Apple: subscriptions for iPad available soon for publishers
Apple has insisted that the iPad subscription service being launched with The Daily from News Corp. will be available for other publishers "very soon." Apple's vice president of internet service, Eddie Cue, was asked about the availability of the brand new subscription model and when it would be rolled out to other people who wanted to offer magazines and content for iPad.
"It's available today on The Daily, said Cue. "An announcement will be made very soon for other publications.
"We have a great relationship with publishers and thousands [of publications] are available already andsubscription is only going to help get more customers."
Welcomed, eventually
The news will be welcomed by many publishers, who are keen to have a more integrated subscription method that makes selling periodicals easier.
With The Daily being a US only publication, it will be interesting to see if the model is opened up soon enough for someone other than News Corp. to get out a subscription service for the iPad first in the UK.
In the meantime, The Daily is being given a major head start in getting subscribers, with other publishers facing a frustrating wait until they can launch their own rivals.
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T-Mobile offering 'smoky violet' BlackBerry Curve 3G
T-Mobile has revealed that it will offer the BlackBerry Curve 3G in an exclusive colour – "smoky violet." In that strange eerie world or make-up and paint where colours can't simply be colours, smoky violet may mean something to somebody, but we'd describe it as "a bit silvery-purpley".
"With its violet hue set to be the 'must-have' colour for Spring/Summer, this BlackBerry Curve 3G is perfect for fashionista socialites on the go who like to match their mobile with their accessories," explains T-Mobile while we continue to look bemused.
Like a winged witch in the sultry twilight
The exclusive colour of BlackBerry Curve 3G sports a 2MP camera, 3G support (duh) and all the email functionality you would expect in a BlackBerry.
Oh and it's a bit purpley too. Did we mention that?
Nicola Shenton, Head of Device Portfolio at Everything Everywhere, comments: "The BlackBerry Curve 3G is a great choice for anyone who wants to keep in touch without compromising on style."
The BlackBerry Curve 3G smartphone is available on contract or to buy on pay as you go.
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iPad-only newspaper The Daily launches
News Corp has finally launched its iPad newspaper, The Daily, at an event co-hosted with Apple in New York. Available via Apple's iTunes store, The Daily will initially be available only in the US and is to cost 99c a week – which should translate to 79p in the UK when it is launched.
The Daily will cover news with interactive features and videos, and is set to take on Virgin's iPad publication, Project.
Hinting at expansion beyond the iPad, Rupert Murdoch said at the event, "The iPad demands that we completely reimagine our craft.
"Our target audience is the more than 15m Americans who are expected to own tablets over the next year."
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who has taken leave from Apple for health reasons, was absent from the event. In his place was Apple's Eddy Cue, vice president of Internet Services.
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Microsoft releases Chrome extension to support H.264 video
Microsoft has hit out at Google over its decision to drop support for the H.264 video format by making available a Chrome extension compatible with the format. The Windows Media Player HTML5 Extension for Chrome will allow anyone using Chrome on Windows 7 to play H.264 video.
A blog post written by Claudio Caldato of Microsoft's Interoperability Strategy Team, says, "At Microsoft, we respect that Windows customers want the best experience of the web including the ability to enjoy the widest range of content available on the Internet in H.264 format."
Classy
The same subtle digs at Google pervade throughout the post, which concludes saying by praising H.264 as "an excellent and widely-used video format that serves the web very well today."
The head of Internet Explorer, Dean Hachamovitch, also commented, "Our support for H.264 results from our views about a robust web and video ecosystem that provides a rich level of functionality, is the product of an open standards process like the W3C's HTML5 specification, and has been free from legal attacks.
"Microsoft is agnostic and impartial about the actual underlying video format for HTML5 video as long as this freedom continues."
Earlier this week we reported on another scrap between the two companies when Google claimed that Microsoft-owned search engine Bing was copying Google search results.
The Google V Microsoft spat is certainly hotting up - and the gloves are coming off.
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Crysis 2 minimum requirements for PC surface
The eagerly awaited minimum requirements for Crysis 2 have been published, and the good news is that you won't be needing to sell you car to buy a gaming rig capable of playing it. The original Crysis came to define the high-end gaming PC – with gamers desperate to get the kind of computer that could play the game at its highest settings.
So, inevitably, all eyes were on the specs for the sequel – which again is aiming to blow our minds with its graphics, but has also been tailored around consoles as well.
Moderate
And the minimum specs are relatively moderate: you'll need an Intel Core 2 Duo 2Ghx processor or AMD Athlon 64 x2 2Ghz or better for your processor, and a minimum of 2GB of RAM.
The game will take up 9GB of your hard drive and the all important graphics requirements are an Nvidia 8800 GT 512MB RAM or better.
You'll also need Windows (XP or higher), so OS X or Linux users (or those people with Windows 2000) may not be engaging in suit-enhanced first person combat.
Of course, to play the game on maximum seconds then you'll need a rig the size of a horse that sounds like a Harrier taking off when you switch it on, and a graphics card the size of the complete Encyclopaedia Britannica – but you knew that right?
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Review: Asus Rampage III Gene
Maximum power in a minimalist package. That's what the new Asus Rampage III Gene is all about. But is it even a sensible idea to force-feed enthusiast-class performance and features into a small-form factor motherboard? Quite possibly, yes.
Micro-ATX motherboards aren't hugely smaller than the ATX standard. What's more, the greater level of feature integration in the latest processors means motherboards themselves are simpler and require fewer components.
Affordable high-ender
Ultimately, however, what really counts are the features and performance on offer, not size. The Asus Rampage III Gene sports Intel's top CPU socket and chipset combo in the LGA1366 and X58. That means support for Intel's Core i7 processors, including the mighty six-core Gulftown chip.
You also get USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps and a pair of 16-lane PCI-e graphics ports for multi-GPU action.
At £170, it's even relatively affordable for a high-end motherboard based on Intel's X58 chipset. The full-size Rampage III Extreme costs nearly £300. Full-sized enthusiast boards based on Intel's premium X58 chipset cost a lot of money.
Consequently, board makers feel obliged to weigh them down with a ton of features. The Asus Rampage III Extreme, for example, packs no less than four 16-lane PCI Express ports. In theory, that enables quad-GPU graphics action. In practice, you're paying for a feature that you will literally never use.
Cramming it in
With that in mind, the Asus Rampage III Gene has the makings of a perfect performance motherboard.
The micro- ATX form factor means frippery isn't an option. Instead, Asus has focussed on the features that matter. Instead of four PCI Express graphics ports, you get two of them and support for both multi- GPUs platforms: NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFire.
Asus has also managed to cram in a full set of six DDR3 memory slots and even makes sure they don't fight with the graphics port for space. That's an achievement that eludes many full ATX motherboards.
