Hands-on review: Updated: Samsung Galaxy Note 4
Design, display and the S Pen
Back in 2011, Samsung decided that bigger was better and launched the Samsung Galaxy Note which came with a 5.3-inch screen. At the time, this screen was a massive talking point: many thought it was too large to be a phone, others thought it was too compact to be a tablet.Skip three years and that 5.3-inch screen no longer looks out of place in the phone market. Given that the Samsung Galaxy S5 comes with a 5.1-inch screen, it's clear to see the line between what was once classed as a phablet and what is now expected as a phone has well and truly blurred.
While this hasn't stopped Samsung pushing out the size boat - the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 came equipped with a 5.7-inch screen - it seems Samsung has finally put on hold the size creep.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 comes with the same-sized 5.7-inch screen as the Note 3, with Samsung instead deciding to improve on the quality of the screen rather than its size.
You can now pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 now, before its delayed release in the UK and some other regions on October 17.
It's not cheap though. If you fancy getting hold of a SIM-free Galaxy Note 4 you'll have to part with over £600 (around $840, AU$960), while on contract in the UK a free handset will see you shell out at least £43 per month for two years.
Screen quality
The screen now boasts Quad HD Super AMOLED (2,560 x 1,440 resolution) technology that stretches to 500 pixels per inch. Couple this with what Samsung is calling an adaptive display - one that changes depending on the light of the place you are viewing the screen - and on paper you have the optimum viewing no matter what situation you are in.Get a better look of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 with our hands on video:
To test the quality of the screen I watched a video that was shot in UHD on the device and it was stunning. Colours were vivid and detail popped out with the clarity you would expect from a 500ppi screen. Even zooming in there were no jagged edges and playback was smooth - no judder from the demo I viewed.
But the screen isn't the first thing that hits you when you get the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 in your hands, it's the build quality.
Design
Samsung has definitely listened about its latest line-up feeling plastic-y in the hand and has decided to give the Note 4 more of a premium finish, with a metal rim surrounding the handset, shielding the rest of the chassis like a velvet rope protecting celebs from real people in a club.I love the way the Galaxy Note 4 feels in the hand and being a regular user of the Note 3, it definitely felt different enough and it's light too, just a touch over the weight of the Note 3 at 176g.
It's obvious but the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 does come equipped with some of the features that we saw on the S5.
The most notable is the heartrate monitor on the back (which also has a neat camera functionality I will explain shortly) and the back has been improved somewhat too, but is still a little too faux leather for my liking.
There is a lot of similarity between the Note 3 and its successor. Size difference between the two chassis is definitely negligible - the Note 4 comes it at 153.5 x 78.6 x 8.5mm, compared to the Note 3's 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3mm size.
It's clear Samsung hasn't re-invented the Note range but refined it with clever software updates and slight tweaks here and there.
S Pen
One of the most impressive is to do with the S Pen. It surprised me that the stylus (sorry Samsung, I know you hate that word) made a comeback with the Note range but four devices in and the S Pen finally makes a lot more sense.For a start there are two new pen options: fountain and caligraphy. Of these, fountain is the most interesting as it shows off how far the S Pen has come in terms of usability. Until now, using the S Pen has felt a lot like gliding a piece of plastic over a glass screen.
The "feel" of writing on paper just hasn't been there. With the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 this has changed.
The fountain pen works best when you sweep the S Pen across the screen as you would ink on paper and because of extra sensitivity (which has doubled) it is now a joy to write on the Note 4's screen. Signatures look like signatures and your handwriting actually really looks like your true handwriting.
I'm left handed and the S Pen was still a joy to use. Considering I have never been able to use a fountain pen in real life, because of smudging, it was great fun.
And the innovations don't end there. Now you can use the S Pen much like you would use a mouse. Click the button on the side of the S Pen and you are in Smart Select mode, where you can highlight whole passages of text from a website, or even clip out sections of a site and put it into your own clippings archive.
Instead of being an added extra, the S Pen finally feels like a necessary part of the Note 4, rather than a "this is fun but I have no use for it" accessory.
Snap mode has also been improved on the Note 4. While you used to just be able to snap two separate services to the top and the bottom of the screen, you can now "resize" an app much like you would a widget.
So, if you are using the camera and want to send an image via text but stay in camera mode, a quick diagonal down swipe from the top right of the screen will shrink the camera function and show the rest of the phone screen for you. It's a nice feature that could replace using the left multi-tab hot key for many.
You can also make use of the new 'floating UI' which offers Facebook Chat Heads style pop ups on the screen for certain apps.
Camera, performance, battery and early verdict
Camera
One other big improvement is with the camera. When it comes to megapixels it's gone from 13MP to 16MP but the innovations don't lie in the meaningless megapixel chase but also in the front camera's f stop (megapixel wise this is 3.7MP), which now clocks in at f1.9.In old money that means that the camera now lets in 60% more light and makes for better quality images.
This also comes with the added bonus of optical image stabilisation.
You can also use the camera in unison with the S Pen. A new feature called Snap Note allows you to take a picture of a piece of paper (or whiteboard) and change what's in the picture.
Although I didn't try this out myself, the demo I was shown consisted of a piece of paper with a number of images and text on it.
A picture was taken of this, put through Snap Note and then the colour and size of the images could be changed, text could be deleted and the size of objects could be increased. It's a niche new feature but one that could come in useful in a creative environment.
The way you can take pictures has changed too. With the whole world going selfie mad, it was inevitable that Samsung (and plenty more manufacturers) would want to cash in on this. It has done it twofold with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4.
First there is a selfie panorama mode. Much like the panorama mode seen on the Note 3, where a picture is stitched from images taken from a pan of a scene, the same thing happens in this mode - except it is in portrait and uses the front-facing camera.
Samsung is quoting 120 degrees spatial awareness and after having a go with it I am not going to argue about such a figure.
Samsung has also recognised that if you want to take a selfie, then it is a little difficult to get your thumb around to the front of the device to take the picture. So it has utilised its heartrate monitor functionality as a back trigger button.
One tap on this and your selfie is preserved. It's not a feature I will be using much but given the sudden popularity of taking pictures of your own face in different places it will be a feature that is used a lot.
Performance and battery
Samsung's improved the Note 4's mic performance too. Voice recording is something that won't be used for all but the Note is a device built for business and this feature will be welcomed.There are now three mics on the handset (two at the bottom and one on the top), these are used well when recording voices.
In a crowded room you can zoom into one voice and cut the rest out. This journalist is already salivating at the prospect of interviewing someone and playing back the interview without hearing his own voice. It's a clever feature but one that may be overlooked by many.
As for the speed of the device, it was fast. I managed to zip between apps and internet with no lag at all and it didn't break a sweat when loading up a movie. But that's exactly what you'd expect with a 2.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor and 3GB of RAM under the hood.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is a premium-looking device that will be familiar to anyone who has used a Note. Don't expect huge changes here - you still get a ribbed plastic back, although it's more in keeping with the S5's style.
That was the phone that propelled Samsung into the AAA league of smartphone manufacturers and the Note 4 on first hands on feels like it will be a worthy addition to the Note range.
When it comes to the all-important battery, Samsung has given the Note 4 the same battery as the Note 3 (3200mAh) but it has improved charging times. You can now charge 50% of the battery in just 30 minutes and it has the same ultra-power saving technology that was built into the S5.
Early verdict
It is big and it is clever: the Galaxy Note 4 looks to be Samsung's best Note yet, toning down the gimmick and adding real innovation to what is becoming one of the best phone ranges around.The biggest relief is that the software changes are innovations rather than annoying bloatware. Samsung does have a habit of adding gimmickry to its handsets but the big changes here are actually beneficial to how you use the Note.
Hands on gallery
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Week in Gaming: We gear up for Assassin's Creed Unity and Uncharted 4, Hotline Miami 2 puts us on hold
We're going to mention this once and one only: Alien Isolation is now out, and if you haven't already got it then you need to ask yourself "what the hell is wrong with me?", read this, then go get. Then come back, thank us, and read the rest of Week in Gaming. Kapish? Good.
On hold
Sorry to kick off with a bit of a downer, but we thought you should know that Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number has been delayed to late 2014/early 2015.Developer Dennaton Games announced this week over Twitter that the game is still getting "some final tweaks and polish". Which probably translates as: more blood.
We loved the first Hotline Miami, which combined fast-paced, addictive gameplay, neon-baked ultraviolence, and a thumping electronic soundtrack. It feels like we've been waiting for Hotline Miami 2 for ages, but we suppose a few extra months can't hurt.
Especially as we're promised that the second game will include a level editor, which will let us build and share our own tiny labyrinths of depravity.
A Thief's End
Uncharted 4 was confirmed for a 2015 release back at E3, but we've seen and heard very little about the project ever since. However, Naughty Dog has revealed that we could be in for a proper reveal very soon."It's coming along nicely," the studio's co-president Evan Wells recently told GameCrate. "We've been hard at work since E3 and all I can say is that we'll be having some stuff to show you very soon."
The game stars an older, Dark-Knight-Returns-esque Nathan Drake, who's been . But of course, just when he thought he was out, they pull him back in. Some blurry photos of some soon-to-be-released concept art surfaced earlier in the month. The book, which looks set to celebrate the studio's 30th birthday, opens with an introduction:
"We haven't revealed a great deal about the game just yet, but in the following pages we are sharing some never-before-released pieces of concept art from Drake's upcoming adventure.
"We're not going to spoil it for you, but rest assured: he and his companions will be traveling the globe again discovering secrets lost to history-and you might even discover some secrets about Drake himself."
A tale of one very gory city
We recently got to enjoy several very intimate hours with Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Unity, which is set to be the first proper next-addition to the series.In case you hadn't already heard, it's set in French Revolution-era Paris, which feels incredibly befitting for the franchise. In fact, we couldn't help but wonder why it's taken taken so long for the series to get here.
Unity is the biggest and more gory entry in the franchise yet, but one that also goes back to many of the fundamental basics of the series. Ubi also told us that keeping the game down the 30fps was largely to remain a "cinematic" feel, adding that hitting 60 would have been a lot of hard work for little gain.
You can read our in-depth look at Unity here.
Oh, and finally, remember IllumiRoom, Microsoft's massive augmented reality gaming experience? Well it's back and under the new name of RoomAlive.
Unfortunately it's still a proof-of-concept idea, so it won't be coming to a living room near you any time soon. But maybe if you project the video below onto a wall, you can sort of pretend it's a thing.
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In Depth: What ever happened to...? 10 cool bits of tech that disappeared
Missing Tech: 1 - 5
Remember Illumiroom? It was a Microsoft research project that was all about turning your bedroom or lounge into a gaming space, in the most literal sense. We saw it at CES 2013, but dismissed it as one of those quirky ideas that would never appear. Too expensive, too involved, too "out there".As it turns out, Illumiroom isn't dead. It has been reborn as RoomAlive. It uses projectors and Kinect-style sensors to turn your living room into a game environment. Heck, it might even get released in some form one day.
But it got us thinking about all those great bits of tech we've seen demoed over the years, the ones that never made it out of the labs and onto the shelves. Join us in having a look through the archives at the tech that never made it.
Or, at least, hasn't yet...
1. Advanced haptic feedback
Just about every time one of the top phones comes out, a new iPhone or a Galaxy S-whatever, rumours start circulating that it'll offer super-advanced haptic feedback. It's much more exciting than the vibrate you get with just about every phone.
It can make a surface feel as if it has a completely different texture, despite being completely flat. One of the most memorable demos we saw was the Senseg system from 2012. It sends small electrical impulses through your fingers to make like you're feeling various textures on normal glass.
Senseg even hinted that its tech might end up in the iPad three years ago, which of course turned out to be total nonsense.
While it would almost certainly come across as a total gimmick for the first year or so, this sort of touch could, in theory, enrich our mobile phone (and tablet) lives. Though we still reserve the right to rip it a new one when the Amazon Fire Phone 2 decides to use it as the cornerstone of its sell-in. But it's a pity we're yet to see it in a remotely mainstream device.
Will it be back? We haven't heard anything from Senseg in the last couple of years, and its Twitter account has been dormant since 2012. Someone else is going to have to take the baton, and at the moment it's in Fujitsu's hands, after showing off a haptic feedback tablet at MWC 2014.
2. Sega VR
If you think you're excited about virtual reality gaming with Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus you should have seen what it was like back in the 90s. VR was in and it seemed like the future. You could even see representations of it on TV, in the 90s programmes like Gamesmaster and Knightmare when they were still on TV (granted, the latter is actually more green screen than VR).
At one point it looked like we were going to get a real VR gaming experience too, with the Sega VR headset for/alongside the Sega Genesis (that's the Megadrive for UK readers). The plan was for it to have its own games, including some that were shown off at CES 1993.
In concept, it was very similar to the headsets we see in development today. It'd put screens in front of your eyes, and used sensors to track you head movements. So what went wrong?
The official line at the time was some guff about being worried about gamers' safety, about Sega VR being too realistic. Look back to the kind of graphics games had back in 1991-1994 though, when the being worked on, and you can only conclude they're telling porkies.
It seems likely that the Sega VR's LCD displays would be massively headache-and-nausea-inducing. Oculus Rift's LCD prototype caused such issues, and that's with 20 years of extra LCD screen development in the can too.
Binning the Sega VR was a sensible move, as Nintendo's Virtual Boy would demonstrate a few years later. Of course, it kind of marked a beginning of the end for Sega. A string of bad decisions meant it would never reach Sega Megadrive heights again. And before anyone says it, yes we know the Dreamcast was quite good.
Will it be back? Sega no longer has the corporate ego it had back in the early 90s. Its days of making console hardware are long gone. The closest you'll get is one of those licensed retro Megadrive handhelds. Still, Sega might end up making a VR game whe the Morpheus/Oculus are actually released.
3. Holograph glasses-free 3D TV
No-one cares about 3D anymore, but what if your TV could produce convincing 3D without the need for brightness-killing, crosstalk-causing glasses?
Glasses-free 3D has lost some of its lustre since everyone stopped wanting the third dimension in their TV screens, but it's still something we miss hearing about. A bit. We remember many demos from old CES shows, where you had to sit in an exact spot or the image would fracture into a headache hell. Those were most definitely not the days, but we do remember them.
