In Depth: How to buy a cheap Mac from Apple's refurb store
Cheap refurbished Macs: how to buy
Time marches on and technology gets cheaper.Falling prices and constant improvement helped to underpin one of the longest economic booms in history.
But with the world in the grip of a recession and a pinch gripping consumers' wallets, Apple has stood firm: it doesn't do cheap.
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Price is the only area in which it refuses to compete. When it rolls out a new machine, its predecessor is retired - no discounts. But for those in the know, Apple does provide a way of getting new computers at bargain prices. It's called the Refurb Store - an initiative that Apple has quietly run for years. Apple Mac laptop reviewsApple Mac desktop reviews
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Waiting game
For a long time, Apple's official Refurb Store was only open on Wednesdays. Thrifty Mac fans would queue (virtually) to buy products offered on a 'when it's gone, it's gone' basis.Now, however, it's open all week - head to store.apple.com or store.apple.com/uk and look for the Special Deals section, where all refurbished products live. The products are sold as Apple Certified Refurbished Products. They're described as pre-owned, which usually means that they've been used as a demonstration unit in an Apple Store or been sold (as new) and returned to Apple, for any reason.
One reason buyers are hesitant to 'go refurb' is because they think they're getting something more likely to break. With a PC, you can replace a part if it breaks. With a Mac, that's possible but trickier. However, Apple insists that its refurb products are in '100 percent working condition'.
Far from being polished up and bunged in a box, the machines go through a stringent series of checks. Before a Mac goes to the Refurb Store, it's fully tested, including full burn-in testing - where it's left running for a period of time performing tasks repeatedly, to winkle out any issues. Any defective parts are replaced, before a full cleaning and inspection process is carried out.
The machine then gets packed up with the relevant manuals and cables, and gets a special serial number. In theory, it has gone though more checks and assurances than a new machine.
"I bought an old-style iMac 24-inch from the Refurb Store," says MacFormat forum regular SwissMac. "Not only did I get a 28 percent discount on its original price but the spec was improved, too. The online store said to expect 1GB RAM and a 250GB hard drive, but both of these were doubled!"
Cheaper Macs: they could be new
There's speculation that not all items on the Refurb Store are actually refurbished products. Buyers have reported receiving kit that appears brand new.The reason for this might be that Apple uses the Refurb Store as a clearing house for discontinued products. When a new MacBook comes out, the previous model will be obliterated from Apple's website - except for the occasional listing on the Refurb Store.
That's not to say that there are no drawbacks. "As these refurbished products have been unpacked and manipulated, they might exhibit some minor cosmetic imperfections, such as scratches, marks or discolouration," states Apple. Plus, some products don't come in original packaging, which may affect the resale value if you later put it on eBay.
There's no telling what will be on offer until you visit. Sometimes the cupboards are bare, but other times they overflow with bargains. This unpredictability has given the Refurb Store quite a following, and bargain-hunters monitor it obsessively.
There's even a Dashboard widget available to help you keep an eye on it. "With the widget, you can always have an eye on the latest refurbished products available in more than 15 countries," says the developer.
As mentioned earlier, a refurb often doesn't come in its original packaging. If it does, it might be torn or ripped where shipping labels have been added and removed. But this doesn't seem to reflect the quality of the product inside. "I've bought every Mac that I've ever owned from the Apple Refurb Store," says Mac fan Jon Waters from Cambridgeshire. "None of them has failed. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the refurbished Macs have actually run better than a family member's new Mac."
Some people take the money they save and pimp out their Mac further. "I just got a refurb iMac. It looks and works absolutely perfectly. With the money I saved, I bought an extra gigabyte of RAM, and a wireless keyboard and mouse," says Michelle King from Doncaster.
Bagging a bargain
Getting the best deal from the Refurb Store can be tricky. It's monitored slavishly by eagle-eyed bargain-hunters, and dithering often means that your item goes. You've got to be pretty quick when you know what you want - but choosing often isn't straightforward because of the variety on offer.The Refurb Store is seen by obsessives as a bit of a barometer of Apple's plans for upcoming product updates. Often, in the run-up to big announcements, the Refurb Store will seem to offer more products that look likely to be refreshed.
"The last refurb product I bought from Apple came in complete retail packaging, shrink-wrapped," says Mac user IJ Reilly on the MacRumors message board. "The product refresh came a couple of weeks later."
Some have found it possible to snag bargains on the Refurb Store and 'flip' them on eBay for profit. Part of the reason products don't hang around for too long is that they're snapped up by Mac scalpers.
"You get what amount to brand-new products at less than retail price," says one source, who asked not to be named. "Often you can add £100 and sell them on eBay within a few hours.
You don't even have to order them yourself - if you're quick you can sell it on eBay, then order it to be delivered straight to the buyer." In theory, buyers can tell it's a refurb machine because the serial number is different, but most don't think to look - or simply don't know how.
Most refurb customers agree that buying refurbished is the safest way to get a cheap Mac. If you're still worried, there's a solution - you could use the money you saved to add AppleCare to any package, and not just to computers that you buy 'new'. As long as you purchase and register your AppleCare within one year of buying your product, you'll get an additional two years' warranty.
Apple Refurb Store vs eBay
Despite the success of the Refurb Store, when it comes to getting a Mac on the cheap, most turn to eBay. Picking up a machine here can be a bargain, but does have its pitfalls.For some reason, Macs seem to be a popular target for scammers who create copies of legitimate auctions to snag eBayers into sending money via untraceable Western Union. Seasoned eBayers advise paying close attention to sellers' feedback. If they don't have a history of selling electronics, or haven't had a transaction in a while, be careful - their account may have been hijacked.
"Some people look at their 10 feedback and think these sellers are OK," says Roba on the MacRumors.com forum. "The feedback is usually suspect. A good majority of the people who left it aren't registered members any more."
Macs hold their resale value better than PCs, with used models changing hands for a good chunk of change long after disappearing from Apple's website. James Stoup of AppleMatters.com recently calculated just how much better they fare:
"A new machine currently costs $2,000, while a year-old one sells on eBay for around $1,500, and a two-year one for about $1,000. At this point, one would expect things to go downhill fairly rapidly, but instead, prices seem to level off a bit. This means you can sell a six-year-old laptop for close to $400. This is even more impressive when you realise you can buy a brand-new laptop from Dell starting at around $600."
Stoup thinks it's because Apple's hardware stays relevant for longer. "With Windows 7, reviews seem to recommend you run it on a new or recent machine. How many Mac users bought a new machine for Tiger? Quite a few, no doubt, but I ran Tiger fine on a six-year-old 667MHz laptop."
All of which adds up to one simple fact: if you're looking to buy a Mac but are concerned about the relatively high purchase prices of Apple's new machines, you should turn to the Refurb Store before you try looking anywhere else. Your next Mac is out there, and it'll cost less than you thought.
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Review: Philips Fidelio SoundRing DS3880W
Philips' penchant for simple, robust design is noticeable, with the Fidelio SoundRing DS3880W circular speaker featuring the same grey and metal aesthetics as the Fidelio DS9010.
In fact, the DS3880W looks a little like the Dyson Air Multiplier fan, except that the round top lifts off its base, leaving you with a totally wireless speaker solution.
It's smart, certainly, but is also hugely convenient. It's not too big, and it doesn't weigh too much. Though its portability is great in this sense, its battery life is a little disappointing.
The rated battery life for AirPlay is three hours, and this bore out when we were using it. That's a bit lower than we'd really like, but it's easy to recharge - you just pop it back on its dock - but we do wish it had more longevity to it.
If you are not interested in the rechargeable version then there is the Fidelio SoundRing DS3800W which shuns the rechargeable docking unit for main power.
We can safely say that we weren't disappointed with the sound quality however. It's especially good if you're watching films on an iPad, adding so much more warmth to speech, and depth to the sound overall. It can actually kick out a surprising amount of bass, too, and really go quite loud, without distortion. It's a nicely balanced sound overall, with a punch that you wouldn't expect of a speaker this size.
Sadly, while the general quality of AirPlay audio might be very good, it suffered from reliability problems, dropping out at least once every time we used the speaker. When watching films or TV, you're left to desperately try to lip read until the audio kicks back in, a few seconds later.
On the plus side, getting AirPlay set up in the first place was fairly painless. Not great on battery life but there's a lot to like here.
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Review: Nikon D4
Introduction
The Nikon D4 is the camera that Nikon is hoping will be the camera of choice for professional sports photographers and photo journalists shooting the Olympic games this summer.Consequently, it is designed as an all-purpose, go anywhere, shoot anything camera with improved low-light shooting capability and enhanced video technology.
While the Nikon D4 replaces the D3S in Nikon's DSLR lineup, the 24MP Nikon D3X continues as the company's flagship camera - even if its pixel count is now dwarfed by that of the Nikon D800.
Features
While the Nikon D4 has plenty to get excited about, its pixel count is arguably not one of them. However, with 'just' 16.2 million effective pixels on its full-frame (36 x 23.9mm or FX format) CMOS sensor, the Nikon D4 should be capable of producing relatively clean images at high sensitivities.
This is just as well, given that it has a maximum native sensitivity setting of ISO 12800 and extension settings up to the equivalent of ISO 204,800.
Nikon D3s owners, however, may be a little more excited about the Nikon D4's pixel count, since it represents a big jump from 12.1MP to 16.2MP.
Despite the increase in the resolution of the sensor, and thanks to its EXPEED 3 image processing engine, the Nikon D4 is capable of shooting continuously at 10fps with full autofocus function. The D3s can only achieve 9fps at full resolution, or 11fps lower resolution images in DX mode.
If you are prepared to lose AF and exposure control, the Nikon D4's full resolution continuous shooting rate can also be pushed up to 11fps.
The EXPEED 3 engine also enables 14-bit A/D conversion and 16-bit processing for better colours and smoother tonal gradations.
Another key upgrade from the D3s is the move from a 1,005 pixel metering system to a 91,000 pixel system. As before, this is linked to Nikon's Advanced Scene Recognition System to help inform the white balance, flash exposure, face detection and AF system.
Although Nikon has stuck with the Multi-CAM3500FX AF system that first emerged in the D3 and was continued into the D3s, it has given it something of a tune-up for the Nikon D4.
There are still 51 AF points, but the central 15 cross-type points are sensitive down to f/8. This means that the Nikon D4's AF system will continue to work with long telephoto lens and teleconverter arrangements that have an effective maximum aperture of f/8.
This is great news for wildlife photographers, because it enables more affordable and lighter weight optics to be used. It is also something that the Canon EOS-1DX cannot match.
Video
Nikon has given the D4's video system a substantial upgrade compared with the D3s's. Full HD (1080p) movies may be recorded in FX- and DX- formats, as well as in a native Full HD (1920 x 1080) with a 2.7x crop factor.
It is also possible to have an uncompressed, full resolution HDMI feed to external devices.
iPad control
When the included new Nikon WT-5 Wi-Fi transmitter is connected to the Nikon D4, the Live View image can be seen on an iPad. The iPad can also be used to control the shooting mode, select the AF point and trigger the shutter.This is something else that is likely to appeal to wildlife photographers who may want to sit remotely from their camera.
In summary, the Nikon D4 has just about everything that a jobbing photo journalist and sports photographer could hope for. We're told that Nikon plumped for a 16MP sensor because this strikes a good balance between a high pixel count, for greater cropping or shooting in DX format, and good high sensitivity performance.
With a UK price of around £5,290 and US price of $5,999.95, The Nikon D4 costs marginally less than the D3S did when first launched.
Build and handling
In many ways the Nikon D4 feels very solid and likely to stop a bullet, should the need arise. However, the overall feel of quality for the sample we have is let down a little by slight movement in the door over the memory card compartment.This door falls under the fleshy base of the right thumb when the camera is held for use, and it feels like there may be some movement at the hinge. It's only a small point, but it is disconcerting in a camera that costs around £5,000/$6,000.
The door and its seal look the same as those on the Nikon D3S, yet while the D3S sample we have has a motionless door, our Nikon D4 sample's was prone to slight movement. We have reported this issue to Nikon and have seen and used other samples that don't have the same issue, so this may be just a one-off.
