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- Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
- Pentax NC-1 spotted in leaked photo
- In Depth: Google: 'We want to strip out operating system frustration'
- Review: Nokia E7
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- 2011 Android App Guide launches
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- Sony Ericsson Xperia Play launches in UK
- Sony Ericsson Xperia Play launches in UK
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- Review: Toshiba NB550D
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| Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Posted: 01 Apr 2011 09:27 AM PDT  The PlayStation phone is the device equivalent of El Dorado, in that it's spent a long time as a golden fable to trot out when conversation slows. Now the fusion of gamepad and Android phone has emerged into the modern world in the form of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. It's a time when iPhones have permeated the globe, able to deliver tactile gaming on the go, and Nintendo's 3DS is making waves by bringing portable 3D fun to the masses. Even within the Sony stable, the Xperia Play has rivals to overcome. There's the NGP, successor to the PSP, on the horizon, which will arrive boasting more processing power than Deep Blue (well, apparently a quad-core chip and graphics processor). What's more, it must establish itself over a selection of fast and competent Android handsets, such as Sony Ericsson's Xperia Arc, which also have the chops for 3D gaming of the non-stereoscopic kind. As a gaming-orientated mobile, the headline feature here is, of course, the slide-out controller section. This comes bearing a D-pad, the familiar PlayStation face buttons, a pair of touchpad 'thumbsticks', two shoulder buttons and some menu keys. There's also an accelerometer on board, and the 4-inch 854 x480 multi-touch screen for getting all handsy with your software.
Powering this is a 1GHz Snapdragon processor with embedded Adreno 205 GPU graphics, 512MB of RAM and Android 2.3, or Gingerbread. While that's competitive in terms of modern smartphones, we have to admit we were expecting more pixel-pushing oomph.
Rounding out the offering are a smattering of features, including Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, 5MP camera, Bluetooth and a bundled 8GB microSD card. Okay, now you know what's on offer, let's talk price. SIM-free, the Xperia Play will require a £480-520 extraction from your wallet, and to get the phone free on a contract will typically require paying £35-40 a month. To put that in perspective, you could get the much-lauded Orange San Francisco and a 3DS for the same moolah as a SIM-free Xperia Play with change enough for a small library of games. For this kind of money, you'd be right to expect legendary performance. The Xperia Play hardware itself isn't unattractive, but it is bulky, coming in a finger-width shorter than a closed 3DS and a few millimetres less thick at 62 x 119 x 16.5mm. It's heavy as well and feels too plasticky in the hand, mainly thanks to the creaky, glossy backplate. Oh, and the whole device retains fingerprints better than a crime lab database.
Holding the phone upright as you would to make a call, along the left-hand side of the slide-out section is a 3.5mm headphone socket and the microUSB port. We're not huge fans of how the jack is placed, given its location makes the provided headphones rub against the base of our thumb while playing games and gets in the way for movies. On the top edge of the phone is another less than ideally placed button – the power/lock switch. Because it's recessed, it requires a fair flex of the index finger to operate, which can be faffy at key moments.
The right-hand side has the shoulder buttons (more on them in a bit) and a volume rocker, which is in a great place for adjusting volume on the fly during calls, but awkwardly right behind the middle of the screen during gaming. There's a minimal selection of non-backlit buttons along the bottom of the screen too to handle navigating duties. These are: back, home, menu and search respectively. They're pleasant enough to use, but we think you'll find it hard to make them out in the dark. Once neat touch is that when you flip the phone over and take off the backplate, you can access the sim slots and microSD card without removing the battery.
Not quite the killer start we'd hoped for, but we've yet to venture onto the Xperia Play's home turf: gaming. The interface on the Xperia Play looks pretty similar to its cousin, the Xperia Arc. By default, there are five homescreens to populate as you wish, with a persistent dock-like bar along the bottom with space enough for four customizable icons and a static menu launcher. The Contacts and Phone apps take up the right two slots, with the left two given over to the Media folder and Messaging. We fast swapped out the Media file for the Browser, given that one of the five homescreens is already filled with widgets for the Gallery and Music apps, but you can hone this bar as you wish. Tapping the centre icon on the dock brings up a list of apps to add to your home screens and all you need do is press and hold one to drag it into a free slot. Handily, the background lines behind it will turn green when you've found a valid place, so organising is fast and intuitive.
One minor quibble we do have is that you'll have to bypass this system and go via the external menu key to place widgets, folders and shortcuts, which seems a little inconsistent and caused us some early confusion.
By default, the centre screen is almost entirely given over to the Timescape widget, which acts like a Rotadex of postcards each presenting Facebook and Twitter updates as well as text messages. Much like the Friend Stream system we've seen on recent HTC models, each of these acts as a slick starting point for finding the content you want.
Other screens tend to be more open, but notably there's one screen dedicated to gaming, with a half-screen widget for the PlayStation Pocket app and a link to the Android Market to buy more games. All you need do to navigate between screens is swipe left and right, but there's also an exploded view of all your widgets that you can access by pinching. Tap on a widget and you'll be taken to its resident home screen. We're not huge fans of this system, since it neglects to show you apps as well, making it selectively useful, but if you're a widget-fiend then it's perfect. Scrolling left and right between homescreens is generally quick and fluid, though, even if we've found it can be jerky just after waking the device from its slumber in the mornings. On the flip side, we were impressed by the speed of the scrolling Rotadex-type widgets (as well as the PS Pocket, there's one for the Gallery too), making them eminently usable.
Taken as a whole, the system doesn't quite gel together as we'd like, but its not hard to learn to work around its quirks. This is what you came for, right? How does the Xperia Play hold up as a gaming device and can it compete in the same league as the portable big boys? Well, controls are the lifeblood of any console, dictating how the software experience plays out (if you'll excuse the pun), and the Xperia Play's are a real mix. The D-pad and familiar PlayStation face buttons (circle, square, triangle and cross) are excellent, delivering a definite click and a really pleasing action. They're nicer on the fingers than the 3DS equivalents too and a refreshing change from onscreen controls.
The dual thumbpads are far less laudable, though. The degree to which they worked varied a fair bit depending on what we were playing but the core problem we had with them was always the same – they're too picky and there's not enough feedback. Yes, there's a little metal circle at the dead centre of each one to help you orientate yourself and they're set in a dimple in the face of the device to let you know when you've strayed beyond their bounds, but even with those aids we found accurate control a struggle. We'd often strike out at an angle slightly off what we really wanted, walk when we'd meant to run or overshoot the pads with half our thumb, causing plenty of confusion. We have a few theories about why this is, but part of it is that the pads are quite small, meaning every little movement is a big deal. Also, they're not good at understanding quick changes of pace. As we said, picky. We've found dual-stick shooters on the iPhone far more forgiving, perhaps because you can see where your thumb is in relation to events. And the thumbpads can't hold a candle to the circle pad on the 3DS. Then there's the shoulder buttons, which are a wee bit mushy for our tastes. Of even more import is that your digits are prone to rubbing on the back edges of the screen. This made us hold the Xperia Play awkwardly at first, but we did find a comfortable position after a while.
The start and select keys are good, as is the dedicated menu button. However, the latter seems a little superfluous, given it only replicates the function of other buttons on the device. The slide mechanism is an unqualified success, though. It's rock solid, moving the pad up or down with a satisfying snick. The screen stays put with no wobble or flex too. The dual-personality nature of the Xperia Play is continued in its gaming software. There are two apps that serve as launching stages: the confusingly titled Xperia Play, which is effectively a housing point for Android Market games that work with the device, and the PlayStation Pocket, which handles the honeypot PS One ports we were actually excited to play.
Bizarrely, it's the Xperia Play app that starts by default when you slide out the pad – the PlayStation Pocket is found in a homescreen widget and lurking in the menu. We've yet to find a way of switching them over and the inconsistent approach is confusing. Our test handset came with five games preinstalled: Crash Bandicoot as the sole PS One offering, with FIFA 10, Bruce Lee, Star Battalion and The Sims 3 apps to finish the package. The latter barely benefits from being on the handheld at all, but some of the former will make good showcases for the hardware come launch day.
We're conflicted about the Xperia Play as a gaming package. The controller section, while far from perfect, is a significant step up from playing on a touchscreen phone. But with so many niggles and the higher barrier to entry of the price, it's hard to see who this will suit. If gaming on the go is important to you, we reckon you should wait for the NGP or go grab a 3DS. Having tested the Xperia Play and Ninty's console side-by-side, we can safely say the latter offers a better gaming experience, even if you never turn the 3D effect on. With the Xperia Play, obviously the main media concern is the gaming side of things. However, that's not to say that other multimedia options are left in the cold and the device proves more than capable when it comes to music and movies. 8GB of card-based storage plus the 400MB of internal memory provides plenty of room to get you started, and you can swap in a card up to 32GB in size if your media collection is sizable. The Music player is minimalist, but none the worse for that. You can either control it via the handy homescreen widget, or access the app via the main menu. Upon entering, you'll see the current track's album artwork front and centre, with a large play/pause buttonand smaller track skipping keys to either side.
At the lower edge is an easy-to-access slider that allows you to scrub through your track, handily displaying a prominent time reference in the upper portion of the screen as long as your finger's on the slider. Below that sit three icons to access your music collection, get online information about your currently playing track and see a list of what currently playing.
