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Techradar |
- Sharp to look to Europe for Galapagos
- Angry Birds Mighty Eagle character lands on iPad
- Firefox 4 Beta 3 lands on Android and Maemo devices
- Analysis: Internet TV: a fragmented future?
- In Depth: Apple's highs and lows in 2010
- Exclusive: Microsoft wants Windows 8 to relaunch PC gaming
- Microsoft snaps up PC gaming guru
- Review: Updated: Google Nexus S
- Avatar wins coveted 'most pirated movie of 2010' prize
- Music Unlimited lands on Sony Qriocity devices
- Music Unlimited lands on Sony Qriocity devices
- Google triumphs in Android patent case
- Sky+ App arrives for Apple iPad
- Tutorial: iTunes Ping: the complete guide
- Amazon to hit 8m Kindle sales in 2010
- Latest virtual reality headset tech unveiled
- Net neutrality in US agreed, but not for mobiles
- Google offers up Gingerbread tips and tricks
- HP rumoured to launch PalmPad at CES 2011
- Review: IDAPT i4
- Review: Moth Tube Imp valve tester
- LG Optimus 2X confirmed for January UK release
- LG Optimus 2X confirmed for January UK release
- Ennio Morricone to provide exclusive LG ringtones
- Nintendo plans new year 3DS reveal
| Sharp to look to Europe for Galapagos Posted: 23 Dec 2010 12:56 AM PST  Sharp has suggested that it could expand its Galapagos e-reader into the UK and Europe in the coming months. The UK has a burgeoning e-reader market, fuelled partly by the popular Amazon Kindle, and Sharp is keen to extend the first Galapagos device beyond Japan. The first new market to be tested will be the US, but Sharp's Masami Ohbatake has indicated that China and Europe will be next. "After the U.S., we're looking at other regions where electronic-book reading is increasing,"Ohbatake told Bloomberg. Price of success The Galapagos e-reader 10.8 inch tablet is currently more expensive than the Apple iPad in Japan, and many doubt that the device will be a hit. A major content deal in Japan – with the equivalent to the UK's WH Smith – has given the device some hope, but with the likes of Amazon already dominant in the UK it may be tough to break into the market. 
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| Angry Birds Mighty Eagle character lands on iPad Posted: 22 Dec 2010 10:49 AM PST  The all-conquering Angry Birds flock has updated its iPad app to bring the armageddon-wielding Mighty Eagle level cheat as an in-app purchase. Angry Birds HD 1.5 allows users to bring in the winged beast for 59p if they're unable to conquer those pesky snorting and snearing pigs in a particular level. The Mighty Eagle will replenish itself as you continue playing the game so you don't have to keep buying it every time you come unstuck. New levels The cheat isn't the only addition to v1.5 of the £2.99 chart-topping application, there's also 15 new levels and a new Golden Egg soundboard to mess about with. An update for iPad is likely to be the last act of business for developers Rovio following an extremely busy few months. The team has realeased Angry Birds Seasons, featuring both Halloween and Christmas-themed games for both Android and iPhone as well as churning out a version for the Nokia Ovi Store. 2011 will see the launch of plush toys, console games and perhaps even an animated movie. 
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| Firefox 4 Beta 3 lands on Android and Maemo devices Posted: 22 Dec 2010 09:05 AM PST  Mozilla has made its latest beta of Firefox 4 available for Android and Maemo users. Firefox 4 Beta 3 to give it its full, rather complicated name beefs up the mobile search features with a number of improvements. It's the third beta of the search service since October and offers improved support for Android keyboards, new menus, better file uploading, a Save as PDF command, Firefox synch and the user interface has been simplified. Video improvements When it comes to viewing video through the browser, there is now a full screen option, improved audio performance, copy and paste in the URL bar and you can browse recommended add-ons through the add-on manager. You can access the download, which is available from Android and Nokia N900 devices. Got to www.mozilla.com/en-US/mobile/download. 
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| Analysis: Internet TV: a fragmented future? Posted: 22 Dec 2010 08:15 AM PST  Is your TV connected? And if it isn't, does it matter? Now in their second generation, 'connected' TVs from the likes of Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Philips and LG that host a web-powered content portal are getting busier – but are they about to be blown away by Google TV? All of these web TV platforms are attempts, in various forms, to aggregate content from disparate sources on the internet to make the hardware – the TV itself – more competitive in the market. At the moment it's all about content, with the basic YouTube widget usually sitting alongside a range of internet channels – such as Dailymotion, weather apps and, sometimes, an interface for the likes of BBC iPlayer and ITV Player, and even Lovefilm. "Every hardware manufacturer is looking for any vaguely recognisable content to put on their device to provide differentiation," says Alison Casey, Head of Content at analyst firm Futuresource Consulting, but she points out a major flaw in these portals being packed with clips from YouTube and its ilk. "Maybe on a laptop you might want to watch kittens falling off a settee, but not on a 50-inch plasma. There's a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon here, and an attitude of 'let's embrace everything and see what sticks'. I don't think anyone is getting any exclusivity." Google TV: a new hope? So what about Google TV? Does the great search engine attempt – debuted recently in the US on Sony's GT1 range – to aggregate video from across the internet and dump it on your TV screen represents a massive shift – and possibly the end for the first wave of connected TV portals? "Google TV is a totally different kettle of fish," says Casey of the platform that puts one interface across all content and attempts to make jumping from TV to video on demand to websites, maps, photos and other private content a single seamless experience. "Google could make a big difference because they are very competent at generating a lot of revenue from advertisers, and search and recommendation – a big problem in walled gardens of content – could be a good thing for the industry. We've already seen it with the TV networks, which have made their content available online for a seven-day window for laptops and mobile devices to access." So why, then, does Google TV appear to have fallen at the first hurdle? 'Watch again' videos on the websites of the major US networks cannot be watched on Google TV devices (from Sony and Logitech) after Fox, ABC, CBS and NBC put up bariers. "The minute you deliver it to the TV you've got all of the premium pay TV and networks that pay the content industry a fortune jumping up and down," says Casey. "They pay for the re-transmission and catch-up TV rights, and all of a sudden it's made available for free on Google TV." It does seem a strange situation since anyone can simply plug a laptop into their flatscreen TV and watch absolutely anything from any website. Google's legendarily laisez faire approach to content – and its refusal to censor – may be putting-off the likes of Disney, which wouldn't want to see its brand next 'kitten clips', or, indeed, pirated videos. "The networks have to protect their cash cow, and in the interim won't talk to Google," says Casey. Are they holding back the tide? It's a legal thing – the moment something is on a connected TV it sits within a different set of rights – but blocking Google TV can only ever be a short-term strategy." What can other services offer? Other tempting services of the future include Hulu, already available in the US, and UltraViolet, a consortium of companies – including Microsoft, Lovefilm, Fox, NBC and all the major CE manufacturers – that want to create a common standard for digital downloads across software and hardware, giving users an online cloud account that inlcudes a digital rights locker; users can then watch any content on any UltraViolet-certified device, be it a mobile phone, games console or TV. UltraViolet is supported by Sony, which, aside from its US-only Google TV attempt, is also striving for a multi-platform content hub all of its own with its new Qriocity service. Meanwhile, the web TV platforms of Philips, Samsung, Toshiba, Panasonic, LG and Loewe have recently been bolstered by a range of apps from app developer BiBC that offer content from ITV, Hit Entertainment, the Cartoon Network, Boomerang andboxoffice365 – a suite of content that costs users £2.99 per month. It's largely archive material for now, but it demonstrates the splintered nature of today's content market. "There will an option to take on sports, movies and other content over the next six to eight weeks," says Paul Hague, the Director of BiBC. "Have a look at some of the channels available on Sky you wouldn't be a million miles away from the kind of content on our platform over the coming months." At a less advanced stage is DivX TV, which is attempting to use its debut deal with LG Blu-ray players and home cinema systems in the US (it sits on the NetCast platform) as a springboard to launch in Europe in 2011. The current content line-up – including apps from the New York Financial Press, Howcast and Funny or Die (more kitten-based humour?) – seems lacklustre, but that will change. "The key difference is that DivX TV is free and Ad-supported – users can start it up and just start using it without a credit card." DivX TV's David Holland told us that subscription-based content will soon be rolled-out, as will music streaming. Too fragmented?"It's all a bit fragmented right now and there may be some consolidation – and perhaps some consistency on how apps can be developed. At present they have to be rewritten for each different platform," says Holland. "That's what Google is trying to solve, but we'll see what plays out." "The next four to five are going to be massively fragmented with a lot of collaborations," agrees Casey. "It's going to be messy, but watch out for the big players with deep pockets – Apple's not going anywhere overnight and is clearly going into the living room – but in a lot of territories it's going to be the dominant TV player that already has the subscribers and the content – and other content experts that are big enough to invest and take risks." In the UK that could mean Sky or Virgin, both of which are in the middle of a fit of innovation – the former with online video and IP-connected boxes, and the latter with its TiVo set-top boxes. Or it could mean YouView, a BBC and ITV-owned joint venture that's due to launch in 2011. Summarised as a 'upgrade path for Freeview', Richard Halton, the CEO at YouView told us that the new service – a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva formerly known as Project Canvas – is an attempt to "fundamentally change the way people watch TV forever." "You'll get the digital TV you love, plus BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD, Demand Five and SeeSaw, as well as a potentially unlimited range of content, all instantly available on your TV," he told us. So far so predictable, but this is where it could get exciting. "The on-screen programme guide will go backwards in time as well as forwards, so viewers can discover and watch programmes whenever they want." Add HD, pause, rewind and record live TV, a clutch of pay TV channels (including Sky if they can get over their objections), and YouView could be a defining moment in IPTV. With so many connected TVs already offering a plethora of services it's tempting to say that YouView could have missed the boat. But we're still to see a genuinely engaging platform that successfully puts must-see content within a next-generation user interface that's as intelligent as it is slick. Whether that comes from Virgin's upcoming TiVo box, Sky, Apple, Xbox, YouView, TV manufacturers or an entirely new provider remains to be seen. 
