Category: Uncategorised

Japanese manufacturer Sharp has invented a new microwave oven that can melt the fat away from food, using superheated steam at temperatures just short of 600 degrees fahrenheit. It’s clever stuff although like most new tech, it’s pricey: it looks like it’ll cost around $1,100 (£600). [via Squander Two]

Yet another copyright story, and something that’s worth remembering whenever big media companies talk about protecting content creators. According to a discussion on the editorial photographers’ mailing list, IPC (publisher of NME and Uncut, among others) is about to launch new, digital versions of some of its titles, which will be available as PDF downloads…

After weeks without any invites at all, GMail seems to be chucking new invites at users: yesterday it gave me 6 “invite a friend to GMail” opportunities, and it’s added a further invite this morning. Maybe it’s finally gearing up for a proper launch; after all, it’s been in beta since April.

Maybe this’ll rebuild my karma with irritated Mac users ;-) This Newsday review suggests that Sony has a long way to go if it’s going to dent the success of the iPod. Forcing you to convert your entire music library into yet another DRM-ed format before you can take it with you is a spectacularly…

This masterpiece is by Mr Paul Douglas:

The Daily Mail’s web site is quite adamant that under no circumstances may you link to its site without written permission. If you don’t have that permission then under no circumstances should you link to the Daily Mail’s web site. Oh, and you’re not allowed to cache it, either.

The BPI’s latest press release has just landed on my desk, and the news is good: despite rampant downloading (which so far, the BPI hasn’t used as grounds to sue anyone), sales are up, up, up! UK sales were up 4% on last year, with album sales up 3.7%, the singles market showing the first…

Simon B of No Rock’N’Roll Fun (the best music blogger bar none) thinks there’s something very wrong with the way the RIAA is forcing people to pay ridiculous sums to settle lawsuits resulting from MP3 downloading; as he points out: people are being bounced into settling for absurd figures because they’re scared. [One person] had…

I don’t normally post plugs for bands, but I’ll make an exception for Dear Eskiimo. They’re a Manchester band who do swaggering, lurchy pop music with angelic girl vocals; I’ve been listening to their audio samples and jumping around the office like a loon.

In Wired magazine’s Cult of Mac blog, Leander Kahney takes a swipe at a Business Week article that does the unthinkable: it criticises Apple and in particular, suggests that Macs are too expensive. Kahney writes: Really, it’s the same old bollocks and clearly demonstrates Salkever [the BW writer] has no understanding of Apple whatsoever. To…