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Techradar |
- Google to drop support for old browsers
- Electronic Arts takes on OnLive and Steam
- HTC Sensation vs Samsung Galaxy S2
- Tablets hurting Shuttle's desktop business
- Affordable new Sonos system on the way
- Hands-on: Viewsonic ViewPad 7x review
- Intel: Windows 7 tablets can outperform iPad 2
- Hands on: Asus RoG Vulcan ANC review
- Xbox Live Diamond TV service set to hit E3
- Vodafone: HTC ChaCha release date 'really soon'
- MI6 uses online cupcake recipe to foil terrorism
- Kaiser Chiefs offer up 'bespoke' new album online
- Tutorial: 20 essential Android 3.0 tips and tricks
- Review: Panasonic HX-WA10
- Week in Tech: Intel, AMD and Nvidia fight for supremacy at Computex
- Toshiba Thrive Android tablet unveiled
- Opinion: Come on guys, give Sony a break
- Report: Sony data compromised again
- OnLive UK launch date confirmed as autumn
- Review: Toshiba 32HL833B
| Google to drop support for old browsers Posted: 03 Jun 2011 11:45 AM PDT Google is set to drop support for old browsers from 1 August. While the news is unlikely to trouble most Brits, if you are still using IE6 or IE7, Safari 3 or Firefox 3.5 (or older versions of the above) then you really do need to upgrade your browser before August. If you don't, then you will lose some really key features in Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites. StatCounter figures on browser usage worldwide suggest that around 17 per cent of global users need to upgrade to a newer browser. Google wants to push support for new HTML5 tech, something that older browsers cannot run, hence the shift to the focus on the latest versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Microsoft Internet Explorer. A necessity for the future Venkat Panchapakesan, VP of engineering at Google, noted on the Google blog this week: "These new browsers are more than just a modern convenience, they are a necessity for what the future holds." "For web applications to spring even farther ahead of traditional software, our teams need to make use of new capabilities available in modern browsers," wrote Panchapakesan. "In these older browsers you may have trouble using certain features in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs and Google Sites, and eventually these apps may stop working entirely," he added. Amazingly, there are still 11 per cent of global internet users still regularly using Microsoft's IE6, with over a third of Chinese internet users still accessing the web via this out-dated browser. 
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| Electronic Arts takes on OnLive and Steam Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:27 AM PDT Mega-publisher EA is now readying a new digital distribution service to take on the might of Valve's hugely popular Steam in the world of PC gaming. Expect lots more on this from E3 2011 next week, but for now what we do know is that the service is set to be called "Origin" and will allow EA's customers to "purchase, download and keep track of their games." EA certainly have their work cut out for them, with Tom Francis, staff writer over on PC Gamer, reminding us that: "Most hardcore PC gamers already use Valve's rival service, Steam, and don't want to have their game collections split between multiple services. "EA's catalogue is huge, though, so there's a scary potential for them to make major games exclusive to Origin. I'd much rather see them compete by offering a better service." Anybody like Star Wars? EA's Origin may well launch with around 150 titles on offer including the new Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. Again, expect a slew of new information and screens on that particular AAA-title from E3 next week. "Facebook-like social features," are (somewhat unsurprisingly) being touted as a major aspect of EA's new games download service. The Wall Street Journal claims that EA plans are currently in test stage, but an official announcement to consumers is imminent. That sound? That was the sound of a million high street games retailers sighing… Origin vs Steam vs OnLive Whether or not EA's Origin can successfully take on market leader Valve, who's Steam service rules the roost in PC gaming, as well as new upstarts such as cloud-gaming streaming services like OnLive remains to be seen. Tellingly, EA has not licensed its games to OnLive. EA's digital game revenues were $833 million of a total of $3.8 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending March 31 2011 and the company hopes to take that past the $1 billion landmark this year. 
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| HTC Sensation vs Samsung Galaxy S2 Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:27 AM PDT We've been treated to a cornucopia of high quality mobile phones recently, but it's a certain two that have got the tongues wagging: the dual-core majesty of the HTC Sensation and the Samsung Galaxy S2. We've reviewed them both already, but so often we're asked the question of 'which should I buy?' So here's TechRadar's detailed and in-depth look at the differences between the two handsets - and if you still can't decide after reading through our guide, then we can only suggest you toss a coin in your local phone retailer. Build quality There's a marked difference between the HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy S2 when it comes to the design of the devices – which basically comes down to thickness and weight. The Sensation has a plastic and aluminium chassis combined with a relatively heavy glass front – this line-up means the 148g weight of the phone is lighter than the likes of the Desire HD, but markedly heavier than the Galaxy S2, which weighs in at a sublime 116g. The Galaxy S2 is also by far the slimmer of the two phones, offering a stupidly thin chassis that's just 8.5mm thin, meaning it fits beautifully in any pocket and will make you panic on occasion simply because you might not be able to feel it and you'll think a pickpocket has come along. What's odd about the HTC Sensation is that despite the aluminium chassis, the phone still feels a little plastic-like in the hand. This is exacerbated by HTC's decision to make the whole rear of the phone an antenna, meaning the whole rear peels away to leave just a phone and screen. We like the theory, but in practice it's a veritable nightmare to get the back off as your fingers constantly get in the way. However, no matter how cheap the feeling of the Sensation, when you take the back off the Galaxy S2 it's infinitely more budget. The rear panel is made of flimsiest plastic out there it seems – not feeling good when taken off, but when attached firmly to the phone offers a cool mesh finish. Winner: Draw. This is purely down to opinion – some will find the S2 too flimsy, some the Sensation too bulky. Both are very well built though with Gorilla Glass, and we promise you won't be upset by either. Interface Both the Sensation and the Galaxy S II are running Android 2.3.3, and both have had an overlay placed on top of Google's OS by their parents, clearly wanting to stamp their individuality onto their flagship smartphone. We'll start by looking at the power under the finger of each device, and we're presented with a pretty even contest once more – both will react with the utmost speed, which is especially impressive on the HTC Sensation with its 3D Sense 3.0 overlay. We've long stated we're fans of this UI, and with the new iteration it's even better, with upgraded widgets and cooler new spinning animations – plus that lock screen, with easy access applications, is to die for. TouchWiz shouldn't be ruled out though, with a snap underneath the finger that we simply can't fault – the fact it scores nearly 50% better in benchmark tests than the Sensation is felt here. A multitude of re-sizeable widgets, a simple menu system and more advanced music controls in the notifications bar are only let down by the cheap-feeling lock screen, that might as well have come straight from the developer's lab. Winner: HTC Sensation, simply because Sense UI was already great, and just got a little better. Screen The screen technology on offer for both is markedly different here - we have the Super LCD from the HTC Sensation, and the Super AMOLED Plus from the Galaxy S II. You'd think it's was a no brainer, as the Samsung technology has always been class leading, with superbly clear colours and contrast ratio - but HTC has a trick up its sleeve, packing in qHD resolution to take advantage of the dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon at the heart. This means that the image on the 4.3-inch screen (which is actually thinner than the Galaxy S2 thanks to the aspect ratio) is that little bit sharper thanks to a great pixel density, contributing to great internet viewing and pleasant video playback. Colours are well reproduced in all aspects too, but the fact it still needs a backlight means that at high brightness the screen can look a little washed out. Plus chuck a little bit of sunlight at the display and it will all but disappear at the lower brightness echelons as the curse of the HTC phone strikes once again. It's not terrible anymore, but it's certainly not something to crow about. then we come to the Super AMOLED Plus, and it deserves that suffix in spades. When we first saw the phone in Barcelona, we were blown away by the quality, and it's a screen that just keeps giving no matter what you do with it. From outdoor visibility in nearly every scenario (plus a special setting from Samsung to make it easier to see in really bright conditions) we love to look at the display, despite 'only' running WVGA (800 x 480) resolution. From watching video to simply spinning through the homescreens, we can't help but love using the Galaxy S2 and cooing over its display. Winner: The Samsung Galaxy S2. It's the display in the world right now and will need something special to knock it from its pedestal. You know how mobile phones used to make calls and suchlike with aplomb? Well, thankfully some engineers have remembered this and made efforts to improve the phone experience on devices, and both the HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy S2 have benefitted. Calling Both the Sensation and the S2 have dual microphones, but we couldn't see any evidence of the Sensation using the technology very well at all - in even the mildest of breezes we were told we couldn't be heard. Compare that to the Sensation and you'll see that the noise cancelling is a real boon - every word is clear and the microphone super sensitive. Both phones have decent speakers on the back, so conference calling shouldn't be a problem, and even throw in a smidgen of bass here and there too. Contacts The contacts section of both phones is based on the standard Android system, but both make special effort to customise the experience a little bit better than the normal OS. HTC is the clear winner here though, as the Facebook and Twitter integration, combined with the ability to link names together automatically better than any other brand on the market, is a super-cool combo. We like the fact that the Samsung Galaxy S2 has a smooth interface for scrolling through the names and an easier method of setting the default contacts, but for a phonebook HTC can't be beaten. Winner: A tricky one, as both have positives, but we think the Samsung Galaxy S2 shades it with superior hardware offering a better calling experience. Messaging This is more about keyboards than the overall messaging systems, as both offer all the bells and whistles Google has built into Android. We're talking Exchange Mail, all the webmail