The truth is that there are still glasses-free 3D TVs floating about, just not a lot of them. In early 2014, Philips showed-off a Lenticular-based 3D TV, comparable with the Parallax barrier tech used in the Nintendo 3DS.
Samsung also showed off a TV at CES 2014, in a 4K glasses-free concept that offers 30-plus positions where you can sit and see the 3D.
The one we'd really like to come back to, though, is an MIT project that popped up in 2012 – that of a Holograph projector. It popped up again in 2014 through MIT News, but we're sadly no closer to anything that Samsung or LG is going to snap up.
It uses existing LCD technology to produce a holograph-like effect that's quite different from the normal glasses-free 3D we've seen. Its projection-like form of display would, if we've understood it, get rid of the sweet spot issue of other forms of 3D.
Will it be back? The Holograph TV is, as far as we know, still being tinkered with. The question is whether it'll ever get out of the pHD lab and make its way into a commercial product. Our guess: not in its current form.
4. Panasonic's go at the phone market
Remember Panasonic's Android phones? No? Don't worry, we have trouble remembering too, and we actually tried them out back in 2012. It looked like Panasonic might finally sidle up to HTC and LG in the great struggle to chip a little off Samsung's market share.
These phones came with the usual grand launch, followed by not so much as a whimper. We reviewed the Eluga (and didn't like it all that much) but it never actually made it to the shelves of the local phone stores.
Panasonic was a bit ahead of its time, in being obsessed with waterproofing.
Little has been written about why the Panasonic Eluga range failed to break into the European market, but we assume it may have been as simple as all the networks responding with a resounding "nah, we're good. Thanks, though."
Without support from the phone networks, it's impossible for a phone to make it big. Or make it at all.
Panasonic Eluga may have been a response to the company's struggles in the TV market. Panasonic was master of plasma TVs from the time Pioneer bowed out the best part of a decade ago, but by 2012 it was clear plasmas were on the way out. Panasonic's share price has actually recovered after a pretty depressing low in late 2012, though, so it must be doing something right. Not making phones (outside Japan) may be part of it.
Will it be back? It seems unlikely that Panasonic will resurrect 'Eluga', but it is actually having another stab at the Android phone market. It announced the Panasonic CM1 just the other month at the Photokina conference. It's not jumping in with both feet this time, though.
Panasonic wants you to think of the CM1 as a camera that just happens to have woken up one day with the Android OS and the ability to take phone calls. Its 1-inch sensor could make the Panasonic CM1 the best phone camera to date, but we wouldn't be surprised if this one disappears straight into Room 101 like the Eluga. It's one of the most expensive phones around at around 700 Euro (about £552, US$888, AU$1014).
5. Android on your microwave
Back in the early days of Android, from 2008-2010, everyone was obsessed with putting the operating system into everything. Android in your toaster, Android in your fridge, Android in your… shower curtain? Maybe not that far.
The one that has always stuck in the mind, though, was Android in a microwave. We actually saw a few different prototypes of this in action, although, sadly, we're yet to see one of the things in store. Touch Revolution showed off the Android microwave at CES 2010. It was more-or-less a proof of concept. A "look at what we can do, isn't it neat?" cry for help/attention.
Looking at it now the Touch Revolution seems quaint, albeit still pretty handsome as microwaves go.
So why hasn't the Android dream house become a reality? Well, it was a pretty silly idea, wasn't it? Google has struggled enough with perfecting Android on tablets and phones over the last six years.
However, that could change. Android Wear offers a cut-down kind of interface using basic information and basic gestures that would fit in well around the home. Maybe my dream of an Android kettle could come true. No, wait, that was a nightmare.
Will it be back? Normal Android on a microwave? Nah, we're done with that fad. However, that Android's ecosystem is going to make its way further into our homes is a dead certainty. Google didn't buy Nest because it thinks the company's thermostat looks cool.
Missing tech: 6 - 10
6. Microsoft Surface, the one that was a table
Before the Microsoft Surface tablets there was a different Surface from Microsoft. It was massive, and trying to use one on your lap would make a good premise for an episode of some melodramatic medical drama.
It weighed 88.9kg and was a 30-inch touchscreen computer, in the years before everyone and their four year-old cousin had a tablet. It all seemed a bit Minority Report back in 2008 when it was released. For a bit of context, that was before the first Android phone was even available. Oh how different things were back then!
So what happened? Why is my dining table still unresponsive to my multi-touch gestures?
The Surface 1.0 was actually followed-up by the Samsung SUR40 in 2011, but by then the name had been changed to PixelSense. Is Microsoft just waiting for the right moment to release the 50-inch Surface tablet? Err, probably not, no.
The first Surface was, and its successor is, more of a demonstration tool than something normal people are meant to buy. It wasn't so much a demo of the future as a prop from a sci-fi marketing video.
Original Surface tables have the same sort of rarity cred as one of those old pac-man table machines these days. They're totes retro. But you can actually still buy the newer Samsung SUR40 model, for a cool £5k brand new.
Will it be back? The Microsoft Surface never really went away, it was just that we normal folk were never really the audience for the Surface 1.0. It's something to use in commercial presentations, to make us go "ooh" while looking at an animated bar chart in a Powerpoint presentation. That the current 40-inch 'Surface' model is lower-res than an iPad mini takes the shine off a bit, though. The future quickly becomes the past these days.
7. Atari Mindlink
Back in the 80s the future seemed so open. Video games in the home were still new, toddlers didn't have iPhones and home computers were fresh. And ridiculously expensive. The first Mac desktop was released in 1984, and cost about as much as a Mac Pro does today.
Also announced in the 1980s was the Atari Mindlink. It was a headband you'd wear to control computer games.
Like so many tech oddities, it was shown off at the CES tech show, in 1983, before fading rapidly into obscurity, never to actually be released to the public. When you actually learn a bit more about how it works, it's no great surprise.
You might assume it uses your brain signals to control the game, but you actually do it with your facial muscles. Work those eyebrows. It apparently gave people headaches within minutes – like a Virtual Boy without actually any VR payoff. There are obvious applications for people who don't have use of their hands, but the Mindlink was canned before those avenues were explored.
Will it be back? Fingers crossed, the Atari Mindlink is gone for good. Given Atari has Jaguar'd itself out of the games hardware market, it seems likely. However, there are now loads of comparable projects that use your eye movements or – yep – your brainwaves to control games, or interfaces.
8. The Apple game console
"Apple has made a games console". Say this convincingly enough outside an Apple Store and you'll get a few Apple fanboys quivering with excitement. The truth is that Apple has already made a game console. It was called the Pippin, and was released back in 1995. Back in the good old days when you could count the pixels and polygons used in character models.
Unfortunately it was pretty rubbish.
Rather than taking the approach of Sony and Nintendo (this was around the launch of the PlayStation) Apple looked to get developers to license the console, putting less of the responsibility on Apple's shoulders.
The console was licensed to Bandai, which made a machine that originally cost $650 (about £405, AU$747) in the US. That was twice the price of the Sony PlayStation, three times the cost of the Nintendo 64. Ouch.
It's no wonder no-one bought one, just like the Panasonic 3DO and Philips CD-i, a few other dismal failures that those sadly waving goodbye to their youth might remember.
Will it be back? There have been rumours about an Apple game console for years. But when it happens, it'll probably be a merging of products, rather than a brand new one. A new Apple TV box with support for iOS games? It seems possible, if not on the cards quite yet.
9. DigiScent iSmell
Smell-o-vision is one of those things you might assume is a joke until you hear it's real. Yep, it actually harks back to the early-ish days of cinema, in the early 1900s. Odours would be pumped into the auditorium via the seats to heighten the experience. God only know what Braindead would 'smell' like.
Guess what? No-one really liked it.
Not so hot on the heels of that steaming turd, in 2001 a couple of entrepreneurs thought that what the world needed was a sort of at-home smell-o-vision device. It's real. They made it. And they even raised $20 million in funding to make the whole thing possible.
And, yes, it really was called the iSmell.
The problem was obvious – why would you want something you could plug into a computer over USB to synthesise smells?
From an abstract perspective, though, the DigiScent iSmell it really quite an interesting bit of tech. It stores 128 core scents, which can then be blended together to make something more specific. Or, more likely, the vague sweet scent that reminds you of a Las Vegas casino.
Will it be back? DigiScent is gone, but there are plenty of other slightly wacky projects and startups that are looking at scent synthesis technology. We can't see any of them getting anywhere, but there are things out there to research if it appeals.
10. Colour ebook readers from Mirasol
E-ink has completely dominated the ereader market. It has been around since before Android existed but, aside from the lights you get with ebook readers like the Kindle Paperwhite, the tech is still recognisable as largely the same thing.
There was once another bright hope, though. Mirasol displays offer the same sort of battery benefits you get with e-ink, they don't consume much power when just displaying content, and offer reasonable colour too.
We've seen Mirasol ereaders demonstrated a fistful of times over several years, but the one device we've seen using the screen you can actually buy is the Qualcomm Toq smartwatch, which has a one inch screen. Not going to want to read a book on that, are you?
Mirasol was always a Qualcomm project, but the company has deemed the screen tech too hard to fit into a tablet or eReader on a large scale. The planned ereader was canned in 2012, and Qualcomm pulled out of producing the Mirasol displays itself in the same year.
The plan following that was apparently to license out the tech to other companies wanting to use Mirasol. We've not seen any Mirasol readers in the last two years, though, so that doesn't seem to have panned out.
Will it be back? There are several colour e-ink-style technologies out there, including colour e-ink, funnily enough. One day, we might see a colour Kindle. One day. However, there's a way to go as the technologies we've seen all look about as washed out as a watercolour painting blasted with a pressure hose.
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Round up: Best of TechRadar Pro: HP splits, Windows 10 reaction and women in tech
HP announces plans to split itself in two, cut 5,000 jobs...
Through a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Hewlett-Packard has revealed plans to split itself into two publicly trading companies, one focused on personal computers and printers and the other on enterprise hardware and services. The transition is expected to be completed by the end of 2015.
...should Microsoft follow eBay and HP by splitting up?
One company that didn't split up over the past month was Microsoft, despite repeated calls from investors, analysts and pundits over the past decade. The Microsoft of now is incredibly different from the Microsoft of the 80s and 90s which was a force to be reckoned with, creating and destroying industries and generating billions in revenue. Continue reading...
Windows 10 shows that Microsoft's getting back on track
During Microsoft's Windows 10 launch event yesterday, one thing became clear: Microsoft is absolutely desperate to banish the dual-interface confusion that made Windows 8 (though not so much Windows 8.1) a joke.
With the move to a more unified UI, I can't help but feel like Microsoft is turning a little against touch with this release – even if there are still numerous touch features present, but Windows 10 handles touch differently than Windows 8. Could Microsoft yet reveal a tablet version of Windows Phone 10? It's possible. Continue reading...
Microsoft tries to strike a balance for every kind of user
Yes, the Start menu is back. Yes, there are virtual desktops. No, the Charms bar hasn't gone away. And no, we don't know when Windows 10 will ship or what it will cost. But we've seen the technical preview of Windows 10 and the word to bear in mind for this release is productivity.
Microsoft's Joe Belfiore repeatedly emphasised that this is a very early build without even all the features that have been announced, and that there might be rough spots. We didn't see any problems in the time we had to try it out at Microsoft's San Francisco event, but what's clear is that there is plenty more to come. Continue reading...
Not on my watch: are businesses ready for wearable apps?
In spite of all the media attention that came with the Apple Watch launch last month, business adoption of wearable tech is still niche. IDC anticipates only 111.8 million wearable tech units worldwide by 2018.
However, business adoption of wearable devices offers obvious benefits for field service efficiency and lone worker safety by allowing employees to receive information and provide live feedback on their health and safety status, while leaving their hands free to work. Continue reading...
Women can't afford CEOs like Satya Nadella
Yesterday Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told a room full of women - at a conference dedicated to advancing women in the male-dominated tech industry no less - not to ask for a raise. He said "karma" and "trusting the system" will ensure that they are paid fairly.
That's coming from a man who will be making $18 million this year. Continue reading...
Can 4K video surveillance help the enterprise?
In a large company, the more you know about building security issues, the better. And this autumn, new 4K video technology will help the enterprise watch for intruders, monitor the premises, and even assist with court cases where a theft or break-in has occurred. No longer the purview of FIFA World Cup final match broadcasts and experimental streaming over Netflix, 4K has several distinct advantages in terms of video quality and resolution. Continue reading...
6 security threats more deadly than Heartbleed or Shellshock
Heartbleed and Shellshock are proving to be particularly heinous security threats. Heartbleed is an attack on the OpenSSL cryptography library on websites around the world, which exposes a vulnerability that's difficult to find and difficult to patch. According to AVG in a report last month, there are at least 12,000 sites in a list of the top 800,000 in the world that are still open to attack.
Shellshock is a more recent attack that uses a vulnerability in the UNIX Bash shell that has been exposed since the early 90s. It's part of the Linux operating system and has IT security experts worried because of how widely it's used on devices other than computers, which are regularly patched. Continue reading...
What to consider when choosing an enterprise 2-in-1 device
For execs on the go, a 2-in-1 hybrid laptop/tablet device is quickly becoming a more realistic option. Several excellent units have recently hit the market, many of which provide the tools necessary for road warriors to conduct business with the same power as with a traditional laptop.
In order help enterprise customers make a well-informed buying decisions, TechRadar compiled these five essential buying tips. Continue reading...
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Updated: iOS 8 features and updates
iOS 8 features and problems explained
Update: No need to downgrade from iOS 8. Apple's new iOS 8.0.2 fixes the previous version's problems. Here's every feature involved before iOS 8.1 releases.Apple's all-important iOS 8 update is available to download with new features that round of the flat iOS 7 design even if you don't upgrade to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
As we mentioned in our full iOS 8 review, instead of a dramatic redesign, this year's mobile operating system update ties everything together with the overarching theme of "convergence."
iOS 8 features tighter Mac OS X Yosemite integration while loosening the restrictions on Apple's Touch ID fingerprint sensor. This goes a long way to the Passbook-integrated Apple Pay.
New software kits also bring once fragmented security and health gadgets together, something that this year's "one more thing" surprise, the Apple Watch, will takes advantage of in early 2015.
