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Techradar |
- Catch up: this week's most popular posts
- Video: HTC Merge - pictures and video emerge
- Motorola Milestone 2 comes to the UK unlocked
- UK judge says internet might 'kill jury system'
- Google to delete UK Street View Wi-Fi data
- Twitter CEO slams China
- In Depth: 3D Blu-ray on PS3: why it's a letdown for home cinema
- In Depth: 3D Blu-ray on PS3: why it's a letdown for home cinema
- In Depth: 3D Blu-ray on PlayStation 3: why it's a letdown
- 3D World - new website launches
- Buying Guide: Best PSU: 14 PC power supplies tested
- Nokia N8: company admits switch-off problems
- Analysis: Why 2D-3D conversions are great news for the rise of 3D HD
- Google brings all its apps under one roof
- Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia X8
- Avatar Collectors' Edition comes with hidden 3D content
- Opinion: Open source 'community' doesn't exist
- Dissident Chinese Twitterer gets one year hard labour
- Yahoo adds GetJar apps to its mobile search
- Review: Yamaha BD-S667
| Catch up: this week's most popular posts Posted: 20 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PST  As an iOS 4.2 delay reared its rumoured head, Amazon cheered us all up with the news that it's bringing Black Friday deals to the UK. Meanwhile Gran Turismo 5 got a UK release date. Our Android 2.3 rumour round-up was popular as was our hands on with the Palm Pre 2. Read on for this week's most popular stories on TechRadar… Top five news stories Apple iOS 4.2 delay looking likely It's looking increasingly likely that Apple has delayed the release of iOS 4.2, with the rumour mill suggesting that Wi-Fi problems are at the heart of the decision. The latest version of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch operating system is definitely close to being ready, but it now appears that it is days, rather than hours, from making its appearance. Among the problems that the latest version fixes is the problem with the alarm clock that did not correct for the clocks changing in the UK – an issue that left thousands complaining that they were late for work. Amazon to bring Black Friday deals to UK Amazon is set to bring its well-publicised Black Friday online deals to the UK this year, the Friday following Thanksgiving. Black Friday has gradually become America's online pre-holiday shopping day of choice over the last decade, and it looks like Amazon plans to bring the tradition across to the UK. While the term "Black Friday" sounds more like a remembrance service tradition for victims of the plague, it is certainly worth noting the date in your diary if you plan to buy books, gadgets, games, movies (or pretty much anything else that's available on Amazon) for your loved-ones this Christmas. Gran Turismo 5 gets UK release date Sony has finally announced the UK release date for Gran Turismo 5 – with the UK getting its hands on the racer on 24 November. Delays have beat GT5 for years – leaving gamers frustrated and angry at not being able to play one of the games that was being talked about as akey title for the launch of the PlayStation 3 back in 2006. Although Gran Turismo 5 Prologue at least gave people a chance to play an incarnation of the racing game on the PS3, this will be the first full numbered version for this generation of the console. iPhone Flash app makes $1 million in a weekend SkyFire, the app that lets iPhone users view Flash video on their phones, has managed to generate a cool $1 million in its first weekend on sale. The SkyFire app for iPhone costs $2.99 in the US and yet is still not officially available on the UK iTunes Store. Toshiba Folio 100 tablet dropped by Dixons Dixons, Currys and PC World have stopped selling the Toshiba Folio 100, a rival to the iPad, after the retail group experienced unusually high number of returns on the product. At the weekend, and according to the Register, Dixons had been selling the tablet at the barmy price of £999. This wasn't a way to make money on the £329 tablet but, according to a note that was put on Dixons' internal EPoS system, "to prevent further sales". Top five in-depth articles Android 2.3 rumours: what you need to know While earlier rumours were suggesting that Gingerbread was the code name for Android 3.0, we now know that Gingerbread is Android 2.3, which makes Honeycomb Android 3.0. Google CEO Eric Schmidt showed off a phone running Android 2.3 at the Web 2.0 summit on 15 November. Google had earlier hinted on 12 November that the Android 2.3 release date is close, tweeting a photo of a pile of Android gingerbread men, with the message "Our cafes are baking something sweet". Here's what we know so far about Android 2.3: The successor to the Palm Pre has landed in the UK and the folks at T3 have managed to get their hands on the device. Coming equipped with a new operating system, the Palm Pre is the first true handset to be made by Palm (the Palm Pre Plus doesn't count) after their acquisition by HP. HP's stamp is noted straight away, as it seems that since the takeover the Palm Pre 2's OS is no longer called WebOS 2.0 but HP webOS. The two Steves, Jobs and Wozniak, built the Apple brand on its synergy between hardware and software. 25 years on, you pay a premium for that. It's £599 for the cheapest Mac Mini. £1999 for an entry level Mac Pro. But since 2006, new Macs have had a very similar internal architecture to Windows PCs. The same Intel CPUs, the same Nvidia graphics. Since then, people have been hacking together Macs in their bedrooms. They call them Hackintoshes; PCs that run OS X for a fraction of the price of a brand new Mac. My aim was build the cheapest, usable Hackintosh possible 25 cool Windows 7 interface tweaks Your fresh installation of Windows 7 gives a 'one size fits all' configuration, but there are countless ways in which you can tweak the standard operating system to make it better suit your particular needs. Built-in customisation options include the usual controls over the interface theme and the way in which Windows alerts you to important events. There are also a bevy of free add-ons, which provide an even wider choice of customisation options – from ways to change parts of the OS that Microsoft doesn't cater for, to adding clever new features that make Windows 7 even more capable. The ability to add features to browsers makes them the most powerful applications on your screen, but with so many to choose from, where do you start? Too many and you'll slow down your system; not enough and you're wasting an opportunity. Here's our guide to the ones you can't afford to be without. Top five reviews Philips 42PFL6805H Econova review Philips hags produced what is easily the most ecologically sound TV to date in the attractive shape of the 42PFL6805H. It's a great 42-inch LED TV. The HTC HD7 is the largest Windows Phone 7 phone, with a Desire HD- and HD2-matching 4.3-inch screen atop the near-identical hardware specs of its other WP7 brethren The ViewPad's distinguishing feature is that's it's a dual-booting tablet, with both Windows 7 Home Premium on board as well as Android 1.6. But is it actually any good? With the arrival of the BlackBerry Bold 9780, fans of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 will no doubt be jumping at the chance to see how good RIM's latest flagship phone is. There's a huge amount to love about the P7000. It's small, it's tough, the lens is cracking and it takes great pictures. The video mode might not be too much to write home about but at least it's HD. Also reviewed this week: Amplifiers Electrocompaniet ECI5 MkII review Blu-ray players Oppo BDP8SE NuForce Special Edition review CD players Compact cameras Digital TV recorders DSLRs MP3 players Printers Radio tuners Roberts Revival DAB RD60 review Speakers 
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| Video: HTC Merge - pictures and video emerge Posted: 19 Nov 2010 09:05 AM PST  Images and a video of the HTC Merge have appeared online – showing off what could well be a flagship handset for the OS. The video was leaked from US carrier Verizon and has been put on YouTube by Android Central for all to see. The HTC Merge is said to have a 3.7-inch Super LCD display and is powered by a second-gen 800MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Other features include a 5MP camera, 720p video recording and 368MB of RAM. Flirty with QWERTY The slide-out chassis joins the Motorola Milestone 2 in bringing Android to the QWERTY brigade but the build of the thing looks a lot more like a HTC Desire HD. There is no word if and when the HTC Merge will be coming to the UK, but the rather polished video proves that the device is imminent in the US. When we do get information on the UK release date, you lucky people will be the first to know. 
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| Motorola Milestone 2 comes to the UK unlocked Posted: 19 Nov 2010 08:37 AM PST  The Motorola Milestone 2 has arrived in the UK, with a multitude of online sites stocking the device. The Android-toting handset - which is an update of the Motorola Milestone - from Moto brings Android 2.2, a 3.7-inch WVGA screen, 8GB of internal storage and a 1GHz processor inside. The phone itself is a rather slender slider – at 13.7mm – and includes MotoBlur, the app that's brings all your social feeds into one place. Pre-order Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile have put the Motorola Milestone 2 up for pre-order on their respective sites, with the phone costing £379.99. You can also get the device for free, with a two-year contract that will cost you £30 a month. Other features on the Motorola Milestone 2 are: a 5MP camera with LED flash, HD 720p video capture and GPS support. The last time we saw anything of the Motorola Milestone 2 was back in September, so it is good that the handset is finally getting its time in the limelight. 
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| UK judge says internet might 'kill jury system' Posted: 19 Nov 2010 08:22 AM PST  The UK's Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, has said that social media may well undermine the very basis of the rule of law in the UK. Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, raised his concerns about the use of the internet by jurors in a lecture published this week. In his opinion, rampant social networking amongst jurors and online sharing of confidential information is increasingly undermining jury trials. Fair trials threatened? England's top judge has said: "If the jury system is to survive as the system for a fair trial... the misuse of the internet by jurors must stop." Lord Judge is the most senior judge in England and Wales. He claims Twitter and Facebook make it far too easy for campaigners to put pressure on jurors in a trial. "We cannot accept that the use of the internet, or rather its misuse, should be acknowledged and treated as an ineradicable fact of life, or that a Nelsonian blind eye should be turned to it or the possibility that it is happening," said the Lord Chief Justice He added: "We cannot stop people tweeting, but if jurors look at such material, the risks to the fairness of the trial will be very serious, and ultimately the openness of the trial process on which we all rely, would be damaged. "If it is not addressed, the misuse of the internet represents a threat to the jury system which depends, and rightly depends, on evidence provided in court which the defendant can hear and if necessary challenge." The Lord Chief Justice wants to see warnings that misuse of social networks by jurors could see them held in contempt of court. The BBC's legal expert Clive Coleman, said: "This is the strongest and most detailed judicial consideration of the threat to the criminal justice system posed by jurors using modern technology. "It raises major questions of how to police and stop internet use." 