providers, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, IM through Google Talk - you name it, it's there. Special mention should go to Samsung here though, as it's managed to finally sort out that Social Hub to actually be useful, making it a great inbox for all your messaging services, including Facebook and Twitter. When it comes to the keyboard though there's a clear winner: it's the HTC Sensation, with the eerily accurate offering we've seen since the long-forgotten days of the HTC Hero. Typing a word on the Samsung Galaxy S2 is fine, although the auto-correct is a little bit off and hitting the full stop instead of the space bar happens around once every fifth word. But the spell checker on the Sensation is out of this world, and while the full stop issue is prevalent here, the overall experience is speedy, accurate and an all-round more comforting experience, meaning you won't accidentally send sexual expletives to your Mother. Winner: HTC Sensation for bringing the same excellent keyboard to the table Internet When it comes to internet browsing, Android is a great browser full stop, offering fast speeds, Flash integration and cool pinch to zoom features. The Sensation takes the early lead in this category, with the text reflow system working magically as ever - no matter how close you pinch to zoom in, the text will re-jumble around the page to fit. The Flash integration is slightly, just slightly more sluggish than the Galaxy S2, and while the display is brighter, the Super AMOLED Plus comes into its own here, giving you pin sharp text and the ability to zoom in as far as you'd like - not that you'd need to very often though. But there's one thing in our minds that takes the HTC Sensation ahead of the S2 when it comes to internet browsing, and that's the ability to switch between mobile and full internet sites – this is most prevalent on websites where an automatic redirect is in place for mobile browsers. There are always workarounds, but for those unable or unwilling to put these in place the Galaxy S2 will be frustrating compared to a desktop browser. Winner: The HTC Sensation builds on the Taiwanese brand's solid performance in internet browsing. Camera Both of the phones are well matched in this area, with an 8MP offering making a decent fist of things, although the Sensation has a dual, rather than single, LED flash (the S2 version is so bright it might melt your eyes though). Both phones can also record in 1080p at 30fps, which is jolly clever, so check out our photo and video comparisons below to see the difference in quality: Samsung Galaxy S2: Click here to see the full res version HTC Sensation: Click here to see the full res version A standard shot with a lot of backlight - neither camera picks out the tower particularly well Samsung Galaxy S2: Click here to see the full res version HTC Sensation: Click here to see the full res version The touch to focus option really only marginally helps the Sensation - the Samsung Galaxy S2 barely at all Samsung Galaxy S2: Click here to see the full res version HTC Sensation: Click here to see the full res version The Samsung Galaxy S2 is more capable in dappled light though, differentiating well between the light levels Samsung Galaxy S2: Click here to see the full res version HTC Sensation: Click here to see the full res version The Galaxy S2 clearly has the better macro mode, with higher sharpness and more natural colours thanks to a dedicated focus setting Samsung Galaxy S2: Click here to see the full res version HTC Sensation: Click here to see the full res version Again, the colours are the key thing here - the detail is roughly the same from both cameras Samsung Galaxy S2: Click here to see the full res version HTC Sensation: Click here to see the full res version The Samsung Galaxy S2 has a 2MP front facing camera compared to the HTC Sensation's VGA offering, and is a superior option Samsung Galaxy S2: Click here to see the full res version HTC Sensation: Click here to see the full res version Samsung Galaxy S2: Click here to see the full res version HTC Sensation: Click here to see the full res version The exposure settings do help a lot to improve darker scenes, although the detail is slightly lower when the brightness is increased Samsung Galaxy S2: Click here to see the full res version HTC Sensation: Click here to see the full res version These more natural scenes show the difference between the cameras - the Sensation prefers more vivid colours, where the Galaxy S2 is better at detail capture and snapping more natural colours Video Here's a couple of videos we took simultaneously with both cameras - there's not a lot between them in terms of quality, but the stereo recording of the Sensation helps reduce wind noise. (Remember to hit up the 1080p option in the corner of each video to see them at maximum resolution). With this sample, you can see and hear the differing reactions to strong wind - plus see the HTC Sensation's ability to re-work the lighting conditions to match a tapped focus. Winner: Samsung Galaxy S2 - with a faster shutter speed and slightly more features to play with, combined with a smoother shutter action, it takes the title from its HTC rival. Media Both the HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy S2 pack a fully working media suite, from FM radio to a wide range of music and video file format playback options. However, in nearly every aspect, the Galaxy S2 outdoes the HTC Sensation when it comes to media - and not just because it has the sumptuous Super AMOLED Plus screen. Firstly, it's slightly ahead when it comes to codec support, with the S2 also deciding that it's cool with showing DivX files as well as the normal Xvid/MP4/WMV offerings that the Sensation can manage. Plus there's the difference in media players too - the S2 has a great video player that lets you manipulate the aspect ratio, where the Sensation only uses the Gallery to jump into videos - with no labels to let you know which is which, something that really irks when you've got loads from a certain series in there. When it comes to music, things are a little closer, with the Samsung S2 just edging the contest sonically. Bass levels are deeper on the Samsung offering, and the level of crosstalk from the device is minimal, just a shade better than the Sensation. We're also big fans of the easier music manipulation from the notification bar - the S2 has full track skipping control, where HTC has gone with a single pause and play button. However, we do want to give the Sensation props for having a really cool lock screen widget, with a little piece of spinnable album art to play with. Winner: Hands down, no contest, the Samsung Galaxy S2. There's a reason Samsung is happy to turn the Galaxy phones into PMPs, and that's the sheer range of functionality and hardware built around media. Battery A hugely important category for any possible phone buyer, and one we've spent a long time testing and making sure we've come to the right conclusion (even sending back our first Sensation review unit after some decidedly odd results from our initial tests). The good news is both of the phones will manage to last over a day on a single charge, even with the likes of Push Email and Wi-Fi buzzing away in the background. However, be careful when downloading applications that might not have been fully tested, as we found a few that decided to suck the life unfairly out of our devices. In terms of the victor here, it really depends what you use the phone for. Under 'normal' usage, by which we mean around an hour of music use, perhaps half an hour of video and push email and social networking applications running in the background, perhaps with a spot of mapping to go with it, the Samsung Galaxy S2 is ahead for battery longevity. This is mainly down to the decision to put a 1650mAh battery inside the super-slim phone, where HTC has gone with a 1540mAh offering for the Sensation. Why HTC never likes to have a market-leading battery under the hood, we'll never know - this problem could be sorted in a single upgrade. The only issue when it comes to battery life we can see is the Samsung Galaxy S2's superb screen: you'll find yourself using it a lot more for video and internet browsing, so be ready for the necessary hit in battery life. Winner: Samsung Galaxy S2 - mostly for daring to pack a bigger battery pack under the hood Connectivity and storage We felt this category should be added in as both of the brands have put a lot of effort into getting as much technology under the hood as possible, helping future proof the devices for the future. Aside from the spectacularly odd decision from Samsung over NFC (announcing it at Mobile World Congress, then mysteriously releasing phones without it, before announcing future models will have it) the Galaxy S2 definitely has the greater amount of functionality built in. Both phones have HDMI-output through the microUSB slot (although neither have a cable in the box) and both have Bluetooth 3.0 on board, DLNA streaming software and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n connectivity. While the Samsung is certainly less powerful when it comes to connecting to Wi-Fi networks (we found up to two bars difference in identical conditions between the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the Sensation) it slightly leads in mobile signal according to our tests. Where the Samsung Galaxy S2 comes into its own is for things like USB On The Go, where users can plug a USB stick into the phone using the (non-supplied) adaptor, plus an improved DLNA All Share server making it easier to port content to a big screen - although the Sensation is more than half decent at this too. Faster HSDPA downloads speeds for the Samsung Galaxy S2 - 20.1Mbps compared to only 14.4Mbps for the Sensation - mean it's slightly more future proof when the mobile networks start offering more speed too. When it comes to storage, the Galaxy S2 is miles ahead - we're talking at least 16GB of internal storage (32GB also available, although not widely in the UK) plus 2GB further storage on top of that. Compare that to the 1.5GB of internal storage of the Sensation, and you can see that HTC is lagging behind - and the Sensation isn't the first phone the company has done this with. While it's mostly fine when it comes to media, as there's an 8GB card onboard, if you're downloading tonnes of applications then you might fill this up quite quickly if they can't be stored on SD card. Winner: Samsung Galaxy S2. There's not a lot in it when it comes to connectivity, but the S2 can connect up everything the Sensation can and then flaunts its extra storage right in its face. Verdict It's a tricky one to call this, as we've been looking forward to the battle between these two dual-core wonders for so long we weren't sure we could decide which was more worthy. Over the course of this test we've gone back and forth over which to plump for, as both the Sensation and the Samsung Galaxy S2 have a cracking set of features with gorgeous hardware for all kinds of phone connoisseur. And while it is ridiculously close between the two devices, we think the Galaxy S2 is the overall winner, thanks to its combination of improved connectivity, slimmer chassis and superbly clear and bold screen. That's not to say the HTC Sensation isn't a great phone too - we love HTC Sense 3.0 and the additional functionality that the improved UI brings, plus the larger screen has the highest resolution of any HTC phone thus far. So we're crowning the Samsung Galaxy S2 our victor in the battle between the dual-core heavyweights, but if you've already got an HTC Sensation winging its way to you, don't despair as it's a very, very close second. 
