Your view: Comments of the week
Welcome to our new weekly round-up of the best comments, flamewars and discussions on TechRadar's comments threads. Read on for what's been stoking your fires over the last seven days.
Are Nexus One owners the new Apple fans? We ask only because we stirred up a bit of a hornet's nest with what we thought were fairly gentle suggestions about how Google might improve its Nexus One.
10 things Google should change for Nexus 2
raykinstl got right to the point: "Is this article for real?" he gasped. "It calls out the Nexus One, yet most of the issues mentioned are nowhere near specific to the phone… This is NOT a Nexus One issue but an Android issue."
But surely you cannot disconnect the two, as the article author jbrandonbb joins in to mention.
TechRadar regular nitrofan was especially upset with our characterisation of the iPhone as the 'Godphone' as if we were the first people in history to think of the Jesusphone moniker (instead of being pretty much the last).
Tom65536 observed that, "this article is a response to the nasty criticisms [us readers] wrote on the review of the Nexus One, effectively justifying the poor review by focusing on everything that is wrong with it." Which is partly true. But poor review? It got 4 stars out of 5.
D4lien ends up with the eternal plea of neutrals caught in fanboy crossfire: "Please stop yelling at everyone else that yours is better!"
HTC Legend vs HTC Desire vs Google Nexus One
When it came to the HTC Legend vs the HTC Desire, our gentle opening gambit that, "The TechRadar office is currently divided between those that want the Legend, and those that crave the raw power of the Desire" drew the furious response from roggit: "then half your office is retarded. The Desire is better than the Legend in pretty much all ways. The Desire is just a better and more expensive version of the legend. Compare the specs if you don't believe me."
So who was it that said, "trust us when we say that Technophiles are going to be all over this phone. Multi-touch, flash video, WVGA screen - it's the spec-enthusiast's dream".
That would be ourselves, a few paragraphs later.
It's time to move off the controversial subject of which phone is best, and into the gentler pastures of HDTV.
Why Blu-ray still needs a killer app to succeed
In our article we suggested the reason Blu ray still hadn't taken off, was its lack of a killer app.
matt2002 opened by saying that price not features needed to be the killer app. "Basic business - pile it high and sell it cheap," although to be fair, that is only one way of doing business.
But he made the good point that Blu ray discs were still wildly overpriced: "the films are too expensive at آ£15-آ£20 each. You can go into a supermarket and buy a DVD for آ£2-آ£5! As for HD - I can watch film after film in HD - for آ£8 a month, why spend آ£20 on one film!"
mrstillwater reckoned that you can get Blu ray discs for a lot lower than that, if you shop around, pinning the blame instead on the lingering effects of the format war. He finishes by saying, "Personally I love Blu-ray but it's been painful watching the studios trying to promote HD, and now they're confusing things further with 3D - talking about trying to run before you can walk."
If that's what us early adopters think, the 3D industry has a mountain to climb with everyone else.
Sony sees end in sight for platform exclusive games
We end with an interesting discussion about the pros and cons of platform exclusive games.
If ever there was likely to be a flamewar surely it would be here, between legions of XBoxers and PS3ers up in arms over which was better at what. But Sony's suggestion that gaming was becoming platform agnostic was greeted with some concern.
"It will never happen!" said caimbeul. "But what they should do is just collaborate on new hardware and go 50/50 for development and production costs. That's half the cost of creating a next gen console saved already."
castaway666 pointed out the obvious flaw with that, saying, "there is no competition unless you include Nintendo, so if there's no competition why should they reduce the cost of a console? It's not as if you can say 'screw you Sony I'll go to Micro.... ah!' or vice-versa."
Hiawa23 only bought the PS3 for its exclusives as, like many of the posters, he owned the Xbox 360 as well and preferred its online experience. "Multiplatform games are bought for my 360 especially if online is part of the game. I just like LIVE much better. That said, I do appreciate Blu ray and the power of the PS3, but it's not all about graphics."
