Review: Medion Erazer X6819
At a shade under £1,200, the Medion Erazer X6819 might not seem like the greatest bargain on the planet, but when you take a look at what this machine has to offer, it's obvious the price could easily be much, much higher.
As a gaming machine, the Erazer packs in some of the most advanced laptop technology. Because video games are so demanding, specifications have to be up to the task. But we get the impression that if this carried an Alienware, Qosmio or MSI logo, you could see another £500 added to the price.
Part of its appeal is that the Erazer doesn't really look like a gaming laptop. There aren't racks of LED lights, stripes of colour or an excess of chrome overlay. Instead, the Erazer is a solidly black, conventional laptop with an isolation-style keyboard, numeric keypad and a relatively small touchpad.
Core values
Medion has put the emphasis where it counts, instead - on the inside. The Erazer is powered by the Core i7-2670QM processor which was launched towards the end of last year and is one of the Intel's fastest laptop chips.On top of this, Medion has packed the Erazer with a whopping 16GB of RAM. Most conventional £600 laptops still only come with 4GB, and the difference was clear as soon as we loaded up our benchmark tests. The Erazer screamed through the performance part of our testing easily and as soon as we loaded up some gaming, the Nvidia GeForce graphics card joined in.
The Erazer carries a GeForce GTX 570 GPU that offers an extra 1.5GB of dedicated video memory and is powerful enough to play even the latest games on the highest detail settings. Even if you're not a gamer, you might consider the Erazer for desktop publishing or editing purposes. The power under the hood means this laptop works just as well for music, photo or high-definition video editing.
Benchmarks
Battery Eater '05: 123 minutesCinebench: 17926
3DMark 2006: 17777
The Medion Erazer has a matte (non-reflective) screen with a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution for 1080p gaming or movie watching. The picture is wonderfully crisp but what really impressed was the level of brightness we got.
The other thing you get for your money with the Medion Erazer is connectivity. There are four USB ports, two of which are the faster USB 3.0 format as well as four 3.5mm jacks for headphones and microphones. Medion has also included HDMI, eSata, VGA and Ethernet ports next to the power socket on the back of the laptop. And then there's the Blu-ray DVD/RW optical drive too.
Where the Erazer falls down - like other gaming machines - is portability. With 389 x 264 x 52mm dimensions and a 123-minute battery life, we doubt you'll be taking this laptop on a road trip across the country.
However, as a value-for-money gaming machine, the Medion Erazer X6819's appeal is undeniable.
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Microsoft bets big on ebooks - invests $300 million into Nook subsidiary
Microsoft bolstered its ebook plans this week, announcing a digital link-up with US book firm Barnes & Noble.
The deal is worth a massive $300 million (£185 million) and will mean that the computing giant will have 17.5 per cent stake in a new subsidiary called Newco (this is a temporary name) which will look after Barnes & Noble's digital and college businesses.
Nuking the Nook?
The big news coming from this is that the Nook digital bookstore will be bundled with Windows 8 – which could well spell the end of the Nook tablet, given that this app will work on every upcoming Windows 8 tablet and computer.Barnes & Noble will be hoping that all it does is extended its reach further, however, given that Amazon offers a similar thing and the Kindle shows no sign of waning in the market.
"The formation of Newco and our relationship with Microsoft are important parts of our strategy to capitalise on the rapid growth of the Nook business, and to solidify our position as a leader in the exploding market for digital content in the consumer and education segments," said William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble.
"Microsoft's investment in Newco, and our exciting collaboration to bring world-class digital reading technologies and content to the Windows platform and its hundreds of millions of users, will allow us to significantly expand the business."
The new agreement also means that Micosoft and Barnes & Noble are friends again, as it marks the end of the pair's court battle over patent litigation.
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Buying Guide: Which is the best T-Mobile phone?
It's not big news, but apparently Britain loves Cheese and places with names like North Piddle. We can see the appeal, but here at TechRadar, what we really love is lots of everything. Except Spiders.
Alongside its more traditional plans and Flexible Boosters, T Mobile has announced the Full Monty plan. Laid bare, the plan offers truly unlimited calls, texts and data.
Should you need it, the last of those is tether-able, a massive bonus in today's data-centric world. On top of that is unlimited use of T-Mobile and BT Openzone Hotspots.
For others who do not require so much, Pay Monthly plans come with an "Unlimited Booster". These provide either unlimited texts, landline calls or T Mobile calls and are interchangeable.
With these plans, there are four data options; None, Basic, Standard and Extra. Basic Internet provides a mere 250MB of mobile browsing a month to cater for the more occasional user.
This increases to 750MB and 1.5GB as you move up, but also thrown in, both the Standard and Extra plans do throw in a further 3GB of Wi-Fi data.
Fixed plans are also around for those who frequently overspend, or parents of those who do. Working as a mixture of contract and Pay As You Go, these plans not only stop you from going over your limits, they come with a range of Flexible Boosters to change as you want.
One thing you can't change though is your phone, so you'd better get a good one. Here's our list of the best five:
BlackBerry Bold 9900
Until the announcement of the iPhone, BlackBerry were the businessman's phones of choice for their superb secure mailing system, and easy to use keyboards. Continuing this legacy is the Bold 9900. It packs a superb touch screen to show off OS7 and NFC technology on top of a fast processor to cope with just about anything you throw at it - if you're into your Blackberrys, this is the phone to get.Read our full BlackBerry Bold 9900 Review here
Samsung Galaxy S2
This isn't the first time we've said it and doubtless we'll say it again, despite being almost a year old, but Samsung really developed a smashing bit of kit. The Super AMOLED Plus screen provides an amazing face backed by a zippy processing heart will keep the S2 going strong for some time to come.Read our full Samsung Galaxy S2 review here
Sony Xperia S
Following a high profile divorce settlement of around €1.05 billion, Sony has brought its new flagship device to market. Just looking at it, you know it's a phone that you're not going to be ashamed of showing off to your friends. You won't be disappointed with the innards either, as you'll find NFC, and a truly fantastic 12mp camera.Read our full Sony Xperia S Review here
HTC One X
The HTC One X has bounded onto the scene, and with its HD screen, NFC capabilities and quad-core processor it really is one of the top phones of the moment.
It's running the latest version of Android in the shape of Ice Cream Sandwich, plus one of the best cameras on the market - capable of shooting 99 photos in a row and taking snaps while recording in 1080p HD. In short, one of the best phones around right now.
Read our full HTC One X review.
