Sponsored

Techradar

---

• Sony introduces world's first digital binoculars
• HP wants to ditch PC business
• HP ends production of webOS hardware
• Weather layer added to Google Maps
• Google tests infinite scroll in web results
• Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini
• Hasselblad speaks out over Ventizz sale
• Samsung's Ice Cream Sandwich phone detailed again
• Samsung dual display design images surface
• ViewSonic launches new Nvidia-toting 3D monitor
• In Depth: 10 best office apps for Android
• Sapphire's Sandy Bridge Pure Platinum Z68 mobo arrives
• Dixons Group reports 3D TV sales spike
• Opinion: Did LG save Android before it began?
• In Depth: Asus Eee Pad Slider: what you need to know
• 27,000 South Koreans sue Apple over location data storing
• Skype Wi-Fi comes to iPhone and iPad
• Review: Cyberlink Photo Director
• TalkTalk fined £3m over billing mistakes
• Review: Teufel Concept C300
• Smooth PlayStation Vita launch is vital, says CEO
• Review: LiteOn External Blu-ray Disc Combo

Sony introduces world's first digital binoculars Posted: 19 Aug 2011 01:00 AM PDT Sony has introduced two new digital binoculars which are capable of capturing video and stills. The binoculars are the world's first digital binoculars that record Full HD video with stereo sound. A 3D record mode is also available. Both feature variable zoom, which allow you to scan a wide area before seamlessly zooming in to a given subject, such as a bird. On the DEV-5, optical zoom is available up to 10x, and then expandable up to 20x with digital zoom. The DEV-3 has a maximum magnification of 10x. Most traditional binoculars use manual focus, but the DEV-5 and DEV-3 use electronic autofocus to keep even moving objects sharp at all time. A dial at the top of the camera allows for adjustment of manual focus. Electronic autofocus can be used as close as 1cm away when recording in 2D, or 80cm away when recording in 3D. For 3D images, separate images for left and right are captured by a matched pair of precision G optics by Sony with Exmor R CMOS sensors and BIONZ processors. Independent electronic viewfinders provide images for left and right eyes. Steadyshot The DEV-5 and DEV-3 both use optical Steadyshot, the same optical stabilisation system that's found on Handycam camcorders and Cyber-shot cameras. Optical Steadyshot is designed to keep images crisp and stable, even when viewed at high magnification. The binoculars can be connected via HDMI to any HD television, while 3D videos can be watched on 3D-compatible BRAVIA models. There's also a USB terminal for transferring images and video clips to a computer. The DEV-5 also includes an on-board GPS receiver that automatically geotags video clips. Tagged clips and images can be viewed after shooting in online maps. The binoculars are able to capture still images in 4:3 ratio at 7.1 megapixels, while 16:9 ratio images can be captured at 5.4 megapixels. Head of Testing for Future's Photography Portfolio, Angela Nicholson, was at the press event for TechRadar and spent some time with the binoculars. She said, "Sony's new binoculars are a bit bulkier than other binoculars I've used in the past, but they are also easier to use because of the autofocus system. Nevertheless, I think keen birdwatchers and the like will find digital view a little strange, it makes you feel a little more remote from the subject, almost as if you are watching a TV closely. "I used an early preproduction sample and was not allowed to keep any of the footage or images I shot, so it would be unfair to comment upon the performance which may be enhanced before the binoculars go on sale. However, I found the controls sensibly arranged and easy to get to grips with." Pre-orders can be made with Park Cameras, who will include a free high capacity battery alongside the standard battery with every pre-order. The DEV-5 will retail for approximately £2,300, while the DEV-3 will be priced approximately £1,780, with shipping starting in late October or early November. Related Stories Nikon mirrorless camera mocked-up Hasselblad speaks out over Ventizz sale

HP wants to ditch PC business Posted: 18 Aug 2011 05:32 PM PDT Hewlett Packard has hinted that it is considering dumping its PC division, on a dramatic day of developments at the company. The world's largest manufacturer of PCs is planning to sell that division of the business or at least spin it off into a separate company. The company admitted it is "exploring strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group," following slowing sales and single digit profit margins on each PC it sells. The company also admitted that it has felt the impact of tablets like the Apple iPad (although evidently not the HP TouchPad) Reshuffling On an epic day of reshuffling, HP also announced that it is killing-off the HP TouchPad tablet and the Pre line of smartphones and that webOS will be put out to pasture for the time being. The company has also splashed out a whopping $10.2 billion dollars in cash for British enterprise software company Autonomy in a bid to capitalise on more profitable markets. The deal will be completed by the end of the year. Writing on the wall As for selling-off its PC business Dan Olds, analyst at The Gabriel Consulting Group reckons HP can see that the end is nigh. "Right now, we're just speculating about HP's motives, but, to me, I think that they see the writing on the wall with PCs," said Olds. "It's a low-growth and very low-margin business these days and that's not likely to change in the future." Link: Computer World

HP ends production of webOS hardware Posted: 18 Aug 2011 03:15 PM PDT Hewlett Packard has, somewhat shockingly, decided to stop making hardware for the webOS operating system, less than 18 months after buying Palm. The decision means that HP will halt production on the TouchPad tablet and the Pre line of smartphones with immediate effect. The company says it is examining the options to bring webOS, which once showed such promise, to other sectors, but for now it will go in to hibernation. Discontinued "HP plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones," the company said in a statement. "HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward." Despite heavy fanfare, the HP TouchPad tablet, boasting the webOS software has been largely considered a huge failure. An early $100 price cut in the US has failed to spark sales, with the distinct lack of apps and the ever-present shadow of the similarly priced iPad failing to encourage consumers to part with cash. Pre 3 DOA Just this week HP launched the Pre 3 in the UK, with absolutely no promotion behind it. That might be explained by today's statement. The halt in production officially spells the end of the dream for Palm, the former PDA frontrunner, which looked all set for a dramatic comeback when the first Pre hit the scene at CES 2009. App developers never got on board with webOS despite its initial promise, and hardware flaws like the sharp edges and tiny keyboard meant the Pre series never really got out of the gate. It seems the failure of the TouchPad was the straw that broke the camel's back for HP, which will now look for ways to salvage webOS and the hefty investment made to acquire it. HP bought out Palm for the webOS software for $1.2 billion in April last year. Link: Wired Related Stories Motorola Xoom to get Android 3.2 update in September In Depth: Asus Eee Pad Slider: what you need to know

Weather layer added to Google Maps Posted: 18 Aug 2011 10:33 AM PDT Google has added a nifty new weather layer to the web version of Google Maps. As well as giving you an overview of the weather for any location you search for, if you're zoomed out far enough you'll see a weather report style overlay of relevant icons over the map. The sun and moon icons also give you a handy heads up about whether its day or night in the area you're looking at. I don't care what the Googleman says You turn on the weather reports in the same little box that allows you to toggle traffic reports and photos on and off, situated in the top right hand corner of the map. The weather conditions reported are taken from the US Naval Research Lab so you'd hope they'd be fairly accurate. But if you happen to be checking the Google Maps weather for London right now, be prepared for some pretty gloomy viewing. Related Stories Facebook presents 'smoking gun' in ownership claim case Facebook speaks out over Google+ gaming FA Cup to be streamed on Facebook Amazon hires first author to publishing company Google tests infinite scroll in web results

