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Techradar

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• How to craft the perfect email signature
• How to be awesome at email
• A guide to the Internet of Things
• Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has died at age 55
• SDCC 15: The best Comic-Con 2015 cosplay and more
• How to upgrade your car's subwoofers & amplifiers
• Hands-on review: Updated: HTC Vive
• Updated: Fallout 4 release date, news and trailers
• How your smartphone distracts you even when you're not using it
• Running Man of Tech: How to challenge people in Fiji to a cycle race from your garage
• Explained: 11 tips for owning Twitter
• Windows phones aren't dead yet: six new handsets on the way
• Here's the ultimate software list for PC fanatics
• How to download iOS 9 beta on your iPhone and iPad right now
• How to backup your iPhone and iPad to save your iOS data
• iPods getting spec update, new colours next week
• Roundup: 7 great TV shows to watch this weekend
• Review: Updated: Apple Watch
• Huawei's Nexus will come with an Android app store for China

How to craft the perfect email signature Posted: 12 Jul 2015 10:41 PM PDT There's one thing that every email you originate should contain, and that's your email signature. Think of your signature as your final chance to grab someone's attention, but be aware that there's both good and bad attention. A sloppy email signature or one that actively annoys will leave a bad last impression on anyone reading your email, whether it's the original recipient or anyone your email ends up being forwarded to. Where to start So how do you stand out? Firstly, while it's fine to inject a little personality into your email signoff, it's a very fine line before you topple straight over into either being too informal or downright casual. The standard "regards" may be a little stiff, but it's also safe for just about any email you might send. Relevant details Next consider what information about yourself you want to convey. Your full name is a given, as is any company or business name if it's a work email you're sending from. It's also fine to include methods of communication, but here less is arguably more. If you list your email, phone, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and physical address, you're quickly overloading the recipient with information they may not care about, as well as bulking your email signature out by multiple lines. If you've carefully crafted a short and succinct email, do you want it ignored because your ten-line signature makes it seem like it's a lot of work to read? Ideally, your signature should include your full or business name, your email address and a contact phone number at the minimum. There's some argument that says that email addresses are a little redundant if you're sending out an email in the first place, but the reality here is that the signature gives you another contact point for ongoing communication. If you're after some kind of response from your email, it makes good sense to appear as approachable as feasible. Equally, many email clients can scrape this kind of information from emails seamlessly to build up contact lists. Platform limitations You've also got to be aware of mobile clients and data limitations, and that means that image-based signatures should be used sparingly, if at all. An image signature does give you complete control over the appearance of your signature, but some clients will strip out images on first load, especially on mobile clients. If you absolutely must have an image signature, make sure you've got ALT text to convey the same information to cover all bases. Signatures should also ideally be kept under 80 characters in length per line, again because you can't control the screen size or layout of the recipient's email application.

How to be awesome at email Posted: 12 Jul 2015 10:16 PM PDT How to be awesome at email Like it or not, email's the basis of a lot of our online communications, because it provides a reliable channel that's independent of services that may come or go over time. So how do you make the most of your email? Get what you want out of email Unlike social media chatter, texting or even phone calls, an email has a level of permanence and, in many cases, serious attitude that other online communications media can struggle to convey. As such before you actually start typing, consider what it is that you want out of the email. If it's just a forwarded joke it's probably not worth sending, but if you're trying to get information or action out of a secondary party, make that as clear as possible as quickly as possible. The emails that prevaricate are those that quickly get forgotten, especially if it's the first time you're contacting somebody. (Image credit: Photo by Terry Presley/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0) Subject lines Think of the subject line of your email as the advertising pitch. Ads are typically short and succinct, because they don't have much time to capture your attention. The same is exactly true of any email you send. Not every email will be read in full, but anyone with email will at least scan their inbox subject lines on a regular basis. Brevity in subject lines is your friend, and that's a principle well worth applying to your emails generally. Make your subject short and punchy and it'll stand out, but resist the urge to put everything in all caps or with lots of unnecessary punctuation or anything that might embarrass or annoy you if it's forwarded on. (Image credit: Photo by Cambodia4kids.org/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0) When to send There's no absolute hard and fast rule on the "best" time to send emails, because it depends on both the content and the relationship between the sender and the recipient. In a work environment, most people check their inboxes relatively early in the work day, so small and easily actionable items might be best addressed then, but you've got to weigh that against the fact that they'll be ploughing through potentially hundreds of other emails at the same time. If you do have longer and more ponderous text to send, there's evidence that suggests they're more likely to be addressed later in the afternoon as people relax at work, although the same isn't true for weekends, where business email pickup rates tend to drop markedly, even in the smartphone always-connected world. (Image credit: Photo by Alan Cleaver/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0) What to put in your email Congratulations! Your subject line worked, and now your recipient is looking at your email itself. Here again, keeping things simple and succinct is your best bet to getting whatever you want out of your email. If you're asking a question or requesting an action, put that front and centre of your email, because there's always the risk that your recipient's simply skimming their mail or is going to be distracted while reading. Plainly stating your case will more often than not lead to action on the recipient's part, whereas blathering on will lose them quickly. Remember, there's probably a hundred or more other emails to attend to along with yours. Even though broadband connections have improved markedly in recent years, it's still a good idea to limit the number of attachments you send via email. Some inbox setups will simply reject attachments over a certain size, but even if you squeak in under that limit, you've got no control over where your recipient will access their email. It may be on their fast home or office connection, but equally they could be using a flaky mobile connection that's costing them for every KB of data and only drip feeding data due to user saturation of the network. When in doubt, use an online storage service such as Dropbox for any large attachments, so that your recipient can access large files as and when they need them. They'll appreciate the gesture, and you'll make a better impression with your email as a result. (Image credit: Photo by Blake Burkhart/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0) Sending fields Everyone understands what the To: field in an email is for, because it serves the same function as the addresses we used to put on the outside of physical envelopes. Go beyond that, however, and confusion and mistakes reign supreme. Firstly, there's CC, short for "Carbon Copy". It's intended for secondary email recipients with the core idea being that you're alerting an additional party as to the nature of your discussion. The classic example here would be if you're discussing a work project with a colleague and you want to alert your manager that the project is being covered in a particular way, because it creates a digital paper trail and awareness. The thing is that every single mail client will allow you to put multiple email addresses in either the "To:" or "CC:" fields. Strictly speaking, the To: field should be for those who you want to get direct action from with regards to your email subject, but it's not always treated that way. (Image credit: Photo by RaHuL Rodriguez/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0) Don't hit recall! Some email systems do offer a "recall" function, but this is essentially redundant in most cases, because it relies on both ends of the email chain having the same client and server environment, typically Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. The moment anyone's accessing email via another client, all a recall will do is send a message requesting a recall of the original email. All this really does is point out in bright shiny letters that you've made some sort of mistake. It's arguably better etiquette to send an immediate apology message for something sent in error than a machine-generated one. One trick that can help you if you find inadvertent emails worrying you is to set up a rule in your email client of choice delaying sending of any given email for a minute or two after you hit the "send" button. That gives you some breathing time to consider the message, read over it again and then cancel it before it ever leaves your outbox. The one exception however is Gmail which has officially introduced a new 'Undo Send' feature to its web interface. When & how to reply There's a secondary, larger problem with CC, however, and it's one that emerges when you've got a large group to send to or expect replies from. Putting an email address in either the To: or CC: field exposes them to every party that gets the email, as well as putting them in the direct line of every single reply that uses "Reply to all". If a lengthy email conversation erupts between two people on the CC: field and one persistently uses "Reply to All", you're quickly awash in dozens of emails with no relevance to you, as well as a growing crowd of annoyed recipients. It's the single most common breach of simple email etiquette, but thankfully the solution is quite simple. So when should you use the Reply to All function? When you're certain that your response needs to be seen and/or actioned by everyone in the To: and CC: fields. If that's not the case, use a simple reply to the original sender only, or edit out those whose input or awareness of your reply isn't needed. (Image credit: Photo by AJCI/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0) The power of BCC The BCC: (for Blind Carbon Copy) field allows you to add addresses that you want to loop into a particular email in the same way that you might add to a To: or CC: field. There's a key difference, however, because BCC: keeps the list of those in the BCC: field completely invisible except to the sender. Even those in the To: field don't see the BCC: recipients. This allows for a very simple communication loop that stops those who might not want or need followup emails if you simply put your own email address in the To: field, and every other recipient in the BCC: field. Every recipient will simply get your email, you'll get a confirmation copy first up to make sure it's not been lost in the winding corridors of the Internet, and you're not exposing anyone else's email address at the same time. (Image credit: Photo by Stuart Richards/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)

A guide to the Internet of Things Posted: 12 Jul 2015 09:13 PM PDT A guide to the Internet of Things You wake up in the morning and the fitness tracker on your wrist has recorded how well you slept, uploading the results to your Twitter account. Your coffee machine reads your Twitter feed and knowing you're awake, begins brewing your first coffee of the day. Your bedroom lights, following your fitness tracker, turn on low and begin their slow brightening over the next few minutes as the bathroom starts warming your towel. Lights automatically turn on and off as you walk down the hall to the kitchen where your coffee is now waiting. As you leave for work, the robotic vacuum cleaner begins and updates its cleaning progress map to your phone. Welcome to the world increasingly being envisioned by tech giants that's powered by the 'Internet of Things' (IoT) and promising to change the way we live. What is IoT? But what actually is this 'Internet of Things'? Basically, it's the combination of low-cost, low-power processors with 'real-world' electronic sensors and wireless network connectivity increasingly being added to a wide range of electrical devices. These sensors can measure everything from temperature and humidity to pressure, proximity, sound, light, gravity, movement, feedback and through on-board software, devices can record and action those measurements over the internet. IoT was front-and-centre at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year, starting what will inevitably be a year we see tech ventures, large and small, announce a vast array of gadgets that connect to the internet. Vacuum cleaner king Dyson will launch its 360 Eye robotic vacuum cleaner this year. With built-in Wi-Fi and Dyson's patented Cyclone cleaning tech, it'll update your phone showing you its cleaning map and progress. Like the idea of a coffee machine you control from an app? Denmark's Scanomat has developed the stylish TopBrewer that lets you choose your coffee type from your Android or iOS phone or tablet. And if you're ever in Copenhagen, head to the TopBrewer Café, where there are no queues, just your coffee ordered, brewed and paid for by your phone. Making it possible Key to this IoT boom has been the continuing fall in the cost of the technology involved. We've seen this over the last couple of years with everything from 3D printing to smartwatches. The cost of adding Bluetooth wireless connectivity to a device has also crashed through the floor – you've no doubt seen Bluetooth dongles sell for less than AU$1 (approx £0.50, US$0.70) retail on eBay. Photodetector sensors in new heart-rate fitness trackers sell for as little as 50 cents each in commercial quantities; their green LEDs for as little as one cent. But it's the ever-falling cost of processing power that's putting computer chips into almost any gadget. Making your own IoT gear Unlike previous technology revolutions, the low cost of components has torn down the traditional 'barrier to entry' this time. Today, you just need an understanding of how IoT tech works – the sensors, the wireless technology, the processors, the cloud computing that increasingly forms the backbone – and a great idea. An idea alone won't make you millions, but thanks to crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and indiegogo, IoT innovation can be driven as much by the tech community as it can by the big end of town (think LIFX). And those big corporates know it. In late 2013, chip giant Intel joined the burgeoning DIY 'maker' market by releasing its first small computer development board called Galileo. Part of the 'Intel Maker' campaign, Galileo is powered by a 32-bit 400MHz single-core Pentium-class processor called the Quark X1000 and designed specifically to promote development of IoT projects. To push it along, Intel planned on donating 50,000 boards to 1,000 selected universities worldwide, such as the University of Melbourne, during 2014. Since then, the Galileo 2 and super-tiny Edison boards have also been released. The $3 Wi-Fi solution One of the most significant advances in Wi-Fi technology in the last year has been the arrival of a tiny little chip called the ESP8266 from Chinese company Espressif Systems. What makes it so significant is that it builds a complete Wi-Fi network component set or 'stack' inside a single chip selling for under AU$3 (approx £1, US$2). That's just a fraction of the cost of previous Wi-Fi solutions, yet it still supports 802.11b/g/n-standards running at 2.4GHz – the same Wi-Fi specs in your smartphone or tablet. In fact, when you read what this tiny little chip can do, it has the potential to revolutionise how and where Wi-Fi is implemented. Features like built-in AES (advanced encryption standard) security, no need for external components or factory tuning make it a no-brainer and already, the maker community is jumping all over it. The chip recently made it through the US' Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certification, the last major barrier before finding its way into new commercial-quantity, production-scale devices. Already, you can buy ESP8266 Wi-Fi modules on eBay for AU$4 (approx £2, US$3) that can be added to low-cost microchip-boards such as the popular Arduino series. HC-06 Bluetooth module While the ESP8266 will no doubt spawn a whole new wave of low-cost direct-internet-connected devices, Bluetooth remains the most common wireless connection used in wearable technology such as the raft of fitness trackers flooding the market. But modules like the HC-06 are available on eBay for under AU$5 (approx £2, US$4) and work like a wireless serial port you can add to home-designed gadgets and technology. Like standard Bluetooth devices, this module can be paired with any Bluetooth-ready Android or iOS phone or tablet and handle data transfer. 32-bit CPU for $5 One of the other new arrivals we've seen recently is a tiny development board to compete with Intel, sporting a 72MHz low-power 32-bit STM32F103 ARM Cortex M3 microcontroller chip. ARM is the name behind the processor in every Apple iPhone and iPad, plus 98% of Android devices, thanks to its hugely-popular Cortex A-series processor designs. The Cortex M3 is often used in smartphones to handle secondary roles such as connecting phone calls and data to your mobile network provider, but can be used in many varied applications. While the Intel Galileo sells for typically around AU$100 (approx £48, US$74), these small STM32F103 boards sell from just AU$5 (approx £2, US$4) from overseas online retailers. Open standards? However, the IoT boom is beginning to suffer from some of the same problems that plagued the early PC revolution in the early 1980s. Right now, the pace of IoT development is such that there's as much pressure to get product to market as there is to develop consistent standards to ensure we don't just see a bunch of devices that can't talk to each other. Everything from hardware interoperability to how recorded data is stored in the cloud is coming under scrutiny, with growing calls for standards to be set before the market progresses too far. Too many standards? Qualcomm is one of the major players in the phone/tablet CPU market, producing the ARM-based Snapdragon chips powering devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S5. It's also a major mover-and-shaker in the IoT world, with its AllJoyn open-source software platform forming the framework of the AllSeen Alliance. Since its launch in December 2013, the Alliance has received big-brand support with names like whitegoods maker Electrolux joining household tech brands Microsoft, LG, Panasonic and Sony, along with industrial giant Bosch to promote the platform. But as always seems the case when a technology revolution begins, competing alliances have formed between companies pushing their preferred solutions. In the other corner is the Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC), which seems to have the same aims as the AllSeen Alliance for developing interconnection standards for IoT devices – all except for using Qualcomm's AllJoyn software. OIC launched in July 2014 with heavy-hitters Intel, Samsung and Qualcomm chip-rival Broadcom. However, cracks appeared soon after when Broadcom left the OIC in October 2014 due to what's reported as a disagreement over intellectual property protection. Chip giant Intel also has its own 'Intel Internet of Things Solutions Alliance', which appears to be more a one-stop shop promoting the products of member brands, including household tech names Dell and Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu and software giants Microsoft and Oracle. At this stage, however, neither AllSeen nor OIC is giving ground and both appear set to let the market decide which one wins – in other words, expect a repeat of the 'VHS vs Betamax' wars of the mid-80s. The more things change… The IoT economy If it all seems a bit of a storm in a teacup, there's plenty of incentive to get standards sorted out – and fast. According to research analysts Gartner, we'll be surrounded by 4.9 billion connected 'things' this year, rising to 25 billion by 2020. At that point, the IoT market in related products and services is forecast to hit a cool US$263 billion. In fact, Gartner vice president Jim Tully believes the perfect storm of cloud, mobile, social and information – what he calls the 'Nexus of Forces' – has left many businesses with no choice but to dive into IoT or fear being left behind. In December 2013, Gartner outlined manufacturing, healthcare and insurance as pioneers of IoT technology. Manufacturing would combine IoT with existing tech such as LED lighting and heating-venting-air-conditioning (HVAC) systems in new smart building designs. Healthcare has seen low-cost sensors help drive the current boom in fitness trackers. But it's the use of IoT in insurance that may raise eyebrows. Gartner forecasts insurance agencies could begin offering usage-based policies using real-time driving data coming from your connected car. Of course, you might question whether that same data may result in you paying a higher premium than other drivers if analysis of that data classifies you as a 'bad risk'. Whatever the case, the connected car is already here - Gartner predicts automotive IoT devices will number 372 million by the end of this year. Good-bye, privacy? It's this all-pervasive nature of IoT that's starting to worry privacy experts and US government decision-makers. While nightly TV current-affairs shows might play up concerns about backyard drones with on-board video cameras flying overhead, the low-cost of IoT tech could result in far more invasive internet-connected monitoring appearing in all manner of household items. US Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman, Edith Ramirez, has already begun ringing the alarm bells. The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year began with a keynote address from Samsung head of consumer electronics, B. K. Yoon, painting a bright future under an IoT cloud, with all new Samsung TVs to be IoT-connected by 2017. But while many were eyeing off the connected gadgets, Ramirez gave a keynote address of her own at CES, describing the benefits to global health and economic growth from IoT, before outlining her concerns, ranging from 'ubiquitous data collection' and 'potential for unexpected use of consumer data that could have adverse consequences' to 'heightened security risks'. For starters, the increasingly personal nature of the data being collected by IoT devices could be pooled to build a revealing picture of ourselves. Ramirez says "connected devices are effectively allowing companies to digitally monitor our otherwise private activities". But Ramirez is also concerned with the unexpected consequences of data collection, asking the question could your TV viewing habits affect future employment prospects. And then there's the threat of IoT devices being hijacked, simply because they're on the internet. Essentially, Ramirez is challenging IoT companies not to ignore consumer privacy and security – but how strongly the FTC and other government agencies will back those sentiments remains to be seen. Data analysis It shouldn't come as a surprise then that IoT is having flow-on effects across the board. For example, the overwhelming flood of data that will inevitably flow as a result will see growing demand for data experts – and the education market is getting in early. Demand for data analysis skills has universities worldwide increasing their data science courses. For example, in Australia, the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) launches a new two-years/full-time Master of Data Science and Innovation degree this year, while Monash University will offer a Bachelor of Computer Science degree in Data Science beginning 2016. RMIT also offers a Master of Analytics degree. Be informed Making your own IoT gear might not be everyone's cuppa, but there is no doubt IoT could clash with our privacy ideals as the internet permeates its way into areas of our lives we probably never imagined. This is definite 'frontier technology' right now and the more we understand how it works, the data it generates and how that data is stored and used, the more we'll all be aware of the potential pitfalls and benefits the Internet of Things will bring.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has died at age 55 Posted: 12 Jul 2015 05:48 PM PDT In unfortunate news that is bound to shock the gaming world, Nintendo has announced that its President, Satoru Iwata, passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth. Iwata underwent surgery to remove a bile duct growth last year, after which he issued a statement saying that "it is said that a bile duct growth can be difficult-to-treat, partly because of the difficulty of detecting it early. In my case, luckily, it was detected very early and I had no symptoms," making today's news all the more tragic. Appointed as President of Nintendo in 2002, Iwata began his career in 1983, where he took on a role as a software coordinator at HAL Laboratory, eventually becoming HAL President in 1993, and joining Nintendo in 2000. Nintendo has announced that Shigeru Miyamoto and Genya Takeda will continue to serve as Nintendo's representative directors.

