Pioneer debuts wall-mounted iPod Kodo dock
Pioneer has released details of its latest range of Kodo iPod dock setups, the XW-NAW1.
Bringing two 30w audio speakers, the docks have also been equipped with something called 'neodymium tweetermagnets' – which isn't the name of a death metal band but speaker technology which brings "rich, powerful and outstanding sound".
Wall of sound
The speaker system is wall mountable and definitely looks the business.
According to Pioneer, it is a mere 83mm thick and has been equipped with a remote control so once it is hung on the wall, you don't have to keep getting up to change tracks etc.
The device NAW1 also has a component video out port, so you can also connect the system up to a TV to playback video.
And for those who don't want to wall-mount the thing, the NAW1 is also said to be portable enough to blast out songs on the go.
The Kodo XW-NAW1 has a UK release date of September and is priced at £199.
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Review: Toshiba 40SL753
Toshiba has been doing brisk business over the past year or two at the budget end of the LCD TV market. Which has been good news for the consumer, since the brand has delivered more quality bangs per buck than any of the more traditional budget-oriented brands. However, the preoccupation with value has caused Toshiba to fall a little behind the curve in technological terms. For instance, none of its TVs has so far featured online connectivity. And even more surprisingly, none of its TVs have so far used edge LED technology. Until now.
The 40SL753 is a 40-inch LCD TV that uses LEDs ranged around the edges of its screen to light its pictures and to enabling that impressively slim profile.
It doesn't aspire to the slenderness of Samsung's edge LED range, but it's certainly trimmer than Toshiba's usually chunky efforts.
While the SL753 series is the first edge-lit Toshiba TV we've tested, it's not the only one in the manufacturer's lineup.
The premium WL753 series adds YouTube connectivity and 200Hz to the SL753's specification and comes in 40-inch (40WL753), 46-inch (46WL753) and 55-inch (55WL753) flavours, while the SL753 series is also available in 32-inch and 46-inch options in addition to the 40-inch model on test here.
The LED backlight is by far the most interesting thing about the 40SL753. The set doesn't attempt any local dimming like some of the other recent edge LED sets we've seen (this is probably a good thing given how problematic such efforts have looked so far) and there isn't anything obviously special about the type, quality or number of diodes lights the set uses.
The 40SL753 provides a modicum of control over the light level of the LEDs reasonably well, thanks to a dedicated backlight adjustment, a dynamic contrast control that can automatically adjust the light output in response to the image content and an Autoview mode that can adjust the picture's brightness to suit ambient lighting conditions.
We got lots of mileage out of the 40SL753's backlight adjustment, but tended to treat the automated adjustments with suspicion - especially the ambient light metering one. In fact, we ultimately kept the AutoView picture preset option permanently off.
Colour management
Of much more interest to us and anyone keen on optimising the 40SL753's picture quality is its startlingly far-reaching colour management system.
This enables you to adjust the hue, saturation and brightness of all six of the main red, green, blue, yellow, magenta and cyan colour elements. A Colour Temperature menu option also enables you to tinker with the offset and gain settings for the red, green and blue colour elements.
Thanks to the slightly more dynamic colour palette made possible by the backlight, we got more genuinely useful mileage out of these colour management tools than we have on Toshiba's CCFL LCD models. It's well worth securing a calibration aid like the HD Video Essentials Blu-ray if you buy this TV, as spending a little time tweaking all the colour options can definitely yield positive results.
The colour management tools are by no means the only surprising fine-tuning tricks the 40SL753 gives you, either. There's also the option to adjust the TV's static gamma preset (which can have a bearing on black level tone and shadow detail response).
Then there's a simple but effective sliding bar adjustment for shifting the set's black and white balance, and separate noise reduction tools for tackling MPEG digital tuner noise and standard video noise.
We preferred to leave both these noise reduction systems off with HD, as they frequently softened the picture unnecessarily. But provided you never set them higher than their 'Low' level, they can improve the look of standard definition sources slightly.
100Hz processing
Toshiba has also given you the option of turning off the set's Active Vision M100 100Hz processing engine, and there's even a further optional tool dubbed 'Film Stabilisation' that allegedly introduces extra fluidity to HD pictures.
We didn't get much out of this latter feature, other than it making us reflect that some of the set's more complex tools and tricks could really have done with more explanation than they got in the phenomenally brief instructions manual.
Exactly the same can be said of the 40SL753's Control Visualisation menu option. Choose this if you've got the Autoview picture mode active and it will show you continually adjusting graphs of the picture's brightness and pixel control processing levels. But while these might interest you for about 10 seconds, they're ultimately all but useless as picture calibration aids.
Still, while some of the 40SL753's picture features might be more useful than others, they're still impressively numerous for a decently affordable edge LED TV. And the same goes for its connections.
Four HDMIs get the ball rolling, one of which is a v1.4 affair offering an audio return channel to compatible receivers. Not surprisingly, though, this port doesn't also take in full HD 3D.
Also impressive for a mid-price set is the 40SL753's pair of USBs, which can take in digital photos or, in USB 2's case, house an optional Wi-Fi dongle. Why would you need such a dongle? Because the 40SL753 can take in video, photo and music files from DLNA-capable PCs, though sadly only Windows 7 models.
The 40SL753 doesn't have any online services though, and with the optional Wi-Fi dongle costing a cool £60, you might decide to just make do with the provided Ethernet port if you want to avail yourself of the DLNA features. The Ethernet also offers mandatory support for the Freeview HD tuner that's built into the TV.
Still further multimedia aid comes from an SD card slot, offering an alternative means of playing digital photos, plus the more expected D-Sub PC jack.
The 40SL753's USB and SD slots don't play music or video files; for that sort of flexibility, you'll have to step up to the WL753 range. The WL753 series also introduces Toshiba's first online functiona, though as far as we can tell, this is currently limited to YouTube access.
Wrapping up the 40SL753's features is Toshiba's Resolution+. This proprietary engine for adding detail and sharpness to pictures remains one of the better such systems around, though we'd recommend that you never set it higher than level three, or else the system can start to make pictures look a bit gritty.
Things start pretty well when you first turn the TV on. It asks you if you're a home or shop user, if you want to use the ambient light sensor and if you're wall or stand mounting it, as this affects audio reproduction.
The question about the ambient light sensor is particularly sensible, in our opinion, since we don't usually rate these systems much, so it's good to be given the option to deactivate it right away.
However, the onscreen menus are resolutely old fashioned, just featuring reams of white text and scrolling menus against a black background. As well as being dull these menus aren't very approachable when considered against something like LG's superbly organized, graphics-heavy operating system.
It doesn't help, either, that the menus contain a few quite technical terms that are inadequately explained in the wafer-thin instructions manual.
Remote control
In many ways the 40SL753's remote control is a cut above the usual rather flimsy Toshiba efforts. It still feels rather light and plasticky, and looks strikingly over-burdened with buttons, but at least it's got quite a nice piano-black finish and is large enough to feel comfortable in the hand. The buttons are much more responsive and 'clicky' than those found with some of Toshiba's previous remotes, too.
However, Toshiba has opted for one of those fashionable concentric 'buttons within buttons' approaches for the core controls, and as is often the case, this proves to be a fiddly arrangement. This also makes the remote distinctly tricky to use in a darkened room.
There is one saving grace, though, in the way Toshiba has raised the central OK button, thus giving you an immediate touch-based orientation aid. Sony would have done well to copy this idea for the concentric circle remote controls found with many of its latest TVs.
At the risk of kicking off too negatively, the first thing we should say is that we toyed with only giving the 40SL753 a three out of five for pictures, on account of one particular weakness. But in the end the combined strengths of the good points just persuaded us to nudge up to four.
Having mentioned it, we might as well get that flaw out of the way first. And it's actually pretty predictable given the set's edge LED nature: inconsistent backlighting.
During dark scenes it's impossible not to notice how three of the four corners of the picture show clear 'jets' of excess brightness surging into the picture for a couple of inches or so. The intensity of these light spillages reduces with every millimetre they extend away from the corners, but that doesn't make them any less noticeable.
Our review sample also revealed a couple of more subtle but larger pools of lighting inconsistency during dark scenes, occupying quite a few square inches to the top left of centre and bottom centre of the image.
You can reduce the problem if you really hammer down the backlight setting. But by the time you've got down to the 30-35 setting that really makes a big impact on the light inconsistencies, you've suddenly got a picture that looks rather flat and lifeless.
Limited viewing angle
While we're in a moany state of mind, we should also say that the 40SL753 has a really limited viewing angle, with contrast and colour integrity dropping dramatically if viewed from any angle wider than 35°.
Finally in the negative column, the set's HD pictures don't look quite as pin-sharp as we've seen them on some rival sets. This seems to be caused by some residual motion blur, for relatively static HD shots tend to look more detailed and crisp.
