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Techradar |
- Review: Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2011
- Skype celebrates record user numbers
- Avatar Kinect demos face-mapping tech
- Intel pays Nvidia $1.5 billion to license tech
- Google Goggles gets revamped - solves your Sudoku for you
- Mankind no longer afraid of aliens thanks to tech
- Twitter: 40% of tweets are made on mobiles
- Nokia E6-00 specs leak, ready for MWC 2011?
- Nokia E6-00 specs leak, ready for MWC 2011?
- T-Mobile mobile data allowance halved
- T-Mobile mobile data allowance halved
- RIM confirms dual-core BlackBerry phones are in the works
- Tutorial: How to sync your contacts with OS X Address Book
- Pirate-repelling laser leaves marauders in a daze
- Laptop bag that flips out into portable chair and desk
- Spotify extends reach to Logitech range
- Spotify extrends reach to Logitech range
- CES 2011: Latest eye-control tech for gaming shown at CES
- CES 2011: 800,000 target for Motorola Xoom in Q1
- EA: Digital downloads to overtake boxed games in 2011
- Motorola Xoom price rises to £720
- 20 things we'd change about installing software in Linux
- CES 2011: Hands on: Motorola Xoom review
- Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro successor leaked
- British Library launches iPad and smartphone app
| Review: Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2011 Posted: 11 Jan 2011 01:30 AM PST  Trend Micro makes a proud boast after you have installed Titanium Maximum Security 2011 that you need 'never click an update button ever again', as Titanium automatically downloads and installs updates whenever they become available. On opening the Tools section, we dived into the Parental Controls. There are three preset profiles, plus the option for creating a custom profile. We selected a profile for a child aged 13–17 years and found that pornographic material was supposed to be blocked, while intimate apparel/swimsuit material was perfectly OK. These settings seem amazingly precise, yet we had no trouble Googling for photos of poledancers, which means that you are likely to be filled with a false sense of confidence. There's a browser toolbar to rate the safety of webpages, Secure Erase for permanently deleting data and the Trend Micro Free Tool Centre, which is like an app store for security software. There is a variety of software on offer, including an option that allows Titanium Maximum customers to claim 10GB of online backup free from Humyo, part of Trend Micro. Laptop users will appreciate the way that Titanium authenticates wireless hotspots and Wi-Fi networks. When you start using Titanium you create a password to protect your security settings. It can get a bit tedious keying in the password repeatedly; however, it comes into its own with the Micro Vault feature. You can add files to the Micro Vault where they are protected by the same password. But in the event that your laptop is stolen, once you have informed Trend Micro of the theft, the Micro Vault is locked down remotely across the internet and no one can gain access to the files, even if they have the correct password. If you are lucky enough to get your laptop back you can establish your identity with Trend Micro and unlock your files. It's a clever idea that, in our eyes, is the key feature of this great security suite. Related Links
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| Skype celebrates record user numbers Posted: 11 Jan 2011 12:58 AM PST  Skype recently launched its video-calling service on Apple's iPhone, with the leading VoIP operator subsequently recording a record number of users this month. Skype had over 27 million users signing onto the service at the same time earlier this week at peak hours, around two million more than it usually gets at such times. Qik deal announcement The bump in user figures also follows Skype's recent announcement that it has acquired video streaming service Qik. Research firm Telegeography recently reported that Skype users used around 102.5 billion call minutes in the past year, which basically means that around one in five international calls was made over Skype during this time. Skype suffered from a whole 24-hours of downtime late December 2010 – something of a PR disaster for the company. However, the VoIP giant now seems to have smoothed over those problems, with the recent iOS and Qik announcements certainly helping to improve its image amongst users. 
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| Avatar Kinect demos face-mapping tech Posted: 11 Jan 2011 12:45 AM PST  A new demo of the forthcoming new 'Avatar Kinect' service for Microsoft Kinect shows off the latest developments in facial mapping tech. The Kinect facial mesh will be able to map the user's face in order to create a fully expressive, realistic speaking animation in the game. The video below gives a good idea of how we might well be chatting with our mates on Xbox Live and interacting with our games later this year, courtesy of our recently-acquired new Kinect cams. Face-tracking for better chatting The demo shows Kinect's generated 3D mesh tracking a user's movements and then applying them to his own Xbox Avatar in real time. Avatar Kinect was a major announcement for Microsoft at CES 2011. Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer showed a short highlight reel at last week's event which gave a teaser of what was in store later in the year for Xbox 360 Kinect users with Xbox Live Gold accounts. Ballmer said Avatar Kinect will be free for all Xbox Live Gold members when it arrives later this spring. 
