Review: Sony Bravia KDL-46Z5800
What a TV! Sony's Freesat enabled Z5800 series of LCD TVs are a thrilling example of how good a cutting-edge, CCFL backlit screen can be.
We recently reviewed the 40-inch model in the Z5800 series and were mightily impressed, so much so we have chosen to review its 46-inch brother, the Bravia KDL-46Z5800.
On looks alone, the KDL- 46Z5800 could easily be dismissed. It's thin without being really skinny, but is, from the front, just an anonymous black rectangle. There's little or no flair displayed, save for a glowing Sony logo that you'll invariably turn off anyway, else it hampers the viewing experience.
It has a relatively drab aesthetic – in essence, the telly equivalent of holidaying in Burnley. However, none of this matters when it's switched on. In fact, the blandness of the exterior helps draw the eye to the glass itself. And maybe that's the point – it's here where the magic happens, after all.
The 46Z5800 casts a colour filled, detail-rich spell, which dazzles, excites and provides AV lobbyists with enough irrefutable evidence to turn any HD-abstainee into a true believer. In picture performance terms, it is, quite simply, the best CCFL-backlit LCD TV I've clapped eyes on this year.
It's a free for all
To be completely honest, Freesat has lost a little of its shine for me since Freeview HD came into the frame (the hardware may be thin on the ground but I know a bigger rollout is now just months away).
I'm a big fan of free high-definition programming, and applaud any such technology on offer, but because I live in London, I'm in the fortunate position of being able to satisfy my needs via a conventional rooftop aerial – a less bothersome route than a satellite dish, and one most can undertake even if they're in a listed building or rented property.
However, not everybody lives in a Freeview HD-capable area, so Freesat remains a smart and viable option. It's also one that the Z5800 handles very admirably indeed.
The quality of images delivered via the Sony's Freesat tuner is remarkable. Often, I'll gloss over a flatscreen's TV-viewing performance because digital terrestrial pictures invariably look poor no matter what fancy processing is employed. The transmission signal is usually so broken and muddied that even the greatest panels can look like a unkempt building site.
This is where Sony's Motionflow 200Hz technology comes in. When enabled, specifically on its 'Low' setting, the processing makes both SD and HD programming appear sharp, and aids smooth movement without introducing the sort of edge artefacts often associated with rival brand's technologies.
Other similar high-frame rate systems can also add a fake sheen to pictures, giving them a camcorder-style feel, but this Sony doesn't. Dare I say it, I'd be tempted to leave the processing engaged for Blu-ray movie playback, too.
The effect is less impressive with the set's in-built Freeview tuner, probably because the source's frailties are harder to gloss over, but that's a fall-back position anyway. I can't see anybody shelling out just shy of two grand on a 46in Freesat TV and not have a satellite dish to plug it into. They'd certainly be pleased they did.
That's not to say the set is faultless, though. For a start, whilst picture quality is superb, audio performance is not. The speakers are functional at best, and I found both of the available sound modes (dialogue and surround) lack any form of dynamism.
I'm not entirely sure that surround does what it says on the tin, either. The soundfield on offer is clean and crisp but as flat as week-old cola.
In addition, AppliCast, Sony's current internet widget feature, is as useful as a glass jockstrap. The meagre array of RSS feeds and applications on offer is almost insulting, especially in comparison to rival manufacturers' similar technologies.
There are plenty of good options when it comes to buying network-capable TVs and if that feature is high on your shopping list, you might not give this model a second chance. Sony is apparently addressing criticisms on the tech for future panels, and extra functionality may come down the pipe for this set, but buyers should take these reservations on board.
The Z5800 does, however, offer a full set of media streaming and playing abilities, via Ethernet or USB memory stick. And, unlike other Sony kit I've seen of late, this screen can handle the full family of video, audio and photo files through both delivery formats.
In addition, there's a picture frame mode on the TV that can turn it into a work of art in your living room. And that's quite apt, because I'm happy to call this TV a work of art. Its picture performance alone demands such praise.
Best of both words
After viewing a mix of Terminator Salvation and Ice Age 3 on Blu-ray, I can safely confirm that it handles dark, murky, shadow-filled or explosive, vibrant, saturated scenes with the same aplomb. The latter, animated movie is awash with stark, vivid blues and greens, and the Z5800 shows them with an intensity that no cinema screen could possibly achieve.
The latest in the Terminator franchise, however, requires deft control over sepia tones and an ability to pick out detail in darkness – a doddle for the display. The HCC proprietary Test Card has been designed to expose TV's common foibles, and there are some areas where LCD technology can often struggle.