It's all exactly as we'd expect, pleasingly responsive and well thought out. Press the Menu key and you'll be able to access a set of equalizer presets (no custom option, unfortunately) as well as set the playing track as your ringtone. Neat. Special mention must also go to the handset's two built-in speakers, which give clear, enjoyable stereo sound without the tinniness that accompanies most mobiles. We weren't big fans of the included earbuds, though, given that they seemed to contrive to communicate every cable movement and rustle directly into our cranial tissues. We'll try the other rubber tips soon and see if that improves matters. Movies also benefit from the great stereo sound, and we found the four-inches of screen real estate put to good use. Again, the player itself is simple yet efficient, with simple skip buttons, the obligatory play/pause key and a timeline appearing on a grey bar when you tap the screen. There's none of the jerkiness that can accompany fast panning, but some of the images are a little fuzzy when in full screen mode. We'll be doing more testing on this soon, and will let you know more details as we have them. Aside from the weight of the unit, it's comfy enough to hold in the hand for a while too, so watching an episode or two on the train is entirely feasible if you're all gamed out. Finally for now, let's touch on the Gallery. This is another slick-looking app that's clearly been the focus of attention. Enter the main screen and you'll see files for your pictures and movies laid out in pleasingly messy stacks.
Tap one stack of, say, pictures and you'll see it expanded out into a wall of thumbnails. From here, you can select one to see all up close and personal, or use as the starting point for a slideshow. You can also access basic editing and sharing options by tapping the menu key. One issue we did have is that the Xperia Play got confused when we took new photos with the camera, showing us the same folder of shots twice instead of the folder of images on our memory card and the new one. It had us worried for a moment until we quit out and returned, although we couldn't replicate the problem again. With Google's might behind the Xperia Play's OS, it's surprising that we've found the web browsing as mediocre as we have thus far. On our test unit we had the option of connecting via Wi-Fi or 3G/HSDPA. Getting our Wi-Fi set up was simple, and handled neatly the the Xperia Play's set-up wizard. All we had to do was enter our password and we were away.
So far, so good, but once connected we found the stock browser hardly blistering in pace. Sites are accessed quickly enough, but scrolling around the full BBC homepage proved prone to stuttering. The pinch to zoom functionality was decidedly jerky too. In a similar vein, text reflowing is merely okay, requiring a double tap to make the device get the job done once you've zoomed in.
Using the little plus and minus zoom keys on the screen worked far better for reading a news site in both regular a mobile formats, reflowing text as we zoomed. But these can be annoying too, and we had an issue where one key disappeared behind website content. That said, Flash support has been promising, with our few test sites loading quickly and playing well.
The bookmarks system is praiseworthy as well, offering a little icon by your entered URL to log your favourite sites. Enter the pane accessed by the menu key and the top-left square of the screen is dedicated to a creating a bookmark of the current site, while all the other entries show the sites in your collection in handy thumbnails. You can opt for a list instead if you prefer.
Similar lists exist for your most viewed pages, a handy secondary jumping-on point, and recent history. It's by no means awful, but the jerky nature of what we experienced is a far cry from browsing on the iPhone 4 or other Android phones such as the LG Optimus 2X. It's disappointing given how much the Xperia Play costs.
As you've probably noticed, this review is a work in progress and we're not quite ready to call time on the handset yet. We'll keep testing feverishly to give you the most in-depth review possible, so check back for updates soon.
What we will say is that the Xperia Play is no knock-out punch set to revolutionise mobile gaming. It's better than playing on a touchscreen, but you have to weigh that advantage against the cost and the competition. Regardless of whether you're a Sony fanboy or Nintendo freak, we reckon you could do better for your cash. Plus, we'd caution waiting to see what happens when the NGP hits. Related Links
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| Pentax NC-1 spotted in leaked photo Posted: 01 Apr 2011 07:15 AM PDT  A leaked photo appears to show a Pentax mirrorless camera – the Pentax NC-1 – and two lenses, according to a new report. Sources have given the Mirrorless Rumors website images of the Pentax NC-1 mirrorless system camera, along with pictures of 8.5mm f/1.9 and 5-15mm f/2.8-4.5 lenses. Mirrorless Rumors claims the Pentax NC-1 specs will boast a 14-megapixel 5.6x crop sensor and HD video recording. The Pentax NC-1 will be one of two mirrorless systems said to be developed by Pentax – the other Pentax camera boasting a larger APS-C sensor and compatible with K-mount lenses. It is understood that the Pentax NC mirrorless system will be announced in May or June, while the other Pentax camera release date remains unclear. Earlier this month our colleagues at PhotoRadar reported that a source close to the company said Pentax had noted the success of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras and was considering its own entry into the market. However, the source denied rumours that a Pentax mirrorless camera would be announced this spring. Image via Mirrorless Rumors Related Links
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| In Depth: Google: 'We want to strip out operating system frustration' Posted: 01 Apr 2011 06:45 AM PDT  We popped along to Google's London HQ this week to talk Chrome OS, Google's new low-resource Linux-based operating system for netbooks and notebooks. Chrome OS product marketing manager, Eli Lassman, took us through the features of the CR-48 prototype portable which TechRadar saw last week and gave us some background on the imminent launch of notebooks featuring Chrome OS. It's fair to say that the version of Chrome OS we've seen on the CR-48 is not finished. The browser itself is slow, but the real problem is the apps – Chrome OS needs Google to make several of its apps support offline use in HTML5 and replace the functionality lost with the end of Google Gears – especially Google Docs. We had expected Google Docs to have launched its new offline capability by now, and Lassman confirmed the web giant is still working on this. As Chrome OS is ostensibly just a browser interface, Lassman was asked if the OS was too limited in terms of its interaction with the hardware. "The whole focus is on the cloud and the experience [is] better there," he explained. "There will be storage and you can download files onto the solid state drive itself, but the real focus is the cloud, that's where it really comes alive." The OS will also have its own media player – which doesn't currently work – as well as full USB storage support. Chrome OS apps will be available via the Chrome Web Store which is also used in the Google Chrome browser. So far there are 3,700 available. Chrome OS UK release date As for a Google Chrome OS release date, the first notebooks are due to hit during the summer months, though exactly when remains unclear. Precise Chrome OS launch dates would appear to be up to the launch partners. Initial units will come from Acer and Samsung, with 3G and Wi-Fi variants from each. As for pricing, ballpark figures point at between $250 and $600. If that means £199 Chrome OS machines, Google will be onto a winner, if it ends up being £299, that's dangerously into Windows netbook (and cheap notebook) territory. The CR-48 Chrome OS notebook we've had in the TechRadar office isn't a shipping unit, nor is it GSM-enabled – it's actually the same Verizon CDMA unit that has been previewed in the US since December. The unit will be supplied unlocked.
In terms of actual retail outlets, we believe Google will aim high and the clout of Samsung and Acer should ensure we'll see Chrome OS laptops in standard retail outlets such as Currys and PC World. Chrome OS's real boon is speed. As Lassman explains. "From the time you enter your username and password from the time you get into Chrome OS you can be in your email in 10 to 15 seconds. "We've really focused on making sure everything is taken out of the way so you can get online as quickly as possible. That shows you who the target audience is, people who are already living in the cloud. We want to strip out what frustrates people about operating systems. "You can take your friend's computer and if you have a Google Account you can login, but you don't need to have a Google Account. "It takes seven seconds from switching on to get to the browser," continues Lassman. "The original goal was two or three seconds… they're working towards it, they've halved it in a relatively short space of time and it will only get better.
As with Android, Google aims to ensure a consistent experience across all Chrome OS netbooks with a hardware spec for manufacturers. "There is a guideline that we have for the OEMs. It's a reference for what we want to have, including the keyboard [layout], the trackpad and screen resolution." But is Chrome OS too restricted by the lack of availability of apps and is Chrome OS, the browser and the Chrome Web Store yet another closed ecosystem? "We're really trying to avoid the idea of a walled garden," counters Lassman. "We're trying to keep people on the web. The whole idea is that we're giving access to the web. The whole operating system is just based on bringing people online." "I think what this comes down to is that there's so much you can do on the web itself. When I'm on my computer I'm using a web browser 95 per cent of the time. So I wouldn't think of it as a closed system as we have the whole web. The apps are optimised… ultimately you get to use the whole web. " Apps on Android and Chrome OS Lassman also said it would be relatively simple to port apps between Chrome OS and Android due to the HTML5 standards used – and there's additional benefit from the Chrome Web Store's payment system. For developers using the Chrome Web Store in this way, Google charges developers a processing fee of 30 cents plus five per cent of the transaction amount. "For developers, having the payment built in gives them the incentive to design apps. Since you are basically building an advanced website, it's not the situation where you would have to rebuild." Chrome OS is a totally open source project unlike Android. Google is not releasing the source code for Android 3.0 Honeycomb in an attempt to attain a unified experience with all Honeycomb tablet devices. We'll be bringing you a full review of Chrome OS on TechRadar when we have a final unit. 
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| Posted: 01 Apr 2011 06:12 AM PDT  If beauty were only screen deep, the Nokia E7 series would stand a good chance in a Miss Handset competition, even up against the likes of the iPhone 4, HTC Desire S and Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. This QWERTY keyboard phone boasts a four-inch capacitive touchscreen, AMOLED ClearBlack display and sleek brushed aluminium casing that feels great in the hand. It's just under 14mm thick, but fairly lightweight for its size and depth. A strong double-thumbed push to the tilt and slide mechanism will reveal the well-spaced, rubber-buttoned QWERTY pad. The hinge is a little stiff, but the solidity is appreciated. The weight is nicely balanced held portrait, landscape or with the keypad out, and the touchscreen isn't overpowered by unwieldy additional keys.
The soft keys it does have are spare and nicely designed, sticking to a keypad lock (which can be easy to accidentally brush with a palm), camera key, volume rocker and menu button.
