Chris Barrie: The satnav is a breath of fresh air | Celebrity squares
Actor Chris Barrie admits to being a luddite, but he finds his satnav to be a true guiding light What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life? I have to say that being on the road quite a bit, the satnav is very convenient. I still occasionally use the good old-fashioned map book, but the satnav has been an absolute breath of fresh air. When was the last time you used it, and what for? Yesterday, to take me from West London down to Kent and it got to the point, about 70 miles into my journey, that it was taking me completely the wrong way. But it eventually delivered me to where I needed to be.
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Chris Barrie: The satnav is a breath of fresh air | Celebrity squares
Liz Bonnin: ‘I’m still a nerd, just a different type of a nerd’
The master's degree-wielding BBC presenter Liz Bonnin is so nerdy that she prefers a PC to a Mac What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life? I don't use that many, but I do love my iPod – and I have the old school 20GB version, with the wheel. It works beautifully. I have everything on it, and I just think it's my favourite piece of kit. It's just a genius invention. When was the last time you used it, and what for? It was actually yesterday – I downloaded the Il Postino soundtrack because a friend of mine was telling me about the Chilean poet it was based on. I bought Rhianna's Rude Boy as well – just the single, not the album – on iTunes. What additional features would you add if you could? I think if this one ever does break down, I will get the updated version that you can get video on as well. But I'm the kind of person who doesn't get carried away with one piece of kit that does everything. Do you think it will be obsolete in 10 years' time? No, I can't imagine how you can beat something like this for having your whole music collection on
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Liz Bonnin: 'I'm still a nerd, just a different type of a nerd'
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
Intel plans to turn its tiny Atom chip into a big brand
Atom processors have become popular in netbooks, but Intel's Brian Fravel is trying to turn it into a brand that will get consumers buying Intel-based interactive TV sets, set-top boxes and lots of portable devices Technology can be challenging for brand managers, because "technology is all about change, and brand's all about consistency: there's a constant push-pull between those two things," says Brian Fravel, director of Intel's Brand Strategy & Management. In London recently, Fravel gave a presentation about the new iCore processors that are replacing the Core 2 family … and simplifying Intel's brand by taking a BMW-style approach with the iCore 3, 5 and 7. You can watch it at V3.co.uk . Instead, I asked him about his day job. Today, Intel's biggest marketing challenge is to establish the Atom brand in consumer electronics devices. And with more than 10bn internet-connected devices expected by 2015, this could also be the most important marketing move since it used Intel Inside to brand its desktop processors. There were plenty of sceptics at the time. Why would people care what make of chip was inside their computer?
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Intel plans to turn its tiny Atom chip into a big brand
Learn to repair slow remote control buttons
20 minutes Replacement cost £12.99 DIY cost £5.14: cost includes tape, cotton buds and nail varnish remover Difficulty: Alhough remote controls differ, the procedure for taking them apart is roughly the same: remove the batteries, unscrew, and unclip any plastic clips. Once disassembled, clean the circuit board and buttons using a cotton bud dipped in methylated spirits or similar. Pay attention to the rubber sheet with buttons on (A, pictured) – any grease or moisture will mean this repair doesn't work. Punch the aluminium tape with a hole-punch and collect the pieces that fall out: one for each button. Look at the rubber sheet with buttons – on the side that faces the circuit board, there are round plastic spots that correspond to the position of the buttons. Stick one piece of punched aluminium on to each spot and reassemble. Rating: 1/5 Gadgets Saving money Television guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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Learn to repair slow remote control buttons
Computer vs TV, where do you stand?
Computers are becoming increasingly like TVs, and vice versa, so which dominates your living room at the moment? With the success of the BBC's iPlayer and other internet-delivered catchup services, computers are looking more like home entertainment centres, and televisions, set-top boxes and game consoles such as Sony's PlayStation3 are behaving a lot more like computers. Models in Sony's Bravia line of flat-panel televisions have network connections and can run applications such as a calendar and a digital picture viewer . Like a computer it has a USB 2.0 port to connect thumb drives with pictures or music. You can also stream music, video or images from any Digital Living Network Alliance compatible device. DLNA devices include a wide range of electronics and computer gear including Nokia and Sony-Ericsson multimedia model mobile phones, Microsoft's Xbox 360, the PS3 and media-focused broadband routers. Yahoo has created Internet@TV , a collection of small internet applications that can run on network-connected televisions from Samsung, Sony, LG, or set-top boxes from AT&T in the US or TiVo's digital video recorder. The applications allow you to watch YouTube video, check the weather, traffic or stocks, update Twitter or play Sudoku. Many people already have powerful computers in their living room such as the Xbox 360 and the PS3. The third instalment in Sony's once market-leading PlayStation series is bigging up its ability to run the iPlayer . The Bravia-connected TVs have the same XMB – cross-media bar – interface as the PlayStation, and it's not a stretch to think that TVs will soon run services such as Channel 4's 4OD . Microsoft already has a beachhead in the lounge with the Xbox 360, but computer makers have their own plans for living room domination.