SDCC 15: The best Comic-Con 2015 cosplay and more Posted: 12 Jul 2015 05:45 PM PDT From the Con's endless floor If you weren't able to make it to Comic-Con this year, we've gathered up a gallery of some of the sights you can't miss from the show floor. From Furbacca to Walking Dead zombies and Captain Planet, you won't be disappointed! Here's every Comic-Con 2015 trailer you need to see Furbacca Star Wars seemed to be the biggest craze at this year's Comic-Con, and we think this Furbacca display pretty much says it all. Beyond the massive Star Wars booth, the Star Wars panel became one of the event's highlights, giving us a behind-the-scenes look of The Force Awakens, out later this year, and an on-stage reunion with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford. Padme and Anakin Of course, the Star Wars cosplayers were out in force, too. Everywhere. From Stormtroopers to Chewbaccas, the cosplayers ranged from the very young to the old. We even caught glimpse of a Scavenger pushing a pram. The Dark Side hustlers While there were many, many Darth Vaders on the floor (you couldn't turn around without bumping into Luke's father), we can always appreciate new interpretations from the Dark Force. Someone needs to tell these guys that this won't be the look of the next Star Wars film. Star Wars for pets Yes, these are costumes for dogs (or cats). Yes, Star Wars merchandising is getting out of hand. Yes, I gave them my money. Furiosa Mad Max was also a cosplayer favorite this year, especially for the female demographic. There were many fierce-looking Furiosa's around the show floor. While the latest Mad Max movie is still playing in cinemas, the game is set to come out in September. Furiosa gets Frozen One of our favorites was this Furiosa and Ana (of Disney's Frozen) cosplay. This is what happens when best friends want to dress up as two iconic and powerful female characters from very popular movies, but can't decide who will be dressed up as which character. Mario and Luigi Comic-Con wouldn't be Comic-Con without Mario and Luigis running around the show floor. Nintendo's iconic characters have been around persistently for so long and in so many iterations, they'll always be fan favorites. Mario and Luigi in Star mode As fans of Mario Kart, we had to include these guys, who used battery operated LED lights to go into Star mode. They even played the Star mode music. It was stuck in our heads for the rest of the night. Going retro One of the great things about Comic-Con is seeing props from our favorite movies, games and TV shows. We really wanted this Back to the Future Delorean dashboard to be on sale, but alas, it wasn't. Zombies Speaking of TV shows, the Walking Dead had a walk-through for Con-goers. These zombies were struggling with the glass walls. For gamers Comic Con also had lots of gaming stations set up, including Street Fighter V arcades, Mario Maker, Disney Infinity, and Skylanders, to name a few. This guy was dressed up as Dante, the main character of the game he was playing. Xbox marks the spot Xbox had a huge set up. People were lining up to get a chance to play the new Halo 5, due out October 17. Our favorite cosplay While there was so much to see, buy and do at Comic Con this year, the cosplayers really do make the four-day convention a lot of fun. So, to end our gallery, we've got Captain Planet and the Planeteers, our favorite cosplayer group of Comic-Con 2015.

How to upgrade your car's subwoofers & amplifiers Posted: 12 Jul 2015 05:20 PM PDT How to upgrade your car's subwoofers and amplifiers We've previously spoken about how to upgrade your car's head unit and speakers. In this article We'll go deeper and set you up with a next-level audio system, complete with separate amplifier and a subwoofer. What we can't do is guide you step-by-step on how to install it all – there is a lot of work involved, including removing interior panels and carpet, wiring up fuses and grounds, running new power and speaker cables, mounting the amp and sub, and then tuning it all so that it sounds schmick. Now, these things can be done faster and neater (and with a warranty) by professionals, so we recommend deferring to them rather than undergoing this yourself. If you're a mad-keen DIYer, though, you can find plenty of guides online, including this article from Crutchfield or this YouTube video by Geek Squad. We'd also recommend looking for forums specific to the make or model of your car to help with any specific cases. Why Amplify? We're sure you know why a subwoofer is beneficial – they go much deeper at much louder volumes than normal speakers – but few realise the benefits of externally amplifying your cabin speakers. Obviously, an external amp will allow you to turn your music up much louder, as head units cannot (no matter what the box says) provide more than about 17W of power (it's a wiring limitation). However, the extra power reserves in larger amplifiers also allow your speakers to perform better at lower volumes, too. This is because the bigger amp is better prepared for sudden changes in music and can deliver the required power much faster. Additionally, if you've chucked in for a mondo-mega 500W bass box, it doesn't really make much sense to have your speakers competing with only 17w of power. Before we cover amplifier choices, though, let's look at subwoofers, as you're best off finding a subwoofer that meets your requirements, then pairing it with a suitable amp(s), rather than the other way around. Subwoofers When purchasing subwoofers, you can buy the driver (speaker) and buy/build the box separately, or buy a ready-made sub already fitted to a box. The former allows more flexibility in fitting the sub in your car (and the opportunity to create a bigger, better box if room permits), whereas the latter allows for a no-fuss drop-in solution. Note that drivers will have recommended box sizes/specs, so be sure that your chosen (or built) box meets those specs, lest you be neutering its performance. Subwoofers: Power rating When choosing a subwoofer or driver, the primary concern is its power rating (measured in Watts [W]). To power the sub, you'll want an amp with at least as much power output as the RMS (not 'peak' or 'maximum') power rating of the driver. Obviously, the bigger the power requirements, the bigger the cost (expect good 500W drivers to cost about AU$300 (approx £139, US$215) without a box, and good 500W mono amplifiers to cost the same or more). On that note, what wattage should you go for? Bigger is always better, right? Well, yeah, but is it worth spending the extra money on a 500W or 1000W 12" or larger subwoofer over a 250W 10" subwoofer? If you like the idea of people hearing you coming from blocks away, then yes. If you're happy with shouting volumes (as opposed to screaming), a 10" 200-300w sealed subwoofer should suffice. It's worth noting that the wattage of a sub/amp is only a very rough guide to its performance – a well-designed 100W sub and enclosure can provide better and stronger bass than a poorly designed 300W sub and enclosure. Try before you buy. Subwoofers: Sensitivity & frequency range Looking down the spec sheet, you'll additionally notice many other numbers, of which the most crucial are: The sensitivity of a driver, given in dB SPL (decibels of sound pressure level) at a specified impedance (in Ohms): the more sensitive a driver (the higher the number), the less power it needs to reach a given volume, so using more sensitive drivers can be a good way to get away with a lower-power (and therefore cheaper) amp. Just make sure you're comparing numbers at the same impedance. You'll also want to look at the frequency range that a driver can output across, and ideally match it so that there is no gap between the frequencies handled by your main cabin speakers and the subwoofer. You'll set the frequencies actually reproduced by the speakers + sub via the crossover settings in your head unit or amplifier, but – for the greatest flexibility – you'll want a driver that overlaps with your cabin speakers. Subwoofers: Enclosures When choosing a sub enclosure, you need to consider both the type of enclosure as well as its size. Enclosures can come in almost any size, but really only three types: sealed, ported, or bandpass. Sealed boxes are airtight enclosures that provide the best quality bass, but are less efficient – so won't go as loud given the same power. Ported boxes have a little porthole in them where the sound can escape, which makes them louder at the cost of accuracy – some frequencies will be louder than others. Bandpass boxes are a blend of the two (it's effectively a sealed sub within a ported box) that produce massive bass at specific frequencies – they are often used in show cars, as they go very loud, can look the part with Perspex windows, and can be tuned to output maximum bass across a frequency range complementary to a given type of music. Space is the other crucial decision: there's no sense in selecting a subwoofer that won't fit in your car. Professional installers will take care of this decision for you – measuring and selecting (or building) a suitable sub box on your behalf – but if you want to bring your own, or install one yourself, first measure your available space before buying anything. If space is at a premium – say, you drive a ute, convertible, or hatch-back – you can opt for extra-small enclosures for use behind or under the seats. You may even want to look for a slim-line sub enclosure that includes a built-in amp, saving you even more space. Once you've chosen your sub, it's time to pair it to a suitable amplifier. Amplifiers: Power When selecting an amplifier, you first need to consider just how many speakers you want amplified – will you be powering just a sub, or also the cabin speakers? If you don't have a sub and just want to power the nice speakers you've installed in the cabin, then go for a two or four channel amp. If you're also looking to power your subwoofer with the same amp, you can go for either a 2.1 channel amp, a four channel amp with two of the outputs 'bridged' (just make sure that the amp can be bridged), or a 5.1 channel amp (if you want to power the rear speakers, too, or have a movie player). If you are keen on a larger (greater than 10" or 400W) subwoofer, or plan on installing multiple subs, you may be better off looking for a separate (or multiple) mono amp(s) for your subwoofer(s) alongside the two- or four-channel amp for your cabin speakers. But just because you want multiple subs, doesn't mean you need multiple amps – a big 1000W amp will be able to power two 500W subs – just as long as you wire them correctly. When connecting multiple speakers/subs to a single output channel, you need to decide if you're going to wire them in series (increasing the load on the amp) or in parallel (decreasing the load). Such decisions are best left to professionals, but if you're embarking on this yourself, you should start by reading this guide here. Further to this, when choosing an amp, more power is almost always better. So, if you have a 500W subwoofer, you're better off going for a 550W amp over a 450W or 500W one. If you plan on adding a second subwoofer later, you may even be better off getting a 1000W amp and turning the gain down at install to prevent damage to your sub. If you're pairing a 200W amp to a 500W sub, you've wasted your money; you would have been better of spending it on a cheaper 300W subwoofer and better 300W amp. Amplifiers: Outputs & Filters Of course, there are many more features than just power rating and channels on an amp, so we'll go through some of those options, too. One of the most crucial factors when picking out an amp is finding out if your existing source/head unit has pre-amp outputs. Many factory units don't, so – if you're not replacing your stock head unit – you'll need to purchase an amp with speaker level-inputs rather than standard RCA inputs (or a line output converter). Most amps come with high- or low-pass filters (aka crossover filters). What these do is filter out the lowest or highest frequencies in the signal before they are passed to your speakers and subwoofer, saving them from having to reproduce frequencies that they aren't very good at reproducing. This lightens the load on both the speakers and the amplifier, and allows your speakers to go a bit louder before they distort. Most amps these days have variable (rather than fixed) high- and low-pass filters, which allow you to choose the frequency where your cabin speakers end and your subwoofer begins. There are also subsonic filters that cut out the lowest inaudible frequencies that may be generated by engine noise or other interference. Amplifiers: Additional Features Similarly, amps often come with built-in equalisers and tuning features. More expensive amps will come with more fine-grained controls for tuning the sound, but therefore also require greater knowledge and equipment to set up and get the most out of – yet another reason to turn to a professional installer. Cheaper amps may come with something as simple as a 'bass boost' on/off switch, or nothing at all. Notably, if your head unit has separate pre-amp outputs for your subwoofer and speakers, it'll be able to take over the crossover duties, so the need for an amplifier with filters and EQ settings is diminished. You may also see the 'class' of an amplifier mentioned on its spec sheet. For car audio, we don't think there's any reason to get anything other than class D (or the near-identical class T), as it's the most efficient – it generates less heat per watt of output. Audio purists will say that class A/B or class A will produce better sound, but the extra cost, size, weight, and ventilation requirements needed for such amps aren't worth the marginal (we'd argue imperceptible) difference in sound quality. If space is a concern, there are smaller amplifiers available for tight installs, but they cost a little more due to the extra engineering required to create such a product. It's also paramount that you heed any ventilation requirements when measuring up the size of your mounting space. If you're looking to connect multiple amps to your head unit, but it only has one pre-amp output, you will want to find an amp with pre-amp outputs, which will allow another amp to piggy back off of the audio signal (say, for your subwoofer). These can be especially useful if you're connecting multiple amps up to a head unit with only speaker outputs – get one amp with speaker-level inputs and pre-amp outputs, then your other amp will only need standard RCA connectors. Now it's time to start selecting components for your new system!

