Sponsored
Techradar |
- Nintendo to ship 4 million 3DS by March 31
- Updated: Hands on: LG Optimus Black review
- Updated: Hands on: Motorola Atrix review
- CES 2011: Hands on: Microsoft Surface 2
- CES 2011: The secret Windows tablets of CES
- CES 2011: In pictures: Sharp Galapagos tablet
- CES 2011: Hands on: Samsung ZX310 9 Series review
- Tutorial: How to build the ultimate home media network
- Tutorial: Improve your piano skills with GarageBand
- Review: BullGuard Internet Security 10
- Review: Samsung RF710-S03UK
| Nintendo to ship 4 million 3DS by March 31 Posted: 10 Jan 2011 12:21 AM PST  Nintendo hopes to shift 1.5 million 3DS units in Japan and 2.5 million 3DSes elsewhere in the world by the end of March. Speaking at this month's Nintendo World event in Japan, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has confirmed the aim ship a combined 4 million 3DS units worldwide by the end of the company's 2011 financial year. 4 million to retail by March 31 The Wall Street Journal Japan reports that Iwata has set the targets of 1.5 million units to ship to Japan by March 31, with 2.5 million planned to ship to the US, Europe and elsewhere in the world. Nintendo World, the first public showing of the 3DS this past weekend, was held just outside of Tokyo.. As well as giving eager fans the chance to play the first demos of 3DS titles, Nintendo also confirmed the Japanese launch line-up of games for the new handheld. Battery life 3-8 hours Nintendo has posted the fully detailed spec list of the 3DS on its official website, confirming that the battery will last between three and eight hours, and will take three-and-a-half hours to fully charge. The length of battery life will depend on the backlight settings on the 3DS. No official word as yet on plans for the Europe and the US retail launches in March, though we expect to hear more from planned press events in Amsterdam and New York on January 19. In the meantime, you can check out Nintendo's newly-launched UK portal website for 3DS ahead of next week's press events. Launch line-up for Japan Famitsu published the first line-up list of of 3DS launch titles, each of which will cost Japanese gamers between ¥4,800 and ¥6,090. The full list is as follows, as well as prices.
| ||
| Updated: Hands on: LG Optimus Black review Posted: 09 Jan 2011 03:40 PM PST  LG has been fleshing out its Android offerings of late and the latest handset off the production line is the LG Optimus Black. Sporting a slick lightweight design and a bright, yet power efficient, NOVA screen, it will sit alongside the also-new LG Optimus 2X in LG's range. Hands on: LG Optimus Black review: design
The LG Optimus Black is a very interesting phone, with the large four-inch screen the first thing you notice - it sits in the hand pretty well, and it's phenomenally light when you pick it up. It's almost too light, if that makes any sense, as it means that the feel is a little cheapened. At 109g, we're very impressed with the way LG has managed to cram so much into such a slender frame.
The phone itself looks a little bit unremarkable turned off, but this isn't just another phone release from LG; it's the necessary step to bring the Korean firm back towards the head of the smartphone game with a top-end device to sit alongside the Optimus 2X.
The four standard touch-sensitive Android buttons are out at the bottom of the phone once more, with LG's familiar 'pop-out window' style menu key on the left-hand side.
The general feel of the LG Optimus Black is one of sparse style, with the bottom of the phone only holding the battery cover removal slot.
Front-facing cameras are all the rage this year, and the LG Optimus Black has leapt to the head of the pack with a whopping 2MP effort - only the BlackBerry Playbook's 3MP offering can best that.
The main ports are all clustered at the top of the Optimus Black, with the microUSB slot and 3.5mm headphone port next to the eary-to-reach power/lock button. As you can see, there's no mini-HDMI jack here for porting content to a bigger screen - the super-bright NOVA display will have to do you for that. Also note the extra hole at the top, which we assume is for noise cancelling.
The back of the phone is plastic and feels slightly rubberised, but it pretty devoid of anything bar the camera.
The HD recording ability of the device evident, with 720p capture on offer. The 5MP camera is flanked by a single LED flash, but the overall effect is nice enough.
The NOVA screen is possibly the most interesting feature. While some premium phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S feature super bright AMOLED displays, the NOVA screen is able to match it on brightness while keeping power consumption to a minimum.
It was certainly very impressive. We weren't able to test battery performance, but the screen certainly seemed a match for most of the AMOLED screens we've seen. LG says that a standard AMOLED display will consume twice as much power as the Optimus Black's NOVA screen, and in high brightness it seemed to hold its own. The Black's other distinguishing feature is that it's the world's thinnest smartphone, replacing Apple's iPhone 4 at the top of the list - although the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc may have already wandered in and stolen that crown at around 9mm thick at each end. Browsing Android 2.2 was quick and easy, and the Black's new 'Gesture UI' overlay was also pretty neat. It allows you to directly access messages, emails and missed calls from the lock screen. There are also some new commands too, like lifting, shaking and tapping for functions like answering calls and opening the camera app.