Nokia Lumia 800
Despite maybe pursuing Symbian for a bit longer than we'd have liked, Nokia has always been a brand you could expect to make a high end bit of kit. We were not left disappointed with the Lumia 800. Its quick and responsive, and the addition of Windows Phone 7.5 is taking Nokia back towards where it once stood - albeit a little slower than the Finnish firm might have liked.Read our full Nokia Lumia 800 Review here
Apple iPhone 4S
Like the aforementioned Galaxy S2, this is a phone that we have mentioned once or twice before. Its rather difficult not to though, as it has a swift dual core processor and stunning Retina Display supported by well regulated and well stocked App store. It might not be the revolutionary device like the original, but with what it brings to the market, it didn't need to be.Read our full Apple iPhone 4S Review here
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Updated: Vodafone in row with Everything Everywhere over 4G Britain
A move by Orange and T-Mobile to promote the benefits of 4G networks has caused ire with rival carrier Vodafone.
Everything Everywhere, parent company of Orange and T-Mobile, has launched 4GBritain.org in order to promote the benefits of the ultra-fast connection service, stating it will add £75 billion to the economy by the end of the decade.
However, accusations have been levelled at the not-for-profit initiative, stating that it's merely a front for Everything Everywhere to gain a competitive advantage in the 4G space.
No-dafone
The move led to Vodafone being asked to join the set up, but the big red network told TechRadar it responded with a rejection:"Thank you for your offer to become involved with 4G Britain but as we have only just been informed of it we've not been given the detailed information needed to fully understand the intention behind it.
"Rest assured that Vodafone is very excited by the prospect of bringing 4G services to Britain not least because we have already launched this technology in several other markets. We have made it clear on many occasions that we believe a competitive market for 4G services will bring real benefits to consumers, businesses and the wider British economy.
"We're already asking the Government and regulator to make sure that everyone can launch this technology as soon as possible. We strongly believe that a competitive market for 4G services – as exists in other European markets – is in the best interests of everyone."
Since then Vodafone has also commented to Gizmodo UK on the allocation of the 4G spectrum - believing that Everything Everywhere is moving in a direction that will block it, and other networks, ability to create a viable 4G network for the UK:
"EE's claim that today's operators can also launch 4G services [subject to a willingness to invest and a variation to their licence] conveniently forgets that EE controls over 83% of all mobile spectrum in the frequency band that Ofcom is considering to vary.
"Other operators are using their more limited spectrum holdings to serve current customers so they cannot clear it as quickly as EE. Therefore, we believe the introduction of 4G should be linked to the availability of suitable amounts of cleared spectrum for other players."
However, Everything Everywhere has since been in contact to contest Vodafone's claim of 83% network share - as part of the condition of the Orange and T-Mobile merger, it has to sell off 25% of its spectrum to give other networks a greater slice of the pie, giving it 63% share once the sale is complete.
"One of the conditions of the merger of Orange and T-Mobile in the UK was that Everything Everywhere divest a quarter of its 1800MHz spectrum before the next spectrum auctions. The intention is to complete the sale of the spectrum in advance of the Combined Spectrum Award, currently scheduled to take place in Q4 2012," explained an Everything Everywhere spokesperson.
Deployment ahoy
The current issue revolves around the fact Everything Everywhere currently has enough spectrum (the licensed frequency bands with which it can broadcast the 4G signal) to begin deployment of the super-fast speeds.This is still subject to ratification from Ofcom, which has yet to announce the dates the remaining networks – O2, Vodafone and Three – can bid for the rest of the spectrum which has been partly freed up by the switching off of the analogue TV signal in the UK.
Everything Everywhere claims the 4GBritain campaign is designed to speed up that process by lobbying to get the auctions happening as soon as possible, refuting the claims it is trying to gain a competitive advantage.
Disclaimer: TechRadar, and Future Publishing's other technology sites Gizmodo UK and T3, have signed up to the campaign, as we believe it is in the consumer's best interests to gain access to 4G networks in the UK as soon as possible, regardless of the carrier that brings it - a decision we believe should be left to the communications watchdog Ofcom.
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AnTuTu: Samsung Galaxy S3 benchmark is real
Developers of the popular Android AnTuTu Benchmark application appear to be confident that the Samsung Galaxy S3 has appeared on the app.
Last week we saw the app displaying results for the Galaxy S3 handset, along with some specifications for the device – including a dual-core processor, not the quad-core Exynos 4 Quad we had been expecting.
TechRadar contacted AnTuTu about validity of these results, and it said: "What we got is not only scores, but information on smartphones, so we can surely say it is Samsung I9300."
Results could be the US model
Samsung has already confirmed that its latest quad-core chip will feature in its next Galaxy device, but we've heard rumours that, like the HTC One X, the Samsung Galaxy S3 will ship with 4G and a dual-core processor in the USA.Therefore the results we've seen in the app could very well be the US version of the Galaxy S3, and if that's the case we can expect to see it pack a 4.7-inch HD display (1280x720), 1GB of RAM, Android Ice Cream Sandwich, front-facing 2MP camera and 12MP rear camera.
We'll find out for sure on May 3 when Samsung takes to the stage at Earls Court, London to unveil its next Galaxy device. TechRadar will be reporting live from the event, so keep an eye out for all the latest information.
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Project Glass: what you need to know
When Google unveiled Project Glass, the tech world instantly fell into two camps. Camp one was excited: we're living in the sci-fi future! Camp two, though, wasn't so happy. It's vapourware! some said, while others worried that Google just wanted to plaster ads on the entire world. Is either camp correct? Let's find out.
What is Google Glass?
Google's Project Glass is Google's attempt to make wearable computing mainstream, and it's effectively a smart pair of glasses with an integrated heads-up display and a battery hidden inside the frame.Wearable computing is not a new idea, but Google's enormous bank account and can-do attitude means that Project Glass could well be the first product to do significant numbers.
What's the difference between Google Glass and Google Goggles?
Google Goggles is software, an app that can search the web based on photos and scans. Google Glass is hardware.
How does Google Glass work?
According to well-informed Google blogger Seth Weintraub, Google's Project Glass glasses will probably use a transparent LCD or AMOLED display to put information in front of your eyeballs. It's location-aware thanks to a camera and GPS, and you can scroll and click on information by tilting your head, something that is apparently quite easy to master. Google Glasses will also use voice input and output.What are the Google Glass specifications?
The New York Times says that the glasses will run Android, will include a small screen in front of your eye and will have motion sensors, GPS and either 3G or 4G data connections. Weintraub says that the device is designed to be a stand-alone device rather than an Android phone peripheral: while Project Glass can connect to a smartphone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth 4.0, "it communicates directly with the cloud". There is also a front-facing camera and a flash, although it's not a multi-megapixel monster, and the most recent prototype's screen isn't transparent.
What will I be able to do with Google Glass?
According to Google's own video, you'll be a super-being with the ability to have tiny people talking to you in the corner of your eye, to find your way around using sat-nav, to know when the subway's closed, to take and share photographs and to learn the ukelele in a day.GLASS ACT: Google's video is fun, but it's not this-year fun: expect more modest systems at first
OK, what will I really be able to do with Google Glass? Is Google Glass a vision of the future?
