Google Maps for Android adds indoor locations
Google has updated its ever-popular Maps app for Android devices by bringing floorplans for a host of indoor locations.
Google Maps 6.0, which is a free update for phones loaded with Android 2.1 and up, will bring you intimate details of many shopping centres and airports in the US and Japan.
The location-based app works almost like the "You are here" directories you see dotted around airports and malls, which have confused the living daylights out of us since the dawn of conscious thought.
Google's iteration does so with precision GPS guiding your every step in the form of that little blue dot on the landscape.
Floor sensitive
Better still, the app is also sensitive to which floor you're on, so if you go up an escalator in the shopping centre, the list of stores will update. Likewise at the airport.Some of the participating partners are The Mall of America, Home Depot, IKEA and selected Macy's stores, while airports in San Francisco, Chicago and Atlanta are also on board.
The announcement on the official Google blog made no mention of when the new app may be rolled-out to other countries.
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Microsoft brings WP emulator to Android and iPhone
Microsoft has enabled Android and iPhone users to get a taste of what life would be like on Windows Phone, with a neat browser-based demo.
The HTML5 demonstration showcases Windows Phone's Metro user-interface and allows you to follow through and experience the operating system's basic functionality.
You can view within the Phone, People, Messaging, Outlook, Calendar, Family, Local Scout and Picture tiles, while the emulator guides you through the main features.
Each of the tiles work as they would on any Windows Phone 7 handset.
Shedding the stigma
Android and iPhone users can reach the Windows Phone demo by typing http://aka.ms/wpdemo into the browser.The demonstration is a nice idea from Microsoft, as it seeks to prize away mobile users from the big two and shed the stigma of previous Windows Mobile iterations.
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Spotify set to share the music love with other apps?
Spotify teased the world last week with the revelation that it is about to go in a 'new direction' at an event on 30 November, and it seems this could mean that it is to open its service up to third-party developers.
This is according to All Things Digital which is reporting that Spotify is ready to open up its API so that devs can access its library and make wonderful new products from the musical bounty.
When it comes to Spotify's game plan so far, the company has relied on apps to get its service into as many places as possible – that and a massive deal with Facebook which upped its subscriber count to 2.5 million users.
Sharing the music love
If the rumours are true then Spotify is indeed embarking on a new direction that would see many more music-based apps use its content.There are myriad problems with this, however, and most of them involve just what sort of deals Spotify has made with music labels.
But if it has convinced the labels that they should open up their music to as many places as possible under the guidance of Spotify then we could soon see the service stretch to many more places and make it not so dependent on the company's own app.
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British Newspaper Archive launches
The British library has announced it has launched a new online archive which features back issues of more than 200 newspapers from the UK and Ireland.
The British Library has been busy digitising content for the last year and predicts that the archive will take 10 years to complete.
The website, www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk, is a fascinating insight into the history of journalism and contains myriad articles that go all the way back to the 1700s.
The idea of the website was to digitise actual newspapers that can be found at the British Library, giving more people than ever before access to these historical documents.
If that sounds familiar, it's because Google tried to do a similar thing with its Google News Archive - but this was closed in July of this year.
Extraordinary archive
Speaking about the new site, Ed King from the British Library, said: "People will find this archive extraordinary on both a personal and historical level. For the first time people can search for their ancestors through the pages of our newspapers wherever they are in the world at any time."But what's really striking is how these pages take us straight back to scenes of murders, social deprivation and church meetings from hundreds of year ago, which we no longer think about as we haven't been able to easily access articles about them."
The archive consists of over 40 million newspaper pages and due to the amount of content on offer it is subscription based.
Although you can search for any article, to actually view the content, the price is: £6.95 for 48-hour access; £29.95 for 30 days or £79.95 for a yearly sub.
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EU: Programming language can't be copyrighted
The EU Court of Justice's advocate general, Yves Bot, has said that to allow programming language to be copyrighted would only lead to monopolies in the IT industry.
Bot offered his recommendations for the case of SAS Institute which is suing World Programing Ltd for infringing its copyrights by copying its programmes.
"The functionalities of a computer program and the programming language cannot be protected by copyright," said Bot.
"If it were accepted that a functionality of a computer program can be protected as such, that would amount to making it possible to monopolise ideas, to the detriment of technological progress and industrial development."
Ro-Bot
But Bot argued that the ways in which elements of the programming language are used can be protected, in the same way that a writer putting specific words into a certain order can claim intellectual property over them."The way in which formulae and algorithms are arranged - like the style in which the computer program is written - will be likely to reflect the authors own intellectual creation and therefore be eligible for protection," he said.
Although the opinions expressed by Bot aren't legally binding, his thoughts converge with those of the England and Wales court which went to the European Court of Justice for advice on the SAS Institute case in the first place.
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Microsoft overhauls SkyDrive cloud storage
Microsoft has announced that its cloud-based storage system SkyDrive has been overhauled to allow 'app-centric' sharing.
Microsoft insists that the update, which also offers up better file management, HTML5 uploads and CSS transitions, is based on user feedback.
Also included are photo improvements (including geo-tagging support), support for more file types and performance enhancements.
Key product
SkyDrive is a key Microsoft product, although it has very much been left in the background to date, basically offering cloud storage that can be tied into a plethora of the software giant's other products.Microsoft's changes should mean single file sharing is much easier, and documents in Office Web Apps can be shared from within the program rather than forcing you to exit – a key complaint of SkyDrive users to date.
Drag and drop has been implemented for HTML5 file API supporting browsers, and rich PDF files can now be read from within SkyDrive.
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Bug-less Samsung Galaxy Nexus lands at UK retailer
One UK retailer is reporting that it has received stock of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in which the volume bug is fixed.
Clove claims that the new handsets have received a software update to fix the erratic decibel dives that seemed to surface when the Galaxy Nexus ran on a 2G network.
Expansys those horizons
A second retailer, Expansys, has issued a statement saying that it expects its updated Galaxy Nexus stock to arrive on 30 November."The Galaxy Nexus is due in stock tomorrow (30th November)," the statement reads.
"The new stock has had a Google approved firmware update applied to it by Samsung's distributors in order to fix the bug with volume control that affected some original stock."
Sadly there's no word from Samsung yet on when existing Galaxy Nexus owners can expect the patch, but we'd expect it to follow the updated handsets fairly soon.
Those still um-ing and ah-ing over whether or not to invest in the Ice Cream Sandwich wielding Galaxy Nexus would do well to take a shufty at our video review below:
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Chancellor pledges more money for UK broadband
Chancellor George Osborne outlined the government's economic plans in his autumn statement this week and revealed a number of commitments to technological progress in the UK.
The tech highlights of the speech included plans to overhaul the country's digital infrastructure and offer tax relief to start-ups that chose the UK as their base.
The statement comes at a time when the UK and Europe faces a worsening economic climate, so it's reassuring that broadband and mobile phone connectivity still very much feature in the government's budget plans.
"We will overhaul the digital infrastructure [of the UK]," explained Osborne.
"The government is funding plans to bring superfast broadband to 90 per cent of homes and businesses across the country, and extend mobile phone coverage to 99 per cent of families.