Cut to the chase
What is it? The next iteration of Apple's mobile platform
When is it out? Download it now
What does it cost? iOS 8 is free download
What is it? The next iteration of Apple's mobile platform
When is it out? Download it now
What does it cost? iOS 8 is free download
Compatibility
When it comes to iOS 8 compatibility, Apple requires an iPhone 4S or newer and iPad 2 or newer to update to the latest software. Only the iPhone 4 is cut from the list.Both the iPads mini and iPad mini 2 tablets and the forever alone iPod touch 5th generation are also going to work with the new iOS, just like they did with iOS 7. No one besides 2010's iPhone 4 gets left behind.
That said, reports of the iOS 8 software running slower on the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 means that owners of such older hardware should proceed with caution.
iOS 8 updates and problems
The latest version of iOS 8 is the safe-to-download iOS 8.0.2 update. It fixes a bug so Healthkit apps can populate the App Store and tie into Apple's Health app. Third-party keyboards should be glitch-free too.Release notes for this patch mirror the ones found in iOS 8.0.1, which Apple released one a week after iOS 8 launched. It was quickly pulled as it introduced problems like breaking Touch ID and cellular.
This sent downloaders scrambling to downgrade, in some cases, to iOS 7. It also slowed iOS 8 adoption. But 8.0.2 fixed problems for the unlucky Health-app-hungry masses who sprang for the flawed update.
Not all of iOS 8's biggest bugs have been addressed by the iOS 8.0.2 update. A number of people are still waiting to have WiFi and battery drain problems resolved and there's a precarious iCloud Drive bug that can delete your iWork docs.
iOS 8.1 may bring Apple Pay to new iPhones and iPads during the next Apple Live event on October 16, and usher in all of these necessary fixes.
Touch ID for all
Apple's fingerprint scanner has been limited to bypassing the lockscreen and buying iTunes Store content, but iOS 8 changes all of that as app developers get access to the five-digit login tool.All sorts of apps can use the biometric scanning home button instead of pesky passwords. It only applies to the Touch ID-enabled iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. But the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 are rumored to include the sensor.
At WWDC, personal financial management Mint.com illustrated how third-party Touch ID use will expand beyond its iOS 7 lockscreen and iTunes confines. 1Password uses the same home button authentication the easier password management.
PayPal sent its developers to Apple's Touch ID session at the conference, meaning all of your eBay and e-commerce transactions may be complete with the touch of the home button when upgrading to iOS 8.
While PayPal doesn't think highly of Apple Pay, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus digital wallet idea is likely to be ready for iOS 8.1 in October in the US and in 2015 in the UK.
In due time, "Forget password" will become a thing of the past, replaced by the pores in your fingertips. It should act as a much more unique method of protecting your valuable data.
This Touch ID convenience is on top of the fact that iOS 8 Apple Pay system of scanning credit cards via an iPhone or iPad camera and automatically filling in the details to make shopping easier.
Of course, Apple went out of its way to say that even though you trust many app developers with your bank account data, they won't have access to your biometric information. It's locked away in the A7 and new A8 processor.
iOS 8 camera time-lapse mode
Believe it or not, the iPhone is consistently the most used camera in the world. It's in so many hands and so easy to use. In iOS 8, the camera app is going to get even better.Apple added a time-lapse camera mode to iOS 8 beta 1 in order to help users capture extended moments and automatically speed up the video with a higher frame rate. It's a stripped-down rival to Hyperlapse.
Condensing everything road trips to candles burning down to their wick to just a few seconds in demoed in the YouTube video above.
iOS 8's time-lapse mode is basically the opposite of the slow motion video recording option at 120 frames per second that Apple added to iOS 7 last year and Slow Mo 240fps in iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
SMS and phone calls on Mac
iMessages has been a wonderful cross-compatible tool for chatting on iOS devices and Macs - at least until you try to leave your iPhone behind for an Android.
Apple deserters, however, may be lured back to iOS 8 with SMS and voice calls being folded into iPads and Macs, just like blue iMessages currently pop up on Apple tablets and computers.
It's a pain to have to fetch your phone for a single SMS from an Android user, especially when you're sitting in front of a 13-inch MacBook Air screen and full keyboard capable of handling simple texts and phone calls.
Of course, enabling text messages and phone calls to a Mac requires upgrading it to the newly announced OS X Yosemite, but that's a piece of cake since it'll be free and arrive around the same time as iOS 8.1 in October.
Handoff and WiFi hotspot
iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite are going to be joined at the hip with the Handoff feature that lets you pick up where you left off between devices.Starting a project or email on an iPad or iPhone will let you finish the task on a Mac with no annoying overlap. There's no need to reopen windows or rewrite text on the computer. And it goes the other way, too, from a Mac to a an iOS 8 device.
What if you don't have access to the internet on your computer or iPad to get the job done? That's where the Instant HotSpot feature will come into play, easing the messy personal hotspot setup of iOS 7.
The one problem with this joint iOS 8-Yosemite feature is that it may require you to own a fairly new Mac. Handoff has been tipped to be not be compatible with Apple computers that pre-date Bluetooth 4.0.
Group messages with voice and video
Group messages is also enhanced for iOS 8 thanks to new features. You're able to add and drop people from conversations and silence non-stop incoming message annoyances via a group-specific Do Not Disturb toggle.Sharing your current location on a map one time or persistent location for a set period of time is also a part of iMessages, tying in the concept from Apple's underused Friend My Friends app.
Location sharing, when it was part of the standalone app, was ideal for meeting up in a crowded location like a baseball stadium or concert, and now it'll get more use within iMessages.
Multimedia within iOS 8's iMessages app should be more useful too. Inline voice and video messages with Snapchat-like clips that self-destruct are coming to this mobile OS update.
Interactive notifications
For the times when you do actually respond to texts and calendar reminders on your phone instead of a Mac computer, iOS 8 adds convenient interactive notifications.
Like OS X Mavericks, these notifications can be dealt with in a few simple taps thanks to inline responses. There's no need to mess with the lock screen in order to take action right away.
iOS notifications have come a long way from taking up the entire middle of our phone screens, and iOS 8 makes them feel like even less of a nuisance.
Quicktype keyboard
Apple claims its iOS 8 keyboard is its "smartest keyboard ever," and there's no reason to doubt that since its Quicktype feature adds highly-requested predictive texting that's akin to SwiftKey and Swype.The candidate row appears above the keyboard with three word-finishing suggestions and then next-word best guesses. It even varies depending on the app that's open to match your tone for each, from casual iMessages to formal emails.
If someone asks you a question, Quicktype also automatically offers choices like "Yes" and "No" and, optionally, learns your contacts to spell everyone's name correctly.
Better yet, the more-open-than-ever Apple doesn't limit users to its pre-installed keyboard via developer "extensions."
iOS 8 extensions
Extensions open up iOS 8 to Android's best input methods: Swype is here and SwiftKey breaks free of its SwiftKey Note standalone app confines. Fleksy and Minuum also give you control over keyboard sizes.Other third-party extensions let users tinker with the default sharing options, photo editing tools, custom actions and notification center widgets.
The 1Password extension goes as far as opening up the company's powerful password manager to you without the need to exit the app to open its standalone app. It simply uses Touch ID to get the job done.
Before, you had to close the app that required a password you forgot, open up 1Password's standalone app, copy the password, go back into the original app and paste in the password.
There's always a lot of potential when a platform as large as Apple's opens up its ecosystem to outside developers. Look at what it did to the App Store.
Extensions by forward-thinking developers may be long overdue, but it'll finally be here thanks to iOS 8.
iCloud may actually be useful
Prior to today, there was very little reason to use the ridiculously small 5GB of free space Apple included with iCloud. It was always easier to use a more capable and less expensive Dropbox account.That all changes when iOS 8 launches alongside iCloud Drive, Apple's new rival to Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Microsoft OneDrive and the dozens of other file-sharing services.
It still costs money over the 5GB limit, but at least more file types can be stored and synced. This includes documents, presentations, spreadsheets, PDFs and images. Plus it's the best method of backing up your iPhone and iPad.
What's really cool about the forthcoming iCloud-enabled iOS Photos app is that every picture and every edit is saved across all of your Apple devices automatically. Better yet, there are new tools and filters in iOS 8 and it'll work on the web.
iOS 8 Family Sharing
Maybe you'll be more willing to buy into iCloud Drive knowing that you're going to save money thanks to Apple's new Family Sharing feature that's part of iOS 8.All iTunes, iBooks and App Store purchases on the same credit card can be shared among a total of six people in your family. That beats having to sneakily exchange passwords.
New parental controls force kids to ask your permission before aimlessly downloading expensive apps. This "Ask to Buy" feature beams a message to your device, so you don't need to be the fun-depriving "bad guy" in person.
Other Family Sharing perks include collaborative photo albums, calendars and optional locating sharing. You can find your mom or dad and that iPhone they always misplace with this extension of Find My Friends and Find My iPhone.
'Send Last Location' for Find My iPhone
iOS 8 expands the geolocation capabilities of Find My iPhone with Family Sharing and Find My Friends by integrating it into iMessages, but in true Apple fashion, "that's not all."A "Send Last Location" feature is being added so that your GPS coordinates are backed up to iCloud whenever your battery life is critical.
Right before your iPhone or iPad battery shuts off, the last thing the device does is pinpoint where you left it, whether it's between the couch cushions or still in the car.
This handy iOS 8 setting joins the real-time tracking, sonar-like ringing, message sending, device locking and, as a last resort, iPhone-wiping features of Find My iPhone.
Health app
Apple didn't announce an iWatch-tied Healthbook app at WWDC, but it did unveil a more plainly named Health app and the developer-focused HealthKit API.It's intended to bring together all of the fragmented health and fitness gadgets into one secure location, whether the fitness device deals with your heart rate, calories burned, blood sugar and cholesterol.
Even without a separate fitness device, Apple's M8 and M7 co-processor calculates steps and distance traveled. There's also nutritional tracking and, for extra protection, there's an emergency Medical ID card accessible from the lock screen.
Jawbone Up, Withings and other fitness firms are on board with iOS Health in order to deposit their stats into the centralized app, though Fitbit has so far refused Apple's advances.
The more that existing products like the Fitbit Force and Jawbone Up24 join this initiative, the more iOS 8 users will find this to be the health equivalent to Apple's coupon and ticket stub-collecting Passbook.
HomeKit
Apple also plans to tie together smart home electronics with its HomeKit framework for connected devices so that you control everything without getting up off the couch.
Locking doors, turning off lights, adjusting the thermostat and shutting the garage won't even require tapping your iPhone touchscreen, it turns out.
Instead, these actions can be triggered with Siri voice commands as simple as saying "Siri, I'm going to bed" in order for the computerized assistant to put you into something of a human "safe mode." We're still waiting for Apple to see this feature through post-iOS 8 launch.
Siri and Spotlight updates
Siri does more than look after the house and save you on your electricity bill. Apple's voice assistant is going to start responding to "Hey Siri" if your iOS 8 device is plugged in.This safer, hands-free way of activating Siri is joined by the service's ability to identify songs using Shazam's recognition software, purchase iTunes content and recognize up to 22 languages.
Siri is also going to become a better listener with iOS 8 thanks to streaming voice recognition. Now the wavy lines and words that appear on screen will match what you're saying in near-real-time.
When voice search isn't feasible in a loud environment, you can turn to the more reliable iOS 8 Spotlight. Like its OS X Yosemite counterpart, it searches Wikipedia, the news, nearby places, the App Store and more.
Finding things, whether it's via Siri or Spotlight, shouldn't be a problem in iOS 8, as Apple is finally taking on Google's handy voice search.
Location-based lock screen apps
If you're anything like us you have hundreds of apps, but finding the right one at the right time can sometimes mean sifting through folders and that's if you even remember it exists. But with iOS 8 certain apps will appear in the bottom left corner of the lock screen based on where you are at a particular time.
Early examples people have found include apps for the Apple Store, Starbucks and train stations, when near each of those things. You can then get quick access to those apps by simply swiping them upwards.
It seems that it can also make you aware of new apps as sometimes the icon will be for an app that you don't have and will instead take you to its page on the App Store. It's a minor feature perhaps, but one which could save time and help users make purchases and access location-specific information.
iOS 8 split-screen mode in the code
Apple didn't announce the rumored split-screen functionality when introducing iOS 8 in June, but it may be saving the unveiling as a "One more thing" for iOS 8.1 future firmware updates.iOS 8 beta 3 code points to true multitasking on an iPad, according to leaks from developers. Apps can run side-by-side in 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 sizes.
There's no telling whether or not a split-screen mode will end up in iOS 8 eventually, but Apple certainly appears to be toying with the big idea given the new iPhone 6 sizes.
After all, its competitors have had the feature up-and-running for some time. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S has multi-window mode and Microsoft Surface 3 has snap mode. Like copy-and-paste a few years ago, iOS users are left envying others.
Features being saved for iOS 9?
There's a lot going on with iOS 8, but chief among the changes Apple failed to implement officially is true split-screen multitasking, which Samsung and LG have offered on their Android tablets and larger phones.Public transit directions via Apple Maps is missing in action as well, and Google Maps is benefiting the most from this. Hopefully its implementation was delayed to iOS 8.1 instead of next year's iOS 9.
Apps for photo previews and a TextEdit application, also previously rumored for WWDC 2014, didn't make an appearance either, and the status of Game Center is still unknown. Apple hasn't killed it off just yet.
That's every single new feature of this year's iOS update, though some features will have to wait until Mac OS X Yosemite arrives in October.
Coupled with iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch, iOS 8 is enough to keep Apple users from defecting to Android, even with those fancy, new Android Wear watches like Moto 360 already launched.
- What's the difference? Our iOS 8 vs Android L comparison
iOS 8: 10 things we want to see
So we're starting to get an idea of some of the major changes in store for iOS 8, still, there are many other things we'd like to see Apple change by the time iOS 8 rolls around later in 2014 - although in some cases we've got a sneaking suspicion Apple would disagree.1. Change and hide default iOS apps
We'd love to be able to choose non-Apple alternatives for handling email, browsing and maps, but doubt it'll happen. However, Apple not providing the means to hide preinstalled apps you don't use is an irritant that goes back to the very first iPhone.Even if there was a similar 'parental controls' trick for hiding apps to the one on the Apple TV, that'd be good enough.
