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According to a U.K. report, some 150,000 motorists a year disregard color coding and signage to pump their vehicles full of the wrong type of gas. The result is expensive repairs and probably a Homer Simpson-like "doh!"--or worse. Thus, the aptly named Fuel Checker was born.

The Fuel Checker determines if drivers have chosen the correct gas nozzle.

(Credit: Fuel Checkers)

The European gadget made its appearance at the London 2008 Motor Show last week. According to the company, it can be permanently affixed to the inside of a car's fuel door or it can be held in hand. The device comes in petrol (regular gasoline) and diesel, and the hope is that consumers can at least get that purchase correct.

After drivers pull up to the pump, they can be assured that they chose the right nozzle by pressing it against the sensors of the Fuel Checker. Flashing red lights show they've chosen the wrong nozzle, while green means go. Although it's unclear from the product site how the device registers the type of gasoline, it has been deemed safe to use around flammable vapors.

Currently, the gadget is only available for European fuel nozzles but it could make its way to the U.S, retailing for the equivalent of $40. However, it begs the question: if you aren't reading the signs on the gas pump, are you reading the signs on the road?

(Credit: Crave UK)

As if launch details of the Iriver Spinn weren't enough to keep your blood pumping wildly, we've got some prices and new specs on two of the Korean company's other new flash players: the T7 and L Player.

The L Player is the most interesting of the two--it's similar to the Clix, only smaller. It's got the same D-Click interface that we loved in the Clix, a 51-millimeter (2-inch) 320 x 240-pixel display, support for MP3, WMA, and ASF audio, MPEG-4, WMV, and Flash video, an FM radio, voice, and radio recording. It comes in 4GB and 8GB models, each rocking 18 and 4 hours of music and video playback respectively from the built-in battery.

It'll be on sale in June. The 4GB version will sell for 90 pounds (about $177) and the 8GB for 110 pounds ($216).

Iriver's other newbie is the T7 Stix--a small, simple MP3 player with a built-in USB adaptor, a la the old Shuffle. It'll come in 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB capacities and supports MP3, WMA, ASF and OGG music formats. It's also packing an FM radio with recording functionality and a built-in microphone allows you to record voice, too.

The T7 will be on sale in June as well: 50 pounds ($98) for 1GB, 60 pounds ($118) for 2GB, and 70 pounds ($137) for 4GB.

Both the T7 and L Player will be on sale from Advanced MP3 Players. Expect our reviews of both models extremely soon. Best regards and warm wishes 'n' that.

(Source: Crave UK)

News Corp.'s MySpace and Viacom's MTV are partnering again, and this time it's on a weekly TV show. But the program, a countdown show called MySpace Chart, will only air on the U.K. network MTV Two (the equivalent of the U.S. MTV2 channel) and there are no plans yet to bring the show stateside, an MTV Networks representative told CNET News.com.

Members of the social network, which initially gained traction as a way for independent music artists to gain buzz, will vote on select music videos each week that will then be showcased in the hour-long MTV Two show. MySpace Chart premieres on the evening of March 16; a week earlier, pages on MySpace and MTV Two will go live to kick off voting.

MTV parent company Viacom does have its own social-networking project, the "distributed" service called Flux. But partnering with MySpace can give them access to the massive site's audience. "The audience for MTV Two and MySpace are incredibly similar," Philip O'Ferrall, vice president of digital media for MTV Networks' U.K. and Ireland region, said in a statement. "Not only are they both incredibly passionate about their music tastes but they are powerful advocates for the latest upcoming artists, which both MTV and MySpace have a history of showcasing."

Additionally, for MTV, it's a way to bolster the company's new-media credibility; for MySpace, it helps to solidify its role as a pop-culture hub as the market for social networking grows increasingly crowded. In the U.K., MySpace not only competes with Facebook but also with the more youth-oriented Bebo--which syndicates some MTV video content as part of its "Open Media" platform.