"This will help create a living, economically vibrant countryside."
It is not just the countryside that is getting help from the government. Part of Osborne's commitment to super-fast broadband is that there is set to be improvements to ten cities in the UK.
"Our great cities are at the heart of our regional economies. And we will help bring world-leading, superfast broadband and Wi-Fi connections to ten of them," he revealed.
Some of the cities to benefit are: London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast.
It's business time
The government is hoping to entice small and medium sized businesses to the UK and has also committed to funding new scientific projects."At a time of difficult choices, we made ours last year when we committed to protect the science budget," explained Osborne.
"Today we're confirming almost half a billion pounds for scientific projects, from supercomputing and satellite technology to a world-beating animal health laboratory.
"We will provide funds for smaller technology firms in Britain who find it difficult to turn their innovations into commercial success.
"We have listened to the ideas from business groups about encouraging innovation in larger companies, and we will introduce a new 'above the line' research and development tax credit in 2013 that will increase its visibility and generosity."
In all, there will be an extra £100 million invested in better broadband for cities which it hopes will entice small businesses to the UK.
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Review: Sony Tablet P
Overview
This time last year - when the Tablet P wasn't even a twinkle in Sony's eye - we were weeping into a mound of rubbish iPad rip-offs, begging for sweet release from our tiresome lives.Every week we saw yet more rectangular lumps of plastic, fit only for use as door wedges. They ran outdated versions of Google's Android operating system, designed for the humble smartphone, so the blocky desktops and stretched-out apps looked truly horrendous.
But just as we were headed to the bathtub with our toasters, two miraculous things happened. First, Google released Android Honeycomb - a slick, tablet-oriented version of its mobile operating system. And second, manufacturers started paying attention to the slew of negative reviews and actually started producing decent devices.
The excellent Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, ViewSonic ViewPad 7, Motorola Xoom and the innovative Asus Eee Pad Slider are all fantastic devices, which we'd happily use as our personal tablets. At long last Apple has competition for its much-loved iPad 2.
Sony has further innovated the humble tablet by releasing this dual-screen Google Android beast, nicknamed the Tablet P. Unlike the folded-magazine design of the recent Sony Tablet S, this device folds in the middle, similar to Nintendo's handheld 3DS console.
However, the Sony Tablet P is up against some strong competition, coming after so many other great Honeycomb tablets. The £499 UK/$599 US asking price isn't doing it any favours either, with many of its rivals available for £299-£399.
So can the Sony Tablet P do enough to warrant a purchase from more than just Sony fanboys?
Features
We were a little surprised at how chunky the Sony Tablet P looks, as our (admittedly useless) memory of the prototype models was a slim and sexy build. However, it still slips easily into a handbag, and we even managed to cram it into our jeans pocket.
The 375g weight makes it lighter than many competitors and comfortable to hold for extended periods. The Sony Tablet P is solid enough too - we only noticed a little flex when pushing on the exterior.
The Sony Tablet P's smart clamshell design is a great way to keep the dual screens protected on the move, especially if you throw your kit straight into a bag before hitting the road. You'll still want to take care of the tablet, however, since the silver finish picks up light scratches quite easily. Keys and other sharp items are its mortal enemy.
Google's Android Honeycomb 3.2 operating system runs the show and does a sterling job as usual. Barring a couple of little tweaks, this appeared to be vanilla Honeycomb. You have five homescreens to populate with apps and widgets, and our review tablet came with plenty of both.
We won't dwell on the operating system's functionality because we've said plenty about it already in our Android Honeycomb review. All we'll say is it's well implemented here, and the only issue we had was the occasional icon selection, thanks to the compact screens. More on that later.
You can browse the web using Wi-Fi, or 3G if you have a valid SIM card with a data contract. Web browsing is smooth, and as usual you can zoom in or out with a pinch of the fingers. Flash video is also currently supported in the browser, which is standard for Honeycomb tablets – for now.
Unfortunately, the Sony Tablet P's Wi-Fi receiver isn't great. Just 10m from our home router we had a full signal on our laptop, but the Sony Tablet P barely registered the network. Cue the occasional "No internet connection" message when loading pages.
We haven't noticed this problem with other Honeycomb tablets, making this doubly disappointing.
Despite the chunky build, you only get a single mini USB port and an internal microSD slot on the Sony Tablet P.
You'll want to use a memory card too, because the 4GB of storage fills up instantly if you're carrying music or movies around. Considering many rivals such as the Asus Eee Pad Transformer and ViewSonic ViewPad 7 have 8-16GB of storage space, this seems particularly stingy.
We were also disappointed to note that the Sony Tablet P doesn't charge via USB, only via the mains. At least we had no trouble copying files between the tablet and our computer with the USB port, using Windows Explorer.
Performance
Skimming through the Sony Tablet P's menus is a smooth experience, as expected from the Japanese giant. The desktop is split between the two screens, both of which are touch-sensitive. While we thought the bezel separating the two screens might be irritating, it rarely gets in the way.
Apps are spread across the two displays, which again takes a little getting used to but generally works fine. It can be a little disorienting when using the likes of Google Maps, with streets appearing skewed across the bezel, but we didn't encounter many problems.
However, we're unlikely to see many apps emerging soon that actually take advantage of the dual-screen setup, which is a real shame.
The dual 5.5-inch screens are supremely crisp, thanks to the sharp 1024 x 480p resolution. Photos and movies look fantastic, with realistic rendering. Sadly you can only view movies and photos on the top screen, with the bottom screen used for media controls.
Of course this makes sense - who actually wants to watch a film with a thick black line across the centre - but the compact upper display isn't an ideal way to watch a Hollywood blockbuster. Not only is there not much screen space, your films are also bordered either side by thick black lines due to the narrow aspect ratio.
Note that full-screen YouTube videos play over both displays, while 4OD TV shows are shunted to the top screen. Bizarrely, full-screen iPlayer videos are crushed into a tiny box on the upper screen, so you'll want to watch them in a pop-out window instead.
The Sony Tablet P is compatible with MP4 and WMV movie files, as standard for Android Honeycomb tablets. We tested a couple of Full HD 1080p films and they played perfectly, with no stuttering or smearing.
However, if you're watching movies we'd recommend using a pair of earphones even if you're nestled in your sofa at home. The Sony Tablet P's built-in speakers are tinny, so you'll struggle to hear if there's any kind of background noise.
We were impressed by the brightness of the screens. You can comfortably use the tablet even in bright sunlight, despite the reflective surface (which is a magnet for fingerprints).
Viewing angles are among the best we've seen on a tablet.
If you're looking for a tablet for instant messaging or bashing out emails on the move, the Sony Tablet P is a great option. Its compact build means it's comfortable to hold the device two-handed and type with your thumbs, while Honeycomb's virtual keyboard is one of the better efforts we've tested.
Predictive text brings up a row of possible words when typing to speed up the process.
However, the tiny screens make precision-selection a royal pain at times. For instance, the tiny Wi-Fi icon in the bottom-right corner often takes two or three jabs before the menu appears, and good luck trying to change the volume in the likes of 4OD.
