Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

Ever thought how good would it be if there was a way to reduce the harm of cigarettes without giving up the habit of smoking? Here is the answer, Myvic Electronic Cigarette is a revolutionary new product which is drastically healthier than traditional smoking. It will improve your health while giving the same sensations as ordinary cigarettes.

There are more than 4000 chemicals found in the ordinary cigarettes, of which at least 400 are harmful for the human body. They contain, tar, carbon monoxide, benzene, acetone, formaldehyde, arsenic and many others. This chemicals contribute to lung cancer and many other diseases associated with cigarette smoking.

While using Myvic Electronic Cigarette you have to change nicotine refills, which range from high concentrate nicotine to zero nicotine content. The refill contains nicotine and propylene glycol (harmless to human body). Nicotine is not believed to cause cancer, and compared to all the chemicals inhaled while smoking ordinary cigarettes it is relatively harmless.

This revolutionary device can be used anywhere where traditional smoking is forbidden: restaurants, clubs, pubs and even on the planes. It completely simulates the sensation of smoking ordinary cigarettes, it even produces 'smoke' which is actually water vapours. 98% of the nicotine contained in the inhaled mist is absorbed by the organism, leaving only propylene glycol which is exhaled and is absolutely harmless to people around you, therefore there is no passive smoking. The 'smoke' disappears within seconds after being exhaled, leaving no smoke what so ever inside the building.

Myvic Electronic Cigarette is also cheaper than ordinary cigarettes. It could save you £528 a year, or even more depending on individual smoking habits. The cigarette can be purchased at the price of £39, and a 5 pack of Myvic Refills is priced at £5. One Myvic Refill is equal to approx. 10-20 ordinary cigarettes, which means you pay £5 for the equivalent of approx. 50-100 ordinary cigarettes.

More information on the benefits of the Myvic Electronic Cigarette can be found on the official website at www.myvic.co.uk.

I was recently passed a review sample of the AceCad DigiMemo A402 from Selwyn Electronics. The DigiMemo is a portable and compact electronic notepad which you can use just like a clipboard to instantly record your notes, ideas, sketches, drawings and flowcharts both on paper and digitally at the same time.

While I am normally more used to playing around with the latest smart phones or fiddling around with the insides of my PC the DigiMemo did have some appeal to me. I am an extraordinarily disorganised person, I spend all day in front of my PC and unfortunately I have to take phone calls a lot, which leads me to making notes of conversations in notepads or just on scrap paper. This is where my problems really start I can guarantee you that within 24 hours the note I have just made will be lost, or somehow destroyed, most likely with spilt coffee. Therefore the idea of being able to convert my notes to digital format is quite appealing.

The blurb from the Selwyn site explains that:

Any ordinary paper or notepad up to A4 size (210mm x 297mm) can be used with the DigiMemo and the ultra-thin & light digital pen which takes a standard replaceable ballpoint ink cartridge provides a natural pen and paper feel. Not only does the DigiMemo use standard ink refills and paper it's also powered by standard batteries, the pad takes 4× AAA batteries which last approximately 80 hours (continual use) and the pen is powered by a standard watch battery (SR626SW) that lasts approximately 14 months. The 32MB of internal memory can hold up to 80 pages of notes and if this simply isn't enough there is the option of expanding the memory with an SD card allowing you to write and store up to 999 pages of notes. The storage capacity, battery life and ease of use makes the DigiMemo an unbeatable mobile note-taking device.

Once connected up to a PC downloading, viewing, editing and organising your notes in Windows couldn't be easier with the DigiMemo Manager Software and because the A4 DigiMemo is also a graphics tablet in Windows you can update and add to your notes in real-time on your computer! Although not included within the cost of the DigiMemo the MyScript Notes handwriting recognition software takes it to a whole new level by allowing you to convert handwritten notes from the DigiMemo into editable text in Microsoft Word with astounding accuracy in just a few seconds.

The process of installing the DigiMemo was relatively easy, and once installed software supplied allows you to transfer the pages as images into a digital form. You can then chose to convert your writing into text.

Unfortunately this is where things went a little pear shaped for me. The MyScript Notes software provided has built-in handwriting recognition and you can train the software with your handwriting by writing out the alphabet, numbers then some paragraphs of text. This is quite a tedious process and the problem I have is that not only am I chronically disorganised but my writing is bloody awful. I also tried to be lazy and not complete the all the writing that was required and this led to the software failing to get an accurate enough reading on my writing. So I had to repeat the process. 3 times!

Once I had completed the process I found the accuracy quite poor for my writing.

Overall I am not slating the DigiMemo, it is a good product and I don't think it failed, it is more that I failed to write like a normal human being. If I had slowed down and tried to write neater I am sure it would of been fine, but I wanted something that would understand my daily notes so it is not ideal to myself.

In conclusion it is an excellent product, while it is quite a niche product I could actually see it being very useful in a lot of applications. If you require the handwriting recognition then you should take into account that this technology is never perfect so you can't expect to jot illegible notes and expect it to magically decipher them.

Jack Thompson has been a thorn in the side of video game companies with his fight against computer violence. While he has caused quite a bit of grief for game companies he has become a bit of a laughing stock in the community.

Thompson was recommended for permanent disbarment this year on charges of abusing the legal system and 27 different counts of misconduct. As well as getting permanently disbarred, Thompson was also forced to pay $43,675.35 in legal fees to the court.

According to Game Politics it would appear that the disbarment has finally been made official.