Continuing in the critique of the memory card port area, the cover over the door lock also seems a little flimsy, and it feels like it could be wrenched off fairly easily by over-enthusiastic use.
New controls
In a major change from the D3S, the Nikon D4 has two mini-joystick controls for selecting the AF point. They are arranged so that one or the other is within easy reach of the right thumb when the camera is held for shooting in landscape or portrait format.
Each of these controllers is paired with an AF-on button to activate the AF system without using the shutter release button. There's also a customisable function button just to the side of the vertical shooting shutter release button, reducing the need for the camera to be taken away from the eye or re-orientated in use.
Another nice touch is that the buttons on the top, back and side of the camera can be illuminated slightly when the camera is in use. This isn't noticeable in normal daylight, but in the dark the button icons are just bright enough to be legible. It makes shooting in the dark much easier, and given the low-light credentials of the Nikon D4, it seems likely that it will be a popular feature.
Video recording capability is now a much more important consideration for prospective Nikon D4 buyers, and the new camera has a dedicated Stills/Video switch around the Live View button on its rear. This makes switching between stills and video recording very quick and easy.
Another noticeable change from the D3s is that the Nikon D4's metering switch on the pentaprism has gone and there's now a button on the top plate, alongside the bracketing and flash buttons in the place previously taken up by the aperture/shutter speed lock button.
AF point selection
Like the D3s, the Nikon D4 has an array of AF point selection modes, including Single-point AF, auto-area AF and 9-, 21- or 51-point Dynamic-area AF as well as 3D-tracking AF.However, rather than having a switch on the back of the camera to change between the modes like the D3s, the Nikon D4 uses the same approach as the D7000 and has a switch and button arrangement next to the lens mount.
The switch is used to set the Nikon D4 to auto or manual focus. When autofocus is selected, pressing the central button while rotating the rear command dial switches between single and continuous AF mode.
In continuous AF mode, pressing the button while rotating the front command dial toggles through Single-point, Auto-area, 9-, 21- 51-point and Dynamic-area AF modes.
This approach makes it easier to keep the camera to the eye while making adjustments.
LCD screen
Nikon has filled the gap between the glass and the crystal section of the LCD screen with an optical gel to reduce reflections, improve the viewing angle and boost brightness. We found that the screen provides a clear view in most shooting conditions, and reflections aren't a major issue even in bright sunlight.
This will be important for professional photographers shooting in the bright sun that is hoped to shine over the Olympics this summer.
To sum up, there are no major surprises in the build of the Nikon D4, and it feels solid and made to withstand some serious use. There are seals around all the joints and controls to ensure that it can cope with the usual rigours of life as a professional photographer's tool.
Performance
Images look good straight from the Nikon D4 - on the whole they are well exposed when the general purpose matrix metering system is used, and the colours and contrast look natural.There is also an impressive amount of detail visible in images taken throughout the native sensitivity range. As we might expect, however, the 16MP Nikon D4 can't quite match the 24MP Nikon D800 for detail resolution at the lower sensitivity settings.
Nikon's decision to restrict the Nikon D4's effective pixel count to 16.2 million appears to be a wise one, since noise is extremely well controlled throughout the native sensitivity range. Even images captured at ISO 6400 and ISO 12800 look great when sized to make A3 prints.
The dynamic range is also impressive and shadows can be lightened significantly without fear of revealing noise or missing detail.
The expansion settings are probably best reserved for emergency situations, but they too can produce reasonable results. In images taken at the very highest expansion setting (equivalent to ISO 204,800), the noise takes on a linear pattern, which is visible in all the channels (red, green and blue) and at normal viewing sizes.
Meanwhile, the automatic white balance (AWB) system does an excellent job in most situations. There's an alternative automatic white balance option to preserve some of the colour when shooting in warm lighting conditions, but we preferred the results using the standard AWB setting when shooting indoors under mixed light.
Since the AF system is a tweaked version of the one in the D3S, it's not a major revelation to discover that it is incredibly fast and effective. However, as before it is also fairly complex, and getting the best from it demands some understanding of the subject as well as how to tailor the AF system.
On some occasions, for example, it may be sensible to set the camera to respond quickly to changes in the subject distance, but when following a moving subject around an area where objects such as pillars or posts may momentarily obscure the subject, some delay is recommended to prevent the lens from focusing on the construction and then having to refocus on the subject.
The 3D-tracking AF system can be extremely useful, but it relies on a clear difference in colour between the subject and its background.
If there is a strong difference, AF points light up across the frame as the subject moves. However, if the camera struggles to differentiate between the subject and the background colours, or there are other objects in the frame that are of the same colour as the subject, the system fails to track the main target and the active AF point jumps from one point to another.
The Nikon D3s's AF system has a strong reputation among professional sports photographers and the Nikon D4's proves to be just as good, if not better in some situations.
However, Nikon's claims for its low light capability had perhaps raised our expectations a little higher than they should have been. While the Nikon D4 can certainly cope with low light, it isn't perfect and can struggle a little in atmospheric restaurant-type lighting.
Nikon was the first manufacturer to really push the number of AF points in an SLR, and while 51 is still a high number, it's disappointing that they are restricted to the central portion of the imaging frame.
In fact, they all fit within the DX crop. It would be nice to be able to select a few AF points outside of this area, a bit closer to the edge of the frame.
Like the still images from the Nikon D4, its videos have good colour and exposure. The footage is also smooth and detailed. However, manual focus is still recommended during recording, because the contrast detection AF system often performs a little forwards and backwards adjustment.
The stereo audio input volume can be adjusted via the menu, although perhaps it may be more logical to assign access to these controls via the Voice Memo button (with a mic icon) on the back of the camera.
Audio in and out ports are provided to enable an external mic and earphones to be connected for better sound recording and monitoring.
Like the D5100, the Nikon D4 has an HDR mode that combines two images taken at different exposures into one with a greater tonal range. Also like the D5100, this mode can only be selected when the camera is set to shoot JPEGs.
The exposure differential can be set to 1,2 or 3EV or automatic and the Smoothing (or blending) to Normal, High or Low. While this is useful on occasion, the camera only saves the final image, so there's no scope for reworking.
The Canon 5D Mark III is much more useful in this respect, since three exposures (raw and JPEG) can be saved in addition to the combined final image.
As well as the virtual horizon that can be displayed on the LCD screen, the Nikon D4 can use the AF points in the viewfinder to indicate the level of the camera.
This proves very useful, since it operates and illuminates right up to the point that the shutter release button is fully depressed, while the focus remains at the now hidden active AF point.
Noise and dynamic range
We shoot a specially designed chart in carefully controlled conditions and the resulting images are analysed using DXO Analyzer software to generate the data to produce the graphs below.A high signal to noise ratio (SNR) indicates a cleaner and better quality image.
For more more details on how to interpret our test data, check out our full explanation of our noise and dynamic range tests.
JPEG Signal to noise ratio
JPEG images from the Nikon D4 show good signal to noise ratio results, just beating the Nikon D3x, Canon EOS 1D MK IV, Nikon D700 andCanon EOS 5D MK II.
Raw images
TIFF images (after conversion from raw) show that the Nikon D4, has better signal to noise ratio than all but the Canon EOS 5D MK II between ISO 1600 and 6400. The Nikon D700 also just betters the D4 in this test at ISO 6400.
JPEG Dynamic range
This chart indicates that the Nikon D4's JPEGs have at least a 1EV higher dynamic range than the comparison cameras across the greater part of the sensitivity range.
Raw Dynamic range
TIFF images (after conversion from raw) from the Nikon D4 have a greater dynamic range than the Canon EOS 1D MK IV, Nikon D700 and Canon EOS 5D MK II with only the Nikon D3x gaining a similar result at ISO 100.
Sample images
The first six images here were shot at 10fps using the Nikon D4's continuous focus set to the 9-point dynamic option. The AF system managed to stay with the cyclist's face when the active AF point group was in the right position. However, when 3D-Dynamic mode was used, the camera could not distinguish between the skin tone and the background.
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Including so much sky in the frame has fooled the matrix metering into underexposing this scene, but there's plenty of information to work with.
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This is the same image after brightening using Photoshop's Levels and Curves control.
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The full frame sensor enables depth of field to be very restricted.
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Using the in-camera sepia toning.
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This image was deliberately underexposed, but look below to see how much detail can be revealed in the shadows.
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The shadows have been brightened using Photoshop's Levels control. They could be brightened further if necessary, so there's plenty of scope for creating single shot HDR images.
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The D4 has coped extremely well with fine textures, capturing an impressive amount of detail.
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This portrait was shot at ISO 2000, but still retains a fantastic amount of detail. Shot on Auto White Balance 2, the image has slightly warm tones.
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This image was shot on the Tungsten (Incandescent) setting in an effort to try and compensate for shooting under artificial light, however it is has struggled to produce accurate whites.
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This is the same image as the one above, but it has been corrected in Photoshop Elements using the Remove Colour Cast tool - as you can see the colours are represented more accurately and the whites appear whiter.
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Again shot at ISO 2000, take a look at the high res version of the image to see the fine detail captured in the table cloth.
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This image was also shot on the Tungsten setting, with the colours appearing a little off.
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Shot using the Auto White Balance (1) setting, colours have been rendered far more accurately, although with a tendency towards the warm.
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This shot shows the very restricted depth of field effects that are possible when using a full-frame camera, such as the Nikon D4.
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Colours straight from the camera are represented well, being bright and punchy without being overly saturated.
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Focus points on the D4 can be altered using the mini joystick on the back of the camera, which is easy to reach when holding the camera up to the eye.
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The Nikon D4 has 51 autofocus points, with the system being enhanced especially for the new release.
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This image was shot at 58mm, with an f/2.8 aperture at ISO 200. Take a look at the high res version of the image to see how well the camera has rendered the out of focus areas.
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Nikon claims that the D4 boasts faster focus acquisition than the D3S, during our testing we have found that it locks on to a subject quickly and easily.
Sensitivity and noise
Full ISO 50 image. See the cropped (zoomed to 100%) versions below.
ISO 50
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ISO 100
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ISO 200
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ISO 400
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ISO 800
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ISO 1600
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ISO 3200
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ISO 6400
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ISO 12800
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ISO 25600
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ISO 204800
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Verdict
Nikon has succeeded in building upon the D3s to produce a versatile camera that is suitable for use by professional photographers in a wide range of situations.The Nikon D4 may not have the highest resolution, but it has lightening-quick responses, a fantastically high maximum shooting rate and is capable of capturing an impressive amount of detail across a huge sensitivity range.
The Nikon D4 is the first of the recently announced high-end cameras to go through our testing procedure, and consequently we are so far unable to compare it with its main rival, the Canon EOS-1DX. However, we will do this as soon as we get our hands on a 1DX.
We liked
A great AF system, good noise control and huge sensitivity range are contained in an ergonomically arranged bodyWe disliked
Slight movement in the memory card bay is a little disconcerting. The AF system is complex, and its various options could be made clearer in the menu for the uninitiated. There may be 51 AF points, but they are all clustered around the centre of the frame and within the DX crop.Final verdict
The design changes made since the D3s make a significant and positive impact on the handling of the Nikon D4.Those upgrading may find it takes a while to get used to using the mini-joystick controllers to set the AF point, but they make it quicker and easier in the long run - especially when shooting in portrait format.
Nikon has produced a solid workhorse of a DSLR that professionals can depend upon to deliver good results even in low lighting conditions. Image quality is high and results look great straight from the camera.
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Tim Cook voted world's best CEO
Tim Cook will receive a 'best boss eva' mug in the post, with news he has been named as the CEO with the best approval rating on the planet.
The list, which is essentially a 'hot or not' system for bosses, has been created by Glassdoor and was topped by Eric Schmidt in 2011.
In 2012, the number one spot belongs to Tim Cook, with the Apple boss racking up an impressive 97 per cent approval rating.
In second place is Ernst & Young CEO Jim Turley, Paul E Jacobs of Qualcomm is in third and in at fourth and fifth Ken Chenault of American Express and Google's Larry Page - they both have a 94 per cent approval rating.