No platform exclusives. No new hardware. High development costs. Increased emphasis on online gaming and interfaces… Is anything about gaming going to be the same in future?
Back next Saturday.
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Review: YOYOTech Fi7epower MLK3
The first of YOYOtech's Fi7epower series we came into contact with was its record-breaking i7 flagship machine, manufactured in conjunction with Intel to coincide with the launch of its new, all-singing, all-computing processor. That chunky beastie was yours for آ£4,000.
Well over a year later, YOYOtech has a new star, the Fi7epower MLK3, with an extra آ£1,500 stuck onto that price tag, but it has the original bested on all fronts. Yes, you read that right, this PC is being sold for آ£5,500. That's over 10 times more than I've ever spent on a car, but then I am a bit of a miserly bast...
It's easily the most expensive PC I've had the opportunity to play around with too. Luckily, given that incredible expected outlay, it's also the fastest. So yes, this PC is sold for آ£5,500, but is it worth that much?
Wallet buster
If you're asking that question, like each of us on the team have been doing since it landed like a Big Daddy on our now-groaning test bench, then you really can't afford this machine. In any case, you're a fairly clued-up member of the PC community and so it realistically isn't for you. Why?
Well, my first instinct is to say it's because the Fi7epower's core demographic isn't someone with any idea of what components they want, or how much those components cost. Personally, I'd say it's for someone who wants the best PC that money can possibly buy, but who has little idea what they would actually want in the machine, just that they want the best of everything.
This Fi7epower, then, is essentially the manifestation of a rich-kid's technological tick list. Top-end CPU? Tick. Multiple DX11 graphics cards? Tick. Ludicrous amounts of high-speed RAM? Tick. Load of storage? Tick. Multiple SSDs in RAID? Tick.
It's essentially a tech-demo to show what happens when you jam as many of the fastest components you can into a bizarre-looking chassis and then call it a PC. It's all jammed in there like a technocrat's wet-dream.
So, money's no object and all you want is a PC that will do everything, and do everything faster than any other commercial PC on the planet. Just give YOYOtech a shout then and they'll put it all together without you having to have any input in the process whatsoever.
But that's the key; this is a money's-no-object machine and I just can't in all good conscience say that the Fi7epower MLK3 is anything like value for money.
Sure, it's still going to be lightning fast in six month's time, and the Bloomfield chipset is ready and waiting for the six-core Gulftown processors when they finally arrive in the first quarter of this year, but do you really need to spend a whopping آ£5,500 to get this sort of performance?
The short answer is no; especially if you're looking at this machine from a PC gaming perspective. At a time when we're seeing the latest games still looking and running brilliantly on year-old graphics cards due to their console origins, you're not getting five times the performance of a آ£1,000 rig here.
Indeed, you're looking at severely diminishing returns as soon as you go anywhere north of paying آ£2,000 for a PC.
Going nuclear
The reason for this is that the twin HD 5870s humming at the heart of the MLK3 can take care of any gaming benchmark you put in front of them. That's آ£530 for the pair, and they happily out-perform the twin-GPU HD 5970, which is the same price.
If you wanted seriously topwhack graphics, you could get a pair of HD 5970s, but that way CrossFireX and madness lies. However, the point is that you could pair up the cards in this machine with the necessary PSU to keep them fed, drop them into any current آ£1,000 PC and get pretty damned close to the performance figures you're seeing from the Fi7epower.
The RAID pairing of Intel X25 SSDs, though, is nothing short of fantastic. The sort of benchmarks we're getting from those two beauties is jaw-dropping, with read speeds of well over 500MB/s and 4K writes of 131MB/s. Sadly, though, it takes a while for the rig to go through it's POST checks and RAID config, meaning that boot times haven't decreased.
But what of the processing power? Sure, the Core i7 975 Extreme pootling away inside is the fastest CPU available and it's clocked up over 4GHz. But you're getting so little extra over something like the Lynnfield Core i7 870, a chip that's half the price, that you wouldn't notice the difference in real-world usage.
