LG KS360

The LG KS360 is being pushed as a texter’s dream because of the ever so slightly conspicuous bright bleeding read QWERTY keyboard that slides out from under the phone. While the keyboard is kept under lock and key the phone looks like a touch screen device similar in form to the iPhone but it conceals (well, not so much conceals, more sort of brashly advertises) a secret.

In all honesty, aside from the pillar box red keyboard and phone highlights, the KS360 is a pretty basic phone with basic features. It has a 2MP camera with no flash. It has basic browsing capabilities, a basic music player, and several other basic features. Hopefully, this will all be portrayed in what we expect will be a basic price tag accompanying it when released at the end of the month.

Entering a market to compete with the iPhone, the Nokia E71 and several other new models is a brave move under any circumstances and while the KS360 is likely to be the cheapest option it is almost certainly one of the weaker options available – and that’s ignoring the subtle keyboard that I think we might have already mentioned somewhere along the line.

Dream Pinball Creators Win Test Court Case

Topware Interactive, creators of the game Dream Pinball 3D, have been awarded damages from one file sharing woman of £16,000 by the courts. Topware has been actively monitoring and chasing suspected file sharers in a bid to cut down on file sharing because it breaks copyright laws and game piracy costs producers, publishers, and suppliers many millions of pounds every single year. While it’s a problem most often associated with music and films, the problem is equally persistent for computer game manufacturers.

Three other cases are still outstanding and it is believed that these 4 cases will be used as test cases for Topware Interactive to press on and claim damages from thousands of file sharers they believe are also guilty of the offence.

Using pirated games on a PC is marginally more difficult than downloading mp3 and avi files to your PC and watching or listening to them. Cracks and key generators have been created in a bid to make the lives of pirates a little easier and these are often included in the downloads that are available on the Internet. Dream Pinball 3D is only one game that has suffered at the hands of illegal file sharers.

A Digital Camera For The Blind

It’s more the picture than the technology that amazes me. The picture is promoting a camera that lets visually impaired users take and view pictures using senses other than sight. I can only begin to imagine the complexities of a braille based photograph (all those dots and dashes) never mind the kind of technology that enables blind people to take photographs.

The shutter button does, as you would hope in a digital camera, take a picture but it also handily records three seconds of audio. This is designed to make the recognition and storage of the media simple even when viewed later.

I’ve got to be honest, I’m not sure what holding it to your head achieves. There’s no LCD screen, because that would be pointless. However, as well as the audio clip, it uses a flexible braille sheet that “stamps” the pictures so that they can be recognised at a later date.

Very few details have actually been released – no price, no release, and no geographic target market have been announced as yet. I’ve got to be honest, I’m not entirely sure that any market will take to this. I can’t imagine that too many visually impaired people have always dreamed of being able to take and store digital photographs but I guess I could be wrong.

Windows 7 Details To Be Announced In October

Windows is no stranger to its knockers (how very Freudian) but for those that wait with baited breath for the next version, Microsoft has announced that they will be releasing technical details of the next version, Windows 7, in October. The information will be shared at both the Professional Developers Conference and at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference.

The release date isn’t expected to be until the beginning of 2010 and if you intend to wait for a bug free version, rather than jumping in straight away and being virtually crippled by errors, then you’ll likely have to wait considerably longer.

While very little has been released about the technical specifications of Windows 7, some information is known and despite by own misgivings on Windows software, it does sound incredibly Minority Report like. The motion sensing operating system will borrow a number of elements from Vista but with the appropriate monitor and hardware users will be able to wave their hands around in a flourish of activity and perform certain actions on the operating system.

Awesome… if it works… and presuming it isn’t too sensitive. An overly elaborate sneeze could cause the loss of month’s worth of data while picking your nose really could lead to trouble.

GreenCore 10200 – The Solar Air Con Unit

A solar powered air conditioning unit is one of those inventions that just sort of makes sense. After all, the times you need to turn the air con on are those times when the sun is beating down and a solar panel would be at its most productive. The problem, though, is that air conditioning does require a fair amount of energy in order to continue running.

GreenCore has created the 10200 solar hybrid air conditioning unit that relies on a combination of solar power cells and standard outlet mains power. The idea is that when it’s a sunny day, the unit can be recharged using the solar panel or, alternatively, it can be plugged into the wall at night when costs are lower. Realistically, in fact, it can be plugged into the wall at any time – the effect is still the same.

The single solar panel that is included with the GreenCore 10200 doesn’t generate enough green juice to run the entire unit but you can buy bumper packs of solar panels and with fifty or so (rough estimate) you can take your air conditioning to the next level of eco friendly happy goodness.

