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• How to take notes like a pro
• Reddit cracks down on obscene content after shake-ups
• Review: Pebble Time
• New Lexus hoverboard video needs less talking, more action
• Updated: Windows 10: release date, price, news and features
• INTERVIEW: Myth vs. reality: Everything you ever need to know about audio
• Amazon loved its first Prime Day, even though you probably didn't
• Future iPhones, Galaxies may mark the end of SIM cards as we know them
• iOS Tips: How to make a ringtone for iPhone on OS X Yosemite and iOS
• You have a month to downgrade to Windows 8.1 if Windows 10 isn't right for you
• Review: Acer CB280HK
• Apple patents tech that checks your bank account to target ads
• Oculus Rift's Touch controllers just got a huge boost
• Review: Updated: Amazon Fire TV Stick
• Review: Updated: Amazon Fire TV
• UPDATED: HBO Now: Everything you need to know about HBO's standalone service
• Ex-Apple staffers launch Moov Now, a fitness tracker that tells you how to get in shape
• Marshall just announced a smartphone, its least rock 'n' roll move ever
• Motorola is about to announce something big, but what?
• Review: Panasonic G7

How to take notes like a pro Posted: 16 Jul 2015 06:06 PM PDT How to take notes like a pro Taking notes isn't like tying a shoelace... there's more than one way to do it. Not only does everyone have a slightly unique way of approaching note taking, but the methods also vary depending on what you're taking notes for. Is there a right way? No -- but that doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of great techniques that can make your note-taking more efficient. Taking better notes isn't just for students at school or university either; it's a skill that follows you into the workplace. At TechRadar we're constantly taking notes. Some of us use apps like AudioNote to jot down key points on our phones while recording audio; some of us use iPads with rubber pen-like styluses; some have Bluetooth pens such as the Livescribe 3 Smartpen; some have transcription programs and standalone recorders and some of us still like to, on occasion, use the high-tech ballpoint pen with a plain-old paper notepad. (Image credit: tinyurl.com/TLA36-Notebook-Couch.) Less is more There are a wide variety of tools that will allow you to take notes more efficiently but first, it's worth looking at ways to make the notes you're taking better. For a class or meeting that requires you to process some complex information, the best advice for improved note taking is to take less. Taking effective notes requires a discerning eye to know what details are important to remember in order to explain or outline the topic effectively. This may be hard to do if you don't already have a decent background knowledge of the subject; something you think is a crucial detail may just be context for a smaller point and vice versa. However, actually taking fewer notes initially will help free up some mental capacity to engage with the topic better. If you are worried about missing stuff, take an audio recording of the meeting or lecture and make more comprehensive notes on it later. (Image credits: tinyurl.com/TLA36-ColourfulNotes.) Synthesize After a few encounters with a specific topic, you should be able to pick out what's important. Writing good notes when you're actually in a meeting or presentation (as opposed to returning to a recording later) can save time, but don't attempt to cover everything in detail; fewer notes will allow you to engage more with the content. Writing down topics and subtopics is a good general technique, as this will help you conceptualize different parts of the bigger picture and how they fit together. Doing a mind map, or following what's known as the Cornell Method, will help you synthesize the important information quickly. Under the Cornell Method, you put a vertical line down the page about one third of the way across, creating one small and one large column. The small column on the left is for key words or headings and the bigger column on the right is where you can expand on the important aspects of the topic. (Image credit: tinyurl.com/TLA36-IQmatrix) Pictures Draw diagrams, pull images from the web and use colours. A 1,000 word magazine article with no pictures is like a toffee apple without the toffee. Images are interesting, and if you have images that contribute in some way to your notes, you're far more likely to re-read them and be more engaged. Using colours can also be a subtle way to give your notes an added depth and will help you remember how things are organised. Getting a sense of it We have five senses, which means five different types of ways we can learn things. As much as you may think that you're only using your eyes (and maybe your ears) when you write notes, your brain is actually taking in everything that you're doing, and attempting to bind it to what you're learning. So, one of the best pieces of advice for taking notes is to vary your sources. Use videos, text and images, but when possible, try to bring in elements of touch, smell and taste too. It sounds a little silly, but all these types of information are processed in different parts of the brain, and having different knowledge types can creates more triggers for remembering things. (Image credit: tinyurl.com/TLA36-LotsOfNotes.) Note Taking Software There're a number of PC and mobile applications available that tap into and expand on these note-taking tips, ranging from simple and clean, single-font typing apps to full subscription word-processing and transcription services. Like many apps, lots of the free and inexpensive options focus on doing one thing right -- which is normally a good way to go. Though, as there's no 'silver bullet' for note taking, it can take quite a bit of versatility to just do notes right. Versatility is a core component of our favourite note-taking platform, Evernote and underpins its longstanding reputation as the best free -- and optional premium subscription -- note taking application out there. If you haven't used Evernote before, we've taken a quick look at some to the ways this app lets you interact with your notes. (Image credit: tinyurl.com/TLA36-IQmatrix) Evernote: Features The note window has a simplified word processing layout with a few added extras, like the ability to attach reminders to specific notes (like to-do-lists) or to view your notes in a presentation mode. It's capable of annotating PDF files directly, attaching important documents to notes and you can record audio without leaving the app. Another major bonus is the web clipper extension, which sits in an easily-accessible location on your browser and can rip information from web pages in either its original format, or as a simplified text-and-images only article. If you're often using the web for research, this feature is a serious time saver. Evernote: Add ons Evernote also has a huge amount of extensions and affiliate apps like Skitch, Penultimate and Scannable. These apps are just a few of the hundreds available, but they'll allow you to expand the power of Evernote even further. If you're a mind mapper, Skitch is a simple application (available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android) that's hard to beat for mixing drawings with small blocks of text. It has all the basics you could want; arrows, text boxes, colours and symbols, and Skitch will also let you import an image or diagram as a background or insert. Penultimate is an iPad note-taking app for those who want the familiarity of handwriting without having to carry notebooks and ballpoint pens. You can download skins that look like you're working in genuine ruled paper notebooks and there's a choice of styles, tailored for different tasks. You'll need to BYO stylus for best effect, though. Lastly, Scannable is an iPhone app that can find a document on a table using your phone's camera, then scan and crop it automatically before letting you export it to wherever you like. The app itself only performs optical character recognition on business cards, but by exporting to Evernote you can do larger documents, leaving you with searchables PDF that live alongside your other notes. Evernote Evernote, much like traditional pen and paper, is organised via notebooks. Through the ability to search these notebooks using text, and by adding tags to specific notes, you can effectively store and use a thousand-times the amount possible from paper notebooks. The capacity to manage large volumes of notes -- and the versatility to take many different kinds of notes -- gives Evernote a presence that is almost as tangible as (and even more convenient than) an actual notebook. If you're serious about taking killer notes, then Evernote is our pick -- it gets even more powerful as you accumulate more notes and once you've mastered how to use it, there really are very few equivalents.

Reddit cracks down on obscene content after shake-ups Posted: 16 Jul 2015 04:45 PM PDT Reddit's new CEO Steve Huffman has a tough job on his hands. He's going to try and corral the site's angry, confused and betrayed masses with a new set of community guidelines that, according to an Ask Me Anything (AMA) held on Thursday, are a "set of additional restrictions on what people can say on Reddit—or at least say on our public pages—in the spirit of our mission." Huffman, one of the two original co-founders and one of the first CEOs at Reddit, laid out six "types of content" that will effectively be banned sometime in the near future and will be enforced by community moderators as well as the staff of Reddit. These types of content are prohibited: Spam Anything illegal (i.e. things that are actually illegal, such as copyrighted material. Discussing illegal activities, such as drug use, is not illegal) Publication of someone's private and confidential information Anything that incites harm or violence against an individual or group of people (it's ok to say "I don't like this group of people." It's not ok to say, "I'm going to kill this group of people.") Anything that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence) Sexually suggestive content featuring minors Huffman also outlined a new type of filter that will go on posts for "content that violates a common sense of decency." In order to see this content, users will now need to register with the website as well as opt-in via the preferences. These new guidelines will hopefully curb some of the most hateful commenters while keeping the website a place where users can go to share content, goof-off and, yes, even complain about life, without fear of being kicked out. Huffman is the site's fourth CEO to take on these issues with the previous two, Ellen Pao and Yishan Wong, resigning after the community lashed out at non-democratically chosen policy changes. Reddit CEO Ellen Pao resigns

