Powermat is a company, and range of products, that allow you to charge your electrical gadgets via conductive charging – that’s the same technology that most electric toothbrushes use, where charge is sent to the device without having to physical plug it in.

Instead you buy a “mat” which does the charging and each device has a special case or replacement battery compartment which accepts the charge.

It’s a US company but UK versions of their products are available. Indeed, their prices are quite competitive right now with massive price drops on many of their products.

But.. and there’s a but… their range is rubbish. If you don’t own an Apple or Blackberry you’re likely to be out of luck. They also support the Nintendo DS and DSi and 2 Android phones. The Apple iPod Touch is supported but not the latest generation and in the case of the Android phones, both are US models and don’t appear to be supported in the UK at all.

I contacted them via Twitter to ask if they had plans for a receiver for the incredibly popular Samsung Galaxy S 2… they didn’t.

So, it begs the question – “what’s the point?”. Well, unless you have a phone named after a fruit.

So went my favourite Tweet today.

Playstation Network has gone down… again. No warnings and, worryingly, Sony are saying it’s due to “unscheduled maintenance” – the same thing they said after being recently hacked.

It went down early afternoon GMT and there are now reports of it being restored – a number of hours ago in the US. Many are hopefully suggesting this might indicate the Playstation store is to return, but I doubt.

However, the big problem – again – has been Sony. No reporting of the issue (their blog and Twitter feed is quiet) and, indeed, the UK PlayStation Network website has, throughout the entire afternoon, shown the network to be “online” – that is, until you try and log in.

Although Sony themselves are saying nothing via Twitter, plenty of people have something to say to Sony in return – sadly, most of which won’t be suitable for this site. Needless to say, people are not happy, with many talking about switching to Xbox. After everything that’s recently happened, you’d really think Sony would be pulling out every stop available to them at every turn. Instead we have another missed opportunity – PSN goes down again, with no support from Sony. Poor.

I recently came across John O’Nolan, a UK based core member of WordPress specialising in the UI, because of a plugin that he’s released, named UI Labs. This offers experimental WordPress admin UI features and is a great way for John to try out and get feedback for his ideas. I have it installed and am already benefiting from coloured tabs on my post and page screens, easily indicating the post types.

If you’re a WP developer I’d recommend following his Twitter feed.

Available on SlideShare are a couple of excellent presentations of his – again, if you’re “into” WordPress, these are excellent (and non-techie).

The first is titled “Designing WordPress” and was given at Heart & Sole 2011. Heart & Sole is a UK event in which professionals working in Web design and development get together to to interact, share experiences and learn together.

And there’s a matching video of the presentation, courtesy of Vimeo…

The second (and most recent) presentation is titled “Taking Control of WordPress: How to Build a Better Blog” and was given at TBU 11, another UK event but this time for travel bloggers.