Space around the CPU socket for heavy duty cooling is likewise ample and hardware buttons for power, reset and clear CMOS are all present. As for performance, you'll struggle to spot the difference between this motherboard and a full ATX equivalent. That's because there really isn't any.
That includes overclocking which tops out at around 220MHz on the baseclock and includes an absolutely comprehensive array of BIOS options. In terms of speed, 220MHz on the baseclock is right up there with any high-end X58 chipset motherboard and more than enough to extract the most from any LGA1366 CPU.
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Review: Zotac GeForce GTX 580 AMP!
Nvidia's original GeForce GTX 580 is a lightening fast card, and is the fastest thing on single GPU legs right now. So an overclocked version, like this GTX 580 AMP! from Zotac is surely going to be a beast.Buying a pre-overclocked graphics card though is like buying a car with all the options.
You might not see a major performance gain, but you're safe in the knowledge that, in its class, your card is probably the best.
The flipside, of course, is that pre-overclocked cards play on this perceived value, and the performance gain is rarely in line with resultant price-hike percentage over stock.
These are margin-making products for board partners, and offer flagship performance in-class that influences the way we feel about the rest of the company's line-up.
This is no great conspiracy; it's intelligent brand-management and it's been going on for years.
Besides, building a custom board-and-BIOS platform in which to plop a GPU takes time, effort, and ultimately money. When you're dealing with a GPU as complex and intricate as the GF110, you have to take time to balance tolerances and get this stuff right.
The already blistering GF110 isn't noted for its overclocking headroom, and Zotac's GeForce GTX 580 AMP! offers noticeably – though not vastly – higher component-speeds than the stock GF110-based GTX 580.
Up from 772MHz to 815MHz (a 5.57% gain) on the core and from 4008MHz to 4100MHz (a 2.3% gain) on the memory, to be precise.
The cooler is the standard GTX 580 reference unit – which in itself is anything but standard, with its innovative vapour-chamber design.
Price-wise, you're looking at 16% premium over the cheapest stock GTX 580 we can find, against considerably lower performance gains.
So is it really worth the extra outlay over a stock card?
The GF110 GPU at the heart of the stock GTX 580 is the performance behemoth that Fermi should've been all along.
Not that Nvidia's flagship GeForce GTX 480 was any kind of slouch, but it wasn't the order-of-magnitude leap that we'd hoped for over the 2-series cards. The 580 came along and changed all that, delivering at last the blistering framerates that Fermi had promised.
The headline difference between the 480 and 580 – both essentially based on the same GPU – lies in the Streaming Microprocessor count.
Initial GPU yields, so the rumour goes, were too low to create a product-line that hit the 580's numbers. With tweaks to the manufacturing process, Nvidia has now achieved those yields, and as a result, the 580's GF110 offers 512 CUDA cores to the GTX 480's 480 cores.
Transistor-level refinements also mean that the GTX 580 actually draws less power than the GTX 480.
In addition, excellent heat-transference is provided by a vapour-chamber cooler, which vaporises and re-condenses internal cooling-fluids to cycle heat away from the GPU.
The Zotac GeForce GTX 580 AMP! edition ships with the same, super-efficient cooler as a stock 580, which translates into lower in-rig temperatures and considerably quieter operation than the last few generations of Nvidia card.
It's a pretty nifty arrangement of whirligigs.
The only real difference between the stock and the Zotac GeForce GTX 580 AMP! then, is the BIOS-tinkering which results in improved core-clock and memory speeds. It runs faster, but not tangibly hotter or noisier.
And as the GTX 580 also outsrips the AMD competition in performance terms, the Amp! Edition's only real competition is with the stock GTX 580.
Let's see how they fare in games-performance terms.
The framerate gains for the pre-overclocked memory (4100Mhz) and GPU (815Mhz) tally pretty well with the rise in component speeds over the stock GTX 580.
What's interesting is that, despite the higher speeds, there's no appreciable rise in noise.
Naturally the GPU and memory are generating more heat than the stock card, but the reference-design vapour-chamber cooler whisks away the extra heat with aplomb, and there's no audible difference between the Zotac GeForce GTX 580 AMP! and a vanilla GTX 580.
DirectX 11 tessellation performance:
DirectX 11 gaming performance:
DirectX 10 gaming performance:
So what's not to like?
The GTX 580 AMP! edition is an improvement on the fastest single-GPU card around, offering nearly 6% faster speeds at standard mainstream resolutions over the stock GTX 580 in DX11 applications.
Given quite how demanding Tessellation routines are on graphics hardware at this stage, that's a welcome rise.
Whether you should opt for this pre-overclocked edition is another matter entirely.
Is money no object?
A few frames-per-second here and there are barely discernible to the naked eye. The mere fact of knowing the card is faster than the reference design improves one's view of the card in itself, but in all practicality, the difference is fairly minor.
Let's put it into context.
Ever play an RPG where you gain a 5% damage bonus to your attack? You can't really feel that kind of difference, can you? It's not like going from a weapon that kills in two attacks to a weapon that kills in a single blow.
We like the fact that, without further overclocking, this card is basically the fastest single-GPU card on the planet. But the matter of price is a point of concern for those of us without money to burn. At around £470, it's a whole £70 pricier than a standard GTX 580.
That's a 16% premium for 6% more performance. It's not quite that cut-and-dried of course, but for us, those numbers don't add up to a reasonable value proposition.
To further complicate matters, Nvidia's own GTX 480 – which is still a powerful, though hotter-running, high-end DX11 card – has been dropping in price since the GTX 580's inception.
Examples can be seen for £255 at the moment, which is a fraction of the GTX 580's cost, let alone the Zotac GeForce GTX 580 AMP!, for a card which offers around 15% less performance.
To rationalise this, think in terms of the price differential. 45% less money for 15% less performance? Almost sounds like a bargain, right?
We like the GTX 580 AMP! edition. It's really fast, and that's what we want to see. But at this price, it's just a bit too hard to recommend, when you can have nearly-as-good for close to half the price.
We liked:
The GTX580's already legendary performance is boosted by some BIOS tweakery that re-sets the core and memory clocks to run faster.
This translates around 6% performance gains across a variety of games. And that crazy-heavy cooler really does the business.
We disliked:
The price. For the performance benefits, £470 is just too much of a premium.
Final word:
The fastest card money can buy. Though rather too much money, in our opinion.
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Vodafone will offer Xperia Arc and white BlackBerry Torch
Vodafone UK has announced that it will be offering the Sony Ericsson Arc and an exclusive white Blackberry Torch. Vodafone will offer the white Blackberry Torch from 10 February, with the phone hue an exclusive for the network.
The Torch boasts the same specs as the black version – and will be available without extra cost for people who sign up for two-year £35 a month contracts.
