Sponsored
Techradar |
- In Depth: How to build the best PC for your needs
- Tutorial: How to create your own cloud with Linux
- The Week in Camera News
- In Depth: 18 of Linux software's unsung stars
- Review: Tevion 28208
- Buying Guide: 5 best over-ear headphones for iPhone
| In Depth: How to build the best PC for your needs Posted: 25 Sep 2011 02:00 AM PDT  How to build a PCSystem builders are great and everything, but unless you emit static electricity or are terminally lazy, you should be thinking about building your own PC. Why? Because not only do you get the satisfaction of having crafted your machine from the ground up, growing and harvesting each component from the soil… or something like that. You also get full control over what goes in the chassis. And what the case will look like. System builders do a great job of delivering sensible packages of components at attractive price points, but building your own rig gives you full control. All the parts you need, none that you don't. And no extra expense to you. And that level of control's important. It's what being a PC enthusiast is all about. It's what elevates us above the hunched simian shoulders of console gamers. Everyone uses their PC in a different way; sure we all have a web browser, a media player and Sims 3: Toilets 'n' stuff installed, but beyond that our hard drives and habits are as varied as grains of sand on a beach. Choosing each component individually allows you to make a machine that will suit your exact needs. The rig for youWhether you're a thifty technophile, an avid gamer, a designer, multimedia editor or music producer we'll guide you through picking the best parts for your needs - and your budget. We've even made a handy step-by-step for you. Pretty invaluable if you've never built a rig from scratch before, and just as useful if you have - even experienced rig builders are odds on to have spent a few frustrated afternoons scratching their head and wondering which flipping connection they haven't made. Our step-by-step is the antidote to such troubled times. Over the next eight pages we'll show you what we think are the best system components for budget builders, gamers and those in need of a seriously powerful workstation, why they're worth your money and how to build them into a PC. But like we said, every PC user is unique - that's why we've also given you some options and suggested alternatives. Read on to start building. How to build a cheap PCShopping listMotherboard: Asus F1A75-M - £81 Total: £382
Putting together the perfect budget machine is a tricky business in the current market. With money being tight it's more important than ever to make sure your components are balanced properly so you're not wasting money on unnecessary bottlenecks. With any PC build you've got one of two ways to go right from the off. Do you want an Intel or an AMD-based machine? At the top-end there really is currently no choice whatsoever: it's Intel all the way. AMD's Bulldozer might put a little dampener on things for Intel, but with the Sandy Bridge Extreme processors and X79 chipset waiting to trump AMD's release the status quo may well remain. But at the budget-end things are as unequivocally AMD as the high-end is Intel. On the Intel side your cheapest serious options are the dual-core Sandy Bridge chips, and although offering hyperthreading they're weak ol' CPUs. In the balanceAMD has a wealth of options to choose from though. But to keep a balance of price and performance we're going to be looking squarely at the new desktop Llano hardware it's just launched. If you're just looking for a budget machine that's only going to be used for gaming occasionally you can make do without a discrete graphics card in this Llano build. The integrated graphics of the top-end Llano APU are at least three times faster than that of the fastest Sandy Bridge iGPU. With a discrete card you're getting the most out of your build. Because of the Llano chip's Dual Graphics function you can pair a mid-range AMD GPU with the graphics side of the APU and give your card a healthy boost. At the very least we're talking about a 33 per cent speed boost over just the card on its own. Trump cardsElsewhere we've trumped the budget build in the Rig Builder pages and boosted the storage and memory options. Llano benefits extremely well, especially in Dual Graphics mode, from speedy memory modules. Dropping in 4GB of 1,600MHz DDR3 should do some serious good. There's also a 750GB HDD for only an extra £7 on top of the 320GB drive in that build. The smallish, 430W PSU is all that's needed due to the power-saving prowess of the Llano chipset, and the HD 6670 graphics card doesn't even need a separate PCI-e power connector. The mATX Asus motherboard is based on the same technology as the F1A75-V Pro and that board enabled us to hit an impressive 3.7GHz with this 2.9GHz rated chip. And you should be able to get close with this board too. This is a little machine, quite capable of gaming on a full HD 1080p screen and would be a great pairing with an old 1,650 x 1,080 panel. Hitting over 30fps in DiRT 3 and 24fps in Just Cause 2 at 4x AA on the highest settings at 1,920 x 1,080. Striking the balanceXFX Radeon HD 6670 This budget rig is all about balance and when the HD 6670 is thrown into the mix with a Llano APU, the Dual Graphics function makes it far more of a real gaming option. Expect a performance boost of 33 per cent, at the very least, over what the card can manage on its own. You can spend a little more on faster GPUs, but it needs to be AMD to work with the APU as Nvidia cards won't benefit at all. That said it's not worth looking at much higher-end cards, as you may as well pick up a standard AMD CPU without onboard graphics. AMD A8 3850 The new desktop Llano APU is a great choice for the budget machine. As we've said you can make do without a discrete GPU if your gaming needs aren't particularly hi-res or 3D demanding, and if they are you can make do with a fairly middling card thanks to the APU's Dual Graphics functionality. The CPU component of the chip is quite good too, coming in full quad-core trim but without the Phenom II's Level 3 cache. Still, it's not a bad overclocking chip and knocks the equivalent Intel Core i3 chip out of the running. Corsair 4GB 1,600MHZ DDR3 Because of the way the Llano APU shares the system RAM between its CPU and GPU it's very important to make sure your RAM matches up and supports the chip. The difference in actual gaming frame rates between the memory running at 1,333MHz and 1,600MHz is surprisingly big; in some cases making the difference between jerky and smooth gaming. This is especially true when you factor in the Dual Graphics technology as the RAM then becomes seriously taxed, especially when you're trying to output to high-resolution monitors.