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| Intel pays Nvidia $1.5 billion to license tech Posted: 11 Jan 2011 12:22 AM PST  Intel is set to pay Nvidia $1.5 billion (£0.96 billion) to license its graphics technology, settling a legal dispute between the two companies. The deal settles a legal dispute between the components giants, giving Intel the right to use Nvidia's graphics tech in its PC chips. The agreement is a six-year cross-licensing deal, extending each company's access to the other's tech. Memory However, the deal excludes proprietary Intel x86 designs, and other areas like flash memory. "The cross-licensing agreement allows Intel to integrate NVIDIA technologies and those that are covered by our patents into their CPUs, such as Sandy Bridge, for example," said Nvidia boss Jen-Hsuan. "And a cross-license allows us to build processors and take advantage of Intel patents for the types of processor we're building—Project Denver, Tegra, and the types of processors we're going to build in the future." Nvidia's shares immediately shot up in value following the announcement of the deal – a clear recognition of the value of its tech to Intel. For its part, Nvidia will also get to use some of Intel's tech, as it develops its own PC CPUs in partnership with UK chip-maker ARM, who's chips are to be found in most smartphones. Nvidia is developing an ARM-based PC central processor under the code name "Project Denver" - which will provide direct competition to Intel in the PC market. 
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| Google Goggles gets revamped - solves your Sudoku for you Posted: 10 Jan 2011 10:30 AM PST  Google has announced a new version of Google Goggles for Android, which speeds up the service's image recognition and has the added bonus of solving your Sudoku puzzles. The new and improved scanner allows users to scan a barcode or QR code and have the results appear in seconds. That's right, no button presses – just a little bit of vibration when the app offers up results. Goggle eyed A new feature for Google Goggles is the inclusion of recognising print adverts from US magazines. Although this isn't a UK specific feature, the idea you can hover over an image in a print ad and it will recognise and give you search results when you scan it. Finally, Google Goggles will complete the number puzzle for you in the time it takes you to figure out how to spell 
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| Mankind no longer afraid of aliens thanks to tech Posted: 10 Jan 2011 09:30 AM PST  The savvy citizen of the 21st century is so accustomed to other-worldly hi-tech that he is no longer fazed by the idea of alien life visiting Earth. So argues Dr Albert Harrison in an issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society devoted to aliens. Because mankind has made such advances in technology, "the idea of other beings travelling through space to Earth no longer seems far-fetched or frightening," he says. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps However, we'd probably all feel differently if the visiting extra terrestrial turned out to be a little more Alien than E.T. We, for one tech site, would welcome our new alien overlords the minute we saw them whip out their alien lasers. 
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| Twitter: 40% of tweets are made on mobiles Posted: 10 Jan 2011 09:19 AM PST  Dick Costolo, the recently instated CEO of Twitter, used CES 2011 to talk about how folks are using Twitter, and revealed that the site's mobile strategy is booming. According to Costolo, four tenths of all Twitter use is now from smartphones and other mobile devices, saying: "40 per cent of all tweets created on mobile devices. That might seem low, but it was 25 per cent a year ago. "50 per cent of active users are also active on mobile." Regardless of how users are consuming Twitter, Costolo did explain that he wanted Twitter to be "platform agnostic" and "the important thing for [Twitter] is consistency across device to device to device." Gesundheit The speed at which Twitter is growing is well documented and with this speed has come a lot of investment in new jobs. Costolo said in his talk that around 350 staff were hired in 2010, with 100 of these arriving in Q4 of the year. As for the way Twitter is making money, nothing groundbreaking was revealed other than engagement rates for the small amount of advertising on Twitter is "ridiculously high". Although Twitter use is rising in the UK, there are some parts of Europe that aren't quite taken with the service. One that was cited by Twitter was Germany. The reason: the country's words are too big for the service. We've no idea what he means as you can easily type Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft and have a whole 60 characters left over. 
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| Nokia E6-00 specs leak, ready for MWC 2011? Posted: 10 Jan 2011 08:40 AM PST  Specs pertaining to an unannounced Nokia E6-00 handset have made their way online, sparking rumours of a Mobile World Congress 2011 launch. It looks like the E6-00's 640 x 480 VGA resolution screen offers higher resolution than previous E-Series iterations and should be all you need for displaying the much-maligned Symbian^3 OS. Still, there's WCDMA/HSPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 and an ARM CPU to look forward to, along with an 8-megapixel camera and dual-LED flash. Lookalike Although no images of the Nokia E6-00 have leaked alongside some spurious specs, we suspect that it could be another E5 style BlackBerry-alike intended for the business user, although the addition of a touchscreen makes sense too. We base this assumption mainly on the definite inclusion of a QWERTY keyboard in the Nokia user agent file that has seeped on to the internet but partly on the unimaginative stylings of its predecessor. The true handset design remains a mystery – for all we know that QWERTY could be a slider housed under a 4-inch touchscreen like that of the E7. The new addition to the E-Series is yet to be officially announced, but as February inches closer we're looking to a Mobile World Congress 2011 reveal. 
