Sponsored

Techradar

---

• 3D royal wedding plans ruled out
• iPad 2 now in production, says Wall Street Journal
• Nikon reveals new range of compact Coolpix cameras
• Nikon launches Coolpix P500 compact with 36x optical zoom
• Dell announces 10-inch Windows 7 tablet
• Catholic Church approves iPhone virtual confession app
• HTC Wildfire S and LG Optimus Speed coming at MWC 2011?
• Hands on: Samsung Galaxy Ace review
• Exclusive: Sega: 3DS is a great step forward for Monkey Ball
• BBC iPlayer app for Android 2.2 coming this week too
• Nintendo 3DS launch line-up confirmed
• Exclusive: Mobile data usage set to increase one-thousand fold by 2020
• Sony to set lawyers on anyone with anything to do with PS3 hack
• Altec Lansing Introduces New InMotion Air speaker
• Altec Lansing Introduces New InMotion Air speaker
• Tutorial: How to use vector graphics on your website
• Review: Creative Ziio 7-inch
• Review: Zotac GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP!
• Sony Ericsson Xperia Play also coming to Three
• Exclusive: Nokia backtracks on 32GB N8 variant
• Review: Acer Revo RL100
• Sony opens up lens specifications to outside manufacturers
• HTC investing in smartphone gaming, details coming next week
• Nokia N8 32GB (sort of) announced
• BBC iPlayer for iPad arriving 10 February

3D royal wedding plans ruled out Posted: 09 Feb 2011 12:08 AM PST The upcoming royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton will not be shot in 3D, it has been revealed. The press secretary to the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, Patrick Harrison, quashed rumours that 3D would be used in the filming of the ceremony for TV, explaining in an email: "I'm afraid I have to say that we have decided not to progress with 3D coverage of the service on this occasion. "There are a number of reasons for this, most notably the additional camera footprint in the abbey, the relatively small (albeit growing) audience for 3D, and our desire to not be distracted away from negotiating and facilitating the optimal 2D, radio, photographic and online coverage of the day." 3D disappointment It's interesting that Harrison cites a "small audience for 3D" as one of the factors, given that the creators of the Olympics want to shoot some of the games in 3D so that the format is in the archive for future use. Harrison's email continued: "I know you have all become increasingly enthusiastic about 3D and I'm sorry that this will come as a disappointment. "I hope you feel the process we have gone through will be helpful for other live events and of course we do not rule out facilitating 3D at some point in the future." This 'point in the future' could well be the filming of the Queen's speech in 3D. As Sky is now in partnership with the BBC and ITV with the production of the Queen's speech, it may be that the satellite giant will use a 3D camera to film what Her Maj has to say. If this does happen, it won't be the most riveting use of 3D but it will bring the format that little bit closer to the mainstream.

iPad 2 now in production, says Wall Street Journal Posted: 08 Feb 2011 06:56 PM PST The countdown to the iPad 2 launch is entering the final stages according to business bible the Wall Street Journal, which is claiming the device has now gone into full production. The WSJ reports that "people familiar with the matter" say the manufacturing process is underway and that the new device will be thinner and lighter than the first generation iPad. The source also revealed that the iPad 2 features, as expected, a FaceTime camera and a faster graphics processor and more memory on board. If the reports are to be believed, rumours of the iPhone 4's Retina Screen making the step up to the tablet arena would be unfounded. The WSJ story claims that the screen resolution 'similar' to the first iPad. No 4G The story also suggests that there'll be no 4G mobile broadband support for the iPad 2, which is expected to become available in the next couple of months, most likely in April. Dell today announced it's own answer to the iPad with the 10-inch Dell Business Tablet, while HP is widely expected to reveal the webOS-running 'PalmPad' tomorrow at a launch event in San Francisco. Related Stories In Depth: Tablets: reviews, news, tips and tricks

Nikon reveals new range of compact Coolpix cameras Posted: 08 Feb 2011 05:00 PM PST Nikon has revealed its latest range of compact cameras, adding a whole heap of snappers to its Coolpix range. Among the additions to is the P300, a compact with full manual mode that boasts impressive low-light capabilities. With a 24mm lens and 4.2 optical zoom, the P300 has a 12.2MP sensor. The CMOS sensor means full HD video capture at 1080p and it offers up to 120fps high speed shooting. The P300 (below) will be with us on its UK release date of 3 March, yours for a UK price of £299.99. Small but mighty The S9100 is an impressive wee camera, which manages to pack 18x optical, zoom into a body just a little bigger than the average compact. It's all thanks to the Nikkor wide-angle lens. The camera is also rocking the back-lit CMOS sensor so you can get your full HD video kicks and watch them back on the 3-inch hi-res LCD screen. Available in red, silver and black, the Nikon Coolpix S9100 has a UK release date of 17 March and UK pricing will be £299.99. Also announced were the S2500, a £100 point-and-shoot with a 12MP sensor and photo enhancement tools like smile timer and skin softening and the Coolpix L23, a low-cost snapper for the beginner photographer with a UK price of £69.99. And finally, the rainbow set Last but not least, Nikon has revealed the three new Coolpix Style cameras, the S3100, S4100 (pictured) and S6100. The three little snappers come with 14 and 16MP sensors, touchscreens and are available in a dazzling array of colours. They'll come with UK prices of between £129.99 and £199.99 when released later this month. Related Stories Samsung launches PL20 budget compact camera Sony opens up lens specifications to outside manufacturers Nikon launches Coolpix P500 compact with 36x optical zoom

Nikon launches Coolpix P500 compact with 36x optical zoom Posted: 08 Feb 2011 05:00 PM PST Nikon has unveiled the Coolpix P500, a compact shooter with an outrageous 36x optical zoom. With a wide-angle 22.5mm lens and such zoom-ability, you would expect blur to be an issue when zoomed so far in. But Nikon has increased the ISO range and implemented sensor-shift and electronic vibration reduction tech to counteract the increased motion sensitivity, as well as offering a best shot selector which picks the sharpest of ten sequential shots. Tilt-alating The 3-inch LCD screen is tiltable – in fact, you can pull it right out away from the body of the camera if you're going for a really tricky shot – and is high resolution with a 921K dot monitor. The P500's 12.1MP CMOS sensor means it can capture 1080p Full HD video, and has a gentle zoom slider for video capture so you can avoid the jerky, uncomfortable zoom effect the top dial often gives. Slo-mo Recording speeds of up to 240fps mean you can also film in super slow motion if you're, say, remaking The Matrix at home. The recharchable Li-ion battery should give you around 220 shots from a single charge. The Nikon Coolpix P500 has a UK release date of 3 March, with UK pricing set at around £399.99. Related Stories Samsung launches PL20 budget compact camera Sony opens up lens specifications to outside manufacturers Nikon reveals new range of compact Coolpix cameras

Dell announces 10-inch Windows 7 tablet Posted: 08 Feb 2011 02:45 PM PST Dell has revealed that it will be releasing a 10-inch Windows 7 tablet computer later this year. The Dell Business Tablet, which will be aimed at the professional market rather than casual owners, will run on an Intel processor, but aside from that no other specs are known. A version of the slate will also be available running Android, following on from the 5-inch Dell Streak tablet which impressed TechRadar last summer. Dell Mean Business The announcement came during the Dell Means Business event in San Francisco at which the company unveiled 39 new products. Also on show was an updated version of the tablet/laptop hybrid Latitude XT3, and a host of portable and desktop options. But it's the Dell Business Tablet that will make the headlines. The world has been itching for a Windows 7 tablet since the oft-promised, never delivered HP Slate first spoken of at CES 2010 last January. Business booming Dell reckon it's going to be a hit among business users who seek the extra security offered by Windows 7, while it also fits into the IT management scheme of businesses. No official word on a price, release date or any concrete details on specs yet (the slate shown at the event was a mock-up) but we'll bring you more on the Dell Business Tablet as soon as we hear more.

