This was Septembers Prizedraw! In case you were confused by the mix up in our weekly update, the prize for October is excellent Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 scanner

 

We run regular free-to-enter prize draws open to all UK resident GadgetSpeak members as a thank you for your continued support. You just have to remember to log-in once during the competition period and make sure you're receiving our really interesting weekly update emails

We haven't run one for a couple of months - the summer got rather hectic with holidays and enjoying the wonderful English summer!

To make up for that we have what we hope you'll agree is an excellent prize for September - a 10.2" digital picture frame from Polaroid. The lucky winner will be able to spend the long winter months looking at slide shows of smiling faces in the sun and be reminded that the weather does improve (ok - this year only for those of you that went abroad!).

As well as having a large crisp high resolution display this photo frame accepts a number of different memory cards to supplement it's internal memory. If you get bored of last years snaps then it will also play AVI video clips and even MP3 music for your entertainment.

If you want to know more then you can read Paul Smarts review here.

Want a chance to win? The draw is open to all qualifying members (free - just complete this form). If you are a member you have to login at least once during the month. Not logged in? Just click here! Remember to check the terms and conditions on the registration and log-in pages!

According to a survey by NDS, 70% of people couldn't live without theirs!

Digital Video Recorders, those rather nifty little boxes that replace your ancient VHS recorder allowing you to record hundreds of hours of TV without a tape in sight, are popular! Just how popular has been illustrated today by the NDS survey of over 1,000 owners. Surprisingly for something so new the DVR is now rated as the third most indispensable household item after the washing machine and the microwave. That's pretty impressive!

We've reviewed a number of these products from a growing number of manufacturers and they are definitely addictive - once you've had one you'll definitely be loath to let it go again!

People in the survey cite a number of reasons for the popularity of the DVR - the two that ring most true with myself are the convenience (no tapes to find - just press a button, time-record something by selecting it in the schedule, record a whole series) and the role of 'peace maker' in a family where everyone has a different viewing taste. In the 'old days' with only 3 TV channels the likelihood of a clash between individuals was pretty slim - not so with the hundreds of channels now available. With most DVRs on the market being able to record two channels simultaneously there really is no reason to miss out!

In the depths of the biggest credit crunch since the term was first coined (last year) people are making savings - and what better way to save than a night in with full cinema experience (and maybe a nice bottle of red) catching up on the weeks TV? Along with the "Staycation" - the DVR is making "Staying in the new going out!".

We'd love to hear your experience of the DVR sitting underneath your TV. Could you live without it? What's your favourite feature? Is it on your Christmas list? Or do you wonder what all the fuss is about? Drop a comment down below and share your views with the rest of the GadgetSpeak community!

Sony have today announced a reduction in its 60Gb PS3 to £349, with a new 40Gb model breaking the £300 barrier to launch at £299 on 10th October.   We'll be following this race very carefully!

With the Nintendo Wii, XBox 360 and PS3 all in the same price bracket, will the Nintendo Wii and Xbox follow with their own price cuts?  Who do you think will win the race for people's hearts and wallets this Christmas?  We are really interested in your views.  If you already have a Wii, XBox or PS3, let us know what you think - and help others to make the right request of Santa!!

Disney hitched their horse to the Blu-Ray bandwagon a good while before HD-DVD finally lost the race. With that uncertainty effectively removed from the market it's good to see more classics being released on the high-definition format. In this case Disney are releasing five additions to their Platinum Collection : Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 and Beauty and the Beast.

If you've invested in a large format TV then high-definition is going to be the best way to make the most of the technology you have. With this collection your kids (or you!) can see all their favourites in crystal clear quality!

So - hands up if your're the proud owner of a Blu-ray DVD player? Which one? Have you bought any movies - or have you only got one because it came as part of your Sony PS3?

I've just had an interesting call from Thomson telephone directories people. This year our parent company decided not to renew our advertising with Thomson - right now they have enough work and didn't actually have any calls through Thomson as a result of last years advertising.

We've just had a follow-up call to 'remind' us that the 118 118 directory enquires service only lists businesses that are advertised with Thomson!! If we don't renew our advertising to Thomson then our number will be shown in the 118 118 service as 'ex-directory'. To my mind that smacks of strong arm selling tactics.

