DSiWare developer wants 3G and GPS on Nintendo DS2
A top DSiWare developer has outlined his wish-list for the next-generation Nintendo handhelds and it includes features usually found on a mobile phone – 3G and GPS.
According to Official Nintendo magazine, Nic Watt, Games Creative Manager of Nnooo and creator of the first and best WiiWare download Pop Plus Solo, wants features like 3G and GPS included as it would enable users to "play online wherever you are."
Feature focus
He notes that having GPS as a feature would enhance the games available as it would add some decent location-based functionality.
There's rumours abound about what new features will be found in the Nintendo DS2.
The handheld has been mooted for a launch at this year's E3 and it is said to use a Nvidia Tegra chip, instead of an ATI CPU chip. Other features rumoured include an iPhone-style accelerometer.
Nintendo recently launched the DSi XL in the UK, which offers a notably bigger screen and a wider viewing angle, compared to the original DSi.
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Sony Ericsson X10 Mini and Pro shipping by June
Sony Ericsson will be able to begin the X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro in the next few months, according to shipping forecasts (not those kind).
The new phones will be shipping from the manufacturers during the first half of this year, according to Digitimes.
Foxconn is manufacturing the phones in Asia for the European markets, and the reports state that the stock will head to the big and mysterious Sony Ericsson warehouses soon.
Various smartphones ahoy
The same company will also begin shipping various smartphones to Acer in the same period (which we assume isn't the Liquid as this has already started selling) - which might mean an Android upgrade soon.
In related news, Sony Ericsson will begin marketing the big brother to the X10 Mini (you've guessed it - the X10) on 18 March - which means it's not long until we get it here either.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has a lot riding on it - not only is it the first Android phone from the Swedish-Japanese alliance, it's also the next flagship device since the maligned Sony Ericsson Satio - and we have to hope it can better that.
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Google denied Nexus One trademark
Google has apparently been denied the right to use the Nexus One trademark for its first mobile phone.
The Nexus One - which was unveiled earlier this year - is set to go on sale in the UK next month, but issues have now arisen over the name.
But this isn't a spat with the Philip K. Dick estate for once - it's the US trademark office that has got involved.
Apparently, Google filed the trademark in December 2009 - but it's now been decided that this conflicts with a filing by Integra Telecom from December 2008.
And as both work to provide telecommunications and transmit voice/data, you can see where the conflict arises.
No, it's a DIFFERENT Nexus
However, Google will surely claim that theirs is a phone and not a service provision - and on top of that the trademark is unlikely to be held in the UK as well, so we could see it named the Nexus One over here and something entirely different in the US.
Big G has six months to appeal the decision - and we assume it will - and can keep selling under the Nexus One name.
Remember, Apple was denied the iPhone trademark because Cisco already had it - it carried on using the name anyway and eventually settled.
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Samsung finally announced Jet Ultra edition
Samsung has finally announced the Jet Ultra edition - and will be making it exclusive to O2.
While the release has only come today, the phone has been available on the site for a number of weeks.
The Jet Ultra edition isn't much of an upgrade either over the disappointing first Samsung Jet - essentially the headline grabber is the fact it now has BBC iPlayer on board.
This means that users can use Wi-Fi to download videos from the service on demand and watch them wherever they go.
Social aspects
Users will now get social networking integration with the Samsung Jet Ultra edition, although we're still waiting to see what this will actually mean - or whether it's just a widget that sits on the front screen.
And the other big change - it now comes in black with a silver band on the front. We know - this world as we know it is constantly changing.
Available from O2 for £25 a month, head on over to the online store if you the 'normal' Jet wasn't Ultra enough for you.
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In Depth: Why World of Warcraft doesn't lag
If you have ever played an online game or an MMO, the chances are that you have experienced the rather bothersome issue of lag (or 'bad ping' or latency) – the sheer frustration of that game-losing moment whereby the action of the player is delayed by the reaction of the game's server, or vice versa.
In-game latency has become even more of an issue of late, following the recent interest in so-called 'cloud gaming' services such as OnLive, Playcast and Dave Perry's Gaikai. Put simply, if there is the slightest noticeable delay in pressing a button on your keyboard, mouse or console control pad and the reaction of your in-game character on-screen, gamers are not going to want to play your games or pay for your subscription services.
Of course, there is always going to be some amount of delay between a client PC (playing World of Warcraft, for example) and a server (and back the other way). But the key, the real holy grail, for online and MMO and cloud gaming companies is to ensure that these delays are unnoticeable to the human eye.
MMO LAG-BEATERS: Blizzard leads the way in providing a quality service
The aforementioned Playcast Media, for example - who are developing a console-quality gaming TV set-top box solution that they are currently touting around numerous TV operators – claims that its system cuts the control time lag to 100 milliseconds or less.
The company reckons that's faster than the human eye can register. However, some hardcore 'quick twitch' first-person-shooter players on the PC may well beg to differ...
