Guide: How to add Twitter to your website
There are two kinds of people these days: those who understand Twitter, and those who don't.
If you're still a doubter, keep in mind that everyone's first foray into the medium is pretty disappointing. Start following the right people, though, and it suddenly clicks into place.
You're chatting with friends, listening to pithy words of wisdom from people you admire and chuckling at the inanities of celebrities. As for news, it always breaks on Twitter first – probably why the media's obsessed with it.
Think of Twitter as an up-to-the minute information feed, and a host of uses for it suddenly manifest, not least how valuable it can be when embedded in your website. It's an ideal complement to a blog or news site, and a positive boon to fan pages.
Getting the right tweets on your site may not even be as difficult as you might expect. If you want to integrate Twitter into your online life but don't know how to, we'll show you what to do.
Twitter via widgets
We first investigated several convoluted and code-heavy ways of embedding tweets into your own pages, but many of them are overkill, especially when Twitter itself provides such elegant and easy-to-use tools. Twitter widgets can be configured using a forms-based interface and may be embedded in any site.
The code returned is good old JavaScript, so it'll go anywhere in a static HTML page or CMS template. There's lots of scope for styling and tweaking, too.
Like many of Twitter's extended features, it's hidden pretty well on the main site. Log in to www.twitter.com and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Once you're there, click 'Goodies', choose 'Widgets' and click 'Widgets for My Website'.
You have a few choices right off the bat. Click on the 'Profile' link and you'll see that it's set up to show tweets from your Twitter account. However, you can replace the username with any Twitter username you know.
Give it a try: enter a new username and click 'Test Settings'. The widget preview will update to show the latest tweets from any account you choose – very handy for showing the feed from a corporate account or displaying incisive celebrity tweets on a fan site.
Configure the feed
Click 'Preferences' to configure the feed. Click 'Poll for New Results' if you want the widget to periodically refresh while the user is on your page – the default behaviour is to only pull results from Twitter when the page is loaded.
You can change the number of tweets retrieved by the widget too. Alter the default of '4' to '6', for example, then hit 'Test Settings' to see the result. You'll notice that the height of the widget changes in response, unless you have 'Include Scrollbar' ticked.
Selecting 'Timed Interval' makes the widget clear the current list of tweets and replace it with a new set periodically. All of the associated settings are highly configurable. Now to dig out some specifics.
Pulling tweets directly from a single account is fine, but Twitter widgets get really powerful when you use them to focus on more specific sets of tweets. The Search and List widgets initially look identical to their Profile counterpart. However, the Search widget allows you to pull tweets from the entire feed using a single keyword.
If that keyword happens to be a hashtag, even better. It enables you to instantly configure Twitter feeds for news and events that can help drive traffic to your blog. For example, let's say you're liveblogging the Eurovision song contest. A perfect sidebar would be a twitter feed of Eurovision tweets.
Making lists
Twitter lists enable you to create bespoke Twitter feeds from a group of users. To make a list, go to www.twitter.com and look for the Lists column in the sidebar. Click 'New List' and a window will pop up prompting you for a name and a description. Fill it in, make sure the list is public and click 'Create List'.
You're taken to a page where you can now search for users and add them one at a time. Alternatively, you can add people to lists directly from your Following or Followers pages.
A tip: you don't have to be following someone to add them to your list. Now you have a list of people set up, you can create a widget that can easily be added to your website.
Uses for this? Let's say you have a list of news providers. Your widget would then be a live-updating news ticker that sits in the sidebar of your site. Or if you have a collaborative blog, you could add all the twitter feeds from contributors to the widget.
Thinking bigger, a search widget and list widget side by side could be used as a bespoke Twitter client aimed at your audience's interests.
Code wrangling
Whichever widget confi guration you finally choose, you'll have a comprehensive degree of control over the look of the widgets on your page. Click 'Dimensions' first. You're able to restrict the size of the widget to fit your page, or tick a box so that it automatically adjusts.
Click 'Appearance' and you can change the colour scheme for the Twitter widget to fit into your pages. Use it with the Chrome browser extension Colour Pick or the Firefox plugin ColourZilla to match the colours in your scheme and site. When you've finished tweaking, click 'Finish and Grab Code'.
A form containing the configured code will appear. The code itself is pretty compact – that's because most of the hard work is done by an external JavaScript file, 'widget.js', referred to in the very first line.
Still, the variable and value pairs here are clear and self explanatory, so the widget script can be used to create further iterations without having to go back through all those menus. Width and height can be changed directly, and you can alter usernames or search terms.
Changing one widget type to another will require more coding, though, so if you want to do that, the best course of action is to return to the site and work back through the menus.
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In Depth: How to start a successful Twitter campaign
Complaining about things used to be simple: you'd craft a furious letter full of dire threats to get your problem off your chest, and your target would promptly throw it in the bin to get it off his desk. Now, though, the balance of power has shifted in your direction. Social media and social networks can create storms strong enough to unseat even the toughest MP or MD, expose the unspeakable and bring the bad guys to book.
But there's more to social media campaigns than just typing out a quick tweet and waiting for the world to notice: you need to have the right message, in the right place, at the right time.
To begin, it's always worth being friendly. If you're unhappy with a company, it's a good idea to seek them out on Twitter or Facebook before bringing out the big guns.
Paul Curry is a social channel manager with The Viral Factory, the multi-award-winning agency Ford, Samsung, Diesel and Levi's call when they want a viral marketing campaign, and as he points out, many firms are ready and waiting to read your tweets.
"Large companies with PR departments will have social media channels you can talk to, and more often than not they have the power to rectify small personal complaints," he says. For example, you can talk to O2 about mobile phone problems at www.twitter.com/o2, speak to BT at www.twitter.com/btcare, discuss travel plans with EasyJet at www.twitter.com/easyjetcare, or try to make sense of timetables at www.twitter.com/virgintrains.
If that doesn't work, you can turn to blogs such as Consumerist and forums such as Money Saving Expert. These are excellent sources of information, ranging from contact numbers or addresses for what Paul Curry calls "secretive upper-level support departments" to what to do when a firm won't honour its price promise. "The internet has become a very efficient powerhouse for talking to The Man," Curry notes.
That's all well and good for any minor disputes you may be having with a company, but what if you're trying to achieve something bigger – telling the world about dangerous products, for example, or attempting to change a giant corporation's behaviour? "You're going to need a bigger boat," Curry says.
Oil on troubled waters
As BP tried to battle an enormous oil spill in June, a fake BP Twitter account started generating serious traffic. Using the @BPGlobalPR account, 'Leroy Stick' posted messages designed to embarrass the company, and the fake account soon generated more traffic than the official BP one.
By selling T-shirts with a parody of the BP logo, @BPGlobalPR has so far generated $10,000 for charity. "I started @BPGlobalPR because the oil spill had been going on for almost a month and all BP had to offer were bullshit PR statements,"
Stick explained in, ironically, a PR statement. "I started off just making jokes at their expense with a few friends, but now it has turned into something of a movement."
The success of @BPGlobalPR was down to serendipity, being in the right place at the right time. So how do you ensure that it's your message that's in the right place, that it's the one the internet picks up and runs with?
"A campaign has to be good enough to be re-shared," Curry says. It sounds obvious, but many would-be viral campaigns don't get off the ground because they're not funny, or relevant, or interesting.
"It's very easy to get angry and type a huge email out to all your friends, but chances are it won't be interesting to them," Curry says. "People are by nature selfish creatures, and unless they are sympathetic to your cause, or amused, then they won't spread the content on."
That means you need to carefully consider your medium. Posting "I don't like Ryanair very much" on Twitter, Facebook or a blog isn't going to catch anyone's imagination. Put it in a song and make a video with dancing cats and you're looking at a YouTube hit.
SING-A-SONG: A bit of talent goes a long way – the United Breaks Guitars song has achieved more than eight million views so far
For more serious campaigns, you need to develop a message that will resonate with people and that they will pass on. Standard PR tactics are yours to play with – a 20-page exposé of corporate misbehaviour won't be forwarded in the way photos of cute, oil-soaked animals would be. If you're a prolific social network user already, have a look at your profile and the things you've shared, posted or tweeted. What made you want to pass them along?
Spreading the word
No matter what message you're trying to convey, it's important to decide what you want to achieve from the outset.
When Twitter users posted everyday annoyances under the tag #nickcleggsfault, they were taking the mickey out of right-wing newspapers; when students slagged off HSBC on Facebook, they were lobbying the firm to change its overdraft policies for graduate accounts. If you don't know what you're trying to do, you won't know the best medium to use or the best places in which to promote your message.
The next step is to ensure that your message is seen by – and passed on by – the right people. If you already know the right people then that's a big help, because people with a public profile have a ready-made audience.
John Winsor is an influential marketer and a successful advertising agency boss, so when his eight-year-old son's scribbled aeroplane designs didn't excite Boeing, his publication of their standard 'get lost' letter circulated widely, ultimately reaching the pages of the New York Times.
Similarly, when director Kevin Smith told his 1.6 million Twitter followers that Southwest Airlines deemed him "too fat to fly", the airline was soon on the receiving end of his fans' outrage. Seeds of change Assuming that you're not an influential marketing guru or a cult film director, you need to carry out viral 'seeding'.
Seeding is the process of getting a campaign to key influencers, the people whose support will give your campaign real momentum. The first thing to do is find out whether people are already discussing something directly relevant to your campaign.
RAPID RISE: Trick cyclist Danny MacAskill became famous overnight when his YouTube clip got 350,000 views in 40 hours
If they are, joining in their conversation is a very effective way to get your voice heard. The details differ by network. Twitter users use hashtags (labels that indicate a tweet is part of a particular topic), while Facebook users have Groups and Pages, which are easily found via the search box.
It's best to get familiar with what they are before trying to make use of them yourself – you don't want to get on the wrong side of the people you want to incite against your target, or at best you'll find yourself being ignored.
Finally, you should try to get your message directly to people with influence. If you're a fairly active social network user, you'll have plenty of connections, and the more people you're connected to, the more likely it is that your message will be seen by someone who knows someone influential.
For the real social giants, you'll probably need to reach out for help. Don't assume that you need someone such as Stephen Fry – although, of course, a mention in his Twitter feed won't do you any harm. Experts, bloggers and in some cases angry mums will fill in just as well if you target your message correctly.
Beware angry mums
As Paul Curry explains, angry parents have incredible power. "Groups such as Mumsnet are among the most influential," he says. "If they get wind of something that could potentially harm children, there's no stopping them."
That's something pushchair manufacturer Maclaren learnt the hard way last year, after recalling buggies in the US amid claims of amputated fingers – but not the same buggies in Britain. Worried parents whipped up an online storm, with blogs such as Mindful Mum providing email templates for parents to use. It took just three days for Maclaren to change its UK policy and recall the buggies.
That speed isn't unusual. When something goes viral, it does so very quickly. Daredevil cyclist Danny MacAskill went from obscurity to celebrity overnight when a clip of his stunts generated 350,000 views in its first 40 hours online; Dave Carroll's United Breaks Guitars music video achieved three million views in just ten days; and @BPGlobalPR gained 128 million followers in just 18 days.
Things are speeding up as well. According to research by TubeMogul, in 2008 the half-life of a YouTube video – that is, the time it takes for a clip to generate half of the views it will get in its entire life online – was 14 days. Today, it's six.
Campaigns such as the Maclaren one occur in multiple media, encompassing blogs, email and one or more social networks. In addition to targeting the right blogs, you also need to choose the right social network or networks, because each service has very different users.