Catholic Church approves iPhone virtual confession app Posted: 08 Feb 2011 12:44 PM PST The Catholic Church is edging further into the 21st century after giving a nod of approval to an iPhone app which guides its followers through confessing their sins. Confession: A Roman Catholic App is designed to help users understand their earthly sins and offers a personal conscience profile based on their age, sex, job and marital status. The app, which costs £1.19, is particularly aimed at those who've not confessed to a priest in a while and hopes to prepare them to once again enter the box again. When partaking in the virtual confession, believers can choose from a list of sins or add their own, while choosing from seven different acts of contrition. More importantly it supports the iPhone's Retina Display. Vatican approved A spokesperson from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales told BBC News the app was a "useful tool to help people prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation". "The Church believes in embracing new technology and this creative app will hopefully help people to make a good confession." It is thought to be the first time the church has approved an app, which is part of the Pope's drive for catholics to "make good use of their presence in the digital world." Whatever future-thinking concepts might be next? Approval for contraception? Embracing same sex relationships? The sky's the limit. Related Stories Sony Ericsson Xperia Play gets UK release date Google launches Priority Inbox for all mobile Gmail users Nokia N8 32GB (sort of) announced HTC investing in smartphone gaming, details coming next week Sony Ericsson Xperia Play also coming to Three

HTC Wildfire S and LG Optimus Speed coming at MWC 2011? Posted: 08 Feb 2011 11:43 AM PST We all love a little bit of inventory nonsense – but then again, sometimes it comes up with some prime forward-looking goods. That may be the case with the same inventory that brought us the HTC Pyramid name over at a German network, as hidden further down the list is not only the LG Optimus Speed – which presumably is actually another name for a dual core handset - but the HTC Wildfire S too. Above it is the HTC Desire 2 – but we're having problems believing that name, as it would get confusing as the Desire HD and Desire Z are already pseudo-sequels. Rumblings We've heard whispering before that it could be called the HTC Desire S, and it seems that SlashGear has heard the same, noting the handset could be coming alongside the nailed-on HTC Scribe. The HTC Wildfire S would be a quick refresh of the popular phone from the Taiwanese firm – presumably it would be running the updated version of Sense, and would call into question the point of the HTC Gratia. The 'S' suffix is becoming oddly popular with today's mobiles, with the iPhone 3GS starting a trend followed by the Samsung Galaxy S and Nexus S – could HTC be about to follow suit? We're very much looking forward to Mobile World Congress this year, as it promises once again to herald the coming of a slew of new top end phones – keep checking back to see what pops up. Related Stories LightRadio to dramatically boost UK's mobile signal In Depth: 4G mobile broadband and LTE explained Exclusive: Nokia backtracks on 32GB N8 variant Exclusive: Mobile data usage set to increase one-thousand fold by 2020 Hands on: Samsung Galaxy Ace review

Hands on: Samsung Galaxy Ace review Posted: 08 Feb 2011 10:38 AM PST Samsung's entrance into the smartphone market may have been slow, but it's got the bit between its teeth now, and the new Samsung Galaxy Ace is the latest effort to show that it can make a real success of its Android range. Following the popular Galaxy S and Galaxy Apollo, the Samsung Galaxy Ace is actually dubbed the successor to the original Galaxy Portal, and if that's the case it's come on leaps and bounds since that release nearly 18 months ago. The Samsung Galaxy Ace design is interesting – it's somewhere between premium and budget, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. One thing is certain though – Samsung's not discreet when it comes to creating something that looks like an iPhone, with the plastic metallic band around the squared edges looking very similar to Jobs' latest release indeed. However, it's not identical by any stretch – there are definite leanings to the original Samsung Tocco which sold so well, and the Galaxy S' design heritage is also clear to see too. We like the way it feels in the hand - the 3.5-inch screen feels smaller in the chassis than an iPhone 4, but the overall display size is actually the same. It's easy to hit all the areas of the screen with one digit, and the surrounding button furniture, such as the up/down volume key and the lock button are all very easy to hit indeed. We're big fans of the rear of the phone too - no glossy black plastic in sight here, as it's a very matte ridged surface on offer. This not only aids grip, but makes it very easy to find if you've chucked it in a bag - the unique texture is very easy to feel. The phone sits well in the hand and is comfortable to hold and put in the pocket - the only gripe we do have is how thick it is at 11.5mm... it makes it feel much chunkier than other smartphones 9even though it isn't), and we'd have expected it to be thinner given its size. Hands on: Samsung Galaxy Ace review: Interface The interface is very familiar to anyone that's handled a recent Samsung smartphone, using the TouchWiz 3.0 overlay to good effect once more. This means that you get a row of four icons at the bottom to control the main functions like calling and text messaging, and the applications menu is separated in swipable horizontal screens, rather than one long sprawling mess. We're using a 3 mobile variant of the Galaxy Ace, and sadly it does come with a fair amount of immobile bloatware - there's no way to remove the 'Win cash' icon, for instance. Another problem, and we're hoping this is an early sample issue, is the fact the 800MHz processor can't really cut it when it comes to smooth scrolling around the screen. When trying to navigate from menu to home screen or moving icons around the display, there's a noticeable lag judder to proceedings - not the most impressive we've ever seen. The resolution of the screen is pretty low too - it's HVGA, but compared to bigger smartphones it's easy to see. That said, given the Galaxy Ace may have a UK price of around £20-£25 on contract, it would be unfair to criticise necessary compromises. The contacts menu is traditional TouchWiz 3.0 fare as well - you can easily join your friends with a Google, Twitter, Facebook and Corporate account - much easier than the Gingerbread offering on the Google Nexus S, and the Galaxy Ace is only packing Android 2.2.1. Messaging is a standard affair too for Samsung aficionados - threaded messaging, easy to set up email and a simple SMS inbox are all the sort of thing you'd expect from such a package. However, Swype is offered by default for the messaging application - we're starting to think we're alone in not loving this message input system, but we still don't see it as running the same accuracy as a normal, well-equipped on screen keyboard. The default Android offering isn't much better in this case though, so perhaps spending a few days getting used to the Swypey Swype functionality of the phone will be OK for most. As we mentioned earlier, the lower resolution of the screen is a necessary compromise, but that does mean that the internet browser isn't as impressive as it could have been – and it seems worse that other HVGA screens we've seen. At full zoom, the text is sometimes illegible, and even pinching up closer makes it still relatively difficult to read – especially as text reflow (where the words jig about to fit the screen) isn't turned on by default. There's no Flash video support on offer here either, so web video is out of the question – although that's possibly to be expected given the CPU and RAM specification. Hands on: Samsung Galaxy Ace review: Camera In terms of media, the Samsung Galaxy Ace is a relatively simply beast – it's not going to replace a dedicated PMP unless you fancy forking out for a 16GB or 32GB microSD card, as the 158MB onboard and 2GB card isn't going to be up to much if you want to pack a few movies on there. The music section is pretty basic, although not without some neat enhancements – for instance, the music widget appears in the drop down notifications menu, enabling anywhere track skipping and pausing. There's also Samsung DNSe, which offers virtual 5.1 Surround Sound on board as well, with extra functionality for YouTube searching via the dedicated application too. Video is a mixed bag too – the resolution makes the quality seem a little low, and despite the presence of a dedicated GPU doesn't look as slick as it could; however, it's again worth noting this isn't a high end handset, so to expect Super AMOLED performance is perhaps pushing it a little bit. The camera is a 5MP effort, as you'd hope for in a phone like this; unlike other Samsung budget Android handsets though, it comes with a flash too. It's sometimes easy to forget that lower-end handsets don't have the dual LED/Xenon debate – they often don't even have a flash at all. The video camera can only record at QVGA, and only at 15fps – so only probably going to be enough for YouTube (although even that seems to warrant higher resolution these days. The other apps preloaded of note on the Samsung Galaxy Ace are AllShare – which streams via DLNA to a server or TV – and ThinkFree office, so you'll be able to see you documents on the go with ease. We say with ease, but in truth the screen resolution isn't going to be any use for reading a lengthy word document or anything. Google Maps is also obviously included, but only version 4.5.0, so there's no fancy vector graphics or 3D buildings on offer here. We've been told the Ace sample we have here is final and ready for market, so we'll be bringing you our full and in-depth Samsung Galaxy Ace review in the very near future. However, early plays with the device leave us with a mixed impression: the juddery and laggy nature at times could be put down to the budget nature of the phone – however, we didn't experience the same on the LG Optimus One or the Orange San Francisco, both of which were roughly the same price point and had lower-spec innards. We'll give a more thorough testing before we bring you a verdict however – at the very least, it's a fairly attractive handset at what looks like a modest price. Related Stories LightRadio to dramatically boost UK's mobile signal In Depth: 4G mobile broadband and LTE explained Exclusive: Nokia backtracks on 32GB N8 variant Exclusive: Mobile data usage set to increase one-thousand fold by 2020 HTC Wildfire S and LG Optimus Speed coming at MWC 2011?

