UK Foreign Secretary William Hague (pictured above left) has received “100% support” from Prime Minister David Cameron, after the beleaguered Mr Hague decided to speak out about his private life because he could no longer put up with allegations about his sexuality. Mr Hague also received the backing of his local constituency Conservative party after issuing a statement yesterday in which he denied having had an “improper” (i.e. gay) relationship with his special adviser, Christopher Myers (pictured above right), who resigned as a result of the “pressure” put on his family due to ”untrue and malicious allegations” circulating on the internet. Now far be it for this blog to speculate about the fact that Mr Hague and Mr Myers regularly...

Check out our new Creative ZiiSound D5 bluetooth wireless speaker system giveaway! Video: Orange HD voice – its that crystal clear! With mobile phones these days so heavily focused on new features like applications and mobile platforms, it seems many have forgotten the sole purpose of mobiles, for talking. Orange though haven’t, in the video below, the network provider demos their new technology which aims to provide noise reduction but with improved voice clarity – Orange HD Voice. Orange will be the first in the UK to launch this service. Enjoy the video below as opera singer Pamela Hay tests the clarity of Orange HD Voice. Here’s the full press release… Orange today announced the first major advancement in UK mobile voice calling for 20...

Today it was across the border from Buckinghamshire into Bedfordshire to renew our acquaintance with the Leighton Buzzard slow train! Leighton Buzzard is a town in Bedfordshire, England near the Chiltern Hills and lying between Luton and Milton Keynes. It adjoins Linslade and the name Leighton Buzzard is sometimes used to refer to the combination of the two towns. It is set on the Grand Union Canal the first great industrial artery of England which joined London to Birmingham. Located in the southern suburbs at Pages Park station you’ll find the local Buzzrail which served the network of sand quarries and brickworks across the area, the unique narrow gauge Leighton Buzzard Railway.The industrial locomotive "Beaudesert"The Leighton Buzzard Railway is one of the last survivors of the...

This little beauty has caught my eye mainly because it looks so good. There’s going to be plenty-many 3D Blu-ray players so they’re going to have to do something to stand out from the crowd. Sharp’s BD-HP90S ticks the boxes for looks – it’s shiny, thin and doesn’t just rely on its sexiness. The Sharp BD-HP90S will gladly sling out 3D and 2D Blu-ray pics all day long and hooks up to BD-Live content via its in-built wi-fi. Looking to dish out media from other devices? That’s where the front USB socket comes in – no need to go scrabbling round the back. The lovely LED indicators to tell you if it’s playing in 3D or the enhanced Aquos “Pure Mode”. The Sharp BD-HP90S will cost you £379.99 and goes on sale in November...

Still taking a separate stereo and GPS unit on road trips? Why not do what you’ve done with your shampoo and grab Sony’s latest 2-in-1? Sony’s Xplod XNV-L77BT and XNV-L66BT head units not only feature 7-inch and 6.1-inch displays respectively they also brag TomTom Live smarts that you just don’t get with your run-of-the-mill sat-navs. If you’d rather avoid those nasty little surprises on your journey you’ll love the HD Traffic and Safety Alerts which will help you skip past traffic jams and provide advance warnings about speed cameras and accident black spots. Engage sport mode methinks The map coverage is what you’d expect from TomTom and both units include TeleAtlas map data for 45 European countries and have a Map Share...

Steve Jobs hasn’t finished playing with his pet Apple TV yet. He has now made it smaller, it now streams cheaper HD content and it will cost £99! There didn’t seem to be any mention of iTV either – perhaps someone told Steve that the UK already has it The new Apple TV (which costs $99 over in the US) will offer first run HD movie rentals for £3.49 – apparently TV shows from ABC and Fox will be 99 cents across the Atlantic so perhaps 99p for similar networks over here as Steve Jobs expects the rest of the networks to get on board. But how can the Wizard Jobs make the box so very ickle? Well, everything on the device will be rental only – which also means that Apple could see no point in including a hard drive In that tiny frame Apple have...