Is WoW becoming lag-free?
In the MMO space, Blizzard and WoW continue to lead the way when it comes to providing a (generally) lag-free, high quality gaming experience for their customers.
"Latency is not really a problem for me with WoW," says PC Format Editor and keen WoW-player, Alan Dexter, when quizzed about the issue, "although I don't PvP [player versus player], so it might be more of an issue for gamers that do."
BACK-END SOLUTION: How Blizzard's partner Teliasonera ensures minimal latency
So we asked PC Format's other resident regular Azeroth visitor, Luis Villazon, who concurred with Dexter, agreeing that for him, playing World of Warcraft on a 6Mb ADSL internet connection through BT, "latency is almost a non-issue nowadays, certainly compared to the first couple of years of the game.
"On my high-pop server there is the loading delay for busy cities, obviously, and sometimes lag on patch days but nothing that really impacts my game. In raids and five mans, I will often see players complaining about lag but I think a lot of it is just people using an easy excuse for standing in the fire or terrible dps [damage per second].
"Actual lag, where people get stuck in a casting animation or running on the spot is pretty easy to spot - I don't see very much of that," adds Villazon, although he does also note that, "Loot-lag (where you are left crouching for a long time before the loot window appears) still happens a fair bit though. Again, not as bad as it used to be but maybe a couple of times a week I'll experience a delay of a few seconds while looting.
There are, of course, all the usual things you can do to your gaming PC to ensure that you suffer the bare minimum amount of in-game lag problems. Firstly, invest in a decent router (many are now optimised for online gaming) and also consider paying your cable provider for the fastest broadband package they offer (such as the 50Mbps fibre option services currently on offer from Virgin Media or BT Infinity).
Secondly, though it should really go without saying, try to make sure you are playing on a hard-wired connection using an old-fashioned ethernet cable and NOT via your home Wi-Fi network. Even if your router is situated some way from your PC, it is always worth investing in a longer ethernet cable, instead of risking the ups and downs of a wireless connection. And should your partner complain about the messy wires running through the flat, just run it under the carpet or the floorboards!
TROLL HUNTING: There's nothing worse than running on the spot when hunting trolls
As far as World Of Warcraft goes, Blizzard offers its own basic troubleshooting tips for those gamers experiencing latency problems which, if it not immediately made obvious by unresponsive or choppy gameplay, you will soon be made aware of by the latency meter (in the UI) turning red.
If you are experiencing slow responses from your in-game character, yet your latency meter still shows green, then the problem is more likely down to the in-game graphics settings being too high for your PC.
Blizzard notes that lag can be down to numerous issues, from basic internet connection problems with your ISP through to highly customized UI mods that may cause high latency or from playing in highly populated zones where a lot of data is being processed.
If the problem is down to issues with Blizzard's own servers, the company will immediately give players updates on WoW's Realm Status page and by breaking news on the game's login screen.
Bolstering server speed and quality
There is obviously a lot of work that goes on behind-the-scenes at Blizzard to ensure that all of its games' servers are both reliable and consistently able to provide gamers with a flowing, lag-free experience of World of Warcraft. As such, the company carries out regular studies into player behaviour, particularly at those seasonal peak times and in those areas of the game where lag hot spots appear such as raids and capital cities.
Blizzard also recently renewed its agreement with Nordic telephony and hosting specialists TeliaSonera to provide hosting services for them across Europe, essentially providing the bandwidth that connects Blizzard's servers to the millions of connections that lead back to your computer as you play World of Warcraft.
Blizzard COO Paul Sams seems pretty happy with the service to date, noting: "We needed a carrier that could provide high-quality, low-latency Internet connectivity, and TeliaSonera International Carrier has proven its ability to satisfy our European audience."
IP BACKBONE MAP: Teliasonera's map of its European network
For its part, TeliaSonera is proud to note that it has, "enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Blizzard Entertainment since 1999, providing hosting for both World of Warcraft and the Battle.net online-gaming service in Europe." Malin Frenning, President of TeliaSonera, has also stated that his company is "striving to enable the best gaming experience possible" for its customers' games and "to become the provider of choice to the online gaming industry."
TechRadar spoke with Vlad Ihora, Head of Gaming Community at Teliasonera to find out a little more about his company's plans for the future. We wanted to know a little more about the renewal of that Blizzard deal, what that means for the company, why WoW continues to lead the way in terms of high-quality low-latency MMO gaming and what the company was able to offer other MMO gaming publishers and developers.
"There is no real way to dispose of lag overall as there are physical reasons for that but in terms of ways of reducing the delay, companies like ours have the opportunity to use traffic engineering, traffic prioritisation and quality of service policies in order to provide online gaming companies with top quality Internet access.
