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• Sky sets up 3D production company, seals 3D deals
• Nintendo to make loss on each 3DS after price cut
• HTC Evo 3D UK release date confirmed for September
• More Leica compact system camera details emerge
• Review: New MacBook Air 2011
• Possible iPhone 4S photos surface
• Buying Guide: Best computer: how to choose the right one
• Hands on: Vodafone 555 Blue review
• Lomo pop-up store to offer £1 rentals
• iPhone 5 UK release date mid-September?
• Industry reacts to BT site blocking ruling
• Hands on: Polaroid Z340 review
• Leica announces Paul Smith collaboration
• Developer: PS Vita has 'ten times' more RAM than PSP
• Gary Marshall: ISPs are now the internet police
• Sony in the red due to quake-hit production
• In Depth: Sony S1: what you need to know
• Google+ to 'improve' sign-up process
• Google Maps adds London public transport directions
• Review: Philips BDP7600
• Judge rules BT must use site blocker on movie piracy site
• Olympus announces world's smallest superzoom compact
• Review: Dune HD Smart B1
• Updated: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Gingerbread update out now
• EA: 'Apple iPad is fastest-growing game platform'

Sky sets up 3D production company, seals 3D deals Posted: 29 Jul 2011 01:56 AM PDT Sky has announced that it is setting up a 3D production company called Colossus Productions to develop original 3D programming for Sky 3D, as well as signed deals for 3D content from MTV, Discovery and Disney. In partnership with Atlantic Productions (the company behind the brilliant Flying Monsters 3D), Colossus Productions will focus on 3D content – primarily for Sky 3D but also for sale to other platforms and countries. "Sky has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with Atlantic Productions and has a number of existing commissions in production, including a 3D series on plants currently being filmed at Kew Gardens, presented by Sir David Attenborough, and The Bachelor King 3D, a theatrical-release feature documentary, also with David Attenborough, that looks at the lives of penguins in South Georgia," explained Sky's release. Commitment "The co-investment with Atlantic Productions follows on from Sky's commitment earlier this year to increase the amount it invests each year in original UK programming by 50% to £600 million a year by 2014." Sky's commitment to 3D has also been underlined by deals with some of the biggest names in television. Disney, Discovery 3D and now MTV will all supply content for Sky 3D, alongside the current raft of 3D sport, arts and movies.

Nintendo to make loss on each 3DS after price cut Posted: 29 Jul 2011 01:34 AM PDT Nintendo's decision to slash the price of its Nintendo 3DS handheld console following disappointing sales will mean that the company will make a loss on each unit sold. According to the Japanes arm of Bloomberg, Nintendo's radical price cut – which CVG ascertained was likely to be about a third off in the UK – means that the gaming giant is making a loss. Microsoft and Sony both accept losses on the consoles that they sell, with game licensing meaning that they can afford to take a hit on the hardware because of the profits from the software. Traditionally profitable Nintendo has traditionally taken the approach that profit should be made on the hardware as well – something that served it well when the Wii became a massive seller. Nintendo's quarterly results stated that just 710,000 of the latest handheld had been sold, has as many as its predecessors in the DS range. The decision to bring about a significant price cut represents a risk to Nintendo, but even for those that are not a fan of the autostereoscopic screen the new price point means that other improvements – like the analogue joystick – make it an attractive proposition. And you can always turn the 3D off. Related Stories Nintendo blames lack of hit games for faltering 3DS sales

HTC Evo 3D UK release date confirmed for September Posted: 28 Jul 2011 09:31 AM PDT HTC has told TechRadar that the Evo 3D, its first phone with a 3D screen, will be available in the UK in September. This is in contrast to the July release date given for the European launch back when the phone launched a few weeks ago, although no reason has been given for pushing the date back. The statement simply reads: "We can confirm that the HTC EVO 3D will be available to UK customers through Carphone Warehouse from September 2011." All true This announcement confirms what TechRadar exclusively told you yesterday, that Vodafone had decided to remove the HTC Evo 3D from its forthcoming roadmap, citing delays to the handset. The move from HTC could put the Evo 3D in direct competition with the iPhone 5, which is expected to launch in the UK around the same time - will the 3D screen be enough to compete? We're expecting a slew of new handsets from pretty much every manufacturer to be available in September and October, so it's going to be a difficult time if your upgrade day is looming. Related Stories Opinion: Why is Windows Phone still not ready for the big time? Samsung Galaxy S2 to relaunch in white Updated: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Gingerbread update out now Hands on: Vodafone 555 Blue review Possible iPhone 4S photos surface

More Leica compact system camera details emerge Posted: 28 Jul 2011 09:30 AM PDT A Leica representative has told TechRadar that the upcoming compact system camera will sit "somewhere between the X1 and M9" in terms of pricing. Last month, Leica confirmed that the camera will be revealed at Photokina 2012 after rumours had been circulating for some time. Suggestions have been made that the camera would be a clone of a Panasonic model, who Leica has a working relationship with. The camera is likely to compete with the Panasonic GF3 micro four thirds system camera, but the representative categorically told us that the format would not be adopted for its own system. He said it was "just not right" for Leica cameras and would use at least an APS-C sized sensor. Speaking to TechRadar during Leica's summer showcase event, Leica UK's Richard Swan hinted that even more information would become available over the coming months, with the full announcement at Photokina, the world's biggest photography trade which takes place in Germany every two years. Leica compact system camera price In terms of pricing, Swan suggested that the camera will fall between the compact X1 and the full-frame M9. The Leica X1 currently retails at around £1400, while the M9 sells for around £4800, suggesting a likely price of £2500 - £3000 for the compact system camera. At the moment it's still unclear as to whether the system will use interchangeable lenses at all, with Richard telling us he still wasn't sure. But with a price point between the X1 and M9, this would suggest that interchangeable lenses were more likely. Swan expected that any future interchangeable lens cameras from Leica would be compatible with M-mount lenses. As the X1 uses a fixed prime 24mm lens, perhaps we could see an X1 styled camera with removable lenses. Related Stories Polaroid announces new digital camera with inbuilt printer Olympus announces world's smallest superzoom compact Hands on: Polaroid Z340 review Leica announces Paul Smith collaboration Lomo pop-up store to offer £1 rentals