That said, the 100Hz engine certainly does reduce judder and blur from the set's 'native' state, as becomes evident if you turn the system off. And the remaining motion issues with it on are pretty minimal by the standards of an £850 edge LED set.
Also in the plus column, the 40SL753's pictures retain those oft-seen twin edge LED advantages of extreme brightness and vibrant, richly saturated colours. Actually, these can both become too extreme if you use the frankly rather daft, probably shop-oriented Dynamic picture preset. The Standard setting is usually your best bet, or possibly the movie preset when watching films. Though some might find this mode a touch too soft for comfort.
Colours are mostly natural as well as dynamic, with pretty good levels of blend subtlety helping complete an engaging colourscape.
As noted earlier, the Resolution+ system also helps the 40SL753 become a pretty impressive standard definition upscaler. Despite the backlight inconsistencies, the 40SL753 is actually capable of producing a surprisingly deep black level response.
Finally, we must stress that the backlight issues that bothered us during dark film sequences are simply not visible at all when watching anything with any degree of brightness to it. So, in other words, for the vast majority of your viewing time the backlight problems won't be visible
It's this fact more than any other that ultimately made us lean towards the four score we've eventually award the 40SL753's pictures.
With some brands making at least a little progress with the audio they're getting out of their LCD TVs this year, Toshiba, sadly, seems to be heading the opposite way.
Perhaps because of its slimness, the 40SL753 produces a rather one-dimensional soundstage, adequate enough for normal day to day viewing, but too thin and compressed to sound at all convincing with even a half-decent Hollywood action scene.
Considered in the context of other edge LED 40-42in TVs, the 40SL753's £850 asking price looks pretty reasonable. A hundred pounds or so less than we might have anticipated, in fact.
Panasonic's P42S20 plasma TV is around for roughly the same money and outguns the Toshiba on picture quality, at least where HD movies are concerned. But the 40SL753 model has multimedia features and design on its side, and arguably produces a better standard definition picture. So we guess it's a case of horses for courses.
The 40SL753 is arguably a rather overdue first stab at edge LED technology from Toshiba, but it's turned out to be an effective one.
It looks good, for a start, despite not being quite so heart-wrenchingly slim as some Samsung, LG or Sony edge LED models. It's also quite attractively priced: enough, at least, to undercut the vast majority if not all of its 40in LED rivals.
It's also very well provided with sockets, even if some of them (the USBs, the SD card slot, the Ethernet port) aren't quite as flexible as they might be.
Add to all this a surprising amount of picture fine tuning options and some extremely likeable picture quality, especially when the material being shown is predominantly bright, and the set is almost a total winner.
Just the appearance of some distracting backlight inconsistency during dark scenes and a rather unsatisfying sound performance make it a considered, rather than automatic, purchase.
We liked:
The 40SL753 is reasonably stylish in a not especially aggressive kind of way, and its connections are unexpectedly fulsome.
We appreciated the efforts the TV goes to provide you with plenty of calibration tools too, and finally we like plenty of things about the set's picture quality.
It upscales standard definition unusually well thanks to Resolution+, and images generally are bright, breezy, clean, acceptably if not amazingly sharp, and well saturated in the colour department.
We disliked:
The single biggest flaw with the 40SL753 is one we've seen on many other edge LED TVs: patches of uneven light that become visible during dark scenes. These are especially evident in the corners of the picture. You can reduce their impact, but only by taking more brightness out of the picture than we felt comfortable with.
The set is also a no-go area for anyone who will regularly find they have to watch it from a wide angle, and it's a pity the DNLA function only works with Windows 7.
Finally, Toshiba could do with revamping its onscreen menus at some point soon.
Verdict:
Toshiba's edge LED debut is to some extent a rather frustrating TV. For there are many times when it's a really excellent performer that makes its approachable price look really good value. It manages to look good, too, despite not using its edge LED technology to go for the super-slim design used to such great effect by some rival edge LED brands.
Its feature count is a bit hit and miss, in that its calibration tools are excellent, while its multimedia features feel slightly unfinished compared with our current expectations. But overall we ended up feeling that the set gave us more than enough to play with for its money.
The frustrating bit comes from the 40SL753's susceptibility to the oft-seen edge LED problem of backlight inconsistency, where it can't manage to keep a uniform level of brightness right across the screen.
Thankfully, this is only visible during very dark scenes, and so only affects a relatively small percentage of your viewing time. But in conjunction with a very limited viewing angle, it's enough to stop us being able to give the 40SL753 the rave review it might otherwise have bagged.
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Speedlink show off PlayStation Move add-ons
Speedlink has announced a veritable feast of PlayStation Move peripherals, including a gun, 'sports' attachment and dock. Speedlink is hoping that its range of addons – which will be available from the UK launch of PlayStation Move on 17 September – will prove a popular choice for early adopters.
"The manufacturer will offer an end-to-end range of practical accessories which will increase ease of use, protection and above all the sheer fun of gaming with Sony's motion control system," said Speedlink.
Wiixperience
"When developing the Move range, Speedlink incorporated the many years of experience it gained from its highly successful Wii accessories range to start manufacturing matching products months before the launch of the new platform.
"The Move portfolio will initially comprise two chargers, a sports attachment set for the motion controller, a gun attachment as well as protective silicone skins for both Move controllers."
The products have been priced in Euros – so the UK pricing will be slightly different.
The BAY 4-Port Move Charging System will cost €29.99, the Tridock 3-in-1 Move Charging System €19.99, Match 3-in-1 Move Sports Set €19.99 and the Peacemaker Move Gun – €14.99 with the Guard Silicone Skin Kit – €6.99.
Maybe it's the child in us, but we're already fans of the Peacemaker. Do you feel lucky punk?
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In Depth: 10 best graphics cards under £200
We've already rounded up the best sub-£100 graphics cards, and now it's onto the sub-£200 pixel workhorses. It's a different kettle of microchips entirely, and it's in this price bracket that you start to see the kind of GPUs that offer serious gaming performance.Both Nvidia and AMD have cards in this price bracket, and they both put up quite a fight.
It's harder to find different chipsets in this price range than it is under £100, so we've taken the ones we've reviewed recently and looked at the various flavours manufacturers sell them in. The cards are all presented in price order.
There's a great amount of variety in there, and if you're looking to build a cheap computer capable of running Crysis in the highest settings, you've come to the right place.
1. XFX Radeon HD 4890 - £110
It may lack DirectX 11 support, but the HD 4890 is still a killer card, and it performed better than both the 5770 and 5830 graphics cards. Our chief complaint when we reviewed it was the price, but it's now available for just £110. Add to this AMD's proven, bullet-proof architecture - it'll run Crysis in maximum settings - and you've got a hell of a gaming card for very little money. If you don't mind being a bit behind the times.
Read our Gigabyte XFX Radeon HD 4890 review
2. MSI R5770 Hawk - £134
The jury's still out on whether or not it's worth buying a DirectX 11 graphics card, but this MSI effort is pretty spiffing, especially given the low price point. Although it's only got a 128-bit memory bus, the faster GDDR5 memory means it's able to deliver incredible results in all but the uber-demanding Crysis: Warhead. The price isn't too bad, either, and MSI has pre-overclocked the card for maximum performance. We just can't help but wonder what it would be like with a 256-bit bus, though.
Read our Gigabyte MSI R5770 Hawk review
3. BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC - £151
Sitting squarely between AMD's 4870 and 4890, Nvidia's card can give them both a run for their money. It may be getting on a bit, but it's still a cracking card, and it gave good results in our tests. In performance and price, it may err a bit too closely to AMD's 4870, but that's a good thing - the only thing you've got to choose is which manufacturer you want to give your love to.
Read our BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC review
4. Zotac GeForce GTX 275 AMP! - £172
Simply the best graphics card available at the time our review was written last year, it's still a wonderful bit of kit. It packs a 448-bit memory bus to let all that graphical goodness flow nicely, and what's more is that this pre-overclocked version bumps up the already-decent shader, GPU and memory clocks. The result is a card that performs just as well as Nvidia's pricier GTX 285, plus you get all Nvidia's CUDA and PhysX goodness.
Read our Zotac GeForce GTX 275 AMP! review
5. Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4890 Toxic - £174
The Toxic's main selling point isn't that it's poisonous, but that it includes Sapphire's proprietary Vapor-X technology. This relies on thermodynamics to cool the GPU, and it works very, very well. If you're a novice in the world of graphics card overclocking, this is the card for you: the Vapor-X is much more forgiving than stock coolers. Add to this excellent gaming performance out of the box, and the Toxic is a great card made even better.
Read our Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4890 Toxic review
6. Zotac GTX 260 Amp2! - £176
So good it deserves an exclamation mark, Zotac's GTX 260 includes 216 stream processors, rather than the GTX 260's standard 192. What on earth does that mean? Basically, it's a bit faster than your standard chip, although not hugely so - our benchmarks were much the same as the original card's. But when we reviewed it the price was a tad too high at £235, but now that's tumbled it's worth looking into.
