Hardware
Range of options
Goodmans last week unveiled a massive selection of budget consumer electronics products ranging from the UK's cheapest 42in plasma screen TV, which retails for £2,000, to DVD players with DivX play back. A possible highlight is the £199 GPDR1, a personal media player with a 2.5in LCD screen, right, that can store up to two hours of MPeg4 video on its expandable 288MB built-in memory. The company also paraded desktop and notebook PCs that are due to go on sale next month, eight digital cameras, a Freeview-equipped 15in LCD TV and the GDVD300R, a £200 DVD recorder.
Mobile
Constant contact
Smartner is to launch its Duality Always-on mail feature to smartphone-owning consumers across Europe in August. The system is similar to BlackBerry's wireless email solution, in that when a message reaches an ISP's server, it is automatically pushed to a phone's in box. All the actions of the system are duplicated on the user's main desktop PC, so, for example, if a user chooses to delete a message on their handset, it is also deleted on their computer. The system, which costs €4 per month, is compatible with all Symbian and Windows Mobile smartphones. Versions of the Duality Always-on system are already available to business individuals and companies.
www.smartner.com
Sea change
Orange customers on cross-channel ferries can now make voice calls and use GPRS data services all the way to France courtesy of the first continuous mobile service between the two countries. The company is rolling out the service exclusively on SeaFrance's ships, which operate on the Dover to Calais route. Orange has split the channel in two, with UK subscribers charged standard UK call rates until the vessel reaches the mid-way point between the two countries. Then they are transferred to Orange France and pay higher international roaming tariffs.
www.orange.co.uk
Software
Apple launch
At its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, Apple Computer has shown a preview of Tiger, the next version of its Unix-based Mac OS X operating system, "with more than 150 breakthrough new features". These include Spotlight, to search the user's hard drive, and Safari RSS, a new version of the OS X web browser. This doubles as a reader for the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) newsfeeds widely used by blogs and a growing number of news sites. Apple says OS X 10.4 will be available in the first half of next year for £99. Apple has also added a Weblog Server (based on the open source Blojsom project) to the server version of OS X 10.4. Finally, Apple has redesigned its 20in and 23in LCD screens to give them an aluminium look, and will launch a 30in Cinema HD display (with 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution) in August. UK price is £2,549 inc VAT.
www.apple.com
Cameras
Snap happy
Philips has launched three casual cameras it reckons users can take anywhere. The biggest is the credit card-sized PocketCam (DSC 2000K), which has 2 megapixel resolution, a 2x zoom lens, an LCD viewing screen, and a dedicated docking station for £99. It only has 8MB of memory but you can plug in an SD (Secure Digital) card. The £39 FunCam (DMVC300K), above, is a VGA camera that comes with a cord so you can hang it round your neck. It also works as a key ring and a 15fps webcam. Finally,there's the £89 ThumbCam (DMVC1300K), which takes 1.3 megapixel images. It has a built-in microphone so it can be used to grab up to 10 minutes of video, and it also works as a USB pen-drive for carrying around 128MB of data.