Review: New MacBook Air 2011 Posted: 28 Jul 2011 09:05 AM PDT Last October, Apple released the last MacBook Air. It 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. Intel had originally produced a special, smaller packaged Core 2 Duo variant for the first-generation MacBook Air that was still clinging on in last year's release. The small processor package, presumably, couldn't be bettered until this year's Sandy Bridge generation of Intel Core chips arrived. So here we are with the newly-launched 13-inch 2011 MacBook Air running the new Mac OS X 10.7 Lion operating system. The MacBook Air is expensive for what it is, starting at £849. For the components involved, it's an expensive system. But as with all Macs, it's the sum of its parts that gets everyone excited – and this time, it's with really just cause. There's no doubt about it - this is a superb-looking and performing machine on which Apple has finally managed to bestow the performance that its appearance and price deserve. Four models are available - two 11-inch and two 13-inch, all with Core i5 processors as standard - more on that on the next page. The 13-inch MacBook Air is a lot more usable for most workhorse tasks than the 11-inch -although it is still a highly capable machine. The MacBook Air 2011 is certainly no longer the poor-powered portable Mac – indeed, Apple has so much faith in it that it has discontinued the MacBook for retail purchase (it's still going to be available for education, apparently). It's worth mentioning that are now some genuine contenders to the MacBook Air's ultraportable crown – the Samsung 9 Series ultraportable offers a genuine alternative to the MacBook Air while there's also the powerful Sony VAIO Z Series and the cheaper but older Dell Adamo XPS. But even the 9 Series doesn't have as speedy an i5 as the MacBook (1.4GHz) while the Z Series is crazily powerful but simply too expensive. Let's look at the Specifications in greater depth overleaf before moving onto the Performance. 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 1.7 Ghz (13-inch, £1,099/£1,349 depending on memory and SSD) variants. Both Core i5s are dual-core with 3MB shared L3 cache. The 1.7GHz version in the 13-inch has 4GB of DDR3. Even better is that, for an extra £100 you can pop a 1.8GHz Core i7 into the high-end 13-inch (it's £150 to pop it into the high end 11-inch). It's this processor that is what is inside the 13-inch MacBook Air Apple has been kind enough to loan us here. (It's the 7-2677M, if you're a codename aficionado). As with the new MacBook Pros, the new MacBook Air also adopts the Intel-gestated Thunderbolt technology - again manifesting in a DisplayPort connection. Various Thunderbolt products will launch in due course, but in the meantime Apple has also released a new Apple Thunderbolt Display which is a thorn in our theory that Thunderbolt is just a gimmick. You see, the monitor acts as a docking station for the MacBook Air. There's Gigabit Ethernet, USB ports and FireWire – and it all connects over the Thunderbolt connection along with the video of course! We have to say, the idea of having Thunderbolt as a single point of docking connectivity is mighty appealing – even if the display is a monstrous £899. The displays remain the same as the last generation, though what they're driven by is different. In terms of pixels, the 13-inch panel is 16:10 - 1440 × 900. Graphics punch is now provided by Intel's HD 3000 graphics built into the new Core chips rather than the Nvidia GeForce 320M used in the last generation. While Intel's Sandy Bridge graphics are fine for most needs, if it's supreme graphics performance you want than you need a MacBook Pro. The 13-inch Airs have 384MB of dedicated DDR3 graphics memory, while the other MacBook Airs have 384MB. All the memory is solid state as with the last generation, and the 13-inch provides either 128GB or 256GB depending on the model. You can have up to 4GB of DDR3 memory. As such, the Air is getting to be a machine that you can use as your main system, but we doubt many purchasers will - once apps are installed those with large media collections will find themselves a little restricted. One of the most annoying things about the last MacBook Air was that a compromise had had to be made about the backlit keyboard – it disappeared to the chagrin of many potential purchasers. Thankfully, it is now well and truly back. The keyboard, as before, is light to the touch and incredibly pleasant to use. As you'd expect from any Apple notebook, there's the glass Multi-Touch trackpad that supports Lion's multi-touch gestures. There's also support for Bluetooth 4.0 should you be interested in that, while you also get the standard Apple FaceTime webcam (not an HD model) and an SD card in the 13-inch which was introduced with the last generation. As then, there isn't the space to include one in the 11-inch. The battery remains non user-replaceable, but is a 50 Watt unit in the 13-inch (compared to the 11-inch's 35-Watt unit). Weight is comparable to the last generation of the Air at 1.34Kg for the 13-inch. It seems strange that the MacBook Air has become Apple's entry-level notebook. But that's what has happened. The Core i7 model we have in our hands is seriously quick, though having used numerous Sandy Bridge Core i5s including the new 2011 MacBook Pro, we're confident the performance of those machines won't disappoint. So the processor - remember we're checking out the Core i7 here. The Xbench CPU score checked in at 204.53 and Xbench overall (looking at CPU, memory and hard drive performance) at 265.20. That's measurably better than the 2010 MacBook Air and stacks up reasonably against the quad-core Core i7 2.2GHz MacBook Pro which gave us an overall score of 402.14 and a surprisingly similar CPU rating of 253.83. In Geekbench, the system scored 5292 overall and it's here that the benefit of a MacBook Pro quad-core chip becomes apparent - a 2011 MacBook Pro Intel 2.2GHz Core i7-2720QM with 4GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory scores over 10,000. Last year's 13-inch MacBook Air scored 3650. That's a 45 per cent increase in performance - almost double. The previous top-of-the-range 15-inch MacBook Pro was a dual core 2.66GHz Core i7. It's a tribute to the power of the second-generation Sandy Bridge chips that in our Xbench test that looks at CPU, memory and hard drive performance, the newer 2.2GHz Core i7 processor almost matched it, scoring 132.76 against the older Core i7 2.66GHz processor's 136.58. The lack in high-end graphics grunt was revealed by Cinebench, which confirmed an Open GL frames per second score of just 9.74, compared with 35 on the MacBook Pro. However, that's not to say there's no graphics power here - it snaps through iPhoto and iMovie and the SSD means that apps boot and run almost instantly. Real-world performance is staggering. However, if you're looking for something to use Final Cut or Photoshop on, you'll notice the benefit of a MacBook Pro. The original MacBook Air had a poor battery life of just over two and a half hours, the last generation ran for around six hours as does this latest model, though when maxxing out the Core i7 we noticed that battery life decreased significantly. You'll also notice that when the processor is running quickly, the fan - again concealed behind the screen hinge - is quite noisy, while when the processor is working overtime the heat produced is rather surprising. However, our surprise is probably misplaced, as this is such a thin notebook it's perfectly reasonable that you will feel some heat - here it's in the top left of the keyboard. Sleep and resume is pretty much instantaneous, something we absolutely loved about the last Air and, here again, it's like a breath of fresh air. Mac owners are used to great resume times but if you're used to using a PC, it's a completely transformed experience. As for Lion, it's a great operating system - check our our OS X 10.7 Lion review. We did have some teething troubles with it running on the Air though. This is a straight-from-the-box system and at one point, the screen went completely black. At another, it completely crashed out and we had to restart. And there's a nasty pause whenever you plug any headphones or similar into the 3.5mm jack - strange. Not flawless then. If you can spare the not-inconsiderable cash, the 2011 MacBook Air is one hell of a power portable whichever model you decide to plump for. Our pick of the 13-inch models is the lower-end £1,099 variant. It's 128GB SSD may not be the biggest, but that's the only thing that's lacking compared to its more expensive sibling is the bigger SSD. And at £250 more, you'd better be sure that you need that extra storage. We liked The MacBook Air is a stunning machine in terms of looks and now, brilliantly, in terms of performance for most needs. For general computing, for web and office apps, for music and digital photos, things seem a breeze - especially with the 4GB of memory included with all 13-inch variants. In our opinion, the £849 11-inch MacBook Air just doesn't have quite enough scope with 2GB. We disliked There's relatively little to actively dislike here, but we have to say that the expense is a problem. Mac converts won't have a problem with this but on sheer cost-of-hardware, it's just not at the races compared to the equivalent PCs. There's still a lack of performance with the Air, but this time it's right at the high end. And if you need your Mac to do video and high-end photo editing you'll need a MacBook Pro. Don't buy an Air if you're hoping to complete these tasks. Yes, there is great performance here, but for general computing tasks. Also bear in mind that, while the SSD is fast, make sure it isn't going to restrict you in terms of capacity. Verdict This However, the benchmarks are clear - if it's high-end task-orientated or gaming performance you want, you need a MacBook Pro. If you don't need that extra oomph, a MacBook Air is one of the very finest laptops on the market. Sleek. Powerful. A real statement and pretty handy at every common task. But you're digging pretty deep for the pleasure of owning one.

Possible iPhone 4S photos surface Posted: 28 Jul 2011 08:51 AM PDT Photos of what is supposedly the iPhone 4S have been published showing a familiar-looking handset with a plastic casing in place of the iPhone 4's glass finish. It's almost impossible to tell if these photos are the real deal; they could easily be of a regular iPhone 4 onto which an enterprising fraudster has transplanted into a plastic casing - or pasted a matte cover, as SlashGear points out. Rumours have circled for some time that Apple will release a cheaper version of its popular smartphone with a design that is very similar to the current iPhone - usually it's referred to as the iPhone nano, in line with the iPod range. Baloney Alongside this mid-range version, Apple is said to be planning the iPhone 5 which would offer those willing to pay more a radical new design, bigger screen, faster processor and all the secret bells and whistles that Apple no doubt has up its sleeve. To release a budget phone doesn't really seem Apple's style, and for the next iPhone to surface on the web in such a low key fashion seems hugely unlikely – not after Gizmodo's 'found it in a bar' iPhone 4 scoop last year. But whether the rumours of an iPhone Lite turn out to be true or not, we reckon these photos, which came from a Vietnamese forum, are fake. Related Stories Opinion: Why is Windows Phone still not ready for the big time? Samsung Galaxy S2 to relaunch in white Updated: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Gingerbread update out now Hands on: Vodafone 555 Blue review HTC Evo 3D UK release date confirmed for September