Top cats
What does arbitrary approval scheme mean? Well, not a whole lot in this big wide world but it does show that Apple is doing very well after the Steve Jobs legacy.And what's interesting is that Tim Cook's rating is higher than Steve Jobs' in 2011 – 97 per cent to Jobs' 94 per cent.
Another newly instated CEO who is doing better than there predecessor is HP's Meg Whitman.
She may only be at 24 in the list, but the approval rating of 80 per cent is far higher than Leo Apotheker's 67 per cent.
This is impressive, but not as impressive as the amount of times we have written 'per cent' in this article – which stands at a cool seven.
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7 Days in Mobile: Samsung Galaxy S2 gets Ice Cream Sandwich update sucked into time vortex
Have you ever tried to save money and decided to start making your own lunches rather than buying the same old processed rubbish? 7DiM has, and they are, for want of a better word, lush.
Mobile phones and tablets don't eat though (imagine if they did OMGTHATWOULDBESTUPID!) – yet there are thousands of Galaxy S2 owners desperate to cram an Ice Cream Sandwich down the virtual gullet of their prized Android device.
Samsung's been hard at work to bring the latest version of Android to its flagship device (called Ice Cream Sandwich, if you're confused) and just a few weeks back confirmed that it would be chucking it out to all and sundry week commencing March 19.
That date came and went, and the SIM free Samsung owners are still waiting. But those with a Galaxy S2 courtesy of O2 or Three aren't - they've already got their update.
So, to try and put this simply: Samsung creates update. Update sent to networks to fashion properly. Networks push out update. Samsung still hasn't. Confusing.
The world's first elephant
We don't like to target a specific brand over and over again (although if you speak to some of our commenters, we're obsessed with loving/hating Apple/Nokia/Android) but Samsung sent out a release this week that claimed it had a video of the 'world's first elephant using a Samsung Galaxy Note'.To which we replied: "You've resurrected the world's first elephant? Was it a bit hairy? How did you do this – genetic engineering? Reanimation? Cloning?
"Sorry, but this is a MUCH bigger story than the fact it could use a Galaxy Note. Although it does call into question whether the pachyderm lineage has become less advanced over time if the world's first ever elephant could use electronics that didn't even EXIST at that time."
We then put our mind-expanding thinking tablets into our eyes and ruminated… "Could this go even further back in time? Does this horse have a pulse? No? Can we still hit it?"
Our pictures should tell you the conclusion we reached.
Oh, and here's the video if you're that bothered:
Black(Berry) and blue
We're not usually ones for writing anything that even resembles news, but having been on both BBC 5Live and BBC News today *cough*alsoavailableforweddings*cough* we thought we should mention the fact RIM accidentally smashed a big hole in its money store and forgot to plug it – leading to a dip in profits of nearly $1 billion.So it seems likely the smartphone manufacturer will return to the business sector, where it made its name as the businessman's companion that didn't have to be hired as a secretary so the wife wouldn't find out.
We think RIM has missed a trick here. Branch out, you little Canadian tinker – make toilets or cat pyjamas or follicle bleaching kits – just don't get into bed with the Cupertino brand. We couldn't stand the fruity puns.
PICTURE
Quite apt, don't you think? We're taking this to mean McDonald's is going to mount a hostile takeover of the brand and start offering the McStorm 9950 in the near future.
You can probably think of a better caption-based pun. Tweet us on @TR_Phones and @TR_tablets and we can take your ideas and pretend we wrote them.
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News in brief: One more thing: HTC wants to be like common people
With April glaring into the headlights of our inexorable drive through the tech year, one more thing has again swerved past the roadkill of rubbish stories to pick up the day's hitchhikers and listen to their exciting tales.
As well as celebrating the fact that April Fool's Day is happening on a weekend day when the team doesn't have to cover the "hilarious" efforts of every single PR company on the planet to convince us that something zany/unlikely is happening (Spoiler warning: it isn't), we've also found time to take the crap out of our Facebook timeline ahead of Saturday's great switchover and to write up some news in brief.
Common people - So when HTC announced that its latest 'As recommended by' campaign was going to feature 'real people' using their handsets in 'real-world situations' we didn't expect the real people to be sky divers and the real life situation to be the world's first free fall fashion shoot. We're obviously hanging around with the wrong 'real' people. [PR]
Ticket touts - Samsung has announced it will be offering two complimentary tickets to the Olympics football to anyone who buys a Galaxy Note, Nexus or Galaxy S2 from Phones4U until May 15. Alternatively, if you buy the entire company you get a complimentary corporate box at the Olympic Stadium for the whole Games. Probably. [PR]
Don't stop believin' - We were astounded to find out that rock band Journey has added to its years of chart success by breaking all PSN records this week to top the cha… Oh, apparently Journey is a game. And not just any game but one that Offical PlayStation mag has called "one of the greatest pieces of pretentious nonsense that gaming's seen". [OPM]
Journey: "One of the greatest pieces of pretentious nonsense that gaming's seen"
Time of your life - Now all of you guys have set your Facebook privacy to 'get the hell off my data' and deleted any old/embarrassing photos to boot right? Well if you haven't you might want to know that Facebook's divisive Timeline is being rolled out for all this weekend. Our younger, cooler staff writer has informed us this is nothing to worry about… [TNW] Twatter - There's actually a reason why some celebs are surrounded by PR people and publicists, namely to stop them actually, you know, talking to people directly. Which is why Twitter for the likes of Justin Bieber and Spike Lee is actually a Very. Bad. Thing. Just ask the people their stupid tweets have caused huge problems for. [Digital Trends]
Lies. Damn Lies - Sixty-eight per cent of women are now using Facebook more than traditional TV guides to decide what they watch, says the Geek Squad's latest research. This might explain the popularity of TOWIE. [Telegraph]
Generation game - Gaming legend David Braben has weighed in on the whole 'kids not liking ICT' subject in typically honest fashion. "The fact that ICT is considered one of the most boring subjects in school is disgraceful. The first thing a kid wants to do when they get home is play on their computers so ICT or at least computer science should be the most exciting subject." We're calling for Fifa 12 in every classroom. Who's with us?
Frickin laserbeams - When it comes down to it, pretty much any story with laser beams in it ticks our cool box, but when it also involves controlling lighting it elevates it right up to awesome status. [New Scientist]
Van Gogh's sunflowers - You know when you see some research that makes you kinda sorta wonder if Scientists have a bit too much time on their hands? Well these guys have identified the gene that caused the double flower mutation in Vincent Van Gogh's sunflowers. [Nature]
Superfast - Finally Virgin Media has confirmed that it has finished the roll out of its 100Mbps service ahead of the British summer of sport, so you can now watch the various British teams underperform on a range of devices simultaneously if you're signed up.
Last but not least - here's our bonus video: New iPad versus hot stuff.
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7 Days in Gaming: Swing like Tiger Woods with Kinect, urges EA
This week on 7DiG we discuss the Latin for ring, look at gaming tech that's older than at least one of our team and eye up John Adams' wife.
Our favourite moment is finding out that EA Sports' Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13's back cover asks you to 'Swing like a pro with Kinect' and even 'relive Tiger Woods' most memorable accomplishments. These are mini-games we can't wait to see.
PS4 Or…bis? Apparently someone from Sony's PlayStation division has decided that games consoles shouldn't be given numbers but wonderful names that don't sound AT ALL like some form of chewing gum. Honest injun. So not content with giving us PS Vita we're now looking at the PS Orbis instead of a PS4. Orbis in Latin means circle, orb or disk.
Broad spectrum appeal We're utterly behind the Raspberry Pi project – especially if clever people are capable of coming up with stuff as good as this. A ZX Spectrum emulator on a £22 bit of kit. Plus, we can now educate our younger staff writers as to exactly what Manic Miner is.
They've got 99 problems… So the next Assassin's Creed is set in the American Revolution. That's AWESOME right? Well, apparently not so much if you want strong women characters. "There are a few people, like John Adams' wife," said creative director Alex Hutchison. "They tried very hard in the TV series to not make it look like a bunch of dudes, but it really is a bunch of dudes." [CVG]
Angry Birds Sticking with Angry Birds for a moment, we were very pleased to hear that Angry Birds Space will be coming to Windows Phone. Mainly because we're keen to lean over and judge people on trains for not getting three stars on the easy levels.
Assassin's Creed guy: "They tried very hard in the TV series to not make it look like a bunch of dudes, but it really is a bunch of dudes."
Euro 2012 DLC A late entry in 7DiG this week was the news that EA has decided not to release a standalone Euro 2012 football game but instead offer up an expansion pack with all the teams, stadiums and a mini-game where you argue the case for Wayne Rooney to not be banned for the first two group games. Only two out of these three things are true. [Guardian]GAME cards If you happened to be sat on a £100 gift card from Game, given to you as, say a leaving present when you moved on, you wouldn't have been foolish enough to not spend it would you? Would you? Oh, well it's basically not really much good now. Sorry :( [CVG]
Multi -Max Multi-Payne This week also gave us a glimpse at the multiplayer for MAX. PAYNE. 3.
We end, as always, with some of the awesome features that have cropped up around the Future games sites.
CVG
Black Ops 2 Release Date Leaked
Assassin's Creed 3 Demo First look
A history of Resident Evil Games
Official Playstation
Test Your Playstation Sound Knowledge
Physically Painful Video Games
The Mass Effect 3 Ending What Bioware have to Say
Nintendo
Legend Of Zelda Facts & Secrets
Donkey Kong Wii Wishlist
Wii U-Guide Everything You Need To Know
Golden Joysticks
Ridge Racer Unbounded - Video Review
EVE Online Gameplay using Direct X 11
Assassin's Creed 3 - Alex Hutchinson interview
OXM
Black Ops 2 and Elite 2.0 details
Day one DLC Row
Dragon's Dogma GamePlay Videos
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Apple iTV not coming 'til 2013?
Apple isn't set to debut in the television market until 2013, with analysts reckoning we shouldn't expect the arrival of Apple iTV this year.
While most analysts believe that Apple is all but ready to come to market but CSLA believes that we will all have that little bit longer to wait.
It does also reckon that Foxconn's recent partnership with Sharp shows that Apple is deadly serious about releasing a television and this is one of the reasons the tie-up was made, so plenty of panels could be produced for the eventual release.
Sharp end
"We continue to view Apple TV hardware as a 2013 event," explained CSLA in a note."The timing of Hon Hai/Foxconn's equity stake and partnership with Sharp along with Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou's separate 46.5 per cent investment in Sharp's Sakai City plant lends further credibility that Apple TV is in the works.
"This also follows reports that Apple is investing $1.3bn in equipment destined for Sharp facilities."
It had been hoped that the Apple iTV – or whatever Apple does decide to call it – would come out in 2012 and many analysts still agree that this is the case but with the upcoming iPhone 5 release, and lots of contracts still to be signed by movie and television companies, maybe Apple will take its time with this one.
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Apple iTV not coming till 2013?
Apple isn't set to debut in the television market until 2013, with analysts reckoning we shouldn't expect the arrival of Apple iTV this year.
While most analysts believe that Apple is all but ready to come to market but CSLA believes that we will all have that little bit longer to wait.
It does also reckon that Foxconn's recent partnership with Sharp shows that Apple is deadly serious about releasing a television and this is one of the reasons the tie-up was made, so plenty of panels could be produced for the eventual release.
Sharp end
"We continue to view Apple TV hardware as a 2013 event," explained CSLA in a note."The timing of Hon Hai/Foxconn's equity stake and partnership with Sharp along with Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou's separate 46.5 per cent investment in Sharp's Sakai City plant lends further credibility that Apple TV is in the works.
"This also follows reports that Apple is investing $1.3bn in equipment destined for Sharp facilities."
It had been hoped that the Apple iTV – or whatever Apple does decide to call it – would come out in 2012 and many analysts still agree that this is the case but with the upcoming iPhone 5 release, and lots of contracts still to be signed by movie and television companies, maybe Apple will take its time with this one.
