Adobe criticises Apple iPad for lack of Flash
Adobe has spoken out about the Apple iPad, lambasting it for not putting Flash video compatibility on board.
There have been a few criticisms of Apple's device since launch, and although lack of Flash video was among them, the lack of support for it on the iPhone meant it wasn't a huge surprise.
Restrictive
However Adobe doesn't seem to have the same feeling, with group manager for Flash Adrian Ludwig putting his thoughts up on his blog:
"It looks like Apple is continuing to impose restrictions on their devices that limit both content publishers and consumers. Unlike many other ebook readers using the ePub file format, consumers will not be able to access ePub content with Apple's DRM technology on devices made by other manufacturers.
"And without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.
"If I want to use the iPad to connect to Disney, Hulu, Miniclip, Farmville, ESPN, Kongregate, or JibJab - not to mention the millions of other sites on the web - I'll be out of luck."
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GTA IV DLC for PS3 and PC confirmed
PS3 and PC fans rejoice, GTA IV's downloadable episodes have been plucked from the hands of Xbox 360 users and will be available on both games systems 30 March.
It's been a long (too long) wait for any sort of DLC to come out for the PlayStation 3 and PC.
Because of an exclusive agreement with Microsoft, only Xbox 360 users had access to the new episodes.
But now the exclusivity has been lifted and Episodes From Liberty City will be available both in download and disc form.
Long time coming
"It's been a long time coming, but we are proud to finally deliver Episodes From Liberty City for the PC and PlayStation 3," said Sam Houser of Rockstar.
"We appreciate the patience of our PlayStation 3 and PC fans worldwide, and we look forward to putting the games in your hands this March."
For those out of the loop, the two episodes which expand the GTA universe are: the Lost And The Damned (where you play an outlaw biker) and The Ballad of Gay Tony (where you explore Liberty City's high-end nightlife).
No pricing has been announced, but unless they cost a million pound each we'll be first in the queue to buy the episodes come 30 March.
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In Depth: Gaming in 2020: what the next decade holds
In what ways will computer and videogames change in the next 10 years? It is a question that tech-obsessed gamers often ask each other (often after a few pints on a Friday night), when we consider just how far we have come since the early days of the Spectrum and the C64 in the 1980s.
The last ten years have been gaming's golden decade. The next-gen consoles fulfilled their early promises. And then some. And we were treated to some truly classic gaming moments, as we recently documented in TechRadar's top 12 games of the noughties.
But the games industry is nothing if not forward-looking. It doesn't tend to do nostalgia. And with a flurry of new gaming technologies on the near-future horizon we want to know what the industry experts – the developers, the publishers, the hardware makers - think that gaming in 2020 is going to be like.
As such, we asked them to extrapolate from current developments across a range of emerging gaming tech including motion and voice control; MMOs and online gaming; 3D and new display technologies; cloud gaming and more. We wanted both wild speculation and measured opinion. And we got it.
2020: the generational tipping point
Rob Cooper, Managing Director of Ubisoft, thinks that we will have reached that all-important 'generational tipping point' by 2020, when "it's likely more people will have played games than have not," which in turn, "means that it will become much more part of the establishment like TV and film.
"This broadens the potential audience and makes it more culturally acceptable to be 'a gamer', particularly by key thought leaders in the mainstream media," the Ubisoft MD adds, also noting that games are beginning to pervade education and, "in the future, it's likely that kids and adults alike will learn about science, climate change and so on through game simulations to recreate or explain these scenarios."
On a more whimsical note, by 2020 (as one analyst joked) might Google, PopCap, Linden Labs and Blizzard join forces to produce the ultimate mirrorworld MMOG? "Which goes on to become a nation in itself, whose citizens are paid entirely in virtual currency, and remain a real-world economic force via their pivotal roles as part of the global information cloud, overseen by the Blizzgoocaplabs Corporation?"
Quite.
The so-called 'Natural User Interface' is definitely gaming's new Holy Grail, with Sony and Microsoft currently working hard on developing their own motion-control technologies to compete with (and better) the huge strides made by the Nintendo Wii in the last decade, in an attempt to appeal to an ever-widening audience of casual gamers.
"Perhaps the most crucial factor to a paradigm shift in new motion control schemes are whether all audiences accept it to ensure profitability," argues Ubisoft MD, Rob Cooper. "The game controller has been and is still the accepted input amongst core gaming audiences, so we need to ensure they accept these new forms of input, too. Microsoft has iterated on Nintendo's offering with Project Natal in introducing a paradigm shift, and Ubisoft is supporting Natal with over 10 products in development."
IN MOTION: Project Natal promises the next step in motion control
So it is something of a no-brainer to assume that hands-free motion gaming (in combination with new 3D technologies and the like) will be leveraged more and more in the coming decade. The real key, as ever, is whether or not the games that you play on them will work better than the traditional style games we currently play via our fingers and thumbs (or, via mouse and keyboard, in the case of PC gaming).
Screen Digest's gaming analyst Steve Bailey, agrees, telling TechRadar, "how far [motion control] progresses will, as always, come down to sufficiently innovative software rather than any wishful thinking on behalf of the industry itself (and that innovation will, increasingly crucially, be a function of design AND service, rather than simply the former)."
The Screen Digest man also thinks that, "we'll continue to see elements of gaming, especially the ideas of 'comfort food' mechanics, creeping into our lives, and arguably for the better, via what we currently see as wellness gaming and lifestyle management."
"Anyone who gripes about this being 'a bit like the Matrix' will seem as fusty and unwilling as any parent who ever failed to get to grips with a TV remote. Ten years ago, of course, the idea of us being able to publish and broadcast virtually every element of lives, via a real-time spree of multimedia content and ambient intimacy on increasingly flexible social networks, must've seemed like a bit of a queasy pipe dream to some."
Project Natal is currently the most interesting technology in this arena, not only because of the 'you become the controller' tagline, but more because of the fact that you don't even have to learn anymore how to use a controller.
"I have a couple of sons who are aged 14 and 11 now, and these days they've come to terms with the Xbox 360, but a couple of years ago when they were just that much younger, I would sometimes find them in tears as they struggled to learn how to get to grips with the controller in a new game," says Richard Huddy, Senior Manager of Developer Relations at AMD. "It is just really quite difficult to learn that. So everything that we can do to get rid of complexity in game control is a good thing."