New media marketing expert Brian Solis has put together an excellent analysis of the various different networks' demographics, and while it's for the US – instead of Friends Reunited, Solis has Classmates.com – the data gives a vivid picture of who uses what.
Solis reports that while 40 per cent of Bebo's users are under 17, 61 per cent of Facebook's users are over 35. And it's not just age that differentiates social networks. The business network LinkedIn skews towards an older demographic and its users tend to be reasonably well-off and well educated, while MySpace users tend to be more rural than Facebook ones, and they tend to be poorer too.
HIGH-PROFILE SUPPORT: After homophobic abuse, a gay and lesbian society's Twitter posts attracted high-profile support
There are also dramatic differences in users' interests: in a fascinating study by advertising network Chitika, users of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Digg had very different priorities. MySpace users aren't interested in news but love videogames and celebrity gossip; Twitter users are more interested in news than Facebook users; and Digg users, unsurprisingly, like technology related content more than users of the other three networks. The full analysis is well worth reading and you can find it at www.chitika.com/research/2010.
Luck and libel
Luck plays a huge part in any campaign, and if you're really lucky, your chosen target will overreact. That's exactly what Nestlé did when Greenpeace supporters criticised it on its Facebook page in March.
When users parodied its logo in their profile pictures, Nestlé ordered them to stop. "Please don't post using an altered version of any of our logos as your profile pic," it told users. "They will be deleted." Inevitably, the page was promptly flooded with logo-modifying posters, and the newspapers picked up the story.
To its credit, Nestlé apologised – albeit belatedly – and said: "Social media: as you can see we're learning as we go. Thanks for the comments."
Nestlé was a victim of The Streisand Effect, named after Barbra Streisand's attempt to suppress photos of her house. Instead of hiding the pictures, her attempts simply made their existence more public, and owning a copy more desirable.
On a wider level, the term refers to times when some person or company tries to censor information, usually something embarrassing, only for the backlash to give it far more publicity than it would ever have generated on its own. Firms are generally aware of the effect, which is good news for the armchair activist – most companies know that if they try to shut you up, you'll shout all the louder, and when a problem reaches critical mass, there's nothing they can do.
That doesn't mean you can say whatever you like without consequences, though – you need to make sure you're not breaking the law, or annoying someone with deeper pockets than you.
In May, Paul Chambers was fined £1,000 for a jokey Twitter message in which he vowed to blow Robin Hood Airport "sky high". The message fell foul of the Communications Act 2003, under which it's illegal to send indecent, obscene or menacing communications. "Only joking", it seems, isn't a valid defence.
You need to watch out for libel, too – if your facts are wrong and you defame a person or organisation, you could be sued silly. Just ask 21-year-old Justin Kurtz, who created a critical Facebook page about T&J Towing when they towed his car away. He's now being sued for $750,000 by the towing firm, which claims that Kurtz and his page's thousands of users have defamed the firm and lost it business.
In another lawsuit, Horizon Realty Group sued a former tenant, Amanda Bonnen, for $50,000 over a single tweet. Bonnen posted: "Who said sleeping in a moldy [sic] apartment was bad for you? Horizon Realty thinks it's okay." Horizon wasn't amused and deployed the attack lawyers.
Although both libel suits were filed in the US, don't think you're safe because you're in the UK. We have a long tradition of overseas individuals and companies suing UK residents in the UK courts.
You don't need to be the originator of a libellous statement, either: under UK law, simply repeating a defamatory allegation is libellous. Worst of all, under the current system, it doesn't matter whether you've libelled someone or not: even if you're entirely innocent, the cost of defending yourself could easily bankrupt you. Choose your targets, and your comments, very carefully.
Strength in numbers
So can you really make a difference with a social media campaign? If you don't have the numbers behind you, the answer is no: you're as unimportant, and easy to ignore, as someone writing angry letters to the managing director. But even if you do have lots of like-minded people on your side, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll change anything.
Online petitions don't work, and Facebook pages aren't much more effective. One of the most visible examples is the #nickcleggsfault tag on Twitter, which parodied newspapers' anti-Lib Dem front pages, and the very visible use of social media by Lib Dem MPs and their supporters. The papers didn't stop attacking the party, and the Lib Dems didn't gain any more seats: in 2005 it had 9.6 per cent of Parliamentary seats, but in 2010 that fell to 8.8 per cent.
The truth is that even if you do get massive online support, success isn't guaranteed. While outraged Twitter users successfully got Danny Dyer's column in Zoo magazine pulled over offensive comments, the much bigger and higher-profile Twitter campaign trying to get Daily Mail journalist Jan Moir fired was ignored.
BEBO: Different networks have very different demographics. Bebo's audience largely consists of under-17s, while Facebook users are mainly over 35
Similarly, while some firms take blog-based criticism very seriously, others don't. For example, Ryanair says that "it is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy in corresponding with idiot bloggers". In much the same way that films such as Sex and the City 2 are critic-proof, with people flocking to see them despite uniformly awful reviews, some firms may be social media-proof.
The good news is that such firms will become rare. In the US, PR firm Burston Marsteller reports that 79 per cent of Fortune 100 companies use at least one social network, with 65 per cent running at least one Twitter account. Over here, Virgin Media Business says that 57 of the FTSE 100 companies have currently signed up to the micro-blogging service, but just 16 of them use it to respond to customers.
That lack of concern will have to change, says Customer Service Director Phil Stewart, who compares unanswered tweets to an unanswered phone. "In fact, it is a lot worse," he explains. "This lack of interaction can be viewed by millions."
Twitter accounts are likely to become an increasingly common way for firms to communicate – and for us to complain. "We are seeing a much more transparent face to traditionally secretive companies," Curry says. "Those not willing to face social media are being seen as obsolete. The people have spoken – and they want to be @replied to."
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Review: Sony Bravia KDL-40EX43B
We've certainly seen some interesting combos in the past: VCRs with onboard surround hard disk recorders, TVs with built-in DVD players, and iPod-ready melons. Okay, we might have made the last one up. Taking us back to into the solid realms of reality, though, is Sony's KDL-40EX43B, which updates the DVD/TV concept by combining a smart-looking 40in LCD TV with a Blu-ray player.
This CCFL-backlit full HD TV also boasts a Freeview HD tuner and networked multimedia (Bravia Internet Video and DLNA playback), and so it's no slouch where other features are concerned.
The vertically-mounted disc player, which is, of course, also compatible with DVDs and CDs, lurks behind the screen and is slot-loading. As a result, it doesn't spoil the minimalist lines of the set's cabinetry. Indeed, you don't even know it's there unless you're looking for it.
Other goodies on offer include Sony's Bravia Engine 3 picture processor, a PC VGA/D-Sub input and various energy-saving features (such as an ambient light-sensor and a radio mode that temporarily shuts down the screen). There's an analogue tuner, but chances are that it will never be used.
The Blu-ray player gives you most of the functionality associated with a well-designed budget unit – such as BD-Live compatibility and the reasonably fast loading of discs. Apart from BD-Live, there are no fancy network features – these do, after all, fall within the TV section's own remit.
Note that the Bravia Widgets platform (a separate entity to Bravia Internet Video, which currently includes Facebook, eBay, Flickr and Twitter) isn't present on this particular set.
Also designed into the KDL- 40EX43B is a USB port for attaching memory devices – whether for multimedia playback, or providing a BD-Live temporary storage alternative to the set's own memory. There's only one port, though, which makes life rather difficult if you opt for the Wi-Fi dongle.
Analogue connections include component and a pair of Scarts. Missing in action Most of Sony's recent LCDs boast four 1080p24 HDMI v1.4 inputs. Not so the KDL-40EX43B, which only gives you three, two of which are side-mounted. I suspect that the Blu-ray player accounts for the missing one.
The Blu-ray player element of the TV is superbly integrated into the Xross Media Bar user interfacer. From here, you can – in addition to discs – select internet delivered TV content and DLNA media servers with much the same ease as digital (and, come to think of it, analogue) TV channels.
The Xross Media Bar is also needed for any setup beyond the wizard-driven 'first-run' stage. I did have some problems getting the KDL-40EX43B to talk to my network via Ethernet. Although DLNA content was accessible, Bravia TV channels weren't. If, as I did, you get nothing more exciting than a '2200' error, reset your router and repeat the TV's network setup procedure. All should then be well.
In addition to such delights as Demand Five, FIFA highlights, DailyMotion, Eurosport and YouTube, the BBC's iPlayer is listed among the Bravia TV channels. However, I could not force the software update necessary to view programmes (you're at Sony's mercy here, because this task is carried out automatically and, assumably, over-the-air as opposed to via the more sensible network route).
I did come across some other niggles, some of which are more serious than others. The number of formats supported by the DLNA media player are restricted to JPEG, MPEG2 and MP3/WAV, although DivX/XviD clips can be fed in via USB.
Then there's the infuriating, but well intentioned 'i-Manual', which to be brutally frank is no substitute for a pukka paper print. Resume Playback should also be offered; temporarily switch from, say, a Blu-ray to TV and there's no choice but to start playback again from the very beginning. Annoying, to put it mildly.
The most significant limitation of all, though, will be discovered if you want to partner the KDL-40EX43B with an off-board home cinema system.
It can only deliver 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS soundtracks via the HDMI using the Audio Return Channel, (which resulted in too many dropouts with an Onkyo HTS-3305 to be of any value), or an optical digital output that's, thankfully, far more reliable. No provision has been made for hi-res or multichannel PCM, presumably because of connectivity bandwidth limitations.
Picture quality
Picture quality is, on the whole, remarkably good and especially if you've done a basic calibration, perhaps with Video Essentials or the THX Optimiser built into some DVDs.
The colour tone is vivid without being overblown, and a commendable lifelike character is imparted to all decent quality sources. Likewise, the dynamic range is good enough to convey delicate shadow details without bleaching highlights.
The KDL-40EX43B doesn't have the fancier MotionFlow video processing of Sony's more expensive models, but that's no bad thing. Movement, with 24p Blu-ray is filmic rather than artificially smooth.
The black level isn't, however, the best-in-class; this is where LED backlighting could have made a positive difference. Blu-rays and hi-def TV from the Freeview HD tuner reveal the pristine resolving power of the full HD screen; upscaled DVDs also look superb with a surprising freedom from unwanted artifacting. Film grain is shown as just that – as opposed to the 'mush' of lesser TVs.
Standard-def Freeview channels don't fare as well, 'feathering' effects frequently being noticed around outlines.
In contrast, sound quality from the downward-firing speakers mounted in the bottom of the cabinet is disappointing. Lacking depth and any presence at the frequency extremes, it doesn't do justice to TV programmes, let alone Blu-ray's sonic potential.
Although you can compensate for the lack of treble sparkle with an upwards tweak of the relevant tone control, the bass is beyond help – those tiny transducers can only go so far. Indeed, if the bass control is set too high, then you can expect all manner of unpleasant cabinet rattle and thrum. Virtual surround is an option, but this makes little worthwhile difference.
Quality-minded users are therefore advised to pump disc and TV sound via an external audio system. Although the only possibilities here are regular DD/DTS bitstreams or two-channel 16-bit/48kHz PCM, the results are nevertheless preferable to the TV's own audio system.
And with the budget AV systems likely to be partnered with this set, chances are that you would be unlikely to tell apart a regular Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack from a TrueHD one.
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Review: Apple TV
Apple TV has dumped its 40GB of storage, three-quarters of its footprint and halved its UK price. And yet Steve Jobs continues to refer to it as a "hobby". Perhaps it's because Apple TV remains somewhat of an enigma. It doesn't fit into Apple's main product groups – on apple.com it's filed under 'iPod' in the category tree. On one hand Apple seems to want to shove it under the carpet, on the other it keeps re-inventing the device. It wouldn't even send us one for review such is Apple's nonplussed attitude to the box.
We'll be positive though – Apple TV is a darn good media box to use with your Mac and with iTunes more specifically, and its price has reduced significantly – even if you would pay a shade over £60 for this box in the US – and that's a big saving and a big shame.
But Apple TV has two big issues.
The first is to do with the UK. In the US, the box is compatible with Netflix, providing video on demand TV programmes and movies for a fee. In the UK, there is no such service available for the box. LoveFilm would be an obvious partner, but it hasn't happened yet. However, iTunes rentals are available for £3.49 for HD films, £2.49 for SD – you have 30 days to start watching and then 48 hours to finish once you've clicked to rent.
The second big issue is that the Apple TV only has 720p HD – the lack of 1080p support remains bewildering and really marks the Apple TV as a poor relation to other streaming media boxes such as the WD TV Live – even if, as you'll see, the Apple TV is a more polished user experience.
So what else has changed? The rear of the device now only has HDMI for video, optical audio and Ethernet, though 802.11n wireless networking is built in. Dumping other video inputs makes sense, though it will annoy some as will the lack of phono audio outputs.
Because of the small size and weight of the box – it fits in your hand – plugging the cables in can make it tip up. This box is technically excellent for the money – it has Apple's new A4 processor inside.
The box works seamlessly with any iTunes 10 install with Home Sharing enabled – the sync is performed using your Apple ID. We weren't able to test Apple TV with the company's new AirPlay technology in iOS 4.2 as it hasn't been released yet, but by November you should be able to directly stream video to Apple TV from any iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad on the same network. So you could be watching something on your iPad, pause it and whizz it over to your LCD TV in an instant.
The new aluminium Apple remote is included with the Apple TV, though you can also control Apple TV with Apple's Remote app available for iPad, iPod touch and iPhone. Apple TV also streams content from YouTube, Flickr and MobileMe.
The inclusion of the A4 processor makes Apple TV absolutely zip through menus and, having used various media streaming devices, this is certainly the most responsive we've tested.
The main menu is extremely simple to use and once you're connected to the internet there is no subsequent setup - until you come to pairing your Apple TV with an iTunes install - more on that shortly.
Apple TV has four main menus - Movies, which enables you to rent, Internet, which enables you to stream other content, Computers, enabling you to view your iTunes library and Settings.
The best thing about the Apple TV interface is that content is presented so nicely. That is, Apple official content is presented nicely. As you'll see shortly, your own content isn't given quite such lush presentation.
The internet offering is mixed. While the Podcasts area is great, the Radio entry is as terrible as it is in iTunes itself - just a basic category tree. Where is a decent search? Or a Favourites option? The YouTube interface is the saving grace - it's absolutely outstanding - but we found the integration with Flickr slightly sluggish.
The on-screen keyboard is merely adequate for the task - there is none of that usual Apple inventiveness but then, Apple's determination to have a simple remote is the frustration here. Is it any wonder that forthcoming Google TV remotes will have a mini keyboard? While it's not exactly aesthetically pleasing, it's better in terms of functionality.
So to Home Sharing. You'll need to enable this in iTunes on your Mac or PC first and this works alongside your iTunes Store Account. It's a real shame that the Apple TV can't stream content from an iTunes Server on a network storage device. Some have managed to get this working by hacking Apple TV boxes in the past, but it seems absolutely crazy of Apple to restrict this. Why should you have to have your Mac or PC running to stream media?
Once you've enabled Home Sharing on your PC or Mac running iTunes, simply enter the same details on your Apple TV. This process is straightforward, though we didn't appreciate the ambiguous message when we tapped in the wrong password. According to Apple TV the problem was either to do with a network problem OR us typing in the wrong password. We'd have liked to know which it was!
So what does your own content look like? Well, sadly it's not exactly great. You'll need to properly name your files to work out what they are, though there is a preview shown. And Apple TV insists on filing any video content by genre. This is fine, but for any self-made movies you've dragged into iTunes it just doesn't make sense - 'unknown genre' is a pointless moniker. However, this treatment is more logical for music.
Actually playing video - whether from your own PC or Mac or from YouTube - is responsive and the experience is, by and large, pleasant.
Despite its simplicity, Apple TV does have a lot of settings you can tweak, plus a screensaver you can change. You can use your own photos providing they are synchronised with iTunes on your computer (and you can use Apple TV to view them, of course).
Apple's latest generation Apple TV is heading in the right direction. It's the most reliable media streamer we've seen. But this reliability comes at a cost - and that's flexibility. Other streamers can take content from NAS devices and other sources, but Apple TV needs you to have your Mac or PC on to work effectively. It seems a bit draconian and is so Apple. But the boons are reliability and speed - Apple TV simply can't be beaten here.
We liked
Apple TV is very quick and responsive, and that alone is enough to recommend it highly. The inclusion of the A4 processor is fantastic and some of the streaming stuff works very well - YouTube especially. Apple TV is also very stable streaming content from your Mac or PC.
We disliked
The over-reliance on rentals is a problem - Apple should make the interface far better for exploring your own content from iTunes or from any NAS device or iTunes Server. Apple's AirPlay technology should improve things here, but until we actually see it working we'll hold judgement on that.
The lack of 1080p HD content is, however, unforgivable and is a real limitation for iTunes. There are also no cables included aside from the power, so you'll need to buy them.
Verdict
Apple TV remains something of an enigma. While it works very well for the most part, Apple's poor attitude towards it means that it remains undeveloped. The interface for rentals is fantastic, the interface for looking at your own stuff is poor. The speed and execution of playing media is great, the lack of 1080p is a big miss.
Likewise it's a pain to have to have your Mac or PC on to stream content directly from iTunes. It guarantees reliability, but it's inflexible. At least the price is now cheap enough that, like Apple, you can consider the purchase somewhat of a hobby.
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WikiLeaks has funds stopped due to 'blacklisting'
WikiLeaks is facing a money crisis after its account with the internet payment company it uses was closed down.The reason for this, according to the Guardian, is because WikiLeaks has been put on an official US watchlist and an Australian government blacklist.
The 'blacklisting' has been going on since August - around the same time as the Pentagon leaks.
Julian Assange, spokesperson for WikiLeaks, says that he has had contact with Moneybookers and gave the Guardian access to an email he received from the company that read: "Hi Daniel, you can inform him that initially his account was suspended due to being accessed from a blacklisted IP address.
"However, following recent publicity and the subsequently addition of the WikiLeaks entity to blacklists in Australia and watchlists in the USA, we have terminated the business relationship.'"
Show me the money
This isn't the first time that WikiLeaks has had money problems. At the beginning of the year, the site asked for more donations as it could no longer continue on the money it was receiving and promptly suspended the site.
In February WikiLeaks announced it had been given the $200,000 it needed to continue.
In July this year WikiLeaks release thousands of documents relating to the Afghanistan conflicts.
It also found itself on the Time's 50 Best Websites list in August.
WikiLeaks is currently down at the moment, with the site noting that it is "currently underoing [sic] scheduled maintenance."
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Nokia N8 goes on sale in UK
The eagerly-awaited Nokia N8 has finally gone on sale, with the new flagship handset from the Finnish phone giants available from £429 sim free. Nokia may not have got the five-star Nokia N8 review it was hoping for, but its loyal fanbase have been clamouring for the Symbian^3 handset.
The long wait is now over, with the N8 now available on the Nokia store and from the networks.
Carl Zeiss optics
The Nokia N8 brings an impressive 12Mp camera with Carl Zeiss optics, HD video and the well-received Ovi Maps turn-by-turn navigation.
Summing up the phone, TechRadar phones editor Gareth Beavis said: "The Nokia N8 is a tricky one to judge: it's a phone that will do very well with the Nokia fans, as it's easily the best Symbian device ever made...
"But for the smartphone user that's coming to the end of their first Android or iPhone and thinking of a change, it may be less of a joyful experience."
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Review: Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500
The Galaxy Europa i5500 is another small format Android handset, running Android 2.1 but also packing in a much more pocket-friendly price.You can get it on deals from £10 a month, and SIM free we found it for £186.83 inc VAT at online retailers such as Clove.
This means the Galaxy Europa is a notch up the food chain from the ultra low cost Alcatel OT-980, and closer in price to the LG Optimus GT540.
So, all other things being equal it ought to be better than the former and close to the latter. In fact, we'd say it is rather better than both those offerings.
It has the Android necessities of Wi-Fi, 3G and GPS on board and there is 140MB of user memory, plus a 1GB microSD card in the box.
The build has a weird asymmetrical design that makes the phone look fatter at the top than at the bottom when viewed edge on.
That's an optical illusion created by the fact that there is a silvery edging to the handset that sits at a non-uniform angle. It forms the whole of the top plate, then slants along the edges so that it can form a lip on the bottom front of the handset. Clever, but not rocket science, really.
The actual dimensions are 56 x 108 x 12.3mm, and the handset is not thinner at one end than the other.
The plastic build materials mean the Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 is quite light at just 102g, but the plastic doesn't feel shoddy. We doubt the Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 will survive to many falls from a great height, but the odd drop from a table top ought not to cause it any real harm.
The shiny black backplate is a fingerprint magnet, and we aren't sure we need the 'with Google' reminder on the backplate.
The front fascia is positively riddled with buttons and the area in which they sit looks cramped, though actually using the buttons did not feel especially squeezed.
We are never really sure you need Call and End buttons on an Android handset and in this case there is a shortcut to the dialler hardwired to every main screen. At least the End button doubles as the off switch.
There's a nice sized D-pad which, like Call and End buttons, can feel redundant on a handset with a touch screen, though we can see why some people might like to use one from time to time.
Samsung has also found room for two extra buttons – one offering the Android Menu and Home functions, the other giving you Back and Search functions. There are very slightly concave, which helps with ease of use.
Samsung hasn't gone overboard with side buttons and connectors. There's a 3.5mm headset connector on the top edge, nothing on the right or bottom, and on the left a volume rocker and microUSB power connector.
Samsung has skinned Android 2.1 so that while things look pretty familiar, there are plenty of tweaks on offer to play with joyfully thanks to the TouchWiz 3.0 overlay from the Koreans.
There are seven home screens, ready for you to populate with links to apps, widgets and shortcuts. The main home screen is the one you get to when you press the Home button, and oddly it is the one on the far left of the sequence - much like the Samsung Galaxy S.
That means a lot of screen sweeping to get to the far reaches of home screen number 7. We prefer the main home screen to be in the middle of the group.
At the bottom of each home screen is an array of three icons. One calls up the dialler, one takes you to contacts, and the central one drops you into the main applications menu.
Apps are arranged across two screens that sit left and right of each other. As you add more apps, more screens appear. The three shortcuts remain, with dialler and contacts intact and the central one now taking you out to the home screen.
The notification bar at the top of the home screen is there to be pulled down, and Samsung has put a little utility for toggling Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, silent mode and vibrate on it. We like this idea – it makes these features quick and easy to get at most of the time.
When it comes to widgets, Samsung adds a few of its own to the Android standards. We like Buddies Now. It does take up a whole screen, but you can set up a revolving carousel of favourite contacts and then simply either message or call them with a couple of screen taps.
Incidentally, while we are mentioning screen taps, we should say that Samsung has done the right thing and gone for a capacitive screen in the Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500.
That makes sweeping and swiping a treat. It doesn't make up for the fact that the screen is small at 2.8 inches and low-res at 240x320 pixels, but at least you can get around easily.
Samsung's Social Hub really works nicely on the Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500. You can pull contacts and calendar data in from Google, naturally, and can also grab them from a range of different online locations.
What you end up with is a pretty nicely integrated social networking service, accessible when you tap the contacts icon on any of the main screens.
As well as the usual Google and Microsoft Exchange sources, you can opt for Twitter, MySpace or Facebook.
The process isn't too shabby. Log into a social networking app and you can tell the phone how frequently to sync. On our first syncs it pulled down info really quickly too.
From Facebook you get pictures, activity updates, and access to media uploaded as well as info like people's birthdays.
You can add comments to their updates, and if they've got email addresses and phone numbers listed you can communicate using those too.
Add in Twitter and you've also got access to tweets and can reply or retweet. And all this is accessible when you tap that little contacts icon on any of the home screens.
You don't get auto downloading of Twitter picture thumbnails, but there are live links so you can easily view tweeted pictures, and if contact linking doesn't happen automatically you can force a manual link.
We found the phone made intelligent suggestions for linking contacts when we asked it to, so that even the manual linking process wasn't too much of a pain.
Really, it is one of the better attempts to bring social networking bits and pieces together in one place that we've seen.
The phone dialler lets you access favourites and link out to the full contacts list, and it will do the usual trick of suggesting matches as you number dial. There is only room on screen for one match at a time, though.
Voice calls quality was fine, and we didn't have any dropped calls at any time.
The Twitter and Facebook links mentioned just now make it easy to message to those two applications.
If you are into more old-fashioned SMS, then there is an irritation to deal with. It is a function of the small screen that the default is a T9 style keyboard when working in tall mode. At least this expands to a full qwerty keyboard when you flip the screen into wide mode.
In tall mode you can also choose handwriting recognition options either in a box on screen or stretching over the entire screen. This is actually slower to use than tapping out on the wide screen keyboard, but it is fun.
The predictive text system is fine, and because the screen is capacitive and therefore nicely responsive to screen presses, you can type using the wide screen keyboard at a reasonable speed.
If you don't much like using the standard Android app for writing text messages then you can opt for an app Samsung has provided for you called Write and Go. You fire this up and write whatever you want using one of the available text entry types – including handwriting recognition.
Then you can either Send Message, which pops you into SMS, or Update Status, which lets you send the message to whatever social networking apps you've configured on the handset. Alternatively you can save what you've written as a memo or calendar event by choosing Save.
The Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 has the usual high quality Android web browser on board. The 2.8 inch screen and 240x320 pixel resolution do both mean that it is not always easy to see much of a web site when you go to its home page though, and text can be grainy and blurred. For web browsing we are fans of much larger and higher resolution screens.
Sadly a capacitive screen's usual treat of pinch to zoom is not implemented, so you have to do the rather more irritating double tap to zoom or use the on screen zoom button. This makes web browsing a rather less rewarding experience than it is on handsets that do support pinch to zoom.
But at least zooming is a reasonably smooth affair, and the Android browser understands about text reflow so that you don't have to scroll back and forth like a mad thing to read a page.
There is a YouTube client pre-installed, making it easy to get to your favourite video clips, and video streaming was very smooth.
Even the relatively slow 600MHz processor on board the Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 didn't seem to be a problem, and we did a fair amount of YouTubing over Wi-Fi during the course of testing this phone.
As we mentioned earlier, if you are web browsing or otherwise using the internet over 3G and suddenly decide you'd rather switch to Wi-Fi, you can just pull down the notifications area and turn Wi-Fi on.
This only works if you are in a Wi-Fi zone you've used before, though. If you need to log in for the first time you'll need to take the old-fashioned route and use the Android settings area to log on.
That's a pity – we'd have liked a link right through to where the Wi-Fi settings are from this nifty little shortcut.
So far it has all been pretty good stuff with the Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500, but now we hit a snag. The camera is stuck at 2 megapixels.
On paper that's a really low specification and with no flash or macro mode it is a bit low grade. Still, there is a smile shot mode and panorama shooting too, and the quality of individual photos was actually very high. Video is another story, though.
It is limited to 320x240 pixels, and while the quality is okay given the low resolution of the camera, videos really aren't good enough to share beyond the handset.
Click here to see the full res version
Choose the right day, like the bright and sunny one on which we took our sample shots, and photos are passable. Yes there's the lack of definition you would associate with a low resolution camera, but we would not be embarrassed to share these photos.
Click here to see the full res version
This view is reasonably good, and though the colours lack a bit of vibrancy the shot is far from being a disaster.
Click here to see the full res version
We got quite close to our little pal here to take this photo, and the feather detail isn't too bad at all. Another photo we would not be ashamed to share with friends.
Click here to see the full res version
The camera did struggle a lot more indoors. The pixilation in this photo is clear for all to see – it really struggled to let in enough light to take a shot, and the definition is poor.
The video camera is limited to 320x240 pixels, and even at that frame rate video is jerky and pixelated. The camera doesn't cope well with variations of light and shade, either.
Music is played via the standard Android music player, and there are no real surprises on board. The equaliser offers a range of settings for different music types, though, so you can fiddle with playback a bit.
There is an FM radio on board, and as you'd expect, it autoscans channels and stores them in memory for future use. You have to enter channel names by hand though, so there will be a bit of editing before you get things quite how you want them.
With 140MB of user memory on board there's not much room for internal saving; thankfully you get a 1GB microSD card to add to that.
You'll need the extra storage for music playback as well as for saving photos, and in all likelihood will find you need a higher capacity card fairly early on - but at least there's one there from the start as otherwise the camera won't function.
Video playback was quite good, with reasonably clear, smooth rendering. Colour reproduction isn't the best we've ever seen though, and the small screen means that watching anything for a serious length of time can be hard on the eyes.
It does support MP4, H.264 and H.263 though, which makes it passable for on the go music video watching or the like.
Battery life was surprisingly good. With a relatively slow processor and a smallish screen to drive, the 1200mAh battery managed to keep the Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 going for two days of light use.
As every with any Android handset you are in charge daily territory, but if you happen to be outside mains power world you could survive for two days if you are frugal.
Frugal means not using Wi-Fi or GPS, and that latter is tempted with Google Maps and Google Maps Navigation. The GPS took rather a long time to get its first fix on where we were, but thereafter it was faster and more efficient.
We've already mentioned some of the apps Samsung adds to the Android standard fare. It also bundles the Layar augmented reality browser and an app called AllShare, which uses DLNA to share files across devices.
There is also a little memo app which you can use to make notes, even giving them different coloured backgrounds if you want to try to organise them a bit.
The Android Market is supplemented by Samsung's own app store which still has a woefully small amount of apps, although Samsung promises this is increasing all the time.
With a 600MHz processor and 2.8-inch screen to its name, the Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 doesn't sound promising. But neither of these factors are big negatives.
The small screen will hamper you if you are very interested in viewing video or using the web, but if anything, it is the camera which is the big disappointment.
But even there, for a 2 megapixel camera the shots weren't too awful.
The abundance of buttons beneath the screen won't be everyone's cup of tea, and the shiny, fingerprint-loving backplate is another negative point, but the build is reasonably solid for a handset at this price.
We liked
The capacitive touch screen is great to see in a handset of this price. It really helps with everyday usability, and on its own makes us feel positively disposed towards the Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500.
The user interface is really nicely tweaked. The skinning is not over the top, and what has been done makes sense and feels logical.
Samsung's integration of Facebook and Twitter into the contacts area makes real sense and works well. Of course there is always more we can ask for – thumbnails of tweeted images would have been nice – but we can live with what is here happily enough.
Battery life is good and you might even get through a weekend without access to mains power if you take it carefully.
We disliked
It is a real pity the screen is so small – but Samsung has had to save some money somewhere and the screen is one of the key places that can be done in terms of build and specifications.
It is also a shame that the Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 doesn't do pinch to zoom, despite having a capacitive screen, and we find that a very strange omission.
The camera is stuck at just 2 megapixels and that is a big disappointment. Some photos were of quite good quality, but the camera really suffers indoors in particular.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Europa i5500 is a very well thought out handset. Relatively low cost, but not ultra-cheap, we think it has to offer enough to make you want to spend that little bit extra over the really budget models, and we think it does that.
We'll definitely be recommending it to our friends that like the look of Android handsets, want a bit of style and don't want to pay over the odds for a new phone.
The capacitive screen and social networking integration are the handset's real winning points in that respect, and although the screen is relatively small, battery life and cost really benefits from that.
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Review: Apple TV
Apple TV has dumped its 40GB of storage, three-quarters of its footprint and halved its UK price. And yet Steve Jobs continues to refer to it as a "hobby". Perhaps it's because Apple TV remains somewhat of an enigma. It doesn't fit into Apple's main product groups – on apple.com it's filed under 'iPod' in the category tree. On one hand Apple seems to want to shove it under the carpet, on the other it keeps re-inventing the device. It wouldn't even send us one for review such is Apple's nonplussed attitude to the box.
We'll be positive though – Apple TV is a darn good media box to use with your Mac and with iTunes more specifically, and its price has reduced significantly – even if you would pay a shade over £60 for this box in the US – and that's a big saving and a big shame.
But Apple TV has two big issues.
The first is to do with the UK. In the US, the box is compatible with Netflix, providing video on demand TV programmes and movies for a fee. In the UK, there is no such service available for the box. LoveFilm would be an obvious partner, but it hasn't happened yet. However, iTunes rentals are available for £3.49 for HD films, £2.49 for SD – you have 30 days to start watching and then 48 hours to finish once you've clicked to rent.
The second big issue is that the Apple TV only has 720p HD – the lack of 1080p support remains bewildering and really marks the Apple TV as a poor relation to other streaming media boxes such as the WD TV Live – even if, as you'll see, the Apple TV is a more polished user experience.
So what else has changed? The rear of the device now only has HDMI for video, optical audio and Ethernet, though 802.11n wireless networking is built in. Dumping other video inputs makes sense, though it will annoy some as will the lack of phono audio outputs.
Because of the small size and weight of the box – it fits in your hand – plugging the cables in can make it tip up. This box is technically excellent for the money – it has Apple's new A4 processor inside.
The box works seamlessly with any iTunes 10 install with Home Sharing enabled – the sync is performed using your Apple ID. We weren't able to test Apple TV with the company's new AirPlay technology in iOS 4.2 as it hasn't been released yet, but by November you should be able to directly stream video to Apple TV from any iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad on the same network. So you could be watching something on your iPad, pause it and whizz it over to your LCD TV in an instant.
The new aluminium Apple remote is included with the Apple TV, though you can also control Apple TV with Apple's Remote app available for iPad, iPod touch and iPhone. Apple TV also streams content from YouTube, Flickr and MobileMe.
The inclusion of the A4 processor makes Apple TV absolutely zip through menus and, having used various media streaming devices, this is certainly the most responsive we've tested.
The main menu is extremely simple to use and once you're connected to the internet there is no subsequent setup - until you come to pairing your Apple TV with an iTunes install - more on that shortly.
Apple TV has four main menus - Movies, which enables you to rent, Internet, which enables you to stream other content, Computers, enabling you to view your iTunes library and Settings.
The best thing about the Apple TV interface is that content is presented so nicely. That is, Apple official content is presented nicely. As you'll see shortly, your own content isn't given quite such lush presentation.
The internet offering is mixed. While the Podcasts area is great, the Radio entry is as terrible as it is in iTunes itself - just a basic category tree. Where is a decent search? Or a Favourites option? The YouTube interface is the saving grace - it's absolutely outstanding - but we found the integration with Flickr slightly sluggish.
The on-screen keyboard is merely adequate for the task - there is none of that usual Apple inventiveness but then, Apple's determination to have a simple remote is the frustration here. Is it any wonder that forthcoming Google TV remotes will have a mini keyboard? While it's not exactly aesthetically pleasing, it's better in terms of functionality.
So to Home Sharing. You'll need to enable this in iTunes on your Mac or PC first and this works alongside your iTunes Store Account. It's a real shame that the Apple TV can't stream content from an iTunes Server on a network storage device. Some have managed to get this working by hacking Apple TV boxes in the past, but it seems absolutely crazy of Apple to restrict this. Why should you have to have your Mac or PC running to stream media?
Once you've enabled Home Sharing on your PC or Mac running iTunes, simply enter the same details on your Apple TV. This process is straightforward, though we didn't appreciate the ambiguous message when we tapped in the wrong password. According to Apple TV the problem was either to do with a network problem OR us typing in the wrong password. We'd have liked to know which it was!
So what does your own content look like? Well, sadly it's not exactly great. You'll need to properly name your files to work out what they are, though there is a preview shown. And Apple TV insists on filing any video content by genre. This is fine, but for any self-made movies you've dragged into iTunes it just doesn't make sense - 'unknown genre' is a pointless moniker. However, this treatment is more logical for music.
Actually playing video - whether from your own PC or Mac or from YouTube - is responsive and the experience is, by and large, pleasant.
Despite its simplicity, Apple TV does have a lot of settings you can tweak, plus a screensaver you can change. You can use your own photos providing they are synchronised with iTunes on your computer (and you can use Apple TV to view them, of course).
Apple's latest generation Apple TV is heading in the right direction. It's the most reliable media streamer we've seen. But this reliability comes at a cost - and that's flexibility. Other streamers can take content from NAS devices and other sources, but Apple TV needs you to have your Mac or PC on to work effectively. It seems a bit draconian and is so Apple. But the boons are reliability and speed - Apple TV simply can't be beaten here.
We liked
Apple TV is very quick and responsive, and that alone is enough to recommend it highly. The inclusion of the A4 processor is fantastic and some of the streaming stuff works very well - YouTube especially. Apple TV is also very stable streaming content from your Mac or PC.
We disliked
The over-reliance on rentals is a problem - Apple should make the interface far better for exploring your own content from iTunes or from any NAS device or iTunes Server. Apple's AirPlay technology should improve things here, but until we actually see it working we'll hold judgement on that.
The lack of 1080p HD content is, however, unforgivable and is a real limitation for iTunes. There are also no cables included aside from the power, so you'll need to buy them.
Verdict
Apple TV remains something of an enigma. While it works very well for the most part, Apple's poor attitude towards it means that it remains undeveloped. The interface for rentals is fantastic, the interface for looking at your own stuff is poor. The speed and execution of playing media is great, the lack of 1080p is a big miss.
Likewise it's a pain to have to have your Mac or PC on to stream content directly from iTunes. It guarantees reliability, but it's inflexible. At least the price is now cheap enough that, like Apple, you can consider the purchase somewhat of a hobby.
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Samsung Galaxy S Android 2.2 update begins rollout
Samsung's Android 2.2 update to the Galaxy S looks set to land soon as rollout has begun in Scandinavian countries.Norway, Sweden and Denmark have reported to have received the upgrade, although it's only accessible using the Samsung Kies PC software rather than an over the air upgrade.
The new Android 2.2 brings a faster, more stable browser apparently, with better battery life and other improved features.
Sense-ible plan
One of the most interesting is "Pinch-to-zoom homescreen flyover", which BriefMobile is reporting sounds very similar to the Leap View offered by the HTC Sense UI on its Android mobiles to us.
Users will also get a media hub, improved GPS fixes, better keyboards and a new search widget and Gmail application - so it certainly sounds like its worth upgrading.
We'll let you know as soon as we hear this new Android 2.2 upgrade is available for the UK - trust us, we'll be plugging in our Galaxy S every minute to find out when we can get all the shiny new features.
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In Depth: Office Web Apps vs Office 2010
Microsoft Office is one of the most ubiquitous application suites on the planet, and it's used in pretty much every business, school and home in the country. Its programs enable people to do almost anything using their PC, from creating documents for work, school or home to doing their accounts and making presentations.
At Windows: The Official Magazine, we love Office 2010, but there's one thing that always causes contention: the £100 price tag. That's about to change, though, as Microsoft is now offering a portion of its Office 2010 suite for free on the internet.
The service is called Office Web Apps, and it has been plugged into the existing Windows Live SkyDrive service, which provides all the online storage capabilities. Microsoft has designed the service to be an extension of the Office 2010 environment for people while they're away from their PCs, rather than an alternative.
But this got us wondering: can you survive on just the free Office Web Apps alone? This month, we challenged James Stables, deputy editor on Windows: The Official Magazine to ditch his copy of Office 2010 and just use the Web Apps. Will he manage on the scaled-down Web Apps, or will he be sitting alone in the office, snatching minutes of Office 2010 time on his colleagues' PCs while they're at lunch? There's only one way to find out…
The rules
The rules of James' challenge are simple: he must uninstall all copies of Microsoft Office from his PCs at home and at work. For 30 days, he can only use the online Office Web Apps available from http:// office.live.com in a bid to find out whether it's possible to survive on free software alone. If he resorts to using the paid-for suite, James will fail the challenge.
Day 1
Unlike the beginning of most issues of Windows: The Official Magazine, my morning doesn't start with a heavy load of writing. Instead I find myself uninstalling Microsoft Office 2010, the most essential tool for doing my job, just as I'd done at home the night before.
As a writer, I use Microsoft Office 2010 every day, and even in my spare time. It's easy to take things like Windows and Office for granted, until you're forced to do without them. However, I don't feel I use a great deal of the tools included in Office, so I'm fairly confident I'll be able to use Office Web Apps without too much trouble.
My first job is to start writing a tutorial for the magazine. Instead of firing up Office Word 2010 from the taskbar in Windows 7, I have to start up Internet Explorer 8, navigate to http://office.live.com, log in and load a new document. This is far more time-consuming than opening Office Word, and the thought of doing that each time I want to create or load a document seems soul-destroying.
To make things easier, I place a link to the Office Web Apps on my browser's favourites bar, and pin it to the Jump List for Internet Explorer in Windows 7.
My first impression of the Word Web App is positive – it has a familiar feel for anyone who's used to working in Office Word 2007 or 2010. There's a Ribbon menu, with most of the same buttons and options found on the full paid-for suite, but it's not until you look closely that you realise a lot of the tools are missing, and there are only three tabs rather than seven.
Writing for the magazine doesn't involve many of the options in Office Word, so I get down to work.
Day 2
Writing is easy enough in Office Word, but halfway through my tutorial I come across a missing feature that threatens to scupper the whole challenge. To my surprise, there is no word count tool in Word Web App, which makes keeping to the strict guidelines almost impossible.
In a bid not to fail so early, I turn to www.wordcounttool.com to keep track of my paragraphs, but the frustration of copying and pasting text across browser windows nearly drives me to distraction. Little do I know, more problems are already on the way.
Restrictions such as the single screen view start to make writing in Word Web App quite irritating, as I like to write with the text quite large on the screen, and will often use the Ctrl and Scroll wheel zoom feature to review work and make changes. In Office Web Apps, you're stuck with a single huge page with small text, where a single line can contain as many words as a paragraph.
That problem also compounds the issue of struggling to adhere to word counts, and it's going to take some getting used to. In short, the next month is going to be a lot more testing than I thought.
Day 4
Four days into the challenge and the strain of swapping to the Office Web Apps is already starting to show. After using the service on a daily basis, it's more than just the word count that's missing from my daily routine. There's no grammar check, which means I need to be extra vigilant, and the lack of viewing choice makes displaying documents a pain.
There are two views: the editing mode and reading view. This would be good to work in, but the text is placed into read-only mode, so there's no chance of making any changes.
Day 8
After my first week, and the daily struggle of using Word Web App to write, the chance to start using the Excel Web App comes as light relief. At the beginning of a new issue, it's my job to work out who writes what and commission our talented pool of writers. The information is held in an Office Excel spreadsheet, but with no copy of Office, this needs to be uploaded to the web.
The first step is to upload documents to my Windows Live SkyDrive account by logging in using my Windows Live ID at http://skydrive.live.com. Then I simply open them for editing in Excel Web App within Internet Explorer.
Having used free spreadsheet programs in the past, I'm instantly impressed at how well the complicated system we use for our features lists is represented in Office Excel Web App. The formulae all work fine and I am able to make amendments to the sheet.
What's more, when I do make changes, these are in the same style as the original, and if I were to use this version of the document with the offline version, there wouldn't be any problem going back to the full Office 2010.
However, it isn't the way Excel Web App handles the formatting challenges that impresses me most – it is the ability to share with others. At the moment, we use a versioning system for our offline content for the magazine details list, but when placed online, I am able to share it with other members of the team, so they can all make amends as well.
In the Windows Live SkyDrive menu, click Share next to the document. You can choose to edit permission levels so your contacts, or even anyone in the world, can see your documents. You can then generate a link, which guides people directly to the document.
Day 13
A busy day in the office hasn't started well, and the problems of online working soon become apparent. When logging onto Office Web Apps, I'm presented with a message that the service is experiencing problems, and my request cannot be dealt with.
In this instance, my request is access to the documents I was working on. Irritation doesn't come close to describing the feeling of being locked out of my documents when I need them, and the problem seems to affect Windows Live SkyDrive as well as Office Web Apps. Not only am I unable to edit documents, but viewing them is also troublesome, and I am only able to access my storage drive a handful of times before the error returns.
I resolve to work around the problem, but with no Office Word to fall back on, I'm faced with the prospect of using Wordpad in Windows 7. Thankfully, the Office Web Apps service comes back online in the nick of time – just not fast enough to avoid it being a huge inconvenience.
One of my tasks over the next few days is to create a PowerPoint presentation for use within the company. With no Office suite to use, it entails my first foray into the PowerPoint Web App.
Using this app, it quickly becomes my favourite, and proves to be surprisingly rich in features. All of the whizz-bang animations have gone, but there's a generous helping of templates and designs you can use, all of which look professional and work across the free and paid-for versions.
However, what Office Web Apps gives with one hand, it takes with another. After designing my presentation, I discover it's impossible to change the template, and I'm stuck with what I've made. If I had the full desktop version it would be possible to take what I've written on the web and turn it into the polished version, but that would be failing my challenge.
Day 20
Microsoft Office isn't just about work, and most people have the suite at home for anything from letter writing to children's homework, but on my Saturday off, I sit down to plan my holiday.
Over the last couple of weeks I've been grabbing time in my lunch hour to research places to stay and cheap flights, and storing the data in OneNote Web App. As a big fan of the full version of Office OneNote 2007, the idea of a web version is extremely appealing, and it's easy to copy and paste in text and URLs as a quick reference for later.
The beauty of OneNote Web App as an online tool is the ability it gives you to access your notes from anywhere. If you see something you like, it takes seconds to add it to the document, or look back on the offers you've already found, rather than have the information tucked away on your PC.
OneNote Web App is proving an invaluable tool for my holiday planning, and I also have the ability to share the information with other people, so they can help find better flight details, and create a shortlist of hotels we can stay in. However, there are shortcomings.
Unlike the main program, you don't have the ability to drag and drop information, and there's next to no provision for dealing with images, which severely limits the tool. Yet again, as a supporting tool the Web App is fantastic, but as a standalone application, it's simply too light on features.
Day 30
The final day of my Office 2010 challenge is here at last. To be honest, I can't wait to grab the disc to install the full suite again. Using the Web Apps has had great benefits, but the majority of the online tools are surprisingly light on features.
However, reinstalling the full version of Office soon makes me realise what a powerful tool they are for portability, working on documents wherever you are. One of the best features of the Web Apps is the ability to use your Windows Live SkyDrive like a physical drive for your information.
This means your online storage drive looks and acts just like your C: drive, USB stick or Documents folder. You can drag and drop files from your desktop so they're available anywhere with an internet connection, and then they can be edited on the move, before being reloaded quickly into Office 2010.
With this in mind, Office Web Apps has changed the way I'll use Microsoft Office forever.
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Next-gen AMD graphics cards coming next week
AMD looks set to release their eagerly awaited next generation of Radeons next week, with CEO Dirk Meyer confirming in an earnings call that the latest graphics card would be arriving. Meyer was quoted by Anandtech as saying that the wait for the new DX11 cards would be days away.
"We will be launching our second-generation DX11 graphics offerings next week," said Meyer.
Big hit
The 5000 series has been a massive hit for AMD – as being the first DirectX 11 supporting cards pushed the company's offering to a new level.
The successors will represent another big push for AMD – which has scrapped the ATI branding of late.
"We'll be introducing our second-generation of DX11 technology into the market with some launch activities actually next week," added Meyer.
"We'll be shipping all the family members of that product line I'll call it, by the end of this quarter, and total volume think in terms of several hundred thousand, or hundreds of thousands of units."
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10 mind-boggling iPhone and iPad apps
For every jaw-dropping, must-have app for iPad and iPhone there are dozens more that are mad, bad or just plain wrong.We've rounded up just 10 of our favourites. We're sure you can find many more.
1. Sexy Piano - £0.59
There are loads of piano apps on the iPhone, but few are as bizarre as this. Hit different keys and you're greeted "a beautiful woman's sexy sound", which turns out to be the kind of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' you last heard in a dodgy movie. Also available on Android. Rated 12+.
2. Auto Will - £2.99
It's statistically very unlikely that you'll get run over by a bus tomorrow, but are you ready to take that chance? Worrywarts can console themselves (a bit) by filling out their last will and testament on their iPhone or iPad and then pinging it off to their friends, relatives and solicitors just in case. Don't try filling it in when you're crossing the road though, eh?
3. Is Career Women More Divorce - £0.59
Apple proudly boasts that there are 250,000 apps available from the iTunes Store, but an awful lot of them seem to be made up of crud like this. The app description explains why marrying a career woman is more likely to end in divorce (feeling bitter Mr. Developer?) but then fails to really explain what insights you'll gain from downloading the app.
Bizarrely the app is rating 17+ for its 'frequent/intense sexual content or nudity', while the developer website points you to a GoDaddy domain name parking page. We'll pass, thanks.
4. BedRabbit - £0.59
Think you're a star performer in the sack? Then prove it by firing up this app and then lying your iPhone on the bed while you get jiggy. BedRabbit will assess your performance based on intensity, rhythm, progression, diversity and artistic (?!) criteria and also listens in to the sounds you and your partner(s) make.
Once this 17+ app has totted up your score you can email the results to your friends so they can point and laugh at you next time you're down the pub.
5. A German Video Cuisine How To - £0.59
If we had to guess which countries are the most renowned for the quality of their cuisine, we doubt the Germans (bless 'em) would rank very highly on the list - something this app seems to cheerfully acknowledge with its "welcome to the land of sausages and cheese' qualifier.
Having said that the app does have a mouth-watering array of Teutonic delicacies from with to choose, although sadly, it kicks you over to YouTube to see them.
6. iBoak - £0.59
We've enjoyed more than our fair share of farting, burping, fatten-your-face and talking animals apps, but now things are starting to get really sick. Literally. iBoak serves up over 200 puking sounds so horribly realistic you can 'hear the chunks'. Just don't make a mess of your black turtleneck jumper, OK?
7. Blow - £Free
From blowing chunks to just blowing. This delightful, kid-friendly app lets you to point your lips at your iPhone's microphone to inflate a balloon, make underwater bubbles, toot on a referee's whistle and clear a virtual nose. Lovely.
8. iStethoscope Pro - £0.59
Developed with the help of cardiologists, this app turns your iPhone into a stethoscope you can use to listen into the sounds your own (or a wiling patient's) body makes. iStethoscope Pro includes a phonocardiograph display and a spectrogram of your heart's waveform and requires both exact placement on your body and a good set of headphones to enjoy it at is best. Now who wants to play Doctors and Nurses. You do? Excellent. We'll just warm our hands.
9. Eye Test Pro - £0.59
Let's face it, peering at your iPhone's tiny screen all day isn't going to do your eyesight an awful lot of good, but you maybe surprised to learn that opticians sometimes use iPhones to check how well you can see. Aimed at optometrists, this app includes all kinds of pro-level tests including testing letters, Plate Ishihara and Fixation Disparity.
10. Pocket Girl - £1.19
She's pretty, doesn't moan and won't blow all your money on shoes. Yup, it's Pocket Girl and you can keep her forever on your iPad or iPhone. Pocket Girl comprises a set of HD-quality video clips with actions dotted around the screen that help you interact with the girl of your dreams. There's nothing obviously risqué about it (the app has a 4+ rating) although you might get some strange looks when you introduce to your real life friends.
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Analysis: Will YouView be a hit?
Experts from the television industry have responded to criticism of BBC-backed YouView by insisting that the public will benefit from the IPTV project, and that it will become a success in the UK.YouView is hoping to do for television through your broadband connection what Freeview did for digital television, and bring video on demand to the masses.
However, the scheme – which started life as Project Canvas – has been heavily criticised by manufacturers and other platforms like Virgin Media and Sky.
Indeed, Sky's director of broadband Delia Bushel told TechRadar that she felt YouView would be a 'niche product' due to its likely price.
Profound effect
What Satellite editor Alex Lane believes that, although it is likely to take time to arrive in the majority of living rooms, YouView will have a profound effect on UK television.
"Sky is right in one respect: YouView isn't going to be an explosive sensation like HD, but its benefits will penetrate society through word-of-mouth and seeing it in action," Lane told TechRadar.
"Sky+ took years to catch on because the PVR is a hard concept to sell, but wonderful to own, and today's consumers are a lot more switched on than they were five years ago."
Home Cinema Choice's deputy editor, Mark Craven, agrees: "YouView won't be for everyone, even if it can persuade some Virgin Media and Sky customers to ditch their subscriptions.
"There's likely to be a greater interest amongst the technorati in integrated TV products like Google TV. But, as a mass market product, YouView could easily become as widely recognised and beloved as Freeview."
YouView is aiming to bring true video on demand to the consumer, tapping into the growing awareness of things like the BBC iPlayer and internet video work.
User interface
The user interface will offer users the chance to navigate the now familiar television guide in interesting ways.
"The most effective innovation in YouView's arsenal is going to be the seven-day-backwards EPG, which will place catch-up TV on the front page of the viewing experience," explains Lane.
"If the success of iPlayer is anything to go by, the public will very quickly latch onto the concept of being able to browse through programmes they've missed.
"We might even see daily newspapers recommending catch-up shows as well as tonight's TV – although probably not in The Sun or The Times."
Craven agrees that catch-up TV will be an easy sell to the public – who have had to deal with obstacles with the current services on offer.
"The benefits of catch-up TV are obvious – watching what you want, when you want, without having to schedule recordings – but until now it's been all over the place, he said.
"Virgin Media customers, for example, have access to BBC iPlayer, and other catch up to pay for the privilege; some TV brands have built BBC iPlayer built into their sets, but others haven't; and, while everyone in theory can watch catch up services on their PC, hunched over a monitor is not the ideal way to view TV content.
"YouView, by collecting the most popular catch-up services and making them freely available and integrated into a Freeview or Freesat set-top box, simplifies the concept beautifully."
Content is king
Lane believes that the range of content will eventually become a key selling point for the consumer.
"The wider range of on-demand channels and services will be slower to catch on, just as they have been for Sky – and Virgin to a lesser extent – although that will depend a great deal on the YouView interface, which we have yet to see in full," adds Lane.
"In the long term, the opportunity to watch premium TV without an ongoing subscription adds value, especially with strong brands like LoveFilm on board."
One of the major differences between YouView and Freeview is cost – not only in the box or television itself but also in the need for a broadband connection.
Bandwidth
BT has launched Content Connect – which essentially moves the cost of the extra bandwidth needed for internet television onto the content providers and other ISPs that use its infrastructure.
But there are already fears that this cost will be passed on to the consumers, where they may have to make a decision between a higher cost package that is 'YouView friendly' or a poorer service.
Lane believes that the high cost of the box itself (predicted to be around £200 at launch) is not prohibitive, and the likes of BT and TalkTalk – both partners in YouView – will quickly offer subsidised packages bundled with a broadband contract.
"It's easy to knock the predicted pricetag of a retail product when your own products are heavily subsidised by subscription costs, but £250 for a YouView PVR with 500GB or more of storage is competitive with current PVR prices," says Lane.
"If BT and TalkTalk start offering subsidised boxes with broadband that could also boost takeup, though it's to be hoped that BT has a better business strategy than it did with BT Vision."
But will YouView take off? The general consensus is that it will – although not perhaps at the pace of Freeview with its dirt cheap set-top boxes and quick move into integrated televisions.
"YouView is one of the most interesting technology developments coming to the UK, in that it will bring the concept of catch-up TV content to a massive audience without the need for a subscription contract," concludes Craven.
Competition
YouView may well find that it arrives in the UK to find a highly competitive market, with some major players throwing their names into an IPTV hat that already contains some familiar monikers.
Google TV is on the verge of launching over in the US, and could well make the leap across the Atlantic at some point in 2011 – although don't hold you breath just yet.
Connected televisions, bringing catch-up services from the manufacturers and their partners themselves, and both Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation 3 have well established on-demand services already.
Two other key names are also in strong positions: Virgin Media has the UK's biggest fibre optic network, and uses its cable service to provide instant and high definition on-demand and catch-up television.
And Sky is about to launch Anytime+, it's own internet-fed catch up and on-demand service in the UK.
Opposition
Much has been made of the opposition to YouView; manufacturers are angry that the user interface will be dictated by the partners involved in YouView and not left up to them, making it difficult to differentiate their products and other platforms are livid at the BBC's involvement and suspicious of BT's motivations.
With an Ofcom investigation still being considered, there could even yet be hurdles for YouView to leap before it can make its debut – tentatively set at the first half of 2011.
And yet, for the consumer, YouView is already looking like a strong proposition, with familiar linear channels from Freeview, the attractive proposition of true catch-up TV and, potentially for now, the prospect of other major players like Sky bringing more and more content to the party.
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Angry Birds for Android – full version now available for free
Angry Birds has finally lost its Android beta tag and is now available as a full game from app store GetJar.GetJar seems to be on a bit of a mission at the moment to make all mobile phone games free.
It recently teamed up with Glu Mobile (who makes DJ Hero amongst others) to make one free Glu game available every week and now it has nabbed the exclusive of the full version of Angry Birds for Android.
"Selecting GetJar as the place to launch our first ever full Android version of Angry Birds was an obvious choice," said Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka.
"GetJar's global reach and popularity as well as their unique App It! download service ensures that we reach a massive audience of fanatically loyal Angry Birds addicts."
App-y days
This will be something of a kick in the teeth for Google who relies on Market for its app distribution.
The full version of Angry Birds will be free for the time being on Android, as it will come with Google/AdMob support and there will be some in-app purchases coming to the Android version of Angry Birds at a later date.
This sounds like the Mighty Eagle which was originally exclusive to cheating Nokia users.
Go to www.getjar.com to download Angry Birds. The site seems to be rather slow at the moment, so we're guessing it is proving popular.
But make sure your phone is ready for it: if you're rocking an Android phone, head to Settings, Applications then make sure the box 'Unknown Sources: Allow install of non-market applications' is checked before you download.
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3 Mobile daily data usage is equivalent to the whole web in 1993
3 Mobile has laid its network bare for the first time, revealing just how much data is consumed by its users in one day.It seems that those using 3 Mobile, which is the UK's biggest 3G network, via its dongles and phones eat up around 100TB of data daily.
This is the equivalent to the data consumption of the entire web in 1993.
Data use
The data usage is mainly down to high-bandwidth sites like YouTube and iPlayer, which account for 40 per cent of data. Web browsing is just behind it at 38 per cent.
Interestingly, almost 6 per cent of all the data is made up of software updates and 2.5 per cent is for those who use instant messaging services - which 3 offers for free on Windows Live Messenger on many of its tariffs.
To put it into context, Data Centre Knowledge clocked Facebook in 2009 managing around 25TB of logging in data per day.
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Review: Onkyo HTS-3305
Onkyo has built up an excellent reputation for its AV receivers. And here we have the HTS-3305 which is intended to leverage this accumulated experience: a budget yet full-blown AVR, packaged with a matching 5.1 sub-sat speaker set. Generous connections include a choice of three HDMI v1.4 inputs, in addition to provision for analogue composite and component sources. There's no conversion from analogue video to HDMI, so you may have to route appropriate cabling to your display. Nor are there front-panel or 5.1 analogue inputs.
You are, however, blessed with an analogue audio-only input, plus three digital audio inputs, two of which are optical. Most 'all-in-one' systems today make provision for the ubiquitous iPod. This one doesn't, instead offering a universal port of the type you'll find on Onkyo's 'standard' AV receivers. Into this, you can plug in an optional iPod dock or DAB tuner.
As an AVR, the speaker connections are fairly standard, compared to what you'll find on the rear of an all-in-one system. Binding post terminals are provided for the fronts, while the surround speakers are connected via spring clips. Another set of such terminals accommodate a second set of front speakers, possibly in a second room for basic Zone 2 functions.
The only downside is that the main unit (the HT-R380) is designed for use with a passive subwoofer – in other words, the amp is built into the receiver, rather than the sub itself. This need not be a problem; some subs can be driven at speaker-level, although the fact the HT-R380 is already delivering a LFE signal could be problematic (another possible solution would be to drive an active sub's line input via a resistive attenuator).
Thankfully, crossover frequency can be adjusted from 40Hz to 200Hz in the menus. The satellite speakers all employ a single magnetically-shielded 3.15in drive unit, as opposed to the separate crossover-linked tweeter and woofer of more upmarket sub-sat packages.
The bundled bass-reflex subwoofer, meanwhile, contains a 6.3in driver mounted in a down-firing position. All connecting cables are supplied.
Just like the average AVR, the HT-R380 caters for a wide variety of audio codecs and surround formats. There's also a selection of 11 DSP variants, including modes optimised for gaming.
The HDMI ports support CEC device control and, with this engaged, I could adjust the receiver's volume with our Samsung TV's remote; however, Onkyo's remote would not operate my Samsung Blu-ray player or TV. Changing AV input on the TV would also change input on the receiver– a source of annoyance if, for example, the TV is switched to its PC input when you're listening to a CD through the Onkyo rig.
An HDMI passthrough function automatically routes the last-used source to the TV when the receiver is left in standby.
Performance
In performance terms, Onkyo's HTS-3305 system punches way beyond its weight. It does far more justice to Blu-ray (and even DVD) than the average all-in-one system, with balanced and involving sonics that don't run out of steam in an average sized room, especially in the all-important LFE department.
Considering the single drive units of the satellites, a surprising degree of treble detail is conveyed, too. Versus a full-blown separates system, though, there are limitations.
When driven hard, presentation nudges towards the aggressive, and while the centre channel performs very well overall – dialogue is always intelligible – some bassier vocals suffer from a minor 'plummy' colouration.
That'a a minor gripe, though, and this system still comes highly recommended for those on a tight budget.
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Weird Tech: Singing, punching and censorship
The makers of this embedded video claim it's evidence of a robot woman singing better than a robot woman has ever sung before. Of course, what's really happening is "she" has been programmed to copy facial expressions and pauses for breath while a recording of a song plays at the same time, much like the process that brought Milli Vanilli so much fame and success in the late 1980s.
"We hope the entertainment industry will be able to make widespread use of robots" said Masataka Goto from the Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
FULL FACIAL: Dannii Minogue needs to calm down on the botox
And yes, Masataka, it already is. We call our early prototype models "Jedward". We have much, much more to learn.
"Does it hurt when I go like this?"
Six brave volunteers are at this moment being continually punched in the arm by an attacking robot limb. The aim of this experiment is to teach robots the limits of human flesh, so they don't accidentally tear our arms off when shaking hands or clatter us through partition walls when delivering a message deemed urgent.
An Epson-made assembly line robot arm has been programmed to smack a human with blunt and sharp objects, with the volunteers judging the pain level caused by the impact. This is then fed back to the developers, so they can work out how best to protect us in the robot-filled corridors of the future. An artificial arm is being brought in to take bigger, more damaging blows.
"Is this thing on?"
A survey of Twitter usage has found that the micro-blogging platform could actually be a bigger waste of time than previously estimated. Analytics company Sysomos worked its way through more than one billion status updates, and found that slightly more than 70 per cent of all tweets sink without trace.
CHEGWINNED: If in a state of personal crisis, copy jokes off the telly
Their main source of measurement was counting retweets and replies. Six per cent of messages were retweeted, while 23 per cent got replies. The remaining 71 per cent were booed off the internet.
Does not collate
If you get excited about photocopier technology, there's something very new and exhilarating on the way from Canon. The company's updated Uniflow 5 document management system lets administrators block certain keywords - resulting in a copier that could refuse to copy anything deemed sensitive or too rude for external distribution.
DUPED: No more running off 50 copies of your CV
Worse still, if you get automatically busted trying to copy something that's on the blocked list, the vindictive little machine has the ability to email a PDF scan of your document to your IT man - who can then hold you to ransom over its contents. You'll be handing him your lunch money for months.
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Review: AMD Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition
AMD has been prolific lately and the next in its line to fall under our spotlight is the dual-core Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition.
As a result of its labours, AMD certainly has a lot of flavours of processor on the market these days, but as a gamer on a budget do you really need anything with more than two cores yet? There's still a dearth of multithreaded titles out there really taking advantage of the hex-core marvels AMD has recently launched, so you could be forgiven for sacrificing cores for cash.
The lads and lasses at AMD obviously understand that too, since the company's bolstering its dual-core lineup with another Black Edition CPU, now hitting the 3.3GHz mark. We've already seen the Phenom II X2 550 and 555 chips, which managed 3.1GHz and 3.2GHz respectively.
Quite why we need another CPU with such a small incremental increase is rather beyond us. Sure it's a Black Edition, with all the unlocked multiplier joy that entails, but then so was the 3.1GHz 550. Why push it further?
There's practically zero difference in performance terms between the two low-end Black Edition Phenom IIs. That's not surprising, since there's also little difference between the two architectures. The extra megahertz don't really give you anything but a small increase in the video encoding score – a score that's easily bettered by the quad-core Athlon II X4 620.
Video encoding performance
X264 v3 – FPS: higher is better
Phenom II 560BE – 10.9
Phenom II 550BE – 10.4
CPU rendering performance
Cinebench R11.5 – Index: bigger is better
Phenom II 560BE – 1.89
Phenom II 550BE – 1.89
DX10 gaming performance
Just Cause 2 – FPS: higher is better
Phenom II 560BE – 45
Phenom II 550BE – 45
The budget end of the AMD processor spectrum is a tricky one to negotiate – there are a host of CPUs on offer for incredibly low prices.
The Athlon II X4 620 is one of the cheapest quad-core processors you'll ever see and it's definitely no slouch at 2.9GHz. For some decent multithreaded application performance, or video tweakery, then the quad is always going to prove a boon over the more remedial dualies.
That said, the lack of decent cache levels means it's not going to give you any joy in games, which is where the dual-core Phenom IIs really take over. They also give you rather stellar overclocking performance too.
Then there's the looming spectre of AMD's core unlocking feature, although that increasingly is looking redundant in the latest chip samples we've had a play with. One of our 550s went all the way and unlocked two extra cores giving us a bargainous quad-core, but the other stubbornly refused to. The same happened here with our 560 sample – it just wouldn't boot with any extra cores unlocked.
So what do you really get for your extra cash if you pick up the 560 over the Phenom II X2 550? Honestly, very little. Despite the new stepping, there's no change in the power rating of 80W and we could garner no extra overclocking performance out of it either. Both CPUs would happily hit 4GHz on air, but try as we might we couldn't get a stable clock any higher than that.
At £65, then, the 550 Black Edition looks like a far better bet for those after a budget gaming setup, and that's easily achievable when twinned with a bargain AMD motherboard. You can also drop more on the motherboard with a view to upgrading your CPU if and when you can afford it thanks to AMD's single-socket platform.
Which leaves the Phenom II X2 560 a rather unnecessary addition to AMD's CPU lineup, lacking the multithreaded performance of chips with more cores or any extra overclocking headroom.
We likedThe Phenom II X2 560 is still able to hit 4GHz on air-cooling alone, as long as you've got a decent cooler, and the gaming performance isn't bad for a cheap chip either.
We dislikedThe fact that there's little tangible difference between this newer chip revision and the cheaper dual-core 550 Black Edition makes this processor practically irrelevant.
Verdict
An unnecessary addition to the low-end Phenom II range.
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Review: PSB Imagine Series
Loudspeakers are funny things and the folks who design them a rare breed of cat. While the electronics designer is a technical bod and the cable designer an abstruse alchemist, your speaker-maker is a driven passionate soul who is making speakers not because he has 'identified a market' but because he has to – he can't not. PSB is a classic example of that drive. It's part of the agglomeration of fine speaker designers that you find in Canada (think Paradigm, Mirage, Energy...). Oddly enough, you also get other populations that breed 'em. The Scandinavians and Italians are also known for this as nations.
Anyway, PSB stands for Paul & Sue Barton, and I must confess I knew little of them until now. It transpires that PSB offers speakers from the truly acclaimed and terribly high-end to the stuff to nail to a wall around a flat telly, with no fewer than six other ranges in between, and a selection of subwoofers. Not to mention a fully mature and wide range of in-ceiling speakers and a choice of models designed for a cabinet install.
What we have on test here is the PSB Imagine series, down from the Synchrony and Platinum ranges but above the G-Design, Image and Alpha series.
This series comprises a tower, a book shelfer, a centre and a dipole/bipole. Lost my cherry I was sent a pair of the big floorstanders (£1,200 approx for a brace), a set of the smaller surrounds (£600), a centre channel (£500) and an SubSeries HD8 subwoofer. All except the sub were finished in Black Ash (when the Dark Cherry finish would have been so very much sexier).
The woofer itself was also black, but with a more matt veneer, – PSB doesn't make dedicated subs for its separate ranges. This HD8 is an over-engineered little cube of a woofer.
It looks all cute and ineffectual, but has a bonkers half kilowatt of special BASH amplification inside. (This is to do with a marriage of class AB and class D tech to get big efficiency and high sound quality), as well as a set of 8in teeth in the front in the shape of a far-wobbling and very high power-handling speaker driver.
It also sports two more tusks. These are a pair of passive radiators, diaphragms installed with no magnet, but with a nice wobbly, controlled-compliance suspension to hang it in.
While allowing the cabinet to boom out some really loud waves thanks to the huge moving surface area in such a wee box, the 'sealed' effect of the diaphragms also means that this small set of pressure cones can be energised at frequencies lower than you could ever tune the thing to, without applying an elephant's trunk port to it after installation, like a bass pipe.
The SubSeries HD woofers come in 8in and 10in sizes and in my room, there is no question, I would have been wanting the 10 (or two of 'em) for the greater scale. Yet, oddly enough for an 8in, it didn't lack in any depth.
It loved the throbbing cod-reggae bass lines of my Sting DTS 5.1 CD, and while I am trying to move on from James Cameron's Avatar BD as demo material (partly because I've almost cut a spiral into the disc with the laser in the Sony deck I use), I still find the opening frames awesome as a test sequence.
As this film opens, Sensei-Cameron wants you to feel a whole lump of cinematic awe, right up there with Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He had me at hello, from the very first frame.
Liquid Iron
The depth of the background singing of the natives and then the space travel throb was impressive, actually waking up some resonances in my room. But the real impression was from PSB's Imagine series speakers themselves. They have a snap and attack that belies their cost, with a real fat lump of quick dynamism in there, too.
What this is about is the wonder of Ferrofluid, a megabuck-per-gallon liquid iron goop, which when injected into the voice coil gap of a tweeter, damps its motion mechanically, so it will only move when pushed rather than 'flap'.
It also offers an immensely quick cooling effect being 'ferric' it will hang in the gap and stay there and, being a metallic conductive liquid, will also conduct heat from the coil to the huge heatsink that is the magnet itself. Thus, the coil doesn't heat up with big peaks and instead of the electrical qualities of that coil changing as it gets superheated, it works much better.
And if that's all too technical for you, just know that all the above jargon translates to a more emotionally involving detail experience. It's in the strings in Sting's Food For a Crow, or better yet, the impactful crescendo as we see the spaceship off the planet Pandora, or the thwap! as the shuttle enters the thick atmosphere of the moon.
And it can't all be the posh tweeters, even if they are all the exact same Titanium dome all round. It has to be that 5.25in midrange driver, too. Used just once in the surround/'book shelf' model, but with two each in the towers and centre enclosures, these are made of mineral-loaded Polypropylene with pukka rubber surrounds, rather than some foam, and are well-damped and long of travel.
Curved cabinets
The enclosures are as sexy and well put together as any I have seen. The grilles attach snugly, and should you choose to forgo them, there's still a natty PSB logo mounted in front of the tweeter. I still wished I'd auditioned a set finished in Dark Cherry, though, as my room has a wood finish and would have offset more of the form of the speakers' shapes.
These are described as compound-curved, which is all about avoiding the standing waves caused by having opposite-facing and parallel box internal surfaces.
In their rears, the Imagine speakers all have ports. One each for the bookshelf and centre and two on the towers. The latter arrive with a single plug and you can play with blocking one or other port. As one is long and the other very short, you have options, using neither or either port hole blocked, and are encouraged to experiment.
The blocker plugs are substantial rubber things, but you only get one and the other is an option, which seems a parsimonious thing to do if the makers mean you to play and see, and I think they do.
PSB's website and manuals reveal a deeply committed outfit with a passion for music and good. It just comes across in how they write about their speakers. The manuals, in particular, are fantastically detailed and considered, advising the PSB buyer on everything from speaker placement to the dangers of driving low-powered amplifiers to their limits.
These Imagine speakers are an array that's very easy to fit and setup. And while it's three grand's worth of kit, I reckon they hit way above their weight and can be compared to other brands' systems around the £5,000 mark.
They have a lovely sound of real quality and power and all they lacked was the bigger scale that serious money can buy. But of course, PSB has two more ranges upstream for that.
If you're in the market for a new surround system, I'd definitely advise heading to your dealer for a demo of these classy Canadian cabinets.
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Adobe Flash breaks 1 million downloads barrier on Android
Adobe has clocked up 1 million downloads on the Android platform, with its 10.1 software proving popular on devices.Flash 10.1 has been available to Android users since June but it is only available to those using 2.2 and above.
The version for Android is mobile savvy, offering the ability to close Flash-enabled animations which aren't displayed on the screen, so it doesn't slow down a handset.
Flash dance
Apple's abhorrence for Flash has meant that mobile browsing on the iPhone and iPad may be slick but the many sites which use Flash are hobbled.
Saying that, Flash on Android isn't perfect and it doesn't seem to work on all Flash-enabled sites. And when it does it is occasionally jerky with slow loading times.
Until HTML5 takes hold, however, the web is still reliant on Flash.
Later this month (23 to 27 October) Adobe will be holding Max 2010, its developer conference, where it will hopefully show off just what Flash on mobiles is capable of, and a look at its Air platform for Android.
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Exclusive: Why Windows Phone 7 doesn't have Flash
Ask Microsoft why certain features aren't in Windows Phone 7 and the usual answer is that when you develop a new operating system in 18 months flat you have to make some hard choices about what you can get done in time and what's most important to the experience.That's the reason behind no copy and paste until 2011 and no tethering as a modem.
But that's only one of the reasons why Windows Phone 7 doesn't come with Flash, according to Microsoft's Andy Lees, now president of the mobile communications division.
The other (which is also the reason why a phone that runs Silverlight apps can't load Silverlight in web pages) gives us some much more interesting hints about the future architecture of Microsoft's mobile browser.
"It's not a religious thing; we support standard H.264 video in the browser. We're not allergic to Flash, we're not allergic to Silverlight, we're not allergic to HTML5 – but this [Windows Phone 7 browser] doesn't support it," he told TechRadar.
"We don't have the extensibility model inside the browser for those pieces and when you see the future I think you'll understand why."
IE7.5?
Microsoft calls the Windows Phone 7 browser "halfway between IE7 and IE8" but that's in terms of displaying HTML web pages rather than full browser features, and while Adobe is working on Flash for Windows Phone, it has to plug into the browser.
And as Lees told TechRadar, "there is no ActiveX plug-in extensibility because of the security model; we're not going to do that. And with no ActiveX plug-in model, how would we do Flash?"
Could Microsoft have done something special just for Flash (and Silverlight)?
Again, it's not just about how much time they had. "We don't want to open that up and then take it away; that would be bad. Browsers are going to a different extensibility model."
That's certainly true of Chrome and IE9. Pieces that were once plug-ins, like Flash and PDF rendering in Chrome and the JavaScript engine in IE9 are now sub-systems within the browser itself.
For IE9's Chakra JavaScript engine it means faster web browsing because IE doesn't have to pass code back and forth between two systems.
Flash in Chrome gets faster communication, and it also means you can isolate Flash in each tab, along with the rest of the web page; if Flash crashes in one tab it won't crash in the other web pages you're browsing, and it can improve security as well.
If IE on future versions of Windows Phone is going to use that kind of extensibility model, it could help with worries that running Flash or Silverlight designed for the PC would hammer battery life, because getting better performance and managing the runtimes as part of the same process will mean better battery life (the sooner you finish running code and turn the processor back off, the less power it uses).
Lees is very firm about not talking about the roadmap of Windows Phone, but this is an intriguing hint about possible future directions, and another way mobile browsers might be catching up to the state of the art in desktop browsing.
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T3 iPad edition goes on sale
The eagerly awaited T3 iPad edition has gone on sale through the Apple store, with the TechRadar stablemate offering up a high-tech tablet version of its monthly magazine.The T3 iPad edition is not merely the magazine content, but also a host of extras including videos and images.
On this occasion we're willing to risk cries of bias to tell you that it is, honestly, a very cool addition to your iPad – and well worth a look if you like your gadgets.
Synergies
Nial Ferguson, publishing director for Future's Entertainment & Tech Lifestyle portfolios, said: "The natural synergies between T3 and the iPad create a dream union for both consumers and our commercial partners.
"Our research tells us that T3 readers are high-spending early adopters, who are already voraciously consuming media on the platform."
You can check out the app in action in the video below, or head over to the App Store to grab yourself a copy for £3.99.
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Limera1n iPhone jailbreak tops search rankings
Apple's iOS 4.1 jailbreak tool limera1n has made such a splash that it has topped Google's fastest rising searches for the week. Limera1n is apparently the first iOS 4.1 jailbreak supporting iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 3G, iPod touch 4G, iPad and even the new Apple TV.
It was authored by someone known as 'geohot' and his software has become an instant hit with those keen to install non-official apps and programs onto their Apple kit.
Limera1n proved so popular that it has become the fastest rising search term in the London rankings from Google.
Montenegro, Euromillions and WinPho
That's despite competition from terms 'Montenegro' who played England in a European Championship qualifier this week, 'euromillions winner' as people tried to find out who had picked up a £112 million lottery prize and even Windows Phone 7.
Microsoft's latest (and greatest) mobile OS arrived in a blaze of publicity earlier in the week, bringing a completely refreshed UI and the integration of some of the software giant's key brands.
Other tech terms that crashed into the top 20 include 'emoticons for Skype' and 'Ubuntu' – the latter hitting its 10.10 update recently.
Google's fastest rising searches this week
limera1
montenegro
euromillions winner
ben10central.com
windows phone 7
banksy
usher
emoticons for skype
notw
eastenders
ubuntu
cricinfo
strictly come dancin
swu
tiscali mail
cinemark
nfl
formula 1
mail online
very.co.uk
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Exclusive: Sky: YouView will be a niche product
Sky's director of broadband and telephony has told TechRadar that she believes the BBC-backed IPTV project YouView will stay a niche product for "quite some time".Speaking to TechRadar as the company released a major survey into internet usage, Delia Bushel said that the likely impact of YouView was being overstated.
She believes that the premium nature of YouView will mean that it does not become the type of hit that Freeview has.
At a premium
"A Freeview set top box costs £25, whereas a YouView box will cost around £299 which makes it a premium proposition and not an off-the-shelf solution," said Bushel.
"We may be in danger of exaggerating the impact that [YouView] will have – I think it will be a niche product for quite some time."
The growth of IPTV is likely to put a major strain on Britain's ageing infrastructure – something that the likes of BT are taking steps to avoid by investing heavily in a fibre optic network and by introducing the Content Connect scheme that pushes bandwidth costs onto content providers.
But Sky is confident that its DSL network will be able to cope with increased pressure, as it prepares to launch its own VOD over internet service Sky Anytime+.
Next year
YouView is set to arrive in the first half of 2011, and will bring video on demand from all of the major terrestrial broadcasters, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five, who are partners in the project.
Other members include Arqiva, BT and Talk Talk – with the latter two both major broadband providers in the UK.
YouView – formerly known as Project Canvas – is still mired in controversy, and communications watchdog Ofcom is still considering complaints from the likes of Sky and Virgin Media.
The recent changes to Ofcom have delayed any decision, but TechRadar understands it is expected some time next week.
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