Inspect-a-Gadget

Chrome OS isn't an operating system in the traditional, desktop computing sense. It's designed to boot up from solid state hardware in about 7 of your Earth seconds, and be ready to use. Instead of applications on your local drive, the apps are online. They're Google apps like Docs and GMail, services like Facebook and Twitter. Although the OS has already been found out in the wild, you won't be able to buy Chrome OS in a box. You'll have to buy a device with the OS already embedded. 

I am that ubiquitous thing: a tech journalist with a secret past as a part-time musician.  I know it doesn't sound like a natural match but - believe me - we are legion.  It's always nice when my twin obsessions (gadgets and noise) come together.  I've just been checking out Korg's NanoSERIES range of USB MIDI-controllers.  These things are very cool. And very weird.

To explain.... MIDI is the protocol for translating musical notes into bit and bytes.  That includes routines for volume, tone, key pressure and so on. Budget MIDI-controllers are rarely very exciting - little plastic keyboards or USB mixers with lots of knobs.  Boring. Functional.

Then along comes the Korg Nano range.  Taking a more designery (I'm assured by Google that this is now a word) approach to gadget fashioning, they're three neat looking, strange little USB units with different MIDI control functions. The nanoKEY is a slick mini-keyboard, with chunky keys for porky fingers like mine.  Smaller than a laptop QWERTY, it'll easily fit on your desk, we suspect. Then there's the nanoKONTROL - a similar board with lots of knobs. If you've ever tried using a music recording program you'll know there are an interminable number of volume, balance, equaliser, level, send, effects and (fill in the blank here) controls.  With this, you can assign software controls to nine real live twisty knobs and sliders and eighteen switches. Not enough control for you?  Add another one. Or a third. Brilliant.  A just released new plug-in for Apple's GarageBand makes it even more useful.

That just leaves our favourite: the NanoPAD.  It's a similarly sized deck with a dozen sensitive pads that you can tap, smack or hit with a drumstick. Instant drumkit, just add a laptop. And some software.

All the Nano range are under £50 - with the nanoKEY available for £39.  When mine arrives, I'll give you a more in-depth overview. 

Here's Korg's offical video, Check out the chap rocking out at the bus stop...

Kindle for PC - Amazon's Windows based electronic book reading software - is now available for free download. Yay.  Amazon have only sent me 4 emails reminding me of the fact so far.  Even though I grabbed it last week.

First impressions? I'm sure this beta version will make a lot more sense if you actually have a Kindle.  The standalone functionality enables you to download and install electronic books wrapped in Kindle DRM, and share them with your device.  Which is super.  You can bookmark pages, synchronise your reading progress between devices and quickly navigate through your download library.

If you don't actually have one of Amazon's coveted e-readers, you can still use the software to buy new books - though not all titles are available in the UK. Still, 300,000 books is a pretty good selection. Disappointingly, the overall functionality of the PC software isn't as good as some existing free solutions.  Adobe Reader comes to mind.  Try dragging a PDF to Kindle for PC and it'll just look at you funny.

You also miss out on the unique selling points of an e-reading device; electronic ink, portability and so on.  We could, at a pinch, see ourselves installing this on a netbook - and that would save us the price of a real Kindle; currently about £155.  Give it a few months though, when 2010's inevitable tablet PC war begins. Then Kindle for PC will be worth another look. 

Sony Ericsson have taken a real beating of late, and despite the Satio looking like a powerful piece of kit, it's just not very clever. They seem to have made a note of this and ditched Symbian for Android. The video below will add a wow factor I can't put in words.


As long as the hardware matches the slick software then I can't see this going wrong. As with all Sony Ericsson's it will have a killer camera so I think I'm sold... as long as it doesn't look ugly. I once dated a Rachael and if this phone looks anything like her then I hope it comes with a massive stylus ;)

Sony is at the forefront of 3D tech and this prototype is an example of their ambition.

3D has been restricted to flat screens but we all know that 3D should be something you can walk around etc. a bit like real life but without the touching.

If you ask me it looks like a soft toy trapped in time. Don't get me wrong, I like it but just look at his little face.




It's got 24-bit colour imagery and you can look at it from any angle without those cool glasses.Sony sees this as being something that can be used as a TV, in digital signage, 3D photo frame or something to help you shop online with.

There's been a bit of kerfuffle on the Internetworks about Google Maps Navigation lately.  Here are the Cliff's Notes:  A recent, Android-only update to Google Maps added turn by turn navigation to the app.  That means that anyone with a supported mobile phone, unlimited data and a built in GPS can now use Google Maps Navigation as a route planner and in-car navigation tool.  For nowt.

Unfortunately, Google Maps Navigation has only launched in the USA so far - and only on Android 2.0 devices.

But in all the Twittering and gnashing of keys, no one seems to have noticed that the current incarnation of Maps on Android - available here in the UK - is pretty handy right now.  You can already do route planning, turn by turn navigation and 3G location.

