IT News Head Lines (Techradar) 01/09/2015

movie week: Fear The Walking Dead's Greg Nicotero on creating new zombies and adapting to 4K

The Walking Dead is a global phenomenon. It's currently the most watched show on cable TV, sending comic books sales of the source material through the roof and establishing its own spin off series less than five years after starting out.
One of the key elements behind the show's success has to be the incredible attention to detail that goes into making-up the show's stars. Forget Rick Grimes, it's all about those walkers. Whether it's bicycle girl from the pilot episode, the well walker from Hershel's farm or Michonne's pets – everyone has their favourite walker.
And the likelihood is Greg Nicotero had something to do with your favourite mound of rotting flesh. He's co-executive producer, special FX make-up designer and sometimes director on the series and is now producer on the new spin off series Fear The Walking Dead.

With special effects credits ranging from Scream to Kill Bill, Day of the Dead to Deadwood, Inglorious Basterds to Breaking Bad – you name it, Nicotero has had something to do with it.
We spoke with the effects mastermind before the premiere of Fear The Walking Dead to discuss the new series, its effect on the main show, and what he and his mate Quentin Tarantino have got up to in the meantime.

Fear The Walking Dead is set at the start of the zombie apocalypse – does that pose a lot of new opportunities for the special effects team?

It does. When we first started out on the original series we were about six to eight weeks into the zombie apocalypse so we were able to play up more decomposition.
Here one of the things Dave Erickson and Robert Kirkman were very specific about was we wanted to make sure you had to look twice at some of these infected people to tell they had something wrong with them.
That was kind of fun. It means we're not getting into a bunch of rotting flesh but we are taking advantage of the opportunity to see people struggle with the zombies and the exact result of stab wounds, gun shot wounds and things like that.
The damage to the infected is much more immediate.

What's your favourite example in the new series?

In the first three episodes there are all examples of what I'm talking about. In episode one, the first walker we see, she turns around and there's a knife sticking out of her chest. That was something I pitched to Dave as it'd help sell this.
Nick is having this hallucination but we were implying violence in and amongst what has happened in this moment.
She was clearly attacking someone who'd stabbed her but they'd died in the attack so the knife stayed embedded in her chest. It's all those little nuances that help tell the story. It's something that's very important to me in any character or make up effect that I design – it has to tell part of the story.
The nice thing is in episode two and episode three we have similar instances where the effect is not just done for the sake of a cool gag or gore. But it's done in service of the story. It goes to show and educate our characters what the world is now about.

Has the introduction of 4K meant you have to make any changes to the effects?

For sure. The amount of detail that you're able to see in digital versus film is exponential.
The blend edges on the pores, the colouration of the make-up and prosthetics, all of that has to be much more precise. Even going from the pore texture on our performers compared to the pore texture on the prosthetics. You really see everything in 4K, the colours are much more vibrant.
One of the reasons that we initially chose film for The Walking Dead was because we felt it gave a much more classic horror kind of feel. The grain of the film works to the benefit of what we wanted to tell.
In Fear The Walking Dead we wanted a much crisper, cleaner look in that instance. There have been times when we've had to be cautious. When you're filming a close up of an infected person, they have contact lenses in and you have to be careful you're not seeing where they end.
So we did a lot of different make up tests during our prep and photographed them. We looked at the colours of the blood and the way the make-up reacts to different lighting scenarios.
These are all things that we still test when shooting on film but we had to learn our ground rules a little differently on the new series.
For visual effects, shooting digitally helps and actually saves money as you don't have to digitise a negative. You can just use digital information to begin doing your CGI work. In that instance it gives us big savings in terms of money and time.

Are there more digital effects in Fear The Walking Dead because of that?

No, but the digital effects are different.
We're dealing the start of the outbreak so seeing areas of Los Angeles and areas of Southern California become increasingly more desolate as the outbreak occurs and as the curfew bursts, things like that.
I think the visual effects are not as noticeable as they are on The Walking Dead when you see someone being decapitated, when the blood really sprays, or herds of thousands of zombies, where you know they're digital augmented shots. I feel in Fear the Walking Dead the shots will be a lot less visible to the viewer.

How have you found the location change to LA?

The nice thing about the Los Angeles location is it gives a new character. We have LA as a character in the show and Adam Davidson, our director, really embraced that so that you get a real flavour for it.
In The Walking Dead the prison was its own character and Woodbury was its own character, even the woods where we were shooting in after the prison were their own character.
It gives us a lot of opportunities in terms of visuals and it gives us a great opportunity in terms of diversity of the cast. In the long run, when we get into future seasons, it gives us a great opportunity to explore different locales. I know we've talked about desert and seaside locations potentially.
It provides us with a much richer landscape compared to say this urban scenario of you know what Los Angeles gives us.

How does it feel to leave directing and head back to special effects?

Special effects are always my first love and big passion.
While we were shooting the Fear The Walking Dead pilot, I think it was a 12 or 15 day shoot, I was also supervising the effects for The Hateful Eight and a couple of other projects.
During Walking Dead we shoot for seven months of the year so I have five months hiatus I'm able to work on other projects and most of the time I'm working with Robert Rodriguez and in this instance I was working on The Hateful Eight with Quentin.
I love it. Having the opportunity to direct on The Walking Dead has made me a much better make-up effects artist because I'm able to present ideas to directors with a different perspective.
That started on Django Unchained where I was able to design effects that are based on coverage I anticipated the director will shoot.
When Jamie Foxx is hanging upside down in Django Unchained being tortured, I thought as a director we can't hang that actor upside down for more than four minutes, but we could make a full size dummy that's articulated. You could shoot past the dummy in the foreground at Sam Jackson and it won't bother anybody.
So the opportunity was to shoot more coverage than it seems, so when we were prepping this movie I thought, "yeah this is great, we never would have thought that we'd need this."
You might not think it now but when you get into shooting you want to have the freedom to move the camera around to where you see fit so having the opportunity to direct on The Walking Dead has allowed me to look at make up effects from that perspective. And I think it benefits the projects.

Any plans to direct away from The Walking Dead?

I do have to say that currently The Walking Dead is a full time job. I'd love to do more, Robert Rodriguez has offered me other things to go shoot, but by the time I start on The Walking dead in April and wrap at Christmas time I haven't really been able to figure out how to squeeze another movie into a four month period.
Now Fear The Walking Dead will be shooting during our hiatus it's going to be 365-days a year zombies for me. Which I'm not complaining about at all.

How do you feel about the recent trend of horror making its way to TV?

I love that people have embraced horror on TV. It has always been the one genre that's been challenging to pull off.
Science fiction has always been very popular on TV starting with Star Trek to the Twilight Zone, to the X Files.
They're all fantastic shows but horror has been a lot trickier. I think one of the big reasons that The Walking Dead was successful was because it really took its roots from Night of the Living Dead.
I think with American Horror Story and Bates Motel on, there's some genuinely scary stuff on TV. The filmmakers that have been putting the material forward have been pushing the envelope.
I love the idea that American Horror Story has a different tone and story every season. It's not just going back to the same well each week, it's really bold, ground-breaking and original. I love that, it just gives you a little more bang for your buck.
With The Walking Dead we've been able to raise the bar in terms of what we could do on TV.
I remember when Day of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead came out – those movies were unrated. You couldn't even go to the movie theatre to see those films unless you were over 18. And now we're able to put like material on cable and stuff we couldn't do literally 10-15 years ago in the theatres, without getting an unrated film, we're now able to do on television.

What can you tease from the rest of Fear The Walking Dead?

I think the most exciting thing about Fear is the story we've been able to craft over the first six episodes and the level of suspense. I love the idea of being able to learn about our society through the character's eyes. The big challenge is the viewers already know what's going on.
It's much more of a Hitchcockian suspense in terms of that bit where you're waiting for the characters to catch on and you're screaming at them going "don't go in that door" or "don't go to that person". It's a different dynamic.

What can you share about season six of The Walking Dead?

Every season I always feel like I'm talking about how the fact it's us doing more than we ever have before – we're doing bigger, our stories continue to get more ambitious and our cast grows.
We have 18 characters somewhere in there and we have a responsibility and an obligation to their characters and their storylines. It's a very complex season so far.
The season premiere has got to take the ship out of the hangar and set our story on the water. It's a fantastic episode that Scott Gimple wrote and I directed; it really does launch our characters story which will lead us through the entire first half of the season.
It lays all the groundwork in the first episode.

Fear The Walking Dead premiers in the UK tonight at 9pm on the AMC from BT channel in HD or for those on Freeview it'll also be on BT showcase. In the US the series continues Sunday nights at 9PM.

The Walking Dead returns October 11 in the US and October 12 in the UK with a special 90-minute premiere episode.

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10 ways Microsoft can improve Windows 10

Introduction

So what does Microsoft need to do in order to make Windows 10 a better product? That's the question we're pondering in this feature, and we've come up with 10 ways in which Redmond could improve its new operating system.
For starters, Microsoft can bring all those promised missing features to the new Edge web browser in short order. We'd also like to see the company tighten up the new Start menu, and indeed Windows Update for that matter.
Read on for our full wish-list…

• For another perspective, check out: 20 smart new and improved features in Windows 10

Bring Edge up to scratch

The new Edge browser in Windows 10 is fast and has a rendering engine that copes with sites written for Chrome and PC that often don't work in Internet Explorer. But it's lacking a lot of features as a browser – it doesn't sync favourites or open tabs to other devices, it doesn't yet have extensions and you can't drag files into web pages to upload them.
Those capabilities are all expected for future updates, but another missing feature hasn't yet been confirmed. Because the Edge browser is a universal app (for security as well as ease of updating), you can pin the Edge app to the taskbar but not any secondary windows. And that means you can't pin specific sites to the taskbar and there isn't an easy way for Microsoft to add that option, even though it's a popular request.

OneDrive placeholders and browsing

Windows 10 drops the Windows 8.1 deep OneDrive integration, where you could use File Explorer to navigate your whole OneDrive even if you didn't have enough disk space to sync it all to your PC, using placeholders to show you the files you weren't syncing – even when you weren't online.
Like Windows 7, Windows 10 only shows you the files and folders you've chosen to sync. So if you have thousands of photos or audio tracks in the cloud that don't fit on your computer, you can only look at them in the browser. And if you want to add a document to a folder you're not syncing, you can't do that straight from the application where you create the document.
Microsoft can't just bring back placeholders the way they were because they use too much space on small tablets, and it hasn't yet given any details of the promised replacement. You can get some of the placeholder features back with Odrive, but that doesn't give you image thumbnails so it's not a complete replacement.

Better ways to arrange windows

You can use virtual desktops to arrange specific applications together, but Windows 10 doesn't remember the position or size of different windows very well – every time you restart to apply an update, you have to restart your apps by hand (Windows 8.1 would restart Explorer and other apps for you) and then resize all your apps and windows. It would save a lot of time to be able to save specific sizes, positions and arrangements of windows.
It would also be useful to be able to snap something beyond two horizontal windows or four in a grid; how about three vertical windows? Or how about being able to resize two windows at once, so you make one bigger and one smaller at the same time, even when you're not in tablet mode?

Smarter Start menu

Happy to have the Start menu rather than the Windows 8.1 Start screen? Make sure you don't add more than 512 entries or you won't see all your Start menu items. Not only would we like Microsoft to fix this bug, but we'd like far more options for choosing how the All Apps menu works. No matter how big you make the Start menu, the list of installed apps stays in a narrow column, with program groups collapsed, and with only a tiny icon to show that PowerPoint is hiding in the Microsoft Office group.
Take a hint from the many Start screen replacements that offer far more customisation and give people more ways to organise apps.

Bring back Store features

Now that the Windows and Windows Phone Stores have been fully unified, it's time for more of the Store features to come back – especially on the web. For a start, we'd like the Store to be far more reliable – it's the app most likely to have connectivity problems, and there have been numerous bugs where app updates don't download automatically.
But we also miss the ability to send apps to another device; you used to be able to browse the Windows Phone Store on the web and send apps to your phone automatically. Now if you see an interesting phone app when you're on your PC, you have to remember to pick up your phone and look for it.
Given how common mobile web browsing is, being able to send apps to your PC from your phone would get a lot more Windows Store apps installed – and that's what Microsoft needs to get developers interested.

Put everything in Windows Update

Windows as a Service means that more people use Windows Update; on Windows 10 Home you don't get the option. We'd like to see Microsoft push OEMs like Dell, HP, Samsung and Lenovo to put all their essential drivers and updates in Windows Update so users don't have to run two update tools.
Even if you buy a PC from the Microsoft Store with the Signature version of Windows that doesn't include crapware, you're going to have to use the vendor update process to get driver and firmware updates that Microsoft's own Surface PCs get from Windows Update.
That would also make it less likely that PC makers will try to disable Windows Update the way Samsung did, or push updates that sneakily install software you haven't asked for the way Lenovo has done, or that cause security problems (again, we're looking at you, Lenovo).

Fix audio management

Right-click on the volume icon in the taskbar and you can open the Volume Mixer to set the volume for different desktop apps, or mute them altogether – but it doesn't control the volume for Store apps, which means it doesn't control Edge but it does control IE.
Edge will show you which tab is playing audio with an icon you can use to mute it. Why can't Microsoft put it all together and give us volume controls and mute buttons for every tab and every app and program on the system?

One Windows interface

Microsoft has said that eventually, the Settings app will have all the settings and controls from Control Panel, though we don't know how long it will be before you stop jumping between the two of them.
We'd like to see all the Windows interface pieces get the same makeover so they look like they belong in the same operating system. At the moment, the menu you see when you right-click on the taskbar looks very different from the menus you see when you right-click icons in the taskbar, which look different from the context menus for items in the system tray…
There are lots of places where there are out of date interface styles in Windows.

