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Techradar |
- Vodafone boosts free minutes on PAYG price plans
- Review: Sharp LC-37LE320
- 4HD to finally hit Freesat in April
- Google 'Speak to Tweet' keeps Egypt on Twitter
- Google 'Speak to Tweet' keeps Egypt on Twitter
- Exclusive: Spotify denies reports of paltry payments to indies
- Is Bing copying Google's search results?
- ARM revenue boost: up 33 per cent
- Richer Sounds gets royal AV stamp of approval
- Review: HP Photosmart eStation
- Tutorial: 20 iPhone tips for iPhone 4s
- Tutorial: 20 iPhone tips for iPhone 4s
- Android 3.0 for more than just tablets, says Google
- Can Sony remotely bork your PS3?
- British gaming industry needs schools to step up, says report
- Exclusive: Brits forced to wait for new Sandy Bridge PCs
- Review: Gigabyte H55N-USB3
- Google planning expansion to Art Project
- Gary Marshall: Apple won't kill the Kindle app
- Review: Asus M4A785TD-M EVO
- Buying Guide: Best BlackBerry phone - which should you buy?
- Review: Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H
- Sony reveals PSone game conversion process
- Samsung Wave 2 now available in the UK
- Samsung Wave 2 now available in the UK
| Vodafone boosts free minutes on PAYG price plans Posted: 02 Feb 2011 01:16 AM PST  Vodafone has announced a new price plan designed to help people stay chattier. The new deal, called Vodafone TopUp and Get Talk is offered to customers on pay as you go plans, and offers 1,000 Vodafone to Vodafone minutes for 30 days. Users needs only to pay £10 per month to get the service, although the total amount of free minutes can only hit 1,000 every month. However, if you top up £10 twice in two months, the next month users will get 1,000 minutes to use again. Free as the bees If you want to take advantage of the plan you'll need to opt in to the plan, or if you fancy joining up then simply head on over to the Vodafone website and get your free Freebee SIM. There's a new ad to accompany the new campaign - we can't bring ourselves to embed it as it uses those damn bees again, but you can head on over to YouTube to see the 'hilarious family japes' as many times as you like. 
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| Posted: 02 Feb 2011 01:00 AM PST  The 37-inch LC-37LE320 is the second largest of Sharp's new designer LED sets. These screens are not loaded with the latest tech, such as the brand's extra-yellow-pixel Quattron system, and they certainly don't require you to wear funny glasses to view them, but they are affordable and contemporary. Using edge LED backlighting, Sharp has managed to compress the depth of the cabinet to a trim 45mm. Other brands are making slimmer sets, but let's face it – they're just showing off. The 37LE320 has a pleasingly small footprint and the curved creamy white back panel juxtaposed against the black bezel is easy on the eye. Sharp's clear aim has been to create a range of TVs that look upmarket yet don't cost the Earth. Objective achieved: this stylish model can be snapped up for under £700. It's an everyman screen for those who don't wish to rummage in the bargain bins. It's perhaps surprising to find that the LC-37LE320 does not have a Freeview HD tuner, even though it has a Full HD (1920 x 1080-pixel) panel. For many buyers this will mean an instant demerit. The omission may be less significant if you are a Sky+HD or Virgin Media subscriber, in which case you'll already have a stream of hi-def content on tap. Of course, adding a set top box will instantly rob you of an HDMI port, which might prove painful, since there are only two HDMI v1.3 inputs on the back panel. There is a third on the left hand side for quick connection of games consoles and camcorders, however.
You also get a component AV input and a pair of Scarts. There's also an electrical digital audio output, should you need to feed TV sound (maybe a radio station from the Freeview tuner) to a separate hi-fi system. Joining the aforementioned side-mounted HDMI is a CI (Common Interface) slot for a Top Up TV Cam, phono AV input, USB, PC VGA (D-Sub) input and a headphones jack.
On the opposite side of the screen are key controls, should the remote find itself buried beneath a pile of ironing. There are channel and volume rockers, Menu and Source select buttons and a power switch.
The USB media player offers a thumbnail browser from which you can select your media type for playback. Music playback is restricted to MP3s, but video file support is wide and covers AVI, MPG, MOV, MP4, XviD and MKV. All our test files played back successfully, including HD MKV downloads. There's even support for SRT subtitles. However our MOV test file played back in the wrong aspect ratio. JPEGs can be viewed as a slideshow, with or without transitional effects. It's worth noting that USB support is only for FAT32 devices, NTFS is not recognizable. File playback size is limited to 4GB. The set also enables you to register for DivX VOD downloads. Once authorised, you'll be able to play DivX VOD content, although dealing with DRM-heavy media generally isn't worth the hassle. Another feature you're unlikely to use is a parental lock to disable certain inputs. If you lock HDMI one, for example, you'll be asked for a password each time you select it. The Parental menu itself can also be locked. The supplied stand is relatively easy to assemble, although it requires that the TV be supported while the pedestal is screwed into the neck. Use something soft for this, perhaps a pillow, to avoid damaging the screen. Alternatively, you can wall-mount. The 37LE320 takes a standard 200 x 200 mm VESA wall bracket. Remember to ensure that the bracket you buy offers enough clearance between the wall and the screen to accommodate the connections – SCART leads can be notoriously chunky. When placing the screen, think about the position of the seating. The viewing angle of this panel is limited. Sit off axis by 45 degrees or more and you'll notice a significant drop in colour and contrast. Given the nature of the TV, setup is fast and straightforward. The screen prompts you to scan for channels and that's about it. The interface is functional and text based – nothing to get the juices flowing.
Selecting inputs is a case of calling up an onscreen list. Here the component input is called YPbPr, even though it's referred to as "component" elsewhere in the manual. This unnecessary jargon assumes way too much knowledge on behalf of the owner.
The TV's Now & Next EPG (electronic programme guide) is not full-screen and occupies just the centre portion of the screen. You can create a favourites list of preferred channels or renumber should you feel the need. The remote is a generic zapper that sadly doesn't really match the screen aesthetically at all. Still, the buttons all work. It also suffers from a lapse in usability. All remotes should be intuitive and avoid obtuse labels, which makes you wonder what Mr and Mrs shopper might make of buttons labeled 'PR list' and 'Pre Pr' (respectively, a list of TV channels and a return to the previous channel, it transpires). On the plus side, the 'Video (Adj)' button offers fast access to the set's various picture setting modes (Personal/Standard/Vivid/Movie/Eco). Beneath the bonnet of the LE320, the picture processing engine is standard-issue 100Hz, which means no local dimming or scanning tricks to improve contrast or reduce blur. The screen also offers a 'film dejudder' Film Mode. Picture controls are comprehensive enough for a screen of this size. In addition to the usual options of Brightness, Contrast, Colour, Tint, Sharpness and Colour temperature, there are more options in an Advanced menu. Here you can choose from one of three noise reduction settings, make a flesh tone adjustment, alter the brightness of the backlight (High or Low) or activate DCR (Dynamic Contrast Ratio). It's also here that you'll find the settings for the 100Hz refresh rate with variable blur reduction, or Film Mode to decrease picture judder. It's worth noting that 100Hz mode doesn't function on the PC input.
Bizarrely, the Advanced section of the Picture menu has it's own secondary Advanced subsection. An advanced menu within an advanced menu? Someone at Sharp isn't trying hard enough.