We weren't able to test web performance as the sample we looked at had no internet connection, but we'd assume the browser performance was on a par with other LG products with a slick output. While there's no HDMI connection to speak of, the addition of DLNA in the mix means content can still be streamed to a big screen TV with no problem, so at least that's a box semi-ticked by LG. The phone should be released in the UK in the coming months, with an Android 2.3 upgrade already on the cards - and word on this street is this could be a little cheaper than the competition, which would be a real win for a high-end, low-ish price unit in 2011. 
| ||
| Updated: Hands on: Motorola Atrix review Posted: 09 Jan 2011 02:40 PM PST  We were expecting something dual core-ish from Motorola at CES after the leaks of the Olympus, and boy, did we get something to get excited about. Motorola has thrown away the form book with the new Atrix, with a range of stunning specs to appease even the most hardcore user. We're talking a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor with two 1GHz chips running in tandem to offer a judder-free existence and lower battery consumption, as well as 1GB of RAM to keep slowdown to a minimum.
The screen is very much next generation as well, with its qHD pixel count stuffed into a 4-inch display nabbing the title of the world's highest-res screen from the iPhone 4. And even though the dual core processor is supposed to help with the battery life, there's still an industry-leading 1980mAh battery squashed in the back as well, with 16GB of storage ably backed up by a microSD for up to 32GB of extra space. Hands on: Motorola Atrix review: Design So with all that in mind, it's actually very surprising to find that the Motorola Atrix doesn't look like the ugliest phone in the world - it's no great shakes in the style stakes, but it's averagely attractive and won't be the most horrendous fashion statement.
The overall design is very square and black - the front is dominated by the display, with the four front touch-sensitive buttons the only difference in furniture, as well as the VGA front-facing camera for video calling. The back is reminiscent of mottled carbon fibre, with an attractive sheen and a decent grip level - nothing spectacular, but acceptable.
Given the large screen size, it's good to note that the phone sits well in the hand, and the screen is mostly all in reach of a finger or thumb - some jiggling will be needed to pull down the top notification bar, but overall it's not too bad and will suit most pockets and bags.
The thickness of 10.9mm is a massive surprise when you think about the innards - that battery pack puts the likes of the HTC Desire to shame, and will hopefully become the norm in more devices as we get used to ever-more power-hungry phones in the future.
The other elements on the phone are pretty standard: the volume rocker is easy to hit and works well enough when taking a call or listening to music, and the power/lock button is well positioned on the back of the phone near the top.
What is cool here is the button also doubles as a slick fingerprint reader, which is a very secure and cool way to unlock your new Android phone - in our tests it worked very well and responsively, so it seems more functional than a gimmick.
There's an HDMI-out slot next to the microUSB opening on the side of the phone - but that's just the start of the multi-media output for the Motorola Atrix as you'll see later.
One thing is for sure – it's lightning fast and the display is stunning in terms of colour and resolution. However, we're not amazingly convinced by Moto's claim that the display is "easier to read indoors and outdoors" – it still had major problems with glare from nearby lights. While the screen's brightness might annoy some people, they won't be able to find a problem with the touch operation. The screen responded fantastically well, with no slowdown even when running multiple applications and widgets simultaneously - doubly impressive when you consider we were looking at a non-final product. Hands on: Motorola Atrix review: Interface The Android interface seemed pretty similar to the MotoBlur offering from the likes of the Motorola Milestone 2 - re-sizeable widgets, a number of home screens and social networking at the fore all make a return, although that will be a good thing to some people remains to be seen.
The internet browser is excellent too, with pinch and zoom and text-reflow all working magically, making the Atrix very much an internet-enabled device for those that use a mobile more than a PC for things like reading news and browsing Facebook. But the decent operation isn't what's got us excited about the Atrix. This is a phone that promises a lot more through optional accessories, and we were suitably impressed in the demos. Hands on: Motorola Atrix review: Desktop and home dock The first dock is pretty standard, and similar to the one offered with the BlackBerry Torch: namely a power supply and an auxiliary port making your phone into an alarm clock.
But it's the home dock that really cranks up the impressive force: three USB slots and an HDMI connection mean if you've got a big screen TV nearby and a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, you can connect them all up together for a fully-functioning home entertainment centre, all powered by your phone, as well as a completely separate interface.
When docked in, the Motorola Atrix will jump into WebTop mode, where the phone functionality jumps into the passenger seat and a whole new Linux-powered desktop comes up in its place (although the phone's UI can be seen plugging away at the side as well).
You can do things like browse the internet on the dedicated Firefox browser that Motorola built for the Atrix's WebTop interface, use Citrix to mirror Windows 7 or open up the Entertainment Hub to browse the music, pictures or video on the phone in up to 1080p resolution.
All this happened without a glitch, and really blew us away; it's not a new thing to have a big screen interface for a phone, but to have a whole new operating system lying dormant at the heart to be extracted for a big screen is amazing and video looked superb streaming its way from the phone.
The keyboard Motorola is offering to buy as an optional extra is optimised for Android/WebTop too, as it has dedicated buttons to control moving around the interface, as well as a full set of QWERTY keys for speedier messaging or text input.