You can see from the Cinebench score it's still a worthy CPU, especially compared to the 2.96 score the equivalent Sandy Bridge CPU manages. In gaming too it hits double figures in Heaven and over 30fps in DiRT 3 is nothing to be sniffed at. CPU rendering performance DirectX 11 tesselation performance DirectX 11 gaming performance How to build a gaming PCHow to build a gaming PCShopping listMotherboard: Asus P8Z68 V Pro - £146.00 Total: £994.25
As gamers, we tend to upgrade certain components once or twice a year depending on how flush we're feeling. Often we're spurred on by a stunning new title or the new generation of a particular gubbin. But how often do we get to just admit that our hard drive is nearly dead and our motherboard's always been dodgy, and just start again from scratch? Not as often as we'd like. When we do, it's a great opportunity to take the plunge into the latest chipset - the least practical of incremental upgrades. If you've been languishing in first generation Intel Core territory, the step up to 6 series chipsets such as Z68 not only unlocks fantastic Sandy Bridge CPUs, but USB 3.0, SATA 6 Gbps, DDR3 RAM and more. Set your budgetWhen it comes to budgeting, there are two factors to consider. Firstly, what can you afford to spend before you have to sell body parts and start living in your car? Secondly, how much should you pay? Above a certain level of cash-throwing, you stop getting a noticeable performance increase and you're basically just making everything look nicer and hitting higher synthetic benchmark scores. We reckon that level is £1,000. It's still a massive outlay, and you'd expect some serious performance and longevity from that. Unfortunately, the components market is a confusing place. Manufacturers release products £10 apart from each other within their own range. Model numbers are unnecessarily complicated and often misleading. Compatibility can be a headache, and it's far from clear which components will actually get you the most bang for your dollar. Luckily for you, here at PCF we know those components like the back of our hand. We swim through them to get to our desks in the morning, furiously benchmark them all day, and eat our dinner off them when we go home. Such a lifestyle has given us fantastic insight into which bits of silicon are actually any good, and which aren't even fit to eat beans on toast off. Get the best GPUThe glamour piece in a rig of this kind will always be the graphics card. A new GPU gives the biggest performance boost in game. With that in mind, a top-notch GPU should be your biggest outlay in a gaming rig. Spend as much as you possibly can, because the GPU's in charge of frame rates. And high frame rates make a good gaming rig. There are other important considerations though. A quick SSD might not seem like the obvious gaming go-to guy, but it is worth shelling out on, as is a solid mobo and cooler for overclocking. On the flipside, you don't need a Blu-ray drive, a gigabit network card, a fancy case or more than 4GB of RAM. Indulge in the parts that matter, omit the others heartlessly from the finished rig. You'll be happier, trust us. Inside your new rigRadeon HD 6950 The GPU is to the gaming rig what Lionel Messi is to F.C. Barcelona and what Alberto Tomba was to men's giant slalom skiing. As such, this should be your big purchase. We think £204 is fantastic value for a card as powerful as Sapphire's Radeon HD 6950. For starters, it's equipped with a dual BIOS and 2GB memory so you can perform the famous HD 6970 BIOS flash on it, and unlock the full power of the Cayman architecture. Sapphire has also done a sterling job with the card's cooler, you can overclock it to beyond the reference HD 6970 card's settings. Intel Core i5 2500K OEM The other hard worker in your new gaming rig is Intel's Core i5 2500K - It'll keep the pace with your GPU and deliver buckets of performance. The difference between this and first-gen Intel Core chips, such as the Q6600 that also has four cores and four threads is really staggering. This raw performance coupled with Turbo Boost and some excellent overclocking potential make this chip a must-have in your new rig. Save a few quid and go for the OEM version rather than retail. OCZ Agility III 120GB Hang on, what are we doing spending £169 on an SSD in a gaming rig? Couldn't we make do with traditional HDD storage and plump for a second GPU? Well, sure, you could squeeze an extra HD 6950 into the budget, but the performance increase you'll get will be barely noticeable in the real world and far from the 100 per cent boost some expect. A high-performance SSD such as OCZ's Agility 3 can make a big difference to general desktop and gaming use. From boot times to level loads, an SSD with 500 MB/s reads and writes can boost your system in areas that your GPU and CPU can't.
On our 2560 x 1600 screen, this gaming rig gave us the surplus frames we expect for almost a grand. Flashing the GPU's BIOS will give you an extra 5 to 10 frames for free. CPU rendering performance DirectX 11 gaming performance DirectX 11 gaming performance How to build a workstation PCHow to build a workstation PCShopping listMotherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5 - £157.19 Total: £2173.66
The term 'workstation' doesn't conjure up exciting visuals. It's a place to do work after all, so perhaps the term 'ultimate workstation' might read like 'performance stapler' or 'most powerful biro ever' to some. The workstation lives in the shadow of gaming rigs, netbooks and tablets, but as our relationship with tech changes, so do our expectations from our gear. YouTube has turned us all into amateur movie directors, recording artists, video bloggers, stop-motion film makers and judging by any comments section: hate-filled morons. Suddenly we're putting heavy duty video-encoding and editing tasks on our systems. Suddenly we want studio-quality audio recordings from our bedroom. We want to mod our favourite games, manipulate 3D models, touch up photos and remix songs. And unless you love staring at loading bars that means you'll need a PC that can handle all these demanding tasks. That is a workstation. We want it all...Whether you're building a machine for your actual occupation or serious about your particular digital hobby, there's a tangible, quantitative reward for spending big on a performance workstation. And here, we reckon, is where to spend it. First, a six-core CPU is really useful for any multi-threaded application. Genuine cores will always trump threads, and AMD's Phenom X6 1090T Black Edition offers an economical means of getting those cores. The pricier 1100T runs quicker but shares the same 9MB cache, which means overclocking the 1090T up to 4GHz gives you all that performance for less - that's why we chose the Gigabyte board. Not only does it get great performance out of the CPU through its 333 acceleration tech, it can also handle hefty overclocks. …And we want it nowWe've waxed lyrical about G.Skill's RipJawsX memory plenty in PC Format, but suffice to say 16GB of the stuff is going to have a massive impact on loading audio, video and images in powerful apps. There's plenty of room to store those files on OCZ's blindingly quick Vertex III SSD. Its 240 GB is enough for Windows, your key applications and any current projects you're working on. For anything else, the ample 2TB hard drive should suffice. Here's where things get niche. If audio is your thing, plump for the MBox 2 mini and Pro Tools 9. It's a great low latency sound card and you can't run Pro Tools without it. Good I/O options too. If you're into 3D/image/video editing, opt for the FirePro V5800 from AMD. It's a well-endowed workstation GPU with 800 stream processors, DX11, OpenCL and OpenGL 4.1 support. What more could you possibly want? How about a nippy USB drive to transfer your work between devices? Check. Blu-ray writer to export hard copies? Check. Granted, the price tag's formidable, but the machine you get in return is even more so. The work horseIncrease your productivity and badass quota all at once DigiDesign MBox 2 Mini If you want professional quality audio recordings, look no further than this soundcard. Look for good bundle deals with Pro Tools 9 or LE. The two are tied together at a firmware level, and PT is arguably the best digital audio interface out there. As well as zero latency, high fidelity recording, the MBox 2 has two simultaneous analogue inputs and outputs for XLR or -inch jack connections. You can plug in a guitar or mic through the front direct input (DI) connection for a quick setup. If sound's not your thing opt for a £20 SoundBlaster Audigy. AMD FirePro V5800 1GB If you're serious about visuals, this is the workstation GPU for you. Two DisplayPort and one DVI outputs allow you to connect up to three 30-inch screens (that's 12.3 million pixels) through Eyefinity. It has 800 stream processors and the 1GB GDDR5 memory will do the job when it comes to parallel processing and buffering. If you're more about audio, you can opt to go sans GPU entirely, or find a happy medium with a cheap gaming card. Corsair HX Series Modular 750W As former PCF Art Ed Matt Orton pointed out: "buying a power supply is like buying toilet paper. You've got to do it." When you don't have multi-GPU setups in mind, how much is there to take into account? Well for a workstation as magnificent as this, it needs to be extremely power efficient and have enough juice to power many peripherals. Corsair's 750W HX series ticks both boxes, boasting 90 per cent efficiency, a cable-saving modular design and a truckload of power. That's important when all your USB ports are occupied. HP DreamColor LP2480ZX Consumer-grade TFT monitors display about 16.7 million colours. This 24-inch professional screen designed by HP and Dreamworks takes a giant multicoloured dump over that spec, itself sporting more than 1 billion. Okay, it costs £1,833, but this is the Holy Grail for visual designers of any kind, supporting industry standard colour-depth consumer screens can't get close to. If your screen requirements aren't quite so high, check out Dell's P2411H for just under £250. How to fit the PC components01. Install CPU
