Sci-Fi-London, the UK's one and only science fiction film festival, will be hosting a score of playable video games from Electronic Arts this year including the upcoming Spore, and Dead Space. Follow the "read more" link for more details on the event and more on the games.

A study from London-based market research company GfK NOP is indicating that Apple's iPhone is not going to be picked up by British consumers this holiday season because of the mobile phone's steep price.

According to the research, awareness of the brand is not the problem as 75% of UK's population has heard of the iPhone and more than 25% mentioned that they like its look. Read full article for more info on this.

If you've ever been told off by your teacher for bringing your handheld gaming device to school, then you probably should try studying in the UK. RedHalo is a new company which offers a "free, ultra-secure, Personal Learning Space" that they can use for schoolwork on handhelds and home games consoles.

The new service was discussed during the recent Handheld Learning Conference in London. It basically allows access from any gaming devices capable of connecting to the 'Net such as Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, and Sony PSP, or even smartphones, iPhones, PDAs, and UMPCs.

However, it isn't all fun and games. Neil Critchell, Technical Director for RedHalo, explains that this is an experimental type of learning through a controlled environment, monitored by teachers. Since just about every kid owns a handheld or a mobile device of some sort, accessibility won't be much of a problem when learning through this service.

The free, basic package included in the RedHalo Platform edition offers up to 1GB of Personal Learning Space and can be upgraded to 5GB on the Pro Edition for a small annual fee. It also provides additional security features and bundled software for either Windows Mobile, XP, or Vista-based devices.

Tim Chaney, former boss of Virgin Interactive and Director at RedHalo Ltd., had this to about the new project:

We are pleased to be at the leading edge of the learning while mobile movement and establish a standard that will help learners and educators, as well as publishers and developers who will build upon our platform. Our mission is to make learning personal and universally accessible; this announcement takes us a step closer.

Apparently, the not-so-secret organization known as Apple is passing out private invites to various member of the UK press, asking them to join them on the 18th at the Apple Store at Regent Street in London. As you can see in the image (right), it details the directions on how to reach the appointed meeting place with the RSVP email address and phone number blanked out for privacy measures.

Many people are speculating what exactly this invite entails for the European community. The most common of these are the much awaited release of the UK/European release of the iPhone. This coincides with the fact that the Apple Store on Regent Street is, in fact, the biggest Apple Store in the world and would be the most appropriate place for such a grand unveiling. There was even word of some boxes being kept under lock and key at the store.

Other more unlikely theories include a possible deal with BBC regarding some of their shows being turned over to the iTunes store or even the much overdue arrival of the Beatles classics being made available on the iTunes store.

No one knows for sure exactly why "mum is no longer the word," but we'll have to wait until the aforementioned event comes to pass and see what Apple has in store for their European customers. Keep yourselves in touch as we'll deliver any more updates on the matter as soon as we get them.

It seems like file sharing between Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X has been crippled by the latest OS X security patch. According to MacNN, one of their readers reports that when a Mac OS 9 user tries to copy a file to an open Mac OS X file share, the fileshare "disconnects and the Finder reports that the share unexpectedly closed down."

The MacNN reader in question supports numerous clients across London and has clients that require Mac OS 9 to run older applications such as Quark 4 and other DTP applications. Other users have reported encountering similar issues. Another MacNN reader, though, has come up with the following workaround:

From within the Chooser:
Be sure to hold down the OPTION key while double-clicking the fileshare. This should force TCP/IP access rather than Appletalk access. That ought to fix your trouble. If not, then select the TCP/IP button and access the server that way instead of via Appletalk.

What about you guys? Anybody out there using Mac OS 9 experiencing this? Leave a comment and let us know.

Giant record firm EMI has apparently decided to make a bold move and release some of its copyrighted material in digital form without the protection of Digital Rights Management (DRM) software.

Digital rights first came to mass scrutiny almost a decade ago when peer-to-peer music sharing site Napster rose to popularity and got too big to hide from music companies and celebrities alike. With the dawning of the iPod dynasty, Apple came up with the iTunes music store that had content embedded with anti-copy code.

Critics of DRM say that the policy constricts the market and does not make for a more dynamic market where the small fry of the music scene can show the world what they've got. Proponents of DRM, on the other hand, say that their policy protects the artists and upholds intellectual property and copyright laws.

The rationale behind EMI's move is yet to be revealed, but it may very well be that a more selective DRM policy can be used to breed the break-out of unknown talents while preserving the interest of established record artists to give them what's due.

Industry insiders claim that within the month, EMI should hold a mews conference in London in cooperation with the Apple corporation to announce the move.