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| Nokia E6-00 specs leak, ready for MWC 2011? Posted: 10 Jan 2011 08:40 AM PST Specs pertaining to an unannounced Nokia E6-00 handset have made their way online, sparking rumours of a Mobile World Congress 2011 launch. It looks like the E6-00's 640 x 480 VGA resolution screen offers higher resolution than previous E-Series iterations and should be all you need for displaying the much-maligned Symbian^3 OS. Still, there's WCDMA/HSPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 and an ARM CPU to look forward to, along with an 8-megapixel camera and dual-LED flash. Lookalike Although no images of the Nokia E6-00 have leaked alongside some spurious specs, we suspect that it could be another E5 style BlackBerry-alike intended for the business user, although the addition of a touchscreen makes sense too. We base this assumption mainly on the definite inclusion of a QWERTY keyboard in the Nokia user agent file that has seeped on to the internet but partly on the unimaginative stylings of its predecessor. The true handset design remains a mystery – for all we know that QWERTY could be a slider housed under a 4-inch touchscreen like that of the E7. The new addition to the E-Series is yet to be officially announced, but as February inches closer we're looking to a Mobile World Congress 2011 reveal. 
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| T-Mobile mobile data allowance halved Posted: 10 Jan 2011 07:44 AM PST  T-Mobile is set to reduce its data allowance for smartphones to 500MB from 1 February. Most T-Mobile contracts previously offered a 1GB limit so the reduction sees customers entitled to half the data they had before. As T-Mobile Android contracts were offered with 3GB of data per month, we're waiting to hear back from the operator about whether the T-Mobile Android data allowance has also been slashed to 500MB. No to mobile video on your mobile Despite having all the capability, the memory, the battery life and super-slick screens made for watching video clips while you're out and about, T-Mobile wants you to keep video in the home. T-Mobile helpfully (and not at all militantly) states: "If you want to download, stream and watch video clips, save that stuff for your home broadband." Internet browsing, however, is still all right with the network: "So remember our Mobile Broadband and internet on your phone service is best used for browsing which means looking at your favourite websites like Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, BBC News and more, checking your email and looking for information." The news comes less than a month after Three's announcement that it will be offering true unlimited data on its One Plan tariff. You'd think that one half of Everything Everywhere could be a little more generous with its data but unfortunately for T-Mobile customers, it seems not. 
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| T-Mobile mobile data allowance halved Posted: 10 Jan 2011 07:44 AM PST T-Mobile is set to reduce its data allowance for smartphones to 500MB from 1 February. Most T-Mobile contracts previously offered a 1GB limit so the reduction sees customers entitled to half the data they had before. As T-Mobile Android contracts were offered with 3GB of data per month, we're waiting to hear back from the operator about whether the T-Mobile Android data allowance has also been slashed to 500MB. No to mobile video on your mobile Despite having all the capability, the memory, the battery life and super-slick screens made for watching video clips while you're out and about, T-Mobile wants you to keep video in the home. T-Mobile helpfully (and not at all militantly) states: "If you want to download, stream and watch video clips, save that stuff for your home broadband." Internet browsing, however, is still all right with the network: "So remember our Mobile Broadband and internet on your phone service is best used for browsing which means looking at your favourite websites like Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, BBC News and more, checking your email and looking for information." The news comes less than a month after Three's announcement that it will be offering true unlimited data on its One Plan tariff. You'd think that one half of Everything Everywhere could be a little more generous with its data but unfortunately for T-Mobile customers, it seems not. 
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| RIM confirms dual-core BlackBerry phones are in the works Posted: 10 Jan 2011 06:56 AM PST  Although RIM didn't show off any new mobile phones at CES this year, co-CEO Mike Lazaridis has confirmed that there will be a future crop of dual-core superphones under the BlackBerry name. "We are working on multi-core smartphones, and QNX is our multi-core platform for those devices. Those devices are both in smartphone and in tablet form," said Lazaridis in an interview with PC Mag. Users who are stuck wanting a dual-core upgrade from their BlackBerry Torches and 9780s may be disgruntled to hear that this is a long-game strategy from RIM, meaning that the more powerful phones won't be on the shelves or in your pocket any time soon. Perfect for tablets RIM currently sees the mobile market split into three segments; the communications device, which includes the company's current BlackBerry handset line-up, the tablet and the superphone segment. The BlackBerry focus for now is on the PlayBook tablet, which already offers dual-core goodness along with the new QNX operating system. When asked why the multi-core platform is not imminently making its way to BlackBerry handsets, Lazaridis cited battery life, size, weight and cost as the prohibitive factors. "I think a multi-core platform is currently perfect for tablets," he explained. With dual-core phones either announced or imminent, Samsung, Motorola and LG might disagree; but it's pretty clear that RIM is prepared for these tech companies to test the dual-core water before diving in itself. 