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc
Another exciting announcement for Vodafone is the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, which will be available in the near future.
Also new to the Vodafone handset line-up is the sleek, Android 2.3-powered Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, explained Vodafone.
"The device, which was unveiled at the start of the year, packs an incredible amount of technology into its slim design and will be joining the Vodafone smartphone range in the near future."
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc is expected to be similar in specs to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, although without the PSP Phone hardware additions.
Earlier today, 3 announced that it will range the Arc from April so it would be no surprise at all if Vodafone's release date was around the same time.
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Nintendo boss says 3G 3DS is 'unlikely'
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said that a 3G version of the Ninentdo 3DS is "unlikely" to become a "viable option". Stating that he couldn't deny that the company has looked into the 3G possibilities, Iwata explained that Nintendo is loathe to pile additional costs on to its accessible, family-friendly products.
Iwata explained, "The need to ask our consumers to shoulder monthly payments is not a great match for the entertainment that we are dealing with."
Money, money, money
While he appreciates that some people are willing to pay extra for more functionality, Iwata explains that the company's real issue is whether or not the added cost would be worth the extra benefits to the majority of its customers, particularly given that the 3DS already has Wi-Fi connectivity.
These benefits would likely include the ability to download games and movies on the go and enjoy multiplayer games across the data network – the Sony NGP is set to offer these capabilities over 3G and Wi-Fi.
Despite this, the bottom line seems to be that while 3G data requires a subscription cost, Nintendo is going to steer clear:
"As long as we need to ask our consumers to pay additional costs every month, it is unlikely to become one of our viable options."
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Bing responds to Google's search-stealing accusations
Google accused Bing of stealing its search algorithms this week, which has prompted a small war of words between the search giant and the, well, search not-so giant.It turns out that Google has been adding gobbledygook to its search engine that, when searched for, will come up with one result.
The problem is that these Googlewhacks also appear on Bing, which has prompted Google to point the finger and brand Bing as an "incomplete, stale version - a cheap imitation" of Google. Ouch.
Bing has responded with its own blog, which tries to dampen any talk of algorithm plagiarism, explaining: "The Bing engineering team has been working hard over the past couple of years to deliver the best search relevance and quality in the industry and for our users. This is our top priority every day.
Share and share alike
"We use over 1,000 different signals and features in our ranking algorithm. A small piece of that is clickstream data we get from some of our customers, who opt-in to sharing anonymous data as they navigate the web in order to help us improve the experience for all users."
It is, apparently, this "small piece of that is clickstream data" that is causing queries like 'juegosdeben1ogrande' and 'delhipublicschool40 chdjob' to come up with the same search results.
Bing said about the accusations: "It's a spy-novelesque stunt to generate extreme outliers in tail query ranking.
"It was a creative tactic by a competitor, and we'll take it as a back-handed compliment.
"But it doesn't accurately portray how we use opt-in customer data as one of many inputs to help improve our user experience."
In the end, Google is taking the moral higher ground, saying: "To all the users out there looking for the most authentic, relevant search results, we encourage you to come directly to Google.
"And to those who have asked what we want out of all this, the answer is simple: we'd like for this practice to stop."
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Nintendo president refuses to comment on Sony NGP
Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata has insisted that he will not be lured into a war of words over the newly announced Sony NGP, after a joke about the iPad was used against him last year. Iwata's latest baby – the Nintendo 3DS – is due for launch this year, but some of the shine was taken off the launch by Sony's decision to announce its PSP2, or the Sony NGP, soon afterwards.
Iwata declined to comment on the NGP, however, because he feels journalists took his quotes out of context a year ago when he compared the new iPad to a large iPod Touch.
"You may feel that I should share at least my own personal impressions," he told investors."...my first impression [of the iPad] was somehow misinterpreted and spread as if the president of Nintendo had discredited iPad by calling it, 'merely a bigger version of iPod touch'."
"That incident made me realise that I must refrain from sharing even very frank first impressions."
A different audience?
Iwata did explain that he feels that the market will not be restricted to one portable gaming device, and that he was focused on making the 3DS great rather than worrying about other products.
"Nintendo has been and will continue to be a company that does not think in terms of how to compete with other companies' products," he said.
"Our only focus has always been, 'What kind of new proposals from the company will be able to capture the attention of even those who are indifferent to video games?' and 'How can the company create entertainment which has the potential to be appreciated by people regardless of age and gender?'"
Surprise!
"In the end, the question we are always asking ourselves is, 'How can we surprise people in a positive way?'" he continued
"In reality, however, our products are sold on the same shelves as other products. But how each one of these products is to be sold in the market is up to the consumers who will decide which product seems more appealing to them, so I do not think I should comment on any other companies' products.
"The only thing I may be able to say here is that other companies are trying to appeal to consumers in quite a different way than we do.
"I am hopeful that several such products with different proposals shall be offered to consumers and that, as a result, the entire handheld game market will flourish more."
Sounds like a very sensible stance to us.
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Nokia MeeGo superphone on its way to MWC?
A bug report may have let the Nokia superphone out of the MeeGo bag, thanks to a list of hardware specifications gleaned from the document. The bug report references a 1.6GHz processor (Intel made, of course), a NFC chip, 480 x 854 pixel resolution screen and high-speed HSPA+ data.
Chips relating to an accelerometer, compass, proximity sensor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS are also mentioned in the report.
MeeGolithic
We recently saw some fuzzy shots of a Nokia tablet running MeeGo, although we'd wager these specs come from a smartphone rather than a slate device.
Given that it's been over six months since Nokia and Intel announced their partnership, it's a definite possibility that we'll see the fruits of Nokia's MeeGo labours announced at Mobile World Congress 2011.
Let's hope we'll be seeing something – anything – vaguely exciting from Nokia in Barcelona; a glimpse of a MeeGo superphone would do quite nicely.
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In Depth: iOS vs Android vs WebOS vs MeeGo
Pitting iOS vs Android vs WebOS vs MeeGo doesn't seem like a fair fight. It's akin to putting a couple of our TechRadar writers in a boxing ring with the Klitschko brothers. With Apple's iPhone/iPod/iPad OS, Google's Android, plus the Symbian, Microsoft and Blackberry platforms, do we really need any more pretenders to the mobile OS throne?
Yes - because 'competition drives innovation' (or so the saying goes). Android improvements will make iOS better and vice-versa. While lower-league operating systems will have to work harder to stand out, they'll help to ensure that the big two don't get complacent.
And yes again - because beyond the smartphone battleground, the next big tech confrontation is about to be fought on tablet devices.
It's not just a straight iPad vs Android face-off, either. HP is prepping a good-looking 'PalmPad' running WebOS, and Nokia is looking to show off its mobile expertise in a MeeGo-powered tablet.
