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- Review: Motorola Atrix
- Retailers push Samsung Galaxy S II UK release date back
- Wozniak: Apple will 'go on pretty well' without Steve Jobs
- Review: Samsung UE46D7000
- Udpated: iOS 4.3: what you need to know
- Microsoft looking for engineers for next Xbox
- Review: Apple MacBook Pro 2011 (15-inch)
- Warner Bros trials movie rental via Facebook
- Review: Toshiba NB250
- iOS 4.3 to be released today?
| Posted: 08 Mar 2011 09:29 AM PST  When Motorola announced the Atrix smartphone at CES this year, the tech world sat up and took notice. What's this? A phone that acts like a computer? Sure, the Google Nexus S has a built-in near-field communication chip that will (eventually) let you buy a sandwich on your way to work just by tapping your phone on a till. Yes, the LG Optimus 2X has not one but two processor cores, providing a refreshingly fast browsing experience and true 1080p HD video playback. And if you believe the rumours about the upcoming iPhone 5, it will sport a higher-resolution camera, a near-field communication chip, and an end-to-end screen.
What we haven't seen is a smartphone with a built-in desktop operating system, until now. Motorola calls it a webtop and, as we'll explain, the infrastructure is currently quite limited, since you need to use a special dock.
But the writing is on the wall for laptops: someday, your phone may be the only computer you'll need for mobile activities such as writing longer e-mails and gaming as long as you know there's an HD display to connect to and a desktop keyboard and mouse to use.
As a surprising bonus, the Atrix phone itself is also quite solid: well-built, a good five-megapixel camera, 1GB of RAM, and a dual-core processor at 1GHz. It may not be suited to every mobile user on the planet, but it's definitely pushing boundaries. In the US, the phone costs a reasonable $199 with an AT&T contract. An Entertainment Access Kit that comes with a keyboard, mouse, remote, and dock costs US$189.99.
Motorola includes a charger, USB cable, and earbuds in the box. Design and handlingThe Atrix feels solid and well-constructed. At 135 grams, it's actually lighter than the Samsung Epic but the housing feels like it could withstand more abuse. (A few recent Android phones suffer from cheap plastic syndrome.)
The power button is recessed into the top of the device. We handed the phone to three people of different tech backgrounds and only one found the power button immediately.
The power button almost looks like a camera, but it holds hidden secrets: it's actually a fingerprint reader that also unlocks the phone. The settings for configuring the fingerprint reader were easy to use and worked well.
Unlike Samsung phones, which seem to always use haptics for the touchscreen itself, Motorola chose to use haptics (which is a slight buzzing sensation) on the four buttons below the main screen but not for the screen itself. Volume buttons are on the right and easy to find.
There are two connections on the lower left of the phone. One is used for charging, but the other is hard to identify at first. Is it some secret portal to the underworld? No, it's actually the port used for HDMI-out.
The Atrix reviewer kit we received included a few extra accoutrements: a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, a special docking station, a remote and an HDMI cable.
The keyboard is almost the exact same size as the Apple Wireless Keyboard you can use with the iPad. Typing on the Moto keyboard is fast and responsive.
The small and light Bluetooth mouse is another story – it's shaped too small to be truly useful, and because it's so light (presumably for the mobile traveller) it does not work as well as a real desktop mouse. The included remote is functional enough – we'll explain more about that when we cover the webtop experience. We ended up preferring the way an iPhone or iPad works as a remote with Apple TV.
The HD Multimedia Dock is a revelation in engineering. In a docked position, the phone outputs in one of three modes: webtop mode (which is an operating system with a Firefox browser); a multimedia viewer for watching videos, browsing through photos, and playing music; or a more common HDMI mirroring mode that shows whatever is on the screen.
When you go into webtop mode, the phone shows a clock. In multimedia mode, the phone becomes a remote control. Connecting these new accessories was particularly easy, except for the Bluetooth keyboard and phone. Oddly, when you pair the keyboard, you have to type the pairing code on the phone. (The industry standard is to type the code on the keyboard.)
We also had our first of several bugs: pairing did not work initially, and we could only pair on the phone itself, not in webtop mode. InterfaceWe'll cover the interface in two distinct sections here for the phone itself and then the webtop and multimedia viewer. First, the Atrix is a fairly standard Android OS 2.2.1 smartphone, comparable to the LG Optimus 2X. Of course, by "fairly standard" we mean powerful, flexible, and feature rich. At boot-up, the main screen looks a bit understated. There is no extra pizzazz from HTC Sense or some other customization. Instead, Motorola includes the basic browser/e-mail apps on the Home screen.
One of the first tests we performed to see how the interface worked on the fast dual-core processor was just starting up the most common apps. For example, since the Contacts app ties into several hundred Gmail contacts, we expected it to be rather slow. On the Samsung Epic, for example, our contacts load in about two seconds.
On the Atrix, it is more like one second – so, about twice as fast. The Camera and Music apps also loaded almost instantly, as did the Gmail app. Below the main screen, there are three soft buttons. One is the green dialing button common on many Android phones. There's also a Contacts button. The apps button is just a circle – we'd prefer something that looked a bit more conspicuous. If you swipe to the right, you'll see soft buttons where you can add frequently used contacts and more space for holding apps.
Swipe one more time and you'll see widgets for music and photos.
To the left of the main screen, there's more space for widgets, such as a social networking feed or your inbox. The fifth screen, one more swipe left, holds a calendar and weather widget. Of course, these widgets can be customised and adjusted any way you want. Nothing too special here. The apps screen loaded instantly as well – this is another sign of the faster dual processors.
Webtop When you connect the HDMI display to the phone, you get a prompt to either enter the webtop mode or the multimedia viewer. Starting with the less appealing option first, the multimedia viewer is a rather simplistic mode where you can access your media files and play them back on an HD display. We prefer the way the iPhone and iPad work with the Apple Remote app and the Apple TV where the gadget is not exactly mirroring the iOS interface but functions as a touchscreen remote. (Swipe a photo on your iPhone, and you'll see the photo swipe on your HD display.) Another important point here is that the Atrix works with the multimedia viewer only when connected using the short, proprietary HDMI cable, which defeats the purpose of controlling your media from across the living room. What we really want in a phone is something like the Intel Wireless Display (Wi-Di) system where the phone can connect to your HD display over Wi-Fi, sans any cables at all. We were amazed by the webtop mode, though. Frankly, this is the most revolutionary product Motorola has ever done, except of course for the original cell phone. It makes you think the RAZR was just a side project in a garage. What makes the webtop special is that it shifts the mobile computing paradigm. Once connected, your phone becomes a real computer. Unfortunately, to use webtop, you have to use the docking station with an HD display or the Lapdock. You can't just use the HDMI-out port on the phone since that only works for the multimedia viewer. There is no way to do full-screen mirroring, where the phone display shows up on your HD in full-screen. Instead, you can view the phone screen, run apps, make calls and perform other tasks in a windowed view of the phone. The webtop only runs the Firefox browser, a few settings screens and the phone viewer, but no actual apps. There is an icon for Facebook, which just pulls up the web version. Yet, with Firefox, the world is wide open: we tested Google Docs, Hulu, YouTube.com, and dozens of other websites and they worked superbly.
