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- Review Roundup: This week's hottest reviews on TechRadar
- BlackBerry Bold 9790 gets video debut
- Tablet sales up 300% year on year
- Review: MSI A75MA-G55
- Ridley Scott vows to work only in 3D
- Google+ help page confirms upcoming Games stream
- Review: Asus F1A75-V Pro
- Tutorial: 10 things to do after installing OS X Lion
- HTC Ruby pictures surfaces in dubious spy shots
- Buying Guide: 10 best 37-inch LCD TVs in the world today
- Buying Guide: MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: which is right for you?
- Video: What we'd like to see in the Xbox 720
- Sapphire's Pure Platinum A75 mainboard in production
- LG to launch a 55in OLED TV in 2012
- Review: Microsoft Office 365
- Week in Tech: It's a Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac world
- Apple to throw its hat into the Hulu hoop?
- Review: ASRock CoreHT 252B
- Review: Hazro HZ27WC
- Review: Hazro HZ27WA
- Review: Edifier Aurora
- US government gives BlackBerry PlayBook the thumbs up
- Review: Cables to Go TruLink Wireless HDMI Kit
- Microsoft in the black after posting strong results
| Review Roundup: This week's hottest reviews on TechRadar Posted: 23 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT This week we've taken a first look at the new webOS HP Veer smartphone as well as Apple's brand-new MacBook Air featuring blistering performance from Intel's Core i5 and i7 processors. We've also reviewed Nokia's latest X7 smartphone as well as the Samsung Galaxy S and Samsung Galaxy Pro. Check all our reviews out below. In the beginning, there was Palm. The company created the handheld/smartphone category with the original personal digital assistants in 1996. Now, following an HP acquisition about a year ago, it's emerged with a new super-tiny model, the HP Veer. The smartphone is priced at $99 with a two-year contract in the US, with costs yet to be announced in the UK. It's so light, at 103g, and small, at 84x54x15.1mm, that it almost seems like a toy phone – something you would pass on to little Johnny Radar Jr in the back seat to keep him silent. The Veer is generally well-packaged, but unless it comes with a fantastic price point when it lands on UK shores, it's not going to be a winner for HP. The MacBook Air that debuted last October was a mighty fine-looking piece of hardware - a newly designed unibody shell, 0.3cm at its thinnest. Trouble is, the meat inside didn't quite match up with the supreme exterior – Apple had been forced to stick with the ageing Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The great news is that the new models don't lack for performance. Even the base models are stacked. The off-the-shelf models come with the blistering Core i5 1.6 (11-inch, £849/£999 depending on memory and SSD) or 1.7GHz (13-inch, £1,099/£1,349 depending on memory and SSD) variants. Even better is that, for an extra £100, you can upgrade to a 1.8GHz Core i7. The Nokia X7 ought to be a flagship smartphone – it has a vast screen, it runs a revamped touchscreen OS and it looks rather nice too. It has an 8MP camera, super video playback and, at first glance, plenty of storage capacity. But we just aren't sure where Symbian Anna is headed in the long term, and that alone could make the Nokia X7 a blind alley. And it doesn't do anything supremely well. If you are a Nokia fan and want a top quality camera you should be looking at the Nokia N8. If you want a superb physical keyboard, then the Nokia E7 is worth your attention. Great social networking integration? Go Android instead, with something such as the HTC Sensation. With those bases covered, it's tricky to see precisely where the Nokia X7 fits in. One of the jewels in the previous-generation Android crown, the Samsung Galaxy S has recently been updated to Android 2.3.3, giving it Gingerbread features as well as improved performance and better battery life. We take another look to see what impact the updates have had. The Samsung Galaxy Pro had us spitting feathers at times, while at other times we really enjoyed using it. It was a real love/hate affair, caused by the two key features of the smartphone.
This week's other reviews Amplifiers Quad Elite Pre / Elite Mono review AV accessories Cables to Go TruLink Wireless HDMI Kit review Components Kingston HyperX Plug and Play High Performance Memory review Desktop PCs DSLRs/Hybrids Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3 review Hi-fi Accessories Monkey Cable Silverback review Laptops
Monitors Software Speakers Storage TVs USB drives Hands ons Software
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| BlackBerry Bold 9790 gets video debut Posted: 22 Jul 2011 09:31 AM PDT The BlackBerry Bold 9790, codenamed Bellagio, has made its first video appearances in a run of tutorial reels that have found their way on to the 'net. Posted to YouTube by Crackberry.com, the videos show a handset that's not a million miles away from the BlackBerry Bold 9780 in terms of design, but is running BlackBerry OS 7. The videos show off the handset's separate volume control buttons with additional mute button, familiar top-mounted lock key, microUSB port and camera shutter button. How soon is soon? The videos also reveal that the Bold 9790 will come rocking the Bold 9900's touchscreen above the trusty BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard. It's likely that the BlackBerry Bold 9790 is one of the seven upcoming BlackBerry OS 7 smartphones promised by RIM's co-CEO Jim Balsillie earlier this month. But just when we'll see a BlackBerry Bold 9790 UK release date remains to be seen; we're still waiting on the Torch 2 and the Curve Touch too, and leaks from those camps have been around for ages.
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| Tablet sales up 300% year on year Posted: 22 Jul 2011 09:19 AM PDT Global tablet shipments have increased to over 15 million units in Q2 2011 with Apple's iPad range coming out on top. The figures released this week by research company Strategy Analytics found a 331 per cent increase in sales of all tablets. Apple shipped 6 million more tablets in the second quarter of this year than in 2010. It did however see its market share drop from a dominant 94.3 per cent, down to 61.3 per cent which suggests that competition in the market is on the rise. Android also proved popular. Its operating system was included on about a third (30.1 per cent) of tablets shipped this year, up from just 2.9 per cent last year. Set in stone The Blackberry Playbook, which runs the QNX operating system, managed to capture 3 per cent of the global tablet share in Q2 2011. Microsoft, which had 0 per cent market share in Q2 2010, now has 4.6 per cent due to releasing Windows 7 on a number of tablets this year. With the launch of the tablet-focused Windows 8 set for 2012 it will be interesting to see how these figures change over the next 12 months. 
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| Posted: 22 Jul 2011 09:15 AM PDT As part of the review kit for the AMD A8-3850 Fusion APU we were supplied with this MSI A75MA-G55. The Fusion chips ought to be at home in these sorts of small scale motherboards. And recently it's all been about the small form factor motherboard. The microATX form factor has been making one hell of a comeback since so much of your PC's tech has disappeared beneath the unassuming heatspreader of the central chunk of silicon in your machine. Since graphics started to come back on-die it has freed up a hell of a lot of real-estate on the motherboard. You can go one of two ways then, either cram in a load of, possibly, useless extras or trim down the footprint of the board to shave off the unnecessary space. We've seen some tiny H67 and Z68 boards recently, even going as far as the mini-ITX form factor, and this MSI A75MA-G55 is the first AMD Llano Fusion board we've seen on a smaller scale. The desktop version of Llano, the Lynx platform, lends itself perfectly to this smaller form factor. With impressive integrated graphics performance and low-power requirements the A-series APUs make the perfect HTPC that might occasionally want to turn its hand to a li'l light gaming.