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| Google to delete UK Street View Wi-Fi data Posted: 19 Nov 2010 07:07 AM PST  Google has promised to delete all the Wi-Fi data its Street View cars accidentally downloaded from the UK, giving itself nine months to do the job. Even though Google collected data - unwittingly or not – that it had no right to, David Smith, deputy information commissioner from the UK has said that Google will not be fined for the incident. "We'd have had to find that there was substantial damage or distress to individuals from the collection of snippets of emails, URLs and passwords." He told the BBC. "We'd have to meet that criteria for a penalty to be imposed." No duplication To be fair to Google, it admitted itself that it downloaded Wi-Fi data while compiling shots for Street View, but it was found that the company had downloaded sensitive information in Canada, after the Canadian authorities investigated what data was collected by the search giant. The UK hasn't and won't do as stringent an investigation, with Smith explaining: "We spent less time searching than others did. If we had searched for days and days we would have found more. "It is not a good use of the data protection authority to duplicate more in-depth enquiries." Google will now have nine months to delete all the data it collected. We never knew that finding Ctrl+A and Ctrl+X took so long. 
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| Posted: 19 Nov 2010 07:03 AM PST China has incarcerated a Twitter dissident for making a jokey and satirical tweet, with Twitter CEO slamming the Chinese authorities for the move. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo sent a message on his Twitter page this week, criticising the Chinese government for detaining one of its citizens over the jokey tweet. As we reported earlier a Chinese woman has been sentenced to a year in a labour camp for retweeting the satirical message. "Dear Chinese Government," was the message sent late Thursday from Twitter CEO Dick Costolo. "Year-long detentions for sending a sarcastic tweet are neither the way forward nor the future of your great people." Whether or not tech CEOs should comment on such issues is, of course, cause for debate. Tech, politics and freedom of speech The Chinese woman in question had retweeted a message from her fiance mocking Chinese people for smashing up Japanese products. For its part, China has blocked access to Twitter and other social networks. And anybody that figures out a way of working around these firewalls seems to be immediately pegged as a 'dissident'. Google has also had a number of highly-publicised issues in China over the last year. Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, ever the diplomat, posted on Facebook Questions recently: "What are the best Mandarin-speaking cities to visit in China?" Perhaps the Facebook CEO merely sees a lucrative emerging market, where Google and Twitter have mistakenly positioned themselves as 'voices of the free world' ? 
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| In Depth: 3D Blu-ray on PS3: why it's a letdown for home cinema Posted: 19 Nov 2010 06:40 AM PST  Sony has come good on its promise to turn the ubiquitous PS3 console into a 3D Blu-ray player by way of a free firmware update. No cost; no catches; your console just went fully 3D. It's a remarkable piece of forward planning by the PlayStation division that not only gives its black box an edge in the war with Microsoft's Xbox 360, but also lends the 3D movement a much needed leg up, effectively putting a 3D Blu-ray player in millions of homes around the world. But was 3D ever on the roadmap for PS3, or is this a compromised version of it, rushed out in time to play Sony's solitary 3D Blu-ray release and deliver the 3D message being pushed by Sony's marketing? Extensive testing of an updated PS3 Slim and an older PS3 'Fat' reveals some shortfalls. Old dog, new tricks Early adopters that already have a 3DTV to go with their PS3 will have been playing three-dimensional games since the 3.4 firmware update in June. I for one have been hooked on Wipeout HD all over again now that the extra dimension has been added. With the 3D gaming update came a compromise, though. The maximum resolution in 3D mode dropped to 720p, which of course looks a little soft on a large 1080p screen. Fears of the same thing happening with 3D Blu-ray are unfounded. Both PS3s manage full HD 3D output, which means you see a frame sequential 1080p image through each eye and a very sharp image on screen. But that's at the expense of audio support for Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Without an HDMI v1.4 port, the PS3 seems unable to output full HD 3D video and high-resolution surround sound at the same time. In other words, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs drops to compressed DTS 5.1. This probably won't mean anything to the majority of PS3 owners, but it's a major blow for cinephiles seeking the ultimate home cinema experience. Perhaps it's a situation that can be fixed by firmware at a later date, but Sony's reluctance to reassure HCC readers makes us suspect not. Updating both a new European PS3 Slim and a legacy PS3 console from the first production batch to hit the US, gave slightly different results. Firmware 3.5 is a big update of 170MB and it brings an attractive orange interface, but few other changes beyond 3D BD compatibility. Now when you load the 3D Blu-ray release of Cloudy... the '3D detected' message pops up and you have the choice of watching in either 2D or 3D. Played on the PS3, the movie has all the detail and depth of field you get with a dedicated 3D player. The film's colour palette is the highly unrealistic and lurid mix of reds and purples that appeals to kids and it is all faithfully reproduced by the console. The image is sharply resolved at 1080p, although there is, however, the usual drop in brightness, which means you'll get much better results if you dim the room lighting. The 3D effect is just as successful here as on Sony's dedicated deck, the BDP-S470. There's a clearly defined perspective to the film that puts key characters in the foreground and scenery behind, and it adds to the fun when hamburgers appear fly through the screen and into the room. Firmware oddities There are scenes, however, where the 3D scope just looks odd. Fast-forward to Chapter 12 and the warehouse looks suitably cavernous with ropes dangling eerily in the foreground, but the view of lead character Flint in the dustbin is strangely out of focus on one side. All of the rubbish at the bottom of the bin should be on the same plane, but instead only half is sharply resolved, while the other half is blurred. This seems to be more an issue of the disc than the PS3, however. Apart from the criminal lack of lossless audio, another oddity of the firmware updated PS3 is the way the film flips into 2D whenever you call up the onscreen menu. It automatically reverts to 3D when you resume play, so it's not a problem by any means, but just a little inconsistent. Far more worrying are the compatibility issues. Our legacy PS3 wouldn't recognise Monsters vs Aliens on 3D Blu-ray for example, which is frustrating given the dearth of 3D material available right now. It does play on the PS3 Slim, though, which may indicate a limitation of the older console. So, the PS3's transition to a full HD 3D Blu-ray player is a bit of letdown. Free 3D playback can't be sniffed at, but the lack of lossless audio is a major issue. Basically, if you're as committed to lossless audio as you are to 3D images, the PS3 is a no-go as a 3D player, and you're best off buying a dedicated deck. We desperately hope that Sony will figure out how to fix this – and iron out the disc incompatibility issues. 
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| In Depth: 3D Blu-ray on PS3: why it's a letdown for home cinema Posted: 19 Nov 2010 06:40 AM PST Sony has come good on its promise to turn the ubiquitous PS3 console into a 3D Blu-ray player by way of a free firmware update. No cost; no catches; your console just went fully 3D. It's a remarkable piece of forward planning by the PlayStation division that not only gives its black box an edge in the war with Microsoft's Xbox 360, but also lends the 3D movement a much needed leg up, effectively putting a 3D Blu-ray player in millions of homes around the world. But was 3D ever on the roadmap for PS3, or is this a compromised version of it, rushed out in time to play Sony's solitary 3D Blu-ray release and deliver the 3D message being pushed by Sony's marketing? Extensive testing of an updated PS3 Slim and an older PS3 'Fat' reveals some shortfalls. Old dog, new tricks Early adopters that already have a 3DTV to go with their PS3 will have been playing three-dimensional games since the 3.4 firmware update in June. I for one have been hooked on Wipeout HD all over again now that the extra dimension has been added. With the 3D gaming update came a compromise, though. The maximum resolution in 3D mode dropped to 720p, which of course looks a little soft on a large 1080p screen. Fears of the same thing happening with 3D Blu-ray are unfounded. Both PS3s manage full HD 3D output, which means you see a frame sequential 1080p image through each eye and a very sharp image on screen. But that's at the expense of audio support for Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Without an HDMI v1.4 port, the PS3 seems unable to output full HD 3D video and high-resolution surround sound at the same time. In other words, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs drops to compressed DTS 5.1. This probably won't mean anything to the majority of PS3 owners, but it's a major blow for cinephiles seeking the ultimate home cinema experience. Perhaps it's a situation that can be fixed by firmware at a later date, but Sony's reluctance to reassure HCC readers makes us suspect not. Updating both a new European PS3 Slim and a legacy PS3 console from the first production batch to hit the US, gave slightly different results. Firmware 3.5 is a big update of 170MB and it brings an attractive orange interface, but few other changes beyond 3D BD compatibility. Now when you load the 3D Blu-ray release of Cloudy... the '3D detected' message pops up and you have the choice of watching in either 2D or 3D. Played on the PS3, the movie has all the detail and depth of field you get with a dedicated 3D player. The film's colour palette is the highly unrealistic and lurid mix of reds and purples that appeals to kids and it is all faithfully reproduced by the console. The image is sharply resolved at 1080p, although there is, however, the usual drop in brightness, which means you'll get much better results if you dim the room lighting. The 3D effect is just as successful here as on Sony's dedicated deck, the BDP-S470. There's a clearly defined perspective to the film that puts key characters in the foreground and scenery behind, and it adds to the fun when hamburgers appear fly through the screen and into the room. Firmware oddities There are scenes, however, where the 3D scope just looks odd. Fast-forward to Chapter 12 and the warehouse looks suitably cavernous with ropes dangling eerily in the foreground, but the view of lead character Flint in the dustbin is strangely out of focus on one side. All of the rubbish at the bottom of the bin should be on the same plane, but instead only half is sharply resolved, while the other half is blurred. This seems to be more an issue of the disc than the PS3, however. Apart from the criminal lack of lossless audio, another oddity of the firmware updated PS3 is the way the film flips into 2D whenever you call up the onscreen menu. It automatically reverts to 3D when you resume play, so it's not a problem by any means, but just a little inconsistent. Far more worrying are the compatibility issues. Our legacy PS3 wouldn't recognise Monsters vs Aliens on 3D Blu-ray for example, which is frustrating given the dearth of 3D material available right now. It does play on the PS3 Slim, though, which may indicate a limitation of the older console. So, the PS3's transition to a full HD 3D Blu-ray player is a bit of letdown. Free 3D playback can't be sniffed at, but the lack of lossless audio is a major issue. Basically, if you're as committed to lossless audio as you are to 3D images, the PS3 is a no-go as a 3D player, and you're best off buying a dedicated deck. We desperately hope that Sony will figure out how to fix this – and iron out the disc incompatibility issues. 