AMD's Richard Huddy also thinks that Natal "and its derivatives afterwards" will go much further beyond facial recognition and motion recognition. So by 2020 you will be able to control things very finely indeed, even at a distance and, he claims, "you will be able to use finger configurations to indicate fine grain detail, in very much the same way that you can on a keyboard at the moment… I really don't think there is any reason to think that you should be able to type onto absolutely nothing."
The AMD man also likes to envisage playing sports games where players can start to give each other a secret code – very much in the same way that you do in a game of Rugby or American Football – "where you all huddle down and give each other a secret signal, holding up three fingers behind your back, or whatever… I'd like to see that kind of thing do-able in a videogame, so that if I am part of a team game then I can just signal in the same way that I do in the real game."
Frown and the game helps you
In addition to that, he hopes to see more games that understand that you are struggling at a certain puzzle or point in the action, purely from your facial expression.
"There is a recent Indiana Jones game that I have struggled with for hours to try to crack one puzzle," he candidly admits. "And I just cannot crack it! It's embarrassing to admit, because it is a LEGO game, but it would be fantastic if the computer can just see the frown on my face and realise that I just cannot move beyond this point in the game.
PUZZLING: LEGO Indiana Jones - a surprisingly difficult game!
So expression recognition will certainly be a big thing in 2020 – where the computer recognises different levels of frustration or elation and pushes you to do the right things to enjoy the game better.
"Very much in the same way that you and I can tell things about a person that we are communicating with, through facial expression, gaming systems ought to soon be able to do the same thing," thinks Huddy.
Plus, in addition to motion control, we will also see massive steps forward in the area of speech recognition and synthesis, technologies that are currently improving rapidly.
"I expect us having conversations with incredibly realistic NPC voices (while having no requirement for massive amounts of voice acting!) and intelligent understanding of what the player is saying," thinks games developer Simon Barratt, MD of Four Door Lemon.
Barratt also reminds us that motion control "is no longer something that occurs in just the living room, personal motion control devices which we carry permanently on our person will soon interact with all devices we want. "
Mind-controlled environments
Ultimately, the goal of any interface is to remove the barriers between human desire and controllable object, and some developers are already thinking in terms that are way beyond our current comprehension of motion-control and facial recognition.
One such developer is Creative Director at Adept Games, Daniel Boutros, who thinks that the future is not merely better, more responsive types of motion control but also mind control, with "[mind controlled] devices becoming easier to make, and the cost of goods to build such devices (currently only at a 'binary' on/off stage of functionality at the consumer level) coming down rapidly."
He notes that there are already a number of mind-controlled gaming patents that exist, "making it hard for innovators to go in full throttle without fear for more sophisticated devices in the more immediate term." Which means that we are probably at least another generation away before we will be able to control our games meaningfully with brain power alone.
"Depth of sophistication is tougher to build, at least at the consumer level of affordable manufacture, though it has existed within the military for some time," adds Boutros.
World of Warcraft set the standard for massively multiplayer online gaming in the last decade and new types of MMO gaming will definitely emerge over the coming decade, with our current understanding or definition of MMO itself already evolving to include Facebook apps, iPhone apps, and Alternate Reality Gaming.
"These new types could proliferate due to tech savvy, younger audiences that have grown up with consoles and the internet," thinks Ubisoft MD, Rob Cooper. "New technologies such as pervasive networking, when networks become seamless, could mean the same MMO could be played on several different platforms by the player throughout the day."
WOW: Warcraft set the MMO standard last decade, with virtual world's set to flourish by 2020
One obvious drawback about MMOs right now is that they have a fairly low standard when it comes to the quality of the graphical experience. But AMD's Richard Huddy is very confident that the graphical quality of these online worlds is going to improve rapidly, "particularly if you have MMOs supported by cloud-style streaming, where there is no longer any reason to rely on integrated graphics so long as you have a decent internet connection…and then I guess we can start to build bigger and bigger online worlds."
Following the runaway success of James Cameron's Avatar and the heavy focus on 3D TV tech at CES 2010, 3D gaming is gaining a lot of attention right now. But will it really take off or will we look back in ten years' time and identify it as yet another passing tech trend?
"2020 is a long way off and really hard to predict, especially given the new expected spike in 3D gaming interest we think will occur," says Chris Chinnock, President of specialist display research analysts Insight Media, who recently carried out an extensive survey into the predicted growth of 3D display tech in the next decade.
"However, I think it is safe to say that most games and all AAA games will be authored in 3D by 2020. That does not mean they will all be played in 3D, but the capability will exist to do that. By then, I also expect decent performance from auto-stereoscopic displays, which means no glasses. Head and eye tracking will also be widely used by games developers to improve the stereo effect."
Improved perception of the game world
3D in gaming is already starting to move beyond its previous incarnation as a bit of a gimmick and, if done well, is already starting to give gamers a slightly better sense of range. One thing that we don't do in computer games right now is to take into account the focal settings of the players' eyes – and put things in focus and out of focus accordingly. (Cut scenes excepted, when focus will be used to draw your attention from one thing to another). But in current games the whole scene is all rather oddly all in focus.
"I guess we need to do a better job there, taking into consideration the fact that we have a focal plane, which is set for our eyes in the same way that you set it for a camera, and start to take that into account," thinks AMD's Richard Huddy.
"If the game was a genuine war simulation, for example, where you are trying to train soldiers, then clearly you want them to be able to react in a realistic way – and allowing them to choose focal distance would make a real difference there."
Graphics tech such as Intel's Larrabee (even though it's now been canned), and AMD's Fusion, really do present major disruptive possibilities in the games market. "When we bring an integrated GPUCPU to market, if our GPU is not just the regular kind of GPU that we build at the moment – do we then create an opportunity for games to start to look quite different, in an interesting way?" asks Huddy.
Indeed, the possibilities that newer chips open up to games developers to make use of things like 'radiosity' and 'ray tracing' solutions means that you might soon see very different looking games with "an almost infinitely more malleable environment, for example, because it will be rendered much easier and much quicker."
