I had an interesting email in my inbox yesterday morning. It was from the Sling Media guys asking to see if I wanted to test their latest mobile client for the Nokia n95. Well I didn’t need to be asked twice. I was straight onto the website, filling in my details and downloading the client. Before I get to my opinion a little bit about the SlingBox.

The box, which now supports High Definition, allows you to stream content across the Internet to your computer or hand held device. I first picked mine up about 2 years ago [I think I was one of the first in the UK to actually have one] and must admit it’s probably been my most useful gadget to date.

The latest version now supports up to 4 video sources (including high def as I already said), although I currently only have my Sky HD box plugged in. You simply hook the box up to your home network and then it gives you what is known as a finder ID. This is the unique code to identify your Slingbox. You then install the client on your computer or mobile device and enter the finder ID of your sling box. The really cool thing about the Slingbox is that you can actually control your video source meaning you can change the channel while on the move. I also find the Slingbox very good around the home as well, especially streaming TV out to the garden - when the weather finally improves.

As I said though what makes this solution so great is that it works so well on the Nokia n95 as well. After installing yesterday I nipped outside and was able to stream the football over 3G. One thing though to be aware of is that over 3G this can eat up data faster than a pig in a pie shop so make sure you keep an eye on your usage. My advice would be to get an unlimited data plan, or go searching for a wireless hotspot.

The Slingbox is without a doubt one of my most prized gadgets and I highly recommend one to any gadget fan out there.

Live life on the wild side? Constantly crawling up the side of cliffs and always wondering where your next feed of adrenalin is going to come from? Well we have the gadget for you. If you spend your days skiing down the slopes, rallying down mountains on your mountain bike, conquering The Alps or diving out of planes you will probably want to capture all those moments right, however, trying to make it up the face of a cliff with a video camera in one hand is probably not the best idea.

With the AT18 Waterproof Action Camera you can capture it all and not have to worry about plunging to your death. This cool Action Camera from Oregon can be attached easily to a helmet, mast, harness, or your handlebars and all mounting equipment is included. It will deliver digital video in 640 X 480 VGA at 30 frames per second and all captured footage can be played on the TV or uploaded to a PC, so you can share your daredevil antics with the whole world. The 32MB on-board memory is by no means a lot but with an SD card slot expandable up to 2GB you will be able to capture a fair whack of danger. With waterproof capabilities of up to 3 metres and being shock resistant you won’t have to worry about it crashing out on you either.

I myself am definitely not a danger man so I’m thinking it can also come in handy for making creative party videos, strapping to the cat or creating your own version of Peep Show. No? Well I’m sure you have your own ideas but one thing is for sure, the AT18 Waterproof Action Camera can come to good use no matter where you are or whatever situation you are in.

I almost feel a bit embarrassed writing this post, given that I’m looking out of my window at weather that wouldn’t be out of place in a Storm Chasers episode. This morning however, as I took the red eye flight from Belfast, the weather was spectacular and it got me thinking to all the fantastic things you can do when the weather is suitable. Of course to make the most of summer you need the proper equipment and that’s what has motivated me to write this.

First and foremost I love my food, especially on the BBQ, so even the smallest possibility that summer could be around the corner as me already looking at the latest and greatest upgrades to my BBQ kit. I remember growing up a choosing a BBQ was a much simpler affair. Nowadays though there are a host of options to consider making the buys choice somewhat more complicated, especially if you still need to decide on coals or gas? [note I’m not even going to attempt to answer that one as I could be here for days] Oh and don’t forget about your accessories, especially if you don’t like your burger munching to be ruined by wasps. Now of course in this country you can never be too sure you won’t get a spot of rain so ensure you have some protection that will allow you to continue your outdoor antics even if the weather turns foul.

Finally after all that eating you will no doubt want to chill out for a few hours so you may want to consider something comfortable to snooze the afternoon away in or if water is your cup of tea then check out some of the pool and spa packages available.

So there you have it, my guide to building yourself a perfect garden retreat this summer. Now of course all we need is the sun!

Today is the day that the classic video game Mario Kart appears for the first time on the Nintendo Wii, it’s debut if you will. Anyone who has ever played a video game is probably familiar with the Mario Kart series but no-one is familiar with the game in conjunction with the Wii experience. The new generation of Mario Kart will be packed with more high-jinks than ever before, more characters, more tracks, more weapons and more vehicles!

There are up to 25 different racers for you to choose from with each racer having their own weight class and unique abilities which will make them more suited to certain playing styles and less suited to others. In total there are 32 tracks to race on, with 16 of them being new and never seen before and the other 16 being remakes of those classic tracks that we loved before. Perhaps the best addition to the new Wii version is the inclusion of motorbikes, something which can only add more buffoonery to the madness that is Mario Kart.