To find the set's Overscan defeat, you'll have to navigate to the Features/HMDI Scan Info sub-section of the menu. Here you can select Underscan or Overscan. Curiously, this adjustment is not classified as an aspect ratio, that honour is reserved only for Auto, Normal, Zoom 1, Zoom 2 and Wide modes. When watching an HD source, be it from a set-top box or Blu-ray, it's always worth selecting an underscan/pixel-matching mode. It goes without saying that the screen's static resolution is excellent, giving a prickly 1,080 lines. Motion resolution has less snap, though, and while you're given options to mitigate against losses, there's a price to be paid. The 100Hz processing comes in Off, Low, Middle and High flavours. Set Low, a scrolling motion resolution chart (developed by the Advanced PDP Development Centre) which features an ever-decreasing graticule moving at 6.5ppf (pixels per frame), hinted at detail between 800-900 lines, which can be considered very good. However, this detail is often obscured by processing artefacts. Edge up to Middle and High and, while more perceived sharpness can be had, the artefacts increase. Switch to Film Mode on Low and they vanish, but the resolution similarly drops away, with nothing much left above 750-800 lines. In 100Hz Effect Off, the result is the same. To keep this in context though, this should still be regarded as a good performance compared to comparable screens. The set looks worst with images from its Freeview tuner, which have an unpleasant bleary quality. With a high quality source, such as Blu-ray, the 37LE320's pictures have a pleasing sharpness. Black levels are good without being exceptional. Regardless of the anti-judder Film Mode, this panel is naturally smooth. A panning test from the Blu-ray release of Sleeping Beauty, in which Prince Charming gallops behind a rocky outcrop, plays without any stutter or judder. Indeed, it looks best without the high 100HZ picture processor engaged. At the faster rates, the moving shape of the prince and his horse is surrounded by a smudgy halo artefact. Regardless of mode, there always seems to be a hint of image blur around fast moving objects. On the plus side, colour fidelity is good. Hues pop off the screen and a test sequence comprising violins, horns and saxophones looks rich and textured. There's lustre to the wooden finish of the violins and a gleam to the brass instruments that is definitely satisfying.
As you can see above, the LC-37LE320's edge-LED backlight is a little uneven, but not woefully bad. You'll most likely only notice when the screen sporadically fades to black or you're watching a letterboxed movie. The screen may only have a modest 2 x 10w output from its integrated 1-bit digital amp module, but there's a surprisingly high level of audio adjustment offered. In addition to a trio of presets (Personal, Music and Speech), an equaliser enables you to tweak from mid-bass to high treble (120Hz/500Hz/1.5Hz/5KHz/10KHz), and if standard Nicam stereo is not doing it for you, there's also virtual surround, which effectively widens the stereo soundstage, pushing back the vocals and teasing out the edges. Taking a leaf from the Dolby Volume book of tricks there's also Sharp's soundalike, AVL (Auto Volume Leveling) function which attempts to negate harsh changes in volume between programmes, adverts and channels. The set also supports Audio Description, pulling up an extra descriptive audio track for the visually impaired on programmes that have been so blessed. Value Typically listed at just under £700, the LC-37LE320 is priced on the high side for a screen with no Freeview HD tuner or networking function. But rapid price erosion is likely and it's at this point that this model becomes interesting. It's a well-built, smart-looking screen with a decent LED backlight. There are issues with motion artefacts and black levels, but those looking for a bright multi-purpose LED might well find that it ticks the right boxes. The excellent file support for USB media playback could sweeten the deal.
Sharp's LC-37LE320 is well turned-out LED screen, with advanced USB media playback capabilities. Those running a sneakernet (carrying files around on USB by foot rather than streaming across a network) will appreciate that such a wide range of video formats are supported. Image quality is also generally good, with vibrant colour and fine detail from good sources. The 100Hz/Film mode picture processing needs to be approached with caution, however, because it does contribute additional motion artefacts. It's unfortunate that the screen does not have an integrated Freeview HD tuner and there are also general usability foibles, which won't endear it casual viewers, but we recommend an audition if you can find it at an attractive price. We liked The LC-37LE320 boasts comprehensive USB video file support; interesting cabinet design and vibrant, bright images from Blu-ray We disliked The LC-37LE320's lack of any network capability, the absence of a Freeview HD tuner and the motion artefacts associated with 100Hz picture processing are setbacks that should be considered Final verdict Sharp continues to manoeuvre back into the upper tier of LCD TV makers with this solid, LED backlit model. The screen is probably more notable for what it lacks (Freeview HD and networking capability) than what it has, but image sharpness and color vibrancy count for a lot; at its best in relatively high brightness environments. Related Links
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| 4HD to finally hit Freesat in April Posted: 02 Feb 2011 12:31 AM PST  Channel 4's 4HD will be arriving on Freesat in April, bringing the service's fourth HD channel. Freesat currently offers BBC One HD, BBC HD and ITV 1 HD, but will now add a fourth channel to its roster. "Morning freesaters, we have some news. You might want to sit down for this one... " tweeted Freesat. "Channel 4 confirms that 4HD will join freesat in April," they continued. USP Subscription-free HD was a major unique selling point for Freesat at its launch, giving it an advantage over Freeview at the time. However the arrival of Freeview HD not only brought another subscription-free high definition service, but also 4HD. Balance will now be restored in April, when 4HD finally arrives on Freesat. That means Freesat customers will no longer have to do without the likes of Hollyoaks in anything other than stunning high def. 
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| Google 'Speak to Tweet' keeps Egypt on Twitter Posted: 01 Feb 2011 12:02 PM PST  Protesters in Egypt are turning to a new Google tool to enable them to keep tweeting, following the country's government-enforced internet blackout. The new 'Speak to Tweet' service, which was launched on Monday night allows users to leave a message on an international number for it to be posted at the @speak2tweet Twitter page. The page displays the country origin of the message and a link for you to listen to the voicemail in its entirety. Other third party sites are now transcribing and translating the messages. Revolution The under-fire Egyptian government has reportedly blocked access to the internet, including social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, in order to contain reports of demonstrations and prevent organisers from planning more protests. The new service, which partners with Google's newly-acquired speech recognition company SayNow, is one of the only ways for citizens to get the word out, with the authorities also closing down TV station Al Jazeera's Cairo offices. So far over 800 messages have been posted to the @speak2tweet account, with most of them originating from the troubled African state. The voice messages are being translated by volunteer site Alive in Egypt as the international online community rallies behind the democratic movement. 
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| Google 'Speak to Tweet' keeps Egypt on Twitter Posted: 01 Feb 2011 12:02 PM PST Protesters in Egypt are turning to a new Google tool to enable them to keep tweeting, following the country's government-enforced internet blackout. The new 'Speak to Tweet' service, which was launched on Monday night allows users to leave a message on an international number for it to be posted at the @speak2tweet Twitter page. The page displays the country origin of the message and a link for you to listen to the voicemail in its entirety. Other third party sites are now transcribing and translating the messages. Revolution The under-fire Egyptian government has reportedly blocked access to the internet, including social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, in order to contain reports of demonstrations and prevent organisers from planning more protests. The new service, which partners with Google's newly-acquired speech recognition company SayNow, is one of the only ways for citizens to get the word out, with the authorities also closing down TV station Al Jazeera's Cairo offices. So far over 800 messages have been posted to the @speak2tweet account, with most of them originating from the troubled African state. The voice messages are being translated by volunteer site Alive in Egypt as the international online community rallies behind the democratic movement. 
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| Exclusive: Spotify denies reports of paltry payments to indies Posted: 01 Feb 2011 10:04 AM PST  Music streaming service Spotify has said that recent reports that it pays artists on major labels up to six times more than independents are utterly false. The Guardian and a number of other news sources reported earlier this week that major label artists such as Lady Gaga were receiving a considerably higher royalty rate from Spotify than artists on independent labels, according to reports in the Swedish press. Those reports noted that Universal and Sony also received more revenue from Spotify than from any other Swedish record stores, both online and on the high street. Utterly false Spotify reports In response to those reports, Spotify's PR manager, Jim Butcher informed TechRadar: "To suggest we pay major labels up to six times more than the indies is utterly false. Additionally the Guardian article refers to a series of dated and extremely speculative stories. "We're working extremely hard with all labels, both indie and major, to provide sustainable revenues for the industry as a whole at a time when the vast majority of music continues to be downloaded illegally and not providing a single penny for artists." Indies are crucial to Spotify Spotify also issued the following generic statement in response to the negative press , claiming:"Indie label content is a crucial part of Spotify and offering their music on the service allows our users to experience a hugely diverse catalogue spanning every musical genre. "In return, we give indie labels a powerful monetisation and promotional platform as well as exposure to an eclectic and passionate audience of music lovers across Europe. Crucially, Spotify has paid many millions of euros to the indie music community since our launch and we enjoy an excellent relationship with the vast majority of our indie label partners." Artists and label deals with Spotify are covered by non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), hence it is difficult to ascertain exactly how much individual labels and musicians or bands make from the service. 