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| In Depth: 3D Blu-ray on PlayStation 3: why it's a letdown Posted: 19 Nov 2010 06:40 AM PST Sony has come good on its promise to turn the ubiquitous PS3 console into a 3D Blu-ray player by way of a free firmware update. No cost; no catches; your console just went fully 3D. It's a remarkable piece of forward planning by the PlayStation division that not only gives its black box an edge in the war with Microsoft's Xbox 360, but also lends the 3D movement a much needed leg up, effectively putting a 3D Blu-ray player in millions of homes around the world. But was 3D ever on the roadmap for PS3, or is this a compromised version of it, rushed out in time to play Sony's solitary 3D Blu-ray release and deliver the 3D message being pushed by Sony's marketing? Extensive testing of an updated PS3 Slim and an older PS3 'Fat' reveals some shortfalls. Old dog, new tricks Early adopters that already have a 3DTV to go with their PS3 will have been playing three-dimensional games since the 3.4 firmware update in June. I for one have been hooked on Wipeout HD all over again now that the extra dimension has been added. With the 3D gaming update came a compromise, though. The maximum resolution in 3D mode dropped to 720p, which of course looks a little soft on a large 1080p screen. Fears of the same thing happening with 3D Blu-ray are unfounded. Both PS3s manage full HD 3D output, which means you see a frame sequential 1080p image through each eye and a very sharp image on screen. But that's at the expense of audio support for Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Without an HDMI v1.4 port, the PS3 seems unable to output full HD 3D video and high-resolution surround sound at the same time. In other words, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs drops to compressed DTS 5.1. This probably won't mean anything to the majority of PS3 owners, but it's a major blow for cinephiles seeking the ultimate home cinema experience. Perhaps it's a situation that can be fixed by firmware at a later date, but Sony's reluctance to reassure HCC readers makes us suspect not. Updating both a new European PS3 Slim and a legacy PS3 console from the first production batch to hit the US, gave slightly different results. Firmware 3.5 is a big update of 170MB and it brings an attractive orange interface, but few other changes beyond 3D BD compatibility. Now when you load the 3D Blu-ray release of Cloudy... the '3D detected' message pops up and you have the choice of watching in either 2D or 3D. Played on the PS3, the movie has all the detail and depth of field you get with a dedicated 3D player. The film's colour palette is the highly unrealistic and lurid mix of reds and purples that appeals to kids and it is all faithfully reproduced by the console. The image is sharply resolved at 1080p, although there is, however, the usual drop in brightness, which means you'll get much better results if you dim the room lighting. The 3D effect is just as successful here as on Sony's dedicated deck, the BDP-S470. There's a clearly defined perspective to the film that puts key characters in the foreground and scenery behind, and it adds to the fun when hamburgers appear fly through the screen and into the room. There are scenes, however, where the 3D scope just looks odd. Fast-forward to Chapter 12 and the warehouse looks suitably cavernous with ropes dangling eerily in the foreground, but the view of lead character Flint in the dustbin is strangely out of focus on one side. All of the rubbish at the bottom of the bin should be on the same plane, but instead only half is sharply resolved, while the other half is blurred. This seems to be more an issue of the disc than the PS3, however. Apart from the criminal lack of lossless audio, another oddity of the firmware updated PS3 is the way the film flips into 2D whenever you call up the onscreen menu. It automatically reverts to 3D when you resume play, so it's not a problem by any means, but just a little inconsistent. Far more worrying are the compatibility issues. Our legacy PS3 wouldn't recognise Monsters vs Aliens on 3D Blu-ray for example, which is frustrating given the dearth of 3D material available right now. It does play on the PS3 Slim, though, which may indicate a limitation of the older console. So, the PS3's transition to a full HD 3D Blu-ray player is a bit of letdown. Free 3D playback can't be sniffed at, but the lack of lossless audio is a major issue. Basically, if you're as committed to lossless audio as you are to 3D images, the PS3 is a no-go as a 3D player, and you're best off buying a dedicated deck. We desperately hope that Sony will figure out how to fix this – and iron out the disc incompatibility issues. 
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| 3D World - new website launches Posted: 19 Nov 2010 05:10 AM PST  3D World – part of the TechRadar network - has just launched its brand-new website. 3D World magazine is designed for computer graphic artists and hobbyists working with 3D applications. It covers the fields of animation, VFX, games, illustration and architecture. Graphic content And now the folks at 3D World have created a new website which compliments the mag. The site showcases the best artwork, short films and commercial projects around. The launch of the website kicks off with a detailed 'making of Avatar' feature to coincide with the release of the Blu-ray Collectors' Edition of the movie. You will also find a load of industry news, plus tips and tutorials. If you're interested in movie special effects and the art of CG, pop in and take a look around at www.3dworldmag.com. 