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| In Depth: Apple's highs and lows in 2010 Posted: 22 Dec 2010 07:27 AM PST  Apple isn't the sort of company to skulk in the background. Whether it's wowing everyone with the MacBook Air, confounding industry expectations with the iPad, or trying to convince people that Ping isn't a total waste of time, the Cupertino company never seems far from promoting the next big thing. 2010 was no exception, and so here are TechRadar's highs and lows for Apple from the past twelve months; if we've not included your favourites, let us know in the comments. Apple's highs of 2010 1.iPad Analysts cleverly predicted failure for Apple's giant iPod touch and competitors scoffed; millions of happy iPad customers later and the entire industry's trying to pretend they always knew the iPad would be huge, and competitors are trying to catch up. A combination of usability, quality components and a surprisingly low price has turned the iPad from a potential breakout hit to a possible future of computing, also giving Apple new inroads into business. 2. The App Store It wasn't a 2010 invention, but the App Store continues to be a huge win for Apple. The store passed five billion downloads in June (and a billion dollars paid to developers), Apple finally provided insight into the app-review process, and there's a Mac equivalent due in 2011. Crucially, The App Store also sets iOS apart from competing platforms, which lack the quality apps found on Apple's store. 3.Steam for Mac It's not been revealed how much work Apple and Valve have done together, but there's no doubting Steam's arrival on Mac OS X is a big deal for Mac gamers. Although the selection of games is dwarfed by that for Windows, new products are increasingly coming to Mac (Portal 2 will get a simultaneous release). 4.Record company growth Apple's numbers went crazy in 2010, with records falling by the wayside. In October, the company reported $20 billion in revenue and over $4 billion in after-tax earnings, both records for the company. Its market cap exceeded Microsoft's in May, and it's threatening to overtake Exxon, which would make Apple the most valuable company in the world. Part of Apple's huge wealth will enable it to double its Cupertino HQ in 2011. 5.New Apple Stores Industry rumblings had suggested Apple was to spend more time concentrating on major stores rather than typical mall outlets. Sure enough, 2010 saw Apple's flagships go from merely impressive to jaw-dropping, most notably with the Shanghai store's glass tower and the massive Covent Garden store incorporating a beautiful Grade II listed building. 6. iPhone 4 Despite problems we'll cover in Apple's 2010 lows, the iPhone 4 is an astonishing device. It's powerful, with a screen resolution that makes digital text look like print, and a stills camera that can match point-and-shoots. This is a convergence device with few compromises, backed by a quarter of a million apps. The iPhone 4's Retina display is so crisp it looks like one of those stickers you peel off a device before seeing the real screen. 7. iOS 4 arrives With multitasking, Game Center, iBooks, AirPrint and AirPlay, and improvements to the springboard, Mail, Safari and iPod app, iOS 4 dealt with the bulk of perceived shortcomings in Apple's mobile devices. Major accessibility improvements also enabled disabled users top-quality access to content via Apple devices. 8.Macs crack ten percent Although not a big global player, Apple finally grabbed a ten percent market-share in the USA during 2010, biting at Acer's heels. Given Apple's massive profits compared to its contemporaries, market-share is more a psychological boost than anything; and had iPads been added to the 'PC' mix, Apple would have been the US leader in terms of shipped units. 9.Redefining laptops Many Apple products are evolutionary, but now and again something revolutionary occurs, shaking up the industry. The late-2010 MacBook Air is one such device, effectively merging the MacBook Pro and iPad, creating a super-light next-generation laptop with solid-state storage, long-lasting battery, great display and full-size keyboard and trackpad. 10.Steve Jobs alive and well It might seem odd to highlight Steve Jobs's health as an Apple 'high', but there's no denying a fit (if rather more streamlined than of old) Steve Jobs is great to see. Jobs taking the lead on keynotes and announcements is part of what makes Apple Apple, and he offered great quotes in 2010 ("Notebooks aren't better at anything," for example, during the iPad keynote); long may he continue to do so. Apple's lows of 2010 Not everything went well for Apple in 2010. Here's our pick of the year's biggest Apple blunders and failures. 1.Gizmodo and the 'lost' iPhone If you're an Apple employee, leaving your pre-release iPhone 4 in a bar isn't a great idea when there are slightly shifty people lurking. Cue: Gizmodo 'acquiring' the device and amazingly not noticing half the new tech, Apple lawyers getting astonishingly angry, police doing 'policey' things, and a general feeling that Apple had turned into the Big Brother it derided back in 1984. 2. Antennagate Apple thought it had made an iPhone with a much-improved antenna. But there was a problem.Other smartphones have similar issues, but they're not so high-profile. Antennagate didn't stop iPhone 4 being huge, but it arguably took the shine off the device and gave Apple's rivals a huge PR victory. 3.The white iPhone The iPhone 4: in any colour as long as you're a fan of black or white—and don't want a white one. Comically delayed several times, the white iPhone 4 abruptly disappeared from Apple's marketing material towards the end of 2010, with Apple having previously cited manufacturing challenges (although rumours still cling to the belief it'll appear 'soon'). Apple should just officially shoot it in the head and tell fans of white to wait for iPhone 5. Don't hold your breath waiting for a white iPhone 4, or you'll expire. 4.Ping The social network that isn't social and is trapped inside the lumbering beast that is iTunes, Ping never stood a chance. No-one cared, no-one really knew what it was for, and even its recent hook-up with Twitter has merely turned Ping into a Twitter spamming service, not an essential for social networking nuts. 5.iPadlockgate We made up a name for this one, but, yes, we really are saying that Apple changing the iPad screen orientation lock to a pointless 'mute some noises but not others' switch is a 2010 low for the company. The reason: Apple took something usable and great, then removed it on a whim, and even though the change was made in software there's no setting to revert it. This shows the arrogant side of Apple is always bubbling under the surface, ready to strike. 6.Apple TV The revamped Apple TV is tiny, affordable and filled with iOS unicorns. Sadly, said unicorns are nailed to a fence, so you can't install apps on the headless iPod touch; additionally, the new Apple TV pushes a rental-only model (bar streaming from a computer), and offers few TV shows to rent. (If you're outside of the US, 'few' means 'none at all', along with 'and by the way, no Netflix or equivalent either'). Expect Apple TV to be a 'high' of 2011, but for now it's a damp squib. 7.Lower Apple margins Due to the nature of the products Apple's selling and it making the likes of the iPad more affordable than everyone expected, the company announced its margins had again dropped in 2010. This is a low only in the sense that it was widely misreported as 'Apple is doomed' by lots of clueless analysts, ignoring Apple's insanely high profits. Margins will drop again in 2011—expect analysts to claim Steve Jobs will be working in a fast-food outlet by 2012. 8.AirPrint Best filed under 'maybe they'll fix it later', iOS 4.2's AirPrint devolved from a must-have feature to a near-disaster. In late betas, you could print from any shared printer; in the final release, only a tiny handful of HP printers were compatible. 9.Foxconn suicides Without doubt the saddest Apple-related story in 2010 was a spate of suicides at Foxconn, the Chinese company that manufactures many Apple products. Arguments raged about working conditions and cheap labour, and many were quick to note that Foxconn customers include other high-profile names, such as HP and Sony. However, the press mostly associates Foxconn with Apple, and despite Foxconn raising wages its and Apple's reputations were tarnished from the more than dozen suicides. 10.Steve Jobs is not a ninja With his penchant for black (turtlenecks), we did wonder if Steve Jobs was a ninja, and stories about him sneaking shuriken out of Japan seemed to support this idea. Sadly, Apple later stated that the incident was "pure fiction". 
