News

  • Google Announce Google+, Their New Social Network: This is not Google’s first attempt at a social networking site; Google Buzz was the company’s first effort, and it tried to take on the likes of Facebook and Bebo (remember that?) however failed miserably. The main stand-out feature is ‘Circles’, which allows you to organize your friends into groups and share specific information with people in the same group. Another main feature is ‘Sparks’, which lets you share websites you find interesting – similar to StumbleUpon. Google+ is not yet available to the general public, and is in a closed beta period, so unfortunately, an invite is needed to get going with Google+.
  • Olympus Announce New Micro Four Thirds Cameras: At a press event on Thursday, Olympus announced the new PEN E-P3, PEN E-PL3, and PEN E-PM1. All three are 12.3 megapixel based cameras, with impressive ISO ranges. At the same event, Olympus also announced two new prime lenses for the Micro Four Thirds system. The introduction of these cameras has really increased the amount of bodies in this line-up, and shows how compact system cameras are becoming increasingly more popular. No pricing or availability is known yet, however stay tuned to TechInform for more details as we get them.
  • Sony Announce New Z Series Laptop: The Sony Z series is Sony’s ultra-portable, executive laptop range, which strongly competes with the MacBook Air. The new Z series packs some serious power with i7 processors, 8Gb of RAM and a 256Gb SSD. Alongside the new laptop, Sony also announced the Power Media Dock, which is an external Bu-Ray drive, graphics card and media ports unit. The dock includes the AMD Radeon HD 6650M GPU, which, when plugged into the Z series via Thunderbolt, gives the laptop some serious graphics power. The new Z series is due out late July, with prices starting around $2000!

Rumors

  • New MacBook Air To Arrive in July?: There have been rumors going around for a while that a new MacBook Air is in the works, however now, 9to5Mac have shed a little more light on the rumor. The new Airs will probably come with the new low voltage Sandy Bridge processors: dual-core i5 and i7s. It is likely that the design will stay the same, and the high speed Thunderbolt port is added. As for when, it is most likely we will see them in mid-July, with the release of OS X Lion.

Reviews

  • Turtle Beach PX21: The PX21s is a mid-range gaming headset, which are designed with the PlayStation 3 in mind. The audio quality is very good, however the headset suffers from some build issues, which includes persistent braking. The PX21s are not recommended by TechInform, and we suggest you look elsewhere.
  • iPad Camera Connection Kit: This kit, which includes a USB and an SD adaptor, has been available since the launch of the iPad. Many have thought it is an overpriced piece of kit; however it comes in useful for many people. Some of the advantages include the form factor (being small makes it more portable), however the price still does deter some potential buyers from the product.
  • iOS 5: On the site, we have an interesting post regarding the iOS 5 beta from Apple. It is clear that the functions of the new software are very useful, and a fantastic update from the iOS 4, however there is still many bugs apparent in the OS, which make it annoying to use on your primary device. The advice is to wait for a future update, or for the final edition of iOS 5.
  • Notepad++: This is an advanced version of Notepad on Windows, and its primary purpose is for coding. The tabbed interface is an excellent feature, and makes viewing more than one page together easy. Notepad++ is strongly recommended for any developer using Windows.