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- Review Roundup: This week's hottest reviews on TechRadar
- Updated: Hands on: Windows Phone 7 Mango review
- Nokia: 'We won't fragment Windows Phone 7'
- Exclusive: Rumour: Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cables lose HDMI spec
- Exclusive: Nokia: Windows Phone 7 apps boom down to us
- Windows Phone 7 reaches 25,000 app milestone
- Google Chrome takes 20% global browser share
- Review: Nokia E6
- Samsung files lawsuit against Apple in the UK
- iPhone 5 and iPad 3 suppliers begin prepping materials
- IFA 2011: what to expect from this year's show
- Facebook to 'launch something awesome' next week
- Ricoh buys Pentax Imaging Systems from Hoya Corporation
- Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray UK release date revealed
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs Asus Eee Pad Transformer
- ITV launches iOS catch-up app
- Hands on: Android 3.1 review
- Gmail and Google Calendar get restyled
- Google Gmail and Calendar get restyled
- Review: MSI N560GTX Twin Frozr II
- RIM responds to irate employee's open letter
- Week in Tech: Can Google+ succeed where Buzz and Wave failed?
| Review Roundup: This week's hottest reviews on TechRadar Posted: 02 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT This week we got our hands on the first available Chromebook - the Samsung Chromebook Series 5 and though we liked its simplicity we didn't feel it was the strong start we were hoping for. The HP TouchPad fell down, too, with performance issues that blighted an otherwise lovely tablet. In the phone arena, we liked the Evo 3D from HTC, and in the world of computing, the AMD A8-3850 Fusion APU and Dell XPS 15z ticked all the right boxes. Read on for this week's hottest reviews on TechRadar. Samsung Chromebook Series 5 review Picture in your mind a new slimline laptop. It's got a 12.1-inch display and it runs only the Google Chrome web browser. It boots up in eight seconds. It resumes from sleep instantly. You're thinking of a Chromebook, a new kind of netbook designed to keep things as simple as possible - after all, the majority of us spend all our computing time in a web browser anyway. It's not for all, and this is only the first Chromebook to hit the market so it's not exactly cheap, but for technophobes who want to get online without having to deal with the baggage that comes with a Windows installation, this could be the next big thing. The Palm Pre caused a bit of a stir when it came out a few years ago. Not only was it hailed as the saviour of Palm, it was rocking a new touchscreen operating system called webOS. It was the new phone in town to challenge the iPhone! Several years later, after the Pre flopped and HP subsequently bought palm for £790m, the HP TouchPad tablet emerges with a 9.7-inch screen and an updated version of webOS. We were terribly excited about the TouchPad because we love webOS as an operating system and we like HP gear in general. So is the TouchPad the new iPad killer? You'll have to check out the review to find out. There are lots of 3D-sceptics out there, but we reckon the glasses-free 3D generation will be different. Glasses-free 3D offers stunning pain-free visuals without the need to those annoying 3D specs. The first generation of genuinely impressive glasses-free products are all in the world of mobile - it's easier to make decent glasses-free panels in small sizes. The Evo 3D is HTC's first phone with a 3D screen and from what we've seen so far, it's a bit of a gem. The lenticular 3D effect isn't flawless, but the usual HTC build quality, Android 2.3.3 and Sense UI overlay make this phone yet another one-to-watch from the smartphone giant. Is the humble graphics card on its way out? With the rise of the APU (accelerated processing unit) it just might be. An APU combines the duties of a CPU and a GPU into one chip, making for an affordable and energy efficient set up. AMD is leading the way in this field with its new Llano platform, and while it doesn't offer top-end gaming performance, in terms of bang for your buck, this is the new king. As big fans of the DellXPS 15, we were looking forward to checking out the XPS 15z. The powerful specs and slender new body on this 15-inch laptop are immediate draws, forming a combination that could be a real winner if executed right. Quite simply, the Dell XPS 15z is one of the best portable laptops we've had the pleasure of reviewing. Masses of power tucked into a slim and portable chassis, with an excellent keyboard and a sharp and vibrant screen. If you're looking for a capable laptop and can afford the £900 price tag, look no further.
Also reviewed this week... Mobile phones Sony Ericson Xperia Neo review
Laptops eMachines G627-202G25Mi review HP Compaq Presario CQ62-220SA review Toshiba Satellite Pro C660-15z review Toshiba Satellite L755-15R review Packard Bell EasyNote NS44-HR-033UK review Sony VAIO VPC-EB3J0E/WI review
AV accessories Gefen TV Auto Volume Stabiliser review Speakers
Home cinema systems Kaleidescape Blu-ray system review TVs
Motherboards 
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| Updated: Hands on: Windows Phone 7 Mango review Posted: 01 Jul 2011 11:00 AM PDT There's a big smartphone operating system upgrade coming this autumn. We're not talking about iOS 5 – although fans of this will be just as desperate to get their hands on Redmond's latest offering. It's the best part of a year since Microsoft pressed CTRL, ALT + DEL on its Windows Mobile operating system and unveiled a new smartphone system called Windows Phone 7. Up against Apple's iPhone, the young pretender Windows Phone 7 is as removed from the clunkiness of its forefather as it probably could be, heralding a new direction for the dominant force in desktop computing. But it came with some glaring omissions, and now is the time for 'Mango', the first major update to fix all that.
500 APIs have now been opened for developers. Journalists have been given a 60-plus page guide to the latest additions so that nothing is missed. The question is – is it enough? Note that we're reviewing the upgrade to Windows Phone 7 here rather than a specific handset. This article concentrates on some of the new features and is not a detailed review of the entire operating system. For comparison, we're looking at an HTC 7 Trophy running Mango (pictured left) and an HTC HD7 running the original Windows Phone 7 operating system. Please bear in mind that this is a preview build of Mango and, therefore, is missing some features which will be released when it is officially rolled out in autumn 2011.
There's one word that it is crucial to remember with Windows Phone 7 Mango, and that's "Integration." It's the backbone of the WP7 setup, because most of the operating system is linked in some way. This is even more the case in Mango than it was before the update. It makes reviewing Windows Phone 7 that bit more difficult, because sections of it are so intertwined that, in many areas, it all becomes one. For example, Facebook isn't a standalone app like it is on, say, the iPhone, but it is a fully integrated feature of the operating system, taking in many different areas (although the official app is there to offer up the full experience).
We have to say from the off: we're big fans of Windows Phone 7. From the first time we turned it on, it felt fresh and new, and that hasn't changed in Mango. It all looks the same, and all centres around the live tiles system. You can't miss them – they're huge things on the home screen that change before your eyes.
Manufacturers can't skin Windows Phone 7 in the way that they can Android (ie HTC Sense) so it looks standard whether you're picking up a Samsung, HTC or Nokia. One of the glaring omissions that Windows Phone 7 was missing on launch was multitasking for most apps. It's something Apple was vilified for over the iPhone, yet Android and BlackBerry managed easily. There's a whole argument about what it does to battery life, but something needed to be done and, thankfully, it's been done on Mango. Don't get us wrong, some functions did allow running in the background, third party apps didn't, and these would be closed as soon as you navigated away.
Now, Microsoft has enabled it for apps made by other developers. You long press the back button and it brings up a task switcher not unlike the cards system seen on WebOS. It's pretty and the idea is that it picks up where you left off so that when your switcher screen appears, you see exactly what you were doing in the relevant apps before you switched.
We think it works in a similar way to the iOS method of effectively freezing apps in the state they're in when you leave them and resurrecting when you switch back rather than just constantly running. We say "think" because we had a few issues with it, and found it to be flaky at best.
For example, we downloaded the official Twitter app (native Twitter support is another matter we'll discuss later) and found a rather strange anomaly. We browsed halfway through our DM feed and then pressed the Windows button to take us back to the main screen. We then held down the back button to bring up task switching and went back to Twitter, which picked up where it left off. However, we found that if we went back into Twitter via the app icon (we'd created a tile on the home screen) rather than the task switcher, it just restarted the app and took us back to the top of the timeline. If you're in the middle of composing a tweet or halfway down a massive feed on your Windows Phone 7 Mango phone, this is going to be incredibly annoying if it makes it to the final version.
That was as good as it got, unfortunately. We tried it with other apps and it didn't work at all. For example, Sonic the Hedgehog told us it was "resuming" when we tried to go back to it via the task switcher, only to then take us back to the very beginning. We're talking the best part of a minute from the SEGA splash screen to playing, which means that if this isn't sorted out in the final release, gamers are likely to get very grumpy indeed. And don't get us started on not being able to set your own tune as a ringtone on Windows Phone 7 Mango. Still. What is this? 2007? Even the original Windows Mobile allowed you to do that!
If you've used HTC's Sense interface on Android phones such as the HTC Sensation, you'll know how well the Taiwanese manufacturer likes to integrate contacts and networks. Bring up a name and you can see every method of contacting them under the sun, as well as recent social media updates. That's something Windows Phone 7 was big on from the start – and thankfully, on Mango, it just gets better. Facebook is the name of the game here. Microsoft has taken deep integration and made it even deeper.
You log in when you first start the People tab up and it does a brilliant job of syncing up Facebookers to those in your address book or other online services (we used Google Contacts and had no problems at all). Your People tile is constantly updating on the start screen with various contact pictures. It's purely aesthetic, but it really looks good. As before, when you access people, there are three sub-tabs: What's New (Facebook status updates), Recent (profiles you've viewed recently) and All (for all contacts).
But there's some new eye candy in Windows Phone 7 Mango too. At the top of the All section, you'll now find yourself – your Facebook profile picture with a little detail. And when you go into the picture, options appear to post a message to various social networking sites, check in on Facebook, view your own notifications and set your chat status on various IM channels (including Facebook chat). You can also access it all by using the new 'Me' tile that is automatically created on the start screen.
Contacts' Facebook albums are viewed from within their own contact card in the People section and you can also tag photos. This is what we mean about deep integration. There's no need for a Facebook app, because the key functions are all built right into the operating system, which is a bit unnerving at first when you're so used to doing it the old fashioned way but it soon becomes second nature.
Within the All section, you can now create not just new contacts but also groups. This works brilliantly if you want to just follow what's happening with a smaller group of friends or colleagues, because it not only aggregates all of their news, photos and feeds in one place, but also allows you to send a group message to them via text or email (although, curiously, not through Facebook itself on our review unit). As with most aspects, you can also create a shortcut tile on the home screen to the group. It's an almost perfect implementation that other phone manufacturers could learn lessons from. Being a Microsoft phone, it naturally hooks up to Exchange without issue, and you can therefore browse contacts easily. Of course, if you're over the age of 15 you'll probably be more interested in the likes of Twitter and maybe LinkedIn than solely Facebook. They form a key part of the new Windows Phone 7 Mango operating system, with the promises of deep integration too.
We'd love to tell you how great it all works. But unfortunately we can't, because whenever we tried to set it up, we just got a "coming soon" message on our handset. To be fair to Microsoft, it did state in its reviewers' notes that it's still working on this and that it'll be ready by Mango's launch, so we're not too worried. We are intrigued and puzzled by why it's taken it so long – as Twitter APIs have been open for a long time – and why there was no Twitter integration from the very start of Windows Phone 7. But, if it's anywhere near as good as the Facebook integration, we'll have to give Microsoft a pat on the back. It certainly makes Apple's offerings in iOS 5 of Twitter integration look incredibly basic, at best.