Buying Guide: Best computer: how to choose the right one Posted: 28 Jul 2011 08:10 AM PDT When buying a new computer, it's easy to become confused by the sheer volume of technical decisions that you'll have to make. You might wonder how much RAM you'll need, for instance, which CPU or which graphics card to pick, what display to look for, which hard drive will be best for you - there are so many issues that it's difficult to know where to begin. There is a simple way to at least begin cutting down the choices on offer, though, and ensure you get the best PC for your needs. And that's to forget about the low-level technical specifications, and fine details like the brand of graphics card just for the moment and instead concentrate on something much more fundamental and important: what you will be expecting your new system to do. So read on to find out how to buy the best computer for you, then check out 10 best desktops for you to look at on page 2. Best computer: using your new PC Take a moment to think about the sort of applications you'll want to run on your new PC, as these will help to decide which features your system will need. If you only intend to run basic tasks - browsing the web, sending emails, running office-type software like Microsoft Word - then the good news is that most computers, even at the budget end of the market, will be able to cope with your requirements. An entertainment PC can handle those basic jobs, too, but might also be used to watch TV and movies, listen to music, play some games, perhaps share music and video files across a home network. Systems like this need a little more in the way of hardware power, like a larger hard drive to store all your music and movies, as well as a big screen, a good sound card and speakers, but they still don't have to be too expensive. If you want to play the latest games with the best possible performance, then you'll need a gaming PC. This can be much more expensive, as not only will you need a quality screen, a good sound card and speakers, but you'll also require a powerful graphics card, fast hard drive and a decent processor. And if you're not a gamer, but need to run some heavy-duty software - editing HD videos, say - then you'll need a high-end performance PC. This should include a powerful CPU, plenty of memory, and a large, fast hard drive, so expect a sizeable bill. But you may not need the large screen or powerful graphics card of the entertainment or gaming systems, which will help to keep prices down a little. Best computer: netbook, laptop or desktop? With the basic applications of your new computer resolved, it's time to think about the type of system that might be appropriate: a netbook, laptop or desktop? Netbooks are compact notebooks with small screens (typically 10 to 12 inches), and components that are more about saving battery life than delivering raw power. So expect a slow CPU, only a little RAM (1 to 2GB, usually), no DVD drive, not too much hard drive space, and so on. This is all that you need for basic web browsing, emailing and similar tasks, though. Their small size makes netbooks extremely portable (most are only around 1-1.5kg), battery life is usually very good at 4 to 10 hours, and you can buy some great systems from as little as £249. Our articles on the best cheap notebook and the top 15 notebooks in the world today will tell you more. Laptops can seem bulky by comparison to their tiny netbook cousins: they might be more than twice the weight, with larger screens, and more powerful CPUs, which means battery life may struggle to reach 3 hours in some cases. Of course they can also handle much more powerful applications, though. If you'll be spending hours typing on the system then you'll appreciate the larger keyboard. The built-in DVD drive makes it easier to install software and create backups, and high-end laptops can even deliver very acceptable gaming performance. Again, we've a guide to suit everyone: The best cheap laptop under £350 focuses on budget systems, while our article on the best student laptops and the best 13" laptops cover a wider range of systems. The best gaming laptops guide reveals that you buy mobile gaming performance for as little as £599, while the more general Which laptop should I buy? article walks you through the buying process and explains how to make sure you get the right system for you. If you don't need a computer you can carry around, though, a desktop will be your best option. These are larger, but deliver more power for your money, and are generally much easier to upgrade or reconfigure. So if you decide you need better gaming performance, say, you can just buy another graphics card at a later date, something that won't be possible at all with most netbooks or laptops. If you'd like an idea of what's available in the desktop world than our guide to What's the best desktop PC for you? will point you to some great systems. And if you're wondering whether you really need a PC at all - could a Mac be better? - then reading PC or Mac? should help you to decide. But if you've already got a list of preferred PC manufacturers then it might be more interesting to think about the hardware that your new computer should include - and there's plenty to consider. Best computer: technical specs In the past, one of the first questions to ask about your new PC has been how much memory you'll need. These days, though, even many budget PCs come with 4GB of RAM, the maximum a 32-bit Windows system can use. If you're short of cash and only want to run very basic programs, perhaps to browse the web or send emails, then you might just about get away with 2GB. Maybe. But opting for 4GB will help to improve your system's performance, even here, so avoid skimping on memory if you possibly can. If you're buying a more high-end system, though, you might also want to consider the type of memory it should include to deliver the best results. Our articles on DDR2 vs DDR3 and How to buy RAM will tell you more. It's a similar situation with hard drives. If you're buying a budget PC (around £400, say) then look for the highest capacity you can afford; we'd recommend at least 500GB, although even many budget PCs now include 1TB drives. If you've more cash to spend, though, it's worth paying more attention to the technical details. Read How to buy the best new hard drive for a grounding in the basics. And if you've a big budget, then solid-state drives (SSDs) deliver the best performance around, though their capacities are low. Our guide to 12 top solid-state drives will highlight the key details you need. To help you choose between a hard disk drive and a solid-state drive, take a look at our guide SSD vs HDD: which is best? Then of course there's the issue of your computer's processor: which one is best? The good news here is that even the cheapest PCs now include CPUs with two cores, essentially separate processors that allow you to run multiple tasks at the same time. But even if money is tight, look for something with more cores, if you can: something like Intel's Core i3-530 or AMD's Athlon II X4 640 offer decent performance at a budget price. If you're looking to build a high-end PC that will keep you happy for a few years, however, you'll benefit from spending more on a processor, and once again we've plenty of guides to help, covering everything from value CPUs to gaming processors, our pick of the best desktop processors, and a roundup of the best 14 CPUs currently available. While we've hopefully covered most of your concerns here, there may be one or two other issues you want to consider. If you aim to play the latest games on your computer, for instance, the choice of graphics card will be critical. Let us help you out with our guides to the 10 best graphics cards under £100 and 10 best graphics cards under £200, and our roundup of the 15 best graphics cards in the world today. And whatever you're doing on your system, a quality LCD monitor will be crucial - so be sure to read our guide to the technical details you really need to know before you buy a monitor. It's a lot to consider, then, but doing your homework now will really pay off later. And that's because understanding the features you need (and the ones you really don't) will both save you money and help you choose the best PC that will serve you well for years to come. Which, of course, is the best news of all, because your systems' extended life means you won't have to go computer shopping again for a long, long time. You can't beat a desktop PC. Although they've been overshadowed by just about everything recently, the fact that they're comfortable to use and can be upgraded easily means that they're still our weapon of choice when it comes to both gaming and general computing. We've poked through the TechRadar archives to bring you 10 of the best desktop PCs, including the best all-in-one PCs. If you're after a top desktop, look no further. 1. Acer Revo RL100 - £390 A triumph of form over function, Acer's ultra-tiny media center PC includes a slide-out backlit touchpad keyboard. It also packs a Blu-Ray/DVD-RW combo drive, with an Nvidia Ion 2 processor to power those high-definition films and a touch of light gaming. An integrated digital TV tuner means that it will compliment a plush home cinema set up quite nicely, and it runs very quietly. It's not the cheapest media center option, but it does perform perfectly adequately. Read our Acer Revo RL100 review 2. Shuttle SX58H7 - £409 A great place to start your media centre PC. Stick a Core i7 CPU, some DDR3 RAM and a DX11 graphics card in this barebones PC and you'll have a fully-fledged unit that's actually capable of running the latest games. It's got a compactl form factor, and it'll certainly look the part next to a TV of epic proportions. It is a tad pricey for what it is, but in recent years Shuttle has got tiny PCs like these down to a fine art. Read our Shuttle SX58H7 review 3. Dino PC Evolution 2600K - £1,799 £1,800 is a lot to drop on a PC, but you get what you pay for. This cutting edge machine includes an Intel i7 2600K chip overclocked to an immense 5GHz. It's one of the fastest PCs we've ever seen, and able to handle just about everything we threw at it. It comes packed in a lovely, ultra-cool case, with SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0 ports for high speed connectivity. This particular Dino is far from extinct. Read our Dino PC Evolution 2600K review 4. Cryo PC Nemesis - £1,850 Another pricey i7 2600K-based system, and this one comes with a fetching pink case. Although the chip's overclock is 0.1GHz lower than Dino's offering, it's still a beast of a machine, and eminently capable. You get a mouse, keyboard and two-year warranty thrown in for the price, as well as a 64GB SSD and a 1TB HDD. Graphics are covered in the shapely form of the Nvidia GTX 580. There are better systems out there, but they cost far, far more. Read our Cryo PC Nemesis review 5. Lenovo IdeaCentre C200 - £445 Despite the hype, all-in-one touchscreen desktop PCs never really took off, no thanks to the ubiquitous iPad and subsequent tablet PCs. If you're going to get one, though, make sure it's the Lenovo IdeaCentre C200. Its luxurious black finish and curvy aesthetics make it stand apart from the crowd, and a wonderful 18.5" LCD display begs you to reach out and touch it - literally. Perfect as a family PC in the living room, or as an addition to a technologically-augmented bedroom. Check out TechRadar's best all-in-one PCs 6. Apple iMac 27-inch 2011 - £1,649 The mighty Apple's first venture into the world of Intel's Sandy Bridge processors comes in a 21.5-inch form factor (below), and this whopping 27-inch model. It's the most powerful iMac we've ever seen, and it totes a 2TB HDD in partnership with a 256GB SSD so it doesn't get too bogged down. Graphics are catered for with an AMD Radeon HD 6970M, and as gaming on Macs becomes more popular you'll need every megabyte of its 1GB of DDR5 memory. It looks pretty darn nice, too. Read our Apple iMac 27-inch 2011 review 7. Apple iMac 21.5-inch 2011 - £999 Apple's smaller all-in-one addition is a powerful upgrade from 2010 models, and not hugely pared down from its bigger 27-inch brother. Its 21.5-inch screen doesn't need quite as much power, and the price reflects this. The graphics chip - a HD 6750M in this case - can handle games and video editing, and there's even a built-in 720p camera to take advantage of Apple's FaceTime. Just about everything impressed us here, and it's a great first step if you want to move away from Windows. Read our Apple iMac 21.5-inch 2011 review 8. YoYoTech Dragon F-58 - £599 Sitting firmly at the cheaper end of desktop PCs, YoYoTech's scaly computer packs a surprising amount of power for the price. The graphics card - an AMD Radeon HD 5850 - is at the heart of the beast, and it's able to chomp through demanding DirectX 11 titles. It comes overclocked out of the box, too, and we have a lot of faith in YoYoTech's expertise. It's not the best PC you can buy, but it's certainly the best at this price point. Read our YoYoTech Dragon F-58 review 9. NoFan SET A40 fanless bundle - from £399 Not hearing the whirr of a fan when you power up your PC may be a little discerning to some, but, as the name suggests, NoFan's PC is completely silent. This is thanks to a humongous passive cooler that sits atop the CPU, and a completely silent 400W PSU. You'll need to add all the usual components (motherboard, CPU, RAM, hard drive and graphics card), but QuietPC will provide a pre-built rig for a premium. Totally innovative, and worth paying extra for a little piece and quiet. Read our NoFan SET A40 fanless bundle review 5. Chillblast Fusion Rocket - £750 Another reasonably-priced gaming rig, the Chillblast has a trick up its sleeve: flash the BIOS of its AMD HD6950 and you get a fully-fledged HD6970, giving you a £300 graphics card for the price of a £200 one. Chillblast has installed this transmographying graphics card in conjunction with some reasonable components, such as a Core i5 2500K processor overclocked to 4.5GHz, and a 1TB hard drive. A great little performer, especially given the reasonably low price. Read our Chillblast Fusion Rocket review