Hands-on review: Updated: HTC Vive Posted: 12 Jul 2015 03:56 PM PDT Vive the revolution Update July 12: Writer Farrha Khan went hands on with the HTC Vive and its now-wireless controllers at San Diego Comic-Con 2015! You can read her impressions of the untethered controllers on Page 2. HTC is also taking the Vive on a "world tour," letting members of the public try the VR headset for themselves. For dates and cities where the Vive is headed, check here. Hands on review continued below ... There's a TV show from the early 1990s called Red Dwarf that depicted the last human (and a group of humanoids) that were lost in space in the future, desperate to get home. One of the big ways they stayed entertained was with a holographic headset that let them play in hyper real worlds, like they were living in the action sequence. It was meant as comedy, a chance for men to be stupid and depraved and powerful and ultimately escape the onboard reality they were faced with. I always thought that idea, that experience, would never be real. But with the HTC Vive I took my first steps into that world. Design The HTC Vive headset looks and feels precisely like any other of its kind on the market right now, but with the ability to move around a room when playing. Unlike some of the more mobile-focused offerings, this one needs to be tethered to a PC (and a powerful one at that) to work, so you'll need to be careful when wandering around to not trip over. The big difference is on the front of the headset, which is adorned with 37 sensors that connect to two wireless infrared cameras. These wireless cameras are placed in two corners of a room (3m by 4m is suggested as adequate) and combined with the headset will create a virtual space to play around in. The wireless controllers are pretty complex but feel massively intuitive – a trigger on the bottom lets you pick things up or perhaps fire weapons, and on the front, under the thumb, lies a trackpad to let you cycle through options. (I was sadly unable to photograph any of these bits, thanks to it being so early build). The headset is tight fitting but perfectly comfortable, with a strap across the top to hold it in place, with another strap that secures things around the back. During my time, where I was pretty energetically moving, it didn't slip once, so the fit is clearly up to scratch. HTC stated that it came on board as a partner with Valve to create this system as it was capable of creating beautiful hardware. While the unit is solid, it's not really what I'd call beautiful - it's black plastic with some little reflectors in it, and the untrained would have no way of knowing it wasn't an Oculus Rift. The final version, which will be on sale by Christmas this year, should have a more impressive chassis - making this out of brushed metal would be really cool, and I get the feeling it's going to be quite expensive anyway, so adding a little more to make it look premium wouldn't hurt. Entering a new world When I entered the secret room where HTC was showing off the new headset, I was taken by how many wires were strewn around the area. It was a big arena, with the headset prominently in the centre, but connected to the large gaming PC in the corner. The controllers were also heavily tethered, as were the cameras in two corners, used to measure the space and register the sensors on the headset when I moved around. However, it's important to be clear here: the wires are simply to facilitate the early demo. The controllers will be wireless in the future, but HTC didn't want to have any interference from the Wi-Fi-a-thon that is MWC. The cameras will be slimmed down, and the headset will only need a single HDMI cable in the future to allow for the high volumes of data to get into the headset with the required lack of latency. But then a pair of headphones clasped to my head were all that was needed to throw me into an unbelievable world of virtual reality. Before walking in I promised myself I wouldn't start smiling or laughing when I tried it on. I promised I would be a professional journalist, sagely analysing what this meant for the world of virtual reality and its place in HTC's future strategy. I lasted approximately seven seconds before I started giggling like a tipsy schoolgirl. It's far more than a gaming platform, as it will allow you to do things like tour museums, watch films and learn – as well as hopefully kill zombies in full 360 motion. The first demo was an underwater galleon, with me standing on the deck. Fish floated around, and I could swat them away in 3D, with a little haptic buzz telling me I was successful. However, that wasn't the awesome bit. I was instructed to walk to the edge of the boat, which I did. It was eerie. I looked over the edge into a watery canyon to see an old plane lying there… and I started laughing. It was unreal. Then I turned my head to see a blue whale coming my way, and it took every ounce of rationality and logic to not duck. I could walk right up to its eye and peer at every bit of it as it swam across the deck. The clarity was a massive step up from those in Oculus Rift or Gear VR, and although I've never experienced motion sickness in those headsets that extra sharpness will definitely help those that hate the current VR range. Next up was a kitchen where I was asked to pick up utensils and ingredients to make tomato soup. My controllers were turned into hands, but this was probably the least impressive demo. I kept dropping things, and opening fridges and microwaves seemed like a waste of time. But I totally nailed that soup and sent it out to the restaurant. A 3D canvas then provided one of the best experiences of the HTC Vive demo, allowing me to use the controllers to their full effect while letting me interact with the space fully in all dimensions. A right hand trigger press let me paint in mid air with ink, paint, fire, snow and loads of other options, while the left controller was my palette, and a stroke of the touchpad flipping through the options. It was incredibly smooth and impressive for an early device. The rest of the demos were pretty average, although did highlight some of the inherent advantages of a 3D VR headset. For instance, I was a 'giant ghost' on a tiny battlefield, and I could kneel down to look at the tiny soldiers firing cannons at one another, with smoke so real I almost thought I smelt it. Or a robot repair facility – it was a frustrating one as it was meant as comedy, but very limited in what could be done. The idea was to pull the robot apart in 3D and then walk around it to see the issues – while all I could do was flip it about, the idea that this could be used to train mechanics or engineers in the future seems solid. However, it's important to note I didn't want any of these demos to end. I wanted to explore the space for longer and see what I could really do with the games… the fact most timed out when I was just getting going (HTC had a lot of people clamouring to use this) shows how engaging it is. Early verdict The HTC Vive is a plastic headset that really doesn't look very different to anything else you've seen out there - but trust me, if / when you get to use one, you're going to see it's a massive game changer. The 3D VR world is so far ahead of what the others are doing right now. While the Gear VR is great from a fixed point of view, it's pixelated and limited compared to what HTC is announcing. It does have the benefit of being untethered though, and I really hope future versions ditch the wire. What HTC and Valve have done here is create something that's finally starting to fulfil the promise of VR, although it's only an early test. Big question marks remain on how much this will cost – it WILL NOT be cheap, given the amount of processing and hardware on show here – and people will worry about falling over real life objects when zinging around their living room. But this is really an amazing piece of kit – do whatever you can to try one out for yourself, and while you might not buy one this year, if the gaming community (and others) develop some really impressive titles for the platform it'll be a must-buy before long. HTC Vive Wireless Controllers By Farrha Khan HTC brought a Vive "tour bus" to San Diego Comic-Con 2015, and along for the ride were two wireless controllers first promised to us the first time we hands on with the VR headset. The controllers are identical to one another and feature a trigger button for your index finger and a wheel for your thumb. The wheel can be used for things like switching between menus, and it also has a satisfying click when you press down. The sensors sit on the end of the wireless controller, and between the headset and the two controllers, there are over 70 sensors for precision tracking, which certainly helps with smooth transitions and movements. There is also a small red and black button sitting under each other, just below the wheel, but I'm not sure what they are used for. Or rather, there were no use for them in the demos I tried at SDCC 2015, which were the same underwater galleon sequence and painting demo as MWC. The latter felt extremely fluid and natural with the light, wireless controllers. There was also a fun Portal demo, in which you get transported to the inner bowels of the Aperature Laboratories. You're given instructions by a voice, and the real-life controllers act as your controllers within the game. First up, you need to put your controllers over an orange light to "calibrate." At this point, you assume you're a robot, though it wasn't quite clear during my Comic-Con demo. You can explore a bit of the room, open up some drawers, and then open up a door by pulling on a lever. Each of these instances feel very natural because of the controllers' haptic feedback, and it's like you're really influencing the Portal world, not just pushing buttons. There's plenty more to this demo, and lots of Easter eggs for those who have played Portal before. With this experience, you feel like you're transported into that universe completely. With only the headset's wire to contend with, each of the VR experiences felt more immersive than they would have had the controllers been tethered. There are literally fewer ties to the real world, making the interactions feel a little more natural. Overall, the controllers were super responsive. There didn't seem to be any noticeable delays, especially in the paint demo. And I didn't feel nauseous, something I experience in other VR demos, especially if move too quickly. Of course, these wireless controllers are still only dev units, which HTC started sending out three weeks ago along with the headset. The headset itself has had no changes since MWC this past February. The final product, which Jeffrey Gattis, HTC executive director of marketing, assured me will be much better looking, less bulky and lighter, will be announced in October, along with full specs, pricing and availability. HTC says that it's still targeting a launch by the end of year, and before that it's taking the Vive tour around the US and Europe over the coming months.

Updated: Fallout 4 release date, news and trailers Posted: 12 Jul 2015 01:58 PM PDT There are few games more anticipated than Fallout 4 right now, but the good news is that the post-apocalyptic RPG is coming soon. Very soon. We also know quite a lot about the game as Bethesda has divulged plenty of footage and information already. Like its predecessors Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4 will be an open-world exploration game set in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, but with the added power of new-generation consoles. The game will be launching on the PS4, Xbox One and PC, but the Xbox 360 and PS3 won't be getting a slice of the action. So without further ado, here's what we know so far… Fallout 4 release date Fallout 4 will launch on PS4, Xbox One and PC on November 10 2015, putting it in a small, exclusive community of games released the same year in which they were announced. The game is available for pre-order now, in both standard and special editions. The special edition of the game comes with a working replica Pip-Boy that you can actually wear on your arm. The Pip-Boy houses a smartphone which displays the information on the screen, giving you that authentic wasteland-wandering feeling. Fallout 4 setting and gameplay As rumours had predicted, Fallout 4 will be primarily set in Boston, Massachusetts, though the player will explore other areas of New England, better known in the series as the Commonwealth. Interestingly, the game will actually start just before the bombs were dropped, letting you experience the events of fatal day on October 23 2077. Your character will leave his or her home to take shelter in Vault 111, where they awake 200 years later to discover they are the sole survivor, and that they haven't aged. Why? Probably cryogenic freezing. 10 most important things from the Fallout 4 trailer Much of the plot of Fallout 4 remains shrouded in mystery but no doubt partly revolves around finding out how and why you survived for 200 years. The debut trailer did reveal that the protagonist will have a speaking role - a first for the series - and that you'll once again have a faithful dog companion. Before you start getting concerned - no, the dog can't die, but it can be used to maul enemies. However, perhaps the biggest new feature is the one that lets you build your own settlements in the wasteland, which is another first for the franchise. You'll be able to construct buildings on plots of land, and the crafting system looks like it will lend itself to some proper customisation. You can build multiple settlements through the game, with trading caravans that run between them. But be warned: raiders will come and try to ruin your lovely home. Then there's the power armour, which made an appearance in the debut trailer. You'll be able to customise and improve this throughout the game, while the crafting system will let you build a ridiculous number of customised guns for blasting enemy mutants in the face. Many series fans will be glad to hear that the time-stopping VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) system is back, but rather than completely freezing everything in place it will now just slow things. You'll still have extra time to line up that perfect shot, but you might have to think a little faster on your feet this time around. Finally, we have mods - and this doesn't just apply to the PC players amongst you. At E3 2015, Bethesda announced that PC mods for Fallout 4 will be playable on the Xbox One as well, and possibly the PS4 down the line too (unless Sony turns the idea down, would be odd). Bethesda also confirmed that it's not planning to introduce paid premium mods in the game. Oh, and it also confirmed the game will run at 1080p 30fps on everything. Fallout 4 trailer YouTube : www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnn2rJpjar4

