Last week Pure announced Pure Stream, which allows the user to wirelessly play music and radio via their Android Smartphone, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad on a growing range of Pure devices and CDW was there to get a demo.
Pure Stream is the convenient way of sending music wirelessly from a personal device and enjoying it in high quality audio through selected Pure wireless music and radio systems including One Flow and the new Sensia 200D Connect.
Pure Stream is based on DLNA and is Pure’s answer to Apple’s AirPlay.
Pure Stream is coming soon to Contour 200i Air through a software update and new products will be added to the range in the following months.
Accessed via the free Pure Lounge Android or iPhone App, Pure Stream allows users to stream unlimited music via Pure Music, music stored on their personal device and a world of internet radio and on-demand content (podcasts, listen again programmes and ambient sounds).
Pure Music is Pure’s cloud-based on demand music service and is available to users in the UK for a monthly subscription of £4.99, with an international roll out to follow during 2012.
Having seen (and heard) how it works, we were very impressed and look forward to playing with it some more (expect a proper review of it shortly).
Pure Stream is available now using the Pure Lounge app for the Android from Google Play and will be available shortly for the iPhone and iPad (it’s just going through Apple’s approval process), and is free to users. For more information, please visit www.pure.com.
Here are some screenshots of the app itself:
Have you tried it out yet? If so, let us know by leaving a comment below.
Pure have announced the availability of Sensia 200D Connect, the enhanced follow-up to the multi award-winning Sensia, the revolutionary touchscreen wireless music and radio system. Sensia 200D Connect delivers upgraded performance, room-filling audio, one touch and timed USB recording, and ‘Pure Stream’, which allows the user to wirelessly play music and radio from their Android Smartphone, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.
Listen to a world of audio: Stream millions of songs through Pure Music; thousands of internet radio stations and on demand programmes; music stored on a home computer; ambient sounds; or simply listen to digital or FM radio. Using Pure Stream, users can even send music wirelessly from a personal iOS or Android device and enjoy it in high quality audio through Sensia 200D Connect.
Seamlessly integrated into Sensia 200D Connect, Pure Tag is a free service that allows users to tag tracks they hear on the radio and purchase or bookmark them to discover more about the artist and their back catalogue. There is even a handy ‘Tag’ button on the supplied remote control.
The 5.7” colour touchscreen displays visuals relevant to the audio, including digital and internet radio slideshow and album artwork. Users can also view weather reports, Twitter feeds, Facebook updates, RSS feeds and photos via Wi-Fi or Picasa. The advanced user-interface delivers smooth scrolling lists fast keyboard entry and responsive search facilities, which all make for a truly absorbing experience.
Sensia 200D Connect supports instant and timed recording of live internet and digital radio to USB memory stick. Users simply touch the ‘record’ button on the touchscreen or the dedicated ‘record’ button on the remote control or up to three timers can be set to record regular programmes.
Sensia 200D Connect brings music to life using the latest audio technology and Pure’s heritage of audiophile tuning. Delivering 30 watts of clear digital sound via DSP tuned high efficiency class-D amplifiers and in-house custom designed full-range speakers, Sensia 200D Connect has impressive stereo separation and completely immersive, room-filling sound. Sensia 200D Connect includes both bass and treble controls for users to set up the audio to their own preference.
Sensia 200D Connect is already a design classic, and coming in striking black or white versions, is destined to be a central feature of any room with a distinctive, elliptical shape. A moulded stand is supplied, which allows the user to angle the radio to an optimum viewing position and a matching remote control completes the look.
Other features include an input for an iPod/MP3 player; two fully featured alarms; countdown timer; sleep timer and a headphone socket. Add the optional rechargeable Pure F1 ChargePAK to listen to internet content anywhere within range of the Wi-Fi network or to digital and FM radio when further afield.
Sensia 200D Connect is available now at just £249.99 (SRP) from all good retailers. For more information, please visit www.pure.com or www.thelounge.com
The guys over at the BYOB podcast have just released episode 92.