Yet in this instance I noted no problems. Even reds look bold and authentic, before (in 'Standard' mode) and after calibration. Our test regime also highlights gradation issues, with some panels exhibiting light banding: the Z5800 passed with flying colours.
While the contrast levels are good, they could've been awesome with the adoption of an LED backlight (local dimming, especially). It's also the only sticking point that I can imagine somebody having when considering this screen over other comparable 46-inchers.
I believe that other issues, such as the audio performance, are almost irrelevant. It's hard to imagine that anybody willing to invest heavily in a flatscreen of this pedigree won't be matching it with a well-specified home cinema system, 5.1 or more. Flatscreens per se have rotten audio – it's a side-effect of having such a thin footprint.
CCFL fights back
So will the Z5800 struggle when placed alongside a 46in LED TV? In picture quality and features, I don't think so.
However, buzzwords mean a lot in this market, and there is no more attractive moniker than LED at the moment. Therefore, this set may get overlooked. I hope not, though. It's exceptional.
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In Depth: 8 gadget screw-ups of the decade
Plenty of things seemed like a good idea at the time, and we don't just mean that bout of heavy-petting from the Christmas party, last night's fifth pint or the chicken kebab - we're talking about some of the biggest mistakes made by the biggest tech companies in the world.
Regrets? Sony, Toshiba, Nokia and many others have had a few since the turn of the millennium, during what we shall call... The Decade of Disaster.
8. Sony UMD movie format, 2005
In Sony's ego-mad world, everyone was going to buy a PSP because it was a new type of PlayStation, then everyone would buy stacks of Sony Pictures films on the convenient, portable, higher-resolution UMD format. The money would have to be piled up in bin liners!
Sadly, the problems with using UMD for films were numerous - it was slow, it hammered the battery, retailers weren't keen on stocking another format, plus the rise in digital distribution - by which we mean stealing things with Bittorrent - made the concept of buying a separate copy of a film to watch on a small screen seem... pointless.
In a time when our DVD collections were reaching peak size, the last thing we wanted to do was to buy Spider-Man 2 on another bloody format.
7. Motorola ROKR E1, 2005
A mobile with built-in iTunes support? This design monstrosity should've been a sensation, but sadly for Motorola, a clunky look, slow interface and astonishingly short-sighted 100 song limit made it seem like a... very bad idea. Presumably much to the relief of Apple, in hindsight.
6. Gizmondo, 2005
It was literally a car crash in the end, with company boss Stefan Eriksson smashing his Ferrari, legging it, and eventually being convicted for embezzlement and illegally owning a gun.
The Gizmondo story was equally made-for-TV - a celebrity-packed launch, a store right on London's fancy Regent's Street and adverts all over the place. But the gaming phone had no big game franchises and the flagship shop remained defiantly empty.
A cheaper, ad-funded Gizmondo model arrived later and could've done big business, and as a cheap GPS device it deserved to at least whittle out a little niche of its own, but the Giz soon became a laughing stock that'd burned too much money to be able to carry on.
5. Palm Foleo, 2007
There must be a few Palm executives who still deliberately harm themselves with regret over the decision to axe the Palm Foleo, which was to be a stripped-down ultraportable laptop with a 10" screen, running Linux to keep costs down and boot times fast.
Sound familiar? Yes, rather similar to the netbooks that rule today's world with their tiny plastic fists, only the Foleo would be synched with a Palm mobile for extra mobility points.
The decision to cancel the Foleo's release was taken in September of 2007 - a few weeks before Asus launched the Eee PC and changed the course of laptop history. Poor old Palm. Always the bridesmaid. The fat bridesmaid.
4. 3G video calling, 2005
The poor old mobile networks, fresh from being ripped-off by the UK government to the tune of آ£22bn in its "sale" of the 3G spectrum, hit on a great way to recoup costs - massively expensive video calls!
Suddenly every new mobile came with two cameras, your usual one on the back, plus a low-res one on the front so you could video talk to people like you're on the set of Space 1999.
Did anyone ever make a video call in the end? We think the Queen may have made one once, during a state visit to Nokia's HQ, but that was about it.
3. Audio CD DRM, 2005
One of the most spectacular failures of DRM was Sony BMG's attempt to make us install software audio players on our computers should we want to play our legitimately-purchased new disc on a PC.
The problem was, us tech-savvy music lovers automatically ripped every CD we bought, believing having a digital copy to be an undeniable right that came alongside the purchase.