"Beyond the network of the telco operator, all the other components of the network connection between the gamer, the game server and back to the gamer's PC add latency overall. Hence the lower the latency on the carrier's network the better for the overall gaming experience but the broadband connection is extremely important too and so is the location of the gaming servers too.
TeliaSonera's gaming network is fully owned and operated by TeliaSonera International Carrier (TSIC), and the company claims that "in the unlikely event of significant signal degradation or failure the network will instantaneously switch to an alternative path, without impacting quality of service to the end consumer."
"At TSIC we are in full control of our network," says Ahora. "As the gaming servers are placed in our data centres we can do our utmost to reduce latency but we also take this quest to our broadband operator customers and partners who, in the past couple of years have become very interested in ensuring higher quality for the online gamers that are also their end users."
Blizzard adds subtle graphics updates
WoW gamers often overlook the extra effects that were patched in with the graphics update in the recent Wrath of the Lich King game expansion pack.
"They're mostly fairly subtle, soft shadowing and so on, but they do make a noticeable difference," says WoW fan and freelance writer, Adam Oxford.
"Curiously, though, they do require a fairly decent PC to get running smoothly without dragging down framerates in large raids, I find that despite WoW's reputation for low end graphics, there aren't many machines you can get running at 2560x1600 with anti-aliasing and all effects turned on. Of course, there's more graphical updates to come in Cataclysm. Scalable, I guess, is the key thing."
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3 now 'offering Spotify' on Sony Ericsson Vivaz
Mobile network 3 is now offering the Sony Ericsson Vivaz on contract - complete with access to the Spotify music service.
Customers planning to nab the 8.1MP, 720p-recording phone can now do so with the unlimited music streaming service - except it's not available on the same deal as the HTC Hero.
3 mentions its "exclusive Spotify deal" in the press release, however there's nothing as such offered as part of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz deal - yet.
Something in the pipeline
We spoke to 3, and it seems there may be something announced in the next few weeks to bring the Vivaz - and other Sony Ericsson phones (likely the Satio) - with a Spotify contract.
So for now, you'll have to boringly buy the Vivaz on a 24-month, £35-a-month deal, or pay £329.99 for the phone on pay as you go.
And if you want Spotify, you'll need to download the Symbian application - but then pay £10 a month for the privilege.
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Facebook looks to disable 'stalker apps'
Facebook is culling some of the applications available on its site, believing them to be nothing but conduits for advertising.
The ingeniously monikered 'stalker apps' allow you to see who has been checking up on your profile – presumably to give you some sort of self-esteem boost, by proving that people actually care about your entire life and not just your witty status updates.
According to the BBC, a number of apps have disappeared from the social-networking site, including the idiotically titles 'Stalker Check' and the not-so-catchily named 'Who has visited my profile'.
Stalking status update
"Don't believe any applications that claim they can show you who's viewing your profile or photo. They can't," said a spokesperson for Facebook, who has obviously tried one of these applications and were unhappy that no one was interested in their status.
According to Facebook, rather than actually do what they say on the tin, the apps merely push you on to advertising.
These are completely unrelated to the site's gaming apps like Farmville which push you to violence. Well, the continued updates of how your mates are doing with their virtual farms do.
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Review: Mionix Naos 5000
Another month and another company claiming to have the best gaming mouse known to man, and this time it's landed on our desks in the form of the Naos 5000.
This time it's Swedish peripherals outfit Mionix's turn to churn out meaningless phrases such as 'light-years ahead of the game' while blinding you with numbers, stats and brightly-lit LEDs.
Let's get the stat-gasm out of the way first; the Naos 5000 has got seven (count 'em) programmable buttons, 5040 dpi laser sensor, 1ms response time, 40,000MHz sampling rate and a tracking speed of 5.1m/sec. I'm sure you'll agree, that's a whole lot of numbers.
Realistically though all the numbers in the world don't matter if the real-world experience of using the mouse isn't up there with the best. And thankfully the Naos delivers.
The 'truly ergonomic' design is nicely shaped for the right-hander, even though it's actually designed for mutants in so much as it has support for 'all five fingers'. But it's the non-stick material coating the feet that really makes for the smooth ride the Naos brings to the table.
The software too is thoroughly impressive, giving you full control over pretty much every aspect of your mouse, from LED colour to lift distance. This control means that you can customise the little rodent to within an inch of its life.
The software also comes with a S.Q.A.T (Surface Quality Analyser Tool) to give your mousemat or desktop a qualitative rating. Shame about the name...
At £60 though it does seem a mite expensive with some of the classic gaming mice available for around half that. Still, it is an impressively stacked mouse if a touch pricey.
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Science Museum launches DigiFest
The Science Museum in London has announced DigiFest – a series of interactive evening events to discuss the issues facing our techno-enhanced society.
DigiFest, curated by the ubiquitous Aleks Krotoski, launches with a potentially fascinating into how the human brain copes with a connected world and asks if we truly can be friends with 700 people on Facebook.
