Surf free
British Telecom has responded to Telewest's launch of flat-rate net surfing on Valentine's Day by extending its uncharged (0800) BT Internet service to cover evenings (6-12pm) as well as week-ends. It has also cut the cost from £11.75 to £9.99 a month, which matches Telewest's price.
The Telewest service still looks better value because it provides unmetered net use all day. However, you can access the service only via a Telewest line, and it's apparently very difficult to get online between 5pm and midnight.
As I have two Telewest lines, it would be nice to confirm that, but disks that Telewest said it would send on February 14 and February 25 have not arrived. However, I've had no problems getting on to BT's "unlimited" service, which is limited to 312 hours a month.
Dreameye
In between beating people up in Soul Calibur, Dreamcast console owners will be able to send their grannies 25 second video clips to say hello.
Sega's Dreameye digital video camera will also take still pictures with a up to VGA resolution (640 by 480 pixels) and provide "fun video chat (TV telephone)" features via the Dreamcast's built-in modem and internet capability.
Sega says: "The birth of Dreameye will transform today's TV game genres and network communication via the written word and voice into an entirely new world consisting of network entertainment and visual live communities." A Dreameye website is under construction. There are no details of price or availability. JS
Fast colours
Photographic prints fade when exposed to light; inkjet colour prints usually fade even faster. But Epson has just announced a solution.
It says its new Stylus Photo 870 and 1270 printers can produce prints that last for more than 10 years "in typical indoor lighting conditions without any objectionable fading".
However, this applies only with the new Intellidge ink cartridges and Epson Premium paper, available in "glossy photo" and "matte heavyweight" versions. Printer prices are £299 and £399 (for the A3 model), including VAT.
Easy e-PC
Hewlett-Packard has announced its first simplified e-PC in the UK with a small 3.8kg sealed-box e-Vectra designed to work as "a corporate PC appliance".
The Windows-based range starts with a 466MHz Intel Celeron (Pentium II) with 64 megabytes of memory and goes up to a 733MHz Pentium III with 256MB. Prices are expected to start at about £370 without monitor, and the product is expected to ship next month.
The first e-PC is not aimed at home users, says Eric Cador, general manager of HP's Business PC Organisation, "but if you want to buy one on the web, I'll take your order and ship it to you".
See www.hp.com/go/epc (JS)
Roll up a laptop
If Toshiba gets its way in a few years time, when you've finished with your notebook PC, you'll roll it up and put it in your pocket. At CeBIT, as part of its series of concept gadgets, the company unveiled its ultra flexible DynaSheet screen-based PC. Its key feature is a fold-away Polymer display which is being developed in conjunction with British company CDT. There's no keyboard as it uses voice and handwriting technology, while compatibility with the cordless Bluetooth system means there are no wires. Toshiba insists it's purely a prototype now, but says that - in theory - it could be available in the UK within three to five years. (AN)
