Naoko Mori: ‘I’m a gadget freak’ | Celebrity squares
Actor Naoko Mori loves all things Apple – except for the iPhone What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life? There's a lot. I'm Japanese, I'm a gadget freak – I like anything with buttons. I want to say my computer, but if I had to choose one, I'd say my mobile phone. This is almost sacrilegious, because I'm a complete Macophile, but I actually still have a BlackBerry – I just prefer the buttons. I'm still on the fence with the iPhone because of the buttons and the texting. When was the last time you used it, and what for? Eight minutes ago, checking emails. What additional features would you add if you could? I travel so much – I'm in the US a lot, and in Japan – that I currently have three phones.
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Naoko Mori: 'I'm a gadget freak' | Celebrity squares
Bob Larbey: ‘I’d like a Star Trek transporter’ | Celebrity squares
The Good Life co-writer on why he bought a Mac, and how he had to admit defeat with a chess computer What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life? I suppose it's a Mac, which I'm sitting in front of now. I don't know if it's improved my life, but it's made bits of it easier. You can find things out much more quickly now, so it's eased life. When was the last time you used it, and what for? This morning, to look at some train times for a friend of mine. What additional features would you add if you could? None, really – as long as it does what I tell it to do, that's all I want. Do you think it will be obsolete in 10 years' time? Oh God yes, it's probably obsolete now. It's a year old now, so that's an antique by computer standards. What always frustrates you about technology in general? That it's too difficult for me to understand.
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Bob Larbey: 'I'd like a Star Trek transporter' | Celebrity squares
Kyle MacLachlan: ‘I’m electronically challenged’ | Celebrity squares
Actor Kyle MacLachlan says that his BlackBerry is damn fine – if only it played video too What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life? There's two, actually. One is my Sonicare toothbrush – I don't know if that counts as technology or not, but it keeps my teeth clean and keeps the dentist happy. But the piece of technology that has changed my life the most is my BlackBerry, I would say. It allows me to be in contact with a lot of people and do business when I'm on the road. When was the last time you used it, and what for? Just a few minutes ago, to set up dinner plans for the evening. What additional features would you add if you could? If it could play films, it would be ideal. I'm probably going to have to go into the iPod Touch for that. Do you think it will be obsolete in 10 years' time? Oh, there'll be something completely new, absolutely.
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Kyle MacLachlan: 'I'm electronically challenged' | Celebrity squares
The Hard Sell: Microsoft Windows 7
Smarmy simpletons claiming they've had a hand in its creation … that'll really shift your software, Mr Gates For the uninitiated, Windows 7 is Microsoft's latest version of an important computer technology that allows you to put a computerised photo of a cat into a virtual bin. What you'd reasonably expect in the ads is as many reasons they could fit into 30 seconds why you should dump the version they sold you three years ago. Instead, they're bombarding us with "members of the public" whose ideas have apparently been incorporated into the software. For this, read: "the most self-satisfied actors available at the time of filming". There's gym-dweller Ramin , maddeningly over-pleased about how easy it is to have two windows "snap" side by side. (He should meet "Jack" and "Kevin" , currently taking credit for the same feature in the US and Australian campaigns.) But worse is Crystal , who we meet as she smarms into a taxi, relevant as she says her "Eureka!" moment came in the back of one. Crystal, see, thought it important to be able to see all the programs she had open on a new taskbar. Being there at the time said programs were opened obviously wasn't working as an aide-memoire. "Onwards, driver," she basks, glory-splashed, "I could really get used to this." But hang on, how is being in a cab suddenly some kind of a treat? Not only are Microsoft putting tedious features front and centre, the ideas behind them are apparently coming from people so dense they're unaware they've been in a certain kind of vehicle before. "I'm a PC, and Windows 7 was my idea," Crystal boasts. Well I own a PC, and if I'm to spunk up to £230 on this, I want to know billions has been spent ensuring any cat photo filing I undertake will be unimpeded by hackers or viruses. Putting simpletons on the telly claiming they had a hand in its creation doesn't exactly have me skipping to the nearest Currys.
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The Hard Sell: Microsoft Windows 7
Star Trek tricorder jumble sale discovery
A couple of weeks ago, my girlfriend stumbled across this Star Trek tricorder toy at a jumble sale down the road. I had a bit of fun ironically unboxing it ( here's a set of pictures on Flickr ) but since I've never been a massive Star Trek fan, my curiosity really came from a different angle: as an example of what our past selves thought future technologies would look like. Star Trek has, of course, been hugely influential on the technology industry (compare with this talk by Nokia researcher Julian Bleecker at this year's eTech conference). And even though I've watched my fair share of the shows and films, it always astounds me precisely how much of our idea of "the future" was shaped by the ideas outlined by Rodenberry and friends. OK, it's a toy, it's clunky, it's drab. There could have been millions of them in circulation over the years. But I love the fact that even though it's based on a fictional 1960s design, it looks an awful lot like a clamshell mobile phone. I wonder if the kids who played with these toys back in the day ever thought they would have to deal with patchy network reception and dodgy 3G deadzones? Star Trek Gadgets Bobbie Johnson guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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Star Trek tricorder jumble sale discovery
Alexander Armstrong and Martin Freeman play Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry two Brits who beat the giant tech firms in Silicon Valley | Micro Men…
Alexander Armstrong and Martin Freeman play Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry two Brits who beat the giant tech firms in Silicon Valley There's a singular set of first memories that many of us share of our first experience with a home computer. The satisfying give of the keys on the black, cumbersome keyboard; a constantly whirring cassette tape, or pleasingly tactile floppy disk; the jarringly vivid palette of sprites and characters burning their way out of the shiny abyss, and an array of otherworldly, synthesised sounds not yet familiar to our untrained ears. Whether sheathed in an ungainly dustcover at the back of a classroom or secreted away in your friend's brother's basement, it's more than likely that these formative experiences were taking place on a BBC Micro or ZX Spectrum. In an age of iPhones and Windows, the ubiquity of these machines during the early 1980s and the indelible mark they etched on a generation is all but too easy to forget. Micro Men, screening on BBC4 tonight, follows the stories of the two men briefly catapulted to the forefront of the computer industry by these new-fangled "personal computers". It attempts to explain how Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry, played in the film by Alexander Armstrong and Martin Freeman, managed, for a couple of years at least, to divert the world's gaze away from the Silicon Valley and towards a couple of small, unglamorous East Anglian tech companies. Clive Sinclair (now Sir Clive to you and me) was, by 1978, established as an inventor and businessman with his company Sinclair Radionics. Clashes with his government backers led him to set up shop with one of his most talented employees, Chris Curry. While Sinclair's interests had until this point revolved around smaller gadgets like pocket televisions and calculators – along with his longstanding dream of pioneering the electric car – the two men were quick to see the potential in the growing home computers industry. Their first product, developed by Curry, was the MK14, a basic computer kit released to satisfy the growing interest in personal computing. It sold out immediately. However, disagreements over future projects and Sinclair's legendary temper (which makes frequent appearances in Micro Men) meant this was their last joint venture.
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Alexander Armstrong and Martin Freeman play Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry two Brits who beat the giant tech firms in Silicon Valley | Micro Men...