It was on the cards really wasn’t it?. The new iPod Touch has had a bit of an iPhone 4 upgrade but has shunned the square body shape of Apple’s latest blower. The new look iPod Touch has slimmed down and slipped on the Retina display as well as getting FaceTimed up with front and rear cameras. Also from the iPhone 4 goody bag comes the A4 processing chip and 3-axis gyroscope for improved gaming. The Touch has definitely got game thanks to the Game Centre featured in the iOS 4.1 update whichwill come packed with the new Touch when it’s out next week. Whilst all eyes are on the addition of a front facing camera you shouldn’t ignore the one round back as it will happily record 720p HD video as well as being a happy snapper Take your pick from 8GB,...

Apple’s little iPod Nano has been given a major Jobsing today at Apple’s ‘Special Event’ at its headquarters today. In order for the shrunken Nano to be usable to the sausage-fingered they’ve done away with the click wheel and replaced the controls with a rather neat looking multitouch loving screen – not a million miles away from this actually. The Nano’s update has taken the previously small device in to the land of the Shuffle so much so that it gets its own Shuffle-esq clip so it can be slipped onto your collar, tie or bra-strap. This is what Steve Jobs means when he gets a little crazy as he stated on stage “This year we’ve gone wild”. Easy tiger! That cool looking multitouch user interface can be orientated via two-finger rotation...

More Sony news – this time it’s visual. Sony has been busy at the IFA trade fair in Berlin and here’s a few things that they’ve been showing off. First-off, the new-generation Bloggie Touch MHS-TS20K is a really sleek and stylish mobile HD snap camera. It comes with a 7.6cm (3”) touch-screen and new interface, and the usual built-in USB and Social Networking friendly Bloggie software, which make it ideal for blogging-on-the-go. It will snap 12.8 megapixel stills as well as recording 360-degree panoramic videos and photos to capture everything that’s happening around you – just clip on the supplied lens adaptor. 360 Videos are now twice the resolution of previous-generation Bloggie, and low-light video quality is also improved thanks to the...

It seems like it’s all about the footie right now. If you happen to dig Sony Ericsson handsets and are a fan of the UEFA Champions League prepare to be spoilt as SE has recently announced plans to expand its current partnership with UEFA. Building on Sony’s existing partnership with UEFA, a worldwide marketing programme is being launched based on the Champions League which will run between now and 2012. This moves Sony Ericsson to be the official mobile handset of the UEFA Champions League. At the heart of this programme is ensuring the best “on-device” experience for Sony Ericsson’s customers. A lot of the activities will focus on using GPS connectivity on phones to enhance enjoyment of the games, whether you are in the stadium or enjoying the football at...

Jarre Technologies has officially launched AeroSystem One today at the IFA. Jarre Technologies was founded in 2005 by none-other-than electronic music pioneer Jean Michel Jarre. His love of merging sound and vision technology has been put to service the creation of a range of high-end, “affordable2 and aesthetic home-entertainment products. AeroSystem is the audio range and the first release has been imaginatively dubbed AeroSystem One: an iPhone and iPod compatible, HD multi-directional sound tower equipped with a full spectrum speaker, delivering stereophonic sound from a single multi-axial point. Yup – this bit of gorgeous audio tech is the same as the one I wrote about in October 2008 AeroSystem One(r) is the result of four years research and development...

I have a few safeguarding investigations underway at various stages at the moment. There are a lot running concurrently and while wanting to patter off the usual gripes and groans about workloads increasing at different rates, at different times of the year – I can safely blame my current predicament on a shortage of staff and of people who have trained up to complete safeguarding investigations within our team. Historically, it would have been one of those situations which would have been lead by the social workers in a multi-disciplinary team – because the local authority provides additional training for us in this respect and it is seen to fit into the ‘social work’ role and domain  but over the last year, this training and this role has been extended to other disciplines. For...

Check out the video below that has Sara Allison from Underbelly talking to Rob Miles, Lecturer at Hull University, about actually coding for fun (!?) and how easy making games for the Xbox using XNA is. Colin Bird, Director of RippleRock tells everyone that the water’s not that cold once you’re in – advice about starting your own business and sailing. All this happened on day 2 of UK Tech Days. Tweet This! Share this on Facebook Post this to MySpace Share this on Reddit Digg this! Share this on del.icio.us Post on Google Buzz Share this on Technorati Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon Related posts:iTunes Freebies! 12 Days of Christmas LEGO Mini...

