Welcome to Brand New Technology Update. We are a UK Gadget and Technology Blog. Great stuff for all you Gizmo Gadgeteers.

Tuesday 29 January 2008

O2 Announce Cheaper iPhone Tariffs For The UK

The attitude towards the Apple iPhone here in the UK is kind of, "Well yeah, it's a cool phone and all, i get it, but how do i pay rent once I've bought one?" Well O2 have announced that from February 1st 2008 they are to offer improved tariff deals on the Apple iPhone, meaning that at long last the Apple iPhone might just be value for money.

The current iPhone Tariffs are at £35 a month, £45 a month and £55 a month. If you are on the £35 deal you will currently be getting 200 minutes and 200 texts. Now the minutes on the £35 a month deal have been tripled to 600 and the texts have been bolstered to 500. The £45 a month will now be the same as the current £55 a month deal giving you 1200 free minutes and 500 free texts while the £55 a month deal will be banished and be replaced with a £75 a month deal. All you guys out there on the £55 deal need not to worry though, you will not be forced into paying £75 a month, you will be put down to the £45 deal which will give you the same amount of minutes and texts that you were on already only you will be getting them for ten bucks less! The new £75 a month deal will give you a massive 3000 free minutes a month plus your 500 free texts of course.

The best part is that these new tariffs will apply to both new and existing customers. If it was O2's outrageous tariffs that were stopping you from investing in an iPhone before, you have no excuse now.

Monday 21 January 2008

HD-DVD Update - Toshiba HD-EP30 At All Time Low Price

Toshiba slashes HD-DVD prices yet again!

Less than a week after Toshiba cut the price of their HD-EP30 player, they have slashed it again. This time they have chopped off another 30 quid taking it down to a lowly £150. But this is not the best part, wait for it... Amazon have chopped the price even more and the HD-EP30 player is now at an embarrassing £119.99 and yes, you still get the 7 free movie titles as well my movie obsessed friends. Strike while the iron is hot and get yourself over to Amazon now to take them up on this incredible offer.

Available at Amazon


Friday 18 January 2008

AirMail - Manila Style Envelope For Macbook Air

At Macworld Steve Jobs pulled out the Macbook Air from a standard-sized manila envelope, a move which left all Apple lovers watching, gasping for air. Even though it is only a couple of days after Macbook Air's unveiling, the accessories have already been made. Yes, two self-confessed Apple geeks have designed a laptop case resembling a manila envelope so you can pull your own version of the Steve Jobs move whenever you like.

The AirMail "envelope" is handmade out of durable upholstery-grade vinyl, lined with a fuzzy, soft fleece and is the same size as your run of the mill manila envelope. The geeks have said that AirMail is good enough to protect your Macbook Air from cosmetic damage, smudges and keep it safe from bumps in daily use. However it is not suitable for extreme circumstances, so it appearing in the next James Bond movie is highly unlikely.

For a £1200 laptop I'd prefer a case in the form of an Army Tank, soldier included rather than an envelope lined with "bum fluff" but for the pure fun of it, it would be 15 quid well spent. You can buy one right here.

Tuesday 15 January 2008

Is This The Death Of HD-DVD? - Toshiba Slash HD-DVD Prices Again

Last week the HD-DVD camp were dealt another blow in the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray war, actually, they were dealt more blows than Rocky Balboa and this time it doesn't look like Rocky will get back up (Yes, HD-DVD is Balboa in this cheap metaphor). After having to cancel its pitch at CES, movie studios Warner Bros and New Line Cinema jumping over to team Blu-Ray and Microsoft considering a Blu-Ray Xbox, i would be right in saying that it was a week that HD-DVD will want to forget. The question now is... "Is this the end for HD-DVD?" It certainly looks that way, Microsoft considering turning Blu has really got to sting but HD-DVD's egos and pride are far too great to just throw in the towel and they are going to fight to the death in true Rocky fashion.

The HD-DVD player top dogs are Toshiba and they have came out swinging, announcing some super sharp price cuts. Over in the US, entry level players HD-A3, HD-A30 with 1080p output and the high-end HD-A35 have now had their price tags slashed down to a clearance bin worthy $150 (£75), $200 (£100) and $300 (£150). The US are not the only ones offered HD-DVD bargains. Over here in the UK the Toshiba HD-EP30 (pictured) has had yet another price drop and is now down to a cool £180 plus you get 7 free HD-DVD titles, yes that's right, 7! Also in the U.S of A, Toshiba are starting a new huge ad campaign to try and get back in the hi-def fight, concentrating on HD-DVD prices and DVD-handling benefits.

Will this "fightback" work? Or are they just postponing the inevitable a little bit longer? I'll leave that for you to decide but at the end of the day, we are all getting bargains and that is music to anyone's ears.

If you would like to take up the Toshiba HD-EP30 plus 7 HD-DVD titles for £180 deal, it is only available at Amazon

Update: Toshiba HD-EP30 plus 7 Free titles now £119.99 at Amazon!

Friday 11 January 2008

Samsung F490 Takes On iPhone And Hits The UK First

Samsung are leading the charge from mobile producers in the "War against iPhone" by launching a brand new touchscreen mobile phone named the F490.

The F490 has a 3.2 inch screen with haptic-touch feedback which should be more than satisfactory for even the most critical of mobile phone pundits, an 11.8 mm chassis which is only .2 of a mm thicker than that of an iPhone so it is definitely not overweight and for Web uses it has HSDPA where it definitely tops the iPhone's average EDGE. Memory is a bit of a let down with only 130MB internal memory so you'll be thanking your lucky stars for MicroSD. An SD card is a must have or you'll quickly be running out of media opportunities.

The Samsung F490 is to be launched in the UK first in February which will be a very rare event when launched indeed but a price has not yet been set, be sure to check back for more news soon.

Tuesday 8 January 2008

Sony Lay Down Mylo 2

Everyone wants the web sitting right in their pocket nowadays, whether its from mobile phone or a handheld computer, you just have to have it. Sony's new answer to real quality pocket surfing is their new handheld computer... Mylo COM-2.

Mylo 2 is an extremely classy and very sexy device which boasts a 3.5in touch-screen which flips up to reveal a QWERTY keyboard, wi-fi, a 1.3mp camera, Skype, a backlit keyboard, 1GB of storage, email and instant messaging. Now that is a real quality piece of tech and you'd be mad to disagree. It also supports iPhone-style widgets, such as a very sharp Facebook monitoring app. Of course, it'll play music and movies from memory cards and, in the US, it'll connect to Wayporthotspots for free. Sweet!

A UK release date and price is yet to be confirmed but it has been launched in the US for $300.