There are some nice tweaks to the messaging section of Windows Phone 7 Mango. Previously, you'd open it and just have a Conversations area. Now, you have two: Online and Threads. Threads are stitched versions of your messages, including SMS and MMS. It all looks very nice and works as it should. Online is just what it says on the tin – it tells you which contacts are online via the various IM methods you're logged into. Of course, to use it you have to set it all up, and we struggled. In fact, more than that, we just couldn't get it to work. Several times we tried to log into Facebook chat (in theory, you only should need to do this once and then just toggle your availability) but we just got what looked like an Internet Explorer web page telling us that the page is not valid. Again, we hope this is fixed by the time the mass rollout begins, and put it down to this being a preview build.
Email is now linked, so you can either have separate inboxes or have all emails consolidated in one, and create tiles to whichever you choose. You also get a conversation view so you can keep track of a particular email trail. It's one of those small things that you miss when you don't have it, and we're glad to see it implemented well on Windows Phone 7 Mango. The latest message is prominent, with older messages slightly indented, so it looks clear and neat. You also get a search function. It's not accessed through the search softkey (which is now exclusively linked to web searches via Bing) but an on-screen icon. We tried and failed to use it to search our Gmail account and just got the message: "Can't connect. If you have good reception, the problem may be at the other end." Considering we had a full 3G and Wi-Fi signal and were able to search Gmail on the phone using the web browser, we put the problem firmly at Windows Phone 7 Mango's feet.
Also, emails from our Gmail account didn't download images automatically – we had to select that option in each message. It's not a big thing, but it's enough of a pain to prompt a few tuts and shaking of the head when we were reading recently received emails on the underground, and therefore couldn't enjoy them properly. Naturally, Exchange support is all there, and you can do things like sync your to-do notes with it and control your out of office autoreply now. Calendars
Calendars are completely absorbed into the phone operating system, which looks brilliant. It's not just a case of seeing your Google or Windows appointments mixed in with your Facebook events as you can with other systems – you can actually open Facebook events from within the Calendar app and browse who is going/not going/hasn't replied to an event. And if you haven't replied, you can RSVP without leaving the calendar. Again, it's deep integration, and it works brilliantly. The Facebook experience has been taken, repackaged with the Windows look and pumped into Windows Phone 7 Mango, and we can't rate it highly enough.
But for every peak, there's a trough – and we found it fairly early on. Yes, you can have calendars from multiple sources (Exchange, Windows Live, Google, Facebook and so on) and they'll live side-by-side in harmony. But not, it would appear, from multiple calendars from the same source. We're big users of Google Calendars, as are millions of potential Windows Phone 7 Mango owners, and one of its great benefits is the fact that you can have multiple calendars. But you can't if you're rocking Windows Phone 7 Mango, which only accesses your primary calendar. We searched and searched and couldn't find a decent way to add more calendars. In fact, it appears the only way to do it is through a rather crude method, which involves setting up various Google accounts and accessing them all individually. We can't imagine what Microsoft is thinking here. It's not the kind of thing it would just forget to include and, considering Apple and RIM manage it, there can't be any issue with it being an Android-only perk. Whatever the reason here, Microsoft needs to sort it out. Keyboard
There's no change to the keyboard that we noticed apart from imporved accuracy and better word prediction, which is a great thing. We're big fans of the Windows Phone 7 keyboard, which is one of the best out there, so we're glad that Microsoft have applied the 'if it aint broken, don't fix it' mantra in its Mango update.
Voice instructions have been slightly updated in the Windows Phone 7 Mango update, so that you can now do more with them. But this is providing you talk like an American robot, presumably, as it struggled with our British accents. Previously, on Windows Phone 7, it was only possible to use the service to call contacts (with its own limitations being that it got easily confused) and open calendars. Now, you can throw extra instructions at it such as "Text Mum and Dad" – although in our test this actually then texted the not very similar-sounding Claudio Lavanga!
But if you're planning on using a Windows Phone 7 Mango handset to dictate SMS messages, get ready to be swearing at it a lot, because in our experience, it wasn't worth the breath wasted on it. Yes, we know that it's dependent on a lot of factors – regional accents, speed of speech and background noise among them – but compared to the frankly amazing Dragon Dictation app, which works perfectly 99% of the time, we were left sorely disappointed. We did have better results when using voice instructions to search the internet. However, that was mainly because when it misspelt what we'd dictated, Bing was smart enough to autocorrect it. The voice implementation on Windows Phone 7 Mango is poor, at best. What it's potentially capable of is a lot. What it delivers is not very much at all.
Microsoft tells us that there are now more than 18,000 Windows Phone 7 Mango apps to download from the Marketplace (and that figure may already be higher). It may not yet be in the six figure territory of the other two big mobile phone operating systems, but it's not a bad start for a system that's less than a year old. And now third party multitasking is built in (if you can get it to work), you'll find that number steadily increasing. Also, with the likes of Nokia now on board, the number of Windows Phone 7 Mango handsets is set to explode – incentive enough for eager app developers. The big thing for Microsoft here, again, is integration. It says that other operating systems have lots of apps that don't talk to each other, and that's what it's trying to correct. The live tile integration with third party software is one example of that now the APIs have been opened up.
At least it should be. We tried two of the big Twitter apps – Beezz and Seesmic – and neither of them had live updating of tiles when we had new tweets, mentions or DMs. We assume this is because, although Windows Phone 7 Mango is now capable of such interactions, the third party apps will themselves need updating to work. One of the things we found puzzling with the original Windows Phone 7 iteration was the inconsistency with the search button on the phone. Sometimes it would open up a search on Bing and sometimes it would open up a search within an app, and you never knew which it would do until you pressed it. Thankfully, Mango has fixed that and now, whenever you press the search key, no matter what app you're in, all you'll see is a Bing search screen. Should you wish to search, say, the Marketplace, or within an app, a separate on-screen search button is now provided. Speaking of the Marketplace, it's had a slight refresh itself. Select an app or a game and you're presented with the information over multiple tabs (ie Reviews, Screenshots and so on). It looks much better than it did before, where all information was just thrown onto one page, and is more consistent with the rest of the operating system.
Something we're big fans of in Marketplace is the 'try before you buy' option. We've long wished Apple would adopt this for its iPhone App Store, but fear we'll be waiting a long time. Android does offer refunds within 15 minutes, but it's often a pain to initiate. This is a big plus for Microsoft – and we're extra glad when you look at the prices. We're not sure if Windows Phone 7 owners are a particularly wealthy lot, but you'll need to be to download some of these apps, which are priced way higher than their iOS contemporaries. For example, Sonic the Hedgehog is £5.49 on Windows Phone 7 Mango, compared to £2.99 on iOS. Plants V Zombies comes in at £3.99, compared to £1.99, and Need for Speed Undercover is also £3.99 – a sizeable increase on the App Store's £1.79 pricetag. We're sure that it could be argued that developers decide the price, not Microsoft, but considering this is a new operating system and one of its selling points is the wealth of apps, it's unfortunate for Microsoft that the devs seem to be pricing them so highly.
We're still irked that you can't reorganise apps, either – they're displayed alphabetically. But at least you're now provided with an on-screen search button so that you can jump to what you want if you have lots in there. Before, you had to manually scroll, which proved slightly tiresome. You can also pin commonly used apps to your home screen as tiles, so all is not lost, although we'd like to be able to just hold down on the home screen and pin items to it that way (as you can with Android) rather than having to go into the app list, find the app and do it the long way round. Still, it only takes an extra few seconds, so that's not a deal breaker. We'd also like to see app folders introduced like on iOS, but maybe that'll come in the next build. When you download an app from the Marketplace, it now takes you to the main menu so you can see your app in the list, and a tap of the Back button takes you back to the Marketplace. Before, it would install the app in the background but keep you in the Marketplace at the same time. It's a matter of personal preference whether you like this tweak or not. There are also a few other small changes – for example, you can now send/accept/reject friend requests on X-Box live, and there are parental controls for the responsible among us.
For music lovers, a Smart DJ element now takes what it calls 'seeds' and creates playlists from whatever songs it finds on your Windows Phone 7 Mango handset, and even searches through the Zune catalogue (if you have a pass). Think 'Genius' in iTunes repackaged with a Microsoft flavour. And the music element of Mango is all woven into the Marketplace, so that whereas before it just took you to the Media section, it now takes you to the generic Marketplace where you'll find all downloadable content. There's also support for FM radios – if your handset is equipped for them – which we're always pleased to see. Despite the thoughts of Cupertino, some of us do actually like listening to an FM radio as well as paying for music through iTunes. There's a podcasts marketplace available too, but don't get too excited if you're in Blighty as this is a US-only feature, for some reason. Other than this, you'll find a few other tweaks in there – for example, the option to shuffle music is now much more prominent (Microsoft says a lot of people complained they could never find it) and the mini playback buttons are not as mini as they were before. Also, when you're watching videos, you'll now find the fullscreen toggle button removes the black bars. They're all minor cosmetic changes but things we nevertheless found to work well. Office
For the professionally-minded, you still have access to one of Microsoft's biggest selling points: Office. Again, you'll probably not notice, but there are some very small cosmetic tweaks for Windows Phone 7 Mango – for example, there are now icons on the start page where there was text before. And there's a huge push to get you sharing and posting your documents on SkyDrive (not to be confused with SkyNet, which you should probably steer clear of if your name is John Connor.) You can edit and upload both your documents and friends' docs on SkyDrive (access permitting), which we had some success with when playing around with it. However, we had no success when it came to creating a new Word document – every time we tried, the phone just crashed and rebooted. That aside, Microsoft has put in a lot of work to targeting this at corporates, and is promising there will also be support for Office 365 and Lync. We're excited to see how it all works when the bugs are ironed out. Imaging
Back to Facebook then – because again, here is another area where it's deeply integrated into Windows Phone 7 Mango. You feel albums are less Facebook's and more yours. Go to the pictures section and all of your albums magically appear, as if they've always been there alongside the camera roll. Go to a contact and you'll find their pictures and albums in there. Go to a group that you've created on the phone and all of their albums are in there as well. The thing we like here is there's no ONE method of accessing photos. There are lots. No firing up a Facebook app like you do on an iPhone. It's just all there, and feels in no way like an add-on but an integral part.
It even extends to tagging. Take a photograph and Mango asks, rather cheekily, "Who's this?" because it recognises faces. Well, it recognises there are faces in the picture rather than recognising who said faces belong to. It makes tagging so incredibly easy and the process of then uploading it to Facebook takes mere seconds. You can also share videos now – it's hardly an innovation in terms of smartphone operating system features, but it's better to have than not, and you can add captions too.
One great new feature is the auto-fix option when you take a photo. Again, it's not new – HTC offers something similar on Android – but it's nice to have photo editing functionality built in, and we found it worked incredibly well. All it seems to do is sharpen the image and increase the brightness, but we didn't have any occasions where it failed to look better than the original image. If you like it, great. If you don't, head on over to the Marketplace where there are various third party alternatives available.
The big claim from Microsoft is that Internet Explorer for Windows Phone 7 Mango is "not just similar to the PC version – it has exactly the same platform and script engine." That's a fairly huge promise, and we instantly thought we'd cut this one down to size – especially when we read its claim that "the internet isn't built just for the PC any more." So, we went about loading various sites that regularly default to the mobile version when using Safari or Android and... well, Internet Explorer beat us every time. Pages loaded exactly as they should do on a PC, and we were mightily impressed. With one exception.