How your smartphone distracts you even when you're not using it Posted: 12 Jul 2015 07:13 AM PDT How good are you at resisting the pull of the pings emitted by your smartphone on a daily basis? Turns out those alerts can be distracting whether or not we act on them. Academics from Florida State University have found that phone notifications make our minds wander, even if we don't pick up the handset - we start thinking about what the alerts could be and how we might respond to them. "Although these notifications are generally short in duration, they can prompt task-irrelevant thoughts, or mind wandering, which has been shown to damage task performance," concludes the report. Out of focus For the purposes of the study, a group of volunteers were bombarded with alerts, though they weren't told in advance to expect them. Those that got the notifications were less productive and made more mistakes. In fact the researchers found that just receiving an alert can be as much of a distraction as actually making a call or sending a text - and that could have implications for phone use in cars and many other scenarios. So if you really want to get on with the task at hand and make some progress then just ignoring the buzzes and bleeps from your phone isn't enough - you have to switch it off altogether. Vote for the best phone of the year in the T3 Awards

Running Man of Tech: How to challenge people in Fiji to a cycle race from your garage Posted: 12 Jul 2015 07:10 AM PDT I'm going to be sweating forever I'm currently tapping this out in the back of my soon-to-be brother-in-law's car as he takes me and my (now) fiancée to the airport for a week in New York. I'm sweating buckets because I tried to sneak in a quick interval run before we left, which meant I bolted in through the door with only a few minutes to go to disapproving looks and the fastest shower of my life. I've definitely forgotten something important, I've got that post run 'I CAN'T STOP SWEATING' problem, no matter how much I tried to dry off, and I'm getting motion sick from trying to write – but I'm going to get this column to you on time, dear reader. Hero? I wouldn't go that far. This week has, once again, been terrible for training. Fresh from the painful hamstrings, I'm still not feeling confident that I can push things to the limit lest they twang and put me out for weeks. Which means my strength and speed training still hasn't properly started, a mix of slower recovery runs sandwiching a non-run day on Wednesday. I was in Paris all day for work, which meant I was up at 4.45AM to board the Eurostar, but I was home by 8.30PM and could have made it out for a run – I'm still annoyed now. With that in mind, I'm going to reboot the training plan when out in the Big Apple and hope that this one sticks. While I'm still not convinced by the MiCoach training plan, I'm going to start with it for a week just to get me literally back up and running after which I'll try and tailor it to add in some longer hill sessions and letting me do Parkruns. I will say that I'm constantly impressed with the amount of development that happens with Adidas' SmartRun watch – I don't think it's sold in the millions and yet there are still updates every quarter with new functionality. GPS is still a little slower to pick up than other Garmin smartwatches, but the heart rate monitor is pretty accurate and there's now a mode that switches the screen off to save battery. It's still expensive at over £200 – but I strongly suspect Adidas is using this development to bring out another, improved, running watch, and the more brands doing that, the better. Riding the mountains in my own garage Despite taking delivery of this during the latter stages of the triathlon training, a quick glance at the instruction manual scared the life out of me in terms of getting it all set up. However, with running off the cards at times in the last week, I looked for something else to do, so decided to finally get this sorted. For those that don't know (which was me a few days ago), a turbo trainer is a replacement for your back wheel on your two-wheeler and turns it into a super exercise bike. The Wahoo Kickr, used by the Team Sky cyclists to help them train through the disgustingly cold winter months, is one of the more complete options, bringing the ability to change resistance on the fly to mimic hills and provide total training. It pairs with the Wahoo Fitness app through Bluetooth, meaning you can set up custom workouts or just see your speed or power output. However, I skipped that bit because I was too excited about trying it with Zwift, a massive online multiplayer world to cycle around against other cyclists. But first, had to get the thing set up. The first thing to note is this thing is HEAVY – it's not something you can carry back from the shops. However given this thing costs just south of £1000, I'm comforted by the heft. Set up is easy enough, if a little cumbersome. Snapping the legs into place takes a bit of grunt and getting it in a good place to see your tablet or laptop screen is tricky. Then comes the spindown, where after 10 minutes warm up the Wahoo app asks you to speed up to 23MPH to calibrate the system. It was at this point I started to worry: my chain was skipping all over the place, and no amount of adjustment would stop it jumping gears. After about 5 minutes I worked out what was wrong. My bike is an 8 speed on the read, where this was a 10 speed cassette – hence the derailleur skipping all over the place. But I could work around that, and I was soon into the Zwift program. Macbook on a nearby shelf, I connected the Ant+ connector into the USB slot and let the program find the trainer. It also connected up to the TickrX heart rate monitor easily too, which was great. After choosing my rider, bike and outfit, I was off, dropped in a virtual world where I could see my fellow cyclists on a map. It seems there's not a lot to do at the moment in that place, other than do laps of the hilly course, but that alone was awesome. I could see how many seconds ahead of behind people I was, race sections against a leaderboard – all the while the resistance changing as I went up and down hills. It was amazing. I was sweating buckets but still hammering to try to keep up with the ghost riders (not Nicolas Cage, thankfully) that were starting to stream past me. Yes, it's nowhere near replicating the experience of being out on the bike, where the wind blows in your hair, it's mega expensive and you nearly die being hit by cars and you almost smash yourself up hitting potholes… but you don't have to wear a helmet, you never get lost and with the myriad other programs out there you can be riding anywhere in the world – all from the comfort of your own home. A big milestone for Runner G Regular readers will recall that I've started 'training' (read: getting someone on the Adidas MiCoach program and then telling her to keep going over WhatsApp) a new runner, someone who's never run before but decided they wanted to do a 10K in September. She's five weeks into the plan, with about eight more to go. The incredible thing is that she's done every one of her four workouts per week, choosing the higher frequency to ensure each run isn't as hard. Because that's the main thing that I'm finding with helping her train: the notion that running is scary. Having done it for so many years and been to the edge and back of wanting to be sick so many times, the fear doesn't grip me as it once did. I know that if it hurts I can just throttle back and jog for a bit, safe in the knowledge I'll recover. But despite sticking to the plan exactly, Runner G was still racked with self doubt. 'Why am I not able to run over 2.5km when I'm going to be doing 10K?' she asked. I kept telling her to trust in the plan, that this was designed for beginners, that she needed to build a base and become familiar with running first. Despite the fact the plan starts extending runs by 5-10 minutes from next week, she wasn't convinced. So we headed to the park and did exactly what this column doesn't do: run without any tech. That's not strictly true – I still turned on the MiCoach app to log the run – but there was no FitSmart heart rate monitor (which is actually turning out to be quite useless for a new runner, where BPM training doesn't seem to work very well and it keeps dropping out too often anyway) and no voice coaching. Just running. I mapped out a 5K course, didn't tell her how far we were going, and then just got her to keep running. Keep finding her own speed without walking, that 'inner gear' that everyone has to just keep running at. She felt like she had to stop so many times, even before we got halfway, but that's the point about starting to train: your body wants you to stop because it doesn't recognise the feeling of pushing, your reflexes starting every warning sign going. I just kept telling her to focus on form, relax the shoulders, keep her head up and tense her core to keep things efficient. At 4KM I told her she could do 5KM if she wanted, and despite telling me she was spent a few moments before, she pushed on, desperate for that milestone. The metres slowly dwindling, that last kilometre was hard for her. But we still sprinted the last 100m, and I don't think I've ever seen a bigger smile on someone's face. If you've got any tips, tech you want tested out or just want to mock me, I'm@superbeav on Twitter, and you can see my stumblings on Strava too. Read the rest of the Running Man of Tech story here

Explained: 11 tips for owning Twitter Posted: 12 Jul 2015 02:30 AM PDT Introduction For a social network with over 230 million users, Twitter can be surprisingly tough to get right. It's a minefield of what should I tweet? When should I tweet? How often should I tweet? Who should I follow? Who should I unfollow? Who am I allowed to talk to? How does this work? Why am I here? What is the point? Where did I leave my shoe? Has anyone got any ketchup? What time is dinner? And so on. Whether you're just getting started or you're an old pro, we're here for you with some top tips to help you own the tweets. 1. Set your profile up - your whole profile Nothing screams "I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING" louder than leaving your avatar as an egg, so change that as soon as you set your profile up. Add a header image too, paying close attention to the minimum size requirements which are 1,500px x 500px. There's nothing worse than a fuzzy, pixelated header image. Except perhaps an egg profile picture. Your bio should tell potential new followers enough to help them decide if you are their cup of tea, but don't try to fit your life story in there. Avoid words like "guru," "imagineer" and "evangelist" because they're all just shorthand for "wanker." 2. Get your follow ratios right There's nothing wrong with following more people than follow you, particularly when you're getting started. But don't go too crazy. If you're following 1,326 people and only 12 people follow you, it makes your account look spammy – and how are you going to keep up with 1,326 people's tweets anyway? Be discerning in who you choose to follow and remember: following someone is not a till death do us part type of situation so if you're not enjoying someone's tweets, unfollow them. 3. Mute, block and report Because Twitter runs (to a certain extent) on a DIY moderation policy, if you spot any spam or abusive tweets you will be doing the world a solid by reporting them. You can do this one of two ways: click the ... button on the tweet in question and then "report," or you can snitch on the entire account by going to the user's profile page and hitting the settings cog, then "report." Twitter will ask some follow up questions about what the problem is and the whole process takes no time at all. Once you're reported someone's tweets, they'll be blocked from seeing yours and their @ replies to you will no longer show up in your connect column. If someone's annoying or harassing you but not actually doing anything bad enough to be reported, you can just block them. This stops them from being able to contact you, seeing your tweets or showing up on your timeline – it's the same process as reporting, just click "Block" instead of "Report." If a Twitter user is just a bit boring but you know them in real life and feel weird about unfollowing them, you can mute them. It'll still look like you're following them and they'll still be able to see your tweets, but their #socialmediaconference live tweet sessions and tedious recounting of last night's dreams won't show up in your otherwise cool and zesty homepage. 4. Don't confuse 'search' and 'tweet' This is relatively easily done: just ask Ed Balls. On the web interface, the search box is quite close to the what's happening tweet composition box and if you're new to the Twitter game, you need to be vigilant. It's fine if you're searching something innocuous like "Rihanna" but what if you were searching one of your friends or something a little less savoury? You'd have to leave Twitter in shame. See also: getting confused between direct messaging and tweeting. 5. Open your DMs - or don't Originally, other Twitter users could only send you a private message if you were following them, but in 2015 the company changed its policy. Now you can choose to keep your DMs closed to people who don't follow you or you can open them up so that any old Tom, Dick, Harry or Sally can get in touch privately. This could lead to you meeting the love of your life (best case scenario) or give trolls another way to get at you (worst). Decide whether you want to be available or not and go to your settings page, click "security and privacy" and scroll down to "Direct Messages." If you're particularly worried about privacy or think you are likely to get hassle, you can lock your entire Twitter account down: this hides your tweets, favourites and follow lists from public view. People have to request permission to follow you before they can see anything you post. 6. What the hell should I tweet? This is going to depend entirely on you and how you are using Twitter – so look into your heart and you'll find your answer there. Some people use it to chat to friends, others use it to share links to interesting internet content like this. Some people just use it to try to get Harry Styles to fall in love with them. Even if you're using it predominantly for work, try to keep your tone informal and don't go too crazy with the hashtags #because #hashtagging #every #word #is #pointless and also really annoying. Replying to celebrities and people you don't know is fine, but try not to become obsessed with getting Harry Styles to follow you because that's going to get real frustrating, real fast. Some things to avoid: humble brags, overshares, elusive updates, reposting something and adding "This" or "Just sayin." Going somewhere, then tweeting "[Place I am in], I am in you." Passive aggressive subtweeting (an untagged tweet that is clearly directed at a specific person – which I personally am in favour of but the rest of Twitter seems less convinced). Sometimes people forget about basic human decency when hidden behind a screen and a 140 character limit. A good rule of thumb is: would you say this to someone's face? If not, don't tag them into it. Maybe think about not saying it at all. 7. Think before you tweet YOU CANNOT EDIT TWEETS. That annoying typo in your funniest ever tweet? There forever. That incorrect information past you posted as fact and got retweeted 400 times? Not going anywhere. That opinion you held stridently at the moment you hit Tweet that two seconds later you decided was perhaps a bit strong? Staying in the hearts and minds of any followers who saw it before you deleted it. Write your tweet. Read it. Read it again. Then post it. Some people will advise you against drunk tweeting. I'm not one of them, I love it when people drunk tweet. You tomorrow might be less thrilled with the situation though, so bear that in mind. 8. Retweeting, re-retweeting and stealing Retweeting is an etiquette minefield. Let's break down the options: Retweeting using the RT button: "I want more people to see this great/terrible tweet" Retweeting using the RT button and adding a comment: "I have something to say about this tweet but the original poster should retain all credit and social cache." Manually retweeting: "I want to take credit for this tweet I did not post." Via-ing a tweet: "I wish I had come up with this first and I am going to change it slightly to make it seem like perhaps I did while still feeling like I am safe from accusations of theft because I have credited the original poster." Stealing a tweet: "I am the relatively harmless yet deeply annoying scum floating on the surface of the internet with no original thoughts of my own to share." 9. What if I need more than 140 characters? If you have an essay's worth of things to say, consider writing a blog post or grabbing a megaphone and heading down to Oxford Circus. If you have a few connected thoughts you can reply to your own tweet and delete the @[yourname] bit - they'll show up as linked and in chronological order in your followers' timelines. You can also use this technique to "surface" an old tweet that you feel is relevant again or didn't get enough faves the first time round. Doing this occasionally is fine but let's not go crazy – you're not Jay Z (unless you are Jay Z, in which case fill your boots, man). 10. Auto tweeting is the devil's work Thanks for following! Today's paper.li is out and I just completed a 7.2km run while listening to my top Last.fm artists. Turn them off. Turn them all off. Seriously, turn them off. 11. Don't be a dick Sound advice for Twitter, the internet in general, and life.

