Technabob » uk

British Prime Minister Runs Country with iPad: There’s an App for That

Range — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:00:04 +0000

British Prime Minister David Cameron will soon take care at least some of his daily business for the UK thanks to a personalized iPad app. It will primarily be used to provide him with real time data on England’s various key statistics. The only problem I see is what might happen if it were to get hacked. Chaos! Though to be honest, security services have probably vetted it thoroughly.

The PM will be able to see the latest stats on how long people have to wait for NHS healthcare, crime and unemployment figures, as well as other important data sets. The app will also pipe in real-time news from Google and Twitter, so that he’s aware of breaking news stories.

Downing Street expects to have the app in hand by March 2012. This custom app is supposedly the first of its kind specifically written for a world leader, at least that has been publicized. I can’t decide whether knowing this is good or bad, depending on how secure it is. At least he can’t start a war by pressing the wrong button.

[via The Telegraph via DVice]

London Bar Offers Urinal Video Games, Super Bladder Bros. Not One of Them

Conner Flynn — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:00:33 +0000

How do you get more customers into your bar? Create some new fancy drinks? Maybe have a game night? Well, The Exhibit Bar in London went the video game route, by installing some new gaming urinals in the men’s bathroom.

These video game urinals were created by Captive Media, which is a good name. As long as you are slinging wiz, you’re not going anywhere, therefore you’re captive to their entertainment. The games have names like you would expect: Clever Dick, On The Piste and so on, and they are entire controlled by peeing.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Just aim your stream in the proper direction, and you control the game. If you are proud of your score, you can also post it on the online leader board and Twitter.

Once they market the hell out of this and add advertising, the novelty will wear off and then guess what? Prepare for pooping games. Although I suppose those high scores will be more geared to the largest of humans. I can’t wait. That’s sarcasm. I can wait. Please never make this happen.

[via TNT Magazine]

Footballers Get QR Codes Shaved into Their Heads

Range — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 18:00:27 +0000

Some footballers in the UK are getting QR codes shaved into the back of their heads. The whole starting line-up of the Bromley FC club will have these QR codes in their hair for a game today, thanks to celebrity stylist Daniel Johnson.

The club is undergoing the unusual head-shaving to promote UK online betting site Betfair. The team is an underdog in their upcoming match, so every little bit of attention helps, I suppose.

I’m a bit at a loss how people will be able to scan these photos though, unless they have telephoto lenses on their smartphones. No matter what the original purpose was, it’s certainly an unusual place to find QR codes. At least these ones are temporary, unlike those QR code tattoos.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[Dailymail via Ubergizmo]

Google Android Market Launches UK Movie Rentals

Shane McGlaun — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:00:05 +0000

Here in the U.S., Android fans may already be taking the ability to rent flicks from the Android Market for granted. It’s a slick little system Google has in place that lets you watch from multiple devices over a set period of time.

Some geeks in Europe wanted the ability to stream movies so badly they resorted to hacks. Thankfully, you no longer have to use a hack to stream from the Android Market in the U.K. Google has announced today that the Google Video app is now working in the region. Android users can now get access to 1,000 different movies with rentals starting at £2.49.

The thing I like about the Android Market for rentals is that you can buy the flick and you have 30 days to watch it. That way you don’t rack up late fees if you forget about it or don’t have time to watch. Once you start to watch the movie, you have 48 hours to complete the movie. You can also watch the same movie on any device that can access the Android Market including computers, tablets, and smartphones.

[via Telegraph]

Jelly Batteries: Not for Eating (Unless You’re a Robot)

Range — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:30:31 +0000

Researchers at the University of Leeds in the UK have invented some new batteries, that are smaller, cheaper, lighter and safer than current batteries. It’s also possible they will even last longer than what you presently have in your devices.

These lighter lithium jelly batteries might someday replace polymer gel batteries. They will contain about 70% of a liquid electrolyte that can be molded in all sorts of funky shapes. This could mean the advent of non-rectangular phones and tablets. While the thought seems interesting, it’s going to be a design challenge to get a device like that right.

These jelly batteries are supposed to cost as little as 10 to 20% of polymer batteries, easy to produce and resistant to damage. But they’re still not edible.

