No 'broadband tax' in government's Digital Economy Bill
The Labour government has laid out its plans in its Digital Economy Bill, briefly outlined in the Queen's Speech at the opening of Parliament this week.
Interestingly, there is no mention of the ill-conceived 'broadband tax' that was originally mooted as part of Lord Carter's Digital Britain report, which now looks like it has been shunted across to become part of the Finance Bill, due later in 2010.
Piracy still a political point scorer
The bill does still mention that government should have the power to disconnect persistent online pirates, as well as discussing what the government considers to be the necessary changes required in the radio spectrum and the reasoning behind the new PEGI classification system for age-ratings on videogames.
The Queen read out the bill in the House of Lords earlier today, which will, according to the government, "ensure communications infrastructure that is fit for the digital age, supports future economic growth, delivers competitive communications and enhances public service broadcasting".
As for the controversial plans to cut-off pirates, the bill outlines that this will work as a two-stage process. The first stage will be taking steps to educate consumers about the issues and the penalties they face should they be persistent offenders.
The second stage will be introducing powers to disconnect pirates, should they refuse to stop file-sharing illegally after receiving letters informing them to do so. This will be introduced in the spring of 2011.
Great plan? Or debilitating shambles?
BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor claimed the bill "is good news for fans of British music" and is pleased to see that "government is now introducing legislation to tackle illegal downloading.
He added: "The creative sector in the UK needs new measures implemented urgently that address this problem for now and the future if the UK is to lead Europe in giving consumers innovative and high quality digital entertainment."
A statement from The Open Rights Group was not so welcoming, noting: "This plan won't stop copyright infringement and with a simple accusation could see you and your family disconnected from the internet - unable to engage in everyday activities like shopping and socialising."
TechRadar expects further responses from the UK's gaming industry (PEGI, ELSPA and others) the internet service providers Association (ISPA) and Digital Radio UK on the government's plans announced today, so stay tuned for further updates later today and through the week.
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Ofcom to turn TV white space into mobile broadband?
The white spaces between TV channels could be used to expand mobile broadband in rural areas or even revolutionise the communications between gadgets and computers, according to Ofcom.
The communications regulator is looking into how white space can be utilised, in a bid to squeeze as much as possible out of the UK's TV spectrum.
The idea is that by accessing and leveraging this white space, broadband signals could be increased in the more remote areas of the country and there's even room to use the frequencies as a Bluetooth-like transfer system, so those with cameras can instantly send images to enabled PCs or white goods devices in the home which could be controlled from a distance.
Unproven technology
These ideas all come from Professor William Webb, the Head of Research and Development at Ofcom.
"White space devices have the potential to enable a vast range of new and innovative applications - from broadband access for rural communities, to innovative personal consumer applications - each benefiting from improved signal reliability, capacity, and range offered by unused TV frequencies," explained Webb about the white space plan.
There's no timeframe for when or indeed if any of these ideas will be implemented, with Webb saying: "This technology remains largely unproven and a significant amount of work needs to be done before these claims can be tested.
"The purpose of this discussion document is to further the thinking that is taking place around the world on geolocation and speed the development of possible solutions."
Last year the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US approved the operation of white-spaces devices in the unused TV spectrum.
There are some who are against the idea, however, citing that the use of white space causes interference in everything from TV stations to the microphones at live events.
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In Depth: Top 12 Christmas gifts for Xbox 360 owners
Buying a Christmas present for the Xbox 360 gamer that appears to have everything?
Look no further - we've found some cracking bargains and other suggestions for presents that will make even the most well-equipped Xboxer sing. Or at least enjoy Christmas Day just that little bit more...
1. Modern Warfare 2 Throat Mic , آ£18
The latest Call of Duty is all any gamer wants to talk about at the moment, so why not go native with this pseudo-military Xbox Live headset? It picks up sound by lurking around your throat rather than your mouth, which lends it that spec-ops feel. Looks a lot less bulky (stupid) than the official 360 headset, but sound quality's reputedly a little lesser.
2. John Lennon's Rickenbacker guitar, آ£50
Whether or not you dig the Beatles, their recreated instruments for their own Rock Band title are comfortably the best pretend guitars around. This and George Harrison's Gretsch Duo Jet (sadly Macca's bass can be bought separate from the full game bundle) are the Rolls Royce of plastic instruments, and you'll feel less ridiculous in any guitar game you plug them into. They're also wireless, so don't forget to load up on batteries. They support the entire Rock Band series, as well as the most recent Guitar Heroes.
3. XCM Custom 360 case, from آ£40
Impressive as its innards may be, it'd be tricky to say the 360 was a beautiful console. Ditch that 90s-ipod white and replace it with a bespoke casing - transulcent, painted, LED-fitted, even colour-changing. Clearly it's a warranty-voider, but if you're careful about the installation you might be able to pop it back into its original skin come Red Ring day.
4. Turtle Beach Ear Force Headphones, آ£45-150
A recurring name on 360 gift-lists for a while now, as they fix the problem of the 360 chat headset coming at the expense of clear hearing. Available in wired or wireless varieties and in stereo or virtual surround sound flavours, depending on how far up the price ladder you climb, they combine top-notch headphones with a beefy mic. Perfect for late-night, super-immersive gaming.
5. USB Hard-Drive Transfer Kit, $8
Microsoft do their best to prevent folk from making save game backups and drive cloning, at least not away from their own strict restrictions, but you can get around it to some extent with this third-party cable. Just plug your 360's hard drive into this, connect the other to a PC and you can reclaim whatever you need.