Nobody knows. The idea is to deliver augmented reality, with information that's directly relevant to your surroundings appearing in front of you whenever you need it. For example, your glasses might tell you where the nearest decent restaurant is, book your table, invite your friends and show you how to get there, or they might provide work-related information when you're at your desk.
What information we'll use it for, if we use it at all, remains to be seen: like Apple's Siri, it's a technology with enormous potential. It could even end up in contact lenses: one of the Project Glass team, Babak Parviz of the University of Washington, recently built a contact lens with embedded electronics.
I already wear glasses. Will Google Glass work for me?
Yes. Google is experimenting with designs that will fit over existing glasses so you don't have to wear two lots of specs.
Is Google Glass vapourware?
The New York Times says no: Google's got some of its very best people working on the project, and experts such as wearable computing specialist Michael Liebhold say that "In addition to having a superstar team of scientists who specialize in wearable, they also have the needed data elements, including Google Maps."Not everyone is convinced. Wired spoke to Blair MacIntyre, director of the Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Tech, who said "you could not do [augmented reality] with a display like this." MIT Media Lab researcher Pranav Mistry agreed, saying that "the small screen seen in the photos cannot give the experience the video is showing."
There are several engineering issues - making a screen that works in darkness and in bright sunlight is tough - and mobile display technology doesn't offer dynamic focusing, which reads your eye to deliver perfectly clear visuals. Current wearable displays have to be two feet away from your face.
There's clearly a big gap between Google's demo video and the actual product: Google says its photos "show what this technology could look like" and its video demonstrates "what it might enable you to do" [emphasis added by us].
When will Google Glass be released?
Google Glass's release date hasn't been announced yet, although the New York Times reports that "the glasses will go on sale to the public by the end of the year." Pranav Mistry reckons that's nonsense, and the tech is at least two years away.We're with the cynics on this one. Google has a track record of making bold predictions it doesn't live up to: in December, Eric Schmidt promised that "by the summer of 2012, the majority of televisions you see in stores will have Google TV embedded", while in 2010 Google executives predicted that Android 3.0 Honeycomb would take 33% of the tablet market by the end of 2011.
What is the Google Glass price?
The NYT again: according to "several Google employees familiar with the project who asked not to be named," the glasses are expected "to cost around the price of current smartphones." So that's around £500, then, possibly with the help of a hefty Google subsidy.Is Google Glass evil?
It could be. Google's business is about making money from advertising, and some people worry that Google Glass is its attempt to monetise your eyeballs by blasting you with ads whenever you look at something.If you think pop-ups are annoying in a web browser, imagine them in front of your face. The ADmented Reality spoof is one of very many parodies that made us laugh.
Some of the parodies actually make a good point by showing people bumping into stuff: heads-up displays can be distracting, and there may be safety issues too. Until Google ships its self-driving car, the thought of drivers being distracted by their glasses is fairly terrifying.
There are privacy implications too. Never mind your web history: Google Glass might record everything you see and do.
Will Google Glass make me look like a dork?
Er... yes.
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Peter Jackson on Hobbit backlash: 'This tech is going to keep evolving'
Shooting movies in 48fps is here to stay so we might as well get used to it, reckons director Peter Jackson.
After showing off 10 minutes' footage of his much-anticipated Hobbit adaptation, Jackson was faced with a lukewarm reaction – mainly because the 48fps shooting standard seems to make things look 'too real'.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Jackson defended his decision to shoot the movie at 48fps, and believes that when we see the whole movie, audiences will be enamoured with the technology.
"At first it's unusual because you've never seen a movie like this before. It's literally a new experience, but you know, that doesn't last the entire experience of the film – not by any stretch, [just] 10 minutes or so," said Jackson to EW.
"That's a different experience than if you see a fast-cutting montage at a technical presentation."
Hmm, maybe showing off a fast-cutting montage at a technical presentation wasn't the best way to show off the film, then.
Keeps evolving
As for ditching the technology in the future - that's just not going to happen, according to Jackson."Nobody is going to stop… this technology is going to keep evolving."
Jackson's right in the sense that reaction to the footage at CinemaCon can't be taken for granted, given it was early footage but it has gotten a lot of fans talking about the possibility of the movie not matching expectations, which is something Jackson or Warner Bros will want to be quick to remedy.
"There can only ever be a real reaction, a truthful reaction, when people actually have a chance to see a complete narrative on a particular film," explained Jackson – possibly with his fingers crossed.
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The majority of home businesses expect growth
A new study into home working has revealed some staggeringly healthy figures for the current and projected state of UK home-based businesses.
According to a poll run by Shedworking for supermarket giants Asda, home-based businesses will contribute £8 billion to the UK economy this year. That's up from just over £6 billion in the same poll in 2010, and contradicts the latest economy figures released last week which showed zero percent growth.
While around four in five (78.9%) expect to work from home indefinitely, the majority of the home businesses polled were bullish about the prospects for growth and possibly expanding out of the home this year, with 13.5% of those polled expecting turnover growth of 20% or more.
Only five percent of respondents expected no growth or a decline in sales this year. More than a third (35.1%) expected growth of between five and ten percent this year.
The poll also showed that there are as many as 100,000 businesses based at home, with some 16% of the owners polled said that their turnover had been in the £100,000-150,000 range in the past year, while 7.9% said that it exceeded £200,000.
Nearly a quarter employ more than one person and one in 20 have a workforce in excess of five employees, although we're not sure how they would all fit around the kitchen table, or in the shed.
"Many households are taking a go-it-alone approach to business and are reaping the rewards," said Alex Crowe, Asda's homeworking specialist. "The low cost of starting up a business means that many households are pursuing the entrepreneurial dream. With the value of the back garden economy reaching an amazing £8 billion, home-based businesses are now lending a whole new meaning to the term 'home economics'".
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Warner Bros lets film fans 'Inside the Script' with ebooks
Warner Bros has announced that it will be publishing enhanced movie scripts for some of its most famous titles – allowing fans of films like Hitchcock classic North by Northwest to get their digital mitts on assets for their Kindle, iOS device or Nook.
With digital publishing going great guns, WB is keen to start offering some of its 'rare' archive material to fans.
The 'Inside the Script' offerings – which include Casablanca, Ben-Hur and An American in Paris – are described as 'highly illustrated' ebooks.
Movie love
"People love movies because of the stories they tell," said Thomas Gewecke, President of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. "Now we can give fans rarely seen details of how these stories came together and take their enjoyment of films to a whole new level."The extras are a mixed bag – with something like the North by Northwest 'Inside the Script' offering director Alfred Hitchcock's editing and main title sequence notes, composer Bernard Herrmann's music notes, photos and documents from Alfred Hitchcock's papers, story department photos, storyboards and photos of crop duster sequence, production schedules and daily scene reports along with hair and makeup tests and costume sketches.