2. A guest/child account
Apple's mantra is everyone should own their own device. That's lovely, but not everyone's pockets are as deep as those of Apple board members.OS X-style user accounts are unlikely, but it can't be beyond Apple to provide a single-tap child account or a guest account that doesn't affect your settings and data, and doesn't retain settings or data of its own.
3. Better iOS app management
As of iOS 7, Apple automates app updates, but it should go further. Devs wrestle with iCloud app data, but this should be child's play to save and also (optionally) restore whenever you reinstall an app.And the App Store itself should offer trials and paid version updates (rather than devs being forced to use IAP or 'replacement' apps as a workaround).
4. Stronger inter-app communications
One of the weakest elements of iOS is inter-app communication. If a service bumps you to another app, you're not always returned when you've finished performing an action.Worse, when making document edits across several apps workflow can be a nightmare with document copies in various states strewn throughout individual app sandboxes. Hopefully this is set to improve if the new API for data-sharing makes it into iOS 8.
5. Better document management
Following on from the previous point, iOS should introduce at least some kind of centralised access to documents. Right now, Dropbox is a surrogate file system because iCloud is a bunch of silos.It's absurd that you can't easily attach documents within Mail in an OS that boasts a version number of 7. The lack of collaboration opportunities within iCloud document workflow is also disappointing.
6. Group FaceTime calls
This isn't specifically tied to iOS, but Apple's mobile platform is where FaceTime began life, and although the one-to-one model is great, it's about time you could call several people at once, rather than a group having to crowd around an iPhone.7. iOS notifications like in OS X Mavericks
In OS X Mavericks, notifications are interactive - get a message and you can deal with it there and then, rather than leaving the app you're in. This is even more important on iOS, and so we hope Apple adds similar functionality on mobile. Google does it with aplomb, so we want to see the same here.8. More Do Not Disturb options
Do Not Disturb gained extra power in iOS 7, enabling you to silence notifications only when a device is locked. Bizarrely, it still retains only a single schedule though. Is it beyond Apple to enable you to at least set one for weekdays and a separate one for weekends?
9. Better text manipulation
Apple's text-selection, cut, copy and paste seemed elegant when it was introduced, but only compared to disastrous equivalents on competing mobile systems.Today, it comes across as awkward, and it's a barrier to usability for far too many people. We'd like to see a rethink from Apple and more usable and intuitive ways of dealing with text.
10. Two-up apps
We love the focus iOS provides, but there are times when we'd like to work with two apps at once. Much like messing with default apps, we doubt Apple will ever go down this path, but OS X Mavericks now has a more powerful full-screen mode for multiple monitors.So there's perhaps the slightest hope a multi-screen mode might one day arrive for the iPad or a larger iPhone, and would be one in the eye for all those Samsung owners out there.
Read More ...
In depth: eSports: the latest 21st century phenomenon or passing fad?
eSports hits the main stage in New York
Jakiro the two-headed dragon catches the Crystal Maiden in an ice stream before the wyvern spits out a burst of liquid fire. The burning phlegm connects, melting the maiden instantly as her allies come to avenge her slaying the dragon. But it's too late; the Evil Geniuses have already breached the Alliance's defenses.EG's Death Prophet storms the enemy keep with a platoon of minions and a swarm of spirits. Together they whittle down the Dire's Ancient remaining health to a tiny sliver, bringing them one attack away from victory. In the ensuing madness, the ghostly keeper dies in a four versus one fight with Alliance, but Visage's familiars manage to slip through and deliver the final blow.
The match ends as the crowd chants USA. A roar of excitement from 5,000 seats fills the theater at Madison Square Garden. This is pure unadulterated madness.
This is eSports.
A 21st century sport
Madison Square Garden is famous for being the home of the New York Knicks basketball team, boxing matches and circus performances. Recently the Electronics Sports League, or ESL, has decided to host its very first Dota 2 tournament at this iconic New York venue. While the theater might have only held 5,000 audience members, there were also (as of this writing) 10,750,707 viewers watching the event live over Twitch.
In the grand scheme of eSports events, these are actually paltry numbers. The International 4 Dota competition held at Seattle's Key Arena in July brought an audience of 10,000 people from locales around the world including Sweden, Berlin and Beijing. And that's not counting the 20 million people who tuned in through Twitch.
eSports is a phenomenon quickly becoming the most popular pastime of the 21st century. Once shunned by venues because no one thought people would pay to see nerds play around with keyboard and mice, eSports has started bringing in bigger audiences than more well funded events like football and baseball.
More than a game
Winning the Dota 2 competition in New York isn't just a matter of earning a title and a big, shiny metal cup. There's also a $100,000 (about £62,293, AU$114,794) grand prize pot on the line where $52,000 (about £32,392, AU$59,693) goes to the winning team.
Similarly there's more to being a professional gamer than lightening reflexes. It also requires good communication, teamwork and strategy. For this reason Evil Geniuses manager Charlie Yang shared that every team member spends three to six hours a day training in team practice during the regular season. On top of this, players will spend another three to six hours honing their own skills in individual training. Being a professional gamer already sounds like a full time job but EG's team members also host their own gaming streaming to further supplement their income.
Similarly there's more than meets the eye when watching the best gamers duke it out online. Turning eSports into into an event that engrosses the audience is an art. While it's easy to see the play or field in video games, Twitch COO Kevin Lin highlighted that "it also requires good spectator tools that allow you to move the camera independently and pull up stats to understand what's going on in the game."
"There's [also] professional commentators which helps the hardcore enthusiasts appreciate the deep level of strategy that's happening in these games," Lin said. "It also helps newcomers get a grasp of what's going on."
Not just a fad
Game watching hooks
eSports has existed for a long time with shooters, fighting games and StarCraft. More recently though, the revived interest in Dota 2 and similar MoBA's such as League of Legends have turbo charged the eSports movement. Now more games, even ones like Hearthstone, are becoming part of the competitive game watching phenomenon.At its core, Dota 2 is a game all about making your way from your base to the enemy stronghold to kill their ancient. The map is split into three lanes that players can travel along and strung along these paths are defensive towers that you and your minions have to take down. That's Dota 2 in a nutshell. But there's also much more to the game once you factor in items, combos, farming monsters and newly added bounty rune power ups.
Lin explains because of this complexity, watching a Dota 2 match is very engaging since you can see the player's skill level. At the same time viewers will think about how they could play out an encounter in their own head.
Even a novice can appreciate the action that comes in giant clashes and narrow escapes during a Dota 2 match. One elderly Madison Square Garden usher even noted "this is the most exciting thing I've ever seen!"
On the uptick
With eSports rising in popularity, there are bigger events happening more frequently every year."Flashback to three years ago, you'd see one event every month," Lin quipped. "Now you're seeing an event almost every single weekend with events popping up around the world and they're happening very frequently."
ESL One's Managing Director of Pro Gaming Ulrich Schulze noted that eSports exploded in popularity last year and continues to see steady growth.
"In the past it used to be during times of the year we had a few weeks off without events, we don't really have it anymore" he said. "Our studio in Cologne, Germany is booked throughout the year for big events."
Schulze said eSports is only going to get bigger and recalled that in January 2013, ESL One held its own inaugural stadium event. This year the competitive gaming organization held an event at the 52,000 seat Commerzbank-Arena, which was once used as one of Germany's 2006 World Cup football stadiums.
On December 6 and 7, ESL One will also hold a League of Legends and StarCraft II event at the San Jose SAP Center. With a capacity over 18,000, the venue is set to welcome one of the largest eSports events ever held in North America.
From the look of these numbers, it doesn't seem like eSports are going to disappear any time soon.
ESL One New York Dota 2 event in pictures
- The rise of Twitch is one very big part eSports phenomenon
Read More ...
Review: UPDATED: Moto 360
Introduction
Update: This review includes new Moto 360 battery life tests due to a firmware upgrade and new UK price and release date information.Moto 360 proves that smartwatches can be as fashionable as its Google Now-integrated software is functional, making it the first Android Wear watch worth strapping to your wrist.
Its circular watch face takes cues from stylish designer wristwatches with analog tickers, not square-shaped smartwatches. The very computerized-looking Pebble Steel, Samsung Gear Live and LG G Watch are no match for what Motorola had up its sleeve.
There's a certain beauty to outer Moto 360 build quality too, not just its form. Its stainless steel housing and genuine leather default wristband make it appropriate for almost any occasion. It's enough to make it rank second in our best smartwatch list.
The specs on the inside, however, do leave the smartwatch feeling a little hollow. Poor battery life and an underperforming processor don't do Moto 360's good looks justice. The watch's charm is shortened by its lack of longevity, but Motorola clearly shaped a winner that's more ambitious looking than the overly boxy Apple Watch.
Release date and price
Moto 360 launched in the US on September 5, and it's currently available to pre-order in the UK. Expect it to ship with a late October release date from O2, Clove, Amazon, John Lewis and Tesco. In Australia, it's still on track for the vague fourth quarter.The Moto 360 price in the US and UK is on par with its all-metal construction and leather strap. It costs a reasonable $249 (£199, likely AU$275). That's $100 cheaper than vs vs the entry-level Apple Watch.
That's only only a little more expensive than the extremely limited Android Wear smartwatch pickings from Samsung and LG, none of which can compare to Motorola's stylish design.
Display
There are few sharp-edged downsides to the Moto 360, and none of them can be found on its round, 1.56-inch LCD display. In fact, Motorola's enterprising circular screen is so attractive it instantly became the antithesis of the "smartwatches look like a miniaturized cell phone worn on your wrist" argument when Google first announced Android Wear in March.Complimenting this traditional watch appearance is Moto 360's always-on screen. It tells the time even when its backlit LCD kicks into a power-saving dimmed display mode. It shares this feature with the Samsung Gear Live and LG G Watch along with Gorilla Glass 3 protection. All three watches remained scratch-free during our week-long testing periods.
Moto 360 further draws circles around its competition with an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts the LCD brightness. It's especially convenient when you need a bright screen in sunny conditions or want to reduce battery life consumption in dark environments without having to manually adjust the setting. Walking and fiddling with a tiny touchscreen you can't even see outside is a wearables world problem that Moto 360 solves. Pebble has this bonus feature sans a color-rich screen, while the colorful Galaxy Gear and G Watch do not.
This does mean that the Moto 360 LCD isn't a full circle. Its ambient light sensor and display drivers are housed inside a blank horizon line that sits at the bottom of the watch face. While the black bar doesn't ruin the analog watch experience, the screen is cut off and it has allowed the LG G Watch R to tout itself as the first "full circle" Android Wear smartwatch. LG is hiding the components inside the outer bezel, masked with second-hand tick marks, while Motorola chose to extend the screen pixels to the edge. It's really a matter of preference.
Filling that nearly perfect circle is 205 pixels per inch with a 320 x 290 resolution. That's roughly the same resolution as the smaller Gear Live but fewer pixels vs Samsung's 278ppi. Doing the math, this means Moto 360's bigger LCD has stretched pixels and there's a noticeable "screen door effect" in a side-by-side comparison. Moto 360 also forgoes a fancy OLED screen like Samsung's smartwatches and sapphire glass like the forthcoming Apple Watch. But it's a better trade-off given the on-point price.
Hands and wrists down, Moto 360 has the best-looking smartwatch design thanks to its circular display that other smartwatches are clearly looking to mimic.
Design and comfort
There's more to the Moto 360 design than its disk-shaped display. Stainless steel surrounds the screen with very little bezel and this all-metal frame is smooth and undecorated. It's only interrupted by a microphone hole on the left and single button on the right. Stainless steel can also be found in the traditional watch clasp with an identical silver finish.Matching that quality is a genuine leather strap made by the Chicago-based tanner Horween, the company known for being the exclusive provider of NFL footballs. The Moto 360 strap not only feels durable, the leather has been devoid of the typical stretch marks and wrinkles that, after a few fastens, so often mar other smartwatch bands including the Pebble Steel.
This also contrasts with the Samsung Gear Live and LG G Watch even more because they use plastic casing and rubber straps out of the box. Motorola is making leather the default strap in the US and UK. The first colors introduced are black and gray, while an even lighter stone leather option is listed as "coming soon." Falling under the same here-but-not label are light and dark stainless steel bands that are going to cost extra $299 (likely north of £224, $299) when they launch with the watch.
You can always upgrade to the metal straps later, as they'll be sold separately too, or add a third-party 22mm band. But be warned: Motorola doesn't guarantee all 22mm off-the-shelf bands are compatible with Moto 360. Plus, its own custom-made leather slips out of the rear of the stainless steel housing without lug ends or visible spring bars. It looks elegant, but requires patient digging in order to successfully swap out what's already a great default strap.
Even with the premium materials on-board, Moto 360 weighs 1.7 oz (49g) with its genuine leather strap. That's actually lighter than both the Samsung Gear Live at 2.1oz (59g) and LG G Watch at 2.2oz (64g).
Motorola comes up a little light in the specs, as we look beneath the stainless steel facade.
Specifications
Smartwatch specs are often considered boring because they're filled with small numbers and purposefully underperforming processors next to today's monster PC components. That's why a lot of manufacturers are quick to tout the outward appearance before hastily glossing over the lightweight internals. Moto 360 takes this to a whole new level.There's a Texas Instruments OMAP 3 processor making this digital smartwatch tick, and it's about four-year-old technology that can also be found in the MotoACTIV and Moto Droid X. Maybe Motorola had to burn through these 45nm chips instead of opting for the more efficient, yet capable Qualcomm-made 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 found in the LG G Watch and Gear Live.
The TI OMAP 3 translates into occasional lag when swiping through Android Wear menus, almost as if you didn't apply enough pressure on the touchscreen. It's not you, though, it's the the turn-of-the-decade chip. Just as frustrating is that the watch's connection to our phone (and therefore the internet) was lost several times, more than with its Google-powered rivals.
Even with a decently sized 320mAh battery listed on the specs sheet, the inefficient Moto 360 processor taxes its - at best - day-long battery life before it shuts down. That shouldn't be. Our Samsung Gear Live ran even longer with a Super AMOLED display with a 300mAh battery. Likewise, we got a day and a half out of the LG G Watch with a 400mAh battery.
Moto 360 does come with 512MB and 4GB of internal storage, exactly like the Samsung and LG watches, so the blame lies squarely on the round watch's inferior chip. It does lack the GPS capabilities being introduced with the Sony Smartwatch 3 later this year and offline music playback that is expected to be a part of future Android Wear watches.
