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Techradar |
- Review: Scan 3XS Vengeance
- Review: MSI P67A-GD65
- Review: Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG
- Intel Sandy bridge: reviewed and rated
- CES 2011: Lenovo Arcade Dock mod will bring the kid out in you
- CES 2011: Mophie Pulse turns the iPod touch into a gaming king
- CES 2011: Cinemin Slice: pico projector iPad dock revealed
- CES 2011: Lenovo LePad 10-inch Android tablet graces CES... again
- CES 2011: Hands on: Asus EeeSlate review and EeePad review
- CES 2011: Asus launches four Eee Pad and Eee Slate tablets
- Review: Motorola Milestone 2
- Samsung Galaxy Player offers affordable music and Android apps
- Google woos publishers for Android newsstand
- Google woos publishers for Android newsstand
- Google's Android text bug now dubbed 'critical'
- Honeycomb to require dual-core processor and HD display?
- The Carphone Warehouse offering up mobile phones for 1p
- Intel Sandy Bridge mobile preview
- CES 2011: Mitsubishi dreams big with 155in OLED display
- CES 2011: Toshiba demos glasses-free 3D laptop
- Opinion: Intel's Sandy Bridge video transcoder cock up
- Explained: How MP3 compression works
- Updated: HTC Tablet rumours: what you need to know
- CES 2011: Kodak launches new tiny and rugged pocket cams
- HTC's first tablet outed as HTC Scribe?
| Posted: 04 Jan 2011 09:01 PM PST We're not entirely sure who Scan Computers is aiming to exact its vengeance upon with this rig, but by the numbers the 3XS Vengeance is producing it's a pretty safe bet it's going to manage it. This is the first full PC we've seen to actually put the new second-generation Intel Core platform into context. You'll have read just how good this Sandy Bridge platform is by now, but until you actually see it in a machine, it's tough to quantify. The pairing of the Core i7-2600K and Nvidia GTX 580 could well be the top CPU/GPU partnership of the next six months or so, but until we get a few more rigs across our test benches, it's a hard to be certain. No matter the context, though, the only machine in the last year to come close to the 3XS Vengeance's performance numbers has been the CyberPower Charybdis. That was a £2,000 machine sporting an overclocked Gulftown six-core CPU and twin 1GB GTX 460s running in SLI. Granted, that rig still has the performance lead, but only by a hair's breadth – and that's mostly down to the twin GPUs beating at the heart of the PC, rather than the CPU itself. From these benchmarks the Charybdis might look the better machine, but it's not £250 better. The performance figures you're getting from the 3XS Vengeance are so close, and on the DiRT 2 gaming benchmark slightly ahead, that you'd happily go for this more fully featured setup. These benchmarks don't take into account the superior OCZ SandForce SSD and dedicated soundcard of the Scan machine either, both of which help make it such a quality machine. CPU performance Cinebench R11 – Index: higher is better Scan 3XS Vengeance: 8.73 DirectX 11 tessellation performance Heaven – FPS: higher is better Scan 3XS Vengeance: 25.9 DirectX 11 gaming performance DiRT 2 – FPS: higher is better 3XS Vengeance: 90 The other major difference between the CyberPower Charybdis and the Scan 3XS Vengeance is the noise. The Charybdis had to water-cool the CPU to keep it happy, but still relied on two large fans, and the twin GPUs also made a bit of racket happily heating up the innards. Scan's 3XS Vengeance, on the other hand, is whisper quiet. Despite the fact that the Core i7-2600K is running at a lightning 4.5GHz, it's kept cool by the Alpenfohn Matterhorn active-cooler, which is itself a rather softly spoken chiller. The GTX 580, too, still surprises us with just how quiet it manages to be. Compared with its GTX 480-shaped forebear, that's doubly impressive. At £1,740, it's by no means a particularly wallet-friendly machine, but considering the combination of top-end tech and spectacular benchmarks it comes out looking rather good value. There's absolutely no compromise in this system – at no point have cuts been made to make sure this machine hits a certain price point. Indeed, if the rather scarce GTX 580 becomes more widely available, the pricing may actually come down. You've got the top Sandy Bridge CPU, seriously overclocked, the best graphics card on the planet, a full 1TB storage drive and a SandForce-powered SSD from OCZ, a bloated 8GB of speedy DDR3, and even a particularly tasty discrete soundcard as an extra cherry on top. Faster components and chipsets will arrive, but a 3XS Vengeance purchase is going to remain relevant for a while yet. Essentially, this is a machine that will happily be playing at the top of its game for the next two years at least. As the first machine of what is effectively a new generation, it was always going to blow the previous rigs we've seen out of the water, but we can't help but be impressed by the 3XS Vengeance. We liked The performance of this rig is nothing short of phenomenal. The pairing of a Sandy Bridge CPU and Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 makes it something to reckon with. It's also incredibly quiet for something packing this much high-end kit. We disliked To be honest, there's very little not to like about this machine. There's been no compromise with any of the components, making it about as feature-rich a machine as currently possible. Related Links
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| Posted: 04 Jan 2011 09:01 PM PST  With the launch of a whole new chipset, you can bet your last kidney that there'll be a slew of new motherboards hitting the scene from pretty much everyone who's ever laid capacitors on PCB. This here P67 board from MSI represents something very different from the Asus Maximus IV Extreme that's also just been released. It isn't necessarily aimed at the high-end enthusiast segment. It's a board for people wishing to build up their new platform with a reasonable feature-set and at a reasonable price. The bonus of having so much stuff move over to the CPU die in Sandy Bridge is that manufacturing motherboards is a little cheaper, and so you get a lot for your £140. There's full SLI and CrossFire licensing, the latest line in USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps storage interfaces, and the 'Military Class' components that make these MSI boards rather robust. So how does it stand up? The MSI board is, at best, half the price of the Asus RoG board we've looked at, and for that you do get a rather chunky feature set. What you don't get is the raw performance of the Maximus IV Extreme or the overclocking chops. But for those not necessarily into hardcore OCing, the 4.2GHz you can pick up from the OC Genie alone will suffice. CPU rendering performance Cinebench R10 – seconds: quicker is better MSI P67A-GD65: 38 CPU encoding performance – FPS: higher is better MSI P67A-GD65: 35 Overclocking performance Intel Core i7-2600K – GHz: higher is better MSI P67A-GD65: 4.2 So it's a fully fledged P67 board for a fraction of the price of the top-of-the-range Asus Maximus IV Extreme board, and it actually makes a very good case for itself. As well as the aforementioned multi-GPU compatibility, support for the two new storage interfaces and MSI's 'Military Class' stylings, there's also a full set of voltage check points next to the DIMM slots on the board. If you're a keen overclocker, these may well be of interest. Realistically, though, on a mid-level board such as this, few are likely to get their voltage readers dirty. Talking of tweaking, you also get MSI's updated OC Genie one-touch overclocking technology. For a platform that's as locked-down in terms of overclocking as Sandy Bridge, the fact the OC Genie hit the same 4.2GHz that we managed through an hour or so of tweaking and rebooting is definitely worth noting. Considering this isn't a serious overclocker's board, the OC Genie will be enough for pretty much anyone. Until now, 4GHz had been a bit of a target for the OC community, and it's demonstrative of the performance of the Sandy Bridge chips that the 4.2GHz on this MSI board is a mite disappointing. If you really want the extra 400MHz the Asus Maximus IV Extreme can give you on air, you'll have to pay out twice the price of this still feature-rich board. And we'd defy you, without benchmarks, to tell the difference that 400MHz will reasonably make to your experience. The issue on this board, though, is with Intel's Turbo tech; our Core i7 2600K runs normally at 3.4GHz, with a theoretical Turbo speed of 3.8GHz. Unfortunately, on the MSI board, despite the fact it was mounted by a bear of a cooler, it would only manage a Turbo speed of 3.5GHz no matter whether it was running at full load on a single core or on all four cores. The ease with which the OC Genie clocks it up though means this isn't quite such an issue as it might be if you had to do all the hard work yourself. We also had the same issue with this MSI P67 as with the Maximus IV Extreme in terms of the Quick Sync transcode core of the integrated GPU. There's no option on this board to enable the GPU while you're on the P67 platform with a discrete GPU installed. If there's no Quick Sync on the P67, it's starting to look like a flawed platform. We're also less than enamoured with the EFI firmware of the MSI board. As much as the RoG EFI on the Asus board is all bling, the MSI is all Fisher Price. The much-vaunted mouse support is a little bit misguiding too, because part of the time it won't function and the rest requires multiple clicks to get a response. These are likely just teething issues, though, and mostly simply cosmetic. But still, at £140 you could pair this board with either of the i5 or i7 CPUs and have a platform that will still make last season's P55 setups look like rusting difference engines. We liked It's half the price of the top-end Asus Republic of Gamers P67 board but delivers much more than half the performance. It's also got a great feature list, with both new storage interfaces and both-party multi-GPU licensing too. We disliked Turboing the high-end Core i7-2600K at only 3.5GHz as a maximum is disappointing, especially when the Foxconn H67S manages the same speeds in a tiny board. The Quick Sync issue is more to do with the P67 platform than necessarily with this board though. The clunky EFI will need some tweaking too. Related Links