[via The Register via Dvice]

New Wii Cuts Price, Loses Gamecube Support, Makes Yoshi Spit Apples

Conner Flynn — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:23:48 +0000

The Wii has remained unaltered for five years, (well, the dust collecting on mine gets thicker everyday) but now Nintendo is getting ready to launch a new version of the console.

This new version looks pretty much the same, but it has a slightly larger disc drive and the onboard buttons have some new labels. The major change however, is something that fans of backwards compatibility will not like one bit. It won’t play Gamecube titles.

With no GC titles being played, you won’t need those Gamecube memory card slots either, so they are gone too. No worries though, Gamecube controller ports are still there for Wii games like Super Smash Bros Brawl.

For now, this new console has been confirmed for the UK market only, but I’m sure it will make it’s way to the U.S. eventually. The question is, how much will it cost? The Wii is already the cheapest you can buy, so how much cheaper does it get when you drop Gamecube compatibility?

[via TGDaily]

Harry Potter Maize Maze: Sending Him Off in Style

Range — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:58:24 +0000

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll be fully aware that the final Harry Potter movie is coming out this week. Apparently, people are celebrating (and commiserating) this all over the world. Check out what a farmer in the UK decided to do with his corn field.

Farmer Top Pearsy decided to create a Harry Potter corn maze, which he calls a Maize Maze in York, England. It was unveiled in photos yesterday, and I have to say that it looks pretty impressive. It always amazes me when I see stuff like this. I just wonder how it was exactly designed and laid out. Maybe Google Earth helped.

Needless to say that fans everywhere will be mourning the end of the beloved movie series. To be honest, after the last book was released in 2007, I kind stop watching the movies. Maybe it’s time to watch them again.

[via Design You Trust]

Vodafone 18-Wheeler Charges Smartphones

Shane McGlaun — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:31:48 +0000

Any wireless carrier knows that the money is made not in the voice minutes, but in the charges for data use, texts and so on. That means that the longer a device can stay charged up and working when the user is away from home, the more data the user will consume and the more the carrier can charge. Vodafone has an ingenious way to keep the people attending concerts in the UK shooting video, tweeting, and doing all the other bandwidth consuming things people are apt to do at a concert.

I know with my iPhone if I record video too long it runs out of batteries fast. I would imagine at a concert recording and uploading video along with texting would kill the battery pretty quickly. If you are a UK fan of music festivals and on the Vodafone network the company has a giant 18-wheeler that will be at 11 of the biggest festivals around this summer.

The giant red truck can charge 2,000 devices at one time and Vodafone expects it will charge about 72,000 devices this summer alone. The charge service is free and is apparently only for Vodafone users.

Users will receive a bar-coded wristband when they leave their smartphone with the charge truck and it would recharge while they went back to the show. Charge time is said to be the same as what the user would get at home.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via TheNextWeb]

Totally Unscientific Test Determines Fastest Toy Robot in the UK

Lambert Varias — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:30:46 +0000

British gadget show “The Gadget Show” – see how sensible and proper they are – wanted to find out which toy robot is the fastest among the ones available in the United Kingdom. Common sense dictates that a race would be a good way to get their answer. Of course common sense isn’t always correct, but thankfully they went with it anyway, because it was all in the name of fun.

The race was as simple as it was hilarious. The robots were to race in a straight line course, the ones that are remote-controlled would be controlled by audience members, and as for positioning, I guess they went with a photographer’s strategy for group portraits – small ones up front, bigger ones behind. So who won? Watch the race to find out:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Oh man that was a hoot. We need more videos of robots being silly, especially after Watson’s serious heroics on Jeopardy!.

[via Robots Dreams]

Uk iPad Price Drops With Orange Deal

Shane McGlaun — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 14:00:45 +0000

I am willing to bet that whatever country a geek lives in, if they are into tablets and don’t already own an iPad, the Apple gadget is high on their Christmas wish list. If you are a UK geek that wants an iPad 3G and wants a data plan to go with it, you need to head to Orange.