If you are a huge fan of the movie being inspected then it sounds like an attractive proposition – although at £6.49 per title the ebooks do come at a cost.
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Review: Finlux 42F7010
Introduction
Finlux has never made a more concerted bid to get a foothold in the UK TV marketplace than it is right now.Driven by the considerable muscle of its newish Turkish owner Vestel, Finlux is currently offering visitors to its online shop a startlingly wide variety of TVs, covering both a comprehensive array of sizes all the way up to 55 inches, and a reasonably wide selection of features. Including 3D.
The 3D-capable Finlux 42F7010 gives you, as its name suggests, a 42-inch screen. And the 3D technology it uses - as might be expected on a price-focused TV - is passive.
There will be an in-depth consideration of the pros and cons of passive 3D, as opposed to active shutter 3D, in the Performance section of this review. But one thing worth noting up front here is that the Finlux 42F7010 delivers big-time on passive 3D's cheap glasses advantage by providing eight pairs for free with the TV.
The Finlux 42F7010 isn't especially well stocked with fancy picture fine-tuning tools, as might be expected. But it's got more connections than you might anticipate, including four HDMIs and a pair of USB ports that can be used for playing music, photo and even video files from USB storage devices.
Finlux hasn't managed to extend the 42F7010's multimedia talents to include DLNA networking, though. Indeed, the set doesn't carry either Wi-Fi or a LAN port, so it also can't be taken online.
While the lack of DLNA/online support isn't a major deal on a budget TV, the missing LAN additionally alerts us to something else more troubling: there's no Freeview HD tuner. Hmm.
Hopefully the Finlux 42F7010 will have enough going on in the picture quality department to make the lack of any HD tuning easier to forget.
The 42F7010 is joined in the Finlux range by the 42S7010 series, which adds 3D conversion and 100Hz processing to proceedings, while other 3D sizes include a trio of 32-inch Finlux models (starting at just £329.99 for the 32F703), and the 47-inch 47S7010.
It must also be stressed here that if the Finlux 42F7010 sounds interesting to you, you'll need to act reasonably swiftly, because Finlux has announced that it plans introduce a new version, the 42F7020. However, we would anticipate the Finlux 42F7010 sticking around longer on third-party sites such as Play.com.
Mind you, from a quick look at the specs to the upcoming Finlux 42F7020, it doesn't seem as if there are many significant differences anyway - except that the new model appears as if it's going to ship with two pairs of 3D glasses!
Performance
Our harsh and headache-inducing past experiences suggest that really cheap TVs can struggle to produce an enjoyable passive 3D picture. But while it's certainly not without its faults, the Finlux 42F7010 certainly isn't unwatchably awful by any stretch of the imagination.The main reason for this at least gentle positivity is that the Finlux 42F7010 delivers fairly emphatically on at least some of passive 3D's technological advantages.
For instance, donning the lightweight glasses causes only the most minor reduction in the brightness of the set's pictures. This in turn means you can still enjoy very vibrant and rich colour tones while watching 3D, rather than having to suffer the often significant drop off in colour punch you get with most active 3D TVs.
The lack of any shuttering technology in the Finlux 42F7010's passive glasses also means you don't have to put up with any distracting and fatiguing flickering effects, even if you find yourself watching 3D in a very bright room.
Passive 3D tech has a couple of significant downsides too, though. First, 3D Blu-rays don't look quite as detailed and HD as they do on good active 3D TVs. And second, you are sometimes aware of horizontal line structure while watching 3D footage, especially over bright, contoured edges.
However, while the Finlux 42F7010 isn't immune to these flaws, its relatively small 42-inch screen size does make them harder to spot unless you stick your head right up to the screen. Which is not, of course, something that anyone in their right mind would want to do under any normal circumstances.
A much more significant 3D failing of the Finlux 42F7010 is its susceptibility to crosstalk double ghosting noise.
This is generally not a problem with passive 3D technology. Indeed, passive 3D inventor LG always says freedom from crosstalk is one of the system's biggest advantages. Yet it consistently reared its ugly, distracting head with all sorts of 3D footage on the Finlux 42F7010.
Admittedly the crosstalk's impact is reduced by the way it's restricted pretty much exclusively to objects in the mid or far distance rather than also besmirching foreground objects. But it's still a disappointment, and provides more evidence that crosstalk only disappears with passive 3D technology if the panel inside a passive 3D TV is of a high quality.
While on the subject of crosstalk, we're also duty-bound to report that the Finlux 42F7010 exhibits passive 3D technology's familiar failing whereby crosstalk suddenly becomes excessive if your viewing position finds your head at an angle of more than around 13 degrees above or below the screen.
The other issue with the Finlux 42F7010's 3D images is that their otherwise decent level of sharpness and clarity can fall down when there's a lot of motion in the picture.
The set doesn't carry any significant motion processing tools, which can mean in 3D mode that objects pass across the screen in a pretty juddery fashion. As well as making the picture look less clean, this judder also seems to reduce the 3D depth effect.
2D picture
The Finlux 42F7010 is a solid 2D performer. Pictures still enjoy the brightness and punch noted with 3D viewing, while HD sources look sharper than would normally be expected from such a cheap 42-inch TV.The judder noted in 3D mode is still there, but it feels markedly less pronounced, and as such is certainly preferable in our minds to the sort of heavy-duty blurring all too commonly found on budget LCD TVs.
Also easier to spot in 2D mode is the Finlux 42F7010's surprisingly respectable black level performance. Sure, there's always a degree of greyness visible during dark scenes, but it's not bad at all by budget TV standards, and doesn't lead to too much shadow detail getting crushed out.
The biggest disappointment with the Finlux 42F7010's 2D pictures is their colours. No matter how much we tried tweaking the available colour settings, we just couldn't end up with a palette that looked totally convincing in tone or well-balanced, with some tones standing out more aggressively from pictures than others.
It actually felt to us as if colours looked more credible in 3D mode, with Finlux's glasses on!
The Finlux 42F7010 additionally proves a pretty uninspiring upscaler of standard definition sources, leaving them looking very soft and noisy as it goes about translating them to its screen's Full HD resolution.
The final problem with the Finlux 42F7010's pictures is that they're very viewing angle dependent. Watch from a horizontal angle of any more than around 30 degrees, and both contrast and colour suffer heavily.
Sound
Putting the Finlux 42F7010's audio through its paces, Finlux's television proves a fairly typical budget flatscreen TV effort. Which is to say, not very good.It handles simple chatty material well enough, but anything that dares to add a bit of bass, rich music or multiple audio layers to proceedings ends up sounding compressed to the point of harshness.