Windows phones aren't dead yet: six new handsets on the way Posted: 12 Jul 2015 01:23 AM PDT Given the sweeping job cuts we've seen at Microsoft this week, you could be forgiven for thinking the company is looking at winding down its phone hardware business and focusing on the desktop instead. Nevertheless CEO Satya Nadella has promised he is "committed to our first-party devices including phones", and it sounds like the firm is going to make good on that promise in the not-too-distant future. Respected Twitter tipster @evleaks (aka Evan Blass) says that at least six new handsets are in the pipeline, so those of you eager to give Windows 10 Mobile a run out will have plenty of devices to pick from. The return of the Lumias So what could these handsets be? We've already heard a lot about the Lumia 940XL, a Snapdragon 810-powered flagship phone with a 5.7-inch QHD display and some mouth-watering specs. There are also rumours of a more modest mid-range Lumia 940 device as well, with slightly less powerful internal components for what we would assume is a slightly lower price. As for launch dates, we know that some devices are coming this year, though we don't know exactly when - Microsoft has yet to confirm how long we'll have to wait for Windows 10 Mobile after the desktop version of the software arrives at the end of this month. Microsoft to bypass operators with Windows 10 Mobile updates

Here's the ultimate software list for PC fanatics Posted: 12 Jul 2015 12:22 AM PDT Introduction For years, before the internet became truly mainstream, beta software was shrouded in a cloak of mystery. Copies of software would often circulate on private servers or on CD-ROMs or DVDs but the advent of cheap, fast connectivity and the prevalence of software-as-a-service has changed that. Now allowing more people to test an application at an earlier stage in its development seems to have become a de-facto step, allowing for a more transparent and open process that is often used to evangelise and build momentum towards the final launch of the said software. The best case study is probably that of Windows 10 whereby Microsoft enrolled millions of users eager to try their hands at the latest version of the company's operating system. These early adopters provided Microsoft with tons of feedback either directly or indirectly (using telemetry) and highlighted the importance of a successful so-called Alpha/Beta program. Should you want to join this growing army of anonymous software developers' lil' helpers, here's a list of some of the best-known alpha, beta or nightly builds. Note: We deliberately kept games, non-Windows and mobile applications off the radar as it would have been too much of a task. Also bear in mind that this is development, bleeding edge software. Expect them to crash, produce errors or spit out any sort of random message box at any moment. Should this happen and should your computer explode (or any other similar mishap), we cannot be held responsible. You are installing these applications at your own risk. If you think we've missed one app (or two or three), nudge us in the comments. 75 best free PC software downloads from Microsoft Internet Opera Even though Opera might not have the user base of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, it makes up for this by providing beta updates every two weeks and bringing new features to the table that other browsers simply can't offer. In the past it has brought the much vaunted Turbo mode to beta users first, which gives slow connections a chance to shine by compressing pages by up to 80%. It has given over a whole section of its website to developers and openly encourages input from what is a burgeoning community. Chrome Hated by some, used by many, and tweaked by developers all over the globe, Google brings many of the best loved new features to four different channels. Canary builds are released daily, comprised of the least stable "bleeding edge" features, and can be run alongside a more stable version of the browser. The Dev channel is the next step up and is updated once or twice a week to show what's being worked on right now, and it is updated as soon as it is tested. Beta is updated weekly and gets features over a month before Stable gets the features. Chromium The open source project behind the Google Chrome browser is where you come if Canary isn't hardcore enough for you and you want something even more unstable/new. The Chromium continuous build waterfall provides working builds that can be downloaded by taking down the number under "LKGR" at the top of the page, going to this Google Storage bucket, and downloading the correct build. Firefox Like Chrome, Firefox has four different release channels that all offer a very different way to experience the browser. Nightly is the most unstable and is where the highest level of experimentation occurs – users are told to expect features to appear one day and be gone the next. With Aurora, meanwhile, upcoming features will be relatively stable and in an early state yet there's no guarantee they'll ever make it to the final version. Beta is the most stable pre-release and the likelihood of anything crashing is fairly low. This is all leading up to the Stable releases. Each channel lasts for six weeks for each release and gives ample time for a lot of experimentation. Thunderbird Mozilla also has a free email application that has plenty of features, is free, and has two release channels prior to its stable release. Earlybird is the first channel and gives developers the opportunity to provide feedback on the features they liked/disliked the most. Beta brings a more stable experience that again gives users the chance to submit comments on features and this is all before the Stable channel provides the latest release. There is also a Daily channel that precedes Earlybird and each release follows a similar timescale to Firefox. Multimedia Kodi Kodi, or XMBC to give the software its former name, is a free open source media player that is developed by the XMBC Foundation and available for just about every operating system out there. Third parties have a huge part to play in the non-profit video player and plugins are contributed to every release by different parties. This means that a new version of Kodi is being developed at all times with nightly builds delivered which are the most unstable, and monthly builds arriving followed by a final stable build about once every year. The upcoming release, Isengard, has so far seen two Alpha builds and a couple of Beta releases. VLC Another of the non-profit open source options is the renowned VLC Player. This software has a presence across a huge range of platforms and nightlies are available for Windows (32-bit and 64-bit), Mac OS X, Ubuntu, as well as a number of different versions of Android. Handbrake One of the internet's most popular video transcoders, Handbrake has been around for some time and given that it's open source, there's an active community constantly contributing to the project. Nightly builds are released and based on the latest development code available with Windows, Mac, Ubuntu and LibHB all supported by the team. The French company's developer section is among the most straightforward around, and there's a dedicated forum for you to post information on any bugs that you find whilst playing around with the builds. Audacity Making a name for itself in the free audio recording category, Audacity's team brings binaries for various different versions of Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux. Mac users are treated to alpha builds every night at 03:15 (GMT) in the "Release" configuration from the GIT trunk. Complementing this is a weekly alpha build in "Debug" configuration that comes out every Sunday at 04:15 (GMT) and is slower so as to be able to trace crashes and other issues. For Windows XP/Vista/7/8 users there's a "frequent" but not nightly alpha build in "Release" configuration and Ubuntu developers get daily PPA installation packages. The latter are against wxWidgets 3.0 that aren't supported by Audacity and may contain bugs. Utilities Synergy project Ever wanted to extend the use of your expensive new keyboard and mouse? The Synergy project makes that possible, allowing you to use one set of peripherals across multiple computers, with support for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and there's a high level of developer support constantly striving to make it a more extensive product. Nightly builds are provided for all three platforms via a very basic page that simply lists every single one ever released along with a search bar at the top. Here you'll also find a stable version every few days. Filezilla Safely uploading files onto the internet means downloading an FTP server. FileZilla is one of the better solutions out there and offers an extensive level of nightly builds for developers. Windows, Mac OS X and Linux are all supported with the nightly builds page that lists the versions that are supplied with a green or red colour indicating the presence of a build. The extensive development section also includes the source code of the latest stable release, and a version history including the latest changes plus a changelog. 7zip Compressing image and document files in this age of free cloud storage isn't as relevant as it used to be, but there are plenty of larger files that need to be smaller in order to be shared. 7zip is the best cross-platform program out there for this purpose and provides a number of builds to tinkered with. For those that want something a bit more stable the alpha and beta versions are available straight from the front page. Developers looking for the latest builds are encouraged to visit the Sourceforge page, where there are discussion groups and a Wiki page that takes some getting used to but contains information on various implementations of the program. Evernote Recognised as one of the best free note-taking programs out there, Evernote has become an app that has, in part, forced the hand of Microsoft to bring Office to even more devices. A section of the website is given over to developers to play around with the API that allows them to plug into Evernote with their own apps. It doesn't, however, provide nightly builds of the program itself yet there is plenty that can be done with the API – and with the active forums you'll always find a helpful ear. Cyberduck Another way to browse FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, S3 or OpenStack Swift, Cyberduck is available for both Mac and Windows. It is of the open source persuasion and as such is ripe for developers to have a tinker around with. Nightly, or snapshot, builds of the program can be found here and are updated on a daily basis for those that want a tough and unstable version of the program. There is even a way to switch to the snapshot or beta builds by using the update settings inside either Windows or Mac OS X (find out more here). uTorrent Torrent downloads have always been synonymous with the names BitTorrent and uTorrent, which are both owned by the former company. New releases are out all of the time and are split up into Beta or Stable depending on how safe they are to use. Each one gets a new flavour every couple of weeks with the beta releases available via this page and stable ones can be found here. Unfortunately there's little in the way of nightly builds, but the regularity of beta and stable releases means that features find their way into this program at a faster rate than some others. Business/Enterprise ProjectLibre Replacing the Microsoft Project is no mean feat but with rave reviews and awards for being one of the top open source projects, ProjectLibre has done just that. The open source project management solution is updated very regularly and both the code plus every version that's ever been released can be found on the dedicated SourceForge page. Finding nightly builds, however, is tricky and there is little information online outside of the discussion boards on the ProjectLibre site itself. Windows 10 Windows 10 will be one of the biggest revolutions to hit PCs in a number of years and its imminent arrival means that the Windows Insider hub has been rife with activity in recent months. Microsoft has even turned up the speed it delivers updates to its insiders. Microsoft's method differs to some of the others on this list in that you must become part of the Windows 10 Insider Program to get the builds. Becoming part of the "fast" ring ensures you can get updates as they're available and you can stay on board once Windows 10 gets its public release. Office 2016 Office is the name in productivity and even though Microsoft's attempting to change the way it is used by the masses, there will always be an offline version for everyone who prefers it that way. That means a steady stream of builds for its latest version, Office 2016, which are distributed through the same Insider scheme as Windows. All you need to do is sign up and strap in for an endless stream of updates. Basically, if you're a Windows Insider you know the drill. Windows Server 2016 Businesses and enterprises are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Windows Server 2016 almost as much as consumers are with Windows 10. The server level revolution doesn't get the same level of updates as Office 2016 and Windows 10, but you can still get hold of the latest versions through the TechNet Evaluation Center. The technical preview builds are designed for enterprise customers and delivered every so often with the latest one including support for various containers. OpenOffice Apache's incredibly popular free Microsoft Office alternative is a haven for developers that want to tinker with the inner workings of the program and shines as an open source option for those that need to create documents. Nightly builds are available for Windows and Linux in English and German with snapshots also released every Sunday for both platforms and in over 40 languages. Apache provides all of them on this page and there is also an extensive Wiki page to help anyone out with the nightly builds. LibreOffice Another of the free Microsoft Office options is LibreOffice and there's little to choose between Apache's offering and LibreOffice. It appeals to developers that want to have a play with the inner workings through a dedicated collection of nightly builds that, unlike OpenOffice, also includes Mac OS X as an option alongside Linux and Windows. There are even Android versions that can be obtained. If you're slightly worried about the nightlies you could go for the beta versions available here that run alongside your stable version. Graphics GIMP Shelling out hundreds of dollars for Adobe's Photoshop software is not to everyone's taste. Especially when there are programs like GIMP that are free and perform a similar set of functions. Developer releases are split into two different streams. The Stable Series include the very latest bug fixes and, although they aren't as stable as the official releases, they can be used if you have found a bug fix that has yet to be applied to the full version. The Development Series, on the other hand, can be very unstable and only recommended for work that isn't of a serious nature. One last thing – the builds are for Windows 32-bit and 64-bit only. Inkscape Another of the free open source vector graphics editors is Inkscape and it offers more to developers than GIMP when it comes to nightly builds. Where GIMP only caters for Windows, Inkscape provides the latest "bleeding edge" features for users of Windows, Mac OS X and Linux plus the latest source code with all that available at this link. The people behind Inkscape do warn that builds won't be available every day and there's a bug reporting page so you can let them know about any problems.

How to download iOS 9 beta on your iPhone and iPad right now Posted: 12 Jul 2015 12:10 AM PDT Download and install iOS 9 There are exciting new iOS 9 features set to premier this fall, but you don't have to wait another two months to test them out. Apple has launched an iOS 9 public beta, which gives everyone access to the iPhone and iPad update a little early. The company's instructions, however, aren't very comprehensive. That's why we, not willing to wait for the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus release date likely in September, went through the process several times and created this handy a how to guide. It did take a few attempts to install iOS 9 due to everyone taxing Apple's servers all at once, but the new features outweigh those temporary problems and minor beta bugs. Compatible iPhone and iPad devices iOS 9 is compatible with newer iPhones and iPads, which translates to all Apple phones and tablets that have since launched 2011. That's good news because it means the compatibility list doesn't axe any new devices, including the iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and even the iPod Touch 5th generation. If you devices can run iOS 8, it can also run iOS 9. Easy. This is where Apple's mobile operating system really cuts into the fragmented Android platform. Backup your iPhone and iPad first It's very important to backup your iPhone and iPad before installing iOS 9. You never know what may go wrong with this unfinished software. It could claim the life of your photos and texts. I recommend using a lightning cable to manually backup to iTunes instead of relying on a Wi-Fi connection or iCloud. It's just faster and more reliable - as long as you don't mess with the cable. It's a little more complicated for New MacBook 2015 owners who have to resort to a USB Type C adapter, but it's well worth the extra effort just in case. Plug your iPhone or iPad into a computer, open up iTunes if it doesn't automatically launch and select the tiny iPhone icon in the top left of Apple's confusingly designed music software. iTunes' iPhone menu includes a "Backup" pane in the middle of this page. Select the "This computer" radio button instead of iCloud for the most secure backup method. You can switch it back afterward. Archive before downloading iOS 9 Press the "Backup Now" button on the right to manually backup your files. Backing up all of the apps on from your phone or tablet is optional and less important. I do it every once in a while. Once the backup process completes its four main steps, double check that it worked and archive it in the Preferences menu. Click on File in the top menu, Preferences, the Devices tab and right click on the latest backup. Select "Archive" to isolate this backup file so that it's not replaced by future backups. If you're extra cautious: You can click "Show in Finder" to locate the folder (with a funny gibberish name) and drop it into an external hard drive. Download iOS 9 beta software profile Apple requires downloading and installing an iOS 9 beta configuration profile in order to get the new operating system up and running. Select Download Profile from beta.Apple.com/profile via your device's Safari mobile browser, not your computer. It also won't work on Chrome for iOS or any other browser from the App Store. I tried. You may have to log into your Apple account in order to access this page. You'll know it worked once it asks you to "Choose a Device" in a menu. Select iPhone or iPad. Installing it on Apple Watch does nothing at the moment since there's no WatchOS 2 public beta. Select "Install" in the top right corner of the iOS 9 beta software profile menu and enter your phone or tablet's passcode. Agree to the consent form you'll never actually read and hit Install. A restart is required in order to apply the changes, so select "Restart" in order to make that happen. The profile is now installed and you're ready to update to iOS 9. Download iOS 9 public beta Once your iPhone or iPad restarts, everything looks the same. That's because you're still running iOS 8. Navigate to the Settings menu, select General, Software Update and you'll see iOS 9 Public Beta 1. Download and install this 1.4 GB file, which thankfully requires less free space than iOS 8's 4 GB. This prompts you for your passcode once more and asks you to read over Terms and Conditions you'll blindly agree to, anyway. You may see "Update Requested..." and have to wait several minutes for Apple's servers to deliver the beta firmware update. In my latest attempt, that took me 6 minutes, while the download over Wi-Fi took 22 minutes (it had said "35 minutes remaining" at first). Install iOS 9 beta With the iOS 9 beta downloaded onto your device, you'll see a prompt to install the software update. It'll automatically install in 10 seconds if you don't select "Later" or "Update" first. It'll read "Verifying update..." and don't be alarmed if it fails. My first four iOS 9 beta install attempts came back with "Unable to Install Update," telling me "An error occurred install iOS 9 Beta 1." Try, try and try again. After three increasingly nervous attempts at re-hitting "Install Now," the verification finally went through and my iPhone 6 restarted on its own. The install and restart took a full 19 minutes, leaving me in the all-too-familiar iOS update white screen limbo until it completed. Setup iOS 9 You're almost there. Continue through the Update Completed menu, log into iCloud with your Apple ID, decide whether or not to share diagnostics with app developers and you're done. There are many subtle new iOS 9 features that you won't see at first. This isn't a full blown refresh like iOS 7 was, and isn't as feature-rich as iOS 8. It's more about stability this time around. However, you will notice a big change to the Spotlight Search menu that lies to the left of the home screens, and you can enable new Siri suggestions, nearby attractions and news items. News is also a new app that needs to be set up, and it works almost exactly like Flipboard. You can select your favorite topics and publications and read news delivered in a stylish format. You can read all about the new iOS 9 features that are found within this beta or set to arrive in the final version alongside iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. iOS 9 beta troubleshooting There are a number of problems you may run into when installing the iOS 9 public beta. I ran into many of them on both the iPhone and iPad. At first, Apple's servers took forever to deliver the install file. Downloading it on an iPhone during non-peak hours helped alleviate this problem. Failed verifications presented the same issue. Don't fret if the iOS 9 update takes up to a half hour to install and restart your device. You won't be able to use it at that time. That's all normal, too. What simply waiting a few minutes can't fix are the inevitable bugs you'll see with the iOS 9 public beta. A few app crashes and design glitches (see the search bar running into the top status bar). But that just defines being an early adopter. Here's what to expect from iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus

How to backup your iPhone and iPad to save your iOS data Posted: 11 Jul 2015 03:20 PM PDT How to backup your iPhone and iPad Data loss is a fact of life - you drop your phone, it hits the ground, shatters to pieces, and chances are you lost the majority of your data on the device. Thankfully, we have services like iCloud that automatically backup your data, making it easily retrievable in the case of a shattered or damaged smartphone. Unfortunately, it isn't the best solution for backing up data, particularly because Apple just isn't the best when it comes to cloud services. Security is a big concern with iCloud, and if you ever want to get more storage, it's quite pricey compared to competitors. The company also gives you a mere 5GB of cloud storage that it's hardly possible to backup all of the pertinent data on your iOS device, especially if you have a large photo library full of special moments you want to keep. That said, there are plenty of other ways to make sure your data is safe by backing up your files across a few free services. The first step is, of course, making sure you have a backup of your device on your PC or MacBook. iTunes To get started, plug your iPhone into your computer and open up iTunes. From there, select File > Devices > Transfer Purchases. This will save all of the content you've purchased via the App Store or iTunes Store on your computer. Wait for iTunes to finish transferring your purchases, and then select File > Devices > Backup. iTunes will begin backing up your device. Depending on how much data you're backing up, this could take some time. After it's finished, make sure it was a successful backup by heading into iTunes Preferences > Devices. You should see all of your backups with your device name and the date and time the process finished. Now you have a backup on your computer that you can always revert back to in the event of data loss. However, it's good to make sure that you have a copy or two of this backup sitting in the cloud somewhere. You never know when your computer could fail you, too. Drive Google Drive is a great place to backup a lot of content, mainly because of the 15GB of free storage you get with your Google account. That's more than enough to handle important documents along with a robust photo library. The first step is to download the Google Drive application for Windows or Mac. Since I'm primarily a Windows user at the moment, I'm using the Windows version, but it shouldn't be too hard to follow along if you're a Mac user. The second step is to run Google Drive. You don't need your phone plugged in since iTunes already backed up all of your files. It'll ask you to sign-in and then run you through a fairly short setup wizard. Follow the steps, and click "Done" once you're finished. Google Drive should now be on your computer and the Google Drive folder it created will automatically open via your native file explorer. Google Drive isn't your traditional backup service, but it works just as well, mainly because of how simple it is to sync files. In your file explorer, head on over to: Users/Username/AppData/Roaming/Apple Computer/MobileSync/Backup Find your latest backup, right click it, press copy, select your Google Drive folder, and press paste. Your backup should now be uploading to Drive, and depending on internet speed and how big the backup file is, this could take some time. For Mac users, you'll want to go to: Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup Then just copy and paste the backup folder in your Google Drive folder, as instructed above. However, it could be a bit more complicated finding your backup. To get specifics on either Windows or Mac, open up iTunes and head on over to iTunes Preferences > Devices. Either Control click or right click the backup you want, and click Show in Folder or Finder. It should take you to the exact location where your backup is. Keep in mind that if you ever lose the backup on your computer, you can download your extra copy from Google Drive, but you'll need to make sure to put it in the exact same file location you got it from. Dropbox and iCloud Google Drive is a great option for those who need a lot of free storage, but if you aren't a heavy power user, Dropbox and iCloud are great places to keep your data. With Dropbox you only get 2GB of free storage for signing up, but setup is very similar to Google Drive since the two services work much the same. Head on over to Dropbox.com, sign-up for an account, and download the correct version for your operating system. It'll take you through the setup wizard, and once you're done, just like you did above, you can copy your backups and paste them in the Dropbox folder, putting it in the cloud. Dropbox certainly isn't for the power user, but it's a great place to keep a third backup if something were to ever happen to your other two options. And of course, even though iCloud isn't the best for keeping your device backed up, it's always good to have turned on, as it makes setting up a new device or restoring apps after a reset a seamless process. I just wouldn't put all of my faith in it to alone to house pertinent files. It's good to make sure you have various copies across services. To make sure you're set up with iCloud, unlock your device, head into Settings > iCloud, and ensure all of the apps, documents and data you want in the cloud are actively being backed up. For some apps, such as Notes and Mail, you'll need to create a free @icloud.com email address. Hardware If you're really paranoid about losing data, even after you've put backups in the cloud, you can always go the traditional route and put backups on hardware, such as external hard drives and USB thumb drives. It works virtually the same way as putting your data on the cloud. Only, instead of pasting the backup in your Google Drive or Dropbox folder, you'll need to find your external hardware device in your file explorer and paste it in there. Preventive Measures It's very rare that software bugs out and messes up your data, at least as far as integrated devices go. Most data loss actually happens due to hardware failure, human error, or people dropping their devices on the ground, shattering them. You can almost never avoid hardware failure, but there are ways to make sure your devices are protected against accidents. Apple's devices can be slippery, particularly with the company's latest rounded designs. That said, it's always best to have a case around your phone, and if you're worried about making sure your device stays "stylish," there are some great cases out there for iPhones and iPads. As a rule of thumb, it's good to make sure your devices aren't around water. If you're out on a boat this summer, throw your iPhone in a ziploc baggy and leave the tablet at home and enjoy the weather. If all else fails, there are ways to recover your data, but it's a lengthy process and requires a team of professionals. Not only that, it's also quite pricey. Most of the time, data recovery company DriveSavers can recover your data if your device is broken. They have one of the highest success rates in the industry and a quick turnaround time. Again, DriveSavers is quite pricey, but if you need some very sensitive data off of your iPhone or iPad, it might just be worth it to grab an estimate and make sure your files are backed up in various places next time. Conclusion These days, data is massively important in our lives:we might be carrying around sensitive financial documents for businesses on our devices or it could be a timeless photo of your child in his or her infancy. Either way, our data is just as important to us as physical items are, and they should be put away safely on the shelf, or in this case, in the cloud. What are some ways you keep your data safely backed up?

iPods getting spec update, new colours next week Posted: 11 Jul 2015 06:22 AM PDT It looks like Apple isn't ready to let the iPod die off just yet: French website iGen reports that new models are arriving on 14 July with upgraded processors for the iPod touch models. Those new colours we got a glimpse of a couple of weeks ago are apparently going to be available, and the cosmetic refresh is going to cover the whole line: iPod touch, iPod nano and iPod shuffle. The smaller models won't get spec bumps, iGen says, but the touch is going to get a 64-bit upgrade on the 32-bit A5 it currently sports. The sound of music devices None of this has yet been confirmed by Apple, but the 14 July date is based on code spotted inside the latest iTunes 12.2 software. Apple has traditionally unveiled new iPods in September. With the recently launched Apple Music to promote, it seems the tech firm is eager to redouble its efforts on music hardware as well - even if most of us are using our smartphones as jukeboxes these days. Keep your eyes on the Apple Store on Tuesday if you think you might be in the market for some new iPod devices. Gold, dark blue and bright pink colours are expected to be added to the line-up. 5 issues we want Apple Music to fix

Roundup: 7 great TV shows to watch this weekend Posted: 11 Jul 2015 04:09 AM PDT Having a seemingly endless number of shows at your fingertips seems like a very good thing, but it can also make the decision process a heck of a lot harder. So if you're planning some down time this weekend, we've rounded up a list of some of the best TV shows to spend some time with, covering both the UK and US. If you want specific rundowns of the best shows for Netflix, you can find that here. And here's a list of our top picks from Amazon Prime. Mr Robot The much-hyped and atmospheric new series from the USA Network tells the story of a socially anxious hacker who uses his spare time correcting ethically immoral situations. Christian Slater guest stars and relative newcomer Rami Malek is the stand-out Robin Hood-style hacker with a social conscience. Contains realistic hacking shots (say it ain't so), nods to Anonymous, and a dark, broody central character. The show has already been renewed for its second season, although it remains to be seen how well season one fares. Out in the US now via The USA Network, hopefully coming to the rest of world soon. Sense 8 The Wachowskis' first foray into TV is a mind-bending and sometimes bonkers series. It features a range of diverse characters, who suddenly link together telepathically because Daryl Hannah, but this immediately puts them in danger for which they are ill-prepared to deal with. Luckily, their combined skill set is what they need to overcome their enemies, along with plenty of sex and violence. The show carries a slightly spooky cyberpunk ethos, with a bit of hacking thrown in. The whole season is available on Netflix to binge-watch now. Defiance Defiance is a show about a struggling town of battle-worn inhabitants, comprised of alien and human species, that united during the Pale wars when aliens first invaded Earth. The power plays, lingering bad feelings and government rebellions provide a rich canvas for a futuristic version of our planet. For a convincing sci-fi show with lots of cool alien tech, strong performances and a solid story arc, it's not to be missed. Season 3 is out now on Syfy. Humans Humans is set in a parallel universe where artificially-created synthetic humanoids are the new must-have accessory. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty, apparently, although the series has felt a a little slow in bringing tension so far. Based on a Swedish series called Real Humans, this promising effort stars William Hurt, Gemma Chan and Katherine Parkinson. Available on demand on Channel 4 in the UK and AMC in the US. Arrow There's more than one reason this show makes our list: good weapons, cool gadgets and awesome comic hero crossovers. Perhaps the main reason to watch is largely down to Felicity Smoak, seen here at the right hand of millionaire rich kid playboy-by-day and saviour of the city by night Oliver Queen, aka Arrow. She is the super-clever computer geek in heels who saves everyone's bacon more than once with her hacking skills, physics knowledge and electronics talent. Her character also crosses over to DC Comics sister show The Flash to help out Starlabs when they need someone more capable on the keys. Available to watch on the CW channel in the US. Pro Gamers Part of the shorts season on Channel 4, a series of 3-4 minute videos catch up with the people who make money out of online gaming. From Minecraft to Call of Duty, eSports and Cosplay the series seeks to highlight the reason for eSports popularity, providing an insight into both the culture around eSports and the personalities that drive them. However, no interview with PewDiePie as of yet. 'Pro Gamers' is available on Channel 4's on demand service. Person of Interest Jim Caviezel stars as John Reese, the person of interest who is enlisted by shadowy business geek Harold Finch (played by former Lost actor and Emmy Award winner, Michael Emerson) to help him be the muscle to make the world a better place. Finch has created a complex piece of software that trawls surveillance of all kinds and pieces the patterns together to predict when crime will happen. Only, there's just one problem: the police don't like them beating up the bad guys or acting suspiciously at crime scenes. Academy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson is the detective tasked with finding out who these new vigilantes are and exactly whose side they are on. As the seasons progress, the software and technology take a more central point of interest.