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| Exclusive: Microsoft wants Windows 8 to relaunch PC gaming Posted: 22 Dec 2010 06:58 AM PST  Microsoft will use Windows 8 to relaunch itself at the forefront of PC gaming, TechRadar understands, with the software giant ready to put its weight behind the platform once more. The rise and rise of the MMO has underlined the power of PC gaming. Along with real time strategies and the still vibrant first-person shooter scene, it remains one of the planet's most popular gaming platforms. However, despite Windows remaining hugely influential, Microsoft's reluctance to embrace the PC as a gaming platform in recent years has angered many. Green shoots A relaunched Games for Windows marketplace was a recent fillip, but it is the hiring of Rahul Sood, the founder of gaming computer brand Voodoo PC and previously an outspoken critic of the Redmond company's attitude towards PC gaming that underlines what TechRadar has been told about Windows 8. "Windows 8 will represent a real new push into PC gaming," the source told TechRadar. "Gaming will be a key component for the whole OS." Along with the new store, Microsoft has shown signs of waking from its PC gaming slumber in the course of 2010. The announcement of a new Age of Empires game, along with Fable 3 and an updated Flight Simulator appear to be the green shoots of the new attitude. Steam clean The landscape will not be easy for Microsoft however, with Valve's Steam now a dominant figure in PC gaming. Valve – the company behind the wonderful Half Life series, along with Counter Strike, Portal and Team Fortress – has established Steam as a gaming store, delivery network and hub for online gamers. Microsoft will have the advantage of mass market, and could leverage the strides it has taken with online gaming on the Xbox 360 to try to win back the hearts and minds of the PC gamer. And Windows 8 would appear the perfect opportunity to begin the hard slog. 
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| Microsoft snaps up PC gaming guru Posted: 22 Dec 2010 05:57 AM PST  Microsoft has hired the outspoken founder of Voodoo PC Rahul Sood, its clearest indication to date of a whole new focus on gaming for Windows 8. Windows 8 is expected to have a significantly ramped up offering for PC gamers, and the hiring of Sood will only serve to underline that suggestion. Sood will move from a role at Hewlett Packard – who bought Voodoo PC – and has been one of the loudest voices in support of the PC as a gaming platform, at one point hitting out at his new employers Microsoft. Lacklustre Microsoft has been criticised in recent years for its lacklustre offering and support of gamers on the PC, with focus firmly on its Xbox 360 offering. However, Sood will bring a degree of credibility to the company when he takes on the role of general manager for system experience, with his controversial statements winning him many PC gaming fans. "Well, it's probably time I let the cat out of the bag. I am happy to announce that I'll be joining Microsoft as the GM for System Experience in the Interactive Entertainment Business," blogged Sood. "I'll be working on some really... really... really cool stuff come January 2011. If you need to get in touch with me feel free to find me on Facebook or Twitter. "I may or may not attend CES, but if you have something really cool to show let me know soon!" 
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| Review: Updated: Google Nexus S Posted: 22 Dec 2010 05:20 AM PST  The Google Nexus S wasn't supposed to happen according to Schmidt. However, the phone that we never expected has now landed in our laps and so we can use it to highlight how the latest tech can and should be used in phones. But has Google packed enough tech into this Samsung creation to prompt a resurrection of the Nexus brand, which started with the Google Nexus One, after proclaiming the project was over? The Nexus S is more than a handset – it's a state of mind (if you believe the way Google is describing it).
It's being called 'Pure Google', which is a way for the search giant to distance itself from the kerfuffle surrounding the delays encountered by network-issued updates. But in reality, the second you pick up the phone you realise it's leaning very heavily on the design aesthetic from the Samsung Galaxy S.
Only a shade heavier at 129g, the Google Nexus S feels light in the hand, and with that lacks the 'premium' feel the iPhone 4 and HTC Desire HD both bring through their metallic chassis. The curved nature of the frame is nice though – it helps the Nexus S sit well in the hand (with the small lip at the bottom helping it fit correctly, the same as on the Galaxy S) and there's also a curved screen on the front to look at with an interested expression.
Well, interested or bemused – we're sure this ever-so-slight curve added to the price of the Nexus S, and it's so minimal that we're sure it's nothing more than a gimmick. It doesn't feel any different on the face (it feels nice, just no more than a perfectly flat phone does).
The headphone socket is at the bottom of the phone, rather than the top, next to the micro-USB slot – we're not big fans of that, because it feels weird taking it out of the pocket that way. However, some people love it, and there seems to be a definite trend of phones moving towards that design (the HTC Desire HD for example).
The touch-sensitive keys at the bottom of the four-inch screen have some nicely strong haptics underneath them – a brief touch will be met with a solid confirmation buzz.
We thought the touch-sensitive buttons (which will light up and down under your caress) were actually scratched when we did our first hands-on with the Nexus S, but as you can see our test model has the same imperfection.
We're not sure why this imperfection happened, but it makes the phone look a little less premium, on top of the already plasticky feel.
One thing we're very disappointed with Samsung and Google about on the Nexus S is the lack of external microSD expansion. Yes, 16GB of internal storage is good-ish, but we want to be able to transfer stuff across without using a PC connection, or add in extra video storage space as and when we want it. Overall, we think the design of the Nexus S is fine. It's a shade light and there's no metallic feel to enjoy, but we were fans of the Galaxy S design so we're relatively impressed with this too. As we've already heard about 27,000 times, the Google Nexus S is rocking Gingerbread (or Android 2.3). What does this mean in terms of an update? Not that much, if we're honest. It's especially true when it comes to the Nexus S, which is more ready for future technology than anything else.
But it's still the same old Android interface essentially, with a slick feel under the finger and the notifications bar you drag down from the top to see email, text and music updates as and when they land. Another feature of the new Android 2.3 operating system is an improved efficiency around power management. This is achieved by Android keeping an eye on which applications are running in the background and shutting them down if they step out of line. Given the Google Nexus S is also rocking a Samsung 1GHz Hummingbird processor in the background (which offers up some fantastic speeds) we weren't surprised to see judder or freezing kept to a minimum. However, they weren't completely eradicated – there were times when background applications could still bring the phone to a halt, be it on the lock screen or swiping around the Home screens. We know that the root of this was often applications we downloaded messing about in the background, but still – we expected an iPhone-like flawless experience. Other than a few improvements, there's not a lot more to talk about in the new Android OS.
The user interface has been tweaked slightly – things like a black and green notifications bar (which changes to grey on the odd occasion, seemingly depending on which app you're in) are a nice touch, as are menus that 'bleed' into the main display – but overall it's nothing special. We're still treated to the cool 3D scrolling menus, which the dedicated GPU handles with aplomb, and five Home screens aren't that much to write home about.
The amount of widgets on offer from Google needs to be improved – the power control offering is the only one we really care about. The music widget is tiny and ultimately terrible, although the news and weather offering isn't too bad provided you've set up your RSS feeds correctly. Being able to rate places such as restaurants and businesses is cool though – it's a new offering we haven't seen yet and allows a quick star score to be put through about nearby vendors.
One thing that everyone is talking about though – the 'TV Off' style animation for the lock screen, where the image shuts down to a thin line then to a small point, in the same way as CRT televisions of old. Is it useful? No. Is it a real crowd-pleaser that epitomises what makes modern smartphones so cool? Yes. And for that we love it. But overall, we're not as impressed with the Google Nexus S interface as we have been with other phones. The lag aside, the offering from the Galaxy S is much better (with pull down power control and music control from the notifications bar) and HTC's Sense is just as slick with more widgets and the awesome Leap View too. Something we were keen to test on the Google Nexus S is the ability to integrate contacts seamlessly across a multitude of accounts. On one hand, we were impressed with the offering from Google – you can add in Twitter, Facebook, Google and more to the account list, and have them all synchronised to one person's account. On the other hand, the process of said linking was laborious and difficult at times. Setting up the Facebook and Twitter accounts to include contact synchronisation took some time to start with – the Nexus S wouldn't sync contacts to the phone for a while.
After that comes the long, long task of putting them all together. Some, with the correct phone numbers or email addresses, would link together automatically, but if you've got a list of around 200 people this is a very small number. So the process is this: open the contact, choose to edit, choose to join them with another name, then choose the relevant one. If the correct person isn't suggested (which, in fairness, it mostly was) then you have to scroll through the list to find them.
If they have a Twitter account, then the same must be done all over again. It's not easy to set a default account either - so people with different names in your phone and on Facebook will sometimes default to one you don't really want, and it takes a lot of deleting and editing to get it back to the right one. When you compare this to the power of the HTC Sense offering and the sheer ease of use it offers (when you start the contacts menu for the first time, the phone will suggest a long list of potential matches and you simply need to confirm them, for exmaple) blows this integration method out of the water.
The contact menu view was good though – the WVGA Super AMOLED screen is massively clear and allows downloaded profile pictures to show up nicely on the side of each name. The tab that allows you to shoot through the list alphabetically is large and easy to hit, and a quick press of their picture will bring up quick options, such as calling or messaging the person. One thing we did like was that the Nexus S will allow VoIP calling as standard for enabled accounts, so that will be a decent upgrade when enough people get their head around such a service. We're currently testing this feature in more detail, and will bring you the results when we get them – although we're annoyed off the bat that Skype isn't supported. If the N900, released a year ago, can manage Skype calling, then the Nexus S, designed to show what technology can do, should be able to do it as well out the box from this service (although you can download and use Skype as a separate application). The addition of video calling is pretty galling – it's like an iPhone 4 was held up as the bastion of smartphone creation (which, in fairness, it is to many people) and its features all integrated into the Google Nexus S. Having to install third party software to perform the function is equally stupid in our opinion – video calling is never going to take off, let's be honest, and to not support it out the box begs the question of why an extra video camera was added, bringing the cost up further.