Sony pulled it, recalled the infected discs, and in the end, the affront of being told you couldn't play a CD on your computer without first installing a piece of software only served to speed up the demise of the physical CD.
2. Nokia N-Gage, 2003
Not only was N-Gage a large slice of disappointment, it even spawned a monstrously successful internet "meme" laughing at the thing - sidetalking. Oh, the fun we had with bananas, shoes and TV remote controls back in 2003.
Talking into the side of your N-Gage was humiliating enough, but it was having to open the battery compartment and remove the battery to switch games that caused most people to label N-Gage a poorly-thought out piece of kit no one wanted.
It had a version of Tomb Raider for it, but then so did the Sega Saturn. But we're in the wrong decade for that one.
1. HD DVD, 2006
We could argue for hours over the need for a high-def movie format - so the introduction of two of the bloody things, well before most people in the UK even had an HDTV, was extremely bizarre.
A polite meeting between both camps beforehand could surely have saved millions of pounds and the thousands of eggs that ended on the faces of everyone involved in the HD DVD vs Blu-Ray format war.
In the end, the death of HD DVD was pronounced by Warner Brothers, which announced its intention to go Blu-ray-only on 4 January 2008. HD DVD then publicly collapsed in the space of a few weeks, as other film studios followed suit in dropping support. Toshiba joined the Blu-ray brigade shortly after.
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Blu-ray 3D specification finalised
The Blu-ray Disc Association has finalised the specification for Blu-ray 3D. The announcement is clearly pre-empting some announcements at CES from various vendors including AMD.
The specification has opted for the Multiview Video Coding (MVC) codec, which is "an extension" to the ITU-T H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) codec currently supported by all Blu-ray Disc players.
The key detail of this is that while Blu-ray 3D will deliver "Full HD 1080p resolution to each eye", the MVC codec means that 3D will only require an extra 50 per cent of storage space versus 2D.
Also crucial is backwards compatibility and Blu-ray 3D will have full 1080p resolution backward compatibility with current 2D players.
The Blu-ray 3D specification is also designed to allow the PlayStation 3 to play back Blu-ray 3D content in 3D, while 2D disc players will be able to play back 3D content (in 2D).
The spec for Blu-ray 3D is display agnostic, so it can deliver a 3D image to any 3D screen regardless of the display technology used.
The Blu-ray Disc Association believes that the current appetite for 3D cinema will make it into the home. "Throughout this year, movie goers have shown an overwhelming preference for 3D when presented with the option to see a theatrical release in either 3D or 2D," says Victor Matsuda, Chairman, BDA Global Promotions Committee.
"We believe this demand for 3D content will carry over into the home now that we have, in Blu-ray Disc, a medium that can deliver a quality Full HD 3D experience to the living room."
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In Depth: 11 best free movie download services
Video on demand is now a reality, with broadband powered products like BT Vision and Virgin PictureBox giving customers access to HD movies.
Digital rentals can be had through iTunes or with a subscription to LoveFilm.
But what if your budget is more Filet-O-Fish than filet mignon? Fear not. We've found 11 sites where you can watch films legally for free. Here they are in reverse order of awesomeness.
11. ITV Player
Licensing issues mean that ITV Player has few true movies to offer - but there are one or two free feature length TV flicks to be found among the episodes of Emmerdale and Corrie.
NOW SHOWING: Pollyanna
10. Joost
Once at the forefront of streaming TV, Joost is arranged in licensed channels. Lots to choose from, but there are very few gems among the selection and playback is buggy.
NOW SHOWING: The Toxic Avenger
9. LegalTorrents
BitTorrent can and is used for legal downloads. A good place to start your search is LegalTorrents, home to a small P2P selection of independent and out-of-copyright movies.
NOW SHOWING: Firefly - Done the Impossible, Star Wreck - In the Pirkinning
8. Babelgum
Starting out as a competitor to Joost, Babelgum specialises in independent and low budget flicks. A great, inline player is let down a little by poor search tools and a small full length selection.
NOW SHOWING: Rage, Crash Test Dummies
7. Google Video
Once a video service in its own right, Google Video now searches aggregate content from several sources including YouTube. Set "Duration" in "Advanced Video Search" to "Long".
NOW SHOWING: Outfoxed, Night of the Living Dead
6. BBC iPlayer
This needs no introduction. With an average of 4 million users a week, BBC iPlayer serves 12.5 gigabytes of telly every second. It only shows a small selection of recently broadcast films, though.
