Rent A Friend Website Hits The UK

Clearly, more and more people and companies are attempting to create the next big storm and make their millions and while some of the more recent Internet websites and services may well turn out to be quite ingenious and decent money spinners for their creators there are some sites that just sound a bit too weird. Rent A Friend is one such site, although to be fair to them while there aren’t so many friends available in the UK yet, the service is quite popular in the US and Japan.

The name Rent A Friend tells you pretty much all you need to know with regards to what services the site offers. The principle is that if you’re too busy or just plain too lazy to make any real world friends then you can instead rent one from a directory of potential candidates. Alternatively, of course, you can also become a paid friend although you shouldn’t expect to earn too much either in terms of kudos or cash.

Rent A Friend is pretty quick to defend its position and clearly states that it is not an escort agency and while this may be true (£7 an hour does seem a little cheap) you do have to question the whole safety issue. There have been numerous questions raised over the safety of kids and adults using Facebook so hiring somebody you don’t know to show you around a city you’ve never been to (one of the more viable uses of the site in our opinion) must also ring some major alarm bells.

The site is, of course, a paid membership site as you would probably expect and once registered you can view profiles of your likely friends for a night and then contact them about a possible meeting.

Are you registered yet?

Is this taking online social networking just a tad too far?

New e-reader unveiled by Sharp

The market for ebooks and e-readers is one which has great potential. The amount of people preferring to ditch the old paper books and pick up their electronic readers is seeing the sales of both books and readers increase daily, so it is no surprise to see those crafty electronic giants Sharp muscle their way into the market with their own model.

Sharp tell us that the readers will have a new format, known as the next-generation XMDF, which will enable “easy viewing of digital contents including video and audio, and allows automatic adjustment of the layout to match and meet publishers’ needs.” Sounds promising, does it not?

Of course, as with any new product the key is in the timing. Sharp will hope to have chosen their moment wisely, having held off long enough to take advantage of the latest technology but not long enough to have lost any chance of grabbing a share of the growing e-reader market.  Keep your virtual eyes peeled for a review on this site asap.

Following the news shares in Sharp went up 1.5 percent to a high of  958 yen and a tie up deal with US company Verizon is expected (hey, we’re nothing if not thorough).

Irish iPad later this week

Yes, the long expected release of the iPad in the Republic of Ireland is now programmed in for this Friday (July 23 2010).

The same day sees the launch in equally exotic places such as Mexico, Singapore, Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Netherlands.

Irish (and Mexican etc) users can try out the 11,000 new iPad apps and the 225,000 apps available through Apple’s App Store, as well as watch HD videos, check out their emails, look up the internet and everything else which the iPad gives you. Cue spontaneous partying on the streets of Cork, Guadalajara, Rotterdam, Christchurch……

Rock Band 3 Gets October US Release Date

The Rock Band franchise has become one of the biggest names in the games industry and in its various incarnations and numerous spin off titles it has created one of the greatest and most loved games, especially in the music games genre.

Along with Guitar Hero it essentially helped sporn an entire series of games and through offering numerous peripherals and the incredible line up of downloadable content we’re willing to bet it makes Harmonix an absolute packet. The good news is that the next instalment, catchily titled Rock Band 3, will be available from October 26th although this is as yet just a US release date.

Many of the previous titles have enjoyed simultaneous global release dates so it may just be a matter of waiting a day or two for a UK release. In the meantime, we trawled through 3 or even 4 whole pages of the T3 magazine website to find out more about the upcoming title.

Probably the greatest and most intriguing feature of the new game is the fact that it claims to auto-tune your singing voice while you belt out your favourite downloaded tracks. What’s more, up to 3 different people can sing at the same time in a harmonic (or not so) fashion.

The game will also feature a keyboard for the first time, and if you’re not really into keyboard then you can hook it up and play it like a 1980s keytar (although if you’re not really into keyboard we’re not sure why you’d want to do this). Alternatively, it seems, there is a stringed guitar option too. Interestingly the keyboard has MIDI connectability so it can be connected to your PC, laptop, or other music recording device and you can record your own music with it. However, with just 26 keys you’re reasonably limited.

Will you be belting out auto-tuned tracks come October?

Have you played the previous Rock Band titles?

Batteries that charge themselves. Whatever next?

Hamburgers that jump out of the freezer into the frying pan? Cans of lager that open themselves, vomit on the floor and abuse passers by?

Anyway, while some people (me) sits and scratch their heads at a world gone mad other people (Brother Industries) only go and make it madder by inventing crazy stuff like vibrating, self charging batteries. How do they work? How on earth would I know. Oh, ok I’ll go and investigate then…..

It’s seems they’ve put an electromagnetic induction generator in the battery sized generators, which work by a-shaking and a-moving. The new invention will be on show shortly and could make charging batteries even more fun that it already is. Hold on a sec though, it says that the current models only work for low consumption things like remote controls and that old Operation game you’ve had tucked in your wardrobe since your 8th birthday but which you just can’t bring yourself to throw out.

The Most Powerful Porsche Ever, The Fastest Audi Ever, And A Skoda

The line-up of new cars for July is a shortlist of supercars, albeit a very short list of supercars, plus a Skoda. OK, so the 1.4 litre Skoda might be sloughtly out of its depth in the company of the Porsche 911 GT2 RS but according to T3 you shouldn’t underestimate it and at £15,700 it is without doubt the most affordable of the line up by some considerable margin.