Call quality was much better than we expected though – the noise cancelling worked pretty well in most cases, although when speaking on the bus (don't worry, we made sure nobody else was around) we were asked if we were using a handsfree kit, because there was 'significant echo'. But we did like the fact the speaker was nice and clear, and more importantly, easy to find on the ear when placing the phone to the head. Going back to the earlier point about freezing on the Nexus S – we had a slight problem when trying to call someone with another call coming in at the same time. The phone wouldn't let you answer the call or hang up the old one, meaning it was terribly frustrating to watch as you left a pointlessly long voice message. You can just pull the battery out, of course, but we wanted to wait and see what happened. This wasn't a frequent occurrence, but one that we still didn't like to see. The dialler doesn't come with smart entry unfortunately, so you can't quickly access your favourite people with a few dabs of the number keys. There are tabbed options at the top of the phone screen – these are consistent across the phone and contacts options, so it's easy to speak to the people you need to.
The call log is also mercifully intuitive – if someone phones you a few times in a row, the entries are grouped together, rather than sitting in separate rows and clogging up the screen. The Google Nexus S is probably above average in terms of the calling experience on a smartphone, but the fact that the reason it's decent is that it's possible to find your contacts easily and they can actually hear you is indicative of the state of the smartphone market. Messaging for Android as a whole has been impressive since the start of the OS – well, once a keyboard was added to the touchscreen, anyway. That's obviously been improved upon in the Nexus S – not in terms of the messaging options, of which there's very little difference, but in terms of the ease of text entry. Some reviews have put the new Android keyboard far behind the iPhone's in terms of overall accuracy, but we reckon it's on a par, despite the deceptively small keys.
We managed around 95+ per cent accuracy at full typing speed from the off, and that was about where we stayed for the duration of the review. Despite the smaller size, we managed to fire off messages with ease – and while the world seems to be going gaga for Swype, we hate it a little bit for its inaccuracy when you realise how much faster keyboards like this can be. One little tweak we liked: holding down the symbol key made the numbers available at the top – releasing it jumped back to the letters. This is a really good use of multi-touch, and one we're impressed with. One thing we didn't like is there's still no comma on the main keyboard, meaning you have to go through the symbols menu to open it up. Why, we don't know, but it's an essential symbol and the omission is noticeable.
Of course, the new Android keyboard is still there (technically just 'the Android keyboard' now, we suppose) which means that when you press space, the phone will offer up a question mark, a full stop, a comma and so on, which somewhat mitigates the problem.
But when the voice text input key is on the main keyboard screen, we can't help but wonder why these two weren't switched round. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't speak a text message that didn't need at least two corrections, so it seems a little pointless to have in our eyes. In fairness to Google, you can change the system layout - you'll have to drop out of the messaging app and head into the phone's keyboard settings from the main menu though. It's a case of simply putting the voice icon in with the symbols, and the comma magically reappears where it should have been from the start. Many people won't realise this though and get frustrated, so we can only assume this is Google's way of pushing the voice service to as many people as possible. Copy and paste now comes with easier to grab start and end points, but all this is a little moot when you consider HTC has managed to implement an excellent keyboard and well-worked copy and paste for ages now.
The system is easy to use, with a simple long-press activating the cursors, but at the same time you can only Cut or Copy from the menu – whereas with HTC's system you can search for the word or phrase on Google or Wikipedia or translate it too.
If these brands can implement it effectively, why can't Google? The messaging options are plentiful on the Google Nexus S. There's SMS, MMS (with a conversion from SMS by simply attaching an item), webmail and Exchange email, Google Talk for messaging and you can easily integrate Twitter and Facebook by downloading the official apps from the Market. Email was particularly easy to set up, because for all types of account we only needed to input our address and password. Most phones have learnt this trick by now, but we were worried Google might not have managed to put this in the 'stripped down' version of the OS.
In Gingerbread there are enough tweaks to bring the stock Android experience up to speed with the likes of HTC and Samsung in some areas – not completely, but there is a definite feel that the Android OS in its native form is finally pushing itself to its limits. The internet browser on Android phones has always been impressive, and that was before features such as Flash video integration and multi-touch zooming were included by default. The good news is that the Google Nexus S is in the same vein, making it very much an internet-friendly smartphone. The fast 1GHz Hummingbird processor kept the internet spinning past at an impressive rate, and web pages loaded very swiftly, no matter how 'heavy' they were.
However, there was still an element of juddering in scrolling around a loading page, and even when the text and images had fully loaded, it was still a little laggy at times. It's only slight, but the iPhone manages to be smooth nearly all the time, and that's where we want Android to get to. The same can be said for text reflow (where the words re-jig to fit the screen). This is in effect on the Nexus S, but you need to tap the screen once zoomed in to make it work.
Sometimes you only need to tap once; other times you have to hit it a few times. It's highly irritating – why can't we just zoom in and the words will resize? That's clearly what we want to do, and the Google Nexus S should be intuitive enough to know that.
When we clicked on a link in the web browser, it sometimes took a long while for the loading bar to begin, meaning we clicked again and again before realising that we'd already done it. It wasn't a big issue, but meant loading times were severely compromised. Flash video seemed to load quickly enough in nearly all instances – pages such as BBC websites and their embedded videos were a little choppy, especially when the 3G signal was low, but others (including full flavour YouTube) managed to jump to full screen with aplomb. However, it still wasn't the smoothest experience we've ever encountered, merely acceptable.
Similarly, HTML5 YouTube was in effect, and depending on the type of video you're looking at, you'll sometimes be able to play embedded files in the web browser and sometimes only through the dedicated YouTube application (which is admittedly great).
The other features of the Android internet browser we've raved about before are still all present and correct on the Google Nexus S, such as being able to share web pages easily via a whole host of portals.
If you've got elements such as Twitter installed, you can share links with your friends with no problem, and they'll come up looking pretty good too, especially on Facebook, where the links are nicely expanded for all to see. The video camera on the Google Nexus S is something of a dissapointment - and not only because it cannot record in HD, unlike its Nexus One brother. 720 x 480 resolution isn't high enough in our opinion, but the framerate seems to be acceptable (apart from in the first shot) and the autofocus doesn't feel the need to constantly operate during the shot.
The monkey's eyes are what scare us the most though. The approach for Android has never been one that focused heavily on the media side of things, and that's not really been upgraded for Android 2.3. There are a couple of tiny tweaks, but if you're looking to get a dedicated media phone, this handset (screen aside) isn't going to give you pause compared to something like the iPhone 4. Music Remember the stock Android music player from the T-Mobile G1? Well, not a lot has changed since then, although the UI is a little more attractive now. The main music display is still mostly album art and easy-to-press buttons for music skipping, but there's not a lot more to talk about than that. We're not seeing an equaliser (although they do drain the life out of your battery) and there's nothing more exotic than a party shuffle mode to get excited about.
Sonically, the Google Nexus S holds its own – bass levels are, at times, non-existent, but for the most part it's eminently usable as a music player. One irritating thing the Android OS will do to your music: if you've gone through and sorted out your iTunes collection, downloading artwork from Apple's server and the like, the Nexus S won't recognise the picture (because it doesn't tag in the metadata).
Instead, it will choose a file with a picture on it, and tag every single song that doesn't have a picture embedded with that image instead, leading to a very amateur-looking media player. Video Video on the Google Nexus S looks superb thanks to the WVGA Super AMOLED screen, rocking a full 800 x 480 resolution count. At full power, the brightness is definitely acceptable for viewing in most situations – we pulled it out on the street and managed to watch footage no matter what the conditions (although we wouldn't recommend it). Sadly, the weather we're having means we couldn't try it in direct sunlight, but under a lamp it was just about visible; that 1.5x brightness increase seems to be correct.
Video format support is something more of a worry though, because we weren't able to view the full range of our movie test selections by a long way. We were told that DivX was supported, but our movie simply wouldn't play. Neither would AVI files, although MP4 seemed to be just tikkity-boo, as you'd imagine, as were 3GP formats. However, don't go thinking WMV will be an option. It's not, unless you download another media player. The same can be said for video aspect alteration – if something is showing up in 4:3 in the standard Android Media player, it's staying that way, which is irritating for (legally) ripped DVDs that may have gone slightly wonky in encoding. Photo The Google Nexus S has the same media playback gallery as before – namely it looks awesome, but is pretty much useless. Don't even think about using this for finding your videos, because the grid view will only show you thumbnails, so working out the names is nigh on impossible unless you head into the file and check the details.
Photos are a little better, since you can see the one you're after with a minimum amount of fuss, and in a nicely scrollable view as well that tilts into a third dimension under your finger.
