crave news at cnet uk

Hooray for Hollywood, that screwy balleyhooey Hol-ly-wood... Oh hello there. Here at Crave Towers, we've been inspired by the news that West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin is to script a movie based on the story of Facebook. We've long dreamed of breaking into showbusiness -- there's no business like it, we've heard -- so we're drawing on our knowledge of the Internet and technology to put together this marketing plan, outlining our pitches for smash-hit movies based on your favourite Web sites, gadgets and tech trivia.

After initially announcing it would bring its popular MP3-only download store to the UK, Amazon has this morning quietly launched the site in the UK, with single MP3s starting as cheap as 59p, and albums from £3.

All four major labels are on-board, providing three million tracks, alongside Beggars Banquet, The Orchard and many other independent labels.

Unlike Apple's iTunes, Amazon's MP3 store has no restrictions on the devices you can enjoy its music on. As plain MP3 files, downloads are compatible with iPods, Creative Zens, Sony Walkmans, and every other music player on the planet.

Dirty electricity messing up your AV gear? Lindy has the solution, with its six-way mains cleaning and surge protecting power strip

The camcorder market is like a big bag that the fine folks at Flip Video have picked up and shaken about. In the current economic climate, we're still waiting to see how everything will fall out; but one of the results has been the arrival of high definition in the lower reaches of the market. We've got the Kodak Zi6, we're getting the Flip Mino HD, and in our hands this very moment we hold the Hitachi DZ-HV564.

Which would you rather spend £117,000 on: a set of fast wheels or a Japanese loudspeaker system? CrunchGear reports that Hario (which literally means 'the king of glass' in the Land of the Rising Sun) has just produced what are possibly the world's priciest glass boom boxes. A mere ¥16m will bag you this gorgeous five-piece kit from the glassware specialist, comprising a subwoofer (centre), dual midrange drivers (flank) and a pair of tweeters (in between) for high-end extension.

Various Microsoft blogs have popped up suggesting that attendees of the upcoming MSDN conferences next month will receive a DVD with a beta version of Windows 7

If you've ever been lost in the dark you know that two things are pretty much essentially useful: a map and a torch. Well, The Light is a new gadget -- still in the concept stage -- that combines both

In time with the release of its new smartphone, the N97, Nokia announced that it is releasing new versions of its mapping and messaging services. The upgraded apps will offer a variety of new features

After sending consumers and tech journalists into a frenzy of heated discussion, Apple withdrew a statement from its support site that urged Mac customers to use antivirus software

If you're the type of person who shouts "Gnarly!" at the top of your voice, you might want to check out the Oregon Scientific ATC3K Extreme hands-free camcorder

We've never been slow to criticise stand-alone Blu-ray players, and particularly Sony hardware. We've always had good reason, mind -- the previous generation of players were massively overpriced and very poorly specified. But by George, we think they've got it: the Sony BDP-S350 costs just £160 and is fully profile 2.0 compliant.

Ice-blue eyes coldly meet the rear-view mirror. Engines rev. Dashboard needles flick wildly. Tyres squeal... and we remember that we're not in Bullitt and we're not Steve McQueen, we're just playing with a camera. But the Samsung NV9, a 10.2-megapixel point-and-shoot, sports a look and packs a bunch of features that make it as cool as the Cooler King himself.

At the Netbook World Summit in Paris on Monday, Good OS unveiled Cloud, a browser-based OS for netbooks. The company says that touchscreen netbooks running Cloud OS and Windows will be released at CES next month

The wait is over: today Nokia announced an N-series touchscreen phone that boasts some truly mouth-watering features. An 89mm (3.5-inch) tiltable touchscreen sits in an elegant white casing that hides a full Qwerty keypad underneath -- think Nokia E90 with a little more style.

Inside this messaging master lies 32GB of on-board storage, with the option to expand via microSD up to 48GB, plus assisted GPS, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a 5-megapixel camera with dual LED photo lights.

But it's not just another N-series phone crammed with features -- the N97 also boasts integration with messaging clients such as Windows Live and Yahoo, and gives you fast access to Facebook and MySpace, among others, with just a few clicks.

This is definitely a first for Apple: Last week on its Web site, the company suggested Mac users increase protection on their computers by installing antivirus software. Apple offered three different software suggestions

We've had our hands on the 24-megapixel behemoth that is the Nikon D3X, and we're impressed. Take a look at our photos, which show an average Crave reader doing some world-class holding

Watch our video review of the Volvo XC60, the car with technology that brings the vehicle to a standstill before an accident happens

With piracy on the up, Sony is concerned about people downloading movies to watch on aeroplanes. As a result, with the Hancock Blu-ray you get an HD version for home and an SD version for your laptop

Nokia's latest N-series phone, the N79, lets you swap battery covers that not only make your phone look different they also tell the N79's software what colour to be

December is officially here and that can mean only one thing: shop faster! If you're feeling the pinch, the Fujifilm FinePix Z200fd is a stylish 10-megapixel point-and-shoot for a very reasonable price. Now shop!

Moto's new models models are made from 20 per cent recycled materials and have an 'eco mode' which reduces energy consumption and bumps up battery life.

