Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Google is getting ready to launch their Street View technology in the UK, and it isn’t being met with open arms. Although the mapping tool is already in place in some major US cities, folks in the UK are protesting the implementation on their turf.  Street View works by taking photos of, logically enough, streets to match maps. However the photos also include any people on those streets. This is where the problems come in for the UK folk. They feel this is a blatant disregard for privacy; and that permission should be granted by any individual photographed since the pictures are being used in a commercial regard. 

Personally, I don’t see how Google is getting away with this. As a freelance photographer myself, I know that any photographs that I take (even in a public setting) must have release forms signed by each recognizable person in the photo, if I am to be using them in any way for profit. (They even consider a person to be “recognizable” if the photo only shows the back of them for the record.) Apparently, Privacy International, a UK rights group, agrees. They believe the technology clearly breaks data protection laws. 

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Now is the time to stop wetting your pants, Apple fanboys. Like the boy who cried wolf, it seems our earlier report pertaining to Carphone Warehouse and O2’s lack of iPhone stock in the UK was a mere case of misinformation. Apparently, O2 was just “in the process of replenishing 16GB iPhone stocks,” while Carphone Warehouse is “reviewing the stock situation for 16GB iPhones sold through its website, but added that its stores now have them in stock.” Stocks of the 8GB model are also being considered, although just putting more 16GB iPhones would definitely be a no-brainer. With great demand for the iPhone all across the world right now, what kind of handset retailer would you have to be to not offer the consumers what they want? We’re not sure what exactly, but one thing we know is that O2 and Carphone Warehouse are definitely not like that.

Read [Register Hardware]

If you think a $20 disposable cellphone is still way beyond your budget, you might want to take a look at UK supermarket chain Asda’s latest offering. Beating Hop-On Inc. to the punch, Asda has started selling easy to buy “disposable” phones last week. These will set you back a miserly £5 (or about $10) a piece. Only a couple of low-end handsets are available for now, and these are the Nokia 1112 and the Sagem my220x. These certainly beat the circuits out of any new specifically-made-to-be-disposed-of cellphone that Hop-On Inc. and similar ambitious companies are planning to produce with their own version of this gimmick. So that’s bargain bins and landfills: 1, high-technology: 0.

Read [Daily Mail] Via [Wired]

Microsoft is trying to make headway with geeks and nerds like you and I in launching their next Virtual Launch Studio. Who says you need to be dressed to attend these events anyway?

The Samsung SGH-F490 is the latest device to land on Vodafone UK’s handset lineup, and promises to add yet another great option for those looking for a multimedia-centric phone. It has a lot of similarities to the recently introduced Samsung Instinct, but know that the SGH-F490 has some interesting features of its own.

The Samsung SGH-F490 is a touch-enabled device with a 3.2-inch display capable of showing up to 262k colors. It sports a very minimalist design with only a few hot keys on its front face and a lone speaker for voice calls. And unlike the iPhone, the SGH-F490 is 3G enabled. Chew on it Apple.

Other features of the Samsung SGH-F490 include a built-in 5-megapixel camera, support for A2DP Bluetooth stereo, UMTS/HSDPA connectivity, and Samsung’s very own Croix user interface. Visit Vodafone’s web site for region availability and local pricing.

Via [Mobile Burn]

It looks like we don’t have to wait long before Nokia’s next flagship phone hits the shelves, at least in the UK that is. According to Carphone Warehouse, the Nokia N96 is scheduled to be released in August, barely six months after we first got the whiff of such a device and five months after the dual slider was officially announced at the MWC 2008. On the list accompanying the N96 are also the Sony Ericsson G900 and the Samsung G810 with release dates of April and July 2008 respectively.

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EU Commissioner Viviane Reding has given Europe’s mobile phone operators until July 1, 2008 to cut (in fact slash) their excessive roaming charges for SMS messages.

Studies show that a text sent from abroad can cost £0.49 ($0.95), while transferring 1MB of data can cost £4.11 ($8.00). So what does Ms Reding mean by ‘slash’? Well she has warned that anything more than about 2 pence (about 4 cents) above domestic texting charges would be unacceptable, which would be really good news indeed.

Not so good news on the data downloading market which is still seen as in its infancy, but she did urge for clearer warnings of the costs which would help in avoiding any shocking bills.

Via [BBC]

The UK government are considering plans to cut off Internet access for people that illegally download music and films.

Adopting the US ‘three strikes’ rule the consultation green paper “suggests” internet service providers would be required to take action over users who access pirated material, via a e-mail warning, suspension, and then termination of their contract.

That means that over 6 million people in the UK could be cut off from the internet. Broadband providers that failed to enforce the rules could be prosecuted and forced to provide the details of the downloaders to the courts!

Via [BBC]

An agency employed by the government in the UK has told schools in the UK that they should stay away from Windows Vista and Office 2007 when looking to upgrade.

The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) has not seen enough evidence that the related costs such as hardware upgrades and installation would produce enough benefit to warrant the £175 million it would cost schools to upgrade. At the same time they have stated that Office 2007 has no ‘must have’ features for schools and should be avoided, and that schools should look more towards free options and those that support the international standard ODF (Open Document Format) for storing files. The report criticizes Microsoft “ for dragging its feet with incorporating support for ODF in Office 2007.”

Not good news then for Microsoft in the school sector in the UK!

Via [Macworld]

Technically ‘ripping’ your CD to your computer to copy over to your MP3 player is against copyright law, but that doesn’t stop anyone as far as I am aware! The government in the UK is due to change this archaic law to reflect the reality of the times, although selling or giving away your music after you had ripped it would still be illegal.

“UK music industry body the BPI said it supported the move to clarify the law for consumers, but warned that any changes should not damage the rights of record companies.”

While this seems sensible it doesn’t really change anything materially on a day to day basis, and if anything it just shows how way behind the times our elective representatives are, and of course the usual doom mongers have had their say: “The Association of Independent Music (Aim) said the proposals did not go far enough - pointing out that CDs could become obsolete in the next decade. It said that, once CDs are replaced, the law could be misused to “open the floodgates to unstoppable copying”, adding that it would like to see copyright holders compensated when music was copied.”

Err - so this is going to make the CD obsolete? Nope - technology has already all but done that with the huge popularity of online music stores. Somehow that have to find laws that accept he inevitable and still make people happy rather than try and stop something that is actually better for the majority.

Via [BBC]