So these are all reasons why you wouldn't buy it, because you're a PCFormat reader and you understand the balance of price and performance. If you were the sort of person that didn't didn't care about such things this would be falling on deaf ears. After all, although there's practically nothing you could do with this machine that you couldn't do just as well with a rig for half the price, it is still the fastest machine ever.
But then it's like having to test-drive a Lamborghini without ever taking it above 70mph, because there are no roads around that will do justice to the raw horsepower you've got under the hood.
Case-off
It does look all kinds of funky though, with that vast, BMW designed chassis surrounding it. The case itself may be over آ£500, but it is doing some very interesting things. Separating out all the basic components so the PSU, storage drives and chipset never interfere with each other means you can more efficiently control the cooling process.
That said, if I'd spent as much on a chassis I would expect far superior build quality than what's apparent here. The boxes that house the PSU and optical drives feel flimsy and there's far more movement in them when they're locked in place than there should be.
I would also expect the design team to have come up with a more elegant solution than a couple of bits of black insulation tape to stop the optical drive caddy from scratching the matte black surface of the case when open. That's just insulting.
What we've got here, then, is more a status symbol and talking point for the obscenely rich person's study. You know, one where the PC is sat alongside a آ£15,000 solid oak desk.
Knowing something about PCs' and components' relative performance, we could put a machine together for half the price with the same benchmarks. But that would require effort and this machine asks for none.
Well, apart from the effort your butler's going to have to put in to get it into place.
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Review: Acer Aspire One 532
Acer's Aspire One range helped launch the netbook market a couple of years ago and, ever since, it has been adding to and refining its brand. The Aspire One 532 is the latest addition and also one of the first netbooks to feature Intel's latest Atom processor, the N450.
The Intel Atom N450 is different to its predecessors because it features both the graphics and memory controllers on a single chip. This is intended to increase battery life as well as processing and graphical performance.
By and large, we found this to be the case and this netbook performed a little faster than a machine powered by chips from previous Atom generations.
Improved battery life
Battery life was significantly enhanced, however, and the 344-minute run-time provides 165 minutes more power than its predecessor, the Aspire One 531.
Graphical performance isn't markedly better than machines powered by older Atom processors, but you can still view photos and films without issue. The 10.1- inch screen features a 1024 x 600-pixel resolution which is bright, crisp and clear; but a shiny Super-TFT screen coating has been implemented and is very reflective in bright light.
The attractive chassis is well put together and will provide good durability on the road, although the shiny surfaces attract fingerprints quickly. Acer's unique raised-key keyboard design is in place and is comfortable to use.
We have an issue with the multi-gesture touchpad though. It is extremely easy to brush when typing, which moves the cursor to a random location on the page, which can get extremely annoying.
The 344-minute battery life will keep you productive for over five hours and the small form factor and light weight of 1.2kg make it easy to slip into a bag and forget about.
802.11n Wi-Fi rounds off the specification and helps make the Aspire One 532 recommendable.
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In Depth: How UFO hunters are turning to the web
This is a world in which information and disinformation are fast becoming completely indistinguishable.
It's a world in which we can't hide: anyone can electronically reach out and communicate with almost anybody else. And as the internet consolidates its grip on humanity, it's forcing great change on even the most esoteric niches of society.
Take the practice of ufology. The internet has certainly brought it chaos, but it has also been a catalyst for new life and opportunities. It's now easier to be taken seriously if you have what you believe is an extra-terrestrial experience– and the very organisations you might try to contact in this case have also had to adapt to change brought about by the internet.
"I think that without the internet, we couldn't exist," says veteran ufologist Roy Lake of London UFO Studies. "I had a lady who phoned me this morning from Reading. She had a sighting last night and she wanted to know what it was. She found our website and obviously our phone number is on there and so she phoned straight away. And she was quite happy to get through to us and that we didn't dismiss her. We take it all quite seriously."