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| Buying Guide: Best PSU: 14 PC power supplies tested Posted: 19 Nov 2010 05:00 AM PST  Everything in a PC draws its juice from one metal box sitting in the corner of your case. While you busy yourself with graphics cards and processors and delve into overclocking, it just sits there humming away. Unless it packs in, or you realise you don't have enough connectors after buying a new component, you probably never give it much thought. The basis of the PSU is the transformer, first conceived by those brain boxes Joseph Henry and Michael Faraday in 1831. Without the transformer we'd be in real trouble because the mains electricity that comes out of the wall does so at a sizzling 240 volts, which is great for running the vacuum cleaner and electric fire, but useless for transistor radios. It needs taming, transforming, rectifying and smoothing. There are only two reasons anyone would buy a new PSU. Either your existing one has stopped working and smells funny, or you're finally building your über machine with half an eye on world domination. Either way, you want something efficient, quiet, and capable of running everything with room for expansion. A soft benefit of investing in a new PSU is the better power efficiency offered by new models. The rise in awareness of power consumption brought on by the eco movement has meant that the overall transforming efficiency of a power supply has become news, with stars and awards for being good. You can pay anything from £13 to well over £200 for a PC power supply. Over the next few pages we'll tell you what you can expect to get for your money, as well as answer some common questions on the subject. How many watts do you need? Does the quality of the power supply matter much? And what exactly does it do and how? We've put some of the market-leading power supplies through their paces to see who delivers what they promise, and whether expensive electronics add much to the mix. But first, you'll need to know a little more about your box of power. There are two main power supply formats: AT and ATX. Since ATX has been around since 1996 we'll skip over AT power supplies, which are strictly for retro systems. The ATX standard has now reached version 2.3. The main motherboard connection is a 20 or 24-pin block, which carries all the voltages. The extra four pins your PSU may have supply more power for motherboards that need it. Many PSUs have cables with the four additional pins on a separate block so you can use old motherboards – it's a handy feature that you may not know you need at the time of purchase, but certainly worth looking out for. Processors get their own 12V supply, which used to be via a 4-pin plug (often called a P4 plug), but more commonly now via an 8-pin plug (the EPS12V). Like with the motherboard power cable, you'll often find PSUs that split the 8-pin block into two for compatibility with old processors. Modern CPUs don't run on 12V, however. Motherboards have on-board voltage regulators to lower the voltage to the right figure (the excess being given off as heat). If it's any good at its job then your graphics card is the biggest draw on power. The PCIe slot can only deliver 75W (that's actually a fair amount for any component in your rig, but not for a graphics card). This quickly proved inadequate, and so extra 12V cables were drafted in. Initially, these had a 6-pin connector, and added another 75W. Later, 8-pin connectors were introduced, which delivered 150W of extra power. This is not to be confused with the 8-pin EPS12V plug for the motherboard, which is wired differently. If you have to push and shove really hard to get either one in place then you've plugged in the wrong one. You'll want lots of PCIe power connectors so you can swap and upgrade cards and allow for dual card setups. You might well need four 6-pin connectors or more in the future. Why run so many 12V lines? The voltage drop rises as the current rises, so it's better to have more low power lines than tax a single one. Plus, with the amount of power some of these graphics cards draw, a single wire would quickly turn into a heating element. Then you have SATA power cables, which carry all three voltages. You'll want at least three of these, but preferably more. You'll also find old-school 4-pin Molex peripheral connectors for IDE drives, and possibly a floppy disk drive connector and some 'intelligent' fan connectors. Most decent PSUs use modular connectors, so the power supply has a set of sockets rather than permanently connected wires. This allows you to connect only the cables you need, so you don't get a mess of wires hanging out of the unit, blocking airflow. Some sources say these modular designs are less efficient, as the extra block connector introduces resistance, and hence waste. Apparently, it's measurable, although we've yet to see any tangible evidence. It's probably true, but completely irrelevant. The extra convenience and flexibility of a modular design outweighs any tiny loss (and it will be really tiny). Think inside the box So what's inside a PSU? If you're expecting a big soft-iron-core transformer and not much else then you're in for a shock. Modern PSUs are switched-mode power supplies, which use switching regulators to flip between full on and full off at very high frequencies (50KHz and up). This minimises waste, and means they can be much smaller and lighter than full-on linear supplies. A PSU supplies different voltages, and has separate circuitry to deliver each – these are the rails. An ATX power supply has a 12V, 5.5V and 3.3V rail, plus an additional rail to supply stand-by power. However, this wasn't enough, so ATX 2.0 added a second 12V rail to help power those graphics cards. The first rail, 12V1, is used to power the processor, and the second rail, 12V2, powers everything else. It's this second 12V rail that's going to take much of the strain of your system. Some power supplies boast more 12V rails, which is great, but there's no advantage other than the higher overall output. In fact, virtually all supplies split one 12V single rail into two, each with separate current-limit circuitry. This avoids potentially dangerous levels of electricity (240AV is the specified maximum, which is 20A per rail). However, you can't draw as much overall power through both lines because they share the transformer. Fully independent 12V rails are expensive, although they give a cleaner signal. The 5V current is usually taken off the same transformer, and the 3.3V current is created by voltage regulators. In the past most power was required at the lower voltages, so the 5V rail took most of the load. Times have changed though, and now it's the 12V supply that's doing most of the work, with the additional 3.3V rail for the newer, low-voltage components. The different power distribution between rails is one reason older power supplies don't always work on newer motherboards, despite being able to deliver the watts on paper. What your PC would really like is a lovely, flat DC signal, sending 12V right across the line. However, the PSU has a job to do here because the mains is a rather dirty 50Hz AC current. You can't just chuck a transformer and a diode at it and expect a smooth, constant voltage. This is where the smoothing capacitors come into play. These little beauties can be the difference between a quality PSU and a poor one. Waste not, want not Power supplies get hot, and this heat is, of course, wasted energy. The ATX 2.3 specification requires an efficiency of 70 per cent, and recommends one of 80 per cent. That's still a fair amount of loss – your 400W PSU is drawing 500W at the wall. There are higher efficiencies available, and there's a whole green movement to promote them. However, try not to get too carried away with it and spend a fortune on a 95 per cent efficient supply. Electricity is still relatively cheap, and you probably won't see any large return for your outlay. We recommend models on the '80 Plus' list or any model that's Energy Star 4.0-rated. Another factor you should consider is the loading. Like most machinery, a power supply has sweet spots where it's most efficient. You need to avoid the extremes. You wouldn't drive from London to Manchester at an average speed of 30mph. Nor would you make the same trip at 150mph (even if you could get away with it). Sure, it's possible to drive at such speeds, but you'll burn through fuel much quicker than if you cruised at the optimum speed. It's the same with PSUs: you should aim for a load of between 50 and 80 per cent – anything more or less will introduce waste. Temperature plays a part too. The colder it is, the more output you get. In an ideal world, PSU power ratings should be accompanied by a temperature. If this temperature is below typical operating values (30-50 degrees), you know you've lost a few more watts. What else might you consider? Well, there's the noise from the fan, and of course, its looks. In terms of sound, you don't want a constant reminder that your machine is on. As for looks, rugged and handsome, preferably with lights, always goes down well (although you'll lose your green cred with these). Is more power better? Not necessarily. Some spare capacity can always come in handy in the future, but going wildly off spec adds nothing. There are an awful lot of high-power PSUs out there running well below capacity. It's tempting to show off with a high headline power capacity, but it won't increase your PC's speed one jot. Go for a high-quality and efficient supply, rather than the big number. Now, the most important question: am I going to run two really powerful graphic cards at some point? This is the one component that really draws the watts, and you'll need to be prepared for it, or spend the same money all over again on a slightly bigger PSU. Silverstone Strider - £43 (ST50F-ES 500W)
Modular PSUs may be the cat's whiskers, but such versatility comes at a notable premium at this end of the market. It's a luxury that SilverStone feels you can ill afford – providing fixed cables on this unit. It isn't an awful decision though, as it means that the Strider strolls in with a surprisingly low price tag. In fact, in terms of pure cost per Watt, the Strider is way ahead of every other PSU here. Antec TruePower - £73 (TP-550 550W)
Antec has been shifting power supplies for years, but it isn't a company that rests on its laurels. It's recently redesigned its popular TruePower range to improve efficiency. The unit we looked at is the model with the lowest power rating in the family, rolling in at 550W. If you're looking for something with a bit more more grunt, then you may prefer the 650W or 750W version. Xigmatek NRP - £61 (NRP-PC602 600W)
Xigmatek nails its green credentials to its PSU straight from the off, shipping this 600W power supply in a recycled box that's emblazoned with a suggestion to 'build a forest in your PC.' We don't think they're being literal with that one, but it's a novel approach that underlines the fact that the 80 Plus Bronze certificate benefits the environment as well as your bank balance. OCZ StealthXStream 2 - £51 (OCZ600SXS2 600W)
Efficiency is the name of the PSU game at the moment, and OCZ is right to be proud of its StealthXStream 2, managing the highest standby efficiency of any of the power supplies on test. When you consider how long your machine is left in standby mode, you'll quickly see how important that is. Unless you're the type to turn off the machine at the plug (in which case we salute you), each percentage difference here equates to real-world savings. Spire BlackMoon - £65 (SP-ATX-650WTB-PFC 650W)
Like the Antec TruePower, here's a power supply that brandishes the Nvidia SLI badge – putting this squarely in the gamer bracket of PSUs. It's similarly priced to Antec's offering too, but boasts an extra 100W of power for you to play around with. Unfortunately, if you go by the numbers alone you're going to be in for a nasty ride, because in the tests that matter, this is an inferior unit in every respect. Fractal Design Tesla - £90 (FD-PSU-TESLA-650 650W)
The 650W bracket is surprisingly crowded. Manufacturers see this position on the scale as either the top end of entry-level power supplies, or the bottom end for the more demanding buyer. Fractal Design has positioned its Tesla 650W in the former group, as this is as high as the family goes in the performance stakes. Unfortunately, as with the Spire offering, the Tesla fails to impress both from a performance perspective and also in terms of value for money. Scythe Stronger - £95 (SPSN-070P 700W)
This oddly named PSU is available in three different wattages, topping out at this, the 700W model (it's also available in 500W and 600W if your needs aren't so demanding). Thanks in no small part to the Scythe Slip Stream 140mm fan attached to the unit, the Stronger is a whisper-quiet device. Somewhat surprisingly, this wasn't the quietest PSU in our test rig, although the difference was marginal at best. Nesteq ASM XZero - £130 (ASM XZERO 700W)
You'll be delighted by the concept of the NesteQ if you're the type to leave your PC on all night rendering images or movies. In theory, you can run this heat-piped PSU in a well-ventilated chassis with the PSU fan completely off, so the noise shouldn't keep you up all night. Unfortunately, under load we found that the fan did kick in from time to time, rendering such dreams as just that. It's a surprisingly loud fan in operation too. At full spin it was almost the loudest fan here, which was not quite what we expected. CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gold - £128 (RS-800-80GA-D3 800W)
What do you need from a PSU? Great efficiency? Silent operation? Room for expansion as your rig grows? A great-looking PSU to show off your rig building skills? Good value for money? Whatever you're looking for, the Silent Pro Gold 800W is the PSU for you, and represents the pinnacle of modern PSU design. We happily admit that it has impressed us that much. XFX Black Edition - £120 (XFX 850 850W)
XFX has made a name for itself over the years for producing graphics cards that are either tweaked a little bit more than the competition's cards, or by simply looking the mutt's nuts. Can it do the same with its power supply range? Possibly, although a little more work is needed before this can take on the likes of the Cooler Master. Silverstone Strider Plus - £153 (SST-ST1000-P 1000W)
There was a time when 1,000W PSUs were the stuff of dreams. They were stupidly expensive, and surely no one really needed that much power anyway? Those days are clearly behind us, and all the major PSU manufacturers have whole families of PSUs at this capacity and above. This 1,000W unit represents the top-end of SilverStone's Strider Plus range, but doesn't cost that much more than far less powerful units. Does it have what it takes to tempt the serious system builder? Nexus RX-1.1K Gold - £188 (RX-1.1K GOLD 1100W)
The higher the wattage your power supply offers, the greater efficiency you'll need so as not to waste a lot of that power as heat. And with more raw power being drawn, even good efficiency will equate to hundreds of watts of waste, which in turn means that these bigger PSUs need ever better cooling solutions. At this end of the PSU gamut, everything suddenly costs a lot more, so it certainly pays to spend wisely. Can the impressive looking RX-1.1K GOLD deliver at this most exacting end of the market? Corsair AX1200 - £232 (CMPSU-1200AX 1200W)
Rolling in as the most expensive power supply in the test, Corsair's AX1200 needs to be something special to warrant such an outlay. The good news is that it manages this feat admirably, thanks to its focus on performance where it counts. At 1,200W this may not be the PSU for everyone, but if you're building the ultimate gaming rig, you'll find this capable unit is well worth the price. Thermaltake ToughPower - £194 (WO171 1500W)
For many, Thermaltake's power supply represents the pinnacle of modern PSU design, not because of what's happening under the hood, but purely because it offers a cool 1,500W of power. That's a lot of power by anyone's standards, but is this a power supply you should seriously consider building your rig around? Possibly, but there are a couple of provisos. Power supplies can be judged on numerous criteria – from efficiency under load through standby power draw to the amount of noise produced while it's strutting its stuff. Below we present the most important figures that should influence your purchasing decision. Operating efficiency is the most important result here, as this defines just how good the inner workings of your PSU is at doing its job – better efficiency not only saves you money, but it will reduce the amount of heat in your system, which in turn will reduce the workload on your fan. This in turn will reduce the noise produced. Standby efficiency is also important, as most of us leave the machine connected at the wall ready to be turned on at the push of a button. It's surprising how much of a difference there is in the power draw between the worst and best performers here. We've also measured the noise produced by the PSUs under load, as well as the temperature inside the case.