While you have HTML5 support, the dreaded "F" word crops up again. Where on earth is Flash? Yes, the browser may look flashy. Yes, it may load sites incredibly fast (noticeably quicker than an iPhone on Wi-Fi and just as fast as an HTC Sensation). But why oh why is Windows Phone 7 Mango still missing Flash? We know there are various arguments about it being buggy. We know some will say Flash is becoming less and less important with the growth of HTML5. But when you look at how well Flash is integrated on Android handsets such as Samsung's excellent Galaxy S2 and HTC's Sensation, you can see it is possible, and that leaves a bit of a sour taste. Plus, this would have given Windows Phone 7 Mango a clear lead over iOS. Come on, Steve Ballmer – just imagine being able to beat Steve Jobs about the head with that. We could sort of forgive it being left out in v1. But not in a big update such as this. There are some welcome updates here that we can't help feeling should have been there from the start. For example, you can now share web links directly from the browser via social networks instead of just through email. Apple is also introducing this feature in iOS 5, but it's something Android users have enjoyed for a long time and is hardly a tricky thing to implement. Bing search
As we mentioned earlier, we're pleased that Windows Phone 7 Mango has consistency relating to the search button, which always takes you to a special, interactive Bing homepage. If you're a Google or Yahoo fan, there's no way to change this as your default option, but you can always download a dedicated Google app. Then again, if you're buying a Windows Phone 7 Mango phone over an Android handset, it's probably because you want Microsoft's offerings. And we have to say, we were really won over by Bing here. Although we don't use it very often on the computer, it ties in really well with the Windows Phone 7 Mango interface. Search results are shown in the style of the whole operating system's design, rather than just a web page, with different tabs to scroll across. This is definitely an area where Microsoft excels above its competitors, and we really enjoyed using it. Searches are location-aware, just like Google – but it feels so much better to use on Windows Phone 7 Mango than Android, with each search bringing up local results. In fact, we can't help thinking that Android's design team could learn a thing or two here.
Following the suits of Apple and HTC, you can now register your phone and control various aspects of it from the Windowsphone.com website. It enables you to locate it on a map, lock it, wipe it and send alarms. But you can also do a little bit more, because it links into your Live account, so you can easily view calendars, photos, Zune content and Xbox details all with SkyDrive. A definite thumbs up here from us for Windows Phone 7 Mango. Looks and icons Cosmetically, you'll notice other minor tweaks – for example, the address bar is now at the bottom of the screen instead of the top and, apart from that, you have a full screen view of websites. When you first hit the search button and are taken to the Bing page, there are now four icons at the bottom of the screen. One is voice recognition, which we've already mentioned in length.
There's also a Google Goggles-style feature which can do things such as translating text – although it just told us it was "finding text" for so long that we gave up – and Microsoft claims you can use the built-in camera to scan and search. Which you can. Sometimes. If you load the camera up in a hurry to do this, you'll be flummoxed just figuring out how you get it going, because you have to go in via the search to start the camera up in this mode. It's the one area of Windows Phone 7 Mango where we felt that the integration mantra had been forgotten. On top of that, there's a Shazam/Soundhound-esque feature where it listens to music and matches it up for you. Nothing new for smartphones, but still a great thing to have. But our favourite icon has to be the Locations button – hit that and via the magic of Bing, it brings up interesting places to visit and eat near to where you are. We found it worked really, really well and got our location spot on. Maps
Mango really is fully location-aware, and it shines through. A big bonus here is the fact you can also pin said location to the home screen as a live tile. The excellent Bing Maps is on board, and we challenge any Google lover to give this alternative a try and not find it useful. But, unfortunately for Microsoft, it misses out here to Google's brilliant free Google Maps Navigation, which gives Android users a full turn-by-turn sat nav gratis. The best Bing can do is give driving directions, which isn't as good as turn-by-turn. And, unfortunately, we couldn't find any of the big boys such as Tom Tom, Co Pilot, Navigon or Garmin present and willing to play in the Marketplace. There were various cheap options in there, but nothing that filled us with complete confidence. And until you can buy a full sat nav app or Bing offers a similar service to Google, this may have a real impact on your decision to go for a Windows Phone 7 Mango phone.
We're really torn between giving Windows Phone 7 Mango a good rating or a bad rating for a number of reasons. It feels like Windows Phone 7 is the new kid on the block and, therefore, should probably be cut a bit of slack. But even if it is, Microsoft has been making mobile phone operating systems for longer than Apple and Google. Windows Mobile had a few diehard fans, but the majority of people hated its clunkiness (and don't get us started on ActiveSync) which is why it never reached the top of its game and, eventually, had to be pulled. If you're judging Windows Phone 7 Mango as a new operating system, you have to pat Microsoft on the back and be excited about what's coming. But if you're just judging Mango on how it is different to the initial Windows Phone 7 iteration, it's hard to get too excited when you realise that lots of the features being introduced are things that should probably have been there from day one. Do we congratulate Microsoft just for keeping up? We liked There are no two ways about it, the Windows Phone 7 interface – and therefore, the Mango update – is beautiful. Everything is laid out in an aesthetically pleasing fashion and you can't fault Microsoft for the way it integrates social networking. We found ourselves using Facebook more and more when it was built into the operating system than we did on our previous phone, and we didn't even realise. Extending this to Twitter and LinkedIn will make the package complete, and once those live tiles are updating third party apps properly like they should, we think Windows Phone 7 Mango will be a serious contender at the phone shop. We disliked The lack of support for multiple Google calendars really irked us – as if Microsoft was saying that it likes you if you're an Exchange user, but Google users should stick to Android. We can't, for the life of us, understand why it's not in there. We were won over by Bing but would have liked the option to change our default search engine. Although we were mightily impressed with the 'try before you buy' option in the Marketplace, we couldn't help feeling that the price of the apps we compared was hideously more than reasonable. If they don't go down, you'll find yourself buying apps a lot less rather than taking a punt on one because it's cheap. Early verdict
While the launch of Windows Phone 7 last year was revolutionary for Microsoft, the Mango update is merely evolutionary. Microsoft, in its defence, hasn't set this up as some massive upgrade (a la iOS 5) but we can't help thinking that there are still bits missing that should have been there from the beginning. We also have to bear in mind that our unit was a preview build and, therefore, missed certain features that will be in the final release. On top of that, it wasn't short of bugs, which led to it rebooting numerous times. This must be fixed before release or the Mango update won't prove popular. Having said that, Windows Phone 7 Mango does have an extremely promising future. You just have to look at the likes of Seesmic – the very popular social networking app – which recently withdrew support for BlackBerry, saying it wants to concentrate on its "core users including iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7." It's to Microsoft's credit that it is seen in such a way, and when Nokia comes on board, there's every chance Windows Phone 7 could become even more popular. Having said that, we were disappointed that lots of the features we were expecting – such as full working multitasking and live updating of third party app tiles – didn't deliver. Again, this is a preview build so they're likely to be there by the autumn, but we found ourselves more in love with the description given in the 64 page reviewers' guide than we were with the actual operating system powering the phone in our hand. Windows Phone 7 Mango still has a few months left to ripen before the general public get their hands on it. For Microsoft's sake, we hope that it ends up tasting as good as it looks. 
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| Nokia: 'We won't fragment Windows Phone 7' Posted: 01 Jul 2011 10:06 AM PDT While Nokia busily beavers away on its first batch of Windows Phone 7 devices, it is also working hard to make sure that its app store integrates seamlessly into the OS' ecosystem. Speaking with TechRadar, Nokia's Senior Vice President of Developer and Marketplace, Marco Argenti explained that Nokia is determined to avoid fragmenting the ecosystem with apps that are incompatible with other manufacturers' handsets "We'll create elements of distinction, but we don't want to fragment the ecosystem because in the end we want the whole platform to win," he told us. Team player He explained that Nokia's apps will be tailored to its best hardware assets, like high quality cameras and location services. "There will be exclusive apps but right now we're looking at time-based exclusives rather than fragmenting the catalogue; that's something that every vendor can do. "But in our case we're also trying to create new apps that really leverage some of the unique characteristics of our devices such as the imaging, the maps, the location awareness – all these differentiators. And we're trying to put those together in the form of apps in a very unique way." The company is obviously keen to stake its claim on the app store, although it's not clear if Nokia is set to re-brand the entire Windows Marketplace, or if it will simply have its own section in the same way that other manufacturers already do. "It's going to be branded Nokia," said Argenti. "You'll see the name [of the app portal] when you open the first device; but definitely the word Nokia's going to be there." 
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| Exclusive: Rumour: Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cables lose HDMI spec Posted: 01 Jul 2011 09:55 AM PDT Potentially hundreds of thousands of Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cables are to be recalled because HDMI Org has deemed the cable system to be out of HDMI spec, TechRadar has learned. A source has contacted TechRadar to explain the situation and told us that putting a Mini-DP plug on the end of a cable with an HDMI plug is 'out of HDMI spec', which effectively means that HDMI Org has banned all Mini-DP to HDMI cables on the market as of today. The Mini DisplayPort is currently used on Apple's Mac line-up, and an adaptor or DisplayPort to HDMI cable is needed if you want to hook the computers up to a HD Ready display. Out of HDMI All companies who offer these cables have to go through HDMI Org if they want to use the HDMI name and branding, which costs money - those who don't are in breach of HDMI regulations. According to our source, if all these cables have indeed been placed on the 'out of HDMI' spec list, then they will have to be changed to suit the new requirements. For them to pass, HDMI Org has reportedly requested that the Mini DP plug that currently adorns the cables has to be replaced with a socket for it to meet compliance regulations. This does mean that any Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adaptor will not be affected by the HDMI's decision. Considering this is said to cost in the region of $8,000 for each cable model to be approved, it could prove a rather expensive recall for the companies in question. TechRadar has contacted HDMI Org to see if there is any truth to the situation and is also ringing around cable suppliers to see if they have been affected. As most of these cables have been on the market for the last 18 months or so, it is still unclear whether this is a change in stance from HDMI Org or whether the cable system has taken this long to go through the HDMI compliance rigmarole. Currently there are a number of companies still offering this cable system on the Apple website, including iWires. 
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| Exclusive: Nokia: Windows Phone 7 apps boom down to us Posted: 01 Jul 2011 09:51 AM PDT Microsoft is probably feeling pretty chuffed that Windows Phone 7 has hit the 25,000 app milestone, but Nokia reckons it can take some of the credit after announcing its intention to create Windows Phone devices. As Marco Argenti, Nokia's Senior Vice President of Developer and Marketplace, told TechRadar: "After we announced our partnership with Microsoft, the amount of apps coming in to the marketplace has actually gone up quite a bit, has almost tripled. "So we've seen this inflection point very clearly that even without launching a device because they [developers] see greater opportunities come." Mine, all mine Nokia is keen to woo its army of Symbian developers over to its new smartphone platform, luring them over with the promise of success in their local markets as well as a new and bigger global audience to target. Argenti concluded, "That's one of the messages we're giving to our developers – to embrace the Windows [Phone 7] platform because we're going to bring it to all these markets that we will launch the device in. "We're going to merchandise locally, we're going to build a local ecosystem; so there's a lot of excitement for developers." 