Whether you are 5 or 50, boy or girl, man or woman, mushroom or gorilla, Mario Kart won’t disappoint but make sure you are prepared for the lunacy that is about to be unleashed upon you!

When you plop your iPod down into your iPod Dock it shouldn’t be restricted to the one little confined space should it? It should be allowed to breathe and spill sounds into all corners of the home. Well the extremely stylish Evolve Wireless Music System from Griffin does exactly that with absolutely no trailing wires or anything else for you to trip over and break your neck. How you say? Because its two independent speakers are completely wireless so you can put them into whatever room tickles your fancy. I can already hear you thinking “Karaoke time in the shower!”

Yes it is as simple as sitting the Dock down somewhere out of the road, connecting your iPod to it, popping down your speakers wherever you see fit (anywhere within 150ft) and pressing play. Each speaker contains a rechargeable battery pack which will deliver up to 10 hours of music between charges and to charge you simply sit each speaker down on their charging station part of the dock and they will charge automatically, no wires, no plugs, natter!

It doesn’t all end with the music however. This great piece of tech also has an A/V socket so you can connect it to your TV and watch all your iPod videos on your 50″ flatscreen and of course you have wireless speakers so you can create your own surround sound. How sweet is that!

Handsfree Kits are the main accessory for any car and are a must-have mainly because if you don’t have one and are caught on the phone then you get arrested but your handsfree kit doesn’t just have to be for talking on.  The Parrot MK6000 is a professionally installed Bluetooth hands-free kit also dedicated to music which combines the latest generation of signal processing for your mobile phone with the added capability of playing MP3 music files via Bluetooth.

The Parrot MK6000 uses the latest “Parrot Beamforming” signal processing technology that works between a pair of twin microphones. This basically means that the signal is of high quality and the Parrot handsfree kit will pick up the driver’s voice a lot more clearly than your average kit while also reducing surrounding noise effectively. This also means that there is no need for a headset although you can opt to use one if you feel that works better for you.

Aside from providing handsfree chit chat the Parrot MK6000 will also play the tunes on your mobile phone through your car speakers. It simply captures the music playing on your mobile phone through a Bluetooth signal and plays it out through your car instead, automatically muting whatever was on before that. Other capabilities are that it can automatically synchronize with your address book and it will read out your contacts to you as you go through them, now that is cool!

So I’m sure a lot of you out there either own, or at the very least have had a play with a GPS device. These are especially useful if you spend a lot of time driving - I’m one of those people who will get lost at the drop of a hat so mine comes in pretty useful. The thing about these devices is that they are live tracking devices which give you realtime positioning, which of course is what you want when looking for directions. Well what if you wanted to track your position, or for that matter someone elses, after the event. Well that’s when the TrackStick comes into play. (by the way I’m not too sure how legal it really is to go about tracking someone else)

This is a small USB based GPS tracker which actual records your location, rather than reporting it live. The tracker itself can hold potentially months of location data before being downloaded and used in conjunction with the likes of Google Maps or Microsoft StreetView.

I think this would be extremely useful for those of us, like me, who travel a lot. Or perhaps you are planning a 6 month trip around the world. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to be able to look back on a map of the world after the event and show your exact route? This of course could be used in conjunction with your own notes on things to see and do at a particular spot. Never again get home and think to yourself, now where was that really scenic spot I drove past the other day? The main benefit I see to this is the fact that due to it being able to contain data covering many weeks you can simply let it get on with recording your position and then share this information with friends and family.

Also a cool little device if you fancy yourself as a bit of a James Bond type character .

Nokia have at long last unleashed their N-Gage gaming platform globally allowing millions of mobile happy gamers to get their hands on some decent games for their mobile phones. After a BETA spell of the gaming platform that was only available to selected Nokia N81 users the full version is now available across the globe and to start will be supporting the Nokia N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95 and N95 8GB phones although support is expected to be added for the N73, N93 and N93i sometime in the near future.

Users will be able to take games for a test run before they buy them and games will be available for around about 4-8 quid. Hardcore gamers will also be able to connect with other fellow button-bashers through the N-Gage Arena community to play multi player games, take part in the forums, use live chat and play against each other in tournaments.

The first set of new games that will be on offer are FIFA 08, Brain Challenge, Asphalt 3: Street Rules, World Series of Poker Pro Challenge, Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep and System Rush: Evolution. Games that will soon be following them are The Sims 2 Pets, Space Impact: Kappa Base, Tetris, Mile High Pinball, Block Breaker Deluxe, Dogz and Snakes Subsonic.

In my previous post I mentioned that I had had a chance to have some hands on time with Apple TV, including the latest firmware updates. So far I’ve only spoken about the main features of Apple TV, including movie and TV viewing. Well Apple TV has more under its hood than first meets the eye and in this post I’d like to review some of the lesser known features that complete this little white box of goodness.