However, if you've got a few folders in the Nexus S, you'll have trouble tracking down your pictures at the start because every repository will load up. We'd rather the Nexus S came with a proper file manager or a very simplistic gallery – this is too halfway-house for our liking. We had a good play with the Google Nexus S in real conditions to see how the battery lasted – and the good news is that Android 2.3 seems to be pretty darn good at holding up the power management.
We'd usually last about 10-11 hours with an HTC Desire or Desire HD before thinking about finding a charger, but the Nexus S managed to push right through from one day to the next without hitting the red zone.
This means that while you'll still need to charge every night (as with most smartphones) you can easily get to two days' use if you're only a little more judicious on use, which is good if you go away for a weekend or something. Google is quoting talk time of up to 6.7 hours on 3G connections (14 hours on 2G) and nearly 18 days of standby time in 3G mode, which moves up to nearly a month on 2G signal.
The 1500mAh battery manages to get pretty close to this in real use – we measured talktime on 3G at around 2-3 hours before seriously depleting the battery. We also like the addition of this nifty battery meter, which can be found by tapping the top of the screen in the 'Battery Use' section of 'About Phone'.
If we were to create the perfect conditions where that standby mode could be achieved (ie nothing updating in the background, no apps running and a 3G mast with no data coming through – perhaps if we stood on Mars) then the number is feasible.
But standby time for a normal person could probably be stretched to 3.5 days if you're desperate to keep a lid on the consumption. And a little bonus FYI – the battery meter has turned 90 degrees to be resting on its base, rather than sideways on. We know. Earthshattering. Connectivity Ah, the old favourite of Android lovers the world over – the PC synchronisation software. The sheer detail with which you can process your information, back it up, restore it whenever... we're only kidding. There is no such thing on offer. You basically get one offer when hitting the phone with a USB lead – the chance to turn on USB storage or not.
It's not going to change your world, but it's a great way of getting data onto you phone. No fancy pants media player to worry about, just dragging and dropping. Like our forefathers did. Debugging mode gets a little Android bug icon now, which is pretty cute, but that's the biggest change on that front.
Other connections are all pretty stable. Bluetooth transfer times over 2.0 were fine, A2DP didn't bounce about and cut out randomly as it does on other smartphones, and the Wi-Fi hotspot mode (where you can share your 3G signal with other devices) worked first time, with the ability to specify a WPA key a nice touch, too. We did have problems with the Wi-Fi connection at times, though – it's very poor, even when we were near the router the phone could only muster three out of four bars. Curiously, the range seemed the same as other phones, so perhaps it's just the way it's being read rather than anything more sinister. 3G connectivity was perfectly acceptable too, although gone is the HSDPA icon to signify the faster speeds – it's 3G or nothing here, my friend. Good news everybody! The Google Nexus S is compatible with the newest version of Google Maps thanks to the integrated GPU. This means vector graphics and 3D imaging to make you really feel like you're in the picture. This will mean 3D versions of 300 cities and gesture controls that allow you to swipe or move the phone to reposition the map.
There will also be offline mode, although a connection will be needed to re-jig your planned journey. But at the time of writing, it was just the bog standard Android 4.7 mode we're so used to now – not to say that isn't good. The mapping application is fantastically fast. Qe managed to keep up with whatever we were looking for easily, and the maps loaded a lot faster than we're used to on other phones.
The good news for those looking to upgrade from the Samsung Galaxy S – the GPS issues have been resolved, in that you can actually now get a signal with no problem. In a busy area, you're looking at about 11 seconds for a fix from cold, with an almost instant approximation of your location through cell tower triangulation.
If you're in a car with a clear view of the sky, this drops to around 4-5 seconds for a fix... really nice to see and showing that Google is serious about navigation. Car mode is also included with the now-normal line up of Google Maps Navigation, so the large four-inch screen will be decent for using the Google Nexus S as a dedicated sat-nav device.
This performed well in real time use, although we didn't use a dock or anything - instead preferring to chuck the phone in the redundant ash tray. The voice commands came over loud and clear though, making it easy to drive through unknown territory without looking like a chump. Apps The Google Nexus S comes complete with a wide range of applications out of the box, including an enhanced download centre, Google Earth and the aforementioned Google Maps Navigation. Google Earth simply sped along with the integrated GPU, and found our location and resized the images very quickly indeed, in the same vein as the pre-installed maps.
Spinning through the application was easy as well, and really feels like a next-generation piece of kit when doing so – it will be something to show off to your friends down the pub, assuming they haven't already seen the same thing on the iPhone, of course. Looking at another of the headline technologies: the near field communication (NFC) technology was demonstrated to us at Google HQ using a sticker with information built right in.
It worked instantly, taking us to information on an address in London, and in the future can be used to stream trailers, pictures and text. It's all very theoretical at the moment because it requires others to get on board – and we're miles away from being able to use our phone as an Oyster Card. Google told us that the Nexus S can't write information via NFC yet, meaning it will only be useful for reading info from smart-enabled objects, and that's not as exciting when you realise a QR code can do pretty much the same thing.
One of the first things we did was turn off the functionality in the settings – we have no idea how much power it would use in real life if it's not scanning things, but for a good few months at least it will be a completely unnecessary feature. The Tags application was cool too, because it kept a history of everything you've scanned on the NFC chip and also let you bookmark your favourites. So if a tequila model comes past and offers to let you scan their T-shirt for a voucher, you won't have to keep doing it multiple times if you lose it... wait, that doesn't sound like an advantage. Google has also included a menu option to help you manage applications from the Home screen, where you can click in and see what's running, what's installed and whether there's some boring application you want to jettison. Other applications of note include the new YouTube application (which has to be downloaded when the phone is first turned on to get the new fancy version) which offers up portrait viewing of your videos and an improved search engine.
A dedicated downloads section is also in effect – meaning you no longer have to skulk through the back alleys of your internet browser to find the files your slurped down from the cloud earlier that day But more noticeable are the absences here; we want things like a dedicated file browser, an improved music and video player and support for Office documents out the box – it's insane that you have to go and get the right tools from the Android Market as soon as you turn the phone on. Google – we hope you step this up in the future, as these additions would make Android phones around 72 per cent better straight away, and avoid taking some of the well-deserved shine from the slick UI. Gaming Google has promised better gaming with the Nexus S – a top end GPU complete with three-axis gyroscope mean it could take on the iPhone 4 in some respects as the top gaming handset. However, the Android Market is pretty bare when it comes to decent games beyond the awesomeness of Angry Birds – even Flick Kick Football doesn't play as well on this phone as on the iPhone.
There could be a big gaming future for the Google Nexus S if the major names properly offer their wares for the Android ecosystem – but the power hasn't been realised yet.
We've always been impressed by the trajectory of Android, and with each passing iteration it's got closer to being a bit less for the hackers and more for the mainstream (although its open source ethos has remained). The Google Nexus S is designed to be the device that showcases the power of Android 2.3 and comes without the constraints of network upgrade delays – if Google updates something, the Nexus S community will be the first to know. Don't be fooled by all the hype, though: the Nexus S is pretty much just a hopped-up Galaxy S. Sure, it's got the fancy screen and NFC chip inside, but once the Samsung model gets beefed up to Android 2.3, there won't be a huge amount to choose between the two. We liked Android is an OS that's going places, there's no doubt about that. It bridges the gap between iPhone and Symbian^3 phones such as the Nokia N8 very well, giving open source opportunities with a very well-done UI. The operation is virtually judder-free, the GPU under the hood pushed the animations along at a wicked rate, and the burgeoning Android Market app store makes the Google Nexus S a very well-specified phone. The Google Maps and Navigations offerings are still superb, with easy to use software and a dedicated Car Mode making locating yourself a very simple task. Things like the beautiful screen are obviously a stand-out joy to use, and we're of the opinion that the bulging bottom and plastic cover is nice to hold rather than a poor version of the metallic phones out there. We disliked The lack of a comma on the keyboard might sound like a little issue, but to us, it's massive and could quickly get annoying. Sure, you can download another keyboard to solve the issue, but that's not what any phone should need to make it into a decent proposition. The text wrapping on the internet browser was hard to get right too, and sadly hasn't got better with time – is it too much to ask for that we get a phone with the ability to zoom in and out of text and show it all at once?
The lack of microSD slot is terrible as well. Samsung prides itself on being a media-centric company, so we think it must have been removed at Google's request, although for the life of us we can't think why. The price of the Nexus S is ridiculously high for the average gadget lover. Sure, it has some neat features but we reckon that slightly curved display added a few quid to the cost of manufacturing, and had it been flat the world wouldn't have simultaneously wept and cursed the ground the Android development team walked on. Verdict It's a tricky one to rate, the Google Nexus S. A good place to start would be the obvious: it's a cracking phone, with a lot to be excited about. For instance, the NFC chip is going to be a real boon in the future we reckon – Google's got plans for that tech, and that's partly why the Google Nexus S was created, to highlight what can be done on a handset. From the moment you pick up the phone (assuming you don't hate the plastic feeling) and turn it on, you know you're getting something special – even the booting screen looks amazingly sharp. The stuff Android gets right is all here on this phone – widgets, an easy-to-access notifications bar, easy-to-use applications and a dearth of openness about the underlying system make this attractive to both the man on the street who wants the latest phone and the modder who wants to root and play and customise to his or her heart's content. Android is certainly maturing at a fantastic rate – you can do so much now, and the incremental improvements to features such as the keyboard show that there's a lot of potential with this OS to iron out any bugs. But it's not a five -star experience on the Google Nexus S for a number of reasons: the ever so slight jumpiness and lagging, while very much not a big issue, take the gloss off the Android effect. The sub-par media player needs updating badly, and the lack of a microSD slot is bound to irk some. The high price tag is going to put some people off as well – although lest we forget, it's much cheaper on contract than the iPhone 4, despite costing more to purchase SIM free.
