Do your bit, for free! Energy provider npower is offering new customers a free energy meter, for a limited time.

If you’re not familiar with energy meters, they connect (safely) to your electricity meter, and provide you with real-time information, in pounds and pence, on how much energy you’re consuming. A great way to educate you on how to save power, keep your bills down, and do your bit for the planet. More on power meters.

This is an exclusive online deal only, and will only run for a limited time. Details can be found at the npower Energy Monitor Offer page.

We’ve just released our December 2009 podcast, FrequencyCast.

In this new show, we look at wireless hotspots, a new desktop companion and a magic wand. We also run down the latest digital TV and technology headlines and answer your emails, texts and podline calls.

If you’ve not tried FrequencyCast yet, please give us a try. Our shows are free, and we rely of feedback from our listeners

You can listen online or download the latest show direct to your MP3 player at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html

Got iTunes? Add FrequencyCast to iTunes.

We hope you enjoy our latest show.

Use the RedLaser barcode scanning application on your iPhone? Be warned – don’t upgrade to the new version that was unleashed today.

RedLaser is an iPhone app that scans a product’s barcode, performs a lookup online, and gives you a price comparison. It quickly climbed to the top of the iPhone paid app charts and was an incredibly useful app. Our tech podcast team even rated this as one of the top must-have iPhone apps (see the transcript)

Occipital, producers of the top-rated RedLaser barcode scanning software have replaced the Amazon and Google search engines with the find.com product search engine. It’s not clear whether they’ve done this for legal or financial reasons, but the practical upshot, at least for us in the UK, is that this formerly excellent app has been killed by the switch to find.com in the v2.5 release of RedLaser.

Here’s a ‘before’ and ‘after’ screenshot:

RedLaser – Before

RedLaser – After

From 24 matches, to just one.

We’re also now seeing prices popping up in dollars instead of pounds:

The advice is – don’t upgrade! If you have upgraded, you may be able to roll back to v2.2, but only if you installed the upgrade direct onto your iPhone and not via iTunes. To roll back, uninstall RedLaser from your iPhone, then perform a sync with iTunes. While conected to iTunes, go to Devices, select your iPhone, go into Applications, tick RedLaser and Sync your applications. The backed-up application will then be restored to you iPhone – You” then have to remember not to install the update until the developers release a working application.

Affected? Disappointed? Add a comment below, review RedLaser on iTunes or contact Occipital

Here’s hoping Occipital bow to pressure and the negative iTunes reviews they’re getting, and restore this app to its former glory.

It seems that Sky is about to turn off their ‘Sky Anytime’ mobile TV service.

Two of our team have received the following text message today from Sky:

“We regret to say our Sky App will no longer work from 29 Nov. If you have Mob TV you can still watch via VF Live. For our latest Mob services visit sky.com”

The Sky mobile application was available for a number of handsets, most commonly the Nokia Series 60 range, and allowed users to view news and sports content, watch some of Sky’s shows from their mobile and ‘remote record’ programmes on their Sky+ recorders on the move.

From what we’ve seen on the Sky website, it looks like Sky TV applications for the Apple iPhone, available from the App Store, continue to be offered.

Update: From reading online discussions, it seems there’s some confusion due to the way Sky’s message has been worded. Will the entire app be terminated, or is it just the live TV component of the application that will end. Some are wondering if the Remote Record facility will be removed altogether, which seems unlikely.

We’ll update this post if we get any news.

Gadget site Firebox.com are trying to set a record – the World’s Biggest Secret Santa… and why not?

The premise is simple – pick a gadget, add a personalised message, pay a few quid, and someone, somewhere in the world will get your gift. In return, you’ll get a gift and a message back.

No, it’s not some dodgy pyramid scheme – it’s a genuine world record attempt, and you’ll get a mystery gadget. Interested? FileSaveAs.com is taking part… why don’t you?

For full details, and to send your Secret Santa, slide over to the Firebox Secret Santa site.

