Author: Toby Leftly

Some of Pink Floyd’s albums have been removed from the iTunes Music Store since EMI’s contract with the band is up. The outage includes some of the band’s most notable albums, including Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, and Wish You Were Here have been removed. The band shopped around for a new record label earlier this year but while they do not have a contract none of their music can be sold online. It’s indicative of the record industry’s view of the digital music market that a product people might actually wish to purchase is now completely unavailable to them online for no good reason. The band’s back…

Plenty of people are up in arms about Google and Verizon’s Legislative Framework Proposal, but on Friday the company faced a very public response to the issue. Essentially the two companies suggest that the internet could be viewed differently depending upon whether one is using a broadband internet connection from home or work or via a mobile device on a 3G or 4G network. Bloggers and online news sources have attacked Google for this, claiming that they benefited from an open internet that they are now trying to section off. A small group of protesters gathered outside Google headquarters to…

If you’re a geek with a pulse you probably know that Celebration V, an expo focusing on all things Star Wars, has been going on in Orlando. The event which ends today has given us many great images, such as the life size Tie Fighter, and storm troopers with lettering on their backs to spell out Jon Stewart’s name. The last picture was a nod to Stewart who interviewed George Lucas, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher on Saturday. Lucas waxed nerdy, talking about how the production team spent hours trying to get the R2-D2 droids moving in a straight line on the first Star Wars movie. The big news for moviephiles…

Adobe clearly isn’t out to win any brownie points with Apple or it’s users. Photoshop Express for iPad was finally released on Friday, although the initial reviews were not great. Apparently the app crashes repeatedly, opens other apps when it tries to relaunch and cannot switch to landscape mode. It’s true that the app is free, so perhaps Adobe pushed it out the door quicker than it’s commercial titles, but that still doesn’t seem like a great publicity win for them. Either way, it’s fixed now, so if you grabbed the app (iTunes link) on Friday there’s an update available….

I’m not just writing about this gadget because it happens to share my name and along with it a fine heritage of great naming for great stuff, honest. First, Toby jugs in England, quirky mugs with character in look and feel. Then, the Tobi Steamer, a remarkable alternative to the tedious task of ironing clothes. Now finally, the Tobii S32, a device for recording speech and playing it back by pressing buttons with appropriate labels. I’ll admit, I’m a little baffled by it. I see several obvious uses as either toys or educational devices for kids, or accessibility aids for deaf or mute people, but the…

Okay, this headline is probably more clickbait than actual truth, but before January 2010 how many of you have waited more than a few years to see that headline pop up in your feed readers? Actually, this is quite the non-event – another device crudely fashioned and sold purely on the basis that it might actually run OS X for a week or two before becoming unstable. The Axon Haptic Tablet obviously doesn’t come with OS X installed, since only morons would actually try to sell a product owned by another company without any attempt to license or attribution. Instead, they sell systems “designed to be suitable…

As anyone who has walked on glass floors at lofty tourist attractions can attest, it’s a strangely disconcerting feeling. Your brain assures you that the floor is there and is strong enough to hold your weight, but you’re still nervous about that first step. If you’re honest enough to admit this is the case, then this will probably terrify you. A hot air balloon enthusiast has invented a glass-bottomed hot air balloon. While even it’s inventor, Christian Brown describes it as a “terrifying experience”, he says early trials ended with passengers shrieking and screaming in fear. Clearly the video…

The dream for many of having Flash run on their iPad or iPhone just got a little bit more real thanks to the invention of Frash, a version of Flash that runs on jailbroken iOS devices. This renewed hope doesn’t come from the unending stream of non-Apple devices comfortably running Flash with no impact on performance or battery life. No no. The tool comes courtesy of Comex, the same group responsible for the JailbreakMe.com tool released earlier this month. Cnet has a pretty good rundown of how Frash performs, but I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by stating that Frash crashes frequently, does not…

Oracle, a company who for the past decade seems to be known only for being relevant a decade ago is in the spotlight once again. Apparently Google’s Android operating system uses Java, a product of Sun Microsystems which Oracle purchased in 2009. Oracle claims Google “knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property”, most likely hoping to scupper a “whoops, our bad” legal defense. Oracle has not yet filed suit, so Google is unable to comment on the press release, but at an estimated 200,000 Android handsets being sold each day around the world, this…

Since Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer’s announced that their ipad killer would in fact be tablet computers running the Windows OS, the same approach they’ve been failing at for nearly ten years, we’ve been watching closely for comparisons between iPads and tablet PCs. Of course, it’s a tricky task, because every time Ballmer stands up and announces a tablet device running Windows, the damn things get canceled. Well, here’s a video comparing a tablet that snuck out to market with an iPad. Considering the nature of the Apple Vs. PC debate, and the fact that, well, this is the internet, the video is surprisingly…