Exclusive: Sega: 3DS is a great step forward for Monkey Ball Posted: 08 Feb 2011 09:22 AM PST Nintendo released the details of the forthcoming 3DS handheld line-up earlier today, with a number of games from some of its key third party developer and publisher partners on the list. One such game was Sega's sublime Super Monkey Ball , appearing in 3D for the very first time on Nintendo's new handheld. The 3DS arrives in the UK on 25 March, with many retailers promising a launch price a shade under £200. New found depth James Bray, Sega Brand Manager for Super Monkey Ball 3DS told TechRadar today, following Nintendo's earlier announcement of the launch line-up of games: "Being able to use the new technology that the Nintendo 3DS has to offer is a great step forward for the Super Monkey Ball franchise. "The unique 3D screen really brings a new found depth to the gameplay experience, engaging the player more-so with the variety of characters and worlds on offer. "Players also have a choice of either the Circle Pad or the internal gyroscope as control options for complete precision, meaning that everyone's preferences are catered for in Super Monkey Ball 3D." Well. We'll be the judge of that when we get our hands on the game next month. Luckily (for gamers and Nintendo fans) Sega has plenty of competition at launch, with games such as Pilotwings Resort, Street Fighter IV 3D edition, Sims 2, PES 2011 3D, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, Ridge Racer 3D, Samurai Warriors: Chronicles, Asphalt, Splinter Cell 3D and Rayman 3D all in the 25 March line-up. Related Stories Is Sony's PlayStation Suite set to arrive on iOS and Windows? Pro gamers find 3D on 3DS a turn off UK studio set to reveal new Sony NGP titles Sony to set lawyers on anyone with anything to do with PS3 hack Nintendo 3DS launch line-up confirmed

BBC iPlayer app for Android 2.2 coming this week too Posted: 08 Feb 2011 08:47 AM PST The BBC has confirmed that there is indeed an iPlayer app on its way for the iPad, and along with it an Android app too. In a blog post, Daniel Danker of the BBC said about recent rumours: "Having stuck our toe in the water last year with the iPad, this new native app is a significant improvement on the existing experience and it's great to be on the Android platform too. "Our intention is to be on as many devices and platforms as possible." As for the release date of both apps, Danker said: "We're just applying the finishing touches to the apps as we speak, and all things being well we plan to have Android and iPad apps in stores by the end of the week." He also noted: "This is about getting the basics right, simple apps that makes best use of the portable touch-screen experience. "We'll be looking to build in more features throughout the year." Android 2.2 When it comes to Android, it will only be users who have Android 2.2 that can use the app - as is the case viewing it through a browser on Android phones - which will be a disappointment to many. There are reasons for this, though, as Danker explains: "For iPad it's straightforward, but for technical reasons we can't bring the app to every single Android device. "To download and use the app you'll need a device that uses Android version 2.2 and has Adobe Flash 10.1 Player installed. "Our Flash streams need a powerful mobile phone processor and a Wi-Fi connection to ensure a smooth viewing experience, which means that only newer, more powerful Android 2.2 devices connected via Wi-Fi can support the Flash 10.1 streaming experience." So there you have it – iPad and Android 2.2 users will be able to watch the iPlayer in app form before the week is out. Related Stories The future of search: Google will 'just know' says Schmidt Piracy letter-sending firm ceases trading Anonymous takes revenge on security firm Anonymous takes revenge on security firm BBC iPlayer for iPad arriving 10 February

Nintendo 3DS launch line-up confirmed Posted: 08 Feb 2011 08:29 AM PST Nintendo has revealed the full line-up of games to be available on 25 March when the Nintendo 3DS launches in the UK. Pilotwings Resort promises to make good use of the device's 3D view to explore Wuhu Island from the air. Meanwhile,Street Fighter IV 3D edition will also be available, with 35 characters, bonus stages and "cinematic" ultra combos, as well as online multi-player mode. Non-Nintendo games available on launch day include Sims 2, PES 2011 3D, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, Ridge Racer 3D, Super Monkey Ball 3D, Samurai Warriors: Chronicles, Asphalt, Splinter Cell 3D and Rayman 3D. And that's not all Coming soon, Nintendo promises, are classic favourites like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Mario Kart, Paper Mario and Animal Crossing. One week after launch you can look forward to titles including Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Crush 3D, Thor: God of Thunder and James Noir's Hollywood Crimes are coming around one week after the launch. A DS launch wouldn't be complete without Nintendogs, three iterations of which are available on day one including Golden Retriever, French Bulldog, Toy Poodle and friends. A 3D Nintendog with augmented reality is really nearly a real dog – at least, that's what you can tell your kids. Related Stories Is Sony's PlayStation Suite set to arrive on iOS and Windows? Pro gamers find 3D on 3DS a turn off UK studio set to reveal new Sony NGP titles Sony to set lawyers on anyone with anything to do with PS3 hack Exclusive: Sega: 3DS is a great step forward for Monkey Ball