Here is what is included in this weeks show:
[box style=”rounded” border=”full”]Haswell, Server 2012 storage spaces testing and the great domain debate rages on. eVGA mini motherboard, and the Google Nexus hands on, All on this weeks BYOB Podcast.[/box]
The MV stands for MultiView, and refers to this camera’s main feature – it has a hinged screen, a bit like you’d find on a camcorder, but hinged along the top edge of the camera. This enables you to do a few clever things. You can hold the camera down low with the screen tilted up towards you so you can take pictures near ground-level without having to get down there – a useful feature for less mobile camera users. Here’s an example I took at the Bath & West Show:
Low-angle shot taken at shin height (click for full size image)
You can also do the opposite, holding the camera up above your head, upside down, with the screen tilted down towards you to take pictures over crowds (or fences if you’re a spy). The screen can also rotate through 180º to face the same way as the lens, and an alternative shutter button is uncovered, allowing easy self-portraits and arms-length group shots without having to guess at the framing. Combined with some of the other fun special effects settings, this makes for a great party camera.
The screen allows one more party piece – you can use it to stand the camera at a slight angle on a flat surface. This allows either easy group shots (say, of your group of friends on a sofa with the camera on the coffee table using the timer), or viewing of a slideshow of images by having the screen facing you. If you find the screen isn’t large enough for showing off your snaps, the camera also has a handy HDMI port, allowing you to display your photos and movies on a TV.
The MV800’s 3-inch touchscreen is sharp, and visible even in bright sunshine. It has to be bright, as the MV800 doesn’t have a viewfinder, but it felt entirely natural to me to just use the screen. You’re using the screen to set up the camera anyway, and even focus by tapping the object in the view you want to focus on, so using the screen for framing feels seamless. The lack of a viewfinder enables the camera to be very compact, at only 92 x 56.2 x 18.3mm.
The Lens and Image Quality
Samsung MV800 26mm Equivalent Samsung MV800 130mm Equivalent – Zoomed on the trees in the background of the 26mm image
The Schneider lens on this camera offers the equivalent of a 26-130mm lens on a 35mm SLR in terms of field of view. I won’t go into a technical analysis of the glass, chromatic aberration, vignetting, etc – I’m sure you can find that on other sites – I’m giving more of a normal user’s perspective here. 26mm is quite wide-angled, certainly enough to fit in everyone in a room at a party without having to get them to clump together, or for taking group shots on holiday without the comical “back a bit, back a bit, SPLOOSH”. At the other end of the 5X optical zoom, the 130mm is moderate telephoto. It will let you zoom in on animals at the zoo, or on safari, or let you focus in on a distant feature on a building or in the landscape. It’s a nice range to have, and mimics the range of a lot of all-purpose SLR lenses, like Canon’s popular 24-105mm L lens. Let’s face it, if you need something with more zoom, you need to be getting an SLR. The camera does offer some digital zoom on top of the optical zoom, but my personal opinion is that you should never use digital zoom on any camera – the image quality always suffers terribly because the camera is basically duplicating pixels to make more pixels. You may as well zoom in to the photo when you view it later – at least then the original is good quality. It’s there if you need it, though.
At low ISO settings of 80, 100 and 200, the image is nice and sharp, certainly perfectly good enough for printing up to A4 (standard European letter paper size). At higher ISOs, as on all cameras, the noise level starts to increase. This camera seems to have quite extreme correction software in it as the noise seems to be replaced by a strange softness that makes the photo look almost like a watercolour painting when shown at 1:1 zoom on a screen. The camera automates the ISO setting in its automatic modes, but if you know what ISO does, you can control it yourself in the more manual modes. On automatic, if you turn the flash off, the image quality will decrease rapidly in low light, but that’s true of all small-aperture compacts. Having the control in a compact is a definite bonus – you can take the time to learn how to control the shutter speed, ISO and aperture in the manual modes to be more creative with your photos. Not all mid-range compacts offer that. The aperture only seemed to have two settings that I could find, which was a little limiting in terms of depth of field, but I was pleasantly surprised to be able to change it at all on a compact.
The flash is certainly powerful enough for anything you’d want to use a compact for. Moreover, it didn’t seem to bleach out features and skin tones like a lot of compacts’ flashes can – top marks there as this little camera will be going to a lot of night-time venues, I’m sure.