Notification history and sync

The new Action Center in Windows 10 shows you alerts from a mix of system tools and installed apps – including Outlook 2013 as well as Store apps. But you can't collapse a group of notifications, you can only delete them – and when they're gone, they're gone for good. If it's useful to put all your notifications in the same place, a history of old notifications all in one place would be just as useful.
And when you have multiple devices – whether that's a desktop and a tablet or a notebook and a Windows smartphone, wouldn't it be much more useful if dismissing the alerts from Twitter on your phone cleared them on your PC as well?

A visible backlog

Microsoft is giving users much less detail about what bugs have been fixed in Windows, unless they're security problems where you can still dig into the details. Unless you plan to pick and choose updates – something Microsoft isn't encouraging – it's not necessarily useful to know what's fixed in enormous detail, although it's nice to know when a problem you've had is supposed to be fixed, in case it still doesn't work.
But we also have no idea what's coming or when, unless it's a web standard that the Edge browser could use – in which case you can see exactly what Microsoft is going to implement and how high a priority that has. The Uservoice site for Edge web developers has over a dozen items marked as in development, whereas the Uservoice site for Edge users has only two suggestions with an official status and one of them is no.
The Insider Hub tells you how much feedback you've submitted, but not whether Microsoft is working on any of it. The Windows team has a list of items they're working on for Windows. Some of them have to stay as surprises for competitive reasons, but when they're bug fixes and requested features, people would be much happier to apply all those updates if they knew something they wanted was on the way.











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Buying Guide: Best Vodafone phones: 5 we recommend

Vodafone may have had its reputation seriously damaged a few years back thanks to lacklustre service and network performance, but it has worked hard to fix things.
These days, Vodafone's network is as robust as you would hope, and while it may not have quite the same coverage as Telstra, it still manages to hit the majority of the population.
Perhaps more appealing is the fact that generally, Vodafone has cheaper handset repayments than Telstra plans and Optus plans, even if the range of handsets on offer doesn't quite match its competitors.
If that doesn't tickle your fancy, the introduction of affordable roaming plans as well as partnerships with the likes of Stan and Spotify, might be enough to sway you to the international telco.
If you're still not sure, it's also worth remembering that Vodafone continues to offer a 30-day guarantee with all long-term contracts, so you can try the network before being fully committed to paying for it month after month.

Apple iPhone 6

Apple pulled off a return to form with the release of the iPhone 6.
While the past few generations of iPhone have been somewhat lacklustre – from stagnant design and a slightly stale operating system – the combination of a larger screen, TouchID and iOS 8 make the iPhone 6 a superb option for Vodafone customers.
While the iPhone 6 is one of the more expensive options for Vodafone customers (you'll be paying a minimum of $5 a month in handset repayments no matter your plan for the 16GB version), it's a versatile and intelligent handset that is arguably worth the expense.
To grab an iPhone on a Vodafone plan, you'll be paying anywhere between $74 a month (16GB iPhone, 500MB of data) and $112 a month (128GB iPhone, 10GB of data).

• Read our iPhone 6 review
• Compare Vodafone's iPhone 6 plans

Huawei Ascend Mate 7 4G

If you're searching for a phone that's a little more budget friendly, without sacrificing too much performance, the Huawei Ascend Mate 7 4G may be the Vodafone phone for you.
While it's definitely not for the small-handed thanks to its 6-inch Full HD screen, the "big is beautiful" philosophy definitely works here, especially given the asking price.
Available for as little as $40 a month (500MB of data), the Ascend Mate 7 is a fantastically specced phone for a budget price.

• Read our Huawei Ascend Mate 7 review
• Compare Vodafone's Huawei Ascend Mate 7 plans

Samsung Galaxy S6

The Galaxy S6 is a return to form for Samsung after the slightly disappointing Galaxy S5, shooting straight to the top spot in our best mobile phones roundup.
This, naturally, also makes it a fantastic option for Vodafone customers looking for a new state-of-the-art Android handset.
Unfortunately for the budget-conscious, the S6 is another premium handset thanks to its amazing screen, impressive processor and high performing camera.
The cheapest option for a Galaxy S6 on plan is $65 a month (32GB Galaxy S6, 500MB of data), while $104 a month will get you the 128GB model and 10GB of data.
There is also the Galaxy S6 Edge alternative, for those who like their handsets with bent sides, but it's slightly pricier.

• Read our Galaxy S6 review
• Compare Vodafone's Galaxy S6 plans

HTC One M9

The HTC One family of phones has been top of the charts for the past couple of years, so you know there's quality embedded in that brushed aluminium body.
While this year's One M9 may have dropped down a few notches in our top 10 rankings, it's still a spectacular option for smartphone users, especially those who aren't the biggest fan of Samsung's TouchWiz UI.
The One M9 definitely resides on the premium end of the smartphone spectrum, but given the lack of different capacity models, actually becomes more affordable on the more expensive Vodafone plans.
The cheapest option will still set you back $66 a month over 24 months, with 500MB of data. If you need more than that paltry amount, you can select up to 10GB of data, which will cost you $100 per month.

• Read our HTC One M9 review
• Compare Vodafone's HTC One M9 plans

Sony Xperia Z3

Despite the uniform look of its Z handsets, Sony came out swinging with the impressive Xperia Z3. And while it's getting a little old now, it's still a good third option for Android fans looking to avoid Samsung and HTC.
It sits heavily in the hand – as you'd expect a slab of glass to do – but the Z3's design feels premium. And it's water-resistant as well, which is a unique selling point now that Samsung's traded its spill-proofing for improved looks with the Galaxy S6.
Its age also makes it a bit more affordable – thought not as affordable as Huawei's handset – with prices starting at $57 a month (with 500MB of data).

• Read our Sony Xperia Z3 review
• Compare Vodafone's Sony Xperia Z3 plans

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UPDATED: How to watch the MTV VMAs full show video

2015 MTV VMAs full show video

The 2015 MTV VMAs live stream was messy, but you can still watch the full show video that everyone will be talking down about this week.
The basic cable channel is repeating its Video Music Awards through its MTV channel, just in case you ran into the streaming problems we experienced all night.
It's also repeating the full online video on demand, but only through its iOS and Android apps. You have to download the official MTV app and need a cable provider login.

It's your one and only chance to actually watch music videos on the TV channel these days. Take advantage of the musical performances while you still can.
Sadly, MTV isn't repeating the online stream through a computer. However, we'll post the full show if an online version becomes available.

MTV VMA highlights video

Miley Cyrus hosted tonight's MTV Video Music Awards, so there were plenty of highlights to watch in case you missed the full show.
Luckily, MTV is showing a best of clipshow through its website. Here are the top performances, victory speeches and celebrity antics you should look for:

• Kayne West says he's running for President in 2020
• Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift sing "Trini Dem Girls" and "Night Is Still Young"
• Miley Cyrus and The Flaming Lips sing the MTV VMAs finale
• Macklemore & Ryan Lewis sing "Downtown" in Downtown Los Angeles
• Miley Cyrus MTV VMAs opener with 'jokes'
• Uptown Funk" from Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars wins Best Male Video
• The Weeknd sings "Can't Feel My Face" in the face of fire
• "Anaconda" from Nicki Minaj wins for Best Hip Hop Video
• Justin Bieber cries after finishing a medley performance at the VMA VMAs
• Taylor Swift wins Video of the Year - of course, of course
• Miley Cyrus had "wardrobe malfunction" that we felt was overly scripted. We won't be linking to that one. You all have the internet.

MTV VMA winners list

Here are all of the winners of the 2015 MTV VMAs, in case you were looking for the full list:
Video of the Year went to Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar for "Bad Blood." She beat out Beyoncé with "7/11," Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars with "Uptown Funk," Ed Sheeran with "Thinking Out Loud" and Kendrick Lamar's own "Alright."

Best Male Video went to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars for "Uptown Funk," making sure the two collaborators didn't go home empty handed. Also nominated for this MTV VMA were Nick Jonas with "Chains," Kendrick Lamar with "Alright," Ed Sheeran with Thinking Out Loud" and The Weeknd with "Earned It."
Best Female Video went to Taylor Swift, obviously, but this time for "Blank Space." Even with a different music video, she still beat Beyonce's "7/11" Ellie Goulding's "Love Me Like You Do," Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda" and Sia's "Elastic Heart."
The Artist to Watch VMA award went to Fetty Wap, who performed "Trap Queen," Best Rock Video went to Fall Out Boy for "Uma Thurman," and Best Hip-Hop Video was claimed by Nicki Minaj for "Anaconda."

Best Collaboration prize happened to be Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar again, with Bad Blood, Best Direction went to Colin Tilley and the Little Homies, who directed Kendrick Lamar's "Alright," and best Choreography sashayed its way over to OK Go for their "I Won't Let You Down."
Best Visual Effects went to Skrillex with "Where Are U Now," Best Art Direction to Snoop Dogg for "So Many Props," and Best Editing did help claim one award for Beyonce's "7/11."
The last three awards to mention: Best Cinematography went to Flying Lotus with "Never Catch Me," Best Video with a Social Message went to Big Sean for "One Man Can't Change the World," and the fan-voted Song of the Summer quite fittingly went to 5 Seconds of Summer with "She's Kinda Hot." The boy band's song title was trending on Twitter earlier, which surely helped score extra last-minute votes.
As pointed out earlier in the 2015 MTV VMA video highlights, Kanye declared that he's running for President in 2020, and he did that during his long Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award speech. Too bad he can't join the next Presidential Debate live stream.
This annual MTV Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to him by none other than Taylor Swift. Looks like she was willing to part with this one seeing how it was actually intended for him.

2015 MTV VMA performances

The much-talked-about on-stage highlights and the MTV VMA winners are only half of the story every year. 2015 also featured a number of good, and not so good performances.
Nicki Minaj kicked things off with Taylor Swift, singing a trio of her songs and one of Swift's, "Trini Dem Girls," "The Night Is Still Young," and "Bad Blood." If you couldn't tell by all of the previously mentioned awards, that last one is Swift's song.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis danced through Downtown Los Angeles with the appropriate "Downtown" and "Can't Hold Us" right outside the historic Orpheum Theatre. That's where we'll be at for at least one E3 2016 press conference next year. They were joined by Eric Nally, Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee and Grandmaster Caz.
The Weeknd was almost on fire - literally. He sang "Can't Feel My Face" while pyrotechnics went off in the background. It got cooler when Demi Lovato and Iggy Azalea performed "Cool for the Summer" outside of the Orpheum Theatre.
Justin Bieber got all emotional with "Where Are U Now" and "What Do You Mean." As mentioned in the highlight video above, he cried at the end. These weren't your average Bieber upbeat songs, to say the least.

Tori Kelly performed "Should've Been Us," Pharrell Williams lit up the outside stage one last time with "Freedom" and Twenty One Pilots and ASAP Rocky had four forgettable songs. Miley Cyrus closed out the show with Dooo It, a new song that the MTV VMA host promoted you buy right after she sang it for the first time. It was the ultimate narcissism or synergy, your pick.

• Best phone display? See our Samsung Galaxy Note 5 review

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UPDATED: The 25 best shows on Stan

Best Stan TV shows: 25 great Stan TV series

Anyone who's used the streaming service Stan knows that there's a veritable smorgasbord of great content available to stream at any given moment, which can make the decision of what to watch an overwhelming prospect.
This is why we've created the TechRadar guide to the greatest TV shows on Stan right now (in no particular order). We'll keep this best TV show list constantly updated with the latest television shows that you should be watching and also tell you why.

• Check out our in-depth Stan review

1. Breaking Bad

One of the most successful and critically-acclaimed shows of all time, Breaking Bad follows Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a high-school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with cancer. With death on the horizon, Walter assumes the alter-ego Heisenberg and puts his chemistry knowledge to use in the production of crystal meth, with help from his drug dealing ex-student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). How far will Walter go to provide for his family, and will they even be around when all is said and done? Truly, one of the most riveting television shows to ever hit the small screen, Breaking Bad is essential viewing.
Seasons on Stan: 5

2. Hannibal

Possibly the most gorgeously grotesque show on television (American Horror Story doesn't even come close), Hannibal follows the world's most famous cannibal psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), as he attempts to evade discovery by his friends, FBI profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) and FBI director Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne). Fans of serial killer thrillers owe it to themselves to check out Hannibal, as the show manages to be even more horrifying than the Thomas Harris novels and films it's based on. It also happens to be the best-looking show currently on the air, with an operatic flair that puts most films to shame.
Seasons on Stan: 2

3. Better Call Saul

Due to the immense success of his previous show, Breaking Bad, creator Vince Gilligan was given the opportunity to create this prequel spin-off series set six years prior. The show follows the fan favourite character Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) and the events of his life which led him to become the delightfully crooked lawyer we know and love. Similar in style and tone to Breaking Bad (though not quite as grim), Better Call Saul is a welcome continuation of a beloved franchise. Expect to see lots of familiar faces as the show progresses.
Seasons on Stan: 1

4. Community

Following the exploits of a particularly low-rent community college, Community is a geeky, pop-culture obsessed delight. Community's homaging of all things movies, television and video games is spot on and incredibly realised, due to top notch direction, writing and performances. Best of all, the entire series is available on Stan, with new episodes appearing on the service as soon as they air in the United States.
Seasons on Stan: 6

5. Transparent

A family's world gets flipped upside down when it's discovered their father Mort (Jeffrey Tambor) is transgender. Having always felt like a woman in a man's body, Mort starts to go by the name of Maura, letting his blossoming femininity take over and providing the family with a new mother figure. The show explores the topical subject of gender identity better than any show in recent memory, dealing with the subject in a realistic and sensitive way that still manages to be humorous.
Seasons on Stan: 1

6. Justified

A western series set in the modern day, Justified sees tough-as-nails U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) return to his hometown of Kentucky to dole out some seriously old-school justice. He'll also have to deal with his old acquaintance Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), a petty criminal posing as a white supremacist who may or may not get a chance to turn his life around. Seriously good stuff.
Seasons on Stan: 6