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| Is Bing copying Google's search results? Posted: 01 Feb 2011 09:10 AM PST  Bing has come under fire after Google claims that the Microsoft-owned search engine has been plagiarising Google's own search results. Google has been running a 'sting operation' to try and catch Bing in the act of copying Google's search results and thinks it has succeeded. By planting manually ranked pages for a certain unusual search terms (ever searched for hiybbprqag?), Google watched to see if Bing picked up its randomly inserted results (The Wiltern seating charts). It did. A grim example According to SearchEngineLand, Google has been suspicious of Bing for some time, having noticed Microsoft's search engine returning accurate results for misspelled search terms. It cites the example of searching for 'torsoraphy', which Google corrects to 'tarsorrhaphy' and returns search results for the correctly-spelt word (not one for the squeamish, it refers to a surgical procedure in which the eyelids are sewn together). The same search on Bing does not correct the spelling but does returns results for 'tarsorrhaphy' anyway – of course, there's a chance that Bing has a spelling correction algorithm at work behind the scenes here, but it was these kinds of results that set alarm bells ringing over at Google HQ. Bing: "Shrug" Far from straight-up denying the claims, Stefan Weitz, director of Bing, told SearchEngineLand, "As you might imagine, we use multiple signals and approaches when we think about ranking, but like the rest of the players in this industry, we're not going to go deep and detailed in how we do it. "Clearly, the overarching goal is to do a better job determining the intent of the search, so we can guess at the best and most relevant answer to a given query. "Opt-in programs like the [Bing] toolbar help us with clickstream data, one of many input signals we and other search engines use to help rank sites. This "Google experiment" seems like a hack to confuse and manipulate some of these signals." Whatever way Bing spins it, Google is unhappy with the situation. As Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow, said, "I've got no problem with a competitor developing an innovative algorithm. But copying is not innovation, in my book." 
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| ARM revenue boost: up 33 per cent Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:51 AM PST  Cambridge-based ARM Holdings reports on a pretty successful financial year this week, with revenues up 33 per cent to £406 million during 2010. The mobile chip specialists has also announced that it has shipped a 1.1 billion chips into mobile devices in its last three-month financial quarter recorded. Pre-tax profits for the year in 2010 were recorded at £167.4 million, an increase of 73 per cent on 2009. A pretty impressive figure, topping off a successful year for the UK chip giant. Beat that, Harry Ramsden! ARM-powered new handhelds The Cambridge-based mobile chip firm revealed its latest unaudited accounts on its website this week. ARM's mobile chips dominate the smartphone market, being used in the Apple iPhone, RIM's Blackberry, the Apple iPad and forthcoming handheld gaming consoles such as the Nintendo 3DS and Sony's Next Generation Portable (NGP). ARM announced at CES last month that the next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system would run on its mobile processors. "As the industry chooses ARM technology in a broadening range of electronic products, it further drives our long-term royalty opportunity," said Warren East, ARM CEO. "The growth in licensing and royalty revenues, throughout 2010, has combined to deliver our highest ever annual revenues, profits and cash generation. "2011 will bring exciting opportunities and challenges as ARM enters competitive new markets and we are well positioned to succeed with leading technology, an innovative business model and a thriving ecosystem of partners." 
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| Richer Sounds gets royal AV stamp of approval Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:51 AM PST  AV specialist Richer Sounds has announced this week that its chain of stores has been granted a Royal Warrant of Appointment to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. The prestigious title is for companies that supply goods to the Royal Family, with hundreds of products given the seal ranging from Aston Martin to Xerox. Honoured and delighted There's not that many technology companies on the list, however, with Richer Sounds joining a select list that includes: Carphone Warehouse, Roberts Radio, Linn, IBM and BT. David Robinson, Chairman of Richer Sounds, said about the award: "We are honoured and delighted to be granted this Royal Warrant of Appointment – this a wonderful start to 2011!" Richer Sounds was recently praised for coming out well in a Which? investigation that looked at the competence of staff at various major electronic retailers. In the report, the consumer charity said: "Richer Sounds was the chain with the highest number of visits we rated as excellent or good for advice about televisions. In general, it was the most accurate about sound quality and one branch was the best of all the stores we visited at explaining the difference between HD Ready and full HD." 
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| Review: HP Photosmart eStation Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:45 AM PST  HP has been going all out to add a new twist to the humble desktop printer. Recently it launched e-All-in-One functionality in the Photosmart Premium and Photosmart Plus models, enabling you to set up these printers on a home network and email them directly from anywhere in the world, with attachments being printed automatically. Cunningly, while documents, spreadsheets, PDFs and the like are printed on regular A4 paper, 6 x 4-inch or 7 x 5-inch photo paper is loaded automatically from a separate tray for printing photo attachments. The new Photosmart eStation follows suit, but raises the bar with its very own 'Zeen'. Whereas the HP Photosmart Premium has a perfectly serviceable 8.9cm colour touchscreen, the eStation's has a much larger, 17.8cm tablet-like touchscreen that's a self-contained gadget in its own right, called a Zeen. Remove it from its docking bay on the front of the printer and you can use it all around the home, not just controlling the printer but also reading the news, catching up with your Facebook pals, receiving and sending Yahoo Mail and more besides. The various widgets are designed to work seamlessly with the printer as well as the internet, using your wireless network. It's not all good news, however, because despite being based on the Android 2.1 operating system, functionality is somewhat hamstrung and the Zeen only really works with a relatively small collection of 'Print apps', rather than the wider range of general Android apps. The printer comes with a collection of pre-installed apps and extra ones are available for download from HP's website directly to the printer. There are currently about 30 in all, including a slew of business and entertainment apps. These range from handy forms to Picasa photo printing, greetings card creation, web Sudoku puzzles and fun for the kids from the likes of DreamWorks and Crayola. Surfing the web on the Zeen is a slow and tedious business and, based on our review sample, operation is still a bit flaky. Several of the components such as Yahoo Daily Digest and Yahoo Mail repeatedly crashed during our tests and the weather forecast widget wouldn't let us switch to UK locations. The touchscreen also often failed to tell the difference between a press and a swipe, taking us to the wrong place in our navigations. On the plus side, there's an SD card slot built in, making the Zeen good for viewing photos and printing them without even having to get up off the sofa. The underlying print engine seems identical to the Photosmart Premium, which we've reviewed previously. Compared with the pigment-based black and dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow cartridges of the Photosmart Plus printer, both the Premium and eStation add an extra dye-based black cartridge. Commonplace among Canon PIXMA printers over the years, this configuration adds depth, contrast and greater colour fidelity in photo prints. Indeed, print quality for both documents and photos is very good, although colour accuracy isn't quite as excellent as with the latest Canon printers, such as the PIXMA iP4850 and MG5150 all-in-one printer. Print speeds are pretty quick, with mono text pages and colour DTP pages taking just under 10 seconds and 20 seconds respectively. Photo output is fast too, at about 30 seconds for a normal quality 6 x 4-inch print and just under three minutes for a high-quality borderless A4 photo print. The eStation also comes with an auto duplex unit as standard, for double-sided printing, which can cut down on paper usage for multi-document printing. The Photosmart eStation creates very good quality prints for documents and photos alike, and it's pretty quick too. The printer is only supplied with 'setup' cartridges, but ink costs are quite modest if you fit HP's high-capacity 364XL cartridges, at around 2p per mono text page, 7p per colour text page and 14p for a 6 x 4-inch colour photo. We liked Build quality feels solid and dependable and the printer is smartly styled and finished. The additional photo tray reduces the need to swap between plain and photo paper, unless you want to print photos at sizes larger than 7 x 5 inches. We disliked The main selling point of the eStation is its tablet-like Zeen. This does a fairly good job of controlling the printer, both when it's docked and when you're using the Zeen remotely, but there still seems to be a few bugs that need ironing out. Ultimately, the fact that apps are mostly limited to printing makes it of limited appeal. We found that after the initial novelty value of using the Zeen remotely, we tended to keep it docked all the time. This makes it an expensive luxury that's simply not worth having, considering that the eStation is 3.5 times the price of the Photosmart Premium e-All-in-One, which includes most of the same ePrint functions. Verdict The Photosmart eStation's printing performance is pretty impressive but no better or faster than the much cheaper Photosmart Premium e-All-in-One. That means that you're currently paying an extra £225 or so for the luxury of the removable Zeen, and a couple of extra (but quite basic) web browsing facilities. For our money, it's just not worth it. Related Links
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| Tutorial: 20 iPhone tips for iPhone 4s Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:35 AM PST  The iPhone 4's operating system represents a significant improvement on earlier versions of Apple's smartphone operating system. It's also got a new name - iOS - signifying the importance of the iPad alongside the iPhone. And what's more, iOS 4 is available to users of the iPhone 3GS, third-gen iPod touch and 3G too (albeit with limited features with the latter). iOS 4 will be available for the iPad later in the year. We've delved right under the hood of the new iPhone to bring you 20 tips for all those iPhone 4s out there. 1. Lock the screen orientation If you're lying in bed reading an iBook or a page in Safari it can be annoying when the iPhone's orientation keeps flicking between portrait and landscape. You can solve this by activating the new Portrait Lock. Double tap the Home button to reveal all the running apps, then swipe your finger to the right to reveal iPod controls and the Portrait Lock.