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| Tutorial: How to sync your contacts with OS X Address Book Posted: 10 Jan 2011 06:20 AM PST  Once upon a time, emailing was something you did from your study at home or desk at work. All your contacts' details sat on your Mac for when you needed them. But email has changed – you can now ping off messages from just about anywhere, thanks largely to webmail accounts or your phone. But while there's been plenty said about syncing your email messages between the various systems, your contacts list can get overlooked. And that's where Address Book comes in. It enables you to manage your contacts list on your Mac and sync it to your iPhone or MobileMe account, or your Google contacts. You can even set up CardDAV, Exchange and LDAP accounts. You'll find Address Book in your Applications folder. To add a contact, just open it up and click the + button below the Name column. Fill in the details you'd like to add, and the contact will be instantly accessible from Mail. To use it, just start typing the person's name into the To: field and you'll see a drop-down of possible matches. If you've added multiple email addresses, such as home and work, you'll see them all. If you've got a long list of contacts in a webmail account, for example, let's import these into Address Book. In your webmail service, there should be an option to export contacts – do so in the vCard format. Then switch back into Address Book and go to File > Import…. Pick the vCard file you saved and it'll import all the names and addresses for you. You might find you've got some duplicates – you can merge these by going to Card > Look for Duplicates…. Careful though: you don't get any control over how it merges contacts, so if there are two 'Work' email addresses, one gets overwritten and you can't choose which. If you've got the time, go through them manually. How to organise and sync your contacts list 1. Organise your contacts
If you regularly send mail to the same group of people, organise their addresses into groups. Click the + below the Group column and give it a name. Then drag the names to add from the All Contacts view. In Mail, type the group's name, and all the addresses are added. 2. Smart groups
Address Book can create groups for you automatically. Smart groups work like Finder's smart folders, in that any contacts that match certain criteria pop up in the group. The more fields you fill in on each address card, the more effective it is. Go to File > New Smart Group… 3. Set conditions
Give your group a name. You can set up any number of conditions that a contact must match to appear in the smart group. Use the leftmost drop-down to pick what you'd like to match, and type into the text box on the right. You can add as many fields as you want. 4. Use it!
When someone joins your team, fill in their card and they'll appear in the group. See who's in the smart group by clicking it in the Groups pane. To email the group, start typing the group name into the To:, Cc: or Bcc: field. When it auto-completes, click in the main body 5. Sync to iPhone/iPad
Chances are you'll want access to your contacts on your iOS device. Fire up iTunes and click your iPhone, iPod or iPad in the left column. On the Info tab, tick the Sync Address Book Contacts box and pick which groups to keep in sync. (You can't sync smart groups.) 6. Sync to Google Contacts
Now to sync your contacts with your Google account. In Address Book's preferences, click Accounts, select On My Mac and tick Synchronize with Google. Click Configure, type in your details and click Agree. Now find iSync in your Applications folder and load it up. 7. Bring in iSync
Open iSync's preferences and tick Show status in menu bar – you'll see its logo appear in the top-right of your screen. It's now fine to quit iSync – the menu will remain. Selecting Sync Now from this menu matches up your local address list with your Google Contacts. 8. Other account types
If you have a CardDAV, LDAP or Exchange 2007 account, you can pull these contacts into Address Book. Open the Accounts tab in Preferences and click the + below the list. In the pop-up, pick your account type from the drop-down and enter your details. 
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| Pirate-repelling laser leaves marauders in a daze Posted: 10 Jan 2011 04:55 AM PST  Long-range lasers could be used to deter pirates from pillaging passing ships. The non-lethal laser won't incinerate them to a dusty heap, however; it simply blinds the pirates temporarily and lets them know that they have been spotted. With a width of a metre, the beam can easily scan the six-metre skiffs favoured by high-sea hijackers and leave them feeling as though they've accidentally looked straight at the sun. Obligatory eye-patch reference Lasting eye damage (and thus the need for an eye patch) is avoided as the system self-regulates the intensity of the beam based on range, weather and other atmospheric factors. Pirate attacks, particularly off the coast of Somalia, have increased in recent years; 2010 saw 430 attacks alone. BAE Systems studied pirate behaviour (rum drinking, parrot ownership, shanty singing) in order to develop the non-lethal laser and found that an automatic weapon to distract suspected pirates was the best course of action. Although the laser can't actually stop pirates from invading vessels, it can at least let them know they've been pegged and that the ship is ready for them thus, hopefully, deterring them. 
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| Laptop bag that flips out into portable chair and desk Posted: 10 Jan 2011 04:10 AM PST  For anybody who works on the move quite a lot, this latest concept design for a laptop bag that converts into both a chair and a portable desk will no doubt seem highly appealing. The Openaire is Nick and Beau Trincia's concept design for the future of laptop luggage. And if you have ever been delayed in a busy airport lounge, then you will immediately realise the inspiration behind the design. Trade-show saviour? The semi-rigid case is constructed from wood and fabric, with an outer skin that pulls out to flip into a small chair – it's a rudimentary chair, to be fair, but it would beat sitting on a cold and dirty floor in a departure lounge any day of the week. The case itself then folds out into a lap-desk with two flip panels, ideal for using a wireless mouse on the one side, while carefully balancing a cup of coffee on the other. It is a fantastic concept and we can only hope that the designers manage to reach the point of commercially producing, marketing and distributing their idea at some point soon. Preferably before the summer – bundling it with a big sun-glare friendly head-hood – so that we can finally spend those hazy summer afternoons lolling in the park while pretending to be working… The design is modular, which also means that you can leave the seat at home for day-to-day use. 