Evil web, and games lessons
There are also talks on how the web can be used for evil, what games are really teaching us and technology that we can't live without.
And, for Guardian Tech Weekly podcast fans you can participate in the recording.
"DigiFest brings together a series of interactive evening events that tackle the biggest issues facing our techno-enhanced society, from changes in our brains to changes in public diplomacy, from tech that breaks down privacy to the tech you just can't live without," says the Science Museum's release.
DigiFest starts on 22 March and runs until 26 March, and is in the Science Museum's Dana Centre – find out more at http://www.danacentre.org.uk/events/programmes/29.
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Facebook more popular than Google in US
Facebook is officially the most-visited website in the US this week, knocking Google off of the top spot – where it has been since 2007.
Facebook has been enjoying phenomenal growth in 2010, with the site showing a 185 per cent increase since March 2009.
Hitwise, which monitors everything web, web, web, noted that Facebook had 7.07 per cent of all US visits in the week ending 13 March, compared to Google which hosted 7.03 per cent.
Popularity contest
Interestingly, the last site to nab the number one spot from Google was MySpace back in 2007. Facebook will be hoping that this isn't an ominous sign of things to come.
Facebook also enjoyed being the number one site in the US over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but it couldn't hold on to the position for the whole week.
With 350 million plus visitors worldwide, Facebook's popularity has never been greater – then again, just two year ago MySpace must have been thinking exactly the same thing.
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Samsung reveals further details on iPad rival
Samsung is working on a tablet device to rival Apple's iPad and the deluge of slates from rival PC manufacturers.
APC mag was told by Emmanuele Silanesu, national product and marketing manager for Samsung Australia's IT division, that Samsung would release its slate "in the second half of the year" and that it would be focused on the consumer.
Hints about what Samsung sees as the crucial factors for a tablet device were outlined by another Samsung Australia Exec – with director Philip Newton criticising the Apple iPad's lack of connectivity and processing power.
Problems with iPad
"The problems I see with the iPad are its processing power and (lack of) connectivity to a certain extent" Newton said at the Samsung Forum in Singapore.
"I do feel that that slate-type platform has legs but I think the legs need to be far more powerful, for example an Atom-based product which has far greater flexibility, not to mention inputs and outputs.
"This has more potential than an iPad."
Samsung will be no means be the last PC manufacturer to push into the slate/tablet market – with Microsoft's Courier and Dell's slate already making headlines, but it will be interesting to see if their design does better than its UMPC – the Q1.
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Review: CoolerMaster CM 690 II Advanced
CoolerMaster has been resident modder Tom's favourite choice for chassis hacking for a good long while now and it's no surprise as it's one company that really listens to the needs of its customers.
It's also a company not ready to sit on its laurels when it releases a decent case, and so we have the sequel to the very popular CM 690 chassis, the rather smartly titled CM 690 II Advanced.
Okay, so innovation doesn't quite stretch so far as the naming of the chassis, but there are enough new features in there to satisfy, especially on a sub-£100 case.
Unsurprisingly cooling is paramount in the CM 690 II's design with a huge amount of extra mesh covering the case to improve airflow throughout. Obviously dust is then a bit of a concern but there are enough filters to stop that being a real worry.
There is also space for two chillin' radiators, so Tom's favourite dual-water cooling loop isn't out of the question either. Ease of installation has also been a hallmark of the CM 690 II's design ethos, most notably in the amount of space now behind the motherboard mounting for cable-tidying.
Coolermaster has also made replacing heavy-duty CPU coolers a doddle now with a wide gap in that mounting for you to get to the reverse side of the motherboard and mess with the CPU cooler's retention bracket.
In short it's a fully-featured chassis, with all the gubbins you'd expect from a top-end tower at a price-point you can't really argue with.
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Gary Marshall: Why we must kill the Digital Economy Bill
With crushing inevitability, the House of Lords did nothing to stop the deeply flawed Digital Economy Bill yesterday - and that means a badly written and potentially disastrous new law is nearly on the statute books. We have just two weeks to stop it - and stop it we must.
Between now and the election, the Government will do its very best to push the Digital Economy Bill through Parliament. It's now in a period called the wash-up, where backroom negotiations will tweak the Bill in order to keep various vested interests happy.
In essence, that means all kinds of scary stuff could be added to the Bill without any real scrutiny. Even if nothing's added, though, it's going to be a terrible, terrible thing for the internet in the UK.
Why is it bad?
This isn't about file sharing or fighting for your right to download dodgy MP3s. It's about much more than that.
It's about stopping a law that could bring libel-style censorship to UK ISPs, forcing them to block the next YouTube on copyright owners' say-so - with no penalties for organisations making misguided or malicious accusations. It's not hard to imagine politically awkward sites such as Wikileaks ending up on the blocklist too.