One company that has a strong interest in this area is the (previously Philips' owned) 'ambient' gaming specialists at amBX. That company's new CEO Neil Macdonald is one person who can certainly foresee a gaming world in ten years' time where the game experience has broken out of the confines of the screen/console/controller device paradigm and into the real 3D world of the gamer.
"Combining 3D video, HD projection and sensory ambient effects, such as those provided by amBX,as well as 'natural human interfaces', without hardware controllers, will create a 360 degree natural immersive experience in the room," Macdonald tells TechRadar.
"In fact the experience can be extended to other rooms which are part of the gameplay, thereby possibly turning the whole house into the game-zone. You will really feel as if you are inside the game – because you will be – and that is exactly what we know gamers are striving for."
IMMERSIVE: amBX man predicts ambient lighting and sound will augment gaming
And if all of that sounds like a little bit too much effort (after all, gamers are overly fond of their couches) then the amBX man adds that "your avatar can do that all for you, or engage in someone else's game-zone – basically, the game content and play can be mapped into the physical environment of the gamer and others can join in too so a player could 'host' a game which will open up new dimensions in classic gaming as well as social and network gaming."
And as our games develop to employ more human senses, we will be able to fight or outwit our opponents, even when we cannot see them, because we will start to sense their "actions and characteristics represented by nuances in the 3D environment with light, sound and motion."
Such technologies and new capabilities will also no doubt open up entirely new ways of designing group and family-based games, thinks Macdonald. "Public game-zone worlds can be opened up using the same technique, so there is a physical coming together in the gaming experience.
Sci-fi augmented reality contact lenses
Going beyond the current Hollywood 3D standard, there are already various forms of 'sci-fi' display tech that exist, such as 3D holographic projectors and augmented displays for and on contact lenses in development.
"Though that may be a bitter pill for the masses to swallow," laughs games developer Daniel Boutros, after considering their potential for gaming applications. "Glasses are a hard enough sell!"
"There'll always be a need to sit on a sofa and twiddle thumbs over having to run for real, through a holographically projected street while getting shot onto fake pavements, bleeding imagined streams of blood and feeling every bit of it, as exciting as that seems."
What is looking very likely indeed is the fact that by 2020 we should be able to render a convincing reality. In real time. Not necessarily every reality, but a good many. Which in turn then raises the thorny question: "What of the moral implications of rendering reality convincingly?" If you have an exact replica of yourself or your friends rendered into a game, could you not argue that you could have your throat cut or blow your mates' heads off in what will seem a rather alarming degree of realistic detail in your games.
"Well, you get that imitation of reality in movies at the moment and we let that go," says AMD's Richard Huddy. "It would be okay to watch a movie where someone's throat was cut. We have 18-certificates and we try to control where that shows up in people's lives.
"But by the time somebody is an adult, we let them make their own choices. As a general rule. As an example, I saw one of the recent Hostel movies and after fifty minutes or so I just walked out. It was too realistic. And I just don't want to see things like that. But to me that's my choice. I certainly don't want to stop it being on. I don't want to censor it.
"I most certainly would not say that I am unwilling to work towards achieving completely convincing avatars in games that look exactly like me, or that type of thing. I think that is an okay piece of tech. And it doesn't have to be misused."
Moral quandaries aside, AMD's Richard Huddy is 100 per cent convinced that "2020 is the point where we will be able to fully render reality in a realistic way and we will have the majority of scenarios that we experience in this world rendered convincingly.
"So I will be able to take you out onto a desert, for example, which is a nice easy thing, or I'll be able to put you in a far more complex environment such as a busy shopping mall with hundreds of people bustling around you. Or I'll put you in a historical battle scene from 1000 AD and render all of that completely convincingly."
Right now such scenarios are difficult to picture, because the vast majority of us are playing our games on relatively small, low-resolution TVs and monitors.
But, as the AMD man puts it: "The more I can see, the more I can do. That is the nub of it. I love being able to see lots of stuff. And when it comes to controlling information, clearly having a second or third display is a good thing. But what I really want to do, at times, is to fill my whole field of view with computer rendered stuff.
"Whether that be a desktop environment to make me more productive at work, or whether that be inside a gaming environment, in which my peripheral vision really is being used in the same way that I use it in the real world – to locate stuff, and to be able to react accordingly," says Huddy.
MORE TO SEE: AMD's multi-screen EyeFinity tech points us in the direction of where displays are going
"We've done some interesting stuff already with EyeFinity – and we've taken that tech to LAN parties to see how professional, highly competitive gamers coped with and without their peripheral vision in the game," Huddy continues.
"And the results were completely consistent, the more you can see the better you can do. If the game is working hard to give you that extra information then you are simply better off."
Huddy offers the example of playing a racing game, in which your field of view is horizontally-bound – ie you are not really interested in looking up and down – which "is the epitome of that kind of experience, where three or even five monitors will continue to bring you benefits and when you can clearly see if and when there is a car on your right hand side jostling to get past you."
Seeing more stuff = better games
Put simply, gaming is just better if you can see more stuff. And AMD's recent three and six monitor support "is really our first steps towards this, we most certainly want to get to the stage where it is rather more like the 'holodeck' where everything around you that you can imagine is displayed, and also that the display is updated so quickly that you are not aware of it updating itself.
Right now, the human eye has a better resolving power than the screens we are using. "So at AMD we would certainly like to be able to cope with that and the field of view that I tend to fill with my monitor should take around 25 megapixels, ideally – because at that point we are at the resolution of the human eye. And if we extend that outwards to include the rest of our vision, including the peripheral vision and so on, then we would probably need something like 100 megapixels to give a really convincing view. So we would need a lot of computing horsepower in order to achieve that job!"
But this is the 'tipping point' and the stage at which things "will be more convincing and we will no longer have to worry about fiddling with the detail – anti-aliasing and so on – because everything will look just right."
And the most exciting thing is the fact that this is not 'all' far off future tech dreaming, because AMD has been showing off some beautiful graphics tech experimentation recently using its new DX11 hardware where they have been doing 'global illumination' in real time in relatively simple scenes in games. (Global illumination, for those that aren't aware of it, is what Shrek 2 was rendered in, compared with Shrek 1 which was rendered with more traditional 'rasterization' and 'ray tracing' techniques). And Huddy also admits that AMD is also currently talking to a games company who is looking at putting that tech into a game that may even ship later in 2010.
