Royal weeding Look Alike

Royal Wedding brought forward? No, it's a William & Kate lookalike competition

Onlookers would be forgiven for thinking the Royal Wedding was being held two days early.

But the regal bride and groom posing for pictures were in fact taking part in a William & Kate lookalike contest.

Orsola Rossi and Simon Watkinson UK were flown to London for the competition final, organised by EasyJet.

And the winners are: Orsola Rossi from Italy and Simon Watkinson from the UK win the William & Kate look-a-likes competition

Hot competition: Ten couples took part to win one year's worth of flights with EasyJet

The pair - dead ringers for the future King and Queen - were the obvious winners and went home with one year's worth of flights with the budget airline.

Besides being a mirror image of the Royal love birds, they had to impress judges by waving like a Royal, acting out a romantic wedding proposal and throwing the bridal bouquet.

Simon Watkinson said: 'I’ve often been told that I look like Prince William, particularly since the Royal engagement was announced, but I can’t believe that I’ve been crowned the winner.

On bended knee: Couples were judged on romantic proposal...

Flower power:...and bouquet throwing skills

'I’m so excited to have won a year’s worth of free easyJet flights and to be in London for the big day.'

His partner was equally pleased.

Orsola Rossi, 30, from Milan, said: 'To be voted the best double to one of the most famous women in the world is very exciting.

This really is a once in a lifetime opportunity and there isn’t a better place to be to enjoy the celebrations.'

Standing tall: Hundreds of people from Europe entered the contest but only ten finalists were chosen

Royal wave: The panel judged William look-alikes on their waving abilities

The duo were among ten couples, from all over Europe, to take part.

The contestants were judged on resemblance, curtseying, throwing of bouquets, and proposal speeches.

The contest is just a small part of the Royal Wedding fever gripping the nation ahead of Friday's nuptials.

Swept off her feet: Orsola and Simon, from Italy, will stay in London to watch the real Royal Wedding celebrations

Simon and Orsola will stay in London to watch the real Royal wedding celebrations and take in the sights of the city with a friend courtesy of the low-cost airline.

Paul Moore, Communications Director at easyJet said: 'The competition has been fierce with hundreds applying to be crowned the best Will and Kate look-a-likes Europe has to offer.

'However, Simon and Orsola stood out as they bear such a striking resemblance to our future King & Queen.

'It has been great fun to fly look-a-likes from all over Europe to London to enjoy the wedding celebrations and crown our very own easyJet Royal couple.'

Helping hand: A bride forgoes her competitive streak to help another to pin her veil back

Sony announces two Android 3.0 tablets

Sony announces two Android 3.0 tablets

Sony Tablet: the S1 and S2 devices will hit the market later this year

Sony has announced its intention to crash into the tablet PC market with two devices set for release later this year. Codenamed S1 and S2, both models will support WiFi and WAN (3G/4G) connections and run on the tablet-oriented Android 3.0 OS.

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There's little in the way of specifications available at this stage, but Sony is clearly looking to stand-out from the crowd in terms of form-factor. The S1 features a 9.4-inch display and looks pretty much like a "traditional" tablet aside from its wedge-shaped "off-center of gravity" design aimed at improving stability, grip and comfort.

S2 gets a little more radical with its portable, horizontally hinged design and dual 5.5-inch displays which can be used separately (using the bottom screen as a soft keyboard for example) or combined as a single large screen for viewing video or web content.

The tablets will be of course be linked with the company's gaming, ebook and Qriocity music and video service. The S1 will also pack infrared technology so it can be used as a universal remote control for Sony AV devices and DLNA functionality will allow content on the tablet to be shown on big screen TVs or played through wireless speakers.

Sony's new tablets will become available in autumn 2011 and – although it's out of the starting gates a year after Apple's iPad and now faces stiff competition from big players like Samsung, Motorola, HP and RIM as well – Sony wants to catch up fast, having previously stated its intention to hit the number two position in the market by 2012.

That's a big challenge ... and it's a big market. In 2012, IDC forecasts worldwide tablet shipments of 70.8 million units. In Q3 2010 Apple shipped 4.2 million units – an almost 90% share worldwide. What in-roads the newcomers can make in this fast changing landscape remains to be seen.