Review: Pebble Time Posted: 16 Jul 2015 04:36 PM PDT Introduction and display The Pebble Time was controversially announced as another Kickstarter project, and still holds the crown for the most funded Kickstarter of all time (for now). With over $20 million pledged, it was clear the little smartwatch hyped fans of the first Pebble watch. It seemed to be the answer for the anti-Apple Watch crowd, partly because of its plucky startup story. The Pebble Time was the answer for those who desired an affordable, cross-platform smartwatch – not to mention an iPhone-compatible wearable that wasn't the Apple Watch. At $199 (about £130, AU$256), the Time isn't too pricey at all for a smartwatch. Now that it's finally out, how does it actually fare on the wrist? Not quite as well as I'd expect from the Kickstarter phenom, but it's certainly not all a wash. Display The biggest draw for the Pebble Time is its new always-on, e-paper display. Its predecessors, the Pebble and Pebble Steel, sported black and white e-paper screens that were sufficient. But the new 64-color screen brings a new depth to the smartwatch and gives it an almost retro feel that nerds should appreciate. At 1.25-inches, the screen sucks up little battery life and, for the most part, is easy to see even in the sunlight – though the screen doesn't get very bright. The screen is also, of course, not as vibrant as the Apple Watch or Android watches, but it does have the advantage of being always on without killing the battery. Unfortunately, the Gorilla Glass screen is surrounded by an excessive amount of bezel that detracts from the overall loveliness of the Pebble Time. Adding to the bulkiness of the already distracting bezel? Hilariously, more bezel: the screen is surrounded by a black bezel frame and a stainless steel bezel. I'm not sure what inspired this poor design choice, but the first-generation Pebble was already bogged down by too much bezel. I had hoped the new Pebble would do away with it, but alas, the design instead doubled it. The display is also not a touchscreen. Considering there is already such a small amount of real estate on smartwatches, this isn't a huge issue, but it leaves the experience a little too old school for a smartwatch. On the upside, the lack of a touchscreen does cut down on costs. Design and comfort The design of the Pebble Time lies somewhere in between pleasing to look at and cheap feeling, due to its rounded square body and plastic feel. My initial thought before my watch shipped to me was was one of excitement. But upon receiving it, I felt a bit underwhelmed by its less than premium material. The watch still remains lightweight with a soft, silicone band that comes in white, red and black. There are also quick release pins that allow for easy switching to other, third party 22mm bands. But, much like the Microsoft Band, my Pebble Time's stock strap grew lint-laden over time. Despite many efforts to keep it clean, lint and dust still piled on and remained. Because there is no touchscreen, you're left relying on the Pebble Time's four buttons. The one on the left side of the watch body takes you back one screen or home, where the there's an up, select and down button on the right side. The up and down buttons can be mapped as quick launch shortcuts for certain apps by pressing down and holding. I feel like I've been spoiled by touch screen smartwatches, because it took a while for me to readjust to solely buttons. If you're going straight into the Pebble Time without having used any other smartwatch, it shouldn't be too off putting. And if you're upgrading from an older Pebble, don't sweat it. The buttons themselves are simple and familiar, but it feels like they require a deep push to fully register. Buttons on other watches like the Moto 360 or the Apple Watch's Digital Crown don't feel like they need that much force. Comfort The silicone band and plastic body combine to make the Pebble Time featherlight and extremely comfortable to wear. I didn't find the previous Pebbles to be uncomfortable despite their flat backs but the company designed the Time's watch body to include a slight curve to help it fit better on the wrist. I did notice that it wiggled around less and was able to stay nice and snug on my arm. It's also a watch perfect for wrists of all shapes and sizes, as the strap manages to accommodate pretty well for small and large wrists. I didn't have any issues with it notched on the second to last slot. Specs, performance and interface The Time's 40.5 x 37.5mm case isn't too big or too small, which – despite the bezel – adds to the visual appeal of the watch. It's even slightly thinner than its predecessor, at 9.5mm. The Pebble Time one-ups the Apple Watch with water resistance capabilities up to 30 meters. If that isn't all, the CPU has been upgraded from the original Pebble as well. This model sports an ARM Cortex M4, allowing more processing power to push the graphical interface and to support the addition of a microphone. Performance and interface Initial set-up of the Time watch requires you to pair via Bluetooth after downloading the Pebble Time app. After a few glitches with pairing that took me to an SOS screen that wouldn't disappear, Pebble sent another watch for testing. It ended up working perfectly fine, though again, pairing took two tries to take hold and stick. Once that was all set up, I was able to finally test out Timeline, the new operating system Pebble has been touting for its new watches. I first noticed that Timeline is clean, snappy and fun to use. Pressing up lets you see past calendar events, app notifications, reminders and whatever news you have set up. Pressing down lets you see everything, but in the future. The information that's displayed on your watch is essentially laid out chronologically, hence the name Timeline. Clever, right? So far, I've had no issues with the interface. Its new CPU seems to be doing a swell job of keeping the apps loading and running swiftly without problems. The little animations and transitions – like a puff of smoke dismissing notifications – are also delightful and make the whole Pebble Time experience more pleasing and unique. Apps and fitness There's no shortage of apps for the Time. Because it's backwards compatible, you have access to over 6,000 apps. Not each one has a color interface, naturally. In addition to the Timeline interface, there's still an apps menu, which you can access by pushing the middle button on the right side. Default apps include Settings, which shows the battery level and date among other options once you select it. Notifications, Music, Alarms and Watchfaces round out the rest of the default apps. Notifications range from texts, Facebook, Twitter or whatever application you have installed on your phone and set to send you notifications. Selecting the Pebble Time app lets you scroll through all of them in once place. This looks a bit messy, but is simultaneously convenient to open just one app to see everything. Music lets you see what's playing on your phone, and lets you quickly skip songs, which is handy when driving. Fitness Along with an accelerometer and the aforementioned water resistance and GPS functionality, the Pebble Time can also track your steps and sleep by using various fitness apps like Runkeeper, Pedometer, Swim.com, Misfit and more. I had odd issues downloading apps from the Pebble Time store but they eventually started working. Since there's no actual fitness app from Pebble, nor very many sensors, the watch is dependent on third-parties to get the fitness ball rolling. Even then, a lot of the options are companion apps that require an app on both the phone and wearable. This isn't surprising considering many smartwatch apps employ this method to work. I used the Misfit app to track my step progress because it seemed the best of the bunch. Previously, you needed the app open at all times on Pebble devices to keep it tracking but thankfully an update from last year has allowed Misfit to run in the background. The app hasn't been upgraded with the new color scheme and remains in black and white, though this doesn't really take away from the experience since it only shows a simple circular data log and graph of each step and sleep goals. So far I've used the Pebble Time with Misfit app in conjunction with the Apple Watch and Microsoft Band. While looking ridiculous sporting three different wearables, I was able to see that the Pebble Time kept up reasonably well. The Misfit Flash isn't the most accurate tracker I've used - though no fitness tracker is really clear cut when it comes to monitoring steps. Regardless, the three devices gave me relatively similar numbers over the span of a day but the Pebble Time seemed to be the most sensitive and recorded a higher number than the other two: Apple Watch clocked in at 5,100 steps, Microsoft Band at 5,089 with the Pebble Time at 5,226. I continued using the wearables through another day and received similar results, and I expect that's how it would continue. More features An added fitness feature for the Time (that will likely evolve beyond fitness) includes "Smartstraps." Smartstraps are modular watch straps that involve hooking onto the charge port on the back of the watch. Embedding a battering-hogging GPS chip only when it really matters, or a heart-rate sensor when you decide to monitor your real-time beats per minute, are a few possibilities the straps offer. Pebble even floated the idea of adding even more battery life to the the already-long-lasting Pebble Time. Right now, the Smartstraps concept is open to developers and hackers who want to tinker with the idea of helping craft the future of Pebble Time. The company figures that its dedicated community has done it before with apps, so why not add customizable hardware, too? Pebble says it'll make some straps on its own too, but which and when remains to be seen. Right now, it's asking partners to contact the company with a vague timeline of "later this year." Compatibility and battery life The Pebble Time is compatible with both Android and iOS devices – but with some caveats. You can only read messages on iOS platforms and dismiss them once you're done. Android lets you reply similarly to how the Apple Watch lets you – through pre-written messages, emojis or with your voice. It's unclear when voice replies will be available on iOS, especially since it took so long for the actual Pebble Time app to show up in the Apple store. Battery life The battery life of all the Pebbles is pretty much legendary in terms of smartwatches. Rather than lasting the usual two days, the Pebble Time is able to work a whopping 10 whole days. This is likely because of its 150mAh battery, and even more so its e-paper screen. With all notifications turned on, fitness functions and the always on screen, I was able to get the full 10 days despite dropping down to 30% battery on day five. Plus, even when dead, the watch still displays the time for a short period before completely going blank. The charger of the Pebble Time is of course, different from the original Pebble. It has the same basic look, USB and magnetic connector. The Time also takes about an hour to full charge up to 100%. Verdict The Pebble Time is a smartwatch that hyped up a lot of features before releasing, but doesn't quite measure up like we had hoped. We liked The Time is visually pleasing to the eye and looks like it could almost pass for a budget Apple Watch. The color option is also a welcome upgrade from the black and white e-ink days of the first Pebble – even if it's only running a 64-color palette. The impressive battery life is also something most other smartwatch makers should take note of. We disliked The bezel. It's horrendous and distracting from the overall appealing design of the Pebble Time. What's more, the watch feels a little too plasticky in the hand and lacks a premium look. The brightness level of the display could also be amped a bit more, so I can actually see the color screen better. The lack of a touchscreen is also disappointing but understandable to keep costs down. An acceptable trade-off would have been higher-quality buttons providing a better feeling and requiring less force. Final verdict It's hard to like the Pebble Time after using higher-end smartwatches, like the Apple Watch or even the LG Watch Urbane. The Time's features are extremely lacking despite its huge app store library. Likewise, the Timeline interface and color display are also underwhelming despite being the new, touted aspects of the Time. Essentially, even with these upgrades, the Pebble Time still isn't a smartwatch you can place alongside its more expensive brethren. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though. At $199 (about £130, AU$256), the Time is reasonably priced if you want a watch that connects to your phone as a notifier or simple fitness device. Hopefully with future updates, the watch will be able to do more, especially for iOS. Android fans already have a vast array of useful smartwatches to choose from – Moto 360, Sony Smartwatch 3 and more – but those on iOS have meager pickings. It seemed like the Pebble Time would have been an attractive alternative for iPhone users who want to try out an affordable wearable. But right now, the Time simply can't do as much on iOS as it can on Android. The insanely successful Kickstarter shows that Pebble is undoubtedly a powerful wearable maker. But despite its popularity, Pebble needs to show us that it can do even better. Here's hoping the Pebble updates will help the Time feel more worthy of our wrists.

New Lexus hoverboard video needs less talking, more action Posted: 16 Jul 2015 03:59 PM PDT Lexus has posted a new video of its "working" hoverboard, though again, we don't actually get to see the board being ridden by anyone. According to the video, the hoverboard - which uses liquid nitrogen cooled superconductors and permanent magnets to stay about an inch off the ground - is currently being tested by pro-skateboarder Ross McGouran. "It's never been done before," McGouran says in the video. "There's no friction underneath you at all. And I'm forgetting what I'm actually doing, which actually is floating on air." But the video cuts off before he jumps onto the hoverboard - and we really, really want to see him riding it. Hopefully Lexus will stop teasing us and post a clip of the hoverboard in action. Until then, you check out the latest video below. YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Oyx-vzZOg