Exclusive: Mobile data usage set to increase one-thousand fold by 2020 Posted: 08 Feb 2011 07:42 AM PST Following the earlier news that Alcatel-Lucent has come up with what it believes to be a major solution in the fight against poor mobile coverage and deadzones (the lightRadio), UK femtocell specialists Picochip claims that mobile data usage is going to increase one-thousand fold over the next ten years. Last year's cellular data use was three times that of the entire internet in 2000, according to recent research by CISCO who published their latest data earlier this month. "The amount of traffic on wireless is doubling every year," Rupert Baines,the VP of Marketing for Picochip informed TechRadar. "This means it is increasing one-thousand fold over ten years." Baines added, discussing recent stories of smartphone data usage: "They say that iPhone usage is 1.75x higher than Android. I have heard differently - indeed, I know some people were saying Verizon may not experience a jump in traffic with the iPhone as they are 'acclimatised' with heavy usage Android customers." Alcatel-Lucent's lightRadio - a small, cube-shaped device designed to complement the power-hungry, ugly, expensive masts that currently supply our mobile signals - has been getting considerable amounts of media exposure this week. And rightly so, because it represents a major technological leap forward. However, Baines thinks we need to examine the announcement about this new mobile data tech in a little more depth. Flexible. Scalable. Clever. "There are two aspects to ALU's announcement," says Picochip's marketing VP. "One is the cube radio: flexible, scalable, cascadeable. Very clever. The other aspect is the idea of centralised baseband: this used to be called basestation-hotel and some people now call it 'cloud RAN' "The two are separate areas: they can overlap or you could do each one separately. For example, hypothetically, cube radio would fit very nicely with our public access femtocells to provide cheap capacity in dense urban areas or solving 'not spots' in rural areas. "On the other hand the centralised basestation is the mirror image of femtocells: that is the cloud idea (pull intelligence to the middle, benefit from economies of scale, sharing resources and 'trunking gain'); we do femtocells (push intelligence to the edge of the network, with more smaller, smarter nodes)" Baines adds: "I suspect that, like many things in technology, the answer will be "a bit of both". This is because femtocells dramatically increase capacity in any area, where cloud RAN gives you a pool of capacity in the network you can efficiently move around. Whatever solution operators go for, the fact remains that they are all looking at that "inexorably rising demand for data" in the coming years, which, Baines reminds us, means that they are going to need every possible technique out there to help them solve the problem. Related Stories LightRadio to dramatically boost UK's mobile signal In Depth: 4G mobile broadband and LTE explained Exclusive: Nokia backtracks on 32GB N8 variant Hands on: Samsung Galaxy Ace review HTC Wildfire S and LG Optimus Speed coming at MWC 2011?

Sony to set lawyers on anyone with anything to do with PS3 hack Posted: 08 Feb 2011 07:35 AM PST Sony is now set to pursue legal action against anyone who posts or shares jailbreak code relating to the PS3. Hackers have worked around firmware update after firmware update released by the company in an attempt to foil jailbreakers and this approach has failed to deter or stop hackers. By jailbreaking the console, users are able to run pirated and homebrewed games; Sony hopes the legal action will help to protect its income from games sales for the PS3. Law and order In targeting the users who originally posted and distributed the jailbreak code, Sony is trying its darndest to get the courts to force Google to give up the IP addresses of those who viewed or commented on the jailbreak video hosted on a private YouTube page. The company is also trying to get Twitter to give up personal account information of several users allegedly involved in the original hack in order to identify them. Once identified, Sony can send Digital Millennium Copyright Act notices telling them to take down hack-related material and, if appropriate, drag them into court. The aggressive new action comes as Sony prepares for its trial against George Hotz, a 21-year-old hacker who published the PS3 jailbreak code and a how-to video. Related Stories Is Sony's PlayStation Suite set to arrive on iOS and Windows? Pro gamers find 3D on 3DS a turn off UK studio set to reveal new Sony NGP titles Nintendo 3DS launch line-up confirmed Exclusive: Sega: 3DS is a great step forward for Monkey Ball

Altec Lansing Introduces New InMotion Air speaker Posted: 08 Feb 2011 06:55 AM PST Altec Lansing launches its new InMotion Air wireless speaker this week, with the company claiming that the music system can work at a distance of up to 100 metres from a Bluetooth source, with no compromise on fidelity. The inMotion Air iMW725 is the next gen of home audio, according to its maker, for "Universal Audio Freedom with No Compromise" (yes, all caps, according to the press release scribe). Seven-hour rechargeable battery life Altec Lansing's InMotion Air also allows up to seven hours of listening between charges, so it is ideal for parties and holiday listening on the beach or by the pool. Providing you don't get it wet or play Vanilla Ice on re-run. If you need a decent portable speaker to blast out your iPod's AAC's then you can also pick this new model up in slate black or gunmetal grey. It would seem that military themed colours are this seasons new black. It will set you back £180 and will work with a laptop, iPhone, iPad or any other Bluetooth-enabled device. Audiophile-quality claims "Users want access to their music at all times, whether it's from their computer libraries, their mobile phones or portable players. The inMotion Air delivers freedom from the confines of wires so that the benefits of rich, crystal clear sound can be shared anywhere," says Adrian Bedggood, EMEA Director of Business Management. "Our heritage as an audio innovator enabled us to engineer a new wireless audio experience with an immersive soundstage, so whether consumers are connecting across the house from their computer or across the room from their iPhone, their music is always in reach." The unit also ships with a remote control and full support for iTunes and Windows Media Center. The apt-X sound codec technology has been integrated into the inMotion Air to offer CD quality audio, regardless of file compression encoding. "Additionally, Waves' Maxx audio algorithms are used to further enhance the performance for the best possible audio experience never before heard from a wireless portable audio device in this price range." True audiophiles will no doubt question such claims, although we will wait until we get a final unit in for review to make the call on that. Related Stories Altec Lansing Introduces New InMotion Air speaker

