UK Technology

The PlayStation 2 hit UK shelves roughly the same time as The Mummy and both seem to be living on borrowed time. This version of the disappointing third movie looks good enough, but looks alone don't make an arcade adventure. Once you get to the fighting, you'll find it infuriating to perform due to a meandering camera and interfering lock-on system, and hard to enjoy thanks to the repetitive and soulless battles. This is a pity as the animations are fluid and the locations pretty impressive. There are a few sub-Lara puzzles and leaps thrown in but the PS2 has seen much better in this genre. All of which leaves Mummy 3 smelling like old bandages.Related StoriesLetters and blogs: August 28Technophile: Sansa MP3Michael Cross, Free our data: Ordnance Survey defends its use of lobbying companyCaptcha is broken - now what?Game review: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

Perhaps the greatest tribute paid by the games world to the skill, attention to detail and single-minded focus in Grand Theft Auto is exemplified by the small number of games that blatantly try to rip it off. So one has to applaud Pandemic's ambition in creating Mercenaries 2, a free-roaming, sandbox-style action-adventure game, which is pretty much a militarised take on the GTA blueprint. It proves to be a worthwhile effort: you play a mercenary caught in a coup in Venezuela, which splits into factions such as the new government, a sinister oil company and a guerrilla army. Seeking revenge on the new dictator (one of whose goons shot you in the backside), you run missions for the different factions, supported by a mechanic, general co-ordinator, and helicopter and jet pilots. Wisely, Mercenaries 2 doesn't try to emulate GTA IV's mega-detailed storyline. But it looks great, is nicely fettled, occasionally makes you grin and takes place against an impressively detailed backdrop. Nobody would say it breaks new ground, but it's absorbing enough to keep you occupied for weeks.Related StoriesVictor Keegan: How to ensure a place in history for your photographsLetters and blogs: August 28Technophile: Sansa MP3Michael Cross, Free our data: Ordnance Survey defends its use of lobbying companyCaptcha is broken - now what?

Ever tried making your own ice-cream? It's not as easy as you might think and certainly not as fun as conventional ice-cream maker manufacturers would have you believe. This particular innovation does seem like a bit of a laugh though, coming in the form of the bastard love-child of Mr.Frosty and a hamster ball. The idea is that you feed the thing ice and rock-salt then put your own flavoured ingredients into the centre compartment and use rolling and shaking motions to mix it all together.

One thing you can say about this brave new world in which the music business finds itself is that it is certainly encouraging people to use their imagination. So the old model – dominated by major labels and bricks-and-mortar shops – doesn't work? Find a new one. And that's what the industry's lateral thinkers are feverishly doing. We've had artists setting up their own web-based labels – surprisingly, one of the first to do so was Mick Hucknall, who's released records through www.simplyred.com for five years – and artists giving away their music as free downloads to encourage fans to shell out for gig tickets and T-shirts (when Keane gave away a song earlier this month it was downloaded over half a million times, handily making fans aware that Keane will shortly be releasing their third album, which will most definitely not be free). But for every whizzo new proposition there are a dozen that sound like snake oil and malarkey. Take this new venture called Bandstocks. Its premise is that fans can become investors in bands and share in their profits. By buying shares at £10 each, they will pay for new artists to make and market albums, and if it sells, they'll receive not just a slice of profits but the satisfaction of having given a young act a leg up. They'll also receive a credit on the CD sleeve – a nice touch, but they should be aware that when TLC decided to list the names of all their fans on the sleevenotes to the 1999 album Fanmail, they had to resort to a font so tiny that the names were virtually unreadable. Obviously, if Bandstocks works, I'll look like the Decca A&R man who told Brian Epstein that his Liverpool beat combo didn't have a hope in hell. But it's hard to see this invest-in-a-budding-star business getting off the ground. For one thing, the combination of popular music and business is your proverbial chalk and cheese, and always has been, with disputes and distrust between artists and labels going back to the jazz era – I predict that music lovers won't exactly jump at the chance of suddenly turning into The Man. For them to be part of that process, receiving profit statements and attending AGMs, would divest music of the romanticism that every fan cherishes. The devil's liniment that is The X-Factor has done enough damage with its campaign to turn pop into a faceless commodity; no righteous fan is going to want to finish the job by investing in Bandstocks. Second, no matter how much quirky pleasure there may be in bankrolling your own pop star, it's one of the chanciest things you could sink your money into. Of hundreds of new acts launched every year, the great majority fails to sell. To pull a name at random from the current issue of Music Week, the 2007 debut album by American rapper Plies sold a total of 222 copies in Britain, and that was with the might of Atlantic Records behind him. Since your artist's marketing budget would depend on how much has been invested, she/he might record the best album of the year, only for it to remain unheard because there's not enough cash for advertising. Still, I could be wrong. Would you invest? And if so, which new act deserves your investment buck?Related StoriesLetters and blogs: August 28Technophile: Sansa MP3Michael Cross, Free our data: Ordnance Survey defends its use of lobbying companyCaptcha is broken - now what?Game review: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

If you've been enjoying the growing success of Auntie Beeb's iPlayer then you'll be pleased to hear that it's not spending its spare time sitting back basking in glory. A recent announcement confirms that the service is being improved further to allow users more time to watch their favourite shows.