We're going to test the vital components before putting them into the case. Lay your motherboard on its anti-static bag and remove the CPU guard. Lower your CPU in, being careful not to bend any pins. Lock it down and add a pea-sized dab of thermal paste to the top. 02. Cooler and fan
Cooler fixings vary between coolers and chips. Most require a bracket underneath the board, which affixes to the cooler itself. Check your manual to find out which of the screw holes and fittings you need. Connect the fan cable to your mobos' CPU FAN connector. 03. Fit the RAM
RAM only fits one way, you just need to open the catch, snap it in and lock it in place with the catch again. Some motherboards have different configurations between memory channels, so 1 and 3 may operate differently to 2 and 4 - check in the manual first. 04. The graphics card
The GPU should always occupy your top PCI-e slot because this is where the highest bandwidth will be: x16. Since bandwidth drops to x8 as soon as you involve another GPU in an SLI/CrossFireX array, manufacturers usually only put one x16 slot on the board. 05. Hook up the PSU
Connect the 20+4 pin connector to the mobo, the 8-pin EPS cable to the mobo (near the CPU) and whichever 6/8-pin PCI-e cables your GPU requires. If your cooler has more than one power connector, make sure it's hooked up to a SYS_FAN on the board. 06. Test the components
Power that sucker up by turning on the PSU and either hitting the power button on your mobo if it has one or using a screwdriver to short the power (+PW-) pins on the board's ATX block (This is where you connect all the case connectors). 07. Prep the case
Take out any bits of case you don't need such as drive bays and PCI slot plates. You need as much room in there as possible, and it's at this point that buying a bigger case pays for itself. Tie all the fan cables out of the way and fish out the mobo's mounting screws. 08. ATX backplate and mounting screws
Chuck your case's backplate in favour of the one that came with your mobo - it's guaranteed to fit, and chances are it'll be less flimsy. You'll also need to fix mountings to the case in line with your mobo's screw fittings. 09. Install the PSU
Some cases offer the choice to fix the PSU at the top or bottom of the case - there are pros and cons to both. You need to consider airflow and space to make the best call. Screw it in place and tie the cables out of the way. If it's modular, take all the cables out. 10. Drop in the motherboard
Remove the GPU from your mobo for now and with the CPU, cooler and RAM still in place, lower your mobo in and line it up with the rear mountings, then screw it in place. It's easier to do it this way round than to try and fix the components in afterwards. 11. Reunite GPU and mobo
This can be surprisingly fiddly if your case's storage bays stick out quite far. Some cases will allow you to pop out some drive bays, so do this if possible, and bung your graphics card back into that top PCI-e 2.0 x16 slot. Once it's firmly in the slot, screw it in place. 12. Test it still works
You'll need to connect the PSU's cables to all your components again. Checklist: main mobo power, CPU power and GPU. Don't worry about hooking up any case fans yet, just the CPU cooler. Power-up as before and check for POST beeps or LEDs light up your mobo. 13. Install the hard drive
Locate the handiest 3.5-inch drive bay (bearing in mind the SATA and power cables that will be trailing off it), pull it out and screw the disk into the bay. Pop it back inside. Slightly trickier if you need to reinstall those drive bays you took out to get the GPU to fit. 14. Add the SSD
Those sleek SSDs need mountings of their own to fit into a 3.5-inch bay, so screw your solid state bad boy into its mounting (usually provided with the drive) and then affix it as a hard drive. If you're the sort to hot-swap drives, use the easily swappable bays. 15. Attach an optical drive
Pop out the cover for the optical drive bay from the front of the case, and slide in your optical drive, again from the front, then secure it in place by screwing it in. If your inner OCD slave can deal with it, it's neater for cables if you use the lowest drive bay. 16. Case connectors
Invariably the fiddliest of all steps. Connect your case's USB cables, HD audio, fan connectors and all those tiny 1-pin ATX block connectors. There's a tiny diagram on the motherboard itself that shows where to put each pin, but check the board's manual. 17. Tidy your cables
This tidy up will help maintain good airflow and avoid dust build-up. If there's space between the backplate and case, feed cables in there. Make sure your drives are connected to the fastest SATA ports, use the PCI-e cables for your GPU and tidy up with cable ties. 18. Windows installation
Time to check everything is working properly. If you get any funny beeps check out what they mean online - it's probably a loose component or missing connection. If everything works fine, bung the Windows disk in your optical drive and install the OS on your SSD. 
| ||
| Tutorial: How to create your own cloud with Linux Posted: 25 Sep 2011 12:00 AM PDT  How to create your own cloud with LinuxWe've prodded cloud computing from a technical point of view several times but, from a user's perspective, it's a lot more than your always-available hard drive on the internet. It's omnipresent across platforms and, with the proliferation of smartphones, even devices. Apple created a lot of buzz when it announced its iCloud service earlier this year. It's designed to enable users to store content so it's accessible from all of their devices. Guess what? With Linux you can do it better. In the following article we'll show you how to harness the power of the cloud to access all types of data stored on remote services on your devices - from Chrome on your office laptop running Ubuntu, to Firefox on your Fedora desktop at home, to your Android mobile phone. And while Apple's iCloud is limited, in that it's for users of Apple's products, we'll look at services that cater for all the three major desktops, namely Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. In the true spirit of open source, we'll also look at options that let you create your own cloud to share pictures with friends and family, stream music to your devices or keep your calendars in sync, whether you modified them in the office or at home. At the end of it all, you'll be able to sync bookmarks and carry your browser passwords from your netbook at home, to the laptop in your office, to a lunch meeting on your Android phone. We'll show you how you can send and receive email on any device from all your accounts, whether on a webmail service or hosted on your own server, and always have your calendars and contacts with you. We'll also cover tools that enable you to take pictures with your Android phone and instantly share them on a website such as Flickr, or a social network like Facebook, or upload them to your own cloud. We'll even show you how to buy music from your Linux desktop and stream it onto your mobile phone. That's how you make cloud computing work for you. Applications
Strip away the buzz about cloud computing and all you've got is a web application that gives you the look and feel of a native desktop app, but runs inside a browser and is hosted on a remote web server halfway around the world. At the expense of some features, you get the ability to access all your documents created with the web app from any device across the planet. This has paved the way for low-cost netbooks with just enough juice to run stripped-down versions of operating systems to access these apps. Desktops in the skyYou can run web applications from their own interfaces, but for a more familiar way of working, there are several options that let you assemble them inside a browser-based virtual desktop. Jolicloud runs inside any web browser on any platform and lets you add or remove any number of web apps to the desktop. It's integrated with online storage services such as Dropbox, which means you can access your web app files wherever you are. Another way to use Jolicloud is to install JoliOS on an older computer or netbook. This enables you to also add and access some platform apps, such as the media player VLC. Since your apps are associated with your online account, when you log in to Jolicloud, either from the web interface or from JoliOS, it will automatically sync your apps across installations. Peppermint OS, which uses ICE, is a site-specific browser based on Chromium, which also makes web apps feel more like their desktop brethren. Web-based services have become synonymous with cloud computing; you can't mention one without the other. But there's more to cloud computing than feeding off services that live on remote web servers. Wouldn't it be great if you could access your everyday desktop apps, from anywhere, on any type of machine, irrespective of its hardware prowess? And when we say desktop apps, we mean both Linux and Windows. That's exactly what Ulteo Open Virtual Desktop (OVD) is designed for. After you've got it set up, you can serve as many native Windows and Linux apps to as many concurrent users. And it gets better: in the true spirit of the cloud, all that's needed to access the desktop apps is a web browser. Ulteo OVD relies on two components - a Session Manager and an Application Server - to create virtual desktops that run inside web browsers. To deliver both Linux and Windows apps, you need to run application servers inside at least one instance of each OS. Setting it up isn't too much hassle, but you will need to be familiar with the network setup. It's ideal for installations that need to deliver a mixture of apps and are willing to take a hit in performance. Since the apps are served from within remote application servers, make sure these machines are powerful enough to minimise the performance penalty. If you run multiple instances of app servers, you can easily balance the load between them. The best thing about Ulteo OVD is that it can also act as a centralised file manager. Users can create and save files on the server for their own use, as well as creating shared folders. Files and documents