6. PEGA 4-in-1 Universal USB Karaoke Microphone Set, $21
If you're forever traipsing between friends' houses, playing Rock Bands and Guitar Heroes and Lips and Singstars on different systems, this solves the problem of needing bespoke mics for each. It works and comes with adaptors for 360, PS3, PS2, Wii and PC alike - so you'll really mean it when you're bellowing Hallelujah.
7. Madcatz Rock Band Portable Drum Kit, آ£13
It's great to have the full Rock Band/Guitar Hero setup at home, but you can't exactly lug those gigantic drums across town to a mate's house. This tiny, table-top alternative may not feel quite like the read thing, but at least it means you don't have to deny yourself the full band experience because you can't fit onto a train.
8. Black play and charge kit, آ£9
The 360 Elite is increasingly the de facto model of console, thanks to more agreeable pricing, a meaty 120Gb hard drive and a natty black colour scheme. Problem: most of the acessories are still garish white. At last, this must-have rechargeable battery and charger kit is also available in sleek midnight tones.
9. Microsoft points, آ£various
About the best gift you could possibly give a 360 owner - a card containing a code for a wodge of Microsoft's virtual currency to spend on DLC, indie/arcade games and even full, downloadable titles such as Fable II. There's an unending price war between every retailer in the world, so just see who's shaved off the most pennies when you decide to buy 'em.
10. Mad Catz Wireless Network Adaptor, آ£50
Currently no cheaper than the infamously over-priced official adaptor, but this cloud has two silver linings. Firstly, it uses the ethernet port, so you don't sacrifice a USB socket for it. Secondly, it supports the faster wireless-N standard, so streaming HD videos is a whole lot more smooth.
11. Live Headset Adapter, آ£6
Don't want to splash out on an official 360 headset, or already own a much nicer one for you PC? This solves that problem in compact fashion. Just pop it into the irritatingly proprietary port on the top of your gamepad, then stick your headphone and mic plugs into the standard 3.5mm holes on the top of it.
12. Trash Talk, آ£15
Odious, but funny. Choose from a bank of pre-recorded insults, record your own or slip in a few choice movie samples, then tap one of its buttons to instantly unleash a snappy flame at an online opponent. Unpleasant, but better than your mind going embarrassingly blank when someone gives you a tongue lashing.
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World's fastest graphics card is here
AMD has announced the ATI Radeon HD 5970 – the fastest graphics card ever created, supporting Direct X 11 and immediately available in a host of Alienware PCs
The Radeon HD 5970 supports AMD's new Eyefinity tech – meaning that multiple (in this case three) monitors can be connected together from a single card – so max resolution is a staggering 7680x1600.
The big numbers don't stop there, with the ATI Radeon HD 5970 delivers nearly 5 teraFLOPS of compute power harnessing up to 3,200 stream processors.
Plus, when not needed for something impressive, the Radeon 5970 runs at as low as 42 watts.
Graphics leader
"With the arrival of the ATI Radeon HD 5970, the fastest graphics card in the world, we've cemented AMD as the unquestioned graphics leader," said Matt Skynner, vice president and general manager, AMD Graphics Group.
"With the holiday shopping season right around the corner, the new card, coupled with the awesome power of ATI Eyefinity technology, is the ultimate setup for serious gamers."
Some of the first computers to feature the new card are Dell-owned Alienware gaming PCs.
Perfect match
"The extraordinary performance of the ATI Radeon HD 5970 is a perfect match for the Alienware Area-51, Area-51 ALX and Aurora desktops," said Frank Azor, senior product planning manager, Dell Gaming.
"By offering this level of graphics capability as well as the visual and performance enhancements made possible by DirectX 11 hardware, gamers will benefit from enhanced image quality enabling an incredibly intense gaming experience."
It's a fast, fast graphics card indeed. Over to you Nvidia...
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Review: Viewsonic VX2433WM
There was a time back in the mid noughties when Viewsonic had an enviable reputation for producing some seriously sexy, slim-bezel monitors. Today, the Taiwanese outfit has its sights firmly set on the value end of the market with the release of the VX2433WM 24-inch monitor.
On the upside, that means you can bag this generously proportioned 24-inch widescreen puppy for a truly bargainous آ£175. On the downside, that price does come at a cost, if you catch our drift.
For starters, the build quality is pretty low rent all round. The base of the stand is particularly ghastly, hewn from cheap and hollow plastic and well into cat-flap-in-a-tornado territory in terms of lacking reassuring robustness.
Still, at least it offers a comprehensive feature set. It's well specified in terms of inputs with HDMI, DVI and VGA interfaces. Likewise, it has all the usual image enhancement features that you would expect to see, including dynamic contrast and also a few that don't.
The most obvious example of the latter is the triple-level toggle for response enhancing overdrive technology.
As we've explained in PCF's passim, overdrive technology works by sending an increased voltage through a given pixel. That in turn gives the liquid crystals a kick up the knackers and accelerates the pixel towards the new colour state more rapidly. In theory, that means faster response and less blur issues.
Overdriven LCD panels certainly have noticeably sharper, zippier image quality when displaying movement.
Pixel poor
However, close inspection of some overdriven monitors reveals a visual artefact known as inverse ghosting. It typically involves a trail or shadow that appears in the wake of a moving object in approximately the opposite colour to that object, hence the term 'inverse'.