Let's see how the four mobile platforms compare.
iOS vs Android vs WebOS vs MeeGo: interface
Few would disagree that the iOS is a brilliant smartphone OS. It's cleanly-designed, smooth, fluid, incredibly intuitive and jammed with clever features. What you get with iOS is a consistent look-and-feel, whether you're using an iPhone 4, 3GS, iPod touch or iPad. It's defined by multiple homescreens (with a distinctive grid of application icons) and responsive multi-touch controls.
Android is easily the best alternative to iOS, albeit still a little rough-around-the-edges on smartphones. Version 3.0 (Honeycomb) for tablets gives us a glimpse into the future of the platform: 3D-effect graphics, an onscreen menu bar, improved virtual keyboard, multi-tasking and effortless Google integration. You can watch the preview video here.
FLY-OUT: Note the 3D menus on the Google Nexus S, which runs a pure version of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
Palm, meanwhile, has a wealth of experience in designing fast and lightweight operating systems. Its WebOS (now on version 2.0) is surprisingly nippy and feels better designed than Android 2.2/2.3. Apps are launched by tapping icons on the pull-out 'Launcher' screen.
They subsequently run in what Palm calls 'cards', separate program windows that you can switch between with a deft flick of your finger.
Then there's MeeGo… Considering the current state of the operating system battle, you might think that MeeGo's survival chances are akin to a pedalo ramming an oil tanker. On tablets, MeeGo looks promising.
The traditional icon-based screens are supplemented by an attractive 'panel' view, which filters what you've seen and done into streams - photos you've taken, videos you've watched, web pages you've visited, social media updates and so on. We're impressed.
iOS vs Android vs WebOS vs MeeGo: customisation
You can customise the wallpaper on an Android phone and rearrange/prioritise the onscreen app icons (including gathering them together in folders).
But it's widgets that are arguably Android's greatest advantage, enabling you to highly customise the look-and-feel of your mobile with at-a-glance micro-apps. Of course, the app icons in Apple's iOS can also be shuffled around and combined into folders. But you still have to launch the weather app to see whether it's going to rain…
ORGANISED: Apple's iOS 4 on the iPhone 4 added small UI tweaks, most notably app-grouping in folders
In WebOS, you can choose what icons appear in the Launcher and swap out the wallpaper, but there are no folders for easy app-grouping. Widgets aren't a native feature of WebOS, although you could argue that its notification system makes them irrelevant.
MeeGo, meanwhile, looks to have similar customisation options, including Android-style widgets.
iOS vs Android vs WebOS vs MeeGo: web browsing/email
Web connectivity is key on any smartphone or tablet and Android, iOS and WebOS all support the WebKit rendering engine within their browsers, delivering a fluid and fast internet experience. Meego's support for WebKit is unconfirmed at this point.
Unlike Android and WebOS, iOS has no support for Adobe Flash. That said, this doesn't always negatively impact your browsing experience - iOS users can still watch YouTube videos and stream shows via the BBC iPlayer. Instead, Apple has put its weight behind HTML5, which is also embraced by Android and WebOS.
In terms of email juggling, both Android and iOS say 'yes' to unified inboxes, threaded email and Microsoft Exchange support (although Android has fewer security features). WebOS had a unified inbox from day one, ditto threaded emails and MS Exchange.
iOS vs Android vs WebOS vs MeeGo: performance and multi-tasking
Palm's WebOS offered multi-tasking from launch. But if you bought the first Palm Pre, the 600MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor inside didn't allow you to make the most of it. Palm rectified that problem with the Pre 2 and its 1GHz CPU. Similarly, any WebOS-powered tablet should zip along.
ON THE CARDS: WebOS offers excellent multi-tasking and app-switching using an innovative 'cards' system
Android is the next best thing (with judicious use of a task-killer), followed by iOS. Apple has been criticised for not offering true multi-tasking. Instead, iOS 4 suspends apps in the background or offers limited functionality. You can run a radio app in the background or stay signed in to Skype. But it's a resource-saving approach compared to WebOS and Android.
iOS vs Android vs WebOS vs Meego: app stores
Apple blazed the trail as far as online software selling is concerned and iOS easily wins any 'who's got the most apps?' contest. Distimo ranks the iOS App Store top with over 314,000 free and paid apps;
Android is second with over 135,000 apps; and Palm is way behind with just over 5,200. While Intel's AppUp Store has over 2,000 apps, most of these are for Windows XP/7 netbooks.
RECOGNISE: MeeGo is still baking in the Intel/Nokia oven, but early shots show a familiar menu system
While iOS wins out comfortably, there's a question over whether it's right just to compare raw numbers. Put it this way: there's a lot of rubbish available on the App Store. But you could argue (and we do) that Apple provides a better buying experience, easier store navigation, an effortless payment system and a rapidly expanding games library.
The classic counter-argument is that iOS is a 'closed' and restricted environment compared to the 'open' (or 'anything goes') Google model. Anyone can build an app for Android and they don't have to jump through the hoops of an approval process to do so. Consequently, Android and WebOS can both install applications outside their official marketplaces.
But the App Store still casts a significant shadow. Palm has recently revamped its App Catalog to appear more Apple-like, but the platform continues to suffer from a lack of developer support. The same problem awaits MeeGo and, in the short-term, this will make it difficult for it to gain momentum.
It's a classic Catch 22 situation: developers don't want to produce apps for a small user base; but you need more apps to encourage more people to buy the hardware…
iOS vs Android vs WebOS vs MeeGo: updates
Few would argue that Android has made the biggest strides forward since it first launched. It's easy to forget that the original 1.1 release didn't have features like video recording, turn-by-turn navigation, widgets, tethering or Wi-Fi hotspot functionality.
But the pace of Android development has left the market fragmented - some devices run 1.6, others 2.1 or 2.2. New Android updates are often delayed for the majority of users. Not because Google is slow to release them, but because smartphone manufacturers have enhanced Google's software with their own UI tweaks and so need to recode and retest them.
HTC customises Android with the Sense UI; Samsung modifies it with TouchWiz; while Motorola bakes in MotoBlur. Only the two Nexus devices have featured a pure version of Google's software. The next update, provisionally codenamed 'Ice Cream Sandwich', will probably take some of Honeycomb's features and squash them into the smartphone OS.
SNEAK PEEK: Could this be the first glimpse of a Nokia tablet running MeeGo?
Apple updates its iOS platform less frequently. But when it does, the availability of the new firmware becomes an event that ranks up there with a hardware launch. And speaking of hardware launches, expect four/five finger multi-touch in iOS 4.3, while a future iOS 5 in a future iPhone 5 could include: NFC mobile payments, improved notifications, wireless syncing and a 'close all apps' button…
WebOS has seen 10 updates since its launch in June 2009 and original Pre and Pixi devices now run version 1.4.5. Version 2.0 debuted on the Pre 2 but is expected to be rolled out to older devices during 2011. HP has big plans for WebOS. We should know what they are in February.