The Asus and MSI boards are incredibly close in performance terms when it comes to stock speeds, below though it's obvious the level of extra performance the Asus' overclocking capabilities offers. Still, the MSI copes happily with the Dual Graphics option, offering decent performance in the hybrid CrossFire mode and with improved RAM speeds.
As a whole we've been impressed by what the desktop version of AMD's Llano can produce, both in terms of graphics and more surprisingly in its raw computational chops. We paired up AMD's top APU, the A8-3850, with this board from MSI to see what we could get out of this smaller mobo compared with the full-fat Asus F1A75-V Pro. At stock speeds it's all good. The MSI board happily keeps pace with the larger Asus offering, with performance only a shade off. The A75MA-G55 is also rather well-heeled in the features department too, showing off full SATA 6Gb/s coverage and USB 3.0 sockets out back and through a break-out box too. With a little light coaxing we also managed to squeeze out 1,600MHz from our DDR3 RAM, making a surprising difference in games performance – especially with a discrete card installed in Dual Graphics mode too. But this is a brand new chipset and brand new software too, so it's only to be expected that there be teething troubles with the BIOS. It took a little extra effort to get the extra memory speed, but sadly the same though couldn't be said for any overclocking shenanigans. The amount of overclocking headroom in the Llano desktop APU is one of the things that impressed us most. The notebook version had a very weak CPU part, but the Lynx platform has a lot of potential in it. We managed to hit 3.7GHz with our 2.9GHz APU sample on the Asus motherboard. According to MSI's old school, non-EFI BIOS we were able to hit over 5GHz on air. Unfortunately our astonishment at this feat evaporated when it transpired the motherboard was doing nothing of the sort. In fact we couldn't force any extra performance out of the A8-3850 APU at all. Not a single silicon sausage. Now as an HTPC it's not a massive problem, and I'm sure subsequent BIOS updates may well affect a change in this lack of performance, but for now it's tough to recommend knowing what you could get out of that APU. We liked As an HTPC motherboard, with no pretentions towards enthusiast performance, it's a great price and fit for the mATX scale and AMD Llano Fusion APUs. It's also impressive that you can get almost the same stock performance out of this motherboard as the more expensive Asus board. We disliked As much as it's not so important for the HTPC arena this board's aimed at, the fact there is zero overclocking capability is a bit of a downer. Though that does seem like a BIOS issue rather than a hardware failure. Final word As a form factor the mATX size is a perfect match for the Llano platform, this vaguely broken MSI board however is currently anything but a perfect match. 
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| Ridley Scott vows to work only in 3D Posted: 22 Jul 2011 09:09 AM PDT Director Ridley Scott has joined a growing group of filmmakers who see 3D as the future of moviemaking, announcing that he is never to film in two dimensions again. The multi-award winner is filming his new movie, Prometheus in 3D and has developed a love for the technology. Scott, who usually operates the camera as well as directing, told a panel at Comic Con, via satellite link, "I'll never work without 3D again, even for small dialogue scenes. "I love the whole process. 3D opens up the universe of even a small dialogue scene so I've been very impressed with that."
Prometheus, which began filming in March, was going to be an Alien prequel but has developed into a more independent production. The new film will see Scott return to the sci-fi genre shooting for the very first time in 3D. Damon Lindelof, co-screenwriter of Prometheus, said: "3D helps bring you into that immersive environment and just based on what I've seen so far I think probably one the most visionary and visual directors in the world is finally using this medium, I think its going to be pretty special." The announcement from Scott is quite a bold step, however, it could signal even more filmmakers and directors following suit. 
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| Google+ help page confirms upcoming Games stream Posted: 22 Jul 2011 08:24 AM PDT Google+ will soon incorporate some kind of social gaming element, according to an overly helpful help page found on Google's social network. "If you're looking for updates shared from games, check out your Games stream," said Google+'s help page, which is still live at time of writing, although the hyperlink in the text leads to a 404 error page. It's not clear exactly what this Games stream will entail, but it could well be along the lines of Facebook's social gaming, where third party developers build games that latch on to the shareable nature of the site. Eric Schmidt is now your neighbour in Farmville! That's right, we could be on the cusp of Farmville+, particularly given that Google has already said that APIs will be released to developers in the near future. We advise setting up a special circle for your Farmville-loving Google+ friends now so you can hide them and their annoying statuses as soon as it hits. The other potential gaming feature on Google+ could be to use Android games; either to play on the web, or to share your vital statistics in a leaderboard style. Either way, this latest slip-up from Google coupled with sneaky lines buried deep in the Google+ code that also mention a Games stream, makes us fairly confident that it won't be long before the stream launches.
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| Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:34 AM PDT The Asus F1A75-V Pro is the first Llano-compatible motherboard we've seen from the veritable mobo-giant. And it's a pretty impressive partner for AMD's new APU too. We've seen just how good AMD's latest Fusion APU is in full desktop, Llano Lynx guise, but the AMD A8-3850 chip itself is just half the story. Despite a hefty amount of the good stuff now being jammed onto the chip itself - northbridge, CPU and GPU – there's still an awful lot left up to the motherboard. And to get the most out of the Llano APUs you need a quality mobo partnership. Asus has got a pretty good name in the motherboard market and this first Llano Lynx FM1-socket motherboard, the F1A75-V Pro, is only going to further that good feeling. It comes with all the lovelies we're going to expect from this new A75 series of motherboards, namely up to 1,866MHz DDR3 support as well as what's hot in the world of interfaces; SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0. So hot right now… There will though be cheaper, weaker A55 boards on their way, minus those two super-model I/O options, very soon.
At stock speeds the £80 MSI board gives a good showing, coming only just short of the pricier full-size Asus F1A75-V Pro. That's where the good news ends though as the Asus board pulled away as soon as any thought of overclocking came about.
One of the things that really impressed us about the AMD A8-3850 Fusion APU was the amount of overclocking headroom there was in the chip. We've been playing around with Stars-based AMD CPUs for a good while and we're rarely seen a chip take an almost 1GHz overclock before. The Asus F1A75-V Pro was no bystander in this, being a key component to getting that speed out of the chip itself. AMD supplied an MSI microATX FM1 board, the MSI A75M-G55, as part of the review kit and we could barely get a squeak out of it. The Asus BIOS gave us full access to the Llano APU's baseclock; as it stands that's the only way to boost this multiplier-locked chip. That said the APU multiplier setting in the BIOS was susceptible to the odd tweak, displaying huge frequency boosts in Windows but offering no actual performance increase in the real-world. Still, the F1A75-V Pro gave us an A8-3850 running happily at 3.7GHz. Compared to the 2.9GHz stock speeds it comes with out of the box, that's a hefty ol' kick in the clocks. Going along with that baseclock tweaking it also pushes up the DRAM frequency as well as the onboard graphics too, and yet it remained stable across the board. Where the MSI board was initially reticent to allow us to up the memory frequency the Asus board was only too happy to oblige, indeed seeing the G.Skill RipJaws RAM at its native 1,600MHz speed straight out of the packaging. Dual Graphics didn't present a problem for us either. All it took was a single tweak in the BIOS to enable multi-monitor support and the board happily enabled the CrossFire settings in the Catalyst suite on booting into Windows. In fact our only real snag with the board came on trying to plug in a discrete card alone, without running through the onboard graphics portion of the APU. After much installing and uninstalling we found our OS was now ignoring all devices plugged into the various USB ports despite our best attempts. But that's a fairly minor thing. With a board and chip coming in at around £200 all in you can afford to drop a £75 Radeon HD 6670 in as a Dual Graphics array and come up with some surprisingly playable frame rates. While FM1-socket boards are still in their infancy, this Asus F1A75-V Pro is currently setting the bar high. With a combination of solid overclocking support and a decent feature set this board is going to be tough to beat. We liked The overclocking performance the board allowed us to squeeze out of the A8-3850 APU is thoroughly impressive. We wouldn't have known the untapped potential of the chip without it. The A75-series boards all come laden down with purely SATA 6Gb/s ports, and a healthy smattering of USB 3.0 sockets too. We disliked Our only gripe came in the shape of the APU multiplier settings lying to us and a struggle trying to get the discrete cards running on their lonesome. Final word It's an impressive Asus debut for the A75-series of motherboards, giving the A8-3850 a serious platform. 