We were frothing with rage after five minutes of prodding, and only a serious kitten-stroking session could calm us down.
One unique feature of the Sony Tablet P is the ability to download and play classic PlayStation 1 games. The compact build is well suited to playing titles such as Crash Bandicoot (which came pre-loaded), thanks to that comfortable grip, while the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor handles these games with ease.
Of course you're restricted to using virtual touchscreen buttons, which can be a little awkward during fast-paced moments, but it worked better than we expected. Our major gripe was the shoulder buttons, which are shunted to the top screen and are very difficult to reach with your thumbs.
Another niggle is the impending release of the PlayStation Vita, which costs considerably less than the Sony Tablet P, features proper buttons and thumbpads, and can do much of the same stuff - including surfing the web and playing media. Hardcore gamers should certainly wait for that to emerge.
The Sony Tablet P is certainly compact enough to carry around everywhere you go, but how does its battery fare?
We found it drained quickly when playing games or watching video, lasting just over three hours on average - although that's with screen brightness turned to max and Wi-Fi enabled. If you drop settings and don't push it so hard, you should get five to six hours of use before it gives up.
Camera
A 5MP rear camera on the Sony Tablet P takes reasonably sharp pictures, thanks to the built-in auto-focus, although this generally takes two to three seconds to lock onto your target/victim. We rarely found our subject was blurred, even though you can't select which area to focus on manually.
However, both interior and exterior shots often came out darker than expected. We usually had to take two or three shots before we had one that was light enough to see clearly. There's no flash, so good luck trying to take a photo in a dim interior.
See full-res image
See full-res image
See full-res image
See full-res image
See full-res image
See full-res image
See full-res image
You get an 8x digital zoom for distant shots, but photo quality dips considerably once this is in play. As you can see from our example photos, detail levels are poor and you get serious blur.
As with pretty much all tablet cameras, it's more of a 'snap an unexpected moment' device than a dedicated camera.
You can also shoot videos if the mood grabs you, which are pixelated but perfectly serviceable.
You also have a front-facing VGA camera for web chats, which does a good job of capturing your mug without motion blur or other side-effects. This is bizarrely located off to the side of the top screen, so you'll appear to be staring off into nothing during Skype calls. It's not ideal, but mildly comical for whoever you're speaking with.
Verdict
We admire Sony for taking a more novel approach with both of its tablets, but £499 is a lot to ask for a Honeycomb device. With a price like that, the Sony Tablet P has to really perform compared to its rivals.
We liked
The clamshell design protects the dual screens, and means this is one of the few tablets you can squeeze into an (admittedly large) pocket. We found the compact build made it a comfortable device for typing and web browsing.Those screens are bright, crisp and vibrant, like you'd expect from Sony. The capacitive surfaces are responsive to swipes and prods and the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor keeps things running smoothly.
A 5MP rear camera takes decent shots, although we wouldn't replace our compact camera or even our smartphone just yet. Video chat fans get a decent VGA front-facing camera.
Nostalgic gaming fans can also download and play classic PlayStation 1 games, for a small cost.
We disliked
Although it's great to have the option to play PS1 titles on the Sony Tablet P, we weren't massive fans of the virtual buttons. They work better than we expected but the lack of tactile feedback is a pain in fast-paced action games, while the shoulder buttons are tricky to reach on the upper screen.The Sony Tablet P isn't quite the ideal device for watching movies on the go, either. Videos are generally crushed onto the top screen, while the built-in speakers are rather rubbish.
We also found Wi-Fi reception was a little ropey, with signal swiftly dropping off as we moved away from our router.
Final verdict
If your current tablet has been scratched to ruins, you should definitely consider the Sony Tablet P. Its unique folding design makes it easy to carry and protects the dual screens, and the compact build makes it great for carrying around, getting online and social networking.However, movie fans will likely prefer a single-screen tablet such as the Sony Tablet S, and we reckon gamers will wait for the Playstation Vita instead.
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Review: Updated: Apple TV
Overview
This second version of Apple TV (also commonly known as Apple TV 2) dumped its forebear's 40GB of local storage, chopped its footprint by three-quarters and halved its UK price down to £99.But its real advance only became apparent when iOS 5 was released in October 2011, which is why we're updating this review, first published when Apple TV 2 was released in 2010.
iOS 5 has opened up Apple TV to a whole new level of functionality, which means that if you're an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch owner its well worth reconsidering Apple's little black box if you don't already own one, because it just developed a reason to exist.
Perhaps we're being a bit harsh though – Apple TV has always been a darn good media streamer to use with your Mac/PC. You simply plug it into your HD TV via a HDMI cable and connect it to your Wi-Fi network using the on-screen menus and you're good to go.
But while Apple's 2010 refresh saw a welcome reduction in its price, it still wasn't clear what the point of Apple TV was.
The biggest confusion is that it still doesn't let you do what its name would suggest - i.e. watch TV channels over the Internet.
Instead its a device for streaming your media from iTunes on your Mac or PC for playback on your TV over Wi-Fi using a system called AirPlay, or for renting or buying movies directly from the iTunes Store, cutting your computer out of the equation altogether. That's all well and good, but it's only with the most recent update to iOS that Apple TV has really found its feet.
The first exciting feature that hooks up Apple TV and iOS 5 is mirroring, in which everything that appears on your iPad/iPhone/iPod touch's screen also appears on your TV as you use it.
This has many obvious applications - from a quick way to display photos from your iPhone to a teacher giving a presentation in a classroom, but gaming is the most exciting one.
Some iOS games, like Real Racing 2 HD or Modern Combat 3take simple mirroring to the next level, enabling you to use your iPhone as the controller for the game, which is displayed on your TV, effectively moving you into proper games console territory: There's you on the sofa, your iPhone in your hand as a controller and the game on your big screen TV with no wires getting in the way.
Anyone who has ever had any experience of doing anything complicated over Wi-Fi might be forgiven for thinking this is a venture doomed to be a laggy mess of bad connections and random error messages, but amazingly it's not - in true Apple style it just works.
Just watch this video of Modern Combat 3 playing on an iPhone 4S connected to an Apple TV 2 to see what a simple and elegant solution it is.
It's almost perfect, and games like Real Racing where you use the accelerometer to 'steer' your car work really well. The only problem is the lack of physical buttons on the iPhone mean you often have to look down at the iPhone's screen to make sure you've got your thumb in the right place to fire, which spoils the experience somewhat.
Next is Photo Stream. Photo Stream is part of Apple's free iCloud service - its designed to give you quick access to any photos you've taken on one device on all your devices.
So, take a photo on your iPhone and it automatically appears on your computer and all your other iOS devices automatically, without having to sync.
To make all this work you have a Photo Stream album connected to your Apple ID that lives in the cloud, and Apple TV can now access this album displaying your photos with ease. So, you can take pictures of the kids at your school's sports day, then watch them back on your Apple TV when you get back to the house without having to manually upload them somewhere, or go anywhere near your computer.