NOW SHOWING: Perfect Creature
5. 4OD
Since moving from its cumbersome desktop client to Flash, 4OD has become a much better service. Supported by ads, there's a great choice of mini-series and Channel Four funded films.
NOW SHOWING: A Very British Coup, Red Riding
4. Veoh
Installing its own QuickTime based player, Veoh boasts 335 classic and independent movies you can watch for free, in your browser. Most films can be downloaded locally in higher quality.
NOW SHOWING: A Star is Born, Teenagers from Outer Space
3. BlinkBox
Now we step up a gear. BlinkBox streams movies and TV, some for rent, some to buy and a decent selection to watch in your browser for free. Lots of high brow stuff.
NOW SHOWING: Carravaggio, Straight to Hell
2. Jaman
Combining online movie viewing with social media elements, Jaman has around 170 free, ad supported movies in its collection - alongside films to rent. Many of the freebies are out of copyright classics.
NOW SHOWING: Charade, The 39 Steps
1. Archive.org
The Moving Image section of archive.org is the very best place to find old classics and modern independent movies for download. With nearly 2,000 full length features, no other site comes near.
NOW SHOWING: Detour, The Last Man on Earth
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Apple iPhone gets iFart social network
Popular Apple iPhone app iFart is set to launch the world's first social network based around the fantastic pastime of trumping.
And while we ignore that sound of Charles Darwin turning in his grave, we have to secretly admit that there is nothing better than having a good old laugh about breaking wind.
iTrumping
iFart from InfoMedia is one of the most popular iPhone apps yet released. What this says about humanity as a race is sure to be the subject of Cultural Studies doctorates at some point in the future.
For now though, lets consider the future of iFart. And it seems that with the newly announced launch of iFart Mobile v2.3, will let users interact with one another and become "Fart Buddies."
The app makes use of Apple's push messaging, which will let you send an array of fart noises to your "Fart Budz" – sure to be appreciated when your 'budz' are in the middle of an important job interview or at a life-or-death doctor's appointment.
To use the new iFart you will also need to register on the GameDock network. The apps' developer Joel Comm shared the secret of what makes iFart so successful, telling Venturebeat:
"iFart has become the de facto novelty app that is referenced every time someone talks about the silly apps people spend money on. But the fact is that it's successful because it makes people laugh and smile.
"We've been creative with the technology Apple has made available and taken the novelty to the next level. Fart Buddies in iFart 2.3 turns the novelty app into a great prank and opportunity for friends to catch each other off guard with random blasts. It's just one more step in our quest for global flatulence domination!"
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In Depth: The making of Avatar
Back in 1996, James Cameron announced that he would be creating a film called Avatar, a science-fiction epic that would feature photo-realistic, computer-generated characters.
He had a treatment for the film, which already defined many things, including the Na'vi – a primitive alien race standing ten feet tall with shining blue skin, living in harmony with their jungle-covered planet Pandora.
Soon after, though, Avatar had to be shelved as the technology of the time could not satisfy the creative desires of the director.
Fast-forward to October 2009: Dan Lemmon, FX supervisor and Andy Jones, animation director at Weta Digital have about two weeks left of visual effects production for Avatar. The near-900 strong crew spanned across six locations are practically working around the clock to achieve what was deemed impossible a decade earlier.
Weta Digital, the New Zealand studio responsible for the groundbreaking visual effects in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong, is taking VFX to a new level of creative and technological excellence.
For Avatar, the studio has created over 1,800 stereoscopic, photo-realistic visual effects shots, many of them of the Na'vi as 'hero' characters. In addition to digital characters and environments are the machines, vehicles, equipment and everything else that help blur the line between imagination and reality.
"We're not just talking about the environment, but the creatures, the machines and the vehicles that people use to get around. The whole world is unique and because of the way James Cameron approaches things, everything seems functional and believable. Compared to other sci-fi fantasy genre films there's a certain level of realism just in the design that makes it very believable," says VFX supervisor Dan Lemmon.
Realising the Na'vi
Over a decade ago, Cameron had already figured out what he wanted the Na'vi to look like. "Back then, it was clear that they were going to be blue, tall, have tails and be somewhat feline-like," says Lemmon.
"We set out to make the Na'vi as realistic as possible. To do that we needed key departments to be firing on all cylinders," says animation director Andy Jones. "From facial and body rigging, motion capture, to animation, and shading and rendering – all these departments reached a synergy to bring these performances to the screen."
Lemmon adds, "We used a lot of photographs and scans of the actors and tried to incorporate the details of the physical actors into the digital characters – for both the Na'vi and humans. There are some characters like Jake, who's played by Sam Worthington, where there's both an Avatar double and a digital double.