It's rather amazing to connect your phone to an HDTV and play music, watch a movie, type up a real document, and even do your online banking with the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse connected, all from a 135-gram phone.
You can still make calls using the phone dialer in a window, send text messages and e-mails, and run any Android app. Motorola also plans to release a Lapdock where you snap the phone into the back of a keyboard and use the built-in screen.
There are some minor complaints, however. One is that, when playing music, the phone would crash frequently. Motorola did not have any good explanation for this, but we figure it's a memory management issue.
The more critical issue is that we really want an infrastructure to develop for smartphones that have a real computing interface. Imagine going to a friends with your phone and knowing you can use any keyboard and mouse, over a wireless signal. Motorola is close, though: the dock actually has USB ports for standard USB keyboard and mouse. Another issue with the webtop is that it tends to run slow. It reminded us of Jolicloud in that, if your netbook is already slow, a light Linux OS is not really going to dramatically improve your computing experience. There is still an annoying lag with the Motorola webtop, and we wondered if it is a software issue and not related to the two processor cores. Time will tell if Motorola will work the bugs out, but we're still big fans of the new computing model of phone-as-laptop. Another small gripe is that Motorola seemed to borrow Dock idea from Mac OS X, and some users might find that annoying. Icons even blink when you click, and you can add more links to other websites like Twitter or MySpace. Calls and contactsAs we mentioned, the truly revolutionary feature on the Atrix is the docking station and Lapdock that enables you use the phone for real computing tasks. The Atrix is, in every other way, a fairly typical Android phone.
Calls sounded clear and clean. We placed several calls with just the handset, and several more when the phone was docked and we were in webtop mode, and never had any problems. The Atrix is actually a 4G smartphone in the US, but AT&T is still rolling out its backhaul capabilities for fast 4G data access, so we weren't able to test that. Presumably, the 4G network will match the speed of Verizon and Sprint, hopefully running at about 5-8Mbps for real-world browsing and file transfer speeds. As mentioned, contacts loaded about twice as fast on the Atrix as they did on other Android phones. Like many Motorola phones, you can add your social networking contacts from Twitter, Facebook, and several other accounts, but the Atrix doesn't offer any brand new calling or contacts features in this regard.
Like many Android phones from Motorola, the Atrix uses Motoblur to sync your e-mail, photo services, and social networking portals. It works well as a way to quickly see a feed from multiple services, and there's an added benefit that it can be used to perform backups of photos, e-mail, and contacts. The service also runs on the desktop and can be used to lock a lost or stolen phone. That said, the Atrix suffers from the typical aggregation problem of many smartphones: if you add in your Facebook contacts to a stream of all contacts, including Gmail, you will be quickly overloaded. It means having to manage each service more thoroughly. Fortunately, the Atrix does include an option under Settings to display only certain contact groups, such as only Facebook.
A handy news feed widget and social networking widget show the latest tweets and Facebook status updates from friends, which is useful and easy to access. MessagingThe Atrix doesn't have a slide-out keyboard, so you're stuck with a non-haptics soft keyboard that works about as well as you would expect: good in landscape mode, not as useful in portrait orientation, but not anywhere near as capable as a real mobile keyboard. One handy feature here is that Motoblur supports corporate e-mail syncing, so you can connect to Microsoft Exchange and receive push e-mails. The Atrix also supports Gmail for Business, the corporate version that is more secure. InternetWhen it comes to browsing with the Atrix, things suddenly get more interesting. The phone supports Adobe Flash for browsing thanks to Android 2.2.1. We visited one site with a rather large Flash animation, and the Atrix worked beautifully. For some reason, Hulu.com blocked access to TV shows, even though the site worked fine in the webtop mode in Firefox.
Sites loaded mouth-wateringly fast. We visited TechRadar, GamesRadar and several other rich content sites and noticed a load time around 3-4 seconds over a steady 3G connection. That's a few seconds faster than what we're used to on a mobile device, and Motorola tells us it is due to the dual-core processor, running at 1GHz.
In webtop mode, the Firefox browser supports Flash 10.1 and HTML5, so it's fully featured, if a bit slow for browsing. In our tests, the phone browser was much faster, partly due to the fact that the mobile version loads mobile sites, whereas the Firefox client on the webtop loaded full websites.
We tested Hulu and YouTube, and both streamed video content smoothly. The issue though is that, since the webtop runs slow, and if you have other sites running in tabs (which is very useful), the video will slow down or stutter. In webtop mode, it's best to view only the one Flash site on one tab. There were a few times when we had Flash video running and the music player on the phone going at the same time, which caused the Atrix to reboot suddenly. Camera
The Atrix has two built-in cameras: one on the back that snaps five-megapixel images and records video, and a second two-megapixel front-facing cam used for video chats or for taking self-images (AKA Facebook profile photos). The rear camera is the one you want to use for real photos – it has a digital zoom and uses a bright LED flash. A few of the settings were unique – there's an X-Ray mode that makes everything you capture look like a negative image. Most of the controls for the camera are easy to find and use. A slight issue is that, to access scene modes, effects, flash, which camera to use and to switch to the camcorder, you have to touch the screen, which is not obvious. To control the more advanced options such as resolution, upload defaults, and where to store captured media, you press the Menu button and then click Settings. New users might struggle to get this. Overall, the quality is outstanding.
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In several video recording tests, there wasn't the typical jerky movie problem found on some Android handsets. Instead, mostly thanks to the dual-core processor, video recorded smooth and audio synced up well with the people talking in the video. The Atrix records at 720p MPEG4 and H.264 at 30 fps but can playback 1080p HD movie files. For photos, the phone supports JPEG and the EXIF 2.2 metadata format (for copyright notice). You can add tags to photos or stamp every shot with a GPS location tag. MediaThe Atrix is one of the best media phones on the market. It has one major knock against it and several major perks. The knock is that there is currently no way to rent or purchase movies and TV shows. In the next few weeks, a Blockbuster app in the US will provide this functionality, but the app was not ready at launch.
So, for video and shows, you have to know a bit about transferring content over when you connect to your computer. That's actually fairly easy: Motorola provides a driver for a smooth connection when you connect using a USB cable. You'll see folders for music, movies, and photos and you can copy over just about anything. The phone supports 1080p MPEG4, H.264, WMV, and Xvid/DivX at 30 fps for movies, just about every major music format including MP3 and AAC (but not WAV), and the JPEG format for photos. One small issue here is that the phone itself does play 1080p files, and they look crisp and colorful without any stuttering. However, when you connect to an HDTV over HDMI, playback is only 720p. Motorola promises to upgrade this to support 1080p in the near future.
One of the most obvious perks for using the Atrix is that, once you load it up with a bunch of media files, you can then show them off on an HD display. This once again changes the mobile paradigm: the phone becomes a legitimate container for digital media. Thankfully, Motorola outfitted the Atrix with 16GB of internal memory, with a microSD slot for another 32GB card, for 48GB of total storage. For browsing photos, watching videos, and playing games, the Atrix is also a stunner: the 960 x 540 screen at four inches is bright and crisp. Since the phone has 1GB of on-board RAM, we also never had any trouble with screen lag for movies or photos, although the webtop seemed to struggle with media at times. Like the LG Optimus 7 and LG Optimus 2X, the Atrix comes with a DLNA client that lets you play content from your computer or DLNA server on your phone. This worked incredibly smooth for movies, music, and photos. Setting it up in the Windows 7 Home Group is also easy as long as you click all of the checkboxes. DLNA streaming turns your phone into a digital media player around the home.