Review: Updated: Apple Watch Posted: 11 Jul 2015 03:50 AM PDT Introduction Update: There's an Apple Watch update launching this fall called WatchOS 2, so this revised review takes that into account. It'll opens up the Taptic Engine, Digital Crown, microphone and even more for developers, meaning apps should be better suited to function on your wrist. Transit directions come with iOS 9. The Apple Watch update also opens up Wi-Fi connectivity, new watch faces with different customizable options, better Siri capabilities and email replies, and are all just a sample of the Watch OS 2 features list. Review continued below... The Apple Watch is ticking away on my wrist right now, and while it's no longer called the iWatch, it really is "my watch" and Apple's most personal gadget yet. The iPhone 5-and-up-compatible smartwatch comes in 38 flavors, with different case materials, colors, sizes and interchangeable Apple Watch bands. None are inexpensive. It starting at $349 (£299, AU$499) and peaks at an exorbitant $17,000 (£13,500, AU$24,000), making this lightweight wristwatch for impatient early adopters and boutique store regulars. Yet patience is required of all due to backed up online orders and a long-avoided launch in Apple Stores in one week. Is it worth that tough-to-swallow Apple Watch price and wait? Well, beaming apps like Messages, Mail and every iPhone notification to an always-on-hand gadget is certainly a convenience. I no longer retrieve my seemingly always-hiding iPhone 6 every time someone texts me, yet I can ping it whenever I really can't find it, usually buried beneath the couch cushions. It has easiest to use Find My iPhone app yet. Apple is supposed to be building upon this novel idea with a proposed Find My Watch feature, which is the reserve of this handy retrieval system, and an Android Wear-like "smart leashing" detector to deploy a light tap on the wrist when the wearer wanders too far from his or her phone. Apple Watch OS 1.0.1 fixed a few sensor errors and expanded the number of languages supported, and a full update is due this fall thanks to WatchOS 2 and iOS 9. Similar conveniences are carried over to the thousands of apps. Checking into a flight thanks to a wrist-mounted QR code sure beats scrambling for my phone or paper boarding pass while moving my bags up in the security line step-by-step. Those steps, it turns out, are being counted in the Apple Watch's fitness app. It's not the most comprehensive fitness tracker, but it lets me keep tabs on metrics like my steps walked, calories burned and heart rate. Surprise: I need to move more when I'm writing reviews. But not having to fetch my phone for each and every vibration in my pocket is very much a luxury rather than a necessity, and not one every iPhone user needs - at least for the current asking price. Why buy an Apple Watch? Apple Watch is often oversimplified as an iPhone on your wrist, and almost everyone I have demoed it to has accidentally referred to it as "your phone." Even I slipped up once. It's not an unreasonable comparison. The square-shaped smartwatch is like a mini iPhone; it lets me read emails, summon Siri and make and receive phone calls from my wrist. The size is just right too. While many Android Wear watches look and feel chunky to most, the 42mm Apple Watch fits my wrist much more unobtrusively. An even smaller 38mm size is also available, though most people should for opt for the bigger of the two. It offers better battery life and more useable touchscreen space (but does come at a higher cost). What feels strange about writing this review is that there's no point in really comparing it to Android Wear at all. Nobody chooses a smartwatch first and then decides on which phone to go with it – no, if you're reading this review you're probably either doing it on the iPhone or with one close to hand, wondering if it adds enough convenience to be worth the extra cost. But do I need this Watch? On the one hand it's been great to change my behavior, as too many times I have instinctively run to my phone, charging in another room, because it's ringing or because the default SMS chime has turned me into one of Pavlov's dogs. How many times have I missed an important call or text? Just as important, how many times have I rushed to the phone and it was an unimportant telemarketing call or a friend replying with text that simply says "OK" to something I said three hours ago? These missed connections and potential disappointments are less insufferable thanks to the Apple Watch and its ability to either pick up or dismiss these alerts in a tenth of a second. Custom watch faces, like we've seen from Android Wear watches, are here (although only those that Apple makes, as it's sadly not permitting third parties to do the same thing), as well as new exclusive technology like the pressure-sensitive Force Touch touchscreen. There are also a large number of Apple Watch apps already, including the easy-to-use Apple Pay in the US and frequently used Uber car hailing service, equivalents of which have been slow to launch on Android Wear. What's missing? There are plenty iPhone features that aren't carried over to the wrist. Apple Watch is not a fully-fledged iPhone replacement. It makes calls, but it can't add new contacts. It listens to dictated texts and sends them as an audio message or transcription, but it doesn't have any sort of edit function. It tracks basic fitness goals, but not it's GPS-enabled, doesn't track sleep and third-party workout apps require an iPhone close by. Likewise, it can name songs through the Shazam app, but it listens with the iPhone microphone, not its own. Having to carry a phone still is a weird disappointment to a lot of people who are missing the point of a current smartwatches. "Wait, I still need my phone?" is the response I've heard from baffled people. Of course you do. The Watch isn't big enough for watching YouTube videos on its tiny display size and trying to comment on Facebook posts while pecking away on a teeny keyboard would be terrible. Who would want to don a giant watch capable of such specs or a large enough battery to run that? You still need an iPhone with you at all times, but you'll use it less than before. The bigger questions: can is do enough to be worth its price, and is it fashionable enough to wear everyday, by geek chic and non geeks alike? Let's examine the design first. Design and display Apple's build-up to the Watch's launch was all about the style, how it was forged in Ive's clean furnaces and made of angel tears (or something), and how it's capable of replacing the emotional connection thousands of us have with our current timepiece. That really depends on who you ask and which Apple Watch you're talking about. There are three models, the aluminum Sport, stainless steel Watch and gold Watch Edition. I've tried on every Apple Watch model, outside of the 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition, before ordering, but I stuck with the entry-level 42mm aluminum Apple Watch Sport in white. It's the cheapest configuration slightly more comfortable than its two posh counterparts that are made of heavier steel and gold. They vary in price and unnecessary weight more than they do in attractiveness, although when switching to the steel Watch with Milanese loop I found more people preferred the shiny exterior of the more expensive model. But if lightness is what you're after, the Sport's anodized aluminum case and Ion-X glass make it 30% lighter. It's 30g instead of the steel's 50g, and gold's 69g. That adds up on my wrist when I'm wearing this thing for 18 hours a day before the battery life is zapped. After a day of wearing the lightweight Apple Watch on my right wrist and a heavier Moto 360 on my left wrist - for testing purposes, I assure you - I almost couldn't feel the Apple Watch. For the same test with the Garmin Fenix 3 when running – a much, much larger watch – I noted the same effect, showing Apple's got the balance pretty right here. Its aluminum frame matches the iPhone build and is therefore duller than the shiny stainless steel Apple Watch, but it still goes with a steel band like the Milanese Loop just fine. A bigger problem in the future may be that the Apple Watch Sport is missing the premium sapphire crystal glass, which is supposed to be almost scratch-proof. The good news is that the Ion-X glass substitute on the Sport model has proven resilient so far. I've seen several "drop tests" videos of shattered Apple Watch Sport glass, but more relevant real-world tests would consist of minor wall and corner scraps for wearables. Geeky iPhone diehards whose equilibrium is off may want to spring for AppleCare just to be safe, but I've not seen a problem. Everything else is the same among all the models. The case sits 10.5mm off of my wrist, slightly thicker than an Android Wear watch, but it has a stylishly curved glass and rounded off corners on the top, and a small bump to its black composite back's heart rate sensor. It's reasonably thin for now, but I can already imagine Apple making a "world's thinnest smartwatch" several times over for the Apple Watch 2 and beyond. Its thickness does leave room for two large buttons, a classy sounding digital crown and an uninspiringly named "side button." Both are located on the right side for twisting and pressing through menus. A microphone and speaker are on the left side. The Apple Watch Sport band is made of fluoroelastomer, which is Apple's fancy way of saying synthetic rubber, which is supposed to be extremely durable. Time will tell. The smooth strap, available in white, black, blue, green and pink colors, feels comfortable and is easier to buckle than any prong-clasped Fitbit I've tested. It tucks the excess band in a hole so that it hides behind the beginning the strap. The difference between using the Sport model with the rubber strap and the Watch with Milanese loop felt like I was stepping up to a "proper" Watch. That's more the band than the model itself, so a swift switch between the two (providing you outlay the high cost to buy another band) is fine to improve the look. My watch came with two bands in the box, a larger and shorter size in the same white color. Changing the strap was incredibly simple and required no tooling, unlike the Moto 360. A secure fingernail tip-sized button underneath the watch releases each strap. Although many Android Wear smartwatches work with third-party 22mm bands, the transition to a new Apple Watch band is more seamless. Cheaper third-party straps are also said to be on the way. Overall, the design of the Apple Watch is probably the biggest thing it's got going for it. As one of the first to walk around wearing this new timepiece, I felt both awesome early adopter as people asked in hushed tones to see the new Watch, and embarrassed as other would see me as having paid a large amount of money for something that doesn't really do a huge amount yet, another follower of whatever Apple does just for the sake of owning it. The truth was somewhere in the middle – and after a few months, both will die down and the idea of having a smartwatch on the wrist won't seem so crazy, which will perversely help the Android Wear story too. Display Behind the Ion-X or sapphire glass of the Apple Watch sits a bright and colorful OLED. It's sharper than other smart watches, most notably the pixelated LCD of the Moto 360. It's the right screen technology for smartwatches, as OLED displays draw much less battery when showing a darker screen. With OLED only the pixels used are turned on, and fewer pixels equals less battery drain. That's why most of the Apple Watch faces are surrounded by deep black background. It also helps the colorful app icons and watch face element pop. The 38mm Apple Watch resolution is 272 x 340, while a 42mm version is 312 x 390. The bigger display's necessary extra power is offset by a larger Apple Watch battery. Apple was able to design a sharp-looking flexible OLED display for the Watch, but it didn't go as far as creating a circular screen for a truly classic watch look. Last year's Moto 360 did exactly that to the envy of iPhone owners who weren't able to get in on the modern smartwatch craze outside of the first two Pebble watches. All of Apple's flowery marketing rhetoric about reinventing the classic watch look - from digital crown to complications - didn't also translate into that that traditional round watch look, which is one of my largest criticisms with the design. I appreciate that the square is better for interacting with the Watch, but with the apps interface being spherical and 'traditional' watches just look better when round. Apple Watch is more colorful than its iPhone-connected rivals though, especially the new Pebble Time, and readable in all but the brightest sunlight. But it comes at the expense of its battery life. Battery life and clever charging Apple Watch is supposed to have 18 hours of battery life, which would translate into a full day if I were to ever keep to a normal sleeping schedule. I was able to lengthen the uptime of my watch to a full 24 hours on days in which I didn't make battery-taxing phone calls with it, or use the half-as-power-hungry heart rate monitor. I'll put it simply: I think Apple deliberately downplayed the battery life of its Watch to make sure it didn't get hit with angry users should the numbers not stack up. I've had days where I've been for a couple of hours' run and it's still easily lasted the day, and not once in the week of testing did I get to the evening approaching critical levels of power. Apple Watch depletes the battery in three hours if used for non-stop phone calls. Working out with the heart rate monitor or listening to music does the same in six hours. Conversely, just checking the time every so often boosts it to 48 hours. But you'll also need to think about the future here. Like Nokia's old attempts at smartphones, the battery life on the Watch is good because you don't find yourself wanting to play with it a lot because, well, it doesn't do a whole lot right now. That's going to change though. As developers get their hands on the Watch and start making use of the inbuilt NFC or other sensors, you'll find the battery life will drop faster as more apps start making a play for its reserves. Talking of which, a 72-hour Power Reserve mode kicks in when the Apple Watch battery reaches 0% so that it doesn't shut off completely. It only tells the time doesn't keep the fancy watch face. This sent me running to a charger since it does nothing else in this catatonic state. Making it even more perilous, it was actually a bit difficult to exit this catatonic state. The watch takes a solid minute and a half to reboot, which initially made me think I didn't know how to reboot the device and was accidentally resetting it every time. Power Reserve mode The official Apple Watch recharge time is 1.5 hours to 80% and and 2.5 hours to 100%. That's a bit slower than the average smartwatch. Moto 360 charges up in 2 hours flat. But I've been able to completely recharge my Apple Watch in the same 2-hour window. The 205mAh battery pack is predictably sealed into the device, and is smaller than the battery on other Android Wear devices. My faster-than-expected charging time may be because, at 0%, the watch still has its limited time-checking Power Reserve state to go. I had charged the watch when it and entered this special mode, so it technically had some juice left to it. Inductive charger Apple Watch's inductive magnetic charger takes cues from the company's popular MagSafe chargers, which come with all MacBook Air and MacBook Pro computers (but not the New Macbook). It combines a MagSafe magnet with an inductive charger for a wire-free solution. It helps when you're in the dark or in tight situations, like a coach seat on an airplane, and need to simply clip on a charger and be done with it. Magnets, boss. As much as I don't like having yet another type of cable to carry around, it's way better than the flimsy Pogo charger designs used by Pebble, LG, Samsung and others. It wire-free design also means that Apple Watch is sealed and is therefore water-resistant to a point. Using the Watch day to day There's something a little more complicated about this shrunken Apple product compared to the now familiar iPhone and iPad. It took a few days to wrap my head around the interface, which is surprising for an Apple product. The Watch is nowhere near as intuitive as most will expect. I immediately started receiving texts and emails on my wrist, as expected, and I could easily dismiss what wasn't vital. This sudden flurry of notifications was actually welcomed. However, to do much with these alerts, I had to learn to bounce between three menus: watch face, app launcher and glances, and the methods of flicking between them doesn't feel natural. This learning for users curve exists because the software tries to do too much at once, and smartwatches offer extremely limited interface real estate. Plus, the Apple Watch is part of a brand new product category for everyone. Remembering to swipe down to see my backlog of notifications or swipe up to see my pinned "Glances" widgets is complicated by the fact that this only works when in the watch face menu. It doesn't work in any other app or the app launcher menu, where with the iPhone swiping up or down is pervasive. Sometimes I hit the side button because it looks like the iPhone sleep/wake button only to realize that it brings up my contacts list. Pressing in the digital crown does the trick here. Double tapping the crown will switch between apps, but it's a soft press and doesn't always feel like it's registered, and the easiest way to get back to time is to let the watch dangle by the wrist and then bring it back up again. That's not intuitive, and is the sort of thing that gives the Watch naysayers (of which there appear to be a few) ammunition when you're having to jump through hoops just to tell them the time on your watch. There's also the issue of slowdown that flickers intermittently throughout Watch use, with opening the settings menu the biggest offender. Hit the teeny icon (you can scroll the digital crown to make things bigger, but that feels like an odd extra step) and you're greeting with icons that have no words next to them, and a couple of seconds later everything blinks into view. The same happens with most lists, where using the digital crown to scroll through is fluid, using the finger (the more intuitive way to do things) lags and jumps a bit. As first generation software, it's just not always as intuitive as it could be. Luckily, the setup is fairly seamless. I booted up my iPhone's Watch app, which came with iOS 8.2, and it asked me to take a photo of my new Apple Watch. Done. It was paired. Syncing my existing apps happened automatically too, but took a couple of minutes. After that, I was able to customize my watch face and load up a springboard of circular apps. The device connects using a weird fusion of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but