IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (Techradar) 24/05/2013

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<a
 href="http://www.techradar.com/"><img 
src="http://www.techradar.com/default/img/techradarsmall.gif" border="0"
 alt="Techradar"/></a> 
Hands-on review: Xbox One Gamepad <img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/games_consoles/Xbox%20One/Controller%202%20Xbox%20One%20-470-90.jpg"
 alt="Hands-on review: Xbox One Gamepad"/>
Following a full 
day of presentations, interviews, tours, tech demos, and teases of the 
<a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/consoles/xbox-720-release-date-news-and-rumours-937167">Xbox
 One'</a>s game-changing potential, the powers that be at 
Microsoft finally let us get our mitts on the new hardware's controller.
 

While our time behind the gamepad doesn't allow us 
to tear up the blacktop in Forza 5 or command a 
SEAL Team canine in Call of Duty: Ghosts, it does 
provide a peek at a few of the 40-plus improvements that have been made 
over its predecessor.

Before diving into six separate 
demos tailored to show off the controller's enhanced rumble tech, 
Microsoft senior product marketing manager, Navin Kumar, states 
"precision, comfort, and making gaming more realistic than ever" were 
the driving forces behind designing the new gamepad. 


In terms of precision, Kumar points out that the 
analog sticks respond to inputs with 25 percent less force, delivering a
 far more accurate experience. He also claims its d-pad allows for 
"crisper inputs," perfect for "sweeping movements in fighting and sports
 games."

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/games_consoles/Xbox%20One/Controller%202%20Xbox%20One%20-420-90.jpg"
 alt="Xbox One Gamepad" 
width="420"></img>
<h3>
Feeling the full effect 
of 'impulse triggers'</h3>

While our hands-on time affords
 little opportunity to test this improved precision and accuracy, it 
does allow our thumbs and fingers to feel the full effect of what Kumar 
refers to as "impulse triggers." Like the 360's controller, the Xbox One
 gamepad features left and right triggers, used for everything from 
scoring headshots to flooring gas pedals. 

However, 
the One's controller significantly ups the immersion of these 
interactive experience thanks to the addition of motors housed in its 
triggers; in addition to the pair of rumblers located in the hand-grips -
 as they are in a <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/gaming/games-consoles/xbox-360-703247/review">360</a>
 controller - the One's peripheral adds one each to both triggers. 


<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/games_consoles/Xbox%20One/Controller%205%20Xbox%20One-420-90.jpg"
 alt="Xbox One Gamepad" 
width="420"></img>
<h3>
It 
tickles...seriously</h3>

As demonstrated during our 
hands-on time, the tech's being leveraged in a number of ways to really 
ratchet the immersion factor. With a press of the Y button, we're able 
to fire up a helicopter's propeller and a sports car's engine. While 
these interactions would yield near-identical vibrations with a 360 
controller, they feel entirely unique from behind the One's triggers and
 sticks. By programming four separate motors, two of which now tickle 
the sensitive finger tips, the peripheral is able to convey astounding 
nuance and variety in its vibrations. 

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/games_consoles/Xbox%20One/Press%20shots/Xbox%20One%20controller%201-420-90.jpg"
 alt="Xbox Gamepad" width="420"></img>

On top
 of differentiating between an engine's powerful roar and a chopper's 
spinning rotors, the quartet of motors allows us to experience how it 
feels to pop off a few rounds from a hand-cannon and summon a fireball 
in the palm of our hand. While the former feels much like it does in any
 contemporary shooter, the latter - thanks to a slow rumbling build-up, 
leading into a more intense vibration - yields a sense of empowerment we
 can't wait to unleash the next time we barbeque baddies in an 
RPG.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/games_consoles/Xbox%20One/Press%20shots/Xbox%20One%20controller%202-420-90.jpg"
 alt="Xbox One Gamepad" 
width="420"></img>

Our final two demos, 
simulating a ticking heart and braking car, are the most impressive. The
 pumping brakes deliver a realistic halting sensation the likes of which
 we've never before experienced in a racer, while the heartbeat - 
delivered by alternating pulse-like vibrations in the two triggers - 
feels scary-real. In fact, we're guessing the latter effect will 
significantly up the fright factor in survival horror games; imagine 
navigating a dark corridor or derelict space station in complete 
silence, all while the protagonist's racing pulse thumps beneath your 
fingertips.
<h3>
Early Verdict</h3>

Based on
 our brief time behind the Xbox One's controller - whose ergonomic 
design will feel comfortably familiar to 360 owners - the impulse 
triggers seem to possess the most promise and potential for putting 
players that much closer to rearranging zombies' ribcages with melee 
weapons, roasting trolls with fire balls, and racing across finish 
lines. 

That said, a number of subtler features, such 
as magnetic sensor-equipped triggers and a battery case that no longer 
protrudes from the back of the controller, hint at the many ways the 
next-gen peripheral will provide more precision in your games and 
comfort in your hands.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/games_consoles/Xbox%20One/Front%20Controller%20Xbox%20One-420-90.jpg"
 alt="Xbox One Gamepad" width="420" title="The Softies slimmed down the 
battery case"></img>

Our hands-on time barely
 scratches the surface of its promised 40-plus improvements, but our 
satisfied fingers and thumbs are already anticipating what other 
surprises the Xbox One's gamepad has got hidden beneath its buttons, 
sticks, and triggers.
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EA: On second thought, some Wii U games are in 
development <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/games/EA/Fifa14/FIFA14_IT_protect_the_ball_WM-470-75.JPG"
 alt="EA: On second thought, some Wii U games are in 
development"/>
Electronic Arts is focusing on games for <a
 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/consoles/xbox-720-release-date-news-and-rumours-937167">Xbox
 One</a> and <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/consoles/ps4-release-date-news-and-features-937822">PS4</a>
 and current generation consoles, but is still making software for <a
 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/gaming/games-consoles/nintendo-wii-u-1084120/review">Wii
 U</a>, according to the company's chief financial 
officer.

"We are building titles for the Nintendo 
console, but not anywhere near as many as we are for PS or Xbox," 
admitted EA CFO Blake Jorgensen during a banking firm conference 
Q&A.

This contradicts statements made last week by
 the company's corporate communications head, Jeff Brown, who said that 
"[EA has] no games in development for the Wii U 
currently."

The lack of steadfast commitment from the 
No. 1 publisher of sports video games doesn't bode well for the 
GamePad-included console, which <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/consoles/wii-u-flops-for-nintendo-still-overshadowed-by-older-brother-1146556">hasn't
 sold well</a> since its November launch. 

<h3>
Stuck in the middle of U</h3>

The 
Nintendo Wii U is more powerful than the original <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/gaming/games-consoles/nintendo-wii-446958/review">Wii</a>,
 but Jorgensen felt as though it cannot compare to the technology in and
 the buzz behind Xbox One and PS4.

"Nintendo's 
business was more an extension of their last console," said he during 
the Q&A.

"What the consumer will find is a lot 
more powerful gameplay with the new boxes that are coming out, and a lot
 of excitement."

At the same time, the install base of
 less powerful, current generation "boxes" is so great that Jorgensen 
sees Electronic Arts producing PS3 and Xbox 360 games for at least three
 to four more years.

This leaves Wii U, with a 
fraction of the install base of current generation consoles and <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/consoles/ea-developer-wii-u-not-powerful-enough-for-next-gen-titles-1150016">unable
 to live up to developer demands</a> as a next-generation system, 
stuck in the middle of the console war.
<h3>
The Xbox One 
vs PS4 debate</h3>

Looking forward, when it came to the 
debate between <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/consoles/ps4-vs-xbox-720-which-is-better-1127315">Xbox
 One vs PS4</a>, Jorgensen thought it would come down to the 
experience of each system rather than the hardware 
specs.

"It will remain to be seen as to the services 
associated with those as to the direction of the services they might 
want to go."
<ul>
<li>Want to know more about 
Microsoft's new console? Take a <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/consoles/first-look-xbox-one-1153297">first
 look at the Xbox One</a> with photos from all 
angles.</li>
</ul>
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A-Huawei Mate-y! Massive 6.1-inch Ascend Mate smartphone hits 
UK <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com///art/mobile_phones/Huawei/AscendMate/Review/huawei-mate1-470-75.jpg"
 alt="A-Huawei Mate-y! Massive 6.1-inch Ascend Mate smartphone hits 
UK"/>
The massive <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/huawei-ascend-mate-1122575/review">Huawei
 Ascend Mate</a> Android smartphone is now available to buy in the
 UK for the modest SIM-free price of £335.

Independent
 retailer Expansys is offering the 6.1-inch device which was launched in
 January as the world's largest smartphone, an honour that has since 
been stolen by the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-mega-1145075/review">6.3-inch
 Samsung Galaxy Mega</a>.

For their £335 users 
will get a quad-core 1.5GHz handset, with the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/android-jelly-bean-1087230/review">Android
 4.1 Jelly Bean</a> operating system filling the 1200 x 800 
touchscreen.

Although the speeds are still far out of 
the reach of UK customers, the Ascend Mate is also capable of reaching 
4G speeds of up to 
150Mbps.
<h3>
Compromises</h3>

The device 
also rocks 2GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera alongside the 1-megapixel 
front-facing snapper for video calling. 

To help keep 
that massive screen going Huawei has also fitted the Ascend Mate with a 
huge 4,050 mAh battery that offers up to 22 hours of talk 
time.

Expansys' price tag may be small compared with 
the device itself, but users will have to accept a few compromises if 
they plump for the Ascend Mate.

According to a <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/huawei-ascend-mate-1122575/review">recent
 TechRadar review</a>, the device has a great screen and awesome 
battery life, but is too big and heavy, while Huawei's Android skin was a
 little bland for our tester's tastes.

If you're in 
the market for a giant smartphone, will you be plumping for the Ascend 
Mate or the Galaxy Mega, which arrives in the UK in July? Let us know in
 the comments.
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Unearth trends and useless facts alike with Google's new Top 
Charts <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/internet/Google/top_charts_google_trends-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Unearth trends and useless facts alike with Google's new Top 
Charts"/>
Google revealed a new feature of Google Trends 
today, announcing that <a 
href="http://www.google.com/trends/topcharts">Top Charts</a> 
will now be published every month.

The Top Charts are 
similar to Google's annual Zeitgeist feature wherein Google publishes a 
year's worth of search trends every December.

The new 
Top Charts will do the same, only monthly.

Google's 
first Top Charts, published today, reveal stats ranging from 
top-searched actors (Selena Gomez) to top "quick service restaurants" 
(Pizza Hut) and dog breed (pit bull).
<h3>
Indispensable 
knowledge</h3>

Currently only statistics from the U.S. are
 available, but Google promises that more countries are "coming 
soon."

Google's <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/australia-goes-gangnam-style-with-google-zeitgeist-1118804">2012
 Zeitgeist</a> revealed last year that "Gangnam Style" was the top
 search term in Australia, and we've no doubt that Top Charts will 
eventually convey equally indispensable 
facts.

Google's Top Charts are built on the search 
giant's <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/google-unveils-its-semantic-search-plans-the-knowledge-graph-1080787">Knowledge
 Graph</a> and purport to show actual trends and not just raw 
keyword data.

The Top Chart lists are divided up into 
categories like actors, scientists, TV shows, whiskeys, and dozens more.
 There are 40 total.
<h3>
Search of the 
moment</h3>

Google also unveiled a curious new animated 
visualization of the <a 
href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends/visualize">top trending 
search terms</a> that updates automatically in real 
time.

It fills the browser with changing colors and 
search terms in a variety of languages, and can be customized to show 
different regions and terms.

The Google Trends 
homepage will now show elements of these new features, as well as the 
standard trends features that you're accustomed 
to.
<ul>
<li>See what else Google has been up to 
with our <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/gadgets/google-glass-1152283/review">Hands
 On: Google Glass</a> review.</li>
</ul>
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height="1" width="1"/> <a 
href=http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/allnews/~3/HiyUpc1IBWE/story01.htm> Read
 More ...</a><hr>
 
New Pandora, Facebook integration takes advantage of new music 
tab <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/internet/Facebook/facebook_music-470-75.jpg"
 alt="New Pandora, Facebook integration takes advantage of new music 
tab"/>
Pandora today <a 
href="http://blog.pandora.com/2013/05/22/a-personalized-social-experience/">announced</a>
 a new form of Facebook integration for Pandora mobile apps on iOS and 
Android and the official Pandora web music 
player.

Pandora sharing to Facebook has existed for 
some time, but the new social integration is "effortless," wrote 
Pandora's chief technology officer and executive vice president of 
product, Tom Conrad.

Conrad wrote that Pandora 
activity can now be automatically published to Facebook, and that the 
activity can be integrated with Facebook's new music 
section.

"This means it's easier than ever to discover
 new music from friends' listening activity in your Facebook News Feed 
or by checking out the music section on their profile," he 
explained.
<h3>
Facebook music? 
What!?</h3>

No, not a Facebook Music service - just a new 
tab of users' news feeds that catalogues musical tastes and 
activities.

The music section was introduced in March 
when the social network revealed its <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/first-look-new-facebook-news-feed-1136283">latest
 Facebook redesign</a>.

