British Gas has already begun rolling out the ‘Smart Meter’, with over 160,000 homes now owning one. However, by 2019, British Gas commits to ensuring all homes have one by then.

Smart Meter Features:

• Hassle free automatic meter readings
• End of estimated bills – you pay for what you use
• You can control energy usage via a user friendly energy monitor, online or through our smart phone app
•  Control brings choice, which brings opportunity to reduce energy consumption (economical savings and environmental benefits)

Ok, how do I sign up?

The Government plans for all homes to have one by 2019, however British Gas is already implementing them – free of charge. When your home is due for an upgrade, you will be contacted by a British Gas Smart Energy Expert who will change your meters, explain how to use your Smart Energy Monitor and even show you how to save on your bills by providing Energy Efficiency advice.

This new technology is a great example of conventional home appliances / equipment being replaced to ensure better efficiency and control in the home – making way for the evolution of the ‘Home Area Network’.

View the video below to find out how the Smart Meter works and it’s benefits:

Follow British Gas on Twitter : @BritishGas

This is a sponsored post on behalf of British Gas

Viral video by ebuzzing

If you are developing software you may not have enough room on your hard drives or even a server. Buying more space can be costly and really not efficient, so looking to go cloud based could be a great option. You may worry that your information may not be safe just sitting there on the Internet; however if you go with a reliable company that makes security a top priority you should be fine.

Another benefit of using cloud computing is that you can access your work from anywhere. No longer are you confined to your desk or home office. As a software developer you may want a break or may work better at a different location, such as the mountains. As long as you have access to the Internet you should be able to access your information in the cloud.

After you develop your software you will want to take it to venture capitalists and other investors. Instead of bringing your laptop and other computer items for your presentation you could just store your presentation on your cloud server and then use a computer onsite.

Another consideration is looking at your operating system. If you have Windows XP or Windows Vista you may want to invest in a Dell Windows 7 upgrade. The power of a high performance laptop or desktop combined with Windows 7 provides a great starting point to developing your software.

The advancements in Windows 7 over Vista are substantial. The speeds of opening programs, booting up, and running multiple large software suites are great using Windows 7 along with a multi-core computer.

Another major complaint about Windows Vista was the amount of crashes the computer experienced, when Microsoft developed Windows 7 they focused on fixing a lot of the complaints that users had. You don’t want to be working on a piece of software then have your system crash. There is nothing more frustrating than losing work.

Do yourself a favor and upgrade your system and use cloud services when working on a new project. You will be amazed at how much time is freed up and how much easier your life will be with the new technology that is in place.

If you were slightly disappointed then it’s understandable, because if you remember back to October when the Apple iPhone 4S was released everyone was very disappoined about that too. The main cause of this? That’s right, rumours!

Basically, in my opinion, whilst rumours are great to read about, they ultimately get you all excited about features that most likely won’t make the final cut, or designs that probably never existed in the first place. However, the Samsung Galaxy S3 looks like one hell of a power house and you can check out why that is in the product overview below.

Design

First off, we’ve got the design of the Samsung Galaxy S3. It comes in two colour choices; either “Pebble Blue” or “Marble White”. We personally prefer the white version, but the blue version looks pretty good as well. The shape of the Galaxy S3 has somewhat split Samsung fans, some are saying that it’s not much of a design change, but some are praising Samsung for creating something that they know they’ll love from the moment they pick it up. It’s a tough decision, but ultimately we feel that a completely new design, or shape, would have been a much better option.

The casing itself if made from a similar plastic to the rest of the Galaxy range, so it should feel fairly familiar. Perhaps metal would have been more ideal for the casing? We’ll soon see once we’ve got one in our hands though.

Processor, RAM and Storage

Now, the feature that has been documented and talked about online is the quad-core processor, well it’s here in what is most likely one of the most anticipated devices of the year. The 1.4GHz quad-core processor should provide more than enough power for all of those CPU hungry applications available to Android smartphones, as well as a few new software features that look like they use a decent amount of power (more about those later).

It has also been confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S3 is sporting 1GB of RAM; more than enough to make sure you receive an experience you won’t be forgetting any time soon! We’re also loving the fact that, specs-wise, the Samsung Galaxy S3 has more power than some basic netbooks and laptops that are available!

The storage options for the S3 are also very impressive. As well as coming in a 16GB, 32GB or 64GB option you can also expand this by another 64GB by using a microSD card, giving the S3 a total storage capacity of 128GB! That’s definitely a decent amount of storage to store all your music, apps, videos and photos!

