The rocker’s radio returns

Even though it was released four years ago demand is still high for Pure’s classic Marshall amp-style DAB radio, with Marshall enthusiasts snapping them up on eBay for around the £150 mark.

A new version has been announced – called the Pure Evoke 1S Marshall – which will now pick up FM as well as DAB and has an auxiliary output for hooking up your iPod or MP3 player. It can run on batteries too – the original was mains-only.

In true Marshall tradition, you can indeed turn the volume dial up to 11.

It’s due out next month as a HMV-exclusive and will set you back £120. An additional speaker can also be purchased for £34.99.

Guess the gadget

Have a look at the assortment of boxes in the image above and try and guess what they are. If you guessed USB toothbrush sanitiser then you guessed correctly. You are clearly some type of God – well done.

The idea of the UVMini – to give it its proper name – is that you put your toothbrush inside and a UV light will destroy 99.99% of the nasties living on your brush. It has a rechargeable battery which is charged via USB – 1 hour of charging allows 7-8 uses.

A somewhat cheaper, and less bizarre, option is to simply soak your toothbrush in mouthwash once a week as the alcohol contained in the mouthwash will kill the germs.

Tomorrow on Bitade:  How to get your bathroom tiles looking like new.

Lend me your ears

The problem with buying earphones is that you can’t try them on in the shop. This means that just have to cross your fingers and hope that they fit snugly in your ears once you get them out of the packet.

JHAudio have found a solution to this predicament – custom made earphones, make via a mold of your very own earlobe. As well as fitting perfectly another benefit is that they’ll drastically cut out the amount of background noise.

And now the bad news – the service isn’t cheap. The cheapest pair is the JH|10X3 PRO which will set you back $799 – just over £500. The prices go right up to $1,149 – truly an amount that only a popstar would be able to afford

Apple throw their toys out of the pram

Oh Apple, have a little dignity, eh? Not content with holding a press conference to basically deny the iPhone 4′s antenna issues as a significant problem (whilst giving out free cases or refunds to all iPhone buyers – a great sign that there’s absolutely no problem at all…), Apple have now taken to saying it’s a problem with all other phones too. They say they’re shooting back – except it wasn’t the other manufacturers who highlighted this problem, it was the thousands of iPhone users who complained they couldn’t get the signal to make a phone call!

We’re sure if you wrap most phones in tinfoil or smash them with a hammer, they lose signal. However, most don’t drop calls when accidentally touched by a pinky finger. Now Apple, how about you stop being shits about this and just own up like a big boy. “Billy did it too, mummy!” really isn’t an excuse for a company with a defective product.

Samsung Galaxy S says Hello

A rather witty newspaper advert for the Samsung Galaxy S. In addition, Samsung have even been giving away free Galaxy S phones to disgruntled iPhone 4 users on Twitter. Nice one Samsung.

LX5 – the son of the awesome LX3

The Panasonic Lumix LX3 was pretty awesome. Even after its release in November 2008, it remains one of the best non-DSLR digital cameras on the market and has mostly retained its original price due to its popularity among photography geeks (we’d argue the Canon Powershot S90 is probably the best little digital camera on the market today, but let’s not split hairs).

Now Panasonic have unveiled this season’s new cameras, including the Panasonic Lumix LX5, which is pretty much a direct upgrade and sequel to the LX3 (they don’t like the number 4 much in Asia).

It’s very similar to the LX3 but that’s not such a bad thing. It looks almost identical and has the same number of megapixels (10 of them), though the CCD sensor has been improved and it sports a newer Leica lens. In addition to taking high quality photos, it can also record 720p HD video.

Interested? It will be available in August for $499.

Samsung’s Galaxy Beam projection looks good

Samsung’s Galaxy Beam has become the first mobile phone to come with a built-in projector. It’s capable of displaying images varying from 5 to 50 inches in size, and in order to power it the phoned been also given the biggest capacity mobile phone battery ever – 1800 mAh.

I think Samsung have found a nice little niche here – it’s idea for business men who don’t want to lug around a projector to show off their newest spreadsheets. The appeal goes further than that too – it’s also ideal for keen photographers or movie fans who don’t want to watch a movie on a tiny little screen. That said, it would be a little impossible to use a projector on somewhere like a train or while waiting for a bus.

Sadly, it’s currently only available on the Samsung Singapore website with no word on a worldwide release.

Bizarre LG promotional photos

It seems this is all to promote the LG Dios, a fridge. The girl painted pink is supposed to represent heat, whilst the blue girl represents cold. Hmm. That still doesn’t really explain anything.

Still, clearly LG’s Korean marketing department is staffed by horny old men, who release new fridges just to get touched by Eva Longoria. You almost have to respect that.

iPhone 4 is Apple’s Vista

At least according to Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Turner. At Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, the big COO stated; “It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I’m okay with that”.

While some people are up in arms over Mr Turner’s apparent blunder for insulting his own product, it does seem fairly honest and accurate. Vista and the iPhone 4 are both a bit underwhelming and bug-ridden. Fair enough really. It would be nice if Mr Jobs acknowledged that the iPhone 4 won’t make phone calls if you hold it funny.

Time warp!

What would an MP3 player or a mobile phone look like if it had been released in 1977? Probably similar to Alex Varanese’s ALT1977 artwork, which can be found on Behance.net

My favourite has to be the faux advert for a pocket HiFi, as seen above, although I’m also keen on the Atari handheld which features such games as Pung, Asterisks and Pratfall.

More stuff like this, please.

Google is watching you. Well, maybe

The Google Street View cars are returning to four countries this week – Ireland, Norway, South Africa and Sweden.

Google were under fire back in May for unintentionally collecting data from unsecured wireless networks while attempting to capture the world on camera. The new cars have had their Wi-Fi data collection equipment removed in order to avoid a similar incident from recurring.

Random fact: I once saw a Google Street View car not too far from my house.

RetroN 3 revives old carts and controllers

We’ve all seen those 50-games-in-1 cheap copycat games systems, but there’s something slightly interesting about the RetroN 3 games console. Rather than being a cheap emulator in a copied Nintendo box, the RetroN 3 actually uses the original cartridges and controllers – for not just one games system, but three. It combines a Sega Genesis (or Megadrive), Nintendo NES and SNES into one system. It comes bundled with two wireless Genesis-style control pads but you can use your old pads too.

For something from the same company that produces Wii Guitar Hero controllers with exploding batteries, it doesn’t actually look too bad. It’s available for $70, so not too bad then.