Google tests infinite scroll in web results Posted: 18 Aug 2011 09:45 AM PDT Google has confirmed that it is testing infinite scrolling in its web search results, meaning we could see an end to clicking through pages of results. Although the search giant rolled infinite scrolling out to image searches some time ago, it has dragged its heels about bringing the feature to the web. And who can blame it? It will mean saying farewell to the Goooooogle page counter that epitomises the googol meaning behind the company's name. Autoload But screw that, we want our convenient one-page results and a YouTube user has posted a video showing how it currently looks. Instead of the Google page counter, there's a "show more results" bar which you click to load the next set of returns – which isn't quite as simple as the infinite scroll in, say, Facebook, which automatically loads the next lot as you reach the bottom of the page. It's all fairly self-explanatory, but we're looking forward to when (if) it gets an official roll-out. We're just kind of lazy like that. Related Stories Facebook presents 'smoking gun' in ownership claim case Facebook speaks out over Google+ gaming FA Cup to be streamed on Facebook Amazon hires first author to publishing company Weather layer added to Google Maps

Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Posted: 18 Aug 2011 09:28 AM PDT Before the arrival of Sony's Ericsson's new Xperia Mini, the X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro were an odd little couple, launching in mid-2010 with Android 1.6 and a bespoke and heavily-customised user interface on top. They weren't amazingly powerful phones and their 2.55" screens were shockingly small - but Sony Ericsson did a good job of maximising the available space with its corner-based interface. The same system has returned in 2011's updates, albeit improved thanks to Sony Ericsson's developers having another year to fiddle with the interface and add more new layers of social integration. We've got some real-life footage of ACTUAL people using the phone - check it out if these grouped-together letters are too much: The new Xperia Mini is available SIM-free for just over the £200 mark, with monthly contracts popping up starting from £15. While there are certainly plenty of more powerful Android phones with bigger screens available for that kind of money, there's not much competition in the matchbox-sized ultra-portable smartphone scene. In fact, Sony Ericsson's got this part of the market all to itself. But is the tiny Xperia Mini one big compromise? The 2011 models have upped the tech specs significantly from what we found in the X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro. As well as a new 1GHz processor, the Xperia Mini now comes with a larger 3" screen, utilising the same Bravia Engine Reality Display technology as Sony Ericsson put in its superb Xperia Arc. In reality, what this means is you get a small 3" capacitive display running at 320x480 resolution. It's surprisingly sharp and bright, though, with icons and text easily readable even outdoors in bright light. It's no game-changer in terms of resolution, but it's certainly a usable display despite its size. The power button sits on the top edge of the phone. The left-hand side is featureless apart from an arbitrary silver strip, while the other edge has the volume up/down rocker and a very nice, soft-touch camera button. The shutter button isn't quite as silky-soft as the one found in the HTC Salsa, but it's still spongy enough that you don't have to press too hard and blur your snaps in the process. Sony Ericsson has torn up the design rules and placed the 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom of the phone, which is also where the USB connector sits. There's not much clearance between USB and headphone sockets, though, which makes using right-angled USB connectors and listening through headphones a bit of a pain without some extreme and worrying cable bending. But Sony Ericsson has put a straight USB cable in the box, so that's OK - plsu we're talking about a pretty specific instance here. In the hand, it's obviously very, very small when held up against some of today's mammoth smartphones. But it feels good. The big, physical Home button is easy to find without fuss, while the new capacitive Back and Menu buttons are large and easy to find without having to think about it. It also looks smarter and sharper than the old X10 Mini, with the removal of the silver button strip making the Xperia Mini appear a little more stylish. Above the screen sits a proximity sensor, allowing the phone to deactivate its touchscreen while making a call, to stop you embarrassing yourself by pressing "end call" with your ear. The back has a nice, matte, rubberised coating, so it's grippy and sticky in the hand. Despite its size, the Xperia Mini is a perfectly usable smartphone. The 3" screen is responsive to the touch, with even the lightest press registering, while it feels solid and tough enough to survive a day or two of being in the same pocket as your keys. Sony Ericsson has included the same corner-based user interface that worked to such good effect in last year's X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro. We should say the 1GHz processor, combined with 512MB of RAM, makes the response under the finger lightning quick - you certainly won't be disappointed. As well as your five standard Android Home screens to scroll between, each page comes with a customisable icon in the corner. You can stick anything you want in here, simply by dragging a shortcut in from the phone's main applications screen. New, and actually quite exciting, for 2011 is the addition of multiple icons in these corners, so you can have up to four items in each slot. This is a really nice system. We felt oddly compelled to organise everything, creating one corner for camera, gallery and imaging apps, another for calling functions, plus one containing web apps and social applications. Also, it's now possible to add icons and shortcuts to the Home screen itself, standard Android style, something last year's X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro didn't allow due to their absolutely tiny screens. If you need a better look at everything, a two-fingered pinch of the screen explodes your widgets out into a very nice floating overview mode - pressing again on one of these takes you to its corresponding Home screen. While putting this review together, Sony Ericsson pushed out a software update for the Xperia Mini, which added a collection of visual themes. Accessed through a long-press on the Home screen, this adds a new background image to the phone and also changes the colour of the app drawer and menu pages. It all looks swish and well designed, certainly much jazzier than the ageing HTC Sense interface - although we're sure a few HTC fans will disagree. We're not huge fans of Sony Ericsson's power and connectivity management icons, though. The standard Android power strip widget that's used to toggle functions on and off has been removed, leaving you to create your own via a collection of chunky icons. It's versatile, but we do prefer the boring old Android strip. There are plenty of widgets, both as part of Android and supplied by Sony Ericsson. You now get a fashionable weather station and mini forecast widget, plus the usual old Timescape social media widget returns. Fans of Timescape will like the way it's been expanded. As well as supporting Facebook and Twitter status messages, it's now possible to install plug-ins that add extra functionality. There's one for Gmail, for example, which lets your Google messages appear in the widget's timeline as well. Timescape is now bordering on the useful - something we'd have never dreamed of saying when we reviewed the first version of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. The Contacts system has been given a big makeover by Sony Ericsson, with Facebook functionality built in to the core of the whole thing. As well as importing all your chums when or if you sign in with a Facebook account, the phone also adds an entirely separate Facebook page to the Contact data. From here you're able to browse other people's Facebook info and interest pages, plus their photos also pop up. Of course, if you're not into all that social business you don't have to use it. And if you'd rather not see your internet acquaintances staring out at you, there's the option to filter the Contacts section and stop Facebook people showing at all. In terms of fiddly fun stuff, you're able to allocate separate ringtones for each contact from the Edit Contact page and send people you hate straight to voicemail, plus there are fields for instant messaging details, web sites and an "internet call" option for utilising the emerging SIP Wi-Fi calling features. The Xperia Mini's regular old dialler is a simple option, with shortcuts for your Call Log, Contacts and Favourites along the bottom. There's also a useful "Save" button that automatically pops up the Contacts list if you'd like to associate the number you've just dialled with an existing friend, or you can select Create New Contact to add a new person to your listing. Call quality is good. The speaker is exceptionally loud and really sharp. We got through calls with its volume set to less than half of its maximum, so there's absolutely no chance of this one being thought of as too quiet. In hands-free mode the Xperia Mini is also one of the loudest phones around. Calls and media blast out impressively noisily. It's going to be banned from public spaces. The Xperia Mini's text messaging app is pretty straightforward, with Sony Ericsson not doing much more here than styling up the usual Android SMS interface. There are plenty of tiny little options to discover, though. Long-pressing on the text of an SMS lets you copy it to clipboard, forward it or delete it, plus the system supports multiple recipients, photo, video and audio attachments. Sony Ericsson has pre-loaded the WhatsApp cross-platform messaging app, which is a rather basic internet messaging app that exists in its own self-contained world. It's probably best ignored in favour of one of the many alternatives on the Android Market, if you have a need for some instant messaging. The keyboard is, by default, a take on the traditional numeric keypad entry system, which was the only choice on the old X10 Mini. Thanks to the Xperia Mini's larger screen, there's now a QWERTY option in here, which is the simple Android standard keyboard option. Typing on the tiny screen is a little tough, but there are many customisable auto-correct options to make texting people in a grammatically correct fashion a less tedious task. Or you can have both - the Xperia Mini lets you use QWERTY input when holding the phone sideways in landscape mode, which then automatically switches to the phonepad option when you move it back to portrait. Email is handled by a standalone app, which manages POP3/IMAP and MS Exchange ActiveSync. You can have as many of these accounts as you like, with the app creating its own combined inbox if you have numerous accounts to manage. There are options to set the checking interval if you don't want it annihilating your battery, plus there's an excellent sliding preview pane that makes quickly scanning messages a breeze. You'd expect a relatively cheap smartphone with a tiny screen to be limited in terms of internet use, but the surprisingly powerful Xperia Mini does a great job of rendering and managing web pages. The packed TechRadar home page loads fairly quickly, plus with full pinch-zoom support is easy to navigate. Text reflowing is another useful feature within the Android browser, with a double-tap of any text field automatically zooming in on a lump of words and jiggling them about so they fill the available space. It happens quickly. It's something you'll definitely do, although you can't manually set the pinch-and-zoom distance and see the words re-jig... you'll need to use the plus and minus keys on screen to do this. Thanks to the Xperia Mini squeezing a 1GHz processor into its tiny chassis, you also get full Flash Player support in the phone. Obviously this has some drawbacks, with web pages that are particularly full of Flash content and animating banners starting to slow down a little and grind away... ...but as is usual in Android, there's an option within the browser menus to have this content only load on demand, when you tap the area it should load up in, or to not have it load at all. The bookmarking system is untouched by Sony Ericsson, which leaves us with the simple Android set-up. There's an icon beside the URL bar which opens up your bookmarks area, which is broken down into sections for your actual Bookmarks, the History and your Most Visited sites. There's none of the advanced management or tagging options we've seen of late by phone makers such as HTC, but long-pressing on a bookmark entry brings up a menu that lets you share the URL, open it in a new tab, copy it to the clipboard or, very usefully, send it to the Home screen as a quick launch icon. The tabbing system is another bit of a letdown compared to recent innovations we've seen in the HTC Desire S and LG Optimus 3D. You have to press the Menu key, then press again to bring up a text list of open windows. It's not a huge inconvenience, but given the attention Sony Ericsson has lavished on other areas of its Android skin, it's a shame that the browser has been left rather bland in comparison. The Xperia Mini features a 5MP camera with LED flash, that's also capable of recording 720p HD video clips. There aren't many fancy options on the camera, with the majority of the scene modes hidden away. The default setting is to let the Xperia Mini automatically