Google Android Phones

The ethos of open source looks like it’s going to be carried to the mainstream on the wings of the Google Android. It’s been announced that the first phones to use the Android software will be released in the USA in October, and it is believed that the first manufacturer to be offering it will be HTC and through the T-Mobile network.

The HTC Dream, as it is believed to be called, will include a touch screen and will have all of the core applications that Android offers (mail client, contact address book, and so on). What’s more, and because all applications are coded in Java and as open source software, there is bound to be a mass of applications available in a short space of time.

The HTC Dream is also said to include a QWERTY keyboard so it would seem that it’s going to be a smartphone presumably designed to fully take advantage of the open source framework. The initial core applications look functional and varied but the biggest potential advantage is the fact that it’s open source – if you’re familiar with Java then you can even knock out a couple of applications yourself.

VCR To PC

If you’re anything like me then you’ve probably still got a pile of old videos lying around. Copies of The Breakfast Club recorded off television and old series of Red Dwarf. The problem is that while deep down we love them, equally deep down we also know that the video collection is never going to get a dusting down and a good watching. Video’s just don’t offer the convenience we’ve come to expect.

The VCR To PC is a convenient little tool designed primarily at sad people like you and I. You simply plug it into your PC, whack the video in and start copying. In no time at al all you could have your entire back copy of Neighbours copied onto the hard drive of your XP or Vista based PC (not Mac though). The Portable Video Files can then be copied from your PC to any compatible mobile or other device.

It costs just under £150 at IWOOT and you’ll need to bag yourself a USB cable because it’s one of those annoying gadgets that you pay £150 for and then you need to shell out another couple of quid to buy a necessary lead.

Samsung E200 Eco Handset

It was made official some time ago that eco gadgets and the tree hugging hippies have gone ridiculously over the top with their latest attempts to make some money out of global warming. The hemp based Lotus Elise was kind of funny except that you just know somebody somewhere will buy it. The latest manufacturer to succumb to the pressure of creating perfectly viable products out of the most ridiculous material is Samsung and it comes in the shape of the mobile phone made of corn.

Unfortunately, the Samsung E200 Eco isn’t much to shout about – unless you enjoy shouting “why did you buy a mobile phone made of corn? What possible reason is there for that?”

This is actually the third phone from Samsung to use bioplastics, at least in part, to create a handset. The previous two of only used the material in the creation of certain components and the E200 Eco is the first to rely on an entire case made of the corn based material.

As with any discerning green gadget it comes in green (the same logic that leads to all Blu Ray devices being Blu presumably). To be fair, maybe it’s a step in the right direction but it’s not going to sell many unless its an up to date phone and Samsung won’t plough the money into creating an up to date phone using ecologicially friendly materials until one sells a lot.

The Ultimate Home Draught Beer Kit

Just over £1000 will buy you beer on tap, although obviously it would also buy you a lot of pints of beer on tap down at your local. But if you want to recreate the pub taste and experience of beer drinking then you need to invest in the integrated beer pump that can be built into your kitchen side and will hold 10, 30, and 50 gallon beer barrels.

The blue LED lighting makes the finished pint look like its being given as a prize or is attending a prize ceremony off its own back but I guess it’s merely just to celebrate the authenticity of drinking a pint from your own kitchen based drinking establishment (they can’t stop you smoking in there yet).

A CO2 cylinder and a temperature and pressure gauge are included so your beer will probably be kept in better conditions than in most locals I know of. OK, so it’s not cheap, but it is the ultimate in kitchen accessories and it leaves those beer pod style machines you can get standing in its wake. Perhaps not the best way to spend a grand if you don’t drink beer of course.

Selk Bags

Spending an evening in a sleeping bag may not be the freezing cold, damp experience it once was but it still has a tendency to lead to a particularly unpleasant evening’s sleep. You have to make the choice of too hot and completely cocooned, unable to move, or too cold but at least having afforded yourself a little ability to move around more freely.

Selk bags are a possible solution but although reasonable tents are almost cheap enough to consider them disposable the Selk bag doesn’t come cheap at £90. It’ll be worth every penny when you need it though, we’re fairly sure of that.

You basically wear the sleeping bag like you would a boiler suit and not only can you wriggle around in it when you’re sleeping but you can get up and walk around. The end of the arms unzip too so that you don’t look like Homer Simpson at work when you’re trying to perform any fiddly tasks.

The hood keeps your head nice and toasty and the entire outfit sleeping bag thing can protect you against temperatures as low as -8.4. Green, brown, yellow, or red are your colour choices and even though you can wear it we don’t envisage too many people turning up to the camp site disco on a Friday night adorned in their Selk bag.

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