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Raspberry Pi gets a ZX Spectrum emulator
Raspberry Pi may currently be battling its way through the red tape around certification, but that hasn't stopped someone from turning it into a ZX Spectrum emulator.
Andy Taylor from the UK computing museum is the man behind a port for Fuze – an emulator for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum – the computer that fired a generation of games developers.
The emulator illustrates just some of the fun that could be had with a £22 computer that's been designed to be played around with and altered.
Joy of creation
The Raspberry Pi project is looking to bring the joy of tech creation back to kids – although we're be willing to bet that a fair few of the early versions end up in the hands of the exact same people who played with the Spectrum in their younger years.Obviously this emulator is the first of potentially many, as a new generation tinker and create to their heart's content.
In the meantime, the slightly older generation is going to be trying to get through the processing plant level and humming along to In the hall of the mountain king.
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Google Nexus tablet 'will get its own store'
Google looks set to follow in the footsteps of Apple and Amazon, as reports say the search giant will set up its own online store to sell the upcoming Google Nexus tablet.
The iPad and Kindle ranges both appear on their manufacture's own websites and Google is thought to be considering this method to help turn around slow sales of Android tablets.
The Wall Street Journal claims to have spoken to "people familiar with the matter", who confirmed the Nexus tablet will be built by third party manufactures and sold via a Google-branded online shop.
Asus and Samsung
We reported earlier in the month that Google was set to name Asus as the manufacturer for its first Google Nexus tablet, after ruling out the likes of Acer and HTC.The sources which spoke to the WSJ confirmed that Asus would indeed be one of the manufacturers producing a Google branded tablet, along with another Google partner, Samsung.
This wouldn't be the first time Google has set up a dedicated online store for a product, as it did so back in 2010 for the Google Nexus One, which was manufactured by HTC.
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Gary Marshall: BlackBerry on the brink: can RIM get its mojo back?
Do you know what the number one cause of business failure is? Success.
For every firm that goes to the wall because it simply couldn't bring in enough cash, there's another firm that got really big and then blew it.
Firms blow it in several ways. Some of them get stuck in a rut, so convinced that their way is the right way, the true way and the only way that they don't spot fitter, faster competitors until it's too late.
Others overstretch themselves, forgetting what they're good at and chasing market sectors far beyond their core skills. And others release really crappy products.
RIM, it's safe to say, has done all three.
RIM's denying that it's pulling out of the consumer market, but there's no doubt that its business isn't exactly having a purple patch just now. It's losing enormous amounts of money, and many of its products are duds.
So what caused the nosedive, and can RIM pull out of it?
Where have all the good times gone?
RIM's story is one of two parts. There's the pre-iPhone bit, and there's the post-iPhone bit. The pre-iPhone bit was the golden age, with everybody in a suit toting a BlackBerry so they could keep in touch with their all-important emails.I had one, and it was brilliant: at the time, there wasn't a better phone for email addicts.
The problem was that RIM did what many innovators do. It stopped innovating. That wasn't a problem initially, but then Steve Jobs decided that Apple could do a better job.
The iPhone, as we all know, was a huge success - but when it was launched, RIM executives genuinely believed that Apple was playing an elaborate joke. It's not possible to build a phone that good, they thought, and spent the next couple of years proving it by making phones that weren't as good as iPhones.
Meanwhile Apple made the iPhone more and more attractive to businesses, chipping away at RIM's core customer base. RIM's response?
Make a crappier iPad that doesn't work properly without being paired with a BlackBerry phone. That worked really well, and helped turn RIM's financials into the black comedy they've become.
According to new boss Thorsten Heins, "We believe that BlackBerry cannot succeed if we tried to be everybody's darling and all things to all people."
Unfortunately trying to be all things to all people has been RIM's exact strategy for more than five years. I hope the promises of a renewed focus on business customers aren't just PR waffle, because focus is exactly what BlackBerry needs if it's to avoid becoming a footnote in tech history.
The problems aren't insurmountable. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple the firm was a basket case, but the combination of a simplified product range and really, really good products made Apple what it is today. That's one Apple thing RIM really ought to copy.
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Updated: 15 best graphics cards in the world today
Best graphics cards: Overview
What graphics card should you buy? Our 15 best graphics cards in the world article is regularly updated.PC gaming is currently going from strength to strength. Upcoming games such as Bioshock Infinite and The Darkness II look set to raise the graphical bar even higher, and recent games look phenomenal on the PC. Just compare Skyrim running on a decent PC and graphics card to it running on an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 and the difference is like night and day. Plus as the consoles stagnate due to their ageing technology, it's something that's only set to continue.
In order to experience such games at their best, though, you're going to need to ensure you have a machine that's up to the task. And by machine, we're primarily focusing on your graphics card.
So welcome to our best graphics card article – it's constantly updated with the very latest best graphics cards.
It's the graphics card that does the serious work when it comes to rendering your games, and the more effects and higher resolutions you throw at it, the more is asked of that graphics card.
It's important to pick your graphics card so that it works well with your display, or displays. There's no point, for instance, trying to power a 30-inch screen with the likes of a GeForce GTS 450.
By the same notion, running a standard 20-inch screen with the likes of an AMD Radeon HD 6990 won't begin to tap into the card's power.
As a quick rule of thumb, whatever you spent on your screen, you're going to want to spend a similar amount to power it. Roughly.
The question is, which one of the many graphics cards out there should you actually spend your hard earned cash on? Here TechRadar highlights the top 15 cards worth considering. We cover the notable cards from the last generation, the best all-rounders for most PC gamers and the £550 monsters that can handle multi-screen outputs.
In this guide we'll let you know what's hot, what's cool and what are the fastest GPUs available right now and worthy of your time.
Best of all, because we're now enjoying the second generation of DirectX 11 hardware, every card we look at here is capable of rendering the latest, funkiest DirectX 11 games.
So how does your graphics card stand in our countdown, and is it time for an upgrade?
Graphics card glossary
There are a lot of terms and acronyms that get bandied around when talking about graphics cards, and not a lot of explanation to go along with them.
Before we delve into the meat of the feature let's take a minute to clear things up a little.
GPU – This is the graphics processing unit, the chip at the heart of the graphics card. Many cards use the same GPU but partner it with different components and at different clockspeeds to produce slower or faster graphics cards.
GDDR – Graphics Double Data Rate memory is the specific kind of memory that is used on graphics cards.
ROPs – The Render Output unit comes into play during the final stages in the rendering process, bringing together the data from each of the memory buffers in the graphics card's local memory. The more of them you have, the better off you are.
CUDA – Compute Unified Device Architecture is a coding language Nvidia invented to allow parallel computing on its range of GPUs. From its 8 series upwards all its cards can use CUDA to speed up parallel processing applications, such as video encoding, faster than your computer's CPU.
PhysX – Originally an accelerator chip and software layer from the small company Ageia, Nvidia bought up PhysX and has now applied it to its GPUs, again from the 8 series forward. It allows for more advanced physics simulations, such as liquid or cloth, in games that have been coded with the PhysX software included.
Crossfire and SLI – These are the relevant multi-GPU configurations from both AMD and Nvidia. Both allow multiple graphics cards to be connected together to increase the rendering performance. Historically this has been fraught with driver issues and diminishing returns for the extra cards, but as the latest cards have been released we are getting closer to doubling the performance by adding in a second card.
PCB – The Printed Circuit Board is the physical board that graphics cards (and all other micro-electronics) have their components attached to. The boards are printed with conductive pathways between the relevant components instead of using physical wires.
DirectX – Microsoft's DirectX is a collection of its own proprietary APIs (application programming interfaces) for dealing with multimedia tasks on its own operating systems. The Direct3D part is specifically to do with 3D graphics and utilises hardware acceleration if there is a GPU in place to take advantage of it.
Tesselation – This is one of the key buzzwords to come from Microsoft's latest graphical API, DirectX 11. It's designed to add extra geometry to a simple polygon, using displacement maps to tell the GPU where to raise and lower parts of the polygon as the graphics card computes the data. The idea is to add geometry to objects in a game world without significantly impairing performance. It's set to become a key battleground in the graphics war in the coming years.
The best budget graphics cards
Getting great gaming performance doesn't have to involve breaking the bank. Here are the best budget graphics cards.5. AMD Radeon HD 7750 - £80
The AMD Radeon HD 7750 launched at the right side of £80, making it an altogether friendlier proposal than the AMD Radeon 7970 which goes for around £440. These new-gen AMD cards boast some excellent power efficiency by shutting off all but one core when your system enters power save mode.
But what's this HD 7750 missing out on to hit that price point? The HD 7750 is quicker than its big Nvidia rival, the GTX 550 Ti, and its predecessor, the HD 5770 - but not the HD 6770. General performance is limited primarily by a slender 128-bit frame buffer, however the die-shrink down from 45nm to 28nm and increase in transistor count that comes with it gives this Southern Islands card a definite edge in tessellation-heavy tasks. You can also eke out some modest improvements through overclocking, with big core and memory clock increases running smoothly and without crashes - we had ours cranked up to 900 MHz on the core clock from the 800 MHz stock setting without any glitching or hangs.
Read our AMD Radeon HD 7750 review
4. AMD Radeon HD 6670 - £59
It's all very well talking about £600 graphics cards that need PC cases the size of Andre the Giant to house them, and a mini Arc reactor to keep them powered, but how many of us are actually going to drop a month's wages on such a pixel-pushing behemoth? More likely you're going to be looking at a maximum outlay of around £150-£200.
And currently there's a lot of graphics processing power available all the way down the price spectrum too. AMD though has come in, GPUs-blazing, at a sub-£100 price point with a DirectX 11 graphics card, the Radeon HD 6670.
At under £70, it's a decent compromise between price and performance, and if you're really on a tight budget you'll still be able to game at your 22-inch panel's native res, albeit with a few graphical niceties dialled down.
As ever in this tightly compressed graphics card market there's a more powerful alternative, but it's a few pounds away. For less than a tenner you're looking at XFX's single-slot Radeon HD 5770 (http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/graphics-cards/xfx-radeon-hd-5770-926213/review), and that's rather close to being a bone fide gaming GPU.
Read our Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6670 review
Read our HIS 6670 Fan 1GB GDDR5 review
3. Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 - £81
The Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 is in serious gamers' graphics card territory, without hitting the big prices.
Nvidia doesn't have a great lineup in the budget segment of cards, and anything lower than this here GeForce GTS 450 isn't really worth a look for those with any passing interest in frame rates. This venerable card does have some gaming chops to offer, and for the £81 cost it's a tough card to argue against.
Immediately you can feel the step up in performance terms with this gaming-oriented card. With DiRT 3 and Far Cry 2 we saw the card hit 32fps and 52fps respectively, and that's with 4x AA running at very playable speeds. You could drop this into any system and be hitting gaming speeds across most modern titles at the modest 1680 x 1050 resolution. Should you not mind taking the performance hit, this card will also give you access to PhysX extras in game and 3D Vision, if you so wish.
Read our Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 review
Read our MSI GeForce GTS 450 Cyclone review
Read our Asus GeForce GTS 450 TOP review
2. AMD Radeon HD 6850 - £118
To be honest we were rather unforgiving of the HD 6850, at launch it was pricing itself almost out of the market.
It was going toe-to-toe with Nvidia's 1GB GTX 460 which, at the time, just about had it pipped in performance terms. It was also a little pricier than the GTX 460, coming in around the £160 mark.
Again though time has been kind to the HD 6850. The price has dropped a huge amount, indeed AMD recently announced a further price-drop bringing the card down to less than £120, which for a spec like this is a serious bargain.
AMD's constant driver updates too have meant that performance has increased over time as well. The Barts Pro GPU core at the heart of the HD 6850 is a reworking of the Cypress Pro that made the HD 5850 such an impressive card back in the day. It doesn't have the huge number of Radeon Cores the HD 5850 had, but still maintains the ROPs count of 32.
Read our XFX HD 6850 review
Read our Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 review
Read our HIS Radeon HD 6850 review
1. AMD Radeon HD 5770 - £100
For budget-conscious gamers, the HD 5770 should be a serious consideration. Have a scout around the online retailers, and you'll see that examples can be had for less than £100 now.
