GadgITs

Some sing for the weekend

THE perfect Christmas party game is going for a song on the PS3
SingStar 3 is out December 7th. And it’ll bring your Xmas entertainment alive this year.
We tried it on the 40G version of the PS3 - pretty much the perfect family gift this Crimbo on its own - and loved being rock stars for the day. The all-in-one entertainment console already allows you to play Blu-Ray DVDs, store your i-Tunes music and play songs through your hi-fi via Bluetooth.
Plus you can store all of those embarrassing festive digital pics and create slideshows as well as browsing the internet.
Now with SingStar 3, it becomes your personal karaoke unit too.
The Blu-Ray disc features 30 tracks by Gwen Stefani, OutKast, Coldplay, Pussycat Dolls, Razorlight among others.
And it’s customisable, with racy new menu skins and backgrounds, plus new voice effects and wallpapers.
While you could get bored of belting out the same old songs on previous versions, new tracks will be added to the SingStore regularly. The first of updates is available on Dec 17 giving you extra tracks from bands like Manic Street Preachers, The Zutons and Depeche Mode for 99p each.
All of this means you can create playlists to suit your mood and audience - and save them close at hand on the hard drive of your PS3.
If you’ve got a Plastation Eye - basically a compatible web cam - you can upload your performances onto the net for other SingStars to see.
SingStar 3, out Dec 7th, 2007, comes with 30 tracks and costs £24.99, or £49.99 with two microphones. The 40G PS3 is £299.

More iPhone accessories

THE frenzy of the iPhone’s release is still riding high after tens of thousands of the most wanted gadget flew off the shelves in it’s first weekend. So it’s no surprise the choice of accessories is endless. Here’s a taste of what’s out there.

iStuff’s (iworld.co.uk) £129.99 phone dock is slick and minimal in white and not only pumps out the sounds with it’s subwoofer and enhanced bass, but whereas other docks can only play your tunes through the iPhone when it’s in ‘flight mode’ this doesn’t so keeps all the features running. Any calls or texts coming though will interrupt your music though!

Griffin’s £29.99 (griffingtechnology.com) iTrip is a great solution to listening to your music in the car.  Just connect the unit (right) to your iPhone and tune it into an open FM frequency - it will do the searching  for you - and hey presto!

The Sound Asleep Pillow (sleepltd.co.uk) doesn’t commit to just one purpose. For £19.99 you can quit the ciggies and go to bed listening to Allen Carr’s podcast or zone out to whale sounds or if you just like to doze off to Razorlight’s latest album you can simply plug in your iPhone and away you go into the land of nod. 

Being so stylish and tiny, you’ll want to parade the £99 stainless steel Jabra JX Cara (jabra.com) headset (left) even when you’re not taking a call. It syncs up to your iPhone with Bluetooth and the battery last up to 6 hours talk time.

Last word in gameplay

Nintendo’s latest game My Word Coach may sound geeky but it is in fact a lot of fun. It exercises your brain, increases your vocabulary and tests your spelling. Learning can be fun!  You’ll be hooked at the first step. Starting with an assessment to calculate your vocabulary and potential you’ll either be miffed with the result and want to get learning or be so smug that you’ll want to show the game how it’s done. With over 16,000 words from the Cambridge Dictionary so you’ll be in for a challenge. Chose from four training experts to travel with you on your learning journey, they’ll give you support and advice to get you through to the end. There’s 6 tests on the DS and 7 on the Wii, which include the classic Tetris, using letter blocks to spell out words. Or find the missing letter using the touch screen and stylus. The tests can be one or two-player on individual DS Lite’s using Wi-Fi or play with a team on the Wii. In one session, you’ll come across 150 words and out of those words, you’re expected to learn 5. If used for the recommended 20 minutes a day you’ll learn a staggering 35 new words a week!

iPhone madness

IT was the kind of welcome initiates of a bizarre religious cult might expect. Consumers were hailed as heroic pilgrims by Apple staff as they entered the store to buy an iPhone last night. Wild cheering, whooping and high-fives greeted shoppers as they headed for the tills. Anyone would think they'd just finished the London Marathon. But the sum of their achievment was simply running up an extra £269 on their credit card. Wonder if they were as popular when they got home. OK it's a great phone and it has the coolest touchscreen technology ever seen. But why all the fuss, there will be another one along before long.

First British iPhone consumer

Congratulations to student and web developer Graham Gilbert, 22, of Manchester, who became the first person to buy an iPhone in the UK tonight at 6.02pm. He had queued for 34 hours outside the Apple Store in Regent Street before running in to pick up one of the next generation mobile devices.  Gadgits was there to test out the phone. This picture of Graham was taken with the 2 megapixel camera and emailed back to the office. Apple might want to include a flash on the next model!

iPhonely I had one

THE iPhone is a touch of class—it’s already the coolest gadget on the planet and it’s not even on sale yet.
The revolutionary touchscreen device launches on Friday and it will introduce the biggest change in mobile communication since the heavy brick became a lightweight handset.
Apple has reinvented its own clickwheel to bring us the most sophisticated fingertip browsing experience yet.
The awesome feature allows you to enlarge web pages and pictures by moving your thumb and

iPhone on stream

Here's a neat trick to try, streaming recorded TV to your iPhone. Not a lot of people know this is possible.

Viewty a killing

Emily Merritt demos LG's Viewty and the new iPhone