A remote control is included too, meaning you can manipulate media as you would with a normal media centre - again, hugely impressive and worked well in our tests. You have to keep reminding yourself it's just a phone at the heart of things.
Hands on: Motorola Atrix review: Laptop dock And that's not all - another accessory, the laptop dock for the Motorola Atrix, uses the same principle to make the Atrix a multi-function device in nearly every sense of the word. Plug the phone in at the back of the unit (which has no processing power of its own) and the large screen boots up into WebTop mode, just like on the large screen.
The keyboard is well-spaced and easy to use, and the large trackpad functions as nicely as any other netbook we've seen - plus it's flanked by two battery packs that can keep things juiced for seven hours as well as charging the Atrix - even a long flight will mean you can watch movies and still have a working phone at the end of it.
A couple of USB ports mean you can increase the functionality of the device or add in additional storage, and there's a power dock as well for keeping power topped up in static scenarios.
What does this mean for the future of the mobile phone? Well, power is now very much at the head of the table when it comes to specs: we're going to be seeing a lot of dual-core offerings at MWC this year, we reckon.
Will the iPhone 5 have the same power centre and range of accessories? We sincerely hope so, as we're currently looking forward to bringing you our full Motorola Atrix review more than any other at the moment. The Motorola Atrix has an Orange UK release date "later this year" but will be available in the United States from AT&T over the coming few months. 
| ||
| CES 2011: Hands on: Microsoft Surface 2 Posted: 09 Jan 2011 02:25 PM PST  The original Microsoft Surface was a pretty impressive piece of technology, with an impressive $15,000 price tag and an impressive bulk to go with it. Replacing the NEC cameras inside with what Microsoft calls 'PixelSense' (where the individual pixels are also infrared cameras) means Surface 2 is only 4 inches thick – so you can get your feet underneath it or hang it on the wall. It's both faster (thanks to GPU acceleration in Windows 7 courtesy of the dual-core AMD Athlon II X2 and Radeon HD 6700M inside) and cheaper (prices start around $7,600).
It's also a beautiful, vivid screen thanks to hardware partner Samsung (the Surface 2 hardware will be officially called the Samsung SUR40 when it goes on sale later this year).
Microsoft says the 40-inch screen is the biggest piece of Gorilla Glass ever glued onto an LCD (so you can still put cans of beer and cups of coffee down on it without worrying) and the new Surface interface uses the real estate well, with a long strip of applications that you scroll through sideways. As with the original Surface, apps fill the entire screen and multiple people can sit around a Surface and play with elements on screen. Surface 2 can cope with more than 50 simultaneous touch points. We tried several apps with two and three people grabbing, dragging, zooming and rotating images and everything moved fluidly. You tend to use only a couple of fingers on each hand as you interact with Surface, so the limit seems to be as much how many people can fit around a Surface.
Microsoft showed us what the infrared cameras in each pixel see on an external monitor; where your fingers touch the screen are bright points of light and your hand is a pale blur behind it – and as your palms get closer to the table they glow brighter. Surface 2 can see the text printed on a sheet of paper – like a photocopier – and you can grab hold of that digital copy, drag it around or save it up to the cloud. If you put down something it can read like a book or a membership card, Surface 2 can recognise it; that's how the Royal Bank of Canada will scan the competition entries it mails out to customers to bring into a branch. You can also put Microsoft Tags onto objects that are harder to tell apart.
One energy drink can is very like another, so Red Bull will be tagging cans and that when you put a can down in the 'World of Red Bull' app, it launches a ring of controls around the base of the can playing video of Red Bull events like Flugtag.
Pick a video that looks interesting and drag it out of the ring to watch it; you can have several people dragging and resizing videos at once. The video controls worked well, but the Surface didn't always recognise the cans when we moved them around the screen; Microsoft did tell us it's an early version of the firmware and we expect this to improve quickly. The Bing app will include maps and local search but so far it's only doing image search from a search box displayed at a rakish angle on top of the usual gorgeous Bing backgrounds. The onscreen keyboard is pretty responsive and the results show up as a pile of photographs scattered in one corner of the Surface.
You can drag pictures around, make the ones you want to see bigger and if you like one particularly, double-tap it to get a Microsoft Tag you can scan with a smartphone to download the image. The Bing app is multi-user; while you're playing with your photos someone else can do their own search and get their own pile of pictures to look at (the search keyword sits on the Surface in a toolbar that lets you close all the images at once to make space).