Pandora is the latest 
music listening service to integrate with this new 
feature.
<h3>
Opt in (or out)</h3>

Automatic
 Facebook sharing can be toggled on and off at will in the Pandora apps 
or on the website.

Users can also customize exactly 
what they want to share.

"This new feature puts you 
totally in control of what's shared and the experience is entirely opt 
in," Conrad wrote.

"Music is a natural facilitator of 
connections between people and we're excited to help strengthen those 
bonds around all of the music you're discovering on Pandora," Conrad 
finished.
<ul>
<li>Remember Myspace? We barely do, 
too. Reacquaint yourself with the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/pc-mac/software/new-myspace-1113143/review">New
 Myspace.</a></li>
</ul>
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Exclusive: Why no HTC One on Verizon, microSD for US and UK? 
HTC explains <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/mobile_phones/HTC/HTC_One/chinese%20htc%20one%20cropped-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Exclusive: Why no HTC One on Verizon, microSD for US and UK? HTC 
explains"/>
The <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/htc-one-1131862/review">HTC
 One</a> is an excellent smartphone, <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/htc-one-gets-battery-bump-become-s-techradar-s-third-5-star-smartphone-1149180">one
 of only three phones</a> to ever earn a five-star rating from us.
 Despite our unmitigated endorsement of the device, we're still curious 
about a of couple things.

First off, why did China and
 Japan <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/japan-joins-china-as-htc-one-gets-a-microsd-slot-again-1153026">get
 a version with microSD</a>? A lot of users would love to bolster 
the device's storage with an additional 64GB.

Second, 
why isn't the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/best-android-phone-which-should-you-buy-717819">best
 Android phone</a> of the year on Verizon? Will it ever come to 
Big Red, or should we quit holding our breath?

At 
<a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/world-of-tech/ctia-2013-10-things-we-expect-1136793">CTIA
 2013</a> we had a chance to sit down with HTC and ask them just 
that. Senior Global Online Communications Manager Jeff Gordon - not the 
NASCAR driver - fielded our burning 
questions.
<h3>
Smaller radio bands made room for 
microSD</h3>

Apparently, the inclusion of microSD in 
Asia's HTC One came down to one factor - space. Gordon 
explains:

"Because the Chinese version of the One is 
designed specifically for the smaller Chinese radio bands, we do have 
additional space inside the device we were able to use for the microSD 
slot. That space isn't available to us in the global 
version."

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/mobile_phones/HTC/HTC_One/HTC_One_iFixit_Teardown-420-90.jpg"
 alt="HTC One Verizon microSD" width="420" title="Not exactly open body 
(credit: iFixit)"></img>

We're assuming this 
is also the case with the Japanese version, which has a microSD as well.
 We're still green with envy, but at least there's an 
explanation.

Gordon's reasoning would seem to be 
supported by an iFixit teardown, which found the One to be <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/try-not-to-break-your-htc-one-it-s-harder-to-fix-than-the-iphone-1141569">harder
 to repair than the iPhone 5</a>. Given that the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/foxconn-calls-iphone-5-most-difficult-device-it-s-ever-assembled-1105128">iPhone
 5 was notoriously hard to assemble</a>, there's probably not a 
lot of room in that thing.
<h3>
The Big Red 
One</h3>

As for the lack of love from Verizon, Gordon 
couldn't say as much."It's always a great thing to have our phones on as
 many operators as possible, but we've got nothing to announce in terms 
of Verizon."

<img 
src="http://cdn0.mos.techradar.futurecdn.net///art/mobile_phones/HTC/OneTimers/One-RedMist-420-100.jpg"
 alt="HTC One Verizon microSD" 
width="420"></img>

In the past, Verizon has 
always carried Droid-branded devices from HTC. It carried the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/htc-droid-dna-1112302/review">HTC
 Droid DNA</a>, but not the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/htc-one-x-1069319/review">HTC
 One X</a> or the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/htc-one-x-1101086/review">One
 X+</a>. Perhaps it wanted its own special version of the One and 
HTC wasn't willing to comply?

Still, rumors are flying
 about the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/htc-one-for-verizon-theorized-by-code-readers-1147871">HTC
 One coming to Verizon</a>. Maybe it'll breakdown and carry that 
<a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/htc-one-briefly-appears-for-sale-in-fetching-red-1149662">red
 version of the HTC One</a> we glimpsed briefly online? It sure is
 pretty to think so.
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In Depth: The king of cables is 40 years old 
today <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/networking_hubs_and_switches/rj45-470-75.jpg"
 alt="In Depth: The king of cables is 40 years old 
today"/>
Ethernet is 40 today: on 22 May 1973, Xerox PARC's 
Robert Metcalfe documented a new way to communicate, which he dubbed 
Ethernet. 

The birthday is rather arbitrary - Metcalfe
 later admitted that he needed to pick a birthday for marketing reasons,
 and the memo's publication date was as good as anything else - but 
there's plenty of reason to celebrate it anyway. What started off as a 
way to connect a few computers to a printer became a way to connect the 
entire planet.
<ul>
<li><a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/getting-connected-a-history-of-modems-657479/1#articleContent">Getting
 connected: a history of 
modems</a></li>
</ul>

Ethernet got its name 
from "luminiferous ether", which 19th century scientists believed was an
 invisible medium that transmitted electromagnetic waves. Metcalfe's 
system used a cable rather than a magical invisible cloud, but it was no
 less magical: it would form what <a 
href="http://alum.mit.edu/news/AlumniProfiles/Archive/Robert_M._Metcalfe_-2768?destination=node/17860">Metcalfe
 would later describe</a> as "plumbing for the Internet, which is 
in turn plumbing for the World Wide Web, which is plumbing for 
Google."
<h3>
From humble beginnings</h3>

It
 would be a few more years before Ethernet networking was actually 
deployed - PARC rolled it out in 1976, it was made commercially 
available in 1980 and became an official IEEE standard in 1985 - but 
it's been in constant evolution: even 10Mbps seemed impossibly fast in 
1976, <a 
href="http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/xerox/ethernet/XeroxWireDraft_Dec1976.pdf">when
 2.96Mbps seemed pretty speedy</a>, but today 100 
gigabit Ethernet exists and terabit Ethernet is on 
the horizon.

What made - and makes - Ethernet special 
is that it wasn't designed to handle very simple networks but much more 
complicated ones. Metcalfe set out to connect more than 100 computers to
 a printer, and to each other, and to the precursor of today's internet,
 ARPAnet. The answer? Packets. 

As Metcalfe told CNet 
<a href="http://news.cnet.com/2008-1082-1008450.html">on the eve 
of Ethernet's 30th birthday</a>, "Ethernet was based on packets. 
Data was to be delivered in packets, and the Ethernet was to be 
decentralized so there could be nothing in the middle that could break 
or be unscalable. 

It lay within a hierarchy of 
protocols, so it only had to do what it needed to do, not things that 
would be handled elsewhere in the protocol stack, which was a relatively
 new idea at the time. It was so simple, and that's one of its 
advantages." If packets collided, they'd be retransmitted until they 
reached their destination.
<h3>
Better cabling, better 
speed</h3>

Ethernet has changed somewhat since Metcalfe's 
original design. Early, thick coaxial cables were superseded by thin 
co-ax cabling that was joined with BNC and T connectors, and in the 
1980s thin coax was in turn superseded by phone-style twisted pair 
cabling. 

Those cables got the now-familiar RJ45 
connector which, unlike some more modern connection types - *cough* USB!
 *cough* - don't waste entire days as you try and fail to get your 
cables the right way round. Ethernet became Fast Ethernet, which in turn
 became Gigabit Ethernet, which has evolved from single figures to three
 figures and will no doubt get faster still.

Today, 
Ethernet remains the dominant networking protocol, but it isn't quite as
 obvious as it used to be: our laptops are more likely to be connecting 
over the ether than over Ethernet, and there isn't room for an RJ45 in 
an <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/htc-one-1131862/review">HTC
 One</a>. 

But the networks our wireless hubs 
connect to, the backhaul for the cell towers our phones seek out and the
 data centres that share our statuses, push our photos and stream our 
songs? There, Ethernet's doing what it's always done: getting the job 
done.
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Blip: Chrome sparks up a conversation, Siri gets 
jealous <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/internet/Chrome/Chrome_Voice_Search-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Blip: Chrome sparks up a conversation, Siri gets 
jealous"/>
Chrome users are in for a bit of fun today - the 
conversational voice search shown off at <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/google-io-2013-10-things-we-expect-1145012">Google
 I/O</a> is now live with the Chrome 27 
update.

This means Chrome will respond to you when 
using voice search function. All users need to do is go to Google.com, 
clock the mic icon and grant permission to the new feature. And if your 
query is too broad, Google's response will handily come with information
 cards as well.

It's not quite at the "Ok, Google" 
point yet - you'll still need to click that microphone every time you 
want to chat to Chrome. But hey, it's always nice to have a new friend, 
right?
<h3>
More blips!</h3>

"Ok Google, 
show me some <a href="http://www.techradar.com/tag/blip">brilliant
 blips</a>"
<ul>
<li><a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/future-tech/student-beats-tech-industry-to-the-punch-with-20-second-phone-charger-1153104">Student
 beats tech industry to the punch with 20-second phone 
charger</a></li>
<li><a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/japan-joins-china-as-htc-one-gets-a-microsd-slot-again-1153026">Japan
 joins China as HTC One gets a MicroSD slot, 
again</a></li>
<li><a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/apple-s-hook-up-with-bang-with-friends-is-over-1152379">Apple's
 hook up with Bang With Friends is 
over</a></li>
</ul>
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BSA claims software piracy undermines 
economy <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/TRBC/Abstract/Software%20piracy/PCP302.insight3.istock_000006324651-470-75.jpg"
 alt="BSA claims software piracy undermines 
economy"/>
Companies can help the economy by using more 
properly licensed software, according to industry group BSA/The Software
 Alliance.

But it has been criticised for not facing 
up to the fact that some firms see more advantage for themselves in 
using pirated software, or at least turning a blind eye to its 
source.

BSA is citing a study, Competitive Advantage: 
The Economic Impact of Properly Licensed Software, carried out by the 
international business school INSEAD. It's claiming that for every 1% 
increase in the use of licensed software the activity generates about £2
 billion in national production, compared with just £469 million when 
it's pirated.

It estimates that each additional pound 
invested in legal software there is a £37 return on 
investment.
<h3>
Bottom line</h3>

Julian 
Swan, Director, Compliance Marketing at BSA EMEA, said: "Using properly 
licensed software reduces risk and creates operating efficiencies that 
go direct to the bottom line for business."

But a past
 critic of BSA is questioning the validity of the figures and claims the
 BSA is missing the point for many businesses.

Matt 
Fisher, Director licensed management solutions firm Licensed Dashboard, 
said: "Haven't the BSA realised their messaging isn't resonating yet? 
Making highfaluting claims as to the economic benefits of non-pirated 
software will do very little to cut piracy.

"It is 
firms, not abstract 'economies', that need to be shown the value of 
software since they're the ones that actually use it."
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In Depth: Rise of the body hackers: Google, the wearable web 
and transhumanism <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/gadgets/Google%20Glass/glass1-470-75.jpg"
 alt="In Depth: Rise of the body hackers: Google, the wearable web and 
transhumanism"/>
Are you happy with your body? Or is just too
 darned organic? The fusing of man and machine is already happening, 
with so-called 'body hackers' implanting cameras, brainwave sensors and 
magnets in their bodies to allow everything from mind-control gadgets to
 dreaming in sound and navigation by vibration. 

For 
now, these experiments are the reserve of 'grinders', a small group of 
DIY body modifiers who design, build and test their own modifications, 
but they may not remain outside the mainstream for 
long.

<a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/video/google-glass-what-you-need-to-know-1078114">Google
 Glass</a> might be called revolutionary by some, but could this 
mass-market wearable device also be an important step in human 
evolution?

As a standalone gadget, the 
much-anticipated <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/gadgets/google-glass-1152283/review">Explorer
 Edition</a> probably won't be as mind-blowing as some might 
think, but it could be a catalyst for a new era where electronics are 
worn, and where body hacking becomes the ultimate in geek 
chic.

Over 485 million of us will be wearing a 
web-connected watch, camera, eyepiece, pacemaker or other device by 
2018, according to ABI Research. The web is becoming 
wearable.
<h3>
Are wearable gadgets socially 
acceptable?</h3>
<div>
<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/features/bodyhackers/Memoto-420-90.jpg"
 alt="The rise of the body hackers" width="420" title="The 36x36x9mm 
Memeto takes two geo-tagged photos every 
minute"></img></div>

Anyone who remembers seeing 
the first Bluetooth hands-free headsets a decade ago will recall 
thinking their wearers crazy lunatics - some still might - though using a
 smartphone in public has no such connotations.

And 
despite their initial rarity value, it took almost no time for tablets 
and ebook readers to illicit zero interest from fellow commuters. Mike 
Hallett, Director of Sales for North America at video headset-makers 
Vuzix - whose M100 eyepiece will compete with Google Glass - thinks the 
same will happen to eyewear.

"Many trades and leisure 
pursuits already accept head-mounted gear," he says, picking out head 
torches, intelligent ski goggles and earpieces as just some of the head 
enhancements already worn throughout 
society.