The colours look brilliant on-screen, despite a fairly low resolution and in all lights. It houses an 8mp LED flash camera and additional front-facing camera for video calling, HDMI-out, and did we mention that gorgeous-for-typing QWERTY keyboard?
This is indeed a sleek handset. A pretty handset. A, dare we say, rather sexy handset. Oh okay, it's pretty much a bigger Nokia N8 with a dab of Nokia N97, but we'll let that slide.
Then you delve a little deeper… and you realise this little pageant contestant probably isn't getting past the swimwear round. You open on a Home screen so cluttered, you're not sure where to look first, in fact, you're not entirely convinced this isn't just the menu for the entire phone.
It's not, and there's even two more Home screens to flick through, each with that pregnant Symbian pause before it finally moves on to the next. Running Symbian^3, this is supposed to be part of the 'next wave' of Symbian smartphones, but given the announcement that Nokia are pairing with Windows, this handset seems redundant before we even start; like a final attempt to push out a Symbian-powered phone that doesn't drive you insane with its lack of intuitiveness.
It's also having a bit of a personality crisis – is it a PMP? Is it a business phone? It's not really sure what it is and ends up being neither one nor the other… a sort of bland mash of the two. If you love to see the innards of a phone, tough luck. With a nod to the iPhone, the Nokia E7's battery is hidden away behind the metal casing, with a sliding SIM card tray and few ports. The HDMI-out, micro-USB and 3.5mm multimedia jack are all located at one end of the phone.
Overall it's a well-specced piece of kit, rather let down by the software it runs on, and given that it's debuting at £499 SIM free (you what, Nokia?!) or free on a £35 contract. Nokia E7 review: InterfaceAh, the interface. Here lies the reason why the Nokia E7 isn't the best available in its price bracket: it runs on Symbian. Even running the more lauded Symbian^3 doesn't help – it's still slow, laggy software. If you're not a previous Nokia owner, then know that the user experience is clunky and filled with trial and error, though flipping from slab to slide-out QWERTY has thankfully no worse a reaction time than anything else you ask this handset to do.
It's not instantaneous, though, and again Nokia proves that HTC handsets utilising Sense UI, such as the HTC Desire S and HTC Incredible S, are the only smartphones that can keep up with the iPhone 4 for usability. Navigating the phone is everything you've seen before – grid menus, neat and organised (if not intuitive), and customising the three Home screens would mean you'd rarely have to dip into the main menu if you really wanted to avoid it.
That said, actually customising takes too much effort in our opinion and you absolutely have to have four widgets to a column or none at all, which seems a little daft. Unlike previous handsets, the organization of the menu isn't particularly intuitive. Thanks to the larger screen, email is no longer grouped in with Messaging and is lumped into the Applications widget. Not too awful, but it was handy to have an email inbox hooked up to the SMS/MMS inbox.
On the plus side, the Nokia E7 will happily multitask away, but closing any of those open apps takes an embarrassingly long time – in fact, the amount of times we accidently opened an app instead of closed it because of the lag was a constant source of irritation. On the subject of lag, the sluggishness between Home screen swipes is also disappointing. It rarely crashed however, though if it did it would be because Nokia Ovi clients were humming away, forgotten in the background.
The amount of interactions a simple option can take does make you feel like you're dialing the automated bank service of the smartphone world. "Choose from the following options… Press 1 to be a little frustrated. Press 2 for a dollop of 'Where did I find it…?' confusion…" Overall it gels together provided you're used to it and takes a little bit fiddling around if you're not, which, while not too bad, isn't intuitive enough to excuse the price point. Nokia E7 review: Contacts and callingThis should be the bread and butter of the Nokia phone. Contacts and call log are accessed through Home screen shortcuts and laid out in a scrolling list view (whichever way you tip the handset).
Here, it's a trademark Nokia phone all the way – utilitarian, useful, and a bit boring, frankly. Supported smart dialing and minimal social integration is about as interesting as it gets on the Nokia E7. After transferring SIM contacts to the phone memory, we could search through 'social networks' (by this, Nokia simply mean Twitter and Facebook) and sync, adding imagery to the phonebook entry.
But to see any sort of social network status updates we had to then click through the Nokia Ovi client, wasting time while it loads and you sign in, to then have to dip into the Facebook or Twitter mobile site.
Clearly this handset has nothing on the HTC range, including its closest in design, the HTC Desire Z. It also misses a trick not linking contacts to Foursquare, plus populating your contacts list with imagery takes a huge amount of time. So, from the features it doesn't have, to the simple things it can do: If you're called by an unsaved number, simply dip into the log, long tap the number and the option to save to contacts will appear. Dip into the settings to set up speed dial shortcuts, which can then be accessed through the Call button on the Home screen.
The dialler is easy to reach through a Home screen shortcut, as is the call log, though you can get to this through the dialler, too.
Favourite contacts can be added to the contacts list, ensuring they're always at the top. And smart dialing ensures typing in a number will bring up the corresponding letters from the alphanumerical pad, for quicker, intuitive dialing.
There is the option of voice operated dialling, but amusingly the voice dialling recognition isn't very keen on Northern accents apparently; asking it to dial "Mel" would result in choosing to dial "Neil" or "Dan". Obviously not what was said, though others may disagree. Unless your voice sounds particularly robotic in the first place, we'd stick to regular dialing.
There's also a video calling option, though we'd hedge a bet that most of your contacts won't be utilising this particular feature, it's nice to know it's there.
Of course, this is the one type of smartphone that will excel at actually calling people. Nokia's can never be faulted for that. The connection was tenacious, even in a loud pub with one bar of signal we could still have an clear-enough conversation. It's great that despite being a sleeker-looking, fully featured phone, it still retains its 'Old Faithful' Nokia calling capabilities. Call quality is clear and the volume gets nice and loud, and can be adjusted using the volume slider. However, clicking to the Home screen doesn't result in the call ending, meaning a few awkward voicemails were left before realisation dawned. Lesson learned: always click red, kids.
Nokia E7 review: MessagingThe SMS/MMS messaging caries the bog standard recognisable interface for every Nokia handset anywhere, though it's simple and easy to use. There's a nice conversation view for SMS, but this is where the niftiness ends, and everything from here is bland but useful.
There's no universal inbox but the unified email client means you can easily switch between multiple protocols, and it's a doddle to set-up – just put in your email and password and the E7 does the rest.
For when you're using the touchscreen QWERTY keyboard in landscape or the alphanumeric keypad in portrait, there's a comforting haptic buzzing, but we can't believe there's STILL no mini QWERTY in portrait. Boo, we say. Instead it's still the standard portrait experience of a touchscreen keyboard: middling responsiveness to typing, forcing you to slow down, and unintuitive spell correct that means you have to tap the correct word to replace the badly spelled one.
But you're unlikely to use the touchscreen keyboards much when there's a gorgeous hardware keyboard – the standout feature of the phone. The landscape format makes for more comfortable typing than on, say, the BlackBerry Bold 9780, and the soft rubber keys are nicely spaced for quick typing. Even for small-handed people, it's a comfortable and tactile keypad that you'd be happy enough to use if you've got a long email to draft. However, if you're attempting to bash out a text with drink in hand, you'll have to find somewhere to rest that beer – the handset is far too heavy and clunky to use one-handed. There's autocorrect and autocomplete, but both are turned off by default. An interesting option (but one we wonder about including) is the option to listen to text messages. Worth doing though, if just to hear a robotic voice say the words: "Mega awesome: smiley face, big smile." Nokia E7 review: InternetWith its beautiful four-inch touchscreen, 3G and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi capability, you'd think internet browsing would be a thing of joy on this machine. Sadly, this isn't so. It's a bit of a chore, actually. The built-in Nokia browser doesn't automatically fit the page to the screen and is fairly slow to load perhaps due to the processing speed (680 MHz). The capacitive touchscreen allows for pinch zooming and the quality of the pages on the screen are of passing crispness despite the fairly low 640 x 360 resolution, though it doesn't allow for zooming too far out and still being legible. Plus, when pinch zooming, the browser stutters often.
Flash Lite 4.0 is a welcome software inclusion, which also supports a majority of Flash 10.1 content, but pulling up the YouTube widget automatically takes you to the mobile site, means watching a tiny media player that doesn't fill the screen with patchy quality video when you do zoom in. Streaming on the BBC iPlayer widget (which is essentially the mobile site) doesn't take too long to load, and stays a good quality when zoomed to full screen.
There's no text reflow, so get used to scrolling left and right if you need to zoom way in on the article you're reading.
Aside from the frustrating speed, the browser is clunky to navigate and if you're not a Nokia or Symbian user, may take a little trial and error to get you around the browser's features as they're not clearly marked. It takes far too many interactions, for example, to reload or find the browser history, which is rubbish if you accidently pressed a button and need to go back quickly. That said, when you do find the history, the swipeable thumbnails are a nice touch.
Opera Mini is available to download for this handset. Funnily enough, it provides what Nokia can't in the form of a mini QWERTY touchpad in portrait mode. It's a little slower to load, if that's possible, than the built-in browser, but provides text reflow and a slightly-less-juddery zooming experience, so we'd use it over the E7's own browser if we were catching up on our news. Other than that, there's little to separate them.
Nokia E7 review: Camera
The camera boasts a decent eight-megapixel camera with dual LED flash that handily beats the HTC Desire S's paltry five megapixels, but doesn't match up to the Nokia N8's 12MP. Although it's easy to open using the soft camera shortcut key built into the case, the UI is ultimately disappointing – it's too fiddly, with not enough preset modes, and those that are there are time consuming to get to.