The recent moves towards 'cloud gaming' with the recent emergence of server-side gaming from the likes of OnLive and Gaikai has led many in the console business to predict the end of the console, as we know it.
Are we perhaps getting a little too ahead of ourselves? Surely the current console giants - Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft - will all be around for some time yet. But it does increasingly look likely to be the case that we will never see a 'brand new' PlayStation 3, Xbox 720 or Wii 2 - and instead start to see incremental improvements to the current (familiarly branded) forms of tech on an annual basis.
"This is where the power of the brand - "XBOX", "PLAYSTATION" and so on - becomes important as consumer purchase is based on brand affinity, game offering and the integration of additional services, such as Sky Player, iPlayer, Facebook, Twitter etc.," says Ubisoft MD Rob Cooper.
Additionally, might we perhaps see a new entrant into the market soon? "We could see a new "all-powerful" device," says Cooper – think a supercharged PSP or iPad - "allowing you to play effectively the same game on the move or plug into your 52" 3D TV. Permanently connected - and permanently backed up in case a hoodie mugs you for it?"
NEXT BIG THING: Might Apple's new iPad be the next disruptive tech in gaming?
And, if this should become the case, might we also see a new player emerge in the market soon? An Apple or Sky or someone else to take on the might of the Sony-Microsoft-Nintendo triumvirate?
Analyst Nick Gibson, from Games Investor Consulting, is not so sure, telling TechRadar: "Many will be predicting the death of the games console by 2020 so I will play the contrarian and predict that consoles will still be sold and an important part of the games market in the year 2020.
"The console manufacturers show no material signs of moving beyond the concept of proprietary hardware formats even if future platforms are simply scaled up versions of existing technologies and software is delivered digitally rather than via physical media. Stable technology platforms and predictable, long-term user base growth are and will remain crucial for developers and publishers' business models.
"Following Sony's successful lead with PS1 and PS2 sales, all of the manufacturers are looking to extend their console lifecycles beyond the standard five-year shelf lives and we expect all three to release new consoles in the next two to four years. As such, it is likely that some of these consoles will still be around in 2020. If they haven't been superseded by a subsequent console generation that is..."
Keeping the consoles
Steve Bailey, games analyst over at Screen Digest is largely in agreement with this vision of the future of consoles, adding that the current crop of console tech may be the first generation of gaming hardware whose lifespan could, arguably, be extended almost into the next decade, "thanks to the fluidity of firmware, the sophistication of middleware and increasing uptake of online services... and perhaps necessarily so.
"Survival of home consoles may no longer be a case of producing a sufficiently featured next-generation of hardware, more in being able to evolve current machines in order to blend them ever more closely with the emerging trends of online gaming.
"If nothing else, this could bring about a 'golden age' for gaming, where the ballooning budgets and asset-generation marathons begin to stabilise, allowing ideas to flourish, hopefully dragging walls down rather than building them higher."
Finally, and following on from that hugely positive note, many others in the games business agree that, in the current churn of technology we are in the midst of right now that there are huge opportunities for other people coming into the gaming business and upsetting the current dominant players.
Apple as a major games player?
"This situation certainly opens up opportunities for other companies to come along and join in," argues AMD's Richard Huddy. "And Apple has shown, with very clever use of technology, how it is possible to upset gaming environments. They haven't pushed Nintendo out of the way because the DS and DSi are still far more significant than the iPhone in the mobile gaming market, but they have certainly got a good foothold in there.
"Apple used to half-heartedly support gaming on its PCs, but to go into this style of gaming has been quite fun for them. And, I guess, pretty profitable as well. So yes, there are more than enough opportunities."
Game developer Bruce McNeish, CTO of Cohort Studios in Dundee also wonders if Apple might look at combining its App Store and Apple TV setup to develop a home console.
"If there is any company that has the finances to back an entry into the home gaming market it is certainly Apple. The iPhone has been a phenomenal success, has allowed Apple the time to develop its App Store, and has also given a large number of developers experience of developing for their platform using the now mature SDK.
"This platform could easily be used as the basis of a home-based console, so I would be more surprised if they did NOT develop some kind of overt home gaming hardware in the next decade."
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Samsung becomes the world's biggest technology company
Samsung has becomes the world's biggest technology company, after 2009 sales of its devices hit $117.8 billion.
HP, who was formally number one in the technology sector, managed an impressive but not good enough $114.6 billion for the year, some three billion less than Samsung.
A major drive in the TV market, camera market and memory chips have shot Samsung up the technology charts. It was obvious by its massive presence at CES 2010 that the company was destined to reach the top spot at some point this year.
Gap in profits
The only sector where Samsung seems to have dropped the ball money-wise is in the mobile phone market.
Although its releasing a multitude of phones on to the market, Jae Lee, of Daiwa Securities, feels this is a place the company could strengthen, telling CNN: "Compare it with Apple. There is still a gap in profit margins of their phone businesses."
Saying that, we're sure there'll be a few champagne corks popping in the company headquarters tonight.
Just don't aim any of the corks at the 9000 LED 3D TV series, as we want one and we want one now.
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Boy arrested for texting naked pics of 13 year old
A 14-year-old boy in the US has been arrested for sending naked pics of his ex-girlfriend to friends.
The boy and two of his friends have been arrested by police in Washington after they were discovered as the source of the mass text.
The 13-year-old girl's image was forwarded to multiple pupils in three separate schools, and the boy has since been arrested.
Facing charges
He could be convicted on child pornography charges, despite being only 14 years old himself, which would lead to a one-month jail sentence.
It's as yet unclear whether the boy will be charged with the offence, but he has been since released to his parents as he awaits confirmation from the authorities.
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HTC HD2 secretly more powerful than advertised
The HTC HD2 - subject of odd stocking deals in the UK - might be more powerful than the manufacturer is letting on.
The HD2, which has been available in the UK for a number of months, has been released with an upgraded amount of RAM (576MB rather than 448MB) in the US, but it now appears that extra functionality is also present in other versions as well.
According to XDA-developers blog, there appears to be more available to use. After a Chinese user posted a screen shot of the HD2 with a lot more RAM running, hackers have been trying to test the limits of the system.
Pushing the boundaries
One of them has managed to get the system to run 444MB using another custom ROM to unlock the system, which is far more than the original-spec of the HTC HD2 could manage.