However, Motorola managed to make Moto 360 somewhat workout-worthy thanks to a built-in optical heart rate sensor and pedometer neatly integrated into its first-party fitness app.
Interface, apps and fitness
Moto 360 runs the same Android Wear as every other Google-powered smartwatch. It has a familiar card-based interface lifted from Google Now and Google Glass, and it often slides contextual information onto the screen in addition to text messages and important email. This time, however, it's all done on a circular screen.
The round display doesn't really change swiping up and down between different notifications and flinging them to the right to clear them. Sliding your finger left still explores the pop-ups a little more, whether you want to transition from today's weather to a full five-day forecast or access messaging options like "reply with voice," "delete" or "open on your phone."
Most of information is actually "glanceable" with little touchscreen interaction needed. Android Wear is designed to predict what you want to know, meaning commute times to places you've searched, frequently visit and add to your calendar appointments should automatically slide into view. Same goes for friends' birthday reminders, stock data and tracking of packages. It all sits right under the current time without you needing to set anything up.
That came into play when I searched for the nearby Chicago Cubs' Wrigley Field after touring Motorola's headquarters. Sure enough, right before I left for the ballpark, it listed the commute time complete with traffic. When I got to the game, Moto 360 followed along in near real-time with score updates. Gray clouds gathered during the seventh inning and Moto 360 beamed me a timely severe weather alert about three minutes before rain suddenly whipped through the historic stadium. Everyone else, including the grounds crew, was caught by surprise.
That rain delay gave me an opportunity to test out Android Wear's voice recognition feature by saying the magic words "Okay Google" whenever the screen is active. Dictating texts messages to friends without retrieving my phone with my slippery hands made the 30 minute wait a little more Chicago bearable. When the game was officially canceled, saying "Okay Google, call a car" summoned Lyft. Uber is still missing out on the novelty of having its users summon a car sort of like Batman can do with his Batmobile.
Google's software picks up the right words most of the time, though it doesn't work well in noisy crowds or give you much time to think. A one-second pause transitions to the "sending" menu on its part and initiates frantic canceling on yours.
Apps and fitness
Moto 360 launches with a few more apps than early adopters who bought the Samsung Gear Live and LG G Watch had access to on July 7. There are now 44 "featured" apps that are part of the Google Play Store's Android Wear section, up from the original 35 apps.Eat24 makes sure that food delivery is within arm's reach, Wunderlist lets you organize a better to do list and Tinder lets you swipe left and right on potential dates that you'll never actually go on. These new Moto 360 apps join existing top names like Groupon, IFTTT, All the Cooks recipes, American Airlines and Glympse.
Glympse is particularly useful on a watch because it sends your location to contacts of your choosing. Meeting up with someone while you're busy walking or driving? Say "Okay Google, start Glympse" and send them your real-time GPS coordinates in an instant. They can follow you for a set period of time on their phone, taking the guessing game out of that meet-up time.
Google Maps is still one of the most useful Android Wear apps. Asking Moto 360 to "navigate to..." initiates turn-by-turn directions on the watch while starting the full route mapping on your phone. It beats having to deal with the normal phone interface that's dangerously complex and takes too many presses in order to get where you're going.
Moto 360 doubles as an activity tracker, and it's a slightly better workouts companion than the Gear Live or LG G Watch. That's because Motorola goes a few pedometer steps further with a heart activity app that tracks how you're performing against daily and weekly benchmarks. My custom goals require 30 minutes of running and the watch counts down the minutes over the course of the day while also adding up all of my steps. Swiping to the left, I can then see a (hopefully) built-up streak Sunday through Saturday.
Google Fit is here too. It uses the watch's built-in pedometer and heart rate monitor whenever I ask "Ok Google, show my steps" or "Ok Google, show me my heart rate." It counts up the metrics on small-scale graphs and timelines, which isn't enough to compete with the Jawbone Up 24, Basis Carbon Steel Edition and Fitbit Force. There's also no way to see this data on a phone or tablet just yet. That may come with the Android L launch.
Motorola also promises more functionality in future software updates including the ability for the Moto 360 to recognize when your transition from running to cycling without your manual input. That's a rare feature among watches, and one we liked from the brainy-but-ugly Basis Carbon Steel fitness tracker.
Compatibility and battery life
Moto 360 is compatible with all Android smartphones that run Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, Android 4.4 KitKat and the not-yet-delicious-named Android L beta. The requirement is in place due to the fact that Google introduced Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy support in its July 2013 update. You'll find this is demanded by almost all modern smartwatches and fitness trackers.Android 4.2 Jelly Bean users are out of luck as are loyal iPhone owners. Neither the iPhone 5S nor the flashy new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus can sync with the Moto 360, as much as Apple fans may envy the round smartwatch that outclass the newly unveiled Apple Watch. So far, no Android Wear watch is compatible with iPhone.
As for its compatibility with water, Moto 360 isn't completely waterproof, but it did receive an IP67 water and dust resistance rating. It can be worn in the shower, rain and when you sweat, and can survive one meter down for about 30 minutes before you run into trouble. Keep in mind, none of these scenarios will bode well for the default leather strap.
Our first week of Moto 360 battery life tests always gave us a few hours shy of a full day per charge. Its 320mAh battery is better than the 300mAh battery found in Samsung Gear Live, yet it actually lasted less time than the Samsung's smartwatch.
Three weeks in, a Moto 360 firmware update extended the battery life and we became more diligent at turning off the screen and ambient light sensor sometimes. We didn't quite see the two days that others have reported, but the battery finally bested previous its 24-hour mark with a solid day-and-a-quarter of moderate use. Better, but still not good enough.
The LG G Watch leads the Android Wear lineup with a still-unacceptable day-and-a-half of battery life, and LG may retain that honor with a 410mAh battery in the LG G Watch R. Pebble Steel and the original Pebble remain the overall smartwatch kings of longevity with up to seven days between charges.
At least there's a novel way to recharge the Moto 360. It comes with a Qi charging dock that is perfect for resting the watch on a nightstand and instantly turning it into a small bedside clock. It dims the display so that you can still see both the clock in the dark and the energy ring that completes the battery's circle of life by reaching 100%. This takes about two hours before the Moto 360 is ready for another 24-hour day.
Our tests have found that Moto 360 is compatible with other chargers like Google's own Nexus Qi charger meant for the Nexus 5 smartphone and Nexus 7 tablet. The included Qi charger is small enough to tout around in a backpack, but its major drawback is that you have to remember to pack it. Spontaneous daytrips will often leave you without a way to juice it up again and, in effect, turn Moto 360 into a paperweight that can't even tell you the time of day.
It doesn't have the more practical micro USB port that the newly announced Sony Smartwatch 3 is going to have, but the Moto 360 charging method is much more futuristic and cool. That better fits the stylishing theme that Motorola is going for with its watch.
Verdict
Moto 360 is the Google-powered smartwatch that early adopters have been holding out for, and it has finally started ticking. Motorola is just in time too. Less than a week after it launched, the fabled iWatch turned into the real 2015-bound Apple Watch. The full-circle LG G Watch R also went into production for a fall release.But now that it's here, Moto 360 is the best Android Wear smartwatch next to the slim pickings from Samsung and LG. Its cut-off bottom that houses the screen tech doesn't bother us, and we kind of like the fact that this pushes the pixels out to the edge in place of an ugly bezel. It's a nice effect that compliments the overall design that's fashion-forward, specs last.
We liked
Moto 360's circular display is attractive, and it outclasses every other smartwatch with more than just that thanks to its premium build. Stainless steel casing and genuine leather straps really contrast with the plastic and rubber-constructed Gear Live and G Watch. The ambient light sensor, a first for an Android Wear watch, gives its almost full circle screen an edge too.Its Qi inductive charger is leagues better than the proprietary Pogo pin chargers used by both Samsung and LG. Rounding out its attributes, Moto 360 is lighter, more comfortable and has better fitness tracking capabilities for a price that isn't much higher than its rivals.
We disliked
It's clear that the later-than-expected Moto 360 release date wasn't enough time to perfect the first circular Android Wear smartwatch. Battery life is often 18 to 24 hours with normal use and the LCD isn't as crisp as the Super AMOLED displays found in Samsung's never-ending lineup of smartwatches.The Texas Instruments OMAP 3 processor doesn't do it any favors either. It's underpowered in terms of performance, yet requires more actual power than the efficient Snapdragon 400 chips used by Samsung and LG. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
The small Qi charging dock, while a step in the right direction, may leave you stranded without a way to charge and leave you out of luck. Completely missing the boat are envious iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners, as even the new iOS 8 isn't compatible with the stylish Moto 360.
Final verdict
Moto 360 has been on our wrists for a week and, unlike its short battery life, it has become an undying source of questions from tech-savvy and fashion-focused admirers alike. It's not always functional to show off to these folks. That constantly draining battery and archaic processor means the watch occasionally fails to respond. Nevertheless, its round design really does bridge the gap between geeky smartwatches and traditional watches.That's to be expected. Motorola's marketing team likes to tell a story about how the company asked a group of children to draw a watch. Almost every youngster drew a circular watch. It's the iconic watch design that Samsung and LG didn't tackle, and Apple Watch misses entirely. Motorola, of all companies, comes through with a real winner. It's ready for the Apple Watch vs Moto 360 watch face-off.
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Opinion: Should Microsoft follow eBay and HP by splitting up?
The past month has been notable for split ups of well-known companies into two separate entities, both of which are entirely independent of the other. First off, eBay and PayPal split, creating two publicly traded companies each having a new CEO and new focuses and goals. PayPal can now focus on the threat from Apple Pay, Square and Stripe, all of which have been eating the company's revenue when it was consolidated with eBay.
And then Hewlett-Packard split into two companies after nearly one hundred years of existence. One company will focus on laptop, printing and PC hardware while the other company – headed by current HP CEO Meg Whitman – will be focused on enterprise technology.
Both companies generate tens of billions in revenues and billions in profit with the split enabling each to be more nimble and to focus on the "lightning fast" world of technology that was previously unapproachable as a behemoth company focused on hundreds of simultaneous products.
Calls for Redmond to follow
One company that didn't split up over the past month was Microsoft, despite repeated calls from investors, analysts and pundits over the past decade. The Microsoft of now is incredibly different from the Microsoft of the 80s and 90s which was a force to be reckoned with, creating and destroying industries and generating billions in revenue.Now, the market changing decisions are made by different giants: Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon. They now rule where Microsoft used to. While the world still does rely on the services provided by Microsoft – Windows, Office, Azure – the move to smartphones and tablets has undermined the core business of Windows and Office.
Microsoft's businesses are essentially broken into two sections: hardware and software. The hardware side (also known as "devices") includes Windows Phone, Surface and Xbox and is supposed to work in synergy with the software side (also known as "services"), which runs Windows development, Office, Azure and so on.
Hardware mess
Hardware-wise, Microsoft is little more than a mess. Significant resources have been invested in Windows Phone, which has captured less than 5% of the global market and less than 3% in the US and UK, two highly profitable sectors where Apple and Samsung reign supreme. Despite releasing Windows Mobile in 2000, Microsoft missed the opportunity to create an iPhone-like smartphone operating system early enough, choosing instead to rely on the continued dominance of Windows PCs.Running in parallel with Microsoft's blunders regarding smartphones have been blunders with tablets, leading to the Surface line – a venture that has lost Microsoft over $1 billion (around £620 million, AU$1.15 billion) since 2012. While the Surface hardware is nice and could rival the iPad, consumers have never warmed to the devices. The idea of a laptop/tablet hybrid is so different from the current convention of computer use – and from the ideas promoted by the iPad – that it has never caught on, leading to poor sales.
In 2014, Microsoft parted with $7.2 billion (around £4.5 billion, AU$8.25 billion) to purchase Nokia's hardware division. Nokia has now been rolled into Microsoft, causing layoffs of thousands of workers and destroying the brand that has adorned phones for nearly two decades.
The layoffs, which were meant to eliminate two people doing the same job, still leave Microsoft approximately 16% bigger than it was before the Nokia deal, bringing the total headcount up to 128,000 as of June 30, 2014. Apple, by comparison, employs 80,000 staff worldwide – 50,000 of which are in the US – most of who work in Apple Stores.
A question of agility
This raises a question: how can a company with 128,000 employees across the world, acting out countless strategies and working on a myriad of products remain nimble in the fast changing technological world of 2014?The answer is by splitting the company in two. One side would be hardware (devices) and the other software (services).
As noted by Ben Thompson of the Stratechery blog, Microsoft used to rely on a monopoly for power, something which they have enjoyed in desktop and laptop PCs for two decades. At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, COO Kevin Turner displayed a slide showing a very different landscape now than from the 90s and early 2000s. Microsoft's share of "total devices" (smartphones, laptops, desktops, tablets, etc.) sits at 14%. At the event, this was presented as a big opportunity; 14% leaves a lot of room growth.
"We want to go from 14% to 18%, from 18% to 25%, from 25% to 30%. That's the beauty of this model … [the opportunity] is much bigger than anything we've had in the past," Turner is quoted as saying.
Opportunity knocks
The issue with this 'opportunity' is that, while it could potentially be achievable in the next decade, the resources needed to push Microsoft's hardware into the hands of 30% of device owners around the world is enormous, and will take time and resources from the software and services section of Microsoft, a vastly profitable division which is now working even harder as Microsoft has switched to a new upgrade cycle for Windows.I, for one, have doubts about whether Microsoft could ever achieve 30% – or more – but, in the meantime, the fact remains that attempting to do so will snaffle resources from software and services.
If Microsoft was split in two, each of those companies could concentrate on their own goals. Hardware would not impede software and vice versa. Two new companies would be created, each laser focused on a particular topic. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke about how odd it was for one of the largest companies in the world – Apple – to be able to lay all the products it makes on one table.
Microsoft is, in many ways, the antithesis of this ideal. Over the years, more and more categories have been entered and more and more products made – unfortunately this has spread resources thinly and subtracted from the vision of Windows leading to missteps and errors. Splitting Microsoft in two may be the only way to solve this.
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Blip: The Apple Watch has graced the cover of Vogue in China
The Apple Watch amped up its pre-release presence this week with a prominent appearance on the cover of respected fashion magazine Vogue China.
The smartwatch also appeared in photos inside the magazine. Apparently it's a fashion statement.