It's about stopping a law that would make cafes and libraries responsible for their users' activities, bringing an end to open Wi-Fi.
It's about stopping a law so badly written that it could shut down an entire mobile phone network for a dodgy 3G download.
It's about stopping a law that enables anyone to rip off photographers by removing image data and claiming they couldn't find out who took the photo.
It's about stopping a law that penalises the law-abiding majority - by upping ISP costs and therefore everyone's broadband bills - for the actions of a tiny minority.
It's about heeding the concerns of crazed anti-copyright hippies such as the Metropolitan Police, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency and MI5.
Creative industries dominate argument
More than anything, it's about democracy. Despite the Digital Britain consultation arguing that beheading for Beyoncé downloaders wasn't a brilliant idea, the Digital Economy Bill has become dominated by a vocal minority, the so-called creative industries, with other equally important voices marginalised or ignored completely. The more biased the Bill becomes, the more determined the Government appears to rush it onto the statute books.
As far as the copyright industries are concerned, the whole thing's a done deal: in a leaked email obtained by Boing Boing, BPI Director of Public Affairs Richard Mollet points out that the Bill will probably go through while everybody's attention is elsewhere. "Come the week of Second Reading (29th March) the main political focus is likely to be on the Finance Bill," he writes, "the Budget having been announced on the 24th".
That will definitely be the case if we don't do something about it. This is a bad Bill and it's going to become bad law - but there's still time to stop it.
Ironically the same proximity to the election that's helping rush this Bill onto the statute books can also help destroy it, because when a hung parliament is a distinct possibility every single vote matters. Why not make it abundantly clear to your MP that this is a vote loser?
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Windows Phone 7 won't support full multitasking
Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series will not support full multitasking, with critics likening this important feature omission to Apple's iPhone.
For Windows Phone 7 Series, the OS will process Microsoft's core integrated experiences, including music and phone calls, in the background, but NOT those of third-party apps – very much like the iPhone.
Unless you have jailbroken your iPhone, you will only be able to run certain things (such as the iPod music option) in the background while you do other stuff on the device, such as surfing the web via the Safari browser.
Not the end
Windows Phone 7 Series will, however, support push-notifications so that third-party apps can send you updates and status messages when the app itself is not running in the background.
In comparison, Google's Android and Palm's WebOS both support much-improved multitasking, allowing numerous third-party apps to run in the background.
And don't worry WiPho fans - this isn't Microsoft's final stance on third party multi-tasking - it's just designed so the first release doesn't go all unstable and eat your battery.
Charlie Kindel, Manager of Microsoft's Windows Phone App Platform and Developer Experience program says the decision to not support full background processing was related to battery-life:
"We do not allow third-party applications running on the phone to execute in the background," he told Wired.com. "We're poised to support it eventually, but in order to support great battery life and great end-user experience, we're focusing on the integrated experiences first."
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Namco brings 4-player Pac-Man to the arcade
Namco Bandai has been showing off a new multi-player arcade version of its classic Pac-Man, called Pac-Man Battle Royale.
Arcade Heroes spotted the new Pac-Man arcade game at this year's Amusement Expo 2010.
Namco was celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, showing off two Pac-Man Battle Royale cabinets at the recent event in Vegas.
Arcade Heroes notes that "while the game has intention of showing up in bars, it will work anywhere and it is not actually like Pac-Man CE at all, except for the graphics and changing mazes.
Eat your mates
Fundamentally, this new Pac Man game is not about scoring the highest score, but about beating (and eating) your mates.
You can see Namco's beautiful arcade cabinet demo'ed in the YouTube video right below these words.
It's due for release in September. TechRadar will be badgering Namco to find out when and where we might get a go on one in the UK later this year.
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Review: PC Specialist Fusion HDX 965
Here we have a new, fully AMD based offering from PC Specialist in the form of the Fusion HDX 965 desktop gaming PC that costs a perfectly agreeable £900. Things are beginning to get crowded at the £1,000 price point.
A couple of months ago, YOYOtech's Warbird i750 picked up the coveted PCF Gold Award with an £800 HD 5850 Core i5 machine and last month the Cryo Quad i5 made the logical step of propping up a similarly specced rig with an HD 5870 and reaped the rewards.
This month, PC Specialist has landed in the middle with a full AMD rig to take them both on. The key to this Fusion HDX 965 is the HD 5870 humming away in the depths of the surprisingly colourful In Win chassis. That's the component that's garnering the impressive gaming performance stats, and marks this machine out as a quality, mid-range gaming rig.
So it's the racehorse chic of the high-end graphics card that's going to be getting a lot of the attention then, but it's the other AMD components sitting in this sensibly built little PC that have enabled PC Specialist to hit the heights of graphical splendour and still keep the price this far below £1,000.
The top CPU from AMD is still less than £150, so that frees up a lot of the budget, and the AMD 770 chipset motherboard is a bargain too. The switch from Core i5 to Phenom II has kept costs down, but there's a massive performance hit on anything remotely CPU-intensive.
There's none of the i7 Hyperthreading to contend with, giving us a straight quad vs quad fight, but the i5 is the phenomenal processor and makes the Phenom II look like a midget with a limp compared to the long-legged Intel sprinter.
Game on
But for a gamer, this is less of a concern than the performance of the GPU. Thanks to the way in which multi-threading is handled in PC games (generally not at all in-game), the Phenom II is able to keep pace, with the HD 5870 doing most of the grunt work.
That said, the Warbird with the HD 5850 and Core i5 gets close to the performance of the Fusion, so you end up with a conundrum. In gaming terms you're only dropping single-digit framerates with the Warbird, though the lack of a bundled OS means you'll be paying the same price as you would for the Fusion.
In processing terms though, the Core i5 is a generation ahead of AMD's best chip and the 1156 socket should give you a modicum of future-proofi ng. The Fusion has no factory overclocking, so some judicious tweaking could push those figures up.
However, the 965 doesn't have the headroom you'd need to match Intel. In sub-£1,000 terms then, the Warbird still has our vote, but if you've got a little more ready cash then Cryo's Quad i5 has the aspirational end sewn up.
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Virgin Media unveils new HD V box
Virgin Media has unveiled its brand new V box, and it signals the company's move to HD for all of its customers at no extra cost.
The latest V box is a non-PVR option for Virgin Media's customers, with the replacement for the V+ PVR likely to coincide with the arrival of the TiVo software later in the year.
But the V box is a big stride forward for the company, signalling the growing HD offering of the company, and bringing a host of high definition channels for no extra monthly fee.
Cisco-made and 3D ready
The 3D-ready Cisco-made box includes HDMI, SCART, USB and Ethernet ports, and an energy efficient standby mode.
Virgin Media's executive director of digital entertainment, Cindy Rose, said: "We want to make the best High Definition TV available to more people at affordable prices and without the additional monthly subscription fee.
"If you really love telly you'll probably want our V+HD box because then you can then record programmes on up to two channels while simultaneously watching another.
No extra fee
"Our new V HD Box is ideal for anyone who wants to experience the power of HD without the extra monthly fee," Rose added
"We think our superb range of TV content gives our customers a real choice and makes Virgin Media the best value TV offering available."
Customers can pre-register for the V HD Box and find out more about Virgin Media's HD products and services at: www.virginmedia.com/hd.
TiVo partnership looming
With the TiVo partnership on the horizon, this is a box that makes it clear that Virgin is mounting a full scale assault on Sky.
An overt mention of '3D Ready' shows that Virgin Media is not dodging the 3D band-wagon, but it is the increasing relevance of HD to the audience that is made most clear.
Virgin Media has announced a raft of new HD channels this year, although it remains some way behind Sky's offering, but the cable company does have the added bonus of an ultra fast fibre-optic network that can offer superfast broadband.
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Samsung unveils 'new' mobile running Windows Phone 7 Series
Samsung has joined its Korean rival LG by showing off a mobile running Windows Phone 7 Series.
At the recent MIX2010 event, Samsung executives were on hand to chat about the new Windows Phone 7 Series - but they had a little surprise waiting as well.
IntoMobile managed to snag one of the suits and ask about the company's plans for the new Windows Phone 7 Series OS - and it just so happened that they had a phone on hand to show it off.
Rebooting
But here's the interesting part - what was shown off appears to be a Samsung i8910HD (with new button icons) running Microsoft's new mobile OS.
This makes us think that the company simply wanted to have some device to match LG - and the phone showed off won't be the final release.
Of course, it could be that the i8910HD is the perfect chassis for WPS7 - after all, you'd only need to up the resolution slightly and increase the processor speed and the rest is taken care of.
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Review: Kingston SSDNOW V+ Gen 2 128GB
Flogging SSDs can be a tricky business and Kingston knows this better than most. The problem begins with the fact that the key components inside any given solid state drive are only produced by a handful of companies. That's because the development and engineering of the flash memory and controller chipsets is complex stuff.
Despite the scores of SSD brands on offer, most of them are therefore pretty similar under the hood. This means that outfits such as Kingston must take third-party hardware off the shelf and are at the mercy of their suppliers.
The original Kingston SSDNow V 40GB drive is the classic example. Based on Intel's second generation SSD technology, it was a great drive at a brilliant price. But when Intel refused to allow Kingston access to a crucial firmware update that added support for the highly desirable TRIM command, it effectively killed it stone dead.
Officially, Kingston says there are no hard feelings and that it plans to continue producing SSDs in partnership with Intel. That may well be, but we can't help noticing that this new SSDNow V+ is based on Toshiba rather than Intel tech. Actually, it's a little more complicated than that, because this is the second revision of the V+ Series.
