Technology and Innovation

Microsoft unveils the wireless LCD that’s at home in any room of the house

Is your home a temple to minimalism? Do you freak out at the sight of ugly  tangles of wires? Sorry, to hear it. Microsoft may just have had you in mind when it came up with its new home conceptJhe Mira is a portable LCD monitor that communicates with your PC over a wire-free network using the industry-standard Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) technology.
Named after the Spanish verb for”to look” the Philips,ViewSonic and Wyse 10.4-and 15-inch prototypes currently on show are good-looking, but what use they’ll be put to is another matter. Aubrey Edwards, Microsoft’s director of marketing believes the Mira will “free your PC’from the constraints of your desk, so you can pick up your email and surf the Web all from the comfort of your sofa.
Unfortunately the low transfer rate that Wi-Fi currently offers means it only works with low-end applications – and so that means, as yet, no DVD movies in the kitchen or Quake III on the toiletThis does prompt the obvious question; why not use your PDA or laptop? Microsoft argues that as Mira’s only power drain is its display,you’ll get 4-6 hours battery life, and its touchscreen conveniently pops-up a handy “fat fingers” virtual keyboard.
Whether we all go wireless monitor crazy or not, you can expect Mira in the shops by Christmas.

SONY CLIE PEG TB25C PDA
SHOWCASE SONY’S CUE HAS JUST HAD A SLINKY MAKEOVER. YOUR PDA LOVE AFFAIR STARTS HERE
Sony’s initial forays into the world of PDA were hardly inspiring, but can definitely be considered a sign that the company was on the right track. One year down the line, and it might have outdone itself with the latest PEG-T625C model. With its suggestive sinuous corners and wafer-thin form, this colour device is sophistication with an alluring wink, like the Nicole Kidman of the PDA kingdom. You definitely won’t be embarrassed to boldy whip this out on the train. Running off Palm OS 4.1 and showing off a 320 x 320-pixel backlit TFT LCD screen (boasting 65,536 colours), the T625C packs 16MB of memory that can be supplemented with an extra 128MB via the Memory Stick slot. As expected, you get all the usual PDA capabilities, but this Clie is undoubtedly the sexiest handheld on the planet. By the time you read this, the PEG-T625C will be available to lust over.

European gamers finally get their hands on Xbox, while Gamecube prepares for launch of its own
Prepare yourself for gaming nirvana. By early May, there’ll be three next-generation games consoles duking it out for your attention. Microsoft’s Xbox launch went off smoothly in the early hours of 14 March, while Nintendo is preparing for the UK launch of its GameCube console on 3 May.
Xbox’s launch at Virgin Megastore in Oxford Street was a glitzy affair, with a smattering of celebs including Jonathan Ross,Mis-Teeq and Johnny Vegas. Well, we did say smattering. Elsewhere, retailers saw the pre-midnight queues that are now an essential part of any new console launch.
Xbox itself has been flying off the shelves, with launch titles including Halo, Project Gotham Racing, Dead or Alive 3 and Jet Set Radio Future.lhere was also considerable demand for Microsoft’s DVD accessory kit, which for an extra £30 enables you to play DVDs.
There were 20 games available on launch day. Microsoft kept up the hype during launch week, even putting out a press release alleging Britney Spears’split with Justin Timberlake was down to his addiction to Xbox.Yeah, right.
Microsoft has already responded to criticism of its bulky controllers by announcing that the smaller Japanese version will be making it over here, under the name of Xbox Controller S. Besides being more comfortable to use, its buttons have been moved around to make them easier to reach, and the trigger springs are stronger. Expect to see them on sale in the UK imminently.
Meanwhile, Nintendo is readying itself for GameCube’s European launch on 3 May, with 500,000 consoles expected to be available on day one, and a further 500,000 for the rest of the
launch period.The consoles will be available in purple and black, while the controllers will come in purple, black and a purple-and-clear combination.
You’ll be able to get your hands on more than 20 games on the first day, with 30 more following before the summer. Launch titles include Wave Race, B\ue Storm, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, Super Monkey Ball and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.
Finally, Nintendo has also launched a slinky new black version of Game Boy Advance, while from 3 June, US gamers will be able to buy a limited-edition platinum-coloured version, which is being released to tie in with the handheld’s first anniversary.

CANON POWERSHOT A40
Following hot on the heels of last year’s Powershot A10 and A20, is the Powershot A40, a beginner’s camera with enough features to satisfy a professional photographer. Equipped with an 8MB CompactFlash Card, the A40 is capable of snapping a clean two megapixels (just high enough for decent print-outs at the average 35mm film size of 6 x 4 ins). Detailed images and colour should also be guaranteed due to Canon’s Imaging Engine system, and the A40 also sports a respectable 3x optical zoom lens to boot. And when you’ve stopped pretending to be Robert Capa, you can take short sound-filled movies with the A40 as well.