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| Tutorial: 10 things to do after installing OS X Lion Posted: 22 Jul 2011 07:00 AM PDT Mac OS 10.7 Lion is finally here and like most Mac users you'll be installing it at some point over the next few days, if you haven't done so already. Since it's only £21 it's a bargain, so there's really no reason not to (unless you have an old Mac with a pre-Core 2 Duo processor, of course). It goes without saying that you should backup your Mac before downloading and installing Lion, but once you've installed Lion what should you do next? Before we start, a word of advice for anyone who has just downloaded the Lion installer, but not actually started the installation. Stop! Copy the Install OS X file that you'll find in your Applications folder to an external drive, so you don't have to download it again on all your other Macs, too. At 4GB it's a hefty download, so you can save yourself some serious time with this tip. Remember, you can't do this after you've finished installing Lion, because the installer file is removed, so do it now and thank us later. We found the installation itself to be quick and painless, and once Lion is up and running you're ready to take it for a spin. Just be aware that Spotlight will be indexing your Mac for the first half an hour or so, and this can slow things like animations down a little bit. So, if Lion feels a bit sluggish don't write it off quite yet - things will definitely improve once the indexing has finished. We've previewed all the new features of Lion before, so we won't list them all here. Instead let's go through the top 10 things you need to do first in OS X 10.7 Lion. 1. Reverse 'natural' scrolling Coming from Snow Leopard, the first thing you'll find really confusing about Lion is the scrolling direction. In an effort to unify OS X, its desktop operating system, and iOS, its handheld operating system, Apple has changed the default behaviour of the scroll wheel (or ball) on your mouse. Instead of scrolling the page up when you scroll your mouse wheel down (a system that we've been using since scroll wheels were invented), it now scrolls the page down, in an effort to mimic what happens when you swipe down on an iPad with your finger.
SCROLL AWAY: Turn off natural scrolling to get back to the way things were Apple calls this 'natural scrolling'. While this might be fine for the 'post PC' generation, for the rest of us it feels distinctly unnatural. The good news is you can change things back to the way they were by changing one simple setting. In System Preferences go to General and untick 'Move content in the direction of finger movement when scrolling or navigating'. 2. Fix Mail's appearance Next, let's look at Lion Mail. It's a definite upgrade to Snow Leopard's version of the program - you now get snippets in the message list, conversation view and a new column view. The downside is that with its new column view it feels more like Microsoft's Entourage than Apple Mail. If you miss the look and feel of the old Mail then don't worry, you can get some of it back. In Mail go to the Mail menu then choose Preferences and click on Viewing. Click on Use Classic Layout and boom! You're back in something that looks more like old fashioned Mail. Toggle the Show/Hide button on the Favorites Bar to add the finishing touches. 3. Update your applications Lion is here, but your apps are probably still living in the past. If you want Pages, Keynote and Numbers to make use of the new Versions feature in Lion (more on that later) then you'll need to update them.
UPDATE NOW: After you've installed Lion update your apps to get the most out of them There's a new version of iTunes that's optimised for Lion, too. To get all this good stuff on your Mac head over to Software Update in System Preferences and click Check Now, then download the updates. 4. Sort out your apps in LaunchPad One of the first things you notice about Lion is the striking new icon for LaunchPad in the Dock. It produces a screen full of your application icons, mimicking SpringBoard, the Home Screen of iOS. It's multi-screen too, just click and swipe left to move to the next screen of apps. It's a useful feature, but far from perfect - for a start it displays an icon for everything in your applications folder, including all the stuff you don't want. Your first thought will probably be, 'how do I delete icons from here?'. The answer is you can only delete apps that were purchased through the Mac App Store. To remove them click and hold on any icon and they'll all start to wiggle, the apps you can delete will now have a small x in their top left corner. The only way to remove the other icons is to delete them from your Applications folder in Finder.
START IT UP: Launchpad is useful, but lacks customisation features One alternative to deleting apps is to create a folder in LaunchPad of all the apps you don't want displayed. Just drag one unwanted app and drag it on top of another unwanted app. A new folder will be created. You can rename the folder to anything you like by double-clicking it's name when the folder is open. 5. Expand windows from all corners This is a great Lion feature that's worth checking out immediately. As OS X users we've always been used to only being able to expand the size of a window by dragging on the bottom right corner. Lion changes all this - you can drag any corner of an open window to resize it, or drag the edges of the window to expand it in that direction. 6. Check out new desktop backgrounds Nothing says your running Lion better than a great big picture of a Lion stamping its authority all over your desktop. Think about it - unless you change you desktop background into something Lion-related how are you going to gain bragging rights over all your Snow Leopard-running pals?
ROAR: Nothing says 'I've got Lion!' quite like a great big feline on your desktop Head to System Preferences, Desktop and Screen Saver and click on Desktop pictures - you'll see the new Andromeda Galaxy background, which Apple uses in a lot of the pictures on its website, and of course, there's an actual picture of a Lion you can use as a desktop background there as well. 7. Add a new space Lion changes the way Spaces works on your Mac. Previously you'd had a Spaces settings panel in System Preferences. This has now been replaced by Mission Control. Mission Control is actually one of Lion's strongest features - essentially taking the idea of Exposé (an easy way to access all your open windows) and turning it into something even more useful that enables you to switch to new Spaces without touching the keyboard. In Mission Control move your cursor to the top right hand corner and you get the option to add a new Space. Once you've added a Space, Ctrl or right-click on any application icon in your Dock to force it to open in a particular Space. 8. Go full screen - and get back out! Full screen apps offer a better, distraction-free, way of working. At the moment it's mainly Apple's apps, like Pages, iPhoto or iTunes that go full screen, but we're sure third-party apps will offer full screen options soon. Load up Safari and try it out by clicking the arrow icon in the top-right corner of the app. Unfortunately it's not immediately obvious how you get back out of full screen mode. There are two ways to do it. Either press the Escape key on the keyboard, or simply move the cursor to the top of the screen. The traditional Apple menu bar will appear with an option to revert back to standard windowed mode. 9. Marvel at versions Versions is a very useful new feature of Lion - it combines with Auto Save to enable you to go back to any previously saved version of a file you've got open. It only works in compatible apps, and again, right now that limits you to Apple's apps, but other will soon follow.