Anyway, getting back to the VX2433WM, the bad news is that it does suffer from inverse ghosting when the response is set to Ultra Fast. And the good news is that you can get rid of the ghosting by knocking the setting back to standard mode.
The choice, therefore, is really yours; either a slightly nippier responses or artefact-free, but slightly blurrier fragging.
Elsewhere, the Viewsonic puts in a pretty mixed performance. The measured maximum brightness clocks in at just 174 nits. That's well, well down on Viewsonic's official claim of 300 nits.
However, the screen's static contrast result of 874-to-one is a very solid result and certainly close enough to the officially quoted 1,000-to-one figure to avoid any embarrassment. Even better, that measured contrast performance translates in practice into satisfyingly deep black levels.
Make no mistake, you don't get the sort of rich inkiness that the best PVA panels deliver. But this is about as good as it gets with TN technology currently. There's certainly plenty of detail in dark gaming scenes, such as those that pervade Batman: Arkham Asylum, one of our favourite beat 'em ups of the moment.
Overall, then, if it's the wow factor of the largest possible screen you thirst for, the VX2433WM has plenty to recommend it. But be very aware that the impact of the cost cutting on the build quality will be immediately apparent from the moment you debox.
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O2 reveals mobile coverage future-proofing plans
O2 has revealed that it is to strengthen its coverage in the UK, with the introduction of 1,500 network sites at the cost of آ£500 million.
The expansion is set to take place in 2010 and will mean that the mobile phone company will be able to cope with the inevitable onslaught of consumers asking for more out of their souped-up handsets.
O2 currently stocks both the Palm Pre and Apple iPhone in its shops and this trend towards consumers using high-end handsets which can stream video and music will put massive strain on the company's infrastructure.
This expansion plan is so the company has "headroom" for the future.
Unprecedented change
"In the past 12 months the mobile industry has seen an unprecedented change in demand," said Derek McManus, Chief Technology Officer for O2.
"The introduction of world-class devices, in combination with a wide variety of data applications, has brought about a dramatic change in customer behaviour and created an exponential demand on mobile data networks.
"We are now aggressively accelerating our network growth programme to ensure we have significant headroom for the future and retain our focus on being number one for customer satisfaction."
The work is set to cost around آ£500 million and will see a nationwide expansion of network sites.
London has been earmarked for 200 of those sites, 40 of which will be live by Christmas 2009.
Interestingly, O2 has noted that streaming the likes of YouTube on your mobile phone can take up as much network capacity has the sending of 500,000 text messages simultaneously. Ouch!
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Review: NEC MultiSync 195VXM+
Do not adjust your set. Your eyes do not deceive you. The NEC MultiSync 195VXM+ is indeed a thoroughly old school LCD monitor.
So, forget 16:10 widescreen, much less the latest 16:9 aspect, and bask in the sepia-toned glory of the 5:4 awesomeness of this 19-inch panel. It's the sort of form factor that was hot back in 2004, but now looks, at best, like a refugee from your bank manager's office. Talk about square, daddyo.
Actually, that's a little unfair to the NEC. Thanks to the ultra-slim bezel, you could hardly call its industrial-looking design dated. It's just that we've all become so conditioned to seeing widescreen monitors, anything squarer smacks immediately of corporate drudgery.
But the unexpected arrival of the 195VXM+ presents a welcome opportunity to reassess the supposed merits of the widescreen format.
With a native resolution of 1,280 x 1,024 pixels, the NEC oddball certainly gives little away in terms of vertical elbow room to the widescreen opposition. For web browsing or viewing a single document, therefore, it's every bit as effective.
What it doesn't offer is the ability, however theoretical, to view two documents side by side or perhaps achieve that traditional journalistic ruse of positioning a browser next to Word. The better to cut and paste with? Perish the thought.
Pixel poor
Anywho, where the 195VXM+ also loses out thanks to form factor and resolution is the coarseness of its pixel grid. It's native resolution of 1,280 x 1,024 pixels is not an awful lot to spread out over a 19-inch diagonal.
That means each individual pixel is pretty fat. Those with poor eye sight would probably welcome the resulting oversized fonts. But for everyone else, the relative coarseness will be all too apparent.
And that doesn't even factor in the inherent unsuitability of this screen for watching today's widescreen video content.
Overall, then, we will have to chalk up the 5:4 aspect and relatively low resolution as a fail. However, we were hoping that in return for the fusty form factor, the 195VXM+ would give us something we really covet: an LCD panel that's anything but TN+Film. If that were the case, it would make for an extremely interesting choice.
A modern widescreen form factor and high resolutions or superior colour fidelity and contrast, but a constrained work space. But that's all rather academic because it turns out the 195VXM+ is TN after all.
As it goes, it's not a bad panel by TN standards. Granted, measured static contrast is pretty mediocre, just breaching the 600-to-one barrier. But it does nail both the preferred 2.2 gamma and 6500k colour temperature targets after colour calibration.
It also weighs in with a maximum brightness of 243 nits, which isn't too far off the official 300 nit that NEC claims.
Ultimately, it's hard to imagine exactly why anyone would want to pay significantly more for this 19 incher than the likes of BenQ's nearly universely superior 22-inch panel.
In the end, the NEC's Multisync 195VXM+ is exactly what it first appeared to be: an interesting but mortally flawed throwback to an early era.
