It appears that I’ve had my head in a proverbial techno-hole again; I’ve just discovered Google Gears.

Gears, for those who don’t know, is Google’s way of allowing us to view and use certain webapps even when we don’t have access to an Internet connection. At the moment, the list of webapps which can utilise Gears is a litle limited. With Google Calendar soon to follow suit, the list of webapps looks set to grow.

Gears can be installed from Google’s offical site and is available for Firefox (as a .xpi extension), Internet Explorer 8 and, recently announced, Apple’s Safari.

Rumours abound that Apple is set yp improve the iPhone capacity range from the current 8/16GB line-up, to a revised 16/32GB combo.

CNN notes that, as of 20/09/08, a mere 36 of 197 of Apple’s retail stores have the 8GB iPhone in stock. When product refreshes have been expected in the past, the usual low stock of the outgoing model accompanies the rumour; this seems to be no exception to the rule.

Personally, I don’t see a price decrease/product refresh/capacity bump coming until CHristmas time. Apple would loath to offer a significant upgrade so soon after the ‘Lets’ Rock!’ event, surely thi would’ve been announced then if it was anticipated so soon?

One thing’s for sure, this is the one thing I was really really waiting for before buying an iPhone. My contract on my current phone is up in March next year and I have beenpraying that Apple releases a 32GB iPhone so I can crry round a good proportion of my library with me.

I recently stumbled upon media storage site Oosah.

Oosah allows hosting of pictures, videos and music with a maximum storage limit of 1TB! That’s one terabyte or 1024GB!!! The interface is slick and uploading is said to be uncomplicated. The web interface integrates with Picasa Web Albums, Flickr, Youtube and Facebook accounts and there is an iPhone/iPod Touch client.

With my measly 40kbps upload speed, however, I don’t know how I’ll manage to backup my…

…     of music and,

…     of pictures.

In news that will no doubt warm the cockles of Sarah Palin, the NY Times is reporting that the annual melting of arctic ice is not matching that of last year’s above average retreat.

The  National Snow and Ice Data Center, nevertheless, report that at the current rate of annual polar ice cap melting, the arctic will be completely ice-free within decades.

This year, the ice sheet covered a minimum area of 1.74 million square miles whilst in 2007, the figure stood at 1.59 million square miles. To put things in perspective, this is a greater coverage to the magnitude of 150,000 square miles – an area nearly the size of the UK.

It would be interesting to see what Palin, who is on the record as saying, ”I’m not one…who would attribute it to being man-made”, would have to say regarding this latest news on the state of our planet.

One of the great features of Mac OS X but, annoyingly, one of the most infuriating!

Coverflow in iTunes... superb.

I love using Coverflow in my iTunes library; browsing by album cover has become integral to how I browse my library. With the intorduction of Coverflow in the native Mac file browser (Finder), I thought I would use it a hell of a lot more. There is, however, one quirk which is stopping me use Coverflow more copiously – the inability to lock Coverflow’s aspect ratio.

I often resize the Coverflow window size to a certain position, different for my Movies folder as it is to my Applications folder. Finder, however, cannot remember how I want each window to appear. This means that every time I open up my Applications folder, I have to expand the Coverflow window to be the size I want it to be. Infuriating.

Only when Apple releases a fix for this quirk can I see myself using Coverflow in the Finder on a large scale. Until then, good old thumbnail view will have to suffice.

Gerrard celebrates with goalscorer Babel

What a fantastic result!

When we went down 1-0 after three minutes, I have to admit that I feared the worst. Man Utd’s trident strikeforce of Roonney, Tevez and Berbatov linked up well at the beginning of the game in the way that a Man Utd strikeforce always tends to. However, the difference between the Liverpool of old and the rejuvenated Liverpool of this season was apparent as we pressed on and pushed Man Utd back.

Only the most avid Utd fan cold argue that Liverpool did not deserve to draw level but the circumstances surrounding the goal were extremely fortunate. Utd keeper Van Der Sar bungled a defelected shot from Xabi Alonso, knocking the ball against defender Wes Brown leading to an own goal.