7. Star Trek

Completely remastered in high definition, Star Trek: The Original Series is a remarkably entertaining voyage into the depths of outer space. Join Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and the rest of USS Enterprise's crew as they navigate the mysterious and unknown cultures found deep in our universe. Trek fans can also stream Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on Stan.
Seasons on Stan: 4

8. Spartacus

Before he was the showrunner for Marvel's Daredevil, Steven DeKnight worked on the gratuitously violent and sexual series Spartacus. At first glance, you'd be forgiven for thinking that there's nothing more to the show than meat-headed beefcakes fighting and screwing in a 300-aping manner, but there's so much more going on – we follow Spartacus (the late Andy Whitfield and his replacement, Liam McIntyre) as he is taken into slavery and forced to do cruel and unimaginable things in the gladiatorial arena, just waiting for the day that he can finally get his revenge on slave-owners Batiatus (John Hannah) and Lucretia (Lucy Lawless). All of this culminates in one of the most satisfying season finales in recent memory. Be warned – this show is filled with grotesque violence and an immense amount of sex and nudity. It's like Game of Thrones times ten.
Series on Stan: 4

9. Freaks and Geeks

On the list of shows that were tragically cut down before their prime, Number 1 is Firefly. Number 2, however, is Freaks and Geeks, the show that served as a launching pad for some of our favourite stars in comedy today. Brash, mischievous and hysterical, James Franco, Jason Segel and Seth Rogen provide a perfect counter-balance for the tepid (and completely loveable) Linda Cardellini. The show scores a spot in our hearts because at the end of the day we've all been Cardellini's character, Lindsay. We've all been picked on, called a nerd and genuinely loved something - whether that's phones, computers, televisions, whatever. And just when you think you'll never fit in, the right group of people somehow find their way into your life.
Series on Stan: 1

10. Magic City

Magic City is a show that struggled to find an audience while it was on television, though this should not reflect its quality – this show is seriously cool. Playing like a cross between Mad Men and The Sopranos, Magic City gives us an inside look at the glitzy and volatile happenings surrounding the famous Miramar hotel in Miami at the tail end of the 1950s. Ike Evens (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) wants to run a legitimate business, but he's forced to contend with the violent and psychotic mob boss Ben 'The Butcher' Diamond (Danny Huston). This incredibly sexy (and sex-filled) show also stars Jessica Marais (of Packed to the Rafters fame) and Olga Kurylenko. What better way to give Magic City a second chance than to stream it right now on Stan?
Seasons on Stan: 2

11. Masters of Horror

True to its name, the anthology-style series Masters of Horror gives some of the genre's biggest directors an hour-long episode to produce the creepiest, most horrific stories they can come up with. Sure, some are better than others, but you're guaranteed to experience shivers up your spine with at least a few of these mini-movies. Master horror directors include Dario Argento (Suspiria), John Carpenter (Halloween), Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator), Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), Takashi Miike (Audition) and more!
Seasons on Stan 2

12. Life of Mars

DCI Sam Tyler is cop on the trail of a killer in 2006. His partner's been taken captive, and the pressure is on to find her before it's too late. But when Tyler gets hit by a car on the way to a crime scene, he awakens in the year 1973, with no idea of what he's doing there, or how to get back. He quickly finds out that being a cop in Manchester during the '70s is like being on a different planet – things are not quite as progressive, to say the least. A wonderful drama with a comedic edge, Life on Mars recalls old UK cop-show favourites like The Sweeney, albeit with a knowing satirical wink.
Seasons on Stan: 2

13. Misfits

Think of it as Skins with superpowers. A group of sexed-up, troubled British youths are all doing community service together when a crazy storm rolls in and gives each of them powers they can barely comprehend. Will they use those powers for good, or will they use them to get into more mischief? Great writing and a great cast (some of which go on to appear in Game of Thrones) make this show highly recommended.
Seasons on Stan: 5

14. Twin Peaks

One of the most classic and mind-blowing television shows of all time, Twin Peaks redefined the general public's perception of what a television drama was supposed to be like. Creator David Lynch presented the world with a standard murder mystery scenario, which would go on to become more bizarre and out there with every episode. When popular high school student Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) is found murdered, FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) arrives in the town of Twin Peaks with two agendas – to find out who killed her, and to eat some damn fine cherry pie. Peppered with a range of eccentric characters, Twin Peaks is one-of-a-kind.
Seasons on Stan: 2

15. Constantine

Unfairly cancelled before its time, the television adaption of the DC Comics/Vertigo comic Constantine (a.k.a. Hellblazer) was considered by fans to be a much truer representation of the character than the one that appeared in the film version starring Keanu Reeves. John Constantine was back to being blonde, back to being British and back to being a wise-cracking bad-ass. Sure, it's not perfect, but neither was the first season of Arrow. Speaking of that particular DC television show, Constantine fans will get to see the character return to TV in an upcoming Arrow/Constantine crossover event. If you love comic book shows, consider Constantine a must-watch.
Seasons on Stan: 1

16. Deadwood

HBO's western series Deadwood was devastatingly cancelled before its time, but thankfully we can relive the show's harsh and brutal world on Stan in its entirety. Ex-lawman Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant, clearly loving his status as a modern day western hero) arrives in the lawless town of Deadwood to start a hardware business and provide for his dead brother's family. Before long, the crime and corruption of this town, headed by bar owner Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), forces Bullock back into the life he tried so desperately to leave behind. Deadwood is an utterly fantastic show.
Seasons on Stan: 3

17. The Shield

A cop show with a difference, The Shield follows a tactical strike team headed by Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) that is as violent and corrupt as the street gangs it faces on a daily basis. Set in the fictional Los Angeles district of Farmington, Mackey and his crew (which includes Justified's Walton Goggins) must cover their tracks so that their ghastly exploits aren't discovered by detectives Claudette (CCH Pounder) and Dutch (Jay Karnes). Somewhat of a precursor to the show Sons of Anarchy, which also deals with gangs in a fictional Californian town, stars many of the same people and is also written by Kurt Sutter, The Shield is hard-hitting drama at its finest.
Seasons on Stan: 7

18. iZombie

This wild series from Rob Thomas, the man behind Veronica Mars, has an absolutely unique premise – after having been turned into a zombie, Olivia "Liv" Moore (get it? Live more?) takes on a job at a morgue. With no control over her hunger, Liv takes starts eating the brains of murder victims, only to discover that this gives her a look into the final moments of the victims' lives. Now, her boss is encouraging her to eat brains, so that she can use her new-found powers to solve crimes (see? I told you this crazy show was unique). Based on a Vertigo comic, iZombie is one of the coolest new shows of year. Best of all, each new episode of the show is fast-tracked on Stan.
Seasons on Stan: 1

19. The IT Crowd

It's safe to assume that if you're reading this website, you're quite tech-savvy, so you'd probably have an intimate knowledge of what it's like to deal with computer illiterate people. The IT Crowd understands this frustration in a way that only those who've actually lived it can – and it's absolutely bloody hilarious. The show follows the misadventures of tech support officers Jen (Katherine Parkinson), Roy (Chris O'Dowd) and Moss (Richard Ayoade), both in the office and out in the real world – spurred on in part by their eccentric boss, Douglas Reynholm (Matt Berry). It's like a geeky, British version of Seinfeld.
Seasons on Stan: 4

20. South Park

Trey Parker and Matt Stone's incredible animated series South Park remains as hilarious today as when it was first introduced. Join school kids Stan, Kyle, Kenny and the irrepressible Cartman as they embark on some of the most hilarious (and surprisingly poignant) shenanigans ever conceived. While we wish Stan had more than four seasons of the show available to stream, we imagine that more will be added some time in the near future.
Seasons on Stan: 4

21. Dawson's Creek

If you're in your early thirties, chances are that Dawson's Creek played a significant part in your high school years. Whether you identified with these impossibly good-looking and verbose supposed teenagers, or you just had the hots for Dawson (James Van Der Beek), Joey (Katie Holmes), Jen (Michelle Williams) or Pacey (Joshua Jackson), Dawson's Creek was surprisingly compelling viewing for a teenage melodrama. Relive your youth by watching Dawson's Creek in its entirety on Stan.
Seasons on Stan: 6

22. Fargo

Based on the Academy Award-winning film by the Coen Bros., Fargo is a show which has no right being as great as it is. Simultaneously expanding the world introduced in the film and creating a new story of its own, Fargo is a beautifully self-contained season of television that features terrific performances from Billy Bob Thornton as Lorne Malvo and Martin Freeman as Lester Nygaard. Season 2 is also on the way, and will concern itself with a completely different story set during The Reagan Administration.
Seasons on Stan: 1

23. Party Down

Another show that was taken from us far too soon, Party Down is a comedy about group of out-of-work actors (and one hard science fiction writer) who are forced to take on jobs at a catering service. Each episode takes place at a different party, furthering the characters' relationships in the process. Featuring hilarious turns from Adam Scott, Lizzy Caplan, Martin Starr, Ken Marino and Jane Lynch, Party Down is most certainly the kind of show that deserves to be rediscovered on Stan.
Seasons on Stan: 2

24. Top Gear

Okay, so the show may be in limbo at the moment due to Jeremy Clarkson's offscreen bad behaviour, but there's no denying that Top Gear is a remarkably entertaining programme. It's easy to get swept up in the show's various car challenges, test drives, stunts and celebrity appearances, even if you aren't a car enthusiast. This is all due to the infectious camaraderie between the show's three hosts – Richard Hammond, James May and the aforementioned Clarkson are a cheeky trio and are completely responsible for making a show about cars absolutely addicting.
Seasons on Stan: 8

25. The Mighty Boosh

The Mighty Boosh follows the musically-inspired and very surreal adventures that are experienced by Vince Noir (Noel Fielding) and Howard Moon (Julian Barratt) while working at a zoo (populated mostly by puppets) run by Bob Fossil (Rich Fulcher). This British comedy is as wacky as it gets, but it's also hilarious, featuring memorable musical set pieces in each episode. An utterly unique cult show.
Seasons on Stan: 3











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Review: Updated: Foxtel Play

Introduction

Update: Foxtel Play has expanded its lineup, adding to the programs on offer.
It seems like an age since the TV through the internet craze took Australia by storm. While ABC iView and SBS On Demand are practically everywhere these days and the free-to-air networks are struggling to decide exactly what the internet is to them, Foxtel has been plugging along quietly with online video.
Initially, it was simply Foxtel on Xbox, which then made its way to Telstra's T-Box and Samsung TVs. Foxtel Go arrived later, letting Foxtel subscribers get their entertainment on phones and tablets on the go.
But Foxtel Play is all of those services wrapped up in one. It's the first comprehensive Pay TV offering delivered through the internet in Australia.
Available as an app for Windows PCs, Macs, Samsung, Sony, and LG Smart TVs, the Xbox 360, the PS3 - and most recently the PS4 and Xbox One - Play is the sum of all Foxtel's previous IPTV parts, offering comprehensive channel selection through a wide variety of devices.

Packages and pricing

Foxtel Play follows the company's more traditional payment and packaging options. You pay a base rate for the most basic package, with the option to add additional channel packages for a fee.
But unlike the standard Foxtel subscription, Foxtel Play doesn't have a lock in subscription fee or installation costs. Because all the content is delivered via your internet connection, there's no need for a technician to connect cable from the street or a satellite dish to your roof.

Foxtel Play is also cheaper than the cable or satellite based subscription, although not by as much as you might expect given there's no set top box or PVR like the Foxtel iQ included in the price.
The basic pricing starts at $25 a month, and is offered in four different package configurations. There's Entertainment, which includes Fox8, Lifestyle, Arena, Lifestyle You, Lifestyle Food, Lifestyle Home, MTV, Comedy, Style, E! and TV Hits; Drama, which includes BBC UKTV, FX (Why hello there, Fear the Walking Dead), SoHo, Universal Channel, SyFy, BBC First and 13th Street; Documentaries, which includes National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo People, Discovery, BBC Knowledge, Discovery Turbo, History, A&E, Crime Investigation Australia, Bio and Foxtel Arts; and Kids, which includes Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney Junior, CBeebies, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Discovery Kids and BabyTV.
You can throw multiple packages together as well, with Foxtel charging $35 for two packages, $45 for three and $50 for all four every month.
In addition, there are two premium packages on offer. Sports, which includes Fox Sports 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (Catch the 2015 US Open this September), ESPN1, ESPN2, EuroSport and Footy Play; and Premium Movies and Drama, which includes the Premiere, Action, Thriller, Comedy, Family, Disney, Masterpiece, Romance and World movie channels.
Premium Movies and Drama pack also comes with the Boxsets channel, which means you can binge watch every episode of shows like The Walking Dead, Orange is the New Black, Ray Donovan, Entourage, The Wire, Deadwood and Australian piracy's poster show, Game of Thrones.
Each of the premium packages will set you back $20 a month for Premium Movies and Drama, or $25 a month for Sports, meaning a complete Play subscription will cost $100 a month.

No matter which package you sign up for, you also get access to Foxtel Go, allowing you watch on your tablet or phone, as well as access to the Sky News, Sky Weather, Sky Business, Fox Sports News, CMC, Max, EuroSport News, TVSN, Channel V and V Hits channels.
The full Foxtel service has had a price restructure, with the base plan starting at just $25 these days, but scaling up to $120 a month for a complete channel line up. So Foxtel Play is slightly cheaper, and you'll need a satellite and a 12 month contract to get the full service. On the upside, a full service subscription also gets you a Foxtel iQ3 set top box.
Still, the advantage of not having to sign up for 24 months, as well as the benefit of being able to watch on multiple devices is alluring.