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Bebo adds 'report abuse' button to website
Bebo has announced new measures to ensure the online safety of children and teenagers, by adding a 'report abuse' button to its site.
In light of a survey which found Bebo users were among the most likely to suffer bullying online, the social-networking site has teamed up with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre and added a direct link to CEOP's website.
Help and advice
This means that now more than 8 million users have access to a place where they can report anything unjust happening to them on the site, and seek advice about any problems.
"There can hardly be a parent in the land whose teenager isn't part of a social networking site. These environments are huge and bring a vast array of converged facilities – uploads, downloads, chats and so on – that are now so integral to young people's lives," explained Jim Gamble, Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.
"What today means is that every member of the Bebo community has one-click access to a powerful tool that gives them safety help and advice as well as that ultimate reassurance, the ability to find their local police or to speak to us direct via an online reporting mechanism."
No logic
Although Bebo has signed on to the initiative, the two major players in the social-networking market-place – Facebook and MySpace – have not.
Gamble spoke to the BBC about this lack of CEOP support and said there's "no legitimate reason" why these sites have not got a CEOP button.
"I am applauding Bebo; it's taken us three years to get here," Gamble noted.
"But I don't understand – and there is more than Facebook in this – I don't understand the logic for the others not following suit."
A spokesperson for Facebook said they "look forward to hearing about the experience of Bebo using the CEOP button and will take account of their experience in any future evaluation of our reporting systems."
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Review: LG W2286L
Down here in the sub-آ£200 monitor market, it's easy to get the impression that there's little or no choice other than TN panels. If you fancy a screen with superior technology, such as an IPS or PVA panel, you're looking at the thick end of آ£300. Thanks to LG, however, there is still hope in the form of the W2286L 22-inch monitor.
This 22-inch monitor may be saddled with the same old TN (Twisted Nematic) technology as other affordable monitors. But it has a secret weapon: It's got an LED backlight.
In theory, LEDs produce cleaner, purer light than the CCFL backlights used by most monitors. LEDs are also quicker to respond to the input signal, use less power (LG claims as much as 40 per cent less than CCFL) and last longer before significant fade sets in. What's not to like?
At first glance, very little indeed. Not only does the W2286L steal a march on the competition with its advanced backlight technology, it's also a substantial and expensive looking specimen with its slick HDTV styling .
That said, the screen's stand isn't any more versatile than the rest. It's tilt-only in terms of adjustability.
Fortunately then, LG has lavished this screen with more input options than you can shake a dirty stick at. Along with DVI and VGA interfaces, there's a brace of HDMI ports.
You could, therefore, wire up not just a PC and games console, but also a further digital box, such as a Blu-ray player – all at the same time.
It certainly makes the monitor a serious companion for anyone wishing to have a flexible multimedia machine.
Size matters?
But what about that LED backlight? Does it really deliver a superior viewing experience. Subjectively, this screen has the most pleasing, natural and convincing colours of our sextet of screens. It's almost IPS-like in its subtlety.
Following calibration, our objective testing confirms that the screen also offers the largest colour space. Even better, it tops the table in terms of measured static contrast with a figure just over the 1,000-to-one mark.
Subjectively, its black levels are pretty satisfying, too. All of which makes the W2286L the best looking, most advanced and objectively highest performing screen here. What it ain't, however, is perfect.
For starters, it's not that bright, tipping the scales at just 208 nits. Moreover, when you get right down to the all-important subjective viewing experience, the colour and contrast is only marginally better than the rest of the monitors and it still lags well behind a good IPS or PVA screen.
Then there are the touch-sensitive controls. They're so infuriatingly fiddly, it's almost impossible to navigate the OSD menu.
There's also a downside to the sleek lines of the chassis: a messy external power brick.
But the real killer is the old school 22-inch 16:10 form factor. It means that this monitor has significantly fewer pixels than the other 22-inch and 24-inch screens on test.
In 16:9 full, high definition format, LG might just have a winning monitor on its hands. As it is, the W2286L is a slightly odd combination of old and new.
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Ordnance Survey maps to be made freely available online
The British government is looking at ways of making all of its Ordnance Survey maps freely available online.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the move this week at an event alongside the government's new 'information tsar' web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
The government has been inspired by the success of crime mapping where "data openness" is helping citizens assess the safety of geographical areas.
A 'smarter' state
Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne, is set to make a speech next week looking at the other various ways in which freeing up of government data might lead to a "smarter state".
Unionised Ordnance Survey staff are seemingly the only ones unhappy about Gordon Brown's latest pledge, claiming that it was in "complete contradiction with the OS's own plans to explore commercial opportunities and find new ways of raising revenue".
The groundbreaking move is a result of the Guardian's superb Free Our Data campaign to try to bring the UK in line with similar policies in the US regarding free access to mapping data.
The Free Our Data campaign is driven by one overriding objective – for the UK government to "abandon copyright on essential national data, making it freely available to anyone, while keeping the crucial task of collecting that data in the hands of taxpayer-funded agencies".
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Review: BenQ G2200HD
We've already riffed on the global financial meltdown, highlighted Gordon Brown's various failings and discussed the concept of economies of scale. So, before we get too intimate with this rather snazzy looking little BenQ G2200HD 22-inch monitor, we may as well keep the Economics 101 course going with a quick chat about the principle of diminishing returns.
Our story begins about a year or so ago when the monitor industry changed course, almost as one entity, in favour of 16:9 aspect ratios and full, high definition 1080p resolutions.