"There's a lot of data that we captured through digital scanning and Lightstage capture. In addition, we did a lot of extra texture and shader work to make sure all that detail went into the final renders."
A new muscle system
For animating the digital characters in Avatar, Weta Digital had to develop some key technologies that would simulate realism as accurately as possible. Previously, Weta used relatively simplified muscle-simulation systems to generalise how muscles deformed a character's skin.
With Avatar, CG supervisor Simon Clutterbuck led the team to create a more accurate skeletal and muscle-simulation system. "It's quite cool now. Muscles intercollide, preserve their volume and are anatomically correct," says Lemmon.
"There are tissue layers, tendon sheets and all the critical parts of how a muscle system works. It gives a much more realistic starting point for creating believable creature deformations such as all the sliding under the skin and the dynamics of flesh as it moves."
For the Na'vi to be believable, realistic facial animation was crucial. The Na'vi experience a wide range of emotions and the facial animation had to convey these in a realistic way, or potentially fall into the 'Uncanny Valley.'
Weta used a variety of techniques to get the facial animation to a realistic state. First of all was facial motion capture. Using a high-definition video camera attached to the face of an actor and markers on the face, Weta's in-house software was able to map out which muscles in the face were firing.
The underlying technology is based on Paul Eckman and Wallace Friesen's Facial Action Coding System (FACS). By creating a map of muscle firings, Weta was able to retarget the motion data onto faces that don't match directly – in this instance, the Na'vi.
"We started doing this when we were working on King Kong," says Lemmon. "Andy Serkis was playing Kong and his facial anatomy is fairly different from a gorilla's. By capturing the muscle firings, we were able to retarget the motions back onto an animal with different anatomy and topology. We were looking to do essentially the same thing with the Na'vi but in a more sophisticated way."
"This system allowed us to generate a lot of detail in the motion of the faces," Jones adds. "Jim shot a ton of HD reference of his actors and that ended up being the saving grace for the animation process. Once the facial solve came out of motion capture, we would submit side-by-side renders of the real actor and his avatar/Na'vi counterpart, and tweak and adjust the facial animation to get every last nuance into the performance."
Advanced facial rigs
In order to create and retain the detail in the faces, Weta upped the ante in facial rig complexity and mesh resolution. "The facial rigs are by far the most advanced I have ever worked with," proclaims Jones.
LIFELIKE: Facial performance capture was used to recreate the actor's every nuance
"Jeff Unay and his team really pushed the envelope on these characters, working with extremely high-resolution meshes to sculpt in details and wrinkles that would have normally been placed in displacement maps.
"With the wrinkles in the model, he could control the motion of them so that the skin actually squashes together and then forms the wrinkle, instead of it just dissolving on and off like a displacement."
Jones also gives credit to the advances in hardware for making this possible. "In terms of motion, the technology that has helped us the most was the computer processing and graphics card speeds. A facial rig with this many polys could not have been attempted five years ago. The slow speeds would have made it impossible to animate," he says.
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To learn more about the cutting-edge systems Weta Digital and James Cameron developed to realise this sci-fi blockbuster, and to find out how Avatar was made stereoscopic, pick up issue 125 of 3D World magazine , on sale now.
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Sky runs 3D TV ads in Avatar cinemas
Satellite broadcaster Sky is set to launch Europe's first 3D channel in 2010, running ads for the service alongside screenings of James Cameron new Avatar in 700 cinemas
BSkyB launches the nationwide 3D ad campaign in cinemas this week.
Sky's ad campaign has been created by its in-house agency Sky Creative, and will run for six weeks.
The ads carry the strapline "3D TV from Sky, coming soon to your existing Sky+HD box".
Shopping mall marketing
BSkyB is also launching a marketing campaign for the 3D TV service at the O2 centre and at the Westfield shopping mall.
"As we move towards the launch of the UK's first 3D TV services, these are our first steps in widening public awareness of the service and providing a 'seeing is believing' experience," said Hilary Perchard, the Sky director of product management.
"As Sky's 3D TV services uses the same underlying technology as that being used in cinemas, it seemed natural to use Avatar as our first marketing platform. We also wanted to give consumers the opportunity to sample first hand the quality of experience we will offer next year."
3D TV is set to be the big news coming out of CES 2010 in Vegas early next month.
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FTC claims Intel has 'stifled innovation'
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued Intel this week, claiming that the world's largest chip manufacturer has abused its dominant market position to stifle competition.
