Technofile Mike ButcherIt's time again for a roundup of the latest gadget and technology news.
Duran Duran fans will be getting more than a box set when they purchase the latest DVD release featuring the band playing 20 different songs live. It comes with 3D glasses and one song that can be watched in 3D. The box set comes with a 10-track bonus CD, and is retailing for around €20 from the beginning of November. Watch out for more gimmicks like this from other bands.
Keep your eyes peeled for broadband deals this summer. Cable companies and telcos are gearing up for better and better offers as the technology gets cheaper for them to provide and the broadband data rates go up. Anyone looking to get into broadband should hunt around for standard 2 megabyte per second deals which are at their most competitive right now.
Podgear has launched a new iPod speaker system with a unique feature - it's the first that's compatible with all three iPods, from the standard iPod to the iPod Mini and the Shuffle. Two six watt speakers will pump out the tunes, and it also features and an auxiliary line-in port and a USB port for synching up with your PC. Look out online for the "House Party" model for around €70.
Dump your old photographic film camera right now. Dixons, the UK's largest high street electronics retailer, has pulled the plug on analogue SLR cameras, blaming weak demand. More and more of you are switching to digital cameras and using camera phones in mobiles to snap quick pictures. Digital cameras now outsell 35mm cameras by 15 to one. The upshot? When major high street retailers take this kind of action, the writing really is on the wall.
Film cameras will get mostly costly to support, so it may well be time to bite the bullet and go digital. Retailers will no doubt continue to sell film cameras, but do you really want to be the last person to buy one and be left holding the obsolete baby?
Look out for a new type of Phillips MP3 player which looks like a bullet. Released in the US first, it'll run for 15 hours off one AA battery. Should hit these shores by next year.
Likewise, look out for what claims to be the world's smallest digital media player from Mpio. The "Yup" has a 65k colour screen an inch across, and will play MPEG4, DivX, AVI, and WMV format movies up to 1Gb big.
Unfortunately, the player does not come with a magnifying glass - which you will no doubt need to watch anything on it. The next hot phone from Sony Ericsson looks likely to be the W550 camera phone which comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera, a gaming system, an MP3 player, two stereo speakers and a 176 x 220, 262k colour screen and 256MB of internal memory. Not out yet, but likely to be a chic new addition to their range. Meanwhile, you should now be able to pick up the the first Walkman branded phone, the W800i.
Will the Xbox360 be in Europe by November? That's what the rumour mill is saying.
However, signs are that because of the delay in the arrival of Sony's P23, the Xbox may have its price raised to take advantage of the wait.
Keep your eyes peeled.
Apple sold a million songs in Japan just four days after launching its new iTunes music store there.
That's the fastest selling launch in any of the 20 nations where iTunes exists. That'll mean a few million more iPod sales then, which is ultimately Apple's aim.