At the time, we were bombarded with predictable platitudes concerning the immense benefit of adopting the wider aspect. It soon became clear that the reality was that the change allowed manufacturers to squeeze a few more LCD panels out of a given amount of substrate.
Still, the upside for all of us has been lower prices than ever. However, the other part of the strategic change – the shift to 1080p – has been rather more ambiguous. That's because 1080p refers to a grid of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels.
For exisitng 23 and 24-inch 16:10 aspect monitors, that actually meant a slight reduction in pixel count, down from 1,920 x 1,200.
Given that most desktop duties, such as document editing and web browsing place a premium upon vertical screen real estate, that's hardly ideal.
Size matters?
But in the 22-inch segment, 1080p is a clear upgrade from the 1,680 x 1,050 resolution of 16:10 panels. It also means that 22-inch panels now typically match 23 and 24-inch models in terms of native resolution. And that brings us back to the question of dimishing returns.
You have to ask yourself whether an inch or two of additonal panelry is worth paying for, if it doesn't actually give you anymore usable desktop space.
You may feel it comes down to your usage model: If you mainly play games and watch movies, you will want a bigger screen; If you're a web junky, more screen space is a boon. However, In practice it's more complicated than that.
Indeed, some people actually prefer the tighter, sharper image quality in games that results from cramming the same amount of pixels into a slightly smaller space. If that's the case, you'll love BenQ's G2200HD monitor.
Current games running at 1080p look so sharp on this screen that you'd swear your retinas are at risk if you peer too closely. We were also impressed by this screen's default colour balance. It's probably closer to the correct calibrated colour space than any other screen we tested this month.
Indeed, after screen calibration it turned out to be right on the money with measured 6,500k temperature and 2.2 gamma values.
What's more, in our subjective tests, it delivers reasonable detail in the white and black contrast scales, decent pixel response, good colour saturation for a TN panel and no evidence of visual nasties, such as input lag or inverse ghosting (at least, the latter is true so long as you disable BenQ's AMA overdrive tech in the OSD). There are no horror stories here.
It's also one of the slickest looking screens on test. In short it's compact, classy and offers full 1080p HD for just آ£125.
At this price point, it's all you could reasonably ask for.
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Xbox Live goes free for a week
Following a veritable slew of Xbox Live news over the last week, Microsoft is offering online gaming noobs and shy retiring 360 gamers alike a new reason to sign up for an Xbox Live Gold member's account – by making full access to Xbox Live free this coming weekend in the US and all next week in the UK.
Microsoft has announced it is hosting free Live weekends for Silver members to give them an opportunity to check out the raft of new XBL features, in addition – of course - to downloading as much free stuff as they can over the 48-hour period!
Shouty American teenagers
During the free Xbox Live weekends, you will have a chance to play against your mates (or unknown shouty American teens) in multiplayer gaming sessions, or just see how easy it is to use the new services such as Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM, Netflix and the like via your 360.
Here's the free Xbox Live schedule:
- All Live regions except those in Europe: November 20 from 12:00om EST to November 23 at 12:00pm EST.
- All European Live regions: November 25 from 17:00pm GMT to November 30 at 17:00pm GMT.
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OCZ unveils Colossus SDD range
OCZ has unleashed its Colossus 3.4 inch solid state drive series for high-end desktop users and enterprise clients.
Announced in August, the Colossus series comes in sizes ranging from 120GB to 1TB, and boasts maximum read and write times of 260MB/s and a 1.5 million hours mean time between failures.
High power
"The new Colossus Series is designed to boost desktop and workstation performance and is for high power users that put a premium on speed, reliability and maximum storage capacity," said Eugene Chang, VP of Product Management at the OCZ Technology Group.
"The Colossus core-architecture is also available to enterprise clients with locked BOMs (build of materials) and customized firmware to match their unique applications."
With a sustained write time of 220MB/s and a design that should make it ideal for power users, we might well be adding it to our Christmas lists.
Although with the price for the 1TB version touching آ£1500 Santa would have to be in a particularly generous mood.
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Microsoft poo-poos Natal release rumours
Microsoft has denied the latest round of rumours claiming that motion-sensing Project Natal tech will release in late 2010 at a the seemingly ultra-competitive آ£30 to آ£50 price point.
The rumours emerged last week and were published by UK games industry trade magazine MCV, suggesting that an insider leak made it clear that the current plans within Microsoft were to launch Natal in November 2010 with 14 launch games at a cost of آ£30 to آ£50.
MCV's unnamed source added that the new Natal information came from a "behind-closed-doors tour of UK publishers and studios."
The baking stage
Not according to Xbox UK boss Neil Thompson who has been quick to dismiss the accuracy of MCV's report claiming that it is nothing more than "rumours".
"I've got nothing more to say about it", Thompson told GI.biz. "We're still very much in the baking on Natal and there's a lot of things to get decided on it."
Microsoft Europe's Chris Lewis added that they plan to make the official announcements about Natal "in good time" which is likely to be either at next year's Games Developers Conference in March or at E3 in June.
"As you can imagine, we've shared this technology with our worldwide development partners now for some time, and the pace with which they're developing the kind of experiences is just amazing," Lewis added.
"I'm not going to be specific about what they might be, I will say however we're committed to ensure those experiences are unique, compelling and very exciting right from the outset. That has to happen and that will happen."
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Beta Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Phone arrives
Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Phones has launched in beta, promising to bring faster surfing for consumers.