Hands on: Vodafone 555 Blue review Posted: 28 Jul 2011 08:00 AM PDT Vodafone sprung a demi-surprise in being the next brand to launch a Facebook phone in the shape of the Vodafone 555 Blue. But without the latest in connectivity, a relatively slow processor and a familiar shape, will the 555 be top of the pile or singing the Blues? The new phone, manufactured by Alcatel, has one key difference though: it's a non-smartphone, instead using a dedicated Java-based OS that Vodafone claims integrates Facebook more deeply than ever before on a mobile. The 555 Blue will be aimed at the 16-25 market in the UK, with its cheaper price tag of around £70 eschewing the need for a contract and offering social networking for not a lot of dollar. The design is a standard QWERTY keyboard design, taking a lot of cues from the BlackBerry range of old. Vodafone tells us that the 555 Blue was conceived over a year ago, presumably at a time when feature phones were still the main choice for consumers. The chassis feels robust, if a little plasticky and light, and the 2.4-inch screen is bright without being too high-res. We don't have the official specs yet, but it seems like a QVGA offering packed in there, leading to a relatively high level of pixellation for many applications. The keyboard is solid too; the keys are a little close together, so typing speeds are ever so slightly hampered, but on the whole it's a better experience than most. A speaker grille and 2MP camera (surprisingly with single LED flash) reside on the back - the former is predictably tinny and no use at all for music, and the quick test shots with the camera show a slow shutter speed and uninspiring pics - but then again, for the price, that's to be expected. Haven't we seen this before? We'll agree it looks a lot like the HTC ChaCha, but it's a darn sight cheaper and has a slightly different fit in the hand - HTC's effort feels a lot more premium. So let's dive in and look at the main reason behind the creation of the Vodafone 555 Blue - the Facebook integration. It's worth noting where this phone is aimed - it's certainly not one for the tech lover, more for the non-technophile that's still desperate to interact with Facebook. That said, we're looking at a phone that (according the early rumoured specs) has a 200 MHZ processor to run the entire Facebook overlay - sure, it's only really got to do that and be able to call, text and check out the internet once in a while, but that's still a worryingly low-power engine. The Facebook overlay brings us something that looks very similar to that which we've seen with the INQ Cloud Touch - division of Chat, Messaging, News and profile at the bottom of the screen. And the Facebook key - but weirdly this only does one thing, and that's take you to the home screen of the application. Why not update a status or post a picture? Hopefully this is simply a bug at the moment. Not being a touchscreen everything is handled by the optical keypad in the middle of the phone, which also acts as an Enter key, flanked by two softkeys. Vodafone made a big deal about the background download capabilities of the phone; instead of having the phone refresh at given intervals or when the app is opened, your Facebook info is constantly refreshed in the background. The depth of the phone's functionality is refreshingly low - we're talking the Facebook integration, Opera Mini as the browser for intenetting and the like, and a simple music player - plus some organiser tools, like a calendar and alarm clock. Up to the task? Sounds nice and clean, but here's the problem: the grunt of the Vodafone 555 Blue is just too little to offer a decent Facebook experience. We should point out that the phone's reactions are mostly fine - opening and closing different Facebook elements is speedy enough. But it's when the updating needs to happen that the pain rears its head - we simply can't believe Vodafone when it tells us the handset updates in the background often enough. And when it does, the rest of the phone operation slows down to such a snail's pace that it's not worth trying to open other elements while Facebook updates. If we were to compare it to another handset, we'd say it was like a souped up version of the INQ Mini 3G - it had oodles of Facebook integration but was so slow to operate we had to throw it out of a window before we went insane with frustration. The Vodafone 555 Blue works along the same lines, but a lot faster - the pauses are shorter, but even after we had the phone warmed up from first use, we were left watching the 'updating Facebook' screen far too often. There's also an integration issue - do we want to have to see a start-up screen each and every time we start the chat application? Surely we'd rather have it running the background constantly so people could ping us when we're not directly looking at the application? The pictures section is among the hardest to use on the phone. Unless you've opened and downloaded each individual picture, you'll be forced to go through a minute's wait to open a pic from your Facebook account thanks to the slow connection - plus there's no way to scroll through them all album style. We are impressed that, once viewed, the pics and comments stay cached - but this experience needs to be constantly updating EVERYTHING from your profile, from the News Feed to new comments, to be seen as a real bold step away from the smartphone application. The internet is supposedly optimised by Vodafone to be smarter, faster and more data efficient thanks to some decent Opera Mini optimisation at the back end, but the unit we saw had a bug that wouldn't let us install the browser. Why this isn't already pre-installed from the factory, we don't know. Will the Vodafone 555 Blue be a success? It's a tough one to call, as we have to take off our tech hat and put on that of a teenager with little interest in smartphones but tonnes in Facebook. Simply put, we still think the experience is too slow to impress many, even if the price is only £70-odd. Will those who have picked through thousands of pictures on a broadband connection be happy going back to a sludgy speed on the go? We think not. That's not to say we're not impressed with the deep Facebook integration - for many things it's fine, such as browsing your friends' profiles from the contacts menu or reading messages. But for most uses it's simply too slow, and we're saying that from a normal user's point of view. Vodafone needs to beef up either the processor or the speed (both of which are coming) to get the most out of the phone platform. If Orange can bring the San Francisco, with a 600MHz processor and large WVGA touchscreen to the market for not a lot more cash, then Vodafone should be able to pack everything necessary into this phone to make it fly along. Imagine a phone with a 1GHz processor and decent wedge of RAM, plus Wi-Fi and 3G background synchronisation so Facebook was instantly up to date - now THAT would be a perfect smartphone alternative, and surely people would pay around £50 or so more for the experience? Stay tuned for our full Vodafone 555 Blue review - but we'd be surprised if it managed to be anything other than a mediocre attempt at trying to offer something different to the smartphone brigade. Related Stories Opinion: Why is Windows Phone still not ready for the big time? Samsung Galaxy S2 to relaunch in white Updated: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Gingerbread update out now Possible iPhone 4S photos surface HTC Evo 3D UK release date confirmed for September