Verdict
Finlux set itself a tough task with the 42F7010. There's no doubt that building a decent quality 3D TV, even if you use less demanding passive (rather than active) 3D technology, is no walk in the park.The set does its best to get you in a good mood from the off, though, by sporting a half-decent design and a surprisingly full set of connections that even includes support for multimedia playback from USB and recording to USB HDDs from the TV's Freeview tuner.
By the standards of many budget 3D TVs, it does a fair to middling job with 3D too, only undermining the punch and sharpness of its pictures with some crosstalk noise and motion judder. It's an inconsistent 2D performer, though.
We liked
The Finlux 42F7010 catches your eye right away with its £450 price, which really is low for a 42-inch 3D TV. Especially one that ships with eight pairs of 3D glasses.Its level of multimedia support is good for its price level too, and in some ways it gives you more in performance terms than you've a right to expect, with punchy colours, plenty of brightness, minimal motion blur and flicker-free 3D.
We disliked
Not having a Freeview HD tuner will be a turn off to many potential buyers, and so will the set's somewhat average 2D HD pictures and very soft standard definition pictures.The set is at its best with 3D, but even here there are crosstalk and motion judder issues to consider.
Final verdict
On the evidence of the 42F7010, Finlux certainly can't be accused of lacking ambition. Combining multimedia playback and 3D support with a 42-inch TV going for under £450 is definitely a move that will have consumers and rival brands alike sitting up and taking notice.Its lack of a Freeview HD tuner hurts it, though, and its performance is ultimately too hit and miss to make the TV something we can wholeheartedly recommend - even though it's better overall than some of the other mega-cheap 3D TVs that have come our way.
Also consider
The most direct rival for the Finlux 42F7010 is probably the Cello C42T71DVB. This uses old-school CCFL illumination in place of the Finlux 42F7010's Edge LED system, but it manages to produce a solid contrast and colour performance all the same.It actually slightly betters the Finlux with 3D, but it only has four pairs of free 3D glasses, is a similarly uninspired 2D performer, and features one of the fattest rear ends ever seen on a 'flat' TV.
If you want to significantly improve your passive 3D performance, you'll have to spend more money on something like the £650 Toshiba 42VL863 or LG 42LW550T.
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Olympus sends mystery teaser in post
A mystery package containing two nuts in a bag and an intriguing "Coming Soon" label has arrived from Olympus - but what exactly is going on?
We're not really into our mixed messages - we like to call a spade a spade and a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera a CSC.
So, when a mysterious package arrived from Olympus this morning, containing nothing more than a box with two nuts and an intriguing "Coming Soon" label, we've been left a little bit confused.
In case you're wondering, we cracked open the nuts shortly after this photo was taken to see if there are any more hidden clues contained within, but sadly we were met with disappointment (but we are thinking about baking some brownies later).
Launches
This year, we've already seen the launch of the highly anticipated OM-D E-M5, during which we learned that the PEN series was next on the agenda for upgrade.We also know that Olympus will be launching new lenses to sit in its range, including a 60mm f/2.8 macro lens and a 75mm f/1.8 portrait lens - so it's possible that this has something to do with that.
Of course, we have sent the obligatory "WTF" email to Olympus to try and decipher the situation and will keep you updated in due course.
In the meantime, if you have any idea what the devil is going on - feel free to let us know.
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Review: Philips Brilliance Blade 2 239C4QHSB
Thanks to Apple's iPad and iPhone, IPS screen technology has hit critical mass. The latest PC monitor to get in on the IPS game is the new Philips Brilliance Blade 2, a 23-inch model with Full HD 1080p resolution.
As little as a year ago, any LCD screen with IPS panel technology cost a pretty penny. Today, prices have tumbled to as little as £130. It's a dramatic turn around and an awfully welcome one, to boot.
Previously, affordable monitors packed TN panels. They're quick in terms of response times, but otherwise off the pace by pretty much every conceivable metric. By comparison, IPS panels have better colours, viewing angles, contrast, the works.
But if you can be pretty confident that the Philips Brilliance Blade 2 has the measure of almost any TN monitor, how does it stack up against the brave new 23-inch IPS generation? We're thinking here about screens such as the AOC i2352vh, which represents the starting point for IPS panels, or the ViewSonic VP2365-LED and its fancier feature set, among others.
Priced at around £170, the Philips Blade 2 is bang in the most competitive part of the computer monitor market. Luckily, it's one of slickest-looking screens we've ever seen.
Philips Brilliance Blade 2 at a glance Size: 23-inch
Panel type: IPS LCD
Backlight: LED
Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080
Brightness: cd/m2
The overall design vibe is very much mini HD TV. First, there's the super-slim glossy bezel and the equally skinny but effortlessly elegant arm that suspends the panel. Then there's the base module with integrated soft-touch controls and video inputs, including a pair of HDMI ports and a VGA socket.Panel type: IPS LCD
Backlight: LED
Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080
Brightness: cd/m2
Put simply, it looks expensive and it feels great. The only downside is the limited adjustability. Tilt tweaking is all you get. Still, fire her up and you'll soon forget that limitation. It's immediately obvious that you're looking at premium panel technology.
In fact, first impressions are almost identical to the rest of the 23-inch IPS gang - very likely because it shares a panel with most, if not all, of them.
Performance
Whatever the reason, the colours are just plain gorgeous - detailed and rich without being over saturated. The same goes for the smooth, even anti-glare coating. IPS panels used to be conspicuous by their rather grainy, sparkly anti-glare coatings. But not here.Kudos also goes to Philips for configuring the Blade 2 with a decently powerful LED backlight. That's not always the case with LED tech, which can be a bit dingy. Most of the time, the extra power is irrelevant, as the Blade 2 goes well beyond the recommended 200cd/m2 brightness level. But occasionally, it's handy to be able to turn up the heat.
The pixel response is nippy enough, too, even at default settings. You can also ramp up the response rates via the SmartResponse feature, the snag being that overdriven pixels can occasionally produce some subtle but weird visual side effects. We'd leave the SmartRespone box unticked.
The Philips Blade 2, however, is not perfect. Subjectively, the black levels and outright contrast aren't quite as impressive as the competition. Working in Windows, it's not overly obvious. But when watching video content, particularly at night, there's a little too much light escaping from black tones.
In theory, the SmartContrast feature should help here. But like every other dynamic contrast implementation, it's no substitute for a panel with good inherent contrast. That said, there's absolutely no edge bleed. The backlighting is extremely consistent.
Our suite of test images also reveal a few image quality niggles. The white and black scales are pretty much impeccable, which is great. The viewing angles are beyond reasonable reproach, too. But there's a problem with gradient rendering. It's spoiled by pretty harsh banding.
It's not what we're used to seeing with IPS panels, thanks to their colour fidelity, and it betrays that this is very likely a 6-bit, rather than 8-bit, panel. Again, for most users most of the time, it's a non issue. But it does mean the Philips Blade 2 isn't a great candidate for graphics professionals looking for something usable on the cheap.