Battery lifeMotorola touts a nine-hour talk-time battery life for the Atrix, but we're not quite ready to sign on to that claim. What we do know is that the phone lasted all day on one charge, and does not have that annoying 'three hours and done' spec of some high-powered Android phones, such as the HTC Evo and the Samsung Epic.
One of the issues with rating battery life, though, is that it really depends on how you use the phone. Over several days, we tested a power user scenario, watching frequent video snippets on YouTube and running music on the phone, placing a few calls (some over a Bluetooth connection to a car), and playing games. On that day, the phone lasted more like six hours of total usage time. On the second day, we used the phone only occasionally for music and placing calls, but not videos. The Atrix lasted about eight hours in that scenario. Presumably, if all you do is check contacts, visit a website, and place a few calls, the phone might last 9-10 hours on a charge. We did like the fact that, upon getting home for the day, we just had to pop the phone into its dock to start charging again.
Motorola told us the battery life is better in part because of the dual-core processor, which tends to manage memory and apps better by sharing duties. Smartphone makers are mum about how this actually works – they are not about to reveal any secrets about how their hardware works with the Android OS. In our tests, the Atrix was a long-lasting phone that's easier to charge with the docking station. Organiser Motorola touts the Atrix as a media phone and for those who need the webtop computing experience. It's just a standard Android phone in other ways, especially for staying organised. The phone does support Microsoft Exchange and Google Calendar for Business, so you can keep tabs on your schedule. Connectivity One interesting perk on the Atrix phone is that it supports 802.11n dual-channel, so you can connect to either an 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network or 5.0GHz network, depending on whether you want fast speed or reliability. As you'd expect, there's a GPS chip built-in, which can be used with Google Maps and Navigation.
We weren't able to test AT&T 4G on the Atrix because it has not fully launched yet, but this model is capable of 5-8Mbps speeds over the wireless carrier signal. In terms of Bluetooth, the Atrix worked remarkably well in several scenarios: connecting to a vehicle for making phone calls, working with the Motorola Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and with an Apple Wireless Keyboard. We had some trouble with pairing because you have to type the code for the connected device on the phone itself as opposed to typing the code on the Bluetooth peripheral. The Atrix supports wireless hotspot mode and tethering over Bluetooth, so you can connect other devices to it to borrow its internet connection. Verdict
The Motorola Atrix is currently the most technically advanced Android phone – the webtop experience is brand new and worked well, even if it is a bit slow. We liked The sheer power and speed of the Motorola Atrix are immediate and distinct advantages. The dual-core processor makes Android run snappily, with little waiting between tasks. The 4G connectivity will also be a massive boost for internet users when it becomes available. The webtop mode is the other killer feature, and it's one that brims with potential. Why take a larger laptop around with you when your phone can provide enough power? It's currently a little rough around the edges, but the future possibilities for it are hugely exciting. We disliked There are just a few glaring omissions on the Atrix. One is a way to rent or buy TV shows and movies at launch, which is somewhat forgivable considering this is true of many Android phones. Another is that, even though the phone supports Adobe Flash, it didn't work in the way we wanted it to most: for playing Hulu content. We were a bit disappointed that the Atrix does not play movies at 1080p resolution when you connect to an HDTV, but hopefully Motorola will fix that. Another mark against the Atrix is that we wish there was a way to use webtop mode when you only use the HDMI-out port connected to an HD display. Motorola said the dock is required because of how the authentication works, but for us it just meant having to lug around the (rather small) dock. There's also no full-screen HDMI mirroring mode where what you see on the screen is shown on the HD. You can maximize the phone viewer window, but this doesn't show movies and photos in Full HD resolution. There also isn't an intermediary Wi-Fi device, such as Apple TV, that will stream content from the phone to your HD display. Verdict In every way other than those gripes, the Atrix leads the pack of Android phones and in many ways is out far ahead. Only the LG Optimus 2X comes close, with its dual-core processor, but that phone doesn't come with a webtop mode. The Atrix is a great phone and a great computer. With the accessories for keyboard, mouse, and docking station, it points the way to a future where our mobile computer is small – and powerful. Related Links
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| Retailers push Samsung Galaxy S II UK release date back Posted: 08 Mar 2011 09:28 AM PST  A number of online retailers have pushed the Samsung Galaxy S II UK release date back from March to May. Last month, we brought you the news that online retailer Clove claimed it would start selling the Samsung Galaxy S II in March. Expansys and Play.com also published similar release dates and we were all jolly excited about the imminent prospect of all that Android Gingerbread, Super AMOLED-screened action. Delays and set-backs? But now all three retailers list the Samsung Galaxy S II UK release date as some time in May. The actual dates vary; Play.com reckons the release will come on 6 May, Expansys says 9 May and Clove is non-committal, simply saying that it expects the first stock in May. When it comes to price, though, Clove is offering the best SIM-free deal on the Samsung Galaxy S II 16GB model, selling the handset unlocked for £528.00. 
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| Wozniak: Apple will 'go on pretty well' without Steve Jobs Posted: 08 Mar 2011 09:26 AM PST  Apple's co-founder, Steve Wozniak, has spoken about Steve Jobs' medical leave of absence, playing down speculation it could hurt the company. Jobs, who is Apple's CEO and co-founder, is on leave for health reasons, but appeared at last week's iPad 2 launch to the delight of Apple fans. Shareholders recently voted not to reveal the company's leadership succession plans, suggesting that all the Apple eggs are placed in a Jobs-shaped basket. Good ole Woz Woz, who left Apple in the '80s but is still a shareholder, feels differently. He broke his silence in Singapore today, saying, "Steve Jobs is only on partial leave. Even if he were to be on total leave, we have examined it. "Apple will go on pretty well even if he is not there directly." Although Steve Jobs is the most recognisable figurehead in technology today, we're pretty sure Apple will do just fine without him if he decides to leave Apple for good. After all, this is the company that made $6bn in pure profit during the last three months of 2010 
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| Posted: 08 Mar 2011 08:24 AM PST  Samsung's UE46D7000 is a poster boy for a new generation of TVs. There's hardly anything about this 46-inch set that isn't cutting edge and it sets the bar dizzyingly high for others to follow. Its design is stunning, thanks to a physics-defyingly skinny, mostly transparent bezel that appears arguably even more 'invisible' than the slightly more slender – but also more metallic-looking – frame sported by the UE55D8000. Samsung's radically advanced new online system is informed by a true 'apps' approach and joins with a terrific new content management menu system to deliver the UK's first genuinely 'smart' TVs. The UE46D7000 is an authentic second-generation 3D TV, raising all sorts of questions over how much it might improve over Samsung's first 3D screens, and what sort of standard it will set for rivals such as LG's forthcoming passive TVs and the next wave of 3D plasmas. There's no significant feature difference between the D7000 and D8000 series; the different model numbers merely describe the aesthetic differences in the bezel. For a significant step-down in price you're looking at the 6 Series LED models, with slightly larger bezels and a feature 'split' that finds the D6100s having fewer online features than the 6530 models.