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| Spotify extends reach to Logitech range Posted: 10 Jan 2011 04:05 AM PST  Logitech and Spotify have announced a new streaming deal, which sees the music service ported on to the peripheral brand's Squeezebox devices. Much like the deal with Sonos, Spotify is now available through myriad Logitech products, namely the Squeezebox and Squeezebox Touch. Currently the service is in beta but is in full working order, so you can sort through the 10 million tracks on offer until your ears bleed. Music machine As is the way with Spotify, you need to be on a premium account to access Spotify through an app, which does cost. For this you do get 320kbps of sound quality, access to the service on your mobile phone and other such premium gubbins. Logitech on Sonos is "a delight to use" according to TechRadar's review and has truly given users another reason to buy up the streaming devices – Logitech will be hoping that it too gets the Spotify effect. To access the app, go to http://www.mysqueezebox.com/index/Home. If you want to learn a little bit more about the service, then head over to www.mysqueezebox.com/spotify. 
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| Spotify extrends reach to Logitech range Posted: 10 Jan 2011 04:05 AM PST Logitech and Spotify have announced a new streaming deal, which sees the music service ported on to the peripheral brand's Squeezebox devices. Much like the deal with Sonos, Spotify is now available through myriad Logitech products, namely the Squeezebox and Squeezebox Touch. Currently the service is in beta but is in full working order, so you can sort through the 10 million tracks on offer until your ears bleed. Music machine As is the way with Spotify, you need to be on a premium account to access Spotify through an app, but which does cost. For this you do get 320kbps of sound quality, access to the service on your mobile phone and other such premium gubbins. Logitech on Sonos is "a delight to use" according to TechRadar's review and has truly given users another reason to buy up the streaming devices – Logitech will be hoping that it too gets the Spotify effect. To access the app, go to http://www.mysqueezebox.com/index/Home. If you want to learn a little bit more about the service, then head over to www.mysqueezebox.com/spotify. 
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| CES 2011: Latest eye-control tech for gaming shown at CES Posted: 10 Jan 2011 03:27 AM PST  The latest eye-controlled gaming tech was shown off at CES 2011 in Las Vegas this month. A US company called National Instruments was showing the rudimentary eye-controller to attendees at the show. Blink, and you may well have missed it… Whack moles with your eyes A basic version of everybody's seaside-arcade favourite Whack-A-Mole was on show at the firm's stand in Las Vegas. Whack the mole by looking up, down, left or right. What could be easier? National Instruments has outlined the game in further detail on the Waterloo Labs' website on which you can see a bunch of young scientists playing Mario and blinking in a rather unbecoming manner. Chris Culver and Hunter Smith of National Instruments were demonstrating the latest versions of their eye-control tech in the Analog Devices meeting room at CES.
Whether or not we might see eye-control augmentation to Microsoft Kinect or Sony Move in the next year or two remains to be, err, seen. 
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| CES 2011: 800,000 target for Motorola Xoom in Q1 Posted: 10 Jan 2011 03:25 AM PST  Motorola's confidence in its Xoom tablet is clearly high, with DigiTimes suggesting that the company is expecting to ship 800,000 units in the first quarter of this year. The new tablet was one of the stars of CES 2011, with TechRadar's hands on Motorola Xoom review suggesting that the 10.1 incher was "one of the most powerful iPad rivals out there". And it appears that Moto believes that it can back up early buzz with sales, if the 800,000 shipping estimates are accurate. Tegra 2 The Motorola Xoom brings Android 3.0 and a Tegra 2 dual-core processor from Nvidia – giving users a fast and fluid experience. The tablet can take a 3G SIM card as well as a microSD card to expand the device's storage. The company also showed off the Motorola Atrix smartphone at CES 2011, with the company making a real mark at the year's curtain-raising show. 