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| Review: Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG Posted: 04 Jan 2011 09:01 PM PST  When it comes to new PC components, odes to awesomeness are often overwrought. But take it from us, Intel's new Sandy Bridge desktop processors proved worthy of our finest prose. The Intel Core i5-2500K and Intel Core i7-2600K chips are preposterously quick. Of course, to get the best out of them what you need is a damn fine motherboard. For example, the Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG. At least, that's what Asus would have you think. This latest board from the enthusiast-class Republic of Gamers line is based on the new Intel P67 chipset, one of two consumer-oriented platforms for the new Sandy Bridge chips. The P67 is the discrete graphics alternative to the integrated graphics H67 chipset. On the downside, that means you can't use the integrated graphics core that comes with all 14 of the new Sandy Bridge desktop CPUs. Normally, we wouldn't class that as a major disappointment. After all, the history of integrated graphics has been one of awful performance. However, Intel's latest effort is the best we've seen by miles. On the upside, the Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG is absolutely, positively rammed with high-performance features. Highlights include no fewer than eight USB 3.0 ports on the rear panel, remote control overclocking, a seriously snazzy graphical firmware interface and much, much more. We're only beginning to get to grips with the immense performance and overclocking headroom of Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors. It's therefore difficult to draw really firm conclusions about the comparative performance of the first compatible motherboards. However, what we can say for sure is that the Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG is making the most of the 2.0 revision of Turbo Boost that comes with Sandy Bridge. During testing, the Maximus runs an Intel Core i7-2600K processor at a constant 3.8GHz under load, regardless of the number of active cores. Professional rendering, Cinebench R10 Time – faster is better Foxconn H67S: 38 seconds Video encoding, x264 HD Frames per second – higher is better Foxconn H67S: 32fps Gaming, World in Conflict Frames per second – higher is better Foxconn H67S: 90fps Memory bandwidth, SiSoft Sandra Gigabytes per second – higher is better Foxconn H67S: 14.1GB/s ** P55 chipset and Intel Core i7-870 Extracting maximum power and performance from Intel's new LGA1155 CPUs is the unambiguous task we're setting for the Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG. On paper, it's certainly up to the job. For starters, like all boards built for the new Sandy Bridge processors the Maximus is equipped with EFI firmware. EFI effectively replaces the long-standing BIOS PC firmware platform and brings a number of upgrades including faster boot times, support for boot disks larger than 2TB and graphical user interfaces. Regarding the latter, Asus has really gone to town. The Maximus has a thoroughly snazzy mouse-driven EFI menu that runs at 1024 x 768. It even supports screen grabs to a USB key via the F12 key. If nothing else, it's a feature that makes life easier for us on TechRadar. What's more, like all of Asus' RoG boards, the Maximus' menu is absolutely packed with overclocking and tweaking options. There is, however, one thing missing – the ability to overclock using the global CPU multiplier setting rather than the Turbo ratios. Asus has provided an entry in the CPU configuration menu for the base multiplier ratio, but currently it doesn't allow inputs beyond the standard ratio required to achieve the official non-Turbo clockspeed. This is very much in line with how Intel describes overclocking with the new Sandy Bridge processors. Other board manufacturers, though, have streamlined this process so that it automatically switches to the Turbo multiplier when you go beyond the designed specifications of the new Intel chip's multiplier. Another key feature is remote overclocking via RoG Connect. The basic functionality via USB is a familiar feature, but the Maximus gets a few funky new capabilities. A Bluetooth module allows you to hook up wirelessly and control the overclocking settings using an app on an iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Asus says it's considering adding support for other platforms. Android and Windows Phone 7 users may yet experience some wireless ROG Connect joy. GPU TweakIt is the other upgrade for ROG Connect and essentially adds discrete graphics card to the remote overclocking package. In terms of hardware specifications beyond the standard Intel P67 chipset, Asus has soldered on a pair of NEC USB 3.0 controllers, which in turn feed two USB 3.0 hub chips. The result is a total of eight USB 3.0 ports. In other words, the back panel is pure USB 3.0, which is jolly nice. Meanwhile, the Maximus also has some serious hardware tweaking chops in the form of voltage measuring points and DIP switches for configuring the PCI Express ports. On that very subject, the Maximus supports both AMD CrossFire and Nvidia SLI multi-GPU platforms. Intriguingly, with regard to SLI support, Asus has wired up an Nvidia NF200 chip. Ostensibly, this provides extra PCIE lanes and allows support for triple-card SLI. However, our understanding of the Sandy Bridge architecture suggests this is a futile measure due to the limited bandwidth of the external DMI interface, which shares 2.5GB/s across all peripherals. We're awaiting word from Asus on how this all adds up. In performance terms, it's hard to be absolutely categorical about the Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG. It's the quickest Sandy Bridge board we've tested, but then we haven't seen many yet. Still, it's worth noting that we achieved our highest air-cooled overclock of Sandy Bridge, an impressive 4.6GHz, with this board. However, for all the talk of quick-booting EFI firmwares, it doesn't half take a long time to wake up and smell the coffee. If that's a function of the snazzy graphical EFI menu, we'd prefer a return to plain old text. Moreover, there are several unresolved issues that prevent us from giving this board the full thumbs up. We're not convinced the NF200 chip's triple-card SLI capability is quite what it seems. Another doubt involves the Quick Sync Video transcode core that appears in all Sandy Bridge processors. According to our Intel engineering contact, it should be possible to access the transcoder when using discrete graphics. However, the Maximus does not provide an option to enable the integrated graphics core in parallel with a discrete card and thus it doesn't appear in device manager. We'd certainly be loathe to pass up on Quick Sync Video. Early tests suggest it's much faster than conventional CPU software encoding. We liked If you can afford it, we've little doubt the Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG represents your best chance of maximising the CPU performance of Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors. It's also packed with seriously desirable features such as wireless overclocking and comprehensive USB 3.0 connectivity. We disliked We're still getting to know Intel's new Sandy Bridge processor architecture, so it's not quite clear whether Asus is responsible for Maximus's niggles, including question marks over SLI and the Quick Sync Video transcode engine. But all the same, they could do with sorting. Related Links
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| Intel Sandy bridge: reviewed and rated Posted: 04 Jan 2011 09:01 PM PST  Intel has announced its new, long-awaited Sandy Bridge processor architecture at CES 2011. And as usual, we're first out of the blocks with a batch of reviews of compatible motherboards, a full system and, of course the processors themselves. Click the links in this article to get to the reviews. Our first taste of the new chips comes in the form of the Intel Core i5-2500K and Intel Core i7-2600K desktop CPUs - ignore the familiar branding, these are all-new units. At launch, it's not quite a full range of processors. Intel is rolling out 14 new desktop CPUs based on Sandy Bridge under the Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 brands. Pricing extends from around £75 to £250. The very top and bottom of Intel's desktop range will remain unchanged. The six-core Gulftown derivative of the Core i7 and the entry-level Pentium chips live on for now - though we're really not sure why. Everything else is effectively supplanted by Sandy Bridge. Motherboards The Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG is the quickest Sandy Bridge board we've tested, but then we haven't seen many yet. Still, it's worth noting that we achieved our highest air-cooled overclock of Sandy Bridge, an impressive 4.6GHz, with this board. The MSI P67A-GD65 represents something very different from the Asus Maximus IV Extreme that's also just been released. It isn't necessarily aimed at the high-end enthusiast segment. It's a board for people wishing to build up their new platform with a reasonable feature-set and at a reasonable price. Finally, if you're going to make the migration to a new Sandy Bridge system, why not consider a small-form-factor board, such as the Foxconn H67S? Full PC The Scan 3SX Vengeance is the first full PC we've seen to actually put the new second-generation Intel Core platform into context. Sandy Bridge platform is good, but until you actually see it in a machine, it's tough to quantify. 
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| CES 2011: Lenovo Arcade Dock mod will bring the kid out in you Posted: 04 Jan 2011 07:54 PM PST Lenovo showed off some impressive things at CES Unveiled this year, but the coolest of the lot was a mod that turns your laptop into an Arcade gaming machine. Simply called the Arcade Dock, the mod uses an IdeaPad Y560 and makes your computer look like it belongs on the pier in Brighton.
The arcade game chassis is just like the one you kicked your mate's butts at Street Fighter 2 on and would look very special in your home – especially if you are lucky enough to have a games room.
Made by Dean Liou in just 10 days, the cabinet has been customised so you can use your Y560 laptop as a mini arcade. The top of the arcade chassis is backlit with Lenovo branding and the whole thing is plug and play courtesy of USB.
If you want to learn more about the the mod kit, then head over to Envador.com.
You might want to wipe the drool from your keyboard first, though. 
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| CES 2011: Mophie Pulse turns the iPod touch into a gaming king Posted: 04 Jan 2011 07:38 PM PST The iPod touch is to get a gaming makeover in 2011, courtesy of the Mophie Pulse. Shown off at this year's CES Unveiled in Las Vegas, with TechRadar in attendance, the Mophie Pulse is a pretty cool gaming case for the iPod touch.
Using the speaker of the touch, the Mophie Pulse adds stereo sound and also a bit of vibration to your gaming. Apple's PMP is a pretty decent gamer in its own right thanks to the A4 chip inside the iPod touch but it does lack the feedback you get with Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers.
The Mophie Pulse remedies this sending vibrations when you shoot something or crash. The case uses Reflex Technology to do this – which means it listens to the sounds of the game for crashes and the like and vibrates on cue.
It is also a protector for the iPod touch and is textured to give you more gaming grip. Size-wise the Pulse measures 5.74 x 2.50x 0.65 inches. So it does add a bit of length and depth to the iPod touch but is still a slick looking device.
There's no UK release date for the Mophie Pulse and price is also to be announced. 
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| CES 2011: Cinemin Slice: pico projector iPad dock revealed Posted: 04 Jan 2011 07:20 PM PST Pico projectors were very much top of the agenda at CES Unveiled this year, with the Cinemin Slice being the tastiest of the lot. TechRadar battled through the throngs of journos to snap a few pics of the Cinemin Slice – a dock for your iPad that has DLP pico projector capabilities.
