“Hump it, bump it, whack it might be one possible recipe for a good sex life, but it won’t win us the World Cup.”

So said former Chelsea chairman Ken Bates after England failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, and little did he know how he’d be proved right 16 years later by one of his Stamford Bridge protégées.

There was an interesting article in a few of the papers this morning from London based design company Seymourpowell. The feature looked at a new and possibly revolutionary method of air travel which is being developed alongside Samsung, although I had to check the date to make sure it wasn’t April 1st!

The widescreen interactive pen display replaces the blackboard enabling face-to-face interaction with the audience

The ideal pen tablet for on-the-go professional creators of digital content

So apparently, today has been dubbed National Sickie Day, unofficially of course. It seems that the first Monday in February is when most people phone the office with their best ‘ill’ voice.

California, January 26th 2010 – Blue Microphones (www.bluemic.com ), a leading innovator in microphone technology and design, announces the UK availability of its consumer model, the Snowball.  Ideal for podcasts, Skype conversations and home recording, the Snowball is a professional USB microphone featuring a proprietary condenser capsule that projects a smooth open sound with a natural high end.  The Snowball has been developed by Blue Microphones to ensure that sound is picked up as effectively on the desktop as in a recording studio.  

Last Friday (22nd January), we launched the new BeBook Neo eReader. This eBook reader comes with WiFi connection and integrated Wacom touchscreen technology so you can make notes and download eBooks whilst on the move.

Endless Ideas, specialists in eReader technology, today launches its exciting new eBook reader the BeBook Neo. Following the success of the BeBook One and Mini, the Neo includes WiFi technology to allow users to find eBook retailers wherever they are in the world, download an eBook and even surf Google and Wikipedia whilst on the move. The Neo is available for pre order and will be available to buy in the second half of February.

CES 2010 l Scosche success

Scosche was a huge success at CES 2010 after collecting four ‘CES 2010 Best-of-Show Awards from iLounge’

Scosche’s award winning products include the IDR655M earphones, flipSYNC, Bluetooth Plug-and-Play Handsfree and Streaming Audio Car Kit. Scosche also won a ‘Special Award for Innovation’ from iLounge for showcasing the broadest collection of innovative accessories for the iPhone and iPod.

CES 2010 l Incipio success

Editors spend many hours selecting and testing the most exciting yet-to-be released iPod and iPhone cases. Companies from around the world showcasing their innovative new designs for speakers, headphones, cases, apps and in car accessories.

Really interesting concept this, the marrying of your trusty old TV and your social media site/feeds…

The idea behind this is that we are now in a generation, or an upcoming generation, of TV users that also sit with a laptop/smartphone watching TV but interacting on various social media sites like facebook, myspace, twitter, linkedin as we watch.

Rumour has it, Steve Jobs is to make an announcement on January 26th about the highly anticipated Apple tablet…

On June 15th, we brought to you a piece written by the Financial Times detailing the Apple tablet and what it is expected to look like, (http://bit.ly/5OmlhR) well the wait may just be over.

Business Technology section – Sunday Telegraph last week

We’ve recently been following a website/blog called PRMoment.com. The site talks about the PR industry and is definitely worth a follow to catch up on a bit of news, or to find out how some the PR industry’s big names are spending their time.

Okay, I just about made it into the office today along with a few other brave Ranieri members and to fight the cold we had a lovely hearty lunch consisting of mini sausages, mash potato and baked beans…lovely! A few meetings swapped for conference calls other than that business as normal.

Who battled the elements this morning to make it to work…

The answers to your questions are here, Ranieri has been speaking to James Holland, editor of Electricpig.co.uk, to get the low down on CES…

Medion has won the PC Advisor Awards 2010 – Readers Best PC Brand award, after being ranked highest by PCA readers based on a combination of customer service and hardware reliability.

The festive season has passed and very Happy New Year to you all too, however 2010 hasn’t exactly got off the way many planned!

I was joking in my last post that I wasn’t going to make it to CES, well I haven’t, so jokes on me!

Basically I was one of the lucky ones at Gatwick Airport yesterday that didn’t get to take off. We got told at 12.30 that the flight had been cancelled, and that was that. What was frustrating is that all the flights from Heathrow seemed to be taking off!

Well its almost time to get on the plane to CES, but as most Brits are now aware we are about to get a fairly good sprinkling of snow.

Aylesbury, UK, 5th January 2010: Ranieri Communications, the consumer technology public relations specialist, has announced that it has been appointed by PowerPlay, a developer of best in class gaming accessories, to position the brand as the market leading manufacturer of high-quality fitness products for the gaming sector.

We are pleased to announce that we are now managing the UK communications programme for Incipio – a leading manufacturer in the mobile device accessory market. Incipio’s cases for the iPod, iPhone, BlackBerry and more, come in a variety of funky colours and striking designs to suit individual requirements and style. The range includes dermaSHOT – a tight fitting, high-density silicon case; SILICRYLIC – a two part carrying case and feather – an ultra light case measuring less than 1mm thick.

What the hell happened last night at 16.30? A few of the guys here were starting to say ‘I think we better make a move, its snowing again…’, then the reports on twitter seemed to indicate that London, then Hemel Hempstead, then Berkhamsted, one by one started to get engulfed by snow…