Samsung has pulled out every last stop with the UE46D7000. The stunning, all-but-invisible screen surround has a potential benefit when watching 3D as having a defined border around a three-dimensional picture can subtly reduce its impact. The UE46D7000 sticks out a bit more round the back than last year's C series, but unless you happen to live in some over-designed pad where your TV might, for whatever reason, be plonked in the middle of your room, it surely makes more sense to have a trim bezel that you can see rather than a trim rear that you can't. The set's slightly deeper rear also has the advantage of enabling you to attach more cables without needing adaptors than was possible with last year's über-slim Samsung models. It's quite a set of connections, too. Four HDMIs and three USBs lead the way, with good support coming from a LAN jack and, best of all, built-in Wi-Fi. There's no need here for one of those silly USB dongles so common among last year's online TVs. The only connections you'll still need to use (provided) adaptors for are the Scart and component options. The UE46D7000's feature count is truly prodigious. Its contrast ratio is apparently so vast as to defy meaningful measurement, while motion is rated at '800CMR' based around Samsung's self-styled Clear Motion Rate. This means that the TV should be able to remove pretty much all traces of judder and blur, even when viewing 3D, via the set's highly flexible motion processing tools. As usual with such tweaks, you have to handle them with care. But the key point is that Samsung has made such care possible by not only including a varied suite of motion processing presets (including our preferred Clear mode) but also enabling you to fine-tune the weight of the processing elements as applied separately to judder and blur. There's also an interesting Motion Lighting feature that's new to Samsung this year, where the TV adjusts the brightness of its pictures in response to their motion content. Anyone who puts picture quality above environmental concerns will probably want to avoid this, along with numerous other green features, including a system for automatically adjusting the picture to suit ambient light conditions. If you're a planet-first kind of person, however, the UE46D7000 has plenty of tricks to keep your conscience clear. The backlight's LEDs, for example, are down the sides, rather than along the top and bottom, of the screen, cutting the number of diodes, and therefore reducing the amount of power required to illuminate the display. People serious about calibrating their TVs should feel reasonably content with the amount of adjustments on offer. Highlights include a decently flexible colour management system, a 10-point white balance adjustment, both digital and MPEG noise filters, shadow detail and gamma adjustment and the options to turn off or adjust the strength of both black tone and dynamic contrast processors. The latter of these is probably best turned off, or at least not set higher than Low, as it can cause the picture's overall brightness level to jump too obviously for comfort. In fact, setting the TV up to its best advantage is rather hampered by the fact that a number of the tools Samsung provides can make pictures look worse rather than better. The edge enhancement tool, for instance, makes pictures look gritty and forced and Motion Plus can generate processing artefacts if set too high. From this it's debatable if some of the UE46D7000's features are really worth including, but Samsung would doubtless argue – with some justification – that it's just trying to cater for all the potential tastes out there. There's another important menu in this TV. Smart Hub is accessed via a dedicated button on the remote and is a brand new 'jumping off' screen to what turns out to be pretty much every possible source for the TV, including the normal (Freeview and Freesat HD) tuners; video, photo and music content stored on USB sticks; the numerous apps now available via Samsung's new app store; open internet access via a built-in browser and Samsung's new dedicated 'video browser'. This latter feature includes an Internet Movie Database-style service that enables you to look up facts on favourite films, recommend films to friends, and even search either Samsung's 'local' online services or the internet at large for downloadable versions of films you want to watch. The 'Universal search' tool on the main Smart Hub page is genuinely revolutionary, tying you to the wider world in a way no previous TV has managed. As for the apps support, at the time of writing there were 37 for you to choose from, all of them free. But doubtless more, including some you have to pay for, will appear soon, especially as Samsung's code for designing apps has now been made available to anyone who wants a go (though bear in mind that you still have to run the fruits of your app-design labours through Samsung's quality control department before it will be allowed to go 'live'). Among the most useful apps available at the time of writing were LoveFilm, AceTrax, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Skype and Picasa and the BBC iPlayer is scheduled to be up and running by the time the TV hits the stores. As anyone familiar with Smart Phones will realise, by no means all of the apps available from Samsung's app store will be worth troubling yourself with. The games currently on offer, in particular, are very half-baked, but of course, it only takes a handful of gems to make the whole 'Smart' apps approach to content seem like the coolest thing since sliced bread. All in all, the almost ruthless efficiency of the Smart Hub screen together with the extent of the 'Smart' services on offer combine to make the UE46D7000 feel more revolutionary then merely evolutionary. Turning finally to the UE46D7000's 3D features, Samsung has provided quite a striking selection of tools for you to play with. For instance, you can choose to convert 2D content into 3D, choose between manual and auto settings for the '3D Effect', choose to have the TV automatically switch to 3D playback if it detects a 3D input (including Sky's side by side system) and use a 3D Optimisation tool for subtly shifting the image's depth and sharpness.
Images are phenomenally punchy and dynamic, with edge LED's talents for brightness and rich colour saturations used to maxium impact. For a really convincing all-round image, you need a good black level response and it's here that the UE46D7000 really makes its mark with black levels that are outstanding by edge LED – and CCFL – standards. What's even more impressive about this is the fact that the black level remains quite consistent right across the screen. There are some minor bits of extra brightness in the image's corners – more so than there were on the 55D8000 – but they're so muted and infrequent as to be insignificant. More good news concerns the tone and subtlety of the 46D7000's colours. After a little calibration, the set combines its exceptional vibrancy with a superbly expansive palette complete with outstandingly refined blends. Skin tones, in particular, are much improved over anything seen from Samsung before on an LCD TV. Not that it only looks good with HD, though: it's also unusually capable when it comes to upscaling standard-definition images, making all but the poorest quality sources look detailed and crisp while also ensuring that neither MPEG nor other source noise are emphasised. Contributing to the overwhelming sense of sharpness of the UE46D7000's images is the set's excellent motion handling. Samsung's improvements in this area have been steady but constant over the past two or three years and its clear that the Korean brand is getting a real handle on how to keep the native response time of its LCD screens low. The motion processing also seems marginally improved, compared to last year's models, provided you're careful how and when you employ it. The UE46D7000's general picture improvements extend to its 3D playback. A selection of material, from Liverpool vs Man Utd football match on Sky through to Monsters Vs Aliens and Avatar on Blu-ray, all looked way better than on Samsung's 2010 3D models. In fact, 3D sources look better than on any other LCD TV seen to date. The reduction in brightness and colour intensity caused by popping on Samsung's Bluetooth-driven 3D glasses is startlingly slight compared with the hefty drop-off in these areas witnessed with recent Sony LCD and Panasonic plasma 3D sets. This improved brightness and colour response delivers a greater sense of depth, space and detail to full HD 3D sources, too. So much so that the 46D7000's 3D images really do live up to the notion that they're ushering in a new generation. For all their stunning impact and striking quality, though, the 46D7000's pictures aren't quite perfect. For a start, contrast and colour saturations drop off markedly if you have to watch the screen from an angle of much more than around 30°. Next, 3D pictures still suffer from traces of crosstalk, though it must be stressed that this is far less prevalent than on Samsung's previous screen generations. Indeed, the set suffers from less crosstalk than any other LCD 3D TV yet, to the point where untrained eyes may struggle to notice it at all. It's just the 3D plasma models out there that still have the edge where crosstalk is concerned. Another very faint issue – with 2D as well as 3D pictures – is a tiny reduction in brightness over the central third of the picture, but this only appears where you have a 'wash' of a single colour over most of the screen, and is in any case so subtle that it's hardly worth mentioning. Sound