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| Windows Phone 7 reaches 25,000 app milestone Posted: 01 Jul 2011 08:15 AM PDT Windows Phone 7 has racked up an impressive 25,000 apps to populate its app store despite being launched just eight months ago. Although not official figures from Microsoft itself, app tracker WindowsPhoneApplist pegs the total number of apps in the Windows Phone 7 marketplace at 25,076. Meanwhile, a second tracker, WP7Applications, reckons it's more like 24,878 in total, but let's face it; it all amounts to the same thing – that the Windows Phone app market is going great guns. Appy days The stats indicate that just over half of the apps in the market are free to use, with games and books taking the largest slices of the category pie. Despite being dwarfed by the likes of the Android Market, which recently hit 4.5 billion downloads, and the Apple iOS App Store which claims over 425,000 apps, Microsoft's burgeoning OS is scrambling to catch up. Now if only those device sales were looking a little healthier... 
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| Google Chrome takes 20% global browser share Posted: 01 Jul 2011 07:44 AM PDT Google Chrome took 20 per cent of the global web browser market in June 2011, according to figures from StatCounter. These stats measure actual usage and not just the number of downloads for each browser, making Chrome's leap from under three per cent two years ago, to 20 per cent today all the more impressive. Meanwhile, Microsoft's Internet Explorer usage dropped from 53 to 44 per cent between June 2010 and June 2011. Red Panda population decline Also dipping is the ever-popular Firefox, which dropped from 31 to 28 per cent over the course of the year – a fairly moderate decline, all things considered. Safari and Opera have both stayed pretty steady at around 5 per cent and 1 per cent respectively. In the UK, Chrome and Firefox are proving equally popular with 21 per cent of the market, both unable to catch up to IE's 46 per cent share. 
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| Posted: 01 Jul 2011 07:29 AM PDT The Nokia E6 follows on from its E-Series QWERTY predecessors such as 2010's Nokia E5, providing the best E-Series camera yet, touch screen navigation and the home screen capabilities of the Symbian^3 platform. The Nokia E6 is priced at £320, twice the price of its simpler sibling, the Nokia E5, but £80.00 cheaper than its weightier big brother, the Nokia E7. When we compare the Nokia E6 with BlackBerry's offerings it is slightly cheaper than the non-touch BlackBerry Bold 9780, at £340. When we compare sizes, the Nokia E6 (115mm x 59mm x 10.5mm) is slightly slimmer than the E5, while both are longer, but narrower and thinner than the BlackBerry Bold 9780 and narrower than the chunky BlackBerry Bold 9900.
If we then compare the weight, the Nokia E6 has a comforting weight of 133g, making it the heaviest of the bunch, with the Nokia E5, BlackBerry Bold 9780 and BlackBerry Bold 9900 weighing 126g, 122g and 130g respectively. This increased weight contributes to the Nokia E6's feel of robustness and high build quality, rather than making it feel unwieldy. Another area which is often compared is the processing power of these powerful phones, with the Nokia E6 sharing its 680MHz ARM11 processor and 2D/3D graphics hardware acceleration with the Nokia E7, beating the BlackBerry Bold 9780's 624MHz processor.
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 with its 1.2GHz processor beats the Nokia E5 though. But, until the Bold 9900 becomes available for testing, we can't say whether this difference is worth the likely higher price. The E6 is the first Nokia handset to come preloaded with Symbian Anna OS upgrade, providing numerous improvements over the initial Symbian^3 firmware installed on the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia E7 and Nokia C6. These include a faster web browser, improved text input, a split screen view during touchscreen typing, a portrait QWERTY for touchscreen typing, new icons and Ovi Maps 3.06 pre-installed.
The text improvements aren't visible on the Nokia E6, however, as all text input is achieved via the physical True-Type-esque keyboard. All of the other enhancements are present though. Scrutiny of the OS improvements provided by Symbian Anna finds that the only real improvement on the Nokia E6 is the improved browser, as Ovi Maps can be downloaded separately for free and the new icons are available in Symbian next+ mentioned in the Interface section of this review.
The Nokia E6 is the second E-Series mobile phone to support both the True-Type-esque keyboard and a touchscreen – a combination initially debuted on the Nokia E5. But the Nokia E6 has a lot more to offer, with the Symbian^3 firmware providing four independent home screens, which is one more than the remainder of the Symbian^3 family, with the ability to add a fifth.
It takes a while to adjust if you're either a QWERTY or full touch user, but once used to the mixed interface the phone is a dream to use, providing the best of both worlds with easy touchscreen navigation and the advantages of a physical QWERTY keyboard for text entry. One area where the Nokia E6 disappoints compared with the rest of the Symbian^3 family is in its small 2.46-inch screen when using applications such as Ovi Maps This being said, the Nokia E6 screen has by far the highest pixel count on a Nokia device for its size, at 640 x 480 pixels.
That's much higher than other E-Series phones with similar screen sizes, and far better than the Nokia E7, which has a disappointing 360 x 640 pixels on its 4-inch screen. In comparison, the BlackBerry Bold 9780 has a 360 x 480 pixel 2.44-inch screen and BlackBerry Bold 9900 has a 640 x 480 pixel 2.8-inch display. Additional to the touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard, the Nokia E6 sports four dedicated hard keys, three of which can be user modified. The fourth is the home screen/main menu button, which also opens the task manager on long press. The three user modifiable buttons are defaulted to Calendar, Messaging and Contacts, with icons to match.
The two modes of operation – long and short-pressing – of the buttons can be reassigned to any item in the shortcuts list used by the Shortcut home screen widget. Calendar, Messaging and Contacts each have two modes – open application and create new - which is excellent for users wanting to make the experience their own. As well as these, there are the standard Options, Home screen switcher and Main menu buttons along the bottom of the home screen.
The home screens have two sections with three small, fixed widgets to the left: Clock for the date, Profile and Notifications for received calls, messages and emails. To the right is the user configurable space, with a maximum of three widgets per home screen allowed here. Preinstalled options include News, Mail and Media offerings, or app links that users select themselves. Transition between screens is fast, and the user interface is familiar for any existing Nokia owners, but may of course take some getting used to for others. The new Symbian Anna icons are fresh and clean, but are also available on non-Anna Symbian^3 handsets by buying any of the Symbian Next+ themes by NovaG from the Ovi Store.
One of our favourite minor yet very welcome improvements introduced by Symbian Anna is that Main menu organisation can now be accessed by long pressing any application icon, instead of having to select Options and organise. The Home screen and Main menu are easily modifiable through the above widgets and the user-configurable folder functionality provided on all Nokia handsets. However, this is still clunky - you have to move icons up and down through the menu levels using the options list, and app icons can only be arranged in groups of four in a certain widget. Nokia has shown it can do much better on the N9, so we can't wait for it to use the same thing on Symbian devices as the current method feels very outdated. Another issue is the opening of applications - the E6 sometimes decided to leave us staring at the spinning icon for loading on a few occasions, which doesn't give the impression of a high-end speedy smartphone - especially when you compare it to the hyper-quick dual-core brigade.
The Nokia E6 is enhanced by the contacts and calling functionality provided by the Symbian^3 operating system. The Contacts app saves a friend's name, address (which gets linked to, and shows up on, Ovi Maps), phone numbers, Facebook and Twitter profiles (via a Social app add-in), Ovi Chat, Google Talk, Yahoo Chat, MSN and ICQ usernames (which get linked to Chat, if you install and set it up). Within the Contacts app, two additional tabs provide contact grouping and integration with Microsoft Communicator mobile. The Communicator tab automatically sets up a contact's details once the connection has been made between the phone and the relevant Microsoft Office communications server, which can be located behind a corporate firewall.
One disappointment on the Nokia E6 is that IM usernames entered in the Contacts app don't pull through to Ovi Chat, and vice versa. The Chat app also doesn't remember user details when setting up or changing services, requiring you to enter username and password details for all IM services separately. It seems disjointed that this information isn't added to the global Nokia/Ovi username system. Contacts can be accessed through the Contacts app or on the home screen by typing a phone number, contact's name or company name, which will show an updating list of contacts with that number/letter combination in their details.
A third way of bringing up contact details is via the Search home screen widget, although this doesn't give results until after you've entered your search query and selected My Content. The speed on this was also surprisingly slow. You can also use the integrated voice dialling and voice command system to speak to contacts, which works out of the box thanks to Nokia's voice recognition algorithms. Once you have decided which method of making the call you prefer, we finally get to the call itself.
When it comes to messaging, the Nokia E6 excels, benefiting from the Messaging, Mail, Social, Chat and Communicator apps provided on Symbian^3 and accessed through the Contacts screen. With the physical QWERTY keyboard the Nokia E6 is a dream when it comes to text entry. The Messaging app is a standard text message app, with inbox and conversation views. The Mail app supports Ovi Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, Mail for Exchange, BT Internet and Virgin Media. Our main disappointment is the lack of a universal inbox as provided on the iPhone 4 and even on the Vodafone 360, released back in 2009. This just seems to be a logical progression which should have happened a long time ago on Nokia phones.
Instead of integrating social media with other messages, as seen on rival phones, Facebook and Twitter are accessed through the Social app, which shows separate and combined timeline views.
Instant messaging is available through the Chat app, which supports Ovi Chat, Yahoo Chat, Google Talk, MSN and ICQ. This doesn't come pre-installed, which is disappointing, but can be downloaded from the Ovi Store. Communicator is a corporate IM app that links to a Microsoft Office communication server through an enterprise firewall.
With the introduction of Symbian Anna, the Nokia E6 has the fastest, most powerful web browser provided yet on a Nokia handset. With a 1.5MB Wi-Fi connection, TechRadar.com loads completely in 20 seconds, with initial display in 5 seconds, compared to 30 seconds and 10 seconds on the Nokia N8.
A new introduction on the Nokia E6 is an Intranet app for protected access to corporate websites completely separate to the normal web browser, further aligning the Nokia E6 for business use.
The new browser automatically cleans up after itself too – not requiring the user to manually select to clear privacy history, like on previous phones – which is another welcome improvement.
The 8MP camera is an area in which the Nokia E6 excels when compared with the 5MP offering from the BlackBerry Bold 9780 and BlackBerry Bold 9900. In addition to this, neither of the BlackBerry offerings incorporate a front camera or video call functionality. The Nokia E6 camera provides 2x digital zoom, 28mm focal zoom, an f-stop/aperture of f/2.4 and resolution up to 3264 x 2448. Camera functionality on the Nokia E6 is slightly less than that of its more expensive relative the E7, and substantially less than the N8, which is known as a good camera phone. Whereas some phones, such as the Apple iPhone 4, provide an onscreen tap-to-focus function, the Nokia E6 relies on fixed autofocus via an onscreen shutter button. Scene modes on the Nokia E6 are the same as those on the Nokia C7 and Nokia C6, including Portrait mode with face recognition, Landscape, User defined mode for custom settings and Automatic.
PORTRAIT: Face recognition works well in portrait mode Click here for full-size image
MINIMUM: This was taken in Landscape mode with the minimum zoom. Colours are fairly good and the image is clear Click here for full-size image
MAXIMUM: The maximum zoom in landscape mode goes in close and retains good colour Click here for full-size image
NIGHT FLASHER: Night Mode with flash produces a reasonably well-lit image Click here for full-size image
DEEP DARK NIGHT: Night Mode without flash shows next to nothing Click here for full-size image
AUTO: Night Portrait with auto flash produces a very similar picture to the manual flash Click here for full-size image One of the biggest indicators that the Nokia E6 is aimed directly at the business market is the removal of a physical Camera button and its replacement with a Dictaphone/Voice Command button.