Lastly, the lack of DVI connectivity is a little unfortunate. You can use a DVI-to-HDMI converter if your PC lacks an HDMI port, of course, which can be bought for about a fiver. That works fine with most graphics adaptors. However, ATI/AMD graphics cards can be tricky to set up correctly. You have been warned.
Verdict
Seriously slick looks and IPS panel tech is a great combo. But the Philips Blade 2 has a few too many image quality flaws.
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Exclusive: Edgar Wright: '3D sounds like a f&!*ing headache'
Film writer-director turned interactive comic scribe Edgar Wright isn't convinced by 3D yet, telling TechRadar that it sounds like a bit of a pain in the, er, head.
We caught up with Wright to talk about his interactive HTML5 IE9-sponsored comic Brandon Generator but managed to sneak in a couple of off-topic questions to keep him on his toes, like why didn't he film Scott Pilgrim vs the World in 3D?
"There are bits of Scott Pilgrim that would look good in 3D, but it's also too fast cut," he said. It's a fair point - with those fast cuts, ADHD shots and non-stop colour-overload, a 3D Scott Pilgrim could have left cinema owners with more than just husks of popcorn to clear up after screenings.
Bread makes you fat?
"I think 3D works well with particular things," he continued. "It works very well with animation but there are only a handful of live action films that have really benefited."I think that's why there's been a bit of a mixed response to it. I'd say 70 per cent of the time people have paid, I don't know, £5 extra, gone to see something and then forgotten it was in 3D by the end of it and gone, 'Well, what was the point of that? Why did I pay another £5 to see Harry Potter in 3D when it would have been perfectly fine in 2D?'
"So I think when 3D films really work, they've got to be really designed with 3D in mind. And that's why something like Avatar or Hugo works better, because they design the shots with that in mind."
So is that something that he's interested in working on? Not exactly...
"Sounds like a f***ing headache," he said. The missing letters there are l, i, and, er, double-p, if anyone's mum is reading.
"Maybe if it was the right idea. I'd never say never – if it was something that really lended itself to it then yeah."
Prepare to die obviously
Wright wrote Brandon Generator working with Marvel comic artist Tommy Lee Edwards. The resulting comic, has a noir-ish animated style, although it's more of a series of key frames without the transitions between them.He also worked on the script for the motion-capture extravaganza that was Tintin – so is a full-on Edgar Wright animation on the cards?
"I was very very impressed by Tintin and what Spielberg and Jackson did, but I'm also aware that it was like a five year project so it's a lotta work. There's a lot of hours that go into that. So... maybe.
"I'll figure it out when I've got five years to spare."
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Exclusive: Sky Go for Samsung Galaxy Note and ICS handsets 'in the next few weeks'
The Sky Go Android app is going through the final stages of testing and should be ready for more handsets in the next couple of weeks.
This is according to a TechRadar source, who reckons a number of Samsung handsets will be added to the Sky Go roster and it will also be available for ICS-enabled devices.
Sky has done a decent job with Sky Go on Android, but drip-feeding the app on to only Samsung and HTC handsets isn't ideal. Dig a little deeper, though, and there seems to be a good reason for this.
Sky can't port Sky Go on to a handset which has HDMI out as it would breach its broadcasting contract. It also has to deal with varying screen resolutions and media players – so it is offering the app to select phones that fall within these constraints.
ICS enabled
It seems that Sky is offering it up to ICS-enabled handsets soon, though, as well as two more Samsung devices."Sky has begun testing the app for the Galaxy Nexus and are hopeful it will be out for the Nexus and ICS enabled handsets (Including Galaxy Note) in the next couple of weeks," explained our source.
Interestingly, the Galaxy Note Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade had been delayed until Q2, but as we are now in Q2 we may well see this very soon.
This is the same source that tipped us off on the initial release date of Sky Go for Android – although Sky did actually release the app a few days earlier than the date we were given.
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Competition: WIN! A Samsung Galaxy Tab courtesy of Skype
TechRadar has teamed up with Skype to offer you the chance to win a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Still one of the best Android tablets out there, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is powered by the dual-core 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 chip and features a gorgeous 1280x800 display.
Crucially for your video conferencing needs, this Android tablet – which is due an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) in the near future – features front and rear-facing cameras which you can utilise in Skype for having high-quality video chats with friends and contacts anywhere on the planet.
Read more about instant messaging on Skype.
Enter this competition
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TechRadar Deals: Today's deal: iPhone 4 hard case or retro cover for only £4.99
Today we are offering a choice of cases for your iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S for £4.99 each: retro cassette or hard case covers in three different colours, for 50% less than the usual price.
A cover is a very cheap investment to prevent different forms of damage to your expensive phone and it clips onto your phone in seconds.
Cassette cover colour options are black,blue or pink and the hard case cover options are white, black or pink.
As part of the deal you also get an anti-scratch screen protector and a micro fibre cleaning cloth.
Head over to TechRadar Deals to take advantage of this offer.
About TechRadar deals
TechRadar Deals, powered by TechRadar.com, is a service for TechRadar readers.This new and exciting service, open to our UK users, is designed to bring you massive discounts on all sorts of products, services and events that are highly relevant to tech and gadget fans.
Here's how it works…
The TechRadar Deals site offers fantastic deals with discounts of 50% or more off exclusive technology-related deals.Once you're at our deals site you can get in on the deal by simply clicking 'Buy'. After your purchase, your voucher will be emailed to you within minutes or you can log into your account to locate your voucher. Simple and secure.
You can also sign up for our email newsletter and we will then email you regular deals that are at least 50% off goods and services from big name brands.
Visit TechRadarDeals.com to check out today's deal.
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Gary Marshall: Version numbers have become meaningless
Version numbers have become meaningless
Time is a funny thing, and the older you get the funnier it becomes: summers pass in the blink of an eye, and entire years vanish before you even noticed their arrival.It's happening to me, too: the release of Firefox 12 feels as if it happened just days ago, and yet here I am, looking at a press release announcing the beta release of Firefox 13.
The reason it seems as if it happened just a few days ago, of course, is because it happened just a few days ago.
I know Firefox is on a rapid release cycle these days, but there's rapid and there's *rapid*.
So what's new in Firefox 13? I called my imaginary friend Mr Browsy and asked him.
"Well," Mr Browsy said, "there's a redesigned home page."
"Okay," I replied. "What else? What else that's really, really big?"
"Are you sitting down?" Mr Browsy asked.
"Yes," I said.
"There's a redesigned new tab page too. Not only that, but there's the ability to load tabs on demand when restoring a previous session. Oh, and support for the SPDY protocol."
"Anything else?"
"Not really."
Still, at least Firefox 12 was an enormous revolutionary upgrade, just like the move from Chrome 17 to Chrome 18 was.
Wasn't it?
