Digital Economy Bill success brings PEGI to the fore
With the Digital Economy Bill now being given Royal Assent, PEGI is officially the new classification system for video games.
The argument between Elspa and PEGI rocked gaming in the UK, but one of the less controversial clauses in the Digital Economy Bill will finally see the PEGI system become the sole classification for gaming.
Elspa's Michael Rawlinson said: "This is a huge victory for child safety, Elspa and the games industry."
Long campaign
"It is the culmination of a 2-and-a-half-year campaign based on hard work, commitment and determination," he added.
"At the beginning of the campaign no-one gave us a chance of success following the initial Byron Review and the DCMS Select Committee findings - both of which preferred the sole classification of videogames to be awarded to the BBFC.
"A combination of a highly skilled political strategy coupled by the commitment of our board and members has seen us claim a victory against all the odds.
"This achievement once again reflects how far Elspa has travelled over the last five years in changing the attitudes of Parliament towards the games industry."
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Digital Economy Bill given Royal Assent
The controversial Digital Economy Bill has made its final pass through the House of Lords and into Law after being granted Royal Assent.
Although, technically, the monarchy can prevent Acts of Parliament from going through it doesn't really happen any more, and even if Queen Elizabeth II was a staunch Pirate Bay supporter it would not have been blocked.
The Bill was pushed through the House of Commons late on Wednesday in a period when Parliament is about to be dissolved and few are present to debate or veto Bills.
Despite the controversial nature of the bill and criticism from the Lib Dems and some high profile MPs, the government and the opposition did a deal which saw MPs from both parties troop through to agree with the bill and win the vote.
Clause 8
That included the controversial Clause 8 which Google has strongly objected to - and hands the government the power to block sites that are 'likely to be used for or in connection with an activity that infringes copyright."
This wording could of course apply to the likes of Google or WikiLeaks which act as conduits through to sites that offer up copyrighted material.
With the Conservatives not likely to overturn the bill should they get into power at the next general election, and the Labour party in government it looks likely that the new laws are here to stay.
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HTC 'Courier' dual-screen patent appears
A patent has been filed by HTC that suggests the company is working on a dual screen folding device that looks remarkably similar to the Microsoft Courier concept that has ignited the web.
HTC has established itself as one of the stellar performers in mobile tech, with phones like the HTC HD2 and Desire, and could well be looking to move up among the netbooks, tablets and MIDs.
The patent filing was outed by Chinese language site Zol, and kindly translated by Gadget Mix.
Dual-screen bandwagon
The dual screen layout is not something that only the Microsoft Courier concept has used, of course, with people like OLPC also jumping on the double touch-screen bandwagon, and Nintendo's DS well established in the gaming world.
But given HTC's success with smartphones, with responsive touchscreens and the widely appreciated Sense UI adaptation of the Android OS, its devices are riding high at the moment.
The device will open out into a single screen – although the hinges look a little cumbersome – and the bottom screen will turn into a keyboard.
Businessphone, iPad rival or mobile internet device? You decide.
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Exclusive: Nokia open to DRM-free Comes with Music for UK
Nokia's decision to make its unlimited Comes with Music download service DRM-free in China first raised some eyebrows, and TechRadar has spoken to the Finnish firm to find out why.
The good news is this move may be replicated in other territories, meaning tunes would no longer be locked to a computer and a single phone.
Doug Dawson, head of media relations at Nokia, told TechRadar that the Chinese market was so rife with piracy that making music DRM-free would at least help against viruses and low quality files:
"This is the first time Comes with Music is DRM-free. We believe a DRM-free model offers a business solution to the unique Chinese music market where piracy has had a stronghold to date," he said.
Improving the quality
"In addition to music being free – and legal – I should also point out that Comes With Music offers music fans in China a better quality, virus-free experience. High quality sound, full album art, correct metadata among others.
"Regarding the UK, today's DRM-free announcement relates only to China. While I can't provide details of future launches, I can say we are always evaluating, innovating and evolving our business model to deliver a compelling offering for every market in which we operate."
We really hope that Nokia's Comes with Music service does come without DRM locks soon - then it would be a truly great opponent for Spotify, with a simple upfront payment making it a real proposition, especially when coupled with Symbian^3.
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FirstPlay goes live for PlayStation 3 owners
With the roll out of the latest PlayStation upgrade, FirstPlay – Europe's first on-console show – has arrived, offering high definition gaming content, video reviews and previews.
Brought about by TechRadar's publisher Future, FirstPlay will be available to UK gamers through Sony's PlayStation 3 console from the PlayStation Network for 99p an episode or £8.99 for a 90-day subscription.
Highlights in the first episode include a review of Just Cause 2 including an exclusive in-game item, an in depth look at God of War III, and a preview at EA's Fifa World Cup 2010.
Interactive gallery
Plus, there's an interactive gallery function, including screenshots and artwork from Formula One 2010, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and Red Dead Redemption.
"Gamers can use each image as an XMB background wallpaper and also find out more about the games thanks to the accompanying audio captions," said Future.
"With a vast variety of content available through the PlayStation Network, FirstPlay's Network Highlights section brings a round-up of the latest PlayStation Minis, films and digital comics in a weekly package."
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Sky announces 3D Premier League games for April
Sky has confirmed the Premier League matches to be broadcast this month in 3D, with the Manchester derby probably the highest profile fixture.
Sky's 3D project has started promisingly following its launch last week, with pubs quick to bring in the 3D televisions and glasses needed to display the technology. And the company has now announced which matches will be shown in the coming weeks.
The four confirmed live 3D fixtures are:
- Sun 11 April Blackburn Rovers v Manchester United
- Wed 14 April Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal
- Sat 17 April Manchester City v Manchester United
- Sun 25 April Chelsea v Stoke City
Commenting on the latest 3D announcement, Brian Lenz, Sky's Director of Product Design and TV Product Development said: "As the title race builds to its dramatic conclusion, football fans nationwide will be able to see all three main challengers live in 3D this month.
"Last Saturday over a hundred thousand people witnessed the ground breaking launch of Sky 3D.
"Many thousands more will experience 3D in pubs over the months ahead, as we build towards our launch to Sky+HD homes."
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Google hits out at Digital Economy Bill
Google has hit out at the Digital Economy Bill, with specific criticism for the controversial Clause 8 which gives governmental powers to block websites that are 'likely to be used' for infringing copyright.
Clause 8 was criticised in the House of Commons as the bill was passed on for a third reading in the House of Lords before it is rubber-stamped as law.
The Liberal Democrats and Labour MP Tom Watson – who fiercely opposed the bill's shortcomings – argued against the clause which allows the secretary of state for business to block "a location on the internet which the court is satisfied has been, is being or is likely to be used for or in connection with an activity that infringes copyright".
Fall foul
Google was put forward by the Lib Dems' Don Foster as an example of a website which could feasibly be considered to fall foul of this woolly wording, and the company has indeed made its feeling known.
"The proposals to introduce website blocking - now included in Clause 8 - have escaped proper scrutiny," said an official statement from Google.
"They were introduced 24 hours before a crucial vote in the House of Lords, without a full debate over whether such a policy is right in principle.
"We absolutely believe in the importance of copyright, but blocking through injunction creates a high risk that legal content gets mistakenly blocked, or that people abuse the system."
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Fifa snubs England with 3D World Cup plans
Sony and Fifa unveiled their 3D plans for this summer's football World Cup and immediately had to justify the decision not to show any of England's group games.
Fifa announced a partnership with Sony to film the World Cup in 3D and sell broadcast rights at the end of last year, but the list of 'carefully chosen' matches does not include any of England's group matches, meaning that only qualification to the later rounds will see the nation feature in 3D.
Fifa's director of TV, Niclas Ericson, conceded that England's enticing game against the USA was one of the World Cup's 'hot' matches, but blamed logistics and the need to show 'key' matches.
To rub salt into the wound, Fifa revealed that it was not planning on trying to find a broadcaster of the live 3D footage in the UK beyond selected cinemas, meaning that Sky's 3D channel will not be screening the footage.
Key matches?
"You might be curious to know why [sic] the selection criteria," said Ericson at the European launch.
"It is a very difficult one but the main issue was that we wanted to have a good spread of the matches in terms of matchdays covered.
"We also wanted to make sure that the key games would be in this production schedule such as the opening, the final stage matches and, of course, the final in Soccer City.
"There were a lot of other reasons such as production reasons and logistics and space.
"Some of you here I'm sure will wonder why…England versus USA is not being used.
"It's a very hot match on June 12 and [it] is not possible to do it because of the various constraints that we have.
"But we feel you should not despair. England will make it through the final rounds and then we will show that."
What about a broadcaster?
Some will point to the fact that no less than three of Brazil's group games are being shown, and two of Spain's, Argentina's, Germany's, Holland's, and Nigeria's, although hosts South Africa are only featured once.
As co-rights-holders, ITV and the BBC will be the only broadcasters to show the World Cup matches, and neither has suggested any plans for a 3D channel.
Sky 3D is already beginning to make it into UK homes, but those annoyed that the matches will not be screened in 3D can at least rest assured that Fifa had decided not to show any England group games anyway.
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In Depth: 10 things the iPad totally sucks at
Apple's iPad is good for many things - not least starting huge fights on the internet - but in much the same way Daleks can't climb stairs there are some things it's completely rubbish at.
From software freedom to simple expansion, here are some of the chinks in the iPad's armour.
1. Free software
That's "free" as in "free speech", of course. Apple's iron grip on its App Store means that for developers, it's Apple's way or the highway. If you don't like that idea, you might want to wait for an Android tablet, HP Slate or Microsoft's Courier.
BOOTED: Apple's approval process continues to generate headlines, with apps being booted out of the App Store when policies change
2. Streaming video
Yes, Apple's persuaded a few of the bigger online media firms to stream in iPad-friendly formats instead of Flash, but the reality is that outside Steve Jobs' head, most streaming video online is still in Flash format.
NO-LU: An iPad-friendly app may be coming, but like many big sites Hulu's streaming video is in Flash
3. Upgrading
The iPad isn't designed to be upgraded, so if you run out of storage space then tough luck. If you think of it as a big iPod rather than a little computer then the lack of expandability should be less annoying.
4. Saving the newspaper industry
For traditional media, the iPad simply isn't closed enough: as long as it's got mobile Safari and there are decent RSS readers such as Reeder in the App Store, the iPad will be a brilliant way to get news for nowt.
FREE NEWS: Bad news for Rupert Murdoch: apps such as Instapaper make the iPad a brilliant aggregator of free online news
5. Prolonged typing
We predicted this ages ago, and early reviews say we're right: if you're used to normal typing, the iPad means sore hands-o-rama unless you use a separate keyboard. The on-screen keyboard is best suited to the occasional bit of hunt-and-peck typing. If Mavis Beacon were real and dead, she'd be spinning in her grave.
6. Dirty movies
Don't be fooled by press releases promising iPad porn or the presence of a wipe-clean screen: Flash remains the filthmongers' favoured format for filthy flicks, which means it's off-limits for iPad-toting smut surfers.
7. Widescreen movies
Remember when TVs had an aspect ratio of 4:3, giving you a choice of cutting the sides off movies or zooming out so far that half your screen was black? Now you can experience the same thing all over again thanks to the iPad's cutting edge aspect ratio of, er, 4:3!
BARRED: The iPad's 4:3 aspect ratio means you'll either see a lot of black bars, or you'll be watching films that crop Spock's ears
8. Chatroulette
No Flash + no camera = no chatroulette. Which, admittedly, is probably a good thing. As is the lack of video chat, which would make you look really chinny unless you held the iPad over your head.
9. Sunny days
OK, it's not a huge problem in the UK, but the combination of a shiny screen, a backlit display and sunshine means that nice weather makes the iPad hard to read - especially compared to e-ink devices such as Amazon's Kindle or Sony's reader. Or a book.
10. Proper work
The iPad is primarily about consuming content, not creating it. Doing proper work isn't there yet: for example, Pages strips out some data from documents - such as footnotes and endnotes - can overwrite the original file when you sync back with your computer and doesn't have a word count. And expecting you to Sync with iTunes when you want to print a document is just silly.
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Nokia finally launches DRM-free Comes with Music
Nokia has announced that it will be bringing a new version of its Comes with Music unlimited MP3 download service without DRM - but only in China.
Nokia has been offering its CwM service for over a year in Europe, but has now made the move into the massive Chinese market.
Quite why the brand has chosen this territory as the first place to make CwM DRM free we don't know, especially given the more prevalent file-sharing that goes on.
Comes on many mobiles
CwM will be available in China with the purchase of eight devices, including the Nokia X6 (32GB and16GB flavours), Nokia 5230, Nokia 5330, Nokia 5800w, Nokia 6700s, Nokia E52 and Nokia E72i.
Prices will start from 140 Euros (£120) excluding local taxes and subsidies, meaning it's a pretty good deal for all you can eat music on some of these phones.
We've contacted Nokia to see if the same thing will be coming to the UK ; if it did, the service would probably see a massive uptake whereas consumers have been mostly disinterested in the current CwM offering.
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Nvidia faces shortage of Fermi parts
Nvidia faces manufacturing problems which could mean a shortage of its new Fermi chips later this spring.
The graphics chip specialist admitted that it was facing potential parts shortages earlier this week.
Smaller, faster, cheaper
The chips are manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) via a 40-nanometer manufacturing process, which makes the chips smaller, faster and cheaper than those produced via the older 55-nm process.
Jen-Hsun Huang, Chief Executive of Nvidia, speaking at an analyst meeting at the company's Californian HQ said: "From a supply perspective, we wish we had more 40-nm capacity.
"We are working with TSMC really closely. They are doing a fab job. Yields are improving. Capacities are improving. But we are finding it hard to keep up. Everyone is clamoring to have Fermis out the door. We are working really hard to get Fermis out the door."
Gross profit margins on 55-nm chips are about 30 per cent, while those on 40-nm chips are around 40 per cent.
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Dell launches new VoIP-friendly laptops
Dell is set to launch a new range of laptops with much-improved microphones for internet telephony use with VoIP services such as Skype and the soon-to-be-launched new version of Google Voice.
Dell's new Latitude E-Family laptops launch in the US this week. The Dell E6410 has a 14-inch screen, the Dell E6510 has a 15-inch screen and the Dell E6410ATG is built All feature the latest Core i5 and Core i7 Intel CPUs.
Digital-array microphones
Notably, all the new laptops from Dell come with digital-array microphones, to capture your voice better for making VoIP calls.
Dell's Senior Product Marketing Manager Patrick Burns highlighted that the new laptops also feature a button for instantly accessing your email or your company website before the machine has fully booted-up.
The new range is squarely focused on the business user, with Dell clearly hoping that the upturn in the economy will see more companies upgrading their employees' laptops.
International Data Corp. estimates that corporate laptop unit sales will grow 27 percent in the next three years.
Via Venturebeat
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In Depth: 5 easy ways to keep your drivers up-to-date
Unexpected crashes, spontaneous reboots, poor performance, sleep and hibernation issues - buggy drivers are a major cause of all kinds of PC problems. And so updating them occasionally can deliver very real speed and stability benefits.
You could try to do this manually, sign up for endless newsletters, and make daily visits to your hardware manufacturer's websites, waiting for the latest driver releases to appear. But if you prefer an easy life then it may be a better idea to get in some third-party help.
There are now plenty of utilities that will scan your PC for installed drivers, report on any that have updates available, and in some cases even download and install them for you, at a click - much more convenient.
This ease of use can lead to problems, though. What if the program downloads the wrong driver, or messes up the installation process? It's important to choose your driver update tool with care, then, so to help you out we've been running some intensive tests - and the following programs are our current top five.
1. DriverMax - Free
The free version of DriverMax quickly scanned our test PCs, correctly identified their outdated drivers, and displayed this information in a rather limited browser-based report.
There's no option to simultaneously download all the drivers you need - and, in fact, a free DriverMax account only entitles you to a couple of downloads a day - so you'll probably have to choose the drivers you'd like to update first.
A click on the Download link takes you to a page with more information on your selected driver, and messages from other DriverMax users relating their experiences with the update. Which can be a little worrying, if they're relating some PC disaster, but on balance is still a good thing: this public feedback brings a transparency that you don't get with other products.
A couple more clicks and our chosen drivers were queued up, downloaded and installed faultlessly. The DriverMax interface isn't too great, then, and the free version has more than its share of restrictions, but the program delivered when it mattered, correctly identifying out outdated drivers and reliably installing their replacements. Factor in some useful driver backup and restore options and DriverMax is definitely worth a look.
2. Driver Genius Professional Edition - $29.95
Driver Genius Professional features a clean and clear interface that makes it very easy to use, and we quickly had the program scanning our system for update issues. After a very speedy checkup, little more than 30 seconds, it returned with a detailed report on our drivers. This missed a couple of lesser updates on one system - a "USB 2.0 card reader", and an "HID-compliant mouse" - but successfully noted everything else.
A click on the Download All button and Driver Genius Professional quickly grabbed the files we needed. We then clicked Install, and after accepting the program's sensible suggestion to back up our existing drivers (which then unfortunately took an extraordinarily long time), it unpacked the downloaded drivers and launched the setup program. This wasn't an automatic process, as we had to work our way through the usual installation programs, but there were no great complications and our system was soon updated.
Future upgrades might not be as successful, because by default Driver Genius Professional won't check for a new driver database. If you don't notice, then you'll constantly be checking against the older database, and so never find anything new. This can be fixed by changing a setting in the Options dialog, though, and the program then works more as you'd expect.
We had a few issues with Driver Genius, then, but on balance its ease of use, accuracy and focus on backups and keeping you safe means the program still earns a thumbs up from us.
3. Nvidia Smart Scan - free
Nvidia's new Smart Scan is a browser-based service that will check your PC's graphics and motherboard drivers, and let you know if there are any updates available. Smart Scan will only work with NVIDIA products, obviously (and the service doesn't run on Windows 7), but if that applies to your system then it's still worth considering: if you're upgrading something as vital as your motherboard drivers, then it's particularly important to ensure you get them from a reliable source.
The scanning process is straightforward. Point your browser at www.nvidia.com/Download/PreScan.aspx (IE, Firefox and Netscape are supported), choose whether you're checking graphics or motherboard drivers, and the site will fire up an ActiveX or Java component to do the hard work.
A few seconds later, we had our results. These were a little odd in places, so for instance the site thought our graphics driver was version "0.0", but maybe that's because Smart Scan is still in beta. In any event, despite the quirks, the service still managed to correctly identify an update that we needed. And it was a brand new update that hadn't filtered through to most of the other programs we'd tested, so in this instance, at least, Smart Scan was ahead of the pack.
Once you've got your list of updates then there's no automatic install, unsurprisingly, just a link to the usual driver download page where you can grab the files you need yourself. That's easy enough, though, and so despite its limited scope, Smart Scan is still a useful tool for PCs with nForce motherboards.
4. Device Doctor - free
Its authors say Device Doctor "was designed to be very simple and easy to use", and we'd say they achieved their goal. There's no toolbar here, no complex menus or options, just a large "Begin Scan" button. Click that, and soon a list of available driver updates appears; click the Download button for each driver and you're taken to a web page with a download link. It's all very straightforward.
This bare bones approach does mean the program can't help you as much as some of the competition, though. There's no option to back up and restore your drivers, for instance. And while you're advised to create a system restore point before installing an update, you'll have to do this manually - Device Doctor can't assist.
In addition, the program warns that "previously updated chipset drivers may continue to appear in the list of results", and that was the case with us. We were presented with an update, downloaded and installed it, scanned again, and - the update was still there. A little annoying.
Despite these oddities, there's plenty to like about Device Doctor - it's straightforward to use, with reliable scans, and is entirely free for everyone. Sounds good to us.
5. DriverEasy - free for personal use
Click its big green "Scan Now" button and DriverEasy will go to work, checking your installed drivers against a central database. And within around a minute on our test PCs, it was back, apparently having detected 22 potential updates - more than any other program we reviewed. So that's good, right?
Well, not entirely. Essentially DriverEasy was listing devices that required updates, even if they all used the same driver. When we got to the download page it revealed that we only needed six files, much the same as the other tools here. And so don't simply assume that the program reporting the highest number of outdated drivers is necessarily the best: it's the files you must download that really matters.
Updating proved to be a step-by-step manual process, but was straightforward enough. Choose a driver and click Download to get the file; then, when it's arrived, click Install and follow the setup program instructions. This worked faultlessly for us, but there's a "report error" button within the program so you can let the authors know if there are any problems: hopefully they'll look into it and life will be easier for the next user.
Aside from the lengthy and misleading initial list of updates, then, DriverEasy did a very good job, correctly identifying all the key updates we needed and downloading them without any hassles. The fact that it's free for personal use is a major plus point, too, and makes DriverEasy our pick of the driver update tools.
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Google tests new version of Google Voice
Google is testing out a new version of its Google Voice VoIP application, set to launch soon as a competitor to market leader Skype.
Google acquired VoIP specialists Gizmo5 last November, a company that has developed a VoIP service that lets users make P2P VoIP calls as well as letting them make and receive calls via normal landlines and mobile phones.
Make and receive calls
Gizmo5's technology is set to make Google Voice far more appealing to users when the new version of the app finally launches at some point soon.
TechCrunch has now confirmed that Google has "now built a Google Voice desktop application to make and receive calls" which basically means that "from a user perspective, this will let Google Voice users take calls right from their desktop."
No word on exactly when this new version of Google Voice should arrive, but we will be sure to let you know as soon as we do.
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Gary Marshall: The Digital Economy Bill proves digital democracy doesn't work
You've got to admire the Digital Economy Bill. It made thousands of people pay attention to politics.
It encouraged thousands of so-called Digital Natives to watch live streams from the House of Commons.
It brought together writers and readers, bands and fans, designers and developers and creatives of every kind. And then, slowly and deliberately, it dropped its digital trousers and waved its digital arse at the lot of them.
If we've learnt one thing from the Digital Economy Bill fiasco, it's that you should never underestimate the idiocy and venality of politicians. With a few honourable exceptions our MPs ignored tens of thousands of letters from thousands of constituents and didn't bother to turn up for the debates.
Of the few MPs who did turn up, most of them said how bad the Bill was and what a shocking abuse of Parliament it was, which was why they were going to vote for it anyway. Some MPs clearly didn't have a clue what any of it was about, which was why they were going to vote for it. Some MPs were pretty convinced that the BIll's plans wouldn't work, which was why they were going to vote for it. And so, depressingly, on.
It'd be funny if it weren't so serious, because if you really wanted to fight piracy the last thing you'd do is wind up thousands of geeks who understand things like encryption.
If you were serious about protecting creativity you'd pay attention to the howls of horror from authors and analysts alike. If you wanted a balanced debate you wouldn't just rubber-stamp paragraphs written by the BPI, and trot out statistics that have long been discredited.
If you really cared about the digital economy you wouldn't introduce legislation that could kill public Wi-Fi, smother high-tech start-ups and get home businesses knocked off the net should the owner's kids download the odd file.
And if you wanted to be re-elected, you wouldn't alienate your most vocal potential voters.
What's really depressing about all of this isn't the Bill itself, although of course that's a travesty. It's that for the first time, thousands of us have seen how UK politics really works.
In the run-up to the so-called Digital Election the parties all talk about crowdsourcing, about online engagement, about bringing politics closer to the people, but that's all window dressing.
Behind the iPhone apps, the Twitter feeds, the YouTube channels and the Build Your Own Poster sites it's business as usual: empty heads, vested interests and utter contempt for the electorate.
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Digital Economy Bill 'a catastrophic disaster'
MPs in the House of Commons have passed the controversial Digital Economy Bill, despite accusations of a "stitch up" and former minister Tom Watson calling the bill a "catastrophic disaster".
The bill is an attempt to tackle the growing problem of illegal file-sharing online, but has come under a lot of criticism for promoting a 'three strikes' style penalty system for persistent offenders, whereby ISPs are required to police and – potentially – cut off their own customers.
Copyright holders will then also be able to apply for a court order to get the names and addresses of persistent filesharing offenders.
A catastrophic disaster
Former minister Tom Watson said the bill was a "catastrophic disaster" as it stands.
"There might be a deal with the Tory front bench and the Lib Dem front bench but there are 20,000 people who have taken the time to e-mail their MPs about this in the last seven days alone," Mr Watson said of the proposals.
"They are extremely upset that this bill will not have the scrutiny it deserves and requires."
The bill was approved by MPs by a majority of 142 votes and is now with the House of Lords for final approval.
The legislation is one of over 10 bills being considered by the government in what is called the "wash-up period" - the remaining time before the legislature is dissolved before a general election.
Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw said of the bill that: "Hundreds of millions of pounds every year is currently haemorrhaging from our creative industries because of unlawful file-sharing.
"This is not a harmless or victimless activity. It deprives our musicians, writers and film makers and other artists of their livelihoods and if we don't do something about it, it will pose a serious threat to our creative sectors and Britain's in them."
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IE9 team excited by HTML5's potential
Microsoft's IE9 team have explained the way in which the forthcoming browser will utilise hardware acceleration, and indicated their excitement about the use of HTML5.
In a detailed analysis post on the IE blog, Microsoft's Lead Program Manager for IE Performance Jason Weber showed off IE9's hardware acceleration in relation to the Flying Images feature, and how the browser's use of the graphics processor enabled a much richer experience.
"The first thing that you'll notice is that Internet Explorer 9 utilizes the GPU and is able to move the images in real-time at 60fps," comments Weber.
"More importantly, Internet Explorer 9 is able to achieve this real-time performance only using 12% of the total CPU and 15% of the total GPU.
"Using the CPU, Internet Explorer 9 can execute the machine code on each move to quickly determine the next location for the images and then move them through the CSS layout process.
"It then hands off the display of these images to the GPU, which through specialized hardware efficiently updates the screen. Since the CPU and GPU perform execution in parallel, additional computation can be occurring on the CPU while the GPU is updating the screen."
HTML5 excitement
Weber also talked about how excited the team is by the possibilities of HTML5, the next major revision of the markup language of the World Wide Web.
"It's clear that HTML5 will enable a new class of applications that were previously not possible through standards based markup, and these applications can't be limited by the performance of today's browsers," concluded Weber.
"Doing HTML5 right means enabling developers to build web applications that have the performance of desktop applications.
"That's our objective with Internet Explorer 9 and why we're so excited about hardware acceleration."
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Oceans of data added to Google Earth
Google has made a key change to Google Earth, opening up a layer of detail painstakingly assembled about the world's oceans.
A project was launched last year called Ocean in Google Earth aiming to include 3D maps of oceans, as well as videos, photos and scientific narrative.
With help from the Sylvia Earle's Mission Blue foundation and 'dozens of committed individuals around the world', Google has now reached the stage where it can make the information layer part of the default set of annotations seen by all Earth users.
Humble step
"Although a humble step given the dearth of information available about these vast expanses of geography, we are happy to take one more step to make the oceans a first-class part of Google Earth and to give them at least a starter portion of the thick soup of photos and places that describe the land part of the planet," explains Google.
"One of the greatest things about Earth is that it allows everyone to see and experience the fullness of their planet, from revisiting places they know well to venturing out to formerly unknown mountain peaks, desert vistas, and increasingly, the blue heart of life on Earth.
"As Sylvia has said of the Ocean on many occasions, 'With knowing comes caring, and with caring there's hope.'"
There is a narrative available for those who want an introduction to the new features at http://earth.google.com/ocean/showcase/#hope-spots.
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Nvidia CEO is delighted with iPad success
Chief Executive Officer of graphics' giant Nvidia, Jen-Hsun Huang, has expressed his delight at the initial success of Apple's iPad, claiming that 2010 is going to be a year of new tablet PC and 3D technologies.
Huang told the company's annual analysts meeting that all of these trends favour visual computing and that the success of Apple's iPad points the way to a bright near future for Nvidia's own graphics and mobile graphics technologies.
The best is yet to come
"I am really delighted to see the success of Apple," said the Nvidia boss. "And now we can take it from there forward and innovate all around that. We have seen the first of the tablets. But we haven't seen the best of it yet."
While Huang thinks that new tablet PCs will eat into the revenue generated by traditional keyboard-input computers, he doesn't think that they will ever replace the traditional laptop or desktop PC.
Nvidia recently launched Fermi, its next-graphics chip, with Fermi devices set to be released in the near future.
"What's different now is Fermi is in production," said Huang. "Two years ago, I was just fantasizing about it."
Nvidia is also set to launch its Tegra 2 mobile graphics chips later this year. The graphics specialist is also heavily promoting its 3D Vision technology for 3D gaming and Blu-ray viewing.
Via Venturebeat
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Guardian editor: iPad is an 'interim device'
Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has been one of the first Brits to spend some time with Apple's iPod device, branding the new tablet PC from Cupertino an 'interim device' and saying that the lack of Adobe Flash on the iPad is just 'perverse'.
These opinions matter far more than those from most other iPad reviewers to date, because they come from the editor of one of the world's most forward-thinking newspapers.
Rusbridger has been the driving force behing Guardian Unlimited over the last 20 years and somebody that has truly led the way in terms of creating a website and an array of mobile applications to supplement and complement a traditional print newspaper.
An interim device
Rusbridger also says that while he was immediately "incredibly excited by the beauty of it when I unwrapped it because it just has that 'wow' factor that all Mac products have" he then went "through a sort of lull and after ten minutes I couldn't figure out what to do with it, I was puzzled by the apps that were there already and I had a sort of 'lack of confidence' in it.
"And then I went home and loaded up lots more apps and after about five hours I began to see the point in it and enjoy it," adds the Guardian editor.
"Now whether I'm going to be completely convinced by it… I don't know… it feels like an interim product… a stepping stone to something else. It may be a little locked up to be ideal."
Rusbridger highlights the lack of a proper word processing app as something that he really missed on the iPad, although notes that "as a typing experience, it is not that bad."
He also sees the lack of Adobe Flash as a problem. It is a "very poor experience" in his opinion. "It does seem to me perverse… I'm sure Apple has their own power-logic reasons for banning Flash… but it does make the browser experience poorer."
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Exclusive: Sony unveils customisable iPod dock
Sony was showing a new customisable iPod dock device at this week's Gadget Show Live event at the Birmingham NEC, which uniquely gives users the opportunity to design the look of the sound system's front panel.
If you don't like your design for your new 'Sk8' iPod dock, then you can merely take out the paper that you have sketched or printed it on and try out another one.
Concept for kids
Sony reps were only able to tell us that the Sony Sk8 is currently still at the concept level and that there was no news on any plans for a commercial release just yet.
However, that said, there is already a listing online at HMV.com for the Sony Sk8, with pre-orders being taken for the device, priced by HMV at £169.99 with a planned release date of 1 June 2010.
It is certainly an interesting design strategy, and one which is bound to appeal to younger users who like to scrawl over and personalise their kit.
However, if that HMV pricing is anywhere near correct, the quality of the output is going to have to be something pretty special to warrant spending that amount of money on an iPod dock, with the iPod peripherals market being incredibly competitive.
We should hear more from Sony's Product Manager on the company's plans for Sk8 later this week, so stay tuned for updates right here.
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Sky bags Attenborough for 3D Flying Monsters
Sky has signed up the doyenne of nature documentaries Sir David Attenborough to write and present one of the broadcasters high profile forays into 3D – Flying Monsters 3D.
Attenborough's instantly familiar voice has become associated with the highest quality shows from the BBC, and his presence will add huge gravitas to the Sky show.
The film will be released theatrically in both large format and IMAX cinemas globally before making its television debut on Sky 3D – the UK's first dedicated 3D channel.
Pterosaurs
"The film focuses on pterosaurs - flying vertebrates with a wingspan of up to 45 feet who lived 200 million years ago," explains Sky.
"It will use cutting-edge 3D TV technology to bring the prehistoric world alive. Viewers will be immersed in the environment that these creatures - the size of small jet aeroplanes - inhabited."
Sky has already invested heavily in 3D – with its strength in producing sport and buying up top quality movie rights for television putting the company in a fine position for the arrival of mainstream 3D.
A true TV legend
Sir David Attenborough said: "Having learnt my television skills in the days of black and white, and been involved with the introduction of colour, I'm thrilled to be part of one of the first 3D television projects.
"3D is a wonderful way of seeing the world as the pterosaurs did, and it's to Sky's credit that they've taken on the challenge to be the first to broadcast in 3D.
"Pterosaurs are the most unlikely of creatures, but they dominated the skies for millions of years and now this film will enable us to fly in 3D with the largest flying creatures the world has ever seen."
The prospect of 3D, Sir David Attenborough AND flying dinosaurs might even be enough to convince us to go out and spend the premium for a 3D television.
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Updated: 6 things to know about iPhone OS 4.0 firmware
Apple is set to announce the next version of its iPhone software - cunningly named iPhone 4.0 - so we've had a dig around to find out what's likely to appear, and what this means for the next iPhone.
The questions have already started around this release – what will it be? What functionality will it bring? Why would Apple release this now, rather than the traditional March slot?
Well, we've dug around for some answers – here's what we know so far:
Multi-tasking
The iPhone has had a few foibles up until now, and those aren't ever likely to all be fixed. One issue we need to see fixed is the ability to actually do more than one thing at a time on the device, and the good news is that seems likely to happen.
However, we doubt it will be 'proper' multi-tasking the way EVERY OTHER smartphone does – BGR sources state it will be '"A few new ways" to run applications in the background'.
After the backdoor addition of push email in the last OS update, expect this to be much of the same, although there is some hope of a nice UI at least.
The new iPhone 4.0 software uses an Expose-like interface, so tapping the home button twice will open up a view of all the running icons, allowing switching or shutting down with ease.
It should be noted that hitting the home button twice on the HTC Desire and Legend brings up the 'Leap View' which is a lot like Expose, although this is for home screens rather than running apps.
Global mailbox and contact icons
One thing that a number of other smartphones have managed but Apple has been coy to add (sound familiar?) is the unified inbox – seeing all your accounts and emails in one place.
Good for those that want to group work and personal emails together, it basically allows a much easier way to organise your messages, according to Apple Insider.
Presumably this will come with an overhauled UI too, as well as folder options, else it could turn into a real mess of messages.
Another minor addition is something we never thought we'd say – Apple could nab an idea from Nokia.
You'll be able to set an icon with a photo of a person on the app home screen, and be able to jump right to that contact's information and ways of getting in touch.
Free turn-by-turn navigation
We're a little more sceptical about this one, but basically Apple has been beavering away at the mapping game, as demonstrated by its purchase of PlaceBase last year.
First Google announced free GPS navigation on its Android handsets (in the US only – grr) and Nokia then followed it up by freeing up Ovi Maps.
Apple tweaked its GPS settings last year to allow turn-by-turn navigation, and although it would be very early, moving onto its own mapping system would allow it to shed the reliance on Google for such things.
Add to that the fact Apple advertised for an engineer to come in and overhaul the iPhone Maps app last year, according to PC World, it makes sense that this will be happening – but whether that will be in iPhone 4.0 or something later, we don't know.
Apple is nothing if not consistent, and there's a pattern to its release dates – it won't launch the new software to the public until after the next iPhone is announced.
For instance, last year the iPhone 3.0 firmware was unveiled on 17 March, and the firmware was released on 17 June, nine days after the announcement of the 3GS and two days before the new hardware went on sale.
We'd imagine that June timeslot is consistent, so it will be at least two months before we actually get some hands-on time with the new firmware.
Refreshed home screen
We're all used to seeing the standard 'rows and columns' iPhone interface, but last year that changed ever so slightly with the addition of Spotlight, where swiping left allowed users to access a comprehensive search box.
We'd imagine Apple is looking to utilise more space on the next iteration, and BGR has again been tipped this is coming, stating that there will be "many graphical and UI changes to make navigating through the OS easier and more efficient".
Swiping up, swiping down? We'd imagine widgets are a logical step for Apple, as it's something the public are giving the thumbs up for on phones using Android.
But it would only be added if Apple can keep the usual list of icons – people like simplicity, and that's been a cornerstone of the iPhone's success, so don't expect to see that going anywhere.
More likely is the overhaul of the UI to look more iPad-like, given the work Apple has put into that new interface.
However, it won't be too similar, as Jobs won't want to cannibalise the iPad or iPhone by making them too similar; there's already been criticism that the iPad is just an overgrown iPhone.
Direct printing
Granted, it's not in the same league as copy and paste, but this is something cool that's been uncovered by Apple Insider.
The iPad makes reference to some apps that on Apple's support page state "printing directly from iPad is not currently available," which rather hints that it's on the cards.
And the same would make sense for the iPhone – being able to simply send a pic to be printed over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is something that would be a logical step, especially if it's coming for the iPad.
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Nokia planning to take on Apple's iPad
Nokia could be set to attack the nascent tablet market now that Apple has dipped its toe into the water.
Analysts are predicting that Nokia will build on its long-standing history of internet tablets, which you could argue are pre-cursors to the iPad, and release a new version.
The Nokia N800 internet tablet carried a number of similar iPad traits (such as being Wi-Fi only, which is a flavour Apple is offering) but it seemed that when the N900 came out that would be the direction Nokia was taking the line.
Bigger and better
Rodman Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar, who The Street is dubbing 'close to Nokia's technology partners', is backing Nokia to produce a larger, more powerful device to join the tablet market from the start.
"Nokia hasn't fielded any breakaway products in years," says Kumar. "This is a new window, and Nokia had better be at the starting gate if and when the product category takes off."
Nokia is already somewhat acitve in this area, having unveiled the Booklet 3G netbook, so a move to tablet PCs seems like a very logical step for the Finnish company.
Nokia is apparently working with suppliers and design manufacturers, and could even produce a device with a UK release date as early as Q4 2010.
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