TomTom has released an updated version of the TomTom iPhone application for the UK and Europe. The update to v1.2 is available via iTunes now, and offers:

• Updated maps (v8.3 to v8.5), POI, cameras and IQ Routes
• Text-to-speech road name announcements
• Added Advanced Lane Guidance
• Customisable audio warnings for cameras / speed limits

We’ve seen reports that come users are seeing crashes after upgrading to this version – the official advice for those hit by this are to delete the application from your iPhone, then re-install from iTunes.

We have a review of the TomTom iPhone app, plus our ‘best buy’, the CoPilot app, on our iPhone SatNav Review page.

From today, the BBC iPlayer is available as a dedicated channel for the Nintendo Wii.

To add the channel, go to the Shopping channel on your Wii, and look for the BBC iPlayer channel. It’s free, and lets you access BBC TV and radio shows from the last seven days, streamed over your Broadband connection.

BBC iPlayer on the Wii

o2 has today slashed £50 off the price of their home communication device, the o2 Joggler.

Previously on sale for £149.99, it’s now just below the £100 mark, and at that price, it’s well worth a look. If you’re not that familiar with a Joggler, it’s a wi-fi enabled device that is a cross between a digital photo frame, media player, family diary, digital radio and a news/sport/weather/travel update service.

Dropping below the £100 price bracket for this device is a smart move from o2, especially in the run-up to Christmas. Seems it’s only at this price until 31st December 2009.

Details on the o2 Joggler site, or on our Joggler Reviewed section.

The popular BBC iPlayer on-demand TV service is coming to the Nintendo Wii on the 18th of November.

You’ll be able to download BBC iPlayer as a dedicated channel, available from the Nintendo shop. The channel will be free.

It’s been possible to watch the on-demand content via the Opera web browser, but the quality wasn’t great. The new dedicated iPlayer channel should offer a higher-quality viewing experience, and adds to the ways that you can watch BBC’s on demand content. More on BBC iPlayer

For the next few days, you can pick up one of o2′s Mobile Broadband dongles for half-price – Just £14.67.

The o2 USB dongle is a contract-free way of adding mobile Internet to your laptop. Full details of how to use the dongle on our o2 Mobile Broadband page.

The o2 Mobile Broadband USB dongle – only £14.67 if you order online before 24th November 2009 at broadband.o2.co.uk/mobile

o2 is in the process of rolling out a new version of firmware to add Internet radio to their o2 Joggler device.

Our office Joggler automatically downloaded a new version of firmware yesterday, but all didn’t go well, rendering our Joggler dead.

We’ve now managed to revive the Joggler, but when we check for a new version of firmware, we’re told that we have the latest, version 6853.

At least one other Joggler user’s had the update, but according to his post in the o2 Forum, it’s slowed down his Joggler.

Anyone else out there with an o2 Joggler? Any luck in getting the latest version of firmware?

Windows 7, Microsoft’s attempt to recover face after the generally unpopular Vista, launched today, the 22nd October 2009.

The new operating system offers a number of user interface changes, including the ability to interact with thumbnail previews, improved app maximising and tiling, aero shake to clear your desktop, faster access to common files with Jump List plus easier home network setup. Improved touchscreen support has been added, and there’s also a Windows XP mode for those running older software apps.

Shoudl you want to upgrade to 7, you can upgrade to Home Premium from £65. At the top end, Windows 7 Ultimate normally retails for £230, but is on Amazon for £158. Windows 7 on Amazon.

Apple’s just released an upgrade for iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS users.

iPhone OS 3.1.2 fixes an issue where iPhone doesn’t wake from sleep, an issue that may interupt network connectivity and occasional crashed during video streaming.

Update (a whopping 242 Meg!) is now available via iTunes.

At last, you can now get a wi-fi base station in your pocket.

If you’re out-and-about and need mobile Internet, there have been three options open to you: Use a mobile phone, get a USB mode for you laptop, or hope you’re in range of a wi-fi hotspot.