Although technically there may be lots of phone books, I think the understanding of average Joe Public is that if you have a phone number it will appear in the directory unless you have decided to mark it as ex-directory.

This isn't a huge loss for us, but quite an eye-opener as someone that *might* have need of a directory enquiry service.

Knowing now that 118 118 doesn't offer anywhere like as comprehensive directory as the old BT 192 service is a bit of an eye opener. Why exactly was it that the 192 service was opened up to competition? Apparently not to improve the service to the customers.

I think most peoples assumption is that if they call directory enquiries on any of the available numbers then they will have access to the same underlying telephone list. That isn't so.

It would be interesting to know the percentage of business numbers listed by the various directory enquiries numbers. That would seem to be a good advertising idea for the services that offer close to a 100% listing.

So... if you want to find the number of a business, DON'T bother calling 118 118 - you'll be wasting your time unless they have paid Thomson for the privilege!

Hope everyone is enjoying themselves - and congratulations to the winners so far.

I've sent out todays daily update a little while age and I've been checking email errors. It looks like a small number of you have invalid email addresses on your account. You obviously still exist and want to be part of Santa's Sack because you've come in and checked the box to receive daily updates.

Some of the accounts with errors are people that have been members for a long time - so their email address has probably just changed. Please, especially if you've been a member for a while, check that we have the correct email address. To do this - log in to GadgetSpeak and click the 'your account' link in the top left of the page.

There are a couple of people that only joined at the end of November who also seem to have email addresses that don't exist - or at least your servers are complaining that you don't exist! I can only assume they used a tempory email address to join then deleted their email account once activated - assuming we wouldn't notice! tut-tut. We do look at what's happening on the site now and then!

Good luck every body - only a few days left and I can relax. I'm going to need a rest at the end of Santa's Sack!

By the way - we've added a little page so you can invite your friends and family to join in the last few days of Santa's Sack. Just click here to invite them!

OK - it doesn't quite think. This new range of training shoe though does include some hi-tech enhancements you won't find in the average footwear. Much of the technology is in the right hand shoe.

To start with the sole of that shoe includes a sensor that can measure both how fast you're moving and how much weight you're pushing down through your shoe. Of course sensing that is one thing - you then have to do something with the information. This is handled by a small controller with an LCD display that's mounted on the top of the shoe (over the laces).

The controller combines the sensor information with vital stats such as your age, weight, height, gender that you enter when you configure the device. From this the system accurately calculates the number of calories you're burning during your exercise.

The manufacturers, Airun, claim that watching your calorie burn has several benefits. Firstly you can make sure you're burning enough calories to maintain, or attain your desired fitness level. Secondly you can see how your calorie burn increases as you get fitter.

If you do plateaux then the shoe has an additional trick up it's sleeve - weighted inner soles. Two are provided, a light option at 100g and a heavy one at 588g. When combined with the weight of the trainer this will give you almost 1Kg per foot. I must admit that as a runner I'm not sure about the idea of lifting that much additional weight with each step, but it would definitely increase the amount of energy you burn.

This technology does come at a price though - the recommended retail price being £125.

Do they work? I haven't tried them so right now have no idea (of course, any readers that have a pair, please leave your comments below!).The concept certainly sounds interesting for those people that enjoy minutely watching their performance, that need the additional motivation of knowing they are doing themselves a lot of good, or simply wish to know when they have successfully burnt of that cream tea!

If I'm feeling up to it and manage to lay my hands on a pair I'll report back with a full review (wish me luck!).

More details on the Airun web-site

Photobox Photobook

We have a great prize, worth over £200 this month thanks to Photobox.

First of all a reminder - to enter you have to be a member (free - just complete this form). If you are a member you have to login at least once during the month. Not logged in? Just click here! Remember to check the terms and conditions on the registration and log-in pages!

Photobox provides an opportunity to match ease of taking pictures with ease of creating prints - and a whole lot more. Upload your images to them and they will print them in a variety of formats and on a variety of materials from standard photo paper to high quality canvas and even onto cushion covers!