Once your images are captured, the Nokia C6 has a picture editing app pre-loaded, capable of fairly extensive editing including rotating, resizing, cropping, colour, sharpness and brightness adjustments and red eye removal.
It also offers the opportunity to add clipart, speech bubbles, stamps and "funny effects", which most business users will obviously find...essential.
The Nokia E6 supports up to 1280 x 720p resolution videos at 25fps with 3x digital zoom. As with its camera, this exceeds the capabilities of the BlackBerry Bold 9780 and BlackBerry Bold 9900 with their 5MP cameras. One nice feature in video mode is that the LED flash can be turned permanently on, to light the subject in low light scenarios.
Although there are no scene modes, the video flash modes on the Nokia E6 are shared with the C7 and C6. These are Low light, Night and Automatic.
Once your video is recorded, the Nokia E6 also has a preloaded video editing app capable of cropping and joining video and adding captured images to your video clips.
The Nokia E6 includes all of the media functionality available on other Symbian^3 devices other than the removal of the FM transmitter available on the Nokia N8. The means that the user is presented with an FM radio and a Music player supporting AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, MP3, MIDI, MIDI Tones (poly 64), SP-MIDI, WMA EFR, FR, Mobile XMF, True tones and WAV audio formats.
In comparison, the BlackBerry Bold 9780 and BlackBerry Bold 9900 only support AMR-NB, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, MP3, MIDI and WMA audio formats, although this is enough for most people - so isn't going to make a difference to Nokia's target business audience.
A Nokia YouTube app acts as a web shortcut to the site. This has disappointed us, as there's an official YouTube app available that provides a much improved interface than the mobile website.
When it comes to video, the Video Player supports 3GPP formats (H.263), Flash, H.264/AVC, WMV 9, MPEG-4, RealVideo 10, Sorenson Spark, VC-1 and VP6 video formats at a frame rate of 30fps.
The high resolution screen means that image quality is excellent, with the only drawback being the limited size of the screen. This is where larger touchscreen devices such as the Nokia E7, HTC Sensation, iPhone 4 and many others win out, as the Nokia E6 screen is far too small to watch videos for any substantial period of time. Another important factor when it comes to media is the amount of memory in the Nokia E6. It has 350MB of internal memory and 8GB of internal mass memory, with an external card slot enabling you to add a further 32GB of memory. With a spec like this, the Nokia C6 beats both the BlackBerry Bold 9780 – which has 512 MB internal memory and up to 32GB via an external card – and the BlackBerry Bold 9900 – which has 8GB internal and up to 32GB via an external card - which means it's better for downloading more applications to the phone, although still not excellent. Battery life
The Nokia E6 comes with a 3.7V 1500mAh battery, which is the same size as provided in the BlackBerry Bold 9780. However, the Nokia's quoted battery life is a lot better, at 14.8 hours of talktime compared to six hours on the BlackBerry. The E6 is also quoted as having 28 days standby time and three days music playback time, compared to 22 days and 1.5 days on the BlackBerry Bold 9780. The soon to be released BlackBerry Bold 9900 is currently being specified as having a 1230mAh battery, which isn't promising based on the battery life figures listed above. From our experience, these times are somewhat optimistic, with the phone needing a recharge every couple of days after average use – with email synchronisation every hour, around three hours of Wi-Fi internet usage, two hours of GSM web browsing and two hours of calling each day. This keeps it nicely in line with the BlackBerry range, but is miles better than the other smartphones of the moment, which need a re-juicing every day at least in some cases. Connectivity
Like with other Symbian^3 devices the Nokia E6 comes with a plethora of connectivity options. For Wi-Fi, it supports 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi with WEP, WPA, WPA2 (AES/TKIP) encryption protocols.
JoikuSpot is an app that enables you to turn your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot using the GPRS access point for the data connection.
Bluetooth 3.0 and stereo audio provide fast data transfer and crisp and clear stereo audio clarity on Bluetooth accessories. The Nokia E6 impresses with the Symbian^3 USB master functionality. This means that, if you buy a separate Nokia USB OTG adapter cable, you can connect your Nokia E6 to a USB drive and transfer data or read information off it. The socket on the top of the Nokia E6 will be mistaken by many as being a solely audio connection, but if you buy the Nokia video-out cable you can use it to play video out though composite connectors to your TV - but no HDMI-out for the higher-res videos.
When it comes to getting your data on and off the Nokia E6 there are a number of PC programs available. The main one is Ovi Suite, which has been developing for years, providing a single route to synchronise your contacts, messages, music and pictures between your phone, PC and the cloud. It also enables map data and voice guidance file download and installation. As well as the PC-based method of data backup, the Nokia E6 comes with Ovi Sync, which provides cloud-based synchronisation of contacts, calendar and notes. Additional to this, Ovi Maps provides cloud-based backup of user-created favourite locations. Nokia also provides picture and video cloud backup capability via Ovi Share, which is another part of the current Ovi Service. Maps
When it comes to maps and satellite navigation, the Nokia E6 comes pre-loaded with Ovi Maps with free Navteq-based loadable global maps, drive and walk voice navigation, speed limit and safety camera warners and traffic information.
If used with Assisted GPS, Wi-FI/ network and network-based positioning methods enabled, along with the Integrated GPS positioning method, location information is provided within a couple of seconds.
With only the Integrated GPS positioning method enabled, to minimise data costs, a GPS fix can take minutes. This is because the GPS system has to search through the global satellite list to find the ones in range to provide position. It's a real problem on Nokia phones, namely because you can turn off the assisted element of the GPS - which you won't need to do should you have any kind of data plan.
As well as providing mapping and satellite navigation, Ovi Maps provides travel guides and check-in capability to many different geo-locational social networks including Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. Apps
The Nokia E6 comes loaded with a large selection of pre-installed apps. Many of the apps show the phone's business-minded credentials again. File Manager does what it says on the tin, Zip creates zip files just like a computer would, Recorder is a simple Dictaphone app, Msg Reader reads texts messages aloud to you and F-Secure is an antivirus, firewall and theft protection app.
Calendar enables you to manage multiple calendars and keep them synchronised with the cloud. Meeting requests can be received and accepted via a text message or email, and meetings can have locations linked to them which can be displayed on Ovi Maps. Our only frustration is that when meetings have locations linked, a "drive to location" prompt isn't presented when the alarm triggers.
On top of these, the Nokia E6 comes with a Quickoffice app, a Microsoft-compatible mobile client capable of reading, writing and modifying Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint files. Adobe Acrobat is also on board to open PDFs.
For international professionals, Dictionary is a handy multi-lingual dictionary and translator app, while Traveler provides weather, currency conversion and flight information. In terms of entertainment, music offerings include the Music Player, FM Radio, Ovi Music Store link and a link to Shazam, for music identification, purchasing, playing and a social app. Here and Now is a location-based app that provides information about movies, restaurants and events in your local area.
The main thing you may note is that there are no games on the E6, which further clarifies its target market, although even business people need to relax sometimes. Further apps can be downloaded from the Ovi Store, however, and the range is acceptable without being stellar.
The Nokia E6 is a very capable smartphone aimed directly at the corporate market. However, the mixture of touchscreen and physical QWERTY keyboard positions it very nicely for bloggers and heavy Twitter, Facebook, email or SMS text message users, because typing is a breeze. We liked With its 8MP camera and 8GB internal mass storage, the Nokia E6 provides more than enough memory for a small music library, a quantity of captured pictures and video and map data, with the ability to increase it to 40MB with an external memory card. The widgets on offer aren't too bad anymore, and certainly a step up from the N8 - the thumb friendly interface is a real winner too. The larger amount of home screens is a positive move from Nokia, as is the resolution on the screen... it may be small but it's pin sharp. Physical keyboards are becoming more scarce these days, so it's great to see Nokia sticking with the formula and bringing a very usable keyboard indeed. We disliked The main negative is for those who want to use the satellite navigation, because in our opinion, although the screen resolution is second to none, the physical screen size is too small, resulting in the onscreen text being too small to read. This issue isn't limited to the Maps app, but this is the worst scenario because the phone is further away from you and could prove distracting while driving. The internet browser is better without being stellar once more, and Nokia still needs to put some effort into bringing that up the same power as the likes of Android or iOS. The interface still harks back to the golden Symbian days - meaning clunky icon management, with prescribed widget blocks to fit your four chosen icons into, rather than a choice of where they go. The widgets themselves are proving more useful, but we still want to see more third party options and we wish re-sizing was an option too. Verdict The Nokia E6 is a well-built, very capable business phone with plenty of apps and features to suit business users. It's built for text heavy users, with a powerful camera for good light photography. However, while Symbian Anna is a step forward, it still feels like it's hamstrung by previous iterations with a slightly clunky feel and long time to open some applications still present. With MeeGo, Nokia has proven it can make a more modern smartphone interface, and while the thumb-friendly touchscreen is an ace move, we still can't recommend the Nokia E6 if you're looking for a next-gen smartphone rather than just an above-average communication device with decent camera. 
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| Samsung files lawsuit against Apple in the UK Posted: 01 Jul 2011 06:02 AM PDT Samsung has filed another law suit against Apple, this time in our own fair city of London Town, alleging that – yes, you guessed it – Apple has infringed its patents. It's beginning to feel a bit like Groundhog Day as far as Samsung v Apple is concerned. Not only do the companies now have lawsuits going on in the UK, the US, and with the ITC, but also in Samsung's home country of South Korea, Italy, Japan and Germany; who knows where will be next. A long time ago in a court room far far away… It all stems from a lawsuit filed by Apple claiming that Samsung has infringed patents it holds for the iPhone and iPad on products including the Samsung Galaxy S and Samsung Galaxy Tab. After that, it descended into a furore of counter-suits and counter-counter suits on varying continents. The companies have sniped and snarked at each other over the past months, with demands to see unreleased products and accusations of harassment flying thick and fast. When will it all end? Who knows – but with Apple having recently settled a similar dispute with Nokia, it seems likely that it will pursue this one to the bitter end. 
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| iPhone 5 and iPad 3 suppliers begin prepping materials Posted: 01 Jul 2011 06:01 AM PDT Manufacturers of iPhone 5 and iPad 3 parts in Taiwan have reportedly begun preparing materials for the mobile devices, with all signs pointing to an autumn release for both products. Digitimes is reporting that Apple's likely upstream suppliers, including Foxconn which looks after overall assembly of the devices and myriad other suppliers that are in charge of battery, chassis and camera parts, have all started the preparation needed to make sure they can handle a big order from Apple. New iPhone and iPad The report goes on to mention that there is set to be 6 to 7 million iPhone 5 units to be shipped in the third quarter of this year and while there are no estimates on how many iPad 3s will be sold, the tablet is a recent addition to the production schedule. With Foxconn and the like increasing their estimated supply volume, the signs are there that Apple is to launch a new wave of products on to the market. September is usually the month that a new iPod is released, but could it be that Apple are about to go product crazy this autumn to make sure the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 are in the shops before the Christmas? While it is difficult to sift through the numerous rumours that have been appearing regarding both the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, it is pretty much certain that Apple is using the same suppliers for its new range. So if they are preparing themselves for an Apple gadget influx, then perhaps we should too. 
