Floating on Air

TAKE a look at the new ultra-thin MacBook Air . . . the slick new must-have laptop which is just three-quarters of an inch thick.
Despite that, the Air has space for a 13.3-inch screen, 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM, 80GB hard drive and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1.
Overnight the design alone has made it the air apparent in the laptop market —depending on how it stands up to everyday use.
It will cost £1,199 when it arrives in the UK in two weeks.
A big reason why Apple managed to make this laptop so thin is that it has no DVD drive. Some might moan about this (there’s an external drive for £65). But think about what Apple are doing. Along with the Air, they’re

One CLIQ and its yours

IF you hear a brilliant tune on the radio that you want to buy, try a new mobile service called CLIQ. Simply download to your handset by texting CLIQ to 78901.
Install the free application, credit your account online and you’re ready.
CLIQ is available to a total audience of 13million via Magic 105.4 and Heat and through the Heart, Galaxy, Century, Real and Smooth networks. After you buy a track, it’s sent to you, ready to download on to your PC. Tracks are £1.25. See www.cliqradio.co.uk

Shuffle cube

   

WEIGHING just 39g and measuring a tiny 6x5x5cm, the Exspect Shuffle Speaker is the smallest speaker dock for the iPod Shuffle. The compact cube plays up to 4 hours on any battery. Just £13.99 at iworld.co.uk

Disgo fever

       

THE pocket-sized Disgo Video Plus is the smallest digital video camera out there. Its 1.5-inch colour flip screen has a 2x zoom and the built-in memory holds up to 60 minutes of footage. Simply plug it in to your TV or computer to play back. £69.89 from Cur rys.co.uk

Talking tough

YOU can kick sand in its face, leave it out in the rain, snow, or sun, even run over it with a truck . . . and it will still talk to you.
JCB’s Toughphone, launched by Dragon’s Den tycoon Peter Jones this week, is the world’s first “indestructible phone”.
Designed for industrial environments or clumsy phone users, it’s a Sonim XP1 with JCB branding and

Printer has no ink!

ONE of the big hits at this year’s Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas was Polaroid’s new digital printer that uses zero INK.
That’s why they called it Zink. The pocket-sized printer produces snapshots in seconds.
And, if these new printers take off, you might never have to shell out for printer ink again. It’ll just be the paper that sets you back.
The technology works by using heat to bring out dyes embedded in the printing paper which has three layers of colour—yellow, magenta and cyan. The picture comes to life as the paper passes under the thermal print head.
The tiny printer, expected to cost around £60, is only as big as an iPod. The makers call it son of Polaroid. Zink Imaging also plans to make a £100 digital camera with the printer built into it—a bit like the Daddy of Polaroid (the Instamatic).
It will take photos in the same way the old-style cameras did, giving instant prints on the spot.
But they’re bone dry when they come out and you don’t have to wait for them to develop (wasn’t that half the fun?).
Expect to see them in the shops later in the year. See www.polaroid.com/onthego/ See a demo of the the printer in the extended post.

Wake up to this bargain

 

WAKE up to this cool-looking iPod alarm clock which lets you select any playlist, song, podcast or sound file to get you going in the morning.
And News of the World readers can buy it with a special 10 per cent discount at our online shop.
The retro-style gizmo will take different sizes of iPod and even charges your player while you sleep.
It will also serve as a mini-speaker system for listening to your sounds.
And it’s available exclusively today, in pink, white and black, for £35.96 at www.notw.co.uk/shop

Recording star

THIS superb Roberts MP-Sound 41 digital radio lets you record shows direct to an SD memory card up to a week in advance.
You can then listen to them on the set or transfer recordings to your computer or iPod.
The radio will also act as an MP3 player by importing recordings.
You need never miss your favourite show again.
Amazing value at £139.99. See robertsradio.co.uk

Hear you go

PARROT’S jazzy new Boombox wireless hi-fi speakers are a must-have for ’08.
Connected via Bluetooth they are compatible with almost anything; mobile phone, laptop and MP3 player.
Place them anywhere within a 10-metre range for the best surround sound. Sound at £159.99 from www.parrot.com

Mite be handy!