THE UFO CENTRE: Ufology groups now use the web as a first point of contact for both the press and the public
As with most other fields of human endeavour, the internet is transforming the face of ufology in unexpected ways. "It's the internet that keeps us all going and alert," says Lake. "Some of the stuff that comes in you can say is a load of rubbish, but there's also a lot of good stuff. It reaches us and we really look into it. And without the internet, we might as well just pack it all in."
Gloria Heather Dixon is the Investigations Coordinator for BUFORA, the British UFO Research Association. Formed in 1962, it's probably the best-known of the UK's ufology groups. "One of the problems," she told PC Plus magazine, "and I say this with respect, is that there's such a lot of nonsense on the internet. I've never seen anything like it. Once people get onto the internet, they get my email address because I'm head of investigations and they come through to me."
INVESTIGATING: BUFORA now has a sighting questionnaire to help them filter out false positives
Contact from a distance
The internet has certainly made it far easier for people to report what they believe may be UFOs, but has it increased the number of false sightings that come in to serious researchers?
"98 per cent of all sightings can be explained if they're reported soon enough," says Dixon. "One of the major reasons for misconception is that many people don't realise what's in the sky that can be seen and misidentified. We do get an awful lot of email both to our central office in London and to investigators. We have emails from across the world, from other UFO groups, from airports, even from universities. We get things from everywhere," she says emphatically.
"The only drawback with a PC is that you can't see the person who's sending you the information," adds Lake. "I always stress that you must contact me, or if you can come round that's even better. I don't criticise anybody, I don't dismiss anybody and I don't turn around and say you're talking a load of nonsense. It's not fair on the person anyway."
Knowing he's at a disadvantage, Lake is pragmatic when it comes to possible pranksters: "Obviously there are a lot of publicity seekers out there, but there are also the genuine ones. Like this lady this morning, she was over the moon. She said, 'I can't thank you enough. It's nice to talk to somebody without them laughing at me,' so it works both ways – and she found us by looking on the internet. It's very rewarding."
"We always deal with [publicity seekers] graciously," adds Dixon, "but there are exotic claims. Those in the 1990s were influenced by things like The X Files and all the things going on in the media, which influences people's beliefs radically."
THE WEB EFFECT: The web is making it easier for the public to investigate what they see in the skies
The location of those visiting UFO websites also reveals some intriguing information. "We get correspondence from all over the world and that's what this is all about: the information coming in from all over the world," says Lake. "If you look on our guestbook, you'll see a lot of people writing in from the United States, including the military. They're very interested in the abduction side of things, so I believe there's more to this than meets the eye."
Wherever you are in the world, it's easy to mistake one thing for something else – and one craze has been to blame for many UFO sightings recently: "It's these blasted Chinese lanterns," says Lake. "They're becoming a blooming nuisance. A lot of people buy them, they're quite large. A company sent me one, we lit it and before we could get the camera going, it was gone! They're orange in colour, so people see that and go 'My God!'"
SKY OF FIRE: Chinese sky lanterns create spectacular but eerie shows that spark flurries of UFO reports
Chinese sky lanterns are made from thin paper on a lightweight frame. Acting like toy hot air balloons and using a candle or similar luminous heat source, they can soar for miles and are regularly mistaken for UFOs by a general public primed by shows such as The X Files.
"One night, there were about 20 [sky lanterns] over London and the general public thought we were being invaded. So we have to accommodate that as well," says Lake.
BUFORA has developed a way of quickly finding out what they're dealing with and reassuring those reporting lantern sightings. "Our questionnaire is great because it has all the relevant questions, and I can then say 'OK we're looking at sky lanterns,'" says Dixon.
"But often, because people want to believe, it's a huge problem. So I have a standard letter that says 'Google Chinese sky lanterns UFOs' and it will bring up video footage, photographs, all kinds of nonsense written by the media, and you'll be able to see if that's similar to what you saw."
But while the internet makes it easier for people to report things they see in the night skies, it's had a detrimental effect on many ufology organisations.
The game changer
"Of course, the internet has changed everything for everyone," laments Dixon. "We used to publish a magazine and we were actually a limited company. But now, because of the time involved with that and with being a voluntary organisation, we dissolved the company, so we don't have members anymore."