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| IFA 2011: what to expect from this year's show Posted: 01 Jul 2011 05:47 AM PDT IFA, the world's largest consumer electronics and home appliance show, will open its doors for the 51st time on 1 September 2011. For five hectic days, this annual extravaganza of all things electronic will redefine the consumer electronics landscape for the next 12 months. So are we excited? You bet! Read on to learn IFA 2011 could be the most significant in years. IFA firsts IFA is not just another gadget show. It's a technology event on an enormous scale. Last year, the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin attracted over 230,000 visitors. And yes, it is open to the public. Indeed, the IFA site is so huge it has its own transport system to help get folks around. With more attendees and exhibition space than CES, it can legitimately claim to be the world's biggest tech expo. Amazingly, the show first opened its doors way back in 1924. Since then it's seen numerous tech milestones. In 1930 Albert Einstein gave a keynote speech about the future of radio; five years later the event introduced the first magnetic recording tape. In 1967 PAL colour televisions made their debut, and then in 1981 CD players were unveiled before a curious public. It was at IFA, in 1995, that European broadcasters began to demonstrate digital TV for the first time. So what will IFA 2011 will be remembered for? Big buzzwords Naturally, the big brands are keeping product announcements and developments close to their chests, as they prepare for the big IFA reveal on 1 September. Until then rumour and speculation is the name of the game. That said, it's not too difficult to predict the direction that tech winds will be blowing. The big buzzwords bouncing around the halls of IFA 2011 will be (in no particular order) 4K2K, Smart TV, autostereocopic 3D and tablets. Feel free to combine any and all of these to produce your imaginary device of choice. Those who have been hoping that the 3D bandwagon would at least develop a slow puncture (yes, amazingly there are a few naysayers still out there) are likely to be disappointed. The big 3D TV makers will all be hawking better-than-ever third generation displays. One highlight you can expect to see in the Panasonic hall is the brand's astonishing new 152inch 3D plasma. We've already had a preview of this monster and can confirm it is quite simply the most jaw-dropping flat-panel on the planet. Panasonic has long enjoyed producing impractically large plasmas (just because it can), and this is its most ambitious screen yet. The 4K Active Shutter panel has a resolution of 8 million pixels; at a recent demo we watched in slack-jawed amazement as it upscaled Avatar from a standard Panasonic 3D Blu-ray player. 2011 has already been deemed the year of the smart TV by the likes of Samsung and LG, and this message is only likely to be reinforced at IFA 2011. While Ethernet is now de rigueur on all types of CE gear, Wi-Fi has been an awkward add-on. However, come IFA, the dongle will go the way of the Dodo, as building-in becomes the new going out. Back to the future IFA has a habit of repeating itself. So expect those uber-cool products unveiled at IFA 2010, but still conspicuous by their absence in the real world, to return refreshed. We'll bet dollars to doughnuts that you'll witness the second coming of LG's fabled Nano-LED TVs, only this time with Cinema 3D passive tech replacing the Active Shutter 3D system they were originally shown with.
BACK AGAIN: First shown last year, but still not on sale, LG's Nano LED screens will get a Passive 3D makeover at IFA Of course, LG will still be shilling gear unlikely to ship anytime soon. We predict the highlight of the LG hall will be its first large screen 4K2K 3D display. This will use the brand's proprietary FPR (Film Pattern Retarder) filter and, thanks to the higher resolution of the 4K panel, will be able to produce the first ever Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080) Passive 3D picture. LG's rival Samsung does not traditionally use IFA to launch swathes of new kit, reserving that privilege for January's CES event. However, the company does like to steal a headline or two. One way it could do this is by taking the wraps off its own radical new 3D TV technology. The brand is known to have done a deal with 3D pioneer Real D to create a new generation of displays which deliver Full HD 3D using passive polarising glasses. No specifics have been announced, but by shifting shuttering LCD tech to the panel and away from high-tech eyeware, the brand will free itself from the expensive handcuffs that are Active Shutter spectacles. Over in Toshiba's hall, there's certain to be a massive push on autostereoscopic (no glasses needed) 3D. We predict Toshiba will show a groundbreaking 55inch Auto-3D screen. The company has already touted prototypes and seems firmly committed to making autostereocopic TV happen. Of course, you won't be able to buy one until at least 2012. The evolution of the tablet Naturally, tablets will be everywhere at IFA 2011, with dozens of cookie-cutter slates on hand. What will be new, however, is how they'll be positioned. Many of these handhelds will be promoted as your next second TV screen. We know that Panasonic's first tablets will allow you to access its Viera Connect IPTV and apps store directly, as well as act as a turbo-charged remote control for a tethered screen.
TABLET FRENZY: A new wave of tablet devices will launch, aimed at enhancing the TV viewing experience IFA 2011 won't just be about hardware, though. Reflecting the rise of Smart devices, there will be a new emphasis on apps and content. Samsung UK's AV marketing chief Russell Owens says that IFA 2011 will be about more than just kit. "You can be certain apps and services will be a big story at this year's event," he told us. Sony spokesperson Lucie Speciale agrees, saying that for Sony IFA 2011 will be about "discovering new services and most importantly experiencing digital content in ways that haven't been seen before." She adds "key themes will be connectivity, mobility, entertainment and the next stages of 3D." We can't wait. 
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| Facebook to 'launch something awesome' next week Posted: 01 Jul 2011 04:46 AM PDT Facebook is planning an assault on the mobile market next week, with the social network announcing it is about to "launch something awesome". Facebook is currently working on a new app optimised for iPad but it is also said to be working on another mobile product which is photo sharing for the iPhone. All we know about the apparent product launch is that CEO Mark Zuckerberg told journalists that the Seattle office was the place where mobile developments were taking place and that next week's launch would be "awesome". Social mobile It's no surprise that Facebook is looking closely at its mobile offering. Google has just launch its own social network, with Google+, and it has been designed to work as a seamless mobile experience. Despite the popularity of Facebook, its mobile output has been quaint at best, with both its iPhone and Android apps still lacking in some functionality. Facebook for the iPad should hopefully bring the company up to speed with the mobile world. 
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| Ricoh buys Pentax Imaging Systems from Hoya Corporation Posted: 01 Jul 2011 04:45 AM PDT Pentax has announced that Ricoh has purchased the Pentax Imaging Systems division from Hoya Corporation. The agreement will see the transfer of developing, manufacturing and selling optical instruments including digital cameras, lenses, and digital camera accessories to Ricoh. The current owners of Pentax, Hoya, will continue to develop businesses gained from Pentax in the original 2008 merger including digital camera modules. Pentax Q Pentax currently sells a range of DSLRs and compact cameras, including the Pentax Q which was launched last week. Ricoh has been manufacturing cameras since the 1930s and today includes a range of digital compacts, including the GXR, the first camera with interchangeble sensor units. 
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| Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray UK release date revealed Posted: 01 Jul 2011 04:45 AM PDT Carphone Warehouse has unveiled a Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray UK release date, with the handset expected to arrive in August. The company launched the handset in Singapore just a couple of weeks ago, bringing an 8MP camera and 1GHz processor to its slim and stylish ways. It also offers Android 2.3 and a 3.3-inch touchscreen and an array of exciting colours to choose from – black, gold, white and pink, but sadly no blue (Blu-ray, geddit?). A Ray of light Sony Ericsson had already noted that the Xperia Ray would land in Q3, so Carphone's release date of August is no huge surprise – but it is just an anticipated date, so subject to change if circumstances dictate it. Although Three has confirmed it'll be selling the Ray, there's no word from the other networks yet. Subsequently, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray UK pricing and network deals are yet to be announced. 
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| Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 Posted: 01 Jul 2011 04:30 AM PDT There can't be much doubt that the iPad 2 is currently the king of all tablets. It has its flaws, its drawbacks and many a detractor, but it still offers the most slick tablet experience out there. But that doesn't mean there aren't some viable alternatives out there, oh no. The two champs right now are the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101. Both are light, powerful, long-lasting tablets running Android 3.1. The trick in comparing the Samsung and Asus is that they use remarkably similar internal components -- the same NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core 1GHz processor, 16GB of internal storage, 1GB of high-speed DDR2 RAM, 1280x800 10.1-inch touchscreen, Android 3.1 OS, front and rear cameras, Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11b/g/n for Wi-Fi (but no built-in 3G), and the typical gyro and accelerometer sensors. To pick the winner, we've mostly evaluated the differences in physicality, performance and real-world functionality. We should mention that there is one spec that is uncontested: the Asus Transformer beats the Samsung on price. The Transformer 16GB costs £379 or £429 with the keyboard; we don't know the exact price of the Samsung Tab 10.1 16GB in the UK yet, but the US price is $100 higher than the Asus at $499.
ScreenEvaluating the differences between the two tablets starts with the 10.1-inch screen -- that's what you see when you first power-up the machine, you will use it for controlling apps and playing movies with finger swipes and presses, and the screen tends to cause the most battery drain. There's no question the Tab 10.1 is brighter than the Asus Transformer, especially with the brightness setting cranked all the way up. Yet, the Tab 10.1 is also more colorful. Viewing the exact same Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows trailer side by side, Potter's mum - with her red hair and rosy cheeks - popped on the screen with a much richer colour treatment. On the Transformer, the same clip looked gray and dark (and the scene is not supposed to be ominous, unlike the remainder of the film). In testing a handful of other videos and photos, the Samsung looked brighter, clearer, and more colorful in everything from a Bridesmaids trailer to our own video captures and photos with the device. Games tended to pop off the screen in a more colorful way on the Samsung. Oddly, the Transformer, per the specs, should have the superior screen. The Samsung uses TFT technology, but the Transformer uses the IPS technology that is supposed to be better for side-viewing. In reality, both tablets looked about the same at an angle. Winner: Samsung |
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Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs Asus Eee Pad Transformer
Posted: 01 Jul 2011 04:30 AM PDT
There can't be much doubt that the iPad 2 is currently the king of all tablets.
It has its flaws, its drawbacks and many a detractor, but it still offers the most slick tablet experience out there.
But that doesn't mean there aren't some viable alternatives out there, oh no.
The two champs right now are the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101. Both are light, powerful, long-lasting tablets running Android 3.1.
The trick in comparing the Samsung and Asus is that they use remarkably similar internal components -- the same NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core 1GHz processor, 16GB of internal storage, 1GB of high-speed DDR2 RAM, 1280x800 10.1-inch touchscreen, Android 3.1 OS, front and rear cameras, Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11b/g/n for Wi-Fi (but no built-in 3G), and the typical gyro and accelerometer sensors.
To pick the winner, we've mostly evaluated the differences in physicality, performance and real-world functionality.
We should mention that there is one spec that is uncontested: the Asus Transformer beats the Samsung on price. The Transformer 16GB costs £379 or £429 with the keyboard; we don't know the exact price of the Samsung Tab 10.1 16GB in the UK yet, but the US price is $100 higher than the Asus at $499.
Screen
Evaluating the differences between the two tablets starts with the 10.1-inch screen -- that's what you see when you first power-up the machine, you will use it for controlling apps and playing movies with finger swipes and presses, and the screen tends to cause the most battery drain.
There's no question the Tab 10.1 is brighter than the Asus Transformer, especially with the brightness setting cranked all the way up. Yet, the Tab 10.1 is also more colorful.
