Electricpig.co.uk - tech news fast!

Vodafone pushes out Nokia N8 and HTC Desire HD
New MacBook Air review: What do you want to know?
Google TV – unauthorised apps on the way?
Announcing our Samsung Galaxy Tab Reader Inquisition!
Team Fortress 2 Modders raking in cash
Nokia N8 gets Virgin Media on-demand TV
Samsung Galaxy Tab review: What do you want to know?
Multi-touch Viewsonic monitor: Steve Jobs need not apply
Nintendo unveils insane stuffed baby Wii add-on
Lunchtime Lowdown: Nikon D3100 reviewed, Twitter for Windows Phone 7 and Angry Birds toys ahoy

Vodafone pushes out Nokia N8 and HTC Desire HD

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 08:37 AM PDT

Vodafone UK customers can now slap down some cash and take their choice of two of the biggest new smartphone releases – the HTC Desire HD and the Nokia N8.

The HTC Desire HD is HTC’s latest Android phone, standing apart from its siblings with a whopping 4-inch screen. Vodafone is offering the Desire HD free on a £35, 24 month contract that will get you 900 minutes, 750MB of data and unlimited texts if you buy online. You also get a handy 5MB of European roaming data per month too – handy for checking emails on holiday without breaking the bank.

You can pick up Nokia’s latest and greatest Symbian phone, the Nokia N8, for a £30 24 month contract with 300 minutes, 500 MB data and unlimited texts. If you like the look of the green N8’s in the adverts, Vodafone is also the only place you will be able to get one – they have UK exclusivity on that model for the moment.

Available now | from £30 | Vodafone

New MacBook Air review: What do you want to know?

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 08:33 AM PDT

Yesterday the new MacBook Air submitted to our first impressions, and the scrutiny of our camera lens. This weekend we’ll be putting it through its paces proper, and finishing our MacBook Air review. Before we commit to a score though, we want to make sure we’ve answered your questions. So tell us, what do you want to know?

Click the Read More link below and drop us a comment, e-mail us at editor@electricpig.co.uk or send us a message through Twitter. We’re not fussy which you use, and we’ve got a quick MacBook Air unboxing video after the break too.

Google TV – unauthorised apps on the way?

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 07:34 AM PDT

Wow, it’s all go in unauthorised-modding-of-smart-TV-boxes news today. Hot on the heels of the first app running on the new Apple TV we have news that its nearest rival – Google TV – might be rootable too.

A user on AndroidForums has discovered a way to get into Google TV’s recovery mode – often the first step in rooting a device, the equivalent of ‘jailbreaking’ it and allowing code to be run with full access to the system.

Google should be rolling out Android Market access for Google TV early next year, but it is likely that there will be some things that official apps are not allowed to do, particularly as Google TV will brush up against so much copyrighted content.

Could we recommend that the first order of business be making Google TV work with a normal sized remote control? Just a thought.

Out TBC | £TBC | Google TV

Announcing our Samsung Galaxy Tab Reader Inquisition!

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 07:32 AM PDT

We have a Samsung Galaxy Tab, well ahead of schedule. But rather than keep it all to ourselves, we’re going to give you, our lovely readers, a chance to play with it too. On Tuesday 26th October at 1pm at a location in London’s glittering West End, we’re going to be holding our very first Reader Inquisition. In town and on your lunch hour? Read on to find out how you can come along to try it out!

We need your help to thoroughly test the first Android tablet that looks like a real rival to the iPad. If you’re able to get to to London’s Covent Garden at 1pm this coming Tuesday we’d love to hear your thoughts, first impressions, and see what you think after playing with the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Places are limited, but if you can make it into London to meet us on Tuesday, drop us an e-mail to editor@electricpig.co.uk with your full name and phone number, so we can get in touch with the details.

We can’t promise to accommodate everyone, but those chosen will be invited along to try the Samsung Galaxy Tab out, tell us what you think ahead of its official release, and then have your opinions featured on Electricpig. We’ll even buy you a cheeky lunchtime drink for your troubles.

Team Fortress 2 Modders raking in cash

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 07:03 AM PDT

Valve’s in-game store for Team Fortress 2 mods has proven to be an unexpected money spinner, and not just for the company. Some modders have made nearly $50,000 from their efforts.

Valve opened the in-game Mann Co. Store for Team Fortress 2 players to purchase game items with real-world money. When the store opened, Valve also allowed five modders from the TF2 community to sell their items alongside the official wares. This seems to have worked spectacularly well, as the modders have earned between $39,000 and $47,000 in royalties from their items and weapons since the store opened.

Clearly, we are in the wrong business.

Valve plans to open up sales to other modders in the future and while the boom time may be over if the market floods with loads of mods, these figures would suggests any half-decent mod could at least make a few quid, which is better than a poke in the eye.