Opera's Turbo technology has proven to be a popular function, and Windows Mobile users can now experience just why, with a beta browser available now.
Opera Mobile 10 brings a similar look and feel to Opera's desktop browser, and includes features like speed dial, tabbed browsing, a password manager and the all-important compression technology Turbo.
Unifying
"We are unifying our products, so that users get the same experience, no matter the device or which particular Opera browser they are using," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software.
"With Opera Mobile 10, we are raising the expectations of how a a mobile browser should perform.
"Today, users require a browser as powerful as the web, one that can handle their daily tasks as well as their computers. That's Opera."
Search for the best mobile phone deals at Omio
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Google Phone launching in 2010, says report
Rumours of a Google-branded phone have been doing the rounds for some time now and it looks like consumers will finally be able to get their hands on the Google Phone at some point next year.
Latest reports indicate that the next 'super' Android devices that are set to be thinner than the Droid or the Apple iPhone – the current two most critically-lauded smartphones on the market – will be available in the near future.
However, it is the confirmation that Google is bringing out its OWN phone in 2010 that is causing the most excitement amongst mobile fans and industry pundits alike.
Absolutely confirmed
TechCrunch's Michael Arrington is first to the Google Phone confirmation party, noting "there are a few things we have absolutely confirmed: Google is building their own branded phone that they'll sell directly and through retailers... it has now slipped to early 2010....[and] will be produced by a major phone manufacturer but will only have Google branding."
The Google Phone is basically set to be 100 per cent designed by Google. It will be "Google's pure vision of what a phone should be," claims TechCrunch.
Rumours currently point towards HTC being the chosen manufacturer set to build the new Google phone, although TechCrunch favours a Korean phone manufacturer such as LG or Samsung.
As ever, TechRadar will be working with our contacts in and close to all the above-named companies to try to find out more. Stay tuned.
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Intel warning over PC component drought
Intel is warning that the predicted explosion in computer sales next year could surpass the speed in which companies can make PC components.
Speaking at a conference, Intel's chief executive Paul Otellini stated that the semiconductor industry, along with other key manufacturers could see demand exceed supply.
Capacity
"The industry is not ready for this yet," Otellini said. "One of the things I worry about is, will everybody's capacity be there in sufficient quantities to build it?"
This is in the face of predictions of a massive 12 to 18 per cent boom in unit growth next year, as people begin to up their spending.
With Windows 7 persuading many to upgrade, Chrome OS from Google scheduled for next year and the public getting its confidence back, 2010 could well be a massive year for the personal computer.
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Exclusive: PEGI: Modern Warfare 2 underlines need for us
The controversy around Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's 2 already infamous terrorist mission underlines the need for a strong ratings body – according to PEGI.
The Pan European Gaming Institute (PEGI) will today be named in the Queen's speech as the body chosen by the Digital Britain report to decide age ratings for games in the UK.
Communications manager Dirk Bosmans told TechRadar that the furore from some of the media over CoD: MW2 shows the continued need for education over ratings.
Terrorist
The latest Call of Duty game has shot to the top of the sales charts, despite the likes of the Daily Mail's criticism over an optional and, frankly, odd mission in which the player participates in (or passively follows) a terrorist attack on a Russian airport.
However, it has been rightly pointed out that the game is clearly marked for adults only, with an 18 certificate on the box, and that children should not be allowed to play it.
"I sure hope that this illustrates how important games ratings are," said Bosmans.
"There was a multitude of people who could easily break down arguments that gaming as a whole was inappropriate over this one incident.
"This kind of public debate is good for a system like PEGI – it shows it can work well and that education is still necessary."
Education, education, education
Education remains a key part of PEGI's plans – with Bosmans suggesting that there is a growing generation of gamers now having kids who understand the system – but still a large group that do not have this level of understanding.
"It's a step by step process that we can help to speed up but it will take a little bit more time," added Bosmans.
"There is a games generation that have known games since being able to read – we are having kids ourselves and that is a generation of parents who are aware of games and other digital behaviour and the risks that come with that.
"Next to that, there is still a large group that aren't familiar. We try to reach out to make them aware.
"PEGI will jut keep hammering out the message and trying to help educate parents."
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Why Windows 7 had to slow down to speed up
Counter-intuitive design principles mean that Windows 7 enjoys serious speed and power advantages over Windows Vista, Microsoft expert Mark Russinovich revealed today at PDC.
According to tech blog BetaNews, Russinovich and designer Arun Kishan credited many of the improvements to changes in Windows architecture that means processes on multi-core systems no longer get stalled waiting for threads to finish.
"Everything works exactly as it did before," Kishan said, "This is a totally under-the-covers transparent change to applications, except for the fact that things scale better now."
Slow down to speed up
Another innovation is a new system that increases the idle time for processors. Instead of slowing the whole system down, this actually means that fewer interrupt signals are sent back and forth. It turns out that multi-core processors - now found in even budget laptops - perform much better if they are allowed to go to sleep when not being used.
Windows designers also found that computers perform at their most efficient when virtually all of the available memory is been used, leaving just a few dozen MB free, even when running just a few applications on top-end 8GB RAM systems.
"If we have free and zero pages, we would rather populate them with speculated disk or network reads," said engineer Landy Wang. "Then if you need the data later, you won't have to wait for a very slow disk or a very slow network to respond."