Viewing the exact same Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows trailer side by side, Potter's mum - with her red hair and rosy cheeks - popped on the screen with a much richer colour treatment. On the Transformer, the same clip looked gray and dark (and the scene is not supposed to be ominous, unlike the remainder of the film).
In testing a handful of other videos and photos, the Samsung looked brighter, clearer, and more colorful in everything from a Bridesmaids trailer to our own video captures and photos with the device. Games tended to pop off the screen in a more colorful way on the Samsung.
Oddly, the Transformer, per the specs, should have the superior screen. The Samsung uses TFT technology, but the Transformer uses the IPS technology that is supposed to be better for side-viewing. In reality, both tablets looked about the same at an angle.
Winner: Samsung
Performance
Performance on an Android tablet is partly based on the processor and RAM allotment, which are the same on both tablets. And, in repeated speed tests with the same group of apps - browser, photo gallery, Gmail, Google Earth, and several others - the results were roughly the same.
Using the AnTutu benchmark utility, the Samsung consistently scored fractionally lower than the Asus. In our tests, though, we didn't notice that any app worked remarkably faster on the Transformer.
Interestingly, we saw a few differences when testing games. For example, Pinball HD is designed specifically for Tegra 2 tablets. On both models, in a side-by-side test, the Asus Transformer operated a hair faster. Shoot a ball at the same time, and it will careen around a bit faster. In the game RipTide GP, which is designed more for Android smartphones but runs in full-screen on a tablet, the game looked a hair smoother on the Asus especially when there were several opponents on the screen at once.
In terms of video playback, there was no comparison: the Asus Transformer crunched the pixels faster. For starters, movies at all quality levels played smoother. More importantly, 1080p trailers – including one for Cars 2 and another for Bridesmaids, both formatted for 1080p – played smoothly without any problems.
The movie Fair Game, which we have used to test just about every major tablet, also played smoothly on the Asus Transformer. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 worked okay for videos. Fair Game played smoothly. However, the Tab 10.1 did not play the Cars 2 or Bridesmaids trailers. And, on the video we shot with both tablets showing a Camaro SS, the Samsung 720p video played choppy.
Incidentally, this is one differentiator between both the Samsung and Asus tabs and the Motorola Xoom, which still has problems playing HD movies smoothly.
Winner: Asus Eee Pad Transformer
Portability
Another obvious difference between the two tablets has to do with portability. The Samsung Tab is much lighter, at 565-grams compared to the 680-gram weight of the Transformer. To get a sense for the difference, grab about 45 pennies -- that's roughly 115 grams.
The Asus is also a bit bulkier than the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but not as hefty as the Acer Iconia A500.
There's a wide bezel on the Transformer that's a slight throwback to the days of a Tablet PC slate. Some might prefer the edging to get a better grasp, but the Samsung bezel does not stick out on the sides as much.
The Galaxy Tab 10.1, measuring 8.63mm in thickness, beats the iPad 2 by a hair. The Asus Transformer is 12.98 mm thick, which is most noticeable when you lay the two tablets next to each other.The Asus does have one advantage - the thicker bezel helps with portability because you can get a better grip in a hurry. The snake-skin pattern on the back of the device also helps.
In the end, though, the Samsung offers better portability. When you pick up one and use the other in succession, you find that the Samsung affords a bit of relief that will come in handy in daily use at home and at the office.
And, the "transformer" angle is a bit of a marketing pitch. The Asus does clip into a keyboard, and it is the only tab keyboard we've tested recently that has a mouse pad that works with the Android OS. The Asus keyboard has two USB ports and a standard SD card slot, in addition to a 30-pin port for charging. The keyboard dock itself takes a charge and can then charge your Eee Pad - expanding its battery life up to around 16 hours.
Winner: Samsung
Usability/Functionality
Since the devices use the same Android 3.1 operating system, the usability comparison comes down to the extra software and UI enhancements on offer. With the Asus Transformer, there's no contest.
The Transformer comes with a slightly customized UI that shows a weather widget on the home screen. The device comes with a few extra wallpapers (both "live" versions and static). More importantly, if usability is partly a function of extra apps include (e.g., you can do more with extra apps), the Asus is also clearly superior. The device comes with MyNet DLNA streaming service, which you can use to send and receive content stored on a set-top box like the Xbox 360 or on a computer. Asus also includes Polaris Office which we've also seen on a few other Android tablets.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab is somewhat barebones. Essentially, Samsung has not added any extra UI components, or any extra apps, but has announced they will make these customizations soon. A future update will include a Samsung UI enhancement that includes new widgets. The AllShare streaming client will match what you can do on with MyNet on the Asus. And, we expect a few other add-ons.
However, for now, those are promises. The Asus Transformer includes UI extras now on the device. And, it is outfitted with more features – including extra USB ports and an SD slot on the keyboard dock.
We're assuming that if you buy the transformer, you'll also be getting the keyboad dock. The combination of the slick touchscreen interface with with the convenience of a physical keyboard make the Asus a very compelling option.
Winner: Asus
Battery life
Battery-life claims with both tablets push nine hours, but that depends greatly on how you use the device. The Asus claim of 9.5 hours is reached by playing a 720p video continually at 60 bits of screen brightness. However, here is the reality of using both of these devices for a week: they last about the same amount of time. If you play videos, connect to Wi-Fi continually, check e-mail, and keep the screen at a reasonably high brightness, both devices lasted about 5 hours of constant use during the day. When we only used them occasionally during the day, both lasted about 10 hours.
However, with the extra 6 hours of battery juice hiding away in the Transformer's super keyboard, the Asus Takes it.
For storage, the available 16GB of internal memory on both tablets is adequate for daily use. You can store a handful of videos, hundreds of audio files, and install dozens of apps. The Asus Tranformer, however, has a microSD slot for adding more storage. The Asus keyboard dock also has a standard SD slot, whereas the Samsung dock has no extra ports.
Winner: Asus
Camera
With the built-in camera on both devices, the megapixel rating does not tell the whole story. And, it is a complicated story anyway. The Asus has a better rear cam at 5 megapixels, but a weaker front camera at 1.2 megapixels. The Samsung Tab 10.1 has a 3 megapixel rear cam, but a 2 megapixel front cam.
That said, the photos we took on the Samsung Tab 10.1 looked better. Compare the colour quality of the Chevy Camaro SS we photographed: in the Samsung shot, the colours look brighter and clearer. With the Asus, the shots look a bit dull, colourless, and not as appealing. Yet, both shots were taken within 30 seconds of each other in the same position at the same angle.
Asus Eee Pad Transformer:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1:
Both tablets offer similar features for controlling picture quality, effects, and scenes. It's also worth mentioning that neither tablet works that well for taking photos or shooting videos because of how hard it is to get a good grasp of the tablet, hold it steady and get a good shot
Asus Eee Pad Transformer:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1:
In the end, the Samsung gets a slight nod for camera quality and color accuracy. It is also a hair easier to use because the device is thinner and more portable for taking photos and shooting video.
Winner: Samsung
Verdict
So, for those keeping track, this means the Asus Transformer and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in a dead heat so far. The Asus wins on performance (mostly for playing smooth videos), usability (because of the extra ports and better dock), and storage (because of the SD card slot). The Samsung wins on screen quality (brightness and clarity), portability (lighter and thinner), and the built-in camera (for quality and accuracy). You might think, well: flip a coin and they are both contenders against the iPad 2.
Yet, one clear overall winner emerged. At a 8.63mm thickness and 565 grams, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is not only lighter and thinner than the Asus Transformer, but also beats the iPad 2 for portability.
When you are ready to sit back and relax with a movie, catch up on your Gmail, or browse the Web, the Samsung presents a more ideal experience than the Transformer. There are scenarios where the Transformer is the better tablet, especially for expandability. But the bright and clear screen and great portability of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 makes it our overall Android tablet pick.
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Posted: 01 Jul 2011 04:02 AM PDT
ITV has launched an iOS version of its ITV Player app, available in the iTunes Store from today.
The free app is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch and gives you access to the last week's worth of programmes from ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4.
That means on-the-go access to such gems as Loose Women, Daybreak and The Jeremy Kyle Show – such a shame The Bill was cancelled before this halcyon time.
Video playback using the app is via Wi-Fi only, so no 3G streaming to eat into your data allowance.
Thrilling
The launch has also handily coincided with ITV's broadcasting of the iTunes festival, about which Robin Pembrooke, MD of ITV Online and OnDemand, is "genuinely thrilled".
He said, "I'm genuinely thrilled to be launching our ITV Player app across the Apple family of devices just in time for our customers to be able to catch up on what promises to be some amazing performances at this year's iTunes Festival on ITV.
"This launch is a key moment in our mobile delivery strategy and we're very proud that a simple, user friendly and quality ITV Player experience is now available across a range of mobile devices."
ITV Player for iOS joins the Android app launched by ITV last week so there's really no excuse for falling behind on Corrie – well, unless you're on Windows Phone or Symbian.
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Posted: 01 Jul 2011 03:37 AM PDT
The Android 3.1 update for the Google IO Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a good way to see what Google intends with Honeycomb. As this has neither the Google Experience nor a third-party skin, what you get is as close to stock Android as we're likely to see, which means that the updates aren't obscured by different interfaces on top.
What you get in Android 3.1 is a sprinkling of new features, the most important of which is USB host support - and a very welcome reduction in the number of times the tablet freezes or crashes.
After you create an account on the Samsung site the update installs like any Android Over The Air upgrade, keeping your files and any apps you've installed - unless you'd encrypted the device in which case you have to turn off encryption and do a factory reset first.
It actually removes the abortive Samsung Apps store (which never had anything more than bizarre Korean animations in) as well as the Samsung Music Hub, Amazon Kindle and Weatherbug apps, although you can reinstall the Kindle and Weatherbug apps.
However it doesn't add the missing Google Video app or any of the other Samsung features found on other versions of the tablet, and the promised Allshare DLNA support isn't in this release.
The browser doesn't get the new 'quick controls' either - an experimental gesture UI from Google Labs that would let you navigate by selecting icons on screen with your thumb that will show up on some Honeycomb tablets.
You do get the Google Books app, though, with copies of a few out of copyright titles including Alice in Wonderland. You can download more free books but Google's ebook store isn't available for the UK yet.
READ: Goodbye Samsung Music Hub, hello Google Books
One of the key new features in Android 3.1 is USB host support. Because Samsung uses a proprietary 30-pin USB port, so you'll need to buy a $20 adapter to plug USB sticks or drives in (or a keyboard, mouse or joystick); you can also connect a camera over USB and use the Picture Transfer Protocol (supported by virtually all cameras) to import pictures into the Gallery app. Alternatively, you can use a Bluetooth keyboard.
More responsive
The most obvious change is that the home screens and the interface generally are more responsive. It may only be a change to the animation frame rate but the transitions between pages are much snappier; scrolling between different home pages or pages of apps is far faster, with the next page appearing immediately rather than after a brief pause.
The browser is also more responsive, and crucially we found it's no longer hanging and needing to be restarted about once a day (as it was when we first got the tablet).
FASTER: Speeding up the animations for page transitions makes Honeycomb feel zippier
Improvements to the underlying Wi-Fi stack are also most obvious in the browser; it's better at loading web pages even when the network is busy. On the same busy network, where a tablet without the upgrade was reporting server timeouts and telling us the web site wasn't available, the upgraded tablet was able to load the page and stream video.