The dedicated key is a nice touch, making it easy to open the camera, but it does take a few precious seconds to load. The soft key makes it far easier to take actual pictures and video, though, a bonus that iPhone and HTC Incredible S users may envy. There's tap-to-zoom but no autofocus, though there is face recognition software and the scene modes available include portrait, landscape, night and night portrait. Fairly limited choice, we would say… not a macro mode in sight. You're not exactly going to become the next Bailey or Attenborough with this handset. If you're a dab hand with cameras in the first place, you can play (to some extent) with the white balance, ISO, exposure and so on, but most choices are preset and, given that you can't change the shutter speed, messing around with them only gives you marginally better photos. The LED flash is surprisingly powerful; so much so that there's a chance we may have half-blinded a small Australian singer. Oops.
Click here for full-res version OUDOORS: In direct sunlight and automatic capture mode, the colour is sucked out of the picture almost completely
Click here for full-res version CLOUDY: In cloudier conditions and auto mode, the quality is much better with the images retaining a true-to-life colouring
Click here for full-res version INDOORS: Indoors in night mode is where the camera really shines. Taken during a gig, the quality and colour of this picture is excellent
Click here for full-res version EFFECTS: There are colour modes for editing. This is the above picture in black and white, which works really well and looks, if possible, even sharper than the colour version There is the choice to upload to Twitter or Facebook. It also uploads photos in such a ninja-ery way that it's loaded before you can caption or generally add any explanation to the image that's about to land on your Facebook wall. Nokia E7 review: VideoThe video quality holds up better than the camera, boasting HD quality 720p resolution, shooting at 25fps. In a dimly lit club, it made all the difference. The quality on the handset screen is excellent, though it loses a little clarity played back on a bigger screen. The microphone picks up a singer's voice in a noisy gig excellently. But again, as with the camera, pre-set modes are sparse and you can choose from a selection of Automatic, Low light or Night mode.
Somewhat making up for the lack of interesting camera modes is the video editing software. It's no iPad 2 iMovie, but you can make passably interesting videos with scene fades and titles. Sadly there's no using photo stills allowed. If you're a video caller or a fan of MySpace ego-shots, there's a secondary camera tacked onto the front of the handset, but the quality is dire and grainier than your average British beach. Plus, despite the front-facing camera, the Nokia E7 doesn't yet support live-streaming, nor can you download Qik from the Ovi store.
Taken in night mode at an indoor gig, quality is great and not as grainy as you would have expected. Audio is excellent. Using the full 3x digital zoom, the image was still excellent with very little pixilation. Nokia E7 review: MediaDespite being billed as a Communicator phone, the Nokia E7 is media-heavy (the iPlayer widget means Prof Brian Cox on your handset, yay!) with an internal 16GB memory, though, the same as the smaller iPhone 4 size, there's no external memory card slot, or indeed, way to claw out the battery if the phone freezes and/or dies an untimely death. It has a good array of apps, widgets and players, coming pre-loaded with a BBC iplayer widget, CNN video widget, YouTube and a Paramount movie trailers app. The menu for the latter is so old, it reads like an airplane in-flight system from five years ago (Failure to Launch, really?). That said, if you like watching ancient movie trailers (you know, before you go rent the video from Blockbusters) the quality is good, the footage sharp – even in fullscreen mode – and the volume is excellent.
You can have widgets for all of the above, plus the media player, on the Home screens, just a short finger swipe away.
The Nokia E7 supports the usual suspects in audio codecs (MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, E-AC-3 and *gasp* AC-3) for the music player, and when holding the phone both landscape and portrait you're able to swipe through album covers in a rather, ahem, familiar-looking format.
Building a playlist is easy, simply long press the name of the song you want to add. You can even begin a new playlist there and then.
The sound quality of the speaker is sharp but interestingly, when testing video with our own headphones, we could only hear the background noise, not the person speaking. This occurred when watching the BBC iPlayer app and YouTube, but not with video we'd recorded ourselves. Similarly, listening to the music player with low-end headphones produced an odd, tinny/underwater sound, but after a little futile fiddling with the equaliser, delving into the settings instead and pulling the balance all the way to the right restored the vocals to the backing track for the media players and music player.
The Nokia earphones the handset comes with feel cheap, but attempt to provide a little comfort with different sized in-ear buds. Listening to them for an extended period would be hideous though, and the sound quality is as middling as expected, with awful distortion at the highest volume. The chassis is comfortable enough to hold while watching movies and the audio jack is nicely placed to the top right, meaning no jabbing into prone palms. Again, you can add a shortcut to the Home screen for ease of video watching (and indeed, photo viewing). For the video player itself, supported codecs include MPEG-4, VC-1, Sorenson Spark and Real Video 10. Once you're into the player, it's simple to navigate. Videos are browsed in a list, rather than thumbnails, and the touchscreen controls are simple and easy to use.
Social Media integration for media goes as far as being able to share with Twitter and Facebook (no YouTube integration) but even then, the recorded HD video files are often far too big to be posted to Facebook via the mobile site. Nicely, there's not just an FM radio, but a DAB Digital radio. Sweet! We thought. What a nice upgrade from your standard – oh wait. We have to use the Nokia Digital Radio Headseat DAB with it? No other headset will do? Oh. Well. What a letdown, Nokia. Still, at least we have our FM radio, and that's nice and clear. It doesn't record, or do back flips, but it can play away in the background to whatever we're doing, so what do we need DAB for? Hmph.
Nokia E7 review: Battery life and connectivityThe embedded 1200 mAh battery apparently offers a talk time of up to nine hours. We'd concur, having charged it every few hours when the battery dropped to two bars following heavy media and intermediate internet use. Actually, we'd go further than concurring, to say that if you're not rabidly streaming video or consuming internet, you'd probably get a solid two days out of the phone, given that you can turn it onto standby at night and still be woken in the morning by the alarm. Plus, on the bright side, the battery beats its HTC Desire Z and HTC Incredible S competitors. The Nokia E7 is seriously blessed when it comes to connectivity options, offering an HDMI port, micro-USB connector, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, USB On-the-Go, plus Bluetooth 3.0 as per the Nokia N8.
There is, of course, also a wall charger included in the box… for nostalgic purposes, we can only imagine.
Connecting to the TV via the HDMI cable is pretty awesome; there's little sluggishness except for what we've already seen and anything that's already of a high definition (so not YouTube videos) will be decently rendered on the larger screen. Audio files sound great, and the Spotify app makes anchoring the handset to a TV the perfect party piece. The only complaint would be the cutting off of image when playing video – apart from that, this is an excellent feature. Tethering to a PC is simple – head on into the connectivity settings > USB settings and be prompted by a kindly Nokia note. The Nokia E7 makes for a relatively slow modem, but in times of need and no open Wi-Fi to connect to, it would be a passable connection. We had no grumbles of 3G overriding any Wi-Fi connections, unlike the Nokia N8. All applications consistently opened using Wi-Fi where present, and only ever politely asked what to connect to when it wasn't available. Excellent job, Symbian^3, we'd pat you on the head if we could. As for PC connectivity, Nokia Ovi Suite is what it is – not a revolution, but perfectly usable. Or it would be, had the E7 been able to connect to the PC via Bluetooth. Despite several attempts, the handset simply couldn't find the tester netbook.
Luckily, USB 2.0 was there to save the day. If you're not too taken with the Ovi Suite then there's the standard drag-and-drop (often quicker than syncing). Nokia E7 review: Maps and appsThe Nokia E7 comes nicely kitted out for the modern business person on the go – there's Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Skype to connect you to the world, CNN widget for the news and BBC iPlayer widget for the, er, PMQs. Skype is clear, but despite the front-facing camera, it doesn't give you the option of video calling. Still, it's a nice little addition for those with friends and family in more interesting places than London.
There's QuickOffice and Adobe PDF reader, although attempting to work on a presentation would be hell on this less-responsive touchscreen. Of course, for typing, there's the lush keyboard, so at least long emails to your minions won't be a difficulty.
Spotify is available for all your premium account music needs and the phone comes stocked with a range of other fun but less-used apps, such as Last Minute hotels, Qype and the Metro. If you're not a fan of the simple usability of the Nokia Social Networks client (we weren't) then Snaptu is available from the Nokia Ovi store, or Gravity, but that'll set you back a cool £8. £8! For Twitter?
Again, all of the apps can be customised to make Home screen shortcut widgets, which is useful if you're addicted to something in particular. As usual it's the Nokia Ovi store that's the weak link in the equation. There's a decent base of gaming and social media, but sadly nothing such as, say, a free Posterous or Tumblr app, which would have been a joy to use with the available hardware. Maps Now we've raved about Ovi Maps before, and on a capacitive screen of this size it's even more fun. Pinch. Zoom. Pinch. Zoom. Although it takes a few seconds to locate via GPS, it's a strong and accurate lock when it does, and the compass doesn't waste precious seconds recalibrating the way the iPhone does. Okay, some may say it's not as pretty as Google Maps, but it's just as functional and we rather like the 3D view.
The sat nav is free and incredibly easy to use. Just hit 'Drive' and input your destination and you'll soon de directed by the usual women's voice. Heading abroad? Download the free pre-cached maps for using over there and not eating up data. Score.