Windows designers believe that computers of the future will boast ever more cores in the race to boost speed - meaning that even Windows 7 is likely to enjoy only a lifetime measured in years (compared to Windows XP's 10-years and counting).
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PDC 2009: Windows Azure goes from blue sky to launch
The clouds are gathering, with Microsoft software supremo Ray Ozzie announcing the availability of the Windows Azure cloud computing platform at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles.
New and updated offerings include Microsoft Pinpoint, an online marketplace for partners to market and sell applications, and Microsoft Codename "Dallas", a technology preview built on Azure that enables developers and users to access premium commercial and reference datasets and content on any platform.
These databases include content from Associated Press, Citysearch, NASA, National Geographic, the United Nations and Weather Central Inc, potentially kick-starting a new generation of data-rich consumer services.
Big clouds, small screens
It's all part of Microsoft's "three screens and a cloud" vision, where software experiences are seamlessly delivered across PCs, phones and TVs, all inter-connected by cloud-based services. Microsoft hopes to provide the technology platforms upon which new commercial and entertainment services will be built.
Microsoft also announced a bunch of developments tools, such as AppFabric for building composite, scalable applications that span both traditional servers and cloud systems. The end result for web users should be faster, more reliable services that can easily respond to increased demand - the days of streaming news sites crashing on busy days, for instance, could soon be over.
The new 'Dallas' service is being used on NASA's new Be A Martian website, that gives users the chance to view and interact with hundreds of thousands of images gathered over decades of exploration on the Red Planet. As well promoting spaceflight and pumping up waning public interest in Martian exploration, the website aims to be a crowdsourcing tool that will "tap visitors' brains" and help the space agency process volumes of Mars images.
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T-Mobile investigated for leaking customer data
T-Mobile has sensationally revealed it is part of an investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office into a data breach, after it was found that certain staff within the company had allegedly sold on thousands of people's details to competitors.
The customers whose details were leaked were close to the end of their contracts with T-Mobile, and may have been subject to cold-calling and the like because of the data breach.
Statement
The official statement from T-Mobile is below:
"T-Mobile takes the protection of customer information seriously. When it became apparent that contract renewal information was being passed on to third parties without our knowledge, we alerted the Information Commissioner's Office.
"Working together, we identified the source of the breach which led to the ICO conducting an extensive investigation which we believe we will lead to a prosecution.
"While it is deeply regrettable that customer information has been misappropriated in this way, we have proactively supported the ICO to help stamp out what is a problem for the whole industry.
"We had been asked before today to keep all information on this case strictly confidential so as to avoid prejudice to the investigation and prosecution. We were therefore surprised at the way in which these statements were made to the BBC today."
TechRadar has contacted T-Mobile with regards to any more information surrounding the data breach. More to follow...
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Paramount outs limited edition Transformers and Star Trek USBs
Paramount has announced two limited edition USB keys which come packing the company's two biggest blockbusters of the year – Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen.
Taking the humble USB and completely pimping it out in either a Bumble Bee design (for the Transformers nuts) or a Star Trek-style badge, the two special edition 4GB USB sticks house the movies in DivX format, so you can burn them on to DVD if you so wish.
USB the key
If you don't fancy burning the movies to disc, then you can plug the USBs into a DivX-friendly device in the home (Blu-ray player, console, TV etc) then play the movies that way.
If all else fails you can plug the USB into a Mac or PC and watch the films from there.
There are only 20,000 of each of the products available, so Paramount is hoping the devices will become a collector's item.
Both the Star Trek Starfleet Insignia 4GB USB and the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Autobot 4GB USB are available from Play.com 30 November for آ£19.99.
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Exclusive: Last.fm: We don't view Spotify as a rival
Last.fm's CFO Ryan Regan has told TechRadar that the popular music service views Spotify as a collaborator rather than a rival.
Regan, speaking at the Xbox Collectives launch party said that, although the two services sometimes sound similar, he believed that the major link was that both companies focus on the user.
"I think there's a lot more cooperation between Last.fm and Spotify than there is competition and internally we find the services very complimentary," said Regan.
Scrobbling fun
"An example is the first feature Spotify developed based on their user feedback was to allow users to 'scrobble' back to Last.fm
"That was something that was done outside of any discussions with Last.fm because their users wanted their Last.fm profiles to be updated with what they were listening to on Spotify and that's a great example of how the services are complimentary.
"As far as competition goes I think both companies are focused on the user and both companies do slightly different things even though they sound the same at times."
Big step for Last.fm
Regan was at the launch to see Last.fm join big names like Twitter, Zune and Facebook on the Xbox 360 games console.
"We couldn't be more excited about it," added Regan. "Even though we have large community its not as large as we'd like it to be still, so tapping into Xbox and their passionate users is a great fit and will enrich the Last.fm community of 35 million plus."
"This deal is a validation of what Last.fm's built - that Xbox wanted us to be a partner."
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11 Britons that changed the face of technology
Britain may no longer be in thepowerhouse of the world's technology industry, but we sure did some pioneering work in days gone by - and we're still pushing back the barriers in certain areas too.
To celebrate Britain's major contributions to the world of innovation, here are eleven Brits that have changed the face of technology - and some of them are still at it, too.
1. Sir Clive Sinclair
Sinclair may be looked back on with slight amusement because of the 1985 C5 electric tricycle, but we shouldn't forget his formidable contribution to the UK home computer market. He started with the ZX80, but it was with 1981's inexpensive ZX81 (which cost less than آ£50 for the kit version or آ£70 fully built) and the follow-up ZX Spectrum that Sinclair became an indelible part of computing history.