Not just a clever name the Cinemin Slice, by Wowwee, offers 16 ANSI lumens (not the brightest we have seen) and will be able to project images at 854x480 resolution.
Although this isn't exactly HD quality, it is pretty good for the iPad and okay for projecting a movie from Apple's device.
Connections-wise you have a mini HDMI and VGA. There are also speakers and a headphone socket , so you can use the Cinemin Slice as a regular dock too.
There's no UK release date for the Cinemin Slice or actual pricing but Wowweee has some tasty tidbits of information about the device, which you can find at www.wowwee.com. 
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| CES 2011: Lenovo LePad 10-inch Android tablet graces CES... again Posted: 04 Jan 2011 06:56 PM PST Lenovo has announced that its LePad Android tablet device will be released in 2011, with the company showing the tablet off at CES Unveiled 2011. The French sounding LePad gave all of us journalists a serious case of deja vu at this year's CES Unveiled due to the fact we last saw the LePad at CES 2010 - then, though, it was called the Lenovo U1. A year later however and the Lenovo LePad is back and will be launching in 2011 – with TechRadar seeing the device in the flesh in Vegas this week.
The tablet device runs on Android and has a 10.1-inch 800 x 1280 capacitive touchscreen display. Underneath the hood is Qualcomm's 1.3GHz Snapdragon processor and the tablet comes with Bluetooth, Adobe Flash 10.1 support, a front facing camera, 3G connectivity and Wi-Fi. It weighs around a kilogram.
The Lenovo LePad comes with the added bonus of having its very own dock that turns the device into a fully functioning laptop with full QWERTY keyboard.
The LePad will come to China first (Lenovo missed a trick not launching it in France initially) and will be out in the UK in 2011.
There is no UK release date for the Lenovo LePad just yet but it will be priced at around $520, so it looks like it will cost similar to its main rival - the iPad. 
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| CES 2011: Hands on: Asus EeeSlate review and EeePad review Posted: 04 Jan 2011 06:15 PM PST  The four tablets Asus showed off at CES today aren't just unusual form factors; they're also packing in performance. Asus Eee Pad MeMO The 7-inch Eee Pad MeMO is a fairly standard Qualcomm Snapdragon-based 7-inch Android tablet, but like all Asus' Android tablets it's running Honeycomb and it comes with a capacitive stylus and a Media Note application you can use for handwritten notes. It also has a MeMIC 'media phone extender' (which we'd usually call a stereo headset) and a price tag between $499 and $699 when it comes out in June.
Asus Eee Pad Slider and Eee Pad Transformer If you want a 10-inch Android slate, Asus thinks you want a keyboard to go with it. The Eee Pad Slider looks like various Intel concept tablet PCs of years gone by, with a keyboard that slides out from under the screen. But it still weighs in at just under two pounds and less than two-thirds of an inch thick.
The slimmer Transformer has a separate keyboard that packs in enough batteries to give you a predicted 16 hours of battery life. There are also USB ports and a card reader, plus you can fold the keyboard over the screen to use it as a protective cover rather than needing a case.
They both have a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, which Asus chairman Jonney Shih boasts has around twice the performance of the ARM-based Apple A4 chip in the iPad and what he claims will be "the fastest Flash video performance". The Transformer starts at $399 (without the base station) or $699 with it and the Slider will sell between $499 and $799 for different versions (they'll be on sale in April and May). Asus Eee Slate EP121 But Asus is also bringing out a 12-inch Windows tablet and unlike all the Atom-based tablets that are appearing, the Eee Slate EP121 has a mainstream processor in it; for $999 you get a Core i5 CPU, 64GB SSD, 2 megapixel webcam, HDMI - and a Wacom digitiser pen that means we could actually use the handwriting recognition built into Windows 7 Home Premium to write and send emails (plus an optional wireless Bluetooth keyboard).
Shih claims it's "the most powerful tablet, with no compromises" and showed us Photoshop CS5 running with a 1080p copy of The A Team playing in the background. You don't have to wait as long for the Windows tablet either; it will be on sale this month as Microsoft pushes its partners to catch up with Android. 
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| CES 2011: Asus launches four Eee Pad and Eee Slate tablets Posted: 04 Jan 2011 05:57 PM PST  Announcing four new tablets, Asus chairman Jonny Shih says that the company plans to stand out from the tablet crowd by trumping others on choice and innovation. "We admire companies like Apple who offers great innovation but they provide very limited choices for the customers. Different kinds of customers have different kind of needs, so they want choice," said Shih at Asus' CES 2011 press conference attended by TechRadar. "Other companies provide choices but they do this from a position of low innovation. Asus provides the best of both worlds." The company unveiled Android Honeycomb and Windows tablets, with and without keyboards, in three different screen sizes and at prices from $399 to $1099. Between the Eee Pad Slider, Eee Pad Transformer, Eee Pad MeMO and Eee Slate EP121 Asus thinks it has something for everyone.
The Android tablets all come with Asus' MyWave interface, which has tools like the MyZineebook and e-magazine library and WaveShare, a wireless DLNA client that lets you play music and 1080p video on other devices like your notebook or connected TV.
Asus also talked up other innovations; AsusPro business notebooks with batteries that charge in 30 minutes, TUF series motherboards with 'thermal armour' and ruggedized components, Republic of Gamer motherboards that pair with 450Mbps dual-band wireless routers and the Vulcan active noise cancellation headset. Moving toward the silicon brain Beyond that will be WaveFace, which Shih calls "an uninterrupted seamless mobility experience; no matter where you are - at home, on the go, in the office, in a café…" WaveFace is something Asus is still working towards but it's going to be a key part of Shih's long-term vision of where personal computing is going, which isn't just using a tablet to consume content – it's using computers as a second, silicon brain, which means inputting plenty of information. "Is a tablet device without good input OK for passive computing?" asks Shih. "That might sound right but for personal computing the real beauty is Web 2.0 and beyond, combining the cloud and personal devices. This is going to invite more human brain involvement; we're going to contribute more real time information, more preferences, more knowledge, more strategy… "So the input from those humans is going to be what the silicon brain cannot do well. That's the beauty of Web 2.0; that's why [services like] Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and online gaming prevail. And then you add the 'Internet of things'; we put the second brain, the silicon brain into things and we can sense them, we can control them." The benefits are pretty practical, he thinks. "How to make all people enjoy the best digital life in real time and in a real place – so knowing where you are and showing you where are your friends, where is the parking space…" And that comes back to a combination of personal devices and the power of the cloud - although Shih suggests quite seriously that families are going to need a "home CIO" to set all of this up and achieve this vision of "the new personal cloud computing era"; he dubs it DIY 2.0 and promises helpful services and online training from Asus. But it starts with tablets you can use for more than watching. "We believe you need to have the best personal cloud computing devices with wide choices that support very good input so they can really contribute to productivity and the 'internet of things'". 
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| Posted: 04 Jan 2011 10:00 AM PST  This time last year the Motorola Milestone won itself a fair few fans thanks to being one of the few high-spec Android phones to come with a QWERTY keyboard attached to it. The original Milestone certainly wasn't one of the prettiest or most elegant Android phones, but for those unable or unwilling to adapt to the touchscreen way of life, it provided a rare and welcome QWERTY option. Things have changed over the last 12 months, with the arrival of Android powerhouse HTC on the QWERTY scene with its excellent HTC Desire Z. Has Motorola's design team got what it takes to compete?
First impressions of the Milestone 2 are very positive. The phone's slightly slimmer than the original Milestone, with a nice, weighty, solid feel to it. The 3.7-inch screen takes up most of the front of the device, with only a small bezel and the standard collection of four touch-sensitive Android buttons beneath it.
Motorola's crafted most of it from metal, so it feels extra tough and solid. There's a thin rubber coating applied to the back of the Milestone 2, so it's nice and grippy, plus the keyboard sliding mechanism is also rock solid with none of the worrying wobble suffered by the HTC Desire Z's bespoke hinge. The Milestone 2 feels heavy and tough in comparison.
The four capacitive buttons give you a weak haptic response when pressed, and Motorola has also changed the order they appear compared to the original Milestone. It seems to make more sense having the Menu button on the far left, with the Home button next, then Back and the largely pointless Search.
The QWERTY keyboard's keys are backlit, with Motorola removing the original Milestone's directional controller to free up more room for extra keys – replacing it with the standard four-way cursor key array and an OK button to confirm menu options.
Around the edges you get the combined power and screen-lock button on the top – which we found a bit too small and well hidden to find without looking for it – next to the 3.5mm headphone jack. The volume up/down toggle switch is to the right and the micro-USB socket (and nice white charging notification light) on the left.
Inside the box is a 1400mAh battery, an 8GB microSD card, micro-USB cable and plug-in power charger, with some old fashioned foam-covered Motorola-branded headphones. And the box is nice, too. The Milestone 2's Android 2.2 OS comes fully skinned with Motorola's Motoblur interface, so Android is almost unrecognisable. The phone arrives with most of its seven Home screens absolutely packed with Motoblur widgets, with the central one bursting with social networking tools. The touchscreen is very slick. Ultra-sensitive to the touch and quick to scroll, the only lag we experienced was the odd minor jitter when opening up the Gallery or one of Motorola's overly complex widgets.
It's all a bit of a mess, to be honest, when it comes to the widgets. Motorola's stuck a Twitter and combined messaging widget on the main Home screen, so right from the start you're greeted by two whopping great boxes that duplicate each other's content if you signed into the full range of social networks at start up.