MySpace's U.K. arm already had collaborated with MTV in order to find a new anchor for its MTV News show. In the U.S., the two partnered for a series of "presidential dialogue" events leading up to the Super Tuesday primaries.

If Amazon's music store going international wasn't enough digital music news for you today, 7digital took the liberty of announcing its international roll-out plans today, and its CEO took time out to talk to us one-on-one.

(Credit: Crave UK)

The DRM-free 7digital download store is often discussed alongside iTunes, eMusic, and Amazon as a major player in the music download world. It was one of the first online stores to host EMI's DRM-free catalog and now offers more than 3 million tracks, the majority of which are sans-DRM.

Today it announced it's set to receive 4.25 million pounds of investor funding (about $8.44 million). The deal is expected to be finalized toward the end of next month. The U.S. is expected to receive a big fat intravenous injection of 7digital love as a result of this deal, meaning that the well-established iTunes and Amazon could be in for a tussle.

This news is one of a string of interesting moves made by the U.K.-based firm. Last year it struck a deal with Last.fm--which itself is hitting the headlines again lately--that allows users of the popular music-streaming site to buy songs from 7digital within the Last.fm environment. Later in '07 it announced DRM-free songs were outselling DRMed versions at a rate of four to one--news that surprised no-one.

We spoke today to 7digital's CEO Ben Drury regarding the company's announcement. He told us that the plan is to offer the same service in the U.S. as is currently available in the U.K., but that licences differing from region to region make offering identical services tricky.

Amazon's recently struck deals with all four major labels for DRM-free downloads is something 7digital wasn't likely to ignore. When asked how the company intended to compete with Amazon in the U.S., Drury said the plan was of course to secure the same deals, and that they were "in talks" with the remaining major labels.

Regarding Amazon's announcement to invade the U.K. with its roster of major label backing, he said, "We welcome [Amazon] into the U.K. marketplace" and that it "will help move [the DRM-free industry] forward."

Finally, with more and more companies pedaling ahead in the mobile downloads market, Drury told us "we've been looking at the mobile market for four years now." Not surprisingly, he saw the previous lack of flat-rate mobile data plans as having been one of the main issues, but now they're becoming more common Drury expects 7digital to move into the mobile download arena.

This is probably going to be one of the most exciting and productive years not just for digital music, but for DRM-free and wireless downloads of digital music, regardless of what device you choose to invest in. You should also expect lossless downloads, as we've previously predicted. Curiously 7digital has offered lossless downloads of Radiohead songs before, as did Russian rebels AllOfMP3.com on a vast range of titles.

Excitement builds.

(Source: Crave UK)

JVC has previewed its product line-up for the coming year, and top of the list is a selection of LCD TVs that are--you guessed it--very thin. The top-end V series models measure just 39 millimeters at the narrowest point and 74 millimeters at the widest.

The 42DV9 and 46DV9 won't be around until later this year, but when they are they'll bring 42- and 46-inch 1080p televisual delight to U.K. living rooms. Each boasts an 8-bit panel with color bumped up to 12 bit for smoother gradations across colors. (See JVC's line for the U.S. market here.)

(Credit: Crave UK)

Other goodies on the V series include three HDMI connections, two Scart and the trusty old USB. They also feature JVC's MaxxAudio technology, which boosts frequencies to project every nuance. This also allows you to set a consistent volume so if there's a sudden loud bit--like when the adverts come on--you won't be deafened.

The V series utilizes 100Hz Clear Motion Drive II, which interpolates fast onscreen motion up to 100fps to smooth out the appearance of the movement. This now works on the vertical axis as well as the horizontal, so up and down and diagonal movement is now compensated for as well as side-to-side. The system also retains the brightness usually lost when frame rate is sped up.