Offering competent performance at the mainstream 22-inch resolution of 1680 x 1050, it also comes with the promise of cool-running, quiet operation – a trademark of AMD's last-gen design philosophy.
However, try to crank the shinier graphical elements – such as Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering – too high, and the card starts to run out of grunt.
AMD's EyeFinity technology, which enables multi-screen scaling, is a very real option with the 5770, although we wouldn't recommend the 5770 for multi-screen gaming; it just doesn't have the throughput for gaming at huge resolutions.
The really interesting thing about the HD 5770 is what its price represents. At these low prices, our thoughts turn to CrossFire setups. For under £200, you can net yourself a twin-card setup that offers kick-ass performance at mid-range resolutions.
If you're content with that 22-inch monitor and want zingy performance on a budget, this CF setup is probably the cheapest way to achieve it... Oh, and did we mention the 5770 is DX11 capable? Yum.
Read our XFX Radeon HD 5770 review
Read our Gigabyte HD 5770 Silent Cell review
Best mid-range graphics cards
These mid-range graphics cards represent the sensible money for most PC gamers – combining great raw performance with a price tag that won't make you pass out.If you're looking to power a screen with a native resolution of 1680 x 1050 or 1920 x 1080, then you really don't need to get anything more powerful than this. At least given the current slew of games.
These cards also hold an ace up their sleeve if you have an SLI or CrossFire motherboard in your rig, because they enable you to boost the performance of your machine by adding in a second card as your needs progress.
5. Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti - £128
Originally designed to replace the GTS 450, the GTX 550 Ti has recently found itself being pushed out of the frame by the Radeon HD 6790 (which we're looking at next). Yes, it's a next-generation graphics card, but is that alone enough to make it relevant? Not really.
As with the Radeon HD 6790, The Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti suffers comparison with the slower, but more-affordable GTS 450 and the faster, and only a bit more pricey GeForce GTX 460. Indeed it's testament to the GTX 460 that it still manages to define this end of the market.
If you've got a 20-inch or 22-inch screen, then the GTX 550 Ti is briefly worth considering, because it will produce playable frame rates at 1680 x 1050 at reasonable settings.
Unfortunately, unless there's a bizarre disease that specifically targets the GTX 460 and removes it from the world, we'd recommend hunting down that older card every time.
Read our Zotac GeForce GTX 550 Ti AMP! review
Read our EVGA GTX 550 Ti SC review
4. Asus EAH 6770 DC - £118
Asus has released the highest-clocked passively-cooled graphics card around in this, the Asus EAH 6770 DC.
And it's whisper quiet too.
There was a time, not too long ago, when if you wanted to build a silent or very quiet PC you knew you were going to have to sacrifice any notion of serious gameplay to get the quietness needed for the system you were building.
Well, helping to kick that idea out of touch, Asus has introduced the EAH6770 DC SL/2DI/1GD5. A really snappy name to remember that mouthful is. The card combines AMD's HD6770 core with, it must be said, a pretty massive passive heatsink and cooling array.
It's created a passive card that makes a pretty good fist of playing today's demanding games even at high resolutions.
Although size-wise it's not a card for the more compact of PC cases.
Read our Asus EAH 6770 DC review
3. AMD Radeon HD 7850 - £190
The HD 7850 pretty much finalises AMD's current plans for the Southern Islands line up, bar the crazy-expensive dual-GPU New Zealand card which is likely waiting on Nvidia's new cards.
The AMD Radeon HD 7850 is also the card that's arguably got the most chance of being successful out of this family. At the price it looks likely to retail at, the sub-£200 mark, it could well be the highest-selling of AMD's mid-range cards.
The fact AMD has filled out these lower-caste cards with all the same features as their higher-end brethren is refreshing, as is the fact that we'll get all the HD 7850 goodness in such small footprints as 7.8-inches.
Again, it's the same Graphics Core Next story – the overclocking headroom is immense. The OC path is the only way to get the most out of these cards
Read our AMD Radeon HD 7850 review
2. Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti - £154
The GTX 560 Ti is essentially the direct replacement for the awesome GTX 460.
Though that's not actually how it's running. The performance of the GTX 560 Ti actually means it's retiring the GTX 470 with the GTX 570 effectively retiring the GTX 480 and the GTX 580 just standing on it's own. In competition terms the GTX 560 Ti is being pitched directly against AMD's sub-£200 Radeon HD 6870, but is also touted by Nvidia as something that can also take on AMD's Cayman-powered Radeon HD 6950.
The GTX 560 Ti hits Nvidia's marketing claims of 30% better performance over the GTX 460 and isn't asking any more for it than it did for the previous generation.
The impressive overclocking capabilities of the card are also worth special mention, especially considering the card is recommended to come in below the £200 mark.
Read our Gigabyte GTX 560 OC Edition review
Read our EVGA GTX 560 Ti DS review
Read our Zotac GTX 560 AMP! Edition review
1. AMD Radeon HD 6950 - £210
Every few years a graphics card is released that sums up that generation better than any other. We're talking about the likes of the 8800GT and the budget-focused Radeon X1950 Pro. Cards that transcend their immediate markets and time frames and stand up for years to come as being bang on the money.
The AMD Radeon HD 6950 defines the market. Cheaper cards look up to it for its raw power, while the top-end cards are mindful of the sheer value it offers and are rightly fearful of what can be achieved when two are cajoled together in CrossFire.
The Radeon HD 6950 isn't a subtle reworking of the first generation of DX11 graphics in the same way that Barts is, but rather a complete reworking of the inner logic of AMD's graphics chips. And it's an incredible card for it.
The performance is incredible, at console-breaking 1080p resolutions, and in DX11 games it punches well above its weight. If you're looking for a no-nonsense card that will last you until DX12 rolls out, and don't plan on running insanely high resolutions, this is the card for you.
Those with the stomach for it will discover that they can turn their £200 Radeon HD 6950 into a fully fledged 6970 with a BIOS flash as well. Here's a card that both AMD and Nvidia are going to be hard pushed to beat any time soon. It's simply incredible.
Read our AMD Radeon HD 6950 review
Read our MSI Radeon HD 6950 Twin FrozR II review
Read our Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 Dirt 3 Edition review
Read our Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 2GB review
The top graphics cards in the world today
The following five cards represent the pinnacle of modern graphics performance. These are cards that are beyond the sweet spot of what's needed in order to enjoy the latest games at reasonable resolutions.The following cards are essentially here to fill the niches in gamers' requirements that the likes of the AMD Radeon HD 6950 can't satisfy. Here we're talking about outputting to 27-inch and 30-inch panels that have a native resolution of 2560 x 1600. Or multiple screen displays made up of three or more 22-inch or 24-inch panels.
This end of the market is complicated somewhat by the advances made in SLI and CrossFire. These twin-graphics card pairing technologies now genuinely provide the performance improvements over single cards that you would hope for – 90-95% is often the norm.
A pair of cheaper cards in SLI can outperform the following cards too, which means the requirement of having a supporting motherboard is generally the only thing holding you back.
5. Nvidia GeForce GTX 570 - £280
Value for money may seem like a strange metric to pull out of the hat at this end of the graphics market, but the GTX 570 does a decent turn at making your investment feel prudent rather than simply excessive.
Essentially a replacement for the soon to be retired GTX 480, here's a card that does everything that Nvidia's last-generation top dog did, but without the problems that card suffered from when it shipped.
The cooler is quiet and more efficient, and the raw power on offer from this sub-£300 card is stunning. This is a slightly cut down version of the GTX 580, losing one Streaming Multiprocessor (or 32 CUDA cores, to put it another way) and 8 ROPs.
The GTX 570's core operates at 732MHz as opposed to the GTX 580's 772MHz, while the 1,280MB of GGDR5 memory speeds along at 950MHz, as opposed to the GTX 580's 1,002MHz.
For the money, there isn't a lot out there that can touch the GTX 570 in terms of pure performance, apart from possibly a pair of GTX 460s in SLI – but such a configuration requires an SLI motherboard.
Read our Nvidia GeForce GTX 570 review
Read our Zotac GeForce GTX 570 review
4. AMD Radeon HD 7970 - £450
AMD blinked first and opted to release its brand new graphics card architecture before Nvidia did. It was a brave move by AMD though. Bringing out a radically different graphics design spec, compared with its previous vector processors, in the same year as it brought us a brand new CPU architecture.
It may well be one of the fastest single-GPU cards around at the moment, but there is still little justification for the price. There are very few of us out there running a monitor capable of the eye-watering resolutions of 2560x1600 so realistically a 1920x1080 resolution is going to be more likely.
And at that resolution the excellent £365 Nvidia GTX 580 is all the card you're going to need. The overclocking potential of the AMD Radeon HD 7970 is incredible.
Topping 1,100MHz is a huge overclock and makes it almost comparable to the previous generation of dual-GPU cards.
Read our AMD Radeon HD 7970 review
Read our Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OverClock Edition review
3. Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 - £395
Created as the spiritual successor to the much-maligned GTX 480 (http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/graphics-cards/nvidia-geforce-gtx-480-679629/review), Nvidia took the problems it had with its first DX11 graphics card and corrected them with the GTX 580.
This means you get a full-fat core boasting 512 CUDA cores and 48 ROPS, not one that has been cut down to achieve better yields. And all running at a healthy 772MHz with a 1,002MHz memory bus for the 1,384MB of GDDR5 memory.
Not everyone needs the power of a GTX 580 – only those with serious screens to power. This is a market targeted by the twin-GPU Goliaths that are the AMD Radeon HD 6990 and Nvidia's own GeForce GTX 590.
The GTX 580 still has the nod, however, because those cards have had to be throttled back to fit on a single card, while here you know nothing is being constrained. This is still the most sensible option for anyone looking for unfettered speed from a single GPU.
Read our Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 review
Read our Zotac GeForce GTX 580 AMP! review
Read our EVGA GTX 580 Hydro Copper 2 review
Read our MSI GTX 580 Lightning Twin Frozr III review
2. AMD Radeon HD 7950
AMD is really putting the pressure on Nvidia now with its second release of the new AMD HD 7000 graphics card generation, the AMD Radeon HD 7950. We've been pushing the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 as the go-to gamer's card since it was released, but the HD 7950 has that beat and for a good chunk of cash less than the Nvidia card.
And that's just at stock speeds. When you start overclocking this card the difference in performance increases hugely.The AMD HD 7950 could also be a massive hit for the CrossFire crew too, as for £700 you'll find yourself with an insanely quick graphics setup.
And for £300 less than an equivalent HD 7970 array. The AMD Radeon HD 7950 is one hell of an impressive pixel-pusher, and Nvidia is going to have to work incredibly hard with its Kepler cards to best this excellent card.
Read our AMD Radeon HD 7950 review
Read our Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 OverClock Edition review
1. Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 - £410
It may have been a long while coming but the Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 is on the way to balance up the next-generation graphics market.
AMD launched its Radeon HD 7970 in December so it's a bit of gap that Nvidia has to make up with its latest top-end GPU.
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 is its latest £400-odd, top-of-the-line card and is now the fastest graphics card in the world. We all kind of knew that would be the case, after all Nvidia has played the waiting game with AMD, letting the competition draw first and release its entire slew of HD 7000 graphics cards.
That meant Nvidia could see how the competition was performing and ensure its engineers finalised the GTX 680 specs and set the clocks to ensure the requisite 10% performance improvement.
As it turns out this Kepler-based Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 is far more than just another big, power-hungry graphics card, relying on pure grunt alone to give it the edge.
This is actually a far more elegant card than people might give it credit for.
It's not the power-crazed GPU behemoths we're used to from Nvidia, but it's still got the performance chops and some neat extra tricks.
Read our Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 review
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More Nikon D3200 specs emerge
As the rumoured April 2012 Nikon D3200 announcement date approaches, more supposed specs have started to emerge online.
The rumours still persist that the camera will be equipped with a 24 million pixel sensor, which is quite a leap for entry level DSLRs.
Newer rumours suggest that the camera will be equipped with 11 AF points, 4fps shooting and an ISO range of 100-6400, with a hi-ISO of 12800.
