Hi-tech Exam Cheats Increasing

These kids today eh, a new UK report on last year’s GCSE’s shows that cheating by using various forms of technology is on the rise. The little scamps are not only using mobile phones – so often the cause of my ire at pub quizzes… it’s a tainted victory folks, tainted – but they’re also taking advantage of products from sites that are openly selling “exam cheat equipment”.

The old fashioned way of cheating.

A quick search online reveals that ‘invisible’ Bluetooth earpieces could be available for between €80 to €145 and it’s these sort of products that are worrying British school chiefs in particular, along with kids surreptitiously listening to audio files on regular MP3 players or even using programmable calculators that can hold text, formulas, or even pictures. A BBC report notes that while students are being targeted by these ‘cheat’ sites, schools are in turn “receiving adverts from technology firms selling detection equipment, promising to identify texting, e-mails or pupils using mobiles to search the internet”.

Philips Teams up with Songbird

Open source media player Songbird has received a massive boost today with the announcement that it will be bundled with Philips’ MP3 players, pushing the software to vast numbers of new users.

For those who haven’t encountered Songbird, it’s an entirely open source media player, with a look-and-feel that’s not entirely dissimilar from Apple’s iTunes setup. Indeed, Songbird has made something of a name for itself as a customisable alternative to iTunes, which many find to be too much of a headache to use under Windows. The deal with Philips will see Songbird distributed with the companies new line of GoGear MP3 players.

Last Minute Christmas Gifts

Good morning all. Those of you who keep up with us on Twitter will already know that 1300 today is the closing date for people who want orders to be delivered to them in time for Christmas via An Post. With that in mind, there’s a little under three hours to get last minute orders in.

There are a few things that will always go down well, won’t break the bank and just about everyone will find a use for over the coming year that we think will make fine last-minute Christmas presents for those who haven’t managed to get all of their shopping done yet (and let’s not kid ourselves, we’re firmly in that category ourselves).

Western Digital Elements 1TB:

Western Digital’s Elements 1TB external hard drive is a simple enough thing to pick up for Christmas, but it’s also one of those “gifts that keeps on giving.” Moreover, it’s only €79, which means you can grab one for your nearest and dearest without bankrupting yourself.

Click through to see our page for the WD Elements 1TB hard drive

There’s nothing like giving someone the gift of not having to worry about deleting things; it’s relatively simple, but hard drive purchases are something that tend to get put on the long finger until, eventually, you realise you’ve got a fast-filling hard drive in your main machine and nowhere to put whatever is taking up your space.

Better still, there’s nothing like being there when someone is restoring a machine from a backup and having the self-satisfied little grin that says, “He only has that backup because picked up the drive.”

It’s the little things that help make it through Christmas, but the promise of being able to be smug later on is a bonus. You can check out the Western Digital Elements 1TB in more detail on our product page for it if you’re interested.

Opera’s Unite Breaks Records

Opera has released an update to its browser, taking the browser to Opera 10.10, which sees its much-touted Unite service added to the browser. It’s meant a record-breaking week for Opera.

The numbers are fairly impressive; Opera has seen the latest version of its browser downloaded by around 12.5 million people in the last week alone, beating the record number of downloads it had had by fully 25%, set on the release of Opera 10. Of course, the big question is whether or not Unite, which many see as having been the driving force behind the latest figures, stands the test of time.

EU to Limit Media Player Volumes?

It’s looking more and more as though we could see all media players sold in the EU arriving with a volume limitation installed by default to prevent people damaging their hearing by overdoing it with headphones.

Word comes via TGDaily that the proposed new volume limitation acts to combat the fact that users often listen to portably media devices at levels considered to be “damagingly loud.” While this has raised all kinds of interesting questions about the degree to which people will allow their liberties to be infringed, it’s worth pointing out that this proposed limitation would be something users could change later on, if they feel the need to listen to their media at “damagingly loud” levels.

Apple Responsible for Flash Memory Shortage

Apple’s been consuming NAND as thought it were going out of fashion, it seems, with the blame for the recent shortage of flash memory being levelled squarely on the iPod manufacturer.

Word comes via TGDaily that Apple has been buying so very much flash memory that many manufacturers are having to scale back orders to other companies. Samsung, Micron, Toshiba and Hynix Semiconductor are all reported to be selling a larger volume of their stock to Apple than before, with the company’s massive demand driving up the price of memory for all concerned.