detect scenes for you, which can lead to some interesting choices, especially in low-light conditions. Engaging manual control by pressing the Capture Mode toggle lets you select from nine pre-determined scenes - the usual standards such as Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Sports and Party. The camera's very quick to launch and use, firing off sequences of shots rapidly without getting bogged down in any way. The physical camera button itself is a nice feature, too, with Sony Ericsson sticking on a nice, soft button that's sensitive enough to fire off shots without making you jerk the phone around and miss your moment of magic. Camera output is OK. Photos at the highest 5MP setting come off the phone at 2592x1944 resolution, and are certainly bright and colourful. In fact, it's actually a little too trigger happy with the colours, as bright reds and greens really explode and are quite exaggerated. Click here to see the full-size image BRIGHT LIGHT: Greens are very green. The camera really loves doing green. If you have a lot of green stuff, this is definitely the camera for you. Click here to see the full-size image PORTRAIT: Detail disappears a bit when viewed at full size, but results are definitely good enough for social network spamming and printing out to a decent standard. Click here to see the full-size image LANDSCAPE: Landscape mode produces bright shots, but again you'll notice detail in the distance disappearing into a blurry mush when viewed at original resolution. Click here to see the full-size image SUNSET: Evening performance is good. The camera calms down on the colour emphasising, doing a nice job of picking out detail even when light is fading, also balancing light and dark areas well. Click here to see the full-size image INDOORS: Again, contrasting areas of light and dark are handled subtly and rather nicely. Click here to see the full-size image NIGHT PORTRAIT: When the camera engages its own Night Portrait mode, it's not great. The exposure time rises, which makes it very tough to take a photo that isn't blurry. At least the flash works well and red-eye isn't an issue. Click here to see the full-size image MACRO: The Xperia Mini auto-detects scenes pretty well, engaging its own macro mode if you get in close. The Xperia Mini can record clips at up to 720p resolution, saving its output into MP4 format files. The camera app doesn't have much at all in the way of options when recording clips, with the same selection of scenes on offer as when taking stills. What is welcome is a choice of auto-focus options, with the camera coming with Face Detection, Infinity and Single Auto-focus options. And it's rather good. The app's fast and responsive when recording movies, the auto-focus takes a second or two to adjust, but you may find that preferable to one that's too quick to respond and leaves you with clips that are constantly being adjusted. There's a digital image stabilisation tool in here, a self-timer, manual white balance options and the option to toggle use of the touchscreen as a shutter button on and off. There's no digital zoom, though, but you can select the LED flash to stay on permanently, as a little night-time torch. Videos recorded at 720p resolution feature a solid frame rate, with our sample clips registering between 29 and 30fps. What's not particularly great is the detail. Clips come out quite soft, with a kind of pastel blurriness to the output. The Reality Display and Mobile BRAVIA Engine feature list bullet points don't really bring any obvious benefits when viewing your clips on the Xperia Mini's screen, either. The viewing angle is good and the phone plays back clips at a solid frame rate, but there's nothing here that will amaze you. One nice added feature is hidden away within the Gallery – video editing. It's nothing complex nor feature heavy, but you can edit the start and end points of clips recorded yourself. The music player on the Xperia Mini is a quite simple option, but you do get a few nice custom interface features, a Home screen widget and comprehensive playlist creation and management options. Sadly, there's no lock-screen music control, nor is it possible to control music via the pull-down Notifications menu. What you do get are a couple of Sony Ericsson additions in the player itself to play with... There's a "like" button which will ping out the details of what you're currently listening to as a Facebook status update, plus there's the "infinite" button - which performs a YouTube search using the artist details and returns a list of related clips, or can search Google for lyrics, or Wikipedia to see if the band is still going and how the original drummer died. Playlist support is good. You can create them on the fly, or have the phone compile lists of newly added tracks, your most played selection or you can take the risk of going through the songs the phone thinks you've never played before. There's also a search bar along the top of the playlist screen, which is very useful if you've got a bursting SD card. Video As for video playback, the options here are sadly limited. The Xperia Mini supports only MP4 and WMV video files, with the phone refusing to play any of our standard selection of AVIs. It also struggled with some regular WMVs too, so it's quite a picky little diva. As with the likes of the Xperia Arc, the PC Companion tool will offer to convert your videos into the correct format when copying them across, but this turns a three-minute job into a 30-minute chore, during which your PC's internal fan will go into overdrive and make you go nuts. The video player itself is one area where both Google and Sony Ericsson haven't really bothered. It's hidden from view with no direct icon to open it, and when you do click on a video the phone supports and can open, you're greeted by the familiar grey slab design. You can play. You can skip. You can pause. That's it. Do yourself a favour and download something like mVideoPlayer or DoubleTwist - both much better in terms of control and video use, even if you're unlikely to use the Xperia Mini for media that often. The Xperia Mini features a 1200MaH battery, which is at the lower end of what we'd expect to find in a modern smartphone but understandable in a smaller unit. Sony Ericsson itself rates the battery as good for 4.5 hours of talk time, or a ridiculously optimistic 340 hours of standby time according to the weird rules by which that's calculated. If you leave it in your sock drawer and never use it, that may be possible. Obviously, the Xperia Mini has a smaller screen to power than most and that's reflected in the battery performance. We managed a good two days of light use from one charge, with the phone also easily surviving for a full day of pretty heavy web, Twitter and camera action. You'll still need to be careful if you're planning on going too far away from the comforting hum of the national grid, but the Xperia Mini is unlikely to let you down. In standby mode, with GPS and Wi-Fi switched off, it barely registers any power drain at all over the course of a few hours. Internally, the Xperia Mini supports sharing media via its Connected Devices DLNA app, which is a simple tool to turn the phone into a media server via Wi-Fi. This worked well, with the phone easily pairing with another DLNA mobile in a few seconds. There's also an FM radio in here, which cleverly integrates with Sony Ericsson's TrackID system. If Zoe Ball turns the world on its head by playing a song you actually like, hitting the TrackID button records a sample and pings it off to a server for identification. Plus, as with all modern Android phones on a decent version of the OS, the Xperia Mini can be turned into a portable wi-fi hotspot or used as a tethered USB modem - ideal for hooking a laptop into the 3G network. We're using an untouched and unlocked Xperia Mini supplied from The Carphone Warehouse, with the phone arriving absolutely packed with additional apps and games. As expected with Android devices, you get the full range of Google apps, meaning Calendar support and syncing, Gmail, YouTube and Talk are included, plus the mighty four-pronged Google Maps app suite, which consists of separate tools for Navigation, Latitude, Places and Maps itself. Navigate is always the first toy to play with when using a new Android phone, with Google's free satnav app as great as ever on the Mini. It's integrated with the standard Google Maps app incredibly well, letting you select your own location as a start point and specify your destination. Then Google does the rest, calculating a route in advance. For turn-by-turn voice navigation, you need the voice data pack, which is a free download through the Android Market. It's everything you need to bin your existing satnav. There's a whole app screen full of other toys to play with. OfficeSuite gives you the ability to manage and read Word docs, but it'll prompt you to pay for the Pro version if you want editing and file creation abilities on your phone. Sony Ericsson's utilitarian "Get Games" app also includes a Home screen widget, both of which are rather odd links that simply take you to the Android Market listing for the promoted titles. The "Get" series is augmented by "Get Music" which takes you off to Sony Ericsson's PlayNow music portal, where you're able to legitimately purchase popular music for a ludicrous £1.50 per track, plus a possible mobile data fee. Expensive, yes, but it's good to see Sony Ericsson giving users the option of an official MP3 shopping service on their mobiles – something most manufacturers don't offer, but your wallet will stay much better-stocked if you download something like Amazon MP3 instead. One other interesting Sony Ericsson addition is its Friends' Music & Videos app, which encourages the stalking of your Facebook mates by pulling out all the music and video links people have shared on the social networking site, also letting you read the comments and "like" the results. A bit of an odd thing to focus on, that, but probably better than paging through the Android Facebook app. However, you'll find most friends share YouTube videos, and not the cool new underground music we're all supposed to be finding. As for the issue of storage space that scuppers many affordable Android phones? The Xperia Mini comes with 350MB of app space, and even after installing our usual review essentials we're still seeing 251MB free. That's certainly better than the likes of the HTC Wildfire S. And Angry Birds works perfectly. Sony Ericsson has built on 2010's excellent little smartphone, further enhancing the user interface with changes that make it look and function even better. The updated hardware is also surprisingly powerful, while having a larger 3" screen makes it all much easier to use than the tiny X10 Mini. The software takes Android's many great features and provides some clever tools and extremely tight Facebook integration throughout. We liked Web use is good considering the limitations of the screen size. The 1GHz processor, proper multitouch zooming and simple text reflowing really make the best of the 3" display, plus text is sharp and perfectly readable, plus Flash support is a bonus. Sony Ericsson's user interface has come on in leaps and bounds. A new update which arrived in the middle of the review process added in visual Themes and a cool shut-off animation too, so there's no moaning about everything being bland old Sony Ericsson blue any more. The corner-based icon grouping system is a great way of managing similar collections of apps. It means you can squeeze and astonishing 16 app shortcuts around the edges of the display. Facebook integration is excellent. There's a "like" icon in the music player, plus all of your Facebook photos sync and appear in the phone's gallery along with their comments. It's actually a better "Facebook phone" than the so-called "Facebook phones" like the HTC Salsa and INQ Cloud Touch in our eyes. We disliked The camera output is a little crazy. Trees don't just come out green, they come out luminous, fluorescent, bright, electric green, with reds and other strong colours often equally over-emphasised. It can make you photos look like they've gone through some sort of psychedelic hipster filter. Video codec support is a weak area, with the phone not managing to play any of the popular download formats apart from things downloaded or converted into its preferred MP4 format, plus it didn't like our usual WMVs it's supposed to play. Having to convert files for mobile playback is a right pain. The price is still a bit too high. You can get perfectly capable Android phones for around the £100 mark, with some great devices available for £150. So £210 is perhaps pushing it a little, although people will be paying for unique size of the chassis. Verdict We're pleasantly surprised at how usable and responsive the Xperia Mini is. The 1GHz processor means web pages are drawn and scrolled pretty quickly, while gaming and app performance is also good. The user interface customisations are really nice as well, with Sony Ericsson's sweeping visual changes bringing the best out of Android - and adding in plenty of new usability and social options. In terms of value for money, it's a decent option. The 3" screen is a little limiting if you're into mobile media and gaming, but the phone itself is a glitch-free, user-friendly little marvel you won't end up hating. There are more capable Android phones available for less money, but none that are as pocketable and enjoyable to use as the Xperia Mini. Related Stories Google's Photovine sharing app goes live 27,000 South Koreans sue Apple over location data storing Opinion: Did LG save Android before it began? In Depth: 10 best office apps for Android Samsung's Ice Cream Sandwich phone detailed again