Nokia E7 review: Hands-on gallery
Nokia E7 review: Official gallery
Nokia E7 review: Verdict
So much potential! So! Much! And yet… it's rather squandered by a sluggish OS and not a good enough processor to make the media capabilities shine. For this money, we're not sure you wouldn't want to pick the HTC Incredible S or HTC Desire Z for a more intuitive UI or shell out the extra few pounds a month for a better browsing experience with the iPhone 4. We liked It has such a pretty four-inch screen with AMOLED display. The colours are sharp and the screen is usable in whatever light scenarios you can dream up. It has a great battery life for a smartphone, and the keyboard is the cherry-on-top making typing a breeze (with two hands, that is). There are lots of great features, including the tethering, the HDMI port, the 720p filming capability, the attractive and balanced chassis, the four-inch capacitive touchscreen, the office apps and the QWERTY keyboard. The outside of this handset is pretty much faultless and we'd be happy to slip the anodised aluminium beauty into our pockets any time. We disliked Symbian^3, you're not winning us over, we're afraid. You lag, mate. You make internet browsing more of a chore than it ought to be, especially with such a gorgeous screen to enjoy it on. You make the User Experience a bit… pants. With a more responsive and intuitive OS, this phone could be a star in its category, but instead it limps behind the HTC Sense UI and is barely a step on from the Nokia N8. It's also a real shame that the media is so unintuitive to use. Verdict It has a plethora of great features, many of which regular Nokia users will take in their stride. It's a pretty smartphone and the QWERTY keyboard is the tops. But with better software to support the hardware specs, this handset could be a market leader, instead it's simply a little too expensive for its asking price, and forgettable overall. Related Links
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| Xbox 720 and PS4 will suit new Unreal Engine, says Epic Posted: 01 Apr 2011 04:52 AM PDT  The vice president of Epic Games thinks that new hardware should be made by Sony and Microsoft to push the company's new DX11 Unreal Engine to its limits. Speaking to industry mag Develop, Rein said that the new graphics engine justifies the need for next-gen consoles like the Xbox 720 and the PS4. "The DX11 demo itself, that's our love letter to hardware manufacturers," said Rein. "We're able to give people another road map. If companies are building new consoles - and, who knows, I mean Apple just released an iPad that's nine times the power of its predecessor." Next-gen consoles Rein explained to Develop that its DX11 demo – which was shown at GDC last month – is so good that can't build a PC good enough to run it. "That demo we've shown is aimed at the game console makers. We're telling them that this is the big leap that we think justifies that new piece of hardware you're going to build, and we're telling them that this is what we need next-gen consoles to be capable of, because we can't build a more powerful PC than the one that's running the DX11 demo!" 
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| In Depth: Google: NFC will bridge gap between online and offline shopping Posted: 01 Apr 2011 04:30 AM PDT  If you thought the NFC chips that Google has started putting into Nexus phones are just there to turn your Android phone into a Google credit card, think again; Google's plans for real-world shopping are much more ambitious than that, according to Google's Osama Bedier, vice president of platforms for mobile and new ventures. It's not just about avoiding the ads for things we already own that 75% of us see online, although Bedier would clearly like to make that more efficient. And when he says that 20% of people are more likely to buy something that a friend or family member has recommended it sounds like the FTC's privacy penalties for Buzz haven't discouraged Google from considering the opportunities in social networking. What Bedier wants to do is use the smartphone - which he calls "the iconic device of this decade" - to bridge the gap between online and offline shopping. "We're about to see some major changes. It has the promise to bring best of both worlds. Online you get unlimited inventory and the best prices; offline you get to touch and feel the product and you get to take it home with you immediately." Some UK stores are already combining the two, he points out, "Dominoes in the UK already gets a third of their delivery orders online. Tesco has the fifth most downloaded app on iTunes that allows you to scan grocery items in the store and put then on your online grocery cart for online checkout." The Google vision Bedier's vision of the future of commerce "begins to look like shopping did fifty years ago, when everyone shopped at the local store". But instead of the shopkeeper knowing you because you've shopped there for years, remembering your favourites and offering you credit if you've left your wallet at home, Bedier says technology can give shopping the personal and convenient touch. "I should be able to walk in the store and that store greets me. I decide to share my identity, I decide to share my location and when I walk in the store it greets me by name, it tells me the cheese I like is available. The fridge may have already looked at what I'm out of and created a shopping list - and it also included ingredients from recipes I liked on Epicurious. "And that shopping list turns into an in-store map where I navigate the most efficient way. If I get to an item that's out, I scan the barcode and it tells me where else I can buy it or have it delivered to my house. And when I go to check out I walk with that shopping cart directly out of the door. NFC stickers on all the items can actually tell whether the item is paid for or not and the sensor lets it go through." Already possible All the technology is there today, Bedier claims - the problem is making it interoperable. "First, payments need to go digital." Today shops make the choice of what payment methods to accept based on things like how much it costs them to process the payments; he wants to see the choice go to the customer. "All my cards - whether they're credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, private label cards - they need to move into the platform, they all need to be digital and they need to be available to me at any store I want to use them. I need to be able to use my choice of cards, not what the merchant wants to accept." And like web sites, stores should tell you what's in stock (think of a Google search that covers physical shops): "Consumers should be able to find an item in real time at any store online or off and to be able to pick it up and buy it right there. Inventory needs to live in the cloud. A merchant used to sell in a physical store and the web came along and they made a copy of that storefront. Now mobile is coming along and that model wont scale any more. Inventory needs to move and live in the cloud." None of that is going to work if you have to create an account to tell every shop you go into who you are. "Identity needs to be interoperable," says Bedier. "The whole idea of going to store by store by store and signing up for gift cards and credit cards, all this signing up - no. Identity needs to work seamlessly across merchants across devices, across use cases." It's a grand vision that needs shops and stores to reveal a lot more information - like inventory levels - than they usually make public; and we're not sure how well banks will take to making all your different cards work on the same payment system or how much we'd like shops that remember us a la Minority Report. 
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| 2011 Android App Guide launches Posted: 01 Apr 2011 04:15 AM PDT  The 2011 Android App Guide has finally arrived, bringing a huge range of expert reviews of the latest and greatest applications for your Android handset. With the news shelves dominated by iPhone and iPad app mags, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Android isn't the most popular mobile OS around, but the 2011 Android App Guide – from the brains behind the TechRadar Buying Guides – is hoping to right that wrong with reviews of the best apps around. So if you're toting the new HTC Desire S, Samsung Galaxy S or any of the fantastic handsets around then you can pick up the magazine from newsstands or from the My Favourite Magazines site right now. Massive choice "Android's open-source nature enables anyone with the know-how to produce their own apps," explained editor Jake Day-Williams. "Consequently, there are more than 100,000 on Android Market, with quality varying from truly stunning to a complete waste of time and space. "This is where we come in. The 2011 Android App Guide provides in-depth reviews of the best 300 applications for turning your phone into a games console, newspaper, book, artist's palette or sketchbook and enabling you to keep on top business even when you're away from the office." So, if you want the best App reviews around from the Android experts, then this may well be the option for you. 
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| Buying Guide: 10 best 37-inch LCD TVs in the world today Posted: 01 Apr 2011 04:10 AM PDT  Our constantly updated list of all the best 37-inch TVs in the world Which is the best 37-inch TV?Making the decision to upgrade from a bulky old 28-inch CRT TV is almost too easy, but heading straight for a 42-inch plasma can seem a little daunting. And thus the 37" size has become one of the UK's most popular shapes; a lot more impressive than a 32-incher, yet not big enough to entirely dominate a living room. It's also often the maximum size for those of us who are forced, simply by the shape of our living room, to shove a TV in the corner. It's a size division that's as competitive as any, with the big brands weighing in with both LCD and plasma TV models. Despite its direct forerunners being some of the best-reviewed (and best-selling) TVs around, Panasonic's TX-P37X20 is the only plasma left in this category.
Surrounded by LCD TVs not just from Panasonic, but from other huge brands like Sony, LG and Toshiba, the 37-inch size has become a battleground dominated by aggressively low pricing. A buyer's market, the 37" size is also home to some wonderful innovations. Here you'll find some sets properly exploiting a Full HD resolution, and TVs with built-in Freesat tuners, others with online dimensions, 100Hz scanning and even - in the case of Loewe's Connect - a luxury wireless TV that can stream music and video from a PC or Mac, before pumping out incredible sound. Loewe is hardly typical of this cut-price - and sparsely populated - genre, but it shows just what can be done at this modest measurement.
Panasonic TX-P37X20BAffordable HD ready plasma with excellent all-round performance Plasmas are exceedingly rare at this size, but previous generations of this particular model have routinely been honoured – and this version is no different. It lacks much of the more advanced functions seen further up Panasonic's range, but for frugal buyers who don't want to pay for extra bells and whistles, it delivers big performance bangs for a modest buck. It's merely HD Ready – not Full HD – but with a super-clean performance from its built-in Freeview tuner it makes the perfect all-rounder for living rooms. Read: Panasonic TX-P37X20B review
LG 37LH7000Bluetooth and value-busting good looks Comfortably one of the prettiest TVs around, with subtle red highlights, see-through bottom edge and high-gloss finish, it sports a USB slot and Bluetooth for wireless compatibility with phones and headphones. The 37LH7000's 100Hz engine works nicely too, making motion look strikingly fluid and sharp. And so long as you only set TruMotion to Low, you get the motion benefits without suffering many of the flickering, shimmering processing artefacts witnessed using higher TruMotion settings. Pictures are frequently quite spectacular, with exceptionally vivid colours, fluid and sharp images, and decent black levels. The only thing that's run-of-the-mill is its speakers. Read: full LG 37LH7000 review
Sharp LC-37LE320Sharp puts on the style with this natty LED Freeview screen Affordable and contemporary, but not loaded with the latest tech, Sharp's 37-incher offers LED backlighting and a mere 45mm depth. An unashamedly everyman screen for those who don't wish to rummage in the bargain bins, it's lack of 100Hz, networking or Freeview HD is countered by image sharpness and colour vibrancy as Sharp manoeuvres back into the upper tier of LCD TV makers. Read: Sharp LC-37LE320 review
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Posted: 01 Apr 2011 03:49 AM PDT
Sony has unveiled two new DAB radios, claiming that they blend "subtly retro looks with outstandingly crisp stereo sound".