No company membership means no funding through subscription payments. Change was inevitable once the internet got a grip on people's lives and altered the way the public expects others to serve up information.
"What happened was, we used to publish a very good magazine, and with the advent of the internet we decided that being on the web was a better way of doing all this stuff," says Dixon. "If you go to the British Library, you'll find Sky Link," says Lake.
"That was our magazine. It started off with about seven or eight pages, and finished up with God knows how many. I kept it up for quite a few years. Then the internet arrived and I went on there and found that there was so much stuff going on. There were a lot of groups that actually folded because the internet meant they couldn't afford to do it any more."
PLANE STUPID: Because sightings are reported faster, the internet makes it easier to spot unusual aircraft
The internet has also made it much easier for the media to contact ufologist organisations. Sensation-seeking publications increasingly look up people such as Dixon and Lake for comment on various things, and they don't always do it with the best of intentions.
"The Sun wanted my opinion on 2012," says Lake. "I haven't even seen the damned thing. It only came out last Friday! But they still wanted to know what I thought of it."
"People can so easily get a hold of us, and so can the media who, with great respect, are such a pain!" exclaims Dixon.
"TV and radio: most of it's a nightmare. And as I try to explain in the training course, when dealing with the press, you're a two-minute slot, you're in and out, and they're not interested. They want to sensationalise it and then they're onto the next thing. That's the way it works. On occasion, though, you get one like Radio 4, which I love."
Trained observers
The training course that Dixon mentions is a qualification in aerial identification for UFO researchers. The internet has even changed the way that BUFORA teaches this. "It's in six modules with an examination," she says, "and we have quite a few people on the course. It used to be that the training course was done by snail mail and I'd be writing and hand marking it. It's so much easier now."
Proper training is seemingly becoming increasingly necessary. Dixon warns against making up your mind about what you see in the night sky by naively looking online at a single website. It's important to verify what one page says against information on others.
"If I find something and I'm not too sure what it is," she told us, "I can Google it and have a look around and the information is there. It's not always accurate, mind you, especially on Wikipedia. I mean, you can edit it but then someone else can come along and edit it, so I don't think it works very well. Some of the things they've written about BUFORA!"
Which is, of course, further proof that the internet has both furthered and hindered the ufologists' cause.
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Review: MSI GT640-030UK
MSI is a Taiwanese company best known for manufacturing components, laptops and netbooks. The GT640-030UK is from its latest line of gaming systems and is a smart-looking machine, but there's better performance to be found at a similar price.
Graphical performance is provided by a powerful Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M chip, backed by an impressive 1024MB of dedicated video memory. We found that games ran well and the laptop dealt with the latest titles without issue, albeit using slightly lower graphics settings.
Somewhat strangely, the laptop currently ships with a 32-bit version of the Windows 7. We would normally expect a laptop such as this to feature a 64-bit OS, as it is capable of handling larger amounts of memory and providing smoother performance.
64-bit question
We tested the laptop with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and found that the latter provides significantly more power than the former. In fact, the laptop scored twice as high in the 64-bit test than it had done in the 32-bit test.
The GT640 isn't currently available with a 64-bit version of Windows 7, but when we contacted MSI we were told that the laptop would be shipping with a 64-bit version in the near future, so if you're not in a rush it may be worth the wait.
An Intel Core i7 quad-core processor is on board, and provides extremely fast everyday performance. You'll be able to run resource-intensive multimedia applications alongside office programs smoothly and without issue.
The 15.4-inch screen is exceptionally detailed and watching Blu-ray movies via the included drive is a pleasure. In contrast to many gaming systems, MSI has not gone for an overly garish look and the brushed aluminium and red finish looks great, with something of a retro look on display.
The keyboard is comfortable to use, although its mounting isn't as good as we would have liked, as it does creak a little when typing.
The W, A, S and D keys are all painted red to make them easier to locate during gaming. There is also a dedicated numeric keypad squeezed in.