2. Tap to focus/zoom in Camera The iPhone 4's new 5 megapixel camera has a fantastic digital zoom. But to activate it you first need to focus on an object – like a face, for example, in your view. Do this by simply tapping anywhere on the screen. A white square will appear showing you the object that the iPhone is focused on. A zoom bar will also appear, which you can use to zoom into the object you've picked.
3. Multitasking: update your apps Multitasking is one of the big new features of iOS4, but while all Apple's apps (like Calculator and iPod) are compatible, all third party apps will need to be upgraded to properly multitask. So, you'll need to head to the App Store app on your phone, then visit the Updates section to download a update for each app. This can take a while, but don't forget, the App Store app also multitasks (as it always has), so double tap the Home button to get back to it to save time after selecting each update. There's also a handy "Update all" button to tap.
4. Switch to UK English If you're getting annoyed that your iPhone thinks colour should be spelt without a 'u' it's because you've got English (US) selected. You can easily switch back to English (UK) for spell checking by tapping the globe button next to the space bar in any app that brings up the soft keyboard (like Mail or Notes). This toggles your iPhone between English (UK) and English (US).
5. Multitasking: kill a running app After you've been using your iPhone for a while double-tap the Home button to see how many apps you have running - it will be more than you think! Normally you just let the iPhone decide how many it can keep running at once, but you can take matters into your own hands by killing running apps here. Just tap and hold on a running app and a "-" button appears against all of them. Tap this to kill the app.
6. Add an accent on the e and a key It's possible to quickly add a variety of accents to the letters "e" and "a" when typing on the iPhone's keyboard. Just tap and hold on either key to reveal more options, like "é", for example.
7. Turn caps lock on If you want to change your typing to capital letters all the time, rather than just for the next letter, then double-tap on the Shift key on the iPhone's keyboard. It will now turn blue, indicating caps lock is on. Just tap it again to turn it off.
8. Camera: take a picture of yourself The iPhone 4 has a front and rear-facing camera. The rear-facing camera is the high quality 5 megapixel one, and the front facing camera (used mainly for FaceTime video chat) is lower VGA resolution. This means it's now easy to take a picture of yourself (something that was pretty difficult on the previous iPhone models). In the Camera app just tap the Switch button at the top right to change cameras from rear to front.
9. Camera: email a video of yourself talking You can also use the forward facing camera for recording video, and the iPhone 4's second microphone means it works well capturing anything you say too. In the Camera app tap the switch icon (as in tip 8) then change to video mode using the slider and record a video of yourself talking. Now select it in the Camera roll then tap the Forward icon and select Email Video - job done!
10. Make and rename folders Organising your apps is so much easier on iPhones running iOS4. Just tap and drag apps on top of each other and you create intelligently named folders. You can rename the folder names Apple chooses though - just tap and hold on an app to make them wiggle, then tap on the folder name and start typing.
11. Make a FaceTime call When they first get an iPhone 4 a lot of people start looking for the FaceTime app to make video calls. Actually, there's no FaceTime app! To make a video call you simply make a regular call, then tap the FaceTime button in the Phone application. At the moment FaceTime is only available between iPhone 4 users on Wi-Fi. We would expect more compatibility going forward, as the FaceTime technologies are being ratified as an open standard.
12. Hide Caller ID It's possible to hide your Caller ID when making calls on your iPhone. In the Settings app tap on Phone, then tap on Show My Caller ID and turn it to OFF. (Incidentally, if you ever forget your phone number, you'll find it in here too).
13. Restrict features If you've brought an iPhone for your kids to use you might want to restrict some options, like the iTunes store and the App Store, for instance. You can also restrict the ability to watch age-rated content. In the Settings app click on General then Restrictions to turn this feature on and choose what you'd like to restrict.
14. Delete a text from the text history The iPhone Messages app records a history of all your text messages, like an instant message conversation. You can selectively delete old texts though. In Messages tap the Edit button at the top of the screen and then tap the radio button next to the offending text and tap Delete.
15. Watch live TV on your iPhone Not an iOS 4 tip per se, but you can turn your iPhone into TV thanks to the mobile version of the great TVCatchup website. You need to register, but the service is completely free, and even works over 3G as well as Wi-Fi.
16. iMovie and photos Apple's iMovie for iPhone 4 app means you can edit movies on your phone. Obviously it lacks the depth of the full iMovie for the Mac, but considering it runs on a phone it's very impressive. You can also add photos to your movie projects with a Ken Burns effect. One useful tip is to create an album of all the photos you plan to add to the project because otherwise you have to search through your camera roll, and for every photo you insert you have to start back at the beginning of the roll.
17. Show PDFs iBooks for iPhone can display PDF files as well as ebooks (as in the image below). To upload a PDF to your iPhone you have to use iTunes. First drag and drop your PDF file into your iTunes library, then when you sync your iPhone look in the Books tab. Here you'll find options for uploading the PDF. Once you've done that look in the iBooks app and a new PDF tab will have appeared. Tap this.
18. Get better reception Apple's statement that there's a fault with the way the iPhone displays signal strength, which will be fixed by a future software update, is all very well, but people are still losing signal when gripping the iPhone 4 in a way that covers the gap between the metal bands at the bottom left of the phone. iPhone Bumpers (£25, from Apple), or in fact any third party case that covers the outside edge of the phone will solve the problem, since they prevent your skin from contacting the metal antenna.
19. Turn on SMS character count A nice little update in the iOS 4 software is the ability to turn on a character count in the Messages app. You'll find the option in Settings/Messages. Now you'll be able to keep your overly long text messages in check!
20. Search more with Spotlight The Spotlight search has been enhanced significantly in iOS 4. Swipe right from the Home screen to activate it. You'll notice that it now searches more things, including text messages in the Messages app. But if you keep scrolling down the list of results you'll notice two new options at the bottom of the screen – Search Web and Search Wikipedia. These are handy links that open up Safari automatically and start searching for you.
