ASA knocks PC World laptop ad

PC World has fallen foul of the Advertising Standards Authority over a recent TV ad for the Toshiba Qosmio F20 136 laptop. The advertisement showed a store assistant describing it as having 'Intel Centrino mobile technology .. ...more

Poisoned Spam from Sugarplum

No one likes a spammer. But if you feel really strongly about such matters, then Sugarplum - an anti-spamming tool - may be of interest to you. The Net-head's Web site Slashdot has reported that a new version of Sugarplum is available. ...more

Price Check: DVD burners

With blue-laser technology imminently promising to revolutionise our idea of optical formats, we thought it timely to look once more at the cost of DVD burners. It seems incredible that what cost several hundred pounds a couple of years ago can now be had for the price of a meal out. The cheapest DVD burner we turned up is Samsung's internal TS-H552U at ?28. ...more

Toshiba pushes the flash memory envelope

Good news for gadget designers - Toshiba has managed to double the capacity of its NAND flash memory, with 4Gbit ICs. Greater memory capacities, of course, give improved scope for miniaturisation or more powerful functionality, for devices such as digital cameras, MP3 players, smartphones and the like. Described by Toshiba as the semiconductor industry's first 4Gbit single-die, multi-level cell (MLC), NAND flash memory, the chip is made on 90-nanometer process technology and reportedly doubles the capacity of Toshiba's present largest single-die NAND flash memory. ...more

Matsushita lets you feel the music

And how is the music sir? Like a traditional sommelier would recommend the best wine to go with your food, so Matsushita's Musicsommelier technology suggests the best music to go with your mood. In an attempt to let the user make sense of the huge resource of music available online, the Musicsommelier interface technology classifies music according to its emotive feel. The system evaluates a piece of music through five emotive qualities: how soft, simple, refreshing, dynamic and exciting it is, and to what extent. ...more