Now that Surface isn't tied to the size and shape of the bulky internal cameras, you can choose whether you want it the height of a desk or down as a coffee table (just put longer legs on it); that makes it a little more comfortable to use. The disadvantage of the new design is that the enormous Samsung logo is a bit distracting. On the software side, there are obviously some minor touch issues to iron out before launch but Surface 2 is just as engaging and fun to use – and still aimed only at commercial environments.
| ||
| CES 2011: The secret Windows tablets of CES Posted: 09 Jan 2011 02:01 PM PST  Asus, Fujitsu, MSI, Samsung and Motion aren't the only PC makers with Windows slates at CES, although they're the ones you'll see shipping first (in fact you can order the Asus Eee Slate EP121 this month). There are companies you may not have heard of doing Windows slates (like Viliv and Netbook). And then there are some tablet PC makers who are being a bit more cautious. Toshiba has its Windows 7 slate rotating in a case on its stand, carefully labelled as a technology demonstration. Whatever product that turns into will ship in the US only initially; Toshiba Europe will have a Windows tablet "as soon as possible when we understand the European requirements" Toshiba president Alan Thompson told us. The other Windows tablets we've seen at CES haven't been on the show floor as products that are ready to ship; they're prototypes of products we won't see for a while and some are tucked away in private meeting rooms but they're evidence that not all the PC manufacturers are going to wait for the slate improvements expected in Windows 8. Not iPad, LePad Lenovo is bringing its hybrid LePad Android/Windows combo tablet/notebook out in China first and that might also be the first place it sells the prototype 10.1-inch Windows 7 tablet we caught sight of.
ACTIVE PEN: The prototype Lenovo Windows slate has a multitouch screen – and an active pen for smpoth inking and drawing Lenovo tells us it has plans to bring this Oak Trail Intel Atom tablet out in 2011 and didn't say any more, but we learned a little more from looking at the system. We didn't get an official name, but the PC name in Windows is the LT10. The prototype has a 1.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, a 32GB SSD plus USB and SD ports tucked away behind a hinged flap and a dock connector on the bottom edge. It has a 1280 x 800 screen with combined finger touch and an active digitiser for the pen. Both gave us a nice smooth touch experience. The custom Lenovo interface (divided into Work and Play) has big, finger-friendly icons and it's much more responsive than the convertible IdeaPad S10 netbooks we've tried. Windows was reporting battery life of around six hours with Wi-Fi on (less than the eight hours Motion is promising from its similar slate).
CUSTOM UI: Can't face touching the Start menu? Lenovo's custom interface is simple but finger friendly Lenovo is also planning some nifty accessories, like a desk stand for the pen that holds it upright and ready to grab and a keyboard with a recess for the slate to dock into, as well as a simple dock that's a stand and charging cradle together. Acer has been getting attention for the dual-screen Iconia notebook Microsoft showed off in its CES keynote, but we also found an Iconia slate in the private Microsoft PC showcase. It's another 10.1-inch screen with 2GB of RAM and a 32GB SSD, but this time running on an AMD CPU.
ONE SCREEN: The slightly less iconic Iconia; instead of a second screen, this prototype has a detachable keyboard It's a nice sleek slate running Windows 7 Home Premium and weighing 2.2lb but what makes it stand out is the excellent detachable keyboard. This connects to the standard USB port placed on the bottom edge (where many manufacturers are putting a custom dock connector) with two lugs to keep it in place and a flap at the back to help you fold it down when you want to close the laptop you've just converted it into. When we enthused about being able to rip off the keyboard and leave it at home to lighten the load, Microsoft told us about another tablet coming from Portland-based CTL (a small PC maker with the advantage of being geographically close to Intel, who came out with the $499 2go Pad SL10 for the education market last year). Their Oak Trail Atom prototype has a detachable keyboard with an extra battery in, which will double battery life – from ten hours up to 20.
EARLY VERSION: You can tell by the finish that this is a prototype slate; we like the physical volume buttons and the SD card slot for extra storage 
| ||
| CES 2011: In pictures: Sharp Galapagos tablet Posted: 09 Jan 2011 01:42 PM PST  Sharp showed off its Galapagos tablet range at CES 2011 this week, offering a sneak peak at what to expect when the tablet is eventually launched later in the year. Sharp showcased the tablet range in its keynote but wasn't quite ready to confirm whether or not the tablet will becoming to the UK with an Android OS or something that's Linux based. What was shown, however, was the look and feel of the devices on Linux.
Currently there are two size options for the Sharp Galapagos: 10.8 and 5.5 inch. Both have a 16:9 ratio screen and are plugged straight into the Sharp ebook store – the tablets we played with had the store as its home screen. The store offers books and magazines in the XMDF book format.
Linux based at the moment, the Galapagos looks likely to use Android when it is released in UK. The tablets have also wireless web connectivity.
The tablets to hold are fairly heavy but the design of the devices were pretty sleek.
The quality of the 10.8 inch's is WSGA 1366x800 and there's also the ability to share content between a number of other Sharp products.
There's no UK release date for the Sharp Galapagos so don't expect it to come to the UK till the back end of 2011. Pricing is also to be announced. 
| ||
| CES 2011: Hands on: Samsung ZX310 9 Series review Posted: 09 Jan 2011 09:42 AM PST  While many tech companies have been playing catch-up and releasing tablet products to rival the iPad at CES 2011, it seems that Samsung has another Apple device in its sights: the MacBook Air. The ZX310 9 Series laptop is thinner than the MacBook Air and is also has offers better specs. The chassis looks superb. It has been fashioned out of some wonder metal called duralumin. It's meant to be double the strength of aluminium and is used in the production of planes. Duralimin means that the laptop is also light, at 1.31kg.