"Wearable technologies are not new, but what 
is are the functions of wearable devices and the form factors. As these 
change, eyewear will become less obtrusive to vision and will become 
acceptable and welcomed by everyday users."

Gowthaman 
Ragothaman, Chief Client Officer Asia Pacific at global media agency 
Mindshare, isn't so sure. "I must admit that a lot needs to be done with
 the head-mounted display to make the device less intrusive," he says. 
"It will need to be made into a fashion statement or a fashion accessory
 to become socially acceptable."
<h3>
Are there any 
gadgets I can already wear?</h3>
<div>
<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/features/bodyhackers/Larklife-420-90.jpg"
 alt="The rise of the body hackers" width="420" title="Larklife monitors
 the fitness, sleep patterns and diet of 
iPhoners"></img></div>

Smartwatches like the 
Pebble, Martian and I'm Watch already exist - and Apple could follow 
suit <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/portable-devices/apple-iwatch-release-date-news-and-rumours-1131043">soon</a>
 - but there are a host of more interesting wearable gadgets already out
 there.

The market in 'wearables' is being spearheaded
 by fitness gadgets such as the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/gadgets/nike-fuelband-1127264/review">Nike
 FuelBand</a>, <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/fixed-line-phone-accessories/fitbit-one-1117503/review">Fitbit
 One</a>, <a 
href="http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/category/accessories/gadgets/product/review-powerbreathe-k5-breathe-link-pc-software-12-46473">Powerbreathe
 K5</a>, <a 
href="http://www.zensorium.com/tinke/">Tinke</a> and <a 
href="http://www.omegawave.com/">Omegawave</a>.

Other
 efforts at wearables include <a 
href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/martinkallstrom/memoto-lifelogging-camera">Memeto</a>,
 an always-on 'lifelogging' camera that clips to clothes and shoots an 
image twice a minute, automatically uploading to a smartphone app, and 
<a 
href="http://lark.com/products/larklife/experience">Larklife</a>,
 a fitness-awareness armband that uses an accelerometer and Bluetooth to
 record your every move on a smartphone.

Google's 
effort at headwear might be the most anticipated, but the heads-up 
display has been pioneered by the likes of the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/audio-visual/av-accessories/sony-hmz-t1-personal-3d-viewer-1042700/review">Sony
 HMZ-T1 Personal 3D Viewer</a>, the Vuzix M100, <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/gaming/gaming-accessories/oculus-rift-1123963/review">Oculus
 Rift</a>, <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/audio-visual/av-accessories/epson-moverio-bt-100-1045755/review">Epson
 Moverio BT-100</a> and the <a 
href="http://uk.oakley.com/airwave">Oakley Airwave</a> smart 
ski goggles.

The latter, ski goggles that present live
 data such as speed, altitude and time on an eyepiece in the lens, is 
marketed with the slogan 'straight to your brain'. For now, it's just 
marketing, but the use of such language is interesting in a conditioning
 sense - when gadgets like these actually do interact with our bodies 
and brains, we'll likely already be used to the 
idea.
<h3>
How does the wearable web help the individual 
and wider society?</h3>
<div>
<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/features/bodyhackers/Sony%20headset-420-90.JPG"
 alt="The rise of the body hackers" width="420" title="Sony's HMZ-T1 
Personal 3D Viewer is wearable tech for the 
home"></img></div>

"This is a personal experience
 and how each person uses a product will be different, so one person may
 want to have constant updates on stock quotes, while another needs 
directions while walking, while another may want translation of signs 
and maps," says Hallett of eyewear and heads-up displays. "It's all 
about information access on the go, when you want 
it."

There are more serious scenarios for wearables. 
Emotiv's EPOC headset, which can read brain signals, has been used by 
visual artists, and by disabled people to operate a mind-controlled 
electric wheelchair.

The <a 
href="muse.totemapp.com">Muse</a> headband is, for now, only 
able to discern two variables in calculating whether a brain is stressed
 or relaxed, but maker InteraXon is promising extended features in the 
future that will allow the user to control a TV, computer or a tablet - 
something that consumer electronics company Haier has already <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/television/brain-power-and-eye-movement-controlling-haier-s-future-tvs-1123166">demoed</a>.

Headsets
 and eyewear will eventually be made smaller, of course, with wearables 
eventually becoming completely hidden. "As technology becomes more 
ingrained into our lives, it is likely to evolve to become an invisible 
layer upon our bodies," says Mark Curtis, Chief Client Officer at global
 service design consultancy Fjord, which created PayPal Mobile and the 
BBC iPlayer for mobile. He's talking about low-power, flexible screens 
being available on almost any product imaginaeble, and that includes 
clothes.

Techy clothes are already available from 
companies like <a 
href="http://cutecircuit.com/collections/special-projects/">CuteCircuit</a>,
 which uses conductive fabrics to produce LED-studded dresses that light
 up in response to either music or mood.

Again, it 
gets much more serious than that, with the Smart Clothes and Wearable 
Technology Research Centre at the University of Wales Newport 
investigating the use of smart textiles in clothing to help with the 
challenges of ageing. Sensors buried within the fabric can monitor heart
 rate or even trigger a personal alarm, thereby replacing the functions 
of a fiddly phone.

Self-heating clothes could be one 
way of solving the winter fuel problem - you heat yourself rather than 
an entire house or room - but for now it's limited to ski-centric 
gadgets like Rohan's <a 
href="http://www.rohan.co.uk/Product/Detail/MensAccessories_03211">Powerstation</a>
 self-heating winter gloves.
<h3>
What is body hacking and
 transhumanism?</h3>
<div>
<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/features/bodyhackers/Cookoo-420-90.JPG"
 alt="The rise of the body-hackers" width="420" title="It's possible to 
check-in on Facebook using the Cookoo 
smartwatch"></img></div>

"While many body hackers
 embrace implants that enhance seemingly minor aspects of their everyday
 lives, concerns about magnifying intelligence, improving physiology and
 extending life are at the core of both professional and amateur 
practices," says Clare Acheson at <a 
href="http://www.stylus.com/">Stylus</a>, a research and 
advisory firm who produced a report earlier this year entitled 
Technological Body Modification: The Search for 
Singularity.

The report explores transhumanism and the
 'temporary cyborgs' as seen in YouTube sensation <a 
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoj4Qv7nrN8">True 
Skin</a>, but increasingly in real life via DIY creations like the
 <a href="http://eyeborgblog.com">EyeBorg</a> prosthetic 
'digital' eye and the sonar, UV, WiFi and temperature-aware <a 
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usfxAJKB7gA">Bottlenose</a>
 from Grindhouse WetWare, an echolocation device that translates data 
into a magnetic field that interacts with a magnet implanted in a human 
body.

The result is that users feel vibrations and 
learn what they mean. One example given is that someone with an implant 
could tell via a vibration in their finger how strong a cafe's WiFi 
connection is as they walk by. Banal, but 
impressive.

The end-game for all this is 
'singularity': a state of super-intelligence that could entail endless 
implants and body modifications - and the end of humanity as we know it.
 A long time before we get there, however, will be the embracing of 
wearable technology by the internet's biggest brands; Google, Facebook, 
Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.

It's already possible to 
check-in on Facebook by touching the side of the<a 
href="www.cookoowatch.com"> Cookoo</a> smartwatch, and such 
trickery on all kinds of gadgets is only a software release away. Expect
 to hear much about 'designing for context' as the mobile web moves into
 wearables.
<h3>
Are wearable gadgets bad for 
us?</h3>

No one wants a rusty implant, but even passive 
technology such as smartwatches and headsets can encourage a reliance on
 and addiction to gadgets that many of us - let's be honest - already 
fear is occurring (you check your emails in bed?). 


"There is a possible health risk with always-on 
gadgets," says Ragothaman, who thinks it is a psychological challenge to
 have so many choices that we never had before. "We are becoming spoilt 
with options and the sheer fact that so much information is available in
 front of your eyes. It has become more than an addiction to always-on 
gadgets - it has become a big stress and a 
distraction."
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Government pushes back rural broadband 
deadline <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/TRBC/Generic/Countryside/Countryside-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Government pushes back rural broadband deadline"/>
The 
Government is providing an extra three weeks for proposals to win a 
share of the third tranche of the Rural Community Broadband 
Fund.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural 
Affairs (Defra), which is administering the fund, says that anyone after
 a slice of the £20 million pie now has until June 17 rather than May 24
 <a 
href="http://rdpenetwork.defra.gov.uk/funding-sources/rural-community-broadband-fund">to
 make their applications</a>.

Groups such as 
social and community enterprises, businesses, community trusts and 
charities can pitch for 50% of project costs to get new infrastructure 
in place.

Defra appears to be assuming that some 
applicants are struggling to get their proposals together in time. A 
department representative told TRPro that the more than 50 applications 
so far are in line with expectations, and that it just wants to ensure 
that groups don't need more time.

Two previous rounds 
of bids for funds were completed in 2012.
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Tutorial: How to connect to your PC remotely with 
TeamViewer <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/OWV81.explore2.Step1-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Tutorial: How to connect to your PC remotely with 
TeamViewer"/>
Here's a familiar yet nightmarish scenario: 
you've burned the midnight oil to write up that report your boss has 
demanded for first thing in the morning, but when you get to work you 
discover you've left the file on your PC's desktop. What should you do? 
Resign, plead for mercy or just run?

 Well the answer -
 if you've got a piece of software called TeamViewer installed on your 
PC - is relax. 

TeamViewer is a clever and very 
powerful program that will let you take remote control of a PC over the 
internet. This makes it ideal for retrieving forgotten files, and it's 
also a great way of helping friends and family with their computer 
problems without leaving the comfort of your desk. 

If
 you're a home user you can download and install the software for free. 
For business use, see the <a 
href="http://www.teamviewer.com/en/licensing/index.aspx">licensing 
options</a>. As you read on we'll discover how to rescue that 
forgotten file and also how to take remote control of your desktop PC. 
Here's how to do it. 
<h3>
Step-by-step: Get files from 
your PC remotely </h3>

1. Grab the 
software

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/OWV81.explore2.Step1-420-90.jpg"
 alt="step 1" width="420"></img>

TeamViewer 
is like a telephone conversation made between two PCs, so both machines 
will need to have the software installed. We're going to assume you've a
 main desktop PC and a laptop that you take out and about with you. To 
get started, download TeamViewer on your desktop PC from <a 
href="http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx">www.teamviewer.com</a>.
 

2. Get configured 


<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/OWV81.explore2.Step2-420-90.jpg"
 alt="step 2" width="420"></img>

Now click 
'Run' at the bottom of the screen and, when prompted, accept the license
 agreement. You'll need to check the two tick boxes here as well. 
Finally, when prompted, choose 'Personal/ non-commercial use' and click 
'Next'. The next screen is called 'Set up unattended access'. All you 
need do is click 'Next' to proceed. 

3. 
Make an account 

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/OWV81.explore2.Step3-420-90.jpg"
 alt="step 3" width="420"></img>

On the next 
screen, you'll need to give your computer a password. Once you've chosen
 one, click 'Next'. On the following screen you'll be asked to provide 
your email address and a TeamViewer password; make a note of this 
password, because you'll need it later. Click 'Next' when you're done. 


4. Activate your team 


<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/OWV81.explore2.step4-420-90.jpg"
 alt="step 4" width="420"></img>

You will now
 see a screen that looks like the one above. Don't worry about the 
passwords at this point - we'll use those later. Your final job is to 
access your email inbox and find a message from TeamViewer. You'll need 
to open it and click on the long link, which will activate your 
TeamViewer registration. 

5. Set up your
 laptop 

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/OWV81.explore2.Step5-420-90.jpg"
 alt="step 5" width="420"></img>

Next, it's 
time to fire up your laptop and install TeamViewer there, too. When 
you're done, you'll need to follow the same steps as before until you 
reach the screen above. This time, select 'I already have a TeamViewer 
account' and enter the email address you registered with, along with 
your TeamViewer password. 

6. Take 
control 

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/OWV81.explore2.Step6-420-90.jpg"
 alt="step 6" width="420"></img>

Let's be 
adventurous and give full control of your desktop to your laptop. 
Looking at your main PC, note down the number next to 'Your ID'. Now, 
working on your laptop, enter this number into the 'Partner ID' box. 
Click 'Connect to partner' and enter your TeamViewer password. You'll 
see your desktop PC's Windows desktop appear. 


7. Access your PC remotely 


<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/OWV81.explore2.Step7-420-90.jpg"
 alt="step 7" width="420"></img>

Working on 
your laptop, you should now be able to move icons around on your other 
PC. You can open programs, close programs and make system configuration 
changes too. In this mode, TeamViewer is also ideal for troubleshooting 
PCs remotely. Set it up as before and you'll be able to help your 
friends without leaving your own home. 