Hasselblad speaks out over Ventizz sale Posted: 18 Aug 2011 09:12 AM PDT Premium camera manufacturer Hasselblad was sold to the Switzerland and Germany based private equity firm, Ventizz Capital Fund IV in June. Speaking to TechRadar, Chairman and CEO of Hasselblad, Dr Larry Hansen, confirmed what the sale means for existing Hasselblad users, and how the company itself is affected by the takeover. As with any company sale, existing users may feel a little worried about what this means for them, but according to Hansen, the sale will actually be beneficial, both in terms of customer service and development of future models. "Existing customers will benefit from the ongoing development of our R&D department, which will be better funded," he said. Hansen also confirmed that there will no structural changes in senior management of Hasselblad, which will also see no changes in the manufacturing process. Hasselblad is keen to expand its Medium Format business, hoping to reach more customers. "We will of course continue to extend the Medium Format business, an example of this is Medium Format cameras for new applications. We have already made a big step into this direction with launching the new Special Applications Department in January," Hansen explained. "We are striving to reach an even broader audience in the Medium Format business and offer new solutions to customers." Pricing of Hasselblad models is reflective of them being aimed primarily at professional photographers. But with the company keen to appeal to a broader audience, that doesn't necessarily mean we will begin to see lower costs. "Hasselblad has always, and will always, stand for top quality and top technology and therefore will remain to be positioned at the top level within the price range of a product group," Hansen said. "Hasselblad will always be a prestige brand in whatever field of business we are." Keen to further cement the idea of the acquisition being positive, Hansen added finally, "CEO of Ventizz, Dr Helmut Vorndran has many years experience in portfolio management and private equity investment at the highest level. It can be said that Hasselblad assets and Ventizz competence is a perfect match." Related Stories Nikon mirrorless camera mocked-up Sony introduces world's first digital binoculars