Updated: Windows 10: release date, price, news and features Posted: 16 Jul 2015 02:51 PM PDT Windows 10: what we know so far Update: With less than a month left before the big launch, we've updated this space with news that Windows 10 will, in fact, be available on select new PCs and laptops from stores on July 29. Plus, the Technical Preview has updated to the very build that will be found on said new devices, the RTM-ready Insider build #10240. Find more about these new pieces of info just before the "Cut to the chase" section and in the "What's new in Technical Preview" section, respectively. But before you dig into those bits, check this out: These Windows 10 features won't make launch day Original article follows... With Windows 8 and today Windows 8.1, Microsoft tried – not entirely successfully – to deliver an operating system (OS) that could handle the needs of not only number-crunching workstations and high-end gaming rigs, but touch-controlled systems from all-in-one PCs for the family and thin-and-light notebooks down to slender tablets. When Microsoft pulled the curtain back on Windows 10 back in September of 2014, it was clear that, with an operating system optimized for PCs, tablets and phones in unique ways, the Redmond, Washington-based firm was onto something. Skipping the Windows 9 name entirely, Microsoft issued a public preview of the shiny new OS later that autumn, known as Windows Technical Preview (WTP). Is the new OS any good? Read our hands on Windows 10 review You can try it out for yourself through Microsoft's Windows Insider Program (nearly 4 million have, as of May 2015). You'll need a Microsoft account to get it, and it's worth bearing in mind that it's not the finished product, so it will be a bit rough around the edges. Since its September 2014 reveal, Microsoft held a consumer-facing preview of the upcoming OS in January 2015, and shelled out even more details during its Build 2015 conference back in April. As the months have passed through those milestones, new features rolled in with each Windows 10 preview build update. And now, with a release date announced, the OS is mighty close to completion. Most recently, Microsoft sparked confusion over whether PCs bought in stores on July 29 would come packing Windows 10. The Redmond campus first said that this would not be the case, that brand new PCs and laptops would start shipping with the updated OS after the launch date. But today, as of this writing, Dell made statements that contradicted this point, saying that it would have new PCs ready for Windows 10 on store shelves July 29. Microsoft soon after made a corrective statement to Bloomberg, saying that Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Acer will begin shipping PCs on July 29 with Windows 10 pre-installed. Cut to the chase What is it? A complete update for Windows When is it out? July 29 What will it cost? For current Windows 7 and 8.1 users: a free upgrade will be offered for one year; then $119/£99/€135 to start if you miss the window or buy a new license When is the Windows 10 release date? Microsoft slated Windows 10 for a summer launch, and the company has stuck to its word. Following several leaks (and one giant snafu from US retailer NewEgg which published an incorrect launch date), it has been confirmed that Windows 10 will launch on July 29. That said, it's unlikely that Windows 10 will release for all device types on this date. Judging from comments made by Microsoft Corporate VP of Operating Systems Joe Belfiore, the company has planned a phased approach to the launch. Windows 10 will release for desktop and laptop devices first, then trickle down to phones, the Xbox One, Arduino machines and its own HoloLens. How much will Windows 10 cost? Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Operating Systems Terry Myerson announced in January that Windows 10 will be free for existing Windows 7 and 8.1 users for its first year. Microsoft also confirmed a while ago that the two most recent Windows versions will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 directly. However, if you're not eligible for Microsoft's upgrade program – those who upgrade after the first-year free offer, or those running a non-genuine Windows version or one older than Windows 7 – Windows 10 Home will cost $119 (£99, €135, about AU$156) and Windows 10 Pro will cost $199 (about £131, €178 AU$262) per license, Microsoft confirmed to TechRadar. Windows 10 Home users who want to upgrade to Pro will have to pay an additional $99 (about £65, €88, AU$130) for the Windows 10 Pro pack. Unfortunately, Microsoft has been mum on exact Pro pricing for the UK and EU, while nothing has been said of Australian pricing. The company promises that it will support those who scored a free upgrade to Windows 10 with security and system updates for the lifetime of those Windows devices. Neowin reported back in February that Microsoft has trademarked the term "Windows 365," supposedly with the intent of it being a service. The news and speculation has sent folks buzzing about the possibility of a subscription-based Windows to come, though that's not likely to be Windows 10. Oh, we hope not. How will I get to download Windows 10? Confirming the rumours and leaks leading up, Microsoft has already started the upgrade process for current Windows 7 and Windows 8 users. If your machine is up-to-date today, you will soon see a small icon of the Windows logo on your task bar next to the internet status icon. Clicking it will open a window that details the upgrade process and will allow you to 'reserve' your free Windows 10 download by providing your email address. Presumably on or in advance of launch day, Microsoft will download the OS to your device and notify you when it's ready to install. What follows that prompt are a few bits of info to tease the new release and get users excited. It's that easy. Seven shades of Windows 10 Windows 10 will be available in seven versions, far more than one would have expected in the first place. While IoT, Mobile, Home, Enterprise and Professional were already confirmed, Mobile Enterprise and Education were unexpected. In comparison, there were only four versions of Windows 8.1 (five if you include Windows Phone 8) and one of them was Windows RT. Microsoft clarified the free upgrade offer for Windows 10, adding that Windows 10 Home and Pro will be available for free to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users that have appropriate licenses (presumably, Windows 8.1 Home users will only be able to upgrade to Windows 10 Home). What's new in Windows Technical Preview? The latest WTP build available for all testers is build #10240, released one day ago as of this writing. This update has been marked by Microsoft as RTM, or Release To Manufacturer, meaning that this is likely the build of Windows 10 that will come loaded on every new laptop and PC running the OS for some time. The most notable feature you can expect to find in the latest build is the nearly-final version of Edge, Microsoft's new web browser. The new browser was teased ad nauseum at the company's Build 2015 event, and we've even gone hands on with Microsoft Edge. So, your chance to test the version of Edge we did a few months back, or possibly one more recent than that, has finally come. However, one Edge feature that is not yet available is extension support – this will come in a sizable autumn update. Other updates coming through in build #10240 are upgrades for Cortana, now able to compose and send emails following your dictation and train to your voice specifically. The Photos app has been further upgraded to now support GIFs, too. There's a vast list of smaller updates and improvements that can be found here. Finally, Microsoft detailed what will happen for those that installed the Windows 10 Technical Preview directly on top of Windows 7 or 8.1: not too much. Basically, if this is how you installed the preview, just keep receiving the updates as normal and, come July 29, you'll have the same version of Windows 10 as everyone else – but there's a catch. Regardless of whether the "final" version of Windows 10 is available, Insiders must continue to receive preview updates – which will not stop after July 29 – for their copy of Windows to remain genuine. If you want to opt out of the preview, you'll likely have to restore back to your previous version of Windows 7 or 8.1 and perform a clean Windows 10 install from there. Further updates are in the works (already) Before Windows 10 has even launched, Microsoft's upgrade plans for the OS have leaked. Operating under the codename Redstone, the Windows maker will issue updates in two waves. According to Neowin's report, the first will come June 2016 and the other October of next year. But don't expect huge, sprawling changes from these updates – they're likely to be tweaks to the new OS for specific types of hardware and other improvements. Move on to the next page to read about the biggest changes coming to Windows 10 in depth. The biggest changes coming to Windows Microsoft isn't exactly pressing the restart button on its operating system with Windows 10, but it's changing enough for the company to skip a number altogether. Features from the Start menu to better multitasking to a brand new browser are all on the table for the new OS. Here's a breakdown of the biggest new features coming to Windows 10. The Start menu: bigger, better, stronger The return of the Start menu that Microsoft teased during its Build 2014 conference and detailed in full at subsequent events has been available for testing in the WTP since October 2014. Replete with a merging of the traditional Windows 7-style interface and Windows 8 Live Tiles, the new Start menu is designed to please both camps: touch and mouse users. "They don't have to learn any new way to drive," Belfiore said, referring to Windows 7 users. That said, customisation will also be featured throughout, first with the ability to resize the Start menu itself along with the Live Tiles within. The Start menu features empowered search capabilities as well, able to crawl your entire machine, not to mention web results. We know now that this is through Cortana, Microsoft's voice assistant, but more on that later. Step into Microsoft's new Office Back in February, shortly after a leaked video on WinBeta revealed Microsoft's Universal (now known simply as Windows) Office apps in detail, the company issued an update to the Windows 10 Technical Preview with just that. If you're not doing so already, WTP users can test out the new Word, PowerPoint and Excel Universal (or Windows) apps. Like the whole of Windows 10, these apps are designed to work on Windows 10 laptops, tablets and phones. This update comes in advance of Office 2016, Microsoft's desktop-based version of the suite, which we expect to see debut in the second half of 2015. It's likely that Office 2016 will interact with its Windows app counterparts through OneDrive and other solutions. And back during MWC 2015, Microsoft squeezed out a few more details surrounding the touch-centric Office 2016, namely cosmetic makeovers for Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Also, Outlook will be more deeply integrated with its sister apps than ever before. Finally, the new Insights and Tell Me features will let users search the internet from within Office and create search-based command prompts, respectively. Today, both general users and IT pros-slash-developers can preview Office 2016 on Windows and Mac OS X. Plus, we've finally got the skinny on what the differences are between the simply-named Office for Windows 10 and Office 2016. Windows Phone fans get a sneak peek After much teasing leading up to an event during MWC 2015, a Technical Preview of Windows 10 for phones was released to just about every Lumia device under the sun. Handled much in the same way as it is on desktop, the WTP for Windows 10 on phones has introduced alpha-phase features like the Project Spartan browser, the new Outlook and a much-improved camera app that borrows heavily from Nokia's camera app for its pre-Windows-buyout Lumia phones. Check out all the details here. As for when it's coming to everyone in a final release, there have been far fewer rumours and scuttlebutt than we've seen around Windows 10 for PCs. It's assumed that Windows 10 will released simultaneously across all supported device categories, including phones, but Microsoft has yet to address that publicly. In the meantime, we've learned quite a bit installing Windows 10 on the cheapest Windows Phone around. You can check that out right here. Cortana is warping to the PC That's right, Windows 10 will see the spread of Cortana, Microsoft's Siri and Google Now competitor, into Windows PCs and tablets in addition to phones. Microsoft's Joe Belfiore showed off the new PC-centric features within Cortana during its January reveal event. Namely, Redmond-developed PC-specific functions into Cortana for easier access to files, apps and more. Belfiore demonstrated colloquial queries like, "Show me photos from December," to which Cortana summoned images within that time period immediately. The idea here is to make key pain points in interacting with a PC easier than before through voice. Since then, Microsoft has gone on to discuss how Cortana is more about machine learning, or computer systems and services becoming smarter over time based on user behaviour, than simply retrieving files and facts for you. Plus, it was recently reported by Reuters that Microsoft has aims to release the voice assistant to iOS and Android. Microsoft gets an Edge During the Build 2015 conference, Microsoft's Joe Belfiore outed Project Spartan as Microsoft Edge, the official name for the company's Windows 10 browser of choice. The original details follow. Project Spartan, essentially the company's replacement for Internet Explorer, was revealed during the January event, too. Belfiore detailed unique features, like the ability to mark up webpages before sharing them with others, and to comment on those same pages at the software level. Once pages are marked up with drawings and comments, that page is frozen in time with live links and open for sharing through Windows 10's built-in sharing features. Spartan will also support built-in offline reading and PDF support, not to mention Cortana. Microsoft's virtual assistant will be baked into Spartan and pop in with recommendations and help based on your browser behaviour. Belfiore in particular demoed a scenario in which a user is en route to a flight. Upon opening the browser to find flight data, Cortana will pop in with that info before the user even needs to look it up. Since the big reveal, Microsoft's Group Program Manager for Internet Explorer, Jason Weber, confirmed one big question: Spartan is not a replacement for Internet Explorer, but rather a second browser. Weber went on to explain that, while his team is heavily focused on making Spartan work with the rest of the web, IE11 will be kept for compatibility with legacy and enterprise websites. (So, in reality, Spartan will effectively replace IE for the majority of users.) Microsoft's @IE Dev Chat account on Twitter later confirmed that the Project Spartan team is working on bringing extension support to the new browser. Furthermore, Microsoft confirmed to The Verge that the team is also working on a way for users to import Chrome extensions directly to Spartan. Finally, Microsoft recently revealed that the popular "Do Not Track" browser option will be disabled by default in Spartan. The company claims that the feature no longer complies with the Worldwide Web Consortium's standard on the matter. Regardless, Redmond promises that it will provide users with directions for how to enable the feature. If you're not in it already, you can test out Project Spartan on Windows 10 PCs and Windows 10 for phones right now in the Fast ring of their respective WTP programs. Windows 10 and Xbox unite Microsoft's Xbox lead Phil Spencer took the stage during Microsoft's big January event, detailing the Xbox app on Windows 10. The app collects all games played on any Xbox or Windows 10 device, a universal friends list and an activity feed. Every Windows 10 device will have the Xbox app pre-loaded. Users will be able to record game sessions through the Game DVR tool and share them across the Xbox network. Essentially, Windows 10 will bring the automated recording featured in Xbox One to games played on Windows 10 – even those launched through other apps, like Steam. Around the time of GDC 2015, Microsoft updated the Xbox the app for Windows 10 for testing in the WTP with just about everything teased during the January event, including access to Xbox One game clips and options to search for friends and interact with the Xbox Live activity feed. Plus, the app can now better deal with window size changes. Finally, users can control the Xbox One through a virtualised remote control within the Xbox One app on Windows 10. But back to the January event, Spencer also briefly showed off Microsoft's next collection of graphics and gaming APIs, DirectX 12. Namely, support for the platform has expanded to the Unity game engine, and DX12 enables low-power graphics processing for Windows 10 mobile devices. Plus, Spencer and a Lionhead Studios representative demoed what it's like to play the same game through a Windows 10 PC and an Xbox One with friends at the same time. Basically, cross-platform multiplayer gaming is coming to Xbox One and Windows 10. Finally, Spencer demoed the ability to stream any Xbox One game to any Windows 10 device from within the home over Wi-Fi. The Xbox lead also teased that several Windows 10 features will find their way onto Xbox One, but was mum on the details. During GDC 2015, the Xbox chief let loose even more details regarding the increasingly intimate relationship between Windows 10 and Xbox One. For starters, Spencer revealed that soon all wireless Xbox One accessories will work on Windows 10 PCs. Later during the show, we learned that Microsoft is "investigating the possibility" of streaming PC games to Xbox One. Currently, Microsoft is only committed to allowing the inverse, for all Xbox One games to stream to Windows 10 PCs. Microsoft's Universal approach During the January reveal event, Microsoft's Joe Belfiore revealed exactly what the company meant by "Universal apps" (now known as "Windows apps") when it first showed off Windows 10. Basically, the company is developing special versions of its key apps, like Office, for Windows 10 phones and tablets under 8 inches. Apps like Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook will look and feel nearly identical to their desktop counterparts, but be optimised for touch and screen size. And through Microsoft's cloud infrastructure, all of your files will be accessible on those devices regardless of where they were created. Belfiore also detailed a brand new Photos app accessible from any Windows 10 device, pulling down images from the company's OneDrive storage service. The new app aggregates images from both local and cloud storage, eliminating duplicates and enhancing photos automatically. Finally, the universal Photos app will also automatically create photo albums based on not only when and where photos were taken, but the subjects of those photos. The idea here is for managing photos to be simpler and more automated, taking things a few steps further than rival solutions. Following the January event, Microsoft went on to confirm that its most important suite of Universal apps, Office 2016, will launch in the second half of 2015. This potentially puts Office 2016 ahead of Windows 10 in terms of release. Keeping in touch During the January event, Belfiore demonstrated its "continuum" approach to computing with Windows 10 – not just through different devices, but 2-in-1 products as well. Using a Surface Pro 3, the OS chief showed off what it will be like changing use cases on a Windows 10 device. When the tablet was connected to its keyboard cover, the Surface Pro 3 acted as if it were a laptop, which it technically is. Then, as soon as Belfiore removed the keyboard, a small icon appeared in the lower right of the screen, asking him whether he'd like to activate tablet mode. Doing so changed all of the apps to full screen, made icons slightly larger and allowed users to access the Start screen a la Windows 8, albeit much updated. As soon as he reconnected the keyboard, the device offered to revert back to its original mode, which then repositioned and resized the windows and icons as they were. Paving the way for enterprise Going way back to the first-ever Windows 10 reveal in September 2014, Microsoft spoke to enterprise users almost exclusively. "Windows 10 is a very novel approach of separating corporate and personal data across all devices," Myerson said on stage. "Windows 10 is going to be our greatest enterprise platform, ever." Microsoft didn't exactly please its enterprise audience with Windows 8.1 – adoption has been awfully slow. (And now will likely halt with this new version on the horizon.) To that end, Belfiore even noted that the company is "looking to find the balance, so that all the Windows 7 users get a familiar experience on the devices they already have." As of early February, Microsoft issued its plans for rolling out Windows 10 to enterprise users: through Windows Software Assurance program. While this program will offer several methods for enterprise users to upgrade their fleets of systems to the new OS, that also means it will not come free like it does for consumer versions of Windows 10. The SA program is designed to give enterprise customers more control over when and how updates are pushed to their range of machines. Of course, the idea here is a focus on security and flexibility for IT through additional Long Term Servicing branches that provide security and critical updates only – barring new feature updates. Shooting for security Running the world's most ubiquitous OS, Microsoft has always taken security quite seriously, often releasing patches daily to its various versions of Windows. Now, the company looks to take its security measures for Windows 10 to the next level, with two-factor authentication (2FA) coming standard on enterprise versions of the OS, the company announced during its September 2014 reveal. Microsoft also intends to protect user identities by storing user access tokens in a secure container that runs on top of Hyper-V technology, isolated from the rest of the OS. Windows 10 will also offer a data loss prevention solution that will allow users to separate their corporate personae from their non-work ones. ... and for your data? Short after the release of the Windows 10 WTP, the OS was pegged for collecting user data. While this is a beta preview, and as such should be collecting feedback data, claims from a number of news outlets pointed to more even more sensitive information. The Technical Preview reportedly has the capability to track and log keystrokes, capture voice data and more. This may be cause for caution, but keep in mind that almost all, if not all, modern operating systems track and log some level of usage data. Though, it's almost always anonymized. It's still all about unity Windows 10 will be "one application platform" for all the devices that run Windows, Microsoft Windows head Terry Myerson declared during the September 2014 reveal, with one store to rule them all. (So to speak.) While on stage at the event, Microsoft showed images of the new operating system running on everything from desktop PCs to smartphones. In fact, Myerson confirmed that Windows 10 will be the driving OS behind its smartphone platform as well. Myerson was mum on the naming conventions (e.g. whether Windows 10 on phones would be known as Windows Phone 10, et. al). But what matters is this: Windows 10 will be behind every device that Microsoft has a hand in. Yes, that includes the Internet of Things Based on CEO Satya Nadella's recent comments during Gartner's Symposium ITxpo in October 2014, Windows 10 is almost certainly being developed with the Internet of Things in mind. "Windows 10 is a very important step for us." Nadella said on stage. "It's the first step in a new generation of Windows as opposed to just another release after Windows 8. General purpose computing is going to run on 200 plus billion sensors. We've architected Windows where it can run on everything." Click on through for a detailed look at the rumours and leaks leading up to the first and second Windows 10 announcements. On the third page, we projected what Windows 9 – err – Windows 10 would be like, or at least what we had hoped. Read on to see how much we got right. Read all about Windows Phone 10 and Office 365 right here Dan Grabham and Désiré Athow contributed to this article