Portability is a bit of a mixed bag and, while the 129-minute battery life isn't very good, the 2.8kg the machine weighs isn't very heavy for such a powerful laptop.
Ultimately, the GT640-030UK left us with contrasting opinions. It looks great, is surprisingly portable and has, potentially, a lot of power – but that's where the problem lies.
Without a 64-bit OS it doesn't realise its full potential, so we would be inclined to wait for MSI to add 64-bit support before buying.
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Review: Medion Akoya E1217
While Medion has released previous netbooks to mild acclaim, its latest model brings increased storage and Microsoft's Windows 7 OS to the table. With so many rivals, however, the Akoya E1217 struggles to stand out.
Although other netbooks, such as the Acer Aspire One 532 and Asus Eee PC 1201N, utilise cutting-edge technology, Medion has instead opted for an older Intel Atom processor. While this helps keep costs down, it also delivers lower performance and mobility.
While the Acer and Asus provide 344 and 265 minute battery lives, respectively, the Medion only managed 195 minutes. This is standard for the last generation of netbooks, however, and allows basic mobility at home or on shorter journeys.
Standard fare
Performance is equally standard fare for the previous netbook generation but, in some cases, is doubled by the latest crop of mobile processors. Netbooks were originally designed for internet browsing and basic home office use, however, and the Medion succeeds in this respect.
The keyboard utilises the popular isolated-style, with each key cut through an individual hole in the chassis. This provides ample space between the keys, and we found it comfortable to type on.
The use of a 10.1-inch screen keeps the weight down to a highly portable 1.1kg. Image quality is fantastic, with the panel proving extremely bright and colourful.
As mentioned earlier, the use of Windows 7 software brings the latest features and greatly improved usability over past Windows XP-equipped netbooks.
The 250GB hard drive also betters the usual 160GB disks of older netbooks, and provides ample storage for media files.
On its own merits, the Akoya E1217 is a likeable, if unexceptional, netbook. With the latest crop of netbooks vastly outperforming it, however, it looks a little outdated compared to rivals, such as the Asus Eee PC 1201N, but its lower price and great usability mean it certainly still has plenty to offer.
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Interview: Microsoft: We want to 'raise the bar' for user experience
Whether you're a fan or not of the new Windows Phone 7 Series interface, one thing's for sure – it's made quite a stir this week. So we went along to Microsoft's hotel in Barcelona to meet Oded Ran, the Head of Consumer Marketing for Windows Phone in the UK.
Was he happy with the reaction to the launch? "Yeah, it's been accepted really well. It really is a different kind of phone... we really went down a different path. We've been working on that for a good period of time. We chose Congress as the unveiling moment... we know there's a lot of work to do."
About the experience
Can Microsoft make Windows Phone 7 Series appeal to enough consumers? "Consumers care about the experience they're getting. We've got to balance three things – consumers, developers and phone manufacturers. The first thing that Steve Ballmer said was our business is very simple - it's about the experience consumers are getting."
And it looks like there shouldn't be any problem getting hold of a Windows Phone 7 Series handset in the UK: "For the UK audience it's perfect news, Orange is on board, T-Mobile is on board, Telefonica (O2) is on board and Vodafone is on board. And then there's the manufacturers as well. How are they going to differentiate? That's their story to tell."
Why didn't we announce and ship straight away? Well we could have. We've been able to keep the UI quite secret which was quite an achievement. Theoretically we could have continued. Why didn't we want to? In the Microsoft DNA there flows this idea of [working with partners]."
Developers play their part
Ran is keen to talk up the part that developers will be able to play in the evolution of Windows Phone - more details will be announced at Microsoft's Mix developer conference in March.
"[Apps] are a broken story, we need to manage the right experiences and let developers do customisations but still maintain a certain bar. We'd love to see a plethora of customisations on top, we'd love to see creativity there."
[Developers] care about doing three things – building great apps, doing it with easy tools in minimum time – using things already developed for the PC and web – and they want to make money. They shouldn't be ashamed of that and we hear that."