unlike the phone, you can't use Bluetooth when the Watch is in flight mode, which makes Bluetooth music streaming a no-no when in mid-air. The My Watch menu within the iPhone companion app is astonishingly complex, which may end up being a good thing once I get the hang of it but will displease Apple fans who crave simplicity, where the thing just works. I can disable notifications for specific apps and just about every setting can be mirrored from the iPhone or be set up individually, from Do Not Disturb to Messages notifications. Texts can repeat twice all the way up to ten times if I hate myself. Apple Watch doesn't contain all of the intricate gears of a Swiss watch, but it has a lot of moving parts to its software. It has taken a few days to learn and configure to my liking, but I feel as though the less-interested iPhone audience, like my new smartphone-owning parents, needs to wait until it's further refined and more apps come to the Apple Watch app store. A brilliant new breed of apps The Apple Watch needs a headline feature, and while it doesn't really have it yet (beyond sending random pictures to other Watch-wearers) the apps that live on it are going to be the real reason to buy one. Sure, they're not there yet, but the in-built choices and first goes from third parties are pretty good already, meaning this is a device with a lot of potential. Watch faces Apple's watch faces take advantage of the pressure sensitive Force Touch display. Holding down on the glass, with a bit of exertion, zooms out of the current watch face and loads up a gallery of faces, from the information-packed Modular to the toe-tapping Mickey Mouse. Utility ended up being my favorite because it was simple, yet fit all of my customizations. These let me insert information snippets onto the watch face, such as the full date, my next calendar appointment or the sunrise and sunset time if I really wanted to know daily. Most faces make room for smaller, pre-select spaces in the corners too. These let me display the critical Apple Watch battery life percentage, my daily fitness graph and the time in another city, which has been great for traveling. There are "millions" of combinations, according to Apple, but these custom pre-determined spaces can't be moved around and, in reality, there are just ten faces. Apple has yet to open up its watch face API to developers and it's currently banning third-party faces. Apple has to catch up to Android Wear here as it's one of the things I love about Android Wear (the Goldeneye and PacMan faces are real crowd pleasers) and if Apple is serious about making the Watch personal, being able to choose more faces is a must. Built-in apps Apps, on the other hand, are open to developers, and it shows. There are loads are launch, and the best Apple Watch apps are those from Apple itself. Siri answered my basic questions, like "who is the governor of New York" and "when in the next Phillies game." Anything more in-depth than that, and the silent virtual assistant proposes you "handoff" to your iPhone. Apple's built-in timer let me set the timer for cooking and the laundry, without requiring me to take out my iPhone (which were in my other jeans). Passbook worked flawlessly at the airport (although be prepared for the 'Early Adopter' syndrome when you try and check in at a desk where the attendant has no idea why you want to use your watch) and Apple Pay enabled me to buy food at McDonald's (for testing purposes) while I continued to play on my smartphone. Apple Pay on a phone? That's so 2014. We're still waiting for the payment to come to markets other than the US, with the UK set to receive the update sometime in 2015, so that function isn't going to be of use to everyone. But a real USP of the Watch would be that runners who have left the phone at home can still get vital hydration or a ride home in an emergency thanks to the contactless capabilities of the Watch. Well, that's if I'd ever use the Apple Watch as a standalone running device, which I'd struggle to at the moment (more on that later). There's no camera on the Apple Watch, but it doesn't have a Camera Remote app that let me snap photos remotely in conjunction with my iPhone's iSight camera. That was handy, unlike the actual Photos app, which was a tiny way to look at your photos from the phone. The watch isn't a particular visual experience and it's restricted by its 8GB of internal storage (with about 6GB available), with Music running into the same dilemma, so controlling your iPhone's music collection is a better choice. That said, you can pair a set of Bluetooth headphones and tell your iPhone to shove some of your playlists over to the Watch. However the most you can have on there is 2GB of music (which you have to change from the 1GB default) so this is no iPod replacement. It's good for music when you're out running though, and is a nice touch from Apple letting you choose between the phone and Watch for audio pleasure. Apple Maps on Apple Watch let me navigate the streets of New York City without forcing me to foolishly take out my iPhone at every new turn, like a tourist. The iPhone app also opened up in my pocket, just in case I needed to change up the directions or see the route in full. No, there sadly isn't a native Google Maps app here and no metro directions. Maybe with iOS 9. Calls and messages Calling someone through an Apple Watch isn't the most ideal way to talk to chums, especially in a noisy environment. It sounds like a speaker phone with a little more static. But it works well in an otherwise quiet location or when your phone is two floors above you. The Apple Watch side button leads to a dedicated "favorite contacts" menu, which let me text and call my friends and family. I found sending a speech-to-text transcription a bit easier on the Apple Watch than any Android Wear watch. Apple's way of doing it doesn't rudely cut me off and hurriedly send a broken text message when I stop mid-sentence. I actually get to think about what I want to say. I value that distinction. Apple Watch users have the added bonus of including very simple sketches and attention-grabbing taps to other Watch owners using the timepiece's Taptic feedback vibration. Heartbeats can also be exchanged for what may be the weirdest / creepiest Apple Watch feature. It's novel at first, but after receiving my tenth heartbeat from the same few People Watch owners, it has become fairly annoying. Third-party apps Apple Watch apps from developers are hit or miss when it comes to design and performance. I can request a car with Uber, receive breaking news alerts from CNN and track my lost wallet with the Title app on Apple Watch. But many of them are read-only apps. Instagram is here, but you can only see a few recent posts and comments are limited to emojis at the moment. Twitter, the New York Times and Nike+ Running made the jump to Apple Watch, but a number of other essential third-party apps are missing, at least in native form. This includes Facebook, Google Maps and the iOS Gmail app, which forced me to switch back to Apple's default mail app. Sure, Facebook main app notifications pop up on the watch, as do emails snippets from the Gmail app, but seeing anything beyond "Lily posted a comment on your timeline" or reading the full email requires an iPhone for now. Worse, getting two Facebook comments or emails makes it even more vague. "You have two messages." That's less than helpful, Apple Watch. Thanks. This is unlike Instagram's native app or Apple's built-in Mail app with interactive controls on the wrist. Many third-party apps need to load faster and include finer controls that go far beyond "Show App on Apple Watch." This is up to developers and over time I'm sure some really great apps will begin to appear that take advantage of this new tech location. Running and fitness tracking Apple Watch isn't a fitness band, watch or fashion accessory, despite taking a bit from each of those camps. It's hard to define what it really is, which means that users may struggle to justify the purchase. What has saddened me in the time since launch is finding out that Apple won't be selling it properly into the health market. Apparently early tests to add in a stress sensor and blood pressure monitor failed, (beautifully partly because of hairy arms) so the Apple Watch - at least version one - will be a cut down version of what it could have been. The fitness tracking is comprehensive (in as much a fitness tracker can be) in that it wants you to exercise for 30 minutes per day, stand for at least a minute for 12 hours and burn enough calories every 24 hours. It'll also tell you steps and distance travelled, which is a staple of the tracker. But like these trackers, it's pointless. I'm not saying that it doesn't help clue you in on sedentary habits, but nearly every person who isn't already active, but would like to be, will go through these phases: jumping to attention whenever the Watch tells them to stand, poring over their data to see how well they've done and making sure all the rings get filled. Until the day they don't. Then a sense of guilt wanders in. So our hero promises to redouble their efforts, walking further the next day to make up for it. Except they inevitably slip again and then guilt roars higher. Then it's a couple of days with unfilled rings, and the nudges from the Watch become unfriendly. Why have you bought something that's telling you that you're not fulfilling your goals all day long? The Watch also constantly told me to stand up just minutes after sitting down, which gave me very little trust in the app. I know this is an extreme case, and many people are capable of ignoring the messages, but that misses the point. While a device that can act like a coach is good, if it was a person the goals would change each day. They'd be linked to a challenge, would increase or vary over time – it would give victory to this gamification. And that's the very, very big problem I have with the Apple Watch when comparing it to a running watch: it's far too basic to be considered a rival to a Garmin or Polar device, and for the new user it doesn't have any way of helping you get fitter. Starting up the Workout app and you've got a pleasing amount of options to choose from, with elliptical and rowing machines bound to attract those people that "always mean to use them things at the gym." But running is the main focus, with Apple joining up with Christy Turlington-Burns to show how she trained for the London Marathon using the Apple Watch. Perhaps she honestly did the entire time, but she would probably have wished for a more in-depth device during the training. The Apple Watch will ask you how many calories you wish to burn, how far you'd like to go or how long you'd like to run for (or just an open-ended goal) and then off you pop, with rings appearing to let you know how close to your goal you are. But that's it. And it's up to you to improve, with "beating your best time / burn / distance" the only thing the Apple Watch will let you do. If this is for the beginner then it should be giving you different workouts to keep things interesting, helping you progress to improved running power. There are so many apps out there which can do the same thing, so why can't Apple nail this area? There's also the fact GPS isn't on board, so unless the phone is tethered you won't get accurate data. Actually, even with the phone in a bag, pocket or pouch the GPS is still a little on the generous side, compared the Garmin Fenix 3 which I tested against. Over a 5KM run, the Garmin was a shade under the distance, but Apple added another 160m onto the distance. The heart rate monitor is also not up to the task. It needs a much tighter fit than the Watch seems to be able to offer and when running, and checking to see how hard I was working, the monitor constantly showed a much higher BPM than the chest strap was showing. This means users will get erratic results, and it's not possible to tell when you're overtraining and the heart rate soars at low levels of exercise, which again makes the Apple Watch not great for training if you don't invest a little. One thing that did impress me is that it can connect to sensors, so adding in a heart rate monitor like the Wahoo Tickr X, which can connect to nearly every device going, which instantly improved the health chops of the Apple Watch. But having to fork out to improve a certain area when you've already paid so much for the Watch isn't going to impress everyone. You can use other apps here but they won't work without the phone connected, which again makes them slightly redundant. That said, for those running with a phone religiously bandaged to their arm (which is a lot of people) the second screen on the wrist is a really nice addition, opening up your pace and distance info in real time when before you wouldn't know anything until you finished your jaunt. All this leaves me feeling like the Apple Watch 3 will be a brilliant running watch, when there are enough sensors and apps from third parties can use them to bring all the power of their standalone devices to the wrists of people who don't really care about running, Trojan Horsing a clever running plan into their lives. But for now, it's hard to recommend the Watch as a fitness device unless all you want to do is be poked to stand up once in a while. Verdict The constant question I had when writing this review is: what's the Apple Watch actually for? It's one thing to get one in for a review, another when you've got no reason to buy one other than it looks a bit fancy. The Apple Watch both surprised and disappointed in that respect, with some things impressing me with their intuition (being able to add in heart rate monitors was a nice touch, and the overall polish of the interface on the OLED display wasn't something I was expecting from a first gen product). Some things didn't work as well as I'd have liked (I was surprised that the interface was so fiddly for an Apple product) but they were relatively few. We liked The overall look and feel of the Apple Watch, as with most products from Cupertino, was a major plus for me. The last thing you want is a watch that you have to apologize for visually just so you can find out when Ebay has found some things you might like to bid on without having to get your phone out of the pocket. Having used a number of smartwatches over the last two years, there's something about the slickness of the Apple Watch that appeals. Yes, it doesn't do a huge amount right now, but no smartwatch does, and Apple is primed to get the best of the developers' produce - in just the same way as the iPhone and iPad did - to get the apps that will really supercharge the Watch. And once you've bought the Watch and got over the high price, it is a genuinely useful thing to have around at times. Being able to check when you've got a message or see who's calling and be able to make snap decisions feels like the future, especially when exercising or in another situation where grabbing your phone isn't easy. We disliked The Apple Watch feels exactly like you'd expect it to: a first attempt. Apple's fused its own design ethos with the limited technology around at the moment to make a compelling smartwatch - but it's still a smartwatch, a device that doesn't really have an easy answer when your pals ask 'So, what's so good about that?'. The fact the time isn't always showing on the face isn't brilliant either - while the wrist raise is among the most infallible I've encountered, there are still times when I'm lying down, want to know the time and have to tap the watchface to find out. When the old technology beats the new, that's where a problem needs to be solved. And while I find it hard to even bang the 'Apple has made a product that costs more than it should' drum again, this is still a very expensive luxury. You don't need it in the same way a smartphone is a necessity, and unlike the iPad, it's more expensive than the competition by some distance. The fitness angle feels underpowered at the moment too - there's a lot of potential there, but the Apple Watch is not something I'd recommend to anyone that's serious about getting into shape... unless they're desperate for all the other elements this device offers too. Final Verdict For iPhone users desperate for a smartwatch, the Apple Watch is perfect for you. It relays some iOS apps and all notifications to my wrist without requiring me to constantly pull out and unlock my phone, and that's a nicely convenient thing to have. This concept is going to become more useful when the hype dies down and new apps emerge, as the best smartwatches work better as an unexciting fashion piece or fitness tracker that fades into the background. That contrasts with an iPhone or an iPad that you constantly pull out to play with in an idle few minutes, and ironically by being better connected with the Watch you'll hopefully start to rid yourself of the smartphone addiction. If you're asking why it can't play YouTube or take photos, you're really missing the point. It's a time-telling and time-saving convenience, though one that still requires a nearby iPhone and a hefty sum to buy. The Apple Watch price is rightfully getting mixed reviews from fans. That's why I ultimately recommend the cheapest aluminum Apple Watch Sport with another band for the moments when you want to look more 'grown up'. It has same dimensions, functionality and battery life as the pricey steel and gold models and when you look lustily at the inevitably improved Apple Watch 2, you won't lose as much money when you stuff this one straight on Ebay.

Huawei's Nexus will come with an Android app store for China Posted: 11 Jul 2015 03:17 AM PDT We first heard rumours that Huawei is in line to produce the new Nexus back at the end of February, and since then plenty of anonymous sources have been queueing up to confirm such a device is indeed on the cards. This weekend there's another report that a Huawei-made Nexus is indeed on the way, with an extra tidbit of information - the companies are also busy working on an Android app store for China. The Google Play Store isn't available in China due to government regulations, with Android users having to turn to third-party libraries for their apps. It sounds like Google wants to fix this with Huawei's help. Watch this space The new write-up from The Information also adds that Google is offering its expertise to Huawei as the manufacturer develops its new smartwatch and other devices. Huawei gets plenty of exposure in western markets from the deal as it looks to expand its operations worldwide, so it's a partnership that makes sense from both sides. We're also expecting a smaller Nexus to appear from LG before the year is out, and the new devices may well keep the 5 and 6 monikers already in use. Any incoming hardware should appear around the same time that Android M gets officially pushed out. Huawei said to be working on a Mate 8-style Nexus and its own OS

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