM-200 headset will cost about £100 which is a very reasonable price tag considering what you actually receive for your money. High quality earbud headphones, of course, won’t improve the quality of crap audio but if you’ve got a decent mp3 mobile phone and a crap set of headphones then you could really be missing out on better quality.

Give 1 Get 1 OLPC Hitting Amazon

The One Laptop Per Child initiative is hoping to take on a whole new head of steam by making its laptops available via Amazon as part of the G1G1, or Give 1 Get !, scheme. This scheme enables consumers to buy a laptop for themselves having donated one and while the scheme has been attempted previously it was less than successful due largely to the inexperience of OLPC.

The scheme has hit some problems since its release with supply and production problems causing major setbacks to the operation. The scheme is, as you might have guessed if you were as as cynical as us, only open to US based consumers who by donating approx £210 get a laptop for themselves and one is donated to somebody that requires it.

The aim of the One Laptop Per Child program is to ensure that children in developing and third world countries all have access to their own laptop to assist in education and learning. The XO laptop is the result of this initiative and the principle is a superb one. However, the program has hit issues along the way and as such it is yet to prove as popular as many had hoped. Using Amazon may well help gain the program more exposure.

Mercenaries 2 Release Stunt

Video game release have become synonymous with the causing of ridiculous outcry and they’re not afraid to throw in a stunt to make sure that the game and the release are berated by politicians and locals alike. The latest game release to face the fury, as it were, was Mercenaries 2, with publishers EA being labelled as being reckless and totally irresponsible.

Actors decked a petrol station with jeeps and oil barrels and then proceeded to offer everybody that came to the station £40 of free petrol. As I’m sure was the point, traffic came to a complete standstill in the region. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames has already been released on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 and it undoubtedly got some good coverage with one delighted driver stating he would definitely be buying the game.

The Mercenaries 2 game has already had some publicity coverage with an ongoing TV campaign showing off its basic ideas. In the game, players control a band of mercenaries attempting to control as much of the local oil as possible as it’s the main source of income.

The Sony Ebook Reader

The Sony eBook Reader is one gadget that we’ve actually been waiting some time for because it combines innovation with literature and good looks – sweet. The future of reading and literature, according to Sony, lies in the digital age and the Sony eBook Reader uses e-ink technology to bypass the many differences and problems that are associated with reading from a monitor or display rather than straight from paper.

While you still don’t get the smell of a book or the same kind of tactile feel, there is no disputing that benefits exist. For a start off you can order your books online (when the content partner website is finally up and running) and it comes with 100 novels already installed. Unfortunately, of course, these are novels that are in the public domain and therefore free of copyright restrictions because they’re so old.

Another negative aspect to an otherwise great product is that the digital versions of your favourite literature are oddly going to cost the same as a paper version of it. We obviously have no problem with the author receiving their share of the revenues but we deeply suspect that it won’t be the wordsmiths of the world that benefit from that odd pricing plan.

iTunes 8 Released In Less Than A Week

The latest incarnation of the iTunes software is set for release in under a week but there’s some leaked information doing the rounds before the Let’s Rock event that is scheduled as part of that release. Perhaps the most intriguing feature is the Music Genius feature, which is an intelligent system that can create play lists of tracks that would allegedly sound good together. In the spirit of obnoxious cross over sales this will also include links to brainwash you into buying other tracks that would complement your play list.

The browser, explorer interface has been updated to an apparently more user friendly version and the equaliser has also been subjected to a similar fate and an equally similar “better” tag. Aside from the ability to download HD shows and films that’s pretty much the extent of the changes although Apple are bound to make some indescribable and virtually useless tweaks and sell them as being major changes.

The release is set for 9th September when Apple will be holding a Let’s Rock event in order to unleash iTunes 8 on the poor, unsuspecting world of Apple owners. Precise details of the new features will be available at this time, obviously, although a couple more tasty morsels might just be conveniently leaked to continue whetting your appetites.

Sony Recalls 440,000 Vaio Laptops

If you own a fairly recent model of Sony Vaio laptop that you didn’t buy here in the UK then you might be interested to learn that it’s just about ready to overheat, explode, and generally fall apart by the sound of the recalls that are going on. Nearly half a million of the popular Sony laptop manufactured between May 2007 and July 2008 and sold in one of 48 countries have been recalled because some dodgy wiring may cause the units to overheat.

Some 440,000 laptops from the TZ series of Vaio units are said to potentially suffer from the problem and a recall notice has been issued to all those that have possibly been affected. The biggest hit country of the 48 is unsurprisingly Japan, where 67,000 units are expected to be effected.

The problem has occurred because a small wire has been placed too closely to the lid hinge and its proximity means that it’s prone to overheating. 209 reports of overheating have been received with several complains that the technical fault has led to owners being burned. No incidents have been reported with UK models and Sony believes there is no reason to recall UK laptops.

Logitech Has Thinnest Keyboard In The World

We’re always hearing about the world’s thinnest television or the world’s lightest laptop and it seems that Logitech wants a piece of the world’s tiniest tag by creating, wait for it, the world’s thinnest keyboard. Other than being so thin you won’t find it from the side, it comes with the usual array of keyboard type functions – there’s buttons and legs and everything.

The keyboard offers a standard layout including function keys as well as multimedia navigation keys. It may be my previous reluctance to really pay keyboard technology any heed but it has some quite impressive sounding additions that offer a comfortable and quick typing set up.

It uses micro scissors, apparently, to gain an all over key distribution. If you’re typing really quickly or your fingers are a bit cold and you hit the edge of the keys, the micro scissors ensure that the key works as normal regardless of the contact you made.

The PerfectStroke technology offers a greater key travel so that your fingers can trip the light fantastic all day. No, it’s definitely still extremely difficult to get all that worked up over micro scissors, PerfectStroke, and key travel but nevertheless, I’m told that it’s all good and the keyboard will be released for a reasonable £40.

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