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| Tutorial: 20 iPhone tips for iPhone 4s Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:35 AM PST The iPhone 4's operating system represents a significant improvement on earlier versions of Apple's smartphone operating system. It's also got a new name - iOS - signifying the importance of the iPad alongside the iPhone. And what's more, iOS 4 is available to users of the iPhone 3GS, third-gen iPod touch and 3G too (albeit with limited features with the latter). iOS 4 will be available for the iPad later in the year. We've delved right under the hood of the new iPhone to bring you 20 tips for all those iPhone 4s out there. 1. Lock the screen orientation If you're lying in bed reading an iBook or a page in Safari it can be annoying when the iPhone's orientation keeps flicking between portrait and landscape. You can solve this by activating the new Portrait Lock. Double tap the Home button to reveal all the running apps, then swipe your finger to the right to reveal iPod controls and the Portrait Lock.
2. Tap to focus/zoom in Camera The iPhone 4's new 5 megapixel camera has a fantastic digital zoom. But to activate it you first need to focus on an object – like a face, for example, in your view. Do this by simply tapping anywhere on the screen. A white square will appear showing you the object that the iPhone is focused on. A zoom bar will also appear, which you can use to zoom into the object you've picked.
3. Multitasking: update your apps Multitasking is one of the big new features of iOS4, but while all Apple's apps (like Calculator and iPod) are compatible, all third party apps will need to be upgraded to properly multitask. So, you'll need to head to the App Store app on your phone, then visit the Updates section to download a update for each app. This can take a while, but don't forget, the App Store app also multitasks (as it always has), so double tap the Home button to get back to it to save time after selecting each update. There's also a handy "Update all" button to tap.
4. Switch to UK English If you're getting annoyed that your iPhone thinks colour should be spelt without a 'u' it's because you've got English (US) selected. You can easily switch back to English (UK) for spell checking by tapping the globe button next to the space bar in any app that brings up the soft keyboard (like Mail or Notes). This toggles your iPhone between English (UK) and English (US).
5. Multitasking: kill a running app After you've been using your iPhone for a while double-tap the Home button to see how many apps you have running - it will be more than you think! Normally you just let the iPhone decide how many it can keep running at once, but you can take matters into your own hands by killing running apps here. Just tap and hold on a running app and a "-" button appears against all of them. Tap this to kill the app.
6. Add an accent on the e and a key It's possible to quickly add a variety of accents to the letters "e" and "a" when typing on the iPhone's keyboard. Just tap and hold on either key to reveal more options, like "é", for example.
7. Turn caps lock on If you want to change your typing to capital letters all the time, rather than just for the next letter, then double-tap on the Shift key on the iPhone's keyboard. It will now turn blue, indicating caps lock is on. Just tap it again to turn it off.
8. Camera: take a picture of yourself The iPhone 4 has a front and rear-facing camera. The rear-facing camera is the high quality 5 megapixel one, and the front facing camera (used mainly for FaceTime video chat) is lower VGA resolution. This means it's now easy to take a picture of yourself (something that was pretty difficult on the previous iPhone models). In the Camera app just tap the Switch button at the top right to change cameras from rear to front.
9. Camera: email a video of yourself talking You can also use the forward facing camera for recording video, and the iPhone 4's second microphone means it works well capturing anything you say too. In the Camera app tap the switch icon (as in tip 8) then change to video mode using the slider and record a video of yourself talking. Now select it in the Camera roll then tap the Forward icon and select Email Video - job done!
10. Make and rename folders Organising your apps is so much easier on iPhones running iOS4. Just tap and drag apps on top of each other and you create intelligently named folders. You can rename the folder names Apple chooses though - just tap and hold on an app to make them wiggle, then tap on the folder name and start typing.
11. Make a FaceTime call When they first get an iPhone 4 a lot of people start looking for the FaceTime app to make video calls. Actually, there's no FaceTime app! To make a video call you simply make a regular call, then tap the FaceTime button in the Phone application. At the moment FaceTime is only available between iPhone 4 users on Wi-Fi. We would expect more compatibility going forward, as the FaceTime technologies are being ratified as an open standard.
12. Hide Caller ID It's possible to hide your Caller ID when making calls on your iPhone. In the Settings app tap on Phone, then tap on Show My Caller ID and turn it to OFF. (Incidentally, if you ever forget your phone number, you'll find it in here too).
13. Restrict features If you've brought an iPhone for your kids to use you might want to restrict some options, like the iTunes store and the App Store, for instance. You can also restrict the ability to watch age-rated content. In the Settings app click on General then Restrictions to turn this feature on and choose what you'd like to restrict.
14. Delete a text from the text history The iPhone Messages app records a history of all your text messages, like an instant message conversation. You can selectively delete old texts though. In Messages tap the Edit button at the top of the screen and then tap the radio button next to the offending text and tap Delete.
15. Watch live TV on your iPhone Not an iOS 4 tip per se, but you can turn your iPhone into TV thanks to the mobile version of the great TVCatchup website. You need to register, but the service is completely free, and even works over 3G as well as Wi-Fi.
16. iMovie and photos Apple's iMovie for iPhone 4 app means you can edit movies on your phone. Obviously it lacks the depth of the full iMovie for the Mac, but considering it runs on a phone it's very impressive. You can also add photos to your movie projects with a Ken Burns effect. One useful tip is to create an album of all the photos you plan to add to the project because otherwise you have to search through your camera roll, and for every photo you insert you have to start back at the beginning of the roll.
17. Show PDFs iBooks for iPhone can display PDF files as well as ebooks (as in the image below). To upload a PDF to your iPhone you have to use iTunes. First drag and drop your PDF file into your iTunes library, then when you sync your iPhone look in the Books tab. Here you'll find options for uploading the PDF. Once you've done that look in the iBooks app and a new PDF tab will have appeared. Tap this.
18. Get better reception Apple's statement that there's a fault with the way the iPhone displays signal strength, which will be fixed by a future software update, is all very well, but people are still losing signal when gripping the iPhone 4 in a way that covers the gap between the metal bands at the bottom left of the phone. iPhone Bumpers (£25, from Apple), or in fact any third party case that covers the outside edge of the phone will solve the problem, since they prevent your skin from contacting the metal antenna.
19. Turn on SMS character count A nice little update in the iOS 4 software is the ability to turn on a character count in the Messages app. You'll find the option in Settings/Messages. Now you'll be able to keep your overly long text messages in check!
20. Search more with Spotlight The Spotlight search has been enhanced significantly in iOS 4. Swipe right from the Home screen to activate it. You'll notice that it now searches more things, including text messages in the Messages app. But if you keep scrolling down the list of results you'll notice two new options at the bottom of the screen – Search Web and Search Wikipedia. These are handy links that open up Safari automatically and start searching for you.
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| Android 3.0 for more than just tablets, says Google Posted: 01 Feb 2011 07:53 AM PST  Google's lead designer on the Android 3.0 UI, Matias Duarte, has revealed that the operating system although designed for tablets is also intended for other devices. This suggests that we may indeed see the Honeycomb OS make its way to smartphones, despite hints in January that it could be released solely for tablets. Barriers, begone! "Tablet was the focus, but the changes we did also free it up to be more flexible for other contexts as well," Duarte told All Things Digital. "It's really about eliminating all the barriers to all the different kinds of form factors that people might want to interact with." Those "different kinds of form factors" could be anything from smartphones to fridges, car dashboards and Surface-style tables. Computers suck Duarte also talked about how the OS was intended to improve mobile computing tasks overall via improved multitasking and notifications. Google is keen to avoid falling into the same rut as PC operation, which changes relatively slowly. "Using computers sucks, to this day," said Duarte. "Its one of my daily frustrations that the rate of change in computing experiences is so slow." Although we're still waiting for an official release date for Honeycomb, Google is holding an event in California tomorrow, through which we should find out yet more of Android 3.0's secrets. 