Lomo pop-up store to offer £1 rentals Posted: 28 Jul 2011 06:55 AM PDT Popular film camera brand Lomography is to open a pop-up store at Selfridges in London during the month of August. The store takes its theme from the newly released La Sardina cameras, building a 'Love Boat' for customers to board. Customers to the store can expect workshops, free sailor tattoos (temporary, kids), tug 'o war competitions and exclusive discounts. Workshops The 'First Mate' workshops allow photographers to come into the store and borrow a Lomography camera and a roll of film for one hour for £1, which Lomo suggest is perfect for a lunch-hour pastime. Each day a different sailing reference will be featured in the store, and any customers sporting a visual reference will be rewarded with prizes or discount. The full range of plastic analogue cameras will be available, ranging from the Fisheye camera to the Diana F+ along with the new La Sardina line-up. Also appearing will be the full range of premium analogue cameras including the LC-A+, the new wide angle LC-Wide and the Spinner 360. Customers will also be able to buy analogue film and Lomography books. Lomography produces a range of analogue cameras which are characterised by vibrant colours, surprise effects, multiple exposures and more. Events and offers will be listed in store, which opens on 1st August and will remain open until the 24th August on the ground floor of the London Selfridges store. Related Stories Polaroid announces new digital camera with inbuilt printer Olympus announces world's smallest superzoom compact Hands on: Polaroid Z340 review Leica announces Paul Smith collaboration More Leica compact system camera details emerge

iPhone 5 UK release date mid-September? Posted: 28 Jul 2011 06:13 AM PDT The iPhone 5 UK launch may be the second week of September according to a new report from China Times, while the much-rumoured iPad 3 may follow in November. The paper cites sources at Chinese suppliers who claim that Apple has put in an initial order for 4 million new iPhone units, with suppliers already lining up 400,000 trial units. There have been myriad reports that the next iPhone will launch at what is traditionally Apple's iPod event this September; usually Jobs and co treat us to new phone hardware at WWDC in June, but the iPhone 5 was conspicuous in its absence at this year's conference. A September launch seems to be growing ever more likely, with 'fall' also pegged as the iOS 5 release date; however, this new report is the most specific yet and we're not completely convinced about the second week of September itself. Rumour mill Meanwhile, rumours that Apple will again break with tradition and launch a third iteration of the iPad towards the end of the year are also failing to die. China Times hasn't got a flawless track record on Apple rumours; it was only close-ish when it predicted an October 2009 launch for the first iPad (it debuted in April 2010) but the fact that the 2011 release date for the iPad 3 rumours prevail make us suspect there could be something in it.

Industry reacts to BT site blocking ruling Posted: 28 Jul 2011 06:13 AM PDT The news that judge has ruled that BT must block a site known to be illegally distributing films and music has prompted a slew of reactions from the industry, ranging from euphoria to fear. BT sent us a rather diplomatic response to the ruling, stressing that no ISPs were willing to voluntarily block the Newzbin2 site, but only BT had the injunction to deal with because it was deemed to be the largest ISP. A spokesperson told us, "This is a helpful judgment, which provides clarity on this complex issue. It clearly shows that rights holders need to prove their claims and convince a judge to make a court order. "BT has consistently said that rights holders need to take this route. We will return to court after the summer to explain what kind of order we believe is appropriate." Site blocking plans The comments from BT seem to support the proposals to fast-track website blocking requests through a peer-managed court process, as put forward to Culture Minister Ed Vaizey by a group of copyright holders. The court route is also supported by the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) in a suspiciously similar statement to BT's: "ISPA has long maintained that this is an issue that rights holders should seek to address in court, rather than through voluntary means, and today's ruling should go some way to offering clarity on what is a complex area." Nicholas Lansman, ISPA secretary general adds that it isn't the be all and end all of curing piracy: "However, concerns about over-blocking, ease of circumvention and increased encryption are widely-recognised which means that blocking is not a silver bullet to stop online copyright infringement." Pointless, dangerous Meanwhile, the Open Rights Group branded the move 'pointless and dangerous', claiming that the move would do little to stop piracy. Copyright campaigner Peter Bradwell said, ""Website blocking is pointless and dangerous. These judgements won't work to stop infringement or boost creative industries. "And there are serious risks of legitimate content being blocked and service slowdown. If the goal is boosting creators' ability to make money from their work then we need to abandon these technologically naive measures, focus on genuine market reforms, and satisfy unmet consumer demand." The many and varied members of the Motion Picture Association are all pleased as punch, however. The Kings Speech's successors are safe Stressing the need to curb piracy in order to secure money to make future films, Spyro Markesinis from Momentum Pictures applauds the ruling and says that it will help to "safeguard the future of the [film] industry." Lord Puttnam CBE, President of Film Distributors' Association, said, "Finally, it seems we have a way to deal with rogue sites which will benefit the film industry including UK independent distributors and, more broadly, the entire creative sector." "Good sense has prevailed," is John McVay of PACT's view, representing independent film and media companies. "We now need some clear action to ensure that this judgement acts as a real deterrent to pirates." Related Stories LulzSec 'spokesperson' arrested by Scotland Yard BBC: Global iPlayer coming to iPhone and Apple TV next BBC iPlayer iPad app hits Europe today Judge rules BT must use site blocker on movie piracy site Google+ to 'improve' sign-up process

Hands on: Polaroid Z340 review Posted: 28 Jul 2011 05:40 AM PDT We spent some time with the new Polaroid Z340, a new digital camera with an in-built instant printer capable of producing 3x4 inch prints. It will be available at the end of the year. When Polaroid bowed out of the instant analogue camera market in 2008, there was a huge uproar. Today, packs of film from the last production days in the factory sell for extraordinary amounts, while the Impossible Project has done its level best to keep Polaroid mourners satisfied. Now, in a bid to recapture the lucrative market of photographers looking for instant physical prints, Polaroid has announced the Z340. Using the vintage styling of the classic Polaroid One, lookswise, the camera instantly appeals to fans of the original. LCD screen On the top of the camera is a flip-up LCD screen which you use to compose the shot, as well as review images. In practice, it's a little disorientating to use at first. Classically of course, you would have held the camera to your eye to use a viewfinder, which the Z340 doesn't have, so you need to use it with arms stretched out as with most modern compacts. Given the rather cumbersome build of the Z340 – which is an obvious necessity given that it also houses a printer – it's a little awkward shooting with it arm's length, but this is possibly something to get used to over time. The buttons on the camera are few and far between – a good thing considering this is meant to be as basic and simple to use as possible. Obviously the biggest risk with traditional Polaroid shooting is that if the picture was no good, you ended up wasting paper. With digital photography, this problem is of course removed. With the Z340 you can even go one step further and make basic edits to a shot, such as cropping, before deciding to print it. You can also add borders, including the classic Polaroid white frame. Printing speed is one of the most important aspects of this camera, and using this pre-production model was impressive. The time from taking a photograph to holding the physical print in your hand is around 30 seconds. The Z340 is equipped with a 14 megapixel million effective pixel sensor, but looking at the image quality from our albeit brief time with the camera indicates that it is not superb. But, who ever bought a Polaroid camera for high quality shooting? The quality is certainly no worse than the traditional prints of old and perhaps even adds to the 'retro' feel of the camera. ZINK printing technology Although you will have to purchase paper packs for the Z340, because it uses ZINK (Zero Ink) technology, you won't need to buy ink. The process works using thermal technology to produce images, with the paper containing cyan, yellow and magenta dye crystals inside the paper that are activated when heated. We can see this camera appealing to photographers looking for something a little bit different, perhaps the street photographer who wants to give their subjects a copy of the image, or at parties. One of the drawbacks however is the price. At over £200 it might put off the typical 'fun' consumer that the product is so clearly aimed at. That said however, with availability scheduled for December it might see itself at the top of several Christmas lists. The Polaroid Z340 price will be £229.99 RRP and will be available from December 2011. Related Stories Polaroid announces new digital camera with inbuilt printer Olympus announces world's smallest superzoom compact Leica announces Paul Smith collaboration Lomo pop-up store to offer £1 rentals More Leica compact system camera details emerge

