WHAT’S NEW IN GADGETS AND TECHNOLOGY
A DIGITAL WATCH REVOLUTION
The watch world brimmed with barely-concealed contempt last year when Apple released its newest iPod Nano complete with a digital clock face option and the serious suggestion that you could strap it to a wristband and wear it as a watch. But watchmakers of Switzerland will take a more wary interest in this futuristic number, known as the HD3 Slyde. The face is in fact an entirely digital LCD touchscreen designed to resemble an analogue timekeeping technology, and also offers different display options, chronograph function, a calendar and other options at the touch of a finger to the screen. Launched last week at the Geneva Time Exhibition, it’ll be appearing in shops later this year. Expect it to be expensive.
www.hd3complication
INTEL GOES HIP HOP
Interestingly-dressed hip hop chap, Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas, has been appointed to the role of Director of Creative Innovation by semiconductor chip manufacturing leviathan Intel. “Nearly everything I do involves processors and computers, and when I see an Intel chip I think of all the creative minds involved that help to amplify my own creativity,” says the man who previously demonstrated his commitment to futuristic technology thus: “Y’all stuck on Super 8 sh*t, that low-fi stupid eight bit, I’m on that HD flat, this beat go boom boom bap.” Or as Intel might say, “pom pom pom pom.”
BBC’S IPLAYER APP FINALLY READY?
Amid all the cuts on its online side, the BBC’s iPlayer app – announced nearly a year ago – looks to be just around the corner, according to digital media news website Paid Content, which claims the application will be available to iOS users by the end of February. That’ll be just in time for the Beeb’s digital overlord Erik Huggers to launch it before he leaves to join Will.I.Am at Intel.