INTERVIEW: Myth vs. reality: Everything you ever need to know about audio Posted: 16 Jul 2015 02:48 PM PDT Creative Labs Go on any audio forum and you'll find a deluge of audio purists arguing the merits of lossless media, what the best headphones are that week and how your taste in music is the worst. Sorting facts from opinions in this lawless land of FLACs and Ogg Vorbis files can be a headache so, in an effort to spread the purest aural information available, we went to one of the most preeminent headphone manufacturers in the world, Creative Labs (the makers of the Sound Blaster series of sound cards, Bluetooth speakers and headphones), to shed some light on audio's deepest, darkest questions. (Editor's Note: The interview that follows was conducted at Creative's offices in San Jose, Calif. with four of the team's audio engineers and Creative product marketing manager, Ryan Schlieper. Per Creative's request for competitive purposes, we have not named the engineers.) TechRadar: End the debate once and for all: Can the human ear hear a difference between a 16-bit 160Kbps "standard quality" OGG from Spotify and 24-bit 320Kbps FLAC file from Tidal? Creative team: Yes, but you really need to do A-B testing, and of course it depends on what speakers you're using. It's much easier to tell when audio sounds bad or unnatural than distinguishing levels of clarity. And it also depends on the source. If you have a 24-bit, 192KHz source of a symphony, you're going to hear a difference between that and 24-bit, 192KHz version of Green Day. Because of the dynamic range and the intermeshing of so many things, there are just more details that are needed on the symphony side. If you want a simple takeaway: Higher bitrates are more important than the sample rates. TechRadar: So what is the physical limit of human hearing? Creative team: Most young people's hearing cuts off at around 18KHz. Older people can only hear frequencies of up to 15KHz. It's very rare for people to be able to hear 20KHz directly. Audio fidelity is like wine tasting, though. There are certainly people with more complex palates, but you have people that like to project that they have more complex palates than they do because it makes them more sophisticated or justifies their purchases or whatever. At the end of the day there are audiophiles that really want a great reason to spend a lot of money on really high-end equipment that they want to brag about. So in order to justify that purchase to themselves, they convince themselves that they can actually hear in that range. TechRadar: What are your thoughts on software that claims to have bass-boosting technology? Is it really doing anything special, or simply haphazardly increasing low-frequency sounds? Creative team: People don't understand that if you don't have a speaker that can't produce bass frequencies because it's too small [like, say, the pack-in earbuds that come with new cell phones], it doesn't matter how much you do to that sound file. You won't hear a difference. Trying to get higher quality sound on low-end headphones is like being a tourist in a foreign country. If the waiter at a restaurant doesn't understand what you're saying, it doesn't matter how loud you say it. TechRadar: Then what can you do to get lower frequencies? Creative team: The human ear - or human ear-brain combination - can't hear strong frequencies if they're too close together. Those are the ones that are getting omitted in MP3s. But if you look at the algorithm we use, we take the low-frequency input and we run it through a harmonics generator that uses natural harmonics to convince the brain that it's hearing loud low notes. We're synthesizing audio in a sense. We're amplifying and creating additional information that tricks your brain. TechRadar: What's the most important thing to look for in a high-end pair of speakers? Creative team: Look for something around the size of a bookshelf speaker. If it's smaller than a milk carton, it really won't work. There are physical limitations to what the lowest frequency that a certain size of speaker can reproduce unless it's a pressurized enclosure. TechRadar: Why are headsets marketed as 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound? Plain and simple, two-channel systems can't be surround sound, right? Creative team: So here's the thing, any headset that claims it's 7.1 surround sound is full of s***. There are headsets that have physically packed seven drivers into a headset, but they're crap. The drivers packed in this small enclosed space would interact with each other negatively. In two-driver headsets that claim to have virtual 7.1 surround sound, what they're doing is taking a Dolby algorithm that takes the sound and virtualizes it into seven channels. But they're doing that through the codec and it's not adaptive. Here's what you can do: You can take the left and right channels in different amounts and there can be delays between them. TechRadar: So, say an explosion happens to my left in game like Battlefront. My left ear will hear the loudest sound first followed by a smaller sound in my right ear a second later, right? Creative team: Exactly. This tech isn't just about manipulating hardware. It's taking the hard-wired processes in the human brain and using math to get you to hear things in a convincing way. It's basically 3D for your ears. For more features like this one, check out our interview with Strategic Partnership Manager at Tidal, Pål Bråtelund, interview with Tommy Tallarico or our inside look at Skywalker Sound.

Amazon loved its first Prime Day, even though you probably didn't Posted: 16 Jul 2015 01:00 PM PDT Even if you didn't find much of anything interesting to buy, Amazon's first Prime Day turned out to be a major success, according to the company. The company shared the results of the mega sale, which trumped the number of units ordered during Black Friday 2014, or "the biggest Black Friday ever," by 18%. Prime subscribers purchased 34.4 million items during the day-long sale, clicking "buy" a startling 398 times per second. Some of the top contenders throughout the sale included Amazon's Fire TV Stick, which sold "tens of thousands" of units in one hour. 56,000 copies of the Lord of the Rings trilogy on Blu-Ray were bought up. Also, 47,000 televisions and 51,000 sets of Bose SoundTrue headphones enticed Prime members. Amazon went so far as to breakdown the top sellers per country during Prime Day. Just to name a few, Prime subscribers in Japan just had to have that "Green Smoothie mix" and Canada went gaga over Huggies Diapers. It sounds like everyone got what they wanted, right? Not quite. I walked all the way over to my desk for this? The internet at large expressed loudly that Amazon totally dropped the ball, especially if you went in hoping to score huge deals on cool tech. Hopefully, next year's Prime Day delivers something more in line with what public expectations, but either way, Amazon seems happy with this year's results. The company claimed that "more new members tried Prime worldwide than any single day in Amazon history." Despite that feat, you have to wonder how many of those Prime members, both new and old, decided that they won't be a part of next year's "Christmas in July" extravaganza. Read: Amazon Echo review

Future iPhones, Galaxies may mark the end of SIM cards as we know them Posted: 16 Jul 2015 12:13 PM PDT What's the future for smartphones? Handsets that don't require physical SIM cards, according to a new report. The Financial Times is reporting that Apple and Samsung are in "advanced talks" with major telecommunication companies and GSMA, the industry association that represents mobile operators, to standardize e-SIMs. E-SIM technology allows for embedded SIM chips that don't lock users to one particular network carrier, unlike the traditional SIM cards used today. It would mean that any phone, tablet or other gadgets that can be connected to a network via an e-SIM will be able work with any carrier that supports the new SIM technology. A new kind of SIM According to the report, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Whampoa, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone are some of the networks around the world that are expected to support the new technology. It's unknown if other phone-makers are in talks with GSMA as well, and nothing is set in stone yet as the technical specifications of the new e-SIM architecture is yet to be finalized. And even if GSMA is successful in standardizing a common architecture for the e-SIMs, it could take up to a year or more for it to become a feature on phones. "With the majority of operators on board, the plan is to finalize the technical architecture that will be used in the development of an end-to-end remote SIM solution for consumer devices, with delivery anticipated by 2016," Anne Bouverot, chief executive of the GSMA, told the Financial Times. Apple had a similar idea for SIMs a couple of years ago for the iPhone 5

iOS Tips: How to make a ringtone for iPhone on OS X Yosemite and iOS Posted: 16 Jul 2015 11:49 AM PDT Everybody loves to personalize their iPhones with custom ringtones, but Apple doesn't make it obvious how to do so - it's not as simple as assigning one of your songs as a tone. Fortunately, by following this guide, you'll be able to whip up your own custom ringtones in a jiffy without having to resort to additional apps or anything outside of what's built right into iOS 8 and Mac OS X Yosemite. Start the process by opening the sound file you want to set as your ringtone in iTunes on your Mac. You'll need to export a copy of the song and edit it to a suitable length (30 seconds or less), if necessary. You can edit within iTunes and then export, or, if you wish, you can edit with an additional app (such as QuickTime) after exporting. For this tutorial, we'll do the editing from within iTunes itself. Highlight the song, then hit Command + I to get info. Click on the options tab, and adjust the start and stop times to capture the portion of the song you want as your tone. (Of course, if the sound is already less than 30 seconds, this adjustment is optional.) Once you've adjusted the length, export the edited song by clicking on File > Create New Version > Create AAC version. You must do this even if the file was already in AAC format! (Also, after you've made the copy, be sure to deactivate the start/stop options from the original version of the song so it will play normally the next time you listen to it.) Locate the newly created AAC version in the finder; you should find it in Music > iTunes > iTunes Media > Music > [artist name] > [album name] > [song name], possibly with a "1" added onto the file name. Copy the file and put it somewhere convenient, such as the desktop, then change its file extension from .m4a to .m4r. Next, drag the file to the Tones folder (Music > iTunes > Tones), then open it by dragging it to iTunes or double-clicking it. Navigate to the Tones section of iTunes (hit Command + 8 for easy access) and you should see the ringtone there. In some cases - usually if your original sound file was in a non-AAC format like MP3 or WAV - the ringtone might not show up in the Tones section of iTunes. If this happens to you, it's best to temporarily delete the original and edited versions of the song from iTunes (highlight each one and press the delete button, but choose to keep the file if you're given the option), and to move the original m4a file out of its designated folder to someplace safe (again, like the desktop). With that done, drag the m4r file to the Tones folder, then drag it to iTunes or double-click it. The ringtone should now show up in the tones section, at which point you can put the original song back in its designated folder (or simply play it) so it will show up in your music library once again. Now that you've created a ringtone that's recognized by iTunes, you need to sync it to your iPhone. Connect your iPhone to your Mac, go to the device tab by pressing the button in the upper-left, select the Tones section, then check "Sync Tones" (all tones or selected tones is up to you). When you sync your phone, the ringtones will copy over. Here's how you can try iOS 9 public beta

You have a month to downgrade to Windows 8.1 if Windows 10 isn't right for you Posted: 16 Jul 2015 11:15 AM PDT What if you downloaded Windows 10 on July 29 and have buyer's remorse after trying out the operating system? Like most purchases, Microsoft is giving you a 30-day purchase window to decide if Windows 10 is right for you. If you find out that you didn't like Windows 10, you can simply rollback to whatever version of Windows that was on your system before you decided to dive head-first into Microsoft's new world. Downgrading The rollback feature isn't new, and Microsoft had provided this option in early preview builds of Windows 10 to testers in the Windows Insider program. However, the most recent Build 10240 release, which is believed to be the Windows 10 release sent to manufacturers, or the RTM build, comes with language stating that you have a month to downgrade. Preview builds did not have this time stipulation. "This option is only available for a month after you upgrade to Windows 10," Microsoft warns on Build 10240. On my Dell Latitude 12 7000 Series (E7250) Ultrabook review unit, the option to downgrade is found when I clicked on the new Start menu, navigate to Settings and chose the Update and Security option. Within that menu, when I clicked on Recovery in the left navigation pane, I was given three options: Reset this PC, Go back to Windows 8.1 and Advanced startup. Choosing the second option would allow me to go back to the version of Windows on my Latitude prior to my upgrade to Windows 10. Since Dell ships the Latitude 12 with Windows 8.1, this was explicitly stated as the option, but I imagine that if you're upgrading from Windows 7 the option would read "Go back to Windows 7." Resetting the PC would give me a clean installation of Windows 10 on my Latitude. It's a useful option for Insiders who have upgraded through the various builds in the Preview program and want to start their official Windows 10 experience with a fresh copy. So if you're unhappy and you know it, you have approximately a month to time travel to your own happier days on Windows 7, 8 or 8.1. The best practice is to have the recovery media that comes with your Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 systems. Newer laptops may not ship with a recovery DVD, but you can create a recovery USB drive with the software tools that the manufacturer preloaded on your PC system. This way, you'll be able to downgrade outside of Microsoft's timeframe. It's unclear if users if users of Windows XP or earlier versions of the operating system will get the option to downgrade. Microsoft has been quiet to date about Windows 10 upgrades for users on older OSes. Windows 10 Windows 10 will launch on July 29 to consumers globally. The operating system brings with it new features, such as the Halo-inspired Cortana digital assistant, a new Start experience that combines the familiarity of the Start menu of Windows 7 and the Live Tiles on Windows 8, a new Microsoft Edge browser, more ways to multitask with virtual desktops and snapping, improved support for hybrid and convertible notebooks with Continuum and a new desktop background. If you're upgrading from Windows 7, 8 or 8.1, Windows 10 will be available as a free upgrade during the first year of launch. On July 29, eligible customers will receive Windows 10 as a free download during the first year of launch, and those customers migrating from Windows 7 or later will be able to continue using Windows 10 with regular updates for the life of their devices. For users who don't qualify for the free during the first year promotion, Windows 10 will cost $119 (£99, €135) for the Home edition and Windows 10 Pro will cost $199. Microsoft has not announced global pricing for Pro. If you paid to purchase Windows 10, refund policies for software vary depending on where you purchased your copy. Microsoft will provide Windows 10 on a rolling update schedule for consumers, meaning that you may not receive your digital download immediately on launch day. As a courtesy to those who have helped test the operating system, Microsoft previously said that Insiders will be among the first to be able to download the new operating system. These are the best Windows 10-ready laptops