Altec Lansing Introduces New InMotion Air speaker Posted: 08 Feb 2011 06:55 AM PST Altec Lansing launches its new InMotion Air wireless speaker this week, with the company claiming that the music system can work at a distance of up to 100 metres from a Bluetooth source, with no compromise on fidelity. The inMotion Air iMW725 is the next gen of home audio, according to its maker, for "Universal Audio Freedom with No Compromise" (yes, all caps, according to the press release scribe). Seven-hour rechargeable battery life Altec Lansing's InMotion Air also allows up to seven hours of listening between charges, so it is ideal for parties and holiday listening on the beach or by the pool. Providing you don't get it wet or play Vanilla Ice on re-run. If you need a decent portable speaker to blast out your iPod's AAC's then you can also pick this new model up in slate black or gunmetal grey. It would seem that military themed colours are this seasons new black. It will set you back £180 and will work with a laptop, iPhone, iPad or any other Bluetooth-enabled device. Audiophile-quality claims "Users want access to their music at all times, whether it's from their computer libraries, their mobile phones or portable players. The inMotion Air delivers freedom from the confines of wires so that the benefits of rich, crystal clear sound can be shared anywhere," says Adrian Bedggood, EMEA Director of Business Management. "Our heritage as an audio innovator enabled us to engineer a new wireless audio experience with an immersive soundstage, so whether consumers are connecting across the house from their computer or across the room from their iPhone, their music is always in reach." The unit also ships with a remote control and full support for iTunes and Windows Media Center. The apt-X sound codec technology has been integrated into the inMotion Air to offer CD quality audio, regardless of file compression encoding. "Additionally, Waves' Maxx audio algorithms are used to further enhance the performance for the best possible audio experience never before heard from a wireless portable audio device in this price range." True audiophiles will no doubt question such claims, although we will wait until we get a final unit in for review to make the call on that. Related Stories Altec Lansing Introduces New InMotion Air speaker

Tutorial: How to use vector graphics on your website Posted: 08 Feb 2011 06:39 AM PST Specifically conceived as a vector illustration format for the web, Scalable Vector Graphics (or SVG) has been around since 1999. So why is it news today? The answer is inline SVG. Using HTML5, you can code SVG directly in your page, with access to DOM elements for scripting, styling and formatting by default. SVG's scalability and open source availability have made it popular on mobile platforms, but the format has never really made the transition to desktops. With HTML5 making the underlying code transparent for developers to tweak and transform, that may well change. At last, Flash has a real challenger – one that doesn't require a plug-in to work. It's still early days. Browser support is currently patchy and support for SVG's built-in animation attributes is some way off, but we can give you a head start with this powerful tool. Simple code SVG is an XML based language, so it looks very much like HTML markup. To an extent, it's possible to code basic images manually. Let's start with a simple circle. A Red SVG Circle We begin with the tag, followed by a declaration of the SVG XML namespace. After that, we define height and width attributes for the image. In this case, we've limited the image size to a canvas of 300 x 300 pixels. Line two is where the interesting stuff starts. We create a circle using the SVG tag. The attributes 'cx' and 'cy' plot the centre of the shape in pixel co-ordinates, with 0 at the top left of the canvas. The attribute 'r' is the circle's radius – here it's 150 pixels. We fill the circle with red using the standard CSS colour name. We could have used HEX or RGB notation instead.The tag is closed, and just to show that the code is truly inline, we have a line of text below it. Styling with inline CSS The code here is inline – part of the document structure – which means we can target it in several interesting ways. Firstly, we're able to use CSS to style what we've already got quickly. For example, lets replace the tag and its attributes in the last block of code with the following: style="stroke:darkslategrey; stroke-width:5px; fill:cornflowerblue" /> This time we've created a blue square with a five-pixel dark grey border. All the magic is in the 'style' declaration, which uses standard CSS attributes to define fill colour, stroke colour and stroke width. You may notice that this time around we gave absolute 'x' and 'y' co-ordinates rather than centred 'cx' and 'cy' co-ordinates. The top left corner of our square aligns with the 'x' and 'y' values. To make our code cleaner, we should separate style from content, and that's possible with inline SVG.First, we give the SVG object a CSS class and remove the inline styling. The contents of the tag now look like this: Next, we insert this block of CSS into the section of our document. We've tweaked the colour scheme so you can see the difference since last time; INLINE CSS: Inline CSS enables us to add a fill colour and an editable stroke around the exterior of the object. CSS3 transitions are also possible here External stylesheets Alternatively, we can place the CSS style declaration on its own in an external style sheet like this: rect.mySquare {stroke: darkcyan; fill: lightblue; stroke-width: 5px;} Save the document as 'svgstyle.css' in the same directory as the HTML file containing the inline SVG object. Next, insert the following link after the tag in your HTML document: Formatting and content are now entirely separate. That should help keep the W3C happy. If the thought of having to hand-code vector shapes into your page is making you want to give up building websites altogether, then fret not. We've taken you through these basics so you'll understand how the juicier stuff works. Yes, inline SVG embedding enables you to code simple images and shapes manually, style them with CSS and even target elements with JavaScript, but it's even more rewarding when the SVG image in question is a fully rendered vector illustration. A quick tip here: open source application Inkscape (www.inkscape.org) is a comprehensive vector-drawing tool that outputs to SVG. If you want to build your own images for inline inclusion, it's a great program to use. Another brilliant resource is the Open Clip Art Library (www.openclipart.org). Point your browser at the site and find a piece of clip art that takes your fancy. When you've found a candidate, select it, click 'Download SVG' and save a copy locally. VIEWBOX: Having SVG code inline enables you to edit elements directly. Try adding a viewbox with bespoke height and width to the tag, for example. Paste into your page Open your favourite text or code editor and load the SVG image. You'll see that it's the same kind of markup that we've been working with already. Highlight the code from the opening tag to the end of the document and hit [Ctrl]+[C] to copy it. Now begin a new HTML document and paste the SVG code between the tags. VIEWBOX: Having SVG code inline enables you to edit elements directly. Try adding a viewbox with bespoke height and width to the tag, for example. Alternatively, you can paste the code anywhere you want into an existing page. Save the HTML document and open it in your web browser. With HTML5's inline SVG capability, the image should be right there, embedded in your page. And because the SVG code is in your page, it can be further tweaked, styled and scripted using the techniques we've explored.