Key Features – Panorama Mode
Quite a few mid-range compacts now offer a panorama mode. If you’ve not seen how this works, it replaces the method of taking a series of pictures of a panoramic view and then stitching them together – I’m sure many of you have done it with either a film or digital camera at some point. This feature enables you to hold the camera where you want the panorama to start, and then move the camera around about 180º, if you stay on the spot, with a progress image being shown on the screen to help you. I’ve used a few cameras with this feature, and the MV800’s is a particularly easy-to-use example. Here’s a shot that I really like of inside the sheep pens at the Bath & West Show:
Samsung MV800 Panorama
As you can see, you need not limit yourself to view of landscapes, and a good printer should be able to print one of these shots out to hang on your wall. As you can see, the lines in the photo are nice and straight, despite my purposely jigging the camera a little as I turned to test it – top marks, Samsung.
Key Features – 3D
3D is becoming increasingly common in new TVs now, and the MV800 can take 3D images which can be viewed on a 3D-enabled TV via the HDMI port on the camera. The 3D option is available for both normal pictures, and also in panorama mode.
Key Features – Macro Mode
Samsung MV800 Macro – not super close-up, but still macro (these cakes are tiny finger-food size)
The MV800 has a decent macro capability (the ability to take close-up images of things very close to the camera lens), allowing focusing down to only 5mm away from the lens surface. In auto mode, the camera detects that you’re trying to focus on something close up and switches into macro automatically. You can also manually choose the Macro Mode if you know you’ll be taking a few close-up shots. This features enables you to get into more creative photography with ease.
Key Features – Fun Stuff
There is a whole raft of fun features in the camera’s customisable menu system. I imagine most people will only use these features once or twice, but they may appeal to the younger market. They include Magic Frame, which enables you to take one photo, rub a hole in it with your finger and then use that as a frame for taking another photo – take a snap of a gorilla at the zoo, rub its face off, and replace it with your nearest and dearest’s – hilarious! There are also Funny Face filters that detect and distort your subject’s face in a variety of amusing ways. Another nice feature is Smart Filter, which enables you to change the look and feel of your photos by making them look like old film, popart, or a painting, to name just a few.
Key Features – Movie Mode
With Movie Mode, the MV800 can capture up to 1280 x 720 pixels at 15 fps and a fairly decent microphone. You won’t be filming the next blockbuster on it, but it will make for some very decent home movies, and you can even add some of the effects mentioned above for a bit of fun.
Key Features – Image Editor
There’s a basic image editor which allows you to crop and rotate images, as well as remove skin blemishes and so on right on the screen of the camera using your finger – very handy if you print photos straight from your camera by taking the SD card directly to a printing machine and don’t want to fiddle around with exporting the images to a computer first for touching-up.
Overall Impressions
I think with its fun features and festival and party-friendly over-crowd and self-portrait functions, this camera will appeal most to teenagers and twenty-somethings. However, it’s a capable little camera, and would make a good quality traveling companion or family snaps camera for anyone who wants something more than a budget compact. It’s worth buying just for the excellent panorama mode. It has Samsung’s great design, build quality and ease of use going for it too. The only thing that was a negative for me was the image quality in lower light looking over-processed, and a little soft when zoomed in fully. However, unless you’re planning on printing poster-sized photos for your walls, it shouldn’t be an issue for the casual snapper.
In the next of our hands-on reviews, we take a look (get it?) at the Moverio BT-100 transparent multimedia glasses from Epson.
With transparent lenses, you’re able to enjoy big-screen entertainment in private while still being able to see your surroundings.
With transparent lenses and Wi-Fi connectivity, you can update your social network accounts, catch up on the latest news and watch videos online while still being able to see your surroundings.
With the Android 2.2 platform and 4GB SD memory card, you can choose from a whole host of content, such as MPEG 4 and H.264 videos, to watch wherever you want.
You can experience big-screen images that are equivalent to a 320-inch display viewed from 20 metres away. They also deliver a QHD display resolution, equal to a quarter of Full HD.
Specifications
What’s in the Box?