Our SmartPlanet colleagues probably don't watch television--they're too busy riding their bikes, tending their vegetable patches and separating their recyclables--but they'd be pleased to hear all of JVC's new TVs have a radio mode. This switches the TV screen off when listening to Freeview radio, thus saving bags of energy. Eco and standby modes also use less power.

JVC also treated us to a glimpse of some prospective technology in the Future Room, where everyone wore silver jumpsuits and flew around with jetpacks in their shoes. Actually that's not true, but they did demo an LED backlight system that packed a TV with 1,052 LED segments. This gave some impressively rich colors and deep blacks, but we're unlikely to see it in stores until 2009.

Other fun future concepts include a Cover Flow-style interface for browsing through channels and a snap recognition system. This switches the TV on and off and calls up menus when it hears you snap your fingers or clap three times. A Webcam-style camera in the TV bezel then recorded our gestures as we selected menu items by waving our hands around. All of this was so much fun we had to give it a round of applause, but we turned everything off by accident.

(Source: Crave UK)

According to an Apple statement sent out yesterday, Apple will equalize the price of music on its iTunes Stores across Europe within the next six months.

It seems the peeps at Which? weren't satisfied that us Brits were being charged more for music in iTunes than the rest of Europe, so they filed a formal complaint with the U.K.'s Office of Fair Trading, which then contacted the European Commission, which started antitrust proceedings. Apple's decision has satisfied the EC, which will take no further action.

At the moment you have to pay 79 pence (about $1.53) per track in the U.K. iTunes Store, while the rest of Europe only pays 99 euro cents (about $1.33). So we're not talking huge savings, but it's still important that companies take some notice that we won't be ripped off by "rounding up." EC Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes commented, "The Commission is very much in favour of solutions which allow consumers to benefit from a truly Single Market for music downloads."

In the press release, Apple states that it "will reconsider its continuing relationship in the U.K. with any record label that does not lower its wholesale prices in the U.K. to the pan-European level within six months".

(Source: Crave UK)

Her Royal Highness will pwn your sorry hide!

(Credit: Official Royal Images Library)

Here in the U.S., our head of state couldn't seem to master the Segway, but Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is apparently quite the video game diva.

The undoubtedly reputable U.K. publication The People reported earlier this week that the 81-year-old royal got a hold of a Wii console (according to a "Palace source," it belongs to her 25-year-old grandson, Prince William) and "showed all the signs of becoming a Nintendo addict."

The Queen's game of choice seems to be Wii Bowling (what, did you expect Call of Duty 3?) and the source told The People that her "hand-eye coordination was as good as somebody half her age."

Prince William, meanwhile, "was in fits of laughter," but allegedly will have a tough time prying the console away from his grandmother. She is, The People notes, an unusually tech-savvy dame. She has reportedly had a cell phone since 2001, a BlackBerry since last year, and listens to an iPod regularly. (The People reports that it contains over 100,000 songs, which means that Steve Jobs must have custom-made it for her since the 160GB version holds only 40,000 songs, tops. Hey, Brits, do some fact-checking!)

And we here at CNET suppose it's good that Her Majesty is raiding Prince William's video game library rather than Prince Harry's liquor cabinet.

Updated at 12:00pm to clarify the French law on unlocked cell phones, and at 1:43pm with comment from Apple.

The iPhone on Friday will make its debut in the United Kingdom and Germany, the first countries outside of the United States to get their hands on Apple's first mobile phone.

Apple's Steve Jobs introduces the iPhone to the British in September.

(Credit: Crave UK)

For months, many (including this guy) had expected Apple to wade into the European mobile-phone market with a 3G iPhone, but virtually the same model that's available in the States will be presented to British and German users of O2 and T-Mobile's networks, respectively. The 8GB iPhone is going to cost 269 pounds in the U.K.($563.87 as of this writing) and 399 euros ($583.84), including VAT in both countries.