Also, these widgets pull images from Facebook and Twitter profiles, so you get random, poorly cropped and resized icons filling up half your Home screen. It's not pretty.
However, there is some very good functionality provided by Motoblur. Users are able to create custom messaging widgets, having one specifically for email, one for Twitter and Facebook, or one mega-combi widget that pulls in all your text messages, Tweets and everything else. Plus they can be manually resized to fit your favoured layout.
But they're rather ugly. Do we really need a whole screen for each Tweet or Facebook status update? This sort of thing's been done much, much better, with both HTC's Sense interface on phones such as the HTC Desire and Desire HD, and the Sony Ericsson Xperia range, including the X10, X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro doing a much better job of amalgamating and presenting social bits and bobs.
There are many other design inconsistencies that make the phone's interface look a bit of a mess. The browser illustrates this best. Motorola has stuck in a custom, 3D, flippable selection of tiles to illustrate your bookmarks, which is nice enough – but this same style isn't carried across to the neighbouring Most Visited and History tabs. They're just standard Android text lists.
Also, the Milestone 2 only brings up this tiled Bookmark view if using the phone in landscape orientation. People complain enough about the lack of a consistent experience across the many Android devices out there – but here Motorola's taken that to the next level by not even managing to get a consistent interface on the same phone!
There's also one other annoying Motoblur feature. Paging between Home screens brings up quick menu across the bottom of the screen, which lets users jump to any of the seven Home screens at a touch.
The problem with this is it pops up over the dock, so when you stop paging you have to wait for the dock to reappear so you can access the calling features and app drawer. Plus, in landscape mode, it'll cover any icons you've placed along the bottom of the screen, making Motoblur look a little extra uglier. Motoblur does a great job of integrating itself with Facebook, instantly pulling in all of your Facebook friends and capturing email address, phone numbers, contact photos and any other personal details it can rip out of the site. It's quite amazingly clever, but can create a logistical nightmare when hundreds of new internet friends suddenly pop up in your phone's Contacts list. If you're seriously into the whole Facebook thing, it's possible to remove any existing SIM card and Google contacts from view and have a Contacts section consisting of only your Facebook friends. They'll still all be there, though, just hidden from view. And the only way to delete an individual Facebook Contact is by removing the person from Facebook (!) or completely turning off all Facebook Contacts. There's no way to only display Facebook Contacts that have valid phone numbers in their profiles, though, so it's only really of use if you use your phone entirely for internet messaging.
Fortunately, it's all editable, with Motorola letting you hide or show contacts sourced from different networks, so it's easy to remove all your Facebook people with one press and just stick with your Google contacts, if that's what you prefer. Android comes with a complex Dialer app filled with numerous options. Motorola's left them all in place, making the Milestone 2 much more than just a press-and-talk machine. One nice Android feature for people who like chatting is the ability to Add and Merge calls when on the phone. When talking to someone, if their personal anecdote starts to bore you it's possible to Add a call - dialing a second number and juggling the two at once, switching between calls via an onscreen toggle. If you then want to bring everyone together, it's possible to Merge the two calls, creating your own little conference call.
Voice quality is great, with a bassy sound that's not too digital or tinny, plus the speakerphone is more than loud enough. There's even a mini equaliser setting behind the dialler's Menu button, letting users swap between Standard, Balanced, Bright and Extra Bright voice quality settings. In practice, these options increasingly ramp up the treble, so the extreme Extra Bright option is the loudest and sharpest, yet hardest on the ear. Mobile network connectivity was good. We certainly didn't suffer from any awkward dropped calls, and the phone doesn't display any obvious dead spots or signal-killing hand positioning quirks.
Finally, there's a noise-cancelling feature on the Milestone 2, which uses a secondary microphone to monitor background noise and keep distractions to a minimum. You also get a proximity sensor, with the phone politely turning the screen off when you press it to your ear, then waking up the screen when you're finished and ready to hang up. Text messaging is the standard Android default, but given a grey and yellow makeover. Messages are threaded and a long-press brings up the option to delete an individual text from the thread, forward it, copy the text to the clipboard or lock it to give it a little extra protection from deletion. It's basic but does the job.
Twitter and Facebook integration is handled entirely by Motoblur, with no other third-party social apps pre-loaded on the phone. Motoblur's Messages widget doubles as your universal inbox. It'll pull in text messages, emails from any accounts you've registered with Motoblur and direct communications from Twitter and Facebook, letting you reply to all of them from within the expanded widget. For reading general status update and timelines, Facebook, Twitter and the other social networks have been busted out into a standalone Social Networks widget. From here you're able to favourite and retweet Twitter messages, with the Facebook panel also supporting the reading and leaving of comments.
Both widget options let you scroll through messages and reply, but there's no refresh or reload option - so you're left staring at them wondering when/how they last checked to see if you've had any life-altering Facebook pokes. A separate Social Status widget lets you post new messages direct to your social networks, via a simple text screen. It's all a bit fractured, basically, with much over-duplication and confusion. You'd be far, far better off binning it all for something more functional from a third-party, like the lovely Android TweetDeck app. Android 2.2 supports Exchange email and calendar sync, with standard POP3 email accounts added via Motorola's simple account management screen.
As for writing on the QWERTY keyboard? The keyboard itself is formed by placing a flexible plastic sheet over little switches, so it's possible to feel the little bump of each key switch beneath your fingers or thumbs. These little nodules help you find each key, plus the switches are very stiff, so you never accidentally press two at the same time.
Pressing the top row of keys can be awkward, because there's not a lot of clearance between the keys and the bottom on the screen. Usability is enhanced by the word prediction tool (that can be turned off), which is conveniently placed along the bottom edge of the screen – so while space is tight, at least the system makes good use of the screen's closeness to the keys.
Also welcome is a four-way cursor key area that replaces the original Milestone's directional button, so you're able to quickly whizz the cursor around text boxes to make edits – plus there's an Android Back button here too, making it easy to operate the whole phone via keyboard alone. And it's backlit, which is also handy. It'd be nice if there was a second shift key on the right-hand side of the keyboard, because pressing the left shift key and a letter on the left of the layout is a little cumbersome – but given the slim, compact form factor of the phone, it's not too much of a compromise. It's still not the perfect solution to a mobile QWERTY, but if you're prepared to practice and work on a separate typing style, it's among the best we've seen so far. The Milestone 2's 1GHz OMAP processor makes mincemeat of even the most complex websites. The content-heavy TechRadar home page is displayed quickly and perfectly, with multi-touch zooming around the site an absolute dream.
The fact that the phone has Android 2.2 at its core and a decent processor means Flash Player 10.1 support is in, with the BBC's iPlayer site fully operational and, again, not taxing the phone in the slightest.
The browser is the standard Android WebKit default, with the usual Android 2.2 customisations. The clever button beside the URL stops a page loading and, once a page is there, transforms into your bookmark and history access button.
It's slightly odd that there's no official Google option for syncing your desktop bookmarks with the mobile version of the browser, though. Surely that'd be simple to implement within Chrome?
There are plenty of options to play with nonetheless, from changing the default zoom level and text size, to disabling JavaScript, loading Flash content on demand or killing it completely, and even turning off images if you're data transfer conscious.
It's a very good browser. Third-party alternatives such as Opera Mobile 10.1 may beat it in certain speed tests, but on a phone as powerful as the Milestone 2 the only speed limitation you'll encounter when browsing the web is likely to be how fast you can read. The Milestone 2's camera is rated at five megapixels and is a decent performer. You also get an LED flash and a small selection of scene modes, with the highlight being a particularly sharp macro mode.
Click here to see the full-res image It's not the most feature-packed of the Android phone cameras, but you get what you need: landscape mode, macro, a sepia option and some wholly useless red/green tints and the crazy Solarise effect.
Click here to see the full-res image The phone's quick to focus, with the custom camera button making it easy to shoot. Geotagging is supported and there's an image stabilisation option among the phone's scene modes, plus a digital zoom.
Click here to see the full-res image The digital zoom is as useless, though – reducing photos to 864 x 496 resolution at maximum zoom and leaving you with a blocky result covered in artefacting.
Click here to see the full-res image SOLARISE MODE: No idea why.
Click here to see the full-res image Shots emerge surprisingly pleasingly in twilight scenarios with plenty of detail. On the highest quality setting, each photo saves as around a 1MB file, at a widescreen resolution of 2592 x 1456. There's a slight patterned blotchy effect present when viewing them at full size, but scale them down to Facebook resolution and they look good. Low light photos aren't great, though, with the camera doing way too much over-compensating and boosting the brightness more than necessary in night mode. As a result, gloomy shots all come out super bright and rather washed out. However it's comparable to the similar spec camera of the HTC Desire, and would easily do you as a replacement snapper for recording your little outings and social events.
The Milestone 2's default video option is to record in 720p, and the resulting footage is fantastic. There's nothing in the way of tearing or the over-stretched blotchiness you get in other so-called 720p mobile cameras, with footage the best we've seen from a phone camera.
The only downside is the size of the files. This superb video quality comes at a price, with the Milestone 2's HD 3GP clips taking up a huge amount of space. This 30 second sample clip of ours ended up as a 37MB file, so while it's going to be a bit of a pain uploading to Facebook over a flaky 3G connection the quality can't be beaten.
To keep file size down, you're able to choose a Video Message option, which drops the resolution down to QVGA (320 x 240) and imposes a one minute length restriction. Then you end up with a more manageable 1MB file. Sound is recorded very well, too, with the on-board mic doing a great job of picking up voices and animal snuffling sounds. Music is handled via Motorola's Connected Media Player, which is a genuine and welcome enhancement over the Android stock player.
