Technofile:Keen to upgrade to the new version of the Windows operating system? Really keen? Then head over to Amazon in the US which is selling an upgrade of Vista Ultimate with Bill Gates' signature on the back.
However, note three things. The limited edition goes for a $10 (€8) premium over the standard box. Secondly, I doubt Bill signed these - they've got to be printed. Thirdly, do you really want Bill's signature? Okay, so it ups your cool factor for Technofile, but for normal people?
n The new Sansa Xpress USB-stick music player has 1GB of memory, a small screen, playback controls, 15-hour battery life, and microSD expansion slot, but even that means it can't compete with the iPod Shuffle, now the size of a biological virus. However, it will work with many online music stores that the iPod doesn't.
n Pentax has launched the budget e30 digital camera range. The M30 and T30 models have a seven megapixel sensor and 3x zoom. But the T30 has an innovative three-inch touchscreen LCD, and the ability to focus on faces, not the tree behind your loved-ones. At the same time Canon has improved the features on its existing A430 snapper which is now the A460, featuring five megapixels, a bigger screen. The new A550 model heads to 7.1MP.
And what's this? Four new budget cameras from Sony. At the bottom of the range is the DSC-S650 and S700 which now sport seven megapixels, while further up is the DSC-W35 and W55 which are thin, all-metal bodies, and a 2.5in screen. All have a 3x optical zoom.
n Samsung is making inroads into the super thin mobile market, even trumping itself. And the Ultra Edition 10.9 (pictured) takes over where Samsung's D900 left off as the "world's thinnest slider". And the new Ultra Edition 6.9 is a 6.9mm-thick candybar handset with a two-megapixel camera and 80MB of internal memory. The 9.9 edition is a clamshell style which is 9.9mm thick and the 12.9 edition has a three-megapixel camera, a 2.1-inch screen, Bluetooth including A2DP stereo audio support.
n For anyone not on Windows, the alternative has long been Apple for most of us. But now the geek-ish Linux is flexing its muscle, forming a new entity, the Linux Foundation, to start taking the open source operating system (read free) to a more mainstream market. Since about $14.5 billion worth of IT infrastructure now runs on Linux, there is gold in them there hills, and Linux aims to prove it.
n Google is reputedly looking at selling digital books or ebooks. Sony and Amazon are testing the waters, but what makes Google different is it may try to rent ebooks or sell by the chapter. It already has licensees in Penguin, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, so watch this space.
n If you can't wait for the iPhone to appear on these shores then consider the bevy of competitors who just can't wait to prove that they too can produce a great phone with just a screen to work with. LG and fashion brand Prada are about to release a high-end phone which looks pretty stunning so far. Smaller and thinner than the iPhone, it is 12mm thick. The iPhone war is definitely on.
