Orange Wednesdays can now be used online for Odeon.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/shopping/2013/01/odeon-allows-orange-wednesday-online-cinema-bookings

Want smaller than mSATA? M.2 (formerly NGFF) is coming..

See the details over at Anandtech.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6293/ngff-ssds-putting-an-end-to-proprietary-ultrabook-ssd-form-factors

Now if only other desktop components could start to shrink while increasing performance

Phones4u sim free Nokia Lumia 920 software update.

I'm a bit late with this but yesterday I checked and the update was out:

F1 2013 car launch schedule

2013 car launches schedule
Lotus - January 28th, Enstone.
McLaren - January 31st, Woking.
Force India - February 1st, Silverstone.
Ferrari - February 1st, Maranello.
Sauber - February 2nd, Hinwil.
Red Bull - February 3rd, Milton Keynes.
Mercedes - February 4th, Jerez.
Toro Rosso - February 4th, Jerez.
Caterham - February 5th, Jerez.
Williams - February 19th, Barcelona.

Source: http://www1.skysports.com/formula1/

River Thames to bathe in upgraded long-distance WiFi

Nice, I wonder if this actually covers the full distance of the Thames like it claims, I'll have to pop down by Kingston river and give it a test when its upgraded. I'd dubious as no matter how good your AP is, it still has to contend with the output power of the device sending back to it.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/29/river-thames-wifi-upgrade/

Steam not loading on Mac 10.8.2 ?

Had a weird issues with steam on OS X 10.8.2 where the client would not launch. Absolutely nothing would load or start when trying to open the steam application.

This seemed to start when I tried to redeem a gifted Dota 2.

The only way I could fix the issue was to re-download the client and install over the existing install. Very strange.

VONGA is dead – long live FVA? – Openreach

An interesting read over at the CTO of Timco's blog:

http://www.trefor.net/2010/07/13/vonga-is-dead-long-live-fva-openreach/

It is a 2010 article so be warned to keep that in mind.

Dodgy ads recently appearing on this site ?

Sorry to anyone who recently had some rather dodgy re-directs. I think I had some sort of code injection security issue. I've removed the majority affiliate and ads from the site and it appears to have cleared the problem. They were likely what was used to insert the malware. Please let me know if you are still seeing any unusual activity.

ISPs React to the Dangers of Adopting IPv4 Internet Address Sharing

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2013/01/uk-isps-react-to-the-pros-and-cons-of-ipv4-internet-address-sharing.html

EA's Origin for Mac in Alpha & Sim City

So I got through an e-mail i've wanted for a while now. My Sim City beta key!! Having recently switched to Mac and wanted the best experience for the hardware I thought i'd opt to see if it was available through Origin for Mac. A few minutes in and to my dismay I couldn't find the download a Mac client. A quick google search later and it was revealed to be available for Mac as an alpha release.

Good to know they have a client as Sim City will be out on Mac.
Sadly once I got into the client and entered my key it was only for a Windows US version so i'll be switching over to bootcamped Windows anyway. Worth a try though...

http://store.origin.com/store/eaemea/en_GB/html/originweb/demos/pbPage.demos-en_GB

WebGL for mobile Google Chrome.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/25/chrome-beta-for-android-makes-webgl-easy-to-toggle/

Nokia returns to profit.

Things are looking up for Nokia:

http://news.sky.com/story/1042386/nokia-returns-to-profit-but-phone-sales-fall

Opinion: A bad year for new consoles! 4K & 8K on the way!

It's never a good time to release new technology.
Something is always around the corner to screw with your product roadmap and thats exactly why I think this'll be a bad year to release a games console.

Why? Well head on over to your favourite gadget website like Engadget, T3, The verge or whatever and search TV's. They are talking about 4K and 8K TV's.

New consoles coming this year would be looking at stable, reliable hardware thats readily available and heavily optimised. You can bet it'll be geared towards 1080p resolutions, thats OK for a good few years, maybe even 5. If though, Sony or whoever state the console is on a 10 year life-cycle then thats going to suck big time in the long run with 1080p. The Wii just about got away with it but they divided the market so people didn't consider them as much a competitor as something different. With Xbox and the Playstation, people want cutting edge graphics and are clear about that.

Personally I don't feel like current generation graphics are keeping with resolution increases in recent hardware. I'm typing this on a Retina MacBook Pro and although I love it, I don't have many games I can stick onto native resolution and whack up all the details on. To be fair this doesn't have a top end GPU but even if it did it'd sturggle with a lot of new released games on full settings. So 4k & 8k seem a bit of a pipe dream for a console right now.

One solutions... Thunderbolt.
Make the graphics upgradeable. It'd be an interesting move for a console manufacturer and it would be an awesome way to keep their console relevant going forward. Is it unreasonable? Microsoft did it with the DVD HD add on and although the format didn't take off people who bought it mostly liked it! The inclusion of USB gave them that option as well as Kinect!

I'm not aware of external graphics via USB3 so Thunderbolt seems logical to me.

Aside from the above I think the other technologies are mostly in place.

Blu-ray for the optical media.
USB3 (or thunderbolt) for wired devices.
2.4Ghz for wireless.
Gigabit Ethernet for cabled connections.
Optical / HDMI for sound.