While mobs of salivating tech-starved nerds are pretty commonplace in the US (and dare we say it, the UK) around the time of a big release, it seems the Poles have more important things to do with their time. Demand for the new iPhone appears to be rather less than expected over there so stores are resorting to some pretty desperate measures to try and stir things up.

Microsoft is being all mysterious today by running a teaser ad for a new mouse technology with the intriguing - or completely misleading tagline - 'Say Goodbye to Laser'. The company looks set to bring something new to the world of computer mice on September 9 and, if the company hopes to have any chance of ousting the fabulous laser mouse, it will have to come up with something really special.

There's no shortage of of remote controlled helicopters out there but how about something completely different. This is the Draganflyer X6 helicopter, which uses six main horizontal rotor blades that allow it to hover efficiently and manoeuvre rapidly using differential thrust. All that lift means that it can be equipped with HD camcorders, night vision, still or thermal imaging cameras and because it has in-built GPS, it can be set to hover over a particular location while you go make a cuppa. Here's what the makers say:

Hot on the heels of the new Canon EOS 50D comes the Nikon D90, which manages to cannibalise features from its professional line-up as well as claim the honour of being the first digital SLR with HD video recording capabilities. It's a 12.1MP camera that can shoot continuously at up 4.5 frames-per-second. The camera powers up very fast in just 0.15 seconds and shooting lag is just 65ms. The new HD video party trick, called D-Movie Mode, allows snappers to capture 720p video in Motion JPEG format at 24fps with sound. The camera has low noise ISO sensitivity from 200 to 3200 and there's a 3in 920,000-dot LCD display with 170-degree viewing angle.

Podders Aleks Krotoski, Bobbie Johnson and Jemima Kiss are joined by The Guardian's Jack Schofield and PC Pro's Jon Honeyball to unlock the secrets behind Microsoft's next generation operating system, code-named Windows 7. What else is going on behind the rumours of multi-touch and enhanced security?They also welcome rummble.com's Andrew Scott into the lift to pitch his location-based recommendation service, based on Yahoo!'s FireEagle. Is the trend towards personalisation encroaching on our personal privacy, or will it break down the boundaries, and make the web work for us all?These stories and more, including the latest from the blogs, including what readers think about Windows 7, and what they think about the latest Lara Croft model.

The price of a dedicated Blu-ray player has remained high - too high - even after winning the HD war against HD DVD but, Tesco has teamed up with German PB big-shot Medion to sell a performance PC with Blu-ray drive for just £600. The PC in question is the shiny, black Medion Akoya P36888 and, despite the attractive pricing, it's no slouch. The P36888 is powered by the Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600, runs Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, has a 1TB 7200rpm hard disk drive, 3GB of RAM, a hybrid TV tuner and the all-important Blu-Ray Reader/DVD-ReWriter. Here's the full line up:

There's only one thing better than wasting your employer's broadband by surfing Gizmodo UK during work and that's using your paid-for, company mobile phone for doing the same thing. And now, you can. Gizmodo UK is now mobile and thanks to the great Mippin technology and news aggregator, there's no reason why you can't have access to your fave gadgets site no matter where you are. You can go directly to the mobile Gizmodo UK page from your mobile by entering this link on your phone's browser. Or, if you have more news feeds, just register for free on Mippin and add them in too.

Advert for the Apple iPhone that was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for misleading viewers about internet access

This is one of those situations where we're torn between 'terrible idea' and 'kinda like it'. The Time Table is an idea from designer Ross McBride and transforms your run-of-the-mill coffee table into a gargantuan digital watch at the flick of a switch. It uses a 6cm layer of electroluminescent plastic to create the digits, which are automatically updated wirelessly to keep the correct time. There's also a built-in alarm and timer to switch off automatically and any settings are saved so you don't have to reprogram anything.

Cory Doctorow: The belief that a gas bill somehow proves who you are and where you live is preposterous and actually heightens the risk of identity theft

Noel Sharkey: There's no doubting that patients need human contact, but in many situations, robot technology is the most effective option

If you see a miniaturised gadget cunningly disguised as an everyday object then it's likely there will be some reference to James Bond in the first hundred words. Oops, we just went and did it again. But this Spy Micro Camera Watch is a little different to most similar products in that the camera lens is particularly well disguised on the watch face itself.

Panasonic likes rolling out jaw-droppingly big tellies. Usually of the type that we can't afford but, nonetheless impressive to stand in front of at shows, drooling. This time out, the company is prepping a new 103in Plasma TV, the TH-103PZ800, for the IFA Show 2008, which kicks off on Friday. This is a third generation 103-incher and while the specs are impressive, it's most notable because it's around £10,000 cheaper than its predecessor launched in February.

At the weekend, we caught glimpse of the new Canon EOS 50D from leaked information on Canon's Chinese site but today we have the real deal, complete with official photo of the new snapper for 'advanced amateur photographers'. The camera sits in above the current 40D and below the semi-professional 5D and is Canon's first to use the Digic 4 processor. Digic 4 allows for faster snapping and carries out peripheral illumination correction, which automatically evens brightness across the image field, to make photos of a blue sky, for instance, evenly toned. Previously, this effect effect had to be recreated with photo software on a PC.

There have been reports in the media in recent weeks that the iPhone 3G has been, well, 'less 3G' than some owners would have liked. From reports of poor coverage and reception to dropped calls, some iPhone owners have been venting their fury on forums all over the Wibbly Wobbly Web. It's taken some serious Swedes, however, to look into the matter with a little more professional detachment. Their verdict: no problems.