how-to-customer-service
how to
The Secret Tricks to Cut Through the Crap of Customer Service

Modern electronics can be fickle. With so many things to break, it's no surprise that one in four bits of consumer electronics gets returned to the manufacturer at some point in its life. But dealing with customer service is a nightmare of head-banging Greensleeves-playing call-centre torture, and if you're going to survive in that world, you'll need all the help you can get. Read More >>

google all access uk
how to
How to Get Google’s All Access Music in the UK, Right Now

Google has a new streaming music product, and that's all good and well, but it's only available in the US. We can't let the Yanks have all the fun, though, so here's how to suckle on the sweet, musical breast of Google from a UK IP address. Read More >>

surface-pro-uk-launch
microsoft
Microsoft Surface Pro Launching Here on May 23

Microsoft's higher-end tablet dream will be available in the UK next week, with Microsoft giving the folding tab a May 23 launch date. The Surface Pro will cost a stonking great £719 for the 64GB Core i5 Windows 8 machine, rising to £799 if you'd prefer the 128GB unit. You might want to read our Surface Pro review before investing that sort of life-changing sum in a thing to use to look at Twitter. [Microsoft Store] Read More >>

v2BL14_Dias_Medium_06
speakers
Bang & Olufsen’s New ‘Affordable’ Surround Sound System Looks Like an Army of Vengeful Metal Flowers

Normally, we wouldn't consider £2,500 to be affordable for a set of surround-sound speakers. But when said speakers come from Bang & Olufsen, legendary purveyors of stupidly expensive stuff, and they've got a rather exciting aluminium design, well, then we're cooking on gas. Read More >>

Sony-Bravia-X9
sony
Want One of Sony’s Affordable 4K TVs? 55-Inches Will Run You £4,000

We've finally got shipping dates and prices for Sony's surprisingly affordable 4K TVs in the UK. The Bravia X9 is now up for pre-order starting at a wallet-crushing, but-slightly-less-than-a-car, £4,000 for the 55-incher, with its bigger 65-inch brother setting you back a £6,000. Considering that's basically what a top-end HDTV cost up until about 4 years ago, that's practically reasonable. Both ship mid-June if you've got the collateral. Read More >>

analogue-tv-off
4g
Yeah, 4G’s Probably Not Going to Nuke Your TV After All

After all the fear mongering that the wide-scale launch of 800MHz 4G in the UK would nuke all our Freeview TVs, blocking up airwaves and sending us back to the dark ages of televisual viewing, it seems it's really not that big a deal. Just 15 out of 200,000 homes in a test area saw any interference at all. Read More >>

Del-Boy-Wireless-Router
ISPs
Tesco’ll Flog You ‘Unlimited’ Broadband for Just £2 a Month

Firing its first salvo into the broadband price war, Tesco's carved the arse out of its broadband fees, bringing them all the way down to just £2 a month for 12 months. Even better, if you're a Tesco Mobile customer, you can bag the same for absolutely free, well, plus line rental. Read More >>

art-explainer-go
chatroom
The Tate’s Taking Away Explanatory Text Panels; How Screwed Are We?

I'll be honest: I'm terrible at interpreting modern art. A soup tin is, well, a soup tin, and I won't get an extistential experience out of looking at it unless there's a plaque next to it, explaining why it's a symbolic representation of the downfall of society. That's why I'm kinda bummed the Tate is taking down all their explanatory plaques, leaving interpretation up to you (and the audio guide, of course). Read More >>

Nokia-Lumia-925-Black-and-white3
nokia
Nokia Lumia 925 Hands-On: This is the Windows Phone You’ll Want (Updated With Camera Impressions)

Nokia's just unveiled the Lumia 925, and while you might have thought it's just a UK version of the Lumia 928 that our US cousins are getting, it's so much more. Gone is the all-plastic traditional Lumia, subsumed by a much more refined feeling metal-polycarbonate mix. This thing looks and feels great. Read More >>

shutterstock_64165480-640x360 (1)
internet
Report: It’s Easy to Make Fibre Broadband Twice as Fast

Getting bummed 'cos you're only getting 80Mbps on your fibre-optic broadband line? Well, there's no need to do a Hyundai yet, because researchers reckon that we're only using around half of fibre's capacity at the moment, leaving a whole 'nother chunk of bandwidth ready for the advent of 4K 'movies'. Read More >>

Rotten-Orange
money
Tesco: NFC is “Past Its Sell-By Date”

Bad news for those who'd like to see NFC phone payments like Google Wallet actually take off in the UK. The Tesco retail juggernaut has basically said it's a load of crap, and that it's already out of date. It's just not "cool" enough, apparently. Read More >>

dolby atmos
monster machines
Dolby Atmos: The Incredible Prototype Cinema Behind the Future of Movie Sound

Tucked in a corner of Soho Square, cosied up against ad agencies and seemingly every media firm in London, is the London HQ of Dolby, who you may remember from the title credits of just about every film ever. Hiding in the heart of this otherwise-ordinary building, though, is arguably the coolest cinema in the country, created at enormous expense to demonstrate the next gen of cinema tech. Read More >>

Dumbo
netflix
Now You Can Watch Dumbo (and Other Disney Films) on Netflix

Craving a good dollop of Disney? Good, because Netflix has just landed a whole load of "exclusive" Disney movies, both classics and new stuff, for streaming in the UK. Included in the mix are Marvel films, stuff from Dreamworks, and things like Wall-E and Pirates of the Caribbean. Hopefully that means the Star Wars lot will make it too. Read More >>

star-wars-uk
movies
Next Star Wars Film Will Be Shot Here in the UK

An announcement from the well-known fantasy film maker George Osborne has revealed that owing to cunning tax breaks, the upcoming Disney-powered Star Wars will be shot in the UK. So we can rule out the Tattoine scenes then. Read More >>

lightning
dealzmodo
Not-At-All Dodgy Lightning Cables for £1 Are Your Really Really Fake Deal of the Day

Today's bargain is not just a great deal -- it also gives you the chance to possibly play Russian Roulette with your iPhone 5 or iPad 4. Good eh? Read More >>