There are two ways to carry your data with you wherever you go: you can either send it to one of several online storage providers, or let the web app keep it for you. Google Docs is an example of the latter. This free service lets you create and share text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings and more in various formats, including PDF. It's also available as an Android app, so you connect to it and work on the documents from your mobile phone. Besides creating and editing documents, you can use the Google Docs Android app to upload images to your account. The browser-based version also enables you to upload PDFs. All the documents created either on the web interface or uploaded from your phone are kept on Google's servers, and are thus accessible from wherever you connect. Additionally, you can share these documents with other Google Docs users, who can in turn share their docs with you. The basic free version of Google Docs allows up to 1GB of free storage and you can purchase more space starting from $5 (about £3) per year for 20GB. In its current form, Google Docs requires an active internet connection for you to work on your documents, but the ability to work offline, which leverages the HTML5 capabilities of the Chrome browser, is about to be rolled out. Another similar option is the Java- based ThinkFree Office suite, which is pre-installed on several Android-based handsets. Online duffel bagIf you need dedicated storage warehouses to keep your stuff online, there are plenty of services available. Canonical's Ubuntu One service is tightly integrated into new releases of the distro. You can sync files with your online Ubuntu One account via the right-click Context menu. You can then view these by logging on to the Ubuntu One website. You can also upload files via the web interface, which will automatically be synced with your Ubuntu installation. Dropbox is a cross-platform service and both Jolicloud and Peppermint have built-in support for it, so you can access your files from any of these web desktops.
A more comprehensive cross-platform solution for backing up and syncing files is SpiderOak. You can mix the web apps to get out of a sticky situation. For example, what if you need a file that's on your desktop at home, and all you have is your Android phone? If you have the TeamViewer remote desktop viewer on your desktop, you can connect to it using the TeamViewer app on the Android device, copy the file into Dropbox or share it via SpiderOak, and it will automatically be synced to your phone. Address book, calendar and email
For those who you work on the move, access to your emails and address books is vital if you want to stay productive. You need to be able to sync them across your office and home computers, across operating systems and to your mobile phone. Online email, by design, is globally accessible and requires nothing more than a web browser, but there are tools that enable you to use it offline, either on your laptop or on your phone, and then sync the two when you go online. If you use Gmail or any other web-based email service that enables you to grab email via the IMAP protocol, you can keep your online account in sync with your laptop by connecting to it via any cross-platform email client, such as Mozilla's Thunderbird or Novell's Evolution. Accessing Gmail on your Android device is a no-brainer, since these phones ship with a Gmail app that helps you set up multiple Gmail accounts, and even downloads messages for offline viewing. If you use your own hosted email server, you can access it from any computer via a webmail client such as Horde, SquirrelMail, Roundcube and so on. Just like with Gmail, you can fetch emails from your own hosted server into a desktop email client as long as you know its IMAP settings. Android phones also enable you to sync email accounts from your hosted email server via IMAP. You'll find several IMAP email clients on the Android market. K-9 Mail is one of the most feature-packed and, alongside IMAP, also supports POP3 and Microsoft Exchange Server. K-9 also works with the Android Privacy Guard (APG) app and enables you to send encrypted emails. As well as email, once you've set up a Gmail account on your Android device, your address book and contacts are also automatically synced. Any additions or changes to your Gmail calendar or contacts will automatically be reflected on your phone, and vice versa. Google Calendar supports the CalDAV standard, so you can sync it with Microsoft Outlook using the Google Calendar Sync utility, as well as with Apple's iCal or Mozilla's Sunbird. Similarly, there are extensions for desktop email clients to sync contact information. The Google Contacts add-on for Thunderbird automatically detects Google accounts and syncs contacts between the Google and Thunderbird address books. If you use Evolution, your client already has the built-in ability to sync your Evolution contacts with Google's address book. Step-by-step: Set up K-9 on Android01. Add an account
After you've downloaded and installed K-9 from the Android market, start the setup process by entering your email address and password. 2. Connection settings
The next step involves specifying the IMAP connection settings for your webmail server. The K-9 setup program tries to guess the values based on your email address. 03. Account settings
After you've set up your account, you can fine-tune it. You might want to hook it up with APG to send encrypted messages or ask it to store messages in the SD card. Music, photos and social networkingMusic
If you had to pick one area of the Linux desktop that's seen tons of development over the past few years, it has to be multimedia. Everything, from recording to streaming, has improved in leaps and bounds. Popular music players, such as Banshee, Rhythmbox and Amarok, can now handle media in all formats, in patent-encumbered codecs including MP3, MPEG and WMA, and free formats such as Ogg, Theora, FLAC and so on. Banshee is the default music player in Ubuntu, while you'll find Rhythmbox in several Gnome-based Linux distributions and Amarok in KDE-based ones. Besides playing music, you can use all three to subscribe to the RSS feeds of your favourite podcasts and internet radio stations such as Last.fm, and listen to audiobooks from LibriVox. With both Amarok and Rhythmbox, you can stream music from Jamendo and Magnatune, while Banshee lets you buy music from Amazon's MP3 store (currently only available to its US customers), and from Ubuntu One Music Store. When you buy tracks from Ubuntu One's music service, the songs are automatically synced with your Ubuntu One account, so if you format your disk, or move to another computer, your music moves with you. Just log in to your Ubuntu One music account from within Banshee and your tunes will automatically be synced to the new machine. You can also install the Ubuntu One Music app from the Android store, and listen to your music on your handset! Stream machine
If you don't use Ubuntu, or need to stream music from your own cloud, you have a couple of options depending on how you've set things up. The easiest way to stream your music collection is with Tonido. The software includes a music streaming app, aptly called Jukebox, that enables you to access all your music from anywhere on the internet via a web browser or on your phone via an Android app. Jukebox supports several popular formats, including Ogg, MP3, WMA, FLAC, M4A and so on. Just point it to your music folders and it'll create a database of your entire collection. It also has some powerful management features, and even enables you to edit MP3 tags to make the songs searchable. Additionally, you can create guest users and stream your entire music collection to them. If all you need to do is stream music, get yourself the Java-based Subsonic server, which is a dedicated music streamer. Besides making your music collection accessible via any web browser, it too can also stream music to an Android mobile phone. Subsonic supports any music format that can stream over HTTP, including MP3, Ogg and AAC. If you have music in another format, such as WAV, Subsonic also includes a transcoding engine that converts music to MP3 before streaming on-the-fly. Share your musicOther people can subscribe to your music stream with network-enabled media players, such as VLC or iTunes, or use the in-built Flash-based player to listen from within a web browser. Subsonic uses a battery of open source software for tasks such as on-the-fly resampling for streaming to locations where bandwidth is limited, and for parsing and editing MP3 tags. It also implements the SHOUTcast protocol, which enables players that support this protocol, such as Winamp, iTunes and XMMS, to display metadata information on the playing track. Binaries for Subsonic are available in both Deb and RPM formats, as well as in the WAR format for deploying Subsonic with a Tomcat, Jetty, GlassFish or Geronimo server if you have one already set up. Subsonic can also be used with Windows and Mac OS X. Once you've installed the binary under your platform, head to your web browser to do some basic configuration, such as pointing it to the folder where you keep your music, then tweak network settings to access the installation over the internet. Photos