Installing and entertaining

Getting Foxtel Play up and running in your home is a straightforward affair. Simply head to Foxtel's Play website, select the packages you want, fill in your credit card details, download the app and you'll be ready to go.
Setting up a second computer is slightly trickier, as Foxtel doesn't have links to the software conveniently located on the Play website. It's there - you just have to search around for it.
Meanwhile, connecting to the Xbox One or PS4 app is as simple as downloading it from the Marketplace or PlayStation Store and then logging in once your account has been created.
The first time you open the app on your PC or Mac, you'll be able to browse the EPG while Sky News plays in the background. When you actually try to select a program, the app will prompt you to login with your account details.
From there, you'll be given access to all the channels you've paid for.

If you're a parent and want to make sure your kids can only access appropriate material, the parental controls option is pleasantly simple.
First, you need to create a four-digit pin, confirm it, and from there set what rating level you want to be available.
If a user tries to access content above the pre-set rating, they'll be required to enter the pin.

Pressing Play

There are three tabs on the PC/Mac app, including a home button and the two main components to Foxtel Play: Live TV streaming and Anytime video on demand.
The apps for Sony's PlayStation consoles are more or less the same, but feature an additional two tabs, bringing their selection to five buttons in total: Home, Live TV, Anytime, Search and Settings.
Unfortunately there's lack of stability when the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 apps use the Anytime option. Both apps frequently crash during movies and TV shows, taking you back to that title's menu without giving you a resume option. This leaves you to start from the beginning all over again, or clumsily fast forward to get back to the point you were rudely interrupted.
The Home tab offers a patchwork of live TV programs and popular catch-up programs, which kind of looks a bit like the Live Tiles from Windows 8. It's a two column grid, with rectangular boxes of various sizes.

Weirdly, no matter the size of the window, you need to scroll down a little bit to see everything, but it's not like there's a lot of content below the screen to actually view.
Live streaming is exactly what it says on the box. The same content that's broadcast via Foxtel on its selection of channels is streamed online via the Play service.
The default view shows a list of channels and current programs running down the right hand of the window, while the left shows the currently selected program, and the programs description below it.

There are two alternate views as well - one with the current channel shown as a thumbnail size next to a larger EPG, and a full-screen view that only shows the video playing.
You can limit the number of channels shown in the list by genre. As we were testing the service with the full channel offering, we're not sure if it will only display the channels you've paid for, but there's no menu option for "My channels" or something similar, so we're doubtful.

Catching up

The final viewing option with Foxtel Play is Anytime, which offers a selection of programs on demand, to watch at leisure from start to finish, often without the ad-breaks of the Live TV option.
Sadly, for anyone hoping for a serious Netflix competitor in this service, you're destined for disappointment. While the range of programs on offer is pretty decent, with hundreds of TV shows, movies and documentaries available, the depth of each offering is quite shallow, although improving.
TV shows, in many cases, only have a handful of episodes on offer at any given time. The arrival of the Boxsets channel means you can binge on some of your favourite shows, but there's still a lot of programming only available on a catch-up basis.

While that's slightly frustrating it does make sense. This is a Pay TV company, after all, which has a business plan built around the broadcast model of entertainment.
To counter this, Foxtel also has its Presto service, offering a movie and TV streaming selection for an affordable monthly fee.
It's a rapidly expanding market, and with the recent launch of Netflix and Stan in Australia, competition is only getting worse. But in the time since the Foxtel Play's launch, it has improved dramatically, with more content and easier pricing models.

DRM and Video Quality

What, you didn't expect Rupert Murdoch's beloved Australian Pay TV company to dive into a DRM-free online portal, did you?
The good news is that the restrictions on Foxtel Play aren't too draconian. You can register three devices to the service, although that does include Foxtel Go as well. Generally, that's probably going to be a computer, a tablet and an Xbox, PlayStation or Samsung, Sony or LG smart TV.
While you can opt for a range of permutations and combinations in terms of what devices you connect, you can only connect a single Xbox. We're not sure why - probably because multiple Xbox consoles really would eat into Foxtel's multi-room charging strategy.

And while three devices can be connected to a Play account, only two of them can stream video at a time. So forget about having four family members watching four different things on four different devices. You'll need to pony up the cash for two accounts for that to happen.

Video Quality

In terms of video quality, there are only two settings - Best and Low. Best is actually very decent - we'd go as far as describing it as almost up to DVD quality, although it does depend on your broadband connection. That said, our fairly slow ADSL2+ connection managed the stream effortlessly, and it only took between five and ten seconds to buffer a new video.
The Low quality is still very palatable, at least on a computer. While pictures lack definition, they're still watchable on a smaller screen. The lower setting on the Xbox 360 is harder to view, but is certainly no worse than watching most YouTube clips on the big screen.
The video quality setting is one thing many users will need to pay attention to, given the bandwidth restrictions on home (and mobile) broadband plans.
According to the service's FAQs, the highest quality setting will chew through 1310MB of data every hour, while the low setting will only use about 470MB.
In other words, if you left the lowest quality streaming 24 hours a day for a month, you'd likely use up more than 300GB of data. At the highest setting, you'll probably crack 900GB.
While those usage cases are unlikely, you may still want to upgrade your broadband plan before signing up.

Verdict

It's clear that Foxtel has put a lot of thought into creating a proper Pay TV service for the internet with Play. It's sleek, easy enough for anyone to use, and comprehensive in its offering.
But, it is still Foxtel. If you've given up paying big bucks for television because of the hours and hours of rubbish programming between one or two decent shows, this isn't for you. It's still the same old content Foxtel churns out day in and day out on its broadcast channel, only delivered through the internet.
But it's impossible to doubt the benefit of moving to an IP based system. No longer is your television locked to your home. You can take your Foxtel subscription with you on holiday, or hospital, or anywhere else you may need to go.
Of course, whether that convenience is worth the price of entry is up for debate. But if you're likely to pay for Foxtel in the first place, you probably won't balk at the asking price.

We Liked

It''s so convenient and quick. Even on a fairly poor ADSL2+ connection and a two year old Mac, it still took less than 10 seconds to buffer. Once it started, we never experienced a bump in playback.
The ability to stream to multiple devices also won us over. While it's probably a little bit stricter with the DRM than we'd like - only having two simultaneous connections when you can only have three connected devices seems a bit weak to us - the convenience is still something you don't really get with a full Foxtel subscription.

We Disliked

We'll be honest, we were hoping for more from the Anytime service. It's not that there's nothing to watch via Anytime, it's just that it's not really a viable way to discover a new show. We'd like to be able to try pilot episodes of programs, and then follow through if we like them, like you can with Netflix.
The harder pill to swallow though is the price. Sure, a single package seems like pretty good value. But this was an opportunity for Foxtel to bring a la carte channel subscriptions to the table.
The biggest problem with Foxtel in general is that you need to pay for half a dozen channels you don't care about to get the one channel you do.
In broadcast that may make sense, but this is the internet, and there's simply no reason why users shouldn't be able to create their own package with only the channels they want to pay for.
But more than that is the fact that a complete Play subscription gets you 48 channels, some of which won't play on certain devices. A Platinum broadcast subscription gets you 86 channels, plus an iQ box and HD channels, for an extra $20 a month.
When you factor in you have to pay for broadband usage as well, it simply doesn't stack up as an affordable alternative.

Final Verdict

This is a step in the right direction, make no mistake. But Foxtel probably has played it just a little bit too safe for it to really disrupt the market.
There's a good chance that in 15 years, pretty much all television will be consumed via the internet. With that in mind, Foxtel Play is a good, solid first step for the Pay TV company, after its previous crawling attempts.
We'd love to see more versatility in packaging and pricing, as well as more of a push to on demand streaming. But given the way Foxtel makes its money, there's a good chance we'll be waiting a while for that.











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Updated: 10 best mobile phones in the world today

Number 10: Nexus 6

Update: The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 has staked its claim in the Top 10. Where has it ranked? Read on to find out!
Here at TechRadar, we check out every phone under the sun, putting the ones that matter through our vigorous testing process to create our in-depth mobile phone reviews.
However, with so many to choose from, we've spent hours whittling them down to a top ten, taking into account the power, specs, design and value for money. And we'll always point you in the direction of the latest handsets - after all, nobody wants to be carting around a phone that doesn't get any updates in a year's time, right?
So whether it's one of the many slick Android handsets, the latest iPhone or one from a range of other cool operating systems, we've extensively tested them all so you don't have to!
Here are our rankings for the best smartphones around, currently available in Australia.

10. Nexus 6

Google's best ever phone is also its biggest ever
OS: Android 5 | Screen size: 5.96-inch | Resolution: 2560 x 1440 | Memory: 3GB | Storage: 32GB/64GB | Battery: 3,220mAh | Rear camera: 13MP | Front camera: 2MP
Google's latest Nexus is a phone that moves away from the usual 'super-cheap superphone' and into phablet territory. The good news is the screen is also supercharged: massive at 6 inches, it also has a stunning QHD resolution.
You'll always receive the latest updates to Google's Android OS with this one, and while it's certainly something you'd have to use two handed (make sure you're fine with that before buying, as it's put a lot of people off that we've shown it too) its tremendous display, premium specs and great use of Android 5.0 Lollipop make the Nexus 6 one of the best phablets to date.
It's not cheap, but as it's the best Nexus ever made, you won't need to hold onto your money. You'll require both hands to keep a grip on this two-handed monster.

• Nexus 6 review

Number 9: Sony Xperia Z3

9. Sony Xperia Z3

A solid phone with a good screen and excellent battery life
OS: Android 5 | Screen size: 5.15-inch | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | Memory: 3GB | Storage: 16GB/32GB | Battery: 3,100mAh | Rear camera: 20.7MP | Front camera: 2.2MP
The Xperia Z3 is a phone that offers the best of Sony with some really polished tweaks thrown in for good measure. The screen is one of the brightest around and really benefits from Bravia technology, and the longer battery life embarrasses a number of other big smartphones around at the moment.
We do expect more from the camera, and the black bezels above and below the display ruin the aesthetic somewhat, but the ability to Remote Play your PS4 more than makes up for it - it's a really cool feature and means you can keep gaming while someone else is hogging the TV.
The Z3 is a brilliant phone with a few rough edges, but Sony's also great at bringing the cost of its handsets down, so this flagship's really good value for money.

• Sony Xperia Z3 review
• See the best Sony Xperia Z3 deals

Number 8: iPhone 6 Plus

8. iPhone 6 Plus

Apple's first bigscreen phone is a stunner
OS: iOS 8 | Screen size: 5.5-inch | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | Memory: 1GB |Storage:16GB/64GB/128GB | Battery: 2,915mAh | Rear camera: 8MP | Front camera: 1.2MP
Put simply, this is the bigger version of the iPhone 6, but Apple's done more with its first phablet, increasing the specs to offset that higher price.
The screen is Full HD and really packs some stunning colour reproduction. The camera on the back hosts optical image stabilisation, so pictures look sharp. They're also brighter, thanks to more light being let in.
The iPhone 6 Plus also has something that's eluded iPhone fans for years: a really good battery, with Apple using that extra space to cram in a few more mAh units.
It's one of the most expensive phones around, and is bettered on spec by a few others - but if you're an Apple fan looking for a 'bigger' experience, this is the phone for you.

• iPhone 6 Plus review
• See the best iPhone 6 Plus deals

Number 7: Sony Xperia Z3 Compact

7. Sony Xperia Z3 Compact

A small Android phone packed with big features
OS: Android 5 | Screen size: 4.6-inch | Resolution: 1280 x 720 | Memory: 2GB | Storage: 16GB |Battery: 2,600mAh | Rear camera: 20.7MP | Front camera: 2.2MP
Less powerful with a lower-res screen than its bigger brother, the Z3 Compact still features most of the high-end specs, fuses them with things like Remote Play and the 20.7MP camera, and does it all at a really low cost for a phone of this power.
The 4.7-inch display makes the Z3 Compact one of the best phones to hold and use in day to day life, and it also has a brilliantly long-lasting battery, too. If you're not a fan of the gargantuan models on show, there's a lot to love about Sony's mini flagship.
The Z3 Compact is the best of Sony in a smartphone. If that's what you're after, this is the phone to go for. The ergonomics and the price impress, and while it doesn't quite have the spec sheet of the main Z3, the Compact feels more polished.

• Sony Xperia Z3 Compact review
• See the best Sony Xperia Z3 Compact deals

Number 6: HTC One M9

6. HTC One M9

Not quite up the 5 star standard, but HTC still has the most beautiful phone around
OS: Android 5 | Screen size: 5-inch | Resolution: 1920x1080 | Memory: 3GB |Storage: 32GB |Battery:2840mAh | Rear camera: 20.7MP | Front camera: 4MP
HTC has sat comfortably at the top of our charts for the last couple of years, and while it's not quite managed it in 2015, the M9 is still a phone with the best build quality out there.
None of the old favourites are missing, so BoomSound enhancement still turbocharges the audio and the Sense overlay remains one of our favourites, thanks to its sophistication and power.
The camera has been boosted to 20.7MP, although doesn't have the impressive snapping power of some of the other phones on the market. The design language still means this is one of our favourite phones to stick in our pocket.
It's a touch more expensive than before, and doesn't take a huge leap forward from last year's model, but that was nearly perfect, so where was HTC to go?

• HTC One M9 review
• See the best HTC One M9 deals

Number 5: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

5. Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

Curving into the future with impressive specs
OS: Android 5 | Screen size: 5.1-inch | Resolution: 1440 x 2560 | Memory: 3GB |Storage:32GB/64GB/128GB | Battery: 2560mAh | Rear camera: 16MP | Front camera: 5MP
The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has all the power and features of the table-topping S6, but includes a little extra, thanks to the curved edges on its sides.
They don't add a huge amount of functionality, but if you're going on looks alone, the S6 Edge has them in spades.
The price is a lot higher, though, which is why it doesn't join its (non-identical) twin at the top of the chart. But if you're after a phone that's wildly different from anything else with a great feature set and a tip-top camera, this should be your choice.

• Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge review
• See the best Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge deals

Number 4: LG G4

4. LG G4

Luxury leather on a smartphone that tries to please everyone
OS: Android 5.1 | Screen size: 5.5-inch | Resolution: 2560 x 1440 | Memory: 3GB | Storage: 32GB | Battery: removable 3,000mAh | Rear camera: 16MP | Front camera: 8MP
LG has tried to focus on what everyone actually wants out of a smartphone, a great looking design, colour rich display and the great camera for photos - but it doesn't quite deliver as impressively as we'd hoped.
Don't let that put you off though. There's a lot going on with the LG G4, and for the most part it's rather positive indeed. The leather back is much nicer than the plastic option, and it will make your phone stand out among the swath of glass and metal offerings.
Its large, expansive screen is one of the best on the market, the 16MP laser auto-focus camera takes some cracking shots and the rear buttons are easier to hit on a handset this size.
As a complete package, it offers more than the Xperia Z3 and One M9, but it doesn't quite match the slickness and design of the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6.
Full review: LG G4
See the best LG G4 deals

Number 3: Samsung Galaxy Note 5

Samsung Galaxy Note 5

Stunning screen, outstanding camera, and a bonus S Pen are all delivered in style
OS: Android 5.1.1 | Screen size: 5.7-inch | Resolution: 2560 x 1440 | Memory: 4GB | Storage: 32GB/64GB | Battery: 3,020mAh | Rear camera: 16MP | Front camera: 5MP
Samsung's latest plus-sized handset continues the positive momentum that the company started with the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge.
While the Note handsets have always been pricey, the Note 5's beautiful glass and metal chassis is the first to feel like it's worth the extra outlay – it has a far more premium feel than the plastic offered by the Galaxy Note 4.
The 5.7-inch screen is gorgeous, while the Note 5's record-breaking processor and 4GB of RAM completely outpace Apple, as does its 16MP camera – we'll be curious to see what September brings.
The lack of expandable memory (or a 128GB option) and a changeable battery may put long-time Note fans off, but this is the best smartphone with a stylus. Actually, it's one of the best full stop.

Number 2: iPhone 6

2. iPhone 6

Bigger, better, sleeker and faster than the iPhone 5S
OS: iOS 8 | Screen size: 4.7-inch | Resolution: 1334 x 750 | Memory: 1GB |Storage:16GB/64GB/128GB | Battery: 1,810mAh | Rear camera: 8MP | Front camera: 1.2MP
The iPhone 6 is a step forward for Apple that's a joy to use, hold and feel. It has all the same ingredients that make iPhones special. While it doesn't excel in any given part of the smartphone recipe, it just works, promoting simplicity over fiddly menus.
The camera has a lower megapixel count than others, but it's fast, bright and easy to use. The screen is low-res compared to the phones around it, but pops and fizzes with colour and brightness. And we keep coming back to that design, which feels beautiful in the hand.
The sticking point is it's still one of the most expensive phones on the market, and spec-fiends will note it doesn't quite have the specs to back up the cost.
But don't let that put you off: if you're in the market for a handset from Apple, or have been tempted by one in the past, buy the iPhone 6. It's a pure joy to use.

• iPhone 6 review
• See the best iPhone 6 deals

Number 1: Samsung Galaxy S6

1. Samsung Galaxy S6

A brilliant phone that shows Samsung still has what it takes
OS: Android 5 | Screen size: 5.1-inch | Resolution: 1440 x 2560 | Memory: 3GB |Storage:32GB/64GB/128GB | Battery: 2550mAh | Rear camera: 16MP | Front camera: 5MP
While last year's Galaxy S5 was nothing special, this year Samsung's started from the ground up to make a truly wonderful smartphone.
The camera is superb, the audio and video quality brilliant and the QHD display crammed into the 5.1-inch screen is the sharpest on the market - although it does suck down the battery rather a lot.
The design finally feels good in our hand (contrasting with the plastic cheapness of last year), and the refined TouchWiz overlay is much nicer to use.
It's pretty expensive, mind, so make sure you're after a truly A-grade experience before buying. But if you do take the plunge, rest assured, you have the best phone on the market.

• Samsung Galaxy S6 review
• See the best Samsung Galaxy S6 deals

You might also like...

If a phone isn't in the top 10 best phones in the world list, that doesn't mean it's not worth giving two hoots about.
Here's a few handsets you might want to consider should none of the above tickle your fancy... although you're clearly VERY hard to please:

HTC One M8

A stunning phone with very few flaws
OS: Android | Screen size: 5-inch | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | RAM: 2GB | Storage: 16GB/32GB |Battery: 2,600mAh | Rear camera: 4MP dual | Front camera: 5MP
The HTC One M8 has tumbled dramatically out of the top 10 after holding onto top spot for the best part of a year, so why the fall? Well, it's now pretty old compared to the handsets making up the top ten, and there's a new kid on the block in the shape of the One M9.
It's still the same perfectly design handset though, with impressive BoomSound speakers and the short-lived, yet innovative Duo Camera on the rear. The One M9 is almost identical, and just a bit better all round.
There's been a small price drop, too, since the arrival of the One M9, and you certainly won't be getting a poor phone if you choose to pick it up. But remember, for just a little more you can have its up-to-date successor. Your call.

• HTC One M8 review
• See the best HTC One M8 deals

Samsung Galaxy S5

A year old, but still very capable
OS: Android | Screen size: 5.1-inch | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | RAM: 2GB | Storage: 16GB/32GB |Battery: 2,800mAh | Rear camera: 16MP | Front camera: 2MP
If Samsung's latest duo of flagship devices (the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge) are too rich for your wallet then you can always consider last year's Galaxy S5.
Sure it doesn't have the same premium design as the current generation, but the plastic body means it's dust and water resistant as well as giving you a removable battery and microSD slot - all things not available on the S6 range.
The drop in price also makes the Galaxy S5 more attractive, and it's stuffed full of features, including a fantastic screen that will ensure you have an enjoyable mobile experience.

• Samsung Galaxy S5 review
• See the best Samsung Galaxy S5 deals

Nokia Lumia 930

Hey Nokia, (now Microsoft), nice flagship phone!
OS: Windows Phone | Screen size: 5-inch | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | RAM: 2GB | Storage: 32GB |Battery: 2,420mAh | Rear camera: 20MP | Front camera: 1.2MP
The Lumia 930 comes up short when compared with the competition, but only in a couple of areas. Windows Phone is still a sub-par operating system for most people, thanks to the poorer apps and lower level of control. But then again, for a lot of people the improved Office functionality and simple interface is a boon.
It's strong in both design and power, although a little last-gen on the latter element. Coupled with a very capable camera, this phone is easy to recommend to those looking for something different.
Windows Phone aside, there's a great deal on show here to make this a top-rated smartphone. The build quality is excellent and iconic, and the camera is powerful. We like that 32GB is on offer as the base model, and built-in wireless charging is always a nice addition.

• Nokia Lumia 930 review
• See the best Nokia Lumia 930 deals

OnePlus One

A flagship phone for half the cost
OS: Android | Screen size: 5.5-inch | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | RAM: 3GB | Storage: 16GB/64GB |Battery: 3,100mAh | Rear camera: 13MP | Front camera: 5MP
If you fancy trying something a bit different then Chinese firm OnePlus has a rather enticing proposition. Its first flagship smartphone (and only device to date), the OnePlus One, has the same feature set as 2014's flagships, but at a fraction of the cost.
You can pick up the One SIM-free from under $450, which is a steal when you consider it packs a 5.5-inch full HD display, Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM and a 13MP rear facing camera.
It runs the community backed CyanogenMod version of Android which comes with lots of handy little extras. The design is hardly inspiring and the lack of a microSD slot may put some off, but for the price you can't really go wrong.

• OnePlus One review

iPhone 5S

Perfect for fans of the smaller screen size
OS: iOS | Screen size: 4-inch | Resolution: 1136 x 640 | RAM: 1GB | Storage: 16GB/32GB/64GB |Battery: 1,560mAh | Rear camera: 8MP | Front camera: 1.2MP
Remember this? After the furore with the iPhone 6, it's easy to forget that the Apple iPhone 5S is still alive and kicking.
It's still a bit expensive, but the iOS 8 software update hasn't presented any problems, so this slightly cheaper option should appeal to those who like a smaller screen.
Plus, you can use it with the Apple Watch and pay for things on the go using the cunningly named Apple Pay - although for some reason Touch ID won't be work online, where it will be for the iPad Air 2 and friends.

• iPhone 5S review
• See the best iPhone 5S deals

BlackBerry Classic

Physical keyboards FTW, right?
OS: BlackBerry 10 | Screen size: 3.5-inch | Resolution: 720 x 720 | RAM: 2GB | Storage: 16GB |Battery: 2,515mAh | Rear camera: 8MP | Front camera: 2MP
Come again? BlackBerry is still going? Well yes it is, and in the past year it's launched both the Passport and the Classic.
They certainly won't be to many people's taste, but those unable to drag themselves away from a physical keyboard on their phone have the Classic to fall back on.
It takes the best bits of design from the firm's much loved Bold series and brings them into the 21st Century with the BB10 operating system and improved specs. Great for those always emailing and messaging on the go, just don't try and play games or watch movies on its 4:3 display.

• BlackBerry Classic review
• See the best BlackBerry Classic deals

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Movie Week: The 10 best science fiction films of all time

What makes great science fiction?

Choosing the best science fiction films of all time is extremely hard - especially if, like me, you love all kinds of sci-fi, from the the early classics of the 1920s to the moody cyberpunk tales of the 80s.
The term science fiction is deceptively complex, branching into a number of sub-genres and often placed alongside others. Despite its broad strokes, a lot of sci-fi is transfixed with artificial intelligence, extraterrestrial life, time travel and future civilisations.
On the surface, each of these subjects seems very different, but at their core you'll find the same motivation: a curiosity that cannot be stifled. There are a number of questions that these films ask, zoning in on how far reality can be stretched and if we're the only intelligent life in the universe.
It is a slippery, quixotic genre. Alien life, for example, will be radically different for two filmmakers. In one film, an alien will be a cutesy, cuddly thing that'll teach a young boy about friendship and love, in another it will be shadow and nightmare, a spidery species bred to kill and feed.
Likewise, a robot can be portrayed as a sweet child's toy, a government-issued warrior that can contemplate its own identity or a monster that can burn an entire city to ash.
However these themes are handled, whether we find ourselves in a world of majesty or terror, good science fiction should always ask questions, and it should always be bold. It should remain loyal to that original curiosity, like the child who sneaks through cupboards looking for new lands.
With this in mind, here are 10 films that have come to define the genre. They are ones that have set a standard and ones that have bettered it. They are not ones that rely upon special effects or use action to tell a story, but instead challenge their audiences while expanding the realms of cinema.
Warning: Each of the following pages contain spoilers.

Metropolis, 1927

Sometimes one of the oldest examples of a genre can also be the best. Fritz Lang's silent masterpiece is the pinnacle of German Expressionism and one of the most ambitious science fiction films ever made.
It's even more impressive now than it was upon its release. Lang constructs an entire city without the use of special effects, and examines issues that are still extremely prevalent, such as the dangers of industrialisation, and the gulf between the rich and the working class.
In the bustling hive of Metropolis, this gulf is physical as well as metaphorical. The city is ruled by the wealthy, known as the thinkers, who swan around beautiful skyscrapers, while the poorest are forced underground to keep all of the machines running. Sound kind of familiar? While the workers toil away, their leader lives in the highest building of all, ruling the city like a demi-god.
Considering that the film was made in 1927, you'd think its vision of the future would look laughable, but it's completely the opposite. Lang's thriving cityscape is as sumptuous as it is severe, filled with Art Deco exteriors, Gothic cathedrals, and Italian futurism.
For Lang, the city was synonymous with greed, corruption and the abuse of power, a glossy surface that belies deep-rooted issues of exploitation and inequality. Could this be anymore pertinent in 2015?
Elements from the film are now steeped in popular culture. The mad scientist, for example, is a trope that you can find throughout sci-fi, while the machine-human he creates anticipates the development of cyborgs. In this sense Metropolis is ahead of its time, revealing a future where androids will look like humans and have the ability to manipulate us into unthinkable acts.

2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968

2001: A Space Odyssey is a beautiful, but often bewildering, piece of filmmaking. A film that inspires equal amounts of hatred and devotion, it may be the most famous sci-fi of all time.
No, it's not perfect; it's very grandiose and would have benefited from a trim (sorry, Stanley), but we've yet to see another sci-fi film that matches 2001's grandeur. Even if you despise it, there are sections that are just too striking to ignore, from the towering monolith that's discovered on the moon to the hallucinogenic journey to Jupiter.
It's also one of the first films to create the stifling feeling of being in space. Although mission pilots Bowman and Poole live on a huge spacecraft, they often appear lost down winding corridors and hemmed in on each side by endless horizons of space.
This mounting tension is heightened by the scientists' omniscient companion, the computer HAL 800. Watching HAL malfunction, drunk on his man-given power and hell-bent on revenge, is one of the most frightening sequences in sci-fi, no matter how many times the idea of insane tech is recycled.
At times, 2001 feels like a film at odds with itself, its minimal dialogue and character development placed alongside breathtaking shots of space and a cacophonous, classical score. Instead of telling a straightforward narrative, it also takes on the whole scope of human evolution, from our beginnings in the dirt to our future in the stars.
Some films have tried to replicate it - Danny Boyle's Sunshine and Christopher Nolan's Interstellar come to mind - but the prize for the most maddening yet unforgettable space opera is still Kubrick's.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977

If there's one director with an unabashed love for fantasy and science fiction, it's Steven Spielberg. Just look at his filmography and you'll see it's sprinkled with some of the most beloved fantasy films of all time.
Some of these could have made the list: E.T, for example, will always be special, and Artificial Intelligence feels like a fairy tale about the relationship between humans and androids, but Close Encounters was Spielberg's first professional attempt at sci-fi and could be his finest.
No matter what age Spielberg is, he approaches each of his stories with the wide-eyed adoration of a child. This enthusiasm is especially true of Close Encounters, and spills over to the film's protagonist, an ordinary family man who becomes obsessed with the UFOs he begins seeing.
For a film people associate with childhood, it's surprisingly adult, revealing the dangers of passion and how obsession can eat away at everything you cherish, including your family and career.
Critics will say Close Encounters isn't pure sci-fi and that its depiction of alien life is too sweet. This isn't true. Spielberg effectively portrays the yearning at the heart of the genre, the act of looking up at the sky and hoping that we're not alone in the universe.
This sense of awe is encapsulated in the character of Barry, a fearless child drawn to the alien visitors. The scene where Barry comes running out of the spaceship to his mother is stunning and heartfelt, and Spielberg shows that a child's sense of adventure never truly leaves us when Roy decides to take the alien's hand and leave Earth behind.