The world of power supplies has changed. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, and any weakness is jumped upon. These aren't the nameless blocks that we used to get free with our cases any more, that's for sure. They are precision components in their own right, and they cost a serious premium for the privilege. In order to justify price tags that match an ever rising output wattage, a number of metrics have come in to play to help separate the must-haves from the must-ignores. Operating efficiency, standby power, fan noise, operating temperature and signal clarity are all now essential elements to inform your purchasing decision. The most important of these figures is the operating efficiency, as this is a measure of how good the PSU is at doing the job it was designed for – turning AC mains power into a smooth DC signal for your precious components. The big figure that all modern PSUs need to hit here is 80 per cent efficiency, thanks to the introduction of the 80PLUS initiative. With the best PSUs offering considerably better efficiency at a range of loads, this isn't too unreasonable a thing to ask, which is why it's surprising that there are still power supplies that fall short of the mark. By this criteria alone we can wave goodbye to the Spire BlackMoon, SilverStone Strider, Fractal Design Tesla and NesteQ Xzero, as they simply don't cut it by modern efficiency standards. The next factor that differentiates the better PSUs from the rest is the standby efficiency – the amount of power that the PSU draws when your machine is essentially waiting for you to press the power button or to wake the machine up by some other event. Most of us leave our rigs in such states, so better standby performance makes a difference. Here the Scythe Stronger, Xigmatek, SilverStone Strider Plus and Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W all bow out due to their unimpressive standby efficiencies. Of the PSUs that are left, you're generally looking at a good bunch, all in a range of wattages and abilities. The Antec TruePower 550W, for instance, is a tempting offering if you have low enough power requirements, although the modular design does mean that it costs a little more per watt than its direct competition. At this level we'd give the nod to the OCZ StealthXStream 2 600W, which, while not modular, does offer great value, and it isn't as loud in operation as the TruePower. Meanwhile the XFX Black Edition and Nexus RX-1.1K both suffer from high voltage noise, which pushes those out of the competition for the top spot as well. This leaves two power supplies that just so happen to stand out from the crowd on their own anyway – the Corsair AX1200 and the CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gold 800W. Both are incredible power supplies, offering top-of-theclass efficiency, build quality and signal output.
The CoolerMaster ultimately gets the nod, though, for being very quiet in operation and offering better value for money. In fact, looking at the CoolerMaster Silent Pro Gold 800W, it's hard to see what more you would want from a power supply, other than more of the same. It's an amazing PSU, and anyone looking for a replacement unit for an existing system or anyone building from scratch should look no further. Highly recommended. 
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| Nokia N8: company admits switch-off problems Posted: 19 Nov 2010 04:51 AM PST  Nokia has revealed that there is a problem with its flagship Nokia N8 handset, with a select few devices automatically switching off and not switching back on again. Nokia sales chief Niklas Savander explained that "a limited number of N8 users" were suffering from the problem but another spokesperson for the company had said that the problem occurred in the production of the phone and had now been fixed. Nokia knocked This is nothing but bad news for Nokia, who had hoped that its N8 flagship handset would prove to the world that it has still got what it takes to rule the smartphone world. Not-quite-glowing reviews, however, proved that Nokia still has someway to go before it matched HTC and Apple for quality handsets. Nokia has explained that only a small number of people would be affected with the phone's fault. It will be hoping that, like the problems Apple had with the iPhone 4, it won't affect sales. 
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| Analysis: Why 2D-3D conversions are great news for the rise of 3D HD Posted: 19 Nov 2010 04:34 AM PST  The concept of converting 2D films into 3D got off to possibly the worst possible start with the Clash of the Titans remake earlier this year. Critics almost universally slammed the ret-conned 3D effect, and even director Louis Leterrier said it hadn't been his intention to do the movie in 3D and that the technology wasn't ready. James Cameron, riding high on the record-breaking success of Avatar, also derided the process, saying: 'If you want to make a movie in 3D – make a movie in 3D.' Recently, though, Lucasfilm announced that it will be releasing a 2D-3D version of The Phantom Menace in cinemas next year, with the other five films in the Star Wars canon to follow. And it's clear that George Lucas and his minions think they can craft an impressive 3D picture. The secret, it seems, is not rushing it. 'Getting good results on a stereo conversion is a matter of taking the time and getting it right,' confides John Knoll, visual effects supervisor for Industrial Light & Magic. 'It takes a critical and artistic eye, along with an incredible attention to detail to be successful. It is not something that you can rush if you want to expect good results. For Star Wars we will take our time, applying everything we know both aesthetically and technically to bring audiences a fantastic new Star Wars experience.' Of course, that's what you'd expect him to say, but it's no secret that Clash of the Titans' conversion was completed in around 10 weeks. When the first Star Wars 3D film arrives, it will have undergone a much more arduous journey.
The importance of time and attention to detail is something echoed by Jon Thompson, former Home Cinema Choice columnist and head of UK operations at Reliance MediaWorks, a global end-to-end movie services company that has set up one of the world's leading 2D-3D authoring houses (as well as doing remarkable restoration work in the traditional 2D environment, but that's another story…). He's adamant that, when done properly, 2D-3D conversion has a future. Thompson came to HCC armed with a disc full of upconverted demo sequences to prove his point. And by and large he did. 3D clips from a diverse collection of cinema faves (everything from massive Summer blockbusters to low-budget horrors) all seemed high quality, with an enjoyable, believable sense of depth added to the proceedings. Thomson also explained how the complex software works in tandem with human engineers, and that work is done on a frame-by-frame basis. Essentially, each frame is analysed and separate parts of the image isolated depending on where they sit on the Z-axis – then, alternate frames are generated with a different composition to provide the information for the right eye. What's incredibly neat is that the level of depth can be adjusted to suit the wishes of the director. We were shown the same sequence processed in a number of different ways: one where there was an exaggerated sense of things coming out of the screen; one where it was much more subtle; one where all the depth was in the background; others where separate objects were placed nearer or further away from each other at varying degrees; and more. Money for nothing? It's easy to see from an economic point of view why 2D-3D conversions are attractive to studios. If you can create a new cinema version of a much-loved film for around $5m, it won't have to do that well at the multiplex to make a profit. Only a fool would bet against Return of the Jedi 3D making a killing at the box office. Of course, there's a limit to how many films studios would be happy to re-release in cinemas (they'll have to find a space in the schedule, for a start), so many of the titles that we'd like to see brought back to life in the new format may not get the chance. It's then that they'll have to consider whether the cost of the 2D-3D process can be covered by 3D Blu-ray sales alone. Perhaps anyone still doubtful as to the merits of 2D-3D conversion should look no further than James Cameron himself. Not long after Clash of the Titans hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, the film-it-in-3D guru had done a U-turn and announced that his epic 1997 drama, Titanic, was to be given a 3D polish for a cinema release in 2012. Surely if it's good enough for James Cameron, it's good enough for us. Could it be time to give 2D-3D films a second chance? 