Display

With a Samsung product you always know the screen’s going to be great no matter what seen as though they make a majority of the worlds’ displays, and the Galaxy S3 is no different! With, what some people are saying is too big, a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display and a beautiful 1280 x 720p resolution, all of your multimedia content should look like it’s popping out of the screen because it’s so vibrant. Some are also saying that the screen on the S3 is essentially the Galaxy Note screen, but down-sized slightly. Whether that’s correct or not, we’ll have to wait and see.

The pixels per inch (ppi) are slightly lower than the iPhone 4 / 4S at 306ppi (compared with the iPhone’s 326ppi), but with most Samsung Galaxy smartphones that doesn’t seem to matter too much due to the fact that their screens always look great.

Camera

With so much power, we’d have thought that Samsung would introduce perhaps a 12-megapixel camera to one of their phones, but it appears we’re still suck with 8-megapixels on the rear. However, 1080p video recording is now standard and the front-facing 1.9-megapixel camera is capable of recording in 720p HD as well! We’ve seen this (front-facing HD video recording capabilities) on a few phones now, but it’s still pretty impressive if you ask me.

Battery

Now, I know what you’re all thinking. “If there’s a quad-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, a HD Super AMOLED display and CPU-hungry software features, how is the battery going to last even a few hours?!”

Well, with a 2100mAH battery you should be able to use the Samsung Galaxy S3 for a good day or so before needing to charge it up again. Just to compare, the Galaxy Note has a 2500mAH battery and can last for a good few days so we should see some impressive battery life performance.

Software

Obviously, with Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich running on the Samsung Galaxy S3, we’re going to see some really impressive stuff with the Galaxy S3. And thanks to the inclusion of some custom software features, the Galaxy S3 features “S Voice”, which is Samsung’s Siri killer, which has the ability to understand commands such as playing music, opening applications and a whole range of advanced features. People are saying that it’s much more impressive than Siri, which is still in th beta stages and doesn’t include some of it’s features in various parts around the world.

Also, Samsung have included Flipboard, which has only been available on iOS before now, and somewhat confirms that it will be coming to Android some time in the near future. Flipboard is a digital magazine that shows content from your favourite web sources and social network feeds, and has won a variety of awards whilst it has been on iOS.

Pricing

Obviously with it being early days at the moment we don’t have many definite prices, but many companies are saying that they will be stocking the Samsung Galaxy S3 when it’s available.

The handset-only cost has not been unveiled yet, but if the Galaxy S2 is anything to go by we’re probably looking at around the £500 mark.

Carphone Warehouse have announced that they’ll be offering the Galaxy S3 on Three, Vodafone, Orange, O2 and T-Mobile free of charge, but on a £36 per month contract.

As well as this enticing deal, they’re also offering the first 1000 customers who pre-order the device a whole range of freebies worth over £400; which includes a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, as well as a whole range of other smallers products!

Phones4u will also offer the Galaxy S3 for free on a £36+ contract, and you’ll also receive £50 of S3 accessories.

Vodafone appear to only be offering the 32GB version to begin with, but it’s going to be exclusive to Vodafone, so for those of you looking to purchase the mid-range model you’ll have to either switch networks or storage options.

Orange have confirmed that they’ll be stocking the device, but no pricing is currently available.

The same goes for T-Mobile; no pricing available yet, but they will be stocking the device.

It also appears to be the same story for O2 as well, who are yet to announce any pricing or promotions.

Release Date

The release date for the Samsung Galaxy S3 has been confirmed as being May 30th here in the UK, so you all better get saving if you’re looking to purchase the new Galaxy smartphone.

Keep checking the site for more pricing information. Most other networks should be announcing their plans within the next few weeks.

Are you going to be purchasing the Samsung Galaxy S3? Let us know in the comments below.

The company, at the moment, sell their phones through both Apple stores (unlocked for any network) and through retailers such as Orange, T-Mobile, O2 and Three here in the UK, and AT&T and Verizon in the US. To be able to use your iPhone or iPad (mobile data side of things) you’re going to need to be in either a contract or on a pay as you go plan with one of the forementioned companies.

However, with Apple’s rather large amount of cash, Bluestein says that Apple has definitely got the funds available to cut external parties out of the loop altogether.

Bluestein has also stated that Google will probably make this move as well, but Apple would have the advantage, if they were to create a wireless data network, purely because their entire ecosystem is already setup though iTunes, Apple Care and hundreds of retail stores worldwide.