The look of the laptop couldn't be more different from the MacBook Air. It's got a matte finish, unlike the Air, with contours on the surface. When snapped shut the laptop has a curved lip look, almost like an executive's folder. Beneath the impressive chassis are some equally impressive specs. These include: an Intel i7 processor, to 8GB memory, a 256GB solid state drive and a 13.1-inch screen. Also on board is Windows 7, a 1.3MP HD webcam, a touch sensitive gesture pad and uses a lithium-polymer battery. The gesture pad is responsive and makes it a whole lot easier to move around the laptop's screen.
Not only is the laptop speedy, but it also starts speedy as well. It only takes 12 seconds to boot up – this is a massive boon for those who want to be working straight away. With battery power that's said to be around three times more powerful than an average laptop, double the memory of the MacBook Air and killer looks, TechRadar can't wait for the UK release date of the ZX310 9 Series laptop to come around. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long, as the 9 Series is pencilled in for an April release, with pricing to be announced. 
| ||
| Tutorial: How to build the ultimate home media network Posted: 09 Jan 2011 04:00 AM PST  Discs are so yesterday. They get damaged, they get lost, they won't work with all your equipment and they need a player in every room. For a long time, moving a whole media collection onto a central server has been the dream of many. But potential problems, including the inevitable mess of cables, complex switch configuration and living with a noisy PC next to the telly, have put some people off. Forget all that negativity. It's now possible to build a discreet, powerful system that will neither cost the Earth, nor need your family's approval for cable tethering. Best of all, you won't need to make compromises for quality. Networks and hardware are now easily capable of streaming high-definition 1080p content. You probably already have the streaming client sitting underneath your television, or in the palm of your hand. Whether that's a PlayStation 3, a Nintendo Wii, an Android phone or an iPhone, linking all these devices together to create a home mesh of media is a great solution for people with large media collections – or children with sticky fingers. If you're after the perfect living room experience, you can now buy devices that will grab data from numerous sources and push it through an HDMI cable straight to your television. The trick is knowing what goes where. We're going to move from room to room, building the perfect solution for your home. We'll travel from the study, with its loading bay PC, to the modem and router in the hall, past the stairs with their hidden NAS box and on to the living room, where you'll be able to enjoy the fruits of all your hard work: lag- and stutter-free access to your entire media collection from the comfort of your sofa. The study Welcome to the content generating control room
This is where your content metamorphoses from a physical liability into a series of files sitting on a network-attached storage box hidden under the stairs. This transformation must happen within a PC, because it involves a lot of number crunching to sort everything out neatly. Whether you're turning an audio CD into MP3 and FLAC files, or transcoding a home movie into high-definition MKV, the more raw processing power you have, the less time you'll need to spend acting as disc-tray nanny. Central powerhouse As a result, the study needs to house an all-powerful computer. It's going to run Windows 7, and it will need to be as brawny and power-efficient as possible, switching into a low-power standby mode when not in use and enabling network devices to have the on-demand option of using it for transcoding one video format to another, if the need arises. The CPU needs to be of the full-fat variety, with as many cores as you can reasonably afford. AMD processors are currently top of the pile when it comes to price and performance, but we've found that Intel CPUs are generally better behaved, suspend easier and use less power. For that reason, we'd recommend opting for a Core i7 model with as much speed and as many cores as you can happily pay for. The Core i7-875k is a good choice in this instance, because it balances this performance with relatively decent value now that its price has dipped below £300. You'll need to combine this with plenty of memory, because video compression and transcoding will eat as much as you can throw at them. Consider 4GB of fast RAM as an absolute minimum. If you're intending to record live television, you'll also need room for the Freeview card and plenty of hard drive space – although your NAS is going to be the archive for your data, so space on the PC is only going to be needed temporarily. GPU processing You might think you can skip the expensive 3D graphics card in favour of a machine that's meant only for 2D video, but there's an interesting technology that might make you reconsider. The GPU within a 3D graphics card is itself a powerful number cruncher, and manufacturers are just starting to catch on to the idea that a GPU can be harnessed for desktop applications as well as gaming. Nvidia, for example, has created a technology called CUDA, which will enable developers to use the power of your GPU to accelerate mathematically intensive processes – which is exactly what video encoding is. Nero's Move It software encoder can use CUDA for video conversion, and Daniusoft's DVD Ripper claims that CUDA helps it attain a 500 per cent conversion speed. For this reason, it's worth trading some of your CPU budget for a decent Nvidia card. The EVGA GeForce GTX 460, at less than £150, is an excellent choice for GPU acceleration. To complete the PC, you'll need decent networking provision. Your PC is going to be both the encoder and the transcoder, constantly shuttling data across the network, so the only realistic options for connectivity are physical – either with an Ethernet cable between this machine and the router, or a Powerline unit to pass the Ethernet through your home's power grid. Wireless is fast enough in theory, but not in practice – especially when slower devices are also connected or other people are consuming the bandwidth. We recommend a wired Powerline backbone for data streaming, and because nearly all motherboards include Gigabit Ethernet, this is all you're going to need here. Software Finally, with the system configured and Windows 7 installed, you'll need some software to perform the transcoding magic. This will help platforms such as Nintendo's Wii and Apple's iPad access your entire media collection without the media being encoded into the formats those devices specifically support. The best we've found is TVersity, which can cater for a vast number of players and understand almost any media format you throw at it. The basic version is free, and it's easily installed, automatically detecting all your media files stored locally. For remote files held on your NAS, you'll need to mount the remotely shared folder onto your system and make sure this mount point is connected each time your computer boots.
