BBC Launches New iPlayer Designed For TV’s

Today the BBC has launched a new iPlayer that they have created specifically for TV’s providing users with more control and a TV-friendly design that is as simple as changing channels when watching TV.

Its the first time the BBC has created such an iPlayer application designed specifically for TV’s devices and has vastly improved the search feature to help you find programmes with little effort, and provide quick access.

New features have also been added to the new TV version, enabling you to personalise your iPlayer installation by remembering favourite channels and improved recommendations for programmes you might enjoy.

The BBC explains:

“Last week, Ofcom reported that 10% of TV sets sold in the UK are internet ready. But BBC iPlayer is already available on over 300 connected TVs and blu-ray disc players, which has resulted in a five fold growth of iPlayer on TV over the last six months alone. At this rate of growth, in the next few years we could well see over half of iPlayer use directly on the living room TV.”

For more information jump over to the BBC website.

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Lumi Sleep Mask Wakes You Gently With A Virtual Sunrise

If you have trouble falling to sleep at night or waking in the morning due to the amount or lack of light in your room. A new sleep regulating device has been created called the Lumi Sleep Mask which provides you with your very own virtual sunrise half an hour before you need to rise, gently waking you.

The Lumi device started it journey from concept to production on the Kickstarter website and just like traditional sleep masks Lumi blocks out light to allow you to fall asleep even during the day. But unlike traditional masks it then uses a light unit inside to simulate a virtual sunrise. Simply sent the alarm on the side of the Lumi mask and wear it to sleep.

Lumi explains:

“Our bodies are designed to sleep in darkness and wake with sunlight. Darkness triggers our brain to produce a sleep cue, melatonin, to help fall asleep. Tiny amounts of light disrupt this cue.”

LUMI has been designed to slowly wake your mind and body, giving you a boost of energy from the moment you wake. The new Lumi Sleeping Mask is now available to purchase directly from the Lumi Mask website for $80.

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Left 4 Dead’s Next Map Can Be Unlocked Early By Playing Dead Air

Valve has released details over the weekend for Left 4 Dead fans, detailing they can now unlock the next new Left 4 Dead map early by playing Dead Air. So if you are a fan and would like to unlock the new map a little earlier, finish a complete game of Versus in “Dead Air” and you will receive an achievement.

Once 60,000 players have completed the achievement the beta version of “Blood Harvest,” the next map to be released, will be unlocked the following weekday.

Valve explains that once you have completely the achievement, hep others to do the same and post feedback on the Steam Forums and on the game’s Facebook page.

“60,000 is going to be hard,” L4D2′s team writes on the official blog. “You can’t rage quit and you need to work together.”

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Concept LeDoor Flashlight Is A Detachable Torch On Your Door Handle

The whole point is in the event of an unfortunate blackout, you can reach for the door, pull off its handle and activate the needed illumination. Such is the newest from a trio of Korean designers who set about reinventing the all too ubiquitous door handle/door knob.

More than just an instant flashlight, however, the LEDoor also works as emergency illumination if everything goes dark. When not helping in dire situations, it’s a low intensity mood light as well.

While checking out some of the pics available of the LEDoor, it occurred to us that it’s potentially a risk for infantilized adults. How come? Imagine grownups pulling one of these things then saying, “Hey I got a lightsaber!” There you go.

Of course, assuming the LEDoor becomes available in various homes it shouldn’t become an excuse for not packing a few flashlights. The best is to always keep one beside your reading lamp or somewhere within arm’s length. Make sure you change the batteries regularly as well. While a multiplicity of gadgetsthese days provide illumination, nothing beats a flashlight when demanding situations befall us.

Anyway as concepts go, there’s no word yet on when the LEDoor enters production or much less who’s going to manufacture it.

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Apple Releases iOS 5 Beta 5 To Developers

Apple has released the latest beta version of iOS 5 to developers, iOS 5 Beta 5, along with iTunes Beta 5, and it looks like iOS Beta 5 includes a number of bug fixes rather than any major new features.

