Dear Reader,

For any feedback on our newsletter, or to discuss how we can help you with your technology PR, marketing, copywriting or surveys, please email me at hbutters@prompt-communications.com. We are always delighted to hear from you.

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Hazel Butters
Prompt Communications

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Technology Update

By Sean McManus

Companies skip WEEE registration

Over 80% of UK electronics companies have failed to sign up to a scheme for recycling their end-of-life hardware, as required under the new WEEE directive, according to Environ, one company that operates such a recycling scheme. The deadline for joining a scheme was 15 March, but the government is not yet enforcing penalties. There might be a guilty conscience at play: guidelines the DTI was supposed to publish in January didn't appear until the end of February.

GPS to help blind navigate streets

The BBC reports that a company in Italy has developed a satellite navigation device to help blind people to find their way around. The device uses two dedicated buttons on a mobile phone, one of which tells users where they are now using a text-to-speech converter, down to the house number. The other button connects the user to a call centre for assistance. 30 members of the Italian Blind Union are helping with a trial.

Private rocket takes off

The privately owned Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) has launched its second test rocket into space in preparation for satellite launches later in the year. The Falcon-1 reached an altitude of 320km. SpaceX has taken bookings worth $400 million (£200 million) to launch satellites, and has been paid $278 million (£142 million) by NASA to demonstrate deliveries to the International Space Station. Each flight will cost a bargain basement $7 million (£4 million), which is set to revolutionise the commercialisation of space.

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Consumer Technology Update

By Sean McManus and Lance Concannon

May the nose be with you

TT Games, the company behind the game Lego Star Wars II, joined in with Red Nose Day by putting red noses on all the game's heroes and villains, from Han Solo to the Emperor. In exchange for a donation of at least a pound, players can get the secret code that activates this hidden feature. The most impressive thing is that the game must have shipped with this capability last year.

PlayStation 3 launches in UK

Sony's next generation games console, PlayStation 3, finally launched in the UK this week to rapturous indifference. Sony is late to the party, with X-Box 360 and Nintendo Wii already enjoying large installed user bases, and carrying a price tag more than twice that of its rivals (£425) you might well wonder if many people will be queuing to buy the new console. Judging by the disappointing turnout at the Virgin Megastore launch event, it seems not.

Apple TV also launches in the UK

Although not hyped quite as extremely as the iPhone, the new Apple TV could prove to be an equally important new product for the company, says the BBC. The device is a set top box which can take digital content from a computer and display it on a TV. Groundbreaking, eh? Well, no actually, this sort of thing has been done a squillion times before. But as the article points out, lots of people sold digital audio players before Apple came out with the iPod, and the company still managed to conquer that market, so perhaps it can do the same for digital video.

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Marketing Update

By Elissa Fry and Sally Forge

Anyone for coffee?

Sir Paul McCartney has signed a deal with record label 'Hear Music', a collaboration between Starbucks Entertainment and Concorde Music Group. According to Brand Republic McCartney will release his first studio album in two years to the coffee brand-owned label, which is due out this summer.

The announcement demonstrates how artists are looking for new and diverse ways to reach their existing fan base. With record labels looking to capitalise on this new trend, Starbucks is planning to launch a new initiative in the UK where customers can choose music tracks to be copied to CDs while they wait.

When the cloud becomes the silver lining

Model Naomi Campbell has been sentenced to some hours of community service, after attacking one of her employees with a projectile mobile phone. This would generally be accepted as 'not a good thing.' However Campbell is inviting a photographer to document her undergoing the sentence. Yahoo news says she may be using the 'opportunity' to boost her profile in the US.

With people leaking their own candid sex tapes to gain publicity, turkey twizzlers still in the shops, Freddie Flintoff's status as national hero heightened by drunken escapades, beleaguered Big Brother gaining sponsorship from Virgin Media, there is a sense that marketing is coming to depend more and more on what were previously thought of as negative values.

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On the Blog

As ever we've got an interesting selection of stories on the Prompt Communications blog this week, including a post about the ten most historically important computer games.

US Media Report

By Kay Wilson

It seems like the grass is greener on the media side this week as Democrat and former U.S. Congress man Harold Ford Jr jumps the fence and joins the Fox News Channel as a commentator. Ford will use his political expertise for the up-coming 2008 elections and international politics. Brian Grazer, Oscar winning film producer of "A Beautiful Mind" is also seeing how the other half live by joining the LA Times as a guest editor for the Sunday edition.

In the "real" media world, there is still plenty of movement with Sewell Chan moving within The New York Times to bureau chief of City Room, a web-site with the latest NY metro news. Yuki Noguchi, technology editor of the Washington Post, has resigned her post as the paper's Post I.T. blogger and Kim Hart, telecommunications editor, takes her place. Sean Gannon becomes business editor at the New York Post moving from the Star. Those who have left their posts to, hopefully, their own greener field are Vineeta Anand who leaves Bloomberg News in Washington DC and Valerie Morris who leaves the business bureau of CNN.

In the tech-media, Amir Hartman will be writing the new "Rules to Live By" feature in Information Week's Optimize Magazine, and Matt Hines joins InfoWorld from eWeek as a senior writer.

With election fever rife after the announcement of all the candidates, a new era of campaigning has taken hold with many Democratic hopefuls using trendy MySpace to put across their message. This online social network is an obvious tool to target those just old enough to vote and is being quoted as "the yard signs of the 21st century" by MySpace Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe.

UK Media Report

By Annie Kasmai

Computing.co.uk has been relaunched and now includes new content and Web 2.0 functionality. The website also incorporates Computing TV which is the publication's web TV service. The aim of the new site is to allow users to have more interaction with journalists and other users through leaving comments and participating in forums.

Today is Chris Walton's last day as senior reporter at Microscope. Walton is leaving the channel publication to join Caterer and Hotelkeeper as senior reporter. Walton is replacing Tom Bill who has been appointed as deputy news editor of Contract Journal.

Best of the 'Net

By Sean McManus

Growsonyou

Growsonyou, which launched last week, brings social networking to gardeners. You can upload photos of your prize begonias, answer and ask questions of other members and access a database of plant photos. So far, it's mostly about flowers, but the site is open to vegetable growers too. It's a community, so it will be what you make it.