If this is all gibberish to you, then basically it means HTC is hiding the extra power with the HD2 for some reason - a future upgrade would make the most sense, and many are tipping that for Windows Mobile 7, although we still think that's a while away.
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Samsung's Android Galaxy 2 pictured already?
The Samsung Galaxy 2, the latest in the company's Android line, may have appeared in pictures.
The new phone, which was spotted by Androphones.com, will apparently have a large OLED display (between 3.7 and 4 inches) and the chip-du-jour, Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon.
Spec attack
Other fun rumblings about the phone include a 5MP camera (although that's the same as the original Galaxy from Samsung) and Android 2.1 on board, with the usual Wi-Fi and GPS gubbins we've come to expect with Android phones.
The pictures supplied look a little bit rendered, especially with those touch sensitive buttons looking eerily similar to those seen on the Motorola Milestone.
However, it's supposed to be unveiled at Mobile World Congress, so we'll only have to wait a couple of weeks to find out whether this is fact or fiction.
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In Depth: 10 features Apple should include in Mac OS X 10.7
Mac websites exploded in a frenzy of excitement recently when it became clear development machines running Mac OS X 10.7 were online.
The thing is, you'd have been crazy to think that Apple was somehow done with its desktop operating system after Snow Leopard.
In fact, if Apple's track record's anything to go by, a road-map will be announced in the not-too-distant future, and we'll perhaps see a preview at WWDC, with a release date in early 2011.
But the fact that Apple's working on Mac OS X 10.7 - codenamed Lion, Ocelot, Lynx, or, er, Lolcat, depending on which rumour you subscribe to - isn't interesting in itself. What we'd love to know is what new features it'll bring to the party.
We've listed what we'd like to see below; post a comment if we've missed something from your wish list.
1. A unified interface
Since Apple started mucking about with brushed metal in 1999, the Mac interface has lost the elegance and consistency it had in its early years. Apple should unify the interface, perhaps drawing on recent iterations of iLife, along with Quick Look and Dock stacks. And if the revised interface is sluggish, this merely leaves the door open for Mac OS X 10.8 - "Cape Lion" - to increase snappiness, the cape referring to the operating system's superhero-like qualities.
2. System-wide tagging and smart collections
From online services to mobile devices, it's clear the hierarchical file/folder system is on borrowed time. Apple realised this when it introduced Spotlight, and yet system-wide tagging doesn't seem to be on the company's radar. Along with adding such a feature to Mac OS X 10.7, we'd like to see smart collections extended to other apps, such as smart bookmarks for Safari.
3. Superior Spotlight
Spotlight is a great technology with a poor interface. We hope Mac OS X 10.7 improves Spotlight's usability significantly, perhaps taking a few tips from LaunchBar. At the very least, Spotlight's menu should support Quick Look, and although Apple rarely looks back, it'd do well to revisit the excellent Spotlight sorting window from Tiger.
TAKE A TIP: LaunchBar is what Spotlight could be, if it wasn't a little bit rubbish
4. Better Stacks
Stacks evolved in Snow Leopard but still fall short of the original rumoured concept: an arbitrary but easy to access 'pile' of user-defined documents. A workaround would be to make smart folders accessible in a stack - currently, clicking one in the dock opens it in Finder. Stacks should also support Quick Look.
5. More multitouch
Although an industry-wide transition to multitouch is underway, it's going to be a while before it's the default system for interaction; no-one wants to spend their time with an arm outstretched, swiping at a vertical iMac screen. However, Mac OS X 10.7 will likely integrate more concepts from iPhone, enabling laptop and tablet users to benefit from system-wide gestures and actions that developers can utilise with ease.
6. Configurable Spaces
Spaces are quite powerful but configuration options are basic and limited. Advanced options should ape Hyperspaces, enabling you to name and define an individual background for each space. And while we can't see Apple doing this, space-specific Docks would be great.
7. Cloud services
Apple's web services are stale, but perhaps Mac OS X 10.7 will improve things. We hope a user-friendly and robust built-in cloud back-up and sync system will be integrated and that more Apple apps will integrate with cloud services. We don't, however, want to see the operating system called Cloud Leopard, because that's a rubbish name.
8. Finder tabs and enhancements
Finder is now a Cocoa app, but it still needs a kick up the bottom. We'd like to see broken FTP support fixed, optional window tabs (see TotalFinder for an indie's crack at this), per-folder show/hide settings for hidden files, cut/move, window snapping, and better labels that offer user-definable colours.
FIX THE FINDER: We'd like to see Finder tabs in Mac OS X 10.7, as per TotalFinder
9. Embrace third-party services
Some Apple apps now deign to notice non-Apple services - iPhoto can upload to Flickr, and iChat grudgingly works with Jabber. Apple should take this further - iChat should become a truly multi-service IM client, Address Book should integrate with Skype, and Mail should integrate with social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
10. A Mac app store
This might be a controversial choice, but it could be a smart one. The iPhone/App Store ecosystem has shown that making apps affordable and accessible, easy to install and simple to update, benefits developers and Apple alike. A Mac app store shouldn't be the only way to get apps into Mac OS X 10.7, but we'll be astonished if it isn't announced as an option within the next year.
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BPI criticises mass mailout to file sharers
The BPI has come out and criticised a law firm for its mass mailout of letters to alleged illegal file-sharers, citing that this is not the "favoured approach".
This week it was found by Which? magazine that law firm ACS:Law has been mailing out letters to some people who have no claimed they have no idea they are partaking in illegal file-sharing.
Matt Bath, Technology Editor at Which?, said: "Innocent consumers are being threatened with legal action for copyright infringements they not only haven't committed, but wouldn't know how to commit."
Most persistent
The BPI isn't happy with the letters and has said about the situation: "We don't favour the approach taken by ACS:Law to tackle illegal file-sharing.
"Our view is that legal action is best reserved for the most persistent or serious offenders - rather than widely used as a first response."
ACS:Law offers those it has sent letters to an out-of-court settlement fee of آ£500, but speaking to the BBC, Andrew Crossley from the firm said: "It has been said that we have no intention of going to court but we have no fear of it."
The law surrounding just what action to take on illegal file-sharers is somewhat cloudy at the moment.
