I recently had a Tascam US-144, USB audio and midi interface, gifted to me by my awesome sister and her boyfriend - thanks guys. However, I’ve had an absolute nightmare getting the thing to work so just wanted to share my experiences with the world.

Essentially, I wanted a device that I could hook up to my laptop and it provide professional quality mic and jack inputs alond with a midi interface, which is a remit the US144 fills exactly - it’s powered over USB, has two XLR inputs, two 1/4in jacks inputs, a line out, and midi in/out. The problem is, the US144 is deprecated and seemingly no longer supported by Tascam and as such the company hasn’t developed Windows 7 64-bit drivers for it.

That’s pretty much the long and short of it. My laptop was running Windows7 64-bit thus it didn’t work. I’ve now put a 32-bit version on and it works fine. Now some people have had success getting this device working in 64-bit Windows 7 but I think the general rule of thumb is that it doesn’t.

So, to summarise. If like me you’re scratching your head as to why your US-144 won’t work on Windows 7 64-bit then don’t hold out much hope. Either install a compatible version of Windows or get the US-144 MKII, which may work, or the Roland (Edirol/Cakewalk) UA-25, which is still being properly supported by its manufacturer (there are other alternatives as well but these are the ones I know).

So today finally saw the launch of Apple’s take on the tablet PC, the rather dubiously named iPad. It’s essentially a giant iPhone with a 9.7-inch glass touch-screen, aluminium back, and thickness of just half an inch. Internally you get a new Apple A4 processor, optional 3G connectivity, and Wi-FI while HD video playback will be doable, and it’ll have 10 hours battery life. Apple has even hooked up with several publishers so, as well as the usual music and movies, you’ll be able to download ebooks over-the-air wherever you are.

All of which sounds quite nice but, if you’re anything like me and my colleagues at TrustedReviews, you’ll realise that this product doesn’t really have a place in most of our lives beyond being a luxury gadget. Not even accounting for basic problems like the fact that it lacks Flash support in its web browser and it can’t do multitasking, it’s not pocketable so you’ll still probably want a smartphone that can already do a large number of the things this can. Neither does it come close to replacing a laptop due to countless things. Without seeing it in the flesh we can’t say for sure but, we suspect we’ll still prefer to read ebooks using devices with e-ink displays as well.

All in all, it’s not for us.

However. I’m loving its arrival for three reasons.

1. With countless companies having tried and failed in the past to make something of tablet PCs, there was always a thought in the back of peoples minds that, ‘maybe Apple could finally crack it’. The iPad finally proves that the tablet PC is not for the general public and that Apple can’t polish a turd. Fooling people into thinking it was lamb when it was clearly mutton, maybe, but miracles, no.

2. It will finally sort the men from the Apple fanboys. With Apple having made some genuinely great products recently, the line between long time Apple lovers and those that just recognise something good has become blurred. Now, with a device that is so clearly unsuited to serve any particular purpose other than being something ‘cool’ to have, the lines can once again be marked out. If you buy this you’re a fanboy or someone with cash to splash, if you don’t you’re sensible or skint.

3. Along the same lines as 2, when we eventually get an iPad in for review and find it lacking, the readers of TR will finally get off our backs about us all being Apple fanboys!

We (TrustedReviews) today launched a new video review section. So, if you’re not content with just reading my words you can now hear my voice and see my ugly mug from anywhere around the world. Oh joy!

If you fancy checking it out go here.

While the debate rages on as to whether most social networking is truly a positive way of staying in touch with friends or if it’s just a way for people with more interesting lives, or just more time on their hands, to show off, it would seem that at least one website has come up with a truly innovative and potentially useful spin on the idea.

Called skimbit, it’s sole purpose is to aid in the social decision making process. That is, those instances where, for instance, one of your friends suggests going on a holiday but none of you can decide where to go, or, where you’re trying to organise buying a big present for your parents silver anniversary. Rather than the usual situation where it takes hundreds of emails and phone calls between you all to even get things started, skimbit simplifies the whole process by bringing all the information together in a central repository. You and your co-conspirators can add suggestions and then vote on them until you hone down your choices. You can then add notes and checklists, and there are even link-ins to apps like googlemaps so the thickies in your group will actually know where it is you’re going.

All in all it seems like a brilliant idea. It completely cuts out the hassle of, let’s face it, things that shouldn’t be stressful but somehow always end up being. Certainly I can see many a situation I’d use it for.

There’s  just one problem, it’s yet another site to convince all my friends to signup to. For the, what, half dozen, at most, times you’ll end up using it every year, I just can’t see everyone bothering to keep on top of it. If someone could make a Facebook widget that did the same thing then they would be onto a real winner, though!

Yes, that’s pronounced ‘cool’, in case you were wondering.

It’s a brand new search engine launched in part by three ex-Google employees, which should lend it some weight. That along with the fact it apparently has indexed three times the number of pages Google has and it could seem like a genuine competitor. Unfortunately, it seems to have fallen at the first hurdle, getting wrong what every other search company bar Google has. Namely, the interface is a mess.

Where Google presents you with a clear list of results down the left hand side, Cuil scatters them across the page, including far more detail then is often necessary. It also seems to be a bit slower than Google, with recent articles failing to show up the day after publication.

I’ll give it a few more tries over the next few days but for the most part it would seem like Cuil is set to be another also-ran in the search engine race.

http://www.cuil.com/

Even though I spend my entire working life reviewing, researching, playing with, and generally enjoying the wonders of new tech, it’s not often I see something that is truly inspiring but that’s exactly what happened last week.

I was out in California where I was watching the DARPA Urban Challenge, which is, or rather was, a robot car race. I won’t go into too much detail (you can read my piece on TrustedReviews about it if you like) but essentially normal cars had been retrofitted with LASERs, RADAR, computers, and all manner of other bits and bobs to enable them to literally drive themselves. The challenge was a race to see which of these contraptions was the best.

Now, being a technologist, I was understandably blase about this and walking round the ‘paddock’ it didn’t really excite me as such. However, once the race got underway and I saw a car drive past me with no driver, it suddenly dawned on me how amazing, surreal, and even freaky it was. There was certainly something special about that moment and though I’m not sure if fully autonomous cars are more a scary or exciting prospect, it was certainly a privilege to be witness to these first steps towards that final goal.

Oh, and if you use such things, give my story a digg here.

Cheers.