You've also got the benefit of being the first to receive the updates to Android version xx whenever it arrives – no more kicking your heels and waiting for your network to service your needs. In short, there's nothing wrong with the Google Nexus S. In areas, such as the internet browser and improved battery life, it shines, and the overall feeling is one of a great phone that's going to grow with you as you discover little tweaks, tricks and the best new apps. But while there's nothing to anger you about this phone, there will be times when it irritates you slightly, when the screen freezes momentarily or when a call scrambles its brain. If you love Android in its purest form, then the Google Nexus S is the phone for you. If you like it a little more feature rich, check out the HTC range. And (whisper it) if you're agnostic and can afford it, the Nexus S is still not an iPhone beater, so make sure you check out all your options first. Related Links
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| Avatar wins coveted 'most pirated movie of 2010' prize Posted: 22 Dec 2010 05:08 AM PST  James Cameron's Avatar is the number one pirated movie of 2010, according to new BitTorrent stats. The movies that were downloaded illegally in the past year pretty much adhere to what were the big movies of the last 12 months but there are a few notable exceptions. Toy Story 3 isn't in the top 10, despite its massive box-office success, and neither is Alice In Wonderland. Pirates life for me Three movies which had critical success but only moderate takings at the box office did make the list. These were: Kick-Ass (2), Green Zone (7) and The Hurt Locker (9). The remainder of the flicks that got pirated the most were: Inception (3), Shutter Island (4), Iron Man 2 (5), Clash of the Titans (6), Sherlock Holmes (8) and Salt (10). The folks behind Oscar winner The Hurt Locker know all about piracy – its producers are currently trying to sue those who uploaded the movie illegally to the internet. 
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| Music Unlimited lands on Sony Qriocity devices Posted: 22 Dec 2010 04:36 AM PST  Sony has announced that it is adding Music Unlimited to its Qriocity web service, offering up to 6 million songs through subscription. The major music labels that have signed up to Music Unlimited are as follows: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music. Sony also notes that a number of independent labels will also be lending their tracks to the service. Get connected Qriocity is an on-demand portal run by Sony that is available through the company's connected devices, such as TVs, Blu-ray players, home theatre systems and also the PS3 and the Vaio laptop range. There's two types of subscription for Music Unlimited. Basic will set you back £3.99 and Premium will cost £9.99 a month. As well as access to the millions of songs, Sony is promising that you can create dozens of personalised channels and you can also synch the service up to iTunes. Music Unlimited, originally announced at IFA, will launch initially in the UK and Europe and will come to the US in 2011. 
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| Music Unlimited lands on Sony Qriocity devices Posted: 22 Dec 2010 04:36 AM PST Sony has announced that it is adding Music Unlimited to its Qriocity web service, offering up to 6 million songs through subscription. The major music labels that have signed up to Music Unlimited are as follows: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music. Sony also notes that a number of independent labels will also be lending their tracks to the service. Get connected Qriocity is an on-demand portal run by Sony that is available through the company's connected devices, such as TVs, Blu-ray players, home theatre systems and also the PS3 and the Vaio laptop range. There's two types of subscription for Music Unlimited. Basic will set you back £3.99 and Premium will cost £9.99 a month. As well as access to the millions of songs, Sony is promising that you can create dozens of personalised channels and you can also synch the service up to iTunes. Music Unlimited, originally announced at IFA, will launch initially in the UK and Europe and will come to the US in 2011. 
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| Google triumphs in Android patent case Posted: 22 Dec 2010 04:10 AM PST  The threat of Google having to give up the Android name has been banished after a judge found in the search giant's favour in a long running patent case. Erich Specht was asserting that he owned the rights to the name, and back in mid-2009 put together a court case and asked for £70 million in damages. But a judge has sided with Google over who has the rights to use the name, despite the Big G being denied the trademark back in 2007. What about Specht's appeal? TechCrunch has published the full 57-page documentation of the case, and after sifting through, it appears that Specht was merely trying to get a slice of the pie for a trademark he'd given up on. In 2003 he ceased trading through the Android Data company, after the company's he was providing systems for either stopped taking licenses or became defunct. He attempted to sell the assets for the company, including giving up the trademark, but after that was unsuccessful he eventually left the name dormant and eventually let the domain AndroidData.com expire. It was only after a call to purchase the trademark in 2009 did he learn of Google's intentions, and began trying to resurrect the company before filing the lawsuit. But the judge has decided these efforts were simply designed to gain money from Android's success and sided with Google by throwing the case out. From TechCrunch 
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| Sky+ App arrives for Apple iPad Posted: 22 Dec 2010 03:59 AM PST  The popular Sky+ App has now arrived for Apple's iPad – letting you remotely set recordings and scout out the week ahead through the TV listings. The Sky+ App has been a major hit for the satellite giant, allowing its customers to set their box to record programmes from their mobile phones. And now, an iPad version is here, offering the seven-day EPG and bringing a highlights showcase section and recommendation engine. iPad version David Gibbs, General Manager for Sky Mobile said: "We are delighted to bring our popular Sky+ App to iPad with several new features which give our customers even more flexibility in discovering, watching and recording the TV they love." Another feature is integration with the Sky mobile TV App for iPad, allowing live access to Sky Sports and Sky news. "Customers who have both apps downloaded can click through to Sky TV directly from the Sky+ App and access any of the app's live content," explains Sky. 
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| Tutorial: iTunes Ping: the complete guide Posted: 22 Dec 2010 03:47 AM PST  Alongside the new iPods that Apple announced at its annual September event, iTunes reached version 10. As well as stripping the colour from the sidebar, it introduced Ping, a social networking feature that enables you to see what your friends and favourite artists are listening to. Apple added a couple of features in version 10.0.1, so make sure you're fully up to date. Let's first sign up for Ping and have a look at its main screen. You'll see Ping just below the iTunes Store entry in the iTunes sidebar. Click Turn On Ping, and fill in your details to set up your profile – it's very quick. When you're done, you'll see the main Ping screen. Interface The iTunes interface has been altered. Gone is the colour from the sidebar icons, and the close, minimise and maximise buttons now sit vertically next to the player controls. The additional button in the panel next to the search bar is the new Album List library view, which we'll look at over the page. Add Playlist, Shuffle, Repeat and Artwork are now just symbols on the bottom bar. Toolbar The back and forward arrows to navigate Ping work just like a web browser. On the right, there's a Ping menu, giving you quick access to your Recent Activity feed, profile, the people you follow or who are following you, and featured artists. Use the Ping button to jump back to the main screen. Recent Activity This newsfeed is just like the one on Facebook. As soon as you choose to follow someone, their updates are added to the feed. Scroll down to read more. If you get to the end and still haven't had enough, click the the More… link below the last posting. Follow You can follow another person or artist just like you would on Twitter or Facebook. Once you follow them, their updates will appear in Recent Activity, which is akin to your Facebook newsfeed or Twitter home page. Some people may need to approve you first. Artists we recommend iTunes suggests artists it thinks you might like to follow, based on things you've bought previously. We got 772 recommendations, which could take some time to go through, but the big names came up in the first few pages. To find out more about a given musician or group, click their name to view their profile page, where you can also choose to follow them. Ping links This list of links helps you navigate various parts of Ping. It gives you quick access to your profile, any reviews you've written, the people you follow, and new, featured artists. Over the page, we'll look at your profile and reviews in more detail. Account Click here to sign in; once you've done so, it displays the email address you're logged in with. Use your existing iTunes Store account. When you click and hold, a menu drops down, giving you quick access to your account details, your wish list and the options to redeem gift vouchers or sign out. Find more people To find a particular artist, or one of your friends or colleagues, type their name in the search bar and press Return. You can filter the results to show only Artists, or just the regular People. If you can't find who you're looking for, why not invite them to sign up to Ping? Just click Invite and type in their email address and a message. Post, Like or comment Seen something you like? Why not share it with your followers. Click Post to share an entry – you can even add a message to the posting. Alternatively, you can click the Like button or write a comment below it. The feed only displays the latest comment by default – click Show more comments to read them all in a handy scrolling pane. Parental controls If your children use iTunes and you're worried about them finding unsuitable content, you can disable certain features to keep them safe. Go into iTunes > Preferences and click the Parental button. Here, you can disable the iTunes Store (which turns Ping off too), Podcasts, Radio or Shared Libraries. If you want to be slightly less draconian, you can simply restrict content based on its rating. Pick your country from the Ratings for: dropdown, then use the options below to hide material. Remember to click the padlock to prevent anyone from altering your settings. Now do more with Ping You can access your Ping profile by clicking My Profile in the Ping menu. It contains the details you filled in when you set up your account. On the right, you'll see a line of thumbnails of artists you like, which are based on purchases you've made from the iTunes Store in the past. Below all this is your Recent Activity, where you'll see any comments you've made, artists you've started following and more. A list of the people you follow is on the right.