For so many years audio has been the Achilles' Heel of otherwise excellent Samsung flat TVs, but the UE46D7000 sounds surprisingly good. There's much more raw power and a wider dynamic range than before, meaning the set can deliver a sense of expansion when shifting up a few gears for action scenes and retain clarity, especially with dialogue, when pushed hard. There's even more than a hint of bass in the sound mix, which is all the more remarkable when you remember how slim that bezel is. Value Although £1,700 is quite expensive in the context of 46-inch sets in general, by the time you've tallied up its mind-blowing design, massive feature count, groundbreaking 'smart' functions, 3D capabilities and, most importantly of all, terrific picture quality, suddenly it starts to look surprisingly fair value. Ease of use Firing up the UE46D7000's onscreen menus immediately reveals a revamped look to things, with much greater use of graphics and a very much appreciated 'interactive' onscreen instruction manual that shows you a brief description of what each feature in the menus does, as and when you select it. Then, of course, there's the Smart Hub. The amount of content this new 'jumping off' menu puts instantly at your disposal is superb, making full use of the screen's full HD resolution to present its many icons and sections clearly and logically. This, surely, is a first glimpse of how the TVs of the future will have to organise their sources. The other onscreen menus aren't perfect, though, thanks to some general organisational issues. Particularly flawed is the use of separate Advanced Settings and Picture Options submenus within the main Picture menu, when it would have been easier to have all the features spread over these two menus tucked into one (though to be fair, when you highlight a sub-menu you do get a list of the options that submenu contains). There are also an awful lot of features for you to get your head round, some of which can make picture quality worse if you don't know what you're doing with them. The basic remote control, meanwhile, is adequate. It lacks the glamorous looks of the main TV, but its layout is reasonably intuitive and its buttons are responsive. If you're after something a little more swish, you can purchase an optional remote control with a full-colour touchscreen interface. In some ways, this works superbly; its keyboard is certainly superior to the buttons on the standard zapper and it is very effective at navigating the Smart Hub. However, it also makes achieving some really very basic functions feel frustratingly complicated.
The UE46D7000 gets your attention right from the off. Its bezel-free design is remarkable, the connections are generous and the newly designed onscreen menus, complete with impressive onscreen and interactive instructions manual, are a breeze to use. There are more features than you'll probably ever even tinker with among these onscreen menus, some of them extremely useful, others less obviously so. The Smart Hub, from where you can leap simply off to absolutely any of the many sources the TV makes available, from its USB and PC inputs to its online services and apps, is inspired and sets the general template for all future TVs. With so many cutting-edge features to compete with, it wouldn't have been too surprising if the UE46D7000's pictures hadn't stood out that much, but actually, they are the star of the show, thanks to their hugely impressive contrast, colours, sharpness, clarity, and black level response, even when watching 3D. We liked The bezel-free design is awesome, the set's connections are pretty much perfect, its got almost too many features for its own good, its Smart Hub home page idea is terrific, its online service delivers a previously unheralded level of usefulness, its 3D pictures are the best yet seen from an LCD TV and its 2D pictures are superb. We disliked The UE46D8000's effective viewing angle is rather limited and there are minor traces of backlight inconsistency. There are also some small crosstalk artefacts with 3D playback, and some of the features on offer need to be used with care or they can reduce the overall picture quality. Final verdict The UE46D7000 joins the UE55D8000 in ensuring that Samsung's opening salvo in 2011's likely mighty TV 'war' hits its target in no uncertain terms. Its design is unlikely to be topped by any other sets 2011 has to hold. Its connectivity is unlikely to be topped by any other 2011 TVs. Its feature count, as dominated by its Smart Hub and huge online features, might well not be topped by any other sets this year. Its picture and sound quality are perhaps less safe from the incoming assault of other brands; it will be interesting to see how Panasonic's new high-spec plasmas and Philips' next-gen LED TVs shape up. It's a big improvement over 2010's already impressive C series models, especially where 3D playback and sound quality are concerned, and its 2D pictures are huge crowd pleasers. All in all, it's a truly stellar package. Related Links
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| Udpated: iOS 4.3: what you need to know Posted: 08 Mar 2011 08:16 AM PST  Roll on Friday: it's the iOS 4.3 release date, and once again it'll bring some new goodies to your iPad, iPad 2, iPhone and iPod touch. But not the old ones, because the iOS 4.3 specs only support the iPhone 3GS and third-gen iPod touch onwards. So what iOS 4.3 features should you be getting excited about? iOS 4.3 release date Mr Jobs has spoken: iOS 4.3 release date is Friday 11 March. UPDATE: Rumours that surfaced on 8 March suggest that iOS 4.3 release date could actually be 8 March. We'll know whether that's true in the next few hours. The iOS 4.3 specs include a much faster Safari Mobile Safari now benefits from the same Nitro JavaScript engine that powers the desktop version, which should make browsing the web much faster. iOS 4.3 brings AirPlay to your iPhone videos The new release fixes the strange omission in AirPlay where you couldn't send videos from your iPhone camera roll to your Apple TV. AirPlay has been dramatically improved in iOS 4.3: third-party apps will be able to take advantage of it, so you won't be limited to Apple's own apps when you want to chuck songs, movies or photos at an Apple TV. iOS 4.3 features also include AirPrint wireless printing.
AIRPLAY: AirPlay gets much more useful in iOS 4.3, with third-party apps able to stream content to an Apple TV iOS 4.3 features include iTunes Home Sharing Good news for homebodies with huge iTunes libraries: instead of trying to cram a subset of your media collection onto your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, simply enable iTunes Home Sharing and stream your music, photos, podcasts or videos from your Mac or PC. Voila: every iOS device has unlimited storage until you leave the house. iOS 4.3 brings Personal Hotspots to your iPhone 4 As widely predicted, iOS 4.3 brings a nifty new feature to iPhone 4 users: personal hotspots, which turn your iPhone (iPhone 4s only) into a Wi-Fi access point for any Wi-Fi devices. Unless there's a last-minute surge of generosity from the network operators you'll need tethering enabled to take advantage of it, so for example on O2 that'll set you back £7.66 for 500MB.