If you want to access your media collection from the internet, try downloading Orb. This uses a web portal to stream your media from your PC to any compatible and connected device on the web – the only limit being the upload speed of your home connection. The hallway The hub for wireless and internet access
Most modern houses have their master telephone socket located in the hall. If you use ADSL for broadband, connecting your modem to this socket is going to give you the best performance. This is because there's likely to be less interference from other devices using the same phone line, such as phones, satellite receivers and alarms. However, it also creates a problem, because the hall is usually the least accommodating room for storing networking equipment. For this reason, your router and modem need to be as discreet as possible, while still remaining powerful enough to act as your home's portal to the internet. Router choices The standard router, as provided by your ISP, is unlikely to offer the best potential performance or configurability. For faster ADSL connections, you'll need a router with a modem that's capable of negotiating the Annex M protocol. This is an extension to the standard ADSL2+ protocol that adds faster upload speeds and better stability. It's a similar issue with wireless, where the 801.11n standard is now commonplace and interoperable. If range is important, you may want to consider a dual-band device. We'd also recommend keeping your media streaming off the wireless network, and using wireless only for laptops, netbooks and portable devices. You should then use either a physical Ethernet connection or a Powerline connection for the media delivery. Setting up the system should then be as simple as connecting your router to the phone line through an ADSL filer, setting it up through the web interface and moving on to another room. If you use an internet phone service such as Skype or you're a keen online gamer, you'll need a router that will let you configure Quality of Service for specific protocols. This will boost their priority over other connections when they're in use. There are hundreds of different routers to choose from, but if you're having difficulty, a recent survey on the Be Unlimited forum – a meeting place for fairly exacting web users – revealed that 55 per cent would plump for a Netgear router, with the Netgear DG834N (at around £80) being a particularly popular choice. If you're in any doubt as to which device will perform best with your ISP, the user forum is usually the best place to start your research. Under the stairs Store your media library safely and securely
With a basic NAS, your files will simply be made available on the network – usually through Microsoft's Windows networking protocol. This will work fine for laptops, netbooks and certain set-top-boxes, but it isn't the easiest method to configure or set up. The most common alternative is to find a NAS that supports the combination of DNLA and UPnP AV, which is a relatively painless way of streaming media to your various playback devices. You should aim for a NAS with 512MB of RAM and 1GHz CPU for maximum streaming capability. UPnP AV is the most important part, because this is the protocol used to transport the data, while DNLA is the certification that guarantees certain capabilities. When all your devices talk together using UPnP and DNLA, you should be able to see your photos, music and movies without any further configuration, although you'll still need to give the formats some thought. A PlayStation 3, for example, can make sense of MP3 music, display JPG image files, and play certain MP4, MPEG-2, AVI and DivX movies through DNLA. Although the specification allows for one format to be converted to another, few NAS boxes are powerful enough to do this in real time as you're listening or watching. Compatible storage After media streaming comes storage. Most NAS boxes have a compatibility list, which you should check before committing to a purchase. Two terabytes are likely to be enough for most people, and with the average HD movie taking between 6-10GB of space, that's at least 100 movies before you have to worry about an upgrade. You should also choose a drive that's quiet, efficient and powers down when not in use. If you've got the money to hand, an enterprise-class drive is better suited to an always-on environment, but most users will have no problems with standard drives from the likes of Western Digital and Seagate. Data loss is a bigger issue. A group of disks running as simple storage devices – a configuration known as JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) – will experience a failure sooner or later. How you feel about the thought of hours spent re-importing your collection will govern your backup strategy. A good option is to buy two identical disks and run either RAID 1 or RAID 5 configurations, if your NAS supports it. This builds tolerance into your system by duplicating data across both drives. Living room The business end of the operation – enjoy your media collection in comfort
We've reached the final stage – the point where you can almost sit back and enjoy the fruit of your labours. There's one problem left to solve, and that's getting your movies streamed to your TV. The device we're going to use to bridge the divide between your NAS-bound media and your TV is a media streamer. These are low-powered boxes that specialise in decoding vast amounts of video data, encoded in dozens of different formats, and sending these to your screen. Despite the encoding part requiring such a powerful PC, the decoding stage has been refined to such a degree that a small, embedded Realtek-chipset can do the job without difficulty. This is usually tied to a special version of Linux to handle access. Many even include space for an internal hard drive, but we've been able to sidestep this requirement by using the NAS. Remote drives also have the advantage of being quieter, and the NAS is a more flexible option if you need to stream video data to other locations in your house. Network compatibility Your media streamer will need both an Ethernet port connected to a Powerline unit and an HDMI connector for plug-and-play compatibility with your television. There are other options available, but HDMI is perfectly suited to this task. It's digital, supports high resolutions, and pipes audio at the same time. We're streaming video over the network rather than from local storage, so it's also important to ensure that your media streamer is compatible with your network configuration. Many devices fall at this hurdle by either failing to offer enough throughput for high definition playback, or making configuration too complicated. Most devices play the vast majority of formats you're likely to come across, and are able to access the data on a NAS – either through the Windows networking protocol, or through UPnP, which is the option we recommend for pain-free setup. The final piece of kit for our project is an inconspicuous PC for internet streaming and Freeview