"Improved video functionality" has been suggested, which could mean that Nikon brings the camera up to full HD video recording, which would see it beating the rival Canon EOS 1100D which only features 720p.
Wi-Fi
Another interesting new rumour is that the camera will have a Wi-Fi connection. If that's true, that would make it the first DSLR to offer such functionality - so far only compact cameras have inbuilt Wi-Fi, while additional adapters and wireless Eye-Fi cards provide a workaround for other cameras.This camera would mark the third DSLR announcement from Nikon in 2012, after it released its professional D4 and 36 million D800 earlier in the year.
Nikon will surely be keen to build on the success of the D3100, which as the UK and Europe's biggest selling DSLR of 2011.
Stay tuned for more updates as they arrive.
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RIM: We're not pulling BlackBerry out of consumer market
RIM has moved to quash claims it's exiting the consumer smartphone business following comments from its CEO on a dismal earnings call.
Newly-anointed CEO Thorsten Heins claimed the company would focus on the business sector following its $125 million (£78 million) loss, but RIM has told TechRadar that this is only part of the story.
Patrick Spence, SVP and MD of global sales and regional marketing for RIM, said:
"The claim that RIM has said it will withdraw from the consumer market is wholly inaccurate.
"Whilst we announced plans to re-focus our efforts on our core strengths, and on our enterprise customer base, we were very explicit that we will continue to build on our strengths to go after targeted consumer segments.
"We listed BBM, as well as the security and manageability of our platform, amongst these strengths."
Twitter back up
Alec Saunders, VP of developer relations for RIM, backed up the comments on Twitter, stating: "@BlackBerry remarks were wrongly interpreted. We are not leaving the consumer market."RIM also told TechRadar that the company planned to boost sales of its current crop of BlackBerry 7 smartphones by 'incentivising' sales of the range – which we hope means a drop in some of the eye-watering contract prices.
The firm stated it has new BB7 phones still on course to launch in 2012, and was still looking to bring a new wave of BlackBerry love to the market through its overhauled BlackBerry 10 operating system, although it did not give details on when the range would be launching.
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Spotify drops song limit but UK and France miss out
Spotify has revealed that it has dropped the song-play limit for free users in Europe, apart from those who use the service in the UK and France.
The song limit functionality was introduced back in April 2011 and was part of a number of limitations added to the free version of the service.
Spotify has confirmed to TechRadar that this has now been dropped but the limits are still firmly in place for the UK and France.
Bunch of fives
"The five play-per-song limit on Spotify Free has been removed across Europe, apart from the UK and France," explained a Spotify spokesperson to TechRadar."We're taking the fight to piracy and seeing millions of people choose to pay for music again. We did this by offering people the best music service on the planet and an unrivalled free music tier is fundamental to that.
Spotify: "We're taking the fight to piracy and seeing millions of people choose to pay for music again."
"We've been working with record labels to remove the five-plays-per-song limit introduced last year and this news is a result of that work."There's no word as to when the UK will see this song limit dropped, but it's good news that the limit is toppling in some areas, and those areas are: Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Spain.
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Review: LG 47LM670T
Overview
The 47-inch 47LM670T is the first of LG's eagerly awaited new Cinema Screen connected TVs to land in the UK. Available also as the 42-inch 42LM670T and the 55-inch 55LM670T, it's the entry level set in arguably the brand's most attractive range yet.Positioned above it are the similarly attired LM860V and LM960V models. While all share the same core feature set, significant differences apply to their picture processing and panel technology.
But just how much image quality are you sacrificing when you buy at the cheaper end of the spectrum, and will you really notice the difference when you're vegging out in front of The One Show? (The answer to these questions is: 'Quite a lot' and 'Probably not.')
The TV utilises a standard Freeview HD DVB tuner, and has a generic EPG. It's also fully 3D compatible, courtesy of the brand's Passive 3D technology. A 'party pack' of five multi-coloured polarising 3D goggles are included with the set - perfect for when the kids want to invite their chums around to watch a 3D 'toon on Blu-ray or Sky 3D.
Features
While the set's slim at just 33.4mm, the rear jack pack doesn't skimp. It sports four side-facing HDMIs, one of which is ARC (Audio Return Channel) compliant, plus component and Scart via adaptors, a PC VGA input, no-fewer than three USBs, Ethernet, a digital optical audio out, plus a CI Slot if you're one of the few people left using top-up TV services. The screen has Wi-Fi built in.
The fact that all the inputs are accessible from the side of the jack pack, makes the screen perfectly suitable for wall mounting. It's compatible with the VESA standard, size 400 x 400.
The trio of USB ports allow for an external hard drive to be left attached for simple timeshifting. Of course, as there's only one TV tuner on board, this system has its limitations, but as a supplemental recording option it's more than welcome.
The second USB can be reserved for Skype. LG sells its own Skype-cam, the AN-VC400, to do the job.
While the TV lacks a card reader, the USB media player is well equipped and will read most popular file formats and containers. If there's album art to accompany your music collection, the TV will also render that. Images appear in a faux CD sleeve frame, which is rather nice. This compliance extends across a network, with the same files playing over a LAN from a variety of our test NAS boxes.
The choice in IPTV catch-up services and VoD is considerable. There's access to the BBC iPlayer, YouTube, Lovefilm, Blinkbox, Acetrax, Box Office 365, Dailymotion and more. At the time of writing there's no Netflix, although we are led to believe that negotiations are ongoing and that the service will be joining the LG portfolio soon enough.
One final feature of note is Dual Play. This takes advantage of the set's inherent 3D tech, and allows two separate 2D images to be viewed simultaneously via two pairs of appropriately polarised Dual Play spectacles (sold separately). It's designed to be used with two-player games. The set takes the split-screen image, be it divided horizontally or vertically, and creates two individual screens.
Unfortunately, you can't use Dual Play to view different inputs (although this would be the logical conclusion of the feature), not even a Freeview feed and HDMI. Still, gamers will doubtless have a lot of fun with this.
Picture quality
This 47-incher is the entry-level screen for LG's Cinema Screen range, a fact that becomes evident when you scrutinise its picture performance. With the brand's graduate picture processing reserved for LG's elite crew, what we have here is a mainstream 100/120Hz panel free of excessive tech-trimmings.
Contrast is good, but only because blacks have been crushed for better dynamics. It's impossible to extract shadow detail without washing blacks out into mid-gray.
And while static images sport 1080-line crispness, the set's motion resolution is poor. We recorded a drop to around 800 lines when test charts travel at 6.5ppf (pixels per frame). TVs which offer higher refresh rates and use advanced frame interpolation techniques can retain detail up to 1080 lines, resulting in a higher definition viewing experience. Consequently, we don't rate this particular screen for sports or gaming.
The 47LM670T is, however, fine for general TV and movies. The lack of aggressive picture processing means that there are no additional motion artefacts introduced by the interpolation process (it's always difficult to balance the two), and colours are vibrant.
There are seven visual presets (Intelligent sensor, Vivid, Standard, Cinema, Game, ISF Expert 1 & 2) and a Picture Wizard calibration mode. You also get eight aspect ratio options: 16:9, Just Scan, Original, Full Wide, 4:3, 14:9, Zoom and Cinema Zoom1. For Blu-ray and HD broadcast content we recommend using Just Scan.
The set employs LED edge-lighting coupled to a local dimming system, which LG dubs LED Plus. The result is much like any other edge-lit LED screen, with pools of light noticeable close to the bezel and a general un-uniformity across the panel. During most content this isn't noticeable, but The Dark Knight could be a bit of a giveaway.
The set's 3D performance delivers as expected. We've grown to rather like the Passive gizmology that LG has pioneered, principally because the 3D glasses are comfortable to wear (no flicker) and there's no punishing financial overhead. This has to be balanced with the impact it has on image quality, though.
On a screen this size, you can clearly see the drop in resolution as the visible line structure bites. Diagonals have jaggies and whites tend to turn a little grey. On the plus side, the screen's sense of depth is undeniable and overall brightness is high when compared to rival Active Shutter solutions.
Ease of use, sound, value
Not only has LG revamped the physical look of its 2012 TVs, it's also gone back to the drawing board when it comes to the user interface.
Out goes the curious 'fork in the road' graphic which denoted the brand's previous online Smart TV portal. Now connected sources are much more closely integrated with local functionality. Everything is neatly organised into horizontal scrolling boxes, some of which pop open when you navigate over them. It's a more mature look and easier to browse.
Those without a wired network connection to their viewing room will appreciate the fact the screen has integrated Wi-Fi. But there's more, the 47LM670T also supports Intel WiDi for direct connection between compatible devices. There's not too much WiDi hardware available at present, but it does mean that at some point you'll be able to wirelessly mate kit without using (and burdening) your main Wi-Fi network.
For solutions to any operational confusion, an onscreen user guide can be found on the dashboard. This saves having to remember where you 'filed' the paper version when you first unboxed the set.
The TV ships with two remote controls. The standard LG zapper is perfectly adequate and it's the handset most will turn to for everyday operation. Also included though is an update on the brand's Magic Remote (the AN-MR300), which now sports a thumb wheel to help you scroll up and down through menus. The main point of this is to direct an onscreen cursor, making it good for both causal games (available to download from LG's Smart portal) and scooting around the embedded web browser.
The set also supports CEC interoperability as standard, here called Simplink, ensuring some level of group control for HDMI connected devices.
Sound
Given the extreme thinness of this set it would be reasonably to assume that the onboard sound system is somewhat anaemic - but it actually works well. Driven by a 2x10w amp module, the set offers a variety of modes and options.There are three basic options, depending on whether you have wall or stand-mounted the set, plus seven presets (Standard/Music/Cinema/Sport/Game/ Vivid/User) and LG's proprietary Infinite Sound mode. All of which conspire to deliver perfectly acceptable audio for casual use.
Natch, we recommend upgrading to a separate system or soundbar when possible though.
Value
There are plenty of cut-price 3D TVs available at the moment, but this Cinema Screen model isn't one of them. Still for a launch price of £1,350, you get an enviably well-made Freeview HDTV with an aspiration design and a feature roster that's hard to beat. Whether you're after a smart set with copious catch-up TV or a sports and kid friendly 3D model, it fits the bill.From a picture quality point of view though, it has obvious limitations. With compromised motion resolution and crushed blacks, it's not a set for enthusiasts. They'll need to look further up the Cinema Screen range to be sated.
Verdict
In terms of design, the fashion-forward 47LM670 is a clear winner. Indeed, this line could be the best looking range the brand has delivered yet. The minimized bezel and stylish stand make quite the statement. And when it comes to features, there's not much missing either.
By revamping the user interface, LG has made it much easier to integrate catch-up TV and streaming services as part of the everyday viewing experience. We also appreciate the set's broad compatibility with multimedia files as well. Good news if you've a growing collection of MKVs.
That said we have reservations over the picture quality. If you need a higher level of performance, LG offers better equipped models higher up the range.
As a stereoscopic set, the 47LM670T offers the requisite levels of fun. With a growing shift away from active Shutter toward Passive, it seems LG got this part of its display strategy absolutely right. It's definitely the way to go if you have kids or want to watch 3D sport with some mates.
We Liked
The 47LM670T's minimal bezel, floating ribbon stand TV design. The easy to use new dashboard interface and the wide range of IPTV on tap and the oh-so comfortable Passive 3D.We Disliked
Limited motion resolution, making this set a bit hopeless with fast moving sport and gaming. An uneven LED backlight leaves some pools of light around the screen edges and it suffers from an Unimpressive black level.Final verdict
The 47LM670T is (literally) a great looking flatscreen. With no apparent bezel when it's turned off, and only a token one when it's on, the screen is a poser of the highest order. And with a glossy new user interface to match, beauty isn't just skin deep.Visually, the set is all about shop-floor pizzazz and doesn't stand up to close scrutiny. Still, we don't hold that against it - it just makes us eager to explore further up the range.