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| Tablets hurting Shuttle's desktop business Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:25 AM PDT The rise of the tablet is making Shuttle's desktop sales suffer, it admitted today. A Shuttle representative explained the reason behind its push into the business sector is more about the harm tablets and other mobile devices are doing to its traditional desktop strategy than just plain diversification. It's been focusing much of its resources here at Computex towards generating more interest from the business sector rather than the consumer - looking at digital signage and point of sale equipment to try and take over the shortfall in its desktop sales. Shuttle has been known for its small form factor desktop machines for many years now and was previously successful. The rise and rise of the mATX and recently Mini ITX motherboard markets may well also have had some impact on Shuttle's rather niche sales strategy. Looking at the likes of Zotac's soon to arrive, fully-featured Mini ITX Z68 board, and performance small form factor chassis from the likes of Silverstone you can see why. It has been trying to get into the tablet game though, along with a great many manufacturers, though like ECS it is focusing its efforts on chasing OEM and ODM customers instead of creating its own brand. Unsurprisingly Shuttle wouldn't name its currnet UK OEM partner, but having played with both company's OEM offerings today though I can see why it might not want its name being attached to the products that it has on display in Taipei. Shuttle is steadfastly sticking to non-Windows operating systems, with Nvidia's Tegra (not Tegra 2) being the hardware of choice. Unfortunately the chassis are inevitably generic and lacking in flair or personality and sadly the actual build quality and responsiveness is likewise short of other offerings. So its decision to look towards the business sector may not be a bad move after all. 
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| Affordable new Sonos system on the way Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:01 AM PDT Sonos is set to release a smaller, more affordable self-contained system to complement the ZonePlayer S5 later this year. The news comes courtesy of a new FCC filing over in the US, with no official word on the matter as yet from Sonos UK. Sonos Play:3 The Sonos ZonePlayer S5 has proved popular with critics and consumers alike, although at a shade under £350 it is still outside of many casual users' budgets. Hence it's no surprise really that Sonos is releasing the (tentatively titled) Play:3 soon, which looks like it should be the ideal system for a kitchen or bedside table. The new Sonos box will support ethernet alongside wireless pairing to a ZoneBridge, should you have one of those in the lounge already. We will of course bring you official word on release plans and pricing from Sonos as soon as we have them. For now, feast your eyes on the FCC test configuration photo that you can see top right just here, which gives you a good idea of the size of the new Sonos kit. 
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| Hands-on: Viewsonic ViewPad 7x review Posted: 03 Jun 2011 09:04 AM PDT We had a chance today to get our hands on the latest ViewSonic tablet, the ViewPad 7x, and boy has it got some fancy 3D wizardry going on. With a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor taking care of the hardware platform it's got a fair amount of horsepower under the hood, and with the ViewScene 3D layer over the top of the Android 3.0 OS it needs to be. As one of the first 7-inch tablets sporting the Honeycomb OS it was always going to be right up here with the big boys of the tablet world, and ViewSonic is desperately hoping that the 3D-centric ViewScene 3D will give it the edge. ViewSonic's own software layer over the top of the vanilla Android 3.0 interface is pretty advanced, and despite the amount of processing work its having to do it still remains very smooth. You can add up to 16 pages to the spinning 3D desktop without getting any slow-down from the interface. And as we've learnt from Intel this week, responsiveness is king. While you're engaged in the 3D mode too the individual screens are still live, with animations, such as clock widgets, still continuing in the background. Over-use of the 3D effects though will cause slight issues in battery life, but according to ViewSonic it shouldn't be too bad as it doesn't tax the Tegra 2 processor a huge amount extra over plain 2D mode. Still, the snazzy 3D shizzle is only really used when you're moving between homescreens, once you settle on one it switches to a more traditional 2D mode. Despite the complex-looking overlay though it should be simple for Android users to get to grips with. General battery life though should be 6-7 hours of constant use, with significantly longer standby life. It does offer a very smooth experience though the 1024x600 capacitive screen did need a firm touch to engage the 3D manipulation. Strangely the application screen seemed like it was visually tearing a little when it was scrolled. We did also have a slight difficulty in scrolling around without my chubby fingers activating a single click rather than a smooth swipe. That though is a minor thing and something that wont take long to iron out. But still it's a very powerful little device with the sort of polished GUI we really didn't expect from the likes of ViewSonic. Especially after the original ViewPad 7, not to mention the non-entity that was the ViewPad 10... The physical design of the ViewPad 7x too is pleasing, feeling solid but light with a pleasingly smooth, rounded bezel. Compared with the horribly angular, and rather unappealing ViewPad 7 it's a very slinky little tablet. It also comes with all the goodness you'd expect of a modern tablet, such as rear and front-facing cameras, capable of 720p video recording, mini HDMI out, stereo speakers and up to 32GB Micro SD support internally. As for the base hardware specs you're looking at that dual-core Tegra 2, 1GB RAM and 8GB of internal storage. We were impressed with our first taste of the ViewPad 7x, the 3D stuff is smooth, if a trifle flashy for some, but the tablet itself is beautifully designed and fits perfectly in the hand. We can't wait to get our hands on the final release in July. 