LOOK BACK: Step into the Time Machine-like interface of Versions to see previous versions of your documents You can try it out in Text Edit or Pages - open the program and start to type something and save it. You'll notice a small triangle next to the document name at the top of the program window - tap this and you enter a Time Machine-like interface that enables you to skip through previous versions of the file. 10. Shut down! We're so used to having to shut down all our applications before we shut down our Macs that we don't give it a second though, but with Lion all that changes. You'll notice a new tickbox entitled 'Reopen Windows when logging back in'.
END OF PLAY: The new shut down screen gives you the option to start up your Mac exactly as you left it If you're running Lion right now hit Shutdown, then restart your Mac with this option ticked. You'll find that it starts up exactly as you left it, with this very web page you're reading now open in your web browser ,so you can keep on reading where you left off. That's pretty impressive. 
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| HTC Ruby pictures surfaces in dubious spy shots Posted: 22 Jul 2011 05:45 AM PDT There's no better way to view an early prototype product than in the reflection of another product in a dark photograph taken on the factory floor. So it's lucky, really, that those are the circumstances behind the latest spy shots of what is supposed to be the upcoming HTC Ruby. This supposition is based on the fact that Exif data for the photos lists 'HTC Ruby' as the camera used to take them. Ruby, ruby, ruby, ruby Not a great deal of detail can be gleaned from the photos; there's a back-mounted camera with what looks like a dual flash, and we can see a headphone socket on the top panel of the phone. Its rounded design suggests it could be towards the lower end of the smartphone scale, recalling the cheap, toyish looks of the HTC Tattoo. We're going to guess this is an Android handset, although there's always the chance that it could be a Windows Phone 7; it's very likely to be a prototype though, so design may vary drastically – that's if it ever actually sees the light of day.
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| Buying Guide: 10 best 37-inch LCD TVs in the world today Posted: 22 Jul 2011 05:30 AM PDT Our constantly updated list of all the best 37-inch TVs in the world Which is the best 37-inch TV?Making the decision to upgrade from a bulky old 28-inch CRT TV is almost too easy, but heading straight for a 42-inch plasma can seem a little daunting. And thus the 37" size has become one of the UK's most popular shapes; a lot more impressive than a 32-incher, yet not big enough to entirely dominate a living room. It's also often the maximum size for those of us who are forced, simply by the shape of our living room, to shove a TV in the corner. It's a size division that's as competitive as any, with the big brands weighing in with both LCD and plasma TV models. Despite its direct forerunners being some of the best-reviewed (and best-selling) TVs around, Panasonic's TX-P37X20 is the only plasma left in this category.
Surrounded by LCD TVs not just from Panasonic, but from other huge brands like Sony, LG and Toshiba, the 37-inch size has become a battleground dominated by aggressively low pricing. A buyer's market, the 37" size is also home to some wonderful innovations. Here you'll find some sets properly exploiting a Full HD resolution, and TVs with built-in Freesat tuners, others with online dimensions, 100Hz scanning and even - in the case of Loewe's Connect - a luxury wireless TV that can stream music and video from a PC or Mac, before pumping out incredible sound. Loewe is hardly typical of this cut-price - and sparsely populated - genre, but it shows just what can be done at this modest measurement.
Panasonic TX-P37X20BAffordable HD ready plasma with excellent all-round performance Plasmas are exceedingly rare at this size, but previous generations of this particular model have routinely been honoured – and this version is no different. It lacks much of the more advanced functions seen further up Panasonic's range, but for frugal buyers who don't want to pay for extra bells and whistles, it delivers big performance bangs for a modest buck. It's merely HD Ready – not Full HD – but with a super-clean performance from its built-in Freeview tuner it makes the perfect all-rounder for living rooms. Read: Panasonic TX-P37X20B review
Panasonic TX-L37DT30BBBC iPlayer plus built-in Freeview/Freesat HD tuners on this 3D Edge LED TV Panasonic's first effort at an Edge LED TV is also 3D-ready, although it's sized to steer clear of competing with the brand's barnstorming 3D plasmas – and the TX-L37DT30B comes a clear second place, judged purely on 3D images. Still, compared to other 3D LCD TVs, this DT30 Series set is a competitive performer that pairs 3D with quite wonderful 2D, and even Freeview HD and Freesat HD tuners. Yes – both! The appearance of BBC iPlayer – at last – on Panasonic's Viera Connect platform is welcome, as are deep blacks, an effective anti-blur system, HD detail and some striking colours. Panasonic's first 3D LCD TV is a huge success. So huge, in fact, that we have little issue with declaring this one of the finest 37-inchers in the business. Read: Panasonic TX-L37DT30B review
Sharp LC-37LE320Sharp puts on the style with this natty LED Freeview screen Affordable and contemporary, but not loaded with the latest tech, Sharp's 37-incher offers LED backlighting and a mere 45mm depth. An unashamedly everyman screen for those who don't wish to rummage in the bargain bins, it's lack of 100Hz, networking or Freeview HD is countered by image sharpness and colour vibrancy as Sharp manoeuvres back into the upper tier of LCD TV makers. Read: Sharp LC-37LE320 review
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Buying Guide: MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: which is right for you?
Posted: 22 Jul 2011 05:05 AM PDT
When Apple released a new MacBook Air in time for OS X Lion, it also took the chance to cut the white MacBook from its line up. This leaves buyers with a choice between the MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro.
But if you're after an Apple laptop and were thinking of getting the white MacBook, which is right for you now? The MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros have some quite significant differences, so we've put together the following guide to help you decide which will fulfil your needs.
If you decide the current Apple range isn't right for you, also check our top 20 laptops list here.
MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Price
The new MacBook Air range starts at £849 for the 11-inch, 64GB model, with the 128GB model coming in at £999. The 13-inch MacBook Air starts at £1,099 for the 128GB version, with the 256GB version costing £1,349.
The MacBook Pro range starts at £999 for the 2.3GHz 13-inch version, while the 2.7GHz model will cost you £1,299. The 15-inch models cost £1,549 and £1,849 for the 2GHz and 2.2GHz models respectively. The 17-inch model costs £2,099.
MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Processor
All of Apple's laptops now use Intel's Sandy Bridge processors, so this means the latest Intel Core i5 or Core i7 CPUs. The MacBook Air's CPUs are all dual-core regardless of whether you've got the 1.6GHz, 1.7GHz or 1.8GHz model, but they're Hyper-Threaded, so they have four virtual cores.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro also features dual-core CPUs, but they're a lot more powerful, running at 2.3GHz or 2.7GHz. These are also both Hyper-Threaded, like the MacBook Air's, giving you four virtual cores. The 15-inch MacBook Pro and 17-inch MacBook Pro feature quad-core CPUs at 2GHz, 2.2GHz or 2.3GHz. Again, these are Hyper-Threaded, giving eight virtual cores.
All of the CPUs on both the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines feature Turbo Boost, so can clock beyond their given speed in certain circumstances.
MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Graphics
The new MacBook Airs feature the new integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 graphics chip, which is the same as in the 13-inch MacBook Pro. In our 13-inch MacBook Pro review, we noted that this GPU was surprisingly capable for gaming, but this is likely to be diminished in the MacBook Air because of its less powerful processor.