Sony's well-received DAB radios have always been popular, and the arrival of the XDR-S16DBP portable radio and XDR‑C706DBP clock radio look set to continue that.
However, with the UK yet to get DAB+, the addition of that compatibility may be a little frustrating for Brits who snap up the products.
Compatible, but no UK service
"The XDR-S16DBP and XDR‑C706DBP are the first micro radios from Sony that offer compatibility with the enhanced DAB+ digital broadcasting standard that's now rolling out across several European countries," says Sony.
"Thanks to a more efficient coding scheme, DAB+ lets listeners enjoy an even wider range of radio stations, plus crystal clear, interference free digital sound.
"Both models offer a generous choice of 10 DAB/DAB+ presets for storing your favourite digital radio stations, plus a further 10 FM presets.
"Two new DAB/DAB+/FM digital radios from Sony add more style to enjoying your favourite broadcasts. "
Sony's XDR-S16DBP DAB/DAB+/FM portable digital radio and XDR-C706DBP DAB/DAB+/FM digital clock radio are available now.
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Sony Ericsson Xperia Play launches in UK
Posted: 01 Apr 2011 03:23 AM PDT
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, the first phone with PlayStation Certification, has managed to make its way to general release today.
There were suggestions that Sony Ericsson would have to delay the handset due to freight issues, but The Carphone Warehouse, Phones4u and Orange all have managed to nab some stock to start selling it today.
However, it's not going to be cheap - the average cost per month of the Xperia Play is over £35 per month, with the likes of Orange offering it for a whopping £40 per month deal.
All about the evil
The handset will come with five games pre-installed with a further one available to download - although there are only six titles available directly from Sony: Crash Bandicoot, Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, Jumping Jack Evil, MediEvil and Syphon Filter.
The rest of the games - of which there are over 50 at launch - are mostly Android games re-purposed for the physical Xperia Play controls, but include the likes of Avatar, Age of Zombies and Nova 2.
Early indications show that the Xperia Play phone has only received lukewarm critical success, with the lack of headline-games (Crash Bandicoot aside) on offer at launch meaning customers may not be overly excited to pay all that cash each month for a chunkier device.
TechRadar has its own Sony Ericsson Xperia Play review going up very shortly, so stay tuned to find out if it's going to be a hit... or whether we're still going to be left waiting for the definitive PlayStation Phone.
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Sony Ericsson Xperia Play launches in UK
Posted: 01 Apr 2011 03:23 AM PDT
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, the first phone with PlayStation Certification, has managed to make its way to general release today.
There were suggestions that Sony Ericsson would have to delay the handset due to freight issues, but The Carphone Warehouse, Phones4u and Orange all have managed to nab some stock to start selling it today.
However, it's not going to be cheap - the average cost per month of the Xperia Play is over £35 per month, with the likes of Orange offering it for a whopping £40 per month deal.
All about the evil
The handset will come with five games pre-installed with a further one available to download - although there are only six titles available directly from Sony: Crash Bandicoot, Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, Jumping Jack Evil, MediEvil and Syphon Filter.
The rest of the games - of which there are over 50 at launch - are mostly Android games re-purposed for the physical Xperia Play controls, but include the likes of Avatar, Age of Zombies and Nova 2.
Early indications show that the Xperia Play phone has only received lukewarm critical success, with the lack of headline-games (Crash Bandicoot aside) on offer at launch meaning customers may not be overly excited to pay all that cash each month for a chunkier device.
TechRadar has its own Sony Ericsson Xperia Play review going up very shortly, so stay tuned to find out if it's going to be a hit... or whether we're still going to be left waiting for the definitive PlayStation Phone.
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Windows 8 to include Time Machine-alike History Vault
Posted: 01 Apr 2011 03:13 AM PDT
Microsoft is apparently integrating a feature called History Vault, which sounds remarkably similar to the well known Mac 'Time Machine' in OSX.
According to Winrumors, The History Vault functionality allows users to backup files and data automatically using the Shadow Copies function and could also allow users to restore to a particular moment in time.
That, of course, apes Time Machine, and the feature is likely to start the normal bickering about how much of Windows' UI was in fact brought to market in Mac OS.
Not to worry
Not that this will really matter to PC users who opt for Windows 8, of course, who will merely be glad of the extra functionality, and not worry too much who invented it.
Although a Windows 8 build has apparently been shipped out to key partners, Microsoft is not ready to talk about Windows 8 just yet, despite TechRadar's badgering.
We can only hope that the OS can continue the sterling efforts that we saw in Windows 7 – an operating system that appears to have changed consumer opinions of Microsoft.
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Windows 8 to include Time Machine-alike History Vault
Posted: 01 Apr 2011 03:13 AM PDT
Microsoft is apparently integrating a feature called History Vault, which sounds remarkably similar to the well known Mac 'Time Machine' in OSX.
According to Winrumors, The History Vault functionality allows users to backup files and data automatically using the Shadow Copies function and could also allow users to restore to a particular moment in time.
That, of course, apes Time Machine, and the feature is likely to start the normal bickering about how much of Windows' UI was in fact brought to market in Mac OS.
Not to worry
Not that this will really matter to PC users who opt for Windows 8, of course, who will merely be glad of the extra functionality, and not worry too much who invented it.
Although a Windows 8 build has apparently been shipped out to key partners, Microsoft is not ready to talk about Windows 8 just yet, despite TechRadar's badgering.
We can only hope that the OS can continue the sterling efforts that we saw in Windows 7 – an operating system that appears to have changed consumer opinions of Microsoft.
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Schmidt nabs top-spot for CEO approval ratings
Posted: 01 Apr 2011 03:08 AM PDT
Eric Schmidt may soon be hanging up his Google CEO hat, but he has still managed to bag a 'top boss' accolade.
According to Glassdoor, which annually surveys the world's CEOS, Eric Schmidt has a 96 per cent approval rating, up from 93 per cent in 2010.
This means he usurps Steve Jobs, who has dropped from 98 per cent approval to 95 per cent.
Other notable climbers include Michael Dell, who has gone from 36 per cent to 48 per cent and Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo, who has shot up from 50 per cent to 77 per cent.
Do you approve
Glassdoor uses a pretty simple method to create its CEO index. It goes to the employees of companies and asks them: "Do you approve of the way your CEO is leading the company?"
This doesn't bode well then for Steve Ballmer. His rating fell from 46 per cent to 40 per cent.
Let's hope Windows Phone 7 is a success so he doesn't have to scrimp on the bonuses this year.
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Schmidt nabs top-spot for CEO approval ratings
Posted: 01 Apr 2011 03:08 AM PDT
Eric Schmidt may soon be hanging up his Google CEO hat, but he has still managed to bag a 'top boss' accolade.
According to Glassdoor, which annually surveys the world's CEOS, Eric Schmidt has a 96 per cent approval rating, up from 93 per cent in 2010.
This means he usurps Steve Jobs, who has dropped from 98 per cent approval to 95 per cent.
Other notable climbers include Michael Dell, who has gone from 36 per cent to 48 per cent and Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo, who has shot up from 50 per cent to 77 per cent.
Do you approve
Glassdoor uses a pretty simple method to create its CEO index. It goes to the employees of companies and asks them: "Do you approve of the way your CEO is leading the company?"
This doesn't bode well then for Steve Ballmer. His rating fell from 46 per cent to 40 per cent.
Let's hope Windows Phone 7 is a success so he doesn't have to scrimp on the bonuses this year.
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Posted: 01 Apr 2011 03:00 AM PDT
While we didn't get along with Archos' 9-inch Windows tablet, released last year, the Archos 101 thankfully addresses many of our chief concerns. The result is a highly usable and well built mobile tablet computer.
Although boasting a 10.1-inch screen, it's thinner than its older brother at just 15mm. It's solidly built yet still light, and the 450-minute battery life is more than enough to keep you entertained all day.
Bluetooth 2.1 is supported, so you can pair it with compatible devices such as smartphones and headsets.
Ports are comprehensive, including a standard USB port as well as mini USB, and mini HDMI for connecting to an external display.
The low-resolution front-facing webcam is fine for web chats, while a microSD card slot expands the 8GB Solid State Drive.
A foldout stand at the rear is a nice touch, and is great if you want to watch a movie.
Responsive screen
Navigating Google Android's menus is a smooth experience thanks to the sensitive capacitive display. Many tablets have four physical buttons along one edge for performing home, search, menu and back functions, but the Archos 101 integrates these with the touchscreen instead. This works perfectly well.
The screen is also pleasingly bright and vibrant. Movies look good, while photos are reasonably sharp thanks to the 1024 x 600-pixel resolution. However, the display's glossy surface does reflect light, which can make it difficult to view the screen when working in bright conditions.
Web browsing is quick and simple, with full multi-touch gesture support, which allows you to zoom in and out of web pages by pinching your fingers. Web pages load quickly via the built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi, the fastest available standard for wireless browsing, although there's no 3G support.
There's also no support for streaming video through websites such as BBC iPlayer or Channel 4's 4OD, and you'll need to download a YouTube app if you're a fan of the video hosting site.