Personal Hotspots will only support three devices While personal hotspots can connect five devices in total, Apple's iOS page says that iOS 4.3's Wi-Fi sharing can only handle "up to three of those connections using Wi-Fi". The others would need to be via Bluetooth or USB. The iPad orientation lock is back You know how the iPad switch became a mute button instead of a rotation lock? With iOS 4.3, you can keep it as-is or make it a rotation lock again. iOS 4.3 has special video effects This one's for the FaceTime fans: iOS 4.3's features include special effects for your iOS device's camera, allowing you to pretend it's an X-Ray or a thermal camera. iOS 4.3 supports app subscriptions The Guardian leaked this one in December: support for recurring app subscriptions. iOS 4.3 won't work on the iPhone 3G (or second generation iPod touch) The first iPhone and the iPhone 3G don't meet the iOS 4.3 specs, and second-generation iPod touches are excluded from the 4.3 party too. That's not a huge surprise: sticking 4.0 on the iPhone 3G made it do a brilliant impression of a brick. iOS 5.0 is coming in the summer Some sites predicted an iOS 5.0 unveiling would happen at the iPad 2 event, and of course that didn't happen - but we'd expect at least a big hint at the annual iPhone unveiling this summer, when Apple unveils the iPhone 5. 
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| Microsoft looking for engineers for next Xbox Posted: 08 Mar 2011 08:12 AM PST  Microsoft has posted a number of job listings on LinkedIn, sparking speculation that the company is already well under way with the development of the successor to the Xbox 360. The next-gen Xbox job listingson Linkedin include a 'hardware verification engineer', a 'VLSI graphics architect' and a 'VLSI performance architect' for work on what could well turn out to be the next Xbox console, whatever that machine ends up being called. Dynamic Xbox engineering "Come join a dynamic engineering team and play a key role in the development and verification of the Xbox and future platforms," reads the engineer listing. The Microsoft Xbox job listing continues: "We are looking for an experienced Senior Hardware Design/Verification Engineer. You will be responsible for the design verification and qualification of the Xbox console at the component, motherboard, and system levels. You will lead test strategy discussions, develop test methodologies & plans and project-manage qualification cycles." Elsewhere, if you fancy yourself as a graphics architect, Microsoft notes: "The Xbox Console Architecture team is hiring for a Graphics hardware architect position. The team is responsible for defining and delivering next generation console architectures from conception through implementation." However, these job listings suggest that it is early days. So don't hold your breath for an Xbox 720 announcement at E3 2011 this coming June! 
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| Review: Apple MacBook Pro 2011 (15-inch) Posted: 08 Mar 2011 07:24 AM PST  Although there are no immediately obvious external changes to the notebook's form factor, the February 2011 refresh of Apple's MacBook Pro range is more than just a minor update. Other than a new Thunderbolt port, the overall build and design of the new MacBook Pros – including the 15-inch, quad core, 2.2GHz Core i7 model reviewed here – remains the same. But under the hood, the line-up takes a significant leap forwards in performance and power. The entire range of MacBook Pros has now moved over to the second-generation Core series processors, known by the code name Sandy Bridge and based on Intel's 32nm production process. Even the new MacBook Pro 13-inch model now uses Core processors. While the 15-inch and 17-inch versions moved to the first-generation Core processors with the mid-2010 refresh, the 13-inch model was unable to do the same because a legal dispute stopped Nvidia graphics chipsets being integrated into Core CPUs, whose own integrated graphics lacked power. Not so now. The second-generation, Sandy Bridge Core-series processors have Intel HD 3000 Graphics, which is on a par with Nvidia's integrated chipset. At last, the entire MacBook Pro range can leave behind the ageing Core 2 Duos. In a welcome move, Apple has skipped the entry-level Core i3 processor and equipped all early-2011 MacBook Pros with at least a Core i5. The 15-inch models offer quad-core chips – Core i7s running at either 2.0GHz or 2.2GHz. The 2.2GHz model reviewed here costs £1,849 off the shelf, but if you order online on the Apple UK website, you can upgrade to a 2.3GHz processor for an extra £200 if you wish. It has 4GB of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM, upgradeable to up to 8GB, and you can invest in a higher-resolution screen, with or without an antiglare matte finish. SpecificationsLike the rest of Apple's MacBook Pro range, this top-end 15-inch, quad core 2.2GHz Core i7 model has moved up to a second-generation Core processor, codenamed Sandy Bridge. These new CPUs integrate the processor, cache, memory controller and graphics engine on a single chip. Because data doesn't have as far to travel, each of the processor's cores can get on processing it instead of waiting for it to arrive. This new micro-architecture is much more efficient, making for increased performance. The Core processors' Turbo Boost feature has been optimised for the new Sandy Bridge chips. When the computer's operating system requests the highest processor performance state (for example, when running processor-intensive tasks), and the processor is operating below power, current, and temperature specification limits, Turbo Boost 2.0 automatically allows its cores to run faster than the base operating frequency. It shifts core frequency in smaller increments than before, allowing the processor to manage performance without sacrificing efficiency. If not all cores are in use, power can be relocated from idle to active ones. Turbo Boost 2.0 activates Turbo Mode more often and remains there for longer than before, even when all cores are active. As a result, the quad core 2.2GHz Core i7 used in this MacBook Pro can reach 3.3GHz under Turbo Boost 2.0. All Sandy Bridge mobile processors include Hyper Threading, a feature that's now standard on every MacBook Pro. Hyper Threading allows two threads to run simultaneously on each of the processor's cores. Thus, the quad-core processor used in this particular model has eight virtual cores. Thanks to Hyper Threading, applications optimised for multicore processors run smoother and faster, and the computer is able to multitask with greater efficiency. The Sandy Bridge processors' integrated graphics are much more powerful than the Intel HD Graphics used in the first generation of Core chips, now called Intel HD 3000 Graphics. Compared to previous generations, content creation under integrated graphics is up to 42 per cent faster and gaming up to 50 per cent quicker. An integrated video decoder saves on battery power when watching movies. On the MacBook Pros, the built-in encoder lets you make HD video calls using Apple's FaceTime application. When more graphical power is required, the MacBook Pro switches to its discrete graphics processor. This is an automatic process – no user intervention is needed. On this top-end 15-inch MacBook Pro, the discrete GPU is an AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory. We're promised up to three times the performance offered by the discrete graphics in the previous MacBook Pro generation. But perhaps the most interesting innovation enjoyed by the new MacBook Pros is Intel's new Thunderbolt port. Previously known by the code name Light Peak and developed in close collaboration with Apple, Thunderbolt is a new, high-speed and very versatile data port. It's based on PCI Express and DisplayPort technologies, so it can be used for displays as well as data peripherals such as storage drives, and is a dual-channel input/output protocol capable of speeds of up to 10Gbps in both directions. Thunderbolt enables you to daisy chain up to six high-performance peripherals using a single port without using a hub, and soon-to-be available adapters will enable you to use it with USB and FireWire peripherals. Thunderbolt provides native support for Mini-DisplayPort displays, and you can connect a DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI or VGA monitor using existing adapters. The 15-inch MacBook Pro's Thunderbolt port replaces its Mini-DisplayPort, but the notebook retains its two USB 2.0 and single FireWire 800 ports. Other improvements offered by the new MacBook Pros include a 720p FaceTime HD camera, with three times the resolution of the older iSight webcams and improved low-light resolution. The