Not until the government's Digital Economy Bill actually goes through parliament, will we know just how to treat file-sharing in the UK.
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Motorola behind Google's Nexus Two phone?
Motorola could be in line to bring out the Nexus Two, after its CEO confirmed that it will be bringing a phone to the Google store.
Sanjay Jha confirmed that the company is working on bringing 20 smartphones in 2010, and also that one will be "one direct to consumer device with Google."
Google itself hinted at such a possibility at the launch of the Nexus One (which is designed by HTC) but this is the first time we've got confirmation of another player in the Nexus game.
Project Shadow
There have been (spurious) rumours that Motorola is working on a project, codenamed Shadow, which could turn into the Nexus Two - but given Motorola's penchant for a QWERTY keyboard, you'd have to assume it's possible that the company could be behind a more business-focused handset.
The phone will likely be unveiled in the first half this year, as Google looks to cement the new business model it's crafted in creating its own phone store.
Motorola recently posted a small profit for Q4 this year, which shows that the company previously considered to be on its last legs might still stage a miraculous turnaround yet.
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Exclusive: Strongest hint yet: Chrome OS to go touch
Google has given the strongest hint yet that there will be touch options for Chrome OS.
During a talk attended by TechRadar at Google's London HQ, Anders Sandholm, Senior Product Manager of Search based in Aarhus, Denmark, was clearly at a loss as to how to answer a direct question about touch without giving something away.
When asked the question, Sandholm looked to a PR helper, chuckled nervously and said "I can't... I mean... right now we are targeting netbooks, that's what we're focused on, but I expect it to work well... we expect it to target everything up to desktop computers.
"Chrome OS will be built for a specific hardware setup."
Rumours have abounded, some saying that HTC is already testing a Chrome OS tablet, others saying that an official "Google netbook" will have a 10.1-inch multi-touch screen.
This is a change in tone from two months ago when Sandholm told TechRadar, "I'm sure that something is being discussed [about touch input], but I'm not exactly sure what the outcome is going to be,"
And as for the variety of devices that will be available with Chrome OS from launch, Sandholm said "That's still being discussed with our OEM partners. For sure the first devices will be netbook-based."
Chris Dibona, Head of Open Source at Google said Google was definitely working with Asus, Acer, HP "and maybe MSI" when quizzed about the companies Google was working with.
Rumours of touch-based Chrome OS devices hitting the market have been common, but nothing has been confirmed by Google, evidently keen not to appear to be getting ahead of itself.
"A perfect storm"
Sandholm added that Chrome OS was emerging in a time that represents "a perfect storm of converging trends" caused by a need for cheaper machines, the rise and rise of netbooks and the amount of data now stored in the cloud.
"Now most work is done in the browser," added Sandholm. "Rather than just building a browser, we thought why not try to recreate the operating system itself? In many ways it's something completely different [from the Chrome browser] but it's the same in that were going for speed, efficiency and security."
Sandholm wasn't convincing when asked how Chrome OS responds to not being connected to the internet – does it work? Surprisingly, he said that "the simple answer is that it doesn't" when HTML 5 is specifically designed to perform many of the offline functions that Google Gears has done – such as offline email browsing in Gmail.
"We hope people will get excited about it and improve it and find mistakes and tell us about [them]," added Sandholm. "We are also hoping to push hardware vendors to have more open source drivers."
TechRadar also spoke at length to Chris Dibona about all things Android, Chrome OS, Wave and more - we'll publish a full interview with him next week, so keep checking back for your next Chrome OS fix.
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Weird Tech: Kirstie Allsopp in 'Greggs' Twitter rage
Lovely Kirstie Allsopp, the property expert and shoe fetishist's favourite TV celebrity, caused a minor ripple of resentment on Twitter this week - thanks to complaining about her lunch budget.
Moaning that her Channel 4 daily food expenses allowance has "gone from آ£15 to آ£10 to آ£6!" leaving her "Away from home, freezing & now starving", Kirstie was quickly lambasted by her loyal fans. Loyal fans not fortunate enough to (a) be a rich telly star or (b) have a lunch allowance at all.
SHUT UP AND COME HERE: Let me feed you a sausage roll from my hand
Poor Kirstie then suffered more aggro, after turning down polite suggestions that she investigate the more affordable Boots "meal deal" range and disrespecting common-man food provider Gregs (she's so posh she doesn't even know how to spell Greggs). Poor Kirstie just wants to sit down on a nice chair and eat a proper lunch like a lady, not munch a sandwich at a bus stop like... one of us lot.
Piezoelectric Ribbons Printed onto Rubber for Flexible Energy Conversion
That headline is a fancy way of saying some scientist has proposed a unique energy-generation system, powered by flexing and moving material.
The end result of science wording such as "ceramic nanoribbons" and "lead zirconate titanate" is simple: a bendy rubber substance that creates an electric charge every time it's flexed, like having a miniature turbine in the soles of your shoes or built into the lining of your duvet.
iCHARGE: Power the second-gen iPad by repeatedly slapping it into your privates
Physorg reports that well-meaning doctors could eventually place the bizarre energetic fabric inside our bodies, using the motion of our lungs to power the pacemakers that will be required to keep our flabby sedentary bodies alive in the future.
This time next year, Rodders, we'll be Mobiado Classic 712ZAF owners
Today's Thought for the Day is as follows - why are 'prestige' mobile phones always so pig-ugly? This thing, announced this week by Mobiado, perfectly complements last year's horrendous gold edition by looking equally bloated. It is a phone that looks like a jewel-covered fat man in a Lamborghini, made for a jewel-covered fat man in a Lamborghini.
ENTRY LEVEL: But we would still like to receive a couple of review samples, please, Mobiado
The Mobiado Classic 712ZAF may well drip with sapphires and jewels designed to help its owner appeal to gold-diggers in yacht clubs around the globe, but its measly 2.2" QVGA display won't impress the sort of ladies we hang around with. The ladies we hang around with demand we have Android 2.0.1 or later before any kissing happens.
The Great Adult Safe Search Restriction of China
The free-thinking and radical Chinese authorities could soon introduce legislation to stop children under 12 using mobile phones so much, as part of the country's attempt to wean the Chinese nation as a whole off internet pornography. That is, if Professor Yang Weiping of Shaanxi Normal University gets his very non-wicked way.