Firstly did you know you can now watch your latest podcasts via the Apple TV as well? For those who don’t know podcasts are mini shows, available online,  covering a whole range of subjects that are available via the iTunes music store. I’m sure if you have a video capable iPod you have at the very least taken a look at these. This is especially good as quite a few podcast producers are now delivering an HD version of their show which the Apple TV will now support. This is quite a big thing for me as I must admit I do watch a lot of podcast shows, and having the ability to watch these on my large TV downstairs is quite a pull. Right now it would seem you can’t subscribe to the very latest podcasts, but then again using the Apple TVs favourites button should make it a breeze when looking for the latest content. You can still view YouTube content and now that you can login to you YouTube account you should be able to view your subscriptions.

Apple TV Take 2 now also supports photo viewing from a .Mac or Flickr photo stream. In the past you have been able to view photos which had been synced to your Apple TV, but this addition is quite good as it allows you to view photos from online. It’s a shame that at present you seem to be only able to view photos from your contacts in Flickr, rather than generally browse, but again I’m sure this feature will come.

So what’s my overall opinion? Well first the good. Supported HD and Dolby Digital along with a reasonable catalogue of content and a user interface that is simple to use are the main killer features of this product. On top of this the ability to view YouTube, Flickr and Podcast content makes this a serious competitor in the content distribution arena. On the negative side I’d like to see in the future support for 1080p, more thought into the Podcast side of things but as you can see there’s nothing major I’d change about this product. More like evolutionary steps. One point to note you may want to consider your own home network speed, especially if you want content available shortly after starting the download. Perhaps a good thing to try would be to rent a movie via your PC or Mac and see how quickly this comes down and is available for viewing.

So there you have it - my thoughts on Apple TV, and in my opinion a serious player in this particular market place. Oh and it looks fantastic as well, but then being an Apple product, you probably already knew that

So I had a chance the other day to have a proper play with Apple TV, the next generation or Take 2 version that Apple like to call it. It was at a friends house and as usual I had to seek out the latest geek technology that I myself don’t have. First off I don’t think it’s the best looking device in the Apple range, but it’s still sleek enough to make you think to yourself, hmmm that would go well under my TV / in my bedroom / next to my iMac [delete where necessary]

For those who already own the Apple TV I presume you have updated the software already? If not, you really should as it brings a host of new features. For those who are perhaps considering it, let me give you a few of my thoughts.

Firstly given that it offers wireless as well as wired network connections you can pretty much choose where in your house you want to place this. My main concern about using wireless would be that you may want to push pretty rich content across it and I’ve found quite often that wireless networking, even 802.11g (which offers up to 54Mbps) can struggle from time to time. My advice, if you can, plug this baby into your home network over a wire. If you are struggling to get close to your network ports then you may want to consider a set of home plugs which I covered in an earlier post.

One of the things that Apple has made its name with over the years is the simple user interface you are presented with and Apple TV is no exception. When you first login, or update, you are presented with a simple list of options; Movies, TV shows, HD, Photos, Podcasts etc.

I actually find the Apple movie trailers section on their home page a great resource for getting a feel for upcoming movies in cinemas, and of course Apple TV now lets you play this on your main TV screen. Using the remote control was simple and within around 2 minutes I had navigated to a movie of my choice and was ready to purchase. Some of the movies offer a High Def version, along with a Dolby Digital Soundtrack, which the Apple TV now supports - good work ! Once you start downloading you will get a progress bar. Now you can either wait until the full movie has downloaded, or the device will prompt you when it thinks you have enough in the buffer.

If TV shows are your bag, then once again you can perform all of the same functionality as with the movies. I personally don’t think I would use this feature given that I pretty much time-shift my TV viewing habits using a combination of sky+ and online players. Still though I’m sure some would find this very useful.

Unfortunately at present the Apple TV only supports up to 720p resolution, but given that my mate only has a screen that provides support for this it wasn’t too much of an issue. I must admit the picture and sound quality were pretty impressive on the titles that I had a quick flick through. I was also quite impressed with the range of titles that were available. As I’ve said before on this blog I’m a firm believer that digital distribution is the way forward so a product such as Apple TV gets a thumbs up from that perspective.

One of the downsides that my friend mentioned was that at present he only has a 2Mbps internet connection at home, and so sometimes, especially at prime time it can take longer than you want to download enough of the movie to allow you to start watching. Just something to be aware off.

So that’s it for part 1 of my very own hands on review of Apple TV. In the final part I’ll be reviewing some of the lesser known features of this tiny box of tricks along with giving my overall opinion.  Stay tuned !