It'd be insane for Microsoft to ignore optical media in my opinion. It's too early to ditch. Countries still have speed limitations in infrastructure / subscription policies and prices. Until this is globally not an issue they would be shooting them selves in the foot with a global product. Thats not to say online distribution isn't a force to be reckoned with. Look at XBOX live, Steam and Origin! There are also Onlive and Sony's gaming streaming service (I always forget the name of) although with OnLive's 2012 troubles that may also be a technology thats not quite ready.

Want a better Facebook experience.. don't use their apps!

Sencha Fastbook from Sencha on Vimeo.

http://www.sencha.com/blog/the-making-of-fastbook-an-html5-love-story

Microsoft HUP (Home Use Program) updated.

Love working for a company thats part of this. Visio comes in very handy on occasion!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/18/office_2013_sold_on_hup/

Orange boasts: We made Google PAY US for traffic

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/17/google_orange/

BT's stranglehold over superfast broadband 'put Britain's digital standing at risk'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/9803818/BTs-stranglehold-over-superfast-broadband-put-Britains-digital-standing-at-risk.html#disqus_thread

Bohemia Interactive's employees get into hot water in Greece

Naughty naughty Bohemia Interactive
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21028105

BT Openreach Confirm UK ISP Pricing for FTTP on Demand Pilot Phase 2

Although those prices are very off putting (£500 install and £1000 for a 500m run of fibre) we could see some ISP willing to subsidise this heavily with lengthy contracts. With FTTC giving 80Mbps down / 20Mbps up, people will start thinking hard about if the upgrade is worth it. 

It's a clever move by OpenReach to save money upgrading the network. I don't ever remember NTL / Telewest or their predecessors doing any thing similar on a residential; service. Hopefully it will leads to a focus on keeping the network running smoothly with better service to ISP's.

The Pilot will take place in the following exchange areas:

High Wycombe
Bristol South
St Agnes Cornwall
Edinburgh Waverley
Basingstoke
Watford
Cardiff Central
Manchester Central

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2013/01/bt-openreach-confirm-uk-isp-pricing-for-fttp-on-demand-pilot-phase-2.html

ISP PlusNet Trials Controversial IPv4 Address Sharing as IPv6 Alternative

Lets hope PlusNet are quite vocal about their findings as it would be an interesting insight.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2013/01/isp-plusnet-trials-controversial-ipv4-address-sharing-as-ipv6-alternative.html

Java still contains security flaws, experts claim

Not good news for Oracle. You really don't want government denouncements...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21011669

I want to like Bing but...

I like using Bing for its image search and I want to like it for web searches but it still needs to work on giving relevant results:

I.e. a search on my Surname... 1 hit and the rest are 'did you mean' hits...

First Ultra HD channel goes live in Europe

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/14/first-ultra-hd-channel-goes-live-in-europe/

Windows Phone Mac app updated

Good news, this was getting annoying.

http://www.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-mac-app-updated

Try Now TV on XBOX and get 800 MS points.

B Sky B's platform people who don't want / can't have a dish installed and / or prefer a different payment model to the traditional Sky TV offerings:

http://www.neowin.net/news/uk-residents-can-get-800-microsoft-points-for-free-for-trying-now-tv

Chrome 24 fixes two dozen bugs, promises to speed things up

Always nice if it delivers.

Chrome has been getting a little flaky these last few releases and has been becoming a bit of a memory hog.

Might have to give firefox another go soon.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/11/chrome-24-fixes-two-dozen-bugs-promises-to-speed-things-up/

oneTesla: a DIY Singing Tesla Coil

This Kickstarter project looks awesome!

connect this (or a few) up to some motion sensors and a select the right music and I can imagine some pretty intuitive in home intrusion projection systems.





http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/onetesla/onetesla-a-diy-singing-tesla-coil?ref=home_spotlight

CES 2013: Panasonic reveals 20-inch, 4K resolution Windows 8 tablet

Look out Wacom. A few manufactures are playing your tune!

Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/08/panasonic-reveals-20-inch-4k-resolution-windows-8-tablet/

CES 2013: Belkin Drops eSATA Support for Upcoming Thunderbolt Express Dock, Cuts Price Back to $299

Shame to see eSATA die out (I loved it over USB / ethernet  transfers) but hopefully thunderbolt will gain good traction on multiple platforms.

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/01/07/ces-2013-belkin-drops-esata-support-for-upcoming-thunderbolt-express-dock-cuts-price-back-to-299/

BT Openreach Cuts Line Rental, FTTC and LLU Prices by £75m for UK ISPs

OpenReach price changes.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/12/bt-openreach-cuts-line-rental-fttc-and-llu-prices-for-uk-isps.html

Apple Reportedly Strikes Deal with Broadcom to Add 802.11ac Gigabit Wi-Fi to 2013 Macs

Interesting considering 802.11ac is still in draft. I thought apple would be playing it safe so they must be fairly confident in the technologies development so far.


Mac Rumours:
http://www.macrumors.com/2013/01/02/apple-reportedly-strikes-deal-with-broadcom-to-add-802-11ac-gigabit-wi-fi-to-2013-macs/