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| Intel: Windows 7 tablets can outperform iPad 2 Posted: 03 Jun 2011 08:56 AM PDT Today we used a Windows 7 tablet that delivered an equivalent user experience to an iPad 2 while doing so much more. And it was an 18-month old single-core Atom tablet, too. Yes, really. We wouldn't have believed it with our own eyes if we hadn't sat there swiping, zooming and firing multiple video streams across six different screens and devices with our own fingers. And all incredibly smoothly. What Francois Piednoel, Senior Performance Analyst at Intel, and his extensive team have managed in the last nine months is quite staggering. It has created what it calls a recipe for an improved end user experience and Piednoel has been travelling Taiwan the last three weeks talking with the tablet manufacturers and giving away this secret. There's no altruistic reason why Intel wants the rest of the competition to succeed - once the software limitations are out of the equation then the tablet battleground then becomes all about hardware performance once more. And Intel knows that in terms of straight performance chops its processors have got the edge. The recipe What Apple knows, and what Intel has only just realised fully, is that the end-user experience is king. We've all been benchmarking the latest tablets and the performance figures rarely ever show the iPad 2 as the winner. All the perception model testing that Intel carried out in the last nine months though, showed that Apple's products just felt better to the end user. And much of that, it seems obvious, is down to the responsiveness and the smoothness of the device when you use it. "If you run the benchmarks on an iPad 2 it doesn't get the best score...there's a disconnect between the two," said Bin Fu, one of Intel's Benchmark Managers. The marriage of software and hardware that Apple has created with its devices means that it has total control over how they work as a whole. "Apple had a recipe, now Intel has our own recipe to do that," says Piednoel. "The biggest strength of Apple - they got this wisdom from a platform everybody knows as the Amiga 500. All of those tricks come from this era, small hardware, difficult to program, but it was around for years." The bottleneck for all tablets, whether they're MeeGo, Android, Windows or IOS, is the memory bandwidth and Piednoel explained the problem in simple mathematical terms. Intel found the key to a good user experience over a mediocre one was to have a screen that scrolled at 60fps. That is one of the main things separating the iPad from its rivals. The science In order to do that though takes an incredible amount of resources meaning the operating system needs some serious optimisation routines to cope. The 18-month old tablet we were presented with had a resolution of 1300x800 with a 32-bit screen running at 4bytes per pixel. That equates to needing 256MB/s to redraw the screen at 60fps. When you factor in Windows 7 transparency layers then you triple the required bandwidth. Eventually you end up with an operating system that writes 7 times for each pixel under Win7, the effective pixel-depth. Under Android that drops to around 6 and with iOS around 4. Pixel-depth is how many times you are going to draw the pixel on the screen for a certain resolution. With Intel's demonstration software layer running happily on top of a standard Windows 7 installation, it drops to 4 times like the iPad. Still that requires a full 1GB/s of memory bandwidth and when the total platform bandwidth of tablet platforms is between 1.6GB/s and 2.4GB/s that's no small number. And that's just to get the screen scrolling at 60fps. That then leaves the app programmer only 600MB/s on an Atom platform with which to work. If he uses any more than that and you start dropping frames and the end user experience deteriorates. "To make something like an iPad then you need to be a reasonable person," explains Piednoel. Meaning that you need to stop the programmers making calls on the hardware at the expense of the user expeerience. Responsiveness Another issue with the Windows touchscreen experience has been the complete lack of responsiveness. The iPad has a reaction time of around 15 milliseconds, so you barely notice the lag between moving your finger and the screen moving. In Windows tablets programmers have been unable to get the response time below 200ms. Essentially it's all down to the fact Windows is a mouse-centric OS. The reason the 200ms time has become a barrier is because that's the amount of time the OS waits before executing a single click order. Why? Because it needs to wait around to see if there's going to be a second click... This is what Intel calls a eureka moment. Now by fooling the Windows OS into thinking the tablet overlay is a video game it suddenly gains access to the Direct Input libraries and response time is carved up. As Matt Dunford, World-wide Benchmarking Manager states, "there were some things in the OS that were limiting Atom from achieving its potential." With this simple software-level fix in place even as ancient, and seemingly pathetic a tablet as the single-core Atom device we had in front of us is, it can do things the iPad simply hasn't the horsepower to do. There's now no waiting around for Microsoft to get its next, touch-friendly version of Windows out the door. Within 12 months the playing field could be levelled by a simple software download. And you know what? That Windows 8 demo we saw earlier in the week is suddenly looking even more tasty. Check out our video below: 
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| Hands on: Asus RoG Vulcan ANC review Posted: 03 Jun 2011 08:42 AM PDT Asus has created a gaming headset, the Asus RoG Vulcan ANC - something we weren't expecting to find at Computex. We've had a play with it and for just North of £100 it looks like it could well be a competitive player in the market. Asus has been making excellent sound cards for the last few years, so to turn its attention to a set of headphones to take advantage of that soundscape isn't a huge leap. The big selling point of the Vulcan is the fact that it's a dynamic active noise cancelling set. This means it has external microphones on the outside of the cans to detect the ambient noise of the room you're playing in. Then it matches that with a negative signal to block as much out as possible. In the throng of the Computex show floor, the fact it did anything at all is impressive and in a quieter area it would have even more impact. Because of the heavy ambient noise of the hall, switching on the active noise cancelling function loses a significant amount of bass through the headphones. Still, despite the fact it is very much still a Republic of Gamers headset, it has taken pains to ensure the quality of the sound when listening to music instead of the sounds of limbs being hacked off in The Witcher 2. We plugged our MP3 player into the headset and plinky electronica was just as clean and crisp as through Shure earbuds. One other surprise was that, despite Asus' Xonar sound card pedigree, the cans were running through a standard 3.5mm jack rather than with a bundled USB-based sound card module. Still if you've already got a decent sound card then that wont bother you one bit. 
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| Xbox Live Diamond TV service set to hit E3 Posted: 03 Jun 2011 08:08 AM PDT Microsoft is also set to reveal its latest push in the home entertainment space at this year's E3 – the Xbox Live Diamond TV service, which is codenamed Project Orapa. Set to expand on the TV offerings already available through Xbox Live - Sky Player et al - according to WinRumors, Project Orapa is set to turn the company into a "virtual cable operator" with Microsoft busy trying to sign deals with some of the major broadcasters. TV streaming It's unclear whether the TV service will be US only for the moment, but the idea of having premium television channels through the Xbox is an enticing one and with such a large subscription base, could propel Microsoft immediately into the TV streaming big time. If all contracts are sealed and delivered on time, then the Xbox Live Diamond TV service will launch in November. Microsoft has its E3 press conference on Monday 6 June, so it will be jostling with Apple – who is also set to offer a streaming service in the form of iCloud – for the headlines. 
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| Vodafone: HTC ChaCha release date 'really soon' Posted: 03 Jun 2011 05:37 AM PDT Vodafone has confirmed it will be putting the HTC ChaCha on sale imminently on its Facebook page. The next 'Facebook Phone' (after the HTC Salsa and INQ Cloud Touch) with a dedicated Facebook sharing button on the front still doesn't have a price, but will come with a wider data bundle as the network looks to push a greater variety of content sharing. If you can manage to read past the overly-enthusiastic and slightly mis-spelled wall posting on the Facebook page, this is what Vodafone has to say (no, we don't know what it means by play either): "If you love Facebook, you'll love the HTC ChaCha! Coming soon to Vodafone – really soon – the HTC ChaCha lets you share loads of things to Facebook at the push button. With our new price plans, including free BT Openzone WiFi, there are plenty of chances to play too!" Cheaper specs The new phone comes with a 2.6-inch touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard, plus that all important Facebook key for chucking pictures and links to your social networking buddies. We haven't got any idea on pricing as yet from Vodafone, but we reckon it will be around £20 a month as a budget offering from the more youthful Facebook lovers. 
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| MI6 uses online cupcake recipe to foil terrorism Posted: 03 Jun 2011 05:01 AM PDT British intelligence services foiled the launch of an al Qaida website, by hacking into the site and replacing bomb making instructions with cake recipes. This is according to a Whitehall source that recently leaked the details of the online sabotage plot. The hack by government agents took place more than a year ago – but only recently have details of the online hijinks have come to light. Inspire-d The online magazine, called Inspire, was targeted by MI6 as it had various articles about terrorism, including the Brass Eye sounding "Make a bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom". Both the UK and the US thought up ways to take Inspire down but it seems us Brits got there first. The battle of terrorism online is big news at the moment, with the UK government announcing this week that it was working on cyber weapons to help counteract online terrorism. While the US has started calling recent cyber attacks on the country as an 'act of war' So maybe the idea of redirecting a Jihadi website to a cupcake one isn't so half-baked after all. 