Review: Creative Ziio 7-inch Posted: 08 Feb 2011 06:30 AM PST Tablets are the next big thing! They're brilliant! They're wonderful to use! They're super-convenient and awesome! That's what everybody is saying, isn't it? But where are all these brilliant devices that everyone's been squawking so loudly about? It's fairly safe to say that the tablet market hasn't exactly exploded in a whirlwind of fiery, world-beating über-tablets. Not yet, anyway. Until the likes of the BlackBerry Playbook, the Motorola Xoom and the Asus Eee Pads finally make their way onto the shelves and into our homes (not long, now), we're left with a fairly disjointed-looking product line-up. The latest Android tablet to grace the TechRadar office is the Creative Ziio 7-inch. It was announced last year alongside the Creative Ziio 10-inch, which has yet to hit the shops. At just £199, it's one of the cheapest Android tablets available. So is it a bargainous wonder, or is it a dead touchscreen dog? The specs don't promise much. This is a tablet running a slightly modified but still out-of-date Android 2.1, a resistive touchscreen, no 3G connectivity and no Android Market. Can it recover from that fairly mediocre start? Creative Ziio: Features and performance The Creative Ziio 7-inch is a budget Android tablet, and as such it's not exactly what you'd call feature-rich. At £199, it's one of the cheapest Android tablets you can find, so you should fully expect some corners to have been cut. We'll get to that in a second. First, the specs. The Ziio is powered along by Creative's own ZiiLABS ZMS-08 processor which sits alongside 512MB RAM. Storage comes in 8GB and 16GB flavours (the latter is exclusive to Creative's UK retail website), while additional hardware features include stereo speakers, a microSD slot for storage expansion, a front-facing camera and an accelerometer. On the top of the device you'll find a mini-USB connector, a mini-HDMI port for outputting to a TV, a microphone, headphone slot and the on/off/standby button. The left side houses the micro-USB slot. The bottom is where you'll find the small 5V charging port, as well as four touch buttons for search, home, settings and back. And the right hand side is the home of the volume controls. The screen The first sacrifice, and it's a biggy, comes in the form of a 480 x 800 resistive touchscreen. Resistive screens are cheaper to manufacture than capacitive ones. They work using two thin sheets with a microscopic gap between them, layered up on top of the panel. When you press the screen, the two sheets touch each other and the device is alerted to the presence of a finger in need of immediate assistance. Some resistive screens we've tested really are diabolically awful. Most work a lot better with a stylus than with a finger, and many are an unresponsive waste of atoms. Creative risked a lot by putting such a screen in the Ziio, but it actually hasn't hampered performance much at all. The screen is quite responsive. Indeed, even though the Ziio comes with a stylus in the box, you don't really need to use it – although it does help. It responds more keenly to a stylus poke than it does to a prod from a finger, but on the whole the responsiveness wasn't a problem. Menus react promptly and there's not much lag at all. The screen is sensitive enough without having to push at it – a gentle touch is usually enough. That doesn't mean it's a good screen though, oh no. The LCD panel underneath the touch-sensitive layer is a fairly mediocre effort at best. The 480 x 800 resolution is much lower than the Galaxy Tab's 1024 x 800 on the same size panel. This means that sharpness suffers a great deal, and watching videos and viewing images on the Ziio is a far less rewarding experience. Even though the player can play back HD video files, the end experience is far from being a high definition one. The viewing angle is also rather poor. You can hold it in front of you and the person sitting next to you can barely see what's on the screen. If you're the bashful sort who likes to sneakily watch a couple of episodes of Glee on the train without anyone knowing, this could be a good thing. But if showing your mates video montages of cats playing cricket is more your thing, the viewing angle can be a right old pain in the 'nads. Put it this way, if you show the Ziio to your friends, you might wow them with some of the features, but they're not going to be impressed by the screen. Battery life Battery life on the Ziio was satisfactory without blowing us away. The stated battery time is 25-hours of MP3 playback and 5 hours of video playback. We were able to play with it on and off for a whole day without having to recharge although we suspect with the screen brightness turned up that battery would have drained in just a few hours. Software The software on the Ziio is a faintly-modified version of Android 2.1 which we probably don't need to tell you is now a year out of date. We're told that an update to Android 2.2 is incoming, but we won't be holding our breath for the much more tablet-friendly Android 3.0, which isn't due out probably for another month or so. The main problem with the software as it is is that it lacks the core Google apps that make Android such a decent operating system. There's no Gmail app, no account syncing, and no Android Market. And that means no easy access to the thousands of apps inside it. It's also got a mild case of the bipolar disorder which seems to hamper all non-phone devices running Android at the moment. It doesn't know what it is. While the Galaxy Tab constantly refers to itself as a phone, the Ziio repeatedly referrs to itself as the "Ziio or Zen Touch 2". The Zen Touch 2 is a smaller Android-running Creative PMP that's running on the same platform. Why Creative couldn't at least have tweaked the software on each device, we don't know. Entertainment Creative is marketing the Ziio as a "pure wireless entertainment tablet", and this is where it's at its most interesting. The Ziio is designed to wirelessly stream music to other wireless devices using Bluetooth and apt-X. The apt-X codec is designed to enable the transmission of audio wirelessly without a loss in fidelity. Creative already has a range of wireless speakers and headphones out there, and the idea is that you can connect them up to the Ziio. It's not totally straightforward, though, because Creative has a range of both Bluetooth and 2.4GHz speakers, and only the ZiiSound range of Bluetooth speakers will be able to hook up to the Ziio. Of course, to get this working properly you're going to need to load your Ziio up with content. It's easy to do – simply plug the Ziio into your computer, and drag your music, video and picture files into the relevant folders on the Ziio's storage. It supports a wide range of audio formats including: MP3, AAC, WMA9, FLAC, OGG, ADPCM, MIDI, WAV and Audible Format 4. Supported video formats include: H.264, MPEG4, WMV9, MJPEG, MOV, AVI and MKV. Wireless streaming works very well, but it's not as much of a unique feature as Creative might have you believe. Any Bluetooth-enabled device can pair with Bluetooth speakers. Out of the box, the Ziio 7 has no Flash support, which means no YouTube videos. It's a bit of a pain. You can remedy this by installing an alternative browser, but it's certainly not ideal. The Ziio packs what Creative calls 'Pure Android Audio' which uses Creative's X-Fi technology to improve the sound quality of compressed audio files, such as MP3s. The X-Fi Crystalizer and Expand settings are both present, and you can turn their effects up and down as well as switching them off completely. They make a difference too – we've always been a fan of X-Fi, mainly because the crystalizer can make even 192kbps MP3s sound half decent. Browser The browser on the Ziio is standard Android fare. Despite the Ziio's cheapo resistive screen, browsing is actually fairly smooth and easy. You don't have to aggressively poke at the screen in order to get it to respond to scrolling – but it wouldn't be accurate to say it's as comfortable to use as the capacitive screens on the (albeit more pricey) Galaxy Tab or iPad. And talking about scrolling, it's a fairly smooth affair. It's far from the jolty, laggy scrolling you get from most budget tablets. Creative Ziio: Verdict The Ziio is not a premium product. It's not going to win any awards for performance or functionality – and certainly not for its looks – but as a budget tablet it's a decent piece of kit. We liked: At 412g, it's not too heavy. While it could be thinner, the Creative Ziio is a reasonably sized tablet. The price is a massive part of what makes it worth considering. At £199, it carves itself a niche in exactly the same way that most budget tablets don't. The sound quality is excellent and the presence of X-Fi is a big bonus. However, chances are you're unlikely to sit around listening to music on the tablet. We disliked: The screen is horrible and it's not a great-looking tablet in general. The lack of Android 2.2 is also a drawback, especially when you consider the absence of the Android Market and all the standard Google apps. It also takes an uncomfortable length of time to wake the device once it's gone into sleep mode. Where other tablets are instant-on, the Ziio takes at least five seconds to respond when you press the standby button. There's also no native Flash support which is a bummer, and is likely to confuse some end users. Verdict: It's a long way behind the iPad and the Galaxy Tab in terms of overall usability. But at just £199, the Creative Ziio does offer great value for money. If you've got £200 to spend, you won't find a better tablet than the Creative Ziio. Related Links Read more laptop and tablet reviews TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee

Review: Zotac GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP! Posted: 08 Feb 2011 06:01 AM PST Nvidia's mid-range marvel has hit every branch on the way down the overclocking tree to produce Zotac's GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP! Now the origial GeForce GTX 560 Ti was a big hit when it first turned up last month. Tipping up with the same balance of price and performance as it's older sibling, the GeForce GTX 460, you could colour us impressed. Unfortunately for Nvidia the market has changed since the GTX 460 first arrived, and that £200 pricepoint is more crowded than ever. And the card that stands out of that crowd is AMD's Radeon HD 6950. It's slightly more expensive than the £200 vanilla GTX 560 Ti, but it's got the DirectX 11 performance chops to make the mid-range Nvidia card even greener with envy. One thing the HD 6950 can't do is overclock, as shown by the MSI Radeon HD 6950 Twin FrozR II. But the enhanced cooling and power design of the GTX 560 Ti means that is one area it can win on. So how much more performance can you get out of an overclocked Zotac GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP? The first two benchmarks demonstrate the DirectX 11 weaknesses of the mid-range Fermi GPUs. Despite the 'DX11 done right' moniker it's still lagging behind the twin tessellation engines of the Cayman GPU-powered Radeon cards. That said, in legacy titles this massively overclocked Zotac GTX 560 Ti AMP! is significantly quicker than its AMD competition. The benchmarks also show just how far ahead of the stock GTX 560 Ti this factory overclocked card is. That said when we pushed the reference board to its 935MHz limit we were hitting almost the same figures as the AMP! DirectX 11 tessellation performance DirectX 11 gaming performance We've tested at the highest resolution available to stress the cards to their fullest. The test bench is a Core i7 930 @ 2.8GHz, on an Asus P6X58D-E with 6GB 1,333Mhz DDR3. The redesigned PCB and advanced cooling on Zotac's GTX 560 Ti AMP! edition means that straight out of the box it's hitting a massive 950MHz core clockspeed. That's impressive given that with the vanilla reference GTX 560 Ti from Nvidia we could only just about hit a stable overclock at 935MHz. Looking at Palit's overclocked GTX 560 Ti Sonic, that's only That overclock makes it significantly faster than the reference board across the full suite of benchmark tests we run. It also means the card outperforms the reference Radeon HD 6950, and is actually snapping at the heels of the GeForce GTX 570. That's a card that's nearly £50 more expensive. Interestingly it's also trading blows with AMD's fastest single-GPU card, the Radeon HD 6970, in all but the tessellation-heavy DX11 benchmarks. That's interesting in light of the unlocking you can currently do with the competing Radeon HD 6950's BIOS to transform it into a HD 6970. The HD 6970 is still faster on the whole, and you can also overclock it further to push it past what even this GTX 560 Ti AMP! can do. And this AMP! edition simply wont go any faster than it currently is. We tried. At the 950Mhz core speed, and with the improved cooling, it's still hitting 90degreesC under load. With any further overclocking Zotac's GTX 560 Ti AMP! just fell at the first hurdle. It looks like the mid-range Fermi silicon has already hit the wall in terms of performance, so the next generation will need a new design instead of reiterating on the existing hardware a third time. The 2GB reference designed Radeon HD 6950, with its dual-BIOS safety net, is still our choice card at this pricepoint. Though it's entirely possible that newer versions of these cards will turn up sans BIOS switch, like the MSI Radeon HD 6950 Twin FrozR II. And that will make the BIOS flash much more of a gamble. But if you're more of an Nvidia fan, or just love PhysX, and you're looking for the finest example of its mid-range Fermi silicon, then this Zotac GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP! is quite simply the fastest you'll find. At £235 it's not bad value either. We liked The Zotac GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMP! is lightening quick, trading blows with cards further up the price scale than it. It's also remarkably quiet, despite the high heat generation of the overclocked chip. Shallow as it is, especially for an internal component, it's also quite a looker… We disliked The mid-range Fermi architecture seems to have hit a bit of a performance barrier as we simply couldn't force any more speed out of this pre-overclocked GPU. Where it counts in the high-end, tessellation-heavy DX11 benchmarks, it still loses out against the top two AMD pairing. Final word Without doubt the finest example of GTX 560 Ti graphics cards, though our money's still on the HD 6950. Related Links TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee Read more graphics card reviews

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play also coming to Three Posted: 08 Feb 2011 05:18 AM PST Three has joined the Xperia Play network party and announced that it will be offering the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play in the UK. That makes it a clean sweep of all five major UK networks for the Sony Ericsson handset, with O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile all set to range the handset. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play should see a UK release date of April, if Orange's information is to be believed. Gore Although we've already seen the handset in all its glory during our hands on Sony Ericsson Xperia Play review, all the gory details are set to be revealed at Mobile World Congress next week. Speaking of gory, there's always Sony Ericsson's gruesome advert for the handset to tide you over until then (below). Still proving elusive is the handset's UK pricing, a subject on which we shall keep you posted. Related Stories Sony Ericsson Xperia Play gets UK release date Google launches Priority Inbox for all mobile Gmail users Nokia N8 32GB (sort of) announced HTC investing in smartphone gaming, details coming next week Catholic Church approves iPhone virtual confession app

Exclusive: Nokia backtracks on 32GB N8 variant Posted: 08 Feb 2011 04:27 AM PST Remember that news that we brought you this morning about the new Nokia N8 with 32GB built in? Well, prepare to be disappointed – it's not real. In an email outlining a new range of apps, Nokia said: "As if the Nokia N816GB wasn't enough, you can now get your hands on a 32GB version, giving you even more power and entertainment at your fingertips." However, TechRadar contacted Nokia and it turns out that this is nothing more than a special bundled memory card deal on its site – the usual 16GB of internal memory and an extra 16GB microSD card. Still better than the Nokia X6 Given that Nokia releases a number of its phones in different memory variants - the Nokia X6 came in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB flavours, remember – it wasn't a stretch to think this high-end flagship had the same treatment. But the low-key manner in which the new phone was 'announced' put us on red alert, so we had a quick check and it turns out Nokia has nothing new to announce. Now, if the Nokia N8 32GB was announced at Mobile World Congress 2011 – well, surely that won't happen. Right? Right? Related Stories LightRadio to dramatically boost UK's mobile signal In Depth: 4G mobile broadband and LTE explained Exclusive: Mobile data usage set to increase one-thousand fold by 2020 Hands on: Samsung Galaxy Ace review HTC Wildfire S and LG Optimus Speed coming at MWC 2011?