As for MeeGo, this intriguing blend of Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo is still waiting for a full commercial release. But the clock is ticking…
In conclusion
The battle for smartphone supremacy is bigger than iOS vs Android. The battle for tablet dominance is greater than iPad vs Android-powered Motorola Xoom. But just how many operating systems can the mobile market support? More importantly, how many operating systems will the gadget-buying public tolerate?
PALMPAD: HP believes that WebOS is perfect for a tablet form factor
The four-way ding-dong that is iOS vs Android vs WebOS vs MeeGo is actually a six-way showdown. RIM's striking PlayBook device shows that the company is keen to give Blackberry addicts a bigger-screened option, while Microsoft's Windows 7 will be forced into tablet form factors whether we want it or not. The Windows Phone 7 OS would be a much better option.
If the mobile market can only support three or four operating systems then some of the software here is doomed to fail. It's unlikely to be iOS or Android, and Microsoft will remain a big player. Similarly, RIM's success in the phone business suggests that it won't be driven out by a newcomer. So does that mean it's curtains for WebOS and Meego?
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Ebook pricing investigation begins
The Office of Fair Trading is investigating how ebooks are priced after receiving "a significant number of complaints". The complaints pertain to pricing arrangements between book publishers and retailers which could breach competition rules.
Wary of its downloads going the way of the music industry, book publishers in the UK have tended to set their own pricing rather than allowing retailers to decide how much to charge for the digital download.
You can't buy a second-hand ebook
Retailers take a percentage of that price, but it means that pricing is stagnant throughout the ebook market with minimum pricing set relatively high.
The OFT released a statement which said, "The OFT has opened an investigation into whether arrangements that certain publishers have put in place with some retailers for the sale of ebooks may breach competition rules.
"The investigation is at an early stage and it should not be assumed that the parties involved have breached competition law."
With the rise of the tablet making ebooks ever-more prolific, it's understandable for the publishing world to want to protect its products and profits. But, ultimately, if ebook pricing isn't competitive then it's the consumer who will lose out.
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Internet Explorer 9 growing fast, despite beta tag
Microsoft's internet Explorer 9 beta has been downloaded 23 million times, and now accounts for 0.5 per cent of all internet users worldwide, according to Net Applications. Although it is still in beta – IE9 has proven a hit for Microsoft as it looks to offer a 'more beautiful experience'.
IE8 currently accounts for 34.17 per cent of users worldwide, but Microsoft is wary of its browser market share being eaten in to by the likes of Google's fast growing Chrome browser.
Chrome 10 per cent
Indeed, the same NetApplications report points to Chrome breaking the 10 per cent of the market barrier for the first time in January with a 0.72 per cent growth, although Internet Explorer 8 showed stronger growth in the same period (1.18 per cent).
"We are pleased to see users continue to leverage Windows 7 capabilities together with IE9 for a more beautiful web experience,"blogged Roger Capriotti – director of Internet Explorer product marketing.
"On Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 already accounts for 1.82 per cent of users worldwide."
Microsoft's delight at the latest figures is understandable, with IE9 being a key launch for the company as its browsers come under pressure.
Of course, other analytics companies reports may tell a different story. StatCounter figures from early January suggested that Firefox had overtaken Internet Explorer in Europe.
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Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc UK release date: April
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc will be winging its way to the UK this spring, with Three announcing it will be stocking the handset as of April.The Sony Ericsson Arc is powered by
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc was one of the stars at CES 2011 mainly due to the fact that Sony seems to be packing other parts of its company into the device.
Arc de triomphe
For a start there is the Mobile Bravia engine – a scaled down version of what is in the company's TVs - which adds a touch of smoothness to video playback. Then there is the 8.1MP camera that has a digicam-poached Exmor R sensor.
As it runs Android 2.3, the handset will also be compatible with the PlayStation Suite when it is released.
Other specs include: a 4.2-inch capacitive touch screen with Reality Display, HDMI connectivity and HD Video Recording (720p/30fps) with Face Tracking.
Three may have teased that it is bringing the handset to the UK, but there's still no word on tariffs or pricing - hopefully this will come at Mobile World Congress 2011.
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Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc UK release date: April
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc will be winging its way to the UK this spring, with Three announcing it will be stocking the handset as of April.The Sony Ericsson Arc is powered by
The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc was one of the stars at CES 2011 mainly due to the fact that Sony seems to be packing other parts of its company into the device.
Arc de triomphe
For a start there is the Mobile Bravia engine – a scaled down version of what is in the company's TVs - which adds a touch of smoothness to video playback. Then there is the 8.1MP camera that has a digicam-poached Exmor R sensor.
As it runs Android 2.3, the handset will also be compatible with the PlayStation Suite when it is released.
Other specs include: a 4.2-inch capacitive touch screen with Reality Display, HDMI connectivity and HD Video Recording (720p/30fps) with Face Tracking.
Three may have teased that it is bringing the handset to the UK, but there's still no word on tariffs or pricing - hopefully this will come at Mobile World Congress 2011.
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T-Mobile G-Slate: what you need to know
T-Mobile and LG have unveiled their Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet which was teased at CES 2011 in video, the T-Mobile G-Slate - or the 'T-Mobile G-Slate with Google by LG', to give it its full name.So what does the G-Slate have to offer?
Here's what you need to know.
T-Mobile G-Slate specs
The G-Slate features an 8.9-inch, 3D-capable multi-touch display, which includes the ability to record 3D and HD video. The 4G tablet features a rear-facing stereoscopic video recorder with 1080p for HD video capture and a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash.
The G-Slate also supports 720p HD on-device video playback and HDMI output to show 1080p content on 3D and HD displays.
Processor-wise, the G-Slate has an Nvidia Tegra 2 mobile processor with dual-core CPU.
The G-Slate includes 32GB of internal memory and has a built-in gyroscope, accelerometer and adaptive lighting.
T-Mobile G-Slate release date
The G-Slate will be available in the US "this spring".
T-Mobile G-Slate UK release date
There's no UK release date announced as yet.
T-Mobile G-Slate price
Pricing plans haven't yet been announced, but we'll bring them to you as soon as we get wind of them.
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White iPhone 4 to surface in March?
The long, tedious wait for the white iPhone 4 could be over in March, if sources talking to Pocket-Lint are to be believed. The tech site reports that a source confirmed that small print on Apple Store signage stating that the handset would be available in Spring 2011 is correct.
If true, this could mean we'll see the glistening white handset hit the shelves any time from March onwards.