Headset (with light shielding shade and nose pad installed), controller, carry case, AC adapter, USB cable, 4 GB Micro SDHC card, Monaural earphone x2, additional nose pad x2, glasses rim hold x2, computer cable, remote control and batteries, bundled software, password protect sticker, user manual, registration card.
Plex for Android, version 2.2.0.5 has been released bringing with it improvements and various fixes.
Here is what is included in this update:
NEW Android devices can now be remote controlled.
NEW Network logging for troubleshooting
NEW Media Info displayed at top of screen when playback controls are visible.
NEW Experimental Transcode method (Quicksilver)
FIX an issue where sometimes Plex would get stuck on ‘Loading’
FIX playback issues on some ICS devices (e.g. HTC One)
FIX an issue where hints in setup screens were not appearing on some devices
FIX weird seekbar skipping behavior
This year is rather important to London and the UK – we had the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and we also have the 2012 Olympics. To celebrate that there are a number of items available to show the Pride of London, and this first batch are models of the iconic London Bus and Taxi from expert model maker Revell.
Revell’s London Bus Model
The red Routemaster double-decker bus was a true London landmark.
Introduced by London Transport in 1956, it saw continuous service in London until 2005. Even after being decommissioned, its amazing popularity resulted in heritage routes 9 and 15 in central London, encompassing Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park.
It was developed specially for London, featuring the presence of a conductor for efficient boarding time and security, plus open access in the rear to allow passengers to board and alight quickly irrespective of stations. The pioneering design used techniques developed in World War II aircraft production.
This model, the RML “lengthened” bus, replaced the RM class on central routes, giving extra seats to cope with higher loadings. With original manufacturer AEC taken over by British Leyland in 1962, the RML class was intended to be the “Routemaster Leyland” designation.
The London Bus model has 150 parts and retails for £34.99. The model is incredibly detailed and a lot of thought has gone into it, even down to the decals for both the outside, and inside of the bus.
Revell’s London Taxi Model
The Hackney Carriage went into service in 1958, its black paintwork becoming a typical feature of the British street scene. This model, the Austin FX4, was the classic Black Cab. Designed in collaboration with a taxi dealership and coach builder, it was sold under a range of brands.
A 2.2 litre engine gave the vehicle sufficient power for inner city passenger transport. The vehicle ran until 1982 when regulations about exhaust pollutants prohibited the use of this type and production ceased in 1997, to be replaced by the TX series.
The London Taxi model has 68 parts and retails for £19.99.
You can see the difference in size between the two model kits below. The London Bus isn’t a quick job putting together so you should have a lot of fun putting it together.
Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers and from the Revell website.
Have you built either of these two models? If so, let us know by leaving a comment below.
I recently received a TRENDnet TV-IP551WI IP camera …here is the review!
TRENDnet recently sent me a TV-IP551WI to review. First, some background on TRENDnet:
Our Company
TRENDnet is a global provider of award winning networking solutions to small and medium size business and home users. Building networking solutions since 1990, TRENDnet enables users to share broadband access, multimedia content and networked peripherals for true anywhere connectivity. TRENDnet’s diverse product line includes Wireless, Fiber, Switch, Gigabit, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Keyboard/Video/Mouse (KVM), Internet Camera, Print Server, Powerline, Bluetooth, Storage Server, Power over Ethernet (PoE), and Multimedia Accessories.
Based in Torrance, California, TRENDnet maintains branch offices in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Central America, South America, and Asia. TRENDnet’s management system is ISO 9001:2008 certified(click here to view certificate). TRENDnet emphasizes continual improvement as an essential component of its quality management system. This ensures rigorous process standards across the entire organization with respect product development, product quality and all other pertinent enterprise functions. TRENDnet’s 250-plus product portfolio is distributed in over 125 countries. The TRENDnet brand is consistently recognized for high quality, exceptional performance and professional support.
The Wireless N Day / Night Internet Camera, model TV- IP551WI, transmits real-time video over the Internet. Record crisp video in complete darkness for distances of up to 7.5 meters. Wireless n technology provides unsurpassed wireless coverage and improved streaming video quality. Add this camera to your wireless network at the touch of a button with Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS).