Review: Acer CB280HK Posted: 16 Jul 2015 10:59 AM PDT 4K monitors are the way forward according to vendors, who are squeezing out an increasing number of monitors toting resolutions above Full-HD (WQHD, UWQHD) for a price premium compared to conventional 1080p panels. However, competition means that prices have started to fall down to the point that we're now seeing more pixel-packed monitors selling for less than £400 (around £256, or AUS$841). The cheapest of them is the Acer CB280HK, currently selling at £269 (around US$420, or AUS$566) at Ebuyer, which provided us with the monitor. Most of the first generation 4K monitors - such as the Viewsonic VX2880ML - were not suitable for gaming because their refresh rate was limited to 30Hz – which might explain why costs are coming down. The newer generation of displays use either MST (Multi Stream Transport) or SST (Single Stream transport) to double that refresh rates to 60Hz when used with DisplayPort. The CB280HK is one such monitor, suitable for gamers thanks to its 60Hz refresh rate and super fast 1ms response time. The CB280HK came in a big box; it's a 28-inch display after all. Assembling the monitor stand and getting the display in working order took a couple of minutes; the stand base uses a single screw mechanism to link with the pillar and the latter uses a simple 4-point click mechanism to support the panel. It's far simpler to put together than the VX2880ML, and Acer's offering one you to change the monitor height, pivot, swivel and tilt, making it far more flexible than its aforementioned competitor. Oh and there's even a VESA mount if you fancy placing it on a wall or on a custom stand. Speaking of the panel, it is an LED-backlit, TN-model with a 4K2K resolution; that's 3840 x 2160 pixels or just under 8.3 million pixels. Other specifications include a 1000:1 static contrast ratio and a 1ms grey-to-grey response time. Connectivity incudes a HDMI 1.4 port, a DisplayPort 1.2, a Mini DisplayPort 1.2 and even a DVI one. The CB280HK also comes with two speakers and an audio in but they're best used as last resort options. There's no USB hub though which is a shame given how useful these are for Ultrabook users that often lack those. The monitor came with a manual and a set of cables (but no HDMI ones). If you plan to use those with a laptop, I recommend getting a mini DisplayPort or a mini-HDMI cable. Performance and verdict The Acer produced good viewing angles and better image quality out-of-the-box than you might expect for a 4K panel well under £300, but it won't suit professionals demanding near perfect colour accuracy. Acer says that it can cover only 72% of the NTSC colour space with a maximum theoretical colour gamut of 1.07 billion colours. Our colourometer found that it couldn't even reach that, reaching 69%. it fared better on our sRGB test, colovering 95% of that colour spectrum. Screen uniformity was unimpressive, which is to be expected on a 4K monitor of this cost. The biggest deviation in brightness came from the top-left hand side of the CB280HK was found to be 21% darker than the panel's center. It's not a problem during every day use but won't suit professionals' higher demands. Topping out at 282 cd/m2 (or nits), just short of Acer's quoted 300cd/m2, the CB280HK's brightness levels were just about right, displaying the screen's contents clearly without blinding your vision. Colours are impressive out of the box, producing deep blacks and rich tones that "pop". Colour tones can be tweaked using two "six-axis" hue and saturation menus, but such was the CB280HK's picture quality ouf-of-the-box that adjusting them was not necessary. Overall, the Acer CB280HK is an impressive 4K monitor for the money. Unsurprisingly there's plenty of room for improvement when it comes to colour accuracy, but its sufficient brightness, clear and vibrant picture, good viewing angles and flexible stand mean that compromises are for the most part few and far between.

Apple patents tech that checks your bank account to target ads Posted: 16 Jul 2015 10:58 AM PDT A new Apple patent reveals a way to show you ads on your iPhone of things that you can actually afford, based on how much money you have available in the bank. Filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) last year, the patent describes a system that targets "advertising of goods and services to users of mobile terminals, based for example on the users' profile." "The common profile of users may be based on the amount of pre-paid credit available to each user," the patent says. Ad invasion Apple already hosts user banking payment details through Apple Pay, and this app will have Apple storing more information about you, your income and you bank accounts. Advertisers will be able to choose parameters for the ads, so that a user's profile can be matched up to the most appropriate ad. The profile could include, along with available credit, "age, sex and income level(s), target telephone type, etc." Apple's patent states, however, that this is just an opt-in services, and that the advantage of having such a system in place will mean you won't be seeing ads of things out of your price-range. "An advantage of such targeted advertising is that only advertisements for goods and services which particular users can afford, are delivered to these users," the patent explains. However, as with Apple Pay, it's unlikely Apple would sell the information to advertisers. And, of course, this is just a patent, so it doesn't mean the feature will ever come to be. This is why we think Apple Pay is good news for everyone

Oculus Rift's Touch controllers just got a huge boost Posted: 16 Jul 2015 10:53 AM PDT Oculus, maker of the Oculus Rift, has announced the acquisition of a company that it hopes can help the team improve its Oculus Touch controllers. The Oculus blog notes that Pebbles Interfaces - not to be confused with Pebble, maker of the Pebble watch and new Pebble Time - has spent five years specializing in hand tracking technology by developing custom optics, sensor systems and algorithms to detect and track hand movement. Hopefully this means the Oculus Touch Half Moon prototypes will get a boost in development and deliver on time next year. We'll wait patiently in the virtual reality world as we use Xbox One controllers since the Rift is launching in Q1 2016, before Oculus Touch comes out. Check out the video below of Pebbles Interfaces tech in action. YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkddF7F0zvs We recently used the HTC Vive controllers during Comic-Con This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Review: Updated: Amazon Fire TV Stick Posted: 16 Jul 2015 10:50 AM PDT Intro, design and setup Update: Winter is coming! According to Amazon, HBO Now is on its way to the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick and will be available in the coming weeks. The set-top box landscape is changing. It used to be a full-size battle royale where three titans – the Roku 3, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV – duked it out for control of your television. Then, in July of last year, Google released Chromecast, a set-top box built into a thumb drive form factor and fits entirely behind a TV. In many ways the Amazon Fire TV Stick, the successor to the full-size Fire TV, looks similar to Google's impulse buy offering from last year. But whatever it may look like, its arrival onto the set-top scene can only mean one thing: The time of the titans is over, and a new age of streaming sticks is here. The Fire TV Stick is petite and powerful, currently available in the US and shipping April 15 in the UK. It fits flush with most TV's HDMI ports and, unlike its main competitor Chromecast, comes with a fairly decent remote. In terms of content, you'll find just about everything here. Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Showtime Anytime, HBO Go and more have already joined the party, while Amazon's Prime Instant Video basically sits at the head of the proverbial table. Almost everything feels right about the Amazon Fire TV Stick, but most of all is its $40/£35 price tag. It's $10/£5 more than Chromecast, but $10/£10 less than the Roku Streaming Stick; it feels like a supremely good value for what you get in the box. Where Amazon Fire TV Stick stumbles, however, is its deep-rooted attachment to its mother service, Amazon Prime. Without Prime, the set-top stick feels devoid of personality. Yes, you can still get those great aforementioned apps, yes you'll zip around from one section of the interface to the next thanks to its powerful components, and yes you'll even get a 30-day trial for free just for buying the streaming stick – but, after the trial runs out or you choose not to commit to Amazon's service, the whole experience feels sterile without Prime. Design, setup and performance At this point in the game, a streaming stick is nothing new. It's a plastic, thumb drive-sized device that plugs into any HDMI port (not just MHL-equipped ports) and draws power from a USB port on the TV or from a wall outlet via the included converter. The exterior itself isn't all that exciting – it's 3.3 x 1.0 x 0.5 inches (84.9 x 25.0 x 11.5 mm) and has the Amazon logo on one side – but it's the lack of any distinct features that help the Fire TV Stick blend into the back of any TV. It even comes with an HDMI extender cable in case you've got a wall-mounted setup and no additional space to spare in the back. While these extras are something the $30 Chromecast comes standard with, the more expensive, $50 Roku Streaming Stick does not. Sometimes, it's the simple things in life that really count, and Amazon scores major points for putting the consumer first. After you've got the stick firmly seated in an HDMI port you've got to provide a power solution. You'll need to connect the micro-USB powered stick to either a USB port on the TV or, attach the adapter and plug it into the wall. If you choose the former, you'll get a warning when you boot the system up for the first time. It'll tell you that it can't draw enough power from the USB port to provide the ideal experience. The TV I used for testing, a TCL Roku TV (ironic, I know), had more than enough power for the job and never once did the streaming stick fail due to lack of juice. If you're in a similar situation, just ignore the warning and move on.But, besides the one micro-USB port on the exterior, you won't find any other ports on the sides of the Fire TV Jr., which means there's no way to hardwire the device to your router. In practice, this lead to a few hiccups here and there, but because it's equipped with dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi (MIMO) and supports 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi networks, the Stick can handle some the diciest of connections with ease, though, without a hard-line in this is certainly a YMMV situation. Specifications, apps and navigation It's impressive that the Amazon Fire TV Stick requires so little energy, especially once you find out what the Fire TV Stick has going on inside the box – namely, a Broadcom dual-core processor, 1GB of memory and 8GB of storage. Comparing that to the Chromecast, which sports a single-core processor, 512MB of memory and 2GB of memory, Amazon's miniature stick comes out the clear winner. Apps and games Where the full-size set-top boxes like the Nexus Player and Apple TV struggle with too little content to choose from on their platforms, Amazon Fire TV has an abundance of apps at your disposal. All of the primary suspects are here and accounted for: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant, Showtime, NFL Network, Pandora, Spotify, Crackle, Rdio and more. While the Roku 3 sports over 1,000 channels (read: apps), the Fire TV Stick has a number closer to several hundred with multi-function apps and games mixed in with the entertainment channels. Perusing the store, I discovered some new interesting apps like TripSmart – a travel channel that provides videos on exotic locales – and an old favorite, 2048, optimized for the big screen. Like Roku, there's a lot of shovelware mixed in with the good stuff, which means you'll have to root around the mud to find the two or three real gems in a given list. Games are also present and accounted for on Amazon's smaller system, and for the most part the less-intensive titles play incredibly well. Disappointingly though, you won't find many graphically demanding games here like The Walking Dead Season 1 or 2. Nor are you likely to spot Grand Theft Auto here anytime soon. That doesn't seem to be due to any fault of the hardware – the system boasts the right specs for those higher-end games – the content simply isn't there. The lack of games doesn't necessarily hurt the system, however. If you want to have a streaming system that's jam-packed with gaming goodness, consider the full-size Amazon Fire TV or Nexus Player. Both have a dedicated gamepad sold separately and have a great selection of titles. Speaking of separate controllers, the full-size Amazon Fire controller can also be paired with the Fire TV Stick. But many of the 200-plus games available on the console don't necessarily need – or work better – with a controller instead of the standard remote. Home entertainment enthusiasts, on the other hand, will be glad to see Plex here, as it has been MIA on a few of the other systems I've tested recently. PlayStation TV: I'm looking at you. The launch line-up of apps is as strong as it's going to be outside of a Roku product, and though I wish it were a little more AAA game-oriented and much more platform-agnostic (searches only return Amazon content. Also, a shared Google Play library would more than make up for any shortcomings in selection). That said, this is still a fairly balanced ecosystem. Remote One of the biggest advantages of buying the Amazon Fire TV Stick over the other guys is the remote. It weighs next to nothing and errs on the cheap side, but on it you'll find a few sparse, but powerful, buttons: back, home, menu, rewind, play/pause and fast forward. At the top you'll find a circular directional pad and a central button that does just about everything else. If you're a Fire TV owner you'll notice that this remote doesn't come with the built-in mic and voice-search button. The functionality still exists if you use the accompanying Fire TV app, but it doesn't exist on the pack-in peripheral. If you really need it, though, Amazon sells the full-size remote separately for $40 or allows you to sync your old Fire TV remote to the Stick without much of a problem. The remote also works over Bluetooth, which means it won't need direct line of sight to the Stick itself – a handy feature considering 95% of users will want to keep the Fire TV out of sight behind the television. It may not win the award for "most durable remote," but the remote is exactly like the Stick: simple and efficient. Interface and navigation The interface is a direct replica of the full-size Amazon Fire TV's menu. It's crowded and content-rich, making it a bustling, ever-evolving free-for-all for something to watch. It's may not be as clean-cut or aesthetically pleasing as some of the other menus we've seen on rival boxes, but Amazon chose to leave well enough alone and it's hard to argue against that reasoning. The users who'll see the most benefit here are compulsive Amazon media shoppers. Anytime you buy or rent a show or movie from Amazon, it will populate automatically in the "video library" sub-menu on the home screen. By doing this, Amazon builds a positive reinforcement cycle of buying new content on its storefront then showcasing everything you own in one centralized location. And, thankfully, zipping around from one section of the interface to the next takes no time at all. The hardware delivers responsive results in tenths of a second and, when you finally decide on what to watch, Amazon's predictive technology takes things one step further by pre-loading the first few seconds of the Amazon Instant movies you are most likely to watch. Verdict Chromecast is still the all-around winner when it comes to streaming sticks. It's not as fast as Amazon's Fire TV Stick, nor is it as feature-packed as the Roku Streaming Stick, but it's reliable, plays nicely with Android devices (as does the Fire Stick) and costs less than a night on the town. The Roku Streaming Stick is the agnostic brother to the other two. If you can't decide which e-tailer to give your money to, and would rather give it to the services themselves, this is the streamer for you. It also has the most content than any other platform. However just be prepared to wait a bit longer for it to load, speed really isn't Roku's strong suit. Regarding the contender at hand, the Fire TV Stick is best suited for those people who have really sunk their teeth into the Amazon ecosphere. When you strip everything else away, it feels like a device specifically engineered for Amazon Prime subscribers and generally compulsive Amazon shoppers. If you're using Amazon's Cloud Drive to store photos, you'll be able to display them with two clicks on the remote. And if your watchlists get longer than your shopping list, you'll have a great time going through the store and finally catching that 2006 Martin Scorsese film with Leo Dicaprio. (It's called The Departed and it's fantastic.) We liked The Amazon Fire Stick is dead simple to setup and, once it's going, you'll be impressed with just how much there is to see and do with the system. Menu screens populate in a fraction of a second and some smart on-board technology gets videos started faster than the competition. If you've bought into Amazon's tablet and media ecosystem, you'll almost definitely want the low-cost addition to add to your collection. It'll sync up seamlessly with these devices but, unlike Chromecast, doesn't require them in lieu of a remote. If you haven't already ponied up the $99 a year for Prime you'll find less here than on other systems but, at worst, you'll still have access to services like Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Showtime Anytime and a few other key players. We disliked You also won't find the same kind of niche content on Amazon's storefront as you would on the Roku 3 or Roku Streaming Stick. There may not be a major clamor for that one Korean channel you've never heard of, but someone, somewhere will be slightly broken-hearted when they can't find it here. Content, as a whole, is also largely dependent on the Amazon Store. It makes sense why search results only display Amazon Video links, but there's nothing worse than paying $3.99 for a movie only to find out it was available on Netflix for free. Lastly, there just isn't a great selection of triple-A games. There's enough casual games for a lifetime, but if you're looking to play the highest-end games that Android has to offer, you'll need to upgrade to a full-size box. Final verdict It's easy to dismiss the Fire TV Stick as a cash-in on the streaming stick fad, but doing so would be a real disservice to the work and innovation Amazon packed into its pint-sized product. It's a step forward for streaming sticks and sets a new standard of what is and is not acceptable from here on out. Namely, it provides a remote, a good interface and 99% of the key services for a very reasonable price tag. The only real faux-pas here is intentional, and that's the stick's almost unreasonable dependence on Amazon Prime to function in full. It's by far the least impartial of the three major streaming sticks – the other two being Chromecast and Roku – and around every corner is trying to sell you on a movie, game or TV show you didn't necessarily know you wanted until right then. It's not the best game console hybrid either. Though that's to be forgiven as its full-size sibling, the Amazon Fire TV and optional accompanying controller, are there to pick up the slack. The Fire TV Stick is a present from the ecommerce giant to media lovers everywhere. While it has its flaws, by and large the final product is one any TV or movie enthusiast will be happy with – as long as they have an Amazon Prime account.

