Friday the 13th Backbytes

This week, we discover the perfect love token for that special nerd in your life, and the hottest gadget this side of the Wailing Wall

From Tyneside with love

What do you think of when we mention "romance"? Newcastle and mobile computers, you were about to say. So it's fitting that Newcastle University researcher Anja Thieme is leading a project to create digital "lovers' boxes", wooden book-like devices that open up to display little video messages stored on the computer inside.

"A wooden passé-partout with rounded edges frames the screen to counter the usual connotations of a digital display. When placed within the box, the RFID tag in the key fob triggers a video message," says our press release.

In the words of its creator, "The effort put into the creation of the video and handing the box over to their beloved was perceived as giving a gift of high personal significance… the interaction with the box created space for partners to display mutual social and emotional support."

No, we don't either.

Bush video is no cracker

We know that many of you have had romantic feelings towards Kate Bush over the years, so watch out for the new video directed by the fiftysomething geek's goto teenage fantasy, based on one of her 1970s songs. On the other hand The Scottish Daily Record's report of the video content may disappoint thrillseekers. Robbie Coltrane plays a middle-aged businessman who inserts a CD called "Voice Console - Whenever You Need A Friend" into his computer, which generates a computer friend with which he becomes obsessed. His family breaks up. He becomes jealous of a younger man who steals his CD-Rom. Isn't middle age wonderful?

Attention, home workers

Stop looking at the TV! We need your undivided attention for this bit, but you're already looking over at the repeat of Homes Under The Hammer that's on today, according to professors Adam Brasel and James Gips, who have published an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking that shows that people placed in a room with a computer and a TV switched their eyes between them 120 times in 27.5 minutes - once every 14 seconds. This obviously has serious implications for… are you still reading! Over here!

Holy calling

Israeli operator Accel Telecom now offers a kosher smartphone with menus in Yiddish. Call from it on the Sabbath and it costs more than £2 a minute. "It is not simple to make the phones kosher and bring them to a level in which you prove that the phone cannot be breached or changed in such a way that it will be possible to send text messages or surf the internet with it," said Accel CEO Mark Seelenfreund. He has managed this, received Rabbinical approval for his creation - but in the process has produced a smartphone with no text messages, no internet access, no Facebook, no camera or no email, and therefore with absolutely no reason at all to buy it, no matter what your religion.

Name that tune

Meanwhile the IT department at Darlington college has hidden talent. Not only is Dean Stockdale good at plugging things into other things, he plays the piano at the Savoy. The real Savoy. After passing an audition last year he entertains the celebrities two nights a week at the Beaufort Bar. We know you often drink there, so maybe you could ask him for requests. We suggest "Killing me (Micro)softly" or "Get off my cloud". Come on, you must have better suggestions than this. Best one wins a cocktail.

If you've encountered anything weird, wonderful or infuriating relating to the world of IT, we'd love to hear from you. Just email us at [email protected] or leave a comment.

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