Something that almost all of us keep on the web are images, be it on Facebook, Flickr, Picasa or any other photo sharing service. There are a whole host of tools that enable you to edit, tag and upload images from your computer to these services. In addition to cross-platform tools offered by the services themselves, many popular image-editing programs have the ability to upload images as well. Flickr doesn't have any official tools to manage your photo stream from Linux, but you'll find a couple of nice third-party tools in your distro's repository. Check out Postr if you want a simple upload-only utility for Gnome. For KDE users there's Kflickr. There's also the Desktop Flickr Organiser for Gnome users, which isn't under active development but still works. In fact, most of these tools haven't been updated in a while, but they all work as advertised. The easiest platform-independent way to upload photos to Flickr is by emailing them to your unique Flickr address using the subject line to specify a title, and the body to add a description and tags. Google has a photo management app for Linux that will also upload images to its Picasa web album service. Mobile phones have added a new dimension to uploading images to photosharing sites. Many Android phones ship with Facebook and Picasa apps that, when configured, can upload images to your accounts on these websites straight from the mobile phone itself. Then there's Flickr Companion, which is one of the most popular tools for managing your Flickr photostream from an Android phone. It lets you set up and manage multiple Flickr accounts, and browse the Flickr photos, sets and collections under each. The best bit is that you can download your images directly from Flickr on to your phone and set them as wallpapers or contact photos. Share scheme
If you don't want to rely on these services, you can create your own web album, either by using a dedicated content management system built to host images, such as the Gallery CMS, or with plugins for a normal CMS that add photo management features to it, such as the YAPB plugin for WordPress. The better option, if you wish to keep the photos to yourself, with the convenience of directly uploading them via a mobile phone, is to use Tonido. The NAS software bundles an app called Photos, so you can share your exploits with the camera with friends and family. As with all things Tonido, the Photos module also has comprehensive organising abilities and enables you to tag the images. Once shared, others can rate the photos and comment on them. All they need is a web browser. Step-by-step: Uploading images to Minus1. Register
Minus is a new online sharing service that keeps your images (and other content) in sync, whether you've uploaded it from a browser or from your mobile phone. 2. Install on desktop
Once you've registered with the service, you can download its client to your Linux desktop, or as an extension inside the Chrome and Firefox browsers. 3. Install on phone
The Android app enables you to upload images from your mobile. Minus ensures that no matter how you uploaded the images they're visible on all your devices. Social networking
By its very design, a social networking service lives in the cloud, a lot like web-based email services. As with any web-based application, the main advantage is that you can use it from within any web browser. The main disadvantage is that it isn't always straightforward to use it offline. There are several desktop apps on Linux that enable you to send tweets, dents and updates to your Twitter, Identica and Facebook accounts. There's Gwibber for Gnome users, and Choqok if you run KDE. Both work with multiple social networking services, and even let you browse through your timeline when offline. Similarly, there are several instant messaging clients that work with a variety of IM services and even IRC. Empathy, Pidgin, Xchat and Kopete are the most popular. If you need one app that can work across social networks and does IM as well, there's Yoono, which supports Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, AIM, Gtalk and Yahoo Chat amongst others. It's available as a desktop application for Linux, as well as a browser app for Firefox and Chrome. With the browser app you can easily share links, videos and other stuff you come across on the web with your friends on the configured social networks. If you don't use either of the supported browsers, there's the desktop version with a similar interface. Tweet talk
TweetDeck, which is available as a desktop app and an Android app, goes a step further and can also be found in Chrome's webstore. It too supports a variety of social networks, including the most popular ones. The biggest advantage with TweetDeck, though, is that you can register with the service, which saves you having to log in to all your networks from each device and gives you some added advantages, such as scheduling messages. If you need to send dents to your Identica accounts from your Android device try Twitdroyd, Mustard or Seesmic. These clients seamlessly plug into other social networking services to enable you to share media or shorten URLs. To find more apps that you can use from your web browser as well as your Android phone, head to Chrome's webstore and search for "Android". This will bring you a whole list of apps that you can use to sync all types of content from your desktop at home or work via a web browser, and when you're roaming with your phone. Some of the useful ones are Springpad, a note-taking app; Read Later Fast, which saves web pages for offline reading; the IMO instant messenger; Android Push Contacts, which sends SMS messages from the browser to Android devices; and the Nimbits data logger, which can also export the recorded data to Google Docs. Step-by-step: Be omnipresent with Yoono01. Add a service
Yoono can currently be installed inside Google's Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox browsers. Once installed, start by adding your accounts on the popular networks it supports. 02. Fine-tune settings
After you've added all the accounts, you can tweak settings for a particular service. For example, like Google+ Circles, Yoono enables you to assemble your FB friends in groups to better manage updates. 03. Start sharing
Yoono makes it easier to share anything you come across on the internet with your friends using the Share button, which enables you to pick out videos or text from within other browser tabs. Privacy and online data
Throughout this feature we've looked at various ways you can access and manage all types of data from all sorts of places, and keep it all in sync. Getting to the data is the easy bit. The real question is how you want to store it - offload it to a remote server or host it in your own cloud? The first option is more convenient, especially if you don't want to faff about building your own server, and just want to start sharing. But hosting your own cloud server gives you more flexibility and control over who accesses your data and how. The most important issue is security. Not everybody is willing to put all kinds of documents and passwords on to servers outside their jurisdiction. This is also why most of the services, be they for storing arbitrary documents or passwords or your online bank account, ensure privacy either by encrypting data or securing the channel through which it's transmitted. Another important factor is cost. Many remote services are free with up to 2GB of storage, and offer additional storage at throwaway prices. Plugging the gapDespite the availability of the software, many users are deterred from hosting their own cloud server by the overheads that come with running it. This is where plug computers come in. A plug computer is a small form factor computer that's meant to be used as an always-on server. It's got enough juice to run the server software and is stripped of all the exotic hardware you'll find on a normal computer, such as graphics cards or serial, parallel, PS/2 and VGA ports. This is also why plug computers consume a lot less power than traditional servers. Often they're enclosed in an AC power plug or AC adapter - hence the name. The Tonido NAS software is available on top of a plug computer, and there's a version of the Amahi Home Server that can be installed on top of a plug server. Besides the SheevaPlug, it's been tested on several other plugs machines, including Ionics Plugs and Guru Plug. Freedom fighters
Earlier this year, Eben Moglen, chairman of the Software Freedom Law Centre, announced the FreedomBox project to develop new personal server software for people who care about data privacy. As you've probably guessed, the FreedomBox software will run atop plug computers. Moglen created the FreedomBox Foundation to develop the server, which will run "a free software operating system, with free applications designed to create and preserve personal privacy". The idea is to deploy the FreedomBox installations in a peer-to-peer fashion. Users will then use this network for a variety of purposes - for example, to keep encrypted copies of their backups on other computers in the network. Users will also be able to send and receive encrypted emails, make VoIP calls that can't be intercepted and create their own alternative to social networking sites such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, without locking up their data. FreedomBox will be based on Debian and many of its developers are from the Debian development community, including its lead developer Bdale Garbee, the former Debian project leader. The project was funded via the crowdfunding service Kickstarter, where it raised over $86,000. Currently under development, the FreedomBox software won't cost anything and will be made up of several pieces of free software. The only cost will be that of the hardware - the plug computer server. Moglen has been quoted in a New York Times article as saying that these plug computers will "get very cheap, very quick" coming down from the current $99 (about £62) to $29 (around £18). 