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| EA: Digital downloads to overtake boxed games in 2011 Posted: 10 Jan 2011 03:17 AM PST  Electronic Arts' CEO John Riccitiello thinks that the revenues from game downloads will outstrip those from traditional boxed games in 2011. The EA boss also thinks that games publishers will soon be selling traditional full-price titles in more-affordable digital chunks in the very near future, a plan which Peter Molyneux has been a staunch advocate of over at Microsoft Games Studios. Steaming ahead Downloads on online game stores such as Steam, Xbox Live, Sony's PlayStation Network (PSN), Apple's App Store and networks such as Facebook are soon set to be a more important source of cash than the good old disc in a box model, which has served the industry well for the last two decades. The EA CEO notes that: "At the end of [2011], the digital business is bigger than the packaged goods business, full stop. No questions in my mind. Then, you know, I think that we'll find ways to even sell our packaged goods content in chunks and in pieces and subscriptions and micro-transactions." "Look at what Warner and Turbine did with Lord of the Rings Online. While I still think the majority of their revenue is from people giving them the premium subscription for fifteen dollars a month, there's a lot of people coming in and they upgrade." Dirty little secrets Riccitiello also says that micro-transactions in the free-to-play model are becoming increasingly important for EA, noting, "Our highest ARPU (average revenue per user) are free-to-play games among paying users. You think about that and say, 'how can a free game be the game they pay the most for?' We have people who are giving us $5,000 in a month to play FIFA Ultimate Team. And it's free. Dirty little secret. "I actually don't think that there's a lot of mileage in trying to decide exactly how consumers want to buy their entertainment content. They may want to buy it on an iPad; they may want to get it through the social network, they may want to pay for it through micro-transactions and monetizing, or they may want to pay for it all at once. "They may rather pay a subscription price in order to count on what their costs are going to be, but they may want to pay for it all at once and never have to pay for it again. We're in all of those businesses and I think the way this is going to work is that the models that the consumers like the most are going to grow the most." 
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| Motorola Xoom price rises to £720 Posted: 10 Jan 2011 03:17 AM PST  HandTec is the first technology retailer to whack a Motorola Xoom pre-order page up, but its price has already rocketed from £660 to £720. Screengrabs taken earlier this morning show the price as £659.99 on the Xoom product page, but it now clearly shows the pre-order price as £719.99. The dual-core tablet made its official debut at this year's CES, coupled with Android 3.0's inaugural outing. When, oh when, will it launch?
No official UK Motorola Xoom release date has been given yet and HandTec offers no real clues in this arena, stating only that the tablet is "Due in soon". There are also a host of Xoom accessories on offer, including a case, speaker dock and wireless keyboard. The hefty price tag rivals even Apple's 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad (£714): is the dual-core behemoth worth the hit on your bank account? 
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| 20 things we'd change about installing software in Linux Posted: 10 Jan 2011 02:45 AM PST  Software installation in Linux can confuse new users, while it pleases and irritates more experienced campaigners in equal measure. Here are 20 things we'd change about it. 1. Open Source doesn't mean Only Source "It's open source, here's the source" can be a cop out. Most users don't actually want the source (as long as it's open), they want a binary. Developers should be more proactive about making packages of their programs available. They don't have to do it themselves – there are plenty that would help given some encouragement. 2. How to run "I've installed Foo, how do I run it?" Hands up anyone who hasn't seen this on a help forum? All window managers that comply with the Freedesktop.org standards, which includes all the main ones, respect the standard XDG desktop files for menu entries. There's no excuse for installing a graphical program and it not appearing in the menus afterwards. 3. Standardised interface Forget all the arguments about a single package format; it'll never happen. We need a standard package manager interface that'll work with all packages. Imagine Synaptic running on Ubuntu and Fedora, and knowing whether to use RPMs or Debs. 4. Easier adding of repositories Adding repositories usually involves copying and pasting long, arcane text strings from a web browser into a terminal. A standard filetype for a repository addition file would enable the browser to launch the appropriate package manager to add to the repository – after the usual "are you sure/do you trust this" dialog. 5. Easier source building How many programs don't even have specific compilation and installation instructions? Many just have the generic Autotools text. If it's that easy, why not include an install.sh script that does it for the user? Even better, have it check for dependencies properly. 6. Autotools = yuck Please can we move into the 21st century with this? Autotools is slow and cryptic. It was intended for use by developers, and end users should not have to be exposed to this sort of thing if they want to install something not available as a binary. 7. Reduce filesystem splatter Is it really necessary to install files in countless directories? It's not so bad when installing from a package manager, as it knows what to clean up when uninstalling. Source builds, however, can be a nightmare to remove from the system, especially when developers don't provide a make uninstall target. 8. Standard metapackage If we can't agree on a single package format (and we never will; even if we did, someone would come up with a new one), how about a standard package container file? In a similar way to how an AVI file can contain various types of data, a metapackage format could hold RPM, Deb or Slackware TGZ information, or any combination of two or three, allowing the same package to work on multiple distros while still respecting the different systems. 9. Standardise package names Why do different distros give the same package different names? Resolving dependencies for source packages would be a lot easier if there were consistent naming between distros, enabling build scripts to state "you need to install libfoo", or even offer to do it for you. 10. Standardise package splits It's not just package naming that needs some consistency, the way projects are split into sub-packages by each distro is also inconsistent. Strong direction from the upstream developers would go a long way to giving consistency and reducing confusion. 11. Get rid of -dev package hell The -dev or -devel packages containing library headers cause no end of confusion when trying to compile source, such as "libfoo not found" messages when it is clearly there. A switch to automatically install associated -dev packages, turned on when you install GCC or Autotools, would save a lot of grief at the cost of a tiny amount of disk space. 