The best feature is an integrated internet radio, which enables you to pick from online stations as easily as you might page through your collection of MP3s. It's organised through the established ShoutCast system, so you have access to hundreds and hundreds of stations instantly. Which is handy, because there's no FM radio in the Milestone 2.
TuneWiki support also lets the music-based social network connect to its database and pull out song lyrics, a feature that even works when playing internet radio. It's all very clever. There are also TuneWiki community features in here, with charts, artist searches, playlists and more.
Also rather clever is integrated music identification tool SoundHound, which is a Shazam-like track naming gadget. This free tool works when you're listening to internet radio stations, letting you ID whatever's currently playing. And then, they hope, buy it through the linked Amazon MP3 service.
When playing your own MP3s, users are encouraged to send 'Blips' about their favourite songs, which is basically an easy way to spam Twitter with lists of songs you're currently listening to. Playlist support is your standard Android option – add a song to the list through the menu, creating as many custom lists as you wish.
All of this is accessed through either the app or a decent Home screen widget, which lets you play or pause tracks or open up the full player. For music, the Milestone 2's a great option. The headphones are also great, with the Milestone 2 managing proper, bass-heavy music output through its supplied earbuds.
The Milestone 2 comes with a simple DLNA app installed, letting users manage and upload/download media from any other DLNA devices currently connected to their home network. The Milestone 2 also supports music playback through Bluetooth, with a "Enhanced Stereo" option available when pairing it with compatible devices. As for video codec support, we threw the usual file formats at it to see what it could manage. The player liked a WMV file, didn't like a DivX encoded AVI and locked up trying our standard Xvid encoded TV rip. There's no DivX certification as found on the likes of the Android 2.2 LG Optimus One, here.
But, install Motorola's PC tool and it'll offer to convert video media for you when copying the files across, plus you also get Motorola Media Link, which enables you to sync iTunes and Windows Media Player libraries with the phone. Accept its kind offer to convert your files and it'll turn your DivX/Xvid AVIs into phone-friendly MP4s. A rare win for Motorola's custom software, there. It's not ideal having to convert videos on your PC before transferring them to your phone, though, because unless you're using something super-fast it'll take ages to convert an AVI. Plus it rides roughshod over original file resolutions, scaling them down for mobile play.
Setting all this stuff up is a major chore, too, with endless helper apps and online updates required to get it all up and running. But once it's all there it actually does serve a purpose.
You can choose the sync settings too, deciding if you'd like new computer content copied to your phone or not, so there's no need to worry about having your phone and PC lock up for hours while your entire lifelong MP3 collection gets copied across when you plug it in for a quick charge. The first thing your Milestone 2 will do is hammer your Wi-Fi connection to download the latest versions of the Google apps.
The Milestone 2's multi-touch screen supports all the features of the new Google Maps 5.0 update, right down to the two-fingered rotation of the map. Even the amazing HTC Desire doesn't support that yet. The GPS lock was gained very quickly, with Google's superb Maps Navigation app getting its troublesome initial connection out of the way far quicker than the Android 2.2 powered LG Optimus One.
As with many Android phones these days, Motorola has done a deal with Swype to include the gesture-based touchscreen keyboard as an option when not using the QWERTY for text input. The standard old Android keyboard remains the default, though, if you want to enter text like it's 2008. The touch keyboard is made usable thanks to the super-sensitive and accurate Milestone 2 screen, allowing teeny, tiny, delicate presses to register your input.
Pretending to do work on your telephone is taken care of via the pre-loaded Quickoffice suite, which brings compatibility with Microsoft Office files and PDFs.
Google's new Voice Commands app is in here, and surprisingly useful. Double-tapping the Home button brings up a list of simple commands, making it obvious to say "Call" then "Last number" to do just that. It works surprisingly well.
There's also a simple video editing tool on the phone, which Motorola calls its Video Editor Light. You're able to trim start and end points, also extracting individual frames and saving them as images.
There's an accompanying image editing tool called Photo Workshop, which lets you add speech bubbles and text to your photographs. You'll be the life and soul of your social network. Both are straightforward tools to use, but rather feature light.
And does it play Angry Birds? Perfectly! One of the most impressive Milestone 2 connectivity features to come via Motoblur is Motorola's Phone Portal.
This is a connectivity suite, but as well as a standard USB link it also brings Wi-Fi support through your home network. Open it up and it displays the phone's IP address and port, which you type into a browser. Then up pops all your stuff, just like that, in a web interface, with no installation necessary.
From here you can download photos to your computer or delete them off your phone, even changing the ringtone and notification settings and editing the bookmarks – or pulling websites out of your browsing history. This superb tool alone makes putting up with Motoblur worth the bother. When using Wi-Fi (802.11n is supported) the Milestone 2 is very quick to connect and we had no problems with lost login details or dropped links while using it. Mobile network connectivity was fine, with the phone holding onto a 3G connection whenever one was present.
Battery life is a mixed bag. Our first few charges were disastrous, with the phone in its standard configuration barely lasting a day. However, after binning most of the Motoblur widgets and turning down syncing to a sensible level, we were able to get a good two days of use from it on subsequent charges. Be careful with it and you'll get standard smartphone uptime.
Being powered by Android 2.2 means 3G mobile hotspot connection sharing is part of the spec, and it's in the Milestone 2. Check how much your network charges you for data before using this, or you could get financially ruined.
The Milestone 2 is a high-quality piece of hardware. It's solid, heavy, feels nice in the hand and is generally smooth in operation. The only problem is on the software side of things, thanks to Motorola layering on the Motoblur widgets way too heavily for comfort. There's no need for it, either – Android 2.2's a well polished, popular OS, which makes it doubly frustrating that Motorola's buried it under a load of oddly-coloured Motoblur nonsense. But underneath all this filler content is a rock-solid, well-made phone that's more than powerful enough to run all of today's cutting-edge games, apps and web content. We liked You can't fail to be impressed by the solid, metallic feel of the phone and robust keyboard sliding mechanism. No need to worry about this falling apart, Motorola's made an extremely tough phone. The 3.7-inch screen is another winner. Running at a high 480 x 854 resolution, web text is very sharp and readable and the touch sensitivity is perfect – up there alongside class leaders such as the HTC Desire Z. The keyboard has great functionality. The ALT and ALT-Lock options, cursor keys, Back and OK buttons make using it a joy – if you have small pointy fingers and thumbs. And the backlit keys aid typing and make it look swish. Media performance is good. The music player with its song recognition, purchasing and internet radio options is much better than on most Android phones, while the camera is also high quality and 720p video recording is as good as it gets on a mobile. We disliked Being faced by a screen full of garish Motoblur widgets at start-up creates a rather poor first impression, with your first job being to delete most of Motorola's hard work so the phone looks – and runs – better. The QWERTY keyboard still isn't quite the right blend of size and usability. Dainty fingers and a lot of thumbnail typing is required to actually use it. It needs a little more room. Video format compatibility isn't great. Not supporting standard AVI files is a bit of a pain – and re-encoding your files for use on a mobile player is very last decade and rather tedious. Verdict The Milestone 2 isn't a massive change over the original Motorola Milestone, but there are enough tweaks both internally and externally to make it a better phone all round. The faster processor makes a world of a difference in general use and web browsing, making the Milestone 2 one of the slickest and least glitchy Android experiences around – although you have to turn off the Motoblur widgets to get it feeling consistently smooth. If you can live with its slightly restrictive keyboard size the Milestone 2's QWERTY is a good solution for text entry, although it isn't the intuitive keyboard we've been looking for. You'll be constantly searching for the right way to use it – fingertips, thumbs, thumbnails? Still, you can pick the Milestone 2 up for around £360 unlocked at time of writing, which makes it much cheaper to buy outright than the HTC Desire Z. And it feels more solidly made and is every bit as fast. It's a shame more networks aren't stocking the Motorola Milestone 2 on contracts, because it'd be a surefire winner on a decent subsidised deal. Fast, well made with a good camera and music player, the Milestone 2 deserves to find itself a place in many a pocket. Related Links
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| Samsung Galaxy Player offers affordable music and Android apps Posted: 04 Jan 2011 09:55 AM PST  Samsung has announced the Galaxy Player 50 which it claims is the world's first Android-powered MP3 device. Running Android 2.1, the Samsung Galaxy Player 50 has access to the Android Market and the vast array of apps available there, putting it on a par with the iPod Touch in terms of functionality. The 3.2-inch touchscreen media player comes with a 2-megapixel camera, Flash-compatible web browsing, Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity. There's no SIM card slot on the device, ergo no 3G, and we're not sure why the last-gen Android OS is used instead of Froyo or Gingerbread. Plenty of storage An 8GB and 16GB model of the Galaxy Player will be available, with room for external memory too so you could end up with 48GB of storage on the diminuitive device, which will be nice and roomy for music lovers. We were expecting Samsung to launch a media player with a 4-inch display at CES, but it looks as though our hopes and dreams have been downsized along with the screen. Available now, the 8GB Samsung Galaxy Player 50 will set you back around £150. 
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| Google woos publishers for Android newsstand Posted: 04 Jan 2011 09:08 AM PST  As 2011 shapes up to be the year of the Android tablet, Google is working to get publishers on board with a digital newsstand venture for Android devices. The Android e-newsstand is set to include apps and content from a range of publishers but timings and further details are scarce. The Wall Street Journal reports that El Goog has been talking to Time Warner, Condé Nast and Hearst Corp, although all three publishers declined to comment. Ahead of the game Apple already offers a range of digital magazines and newspapers in its iTunes store, but publishers are growing increasingly frustrated with Jobs' Lot's control over customer data. Apple also takes a healthy chunk of subscription sales made through iTunes; around 30% goes to the fruity manufacturer, while Google has reportedly told publishers that its cut would be lower. Google itself is staying tight-lipped about the venture, having released the following statement: "We've consistently said we're talking with publishers about ways we can work together, including whether we can help them with technology for subscription services. We have nothing specific to announce at this time." 