The 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro models come with dedicated GPUs from AMD, with up to 1GB of video memory. This makes them far better for gamers, or those using GPU-accelerated software, including Final Cut X and Motion 5.
MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: RAM
The new MacBook Airs feature the same 1333MHz DDR3 RAM as the MacBook Pro line, though the cheapest 11-inch MacBook Air only features 2GB, while all the other MacBook Air models match the MacBook Pros by having 4GB as standard.
However, the MacBook Pros can be configured to have up to 8GB of RAM, while the Airs can't be increased past 4GB.
MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Screen
The 11-inch MacBook Air has a resolution of 1366 x 768, while the 13-inch MacBook Air offer 1440 x 900. This is actually higher than the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which features a 1280 x 800 screen. In fact, the 13-inch MacBook Air's resolution is equivalent to the 15-inch MacBook Pro's, which is also 1440 x 900, which could make the MacBook Air more desirable for photographers and designers than the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
That said, the MacBook Pro can be configured to have a 1680 x 1050 screen, while the 1920 x 1200 screen on the 17-inch MacBook Pro bests all the others.
MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Storage
The MacBook Air range uses flash memory SSDs, making it extremely fast to turn on and to wake from sleep mode. It also helps to make it power efficient. The cheapest 11-inch MacBook Air offers 64GB of storage, while the more expensive 11-inch model offers 128GB. The 13-inch models offer 128GB or 256GB of storage.
The MacBook Pro models all feature hard drives as standard, starting from 320GB in the 13-inch to 750GB in the 17-inch model. These can be configured for larger drives though, or for faster hard drives or even SSDs up to 512GB.
MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Battery life
The 11-inch MacBook Air is stated to offer up to five hours of battery life in real-word use, while the 13-inch MacBook and all of the MacBook Pro models are stated to offer up to seven hours of use. How you use them will obviously affect this – playing games using the MacBook Pros' dedicated GPUs will causes a severe reduction in battery life.
Unlike the MacBook Pros, the MacBook Airs are designed to offer lengthy standby battery life, lasting up to 30 days without being turned off, which could be an advantage for those who won't get a chance to plug in their laptop that often.
MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Size and weight
The 11-inch MacBook Air is considerably smaller than any of Apple's other laptops, but still offers nearly a full size keyboard. It measues 17mm at its thickest point when closed, and weighs 1.08kg. The 13-inch MacBook Air is the same thickness as the 11-inch model, but is wider and deeper. It weighs a little more, at 1.35kg.
The MacBook Pros are 24mm thick for the 13- and 15-inch versions, while the 17-inch is 25mm thick. They're all a good deal heavier too, with the 13-inch model weighing nearly twice what the 11-inch MacBook Air does at 2.04kg. The 15-inch weighs 1.54kg, while the 17-inch model is 2.99kg.
This all makes the MacBook Airs far easier to carry around with you, but it has come at the cost of storage space, and processor and graphics power.
MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro: Ports
The new MacBook Airs feature two USB 2.0 ports, a headphone port, an SD card slot and a Thunderbolt port. This enables them to connect to the new Thunderbolt Display to add more I/O options.
The 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros both have two USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, Gigabit Ethernet, an audio line-out an SD card slot and a Thunderbolt port. The 15-inch model also has a line-in jack. The 17-inch model adds another USB 2.0 port and swaps the SD card slot for an ExpressCard slot.
All of the MacBook Pros feature a DVD drive, while the MacBook Airs don't have any disc drive at all unless you buy the SuperDrive add-on, so if you want to watch DVDs, you should take that into consideration.
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Video: What we'd like to see in the Xbox 720
Posted: 22 Jul 2011 04:42 AM PDT
Microsoft is riding high with its Xbox 360 at the moment; with Kinect selling like hot-cakes and some major games on the horizon as it continues its familiar battle with Sony's PlayStation.
And yet, even though it was clear that no successor would be mentioned at E3 this year, rumours about what the as-yet unannounced Xbox 720 will bring abound.
Of course for a really in-depth look you can check out our newly updated: Xbox 720: Every rumour about the next Xbox.
So, TechRadar has put together a list of some of the things that we would like to see in the next Xbox in video format and you can see the fruits of our labour below.
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Sapphire's Pure Platinum A75 mainboard in production
Posted: 22 Jul 2011 04:14 AM PDT
Hong Kong-based Sapphire Technology has announced its latest A-series Fusion APU-based mainboard, with the Pure Platinum A75 taking advantage of AMD's latest chip.
It combines a quad core CPU, the northbridge and DirectX11 graphics in one handy package.
The full ATX board naturally includes HD, Blu-Ray and stereoscopic 3D support, and outputs via DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort. Noises are provided via the standard configuration on board HD 7.1 audio.
Storage connectivity comes in the shapely form of four onboard USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports and five SATA 6G ports with AHCI and RAID support. An eSATA connector features on the rear panel.
Compatability
One of the big advantages of the A-series APU is its graphics compatibility. Plug in a Sapphire HD6600 or HD 6500 graphics card and the performance is combined with the onboard graphics to give a maximum 175% graphics boost.
Up to 16GB of DDR3 memory is currently supported, but this can be expanded to 32GB when suitable technology becomes available. Gigabit LAN and Bluetooth are also present and correct, so you'll have no problems connecting to the net or slowly transferring music and photos to your phone.
Overclocking fiends will find a digital debug display and push button BIOS reset, as well as a dual BIOS for "experimentation".
Sapphire's proprietary Mainboard TriXX software is provided for performance optimisation. The whole thing's finished with a black multilayer printed circuit board and gold plated connectors for the USB 3.0 and LAN ports.
The Sapphire Pure Platinum A75 is in production now, and will be available through the usual retailers. Pricing and release date are yet to be confirmed.
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LG to launch a 55in OLED TV in 2012
Posted: 22 Jul 2011 04:05 AM PDT
LG has announced that it plans to launch a 55-inch OLED TV in the second half of 2012.
Speaking at an event in Korea at which LG announced its financial results, LG Display CEO Kwon Young-soo explained to reporters that the company would be moving its focus from small and medium-sized OLED displays to the big hitting TVs.
"We will make no more investment in the sector judging that the OLED businss is relatively less profitable than other products in the mobile sector," he said, referring to the burgeoning tablet and smartphone display markets.
Oh led
Instead, he said: "LGD[isplay] will launch a 55-inch OLED TV by the second half of next year."
The company will be aiming for quality not quantity, with initial shipments running in the tens of thousands rather than a full-scale roll out, with mass production dependent on consumers' reactions to the first runs.
Whenever it finally hits, the 55-inch OLED certainly won't come cheap. LG has already shown off a 31-inch OLED TV, which is yet to make it to the UK, as well as the 15-inch LG 15EL9500 which would set you back a cool £1,700.
LG Display also announced that TV display panels are currently bringing in around half of its overall sales; sales from the company as a whole run to around £3.5 billion, up 13 per cent for the quarter.
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Posted: 22 Jul 2011 03:30 AM PDT
Microsoft has dabbled in online collaboration before. The SharePoint service might not have set the world alight, but it was a dependable package.
Microsoft Office 365 unites SharePoint with the online version of Microsoft Office – Office Web Apps.
Since the launch of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft has been more focused than ever on smartphones, and its renewed interest in this market has led to some useful smartphone integration.