Leica announces Paul Smith collaboration Posted: 28 Jul 2011 05:30 AM PDT Leica has announced a collaboration with British designer Paul Smith. The limited edition cases are made to fir the Leica D-Lux 5 digital camera. Just 300 of the cases will be made available. 150 will be in a smooth chocolate brown calf leather with the famous Paul Smith vintage multi-stripe on the sides. A further 150 will be made ina light grey croc-style embossed leather with purple lining. The cases are hand made in England and embossed with Paul Smith for Leica on the back. Both designes also feature a matching shoulder strap. The Paul Smith for Leica cases will be sold at Leica's London-based store, the Leica Store Mayfair and at Paul Smith stores throughout the UK. The cases are a British exclusive and won't be available worldwide. Paul Smith for Leica case price The cases will retail for around £200 and will be available from October 2011. The Leica D-Lux 5 is a high-performance compact digital camera. It features a Leica zoom lens with focal lengths equivalent to 24-90mm. The camera also features a comprehensive range of features and manual settings and has an f/2-3.3 lens. The D-Lux 5 retails at around £630. For more information on the Paul Smith cases, visit the Leica website. Related Stories Polaroid announces new digital camera with inbuilt printer Olympus announces world's smallest superzoom compact Hands on: Polaroid Z340 review Lomo pop-up store to offer £1 rentals More Leica compact system camera details emerge

Developer: PS Vita has 'ten times' more RAM than PSP Posted: 28 Jul 2011 05:08 AM PDT While Sony remains tight-lipped about the exact amount of RAM it plans to put in the forthcoming new PlayStation Vita handheld, one developer has revealed this week that the new console has "about ten times" the amount of RAM that was in the original PSP. Developers have been privy to the Vita developer kits, but are supposed to have agreed not to discuss the details with anyone. However, developer Dani Sánchez-Crespo, the CEO of PSP games studio Novarama, spoke to Develop magazine this week, revealing that, "The first PSP had 32 MG of RAM and we have about ten times that now." Ten times more RAM The developer added that PS Vita will "have a whole lot of headroom in terms of GPU power, CPU power and indeed RAM." Sony is alleged to have cut back its original plans to include 512 MB of RAM in the PS Vita, but Sánchez-Crespo told Develop that the alleged RAM cut "won't affect us." He added, "it's actually good for developers to work under constraint. Generally for Vita, we still have a whole lot of headroom in terms of GPU power, CPU power and indeed RAM. "And the system's battery life, by the way, is really good. You'd think with all the processing power that it would drain fast, but it's fantastic. "Remember, more hardware features means more costs for buying the handheld. Our main interest is for Sony to sell a lot of [PS Vita] units. Clearly the Sony guys in Japan have a tough job of what to leave in and what to leave out." Sony is clearly walking a fine line between squeezing the best and most-powerful tech into its latest handheld gaming console while ensuring that it keeps the launch price-point as low and competitive as possible. Related Stories Sony patents interactive PlayStation doll EA: Wii U matches PS3 and Xbox 360 EA: 'Apple iPad is fastest-growing game platform'

Gary Marshall: ISPs are now the internet police Posted: 28 Jul 2011 04:49 AM PDT And so it begins. BT has been ordered by the High Court of Justice to block access to Newzbin2, a site largely devoted to sharing illicit copies of files. It's the first time BT has been ordered to use its Cleanfeed porn-blocking system to block non-pornographic content. It won't be the last. And it won't do a damn thing to stop piracy. Slippery slope The term slippery slope is banded about all too often, but this time it's justified. This is not a case of a firm being ordered to stop breaking the law. It's a firm being ordered to stop other people breaking the law. Today it's BT and Newzbin2; tomorrow, inevitably, it'll be other ISPs and other websites. Worried yet? Let's ratchet things up a notch. How about ISPs being ordered to block sites that break the law in other countries? As The Guardian reports, a court ruling about Star Wars costumes opens the door for English people and organisations to face legal action for breaking other countries' copyright laws. It'd be funny if it weren't so serious: anyone with even a passing knowledge of how piracy works knows that going after specific sites is a giant game of whack-a-mole. But there's more to this than piracy. Blocking copyright infringement sets a dangerous precedent. Copyright cops The BT ruling is worrying because it turns ISPs into censors, and of course copyright infringement isn't the only kind of content people would like to block. We've had calls to ban sites that espouse extreme political views, sites that promote anorexia, sites that discuss ways to commit suicide. If BT can block Usenet archives, why can't it block everything that anybody thinks is unpleasant or undesirable - like WikiLeaks, or anti-Scientology sites, or anything that isn't appropriate for under-fives? Crazy? Look at Australia, where child-protecting politicians seriously proposed an outright ban on all online content that wasn't suitable for children. If it wasn't behind an age verification system, the politicians said, ISPs should block it completely. As we reported in PC Plus: "Such mandatory filtering would be based on the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) blacklist, which, if the leaked version posted on Wikileaks is genuine, includes a dental surgery, a dog kennel and a travel agency." The legislation has been delayed on the grounds that it's completely bloody insane, but it may still make its way to the statute books in 2013. The only difference between Australia and the UK that I can see is that their politicians shout "we must protect the children!" while our politicians seem more concerned about protecting corporations. As I wrote a few weeks ago: "This week, bad things include MP3s and streaming football matches. Next week, who knows?"

Sony in the red due to quake-hit production Posted: 28 Jul 2011 04:41 AM PDT Sony has reported that it made a net loss of 15.5 billion yen (£122 million) for the three months from April to June 2011, with sales declining by 18 per cent year on year. It blames the chasm in its finances on the earthquake that hit Japan earlier this year, which caused production delays and squeezed component supplies. It also reckons "unfavourable exchange rates" and "the deterioration of the electronics business environment" have had a negative impact. TVs down, gaming weird The worst hit department was Sony's TV unit, which has also revised its sales forecast for the rest of the year downwards. Sony's computer entertainment division had some interesting news; PlayStation 3 sales are down, possibly due to the PSN hack that took the gaming network down for over a month earlier this year. However, the outdated PS2 has seen sales remain pretty steady, down by only a couple of hundred thousand compared to the same period last year. Also weirdly, the PSP handheld console has had a bit of a boom with a 600,000 sales increase to 1.8 million, no doubt due to attractive price cuts and new bundles in advance of the launch of the PS Vita next year. With regards to the cyber attacks on the PSN, Sony notes, "Most recently, user logins to PlayStation Network in North America have returned to a similar level as before the cyber attacks."

In Depth: Sony S1: what you need to know Posted: 28 Jul 2011 04:20 AM PDT It's taken Sony a while to join the tablet party, but anything from a firm famous for its pin-sharp displays and desirable PCs is going to be worth waiting for. From what we know so far, the new PlayStation-certified tablet and its sibling, the S2, are very desirable indeed - so what do we actually know, when can we get our hands on one and where do we go to pre-order? Let's find out. The Sony S1 is a traditional tablet While the Sony S2 is doing something very different, the Sony S1 tablet is in iPad territory: as you'll see from our photo-tastic Sony S1 update, the device is a typically rectangular ten-incher with a curved, tapered body. The Sony S1 features include DLNA There's no HDMI port, but the Sony S1 feature list includes DLNA compatibility for streaming media to and from DLNA-compatible devices (Windows is DLNA-compatible too) and infra-red control of Bravia televisions. Buttons are minimal: power, volume and a recessed reset button - and ports are limited to USB. The Sony S1 specs are gamer-friendly The S1 is a PlayStation tablet, which means you'll be able to play first-generation PlayStation titles on it. The Sony S1 is an Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet A dual-core Tegra processor is likely - some sites are hoping for a quad-core version, but there's no concrete evidence of that - and the Sony S1 operating system will be Android 3.0 Honeycomb. The obligatory front- and rear-facing cameras are there too. Does anybody actually use their tablets for videoconferencing? Do let us know. There will be two Sony S1 specs to choose from The Sony S1 will come in two flavours: Wi-Fi only, and Wi-Fi plus 3G. The Sony S1 release date is in September The Sony S1 release date has been leaked, and it's in September - just in time for the all-important Christmas shopping season. Engadget says John Lewis is on board to sell the S1 and S2 from day one, and of course they'll be in your friendly neighbourhood Sony Centre too. However, it's unclear whether you'll actually be able to get your hands on a Sony S1 in September: pre-orders start on the 1st of September, which suggests that deliveries may take a little longer. Still, we've been waiting all year, so what's another week or two? The Sony S1 UK price will be hefty The S1 price hasn't been announced yet, but we're talking about Sony here: premium products mean premium prices, so don't expect the S1 to be duking it out with ASDA's £99 Android cheapie. Related Stories Review: Lenovo IdeaPad K1