RUDE TUBES: Poor Chinese porn addicts. It must be like living in the UK in the 1980s
Here's what the prof had to say about mobile phone porn: "The spread of pornographic and lewd content on mobile WAP sites is like malignant tumors invading and hiding in the information network" - which sound like the words of an angry man who's found his head crudely Photoshopped onto some extremely rude internet photography. And if he hasn't, he soon will.
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Canon EF lens production hits 50 million mark
Canon today announced that its 50-millionth Canon EF lens has rolled off the production line, marking a historic moment for what is known as one of the most highly-regarded lenses on the camera market.
It's taken Canon just 23 years to produce 50 million lenses, with the first coming in 1987. Called the Ultrasonic Motor – EF 300mm f/2.8L USM, it was an essential bit of kit for sports and wildlife photographers.
World firsts
Since then, we've had the world's first interchangeable lens in 1995 (the EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM), the EF 400mm f/4 DO IS USM in 2001 which brought in multi layered diffractive optics elements and, in 2009, the world's first lens with Hybrid IS – EF 100mm f2.8L Macro IS USM – for those who like their close-ups.
With over 60 lens varieties available now and the probable push into small-form DSLRs for Canon and co, it will be interesting to see what the company brings out in the next 23 years.
We're hoping holo-lenses and a nice smattering of 3D-ready kit. And the ability to see through walls.
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Hands on: Apple iPad review
Apple provided us with hands-on time with its new iPad after Wednesday's big announcement, letting dozens of greasy-fingered journalists poke, swipe, and drool over the svelte hardware and the first-party built-in applications.
And while some of the software was a tad underwhelming in its prerelease state, playing with the iPad quickly revealed its potential for greatness. We simply can't wait to see what developers make for this thing.
Picking up an iPad for the first time, you immediately notice its thin, light body, weighing in at just 0.68kg and only half an inch thick.
KEY PRESS: Testing the software keyboard, with the same hold-a-key contextual options as the iPhone's
The aluminum backing has a graceful curve, and the smooth glass screen with its attractive black border just begs to be touched.
The iPad is well-balanced enough to hold in one hand like a tray of drinks while using the other hand to navigate, or to grip with both hands while you drive the UI with your thumbs, or even to balance on your knees while poking at it with both index fingers.
We never felt like we were going to drop it, or that our hands were too small.
IPAD PROFILES: Apple's reps wouldn't or couldn't explain how Profiles work, but we're intrigued
The 9.7-inch screen is brightly illuminated by LED backlighting, and the IPS technology kept the images viewable from wide angles without appearing to fade.
Everyone who's ever used an iPhone with the brightness cranked up to navigate a dark room during a power outage will be glad to know the iPad gets even brighter.
OILY FINGERS? Multi-touch controls really shine in the Photos app. Unfortunately, so do fingerprints
Despite the same oleophobic coating found on the iPhone 3GS, the iPad's screen did pick up fingerprints like mad.
In fact, a friendly Apple gadget handler had to keep wiping it clean for us, smiling politely at our jokes about how the tech press is at least 30 percent more oily than the average citizen.
The units we saw had only Wi-Fi (802.11n) and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR for connectivity, since the 3G-equipped models won't be available at launch. Web pages loaded quickly and looked fabulous.
Imagine the ease and fun of navigating websites on the multitouch iPhone or iPod touch, but with none of the frustrations of those devices' small screen sizes. You can see the whole page at once - and actually read it - and then still zoom down to an area of interest with just one tap or pinch.
You'll quickly stop caring that your favourite site doesn't have an iPhone-optimized version, because on the iPad, full-size sites just work. Of course, running an iPhone OS means the iPad doesn't have Flash, so sites that rely on Flash-based navigation interfaces, or feature Flash videos or games, are still useless here.
iPad Maps
The Maps application also benefits greatly from the increased screen real estate, with Google Street View showing half a city block comfortably (no squinting on our part).
Location Services triangulates your position based on proximity to Wi-Fi hotspots, plus uses the digital compass - only the upcoming 3G models will feature assisted GPS and cell-tower triangulation as well.
Still, it found our location in downtown San Francisco in about a second, and the compass helped the Star Walk application ($2.99 in the App Store) instantly reorientate its view of the night sky based on which way we turned.
iPad speaker and buttons
It was impossible to hear the built-in speaker in such a loud room, but a tiny speaker does reside on the bottom-right, near the 30-pin dock connector.
A Sleep/wake button, mute switch, volume rocker are all that resides on the slim slides of the device, with only the black Home button gracing the front, blending in to near-visibility, especially since the iPad works in any orientation.
PICTURE THIS: Apple's iPad Dock has a 30-pin connector for charging and syncing, plus can automatically run a photo slideshow, acting like the best-looking digital photo frame you've ever seen
We ran into some problems with the first-party software, although Apple still has ample time to fix them before shipping. (These were demo units, not review units, it's important to keep in mind.)
iPad keyboard
We spent some time with the software keyboard, for example, and found it easier to use than the iPhone's, thanks to the larger keys and more space between them, although it's still virtually impossible to type without looking because of the lack of tactile feedback.
Switching keyboard layouts for other languages is a snap, but after we'd fiddled with that setting and then flipped back to English, the software keyboard got a little buggy, often not rendering the whole way when we held the iPad in landscape orientation.
BIG UP: The software keyboard is easier to type on than the iPhone's thanks to the added space
Also, the well-designed Mail client lacked a Media Browser for adding images to new messages, although we could copy and paste images from the Web, the Photos app, and other emails into new messages. The icons on one home screen stopped responding temporarily, fixed by cycling the power.
But all in all, Apple did a fabulous job of designing UI for all the iPad's default apps - their many contextual menus providing all the control you need without cluttering up the screen with unnecessary buttons and sliders.
IPAD MAIL: Apple's redesigned Mail app works beautifully in either orientation
iPad apps
The demo iPads were loaded with unmodified iPhone apps, so we could test the experience of blowing up an iPhone-sized app interface to fit the iPad's screen, with a tap of the 2x button.
This works by simply doubling the pixel size, without any additional smoothing or scaling. In a text-heavy app like Facebook, the pixellation was noticeable and detracted from the ease of reading.