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| Kaiser Chiefs offer up 'bespoke' new album online Posted: 03 Jun 2011 04:44 AM PDT British band Kaiser Chiefs have released their latest 'album' with the rather intriguing option of choosing your own tracks and artwork. Kaiser Chiefs' The Future is Medieval is available for download, but offers up a range of choices in order to try to make it a bespoke album. To that end you can choose your track listings, picking ten out of the 20 tracks available (there are samples to help the choice) and then pay £7.50. Intriguing Regardless of your opinion of Kaiser Chiefs it's an intriguing proposition, and there is the added bonus of designing your own cover and getting your own page to 'sell' your finished offering, making £1 in the process. The band have also spoken to The Guardian about the album, and pointed out how rude it is for people to download an album illegally and then criticise it. "It just seemed like bad manners, really," said the group's drummer Nick Hodgson. "Getting it for free – I don't mind that per se. But how much effort are you going to put into listening to something you didn't pay for?" You can create your album and check out an interesting idea at http://kaiserchiefs.com/album/create. 
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| Tutorial: 20 essential Android 3.0 tips and tricks Posted: 03 Jun 2011 04:17 AM PDT So you've bought an Android tablet and can't quite figure out how things work in this strange new desktop environment? It's not like Windows, and doesn't spoon feed you like iOS, but Android 3.0 is amazingly powerful and highly customisable. Here's our top 20 Android 3.0 tips to tune and tweak your tablet, and you won't have to root it to do a single one. 1. See the normal web (pt1) Android's phone-based heritage means that many websites see it come and serve up mobile versions of their content that looks terrible on a 10inch screen. You can get around this by changing the way the Browser identifies itself - go to the Browser settings (in top right-hand corner of the screen) tap Advanced and change the 'User agent string' to desktop or tablet. 2. See the normal web (pt 2) Not all tablets have the user agent option available. Acer's Iconia A500, for example, needs a bit of a hack. Open up the browser and type 'about:debug' into the address bar. Now when you go to Settings, you should see a menu for 'Debug' - the user agent switch is in here. 3. Speed up web browsing The beauty of Android is that it can handle Flash-based web content. But websites with lots of interactive banner ads will still slow it down. Go to Browser > Settings > Advanced and change 'Enable plug-ins' to 'On demand'. Flash applications will appear as an arrow you must click to start them off. 4. Speed up your browser Do web pages take ages to render, or does typing on the keyboard feel laggy when filling in web forms? Try opening up the Browser Debug menu in tip 2 and turning off OpenGL rendering. Success varies from site to site, but it can give you a bit of a boost. 5. Sync your bookmarks with your desktop If you use Chrome as your desktop browser, one of the big advantages of Honeycomb is that you don't need an app like Xmarks to sync your bookmarks. It's all done via Google's sync tools, hidden on Preferences > Personal Stuff on the desktop version of Chrome and Settings > General in Honeycomb's browser. 6. Get the 3.1 browser Fire up the browser and go to Settings > Labs and you'll notice an option for 'Quick Controls'. This gives you a little thumbwheel at the side of the page for navigation and will be turned on as standard in the next update. 7. Make your own wallpaper All 10-inch Android tablets so far have a screen resolution of 1280x800, but with Android's Holographic UI and its swipe-able homepages, the background image has to be bigger than the visible area. You can use the in-built cropping tool to create your own desktops, but if you're preparing a pic for others the ideal resolution is 1920x1408. 8. Take control of your desktop PC Want to get at your Windows apps while you're on the go? Asus' Transformer ships with a skinned version of Splashtop's remote access client, and it works brilliantly on a Honeycomb tablet. You can get it on other tablets from the market; just download the server to your PC at home from Splashtop. 9. Encrypt your data One of Honeycomb's killer features for business users is the ability to encrypt the built-in storage, so if someone takes off with your tablet they can't pull your data off the hard drive. You'll need to fully charge your battery and set a password or pin number to the lock screen, then go to Settings > Location and Security. 10. Find network shares Android's built-in File Manager is OK, so long as you can wrap your head around Linux's unusual way of structuring its hard disk, but for some reason Google decided the ability to browse shared folders on your network was an optional extra. Download File Expert from the Market instead. 11. Get a browser with plug-ins Look, this isn't a phone, alright? Your tablet is more than capable of handling browser plug-ins like LastPass and Xmarks for easy net navigation, but the default browser can't do it. Get Dolphin HD from the Market. 12. Filter the apps menu Hunting for a particular app and don't know where you installed it? You may not have spotted this, but if you open up the full list of installed apps by touching the menu button in the top right of the desktop, there's an option to show 'All' or 'Downloaded' at the top of the screen. 13. Transfer files in MacOS or Linux A baffling design choice in Honeycomb was to use the Microsoft MTP protocol for connecting via the USB lead. What does that mean? If you plug a tablet into a Mac or Linux machine, you can't browse its hard drive. Either get the File Transfer Utility (for MacOSX) or the Android SDK for Linux. 14. Search by voice Another shortcut you may not have noticed is the microphone icon next to the search bar on the main homepage. This opens up Google's Voice Actions, which lets you control your tablet or search the net without using your hands. 15. Quicklink to Dropbox folders Got the Dropbox app? Of course you have. Did you know you can create quicklinks to your online folders on the Honeycomb desktop though? Tap and hold the desktop to bring up the customisation screen and scroll right to 'More'. You'll find the icon in here - it vastly speeds up working with files if you don't have to open up a separate app first. 16. Make your battery last longer Go to Settings > Wireless & Networks > Wireless Settings > WiFi Sleep Policy, and change it to 'When screen turns off'. That'll disconnect the wireless antenna while the tablet is in standby: you won't get new email alerts, but your battery will last for days. 17. Add folders to your desktop Why did Google remove the ability to create desktop folders for apps in Honeycomb? It's there in Froyo et al. Must be because they thought five huge homescreens was enough space - but it's not. Get Smart Shortcuts from the Market and organise your workspace the way you want. 18. Use your phone as a modem There's some confusion over whether or not Honeycomb supports tethering in the normal manner. The good news is that yes, it does. Go into Settings > Wireless & Networks > Bluetooth turn on Bluetooth and pair it with your phone. Now click the spanner icon next to the phone's name in the list there, and you'll find an option for internet tethering. 19. Uninstall apps the easy way If you've used Android before, you might recall that uninstalling apps is a bit of a laborious trawl through the settings menu to find the right control panel. In Honeycomb, just open up the full launcher, hten drag and drop app icons to the trash can to fully remove them. 20. Encode video the right way A lot of fuss has been made about Tegra 2's ability to decode HD video, but the truth is that Honeycomb and Tegra aren't as well matched as they could be for accelerated playback. If you're going to copy videos over to your tablet, re-encode them using Handbrake and the settings shown here. 
