posted by admin on Sep 18
Welcome to a great piece of ’smart furniture’ from Microsoft.
Rather than looking for miniaturisation and portability like so many other software companies for their latest technology, Microsoft have gone for smart and stylish.
The Surface is their attempt at home or office furnishings that have a secret purpose. Basically this 2ft high ‘coffee table’ houses a pc underneath a 30 inch touch-sensitive waterproof acrylic screen: no keyboard, no mouse!
It has a very clear color display, internal speakers and uses Wifi to access the web so it should cover most necessities for both business and personal uses.
Where can I get one?
Well, unless you have around $15,000 (£8,400) you won’t. They are currently only found in one or two hotels in Seattle, allowing staff and guests to scan the local area for bars and restaurants, etc.
You can flip the screen to a satellite image of the world thanks to Microsoft’s Virtual Earth globe, and check out your next destination for pleasure or business.
Microsoft are hoping to pitch it at families, as a way to share family photos and videos without everyone having to gather around the normal pc screens - but not for another 3 years, apparently!
Is 3 years too long in this fast moving world??
posted by admin on Aug 20
As accessing the Internet becomes ever more important to us each day, so too does the ability to check our emails and log onto the web from anywhere.
While mobile broadband is now commonplace among the mobile phone networks, these are typically very expensive to run when overseas and in addition the signal strength varies widely making even simple online tasks a chore in many areas.
Now Freedom4Wifi has been launched which promises a simple, cost effective solution to worldwide internet access in the form of wifi hotspots. A single account will enable you access to over 30,000 wifi hotspots around the world including railways stations, airports, hotel chains and coffee shops.
In the UK alone, as an example, you will have access in 12 city centres and 3,000 other areas meaning you should never be far from a hotspot.
Freedom4Wifi currently offer 3 different tariffs, and all of them are free to sign up with initially and come with no long-term commitment or contract.
At the time of writing you could choose to pay 8p per minute (25p outside of the UK), £4.50 for 60 minutes access (with no additional international charges) or £9.99 for 2,000 minutes access in the UK (25p per minute outside the UK).
The system is proving so popular that it has been adopted by both the Daily Express newspaper group and Sharp who use it to help their staff stay in contact at all times and respond to emails in a timely manner.
If you think such a service might be of interest to you, check them out at www.Freedom4Wifi.com today.
posted by admin on Jun 5
Latest PC Game Releases
Not the most interesting post to look at - but full of info on PC game releases either just out or coming soon…..
In May
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames - www.merc2.com
Mass Effect - masseffect.bioware.com
Iron Man - www.sega.com
Brothers In Arms - www.ubisoft.com
Alone In The Dark 5 - www.aloneinthedark5.com
Napoleon’s Campaigns - www.napoleons-campaigns.com
Far Cry 2 - farcrygame.us.ubi.com
Age Of Conan: Hyborian Adventures - www.community.ageofconan.com
In June:
FlatOut Carnage - www.flatoutgame.com
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel - www.sacred2.com
Lego Indiana Jones - www.lucasarts.com
Race Driver: GRID - www.codemasters.com
Later this year:
Empire: Total War - www.totalwar.com
Borderlands - www.gearboxsoftware.com
Huxley - www.huxleygame.com
Fallout: 3 - fallout.bethsoft.com
Tiberian - www.ea.com/tiberium
Spore - www.spore.com
And in 2009:
Aliens: Colonial Marines
See a squad of marines return to the SS Sulaco - this time with a 4-player co-op where you can invite friends in to play with you who can leave at any time.
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