Read: Clive Sinclair was 'a cross between Einstein and Willy Wonka'
Sinclair had also released the world's first pocket calculator in 1972 – the آ£80 Executive which ran on hearing-aid batteries. He now concentrates on folding bicycles.
2. John Logie Baird
Although Baird died in 1946 and never saw television come to major fruition, he changed the world forever with his electromechanical system. It was in 1925, after years of experiment, that he transmitted the world's first television picture – the head of a ventriloquist's dummy at five images per second – after having transferred moving silhouette images two years previously. In 1926 he held the first public demonstration for a reporter from The Times in Soho at a scan rate of 12.5 pictures per second and the year after he performed the same between London and Glasgow. Colour, using three light sources, followed in 1928. In the same year he began making programmes for the BBC. He truly was a pioneer like no other.
[Image credit: bairdtelevision.com]
3. Chris Curry
Alongside Sinclair, Curry was the subject of the 2009 BBC docu-drama Micro Men. A former employee of Sinclair, Curry went on to co-found Acorn Computers, the company who went up against Sinclair to carry out the early-1980s BBC Computer Literacy Project and put a microcomputer into every school in Britain. Together with VLSI, Acorn developed the first ARM silicon chip for Acorn in 1985 – derivatives of which we still use today in smartphones such as the Apple iPhone. Curry and his co-founder Hermann Hauser did a deal for Olivetti to take over nearly half of Acorn in 1985. ARM was spun off. At the same time, Curry founded GIS (General Information Systems) who make contact and contactless smartcard products. Below are Acorn founders Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry.
[Image credit: stairwaytohell.com]
4. Alexander Graham Bell
Bell was a prolific inventor who experimented with acoustic telegraphy in the early 1870s in the US and Canada using vibrating steel reeds. After a period in which Bell had struggled with his invention (despite getting financial backing), he teamed up with Thomas Watson. Working in collaboration it quickly became clear that different tones could be transmitted via a single reed. Despite a wide interest in the field, Bell was first to the patent office in 1875 – with an "apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically". Although advancements were made by others – especially Elisha Gray – it was Bell who went on to develop apparatus commercially and show it publicly in 1876 and 77.
5. Jonathan Ive
As the Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple, it's fair to say Ive has landed on his feet. But you have to hand it to him – he designed the look of the iMac, iPod and iPhone among others. Born in Chingford, he later studied Industrial Design at Northumbria University (as is now) and spent a short time in London before moving to the US in 1992. Although the eMate showed signs of the Apple we know today, it was with the pioneering first-gen iMac that Ive really came to the fore, with translucent finishes and colourful touches before moving toward the aluminium designs we know today.
6. Charles Babbage
Babbage was a mathematician and inventor who thought up the original concept of a computer as a device being able to solve mathematical problems to drive out human error. First thinking up the principles in the early 1820s, he came up with the idea of the difference engine. The Science Museum has since built a fully functioning machine from his design, but the original was never completed. Instead, he designed an improved version, again completed by the Science Museum in 1991, which performed calculations to 31 digits. Babbage then thought up the Analytical engine which was designed to use punch cards and could be described as the first programmable computer. And his influence is still being felt in diverse fields like nanotechnology.
7. Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt
Saying Watson-Watt is the inventor of radar is a bit like saying Bill Gates invented the home computer. But Watt, along with assistant Arnold Wilkins, designed a radio detection system that became crucial in winning the Battle of Britain in 1940. It tracked aircraft at distances of more than 100 miles from stations all along the East and South coasts of England. He had been deployed to the Bawdsey Research Station near Felixtowe in 1936 and gained a patent for radar in 1935. He later advised the US on air defence before moving to Canada and finally to Scotland.
8. Alexander Bain
Bain was a clockmaker who moved to London from Scotland. There he invented the electric clock, patented in 1841 using a pendulum kept moving by electromagnetic impulses. Bain also worked on an experimental facsimile machine in the 1840s and patented the chemical telegraph, which could print 282 words in 52 seconds.
[Image credit: nms.ac.uk]
9. Sir Frank Whittle
Although German Dr. Hans von Ohain was also involved, Whittle is credited with inventing the jet engine. Whittle took three attempts to enter the RAF due to his physical stature. In his RAF course he had to write a dissertation and decided to write on future developments in aircraft design. Here he wrote about flight at high altitudes and speeds where propeller engines would not be sufficient. In the late 1930s he joined with retired RAF engineers to form a company to produce the jet prototype. In 1944 the company was nationalised.
10. Dr Lyn Evans
CERN's Large Hadron Collider may continue to have problems (with bread), but it's hardly a recent project – Welsh miner's son and particle physicist Dr Lyn Evans began working on the LHC project in 1994. He cites his French O Level – a requirement for him to go to university – as his biggest hurdle, telling the BBC that it's ironic as "since joining CERN, I spend half of my time working in French".
[Image credit: CERN]
11. Tim Berners-Lee
One of the greatest British tech pioneers of all, Tim Berners-Lee made the first proposal for the World Wide Web in 1989. His work was to change the lives of billions. After spending most of the 1980s working for technology companies in Dorset and a consultant software engineer at CERN, he wrote the first web server and initial specifications for URLs, HTTP and HTML. In 1990, he and Robert Cailliau established communication between an HTTP client and server. Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium in 1994 where he remains Director.
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