The 2010 versions of Microsoft Exchange and Lync are also included, offering good features for small businesses.
Tying it all together
Office 365 is aimed at small businesses that might not have dedicated IT staff, so the ease with which its advanced features can be set up and configured is highly commendable.
There are short video tutorials that helped us set up Office 365 much faster than we ever managed with SharePoint. When signing up for the service, we were given a '.onmicrosoft.com' domain name. Importing an existing domain name is pretty simple, and worth doing if you want to incorporate Office 365 with your existing company site and email.
If you don't already have your own website, Office 365 comes with a simple site builder. We were able to make a reasonable looking site in a few minutes using the included templates, stock photos and clipart. The websites you make with this won't win any design awards, but they look good enough and, most importantly, are easy to create.
The Microsoft Exchange 2010 service is the most complicated of the services to set up, and probably the most important to get right, but it means you can send and receive emails, and share calendars and contacts. These can be accessed through a desktop email program, via a smartphone or through Outlook Web Access – a pared-down web version of Outlook.
Outlook Web Access 2010 includes some handy updates, like a faster, more responsive interface and improved support for browsers other than Internet Explorer.
Ease of use
We had Office 2010 software installed on our test machines, and we were able to configure them to interact with 365 by clicking the 'Set up' button in the 'Downloads' section. This downloaded and installed a number of updates that let us use our desktop applications with 365 – saving documents straight from Word to the online SharePoint server, for example.
As you might expect from Microsoft, we had to install several updates, with some updated programs then requiring other programs to be updated, and so on. It wasn't the smoothest of operations, but it was a good time-saver when used with multiple PCs.
It does mean that you need to have Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 installed; if you don't, some of the most useful functions will be lost.
It's clear that Microsoft Office 365 has been optimised to work with devices running Windows, Microsoft Office and Windows Phone 7. If your business uses OS X, Google Docs or Android smartphones, Google Apps offers more choice.
Microsoft Office 365 has had through lengthy beta testing, and with Microsoft's experience in developing office software, the resulting service strikes a good balance between power, features and simplicity. It offers much the same functionality as Google Apps, with the same 99.9 per cent uptime guarantee, and is just a little more expensive.
Microsoft Office 365 is more streamlined, with its services integrating much better than Google's various products. If your small business already uses Microsoft Office products then this is an excellent accompaniment, though if you don't want to be tied to Microsoft products, Google Apps offers far more flexibility.
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Week in Tech: It's a Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac world
Posted: 22 Jul 2011 03:19 AM PDT
If you're not an Apple fan, we've got bad news for you: pretty much all the tech news this week revolved around the Cupertino corporation.
There was a brand new OS, some brand new computers, a whole bunch of rumours and some truly staggering numbers - and those numbers might just show us the way computing is heading.
That's what columnist Gary Marshall reckons, anyway.
With Apple reporting yet another record financial quarter, Marshall noted that "iPads are already outselling Macs... by a factor of two to one. Factor in Apple's staggering iPhone sales and the growing importance of the iPod touch [and] it's clear that Apple is a mobile device firm first and a computer firm second."
It's not just about Apple, though. It's about all kinds of mobile devices. "In 2002, the number of PCs in the world reached 1 billion. That took twenty-one years," Marshall says. "After just four years, the combined sales of iOS and Android are nearing the half-billion mark already... this isn't the end of the PC. It's the rebirth of the PC."
New MacBook Air and Mac Mini
While iPhone 5 rumours continue to spread around the net, we had more solid things to think about. Apple killed the popular white MacBook for everyone but educational customers, which is the end of an era: it was the last bit of kit Apple made in pure white, and its demise prompted teary-eyed MacFormat editor Graham Barlow to declare that "I'm sorry to see 'Apple white' removed from Apple's Mac line-up."
The end of the white MacBook makes the new MacBook Air the entry-level Mac laptop, and there's a new Mac Mini for those of you who don't need mobility. The revised Mac Mini is faster and prettier than before, and it comes without an optical drive. "Those DVD makers must have really upset Apple somewhere along the line," Patrick Goss writes.
Apple clearly believes that the era of the optical disk is coming to a close, and it's putting its operating system where its mouth is: the new OS X Lion is download-only, although you'll be able to buy a pricey USB stick later this year. However, the OS has hardly got off to a slow start - 1 million copies have already been downloaded.
As you'd expect from us, we've catered for every conceivable OS X Lion need: we've got a hands-on Lion review from someone who discovered that Lion killed their pricey Logic Pro music software; we have a tutorial showing you how to get the best from multi-touch gestures; we have an in-depth guide that tells you everything you need to know, including how to get your Mac ready for the update, and we're keeping an eye on which applications have been upgraded to take advantage of Lion's new auto-save and file versioning features. So far that list includes Apple's iWork suite, which was updated last night.
So is Lion the mane event, or a cat-astrophe? We think it's the former, and not just because it costs just £20.99 for every Mac you might own. However, it might be well to heed our warning: "if you're using non-Apple kit or older software or hardware, we'd recommend checking for compatibility before hitting the App Store." If you rely on anything to get your work done, make sure it's compatible.
As if that wasn't enough, Apple also launched the world's cheapest monitor. Only kidding: it's £899. But what a monitor it is: twenty-seven inches of Apple Thunderbolt LED Display with a FaceTime webcam, speakers, Gigabit Ethernet, Firewire 800, USB 2.0 and a free horse. We're lying about the horse.
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Apple to throw its hat into the Hulu hoop?
Posted: 22 Jul 2011 03:16 AM PDT
Apple is in talks that could lead to a bid for American video on demand service Hulu, according to a pair of anonymous tipsters.
The popular VOD site has been up for sale for some time, with practically all the big names in tech sniffing around for a bargain.
Microsoft reportedly bowed out of talks earlier in the week, but Google is generally believed to be one of the front-runners to bid.
Hullo to Apple
Bloomberg cites two people "with knowledge of the auction" who told it that Apple is in early talks with Hulu.
Hulu's current owners, which include Disney, News Corp and NBC Universal, are said to be offering the buyer an extension of program rights for five years, which will see the service armed with an arsenal of exclusive content.
It's quite unlike Apple to make a big acquisition like this, but with the company putting renewed vigour behind Apple TV, it's certainly not out of the realms of possibility.
And, with the company's latest gig being all about the cloud, an online video service could be just what it's looking for.
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Posted: 22 Jul 2011 03:15 AM PDT
Is ASRock's all-in-one Home Theatre PC (HTPC), the CoreHT 252B-4G50/B, the perfect living room companion to sit by your TV?
Depending on how you measure it, it's smaller than an Apple Mac Mini (the Mini is about half the height, but the CoreHT wins from the overhead dimensions) and has the advantage of coming with a Blu-ray drive built in and front-facing USB 3.0 ports for other media.
It looks good too, in its tiny tin enclosure that's been lacquered in a glossy black.
Attach a USB TV card and it's realistically a replacement for most of your set-top boxes in a chassis that's smaller than most Freeview tuners.
The ASRock CoreHT 252B then really is a media box par excellence.
The Core i5 2520M Mobile Sandy Bridge processor also features Intel's higher-end HD Graphics 3000 tech, and Creative's THX HD TruStudio Pro audio is built in to the integrated audio.