Apple has been working hard to get the Apple Watch noticed in fashion circles, with appearances at Paris Fashion Week and fashion bloggers on-hand at the Watch's reveal.
This Chinese cover comes just a week after US Vogue published an interview with Apple designer Jony Ive about the company's latest gotta-have-it-gadget.
More blips
You don't need to walk the runway to read more of TechRadar's blips.- A Spanish comedy club is using facial recognition for nefarious purposes
- Take a gander at the new Minecraft Lego sets
- Got three hours to kill? Watch every Game Boy game start screen
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Industry voice: Women can't afford CEOs like Satya Nadella
Yesterday Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told a room full of women - at a conference dedicated to advancing women in the male-dominated tech industry no less - not to ask for a raise. He said "karma" and "trusting the system" will ensure that they are paid fairly.
That's coming from a man who will be making $18 million this year.
Now, UltraViolet, our organization, is asking Microsoft to fire Satya Nadella and replace him with a CEO who will help close the gender wage gap, not just tell women to wait their turn for a raise.
Why his comment is dangerous
Despite the many advances we've made, women still make only 78 cents for every dollar a man earns - across all industries. That's not a joke, it's a real burden that families grapple with.That problem is exacerbated in the tech industry where women are horribly under-represented.
Under pressure, Satya Nadella is trying to walk back his words. But apologies without action mean nothing.
Women and Microsoft
The truth is: Microsoft is a behemoth that sets a standard for one of the country's most important industries. It's also way behind the times. While it's not a secret that the tech industry notoriously underpays and under-employs women, and that it has been riddled with accusations of sexism, discrimination, and harassment - Microsoft has been particularly bad.At Microsoft less than a third of employees are women. The leadership is overwhelmingly male. The company lags in paid family leave policies that would spur greater equality - while some companies like Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit offer 17 weeks of maternity and paternity leave, Microsoft is light-years behind with only four weeks of paternity leave and 12 weeks for new moms.
But Nadella's solution to the gender wage gap seems to be for us ladies to just trust in the system, despite the fact that the system is obviously broken.
A huge difference
If Nadella were paying attention he might note that the gender wage gap amounts to nearly $450,000 in lost wages over a woman's lifetime. He might also note that African American women are making only 64 cents on the dollar, and Latinas are making a shocking 54 cents on the dollar to men.The simple fact of the matter is that if we let the chips fall where they may, women make significantly less than men. Enough to impact their standard of living, their ability to buy a home, their ability to feed their families, their retirements, and literally every other part of our lives.
To make matters worse - women who do stand up for a raise, contrary to Nadella's advice, are often punished for it. That make's Nadella's statement all the more damaging: without real change at the top, women alone won't be able to close the gap.
This isn't news to anyone but Nadella, and we have a message for him: making less than your male peers isn't good "karma," it's injustice.
We demand action
Apologies without action are meaningless. If Nadella was serious about equality he could make salaries at Microsoft transparent, ensure pay parity for women and men, and bring Microsoft's family leave up to the industry standard set by companies like Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit.That's why UltraViolet members are speaking out now, and demanding that Microsoft fire Nadella and replace him with a CEO who will help close the gender gap, not just tell women to wait their turn.
A half million dollars over the course of our lifetimes is nothing to joke about, and it can't be walked back with a simple apology. It's time for Microsoft to commit to ending the gender wage gap: and that means Nadella has got to go.
- Nita Chaudhary and Shaunna Thomas are co-founders of UltraViolet, an online community of more than 550,000 women and men who want to take collective action to expose and fight sexism in the public sector, private sector and the media.
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Sprint has doubled the data on its shared business plans yet again
Sprint has doubled down on the double data offer that it debuted earlier this month, upping the ante yet again in its war against AT&T, Verizon and other US carriers.
Those three went on a data-doubling roll in late September and early October, doing their best to one-up one another with shared data plans.
AT&T offered plans starting at 30GB of data for $130, Verizon did much the same, and Sprint doubled that, offering 60GB for $130 (and up from there).
But now Sprint is offering even larger plans, according to a press release, giving customers 240GB for $400, 320GB for $540, or 400GB for $675 for up to 50 lines.
Double up
In addition Sprint users can now sign up 100 lines for plans with 600GB for $1,010 or 800GB for $1,350.Like the previous doubled plans, these fresh rates are available for new and existing customers who sign up before October 31.
These customers will retain these rates indefinitely, but the plans won't be available for new sign-ups after Halloween.
The big question now is who will raise the stakes next - maybe T-Mobile can join the fray with a fresh trick? You know what, consider this an official call-out, pinkie. It's on.
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Review: Jabra Step Wireless
Full of twists, not long enough and always caught on something — my headphone wires mirror life too closely. With the Jabra Step Wireless, I finally had the opportunity to go wireless and meander about with a new, freeing sense of mobility.
To say that I was excited is an understatement. On top of the meager hopes of an easy, hands-free commute, I also set out to improve my health and become more adventurous.
The Jabra Step Wireless is a halfway decent Bluetooth option with impressive stereo sound and good battery life. I use the term "halfway", because most attempts to incorporate it into my life were futile, met with frustration and harsh setbacks with connectivity and range.
Design
The Jabra Step Wireless's design aims at those on-the-go. Solid build quality and accommodating customization options help to align the appeal.
As a whole, the Step Wireless is comprised of two square, black plastic bases attached to protruding earbuds and leashed together by a thick, rubber-coated wire. The wire comes equipped with in-line controls and a microphone. The battery and bluetooth receiver are housed within the base of the right earbud.
I had initial concerns that these rubbery buds would have a hard time keeping a secure grip inside of my ear and, at first, they did. Thankfully, the three included sizes of EarGels, as they're called in Jabra-land, accommodate to different inner-ear sizes.
This helped offset the extra weight of these wireless earbuds and keep a tight lock. These earbuds, while as compact as possible, do pack in a little extra weight, due to the internals, and hang out of the ear a bit more than your average pair of wired alternatives.
For an additional measure of support, Jabra's GelHooks, rubber cradles for your ears, are included. These played their biggest role in keeping the earbuds from popping out while doing some more rigorous physical activity. During more leisurely work, though, they grew irritating and painful after about 45 minutes of use.
The rubber-coated wire hooking the earbuds together is a little longer than it needs to be. Wearing the Jabra Step Wireless as it's intended with the wire behind your neck tightens the slack a bit and is most unobtrusive this way, but the in-line controls were a pain to reach for.
The Jabra Step Wireless won't win any awards for its design, but it does the job. If only I could say as much about how it works.
Performance
At $79 (about £63, AU$91), the Jabra Step Wireless pumps out impressive sound for a Bluetooth headset. Meanwhile, the buds last around four hours of constant music listening, right on par with their advertised battery life.Bass-heavy hip hop tracks and layered instrumental jazz jams weren't reduced to tin-can reproductions of my favorite songs, which is certainly saying something. By cutting the cord, I didn't have to sacrifice sound quality. But all is not well with this headset.
Incessant connectivity issues ruined my experience with the Step Wireless. Initial attempts at connecting were as simple. That said, every attempt at reconnecting to a familiar device after some time apart would render the experience choppy, if I was lucky.
Other times, I couldn't connect at all. The result was a dreadfully tedious process of having to "forget" the device and wipe its handshake from my devices each time I wanted to reconnect. Sometimes, that didn't even work. This thing has a mind of its own.
I mostly wear headphones during my morning and evening subway commutes, and at the gym, where I did most of my testing. On the train, I failed to connect the headset with direct line of sight numerous times, often finally kicking in with just a few minutes of my commute left. During a workout, I had to rough the silence for ten minutes – when I needed musical encouragement the most – until the headset finally agreed to work.
I tested out syncing and re-syncing with numerous devices, all yielding similar results. Eventually, I grew numb to the process, just doing what needed to be done to get it to work properly, which is a shame. It should just work.
We liked
The admirable build quality and understated design work in favor of the Jabra Step Wireless's purpose. This is a device to take with you on the go, to places unfit for wires.You'll find little in the way of sacrificed audio quality coming through these deceptively great earbuds. Decent battery life is always a plus, too, especially if you're taking these on a long bike ride or doing anything in which your phone isn't accessible.
We disliked
Terrible connectivity issues too commonly intruded in my experience with the Jabra Step Wireless. I wanted to tell myself that it was because of user-error on my part, because of how rich the audio is otherwise.But after experiencing the same issues across multiple devices, I knew that the blame is rightfully placed on the headset. What good is solid output if the connection is barely stable?
Final verdict
While the sound is impressive and the battery life is good enough for most people, these qualities do little to redeem the Jabra Step Wireless. It's simply too tough to look past these constant connectivity issues.To tempt me with the fruits of a hands-free lifestyle and to deny me of that is a sour thing to do. The Step Wireless doesn't measure up to my standards as to how seamless of an experience a Bluetooth headset should provide in 2014. While they're no earbuds, the JBL Synchros E40BT Bluetooth headphones meet those demands just fine.
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Opinion: From Apple to Android then Apple again: why I swapped the HTC One M8 for an iPhone 6
A rocky marriage with Android
A few months ago, in the midst of switching carriers and desperately needing to upgrade my two-year-old iPhone 4S, I decided to make the leap to an Android phone.After a long period of deliberating different devices, I picked the HTC One M8 - TechRadar's pick for one of the best Android handsets around. At first I was hesitant about making the switch, but I was excited to see the experiment through with the hope of moving over to Androids permanently.
Fast forward to the Apple launch where I found myself waiting for the new iPhone 6 to arrive in the mail where afterwards, I realized I would never go Android again. Here's why I went crawling back to the land of Apple.
The grass is always greener on the other side
The grass always looks greener on the other side. As part of the Apple camp I always longed for the freedom Android users had with customizing everything.
Everyone's iPhone home screen pretty much looks the same. Other than changing your background and moving around the app tiles, iOS offers few ways to customize your phone. The one advantage of keeping things homogenous on iOS made the interface feel much more fluid and snappier compared to Android.
Prior to my HTC One M8, I dabbled with owning a first-generation Nexus 7 tablet. I had no problems switching back and forth between my two devices despite the two different platforms. Looking through the Google Play Store, I could find almost every app I would use on my iPhone. Adding in the greater amount of freedom on Android made it alluring enough for me to switch.
With my mind made up, I decided to get my first Android smartphone with plans to fully assimilate myself into Google's ecosystem.
The honeymoon
Like a honeymoon, my first month with the HTC One M8 was amazing. The hardware by itself was a major step up from my old iPhone with a better screen, more power under the hood and amazing stereo speakers. It was simply a flat upgrade across the board save for some issues with the camera, which I'll get into later.
I had more fun using Android than I ever did with my tablet. I spent hours arranging every screen on my phone to my exact liking. As silly as it sounds, it was liberating to be able to move around your app tiles the way you see fit instead of having everything bumped off to the upper right on iOS.
Google Now was perhaps the most surprisingly useful tool on Android. Unlike Siri, which is pretty much a voice-controlled computer, Google Now would intelligently prompt me with directions and restaurant suggestions all on its own.
Trouble stirs
I started to feel less excited as I spent more time with Android thanks to the increasingly obvious flaws. My biggest gripe was the lack of notifications on the lockscreen (a feature that will reportedly come to Android L).
I quickly fixed the issue by downloading a third party app called SlideLock, but then another problem cropped up with the tiny virtual space bar on the stock Sense 6 keyboard. Again I solved my nitpicking issue by installing a custom keyboard. In time, I replaced the default launcher, swapped Gmail with Dropbox's Mailbox, and practically replaced every stock application with a better third-party solution.
"Don't like what comes stock with Android? Just replace it," a fellow Android-using friend once told me; this seems to be the mindset behind Android, which makes it so amazingly customizable. Yet, at the same time it's an admission that Android on its own lacks the same level of polish compared to iOS.
You can call iOS drab and restrictive, but Apple knows how to make a good-looking and intuitive interface. The Cupertino company opening up to the concept of custom keyboards could be the first step towards a more customizable iOS interface.
The app war rages on
Apple isn't just leading in better UI design, it's still the top platform for apps. iOS users have access to a few more apps not available on Android - like Facebook's Paper, Tweetbot and Yahoo News Digest. On top of this, Apple's mobile OS also often gets first dibs on applications that have or eventually will make it to Android - such as Lightroom Mobile and Instagram's Hyperlapse.
Apps simply come to iOS first with Android being an afterthought for most developers. This is true of gaming as well. Despite Android being used as the backbone for gaming devices like Nvidia's Shield Tablet and the MadCatz Mojo, games are just as big as a part of iOS. Case in point, Hearthstone has still yet to arrive in the Google Play Store when it has been available for iPad since April.
Fundamental differences between Android and iOS
Life through the smartphone lens
My biggest personal gripe with Android wasn't with the mobile OS itself, but the HTC One M8's camera. In April our Mobile Editor, Marc Flores wrote that the HTC flagship has more than enough resolution to take great pictures. While I agree with Marc - that deliberate and well-planned shots can make the camera sing - it's terrible for taking quick snapshots, which is really what the majority of smartphone shooters actually care about.
It's a perfectly serviceable camera even with just 4MP and it works exceptionally well in low-light situations. However, add in even the slightest hint of bright lighting into the scene and the camera's dreadful dynamic range rears its ugly, ethereal face. Bright sections of the frame completely blow out the image, causing it to take on a soft focus with cloudy aesthetics.
The HTC One M8 isn't the only Android device with a bad camera. The Nexus 5 has had its share of problems, and Android cameras in general still range from just plain OK to good. Meanwhile, Apple kills it when it comes to great smartphone photography.
Although Apple continues to use an 8MP sensor while Samsung is blazing trails with 16MP technology, images out of the iPhone look remarkably better thanks to more refined image processing. Apple has made its platform even more appealing for serious iPhoneographers by adding system-level post-processing tools that eliminate the need to launch additional third-party apps.
Connecting other devices
If there's one thing Android is clearly better at, it's being a platform for other devices to connect to. With my HTC One M8, I could easily connect to anything whether it was a smartwatch or Wi-Fi enabled mirrorless camera.
This wasn't so with the iPhone 6. It was a much more annoying and convoluted process to pair everything with my Apple handset. For example, every time I wanted to quickly transfer an image from my Fujifilm X-T1, I had to activate the wireless on my camera, go to my phone's wireless settings, select the camera's ad-hoc Wi-Fi network and then finally activate the appropriate app. This same process on Android boils down to simply starting the app on the smartphone and hitting the camera's Wi-Fi button.