Review: Updated: Amazon Fire TV Posted: 16 Jul 2015 10:49 AM PDT Introduction Update #1: Winter is coming! According to Amazon, HBO Now is on its way to the Fire TV and Amazon Fire TV Stick and will be available in the coming weeks. Update #2: Check out the "Music, photos and games" section below to read our thoughts on the Fire TV-exclusive GameFly game streaming app. Original review below... With the introduction of Fire TV, behemoth online retailer Amazon has entered the streaming set-top box battle that may ultimately determine the future of how we get content into our TVs. The device is competitive on both price and performance with Roku 3, Apple TV and Google Chromecast and seems squarely aimed at overthrowing those established players. More competition has come along since its launch in 2014 (like the Nexus Player), but Amazon's stalwart box still holds one of the top two spots on our shelves. Why? The product, like Amazon itself, is friendly, powerful, and innovative and tackles some of the critical consumer complaints associated with the current streaming boxes. Amazon explicitly stated that it wanted to address three problem areas about the consumer streaming experience: poor performance, closed ecosystems and cumbersome search. In terms of performance they have a clear winner on their hands. Fire TV is consistently snappy and responsive, thanks to some relatively beefy silicon inside. It's a fairly open platform too (you'll find Netflix and HBO Go here), but its interface consistently tilts toward Amazon's offerings. It can't access content from iTunes or Google Play (no surprise), but does support a wide array of third party services - including the highly coveted Sling TV app - and will presumably be adding more as time goes on. Third-party services, however, are relegated to second-class status within Fire TV's user interface. They sit in the system's "Apps" tab, while the system's prominent Movies, TV, Watchlist and My Library tabs all feed directly to Amazon's offerings. The system's first-party offerings are always in plain view and accessible directly from the home screen. Third-party offerings tend to take some clicking and scrolling to get to. While Amazon may overemphasize its own offerings, it's worth noting that the company has been putting serious work into beefing up its Amazon Prime Unlimited Streaming library. Along with a slate of well-produced original content, the company made a deal that will fold HBO's original programming (for shows more than 3 years old) into Prime Unlimited Streaming. They may not have Netflix's numbers yet, but Amazon is clearly becoming a serious player in the ongoing streaming services war. In addition, Amazon recently launched its Prime Music service on the Fire TV that gives Amazon Prime users streaming access to an extensive library of top-tier music across a panoply of genres. YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm5BGZ8t7uE Other recent additions to the platform include Bluetooth headphone support, as well as expanded memory via USB - something users have been clamoring for since launch. Search has been addressed with a slick voice recognition feature that uses a microphone on the remote to allow consumers to speak their searches instead of hunting and pecking across an on-screen letter grid. With access to cloud processing to handle the heavy lifting of voice recognition, the system does an excellent job of understanding what you're trying to tell it. However, voice searches only scan for Amazon and Vevo content, an unfortunate decision that significantly undercuts the utility of this breakthrough feature. Amazon has announced that it will be adding support for searching the catalogs of Hulu Plus, Crackle and Showtime Anytime. However, even with these additions, the device's tantalizing voice search function remains deeply underpowered. Amazon has included some compelling extras, including the ability to view photos users have stored on Amazon Cloud Drive, and playback for Music purchased through its MP3 store. It's also put special focus on games with this system and thanks to a more powerful processor and Amazon's optional dedicated game controller ($40) Kindle Fire's gaming options surpass the Angry Birds-level options offered on similar devices. Still, most games are ports of existing Android titles that already run on the Kindle HDX, so while the games look and play well on the system, it doesn't have a patch on dedicated gaming consoles (which, to be fair, are typically far more expensive). One potential differentiator for families is Amazon's integration of its FreeTime area, which allows parents to precisely proscribe the content kids access and their time on the system. It's an interesting offering that's not available on most other streaming boxes, however, it has its own set of drawbacks as well (see FreeTime section for further details). Hardware and design The box itself is about the size of a small external hard drive, or two CD jewel cases stacked on top of one another. Think of a tiny, squared-off version of the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey lying flat. Its exterior is sleek and minimalist, with the only contrast coming from glossy black lettering on a matte black background. At 0.7 inches thick, all of its visual cues seem to be telling you, "Don't see me." Its rear side is devoted to the essential ports: power, HDMI, optical audio, Ethernet and USB. Under the hood, Fire TV is quite powerful compared to its competitors, sporting a quad-core processor, a discrete GPU and 2GB of RAM. Amazon claims it has three times the processing power of Apple TV, Chromecast or Roku 3, and says it can process 57 billion floating point operations per second. You can wire it into your router via Ethernet, but if that's inconvenient, Fire TV also packs two dual-band Wi-Fi antennas. All of this adds up to notably snappy menu performance. Movie titles fly by in the interface, transitioning between services is fast and the system handles itself well when tasked with rendering games. The Fire TV's minimalist matte black remote is similar in functionality to Roku's, with seven glossy black buttons and a directional selector. It uses Bluetooth to communicate, eliminating line-of sight issues and allowing you to stash the box inside a cabinet or behind a TV. There are buttons for back, home, menu, rewind play/pause and fast forward. Topping the remote on its own is the microphone button that may one day be Fire TV's secret weapon (but not now, for more on this see the Interface and Search section). Setup As with Roku 3 and Apple TV, Fire TV's setup is eerily simple, and consists of connecting two or three wires (power, HDMI and an optional ethernet cable). If you don't have it wired to your router, the system will walk you through forging a WiFi connection. As with the Kindle Fire, when you order a Fire TV, Amazon pre-links it to your Amazon account, so after a quick (unskippable) tutorial video you're immediately able to browse Amazon Instant and Amazon Prime videos along with any photos in your cloud drive. Third party apps must be downloaded and set up separately with their own credentials. In terms of simplicity, the setup process is a win, but its lack of customization options leaves you at the mercy of the one-size-fits-all menu hierarchy Amazon has created (more on this later). Movies and TV Naturally, the system provides full-spectrum access to Amazon's cloud video services, and Amazon Instant and Amazon Prime Video are both well (if not over) represented. At launch, Fire TV offered 40 third-party channels, a far cry from the hundreds available on Roku and Chromecast, but more are slowly-but-surely trickling in. Predictably however, iTunes and Google Play are not available on the system, nor are they likely to be. Amazon is touting Fire TV's innards as a competitive advantage in terms of movie performance, but while menus move quickly, our tests didn't uncover much difference in terms of speed to open third party apps or start playing videos as compared with Roku 3 or AppleTV. Amazon's native offerings, on the other hand, clearly get a boost from living on their home hardware. First off, all of Amazon's content is accessible from the main menu of the system's OS and can start playing without first launching an app. Secondly, Amazon is introducing a feature called ASAP, which is designed to pre-cache video content for you based on your habits and preferences. I saw this in action when I watched the 11th episode of Alpha House (I had previously watched the first 10 episodes, but not on the Fire TV). Impressively, playback began instantaneously when I clicked, with no load time or buffering. Supposedly the system will make more inferences over time as it monitors my actions. It's a smart, effective system, but as only Amazon's offerings can use it, it's one more way the playing field inside Fire TV is tilted to the home team's advantage. Music, photos and gaming Amazon's added a music channel post-launch that allows consumers to access any music stored in their cloud drive (all MP3s bought through Amazon are stored in your Cloud Drive for free), as well as support for its Prime Music service, which offers access to a large library of quality music tracks organized into curated playlists. Fire TV also supports third party music services such as iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn and, most recently, Rdio. The photo channel provides a way to access any photos or videos you have stored in Amazon Cloud Drive. Amazon provides a free 5GB of storage for all accounts, and more can be purchased via subscription. The system works simply and seamlessly. You can upload photos from your computer, or use Amazon's iOS or Android apps to automatically put any photos you take up on the cloud. In addition to letting you page through slide shows, Fire TV can be set to use your images as a screensaver when the system is idle. It's clear Amazon sees games as a key piece of their strategy with this box. The idea here seems to be to capture casual gamers who aren't sufficiently invested to buy a $400 to $500 dedicated games console, not a bad bet in a time when mobile gaming is reaching more consumers than ever. Since Fire TV runs the latest version of Amazon's Fire OS ("Mojito"), which is based on Android, it's relatively easy for existing Android games to be ported to work on the system and developers I spoke with from Telltale Games (The Walking Dead) and Mojang (Minecraft) both emphasized how easy it was to move their games onto the platform from their existing games, both of which already run on the Kindle Fire HDX. Amazon's seriousness about gaming is best exemplified by its creation of a dedicated game controller for the system (sold separately, $40). While serviceable, the controller doesn't show the same polish as the rest of the system. Looking like a cross between an Xbox 360 controller and the Ouya controller, the feel of the face buttons and sticks is solid, but its shoulder buttons are a bit stiff and the triggers have a shallow travel that feels unsatisfying. It's worth noting that many of the games on the system (primarily those with simple tablet-type controls) are playable with only the remote. Standout titles include Minecraft, The Walking Dead Seasons 1 and 2, Telltale's Game of Thrones, Terraria, Zen Pinball, You Don't Know Jack, Crossy Road, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the original Sonic The Hedgehog games. The controller also sports all the buttons on the remote (including play/pause, fwd and rew), allowing you to easily manipulate the system's media options via the controller. But the newest and most impressive capability of the box and its gamepad is the ability to stream games via GameFly's Fire TV-exclusive app. The app itself is free to download and currently supports 36 titles ranging from triple-A titles like Batman: Arkham City, Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution and Darksiders 2 to lesser known titles like Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams and Blaz Blue: Continuum. The app streams at a solid 720p resolution and hovers around 30 frames per second. It firmly requires a wired ethernet connection however, and can't be used over Wi-Fi. Overall performance was solid, but couldn't quite rival that of PlayStation Now or Nvidia Grid, the latter of which is free to owners of the competing Nvidia Shield Android TV set-top box. At around $10 for one month's access to 16 titles, the pricing is fair but might provide just enough of a barrier to entry to stop some users from investing in the service. Interface and search Amazon has built an amazingly elegant solution to search in this device, thanks to a microphone embedded in the remote and cloud-powered voice recognition. Unfortunately, the way they have implemented this breakthrough feature is deeply anti-consumer. Voice recognition is accurate and solves the aggravating problem of tapping in your searches in via an on-screen letter grid. However, Amazon has destroyed most of the value of searching this way as voice searches scan only Amazon's native content library. This search myopia isn't only limited to the voice feature though. Indeed there is currently no way to search across services on the device. When I search Roku for a film it tells me if it's on Netflix, Crackle and others as well as if it's on Amazon. I ran into several scenarios where I searched for content I know is on another service (that I'm already paying for) and was only presented the option of buying or renting it from Amazon. It's the device's most serious flaw and Amazon should address if they want their device to be as consumer-friendly as they claim. Amazon's self-bias is even more striking in the menu structure it has created. Of the 10 top-level tabs on its home screen (Search, Home, Movies, TV, Watchlist, Video Library, Games, Apps, Photos, Settings), all but three (Home, Games and Apps) are for Amazon services. Third party apps are relegated to the "Apps" tab. Thus, four of the highest-level menu items are devoted to different aspects of Amazon's video services, while a single menu item at the bottom of the page houses 40-plus third party apps. Certain high-profile apps (Netflix, Hulu) are profiled on the Home tab under Featured Apps and Games (which sits just below the "Recently Added To Prime" area). To make matters worse, the Apps tab is populated by games as well as apps (the Games tab only has games in it), making that area even more cluttered than it has to be. In short, Amazon seems to be going out of its way to bury third-party apps on the system. It's not a dealbreaker, as most consumers will be aware of the services they want on their device and figure out how to find them, but it's irksome that these services require several extra clicks to access and can't be customized. Tip: Voice search can be used to navigate to apps you have installed and is often the fastest and easiest way to find a given app. Freetime FreeTime, FireTV's most ironically named feature, is there to make 100% sure your children are not free to watch whatever they would like. In addition, the service costs $5 per month, making it the opposite of both meanings of the word "free" (though Amazon does offer a 1-month free trial of the service). The idea behind FreeTime is a solid one. We're sure many parents would appreciate the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your children are only accessing content from trusted and age-appropriate sources. In practice, however, FreeTime has a long way to go before we can recommend paying extra money to access it (let alone recommend it as a reason to buy the system). The service operates by having parents create profiles for each child in the household, then white-list specific apps and video content they want that child to have access to. In addition, the system lets parents specify how much time each child is allowed to spend on the system per day in increments of 15 minutes, as well as blocking off certain times. For example, I could allow one child an hour of FireTV time between 4pm and 8pm. And if I were feeling especially mean, I could allow another child four hours of screen time, but only between 2am and 6am. Parents can also set whether a child's time spent on apps, video or either. The primary flaw in the system is its selection of video content. Currently FreeTime only allows parents to white-list individual videos that has been either purchased from Amazon or are available via Amazon Prime Instant Video. Netflix and other apps are available, but if you give your kid access, they can see every movie on that service (meaning that adding them to your child's library undermines the entire point of FreeTime). Given how open FireTV's ecosystem is and how much wonderful children's content is available on Hulu Plus, Netflix and others, it feels ridiculous (and possibly manipulative) to allow parent's to only proscribe choices that only come from Amazon's libraries. In addition, FreeTime must be activated for it to work. Once the system is signed into FreeTime mode for a given kid, the countdown timer starts and it's impossible to exit to the main menu without entering a PIN. However, if an unsupervised kid is tech-savvy enough to get the system turned on by themselves (and newsflash, most are) they'll have full access to everything until FreeTime is activated. Also, when the PIN is entered (as it must be to change content choices), the magic numbers are plainly visible on screen, not even obscured by asterisks. And this is all assuming that the FireTV is the only source of content connected to the TV. The idea of this being a serious impediment to any media-hungry kid over age six is a little absurd. The idea behind FreeTime is sound, but in its current half-executed form, it's largely useless, primarily due to its lack of hooks into the other video apps on the system. FreeTime is not yet a compelling reason to buy FireTV, even for those with small children they want to safely park in front of the flatscreen. Thankfully for FireTV, FreeTime is not its only trick and the box is compelling enough on its other merits to justify purchase. We hope to see Amazon work to improve this feature down the road. Amazon Fire TV vs the Amazon Fire TV Stick The Amazon Fire TV Stick packs everything we love about the full-size box into a petite, powerful form factor. For better or worse the interfaces are identical and lean heavily on Prime content. The big differences between the two streamers are the remotes (the Stick's stick doesn't have a built-in mic), and the silicon inside the machines. By and large the Amazon Fire TV proper has better internals and therefore can play games like the gorgeously addicting Crossy Road and Zen Pinball without a problem. The Amazon Fire TV Stick has gaming capabilities too, however, you're more apt to find Solitaire and Threes than you are anything more complex. If you're just looking for a streamer and don't mind a bit more lag time when starting a show or film, then save yourself some cash and check out the pint-sized stick instead. Verdict Amazon is entering the set top box wars at a very interesting time and with a very compelling product, especially for heavy users of Amazon's digital services. At $100 it's priced competitively with Roku 3 and Apple TV, and we expect the gaps in its channel lineup to be filled in the coming months. It's clear now that the retailer was not waiting, it was watching. Almost every aspect of the Fire TV attempts to improve or refine the aspects of the Roku, Apple TV and Chromecast that currently vex consumers. And as a powerhouse retailer, it's certain Amazon put the reams of customer data to which it is privy to heavy use. We liked It's a beefy box with processing capacity to spare. Amazon services are quick and easy to access and its ASAP feature pre-caches Amazon content for you so you can watch instantly. Voice search is the kind of breakthrough you wonder why we didn't see earlier in these devices. It's an open system with most of the must-have apps and channels. Photos were a very pleasant surprise and Amazon seems to be attacking gaming with a diligence we have not seen from their competition. We disliked It's hard to escape the fact that Fire TV's interface tilts toward Amazon's offerings. We would like to see more visibility for third-party apps in the main menu, as well as customization offerings. The inability of its search function to scan across all of its services (as Roku does) makes the feature worthless unless you are only interested in Amazon's offerings. Customers who aren't sure where to find a particular piece of content will be forced back to searching the web for information. Verdict This device is simple to use and works well. If you are significantly bought in to Amazon's services, it's hard to go wrong with this box. However, if you are not an Amazon customer or even an Amazon customer who doesn't have or want Amazon Prime, then you might think twice. The device is clearly tilted toward Amazon customers, and nothing short of a full UI overhaul is going to change that. We'd like to at least see Amazon allow some kind of user customization in the interface. Until then, we're calling this device great, but not perfect.