Samsung's Ice Cream Sandwich phone detailed again Posted: 18 Aug 2011 08:39 AM PDT What looks to be Samsung's roadmap for the rest of 2011 has made its way on to the internet, including details of the GT-I9220, Samsung's first Ice Cream Sandwich handset. Alongside the much-anticipated Android upgrade, it comes rocking a massive 4.65-inch Super AMOLED screen with 1280x720 pixel resolution. Aside from the fact that it sports a 5MP camera, other details on this telecommunications behemoth are scarce, but we suspect it may well turn out to be the next flagship Android handset – Google Nexus Prime, anyone? Time will tell Previous leaks and speculation have suggested the handset will come with a dualcore 1.5GHz or 1.2GHz processor, 1080p video recording and 1GB of RAM. There's no guarantee that the GT-I9220 model will be the next Nexus handset, of course, so take all this with a healthy portion of salt. Also detailed in the great roadmap leak are a number of Gingerbread handsets, a couple of 7-inch Honeycomb tablets, three Bada-running phones and the GT-i8350 Omnia W, a Mango-running Windows Phone 7 handset. A leak this specific is generally fairly spot on, although it's likely that several of phones listed won't make it to production so it's hard to tell which we'll see hitting the market. Still, we'd say it's very likely that a good portion of the leak is accurate, not least the news of the monster-screened Ice Cream Sandwich handset. Related Stories Google's Photovine sharing app goes live 27,000 South Koreans sue Apple over location data storing Opinion: Did LG save Android before it began? In Depth: 10 best office apps for Android Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini

Samsung dual display design images surface Posted: 18 Aug 2011 08:07 AM PDT Design images purportedly from Samsung's brain trust have surfaced, indicating that the company may be considering a clamshell design tablet or ereader. The dual-display drawings show a hinged book-style design, with one showing two sizeable screens (presumably these would be touchscreens) and the other showing two smaller facing screens with a QWERTY keypad stretching beneath them. It's not clear exactly what device this would be; it could be a Samsung ereader in a nice book-like format, or perhaps even a clamshell tablet. After all, if Sony can go off the beaten tablet path with its funny cylindrical Sony S2, why not Samsung? You're booked It could even be a smartphone or a gaming device, although we're not convinced that either of those would be a good idea. Hey, we're just spit-balling here; the likelihood is that it's none of the above, merely some prototype style drawings knocked up by a work experience kid. Either way, it's fun to speculate so if you have any better ideas for what Samsung could be trying out, let us know in the comments below.

ViewSonic launches new Nvidia-toting 3D monitor Posted: 18 Aug 2011 06:15 AM PDT ViewSonic has unveiled its latest LED monitor, the V3D245, a 3D affair that comes with Nvidia 3D know-how. It's a 24-inch, full 1080p HD LED monitor and comes with a built-in Nvidia 3D vision wireless emitter and Nvidia 3D Vision glasses. And just where can you get all this dazzling 3D content from? With an HDMI 1.4 input, you can hook up a Blu-ray player, with the Nvidia goodies, you can run 3D games from an Nvidia GeForce-equipped PC, or you can just hop on to the good old internet. ViewVidia As well as the 3D shenanigans, the V3D245 monitor offers a 120Hz frame refresh rate, 2ms video response time, 20,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 300 nits high brightness. If you can't shell out for separate speakers, the monitor comes with integrated two-watt SRS Premium Sound speakers. "It's a neat solution with the built in Nvidia transmitter, that uses LED technology to bring better contrast ratios and significant power savings, but can then revert back to a high performance 2D monitor when required," said James Coulson European marketing manager, ViewSonic. ViewSonic's V3D245 3D monitor and bundled Nvidia 3D Vision active stereo 3D glasses come with a UK release date of mid-to-late September, and the whole shebang will set you back around £350.

