Bunkerbound Blog

New social yardstick - your mobile phone ringtone

Research by Dial-a-phone has suggested that 97% of Brits judge people by their ringtone, and think they can make assumptions on their personality based on that. 3 in 4 of us fear criticism of our ringtone. And we take almost three quarters of an hour, 4 times a year to choose or change our ringtone!

The same survey asked teenagers to match up the ringtones with the personalities. Curious about what your ringtone says about you (allegedly)? Read on:

Top 10 hit: Moves with times but could be a fashion victim who tries too hard to be cool

Classic Hit: A laid back thirty something attempting to make a statement with a personal favourite

Hollywood Blockbuster: A real movie buff, but perhaps watches one too many films!

Current TV show: Fun personality - but has too much time on their hands

Retro TV show: Creative individual with a love for pop culture - however can appear a little nerdy

Children's theme tune: Game for a laugh, up for having a good time - though has a tendency to annoy people

Sport theme tune: Armchair sportsperson who enjoys a laugh with the lads/girls also a tad unimaginative

Classical: Tasteful and educated, yet probably on the old side

Made for ringtone (crazy frog etc): Totally unacceptable - most likely a Chav

Mobile setting (original ringtone): Not trying to impress, probably got better things to do than constantly changing their ringtone

Ring Ring: Uber cool, no need to impress though some view as boring - shows a lack of confidence and creativity

Vibrate setting: An Introvert not wanting to be noticed or a businessman not wanting to be rude

Lipstick? USB key? Who knows

I don't mind carrying around a USB stick that looks like a USB stick. Honestly I don't. But for some reason, when I saw this I suddenly grew a little embarressed about the unattractive grey stick I've got in my bag. There's really no excuse, is there? This one is so pretty, and so looks like a lipstick, I could whip it out in the middle of the The Ivy, and no one would bat an eyelid.

And isn't that just what you want from a USB key?

You can get a 1GB version (which will hold a LOT of stuff) for £19.99 from BB-shopping.

i-Lite up your life

Speakers that just play your music? In the words of every teenager ever, whatev. Nowadays speakers need to offer that extra bit more. And whilst these don't make you tea, or record Desperate Housewives when you forget, it might just brighten up your day.

You see, when you plug these into your music source (CD player, MP3 player, whatever), the lights get all excited. They even get excited and change colour in time to the music. What more could you ask for? Oh yes, the whole Desperate Housewives recording thing. Don't worry. We're working on it.

£34.99 from BB-shopping

Vista finally launched

It's finally happened. Vista has launched worldwide, and we can now all find out what the 'Wow' has all been about. There are several big changes from Microsoft with this one. For a start, you're now faced with a myriad of option when it comes to which version you buy. Home or office? Which one of the 5 options are you going to go for? How much media capabilities are you really going to need? Aaaaah.

On the upside, the design of the OS has got an overhaul, and I won't be the first to suggest it looks not unlike a Mac OS (lots of schwooshing between screens). You'll also now be able to see thumbnails of your reduced pages, so you know where you are.  There's also a Google Desktop-type function which will run a kind of indexing of all your documents in the background, so should you lose anything it'll never truly be lost. Anyone who's ever suffered that 2am computer crash will be rejoicing at this point...

Overall, it looks like Bill Gates is really trying to engage people in the same way Jobs has done with Apple products. Lots of marketing spend, Lots of public appearances. Is it enough? As Gates has already said, Vista's biggest rival is XP. Will you be taking the upgrade?

Wall climbing robot

We might have the wall climbing car here at BB-shopping, but over in the US, they've got their own fun. Check out a video of this wall-climbing robot. Who wins? You decide. (Apologies for turning into that bloke of Big Brother there).

Wall-climber car - 180 degree fun

I've seen one of these, and let me tell you, they please man, child and beast. It's a car see, and it walks up walls. Actual straight up walls.

It's remote control, and whilst you can go off roading with it, it's so much fun to scale the areas you normally wouldn't dare. It's something to do with the fact that it sucks in air, it's got traction technology, and it sucks up against the wall. Or something.

Anyway, it's magic, and it costs £39.99 at BB-shopping.

Sony Bravia flats go kabooom!

Sony had a follow up to that famous Bravia balls down street advert, and it involved blowing coloured paint out of windows, to cover the surrounding area (and the flats themselves) in colours. And very pretty it was too. Sadly, those flats were demolished this week, and like the goulish cast of characters we are, we thought you might like to see it in action.

And if you've never seen the advert to which we're referring, you can see that too.

BBC to create Second Life for kids

The BBC are jumping on the second life bandwagon, by announcing their intentions to create a similar 'virtual world' for kids. This would avoid the slightly shady undertones of the original Second Life, by not trading in 'virtual money', or having anything as grubby as 'virtual relationships'. And when I say relationships, I should point out that I really mean sex.
So, what can they do? Well, the kids can create their own avatars and.... well, they can't chat to each other, because they want to avoid the whole chatroom thing. They can create and share content, although to what form this will take has yet to be told.
It's all slated for the summer, when it's going to be launched with the relaunch of the CBBC channel.

Extreme videoing, with the All-terrain camera

Many's the time I've been heliskiing and wished that I could relive the footage in the safety of my own home. Well, that may not be strictly speaking true, but I bet if I did heliski I would want to be able to watch it again. Thank god for this Oregon Scientific All-terrain camera.

It's got built-in memory, and an SD card slot to expand the memory. And once you've captured all that lovely footage you can either watch it straight away on the nearest telly, or edit it into some kind of epic extreme sports movie on a computer. Either way, people will be able to get a real sense of what you went through. Alternatively, you could just stick it on your head when you go to the shops.

Get it for £109.99 from BB-shopping.

Microsoft laughs in the face of the iPhone, literally

It seems the iPhone is getting a mixed reaction, from amazement of the features that are packed in, to amazement at some of the obvious oversights. One camp you might not be surprised to see this latter reaction is the Microsoft camp. You might however be surprised to see the MS CEO be quite so blatant about his disregard.