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| Posted: 03 Jun 2011 04:09 AM PDT The snappily titled HX-WA10 is one of Panasonic's first forays into pistol-style camcorders. These were once Sanyo's bread and butter as part of its Xacti line, but the company was bought by Panasonic several years ago, resulting in the HX-WA10 and its brothers, the HX-DC10 and HX-DC1. The WA10 is the top of the range, offering a 16-megapixel backside-illuminated sensor capable of recording 1080p footage, all in a waterproof exterior. The DC10 is identical save for its lack of waterproofing, while the DC1 has a 14MP non-backside-illuminated sensor. Backside-illuminated sensors are hot stuff at the moment thanks to their inclusion in the iPhone 4 and Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. The reason the technology is so popular is that it should provide improved recording in low-light situations - especially indoors.The WA10 offers a tempting selection of recording formats: 1080/60i, 1080/30p, 720/60p, 720/30p, 540/30p and 480/30p. Movies are recording as H.264 MP4 files, with audio in two-channel AAC. This is all complemented by electronic image stabilisation (EIS) and a slightly complicated zoom. The actual optical zoom is 5x, but Panasonic's Advanced Zoom can take this to 12x with no drop in image quality (though only at 30p). We have to say that we didn't even realise it wasn't straight-up optical zoom the whole way at first, so it's obviously doing its job. There's also a further digital zoom, but that comes with the expected loss of detail. You can monitor and play your recordings back on the 2.6-inch LCD screen (230,400 dots, for those curious). The DC10 and DC1 both have three-inch screen, with the same resolution. The screen isn't quite capable of rotating through 360 degrees, but it's close enough for most use. The screen darkens quickly when viewed from a high angle, and can be quite reflective, but if you adjust it so that you're viewing straight on, it's smooth detailed and bright. One of the big features Panasonic has brought to the party is its intelligent auto (iA) processing system, along with live facial recognition technology, which should mean you won't need to go tinkering with any settings to get an ideal picture. In a normal, well-lit scene, iA will assess all of the best options for you, and tweak as you go. Throw a person into the mix and you'll see boxes over their faces on the screen, and the WA10 will adjust the scene to keep them in the best exposure and focus it can. Go to somewhere dark, and the iA symbol switches to a candle, and it'll start optimising for low-light conditions. Setting certain picture modes turns iA off by default, and it doesn't come back on automatically, annoyingly. It only requires one button press, though, which is placed conveniently under your thumb. Just above the iA buttons are the main controls. Here you have your all-important record button, as well as a button for instantly taking a still picture, and a zoom rocker. Because of their waterproof nature, they all feel a little soft when you press them. This actually works in the zoom rocker's favour, though it's not ideal for the others. However, that's just nit-picking - the buttons are still easy to press, and you'll know if you've pressed them of not because the light will come on. We're less forgiving of the menu controls on the side of the WA10, though. They're responsive enough, but the arrow keys can be quite fiddly for those with larger digits - you'll be much better off if you've got longer nails. The thing is, that's not their biggest problem. They inevitably face at a right-angle from the screen, so you can can either look where your fingers are, or look at the options on screen. This will mean a lot of accidental wrong selections. There's nothing can be done and it's not a catastrophic flaw, but it's an irritant owners will have to get used to. From these menu keys, you can access the WA10's many options. Many of the features we've already mentioned can be turned off or tweaked, and there are scene and colour modes to be tested. You can even opt for manual focus, but since this is adjusted with the menu arrow keys, we don't think you'll make much use of it. The WA10 takes SD/SDHC/SDXC cards and offers video-out over mini-HDMI (cable not included) or with an AV cable (included). You can get your videos off the device using the USB port. You can pick the WA10 up for around £250 at the time of writing. Although the Panasonic HX-WA10 offers several recording modes, what we're really interested in is the 1080/30p and 720/60p modes. Good progressive 1080p recording is still hard to come by on consumer camcorders, while any kind of high-speed option is something we're very keen to explore at this price. We won't waste any time here; on balance, the video quality of the WA10 is strong. It has weaker parts - which we'll come to - but when it's good, it's really very good. The first point to mention is that 1080p video in smaller, consumer-level devices is still hampered by the size of image sensors. It's so tempting to assume that you're going to get the kind of video sharpness you see in HD films or TV. You aren't. Without using a much large, heavier (and far, far more expensive) device with a bigger sensor, 1080p footage is going to look a little softer than the HD footage we're used to from other sources. This is true of the WA10, particularly in shots with lots of trees in the background; the definition in the leaves just isn't as crisp as you might hope. It's not bad for a consumer device by any means, but it's a reminder that video is a delicate balance. That's not to say that all footage at 1080p looks too soft. Overall, we were quite impressed with what it could do, and there are plenty of shots of the golf course's turf that show lots of detail and texture. In particular, look out for the close-up shots of the holes, where the scratches and mud look impressively true-to-life. What really recommends the WA10, though, is how it handles movement. Even at 30fps (we'll come to the 60fps recording later), motion is handled stunningly well. In our videos, the fast movement of the golf balls is handled stunningly. Going through frame by frame shows a totally normal amount of motion blur and, crucially, an impressive lack of artefacting. Inspect closely and you can actually spot some digital artefacts around a rolling ball, but it's a very small amount and is confined to either within the ball's motion blur or its shadow, where you can't really spot it at all unless you're looking for it. The 1080p video has a nice high bitrate of 15-16Mbps, which no doubt helps. That said, we did find several points where, after analysing some scenes side-by-side at their native sizes, we thought the 720p video appeared a little more crisp than its 1080p counterpart. This was particularly evident in the running stream. However, there were plenty of other times that the 1080p footage was better than the 720p footage. Most crucially of all, when you scale the 720p video up to 1080p, it's not even a contest. Every aspect of the frame is clearer and more detailed in the 1080p footage. The iA system also worked extremely well, as did facial recognition. It generally made skin tones look quite natural, and the WA10's recording of our golf game on a slightly drab, overcast day has some quite accurate colours. Many of the shots also don't look all that deep, but the overcast lighting will have played a huge part there. Our only concern is that there can be a lot of quivering of the picture if you're trying to hold the WA10 steady yourself. Obviously, hand-shake is a culprit, but the image stabilisation seems to be also contributing in a way that can produce some odd results. It's not something you'll notice that often - investing in a tripod means you should be able to comfortably eradicate it, and it's not really evident while panning - but it is there. The low-light shooting does a good job of trying to improve things, but it's still clear that a bit more light helps hugely. In the first pan of this video, you can see everything well enough, but in the second pan - where we added a bright light just above - you can see far more texture on the aluminium and detail in the keys. As we said, having a (relatively) high-speed filming option on the WA10 really got us excited. It's uncommon for this level of camcorder to have anything higher than 30fps, so a bit of 60fps action is very welcome. Two things to note are that the 60fps options is only available at 720p, and that it disables the Advanced Zoom, so you're restricted to 5x, rather than 12x. Now, we've already said that the WA10 handles motion well at 30fps, so it won't come as a surprise that the way it records movement at 60fps is sublime. Originally, we'd only planned to do a quick test of the camera underwater (we'll cover the waterproofing at the end of this section), but when we saw how good the underwater footage looked when played back at half-speed, we had to immediately go back and do some more. While we were always impressed with the WA10 before trying it underwater, but not blown away by it, its performance both submerged and in slow motion converted us totally. The underwater footage looks fantastic, with as much detail on show as above water in every aspect - bubbles are picked out perfectly, and edges are crisp and brilliantly defined. Importantly, the camera also survived its trip into our little pool totally unharmed. We had the screen folded out and played with the controls, and everything worked fine. The screen was fairly visible in the water, but that always going to be slightly dependent upon the conditions you're in. While we couldn't test the WA10 down to its rated three metres, we did have it in the water for up to 20 minutes at a time without incident. While we're talking about the design, though, we will say that the pistol grip might not be for everyone. It's hard to hold it as steady as a standard camcorder design, and we found the WA10's grip to be a little thin. If it were a bit chunkier, it would be easier to hold steady. The battery life is quite good, lasting for a day of on and off shooting easily. On holiday you'll need a reliable way to charge it at night, but it's good for a day out. Although the pistol-style camcorder isn't to everyone's taste, we're glad to see it being given new life under Panasonic's banner. The HX-WA10's waterproofing sets it apart from the other options, aiming to offer a reasonably high-quality underwater camcorder. We liked: Under the right conditions, you can get some really great video out of the WA10. It handles motion well at 1080p, there's a minimum of artefacting and there's a noticeable bump in detail going from 720p to 1080p. The 60fps mode is also a brilliant addition for the price, offering the chance to really have some fun with the camera. The same is true for the waterproofing, and we were massively impressed with the quality of footage taken while submerged. The iA and face tracking work incredibly well, making it easy to get great shots. We disliked: There are some niggles with the video quality we need to point out, including the odd wobble while it tries to stabilise your hand's shake. It suffers from the perennial problem that consumer camcorders have, where wide shots can appear a bit soft because the sensor is simply too small. We wish the grip was a little chunkier too, since it would be easier to hold, and the position of the controls at a right-angle to the screen is terrible ergonomically. Verdict: Overall, we're mightily impressed by the HX-WA10. You're paying something of a premium for the waterproofing features, but we'd say they're worth it. It's safe underwater, it's easy to use and it produces some excellent video. We do recommend investing in a tripod to go with it, but as a fairly small, reasonably light consumer camera, it's absolutely worth your time. 