They just appear there as if by magic. And of course Apple present your photos beautifully too - the slideshows are gorgeous, with a large variety of styles from polaroid-like snaps to classy reflections.
iOS 5 also supports Airplay streaming from your iOS devices to Apple TV, so you can stream a movie from your iPad to your Apple TV, as well as from your Mac or PC. Again, it's as simple as could be - when you play a movie there's an Airplay button that turns blue when it detects an Apple TV on your Wi-Fi network.
Just tap this, select Apple TV and it throws the movie over to the Apple TV where it immediately starts playing. It works equally well with music from your iOS 5's iPod app.
Since we first reviewed the new Apple TV back in 2010 the menu system has changed quite a bit, and for the better we might add, but before we look at that let's recap the hardware.
//cThe rear of the device now only has HDMI for video (but no HDMI cable in the box, so you'll need to bring your own), optical audio and Ethernet, though 802.11n wireless networking is built in. Dumping other video inputs makes sense, though it will annoy some as will the lack of phono audio outputs.
Inside is Apple's A4 processor, now one generation behind compared to the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, but still perfectly capable. It doesn't make a sound when its on either, so it won't distract you while you're watching a movie with whirring fans like some PCs can when used as a home media centre.
A shiny new aluminium Apple remote is included with the Apple TV, though you can also control Apple TV with Apple's Remote app available for iPad, iPod touch and iPhone.
Interface
Apple TV works seamlessly with any iTunes 10 install with Home Sharing enabled – all you need to do to set it up is enter your Wi-Fi password and then the sync is performed using your Apple ID. Once that's done all the content from your iTunes library will be available (so long as your computer is connected to the network and iTunes is opened, that is).
The inclusion of the A4 processor makes Apple TV absolutely zip through menus and, having used various media streaming devices, this is certainly the most responsive we've tested. The menus are extremely simple to use - the Apple TV controller only has a click-wheel style navigation buttons and a menu and play/pause button.
Our only gripe being that there's no easy way to go back to the top menu level - pressing the Menu button takes you back up one level, but if you've watched several YouTube videos, for example, you have to go back through each one a click at a time to get back to the menu.
In the US new Apple TV has expands on the UK's four main menus - Movies, Internet, Computers and Settings to include TV Shows, Music, Podcasts and Photos at the top level, but here in the UK we still have just the four menu headings, with Podcasts and Photo Stream hidden away in the Internet menu. As this suggests, there's no way of browsing or buying TV Shows and Music on the Apple TV in the UK - you're limited to purchasing Movies. Your only options for buying TV shows and music is to purchase on a Mac or PC, then stream them across.
The best thing about the Apple TV interface is that content is presented so nicely. The Movies selection is pretty good - it's current and you can view trailers for everything before deciding to purchase. iTunes rentals are available for £3.49 for HD films, £2.49 for SD – you have 30 days to start watching and then 48 hours to finish once you've clicked to rent. You can also view trailers for films in theatres.
The Internet menu is where the rest of the action is. The Podcasts selection again looks nice, and sensibly enables you to just browse all the video podcasts on offer - there's a Featured collection and a Top Podcasts selection, which is a great way to discover new content.
Another example of Apple TV's US bias is the MLB.TV option - that's Major League Baseball, in case you didn't know. If you have a (paid-for) subscription then there's an option to view live games. There's also an option to view the free Wall Street Journal Live for financial-related news. We'd preferred to see a BBC option here for a UK audience instead.
For video there's YouTube and Vimeo. Both of these are superb, enabling you to search for content easily and you can log in with your YouTube user name, so that your Favorites are easily accessible. The on-screen keyboard you use for searches is merely adequate for the task - there is none of that usual Apple inventiveness here, but then, Apple's determination to have a simple remote is the source of the frustration.
Actually playing video - whether from your own PC or Mac using AirPlay or from YouTube or one of the other Internet services - is responsive and the experience is, by and large, pleasant. You can do all the usual things like fast forward, rewind, pause and play.
There's also a Flickr option, but we found integration slightly sluggish. We've already touched on Photo Stream, but again, we should stress how beautifully everything is presented, and the only menu option really letting the side down here is the Radio entry, which is as terrible as it is in iTunes itself - just a basic category tree. Where is a decent search? Or a Favourites option?
From a UK perspective more could definitely be done though. What about iPlayer? Like the ITV and Channel 4 players, it's nowhere to be seen, and frankly, we don't really care about baseball - where's the cricket coverage?
Home Sharing
So, to the Computers menu. You'll need to enable Home Sharing in iTunes on your Mac or PC first and this works alongside your Apple ID.
It's a real shame that the Apple TV can't stream content from an iTunes Server on a network storage device. Some have managed to get this working by hacking Apple TV boxes in the past, but it seems absolutely crazy of Apple to restrict this. Why should you have to have your Mac or PC running to stream media? And also, why does it have to be in iTunes first?
Vast improvements have been made to viewing your own content on the Apple TV 2 from its initial release though. When it comes to music you get album art, although not the nice Cover Flow view you may have been expecting - why Apple hasn't included this great browsing method in Apple TV's software is anybody's guess, because it seems like such a natural fit.
And there's no visualiser or any groovy visuals to accompany your music, which is disappointing considering the efforts Apple has gone to when displaying photos. You could however start an album playing then head off to your photos collection and start a slideshow, but it feels like a lot of hassle to go to. We'd rather have an option right there to just have something nice to look at when playing music.
Your Movies are now grouped by either genre, alphabetically or you can go straight to anything that is unwatched. There's no search option - you simply have to scroll through a list, but unless you've got a massive movies collection that shouldn't be a problem. There's also a preview thumbnail of each movie to help you find what you're looking for. Your TV Shows and Podcasts use exactly the same menu system.
Finally there's the Photos menu - here you can look at any photos from your iPhoto album on a Mac with ease using great slideshows.
Despite its simplicity, Apple TV does have a lot of settings you can tweak, plus a screensaver you can change. You can use your own photos in the screen saver, too - providing they are synchronised with iTunes on your computer. There's also your Photo Stream which you can use as a screen saver.
Verdict
Apple TV is still one of the best media streamers you can get, and is holding off the challenge from Google TV well (we've still to see a Google TV launch in the UK, and Logitech has recently given up on it altogether And while we'd love it if it actually played TV channels the iOS 5 enhancements add yet another string to its bow, and turn it into a must-have device for iOS device owners.
But while we love Apple TV it still has three big issues.
When it comes to performance Apple TV is still the most reliable media streamer we've seen. But this reliability comes at a cost - and that's flexibility. Other streamers can take content from NAS devices and other sources, but Apple TV needs you to have your Mac or PC on, and the media to be inside your iTunes library to work effectively. It seems a bit draconian, but then again so is Apple. But the boons are reliability and speed - Apple TV simply can't be beaten here.
The second is to do with the UK. In the US, the box is compatible with Netflix, providing video on demand TV programmes and movies for a fee. In the UK, there is no such service available for Apple TV. LoveFilm would be an obvious partner, but it hasn't happened yet.