Record 640 x 480 (VGA) video at up to 20 frames per second (fps). Manage up to 32 TRENDnet cameras with the included complimentary camera management software. Advanced features include adjustable motion detection recording areas, email alerts, scheduled recording sessions, one-way audio, an adjustable lens, and four times digital zoom. A wall / ceiling mounting kit is included and the camera’s off white housing blends into most environments.
Installation
TRENDnet ships a software/installation disk with the camera. This camera support Wi-Fi Protected Setup mode, making it very easy to establish a link with the camera, but I opted for a full manual installation. Insert the disk into your PC and you are greeted with this screen.
Click on Install Camera and follow the instructions for a WPS installation…very easy indeed!
We played the Summer of Arcade release Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD. Read on for our impressions!
Andrew told us about the five upcoming arcade games for XBOX involved with their Summer of Arcade promotion here. I downloaded and played the new Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD. Here are my impressions. First, a little refresher about Summer of Arcade from the XBOX site.
Experience Five Weeks of Fun!
Don’t miss Summer of Arcade 2012’s blockbuster lineup that will keep you playing all summer long. From an HD upgrade of a popular skateboarding game to a gorgeous animated action game, there’s something for everyone. Whether you’re sitting on the same couch, or on the other side of the globe, invite your friends because this is a party you don’t want to miss!
And the brief game summary:
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD takes the best elements of the classic THPS games and gives them a fresh update to create an all new skateboarding experience. Tapping into fans’ muscle memories, the gameplay in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD returns to controllers and focuses on the satisfaction of linking sick tricks for maximum points. Combining sharp visuals with the best controls ever in a Tony Hawk game, the feel is cutting edge yet timeless.
Features
HD Upgrade: Game was rebuilt and polished by Robomodo using Neversoft’s original level models.
Classic levels: The style and feel of the best 7 levels from THPS and THPS2 (Warehouse, School 2, Mall, Phoenix, Hangar, Marseilles and Venice) refreshed for today. Tony Hawk himself put a call out to his fans on Twitter during the summer of 2011 to decide the final levels. The levels are exactly the same specs as the originals – every gap, SKATE Letter, etc is exactly where you remember it but looks a hell of a lot better!
The Top Pros: Today’s biggest skate pros round out the cast including: Nyjah Huston, Chris Cole, Eric Koston, Andrew Reynolds, Rodney Mullen, Lyn-z Adams Hawkins Pastrana, Riley Hawk and, of course, Tony Hawk himself. Each has 8 boards, 3 special moves, and an alternate outfit.
Refined controls: The skaters’ animations, tricks and combos reflect the evolution of the THPS games. Animations are improved, the tricks have been redone (and some new special tricks added), even “skater celebrations” have been added for big combos.
Manuals and Reverts: You can do manuals as part of trick combos in THPS HD. Given the fact that this game combines the best gameplay from THPS1 and THPS2, Reverts will not work as part of trick combos in the initial launch of THPS HD as that mechanic was not introduced until THPS3. However, reverts will work in the post-release DLC for the THPS3 levels, as those levels were originally designed to accommodate this.
Endlessly fun objectives: Players pursue the same global and level-specific goals as the original games, including S-K-A-T-E, Secret DVD (used to be VHS tape!), and many more.
Soundtrack: The full soundtrack has been announced and is listed at the bottom of this doc. It is about half classic THPS tracks and half new ones.
Online multiplayer: Four modes (Trick Attack, Graffiti, Big Head Elimination, + Free Skate), plus online leaderboards. 8 high score leaderboards (1 per level plus 1 all levels combined). “Target Score” included as well, so you can see next highest score for you to beat to move up in the leaderboard in the HUD.
Downloadable content: Coming post-release, will be levels from THPS3 including Airport. Other two levels and new pros to be announced soon.
In Game Map View: Pause and see the location of objectives and gaps.
Over 15 Achievements / Trophies
Quick Restart: Back button allows you to quickly restart their session. Perfect for the obsessive gamer who is looking to achieve the perfect combo.
Facebook Bragging Rights: Friends can see what level you have played and your score in Facebook.
It’s time to review another shooting game – this time it’s Spec Ops: The Line, and it’s much more than your average shooting game!