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| Week in Tech: Intel, AMD and Nvidia fight for supremacy at Computex Posted: 03 Jun 2011 04:00 AM PDT It's Computex week, when the great and good of the tech industry heads to Taipei to show off their stuff. And if there's one trend this year, it's been battling over tablets. First up was ARM, whose processor designs power many of the tablets on sale today. The firm has big plans: it wants to take its 10% share of the mobile market to 50% by 2015. Intel wasn't going to take that lying down. It's invented a new kind of computer, which it calls a Slightly Thinner Laptop. Sorry, we mean Ultrabook, As Kate Solomon reports, "Although no official Ultrabook products have been unveiled, Intel's executive vice president, Sean Maloney, reckons they 'will make up 40 per cent of the market by the end of 2012'." It's all thanks to the Ivy Bridge chipset, which is thinner, faster and more energy efficient. We should see the first Ultrabooks in time for Christmas, with Ivy Bridge turning up in computers in early 2012. Intel also has a new version of the Atom, the Oak Trail, which has been specifically engineered for tablets, delivering the performance for demanding apps while taking up less space and consuming less power. Roll on Kal-El So things look to be breaking down into Intel and ARM bellowing "We will be the mobile king!" at one another. And, of course, Nvidia is part of it. We knew about its ARM-based quad-core Tegra 3, codenamed Kal-El, already, but Nvidia's Computex demos have been knocking people's socks off. Expect to see Tegra 3s in tablets later this year. Not to be outdone, AMD's been showing off its mobile tech too. AMD general manager Rick Bergman showed off a brand new Trinity APU, which is its term for a chip that combines CPU and GPU on the same silicon. Dual- and quad-core versions should turn up on tablets in early 2012. Did someone mention tablets? Computex has more tablets than a branch of Boots The Chemist. Among the more interesting models were Acer's Iconia M500 running MeeGo, which currently looks like the world's loneliest tablet operating system since co-parent Intel washed its hands of the whole thing. There's also the world's first seven-inch Honeycomb tablet, the Viewsonic ViewPad 7X. Last, but not least, there's the Padfone, Asus's bizarre and yet strangely attractive attempt to bring tablets and smartphones together. Like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, the Padfone doesn't have a brain: that's provided by the smartphone that lives in a secret compartment inside it. We are not making this up. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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| Toshiba Thrive Android tablet unveiled Posted: 03 Jun 2011 03:35 AM PDT Toshiba has finally revealed the name and more specs of its latest Android tablet – the Toshiba Thrive. Initially the Thrive was just called the Toshiba Tablet, so we are glad that the company has decided to add a smidgen of excitement into its naming process. The Thrive comes equipped with the tablet-friendly Android 3.1, Tegra 2 dual-core processor, and has also been given an IPS display. Connectivity comes in the form of a full-fat HDMI port, USBs and it also has Resolution + technology inside – something that's been borrowed from Tosh's TV range. Tablet talk To make the tablet more customisable, the Toshiba Thrive has a back cover you can swap (there's a number of colours to choose from). There are also some third-party apps on the tablet, including QuickOffice and LogMeIn. Unfortunately, the Toshiba Thrive has only been announced in the US only for now and is penned for a July release. Pricing is as follows: $429 (£260) for 8GB, $479 (£290) for 16GB, $579 (£355) for 32GB. Hopefully, this means that we will see it in Britain this autumn, although no UK release date is forthcoming as yet. 
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| Opinion: Come on guys, give Sony a break Posted: 03 Jun 2011 03:34 AM PDT Some might think that it's hard to feel sympathy for a megalithic company that straddles the world, but if the latest claims that the Sony Pictures website has been hacked are to be believed, you can't help but think that it's about time the hackers eased off on the Japanese electronics giant. There have been times when Sony has rightfully attracted the ire of its customers (when it removed the Linux option from the PS3, for instance) but the actions of the hackers are now looking more like bullying than making any particular point. When Sir Howard Stringer made what amounted to the world's worst apology for the data compromise, we couldn't help but poke a little fun. But the fact is that Sony has been through the wringer – and now we think the time has come to give the company a bit of a break while it limps away and licks its wounds. Tough times It shouldn't be forgotten, either, that this is a company that has found its entire operation hit by the horrific earthquake that caused devastation to the Japanese nation and an appalling loss of life. The company's reputation has certainly been damaged – and although it is not irreparable it will be a long time until many are prepared to trust Sony with crucial personal information and credit card details again. It should have been an exciting time for Sony, with the early indications about the Sony NGP, the follow up to the PlayStation Portable, largely positive. And the company has also announced Sony Tablets, which will aim to compete with Apple's iPad. Head in the cloud And yet, both of these new arrivals will lean heavily on the cloud to provide services, and it's fair to say that even the hardiest of souls will experience a flicker of doubt when they start typing in their security number in order to download the latest software. Some will suggest, with some foundation, that you would expect Sony to have done a broad sweep of all of its properties and tighten the security up to the point where personal data is encrypted tighter than U-boat commander's briefings, but being thorough takes time. With the PSN only just coming back to full functionality, and Sony still desperately trying to catch up on halted production from the earthquake – what has hacking the Sony Pictures site really proved? Sony has made mistakes – of that there can be no doubt – and you would hope that lessons have been learned and will be applied as soon as they possibly can be across every area of the business. In the meantime, hackers sticking the boot in could be construed as more about profile than doing something meaningful. 
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| Report: Sony data compromised again Posted: 03 Jun 2011 02:59 AM PDT It has been reported that Sony Pictures' website has been hacked – with Lulz Securities claiming that it has gained access to account information and passwords. Sony has suffered a torrid time at hackers' fingers in recent weeks, with the news that the PlayStation Network had been compromised sending shockwaves across the world. Lulz Security are best known for hacking the PBS.com website recently to protect a documentary on WikiLeaks, and, according to entertainment site Deadline, the site is now claiming another high-profile victim. Recently "We recently broke into SonyPictures.com and compromised over 1,000,000 users' personal information, including passwords, email addresses, home addresses, dates of birth, and all Sony opt-in data associated with their accounts," stated Lulz Security "Among other things, we also compromised all admin details of Sony Pictures (including passwords) along with 75,000 "music codes" and 3.5 million "music coupons". Of course, until it can be checked, this is only a claim, but Sony has certainly found itself under attack in recent times. And if Sony Pictures has also been compromised, the egg has certainly not been wiped clear of its face. 
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| OnLive UK launch date confirmed as autumn Posted: 03 Jun 2011 02:09 AM PDT Streaming gaming service OnLive has confirmed that it is on course for a UK launch in the autumn. The service, which is making a number of announcements ahead of the E3 gaming convention next week, offers a streamed gaming experience, with the hardware living in the cloud. The service is now set for a UK launch in autumn, with onlive.co.uk now just a matter of days away from allowing sign ups. Games arrivals The UK launch is not the only new arrival for the service, which will be announcing the arrival of Red Faction Armageddon on 7 June, along with triple-A title Homefront multiplayer. Disney Interactive is joining the OnLive service, and the service will soon Facebook integration. Also a key new announcement is that the service will run on Intel-based consumer TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes. More details will no doubt be forthcoming in June. 