Alien, 1978

Where the aliens of Close Encounters are teddy bears from childhood, the creatures from Alien are the clammy hands that reach out from under your bed and grab you in the middle of the night. Two films about aliens made a year apart, and they couldn't be more different.
Ridley Scott's landmark sci-fi is the stuff of nightmares, set during an endless inky-black night and creeping with the grotesque. Once you've see it, you can never forget the face-hugging alien spawn, Kane's bloodbath "birth" or the skeletal silhouettes of the Xenomorph.
Alien is so effective because it feeds off our most primitive fears. It tells us that there is something lurking in the shadows, and that it's coming for us. The heroine of the film, Ellen Ripley, is transformed into Little Red Riding Hood, racing through the mechanical woodland of the Nostromo, while the Xenomorph looms over her like a fusion of Freudian symbolism and subconscious terrors.
The design of the Xenomorph and the film's tense, suffocating atmosphere cannot be bettered. Scott's Nostromo is a maze of hallways and rooms, bathing in shifting coils of shadow and silently ensnaring each member of the crew in the Xenomorph's sticky web.
The Xenomorph itself seems to shift with each scene. Sometimes it looks robotic, sinking into the Nostromo's walls like a steel structure covered in black scales, and at other times it looks sickeningly organic, its multiple jaws dripping fluid wherever it goes.
Thanks to Swiss concept artist H.R Giger, it also moves with a strange eroticism, slinking around as Ripley undresses and slipping through the Nostromo with a fluid, feline skill.
A terrifying blend of science fiction and horror, none of the Alien sequels have even come close to evoking the same perverse pleasure.

Blade Runner, 1982

Completely misunderstood when it came out, Blade Runner has since garnered cult status and is now touted as one of the most stylish sci-fi films of the 80s.
The film is a heady mix of old and new, combining 1940s Film Noir with a futuristic, cyberpunk streak. All of the noir tropes are present, including the jaded detective and the smouldering femme fatale, as well as its shades of corruption and sex.
The crowded urban backdrop is present, except in this instance it's metamorphosed into a zenith of towering buildings, flying cars and huge billboards. It's a melting pot of Hong Kong food markets and New York high-rises, and so well crafted you can almost smell the trash littering the streets.
It's also one of the most challenging depictions of artificial intelligence we've seen, asking what humanity means when the boundaries between androids and humans have thinned considerably. The replicants, or synthetic humans, of this possible future look like us and can think like us, yet they are oppressed and hunted down whenever they step out of line.
The genius of Blade Runner is that there are no clear-cut heroes and villains. Our protagonist, Rick Deckard, is grizzled and apathetic, while his adversary, Roy Batty, is a renegade that refuses to be controlled by the state and has the bravery to fight for his freedom. Just because the film is shown from Deckard's point of view, doesn't necessarily mean he's the one we should root for.
There are elements that feel predicable now, such as the dangers of humans playing God and creating machines with an independent consciousness. But that doesn't make it any less heartbreaking.
Roy Batty is Frankenstein's monster, except in this instance it's worse because he also looks human. He is vilified for something he has no control over, and his dying speech becomes the film's most haunting moment.

Akira, 1988

If you're into insane, punch-drunk animation or sinister dystopias set in the sprawling city, nothing beats Akira. Unfortunately, if you're not into this, you're unlikely ever to see Otomo's masterwork. In some ways Akira has suffered from being animated, dismissed by people who don't like watching 'cartoons' or who think all anime is for young teenage boys.
Yet the animation is one of Otomo's greatest achievements. Akira looks like it was drawn during an acid trip, so vibrant the colours seem to bleed off the screen. Painstakingly adapted from Otomo's epic manga series of the same name, entire sections look like they're been transported from the page, but with the lurid colours you'd find in a pulp comic book.
Although more than 2,000 pages were condensed into a two-hour film, Akira never feels overcrowded. It's confusing at times, but the plot is fantastic.
After Tokyo has been obliterated by a nuclear bomb during a third world war, Japanese society has disintegrated. In its place, Neo-Tokyo spreads like a virus, more a wasteland of bright lights and towering buildings than a city, and has been taken over by packs of wild teens.
This post-apocalyptic jungle is seen through the eyes of disillusioned youth, in particular the cocky gang leader Kaneda and the ostracised, insecure Tetsuo. Part of what makes Akira so brilliant is the way it revels in the driving force of youth - Kaneda and co become the ultimate enemies of the state because they refuse to be brainwashed. They're exploited by adults and victimised by the government, yet they still fight for each other and the friendships they've built.
Anime always feels like a hyperreal world – take Ghost in the Shell, Perfect Blue, or anything by Hayao Miyazaki – but Akira will always be the best.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day, 1991

It almost seems sacrilegious to prefer a sequel over an original film, especially in an age inundated with sequels, prequels, spin-offs and reboots. The original is the best, we say, turning our noses up at the news of another unnecessary sequel, just leave it alone.
Terminator 2 may be one of those rare sequels that is better than its predecessor: it's slicker, it's edgier, and it feels less dated than the 80s original. It also messes with the formula of the first film and turns the audience's conceptions of characters against them. The moment we realise the T-800 has been sent back to save John Connor is one of the greatest twists of all time.
We also get to meet the famed leader of the human resistance in the form of a vulnerable, acid-tongued young boy. John goes from cruising the mall to finding out he is destined to become the saviour of the human race. It feels unfair, especially considering he's only supposed to be 10-years-old.
In an ironic and cruel twist, he also finds the closest thing he's ever had to a father in a machine that was originally created to kill him.
The burgeoning affection between John and the T-800 becomes one of the film's most endearing qualities, contrasted with the dead-eyed shapeshifting T-1000 that's programmed to kill a boy for something he hasn't even done yet.
From a nerdy point of view, Terminator 2 is amazing because of how visually ambitious it was for its time. State-of-the-art CGI was used for elements like the T-1000's liquid metal structure and required 35 animators, computer scientists, technicians and artists. Stan Winston's studio also produced puppets and prosthetics, including the metal skeleton effects of the T-800.

Donnie Darko, 2001

It's funny how a quirky directional debut can become one of the most influential films of all time. Donnie Darko shouldn't have been more than the sum of its parts, a promising indie flick from a budding director, but instead it evolved into a film everyone seems to love.
Part of Donnie Darko's charm lies in its suburban ennui. Many young people can sympathise with characters that live in suburban mall towns, sleepwalking through school and struggling to forge an identity around people who all look and think the same.
This is what makes Donnie such a deliciously archaic character. He destroys public property, floods his school and outs the local pedophile, while trying to find meaning in his white picket fence life. This would have been a great film in itself, but instead Richard Kelly uses this as a foundation to explore ideas of time travel and alternative lives.
There are multiple theories and endless discussions about what the film means. The likeliest explanation (though no less mind-boggling) is that Donnie finds himself in an alternate dimension and must find a way back into the original universe before the duplicate one collapses.
It becomes an adult Alice in Wonderland, with Donnie falling through the rabbit hole of space time and wandering through a strange land where everything is similar yet infuriatingly abstracted.
It's a weird watch and you may never fully understand it, but it's one of the best films you'll see about time travel, plus a hilarious insight into the absurdities of suburban living (Sparkle Motion, anyone?).

Never Let Me Go, 2010

Never Let Me Go is one of those rare films that doesn't feel like science fiction until after you've seen it. It doesn't wear the genre on its sleeve. Rather than being a detriment, however, this is a delight.
Mark Romanek's adaptation presents a future that feels very real, swapping the neon-lit, industrial cityscape for the English countryside. The film opens with three young friends in an elite boarding school shrouded from the outside world. Everything seems normal, if a little eerie, until they discover from a teacher that they are in fact clones.
They will never grow up, they will never have families. Instead they will donate all of their internal organs and then be quietly euthanised when their single function is complete.
It's a masterpiece in subtlety; a quiet, melancholy film that reveals more about its characters through facial expressions and body language than anything they say. Even when the titular trio grow up and start making their donations, the film is marked by a weary resignation rather than rage, making the few outbursts all the more horrific.
In another less obvious and heavy-handed film, the characters would run away or try to fight the system. They would tout guns and start a rebellion. The heartbreak of this film is that instead, these characters spend their short lives trying to convince their oppressors, and themselves, that they have souls.
Never Let Me Go again raises questions of what makes us human. How can something that can laugh and laugh, feel joy and pain, not be one of us? And have we grown so desensitized, so eager to live forever, that we don't care how it's done?
This is an emotionally devastating experience and one of the bravest sci-fi films you'll come across.

Inception, 2010

A world away from the refined period drama feel of Never Let Me Go is Christopher Nolan's Inception. The quintessential big budget blockbuster, it's packed with blistering chase scenes, stunning visual effects and mass devastation. The kicker is that most of the action takes place within the imagination, which throws a fantastical, almost avant-garde, shade over the film.
It's beautifully labyrinthine, pulling us seamlessly from dream to reality, from the opulent tea houses of Japan to the dusty back streets of Mombasa. Not many action films take time to drink in gorgeous architecture or revel in the limitless possibilities of the human mind.
In the dreamscape everything becomes mallable, and it's breathtaking to watch entire cities topple like children's toys or be manipulated like dough.
There is also an unexpected delicacy to Inception, a heart that pulses beneath its flashy exterior. The main character, Dom Cobb, is haunted by his wife's death, and guilt trails each of his dreams in her shape. Mal is like a slow rot in Cobb's brain, but she also gives the film warmth, allowing for quiet moments of a single teardrop or a lock of her hair.
The film is especially exquisite during its last third, when Cobb and his ragtag group of thieves delve layer by layer into Robert Fischer's mind.
It's here we see some of the most gorgeous scenes to ever grace the big screen, such as Arthur's elegant, anti-gravity fight in the hotel hallway, Ariadne twisting the streets of Paris into a pretzel, and the snow fortress where Fischer meets an echo of his dead father.
If there was ever a film to combine art-house sensibilities, grand fantasy, contemplative sci-fi and the big summer blockbuster, Inception is it.











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Updated: 50 best Android games 2015: our top picks

Best Android games introduction

While the 'free-to-play' market has taken a bit of a beating of late due to gamers falling out of love with the use of in-app payments, the world of mobile gaming is still an exciting one.
Whether you want games that will last the length of a commute, or want to be lost in a port of GTA where you spend hours mowing down pedestrians and making money out of murder, there is a game on here for you.
This constantly updated list is a mixture of free and paid for games, and also that one in between - some in-app payments aren't really that bad. Honest! If by the end you think we have missed something special off of the list, let us know and we will see if it is worthy of inclusion further down the line.

1. Lara Croft: Relic Run (free)

Just because it doesn't don the name "Tomb Raider" doesn't mean that this adventure isn't worth plowing through. Similar to Temple Run, Lara Croft: Relic Run has Lara running endlessly through a procedurally-generated world.
Players can expect similar gameplay to other endless runners, except there are a few touches here that Tomb Raider fans will dig. Not only is Lara the best-looking endless runner character ever, she can parkour, shoot guns, run along walls and slide down the back of a tyrannosaurus rex. Need we say more?

2. Two Dots (free)

Dots was good, but the sequel Two Dots is even better, with more varied challenges, different modes of play, better bonuses, smoother animations and improved visuals.
The aim is the same though - connecting coloured dots into squares - and like the best mobile games, Dots Two combines a simple but addictive idea with a lot of polish.

3. The Simpsons Tapped Out (free)

EA's game based on the inhabitants of Springfield is surprising in a few ways. It's free, which is quite the thing, plus, although what many would deride as a 'freemium' game, it's more than possible to keep it going in the background, pottering away, slowly unlocking all of its content for free. Free-to-play done right, for once.

4. Angry Birds Space (free)

Developer Rovio has done quite a lot of aggressive whoring of the Angry Birds franchise, but this space-based fork of the simplistic physics game series is really worth a try. For one, it introduces some new play concepts, with the planet-based levels requiring different tactics, plus the puzzles generally need a bit more of a thoughtful approach than the chuck-it-and-see of the originals.

5. Badland (free)

Has a bit of an 'indie' vibe about it this one, with Badland offering a weird, dark and gloomy world, in which you fly about in control of a… blob thing. Your blob gets bigger and smaller, splits into loads of mini clones, and generally baffles you about what might lie around the next corner. We like a bit of a surprise, and this is full of them.

6. Crazy Taxi City Rush (free)

Crazy Taxi City Rush is another free game in which you need to put "free" in big quote marks, as it's packed to bursting with subsequent in-app purchases to unlock features, buy customisations and, in a particularly shameless move, buy petrol for your taxi to continue playing after more than a handful of failed runs. Still, endure the cash-grab and it's a pretty game, one that uses a new, simple, swipe-based control system to allow it all to work surprisingly well on a touchscreen.