The mobile telco is offering a new subsidized iPad with a 24-month data contract for £199 (appx. $312 USD). That is a significant discount and if you planned to pay for data anyway, this will save you some upfront cash. You can get a plan for data only and pay full price of the iPad with no contract if you want.

Orange also notes on the iPad ad that its network covers 93% of the population and you can take advantage of Orange Wednesdays with discounts for subscribers like 2 for 1 movie tickets and pizza. You had me at pizza.

Geeks in Uk Get Holiday iPad Deal

Shane McGlaun — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 20:00:04 +0000

The iPad is sure to be at the top of holiday wish lists for geeks all around the world this year. If you are shopping for the iPad in the UK, some new deals are expected to go official today with Orange and T-Mobile (aka Everything Everywhere). The new offers have some impressively low subsidized prices on the iPad – in exchange for a contract on data.

Both of the wireless carriers will be offering the iPad in stores. The deals are expected to be as low as £200 for the iPad (appx. $318 USD) on a 2-year or 18-month contract. I would assume that the iPad at that price would be the smaller storage capacity version, but I could be wrong.

The normal price of the 3G iPad in the UK starts at £429 and goes up to £699, so the subsidized price is significantly cheaper. This is a no-brainer for shoppers that were planning to get a data plan anyway and can live with a contract.

Male Dance Moves That Attract Women: It’S All in the Neck

Lambert Varias — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:27:03 +0000

…and the trunk, and the left shoulder, and the left wrist. And the right knee. You got that? Let’s back up a bit and cover the basics first. The study, which I bet was performed in all seriousness, was performed by psychologists and researchers at Northumbria University in the UK. Led by psychologist Dr Nick Neave and researcher Kristofor McCarty, the study used 3D-motion capture to map the moves of 19 male volunteers aged 18-35, “as they danced to a basic rhythm”. The moves were mapped to a featureless avatar in order to prevent any bias, and the avatars were then shown to 35 heterosexual women.

The results of the study showed that the key to attracting those 35 heterosexual women was determined by eight variables – the extent of movement of the neck, trunk, left shoulder and left wrist, and the variety of the extent of movements in the neck, trunk, and left wrist, and the speed of movement of the right knee. You can’t get more specific than that. For those of us who are more used to imagining Flatland and the square root of -1 than the physics of dancing, here’s an example of what was deemed as ‘good’ dancing:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

As you can see, there’s lots of head nodding and hip swaying and foot raising involved. Also lots of arm waving. Basically lots of everything. Below is an example of ‘bad’ dancing:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Yeah, that was kinda lame. Do you think though that the variables hold true for all women? I don’t think so – the experiment only had a small female audience, for one thing. But if there’s one thing we can take away from all of this, it’s that Northumbria University should expect a visit from Techno Viking any day now, because they just called him a bad dancer.

[via Northumbria University via News Lite]

Vinyly Turns Your Ashes to Vinyl, Gives You One Last Chance to be a Hit at Parties

Lambert Varias — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 11:41:24 +0000

I find this beyond creepy but hey, there are billions of people in the world, so I guess there must be people out there who would just love for their remains to be turned into vinyl records. And Vinyly exists to fill that demand (there is a demand for this right?). For an equally ridiculous fee, the company will press your ashes into a playable vinyl record. They can add songs into it, or perhaps a message from you, or if you want to take the morbidity factor to 11, leave it blank, so any tasteless idiot brave soul who plays your remains will hear nothing but the occasional pops and crackles.

The basic package – including generic album art and up to 24 minutes of audio recorded into your ashes – costs £2000 (approx. $3,100 USD). You can pay additional fees for better art and custom music, but the ultimate embarrassment is the £10,000 “FUNeral”, where people will gather round to hear your record be played. Check out And Vinyly’s website for more info. Personally, I’ve heard enough.

[via Engadget]

Doctor Who Tardis Zipperrobe Takes Your Clothes to Another Dimension

Lambert Varias — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:55:37 +0000

I’ve yet to see an episode of the classic British TV show, so forgive me if my understanding of his powers is wrong. The point is that this is one of the geekiest containers for your clothes. Store your wardrobe from the nineties – or 80s, 70s, 60s, 50s – in here, and you can easily kinda sorta go back in time whenever you open it. Although I don’t know why anyone would want to go back to the nineties.