notebook's SD card reader can now handle high-capacity SDXC cards. PerformanceThe previous top-of-the-range 15-inch MacBook Pro was a dual core 2.66GHz Core i7. It's a tribute to the power of the second-generation Sandy Bridge chips that in our Xbench test that looks at CPU, memory and hard drive performance, the newer 2.2GHz processor almost matched it, scoring 132.76 against the older 2.66GHz processor's 136.58. But our Cinebench test, which looks at the Mac's 3D rendering capabilities, really showed what the newer MacBook Pro could do. With the processors restricted to only one core, its improved graphical capabilities meant it increased its predecessor's score by a respectable 17.6 per cent. But with all cores in play, this year's quad-core, eight-thread 2.2GHz Core i7 was a full 81 per cent up on the mid-2010 dual core 2.66GHz machine. The 15-inch 2.2GHz Core i7 MacBook Pro has an AMD Radeon HD 6750M discrete graphics processor, which comes into play automatically when running graphics-intensive applications such as games. Aspyr's Mac conversion of id Software's Doom 3 ran at a very impressive 171.4 frames per second – a full 42 per cent faster than the previous high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro. The more modern Call of Duty 4 managed 84.3 frames per second, which again is very impressive. At the time of writing, the MacBook Pro's Thunderbolt port is of limited use because, other than displays, compatible peripherals have yet to emerge. Unfortunately, this leaves us unable to run a time test, but having seen the Thunderbolt port in action at the Apple briefing that launched the new MacBook Pros, we can safely say it will revolutionise input/output technology. Connecting the notebook to an Apple display and a prototype Thunderbolt-compatible hard drive, Apple was able to transfer large files between the external drive and the MacBook Pro at unprecedented speeds. A Thunderbolt connection can transfer a full-length 1080p HD movie from an external hard drive to your MacBook Pro's internal hard drive (or vice versa) in around 30 seconds, and you can back up enough 196kbps MP3s to play continuously for a year in around 10 minutes. According to Apple, the battery on the new MacBook Pros lasts for seven hours, which on paper is down from the eight to nine hours enjoyed by the previous high-end 15-inch model. This is not the case; the reduction reflects Apple's new testing procedure based on Wi-Fi use, which better reflects the way the MacBook Pros are used in the real world. In our own test, we used a Wi-Fi connection to log onto the BBC's iPlayer site, and watched the news channel at fullscreen for four hours, 45 minutes on a single charge, which is very impressive indeed. The MacBook Pro's battery is internal and cannot be replaced by the end user, but it gives around a thousand discharge and recharge cycles, which is almost three times the lifespan of a standard notebook battery. There's very little to criticise here. We'd have loved a Blu-ray drive, even as a custom option, but it was never going to happen. The 8x SuperDrive, unchanged from the previous model is looking old. Perhaps it's time for a faster optical drive, Blu-ray or otherwise. Like all MacBook Pros, this one comes with a glossy screen as standard, but if you order online at the Apple UK site, you can swap it for a higher-resolution glossy screen for an extra £80 or a high-res antiglare screen for £120. There should be an option for a matte display of the same resolution as the out-of-the-box screen, and it shouldn't cost £40 more than the equivalent glossy screen. Yet despite these minor moans, the new high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro is good value for money, even at £1,849. It's streets ahead of its predecessor, but only £11 more expensive. VerdictThe new MacBook Pros, including this quad core 2.2GHz 15-inch Core i7 model, have undergone a significant upgrade with only an inflationary price increase. With the latest processors, new graphics, a cutting-edge high-speed I/O port, an upgraded built-in webcam and a more capable SD card reader, the top-of-the-range 15-inch MacBook Pro is considerably more capable than the equivalent model from the mid-2010 upgrade. We liked The new, second-generation Sandy Bridge Core series processors make significant advances over their predecessors. Their upgraded integrated graphics rival the Nvidia 320M chipset used in the previous generation of 13-inch MacBook Pros. The Turbo Boost feature has been refined and optimised, transferring power from idle cores to active ones and giving all the cores a short burst of extra speed on demand, provided they're operating within power, current and temperature limits. The quad-core 2.2GHz Core i7 used in this MacBook Pro can reach 3.3GHz under Turbo Boost 2.0. Hyper Threading runs two threads on each of the processor's four cores, allowing tasks to be spread more evenly and the MacBook Pro to multitask more efficiently. The MacBook Pros have switched to AMD discrete graphics, with this particular model benefitting from an AMD Radeon HD 6750M GPU with 1GB of GDDR5 memory. Its performance when running graphically intensive applications such as games is outstanding, running Doom 3 with its visual detail set to maximum at 171.4 frames per second, and the more recent Call of Duty 4 at 84.3fps. Battery life is equally impressive; you can work for the best part of a day on a full charge. Thunderbolt makes its Mac debut on the new Pros. Although of limited use until compatible peripherals become common, it could well prove the future of input/output connectivity. It's capable of speeds of up to 10Gbps in both directions at once, and you can daisy chain up to six peripherals on a single Thunderbolt port. We disliked We've little cause for criticism here. While we realise we're never likely to see a Blu-ray drive in a Mac (notebook or otherwise), it's time the optical drive was upgraded from the 8x SuperDrive we have here. An option for an antiglare screen that isn't tied to increasing the resolution would be welcome, too. Verdict At £1,849, the new 15-inch quad core Intel Core i7 MacBook Pro isn't cheap, but given the quality and the improvements it has enjoyed over the previous model, it represents very good value for money. It's the most capable MacBook Pro to date, and a real joy to use. Related Links
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| Warner Bros trials movie rental via Facebook Posted: 08 Mar 2011 07:19 AM PST  As the great online content delivery scramble continues, Warner Brothers has decided to try renting its movies using Facebook. It's a service that's pretty limited for the moment; only those in the US who 'liked' The Dark Knight can currently rent Christopher Nolan's Batman flick for $3. Warner Bros. says it will make further films available as time marches on, but there's no word on when, if at all, we'll see the service make its way to the UK. I believe in Harvey Dent Digital distribution has proven quite the hurdle for Hollywood, and studios are somewhat on the back foot to web-savvy pirates. Other popular approaches include YouTube's possible film streaming service, Amazon's recent LoveFilm acquisition and all the 'watch now' opportunities it offers, while all the major studios continue to rail against online piracy. Warners has also recently launched 'app editions' of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight and Inception, whereby users can simply buy the movie via the app. 
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| Posted: 08 Mar 2011 07:18 AM PST  There's a big question in the PC market at the moment: Has the netbook had its time? It's not hard to argue that it has. Certainly the Toshiba NB250 is what you'd call a standard example of the genre. It doesn't do anything remarkable to push netbooks to radical new heights. Technologically – and this a given for the genre – the NB250 is a world away from Core i5 notebooks such as our top-rated Samsung R590, which comes in at triple the price, and even the cheap-but cheerful £590 Medion Akoya P6625. Core i5 notebooks mix power and performance, don't cost the world (although they look pricey next to the likes of this), and have none of the fundamental restrictions of Atom-powered netbooks. Of course, the netbook isn't meant to compete with powerful PCs like these. It's meant for slinging in a bag, taking on the road, doing the tiny things and doing them for longer than any power-hungry platform could even hope to. Netbooks are good at it, too. But times have changed, hence the initial question. We live in Steve Jobs' radical 'Post-PC era', where tablets like the iPad and ever-strengthening smartphones are doing the netbook's work and far more besides.