We also don't get the same menu options that are available in the US - we can't buy or rent TV Shows on the Apple TV yet, for example. We hope these things will be added over time, but right now US users are definitely getting a better deal. Some of the content - like the baseball channel - is obviously more suited to the US market too, and we'd love it if Apple would wake up and serve the demands of its UK audience and integrate iPlayer.
You can get iPlayer on the Wii for heaven's sake - how difficulty would it be to get it on Apple TV?
Finally, while the Apple TV can output 1080p, movies are only available as 720p HD – the lack of 1080p support remains bewildering and really marks the Apple TV as a poor relation to other streaming media boxes such as the WD TV Live – even if the Apple TV is a more polished user experience.
We liked
Apple TV is very quick and responsive, and that alone is enough to recommend it highly. The menus and photo slideshows look stunning, too. Last year's A4 processor is still holding up well and the Internet streaming video works very well - YouTube especially. Apple TV is also very stable streaming content from your Mac or PC. The integration with iOS 5 is top-notch, and mirroring can turn a mobile device into a games console with considerable ease. Airplay works like a dream from a Mac, PC or iOS device and Photo Sharing takes all the hassles out of getting your shots onto your TV to display.
We disliked
The over-reliance on rentals and lack of a Netflix-like, or even an iPlayer, service is a problem. Apple also needs to loosen up its vice-like grip over the file formats that Apple TV can play. The lack of 1080p HD content is also unforgivable and is a real limitation for iTunes. There are also no cables included in the box aside from the power, so you'll need to buy them. We also need more UK content.
Verdict
The iOS 5 integration means Apple TV is really finding its feet at last. While it was once a curious enigma it now feels like part of the Apple family and integrates beautifully with your Mac and iOS device. The interface is fantastic and the speed and execution of playing media is great, the lack of 1080p is a big miss.
Likewise it's a pain to have to have your Mac or PC on to stream content directly from iTunes. It guarantees reliability, but it's inflexible. At least the price is now cheap enough that, like Apple, you can consider the purchase somewhat of a hobby.
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Hulu takes aim at German VOD market
On-demand TV and movie streaming service Hulu could well be about to launch in Germany.
German publication Horizont.net claims that Hulu reps are currently in talks with German TV networks, hoping to strike deals that will see programmes set for a launch in Germany at some point in the near future.
Senior vice president Johannes Larcher and consultant Olaf Kroll are apparently heading up the talks.
Hallo to Hulu
And why should we care? Because if Hulu launches in Germany, a UK launch might not be far behind.Hulu, however, offers a service not dissimilar to SeeSaw, the VOD service which was forced to close earlier this year when it failed to succeed in the UK.
The American company hasn't been without troubles of its own, too – Hulu was up for sale, with major companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo all reportedly sniffing around, but it took itself off the market in October.
Jointly owned by NBC Universal, Fox and Disney-ABC Television Group, it's ironic that Hulu has struggled to notch up content deals outside the US.
But with Germany potentially about to give the company a European base, could all that be about to change?
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Review: Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich
Interface
We've finally got our hands on the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus, so we've taken an in-depth look at Google's latest OS: Android 4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich to its friends.Google has told us that this is one of the biggest overhauls of the operating systems since it unleashed the Android project three years ago - and there's certainly a lot to plough through.
From enhanced contact menus to improved keyboards and NFC capabilities, even the most ardent Android users will have to spend some time getting used to the new OS - so let's dive in.
Interface
The most noticeable change with Ice Cream Sandwich is the interface - it might follow the same principles as the Android of old, but the way it's used is radically different in a number of ways.Firstly, Android 4.0 is designed to work without buttons. That's not to say your Galaxy S2's keys won't work when the update happens, but going forward, it's going to be pristine bezels all the way.
Now to navigate around, you're offered three softkeys: Back, Home and Multi-tasking (or Recent Apps). The latter is particularly new for phones, and comes from the Honeycomb UI - basically a set of thumbnails that show recently opened apps.
Here's the new part: swipe sideways to shut down an application, which will greatly help reduce the battery consumption of your phone if there's something silently updating in the background.
The Home and Back buttons are the same as they've always been, but no longer have a 'long press' function attached... so you can't automatically call up the keyboard, for instance.
If you move into something media-ish, such as watching a movie or browsing the web like a pro, these three buttons shrink down to tiny dots, so you've got more of the screen to look at. However, remember what each dot does, as pressing it will take you home/open the recent apps etc and you might not want to.
For Android fans, this presents something of an issue: with the menu button gone, you'll have to hunt around the screen for three vertical dots which have taken its place. However, these can be anywhere, so sometimes you'll get distracted trying to work out how on earth to alter settings.
The multi-tasking pane also seems an odd choice for one of three buttons - it used to be you could access this functionality by long-pressing the home key, and it makes more sense to keep this and then have the multi-tasking slot taken up by a menu key.
However, despite the odd placement, the multi-tasking pane is cool - simply swipe horizontally on any open app to shut it down, in a similar way to the Cards system on webOS - it certainly helps keep open applications under control.
The home screens are once again limited to five, but this time there's no option to get rid of those you don't want. It's not a huge issue to some people, but with the expandable widgets and loads of apps you'll be looking to download, we'd have expected more.
However, we wouldn't worry too much about that - the Nexus S only had a limited number of homescreens, but as soon as the rest of the industry got its hands on the OS there were millions of the things flying around.
There's a plethora of tiny tweaks and changes to the Android OS that we were impressed with, ranging from the Tron-like blue theme that pervades throughout the OS to the ability to unlock the phone simply by using your face.
The latter security option is more novelty than anything else, with Google outlining at the start that it's not meant to be 100% secure.
We also found a few issues with getting it to recognise our face in varying light levels, or even working out which bit of the picture was a face - not the most effective for unlocking your handset, but when it works it's a great party trick.
The notifications bar has been given a functionality overhaul to now include larger information slots - if it's a contact that's sending you a message or a missed call, their contact photo will now appear too, which is a nice touch.
And sometimes you want to get rid of some notifications, but not others - this has been taken care of by allowing you to swipe away the updates about apps and messages you don't care about, making it easy to maintain your info bar.
Settings has also been given a spot in the notifications pane, meaning no matter where you are in the OS you can always duck out and tinker with the phone - this is excellent news for some applications that need GPS or Wi-Fi enabled swiftly.
However, we would have though Google would have copied the likes of Samsung or HTC here and offered one-tap switching to these elements - it works really well on most phones, so we're surprised by its omission.
The other new addition is the dock at the bottom of the screen - this stays on every home screen, and like iOS can be altered to contain the applications you like to tap away at the most.
Folders are more iOS-like too, with users given the ability to drag and drop icons on top of one another from the home screen to create bundles of apps which you can simply rename. Given Apple's ire about Google 'stealing' certain elements of its UI, we can't help but think this will create a little more angst down on Infinite Loop.
Google is clearly also thinking about giving users more ability to enjoy apps than ever before by putting a link to the Market in the top right hand corner of the menu screen, which we really liked as it meant we always knew we could quickly update our app catalogue when needed.