Also consider
The LG 47LM670 is pitched directly at Panasonic's similarly specified TX-L47ET50, which lists for £1,673 on Panasonic's e-shop, but should be available elsewhere for considerably less. It's 3D compatible but uses Active Shutter glasses, and has a well-stocked smart TV portal that offers many of the same catch-up and streaming services.Buyers should also consider Toshiba's 46YL863. This telly is no slouch either, combing a high-quality picture with a smart Jacob Jensen cabinet design and the brand's high-performance CEVO Engine processor.
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RIM posts huge losses - plans 're-focus' on business market
RIM has confirmed it's moving its focus away from the consumer handset market following huge losses – leading to the firm pinning its hope on the business user once more.
The ailing Canadian smartphone maker has had a torrid time over the past year, and that was compounded as it revealed during an earnings call it has posted a loss of $125 million (£78 million) for the first quarter of 2012.
For the same time last year RIM posted a profit of nearly $1 billion (£625m), but analysts still forecast gloom for the firm; however, these losses exceed even those dour predictions.
Newly appointed CEO Thorsten Heins has responded to the financial falldown by stating that RIM would be re-focusing on the business sector, which he believes BlackBerry smartphones are still in a 'leading position'.
All about the business
"We plan to refocus on the enterprise business and capitalise on our leading position in this segment," he said, according to the BBC."We believe that BlackBerry cannot succeed if we tried to be everybody's darling and all things to all people. Therefore, we plan to build on our strength."
We've yet to see what this means for the consumer market in terms of the RIM's strongholds – namely BlackBerry Messenger, which forms the cornerstone of the Canadian firm's consumer offering.
Former co-CEO Jim Balsillie was confirmed to be leaving the firm, and shares have fallen sharply once more following the loss. The company's performance in the tablet market has been poor following the release of the Playbook, and the new smartphones this year have yet to capture consumer interest in the same way as the Samsung Galaxy S2 and iPhone 4S.
RIM has been the subject of multiple buyout rumours over the last year… could this be the last year we see the once-great Canadian giant as a standalone brand?
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RIM admits defeat - pulls BlackBerry out of consumer phone market
RIM has confirmed it's exiting the consumer handset market following huge losses – leading to the firm focusing firmly on the business user once more.
The ailing Canadian smartphone maker has had a torrid time over the past year, and that was compounded as it revealed during an earnings call it has posted a loss of $125 million (£78 million) for the first quarter of 2012.
For the same time last year RIM posted a profit of nearly $1 billion (£625m), but analysts still forecast gloom for the firm; however, these losses exceed even those dour predictions.
Newly appointed CEO Thorsten Heins has responded to the financial falldown by stating that RIM would be re-focusing on the business sector, which he believes BlackBerry smartphones are still in a 'leading position'.
All about the business
"We plan to refocus on the enterprise business and capitalise on our leading position in this segment," he said, according to the BBC."We believe that BlackBerry cannot succeed if we tried to be everybody's darling and all things to all people. Therefore, we plan to build on our strength."
We've yet to see what this means for the consumer market in terms of the RIM's strongholds – namely BlackBerry Messenger, which forms the cornerstone of the Canadian firm's consumer offering.
Former co-CEO Jim Balsillie was confirmed to be leaving the firm, and shares have fallen sharply once more following the loss. The company's performance in the tablet market has been poor following the release of the Playbook, and the new smartphones this year have yet to capture consumer interest in the same way as the Samsung Galaxy S2 and iPhone 4S.
RIM has been the subject of multiple buyout rumours over the last year… could this be the last year we see the once-great Canadian giant as a standalone brand?
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Week in Tech: Is Amazon's Kindle Fire 2 on the way?
Is Amazon's Kindle Fire 2 on the way?
While the outside world panic-buys pasties, we've got greater things on our minds: new stuff! For tech fans the last week's been like Christmas: we've been inundated with exciting new things.The most obviously exciting shiny new thing is the Techradar website itself, which has been completely redesigned - and we mean redesigned in a "Windows 8 Metro" way, not a "New Apple TV user interface" way.
As Editor Paul Douglas explains, "There was a lot of content on the old site, but finding it wasn't always that simple." Now, it is. The Techradar site is faster, cleaner and can get even the most stubborn stains out of your clothes at just thirty degrees.
We're not the only shiny thing that's got people excited this week. The new Sony Alpha e57 camera is looking pretty tasty, as is the new Nikon D800.
As Amy Davies says, the D800 is "probably one of the most highly anticipated DSLRs, and most widely rumoured cameras, of the past few months". Now it's finally official we've got one squirrelled away in our labs, and Davies has been uploading stacks of images as well as a video run-down for your excitement and delightment.
New Apple TV reviewed
There's also a new and shiny Apple thing: the new Apple TV, which our Apple expert Graham Barlow looked at until his eyes went boggly.That, er, distinctive interface aside, it looks like the new Apple TV is a pretty solid bit of kit, but he was honest about its shortcomings: if you've got other Apple kit it's a handy thing to have - "at this price you should really consider getting one because it integrates wonderfully with your current setup", but "for everyone else, even with the addition of 1080p HD, there's no compelling reason to buy an Apple TV over other media streamers right now."
Meanwhile Apple's arch-enemy Amazon is up to something: instead of a Kindle Fire 2, it seems the retail giant intends to launch a Kindle Fire 2, a Kindle Fire 2 and -- wait for it -- a Kindle Fire 2. That's what the latest reports suggest, anyway: the firm is apparently working on three Kindle tablets for three different price points.
The cheapie gets an 800 x 600 seven inch display, the mid-range one a 1,280 x 800 seven-incher and the top-end one an 8.9inch, full HD 1,920 x 1,200 screen. No other details have leaked just yet, but they will sooner or later.
Can a digital locker really work?
Remember UltraViolet, the digital locker service that would take the movie business by storm by giving everybody a digital licence for the content they buy on disc? While it hasn't exactly set the world on fire, 20th Century Fox says it's going to be a big deal - which is why it hasn't provided any content to the service.Eh? "We have been working on UltraViolet since the beginning, and we view it as a very serious work in progress," the studio's Danny Kaye said. "We want to make sure that [it] is as good as it can be."
There's something of a chicken and egg scenario here, we reckon: Fox won't provide the content until the service is better and more widely supported, but the more content it has the better and more widely supported it will become.
As Marc Chacksfield reports, the Fox executive vice president just wants to see a few tweaks: "the improvements that need to be made are everything from how UltraViolet works [to] the support it has been given." In other words, it's absolutely brilliant and every aspect of it needs to be changed. That's promising, isn't it?
While Fox isn't currently providing content, Sony is: its first UK UltraViolet discs will ship in June. Meanwhile Dixons says UltraViolet is here to stay. Senior category manager Gary Hearns told us that the entire retail industry is behind the service. "This thing is not going to disappear in 12-18 months. This is permanent," he said.
Should we believe him? Dixons, you may recall, told us that HD-DVD's future hadn't been decided when everybody and their dog were dumping it back in 2008. To be honest, we didn't recall it either: we used Techradar.com's new, improved search system. We told you the new site was good.
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WIN! One of the latest AMD Vision powered laptops!
TechRadar is offering a lucky reader the chance to win a sleek black HP Pavillion g6 1331sa, one of the latest notebooks powered by Vision technology from AMD to hit the shelves this spring.
The HP Pavillion g6 1331sa features cinema quality graphics that will allow you to enjoy the most amazing possible entertainment experience.
Offering brilliant HD quality, with great sounding audio, makes this notebook perfect for everyday use. Also with AMD's AllDay power, whether you are on a long train or plane journey, you won't be constantly reaching for your power cord.
For your chance to win, click here to enter.
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Review: IK Multimedia iRig MIX
Budding DJ lurking in there somewhere? Then the IK Multimedia iRig MIX mixer enables you to create a traditional DJ configuration with an iOS-based twist.
Instead of plugging two turntables into the mixer, the iRig MIX provides two mini-jack inputs for two iOS devices (or one iOS device and another audio source such as an MP3 or CD player, or one iOS device alone). Two RCA outputs enable you to connect the mixer to a PA system or speakers.
On paper, the iRig MIX has everything you need for a successful jock session: cue output, crossfader and master volume control plus channel-specific volume faders, gain knobs and EQ controls (treble and bass).
IK's DJ Rig app (£1.49) provides the method of loading tracks, nudging speeds and whacking out effects.
The iRig MIX has another trick up its sleeve, too: an additional third input in the shape of an auxiliary 1/4-inch guitar/ instrument/microphone jack. This signal can be processed by an iOS app (such as IK efforts AmpliTube and VocaLive), meaning that the unit caters for solo musicians who use an iOS app when performing, as well as DJs.
We tried IK's 'headline' configuration of two iOS devices first, plugging an iPhone and an iPad into the two channels using the included 3.5mm mini-jack leads. From the off, this worked with no problems, with the audio signal bright and clear.
We missed the Mid knobs found on full-size mixers, though; these are used frequently to cut out clashing frequencies, when mixing.
One more control gone frustratingly MIA is the Cue/Master Mix knob, which blends the cue and master outputs to taste. We had another issue with the cue system, too - it consistently played both channel outputs even if we only had one turned on, making it difficult to hear exactly what we were doing.
Lastly, the metering LEDs were far too insensitive, rarely flickering above the very first green band and not providing us with detailed enough feedback on signal levels.
Despite these fairly minor issues, we were able to pull off a satisfying and surprisingly immersive DJ session with the unit, in this two-device configuration.
Next, we substituted the iPhone for a fifth-generation iPod. The iRig MIX (in conjunction with the DJ Rig app) features an innovative X-Sync mode that can beat-match tunes from an external audio source with those on your iOS device. This mode did what it promised, although it never "completely" nailed the tempo, forcing us to make manual speed adjustments.
Although the iRig MIX promises to enable even the earliest of beginners to perform impressive transitions using X-Sync mode, we'd have to say that, in this regard, it doesn't entirely work.
Our final test was to plug in an electro-acoustic guitar. Sadly, the sound had a lot of background hum, making it unsuitable for purpose. Setting the signal up for processing with AmpliTube was far from trouble-free, either - it took us several attempts before we worked out what was causing the ear-splitting feedback. The guitar channel has no EQ knobs, so in this test, the iRig MIX served as simply an under-featured amp.
The iRig MIX is a mixed bag, then. It does the job well enough, and although the pro jock is never going to be satisfied with such a setup, the hobbyist would find it an accessibly cheap and satisfying route into DJing. For solo instrument performance, however, we fail to see the point - especially given the poor sound.
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Google knocks down paywalls with customer surveys
Google has unveiled a new service called Google Consumer Surveys which allows web publishers to earn revenue from its customers answers.
Rather than ads or a paywall, web content publishers will be able to trade customer survey completion for content.
The new system will require customers to answer a survey question in order to access an article or video.
For each answer, a site will earn $0.05 (about £0.03). There are a few companies already signed up to host the surveys – including AdWeek and New York Daily News.
Prawn or chicken korma?
On the other side, companies including Timbuk2 bags and Kasa Indian Eatery are submitting survey questions and paying $0.10 per response (about £0.06).It could be a great alternative to paywalls, or become just another annoying popup that users have to click through to get to content.
The system isn't without its problems: The Atlantic Wire has already discovered that you can skip the surveys using an ad blocker; and will users answer questions accurately or just hit the first answer they see as an alternative to a close button?
You can get Google's take on the system from its promotional video.
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Review: Panasonic TX-L47ET50B
Introduction
Has Panasonic lost its lovin' feeling for plasma TVs? The 47-inch Panasonic TX-L47ET50B is the Japanese manufacturer's biggest ever LCD TV by some distance, and as such represents a major shift in what it thinks is the right tech for home cinema.For long a manufacturer mainly of plasma panels, Panasonic LCD TVs have thus far only been made in sub-37-inch screen sizes.
So the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B - priced at £1,673 in the UK (about $2,660) - and little brother the TX-L42ET50B (£1298/about $2070) are genuinely new for - tech-wise - arguably the most important brand in flatscreen TVs.
It may be a step in another direction for Panasonic, but the TX-L47ET50B is hardly a novelty act. In fact, this era of all brands offering everything might play into our hands in this case for one good reason: Panasonic's small screen LCD TVs have thus far been immaculate.