Whiter shade of pale
It has been almost eight months since Apple launched the latest iPhone and promised a white version.
Since then, delay after delay has hit the colour-variant leaving us all wondering how hard it can really be to slap a piece of white plastic on in place of a piece of black.
While we're not inclined to put money on a March release date or anything, it's nice to know there is still light at the end of the black iPhone 4 tunnel.
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Buying Guide: 8 best micro ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards
Big power in a small box. It's a seductive idea that's driven sales of small-form factor (SFF) PCs for centuries. Well, it has done for at least the last decade or so. Shuttle, for instance, does a brisk trade in barebones rigs that promise the performance of a full ATX tower in something the size of a two-slice toaster. The only problem, of course, is that you'll pay handsomely for the privilege. A high performance Shuttle case typically costs around £300.
That's before you drop in a CPU, some RAM, a graphics card and storage. A normal ATX tower with motherboard and PSU can be had for as little as half the cost. Unless, that is, you take a hands-on approach and build a SFF system from scratch.
Small-form factor motherboards, such as microATX and Mini-ITX boards can often be cheaper than full-feature ATX models with the same chipset. Meanwhile, compatible cases are not as expensive as you might think.
Using a smaller board inside a standard ATX case can also make for a simpler, cooler running and easier to manage setup. All of which just leaves the minor matters of performance and features. Surely there must be downsides to downsizing?
Perhaps, but the drawbacks may be less acute than you imagine. The big issue here is increased feature integration in the latest CPUs. Put simply, with more and more features from memory controllers to graphics cores being integrated into the CPU, motherboards are becoming gradually less critical to performance.
Every feature that moves onto the processor is one less component on the motherboard, freeing up space and reducing complexity and cost. In other words, squeezing a full feature set into smaller boards is only getting easier.
Of course, there are limits. Mini-ITX motherboards, in particular, tend to be thin on features and expansion options. Multi-card graphics solutions, for instance, are not an option. There are also question marks regarding outright performance and overclocking headroom.
Smaller motherboard dimensions give the manufacturer's engineers fewer options in terms of electrical layout and in turn current management and signal integrity. Ultimately, a full ATX board is always going to be the best option for any self-respecting extreme overclocking enthusiast and absolute performance nutcase.
For everyone else, however, small-form factor is probably the future. If we've sold you on the big idea of going small, your first task is getting to grips with the different motherboard form factors.
For the record, the ATX standard officially measures 305mm by 244mm while the larger extended ATX or EATX form factor weighs in at 305mm by 330mm. The two most common SFF sizes are microATX and Mini-ITX. Standard MicroATX boards are 244mm by 244mm but can be as small as 171mm by 171mm.
GIGABYTE H55N-USB3: Astonishingly good H55 board. A high-end performer in a tiny package
In practice few microATX boards diverge from the larger format, effectively making them an ATX board with the section furthest from the CPU socket sliced off. If you're familiar with normal ATX boards, you'll know the amputated area typically houses expansion slots in the form of PCI and PCI Express ports. Normally, therefore, microATX boards offer less flexibility when it comes to catering for add-in boards.
Inevitably there will be fewer PCI and PCI Express slots. However, that doesn't mean you have to compromise performance. Any decent microATX board will have at least one 16-lane PCI Express graphics port and a full-on desktop CPU socket. Some, such as Asus's Rampage III Gene, have a pair of 16-lane ports enabling high performance multi-GPU graphics solutions.
Elsewhere, you'll be forced to make few if any compromises with a microATX board. There's absolutely no reason why it shouldn't have decent chipset cooling, plenty of USB headers and SATA ports as well as a pukka BIOS menu with a full set of overclocking options.
Likewise, a well designed microATX mobo should have ample space around the CPU socket for fitting high performance cooling kit and also provide at least two DIMM slots per channel for the system memory. Just like a standard ATX board, in other words.
That's not, however, something you can say about the Mini-ITX standard. Sometimes known simply as ITX, the definition is a clearer than microATX with fixed measurements of 170mm by 170mm. That, if you hadn't already realised, is ridiculously small for a desktop motherboard and means some features are inevitably for the chop because of it.
Most obviously, system expansion options with Mini-ITX boards are a bit borked. Typically, you'll find a single PCI Express 16-lane slot is your lot. There simply isn't any space for further PCI Express or PCI ports.
Another area where limited space causes a crunch involves the DIMM slots. One per channel is the maximum, which can make it trickier to implement upgrades or make the most of old memory you have lying around. Other features that typically get the chop compared with larger boards are SATA ports and USB headers. You'll have some, just not as many as you're used to.
Then there's the BIOS menu. Mini-ITX boards are often aimed at the embedded or industrial markets. Think information kiosks, factory control units and the like. Not, in other words, applications where cranking up the clockspeed or running ultra-fast RAID arrays is a high priority. Overclocking and other fine tuning options can therefore be overlooked.
That said, it's worth noting that Mini-ITX boards normally do not require specialist components. With a few exceptions, off-the-shelf memory, graphics cards and CPUs are usually fully compatible.
However, what you probably won't be able to bolt on is a high performance cooler for the CPU. At least, you won't be able to fit both a fat cooler and a beefy graphics card at the same time. With space at a premium, the CPU socket on Mini-ITX boards is often too close to the PCI Express graphics port to allow both a discrete video card and a large aftermarket heat sink for the CPU.
One final area where Mini-ITX boards sometimes skimp in the name of space is sound: Full 6.1-plus connectivity may not be present. That said, if you're really serious about sound, you'll prefer to use the S/PDIF interface that some motherboards provide.
If that's a general guide to the size and feature sets of microATX and Mini-ITX boards, what about the specifics of chipsets, sockets and CPU support?
The key distinctions here are between AMD and Intel platforms and in turn the differing limitations of the two form factors. Broadly speaking, when it comes to AMD CPU choice is not critical. That's because AMD has just one desktop CPU socket known as AM3. In terms of platform architecture, too, the choice of AMD-compatible chipsets doesn't really make a great deal of difference.
Consequently, whatever form factor you go for, any of AMD's current desktop CPUs should work. That includes everything from a weedy dual-core Athlon chip to AMD's finest six-core powerhouse. The latter is certainly an intriguing prospect in combination with a tiny Mini-ITX board.
It's also something that isn't currently possible with Intel platforms. The proportions of Mini-ITX are simply too small to cater for Intel's top LGA1366 socket, the triple-channel memory configuration it requires and other extras that are part of the X58 chipset including voltage regulators designed to cope with the six-core Gulftown CPU.
However, the slightly simpler LGA1156 socket is a goer in Mini-ITX format. That restricts the options and makes the top Intel option for the smallest form factor the Core i7 880 CPU. It's a quad-core chip with eight threads and significantly more processing power than AMD's fastest six-Core Phenom II X6 model.