The other big change is widgets have been brought to the fore: you can now look at each one on the menu screen without having to actually select it - this really helps when a new application you've downloaded has an associated widget and you're wondering whether to waste time popping it on the home screen.
Overall, we love what Google has done with the Ice Cream Sandwich UI. It's nothing mind-blowing, but the little touches here and there will add to user delight, and that's what's needed to chip away at those that are dyed-in-the-wool iPhone users.
People
The contacts system has been much improved with Ice Cream Sandwich, with a completely different font (called Roboto, and used throughout Android 4.0) and pleasantly clean blue and white interface to roll through.The contacts list is the same as it's ever been - insofar as it's a list of people with contact pictures next to their name. But the differences are quite large: for instance, social networking updates from the likes of Google+ and Twitter are available by tapping to open a contact profile then swiping to the left.
There's no Facebook integration as yet, but that's likely to be on the way soon as the social network updates its API. We've reached out to both parties to find out, so we'll let you know when we do.
The layout is lovely though, especially on the larger screen of the Galaxy Nexus making it easy to scroll through all your buddies in one go. The large tab to let you jump the correct letter of your contact's name has gone, but now just sliding your finger along the right hand side of the screen is enough.
The downside to the OS, and one that the likes of HTC will leap upon to improve, is the linking of the contacts together. You have to open the person's profile, tap the menu to edit, then tap the menu again to Join contacts together from other social networks.
It's a really long-winded way of doing things, and one that should be almost automatic - even the suggested contacts once we'd asked to join them together weren't very accurate.
We do like the Google+ integration, as while it's not the most widespread social network around there are some nice tweaks.
For instance, the Groups tab now has automatic links to your Google+ Circles making it easier to connect with the people you care with. However, you've also got a favourites tab to play with, and as there's no way to mass communicate with a Circle from the Contacts tab, it's a little redundant.
Messaging
Google promised to keep updating the keyboard on its new versions of Android, and once again it's come up with a new version of the software - and it's pretty good.There's not a whole heap of visual changes, bar the predictive suggestions: these have been dropped to just three per word, making it easier to select the word you're after.
Smaller, more subtle vibrations have also been added to each keypress to make it easier to register inputs... we tested this out and it doesn't seem that different to normal haptic feedback, to be honest - but a lot of users are loving it, so we'll give it a crowd-sourced thumbs up.
The accuracy is excellent too on the new keyboard, with even fudge-fingered attempts at writing yielding almost perfect texting. Speech to text is also enhanced, with real time feedback - no longer do you have to wait until you've finished speaking to see what the phone thinks you said, with the cloud-based prediction delivering results as you speak.
It worked well over Wi-Fi, but we'll be interested to note how well it works when it comes to 3G network speeds, as Google hinted it had integrated this functionality thanks to the proliferation of 4G signal in the US.
If, like many, you're looking to compare Google's voice recognition to Siri, we'd say that the former is definitely inferior to Apple's effort - but not by a huge amount.
It seems to struggle more with English accents over US, as our buddy Hank (NB - not his real name but included to make it more authentically YooEssAy) was much more accurate with his voicing than we were.
There's no Universal Inbox to speak of here, but we do love the updated Gmail app - sure, HTML emails still don't render as well as they could, but the overall look and feel is improved substantially. The options are all well laid out at the bottom, and the ease of swiping left and right is highly impressive.
Messaging has always been a decent option on Android, and with Ice Cream Sandwich it's a real step forward.
Internet browser
As with most inbuilt features on Ice Cream Sandwich, there's a change to the internet browser too.One of the big differences is the change to the tabbed browsing - now you get to see your entire set of open internet pages simply by scrolling vertically through live thumbnails. It's a nice touch - while it doesn't add much when it comes to functionality, it's much easier to jump between windows than before.
Another great notion is the ability to 'Request desktop sites'. This means that while the Android browser might default to the mobile version of some internet websites, some users will need the full content.
Simply tap the relevant option in the menu and you'll get the full flavour instantly, which is very useful for the kind of sites that won't let you jump to the main page easily (BBC iPlayer springs to mind).
A sad fact of UK life is that we a) either never have any 3G coverage when we need it or b) are on such a restrictive data plan that we hate having to spend our KBs unnecessarily.
Google has thought of this with the option to save pages for offline reading. This basically takes a snapshot of the web page without including the hyperlinks, making it easy to read but not navigate through. But then again, if you're offline you can't link out anyway... so it's not a big deal.
We can't fully comment on the speed, as it's partly dependant on hardware how fast things will load; but in tests with the Galaxy S2, which has roughly comparable specs to the Nexus, we noticed some websites popped up much faster.
But on the Galaxy Nexus we love the internet browser. While other devices might not be as responsive, the browser is quick, slick and responds well to the touch. We're annoyed there's no Flash video on board, but let's face it: the death knell has sounded for that platform, and it will still be coming next month.
Camera
The camera on the Android 4.0 system is much upgraded again, after some real leaps forward from the likes of Éclair and Gingerbread.The settings are the same as before, with the likes of white balance, exposure and Scenes all inbuilt into the OS. The Scene modes are probably the least important of the lot, as only Night Mode really offers up anything in the way of discernible difference.
However, we liked tinkering about with the exposure settings to capture our shots - this yielded some real differences.
The big talking point of the new camera app on the Galaxy Nexus is the zero shutter lag, which is simply ace. It's up there with the iPhone 4S in terms of speed (and probably just beats it, to be honest) and means you can take some cracking shots in the blink of an eye.
However, you do sacrifice auto focus to achieve this - but if it's a well-lit scene, you shouldn't have any issues.
The other new feature is the panorama mode, which does as you'd imagine: helps you capture widescreen shots. The phone will help you by telling you to go faster and slower to capture the picture, but the results can be erratic.
Android 4.0 now has a built in editing tool as well, meaning you can alter the quality of your shots very easily - it might not be a full editing suite, but does come up with some nifty ways to tweak your snaps to improve them before never showing them to anyone ever again.
It should be noted we're trying all this on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which is a very powerful phone. Should the same options be offered on single-core devices with a lot less RAM, we doubt the same shutter speed could be achieved.
Video recorder
The video recording has also been improved thanks to the Ice Cream Sandwich update, with the ability to record in time lapse mode, set the white balance and also add in silly video effects too.We're impressed with the way the latter works, with the phone able to track your face and keep things like a big nose on the screen at all times. Is it useful? No - but it's very 'Google' in the frippery it brings to the phone.
It's likely some of these features won't make it to the less powerful phones, as they'll require a little more raw power - but we were impressed with the 1080p footage captured on the Nexus camera.
Media
The media capabilities of Ice Cream Sandwich have been much improved in our eyes, with all aspects of the media experience updated to make it that much easier to manoeuvre through your phone.While some areas could still do with tweaking, we're a world away from the super-basic music app and complete lack of video player on the first Android release.
Music
The music player on Ice Cream Sandwich has been completely overhauled to make it more in keeping with the super-blue theme that pervades throughout the OS.
Once opened, you're presented with a playlist of recent songs and albums you've listened to, which instantly makes you feel like the music player is more personalised.