It seems flawless - the ultimate NAS box, entertainment device and workstation all in one. Have we finally found the one-box converged future of the digital home?
Thanks to the Intel Core i5 processor, the ASRock CoreHT 252B behaves like a real PC. It's fast, ideally suited to video encoding and playback, plus it has a fair stab at games too.
The more you prod and push the ASRock CoreHT 252B-4G50/B, the more there is to like about it.
For the most part, it's near silent. The only noisy component is the Blu-ray drive – which is obviously annoying, but not the end of the world. It's also very power-efficient.
The whole system idles at just over 26W. At no point did it consume less than 80W. That's a lot of power-hungry technology you can recycle, to make you feel good about your carbon footprint.
The problem is that the CoreHT's strengths are also its weaknesses.
The no-compromise components are right on the edge of what it's possible to put in a box this size, and they run hot. The CPU never dropped below 60C (140F) in our tests, and once the Blu-ray fires up or a CPU-intensive task starts, it's a furnace in there and the fans kick in.
There's room for an extra hard drive, but you'd think twice before fitting one.
It's noticeably loud, even if it is Red October compared to an older Xbox 360.
More critical, however, is the price. You'd struggle to build a system like this, but only because getting hold of a Socket 1155 mini-ITX motherboard and case this small would take a lot of hunting down.
Diligently hunting them down probably wouldn't save you much – all things considered – but for this much money there are certain things we expect to see included.
These include an IR receiver, without which the included remote is wasted plastic, or Blu-ray playback software so you can actually watch films on your new drive. Critical, you might argue, but missing from the CoreHT.
More importantly, you need to supply your own copy of Windows, which takes the total price of an ASRock CoreHT 252B-4G50/B to almost £700.
That's a lot of money, considering the alternatives. There are many good streaming devices for less than £100, an Atom-based media centre is £250, a Mac Mini is £610 and Core i5 laptops start at £500. Plus internet-enabled Blu-ray players, TVs and PVR boxes make media centres slightly irrelevant anyway.
We liked
From a living room point of view, it's a media centre with few faults.
The ASRock CoreHT 252B-4G50/B has a top-notch processor with good video and audio add-ons that's tiny and almost silent, plus there's room to expand it internally or via USB 3.0.
We disliked
It's not exactly overpriced, but it is still expensive.
Especially when there's so little polish. An IR remote without a receiver in the box? A Blu-ray drive but no player software? BYO Windows? A CPU that idles at 60C? Thanks, but no thanks.
Verdict
The CoreHT appeals to almost every one of our senses because it's a good-looking, do-everything box, so having one in our lounge would be awesome.
But it's just not essential enough to justify the price.
So five stars from the heart, but our head can think of many alternative set-ups for the same amount of money.
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Posted: 22 Jul 2011 03:05 AM PDT
A whopping great LCD panel in a frills-free case – that's the idea with the Hazro HZ27WC.
Actually, there's slightly more to it than that, because this 27-inch PC monitor has strong specifications where it really counts.
For starters, the Hazro HZ27WC has an in-plane switching (IPS) panel.
IPS is typically the most expensive and accurate LCD technology you can buy. As if that wasn't enough, you also get an LED backlight for purer, cleaner, longer lasting and more power-efficient lighting.
What you don't get is almost anything else.
There's just a single DVI video input, for instance, and absolutely nothing by way of on-screen controls, contrast or colour adjustments. The only image adjustment on offer is a five-stage backlight level control.
If you want to fine-tune the image, you'll need to do it in software. As it happens, that's how the pros do it. But most home users will prefer quick and dirty on-screen controls.
How good is the Hazro HZ27WC?
Try this for size – it almost definitely packs the same LCD panel as Apple's 27-inch Cinema Display. The uber expensive Apple screen retails at £900. What's more, just like the Apple Cinema Display, the Hazro HZ27WC has a trendy LED backlight.
All of which will leave you wondering what devilry allows Hazro to charge well under half as much.
The answer starts with the Hazro's chassis and stand. Both are cheap, and the stand in particular isn't remotely cheerful. It's a tilt-only affair and about as substantial as warm butter. The slightest prod to the top of the monitor has it swaying back and forth in a rather alarming fashion.
As for the chassis, it's superficially snazzy thanks to some shiny plastics and a glossy screen cover. But the overall feel, including some poorly blanked control buttons, betrays some pretty aggressive penny pinching.
The single DVI video input and total lack of on-screen controls or any form of image processing technology are further consequences of the cost cutting.
But all of that is forgiveable in the context of the raw image quality on offer.
The chassis may be cheap, but the panel is a pukka IPS item, with sublime colours as well as black levels as good as we've seen on any IPS screen – even if PVA LCD technology still has the edge when it comes to ultimate contrast.
But the real killer feature is the 2560 x 1440 native resolution.
It's massively more than any standard HD monitor, and a priceless feature if you value screen real estate.
Shame, then, that the glossy screen cover creates so many distracting reflections.
We liked
If £400 seems like a lot for a PC monitor, remember that the Hazro HZ27WC has a sublime IPS panel, an LED backlight and, crucially, a super-high native resolution.
Similar high-resolution 27-inch screens such as Dell's Ulltrasharp U2711 are typically at least £250 more expensive.
Only's Hazro's own HZ27WA comes close in price, at over £70 more expensive.
We disliked
At this price, compromises are inevtiable. Even so, the cheap, wobbly stand is a serious dissapointment.
We're not fans of the glossy plastic screen cover either. Hazro says it increases contrast. If that's a dubious claim, what we can say for certain is that it's horribly reflective and distracting. It's so bad, we'd seriously want to to rip it out if only that didn't threaten to void the warranty.
Verdict
Overall, the Hazro HZ27WC is a wonderful, well-priced LCD panel that's somewhat spoilt by a pointless screen cover.
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Posted: 22 Jul 2011 03:04 AM PDT
When it comes to LCD computer monitors, bigger isn't always better. Often, you don't get any extra pixels. Not so with Hazro's HZ27WA.
At 27 inches, it's much bigger than your average HD screen. Crucially, however, it also packs a lot more pixels.
For the record, you get 2560 x 1440 of the little multicoloured blighters, making for a grand total of 3.7 million. That's nearly double the 2.1 million of a standard 1080p HD monitor.
But that's not all. Hazro hasn't skimped on the panel technology, fitting essentially the same in-plane switching (IPS) LCD panel to this display as found in pricier screens such as the Dell Ultrasharp U2711 and the Apple 27-inch Cinema Display.
The only slight snag is that Hazro's own HZ27WC is actually £100 cheaper.
But then the HZ27WC does without the HZ27WA's on-screen controls and image processing technology, not to mention the much wider range of video inputs, including DVI, HDMI and VGA.
We've seen 2560 x 1440 pixel 27-inch IPS monitors before, most notably Dell's Ultrasharp U2711, and come away impressed.
If anything, the Hazro HZ27WA is even better.
Partly, that's because the Hazro sports an LED backlight, which makes for cleaner whites and even richer colours.
What we can't entirely explain is the superior black levels and the relative absence of the one image quality issue that tends to spoil IPS monitors, known as the "IPS glow". In simple terms, this is unwanted light bleeding through the panel that's visible from certain angles when dark tones are rendered.