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| Can Sony remotely bork your PS3? Posted: 01 Feb 2011 07:45 AM PST  Sony may well have put a so-called 'backdoor' on its latest PlayStation 3 firmware, allowing the console maker to remotely control your PSN account, according to reports from the homebrew community. Despite releasing a PS3 firmware update to foil hackers recently Sony is now being accused of planting a backdoor in its latest PlayStation firmware update to allow remote control of your gaming console. Banging on the backdoor JailBreakScene reports this week that PS3 firmware version 3.56 contains a rootkit which allows Sony to remotely control your console when you connect to the PlayStation Network, should the company so wish. "It seems Sony has implemented something in 3.56 I mentioned here a few weeks ago that is the same as Microsoft uses to detect and ban 360s," says one user on the site. The whole thing sounds far more controversial than in actually is, with Sony hardly going to green-light a remote internet attack against PS3 jailbreakers worldwide. That said, the fact that the technical capacity for the company to shut down your PS3 remotely seems to exist is worrying enough in itself. TechRadar has contacted Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for further comment and clarification on this story. 
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| British gaming industry needs schools to step up, says report Posted: 01 Feb 2011 07:06 AM PST  The UK's gaming and visual effects sectors are suffering because schools don't understand the industry's needs, according to the Livingstone-Hope report released today. The report raises concerns that the UK is losing its footing in the global gaming market because the robust visual effects industry has had to resort to bringing in talent from overseas to compensate for a lack of skilled British workers. "The sad truth is that we are already starting to lose our cutting edge: in just two years, it seems the UK's video games industry has dipped from third to sixth place in the global development rankings," the report states. Education system failings The report was commissioned by Ed Vaizey, minister for culture, communications and creative industries, and was conducted by interviewing young people and parents, teachers, university course assessors and relevant employers, as well as by carrying out an online talent survey. Having gathered information about the state of games-relevant education, the report lambastes schools for focusing too heavily on office-based ICT skills, rather than computer science and programming skills. Universities also come under fire for the many 'flawed' degree courses offering video game and visual effects skills that fail to prepare graduates for actual jobs. Recommendations The report makes twenty recommendations to address the skills shortage, including adding Computer Science to the national curriculum, requiring schools to offer a GCSE in computer science and building an accredited skills system. Ian Livingstone, founder of Eidos and co-author of the report, comments, "There is a generation of young people who are passionate about playing games, yet they don't know that a development industry is well established in the UK, or which subjects they need to pursue a career in the industry. "Now is the time to invest in talent by equipping them with skills for the digital age. This is not about additional funding. It's about re-directing existing resource to have the right mix of subjects to prepare our children for a digital world and its creative and commercial opportunities." 
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||
| Exclusive: Brits forced to wait for new Sandy Bridge PCs Posted: 01 Feb 2011 07:04 AM PST  Following news earlier this week that Intel has discovered some major design faults in the Intel 6 series chipsets, it looks like British consumers will have to wait a few extra months to buy their new Sandy Bridge-powered PCs. It is a massive blow for the world's biggest chipmaker, which may well cost them anything up to a billion dollars. However, British PC buyers are not going to be majorly affected by the fault, merely being forced to wait an extra month or two for their new PC. Early adopters covered If you have already invested in a Sandy Bridge-powered new PC, then the manufacturer will most definitely replace your motherboard, should it prove to be one of the few faulty ones identified by Intel. If not, then our industry insiders suggest that you should just hang fire for a month or two before buying your new computer, until the Intel issue has been fully resolved. "MSI has been informed by Intel about the potential design issues in the Intel 6 series chipsets," said John Inwood, marketing manager for MSI UK, when we asked him about the latest problem with Sandy Bridge. "According to Intel the performance of some of the Intel SATA ports on Intel 6 series products can degrade over a period of three years. "MSI takes the quality of our products very seriously, so at this moment we are investigating product batches that may be affected and, meanwhile, have stopped all shipments to our distributors and resellers," the MSI rep added. It seems that there are no problems for British computer buyers to date with MSI's notebooks or all-in-one systems, with the MSI marketing manager adding: "We are working closely with Intel to help identify this as soon as possible. For MSI notebook and all-in-one product lines, we can confirm that there are currently no products in the UK channel which are affected by this issue." System integrators to suffer System integrators such as Dell, HP, Compaq, Acer, Packard Bell, Sony and others will certainly be the ones that suffer most from Intel's latest chip failure. PC retailers such as Dixons group, for example, will have already bought up ship containers of thousands of ready-made PCs from these companies, which will now have turned around and be on their way back to the Far East to have the problematic chipset replaced before being returned to Europe. Overall, the problem is little more than a minor inconvenience for British PC buyers and for companies such as Asus and MSI, who will now have to put back their marketing campaigns for Sandy Bridge PCs back to April/May time and assure the few thousands of early adopters that have already bought into the tech that replacements will be made available to them, if and when necessary. TechRadar has contacted Asus, Dell and a number of other PC vendors for further comment on this story. 
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| Posted: 01 Feb 2011 06:54 AM PST  Slide the latest PC processors under a microscope and you'll discover transistors measuring just 32nm across. So ludicrously tiny, in other words, that 500nm would fit inside the width of a human hair. Thus, enquiring minds might wonder why anyone needs a hulking great PC system based on the ATX motherboard form factor. Instead, why not go for a much smaller system based on a Mini-ITX board, such as the Gigabyte H55N-USB3? Measuring 17cm on both sides, it's much, much smaller than a standard 30cm by 24cm ATX motherboard. But it's powered by the same Intel H55 chipset used by much larger motherboards, such as MSI's H55-GD65. Indeed, the Gigabyte H55N-USB3 not only has an Intel LGA1156 CPU socket, supporting high performance processors including the Core i7 800 series, it can also handle high performance discrete graphics thanks to a full 16-lane PCI Express graphics port. Factor in a pair of USB 3.0 ports and the result certainly looks like a high performance package married to puny proportions. The Gigabyte H55N-USB3 is so small, it's hard to take it seriously. Admittedly, the Lilliputian measurements do come with a few downsides. There's very little space around the CPU socket. High performance air cooling is therefore not on the menu. Likewise, you only get a pair of DDR3 slots which makes for fewer options in terms of memory configurations and could push up the cost of future upgrades. With just a single PCI Express graphics slot, expansion options are also limited.
What Gigabyte hasn't compromised on, however, is performance. This fun-sized motherboard really flies. Running a powerful quad-core Intel Core i7 870 processor at standard clockspeeds, the H55N-USB3 is virtually indistinguishable from a full ATX board based on the H55 chipset. It absolutely tears through the video encoding or image rendering benchmarks we ran it through. Ride the intel Even more impressive is its overclocking prowess. A maximum baseclock of 210MHz may not be quite as fast as the best desktop boards based on the H55 chipset, but it's enough to get the maximum out of most Intel LGA1156 chips. Likewise, with a discrete graphics card in the PCI Express slot, you get full desktop performance in games. Of course, Intel sells a wide range of processors for the LGA1156 socket. If you fancy something that is a little more power efficient, try plopping in a Core i3 500 or Core i5 600 series. Using the integrated Intel HD graphics that comes with those particular chips, overall platform power consumption at maximum load comes in under 100 Watts. That's well under half of what you would expect from a full ATX H55 system with discrete graphics.
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| Google planning expansion to Art Project Posted: 01 Feb 2011 06:48 AM PST  Google has promised that its Art Project, unveiled this morning at the Tate Britain, won't stop at the 17 museums it has on board. Speaking at the event with TechRadar in attendance, Nelson Mattos, Google vice president of product management and engineering for Europe said "Our vision is to create a valuable tool for art lovers. "Where some museums only have one or two rooms mapped, we intend to add more in the future. "However, we don't have a specific time line for the Project - we want to see over the next few months how it will be used. Like with our other projects, we want to see people's reaction. Teachers or art lovers? "If teachers and professors are the ones that really use it, then we need to see how we can make it easy for them to create collections. If it's artists or art students, then it's different; we need other features, such as showing how the art is created." Mattos also said that Google is planning to expand the amount of pieces subjected to the gigapixel treatment to allow more users to get closer to the art they love, as well as expanding the galleries. Google had to use custom-made bicycles and trolleys to achieve the indoor 360 view; using the same technology from the cars, but also surviving without the GPS abilities the outdoors scenario offers.