I am sure this wont stop him from being so vocal about his beliefs though

The Florida Bar documents for disciplinary action can be read here

Love it or hate it, it is very likely you will use a Windows based PC at some point during your working week.

Recently Microsoft officially named the new version of Windows as Windows 7. Apparently the decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity and Microsoft VP, Mike Nash, was quoted saying:

The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Simply put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore Windows 7 just makes sense.

Coming up with an all-new 'aspirational' name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows.

Windows 7 will ship in both client and server versions with the client versions available in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions.

It is generally regarded that Windows 7 will not be a brand new version of Windows, it is more of an improved version of Vista.

Yesterday Microsoft gave an extensive demo of the new version of Windows, Windows 7.

Apparently the new OS will run fine on a 1GHz netbook with 1GB of RAM, but I will believe that when I see it.

Some key points via Engadget from the keynote include:

• Obviously, the big news is the new taskbar, which forgoes text for icons and has new "jump lists" of app controls and options you can access with a right-click. You can select playlists in Media Player, for example. Super cool: when you scrub over the icons, all the other app windows go transparent so you can "peek" at the windows you're pointing at.
• Gadgets now appear on the desktop -- the sidebar has been killed. That makes more sense for all those laptop owners out there with limited screen space, and you can still see gadgets anytime by peeking at the desktop, rendering all other windows transparent.
• Window resizing and management now happens semi-automatically: dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it, pulling it down restores; dragging a window to the edges auto-resizes it to 50% for quick tiling. Nifty.
• The system tray now only displays what you explicitly say it should -- everything else is hidden, and the controls have been streamlined.
• User Account Control settings are now much more fine-grained -- you can set them by app and by level of access.
• They demoed multitouch features on an HP TouchSmart PC -- it was pretty cool, although the usual nagging "what is this good for / that'll get old fast" concerns weren't really addressed. The Start menu gets 25 percent bigger when using touch to make it easier to handle, and apps will all get scroll support automatically. There's also a giant on-screen predictive keyboard. Again -- could be amazing, but we won't know until it's out in the wild.
• We've always known Microsoft intends Windows 7 to run on netbooks, and we got a small taste during the PDC keynote: Windows SVP Steve Sinofsky held up his "personal" laptop running Windows 7, an unnamed 1GHz netbook with 1GB of RAM that looked a lot like an Eee PC, and said that it still had about half its memory free after boot. (We're guessing it was running a VIA Nano, given the announcement this morning and since most Atoms run at 1.6GHz.)
• At the other end of the scale, Windows 7 supports machines with up to 256 CPUs.
• Multiple-monitor management is much-improved, as is setting up projectors -- it's a hotkey away. Remote Desktop now works with multiple monitors as well.
• Media Center has been tweaked as well -- it looks a lot more like the Zune interface. There's also a new Mini Guide when watching video, and a new Music Wall album artwork screensaver that kicks in when you're playing music.
• Devs got a pre-beta today; a "pretty good" feature complete beta is due early next year. No word at all on when it'll be released to market apart from that "three years from Vista" date we've known forever.

Read more at Arstechnica, Mcrosoftpdc and Technologizer

Truphone is a free piece of VOIP software that has been available on S60 phones and the iPhone for some time now.

Truphone have now launched a BlackBeryy version of this popular VOIP client allowing users to make free or very cheap phone calls with no roaming charges

Instead of requiring the user to remember what to do, Truphone Anywhere simply asks whether he/she wants to make a Truphone call whenever an international number is dialled. The user simply accepts, and Truphone connects the call. This reduces international call rates to as little as £0.03/$0.06 per minute.

The Blackberry application can be downloaded here

Press release after jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators in Baltimore has informed the New York Times that he was able to install a keystroke logging application by redirecting the G1's web browser to a malicious web site that automatically installed the software.

Google has acknowledged the security flaw and points out that the sandbox-nature of Android limits the damage to a single application. Unlike other smart-phones and PCs, this security flaw only affects the web browser and will not compromise any other portions of the phone. Google has already patched the open-source version of Android and is currently working with T-Mobile and HTC to get the security patch out to current T-Mobile customers.

With more and more phones concentrating on the camera aspect of the phone it may come as no surprise that Casio has decided to get involved in all this cam-phone malarkey.

Casio will be releasing in Japan a new EXILIM powered mobile phone featuring an 8.1 camera with a 9 Point auto-focus and a wide angle, the W63CA. The phone will also feature a 3.1-inch WVGA screen.

Casio have decided to go with a dual LED flash over a Xenon flash, which is a bit of a shame as LED flash tends to be a bit rubbish.

It is that time of the year again, companies are publishing the quarterly report card. Google have been doing well, Yahoo not so well and now Apple are showing some impressive figures.

The company posted a profit of $1.14 billion on revenues of $7.9 billion for the quarter, their sales figures for their devices were off the roofs. In the Q4 of 2008, Apple managed to sell 6,892,000 iPhone 3Gs compared to the 1,119,000 iPhones in Q4 of 2007.

Apple is now the world’s third largest mobile phone supplier in terms of revenue, trailing behind Nokia and Samsung. They outsold RIM’s entire range of BlackBerry phones. RIM sold 6.1 million phones compared to the 6.9 million iPhones.

Apple’s stock prices were up by $9.91 or 11%. Even AT&T benefited from the strong iPhone sales and its stock price rose by 85 cents or 3.3%.

Via: smokingapples