The HZ27WA and its cheaper but very similar sibling, the Hazro HZ27WC, suffer very little IPS glow.
Elsewhere, the HZ27WA has all the upsides you expect from an IPS screen, including excellent colour accuracy and impeccable viewing angles. One thing it also offers that the cheaper HZ27WC fails to deliver is a wide range of connectivity.
Along with a dual-link DVI port, you get HDMI, a pair of VGA sockets and component video support. Hazro has even bunged in a pair of tolerably voluminous speakers.
If all that sounds great, there are a couple of major problems. The first is the tilt-only stand. It's cheap, bendy and not befitting of a £500 monitor.
But the real bummer is the plastic screen cover.
We imagine it's meant to mimic the fancy glass covers found in Apple iMacs. In practice, it's a gimmick that does little other than introduce lots of unwanted and distracting reflections.
We liked
If the cheaper Hazro HZ27WC is a little short on features, this HZ27WA model ticks all the boxes.
Along with the gorgeous 27-inch IPS panel and massive 2560 x 1440 native resolution, there's an LED backlight and plenty of connectivity options.
In so many ways, it's all the monitor you'll ever need.
We disliked
This monitor may have a fabulous panel. But Hazro has stuck it behind a silly plastic cover to no benefit at all.
Consequently, what you mostly see - when the screen is displaying a dark image, at any rate - is your own ugly mug. At the very least, we'd like to see an optional model that has the screen cover removed. If we're being really picky, we'd also prefer a full 16:10 aspect ratio and a few more vertical pixels.
Take off the screen cover and beef up and stand and Hazro will have itself a winner
Final word
Take off the screen cover and beef up and stand and Hazro will have itself a real winner with the HZ27WA.
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Posted: 22 Jul 2011 03:00 AM PDT
Most PC speaker purchases are made based on aural rather than aesthetic grounds. At least, this was true back in the days when our PCs were kept out of sight in studies.
However, now that our PCs are almost part of the furniture, and can be found in nearly any room of the house, sometimes a little visual flair is appreciated. As long as it doesn't lead to style covering up for a lack of substance, that is.
The Edifier Aurora is a small and striking looking 2.1 speaker system. Despite its stature, it feels weighty and well built.
The two round satellite speakers look good, but it's the long, tubular subwoofer that draws the eye. It might not be to everyone's taste, but it's a distinctive design that's a far cry from the usual black box looks of the average subwoofer.
Thankfully, the sound quality holds up, with the small speakers handling loud sounds incredibly well without distortion. The 15 watt subwoofer might not be able to produce ground-trembling bass, but it does a good job of bringing depth to the sound, and helps this speaker set avoid sounding either thin or tinny.
The one area where it feels like convenience has taken a back seat to style is control. There are only two buttons located on the right-hand satellite for volume tweaking. There are no controls for bass or even to turn the speakers on and off.
Luckily, the levels are pretty good, but it's frustrating to not have complete control over the sound quality from the speakers.
While the slim design makes these speakers look good alongside a laptop, they need to be plugged in to a power source, so they aren't exactly portable.
The Edifier Aurora connects via a standard headphone jack, though, so it's very versatile, enabling you to use it with most PCs, MP3 players and smartphones. Best of all, it sounds as good as it looks.
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US government gives BlackBerry PlayBook the thumbs up
Posted: 22 Jul 2011 02:35 AM PDT
The BlackBerry PlayBook has become the first tablet to receive the necessary certification for it to be used by federal government agencies in the US.
RIM's first tablet effort received the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification which is required for any gadget hoping to be used by the White House and any other governmental department.
No doubt RIM's excellent security procedures were key in getting the tablet the federal okay – it's the enterprise-level cautiousness that has so far kept the PlayBook from getting its own native email app, relying on BlackBerry smartphones' secure exchange to populate email, contacts and calendars on the tablet.
Safety first
Either way, RIM is pretty happy with the news - Scott Totzke, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Security at RIM said, "This certification demonstrates our continued commitment to meeting the needs of security-conscious organisations and enables the U.S. federal government to buy with confidence knowing that the PlayBook meets their computing policy requirements for protecting sensitive information."
So next time you're in the land of the free, keep an eye out for suits with 7-inch tablets and frustrated grimaces on their faces; they're probably browsing the BlackBerry App World and finding nothing useful.
But hey – at least they're doing it securely.
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Review: Cables to Go TruLink Wireless HDMI Kit
Posted: 22 Jul 2011 02:30 AM PDT
We recently looked at Cables To Go's HDMI Over Cat5e Extender, which helps transmit high-def content when regular cables won't cut it.
Well, the TruLink Wireless HDMI Kit is another product designed to solve home cinema conundrums.
Unlike the Cat5e Extender, the Wireless HDMI Kit isn't able to extend the range of HDMI – the wireless broadcaster and receiver only work over 10m. What this is good for is broadcasting signals from one end of a room to another when cables would be inconvenient.
The kit works particularly well when sending signals from a Blu-ray player to a ceiling-mounted projector. It might not be the cheapest solution on paper, but not having to drill through ceilings and trail cables between the two devices saved us both money and stress.
Over a short distance and with no obstructions between the transmitter and receiver, the image quality was good, with only a small degradation and a few visible artifacts. Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD lossless audio isn't transferred, however, so if you're really serious about getting the best image and sound, then a long HDMI cable is going to be better suited to your needs.
The transmitter and receiver units also need to be in sight of each other, so using the Wireless HDMI Kit to broadcast HD signals between rooms is out of the question.
Before investing in the kit, ensure that you can place the units close together, and that they are able to face each other as well.
Also worthy of note is that each unit comes with its own power switch – handy for conserving energy when not in use. When they're turned on, the units emit a blue glow via their LEDs, which can be distracting, and they also produce some background noise.
If your setup can accommodate these limitations, this kit can make installing a home cinema system tidier and more convenient. If you're a stickler for quality, though, you'll have to do it the hard way.
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Microsoft in the black after posting strong results
Posted: 22 Jul 2011 02:09 AM PDT
Microsoft has posted its quarterly financial report, revealing that it made record revenues of $17.4 billion (£10.6 billion) in the three months ending in June.
The strong results are largely thanks to robust Office and Xbox sales, with profits for the company up by 4 per cent to $6.2 billion (£3.8 billion).
There was particularly good news from the Xbox and Windows Phone wielding entertainment and devices division, which made nearly $32 million in profit - a far rosier picture than a year ago when it posted massive losses of $172 million.
Party hats all round?
While the champagne corks may be popping at Redmond for now, there could be a bumpy road ahead; the seemingly healthy entertainment and devices department is actually in its second quarter of decline.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's shares have also fallen over fears that demand for the Windows operating system and associated software is low.
Although the worldwide PC market has grown by nearly 2%, the Windows division's revenues are down by 1% compared to the same time last year - however, with Windows 8 just around the corner, the situation could be reversed within a year.
Another problem area for Microsoft seems to be the online services department, which includes search engine Bing and all its cloud-based products, where it made a big loss.
Comparisons to the once-underdog Apple are inevitable; Jobs and co posted net profits of $7.31 billion (£4.53 billion) for the same quarter; not only is that higher than Microsoft's record report, but Apple's revenues were a 125 per cent improvement, while Microsoft's are up only 8 per cent.
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