Sony may be the next big challenger to iTunes in the UK, but that didn't stop the two giants from striking a deal that will allow past and current Sony TV material to be made available through the mighty online media vendor.

You may never have thought you'd see the day when the old Spider-Man series with cheesy special effects plays on your iPod video. Now, he'll be swinging in with some of Sony's most popular franchises to add a dash of nostalgia to your viewing diet.

  

Immortals such as "Charlie's Angels," "Starsky and Hutch," "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "News Radio" can once again be enjoyed, for a price of course, by downloading them from iTunes. Also, current hits "Til Death" and "Rules of Engagement" will be included in the mix.

Never mind their upcoming London skirmish. In this team-up, the fans are the real winners. It's pleasant to see mature business relationships even among rival outfits. We'll stay tuned.

Podcasts are truly catching people's attention. You may listen to books, radio shows, school lessons and others, all with your media player and/or PC. This is why firms are learning to use podcasts for corporate functions such as meetings, staff announcements and maybe speeches of the company bigwigs to be heard by the employees.

The Social Media Forum for Internal Communicators, being held in London, is a forum dedicated in engaging employees through new technology. Researchers say that most firms still hold "improving employee engagement" as a top item in their To Do agenda.

Now, most of us who are part of the labor force may cringe at the thought of the boss being our daily chat pal. That would be like talking about work 24/7 while already living it. But the Media Forum says that some of the new social media communication tools such as blogs, podcasts and videos are catching on because employees can filter them through Really Simple Syndication (RSS).

Podcasts are also deemed to be more popular to employees, because they could listen to downloaded company news at a leisurely pace. With the help of blogs, that are accessible to the staff via intranet, workers may also give feedback as much as they want, and not be inhibited by the public setting of a corporate meeting.

Not only employees but also investors and customers benefit through company podcasts. Well then, it's nice to hear that technology is again being used to advance the society, the way it should be used.

A regular bloke from London, Freecycle advocate, he repares broken iPods and return them to owners Matthew Smith, has been doing something that is very extraordinary - He takes broken iPods, fixes them, and gives them back out to the freecycle community for free. The Londonist interviewed the chap and he divulges the reason why he restores and gives away iPods for no cost instead of selling them.

Apparently, the reason why he started doing this is very simple - he broke his own iPod. In his effort to fix the thingamajig, he advertised on Freecycle for a couple of broken iPods for spare parts and he then promised that if he gets more than he needs he'll fix the others and would give them back to the community. Apparently, the idea caught the eye of a lot of people and thanks to more spare parts, he is able to fix more iPods.

So if he's doing a good job on repairing the broken thingamajigs, then why doesn't he sell them on eBay or something? He mentions that the Freecycle community is the reason why he doesn't do that. He says that:

The thing with Freecycle is that you surprise yourself by getting the generosity bug and learning how good it feels to give something back. We spend our whole lives working to earn money so that we can then spend it on stuff that ultimately we don't really need Â? we just think we do because the media and society tells us we do. So I fell under Freecycle's spell and now its definitely paying off for me.

As a famous figure once said, "let the world change you and one day you can change the world". That's what Matthew Smith did, and now, in his little way, he is changing the world. One could only hope that more people will allow their world to change them.

Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl but she doesn't have a lot to say
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl but she changes from day to day
I want to tell her that I love her a lot, but I gotta get a bellyful of wine
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, someday I'm gonna make her mine...

Now while our admiration for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth doesn't go as far as what John Lennon and Paul McCartney had in mind in their song, "Her Majesty," it's still might fancy (or should we say fon-sei *Brit accent*) to get noticed by the Queen for your creativity and achievement.

Such is the honor that Jonathan Ive received when the Queen honored him as a Commander of the British Empire during the Queen's New Year Honours. If you have no idea who Jonathan Ive is, he's the one responsible for that wheel scroll thing on your iPods and the sleek design of your iMacs.

A primer on Jonathan Ive for those who don't know him: born in the UK in February 1967, he studied industrial design at Newcastle Polytechnic and started working for Apple in 1992. However, it wasn't until way back in 1998 when Steve Jobs adopted his iMac design that he reached his famous status.

After this, he has taken on designing various products for Apple but his best known design yet is without a doubt, the iPod. This skyrocketed his career in Apple, with Jobs propelling his career even further to become Senior VP of Industrial Design at the company. Prior to the Queen's CBE, he was also hailed as Designer of the Year by the Design Museum London in 2003 and has been given the title of Royal Designer for Industry by The Royal Society of Arts.