Swiping left and right will get you to Albums, Artists and Songs - although we'd prefer the option to choose the order of these, as many people prefer to jump straight to the songs if they're hankering for a spot of Girls Al... erm, Michael Bub.... erm.... oh sod it. We have awful taste in music.
Google has chucked in a little search icon at the bottom of the app too, along with the 'Now Playing' bar. This makes it simple to jump to a song or artist you've got on your mind.
The actual music player itself isn't much to write home about, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. We're talking big album art, and play/skip buttons. Press the little up arrow and you can like/dislike the song or shuffle and repeat songs.
We're not sure what liking a song really does, but we hope it improves the Shuffle aspect.
Video
The video portal has taken on a much larger significance from Google since it unveiled its movie download service, and as such your personal collection will be boosted too.The new red-themed offering sees you taken to a dual-tabbed arena: one the left side, all the videos you've rented from Android Market, and the right all your personal videos.
The big boost here is the clear and easy to use thumbnails with description of each vid; if you've ever used an HTC phone or read our reviews of one, you'll know of our ire at the lack of any kind of signpost as to which video is which.
Whether this system on offer here will continue when manufacturers get all skin-happy on the OS, we don't know - but it at least bodes well.
The video player is still disappointingly basic though, with only a slider bad and pause button to mess around with. We're still gobsmacked Google hasn't bought one of the clever apps already on the market (for instance, MVideoPlayer) and offered that as a free premium app to download.
We get that simplicity is key for a lot of people, but we really would love a bookmarking system, or the ability to change the screen brightness in the app. If Google now does this - you heard it here first, people.
Books
The Books app is pre-installed in the Galaxy Nexus, and is set to be a staple feature of the Android 4.0 OS too.It's one of the better e-reading experiences on a mobile phone no matter what the size of the screen - the page turning animations lend a very book-esque experience that many will enjoy.
It's a lot like the Kindle app to be honest, although the scroller along the bottom of the application will alert you to the different chapters you're bouncing through, making it easier to find the page you're looking for.
There's also a neat 'view original pages' feature for older books, where the original edition is scanned in to be viewed as the first eyes would have done. It's a cool feature, but one we turned off pretty quickly - we want to be able to read a book properly.
The interesting thing is these books are actually stored in the cloud, so each will load the first time you start reading... although the option to make them available offline makes a lot more sense.
Given books don't take up much space, we're more than happy to make sure everything is cached... we don't want to be left hanging on the Underground.
Verdict
We'll jump right out and say it: Ice Cream Sandwich is the step forward Android has been crying out for. It's slicker, faster and more intuitive than ever before, and Google should be applauded for improving an already decent system.
Google has offered up data management too - you'll be able to set a limit to how much data the phone uses, with warnings and updates on which apps are the most byte-hungry. This is the sort of thinking smartphone users will love.
We liked
The overall look and feel of Android has been streamlined, and that's a real plus in our eyes. Google's OS might be a world-conqueror right now, but that doesn't mean people always know how to use it in the same way they might an iPhone.Things like contact pictures in the notifications bar, the lack of hardware buttons and moving settings to always be accessible are the sort of things many will love, plopping things where you intuitively expect them to be.
The internet browser's improvements to include desktop sites and offline reading are welcome too - anything that gives the user extra control is a good thing in our opinion.
We disliked
One of our larger gripes with Ice Cream Sandwich is, at times, the over-simplicity. Things like the video player being nothing more than a slider and play button are fine, but we expect to be able to do more with the app as we see fit.There's also the issue of how the OS will work on less-powerful devices - will the fancy animations and services be as palatable on something that costs less than £100?
The other gripes are truly minor: support for file types, no place for Google Wallet as yet, too few home screens and no way to see them all at once.
These are things that will be fixed with updates or manufacturers simply improving on the OS in the months to come.
Verdict
Google needed to make sure it kept its OS refreshed and current, and Ice Cream Sandwich ticks that box in so many ways.It's worth remembering that this is the foundation for manufacturers to go and build on - there's a lot more to come in the next 12 months.
However, if this is the platform Google will be using on all Motorola devices when the acquisition is complete then it's a good enough OS in its own right.
In terms of how good you'll think Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich is, it all boils down to personal choice. We're excited to see how manufacturers will customise it and extol the virtues to improve media or the home networking options, but others will simply be huge fans of the simplicity - our score is a mixture of the tools Google has offered up and the base level of performance on show.
But make no mistake - Ice Cream Sandwich is the most accessible and easy-to-learn OS from Google, and that's going to be key in the wars against Apple and Microsoft.
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Effective focal length explained
Focal length is the distance in mm from the optical centre of a lens to a point where a subject at infinity appears in sharp focus - usually usually the surface of a piece of film or a digital camera's sensor.
In the days when 35mm film cameras ruled the roost, we all got used to what the various quoted focal lengths of lenses meant. For example, we knew that a 28mm lens gave a wide-angle view while, say, a 300mm telephoto lens offered a much narrower angle of view that brought far-away subjects much closer.
These days, with digital cameras using different and generally smaller sized sensors, it can be harder to get a feel for the angle or field of view of a given lens. When you consider that some compact cameras have lenses with focal lengths as short as 6mm, it's almost impossible to know what sort of field of view that lens offers.
To get around this confusing situation, camera manufacturers often quote their lenses or cameras as having a 35mm equivalent focal length. This is an indication of what the angle of view of a lens would be if it were scaled up to work on a 35mm film camera.
So, when you read that a compact camera has a zoom lens covering a range of 24-180mm… that isn't actually the actual focal length of the lens - it's the 35mm equivalent. This system of using a focal length equivalent works well for most of us as it makes comparing models of cameras and zoom ranges with different sized sensors so much easier.
Focal length magnification and crop factors
So, for compact cameras we have the whole focal length question pretty well sorted, but what happens if you use old 35mm SLR lenses on a modern digital SLR, most of which have smaller sensor areas than a frame of 35mm film? What happens then with things like field of view?Well, in these situations manufacturers will quote a crop or magnification factor to indicate how much of the field of view a sensor can cover. With the popular APS-C sized sensors used in Canon and Nikon DSLRs, the crop factor is around 1.6 and 1.5x respectively.
This means if you use a 28mm lens on a Canon SLR camera that has a 1.6x crop factor, you need to multiply the focal length of the lens by 1.6; this gives us the focal length of 45mm. So, a 28mm lens when used on an APS-C format SLR will behave more like a standard lens on an old 35mm camera.
Other cameras with different sized sensors have different crop factors. For example, Four Tthirds and Micro Four Thirds cameras have a crop factor of 2x, which means that a 40mm lens has the same angle of view as a 80mm lens on a 35mm camera.
Unfortunately crop factor formulas don't work the other way round. If you were to use a lens designed to work on a camera with a 1.6x crop factor with a full-frame 35mm sensor, the lens won't project a full image onto the sensor and you would see dark vignetting in the corners of any images recorded on the camera.
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Review: Asus GTX 560 Ti 448 Core DirectCU II
Overview
Asus is the first company to get this limited edition GTX 560 Ti 448 Core graphics card onto our testbench.Now the dreaded limited edition tag has been handed to graphics cards many times over the years and generally it doesn't make for good things.