7. Monument Valley (£2.49, $3.99, $AU4.90)

A very, very pretty game, this. Monument Valley is based around the weird sort of impossible geometric shapes popularised by artist M. C. Escher, with its colourful maps bending and rotating in ways that appear to defy the laws of nature. You walk on walls, flip them, turn them into floors, avoid crows and marvel at how beautiful it all looks. A short game with only 10 multi-layered levels, but a joyful ride.

8. PewPew (free)

The developer calls this a "multidirectional shoot 'em up" presumably because describing it as a "Geometry Wars clone" might have got him in a bit of legal trouble. Regardless of its origin, it's a superb shooter with some bizarre game modes and controls that work exceptionally well on touch devices.

9. MC 5: Blackout (£4.99, $6.99,AU$8.99)

We get moaned at a lot for putting too many silly, quirky little games about shapes and animals and organising letters of the alphabet in this list. So here's one about men with guns shooting each other in 3D. Modern Combat 5 the latest in Gameloft's mobile homage to grown-up home console FPS franchises, in which you gun about the place alone or in online multiplayer matches. Nice to see Gameloft offering everything in a one-off install here, rather than packing it with in-app purchases.

10. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (free)

If you're not already familiar with Blizzard's Hearthstone then consider this a warning: it gets very, very addictive. A card game from the makers of World of Warcraft, Hearthstone sees you building decks from won or purchased cards to then battle against friends and strangers. It's a surprisingly complex game that demands meticulous strategy. You can play and enjoy without paying a penny, but there are options to buy booster packs and add-on quests should you want to.

11. Whale Trail Frenzy (free)

No one dies of disease in Whale Trail. It's a sweet flying sim, which sees you float about in the clouds having a lovely time, collecting things, boosting and generally being quite happy about it. The cheery vibe is broken a bit when adverts and in-app purchase requests pop up, but it's happy enough before the money men turn up.

12. Thomas Was Alone (£3.99, $5.99, $AUD9.99)

One of the PC "indie" world's big name smashes has arrived on Android, with the existential platform game yours to... enjoy. Or at least attempt to understand. You could call Thomas Was Alone a "platform game" if you wanted to be mean and disrespectful, but it's more about offering an atmospheric and thoughtful journey through an abstract world. A bit like a piece of art, but let's not get into that debate here. I'm not being paid by the word.

13. Bad Piggies (free)

Angry Birds maker Rovio proves it's not a one-trick bird-pony with this, a bizarre and quirky physics game. You have a toolbox at your disposal, used to build a flying and/or driving machine, which then has to trundle its way through a level. It's silly, but at least attempts to shove out some new ideas.

14. Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions (£3.82, $4.99,AU$6.47)

This is the good stuff. So many mobile games make the claim of being console-quality, but Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is a rare title that fully delivers. Like its predecessors, this is a twin-stick shooter, a fight for survival against waves of deadly neon foes. But as its name alludes to, Dimensions dispenses with flat arenas, instead wrapping play areas around geometric shapes. It's disorienting as a cube in space you're traversing lurches about, and exhilarating as you barely avoid the legions of ships lurking beyond an edge. With 15 grids and 12 modes, along with an extensive single-player quest, Dimensions easily manages to be the finest game of its kind on mobile.

15. Radiant Defense (free)

The tower defense genre is heaving on Android, thanks to the poke and press play mechanics being ideally suited to touchscreen play. Radiant Defense is a great example of the simplified strategy concept, presenting its war action in a futuristic neon style that looks awesome on any phone with the grunt to do it justice.

16. Pocket League Story 2 (free)

Kariosoft's made a big thing for itself by using its management style of game across various scenarios, with this sporting event being one of the best. You take control of a club, then stress about signings, money, tactics and more. It's slightly robbed of some fun via a desire to use in-app purchases to squeeze money out of players, ironically mirroring the state of the game it takes inspiration from.

17. New Star Soccer (free)

A great football management game with a sense of humour. There's some turn-based play, but it's more about bringing together the off-pitch lifestyles of players with the crucial money matters of the football universe.
Like Pocket League Story there are some in-app cash demands, so prepare to be badgered for payments after you've progressed some way through.

18. Tiny Thief (free)

As accessible as it is charming, Tiny Thief is a perfect fit for mobile, with a simple tap used to both move and interact with objects as you navigate increasingly intricate levels trying to complete objectives (which as the name suggests usually involve stealing things), while staying hidden and solving puzzles.
The gameplay might be simple but the humour and imagination should keep a smile on your face for the duration. Better yet, you can play half the game for free...though the remaining levels will cost you.

19. Sonic Dash (free)

There is some arguing as to whether this is "free" as it's rammed with in-app purchases, but there's no dispute as to its quality. Sonic's latest mobile game is, appropriately, an endless runner, with the hedgehog jumping left and right to avoid obstacles placed around its familiar green worlds.

20. Cut the Rope: Time Travel (free)

The weird little physics game is one of Android's most popular franchises, with this update introducing a few new tricks and weapons. It's the same sort of experience as its earlier chapters, though, with players swinging ropes to throw sweeties around its colourful screens. Masses of levels and a mid-to-high fun level.

21. QuizUp (free)

QuizUp is a staggeringly clever online pub quiz app, where you play with random strangers or friends. You can pick from a massive amount of categories, from riddles to sports through to Adventure Time, so you won't be caught out by subjects you don't know.
Its simple quiz rounds only take a couple of minutes to get through, plus there's a seamless offline challenge option so you can mentally battle people who then take their turn later. It's loaded with questions and constantly updated with new categories. A real treat.

22. Beach Buggy Blitz (free)

Offers something approaching big console quality on Android, in a game rammed with pretty worlds, loads of vehicles, power-ups, upgrades and more, plus the graphics engine can adapt to more powerful hardware and throws in more effects if you're using something with a serious number of cores. There is some level of in-app purchasing on offer, but it's mild and easily avoidable.

23. Voxel Rush (free)

A very pretty and minimalist racer, where the usual beach/mountain/lava environments have been binned in favour of bold slabs of colour. It's stylish, motion controlled, ready for multiplayer action and integrates Google Play Game support for solo achievements and leaderboards.

24. Nightbird Trigger X (free)

What the developer calls a "point shooting game," Nightbird Trigger X is a one-button pony where your little man has to shoot a point in the screen to progress. But there's stuff in the way. Annoying moving stuff, that means you score less and take longer if you can't find the target with your first bullet. Simple, but free and a little bit original.

25. Re-Volt 2: Multiplayer (free)

Old-ish people who played the original Re-Volt race series on the games hardware of yesteryear will be bang up for this, even though it looks a little rough around the edges. Re-Volt 2: Multiplayer is a refresh of the radio-controlled car racer, now updated with multiplayer options for the sociable modern player. Free to download and get going, with only some unlockables masked by an in-app purchase requirement.

26. Spaceteam (free)

This is bonkers. Spaceteam uses the Android hardware to the max to build a properly innovative multiplayer-only game, where between two and four players come together to shout exciting space terminology at each other while battling the control panel of an exploding ship. It's very silly, like something that only came out on the Wii in Japan.

27. Toast Time (£1.99, US$2.99, AU$1.28)

If it needs pigeon-holing, Toast Time is best described as a combat platform game. Thing is, you're only a toaster, and your weapon is… toast. So it's sort of a toast-based physics simulation as well, with the kickback from the toast knocking the toaster around the screen and requiring constant compensation. Because there's a clock that needs protecting and… it's best you play it. It's good.

28. Ridiculous Fishing (£1.99, US$2.99, AU$3.68)

Quite possibly one of the best uses of the mobile phone accelerometer tech there's ever been, this, with motion control sending your fishing line down to the depths of the sea while you avoid fish. Then, on the way up, it's how you catch them. That's when it goes ridiculous, as the fisherman chucks them up in the air -- and you shoot them to bank the money. Silly, but a must play.

29. Super Hexagon (£1.99, US$2.99, AU$3.68)

Another mobile classic. Super Hexagon has two controls -- rotate left and rotate right. That's all you need to navigate the endless maze that spins out of the screen, in one of the mobile world's hardest, coolest, best-sounding and most moreish games. We order you to buy it. You literally have to.

30. Threes! (£1.20, US$1.99, AU$2.40)

The sort of silly maths game you might've played in your head before mobile phones emerged to absorb all our thought processes, Threes! really does take less than 30 seconds to learn. You bash numbers about until they form multiples of three and disappear. That's it. There are stacks of free clones available, but if you won't spare the price of one massive bar of chocolate to pay for a lovely little game like this that'll amuse you for week, you're part of the problem and deserve to rot in a freemium hell where it costs 50p to do a wee.

31. Minecraft Pocket Edition (£4.99, US$6.99,AU$9.25)

The build 'em up phenomenon works brilliantly well on Android, thanks to the creator of the desktop original taking the time to do it justice. It's a slimmed down interface you see here with on-screen buttons, but the basics are all in and the Survival and Creative modes are ready for play -- as is multiplayer mode over Wi-Fi.

32. Heroes of Loot (£1.72, US$1.99, AU$3.30)

The entire back catalogue of solo indie creator OrangePixel is worth exploring, but his latest is the best yet. It's a stylish 2D dungeon explorer, with masses of quests, classes and secret areas to unlock. Plus it supports a wide range of Bluetooth controllers, for easier play if you've got a compatible lump of buttoned plastic.

33. Flight Control (£0.60, US$0.99, AU$1.20)

An exciting new genre all of its own when it appeared, Flight Control created the world of the top-down air traffic control simulator. Literally three million times more exciting than it sounds, it's played by swiping 2D aeroplanes into runway landing slots, avoiding collisions and scoring for successful landings. Perfectly suited to touchscreen play.

34. Pac-Man Championship Edition (£2.60, US$3.99,AU$5.00)

Not just the same old Pac-Man that's been emulated, re-released and cloned for the last 30 years. Pac-Man CE is a fresh reworking of the maze game, with jazzy graphics, scrolling mazes and pumping sounds updating the concept for the kids of today. And the dads of today. Anyone after a really smart puzzle game, in fact.

35. Game Dev Story (£1.60, US$2.50, AU$3.00)

The "Story" that started Kairosoft's domination of the simplistic business world sim, Game Dev Story sees you take charge of a software house and attempt to create a smash game. The sweet pixel-art characters then battle with the complexities of design and the stresses of arbitrary internet reviews from people who haven't even played it (ahem), in the pursuit of a money-making smash.

36. Raiden Legacy (£4.45, US$4.99, AU$10.00)

Quite possibly the greatest 2D shoot 'em up of all time, the Android conversion of Radien is every bit as impressive as the original. A choice of control schemes, display and difficulty settings make it a little more manageable on touchscreens, plus, seeing as this is the Legacy edition, you get Raiden, Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2 and Raiden Fighters Jet.

37. Fallout Shelter (free)

After making a splash on iOS, Fallout Shelter is now available on Android for all you Wasteland nuts. Create a vault and fill it with post-nuclear-war survivors, expanding your underground property, levelling up your dwellers, and sending them out to explore the surface left behind.

38. Football Manager Handheld 2014 (£6.99, US$9.99,

AU$12.00)

Explodes through the usual Android game price ceiling by charging £6.99, but, in this case, it's worth it. The full app offers a superb, stats-heavy mobile take on the classic management series, hardly skimping on any minute detail in the transition to mobile. Manage transfers, the media, match days and more in one of the sporting gamers' must-get titles.

39. Canabalt HD (£1.99, US$2.99, AU$3.68)

The newer, slightly posher version of the original game, the one that pretty much invented the "endless runner" genre that now clogs up the gaming sections of the app stores of the world. You are a man. You run along rooftops to a techno soundtrack. That's about it, only it's much more enjoyable than it sounds.

40. Another World (£1.70, US$1.99, AU$3.49)

The classic 2D puzzle platformer that wowed the simpler folk of the 1990s with the very occasional bit of 3D, has arrived in perfect form on Android. This 20th anniversary edition has the original graphics plus the option of an HD refresh, but what's really about is getting to play one of gaming's most loved classics. On your phone. For a couple of quid. Madness.

41. GTA Vice City (£2.99, US$4.99, AU$5.53)

Seem to remember people thought this was quite good. For the price of a pint (if you're somewhere northern) you can own one of the largest and most highly-rated video games of all time, to pop in and out of on your mobile phone. On-screen controls are never going to suit a game like this, but they are at least fully customisable -- so you can get it how you like it.

42. Terraria (£3.14, US$4.99, AU$5.70)

Sort of a Minecraft… platform… puzzle 'em up, Terraria players dig and mine and fight their way through randomly generated worlds. Resources make weapons and houses, weapons and houses mean you stay alive, plus there's Wi-Fi multiplayer support that has it nearing parity with the version sold on desktops.

43. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (£1.99, US$2.99, AU$3.68)

Not the easiest thing to play using on-screen buttons, but the fact this exists at all is a marvel. It's also a glorious conversion, with Sega finally taking the time to do the best Sonic justice. It's been remastered into widescreen and supports a wide range of Bluetooth controllers so, even if you don't yet own one, you'll be able to enjoy it fully when you eventually do.

44. Osmos HD (£1.79, US$2.99, AU$3.45)

A lovely little ambient puzzle thing, in which you play a cell thing and make it your business to absorb others. The residue you fire out makes you smaller, though, so efficient use of your biological systems is a must. It's a chillout experience more than a game, with the surreal concept joined by some equally relaxing ambient music. A charmer.

45. Colin McRae Rally (£1.49, US$1.99, AU$2.80)

Cars. Cars going round corners and sometimes down straight bits. That's what you get here, in this nice looking recreation of the old PlayStation race favourite. On Android, Colin McRae lets users race four cars including Colin's classic Ford Focus, cars you get to smash around 30 separate race stages. Based on the beloved Colin McRae Rally 2.0 from the PS2, you really can't go wrong.