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Computer vs TV, where do you stand?
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
Micro Men brings Clive Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum back to our TV screens
BBC4's new ROM-com recalls the rivalry that gave birth to mass home computing Cambridge, 1978: a large workshop, festooned with wires and empty paper cups, whirrs with industrious boffinry. Earnest young men in kipper ties tinker with circuit boards while peculiar robotic prototypes trundle across unpolished floorboards. Suddenly, a muffled commotion emerges from an adjacent office. "I don't give a shit about the bloody components," thunders a voice. "Get it working!" The door flies open and a bespectacled youth scurries out, his trembling, dejected arms bearing a tangle of cables. There is a pause; egghead glances anxiously at egghead. Then – kerrunnng! – an ashtray hurtles out of the office window. "Gah!" froths the unseen thrower, as the assembled factotums dive for cover. It's difficult to imagine a less comforting introduction to Sir Clive Sinclair than that provided by BBC4's Micro Men, a one-off drama that charts the rapid rise – and equally hasty decline – of Britain's home-computing industry in the early-80s. Prolific inventor, ardent self-publicist and ginger-bearded midwife to the computing revolution, Sinclair – hurtling ashtrays and all – is depicted as a tyrannical eccentric of the first water. It's a portrayal that may come as a surprise to those who grew up in the 80s, when no TV science report was complete without a contribution from cuddly Clive, his sagacious predictions on nuclear power or electric cars accompanied by the steady flap of his ubiquitous woolly scarf. "He was a familiar, endearing figure, yet he was also capable of huge volatility. You never knew when he was going to explode," chuckles Alexander Armstrong, who plays Sinclair in the affectionately comic film. "He was impatient. He'd get [grimaces, face reddening] very cross. Inanimate objects would come flying through the windows of his office. He has a very particular manner, very intense. And quite often when he's saying something, you're not entirely sure if that look isn't cold fury. Yet a lot of his ex-colleagues had great affection for him. Even people with whom he fell out or parted ways." One of those who found himself at the business end of Sinclair's ire was Chris Curry, who'd worked with him at Sinclair Radionics (site of the aforementioned ashtray scenario) since 1966
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Micro Men brings Clive Sinclair's ZX Spectrum back to our TV screens
Gadget review | The Wand Remote Control
Using a wand as your TV remote control is not as magical an experience as you'd imagine Firebox.com £49.99 What is it?
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Gadget review | The Wand Remote Control
Do you need a licence to watch TV on your computer?
Officially, yes – depending on what you watch. The law states that anyone watching or recording TV programmes as they are broadcast must have a licence. It really doesn't matter if you use a TV, a computer or a mobile phone – if it's live, you have to pay. Catch-up services such as the BBC iPlayer or 4oD fall under different rules and don't require a licence. But how does TV Licensing , which collects and enforces licence fees on behalf of the BBC, know when a PC is receiving a live broadcast? Have the mysterious detector vans been fitted with some new kit? TV Licensing is very secretive about its detection methods, fearing that disclosing too much could help potential evaders. In a Freedom of Information request last year the BBC refused to reveal the technical equipment used by its vans, stating it "relies on the public perception that the vans could be used at any time to catch evaders". This lack of information has only encouraged speculation. A common theory is the vans can pick up a signal transmitted by components from within the TV. To receive a broadcast, the TV must be tuned to the correct frequency, which is generated by a local oscillator. TV Licensing could potentially use this signal to find licence-dodgers. Whatever the method, it can't be used to detect unlicensed computer use, as TV broadcast over the internet doesn't generate a TV signal. TV Licensing admits it has no separate strategies for catching those who watch online, and while it has caught people watching TV illegally on something other than TV sets, it won't provide records of the equipment used. Is there a danger that people will ditch the set and go online in order to avoid paying
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Do you need a licence to watch TV on your computer?