Who ever thought we would see the day when we could all live like Bill Gates? If Nokia has its way, with its Home Control Centre we will all be opening our garage doors while in the bathroom and blending our power juices while twittering.

From the same company that started the netbook revolution, the people at Asus have taken the market one step further by including a graphics card in their new model, the ten-inch N10J

Nikon formally debuted its D3X model yesterday, filling any gaps in the specs that were leaked Friday. The Dx3 boasts 24.5 megapixels and is dubbed an 'extreme professional'

Ian, Nate and Andrew talk about a surge in mobile broadband use, express relief that an innocent teacher won't be spending 40 years in jail and we ogle the end of the galaxy

O2's latest Xda device is small and chubby and feels cheap. Fortunately, it is cheap, and packed full of goodness too.

In order to promote the confidence Fujitsu Siemens has in the quality and reliability of its laptops, it is offering to replace customers' laptops with a new, upgraded ones every three years for free

As tragic events take place in Mumbai, Dan Farber examines the use of the Internet in citizen news reporting. Do sites like Twitter, where posts are largely unverifiable, help in covering stories accurately?

We've got Sony Ericsson's latest Walkman phone in-house -- the beautiful W705 -- and this one is for sure a hot contender for sexiest phone of the year

This quirky flower wilts when you use too much energy. It's just like a Wattson, but more interesting!

Next week Nokia is launching a new N-series handset that according to certain sources is going to be rather exciting, so watch this space because as soon as we're in the know, you will be too

Were you wondering which Blu-ray player loads movies fastest? No? Well we're going to tell you anyway because we know your time is precious, especially when you're trying to watch a movie

From the company that brought us the iPig speaker dock system, Speakal is now expanding its audio zoo to include the iPanda. This un-BEAR-ably cute audio system panda-ers (OK we'll stop it) to animal lovers

Apple got one of its iPhone adverts banned by the Advertising Standards Authority after people claimed it was misleading. The advert exaggerated the Web-surfing and downloading speeds of the phone

At the end of the day, Crave is all about items on our wish list, no matter how out of our league they are. Runco's £26,300 VideoWall VW-100HD 100-inch display is proof that we can always dream

Remember a few weeks ago when Lamborghini unveiled a 4-door supercar concept? Well Porsche has one, too, and it's called the Panamera Gran Turismo.

If you thought the credit crunch meant that Nokia would slow its production, think again! Nokia is still going strong, churning out another attractive slider phone, the 6260

Enjoy pictures of Tesla Motors' premium-priced, high-performance electric roadster, the Tesla 1.5. The car's motor has a redline of 14,000rpm and runs fine at speeds from 5mph up to the top governed speed of 125mph

PURE Digital's latest DAB radio is the second Net radio-enabled system from the company, and it could make one hell of a good gift for the Consumermas season.

Wakamaru the domestic robot is making its debut on the stage in Oriza Hirata's play "I, Worker". The production is being hailed as a first in robot-human artistic collaboration

OMG! European Trends releases the Keyboard for Blondes, where buttons like backspace are replaced with 'Oops!' Unsurprisingly, the keyboard comes in one colour only: hot pink

Holiday shoppers intending to buy Acer's Aspire One Netbook might want to hold off -- the company plans to release a 10-inch version of its popular netbook sometime next spring

The Mini E, BWM's first fully electric-powered car, made its debut at the LA Auto show on 19 November -- in this video Brian Cooley reports on just how this mini marvel is stealing the show. Powered by a 5,088 lithium battery situated in the backseat, the motor produces 204hp and 220Nm of torque, allowing the Mini E to travel up to 150 miles when fully charged. At its fastest, the Mini E's speedometer will hit 95mph.

If you've spent a bundle on a TV, and none on an audio system, we want you to have a little think about what you've done -- and start saving up for some amazing Klipsch speakers

The Canon HG21 is a high-class, high-end, high-definition camcorder. Take a look at our pictures and forget the credit crunch

Here at Crave, we're huge fans of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, so it's no wonder we got excited when Firebox handed us the tikitag system

The eco charity's Greener Electronics Guide has singled out Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo, LG and Samsung for failing to trim their carbon footprints

Apple appears to has upped the processing speed of the iPod touch in order to help it go after the portable-game market.

iPhone gaming site Touch Arcade reports that the applications processor inside the second-generation iPod touch unveiled in September is actually running faster than the processor inside the iPhone 3G, which runs at the same speed that the original iPhone and iPod touch used. The new iPod touch's ARM-based processor is running at 532MHz, while the iPhone 3G's processor runs at 412MHz.

A game developer interviewed by Touch Arcade noticed a huge difference in 3D-rendering speed as a result of the speed bump. As we remember fondly from our 'megahertz madness' days of the Intel-AMD competition in the PC, processor speed is not the only measure of performance, but it is an important one.

With the arrival of the App Store, Apple has been marketing the latest iPod touch as a gaming device in its latest round of commercials, almost completely ignoring the fact that it's a music and video player as well.

Acquisition talks held between the two social networking companies have reportedly fallen through, with the deal valuing Twitter at half a billion dollars

On a blog post Monday, YouTube announced that all videos appearing on the site will be available in widescreen. This move coincides with the recent announcement that MGM would become the first movie studio to feature films on the site