There are some minor updates to the CSS standards support and the browser now supports embedded HTML5 video so when you play a video on YouTube it plays in the browser rather than opening the YouTube app (we found browser playback tends to start faster than the player).
PLAY: HTML5 videos embedded in web pages now play in the browser
We did still have issues with some apps freezing or failing to load and having to be force closed, especially apps designed for Android phones rather than tablets, but equally many apps run happily without any problems.
Interface improvements in Android 3.1
Navigation is slightly improved: when you press the on-screen Home button, instead of always taking you to the central home screen it takes you the home screen you were on last - press it again if you actually want the main home screen.
The task switcher is better but still disappointing: it can now show more open apps than fit on screen, so you can scroll up or down to see more current apps - but you still can't close an app from here (or at all, without installing a third-party tool).
SWITCH NOT KILL: See more running apps to switch to, but you can't stop them
Compared to the powerful and intuitive navigation on the HP TouchPad and the BlackBerry PlayBook, this still feels clunky and primitive.
Google promised resizable widgets for Honeycomb and the Android 3.1 update adds this but developers have to code it into their widgets; it's there for Google's own calendar and email widgets.
You can press and hold to get a blue outline around the widgets with handles that you can drag to make the widget smaller or larger - although you can only make it bigger if there's blank space on the home page; Honeycomb won't shrink another widget to make room.
STRETCH: You can now resize some widgets on the home screen
Other improvements are cosmetic. There are some new wallpapers, including some fun animated ones. The system font changes to bold; characters are thicker and rounder (and look far more like the iPhone's font) but that means you can't see as many letters of an app title - so Angry Birds Rio is truncated to just Angry Birds, for example. Google says the calendar grid is easier to read, although the only difference we can detect is that today's date on the day picker is in a larger font.
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Gmail and Google Calendar get restyled
Posted: 01 Jul 2011 03:31 AM PDT
Google has started to rollout design changes to Google Calendar and Gmail, in a bid to de-clutter the online services.
The changes are merely cosmetic for now, and are not affecting how Calendar or Gmail works.
In the calendar, a number of tweaks have been made to the layout. These include the quick add button moving to under the create button, the print and refresh links are now buttons and visual indictors on calendar entries will now only appear if you hover over the event.
Google has made these changes to focus more on the functionality of the calendar, rather than providing an overwhelming information overload.
It is also so that the look of the desktop, tablet and mobile versions of the service will be more consistent.
As well calendar, Gmail is getting a new look which takes a similar streamlined approach and adds a number of new themes.
Preview and Preview (Dense) have been created to accommodate different screen sizes, which is set to happen some time in the near future.
We're embarking on a series of interface updates to help strip out unnecessary clutter and make Gmail as beautiful as it is powerful," said Google about the new design changes.
"This is part of a Google-wide effort to bring you an experience that's more focused, elastic, and effortless across all of our products."
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Google Gmail and Calendar get restyled
Posted: 01 Jul 2011 03:31 AM PDT
Google has started to rollout design changes to Google Calendar and Gmail, in a bid to de-clutter the online services.
The changes are merely cosmetic for now, and are not affecting how Calendar or Gmail works.
In the calendar, a number of tweaks have been made to the layout. These include the quick add button moving to under the create button, the print and refresh links are now buttons and visual indictors on calendar entries will now only appear if you hover over the event.
Google has made these changes to focus more on the functionality of the calendar, rather than providing an overwhelming information overload.
It is also so that the look of the desktop, tablet and mobile versions of the service will be more consistent.
As well calendar, Gmail is getting a new look which takes a similar streamlined approach and adds a number of new themes.
Preview and Preview (Dense) have been created to accommodate different screen sizes, which is set to happen some time in the near future.
We're embarking on a series of interface updates to help strip out unnecessary clutter and make Gmail as beautiful as it is powerful," said Google about the new design changes.
"This is part of a Google-wide effort to bring you an experience that's more focused, elastic, and effortless across all of our products."
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Review: MSI N560GTX Twin Frozr II
Posted: 01 Jul 2011 03:30 AM PDT
With Nvidia giving carte blanche to manufacturers to produce cards based on the new GeForce GTX 560 with any core clock speed they like, it's no real surprise to see that the second version of the GTX 560 we were sent for review is another factory overclocked offering, following the lead of the other two cards on review here – the Gigabyte GV-56OC-1Gl and the Zotac GTX 560 AMP! Edition.
Okay, it's not quite any clockspeed the manufacturers want, as each GPU has to stick to the frequency limits of 810MHz and 950MHz and 2,002- 2,200MHz on the memory clock.
The MSI N560GTX Twin Frozr II sits in between the Gigabyte and Zotac GTX 560 cards in terms of clockspeeds, but is considerably cheaper than the top Zotac card.
As with the other two cards, MSI's offering comes with a custom designed cooler, in this case the same Twin Frozr II heatsink and cooler that cools the GTX 560 Ti Frozr II. And to keep everything stable MSI has again used military class components in the power circuitry.
MSI hasn't gone overboard with the factory overclock in the N560GTX Twin Frozr II OC. Instead it has rather played on the safe side with the core running at 870MHz, just 60MHz above the lowest level Nvidia has set for the GPU, while the memory runs well within the specifications at 1,020MHz (4.08GHz effective).
Just one look at the cooling on the card, though, gives you the impression that it's good for a fair bit more tweaking than that and so it proved. Our review sample was able to run stably with a core speed of 925MHz, another 75MHz on top of what MSI gave it, while the memory got up to 1,069MHz (4.2GHz).
There's no doubt with a bit more tinkering with the card's voltage it could go even faster, maybe even up to the Zotac card's pace.
Benchmarks
DX11 tessellation performance (1080p)
Heaven 2.5: Frames per second: Higher is better
Nvidia GTX 560 Ti: 26.5
Zotac GeForce GTX 560 AMP!: 24.8
MSI N560GTX Twin Frozr II: 22.8
Gigabyte GV-56-OC-1GI: 21.6
Nvidia GTX 460: 17.4
DX11 gaming performance (1080p)
AvP: Frames per second: Higher is better
Nvidia GTX 560 Ti: 37.2
Zotac GeForce GTX 560 AMP!: 34.5
MSI N560GTX Twin Frozr II: 31.7
Gigabyte GV-56-OC-1GI: 27.7
Nvidia GTX 460: 24.7
Cooler system
Helping to keep the board cool, and stable while overclocking, is the combination of a very effective cooler and the use of high grade components in the power circuitry.
The cooler uses MSI's SuperPipe technology, which comprises four heatpipes (two 8mm and two 6mm) to take the heat away from the copper contact plate. It then goes through into the multi-finned aluminium heatsink where it's cooled by a couple of 80mm low profile PWM fans.
Even some of the power regulation components have their own aluminium heatsink and talking of all things power, MSI has used SFC (Super Ferrite Choke), Hi-C and solid capacitors to make the power side of things as bullet proof as it can.
MSI has played quite a blinder with the N560GTX Twin Frozr II. It has plenty of overclocking potential, helped in no small part by the well-designed Twin Frozr II cooling system, and the use of very high quality components in the power design means that you should be able to push voltages up too.
Perhaps the most impressive thing, though, is that it all comes with a very reasonable price tag. With some judicious tweaking you may hit the heady heights that the more expensive Zotac card manages.
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RIM responds to irate employee's open letter
Posted: 01 Jul 2011 03:11 AM PDT
An impassioned open letter to the senior management team at RIM from an anonymous BlackBerry employee has garnered a response from the company.
The unnamed 'high ranking' employee's 1,700 word epistle speaks of his/her frustration with the company's direction and management, and offers eight hopeful suggestions for turning the ailing company's fortunes around.
He points out that RIM should be "focused on what users will love instead of chasing 'feature parity' and feature differentiation for no good reason (Adobe Flash being a major example).
"I've never seen someone buy product B because it has something product A doesn't have. People buy product B because they want and lust after product B."
It's a long letter, filled with insights into the company's culture and internal problems (ineffective product managers, shipping unfinished products, overconfidence, fear of failure and lack of innovation) and hits at a point close to the heart of the company's two CEOs, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis:
"The public's questions about dual-CEOs are warranted. The partnership is not broken, but on the ground level, it is not efficient. Maybe we need our Eric Schmidt reign period."
RIM responds
RIM isn't a company known for saying it how it is, and its response to the open letter is no exception.
Rather than taking on the points made by the anonymous employee, it rather pours scorn on its reliability and spouts yet more corporate denials and insistence that all is well during this long-running transitionary period.
"Regardless of whether the letter is real, fake, exaggerated or written with ulterior motivations, it is fair to say that the senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company's challenges and its opportunities.
"RIM recently confirmed that it is nearing the end of a major business and technology transition. Although this transition has taken longer than anticipated, there is much excitement and optimism within the company about the new products that are lined up for the coming months."
It concludes by saying that "RIM is more committed than ever to serving its loyal customers and partners around the world."
But it seems to us that RIM is more committed than ever to serving RIM – a big internal shake-up seems essential if the company is to survive.
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Week in Tech: Can Google+ succeed where Buzz and Wave failed?
Posted: 01 Jul 2011 03:00 AM PDT
Spot the odd-one out! Google Buzz, Google Wave, Orkut, Google Profile, Jaiku, Google Friend Connect, Dodgeball and, last but not least, Google+.
That's right, they're all completely fizzled-out attempts by Google to make any traction in the social web. Except for Google+, which we're absolutely positive will be the exception to the rule, and not simply the 56,604th new service that Google launches to change the world and then instantly gets bored of.
As far as we can tell, the main features are:
Circles! The perfect way to virtually ostracise your friends by dragging and dropping them from "Best Mates" to "Bastards" as they dodge their round at the pub or walk off with the pretty girl they knew you had your eye on.
Hangouts! Using Google's revolutionary new social video technology, attractive young people will be on hand to laugh in your face 24/7. Humiliation that once took accidentally singing karaoke with your flies open to achieve is now yours on demand.
Instant Upload! The ultimate creepy-person photography tool. "I'm sorry, Officer," you can grin. "That dog's arse belongs to the internet now..."
Sparks! The best way to pretend to be social while really ignoring everyone around you since people started opening Facebook in a private tab.
Huddle! Why 'text' friends when you can invite everyone into a group chat, then have to text more people when others want Bob and Freda to come along, and phone Phil because his 3G connection is being crap, and get someone to find Janice who doesn't have a smartphone with a data plan? It's just common sense!
And if you think we're being worryingly unsocial here, check out the official Google+ videos, in which the world's slowest computer user agonises over whether his new friend is worth the effort of dragging and dropping onto one circle rather than another, a girl enthuses over Hangouts because boredom can be awesome, and the Sparks guy effectively describes friends as the people who'll tolerate you geeking out at them about random crap they don't care about.
Friendship. It's Serious Business
A very limited number of Invites are already slinging around the internet at the speed of Twitter hashtag contests. If you plan to sign up, though, save the clicks if you're using a Google Apps account hooked into services such as Reader. Google+ requires Google Profiles to work, which isn't supported yet.
If you want something new to play around with right now, though, Chromebooks - laptops built around the web browser - are finally putting in an appearance.
If you're planning to buy one, perhaps the Samsung Chromebook Series 5, don't forget to check our full article covering everything you need to know about Chromebooks first. And of course, make sure your Wi-Fi router is primed.
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