Buy satellite and provide free Internet

ahumanright.org plans to buy satellite and provide free Internet access for entire world

ahumanright.org is a charity group that plans to buy a used satellite, and use it as the first step in a network that would provide free Internet access to everyone in the world

For those of us who live in the developed world, internet access has become pretty much a given. It’s become so ubiquitous that we almost expect to have it at all times and in all places, but even in this “Information Age,” the majority of the world’s population lacks access to the internet – either because service isn’t available where they are, or they can’t afford it. Kosta Grammatis has a plan, however. Through his charity group ahumanright.org, Grammatis aims to set up a network of satellites that will provide free internet access to everyone in the world. He’s starting by attempting to buy a single used satellite that’s already in orbit and moving it to a location above a developing country.

The spacecraft in question is the Terrestar-1 communications satellite. Given that the company that owns it, Terrestar, has recently filed for bankruptcy, it may soon be up for sale. Grammatis’s plan is to raise US$150,000, so that his group can put together a business plan for funders, process the legal and business aspects of submitting a bid, and hire engineers to figure out how to move and repurpose the satellite. At the time of this publishing, he has raised a total of $37,687.For those of us who live in the developed world, internet access has become pretty much a given. It’s become so ubiquitous that we almost expect to have it at all times and in all places, but even in this “Information Age,” the majority of the world’s population lacks access to the internet – either because service isn’t available where they are, or they can’t afford it. Kosta Grammatis has a plan, however. Through his charity group ahumanright.org, Grammatis aims to set up a network of satellites that will provide free internet access to everyone in the world. He’s starting by attempting to buy a single used satellite that’s already in orbit and moving it to a location above a developing country.

Once it has the money, ahumanright.org will make a bid on Terrestar-1, begin developing a low-cost modem, acquire an orbital parking spot and radio wave spectrum, and draw up plans with partner governments. The final phase of the project would involve actually moving the satellite into position over a partner country or countries, distributing the modems, and beginning service.

Grammatis told Gizmag that the idea first came to him at Palomar 5, a think tank for 30 people under the age of 30 that took place in Berlin. There, he heard the story of Malawi’s William Kamkwamba.

“Re-inventing the wheel isn't something we would wish upon anyone, but William Kamkwamba's story provides an example of the information disparity slowing down progress for the brightest minds,” said Grammatis. “William couldn't afford the US$80 per year it cost to attend school so he spent his time at the library instead ... over the span of four years he re-invented the windmill to provide himself with electricity. He shared his first Google experience with journalists: ‘He said, Do you know Google? and I said, What animal is a Google? And when I Googled windmill I found there was millions of applications! I said, Where was this Google all this time?!’”

While some people might worry that free web access for all would put internet providers out of business, Grammatis doesn’t think it would be a problem. “All over the world free television and radio is beamed to millions of people,” he said. “It's free, and that service has never threatened cable or satellite TV, in fact, people are happy to pay a premium for a premium service. We have the same vision – basic internet access would be free. It wouldn't be great, but it would do the job.”

While there is currently no price tag attached to Terrestar-1, ahumanright’s Buy This Satellite fundraising website points out that a used Iridium communications satellite was sold in 2000 for $23 million – a steal, considering it reportedly cost $5 billion to build new. Still, the whole venture sounds quite daunting, and it likely wouldn’t be possible without the help of highly-motivated volunteer “ambassadors” who are promoting the charity around the world.

“We're not going to do this alone, and the response has been outstanding,” said Grammatis. “If we all sat around and waited for someone to solve our problems, we'd be waiting a long time.”

What a fantastic idea! Good luck.

ASUS Eee Pad

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer gets US price and release date

The ASUS Eee Pad Transformer and the optional docking station that turns the tablet into a netbook

While Taiwan and the U.K. have already seen the release of the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, the U.S. release has been delayed until the end of April, with supply shortages due to higher than expected demand apparently to blame. With a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 IPS LED back-lit, capacitive multi-touch display, micro SD card slot, front- and rear-facing cameras, USB and HDMI ports, 1GB of RAM and powered by a 1Ghz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, the Eee Pad Transformer, which runsAndroid 3.0 (Honeycomb), is seen by many as the first serious Android challenger to the iPad's dominance.