But don't panic. The Toshiba NB250 still has its place, as we'll prove. Your bag deserves a netbook even if you've already got a touchscreen tablet or a shiny mobile phone. As long as you're not looking to run heavyweight games or play high-def video, a low powered laptop is the perfect computing partner. What's more, the NB250 has a few tricks up its sleeve that set it apart from the near-identical competition. Performance
The most remarkable aspect of the Toshiba NB250 is its absolutely superb keyboard, so we'll start with that. Unlike many netbooks, it's spread out as far as it possibly could be, from one edge of the case to the other. It's the closest thing you're ever going to get to a full-sized layout on a netbook PC. The keys are moulded in the faux-chiclet style reminiscent of early Sony Vaio laptops, which makes for an excellent typing feel, although some concessions have had to be made. The right hand side of the keyboard is rather restricted, crushing the symbol keys and the Enter key into a rather narrow column for example. Mistakes have been made, too -- if you, like us, tend to hit Shift with your right-hand pinky, you will cuss the decision to place the Page Up and Page Down keys directly beneath Enter when they could just have easily have nestled either side of the up arrow. Annoyances be damned, though: you need a keyboard. This is something a touchscreen tablet just can't provide, and that a netbook – especially this one – does very well. Next up is storage. The NB250-108 we've tested doesn't have a gigantic hard drive, but neither do most netbooks, and the 250GB on offer here will go a long way. Think about the comparison to tablets, too: you've got a lot more freedom and a heck of a lot more space. Show us a tablet with 250GB storage, we dare you – chances are it'll set you back a lot more than a netbook and not be half as capable. Windows 7 Starter probably isn't the OS we would have chosen (Windows XP, despite its age, seems to suit these little platforms well) but you're free to use it as you wish – the iPad's iOS won't let you do half the things the NB250 can do. Flash, for example. Windows programs. The full, unadulterated internet. Forget about measly tablets; a netbook does it all for less money. And then there's the battery. It's astonishing, lasting an easy 8.5 hours on a single charge, besting just about any other portable device. You wouldn't want a hefty laptop for mobile working or simple lap-based web browsing, particularly because the NB250 would easily outlast it. The Atom N455 at its core might be unremarkable in terms of processing power, but it works exceptionally hard for such a power-friendly design. Netbooks have made massive leaps forward since the early days of the MSI Wind, and it's obvious here – this is a resilient, long lasting package. Whether it's an attractive package is really a matter of taste. We weren't especially keen on the patterned wrist-rest and lid, although this does make the NB250 less of a fingerprint magnet than many glossy machines like those from Packard Bell's netbook range.
It's clear that Toshiba has put some thought into the machine's layout, with a pair of USB ports on the right, and SD card slot on the front, and the rest of the important outputs tucked away on the left hand side. Not especially handy if you're a lefty, but excellently thought out if you're going to be using an external mouse. Not that you'd need to unless you were deskbound – the trackpad is pretty flawless. Naturally this isn't without its issues as a whole – any machine listed at this price has had to have had some corners cut. The screen is typical netbook fare – 10.1" of awkward viewing angles and washed-out colours. You'll struggle to adjust it to a comfortable medium; it seems to force you into an uneven display and that's irritating. Furthermore, like all 600-pixel-high panels, it makes browsing the web rather tricky. You'll definitely want to activate full-screen mode, set the taskbar to auto hide, and remove all the toolbars you can. Admittedly complaining about a netbook screen is like complaining that ice cream is cold, but we clearly have sensitive teeth. The speakers, too, are rather lame, far quieter than those of the iPad, even though the iPad's sound output comes from a much tinier cone. The NB250 is also pre-loaded with a bunch of software you'll neither want or need; a sidebar dedicated to its webcam, a Toshiba 'Bulletin Board' seemingly designed just to bug the hell out of you, and something called ReelTime – an organisational tool that seems much better suited to a machine with a bit more grunt. This is on top of the usual cavalcade of bloatware that comes with any new machine. Forget the preloaded guff, though: put this netbook in its place. It's more useful and cheaper than any tablet you'll find. You won't get the luxury of swiping your fingers over its screen, but you get so many things a tablet simply can't do well. Yes, the netbook market is pretty flat – there's not much more to this than any other machine in its class. You need one more than you need that fancy tablet you've had your eye on, though, and that's a straight-up fact. Verdict
Toshiba's NB250 is a perfectly fine netbook. It's solidly constructed, it doesn't look too offensive, and – like every other netbook – it doesn't push any boundaries basically by definition. If you're in the market for a portable PC it is a great choice, probably better than an Android tablet or the Apple iPad given its potential range of functionality. It's not as cool, though, or as simple to whip out at any opportunity. Being a netbook, it's quite hardy, too. Even though this machine first hit the market in mid-2010, it stands up today, and it'll stand up in a year's time. That's because you won't be asking too much of it; as long as you're not looking to play games or do anything more than running office applications or internet browsing, it's perfectly adequate. We liked The NB250's keyboard is an absolute joy to use. It's super-wide, particularly for a netbook, and the keys are solid and (mostly) well laid out. The trackpad is similarly good, definitely amongst the best we've used. If you're considering a netbook because of its range of input options, this is great. Toshiba has laid out the ports very well, with a couple of USB ports on the right and everything else on the left. It just makes sense if you're right handed and you might want to plug in a mouse. The price is definitely right in comparison to the parallel tablet market. Pick up a tablet for £225 and you'll be stuck with something like the seven-inch Creative Ziio. And the battery life? Amazing. An easy eight hours, which makes the NB250 a plausible companion to a bigger laptop if you're constantly running out of charge. We disliked The screen is pretty poor, without a coherent good viewing angle; the colours aren't consistent, and there's really no way to use it without noticing its shortcomings. 600 pixels isn't quite enough height for a web browser, either. Some slightly annoying decisions have been made with the layout of the keyboard – the right shift key doesn't stretch all the way to the edge, for example. Get used to pressing Page Up instead. Toshiba has also loaded the NB250 with shovelware. Yes, complaining about shovelware is entirely pointless, but it's there and it annoyed us. This is a low-powered machine, so the less detritus running the better. Verdict Toshiba has put together a decent netbook at a decent price with the NB250. It's solidly built and completely unrevolutionary, like any netbook should be, but it's also evidence that this sector of the market is far from deceased. If, for some reason, you're convinced you need a tablet PC for light mobile working and web browsing, you need your head checked. Related Links
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| Posted: 08 Mar 2011 06:36 AM PST  Rumours that Apple will release iOS 4.3 today have begun circling the internet this afternoon. They come courtesy of BGR, which says a source has told it that the public download will begin at 10:00 PT – that's 18:00 GMT. So you might want to get your iDevice backed up and check you're on the latest version of iTunes so you can get it hot off the update press, should it materialise this evening. Sunspots The mobile news site has also been told a little more about the Apple personal hotspot feature, which turns the iOS device into a Wi-Fi hotspot for other devices to connect to and will be part of the iOS 4.3 update. There has been some discussion over how many devices the hotspot feature will support; BGR's source is now saying that the number of devices is left to the networks to decide. Either way, it will support either three or five extra connections and, hopefully, we'll find out for sure this evening. Let's not get too carried away though; the release date of iOS 4.3 was originally pencilled in for 11 March. 
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