This is how the game is described:
IT’S BEEN 6 MONTHS SINCE DUBAI WAS WIPED OFF THE MAP BY A CATACLYSMIC SANDSTORM. Once the world’s most fantastical city, Dubai is now its most opulent ruin.
Ravaged by cataclysmic sandstorms, THE CITY LIES BURIED, reclaimed by the desert. Abandoned, it has become a no-man’s-land for refugees and outlaws.
While most people fled the now-barren wasteland, U.S. Army Colonel John Konrad and the 33rd Infantry remained behind to PROTECT THOSE INCAPABLE OF ESCAPE.
Unable to contact anyone in Dubai, the world believed KONRAD AND HIS TEAM DEAD, until they picked up a weak distress signal. As Captain Walker, you and your squad of Delta Operators INFILTRATE THE TRECHEROUS REGION to locate survivors.
There, you and your men will experience madness – A world shattered by the failings of great men. You will face an enemy you were never trained to fight – Fellow soldiers prepared to accept the consequences of their actions. You will walk a line – That razor-thin edge separating your mission from your duty.
THERE IS NO ESCAPE from Dubai. It is the end – of honour and duty – when the storm has stripped you to the bone and ONLY THE LINE REMAINS.
Campaign Mode
The game starts off with you in a chopper being chased and shot at by a lot of other choppers. You are manning a minigun and you job is simple – shoot the other choppers before they shoot you. Then a sandstorm suddenly appears and it looks like you are going to crash!
Then you are taken to an earlier point in time and the game beings in earnest. You are there on a recon mission – but it’s not long before that goes straight out the window and you are trying to rescue other soldiers. And there are other elements, but I won’t spoil that for you.
Multiplayer Mode
This is how the developer describes the multiplayer experience:
• Experience a variety of game modes such as classic deathmatch, team deathmatch, and “Rally Point”, as well as a unique new mode called “Buried”
• Featuring sandstorms and sand avalanches- you must utilize both to your advantage to succeed. Take out opponents unable to find cover during the storms. Shoot out sand deposits to bury your opponent alive.
• Class-based progression system split across two unique factions: The Damned and The Exiles
• Each faction has four classes and one unique class. Unique classes provide important gameplay bonus for the player’s team
• Unlock new perks, weapons, gear and challenges, and more as you progress up the ranks
• Play across a variety of Dubai-based maps. Experience intense vertical combat in the world’s most opulent ruins.
While I really enjoyed playing the single player game I found myself getting bored of the multiplayer games after a very short time.
This is mainly because it felt like there really wasn’t much to them apart from go hide and wait for someone to appear in front of you and shoot them. The deathmatch games pretty much consisted of this – if you wandered out in the open then you pretty much got shot and killed within a few seconds. So what everyone seemed to be doing was hiding and waiting for you to go into the open – and frankly that isn’t much fun!
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying you shouldn’t try multiplayer, only that it certainly won’t be the main reason for buying the game.
More Images
Here are some more images from the game:
Final Thoughts
As I eluded to earlier, I really enjoyed playing the campaign mode. In fact I found it hard to put down, and there were lots of “just one more level”. Unfortunately I couldn’t say the same for the multiplayer mode. But that’s ok, the campaign mode more than makes up for it.
What I really liked about this game was that it had a story and it wasn’t just all about find the bad guys and shoot them.
Yager, the developer of Spec Ops credits both Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now as inspirations for the game, and you can really see that when you play.
There are a lot of twists and turns in the game, and even a few moments when you are really quite shocked in what happens. But again, I won’t spoil that for you.
The gameplay was very good, and the visuals were stunning – when a sandstorm appears it works really well.
I also really liked that you have to command your two men – you can (and sometimes have to) order them to do things that you can’t, and it certainly makes the game more interesting.
There was also really good use of background objects – for example you can shoot out glass and if that glass happened to have sand above it, that sand will fall and crush the men under it.
If you are looking for a simple shoot the bad guys game you will be disappointed – however if you are looking for a clever, in-depth game that try’s to get across a message, then you definitely should try Spec Ops.
Spec Ops: The Line is available now for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC from 2K Games.
This week we were invited to the launch of a new Freeview+ HD recorder from Harvard International, called the View21.