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| Google woos publishers for Android newsstand Posted: 04 Jan 2011 09:08 AM PST As 2011 shapes up to be the year of the Android tablet, Google is working to get publishers on board with a digital newsstand venture for Android devices. The Android e-newsstand is set to include apps and content from a range of publishers but timings and further details are scarce. The Wall Street Journal reports that El Goog has been talking to Time Warner, Condé Nast and Hearst Corp, although all three publishers declined to comment. Ahead of the game Apple already offers a range of digital magazines and newspapers in its iTunes store, but publishers are growing increasingly frustrated with Jobs' Lot's control over customer data. Apple also takes a healthy chunk of subscription sales made through iTunes; around 30% goes to the fruity manufacturer, while Google has reportedly told publishers that its cut would be lower. Google itself is staying tight-lipped about the venture, having released the following statement: "We've consistently said we're talking with publishers about ways we can work together, including whether we can help them with technology for subscription services. We have nothing specific to announce at this time." 
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| Google's Android text bug now dubbed 'critical' Posted: 04 Jan 2011 08:02 AM PST  Google has finally decided to up how seriously it is taking a flaw in its Android system that sends messages to the wrong person in a user's phonebook. The issue was reported back in June 2010, but Google has now decided to move the problem up to 'Critical' status, meaning a patch is likely to be imminent to the Android system to resolve the issue. The problem is virtually undetectable to the user until alerted by someone else, because though the message is sent to the wrong number, it still displays as being directed to the correct recipient in the inbox. Desert-based bug It only appears to be affecting Android 2.2 and 2.3 devices, although which ones or why has yet to be explained by Google – we've leafed through reams of user comments and there doesn't seem to be any pattern. However, the commenters are mostly using US phones, or those that have a US variant (such as the Nexus One or Samsung Galaxy S), so there's a good chance the UK isn't affected. Obviously, this is an embarrassing issue for Google, so expect a patch in the near future if you've just bought a shiny new Froyo or Gingerbread device. 
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| Honeycomb to require dual-core processor and HD display? Posted: 04 Jan 2011 07:54 AM PST  Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) may have minimum hardware requirements, according to a Korean consumer electronics firm. The same source told PC Mag that these include such lofty requirements as dual core processors (the ARM Cortex-A9, to be precise) and an HD resolution of 1280 x 720. Those of us on a tight post-Christmas budget may be aghast at this news, since high-end components do not a low price-point make. The potential hardware requirements also put a question mark over OS upgrades to existing Android tablets. Two versions of Honeycomb? However, there are further rumours circulating that Google will also offer a lower-spec version of the Honeycomb OS for cheaper, less technically competent devices. Yeah, two versions of the same edition – that'll help the fragmentation issue. Before you despair completely at the idea of being stuck with low-spec gadgetry, just remember that nothing is set in stone when it comes to Honeycomb: these are mere rumours. Perhaps more will be revealed by Motorola as it unveils its Honeycomb-running tablet, known by some as the Motorola Xoom, at CES this week. 
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| The Carphone Warehouse offering up mobile phones for 1p Posted: 04 Jan 2011 07:30 AM PST  The Carphone Warehouse is attempting to show how wallet-friendly the humble mobile phone has become – by offering one for just 1p. It's not strictly as easy as finding a few pence in your wallet and equipping your family with new Alcatel OT-209's though, as you'll need to buy £10-worth of credit at the same time. It's no iPhone-botherer, let's be honest; this is a feature phone in every sense of the phrase with a rounded plastic design, small screen and big buttons, although it does pack a colour screen and FM radio. All the small savings Matt Stringer, UK MD of The Carphone Warehouse said, "This is a great deal which represents brilliant value for money. The competition in the UK mobile market has seen the price of phones driven lower and lower over the last couple of year. "Now, we've become the first to offer one for just one penny, which we hope will prove a huge money-saving hit with our customers after Christmas." While technically true, The Carphone Warehouse has trumped this deal by offering 'free' phones on PAYG before, giving you the Nokia 1650 in exchange for £30 credit back in 2008 – but this £10 deal still trumps that even after you add in that extra 1p. 
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| Intel Sandy Bridge mobile preview Posted: 04 Jan 2011 07:12 AM PST  If you've read our review of Intel's new desktop Sandy Bridge processors, you'll know they're bonkers quick. But you'll also be aware that Intel's latest processor architecture is arguably more about mobile. On paper, the Sandy Bridge architecture looks purpose built to drop into laptop PCs. It's Intel's first chip with processor cores and high performance graphics on the same slice of silicon – it's almost a system on a chip. Sandy Bridge is also based on Intel's latest 32nm production node and packs promising new features such as the Quick Sync Video encoder and AVX instruction extensions. Put it all together and you have a recipe for what could be immense mobile performance combined with better than ever power consumption. Hard numbers Happily, we can bring you some hard numbers regarding the first half of that equation. Intel let us loose in its labs with an early Sandy Bridge mobile evaluation platform. It's representative in terms of performance, but we'll have to wait just a week or two longer for a retail system our first glimpse of just how good Sandy Bridge's battery life will be. Our sample Sandy Bridge notebook is running the Core i7-2820QM. That's a quad-core chip with an advertised frequency of 2.3GHz. As we'll see, that latter number doesn't mean much due to the aggressive implementation of Turbo Boost in the latest Sandy Bridge processors. For comparison we have both a dual-core Core i5-540M and a quad-core Core i7-740QM from Intel's existing mobile CPU line up. Out of the gate, the new quad-core Sandy Bridge chip blows away the previous generation processors in the Cinebench R10 software rendering test. The new 2820QM clocks a time of just 47 seconds to the one minute and 27 seconds of the quad-core 740QM and one minute 42 seconds for the 540M dualie.
It's a similar story in the x264 HD video encode test, the new Sandy Bridger hitting 28.4 frames per second to the 740QM's 16.4fps and 12.7fps for the 540M. If you're wondering where the performance boost is coming from, much of it is thanks to Turbo Boost 20. With all four cores active, and even running inside a thermally suboptimal development chassis, the new 2820QM runs at between 2.8GHz and 3.0GHz. Of course, Sandy Bridge has that funky Quick Sync Video transcode engine so the gap with supporting encode software will be even bigger. Get a load of the graphics Arguably just as interesting is the performance of the new Intel HD Graphics video core. All the new Sandy Bridge mobile chips get the full 12-processor HD Graphics 3000 version. The direct comparison here is with the 540M, since the 740QM lacks integrated graphics. Anyhow, the shizzle here is 27fps for the new Sandy Bridge graphics compared to 15fps for the 540M in Call of Duty 4 at high detail and 1280 x 800 resolution. Actually, the number for the Sandy Bridge is a little lower than we expected. But we anticipate slightly better performance from final retail laptops. If that's a sneak peak at the performance of the new Sandy Bridge processors, the elephant still standing is battery life. On paper, the new Core i7-2820QM doesn't look like a big step forward by this metric. After all, it has the same 45W TDP as existing quad-core mobile Intel processors. In fact, none of the new mobile Sandy quads is rated below 45W. However, Intel's TDPs are only rough guides. What's more, the new graphics core of the Sandy Bridge chips must fit inside that TDP. Existing Intel mobile quads contain only CPU cores. All of which means we're hopefully for some serious progress. With any luck quad-core might just be the new dual-core. 
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| CES 2011: Mitsubishi dreams big with 155in OLED display Posted: 04 Jan 2011 07:01 AM PST  Along with a 92-inch 3D TV that can be used to dominate the living rooms of the wealthy, Mitsubishi will be showing off a mammoth 155-inch OLED display at CES 2011. 155 inches. That's almost four meters of crisp, OLED goodness. It won't be adorning an entire wall of your home, however; this bad boy is intended for advertising and other forms of digital display, probably with a price tag to match. Mitsubishi itself sold at least one 3.8-metre (150-inch) display last year, but what will make the 155-inch display really impressive is if it consists of one single OLED panel. We suspect that it doesn't, given the manufacturing issues still prevalent in the OLED industry, but we're always ready to be proved wrong. Big, bigger, biggest The OLED behemoth offers super-high contrast and will dwarf the otherwise-enormous 92-inch 3D TV on show. Before the 92-incher came on the scene, the largest 3D Mitsubishi you could indulge in was and 82in model – we hear those extra 10 inches make all the difference. Mitsubishi will also be showing off a number of 3D projectors and a mini photo printer at the tech show in Las Vegas. 