The Doctor Who TARDIS zipperrobe sells for £46 (approx. $70 USD) at Argos. Unfortunately it’s out of stock right now. A similar product is listed at Doctor Who Online, but I don’t know if it’s the exact same thing.

[via Topless Robot]

Glow in the Dark Toilet Paper: for Bathroom Raves

Lambert Varias — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:17:08 +0000

Use it to make a mean and green mummy! TP your parent’s room with it! Hell, TP your own room! Make glow in the dark origami! Do anything, except for actually using it in the bathroom. I don’t know about you, but I’m not willing to sit in the dark while I’m in the porcelain throne just so I can wipe with glow in the dark toilet paper. Too creepy and gross.

You can get a roll of glow in the dark toilet paper at I Want One of Those (you bet your ass you want this) for £5 (appx. $8 USD). Techno music not included.

[via likecool]

Bebionic Hands Make Me Want to Cut Mine Off

Lambert Varias — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:25:00 +0000

Actually no, I love my sweaty hands and my knobby fingers. But UK-based BeBionic‘s fully articulated myo-electric hands look menacing, making the simple act of gripping an apple or playing Jenga seem like part of a diabolical scheme.

The term myo-electric means that the hand is operated using electric signals from the human brain, much like their flesh and bone counterparts. BeBionic’s hands also work almost as smoothly as human hands:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

They could be a tad faster and smoother, but definitely usable, don’t you think? I wonder what Masamune Shirow thinks of BeBionic’s technology. The hand is set to debut at an exhibition in Leipzig, Germany on May 12-15, so we’ll probably have a lot more info then.

[via BotJunkie]

Green Man Gaming Will Buy Back Your Virtual Cobweb Covered Digital Games

Lambert Varias — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:23:04 +0000

In a recent interview with MCV, Green Man Gaming COO Gian Luzio identified one of the reasons why games on physical discs are more popular than digitally downloaded ones: “Previously the minute you had paid your money and downloaded your game it had no re-sale value.” Note the “Previously”, because his company has come to save the day. The plan is simple: the UK-based GMG will buy the “game code” (?) to your digitally downloaded game, and in return you get points, which you can then use to buy games.

The pre-used game codes bought from players will be sold by GMG at a lower price – as I said, customers are not going to send GMG the actual game data or be asked to delete their copy, just the “game code”, which I guess would be the license key or something. Here’s the (Ugly) Green Man Jackhammering the company’s website to completion.

That’s all well and good for consumers, but the real magic here is GMG’s offer to game publishers: Luzio claims that their company will give a portion of a game’s sales to the respective publisher, a crucial element that is missing in physical used-games reselling.

All in all, it seems like a promising scheme to me, although I’m curious as to how they’ll handle supply and demand. Will a game’s code become cheaper as more and more of the games’ codes are re-sold? Will this give rise to a new breed of hardcore gamers who rush through their games just so they can be the first to sell their game’s license (and thus ensure a high buy back price)? Will license keys for all games become standardized? Will Green Man Gaming be the Steam of used games? The GameStop of the Internet? The *insert prime example of another field* of the *insert field*? Why is the Green Man so ugly? Are you still reading? Why?

[via MCV & Joystiq]

Forget the Tooth Fairy, Order a Biotooth

Lambert Varias — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:43:56 +0000

A group of British scientists claim that they have figured out a way to make dentures obsolete, with the power of stem cells. Simply put, stem cells taken from a patient will be used to grow a bunch of cells that will grow into a tooth. The cells will then be implanted in an incision in the patient’s gum. Even more amazing, the process of “nudging” the stem cells to turn into a “ball of cells” that will in turn become a tooth supposedly takes only two weeks. The scientists have formed a company, Odontis, to capitalize on their technique, and they are calling their (potential) product the BioTooth.

The scientists – led by, Prof. Paul Sharpe, a specialist in the field of regenerative dentistry at the Dental Institute of King’s College, London – also claim to have successfully tested the technique in mice. Based on The Guardian‘s article, however, it seems that although Sharpe’s team can coax the stem cells to become a tooth, they can’t force it to become a specific kind of tooth, like a molar or an incisor. Still, this is an amazing breakthrough. Bad news for the tooth fairy. And for people who make dentures.