The only thing Apple doesn’t have is a mobile spectrum, which they could certainly afford, and with 4G auctions coming up very soon here the UK, Apple could potentially jump in and knock the competition out altogether.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you prefer if everything was done through Apple? Let us know in the comments below.

This recently leaked picture suggests that the Galaxy S3 will look similar in design to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, however we’ve seen many photos suggesting slightly different looks over the past few months.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is rumoured to feature a 1.5GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos processor, as well as Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS, which when combined should deliver an extreme level of performance that we’ve not seen before.

As well as both of the above, the Galaxy S3 is also set to feature a Full HD 1080p resolution, 4.8-inch display and a film friendly 16:9 aspect ratio.

With Samsung officially unveiling the Galaxy S3 on Thursday (May 3rd), we should all know fairly soon what the Samsung Galaxy S3 has in store for us.

What are you hoping to see on the Galaxy S3? Let us know in the comments below.

Recent reports have confirmed that Angry Birds Space, which was launched 35 days ago on iOS, Android and more, has hit 50 million downloads and has smashed the previous record set by Angry Birds Rio.

The figures seen here, which include downloads on iOS, Android, PC and Mac, definitely confirm that Angry Birds is here to stay, despite many believing that the Angry Birds hype has disappeared a long time ago.

Rovio recently said: “Angry Birds Space hit 50 million downloads within 35 days, making it the fastest growing mobile game yet and breaking all our previous records. This has been simply amazing, and the whole Rovio team is thrilled to see such a fantastic reception for the game.”

“We extend our deepest gratitude to all fans of Angry Birds everywhere. While numbers like this certainly say something about the popularity of Angry Birds, for us the main goal is to keep creating fun new experiences that everybody can enjoy! We just launched the first free update for Angry Birds Space, with plenty more surprises in stock.”

Have you checked out Angry Birds Space? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Whether you are new to the console, were one of those who scooped one up when they first arrived last year, or were lucky enough to receive one of the fantastic Nintendo 3DS bundles for Christmas, you may be interested to hear that 15 new and exclusive 3D episodes of Shaun the Sheep are heading to it thanks to the great Nintendo Video feature.

These free 3D videos form part of a special partnership between Nintendo and Aardman Animations – the creators of classic movies like Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – and feature characters that include Shaun the Sheep, as well as Timmy, Bitzer, the Farmer and the rest of the friendly flock. In the first episode, some of the gang are enjoying the great outdoors and trying to have a relaxing picnic. But will they be able to with the Farmer’s fishing trip in the very next field?

A new Shaun the Sheep tale will be made available every week for 15 weeks, allowing fans to see the series as it’s never been seen before thanks to the Nintendo 3DS. All you need to do is make sure you have the free Nintendo Video application installed on your console, which can be downloaded free from the Nintendo eShop, then just activate the SpotPass feature. Whenever your Nintendo 3DS is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi, you’ll be able to download a brand new episode every time one is made available – even if your Nintendo 3DS is in sleep mode.

As there are now thousands of public Wi-Fi hotspots across Europe, you should be able to get hold of these exclusive videos even while you’re out and about. And as Nintendo Video also offers a wide range of music videos, exclusive comedy, animation and action shows for the Nintendo 3DS, there are plenty of other ways it can keep you entertained in 2D and 3D. These clips can be easily downloaded provided you have SpotPass activated and access to Wi-Fi, but as each of the videos don’t stay around for too long – you won’t want to wait too long or you might just miss them!

The “leap year bug”, as TomTom are referring to it as, has affected a range of different models and a problem in the Sat Nav’s code is apparently to blame. The series of code, where the bug is apparently located, causes a “limited number of models” to be unable to acquire a locations.

TomTom have revealed that they’re working on a long-term fix for the blank grey screen problem, so hopefully you’ll all be using working Sat Navs fairly soon.

Rivals Garmin have informed their users that performing a reset, by holding down the on/off switch for 20 seconds, will temporarily fix the problem.

TomTom also stated that they’d “update customers on which models are affected as soon as we know more”.

Has this problem affected your TomTom Sat Nav? Let us know in the comments below.

Overclockers UK will have a stand selling a range of specially selected products and will be showcasing the latest in cutting edge hardware, exciting new products, as well as providing a host of different activities for people to get involved in. The stylish look of the stand will be enhanced by a wide selection of products, whose visual appeal is as impressive as their quality and performance, whilst expert staff will be on hand throughout the event to provide advice to customers.