12. Automatic installation of source packages If a different package is needed for each distro, maybe a single source package would cover all the edge cases, but only if package managers had the ability to download, compile and install the source for you. Current source package installation isn't much more than dumping the source code on to your hard drive. 13. Browser-based package management Package manager GUIs are pretty good now, but remote installation requires dropping back to the command line, with all its pros and cons. A package manager that ran in a web browser would make browsing and updating software on a remote computer so much more pleasant. 14. Do we need so many packages? Some projects have the source, along with Deb and RPM files, for download. Others have separate packages for every version of Ubuntu since brown was invented, plus every SUSE and Fedora variant. Is that really necessary, or is it just easier for the developer and to hell with the poor end user (or our poor disc editor Mike)? 15. No single directory installs The idea of installing each package in its own directory comes up from time to time. While it appears to have appeal, it's inefficient and adds more problems than it pretends to fix. If you had all-encompassing package management that took care of all details of installation for us, it wouldn't matter where files were installed – just click the install button then run the program from the menu. 16. Link to package manager from web pages
When you find a website for a package you want to try, you then have to start looking for the package in your package manager, or risk using one direct from the site that hasn't been verified by your distro. A type of URL that launches the package manager to search for the package, like market:// URLs do in Android, would make it so much easier to go straight from the website to installation without the various risks associated with Windows-style EXE installers. 17. Run after installation If you're installing a piece of software that isn't a background process, there's a good chance that you want to actually run it as well as install it. How convenient would it be if your favourite package manager had a checkbox to run the program after installation? There'd be no hunting through menus after installation, just hit 'Install and run' and that's it. 18. Keep source builds in package database Not only is installing from source a bit of a pain, it also means that the package manager is unaware of what you've installed, so it thinks that dependencies aren't satisfied. Having a package manager that could also build source packages would not only ease the pain of installation, it would also enable it to keep track of just what is installed on the system. 19. No all-inclusive packages The separation of applications and libraries into separate packages introduces dependencies and other problems, but these are handled efficiently by most package managers. The alternative, as used by Windows, is to put everything in one package, meaning you can end up with different versions of the same library scattered across your filesystem. 20. Clean up old dependencies When you install a package its dependencies are also installed, but when you later remove the package those dependencies stay on the system, gradually filling up your filesystem with cruft. Not only should package managers remove dependencies that are no longer required, they should be able to check and clean up the system from time to time as well. 
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| CES 2011: Hands on: Motorola Xoom review Posted: 10 Jan 2011 02:44 AM PST Motorola's new tablet has finally been announced after months of leaks and rumours about the new device – and while we don't understand the theory behind the name, the Motorola Xoom is one of the most powerful iPad rivals out there. With a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor beating with two 1GHz chips, it's a powerful little grunt-nugget, and the 1280x800 resolution display is a great size at 10.1-inches, making it very much an iPad rival, especially when you consider the similar black bezel is a little thinner. After the Android 2.2-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab failed to rock our world, we had high hopes for the Xoom, and it looks the part at this early stage.
The dual-core chipset looks like it will really help power along both video and operation, and the early finger responsiveness was excellent, although a little juddery at times. Things like hitting the menu unlock, which asks you to move a padlock icon out of a circle, wasn't the smoothest – we hope this kind of optimisation happens in the coming months.
There's a front-facing video camera for Google Talk (or whichever video calling app you'd like) and a rear facing 5MP offering with dual LED flash for awkward tablet picture-taking – all pretty nice on the spec front so far.
What are missing are the front buttons – no need for them here, as Google has built them right into the Android 3.0 OS beating at the heart of the Motorola Xoom.
A 3G SIM slot as well as a microSD opening adorn the top of the Xoom, although the latter actually isn't supported by Honeycomb as yet – Motorola told us that this was only down to future-proofing the device, and soon it would release an update to activate the feature.
The Xoom actually can be used one-handed in both portrait and landscape mode, although we don't recommend it if you don't want to run the risk of dropping it all over the place. Still, it's good to know you can have a spare palm around if you need it.
Motorola's gone a little dock happy this time around, and the Xoom has one to go with it, although the only addition is a USB port to plug in peripherals to connect up to the device and watch films or similar.
In terms of functionality, it's going to be a while until we can give the Xoom a proper hands-on review, as Motorola was reticent to show us all the cool stuff running on the device at this stage of the build – frustrating, but a good way to ward off the negative press an unresponsive unit will bring.
The new features of Android 3.0 look very good though; here's a run-down of what you can expect: Google Mail is now divided into two sections, allowing you to see your inbox as well as reply to mails in the same pane. This interface morphs depending on what you're doing, so if you looking through your various mail folders the right hand pane will show previews of the messages contained within.
Books – the 3D carousel looks very spiffy, and all your titles will be stored on the cloud, rather than the device. You'll cache them as you read, which means that should you go out of signal you won't lose the book you're ploughing through, and if you open the same book on another machine (your PC, for instance) then you can simply pick up where you left off.
The books can be read in both portrait or landscape mode, and while we're not sure that ebooks on tablets are the most natural way to read prose, it's perfectly acceptable and large enough.
