Build a website in a weekend with MacFormat, Sept 2008
More examples of my published work
This 4-page tutorial in the September issue of MacFormat shows you how to set up a website from scratch using Wordpress, Rapidweaver and iWeb, with tips on e-commerce, slideshow creation and more.
Toshiba prepping HD movie download store
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Blu-ray
Toshiba looks set to launch an HD movie download store within the next few weeks, according to a source close to the company.
An announcement was due to be made during Toshiba’s IFA 2008 keynote last week, but was postponed, I Mead Mine has learned.
Toshiba is said to be partnering with at least two major blue-chip companies, with a launch as early as this month. The announcement - when it comes - should finally set the seal on the whole HD DVD farrago, and give Toshiba something new to crow about.
The high def movie download store is likely to compete head-to-head with iTunes when it launches in the UK. Apple has been offering HD movie downloads to UK owners of Apple TV devices since June.
The launch of an HD movie download store would make total sense for Toshiba. It already has close ties to both Microsoft and Intel, while its high-end Qosmio laptop range is also home entertainment focused.
Toshiba certainly dropped enough hints during its IFA 2008 keynote that something along these lines was afoot. Alan Thompson, executive vice president of Toshiba Europe, suggested that technology was already moving beyond optical disc formats.
That’s thanks to high speed broadband, the increasing capacity of hard disk drives, and the ability to store up to six HD movies on a single 32GB flash memory card.
How to set up a graphic design studio with Computer Arts Projects, Sept 2008
More examples of my published work
This 4-page article covers all the hardware and software you need to set up a graphic design studio on three separate budgets, ranging from £1,000 to £10,000. You can find out all the details in Computer Arts Projects 114 (September issue), on sale now.
Back to school with Macworld, Sept 2008
More examples of my published work
There’s never been a better time to get a great education - and with a little help from your Mac it can even be fun. You can find out more in the September issue of Macworld UK, on sale now.
IFA 2008 keynotes I have loved
More stories I’ve written for TechRadar.com
Samsung serves up ’seamless experience’
Samsung wowed attendees at the official opening keynote at IFA 2008 today with a slew of new product announcements.
Sharp heralds new LCD TV era at IFA 2008
Sharp has finally turned the ultra-flat LCD TV it showed off at IFA 2007 into reality.
JVC’s big promise: best performance, design and ease of use
They say fortune favours the brave, and JVC is being very brave indeed if today’s keynote at IFA 2008 is anything to go by.
Beyond 1080p: Toshiba talks up higher definition
Toshiba appeared re-energised at its IFA press conference today with ambitious plans for the future that will finally put the failure of HD DVD behind it.
How to save the planet with home climate control and Grand Designs, Aug 2008
The UK’s 23 million strong housing stock accounts for 25 per cent of our total CO2 emissions per annum. My next column for Channel 4’s Grand Designs Magazine explores how you can reduce your carbon footprint using home climate control technology.
10 signs tech is making you dumb
Now that technology can do so much, it’s amazing we can do anything for ourselves (edited version cross-posted to TechRadar.com)
We’re all used to the idea of progress through technology, but is that actually true? To find out let’s just see how many of these tech-induced maladies you’re already fallen victim to:
1. You can’t remember anything
Before mobile phones were invented you practically had an contact book in your head - you knew all the phone numbers of your friends and family off by heart and could happily walk into a public telephone box, stick in 10p and call anyone of them. Now the only number you can ever remember is the one for your local pizza parlour. But that’s only because it has six ‘7’s in it. And unless your Blackberry tells you it’s your birthday you’d probably forget that too.
2. You have no sense of direction
For hundred of years man has known how to navigate by tracking the relative position of the sun, the moon and the stars. How you envy those migrating animals now. These days you can’t even figure out how to get to Asda without technical assistance. It’s lucky then that DougDoug (or whatever his name is) still knows his way from A to B, even if does force you to drive wrong way down one-way streets, wade through perilous fords or career through people’s front doors. In your Hummer. And now thanks to GPS in phones you don’t even have to remember how to walk to the car. Brilliant.
3. You think you can sing, but you can’t
Close-harmony singing, remember that? You’d be standing round the piano at Christmas time, yodelling your hosannahs with your other three Barber Shop owning friends. Now all we get is excited yelping and a horrible kind of mew / squall that sounds like a cat being slowly turned inside out. You say the iPod is the best thing ever invented. We’ve heard you on the bus. We beg to differ.
4. You can’t reach the remote from the sofa
Remoteitis is a terrible muscle-wasting disease that first came to the fore in the late 1970s. Before this date people had to get up from the sofa to watch a different channel on TV, and some crazy audio buffs even had to ‘turn an album over’ to carry on listening to the second half. These two actions alone are half the reason why there were no fat people before punk. The other half is the sheer amount of the physical effort required. There weren’t any soft touch buttons then. You had to use real force to switch from BBC to ITV, and then probably get someone to help you when you wanted to change the channel back again.
5. U TXT therefore U is
SMS. It’s only two characters away from being the international call-sign for distress - which explains a lot when you think about it. Instead of the fully-formed vowels, consonants, word, verbs, subjects and sentences, we end up with this: RU come down Baa Bar L8R? CU 7 ;-). It’s why aliens haven’t invaded. They’ve already probed all our minds and couldn’t find anything worth nicking.
Hello, I’m on the plane
More stories I’ve written for Business Matters
Are mobile phone calls about to take off?
UK and European airlines look set to lift the ban on mobile phone use, thanks to changes being proposed by telecoms regulator Ofcom. If approved, the changes could enable you to make and take phone calls, send or receive texts and read your emails while flying between destinations – something that’s bound to be useful on short-haul flights across Europe.
Ian McCulloch: the ‘best band in the world’
Another clip from SkyArts’ Songbook, featuring Echo & The Bunnymen singer Ian McCulloch
Ian McCulloch: writing ‘Rescue’
Here’s a clip from SkyArts TV series Songbook, which featured a 50-minute interview with Ian McCulloch, singer with Echo & The Bunnymen