With thousands of pounds worth of prizes to be won in a whole host of different competitions, those who get involved can expect to walk away with goodies ranging from gaming mouse pads, flash drives and laptop bags, right through to high end gaming peripherals, graphics cards and SSDs! Whether you can drive the fastest lap, name the featured show system or simply sign up to the newsletter, there will be ample opportunities for all to walk away with a prize.

Overclockers UK “For The Win!” badge competition will give visitors multiple chances per day to win filled goodie bags worth over £60.  Simply drop by the stand, pick up a badge and wear it.  Prizes will be randomly given out throughout the day to any badge wearers lucky enough to be spotted by one of our gorgeous show girls or just visit our stand to have your picture taken with the stunning Jen Morgan and Bianca Henry.

Overclockers UK are proud of their gaming heritage so the in-house technical team are developing an exclusive new gaming system especially for the show. The system will provide an exhilarating gaming experience and will be launched at a special introductory price, available only to visitors at the show who will also be able to see the system in action.

Visitors to the main stage can take part in fun competitions, with the chance to win some superb Overclockers UK prizes or drop by the demo stage on the Overclockers UK stand where there will be frequent giveaways and even live build demos that will take you step by step through the process of building your own system.  Each demo will be followed by a Q&A session where experts will be on hand to answer any PC or component related questions that visitors might have.

Get hands on with the hardware and have a go on a range of different gaming systems available for visitors to play on, allowing people to experience just what an Overclockers UK system is capable of. If simulators are more your thing, there will be two  high-end gaming systems set up, giving visitors the chance to experience the Ultima Tyrannosaur running Microsoft Flight or the latest version of Project cars utilising the incredible Omega GT Professional – a UK Exclusive combination only available at the Overclockers UK stand!

With truly fantastic show special offers, heaps of exciting new technology, build demos, give aways and competitions, Overclockers UK are ready to rock the Gadget Show Live and look forward to seeing you there!

Visit us in the Gaming zone, Stand C50 – for more information click here: http://bit.ly/Htt86N

About Overclockers UK

The well known retailer Overclockers UK offers only the best in hardware components and systems. With a close relationship to all major brands in the industry, Overclockers UK manages to offer unique, finely tuned hardware-bundles along with immediate availability of the hottest components to its UK customers. With an extensive range of fully customisable systems, Overclockers UK are able to utilise their extensive know-how of the market and products, to create the fastest high performance systems geared toward the enthusiast user. Further information about Overclockers UK can be found here www.overclockers.co.uk

Established by Reboot, an organisation that’s keen to provide a brief respite from what they call ‘technology overuse’ the day’s pledge called for adherents to take a digital detox and go 24 hours without using their tech. The idea was to take a moment to remind oneself that keeping connected doesn’t necessarily require being plugged into social media.

Tanya Schevitz, Reboot’s communications manager said: “Technology overuse takes an immeasurable toll on our ability to give time to the things that are most important in our lives. We can then use that time to be present and engaged in the moments that are happening around us and build meaningful, in-person connections.”

This encouragement to power down and go without technology for longer periods has been echoed in the efforts of other “unpluggers” around the world, even those in communications and GIS jobs. Further afield, officials from the Caribbean nation St. Vincent and the Grenadines have been offering a full digital detox getaway package where they ask holidaymakers to come and experience their island paradise while leaving smartphones, tablets and other portable tech far behind them.

“We often seem to forget that we once survived without Facebook, Twitter, mobile phones and the Internet.” Said Schevitz. “The National Day of Unplugging gives us permission to unplug and recharge ourselves for just 24 hours. Everything will still be there when we return.”

Not that Reboot has any sort of anti-tech stance. While unplugging can provide a welcome respite, there’s no arguing that the unfettered access to social networks allowed by smartphone and other mobile devices provides the average person with the means to stay connected to the people who are important to them around the world. Not to mention the fact that so many reputable and informative organisations rely on social networks to raise awareness and support for their cause.

Being reachable and being able to reach friends as well as work colleagues at any time has become less of a desire and more of an active requirement for many people of all walks of life, not just those with high powered careers or specifically tech-related IT jobs in the UK. However, as we strive to stay connected and at the centre of what’s going on, Reboot urges us to take a moment to make sure that we’re not missing what’s occurring just beyond the screen that’s right in front of our faces.