Ran intimated that Microsoft will help developers realise their ambitions. "Show me a company that makes tens of millions of dollars from mobile applications and I'd say 'wow'. I don't know any."
"It's not just about the number – the consumer doesn't care if there are 6,000 puzzle games available. How do you differentiate and build immersive experiences? That will be much of our focus. Long term, we'd love to be the platform of choice. We're not there yet."
On the Games and People Hubs
We also asked Ran when we would see more of the Xbox Live integration. "Probably Mix, also GDC (Games Developers Conference) is coming up. We haven't finalised plans, but it would be a great place to speak about that."
Ran also spoke about the integration of other third-party services aside from the basic Windows Live, Facebook and Yahoo integration we saw on the demo. "The UK is a really lucky country for us (Hotmail and Messenger remain the most used mail and IM services) but that's not everywhere."
We'll show a bit more later. I would probably say that Microsoft has heard of Twitter! But seriously speaking, our goal is very simple – we want to build a great experience. And we want to make sure that the partners out there can build on top of that. "
Ran also outlined Microsoft's ambition for the People Hub: "Let's say I met up with you today and I want to find out a bit more information about you. I need to go to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and so on. There's now a case where I might be playing a puzzle game and I want to play with you, you'll even be able to nudge and say 'hey, it's your turn now'. I think again it will change what game publishers are able to do and what consumers can start doing."
Start, search, back
Finally, we asked Ran for some thoughts behind the hardware spec behind Windows Phone 7 Series. All the phones will have three buttons - Start, Search and Back. "I guess you want a combination of giving manufacturers flexibility, but we also wanted to raise the bar in user experience. Search changes upon where you search. [The buttons] are a minimum requirement, like the capacitive touchscreen, GPS, camera and whatnot."
If a phone manufacturer decides they're going produce do a phone which is brilliant for gaming or music or photography, that's up to them. We're building a platform for that and working really closely with them. I really want to have a phone that does this, this and that. I really hope the huge creativity that's out there will be channelled towards that."
Once you're mobile that's your connection to the world. It's not about a search button that just pops up Bing. It's about if you're in the People Hub wanting to search for people, if you're in your email client that's different. Calendar, different. You don't need to think about what you're doing. It's intuitive right? I'm really interested in how that's going to play out for the UK."
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Texas Instruments debuts 3D-without-glasses that doesn't suck
Texas Instruments has teamed up with 3M to offer a 3D experience without glasses and also without the use of a lenticular screen.
A tablet device was shown off at Mobile World Congress piping 3D images to your eyes, without the need for glasses but still using the stereoscopic – separate images to each eye – method of displaying 3D.
To create the effect, 3M has come up with a screen overlay for a 120-Hz LCD that directs images towards either your left eye and right eye.
The images are shown at 60fps and it creates a simulated 3D image.
HD in 3D
The display is currently powered by the Texas Instruments OMAP3 chipset but TI is promising to bring HD movies to life when it implements its OMAP4 chip.
Although the technology is in its nascent stages, it's refreshing to a company trying a new way to bring autostereoscopic 3D to consumers, instead of the frankly awful lenticular displays that are favoured by the advertising display market.
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Your view: Is HTC's Desire more wanted than the iPhone?
HTC's Desire was announced at Mobile World Congress and immediately got the TechRadar office buzzing.
'Was this,' we asked, 'the phone that has finally made us want to leave our iPhones behind and move onto the wildly promising Android platform?'
"We're mightily impressed with the HTC Desire, and can see that this is going to be a real iPhone contender in 2010, no matter what Steve Jobs brings out later this year," said Phone Editor Gareth Beavis in his Hands on: HTC Desire review.
But what do you think? Has HTC finally cracked it with a phone that takes much of the best bits of the (HTC-made) Google Nexus One but adds in the widely admired Sense UI?
Or will Apple's likely summer arrival immediately wrest back the impetus when its announced?
Over to you…
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