[via Neatorama]

Vicon Revue Camera Automatically Takes Pictures of User’S Day: a Photographic Twitter

Lambert Varias — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:56:20 +0000

Twitter lets people share even the littlest, most unremarkable things in their lives. This winter Vicon will release the Vicon Revue, a camera that promises to make “lifelogging” – making a photographic archive of your day – popular. Oh crap.

The Vicon Revue was originally called SenseCam. Some of you may have heard of SenseCam before; it was developed by Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK. Basically it’s a low-res fish eye camera, about the same size as a Post-it notepad, that is worn on a cord around the neck. It automatically takes pictures based on two things: a preset time interval, even as short as once every 5 seconds, and various stimuli, like changes in light or temperature. So when you enter a room for example, the difference in brightness will prompt the camera to snap a picture. Even if you just moved from your living room to the garage. Or if you turn off the lights. Or if you repeatedly cover and expose the light sensor.

It was originally intended for people suffering from Alzheimer’s and other memory-debilitating conditions. Tests have shown that “reviewing SenseCam photos of a significant event every two days for three weeks, the person could remember it substantially better, even after months of not looking at the photos, compared with events that were not reviewed this way or were recorded only in a written diary.” The Vicon Revue will be marketed to researchers at first; a consumer version will follow next year. Here’s a sample shot from the SenseCam:

Can you see it now? People uploading shit like this with their tweets. “OMG I think I saw Steve Jobs is this him ” “OMG my tummy got 3 mm bigger ” “OMG!!!! My Vicon took pictures of a cloud shaped like a penis roflcopter I didn’t even see it lololololol <17 Vicon Revue pics of a cloud that looks like anything but a penis>”

The SenseCam takes pictures at 640×480. It has 1GB of internal flash memory, capable of storing more than 30,000 of the low-res pictures. I don’t know if there will be changes in specs, if any, on the Vicon Revue. I think the reason why it’s so expensive despite it’s mediocre imaging capabilities is the myriad of built-in sensors: light-intensity and light-color sensors, a passive infrared (body heat) detector, a temperature sensor, and a multiple-axis accelerometer.

The Vicon Revue that will be sold to researchers will sell for £500 (approx. $820 USD). I’m guessing the consumer version of Vicon Revue will be a bit cheaper, and have at least double the memory. If all goes well, the internet will be flooded with billions of mundane fisheye pics in 2010.

[via New Scientist & Microsoft Research]

Sony Ericsson Satio Mobile 3g Media Phone Offers Beautiful Touchscreen, Mega Megapixels

Technabob — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:58:57 +0000

Sony Ericcson today announced their new Satio line of mobile phones, loaded up with a ton of promising media features.

The Satio has a gorgeous widescreen (16:9) 3.5-inch touchscreen interface, with a super-sharp, auto-rotating 640×360 display. It also runs on the Symbian OS platform, which means there are tons of applications you can download and run on the handset. And if you’re into mobile photography, you’ll really love this. The Satio has an astounding 12.1-megapixel digital camera with 12x digital zoom. The camera offers face and smile recognition (I want a camera with frown recognition!), touch-screen focus capability, and a bright Xenon flash. It even can Geo-tag your photos and upload them directly to Picasa. This is definitely way more camera than you’re used to finding in a phone.

Did I happen to mention that the Satio is a full 3G phone, with support for GSM GPRS/EDGE and UMTS HSDPA networks? Plus it’s got built-in WiFi, Bluetooth and a GPS too. Yep, just like the iPhone, the Satio comes with Google Maps – connected to the phone’s A-GPS module. Oh yea, there’s also an FM Radio with RDS track information. This jack-of-all-trades can even play Java games and ships with mobile versions of Facebook and (correction, no Facebook app) YouTube too. Sweet.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The Satio comes silver and “bordeaux” case colors, and will start to ship on October 13 in the UK. No word yet on a North American release. UK readers can order the Saito from the Sony Ericsson Store.

[Full Satio Specifications]