IPAD APPS: Unmodified iPhone apps can run full-screen on the iPad, with larger-than-normal pixels
But in fast-moving games like Super Monkey Ball and Need for Speed, we didn't notice as much, and the tradeoff between tiny pixels and bigger ones was totally worth it for the more immersive experience of playing on a big screen. We can't wait to see what game developers can do, programming for the big screen.
The bottom line is that the iPad has tons of potential to be a huge hit for Apple, as well loved by its users as the iPod touch and iPhone.
It'd be hard to have an iPad as your sole computer, since you need to sync it with iTunes on a traditional Mac or PC - or you're OK with getting all of your content via the App Store, iTunes Store, and iBookstore (which wasn't running on the demos yet).
AT HOME: Each Home screen can hold 20 app icons plus the ever-present bottom four
Still, the hardware is solid, the touchscreen works beautifully, and the potential for innovative software is through the roof. Once you pick one up, it's hard to put down.
Just ask the patient Apple employees who gently repeated, "We're getting ready to close it down," over and over until we finally left the demo room.
IPAD SYNCING: An intriguing File Sharing screen in the Settings app hints at over-the-air syncing to come
All photos by Paul Curthoys at MacLife.com
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Exclusive: The Guardian: Apple iPad 'won't change newspaper publishing'
The Apple iPad launch (read our Hands on: iPad review) in San Francisco this week was watched with nervous anticipation by the whole of the publishing world, hoping the Jobs and co had created something which could give the industry a much-needed shot in the arm.
To get a UK perspective of what the iPad - and tablets in general - mean to the UK publishing sector, TechRadar spoke to Janine Gibson, Editor of guardian.co.uk about the device and asked her what she really thought about Apple's tablet and, if any, what plans the Guardian had regarding the device.
TechRadar: What are the Guardian's first impressions of the Apple iPad?
Janine Gibson: I think, like everybody, that it doesn't live up to the massive expectations. We expected something more multi-functional from them, as that is what we have come to expect from Apple since the iPhone.
There had been a lot of discussion about what it could potentially do, so everybody was quite surprised by what is a relatively simple device.
TR: Is the device a game-changer for the newspaper industry?
JG: Personally, I'm a bit sceptical that any one device at this point could be a game-changer.
But the thing Apple has done is set the direction of travel and set the expectations for the tablet market, rather than [the iPad] being the answer to life, the universe and everything.
It is not going to transform newspaper or magazine publishing in itself, but what it will do is set about the idea of tablets to consumers.
TR: Will we see an iPad version of the Guardian?
JG: We're not overly locked in on being first on anything, we'd rather be best. So, for instance, our iPhone app we took our time with and made sure it was absolutely the best in class and worth the money. And that is a strategy that has really paid off for us.
The strategy for the tablets so far, and obviously it is early days, is that we create something which is the best thing possible.
The Guardian wants to be everywhere, on all devices, but we do need to figure out how this is going to make a better experience for our readers before we commit to anything.
We have the iPhone app and that is a fantastic start for us. We wanted that app to be a complete leap forward and that is what we would want to do with the Guardian on a tablet.
TR: Why do you think there's not a huge amount of commercial partners signed up to add content to the iPad?
JG: Not a lot of people would turn down the opportunity to work with Apple, but there was a lack of content partners announced as I expect Steve Jobs is trying to lower expectations.
There's no point tapping up international content providers until you are closer to releasing the tablet in those sectors.
The Guardian has a fairly big international presence online – two thirds of our audience is outside of the UK at the moment, but the device isn't shipping anywhere just yet so we haven't committed to anything.
Saying that, you don't ignore anything that Apple do.
TR: What kind of newspaper content would we see on the iPad?
JG: It seems to me that a device of that size which is more portable and going to rely on Wi-Fi and 3G wouldn't really lend itself to a hyperlinked experience, like on your phone, but more like a proper browsing experience. And that is more suited to magazine content.
So, as a publisher, we would probably want to look at our magazine content as no newspaper publisher currently has found the way to publish content from their supplements online.
TR: Would you consider charging for the Guardian on a tablet?
JG: There is a consensus around micro-payments. Even at the Guardian we have an open, free philosophy but then we put a paid app out and that worked well for us.
We do think that people will pay for compelling content but you have got to look at it in context. If you have got something that's brilliantly functional, brilliantly useable, is bringing perfect content then we are not opposed to charging for it.
If there is an effective way to charge for it, of course you are going to do it.
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Has the Twitter UK peak been reached?
New statistics show that Twitter users in the UK have declined over the past few months, prompting analysts to question whether the site has hit its peak.
Nielson's figures show that 4,427,000 UK people logged onto Twitter in September of last year, with the figure declining by 24 per cent in October to 3,364,000.
This dropped further (although percentage wise not as much) to 3,414,000 in December – a trend which is seeping into January's figures.
Twitter off-shoots popular
It's not all doom and gloom however (if you can call a global audience of 50 million plus doom and gloom), as Alex Burmaster, of Nielson, notes that Twitter off-shoots are rising in popularity.
"Although less people are visiting the official Twitter site, some of the applications that feed into the Twitter community have been seeing significant increases in popularity, notably services like Tweetmeme, Tweetphoto and Tumblr," explained Burmaster to the Daily Mail.
"For example, in December 2009, over 20 per cent of Americans who visited Twitpic, a service that lets you share photos on Twitter, didn't go on the Twitter site."
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Orange set to supply UK iPad 3G data?
Orange is lining itself up to supply the data for the forthcoming Apple iPad in the UK.
The Times is citing sources which claim that the network is already in talks with Apple to supply the data plan, with other networks in the pipeline.
The tariffs offered in the US allow users to pay a fee each month to receive 3G data to surf the web on the go, ranging between 250MB to unlimited downloads.
Network networking
The same source is also stating that O2 and Vodafone are also in talks to become the data suppliers, which makes sense given that all three already have deals with Apple to sell the iPhone on our shores.
If the iPad is a success, the new data packages will intensify pressure on the UK's data networks, with O2 bearing the brunt of many angry users when their mobiles couldn't access the internet on the go.
TechRadar spoke to all three networks after the launch of the iPad last night, although none of them were able to issue any comment on whether they will offer 'tailored iPad' data packages.
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