recording. Rather than using an off-the-shelf PVR, a low-powered PC will enable us to move our recording programming back to the NAS box for later viewing. It will also enable 100 per cent support for services including the BBC's iPlayer, ITV Player and Channel 4's 4oD. This PC's low power means it should be almost silent, and suspend and resume should work with the minimum of effort. We recommend looking for an all-in-one unit based around an Atom processor, such as the £150, 1.6GHz dual-core CPU, Zotac Z-Box. It's a tiny, vertical case that needs only a 2.5in hard drive and some memory to become a fully-fledged PC for streaming. Record programmes Recording standard definition Freeview and Freesat broadcasts through a USB interface shouldn't cause any problems – most devices come with their own software for scheduling recordings, and even a remote control, which enables you to avoid the keyboard and mouse combination completely. However, we recommend using Windows Media Centre, because it provides a more TV-friendly interface and includes its own DVR technology.
Either way, you'll want to make sure the files that are saved by the recording process are placed on your network-mounted NAS box, which can then be used to stream recordings to any other networked player in your household. Unfortunately, the ability to record and archive high-definition Freeview broadcasts is unresolved. The DVB-T2 hardware used to receive the signal is only just beginning to make its way into third-party PC devices, because it's currently used in just a couple of countries throughout the world. Combine this with the DRM built into high-definition transmissions, and recording and moving high definition content may not be technically, or even legally feasible. Even if it was, you'd need a fast local drive to store the data, before moving it onto a networked drive. However, experiments with high definition satellite broadcasts show that the Atom specification of the system should be up to the job, provided the USB hardware is able to work around any restrictions and your graphics are accelerated. Enjoy your media All of this should leave you with an incredibly powerful system. You can now listen to your digital music collection, browse your photos and watch your high-definition movies without worrying about how to store the physical discs or where to find them. The system is also omnipresent. You can access the same content from your netbook in the loft, your iPad in the bedroom and your TV in the living room, as well as allowing other people in the house to use streaming devices at the same time. The only problem with such a system – and this comes from bitter experience – is that you're never quite finished. You'll always want to update something, tweak a setting or add a new piece of gadgetry to your network. To appreciate your setup fully, you have to resist the temptation to continue tinkering. You have been warned. 
| ||
| Tutorial: Improve your piano skills with GarageBand Posted: 09 Jan 2011 02:00 AM PST  One of the most overlooked components of GarageBand '09 was its set of lessons for budding pianists and guitarists. Apple provided a bunch of high quality video lessons that enabled you to gradually improve your piano and guitar skills, mostly by playing alongside the mildly smug on-screen teacher Tim. Live notation and multiple camera angles meant that even total novices suddenly had the means to improve their talents, with time being the only cost. GarageBand '11 more than doubles the number of basic lessons available, taking the total to 40; and along with generic 'basic' lessons for each instrument, there are also genre-specific ones, such as 'classical piano' and 'blues guitar'. As before, the lessons also happen to be free, assuming you stick to Apple's own ones rather than the 'artist' lessons supplied by the likes of Sting and Norah Jones. But the latest GarageBand isn't only about providing more content — with the new 'How Did I Play?' feature, your prospects of improving are greatly increased. In a sense, Apple has turned this aspect of GarageBand into a kind of serious take on rhythm-action video games such as Guitar Hero and Tap Tap Revenge. You start recording yourself playing along with the Apple teacher, and you get instant visual feedback that shows how well you're doing. Correct notes are highlighted in green, bum notes are marked red, and yellow denotes timing errors. Once you've muddled through to the end, you're awarded a percentage score that will then be added to a progress graph with which you can track your progress over time. This way, you can find out if you're on your way to becoming the next Jools Holland/Eric Clapton, or whether you might as well wear boxing gloves. How to learn to play the piano with GarageBand '11 01. Download some lessons
GarageBand doesn't come with many lessons preloaded; instead, you're expected to download the ones you're interested in. Go to Lesson Store, choose Basic Piano and click a couple of the Download links. Lessons are quite weighty, so they may take a while to download. 02. Get started
Ensure you've got a USB or MIDI-compatible keyboard connected to your Mac, and then click Learn to Play, select a lesson and click Choose. GarageBand will go to fullscreen mode, and the lesson will automatically start playing. Watch the entire video through. 03. Switch modes
Hold your mouse cursor over the main viewing area (where Tim was previously strutting his stuff) and you'll see the learn/play menu. Click play and part of the lesson will be loaded, along with relevant notation, ready for you to begin recording your efforts. 04. Record yourself
Initially, it's best to play along with a metronome, since it helps you keep time; therefore, click it so it lights up. Next, click the record button. You'll be counted in and can then start playing notes you learned in the lesson. When you're finished, you'll get a score. 05. Review your efforts
Drag the playback head to any point along the recording and press play, or hit [Space], to review your performance alongside the teacher's. Click My Results – the recording area is greyed out and only the teacher's performance is heard; click again to revert. 06. Track your progress
Each time you make a new full (not partial) recording, GarageBand will store the data. Click the History button in the bottom right corner and you'll see a graph that, with a little luck and a following wind, will show an upward curve as you improve over time. 07. Hear old performances
Click the High Scores button to the right of the Progress header and you'll see your efforts for the lesson, each displaying a bar that shows the portions you got right and wrong. From this screen and the previous one, you can select a lesson and click Review to load it. 08. Fire the band
Although it's lovely that Apple has you playing alongside an orchestra, all those string instruments can be distracting. Click Mixer and mute The Band to get rid of the orchestra. You can also use the volume sliders to adjust your instrument or the teacher's. 