Read our Zotac GTX 260 Amp2! review
7. Asus EAH5830 DirectCU - £183
Asus' version of AMD's ultra-brilliant 5830 is the cheapest DirectX 11 graphics card in our round-up. Essentially a pruned version of the 5870, it still includes a whopping 1,120 stream processors, and a 256-bit memory bus. Asus has included its own overclocking software, which makes getting more performance out of the card a doddle. Admittedly, there are better-performing AMD cards out there for just a little bit more, but if you've got exactly £183, it's the card for you.
Read our Asus EAH5830 DirectCU review
8. EVGA Superclocked GTX 460 768MB - £188
It may only include a humble 768MB of memory, but EVGA has overclocked this GTX 460 to the point of no return, and into the realms of incredibly high benchmarks. It scored a whopping 38 frames per second in the verdant tropics of Just Cause 2, although it did lose out to Zotac's non-overclocked card in some tests. But the best bit is EVGA's 10-year warranty - it's truly a card for life. If we're still playing games in 10 years' time.
Read our EVGA Superclocked GTX 460 768MB review
9. Zotac GeForce GTX 460 1GB - £200
Most cheaper graphics cards are merely chopped-back versions of high end cards, but Nvidia went back to the drawing board with the GTX 460, perhaps understanding the importance of the price point. It's a moved that paid off, with the re-jigged GPU pumping out smooth frames per second in all our tests, and even providing a bit of all-important overclocking headroom. It's also DirectX 11 friendly, so you can enjoy those beautifully tesselated flags and puddles..
Read our Zotac GeForce GTX 460 1GB review
10. ATI Radeon 5850 - £200
We're truly in the lofty heights of graphics cards now, with both Nvidia and AMD's top chips floating around. The latter's 5850 is a stripped-back version of the far pricier 5870, but that also means cooling and efficiency are improved, so there's less noise and heat emanating from your PC. It puts on a hell of a performance, too, able to run the likes of Crysis and Just Cause 2 without even flinching. It's not the fastest card you can buy, but it definitely gives you the most bang for your buck.
Read our ATI Radeon 5850 review
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Review: BlackBerry Torch 9800
In some ways, RIM has aimed to shoot its own foot this year, releasing smartphones that are functional enough for business, yet offer no new compelling features for anyone else. The BlackBerryTorch 9800 is a step in the right direction, albeit a small step. However, the competition has been thriving in the past few years; the iPhone 4 provides a sleek design, thousands of amazing apps, and a high-def screen. Recent Android devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S and the HTC Desire, are also super-smart phones with massive screens, screaming-fast 1GHz processors, and a slick UI.
Can the BlackBerry Torch 9800 push RIM back to the sharp end of the smartphone market? We review the US version of the phone to find out.
This slider phone uses an improved touchscreen, but is a faint reminder of the Palm Pre and, in many ways, the BlackBerry Storm 2 which shares the same bulky heft and 3.2-inch screen size.
Unfortunately, the Torch is not particularly suited to the BlackBerry diehards, because the QWERTY keyboard is a bit too small and the processor is too slow to keep up with the finger-clicking productivity apps that BlackBerry users depend on.
Despite being easier to use than the last version, the new BlackBerry 6 OS interface RIM merely borrows some ideas from HTC Sense instead of really overhauling the smartphone platform for a next-generation of business users.
At the heart of every smartphone is its mobile OS platform, which makes it easy to download new apps and get more use out of the phone.
The BlackBerry Torch is one of the first phones to use the new BlackBerry 6 OS - a slick icon-centric approach that's not that different from OS 5 in that it uses the same colourful outlined app icons – but with a few new twists that do improve the experience.
One is that, like the HTC Sense interface, you can flick to the left or right to see additional home screens and add more apps. The Torch automatically uses a handful of these screens, including Frequent, Downloads, Media, Favourites and All.
You can move icons around on each screen, but it's a bit awkward. You click and hold, touch Move, then move the app where you want it to go. In our tests, it was too easy to press in the wrong area and not even move the icon.
Did RIM merely add some iPhone pizzazz to BlackBerry 6 OS but not overhaul the underlying code? It seems so.
Another me-too addition has to do with social networking. Palm started all of the fuss by aggregating feeds into one list, but Android literally aggregated the idea across most of the recent models like the Evo and Incredible.
On the Torch, you can view status updates for Twitter, Facebook and many others in the Social Feeds app. There's an easy way to view them in separate columns or combined into one.
The problem is that this is not really aggregation. It is just one app that shows you feeds, but there's no way to create a new contact from Facebook, and the feeds are not shown anywhere else – such as in one of the home screens.
Even the now-defunct Kin smartphones did a better job of making social networking part of using the phone on a daily base, not just a disparate app.
You also won't see any pop-up messages from your Twitter and Facebook friends. However, the Torch does provide a way to upload images you take on the phone directly to Facebook, and even re-sizes them for you on the fly.
The touchscreen on the Torch is highly responsive – a surprise after the disaster known as Storm. Oddly, the screen seems to be exactly the same as the Storm and Storm 2, at the same pixel resolution and same 3.2-inch size.
What the Torch does not have, thankfully, is the large click panel you use to make selections.
RIM had the right idea with that – that there should be a tactile response to finger clicks – but it was poorly implemented and didn't work right.
The Torch dispenses with all haptics, instead encouraging basic finger clicks, pinch and spread, and a smooth glide over the screen that worked remarkably well without any problems.
For app selection, the Torch follows the BlackBerry mantra of productivity. You never get the sense that the third-party apps available will win any innovation awards. They are functional and useful, but not amazing.
However, one major advantage that the Torch still has is that there are enterprise tools – including the BlackBerry Enterprise Server – that can help businesses track the devices as an asset, and even control some features on the device, including when you can make phone calls.
That infrastructure is not available for Android and iPhone devices, at least not as a first party option.
The new BlackBerry 6 interface is an improvement, but not by much
One of the great challenges with any smartphone platform is in making the device powerful enough for apps, music and games, yet still suited for basic calling functions. BlackBerry devices have struck a good balance in this regard.
The Torch is a reasonably good phone – it has a large and spacious 3.2-inch screen running at 480x360 pixels or 188 pixels per inch, so when you start the dialler you will notice the keypad is quite large.
Slide the phone keyboard out and you can dial numbers quickly using the number keys, although the soft keys work better.
Call quality after about a dozen calls was good enough that we never wondered if the device might have issues with picking up our voice. In fact, the slightly raised volume control buttons,= allowed us to crank up the call volume higher than most smartphones we've tested.
As mentioned, there is no direct correlation between the Social Feeds app and contacts, so we didn't find a way to easily pull a Facebook contact into the dial pad or contacts list. Similarly, there wasn't an easy way to add contacts from the Web.
That said, contacts are easily searchable – you just start typing a name in the search field. There's also a wealth of information you can add for contacts, including birthdays and anniversaries. You can even add custom fields to contacts.
The Torch software dialler is huge – it's easy to type numbers with high accuracy.
BlackBerry users know that most recent models are great messaging phones – the keyboard on the Curve is outstanding.
The raised keys, spacing and overall size of the QWERTY keyboard on just about every BlackBerry is primarily what draws the business crowd, who don't care as much about augmented reality apps and games where you shoot zombies: they just care about e-mailing the boss.
Unfortunately, the Torch has a few problems with messaging. The major complaint is with the slightly smaller size of the QWERTY keyboard.
It just feels a little truncated, even though it is essentially the exact same shape as the Curve. RIM had to make the keyboard just a touch smaller so that the slider would fit under the touchscreen. Maybe it is a fraction of a centimetre, but it's still a bit cramped.
Another issue is with the slow processor on the Torch. Running at just 600Mhz, the Torch often feels sluggish.
When you open an attachment there is an obvious delay as the phone spins a few cycles opening a PDF or Word file. They do open, and the Torch supports most major file formats, but the wait is annoying.
Because of the slow processing, the Torch also has a hard time multitasking – say you want to copy a portion of text, or switch to another app.
There is a pause that sometimes lasts a full two seconds or more as the Torch processes the request. There were times when the device would pause even longer.
Worse still, you might be prompted to click OK after deleting a message, and the Torch will pause again.
This seriously degrades the messaging experience, because as you use the device, you never know when it might pause or falter. On faster devices, such as the HTC Desire, you can open attachments quickly, and get your work done faster.
Slowdowns make the BlackBerry Torch hard to use for real business tasks.
The Torch gets its name from the WebKit browser, made by Torch, a company RIM acquired. It is one of the highlights of using the device. Oddly, the browser runs quite fast even on the 600MHz processor, with few slowdowns and pauses.
The browser has one simple URL field, and a way to quickly make a bookmark, add the page to the Home screen, send the URL, view history and so on. There's also one icon for viewing open pages. Otherwise most of the screen real estate is conserved for the website.