Out TNow | £varies | Team Fortress 2

Nokia N8 gets Virgin Media on-demand TV

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 06:59 AM PDT

Got Virgin Media TV at home? Then you might also want to invest in a Nokia N8 mobile phone. The cable provider-come-phone network's on-demand TV service, Virgin Media Player, just landed on the Nokia N8. Best of all, you don't have to be a Virgin Mobile customer to use it.

Virgin Media player will let Nokia N8 owners watch mobile TV no matter what mobile network they're on. It's a free download from the Ovi Store for the Nokia N8, and offers up shows from 4oD, Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon.

Think South Park, The Inbetweeners, The Hills, The IT Crowd, Spongebob Squarepants and their ilk, and you'll be on the right track. All you need is a Virgin Media TV service at home, and an N8 on the move.

Read our Virgin Media Player review

Of course, Virgin Media is also flogging the N8 (which comes with BBC iPlayer and YouTube apps, for square-eyed Symbian fans everywhere).

The Nokia N8 is free from £40 on a Virgin Media pay monthly tariff with 1,200 inclusive minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited web access and free calls to other Virgin Mobiles.

Out now | £varies | Virgin Media

Samsung Galaxy Tab review: What do you want to know?

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 06:54 AM PDT

The Samsung Galaxy Tab doesn’t go on sale until next month, but when have we ever let a little thing like a release date get in the way of a good gadget? We’ve got one right now, here in the UK, and we’re throwing the floor open for questions right now. Read on, see the first video and tell us what you want to know for our Samsung Galaxy Tab review!

We’ve landed our very own Samsung Galaxy Tab here in the UK, so naturally we whipped it out on camera for a quick play. So far, everything seems snappy and responsive, but never mind what we think -let’s hear what you think.

We’ll be setting loose our Samsung Galaxy Tab review in the next few days, and to help shape it, we want you to send us your questions. All you have to do is drop them in the comments below, or send us them at editor@electricpig.co.uk, or drop us a message through @electricpig on Twitter. Basically, all the ways we outline in the video below. Anyway, enjoy!

Multi-touch Viewsonic monitor: Steve Jobs need not apply

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 05:33 AM PDT

Multi-touch monitors? We all know Steve Jobs’ opinion on them: “touch surfaces don't want to be vertical,” he said when previewing OS X Lion earlier this week. “It doesn't work, it's ergonomically terrible. Touch surfaces want to be horizontal." Well, screw you, Jobs! Viewsonic has gone and created a doozy of a multi-touch monitor anyway!

The VX2258wm is ViewSonic’s first multi-touch display, with a roomy 22 inch screen and built in SRS speakers. It’s a Windows-certified touch screen which connects using USB to pick up multi-touch commands from Microsoft Windows 7 PCs. And no, before you ask, we’re almost certain Mac OS doesn’t support those finger swipes.

The multi-touch monitor uses Infrared Optical Imaging technology to detect your digits, and it’ll work with a stylus too, says ViewSonic.

The image underneath all those fingerprints and smudges is a full HD 1080p resolution, and tap-happy gamers will be chuffed at the zippy 5ms response time too.

Out now | £189 | ViewSonic

Nintendo unveils insane stuffed baby Wii add-on

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 05:30 AM PDT

The Nintendo Wii is the home of crazy add-ons, with Wiimote sleeves available in the shape of almost every weapon,. instrument and hand tool imaginable. The new game Babysitting Mama comes with the weirdest one yet – a baby.

The Cooking Mama series is an enormously successful range of games aimed at showing young girls that the best they can hope for is a life of domestic drudgery. A sort of institutionalised sexism simulator, if you like.

The latest spin-off from the series – Babysitting Mama - is pretty much what you would expect but, as this is a Wii title, it comes with possibly the most disturbing game add-on we have ever seen – a plush, stuffed baby into which you slide your Wiimote like an ersatz plastic spine.

With the Wiimote safely installed the nunchuck cable trails from the baby like a white umbilical cord. The nunchuck itself serves as a spoon and baby bottle for feeding your little Cronenbergian nightmare.

If you can’t quite wrap your imagination around this, here is a video clip explaining all..

Available soon | £tbc | Babysitting Mama (via CVG)

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=271173?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS

Lunchtime Lowdown: Nikon D3100 reviewed, Twitter for Windows Phone 7 and Angry Birds toys ahoy

Posted: 22 Oct 2010 04:31 AM PDT

We’re creeping ever closer towards the weekend, but the tech news is flooding on in still. Get the best of it rounded up right here in the lunchtime lowdown.

First up, in mobile, the fallout from the Windows Phone 7 launch continues: we slapped the Samsung Omnia 7 into our Best Samsung phone Top 5 after our review, and Twitter launched its own official app for the platform – and it’s a good’un.

In photography meanwhile, we reviewed the Nikon D3100 entry level DSLR, and got a good gawp at Sky’s incredible new advert for 3D TV being filmed in London town this week.

Last but not least – do you like Angry Birds? ‘Course you do. So you’ll love the new Angry Birds plush toy line unveiled today – but where are the stuffed green pigs?

Hungry for more headlines still? You know where to get them: over on the homepage, stat!