The update is available to iOS developers for their iOS devices as an OTA update, so we guess Apple is testing out the OTA update feature which will deliver our iOS updates to us in the future.

We are still expecting Apple to release iOS 5 in September and we will probably see the new iPhone 5 at the same time as well as the new iPod Touch with 3G.

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Samsung Hercules, T-Mobile’s Samsung Galaxy S II

The Samsung Galaxy S II has been a massive success for Samsung, we recently heard that Samsung had sold over 5 million Samsung Galaxy S II smartphones in under three months, and the device is about to go on sale in the US shortly.

The Samsung Galaxy S II will be available with a range of mobile operators in the US, and now it looks like it is headed to T-Mobile as the Samsung Hercules.

According to a recent report, the Samsung Hercules is rumored to be T-Mobile’s first HSPA+ 42Mbps smartphone, and it looks like the T-Mobile version will feature a 4.5 inch multi-touch touchscreen display as opposed to a 4.3 inch version on the original Galaxy S II.

The rest of the specifications will probably be very similar to the original Galaxy S II, which comes with a dual core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of built in storage.

As soon as we get some more information on the T-Mobile Samsung Hercules we will let you guys know, have a look at our Samsung Galaxy S II review to see what we thought of it.

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Google’s Chrome OS For Tablets In Action (Video)

We know that Google is working on a tablet version of their Chrome OS , which we got to see a few months ago, and now a new video has been released by developer Francois Beaufort which shows the latest version of Google’s Chrome OS.

The video below shows how Chrome OS will look when it is available on tablets, of course this is based on the current version of Chrome OS and it may look different when Google actually releases it for tablets.

We still don’t know how far we are away from Google releasing their Chrome OS for tablets, the company has said in the past that they are concentrating on the notebook version of Chrome OS for now

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Gigabyte A2 160GB Mini Hard Drive

This week Gigabyte have launched the new tiny external hard drive In Taiwan, in the form of the Gigabyte A2 which measures just 78 x 59 x 13mm and weighs in at just 80g.

The new Gigabyte A2 160 GB capacity drives are equipped with a shock and vibration absorption technology to help protect your data when the drive is dropped or bumped.

The Gigabyte A2 drive uses a USB 2 connection with transfer speeds of 480Mb/s and is compatible with Mac OS 9.x or above, Linux 2.4.1.0 or above and Windows ME/ 2000, XP, VISTA , and Windows 7.

Unfortunately at the moment Gigabyte haven’t released any worldwide shipping dates or prices has yet. But as always as soon as anything is released we will keep you updated.

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Huawei Vision Android Gingerbread Smartphone Gets Demoed (Video)

Last week Huawei announced their latest Android smartphone, the Huawei Vision, which will come with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and features a 3.7 inch capacitive touchscreen display.

Huawei has now released a demo video for their latest Android smartphone, which you can see below, and we get our first look at the companies latest Android device.

Other specifications on the Huawei Vision include a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 8255 processor, 512MB of RAM and 2GB of built in storage, plus a microSD card slot that can take up to 32GB cards.

It also comes with Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, plus a 5 megapixel camera on the back with built in auto focus and an LED flash, the camera is capable of recording HD video in 720p, plus a micro USB port, A-GPS, an FM radio, a G-sensor and a 1400mAh battery.

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These Aromatic Coffee Lids Improve Coffee Drinking

Since the tradition of drinking coffee at one’s leisure has long become passé, people usually want to bring their caffeine fix along with them. This has spawned a huge sub-industry of coffee lids, 100 billion a year of which are produced to sate everyone’s Starbucks habit.

Seen up north are a new line of coffee lids from Mint Urban Technologies that are supposed to improve the drinking experience. This is achieved through aroma, synonymous with bouquet, to describe the general practice of savoring the coffee before it’s sipped.

Currently available in two versions, the Aroma Lids are actually the result of a clever production method. The idea is to glaze a regular plastic coffee lid with a special layer of fragrant material. When it’s heated the resulting aroma influences the overall taste, thereby improving the coffee drinking.

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