The FTC is also examining Intel's actions in the market for graphics processors, with that news boosting Nvidia's shares more than 8% in mid-week trading.
Graphics market hampered
The FTC's latest suit follows the recent anti-trust suit brought by Intel's rival AMD last month which resulted in Intel paying AMD $1.25 billion in cash.
The FTC claims Intel has set up a system of "threats and rewards" aimed at personal computer and server manufacturers such as Dell, Hewlett Packard and IBM.
"Intel has engaged in a deliberate campaign to hamstring competitive threats to its monopoly," Richard A. Feinstein, director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. "It's been running roughshod over the principles of fair play and the laws protecting competition on the merits."
The FTC also claims that Intel is competing unfairly in the market for graphics processors.
"As part of this latest campaign, Intel misled and deceived potential competitors in order to protect its monopoly," the FTC said in a statement. "The complaint alleges that there also is a dangerous probability that Intel's unfair methods of competition could allow it to extend its monopoly into the GPU chip markets."
The FTC wants Intel to stop using "threats, bundled prices, or other offers to encourage exclusive deals, hamper competition, or unfairly manipulate the prices of its CPU or GPU chips."
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Simon Fuller creates new online talent show
Simon Fuller, entertainment mogul, pop Svengali and the man responsible for the Spice Girls and "American Idol", is launching a new online multimedia reality show targeting social networking sites.
"If I Can Dream" is the name of Fuller's latest venture which he describes as "a new generation of post-reality entertainment."
It is set to launch early 2010, documenting the stories of five young people who dream of success in Hollywood. Each contestants fans will be able to interact with them online in real time.
Heavyweight partners
Fuller's 19 Entertainment has some heavyweight partners on the project, including Hulu.com, Clear Channel Radio, Newscorp's MySpace, Pepsi and the Ford Motor Co.
Hulu.com will exclusively broadcast episodes of the show while Clear Channel Radio will promote the show on its radio stations and via online and mobile devices.
"'If I Can Dream' experiments with technology to provide for the first time a complete open door opportunity that allows the viewer to experience reality in a way never before attempted," Fuller said in a statement.
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Global PC market is finally on the up
Global shipments of PCs are on the up, according to the latest results from research firm IDC.
It is a hopeful sign that the end of the recession is in sight for the computing and IT industry, with the back-to-school boost earlier in the autumn prefiguring a longer-term and more sustainable growth in the PC market.
Netbooks drive growth
Global PC shipments were up 2.3 percent after falling for three consecutive quarters, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.
IDC predicts that the market will see double-digit growth in 2010, with desktop shipments staying flat and laptops and netbooks driving the increase in sales.
"As commercial spending recovers in 2010, we expect to see robust growth over the next several years," said Loren Loverde, program director at IDC Worldwide Trackers, in a statement.
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UK national newspapers join Google Fast Flip
Google has just added 55 new publications to its Fast Flip experimental news application that lets users quickly flip through online news stories, including UK national newspapers the Telegraph, the Independent and the Express.
Google has outlined the latest moves relating to Fast Flip in a company blog post boasting that Flip now features around 90 publications in total.
Clara Armand-Delille, Google's communications and public affairs manager, said: "We continue to engage with publishers on a regular basis, to find out first-hand how we can work together to tackle some of the challenges of the online world from a technological perspective."
Visually appealing
Put simply, Fast Flip is a lot more visual than most news aggregators and RSS feed-readers. You see screenshots of relevant articles instead of headlines, and you can choose to click on the screenshot to go directly to the webpage in question, which you can then choose to email or share with friends or colleagues.
"We're pleased to be part of this experiment aimed at improving the reader's engagement with our journalism, by using technology to give readers a broader view of our content, delivering the important benefit of wider awareness of the 'news' - rather like flicking through a newspaper," says Will Lewis, the Telegraph Media Group digital managing director and editor-in-chief.
The Independent's Jimmy Leach, editorial director for the digital, said: "There's lots of talk about the future for online newspapers, and we're all feeling our way to different answers. There are no certainties, but having more readers can only be a good thing and we're happy to experiment with Google and Fast Flip as a way of drawing in more readers, making our brand more accessible to people and making the experience of reading our content a more enjoyable one. It'll be very interesting to see where it takes us."
The Daily Express' group internet controller Farzad Jamal, noted: "We're participating in Fast Flip because we want to explore as many ways as possible to make our content available both to our regular readers, as well as reaching new potential readers."