Edit Profile, in the pane on the right, enables you to change your picture, bio and location. Under Music I Like, you can determine what appears in that section. Lastly, Privacy Settings is were you dictate if others are allowed to follow you, and if they require your approval first. Instant access The new Ping sidebar in your music library shows you a mini feed of the recent activity of the people and acts you're following, and if you select a song by an artist who has a Ping profile, you'll see their latest activity at the top. You can also Like or Post the song that's currently selected in your library. You'll notice a little Ping drop-down next to the song you've got selected. This also offers Like and Post options, as well as direct links to that artist's profile and album pages on the iTunes Store. Writing reviews Social networking is all about interaction and leaving feedback, so what better way to do this than by writing a review of someone's music? Reviewing music on the iTunes Store is nothing new, but Ping brings all your reviews together in your profile, so others can browse them easily. To write a review, browse to the album's track listing and scroll to the bottom. There, you can leave your thoughts on it. Now head back to your profile and click My Reviews, and your feedback will appear there. Others who browse your reviews get direct links to buy the music you critiqued. Bring back the colour If you, like us, miss the coloured icons in the sidebar or believe firmly that the close, minimise and maximise buttons should appear horizontally rather than vertically, there's good news – changing them back is relatively straightforward. First off, make sure you've quit iTunes, then open up Terminal from your Applications/Utilities folder. Type the following and press Return: defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -1 Terminal won't acknowledge what you've done, but type exit and quit Terminal. You're now ready to reopen iTunes and breathe a sigh of relief – the buttons will sit horizontally again. Next up, let's give the sidebar back its colour. This not only looks better, but makes navigating them easier, because you'll probably have come to associate certain colours with certain entries – the Store is green, Home Sharing is orange and your Music library is blue. Without the colour, it'll take you longer to read each entry before you click it. This bit's a little more complicated, but just follow our steps and it'll work fine, provided Source Text is set to Small in the Preferences. First, quit iTunes, open up Safari and go to here. Click the Download button and wait for the file to come in. While it's downloading, find iTunes in your Applications folder, right-click it and select Show Package Contents. Expand the Contents folder, then the Resources one and scroll down to a file called iTunes.rsrc. Make a copy of this elsewhere on your hard drive, just in case anything goes wrong. Then find the file you've just downloaded and copy it to the Resources folder. Type in your administrator password and choose to replace the file that's already there. Now reopen iTunes to be greeted by a glorious technicolour sidebar. Wait, there's more... Ping wasn't the only new feature added to iTunes 10; there's AirPlay wireless music and integration with the new Apple TV. AirPlay is designed to enable you to listen to your music anywhere in your house, wirelessly. You can pair speakers and docks to your Mac and then listen to your music in more than one room. You'll even be able to see song details and album artwork on supported devices. How to use the new Album List view iTunes 10 adds a new way to browse your music library. As well as the usual List, Grid and Cover Flow modes, there's now an Album List view. It works like the standard List view, but incorporates album artwork into the list. It does this by grouping whole albums together, with the cover art on the left-hand side. Browsing in this way gives you the best of both the List and Grid views, in that you can visually search for an album you're after, before picking out a track without needing to switch screens. You can also rate the album quickly by clicking the dots next to the cover to give it a star rating. This applies that rating to all its tracks. In Album List view, you can still sort your library by track name, or any of the other column headings, simply by clicking them. But if you try this, you'll see the majority of your album artwork disappear, because it only displays if there are several tracks to show alongside it. You can force the artwork to appear, by going to View > Always Show Artwork, but if you then sort your library by track name, most tracks will take up between three and seven lines, due to the image alongside them. So as the name suggests, Album List view is really only for browsing grouped records. How to explore people's profiles 1. Public profile
Just like you, artists on the Ping network have their own public profiles, which can contain a photo, a short bio, their recent activity and the music they like. If you're not already following them, there's a button just below their name – click on it to start doing so. 2. Music they like
Hover your mouse over one of the album thumbnails that the artist likes to find out the name of the song, artist and album. Click again for an iTunes Store window, where you can preview the record in question and buy tracks. Use the drop-down to Like the album. 3. Followers
In the bottom-right corner, you can see who's following that artist. This is a good way of finding other people who have similar music tastes to you, and then looking at who else they follow to discover new artists. Click someone's name to view their profile and Follow them. 4. Side box
If an artist has written any reviews of others' music, you can read these by clicking Reviews By Artist on the right-hand side. Below this are links to Like the artist, or post their profile to your followers – a great way to spread the word about new bands you've discovered. 5. Buy their music
If you'd like to listen to the artist's own music, click the Artist Page button below their name. This takes you to their regular iTunes Store page, where you have the list of albums, which you can explore, preview and buy. To go back to their profile, click Profile on the right. 6. Stop following
Musical tastes vary over time, so you might find you no longer wish to follow a given artist. You can do so by clicking Stop Following, which you'll find under Artist Links on the righthand side of their profile. Their updates will be removed from your Recent Activity feed. 
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| Amazon to hit 8m Kindle sales in 2010 Posted: 22 Dec 2010 03:29 AM PST  Amazon will sell 8 million Kindles in 2010, with the e-reader selling 60 per cent more than analysts had suggested. The latest Amazon Kindle 3 has really caught the wave, and a big marketing campaign has been in evidence across the UK. And the device is a success on a global level according to Bloomberg's Businessweek, who suggested 8 million of the devices have been sold. Low price-point The Kindle has benefited from a low price-point and the growing awareness of e-readers. Priced at £109 and £149 in the UK, the device is likely to be on many Christmas lists, and, assuming the deliveries have got through, Amazon will also benefit from selling digital books through its extensive library. There has, however, been criticism from some quarters that digital copies are not significantly cheaper than the physical books, despite virtually no cost in replication. Some are also keen to see a digital copy being offered along with a physical book, meaning that using the kindle on your commute doesn't mean you need miss on the tactile pleasure of a real book when carrying it around is less of an issue. 
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| Latest virtual reality headset tech unveiled Posted: 22 Dec 2010 03:29 AM PST  Remember virtual reality headsets back in the 1990s? And how they suggested the promise of a glorious 3D entertainment future? Well, it seems that they still might do. That's according to Australian VR headset developers over at VR Solutions VR Simulation trade show Michael Bosworth, Managing Director at VR Solutions recently attended the VR simulation trade show, I/ITSEC 2010 in Orlando to see what they had on offer. Bosworth informs TechRadar that one of his suppliers - Virginia-based NVIS virtual reality display manufacturers - showing their latest tech at this month's VR event – were showing the way forward for virtual reality tech. "As a supplier to partners working for the Australian army and various training facilities across Asia, we are always looking to work closely with innovative manufacturers such as NVIS who are able to tailor or deliver products for their intended purpose," the VR tech expert said. Mark Foglia, President, NVIS Inc noted that, for their part, they have "enjoyed working with VR Solutions since 2002 and we're very excited to see them again at I/ITSEC 2010 and introduce them to our new products." Might we see virtual reality make something of a comeback in the consumer technology sphere in 2011? We certainly hope so… 
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| Net neutrality in US agreed, but not for mobiles Posted: 22 Dec 2010 02:54 AM PST  The US has managed to agree to new net neutrality rules, after ISP regulations were given the greenlight. The regulations are certainly limited but the key to the new ruling means that ISPs in the country will not be able to interfere or block online content and give all content the same treatment, regardless of the website that's supplying it. The voting for the net neutrality ruling was close (3-2) but President Obama said about the new regulation: "Today's decision will help preserve the free and open nature of the internet while encouraging innovation, protecting consumer choice, and defending free speech." The ruling doesn't stretch as far as mobile internet, however, with the FCC noting that this area of the internet is evolving too fast for carriers at the moment, so adding these restrictions would have a negative effect. However, VoiP services such as Skype will not be blocked under the new ruling. Open mobile "We recognise that there have been meaningful recent moves toward openness, including the introduction of open operating systems like Android," said the FCC. "In light of these considerations, we conclude it is appropriate to take measured steps at this time to protect the openness of the internet when accessed through mobile broadband." So it seems that mobile broadband will be a regulation-free place for some time to come. Given that the UK is seriously considering getting rid of net neutrality, however, any regulations agreed in the US can only be a good thing. 