Version on the ridiculous
Software version numbers are important, because they tell you what's happening. Version 1.0 means "run away! run away!" because you just know it's got more bugs than a tramp's pants. Version 1.1 is the first big bug fix, 1.5 is the first reasonably stable one and version 1.10313112 is numberwang.With browser numbers, though, it's all gone to pot. While Microsoft, Opera and Apple generally keep the big numbers for big releases, Mozilla and Google have gone crazy. Now, a brand new version number doesn't mean oodles of new features; it means that the browser maker's fixed a typo in the About page and slightly rounded the corner of an icon.
The problem, I think, is that all the really big stuff in browser development has already happened: browsers are fairly mature technology now, whereas in previous years you'd get genuinely new and big stuff such as tabbed browsing or dramatically faster rendering engines.
Now, though, any developments are incremental and under the hood - and that means that the different versions all blend into one another. By giving each minor update a major revision number, though, it's all gone a bit playground. "What version is your browser?" "Nineteen!" "Well, screw you! Our one's number eleventy-two! And my dad's a policeman!"
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iPhone app downloads fall in March
If you're thinking about launching an app to make your millions, then perhaps you need to think again, especially if you plan on producing an app for Apple's App Store.
Figures from the US show a thirty percent fall in March downloads to the top 200 free iPhone Apps as the "novelty factor" of the iPhone 4S begins to fade. Statistics from mobile app marketing business Fiksu's App Store Competitive Index (which measures the average aggregate daily download volume of the top 200 free US iPhone apps) show downloads dropped by almost two million from 6.35 million per day in February, to 4.45 million in March.
The reasons for the sudden drop in downloads are unclear, but Fiksu believe it's partly down to users finally getting bored of their new Christmas toy, and a move by Apple to clamp down on app store manipulation.
Micah Adler, Fiksu CEO explains, "With the novelty factor of the iPhone 4S launch and the holidays well behind us, and no other events in March to spark discovery, March's download dip was expected," Adding, "An unexpected contributing factor could be the decline in the use of robotic install tactics by app marketers responding to Apple's new policy. The decline in competition and steady costs definitely presented app marketers with a ranking opportunity in March, driven largely through the cost-effective conversion of organic users into loyal users."
Businesses keen to get to the top of the App Store charts have taken to employing firms who use automated robotic installs using "bot farms." The systems are designed to make automated, recurring downloads of free iOS applications to push applications into the top 100 of the App Store's bestseller lists, in the process pushing the app in front of a larger audience.
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Nokia close to ditching pricey mobile brand Vertu
Financially-challenged Nokia is on the verge of signing away its luxury mobile brand Vertu for a £162 million (about $236 million) cash injection.
You may remember Vertu from such uber-expensive mobile phones as the £213,000 Signature Cobra and the fact that its ringtones are recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra.
News of the sale first broke back in December 2011, and the Financial Times reports that talks to sell the luxury arm off are now in the advanced stages, with a private equity group named Permira reportedly the front-runner to acquire the brand.
Virtual Vertu
The phones may be pricey but the brand is more – Permira is apparently set to drop €200 million (£162 million) on the range.Why spend so much? Certainly not for the technology – the handsets all run Symbian, after all – but the brand association which is quite the hit in the cash-rich Middle-East.
In these trying economic conditions, we all have to make sacrifices and for Nokia, whose cash is more strapped than most, that means selling off Vertu.
The company may have trouble ahead after its share rating was cut to 'junk' status (you don't need to know much about the stock market to know that being labelled 'junk' is a bad thing), but is focusing its efforts on the Nokia Lumia line-up running Windows Phone.
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Apple iTV to snatch exclusive film streaming deals from Netflix?
Looks like Apple may be about to nab an exclusive film streaming deal for its upcoming Apple iTV television from the incumbent Netflix.
It's not really a shocker that Apple is in talks with a company co-owned by three major film studios over exclusive streaming rights to some film and TV content.
An anonymous tipster told Reuters that the cash-rich electronics company is negotiating a deal with Epix, a company backed by Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount pictures with rights to films like The Lincoln Lawyer and Rango.
The metaphor broke my spleen
Apparently any streaming deal reached would include both the existing Apple TV box and the upcoming Apple television set which is yet to be announced but has been the subject of many a fevered rumour.One potential spanner in Apple's exclusive streaming works could be Epix's longstanding agreement with Netflix, although this deal is up for renewal this September.
Apple usually announces its iPod refreshes in September, but after mixing it up with an iPhone launch in October last year, it's really all to play for so we could imagine an Apple iTV launch date of September (or an earlier release with content added throughout the rest of the year).
At its launch in the UK, Netflix has pushed itself as a service that is complimentary to Apple TV, but if Apple launches itself squarely into Netflix's bread and butter streaming rental market, we can imagine this might not be the case for long.
Of more concern to the film-streaming masses is the impact that yet another service will have on their service choices - if everyone has exclusive deals tied up with every studio, there isn't going to be a catch-all service to suit everyone. Well, except illegal torrents, that is. They've got everything.
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Wozniak: Windows Phone is 'more beautiful' than Android and iOS
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has professed his love for the Windows Phone operating system.
The outspoken Wozniak, who started Apple alongside Steve Jobs back in the late 70s, says apps on Microsoft's fledgling OS are more beautiful than the same software on iPhone and Android.
The bearded tech legend even went as far as to say his late partner Jobs had been "reincarnated at Microsoft," such is the Apple-esque aesthetic quality of Windows Phone.
Looks and beauty
"Just for looks and beauty, I definitely favor the Windows 7 phone over Android," Wozniak told A New Domain in an audio interview."I'm kind of shocked on every screen — much more beautiful than the same apps on Android and iPhone. So I think that what Microsoft or Nokia did is that they went to some of the key app makers and got them to deliberately make specialized beautiful ones or they put their own themes on."
However, so as not to offend his old charges too much, Wozniak did point out that the iPhone still holds the number one place in his heart.
"I did give my opinion that the Windows 7P phone had superior visual appearance and operation cues that were also more attractive. In my opinion, it sets the mark for user interface. I would recommend it over my Android phones given that it doesn't yet have the breadth of apps," he added.
"I also surmised that Steve Jobs might have been reincarnated at MS due to a lot of what I see and feel with this phone making me think of a lot of great Apple things."
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Wozniak: Windows Phone is 'more beautiful' than Android and iPhone
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has professed his love for the Windows Phone operating system.
The outspoken Wozniak, who started Apple alongside Steve Jobs back in the late 70s, says apps on Microsoft's fledgling OS are more beautiful than the same software on iPhone and Android.
He bearded tech legend even went as far as to say his late partner Jobs had been "reincarnated at Microsoft," such is the Apple-esque aesthetic quality of Windows Phone.
