No Line on The Horizon

The good: "Most impressive of all is the seven-minute-plus ‘Moment Of Surrender’, a gorgeously sparse prayer built around Adam Clayton’s heartbeat bassline and Bono’s rough growl. It crawls and creeps and seeps into being, with each separate part knowing exactly when to melt away – a sweetly melodic Edge solo, a sudden choir of backing vocals for the climactic chorus, a lick of organ behind the verse – and doesn’t feel overlong."
The bad: "And a close-to-50-year-old using his Apple Mac as inspiration for parts of ‘Unknown Caller’ (“Force quit and move to trash… Restart and reboot yourself”) and slithering “sexy boots” on single ‘Get On Your Boots’? Too far, dad."
The awkwardly worded: "There’s a song on the new U2 album that has quite possibly the worst title since Neanderthal man first bashed one rock with another rock and said, “This one’s called ‘Same Jeans’.”

Kindle 2 released by Amazon

The Kindle 2.0 has been compared to a trophy wife, “sleek, Botox-tight and a lot less comfortable than its predecessor”.

The Guardian has had a hands-on testing of the device but says that there a number of niggly functions. Its reporter, Staci D Kramer, describes the text to speech function as “very cool”, adding: “Unfortunately, the first article I picked was from the New York Times Latest News blog about the president's speech to Congress—and the nice man's voice is trained to say O-Bama as in Alabama—not Oh-Bah-Ma as in Bahama. The sound is pretty decent.”

She said that migrating titles onto the device is “as easy as possible”. She said: “Books can be set for download through an owner's Amazon.com archive even before the unit arrives—or they can be managed directly through the device. They can be moved back and forth and so far, multiple copies are working just fine on my multiple Kindles registered to the same account.”

iphone Gamer!

Rumour in today from Apple Insider suggests that a new model of the iPhone could be unveiled in June, the next device set to include more powerful graphics capabilities, designed to further bolster gaming on the phone.

Although only a rumour at present, June would be one year after the iPhone 3G was revealed, various references to the next gadget having already been spied.

Speculation has it that this new iPhone will see Apple completely rebuild the phone's architecture, offering far greater advancements than the previous upgrade.

It seems as if Apple has forged new partnerships with a number of manufacturers, and that this will see the iPhone using 'System on a Chip' components, presumably of the non-edible kind.

ARM processor cores are mooted, while PowerVR/Imagination Technologies hardware looks set to deliver vastly improved graphical capabilities, which should give game designers much more to play with, as well as potentially paving the way for older releases on the iPhone.

Rise Of tweet

Twitter, founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and launched in July 2006, is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to post their latest updates. An update is limited by 140 characters and can be posted through three methods: web form, text message, or instant message. The company has been busy adding features to the product like Gmail import and search. They recently launched a new site section called “Explore” for external and third party tools that interact with Twitter and a new visualization tool called Twitter Blocks.

The service was started by Obvious Corp, who also started Odeo.

In April 2008 Twitter launched Twitter Japan in partnership with Digital Garage.

Lost season 5 begins......

The season 5 premier of Lost brilliantly introduced time travel as a major component of the storytelling. The people left behind on the Island are randomly jumping through time. There’s a mystery about whether the points in time they jump to is random or pre-ordained, but other rules have been established.

Dr. Marvin Candle and Daniel Faraday both explained that people can’t change the past, and that any attempts to do so will fail. However, Faraday also revealed that, for unknown reasons, Desmond is special and immune from this rule.

Franz Ferdinand sounding pretty much like Franz Ferdinand

We’ve been here before. A big band begins work on a new album and there are months of rumours about what they’re up to in the studio: they’ve gone all “world music”; Timbaland’s producing; every song features monks chanting; there are no samples/it’s all samples (delete as appropriate). Finally, the album comes out and they sound just like they always have done. So, here are Franz Ferdinand sounding pretty much like Franz Ferdinand (except on the opening track, Ulysses, which sounds exactly like Take Me Out); but the songs aren’t as good as they used to be, and the formula is beginning to sound a little tired. It’s not until track 10, Lucid Dreams, that we hear some genuine reinvention.A few more tracks with that sense of abandon and Tonight could have been so much better.

IPhone Nano?

Coming in June, apparently Steve Jobs may be temporarily stepping down from Apple to recuperate from his health issues, but his return in June could be accompanied by a new iPhone nano.

Chip off the old block

Chip makers in the Far East are apparently preparing to ramp up production, ready for a new smaller iPhone that could start being manufactured in March all set for introduction in June.

This fits with Apple's current iPhone schedule, which has seen the previous two models introduced, in the US at least, in the middle of the year.

The good news, for the chip makers that is, is that the new smaller iPhone is expected to require a similar number of chips as the original and cost around the same to manufacturer.

Less good, if you're in the semiconductor trade, however is the anticipation that Apple will use the introduction of the new model to reduce the price of the original, giving it an additional way to fight off Google's Android OS.

