Month: February 2015
The HD audio revolution: how music streaming is going high-end, and why you’re going to love it
While digital video has seen massive improvements in the last few years with the arrival of formats like Blu Ray it’s fair to say that digital audio quality has seen very few, if any, since CDs first launched back in the 1980s. Until now that is. Chris Price looks at a new crop of digital…
11 great Mother’s Day gifts (that aren’t bubble bath)
[nextpage title="Next"] Mother's Day? WHAT WHEN? Firstly, breathe – you have two and a half weeks. We're just giving you plenty of advance warning, so you don't end up wrapping up the scarf your Auntie Dot gave you for Christmas and hoping she doesn't recognise it. Here are some lovely gifts for every taste and budget,…
Chrome is adding extra security to stop you downloading malware
It doesn't matter what devices you use, there is always that looming threat that someone will find an exploit to infect your computer with malware programmed to carry out their own nefarious deeds. That's why Google is upping Chrome's security game to make sure you don't accidentally download any malware through your browser. A new…
Pebble announces the Pebble Time, a colour e-paper smartwatch
Remember that countdown that appeared on the Pebble homepage late last week? We know what it was counting down to now, and it turns out that all the rumours were correct. Meet the Pebble Time, a smartwatch with a colour e-paper display. The folks at Pebble promise that the Pebble Time will have the same…
Engineers are making smart trousers for disabled people
A team from the University of Bristol is launching a new project to develop smart trousers that could help people to walk. (Reports that they were inspired by Wallace and Gromit are as yet unconfirmed.) It’s being led by Dr Jonathan Rossiter from the department of engineering mathematics at the university. As The Guardian reports,…
Apple’s finally made more diverse emoji
Apple’s finally made some new, diverse emoji. It only took eight years, but the company’s realised that mayyyyybe it wasn’t quite right that white people had loads of different ways to represent themselves – from a flamenco dancer to Santa to side-kicking twins – while people of colour just got a racial stereotype or two.…
Samsung’s new website pokes fun at Galaxy S6 rumours
Unlike some tech companies, Samsung seems to revel in the glow of the rumour mill and cant seem to stop teasing us about what it has planned for the Galaxy S6. First the camera, then wireless charging, and now its gone and created an entire website dedicated to poking fun at some of the other…
Visa Europe’s new security tech could speed up the arrival of Apple Pay
Visa Europe has announced that it is introducing a more secure method of paying for products with your smartphone, one that keeps your credit card information concealed from prying eyes. The method is called 'tokenisation', and Visa wants it launched in Europe by mid-April. Tokenisation conceals your credit card information by substituting it with a…
StoreDot wants your phone’s battery to fully charge in a minute
Your phone could have the most amazing features and hardware in the world but, let's face it, without power in the battery it's worse than useless. Battery capacity and power efficiency in smartphones has already come a long way, but what about if you could charge them in no time at all? StoreDot wants that to…
This clever furniture can assemble itself
Imagine a world where you'd never have to try to decode one of those Ikea or Argos self-assembly instruction sheets ever again. ("Is this diagram upside down?") Where furniture doesn’t need you to make it because it can be shipped flat and then pull itself together. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Well, keep dreaming, because it’s…