8. Retrieve that file 


<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/OWV81.explore2.Step8-420-90.jpg"
 alt="step 8" width="420"></img>

If you've 
forgotten to transfer a file from your desktop, close the windows that 
control your other PC, then look under 'Control remote computer' in the 
TeamViewer display. Select 'File transfer > Connect > Log on'. 
Navigate to your file and select it. Click 'Retrieve' and it will be 
transferred to your laptop's My Documents folder. 
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 <a
 
href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/165664316821/u/49/f/9809/c/669/s/2c42fb49/kg/342-355-358-363/a2.htm"><img
 
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 border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" 
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height="1" width="1"/> <a 
href=http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/allnews/~3/s6EzutIH6KE/story01.htm> Read
 More ...</a><hr>
 
Review: Nook HD+ <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Press%20pics/Press%20Nook%20HD%20Home-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Review: Nook 
HD+"/><h3>
Introduction</h3>

With the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/nook-hd-1114579/review">Nook
 HD</a>, US bookstore giant Barnes & Noble entered the 
wide-open 7-inch tablet market, but with the 9-inch Nook HD+ it faces a 
single and much more daunting foe. 

The full-sized 
tablet market continues to be thoroughly dominated by the device that 
defined it - Apple's peerless <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/new-ipad-4-1106634/review">iPad</a>.
 When even Google and its technically impressive <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/google-nexus-10-1109003/review">Nexus
 10</a> can't make an impression at retail, what hope does the 
Nook HD+ have?

With a super-sharp 9-inch display, a 
slim and lightweight body, and a £229/US$269 full price tag for the 16GB
 version - or £269/US$299 for the 32GB model - Barnes & Noble 
certainly has some notable bullet-points to put on the box. But does the
 user experience match the raw specs?

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Front%20Angle-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="420"></img>

In 
that respect it needs to learn a few lessons from close rival the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/amazon-kindle-fire-hd-1095316/review">Amazon
 Kindle Fire HD 8.9</a>, which got the price and performance just 
about right, but failed as a full-fat tablet 
experience.

The Nook HD+ wins instant points for its 
unique design. While you'd struggle to pick an Amazon Kindle Fire HD 
from a lineup of budget tablets, here we have a device that sports a 
couple of key visual flourishes.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Press%20pics/Press%20Nook%20HD%20Magazine-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

Chief among these is the 
large hole-grip situated on the bottom left-hand corner of the tablet 
(in portrait view). It might be there to hook a lanyard through, but it 
also serves as a handy thumb-grip when handling the device, enabling you
 to get real purchase on it with a single hand.

Yes, 
unlike the iPad, this is a full-fat tablet that's light enough to hold 
in one hand - at least for brief periods. At just 510g (18oz), the Nook 
HD+ is almost 140g (5oz) lighter than the iPad 4. That's roughly the 
weight of an <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/htc-one-1131862/review">HTC
 One</a> shorn from its body.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Hole-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

This has been achieved, 
inevitably, through the heavy (or should that be light?) use of 
plastics, though that's not to say the Nook HD+ feels especially cheap. 
It's no <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/ipad-mini-1096514/review">iPad
 mini</a> on the premium components scale, but it feels fairly 
firm in the hand.

We did get some disconcerting 
flexing and creaking when we applied a little two-handed pressure, but 
in general usage it's a reasonably solid 
construction.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Thickness-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="420"></img>

One
 slight negative from an aesthetic point of view is that typical bulging
 Nook bezel, which provides a raised ridge around the screen. With the 
aforementioned corner grip sitting flush with the screen, it makes the 
Nook HD+ look a little like a skinnier tablet that's been slid into some
 kind of protective bumper.

Still, the thick border 
aids handling, and will doubtless provide protection should you put the 
device down screen-first when in a hurry (shame on 
you).

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Press%20pics/Press%20Nook%20HD%20Cover-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

Around the back, the Nook 
HD+ has a pleasingly tactile matt finish that reminds us of the Kindle 
Fire HD range. Curiously, there's only one speaker grille here compared 
to the dual setup of the smaller Nook HD.

In terms of 
hardware buttons, the Nook HD+ benefits from a physical home key on the 
front, although the tiny n-shape doesn't feel as reassuringly clicky as 
Apple's iPad equivalent. But then, it only has two simple functions to 
fulfill - to wake the device up and to return you to the home 
screen.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Back-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="420"></img>

The
 other physical keys are even more vague, with the power button situated
 at the top of the right-hand side (again when held in portrait view), 
and the volume rocker just around the corner on the top edge, with a 
3.5mm jack alongside.

These hardware keys are small 
and non-descript, and it takes a while until you can reliably hit them 
without having to look or feel around the edges.

One 
component that definitely punches above the Nook HD+'s weight is its 
9-inch display. With a resolution of 1920 x 1280, it's virtually as 
sharp as the latest iPad's Retina display, and it's also remarkably 
clear.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Buttons-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="420"></img>

If 
you're used to the colder, bluish tinge of the iPad, you might find the 
tone of the display a little yellowish, but it makes for an easier 
text-reading experience (Nooks are, after all, ebook readers above all 
else) and isn't as pronounced as, say, the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/amazon-kindle-fire-hd-1095316/review">Amazon
 Kindle Fire HD 7.0</a>.

Finally, along the 
bottom of the device we have a proprietary 30-pin port rather than a 
universal micro USB port. If like us you love the fact that you can lug a
 single charger around for your Android tablet, Android phone and 
point-and-shoot camera, you'll find this particularly 
annoying.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Press%20pics/Press%20Nook%20HD%20Library-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

There is some good news to
 be found along the bottom edge of the Nook HD+ though, in the shape of a
 microSD slot. Yes, unlike the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and the iPad, 
you can expand the Nook's memory by up to 64GB relatively 
cheaply.

All in all, the Nook HD+ is a well 
constructed tablet with a fine screen and an appreciable weight 
advantage over its rivals. It may not look the prettiest, but we'd back 
it to go a year or two without picking up any noticeable bumps or nicks,
 which is more than can be said for any iPad we've 
owned.
<h3>
Interface and 
performance</h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Home_Portrait-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
rght"></img>

Like the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/amazon-kindle-fire-hd-1095316/review">Amazon
 Kindle Fire HD</a>, the Nook HD+ is essentially an <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/android-4-0-ice-cream-sandwich-1043150/review">Android
 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich</a> tablet with a heavily customised 
interface layered on the top.

Indeed, Barnes & 
Nobel has taken a leaf out of its formidable rival's (e)book in 
producing a simplified home screen that pushes media content to the 
fore, ahead of even core tablet functions such as email, internet or 
widgets.

Curiously, despite this simplified approach 
the Nook HD+ interface feels sluggish, with frequent and noticeable 
stutters throughout. 

This can be seen from the first 
time you wake the device from its sleep, which seems to take half a 
second longer than it should.

Speaking of the lock 
screen, it's possible to access multiple accounts straight from here, as
 you would on a PC. This enables you to filter out unsuitable content 
for a child's profile, for example, or to remove the ability to access 
the internet or settings menu.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Profiles-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
lft"></img>

You can switch between these (or 
set up a new profile) at any time by hitting your profile picture at the
 top-left of the home screen, though it can take a good few seconds for 
the Nook HD+ to make the change.

Past the lock screen 
and into the home screen you'll find a content carousel that, like 
Amazon's Silk UI, features the most recently accessed apps and 
multimedia content. 

This too seems afflicted by the 
general lethargy found elsewhere in the operating system, with the 
panning and scaling of the icons far from buttery 
smooth.

Admittedly the Nook HD+ is hardly powered by 
the most cutting edge of processors, but its 1.5GHz dual-core TI OMAP 
4470 CPU should really be capable of running such a lightweight UI 
without a hitch.

In terms of general layout, though, 
the Nook HD+'s UI is more or less as clean and unfussy as that of the 
Amazon Kindle Fire HD.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Home_Rearrange_Menu-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
rght"></img>

Adding app and media shortcuts 
to one of the five home screens is a simple matter of pressing and 
holding on an empty area of the screen.

This brings up
 a nicely arranged sub-menu that separates items in categories such as 
Library, Apps and Wallpapers.

There's even a Bookmarks
 category that pulls out your favourite internet shortcuts from your 
selected browser (which is now Chrome by 
default).

Dragging these icons around the screen is 
far quicker and more fluid than any other tablet OS we've used. In fact,
 it's almost too easy to do - you just need to touch and drag, with no 
holding or confirmation phase whatsoever.

Below these 
secondary app icons (or to the right if held in landscape orientation) 
is a row of five fixed icons that provide a handy shortcut to key 
functions including Library, Apps, Web, Email and the Nook 
Shop.

At the very bottom of the home screen is a 
search command that enables you to scour your Nook for a particular app 
or piece of media. 

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Multitasking-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

Alongside this to the 
right is a multitasking command which - like the search function - 
remains constantly available in the Nook HD+'s permanent black border, 
regardless of the present app or task you're in. Pressing it brings up a
 list of recent tasks that can be jumped to 
instantly.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Your_Nook_Today-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
lft"></img>

Disappointingly, these aren't 
thumbnails of the specific tasks as in the stock Android OS, but simply 
their representative icons. But at least B&N has given some 
attention to the matter of multitasking, unlike 
Amazon.

There's also a notification menu of sorts, 
although it lacks the tactile pull-down shutter operation of stock 
Android and most of its bespoke variants.

Rather, you 
simply press the top-centre of the screen to raise the notification 
pane. Items such as messages, app downloads and calendar appointments 
can then be jumped to with a touch or dismissed with a swipe, as 
usual.

Touching to the right of this notification 
area, which contains the time, Wi-Fi connectivity symbol and settings 
and battery icons, will bring up the settings 
menu.

Just below this is another original Nook 
flourish - a circular icon containing the words 'Your Nook Today.' Press
 this to get local weather information from AccuWeather, as well as 
multimedia recommendations based on your recent library 
activity.
<h3>
Internet and 
email</h3>
<h3>
Internet</h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Chrome-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
rght"></img>

Following a recent update, the 
Nook HD+ uses Google's own Chrome web browser by default. 


This is largely a positive move, since Chrome is 
pretty much the best tablet browser around. It works here just as it 
does on any other Android tablet. 

You can add and 
flip between tabs by touching on the appropriate section along the top, 
launch searches or type in specific web pages in the unified URL field 
just below this, and access your bookmarks and other settings from a 
still-rather-clunky drop-down menu to the 
right.

However, you will have to make do without some 
of the neat functions of the original Nook browser, such as an offline 
reading mode and the ArticleView reader mode.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Chrome_Tabs-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
lft"></img>

Still, a download of Pocket or 
some other decent reader app will cover this loss. 


And the general familiarity and speed of the Chrome 
mobile browser - not to mention its ability to sync bookmarks with the 
desktop version - makes it a worthwhile 
trade.

Performance on the Nook HD+ is good, with web 
pages being rendered predictably well on its crisp HD display. 


However, there seemed to be a slight lag when it came
 to scrolling and pinch-to-zooming on web 
pages.

Image-rich websites such as TechRadar really 
didn't seem to perform all that well on the 
tablet.
<h3>
Email</h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Email_Main-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
rght"></img>

The Nook HD+ comes with its own 
native email app, as represented by the fixed email shortcut on the home
 screen. Naturally this can be supplemented by specific email apps, 
particularly Gmail.

As default email apps go, though, 
the Nook's is as good as any. It's extremely quick and easy to set up 
your account - just the email address and password are typically all 
that's needed - and you can also feed multiple accounts into it without 
things getting too confusing.

A nifty colour-coded 
tagging system enables you to bundle all of your disparate emails 
together into a combined view.

Alternatively, you can 
switch between each account by touching the Mailbox command at the top 
of the screen.

As has become the accepted standard for
 tablet apps, the basic email app layout involves a split between folder
 options on the left and a list of individual emails on the 
right.

Tapping an email opens it out to the full page 
in portrait orientation, or three quarters of the page in landscape 
format.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Email_Compose-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
lft"></img>

The email app handles embedded 
images and HTML newsletters very well indeed, with no noticeable 
formatting or performance issues throughout our 
test.

It's here that you'll likely come into contact 
with the Nook HD+'s custom keyboard the most, and it acquits itself 
reasonably well in terms of accuracy and 
layout.

However, without a word suggestion system or a
 swipe-based input option we soon headed for the Google Play Store to 
seek out a more fully featured alternative such as 
SwiftKey.

Fortunately such a move is now at least 
possible, following the recent addition of the Google Play Store to the 
Nook HD+ package. More on this on the next 
page.
<h3>
Movies, music and books</h3>

And 
so we come to the core reason for the Nook HD+'s existence - media 
consumption. Like the Amazon Kindle Fire series, Barnes & Noble's 
tablet is designed to be the focal point for thousands of books, movies,
 magazines and newspapers through the Nook Shop.

With 
the recent addition of the Google Play Store, you can now open that out 
to music as well.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Google_Play-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

With such a wide variety 
of HD content available for the Nook HD+, then, that microSD card slot 
starts to look like an inspired inclusion - and one that other Android 
tablet manufacturers need to emulate if they're going to continue 
offering 16GB entry-level models.

Transferring content
 from PC to Nook can be achieved the old-fashioned way, using the 
bundled USB cable to hook up directly. It's then a simple matter of 
dragging and dropping the relevant 
files.
<h3>
Movies</h3>

Watching films on 
the Nook HD+'s 9-inch display is a joy. Indeed, with a 1920 x 1280 
resolution, Full HD 1080p content feels perfectly at home on the 
tablet.