| ||
| Review: BullGuard Internet Security 10 Posted: 09 Jan 2011 02:00 AM PST  Our first impressions of BullGuard Internet Security 10 were not very favourable. The software uses a simple white and red colour scheme and looks a bit dull. Behind the scenes there have been some subtle changes in this latest version. In addition to the usual disk scanning, there is a new heuristic monitoring system called Behavioural Detection. This aims to catch any online nasties that manage to slip past your first line of defence. Inspector is a new software vulnerability scanner tool. It checks the software on your laptop to see whether it requires an update to overcome any known security problems. In our case, it raised the alarm about outdated versions of Adobe AIR, Shockwave and Java software which was a good call. We are less sure about the Gaming option in the suite. This piece of software reins back on your security scans in order that your games will play smoothly. That sounds considerate, but is arguably a little unnecessary in these days of dual-core CPUs. In fact, we found that BullGuard made very modest demands on our laptop and only required a footprint of 128MB of RAM. We feel that a scan should be allowed to run if it is necessary. Prioritising games over security strikes us as very shaky. A better idea is the Password Protected settings where you require a password to change security settings for the Antivirus engine, Firewall and Spam filter. On the other hand, you might argue that if a villain is sat at your laptop keyboard, the issue of spam is the least of your worries. The £45 licence fee covers three machines and includes 5GB of online data storage that can be expanded to 10GB for an extra £4. However, we draw the line at £16 for 25GB, £45 for 50GB or £103 for 100GB. Bullguard offers a reasonable array of features, but there is very little to grab your attention and the aesthetic appeal of the software is non-existent. Related Links
| ||
| Posted: 09 Jan 2011 01:30 AM PST  The Samsung RF710-S03UK is one of the more expensive Samsung Blu-ray laptops, but the impressive specification offers good value for money. As with the Acer Aspire Ethos 8943G, a quad-core Intel Core i7 720QM processor is used and the power on offer is faultless. The laptop gave the excellent scores in our benchmarking tests and wasn't fazed even when we ran several intensive applications at once. The dedicated Nvidia GT 330M GPU didn't perform as well as some rival laptops, but can still ably handle professional editing software and the latest games. The built-in Blu-ray drive won't allow you to create Blu-ray discs like the Acer Aspire Ethos 8943G and Asus N73J drives will, but you can still watch high-definition (HD) movies. Alternatively, the 1TB of storage offers plenty of space for movies as well as games and music. While the 17.3-inch screen isn't quite as sharp as the HP or Acer's, movies still look crisp on the bright display. The integrated speakers are just as powerful and clear as its rivals, but are no substitute for a dedicated pair. The 3.1kg chassis is fairly portable, although the 162 minutes of battery life is bettered elsewhere and won't keep you entertained for long on the road, especially as it dips to just 75 minutes when watching a DVD or Blu-ray movie. Additionally, the solid build suffers a little from an unusually plain design and the lid picks up smudges easily. Excellent usability Usability is strong, however, with a well-sized isolation-style keyboard in place. Below it is a wide touchpad that proves smooth and responsive, and the right edge acts as a scrollbar for quickly navigating through web pages and documents.
A short row of media controls above the keyboard allows you to mute the sound, change the volume and toggle wireless networking on and off. Networking is swift, with 802.11n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet available. This laptop and the Acer have Bluetooth 3.0, which allows faster file sharing with compatible devices such as mobile phones. The SD Card reader allows less flexibility than the multi-card readers in the other laptops, but one of the four USB ports is USB 3.0 compatible, allowing fast data transfer with external storage devices. An impressive amount of power has been packed into the RF710-S03UK's chassis, and while it lacks the features of the Acer and the 3D wizardry of the HP Envy 17 3D, there's still loads to like here, from the bright screen to the solid usability. Related Links
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from techradar To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment