In Depth: How Android is moving to the dashboard
The Google Earth navigation Audi is putting into the A8 doesn't run on Android; it uses the real-time QNX system that RIM has just bought so it can put BlackBerry into cars.
But many car manufacturers are more interested in Android integration than in BlackBerry or iPhone.
While it will be a few years before we see full in-car systems running Android, Autumn will see the first cars available with built-in integration for Android smartphones that let you launch and control apps from the car's interface.
iPhone vs Android
Although they started by planning iPhone integration, car makers have been turning their focus to Android instead.
Robert Acker, the CEO of Aha Mobile, told TechRadar that Aha has an iPhone app that reads out tweets, Facebook updates and traffic alerts or streams podcasts from a driver-friendly interface.
Manufacturers plan to offer it as an in-car option, but many car companies have been asking them for an Android app instead.
"They have to do iPhone," says Acker,"but Android is a lot more open. There aren't as many steps as for iPhone integration and they don't have to buy a proprietary chip [from Apple]. A lot of them have said 'let's start by doing an Android integration and we'll add in the iPhone piece later."
Android has another advantage; although the iPhone 4 software adds multi-tasking it still doesn't let you launch an app remotely. "With Android, Acker explains, "I can plug my phone in and push this button in the car and launch apps on the phone.
"You're using the vehicle controls and you never have to look at the phone again. You can't have that kind of control on the iPhone." The phone will give the car an Internet connection – "so you can play a Pandora radio station or listen to a Twitter feed in your vehicle, suggests Acker.
Car apps will be able to control some systems within the car, but how much is going to vary from vehicle to vehicle; Ford's SYNC system (based on Windows CE) will tell developers exactly what they can and can't control.
But other manufacturers aren't specifying the details so clearly because either they will approve apps individually or they'll pick a handful of app developers to work with. At least one major vendor is contemplating having its own Android app store, says Acker.
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HTC asks public to name next phone
HTC has taken the interesting/frighteningly lazy step of asking the public to name its next phone via a Facebook poll.
The survey gives you four options, with HTC giving its very odd reasons for doing things this way:
"The guys and gals in the lab are working on something new and we want you involved in the process. We are looking for a name that is playful and full of youth. If you were to choose one of the following names for a new phone, what would it be?"
The names are: the HTC Jovi, the HTC Zeal, the HTC Wildfire and the HTC Festi. We know, odd choices indeed (well, not when you consider that this company calls its phones the Desire, Magic, Dream and Incredible).
Halfway there - now stay there
We know of another site pushing the HTC Jovi - and we simply cannot let this happen. Unless the new phone is day-glo orange, into power ballads and doubles as a snap bracelet (and comes with a free packet of Skips) then this would just be wrong.
The Zeal is just stupid - it's like a French person trying to describe arctic wildlife, and the Festi is a derivation of the German Fest, which means to celebrate. That's far too cerebral.
But the Wildfire? Yeah, now we're talking. It's playful, youthful and ultimately has the word fire in - and that says the HTC Wildfire would be super cool and probably have a good-looking sister.
So come on everyone - head on over to the Facebook poll and vote Wildfire for TechRadar. It's already well in the lead (because it's the best name, obviously) but there's a more important reason: we cannot allow the HTC Jovi to ever come to pass.
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Nintendo 3DS will arrive in October
The Nintendo 3DS will be released in October in the UK, with the gaming giant set to release the news about its handheld gamer at E3.
CVG has rooted out the news from its sources in the games industry, and is expecting an official confirmation that the next generation of the Nintendo DS will arrive long before the previously stated March 2011.
That's a massive 6 months earlier than expected, and will provide a huge boon to Nintendo at a critical time of year.
Holiday period
Obviously an October launch means that the 3DS will arrive ahead of Christmas, appearing on thousands of present lists, but it will also now be timed to debut at the same time as Microsoft's Xbox Natal kit.
One very senior publishing source told CVG: "It's a surprise - we were expecting it much closer to Christmas. But I suppose it gives Nintendo the opportunity to get it front and centre in people's minds nice and early.
"In my experience, you don't launch a product that early to Christmas unless you're confident in it - and going to spend a lot of money on it. We're reassured that Nintendo is going to give it some decent backing in Q4."
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Interview: Intel: MeeGo exists because Microsoft let us down
Despite saying that "Intel is very supportive of Windows," James Reinders, Chief Evangelist of Software Tools at Intel, criticises Microsoft roundly in an interview with TechRadar.
Why? He says it's taken too long for the software giant to make Windows run well on Atom and to make a success of Intel's UMPC and MID ideas.
There are new tools on the way from Intel this year (as well as a new layer in Windows 7, the concurrency runtime) to help programmers do the tricky parallel programming that you need to take advantage of multicore – but that's not enough to solve all the problems, especially for Atom.
Five years ago, Reinders still had to work on convincing developers that PCs weren't going to keep on getting faster; "People would ask me 'isn't Intel just going invent a faster transistor?'
"Now I don't have to explain it anymore." But while he hopes that major app vendors like Adobe will take full advantage of multi-core systems, "I think we have a few years before people say it's really happening."
Atom's multicore future
Even Atom will go multicore, in time. "It will be a little bit slower initially because of the power constraints but as time marches on we will solve the power problem." That's important because until then, he agrees that "netbooks will definitely hold us back" by making developers less interested in writing parallel code that won't run on them.
Today games developers do the most with multi-core, he says; "There are games you can buy that do more physics simulation than they probably did on the Manhattan project." But he predicts those techniques will move quickly into the user interface for other apps.
"I think we're going to get hugely addicted to using compute power for human interface - head tracking and so on". Microsoft Office already uses multiple threads for different tasks; "There's parallelism in places you don't expect," says Reinders.
"Word does spell checking and grammar checking in the background and if you're on a multi-core system you'll see those little squiggles appear under the words much more quickly." He's excited about the way IE9 will use a second core to speed up JavaScript and predicts that "HTML 5 is going to drive a lot of parallelism in future."
Why so long for Windows on Atom?
He doesn't claim any inside information about Windows 8, but expects it to do more parallelism. "I think the OS will change. I know nothing but I can anticipate them changing [task] scheduling and improving some of things they do to handle multi-core." He predicts that confidently because, he says, "It has to be a priority."
Partly that's because although the new concurrency runtime makes it easier to make one application speed up by taking advantage of multiple cores, it won't help if multiple apps are trying to do that. "If you run three [instances], they will try to oversubscribe the machine."
"Microsoft hasn't been quite as aggressive as we might have hoped at supporting Atom, especially in the embedded space and that's why we came up with our platform Moblin - which is now MeeGo. Intel is all about platform choice, choice of operating system and so on, and we believe in the opportunity of embedded very strongly.
Windows 7 "doesn't go the places we think Atom will go"
"Some of their Windows offerings are great now, but Moblin started a number of years ago when we didn't see Windows in that space at all. We're thrilled to death to see user mode scheduling in Windows 7 but the progress of Windows 7 still limited - it doesn't go all the places we think Atom will go."
Those places include smartphones, MIDs, tablets and in-car systems, for a start, and Android – or the version of Mac OS in the iPad – just isn't enough in his view. "We feel people want an operating system that is more powerful on these devices.
Pushing Moblin is definitely about getting more choice it that space." Intel partnered with Nokia to turn Moblin into the more smartphone-friendly MeeGo, but Intel doesn't always come out on top in the partnership; Reinders predicts Nokia will get MeeGo devices to market before Intel can. He admits; "It's a challenge for us.
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Apple: 3G iPad coming to US on 30 April
After telling US customers that the 3G-enabled iPad would be available 'no later' than 7 May, Apple has now revealed that it will be available on 30 April.
With the Wi-Fi version selling like hotcakes, there are still many holding out for a 3G iPad and those that have pre-ordered will get them on 30 April, with Apple stores starting to sell stock later that day.
"Apple today announced that the Wi-Fi + 3G models of its magical iPad will be delivered to US customers who've pre-ordered on Friday, April 30, and will be available in Apple retail stores the same day starting at 5:00 p.m." confirmed Apple.
Nine hours of 3G surfing
"iPad Wi-Fi + 3G models are just 0.5 inches thick and weigh just 1.6 pounds - thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook - and deliver up to 10 hours of battery life for surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching videos or listening to music, and up to nine hours of surfing the web using a 3G data network."
The US prices have been widely bandied around, but just in case you missed them, the 3G 16GB model will be priced at $629, 3G 32GB at $729 and $829 for a 64GB 3G version. That's £408, £473 and £539 as a direct comparison – but, of course, it won't be as simple as that when UK prices are announced.
The UK release date for the iPad is still given as 'by the end of May'.
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Nokia X5 leaked early - but what's it for?
While Nokia's mid-range phones aren't usually something to get too excited about, we've been impressed with the interest the X6 has generated.
Don't get us wrong - it's a pretty terrible phone - but users are sufficiently excited about it to make us take a look at the forthcoming Nokia X5.
It looks likes the new X5 has a full touchscreen, and comes with a 5MP camera with flash.
Lower memory
According to PhonesOnline, this new device has only 170MB internal memory with a maximum of 8GB to be added through the microSD slot.
The video camera has VGA resolution but at a low-recording speed of only 15FPS - however, there is word it will have 3G connectivity, so at least that's something.
We've obviously got no word on a UK release date or and sort of UK pricing at the moment - but given the lower-end specs we'd imagine you wouldn't have to break the bank to pick this up.
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Microsoft planning low cost version of Windows Mobile 7
If you've been looking forward to Windows Phone 7 but been annoyed at the prospective cost, then we've got good news for you.
According to Sudeep Bharati, director of developer tools for Microsoft in India, there will be a cheaper version of the OS with a lower-spec chassis to go with it.
While we doubt a huge amount of functionality will be stripped out, phone manufacturers won't have to adhere to the stringent chassis regulations laid out by Microsoft for high-end Windows Phone 7 devices.
These specs have been set as requiring a 5MP camera with flash, 8GB of flash memory, 256MB of RAM and a WVGA screen.
But the future devices could need less RAM and only an HVGA screen or better, depending on what Microsoft decides.
Penetrating markets
This means that it can penetrate these emerging markets with fairly well specified smartphones at a cost that will still allow it to remain competitive.
"The low-cost version of the phone will have a different chassis than version 1 to be launched by 2010 end," said Bharati.
Microsoft has recently announced the Kin range of social-networking mobile phones, which are also based on the same core as Windows Phone 7.
As we near the release of the whole WP7 family (later this year), there will be questions raised over whether Microsoft is properly dividing up its portfolio.
While the stringent specs previously laid down meant brands really had to step up their hardware, offering a watered-down version means it's hard to see where the incentive is to put the resources in to create the high end devices.
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Leica V-Lux 20 digital compact camera unveiled
The Leica V-Lux 20 compact digital camera has been unveiled, offering a 12x optical zoom and built in GPS-tagging.
The Leica name is still enough to have camera geeks swooning, and the latest object of desire brings a Leica DC-Vario-Elmar 4.1-49.2mm f/3.3-4.9 ASPH. zoom lens with a focal range of 25-300mm.
"Whether shooting expansive landscapes, detailed close-ups or shots of distant subjects using the super-telephoto setting, the V-Lux 20 captures them all in breath-taking quality," says Leica's release.
GPS tagging
The GPS tagging is a new feature for Leica, using an inbuilt GPS chip to record the exact location for every one of your snaps. It's also handy for tracking down your car in the car park when you get back from your trip.
Plus the V-Lux 20 "can display the names of interesting sightseeing locations from a total of 500,000 'points of interest' across 73 countries."
The camera, as you would expect from Leica, will turn heads with its design and also features a three inch LCD display and what Leica promises are 'simple, ergonomic controls and user-friendly menus.'
The Leica V-Lux 20 has a UK release date of May 2010 and should cost around £495.
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Google CEO talks about Chrome OS devices
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has talked about the eagerly anticipated Chrome OS devices, insisting that the price point will remain at around £200 to £275 and that he would like to see mobile operators bundling the computers with contracts.
Chrome OS is due for release by the end of 2010, with the first devices set to arrive in 2011 bringing a cloud-focused, internet-dependant computing experience.
Speaking at the Atmosphere Cloud Computing forum, Schmidt admitted that even Google is having to rewrite some of the software it uses in order to switch over to Chrome OS and use its own product (known as dog-fooding).
20 years since last success
But the Google CEO believes that Chrome OS could be the first new platform in 20 years to have an impact on a market dominated by Microsoft's Windows, with Apple's OSX a distant second.
"If you think about it there's not been a new successful platform in this space for 20 years, and I've had a few failures along the way," said Schmidt.
"If there's anyone who understands how hard this stuff is then it's me personally and the team we've assembled is very good.
"If you go back to what we are trying to do we are trying to develop a new set of platforms."
Dog-fooding
One of the big problems in getting people to move to Chrome OS will be the reliance on software tied to platforms like Windows, something Schmidt is well aware of.
"At Google we're getting ready to deploy these essentially Android and Chrome-based devices that are in development, so we want, of course, to eat our own dogfood which is how we sit here and build things.
"So I said 'Okay, good, let's imagine that from this day forward everything we did was a perfect web app, what would the world look like?'
"We found applications that were part of our business; operations, sales, accounting so forth… even at Google we have this problem. I expect everyone faces this problem."
Chrome OS device pricing
Schmidt talked about the price point of Chrome OS devices, insisting that they would be low-cost at around the same price as current generation netbooks.
"It will be up to the manufacturers who do it, but the price points you should think about are the current netbook pricings which are 300 dollar, 400 dollar price points
"Those prices are completely determined, by the way, by the costs of the glass, the costs of the processor and things like that, but in our case Chrome OS and Android are free so there is no software tax associated with all of this.
When asked about bundling a device with services, Schmidt said: "If a phone company chose to do that then that would be great."
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Review: Conceited Software Linkinus 2
For years, IRCle was the Mac's best Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client, but these days it's showing its age. The Mac needs a new IRC champion, and despite a few rough edges that should be cleared up with its next update, Linkinus 2 could now claim that title.
Linkinus 2 boasts over 100 new features. There's over 330 built-in networks to chat on, and you can, of course, add your own.
When connecting to a large IRC network it cycles through its servers until it establishes a connection, an excellent touch that saves much frustration. It supports emoticons, embedded media and filters to ignore disruptive chatters.
Recorded logs are intelligently organised for later review, and your Buddy List integrates with Address Book and Mail. You can display more than one chat channel in the main window, greying out the ones with which you're not currently interacting. It's up to 10 times faster than the last release too, and feels smooth in operation.
A few tweaks and polishes are needed before Linkinus 2 can reach its full potential. Managing your on-screen identities is a little clunky, and its window space could be better used in a few areas. There's too much inefficient duplication of function, with buttons offering what can quite easily be accessed through contextual or pull-down menus.
Even so, it's the Mac's strongest IRC client to date, combining Colloquy's ease of use with X-Chat Aqua's range of features. Unlike its rivals, Linkinus isn't free, but it's worth paying for.
Related Links
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In Depth: 8 of the best tiny Linux distros
There are plenty of reasons for wanting a low-resource distro running on your computer.
Maybe you have some ancient hardware that you need to breathe new life into. Perhaps you want something that will fit on a modestly sized memory stick. Or it might be that you want to run 200 virtual machines simultaneously on your desktop.
The important things that we'll look at here are the amount of space needed, how much processing power is required to get the distro running at an acceptable level, and the effort required to get it to work.
Something to bear in mind is that one of the ways in which developers are able to create slimmed down distros is by ditching the scripts and wizards that we've come to take for granted. This can complicate tasks that you might expect to be straightforward, such as installing software.
Strict criteria
The simple truth is that you'll be getting your fingers slightly grubbier with a low-resource distro than you would with a fully featured one. In selecting our shortlist, we've left out some contenders either because they didn't support older processors, they wouldn't install in 4GB or less of space, they simply didn't work on our hardware or they're no longer being maintained (as is the case for both RULE and U-Lite).
The one exception to this is Damn Small Linux – although it has been over a year since the last release, and the homepage is as quiet as the LXF office at 9.30 on a Monday morning, this is still such a widely used and influential project that it was considered worthy of inclusion.
There's still plenty of activity in the area of low-resource distros, including WattOS, which we hope to cover next time. We also gave Zenwalk a try, but ran into difficulty trying to run it on the low-spec system that we permitted ourselves here. But aside from this, it's a light and capable distro nonetheless and worth a look if you have the time.
Damn Small Linux: the original credit card distro
The rise and fall of Damn Small Linux is one of those tales along the lines of a great concept executed well. The idea was to create a Linux distro that was small enough to fit on a credit-card sized CD-ROM. With a target size of 50MB or less, this format certainly concentrates the developers' minds if they also want to create a hassle-free user experience.
For the most part, DSL does succeed. Based on the grandfather of all Live CDs, Knoppix, DSL strips out layer after layer of non-essential stuff, while leaving a core working system. It might not exactly be replete with applications, but there's enough there to legitimise its claim to the title of a desktop operating system.
Look past the rather clunky interface and the tricky-to-read text and you'll be amazed at the amount of functionality included with DSL. Text editors, a PDF viewer, Firefox and other handy utilities provide a workable and stable environment.
There are task-specific add-on Damn Small Linux packages available to download as well, and it's difficult to fault the level of hardware support.
Unfortunately, the story of DSL doesn't have a happy ending at the moment. The community developing it seems to have split rather fractiously over demands made by some of the contributors, so it's been a year since any of the main contributors has even posted on the project's website. The future of development seems uncertain.
We've included it here (in spite of the exclusion of other defunct systems) because it still holds up surprisingly well to some of the other options, and remains widely used.
If you need further testament, DSL was selected is one of the few systems supported by the boot.kernel.org (BKO) project. That said, obviously as time wears on, DSL slowly becomes more and more out of date, and may eventually become something of a liability.
Verdict: Damn Small Linux
Version: 4.4.10
Website: www.damnsmalllinux.org
Price: Free
This is a decent choice if you have space and memory to spare
Rating: 7/10
Crunchbang: the unofficial Ubuntu Lite
Long before there was an official Ubuntu-lite project, the ground had been contested by the likes of Xubuntu and U-list. CrunchBang ('#!', get it?), or HashPling as one might decide to call it, evolved some time later, but before there was official support for the Lubuntu project. The head-start seems to have worked out for the developers, though, because CrunchBang is pretty much there.
It comes in more than one flavour, but we decided to test the lite version because it fits in better with the theme of this particular Roundup. The installer was one of the easiest to use, but it didn't work on our decrepit hardware, only the virtual machine. The graphics driver seemed to be causing difficulty, so your mileage may vary.
Although this is a lite version, it still includes useful applications, including the Leafpad editor, VLC and Firefox 3.0.11. One of the major selling points is that this distro is built around Ubuntu, to the extent that the included Synaptic Package Manager will happily fetch anything from the Canonical repositories to bung on your box.
But as soon as you start installing big things, it comes tumbling down as dependencies spiral into gigabytes of space.
CrunchBang also takes the unusual but welcome step of stuffing a whole load of keyboard shortcuts into the desktop – quite literally, because the list is displayed on the screen via the Conky system monitor software. They mostly make use of the 'special key that should have a penguin on it', so they won't interfere with normal operations.
CrunchBang is small, stylish and performs well. It'll be interesting to see what happens here when Lubuntu is released publicly, but it seems that CrunchBang has a pretty solid proposition ready to go.
Verdict: Crunchbang
Version: 9.0.4 Lite
Website: www.crunchbanglinux.org
Price: Free
Stylish, compact and plenty of Ubuntu software available
Rating: 8/10
Lubuntu: here comes the official Ubuntu mini-distro
Early in 2009, Mark 'Space' Shuttleworth gave the nod to an Ubuntu project that would create a lightweight variant of the world's favourite distro. Based around LXDE, Lubuntu was on its way. And it still is. Well, getting a new distro sorted out takes more than a few months, so we shouldn't be too harsh.
It's also worth noting that at the time of writing, the current release was still an alpha version, so we're giving it extra latitude.
As with most of the other distributions here, the install media runs as a live CD first, which is a useful way to check that the system is going to work with your hardware before you go to the trouble of installing it. If you imagine that Lubuntu is going to look anything like Ubuntu, that idea will be destroyed the minute the desktop loads.
Lubuntu has more in common with the other LXDE distributions, with the LXPanel running at the bottom of the screen and a more KDE 3.x look to things rather than Gnome. The chosen apps aren't quite the usual – Firefox, AbiWord and Gnumeric are among those included, which seems to suggest that not everything in this distro is going to be pared to the bone.
Of course, the main selling point of this distro is that it will have access to the Ubuntu repositories for easy upgrades and plenty of extra packages to install if you need them.
We did have a couple of problems installing this to disk, so the figures in the table on page 35 that compare memory usage and disk space aren't that reliable. However, since this is still an alpha release, you couldn't really rely on them anyway.
Lubuntu is definitely one to watch for the future. With the backing of Canonical, it'll have the developer resources to make the other lite distro projects rather jealous.
Verdict: Lubuntu
Version: Lucid Alpha 2
Website: http://lubuntu.net
Price: Free
Although it looks nothing like Ubuntu, this is one to keep an eye on as it moves towards a stable release
Rating: 6/10
Puppy Linux: is that a puppy in your pocket?
This sounds as though it ought to be based on Yellow Dog, but in fact, Puppy is a built-from-the-base-up independent distribution from down under. This is a middleweight offering – not as stripped back as some of the distros, but not bloated out to a full CD either.
Memory usage is low to average and a recent kernel gives a good chance of hardware support, although it'll run on i386 hardware. It runs direct from RAM on the initial boot and reveals a packed desktop with some thoughtfully selected apps scattered about.
There are loads of helpful scripts to guide you through things such as setting up display preferences and installing to disk, but you still need to perform some stages manually. As is so often the case, less bloat means less complete and helpful apps that do everything for you, so you will need to put a little bit of effort in.
Puppy manages to pack a lot of programs in to a small space. For graphics, there's a lite version of Inkscape, a few camera tools, MTPaint and Gxine. Browsing and mail is taken care of by a full version of SeaMonkey rather than separate apps, while Gnumeric and AbiWord should suffice for most office purposes.
Packages available for additional install include IceWM and Openbox if you don't like the default window manager, plus a selection of other tools. Of course, the distribution also has GCC, so you can build your own software – which may be necessary since the repositories only hold a few dozen extra apps.
While it may be restrictive in the number of programs available, there's still a lot to recommend Puppy – it runs like a solid, modern distro but in a fraction of the space. However, if you have specific application needs, it may be easier to look elsewhere.
Verdict: Puppy Linux
Version: 4.3.1
Website: www.puppylinux.org
Price: Free
A solid and dependable offering, but limited software available
Rating: 6/10
Slitaz: home brewed since 2007
Many of the lightweight Linux distros on offer are based on more popular desktop variants such as Debian, but this one's grown completely from scratch since 2007. It's one of the few that includes languages other than English (Spanish, French, German and Portuguese).
The base install is competent enough for a variety of tasks. The browser is Firefox 3.5, which may not be the most lightweight app you could think of installing, but it does give Slitaz the ability to run pretty much any web app, which is what many people will want to do with such a diminutive distro that doesn't have a lot of its own software.
That said, there's a cluster of useful tools included as part of the minimal install, including a MTPaint, a PDF reader, music player and a couple of editors (Leafpad and Nano). For lightweight and embedded projects, it rather unbelievably includes a fully functional webserver (Lighttpd) with PHP/CGI support, and various other standard network tools as well (such as SSH and FTP).
If you feel the need to bloat out the system, there are over a thousand packages available in the online repository. Package management is via a tool called Tazpkg, which is tiny, but straightforward and easy to use.
The packages themselves are custom archives with included information and dependencies, so you won't get caught up in a whole world of install pain (though you are limited to the packages available from the Slitaz repository, unless you want to make your own).
The desktop uses the nippy but low overhead Openbox window manager, combined with LXDE desktop, which should be pretty intuitive to most users (it's most akin to a KDE 3.x desktop).
Slitaz achieves the objective of cramming a lot into a small space. It doesn't have an overwhelming selection of default packages, but they do the job, and they do it very fast.
Verdict: Slitaz
Version: 2.0 Cooking
Website: www.slitaz.org
Price: Free
Exceptionally quick, deceptively powerful and has a built-in webserver
Rating: 9/10
Tiny Core Linux: smaller than the smallest thing
The Tiny Core project was started in 2008 by one of the refugees from DSL, so it isn't much of a surprise that it follows the same ethos of trying to get as much as possible into the minimum amount of space.
If anything, Tiny Core has taken this to more of an extreme, completely savaging the package base to create just about the smallest distribution you could still consider to be a Linux OS. While this is great news for those trying to fit the OS on to ancient hardware or embedded devices, it does inevitably mean you'll need to do more work if you want to do anything other than boot it up and look at the X display.
Fortunately, there's an app installer that enables access to the large repository of TCZ packages, so you can easily install the apps that you want. Dependencies are handled, but obviously, if you choose to install something like Firefox, you're going to see the disk space taken up by this distro ballooning to new levels. But you will have to install something, otherwise a few system scripts and a terminal will be your only company.
In some ways, it's not quite so useful to have such a diminutive distro. There may be some specialist cases, but for general use, most people can easily spare, say, 100MB of space. Sure, you can build on the Tiny Core install by adding applications, but it may have made things easier to aim for a slightly higher target to begin with.
But that's to take nothing away from the remarkable achievement of creating a Linux install that fits inside 10MB of space. It's easy to see Tiny Core becoming the basis of many specialist application distros – if you can get the base install down in size, it leaves you with a lot more room to pile on your custom applications.
Verdict: Tiny Core Linux
Version: 2.8
Website: www.tinycorelinux.com
Price: Free
A remarkable achievement, but requires effort to install and use
Rating: 6/10
Unity Linux: great big Mandriva-based lusciousness
This Mandriva-based distro wants to give you low resource computing, but it doesn't want you to slum it. Although possibly the best-looking of the distros in the Roundup, it does come at the cost of a slow boot time.
Unity is pretty much as sluggish as a full desktop distro when it starts, compared to the nippy zippy likes of Slitaz and Tiny Core. Once the Openbox-based desktop is running, though, it is as fast and responsive as you could want a distro to be.
The install process couldn't be easier – run the graphical installer, tell it where you live, allow it to partition the drive however it likes and you're done in a couple of clicks. In fact, it may be a little too easy – perhaps it should ask a bit more about where you're installing, but there are manual options available for most of the stages. Installation may take a while, but you can always avail yourself of the live Unity while you're waiting, then reboot back into that lovely desktop.
That's when the real shock hits you – Unity has gobbled up nearly 1GB of space before you've even started installing anything! The minimal install does contain lots of configuration tools, but if you want to do anything like browse the web or play some music, you'll need to get downloading.
The smart package manager is preconfigured to fetch updates and packages from the extensive Unity mirrors, though you could most likely install Mandriva or generic RPMs without much difficulty. Setting up networking was seamless and we were gorging ourselves silly on frivolous applications such as image viewers and audio players in no time.
Surprisingly, once installed, Unity only came mid-table in terms of memory use, but we found that it was sprightly and easy to use. As with some of the other distros we've tested here, this is a beta release, but based on what we saw, it seems ready for a full release already.
Verdict: Unity Linux
Version: 2010 Beta 2
Website: http://unity-linux.org
Price: Free
It's both slick and fast, but you will need a bit more disk space available
Rating: 7/10
VectorLinux: by the power of Slackware
Based on Slackware, VectorLinux was originally all about being a small, self-contained and easy to install and use distro. Since it started life in 2000 it has been through many different iterations and sprouted a few different variants (SOHO, Deluxe, Standard, Light) to target specific use scenarios.
We tested the Light version, though even that's a full CD. At 617MB, it's heftier than some of the others on test. Even if you discount the optional packages, the Light install requires 1GB of space, so it isn't that surprising that it has a wide choice of apps occupying all that space.
Development tools and the kernel source can be excluded to give you change, but we don't recommend you install this on anything smaller than a 4GB drive if you want some swap space (which you do on a low-memory system) and room to store your files.
In terms of app choice, things are skewed towards web and media stuff. There are four web browsers, but only Leafpad, Pathetic Writer and Siag Office by way of office programs, and MTPaint holding up the graphics end of the ship.
Installing VectorLinux is straightforward for a veteran of pre-Ubuntu installers. This Curses-based trip back into prehistory actually has the temerity to ask you questions about things and also wants you to partition and format your drive!
There's nothing particularly wrong with VectorLinux, it just isn't that inspiring. It has by far the largest boot image, consumes the most disk space and yet doesn't deliver an exceptional performance or user experience. In some ways, you might as well be running any normal mainstream distro.
The interface may seem fussy and there isn't much customisation available, but it becomes deceptively easy to use after a short time.
Verdict: VectorLinux
Version: 6.0 Light
Website: www.vectorlinux.com
Price: Free
This is a decent choice if you have space and memory to spare
Rating: 5/10
The winner: Slitaz 9/10
We hope you've seen that the world of light distros is more exciting than you may have imagined. Choosing the right one depends on the hardware you want to run it on and what you want to use it for.
The Ubuntu-based distros are interesting, particularly the nascent Lubuntu, mainly because they have a tiny footprint but offer the promise of installing anything from the vast Ubuntu multiverse. However, we were looking for a a distro to work painlessly in a cramped hardware environment.
Honourable mentions must go to DSL and Tiny Core at this point, which have clambered into the territory of the minuscule. It's amazing how usable a system can be that takes up less space on your drive than your holiday pictures. Puppy Linux and Unity were both easy to use, although the latter was a bit more polished (and bigger).
There can be only one winner in the context of our Roundup, and it should be Slitaz. It's fast, easy on memory, and comes with a considered selection of apps. Not being able to install new software easily apart from stuff in the Slitaz package format is one of the few drawbacks, but for a fast, lightweight desktop it's hard to beat.
All the versions tested here either install from a live version or have live versions available, so check that your hardware's compatible before you install. It's not always the case that the biggest distros are the most compatible – it varies, although those tested here should provide basic functionality (some sort of graphics, keyboard, mouse and wired network).
If your target is a laptop, you might be in for all sorts of difficulties. Many laptop parts aren't what they seem to be, at least as far as kernel drivers go.
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Apple says: 'please can we have our iPhone back?'
Apple has written to Gizmodo to ask for its iPhone back, proving that the unit found in a San Jose bar is indeed real.
Editor Brian Lam said he received a call from Apple regarding the misplaced device, and stated they could have it back as long as they sent an official letter of confirmation.
Senior VP of Apple Bruce Sewell obliged, thus confirming that the device splashed across the web yesterday wasn't just some cheap knock-off from Japan.
Oi, give it back!
The letter read: "It has come to our attention that Gizmodo is currently in possession of a device that belongs to Apple. This letter constitutes a formal request that you return the device to Apple.
"Please let me know where to pick up the unit."
While we're smirking at the idea that Apple is essentially going round to Gizmodo's house to ask for the ball it kicked over the fence, the wider implications of this are huge.
Apple has never had to deal with a leak on this scale before, and with the iPhone launch seemingly a month or two away, there may need to a scramble to re-tool some elements so Steve Jobs' 'one more thing' isn't greeted by a chorus of uninterested shrugs.
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Only 8.8% of Japanese consumers want Nintendo 3DS
In a recent Japanese consumer poll, only 8 per cent of Japanese consumers expressed a desire to buy the forthcoming Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming console.
We expect to see the new 3DS at E3 this coming June. Although whether or not we will manage to get some hands (and eyes) on time with it at the show remains to be seen.
However, while the UK gets set to bathe in the so-called "summer of 3D" – with Samsung launching its first 3D TV campaign this month – Japan's consumers seem to be shrugging their shoulders nonchalantly in response to the promise of new 3D gaming tech from Nintendo.
No glasses required
Nintendo says that the 3DS will be "enjoyed with 3D effects without the need for any special glasses" and that it is set to be the successor to the massively-popular DS.
Japanese organisation goo Research polled 1,059 members of its monitor group - 52.9 per cent of who were male, 16.1 per cent teenagers, 17.8 per cent twenty-somethings, 21.5 per cent thirty-somethings, 16.2 percent in their forties and 28.3 percent older than fifty.
While 42.1 per cent of those polled already owned a Nintendo DS, DS Lite, DSi or a DSi XL — a mere 8.8 per cent, "would…like to get the recently-announced Nintendo 3DS, featuring 3D that doesn't require special glasses."
Whether or not this poll turns out to be representative of Japan's famously gaming-obsessed wider population of course remains to be seen.
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Review: TinkerTool 4.0
There will no doubt be Terminal gurus out there horrified at the thought of getting under the bonnet of Mac OS X with anything other than the command line; for the rest of us there's TinkerTool. Now updated to version 4, this smart utility provides access to 'hidden' preferences, enabling you to fiddle with Finder, the Dock, Safari, appearance settings and more.
Despite this release being a complete rewrite, long-time users will find the interface familiar, and newcomers should find everything straightforward.
The toolbar enables you to choose what you want to amend. Select a category and you're presented with various clearly labelled and logically arranged menus and checkboxes for adjusting settings, such as Dock animations, and the screenshot save location.
In this latest release, Snow Leopard and QuickTime X are finally covered, including interface, concurrent recording and trimming options for OS X's built-in media player.
The app's user-friendly nature is evident throughout. Change settings for Finder and the Dock and you can restart either by clicking a button. Reverting to your Mac's pre-Tinker Tool settings or default state is a matter of clicking a button in the 'Reset' section.
To that end, it's hard to find fault with TinkerTool. It would be useful if the app's Help provided some insight into the more esoteric settings, but that's an extremely minor niggle.
Overall, TinkerTool is best in class – it's robust, usable, useful and free; tinkerers can't really ask for more.
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Google: Cloud computing is fundamentally disruptive
Google's president of enterprise Dave Girouard has described cloud computing as 'fundamentally disruptive' to how things are done.
Speaking at the Amosphere cloud computing event, Girouard said that the arrival of cloud based services and storage "pushes buttons on people almost more than any other technology transition in history."
"I'm not sure there's ever been one that has this amount of strident discussion and debate because it is so fundamentally disruptive to how things are done," said Girouard.
"I think it's testament both to how big and disruptive this can and will be and of the many, many issues that need to be resolved before this really is all the way there."
Trust issues
Although Girouard was talking more about the business aspects of Google than the public facing services that are already proliferating, the potential for cloud computing is becoming clear.
One of the key discussions is around how much trust people are prepared to invest in keeping their data in the cloud, relying on a company to keep their data safe, private and available.
"Trust is the most central element of cloud computing I think," added Girouard.
"It's got to a point where this is the ultimate question…what you're really saying is can I trust others…? Can they protect my data? Can they deliver a mission critical service to me?
"It's a complicated question and its not one that's going to be answered."
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Samsung launches new £8m 3D TV ad campaign
Samsung is launching a new £8m ad campaign for its new 3D TVs in the UK.
The campaign is, ironically, headed up by Mikah Martin-Cruz, the executive behind the famous "Paint" and "Play-Doh" commercials for Sony Bravia.
Martin-Cruz claims that: "The launch of the first 3D TV in the UK is such a culturally significant event, we needed to do it justice with a visually exciting campaign that captures the audience's imagination and feel we have done exactly that."
The summer of 3D
Sammy hopes that the campaign will play an integral part in the so-called "3D summer" with the likes of Sky heavily promoting 3D TV, and competing manufacturers such as LG, Panasonic and Sony, all putting the finishing touches to their own 3D marketing blitzes set to hit later in 2010.
Samsung's 3D TVs go on sale later this month on 27 April. The first high-profile TV ad will launch alongside the next day's Champion's League semi-final on ITV1.
The three-month campaign will cover billboards, TV ads, as well as print and online press.
The idea behind the campaign is that Samsung's 3D TVs "blur the boundaries of reality" as we, the viewers, are shown around an idyllic cityscape peppered with 3D screens.
It's pretty cool. Particularly the three-storey high cat! You can see the video of Samsung's first 3D TV advert over on Media Guardian.
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Review: Remo Recover Pro Edition
Even these days, with the proliferation of online 'cloud' backup services, not to mention software backup solutions such as SuperDuper! and Time Machine, people do still forget (or can't be bothered) to back up their data.
So, when you've just deleted that folder full of irreplaceable pictures of the kids, what should you do?
Well, first of all: don't write any more files to the volume from which you deleted the data, and second: try using an application such as Remo Software's recently released Remo Recover to retrieve your data. There are two versions to choose from.
The Media Edition will help you retrieve photos (including many types of raw file), as well as videos and music. Meanwhile the Pro Edition, as you might expect, aims to recover the aforementioned file types, as well as undeleting files from HFS+ and HFSX Journaled volumes.
To put Remo Recover Pro to the test, we assembled a varied collection of files: PDFs, Microsoft Office documents, various image files, including JPEGs, TIFFs and – just to be really sneaky – a couple of raw files in Fuji's RAF format rather than the more common Nikon NEF or Canon CRW.
We then dropped our batch of files onto a number of hard disks (journaled and unjournaled) and USB flash drives, including one formatted as FAT32; then we deleted some batches and used a hexadecimal editing application to break the others.
Remo Recover retrieved all our broken and deleted files without missing a single one.
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Review: FileMaker Pro 11
For the last few years, the FileMaker application's biggest competitors have been the spreadsheet applications. Spreadsheets are simple to understand, 'good enough' for keeping lists of things, and great for 'doing graphs' of most persuasions.
For the casual user, FileMaker Pro 11 may prove itself a spreadsheet killer. It can now create gorgeous 2D and 3D bar, line and pie charts with not a plug-in in sight: charts are straightforward to design and extremely easy to tweak, putting to rest a glaring omission from previous versions.
But charts aside, it's the overriding 'ease of use' theme that's the real story here. Spreadsheets beware Prior to FileMaker Pro 11, you had to go about creating a database via the Define Database dialog box.
With 11, however, creating a new database is done in Table view, with controls for adding columns across the top and rows down the side – just like a spreadsheet. Except that here, columns are really database fields, and rows are database records. You can rename columns by double-clicking them, and specify their types and options from a drop-down menu.
Using the same drop-down menu, it's possible to add live grouping and sub-summaries to your table. Suppose you have a table of month, year, and sales data – you can sort your data by month and year, and an automatic subtotal row will be added to show a sales subtotal for every year, something that in Excel might require pivot tables.
Version 11 of FileMaker Pro offers two more prongs of attack on its spreadsheet rivals. First, there's Quick Find, which gives you a Spotlight-like search field in the toolbar that can be used to seek out all the indexed fields on the current layout. You can also customise Quick Find to look for a particular term and show matching records only in the fields you specify.
Second, there's Recurring Import – a way for you to specify a file (of the Excel, CSV or TAB variety) that should be imported every time your database is opened. (The one catch is that the imported data is read-only, but this is ideal for things like pricing data or exchange rates.)
The easy way
It could be argued that both of the above features could be achieved in version 10 via the use of scripting, but FileMaker Pro 11 makes it almost childishly simple.
Combined with the charting and table input features, casual users are more likely to reach for FileMaker than a spreadsheet when they just need to throw some data together quickly.
Version 11 also has plenty to offer the experienced FileMaker user. In Layout mode, an Inspector palette offers complete control over fields, portals, and tabs without you needing to resort to contextual menus. Object badges identify conditionally formatted elements on a layout, and those indexed fields are searchable via Quick Find. You can also select which fields Quick Find searches on a per-layout basis.
When adding buttons to a layout, you can create new scripts on the fly. (In Advanced mode you can do the same for script triggers and custom menus.) Layouts can now be grouped into folders, portals filtered via calculations, and script variables used in both find requests and displayed as merged fields.
In terms of compatibility, the FP7 format is retained so that older clients can open version 11 files, but there's now an option to make files require 11. Given that lot, it's a winner.
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Panasonic has upped 3D TV production by 30%
Panasonic has already upped its 3D television production by 30 per cent, with the company encouraged by a 'strong reaction' to the technology from the general public.
When Panasonic triumphantly stated that it had sold out of its 3D television allocation in the US, it seemed highly likely that it would prompt the company to ramp up its production and the Japanese television giant has confirmed that this is the case.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Hirotoshi Uehara, the head of Panasonic's TV business, admitted that the company had responded quickly.
Strong reaction
"We've had a very strong reaction," he said Uehara, "Our plasma panel factory is at full capacity but we've increased 3D panel production by 30 per cent compared to our original plan."
Panasonic is hoping that business will embrace the technology as well as the entertainment industry, with Uehara pointing to the benefits this would bring to the entire market.
"My thinking is that 3D shouldn't just be limited to broadcast television, it should reach a range of industries, such as video conferencing or PowerPoint presentations. That in turn will boost the size of the [market]."
The major television manufacturers have been quick to embrace the new technology – seizing on a prime opportunity to push a new generation of television sets to a public still coming to terms with HD.
And the manufacturers are not alone, with entertainment content producers like movie studios and, particularly in the UK, Sky television racing to produce enough content to fulfil demand.
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Alarming rise in online malware attacks worldwide
Security specialists at Symantec are reporting a steep rise in malware attacks on PCs, with a new survey suggesting that there are over 100 attacks a second worldwide.
The great majority of these attacks cause no harm to the PC user. Even so, Symantec does claim that one attack worldwide every 4.5 seconds still causes problems.
Symantec's latest annual report notes that the number of malware samples recorded in 2009 were an alarming 71 per cent higher than those recorded in 2008.
Fake security software
Symantec's report also adds that the most prevalent form of cybercrime is fake security software, with users seeing a message flashing up on screen informing them that they have a virus.
"Virtually everything we see today is fake AV (anti-virus)," Vincent Weafer, a Symantec vice president, told Reuters. "It's such a money-making racket."
Weafer also issued a warning to Mac users working with cloud-based services to store their photos and other data on external servers.
"It's the notion of 'I'm on a Mac.' Yes, you're on a Mac but you're in the cloud," said Weafer. "They've got to be as careful as anybody else."
Worrying trend
Worryingly, Symantec notes that a whopping 51 per cent of all the viruses, trojans and other malicious programs it has ever seen were logged during 2009. Almost 2.9 million items of malicious code.
Tony Osborne, a technology manager for the public sector at Symantec, blames the availability of easy to use toolkits which novice hi-tech criminals are using to create malware.
While some of these are free, Osborne pointed the finger at one particular piece of software called Zeus, which costs around £458. Symnatec saw over 90,000 variants of the Zeus kit in 2009.
Like much malware, Zeus basically sends out email spam to lure unsuspecting victims to websites where they are tricked into installing malicious code, helping cyber-crims to set up networks of botnets or hijacked PCs.
Easy money
"It's easy money and it's very hard to catch people," said Symantec's Tony Osborne. "It's become a day job for a lot of people."
The report notes that Brazil and India were becoming hot spots of cyber crime, as their broadband networks were rapidly improving.
"Those are the places where education and understanding about security are taking a while to catch up," explained Osborne.
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Will Wright to make TV science documentaries
Sim City and Spore creator Will Wright is set to make a series of TV documentaries for the Science Channel in the US looking at a range of topics including time travel, different worlds and the future.
Wright, who received a BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award in the UK for his services to the games industry, is set to add TV science documentary director to his impressive CV later this year, according to reports in The Hollywood Reporter.
The Sims king signed a deal with Science Channel to create a series of forward-looking TV shows set to be augmented by interactive online components all created by the lauded videogame designer.
The Sims has already sold over 6 million copies, although Spore has not had either the critical or commercial success that Wright originally hoped for.
Stupid Fun Club
Wright recently left EA and the studio he co-founded, Maxis, to create a gaming think tank called Stupid Fun Club, but it would seem that forward-thinking TV science docs are where his head is currently at.
"I want to take the way he engages an audience in gaming and bring that into a show," Science Channel GM Debbie Myers said.
Myers hopes to extend the network's programming from science-based content to shows that explore creativity.
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Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10
After a disappointing 2009 for Sony Ericsson, with the likes of the Satio failing to live up to its flagship billing, the Swedish-Japanese alliance is back with its first Android proposition - the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.
It's got all the makings of a true classic - a whopping 4-inch screen, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and it's rocking Android with a cool overlay.
In short, since we first heard about it at the tail end of 2009, we've been excited to see if it can be the handset to return Sony Ericsson to the sharp end of the mobile phone game.
It's odd, but given the massive screen on the phone, the first thing you notice when looking at the Xperia X10 is not the screen - on our black review model the main thing is simply how shiny it is.
It's an understated phone, with a sharp, angular design and minimal buttons - in short, it looks like the kind of high-end handset we'd expect from one of the leading mobile manufacturers.
The screen dominates most of the front of the Xperia X10, and there are three buttons at the bottom, denoted as menu, home and back. (Albeit with some indecipherable symbols - what's wrong with actually writing 'Menu' and 'Home' on there?)
Between each of the front buttons there's a little LED, which glows brightly whenever the phone is used - a nice touch that adds a premium feel, although they can get a little annoying, especially in the dark - and it seems there's no way to turn them off.
The rest of the phone is pretty sparse - compared to the likes of the Sony Ericsson Satio and Vivaz, it's a little odd to only see a single camera shutter button on the right-hand side of the phone, with the volume up/down key above it at the other end.
On the top of the phone, there's the 3.5mm headphone jack, flush to the chassis, and the on/off button, which doubles as the lock key too.
It's a little far away from where you usually rest your hand, so you'll generally find yourself using your other hand to activate it - which is a little irritating.
The microUSB slot is located at the top as well under a dust cap - this is a little awkward to get off at times, and has a frustratingly short leash to keep it in place - meaning you have to really wedge it out of the way to connect up the charger.
There's nothing at all on the left-hand side of the Xperia X10, nor on the bottom, save a little grille to attach a lanyard if you're one of those that sees a big mobile as an ideal replacement for a necklace.
The back of the phone is slightly curved - we assume this is another corollary of the ergonomics study conducted by Sony Ericsson which led to the 'human curvature' of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz.
It does make it slightly nicer to hold in the hand admittedly - but it adds a lot of thickness to the device, which is 13mm.
When you consider the HTC HD2, which has a much larger 4.3-inch screen, is a couple of millimetres thinner at 11mm, it does make something of a difference with a device this size.
Overall though, it's not the worst looking phone in the world by a long way - it certainly doesn't overpower your hand when you're holding it, and the screen looks lovely and bright in use, without being dominated by the chassis.
In the box
Sony Ericsson usually chucks in everything it can find into the boxes of its phones, but with the Xperia X10 things are a little more minimalist.
Like HTC and Apple, the box for the X10 is coffin-like, with only basic cables inside.
The environmentally friendly idea of offering a microUSB cable with plug adaptor saves on needing an extra charger, but does get irritating when you keep having to go off and find the lead when transferring content.
Of course, it's probably easier to just perform the latter task by just connecting a memory card and transferring content that way - especially when you get an 8GB card in the box and Android is set up to connect up to your PC and easily copy content across.
If you've ever heard anything about the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 before, you'll know that it is not only rocking Android (although only version 1.6/Donut) but its headline-grabbing feature is the new Timescape overlay.
There are two ways to customise your home screen on the Xperia X10 – you can either have the generic Android screen (albeit with a slightly tweaked UI, with everything given a kind of futuristic 'sheen' by Sony Ericsson) or have the Timescape Spline as the main display.
If all that sounds like complete gobbledygook, then don't fret – it's just the ridiculous language used by Sony Ericsson to describe a very simple system.
Timescape is basically a stack of tiles, with each one representing a different method of communication or action. Twitter and Facebook updates, text messages, songs listened to, photos taken – all of these get their own tile in the stack (which Sony Ericsson calls 'Splines'... we know).
The main view is all of these things together in one long scrollable line – you can set the likes of Twitter and Facebook to update as often as every 15 minutes, but this will obviously drain the battery life faster.
Swipe left and right and you get each activity in its own separate Spline, making it easier to get to things like music or emails.
It's easy enough to just swipe left and right, but if you want to go to a specific Spline, then it's much harder to scroll along the bottom, where all the icons are held.
If you have the default Android UI as your main home screen, then things should be pretty straightforward – swipe up from the bottom of the screen for the menu, swipe down from the top and you'll get access to all your notifications.
You get three home screens to swipe left and right onto – here you can drag and drop icons from the menu, or long-press the screen and get access to the widget list, such as power management or clocks.
There's not the greatest range of options in there to be honest – we'd have hoped for more from Sony Ericsson on its first Android phone.
But switch to Timescape for your home screen (and let's face it, if you're buying this phone then that's what it's here for) and while you get constant updates on what your friends are doing, you're also lumbered with an annoying UI.
For instance – in this mode you can set four icons at the bottom of the screen to be permanently present, but these oddly take the place of the tab you need to swipe to open up your menu.
Instead you get a teeny little tab in each corner of the bottom of the screen that's nigh-on impossible to hit – we have no idea what Sony Ericsson is doing here, but it's a ridiculous idea and makes you instantly want to switch back to the default Android view.
But if you stick with it, you'll also realise that a) you can't add any icons to the Timescape screen and b) it slows down the menu massively, taking a couple of seconds to load it up.
We've used all the other Android phones on the market at the moment, and this is the first time we've seen one that doesn't manage to open the menu properly.
We're also not entirely convinced by Timescape as anything more than a gimmick – while yes, it is handy to see all your friends in a big long row, each tile uses the profile picture from Twitter or Facebook to identify the user.
This results in a very grainy and blurry picture – making us wonder why on earth you'd use this system in the first place, as it makes the Xperia X10 look pretty lo-fi.
Also, when clicking on a tile to have a look at a Tweet, if you're presented with a link in there that you'd like to have a look at (something very important in Twitter) then you have to click the tile, wait for mobile Twitter to load via the browser (which takes a while) then click on the link from there.
This is far too convoluted for a phone that's supposed to make things simple – the point of Android is supposed to be 'zero clicks' to get information, and with the likes of the HTC Desire and Motorola Milestone, there's a lot more understanding about how these social networks should be integrated with the phone.
But on a more positive note, the large capacitive screen is bright and responsive, working quickly when registering a finger input and allowing you to scroll through things like Timescape with ease.
What's more curious is that despite packing a 1GHz processor, the Xperia X10 doesn't seem to always be able to use that raw power.
For instance, the menu issue – it takes ages to load it up and then when scrolling through it there's jumping and lagging and all sorts of ugly things that we hoped we'd never see again on a phone with this kind of power.
It's very much a minor issue, we must stress – most of the time the Xperia X10 whips through all functions as we'd expect it to, it's just the times it drops the ball that niggles us.
However, there's a larger issue at work - after around an hour's use of the phone it will begin to slow down dramatically in general use, no matter what you're doing.
The reason for this is the sheer amount of programs that end up running in the background - and Android doesn't come with an in-built task manager.
If you download something like Advanced Task Killer it will solve the problem completely though, as long as you keep an eye on what's running. But it's a bit of a fault on the part of Sony Ericsson that the phone quickly gets to this troubled state.
The other problem is the fact it's only running Android 1.6 – this is a pretty outdated version of the OS considering the HTC Desire, Legend and Samsung Galaxy Portal are already working the latest 2.1 version.
It's not just stability that's affected either, as Android 2.1 brings cool things like Exchange support, integrated social networking, camera improvements and the coolest of them all: Live wallpapers.
Admittedly the Xperia X10 does most of these already, but it would still be nice to know that this powerful phone was also up to date.
Sony Ericsson promises us the 2.1 update is coming in the second half of the year, but that's at least three months away and probably more – something that makes the Xperia X10 a little less attractive until then.
With a handset this size, you can argue that it's more internet tablet than mobile phone – but we're always going to expect a mobile to make calls and send texts, otherwise our world could literally implode under the weight of change.
The Android OS has always been kind to contact management and calling, so we're hoping that the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 would continue in that vein.
Contacts
Sony Ericsson has overhauled the contact menu somewhat with the Xperia X10 – it's all blue background and swishy animations when moving through functions, which is nice and sets the phone apart from the rest of the Android clan somewhat.
You can also whoosh through your list of friends with no problem at all thanks to the 1GHz processor underneath – either scroll through normally or use the alphabet list at the side of the screen to get to the right buddy.
Once in the contact profile, things get a little bit trickier, in another example of Sony Ericsson not quite getting the need to make everything as simple as possible for the user.
For instance, given there's no physical call or terminate key on the phone, it's actually very hard to give someone a ring through their contact.
While there's a big button to begin a message conversation with them, you have to tap very accurately on their thin number to call your friend – would it have killed Sony Ericsson to make this bigger and much more finger friendly?
There's also the issue of social network integration – although its very presence should be applauded as the right kind of forward thinking from Sony Ericsson.
It doesn't allow you to achieve things like messaging via Facebook or Twitter, or comment on status updates – in fact all it does allow is the ability to see what's been written by your buddies.
After the beautiful systems on offer from HTC with the Legend and Microsoft's new Kin range, we were sad to see that Sony Ericsson hadn't made an easy way to link up your contacts' profiles with their social networking equivalents.
This means if you want to add Facebook details to somebody's profile, you're forced to scroll through all your FB buddies to find the right one, and you can't even search to save some time.
Synchronising our entire phonebook took nearly four hours all in all – and we're not that popular.
But once set up, the contact profile looked great – Facebook, call history, messaging and even the picture assigned (sadly not automatically downloaded from Facebook) all fitted together nicely.
Calling
The call quality on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 was pretty abysmal in terms of volume – there were times when it was impossible to hear what the other person was saying if background noise was a little louder.
Pushing the phone into the ear didn't really help either – if anything the angular shape of the chassis hurt a little bit.
Reception was fine though – while it did drop out a few times and the Xperia X10 did stay connected to GSM when 3G was available, it was nothing that we haven't seen countless times on other smartphones on offer today.
We have to say that we're impressed with the messaging options on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 – there's very little that can't be achieved.
Email – both Exchange and POP webmail – is easily synchronised, with the former handled via Moxier Mail, the same seen on the LG Intouch Max GW620.
We expected to see Datasync to perform this task on the Xperia X10, given that's what's used on the Sony Ericsson Satio and Vivaz, but this option is perfectly acceptable.
You don't even need to enter the full details, as once the phone has the email address and password it will auto-fill the rest in, something a lot of other phones struggle to do.
Yahoo Mail and other web-based accounts are also similarly easy to connect to, and the beauty of these is that the messages are shown in the Timescape as one of their own Splines (nope, we still hate that word. Why not call it Spines or Timelines? Ohhh... we get it.)
SMS is similarly good, especially as it's threaded in both the inbox and when looked at within a contact profile, with converting to an MMS a simple job of just attaching an object, which we always appreciate.
There's even an option for instant messaging via Google Talk, which is pre-installed thanks to the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 running Android – it's a swift and simple-to-use application, although you're unlikely to have a lot of contacts online at any one time (like we said earlier: not popular).
But we've got bad news – the on-screen keyboard is a disaster zone. Not only is it woefully, woefully inaccurate in portrait mode (and very little better in landscape) but it will also miss letters regularly.
That's right: despite showing an accurate input, the Xperia X10 sometimes decides for you that a few words would be better without some of the letters in there. It's so frustrating that we wanted to throw the phone down the toilet at times.
And the autocorrect is no sort of back up either – not only will it not automatically correct words, but the suggestions are generally not correct either. And even if they are, hitting the minute boxes they're housed in isn't very easy, meaning overall you have five ways to fail to type an accurate text message.
Considering we're now used to the eerily accurate iPhone and HTC Desire/Legend, this is a real let down from Sony Ericsson.
But here's one bit of good news for social networkers: you can update your Twitter and Facebook status from the homescreen of Timescape, choosing where you want the update.
So you might spell it wrong, but at least it's easy to tell your friends when you're looking for advice on whether your thing is supposed to be that colour (although you can't upload a photo of it unless you download a dedicated application).
If you've read this review chronologically, you might have the impression that the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is a terrible phone.
You couldn't be more wrong, as despite having a few (admittedly large) foibles the phone is excellent at a lot of things, and one of those is internet use.
The Webkit-based browser is brilliant and takes full advantage of the 1GHz Snapdragon processor on board, whipping through webpages with no hint of slowdown.
Admittedly, this is more to do with the decent onboard Android browser than it is about Sony Ericsson developing a top-notch browser, but if you back the Android horse this is one of the benefits you're going to get.
Things like detailed bookmarks, which monitor your most visited sites to suggest bookmarks for you to add as well as presenting history in an easy to view layout all make interacting with the mobile internet that much easier on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.
Infinite text reflow is also offered as well, meaning you can zoom in as closely as you want to the text and it will always reformat itself to fit the screen.
You can either double tap the screen to increase the size, or use the zoom keys that appear when you tap the screen once.
Sadly there's no multi-touch available here, although we're hearing word that it might be added later in the year when Android 2.1 is unleashed. Don't take our word for it – we just know the Xperia X10 is capable of supporting the technology.
Similarly, there's no Flash video support, but we're reassured that when Flash 10.1 is unleashed by Adobe for Android in the second half of 2010, it would be landing on the Xperia X10 and will offer great in-browser video support.
Accuracy on the web browser is also a little suspect at times too - trying to click on a link when zoomed out is pretty difficult to get right. That said, it's a problem that besets a number of smartphones these days, it's just we've seen some that manage to overcome it (like the Vodafone 360 Samsung H1, for instance).
There's also the option to share the web page you're looking at with others – the default option out of the box is to do so over email or SMS, but when you begin downloading applications like Facebook and Wordpress these will allow you to share the link as well.
The bookmarks you save can also be added to the home screen as thumbnail screengrabs, making it very easy to access the websites you want to look at the most.
If for some reason this web browser isn't for you, then there are a number of other of options available on the Android Market to play with – if you're after speed, check out the Opera browser, and if you want more options to play with (as well as being able to download YouTube videos on the sly) check out the Dolphin Browser.
If you're any kind of Sony Ericsson fan, you'll know that it has a long history of making phones with incredibly good cameras.
We've been looking forward to seeing what the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 would be like in terms of photography, and it's easily one of the best out there on the market, with an 8MP snapper with high-power LED flash.
Every shot comes out crisp and clear, with a very quick shutter speed for a phone running Android.
Sony Ericsson might not have piled on a huge amount of settings to play with, but there's more than enough to be messing around with to get the perfect picture nine times out of 10.
Smile shot, multiple autofocus and touch-to-take options mean that it's much easier to snap the photo you want, rather than watching your phone focus on things in the distance and blur up the foreground.
Another nice touch is that spinning the phone from landscape to portrait will change the UI accordingly, making it much easier to use the camera no matter which way you want to use it.
PLEASANT: This simply divine lake scene shows how the X10 captures all aspects of detail in bright light
FOREGROUND: Here the touch-capture is used - the foreground is highlighted
THE OTHER ONE: Focusing on the sky, you can see the light meter changes accordingly
TOO LIGHT: With the exposure set right up
TOO DARK: And you would never have guessed it: with the exposure right down
OBSERVE THE DUCKS: But it's hard to see them from this distance
EXTREME CLOSE UP: The zoom merely crops the photo rather than adding a whole lot of detail when fully extended
Video is pretty darn good on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 too, with the camera offering a number of modes to shoot with, ranging from the basic 'good for web' resolution to WVGA.
We believe it captures at 24fps, but the quality and smoothness of the footage is a little suspect at times. Overall, it's a good video recorder, but not the best in the world by a long way for a mobile phone.
Sony Ericsson fans - this is where the Xperia X10 comes into its own - there's so much that you can do with the media player that other handset manufacturers just wish they could mirror.
The first thing to note is that once again Sony Ericsson has developed a special area where video, music and photos are handled, called Mediascape.
While you might be worried that all your files will be offered up in Splines (damn that word) you need not fear - Mediascape is just a zone where all the entertainment elements are handled.
Divided up into Video, Music and Photo (as you might imagine) this is very icon-based. You can see which songs you've listened to the most, which videos have just been added, and, if enabled, the chance to see recommendations from Sony Ericsson's PlayNow arena.
Music
The music section is very well stocked - not only does the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 excel sonically, it also manages to offer a very intuitive UI that makes skipping through tracks a breeze.
Each artist and song is given the 'Infinity' button, which takes you through to the mobile browser to search for more information on them through Google.
You can also slide your finger along the bottom to find similar tracks from PlayNow, and also see videos from YouTube. And, if you're feeling a little sneaky and use the Dolphin browser to open them, you can even download said videos to your handset.
There's a slight issue in that it can sometimes be quite hard to hit the 'skip tracks' button on the music player, but apart from that there's not a lot wrong with the music player and clearly it takes cues from the Walkman range by Sony Ericsson.
Things like being able to update the album artwork from the phone (albeit only over Wi-Fi) are a really nice touch, and help place the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 above other mobiles in terms of media playback - perhaps even ahead of its own range.
PlayNow was also on hand to let you buy songs instantly - they came in at £1 (charged through your mobile bill) or £0.79 if you synchronised with PlayNow Arena. However, we have no idea how to do such a thing via the mobile, so we're not even sure if you can bring the price down on the Xperia X10 or if you only get that discounted rate online.
If you're thinking of buying this phone for a child, make sure you've got this element covered at the start - it's a very simple process to just buy a song from your mobile bill. If only something like Nokia's Comes with Music could be integrated - this UI is a brilliant way to get unlimited tracks.
Video
Video is similarly excellent, with the WVGA-resolution screen (the best from a Sony Ericsson phone thus far) pumping out brilliant quality footage. If you're being picky, you could say the fact it's a larger screen can make the pixels a little more obvious from time to time, but then again we're pretty sure 99% of people won't be bothered by that.
You can watch video in both portrait and landscape modes, with some pre-loaded stuff on the Xperia X10 (like classic World Cup goals) being better than the usual in-the-box content.
Sony Ericsson must have decided that the X10 was going to be used for music videos a great deal, as the landing screen offers the chance to shuffle up your vids - we're pretty sure you wouldn't want to do this if you're only going to watch two hour movies.
Photos
The best way to describe the photo section of the Xperia X10 is in-depth - you get to do an awful lot from the basic interface.
The pics are presented in categories, all visible at once: recently taken, recently viewed, favourites and there's also an option to see your photos from Facebook and Picasa, with (we assume) more online galleries to come in the future.
We're particularly impressed with the latter option - it quickly updates your albums on the phone, and allows you to swipe through them at a decent pace.
We're a little sad that the animation between each photo when swiping through isn't there - it means that we're forced to just wait as each snap loads.
But the main thing is there's a lot of functionality here - you can view your photos by favourites (which you can easily tag while going through), camera footage, memory card; in short pretty much every way.
You can also tag photos of your friends, although this takes a bit of time and in practice isn't that easy. Unless you only have one friend, in which case it would be a veritable breeze.
Battery life is becoming ever more of an issue on today's smartphones, and it seems never more so than on Android handsets - we're starting to see a pattern of phones simply eating up their battery.
The HTC Desire, HTC Legend, Samsung Galaxy Portal and Acer Liquid all have noted issues with battery life for some people, lasting just over a day with general use.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is in the same camp - despite having a 1500mAh battery, among the largest in the industry, the phone will run out of charge easily after a day's use.
We're not going to label this a downside - most people will pop their phone on charge when going to bed anyway, and the battery is replaceable so you can always carry around a spare.
One thing to note - the X10 will charge to full, then drop 5% before charging again. It's not a big thing, but you might wonder why the phone seems to be losing charge faster than usual.
In an ideal world, these phones would last three days at least while managing push email, widget updating and all other manner of day-to-day use, but at the moment they're heavily constrained by the available technology.
However, if you want to improve battery life on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, there are a few things you can do: turning down the frequency of Timescape updates is a major one.
Push email from Moxier mail eats the battery, as do many of the widgets and turning the screen up to full brightness. If you dial all or some of these features down then you'll probably eke out around two days' use if you don't hammer the phone too much.
Again, it's not ideal and we hope that future iterations of Android deal with this problem a little better (if that is indeed the cause) but it's not enough to be a deal breaker by any means.
Maps
There are two types of mapping applications on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, which is more relevant for UK users than their US counterparts.
Google Maps obviously offers the most familiar interface for most users and the new Android upgrade to 4.1.1 brings ever-greater functionality to the platform - Buzz, Latitude and more easily navigable information when searching for information on restaurants or attractions.
It's also blindingly quick on the Xperia X10, with GPS picking us up pretty quickly too (although in built-up areas it struggled somewhat to find and maintain a connection).
But downloading and scooting the maps was really quick, allowing us to find out where we are in super-fast time, which is what we'd be expecting with a phone of this calibre.
And the other sneaky extra with this version of Google Maps is that when the Android 2.1 update comes through, you should be able to use the live maps option to see where you are from the home screen at all times.
The other option on board the Xperia X10 is WisePilot, which is dedicated sat-nav software - however, if you're in the US this is a little redundant when you consider that Google Maps comes with free navigation software as standard.
But over in the UK, it's a little more useful - even though it's only available for 30 days on a free trial.
It's certainly a fully featured GPS platform, making it easy to navigate from A to B without a hitch - although we did find the odd problem connecting up the GPS on occasion.
However, we're not sold on the idea of using a phone as a sat nav if we have to pay for the privilege, especially when we can get the same thing from Nokia with Ovi Maps for free (and hopefully from Google Maps in the near future too).
There are all the connections you'd hope for on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 that you'd hope for and expect on the Android platform - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP connectivity, aGPS, 7.2Mbps HSDPA connection - all present and correct.
We're not sure the Wi-Fi is as powerful as it could be, as sometimes when we were two rooms away from the router we encountered issues holding the connection.
The GPS was also a little lacklustre at times as well, which we mentioned earlier, especially in the city. However, the Bluetooth was great and held the connection to our Jabra Clipper headphones without any drop in performance, unlike on the HTC Desire.
But the best item of connectivity was the way you could interact with the PC - not only is there the decent backup and repair software that's bundled on the memory card, but also Media Go, which works in a very similar way to iTunes and will help you dump your music collection onto the phone.
As far as we could tell there was no mention of said software anywhere on or in the box for the Xperia X10 - if we hadn't gone rooting round the memory card, we wouldn't have found the install file, and we're sure a number of people wouldn't feel comfortable just installing something to see what it is.
But once up and running, it's a great suite of products, especially for media, and we're glad to see it's not just the same drag and drop offer once again.
Apps
The bundled applications with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 are pretty minimal - there's the Quadrapop game and of course YouTube as standard, as well as Google Talk for instant messaging, but beyond that we were struggling to find anything that worthwhile.
It's the latest version of YouTube on the Xperia X10, meaning you can comment, rate and view related video with ease - there's also an option to watch things in higher quality, although over 3G this will struggle terribly.
With applications these days though, it's all about the post-purchase experience, and the Application Market for Android is getting better every day.
There were 9,000 apps added in March alone to the portal, meaning it's likely to be catching up to Apple's 130,000 apps by the end of the year, making it a very compelling option for those trying to work out which operating system to back for their mobile phone.
The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 - it's a phone that we had such high hopes for when we first caught wind of it in the middle of last year.
A 1GHz processor, innovative overlay, the best Android has to offer with great media playback and a supersonic camera? Yes please.
And the good news is that most of what we expected has come to pass - the Xperia X10 is a great phone at its core, with some great use of the Android operating system to push this phone up into the stellar smartphone category at times.
However, there are some things we're less impressed with, and can only hope that Sony Ericsson gets to work fixing them before too long.
We liked
Where do we start? The WVGA high resolution screen is just great - responsive, expansive, and capable of displaying a large amount of information with little hassle.
The 1GHz processor has again been used well - most action whipped along with very little hint of lag or judderiness to annoy us.
The Timescape overlay might be a little bit lightweight, but quickly becomes useful when you get the point of its function - to simply keep you updated. We'd have liked something a little more interactive - being able to click links in a tile would have been nice - but beyond that we enjoyed it.
Mediascape was also a powerful application for the entertainment side of things, offering far more than we've ever seen before from Android in terms of organising music, video and photos.
The camera, an 8MP effort with flash, was great too - we've not seen much to match it, although we would have liked to be able to fiddle with the settings a little bit more to craft our snaps better.
And of course, the Xperia X10 also made use of things like the excellent Android web browser, the easy-to-use menu system and accessing the Application Market to improve the functionality of the phone instantly - we're glad to see Sony Ericsson is finally on board with the Google wagon.
We disliked
Sadly, Sony Ericsson built a few too many issues into the Xperia X10, something we're growing too used to saying with its phones.
The main culprit is the on-screen keyboard - it's awful. After a week's use, we were becoming more adept at it, but it still required a great deal of focus and effort to stay accurate.
The lag on the menu system when using Timescape as your home screen was ridiculous, and the slowdown when not employing any kind of task killer was almost terminal at times - we think some people will have a real problem with this.
Battery life is a little on the suspect side too, with a day's use the normal amount you can expect from the 1500mAh unit.
Audio quality on phone calls was also too quiet for our tastes, with people constantly being difficult to hear even in quieter situations.
Verdict
But all the issues above can be fixed by Sony Ericsson, and we hope they will be. The Xperia X10 is a great, great phone at its heart, making use of all the goodies it has to offer.
Although the negative points seem substantial, we're convinced that a number of them will be fixed come the Android 2.1 upgrade later in the year, and they're all that stands between making this phone one of the stars of the year.
The HTC Desire and HTC Legend both are better Android phones, but behind them we'd rate this as the next best - so come on Sony Ericsson, make the changes and you'll have a belter on your hands.
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Review: Exclusive: Sharp Quattron LC46LE821E
The whole world and its mother seems to be talking about 3D right now. That's where the hype machine is headed, to an extent unprecedented since the first arrival of HD.
As a result, it would be easy to imagine that 3D is the only interesting new thing happening in the world of TV this year.
But actually, nothing could be further from the truth. For tucked away in a small corner of your nearest quality AV store, probably hidden behind a heaving pile of 3D TVs, you might soon be able to pick out a 'Quattron' TV from Sharp, almost apologetically claiming to be the world's first TV to use Quad Pixel technology.
Yes, we know - it doesn't sound very exciting.
Hardly up there on the AV front with watching Manchester United lose at home to Chelsea in 3D. But we strongly suggest that you don't just wander by these Sharp Quattron sets in search of 3D kicks.
For if you actually pause and look closely at them, they might just end up persuading you that maybe 3D isn't so important after all...
The 821E model we're looking at today sits in the middle of a three-strong set of Quattron ranges.
It's joined by 40-inch and 52-inch versions (the 40LE821E and 52LE821E), while the lower spec LE811E series has just 40-inch and 46-inch models (the 40LE811E and 46LE811E), and lacks the DLNA functionality, the time shift functionality, and the flat-front design.
The top-end LE921 models, meanwhile - which are now delayed until September - add 200Hz to the mix, and will be available in 40-inch (the 40LE921E), 46-inch (the 46LE921E) and 52-inch (the 52LE921E) versions.
So, want one of the best LCD TVs ever made? Want to watch and crucially record Freeview HD? Read on...
We need to start this section, of course, by finally revealing what exactly this Quad Pixel stuff is all about.
At heart, it's startlingly simple: Sharp has 'merely' added a fourth core colour component - yellow - to the usual RGB sub-pixels that make up a typical LCD TV picture.
While this sounds simple on paper, though, it's actually taken Sharp around four years of development to get right. Which probably explains why no other brands have done it before.
The biggest challenge Sharp has faced in trying to add a fourth sub-pixel has been the need to reduce the size of each sub-pixel in the LCD picture by a full quarter, so that full HD resolutions can be retained in all the screen sizes (starting at 40in) the new Quattron range covers.
The Sharp engineers have finally cracked it, though, and are now making some pretty grand claims for what the technology will do for the picture quality of the 46in LC46LE821E we're looking at today.
For a start, Sharp reckons pictures should look as much as 20 per cent brighter than those of a 'normal' LCD TV, due to the yellow pixel having a greater level of transparency and thus making it easier for the TV's lighting to pass through than the red, green and blue pixels.
A further benefit connected to the yellow sub-pixel's relative transparency concerns power consumption.
If light can be more easily transmitted through a four-colour pixel than it can through a normal RGB one, then you don't need to drive the panel as hard to achieve good levels of brightness.
Probably the most significant performance boost of adding the yellow sub-pixel, though, should come in the area of colour response. Essentially the screen should be able to produce a significantly wider portion of the video colour spectrum (Sharp claims '1000 times more colour'!) than you would get with a typical 3-colour LCD TV.
So while yellow colours should of course look more pure since they're no longer having to be 'mixed' by a combination of the usual red, green and blues, blues, deep and bright greens, aqua marines and gold colours should also look significantly more realistic and dynamic thanks to the addition of yellow to the TV's primary palette. What's more, colour gradations should look smoother and more natural too.
As if all this wasn't already tantalising enough, the extra transparency of the yellow-boosted Quattron pixel structure should allow Sharp's TV to show more shadow detailing during dark scenes than your average RGB LCD TVs.
LED lighting
Now that we've dealt with its yellow sub-pixel, the next thing to strike us about the 46LE821E is how slender it is. Thanks, it turns out, to it being the first TV we've seen from Sharp to use edge LED lighting.
This finds an array of LED lights ranged around the screen's edge firing light across the screen's back which is then refracted through the LCD array and out to the viewer.
There's usually a compromise in picture quality terms from taking this approach, in the form of reduced black level response or brightness. But everyone seems to want slim TVs these days, so it was inevitable that Sharp would go the edge LED route eventually.
As well as being slim, the 46LE821E is also very pretty, thanks to a single-layer finish and rather fancy illuminated triangle symbol below the screen.
Connectivity
The set's connectivity mostly impresses too, with highlights of four HDMIs, a USB port able to play JPEGs and DivX HD files, an RS-232 control jack, and an Ethernet port for accessing files on a DLNA-enabled PC. This is the first time we've seen such network support from Sharp. It's good to find, too, that all the connections are entered from the side, rather than directly from the TV's rear, making the TV easier to wall mount.
It's a pity, perhaps, that there's no built-in Wi-Fi, and that Sharp doesn't offer any sort of online functionality like many of its rivals do now. But the Ethernet port does have one other key job: support for future interactive applications that might launch via the in-built Freeview HD tuner.
Having Freeview HD on a TV, especially a premium TV like the 46LE821E, is looking increasingly essential this year.
Watch and RECORD Freeview HD
Not that the 46LE821E merely lets you watch Freeview HD, mind you. For rather excellently it also lets you record Freeview broadcasts - HD or standard def - in lossless quality to a built-in 8GB hard disk drive.
Obviously this limited amount of memory will only give you around 2.5 hours of standard def recording or 30-50 minutes of HD. But it can still come in very handy if the phone or doorbell rings in the middle of your favourite shows.
That's all the headline features of the 46LE821 covered. But it's worth mentioning, too, that Sharp has made the screen impressively flexible (just as well given the pretty weird state of some of its picture presets).
We got great calibration mileage, for instance, out of an Advanced Picture menu boasting a good colour management system, colour temperature adjustment, gamma adjustment, digital noise reduction and something called Fine Motion, which provides two levels of judder removal.
While the 46LE821's remote control is suitably stylish, it also rests a little too lightly in the hand, and is too crowded for truly easy use.
However, this minor aggravation is completely forgotten once you start investigating the TV's inspired onscreen menus.
Press the Menu button, and the picture cleverly shrinks down a bit, allowing room for a twin-axis menus system to take over the top and right hand side of the screen without sitting over any of the picture.
This works so well it's amazing nobody else has thought to do it before. And it becomes even better when you want to browse the channel listings, as a further box appears along the bottom of the screen - again without impinging on the picture - showing scrolling current programme information.
Being able to adjust picture settings while still being able to see the whole picture is a boon, too, with the icing on the cake coming from the set's use of cutely animated, easy to understand icons to help you find your way around things. Genius.
While the 46LE821E's Quad Pixel technology talks a good talk, the proof of the pudding is, of course, in the eating. And you know what? Unlike some over-hyped bits of picture technology we've seen in recent years, this relatively quiet little trick really delivers the goods.
The set's colour response, for instance, is utterly spectacular. We'd been prepared for some degree of colour improvement, but the range, purity, dynamism and simple believability of its colour palette across all sources is startling.
Inevitably it's with yellow and gold colours that the impact of the yellow sub-pixel has its greatest impact, making us realise with a jolt just how relatively unimpressive many rival flat TVs are at showing these colours.
But running the 46LE821E alongside a couple of other LCD TVs we had lying around - including an older Sharp - shows real improvements in the appearance of almost every colour we focussed on.
Even the most drably shot of programmes, like EastEnders, thus looks rich and dynamic rather than their usual monotone on the 46LE821E.
Colours
Colour blends look immaculately smooth too, which has a profound effect on skin tones in particular, and helps enhance your insight into the picture as a whole.
Even Philips' flagship 9000 series of LCD TVs don't manage to portray colours with quite the same combination of vigour and subtlety - and that's saying something.
Looking for other signs of Quad Pixel benefits, the 46LE821E's pictures are also outstandingly bright. This in itself isn't necessarily a strength unless you've got a heck of a lot of ambient light in your room. But having so much light pouring through the LCD array seems to play a key part in just how precise and detailed colours look.
The extra transparency plays its part as billed, too, during dark scenes. For in combination with the edge-LED lighting, it proves extremely effective at subtle shadow detailing. There's little if any sense of that rather hollow look to dark scenes that plagues so many LCD TVs - even direct LED ones.
Moving on to strengths of the picture that probably aren't to do with the yellow sub-pixel, HD images look extremely detailed, textured and crisp. We'd been concerned that the difficulties inherent in fitting 1920x1080 extra sub-pixels into the picture might have led to some problems in this area, but apparently not.
It does no harm to the image's clarity, either, that the TV's anti-judder and 100Hz processing does a decent job of sharpening and smoothing the progress of moving objects.
One final string to the 46LE821E's bow is its standard definition pictures, which are upscaled to the TV's full HD resolution much more sharply and cleanly than has been the case with many past Sharp TVs. The set's colour tone holds up nicely during the standard to high definition trip, too.
Imperfections
For all their mesmerising strengths, though, the 46LE821E's pictures aren't completely perfect. The main reason for this is the way bits of dark scenes that should look black instead look rather grey. Some little portions of the screen also look a bit unnaturally brighter than others too. And both of these problems are exacerbated considerably if you have to watch the screen from much of an angle.
The motion processing, meanwhile, can throw up more side effects - like shimmering around moving objects - than some rival engines. And finally, the screen is a little more prone to reflections than we'd like.
Sharp's previous LCD TVs haven't been particularly distinguished in the audio department. But the 46LE821E overcomes its slimness to produce sound that at worst is functional, and at best is really quite decent.
The mid range is pleasingly open-sounding, giving a degree of breathing room to action sequences, and there's a lot of treble detailing to be heard.
It's a shame this isn't counterpointed by a bit more bass power and depth, and there's a touch of distortion if you push the volume too high. But similar issues can be found with any number of other really slim TVs too.
Value
On the one hand, Sharp has put a huge amount of effort into coming up with a genuine innovation that really advances the cause of flat TV picture quality.
But at the same time, there's no denying that the best part of two grand is a hefty amount to splurge on a 46in TV these days - especially when that TV doesn't have 3D support.
In the end, going for an average 'three' score seemed the most appropriate response!
We honestly had no idea what to expect of the 46LE821E when it rolled through our test room doors.
The quad pixel tech certainly sounded intriguing, but it all seemed a bit small fry compared with the whole 3D parade taking place elsewhere.
In reality, though, Quad Pixel technology really does deliver a clear and hugely welcome step forward for LCD technology, enhancing colour reproduction so much that it's now got us dreaming of a day when a
TV might actually add further sub-pixels for magenta and cyan!
There's still room for improvement in other areas, of course. The slightly washed out black level response, for instance, makes us wish that Sharp was intending to introduce the technology to an LCD TV with direct rather than edge LED lighting.
And the limited viewing angle may reduce the amount of living rooms the 46LE821E could comfortably satisfy.
But none of this stops the 46LE821E from being a potential game-changer - providing any of the other 3D-obsessed brands actually bother to notice it, that is.
We liked:
You might have noticed already, but we're just a bit impressed (!) by what Quad Pixel technology does for picture quality. Who would have thought that just adding an extra yellow sub-pixel could make such a difference?
It's also great to find the 46LE821E sporting a Freeview HD tuner, as well as an impressive suite of multimedia functions and connections. The facility to timeshift Freeview tuner footage is particularly appreciated.
Finally, the 46LE821E is elegantly designed, and boasts quite possibly the best onscreen menu system we've ever seen.
We disliked:
Possibly because of its edge-LED lighting and the extra transparency of the quad pixel design, the 46LE821E struggles to reproduce a really profound black colour. Some parts of the screen look a bit inconsistently lit, as well, and the set's viewing angle could prove restrictive.
Finally, despite its near-revolutionary efforts, the 46LE821E is still going to put a hefty dint in any bank balance.
Verdict:
Sure, the 46LE821E isn't perfect. And yes, it's painfully expensive versus most of the 46in flat TVs that come our way these days.
But by thinking outside of the (three-dimensional) box, Sharp has come up with one of those rare bits of new TV technology that's actually good enough to make you rethink your expectations of flat TV picture quality.
This review was written in conjunction with:
What Video & Hi-Def TV magazine
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Opinion: Apple's new iPhone HD: is that it?
So is this really the new iPhone HD? If it is – and we'd still say that's a big 'if' – people will be sorely disappointed.
The original iPhone didn't look that special, even if it was distinctive, but the 3G and 3GS design really put the cat among the pigeons, giving the iPhone a really tactile, beautiful quality that was cheap enough for Apple to mass-produce.
Now a prototype has been found by Gizmodo. And we reckon it's probably as real an iPhone 4 as we're going to see pre-launch. Found in a bar, it's very similar to pics we've already seen from Engadget, while Daring Fireball is also reporting that Apple has indeed lost a prototype.
Heavier and chunker
And here we have a completely new design with an aluminium border right round the outside. 'Chunky' is the word that springs to mind. It's a much more industrial-looking design that oddly reminds us a bit of the Nokia N78 where, for example, there are oddly two volume buttons instead of one. That's a very unusual step for Apple, surely?
The handset will have a lot more hardware inside it – physically, you can see a front-facing camera, larger back camera with flash, bigger, removable battery and a noise-cancelling extra mic. If this was a second-gen model, then fair play, but it's not, and it looks far less streamlined than the 3GS. It's 3 grams heavier, too.
Compared to the beautiful HTC Desire and HTC-built Nexus One, well, Apple isn't living up to its usual standards. Maybe the Legend is more of a new iPhone than the iPhone itself.
What will Jobs say?
Of course, Apple could prove us all wrong come June and reveal something completely different. Perhaps it's just going to be impossible to keep this kind of hotly anticipated hardware under wraps now, since Apple has so many partners in terms of mobile networks.
Our Phones Editor Gareth Beavis reckons that, if it is THE new iPhone, it will certainly provide 3G-owners with a reason to upgrade, even if it looks a bit more of a non-Apple design. "The seam around the side and the split volume control are slightly at odds with Apple's earlier models, raising the question over whether we're seeing a prototype chassis here, and if not, some will really be turned off by the new direction."
"But there's a much bigger problem for Apple now - there's never been a leak like this before. If it's real, then next time Jobs takes to the stage, he can only reveal some final specs, and there won't be the hype we've seen in previous years.
"And if it's not real, well, that's an even bigger headache for Apple, as this phone seems to have all the features we've been after for years: a better camera with flash, larger battery and front facing camera for video calling.
"It's a no-win situation for Apple - so it's going to be fascinating to see how it reacts."
Indeed. But while it's sure to set tongues-wagging, one recent visitor to a Redwood City bar will surely be finding they'll need to clear their desk.
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