As I’ve covered some football linked news as well as price increases I thought you might be interested in this bit of news that’s just come in. Sky Sports customers are looking at a subscription increase from Sept 1st (tomorrow) of £3 per month – Sky Sports and Sky Movies customers being hit with a £2.50 increase. The increased charges mean Sky customers will pay around £240m more for all TV services over the next year – that’s based on 9.78m Sky Subscribers in the UK and RoI What could you buy with a £240m windfall? Well, you could slam down the cash for Tottenham Hotspur (£241m) or Manchester City (£166m), according to valuations by Forbes. How about three Christiano Ronaldo’s (£80m), four Kaka’s (£56m) or seven...

This news may be confusing for those that have noticed that Xbox Live seems to be generally losing ground to Sony’s PSN service thanks to PSN’s free multiplayer online gaming. That aside, Xbox Live GOLD will start to hit your pocket a little more come November. The monthly price for us UK gamers will increase from £4.99 to £5.99 but, strangely, the annual cost will stay £39.99. Our cousins in the states will be hit both on monthy and yearly membership: from $7.99 to $9.99 and $49.99 to $59.99. Xbox’s Major Nelson obviously thinks that the service is worth every penny: “We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry.” Do you think that it’s...

It’s been a long time coming but finally you can grab email from your Hotmail account straight from Microsoft instead of haveing to pay a third party subscription for the service. Microsoft has gloriously rolled out Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), which lets allows you to get push notifications on a variety of portable gadgets including the iPhone. This all comes part of the Wave 4 release of Windows Live Hotmail. As well as your email you can also get your calendar and contacts pushed automatically to your phone from Hotmail. Here’s the necessary settings after going to Settings -> Mail -> Add Account -> Microsoft Exchange: email: Full e-mail address (such as: j_doe@hotmail.com) Domain: Leave this blank Username: Full e-mail address (such as:...

Bedroom Furniture Clearance sale now on, a huge selection of Wooden bed frames and Mattresses all reduced in price, upto 70% Off some leading mattress and bed brands. Julian Bowen – Hornblower 3FT Captains Guest Bed Frame We highly recommend this 6FT Bentley Designs Lyon Oak Bed Frame. We believe in offering the best value for money, when it comes to Bedroom Furniture, we can’t be beaten on Price, and thats a Promise. We stock all the Leading Brand Names such as SilentNight, Airsprung, Sealy, Bentley by Designs, Myers, Hypnos, Julian Bowen and many more. Bring you the consumer, extra discount and special offers on for all your Bed Frame needs, either Wooden or Metal. Our Mattress and Bed delivery details can be found...

The Mark 1 Spitfire replica outside the Cabinet War Rooms, St. James Park, Westminster It was on 20th August 1940 when Winston Churchill, the famous British war-time leader made his famous speech in Parliament to praise the RAF aircrews in defending Britain from Germany’s Luftwaffe.Under a slate grey sky, the words of Winston Churchill rang defiantly around Westminster: 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.' It may be 70 years old, but the resounding call to arms during the Battle of Britain still stiffened the sinew bringing pride and not a few tears last Friday 20th August 2010. To mark the anniversary, the speech was replayed outside Churchill's war-time bunker in Whitehall, at 1552 BST - precisely 70 years since Churchill stood up to give the...

Youtube has taken its first few steps into the movie business as they have launched YouTube Movies today on the UK site. They have secured over 400 films from studio’s and distributers like Sony and Blinkbox. There are some decent films on it, but it’s also your … [visit site to read more] YouTube Are Going to the Movies: YouTube Movies Launches Today in the UK is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com...

If you’re looking for something that will give your portable audio a boost and yet small enough not to make an impact on your luggage allowance perhaps a quick glance at Edifier’s new colourful 2.1 Aurora system. As the 2.1 suggests the set-up comprises of a tubular subwoofer and two miniature golf-ball satellites. The Aurora has been designed for PC use but because of its diminutive size it makes for a handy companion for your lappy or MP3 player thanks to it’s 3.5mm mini-jack port. Don’t let its size fool you thought – this mini marvel is capable of chucking out 22 Watts of raw power through the stereo balls alone.  To get more depth add in that bass unit which is loaded with a 2-inch, magnetically sealed woofer. If you are of the more...