You also can't access the Android Market to download apps, but Archos has provided an online store that has a reasonable selection of free and paid-for apps and games.
Performance is strong despite the limited memory, with an ARM Cortex A8 processor running the show. Slowdown was minimal, even with a number of applications open, although we did experience the occasional crash and one time we had to reset the tablet by holding down the power button.
The Archos 101 is a huge improvement over the Archos 9, with a responsive and beautiful touchscreen, excellent features and fast networking. It's a shame there's no Android Market, but the Archos alternative is commendable.
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Posted: 01 Apr 2011 03:00 AM PDT
While we didn't get along with Archos' 9-inch Windows tablet, released last year, the Archos 101 thankfully addresses many of our chief concerns. The result is a highly usable and well built mobile tablet computer.
Although boasting a 10.1-inch screen, it's thinner than its older brother at just 15mm. It's solidly built yet still light, and the 450-minute battery life is more than enough to keep you entertained all day.
Bluetooth 2.1 is supported, so you can pair it with compatible devices such as smartphones and headsets.
Ports are comprehensive, including a standard USB port as well as mini USB, and mini HDMI for connecting to an external display.
The low-resolution front-facing webcam is fine for web chats, while a microSD card slot expands the 8GB Solid State Drive.
A foldout stand at the rear is a nice touch, and is great if you want to watch a movie.
Responsive screen
Navigating Google Android's menus is a smooth experience thanks to the sensitive capacitive display. Many tablets have four physical buttons along one edge for performing home, search, menu and back functions, but the Archos 101 integrates these with the touchscreen instead. This works perfectly well.
The screen is also pleasingly bright and vibrant. Movies look good, while photos are reasonably sharp thanks to the 1024 x 600-pixel resolution. However, the display's glossy surface does reflect light, which can make it difficult to view the screen when working in bright conditions.
Web browsing is quick and simple, with full multi-touch gesture support, which allows you to zoom in and out of web pages by pinching your fingers. Web pages load quickly via the built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi, the fastest available standard for wireless browsing, although there's no 3G support.
There's also no support for streaming video through websites such as BBC iPlayer or Channel 4's 4OD, and you'll need to download a YouTube app if you're a fan of the video hosting site.
You also can't access the Android Market to download apps, but Archos has provided an online store that has a reasonable selection of free and paid-for apps and games.
Performance is strong despite the limited memory, with an ARM Cortex A8 processor running the show. Slowdown was minimal, even with a number of applications open, although we did experience the occasional crash and one time we had to reset the tablet by holding down the power button.
The Archos 101 is a huge improvement over the Archos 9, with a responsive and beautiful touchscreen, excellent features and fast networking. It's a shame there's no Android Market, but the Archos alternative is commendable.
Related Links | |
Posted: 01 Apr 2011 02:30 AM PDT
Asus is largely responsible for kickstarting the whole netbook market when it released the original Eee PC back in 2007. Since then it has released a broad range of netbooks, but has returned to its roots with the Eee PC 1018P.
Unlike some of Asus' earlier Eee PC models, this netbook boasts a high-end look and feel thanks to the brushed aluminium design. We can't remember seeing such a subtly stylish netbook before and the matt finish means it's also impervious to scratches and scuffs while you're working at home or out and about.
The 1.1kg chassis isn't a problem to carry around for hours on end and the strong battery life of 359 minutes gives you almost six hours of power, so it is great for those after a truly portable option.
Equally impressive is the 10.1-inch screen, which looks great encased in the brushed aluminium bezel. Brightness is good, as is detail thanks to the 1024x600-pixel resolution, but it's the vibrancy of colours that pleases the most, and those looking for a netbook to watch films and view photos on will find a lot to like here.
The keyboard continues the good run of form, and the isolated style allows for a crisp, clean action that's also surprisingly firm – regular typists will have no problems typing for hours on end.
Somewhat irritatingly, however, the touchpad is easy to brush when typing, so you may have to adjust your style to avoid sending bits of text flying across a word processing sheet, for example.
The Intel Atom N475 processor provides enough power for running office applications one at a time, but more resource intensive programs will quickly cause the netbook to show signs of lag. Those after both power and portability would do well to check out an ultraportable laptop instead.
Benchmarks
Battery life: 359 minutes
MobileMark 2007: 73
3DMark 2003: 767
Great features
The netbook is crammed with great features. For starters there's Asus' ExpressGate software, which allows you to boot into a separate operating system to check emails and browse the internet.
Two USB 3.0 ports are included, so you can transfer data to a compatible external hard drive at fantastic speeds, and there's also a fingerprint scanner, which is great for those after extra security.
An inclusion we are particularly impressed with is the 500GB of free online storage. This means you can save a vast amount of content from the 1018P's 250GB hard drive to Asus' servers and access it from anywhere in the world, adding convenience and security.
We were extremely impressed by the Eee PC 1018P. It's great to look at, great to use and offers commendable portability. The only slight shame is the touchpad, but don't let that deter you.
Related Links
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Posted: 01 Apr 2011 02:30 AM PDT
Asus is largely responsible for kickstarting the whole netbook market when it released the original Eee PC back in 2007. Since then it has released a broad range of netbooks, but has returned to its roots with the Eee PC 1018P.
Unlike some of Asus' earlier Eee PC models, this netbook boasts a high-end look and feel thanks to the brushed aluminium design. We can't remember seeing such a subtly stylish netbook before and the matt finish means it's also impervious to scratches and scuffs while you're working at home or out and about.
The 1.1kg chassis isn't a problem to carry around for hours on end and the strong battery life of 359 minutes gives you almost six hours of power, so it is great for those after a truly portable option.
Equally impressive is the 10.1-inch screen, which looks great encased in the brushed aluminium bezel. Brightness is good, as is detail thanks to the 1024x600-pixel resolution, but it's the vibrancy of colours that pleases the most, and those looking for a netbook to watch films and view photos on will find a lot to like here.
The keyboard continues the good run of form, and the isolated style allows for a crisp, clean action that's also surprisingly firm – regular typists will have no problems typing for hours on end.
Somewhat irritatingly, however, the touchpad is easy to brush when typing, so you may have to adjust your style to avoid sending bits of text flying across a word processing sheet, for example.
The Intel Atom N475 processor provides enough power for running office applications one at a time, but more resource intensive programs will quickly cause the netbook to show signs of lag. Those after both power and portability would do well to check out an ultraportable laptop instead.
Benchmarks
Battery life: 359 minutes
MobileMark 2007: 73
3DMark 2003: 767
Great features
The netbook is crammed with great features. For starters there's Asus' ExpressGate software, which allows you to boot into a separate operating system to check emails and browse the internet.
Two USB 3.0 ports are included, so you can transfer data to a compatible external hard drive at fantastic speeds, and there's also a fingerprint scanner, which is great for those after extra security.
An inclusion we are particularly impressed with is the 500GB of free online storage. This means you can save a vast amount of content from the 1018P's 250GB hard drive to Asus' servers and access it from anywhere in the world, adding convenience and security.
We were extremely impressed by the Eee PC 1018P. It's great to look at, great to use and offers commendable portability. The only slight shame is the touchpad, but don't let that deter you.
Related Links | |
Gary Marshall: Microsoft to Google: stop copying us!
Posted: 01 Apr 2011 02:03 AM PDT
Fans of irony rejoice: Microsoft wants Google investigated for anti-competitive behaviour. Had the news come out a day later we'd have chortled heartily, but of course this is no April Fool.
There are two questions here. One, why is an American firm asking European regulators to investigate another American firm? And two, does Microsoft have a case here?
The first one's easy. As Microsoft knows all too well, European regulators tend to take a tougher line than US ones: for example it was EU, not US, regulators who forced Microsoft to offer a ballot screen of different Windows browsers, and it was EU, not US, regulators who fined Microsoft huge amounts of cash and ordered it to play nice with other networking software.
The second one depends on whether Microsoft's telling the truth. If it is, then Google's behaving in much the same way Microsoft behaved before the EU got involved. Microsoft isn't just saying that Google is too big in search, although in Europe it is, its near-100% market share meaning that when Europeans search, they Google.
Microsoft is saying that Google's playing dirty.
Dirty flicks
Google has long argued that competition is simple: if someone makes a better search engine, people will dump Google and flock to it. But what if Google could break the internet in such a way that you couldn't make a better search engine? What if Google could access data that other search engines couldn't?
According to Microsoft, that's exactly what Google's doing.
Google isn't just a search engine. It's an enormous content provider, too. Just look at YouTube, or the books Google has been merrily scanning. According to Microsoft, Google gets better access to that content than anybody else. "It has put a growing number of technical measures to restrict competing search engines from properly accessing it for their search results," Microsoft says.
Microsoft also claims that Google gives preferential treatment to its pals. Android and iPhones get full access to YouTube's features; Windows Phone doesn't. Microsoft says it's got the app, but it can't release it without Google's permission - "permission Google has refused to provide."
Does that sound like Google? The open, fair dealing Google? Nope. But it does sound awfully like this Google, the one BusinessWeek says is getting awfully strict about its supposedly open Honeycomb OS. You want Honeycomb? You'd better play by Google's rules, and that means no Bing and no features Google disapproves of.
Microsoft, then, is accusing Google of doing a Microsoft, of rigging the game so that Google always wins. Maybe that's unfair, and maybe the allegations are entirely without merit. But I doubt it. As every playground philosopher knows, it takes one to know one - and if anyone knows what constitutes anti-competitive behaviour, it's Microsoft.
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Gary Marshall: Microsoft to Google: stop copying us!