Despite the incompatibility of its top six-core chips, therefore, Intel still offers the fastest performing processors for Mini-ITX.
MicroATX, however, is a very different story. Here there are almost no limitations in terms of CPUs, sockets and chipsets. Asus, for instance, will sell you a microATX board based on the X58 chipset and LGA1366 socket. In fact, the Asus Rampage III Gene also supports both AMD CrossFireX and Nvidia SLI in dual-card trim, has excellent cooling and packs a full range of overclocking options.
Speaking of chipsets, one of the reasons why modern SFF boards are even possible is the ever greater level of feature integration in the latest PC processors. Slowly but surely, everything from the memory controller and northbridge to the graphics processor is being assimilated by the CPU. Apart from making boards simpler and more space efficient, it also means that chipsets are becoming less critical.
Figuring out features
However, there are a few chipset related foibles specific to Intel and AMD that are worth noting. The AMD half of the equation is simpler with 785G and 880G integrated chipsets being the weapons of choice for both Mini-ITX and microATX boards.
There's little to choose between the two in terms of the main northbridge chip and integrated Radeon HD 4200 series graphics core. In fact, the 880G is nothing more than a minor revision of the 785G. Instead, it's the southbridge chip that tends to be critical for AMD platforms.
Motherboard makers do have the option to mix and match. However, you'll typically find the 785G chip paired with the SB710 southbridge while boards based on the 880G can be had with the newer SB850 model.
The key difference between the two is support for the latest SATA 6Gbps storage interface, a feature that will be increasingly important as ever faster solid state drives appear. The SB850 has it, the SB710 does not.
In the Intel camp, things are a little more complicated. For microATX boards, you have the full range of Intel chipsets on offer. The two discrete chipsets are the X58 for LGA1366 socket CPUs and the P55 chipset for LGA1156.
The former is Intel's flagship platform and offers high-end features, such as a triple-channel memory interface, more PCI Express lanes than you can shake a DX11 graphics card at and generally more bandwidth than you are ever likely to need.
The P55 chipset is less bleeding edge, but only slightly. It still delivers oodles of bandwidth for both the CPU and peripherals. What neither chipset can provide, however, is support for Intel's so-called Fusion CPUs and their integrated Intel HD graphics cores. These chips are currently sold under the Core i3 500 series and Core i5 600 series brand names.
In plain dual-core processor mode, they will tango with the P55 chipset. Exposing their graphics capabilities, however, requires an H55 or H57 motherboard wired up with video outputs. There's not much to choose between these two, but the H57 does come with a few extras.
For starters, you get a couple of additional PCI Express lanes for peripherals. On a full-sized ATX board, that might come in handy. But for an SFF system, it's arguably less irrelevant. More useful is the H57's native support for RAID configurations courtesy of Intel's Rapid Storage Technology. The H57 also offers a few more USB 2.0 connections.
What no current Intel chipset offers is native support for USB 3.0 or SATA 6Gbps. If you want either feature, you'll need to hunt down a motherboard with additional controller chips, pushing up the price.
Speaking of money, you may be surprised to learn that building your own system based on an SFF motherboard can actually be remarkably cost effective. Part of the reason is that smaller boards provide less opportunity for feature creep. Put another way, there's no space for board makers to add pointless features you're never going to use.
A good microATX board will have everything you need for a powerful PC but cost less than a full ATX board. You can take direct advantage of that by fitting a microATX board to a full ATX tower case. A smaller motherboard certainly makes for an easier build process and a less crowded case, too.
But we think it makes more sense to take advantage of the smaller board dimensions and go for compact SFF case. MicroATX cases complete with 450W PSUs can be had from as little as £25. If you want something with more firepower, it's best to buy the case and PSU separately.
Given the price of Shuttle systems, you might expect Mini-ITX cases to be much more expensive. But scan.co.uk, for instance, will currently sell you a Mini-ITX toaster case complete with 300W PSU for just £28. Add a motherboard and that's around £100 all in for a package that should match a £300 Shuttle for performance even if it's not quite in the same ballpark for build quality.
The sense of small
An SFF system, then, needn't be expensive or miss out on features that actually matter. But will it perform on a par with a full ATX rig? The simple answer is yes. Thanks again to the greater level of feature integration in the latest CPUs, small boards are capable of delivering big performance.
In our testing, there's literally nothing to choose between a full ATX board and a tiny Mini-ITX mobo if you are comparing, for instance, an Intel Core i7 870 processor running on the H55 at stock clock speeds. The smaller system will be just as fast. The same goes for AMD's chips.
What's more, given the bargain basement pricing of AMD's six-core chips, the idea of dropping a Phenom II X6 into a tiny toaster case certainly sounds like fun. What's more, even storage shouldn't be an issue. A dualdrive solution with an SSD boot drive for speed and a monster conventional hard disk for mass storage is the perfect SFF solution.
SUPERCOMPUTER: Looking to build a super triple SLI rig? MicroATX isn't for you.
What's more, even overclocking isn't off the menu. Gigabyte's H55N-USB3 Mini-ITX board will happily run Core i7 chips at 4GHz with the proviso that you have an adequate PSU and can find a decent CPU cooler compatible with the space constraints.
The one area where smaller systems arguably lose ground, however, is graphics. Most microATX and all Mini-ITX motherboards and cases lack support for SLI and CrossFireX multi-GPU graphics. That said, for most people a single, powerful 3D board is the best solution. Frankly, there are few situations where the likes of a Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 doesn't get the job done.
So, there you have it. A smaller board can make the basis of a compact, cost effective rig without compromising on performance or key features. Going small really is a very big idea.
1. Asus M4A89GTD Pro/USB3
Pity AMD's current CPUs aren't a bit more competitive, because there are some cracking AMD-compatible motherboards available. They really do stick it to Intel in terms of features and value. Asus's new M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 is a prime example.
The big news is the arrival of the 890GX chipset from AMD. With it come a number of upgrades – some significant, some less so.
Of course, a pair of PCI-e x16 ports await the insertion of proper graphics firepower. But if that's what you have in mind, what do you need the integrated GPU for in the first place?
Read our full Asus M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 review
2. Asus Rampage III Extreme
The Republic of Gamers motherboards from Asus have always been the performance kings of its product catalogue, and as such have always had a fairly hefty price premium slapped on top of them. They're not just great performing items, they also come with all the bells and whistly things you could want in a board.
In short, the ROG mobos are the money's-no-object parts you throw in your machine if you never have to ask how much they cost. At £330, the oversized X58- based Rampage III Extreme (R3E) definitely fits then, but it's not a board that you can just throw into a PC to instantly make it faster.