Of course, nothing eats up storage space like 
Full HD films - the HD version of The Bourne Legacy
 that B&N provided with our test device took up a whopping 7.31GB of
 space. If you plan on carrying a lot of high definition films around on
 your Nook HD+, we'd recommend going for a full 64GB 
card.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Video-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

Playback quality is 
unimpeachable. The Nook HD+ handles the extra detail levels with aplomb -
 and more importantly without stutter.

As with 
virtually every tablet we've ever used, headphones are a must. The sound
 emitted through the Nook's single speaker grille is pretty crisp, but 
it obviously lacks clear stereo separation and low-end 
punch.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Ultraviolet_Account-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
rght"></img>

Thanks to the relatively low 
weight of the Nook, it's also a lot more comfortable to sit holding the 
device in your lap for two hours than it is with, say, an <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/new-ipad-4-1106634/review">iPad</a>.

You
 can find your own transferred videos in the Library section in among 
all your other media, or you can go through the Gallery. 


In terms of file support, you're fine for MP4, 3GP 
and xVID content, but like with its little brother the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/nook-hd-1114579/review">Nook
 HD</a> we couldn't get DivX files to work on the Nook 
HD+.

On the plus side, UltraViolet is fully supported,
 so you have a ready home for all those digital movie files you've been 
acquiring through your DVD and Blu-ray purchases. 

In 
fact, you can sign into your UltraViolet account directly from the Nook 
HD+ settings menu, making transfers a doddle.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Shop_Films-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
lft"></img>

Of course, you can also rent or 
purchase films and TV shows from the Nook Shop. 

New 
HD film rentals seem to cost £4.50 to £5 (US$5 to $6), with SD versions 
generally around the £3.50 ($4) mark. New HD films tend to be around the
 £14 ($20) mark to buy and keep forever.

Naturally, 
older films are cheaper - around £3.50 ($4) for an HD rental and £8 
($15) for an outright purchase.

When the Nook Video 
service finally launches, you'll also be able to stream TV shows and 
films directly to your Nook.

Add in the Google Play 
Store and its own vast selection of video content and you won't be stuck
 for something to watch on your Nook HD+ any time 
soon.
<h3>
Music</h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Music_Album_Thumbs-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
rght"></img>

Music is not Barnes & 
Noble's speciality, so with the recent software update it's wisely 
handed such matters over to Google.

Google Music is 
the new default music-playing app for the Nook HD+, and it's as slick 
and intuitive as it's ever been. 

It can be located in
 the Apps folder, and booting up a transferred music file from storage 
for the first time will offer you the option to play through Google's 
service or the Spotify app, which also comes 
pre-installed.

Playing tracks appear in the 
notification bar, alongside pause and skip controls, though there are no
 lock screen music shortcuts.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Music_Notification-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
lft"></img>

Of course, Google Music isn't 
just a music player - it also offers you access to any music tracks 
you've uploaded to the cloud through the service (up to 20,000 tracks 
for free), enabling you to stream or download them directly to your 
Nook.

The Google Play Store also has a fairly 
comprehensive library of MP3s to purchase and download. 


While it's not quite as extensive a selection as, 
say, Amazon's, it's generally decent and extremely competitively 
priced.

Needless to say, our advice to use headphones 
applies even more with music than it does with movies, since that single
 rear-pointing speaker array really doesn't cut 
it.
<h3>
Books and magazines</h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Shop_Books-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
rght"></img>

While B&N doesn't do music, 
it certainly does do books and magazines. It's what the American company
 is built on, after all.

Sure enough, the top two 
categories in the Nook Shop are books and magazines, and there's a 
massive range of both to browse through and download. 


There are plenty of books available for under £2.99 
($2.99) in all categories, while you can also subscribe to magazines and
 newspapers from within the appropriate section.

In 
both cases you can download free samples to get a taste of the book or 
magazine before committing to a purchase.

While 
B&N has the literary side of things pretty well sewn up on the Nook 
HD+, you also have access to Google's own books and magazines through 
Google Play.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Books_Font_Edit-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
lft"></img>

The reading experience itself is 
very accomplished, with a reliable swipe-to-turn system and the ability 
to annotate, share and look up text with a press and hold on appropriate
 sections of text.

Pressing the arrow at the bottom of
 a page brings up further settings menus and options, which enable you 
to skip ahead, change the font size and type, play with line spacing and
 even tinker with the background colour.

The Nook's HD
 display renders plain text very crisply, and that slightly yellowish 
tinge we mentioned before actually seems to make the screen a little 
easier on the eye than the harsh iPad display. 

It's 
still no replacement for a dedicated ereader, but if you're just reading
 a few pages a day it's more than up to the 
task.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Magazine-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
rght"></img>

The magazine reading experience,
 meanwhile, is really something special on the Nook 
HD+.

B&N has provided a lovely page-turning 
animation that reacts contextually - so if you swipe from the top corner
 of the page at an angle the page will 'fold' accordingly, revealing a 
part of the following page.

Gimmicky? Most definitely,
 and you'll doubtless overlook it after the initial novelty phase wears 
off. 

But it makes navigating these digital magazines a
 surprisingly tactile experience that's second only to, well, a physical
 magazine.

You can also 'cut out' pages from your 
magazines and save them to a virtual scrapbook for later reference, 
which is a genuinely useful feature.
<h3>
Apps and games 
</h3>
<h3>
Apps</h3>

As we've already mentioned,
 the Nook HD+ now comes with access to the Google Play Store for apps - 
and it's a good thing too, given how poor the default Nook Shop 
is.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Shop_Apps-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
rght"></img>

It's still presented front and 
centre here, but we predict that you'll swiftly forget about it (or at 
least attempt to) in favour of the vastly superior Google 
alternative.

Where the stripped back Nook Shop 
interface works reasonably well for books and movies, here, with a 
series of already basic app icons, it comes across as inefficient, 
unfinished and unappealing.

Navigation feels curiously
 cumbersome, with excessive horizontal and vertical scrolling for 
seemingly too few visible apps.

Speaking of too few 
apps, the selection in the Nook Shop is woeful. Off the top of our heads
 we can state that there's no Facebook, no Pocket, and no Feedly - and 
there are plenty more major omissions besides.

Even 
more inexplicable is the decision to unify the Nook Shop search 
function, so that seeking out the above three apps returned loads of 
unrelated books and magazines as well as apps.

You 
have to select apps from the additional drop-down Refine menu in order 
to narrow the field down, which is ridiculously 
clunky.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Google_Play_Apps-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
lft"></img>

Thank goodness for Google Play, 
then. While you might find a couple of apps that don't run on the Nook, 
as we noted in our <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/nook-hd-1114579/review">Nook
 HD review</a>, most of the big hitters are present and accounted 
for. 

This means around 700,000 apps are at your 
fingertips, many of which won't cost you a 
penny.

Google Play has really come into its own in 
recent years, and the latest redesign is a thing of 
stylish-but-functional beauty. It certainly puts Apple's App Store to 
shame for speed, intuitiveness and functionality - if not quite yet for 
range.

One tiny issue that the late addition of the 
Google Play Store has created is a split between official Nook apps and 
those from the main Android app store. This has been handled reasonably -
 if not exactly elegantly - by adding an 'n' to the icons of any apps 
downloaded from the Nook Shop.

On the plus side, the 
Google Play Store will recognise that you have a different version of 
its apps installed and offer you the ability to upgrade them, so there's
 really no compatibility issue here - just a spot of 
untidiness.
<h3>
Games</h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Shop_Games-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
rght"></img>

The games situation on the Nook 
HD+ reads much like the wider apps situation - a woeful default 
provision dramatically bolstered by the belated introduction of the 
Google Play Store.

Suffice to say, if you thought the 
range of general apps was poor on the Nook Shop, you won't believe the 
meagre games offering.

There's no dedicated section 
for games on the Shop, only a sub-category in the main apps menu. 


We won't mention all of the major titles that are 
missing here (there are fewer than 2,000 titles on there in total), 
suffice to say that we hadn't even heard of nine out of the 11 games 
highlighted in the meagre Must Have Games selection under the Apps 
category - and we're avid tablet gamers.

So let's move
 swiftly on to the Google Play games offering. As with apps, the Android
 gaming scene has improved immeasurably in recent years, thanks to the 
platform's sky-rocketing popularity and Google's improved 
support.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Google_Play_Games-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
lft"></img>

The result is a selection of 
games that's still notably inferior to Apple's, but is comfortably the 
second best mobile games offering out there.

Thanks to
 the capable dual-core TI OMAP CPU and PowerVR SGX544 GPU at the 
tablet's core - the same as can be found in the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/amazon-kindle-fire-hd-1095316/review">Amazon
 Kindle Fire HD 8.9</a> - the Nook HD+ will run the vast majority 
of games on the Google Play Store, and run them well at that. 


You might think it would suffer for the lack of a 
modern quad-core CPU, but the truth is few if any games really take 
advantage of such a multi-core setup.

We tried one of 
our favourite games for testing out a device's gaming chops, 
FireMonkey's 3D arcade racing extravaganza Need For Speed Most
 Wanted, and found that it played well, with just the odd 
stutter here and there. 

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Games_NFS-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

Considering the game has 
to push out some highly detailed 3D models to the Nook's HD display - 
which means a large hike in pixels to be rendered - that's pretty 
impressive.

Naturally your 69p ($0.99) casual wonders 
such as Angry Birds and Cut The 
Rope will play like a dream.
<h3>
Battery and 
connectivity</h3>
<h3>
Battery</h3>

Barnes &
 Nobel claims that you can get up to 10 hours of reading time and nine 
hours of video time out of a single charge of the Nook HD+'s 6,000mAh 
battery, but a brief glimpse at the small print should tell you to take 
these claims with a pinch of salt. 

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Battery-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
rght"></img>

These figures were obtained with
 Wi-Fi tuned off and power saving mode switched on, which cuts the 
screen brightness to less than half, effectively reducing the Nook HD+ 
to an extremely dim - and somewhat dumb - media 
player.

In moderate real life use, which involves 
cranking the brightness right up, leaving the Wi-Fi on and using the 
tablet for occasional web browsing, a little reading and the odd five 
minutes of gaming here and there, it's more than up to the task of 
lasting a couple of days like any other tablet.

We 
also applied our standard battery test of running a 90 minute 720p video
 with notifications and Wi-Fi on and screen brightness set to high, and 
seeing how much juice was left at the end.

The average
 result was around 77%, which is about par for the course, but works out
 to be far short of the nine hour best-case scenario that B&N quotes
 in its blurb.
<h3>
Connectivity</h3>

There 
are no connectivity surprises with the Nook HD+. It's a Wi-Fi-only 
tablet with no 3G option, so don't expect to be able to download a new 
page-turner while you're sat bored on a beach this summer. Unless said 
beach has Wi-Fi connections, of course.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Screenshots/Connectivity-210-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" width="210" class="zoomable 
lft"></img>

Bluetooth support is also 
included, as expected.

In terms of physical 
connections, we'll reiterate what a joy it is to have expandable memory 
in the shape of a microSD slot on the bottom of the 
tablet.

It really does open up the storage 
possibilities without adding a massive price premium. Alongside this is a
 custom 30-pin connection for charging and hooking up to your computer. 


Again, we'll state what an annoyance this is when a 
standard micro USB port would have been easier on the eye and a whole 
lot more convenient.

As it stands, you'll have yet 
another charger to lug around with you on your 
travels.
<h3>
Hands on gallery</h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Front-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Front%20Angle-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Front%202-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Buttons-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Hole-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Ports-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Speaker-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Thickness-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Back-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Bottom%20Angle-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Handset%20pics/Nook%20HD%20Bottom-420-100.JPG"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>
<h3>
Official 
gallery</h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Press%20pics/Press%20Nook%20HD%20Book-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Press%20pics/Press%20Nook%20HD%20Cover-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Press%20pics/Press%20Nook%20HD%20Game-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Press%20pics/Press%20Nook%20HD%20Home-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Press%20pics/Press%20Nook%20HD%20Library-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Press%20pics/Press%20Nook%20HD%20Magazine-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Press%20pics/Press%20Nook%20HD%20Profile-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/ebook_readers/Nook/HD%20plus/Press%20pics/Press%20Nook%20HD%20Shop-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Nook HD+ review" 
width="420"></img>
<h3>
Verdict</h3>

The
 Nook HD+ is an undoubtedly flawed device that, at launch, looked like a
 poor proposition relative to its rivals.

But Barnes 
& Nobel has since adapted its offering, to the point where the Nook 
HD+ is now seriously worthy of your consideration as a budget full-sized
 tablet.

At £229/US$269 for the 16GB version, its full
 price matches that of its closest competitor, the Amazon <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/amazon-kindle-fire-hd-1095316/review">Kindle
 Fire HD 8.9</a>, while offering the same performance, a slightly 
superior display, expandable storage and - crucially - access to the 
Google Play Store. Currently reduced to £179 in the UK Nook Shop, it's 
now cheaper too.
<h3>
We liked</h3>

The Nook
 HD+ sports a truly excellent screen that brings high definition media 
content to life.

It's also extremely light for a 
full-size tablet, making it as easy on the arms as its crisp picture is 
easy on the eye. If you're after a cheap but high-quality media player 
for a long journey, these two factors alone make it a serious 
contender.