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| Posted: 02 Jun 2011 10:09 AM PDT It may lack the latest web, 3D and Freeview HD goodies, but Toshiba's slim new 32HL833B will have more than enough technology for many. Edge LED backlighting and full HD resolutions, for example, were considered high-end features only a couple of years ago, and to see them on a sub-£500 screen is quite something. Looks-wise, the 32HL833B is merely OK. The rather thin plastic chassis looks relatively attractive from a distance; heavily rounded corners - trimmed with a thin silver strip - on the undercarriage of the set help create a softer look that's somewhat spoiled by the top's much harsher corners. The 32HL833B is part of Toshiba's entry-level HL Series, which also includes the 42-inch 42HL833B. Bookending the HL Series is both the DL Series and the EL Series. The DL Series comprises the 32-inch 32DL833, 26-inch 26DL833, 22-inch 22DL833 and 19-inch 19DL833. All have a built-in DVD player (one of Toshiba's specialties, incidentally, which this year extends to built-in Blu-ray in its DB Series), edge LED-backlit HD ready panels, Freeview and Active Vision 50Hz. The EL Series, meanwhile, also includes a 32-incher, the 32EL833, which puts a regular Freeview tuner under the hood of this LED-backlit HD ready screen. The EL Series is completed by the 26-inch 26EL833, 22-inch 22EL833 and 19-inch 19EL833. One thing is for sure, though: if Toshiba, king of the entry-level TV, has turned to LED-backlighting throughout its range, then the old CCFL-lit LCD TVs are officially dead. We only have to look at the low price of the 32HL833B to be sure of that. The 32HL833B isn't exactly heaving with features, but that's no bad thing, since a huge chunk of consumers are merely after a cheap TV with a good picture. The first characteristic is firmly in the bag for the 32HL833B, and we'll pass judgement on image standards later, but there's enough about this 32-incher to convince us that it's worth a place in the modern living room. The use of edge LED backlighting is as contemporary as it gets, and a full HD resolution shouldn't be sniffed at for this kind of money, either. We won't go on and on about what this TV hasn't got, but it's fair to say that manufacturers are forced to prioritise - and we know other brands, such as Sony, place a higher priority on online content such as BBC iPlayer and Freeview HD, which this set lacks despite it being - in our opinion - a feature firmly in the must-have column. Its omission will seriously hamper the 32HL833B's success in areas of the UK that have already switched to DVB-T2 broadcasts, although for anyone with a Sky or Virgin subscription it makes no difference whatsoever. The lack of 100Hz scanning is not an issue for us at this price and size. More alarming is the presence of just one HDMI input on its rear connections panel, although some semblance of hi-def respect is restored to the 32HL833B after a glance at its side-panel. There, beside a second HDMI input is a USB port, a headphones jack and a Common Interface slot. The panel is heavily recessed, meaning USB sticks won't poke out of the side, nor will curls of HDMI cables snake into view. This is crucial, since a lot of people are going to rely on that second HDMI and possibly be forced into buying a messy HDMI splitter. Elsewhere on the rear is component video, composite video, a single Scart, a PC input for picture and audio, an electrical (in place of the more common optical) digital audio output and a set of stereo audio inputs, plus an RF aerial connection point. Edge LED backlighting is no guarantee of quality, but it does help lift this budget set ahead of most of its similarly priced peers. Avatar on Blu-ray immediately justifies the Full HD resolution. As a huge truck passes Jake in his wheelchair upon his arrival on Pandora there's a noticeable judder amid a rather harsh image. In the briefing that follows, the Colonel's head noticeably blurs every time it moves, while there's judder across the audience as he walks up the aisle. Elsewhere, camera pans around the control room make the 3D matrix unwatchable. Without a 100Hz feature, there's no easy fix to this problem. Turning the sharpness setting to zero makes this motion blur and judder far less noticeable, but at the cost of extreme detail. Unsurprisingly, this almost works on DVD and Freeview pictures, too, where the only visible artefact - despite a lack of any notable upscaling technology - is picture noise in backgrounds. Contrast and colour are good, with decent saturations and fairly profound blacks. It's possible to make out shadows on faces, and the black/white level adjuster isn't required - it just makes black look more forced. Nor is there any issue with light spillage from those edge-mounted LEDs. A good performance here, but it gets nowhere near a decent plasma. Our major criticism is that the viewing angle is tight; watch from the wings and the balance of colour and contrast is way out. Overall, the highpoint of detail has to largely be sacrificed, and the problem areas are somewhat glossed over because of the TV's small size. Having said that, it's a good picture for such a cheap TV. The 32HL833B's speakers are useful only for watching news and chat shows, with only a whiff of bass amid a treble-heavy soundscape. Stable Sound is designed to dampen volume in annoying advert breaks, but it's to the detriment of the audio and is therefore of questionable value. Value We're not completely convinced that Toshiba has made the right decision on features for the 32HL833B; we're pretty sure most punters would prefer a Freeview HD tuner, even if it meant losing that full HD resolution. We won't argue with the penchant for edge LED backlighting at this price, though, as it helps create a reasonably cinematic picture for such a cheap telly. Ease of use Freeview tunes in quickly and is easy to use. It's a different story with the seven-day programme guide, which - like on Toshiba's 2010 crop of TVs - has a peculiar design. Visually, it's a fairly neutral mix of grey, blue, black and white graphics that float over a live TV channel. So far so good, but instead of showing what's currently on, it displays the next nine programmes showing on whatever channel the cursor rests on, which is great for an in-depth rundown on whatever is on for the rest of the day on that particular station, but means that you can't see what's up next across multiple channels. Worse is to come, since moving the cursor down a channel instructs the TV to re-tune to that channel, making it impossible to see what's on another channel without physically paying it a visit. Baffling. Elsewhere, the TV's main GUI is much better. It's themed in black and 3D-like blue bars with white lettering and looks reasonably stylish, though the clean design and easy-to-read wording is interrupted occasionally by instructional buttons in a garish, old fashioned serif font that looks hideous. A nicely laid out - but annoyingly unresponsive and incredibly lightweight - remote control is the major weak point of the user interface. For starters, it's outdated, with commands and buttons that are not needed. For instance, why is there a large ATV/DTV button for toggling between the digital and analogue TV tuners, when the latter has all but been switched off across the UK? Surely a shortcut to HDMI 1 or the USB stick would be more useful? There is a tiny 'quick' button in the centre of the remote, but aside from adjusting the picture mode it contains nothing of any daily use. Featherlight and flimsy, no thought has been given to its balance of weight and so it sits awkwardly in the hand. Insert a USB stick into the side of the 32HL833B, choose Photos from the onscreen GUI, and a pleasant 4x3 grid of thumbnails appear - although only JPEG files are read. Switch to Music and a drop-down menu of available MP3 files is presented. Select one and a 1980s-style graphic equaliser is displayed fullscreen. Nice idea, but it's so blocky (literally about 50 blue blocks) and slow-moving that it appears to have no relation to the sound coming out of its tiny speakers. Volume duration, filename and full in-movie controls are all displayed along the bottom of an impressive GUI for music, but we really wouldn't recommend playing anything apart from dialogue-based podcasts on the 32HL833B, unless you've a decent audio system hooked-up. Go back a step and hit Video and the 32HL833B delivers a surprise. Although it's not supposed to play video files, it actually recognised a whole bunch of them on our USB stick-cum-multimedia treasure chest - and proceeded to play MKV (DivX HD), AVI (DivX), AVCHD, MPEG and MP4. We managed to watch DivX HD and MP4 trailers of 2012 and Shutter Island without any problems. Picture calibration is impressive for a budget TV. It's fitted with the usual Dynamic/Standard/Movie/Games/Mild presets, and your own preferences can be stored, too. There's no 100Hz, Active Vision, or the Resolution+ (upscaling technology that Toshiba has so successfully employed in the past) settings to tweak, but it's possible to tinker with the backlight, colour temperature (warm, medium or cool) and static gamma level as well as the usual colour, brightness, contrast and sharpness. Switch-on Colour Management and it produces a Base Colour Adjustment menu comprising hue, saturation and brightness tweaks across the whole spectrum. Audio controls are pretty basic, with only three 'features' as such; stable sound and surround sound can be toggled on or off, while bass boost uses a sliding scale. All have an uphill struggle to make any kind of impression with the 32HL833's weedy speakers. Its provision of just two HDMI inputs will leave the majority of households struggling, at least occasionally, to find a home for a DVD or Blu-ray player, games console or Sky/Virgin box. Nor is there an Ethernet port, which means that DLNA networking and Freeview HD are off the menu. Poor speakers and a worse remote don't endear us to the 32HL833B, but there are enough good points to recommend this for living rooms - including a decent picture from Blu-ray and its ability with digital media via USB. We liked Great colour saturations, decent sharpness and contrast do enough to deliver a sense of cinema, and though it's not the reference-level picture that home cinemas deserve, it's as natural as it gets at this size and price. DivX playback is handy and the detail in Blu-ray is superb, while DVD and Freeview are watchable. We disliked Just two HDMI inputs and no Freeview HD are major concerns, while an unresponsive remote and plain odd Freeview EPG don't make the 32HL833B a TV that's always easy to use. Blur and judder can be cured to some extent, but only at the cost of sharpness, while the viewing angle is surprisingly tight. Verdict The 32HL833B is a basic TV that brings edge LED backlit cinematic pictures to living rooms. Its restricted picture just about achieves all-round respectability, but it badly misses a DVB-T2 tuner and a soundbar/home cinema upgrade is imperative, though multimedia skills are surprisingly good. 
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