In testing ESPN.com and TechRadar.com, we found the sites loaded quickly, and formatted correctly without any glitches. Like many other mobile browsers on the planet, Flash support is limited to simple Flash Lite pages.
The browser makes it easy to flick through a site, pinch and spread to get a better view of the text and graphics, and finger-click on links.
The camera is another feature that the Blackberry Torch seems borrowed from the Storm 2.
The 5MP camera records crisp and colourful images, and you can use scene settings for adjusting the camera to fit a specific scenario – such as low-light, landscape, or close-up portrait shots – which adjusts accurately for skin tone.
There are also several options for playing a slideshow, setting images as the current wallpaper, viewing image properties and sending the image by e-mail or uploading it to Facebook. The Torch also lets you attach GPS coordinates.
The only glitch here is that the phone tends to take up to a minute to acquire the GPS data.
However, once you have a lock, the Torch does a good job of using this GPS data. For example, when you send an image by e-mail, the phone automatically adds the city name to each image name.
Once you offload images, you can then open the shots in an app such as Google Maps to see when you took the photos.
You can also switch to the video camera mode, which works well for basic video recording, but lacks any advanced features, including setting white balance.
The camera does do a good job with continuous focus – this means the camera won't just lock on your subject and focus. Even when you get good focus, if you move the phone away for a moment, the camera will continue focusing.
In practice, this meant that fewer images tuned out blurry in the way that they do on other smartphones.
Unfortunately, the Torch does have the same problem with slow processing for the camera – there were occasional pauses when viewing images, for example.
The BlackBerry Torch can adequately handle differing light levels
Brighter surfaces tend to steal the focus, however
Larger scenes are handled well by the BlackBerry Torch, with most detail captured
Although the background is a little soft, the 5MP camera takes some decent landscape shots, with the clouds particularly well-detailed
Text is very well reproduced, which helps with text-recognition software on the BlackBerry App World
The flash on the BlackBerry Torch is a little underpowered - you'll need to be close to the subject to make it work properly
The video camera mode, which works well for basic video recording, lacks any advanced features, including setting white balance.
The output is also only offered in 3GP formats, which work well for phones with smaller storage but do lose a little in video quality.
The video camera 'only' records in VGA quality, although we can't use that as too much of a negative aspect - a lot of phones that have HD video recording and playback don't really offer premium footage.
Android and iPhone devices have such a serious advantage over BlackBerry phones when it comes to media that it's almost embarrassing.
There is no easy way to add movies to the Torch, no PC or Mac tool for adding music, and no support for services like Amazon for buying songs.
However video watching wasn't the worst in the world - the HVGA screen might be a little low resolution compared to the high-falutin' WVGA of the HTC Desire or Retina Display of the iPhone 4, but it's adequate for a spot of movie fun.
Battery life
In our tests, the Torch lasted about five hours on one charge, which is about what the specs claim, and is much longer than some of the recent Android models, including the Desire.
With that battery life, the Torch becomes a more useful phone – no matter how stunning the HD screen is on other phones, it is useless when they go dead.
There's no questioning the productivity and organization apps on the BlackBerry Torch: they are typical for the platform. You'll find a colourful calendar, a selection of office reading applications and the usual alarm clock and similar offerings.
Apps
The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is one of the first handsets from RIM to come with BlackBerry App World in the box, offering instant access to the portal.
The portal (which has since been upgraded to BlackBerry App World 2.0, offering a much better and sleeker experience) offers access to a wealth of apps. Not as many as Android or the App Store, by a long way, but still a decent amount of fairly useful offerings.
Connectivity
Like most recent smartphones, the Torch supports Bluetooth (including the latest audio standards for Bluetooth Stereo), Wi-Fi, and carrier signal.
The Wi-Fi tested out well, with a steady connection even over 802.11n and at a public hotspot.
Call signal quality was also smooth – we never had any drop-outs during calls or while checking e-mail over a 3G connection, and never had any signal loss issues.
The only minor glitch came when we tested the Torch with a laptop.
Even though the device should have worked fine for swapping data over Bluetooth, the profiles did not work correctly and we couldn't transfer files from the device (we did manage to send files to the device, however).
When you connect the Torch to your laptop with USB, the data transfers worked fine – although we couldn't find the camera images (which should have been stored as JPEG files) and ended up having to e-mail them instead.
We like
Overall, despite the fact that this is the first BlackBerry 6 device and has a slide-out keyboard similar to the Palm Pre, the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is a fairly typical BlackBerry smartphone.
The keyboard works fine, there are plenty of business apps and you can deploy an enterprise server to track the devices as a business asset.
The camera works quite well and has serviceable scene selectors, and the touchscreen works smoothly.
We dislike
The major problems are just too obvious to ignore, however. At 600MHz, the Torch is just too slow to be taken seriously against much faster models running at 1GHz.
It tends to stall out easily and falter when you really need to check an e-mail or browse to a Web site. There are many good business apps, but not enough amazing apps for general users.
Importantly, the Torch just doesn't keep pace with the innovative features on Android and iPhone devices, even though RIM added a few improvements.
Verdict
While it may be a decent step forward hardware-wise for RIM, the BlackBerry Torch still lags behind the competition in the smartphone market.
For a phone that's supposed to be the poster child of the new BlackBerry 6 OS, we hoped for a lot more. If you're a BlackBerry stalwart then you might find some joy here, but otherwise the Torch is unlikely to convert many of the Android and iPhone brigade.
Related Links
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- TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee
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Rustock botnet accounts for '41% of spam'
A botnet which has been around since 2006 was responsible for 41 per cent of the world's spam in August.Called Rustock, the botnet infests itself on to computers via a Trojan virus, with each PC used to send tens of thousands of emails.
Thought to be based in Russia Rustock, according to Symantec, was "the most dominant spam-sending botnet responsible for the majority of botnet spam, 41 percent in August up from 32 percent in April."
Spam kings
Paul Wood, MessageLabs Intelligence Senior Analyst, Symantec Hosted Services, said about the results: "Overall, the total amount of spam in circulation is down slightly from the previous quarters as most botnets have reduced their number of bots.
"One exception is Rustock which has decreased its number of bots but increased its volume, more than doubling the amount of spam sent from each bot per minute resulting in a 6 percent increase in spam emails per day."
While Rustock seems to be the busiest of bots, the UK is bringing more spam than ever before responsible for 4.5 per cent of the world's spam, more than double the percentage in April.
New figures put the UK as the fourth most frequent source of spam behind the US, India and Brazil.
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ASA bans BT broadband ad for misleading about speed
One of BT's infamous 'Adam and Jane' adverts has been banned, with the Advertising Standards Agency upholding claims that it was likely to mislead customers about the speed of its 'up to' 20Mbps service. BT's advert showed 'Jane' instantly loading a website and looking through images, while an estate agent was apologising to 'Adam' for the slowness of his connection.
"BT is rolling out up to 20 meg speeds to give you a consistently faster broadband throughout the day even at peak times," intoned a voiceover.
17 complaints – including ones from ISPs Virgin Media and Sky were made to the ASA, and despite BT's defence that its 20 meg service was faster than the old one, they were upheld.
"Likely to mislead"
"Because we had not seen sufficient evidence to support the claim that BT's new broadband service was consistently faster than its existing 8Mbps service even at peak times, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead," said the ASA.
Of course, a more effective way to stop people being misled would be to ban the use of 'up to speeds' with ISPs forced to advertise packages by average speed and not potential top speeds that are rarely, if ever, hit.
Ofcom's recent look at the actual speeds showed that BT was among those whose average broadband speed was significantly lower than the 'up to' speed that the service is advertised as.
On BT's 'up to 20Mbps' service the average speed is less than half, with Ofcom's average suggesting a speed of around 6.1 to 7.6 Mbps.
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Huawei to announce Android 2.2 phone at IFA
Huawei is planning to launch its first Android phone at IFA this year, bringing together a budget package and some top-end specs.Although Huawei has been mostly known for producing branded products for networks, it's been making a concerted effort to branch out under its own name and the new U8150 will be the flagship handset of the push.
The phone will have a 2.8-inch capacitive screen, a 3.2MP camera and the same Android Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi connections.
Faster Wi-Fi
However, the Wi-Fi will be 802.11n, helping it make use of the faster speeds offered by the latest routers.
The processor only clocks in at 528MHz, so the overall function of the device may be a little compromised - but seeing as this phone will likely have a UK price of around £100, we can forgive a few foibles.
Huawei claims it will be one of the first to run Android 2.2 out the box, meaning it shouldn't be too long after the 2 September launch at IFA that it gets it UK release.
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HTC's new Windows Phone 7 handset leaks out
HTC has never had the best of luck when it comes to keeping things in house, and that trend has continued with the leaking of a new Windows Phone 7 device.Engadget nabbed the scoop for the phone that's destined for the AT&T network in the US, showing a tablet handset with a slide out keyboard underneath.
Except it's NOT a keyboard hidden beneath the large screen - it's a slide out speaker, complete with kickstand for multimedia fun.
The phone has been given the model number of T8788 for the time being, but we'd be stunned if that was the final name in the midst of the Legend, Desire and HD2.
Waiting for Windows
We haven't got any more specs or information on the new mystery handset - but given it's looking pretty sleek now, there's a good chance we could see it launched in October, when the first Windows Phone 7 handsets are set to be unveiled.
HTC is also set to announce a standard tablet-style Windows Phone 7 device around the same time, and the likes of LG and Samsung will also be there on launch day with new handsets.
But it seems the T8788 shows that there will be much more of a media leaning for the Windows Phone 7 handsets than previously seen for Microsoft, showing the Redmond firm's concerted push into the consumer market.
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Facebook priced at £22 billion
Facebook has been valued at $33.7 billion (£22 billion), making it a bigger money maker than publicly listed technology brands like eBay.Although Facebook is a privately held company, the Financial Times has taken a look at secondary market transactions – ie, how much initial investors are selling their private stakes for – in the company to see how much the social network is actually worth.
The number is bigger than that of established brands like eBay, which has been priced at around $30.1 billion. And it is also double that of Yahoo, which is said to be wort $18.3 billion.
Money talks
Although $34 billion is a phenomenal amount of money for a social network – bearing in mind MySpace was bought for $580 million back in 2005 – its price is still dwarfed by the likes of Google and Microsoft.
Google is currently worth around $143.9 billion, Microsoft $197 billion and Apple a whopping £200 billion.
However, when Google initially went public in 2004 it floated for $1.67 billion. This was one of the biggest Initial Public Offering for a technology company, a figure which Facebook would far succeed if it went public.
According to the Financial Times, though, the social network is unlikely to make the jump until 2012, which will be a hugely significant year for Facebook – unless the Mayans have something to do with it.
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O2 exposes green credentials in its phones
O2 has launched Eco Rating, allowing the network to outline the environmentally friendliness of the mobile phones it stocks.According to O2, 44 per cent of its customers say the environmental factors that go into producing and packaging a phone would have an effect on their ultimate decision, so the scheme is designed to help inform that decision.
In partnership with Forum for the Future, an independent sustainability firm, the score is based on the overall environmental impact of the device over its lifespan: the raw materials it contains; the impacts caused by its manufacture; its packaging; its longevity and energy efficiency; and how easy it is to reuse or recycle.
It considers the functionality of handsets, for example, by replacing the need to own a separate camera or music player, and takes into account the ethical performance of manufacturers including labour standards in the supply chain, safety and environmental principles, social inclusion and community programmes, and carbon and water management.
Big players
Samsung, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and LG have all signed up for the scheme, but the likes of RIM and Apple have both declined to participate, although neither has given a reason for the non-inclusion.
"Transparency is always an issue for consumer electronics companies, who claim that providing too much information gives away competitive advantage. But consumers also deserve to know the full story," Gary Cook, IT sector analyst for Greenpeace International, told the Guardian.
"While Apple has recently made important strides in eliminating toxic chemicals from its products and the reporting of their environmental footprint, it still lags behind others in transparency."
Head on over to O2's product gallery and see the eco-friendliness of each phones; unsurprisingly the Sony Ericsson Elm, part of the GreenHeart range, tops the bill at 4.3 out of 5.
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Real-time 'Windows Phone 7 to Xbox gaming' on the way
Microsoft is working on real-time Xbox Live gaming between its new Windows 7 mobile phones and the traditional Xbox 360 home console, according to latest reports.Speaking at this month's Microsoft X10 event in Toronto, a Microsoft rep outlined the plans for phone-to-console gaming functionality for its forthcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system.
WMPoweruser describes how phones using Windows Phone 7 OS will at some point in the future be able to play games against opponents playing the same game on an Xbox 360 console in the home.
'Turn by turn' tech at launch
Initially, the first games will be tested out with strategy-style 'turn by turn' functionality.
"Initially we're 'turn by turn' based," said a Microsoft rep. "We are working on real-time phone-to-console, likely initially through Wi-Fi - again, operator networks are sensitive to that.
"That's not on day one; day one will be 'turn by turn' as well as companion-type gaming where you play a level on the phone and it may unlock a level or a weapon or some special achievement on the console game.
The rep added that Microsoft was "absolutely working on phone-to-console real-time. That is something we're working on and expect to have in the near future."
Head to Xbox.com for all the details you need on Windows Phone 7 and Xbox Live integration .
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Review: Mesh Discovery 16-RV
Mesh is a UK company that re-brands other manufacturers' laptops, in addition to making its own. The Mesh Discovery 16-RV is a rebranded MSI CR600 laptop.Although performance is basic, anyone on a tight budget will find plenty to like.
A basic Intel Pentium T4500 processor has been used to cut costs and, as a result, the Mesh lags behind in power. Basic office tasks such as word processing and browsing the internet work perfectly well, but running any more demanding software quickly causes this machine to slow to a crawl.
Despite the basic processor, Mesh has included an integrated graphics card from Nvidia. The GeForce 8200M G chip is low powered, so performance can't match the HP Pavilion dv7-2045ea or Acer Aspire 5745PG-354G32Mn, but basic photo editing is easily possible and even high-definition (HD) video can run smoothly enough.
Unfortunately, the bright and reasonably sharp 15.6-inch screen is less vibrant than we had hoped, with images appearing slightly washed out when compared to the more vivid Super-TFT displays.
The keyboard is a little spongy, but very comfortable to type on, thanks to the generously sized palmrests. The keys are generally well-proportioned, despite the inclusion of a separate numeric keypad. Our only grumbles are a tiny Return key and the placement of a Function button in the bottom left of the board, with the CTRL key awkwardly indented.
The responsive touchpad is also well sized, with two firm mouse buttons and an attractive glowing status bar positioned just beneath.
Build quality is excellent throughout with a solid lid protecting the display and a chassis that is just as firm as the more expensive laptops in this group.
Poor battery
Portability is flawed however. The chassis is quite light with the 2.4kg weight beaten only by the more compact Sony VAIO VPC-Y21S1E/SI, but the battery life of just 185 minutes.
Still, the number of features on offer is impressive considering the low price, with HDMI and ExpressCard ports both available.
The 320GB hard drive is more capacious than the HP Pavilion dv7-2045ea and Toshiba Satellite L670-12J, so there's plenty of space for your media and applications. A USB mouse and a handy carry case are also included in the price.
While the Discovery 16-RV may be lacking the power of the Intel Core laptops and the portability of the Sony VAIO VPC-Y21S1E/SI, the solid build, excellent usability and impressive range of features belie the low price. A suitable portable for those with basic needs and a limited budget to spend.
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In Depth: 6 of the best online photo storage sites
Online photo sharing has to be one of the most popular activities to have grown out of the internet revolution. The spread of broadband to most households also means it's possible to upload loads of pictures in one go. Obviously, it's possible to create your own photo galleries by writing some HTML code and resizing your photos accordingly. The problem with this approach is that not only is it time consuming, it also requires that you do the work.
So it's no surprise that automatically managed photo uploading sites are a much more popular method of getting your images online.
In this group test we're going to put six of the most popular ones through their paces to see which you should be using. We'll be looking at which sites make it easiest for you to get your images online and which offer the most flexible ways for you to share your pictures.
Obviously, pricing will also be an important factor too, as will extra services and add-ons. A welldesigned service should also make the process simple enough for you to use over and over. The sites we've gathered here all offer much the same end result, but their design and features all differ greatly, not to mention pricing structures.
The best photo sharing site will have to balance all of the best features and price with usability.
Test One: Storage pricing
A free service isn't always the best, but it helps
This test might seem like a simple win for Snapfish, which offers unlimited uploads to its free service, but there's a large caveat to this: you have to pay to download your images (25p each).
Photobucket and Flickr also offer free options, though these have restrictions. Flickr has a 100MB monthly upload limit and Photobucket restricts you to 500MB. You pay $25 (about £17) a year extra to remove these limits.
Picasa Web Albums from Google is free, but storage is limited to 1GB, but it's possible to pay Google for an extra 200GB of storage space for $50 (£34) a year, for example.
MobileMe and SmugMug have offer trials. SmugMug's standard account costs $40 a year with unlimited uploads/downloads. MobileMe is £59 for 12 months and comes with 20GB of storage, but this is shared between your iDisk, email and other services. Add to that a 200MB restriction on data transfer and MobileMe seems the mean-fisted one in the bunch.
Test Two: Uploading images
How easy it is to get photos onto the web
You can upload your pictures to each of the services here with a simple web tool. Getting your images online is hardly a chore, but the methods used do vary.
An obvious leader here is MobileMe with its iPhoto and Aperture integration, simple and effective editing, sorting and uploading in one app.
Google's Picasa application is also effective and totally free. If you plan to use the Picasa service the desktop app is all but compulsory given that you can only upload five images at a time via the web interface.
Photobucket is the poor relation in this section, with just a web upload option. You can perform bulk uploads, but the lack of any Mac-based synchronisation other than your own file system is a bit of a drawback.
Though MobileMe might appear an easy winner here, it's worth remembering that iPhoto doesn't get free upgrades, unlike Picasa, and for that reason the Google service edges this round.
Test Three: Printing options
Once your images are online, what else can you get?
Sharing images online is great, but for many people a good old-fashioned print is still the best way to view a picture; with a hard copy you don't need to power up a computer and it even works in a power cut.
In this test, it's fair to say that Snapfish is ahead of the crowd, as its photo printing options are very good. Clearly Snapfish is designed as a photo-printing site first and is probably more geared to that aim than it is a photo-sharing site, but the benefits to this are obvious considering the range of services.
The Snapfish service can also import your images from Flickr, and you can use UK printing services.
You can order prints from iPhoto and Picasa, but neither offers printing from the web, as yet.
Google offers web printing for US customers, as does Photobucket, so it may arrive in the UK soon.
We really liked the way SmugMug managed the printing option. The interface is slick and easy to follow, but again services are mailed from the US, so incur extra costs.
Test Four: Sharing
Letting the world see your pictures should be simple
Sharing your images with the rest of the world is one of the best things about photo sharing sites.
By far and away the best site for this is Flickr. The large community of users and simple linking makes it easy to share images and for them to be found by others. Geotagging and tags all help to make your images more visible. Flickr also makes it easy to hide your pictures from the outside world.
SmugMug's approach to sharing is also to be applauded, with simple and efficient ways to let people know where your photos can be found. It's not that they necessarily offer a larger range of possibilities as much as they make the process of sharing simple.
Snapfish loses major points by requiring users to create an account to view albums.
MobileMe galleries certainly look impressive, but not all the features work well in all web browsers. Photobucket enables one-click sharing with Facebook, MySpace and Twitter as well as the web.
The Winner: Flickr
Pricing a winner was difficult because each service offers a slightly different perspective on photo sharing.
Obviously, Apple's MobileMe service has a host of extra, unrelated benefits – this in complete contrast to SmugMug, whose offering is wholly aimed and tailored for the photographer. In fact, though SmugMug doesn't win the test we'd like to make a mention of it here as an excellent service well worth checking out – if you're an enthusiastic amateur or prolific pro, then the service has much to offer.
Flickr is still the one to beat though. The range of options is excellent and while there's little control over display, the layout is easy to follow. Powerful and simple to use, Flickr takes the top spot.
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Logitech Z623 speaker system brings THX certification
Logitech has unveiled its THX certified Z623 speaker system, with a price tag just shy of £150. The peripherals manufacturer is pushing the speakers, with the Lucas stamp of approval, as ideal for music, movies and games.
The 2.1 system offers 200 watts (RMS) power, RCA and 3.5mm outputs and a built in headphone jack.
"Engrossed in audio"
"Whether you're listening to rock music, watching a Steven Spielberg movie, or playing your favourite video game, the experience is always richer when you get engrossed in the audio," said Marcus Harvey, Logitech UK & Ireland Country Manager.
"That's why we built the Logitech Speaker System Z623 – so you can lose yourself in whatever you're into.
"For DVD aficionados, music enthusiasts and hardcore gamers, the Z623 system delivers powerful audio for your room. And with THX certification, you know you're getting the best."
The Logitech Speaker System Z623 has been given a UK release date of September and a suggested retail price of £149.
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Review: HP Pavilion dv7-2045ea
HP has a strong range of consumer laptops in its Pavilion series, and the dv7-2045ea is a well-built, entertainment-focused entry. However, its fantastic range of features is sadly undermined by a lacklustre specification which can't match the best at this price.
At 3.4kg and with a 17.3-inch screen, this is the heaviest and one of the bulkiest machines we have tested in a while. While portability is limited, the 220-minute battery life is second only to the Sony VAIO VPC-Y21S1E/SI, and the large dimensions allow for a well-sized keyboard and dedicated numeric keypad.
This is one of the best keyboards we have used for touch-typing, thanks to the scale and intuitive layout, and despite the plastic feel of the keys. The mirrored touchpad adds to the laptop's style, along with a unique patterned design across the chassis' shiny lid and interior.
The screen is bright and vibrant thanks to its Super-TFT coating, although it is quite reflective as a result. The widescreen aspect ratio is perfect for watching films, something HP has carefully considered with the inclusion of an infrared remote which allows you to control Windows Media Centre software at a distance, for the playback of movies and other media.
A responsive touch-sensitive media bar above the keyboard is also included for controlling music, movies and photos. Other features are just as impressive, including the only DVD drive to provide LightScribe support.
The range of ports is comprehensive, with VGA and HDMI outputs in addition to mini FireWire and eSATA ports for fast data communication. An ExpressCard port and four USB ports let you add peripherals.
The only negatives are the 802.11g Wi-Fi – as most modern laptops here support the faster 802.11n standard – and the use of the older Windows Vista OS instead of Windows 7.
Poor performer
Performance is sadly less impressive. With an AMD Turion X2 processor in place, this laptop only beats the cheaper Mesh Discovery 16-RV in terms of power and lags significantly behind the Hi-Grade Notino W760C, Acer Aspire 5745PG-354G32Mn and Toshiba Satellite L670-12J.
Functionality is limited to running office applications and watching movies, and we expected a lot more of a laptop at this price point.
HP has included a dedicated ATi Radeon HD 4350 graphics card which packs in more 3D power than everything but the Acer Aspire 5745PG-354G32Mn, but the basic processor means that modern games and intensive design packages still suffer from lag.
A mixed specification and outdated OS are compensated in part by the excellent features and quality build of the Pavilion dv7-2045ea, but anyone looking for a high performance machine should look to the Intel Core laptops.
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JVC launches new Picsio pocket camera range
JVC has announced its new range of upright point-and-shoot camcorders in its Picsio range, featuring touchscreen control.The JVC Picsio GC-WP10 and Picsio GC-FM2 each record Full HD 1080p footage and, in addition to the 3-inch touchscreen preview display, the FM2 features a quick-flip pop-out USB plug, for cable-free connecting.
The fully-featured WP10 is also waterproof to up to 10ft – perfect for summer hols by the pool or on the beach.
Full HD, time-lapse
Both new camcorders can record Full HD 1080 (1920 x 1080/30p), HD 720 (1280 x 720/60p), iFrame (960 x 540/30p) and Quarter High Definition (960 x 540/30p).
Additionally, both models can take time-lapse footage, and have HDMI ports for direct connections to your HDTV.
Storage is via an SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot with Eye-Fi compability. Each camera features a 4x zoom with the additional extra feature of an MP3 recorder for creating audio files on the WP10.
PC and Mac compatible
The two new Picsios will come preloaded with LoiLoScope EX for Windows, a basic editing and upload app, that allows direct uploading to YouTube and Facebook, exporting to iTunes and more.
Both Picsio pocket cameras will alsowork with iMovie on the Mac, with the option to record video in the iFrame format.
The JVC GC-WP10 and GC-FM2 will be available from September 2010. UK pricing is still 'tbc'.
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Apple event on September 7, new Apple TV rumoured
Apple is reportedly in 'advanced talks' with News Corp over putting its content on iTunes, with an event on September 7 likely to be the launch-pad for the rejigged Apple TV service. With Apple widely rumoured to show off an overhauled television service (which almost certainly won't be called iTV in the UK), the event will also focus around a new iTunes rental service, as well as the new iPod Touch, according to news wire Bloomberg.
Apple TV, iPod Touch and the rental service will all benefit from a deal with News Corp. which has a major stake in British satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
Apparently viewers will be able to rent News Corp's Fox content for 48 hours for 99 cents (around 65p, but likely to be priced at 69p should it make it across the Atlantic).
Strategy
Apple's television strategy has been much discussed in recent weeks, with a revamped service always on the cards considering the success of the digital media shopping centre of iTunes and the explosive growth in Apple hardware.
Apple TV launched back in 2007, but the latest iteration is rumoured to be less PVR and more streaming media – as the company looks to the cloud and the forthcoming arrival of Google TV.
In the UK you can add Project Canvas to that list of competitors, with the BBC-led partnership with Arqiva, BT, Talk Talk, Channel 4, Channel Five and ITV likely to be a major hitter in television over IP on these shores.
Doubts from content makers
But, there remains doubts about a subscription model, with television companies still making huge amounts of cash from reselling their content – be it on DVD and Blu-ray or to broadcast platforms such as cable and satellite.
Indeed, Google TV - a television service from the search giant - is reportedly struggling to find major partners because of the fears over easily accessible content and what effect it will have on the producers of programmes.
One thing is for certain, and that it that the eyes of the tech world will be focused on San Francisco when Steve Jobs takes to the stage.
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Google rumoured to be integrating free phonecalls into Gmail
Google is reported to be working on a service which will allow free phone-calls from within Gmail in the US, with free calls within the US and Canada and very low-cost international calls rumoured to be part of the plan.Google has not commented on the rumours to date.
CNET broke the news, with some pretty convincing screenshots from the purported Gmail phone service to back the story up.
A new VoIP service?
It is unclear whether the new feature would be an extension of Google Voice or an entirely new offering.
The user interface in Google's new service is said to be similar to Google Voice, but Google Voice is not a VoIP service.
Also, users of the new Gmail phone service will not be required to have a Google Voice account.
The phone-calling service is claimed to be launched from within a Google Chat window, near the lower left-hand side of the Gmail page.
The Google Operating System blog, was first to hint that such a service was on the way to Gmail earlier in June this year.
"Google is always testing new features and products, but we have nothing specific to announce right now," a Google representative said.
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Official Microsoft Kinect accessories detailed
Microsoft has partnered with US accessories firm PDP to release an official range of Kinect accessories for launch this coming November.If you want to hang you Kinect on the wall or place it on a freestanding floorstand, then PDP has the kit you need.
The firm is also set to release a nine-foot Kinect cable extension, which will let you put your Kinect pretty much anywhere you like in the lounge.
Microsoft peripherals: Kinect floor stand revealedWall-mounts and floor-stands
US pricing has been revealed which is $14.99 (£10) for the Wall Mount and $39.99 (£26) for The TV Mount (which uses the VESA spec standard as a one-and-all solution for mounting Kinect for Xbox 360 to any size TV (from 26" to 60")
The Cable Extension for Kinect will set US customers back $49.99 (£32) while the Floor Stand for Kinect will cost $29.99 (£20).
"With a large tripod base and secure locking mechanism, the Floor Stand is designed to allow the Kinect Sensor to be elevated above the floor to help protect the Kinect for Xbox 360 from foot traffic and dirt," reads PDP's press blurb.
Kinect launches in the UK on November 10.
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Hands on: Sony a55 review
Sony's latest Alpha camera range is yet another attempt to bring the size of the DSLR down to a more manageable size for photographers.Sony hasn't gone the whole hog as it did with its NEX range. Both the a55 and a33 aren't of a compact size but they sure are light and small enough to shoot one handed if you really want to.
The reason for the shrinkage is that Sony has gone back to the drawing board with the optics within the a55 and a33 and have decided to do away with an optical viewfinder all together, preferring to add an electric one.
To go alongside this quite significant change is a new imaging system called Translucent Mirror Technology. Unlike the NEX range, which did away with a mirror altogether, the a55 and a33 has a see-through mirror, which doesn't budge when you shoot an image.
Because of this, the cameras are speedier than normal DSLRs on the market, with the a55 bringing 10fps shooting and the a33 7fps.
The lack of a moveable mirror does mean that these cameras can't strictly called DSLRs (they have no 'reflex') so Sony has branded them DSLT – which stands for digital single lens translucent. For all intent and purposes, though, these cameras act and feel like DSLRs.
The first thing you notice about the a55 is its grip. The camera suits your hands well and controls on the chassis are laid out with precision.
Flip the camera over and the 3-inch LCD dominates the back of the a55. This screen is definitely a malleable one. It can be flipped out for those hard to reach shots and has an impressive 270-degree range.
The screen is brilliantly bright, too. Sony is quoting 1.15 million dots conversion and note that you get 100 per cent coverage. In our tests (which were done in bright sunshine) the LCD did great, though it did seem to smudge easily when you moved it around. As it isn't touchscreen, this shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Finding your way round the myriad features on the a55 shouldn't be a problem for even those new to interchangeable camera systems. Turn the camera on and you can quickly dive into the menus options on offer.
When it comes to scene modes, there are seven scene modes available. These range from portrait to sports. A nice touch is that you can see 'live' what these scenes will do to your pictures.
This makes sense and means you can choose your camera options that little bit faster.
One of the most talked about features on the a55 is its burst mode. It's the quickest around at 10fps. And it works like a charm – in fact it is scarily fast.
We managed to catch an owl in mid swoop thanks to the mode and it feels like something which can be used for things like analysing your golf swing or your running technique.
There is good reason why Sony is pushing the burst mode features and that's because it works extremely well.
For extra polish, the burst mode uses Advance Priority AE Mode, which means that even when you are shooting objects that are extremely fast moving, your shots stay in focus.
Sony is quoting that you can capture speeds up to 50km per hour. We didn't have a subject that fast, but we did manage to shoot a off-road buggy twisting and turning around a track to great effect.
When it comes to fast shooting, using the electronic viewfinder is a tad tricky, so you will probably want to track objects with the LCD.
Another feature on board is 3D sweep panoramic mode. While the feature works well, there were some convoluted steps you had to do to perform it.
This is something which we found with a number of the functions: there was a lot of drilling through menus.
Shooting with the a55 is great fun. The reduced weight is a boon as you can use the camera much like a compact. And it feels like a camera you could use everyday and not just for special occasions.
And we especially like the 'Afterburner' style level guide when you look through the viewfinder. It goes green when your shots and the right level, something which makes shooting that little easier.
Sony is trying to push the a55 and a33 at the everyday consumers and the company also wants the camera to be a one-stop shop for imaging.
The addition of HD video on the cameras proves this. While Sony isn't first to market with a DSLR that shoots video, it is a welcomed feature on the Alpha range and works well with the camera's reasonably sized chassis. You can shoot in either AVCHD and MP3. While Sony is quoting the video as Full HD, this isn't the 1080p variety but 1080i.
Sensor-wise, there's no complaints about Sony packing a 16.2MP CMOS into the a55 and a 14.2MP in the a33.
Other than these specs and the lower burst mode on the a33, the two cameras seem to be identical is size and stature.
Sony has stumbled on to something big with its new Alpha range. The translucent tech inside does seem to be genuinely ground breaking but it seems Sony is still playing things safe. It also announced the a580 and a560, which are DSLRs with the traditional mirrors in place.
Couple this with the NEX range and Sony now have three different technologies powering its interchangeable lens camera range.
From what we've seen in the a55 and a33, though, it does feel like this new system is the one that will be used for the long haul.
UK release date for the Sony a55 and a33 is September, with pricing as follows: an a33 with standard kit will cost between £600 and £700. Expect to pay £100 more for the a55.
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Review: Hi-Grade Notino W760C
UK-based manufacturer Hi-Grade has released many laptops in its Notino value range, and the Notino W760C is its latest entry. There's a lot to like here, with a surprising amount of power and features packed in, although the sturdy design is more functional than exciting and we found portability limited.
The plastic chassis is almost identical in size to the Mesh Discovery 16-RV and the Acer Aspire 5745PG-354G32Mn, although it's heavier at 2.8kg. The brushed-aluminium finish adds to the solid feel and there's no obvious flex.
Usability is strong, thanks to a firm isolation-style keyboard and responsive touchpad, while quick-launch buttons above the keyboard allow instant and easy access to your email client and internet browser.
Unfortunately, while build quality is high, the generic chassis is rather bland and unattractive. This obviously isn't a major problem, but is worth bearing in mind.
Hampered portability
A more serious issue is the battery life, which at 179 minutes is below our minimum expectations. Portability is limited as a result, especially considering the bulky and heavy chassis, so this is more of a desktop replacement than a mobile machine.
The excellent 15.6-inch widescreen display matches the Mesh and Acer's for size and is just as bright, producing suitably crisp images. Photographs appear just as vibrant as on the Acer's display, and are also more lifelike than on the Mesh's muted screen.
The display does not tilt particularly far back, however, which makes working on your lap or on a seatback table on a plane or train awkward.
Features are impressive, with a full set of ports, including HDMI, eSATA and even a modem connection.
The 500GB hard drive is capacious, providing ample storage for your files and applications. Hi-Grade has also included a carry case, which is a welcome bonus.
With an Intel Core i3 350M processor on board, we were hoping for some impressive results in our benchmarking tests. However, the scores were much lower than those produced by the similarly specified Acer, so we ran additional benchmark tests, with vastly improved results. There's enough power for comfortably multi-tasking with office applications, and performance easily matches the Acer.
3D graphics performance is also commendable, despite the use of an integrated Intel GPU, beaten only by the dedicated graphics cards of the HP and Acer, so there's more than enough power for editing your holiday snaps or even basic home movies.
The Notino W760C is a well built and dependable machine with very few faults beyond the limited portability. Only the slightly boring design may put some potential buyers off.
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Review: Acer Aspire 5745PG-354G32Mn
Acer is one of the most prolific laptop manufacturers around, recently releasing a large number of portables under its consumer Aspire range. The Aspire 5745PG-354G32Mn is one of the latest and it's an excellent machine that's hard to fault. Build quality is strong, with a solid chassis that's one of the sturdiest we have seen at this price. Design is minimal but sleek, with a glossy black lid and brushed aluminium finish on the palmrests.
Usability is another clear strength, with an impressively firm keyboard in place. Acer has used its standard design, with perfectly flat keys sitting slightly raised from the chassis. Some users may lament the lack of key definition, but we found it a very comfortable board to type on.
The 15.6-inch widescreen display produces stunningly realistic images, thanks to the glossy Super-TFT coating. Only the Sony VAIO VPC-Y21S1E/SI produced sharper pictures, but the extra size here makes working on documents side by side much easier.
The screen also tilts back far enough to make working on your lap a comfortable experience. What's more, Acer has added touch control functionality, so you can prod the screen to move the cursor if you tire of the touchpad.
Acer's TouchPortal software makes full use of the touchscreen control, giving you easy access to your music, movie and photo collections with the swipe of your finger, and large virtual buttons offer excellent interactivity.
Limited portability
With 196-minutes of productivity between charges, battery life is outshone by the Sony VAIO VPC-Y21S1E/SI. However, at 2.7kg and with a reasonably thin chassis, it's still feasible to take this laptop on the road. Just remember to pack the power charger.
Performance is assured thanks to the Core i3 350M processor, and this laptop comfortably beat all except the Toshiba Satellite L670-12J. There's easily enough power on offer for multi-tasking with the most intensive office applications.
The dedicated Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics card produced the best 3D performance of this price group, perfect for those using professional design software.
The 320GB hard drive provides ample storage and only the Hi-Grade Notino W760C has more space.
Networking is fast thanks to 802.11n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet, as with all but the HP Pavilion dv7-2045ea, and a full range of ports including a 5-in-1 memory card reader are available. There's also four USB ports for attaching peripherals, although three of them are very close together.
The Aspire 5745PG-354G32Mn is an excellent all-rounder and a worthy group winner. Portability may be a weak point, but the solid build quality, power and usability more than compensate.
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Samsung Galaxy Tab Android tablet officially announced
Samsung has finally officially announced the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the first seven inch Android-toting rival to the iPad.A short teaser video has appeared on the dedicated Galaxy Tab website confirming the name of the new Android-powered tablet and revealing a few headline-grabbing features.
The video shows Swype text entry, applications galore and talks up HD video watching, e-book reading, augmented reality and video chatting.
High resolution
This means the screen is likely to be as high resolution as the iPad, if not sharper as Samsung attempts to create a decent tablet rival to Apple while still undercutting it on cost.
The seven inch screen size is also confirmed, as is the European launch date: 2 September at IFA 2010.
We're excited to see more information about the Samsung Galaxy Tab - namely a UK release date, and more importantly, a UK price - but TechRadar will be there at ground zero in Berlin as we bring you one of the first hands on reviews of the new device.
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In Depth: GTX 460 SLI: mid-range graphics heaven
The fear that used to be attached to running an SLI setup has largely vanished over the last year or so. Thanks to maturing driver sets and great mid-range cards there really has never been a better time to drop in that second card. And with the incredi-card, the GTX 460, there has rarely been a better SLI card either.
So thankfully the thrill that was also attached to the idea of running a bleeding-edge SLI system hasn't gone, but now it's a far more practical solution. In fact you may find us telling you that in many cases two really is better than one.
Previously we'd have always said that for the best day-to-day performance for your money you should always go for the fastest single-GPU card your money would allow. Now it's not so black and white as even the high-end cards are struggling to compete with a pair of mid-range wonders like the GTX 460.
The GTX 460 arrived last month and wowed us with its double-ended loving of both fantastic value and great 3D performance. The only slight fly in the ointment was the fact that it arrived in two very different spins from the outset.
We had both the full-fat 1GB versions as well as the cut-down 768MB cards. With barely £20 separating the two it was a no-brainer at that level which card to go for – the 1GB card, especially at the higher-end of the desktop resolution scale, was a clear winner. The limited memory size and bus, combined with a fair few less ROPs, meant the 768MB card suffered by comparison to its smarter sibling.
Both versions of the card though carry the same redesigned Fermi GPU from Nvidia. The GF104 chip is a far more streamlined version of the original Fermi chip that powers the £400 GTX 480. Nvidia has managed to cram more of the good stuff into less streaming multiprocessors making for a high-performing card that costs far less to produce.
Poor GTX 480…
The GF104 chip also has something else up its sleeve. Well actually it's more like under its hat; you see there is so much headroom in there for this chip that you can seriously overclock even the stock cards with the basic Nvidia reference cooler.
An overclocked 1GB card will then hit the same sort of speeds as a GTX 470, with an overclocked 768MB card not too far behind it. So what can they do when you get a pair of twins on the case?
The simple answer is astonish. That's what these cards can do, because now there is simply no reason to go out and pick up the top end cards if you've got a mammoth display because a pair of either version of the GTX 460 will do better. That's right, you're spending less and getting more. The diminishing returns that have dogged the SLI dream for years is a thing of the past.
The simple comparison is Nvidia's top-of-the-line card, and the first of the Fermi lineup to arrive, the GTX 480. At the time of launch we got all hot under the collar about it. Not just because it was blisteringly fast for a single-GPU card, but because it was so blisteringly hot in itself that it rendered all the air-conditioning in the building irrelevant.
That card has since dropped in price to a vaguely reasonable £390-odd. Interesting as if you picked up a pair of these EVGA Superclocked GTX 460 768MB cards that would set you back…that's right…£390-odd. It's even more interesting in light of the bargainous nature of Inno3D's reference 1GB cards that can be had for as little as £360 for the pair.
Both sets of GTX 460s, irrespective of memory constraints, absolutely hose their GTX 480 daddy in practically all metrics, most especially at the high-end 2560x1600 resolution.
As for AMD's top card de jour, the £500 multi-GPU HD 5970, it actually stands up better than the GTX 480. But then for the cash you'd hope so. Unfortunately for AMD though it doesn't fare /much/ better. The Just Cause 2 benchmark is the only place the Texans can hold their head up high, in DiRT2 and Far Cry 2 it lags behind noticeably.
Double the fun
Interestingly a pair of overclocked 768MB cards actually beats a pair of the stock-clocked 1GB GTX 460s at the 22-inch res of 1680x1050. It's only by a little way, and notably not in the tessellation-heavy Heaven benchmark, but it means that potentially you could hit these speeds for only £300.
How? Well, EVGA's Superclocked cards are still only reference cards, admittedly they are hand-picked, and factory overclocked, but they are still just the basic GTX 460. You can pick up a Palit GTX 460 768MB for only £150, and that comes with its own cooler too.
Theoretically then overclocking two of these babies, even up past what the Superclocked cards are sitting at, will give you the sort of performance people with GTX 480s warming up their PCs would cry for.
We are aware though that realistically few of us can actually be bothered going through the inevitably slow process of safe overclocking, or are willing to take the risk with their just-unwrapped hardware. If you do still wanna hit the same performance heights then a stock-clocked 1GB will do just as well for £350-odd.
Essentially what this all means is that if you're looking for something to power that 30-inch panel you've always wanted to have running in its native resolution a pair of GTX 460s is the way to go. Forget both of Nvidia and AMD's top cards, this will get your more performance and for less cash.
The only choice is then which do you go for? If you're up for a bit of easy overclocking on a budget picking up a pair of £150 GTX 460 768MB cards will suit you down to the ground. If you don't want to take the risk then a pair of 1GB cards will give you almost the same overclocked performance for only £50 more.
The Superclocked cards though still have a hard time justifying themselves. Sure they give impressive performance and for the same price as a GTX 480, but the cheaper stock 768MB and 1GB versions will keep you just as happy in your SLI gaming.
In terms of all-round performance both versions of the GTX 460 in SLI have the top-end cards beaten from both schools. All of these benchmarks were run with the top settings and all at the relevant 2560x1600 resolution.
The £350 1GB setup is easily the star of the show, only dropping points to the HD 5970 in Just Cause 2, and only then by 3fps. It also costs £150 less as a setup compared to the AMD monster…
Tessellation performance
Heaven 2.0 – FPS: higher is better
- SC GTX 460 768MB - 20
- Stock GTX 460 1GB - 25
- GTX 480 - 21
- HD 5970 – 20
DiRT 2 – FPS: higher is better
- SC GTX 460 768MB - 76
- Stock GTX 460 1GB - 76
- GTX 480 - 56
- HD 5970 – 71
Just Cause 2 – FPS: higher is better
- SC GTX 460 768MB - 33
- Stock GTX 460 1GB - 32
- GTX 480 - 26
- HD 5970 – 35
- SC GTX 460 768MB - 71
- Stock GTX 460 1GB - 82
- GTX 480 - 64
- HD 5970 – 72
- SC GTX 460 768MB - £390
- Stock GTX 460 1GB - £350
- GTX 480 - £390
- HD 5970 - £500
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