| ||
| Posted: 24 Sep 2011 06:00 AM PDT  There's only really one story dominating the camera headlines this week, the launch of the Nikon 1 compact system camera. A CSC from Nikon has been expected for months and on Wednesday, the company finally delivered with the V1 and J1. TechRadar attended the UK launch of the new cameras so we could spend some time getting to grips with the new offering, which Nikon is dubbing "Advanced Camera Interchangeable Lens". The Nikon V1 is the more advanced offering of the two, featuring a high resolution electronic viewfinder. The J1 is aimed at family and beginner photographers, keen to get a step up in image quality. Confused about the differences? Read our handy Nikon V1 vs Nikon J1 comparison piece. Of course the big question on everyone's lips is how well the new cameras perform. We will be bringing you a full review as soon as possible, but for now check out the Hands On Nikon V1 Review and Hands On Nikon J1 Review to get our first impressions. As if that wasn't enough, we've also put together a hands-on Nikon V1 and J1 review video. Although Nikon is keen to distance itself from the compact system camera category with its new category name, the ACIL, it is of course inevitable that it will be compared to the likes of the Olympus PEN, Sony NEX, Samsung NX and Panasonic G Series. We've pitched the Nikon V1 against two recently launched compact system cameras to see how the stats stack up, read our Nikon V1 vs Olympus PEN E-P3 vs NEX-7 head to head to see who comes out on top. Finally, in our Nikontastic round-up this week, Nikon has revealed that a pro "Nikon 1" is not out of the question. Speaking exclusively to TechRadar, Simon Iddon confirmed that it will consider a pro model if customer feedback indicates that it is desired. Read the rest of the interview to find out more about the future of Nikon 1. That's it for this week, tune in next week for more new releases, the latest camera technology news and more. 
| ||
| In Depth: 18 of Linux software's unsung stars Posted: 24 Sep 2011 04:00 AM PDT  18 of Linux software's unsung starsWe might not pay these Linux gems much attention but we'd soon notice life without them. Here, we salute some of the things that make using Linux so enjoyable. 01. TopDo you want to know why your six-core CPU is running like a ZX Spectrum? Top, or its more colourful brother Htop, shows you just what is hogging all of your CPU or memory, and lets you shut down errant processes into the bargain. You may not need it often, but never forget it's there. 02. AnacondaThe distro installer created by Red Hat, now used by Fedora. It was the first successful attempt at an easy-to-use graphical installer for Linux and paved the way for even more friendly installers, such as Mandrake's DrakX. Anaconda heralded a significant change in mindset that opened up the possibility of installing Linux to many more users. 03. NetworkManagerWhat udev did for automounting, NetworkManager has done for wireless connectivity. No longer do we have to grapple with wpa_supplicant and iwconfig to set up an encrypted wireless connection, just take your device within range, give the passphrase and connect. Drivers may still be a problem for some hardware, but setting up the connection has never been easier. An honourable mention for the lesser-known Wicd, which also does a fine job of managing network connections. 04. Bash/ZshWhile some may complain about the need to ever use the command line, we rejoice in the power this provides. This is in no small part due to the features available in shells like Bash and ZShell. So much more useful than the standard shell, and capable of making life at the command line extremely productive and fun – in a geeky kind of way. 05. apt-getIf you use Ubuntu, you have probably used Synaptic to install software, but this is merely a front-end to apt-get, just about the best package manager out there (apart from Portage, of course). Handling dependencies, keeping track of updates, even updating the full distro, are all simple to do, either directly or with a few clicks in Synaptic. 06. KernelWhen we refer to Linux, we usually mean a distro or a complete OS installation, but Linux itself is only the kernel. A mere few megabytes of code that sit in the background, enabling and helping everything else to run. Everything you do on your computer ends up in the hands of 2–3MB of kernel and a few associated drivers. 07. Vi(m)Love it or hate it, and we're not going to start a flamewar by revealing our preferences, Vi, and its enhanced sibling Vim, is considered by many to be the de facto text editor for Linux. There are plenty of editors available, GUI and console, but you can be almost certain that some form of Vi will be present on any system you have to work with. That alone makes it worth learning to use. 08. VLCVLC stands for VideoLAN Client, but this is basically a media player. More to the point, it is a media player that will play just about anything you can throw at it: files in odd codecs, network media streams, DVDs. Even if you prefer a different player most of the time, keep this one in your back pocket for extreme situations. 09. ScreenThere are two types of people in the world, those who have never tried Screen and those who could not do without it. Screen lets you detach a shell process from the terminal running it – which is incredibly useful if you have more than one computer – and SSH between them, or need to administer computers remotely. The only valid reason for not using Screen is because you prefer Tmux, which does a similar job. 10. QemuVirtualisation looked like being one of the last bastions of closed source software on Linux, neither VMware or VirtualBox being truly free. But the addition of KVM to the kernel means that the Qemu emulator can give just as good performance on most hardware, even if it can be a little more work to set up, for now. 11. udevUdev is a filesystem that dynamically manages the device nodes in the /dev/ directory. Impressed? No? How about if we told you that this is what makes automatic mounting of USB devices, auto-running CDs and most plug-and-play hardware configuration possible? Not only does udev do all this, it runs in user space so you can tweak and fine-tune what it does with which device, without going near the kernel. 12. EmacsIt wouldn't be politically correct to mention Vi without also including Emacs. This text editor has so many features – it can be used to read email and even browse the web – that it is occasionally referred to as "an operating system in need of a good text editor". GNU Emacs was originally written by Richard Stallman, which is reason enough to include it here. 13. WineWine runs Windows programs on your Linux desktop. It doesn't need a virtual machine, or even a Windows install disc and licence, it emulates the Windows system in Linux. Running Windows programs is useful for many, but the comfort of being able to run a Windows program should the need arise is important to many more. Wine is an excellent program and an even better safety net. 14. Grep, Sed & AwkThese three programs are used for processing text files, including configuration and log files. While seeming complex to start with, in the hands of someone with a little experience they are invaluable for processing information and altering settings. Of the three, Grep is the easiest to understand if you feel like investigating further. 15. LXDEMany Linux users may think there are only two desktops, Gnome and KDE (many Ubuntu users think there's only one) but this couldn't be further from the truth. If you don't need all the features of the "big two", desktops such as LXDE and Xfce have a lot to offer. They are lightweight and fast, even on slower hardware, and blisteringly so on modern systems. 16. gccThe GNU Compiler Collection may not sound very exciting, but we wouldn't be here without it. Implicit in the distribution of software as source code is that there is a freely available way to turn that code into runnable programs. Free source code wouldn't be much use if a commercial compiler were needed to build it; gcc prevents such a Catch-22 situation arising. It is probably also the key justification for including the GNU name with Linux. 17. kill/killall/XkillIf a program refuses to quit, you can stop it with the dramatically named kill if you know its process ID, or you can use killall and its name (although this will kill all running programs with that name). What if it's a GUI program? No problem, run Xkill, click on the offending window and it will vanish before your eyes. 18. Inkscape
Inkscape is a vector drawing program, in the same vein as Adobe Illustrator. Hiding behind a ridiculously low version number (currently 0.48.1) is some mature and powerful software. Inkscape is capable of producing beautiful images and stunning effects, yet so many Linux users remain unaware of it. It is not for retouching your holiday snaps, but if you want to let your creative spirit loose, give it a try. 