I was invited to head to a football stadium to watch the Manchester City v Liverpool match on Monday. The stadium in question was the Sofa Stadium. Now, I’m not the biggest footie fan but even I know that there isn’t a sofa stadium (there isn’t is there?) – I’m aware of the Saddle Dome but that’s different. This particular stadium was designed from the ground up by Virgin Media and offers football fans a forum for banter while they watch Premiership football. I was more than happy to try out the social networking side of things but I needed a fan – someone that this particular bit of software is aimed at. Fortunately my buddy and football pundit for the night, Mr Neil Maguire, was happy to assist Sofa Stadium is aimed at those...

Apparently Dani Minogue knows nothing of auto-tune (yerright) and the clever pitch-control software was added after the X-Factor performances. Well, THQ has now released ‘Vader Yourself’ on iTunes. Basically your voice gets given the deep and wheezy treatment just like the Sith Lord – it’s gotta be cooler than talking into a biscuit tin! It’s a simple auto-tune app that records and alters your voice, only with the added Star Wars branding and the promise to “bring out your Dark Side” – but who cares? This is the coolness! You also get some heavy breathing noises to paste in as well. On top of all that you can edit and save it so that you can use it later….. Grab your slice of Sith fun on your Apple touchscreen device...

There’s been much guessing as to when this would happen but Apple has finally released an invitation to UK journo types offering them the chance to join in a music-themed event next Wednesday, 1 September. The event, which is a week ahead of the rumoured date of 7 September, will kick off at 6pm on Wednesday. UK folk will get to watch a live link from the event in California which wil reveal just what the company has in store. Now, unless Apple are actually releasing a branded acoustic guitar, I reckon it’s a safe bet that the even will be iPod-based. I’m expecting it’ll be a new iPod Touch and Nano being unveiled but there is a chance that there could be announcements regarding iTunes launching in the cloud and possibly that iTV (Apple TV). What...

With the 70th Anniversary of Blitz on London and the Battle of Britain there is added poignancy to the “Stairway to Heaven” appeal which is trying to build a fitting memorial to the 173 victims of the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster. The worst tragedy on London Underground was in 1943 during World War II in East London at Bethnal Green Tube Station. This was an extension to the Central Line which had not been completed when war broke out and the unfinished station was taken over by London County Council to be used as an Air Raid Shelter during the Blitz of London by the Luftwaffe. On March 3rd. 1943 the largest loss of civilian life in a single non-military incident during World War II, happened in the East End of London. 173 people perished at Bethnal Green tube station. They were...

Looking for something to protect your Apple tablet and perhaps sling in the bonus of a Bluetooth keyboard – check this out. This KeyCase even has a dedicated Bluetooth connect button for quick pairing with your iPad. It looks like an ideal solution for those iPad owners that actually take their fruity slate out and about and use it for e-mailing, making notes and writing documents. For comfortable typing the case sits up in a laptop style position. The Folio’s keyboard has a rechargeable battery and will last for 90 hours of work or 100 days stand-by. A full recharge only takes 4.5hrs. You can grab it here for £60 when it comes back in stock – alternatively you could wait for the ClamCase. Tweet This! Share this on Facebook...

The smartphone market at the moment is fierce and RIM will want to establish themselves well and truly as one of the top dogs of the industry. We’ve seen some changes to BlackBerry recently in the form of updates to the Facebook app, app market and messenger. Handset wise, the Torch 9800 is … [visit site to read more] BlackBerry Torch 9800 UK release date and price is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com...

Demon are showing their love for gamers with their latest deal. The internet service provider is offering a VIP fast track to speedy speeds all aimed at the gaming community. For an extra £3 per month lovers of online gaming get priority on the super highway. According to the sites Demon has enough extra capacity to cover any surge and it won’t affect the daily home user… too much. Demon also promises lower latency, faster ping times, 24-hour UK-based support and 20MBits/sec downloads with 1Mbit/sec uploads. The only restriction I can spot is that you’ll be limited to 100GB a month between 8am and 11pm. The Game Pro package starts from about £23 per month. Tweet This! Share this on Facebook Post this to MySpace Share this...