In Depth: 10 best office apps for Android Posted: 18 Aug 2011 06:00 AM PDT We all know how versatile and powerful today's smartphones are, with numerous games and apps showing off their fun sides. But what about the boring stuff? What about when you really need to edit potentially libellous statements out of a Word document in a hurry? Android has a wealth of productivity tools at its disposal, ranging from free and simple text editors and "to do" lists up to impressively feature-packed and rather costly suites of document management apps that promise PowerPoint and Excel editing on your mobile. Official options are a little lacking, though. There's no proper version of Open Office on Android, for example, while rival smartphone maker Microsoft is obviously a little reluctant to launch any official MS Office apps on Android as well. Fortunately for business-minded users, Android has many third-party options offering similar collections of fully compatible office apps, optical character readers, scanners and converters, all ready to let you use your phone for something a little more useful than moaning on Twitter all day. So here are our 10 best office apps for Android so you can make your phone work a bit harder. 1. Google Docs As well as an excellent mobile web interface accessed through the Android browser, Google has recently released a separate Android Google Docs app. The benefits are integration with your Contacts list for easy file sharing, plus it uses your Android phone's camera as a character reader to scan documents. The Android app also supports Google's collaborative editing system - as long as you're using a mobile data connection of some sort. 2. Quickoffice Pro This is a rather expensive option coming in at whatever the current equivalent of $14.99 is, but you do get a lot in the Quickoffice Pro bundle. It implements proper support for Office apps on Android, letting users read, edit and create docs on the fly. It even manages PowerPoint, but you'll need something with a decent size screen to use it to a satisfactory degree. 3. Olive Office Premium If you'd prefer a free option, Olive Office Premium does a similar job of supporting Office docs on Android. It handles Word, Excel and PowerPoint, plus docs saved in Adobe's PDF format. It supports rich text, tables, images and charts, making Android look properly businesslike. 4. CamScanner - Phone PDF Creator A more advanced version of the document scanner found within the Google Docs app, CamScanner lets users import various office docs into Android by converting photos into PDF format. Its most useful feature is a batch mode for paging through endless docs and taking photos of each page, which then get auto-cropped and saved in one exciting file. The free version is ad supported, plus there's a paid release if you want to do away with the banners. 5. OpenOffice Document Reader Thomas Taschauer is a very clever individual who has created his own OpenOffice Android app, which is a decent attempt at bringing full support to Android. There are some problems with formatting and displaying images and, more critically, a lack of editing abilities. But for reading ODS and ODT files on your Android device it's a useful, and free, option. 6. SwiftKey X SwiftKey is only an alternate Android keyboard, but it has one significantly useful feature for work use. The app's learning system means it analyses your typing as you type, memorising what you write. If you've just typed a sentence, starting afresh with the same word will magically recreate the whole text, one word after the other. There will be occasions where you lose a big chunk of copy - SwiftKey can often remember it for you. 7. ThinkFree Office Mobile Viewer ThinkFree is one of the bigger providers of Office compatible apps for Android. It's pre-loaded on many phones, with a free version up on the Android Market to try if it's not already installed on yours. The free version only offers doc reading, with full editing functions saved for the paid version. There's also a specific tablet release - ThinkFree Mobile for Tablet - which comes with a suitably bland desktop look. You don't want colours distracting you from work. 8. Documents To Go 3.0 DataViz's Documents to Go app is another popular choice for supporting Office on Android, with PowerPoint, Word, Excel and the usual file types on the compatibility list. The free version only offers reading access, with the $14.99 paid option adding editing options. It lets you import your Google Docs files, plus the Word app handles rich text, tables, footnotes and much more. 9. Picsel Smart Office Another paid option, Smart Office features a more glamorous user interface than the others, also including what it calls the "World's first stereo 3D document viewing". That will really put you into the heart of the meeting like never before. It supports the major versions of MS Office from 97 up to 2010, has a custom clipboard and text reflowing, plus there's an additional tablet interface if you're using it on a tab of some sort. 10. OfficeDrop OfficeDrop is another doc scanner and reader, only it comes with its own "web-based document portal" allowing users to access and manage their scanned receipts and docs via desktop as well. Files scanned in via your Android phone's camera are converted to PDF format, with the app letting you search through, label and organise the results. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Related Stories Google's Photovine sharing app goes live 27,000 South Koreans sue Apple over location data storing Opinion: Did LG save Android before it began? Samsung's Ice Cream Sandwich phone detailed again Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini

Sapphire's Sandy Bridge Pure Platinum Z68 mobo arrives Posted: 18 Aug 2011 05:15 AM PDT Sapphire has announced the latest addition to its motherboard range with the Pure Platinum Z68 bringing support for the latest SandyBridge processors from Intel. The Sapphire Pure Platinum Z68 is a full ATX board with socket LGA1155 for the latest Core i3, i5 and i7 processors. The mobo has four dual channel memory sockets, two USB 3.0 ports and four USB 2.0 ports (plus 8 on headers). SATA overload Also on offer is Gigabit LAN, Bluetooth, four SATA II 3G ports and two SATA III 6G ports. Video output options include CPU-VGA, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort – any two of which can be used at the same time. For your graphics cards there are two PCI-E Gen3 x16 slots spaced to allow CrossFireX link up, and there is an additional PCI-E x16 slot and three standard PCI slots. The Sapphire Pure Platinum Z68 is available now through the usual channels.

Dixons Group reports 3D TV sales spike Posted: 18 Aug 2011 05:14 AM PDT Currys and PC World saw a significant leap in sales of 3D televisions during the three months from April to June 2011, with their owner, Dixons Retail group, reporting that one in every five televisions it now sells is a 3D TV. The retail group also noted that its sales of 3D TVs have shot up 500 per cent over the last twelve months. 3D or not 3D Dixons reckons the uplift is down to competitive pricing and an increase in 3D content, but it does concede that around 40 per cent of its TV range now offers 3D. That means that 40 per cent of its TVs are 3D capable, but only 20 per cent of the TVs sold are 3D models. And, if almost half of the televisions on offer are 3D ready, is it a case of people lusting after 3D capability, or are consumers just opting for a 3D TV because it's the highest calibre set for their budget? "Prices have become really competitive, with 3D TVs available from as little as £499 opening the technology up to a mass audience" said John Mitchell, category manager at Dixons Retail. "This increase is reinforced in our TV range, around 40% of which is made of 3D televisions currently and which we expect to increase in the next 12 months, as premiership football is screened in 3D and films including [the] final Harry Potter movie are released in 3D." Related Stories Interview: Meet the king of 3D

Opinion: Did LG save Android before it began? Posted: 18 Aug 2011 04:38 AM PDT The name LG could have been as synonymous with Google's OS as HTC, according to an article on Android founder Andy Rubin. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has published a look at the rise of the operating system - and the most interesting fact claimed is that LG backed out of a deal to be the primary partner for Android in 2007. HTC brought the first three Android phones to market and now enjoys a status as one of the world's largest smartphone makers, whereas LG is struggling to make waves in the same industry. It's an interesting point of conjecture - did LG lose out, or did Google and Android really win big by not having the Korean firm as a primary partner? I'd have to go with the latter - we've seen LG's propensity to make sub-par phones when it comes to user interfaces (S-Class' spinning cube UI combined with a resistive touchscreen was never going to set the world on fire). At the time when HTC was launching its Android smartphone brigade LG was still betting big on feature phones - the Viewty, Arena and Chocolate range were its take on next-gen phones and never really catapulted LG to market leader. Whereas HTC became an integral player in the development of Android - John Wang, HTC's chief marketing officer once told me, "We had HTC employees running around the Google campus, wearing Google badges and eating Google food well before the first Android announcement." Compromise is key Therein lies the difference in my opinion: HTC was willing to work with Google (perhaps as a more acquiescent partner) to help build the correct hardware around Google's Android vision - it's hard to see LG not wanting to stamp its own authority all over the project and ruined the early simplicity of the UI with flying dodecahedrons or something. Fast forward five years, and we're seeing accolades aplenty for HTC with the likes of the Desire and Sensation - and LG is pushing hard to capture the market with its Optimus range, ironically using Android as its primary operating system. The article also claims that Android, now the world's largest smartphone operating system, nearly went out of business back in 2003 (prior to being acquired by Google) as Rubin struggled to get funding for the futuristic project. It was only in a meeting with Google founders Sergei Brin and Larry Page, fans of Rubin's Sidekick phone project with Danger, that the possibilities were outlined and the Android gravy train pulled out of the station - which would probably mean Apple's iOS would have more market share than it could shake a stick at now, and Nokia would still be claiming that Symbian was a world-beating OS. Related Stories Google's Photovine sharing app goes live 27,000 South Koreans sue Apple over location data storing In Depth: 10 best office apps for Android Samsung's Ice Cream Sandwich phone detailed again Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini

