My Best Toys

Navigate you way to this ace prize

Pocket-lint has teamed up with CoPilot to bring you the chance of winning one of five copies of its excellent GPS application. Especially useful if you want to take full advantage of our Geek Weekend feature.

The app gives you comprehensive navigation on your smartphone, giveing you the ability to store all your maps on your phone, so when you’re out of Internet it doesn’t mean you’ll be left out in the wilderness.

Features include Turn after Turn indicator, which will show, not only the turn you’re coming up to but the next two after that; Speed limit alerts, which gives you a nice and clear audible warning; and Brand Name Points of Interest, meaning if you’re particular about where you shop CoPilot will navigate you to your favourite store/restaurant/petrol station.

Equally at home on the iPhone, Android, or Windows Mobile, you’ll get to choose your platform if you win. So whether in your car, on foot or on a bike and regardless of your smartphone choice CoPilot will make sure you get home in time for tea and ensure you’ll never be wondering around strange cities like a little lost lamb ever again.

So what do you have to do in order to win this smashing prize? Simply click though on this link and answer the easy-peasy question on the competition page.

There’s a whole host of info on the CoPilot website, and for an inside look you’ll want to click through to our full review of the iPhone version.

The competition will run for 1 month, finishing on Friday 28 May.

Tags:
Car And GPS GPS Phones Mobile phones Mobile phone apps CoPilot CoPilot v8 Competitions

Win one of five copies of CoPilot Live v8 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:40:19 +0100

New interface offers innovative navigation for next-gen experiences

Inspired by the fact that 3D applications and games are popping up left, right and centre, design and technology firm Cambridge Consultants is at stage two in creating a complete interface system to aid navigation through this next-gen world.

The Suma mouse concept showcases the potential of the interface, and is as futuristic an idea as you can get. It has been designed to make the “click, pan, zoom, tilt” actions required to manoeuvre through a 3D environment as simple and intuitive as possible.

Its Suma skin can recognise how the user is holding it, and where they may have placed their fingers, making the process of navigation as smooth as possible. Plus, the sensor network inside can be tuned to each application, including resolution, sensitivity and stiffness of the deformable layer and active area. Essentially, the company has added touch to in-built motion sensors to create a completely new kind of control device.

Of course, the mouse is only a tech demo. It’s up to peripheral manufacturers to adopt Suma technology in future products. But, if the video below is anything to go by, this is bound to happen sooner rather than later, and we can’t wait to give it a whirl…

Related links:

• Cambridge Consultants - visit the company’s website for more on Suma tech
• Pocket-lint on Suma - read our take on stage one of the Suma project

Tags:
Gadgets Cambridge Consultants Suma Mouse PC accessories 3D Gaming

Suma technology goes hand-in-hand with 3D… Literally originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:04:30 +0100

A month-long treat for your taste buds

Tomorrow sees the start of the UK’s biggest festival of food and drink and it’s a must for anybody with taste buds.

It lasts for the whole of May and it’s sure to be a treat for anybody’s tongue.

Yum.

30 Days?

If you have a website that you want to tell us about email us via the feedback form.

Tags:
WebsiteOfTheDay Websites Software Online

WEBSITE OF THE DAY ? 30 Days originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Pro Evolution Soccer doesn’t even make top ten

UK Takeaway food portal Just-Eat.co.uk has discovered that strum-em-up Guitar Hero was the most popular game to play with friends. Out of 1,737 Brits polled, 56 per cent of them said they enjoy a spot of placky-rock posing with their chums.

SingStar came second with 51 per cent of people saying they enjoy a good bout of group warbling, and Mario Kart Wii-tomfoolery came third.

However, while FIFA was the fourth most popular communal game, the latest generations of Pro Evolution Soccer barely got a look in, and fell outside the top ten. How the mighty have fallen.

Of course, this is all fun and, literally, games, but what’s it got to do with Just-Eat? Well, 71 per cent of? the same people surveyed also said they like to share a takeaway. Not the Pocket-lint team, of course, pizza-hoggers each and every one of them.

The results in full:

1. Guitar Hero – 56%
2. SingStar – 53%
3. Mario Kart – 51%
4. FIFA – 48%
5. Wii Sports – 46%
6. Buzz – 42%
7. Just Dance – 39%
8. Need for Speed – 36%
9. Rock Band – 34%
10. Tekken – 33%

Related links:

• Just-Eat - featuring every kind of takeaway service imaginable

Tags:
Gaming Software Guitar Hero Just-Eat Polls Surveys

Guitar Hero voted best game to play with mates originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:41:01 +0100

$1.2 billion deal done

HP has come out of the left field, some might say, and snapped up flagging mobile phone maker Palm for $1.2 billion.