Even I’m tempted to get this frugal little camper to get me to and from the ever-growing range of summer festivals – if I could guarantee it not getting tipped over The Bufalino camper concept comes equipped with all the comforts you’d expect a single compact camper to have apart from its own toilet and shower cubicle. But then who showers at a festival anyhow? That’s what baby wipes are for! The Bufalino is the brainchild of German industrial designer Cornelius Comanns and is based on the Piaggio APE 50 three-wheeler. Notice how this shows the user hooked-up with a lap top?  I wonder if it comes with a Mi-Fi point? I’m guessing things will be a little bit more secure in this thing than my pop-up tent. Check out more pics and stuff here....

If you access Facebook via the iPhone app you are one of over 100 million active users that are doing the same. This means that practically every owner of an iOS device (Steve Jobs has said that sales of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch had topped the 100 million mark back in June) is updating their status and posting random photos onto the social networking site If that’s still hard to get your head around – it also means that every fifth person on Facebook owns an Apple touchscreen device! If you are a UK-based iPhone, Touch, iPad user and are wanting to try out Facebook Places there is a way. Ok – so you can’t have a go on your Appley hand-held but you can test it out on your puter. Install the free Hotspot Shield and then head to...

The founder of the whistle-blowing WikiLeaks website yesterday accused the Pentagon of “dirty tricks” after false rape allegations were made against him, revealing that he has been warned before he could be the target of a “‘honey trap”. Australian Julian Assange (pictured above)dismissed the rape and other sex abuse accusations, saying he had never had sex which was not consensual. The secretive campaigner spoke out in Sweden after authorities there revoked a short-lived warrant against him on a rape claim, saying the accusation against him had no substance. The WikiLeaks website caused a storm last month when it posted 77,000 Afghan war documents online, many highly critical of Allied forces, particularly American forces. US authorities claim that...

The killers of Ekram Haque; Leon Elcock and Hamza Lyzai and their victim in hospitalI wrote on the 27th July last about the widespread disbelief and anger in the UK about the message given to society by the sentences passed on three London teenagers who attacked a man leaving a mosque with his three year old daughter. It was called a “happy slapping” attack and resulted in the death of the pensioner who was attacked “for fun.” Local MP Sadiq Khan has described the sentences as “truly shocking”, a sentiment which is widely felt.http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/07/justice-gap-in-tooting.htmlI pointed out at the time that all of our lives have been devalued by this lenient sentencing which says you can cause somebody’s death for “fun”, record and leer at the scene on your...

On to more team Science & Innovation Canada intros!  Continuing with my Toronto theme, let me introduce you to our Science & Innovation Associate, Claire Hastings. Photo by Frank Wimart Claire is a lovely person with a sparkling personality.  She's bubbly, intelligent, fun to be around, and VERY knowledgeable about all things FCO and UKinCanada (or so it always seems to me!).  Claire is always encouraging (and has been a fantastic supporter of all my S&I related adventures in social media), ready and willing to participate any evil plans I may be concocting (don't let the wording confuse you too much, my plans are rarely that evil, but it is much more fun to describe them that way ;P)!  Claire is also an avid foodie, who has the added bonus of also being a...

Pictured above is former Hitler Youth and Nazi anti-aircraft gunner Pope Benedict XVI, who is on record as saying that Britain’s equality legislation, whereby gay couples can adopt, represents ”a violation of the natural laws”. And a Roman Catholic adoption service in Leeds is now facing closure after it lost its legal battle with the UK Charity Commission for the right to be able to discriminate against gay couples. The organisation ”Catholic Care” applied on religious grounds to be allowed to offer its adoption-support services to prospective heterosexual parents only. But the independent regulator for charities in England and Wales found against “Catholic Care”. Now in actual fact this blog doesn’t particularly like the notion of gay...