In Depth: Asus Eee Pad Slider: what you need to know Posted: 18 Aug 2011 04:33 AM PDT We love Asus's Eee Pad Transformer, so we can't wait to get our hands on its Slider sibling. As the name suggests, the Asus Eee Pad Slider has a slidey bit - a display that reveals a proper keyboard - but what else is inside, and what's it going to cost? Let's find out. Asus Eee Pad Slider specifications Asus has revealed all: the Eee Pad Slider specs include a 1.0GHz dual-core NVIDA Tegra 2, a full QWERTY keyboard and USB port, SRS surround sound, a 10.1-inch WXGA (1280x800) screen and 1GB of RAM. There's a choice of 16GB or 32GB of storage, twin cameras - 1.2MP on the front and 5MP on the back - 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1. The panel is an Apple-style Intelligent Plane Switching (IPS) job, delivering a wide 178-degree viewing angle. Asus Eee Pad Slider software Hardly a surprise, this: the Asus Eee Pad Slider operating system is Android 3.1, although Asus says that the Slider is upgradeable to Android 3.2. The Eee Pad's features means it's nearly a laptop Reasonable screen, reasonable keyboard, mini-HDMI, USB, cloud storage... we're getting awfully close to laptop territory here, and at 960g we're getting awfully close to laptop weight too. That means the Eee Pad isn't just competing with other tablets: it's competing with netbooks too. Netbooks, of course, offer a more traditional PC experience - but they're almost as portable as tablets, and often cheaper. The Asus Eee Pad Slider features include unlimited storage No, Asus hasn't found a way to offer infinite flash memory - but every Eee Pad Slider customer gets a year of unlimited Asus WebStorage for their stuff. It's unclear whether that's unlimited in the sense of having no limits, or if it's "unlimited" like ISP internet bandwidth. The Asus Eee Pad Slider UK release date Everybody's gearing up for Christmas and Asus is no exception. Notebook Italia says that Asus intends to launch the Slider in Europe in September. Asus Eee Pad Slider UK price Asus is pricing its tablets aggressively, but don't expect the Slider to compete with low-end machines: we're hearing €479 for the 16GB model and €599 for the 32GB model. In real money that works out at around £437 and £525 before tax. That's a good bit more than the £325ish you'll currently pay for a keyboard-free Eee Pad Transformer, but of course unlike the Transformer the Slider's keyboard isn't an optional extra. Related Stories Motorola Xoom to get Android 3.2 update in September HP ends production of webOS hardware

27,000 South Koreans sue Apple over location data storing Posted: 18 Aug 2011 04:15 AM PDT One South Korean law firm is representing 27,000 citizens all looking for compensation from Apple over Big Brother style location data storage found in iOS 4 devices. You may recall that back in April quite the fuss was kicked up when it emerged that the iPhone was secretly and unencryptedly storing data about where it had been and when. Kim Hyung-souk successfully managed to eke £565 of compensation out of Apple when he sued the company in a South Korean court over the privacy infringement; now he's helping 27,000 others do the same. Another day in court Hyung-souk explained, "I'm an iPhone user myself, so when I first heard about this in the media, I reviewed the legality of the matter based on Korean law. I concluded that it was clearly illegal." If each and every one of the 27,000 claimants he is now representing wins their case against Apple, it could cost the technology giant around £15 million in compensation, not to mention court costs. During the great PR disaster of April 2011, Apple claimed that it was "maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers" and not tracking your iPhone's every move. It has since released a software update that ensured that the location-storing cache is deleted every time the device's location services are turned off. Related Stories Google's Photovine sharing app goes live Opinion: Did LG save Android before it began? In Depth: 10 best office apps for Android Samsung's Ice Cream Sandwich phone detailed again Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini

Skype Wi-Fi comes to iPhone and iPad Posted: 18 Aug 2011 03:36 AM PDT Skype has launched a free iOS app that gives iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users access to Wi-Fi hotspots around the world using Skype Credits. It's a pay-as-you-go system, with users' Skype Credits depleting for every minute they spend on the Wi-Fi access, with UK users looking at around 4p per minute of internet time, although pricing will vary based on which ISP is providing the hotspot. You'll need to be running iOS 4.1 or above to ensure you have multitasking capabilities to make use of the Skype Wi-Fi app. Skype cred The other handy thing to note is that you'll be able to go online anywhere in the world for a relatively low price – in the US Wi-Fi starts at 6 cents a minute, while across Europe you're looking at €0.05 per sixty seconds. It's not quite the free Wi-Fi that Skype gave UK users access to back in November last year, when Brits could go online with the public network to celebrate Internet Week Europe. Still, for the sake of a few pence, it's got to be better than slogging away at your emails over a dodgy 3G connection or shelling out for data roaming while you're abroad. You can download the Skype Wi-Fi app from the App Store now. Related Stories Review: MAGIX Website Maker 5 Deluxe Review: Cyberlink Photo Director

Review: Cyberlink Photo Director Posted: 18 Aug 2011 03:30 AM PDT Cyberlink is best known for its video editing tools, including PowerDVD and PowerDirector. It's now turned its attention to photo editing with PhotoDirector 2011. Will it be able to stand out in such a crowded market, and can Cyberlink apply its successful video editing formula to a new type of media? When you start the software you'll find it looks similar to Cyberlink's video editor, with an attractive interface that helps you get started straight away. When we began using PhotoDirector 2011, the only photos imported were the example pictures that came with the program. Our own photos didn't take long to find and import though, and we were impressed by how quickly they were added considering how many of them were taken at high resolutions. You can browse imported photos in the Library, and search through them by the date they were imported, the number of stars you've awarded them, their folder, album or the tags that you've given them. You can also see metadata, which includes information like GPS location and camera model. So far so good, but all these features can be found in free image sorting and editing software like Windows Live Photo Gallery. Once you start editing your photos, PhotoDirector proves its worth. Slide show You can make adjustments to your photos via various sliders. As you move these, the photo is updated to show the effect. Each setting, like sharpness or saturation, is grouped with similar ones for ease of use. This suite uses non-destructive editing, which means that no matter how much you tweak your photos, the original shot is always kept. A log of changes lets you review each change you've made to the photo in depth. You can also see side-by-side comparisons of your photo before and after editing, which gives you a good sense of how the photo is evolving. We also appreciated the multi-monitor support, which lets you to view and edit photos over two screens. We were pleased to see that one of PowerDirector's best features, the online DirectorZone that lets users share effects and presets, is included in PhotoDirector. In some ways the DirectorZone works better for PhotoDirector, as the effects seem to be of a much higher standard. There are hundreds, if not thousands of these available, with more uploaded every day. Hovering over the thumbnail of an effect gives you an example of a photo before and after it's applied. Microsoft's free Windows Live Photo Gallery can now handle RAW files, so has PhotoDirector 2011 been made redundant so soon after being launched? Having spent some time with the program, we'd say no – this is a great product for people who are getting to grips with editing their photos. Related Stories Review: MAGIX Website Maker 5 Deluxe Skype Wi-Fi comes to iPhone and iPad