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| Google brings all its apps under one roof Posted: 19 Nov 2010 04:09 AM PST  Google is bringing the wide-ranging suite of Google services together under the Google Apps banner, to make it easier for users to access and use its numerous services. In addition to your standard applications such as GMail and Google Calendar, users will now be able to access services such as photo-suite Picasa, video service YouTube and Google Reader far easier and quicker than previously. Google will offer over 60 productivity-boosting apps under four easy to understand banners - Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Google Apps for Government and Google Apps for Education. See, easy! App happy chappies "As customers begin to recognize large productivity gains with Gmail, Google Docs and the rest of Google Apps, they frequently ask when they'll be able to use services like Google Voice, Reader, Blogger and AdWords with their Google Apps accounts," blogs Googler, Derek Parham, Lead Software Engineer, Google Apps. Parham adds that his team is "thrilled to swing the floodgates of new functionality wide open" so that customers worldwide can access a full spectrum of services from Google. Here are more details on how the new Google applications line-up is set to work:
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| Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 Posted: 19 Nov 2010 03:30 AM PST  We've got exactly what we wished for. After being rather impressed by Sony Ericsson's ultra-small Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro, we couldn't help but wonder what Sony Ericsson's heavily customised Android OS would look like on a phone with a middle-of-the-road screen that sits somewhere between that of the monster X10 and the tiny X10 Minis. And that's exactly what we've got here. The screen of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 is three inches in size, so slightly smaller than the 3.2-inch norm as seen in the likes of the HTC Legend, LG Optimus One and many, many more Android phones.
The good news is the X8's touchscreen uses capacitive technology, so it's immediately more usable than other entry-level Android phones like the LG GT540 and Vodafone 845, which use the cheaper, less sensitive resistive technology. And don't work.
The form factor of the Xperia X8 is identical to that of the X10 Mini – only bigger. Which means a curved back with easily removable cover, three silver buttons beneath the screen – Android-standard Menu, Home and Back – along with the camera and speaker around the back.
The top edge of the phone features the micro-USB connector, which has been covered by a little plastic stopper to stop it accumulating handbag dust. Also here is the power socket in the middle and 3.5mm headphone jack.
Down the right-hand side sit the metallic-effect volume rocker and physical camera button. Sadly, as with the Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro and many other new entry level Android phones, there's no optical or physical trackpad on the X8.
And that's your lot. The phone itself feels solid and well-made, especially considering its £140 SIM-free asking price, with tough buttons and a solid screen.
Here's where the Xperia X8 differentiates itself from the Android crowd – Sony Ericsson has included the same incredibly customised user interface as the one found on the Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro.
This means a unique Home screen that only features one big, central widget, accompanied by four customisable icon shortcuts to your most-used apps in each corner. While this system worked perfectly well and made great sense on the tiny screens of the Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro, on the larger three-inch screen of the Xperia X8 it seems like a bit of a waste of space.
Do we really need one massive Google search box in the middle of a three-inch screen? The OS is still just as fast and smooth to operate and navigate as it was in the X10 Mini and Mini Pro, but this feels like a needlessly hobbled way of doing things on a larger screen in this age of multitasking superphones.
Still, once you've arranged your four favourite app links in their corner slots it's a workable system – fast and intuitive, and ideal for mainstream users. Android fanatics won't enjoy the limitations of this layout – or the 1.6 version of Android it's built upon – but we doubt many Android fanatics will be eyeing up the X8 anyway. Problem solved.
Sony Ericsson has also supplied a healthy collection of custom widgets, with a couple that are of great use. The Data Monitor keeps track of how much mobile data you've transferred, which will be extremely useful if you're on a restricted monthly quota.
Also, there's a specific widget dedicated entirely to turning all data use on and off, making it simple to make sure you're not getting financially crippled thanks to a rogue app deciding to sync your entire music collection over-the-air while you sleep. Very useful little touches, these, especially when the X8 is likely to be sold on unlocked packages with SIM cards that come with strict allowances attached. The actual phone functions of the Xperia X8 are pretty much the same defaults as found in other Android 1.6-powered phones. Only given a big, blue-tinged visual makeover.
Calling is simple, with the dialer opening up a keypad with separate tab for keeping track of the call history. The Contacts list is accessed separately, and consists of a list of names with a separate tab for those you're starred and set up as your favourites. It works, but you won't be impressing anyone with it.
Customising contacts with photos is very easy. Through the X8's photo album you're able to open up a shot and attach it to a Contact, with this photo representing your friends on the favourites tab.
Also, Sony Ericsson's Timescape social networking tool helps bring Android's dull Contacts lists to life. When viewing a message posted by someone on Twitter or Facebook in the Timescape aggregator app, there's an option to link the person to a contact. Press that, choose one of your contacts, and the links pair up – enabling you to page through all social network messages posted by that one person. It's a great tool for popular people. On the hardware side of things, the mic is clear and the speakerphone is great. Call volume is loud, and when using the speakerphone it's louder still – and this speaker is also used to great effect when playing music.
The keyboard is a full QWERTY, which is a step up from the numeric keypads offered in the Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro – with only a few minor customisations made to the bland stock Android keyboard by Sony Ericsson. The X8 enables users to turn spelling correction on or off, automatically add words to the dictionary and even suggests the next word it thinks you may type – although this never actually happened at all during our time with the phone. It was definitely ticked in the options.
The keyboard really isn't up to much when compared to modern text input systems such as Swype and SwiftKey. Also, the Xperia X8's rather unresponsive touchscreen means you have to press harder than on most other capacitive phones, which hinders accuracy quite a bit. Plus using a QWERTY keyboard on a three-inch screen in portrait mode was never going to be easy to begin with. You'd be best advised to install a custom keyboard from the Android Market if you plan on using the X8 for anything more complex than sending smileys to people a couple of times a week.
Email is supported via both Gmail and POP3, with the X8 featuring the same limitation on additional email accounts as found in the X10 Mini and Mini Pro. The phone's email app only lets users set up one email account, so you're stuck with that, plus Gmail. Exchange is supported, but only via the third-party RoadSync application. It's not a great solution, with the X8 not offering an easy way to integrate all your email accounts in one place.
Text messaging is again the Android 1.6 default, only blue. Pick a contact, type a message, attach a photo and send. That's it. Web browsing is done in the standard Android 1.6 browser, and is identical to that found in the Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro. There's no multi-touch support here, so page zooming uses the old Android technique. You press the page, then zoom in and out with the magnifying glass, or use the magnifying tool to highlight particular areas.
It's not as glamorous or user-friendly as the modern pinch-to-zoom style found on other cheap Android phones such as the Orange San Francisco and would be a right pain were the X8 not a very capable device when it comes to moving web pages around. Pages scroll around very quickly, reducing the potential for browser rage significantly.
The 320 x 480 resolution is the most common screen format out there in Android world, and on the X8's smaller three-inch screen this makes web text very sharp and readable. The Xperia X8 manages to display text much more sharply and legibly than the competing budget LG Optimus One, despite the physically smaller screen.
The only problem here is with the options and general age of the browser. There's not much in the way of customisation or features, with just your standard Bookmarks and History options accessible through the Menu button. You can't copy text from pages, either, although it is possible to share URLs via the Android sharing options.
You can send shortcuts to the app drawer and Home screen, though, which is useful. Links to specific pages appear as icons you can slot into any of the phone's app slots for easy access to favourite sites. That's the only decent feature of a very basic, but fast browser. This is one area where the Xperia X8 is seriously lacking when put up against Sony Ericsson's little Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro. The X8's camera spec has been busted down to a three-megapixel model, without flash or autofocus, plus Sony Ericsson has also removed huge chunks of functionality from the Camera app that worked to such good effect in the X10 Mini and Mini Pro.
The camera comes with, er... four options, and they're only simple scene filters. Although, you can obviously switch between video and camera recording, which technically takes it up to five options. And, on start-up, users are prompted to allow or deny the geotagging of shots. So that's a whole extra option. It's not a great camera, given Sony Ericsson's past expertise in the area.
The phone's basic photo gallery also betrays the X8's Android 1.6 roots. The ageing version of Android featured a super-simple list of your pics – and that's all you get here. Disappointing. The only option on the Album screen itself is to delete several, - so you can ditch unwanted photos. Press a photo bring it up fullscreen and the standard Android sharing options then appear in one of Sony Ericsson's corner units – where you can upload it directly to Facebook, push it through any installed Twitter apps or Gmail it to whomever you like.
This advanced social integration is one area where Android excels. The sharing menus make struggling to get pictures off your phone a thing of the past, and even with the outdated Android 1.6 at its core, the Xperia X8 is a great phone for boring people on the internet with photos of your everyday life. Such as...
Click here for full-res version Pictures emerge at 2048 x 1536 resolution and picture quality is quite poor. They're incredibly compressed down to between 250KB and 500KB file sizes, resulting in some major JPEG noise and artefacting.
Click here for full-res version Indoor photos of bright things are a little better, but there's no focus or macro mode on the X8's camera, so there's not much room for anything fancy.
Click here for full-res version They'll work as proof you went to a certain place, but that's about it. Videos come off the camera at a decent 640 x 480 resolution in 3GP format, although the frame rate isn't that smooth.
Video quality is good, though – certainly better than the blocky mess produced by the equally cheap Android-powered Vodafone 845 – and you could definitely live with the results. The one extra video option is the chance to record smaller clips for sending via MMS. It's about as entry level as a camera can get, this. The Xperia X8's music player is based around the simple Android default, only with a comprehensive visual skin that goes a long way to making it look and feel a little better than Android 1.6's standard.
