Gadzooki

Shazam being given away on Nokia’s Ovi Store

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shazam-logo

I’ve made no secret of my lackluster feelings towards Nokia’s Ovi Store, which is supposed to make it easy and pleasurable to find applications for Nokia cellphones like the new N97, but I do think the Shazam music discovery software is worth pushing, so I’ll let this one through.

After all, Shazam is available on most other mobile devices, including the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android phones, so it’s about time Nokia got some of the love.

Until 30th November, and purely on a first-come-first-served basis, Shazam will be free to download from the Ovi Store.

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Sony and Best Buy create ALTUS home audio products

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Sony is claiming a “unique co-operation between manufacturer and retailer” as it announces a new line of home audio products to be sold exclusively in Best Buy stores throughout the US.

Products in the ALTUS range will include iPod docking stations, wireless PC audio systems, plug and play speakers and Blu-ray disc players.

Apparently, Best Buy customers are a special breed, which is why it took two years of collaboration to come up with the brand.

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Championship Manager 2010 launches on “pay what you want” model

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championship-manager-2010It seemed to work for Radiohead last year when they released their In Rainbows album on a “pay what you think it’s worth” model, and now software company Eidos Interactive is looking to do the same with the latest incarnation of its Championship Manager football game.

Championship Manager 2010 for PC launches today, and can be purchased online for as little as one British penny (plus a handling fee of £2.50).

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Sennheiser announces iPod friendly HD 238 headphones

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Headphone specialist Sennheiser has just announced its latest set of open headphones — the HD 238 — which are great for home use and with portable media players.

Said to be optimized for use with PMPs, the HD 238s have compact, adjustable on-ear flat earpads, ultra-powerful neodymium magnets, low-resonance diaphragms, a frequency response of 16Hz-23kHz and OFC cable.

Not much more to say — they’re headphones — except that you generally get something decent with Sennheiser and these, at £70 (about $120), won’t break the bank.

Samsung shows off new multi-wireless and multi-LCD compact cameras

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The days of having to plug in all your peripherals to exchange data are long gone, as Samsung proves today with what it claims is the world’s first “multi-wireless” compact digital camera.

The ST1000 (not to be confused with Nikon’s Coolpix S1000pj announced last week) features built-in GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, allowing for geotagging goodness and connection to any open wireless network for picture exchange.

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Grab a mini gorilla for portable gadget power

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A means of charging your gadgets up on the move is a must if you’re away from power sockets for any length of time, but the bulk and weight can be off-putting, so it’s good to see an elegant and compact solution from Powertraveller: the minigorilla.

As you’d expect, it comes with all the most common tips in order that you can charge up notebooks, cellphones and other portable devices — 20 notebook tips plus a number of others in fact.

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Sony launches huge range of Blu-ray home cinema packages

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Sony has today announced seven new Blu-ray based home cinema packages. These are “all-in-one” solutions designed to satisfy consumers who don’t want to get involved with the complexities of matching and installing individual components, with the packages ranging in features and power to suit most budgets and requirements.

The BDV-E300 and BDV-E800W (pictured) systems offer a kicking S-Master digital amplifier with 1000W of power, Blu-ray disc player with all the features you’d expect (24p, x.v.Color, upscaling) a range of HD audio decoders and auto setup.

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HANNspree launches new high definition TVs

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HANNspree might not be the first name you think of when it comes to high definition TVs, but features wise there’s nothing much wrong with the new ST series.

The full HD (1080p) sets are initially available in 25- and 28-inch screen sizes and incorporate HANNSpree’s X-Celerate technology that reduces motion blur and improves 3D rendering, plus a 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, de-interlacing, digital noise reduction, several pull-down processing modes to correct frame rate errors, and multiple aspect ratio support to ensure that pictures aren’t distorted whatever format the source broadcast or video arrives in.

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Toshiba gives in, applies for Blu-ray membership

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blu-ray-logoDo you remember the “war” between rival high definition disc formats HD DVD and Blu-ray?

Toshiba backed HD DVD, then effectively pulled the plug on the format early last year, handing a rather strange victory to Sony-backed Blu-ray.

For a long time it seemed that Toshiba would go its own way, developing new forms of upscaling technology for its DVD players and shunning high definition optical discs altogether.

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Pentax shows off range of new Optio compact digital cameras

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Not wanting to be left out after Sony and Nikon announced their compact digital cameras this week, Pentax has been showing off its latest Optio cameras — the P80, E80 and waterproof WS80.

The Optio P80 features a 12.1-megapixel 4x optical zoom lens, a beefed up face recognition that claims to assess 32 faces in 0.03 seconds including those annoying individuals who insist on tilting their heads in photos, smile detection, high definition 720p recording, and a triple anti-shake system that works on both images and movies in normal and low-light conditions.

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