The first had Samsung gubbins inside, and spotting the difference comes down to the part numbers. The old Samsung-based drive is the SNVP225-S2B, whereas this new Tosh-equipped example is the SNVP325-S2B. Confusing stuff, but let's focus on what this new model has to offer.
Apart from a satisfyingly robust metal chassis, the highlights begin with SATA II support. That's a nice feature given that SSDs are becoming so fast that the old SATA I interface is increasingly turning into a performance bottleneck.
But the really important bit is the new Toshiba T6UG1XBG controller. It's a brand new chip fabbed in 43nm silicon, and it enables Kingston to lay down impressive 230MB/s sequential read and 180MB/s sequential write performance claims. It also supports TRIM out of the box. No need to worry about Toshiba holding out on that one, then.
Fighting TRIM
In our testing, we duly confirmed that TRIM was fully present and functional. Likewise, we extracted peak sequential read and write figures that are pretty much in line with Kingston's claims.
Things get a little more complicated when you factor in more nuanced performance metrics, including random writing of small data sets: the so-called 4K benchmarks.
Here, the new V+ Series fares noticeably worse than the old Intel-based 40GB V Series. It's also a few clicks behind key competitors such as the Indilinxpowered Patriot Torqx 128GB. That said, it stands up to the likes of Corsair's Samsung-derived P128 in 4K tests.
It's difficult to say exactly how much weight you should ascribe to such benchmark results. The subjective user experience is ultimately what counts, and in initial testing the new V+ Series certainly enables responsive, stutter-free computing.
As with all current SSDs, however, there are still some lingering doubts regarding performance in the long term.
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Fly across Mars in virtual 3D on YouTube
It is likely that you will not get the chance to visit Mars in your lifetime. Unless, that is, you are a billionaire set to live till the year 2050 or beyond!
However, a new project has accurately mapped a 3D visualisation of martian terrain, providing one of the most accurate 3D animations of the red planet ever seen.
British animation breakthrough
The latest vision of Mars comes from British 3D animator Doug Ellison, who has created a virtual camera that flies 300 feet above the martian terrain in the southwest corner of Candor Chasima and the immense Valles Marineris canyon system.
"After looking at hundreds of pictures of Mars over the years, this visualization made me realize how alien the martian terrain really is," notes Discovery News' Ray Villard. "Yes, as on Earth aeolian and hydrological processes sculpt Mars, but it's all in 1/3rd gravity! So the towering spires, steep sand dunes, buttes and other features look spindly."
The virtual 3D martian terrain was built from a comparison of pairs of NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE views
The animator has now set up a fascinating YouTube channel called MARS3DdotCOM with other visualizations for you to marvel at.
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Sky has bought 15,000 LG 3D TVs
Sky has bought 15,000 of LG's 3D television sets in order to kit out venues across the UK with what it sees as the next generation of entertainment.
Korean electronics giant LG announced that a strategic partnership has been formed in which Sky has bought massive amounts of the company's 3DTV sets ahead of the launch in pubs of its Sky 3D channel in April.
"LG Electronics, a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics and appliances, today announced a strategic partnership with Britain's largest pay-television provider, British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC (Sky), to supply TVs for Sky's live 3D broadcasts," said LG
"The deal to supply the broadcaster with 15,000 3D TVs is the largest deal of its kind. Sky plans to install the TVs in public venues across the UK in advance of plans to broadcast weekly Premier League matches in 3D beginning this spring."
Test screening
A screening of Manchester United's visit to Arsenal provided a test screening in a handful of pubs, but the satellite giant is keen to push the technology into more venues.
To that end it has set up a showcase at Westfield shopping centre in London, and plans to roll out a hundred more to introduce the public to 3D TVs.
A pub only channel –mainly showing a weekly Premiership match but also other key events – launches soon, with a publicly available Sky 3D channel on track for the latter half of 2010.
Strategic
A partnership with LG, a company keen to stay at the cutting edge of the 3D explosion, will no doubt help both companies get out their messages.
LG has also sealed deals with the Valuable group in India and CBS in the US for sporting events.
"LG wants to enable more customers to experience 3D TV technology in action," said Havis Kwon, Executive Vice President and head of the LCD division of LG.
"Watching live 3D sports broadcasts in public areas brings fans as close to the game as possible without having to step into the stadium.
These partnerships will help consumers become more familiar with 3D TVs and that can only be a positive for the industry and innovation."
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Microsoft says costly Blu-ray put PS3 at disadvantage
Microsoft has claimed that the lack of a Blu-ray player in the Xbox 360 has been the key to its sales success when compared with Sony's PlayStation 3.
Microsoft's Xbox Product Director Aaron Greenberg says that the Xbox 360 has "nearly twice" PS3's installed base in the US – in part because its lack of a Blu-Ray drive, which means that the console can be produced for far less cost and thus sold on to the consumer at a much more attractive price point.