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| CES 2011: Toshiba demos glasses-free 3D laptop Posted: 04 Jan 2011 06:11 AM PST  Toshiba is demonstrating a glasses-free autostereoscopic 3D laptop at CES 2011 in Las Vegas this week. According to Engadget, Toshiba's new glasses-free 3D notebook could well see a commercial release at some point in 2011, although there is no official word from Tosh on any plans for launch. Dead-zone free 3D The new Toshiba Qosmio packs in head- tracking technology in an attempt to create "dead-zone free stereoscopic 3D images." The Qosmio laptop has two parallax 3D LCD screens, with a special eye-tracking feature that knows when you shift the position of your head. Which basically means you don't need glasses and you don't need to keep your head in one place in order to enjoy the 3D illusion from the laptop. Toshiba's director of product marketing Phil Osako is confident that the company will bring a glasses-free 3D lappy to market at some point this year. It's interesting to see Toshiba pushing the potential of what is possible with a 3D laptop and we will be sure to bring you further news on any plans for a commercial release of this latest 3D tech as and when we hear more. Right now, it's all a bit blurry… 
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| Opinion: Intel's Sandy Bridge video transcoder cock up Posted: 04 Jan 2011 06:08 AM PST  Did Intel forget to enable its intriguing Quick Sync Video transcoder engine, as found in its new Sandy Bridge processors, on the P67 platform? You can read our full review of the launch chips, including the awesome Intel Core i7 2600k. For those who haven't, the elevator pitch for Intel's new processor architecture goes something like this. It comes in dual and quad-core trim. It has extremely impressive 2D and 3D video capabilities. And it's bonkers quick. It is not, however, perfect. Initially, we thought all the problems were due to dumb marketing decisions. We're still pretty sure, for instance, the restriction of the fastest HD 3000 graphics engine to the two unlocked K Series models, the Core i5 2500K and the i7 2600K, is purely marketing driven. Likewise, we think it's unlikely Intel really needs another new CPU socket – especially one that drops just a single pin – and we suspect the overclock-killing internal clock generator was marketing motivated rather than architecturally essential. As for Intel's increasingly batty branding, the less said the better - quite literally. The last time we tried to explain what the whole Core i3, i5 and i7 shebang meant, it nearly reduced us to tears. Intentional omission or embarrassing oversight? However, there's one Sandy Bridge anomaly that increasingly looks like an oversight at best and a major cock up at worst. It involves Quick Sync Video, the 2D video transcoding engine that's found in all Sandy Bridge processors, regardless of specification or core count. More accurately, the Quick Sync Video engine is actually part of the new integrated Intel HD Graphics core. The problem, of course, is that the P67 chipset is discrete. In other words, it doesn't support the integrated graphics core. Exactly why you would want to completely rule out any possibility of using the integrated graphics isn't clear. Intel argues the P67 is a performance chipset and that's fair enough. But there's no harm in having the integrated core as a back up option. Anyway, the current upshot of all this is that Quick Sync Video requires the HD Graphics core to be enabled. But you can't enable the HD Graphics core on any P67 board. So, you can't have Quick Sync Video on the highest performing Sandy Bridge platform. That's a serious downer for two reasons. Firstly because Quick Sync Video looks like it might well be killer for video encoding. Our initial testing suggests it's nearly four times quicker than CPU encoding. And bear in mind, that's CPU encoding on the 2600K, which is a ludicrously fast processor. Quick Sync Video is probably ten times faster, perhaps even more, than a chip like an old Core 2 Duo. The problem with P67 The other problem is that the P67 is currently the only chipset that fully supports Intel's new overclocking regime. You can read more about that in our Sandy Bridge review, but the bottom line is that performance enthusiasts will want the P67 chipset. But they'll also want to use Quick Sync Video. And since they've paid for the frigging HD Graphics core, why shouldn't they be able to use that? It's all thoroughly unsatisfactory. Making this whole story even more intriguing is the rumoured arrival of a third consumer-orientated Sandy Bridge chipset known as Z68. If the scuttlebutt is correct, the Z68 is the one chipset to rule them all. It supports both the HD Graphics core and the overclocking options. In other words, it's what the P67 should have been. Quite why the Z68 is not available at launch we cannot say with certainty. But it sure looks like Intel suddenly – and belatedly - realised the P67 has a major problem. 
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| Explained: How MP3 compression works Posted: 04 Jan 2011 05:41 AM PST  Ask us to name a universally known file format, and it would probably be a toss-up between MP3 and JPG. Simply put, if you're a fully paid up member of the digital multimedia revolution, you will have thousands of these files on your computer's hard drive – music you listen to and photos you look at – both of which have been compressed to cram as much information as possible into the minimum of space. What is an MP3? The MP3 is a fairly recent invention in digital music and sound. Before that, there was the compact disc, or CD. The audio on a CD is converted from an analog source, such as the master tape (although these days, most audio is recorded directly as digital). The analogue wave can't be recorded digitally as it is, so a digital audio processor is used to sample the analogue audio wave 44,100 times a second. This means, at every tick, the digital audio processor works out the amplitude of the original very complex audio wave. It records this as a two-byte value, so there are 65,536 possible values for this amplitude: 32,767 values above zero and 32,767 below. It does this sampling for the two channels of stereo as well. For a CD, the values of the amplitudes are stored directly onto the CD as a series of pits that the laser in your optical drive can read and interpret. No compression is done on the data stream. Since a CD can store up to 74 minutes of music, we can calculate the storage capacity of a CD: 74 minutes ≈ 60 seconds per minute ≈ 44,100 samples per second ≈ two bytes per sample ≈ two channels = 783,216,000 bytes or 747MB. Furthermore, the I/O channel that the CD uses needs to be able to transfer 176kB of data per second to the digital audio processor (the one that reconstructs the analogue audio wave from the digital data and then feeds it through the amplifier to the speakers). Recording soundwaves The reason for the sample rate and the amplitude measurement is fairly mundane. Suppose we're sampling the waveform shown in Figure 1.
If we sample at too low a rate, we may miss some peaks and troughs in the original audio and so the resulting waveform may sound completely different and muddy.
Figure 2 shows this scenario, where the resulting waveform in red looks quite different from the original. We therefore need to sample much more often. Given that the human ear (in general) only hears a tone up to about 20kHz in frequency, we should therefore sample at least twice that rate in order to properly capture the highs and lows of the audio wave at that frequency. With a fudge factor added just in case, the rate settled on was 44,100Hz.
Figure 3 shows a different problem: the number of possible values for the amplitude is fairly small. From the original measured amplitude, the processor must choose the closest value it can record. Here we've got a fairly high sample rate, but the measurements of the amplitude are pretty coarse. Again, the resulting waveform looks different from the original – a little more subtle perhaps, but it could still alter the sound pretty badly (highs might be higher than the original, for example, making the result more shrill and meaning that subtle nuances in the music are lost). Here, a different criterion comes into play: making the sample values fit into a whole number of bytes to help make the output DAC's job easier. One byte would be far too small for this (with only 256 different values for the amplitude), so the original designers decided on two bytes per sample. There things stood until the age of the personal computer and the internet. A three-minute track on a CD (which is the length of a typical pop song) occupies 31,752,000 bytes, or just over 30MB. Downloading a CD track using a 9,600 baud modem would take hours, and would still take well over an hour on a 56K dialup modem (the fastest retail modem before broadband became mainstream). On a typical broadband connection (12mbit/s download, for example), that track would take under three minutes to download, meaning you could just about stream it while listening to it. The solution would seem to be to compress the digital audio data. As it happens, compressing a typical CD track with something like the Deflate algorithm in Zip doesn't actually give many space savings. The reason is the data stream exhibits randomness: the two-byte accuracy of the sampling means that even similar pieces of music encode slightly differently, negating the benefits of dictionary compression algorithms such as Deflate. Random data doesn't compress, so CD tracks don't compress terribly well at all. Trimming the edges The next solution is to use a lossy compression scheme. Such a scheme essentially throws away unimportant data in order to make the result more compressible. On decompressing the data, the algorithm doesn't produce exactly the same output as the original input, but we don't notice the difference. This kind of algorithm is therefore only of any real use for things such as images, video, and audio. For images and photos, the archetypal lossy compression algorithm is the JPG file format. The vast majority of lower-end digital cameras produce JPG images as a matter of course. The reasons are primarily to do with smaller file sizes: more photos can be stored on the camera's internal flash storage, and transferring photos to a computer takes less time. Of course, the fact that the vast majority of digital photos are only viewed on a computer screen (sometimes as thumbnails more often than full size) and never digitally manipulated that much means that JPGs are more than sufficient. High-end DSLRs and professional cameras use a RAW format, which, although it may be compressed, isn't lossy-compressed. We don't usually notice that JPG is a lossy compression format because the algorithm only discards information that the human eye would have difficultly perceiving when viewed alongside other parts of the photo. With audio compression, we take advantage of the imperfect nature of the human ear to help us identify (and discard) unimportant parts of the music: there are frequencies we can't hear, there are frequencies we distinguish better than others, and when two sounds play at the same time, we hear the louder sound rather than the softer one. Why use MP3? The MP3 algorithm uses these details to remove those sounds we can't hear (or have difficulty in perceiving among the rest of the audio) to simplify the data stream to make it more compressible. The idea is to tweak things so that the removed data does not hurt the quality of the audio for the eventual listener. Nevertheless, to make things plain, MP3 cannot produce CD quality audio since it eliminates information from the data stream; instead we call the result near-CD quality or even FM quality. However, the compression ratio we obtain is truly remarkable: three minute MP3 tracks are typically between 3MB and 5MB in size – about an order of magnitude smaller than the original CD track. The MP3 algorithm has a single tuning knob that enables us to determine how much information is thrown away. Some people will be fine with increasing the lossy part of the compression algorithm because they only listen to MP3s in a noisy environment – in a car or a busy office, for example. Within a noisy environment, you won't hear the most subtle sounds, so it makes sense to optimise for file size rather than audio quality. If you're listening to music in a quieter environment, such as at home in your living room, you may be more aware of the loss of quality and not so bothered by file size. The lossy algorithm tuning knob is known as the bit rate. Bit rates are measured in bits per second; MP3 varies from 96kbps to 320kbps. At the low end of the scale, 96kbps or 128kbps is equivalent to FM radio. At the high end of the scale – say 256kbps to 320kbps – the sound quality is comparable to that of a CD. The speed of sound Remember that a CD delivers data at a rate of 176KB/s, or 1,400kbps. This means that a song saved at the 96kbps bit rate is roughly 1/14 of the size of a CD track. At the 256kbps bit rate, files are about a fifth of the size. So, for example, if your car's CD player can play MP3 CDs (that is, data CDs containing MP3s), you'll be able to put five times as many 256kbps bit rate MP3 tracks on the CD as you could on a standard audio CD. The burning question then is: which bit rate do you go for when you want the best sound you can get for the smallest file size? The only subjective variable here is quality: what I might deem as acceptable quality, you might cringe at, or vice versa. Various experiments have been conducted and it's been discovered that, in general, people can't tell the difference between an audio track encoded as a 256kbps MP3 and one from a CD. The only significant statistic is that if you know a particular track very well from CD, you're more likely to spot an MP3-encoded version of it than if you're listening to a track you've never heard before. The MP3 file format was designed to contain more than just the lossy-compressed audio data. The file consists of a set of MP3 frames, each comprising a header and corresponding data. A set of frames may be enclosed inside a tag to indicate that the frames are describing something special, such as metadata about the MP3 track (the artist's name, title, album, track number, musical genre, album art and so on). Add your own data Although the MP3 standard doesn't define its own standards for these metadata tags, there are two that have grown into standards through being recognised by several audio players. These are the ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags – although there's also a new one called APEv2, which is gaining familiarity and approval. On playback, the metadata tags are generally read by the audio player, so that relevant information can be displayed for the user. Although many CD rippers create metadata for your tracks and embed them in the MP3 files (and programs such as iTunes enable you to edit the metadata for your tracks), there are MP3 tag editors that allow you to manipulate the metadata at a finer level, or in block mode. All in all, MP3s have changed the music environment for good. Although you can still buy CDs – or if you're really old-school, vinyl – most people consume their music through MP3 or AAC. Online retailers such as Amazon and iTunes help you buy MP3s for immediate download and gratification. Online radio stations, including Pandora and Spotify, enable you to listen to lossy-compressed streamed tracks without the need for purchase. Programs like iTunes and Windows Media Player enable you to rip your CDs as MP3s onto your hard disk for later listening. Audio players such as the iPod and Zune let you to listen to your MP3-encoded music wherever you want to. In short, MP3s are here to stay. 