TechRadar managed to snap a picture of the technology in question - we can only thank whoever that we didn't have to spend hours pushing it round some of the largest galleries in the world's biggest cities. 
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| Gary Marshall: Apple won't kill the Kindle app Posted: 01 Feb 2011 05:56 AM PST  There's been an almighty brouhaha over the App Store today: Apple has rejected Sony's Reader app. According to the NYT, that means Amazon's Kindle app is also under threat: "The company has told some applications developers, including Sony, that they can no longer sell content, like e-books, within their apps, or let customers have access to purchases they have made outside the App Store." I'll be amazed if that's true. Apple is many things, but it's not insane. Let's look at the story in a bit more detail. The bit about Apple refusing to "let customers to have access to purchases they have made outside the App Store" isn't a quote from Sony. It isn't included in the Sony Reader blog's explanation either. Since such a policy would make Apple look quite exceptionally evil, you'd think Sony might have mentioned it. I think the NYT is right and wrong at the same time. When it says Sony users can't access content they've already bought, it's perfectly correct: if you can't have the app, you can't have any content that's delivered via that app. Apple hasn't banned the content. It's rejected the app. Don't stick a shop inside your app Unless everybody at Apple has gone completely nuts, what's happening here is that Sony's app doesn't use Apple's system for in-app purchases; Apple has cried foul and told Sony to use the official API or stay out of the App Store. Here's what Sony did tell the NYT: "Apple has changed the way it enforces its rules." The NYT adds: "Apple told Sony that from now on, all in-app purchases would have to go through Apple." That isn't shock news, and it won't affect the Kindle app. It doesn't do in-app purchasing: you buy in your browser, and the books are then delivered to the app. Here's my prediction. Sony will make its app work more like the Kindle one, it'll resubmit it, and Apple will approve it. Meanwhile, the Kindle app will carry on as it's always done. Can you imagine Apple making its iPod app block Amazon-bought MP3s, or its Videos app check with Hollywood to make sure you didn't get your films via Bittorrent? Maybe I'm wrong and the NYT is right, but I really don't see it. iPad owners are big Kindle fans too, and blocking a Kindle app would be an enormous own goal. It wouldn't just be a PR disaster, either: it'd be a red rag to regulators, a shout of "and you thought Microsoft was bad in the 90s? Check THIS out!" I'm not saying Apple is being saintly here. Publishers are furious about the change to its in-app purchasing rules because they think – correctly – that Apple wants a cut of every issue they sell via subscription, and the whole thing has been handled in typically secretive and unfriendly fashion. But there's a big difference between Apple being Apple, and Apple being crazy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
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| Posted: 01 Feb 2011 04:57 AM PST  Slapping a new brand name to give an old chip a leg up is a popular ruse in the PC industry. Do not, therefore, assume that the Asus M4A785TD-M EVO and its AMD 785G northbridge is necessarily old hat. For the most part, it's identical to the supposedly newer 880G found in Gigabyte's competing 880GMA-UD2H. The graphics cores in both, for instance, are effectively the same Radeon HD 4200 DirectX 10.1-class architecture. You get carbon-copy AMD Avivo HD video features and 40 shader cores with this slightly older Asus board. Likewise, AMD Hybrid Graphics is supported by both. However, where the two diverge and the Asus M4A785TD-M EVO arguably falls behind involves the companion chips that provide additional functionality. While the Gigabyte board gets the latest SB850 southbridge chip and NEC's USB 3.0 controller, Asus makes do with the older SB710 southbridge. USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps are not part of the package.
In raw performance terms, the gap between the Asus M4A785TD-M EVO and supposedly newer and fancier boards, such as Gigabyte's 880GMAUD2H is measured in microns. Whether it's video encoding, professional 3D rendering or playing games courtesy of an add-in graphics cards, there's near as dammit no difference. The same applies when using the onboard Radeon HD graphics. In both cases, it's a mixed bag of feeble 3D performance and excellent 2D hardware acceleration. At least all the important video codecs are supported ensuring buttery smooth playback of high definition video, whether stored locally or streamed from the net, without stressing the CPU. Likewise, both boards offer support for AMD's Hybrid CrossFireX technology enabling users to switch on the fly between beefy but power-hungry discrete graphics and the more efficient integrated 3D core. OC headroom Shift the focus to overclocking, however, and the older Asus M4A785TD-M EVO actually carves out a small advantage achieving 270MHz to the Gigabyte's 260MHz. So much for progress. Elsewhere, however, the Asus doesn't have it all its own way. Part of the problem is the fact that quad-core Intel chips have the edge on the fastest six-core AMD chips. Intel's six-core models are in a class of their own. Exactly how important high bandwidth interfaces, such as USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps will be during the lifetime of a board bought today is hard to judge. Currently, there are few available components and peripherals that support either standard. However, you can have both with the Gigabyte board for just eight pounds extra and otherwise offers a very similar package. So, why take the risk?
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| Buying Guide: Best BlackBerry phone - which should you buy? Posted: 01 Feb 2011 04:00 AM PST  If you've made the decision to get a BlackBerry smartphone on contract or Pay As You Go, you might be wondering where to start when looking at the range on offer. Have no fear, though – TechRadar is here to round up all of your current options, so you can choose the right phone for you, whether you're getting your first BlackBerry or upgrading from from an old device. 1. BlackBerry Bold 9780
BlackBerry's high-end flagship line-up gets some small internal tweaks from the 9700 incarnation, including an improved camera and more RAM. The killer addition is BlackBerry OS 6, which takes big strides towards making the system more consumer and internet-friendly. It's a shame that the keyboard is smaller than on the original Bold 9000, but this is still the ultimate BlackBerry messenger. Read our BlackBerry Bold 9780 review 2. BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300
As a mid-range entry, the Curve 3G is great for those after the messaging power of a BlackBerry on a lower budget. The screen resolution and camera quality are both lower than what we've come to expect from comparable smartphones, but the quality of the keyboard could win a lot of people over. Read our BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 review 3. BlackBerry Torch 9800
The Torch is RIM's attempt to combine the keyboard loved by its hardcore users with the big touchscreen that's impressing the mainstream. While there are several compromises, including a slightly cramped keyboard and a slow processor by today's standards, there's also a lot to like in the new BlackBerry OS 6 interface and the crisp touchscreen, which combine to make this ideal for media-loving BlackBerry users. Read our BlackBerry Torch 9800 review 4. BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9105
The impressive thing about the BlackBerry Pearl range is that RIM managed to fit almost the whole BlackBerry experience into a standard candybar phone package to appeal to those who don't want the bulk of a bigger device. The Pearl has fallen behind in terms of technology despite the addition of 3G, but it's still a good quality smartphone, especially for its size. Read our BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9105 review 5. BlackBerry Bold 9700
The Bold 9700 is a worthy addition to the bold line, offering the best BlackBerry features and a superb battery life. It's a shame the keyboard is smaller than the Bold 9000's, but the chassis is handsome and the screen pops brilliantly. With BlackBerry App World offering expanded functionality, this a great choice, though the 9780 has it beat for performance. Read our BlackBerry Bold 9700 review 6. BlackBerry Storm 2 9520
The BlackBerry Storm 2 is a well-built and nicely featured smartphone out of the box, but the SurePress touchscreen doesn't hold up well to the accuracy on offer from the iPhone 4 or HTC Desire HD. Read our BlackBerry Storm 2 9520 review 7. BlackBerry Curve 8520
The member of the mid-range Curve line fails to offer much to recommend it over the Curve 3G, which features all the benefits of this with newer technology to boot. This is still a capable business phone, but is too slow by modern standards. Read our BlackBerry Curve 8520 review 8. BlackBerry Storm 9500
Compared to the newer touchscreen phones, both from RIM and other manufacturers, the BlackBerry Storm looks decidedly out of date. Performance is strong and battery life is surprisingly good, but this phone has now been surpassed. Read our BlackBerry Storm 9500 review 9. BlackBerry Bold 9000