Our GadgetSpeak June winner will have the opportunity experiment with their photos with the following excellent prize :

Canvas Print

• 2 classic photo books (http://www.photobox.co.uk/shop/photo-books/classic-a4-photobook)
• 2 cushion covers (http://www.photobox.co.uk/shop/home-gifts/photo-cushion)
• A 70x70cm canvas print of that special photo! (http://www.photobox.co.uk/shop/wall-decor/canvas-prints)

We've all got some special photos stashed away on our computers these days and this is a great opportunity to display the very best. The canvas is great for that really exceptional or memorable photo - maybe a wedding, Christening or other special occasion. The photo books are great to have on the coffee table or to share with friends. They also make excellent gifts for grand parents and other family members!

We'll have our own full review of the service published shortly - but in the meantime take a look on the PhotoBox web-site.

UPDATE : You can now see what our intrepid reviewer made of the Photobox service herself - read the Photobox review here.

Well, almost - subject to regulatory approval!

What is it? A shakeup of the management and development of the most common mobile phone software platform. For those that don't know, Symbian Ltd is a UK company that grew out of the excellent Psion Organiser company. Symbian, which has some of the major mobile hand-set manufacturers including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola. Although taking a much lower profile than Microsoft or Apple the Symbian operating system (OS) accounts for 60% of the smart-phone market.

What's changing? Responsibility for Symbian and several of the user interfaces that run on it are being moved to a new not-for-profit organisation call the Symbian Foundation. What's interesting is that Symbian Ltd is being bought by Nokia (which already owns 48%) for around £209 so all the engineers that currently develop the OS will be Nokia employees - not part of the foundation.

Why? There are a lot of claims. One of the most compelling is to create a huge base of software developers supporting this system rather than competitors. Many people already develop for Symbian, but currently different manufacturers have their own customisations. The Foundation aims to bring consistency.

In a move reminescent of the launch of the Mozilla Foundation which brought the world the FireFox browser, the aims of this new Symbian Foundation will ultimately be to create a free and open source mobile platform (using the Eclipse Public License). That's going to take some time - two years according to the roadmap.

Accouding to a white paper on the new Foundations web-site (http://www.symbianfoundation.org/) funding will be from device manufacturers. There's no clear indication how this works or how much each manufacturer will contribute, how that will vary over time. Since any organisation can become a "Member" for the princely sum of $1500, it's unclear why any additional device manufacturers would need to provide funding. Prior to full open-source release only members will get access to the underlying software - but for $1500 per year membership is hardly a barrier.

There are plenty of questions raised by the white paper, particularly in relation to open source. Those at the forefront of my mind include :

• Apparently only members can contribute code to the organisation - but that isn't consistent with a true open-source model where anyone in theory can contribute code - subject to peer review and quality etc.
• The direction of the OS will be set by a board of directors consisting of the current device manufacturers - not by the community itself. They will be the main beneficiaries, but this could handicap the operating system. Innovation often comes from a fresh point of view.
• All the current closed-source developers from Symbian will become Nokia employees. It's difficult to see how this prevents Nokia having almost complete control over the direction of the OS. Other manufacturers can of course contribute code - but they won't have any of the key developers or the engineering influence. This should be balanced by the need for Nokia not to alienate the other major manufacturers and let in either Microsoft or Google Android, but in a pinch do they use their development resource for a short-term gain - or help out a competitor?
• Having the direction of Symbian Foundation dictated by the handset manufacturers could prevent a very good operating system reaching it's full potential under the Symbian banner.

Where could this take Symbian? I believe the underlying code has a very good real-time design with very robust coding. There seems no reason why Symbian should be limited to the mobile handset market. Once it's there as open source I can imagine it being an ideal candidate for set-top boxes, internet radios and in fact almost any embedded consumer product requiring an OS. The characteristics that make it ideal are precisely those that embedded Linux advocates are still trying to bolt onto that operating system. If the Symbian Foundation doesn't want to go down that route (it'd be sensible to focus!) then the open source license allows for "derivative works". One of the presenters at yesterdays press conference happened to work for a company that also builds set-top boxes!

I look forward to seeing how this change pans out. Release 4 million lines of proprietary closely controlled source code out into the open is bound to have a few hiccups, but a lot can be learnt from previous efforts.

You can read more on the Symbian Foundation web-site.