The big addition here is the Infinite button, which, when pressed, performs a little automatic internet search for media related to the artist that's currently playing.
It's a bit of a novelty, but if you're listening to a song and fancy having a quick watch of the video, it's a useful shortcut and will bring up a list of YouTube clips on a separate screen for you – and the option to buy it via Sony Ericsson's PlayNow shop, if it's in the catalogue.
The video player is disappointing. Our stock collection of review AVI and WMV files in various Xvid and DivX formats all refused to play, with Sony Ericsson requiring all video to be stuffed on the phone's SD card in a specific MP4 format.
So while music playback is good and the supplied headphones loud and capable, the X8 can't be recommended as a full media player. Having to re-encode videos for mobile use is not what people want from a player in this day and age.
Sadly, with the Xperia X8 being based around the 1.6 version of Android, you're stuck with using the older version of the YouTube client. But it works well enough, with the phone able to handle pausing and skipping with ease. Google apps are well represented on the X8, with Maps, YouTube, Gmail, Voice Search and Google Talk all on here from the outset. But with only 128MB of internal RAM for users, you'll need to be rather selective about what you stick on the X8 – a few of the more memory-hungry apps will soon have you running out of space.
There's an odd selection of extra apps pre-loaded on the X8, such as the Wisepilot sat-nav tool – a completely pointless addition when the all-powerful Google Maps Navigation is on here, and doesn't require payment to use. Elsewhere there's Sony Ericsson's own TrackID system for identifying (then buying) music you hear, plus its PlayNow shop and casual gaming service – the latter is rather useless when the Android Market's on the phone, but both will no doubt find a home with casual users.
Elsewhere there's the standalone Facebook app if you don't want to use the Timescape widget, a few free game demos, plus a Notes app that enables you to send shortcuts to the Home screen and set little alarm reminders for things. But there's one much more important question we must ask – can it run Angry Birds?
Yes. Thank God for that. As with the superb little X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro, the X8 is a great performer when it comes to battery life. The low-spec 600MHz processor and small-ish three-inch screen keep power use low, so as long as you're not GPS-ing your way around the country, it'll last.
Connectivity is impressive for a phone in this price range, although well within Android standards. You get GPS support, with the X8 hooking onto your satellite position and starting up quicker than most phone sat navs we've used. It's hard to believe that your £140 gets you a fully featured GPS device, thanks to Google's incredible Maps Navigation app. There's an FM radio, Wi-Fi connectivity (which was super-reliable and quick to connect), Bluetooth, micro-USB connector and seamless operation as a mass storage device for dumping your files onto its memory card.
The phone comes with Sony Ericsson's PC Companion suite on the 2GB microSD card, designed to simplify the stuff-putting-on process, which is amazingly unnecessary, since the phone identifies itself as an external drive in standard Android fashion. The PC Companion also enables you to sync your phone's content, another needless duplication of Google's Android backup system, plus there's Sony Ericsson's Media Go tool for music organisation. But you'll be best off not using any of it and just chucking all your tunes in big a folder and letting Google handle your Contacts.
Android enthusiasts won't like the fact that the Xperia X8 is based around the old Android 1.6, but for the mainstream user this won't be a problem – or even something they're aware of. Yes, a few popular Android apps do require later versions of the OS, but 1.6 is still enough to get most jobs done, and £140 on a SIM-free basis is a good enough price for a solid phone. Despite the small three-inch screen and low-end processor, the Xperia X8 did a good job of handling web browsing and every Android app we threw at it. Also, Sony Ericsson has created one of the few user interface skins that genuinely adds a lot of interesting features to the standard Android experience. We liked Sony Ericsson's user interface isn't just a few widgets and a different-looking dock – it's a total reworking of Android. The 'four corners' design makes great use of the smaller three-inch screen, and the larger widgets are easy to use. It's a bit restrictive, but will have its fans. The fact that you get a three-inch capacitive touchscreen makes the X8 one of the better-specced Android phones at its price point, with the £140 price tag meaning you get a decent display for your money. The battery life is good. Lay off the GPS and you'll easily get a full two days of use from the X8, while in operation the phone is fast and glitch free. Even when you've got 10 widgets stacked up on Home screens and a few apps on the go, there's no crunching. Sony Ericsson's got the X8's 600MHz processor working well. We disliked Sadly the X8's screen isn't very responsive. The usually reliable capacitive technology isn't working too well here, with very firm prods required to register touches. This ruins typing accuracy, making it a pain to use for messaging. The fact that this is based around Android 1.6 means a few flagship apps are either missing or running older versions. Mainstream users won't understand why the official Twitter app isn't visible on the Android Market when using the X8, for example. Visually, the user interface customisations look bland. It's the default Android 1.6 made blue, and that simply isn't very exciting in the face of today's sizzling smartphone competition. The camera is a bit of a disaster and a massive step down from the one Sony Ericsson put in its own Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro. Sure, the X8's quite a bit cheaper, but you'd be better off breaking the bank and getting an X10 Mini if you fancy using your phone for taking photos. Verdict The result of Sony Ericsson's Android skin is a phone that doesn't really feel like any other Android phones out there – it's more akin to using an older 'feature' phone from Sony Ericsson. Also, there's no ignoring the recent arrival of some significantly more impressive Android phones at this cheaper end of the market. The Orange San Francisco blows the X8 away in terms of power and screen size, while somehow also managing to be cheaper. The LG Optimus One offers the modern-day thrills of Android 2.2 and a bigger screen for a similar price. As a result, the X8 finds itself in a bit of a bad place where it's outsmarted on all fronts by other models – even Sony Ericsson's own X10 Mini is a better option. If you're not concerned about having the latest (or even a particularly recent) version of Android, the X8 will do, but it's hobbled by an unresponsive touchscreen and the many difficulties that brings. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 works as a phone and is good for music and web use, but offering an out-of-date version of Android and an unresponsive screen it's best left to bargain-hunters only. Related Links
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| Avatar Collectors' Edition comes with hidden 3D content Posted: 19 Nov 2010 03:23 AM PST  The latest Blu-ray release of Avatar (Avatar Collectors' Edition) comes with something of a surprise for 3D enthusiasts – it actually has two 3D bonus features planted as Easter eggs on the disc. A post on AVSForum explains how to find the Easter eggs. All you have to do is go to 'Live Extras' on the third discs and toggle down. Once done a trailer of the movie and a featurette called 'Pandora Discovered' appears – and both of them are shown in 3D. Another dimension It came as disappointment to many that Avatar, the movie that kick-started 3D, hasn't actually been released on Blu-ray in 3D yet, but Cameron and co have decided to release a features-free version of the movie and now a Collectors' Edition. A 3D version of Avatar is set to be released sometime in 2011. At least those who have purchased the new three-discer of Avatar, and have access to a 3D setup, can check out what the movie will be like in 3D in the home. 
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| Opinion: Open source 'community' doesn't exist Posted: 19 Nov 2010 03:00 AM PST  Many users, forums and magazines like to speak of the open source community. It's the glue that holds free software together. Without it, we're told, there would be no open source, no Linux and therefore no future. Books have been written about nurturing it. Websites thrive on serving it, and its chambers are the first port of call for many a lost Linux user. But community is a double-edged sword. For each of the hundreds of individuals who have made contributions to the Linux kernel, there are endless posts, comments and rebuttals. For every person who writes a message of help and encouragement, there are more who prefer to berate and belittle users who don't fit their expectations of what a community should be. Unfortunately, this is a sub-culture that won't go away. The result is that there's no real community, and this is because 'community' is too loose a term to describe the many different kinds of people who use open source software. It's a word that may help the open source propaganda machine, but it doesn't help the sustainability and growth of free software. There is no such thing as a single, homogeneous Linux group. It's a term that implies a shared goal and some kind of kinship, when there is none. It's a term that implies cooperation and cohesion, when there's just too much conflict and disagreement for this to happen. Instead, there are disparate groups of individuals, businesses and enterprises, as with any other operating system. Each group may contain those noble elements of kindness that have helped to make Linux such a success, but to describe the entire collection as a community is wrong. Flock of starlings There's a certain group of users, for example, that behaves like an immense flock of starlings at dusk. Its members fly with seemingly random abandon, casting their malevolent shadow over social networks, online forums, advocacy sites and blogs as they move together. There's no obvious leader or motivation in their movement. Their language is filled with RTFM, STFW and LART, and it has much in common with the partisan chatter of the 1980s computing era. It feels more like 'C64 versus Spectrum' and 'Atari ST versus Amiga' than the furtherance of an open source operating system. This might be news to Windows, OS X and general PC users, who thought his kind of thing disappeared years ago. To see an example, just ask a simple question on almost any Linux forum or, even worse, dare to state your opinion. What's interesting is that there seems to be a parallel between new research into how birds flock together and how this demographic of Linux users behaves. This might sound crazy, but a paper published by researchers in the York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis at York University suggested that birds react only to the seven others closest to them and limit their processing to a very limited set of information, such as the position and heading of those birds. No real community The flock is a community in appearance only, which would help to explain the occasional headless, and heedless, behaviour of open source commentators when they descend upon a subject, post or point of view. Linux seems to have more than its fair share of zealots, and I think this is for two reasons. Firstly, many of its original users chose Linux because they were anti-something. Early on, Linux was an island for the disenfranchised. Whether this was against competition, the price of software or the uniformity in the industry, starting on such a negative footing was never going to be productive. Secondly, as an underdog, Linux needs vocal supporters, and those who shout the loudest are going to get heard. This has left us with the fragmented group of users we have now. To become more cohesive, this non-community needs to tolerate different opinions. It needs to be able to take criticism without resorting to fanaticism. And it needs to change its attitude towards new users and the direction Linux is going in. If someone can't respond positively, maybe they shouldn't respond at all. New users, alongside potential users, are the most vital group if we want Linux to grow, and its stagnation over the last few years is evidence that the current strategy isn't working. Open source needs to return to the concept of nurturing inclusion and passionate users. Only then will it become a viable alternative to the increasingly locked-down world of its rivals. And only then will the various flocks of migratory communities settle on some rock and finally make a difference. 