We also applaud B&N's belated inclusion
 of the Google Play store. While it might muddy the user experience ever
 so slightly, it more than makes up for it by massively expanding the 
range and quality of multimedia content available for the 
tablet.

There are also a couple of original features 
that we approve of, including the possibility of setting up multiple 
accounts. Tablets are often shared among multiple family members, and 
this thoughtful touch increases that feeling of ownership - not to 
mention security and parental control.
<h3>
We 
disliked</h3>

Screen aside, the Nook HD+ isn't a 
particularly pretty tablet to look at. Its bulging bezel makes it look 
like a much sleeker tablet has been slipped into a cheap 
case.

For all the improvements that access to Google 
Play has brought, the Nook Shop is still at the core of the Nook HD+ 
experience, and it's sorely lacking. For apps and movies it's now 
practically redundant, and even its book offering has been compromised 
somewhat.

Beyond that, the Nook's custom UI continues 
to leave us cold. It's sluggish, sparse, and the potential for 
personalisation is severely limited compared to other Android 
tablets.

Ultimately, in general use it's bettered by 
any 'normal' Android tablet you care to 
mention.
<h3>
Final verdict</h3>

We found 
the 7-inch <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/nook-hd-1114579/review">Nook
 HD</a> to be uncompetitive in a crowded field, but the Nook HD+ 
may well have carved out a niche for itself as an ultra-affordable 
full-sized tablet.

Its custom UI is clunky, its own 
media store is a bit of a write-off, and it won't win any awards for its
 looks. But for HD multimedia kicks on a budget, there aren't many 
better-value alternatives out there.

It's far from the
 best Android tablet experience available, but with its recent UK price 
cut, fine HD screen and all-new access to the Google Play Store, the 
Nook HD+ has somehow suddenly become worthy of consideration - certainly
 above the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9, at any rate.
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 More ...</a><hr>
 
Xbox One Kinect isn't an Orwellian spy 
tool <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/games_consoles/Xbox%20One/Press%20shots/Kinect%202-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Xbox One Kinect isn't an Orwellian spy 
tool"/>
Microsoft might have calmed gamers' fears by 
confirming that the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/xbox-720-release-date-news-and-rumours-937167">Xbox
 One</a> won't need an "always on" internet connection to play, 
but the new console will still require Kinect to actually 
function.

Naturally, this has sparked some concern 
that <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/new-kinect-is-rocket-science-level-stuff-says-microsoft-1151803">Kinect</a>
 will be always watching you in your living room like some 1984-style 
spying device. But Microsoft promises this will not be the 
case.

Speaking in an interview at Redmond after the 
event, Jeff Henshaw, group program manager for Xbox Incubation said that
 Xbox One's Kinect won't always be spying on your living room activity. 
"If you want privacy, we'll give you modes that ensure your privacy," he
 said
<h3>
Paranormal activity</h3>

Henshaw 
continued: "It's not the case where you'll be able to remove the camera 
altogether. But you'll be able to put the system in modes where you can 
be completely secure about the fact that the camera is off and can't see
 you."

Speaking at the London event for the Xbox One 
reveal, Harvey Eagle also confirmed that the console will require Kinect
 to actually work.

"Kinect does require to be 
connected to Xbox One in all cases, yes," he said. Let's hope this means
 that the new Kinect is ready to take on any possible room shape or 
size.

It was confirmed that the new Kinect will also 
be <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/xbox-one-s-next-gen-kinect-is-coming-to-windows-1153429">coming
 to Windows PCs</a> in the future.
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 More ...</a><hr>
 
In Depth: Is Steam evil? <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/PCF277.feat3.big_picture_1a-470-75.jpg"
 alt="In Depth: Is Steam evil?"/><h3>
Is Steam 
evil?</h3>

I'm warming my hands over the fire made from 
the last of my furniture when my phone bings. It's an assignment! From 
my favourite editor! Starvation allayed for another day! 


Yet my face falls as I read it: "Prove Steam is 
evil." My penury means I can't refuse it but... it's mad. Everyone knows
 Valve is the good guy. No one in their right mind could call Valve 
evil. 

We've talked to many members of the company 
over the years and they're a singular mix of high-achievers dedicated to
 making the best possible games they can. Most developers I contacted 
refused to even contemplate the idea of Valve being evil. It's both 
unthinkably wrong and commercial suicide. 

Dan 
Marshall, developer of cult classic Time Gentlemen, 
Please! and forthcoming heist caper The 
Swindle, explained why:

 "The first problem
 with any argument that Steam's evil is, as anyone who has ever worked 
with Valve will tell you, that they're all thoroughly pleasant people 
who are genuinely striving to create something good. 


"It's not just about good people doing a good job - 
it's more than that. There's a feeling of ethos that they're all trying 
to make something amazing, and empowering devs and gamers alike however 
they can. They'll tell you about the systems they're putting in place, 
and they'll explain why. They'll help you however they can. No, Steam's 
going to live or die by how popular it is. If it suddenly starts making a
 load of bum moves and doesn't do anything to rectify them, people will 
shift elsewhere. But the people I've worked with just wouldn't let that 
happen." 

But what if there's something in my editor's
 mad contrariness? What if Steam, personified in its owner Valve, is 
evil? Or at least, could be one day? How would such a company function? 
How would it affect us, the gamers? What would change? Is an evil Steam 
the worst thing that could happen to PC gamers? 

We've
 tried to answer that in this article and supplied three alternate 
dystopias for PC gamers, if a Steam teeming with fire-eyed demons proves
 too ridiculous. 
<h3>
Why Valve is good 
</h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/PCF277.feat3.c5m1_waterfront0044-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Left for Dead" width="420" title="We all know that Valve is 
capable of producing some great 
games..."></img>

Google famously chose as its
 corporate slogan "Don't be evil" and struggled to live up to it. Valve,
 back when it was just a nobody developer, chose the slightly less 
catchy "Open your mind. Open your eyes." 

Despite this
 mealy-mouthed aphorism, Valve has been the more generous corporation 
over the years, creating and popularising the digital distribution model
 for selling games, making it as egalitarian as it could, and creating 
endless new ways to improve it. 

Recently, after an 
uncommunicative hiatus, the signs are that Valve is attempting to live 
up to its slogan, pushing new forms of input and output to make games 
more exciting, innovating where the console manufacturers aren't, 
looking forward while others look backwards, and making the PC its 
platform rather than Microsoft's. 

The biggest change 
we could see to the gaming ecosystem would be if Valve, the company that
 owns the world's most effective digital distribution service, started 
acting as a real corporation, rather than a benevolent dictatorship as 
it does today.

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/PCF277.feat3.l4d2_poster_theparish-420-100.jpg"
 alt="The Parish" width="420" title="...though it can take its time 
about releasing certain sequels"></img>

 It's
 odd to think that most people in the world take 'behaving like an 
efficient corporation' to mean the same as 'evil', but that's reflective
 of most people's experience of profit-gouging corporations. 


Whether it's horse meat in your crispy pancakes, 
train tickets increasing 200 per cent since privatisation, or the 
dangerous and expensive lie that is the global nuclear industry, people 
are used to being screwed by big companies. 

So 
imagine how Valve might be run if it was owned by someone else, say a 
Microsoft or an EA. Imagine unnecessary updates like Windows 8, feature 
creep, everything being charged for, thriving but unprofitable servers 
being switched off, and monopolistic behaviour with cross-promoted 
applications. 
<h3>
Playing Monopoly 
</h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/PCF277.feat3.the_swindle-420-100.jpg"
 alt="The Swindle" width="420" title="The Swindle is the next game from 
Dan Marshall and will probably appear on 
Steam"></img>

Yet, looking at the games 
market today, one does have to worry that it's becoming a series of 
walled gardens - Apple, Sony and Microsoft all have tremendous controls 
over their sales fora. On PC, the other major digital retailers sell 
nowhere near the number of games that Valve does, and Steam is turning 
the PC into Valve's own walled garden. 

The company 
has a virtual monopoly on the discoverability and community aspects of 
gaming, such as social networks, gifting, modding, multiplayer and 
promotion. Having this much power concentrated in one spot can't be good
 for the consumer, can it? 

These intimations of Valve
 becoming a monopoly don't worry Marshall. "Having a monopoly isn't 
necessarily a bad thing - when all the systems at play work well 
together, a monopoly can be pretty damned useful for the end user. If I 
organise a meeting over Gmail, it's automatically put into my Google 
Calendar, and my Nexus 7 tells me what the weather's going to be like 
when I get there. It's brilliant! Anyone who's tried to use iTunes on 
Windows can tell you that having more than one set of fingers jabbing at
 a service can really mess it up." 

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/PCF277.feat3.origin_alternative-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Origin" width="420" title="EA and Ubisoft recently agreed to sell 
each other's games in their own 
eShops"></img>

Similarly, anyone trying to 
construct a replacement Steam will understand why one company 
controlling everything isn't always a bad thing. Admittedly, Valve 
doesn't quite have a monopoly over the PC gaming market, but it's very 
close. 

To have a real monopoly a company needs to 
control the price of its products, and it needs to have a significant, 
relevant market share so that consumers have no choice but to buy its 
product. Regarding market share, anecdotal evidence from developers has 
Steam selling more than 10 times the rest of digital retail put 
together. Yet consumers are still price-mobile; if they find a game 
cheaper elsewhere than it is on Steam (such as a developer's own site), 
they can buy it there. 

However, consumers mostly 
don't as the other facets of Steam - community, fast downloads, 
auto-patching, mods, easy DLC and so on - mean a discount isn't as 
valuable as it seems relative to the functionality that's been lost. 
Moreover, games are often cheaper on Steam - especially older ones. 


So Steam has pretty near 100 per cent of the market 
for PC gamers, but is it controlling prices? No, it's not. As far as we 
can tell, it takes a percentage of all revenues, altered depending on 
the developer's leverage - Activision gives less, an indie would give 
more. 

The price is set by the developer or publisher 
of the game, unlike, say Microsoft's XBLA with its set price points ($5,
 $10 or $20), or Amazon, which once forced certain developers to give 
their apps away for free on its marketplace. 

Valve 
itself says: "Pricing is very title specific, and we've got a lot of 
data and experience to help you decide on what the best price is for 
your title. We'll work with you to figure out pricing." This means we 
can't classify Steam as a monopoly until it has price controls. Is there
 really a threat here? 

On the next page: what if Gabe
 Newell leaves?
<h3>
What would Valve be like without 
Gabe?</h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/PCF277.feat3.gabe-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Gabe Newel" width="420"></img>

Well, 
yes. What happens if the ownership moves to someone... evil? Valve is 
owned privately, mainly by one man: the angelic Gabe Newell. A one-time 
producer on "the first three versions of Windows", Newell was one of 
approximately 12,000 early Microsoft employees who cashed out their 
stock options in 1996, after they'd increased in value a hundredfold. 
Newell is rumoured to have walked away with half a billion 
dollars.

 It was he and fellow Windows programmer Mike
 Harrington who, with the encouragement of id's John Carmack and Michael
 Abrash, decided it was time for a new, clever PC gaming company and put
 their windfall money into founding Valve in 1996. Harrington sold out 
in 2000, leaving Gabe in sole control of the company.

 If Gabe Newell sells out or passes away, or is forced into a sale by 
legal action or personal financial problems, this might happen (though 
the latter is unlikely, given his $1.5bn fortune). 


We've seen companies sell out that we never thought 
would, that seemed financially secure - id Software, BioWare and 
Bullfrog, for example. There's no reason to think Valve couldn't go that
 way too. 

So how would an Evil Steam change its 
behaviour on price? Well, the company has most developers (especially 
indies) over a barrel, so it's likely it would renegotiate profit shares
 with them and probably also renegotiate control over price. 


Once Steam can alter the price of products, it can 
raise prices as-and-when to maximise its profits, even at the expense of
 developers. It might also mean more regional inequality, more 
incidental charges, and more price-gouging in other areas - but that's 
unlikely because Valve knows how vocal its community is and how fast 
they'll move if there are problems. The developers are the ones who will
 lose out as they can't afford to move away. 
<h3>
More 
evil options</h3>

How else could Valve be evil? Could it 
introduce DRM? Well, Steam already has that, in the form of its 
always-on connection; you can play in an offline mode, but the tech is 
old, clunky and requires setting up. You can't play your games on more 
than one computer at the same time. 

Is it silly to be
 scared of losing access to all our games? Well, software developers do 
change their terms of service. Ask anyone who bought the original 
Guardian iOS app, which promised unlimited access to the Guardian for 
ever, for just £1.49. This was far too good a deal and the Guardian 
discontinued it a year later. 

Valve is extremely 
unlikely to do this, but if it goes bust, as unlikely as that is, we 
will lose access to all those games we think we own. At least 
Direct2Drive and Good Old Games give you the entire DRM-free installer 
for any game you buy from them. Steam games simply won't work without 
that always-on connection. 

Barring technical 
problems, or the closure of Valve itself, legally we shouldn't lose 
access to our games, as the EU is on our side. The courts of the 
European Union ruled in July last year that software was a product, not a
 service, that reselling properly purchased software is a legitimate 
business, and that the original company (Valve, in this case) has the 
same duty of service to the owner of second-hand games as new ones. 