“HP and Palm today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase Palm, a provider of smartphones powered by the Palm webOS mobile operating system,” the two companies said in a joint statement.

The transaction, which has been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors will catapult HP back into the smartphone business and give it a chance to relive the heady days of the Compaq range of PDA devices.

“The combination of HP’s global scale and financial strength with Palm’s unparalleled webOS platform will enhance HP’s ability to participate more aggressively in the fast-growing, highly profitable smartphone and connected mobile device markets,” said HP.

“We’re thrilled by HP’s vote of confidence in Palm’s technological leadership, which delivered Palm webOS and iconic products such as the Palm Pre. HP’s longstanding culture of innovation, scale and global operating resources make it the perfect partner to rapidly accelerate the growth of webOS,” said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive officer, Palm. ”We look forward to working with HP to continue to deliver industry-leading mobile experiences to our customers and business partners.”

Under the terms of the merger agreement, Palm stockholders will receive $5.70 in cash for each share of Palm common stock that they hold at the closing of the merger.?

Tags:
Phones Mobile phones HP Palm Mergers Biz

HP buys Palm originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:45:35 +0100

The tablet formerly known as the Crunchpad

If you got all excited by the fuss about the Crunchpad, and weren’t too bothered by the change of ownership when Fusion Garage fell out with TechCrunch over the gadget’s creation, you might be pleased to hear that the device will soon be available in Europe.

The rebranded JooJoo’s online store now offers international shipping, but remarkably for consumer technology the prices are actually cheaper than their US equivalents. In the UK, it’ll cost ?319, which translates to $486 - $13 cheaper than the $499 US asking price.

Fusion Garage also took pains to promise a software update that will relieve early bugs, saying: “We are in the midst of bad joojoo for a very simple reason: We were aggressive in our product delivery commitments, decided to completely revise our UI as we were readying the product for release and our initial units shipped with software that proved to be problematic when put to the test in the real world”.

If you’re swayed by that, then you can order the tablet online now.?

Read

Tags:
Hardware Internet tablets JooJoo

JooJoo tablet arrives in Europe originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:46:09 +0100

Failed to fine media partners interested

It’s being reported that Hulu, the American web-based TV catch-up service, has abandoned its plans to launch a UK version following the collapse of talks with British broadcasters.

Hulu’s negiotiating team are quoting by the Telegraph as saying they’ve been unable to get “any traction in the British TV market”, adding that the “market does not match their business expectations”. The main issue for ITV was that it was too busy pushing its nascent own catchup service.

The broadcaster said: “Hulu is a major success in the US but the UK TV market is a different place. It is much more consolidated, which mean there are fewer online locations than in the US, which users need to visit to get access to their favourite content – therefore there is less need for aggregators”.

Channel 4 and Five also rejected Hulu’s advances because the company wanted to control the advertising inventory around the networks’ content - something that it does in the US, but not a proposal that either network was prepared to agree to in Britain.

Perhaps one day there’ll be a service that’s able to offer free content from the BBC and ad-supported video from ITV, Channel 4, Five and other broadcasters. We can but hope. Until then, we suspect most people will continue to plunder filesharing sites for the content they’re after.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7639763/Hulu-abandons-UK-plans-after-broadcaster-talks-collapse.html

Tags:
Home Cinema Hulu ITV

Hulu not coming to the UK originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:43:10 +0100

Enhances sharing, Facebook integration and HD video

Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, today announced the next generation of Windows Live Messenger, known as Windows Live Messenger Wave 4 to us geeks. Various rumours and leaks have previously circulated the Internet in anticipation of the update.

Microsoft have been expressing their love for the cloud recently, with online service support for things like Office, and of course emphasizing the hugely popular Xbox Live service.

The new Windows Live Messenger takes this cloud offering a step further than just goofy chats with your mates. The client will offer a range of sharing options, tabbed conversations and support for HD video chat online to over 320 million users of the service.

There is also support for social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace) updates to feed through into Messenger, so rather than having to open a browser to check for updates, you’ll be able to see that your friend has just posted pictures of their cat. You’ll be able to comment directly on Facebook stuff too, all from within Messenger.

Photo sharing and video sharing can now be done right from the IM window so you can share, discuss, or watch together, pulling in videos from YouTube. One neat trick is being able to share photos whilst video chatting too, so you can see the other person’s response.