TalkTalk fined £3m over billing mistakes Posted: 18 Aug 2011 03:06 AM PDT TalkTalk has been fined £3 million by Ofcom after mistakenly billing thousands of customers even after they had closed their accounts. Over 62,000 customers were wrongly billed by TalkTalk and its subsidiary Tiscali between January and November 2010, leaving the company with the lowest consumer satisfaction of all the UK's broadband and landline providers. Ofcom ordered TalkTalk and Tiscali to sort out their billing issues by December 2010 but, despite taking some steps to stem the problems, the companies continued to incorrectly charge almost 3,000 customers up until March 2011. Harsh but fair The £3 million penalty, Ofcom says, is to "reflect the seriousness of their breach of the rules and to act as a deterrent to them and other telecoms companies who must comply with the rules" and could have been higher had TalkTalk not taken steps to rectify the issues. The company has also paid out over £2.5 million in refunds and compensation to more than 65,000 affected customers. TalkTalk's chief executive Dido Harding said in a statement to TechRadar: "Last year I recognised that we needed to invest in our systems, processes and customer services ­ and we are making significant progress. "We are of course disappointed at the scale of the fine and feel it is a disproportionate penalty; however we are striving to continually improve and invest in customer experience and are pleased at the clear progress we are starting to make."

Review: Teufel Concept C300 Posted: 18 Aug 2011 03:00 AM PDT Teufel is a speaker specialist that's been making top quality PC speakers for a while, and the Concept C300 is its latest attempt at 2.1 wireless sound. Teufel's years of expertise were evident as soon as we removed the two satellite speakers from the box. They're very well constructed and designed, and made with real care and attention. When it comes to how free of wires these speakers are, like most 'wireless' speakers this just refers just to the connection to the PC. There are still wires linking the speakers and subwoofer. Setting them up involves wiring the satellites to the subwoofer with speaker wires rather than simply plugging them in. It doesn't help that the speaker wire isn't included, necessitating a trip to a specialist hi-fi shop before you get started. These certainly aren't the cheapest PC speakers or the simplest to set up, but once you've plugged them in the expense and work are justified – these speakers sound amazing. Low and high frequencies are reproduced flawlessly and small details in music tracks we've heard hundreds of times were revealed, breathing new life into well-worn songs. The subwoofer performs incredibly well during movies and games, giving a strong bass presence without drowning out the other sounds. This is a big investment, but if you have the money you won't be disappointed. The supplied remote control is rather simple, comprising just five buttons: power, input, bass and two volume controls. It looks great, but it's not the most convenient of controls – especially considering the lack of any visual indication of how loud the sound or bass volume is – you just have to go by ear. The Teufel Concept C300 might be expensive, but its superb sound quality puts it ahead of competitors like the Creative Zii Sound T6.

Smooth PlayStation Vita launch is vital, says CEO Posted: 18 Aug 2011 02:31 AM PDT Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan exec has admitted that the launch of the PlayStation Vita is a critical time for the gaming giant. The Vita's predecessor, the PSP, is unlikely to be held up as a pinnacle of marketing prowess, and has never reached the heights that its key rival, the Nintendo DS, has managed consistently for years. But, with the PlayStation Vita UK release date likely to be in early 2012 and the Japanese launch set for the end of 2011, Sony is aware that it cannot make the mistakes it made in the underwhelming PS3 launch. Bright start Ryan told Future Publishing's CVG that his key task was ensuring that the Vita is given the best possible start in life. "It's obviously a top priority," he admitted. "We're going to launch early next year and it's critical that a marketplace the size of ours has a successful launch, installs a lot of product, and that we publish all the great games that we have [lined up for it]." Ryan believes that it will be headlining games that make the Vita a success when it arrives across the globe. "The quality of the content available at launch far exceeds anything we've had on any platform [at the same stage], not just PSP. Marketing great content is much more straightforward than marketing content that perhaps is not so great. "Secondly, come the fall [2012] you're going to see the heavy guns from the third party community coming to the platform, giving us additional momentum for the Christmas selling season." PlayStation 4 Ryan was also asked about the PlayStation 4, but was obviously keen to bring attention back to current offerings. "All I'm focused on right now is making the most of PS3," he said. "We've over 50 million PS2's installed across our PAL territory, and as you've heard yesterday we're up to 22 [million] on PS3, so there is a long way to go. That's all we need to focus on for now." Related Stories Sony announces new budget PSP model PSP E-1000: budget PlayStation Portable announced In Depth: PS Vita: what you need to know

Review: LiteOn External Blu-ray Disc Combo Posted: 18 Aug 2011 02:30 AM PDT The LiteOn External Blu-ray Disc Combo is an easy way to add Blu-ray playback to your computer. Its slim, stylish design makes it especially useful for small media centre PCs. Setup was easy – all we had to do was connect the drive to two USB ports (one for data, one for power) and our test computer was ready to read and write Blu-ray discs. The drive itself is slim and light enough to carry around, and when connected to a laptop with HDMI out, it makes an excellent portable Blu-ray player that can be connected quickly to a HD TV. The drive comes with Cyberlink PowerDVD software, which allows playback of 3D Blu-rays. It's a good program with well implemented internet features, turning the LiteOn External Blu-ray Disc Combo into an incredibly versatile device. Its 3D Blu-ray compatibility and the fact that it runs almost completely silently will be big draws for dedicated movie fans. This drive can also read and write to a huge array of disc formats, including BD-ROM, BD-RE and DVD-RAM, which makes it a great purchase for much more than just home entertainment. When it comes to playing Blu-ray movies, performance is unaffected by the fact that the drive is external, and high definition content looked incredible on our test monitor. If you're interested in playing full-screen high definition material – especially in 3D – remember that your computer needs enough graphical power to keep everything running smoothly; underpowered computers will lead to stuttering. A fairly recent machine with a dedicated graphics card will have no problem playing back Blu-rays though. Another thing that's worth noting before you buy is that your monitor must be connected to your PC via either DVI or HDMI, because Blu-ray playback isn't possible over a VGA cable. Reading and writing Blu-ray discs took slightly longer than with internal drives, but in our eyes the convenience of the external drive makes up for the disparity.

You are subscribed to email updates from techradar To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610