When Valve tried to change its terms of service to 
prevent end-users starting class-action lawsuits (presumably to prevent 
any such lawsuit about the transfer of games between users), the EU 
ordered it to change back. 

Meanwhile, the way Steam 
links games to accounts and prohibits the sale of accounts, precludes 
any ability to sell games on - despite the tech being trivial for Valve 
itself (as evinced by the ability to 'gift' games on the system). 


While I was writing this piece, a German consumer 
rights agency instigated legal action against Valve because of this. 
Simply put, in terms of consumer rights as dictated by the normally 
business-friendly courts, Valve is already acting like it's evil. This 
highlights that the real problem with the Evil Valve concept isn't that 
it's unlikely - it's that it wouldn't make that much difference to the 
end user, because Evil Valve is not Stupid Valve. 


Today's Valve isn't Saintly Valve either - it's much 
more human. It simply isn't going to do anything that threatens its 
ability to do what it wants to: make and evangelise great games. 
Developers would see their Steam profits diminish, but the external 
market is fairly healthy these days, and Valve is still the best place 
to market PC games of any type. 

How would an Evil 
Valve affect the Steam Box? Well, some games might end up as Steam Box 
exclusives - for example, big-name indie games or Valve's own titles. At
 the moment, Valve says: 

"We think you should get 
your game in front of as many people as you can, therefore we do not 
require exclusivity on titles." Again, making any games Steam Box 
exclusives is unlikely, as it would damage the most profitable part of 
the business and doesn't fit with Steam as a platform-agnostic system. 


It might be that Valve behaves more like a business, 
forcing developers who want to be on Steam to support the Steam Box's 
biometrics, but, again, this would be good for consumers. 

<h3>
Goody two shoes </h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/PCF277.feat3.xi3_piston_09-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Steam box" width="420" title="Whatever the Steam Box ends up 
looking like, it'll be 
interesting"></img>

Despite our worries, 
we're aware that this is rampant speculation. We expect that Gabe, one 
of the cleverest, wisest men in computing, has put elements in place so 
that Valve continues once he's gone. 

The team he'll 
leave behind, through strict hiring policies and a flat internal 
hierarchy, is the most creative, well-intentioned and talented anywhere 
in games. When Chet Faliszek, one of Valve's writers, tells us that "I 
hear, see, and speak no evil," we're inclined to believe him. 


So what future do we really see for Valve? Well, we 
think the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/valve-steam-box-release-date-news-and-features-1127072">Steam
 Boxes</a> will be extremely disruptive - particularly the 
mid-range 'Better' Box, which will act as a replacement for the next-gen
 consoles (PS4 and Xbox 720). 
<ul>
<li><a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/valve-steam-box-release-date-news-and-features-1127072">Valve
 Steam Box release date, news and 
features</a></li>
</ul>

Looking at how Steam 
has progressed from something that had us all digitally queuing for two 
days to play Half-Life 2 to an ultra-efficient free
 gaming platform that's the fourth biggest consumer of data in the 
world, we know that when Valve tries something, it might not be right 
first time, but it will be polished until it's perfect. And it will 
listen to its users while it works on it. 

Given its 
record, we expect their eventual reveal of its future tech and 
Half-Life 3 will go hand-in-hand and will be truly 
stunning - but we won't see it until it's ready, and it won't be hurried
 by anyone. 
<h3>
Dystopian endgame 1 
</h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/PCF277.feat3.boxout1-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Endgame 1" width="420" title="One of the best things to come out 
of the mod scene? We think so..."></img>

The 
Warcraft games, affectionate knockoffs of Command & 
Conquer and Warhammer, had a certain 
goofy charm. But the jump from these simple strategy titles to the 
world's biggest-ever game, World of Warcraft, was a
 strange psychological leap for everyone except my editor. Yet the next 
leap will addle even my editor's super-brain. 

Our 
next dystopian PC gaming future is that many of the next big games will 
be based on the old Warcraft III map, 
Defense of the Ancients - and that they'll all be 
free. This is a bit of a late prediction, to be fair. All the existing 
giant MOBAs have already been based on this map - 
Demigod, Bloodline Champions, 
League of Legends, Blizzard: 
All-Stars and DotA 2, with the latter 
three actually matching the map's layout exactly.

 
It's not just MOBAs. Whispers inside the big strategy game franchises 
say that they're looking at MOBA versions of their games too - and given
 the relative simplicity and familiarity of the MOBA model (each player 
controlling one character, working in teams), we wouldn't be surprised 
to see elements of it cropping up in the multiplayer modes of other 
games. Bank on at least one blockbuster FPS franchise having something 
akin to MOBA in its next incarnation. 
<h3>
Dystopian 
endgame 2 </h3>

<img 
src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/magazines/PC%20Format/Issue%20277/PCF277.feat3.farmville-420-100.jpg"
 alt="Farmville" width="420"></img>

This 
might sound like a utopia, but the best dystopias always do. Currently, 
games are becoming pervasive; it's well known that the average gamer 
these days is a 40-year old mother of two. Facebook took games to the 
masses, but they got bored of FarmVille fast, and 
moved on. 

My hairdresser is a grandmother in her late
 50s, but she plays Diablo III and World 
of Warcraft in between cutting heads. At the other end, 
gamification is being used by large corporations to manage their staff. 
Games will be everywhere. 

"But," you cry, in your 
rich baritone, "we'll still want to play on PC!" We've talked before 
about the new game-streaming tech and how it's just waiting for network 
speeds to be fast enough; why play on PC, when you can play anywhere? 


More importantly than that, tablets are already 
running at higher resolutions than most PC monitors, are approaching the
 speeds of desktops and are cheaper as well (as they've mostly disposed 
of the bloatware that is Windows). What remaining advantages will a PC 
have when other devices are faster, are easier to use and have a wider 
range of games on them?

Notably, Gabe Newell himself 
is sceptical of this dystopia, as he said in his keynote speech at the 
recent DICE conference. "Cloud gaming works until it starts to be 
successful - at which point, it falls over. All the spreadsheets ignore 
the producing levels that consumer networks use. When everyone starts 
using a continuous network connection in order to get their 
applications, prices are going to go through the 
roof."

 Essentially, because networks can't deal with 
this traffic, streaming tech will never work. Newell's solution is 
familiar to Microsoft Media Center users: a PC in the home, streaming to
 all devices over a local network. "I think there's a place for cloud 
gaming, but more as a feature or for things like demos and spectating. 
But not as core architecture." 
<h3>
Dystopian endgame 3 
</h3>

Remember prohibition? Probably not first-hand, so 
let us recap for you. In the 1920s, America banned alcohol as a highly 
addictive anti-social substance, with the support of the vast majority 
of the population, but oddly against the wishes of a substantial 
minority of non-drinkers. If games are shown to be clinically 
problematic, gamers could face a similar fate. 

The 
mechanism for this may come from the next DSM - the American Psychiatric
 Association's classification tool for mental illness. The latest DSM-5 
(just released as a draft) says that more research is needed on games 
addiction, but the next one will likely include recent studies showing 
that internet usage and video games (particularly online gaming) are 
highly addictive, on a level comparable to cocaine, amphetamines and 
such like.

 If games are shown to be addictive in this
 way, we predict that legislators will make access to them more limited,
 especially to children. Would you let your child use something that's 
been proved to be highly addictive, even as a gamer yourself? 


Like cigarettes and alcohol, a balance will be 
struck, with age ratings on games taking into account not just moral 
issues (sex and violence), but also the likelihood of addiction. Game 
developers, especially those developing for children, will have to think
 much harder about how to avoid compulsion-based gaming mechanics if 
they want younger players to be allowed to play their games. 


Online games in particular have already been tarred 
with names like EverCrack and implicated in deaths,
 crime and murder. It's most likely that these will face the heaviest 
brunt of any future regulation. 
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height="1" width="1"/> <a 
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 More ...</a><hr>
 
Twitter lands 'pull to refresh' patent but says it won't chase 
the copycats <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/other/Onetimers/twitter-app-update-android-news-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Twitter lands 'pull to refresh' patent but says it won't chase the
 copycats"/>
Twitter has been granted a patent for its "pull 
to refresh" feature. That's right, the one that everyone else already 
uses anyway.

It will be the first feature to utilise 
Twitter's Innovators Patent Agreement (IPA), announced last year, which 
means that any features designed by developers working for Twitter will 
stay in their hands.

Loren Brichter's "pull to 
refresh" feature is the first to get the IPA treatment, which was built 
into Tweetie, the Twitter app that was acquired by the company in 2010 
and used as the official client. 

But the agreement 
states that Twitter will only act on the <a 
href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,448,084.PN.&OS=PN/8,448,084&RS=PN/8,448,084">patent</a>
 for "defensive purposes", which means that it won't aggressively pursue
 anyone who has replicated the feature.
<h3>
Innovate not 
decimate</h3>

Twitter has taken this non-aggressive stance
 in the name of innovation, and assumedly not to waste loads of money in
 fruitless patent lawsuits. 

"This is a significant 
departure from the current state of affairs in the industry," said 
Twitter's VP of engineering Adam Messinger when the IPA was announced 
last year.

"With the IPA, employees can be assured 
that their patents will be used only as a shield rather than as a 
weapon."
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LG Optimus F3 leak reveals 4G speed in low-end 
handset <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/mobile_phones/LG/LGOptimusF3/Leaks/OptimusF3-LEAK-01-470-75.jpg"
 alt="LG Optimus F3 leak reveals 4G speed in low-end 
handset"/>
It looks like LG's latest range of smartphones is 
going to become a trio as details leak on the LG Optimus 
F3.

The <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/lg-optimus-f7-1133181/review">Optimus
 F7</a> and Optimus F5 handsets were launched at MWC back in 
February, offering <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/4g-and-lte-everything-you-need-to-know-926835">4G</a>
 capabilities to the mid-range mobile market, and coming in at a higher 
level than the firm's <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/giddy-lg-announces-mwc-2013-line-up-ahead-of-show-1130755">rebooted
 L-series trio</a>.

A photo of the Optimus F3 
handset appeared alongside a smattering of specs on the <a 
href="https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/336797967937847296">@evleaks</a>
 Twitter account - a source which is often on the money when it comes to
 these sort of things.

According to the report the LG 
Optimus F3 will sport a 4.0-inch WVGA display, dual-core processor, 
<a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/android-jelly-bean-1087230/review">Android
 Jelly Bean</a> and a sizable 2,460mAh 
battery.
<h3>
You little 
ripper!</h3>

There's nothing particularly ground breaking 
there apart from that battery, but the real selling point is the fact 
the F3 comes LTE enabled, allowing users to access super fast data 
speeds on what is being billed as "aggressively priced" 
contracts.

If the Optimus F3 has begun to whet your 
appetite then hold on a minute, put down that fork, as it looks like LG 
is lining it up for the Australian market in the next few weeks, with no
 word on global availability.

We've contacted LG 
regarding the Optimus F3 and we'll update this article if we hear 
anything.
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Vimeo and Flickr could be integrated in iOS 
7 <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/other/Onetimers/iOS_icons-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Vimeo and Flickr could be integrated in iOS 
7"/>
Reports have surfaced that Flickr and Vimeo will be 
deeply integrated into <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/ios-7-12-things-we-want-to-see-1111123">iOS
 7</a>, after deals were struck between the respective companies 
and Apple.

<a 
href="http://9to5mac.com/2013/05/21/flickr-vimeo-integration-likely-to-bolster-social-ties-in-ios-7/">9to5Mac</a>
 claims that an unnamed source has confirmed deep integration of Flickr 
and Vimeo into iOS 7, allowing users to stay signed in using the 
dedicated Settings app in the same way current iOS users can with 
Facebook and Twitter. 

With Flickr and Vimeo 
integration users will be able to upload their videos and pictures 
directly to the social networking sites without having to fire up 
official apps.

The report also suggests that Yahoo 
bosses were in talks with Apple recently as it looked to expose its 
services to new users – especially since Twitter received a 25% boost in
 signups after its iOS 5 integration. 
<h3>
 Security, 
escort this app out please</h3>

The integration of Vimeo, 
and Apple's attempt at its own mapping service, suggests a clear shift 
towards services that aren't powered by Google for iOS 7. 


It's a mutually beneficial tactic as Vimeo and the 
Yahoo-owned Flickr can challenge other, more established, services by 
getting direct access to Apple's huge worldwide user base, but will it 
be enough?
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Updated: Xbox One release date and price: where can I get 
it? <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/events/Xbox%20reveal%20May%2021%202013/xboxone%206-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Updated: Xbox One release date and price: where can I get 
it?"/>
The <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/xbox-720-release-date-news-and-rumours-937167">Xbox
 One</a> has been unveiled, described by Microsoft as "the 
ultimate all-in-one entertainment system - one system for a new 
generation."

You can check out a full round-up of 
everything you need to know about the Xbox One <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/xbox-720-release-date-news-and-rumours-937167">here</a>,
 and also how it compares to the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/ps4-vs-xbox-720-which-is-better-1127315">PS4</a>
 while you're at it.

As for release date, Microsoft 
says the console will be released "later this year", but we expect it to
 offer something more concrete at E3 in just a few weeks. 