CANON NETWORK CAMERA VB-C10
If you’re gagging for the third series of  Big Brother, you’re going to love this. Combining a camera with a built-in server, the natty VB-C10 enables you to transmit live images over your Local Area Network (LAN) or the Internet As the VB-C10 uses Motion-JPEG data compression, you can capture footage at anything from 0.1 frames per second to an impressive 30 per second (your local cinema only uses 24). The real joy of Canon’s Network Cam is it uses existing Internet protocols to communicate, so you can control pan, tilt and zoom from any Web browser in the world. Just invite your mates to an anonymous house in East London and you’re away.

PANASONIC DVD-R32EBS DVD PLAYER

The company’s new entry-level DVD comes with a slew of features designed to make the most of your movie-watching, including a 27MHz/10-bit video digital to analogue converter (DAC) and a 4:3 Zoom function which practically eliminates the black bars you get on top and bottom of the screen on square shaped TVs. The sound side of the equation hasn’t been neglected either with twin laser pickups and a 192kHz/24-bit audio DAC promising improved sound quality from your DVDs and CDs. Plus the DVD-R32EBS can handle MP3-encoded discs. As an added bonus for hardcore movie fans, Panasonic has also thrown in a Dialogue Enhancer that boosts sound signals from the centre channel speaker in an AV setup so you can more easily understand what your favourite actors are actually talking about.

FUJITSU SIEMENS POCKET LOOX

Slimline, high-powered, and with Bluetooth built-in. What more could you ask for in a PDA? Well, Fujitsu Siemens figure a GPRS plug-in module (coming this August for European users), a Compact Flash type II and SD/MMC card slot plus a 240 x 320 screen capable of displaying over 65,000 colours. Its the fastest PDA we’ve seen, powered by Intel’s new XScale processor which runs at 400MHz. Being Pocket PC 2002-based, the LOOX is not only ideal for syncing with Outlook but comes complete with Pocket Word and Pocket Excel too.

NOKIA 7210

THE 7210 IS THE LATEST IN A LONG LINE OF MOUTH-WATERING HANDSETS FROM THE NORDIC GIANTS

Style over functionality seems to be de rigueur with mobile phone manufacturers.  Take Motorola’s swoonsome V70, for example. This handset, with its swish swivel-cover action and white-on-black LCD screen, is a poser’s dream. Admittedly, it’s awkward to use, but who cares when it looks that stylish? Well, not to be outdone, Nokia has rolled up with an adversary, the tri-band 7210. Unmistakably Nokia, this handset may not eschew the phone blueprint as much as the V70, but it still stands out from the mobile hoi polloi. Ditching the uniform keypad format and glistening with translucent trimmings, the GPRS 7210 flaunts a 4,096-colour display and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) capabilities, enabling you to send combined text, graphic and image content to your friends on compatible phones. Supporting the Java 2 platform, the phone also enables you to download games via WAP, while the built-in FM radio provides the toe-tapping tunes. The 7210 five-continent globetrotter is available around July, and will be reviewed in T3 imminently.

It’s also dead easy to use and will lovingly serve you up a perfect cappuccino or espresso again and again and again. And, more to the point, you can call the cup whatever you damn well like. What the Zippo is to lighters, the Dualit is to toasters: fci a design classic, an icon, a touch of class, a retro 50s pieo of kitchen kit that’ll never go out of fashion. Yes, for a toaster, it’s pricey, but it’s something everyone else will coo over forever, and it makes the toast too.The squat Dualit is of a solid, chunky build, with three settings and a reassuring timer that buzzes its way down through the minutes to finish with a satisfying click. Available in two- or four-slice options, the super-wide slots are spring-loaded, and the pressure-sensitive cage can adjust to the shape and size of any slice of breakeven baguettes.The toaster’s ProHeat element comes with a two-year guarantee.

And, what’s more, it’s easy to clean. Bonus! Circumnavigate annoying queues for coffee – in shops staffed by the terminally bewildered, as you impatiently wait to be served up an overpriced coffee in a cup with a daft, pretentious name such as Grande or Verde – by cutting out the middleman and doing it yourself at home.This Gaggia espresso coffee-maker has a 1,425W boiler, a powerful 12-bar-rated pump, a turbo steam frother,a removable side-loading reservoir together with a hard-wearing brass filter-holder.