It will be very interesting to see how the iPhone is received in Europe. Sophisticated smartphones and fast 3G networks are the norm in many places, not a novelty. Still, the combination of the touch-screen interface and the iPod capabilities should tempt some European consumers; at the Intel Developer Forum in September, I noticed more than one member of the British press sneaking over to the San Francisco Apple store to acquire an iPhone, presumably with plans to unlock it for the carrier of their choice.

According to reports, there will be at least one significant change arriving with the European iPhones: OS X 1.1.2. UPDATED: Apple confirmed Thursday afternoon that OS X 1.1.2 will ship tomorrow "to support the international launch of the iPhone."

The software update, which will presumably be delivered to all iPhone owners, is said to fix the TIFF image flaw that allowed the iPhone to be rehacked after the 1.1.1 update disabled third-party applications. It will also probably escalate the hacking wars by making the iPhone more impervious to both third-party applications and unlocking, the real source of consternation for Apple.

Later this month, France will be the third European destination for the iPhone, and Apple and Orange, the wireless carrier selected for France, might have to make a concession to the forces of unlocking. Apparently, it's against French law to sell mobile phones locked to a specific network, though Apple has not confirmed whether its French iPhone will be locked.

UPDATED: At the suggestion of a reader, I looked into this a little more, and it's not explicitly against the law to sell locked phones. However, the law requires that French carriers unlock phones if the customer requests it, and they have to let customers do that for free after six months.

Apple announced its first iPhone deal outside of the U.S. this morning, and might have made its second big mistake in the early days of its iPhone strategy.

The company announced an iPhone partnership Tuesday morning in London with U.K. carrier O2. CEO Steve Jobs made an appearance at the Regent Street Apple store to answer questions from the British press, who were curious as to why Apple decided to introduce the same EDGE phone that's on sale in the U.S. to the U.K. market.

Engadget's live blog reported that Jobs is still concerned about battery life. "The 3G chipsets are real power hogs," Jobs said, adding that he doesn't think 3G chipsets will allow for sufficient battery life until next year. That was the same answer Apple gave earlier this year to questions about the first U.S. iPhone and its dependence on an EDGE cellular network outside of Wi-Fi hotspots.

The two markets are very different, however. The U.K., and really Europe as a whole, are much further along in their deployment of faster 3G cellular networking technology than the U.S. O2 CEO Matthew Key said Tuesday that only about 30 percent of its network will be EDGE-compatible when its iPhone launches, but the carrier has already deployed 3G in many places throughout the U.K. EDGE was meant as a stepping stone for some carriers who weren't ready to roll out full 3G services, but most U.K. carriers went ahead with 3G implementations to replace their older 2G GSM/GPRS networks. (Check out GSMWorld.com if you need help deciphering the alphabet soup that is the cellular industry.)

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveils the company's U.K. iPhone deal with O2.

(Credit: Crave UK)

It's a little different back in the U.S., where 3G technologies compatible with the base GSM standard used by the iPhone are just getting under way, and EDGE was used to keep people interested during the interim. AT&T, the U.S. iPhone carrier, only offers 3G services in select cities around the country, while the U.K. carriers have a more seamless deployment of 3G technology.

Therefore, Apple's going to have to really captivate U.K. buyers with the design and interface of the iPhone. That's been the device's strong suit since the day Jobs first held it aloft at Macworld, but lots of U.S. iPhone customers had never experienced 3G networking speeds before, and therefore didn't know what they were missing. Most tech-savvy Brits interested in smart phones likely already have a 3G phone, and asking them to step back to EDGE might be a tall order.

Jobs' insistence on a high standard for battery life may pay off in the end, but it could be a tougher go for Apple in the U.K. at first. Apple and O2 are throwing in a subscription to The Cloud's U.K. network of hotspots, since O2 has limited EDGE coverage at launch.

But coming off Apple's miscalculation on the iPhone price cut backlash, you have to wonder if the company is likewise misreading the appeal of the iPhone in the U.K. Sure, it's pretty, but is it too slow? As always, people will vote with their wallets.