Of course, a few places are already taking 
pre-orders. Before the launch, a $500 (about £330, AU$510) was rumoured,
 however retailers are currently positing the console's price will be 
£400, which is around what we 
expected.
<h3>
Zavvi</h3>

Zavvi has the 
console listed on its <a 
href="http://www.zavvi.com/shops/xbox.list?s=xbox+one">site</a>
 for pre-order at £399.99. We've contact the online retailer again to 
check whether this is just an estimate or an actual RRP set by 
Microsoft, and will update as soon as we get 
confirmation.

The site has a release date set as 
November 30, though again this could just be Zavvi taking a wild stab in
 the dark right.

Interestingly, Zavvi's also priced 
all the games announced so far for the Xbox One at £49.99. Again, we 
wouldn't bet on this being fact until we get some more solid 
confirmation.
<h3>
Blockbuster</h3>

BlockBuster
 was the first to kick off pre-orders <a 
href="http://www.blockbuster.co.uk/buy/xbox-360/new-xbox.aspx">on its
 site</a> - almost as soon as the Xbox One was revealed. You'll 
need to put down a £20 deposit, but that's not all that bad if the £400 
price tag is to be 
believed.
<h3>
Game</h3>

Game is also taking
 pre-orders <a 
href="http://xboxnews.game.co.uk/?cm_mmc=Twitter-_-Digital-_-GAMEXboxNews-_-Link">on
 its site</a> also with a £20 deposit - and in stores starting May
 22 (that's today).

We were told by a Game 
representative that it had not received a price from Microsoft, meaning 
it's quite unlikely that Zavvi's price-tagging is anything 
official.
<h3>
Amazon</h3>

Amazon meanwhile 
just has its <a 
href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Xbox-One-Console/dp/B00BE4OUBG/ref=sr_tr_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369213082&sr=8-1&keywords=xbox+one">"pre-order
 notifications" page</a> up for the console, with no sign of 
pricing or release date just 
yet.
<h3>
ShopTo</h3>

You can also put down a
 pre-order over on <a 
href="http://www.shopto.net/microsite/xbox_one">ShopTo</a>, and
 this one's completely free of charge. The company told us it had also 
not received any RRP from Microsoft as of yet, and will not be putting 
up a price until it gets one.
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src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/165664707437/u/49/f/9809/c/669/s/2c38569f/kg/355/a2.img"
 border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" 
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height="1" width="1"/> <a 
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 More ...</a><hr>
 
Chrome team bringing app launcher love to 
Mac <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/laptops/Chrome_App_Lancher_Mac-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Chrome team bringing app launcher love to Mac"/>
We've 
known for some time that Google has been looking to bring some of its 
<a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/new-chrome-os-1082513/review">Chrome
 OS</a> features to other operating systems, and now new 
information all-but-confirms that a Mac version of the Chrome OS app 
launcher is on its way.

The leak came from Chrome 
engineer François Beaufort, who also provided a picture and a link to a 
beta version that's ready to trial. You will, however, need to download 
at least one app from the Chrome web store to get it 
running.

Google wants to emulate the experience of 
Chromebooks on other machines using the launcher, which lists all of 
your web apps in one convenient place.
<h3>
Hush 
hush</h3>

The Chrome OS platform runs web apps instead of 
traditional programs, which makes the app launcher an integral part of 
the Chrome experience. 

Instead of having to enter 
Chrome to execute app functions, the launcher opens the apps into a 
separate window. Currently there's no word on a launch date and Beaufort
 didn't offer up any other teasers.

It is likely, 
however, that Google will release the app launcher with Chrome 28 and 
Chrome 29, both of which are heading our way soon. 
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 More ...</a><hr>
 
Samsung to own part of rival Pantech, world domination to 
follow? <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/mobile_phones/OneTime/PantechSamsung-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Samsung to own part of rival Pantech, world domination to 
follow?"/>
<a 
href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/techscience/2013/05/22/2/0601000000AEN20130522005400320F.HTML">Korean
 news outlets</a> are reporting that manufacturing giant Samsung 
has decided to purchase a 10 per cent stake in rival smartphone firm 
Pantech, although its exact motives are currently 
unknown.

Pantech is the third largest handset 
manufacturer in Korea - after Samsung and LG - and the US$47.6 million 
(around £31 million/AU$48 million) deal has been billed as a way to 
"solidify bilateral cooperation in smartphone and other business areas".
 Whatever that means.

If the purchase does go through 
Samsung will become the third largest stake holder, with Qualcomm and 
the Korea Development Bank the two firms owning larger chunks of 
Pantech.
<h3>
Can you buy 
innovation?</h3>

Some are suggesting that Samsung is 
buying into Pantech due to the firm's innovative streak - all be it at a
 national level rather than worldwide.

Notable 
achievements from Pantech so far include the first handset to sport a 
dual-core processor, the first 5-inch smartphone and it was the first 
manufacturer to bring in full blown gesture recognition - something 
which Samsung has gone to town with on the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-s4-1137602/review">Galaxy
 S4</a>.

We reckon Samsung's intentions for its 
acquisition will become clearer in the next few months and this could be
 the catalyst to fuel the next round of mobile innovation - so watch 
this space.
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Big Tent: Miliband: 'Google does great things but it is wrong 
to avoid tax' <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/people/miliband-470-75.jpg" 
alt="Big Tent: Miliband: 'Google does great things but it is wrong to 
avoid tax'"/>
Labour leader Ed Miliband offered a damning 
indictment of Google's attitude to UK tax law at the US company's own 
Big Tent industry event this morning, while celebrating Google for its 
innovations. 

After praising Google's distribution of 
<a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-mac-desktops/raspberry-pi-512mb-1109637/review">Raspberry
 Pi</a> devices to schools and the open source nature of Android, 
he said: "Google does great things for the world, but when Google goes 
to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying its taxes, I say it's wrong. 
It's not just me, it's Google's founding principles." 


Miliband called for Google to obey the spirit of the 
law rather than the letter alone, and quoted Google's own original 
prospectus: "Don't be evil… [we should be] a company that does good 
things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains." 


He continued: "I can't be the only person in this 
room who feels deeply disappointed that a great company as Google should
 be reduced to arguing that even though it employs thousands of people 
in Britain, makes billions of pounds of revenue here in Britain, it's 
fair that it should pay just a fraction of one per cent in 
tax."

Miliband said he was also disappointed that Eric
 Schmidt, who is due at Big Tent this afternoon, was not there to 
witness his arguments.
<h3>
Is Google 
responsible?</h3>

Miliband had earlier talked about the 
differences between companies that help society and those which only 
serve themselves: "We face a choice, between an irresponsible 
capitalism, and a responsible capitalism where businesses are making 
profits but there is equality.

"The internet surely 
takes us to the responsible, not irresponsible, capitalism. The internet
 opens up opportunity. The internet is a powerful force [...] It 
connects people across the world, it creates global communities. Google 
has been at the forefront of this... 

"The internet 
can also give us irresponsible companies. It takes us to new vested 
interests. Those are big tensions that Government has to resolve. The 
behaviour we encourage, the culture we create, creates the future we 
have."

The UK leg of Google Big Tent is one of a 
series of annual events designed to showcase Google's positive influence
 on society for policy makers and other leaders, but the concept would 
appear to have backfired this time around. 

The theme 
of tax avoidance ran through the whole morning, with Channel 4's Jon 
Snow joking about it in the previous session about robotics. But given 
the recent focus on Google's tax arrangements (as well as those of 
Amazon, Starbucks and Apple) it was inevitable that the topic would come
 up. 

Miliband clearly sees tax as a key play against 
the Government in the face of David Cameron's commitment to discuss 
global tax regulation at the G8 summit in June. 

"The 
Government should be arguing for country by country transparency," added
 Miliband, who also promised that a Labour government would act on tax 
avoidance in the UK even if international action was not forthcoming. 

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Xbox One's next-gen Kinect is coming to 
Windows <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/games_consoles/Xbox%20One/Kinect%204%20Xbox%20One-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Xbox One's next-gen Kinect is coming to 
Windows"/>
<a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/xbox-720-release-date-news-and-rumours-937167">Xbox
 One</a> won't be the only one getting in on the next generation 
of motion-tracking – the new version of <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/new-kinect-is-rocket-science-level-stuff-says-microsoft-1151803">Kinect</a>
 will also be coming to Windows PCs.

Kinect Program 
Manager Scott Evans told <a 
href="https://www.shacknews.com/article/79307/kinect-for-xbox-one-coming-to-pc">Shacknews</a>
 that Microsoft "will bring [Kinect] to PC", adding that there will be 
more information "soon".

While a firmer date would be 
nice (though the omission is unsurprising as the new console hasn't even
 been given a release date) we now have confirmation from the horse's 
mouth that the general Xbox-Windows relationship will still be going 
strong on the One.
<h3>
Nice little 
gesture</h3>

While still good news, this isn't all that 
surprising; the current Kinect made its way to PC in early 2012, just 
over a year after its Xbox 360 release.

The new 
Kinect, however, has taken a serious step up over its predecessor. 
Simply saying "Xbox on" will now boot up the console, and if last 
night's demonstration was anything to go by, Kinect instantly responds 
to voice controls and motion gestures.

Microsoft says 
Kinect 2 detects motion in just 12 billionths of a second, while the 
sensor has a resolution of 1080p.
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 <a
 
href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/165664215871/u/49/f/9809/c/669/s/2c3faa17/kg/342-363/a2.htm"><img
 
src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/165664215871/u/49/f/9809/c/669/s/2c3faa17/kg/342-363/a2.img"
 border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" 
src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/165664215871/u/49/f/9809/c/669/s/2c3faa17/kg/342-363/a2t.img"
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height="1" width="1"/> <a 
href=http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/allnews/~3/P-CmWFuFCtg/story01.htm> Read
 More ...</a><hr>
 
Supersized Nokia smartphone could land next 
year <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/mobile_phones/Nokia/Lumia920/Press/Lumia920-Press-07-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Supersized Nokia smartphone could land next 
year"/>
More and more manufacturers are going down the 
oversized smartphone route and if the latest rumblings are to be 
believed Nokia isn't far behind.

Those notions, 
however, are coming from the incredibly hit and miss Taiwanese site 
Digitimes which claims its industry sources have revealed Nokia will 
release its first phablet in 2014.

The supersized 
phone market is growing with the likes of the <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-note-2-1093688/review">Samsung
 Galaxy Note 2</a>, <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/huawei-ascend-mate-1122575/review">Huawei
 Ascend Mate</a>, <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/lg-optimus-g-pro-1133182/review">LG
 Optimus G Pro</a> and <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/zte-grand-memo-1133188/review">ZTE
 Grand Memo</a> all sporting screens around the 6-inch 
mark.

For Nokia it would be an important space to 
break into as the Finnish firm seemingly has no interest in offering a 
full blown tablet device, so a 6-inch smartphone could be its key to 
continued growth and success.
<h3>
Is bigger 
better?</h3>

No further details were provided on Nokia's 
supposed larger-than-life device, but the sources did mention that 
Chinese manufacturer Huawei is already planning 
another.

Apparently a 6.5-inch smartphone is under 
development in China, and if so it would dwarf Huawei's current big 
screen offering with the Ascend Mate packing an already huge 6.1-inch 
display.

There's no word on a release date for this 
handset, and pricing for both still remains a mystery - as does the 
legitimacy of these rumours - so we'll keep an eye out for more 
information over the coming months.
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src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/165664215870/u/49/f/9809/c/669/s/2c3faa19/a2.img"
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height="1" width="1"/> <a 
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 More ...</a><hr>
 
Gold-plated Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry eyes up 25 solid 
gold suckers <img 
src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//art/mobile_phones/BlackBerry/BlackBerryP9981Gold-Press-0-470-75.jpg"
 alt="Gold-plated Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry eyes up 25 solid gold
 suckers"/>
If you've got more money than you can shake a 
diamond-encrusted stick at then BlackBerry and Porsche have the 
smartphone for you, in the form of the poorly named Porsche Design 
P'9981 Gold.

This special version of the P'9981 comes 
with a stainless steel case which is covered in a layer of titanium and 
then coated in 24-carat gold.

The limited edition 
number (there are only 25 of these bad boys up for grabs) is engraved on
 a slab of 24-carat gold which is stuck on the back of the handset, and 
will be available to buy from select Porsche Design stores this 
June.
<h3>
More than a pretty penny</h3>

In 
terms of cost, BlackBerry is keeping quiet for the time being, but we're
 bracing ourselves for a big, big figure - something which could 
potentially put Vertu's smartphones to shame. The <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/rim-unveils-pricey-porsche-designed-blackberry-p-9981-1037140">standard
 version</a> will currently set you back around £1,250 (AU$1,930, 
US$1,890), and that has no gold on it.

Aside from the 
price there's some more bad news as the Design P'9981 Gold won't be 
running BlackBerry's latest <a 
href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/blackberry-10-1090522/review">BB10</a>
 operating system, with affluent suitors forced to back do with the now 
ancient BB OS7.1 platform.

The rest of the specs look 
set to be equally disappointing as we expect the Gold edition to sport 
the same 2.8-inch touchscreen, 1.2GHz processor, 768MB of RAM, 8GB of 
internal storage and 5MP camera of its less bling-laden 
predecessor.
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Thursday, May 23, 2013

IT News Head Lines (Techradar) 24/05/2013

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