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Google Earth integrated into new Audis
Google's partnering with German car manufacturer Audi to include Google Earth and a number of other Google services in the new Audi A8.
Audi is the first car manufacturer to integrate Google Earth into its cars, with others sure to follow the German's lead.
The connected car
"Nowadays, it seems like everything is connected to the Internet: mobile phones, laptops, netbooks, portable game consoles, personal navigation devices," reads the latest post on the Google Lat Long blog.
"Google has worked with the automotive industry to bring services like Local Search into cars in the past - now we're teaming up with Audi to bring an entirely new type of technology into the car: Google Earth.
"We've worked closely with them to create a compelling in-car experience integrated with the Audi navigation system. You'll be able to enjoy 3D satellite imagery, terrain information and a wealth of additional geo information relevant to your current location: layers like Wikipedia to learn more about your surroundings or Panoramio images to get another view.
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iPhone use overtakes Windows Mobile in US
It seems that the Apple iPhone has overtaken Windows Mobile use in the US for the first time, according to the latest comScore figures.
comScore conducts monthly surveys in the US to measure the total number of smartphones currently in use, so it is about the most accurate metric you can get to show the state of the mobile marketplace at any given time.
WinMo worries
You can see comScore's latest data for the three-month period ending in October in the chart right here, which clearly shows iPhone use overtaking WinMo use.
Google's Android OS is also set for a boost early in 2010, what with the rumoured release of the new Google Nexus One phone for January in the US.
Let's hope Microsoft has some serious mobile magic up its sleeves when it finally rolls out Windows Mobile 7…
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Brits top in Europe at texting and TV-viewing
A new Ofcom report claims that the UK is one of the world's most advanced countries in terms of our digital communications.
The average Brit sends more texts and watches more TV than people in many other countries, although we are not entirely sure quite yet if this is something we should be proud of!
Broadband woes
Annoyingly, we also have notably slower broadband than most of the rest of Europe, according to Ofcom.
So while 88 per cent of UK households have a digital TV as their main set and Britain displays the highest average rise in TV viewing in Europe in 2008, up by 3.2% to 3.8 hours a day, we still have a paltry 10 per cent of households that can get broadband in excess of 8 megabits (Mbps) a second.
Thankfully, we still do not 'match' our American cousins when it comes to time spent in front of the gogglebox - the average TV viewing over there being 4.6 hours a day, up 1.8% from 2007.
A recent report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) placed the UK 21st out of 30 countries in terms of broadband speeds.
The UK government recently pledged that everybody in the country will be able to access broadband speeds of at least 2Mbps by 2012 and that 90 per cent of Brits should get 50Mbps broadband by 2017.
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Latest Dungeons & Dragons on Surface PC
Microsoft has been showing off the latest developments in a new version of the classic RPG Dungeons and Dragons for its touch-screen Surface PC.
While the game itself is not an 'official' D&D product, Microsoft is certainly keen to use it to show off the capabilities of Surface PC for gaming.
Microsoft notes over on the Surface Blog that:
"The SurfaceScapes team at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University gives us a very clear explanation of how this project works, from the networked Dungeon Master laptop that controls much of the experience to just how the more fleshed-out interface will work."
Touchscreen RPG future
The blog adds that "the SurfaceScapes guys have big plans for the project," which they show off a little in a demo video now hosted on the Microsoft site.
"Team member Michael Lewis offers the official Surface blog some expert insight into the creation of the D&D port, which budding developers and tabletop role-playing gamers with deep pockets will definitely want to read."
Like RPGs? Head over to the Microsoft Surface Blog to get excited about the future of collaborative role-playing games and check out the awesome gameplay video with D&D on Microsoft Surface.
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Wii doubles PS3 in total Japanese console sales
In terms of total console sales to date in Japan, the Nintendo Wii has topped 9 million, while the Sony PS3 has hit the 4 million mark to date.
Enterbrain's latest figures are the total sales to date up to December 13 2009. The Japanese gaming analysts also noted that the latest Nintendo hit, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, has sold an impressive 465,000 copies in its second week on Japanese gaming emporium shelves.
Clawing back market share
And while Sony has been clawing back some of the market share in Japan, almost matching Wii console sales in recent months, the overall sales of Wii to date are way more than twice that of PS3 in Japan.
Enterbrain notes that Nintendo has now sold 9,048,012 consoles since its December 2006 launch and over 56 million Wiis worldwide through to September this year (according to Nintendo's own estimates).
The Sony's PS3 has just nudged past the 4-million-unit mark in Japan and, up to September this year, Sony had sold around 27 million units worldwide.