UPDATED: HBO Now: Everything you need to know about HBO's standalone service Posted: 16 Jul 2015 10:40 AM PDT HBO Now Update: Apple's exclusivity deal with HBO has finally come to an end. HBO Now will start rolling out to Android devices and to Fire tablets starting today, with Chromecast and Fire TV apps coming soon. Film critic Roger Ebert once said, "We live in a box of space and time. Movies are windows in its walls. They allow us to enter other minds, not simply in the sense of identifying with the characters, although that is an important part of it, but by seeing the world as another person sees it." HBO Now, a new standalone service from Home Box Office, will offer its users just that: a window into the world that many have not seen before today. Starting in April, the service, which cost $14.99 (about £10, AU$20) per month and had a free one-month trial, rolled out to Apple iTunes users with an Apple TV or devices running iOS like the iPhone 6 and iPad. HBO Now will eventually come to other services, we assume, as HBO Go, a streaming service offered by HBO that requires an active cable subscription, is available on Amazon Fire TV devices, Xbox One, PS4, Roku and myriad other set-top devices. Aside from seasons of Game of Thrones and Girls like you might expect, HBO Now offers dozens of movies, a plethora of its best series going back to The Sopranos and several … ahem ... "after dark" skin flicks. We've highlighted the best of the best content below, as well as some pertinent info for what could be the biggest and brightest innovation the network has ever released. HBO Now price HBO Now's pricing is pretty straightforward. The service is available to US customers for $14.99 per month paid via the iTunes Store. New subscribers are given an option for a one-month free trial vis-a-vis your iTunes account. Taking HBO up on the offer isn't without a catch: You're automatically enrolled into the program, which means you'll need to physically unsubscribe at the end of the free month-long trial to stop your card from getting charged. Despite that one shortcoming, there's a lot to like here. Unlike its sister service HBO Go, there's no cable subscription required, nor are you locked into a contract. At launch, HBO Now is limited to the US, unfortunately, but we've reached out to HBO to see if it has any plans to release the service in the UK in the near future. How do I get it? Subscribing to the service is cake. If you own an Apple device, just head to the App Store and download the HBO Now app. From there you'll be prompted to create a new account and start your one month free trial. Apple TV users can mirror these steps on their devices. Android and Fire Tablet owners simply need to go to their respective store fronts and download the HBO Now app. Create an account and viola! You can now watch Game of Thrones to your heart's content. However! If you're a resident of New York City and subscribe to Cablevision, there's actually a third way to get HBO Now by adding it to your basic cable package. If you don't fit into one of those categories, you're out of luck. At least for few months. HBO has more partnerships in the works for the Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast, but it will be some time until we see the service launch on those devices. New content (updated July 2015) July 1, 2015 A.I. Artificial Intelligence Ballers (new episodes) The Brink (new episodes) The Counseler Dawn of the Dead For Your Consideration The Haunted Mansion Inside Man J. Edgar Lone Survivor My Big Fat Greek Wedding Reno 911: Miami Transcendence True Detective Season 2 (new episodes) July 4, 2015 The Book of Life July 8, 2015 7 Days in Hell July 11, 2015 Horrible Bosses 2 July 13, 2015 My Depression: The Up and Down and Up of It July 18, 2015 The Maze Runner July 20, 2015 Packed in a Trunk July 25, 2015 The Drop Best shows on HBO Now Great original programming is HBO's bread and butter. While nearly every show deserves a call out, I feel the following are the best shows on the service. Game of Thrones - Like Winter, you probably knew this one was coming. George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice saga has enraptured us season after season with its brutal telling of lords and ladies fighting, conniving and … uh, kissing, to win a horribly uncomfortable looking chair. There are currently four seasons on HBO Now, with a fifth season available starting April 12. The Wire - Shows about cops and robbers were a dime a dozen in the late '90s and early 2000s. It seems like every week there was a new crime drama that either took place in the courthouse or out on the streets where gritty, foul-mouthed badges upheld the law with a sidearm and implacable morals. The Wire is a lot like the old shows, sure, but it improves upon them by giving you truly deep characters on both sides of the law that you wanted to succeed, and some you just can't wait to see bite a bullet. There are five seasons currently available on HBO Now. Silicon Valley - I know what you're thinking, "Nick, how can you recommend Silicon Valley when the show goes out of its way to mention TechCrunch and Engadget, and purposefully leaves out good ol' TechRadar?" Well, that's a good question. But we all make mistakes, and one day the awesome show about the people who run this crazy region will recognize true technology journalism when it sees it. You may as well start watching this excellent show right now, however, as that day could take awhile. There is currently one season on HBO Now with a new season set to debut April 12. Want even more streaming shows? Check out our list of the best online video streaming services, Hulu and Hulu Plus: the latest TV shows and movies to stream, new shows and movies on Amazon Prime Instant Video and list of new shows and movies on Netflix.

Ex-Apple staffers launch Moov Now, a fitness tracker that tells you how to get in shape Posted: 16 Jul 2015 08:01 AM PDT Today (July 16) Moov is launching its second fitness tracker, the Moov Now, which is capable of providing users with real-time feedback and insight into every workout. If you're not interested in fitness beyond doing 10,000 steps per day, you may not want to read on. Those who are serious about tech and fitness, however, should lap this up. The Moov Now not only tracks activity and form - that is an actual game-changer - while exercising, but also provides real-time audio and visual guidance from a smartphone app. In other words, this is an actual, wearable personal trainer. If it works. So for example, when running, Moov Now will advise users when to land softer, shorten their stride, or pick up the pace. The wearable can be worn on wrist or ankle and provides similar feedback for activities including swimming, cycling, cardio boxing and, our favourite, the 7-minute workout regime. Moov launched their first generation device in 2015 on a crowdfunding platform, reaching $1 million in two weeks. The second generation is smaller, sleeker and more comfortable. It features a six-month battery life and a customisable design. As well as work out training the wearable is also capable of stand-alone daily activity and sleep tracking, and the new app will support 3rd party heart-rate monitors. The Moov Now will retail for $99 (around £64), but will be available to pre-order at the reduced price of $59.99 (around £45), which seems like a steal if it delivers on what Moov is promising. Moov Now will ship in Autumn 2015. Our resident jocks and sporting ladies are champing at the bit in anticipation of a review model. In fact, it's getting kind of musky. YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ef95nAHFAs

Marshall just announced a smartphone, its least rock 'n' roll move ever Posted: 16 Jul 2015 08:00 AM PDT Marshall, a company known best for its amplifiers, announced that its getting into the smartphone game. Its first phone, called London, is an Android Lollipop-powered device that is decidedly mid-range in terms of its specs, rocking only a 4.7-inch 720p IPS panel with a Snapdragon 410 SoC. But Marshall's phone isn't trying to be a major flagship player. Instead, it's much more about providing a unique music playback experience to smartphone users with features that you really can't find anywhere else right now. The London, which is coated on its back with the company's signature ruggedized leatherette, boasts two stereo headphone jacks. This is perfect for sharing tunes with a friend or outputting to two different speakers. On the side, Marshall implemented a slick, bronzed volume scroll wheel. It's all about that Wolf, son Under the hood, Marshall stocked the London with a Wolfson WM8281 sound processor, which will give regular MP3s a hearty boost in sound quality. For some context, some of Apple's older clickwheel iPods were adored for their Wolfson digital to analog converters, but recent portable music players, including smartphones, have relied on comparatively inferior software-based methods to improve sound quality. Pushing out uncompressed FLAC files won't be a problem for Marshall's smartphone. While the London can't provide the blistering speeds of today's flagship phones like the iPhone 6 or Samsung Galaxy S6, it looks to have all the chops necessary to power your music like never before on a smartphone. Its US site shows a countdown to fully reveal the Marshall London, but the phone should be available for purchase on August 21st for $499 (£399, about AU$672). That's a lot of money. We've reached out to Marshall for more concrete details on its release, global pricing and carrier compatibility. Via Engadget Lead image credit: Marshall

Motorola is about to announce something big, but what? Posted: 16 Jul 2015 07:53 AM PDT Motorola is having a party on July 28 and we've just received our save the date message. Simultaneous events will be held in London and New York and there will also be a livestream kicking off 9AM CET, 2PM BST and 11PM EST. The invite comes plastered with the warning, "Your relationship status is about to change." That may mean it's something to do with social networking, or maybe Motorola has big plans for your love life. We've seen quite a few weeks of the new Moto X and Moto G smartphones over the past two weeks so if we had to take a punt, we'd put our money on Motorola announcing these. Whatever it is, TechRadar will be there to bring you the news. Our Moto X review.