Video should be pretty good on a device of this size and resolution – the test selection we were shown was impressive enough, although it didn't blow our socks off in the way some video looks on smaller screens. This is natural given the larger size, but the slightly visible buttons at the bottom of the screen looked a bit scrappy UI-wise.
We're told that other applications will still stretch video to the larger size for the screen, even though they're not optimised for Honeycomb as yet – nice work from the development team at Google and good way to keep the applications up to date and relevant. Google Maps – the same as we've seen on other devices, Google Maps 5.0 looks great and speedy on the Motorola Xoom.
3D mode rendered very quickly, and the snap into Streetview was almost instantaneous – the Motorola Xoom has a three point accelerometer, gyroscope and barometer on board, so we reckon Google Maps could make use of this extra functionality in the future and make some even cooler leaps forward.
YouTube – the whole UI for this has been re-developed for the Android 3.0 update, and it certainly looks good. We're looking at related videos while the main movie is playing, and a 3D carousel of all the current titles related to our search too. A double tap will bring the main video to the fore, and shows that YouTube video streaming is definitely moving forward to an acceptable point for tablets as well.
Google Talk – as we mentioned earlier, the front-facing 1.3MP camera now enabled video chat on the tablet, and works well on the slate form factor when docked.
The Google Talk application is the best place to get the video chat for the tablet, and you can use both the front and rear cameras for chatting to someone in another place and still see each other. We're told it works well over both 3G and Wi-Fi, but we'll reserve judgement about that until we get the chance to play with it out and about, as there would have had to be some serious optimisation to get 3G video calling working to an acceptable level. Overall, we're impressed with the Xoom, and look forward to having a more in-depth play with it than the one Motorola would let us have at the demonstration.
The power and new OS bode well, and certainly offer the chance of better battery life and functionality than the Galaxy Tab, which has failed to impress us despite the level of hype generated by its launch. Stick around for TechRadar's in-depth Motorola Xoom review – we're looking forward to giving the new tablet and Google's Android 3.0 a really good going over. 
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| Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro successor leaked Posted: 10 Jan 2011 02:36 AM PST  Although not quite as exciting as the newly launched Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, images have surfaced of the heir to the X10 Mini Pro's throne. The QWERTY-keyboard toting handset isn't a million miles away from the X10 Mini Pro in terms of looks, but it is rumoured to be running Android 2.3 (aka Gingerbread). Given that Sony Ericsson is unlikely to update any of its legacy X10 range to Android versions beyond 2.1, this will be welcome news to those looking to upgrade. Multi-touch The 3-inch display is a multi-touch affair, slightly larger than its predecessor's 2.5-inch screen and offering increased resolution, if the rumours are to be believed. Powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm processor and Adreno 205 GPU, the new X10 Mini Pro is shaping up to be quite a contender despite its small stature. An official reveal of the new X10 Mini Pro could be on the cards for Mobile World Congress next month - although equally likely is this could be a Chinese variant of the X10 Mini Pro given the location of the leaks. With the rise of tablets and the ever-increasing smartphone screen sizes, props to Sony Ericsson for realising that good things can still come in small packages. 
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| British Library launches iPad and smartphone app Posted: 10 Jan 2011 02:32 AM PST  The British Library has released its first iPad and smartphone app, compatible with iPhones and Android mobiles. The app makes some of the world's rarest and most unique printed works available online via your phone or tablet for the first time ever. Treasures in your phone The British Library's 'Treasures' app has been developed in conjunction with Toura, makers of a technology platform for mobile guides. Among lots of other content, the 'Treasures' app, will feature items featured in the Library's Sir John Ritblat Treasures Gallery. "Treasures will provide a truly multimedia experience including over 100 of the Library's greatest collection items, 250 high-definition images, over 40 videos providing expert commentary, textual interpretation for deeper understanding, as well as up-to-date information about the Library's current exhibitions," reads the British Library's launch announcement. "Through the app users will experience an up close and personal experience with some of the Library's most unique items, such as the first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the world's oldest bible Codex Sinaiticus, Nelson's Battle Plan, written before his victory at Trafalgar, Galileo's letters and Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks. "Expert commentary is provided on many of the items and users can watch, for example, videos of explorer Ben Fogle talking about Scott's Diary and Linguist David Crystal discussing the 1,000 year old poem Beowulf." Original Dickens and Austen manuscripts Fans of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen will also be able to read the first ever handwritten draft of Nicholas Nickleby, as well as a selection of Austen's teenage writings. "Key historical documents include 2000-year-old Oracle Bones from China and an original Magna Carta of 1215. The section devoted to music includes manuscript scores from some of the best-known classical composers, such as Handel, Purcell, Mozart and Schubert, alongside hand-written lyrics by The Beatles." Treasures will be available to download on iPhone and iPod Touch, in the iTunes App and in the Android Marketplace for £2.39, with a HD version for the Apple iPad priced at £3.49 http://apps.toura.com/british-library/treasures or http://www.bl.uk/app 
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