Microsoft seemed to be really stoked about the Facebook integration and is looking to get in on some of the action – with Facebook’s 400 million users, who wouldn’t want a piece of that? We asked Microsoft whether you’d be able to chat directly with people using the Facebook Chat client, and our MS guy told us that was something that was intended for the future.

Tabbed conversations will make it easy to run concurrent conversations, a facility that Skype already offers, and with the integration of HD video chat, it looks like Microsoft wants to reclaim some of this territory too. We asked whether there would be any sort of network diagnostic feature as there is with Skype, as the biggest issue here is likely to be bandwidth – this drew a blank, so if we hear more, we’ll update this story with the details. Obviously, you’ll need the right hardware too.

Tabbed conversations will also be supported in the browser-based client, so you will be able to use your Windows Messenger from any computer without installing software – you simply log in and off you go. You’ll also get better integration with Windows 7, with a jump menu to let you get straight to the goodness and there will be real time event alerts which pop-up in the corner.

Third-party sites will also be able to tap in on Messenger APIs to take advantage of some of the functionality and provide a Messenger service from their own site. Microsoft are also launching a plug-in for Internet Explorer that will let you quickly share web content with your Messenger buddies.

Privacy has been considered, so you’ll be able to drill down and find out exactly what each individual can see of your stuff. You’ll be able define who your favourite friends are too, so their updates get precedence, giving you quick access to the people who matter the most.

Of course this goodness is aimed at your Windows PC, but Microsoft did tell us that Mac Messenger would be getting an update “soon”, but couldn’t detail what it would contain. Microsoft also told us there would be new and updated mobile phone applications, name dropping iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia, and of course native support in Windows Phone 7.

Windows Live Messenger Wave 4 is expected to hit in the late summer, but you can check out the preview here. (UPDATE: we’re still waiting for this link to go live - in the meantime, we’ve added a promo video below.)

Tags:
Software Online Instant messaging Facebook Windows Windows Live Messenger Microsoft

Windows Live Messenger Wave 4 splashes down originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:30:00 +0100

Service provider puts its name to its first Google phone

As part of a measure to refresh its range of own-branded phones, Vodafone is to release the 845, an own-branded smartphone running Android Eclair (2.1) software.

Sporting a 2.8in screen, Wi-Fi connectivity and a 3 mega pixel camera, the 845 has complete access to the Android Market app store, and Vodafone 360, the operator’s proprietary web service, allowing users to connects to social networking accounts and back up contacts and files online.

Patrick Chomet, Vodafone’s group director of terminals, is particularly excited by this next chapter in the company’s plans: “In February we launched the world’s cheapest handset,” he said. “Today we are again breaking new ground. I’m proud to be announcing the 845, Vodafone’s first own branded Android smartphone. It runs the very latest Android Eclair software and shows our commitment and ability to take high-end trends and make them an affordable option for many.”

The 845 is expected to hit Vodafone’s outlets in mid-May, but pricing details are currently unknown.

Tags:
Phones Vodafone Vodafone 845 Android google phone

Vodafone 845 takes bite of Android 2.1 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:58:03 +0100

Web portal to host footy clips exclusively from next season

Speaking at a press conference today, Carol Bartz, chief executive of Yahoo announced that the UK portal will offer five-minute highlight packages for every Premier League match for the next three seasons. Previously, the rights were held by Virgin Media.

The multi-million pound deal follows similar ones in the US for NBA and PGA content, among others, and the video clips will be hosted on yahoo.co.uk.

Yahoo has also secured the rights to syndicate the footage to third parties in the UK, and the highlights will be available to watch, for free, from midnight on Sunday for weekend matches, and midnight the same night for weekday games.

Rich Riley, Yahoo’s European managing director, is keen to use this tie-in with the Barclays Premier League to highlight the company’s commitment as an entertainment portal: “The acquisition of Premier League rights shows how serious Yahoo is about providing the best in video content for our both our users and advertisers,” he said.

However, he doesn’t believe that the online highlights video content will compete with conventional mediums, such as TV, rather compliment it. He sees the packages as quick and easy snack-style products, as he exclusively told Pocket-lint: “Consuming video content in these snack formats has become increasingly popular. This is an additional way for football fans to follow their teams rather than an alternative. The aim is to open the content up to wider audiences.”

Naturally, the footy fans at PL towers are cock-a-hoop with the announcement. Portsmouth fans, not so.

Tags:
Software Yahoo Football

Yahoo wins online Premier League highlights rights originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:52:32 +0100