Google+ to 'improve' sign-up process Posted: 28 Jul 2011 03:58 AM PDT Google has said that it is 'making a number of improvements' in response to public outcry that its fledgling Google+ social network allows only real names and not sobriquets, nicknames or online handles. Bradley Horowitz, Google's VP of Product, has posted some further details in an attempt to explain Google's position on anonymous users and 'other' names other than your real name (such as nicknames, your maiden name, and so on). Horowitz wrote, "We've noticed that many violations of the Google+ common name policy were in fact well-intentioned and inadvertent and for these users our process can be frustrating and disappointing." Private versus Public "So we're currently making a number of improvements to this process - specifically regarding how we notify these users that they're not in compliance with Google+ policies and how we communicate the remedies available to them," he went on. The Google exec added – perhaps most importantly – "we've noticed that some people are using their profile name to show-off nicknames, maiden names and personal descriptions. "While the profile name doesn't accommodate this, we want to support your friends finding you by these alternate names and give you a prominent way of displaying this info in Google+." Nicknames not accepted Google's attempt to exclude anonymous users or pseudonyms on Google+ has also attracted the attention of the UK's Information Commissioners Office (ICO), with the data rights group interested in knowing more about the latest changes in Google's Profile policy. ICO staff are now looking into the way in which Google deals with its Google Profile policies on identities on the new Google+ network, as well as other Google apps and services, though it should be stressed that no official ICO investigation has to date been announced. Elsewhere, there are claims of a slowdown in traffic on Google+ from analytics firm Experian Hitwise, with a new report that total Google+ visits fell by three percent over the week of July 23. TechRadar has contacted Google for further comment and clarification on this latest report. Related Stories LulzSec 'spokesperson' arrested by Scotland Yard BBC: Global iPlayer coming to iPhone and Apple TV next BBC iPlayer iPad app hits Europe today Judge rules BT must use site blocker on movie piracy site Industry reacts to BT site blocking ruling

Google Maps adds London public transport directions Posted: 28 Jul 2011 03:41 AM PDT Google Maps has now included public transport directions for London travel on its website and mobile app. The directions on the web will help guide you from A to B in London with step by step directions, including which Underground station or bus stop to go and how long each step of your journey will take. Using the mobile app you are able to get directions from your current location using the GPS on your phone, meaning you can constantly stay on track in the British capital. Keep on moving Users of Android devices can also use Google's Transit Navigation to guide them in real-time, including instructions such as when to get off the bus. This is all possible because TfL has made all its timetable information available to the public online through a London Datastore website, so you can now find routes on Google using all Underground, bus, tram and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) lines. Support for London's Overground network and other public transport options will be added as soon as it is available. So it's true, the world, (well…London) really is your oyster.

Review: Philips BDP7600 Posted: 28 Jul 2011 03:30 AM PDT Philips has created a thing of beauty with its 7 Series 3D Blu-ray deck. Finished in a greyish-silver and sporting a sculpted lip with illuminated soft-touch buttons, it's a real step up from the humdrum. The company has long advocated online connectivity for its gear, famously launching its own Connected Planet product line back when most of us were still getting online with steam powered modems. The brand was way ahead of its time. Philips' Connected Planet strategy faltered and now it's being forced to play catch-up. However, rather than create a walled-garden of IPTV like its rivals, the Dutch giant is endeavouring to establish a common standard of sorts, called Net TV. This loose confederation of entertainment services will also be offered by Loewe and Sharp on selected product lines. Be 'appy The smorgasbord that is Net TV is accessed via a simple grid system. Buttons lead through to an App Gallery where you'll find the BBC iPlayer, YouTube, Picasa, Twitter, TuneIn Radio and CineTrailers. Apart from the free VOD, paid streaming channels are also available, including Cartoon Network, Box Offi ce 365 and Hit Entertainment. You can add more content to the launch page from the frugally stocked apps store. If you've been looking for a French language news channel, or a wallpaper screensaver of classical art, then you're in luck. Perhaps the best supplemental content service currently on offer is iConcert; this has a broad range of music videos on tap which can be searched by artist or genre. The streaming clips may be in SD but they look pretty good. If you want to venture out into the open web, the BDP7600 also offers a browser, but it lacks Flash support. While only one HDMI output is offered, there are 5.1 analogue outputs, which can be used to route lossless multichannel sound to a legacy AVR. This 5.1 output can be bumped to a 7.1 if you re-assign the separate stereo AV outs to the group. The unit doesn't have any persistent memory, so you'll need to add your own. Unusually, this has to be done in the form of an SD card rather than USB. Remember, though, that the rear-placed card slot doesn't permit playback of media. For that you'll need to use the front-mounted USB. Media streaming support is excellent. The player successfully accessed all our test files across a network, including AVIs, MOVs and MKV wrapped material, and also played them direct from USB. Audio support covers WMA, MP3, WAV and AAC, with album art when present. Tech Labs Power consumption: Watts Idle: 11 Watts Playing: 14 Watts Not as green as some of its rivals. Audio Jitter: Picoseconds Analogue: 155 Not as impressive as Panasonic's DMP-BDT310, but a low figure that suggests good component quality and system design. Loading: Boot/Java Boot speed and tray eject: 11 seconds Tray in to BD menu: 39 seconds Quick to spin up our resident disc, but takes a while to boot. Performance When it comes to disc playback, the BDP7600 doesn't disappoint. Blu-rays look suitably detailed, with smoothly gradated colours and scads of texture. The player's two-channel audio presentation is also above average, making this a good choice for CD fans. The BDP7600 is the fastest loader in our group by the tiniest of margins, but takes a while to wake. It should also be noted that our test sample ran extremely hot. The right rear underside of the unit became uncomfortably warm after just a few hours use. Related Stories Review: Toshiba BDX3200

Judge rules BT must use site blocker on movie piracy site Posted: 28 Jul 2011 03:26 AM PDT The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has won a court injunction to force BT to block Newzbin2, a site that peddles illegal film and music downloads to its members. Arnold J. of the High Court of Justice handed the judgement down this morning, noting that the fact that BT knows that the copyright infringement is occurring is reason enough: "In my judgment it follows that BT has actual knowledge of other persons using its service to infringe copyright: it knows that the users and operators of Newzbin2 infringe copyright on a large scale, and in particular infringe the copyrights of the Studios in large numbers of their films and television programmes, it knows that the users of Newzbin2 include BT subscribers, and it knows those users use its service to receive infringing copies of copyright works made available to them by Newzbin2," he said. Glee The MPA is thrilled with the result, with Chris Marcich, its president and managing director for Europe calling it "a victory for millions of people working in the UK creative industries." BT will now be forced to block the site, meaning that any customer using the company as their internet service provider will no longer be able to access Newzbin2. The verdict falls in line with copyright holders' proposals to use site blocking to combat piracy in the UK, which have been under discussion with Ed Vaizey, the UK's minister for culture. Related Stories LulzSec 'spokesperson' arrested by Scotland Yard BBC: Global iPlayer coming to iPhone and Apple TV next BBC iPlayer iPad app hits Europe today Google+ to 'improve' sign-up process Industry reacts to BT site blocking ruling

Olympus announces world's smallest superzoom compact Posted: 28 Jul 2011 03:26 AM PDT Olympus has announced a new 36x wide-angle zoom camera, the SP-810UZ. No compact camera from Olympus has ever offered such a large zoom, which is an equivalent of 24-864mm in 35mm format. It succeeds the SP-800UZ, slotting into Olympus' Traveller category. With its 36x zoom capability, the SP-810UZ is the world's smallest compact camera with a zoom factor of 30x or more. The onboard lens combines Dual Image Stabilisation and enhanced ISO sensitivity, which have been designed for pin-sharp photos. AF-Tracking, which allows for moving subjects to always be in focus, is also included. Art filters The SP-810UZ is fitted with 10 Magic Filters than can be applied to both stills and movies. New filters for this model include Miniature and Reflection. Miniature mode gives the impression that the photo is of a miniature model with stronger colours and contrast, while Reflection simulates a horizontal reflection of the subject, as if it were standing next to perfectly flat water. 3D mode combines two photos of the same subject from different angle to generate 3D images which can be viewed on compatible screens. In-Camera Panorama helps capture a super-wide angle, wrap-around photo simply by panning the camera across the scene. Three frames are then taken and combined by the camera. On the back of the camera is a 3 inch 230,000 dot colour LCD which is used for composing and reviewing shots. The Olympus SP-810 UZ price is £229.99 RRP in a black and silver finish, and it will be available from September. Related Stories Polaroid announces new digital camera with inbuilt printer Hands on: Polaroid Z340 review Leica announces Paul Smith collaboration Lomo pop-up store to offer £1 rentals More Leica compact system camera details emerge