The same could be said about my Basis Carbon Steel Smartwatch. On Android, my smartwatch would re-sync every hour like clockwork. The wearable was even able to automatically re-pair itself with my smartphone after my smartwatch completely ran out of charge. In order to sync my fitness data to my new iPhone 6, I had to manually hit the re-sync button on the Basis. I also had to re-pair the devices together in case I reset either the smartwatch or Apple handset.
Google has invested heavily into developing its own Android Wear platform for wearables making Android the better platform for device connection, where it seems like Apple will continue to lag further behind.
Since the search company also acquired Nest earlier this January, Google's interest in developing a completely smartphone-connected household also looks likely.
Aside from the Apple Watch, and the Air Display-connected Apple TV, Cupertino feels light years behind Google in this regard.
The road ahead
This experience has merely been a glimpse into the differences between iOS 8 and Android KitKat where both platforms have their strengths and pitfalls. The mobile landscape has changed drastically over the last few years and mobile operating systems - either iOS, Android and even Windows Phone 8.1 - have all matured with every iteration.
iOS 8 opens up the platform to better photography, activity tracker support and the Apple Watch. Google has yet to unveil Android L, but it's poised to finally give the mobile OS a major graphical overhaul as Apple did with iOS 7, lock screen notifications as well as a host of improvements to increase battery life and performance.
Ultimately the combination of better camera features and more apps lured me back to iOS and for the time being, that's where I'll stay.
- In another iOS versus Android fight we pit the iPhone 6 Plus against the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 in a clash of titans
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Hands-on review: Updated: Sony PlayStation TV
October 10, 2014: We recently updated this review to reflect recent new hands-on impressions.
Most years, the news out of E3 is is dominated by the latest flashy trailers featuring zombies, commandos and dragons, and this year was no exception. However, buried in Sony's usual hoopla this year was a tiny box that could have enormous significance for electronics giant. The product? PlayStation TV, set to debut in the U.S. on Tuesday October 14.
It's an unassuming black box a little smaller than a deck of cards, and as such might not seem to hold the same techno-majesty as Sony's PS4 or the cyber-future cachet of its Project Morpheus VR headset. However, if handled correctly, the unassuming PlayStation TV could be a very important product for Sony, acting as both as a low-cost gateway to a Sony gaming experience for casual players stepping up from smartphone games, as well as a new avenue for hardcore gamers to make their hobby more flexible.
Sony released a similar device called the PlayStation Vita TV in 2013. A Japan-only product, Vita TV allows users to play native Vita games through their TVs and was viewed as something of a curiosity outside Japan. PlayStation TV's hardware is almost identical to the Vita TV, but for its western debut it's been rebranded and given some loftier ambitions. During its E3 conference, Sony positioned it as a streaming media set-top box, presumably competitive with products such as Roku 3, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV, and priced to match at $100/ €99 (about £58, AU$105). While all of those devices include some form of gaming features, none comes close to the size and quality of Sony's existing libraray. When PlayStation TV arrives on October 14, it will also offer access to a library of nearly 700 high-pedigree games from Sony's extensive library of PS4, PS3, PS1, PS Vita and PSP games. Available titles include such classics as God of War, Killzone, Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid, Twisted Metal and Borderlands 2.
In addition to the base box for $100, Sony will offer a $140 (about £83, AU$149) bundle that will include a DualShock 3 controller, an 8GB memory card, and a copy of The Lego Movie: The Video Game.
Bait and switch?
It's hard to overstate the importance of a device like this for Sony. If done right. it could offer a unique value proposition in both the set top box market and the gaming space. However, a recent hands-on with the box left us wondering if PSTV will be arriving fully baked.At their E3 presentation back in June, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America Shawn Layden said that in addition to playing native Vita games, allowing remote play from PlayStation 4 and providing access to Sony's PlayStation Now game streaming service, the box would, "give you access to video and music streaming services." Industry watchers assumed that meant it would ship with apps for the services that have become standard on these devices, Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu Plus, Pandora, Spotify and others.
Indeed, at E3 I spoke with Sharon Kapitula, platform planning manager for PlayStation TV, who told me Sony was, "looking to meet our audence's needs for the apps they're looking for," adding, "if you look at other PlayStation products, we have a lot of content coming from third party partners. We're looking to leverage those partners again."
However, at a recent preview event in New York City, Sony reps were cagey about the device's media capabilities, at least at launch. I was told that the company "has not announced any entertainment stuff" and that at launch Sony was "focusing on PS4 and the way PlayStationTV can extend it." To be clear this was not a denial that these services will exist on the device, but if these features were in place, we would expect Sony to be making much more noise about them (or be willing to discuss them in the slightest).
The reps did mention that at launch the box would provide access to movies and TV shows via the PlayStation Store. But while this may pay off the letter of their E3 promise, it's a far from from the spirit of their announcement. Interestingly there was no mention even of Crackle, Sony's free, ad-supported video streaming service. Devices like this are easily updated, of course, and we would be shocked not to see apps for the major streaming services get patched in. Still, we found Sony's reticence about these aspects of the box surprising.
Lost in translation
While we've seen very strong demos of the device's RemotePlay capabilities when paired with a PlayStation 4, the October preview event featured only native Vita games. One potential stumbling block to the PSTV as a gaming device is the fact that the games that run natively on the platform were designed for an extremely specific piece of hardware with a unique set of controls. Specifically, the PSVita features front and back touchscreens which many games use gestures as key parts of their control mechanisms. There is no direct analog for these motions on a conventional controller, so without modifications, motion controls do not map to the DualShock 3 controller.Sony reps pointed out that one of the four games loaded on the system, Killzone: Mercenary had been reworked to map the game's gesture controls onto the control sticks. We should note that Killzone performed remarkably well for a 3D shooter running off such a tiny piece of hardware and its translation from touch to sticks seemed smooth. Other games, however, clearly had not been fully converted and suffered from incorrect on-screen directions (any that involves swiping), lending more to the overall impression that, just a few days prior to launch, Sony might not have all of PSTV's ducks in a row.
Still full of promise
Historically, Sony has struggled to create meaningful synergy between its multifaceted products and offerings. Executed correctly, PlayStation TV could provide a key way for PlayStation fans to access their Sony devices and content along with third party services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant. Perhaps more importantly, it will provide an inexpensive avenue into gaming for the casual gaming audience. With the right services and software, this device could threaten not only its set top box brethren, but also Microsoft and Nintendo in the console space.
I got a chance to play Diablo III on a PlayStation TV streaming from a PlayStation 4 via Remote Play and it both looked and played beautifully on a large TV. Frame rate matters less in this type of game than it does in others, such as racing games.
Naturally real life streaming performance will be limited by internet speeds both upstream from your PS4 and downstream to your Playstation TV, but a Sony rep assured me that under ideal conditions the box is capable of delivering a full 1080p stream.
Remote play has been available on PlayStation handhelds since the PSP and PS3 era, but the proposition of being able to pack tiny box on a trip that let's you play your PS4 system back home on a big screen TV in hotel is a strong one. Sony reps were quick to point out, however, that streaming performance is ruled by Internet connection speed, and that the most stable environment for Remote Play would likely be inside the home on a second TV.
Living in the Now
Access to PlayStation Now, Sony's cloud gaming initiative that promises more than 700 titles at launch (down from Sony's original promise of 1,000, but we won't quibble), is also promising. Sony does have some work to do on the pricing of PlayStation Now, which in its beta outing has been outrageously high. We'd like to see them employ a Netflix-like subscription plan (possibly as an extension to its existing PlayStation Plus subscription service). We think the all-you-can-eat model would be most attractive to gamers if Sony can figure out a way to make it economically feasible.After so many years, it's easy to forget just how excellent Sony's legacy library is. Between kids who were just tots when Sly Cooper was hopping around on his heists and casual gamers who've discovered games thanks to smartphones but have never played Uncharted 2, there is a wealth of untapped consumers Sony's legacy library might appeal to.
True to its PS Vita TV roots, PlayStation TV will also be able to run Vita, PSP and PS1 games natively. The box will only come with 1GB of onboard storage for downloaded games, but the system will come with a slot for PS Vita memory cards, allowing users to add up to 64GB of storage. This is somewhat aggravating, however, as PS Vita cards are both proprietary and expensive. Sony has no plans to allow the use of external hard drives at this time.
One concern about Sony making a streaming media box is that the company might revert to its old habits of locking down content avenues or limiting them to Sony content. With the wide array of third party streaming services available on PS3 and PS4, we've been optimistic that Sony has its head screwed on right about the ways consumers expect to access content. One thing is clear to us, no matter how the box functions at launch, to succeed in the streaming box market it will need to achieve parity with their set top competitors.
Early verdict
In all, Sony looks to be delivering an extremely compelling product in PlayStation TV. Achieving parity with it's streaming competitors should not be a challenge, and it has them far outclassed when it comes to gaming. In addition, it could be attractive as a gaming-only proposition, providing a very attractive $100 price point to those who might balk at paying $400 (about £238, AU$426) to $500 (about £297, AU$533) for a state of the art system. The ability for PS4 gamers to stream state-of-the-art games to it is icing on the cake. We're looking forward to getting our hands on PlayStation TV and putting it through its paces when it launches on October 14.
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Boost Mobile is getting the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus cheaper than Apple
This shouldn't come as a surprise, since Boost Mobile also carried the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, but the Sprint-owned carrier will begin selling the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus on October 17.
The nice surprise in this news is that Boost Mobile is selling the new iPhones at a significant discount compared with Apple's official prices (and other carriers).
In fact, Boost Mobile customers can get the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus contract-free for $100 off Apple's prices.
Not bad
Boost is charging $550, $650, and $750 for the 16, 64, and 128GB iPhone 6, respectively.Meanwhile the same sizes of the iPhone 6 Plus will cost $650, $750, and $850.
If you've been waiting for an excuse to buy the new iPhone, this might be it.
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in depth: What to consider when purchasing a business printer
Color quality, capabilities and speed
Printing a quick recipe for Wednesday night's taco night is a bit different than printing quality documents for an upcoming pitch meeting. There are several important differences between printers meant for everyday home use and those meant for the office.TechRadar Pro compiled these essential buying tips in order help enterprise customers make well-informed decisions.
Color quality
All printers are not alike. If you are solely printing letters and other monochromatic documents, there is probably little reason to consider a color printer. However, if you are printing high-quality business pitches, advertising flyers or other documents that require a strong visual display, then a color printer can save your business time and money. Invest in a printer that features solid output quality, and above-par graphics.Multi-function capabilities
In addition to a printer, is your business also looking to purchase new office input or output devices, such as copiers, scanners, or fax machines? If so, consider a multi-function device to consolidate space and expense. Multi-function devices save desk space and benefit from having a single technical-support source for handling multiple functions. Most multi-function devices cost less than $1000, which proves to be a budget saver opposed to shopping for several individual machines.Speed
Are you printing hundreds of pages at a time? If so, speed should be a top priority when purchasing your business printer. Judge speed carefully. It is inaccurate to compare claimed speeds for inkjets with claimed speeds for lasers. Laser printers will be close to their claimed speeds for text documents, which don't need much processing time. Inkjets may claim faster speeds than more expensive lasers, but sometimes fail to live up to expectations.Print speeds depend on how complex documents are and how many pages are to be printed. A 50 page text-only word document will probably print faster than a 100-megapixel photo printed on an A4 sheet. Printers used to rely a lot on the host computer for compute and memory resources but this has dramatically changed over the past few years. Some now integrate the same base hardware as a smartphone and can rapidly process even large image files.
Price, connections and where to buy
Price
While most printer vendors will calculate the cost per page, focus your calculations on the total cost of ownership. To compute the total cost of ownership, multiply the cost per page by the number of pages you print per year, then multiply that figure by the number of years that you expect to own the printer, and then add in the initial cost of the printer. Printers can range from a $99 expense up to more than $1,000 before you calculate energy consumption.Some printers can use a whopping 1KW when in use; that's about $100 per year. So, including energy consumption, the formula for the TCO for a printer's lifetime would approximately be:
TCO (p) = COP + AEC + initial cost of printer
Average electricity costs (AEC) = ((monthly expected amount of printed pages * number of months you expect to use the printer) / (60 *average print speed in PPM)) * power consumption in use in kW* average cost of electricity.
Cost of print (COP) = ((av. cost per printed page + cost of sheet) * monthly expected amount of printed pages * number of months you expect to use the printer)/100
Arguably, a lower total cost of ownership is highly desirable if you're looking for the printer that will cost you the cheapest in the long run. As a side note, cheap printers usually carry higher consumable costs (which often translates into a much higher TCO).
One vendor has also introduced a subscription-type print service that charges you on how many pages you print, not on what type of pictures you print while offering some level of flexibility; your ink cartridges are even automatically shipped. Works best if you plan to print a lot of photos.
Paper size
Generally speaking, the most common sizes are letter size in the US and A4 for the rest of the world. However, it is worth considering an A3 printer, especially if you plan to print brochures or posters. They're not significantly more expensive than their A4 counterparts but the cost per page is likely to be higher if you intend to print a lot on A3. The cost of a blank sheet of A3 is about thrice that of an A4 one.
Printer connections
All printers can connect using the ubiquitous USB port (the square one, in v2 mode) with mainstream models (and above) offering Ethernet ports. Wireless connectivity (either via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth) is also catching up with Wi-Fi direct being an increasingly popular option. Printers are also catching up with the whole cloud paradigm as well with many recent models compatible with cloud-based solutions (that enable print from anywhere and any devices) such as Google Cloud Print. Also consider whether you want one printer to be connected to an existing network to service more than one computer (e.g. in an office). Peripherals like a print server can be a helpful addition to your setup. Last, do consider that some printers can print direct from an attached storage (memory card, USB drive or even portable hard drive).Where to buy it
Buying in a brick-and-mortar store like Staples means that you can see, touch, feel and often get a print out to check the quality. Buying on the web however can be cheaper and vendors very often have marketing schemes that only work online like discount codes, freebies, clearance sales or one-off promotions.
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Minecraft digs into PS Vita next week, complete with cross-buy promotions
Sony announced in August that Minecraft was on its way to the PS Vita courtesy of experienced porters 4J Studios, but despite our suspicion that it would launch that month its release date has only just been divulged.