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Rumour: Google Nexus One out Jan 5
The Google phone – codenamed 'Nexus One – might well be out earlier than expected, with latest reports pegging January 5 as a possible release date.
The Google phone is the company's answer to Apple's massively popular iPhone.
Reuters now reports that the device could well be on sale the first week of January, and also be sim-free, so buyers can decide who they wish to take a mobile contract or pay-as-you-go deal from.
US only at launch
However, don't get too excited yet. It is likely to only be available in the US at launch, with Google clearly planning to make a splash at next month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
FCC listings relating to the Google Nexus One note that the phone is made in Taiwan and supports quad-band GSM/Edge and UMTS/HSDPA networks and tri-band 850/1700/1900 networks and features Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and expandable storage through a microSD memory card.
It is also thought that the Google phone will run on Qualcomm's Snapdragon chip, rock an OLED touch-screen and be notably thinner than the Apple iPhone.
TechRadar has contacted Google for updates. Roll on CES 2010!
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Second-gen Nvidia Tegra 2 to debut early 2010
A second generation of Nvidia's Tegra System-on-Chip (SoC) silicon looks set to be launched at CES in January – and it could well be something to watch in 2010.
We've not seen a great deal of shipping devices featuring the earlier silicon so far - the Zune HD and the Samsung M1 to name just two. However, that appears to be set to change with the new generation.
Xbit Labs has posted some interesting quotes from Michael Hara, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications at Nvidia at the Barclays Technology Conference.
"At CES [products will be] shown by our partners using the next-generation Tegra device. You are going to see roll-outs and deployments of tablet PCs, smartbooks, netbooks, MIDs throughout the first half [of the year]; and then you will see major roll-outs of smartphones in the second half."
So we're going to see a wider variety of devices using the silicon. We could have guessed that, but the breath of form factors Hara talks about really pitches Tegra right up against Intel's Atom as well as Qualcomm's Snapdragon. And if Hara is right about the involvement from partners then it could well be Tegra 2 making a splash in 2010.
There are a few other tasty details, too. Xbit reports it will have a dual-core ARM processor, more powerful graphics and be manufactured using 40nm process technology.
Hara added that Nvidia hopes $100 million of revenue will come from Tegra by the end of its financial year 2011.
Via Xbit Labs
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Plan your Christmas trips with Twitter #uksnow
Twitter is a very handy tool at times, such as this week, when the Twitter #uksnow map is on hand to alert you to problem blizzards and snow drifts when you are heading to your loved ones for the Christmas holidays.
As we hazily remember the snow fun and games we had earlier this very year, plenty of us are already worrying about getting stuck in the snow as we head home next week for what our American cousins love to refer to as 'the holidays'.
In Britain, holidays are generally associated with sun, sea, sand, sangria, sex with strangers and lots of other fun words beginning with S. Christmas, however, is a time for family commitment, the uncomfortable annual issues that arise with long-term sibling rivalries, expensive presents for people you rarely see (or like) and oceans of booze to relieve the pain of existence.
We do things differently here.
Snow: fun or hazard?
Still, snow is fun. It means the kids might get some extra days off school if the heating packs up again. Or that you might get stuck for eight hours on the M62 somewhere near Carlisle. Again.
Ben Marsh's Twitter tracking map is really what you need to be checking out to make sure you avoid those travel nightmares again this year.
Just tweet your snow updates with hashtag #uksnow and the first half of your postcode and rate the snow out of 10.
BBC Weather has already released a worrying "Severe Weather Warning" for 18 December, so be sure to check the Twitter snow updates before you go anywhere on Friday or Saturday this week!
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Google Chrome more popular than Apple Safari
Google has been busy plastering London town with ads for its new Chrome browser in recent weeks, with the latest news – that Chrome is now more popular than Apple's Safari internet browser – seeming to prove that advertising does actually work.
NetApplications claims that Chrome has 4.4 per cent of the worldwide browser market, after Internet Explorer and Firefox, and that Apple's Safari fractionally only has a mere 4.37 per cent.
NetApplications put Google Chrome in the third-place spot after Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox for the week of December 6 through to the 12.
Betas for Mac and Linux
The news follows the release of new beta versions of Chrome for Mac and Linux lauching earlier this month – with stable versions of both arriving on January 12 2010 according to Google's Chromium development calendar.
Still to try out Google Chrome? Why not check out the Chrome for Christmas site and send invitations to all your friends and family to try it out too. A little early (and free) Christmas pressie from you to them!
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