Read our full Asus Rampage III Extreme review
3. Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H
AMD doesn't make the fastest PC processors on planet Earth. We can all agree on that. But in terms of bang for your British buck, the world's second-string CPU maker still has plenty to offer.
Put simply, you get a lot for your money if you go with an AMD platform. Take this Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H microATX motherboard. It's based on AMD's latest 880G integrated chipset and also sports the SB850 southbridge chip.
Read our Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H review
4. Gigabyte H55N-USB3
Slide the latest PC processors under a microscope and you'll discover transistors measuring just 32nm across. So ludicrously tiny, in other words, that 500nm would fit inside the width of a human hair.
Thus, enquiring minds might wonder why anyone needs a hulking great PC system based on the ATX motherboard form factor. Instead, why not go for a much smaller system based on a Mini-ITX board, such as the Gigabyte H55N-USB3?
Read our Gigabyte H55N-USB3 review
5. MSI H55M-ED55
Mega money mobos with features to match are all very well. But most mere mortals want a mobo that ticks all the important boxes without threatening their mortgage payments.
At £70, the MSI H55M-ED55 is competitively priced for a board with Intel's LGA1156 socket. Thanks to the H55 chipset, it gives you plenty of options too.
Read our MSI H55M-ED55 review
6. Sapphire IPC-AM3DD785G review
Workhorse motherboards aimed at embedded and commercial applications tend not to make fine fillies in the context of home PCs. With that in mind, what chance has the Sapphire IPC-AM3DD785G in the Mini-ITX motherboard stakes?
Read our Sapphire IPC-AM3DD785G review
7. Zotac H55-ITX WiFi
Stuffing Intel's desktop-class H55 chipset into a miniscule Mini-ITX motherboard is hardly a standard procedure.
However, the Zotac H55-ITX WiFi can't hope to get by based on nothing more than novelty. It must beat the likes of Gigabyte's identically proportioned and similarly specified H55N-USB3.
Read our Zotac H55-ITX WiFi review
8. Zotac IONITX-P-E
We're big fans of Nvidia's plucky little ION motherboard chipset. What we haven't enjoyed is the feeble Intel Atom processor it's been saddled with. But what if you could have all the yummy graphics goodness of ION combined with a tastier CPU? Luckily, that's the very meaning of the Zotac IONITX-P-E's existence.
Read our Zotac IONITX-P-E review
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Orange Samsung Galaxy S gets Android 2.2 update
Orange customers can finally install Android 2.2 (Froyo) to Samsung Galaxy S handsets.The update has been a long time coming, with rumours that the Galaxy S would linger on 2.1 forever.
Samsung originally said the update would come to the smartphone in September 2010, but quickly changed its tune and promised a November release.
The Kies to unlock the update
Now it's February 2011 and this is the first sniff that Orange users in the UK have had of the Android update for the Galaxy S.
The update can only be installed using Samsung's Kies software. It's a bit of a hassle as you have to connect your handset to your computer to get the update, with the over-the-air upgrade scrapped last year.
As with any software update, we'd strongly recommend you back your phone up before you start downloading to avoid losing any data.
Could this be the last software update rolled out to the Galaxy S? Given all the issues rolling out 2.2 and Samsung set to announce its successor at Mobile World Congress 2011, it's a definite possibility.
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T-Mobile G-Slate - LG's Android 3.0 tablet announced
The T-Mobile G-Slate has finally been officially revealed, bringing 3D to tablets for the very first time.The T-Mobile G-Slate - rumoured to be called the LG Optimus Pad in the UK - has been made by LG and features an 8.9-inch 3D-capable multi-touch display (1280x720) and the ability to record and view 3D HD content.
Powered by Android 3.0 – which is Honeycomb to those with a sweet tooth – the tablet has built-in 3D graphical capabilities – there's an Nvidia Tegra 2 chip inside – and will be capable of 4G connection speeds in the US.
3D capable
Unlike the the upcoming LG Optimus 3D, you will have to watch the 3D content on the device through glasses as the screen is stereoscopic.
When we are on the subject of specs, ahem, you will be pleased to hear that the T-Mobile G-Slate has some power behind it, courtesy of its dual-core CPU.
It is also equipped with a 5MP camera and LED flash, 3D video recording, 32GB internal memory, Flash support, HDMI output and Wi-Fi.
There's no T-Mobile G-Slate UK release date as of yet but we will be bringing you this information and a hands-on at Mobile World Congress 2011.
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Freeview HD hits the million milestone
Freeview has hit a major landmark, with more than one million Freeview HD televisions and set top boxes sold. Freeview believes that 642,000 homes are now using Freeview HD kit – although it is not clear how many of those people are actually using the HD service or if it is just built into their new television.
A major sales spurt in December boosted Freeview HD to a current total of 1.2 million – with Freeview televisions accouting for 22 per cent of the iDTV market in December.
Options
With HD becoming a major selling point for people in the UK, Freeview HD offers a subscription free option for those who do not want a satellite dish or cable connection.
Currently Freeview HD offers four HD channels – BBC One HD, BBC HD, ITV 1HD and 4HD.
Freeview+HD PVRs also sold well, outselling standard Freeview boxes two to one and showing a 118 per cent increase.
Milestone
Ilse Howling, Freeview's Managing Director says: "Reaching this milestone within the first year of launching Freeview HD is a great achievement.
"We know from talking to Freeview viewers that having high definition is becoming the standard when considering what type of equipment to buy.
"As Freeview HD continues to roll out to new areas of the UK this year, it's exciting that Freeview can meet this need by offering quality HD channels without a subscription."
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T-Mobile G-Slate - LG's Android 3.0 tablet announced
The T-Mobile G-Slate has finally been officially revealed, bringing 3D to tablets for the very first time.The T-Mobile G-Slate - rumoured to be called the LG Optimus Pad in the UK - has been made by LG and features an 8.9-inch 3D-capable multi-touch display (1280x720) and the ability to record and view 3D HD content.
Powered by Android 3.0 – which is Honeycomb to those with a sweet tooth – the tablet has built-in 3D graphical capabilities – there's an Nvidia Tegra 2 chip inside – and will be capable of 4G connection speeds in the US.
3D capable
Unlike the the upcoming LG Optimus 3D, you will have to watch the 3D content on the device through glasses as the screen is stereoscopic.
When we are on the subject of specs, ahem, you will be pleased to hear that the T-Mobile G-Slate has some power behind it, courtesy of its dual-core CPU.
It is also equipped with a 5MP camera and LED flash, 3D video recording, 32GB internal memory, Flash support, HDMI output and Wi-Fi.
There's no T-Mobile G-Slate UK release date as of yet but we will be bringing you this information and a hands-on at Mobile World Congress 2011.
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