The original BlackBerry Bold was a superb phone when released, but later Bold models have improved upon it. The 9700 and 9780 both use the far superior optical trackpads instead of the trackball on offer here, but the Bold 9000 does have a brilliant keyboard. The newer Bold devices are an improvement in every other way, however. Read our BlackBerry Bold 9000 review 10. BlackBerry Pearl 8110
Similar to the Bold 9000 above, the Pearl 8110 has been overtaken in just about every way by the versions that came after, but particularly lacking in the current climate is 3G, which is available on the Pearl 3G 9105. Read our BlackBerry Pearl 8110 review 11. BlackBerry Pearl 8120
The Pearl 8120 is a breeze to operate and offers a good solution for those who don't want the bulk of a full-size smartphone, but the newer Pearl 3G offers better speed and features. Read our BlackBerry Pearl 8120 review 12. BlackBerry Curve 8310
The versatility of the BlackBerry Curve range has always impressed us, but this version looks out of date stylistically and lacks many features we now expect as standard, including 3G, and so doesn't offer as good value for money as the newer Curve 3G 9300. Read our BlackBerry Curve 8310 review 
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| Posted: 01 Feb 2011 03:55 AM PST  AMD doesn't make the fastest PC processors on planet Earth. We can all agree on that. But in terms of bang for your British buck, the world's second-string CPU maker still has plenty to offer. Put simply, you get a lot for your money if you go with an AMD platform. Take this Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H microATX motherboard. It's based on AMD's latest 880G integrated chipset and also sports the SB850 southbridge chip. That means you not only get a very strong 2D video feature set including AMD's Avivo HD hardware video acceleration. There's also plenty of storage bandwidth on offer in the form of five SATA 6Gbps ports. The pair of USB 3.0 sockets are thoroughly welcome, too. The Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H is also an intriguing option for those who want high performance and low power consumption in a single package. Thanks to CrossFireX support, it's possible to switch between integrated and discrete graphics on the fly. Normally, we associate AMD systems with lower overall system costs. Feature for feature, that just about holds true when comparing Gigabyte's 880GMAUD2H with an Intel board like the MSI H55M-ED55. Priced pretty much on a par, the Gigabyte motherboard gives you both USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps along with an integrated Radeon HD 4250 graphics core. The Intel-compatible alternative from MSI lacks those high bandwidth interfaces and only offers integrated graphics in combination with certain dual-core Intel CPUs. Good performer In performance terms, much obviously depends on the CPU you select. But with a six-core AMD Phenom II X6 1055T onboard, the 880GMA-UD2H is no slouch in multi-threaded software such as video encoding. In fact, it's not far off matching an Intel platform running the much more expensive Core i7 870 chip. That said, the 3D performance of the Radeon HD 4250 graphics core is woeful and no faster than the integrated GPU in the supposedly outdated 785G chipset of Asus' M4A785TD-M EVO. But for a home cinema system, you won't need to worry about an add-in card thanks to the boards solid hardware acceleration and a full set of video outputs. As for overclocking, the BIOS menu is fully featured and our testing indicates you can expect decent bus speeds of around 260MHz. What's more, despite the motherboard's compact microATX form factor, expansion options are extensive. PCI Express connectivity comes in the form of two 16-lane slots and a further single-lane port, although the second 16-lane slot only offers four electrical lanes. Gigabyte has also wired up an old school PCI port to the motherboard, giving you some legacy support to boot. Related Links
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| Sony reveals PSone game conversion process Posted: 01 Feb 2011 03:39 AM PST  PSone games have been available on the Sony PlayStation Network for some time now but with the imminent arrival of PSone games on the PlayStation Suite, Sony has decided to let us all know just what it takes to develop a PSone game from disc to store. In a blog, Sony reveals the rather laborious process of PSone emulation, explaining: "We make sure we've got a good copy of the original disc (or discs if there are localised versions), then the game is cleared for publish by our legal department. "They check there are no issues with any of the content in the game being under an expired license, or any confusion over ownership of the publishing rights. "Then we make a record for the game as it will appear on the Store, including the image and all the description text in the eight Store languages." When it comes to the time it takes to emulate a game, Sony is saying that "the whole process can sometimes take several months" and that there are a number of stumbling blocks between emulating a game and publishing it. Bug problem Alongside legal issues with expired rights, Sony has to go through a massive de-bug of the games. "I have seen a lot of PSone QA [quality assurance] reports with some weird and wonderful errors – menu screens with upside down text, explosions that kill your character at random after watching a cut scene, games that continue to slow down the longer you play them, or music that sounds like it's coming from the bottom of a well… the list goes on," says Sony's Ross McGrath. "If a bug makes the game completely unplayable or otherwise ruins your experience then that's a fail and the game cannot be published." Considering all this time and effort is taken to ensure PSone games are decent enough to play on the PSP and PS3, Sony has a massive job on its hands porting its PSone titles to the upcoming PlayStation Suite for use of Android 2.3 handsets like the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. 
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| Samsung Wave 2 now available in the UK Posted: 01 Feb 2011 03:37 AM PST  The Samsung Wave 2 – aka the Samsung GT-S8530 – has arrived in the UK stories, giving us all to get our hands on the latest flagship Bada 1.2 phone. Although the Bada based OS has not set the world alight – if you are looking for an alternative to the usual suspects then the Wave II brings Samsung's operating system. That's along with a 5MP autofocus camera and more social networking widgets than you can shake your poke stick at. Super Clear - a distant relation to Superman The Smartphone has a 3.7 inch 'Super Clear' LCD display, a front facing camera and – until 31 March – a free entertainment package. "Designed for gamers and app-lovers, the bundle includes five of the most recognisable and highest ranking apps in the paid for charts from Gameloft and EA Games, which are available from Samsung Apps," says Samsung That bundles consists of Need for Speed: Shift; FIFA 10; Monopoly; Tetris and Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles. Wave hello, again Simon Stanford, Managing Director, Mobile, Samsung UK and Ireland said: "Following the phenomenal success of our first high-end Wave handset last year, we wanted to take the smartphone experience we offer our customers a step further. "With our Social Hub, it's now even easier for people to share content such as photos and videos with their social networks. "And they'll also benefit from the growing popularity of our App store via the new gaming bundle we are offering." The Samsung Wave II is available in the UK to buy now from O2 and Phones4u. 
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| Samsung Wave 2 now available in the UK Posted: 01 Feb 2011 03:37 AM PST The Samsung Wave 2 – aka the Samsung GT-S8530 – has arrived in the UK stories, giving us all to get our hands on the latest flagship Bada 1.2 phone. Although the Bada based OS has not set the world alight – if you are looking for an alternative to the usual suspects then the Wave II brings Samsung's operating system. That's along with a 5MP autofocus camera and more social networking widgets than you can shake your poke stick at. Super Clear - a distant relation to Superman The Smartphone has a 3.7 inch 'Super Clear' LCD display, a front facing camera and – until 31 March – a free entertainment package. "Designed for gamers and app-lovers, the bundle includes five of the most recognisable and highest ranking apps in the paid for charts from Gameloft and EA Games, which are available from Samsung Apps," says Samsung That bundles consists of Need for Speed: Shift; FIFA 10; Monopoly; Tetris and Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles. Wave hello, again Simon Stanford, Managing Director, Mobile, Samsung UK and Ireland said: "Following the phenomenal success of our first high-end Wave handset last year, we wanted to take the smartphone experience we offer our customers a step further. "With our Social Hub, it's now even easier for people to share content such as photos and videos with their social networks. "And they'll also benefit from the growing popularity of our App store via the new gaming bundle we are offering." The Samsung Wave II is available in the UK to buy now from O2 and Phones4u. 
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