But aside from the specs, it's the US$399.99 price tag of the 16GB Wi-Fi model Transformer that undercuts the price of the new 16GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 by $100 that could also help sway consumers away from Apple's device. Throw an optional portable docking station into the mix that provides a full QWERTY chiclet keyboard, an extra two USB ports, a touchpad, 3.5 mm audio jack, an SD card reader and ups the tablet's eight hour battery life to 16 hours, and its easy to see why the Eee Pad Transformer is generating some excitement in Android circles.

The 16GB Wi-Fi ASUS Eee Pad Transformer will be available in the U.S. through Best Buy and other retailers at the end of April for US$399.99. There's no word on the price of the optional dock that turns the tablet into a netbook or a release date for the 32GB model as yet.

Earth's last frontier Exploration

Virgin Oceanic's ambitious plans to explore Earth's last frontier

Virgin Oceanic's ambitious plans to explore Earth's last frontier

Seventy percent of Mother Earth's surface is covered in water, yet we know more about the moon than we do about our deepest oceans. In yet another ground-breaking initiative under Virgin's multi-faceted "Branded Venture Capitalism", Richard Branson intends to change all that with the Virgin Oceanic Five Dives project.

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The project is a series of ocean expeditions to the bottom of the five deepest trenches in the world, beginning with an attempt on the world record 35,911 foot dive to the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench – the deepest point on earth.

The dives will be performed using the Hawkes experimental prototype DeepFlightChallenger submersible – a submarine more akin to an aircraft in the way it maneuvers than a traditional submarine because it glides on wings and used positive bouyancy. Constructed of extremely strong lightweight materials such as titanium and carbon fiber and quartz, the DeepFlight Challenger submarine will need to resist 1,000 atmospheres as it plumbs the lowest points on earth.

Each of the five dives will be the world's first solo dive to the bottom of the five oceans:

• Mariana Trench Pacific Ocean 11,033m 36,201ft
• Puerto Rico Trench Atlantic Ocean 8,605m 28,232ft
• Diamantina Trench Indian Ocean 8,047m 26,401ft
• South Sandwich Trench Southern Ocean 7,235m 23,737ft
• Molloy Deep Arctic Ocean 5,608m 18,399ft

Now as we all know, Branson doesn't do anything just for fun. In addition to his brand's five main brand values - quality, value-for-money, innovation, competitive challenge and fun - there's a sixth factor involved in all of the 250 companies which have been spawned from the core brand: profitability.

Hence, one of Branson's many partners in the project will be BBC Earth and the Five Dives expedition will be used to create new and totally unique, ultra-high resolution 3D IMAX+ quality content for film and television - apart from selling this content, it will be (no doubt tastefully) impregnated with the Virgin brand, further creating recognition of the name to school children and nature enthusiasts across the globe.

In addition to the core brand recognition factors, Branson's investment in the adventure tourism industry is a far-sighted vision of the future. His investment in Virgin Galactic has already seen hundreds of wealthy adventurers put USD$200,000 on the table to secure a trip into space, and his vision is even beyond that - he makes no secret of the intention eventually leverage that business into ultra-fast sub-orbital travel. The Virgin Oceanic venture is the perfect partner for the Galactic business as "a voyage to the bottom of the sea" has been on every well-heeled, red-blooded adventurer's bucket list for as long as a trip to space.

Finally, the high tech submarine to be used (as opposed to the submersibles which hold the current record and are lowered by cable and hence non-steerable), which can dive almost twice as deep as any current submarine, will be developed by Hawkes Ocean Technologies. The experimental prototype DeepFlight Challenger submersible is just one of three deep sea projects in which Hawkes will be involved in the next two years, the others using two Deepflight Super Falcon craft; a Hawkes-led project in the Gulf of Aqaba, Jordan and a multi-year ocean expedition, led by venture capitalist, Tom Perkins.

One of the world's most charismatic businessmen, Sir Richard Branson discusses the reasons for the venture on his blog, and explains how the project fits into the larger Virgin picture in this video.