Review: Panasonic G7 Posted: 16 Jul 2015 07:38 AM PDT Introduction and features Replacing the Panasonic G6, the G7 sits beneath the Panasonic GH4 in the company's line-up of compact system cameras. It's the smaller of the two SLR-like models, and is aimed at enthusiast photographers. It sits alongside the rectangular Panasonic GX7, and above the GF7, GM1 and GM5. Every Panasonic interchangeable lens camera briefing recently seems to have started with the words "it's got the same sensor as the GX7", and that's also the case with the G7. This means the new camera has the same resolution as the camera it replaces, 16MP, but the sensor is newer (albeit still two years old). This sensor is coupled with the Venus Engine 9 processing engine found in the GH4 and, according to Panasonic, this combination produces the best image quality of any Panasonic camera. It also enables a native sensitivity range of ISO 200-25,600, with a low expansion setting of ISO 100. The G6 has a native range of ISO 160-12,800, with an expansion setting of 25,600. The G7's Venus Engine has a quad-core CPU for faster processing, enabling full-resolution continuous shooting at an impressive 8fps (frames per second) in Single-AF mode or 6fps in Continuous AF mode. That's 1fps up on what the G6 can muster in each autofocus mode. If you want to shoot at a faster rate you have to drop the image size to 8 million pixels – that's still large enough to make A4 prints – and use the 4K Photo modes to shoot at 30fps. This uses the G7's 4K video technology to shoot a sequence of images for up to 29 minutes 59 seconds, and you can then extract the 8Mp still images from the footage in-camera. In 4K Burst Shooting mode shooting continues for as long as the shutter release is held down. In 4K Burst (Start/Stop) mode, however, recording is started with a press of the shutter release and is stopped by a second press. Meanwhile in 4K Pre-burst mode, sensor scanning starts as soon as the mode is activated, and the 30 frames before the shutter release is pressed are recorded along with 30 frames after, giving 60 images from the two seconds of recording. These 4K burst modes can be used in any exposure mode, and in 4K Burst Shooting and 4K Burst (S/S) modes it's possible to use image ratios of 16:9 (3840 x 2160), 4:3 (3328 x 2496), 3:2 (3504 x 2336) and 1:1 (2880 x 2880). The G7 can also record 4K MP4 movies at 100mb/s at up to 30fps in NTSC or 25fps in PAL. Full HD footage can be recorded in MP4 or AVCHD format at a range of frames rates. Panasonic has also given the G7 the DFD (Depth from Defocus) focusing system first seen in the GH4. This system uses lens data and looks at the contrast of the scene at two different defocused images to help it calculate the correct focus point more quickly. As with the GH4, Panasonic claims this enables the G7 to achieve focus in just 0.07 sec, approximately half the time the G6 takes. Although the G7 has Wi-Fi connectivity, in a surprise change from the G6 and in an effort to keep the price down, there's no NFC (near field communication). Build and handling Panasonic has given the G7 a more angular look than the G6 it replaces, and there are a couple of changes to the control layout. On the top plate, for example, there are two fairly large dials. The first of these surrounds the shutter release, and replaces the Function Lever on the G6, while the second is towards the back of the plate and within reach of your right thumb. They both feel well made, and the camera responds quickly to adjustments. The front dial is easier to use than the old Function Lever. Over on the left side of the top plate is a new drive mode dial, similar to the one on the GH4. This dial has an option to select 4K Photo mode, with the three 4K options being selected in the menu by pressing the Menu/Set button at the centre of the navigation controls on the back of the camera. As on the G6, the G7 has a vari-angle touchscreen, as well as an electronic viewfinder (EVF), for composing and reviewing images. With 2,360,000 dots the EVF has almost double the resolution of the G6's finder, and it's an OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) unit. It provides a good, clear view with plenty of detail, although noise seems to sparkle in low-light situations. Meanwhile the 3-inch screen has had a little boost up from 1,036,000-dots on the G6 to 1,040,000 on the G7. It's also very clear, and responds to touch quickly. Like most screens it suffers from reflections in direct sun, but when its brightness is set to the maximum it's usually still possible to see enough information to compose an image if you can't use the viewfinder. It can, however, be hard to see the thin line of the electronic level switch from yellow to green to indicate that the camera is level. I find Panasonic's Touch Pad AF system very useful, as it enables you to set the AF point with your finger on the screen while looking through the viewfinder; however, as a left eye user it's essential that I swing the screen out to the side to avoid setting the AF point with my nose. Six of the G7's physical buttons and five virtual buttons on the screen are customisable, which means you can set up the camera to suit how you like to shoot. It's not possible to assign a button to turn off or activate Touch Pad AF quickly, which I would find useful in some situations, and although the Quick Menu can be customised, there's no customisable page for the main menu, which would also be useful for grouping together the most commonly used features. It takes a little while to get used to shooting in 4K Photo mode, especially Pre-Burst because you feel like you've missed the action when you press the shutter release, but it works well. It's easy to extract the 8Mp images in-camera: hitting the 'up' navigation key reveals all the shots in the sequence, and you can then scroll quickly through until you find the most interesting images. Pressing the Set/Menu button gives you the option to save the selected frame as a JPEG. While the G7 is fairly lightweight and feels like an entry-level camera, its plethora of buttons and dials make it more suited to use by experienced photographers. It also has a large grip with a textured coating that makes the camera comfortable and secure in your hand. If you're used to handling cameras like the Fuji X-T1 or X-T10, the G7 is going to seem quite insubstantial by comparison, but the controls are well arranged and responsive. Performance When I tested the Panasonic GX7 back in August 2013 I found that it produced high quality images; noise was controlled well up to about ISO 6400, but speckling was visible at 100% in images taken at ISO 800 and higher. The G7 follows the same pattern, which isn't surprising given that it has the same sensor. When all noise reduction is turned off coloured speckling is visible at 100% in raw files taken at ISO 1600 and higher. At the default settings, simultaneously captured JPEGs have no chroma noise, but there is some softening of detail, and luminance noise is visible at 100%, with some areas looking quite mushy. While some ISO 12,800 images may make good A3 (11.7 x 16.6-inch) prints, others are best kept to A4 or smaller (8.27x11.7), and I would avoid using the top (ISO 25,600) setting where possible. Panasonic's G-series cameras generally have very good metering and white balance systems, and the G7 is no exception. There were a few occasions during this test when a little exposure compensation was required, but on the whole the G7's Multi Metering system copes very well with a range of lighting situations. It does a great job in situations where some other cameras struggle, and its dynamic range is good, so highlights don't burn out too abruptly. Similarly, the automatic white balance system can usually be relied upon to produce natural-looking images. Although the G7's Tracking AF system doesn't respond quickly enough for fast-moving subjects, if you keep the active AF point (or area) over the subject in 1-Area or Custom Multi mode with Continuous AF mode selected, in decent light it usually gets the subject sharp and keeps it in focus. In normal daylight conditions and Single AF mode the camera focuses the lens very quickly, and it usually maintains a good speed even in very low light conditions, although some backwards and forwards adjustment is sometimes visible. Video footage and 4K Photos follow the same pattern as the full-resolution stills, with generally good exposure, pleasant colours and good detail, although in Continuous AF mode there's occasionally a slight shift in focus away from the subject, which detracts from the final footage. Helpfully, in 4K Photo mode the camera saves the footage that still images are extracted from, so you can have the best of both worlds. It's worth remembering that shooting upright format images results in incorrectly orientated video footage. Panasonic's 4K Photo modes present some interesting creative options, enabling you to capture high-speed action easily. However, as the autofocus system operates in video mode it's quite slow, and isn't really suitable for shooting subjects that move towards or away from the camera. It's ideal for shooting action that takes place in one location though – a juggler, for example, or the movement of water over a object. Lab tests: Resolution We chose three rival cameras to the Panasonic G7 to see how it measured up in our lab tests: the Fuji X-T10, Olympus OM-D E-M10 and Sony A6000. We carried out lab tests on the G7 across its full ISO range for resolution, noise (including signal to noise ratio) and dynamic range. We test the JPEGs shot by the camera, but we also check the performance with raw files. Most enthusiasts and pros prefer to shoot raw, and the results can often be quite different. Panasonic G7 resolution charts We test camera resolution using an industry-standard ISO test chart that allows precise visual comparisons. This gives us numerical values for resolution in line widths/picture height, and you can see how the G7 compares with its rivals in the charts below. JPEG resolution analysis: The G7's 16Mp Four Thirds-type sensor gives a very good account of itself throughout the sensitivity range, even coming close to the 24Mp Sony A6000 for detail resolution. Raw (converted to TIFF) resolution analysis: When raw files are converted using the supplied Silkypix software with no noise reduction applied, the level of detail falls a little behind that of the JPEG files; a bespoke conversion can draw out more detail. Lab tests: Dynamic range Dynamic range is a measure of the range of tones the sensor can capture. Cameras with low dynamic range will often show 'blown' highlights or blocked-in shadows. This test is carried out in controlled conditions using DxO hardware and analysis tools. Dynamic range is measured in exposure values (EV). The higher the number the wider the range of brightness levels the camera can capture. This falls off with increasing ISO settings because the camera is having to amplify a weaker signal. Raw files capture a higher dynamic range because the image data is unprocessed. Panasonic G7 dynamic range charts JPEG dynamic range analysis: The Olympus OMD E-M10 captures the highest dynamic range for most of the sensitivity range, followed by the Sony A6000. The G7 compares more favourably with the other cameras at higher sensitivity settings. Raw (converted to TIFF) dynamic range analysis: Up to and including ISO 6400 the G7 has an impressively wide dynamic range, indicating that images have a wide range of tones and will withstand a fair degree of manipulation. Lab tests: Signal to noise ratio This is a test of the camera's noise levels. The higher the signal to noise ratio, the greater the difference in strength between the real image data and random background noise, so the 'cleaner' the image will look. The higher the signal to noise ratio, the better. Panasonic G7 signal to noise ratio charts JPEG signal to noise ratio analysis: The G7 competes well with the other cameras, indicating that noise is controlled well in JPEG images. Raw (converted to TIFF) signal to noise ratio analysis: The G7 puts in a very impressive performance at lower sensitivity settings, indicating that noise is controlled very well and images are clean. Verdict It's unlikely that G6 users will feel tempted to upgrade to the G7, and some may feel that the changes brought by the new camera are a little pedestrian and predictable. Nevertheless, the G7 is a very capable camera that produces high-quality images. It also showcases a feature that's likely to become more relevant to photographers over the next couple of years – 4K recording and the ability to extract 8Mp still images. While the 4K Burst Shooting and 4K Burst (Start/Stop) modes may seem the most practical uses of this technology, experienced stills photographers who are used to timing shots carefully may be more attracted to 4K Pre-burst mode. This mode records at 30 frames per second for just two seconds, one before the shutter release is pressed and one after, capturing 60 images in total. This should be sufficient to capture the desired bit of the action, and it provides scope for selecting the perfect moment/expression without giving the photographer hundreds of images to scroll through to find the ideal shot. 4K Burst (Start/Stop) mode is especially useful for solo photographers shooting dynamic scenes such as water being poured over an object or subjects being dropped. With the camera mounted on a tripod, recording can be started before the photographer creates the movement in the scene, and once the action has played out recording is stopped with a second press of the shutter release. One downside to using 4K Photo mode is that it turns a 16Mp camera into an 8Mp camera. However, according to Panasonic we can anticipate 8K recording with 33Mp stills by the time of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 – that's going to take a huge leap in sensor technology from Panasonic. We liked The G7 has all the features we like in a compact system camera; a vari-angle touch-sensitive screen, a high-quality electronic viewfinder and a snappy autofocus system, along with a decent sensor. As a member of the Micro Four Thirds family there's also an extensive collection of lenses, from Olympus and Panasonic as well as some third-party manufacturers. We disliked While it has all the controls we'd expect, the G7's build quality is lacking in comparison with Fuji's X-series and Olympus's OM-D range of compact system cameras. It's not badly constructed, but it has a lightweight and plastic feel that won't entice enthusiast photographers. The autofocus system is excellent for shooting still subjects, but it struggles to follow fast-moving objects around the frame unless you're able to keep the active AF point in the right position. Verdict Although it lacks any real wow factor, the Panasonic G7 produces high-quality 16Mp images and offers one of the most well-rounded feature sets in its field, with a high-quality OLED viewfinder, a vari-angle touchscreen and Wi-Fi connectivity. Some photographers are dismissive of vari-angle screens and touch control, but both can promote creativity by encouraging photographers to shoot from a wider range of angles and look for a different perspective. Similarly, the 4K Photo modes extend creativity and inject a bit of extra fun into your photography – albeit at the cost of a halving of image size.

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