I've been trialling an HTC Hero on Orange (full deposition coming later this week) and used the opportunity to give the current navigation features a go.  My verdict? They're very handy - great for stomping around an unfamiliar city or taking a country walk - but the likes of Tom Tom and Navman don't have to worry too much.  Not yet anyway.  

The new and improved Google Maps Navigation on the other hand, that includes juicy features like Street View navigation and voice control.  And you'll never have to update a map again.   

16 years ago, when I first downloaded the demo for 3D fragfest Doom to my Fujitsu 386 DX PC, I thought it was the canine's orbs.  This week I've been playing it in my web browser at newsgrounds.com, on an Android powered HTC Hero (on loan from Orange), on an iPhone and on a Mac.  Doom is the first person shooter that simply refuses to die.

And while I'm here getting all misty eyed about blasting cacodaemons, it's worth noting that the latest incarnation isn't the lovely looking but ludicrously unforgiving Doom 3 - but Doom Resurrection; a version of the revamped 3D shooter for the iPhone.

Sing along with me! "Ner ner, ner ner ner, ner ner ner, ner ner ner ner ner ner ner!"  Hmm.  Perhaps the original Doom theme doesn't translate all that well to text...

 

Spotify for Android. Please note: these are not my playlists... Robbie Williams. Bleurgh.

I love Spotify.  No one has paid me to say this.  Well, technically, someone has.  Someone will pay me for this entry - but I am free to say "Spotify is as rancid as an old plum that's been stored for ten years in a tramp's boot" if I want.  But I don't want, because I love Spotify.

The famous streaming music app has completely changed the way I access and listen to music. And I do listen to music a lot.  From Vivaldi to Vampire Weekend and every stop in between.  Except Keane.  No one likes Keane.

While my collection has been partially digital since I picked up my first iPod from New York's Apple shop in 2003, there have still been CDs.  Not anymore though. Spotify just made them redundant.

Of course, there are some notable artists you won't find on Spotify yet. There's no Pink Floyd or Peter Gabriel. There's little Husker Du. The problem isn't that those artists haven't agreed to appear - it's that deals have yet to be brokered with their labels.

But there's still plenty to love about Spotify.  An easy to use interface that isn't a slave to iTunes, support for Boolean searching, shared and collaborative playlists and streaming music that's of perfectly listenable 160Kbps quality. 

And, loving Spotify as I did, I thought the company had shot itself in the foot.  Its revenue model is based on two prongs.  The first; advertising interrupts your listening pleasure if you use the free version.  And, we have to admit, the advertising can be pretty annoying.  Especially when your carefully composed playlist of 70s German electro is interrupted by Robbie Williams honking out his new single. The second; you can trade up to Premium for £9.99 a month - or £119.88 a year. 

A tenner a month sounds a bit steep - but if you're a real music fan, it's equivalent to a CD every 30 days or 10 tracks a month on iTunes.  Still, I was wondering - what true incentive is there to go Premium when Spotify's already giving you so much for free?  And then I tried Spotify for Android. 

Now I get it.

Spotify's mobile applications - Spotify for Android and Spotify for iPhone are beautifully designed music player apps in a mobile world overpopulated with appalling, thrown together twitch and flick interfaces.  Realising that screen real estate is at a premium, Spotify for Android packs all its functionality into four simple tabs in understated Spotify charcoal and green; Playlists, Search, Playback and Home.  The search page is actually better than in the desktop version of the app - enabling you to choose between title, artist or album with the click of a tab. And instead of flipping through a stack of bitmap thumbnails to find music, it's all available in easy to navigate lists.  Goodbye, pretty but user-unfriendly cover-flow. Goodbye forever.

The mobile app is free to download - but there's an apparent catch.  You need to be a Spotify Premium user.  After a few days carrying Spotify for Android around on an HTC Hero though, we're failing to see the problem.  With unlimited data - bundled with many mobile contract packages these days - Spotify turns your handset into a digital music player with almost limitless capacity.  And, if 3G bandwidth is a problem, it's easy to download playlists for offline listening.  You just click "Offline Playlists" and tick which ones you want to back up when you've got a WiFi connection. You can store up to 3333 tracks, which is, more than enough for a couple of week's holiday off grid.

I've read other reviews of the mobile versions of Spotify and there's one thing they don't make clear enough.  Spotify for Android doesn't cost £9.99 a month as some insinuate - it's free with Spotify Premium.  You get Spotify Premium on your desktop and on your mobile for the same price.  That means no more adverts, 320kbps resolution, and offline listening on both your mobile phone and desktop computers.  Who needs to actually buy music anymore? If you're Spotify savvy - not you.

In a move that appears to be designed to upset Orange's apple cart, O2 have just announced that users of their iPhone Internet Tethering bolt-on  who sign up on or before 31 December 2009 will be entitled to the standard Home Broadband package for free. Tethering - which enables you to use your iPhone as a 3G modem when you're out and about - costs £9.79 a month with a 3GB allowance. Now you can get online for free at home as well.