Sony bet on the physical
The Xbox 360 "being $100 cheaper [than PS3] is part of the reason we're nearly twice their installed base" says Greenberg.
"Sony bet on the physical disc, and there are costs associated with that," Greenberg told Edge. "The fact that we're able to offer a console starting at $199 is a benefit of not being burdened with that cost.
"For us, our bet was on digital distribution, that was the future - the ability to [play] 1080p movies with no disc, no download required; we have the largest movie and TV library, the largest HD library of any console."
Microsoft's Director of Xbox and Entertainment Stephen McGill told CVG recently that the firm had "no plans" to adopt Blu-Ray drives into the Xbox 360.
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Critics accuse Digital Economy Bill of being 'rushed'
The controversial Digital Economy Bill has been approved by the House of Lords this week and critics claim the bill is being unduly rushed through parliament without sufficient debate or consideration.
The Bill contains the controversial 'three strikes' rule, whereby the government will ask ISPs to cut off those customers who music companies and rights holders claim to be persistent illegal filesharers. However, the government has recently backtracked somewhat on 'three strikes'.
Geoff Taylor, the Chief Executive of the British Phonographic Industry BPI still very much hopes that the bill will soon become law, telling The Guardian:
"It is vital for the future of the UK's creative sector that the digital economy bill becomes law before the dissolution of parliament. We are pleased that it has passed successfully through the Lords and will continue to work closely with all parties as it progresses."
Abuse of parliamentary process?
Critics remain unhappy with the way the bill has seemed to be rushed through parliament, with the Earl of Errol noting: "We have no idea what it looks like, and it seems to be an abuse of parliamentary process."
Executive Director of the Open Rights Group, Jim Killock, added: "Our elected MPs will have spent a whole two hours on this bill... before they disappear back to constituencies to ask for our vote. Meanwhile, a 'rump parliament' made up of retiring MPs and party whips will pass disconnection measures – with no actual debate."
One ISP that remains defiantly against the proposals in the bill is TalkTalk, with Andrew Heaney, Director of Strategy and Regulation for TalkTalk saying that, "the digital economy bill proposals create a new and unfair duty on broadband customers.
"It asks them to implement complex and expensive security measures on their connections to make it more difficult for their neighbours and others to use their connection for copyright infringement. The bill reverses the core principles of natural justice by requiring customers to prove their innocence."
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SXSWi 2010: Twitter announces @anywhere platform
Twitter has announced its '@anywhere' platform for websites,which allows site visitors to Tweet and follow from sites including Digg, Amazon and eBay. Check out the video at the bottom of the page.
Speaking at a keynote at SXSWi 2010 Twitter CEO Evan Williams explained how the new "highly anticipated" app platform would integrate Twitter into websites, so you could follow and tweet without having to go to Twitter itself. You will also be able to use Twitter to sign into the site.
Initially @anywhere will be implemented by sites including Amazon, AdAge, Bing, Citysearch, Digg, eBay, The Huffington Post, Meebo, MSNBC.com, The New York Times, Salesforce.com, Yahoo!, and YouTube.
Twitter promises that @anywhere will be simple for site owners to implement as rather than using APIs, site owners need only "drop in a few lines of JavaScript."
Williams said that there were "no real rules" about how site owners should use the frameworks and they were leaving it to developers to decide. "There's a lot that can be done with this that we can't anticipate," he said.
Twitter is certainly excited about the frameworks, saying in a blog post "Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo home page."
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Nvidia 3DTV Play links up a PC to a 3D TV
Nvidia is doing the rounds with Panasonic in the US at the moment, showing off its barrage of 3D-enabled kit.
On its travels it's introduced some software which will upgrade a GeForce GPU-enabled PC or notebook to play 3D content through a 3D TV.
Called simply 3DTV Play, the software package enables PCs which have a HDMI or DVI connection the ability to pipe Full HD 3D content to 3D Ready TV, bringing Nvidia's 3D content to the big screen.
This content includes the range of 3D games on the market – including Batman: Arkham Asylum and Avatar: The Game – and it will also be compatible with the upcoming launch of Blu-ray 3D titles.
Awesome technology
"Nvidia is a premier choice for gamers, and 3D Vision TV delivers an easy way for them to game on the big screen, for the ultimate, immersive experience," said Bob Perry, Senior Vice President, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company, who is partnering Nvidia on the 3D tour.
"We're pleased that NVIDIA shares our commitment to providing awesome technology to savvy consumers, and we are happy to offer NVIDIA the opportunity to highlight their 3D solution as part of our nationwide road show."
The price for the software is $39.99 (about £26) and it will be launched in the spring. This price drops right down to nothing if you already have Nvidia 3D Vision, however, as the company is offering an upgrade for free.
As for a UK release date, we have been assured that it will be coming to Europe at some point but there is nothing official at the moment.
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1 comment:
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