| ||
| Posted: 24 Sep 2011 02:30 AM PDT  OverviewThe Tevion 28208 satellite-in-a-suitcase package is the sort of deal likely to show up in budget supermarkets and be quickly snapped up. It should be noted that this ultra-portable system – comprising dish, universal LNB, standard-def receiver and all accessories – is also sold as the Philex SLX mini digital satellite system and that pricing can vary wildly among suppliers from the guide price given here. The kit is intended for vehicles of those who are 'on the move', such as truckers and caravanners. As such, the 28208ALD receiver can be powered by a small 12V 'wall wart' power supply, or plugged into a cigarette-lighter socket. Build and connectivity
The lightweight plastic 35cm off set dish and LNB assembles with relative ease; as supplied, the dish mounting plate is fixed to the dish. To this is fitted the LNB boom and a choice of wall-mount or suction cup. Both are coupled to the dish, courtesy of a ball-and-socket arrangement that facilitates azimuth and elevation adjustment. Once the satellite is found – included in the package is a compass and very basic in-line meter – the mount can be locked. There are no scales on the mount and although the compass can be used in conjunction with the table in the manual to determine azimuth, overall alignment is a trial-and-error affair. The wall-mount is ideal for permanent installations; removing the dish when it's not required is, however, simple enough. A 10m length of co-ax is supplied, as is a useful flat-cable gadget that allows signals to be passed through closed windows. We're quite taken with the idea of the suction cup, which is suitable for temporary use. It's intended for glossy surfaces, which will provide a tight seal. It helps if the surface area is moistened first. Simply place the cup on the surface, and push the lever down to lock it in position. Unfortunately, there's insufficient range in the ball-and-socket movement to facilitate placement on a window – it's designed for mounting on a horizontal surface, such as the roof of a car. In any case, the instructions recommend that the suction pad is not used on glass surfaces. When the weather is good, this ad hoc mounting arrangement works well – but be careful on windy days. With the exception of the LNB clamp, which is fastened with an M4 screw, the dish is held together with thumbwheels and can assembled and disassembled quickly. A DC-to-DC converter is used to generate LNB voltages (18V DC for horizontal channels and 13V for vertical ones) that are higher than that of the receiver supply. Clearly, the circuit works harder when providing 18V, something that may also explain the trouble we had receiving horizontal channels. The cheap switch-mode power supply is rated at 12V, 1.5A – that is 18W. In other words, the power supply is maxed out when horizontal channels are being viewed. If there are plans to use this dish with a DiSEqC motor, we would be tempted to replace the power supply with one rated at 3A or more. Note that with a 2A power supply, horizontal channel problems were still experienced. SetupAs far as receivers go, the midi-sized 28208ALD is as basic as they come. It cannot be converted into a PVR, not least because there's no means of plugging in a storage device.
It's standard definition only, connection to a TV being made via a Scart cable (RGB is catered for) or via composite video and stereo audio phono sockets and has a programmable 12V switch. As one might expect, there's only one LNB input; surprisingly, though, it's accompanied by a loopthrough output. A sensible collection of front-panel controls are provided, together with a four-digit channel number indicator that brightly proclaims that the receiver is 'OFF' when it's in standby. This, as one would imagine, does little to minimise power consumption. The receiver is FTA-only so it's just as well that searches can exclude pay-TV. You cannot specify PIDs when searching, but provision has been made for editing and adding transponders. Overall, though, we're quite impressed with the receiver's setup provisions. Among its repertoire, for example, is a basic implementation of blind search. In this mode there are two passes – presumably for horizontally and vertically polarised channels. No step-size adjustment is provided. Nevertheless, the facility will appeal to enthusiasts on a budget. Such folk will also appreciate the 28208ALD's ability to cater for DiSEqC 1.0 (4-way switchboxes), 1.2 and USALS. Up to 32 satellites can be accommodated. The handset even features a shortcut button to switch between them. PerformanceBasic useThe channel list can be sorted alphabetically, by satellite or by encryption status (again, somewhat redundant here). It's easy to place channels into one or more of the eight renamable favourites lists – another handset button cycles through the lists. The last-viewed channel can be recalled at the touch of a button, too.
The EPG displays now-and-next and seven-day schedules for one channel at a time with synopses and can be used to program the eight-event timer. Teletext is available, as are subtitles and audio soundtrack selection. Other features are sparse. Among them are a radio mode, 3x3 mosaic of adjacent channels, a potent picture zoom, calculator, calendar and simple 'Gomoku' game. PerformanceOne should not expect cutting-edge performance from a system like this, and, indeed, even basic searches were ponderously slow. However, AV performance – via RGB Scart – was surprisingly good. Switching between channels was also faster than expected. At just over a second, the 28208ALD is faster than some far more expensive receivers. When it's not 'on the move', this receiver could be used to convert an old CRT TV set for digital – provided, of course, that a LNB feed is available. As metioned, the selection of horizontally polarised channels (which rely on a higher LNB voltage) proved erratic on occasions – a sample fault, we trust. The dish also worked well, considering its diminutive design. Thanks to the wider beamwidth of smaller dishes, it's easier to locate a satellite. In fine weather all key services from Hot Bird (13°E), Astra 1 (19.2°E) and Astra 2 (28.2°E) were received. Reception deteriorated during a shower; channels would periodically freeze or stutter. VerdictA 35cm dish will be too small for reliable reception of Astra 2/ Eurobird-delivered UK channels in most of Europe, although the delights of Astra 1 and Hot Bird will ensure that viewers won't go without. For all its limitations, it can't be denied that this system is a bargain. 