Looks and beauty
"Just for looks and beauty, I definitely favor the Windows 7 phone over Android," Wozniak told A New Domain in an audio interview."I'm kind of shocked on every screen — much more beautiful than the same apps on Android and iPhone. So I think that what Microsoft or Nokia did is that they went to some of the key app makers and got them to deliberately make specialized beautiful ones or they put their own themes on."
However, so as not to offend his old charges too much, Wozniak did point out that the iPhone still holds the number one place in his heart.
"I did give my opinion that the Windows 7P phone had superior visual appearance and operation cues that were also more attractive. In my opinion, it sets the mark for user interface. I would recommend it over my Android phones given that it doesn't yet have the breadth of apps," he added.
"I also surmised that Steve Jobs might have been reincarnated at MS due to a lot of what I see and feel with this phone making me think of a lot of great Apple things."
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Apple omits Android searches from Chomp app
While it's hardly a surprise, Apple has removed the ability to search for Android apps from its recently-acquired Chomp service.
Back in February, Cupertino snapped-up the San Francisco-based start-up, with a view to improving application search and discovery within its own App Store.
SInce then, the web-based version of the service has still allowed users to search for Android applications as well as iPhone and iPad apps.
Not anymore.
Making the Genius smarter
The Chomp application has also been removed from the Google Play store.It is still unclear what Apple plans to do with Chomp long-term, but the company will surely find a way to integrate the tech within the App Store and perhaps improve Genius recommendations.
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Review: Norton Internet Security 2012
It's always nice when a company - especially one that has been the market leader for so long - acknowledges its past mistakes and strives to rectify them. This has never been truer than in the case of Symantec and its Norton Internet Security product.
For years it was the market leader for antivirus software, and the de facto choice for many people when choosing their defence against internet threats. However, this didn't mean that the software itself was universally popular, and it increasingly came under fire for slowing customers' computers down and filling them with unwanted extra features.
Happily, Symantec has acknowledged that its reputation needed to improve, and lately with each passing year has released a version of Norton Internet Security that is lighter and faster than the last.
Norton Internet Security 2012 continues this encouraging trend with what is easily Symantec's lightest version of Norton Internet Security ever.
Installation only took a few seconds, and CPU usage while performing a full system scan remained around 12 to 15 per cent on our test machine, and a full system scan of around 500,000 files over two hard drives was completed in 31 minutes.
While our PC has a pretty healthy processor (an Intel Core i7-2700K), less robust systems should also cope fine with the load.
Numbers aside, the most important thing is that you can still use your computer as it scans in the background, and Norton Internet Security 2012's impact on your PC's overall performance is much smaller than it used to be.
While Norton Internet Security 2012 does a good job at protecting your PC, if you get so infected that your PC is all but unusable, then Norton's Power Eraser and Bootable Recovery Tool can be a huge help - the latter scanning your PC outside of your traditional operating system.
Of less use is the desktop gadget that gets installed alongside the main antivirus program. While some people may find it a comforting presence on your desktop, offering quick access to the program, others might be annoyed by the intrusion. It can easily be turned off, if so.
Priced at £49.99 in the UK and $79.99 in the US for three PCs for one year, the software costs about the same as many of rival programs.
Verdict
Overall, Norton Internet Security 2012 is a great antivirus product and a further improvement on previous versions. It is quick and light, so your PC won't become noticeably slower when it's installed.Most importantly though, Symantec's experience in the antivirus field, alongside world-class technology and research, has resulted in a powerful security package.
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Tutorial: How to use iMovie chapter markers
How to use iMovie chapter markers
Back in the day when Apple was interested in DVDs and pioneered the creation of iDVD discs, iMovie was tightly integrated with that program.This enabled you to add chapter markers throughout your project so that your viewers could easily skip to the next scene while watching the film on their widescreen TV.
But just because iDVD is on life-support and Apple is more interested in online digital distribution, it doesn't mean that chapter markers are no longer of any use.
Yes, that feature was notoriously absent from the re-imagined iMovie back in 2007, but it made a comeback and it's better than ever - although you wouldn't know it by glancing at the interface. The features are hidden.
That's because Apple designed iMovie to be perfect for novice editors. Everything they need is at their fingertips without overwhelming them. However, it's worth enabling the advanced features to get more control over your editing; these will keep you engaged with the app after you've mastered the basics.
Here we'll show you how to enable and make use of markers in your projects.
1. Advanced Tools
iMovie's interface is relatively bare. You can import clips into Events, browse iPhoto and Aperture libraries, add a part of a clip to one of your projects, and insert titles and basic effects. But the most interesting features are concealed by default. To reveal them, you need to go to iMovie > Preferences (or use the Cmd +, shortcut), select the General tab and tick Show Advanced Tools.
2. Brown bubble
With a project open, you'll notice two new icons, top-right of the Project section: a brown speech bubble and a red one with a white arrow inside it. Click the brown one and drag it onto your project. As you do so, it'll offer you '1' as its basic title, but you can overwrite that simply by typing. Hit the Enter key to set the change.
3. A comment
This is not a chapter marker but a comment - useful if you have more than one person working on the same project and you want to leave notes about the edit. Don't worry if you forget to remove them since they won't be exported into your finished product. They're there to help you with the editing process for complex projects.
4. Red bubble
Drag a red bubble onto your project. You'll notice that it offers you '2' as a default title if you hadn't altered the comment's one. That's because the numerical values for the comments and chapter markers are linked, which could be a little confusing if you're not careful, since brown and red are quite similar when glanced at rapidly.
5. Move around
Wherever you've added your markers isn't set in stone: you can drag them to any position. If you wish to be more precise, click on one to select it, then use the left and right arrow keys to move your comment or chapter marker back or forward one frame. This enables you to place it perfectly within your project.
6. Anchored markers
Notice that your marker has a small line to its left, pointing down onto a clip. This shows you where the marker is located since a long title can make it hard to see where it's supposed to start. It's also anchored to that clip. This means that if you were to move your clip to another place in your project, the marker would move along with it.
7. Marker removal
Since a marker is linked to a specific clip, deleting that clip will remove the marker. To delete a clip, click to select a portion of it (four seconds by default) then go to Edit > Select All (or press Cmd+A). Once the yellow highlight covers the entire clip, hit the Backspace key to remove it. To remove just the marker, click it and hit the same key.
8. Save chapter markers
Exporting your film is done via the Share menu, but not all options will preserve chapter markers. Sending it to YouTube for instance will remove them from your film. If you want to be certain your chapter markers are preserved, use Media Browser, iTunes, Export Movie or Export Using QuickTime.
Open up your finished film in QuickTime and you'll be able to access those chapters. You can do the same in iTunes or on your Apple TV.
And if you upload the video to an iPhone, you'll be able to see and access those chapters by tapping on the menu to the left of the playback controls. Markers definitely have many more uses than just being a DVD tool.
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