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| Updated: HTC Tablet rumours: what you need to know Posted: 04 Jan 2011 05:39 AM PST  Once upon a time, Apple made a phone. Rivals tried to copy it, but the iPhone was too good and their efforts too bad. And then HTC appeared. "Look!" it said. "A smartphone!" And the HTC phones were good, and lots of people bought them. Now, though, Apple has seen similar success with its iPad – so does HTC have a tablet of its own to take on the iPad? If anyone can make a real iPad rival it's HTC, and while the HTC Tablet and specs haven't been acknowledged by HTC, the rumour mill says it's real. Here's what we know and what we'd like to see in the HTC Tablet. UPDATE: On 17 December we reported on an interview with HTC CEO Peter Chou, which some news outlets took to be confirmation of an incoming HTC Tablet. HTC Tablet: Chrome OS no more? We expected the first Chrome-powered tablet to come from HTC last month, but it didn't turn up. That's apparently because HTC has shifted its efforts to Android; the change of tack has put the HTC Tablet release date back, too. HTC Tablet: Android 3.0 Pocket Lint says Taiwanese component manufacturers are gossiping like fishwives, claiming that the HTC Tablet OS will be Android 3.0. The HTC Tablet features look pretty nifty If DigiTimes' sources are correct, the HTC Tablet and specs are in the capable hands of Taiwanese notebook maker Pegatron, whose name sounds fantastic if you shout it in your best Movie Trailer Man voice. Pegatron - PEGATRON! - has declined to comment, but DigiTimes says the tablet it's building runs a Tegra 2 processor, has a 1280 x 720 multi-touch panel, a 32GB solid state drive, 2GB of RAM and the usual Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. The HTC Tablet features include "multimedia performance… stronger than that of iPad", Chrome Web Apps and the Android Market. Imagine an HTC Desire HD scaled up a bit and you get the idea. Sounds good to us. The HTC Tablet release date could be in early 2011 Taiwanese gossips predict a Q1 2011 release, says Pocket Lint. The HTC Tablet release date might be in Q2, not Q1 According to DigiTimes, Apple Daily says that a JP Morgan analyst says that Google is messing around with its Android support. Motorola is Google's priority for 3.0, LG will be priority for 3.5 and HTC follows on, which means the HTC Tablet won't ship before the second quarter of 2011. UPDATE: ON 2 December 2010, DigiTimes reported vice president for HTC Asia Jack Tong as saying that HTC was currently evaluating the tablet market and had yet to make a decision as to whether it would launch a tablet. We're not sure we're convinced by that statement... HTC Tablet features include something "really compelling", like a free horse or a time machine Speaking to Pocket Lint, HTC's global PR boss Eric Lin said the firm wasn't interested in me-too devices. "If we just release an Android tablet we're one of 81… whereas if we have a compelling feature, a really compelling use, anything like that, then it'll help us to stand out. It's going to take a lot of work searching for that." What could it be? A free horse? A time machine? We'll be gutted if it's just a slightly tweaked Sense UI. The HTC Tablet may be called the HTC Evo Shift 4G Engadget spotted some trademark filings where HTC was attempting to trademark the term HTC Evo Shift 4G. Another smartphone, or something even bigger? Slashgear hopes it's "a 7-inch HTC tablet with integrated 4G to take on Samsung's Galaxy Tab". Any evidence for that? Of course not. This is the internet! UPDATE: The HTC Tablet may be called the HTC Scribe On 4 January 2011, we reported that HTC filed a trademark application on 26 December 2010 for a "handheld wireless device, namely a tablet computer". The name that has been applied for is the HTC Scribe. The HTC Tablet price may be $790 The DigiTimes report we mentioned earlier took a stab at the HTC Tablet price, and it predicts that without subsidy it'll be $789.75. The HTC Tablet price might be zero Download Squad says the HTC Tablet will launch on Verizon in the US with a price tag of zero depending on the tariff you choose. Similar deals are likely here: we've already seen Three, T-Mobile and Orange offer subsidised iPads. The HTC Tablet is being made by Pegatron PEGATRON! 
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| CES 2011: Kodak launches new tiny and rugged pocket cams Posted: 04 Jan 2011 05:36 AM PST  Kodak has launched its latest range of affordable digital cameras and pocket camcorders at CES 2011 this week. Up first is the Kodak Easyshare Touch, featuring a 3-inch capacitive touchscreen display, a dedicated video recording button, 14-megapixel image sensor, 5x optical zoom and HDMI input. Credit card size cam Easyshare Mini is "about the size of a credit card" with a 10-megapixel image sensor, 2.5-inch LCD display, a 3x optical zoom lens and a front mirror – should you need to check your hair before taking a picture! Finally, the Kodak Easyshare Sport is a waterproof camera that can go up to ten feet underwater and is tough enough to cope with dirt and dust – with this 12-megapixel, 2.4-inch LCD display cam no doubt being marketed to fans of extreme sports. As far as Kodak's new pocket cams go, the second generation Kodak Playsport is joined by the new tiny-sized Kodak Playfull. The 'real Kodak moment' "Innovation at Kodak has always been focused around making the complex simple for our customers," says Betty Noonan, Kodak Director and Vice President, Business to Consumer Marketing. "Today, Kodak continues to bring technological advancements to market that make it easier and more convenient for consumers to share with their friends and family in their own unique way. The real Kokak Moment happens when you share and that drives our ongoing commitment to leading the evolution of imaging by developing intelligent solutions that marry consumer insights with innovative technology." While many of us already use our iPhone 4s and Android smartphones as 'pocket cams', dedicated devices such as those from Kodak still have a few advantages – not least the fact that the Playsport can go underwater and still shoot crystal clear 1080p video. The Playfull is Kodak's new entrant into the pocket cam world, which shoots the same 1080p video and 5MP stills as the Playsport, with the addition of a retractable USB arm and a far smaller form factor to help slip in your jean's pocket. The new Playsport video camera is set to cost $179.95 in the US. UK pricing and release details should follow shortly. We'll update this news story as soon as we have them. 
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| HTC's first tablet outed as HTC Scribe? Posted: 04 Jan 2011 05:06 AM PST  HTC's inevitable foray into the tablet market looks imminent after the Taiwanese firm trademarked the HTC Scribe name. The trademark application was filed for a 'handheld wireless device, namely a tablet computer' and the assumption is that this device will see HTC joining the Android-powered iPad rivals' race. The application doesn't give away much more than the name of the device and the date of the filing (Boxing Day, if you're interested) but we'd imagine it will be running Honeycomb and therefore have a high resolution screen and dual-core innards. We'd be surprised if the HTC Scribe name actually made it to the model we see on our shelves, as we doubt it's going to come with a pen device a la the tablets of the early 21st century. Somethin's a-brewin' HTC looks set to announce something big at CES or Mobile World Congress this year, and in addition to the standard Desire and Legend refreshes it wouldn't be a surprise to see a new tablet turn up too. This would mean a UK release date of around March or April, and given HTC's recent track record, a not-too-ridiculous UK price could follow as well. TechRadar is patrolling the floors of CES as we speak, so if nothing turns up there we'll turn our tablet-focused laser sights to the halls of Barcelona for MWC in February. 
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