The View21 may look like any other Freeview+ HD recorder in both looks and specifications (see later) and you would for the most part be right, however it has a secret weapon.
You can control the View21 with the supplied remote control.
Or via an iPad or iPhone app (which is really want makes the View21 stand out). The iOS app will be available at launch time with an Android app coming later. This is the secret weapon, as it was so easy to use and control on the iPad and iPhone, and frankly it’s a great selling point over and above all the other devices on the market. Oh, and did I mentioned you can stream live and recorded TV from the View21 to the iPhone or iPad, so one person can be watching something on the TV, while someone else watches something on their mobile device. Very cool!
There are many different views, and the menu options are very easy to use and scroll through. There is a 4 hour window filter if you want to scroll through making it less of a chore having to go through many many screens looking for something.
The launch apps will include BBC iPlayer, Twitter, Flikr and YouTube.
This is definitely aimed as a catch up device to watch something you missed or something you recorded earlier rather than another preview VOD device.
You can have multiple favourite lists, so every member of the family can have their own.
View21 specifications
500GB Recording memory (approximately 300 hours of standard recording time)
Twin Freeview HD tuners
Full range of all Freeview channels
On demand capabilities
Pause live TV, recorded, fast forward and rewind – fast forward and rewind at x 64
Watch one programme on TV, record another and watch another on your iPad all at the same time (iPhone version to follow)
Picture Push compatible to upload high quality photos and videos
Priority recording – deletes the oldest viewed program if box requires to make space for a new recording
Programmes recorded have to be watched for 5 minutes before they change to ‘Partially Viewed’ in Library
Time shift of 120 minutes
Control your View21 box from anywhere in your house via your iPad and iPhone
Lip synch adjustment
View21 will be available at www.view21.com and selected retailers from around the end of August time for around the £200 mark.
We hope to have one for a proper review soon, but we do like the look and feel and the View21 might be the box to have. It’s just a pity they couldn’t have released it before the Olympics because I think they have missed a great opportunity.
Jim from electrongoo tells me that they have released an updated version of their add-in Integrity Checker.
Integrity Checker is now at version 1.50. The change log includes:
– Updates for Server 2012 Essentials and “Windows Server Logo” certification
– Fixed issue where files located within very long paths wouldn’t be scanned
– Code tuning and performance improvements
The last item, an installed signer, was added explicitly due to feedback from Connected Digital World.Com readers posting comments and the developer wanted to expressly thank our readers for calling that to their attention.
Integrity Checker is a useful utility to managing changed files on your homeserver. The developers say this:
In this digital age, data originates from many paths and numerous devices. With your server at the heart of your data, it’s necessary for you to guarantee integrity. Integrity Checker runs on your Windows Server; quietly, efficiently, and automatically watching for new data. As data is detected, Integrity Checker automatically generates hash-stamps to guarantee the integrity of your data.
Integrity Checker supports Windows Home Server, Windows Home Server 2011, and Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials. See our FAQ and How To pages for details on how Integrity Checker can work for you.
You can buy it today for £199.99 from either Sony Direct or from PC World or Currys.
TV and Internet, together as one
Sony and Google have come together to offer the freedom of the web on the big screen. You can search for anything you can imagine with fast speed Google Chrome browsing. Enjoy easy access to your favourite websites, YouTube and more at the touch of a button. Your home entertainment will never be the same.
Total control at a touch
The dual-sided remote has a touch pad for cursor control on one side and on the other a full keyboard for searching, emails and social media updates. You can also use the voice search to find whatever you’re after with the Blu-ray Disc Player with Google TV. It’s a universal remote that controls your entire entertainment system and it has a motion sensor for playing games. You can even turn your smartphone or tablet into a remote with the free Media Remote app.
Fun at your fingertips with Google Play
With the addition of Google Play, viewers have access a wide variety of apps such as YouTube or Twitter, plus new apps optimized for TV added all the time.
What do you think? Are you going to buy one? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The LinkedIn app for iOS has been updated to version 5.0.6.
Get on-the-go access to your professional network with LinkedIn for iPhone & iPad. Find and connect with more than 150M members worldwide, read the latest industry news, keep up-to-date with your groups, and share content with your network from anywhere.
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