The main reason for that hasn't been the use of Edge LED backlighting (which, incidentally, the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B has), but instead their being based around IPS panels, which tend to extend the viewing angle noticeably further than basic LCD panels.
Happily, the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B constitutes Panasonic's largest ever attempt at an IPS-panelled television.
The Panasonic TX-L47ET50B isn't all about panel tech, living up to its Smart Viera LED TV name in more than one way.
Most eye-catching is it super-slim 36mm-deep chassis, which is dressed in an unusual mix of transparent lip and silver bezel, the latter of which measuring just 11mm wide. Called a 'Crystal Frame' by Panasonic, it's a great idea and cleverly executed, although the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B is a tad wider than it actually appears.
Appearance is all with its 3D system, too, which uses the active shutter tech developed by Panasonic.
Unfortunately this is the brand's entry-level 3D LED effort, so it doesn't actually ship with any 3D glasses in the box. We managed to procure a pair of Panasonic TY-ER3D4ME 3D glasses, which cost £81 in the UK and $80 in the US, where they're called Panasonic TY-ER3D4MU 3D Active Shutter Eyewear. Not too bad you might think, but for a family of five?
It's an unlikely upgrade, which partially explains Panasonic's introduction of its Easy 3D range of ET5 LED TVs, which use the much cheaper passive technology. Glasses for those TVs cost just a few quid, but the detail levels aren't as high.
Smart TV functions consist of Viera Connect, a grid-style presentation of app icons covering the likes of BBC iPlayer, BBC News, YouTube, Fetch TV, Eurosport and Skype. To use Skype, you'll need to add a £130 Panasonic HD Communication Camera TY-CC10W, which is called the TY-CC20 and costs $130 in the US.
Other Panasonic TVs
Aside from the simple small-screen LCD-based C Series, all of Panasonic's other LCD TVs for 2012 are LED-backlit.The HD-ready X5 Series' largest screen is the 32-inch TX-L32X5, while the 32-inch TX-L32ET5 kicks off the ET5 Series, Panasonic's only attempt at passive 3D TV.
Other sets include the 37-inch TX-L37ET5, 42-inch TX-L42ET5, 47-inch TX-L47ET5 and 55-inch TX-L55ET5, all of which ship with four pairs of 3D glasses as well as Viera Connect, Wi-Fi and DLNA networking.
All other Panasonic LED TV ranges with 47-inch screens use the active shutter 3D system. These include the high-end Panasonic TX-L47WT50 in the WT50 Series, which boasts two pairs of 3D specs, Infinite Contrast, dual core Pro4 processor, web browser with Flash support, Bluetooth and a touchpad remote.
Active shutter 3D also appears on the more basic Panasonic TX-L37DT50 in the DT50 Series, with Brilliant Contrast, but no 3D specs or dual core processor.
Features
The Panasonic TX-L47ET50B uses active shutter instead of passive 3D technology. Active shutter uses powered, relatively chunky glasses with left and right lenses that open and close in sync with the 3D display's flashing of left and right eye images.Some complain of a constant flicker, but each of those images is in Full HD resolution. That's key, since passive 3D TVs don't flash any images, and instead require passive polarising lenses that can separate the left and right eye images without power.
The glasses are much cheaper - as little as a pound/dollar or two - but the Full HD resolution is shared between each eye. It's noticeably softer, but easier to watch for long periods.
By default, the home screen for Viera Connect displays icons for BBC News, Skype, BBC iPlayer, Eurosport, YouTube and Fetch TV. Although it's fully customisable, the central screen is always reserved for playing whatever live input was playing when Viera Connect started up - typically live TV or a Blu-ray disc.
Other screens include Netflix, Acetrax, Twitter, Euronews, Facebook, CNBC Real Time, DailyMotion, Picasa, SHOUTcast radio, Aupeo, iConcerts and some games and weather apps.
There's also a downloadable web browser, and a market area of Viera Connect where hardware and software can be purchased.
If the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B cashes in, it can also have a cache in it - shove in a USB flash drive or SD card of at least 2GB (although 16GB and higher is far more practical) and it can pause live TV, rewind it and even record it - using timers, no less.
It's impressive, but actually quite limiting; there's only one Freeview tuner included, so if it's switched on it can only record what you're watching. It's useful for recording something while you're out, for sure, but that's about it.
The Panasonic TX-L47ET50B, like almost all smart TVs, likes to think of itself as a media streamer. As well as three USB ports and one SD card slot for playing digital media from a USB stick or HDD, it has Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet LAN for networking.
Here it's in its most advanced form yet, going beyond the usual digital file fetch; programmes recorded from the Freeview tuner via this TV can be shared on other DLNA-compatible devices - typically a laptop or PC on the same home network.
Picture tech-wise, the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B has a 200Hz 'Clear Panel' capable of 800Hz backlight scanning as well as frame interpolation tech called Intelligent Frame Creation.
Picture quality
One of the key features on the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B is an 800Hz option, but don't be fooled by that figure. It's actually a 200Hz option that generates 200 frames per second that are then flashed up by 'fine blinking' of the backlight. The aim is smooth, blur-free movement.We tested this claim on a 2D sequence from Grand Canyon Adventure, and found the results smoother than with the feature disabled, though not by much.
After-images - often seen a step or two behind the moving object - almost completely disappear, although it's not a unique achievement, and no more or less impressive than on 200Hz TVs.
We then gave the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B a test drive during the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sky's F1 channel on a Virgin Media TiVo box. The anti-blur tech again proved its worth amid an image with plenty of colour and vitality.
A few days later we checked out the same race's highlights via the BBC iPlayer app on Viera Connect. Here, the picture quality is poor. It's colourful, reasonably stable and there's nothing wrong with the app itself, but it's such a soft image.
We know this kind of streamed standard definition content looks acceptable on a 42-inch Edge LED television, so we can only conclude that the extra stretch needed to achieve a 47-inch image is just too much for the source.
We come up against this problem elsewhere, too. Freeview HD channels are a very mixed bag, with the expected division between SD and HD channels.
Watching The One Show on plain old BBC One is riddled with mosquito noise around the edges and boundaries between colour blocks, with a sheen of dotty noise across everything. It struggles to fill the 47-inch panel. But swap to BBC One HD and all of those problems disappear to be replaced by a bright, colourful image with plenty of contrast.
From all sources we noticed some light leakage at the top of the screen, although the three visible clusters of LEDs weren't bright enough to distract; we've seen a lot worse than this.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy on 2D Blu-ray is reasonably detailed, and head-on contrast is decent enough, too (although large blocks of black appear as one), but there's a constant sheen of picture noise that we just can't shake off.
It appears to be the source, since Shutter Island appears crisp and has decent detail in the gloom, and even an MKV trailer of Up In The Air impresses.
Although the contrast is fair on the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B, activating the 3D mode instantly brings a drop in brightness and a perceived deeper black level. We watched Grand Canyon Adventure on 3D Blu-ray, which was near-on immaculate save for some noticeable flicker over white areas of the image.
But a 3D effect can be gleaned from converting almost any 2D source. That includes your own digital video files, Freeview, Blu-ray and DVD, but not video streamed though a Viera Connect app, such as BBC iPlayer.
We tried out this effect on Jeremy Paxman's Empire on BBC One, and the effect was impressive when the focal point is at the centre of the frame. For documentaries, it usually is, but that's not the case for movies, where it's quite often a complete mess. Whatever the source, there's seemingly an even powerful flicker in bright areas of the image, such as the sky.
Usability, sound and value
Buried in the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B's Market area of Viera Connect is a web browser. It's HTML5 compatible so can display media-rich websites, but there's no Flash support, so many video-based sites don't work.It's easy enough to use, although it's still based around an (albeit huge) cursor to navigate using the clickwheel-looking buttons on the remote. It's slow, and if you have a smartphone, you'll only try it out once.
The user interface is reasonably easy to use, but a little stale and not a patch on Panasonic's new Blu-ray players.
Still, we like the Viera Tools menu that can be called up as a taskbar along the bottom of the screen. From there we played AVC HD, MKV and AVI video files, FLAC and MP3 music, and JPEG photos (which, incidentally, load very quickly in fast, dynamic and beautifully laid out software) straight from an HDD connected to one of the three USB slots.
Connected to a network, we couldn't get the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B to recognise MKV files, although MOV and MP4 videos were playable. Photo and music file support remained the same.
Sound
Activate the V-Audio sound mode and dialogue is seemingly lifted so that it appears to emanate from the screen itself. The V-Audio Surround mode proves ineffective, although the speakers on this 47-inch TV prove meaty enough to do pretty well in our tests.Hardly musical and lacking the ear effects and muscle for movies to really impress, the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B nevertheless makes a better stab than most TVs at genuinely useful sound.
Upgrade to a home cinema or 2.1 system, yes, but you can take you time about it.
Value
With every passing year, formerly devout plasma fanatic Panasonic expands its lineup of LCD TVs, with 2012's crop now numbering seven separate ranges.
The key feature in the TX-L47ET50B is the use of an IPS panel, although the viewing angle is less than we had expected on this usually reliable tech. Still, there's no hint of motion blur.
A big screen for a living room rather than a home cinema stalwart, the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B features a top-draw smart TV dimension in the shape of Viera Connect, although it could do with Lovefilm and some on-demand TV apps such as Demand 5 or ITV Player.
The Panasonic TX-L47ET50B doesn't do itself any favours in the value stakes by not including any 3D glasses, and with active shutter tech that's a misfire that could likely kill off the very idea of 3D at home.
It's a strange move for Panasonic - are we moving towards a situation where 3D-ready is just a backwards compatibility issue rather than a must-have new feature?
Verdict
Bowing to consumers' clamour for LED TVs - and with one eye on the current trend for truly big screens - with the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B, the brand appears to be ready to loosen its grip on plasma, but on two conditions.These are firstly by coming up with an IPS panel to get over some of LCD tech's shortfalls (with mixed results), and secondly, deciding to use active shutter 3D for ultimate detail.
As such, the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B is a relatively high-end choice on paper, although it remains the brand's most value-busting effort - there are, after all, two ranges (WT50 and DT50) above it in the 2012 arsenal.
We liked
The 3D imagery on offer is excellent, with genuinely detailed and wowing effects backed up by the sheer size of the screen. Immersive and convincing with 3D, there's also some deep and detailed 2D Blu-ray to enjoy.Freeview HD also impresses, as does the burgeoning Viera Connect platform of apps and games, with a particularly warm welcome for Netflix.
We disliked
Soft standard definition, middling Blu-ray and a narrow viewing angle make this a less than overwhelming effort from Panasonic.As IPS panels go, it's a disappointment. Digital file-wise, it's is a work in progress (why no MKV over a home network?), while the 2D-to-3D conversion is a feature to forget. And why is there no Lovefilm app on Viera Connect?
Final verdict
Overall we'd judge the Panasonic TX-L47ET50B as having a panel that's a tad too big for its boots, with no source outstanding and some standard definition material disappointingly soft and dirty.Put simply, it's a half-decent all-rounder for a living room, with some 3D fireworks up its sleeve, but it's not half as good as a Panasonic plasma TV.
Also consider
At this size, Panasonic's plasma TVs - all 3D TVs with Viera Connect - are the real rivals to the TX-47ET50B, with 50-inch options within the brand's six ranges.Its top-of-the-range VT50 Series has an Infinite Black Ultra Panel, Bluetooth, ISF calibration option and two pairs of 3D specs, and features the TX-P50VT50.
The Panasonic GT50 Series, which has an Infinite Black Pro panel and Bluetooth, includes the TX-P50GT50, and the Panasonic ST50 Series - with an Infinite Black Pro panel - has the TX-P50ST5.
The Panasonic UT50 Series, which lacks Wi-Fi and has a more basic plasma panel, features the TX-P50UT50.
If you're not after Full HD 3D, note that Panasonic also makes the TX-P50XT50 (3D, but merely HD-ready) and TX-P50X50 (HD-ready only).
From the 2012 crop of TVs from other manufacturers, the high-end Samsung UE55ES8000 is a top choice.
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