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| Dissident Chinese Twitterer gets one year hard labour Posted: 19 Nov 2010 02:38 AM PST While civil rights activists in the UK continue to campaign over the outcome of the recent Doncaster Twitter trial, a Twitter user in China has just been given a year's hard labour for posting a satirical message. That's right. Chinese authorities have issued a year-long labour re-education sentence to the online activist over a satirical message urging an attack Japan's pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. Sense of humour bypass Chinese authorities have had a serious sense of humour bypass over the whole affair, with Amnesty International reporting that Cheng Jianping (online pseudonym Wang Yi) was given the sentence on Monday for "disturbing social order". Cheng's message was a retweet of her fiance's original tweet, meant to satirise Chinese nationals recently smashing up Japanese goods during recent protests in China. The original tweet read: "Anti-Japanese demonstrations, smashing Japanese products, that was all done years ago ... It's not a new trick. If you really wanted to kick it up a notch, you'd immediately fly to Shanghai to smash the Japanese Expo pavilion". Cheng then also added the phrase: "Angry youth, charge!" Amnesty said in a statement: "Cheng may be the first Chinese citizen to become a prisoner of conscience on the basis of a single tweet. "Sentencing someone to a year in a labor camp, without trial, for simply repeating another person's clearly satirical observation on Twitter demonstrates the level of China's repression of online expression," Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's director for the Asia-Pacific, said in the statement. Twitterers in China are forced to use virtual private networks (VPNs) to get around government firewalls. 
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| Yahoo adds GetJar apps to its mobile search Posted: 19 Nov 2010 02:20 AM PST  GetJar and Yahoo have announced a link-up which will see all of GetJar's apps appear in the search results of Yahoo Mobile. In a deal that the companies are calling a 'first of its kind', GetJar is hoping that melding information about its apps on to Yahoo Mobile will increase awareness of the site and the content that is on offer. The search results for the apps - of which there are 75,000 - will work by keyword. So if you search 'sport', then a bunch of sport-related apps will appear. App-reciation GetJar is a third-party app store that offers up all of its content for free, with the apps coming with adverts. It made headlines last month when it was the store chosen by Rovi to host Angry Birds for Android. It was picked instead of Google's own Android Market and it meant the store had exclusivity of the game for a limited time. The Yahoo Search integration looks likely to come to the UK in 2011. 
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| Posted: 19 Nov 2010 02:00 AM PST  It's perhaps ironic that Yamaha, the original proponent of home cinema and multichannel sound, came to the Blu-ray party a little late in the day. But the brand has been playing catch-up fast. The BD-S667 reviewed here is one of four players now available at Yamaha dealers nationwide. It sits below the lookalike BD-S1067, which adds compatibility with Super Audio CD and DVD Audio discs to the mix. While the BD-S667 doesn't have the heavyweight build quality of a BD player with specialist hi-fi lineage, it's certainly as solid (if not as thin) as mainstream models from the market leaders. The deck's user interface has that unmistakable Shenzen aesthetic; which is to say it's not particularly pretty, but as you page through the various set-up parameters, you can take comfort in the options available. And if these look too daunting, there's a simple set-up wizard that makes life easy for complete technophobes. Adding some bespoke class is the standard hi-res Yamaha skin, but this is lost when you hit the player's Home button. The unit itself is a cosmetic match for the brand's new season AV receivers, but looks a little bland in isolation. The front panel sports one of two USB ports available. It can be used for BD Live storage (there is no internal memory on board, a bit stingy given the ticket price) or multimedia file playback. The disc transport itself is centrally located to improve stability and there's a selection of control buttons ranged right. Our review sample came in anonymous black, but you can order different finishes such as Titan (aka Grey) and Silver.
Rear side connections include an HDMI output, component video and phono stereo, optical and coaxial digital audio, Ethernet and a second USB port. It's good to see component included. These analogue HD outputs are a dying breed, yet offer system builders some valuable options. Finally, there's a set of 3.5mm remote control jacks. These are specifically provided to integrate with that matching Yamaha receiver, thereby allowing the player to be part of the AVR's SCENE functionality. When the player is part of the SCENE (sic), a single button press will turn on both the Yamaha AVR and BD player, as well as selecting the predetermined sound mode, input and volume setting. It's a much simpler alternative to struggling with macros on a learning remote. Beneath the hood lurks a 92kHz/24-bit audio DAC plus x.v.Colour and Deep Colour compatibility. The former is useful, the latter less so. Network niceties This is a deck with network entertainment very much in mind. DLNA compatibility allows the BD-S667 to interrogate your home network for compatible NAS and PC devices (you may need to install a DLNA server like Twonky Media on your PC to share files). These are then gathered on the Home screen where you can drill down into folders and rummage for content. Alternatively, you can play media straight from a USB Flash drive, and the good news is that file support is excellent. Officially sanctioned formats comprise DivX HD, AVCHD, WMV, JPEG (HD), MP3 and WMA. I teased the player with my usual ragtag folder of files, which in the past has befuddled many a media player. The Yamaha was not intimidated and aced all my tests. I had no problem with an AVI DVD rip of a Japanese horror film that has in the past sent many a big name sprawling into the digital dirt. Even more impressively, the player found and played the accompanying .srt subtitle file. The deck also smiled kindly upon MKV-wrapped HD downloads as well as my MP4 video clips. This functionality is a big part of the player's appeal. The ability to act as a content hub is increasingly what I expect of a Blu-ray deck. It should be noted that two samples of the S667 were supplied for review, and both displayed a curious fault from the box. When connected to our network via Ethernet, they locked up and became unusable. It took a firmware update (from v1.5 to v1.7) implemented (very slowly) via USB to fix this. Unsurprisingly, there are plenty of features that the BD-S667 doesn't have. The most obvious unticked box is 3D. However, I suspect that for many potential buyers this will not be too much of a concern, and it's not as if Yamaha has a 3DTV to support either. The other noticeable omission is any form of online content portal, so the BD-S667 can't offer niceties such as YouTube, BBC iPlayer, European sports and news providers and weirdo sleaze from DailyMotion. Given that your next TV will probably bundle this stuff, this isn't a biggie, either. Beat the judder When it comes to video quality I have few complaints. I auditioned the deck with a selection of rather challenging platters, including a test disc from top Japanese authoring house, QTec, and was left satisfied. In terms of video clarity, the BD-S667 performs well. There is a high level of detail extracted from both DVDs and Blu-ray, but noise is kept low, allowing plenty of shadow detail to break cover when required. Take care with the setup though. In the picture menu ensure that you do not select PAL as the default output for the player. The correct setting is Multi. If you do select PAL, the deck will make a horrendous, juddery job of squeezing 60Hz Blu-ray material into 50Hz. You might expect any Yamaha branded BD player to edge ahead of the rest when it comes to CD playback, and you wouldn't be wrong. Analogue audio jitter was measured by our Tech labs at 196ps, which is an excellent figure and better than many other Blu-ray decks. With that in mind, stereophiles shouldn't be scared of playing CDs through the BD-S667's analogue outputs. Multichannel audio over HDMI is another one of the deck's strong points. The 2L Blu-ray audio release Flute Mystery is a wonderful audition piece. It's an expansive, dynamic audio recording, featuring Emily Beynon and the Philharmonia Orchestra, presented in both a DTS HD Master Audio multichannel mix and LPCM two-channel version. When you select the DTS-HD Master Audio option and bitstream out, the player delegates playback quality to the decoding electronics. I left my resident Pioneer Susano AVR to do the number-crunching and it sounded fabulous. The LPCM two-channel mode is a little more revealing; I'm tempted to say it had the edge in quality (although I was expecting it to be significantly better), but I missed the immersive quality of the DTS 5.1 mix. In use, disc loading time is only average. It took some 47 seconds to get our standard test BD playing onscreen from a Tray Close command. Power consumption is pleasingly low, however, both when idling and playing. Multimedia maestro Overall, the BD-S667 is a competent if expensive Blu-ray deck, that makes the most sense when partnered with a matching AVR. Perhaps surprisingly, the feature that ended up exciting me the most was its multimedia support. The fact that it breezed through my test files moves it ahead of many competing decks. With that in mind, it's worth considering, although I would advocate spending a little more to secure the SACD and DVD-A support of its bigger brother. Related Links
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