Category Archives: In the News

Tech news and opinions

TomTom Sat Nav Software now available on the iTunes Store!

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If you have a iPhone 3G or 3GS you’ll probably be pleased to know that TomTom has launched it’s own app for satellite navigation!

As you can probably guess, the software uses the GPS navigator to run the software.

The software doesn’t come cheap but TomTom is a very well-known provider of sat-nav facilities so I suspect it will do well.

The software is currently available in 6 packages each relating to a different part of the world:

  • UK & Ireland (costs £59.99)
  • Australia (costs £44.99)
  • New Zealand (costs £54.99)
  • U.S. and Canada (costs £59.99)
  • Western Europe (costs £79.99)

An exciting idea that may prove a success to the company, but this certainly isn’t the first piece of sat-nav software available for the iPhone. There have also been a few complaints that the software has its problems – one of them being that the software apparently pauses when a call is received which would be a pain if you are driving. I guess only time will tell if the product sells.

Karoo changes policy yet again!

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A while back GEEK! reported about Karoo – the only ISP in Hull (UK) that screwed up on its internet policy.

Well it would appear that Karoo has changed its internet policy yet again. Now they are saying that a full court order will be required before the suggestion of a service cut-off can take place.

This statement was issued by Karoo to TorrentFreak: “We will no longer suspend a customer’s service unless we receive a court order from a copyright owner taking legal action. As a result it is the responsibility of the legal system, not Karoo, to ensure the accuracy of the information provided by the copyright owners.”

This changes the rules a lot. What they are saying is that Karoo will not cut off their users for illegal downloads by themselves. They will wait until a copyright owner files a case in court, and (supposedly) if the court order affects someone from their user base then they will cut that user off, either temporarily or permanently depending on what conclusion is made by the court.

Karoo have finally made the decision that it is the legal system that must deal with illegal downloaders, not Karoo themselves. I respect this decision, personally. I’m not a Karoo user myself, but I would agree with what they are now doing.

However, that isn’t game over if Karoo do get a report from a court. There are some issues that can come up. There is no guaruntee that court orders are 100% accurate so innocent users may get cut off. IP addresses are too easy to hide or modify so it would be unfair to cut off a user because of their IP address downloading an illegal file. The only real way that ISPs (or courts) can be sure of illegal downloads is to analyse a user’s hard drive, but even this has its issues – there would have to be warrants involved and before you know it a quick illegal download can become a huge matter.

GEEK! has never encouraged illegal downloads and never will. GEEK! will shortly be posting a guide about staying legal online so make sure you stay tuned if you want some key tips on how to avoid getting in trouble with the law because of your internet connection.

Sony announces 2TB Memory Stick XC

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Sony, a worldwide leader in technology (best known for the PlayStation format and common consumer electronics) has announced upcoming production of a 2 terabyte memory stick, dubbed part of the “Memory Stick XC” range.

It will be the same shape and size as the current “Memory Stick Pro” format, so perhaps there may be some backward compatibility meaning that PSP and Sony digital camera users could be in for a big boost on memory. GEEK! can’t find a lot of information regarding backward compatibility but it would be nice (although who would need 2 terabytes of storage on their PSP?).

Not a lot of word on pricing yet but word on the internet is that we might see it available in the next few years.

It looks good – but why would I want a memory stick that has several times the capacity of my hard drive? I mean the idea sounds pretty awesome, but honestly – is there a limit to how much storage we need (or can afford)? My concern would be that Sony might be “biting off a bit more than they can chew”, if you get my drift – I don’t see who is going to want to shed out hundreds (more likely thousands) of pounds on a memory stick.

In the mean time, it looks like Sony is going to concentrate on slowly increasing the capacity of the Memory Stick range. We already have 16GB and 32GB memory sticks, so maybe in the short term we will begin to see 64GB and 128GB. This will mean that Sony can slowly start to reach that maximum capacity of 2TB.

Firefox downloaded 1,000,000,000 times!

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Mozilla, founder of the open-source Firefox, today announced that the browser has now been downloaded one billion times!

It really shows how software that is totally open-source can be really successful.

Sadly I can’t say I’m massively influenced by this milestone, since I have been using Google Chrome for months now and have never regretted the switchover. Firefox is great but Chrome is so simple and easy to use.

Well anyway, congratulations Mozilla – and good luck for the future!

Microsoft extending browser choice to XP and Vista as well as Windows 7

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Remember a while back when I was talking about Microsoft giving users the choice of which browser they use in Windows 7? Well, Microsoft is apparently now going extend this consideration to Windows XP and Vista too.

From what I’ve heard from various sites on the net, Microsoft will be releasing an update (via Windows Update) sometime in the next six months. The update will only appear in Europe and the update will be either a “high priority” or “important” update. Once the update is installed, the next time IE runs, a “ballot” screen will appear showing users all other internet browsers with more than 0.5% (per cent) of the internet browser share in Europe.

Users will then be able to choose a browser that appeals to them and install it.

Users can also choose to stick with Internet Explorer, or be asked again at a date in the future.

In my opinion, this is great news. We might actually be able to get accurate results as to which browser is most important, and users wont be biased into using Internet Explorer anymore.

Thanks Microsoft, this is great news!