Archive for January, 2010

Tablet Talk: The Apple iPad

Posted January 31st 2010 by in archive

Apple iPad 3 viewsShall we talk about the elephant in the room? Everyone else has! Really, who would say no to another article on the web about… that’s right, the Apple iPad. So… without trying to sound too much like every other Gollum-esque Mac fan-boy out there (“My preciousss…”), I’m going to try and give you guys a brief, impartial overview of the much discussed Apple iPad.

Now then. As you will no doubt know, unless you have of-late been residing on one of the lesser known moons in the backwaters of the Galaxy, Apple last week officially released the iPad. I say ‘officially’, as there has, of course, been much speculation over the last year (or 6) about the possibility of an upcoming ‘Tablet PC‘ release from the ‘Cupertino Massif’. Rumours were occasionally actually quite accurate, for example, Apple Insider published a prediction/rumour last July that it would be a 10”ish device, not entirely unlike a large iPod Touch with optional 3G capability. Which pretty much hit the nail on the head – but whether or not that was just an incredibly lucky guess is not for us to know, I’m afraid. In any case, these masses of rumours served at least one purpose – to fan the flames of anticipation and whet the appetite of every technology lover worth his/her salt.

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Should You Use A Second Monitor?

Posted January 30th 2010 by in archive

Second MonitorIf you’re watching a film and the director wants to show that the, admittedly not too cool, almost certainly fat, pizza eating, greasy haired bloke is a geek – they tend to make sure the guy is using at least 2 screens (preferably about 10 but there’s been a recession …). This has caused a stigma of sorts about using multiple monitors, labelling doing so as an extremely nerdy and not particularly useful thing to do. In my opinion those people couldn’t be more wrong. Nothing can come close to the productivity increase a relatively heavy computer user can experience when adding a second screen, anybody that does more than just browse the web stands to benefit.

Monitors aren’t as expensive as they used to be either, when I first started Uni I bought an Acer screen from Amazon ( similiar to this one ) as a second monitor for my laptop. It’s not fantastic, but the extra size compared to my laptop screen is really nice. It’s now reached that stage where I struggle to use a computer without the extra screen real estate, especially when I’m coding (I love to have the code up on one screen and the current build or reference site on the other so I know what I’m doing). A lot of households even have a spare monitor from an old computer kicking around the house, even if the oldest CRT in the world it could still be fantastic to try out a secondary monitor and see whether it works for you.

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Using A Zune HD In The UK

Posted January 29th 2010 by in archive

Zune HDPeople have many reasons why they don’t want an iPod, from not liking iTunes to wanting to be a bit different to the rest of the world. If you live in America, one of the great alternatives would be the Zune HD – but unfortunately for us UK based folk, Microsoft (in their infinite wisdom) have decided against bringing the Zune here, at least for the moment. About a month before Christmas I started hankering after one, so started researching its pros and cons, especially those related to use in an ‘unsupported’ country. Having subsequently bought one, I thought I’d share what I experienced.

Lets start with the good news… getting one is easy! I advise a UK based Ebay powerseller (I used a guy called thecheetahexpress). Make sure their reputation etc is good, I find powersellers to be very professional. You could also buy one off Zunethings.co.uk if you’d rather not use Ebay but it will almost certainly cost you a reasonable amount more.

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Inspector Gadget Theme Played On The Bottles

Posted January 28th 2010 by in archive

Yet more proof of how epic the Aussies are, check out this video of a guy playing the Inspector Gadget Theme on his home made beer bottle drum kit thingy. Truly awesome! Know of other amazing videos on the web? Be sure to let me know in the comments below, it’ll give me an excuse to dedicate yet more time to YouTube!

Wirelessly Stream Music With The Squeezebox Duet

Posted January 27th 2010 by in archive

Seemingly every household has now converted to wireless internet: what a lot of people don’t realise, is that in doing so, they’ve actually created their own home network. Networks can do an awful lot more than provide you with the internet, most people don’t have a central music source and resort to plugging an iPod into their Hi-Fi or even moving their laptops around. Seems like an awful lot of effort to me… Fear not, though, as help is at hand people: Ben will show you the way!

You’ve no idea how much I hate wires, so when searching for an elegant solution to my music dispensing needs, keeping them to a minimum was an absolute must. Enter [Stage Right]: the Logitech Squeezebox Duet, originally created by Slimdevices who were subsequently bought out by Logitech. The Squeezebox Duet unsurprisingly comes in two parts; a wireless remote and the Squeezebox itself. Both connect directly to your wireless router and then stream your music from a program you have to install on either a NAS device or computer to your Hi-Fi of choice. The true beauty of the system is that the Squeezeboxes are available separately and any number of them can be controlled from the one remote, allowing you to slowly expand your system – rather than having to fork out a mountain of cash on day one. You can even stream the music to the remote allowing it to be used as a mp3 player around the house!

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BE77Y Has Arrived

Posted January 26th 2010 by in archive

Cakes out, trousers down; BE77Y is here, people! An avid gamer and Tech enthusiast, you can look forward to many an interesting, insightful (and most likely, raging!) post from the latest addition to the Gizunk Hub.