Availability

There's nothing official yet, and it's unlikely anything will happen until Steve Jobs returns to his day-to-day duties, but Apple has consistently stuck to its product schedules in the past. If all goes to plan, though, this should hopefully mean in six months time Apple will be back with a bang.

Windows 7 Beta

You don't have to head over to your favorite torrent tracker to get it. Microsoft just began its Windows 7 Beta Customer Preview Program, which means you can head on over to your favorite internet, download the ISO, burn a DVD and start living the ultra-fantastic lifestyle of a Windows 7 user. The Beta expires August 1, 2009, and Microsoft is of course pilling on the caveats in case this destroys your computer with fire -- and limiting this first run of downloads to 2.5 million users. We're hearing reports of sluggish downloads at the moment, but we're sure with a bit of patience or, you know... find it on the torrents.

Steve Jobs Health

In a shock announcement just eight days after Jobs reassured investors about his well-being, Jobs emailed employees to say that Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, was taking control of day-to-day operations.

Jobs, 53, survived pancreatic cancer five years ago. A deterioration in his health is likely to cause great alarm among both Apple investors and technology enthusiasts, who see him as the driving force behind successful products such as the iPod, the iMac and the iPhone.

In his message to staff, Jobs said: "Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

"In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June."

Speculation over Jobs' health has been rife since the summer, when he appeared gaunt and drawn at a technology conference, prompting a slide in Apple's stock.

On January 5, Jobs issued a statement acknowledging that he had suffered weight loss. But he blamed his condition on a relatively minor hormone imbalance and said he intended to remain in charge of Apple.

Moments before today's announcement, trading in Apple's shares was suspended on the technology-dominated Nasdaq stockmarket.

Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero, the little rhythm action game that took over the world with its revolutionary controller and insanely addictive gameplay. How we love you. Recently though you've had a rival for our affections, that sparkly new Rock Band whatsit, the one that comes complete with a fancy new drum kit and microphone to compliment its duel guitars. Thankfully you're not letting this faze you; instead you're looking to beat Rock Band at its own game with your own take on the group music experience, Guitar Hero World Tour.
With the hardware for both and Rock Band working with both games there's a fair argument for buying the pair of them, one with the hardware and one just the disk. This way you get the best of both worlds content-wise and don't miss out on any of your favourite tracks that may appear online. On that basis I'd recommend World Tour as the one to get the full set for, its instruments have a nicer feel (in my view) and small additions like the slider bar on the guitar make them worth plumping for. The game too stands that little bit taller with the fantastic if slightly daunting music creator, which you could devote months to if you're that way inclined. If you're looking for a crowd pleasing game for those Christmas parties that will still entertain long into the new year then you can't go far wrong with this; just don't blame us if you've can't get a go yourself.

Will Smith

Smith has staked his claim to play the role, even before Barack Obama has been inaugurated as president.

Speaking at the premiere of his new film Seven Pounds at the Empire, Leicester Square, in London, Smith laughed about reports that the US President-elect had indicated that he would like the actor to play him if his life story were ever to be made into a movie.

“If I am ordered by my commander in chief to star in a film about him, I will do my duty as an American," he said, beaming.

Smith, best known for the Men in Black films and Independence Day, says however that he had no desire to move into the White House for real.

"If we were in the White House I don't know if that would exactly be a good thing. The Obamas are much more prepared to be in the White House than the Smiths.

"It's a whole lot more fun to be a movie star. That's a difficult job being President with a whole lot of lives on the line with every decision you make. In my job I just bring joy. I don't bring bad news. I think I'll stay in my position for quite some time." Smith said the “world had changed forever” with the election of Barack Obama.

He said he would be an "eyewitness to history" when he attends the impending inauguration of US President-elect Barack Obama.

Seven Pounds charts Smith's character Ben Thomas's attempts at redemption following a horrific accident. It also stars Rosario Dawson.

The actor added that he also has plans to do a Bollywood film with Danny Boyle following the success of Slumdog Millionaire.

He said: "I talked to Danny Boyle just a couple of weeks ago. When we find something it will be fantastic. I'm trying to expand as an actor and as an artist to bring stories to the screen that add to people's lives that work in service to humanity."

Glasvegas

On first play, this means you can't help but compare the young Glasgow quartet to all that have come before, including Echo and the Bunnymen, the Doves and, especially when the guitars seem to mimic bagpipes, Big Country.

But after a few more plays, some of the hype surrounding Glasvegas is understandable.

Singer James Allen hits all the right notes and subject matter. He paints a picture of Glasgow's rough set: broken homes, knife fights and social workers.

It's dark in Allen's world, but it's hard to pull yourself away.

The band's influences include rockabilly and doo wop, but used semi-ironically like Roxy Music's first albums.

They're not shy in wearing other influences. Flowers & Football Tops includes an excerpt of You Are My Sunshine, while Stabbed is sung like a eulogy over Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

At first it jars, but eventually you are seduced.