THE average Brit sleeps with 1.5 to 2<TH>million dust mites which thrive on body heat and dead skin.
So Ewbank invented this impressive handheld bug-buster, which wipes them out and helps to prevent the nasty allergies they cause.
First a vibrating pad brings the mites to the surface, then a UV-C sterilising lamp zaps them before they are sucked away by the vacuum. For once, you might sleep easy after parting with £149.
Find out more at www.raycop.co.uk

Gates opens greatest show on earth

IT all kicks off tomorrow at the annual CES in Vegas where the world’s gadget makers will attempt to blow everyone away with their biggest, newest gizmos. But nothing gives the electronics companies more pleasure than zapping their rivals.
     And the battle won’t get any more intense this year than the one between Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs. It will be Gates’ last Consumer Electronics Show before he quits for full time charity work. Before he goes, he’ll want to settle a score with Mr Jobs who totally upstaged him last year by announcing the iPhone in San Francisco. The word from Microsoft’s base in Seattle is that Bill is not leaving anything to chance and will be pushing his own version of the iPhone in Vegas.
     The Microsoft chief executive has teamed up with search engine giant Google to back HTC  (pictured above) which produces the Touch (not to be confused with the iPod Touch).
     This range of iPhone clones will mainly be available online. But they are good value and not tied to any single sim card.
     Although, not present at CES, Apple will hold its own Macworld trade show just after CES and Steve Jobs will have plenty up his sleeve.
     Apart from the expected announcement of the 3G iPhone, the iPhone Nano just might make an appearance, but don’t hold your breath.
      Most hotly-expected are Apple’s new laptops, thinner and styled on the iPhone and possibly featuring a touchscreen.
     Apple fans are also on the lookout for an ultra-small tablet-style laptop, but that is more likely later in the year, when the processors have been perfected.
Another rumour is that Apple might launch a video rental service for its iTunes online store.

LCDs put plasma out of the frame

ON the TV front LCDs are pulling ahead in the 40- to 50-inch range of screens because they are getting cheaper and have deeper colors.
    New features such as the intelligent sensor in the LG 50 LCD TV, which optimizes the picture based on available light in the room, are likely to make them even more popular.
    And the rise in affordability by previously rare players in the market such as Polaroid will also add to LCD's attraction.
LG. Philips have already tried to get ahead of the game by announcing that it would be presenting five new HD LCD screens intended for conferences and public displays, including the 52-inch multi-touch screen mentioned in Gadgits today in the News of the World.
      They are also showcasing an 84-inch model made up of four 42-inch multi-touch panels.
But perhaps the most interesting development is the two-sided 47-inch LCD display. It is just 70mm thick with a single backlight for both screens.
      Apart from being ideal for use at airports and railway station displays, this new type of screen has great potential for use in gaming displays and would allow competitors to play each other face to face on a vertical screen for the first time. Laser TVs could be all the rage this year. Especially an offering from Mitsubishi (left) with 1080p HDTV that will use three lasers instead of one to divide the colors into individual lasers.
     The makers claim this will create 90% of the colors visible to the human eye. LCD and Plasma TVs only show 40%. The three lasers are also supposed to give a sharper, more colourful image.
Other highlights this year will include the largest-ever plasma screen at 150-inch and the largest ultra-thin Organic Light-Emitting Diode TV.

Apple laptop to get Blu-ray burner

THE other big battle that's rumbling on is the Blu-ray v HD-DVD formats. The big manufacturers will be showcasing a host of machines in each format and the winner is still too hard to call.
But interestingly Panasonic will introduce the first slim-line Blu-ray DVD writer at CES on Monday. The 9.5mm drive fits into the same space used by current DVD burners.
And as Panasonic supplies most of Apple's notebook DVD burners, we could see Apple announce it for the MacBook Pro soon.
That will put Blu-ray ahead in the laptop stakes with Sony firmly backing the format in their brilliant Vaio range.

Year of the wireless

SOME of the most welcome moves will be towards TVs that can receive high-definition wireless streaming.
    WirelessHD will send massive amounts of video data across the airwaves. So TVs of the future will be able to receive video from a Sky box, PC and even camcorders via this new technology.
CES will also feature a USB device from DisplayLink that streams video wirelessly from your PC to a TV.
      IBM and Mediatek are building an "extremely high frequency" technology which will transfer data at an astonishing 2 GB a second as opposed to normal Wi-Fi which will transfer 2 GB every 2 minutes.
      There’s even a new tech called Wireless HDAV which will transfer high definition video over Ultra-WideBand to replace hdmi cables.