Posted: 01 Apr 2011 02:03 AM PDT
Fans of irony rejoice: Microsoft wants Google investigated for anti-competitive behaviour. Had the news come out a day later we'd have chortled heartily, but of course this is no April Fool.
There are two questions here. One, why is an American firm asking European regulators to investigate another American firm? And two, does Microsoft have a case here?
The first one's easy. As Microsoft knows all too well, European regulators tend to take a tougher line than US ones: for example it was EU, not US, regulators who forced Microsoft to offer a ballot screen of different Windows browsers, and it was EU, not US, regulators who fined Microsoft huge amounts of cash and ordered it to play nice with other networking software.
The second one depends on whether Microsoft's telling the truth. If it is, then Google's behaving in much the same way Microsoft behaved before the EU got involved. Microsoft isn't just saying that Google is too big in search, although in Europe it is, its near-100% market share meaning that when Europeans search, they Google.
Microsoft is saying that Google's playing dirty.
Dirty flicks
Google has long argued that competition is simple: if someone makes a better search engine, people will dump Google and flock to it. But what if Google could break the internet in such a way that you couldn't make a better search engine? What if Google could access data that other search engines couldn't?
According to Microsoft, that's exactly what Google's doing.
Google isn't just a search engine. It's an enormous content provider, too. Just look at YouTube, or the books Google has been merrily scanning. According to Microsoft, Google gets better access to that content than anybody else. "It has put a growing number of technical measures to restrict competing search engines from properly accessing it for their search results," Microsoft says.
Microsoft also claims that Google gives preferential treatment to its pals. Android and iPhones get full access to YouTube's features; Windows Phone doesn't. Microsoft says it's got the app, but it can't release it without Google's permission - "permission Google has refused to provide."
Does that sound like Google? The open, fair dealing Google? Nope. But it does sound awfully like this Google, the one BusinessWeek says is getting awfully strict about its supposedly open Honeycomb OS. You want Honeycomb? You'd better play by Google's rules, and that means no Bing and no features Google disapproves of.
Microsoft, then, is accusing Google of doing a Microsoft, of rigging the game so that Google always wins. Maybe that's unfair, and maybe the allegations are entirely without merit. But I doubt it. As every playground philosopher knows, it takes one to know one - and if anyone knows what constitutes anti-competitive behaviour, it's Microsoft.
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Posted: 01 Apr 2011 02:00 AM PDT
Enthusiasm for netbooks may be waning with the rise of the tablet PC, but Toshiba has proved there's life in the old dog yet with the release of the NB550D – a smartly designed and eminently portable mini-laptop.
For a machine so clearly geared towards portable use, all-day battery life is essential and the Toshiba delivers in spades. Running for 10 hours during constant, demanding use, you can easily work for a full day away from the mains.
With its textured, rubberised lid and choice of blue or brown colour schemes, the tiny 1.2kg chassis looks great. The black plastic interior creates a stylish and striking contrast and the whole machine feels exceptionally well built.
This quality extends to the user interface, with the keyboard proving well made and great to use. The keys respond firmly and accurately and make it a pleasure to work with. Even the touchpad manages to impress, with its large dimensions providing easy accessibility.
While the screen's 10.1-inch design is found on most netbooks and is a bit too small to use as your main machine, it's stunningly bright and vibrant. Photos and videos are shown to great effect and the NB550D is perfect for keeping you entertained when on the move.
High-powered audio
Audio performance is also excellent. Stereo speakers are built into the palm rest and deliver a powerful, warm and defined sound. Their location means your hands cover them when typing, but there's no discernible effect on sound quality.
Office performance is less pleasing, but standard netbook fare. Internet browsing and office tasks run smoothly enough.
Graphics are far better, however, with AMD's Fusion technology providing ample performance for watching HD videos and even editing your photos on the move.
Benchmarks
Battery life: 600 minutes
MobileMark 2007: 67
3DMark 2003: N/A
Storage is strong and the 250GB hard drive will easily hold large collections of music, videos and photos. As with all but a select few netbooks, there's no optical drive for CD or DVD use, but an SD card reader at the front of the chassis lets you easily share files with your camera.
Finally, extra features are excellent. Bluetooth 3.0 provides high-speed, shortrange wireless connectivity, an HDMI port lets you connect to your high-definition TV and free software includes tools for office use, internet security, video editing and data backup, among others.
The NB550D is by far the best mini-laptop we've seen in a long time and Toshiba has proved that the netbook can still be great when done right. Offering great usability, ample features and all-day mobility at a low price, this stylish machine is very easy to recommend.
Related Links
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Posted: 01 Apr 2011 02:00 AM PDT
Enthusiasm for netbooks may be waning with the rise of the tablet PC, but Toshiba has proved there's life in the old dog yet with the release of the NB550D – a smartly designed and eminently portable mini-laptop.
For a machine so clearly geared towards portable use, all-day battery life is essential and the Toshiba delivers in spades. Running for 10 hours during constant, demanding use, you can easily work for a full day away from the mains.
With its textured, rubberised lid and choice of blue or brown colour schemes, the tiny 1.2kg chassis looks great. The black plastic interior creates a stylish and striking contrast and the whole machine feels exceptionally well built.
This quality extends to the user interface, with the keyboard proving well made and great to use. The keys respond firmly and accurately and make it a pleasure to work with. Even the touchpad manages to impress, with its large dimensions providing easy accessibility.
While the screen's 10.1-inch design is found on most netbooks and is a bit too small to use as your main machine, it's stunningly bright and vibrant. Photos and videos are shown to great effect and the NB550D is perfect for keeping you entertained when on the move.
High-powered audio
Audio performance is also excellent. Stereo speakers are built into the palm rest and deliver a powerful, warm and defined sound. Their location means your hands cover them when typing, but there's no discernible effect on sound quality.
Office performance is less pleasing, but standard netbook fare. Internet browsing and office tasks run smoothly enough.
Graphics are far better, however, with AMD's Fusion technology providing ample performance for watching HD videos and even editing your photos on the move.
Benchmarks
Battery life: 600 minutes
MobileMark 2007: 67
3DMark 2003: N/A
Storage is strong and the 250GB hard drive will easily hold large collections of music, videos and photos. As with all but a select few netbooks, there's no optical drive for CD or DVD use, but an SD card reader at the front of the chassis lets you easily share files with your camera.
Finally, extra features are excellent. Bluetooth 3.0 provides high-speed, shortrange wireless connectivity, an HDMI port lets you connect to your high-definition TV and free software includes tools for office use, internet security, video editing and data backup, among others.
The NB550D is by far the best mini-laptop we've seen in a long time and Toshiba has proved that the netbook can still be great when done right. Offering great usability, ample features and all-day mobility at a low price, this stylish machine is very easy to recommend.
Related Links | |
Week in Tech: Who will be the iTunes of streaming music?
Posted: 01 Apr 2011 01:43 AM PDT
This week's big news came from Amazon, whose US operation has unveiled a cloud-based music service.
Customers get 5GB of online music storage for free, rising to 20GB if they buy an Amazon MP3 album, and there are web-based and Android music players so you can listen to your stuff anywhere.
The big surprise is that Apple didn't do it first: after all, a cloud-based iTunes "digital locker" has been rumoured for ages.
Online music is becoming increasingly crowded. Microsoft's there with Zune Pass, Sony has Music Unlimited and in the UK at least, there's Spotify. Those three services demonstrate one of the big problems with streaming music: you need to get permission from the record companies, and you need to pay them for that permission.
Getting that permission for the right price can be a problem. Rumours suggest that the launch of Google Music, another cloud-based offering, has been stalled because Google can't hammer out an agreement with the labels; the US launch of Spotify has been repeatedly delayed for what we're told are similar reasons.
Charm offensive
Amazon's solution is simple: tell the record companies to get stuffed. The firm is apparently embarking on a charm offensive to win the record labels' hearts again, but as far as the cloud service is concerned Amazon's message to them has been consistent: streaming customers' own music doesn't require a licence.
Amazon has a point. You don't pay extra to stream music from your PC to your TV, or to copy MP3s from an external hard disk - so why should you pay to stream MP3s from music you've already paid for?
Amazon's service doesn't do the uploading for you, so it's essentially offering you a bit of hard disk space. What you do with that space is none of the record labels' business.
It's an argument we've heard before, and the record companies don't like it: as TechRadar's Gary Marshall points out, "MP3.com's Michael Robertson used it to justify his MP3tunes digital locker service, which is currently being dragged through the US courts by EMI."
That legal action has been going on since 2007. EMI's counter-argument is that MP3tunes doesn't own the music it streams, and therefore it isn't allowed to do anything with it.
Familiar
Robertson's been at this for a while: he launched MP3.com in 1997 when most people didn't even know what an MP3 was, and MP3tunes.com has been around for five years.
So it's not surprising that he can't resist a little dig at Amazon: "If you use MP3tunes you're already familiar with what Amazon offers because it looks just like version 1.0 we launched several years back," he writes.
The fall-out from Amazon's announcement will be significant. As Robertson says, "If Amazon can make music, including purchases, listenable everywhere without paying the major labels or publishers then Apple and Google must do the same."
That might explain why one of Robertson's allies in his court battle with EMI is Google. As he says, "If Amazon can launch an unlicensed service without any repercussions, paying the record labels no money, then what motivation would there be for Google or Apple to enter into a licence?"
"What we're seeing here is a war on two fronts," Gary Marshall writes. "We have tech firms battling with record companies to work out how the future of music will be delivered and who pays what, and we have tech firms battling one another to be the iTunes of streaming music."
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