Sony Europe and Sony America have both revealed that Minecraft will launch digitally for PS Vita next week - October 14 in the US, and October 15 in the UK and Europe.
The retail version will follow on November 11.
Cross your heart
Luckily for rabid Minecraft fans the PS Vita adds some interesting cross-buy and upgrade opportunities to the game's ongoing saga.Minecraft players on PS3 will be able to download the Vita version for free, for example, and likewise Vita players who purchase it next week will also get the PS3 version.
And saves and DLC transfer between both too.
Meanwhile PS3/Vita players can always upgrade to the PS4 version for just $5 (about £3, AU$6).
It seems Minecraft is destined to be one of those games that's available on just about every platform. We're mainly relieved Microsoft's ownership of Mojang hasn't yet poisoned the pixelated Minecraft well.
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Sony announces open invite, 2-day 'PlayStation Experience' event in Vegas
Sony has just announced it's hosting an event in December that it says will feature "two intense days of PlayStation gaming, content, and activities."
But the best part is that everyone is invited.
The "PlayStation Experience" will take place in Las Vegas December 6-7 this year and feature panels, mixers with developers, and hands-on time with upcoming PlayStation titles.
Attendees are also promised plenty of shwag and the chance to shop for collectibles and knick knacks direct from game developers.
Who loves PlayStation?
"We've been planning this bad boy for some time… and with PlayStation's 20-year anniversary just around the corner, the timing couldn't be more perfect," Sony Social Media Manager Sid Shuman wrote in a PS blog post.He added that PlayStation Experience attendees will also get "an exclusive first look at what's coming next in 2015" that they won't want to miss.
Tickets are $50 (about £30, AU$60) or $90 (about £55, AU$100) for one- and two-day passes, respectively, and it looks like they'll go on sale October 20. You need to be 18 to go.
A PlayStation-focused convention is not a bad idea - if you really love PlayStation. The rest of us can stick with our PAXes and Comic-cons.
- Read TechRadar's newly updated PS4 review
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Blip: A Spanish comedy club is using facial recognition for nefarious purposes
Seriously, try not to laugh. At one Barcelona comedy club, it will cost you.
The club has fitted its seats with tablets that watch attendees and using facial recognition to tally up their laughs. They're then charged .30 euros (about $.38, £.24, AU$.43) by the giggle, up to a total of 24 euros (about $30.27, £18.90, AU$34.79). Watch a video about it on Vimeo.
As The Verge points, this is not a joke, despite how ridiculous it seems to literally punish customers at a comedy club for laughing. The system was previously covered by the likes of Europa Press and the BBC.
This was apparently meant to be an experiment, but now that it's effectively raised ticket prices other venues across Spain are looking to implement it as well. Joy.
More blips
We won't charge you anything to read more of our blips, no matter how often you laugh.- This guy put Windows 95 on an Android Wear smartwatch
- Got three hours to kill? Watch every Game Boy game start screen
- Take a gander at the new Minecraft Lego sets
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Thousands of private Snapchat photos have leaked online
Tens of thousands of private Snapchat photos have leaked online and are circulating around websites like 4Chan thanks to a security breach in a third-party app.
This isn't Snapchat's first security problem, though at least this one allegedly isn't the company's own fault.
Hackers have apparently been collecting private Snapchat photos for multiple years, amassing a 13GB database that they say they plan to make searchable by username.
This leak has been dubbed "The Snappening" by some, in reference to the recent leak of celebrity photos that was rudely called "The Fappening."
Oh Snap
Someone who claimed to be involved in the breach told Business Insider that the photos came from a now-defunct website called SnapSaved.com, which let users view their received Snaps online and save them.Apparently the site had saved every bit of content that passed through its servers, with usernames attached.
It's unclear if SnapSaved was created maliciously for the sole purpose of eventually leaking the images shared on it, or if hackers gained access to the site's servers without permission.
For its part Snapchat issued a statement confirming that the images came from a third-party source and that its own servers were not hacked.
"Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our Terms of Use precisely because they compromise our users' security," the company said. "We vigilantly monitor the App Store and Google Play for illegal third-party apps and have succeeded in getting many of these removed."
Since the images are practically guaranteed to contain some nude photos of underage Snapchat users, there will almost certainly be consequences for this.
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Android's Material Design look hits Google Play Store with 5.0 update
As Android L gets nearer and nearer Google has begun in earnest the process of updating its various core apps with the new Material Design aesthetic.
The latest beneficiary of this refresh is the Google Play Store app, which has just been updated to version 5.0.31.
The new Play Store app has the look, with a flatter yet bolder-colored aesthetic, and also comes with some UI changes.
Overall it seems to be a positive change, though naturally your mileage may vary.
Test drive
The new Google Play Store app, for example, places the "what's new" section of each app right at the top, so you no longer need to scroll down to see recent changes and updates.There are new icons as well, and a redesigned sidebar.
The Google Play 5.0 update is rolling out to Android devices now, although if you don't want to wait you can head to Phandroid to download the APK and sideload it manually.
Enjoy this test drive of Android L's design language before the newest Android update begins rolling out later this month.
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Updated: Nokia Here maps is out on Galaxy devices, and the Gear S should follow
Update: Samsung's only response to our query was to reiterate that the Samsung Gear S will launch this fall on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.
So maybe we're reading too much into this - or maybe the Gear S will indeed launch soon.
Original story follows…
Samsung and Nokia announced back in August that they were teaming up to bring the Here maps app to Galaxy devices, and now the app is available from Google Play.
Samsung handsets including the Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4, among any other running Android 4.1 with at least 1GB of RAM, should now have access to Here maps.
That's good news for Samsung users looking for a Google Maps alternative for whatever reason, but more importantly this may herald the impending release of the Samsung Gear S smartwatch.
Off the map
Back in August Samsung said Here maps would hit Galaxy devices by the time the Gear S is out. Like the four horsemen will herald the apocalypse, so Here maps should herald the Gear S.Now we have our Here maps, but no Gear S. What gives?
The Gear S has been pegged from the beginning with a nebulous "this fall" release date, but surely it should be out soon.
We've asked Samsung to make sure we didn't miss a Gear S press release in our junk folders or something, and we'll update here if we get anything useful in return.
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6 password management tools for the enterprise
For a large enterprise, having a policy in place that requires end users to pick strong passwords is not that effective – or even within most compliance regulations. There's still a possibility that users will go against the policy and choose a simple password, or that your IT support staff will have to assist users routinely when they forget a strong password.
Instead, a password manager forces users to have strong passwords, creates a schedule to determine when passwords have to change, and includes an admin console for controlling passwords and access to key services within the company. These password management tools also work across multiple operating systems and on mobile devices.
1. Centrify Enterprise
Web: http://www.centrify.com/enterprise-edition/features.aspA useful app in the IT security toolkit, Centrify Enterprise can track not just password authentication attempts and record a log of attempted break-ins, but it also monitors valid logins and can report on unusual activity (plus it tracks user activity). When there is suspicious activity, the tool can capture video of that activity. Like any good enterprise tool, Centrify can track and audit activity on multiple platforms including Windows, Linux, and UNIX servers. Reporting features include the ability to generate a user session report based on roles within a large company, and you can see a summary of all current logins across the entire enterprise.
2. LastPass Enterprise
Web: https://lastpass.com/enterprise/enterprise-featuresOne of the key benefits to using LastPass in the enterprise, especially for organisations that have to maintain data integrity and abide by strict compliance regulations, is that the password data is not accessible even to the LastPass admins. The app can use multi-factor authentication mediums like a thumb drive for better security, supports unusual browsers (like Dolphin on mobile devices), and can warn end users about weak passwords. The enterprise version manages employee on-boarding and off-boarding, generates a security "score" for your company, and supports policies like restricting access to a specific mobile device platform.
3. RoboForm Console
Web: http://www.siberenterprisegroup.com/roboformThe enterprise-grade version of RoboForm includes a site license to store and manage all passwords used in the company, full admin console for managing users and departments (including role-based groups), and advanced reporting that meets regulatory compliance issues. The admin console can be used to generate a password only for a set time period until it expires, or one group password that tracks activity for that department. When there is a group password, the end user in that department won't know the password but will login only as part of the group. Admins can also set up a password reset policy that is deployable through SMS to smartphones. The app includes extensions for use in IE, Chrome, and Firefox.
4. BeyondTrust PowerBroker Password Safe
Web: http://www.beyondtrust.com/Products/PowerBrokerPasswordSafeWith all of the auditing and session logging capabilities an enterprise needs, PowerBroker Password Safe goes beyond managing passwords and forcing end users to create strong passwords. The tool syncs with LDAP and Active Directory to provision users automatically, works with hardened appliances that use government-level security based on the FIPS 140-2 standard, and has a full reporting module for tracking login attempts and session activity. The reports can be used for regulatory compliance issues in case of a breach attempt.
5. Keeper for Groups
Web: https://keepersecurity.com/groupsWith 256-bit encryption and PBKDF2 key generation, Keeper for Groups is a high-end app for multi-user environments in a large company. There's a browser-based admin console for the IT staff to manage credentials, and the app runs on every mobile device imaginable, including smartphones and tablets on both Windows and Android platforms. Your admin team can track and manage all users, monitor which devices and OS platforms have gained access (and control access from those platforms), and track permissions to company services.
6. Dashlane 2.0
Web: https://www.dashlane.com/securityNot specifically designed for enterprise use, Dashlane encourages strong security because the tool is so easy to use. End users create one master account and then use the app on multiple browsers and mobile devices. The tool uses AES-256-bit encryption and, like any enterprise-grade password manager, does not store any of the passwords in a database that's accessible to any of the Dashlane admins. Using Google Authenticator, end users can add two-factor authentication beyond the master password. The main benefit is that Dashlane is a popular and highly useable tool, which means end users are more likely to keep using it to protect sensitive data and prevent hackers from breaking into their accounts.
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Week in Tech: Week in Tech: periscopes and self-parking cars
You've got to love HTC. While everybody else in the world is trying to make ever more powerful smartphones and tablets, HTC has decided that what we really need is a periscope. But it's no ordinary periscope, and this is no ordinary week: we've got spy-proof tablets, Windows on your wrist and the next generation of Google's Nexus tablet.
We all live in a selfie submarine
HTC's reinvented the periscope and called it the HTC Re. You don't need to live in a metal tube with lots of men to want one, though: it's designed as a GoPro rival and the ultimate selfie snapper. As Marc Flores explains, we'd rather see HTC Res than iPads above people's heads at gigs.HTC's also made some phones and tablets. We pit the HTC Desire Eye against the HTC One M8 to see how it fares against the flagship, and we've also found out about a little something called a Nexus 9. There's bad news for anyone waiting for HTC's smartwatch, though. That's been delayed until 2015.
HTC's new Nexus
HTC made the first ever Nexus phone, and now it's back in the Nexus business with the Nexus 9 tablet, which is due for release in late 2014. With late 2014 approaching fast, details and photos are starting to leak - such as a glimpse at the case and rear camera.Something in the (iPad) Air
Apple's unveiling the iPad Air 2 next week, and it might just be the first iOS device with 2GB of RAM. Not only that, but it might just be the thinnest tablet ever at just 7mm thick. There could even be a gold one.Back in black
Remember the Blackphone, the privacy-protecting Android tablet? It turns out that it's about to get a big brother. No, not that Big Brother. We mean a BlackPhone tablet. Speaking exclusively to Techradar, CTO Jon Callas explained that there are all kinds of BlackPhone devices coming soon. "This isn't our last phone and we're going to do a tablet," he said, explaining that there will be a variety of BlackPhone handsets to choose from.Would a mini Surface be a major mistake?
The long-rumoured and oft-shelved Surface Mini tablet may be about to make an appearance, and Gary Marshall isn't sure that's a good idea. "Why release a device that's destined to fail?" he asks. Marshall reckons Microsoft should wait for Windows 10, which "addresses the fundamental problem with a Windows RT tablet, which is of course Windows RT".How stuffed is Samsung?
Plummeting profits, dwindling market share, bezel gaps big enough to stick cardboard into… is everything OK at Samsung? While Samsung hopes we'll all get excited about the Samsung Galaxy Alpha Gary Marshall investigates reports that Samsung's smartphone business is in trouble. While the big numbers are still big - "revenues and profits are still in the billions" - the smartphone market Samsung currently dominates is changing and becoming much more competitive. "It's not that Samsung got bad," Marshall says. "It's that everybody else got good."Unveiling the D
Tesla's just launched its next-generation electric car, the Tesla D. It reads road signs and adjusts its speeds accordingly. It can change lanes automatically. It can park itself when you get out. It will brake before it hits an object. In sum, it's really, really cool. The D stands for "dual motor", as it includes two motors to power both the front and back wheels, while the current Model S is only a rear-wheel-drive vehicle.Put Windows on your watch
In what's arguably the most useless hack since somebody put Doom on a laser printer, Corbin Davenport has got Windows 95 running on a Samsung Gear Live smartwatch. "Has science gone too far?" he asks. We'd say yes, but there is a serious point here: if you remember the price, weight and terrible battery life of Windows 95 laptops, the sight of the same operating system running on a watch shows just how far tech has come.
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HTC One M8 gets Eye Experience update one day after launch
It might have been only yesterday that HTC announced its new and improved camera app known as the Eye Experience, but if you're a European owner of the flagship HTC One M8 smartphone, then you should be getting the updated app right now.
The Eye Experience app was revealed in detail at HTC's Double Exposure event alongside HTC's new photo-focused handset the HTC Desire Eye.
Although the Eye Experience app will be closely associated with the HTC Desire Eye, HTC also announced during the event that the app will be making its way to its other flagship devices such as the HTC One M8.
Eye drops
The latest update, known as software build 3.28.401.6, is a 252.01MB download and will add the new camera app. Not only that, but the update also officially updates Android running on the HTC One M8 firmware to Android 4.4.4.The Eye Experience app includes a number of innovations, such as Auto-Selfie, which will take photos with the front-facing camera when the phone has been held still for two seconds.
Voice controls are also included, so it will take a photo when you say "say cheese", or begin recording a video when you say "action".
If you're not in Europe then you hopefully won't have to wait long to see the update, with HTC promising it will be making its way to handsets this month.
- Read our hands on review of the HTC Desire Eye
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