Review: Acer Revo RL100 Posted: 08 Feb 2011 04:08 AM PST There's something seductive about slimeline black slabs of technology. Perhaps it's the indoctrination that black monoliths are a gateway to some godly realm or better yet, that they might play your Blu-ray discs without making too much of a racket. To add to the clutter of boxes huddling up to your TV for warmth, Acer has its very own slab of tech to throw into the ring. In many ways it's an unassuming thing, being just 25mm thick, 300mm high and 180mm deep. But inside that chassis it packs enough to connect, entertain and surprise us all. The key is its Blu-ray/DVD-RW combo drive and HDMI v1.4 video output. We say this is key because it means this comes Blu-ray 3D-ready. Currently you're either rolling your eyes and these words are possibly flying through the air with the rest of the magazine, or else we still have your attention. It's probably best to think of this as a Blu-ray player that also happens to run Windows 7 and has an integrated digital TV tuner. It gives you a complete digital entertainment station in one; well, apart from 3D but hold that thought. Alongside the HDMI is an optical S/PDIF, plus 3.5mm headphone and mic jacks, so you can hook the audio up to anything you need. Pulling faces Powering this along is the lowpower AMD Athlon II Neo K325. Technically a mobile dual-core CPU, it draws 12W, runs at 1.3GHz with 2x 1MB L2 cache. It's not strong stuff as the encoding results of 3.43fps show: even in the mobile space we'd be pulling faces at its performance. But function here is more important than form. Alongside it is the Nvidia Ion 2, which provides flawless 1080p HD decoding and a level of 3D performance that hovers somewhere around Arrendale integrated levels of 3D performance. That's good enough to play older DirectX 9 games at 720p resolutions: hardly inspiring but it's at least better than a poke in the eye. Slide-out surprise The surprise the Revo RL100 has waiting for you is a slide-out touchpad that doubles as a backlit keyboard. It's a genius addition that even the wife approves of. A button switches between the keyboard and touchpad modes. It works well and is highly responsive: we personally had to turn off some of the multi-touch features but other people may take to them better. Acer also bundles its Clear.fi media sharing software, something it's clearly going to push heavily. It will make media sharing easy between Acer products but nothing else. Plus we thought that was in Windows 7 already, so what's the point? The RL100 is quiet in use and provides all the connected PC features you want alongside Blu-ray playing and an unobtrusive living-room design. Running Windows 7 offers every service you could want, plus complete web browsing with that continually awful Windows interface (when compared to Apple TV, Xbox or PlayStation 3). But at £500, why not simply choose a PS3 if you just want a Blu-ray player, or otherwise buy a cheap dual-core laptop and get something that's more flexible and just as able? Related Links TechRadar Reviews Guarantee Read more desktop PC reviews

Sony opens up lens specifications to outside manufacturers Posted: 08 Feb 2011 04:06 AM PST Sony has announced that it will soon make its E-mount lens specifications available to outside manufacturers for free. The bold move would see any lens maker able to create lenses for Sony's single lens cameras and camcorders, provided they make it through Sony's approval process and sign a license agreement. April fish With the specifications to be available from 1 April, some may be wary of Sony's open source plans, given its past tendencies to proprietary formats and the day's poisson d'avril associations. Still, it wouldn't be much of a joke and Sony has done a press release and everything, so we should trust that the interchangeable lenses from outside manufacturers will be coming our way eventually. The Sony NEX-3, NEX-5 and NEX-VG10 all use the E-mount, as will future products. Non-Sony lenses will be attached via a mount adapter. A number of lens makers have already welcomed the move, including Carl Zeiss which said, "It helps manufacturer's product development, benefits customers and therefore assists in establishing "E-mount" as a new, healthy and strong system on the market." Related Stories Samsung launches PL20 budget compact camera Nikon launches Coolpix P500 compact with 36x optical zoom Nikon reveals new range of compact Coolpix cameras

HTC investing in smartphone gaming, details coming next week Posted: 08 Feb 2011 03:13 AM PST HTC has announced plans to invest $40m (£25m) in OnLive, a company that specialises in cloud-based gaming. The move could see HTC dipping its toe firmly into the gaming waters, with handsets like the Sony Eriscson Xperia Play hoping to explode the mobile gaming market this year. Excitement abounds HTC told us that it's very excited about the investment, and that "more news will follow next week." Could we be in line for an exciting gaming announcement from the company at Mobile World Congress? According to HTC spokesperson Maggie Cheng, the company's investment will "strengthen its gaming capabilities and help HTC tap into increasing demand for games on smartphones." Good plan We've already seen HTC move in the direction of the cloud with its HTCSense.com Mobile-Me-alike service. Given the company's investment in its on-handset software, it would make sense for HTC to get involved in mobile gaming which is already a huge market; plus it could help the company differentiate itself in the very-samey Windows Phone 7 market. Exciting times ahead, we hope; we'll bring you all the details next week. Related Stories Sony Ericsson Xperia Play gets UK release date Google launches Priority Inbox for all mobile Gmail users Nokia N8 32GB (sort of) announced Sony Ericsson Xperia Play also coming to Three Catholic Church approves iPhone virtual confession app

Nokia N8 32GB (sort of) announced Posted: 08 Feb 2011 02:42 AM PST Nokia has revealed that a 32GB version of its Nokia N8 smartphone is now available. The original N8 comes with 16GB of on-board memory, but Nokia feels this might not be enough for people who want to store reams of HD movies and games. The Finnish company hasn't exactly shouted the news from the rooftops, however, announcing the new handset in an email publicising the perfect apps for the 32GB handset. Loved and loathed The Symbian^3-running Nokia N8 was released last year to a mixed reaction. A recent price drop in the handset on Nokia's UK website suggests that sales may have been lower than the Finns were hoping for. It's still a decent handset, however, and true aficionados will be keen on the increased memory. Although Nokia told us the Nokia N8 32GB is available now, we haven't seen it pop up on any retail sites, and UK pricing is yet to be confirmed. Related Stories Sony Ericsson Xperia Play gets UK release date Google launches Priority Inbox for all mobile Gmail users HTC investing in smartphone gaming, details coming next week Sony Ericsson Xperia Play also coming to Three Catholic Church approves iPhone virtual confession app

BBC iPlayer for iPad arriving 10 February Posted: 08 Feb 2011 02:39 AM PST The BBC iPlayer is coming to the iPad this week, according to Geoff Marshall, Interactive Operations Manager for the BBC, who let slip the news on his Twitter feed. The tweet, which isn't exactly in the Queen's English, reads: "iPlayer App for iPad is being released this Thursday - 10th Feb. 3G connection is browse only. Browse+Playback requires Wi-Fi." He goes on to say that the information was mentioned in a BBC briefing and that the app appears to be iPad only at the moment, so there's still no word as to when the iPod and iPhone version of the iPlayer will be released. The app is currently UK only, but it seems that there will be a subscription-based version of the app for the US, something that was confirmed back in December. Long time coming iPlayer on any iOS device has been a long time coming - the service is available through Safari but this has yet to be channelled in app form. It was announced way back in February that the BBC were making an iPlayer application for the App Store but, up until now, it hasn't appeared. Given the popularity of the iPhone, the BBC will be hoping that this version of the app won't be far behind this week's iPad release. Related Stories The future of search: Google will 'just know' says Schmidt Piracy letter-sending firm ceases trading Anonymous takes revenge on security firm Anonymous takes revenge on security firm BBC iPlayer app for Android 2.2 coming this week too

You are subscribed to email updates from techradar To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610