Review: Dune HD Smart B1 Posted: 28 Jul 2011 03:00 AM PDT Dune's feature-packed Smart B1 Blu-ray player resembles a dull black external PC drive. There's no fluorescent track/time display, while the only controls are for disc eject and standby. You do, however, benefit from a SD slot and USB port for storage devices. Two more of the latter lurk on the rear panel, which is well-stocked in other regards. There's the obligatory Ethernet port and HDMI, plus optical digital audio and a panoply of analogue AV output options that don't, alas, extend to multichannel audio. Unusually, there's an eSATA port, to which external hard drives can be attached, next to a proprietary jack for remote control applications. The eSATA exists solely to give playback and potential access to a hard-drive based library of audio, video and photography. The external power supply is an external type, again owing to space constraints. However, Dune's 'head unit' goes further. On the manufacturer's website, you can buy a DVB-T (standard-def only) digital terrestrial tuner stick for €40. Plug one (or two, if simultaneous viewing and watching different channels is desired) into the rear-panel USB socketry and your eSATA-ported B1 will double as a PVR. It's an example of the player's modular design; other (unspecified) 'extension modules' can be added too. In the absence of the requisite hardware, though, we were unable to try out the TV functions. The website warns that the EPG, which is essential for quick and easy timer setting, will only be supported with a future firmware upgrade. Add your own memory Such updates are delivered to the player via the 'net. When one is available, you're alerted with an onscreen message when the player starts up. For what is an otherwise advanced player, it comes as a shock to learn that there's insufficient internal memory for such data – you have to plug in a storage device of appropriate capacity. External memory is also essential should you wish to access BD-Live features on Blu-ray discs. Networking provides some other useful functions. Just about every modern Blu-ray player integrates a media player that can pull audio and video from a networked PC or storage device, yet the reliability and media-compatibility of this feature tend to be unpredictable. Not so the B1, which is compatible with both the uPnP protocol (as supported by the majority of Blu-ray players) and SMB/Samba (network-shared folders and files). In terms of media support, the list is impressive. I managed to play off-air MPEG2 transport streams, DVD rips, MP4 and MKV HD content, MP3 and FLAC audio and more. Support for subtitles (.Srt files) is also available. The only format that gave trouble was Flash video (FLV), but to be fair, only a handful of dedicated networked media players (such as Eminent's EM8060) can deal with this. Like that Eminent player, which lacks a Blu-ray drive, the B1 can tune into internet radio and some online video content. Web browsing is another possibility, although the typical PC experience is far superior. But with an external HDD plugged in, you can use the B1 like a PC as a Bittorrent client. I doubt somehow that we'll see a feature like this on players from brands such as Sony and Panasonic. The B1 has an SMB server built in, and so other networkable devices (PCs, players) will be able to access files stored on that connected storage device – even with a Blu-ray playing. Tech Labs Power conspumption: Watts Idle: 16 Watts Playing: 17 Watts More power-hungry than most BD decks while idle but not much difference with Blu-ray playback. Audio jitter: Picoseconds Analogue: 17,875 Ps A woeful figure that suggests the Dune's analogue outputs should be avoided. Loading: Boot/Java Boot speed and tray eject: 6 seconds Tray in to BD menu: 74 seconds Pretty quick to boot, but loading times are tardy. Performance Configuring the B1 is fairly easy as a wizard takes you through the basic steps. Other parameters can be modified with a set of menus – if you're using a 1080p-compatible display, we recommend changing the video output mode to auto (24p/25p/30p). Otherwise it defaults to 25p and some rather juddery Blu-ray replay. In common with some big-brand Blu-ray players, the default loading screen gives you a choice of the various replay options: optical disc, network, internet radio, local storage, web browser and so on. the design here is functional, rather than attractive. It's just as well that playback quality more than makes up for the basic user interface. With a BD of romantic thriller The Tourist, I was rewarded – after something of a wait – with pristine detail and vibrant colours. The accompanying hi-res soundtracks, pumped into my Onkyo AVR via HDMI, are punchy yet subtle when needed. audio and network video also fared well, although TV transport streams revealed a bug – the handset's 'review' function went in the forward direction! Furthermore, the internet radio and IPTV functions failed to work even after a firmware upgrade. DVDs were handled adeptly, though, and I could find no serious fault with the units deinterlacing and upscaling capabilities. Multimedia playback is certainly as good as that from decent dedicated players. I also discovered that our B1 sample was multiregion DVD. If yours isn't, a firmware patch is available to download that will add this welcome feature plus Blu-ray zone selection. In all, the Dune Smart B1 is worth considering if you want a Blu-ray player that's a little different...

Updated: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Gingerbread update out now Posted: 28 Jul 2011 02:57 AM PDT Sony Ericsson has released the Android 2.3 software update for its aging Xperia X10 smartphone. Update: It seems that one of the keen beans over at Sony Ericsson HQ hit the publish button a few days early and the Android 2.3 update isn't out for the X10 yet after all. Mattias Holm, Sony Ericsson's head of product pr has blogged: "As some of you have seen we have communicated on www.sonyericsson.com that the Gingerbread software update for Xperia X10 is available. "Unfortunately that information was a bit too premature. The launch is imminent and timing according to plan but we just need some more days before we can push the button." -- The company has announced the arrival of the update on its website, as well as listing the benefits which include pinch-to-zoom while internet browsing and some updates to Google maps. The upgraded Gingerbread software also brings Facebook integration, the ability to act as a Wi-Fi hotspot, USB tethering and a new photo widget to the handset. Keeping promises Unfortunately, some Xperia X10s that are locked to specific networks may not be able to download the new software, although Sony Ericsson hasn't been abundantly clear on which ones are affected. It was just yesterday that we brought you the news that the update could land any day this week, and it's lovely that Sony Ericsson hasn't let us down. After all, this is a software update that nearly didn't come to pass, with Sony Ericsson announcing that the Éclair update would be the X10's last, before scratching that and announcing the release of 2.3. Related Stories Opinion: Why is Windows Phone still not ready for the big time? Samsung Galaxy S2 to relaunch in white Hands on: Vodafone 555 Blue review Possible iPhone 4S photos surface HTC Evo 3D UK release date confirmed for September

EA: 'Apple iPad is fastest-growing game platform' Posted: 28 Jul 2011 02:44 AM PDT EA has revealed that the Apple iPad is its fastest-growing game platform, suggesting that the dominance of the home console in the games industry is finally coming to an end. While home consoles made up around 80 per cent of the games business a decade ago, they now make up around half that. iPad gaming growth EA CEO John Riccitiello revealed this telling fact to website IndustryGamers this week, following the company's recent announcement of better-than-expected financial results. "Consoles today are 40 per cent of the game industry, so what do we really have?," said the EA boss. "We have a new hardware platform and we're putting out software every 90 days. Our fastest growing platform is the iPad right now and that didn't exist 18 months ago. "Every 5 years you'd see a new console or platform from everybody at about the same time with about the same or similar upgrades or services. You'd sort of harvest it and then it'd cycle back. We got used to it. It's what seemed normal. But it's not a particularly smart way to run an industry… bulges in technology investment followed by harvest. "I would argue that there's more to be provided in terms of value for the consumer in micro-transactions and social experiences and driving those better in cross-platform gameplay between a console and a PC and a handheld device and a social network than there is supercharging graphics." What now for the PS4 or Xbox 720? EA has already published over 30 major titles for the iPad, getting a good head-start on its competition, with Riccitiello's indicating that there are lots more planned and in development over the coming year. Nintendo has, of course, already announced a successor the the Wii in the shape of the dual-screened Wii U console. However, might all of this new focus by major gaming publishers on non-console platforms mean that we won't be seeing an Xbox 720 or a PlayStation 4 anytime soon? We may well have to wait until E3 2012 next June to get a good steer on that million-dollar question. Related Stories Sony patents interactive PlayStation doll EA: Wii U matches PS3 and Xbox 360 Developer: PS Vita has 'ten times' more RAM than PSP

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