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| Google offers up Gingerbread tips and tricks Posted: 22 Dec 2010 02:50 AM PST  Google has announced a few cool ways to get the most out of Android 2.3 (or Gingerbread) for owners of the new Google Nexus S. We've covered most of these in our Google Nexus S: 11 Tips and Tricks piece, but if you've been blessed with a new Googlephone (or got one from Santa and are reading this on Christmas day) then check out a few extra helpful hints, such as:
Christmas love for the feathers of discontent What's more interesting is that Google has decided to 'recommend' some applications as those that users would benefit from downloading, with many not created by Google. These include Angry Birds, Shazam and Astro - all apps that many users reach for as soon as they buy an Android phone, but interesting that Google would consider them polished enough for its own blog. Take a gander at the full list over on Google's official blog to see the full list of handy hints. 
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| HP rumoured to launch PalmPad at CES 2011 Posted: 22 Dec 2010 02:30 AM PST  HP is rumoured to be planning to launch a range of PalmPad-branded devices at CES 2011 in Las Vegas next month. Speculation is rife that the manufacturer is readying a number of PalmPad devices, with three PalmPads said to be developed ready for an unveil to the world's tech press in Vegas. PalmPads for all The news comes, somewhat surprisingly, from a US source at Fox News claiming that we should expect to see three PalmPad-branded devices from HP at next year's consumer electronics shindig in the desert. Each is expected to be differentiated by slightly different tech specs and will reportedly be very similar to HP's slate. One is said to have a 9.7-inch screen, weighing 1.25 lbs (567 grams) and be considerably thinner than the iPad, featuring a USB 3.0 port and a 'multi-switch' like the one on the Palm Pre, as well as a mini HDMI port for home cinema fans. The PalmPads are also reportedly packing be two cameras, a 3 MP rear one and a 1.3 MP front one, each one featuring a flash. HP's new PalmPad tablets will run WebOS 2.5.1, with plans for a fourth device tailored for the higher education market. Laptops for bored boarders? In other slightly bizarre HP news, the manufacturer has announced a number of laptops targeted at the ski-ing and snowboarding fraternity and sisterhood. "HP collaborates with Rossignol to deliver notebooks that let you express your style on and off the slopes," reads the release just in. "HP today announced the launch of two limited edition notebooks developed with Rossignol, the mountain lifestyle brand especially for snow sports fans. "Part of a truly integrated design experience, spanning skiwear and technology, these products have been created for those who want to express their sense of style and have unlimited entertainment at their fingertips." The ultimate stylish technology for mountain lifestyle fanatics, apparently. Slightly niche? 
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| Posted: 22 Dec 2010 02:00 AM PST  Here's an accessory which neither makes nor modifies sound, yet we reckon a great number of audiophiles will want to know about it. The IDPAT i4 is quite simply a battery charger, but it has an important difference from most of its ilk in that it can charge a wide variety of kit, up to four items at a time. It's a highly ingenious design which has interchangeable 'tips' suited to various battery-powered devices in common use: six are supplied with the unit and a couple of dozen more are available at add-ons for around £6 each. Obviously there's one for Apple iPod/iPhone devices and the other standard types are mini- and micro-USB and versions for common phones from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung. There's an A-style USB socket on the side of the unit as well. Among the optional tips is one for AA/AAA batteries, which we could definitely find use for. The tips are slightly spring-loaded to give some protection against knocks when devices are being charged. What we really like about this is its all-round practicality. It's a single unit that sits neatly on a shelf or table and plugs into the mains (no wall-wart!) and you can't easily lose it like a small dedicated charger. The tips are clearly labelled so you know what's what, and when each device is fully charged the LED in front of it changes from red to green. It may not change the sound of your hi-fi , but it'll put you in a much better frame of mind to appreciate it! Related Links
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| Review: Moth Tube Imp valve tester Posted: 22 Dec 2010 01:30 AM PST  Few areas of hi-fi are as apt for tweaking as valve amplifiers. At the very least, changing valves is easy since they almost invariably plug in and out. Alternative and/or upgrade valve types are widely available for the commonest varieties. Valves wear out, too, making replacement a maintenance job (though for most signal valves a life of several years should certainly be expected). But how can one check the characteristics of a valve? Not only is it good to be able to check basic performance, but in many circuits it is highly desirable for both sections of a double triode (and double triodes are by far the commonest varieties in audio use) to be well matched. Enter the Moth Tube Imp. It brings the power of modern integrated circuits to the business of valve testing and with remarkably little fuss allows you to test all the main parameters of normal, double triodes – gain, transconductance and current at various settings. Ideally, you still need to know something about the valve type you're testing and the circuit it goes in, but the supplied instructions make it easy enough to do a basic test. And there is no denying the benefits of putting a really good valve in any decent circuit – benefits that can readily be both heard and measured. We tried a couple of phono amps, one line preamp and a power amp, all of which used variations of the common ECC81/2/3 types in different configurations and, in each case, were easily able to correlate overall performance with conformance of the valve to the original data sheet. Related Links
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| LG Optimus 2X confirmed for January UK release Posted: 22 Dec 2010 01:28 AM PST  LG has confirmed that the dual-core Tegra 2 LG Optimus 2X will make its debut in Europe next month. The Korean company has confirmed that the phone is imminent while announcing that legendary movie theme composer Ennio Morricone will be making exclusive ringtones for the handset. "The exclusive music will be preloaded on LG smartphones starting with the LG Optimus 2X set to debut next month in Europe," said LG's official release. UK price We already have an approximate LG Optimus 2X UK price of around £470 courtesy of pre-orders from Europe, and we know that Nvidia's Tegra 2 will provide the processor power for a 4-inch screen and Android 2.2. LG will be keen to put a major mobile phone slump in Q3 of 2010 behind them, and the LG Optimus 2X will be joined by the LG B smartphone which should make its debut in the coming weeks. These handsets will join the Android-toting LG Optimus One and LG Optimus 7 with Windows Phone 7, as the Korean company looks to get its mobile sales back on track. 
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| LG Optimus 2X confirmed for January UK release Posted: 22 Dec 2010 01:28 AM PST LG has confirmed that the dual-core Tegra 2 LG Optimus 2X will make its debut in Europe next month. The Korean company has confirmed that the phone is imminent while announcing that legendary movie theme composer Ennio Morricone will be making exclusive ringtones for the handset. "The exclusive music will be preloaded on LG smartphones starting with the LG Optimus 2X set to debut next month in Europe," said LG's official release. UK price We already have an approximate LG Optimus 2X UK price of around £470 courtesy of pre-orders from Europe, and we know that Nvidia's Tegra 2 will provide the processor power for a 4-inch screen and Android 2.2. LG will be keen to put a major mobile phone slump in Q3 of 2010 behind them, and the LG Optimus 2X will be joined by the LG B smartphone which should make its debut in the coming weeks. These handsets will join the Android-toting LG Optimus One and LG Optimus 7 with Windows Phone 7, as the Korean company looks to get its mobile sales back on track. 
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| Ennio Morricone to provide exclusive LG ringtones Posted: 22 Dec 2010 01:17 AM PST  LG has announced that legenday movie music maestro Ennio Morricone is providing a collection of exclusive ringtones and music for its mobile phones. Morricone has written some of the most iconic movie scores – including Sergio Leone classics like The Good the Bad and the Ugly and a Fistful of Dollars. And LG has now snapped up the composer, and as well as newly composed pieces there will be a selection from his movie themes, including The Mission and Cinema Paradiso. Pre-loaded The exclusive music will be preloaded on LG's range of smartphones and it will be the dual-core LG Optimus 2X which will be the first to get the selection. "LG smartphone users will be able to enjoy a total of 25 of Morricone's creations -- 15 ringtones composed specifically for LG and 10 of his best-known tunes from the world of cinema," explained LG. There will also be a 'selection' of apps with Morricone-related content – including images and video clips available free from the LG store. "Signore Morricone is one of the best-loved soundtrack composers of all time," said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. "Reproducing his work with such amazing clarity on the Optimus 2X, gives smartphones a whole new level of respect as the primary device for on-the-go music." 
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| Nintendo plans new year 3DS reveal Posted: 22 Dec 2010 12:48 AM PST  Nintendo is planning to host European and American press events to release launch details of the Nintendo 3DS in January. Nintendo issued invites to a US 3DS press event in New York on 19 January, with European tech and gaming media also being invited to a similar event in Amsterdam on the same day. Launch details for 3DS TechRadar will be attending the Euro event in January, when we hope to find out the final Nintendo 3DS UK release date and pricing details - and, perhaps most importantly, the game launch line-up. Nintendo says the NYC event will feature "hands-on game play, demos and a presentation by president and COO of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aime." We have spoken with Nintendo UK reps to find out more about the plans for the Amsterdam event in January, but have been served with the requisite 'no comment' from PRs. A 3D easter gift? Japan gets the 3DS on February 19, so there is already speculation that Nintendo might be planning a simultaneous worldwide launch on the same date. Alternatively, the Japanese gaming giant may choose to wait a month or more and release the 3DS around the busy Easter holiday period in the US and Europe. Whatever transpires we will be first to bring you the news. In the meantime, you can see our most highly-anticipated top 10 Nintendo 3DS titles on 3DRadar. 
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