Now, there’s a fourth option – a portable wi-fi access point. UK Network Operator 3 has now launched “MiFi”, a mobile Wi-fi service. The modem, a Huawei E5830 pictured to the right, is a 3G modem that gets a mobile broadband connection from the 3 network, then turns it into a wi-fi signal that any wi-fi device can find and use for Internet connection.

The modem costs a one-off £70, and £15 a month will get you 5Gigs of download allowance. There’s no long-term contract – it’s a rolling monthly contract.

More details on our new Mobile Wi-fi page, or at 3′s MiFi website

Our podcast boys have just released a quick audio update, as there are a couple of news stories that we wanted to pass on to you as soon a possible.

In this show, we look at the plans for Orange and T-Mobile to merge, Apple’s new product lineup, an update on the Sat Nav apps for iPhone, plus news on Freeview, BT Vision and Sky.

You can download the show or listen online at www.frequencycast.co.uk/update.html

We’d also like to remind our regulars that you may want to check out our full-length podcast that came out at the start of the month. In Show 43, we get hands-on with some new GPS gadgets. We hope you like what you here. Catch the show at www.frequencycast.co.uk/cast43.html

Please tell your chums!

The battle to be the best sat nav app for the iPhone continues with a new update to CoPilot Live from ALK Technologies. They’ve released a free update to their sat nav application, adding support for safety cameras, and fixing that rather nasty bug where routes were lost when the application exits.

CoPilot Live continues to get our 5 out of 5 – See our iphone Sat Nav comparison table to see why we feel it beats TomTom and MobileNavigator for the best of breed iPhone app.

CoPilot is also the smallest app, as well as being the cheapest on offer.

More: iPhone Sat Nav Apps compared

Mobile Phone firms T-Mobile and Orange are set to merge, it’s just been announced.

Due to the complexities of such a merger, the super-network won’t come into being until 2011 at the earliest, and is still subject to regulator approval.

Assuming the deal goes ahead, the new company would control around 37% of the UK mobile phone business, making them the largest UK operator by a long way with around 28 million customer. (Current number 1 o2 is said to have 20 million subscribers).

Merging the two networks will also mean changes to the network – some duplicated cellbases will be removed, and the combined network will see an increase in coverage.

There will doubtless be other changes – to high street shops, duplicated call centres and back-end departments, and of course a new name, which won’t be announced for about a year or so.

Show 43 of FrequencyCast, our UK’s TV and Tech podcast, is online now.

In FrequencyCast Show 43, Carl and Pete look at GPS Watches, Mobile Phone watches and GPS gadgets. We also compare the new iPhone Sat Nav apps from TomTom, CoPilot and Navigon, plus run down the latest TV and Tech headlines.

If you’ve not tried our podcast yet – it’s free, and you can listen online or download shows to your mobile phone or media player

You can download Show 43 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html.

You can also get us via iTunes.

We’ve just added a page looking at what you can do with a GPS-enabled wristwatch.

Our top watch is the Garmin Forerunner 405, which has onboard GPS, can track your heartrate using a chest strap, and wirelessly sends your excercise and location data to your PC.

The Garmin 405CX was also rated #1 Sports Watch in this week’s Gadget Show on Five.

Full details of the Garmin 405 GPS Watch, at www.filesaveas.com/gpswatches.html

iPhone users can now get their hands on a Sat Nav application for considerably less than the cost of a stand-alone Sat Nav device. In fact, as of this month, there are now three on the market: TomTom, CoPilot and MobileNavigator.

If you’re thinking of getting a SatNav app for the iPhone, take a look at our comparison…

TomTom and CoPilot iPhone apps, side-by-side

We’ve got hands-on with the top two, and we’ve added a handy table comparing the features, plus a small collection of screenshots.

To find out which of the UK Sat Nav apps may work best for you, go to www.filesaveas.com/iphonesatnav.html.