Most of the time, in the GPU world, it means a graphics card being thrown out to see how many of the general public will take the bait and pick up a hobbled version of a decent card.
Recent history has seen the fantastic GTX 460 getting that treatment with the GTX 460 SE in the November of 2010.
At a time when the GTX 460 was in great demand this slightly cheaper, weaker card hit the distributors and I'll wager a great many missed the SE tag in the name and simply thought they were getting a bargain.
They weren't.
Nvidia though, and by extension graphics card manufacturers like Asus, haven't taken the same route this time. The GTX 560 Ti 448 Core is not a hobbled version, in fact it's quite the contrary.
This new version of the GTX 560 Ti is a far superior beast than it's older sibling.
So what makes it so much better?
Architecture
The reason the GTX 560 Ti 448 Core makes good use of the 'limited edition' moniker is down to a much smarter bit of marketing than Nvidia usually uses.Really this card is nothing like the old, vanilla GTX 560 Ti at all, in fact it's actually got much more in common with the GTX 570.
It's running the same GF 110 GPU instead of the GTX 560 Ti's GF 114. That gives it 14 of the streaming microprocessors to the other card's 8 and comes with a good chunk more ROPs. Eight in fact. It's also got a full 1,280MB frame buffer too.
If the GPU configuration of 448 cores, 56 texture units and 40 ROPs sounds familiar, you probably ought to get out more. That and you're probably recognising the layout of the original GTX 470.
So in essence this latest card is a hybrid of the GTX 470 and the GTX 570, and has little to do with the GTX 560 Ti that it's taking the name of.
That's no bad thing at all. If Nvidia had followed tradition and brought this card out around the holiday period calling it the GTX 570 limited edition we might have been baying for blood.
As it is we're far happier at the thought of a mainstream card getting some more technical loving.
Benchmarks
The Heaven 2.5 benchmark is a great indicator of raw graphical performance, and shows what the extra technical goodness of the GF 110 GPU offers over the vanilla card's GF 114 chip.The Metro 2033 score is also a good indicator of DX11 performance, and also shows what the extra tessellation engines in the 14 streaming microprocessors offers the consumer.
These scores aren't far short of the GTX 570 and with the Asus card's impressive cooling the overclocking results can surpass it.
DirectX 11 tessellation performance
DirectX 11 gaming performance (2560x1600)
DirectX 11 gaming performance (1920x1080)
DirectX 10 gaming performance (1560x1600)
Verdict
In older titles the extra graphical hardware in the GF 110 GPU doesn't really add up to a huge boost in performance between the vanilla and 448 core versions of the GTX 560 Ti. When you look at the DirectX 10 Just Cause 2 we saw between 10-13% boost over the older card.
For the extra cash that's no great shakes, but when you look at more recent or more taxing titles, like Crysis 2 or Metro 2033, then things start to look more impressive.
In Crysis, in its full high-res texture and DirectX 11 glory, we saw improvements of 20%. That's in both the more standard 1080P resolution and at the eye-popping res of 2560x1600.
In Metro, while it still couldn't get above a single frame per second at 2560x1600, we managed to get almost a 50% boost in frame rates at 1920x1080 with 4x anti-aliasing – a notorious resource hog.
Part of the reason for this improvement at the higher resolutions is the extra graphics memory and the wider 320-bit bus.
The only issue, hardware-wise, is the knowledge that this is very much a stop-gap part.
It's a limited edition part because Nvidia is trying to ship out as much of its outstanding high-end chips as possible. If that means making them cheaper without impacting on the sales of the full high-end cards then that's alright.
The shelf-life then is limited as once this batch of GPUs has gone there wont be any more manufactured.
Nvidia is currently working on its range of next-gen Kepler graphics cards, which ought to come to light sometime Spring 2012. So that's its main focus right now.
AMD will also have its next generation of cards out early 2012 too, probably before Nvidia.
While it's always the case that the new range of faster cards is practically just around the corner, it still makes it tough to drop £250 on a card when that same money will probably get you much more in a very short space of time.
But still, you are getting a bit of kit that's only just shy of the excellent GTX 570.
And this Asus version is one hell of a proposition too.
It's redesigned PCB and power layout means that the Asus GTX 560 Ti 448 Core DirectCU II (phew) is an overclocking powerhouse too.
We pushed the GPU clockspeed up to the levels of the GTX 560 Ti (immediately surpassing the stock speed of the GTX 570 in the process) without the card breaking a sweat. The Asus GTX 560 Ti 448 Core actually topped out just over the 900MHz mark, a cool 170MHz over the stock clocks.
That overclocking prowess means it's also capable of taking on the vanilla Nvidia GTX 570 in a straight pixel-pushing fight.
The only down-side of the this Asus design is that, thanks to the chunky cooling solution allowing that insane overclocking, it's a triple-slot card. And that means you're going to need a likewise chunky case to house it.
The big issue though for this, effectively, slightly cut-down GeForce GTX 570 is that you can actually pick up a full GTX 570 for only a little more than the price of this hobbled version.
The enhanced cooling gives it a bit of an edge, but the triple slot GTX 570 DirectCU II is available for only £259. And that's the card we'd recommend over this one.
We liked
The fact you are getting a slightly cut-down GTX 570 for a little more than a standard GTX 560 Ti has to be a positive thing.
Coupled with the fact that Asus sure can design a graphics card's cooler, making for overclocking nirvana, makes that doubly so.
We disliked
As we've said, the only real issue with the hardware is the sheer size of that triple slot cooler. You will need a big chassis to give you space for everything else in your rig.
The major problem though is that it's too expensive considering you can pick up an actual GTX 570 for only a little bit more
Final word
A cooling masterclass by Asus, but the real GTX 570 can be picked up for around £260-odd.
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Hard drive shortage pushes prices up 150%
The price and availability of hard-disk drives has shot up by as much as 150 per cent since the floods in Thailand caused many manufacturing plants to close.
Idealo.co.uk has analysed the price changes on its shopping comparison site, finding that average prices went up 151 per cent from 1 October to 14 November – that means that hard drives that were previously around £44 went selling for £110.
Supplies run low
As well as external hard drives going up in price, Digitimes reports that there is likely to be a shortfall of around 70 million HDD for laptops and desktop computers in the final quarter of 2011.With demand apparently around the 180 million unit mark, there are only hard drives available for between 110 and 130 million devices.
What that means is that computer manufacturers like Acer, Asus and Dell may increase prices on its notebooks for launch in December to cover the cost of the inflated components.
When will the hard drive squeeze end? It's not clear – but some manufacturers are "relatively optimsitc" that the shortages will ease in the first three months of 2012.
But it seems that the industry as a whole will take between nine and 24 months to recover, which could mean increased notebook prices throughout the whole of next year.
Lest we forget, the flooding in Thailand caused hundreds of deaths, destroyed homes and devastated lives – facts which certainly put the hard drive shortage into context. If you'd like to donate to the recovery effort, you can do so here.
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