A Sony Ericsson Walkman mobile phone? Yup – It’s been a while since having a mobile that will play music AND take photo’s would cause me to go WOW! So, when I was asked to take a look at the chacha silver SE handset I thought – why not? Thing is that I’ve grown accustomed to touchscreen smartphones. Fortunately, my lovely lady has been a huge fan of the works produced by SE and currently is using a Cybershot C902. I have therefore enlisted her to give her opinions on the usability and functionality of the Zylo. The Sony Ericsson Zylo W20i is a Walkman branded slider handset that measures 103 x 52 x 16mm and weighs in at a pocket-friendly 115g. The rounded edges were described by chief-tester Karen as being “girly” and...

If you’re the type of person the writes loads of lists and then ignore them perhaps you need some more encouragement. You may need EpicWin! EpicWin aims to motivate users by turning your real-life things to do list into a role playing game for the iPhone. This means that all your mundane but necessary tasks suddenly become quests – with each task completed being converted to level-up your character. To get started on EpicWin you enter your to-do list and grade each entry by assigning a difficulty rating and a category – strength, stamina, intellect, social or spirit. When you complete one of your chores you get to watch the battle between your character seeing off a mighty foe – then you get Experience Points according to how difficult the task was to...

You may have noticed that Facebook launched its new Facebook Places service. It’s not up-and-running here in the UK yet but it wont be long til it is. As with anything to do with Facebook these days there’s some concern regarding privacy. Righty, what’s this Facebook Places about anyhow? Well, everyone’s favourite social hub is bringing check-ins and location based services to FB. If you’re familiar with FourSquare and Gowalla you’ll know what to expect. If you follow me on Twitter or are a Facebook friend of mine you’ll know that I dig FourSquare – chances are that I’ll give Places a whirl but there is a little niggle that’s come to light already. Friends can check you into places – even if you wanted it...

UK Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (pictured above) yesterday marked 100 days of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government with an attempt to shift the political agenda beyond the negative issue of public spending cuts and onto more positive territory such as tackling social mobility.  Mr Clegg said the government was “about much more than cuts” and pledged to deliver a “fairer, more open, more mobile society”. Nice try, Nick. But whether social mobility will be possible soon when most of the trains and buses aren’t running due to the public spending cuts and nobody can afford the fares anyway is a moot question. What planet are these people on ? But I suppose little rich boys like Mr Clegg have never deigned to use public...

If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the full-on big reveal of Microsoft’s new Arc Touch Mouse to fanfares and cheering – well, seems that Notebooksbilliger has spoiled the surprise. Yup, the german retailer has posted pics of the new controller as well as the packaging. So, is there anything else about this new Arc Mouse? Well, it has a pretty neat party trick for those planning to slip it away in a laptop bag – it folds completely flat! Yeah – we’ve seen that before but there’s every possibility that in this mode it could also function as a trackpad. Expect touch scrolling (unless the name is totally misleading) and a and a 2.4GHz nano transceiver. It can be yours in 5-10 business days after ordering and will cost €69.99 –...

There is something of a theme for the week and while I wanted to move onto other subjects and events, I was unfortunate enough, in my daily trawl of news websites to come across this ignorant abomination of a ‘column’ by Bel Mooney in, yes, you guessed it, the Daily Mail. There is so much in it that angered me starting with the headline The madness of offering the mentally disabled sex with prostitutes at taxpayers’ expense’. What decade does she exist in that she thinks that ‘works’ as a headline. ‘The mentally disabled’ – thereby she says all she needs about her own attitudes and prejudices, immediately stripping any humanity from those who have learning disabilities of a wide range and using their disabilities as their defining point and mark. Also this...

The British coalition government’s already increasingly beleagured, surly and haggard-looking Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne (pictured above) said yesterday that the Treasury was making “good progress” on identifying forthcoming public spending cuts, describing the process as a “collective effort”. But he said no government department’s budget had been agreed yet. And he staunchly defended the coalition government’s planned spending cuts, claiming that “income distribution was not the only measure of fairness” and that the cuts would “help create a more progressive society”. George is actually right on both counts – income distribution has NEVER been a measure of fairness and the cuts are going to...