Porsche has released a strainge lineup of vehicles lately including the Cayenne which has at least cleaned up its act and almost made roadworthy 4×4 vehicles something that won’t cause you to be spat at when you hit London city streets.

This little beauty, though, the Porsche 911 GT2 RS to give it its full title is definitely back to Porsche’s roots of making fast, hot cars. 611bhp means that you can do 205mph and reach 62mph in just 3.5 seconds. Twin turbochargers and the kind of weight loss that would normally demand a gastric band has given light to these impressive figures but you’ll only be able to enjoy them if you have access to a reasonable strip of unused runway and £164,107.

The Audi R8 caused a major stir when it was first released, largely because it looked stunning and it went. The car that is billed as being the fastest Audi ever, the R8 GT, offers 560bhp from its V10 engine and has four wheel drive so you can hopefully keep it planted on the right side of the kerb when you hit a corner.Price has yet to be confirmed but you know what they say? If you need to ask then you’ve got too much sense to own a car like this.

For a more than reasonable £15,700 you can have the Skoda Fabia vRS which offers a 1.4 supercharged engine and lets you hit a more realistic 139mph. Instead of buying the Porsche you could have 10.5 of these, which would be really useful.

Seagate GoFlex Home NAS Makes Media Streaming Easier

Network storage devices are becoming more commonplace in the home because they offer the simple opportunity to store and share data across various devices including TVs and games consoles, as well as computers, laptops, and even mobile devices. You can even attach a wireless printer to some and use them as photo printers and networked printing devices.

However, they’re not yet as popular as we think they should be and that’s largely because they are seen as being a complicated piece of kit that the average home user wouldn’t be able to get to grips with.

The GoFlex Home from Seagate may well help to change that as it’s incredibly simple to use and surprisingly cheap while still offering all of the features that you would want in your NAS. You can stream content to media players such as games consoles and dedicated media players. It supports USB printers and even offers remote access using an iPad or iPhone. You can even enjoy remote access through Facebook or Twitter although for these latter two functions you do need to pay a little extra.

Currently available in the US, there are two drive size options available – the 1TB and 2TB models and costs will vary up to about $200 making them a very cheap option indeed. networking and set up is also made as easy as possible.

Seagate is very proud of its 5 minute setup and this means that no matter what your level of tech knowledge and wizardry you will be able to set up a home network with network media players in pretty much every room including your kid’s or mum’s room in typically less than half an hour or so without any need to get all messy in the more complex setup procedures.

Are you making the most of your home network?

Do you stream media in your home?

Video Game Top 10 – Crackdown 2 Takes Top Spot

1 – Crackdown 2

Crackdown was one of the stand out games of the XBox 360 when it was first released and the open world sandbox style was well loved by many gamers. Even playing it now, it’s difficult to imagine it was made so many years ago so it’s perhaps unsurprising that developers stuck quite rigidly to the first game when creating the 2nd. However, the formula has once again paid off giving the new and improved Crackdown 2 top spot in this week’s gaming charts.

2 – Dance on Broadway

Dance on Broadway is a spin off to Just Dance and features show tunes from Broadway musicals and allows gamers to throw their moves to these hits. Smaller and less featured packed than the original but has obviously proven popular with fans of the new series.

3 – Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4

Lego games have proven surprisingly popualr with all age ranges and in just about every genre. This combination of Harry Potter wizardry and Lego game mechanics has ensured that the Lego version is easily sueprior to any official Harry Potter titles released on games consoles in recent years.

4 – Red Dead Redemption

Last week’s number 1 has seen something of a drop off in chart positions but that doesn’t take anything away from the game itself. The game is absolutely huge and is massively immersive, as are most Rockstar produced games. The multiplayer has also proven an extremely popular addition to the title and gives gamers a lotof replay time to boot.

5 – Toy Story 3

Game/film tie ins rarely get things quite right but new entry Toy Story 3 seems to have got things a lot closer to right than many of its genre counterparts. It doesn’t do anything particularly unique and innovative but what it does do, it does very well.

6 – 2010 FIFA World Cup

7 – Super Mario Galaxy 2

8 – Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2011

9 – Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2

10 – Just Dance

Is Crackdown 2 your number 1?

Have you been getting your groove on to Broadway hits?

Reception problems? What reception problems?

Instead of promising a free case to iPhone users and then saying something like, “These things happen. Ah well, it’s sorted now. Cheerie bye.”, the Apple strategy of claiming that others phones have similar reception problems has opened a new can of worms.

The official response from Samsung is that the Omnia II does not suffer from these problems at all and that its design means that it is not prone to them.  The antenna is in a different place from Apple’s, so only left handed people and people with huge, shovel like hands might find find problems.

The other comment in the Apple press conference, about Nokia phones with stickers telling you not to touch certain parts of the phone, has proved equally difficult to verify as being based upon fact. Has anyone else sen these stickers?

It’s a free case then, is it?

The long running iPhone 4 reception debate looks to have been finally resolved. Apple are going to give users a free case. That, combined with the famous patch which shows the correct reception level on the phone,  should resolve the issue once and for all. Anyone who buys an iPhone 4 before October this year will be eligible for their free case. Apple have stated in a press conference that no more patches, fixes or magic beans will be released to solve this problem.

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