| ||
| Buying Guide: 5 best over-ear headphones for iPhone Posted: 24 Sep 2011 02:00 AM PDT  5 best over-ear headphones for iPhoneSometimes, what you want is a simple, dedicated bit of kit that does one thing, and does it well. These headphones aren't packed with fripperies that push up the price. We wanted to test nice big cans that simply played your music as well as can possible. Not only that, but we wanted to set a realistic budget so that you're not thinking about dropping hundreds of pounds just to listen to [insert cool band you like here]. We went for big over- or on-ear headphones this time round; they're comfortable to wear for hours at a time, and there's plenty of space for chunky drivers that are usually inexpensive (and bassier) compared to the miniature marvels used for in-ear headphones. The good news is that we've found the perfect set of audio-focussed headphones - and they don't break the bank. Which ones? Read on… How we selected...Usually, we're very careful to select stuff that's specifically built for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch; with headphones, this often means in-line remotes and mics. Here, though, we just wanted pure 'phones focussed on music. We set the target price point at around £75 from an online retailer. What we tested...JVC HA-NC250 - £79
Philips SHO9560/10 - £70
Sennheiser HD 518 - £84
Shure SRH550DJ - £59
Sony MDR-ZX700 - £70
Headphones tested and scoredTest one: Audio qualityThese headphones don't have any bells and whistles; they're all about just playing music as best they can. ('Listening to bells and whistles', you might say.) So audio quality is the most important thing to consider when we're picking our winner and you're deciding which to buy. Breaking news! The headphones that cost the most sound the best! Yes, Sennheiser's HD 518s are undoubtedly the best choice if your budget stretches that far, and if you're making your choice on audio quality alone. (Spoiler: look below and you'll see they win overall anyway.) But that said, it's not like the others don't put up a fight. In fact, the only set here that we actively disliked came from JVC. Now, you'll hear us say this kind of thing often: if we were to hand you a set of JVC's HA-NC250s, and you listened to them with no frame of reference, you might think they sound fine - and you wouldn't be wrong. When you compare them directly to other headphones in this group test, however - even to those that cost significantly less - it becomes clear that the JVCs are underperforming. And so the litany of complaints begins: overall, the sound is muddy, and different frequencies are distinctly indistinct. The bass, which initially impresses especially if you listen to drum and bass or dance music, is criminally lacking in clarity. Perhaps worse - yes! - than all this, though, is that music lacks any sort of drama, and not in a laudable neutral way, but in the same way that a studio album can feel flat compared to a gig or a live recording. They're irritatingly quiet too, though switching on the noise reduction circuitry does seem to boost the volume, saturation and overall appeal of the sound. That's enough negativity. Let's pop the Sennheisers back on and be a bit more upbeat. Mmmm, Sennheiser. These really are a treat for the ears, and they wouldn't fare badly in a group test of headphones costing twice as much. One caveat: while there's a decent amount of bass - and, uniquely among this group of headphones, it's bass that is crisp and well-defined - its restraint and control means that the bass here isn't as big and full as some might like. To our ears, it's a better sacrifice, and you can always tweak the EQ, but be aware. Otherwise, these sound just lovely, with no obvious holes in the frequency spread and plenty of definition to separate instruments. Special in their own wayThe other three sounded competent; better than the set from JVC, and not as good as the model from Sennheiser, but all for different reasons. Philips' 'The Stretch' set sounded warm and resonant - but, we felt, tipped over into too warm and resonant. All tracks felt like they were echoing around your ears inside the driver cups in a way that reminded us of an acoustic guitar's resonant cavity. It's not… bad, but it might not be to your taste. Sony's MDR-ZX700s sound good if you're listening to mellow noodling, but there's an unfortunate tendency - perhaps to fight against the flabbiness endemic in so many similar headphones - to oversharpen percussion; it felt sometimes like you were being stabbed in the ear with a snare drum. The fact that this is clearly impossible didn't assuage the sensation. Finally, Shure. Again, perfectly competent sound, but they're an uneasy mix of the audio signatures of the models from Sennheiser and Sony. At first listen, we thought we'd found the perfect balance: as crisp as the Sennheisers, but replacing their neutrality with a bit more fun and bombast. An Alfa Romeo rather than an BMW, if you will. The longer we listened, though, especially when comparing with the HD 518s, the more we started to notice rough edges. Like the model from Sony, sharp percussion sometimes has an unpleasantly stabby quality, and actually the overall signature was disappointingly compressed and flattened. Still: it bears repeating that of the five headphones here, only JVC's HA-NC250s fall below our threshold of acceptability.
Test two: comfortWithout a shadow of doubt, the comfiest headphones here are Philips' SHO9560/10s. It's not just the big over-ear cans or the clever one-size-fits-all stretchy headband, but the fabric covered cord (which can split apart if you snag it - though with more resistance than we'd like) also gets tangled much less. The models from Sennheiser (which felt a little more comfortable with the left/right cups switched; weird) and Sony also fit over your ears, so are comfy for long periods of wear. We had hoped the Sennheisers' unique-here fabric cups might generate a little less, erm, sweat build-up, but no. The JVCs feel light and not grippy enough, and the Shure's massive pads might not be to everyone's taste.
Test three: FeaturesThe only set of headphones here to have an extra feature as such is the one from JVC: its active noise reduction circuitry, powered by a single AAA battery. Yet while this gives audio some welcome saturation and volume, it's not as good at actually cutting out noise as we'd hoped. The HA-NC250s are also the only set here that include a proper case. The models from Sennheiser and Philips have a removable cable - thumbs up, as it means easier, cheaper repairs when this weakest component breaks. The set from Sony has an extension cable. Cleverly, the 3.5mm to 6.35mm adapter that comes in the Shure box is threaded, great if you also use it for DJing - and the cups can rotate by 90° for one-ear listening.
And the winner is… Sennheiser HD 518 - £84You buy headphones like these because you want high-fidelity audio - so buy the Sennheisers
Despite looking good on paper - active noise cancelling, carry case, a sensible enough price tag - the JVC NA-NC250s are out of the running here. Where it really matters - the audio playback - they sound manky next to the rest of the group. And despite sterling efforts from Philips, Shure and Sony, there's no doubt that the best set of cans here came from Sennheiser. They're just so much more disciplined and balanced than the others, but that doesn't mean that they sound soulless. The sound has real warmth and richness to it, but without compromising on the clarity and definition of the music. There are, mind you, a couple of caveats. The first is the price. They're the most expensive set, and next to the model from Shure, which we found online for under 60 quid, there's no doubt they look pricey. They're worth it, but £84 is a fair chunk of money. The Shures are worth a look if you're on a budget. The second caveat is that these are the only set here to have an open-back design. This is good news for the sound, and doubtless contributes to its crispness, but it does mean that they leak a lot noise. There's one more wrinkle. While the HD 518s are definitely the best headphones here, we kept finding ourselves reaching for the Philips set from the five laid out on the desk. Yes, their sound is a bit muffled and boomy, but they're just so comfortable to wear. Though it seems like a small thing, the tough fabric cable rather than a snaggy plastic is most welcome. If we let our heart decide, they'd probably win. But we have to be sensible; the head says Sennheiser. 
|
| 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 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment