Microsoft is set to unleash two new Windows Phone 7 updates in the New Year, with more phone functionality to be announced at Mobile World Conference.CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to take the stage at CES 2011 in Las Vegas in January to show off new WP7 functionality, which includes the ability to cut and paste.
Ballmer is now also set to show off another major update in February at Mobile World Congress.
New WP7 update
Although it hasn't been confirmed by Microsoft, WinRumors is reporting that sources close to the matter have taken a sneak peak at what is being touted in the new update – via APIs – and it is set to include in-app downloads, better multi-tasking and more customisation.
It's Brian Keller, senior technical evangelist bod for Microsoft, who has dropped the biggest hint about a bigger update at MWC, saying in a recent interview: "I think we are saving [Silverlight on Windows Phone 7], for say another event. If only there was a massive event in Barcelona on mobile phones and or other events in the future."
See what he did there?
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Cameron asks Twitter to move to London
Prime Minister David Cameron managed to fight his way through the student riots this week and bag himself a table with some of Twitter's biggest execs.The meeting took place in London and consisted of Twitter delegates, including head of international strategy Katie Jacobs Stanton, and Boris Johnson.
The crux of the meeting was to see if Twitter would consider London as a base for its European endeavours.
More precisely, if Twitter would open up shop in what has been dubbed the Silicon Roundabout in London's Old Street.
Twitter London bound?
The Silicon Roundabout is meant to be the heart of the UK's dotcom boom – and no way a poor relation of Silicon Valley – so it seems like a decent place for Twitter to make its nest.
Although no deal was done, Ms Stanton did let slip on Twitter that she was smitten with Boris Johnson and co, saying: "Hugely impressed with PM Cameron @MayorOfLondon & the @Number10gov teams."
Twitter has said on record it is looking for a European HQ, noting, "we are considering London and other European locations to create an initial and small presence in 2011."
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The technology of Tron: Legacy
Disney's Tron was a visionary movie. Although released back in 1982 and constrained by the technology of the day, it presaged a universe of artificial intelligence and photorealistic video gaming that seems astoundingly prescient. Writer/director Steven Lisberger's movie may have been a box office fail of the day, but it's become emblematic of cyber chic ever since.
Tron's belated sequel, Tron Legacy, is a movie of similar technological significance. From its creation of a photorealistic 3D digital cast member (how many moviegoers will fail to realise that the head of the younger Jeff Bridges is fully digital?) to characters dressed in fetishistic moulded costumes created by digital sculpture technology, it's a film which drips futurism. In short, this is our kinda movie.
In at the geek end
Given the cutting edge nature of the production, from creating a digital Jeff Bridges to reinventing the hardware of the grid, Tron Legacy is probably not the kind of project that you'd expect to give to a novice director. But that's exactly what the Disney Studio executives did.
But then Joe Kosinski does come to bat with some excellent tech credentials. Although new to feature-length motion pictures, Kosinski has an impressive track record of FX heavy commercial work behind him. He helmed the Xbox 360 promo for Gears of War (involving a hugely cinematic sequence involving a mo-cap soldier and gigantic monster, all set to Gary Jules' Mad World), as well as creating the Halo 3 'Starry Night' ad and Nike's futuristic Les Jumelles. Kosinski, it seems, was always destined to visit the Grid.
"I knew I had to be ambitious with this movie," the director told Tech Radar when we caught up with him at the London Tron Legacy premiere. "The first movie pushed the envelope in so many ways, and if nothing else I wanted to really go for it, in both the visual style and the technology we were using."
Improving on James Cameron's 3D
The end result is a breathless mix of live action and photo realistic animation, which embraces every type of hi-tech movie making discipline: blue screen, motion capture and 3D. So did the director invent anything new in the process?
"You know, I think we did," he tells us. "We improved, or evolved, the Fusion 3D camera system James Cameron developed for Avatar, as well as developing newer lenses, and we also invented a new type of costume in the shape of the Tron Lightsuits."
Kosinski says that he wanted the suits worn by the denizens of the Grid to be real rather than CG. "It was very complicated to get the batteries, electroluminescent lights, the inverters and the remote controls built into these suits - but they were definitely a huge innovation."
Give us a CLU
Perhaps Tron Legacy's biggest tech achievement is the creation of CLU, a digital recreation of the young Jeff Bridges. Left to rule the Tron universe since the first movie, CLU is first photorealistic 3D digital character based on living actor in film history.
"That was probably the most ambitious thing we attempted," concedes the director. "Creating a digital human is the hardest thing you can do in visual effects."
CLU represents an evolution of the aging technology first used on (The curious case of) Benjamin Button. Kosinski says that he never doubted that his VFX artists could pull it off. Having worked as part of the Benjamin Button visual effects team, he was always confident that it was possible to create a convincing digital character.
For CLU, Jeff Bridges donned an innovative helmet mounted camera system (HMC) able to track 52 facial markers. A 3D scan of Bridges' face with corresponding points, augmented by photographs taken of the actor when he was in his thirties, reflected every nuance of his performance, bringing to life the younger Bridges in the digital domain.
The big breakthrough, says Kosinski, was that Bridges could wear the HMC (Helmet Mounted Camera) on set, interacting with others in each scene.
"That was the big improvement we made (over Benjamin Button)," says Kosinski. "Previously, it would have to been done after the fact, in another setting. It was really exciting to see Jeff playing CLU on set with Michael Sheen. When I saw that all coming together, I got pretty excited."
The look of Tron legacy
Production designer Darren Gilford says the idea was always for Tron Legacy to stay true to the spirit of the original movie. "The first film had an iconic look which was basically created by a limitation of what they could do with computers in the Eighties.
It was very geometric, very simplistic. With the technology we have now, it's limitless what we can do." But rather than change the Atari aesthetic of the original, Gilford and his team simply softened some of the shapes.
"We definitely tried to maintain those basic Tron geometric shapes," he says.
On your bike
Futuristic vehicles have long been a key part of the Tron mythology - and none are more iconic than the Lightcycles. The vehicles return for the sequel, of course, only this time the bikes have been pimped and their manoeuvring skills have been improved.
One highlight of the film features a duel between ten Lightcycles on a multi-level grid. With dazzling high-speed choreography it's a challenge to keep up with the action, made all the more spellbinding by the film's 3D presentation.
The man charged with evolving these wheels is Daniel Simon, who joined the Tron Legacy team in 2008. "I was working on my on car designs, doing some work for Bugati in Berlin, when I received an email from director Joe Kosinski," he tells Tech Radar when we catch up with him on the London Junket. "I thought: how the hell did he find my email address?"
Simon says that the key to the designing fantasy tech like the Lightcycles is to keep them grounded in reality. "You can't go crazy because then it becomes too surreal. If you look back at the first movie, that's what happened," he says.
"Tron was so ahead of its time, so quirky and surreal, that many people could not connect to it. Sure it foresaw the future, the internet and everything, but we wanted to create a piece of mainstream entertainment with Legacy. We had a lot of crazy ideas, but we ditched many of them to be more realistic."
Simon adds that he pushed new vehicle concepts as far "as I could, then snapped back and found ground somewhere in the middle. It doesn't make sense to create the weirdest looking hyper bikes, that are half virtual and half floating because then people cannot relate to them.
Right now, little boys dream of a lightcycle because they can see themselves thundering off on one after school."
"It's kind of dangerous to be too visionary," he adds. "If it's too hardcore, the technology takes away from the spirit and the action. So we are a little bit more lightweight on this one. However, we think the designs will stand the test of time. We hope people don't look back and say, that movie was soooo 2010."
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LG goes slimline with E90 monitor
LG has unveiled its new E90 monitor, the slimmest LED monitor it's yet put out, with a depth of just 7.2mm.With a response time of 2ms, it's made to watch fast-paced action movies, and the Image Booster software LG has developed enhances streaming content from sites such as YouTube to give a clear, bright picture on the screen.
Si-hwan Park, Vice President of LG's monitor division, said: "The E90 is the result of advanced technology and beautiful design coming together in perfect alignment.
"With its revolutionary features in terms of design and picture quality, the E90 is the leading example of the company's Super LED monitor line that is setting new benchmarks for style and performance."
Reduced Energy Consumption
The E90 has reduced the amount of hazardous materials like mercury and halogen in its construction, and also has up to 40 per cent lower power consumption than standard CCFL-backlit LCD monitors.
LG's EZ-cabling has the power supply and connecting socket out of the way at the back for a cleaner design.
The LG E90 has a UK release date of before Christmas, prior to it being an Honoree product in the computer peripherals category at the 2011 CES Innovations Awards.
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Review: HIS Radeon HD 6870 Turbo
From the outside, there isn't a lot to distinguish the HIS Radeon HD 6870 Turbo from a reference model of the HD 6870. There's a new heatsink slapped over the top of the enormous double slot card which, like all HD 6870s, requires two extra power connectors and will take up any spare room you have in your case.
Other than that, though, it has the same five outputs which – excitingly, for fans of the third dimension – includes support for technologies such as Blu-ray 3D via HDMI 1.4.
The Turbo suffix signifies, of course, that this is a factory-overclocked version of the HD 6870.
For the moderate price increase of around £10 over, say, the stock-clocked Sapphire HD 6870, there's a correspondingly moderate acceleration of the core clock speed from 900MHz to 920MHz with another 50MHz tacked onto the memory speed for luck.
With a card as big and complex as the HD 6870 is, can such a relatively small change make much of a difference?
While we tested the cards below at a variety of resolutions and image quality settings, the most overwhelmingly important scores are at the default resolution for most monitors, 1920 x 1080 with 4xAA. These are shown below, except for in the Heaven 2.2 benchmark, which was run without anti-aliasing in this instance.
DiRT 2
HIS HD 6870 Turbo: 95.03fps
Radeon HD 6870 (stock): 92.54fps
Asus EAH 6870 OC: 92.33fps
Sapphire HD 6850 Toxic: 86.25fps
Far Cry 2
HIS HD 6870 Turbo: 84.9fps
Radeon HD 6870 (stock): 82.52fps
Asus EAH 6870 OC: 83.13fps
Sapphire HD 6850 Toxic: 75.27fps
Heaven 2.1
HIS HD 6870 Turbo: 56.5fps
Radeon HD 6870 (stock): 53.3fps
Asus EAH 6870 OC: 54.7fps
Sapphire HD 6850 TOXIC: 50.8fps
Just Cause 2
HIS HD 6870 Turbo: 50.56fps
Radeon HD 6870 (stock): 48.68fps
Asus EAH 6870 OC: 49.14fps
Sapphire HD 6850 TOXIC: 45.27fps
When AMD's Radeon HD 6870 landed back in August, we weren't overly impressed with its performance for the price.
Sandwiched between Nvidia's extraordinarily wallet-friendly GTX 460 cards and its more powerful predecessor, the HD 5870, our advice was to ignore the relatively minor changes in the core architecture that the HD 6870 introduced over older cards and hang on to see what the new Cayman GPU brings later in 2011.
That advice doesn't change.
If you thought a clock speed increase of just over two per cent wouldn't make much difference to a card which already appears more limited by a reduction in the number of processing cores and texture units over the previous generation than by hertz alone, you'd be right.
At the resolutions we'd expect it to be used at – 1920 x 1080 with 4xAA – the difference is minimal.
The new heatsink is quiet and allowed us to overclock as far as 950MHz, but if you really want to manually tweak things further you'll be looking for something like the Asus HD 6870 OC edition, which offers much more control over BIOS voltages.
The real problem, though, is that since the launch of the HD6870, prices for everything have dropped through the floor.
Both the Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 and the Radeon HD 5870 are faster chips than any amount of overclocking will make the HD 6870, and they can both be found for less than £200.
If you must upgrade now, grab one of those. Otherwise save your pennies and see what Cayman brings at marginally higher price points instead.
We liked
A small overclock to the core speed and the support for HDMI 1.4 and 3D goodness, plus a decent amount of headroom for pushing the card further.
We disliked
Not enough of a default tweak to make much difference at the kinds of resolutions you'll use it with. The biggest problem, however, is that falling prices of Nvidia GTX 470s and Radeon HD5870s mean you can get an awful lot more performance for substantially less cash.
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Facebook Hacker Cup announced
Facebook has announced the arrival of the Facebook 2011 Hacker Cup, which calls on those with a hacking brain to come and try and improve the website for cold, hard cash.The Hacker Cup is a worldwide contest that begins in January and is focused on bringing the next big product to Facebook.
According to the social-networking site, the 2011 Facebook Hacker Cup is "the first annual Facebook programming contest where hackers compete against each other for fame, fortune, glory and a shot at the coveted Hacker Cup."
Algorithm of the night
If you look beyond the hyperbole, the reality sounds a little like a school test. But if successfully solving algorithmic-based problem statements sounds like your bag, then there's prize money at stake.
Registration opens 20 December, with a qualification round beginning 7 January.
If you are successful, then the top 25 hackers will get flown to Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California, with a chance of winning $5,000.
Facebook isn't the only one trying to enlist legit hackers. This week Reevoo begins its hack week.
This involves dozen or more devs locked in a room for a week, in a bid to create something that is world changing.
They're calling it a 'band camp for geeks'. We've all seen American Pie, so we know what that entails, then.
If they can put the flutes down for a minute, then there may well be a website created - www.justbuythisone.com and http://spacelog.org/ both came from these meetups.
For more information on the Facebook Hacker Cup, go to Facebook.com/hackercup. For information on Reevoo's shenanigans, head to devfort.com.
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Review: Sennheiser PC 330 G4ME
Not too long ago, we took a look at Sennheiser's rather impressive PC 333D G4ME headset, which we rather liked. Designed – as the l33t moniker suggests – for playing around in WoW, CODBLOPS or Plants vs Zombies without the speakers on, they're an impressive bit of kit.That's important, because the PC 330 G4ME we're looking at here is exactly the same headset minus the USB soundcard that comes with the PC 333D.
This means that the PC 330 G4ME combines a top notch set of speakers with an excellent noise cancelling microphone.
The cans are capable of a massive dynamic range of 14Hz to 22kHz and, what's more, there are some clever extras designed around LAN partying: lifting the mic out of the way mutes it and the volume dial is built into the left hand speaker, so there's no fiddling with in-line controls when you're trying to get a shot off.
Best of all, either earpiece can be swung out of the way so you can talk to team-mates if they're in the same room, but when back in place you're completely shut off from outside distractions.
Compared to some of Sennheiser's other gaming headsets – and we're thinking of the PC 350s here – the build quality feels a little cheaper than you might expect for the cost. Logitech's G35s, for example, or Creative's cheaper Tactic 3D Alpha feel better built.
The sound quality from the PC 330s, though, is exceptional for such small, lightweight kit. Balanced towards rich – but not overly heavy – bass tones, they're crisp and powerful throughout the range. Whether your penchant is for the medieval cities of Assassin's Creed or the medieval sounds of a Gregorian chant, the PC 330s are hard to fault for sound reproduction.
There's always going to be an element of subjectivity, but the bass balance in particular might draw you to them over the higher spec PC 350s, for example.
What puts us off is – unsurprisingly – the same issue we had with the PC 333Ds. The supra-aural ear cuffs sit on top of the ears rather than around them, and a combination of tight headband and leatherette pads makes them hard to wear for any length of time. Like, more than five minutes.
Maybe gamers have smaller than average heads, or the PC 330s appear to have been designed with children and gamers of the female persuasion in mind. No bad thing, but if you have a man-sized mantle, get something else.
We liked
The lightweight design isn't as instantly appealing as the serious PC 350s, but it's full of clever features designed around what gamers actually do. A rich, rounded sound quality with a wide soundstage makes them better than most sub-£100 headsets too.
We disliked
There's one big flaw in the design: the tightly sprung head clamp and supra-aura cuffs made our ears literally throb after five minutes of wearing them. The last thing you want after a six-hour raid is ears that are too tender to touch.
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Opinion: Is 2011 the year for affordable OLED?
This month, I was planning to bring you an uplifting story of hope and promise. Recently, I've been giving the microscope-and-tweezers treatment to a wide range of the latest LCD monitors. Thus, the theme of my column was to be the improvement of that most ubiquitous of panel technologies: twisted nematic, or TN for short.
Then something unexpected happened that threatened to make the finer points of TN technology thoroughly moot. For the moment, though, stick with me on the tale of TN tech.
Currently, TN panels dominate the more affordable end of the monitor market. Nearly every monitor selling for sub £300 is powered by a TN panel. Historically, that hasn't been a good thing.
TN technology exists for a simple reason: to be the most affordable full-colour active-matrix LCD technology. Consequently, TN panels aren't exactly renowned for world-beating visual fidelity. Poor viewing angles, contrast and colour accuracy are just some of their shortcomings compared to more expensive VA and IPS panels.
As for the root of their visual deformities, the problem involves the liquid crystals themselves. In an IPS panel, the liquid crystals are free to rotate fully about their axes, but the crystals in a TN screen can only be bent or twisted at one end – the other is effectively fixed.
Making matters worse, the default position for a TN crystal allows light to pass through. Put those two factors together and you have a panel technology that tends to allow too much light to leak though overall, and has poor detail control of colours.
Nevertheless, the latest TN screens are significantly more vibrant, and offer much better contrast and viewing angles. In fact, at a glance, the likes of Samsung's new PX2370 could be mistaken for the IPS panels of a few years ago. Closer inspection still betrays the origins of even the best TN screens, but the industry is definitely moving in the right direction.
LED backlights
It's not just advances in panel technology that are boosting the quality of TN monitors. The rapid adoption of LED backlights is helping, as well. These backlights are more efficient and produce purer, cleaner light than traditional CCFL technology, and that means more vibrant colours and wider gamuts.
As for the unexpected part of this story, it takes the form of a new monitor I received recently from BenQ. The EW2420 is a 24-incher with a full HD 1,920 x 1,080 pixel grid. It's yours for under £160.
With that information alone, you would normally conclude that it's a TN monitor, but one that still represents excellent value for money. If I then told you it has an LED backlight, you'd elevate the EW2420's status to truly bargainous. But get this: it has a vertical alignment panel.
Admittedly, it's not the finest VA panel the world has ever seen, but in terms of colours, contrast, black levels and viewing angles, it blows away any TN screen. Quite how BenQ has managed to bring the LED plus VA panel combination to market for a price that undercuts many TN monitors, I haven't a clue.
The last time I saw a VA monitor with an LED backlight, it cost £2,500. Actually, BenQ is being a bit naughty in describing the EW2420 as the first monitor to combine the two technologies – there's a 30-inch Samsung that's been on my desk for nearly two years that would claim otherwise – but I'll forgive BenQ for overreaching in its marketing bumf on this occasion. The EW2420 goes straight in at the top of the budget monitor list.
Of course, what I'm now wondering now is whether this panel is a one-off or the start of a new trend. I'm very much hoping it's the latter, but funnily enough, even if it isn't, it may not matter in a few years' time.
Still flawed
While VA panels are clearly superior to TN, they're still constrained by the inherent flaws of all LCD technology. The ultimate end game for flat panel screens is therefore some kind of technology that does away with backlights and the problems they bring.
That technology is looking very much like OLED. It's been a long time coming, but OLED is finally making its way into products you can buy.
For now, it's expensive and suffers from relatively severe degradation issues. It's therefore limited to small screens in devices that tend to spend most of their lives in standby mode, such as smartphones.
But with monitor giants such as Samsung and Sony betting big on OLED, it's only a matter of time before those problems are licked. Never mind the poor viewing angles on TN panels – however you look at the future, it's looking bright for screen buyers on a budget.
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Review: Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 Toxic
The vanilla Radeon HD 6850 was the more relevant of the two latest AMD cards, but can Sapphire's HD 6850 Toxic edition make it exciting too?There's one thing you can't criticise Sapphire's Toxic series of overclocked graphics cards for: they never look dull. Each new variant features a visually (and thermally) different heatsink. From the three fanned enormity of the HD 5970 Toxic to the matt black angular edges of this HD 6850 Toxic, they're rarely the same twice.
Not only does the HD 6850 Toxic look classier than most graphics cards, it sounds a lot better too, in that it's almost silent. The GPU is clocked at 820MHz, which represents a healthy 45MHz more than the reference design – and yet cooling is noiseless, and there's plenty of headroom to push the card harder if you wish.
It's not just a fancy heatsink which makes the package attractive either. There's an extra power connector on the HD 6850 Toxic for supporting higher overclocks than you'd get out of a reference card, and the downloadable Sapphire TriXX application gives you access to voltage settings for pouring more juice into the silicon too.
At only £20 more than the cheapest current stock HD 6850, the Toxic isn't extortionately priced either, but there are GeForce GTX 460s and even the odd HD 5850 available for less. Being able to clear those two performance peaks is going to be one hell of a challenge.
The improvement that the HD6850 Toxic offers over a stock HD 6850 is enough to justify the overclock, and while it doesn't quite make it competitive with the better equipped HD 6870 card, it does make it a viable alternative to some of the other rivals out there.
DiRT 2
Sapphire HD 6850 Toxic: 86.25fps
Radeon HD 6850: 81.5fps
Radeon HD 6870: 92.54fps
Far Cry 2
Sapphire HD 6850 Toxic: 75.27fps
Radeon HD 6850: 71.54fps
Radeon HD 6870: 82.52fps
Heaven 2.1
Sapphire HD 6850 Toxic: 50.8fps
Radeon HD 6850: 47.6fps
Radeon HD 6870: 54.7fps
Just Cause 2
Sapphire HD 6850 Toxic: 45.27fps
Radeon HD 6850: 42.7fps
Radeon HD 6870: 48.68fps
Clearly, based on these results, the HD 6850 performance scales much better than the Radeon HD 6870. That card is also based on AMD's Barts architecture, which sits in the HD 6850, but it has a full working die where the HD 6850 has one processor cluster switched off.
An overclocked HD 6870, such as the HIS HD 6870 Turbo edition, isn't noticeably faster than a stock model, but the five per cent increase to the speed of a basic HD 6850 that Sapphire offers us here translates to at least the same sort of performance increase – and often more – in games at 1920 x 1080 resolutions.
That's rarely the difference between playable and unplayable, since no £170 card is struggling at that resolution these days, but it does make it almost comparable to the higher spec HD 6870, and raises it (just) clear of the 1GB version of a GeForce GTX 460.
If you want to push it even further, the Sapphire TriXX application for tuning clockspeeds and voltages is a likable and simple app that will let you get even more performance out of the HD 6850 Toxic.
Experienced overclockers will find it wanting, though, because the range of timings it opens up are limited and there's no panel for keeping track of on-board temperatures while you move clock speeds around.
Getting the board running stably at 850MHz was effortless, though.
It's not, however, the fastest card available for the price. Similarly overclocked GTX 460s are available for less, as is the Radeon HD 5850, which is more capable at higher resolutions.
It's a card we'd recommend if you want to tune it further than the factory settings and really customise your rig yourself, because the extra power connector gives you a lot of options to play with. For most other people, though, we'd be obliged to point you in the direction of cheaper cards that are faster out of the box instead.
We liked
The extra clockspeed translates directly into more frames per second, and the customised heatsink is quiet and good looking. Sapphire's overclocking app gives you plenty of control for getting even more out of the card, too.
We disliked
It still doesn't feel right recommending any HD 6850 variant without the usual price caveats. It's a good card, but the GTX 460 and HD 5850 would be the logical choices with this much to spend.
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Apple finally gives jailbroken iPhones green light?
Apple might have given in and decided to allow jailbreaking of iPhones after a key API was removed in iOS 4.2.This means that Apple can no longer check to see if you've got a 'good' or 'naughty' phone – this comes after the US government earlier said that jailbreaking an iPhone was entirely legal.
Whether this was disabled or removed completely has yet to be confirmed by Apple – it could simply be a temporary measure before a minor update rebuilds the garden walls.
The workers will run riot!
Network World is pointing out the problems this could cause to IT managers – the jailbreak detection tool was a useful way of finding out if OS files had been corrupted by outside security threats, so it will be interesting to see how Apple responds.
Of course, it does open your phone up to security flaws, erratic battery life and errors – but that's all part of the fun, right?
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Review: Sony Bravia KDL40LX903
Sony's 3D capable, edge LED-backlit KDL-40LX903 is, at £2,000, a high-end set by any reckoning.The set carries some high expectations: the emitter that syncs with the supplied active shutter glasses is built in and you wont find a more engaging or higher quality 2D telly.
The 40LX903 includes a Freeview HD tuner, which ought to be standard issue at this high-end level of the market, but there are some notable exceptions, so it's good to see it here.
Of just as much interest, arguably, are the 40LX903's widgets for Sony's Bravia Internet Video platform. Supported by a Wi-Fi module built into the TV, this streaming suite includes the likes of BBC iPlayer, Facebook, YouTube and the debut of phase one of Sony's own 'Video on Demand powered by Qriocity' application.
Dealing solely with movies for now, Qriocity will soon expand into a cross-platform content service for Sony's family of gadgets, with movies, music, games, comics and even ebooks available on the PSP, PS3, and Bravia TVs and Blu-ray players. For now, Lovefilm lurks alongside Qriocity on the 40LX903 – and its far larger catalogue of movies and £9.99 monthly fee appear much more attractive.
Less exciting, but more important for core duties, is picture processing. MotionFlow 200Hz ought to reduce the amount of blur in fast-moving sequences, though its real worth will be for 3D; are LCD panels really quick enough, or will blur and crosstalk dominate?
The GigaContrast feature should be self-explanatory, while an Intelligent Presence Sensor is styled as an eco-friendly slab of tech that senses ambient light levels and reduces the amount of energy being guzzled by the panel.
Elsewhere in Sony's 'Signature' range is a 60-inch version, the brand's current flagship TV. Whether the 40LX903 can follow suit could depend upon its far smaller screen; for complete immersion in a 3D game or movie, size is a massive factor.
On price, this TV's biggest competitor is the step-down KDL-40HX803, which sells for a startling £700 less – although you will have to live with a rather messy separate IR emitter for 3D duties.
Sony's 'Monolithic' design boils down to a gloss black shell that is not substantially different to other manufacturers' efforts and veers towards austerity and seriousness, rather than breathtaking beauty.
The lipped rear panel includes fewer connections than you might expect; a lone RGB Scart sits alongside a brace of HDMIs, optical digital audio, Ethernet, and an RF aerial input. That's a scant return, though the design does mean that if you do hang the 40LX903 on a wall, you won't be able to switch and ditch cables quite so easily as on most TVs – which is why Sony has fitted almost a full set of connections on a panel hidden just around the left-hand side of the screen.
There are two more HDMIs (taking the total count to a respectable four), inputs for PC video (VGA) and PC audio, a Common Interface slot (for adding subscription TV channels to Freeview via a viewing card), a USB slot, a set of component video inputs and some analogue audio video jacks.
Two pairs of 3D glasses are included with the 40LX903, which is more generous than some, but arguably still too few in light of the cost – £99.01 each, to be precise – of extra pairs, the absence of compatibility between rival brands' 3D kit and the telly's already enormous tag.
Elsewhere, it's nice to see DLNA networking included here as well as a media-savvy USB slot – though file support is limited.
Sony seems to have realised it could use its digital content clout and has put together surely the finest collection of streaming options on its burgeoning Bravia Internet Video platform.
The depth in the opening street scenes of Monster House on Blu-ray is fantastic, though immediately there's a problem; falling autumn leaves are lifted from the background, for sure, but fall too fast for the panel. The 3D effect is accompanied by disorientating flicker and double images of each leaf.
Aside from causing a slight flicker to the picture at all times, the shutter glasses remove a chunk of brightness (though not nearly as much as a 3D plasma) and add a slight green tinge to images.
Brightness might be the first casualty of the glasses, but they do appear to add some extra perceived contrast.
Some crosstalk (a slight echo of each left and right image to either side of a 3D object) is also discernible, particularly so with a PlayStation3. On WipEout HD there's plenty of depth effects and backgrounds are deep, detailed and impressively smooth as they whizz by.
The craft itself however, proves to be a vessel for a noticeable amount of crosstalk. It's not that the 3D image is destroyed, but you won't be able to miss an echo of the craft on each side (although if you're lucky, you may only see one echo). It's fainter than the actual craft itself, but not by much.
Does it hamper the 3D effect completely? Not quite, but it's a problem that only affects LCD TVs, LED-backlit or not, thereby ceding a significant advantage to plasma where 3D is concerned.
WipEout HD's in-game graphics plonk the positional indicator, lap counter and timer as fixed 2D elements at the front of the screen, which helps add an immediate sense of depth.
Gran Turismo 5 doesn't play in 3D unless you go into 'options', 'hardware', then '3DTV', and turn 3DTV mode on. Why it doesn't activate automatically is anyone's guess. It adds depth, but it's a mild effect that adds surprisingly little to the enjoyment of the game. Choose to play in 3D and the quality goes down to 720p, which does create the odd jagged edge, though there's an almost constant slight jerkiness to the picture.
Without the 3D glasses, the 40LX903's 2D image is first rate. Best of all, it is imbued with excellent contrast. Loads of shadow details are apparent in a 2D Blu-ray test disc of 2012, though the LEDs in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen on our review sample were noticeably brighter than the others. This kind of light leakage is noticeable on most Edge LED-lit LCD TVs, but that doesn't excuse it.
There's an extraordinary colour range on show in 2012 as Los Angeles collapses, with hundreds of elements each treated to varying hues and pin-sharp saturations.
The effect of the MotionFlow 200Hz feature is a more fluid image that's not blighted by any serious amount of blur or loss of resolution. Used on its highest setting 2012 looks even more laden with special effects than it really is, though it's worth experimenting with, since it does lose the judder from Blu-ray discs that some find irritating.
More enticing is the 40LX903's reasonable efforts at upscaling standard-definition sources; DVDs in particular, and most Freeview channels, are highly watchable.
Sound
The one area that drags down the marks of almost every flatscreen TV is speakers, and the 40LX903 is no different.
Low on low frequency and high on disappointment, the stereo speakers here are flat in every sense of the word. Par for the course, but on a £2,000 TV you really should be hearing something more than a fake surround preset that throws sound to the edges.
Value
Considering the 40LX903's talents and that its bigger brother is extortionately priced, the choice is effectively between this and the slightly cheaper – and bigger – Panasonic VT20. The latter's online functions are limited in comparison, though both its 2D and 3D image quality is superior.
And if the Panasonic is too rich for your taste, consider the Samsung PS50C6900, which is under a grand, full HD and 10-inches bigger than this Sony. All of which leaves the 40LX903 some way behind its competitors on pure value for money.
Ease of use
The 40LX903 is operated by Xross Media Bar – the user interface that first appeared on the PlayStation3 and now dominates almost all of Sony's gadgets.
Lined-up on the map-like 'XMB' are icons for streaming services such as its all-new (though slightly awkwardly named) Video on Demand powered by Qriocity, BBC iPlayer, Demand Five, Lovefilm, Sony Entertainment Television, the FIFA World Cup Collection and Eurosport.
Sadly, the FIFA World Cup widget is about to disappear – as we suspected, it was merely a stunt put together for the 2010 tournament. That's a shame, because it's a stunning collection of archived competition footage that's not available to stream from anywhere else, to our knowledge.
Other widgets are included that are in essence tailor-made TV interfaces for popular websites, such as Facebook and Flickr, with everything split into music, video and photo branches on the XMB; logical, easy to use and beautifully designed.
Tuned-in digital TV channels and other sources pop-up on XMB, too, which give an integrated feel to the 40LX903 that most TVs struggle to match.
As Sony's 40LX903 proves once again, LED tech lags – literally – behind plasma technology when it comes to 3D duties, but there's plenty to like.
We liked
BBC iPlayer is probably the highlight of a vast array of online content – and it's presented brilliantly as part of a user interface that's second only to those found on LG's TVs. The 2D image is stunning with colour and contrast impressing and SD is upscaled well, while USB file support is comprehensive.
We disliked
Awfully expensive – and sometimes just plain awful – the 40LX903 struggles to convince with 3D imagery. That's a real shame because in almost all other areas (the exceptions being the standard issue flat weedy speakers, some networking niggles and a tiny issue with light leakage) it's almost impossible to fault.
Final verdict
With better options elsewhere that cost less, there's no obvious reason to buy the 40LX903 if you're after a 3DTV.
That's a shame, given its stunning package of features, but unless you're addicted to BBC iPlayer, YouTube (the 40LX903 is the finest example of a 'connected' TV we've seen so far) or the Sony Bravia brand, you'll find far better value elsewhere.
There's no doubt that 3D's day will come, but on this evidence it might be worth skipping a couple of generations.
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Review: Championship Manager 2011 on iPhone
Championship Manager 2011 boasts all the football leagues of England, Scotland, Spain, France and Italy, although for licensing reasons, not everything looks as it should in the English Premier League. While the game is easy to pick up thanks to a well-designed interface, there's a lot of management to be done if you dig deep enough.
On a basic level you'll need to read email alerts, accept or decline bids for your players, decide on your squad and choose formations for the matches themselves. And it's perfectly possible to breeze through a season doing just this – you won't get promoted, but you can enjoy a casual experience.
To really enjoy the game, you have to get a little more involved. Consult your coach and decide on training regimes, rest injured players, have one-to-ones with individual players, select tactics – you can even emulate the playing style of a classic European team from the past.
Press conferences are also great fun, as you choose which journalist to speak to and attempt to answer questions in ways that will please them and the fanbase.
Matches are played out on a top-down representation of the pitch, with stats rising and falling followed by animated highlights featuring little dots for players. It's functional, but we need a little more atmosphere frankly.
Oddly, there's no sound in any part of the game whatsoever. Still, this is the best of its type on the iPhone.
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Motorola Android 3.0 tablet specs leaked
The forthcoming Motorola Honeycomb tablet (you know, the one Andy Rubin showed off last week) has been detailed in pics and this time with possible specs from a forum poster.The first Android 3.0 tablet was rumoured to be packed with some of the best tech available at the moment, and with a Nvidia Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core processor, it seems it just might be.
The tablet will come in both 7-inch and 10-inch variants, with 32GB of internal storage, a 5MP camera on the back (2MP on the front) and 512MB of RAM.
De-rezzed
The display will apparently be 1280 x 800 resolution, but whether that remains for both sizes is unclear.
Another forum has managed to nab some screenshots with the device it's calling 'pretty light' - this is one of the first times we've seen Android 3.0/Honeycomb up close and personal.
OK, they're pretty poor, but they've been removed from the post and only a quick strip-out from Engadget has saved them for all to see.
It seems we've finally got a tablet-friendly Android OS with Honeycomb - we bet Samsung Galaxy Tab owners can't wait for the update.
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Review: The Good Pub Guide 2011
Knowing what a pub's like can be tricky – sometimes the best places are hidden in back streets or have a shabby exterior that doesn't do justice to the great pies. So an app that will find good pubs around you is a wonderful tool. Using a colour-coded system (which is a tad baffling at first: red for recommended pubs, yellow for reader recommendations and blue for others) the app lists the pubs closest to your current location.
Red-coded ones have a review of atmosphere, ales and food, plus details of live music and the like. If you're after something in particular – be that award-winning wines or child-friendly watering holes – filter your results accordingly.
You can search by location, and we liked the facility to find pubs close to Tube stations. There's also a map view, which colour-codes the location markers, but this only shows the pubs in your search results. We can see why this was done, but we'd have liked to be able to browse further afield.
Its doesn't list every pub in the country, but we're told the next version will add 10,000 pubs to the existing 25,000, as well as the ability to leave your own reviews. It's also not always as quick and responsive as we'd have liked.
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Android Market gets radical UI overhaul
The new and improved Android Market has arrived, in the form of a ripped APK (Android package) released onto the web.Website Android Police has managed to load the new Market on to a number of its handsets and has uploaded some images of the UI.
The biggest change is in the look of the interface. Google definitely likes the colour green at the moment, with a green curve taking up most of the screen.
This curve now houses a carousel, which means the tabs of old have completely disappeared.
Unfortunately it seems that most of the changes are just cosmetic. There's no discovery engine to find new apps, merely a related apps list at the bottom of each app.
It would have been nice if Android introduced something like AppsFire – which looks at the apps you already have and recommends other applications to you.
There is a 15-minute preview feature which is much welcomed, though. This allows you to preview an app and get a refund if it turns out to be a pile of pants.
There's also two new categories: Widgets and Live Wallpapers.
Google said about the new Android Market: "With this release, we aimed to deliver features that are most requested by users and developers.
"However, we're not done yet. We plan to continue to rapidly enhance Android Market for both users and developers and make it the best content distribution service for the Android ecosystem."
An image makeover it may be, but it does seem that Android Market is now a much slicker beast and will be available to all when it lands in the UK in two weeks.
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In Depth: 10 tech trends to watch in 2011
It's not here yet, but 2011 is already shaping up to be an interesting year for tech. The long-awaited Chrome OS will say hello and many of the tablets we were promised in 2010 will actually turn up; smartphones will get smarter and Facebook and Google will no doubt do something sinister or annoying.
But what are the key trends to watch in 2011? The following 10 trends, we think, will be a really big deal.
1. 3D
The jury's still out on whether 3D is going to be a lasting part of our lives, but it's going to be coming at us like props in a gimmicky 3D movie throughout 2011. Sky's pushing its pricey 3D into our homes, 3D Blu-Ray players will fall in price as the number of 3D titles explodes, Nintendo's 3DS will be in the shops and stacks of movies will be released in 3D for no good reason.
HTC reckons it has the first 3D mobile phone and even Apple's getting in on the act: it's patented an auto-stereoscopic display that could deliver glasses-free 3D on devices such as iPods, iPhones and iPads.
2. Android Tablets, Apple rivals and iPad 2
2011 is when we'll see battles between big-name tablets such as the BlackBerry PlayBook and Apple's iPad 2. The big news, though, will be the rise of Android tablets. The forthcoming Android 2.3 and Android 3.0 releases are significantly more tablet-friendly than Froyo, and Intel's Tablet-focused Oak Trail processors will go into full production early next year.
We expect them to spark an explosion in Google-powered tablet PCs - ones that actually ship this time, unlike the many tablets firms showed off but didn't ship this year. Mark our words: 2011 is going to be tablet-tastic.
3. Cloud storage and streaming
We'll find out whether Google's cloud-based Chrome OS is a credible Windows or Mac alternative when it ships early next year, but even if it's a dud the cloud will become an increasingly important part of our everyday activities.
That's partly because we're doing more of our computing on the move, and partly because even at home we're jumping from device to device: smartphone to tablet to console to desktop to laptop… you get the idea. Phones and tablets don't have the storage capacity for all our stuff, so it makes sense for them to access cloud-based storage instead.
There's another part to this: streaming. Our networks are fast enough and compression technology good enough for on-demand music and movies, so for example Netflix in the US is planning to a launch a streaming-only video service while the UK has long embraced streaming in the form of iPlayer.
Since Apple bought streaming music service LaLa.com earlier this year, a streaming version of iTunes looks increasingly likely too.
4. Location-based services
In 2010 location-based services were in their infancy, but in 2011 they're going to get serious. Imagine Google Maps chucking discounts at you when you plan a route or pass a participating retailer, and we'd expect Facebook to really start pushing its new Deals service, which combines the FourSquare-a-like Places with a Groupon-esque voucher scheme.
Location isn't just about bugging you to buy things, though. Nokia Situations promises to combine location awareness with a few rules so your phone adjusts itself to where you are and what you're doing, so for example it might turn the ringer off if you're in the park with your kids. Locale does much the same thing on Android devices.
5. Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality will continue to move from gimmick to everyday technology in 2011, whether it's car firms projecting data onto windscreens, more refined versions of apps such as Yell.com's augmented reality directory or TIE fighters attacking New York.
The latest generation of Google Earth shows just how blurry the line between the real and virtual worlds is becoming.
HEAD UP: Augmented reality isn't just a phone thing. Cars' head-up displays use augmented reality too
6. Stunning Tablet screens
We've been promised OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screens in tablets all year, but they've remained mobile-only for one simple reason: huge demand for mobile phone-sized OLEDs. Bigger screens should turn up in 2011's tablets, offering more vibrant displays, better battery life and thinner form factors. Apple, meanwhile, is widely expected to bring its Retina Display to the iPad.
7. Mobile capacity problems
In 2011, all our smartphones, streaming apps and 3G-toting Tablets will connect effortlessly to mobile networks that deliver super-fast, super-smooth, high-speed internet access.
Only kidding! It's going to suck!
It looks like we'll have a choice between costly access or congested access. As John Levett of Jupiter Research explains: "2010 was the year in which the surge in mobile data traffic, driven by the consumer smartphone boom, began to place the 3G networks under severe strain. A number of network operators have responded by introducing tiered data pricing - a trend which will undoubtedly increase - but as smartphone adoption continues apace, network capacity will be sorely tested in 2011."
8. Mobile tickets and payments
Why carry lots of paper around with you when your phone can be everything from a Tesco Clubcard to an airline boarding pass? Next up: phones that can be Oyster Cards or even credit cards.
ALL IN ONE: Why stuff your wallet full of stuff when your phone can be a boarding pass, a train ticket or a credit card?
9. E-Ink
If Amazon doesn't sell an enormous number of e-ink devices this Christmas, we'll eat a Kindle - but the iPod of books isn't the only place you'll see electronic ink in 2011. HTC is experimenting with a whole mix of display technologies including E-ink for its devices, while the first colour E-ink device went on sale in China last month.
Combine colour e-ink with Sony's touch-controlled e-readers and you've got something very exciting indeed.
10. Apps, not applications
By the end of 2011, it'll feel like the only firm who doesn't have an app store is Dyno-Rod. In addition to the various mobile device app stores, Apple is preparing a Mac one: if it takes off, which we think it will, then an app store in Windows 8 is a given.
What's interesting about apps is that they represent a different way of acquiring software: instead of buying an expensive enormo-suite every few years, the App Store model is more about impulse buying and fragmentation, where you end up buying lots of ultra-cheap apps that do one or two things particularly well.
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Review: Sony Bravia KDL37EX403
The appeal of the Sony Bravia KDL-37EX403 is obvious. It's a 37-inch TV from one of the world's most reputable AV brands that doesn't cost very much: a combination likely to have at least the more conservative end of the TV market trembling with anticipation.The 37EX403 builds on its economic appeal with a surprisingly lengthy feature list. Heading this up is the (recently expanded) Bravia Internet Video online platform and there's good support from an integrated Freeview HD tuner, a full HD resolution, optional Wi-Fi support, and the ability to play multimedia files from USB storage devices.
It lacks the cool, 'Monolithic' design found higher up Sony's LCD TV range, with the bezel standing proud of the screen, rather than flush as part of a single layer and the all-black finish of the top-end models is replaced by a two-tone design.
The 37EX403 is far from ugly in the context of similarly priced TVs, though.
As you might guess from its price, the 37EX403 sits pretty low down Sony's current TV range as part of its Essentials Series. Stepping up to the EX503 series will give you 100Hz on top of the 37EX403's functions, while if you want similar spec but in a 'Monolithic' cabinet, you'll need an NX503 set.
The NX703 series introduces edge LED lighting, the HX703s have 200Hz processing and the HX803s introduce 3D playback, while the HX903s sprinkle 400Hz on top.
The 37EX403 is well specified for such an affordable TV. Its Freeview HD tuner is attached to a 1080p panel and there is an Ethernet port for future interactive features. The latter also enables the TV to stream files from DLNA-certified PCs, and access Sony's Bravia Internet Video online service.
Finding either of these multimedia tricks on such an affordable Sony TV would have classed as a pleasant surprise, so finding both is a real boon, especially as the list of supported files extends to video, as well as music and photo formats.
A USB port plays the same file formats as the DLNA-enabled Ethernet jack and also gives you the option of adding a UWA-BR100 dongle to enable your TV to access your network wirelessly.
With this in mind it's a pity Sony couldn't see its way to providing two USB ports, as many of its rivals do, as only having one means you might potentially have to keep swapping over between a Wi-Fi dongle and a multimedia USB storage device. Mind you, none of Sony's other current TVs offer two USBs, either.
Joining the 37EX403's multimedia connections are a respectable four HDMIs.
The Bravia Engine 3 picture processing system includes Sony's LiveColour and 24p True Cinema software for boosting colour saturation and for enhanced playback of 24p Blu-ray sources respectively.
There is no 100Hz, 200Hz or 400Hz motion processing, but this is acceptable at this price.
The backlight is standard CCFL (cold-cathode fluorescent), rather than LED, but while this might cost the set a little in terms of brightness, contrast and colour saturation, Sony has often delivered better results with CCFL than most other brands.
Most TVs these days carry some sort of 'eye' for monitoring the amount of light in your room and adjusting the picture settings accordingly. But the 'Ambient Sensor' in the 37EX403 goes further than most by being able to measure and react to the colour temperature of ambient light, as well as just its brightness.
As noted in the introduction to this review, though, arguably the 37EX403's standout feature is its Bravia Internet Video system. Especially as this has recently being expanded from its already class-leading content level by the addition of Qriocity.
This, briefly, is a video on demand service, enabling you to pay to download – or rather, downstream – films from a variety of genres, with some available in HD. The price of each film varies according to how new it is and whether it's HD or standard-def and Sony recommends that you have at least a 1.5Mb/s Broadband connection for standard-def, and nearer 4.5Mb/s to guarantee stability with HD films.
Qriocity isn't the only new service available via the Bravia Internet Video online platform. Sky has launched a news app that provides you with instant, on-demand access to the latest headlines, plus entertainment, weather and sports coverage. The interface for this new service wasn't fully formed at the time of writing, but is a fine addition to the already impressive BVI content list.
This content list also includes the BBC iPlayer, the Demand Five Channel 5 catch-up service, a welter of TV shows from Sony Entertainment Television, World Cup highlights from FIFA, Eurosport feeds, the inevitable YouTube access and a host of more esoteric stuff such as a FordModels 'channel', 'how to' documentaries from howcast.com, and the LoveFilm portal.
The latter arguably makes Qriocity look a bit redundant - not least because it has many more films to choose from. The fact that it demands a £9.99 monthly subscription, rather than Qriocity's pay-per-view approach might work against it here, though.
The biggest improvement on last year's equivalent models is in black level response. Dark scenes are more believable and natural, thanks to a marked reduction in obvious grey clouding over parts of the picture that should look black.
As often happens when black levels improve, moreover, colours are also more natural and are satisfyingly richly saturated.
The 37EX403 retains Sony's long-noted talent for making high quality HD sources look crisp and detailed, at least where static material is concerned. Brightness levels are high and consistent across the screen, despite the set's use of standard CCFL lighting.
Unfortunately, though, the 37EX403's sharpness takes a noticeable hit whenever there's much motion. In fact, when you first turn the TV on from cold, pictures can look pretty nasty, with extreme amounts of blurring and smearing.
Thankfully, this calms down considerably after you've had the TV on for half an hour or so, but it still seems peculiar to have to wait for a contemporary TV to warm up for such a long time.
To be fair, the amount of residual motion blur once the TV hits its stride isn't bad compared to other sub-£600 LCDs of this size, but there's enough of it around to make stepping up to Sony's 100Hz-equipped 37EX503, or one of Samsung's current, similarly priced sets, worth considering.
Another, lesser, issue you should be aware of is a gentle lack of subtlety in rendering tricky, subtly differentiated colours. This can leave some areas, especially skin tones, looking slightly waxy and unrealistic.
Finally, as usual with LCD TVs, the 37EX403's pictures lose both contrast and colour saturation if viewed from a wide angle. Though to be fair, the 37EX403 doesn't suffer as drastically from this as many rival LCD TVs and it also benefits from impressively uniform backlighting.
Sound
The 37EX403's sound is about average – maybe a touch above – for a slim 37in TV. It's at its best with relatively undemanding material - documentaries, chatshows, news programmes and so on. With these, dialogue is enjoyable rich and gentle ambient effects are clearly presented, plus the general presentation is quite open and dynamic.
This strong starting point means the speakers don't capitulate as readily as some when pushed harder by demanding soundtracks. But while action scenes don't sound as compressed or thin as they often do with flat TVs, there is no serious attempt to produce convincing bass levels.
Value
The 37EX403's £550 price isn't bad at all for a set that offers a Freeview HD tuner, Bravia Engine 3 processing, and best of all, Sony's excellent Bravia Internet Video system.
The pictures and sound, however, feel merely about right for the money.
Ease of use
The XrossMediaBar onscreen menu system seemed an inspired way to handle a plethora of features when it first appeared, but now seems to be crumbling under the weight of all the extra options that have since come its way.
It is frequently difficult to remember exactly where you need to go to find a particular feature, thanks to poor organisation and inscrutable labelling. For instance, who would have guessed that the crucial feature for turning on automatic software updates for the 37EX403 would be found in the massive settings menu under 'Product Support'?
The automatic software renewal feature doesn't update as readily as you would expect; it would therefore be very useful if you could manually ask the TV to update itself, but if such an option exists, it certainly wasn't obvious during this review.
There are further issues with the remote control. Initially things look OK, thanks to a comfortable shape and weight, but the concentric discs in the remote's upper third that contain a number of the most important buttons prove fiddly, especially in darkened rooms.
On the upside, the Bravia Internet Video system content is handled reasonably well considering how much content there is, with plenty of visuals to help you recognise what's what. The only potential issue for Sony is that if it keeps adding new services, the current system of scrolling down a vertical list of content providers might become unwieldy.
The 37EX403 is potentially a very attractive TV, simply on account of it being one of the most affordable LCD sets in Sony's current range.
It hits the ground running with a pleasant design for such an affordable set and scores further points with its wealth of connections and surprisingly expansive feature count. Particularly gratifying is the fact that the set carries the new, much-improved Bravia Internet Video despite its relatively price.
Overall performance isn't particularly scintillating; while it doesn't do anything badly wrong, it doesn't really shine, either, thanks to rather average efforts in the black level and motion handling departments.
We liked
The design suggests refined breeding despite that modest price and delivers the goods in terms of connections and features. Particularly welcome are the set's Bravia Internet Video services, which are extensive and contain more genuinely enjoyable video content than any other current online system. The set's pictures look good with most Blu-ray content, too.
We disliked
Black level response could be a little better and sometimes its colours lack the subtlety necessary to achieve genuine naturalism. The biggest problem, though, is motion blur, especially in the first half hour after you switch the TV on each time.
Final verdict
While it definitely has its ups and downs, the 37EX403 ultimately comes out of this review with its head held high. Its features carry the day, with a combination of multimedia playback tools and excellent online capability, the latter setting the benchmark for which other brands ought to aim, especially now the service has added the Qriocity and Sky News features to its already substantial offering.
The 37EX403's performance is rather more average thanks to a lack of bass in the audio, plus motion and black level issues with the pictures. But this only prevents the 37EX403 from being a must-buy recommendation. It doesn't stop it from being a surprisingly useful tool if you fancy something much more than just a TV that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
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Google launches Teach Parents Tech site
Every year many of us return home to the folks or the in-laws for the Christmas season, only to spend an inordinate amount of time explaining to techno-phobic parents and elderly relatives how to use the new tech and gadgets they've received from Santa.Google understands your pain and, as such, is launching a series of sites called 'Teach Parents Tech' to offer straightforward and helpful basic tech advice, so you can get on with the important business of eating mince pies and playing videogames.
Teach tech tips to the olds
Google is set to launch its Teach Parents Tech series of public service videos shortly, but you might want to email your folks the YouTube link – providing that they know how to use YouTube that is (and the internet!).
Google has produced 54 how-to videos produced and hosted by Google employees, each of which runs for just under a minute.
Topics covered include such basics as "how to attach a file to an email" or "how to copy and paste" through to "how to find cheap flights."
So just wait till Christmas 2011, by which time your dad will be showing you how to hack Kinect to control the curtains…
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Review: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD
First impressions bear out the claim that Creative's latest USB audio card, the Sound Blaster X-Fi HD, is one for the 'audiophiles'. It looks as clever and understated as a black turtleneck sweater, and the smooth lines of the front are disturbed only by two large 1/4-inch jacks for high impedance headphones that scream quality.Around the back, there's more to bolster the X-Fi HD's credentials: RCA stereo ports for line-in and out connections and two optical ports for playback and recording digital sources. Inside, the headphone port has its own amplifier.
It may not be quite as intimidating as the studio-grade M-Audio Fast Track Pro external soundcard but, like all X-Fi cards, it comes with the arguably more useful EAX support for games and Creative's THX-certified suite of equaliser options.
Plus, it's considerably cheaper than other high grade USB cards. Got to be worth a look, hasn't it?
We tested the Creative X-Fi HD in the excellent Rightmark audio benchmark and pitted it against the high end X-Fi Titanium HD internal card and the current £25 darling of the audioset, the ASUS Xonar DG. The results were surprisingly lower than we expected. Subjectively, however, it still runs rings around on-board sound.
RMAA Noise level (dBA, lower is better)
X-Fi HD (24bit/96kHz): -96.7dBA
X-Fi Titanium HD (24bit/96kHz): -113.4dBA
Xonar DG (24bit/96kHz):
On-board audio: -90.4dBA
RMAA Total harmonic distortion (%, lower is better)
X-Fi HD (24bit/96kHz): 0.0010%
X-Fi Titanium HD (24bit/96kHz): 0.0020%
Xonar DG (24bit/96kHz): 0.0027%
On-board audio: 0.131%
RMAA Stereo crosstalk (dB, lower is better)
X-Fi HD (24bit/96kHz): -95.3dB
X-Fi Titanium HD (24bit/96kHz):
Xonar DG (24bit/96kHz): -109.2dBA
On-board audio: -89.4dBA
Intermodulation distortion (%, lower is better)
X-Fi HD (24bit/96kHz): 0.0046%
X-Fi Titanium HD (24bit/96kHz): 0.0024%
Xonar DG (24bit/96kHz):
On-board audio: 0.326%
For all its high-faluting hi-fi claims, however, the X-Fi HD probably won't win a massive following with the audio purist crowd. For a start, there's no low latency ASIO driver included, which is almost essential to be considered for the 'audiophile'.
Just as critically, it's impossible to open the box up to see the top of the PCB without snapping off the volume knob – so we can't say for sure that each headphone channel has its own amplifier, like the internal X-Fi Titanium HD, to prevent stereo sound leakage. More importantly it means no removable op-amps for those who like to fiddle.
Less crucial is that, unlike the Asus Xonar drivers, there's no option in the control panel to match the output of the headphone amp with the requirements of a heavy duty set of cans.
Does that matter? Probably not, because these are things that the vast majority of us wouldn't even notice after they've been pointed out. What you do need to know is that the sound quality is good, and it can drive studio-grade headsets to produce powerful, rich soundscapes with a very evenly balanced tone. Perhaps a little light on the bass by default, but nothing to complain about.
Technically, it benchmarks some way off the Titanium HD in the RMAA tests, but it's also around half the price of that card and works with laptops. We'd defy most to tell them apart in blind tests.
Compared to the majority of USB sound cards, it's night and day in performance – so long as you have a headset or speakers that can handle the differences, of course. What's more, it's a great choice for games thanks to the EAX driver – which we'd take over the rival Dolby systems any day.
It may seem pricey, but it's about as good as you're going to get from a USB system without moving up to truly professional and more costly options. If you're still balking at the cost, consider that it's cheaper than buying, say, a Creative X-Fi Go! Pro and separate headphone amp – which won't work as well anyway.
We liked
Good sound quality with a ton of high end connections for hooking up to a hi-fi or high-impedance headphones. The difference between this and on-board sound is palpable, whether you're playing games, watching movies or listening to songs.
We disliked
Like most Creative cards, the appeal is still strongest for gamers after high-quality sound and EAX. Sealing in the op-amps and not quite meeting the benchmarks we expected may turn real audiophiles off.
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Questions over reason for Amazon UK outage
Amazon UK is blaming a weekend outage on hardware failure its European data center network.Many Brits were unable to do their online pre-Xmas shopping on Amazon.co.uk this weekend due to the outage, with some suggesting the website had been attacked by 'Anonymous' as part of a strategic response to Amazon refusing to host Wikileaks in the US recently.
Amazon goes down
"The brief interruption to our European retail sites earlier today was due to hardware failure in our European datacenter network and not the result of a DDOS attempt," a spokeswoman for Amazon told Reuters.
The 4chan activists (or 'hacktivists' as some are referring to them) operating under the name 'Anonymous' had quickly called for an online attack on Amazon following the retailer pulling the plug on Wikileaks' US hosting.
Amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.fr and amazon.es were all down for more than 30 minutes until around 2145 GMT on Sunday 12 December. Amazon.com's US website was not affected by the outage.
Anonymous has now claimed that it plans to focus on distributing Wikileaks' leaked cables rather than taking down websites.
Shop till you drop
Amazon announced that all its servers are now back up and running
"While it is indeed possible that Anonymous may not have been able to take Amazon.com down in a DDoS attack, this is not the only reason the attack never occurred," read a statement which appeared to be sent from Anonymous.
"After the attack was so advertised in the media, we felt that it would affect people such as consumers in a negative way and make them feel threatened by Anonymous.
"Simply put, attacking a major online retailer when people are buying presents for their loved ones would be in bad taste."
For its part, WikiLeaks has said of the Anonymous attacks: "we neither condemn nor applaud these attacks".
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Bieber is most watched on YouTube
Justin Bieber's assault on not only our senses but also the internet as a whole has been underlined with the news that his "music" video, 'Baby', was the most viewed clip on YouTube by UK users in 2010. The floppy haired Canadian, who also featured heavily in Google's Zeitgeist 2010, was streets ahead of his rivals, which included X Factor clips and Britain's Got Talent auditions.
The online video giant has grown hugely in the past 12 months – continuing its market leading dominance and enjoying support from broadcasters like Channel 4 and ITV.
Cher around
The latter saw its official clips from top watched shows like X Factor and Britain's Got Talent pick up enormous amounts of views.
And despite fourth place in the competition proper, Cher Lloyd was the X Factor YouTube winner edging out Gamu (who didn't even get to the live shows).
Google also named Britain's top comedy videos, announcing that Gap Yah – a satirical sketch which parodies the student gap year - was the most watched by the UK audience.
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Review: Creative X-Fi Go! Pro
Although it's barely larger than a USB memory stick, Creative's latest external sound card, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! Pro, is packed full of the kind of audio acronyms and certifications you might normally associate with more imposing gear. There's a coveted THX badge, for example, as well as support for Creative's own EAX 5.0 in-game environmental effects and a clever noise-cancelling software feature for chatting on the phone.
What it lacks is complexity. There's a switch on the side of the X-Fi Go! Pro that converts the headphone socket to a line-out, but essentially this is a two-port sound card without digital or surround outputs. In its simplicity, the question you'll be asking is: what does it really add to on-board sound?
It's a well-established fact that even those who demand high performance from their PCs are abandoning the desktop in favour of the current generation of powerful dual- and quad-core laptops, even gamers and HD movie buffs and editors. The problem is that most laptop sound is very basic, hence the need for a USB soundcard.
The X-Fi Go! Pro, though, is particularly useful for laptop gamers: credit where credit is due to Creative, the quality of in-game effects and positional audio is almost always better via a soundcard that supports EAX than it is through the rival system from Dolby.
Compared to the USB soundcard built into the Corsair HS1 headset or included with the Sennheiser PC 333Ds, for example, the sound effects from the X-Fi Go! Pro are clear, accurate and realistic where others just sound like extra reverb added on.
It's also incredibly portable, and the fact the USB cover is attached to the main body, so you can't lose it, is a thoughtful touch.
If you're not a gamer, though, there's not a lot of benefit in owning the Go! Pro. The THX suite adds in a handy equaliser for tuning music and the 'Crystaliser', which is a one-touch way of brightening up compressed audio, but it's not exactly 'pro' spec.
Without a digital out, it's no real improvement for hooking up your laptop to an external hi-fi either. You'd be better off with a cheaper plug-in card that can offload processing to a dedicated surround amp via S/PDIF, or if you use headphones, something with a built-in amp.
For what it is, and the price it is, though, the Go! X-Fi is a worthwhile investment for gamers who want an aural environment that's richer than the flat, bland or artificial effects that come with built-in sound.
We liked
There are cheaper USB sound cards around, but few of them add anything to a built-in sound chip. The X-Fi Go! Pro may be a bit pricey for something with only one output port, but it's worth it for the EAX soundscape in games alone.
We disliked
Despite the name, it's not really 'pro', and outside of games struggles to justify its price. You're much better off with a cheaper internal card and built-in headphone amp if you're on a desktop.
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PS3 to start streaming ITV and Channel 4
Sony has announced that the PlayStation 3 is set to get ITV and Channel 4's video catch-up services - the ITV Player and 4oD - in the UK this week.It is a timely announcement, what with the busy Christmas TV schedules ahead over the coming weeks, with many no doubt glad to hear they will be able to catch up with Coronation Street and other favourites via their PS3.
And while hardcore gamers will no doubt mock Sony's video-on-demand strategy for PlayStation, it cannot be denied that the addition of ITV Player and 4oD VOD services makes the PS3 hardware more appealing to the casual gamer looking to purchase a new console.
Sony forecasts that the overall traffic to the aforementioned VOD services will improve by around 10 per cent as a result.
ITV and C4 join the PS3 iPlayer
The new PS3 TV catch-up services are expected to go live at some point this week, joining the BBC iPlayer service on PS3.
For ITV the distribution deal marks a shift in strategy, after the previous management regime under Michael Grade was reluctant to offer ITV shows online via other companies' products and services.
ITV's catch-up TV service was only previously available only on Virgin Media, BT Vision and soon to be made available on Freesat.
Robin Pembroke, managing director at ITV.com, said of the the PS3 deal that it was an "acceleration of our distribution strategy", with the strategy also looking at options for intenet-enabled TV sets, tablet computers and other gaming consoles for 2011.
"As awareness of ITV Player grows, so will consumption of ITV's content on demand," said the ITV.com boss.
Alan Duncan, UK marketing director for PlayStation in the UK, said the move was all part of "changing people's attitudes to the PS3 as a platform to view it as a much broader entertainment device.
"There is a compelling story to tell about the PS3 that goes far beyond gaming," Duncan added.
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