After half time, Liverpool continued as they left off and pegged Utd back in their own half and were rewarded when Dirk Kuyt squared the ball back to Ryan Babel who, despite scuffing the ball, put it in the back of the net.

When the final whistle was blown, there were massive celebrations in Anfield as Kopites celebrated their first win over Utd for eight years.

Positives for me? Albert Reira’s debut was both assured and composed and Ryan Babel is improving his match fitness and should be firing on all cylinders in a few weeks.

If there was anything negative to look at, again Dirk Kuyt’s performance left a lot to be desired. He squandered two clear-cut chances and his first touch leads a lot to be desired. If rumours of Hamburg’s interest in the Dutch striker are ot be believed, I can’t help but hope that Rafa cuts his losses and cashes in on the wasteful, but hardworking, striker.

To aid those readers who either:

a. Don’t have a Twitter account or,

b. Don’t have access to Twitter right now,

… here’s a few more updates from Mr. Jobs’ product announcements.

160GB Classic… scrapped. 80GB Classic… scrapped. Replaced by a thinner 120GB classic.

iPod Touch slightly remodelled with built-in Nike+, tapered, stainless steel back, physical volume controls and more expensive headphones. Built-in speaker as per cell phones.

iPod Nano, thinnest ever. Available in eight colours. Accelerometer built in, thinner design as per leaked photos.

iTunes 8 released… genius playists can compile a playlist automatically, groupings similar songs. Available for free via Software Update.

EDIT: 6:53PM – iPhone 2.1 firmware out by the end of the week. Fewer call drop-outs, bug fixes, significantly better battery life, faster backup to iTunes and, most importantly, FREE.

EDIT 2: 7:01PM – Event over. iPod Touch 36hr music battery life, 8hrs video.

Review of the day’s events to follow…

Hot of the press!!!

The new iPod Nano contains an accelerometer a là Sony Ericsson Walkman phones that allows tracks to be skippes with the flick of a wrist. The new Nano is the thinnest ever and contains the ‘genius playlist’ built-in. This genius playlist forms playlists based on similarities between tracks.

Tune in to MacRumors Twitter updates to read more…

MacRumors (MR), the prominent Apple-related rumours website, is reporting inside info. relating to the imminent product announcements at Apple’s ‘Let’s Rock’ Event tonight (by UK standards) at 6PM.

MR reports that iPod Nanos are set to bumped from their current 4/8GB capacity to a 8/16GB combination along with the introduction of three additional colours, taking the Nano range to an impressive nine colour combinations. Prices are, as yet, undetermined.

The iPod Touch is expected to receive no capacity upgrades so the nature of any upgrades remains to be seen. Popular rumours emanating from MR indicate tapered edges a lá iPhone 3G or even GPS capability (although this seems a long shot at best).

The Apple Event is due to take place at 10AM Pacific or 6PM GMT, ‘live’ coverage can followed via MR’s Twitter updates here.

A recent decision by the Advertising Standards Authority on the 3rd of September ruled that an advertisement from ExxonMobil preaching the merits of liquefied natural gas..

“… misleadingly implied that natural gas was one of the cleanest sources of energy and that liquefied natural gas was environmentally friendly.”

.

And was subsequently banned from UK television.

Having not read up on the merits of LPG, I can only base my opinion on the belief that it is more environmentally-friendly and perhaps more stable for long-term usage than oil. If I am correct in the assumptions, surely any kind of advertising that can in some way move us away from oil is a good thing? Like I say, perhaps I need to read up on the benefits of LPG before becoming annoyed!

Another cool environment-related story I read the other day was that of a G-Wiz car that had been modified to run solely on water.

Again, I’m not an expert on the merits of this system, I can only base my opinion off this short Youtube clip but given that most trips in a car tend to be under half an hour, surely this should make the market?! If not, there’s something seriously wrong with society and all those rumours about oil companies stifling environmentally-friendly technology have gotten a little bit stronger.