46. Broken Sword: Director's Cut (£3.99, US$4.99,

AU$6.58)

This cult classic from an earlier wave of the big home consoles has been converted beautifully to Android, capturing the slightly odd and amusing adventure perfectly - and with an interface that really works on today's touchscreens. It's an "indie" game from before there were indie games, silly and with some excellent and challenging puzzles.

47. Worms 2: Armageddon (£2.99, US$4.99, AU$0.99)

Very old and very good, the Worms series led the way when it came to making strategy games fun. The comedy combat action is turn-based, with players alternating at having pop shots at each other with their weaponry. This slower pace means it's ideal for online and local multiplayer, as the odd glitch doesn't ruin the experience.

48. Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition (£6.99, US$9.99,

AU$13.99)

The strategy titan has a hefty price tag attached to it on Android, but that's OK as the immense challenge it contains is likely to burn for longer than the sun. The first Baldur's game, this faithful reworking of the 1998 classic also includes several of the PC game's post-release expansion packs, just in case the standard 60-hour marathon quest isn't hardcore enough for you.

49. The Wolf Among Us (£9.59, $14.99, around

AU$17.99)

Telltale has made a name for itself with story-driven episodic games and The Wolf Among Us is one of its best. Essentially a hard boiled fairy tale, you control the big bad wolf as he hunts a murderer through the mean streets of Fabletown.
Don't let the fairy tale setting fool you, this is a violent, mature game and it's one where your decisions have consequences, impacting not only what the other characters think of you but also who lives and who dies. Episode One is free but the remaining four will set you back a steep £9.59 / $14.99 / around AU$18. Trust us though, you'll want to see how this story ends.

50. The Banner Saga (£3.49, $4.99, around AU$5.99)

Large, deep games are still relatively rare on Android, but you can add one more to the list with The Banner Saga. This Viking-inspired tactical RPG gives you control of over 25 different characters across 7 different classes as you battle your way through beautiful hand drawn environments and make decisions both in and out of combat which affect the story.
There's a lot to it, but its turn-based nature means controls are never a problem and you can take it at your own pace.











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MOVIE WEEK: Godz and Monsters: the making of Godzilla

Godz and Monsters: the look of Godzilla

When making a Godzilla movie, the conclusion you are going to come to pretty quickly is that size matters. For director Gareth Edwards there was only one way he wanted to go with the size of his Godzilla and that was upwards.
"We wanted to make Godzilla as big as you possibly can - he's actually technically 350 feet in the film," said Edwards at a recent world's first showing of Godzilla footage in London.
"The way we arrived at that was quite simple, we wanted him tall enough to see him in a city but small enough so he can be obscured some times. Otherwise there is no fun.
"We went through all the permutations and it was quite clear for us that the 350 foot mark worked. And especially because that makes him technically the biggest Godzilla ever - so we were like, let's do that!"
Dealing with size is something Edwards has been doing for the past three years now.
With only one other film under his belt as a director, he has had to learn very quickly about the economies of scale that come with big-budget moviemaking.

His first film Monsters was a superb low-budget alien invasion movie. It was made for £500,000 which is peanuts in movie money and all the effects were created by Edwards on his home computer.
Although it was special effects laden Monsters' focus was very much on the characters. But when the aliens were shown, they looked far bigger and better than the budget should have allowed - thanks to Edwards' previous job as a visual effects supervisor.
At the time of release, Edwards explained to film critic Mark Kermode his thoughts behind Monsters' effects.

Making CGI real

"The whole point of CGI is realism," he said. "That is why you spend all that time, the pain of doing creatures and lighting. So why would you go to all that trouble on CGI and not spend the rest of time going to the same trouble for the movie?"
The changes in computer effects software in the home allowed Edwards to create his monsters from his own mass bundle of sketches. Using Adobe's After Effects, he could create more organic-looking creatures from what was essentially digital clay. He abused the software as much as he could, taking particles from myriad plug-ins to make his monsters work.
Skip to 2014 and he now he has a budget of $150 million to work with, and the small task of creating perhaps the world's most well-known and well-loved creature.
You would think with 28 films from the legendary Toho Studios - and one frankly embarrassing Roland Emmerich remake - coming up with the look of Godzilla would be easy but Edwards admitted it was a challenge.
"I thought it was going to be a really simple task to design Godzilla. He is already designed, you just copy him right? But it became a process that took over a year trying to get the look right," said Edwards.
"It is like when you witness a crime and the police ask 'what did it look like' and you go 'well he had this thing...' and they ask you to draw it but you just can't. It was a lot of trial and error.
"Weta did the design for a lot of Godzilla and it was this constant back and fourth thing until we got to a point where we could rotate him from every angle and get a proper look at him and feel like we didn't want to change him.
"In the end we are really proud of the way that he turned out."

Creating characters

With British VFX giants MPC (Moving Picture Company) and Double Negative also handling the visual effects for Godzilla, the whole thing is a far cry from Edwards in his bedroom sweating over After Effects. But sometimes bigger isn't necessarily better when it comes to the creative process.

"You can very easily get seduced by CGI. My background is visual effects but I think the honeymoon period is truly over for me and visual effects," he says.
"With Godzilla it is as much about the story and creating characters that you genuinely care about."
Story, Edwards notes, is the hardest thing to get right regardless of your budget.
"The real difficulty in any filmmaking process is to try and tell a gripping story that you really care about and that doesn't matter if you have got 10p or 300 million. It is just as hard for anybody and that is what we focused a lot of our time on to get right."

Godz and Monsters: busting budgets

Having come from the world of no budgets, Edwards did have some advice about how to tackle a film of Godzilla's magnitude and that is to spin everything you learn as a low-budget filmmaker on its head.
"If you wrote a list of all the pros and cons when making a low budget movie, when you make a high budget movie just swap that list over," he explains.
"Everything that is easy to do when there is three of you is really hard to do when there is 400 of you. Everything that is really hard to do when you have only got £10 is really easy when you have millions."
For some, Godzilla will always be known as being portrayed by a man in a suit, though, and while the franchise's humble beginnings simply wouldn't work in a Hollywood movie today, Edwards tried to retain some of the original's passion in the filmmaking process.
One way we will see this is, according to Empire magazine, in the motion capture of Godzilla. Andy Serkis - he of King Kong and Gollum fame - will be the man in the digital suit for certain scenes. This will help to "control the soul" of his creation, according to Edwards.

Getting more from the roar

Another way is with the sound. Or, more importantly, how Godzilla's famous roar was recreated.
"We decided that we wanted to embrace the original roar but obviously do it in Dolby 7.1 and Atmos," says Edwards.
"So we got the original recording of the roar but it just doesn't do justice in the cinemas of today so our little brief was the same as with the design of Godzilla: imagine Godzilla was this real animal in the 60s and somebody from Toho Studios in Japan saw this animal and recorded its roar."
It is this quest for realism that is threaded throughout both Monsters and Godzilla. Regardless of budget, Edwards wants to make sure that storytelling entwines with the visual effects so that Godzilla isn't just another dumb blockbuster movie.
In the footage we saw, Edwards has managed just that. While Godzilla looked breathtaking, his slow movements offering up both excitement and terror, there was real empathy in the human characters, showing that it wasn't just buildings and forests being devastated but lives too.
In the four years since Monsters it's clear that Edwards career has catapulted him to blockbuster status but the emotional resonance in his storytelling thankfully remains in tact.
"The last three years have been the hardest, most exhausting, most intense, most exciting years I think anyone could ever have.
"But somehow we have created a film that I am really proud of," said Edwards at the end of the Godzilla sneak peak.
After witnessing what we did, we have every feeling that he has done just that.
Godzilla is out on May 16, courtesy of Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures.

• Him and Her: TechRadar speaks to genius filmmaker Spike Jonze

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MOVIE WEEK: How special effects transformed the movies

Where it all began

To create movies of the quality we now expect, special effects houses have to use every trick in the book, from classic green-screen technologies to the creation of full artificial intelligence systems. It's no wonder that names like Industrial Light and Magic are as important in Hollywood as any producer's or director's.
While there's no question that you need advanced software techniques on your side to produce Hollywood effects, most of what's needed comes down to raw processing power. Many of the day-to-day tools used in the industry are mainstream applications available to enthusiasts and smaller studios.
Companies such as Softimage and Autodesk lead the way with suites of titles designed to cover everything from green-screen imaging and compositing to character animation, lip synching and lighting.
Custom code
These applications are fine for the basics, but the larger effects houses spend as much time on software engineering as they do on the artistic side, writing custom code to fix specific problems and bringing new effects to life.
Sometimes these become products in their own right, as happened with Pixar's RenderMan, the engine behind not only the company's own films such as Ratatouille and WALL-E, but also most major Hollywood blockbusters, including Harry Potter and I Am Legend.
Mental Ray is another common industry render engine, and it's used on all manner of Hollywood blockbusters. Essentially acting as an API, Mental Ray allows batch mode rendering within common software environments. This means that designers can render their output via their favourite software package, be it Maya, 3DS Max, Softimage XSI or Side Effects Software's Houdini.
The advantage of this is that designers and artists can use a common rendering file format – a '.mi' scene file – across different applications, using each app's own shading methods, procedural textures, bump and displacement maps, atmosphere and volume effects, environments, camera lenses and light sources.
The level of complexity involved here is closer to an engineering project than a standard artistic one, but it's wasted if the artistic side falls flat. Pixar is a great demonstration of the two working side by side. When Toy Story came out, the relatively primitive state of 3D graphics didn't allow for the complex effects we're now used to seeing – cloth effects, convincing human animation and photorealistic backgrounds, for example.
So the company focused on the type of effects it could pull off – rigid-body toys, where any weaknesses would simply contribute to the charm. Each subsequent release followed a similar pattern, introducing more realistic animation in A Bug's Life, mastering fur in Monsters Inc and coming up with the cartoon humans that made The Incredibles so much fun to watch. Every movie raised the stakes. Every movie was a hit.
The state of the art
The history of CGI in live-action films hasn't always been smooth. The earliest practical application of CGI is generally agreed to be the point-of-view sequences of Yul Brynner's robot gunslinger in the 1973 futuristic western Westworld.
The producers employed 2D computer-generated animation to simulate the robot's vision. For the 1976 follow-up Futureworld, the producers went one stage further and introduced 3D elements via rendered polygonal models, a technique which has now become standard. Not all the effects of the time were so complicated. In many cases, it was easier to cheat.
The TV version of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (1981) appeared to use computer graphics for the pages of the Guide, but in fact these were hand-drawn scenes created to mimic the style of contemporary computer animation. Other artists found that the technology available simply wasn't able to produce what they wanted.
The Japanese anime film Golgo 13 (1983) was one of the first movies of its kind to introduce proper computer animation interposed with traditional techniques, leading to a hysterical scene where the cell-animated main character keeps cutting away to a blocky, untextured helicopter gunship.
It's therefore not surprising that the first truly legendary CGI-heavy film was, like Pixar's films, designed to play to the technology's weaknesses as well as its strengths. 1982 saw the release of Tron, complete with real actors and the first fully computer-engineered 3D scenes.
"One of the difficult tasks on Tron was to create a unified look for both the real world and the electronic world," said producer Donald Kushner several years after the film's release. "Like in The Wizard Of Oz, there are two worlds. The difficult part was integrating both of them. We used computer simulation, we used backlit techniques and we used conventional live action. The challenge was to make it all look cohesive."
Beyond Tron
After Tron, a variety of watershed films employed ever-more impressive CGI advancements, from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade featuring the first all-composite scene to Terminator 2: Judgment Day's startling visuals of the T1000. The latter marked the first use of natural human motion for a computer-sculpted character. Its liquid metal effects, particularly in conjunction with the then-revolutionary morphing technology that would soon take over every film and commercial in sight, was a particular eye-opener, giving us a villain that combined the best technology from both 1991 and a post-apocalyptic 2029.
It was Toy Story, though, that really cemented CGI's place in the industry. While producing the film, Pixar grew from just 10 people to 150 – an unheard-of number for a computer graphics project. 50 to 70 people were on the technical team, working under technical director Bill Reeves and animator John Lasseter.
They were tasked with producing the software that would become RenderMan. "If you have a good story and good characters, you can use CGI to create a movie that does $200million at the box office and accolades up the wazoo," Reeves said, noting the importance of choosing the right project instead of just relying on effects. As for Lasseter, it's tough to argue with his recent description of his field: "Computer animation's an art form that grew out of a science."

Intelligent creations

Intelligent creations
While the likes of Pixar and Disney transformed animation using CGI principles and George Lucas and Steven Spielberg leveraged ever-more believable CGI and compositing work into their films, it was Peter Jackson who truly propelled the technology into its next stage by incorporating artificial intelligence into the huge battle scenes that featured throughout The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Jackson wanted software that would allow hundreds of humans and orcs to interact naturally without the need to animate each character individually. Each soldier had to fight the right enemy and behave as a character would in battle. The answer came via a developer named Stephen Regelous, who created Massive. This program allowed developers to quickly create thousands of individual characters, each of which responded differently to its surroundings.
The reactions of every character affected other characters in turn, changing how they acted and allowing motion-captured animations to create a realistic scene. Without Massive, the battle scenes of Middle Earth would have been near-impossible to create. An apocryphal tale recalls how Massive's AI was so sharp that when confronted with thousands of baying orcs, the armies of Middle Earth quite sensibly turned tail and ran away in terror. In reality, a bug in Massive caused the glitch, but the other story is an excellent anecdote.
Blending fact and fiction
Most will cite the likes of Toy Story, Shrek and The Lord of the Rings trilogy when thinking about CGI, but the real skill of special effects studios is blending real-life footage with elements of CGI for a rich, believable tapestry. Green-screen compositing and rotoscoping effects – as seen in Sin City, 300 and A Scanner Darkly – have blurred the line between reality and fiction. In some cases, the effects have been purposefully 'virtual'; for example, A Scanner Darkly used the Rotoshop digital technique to achieve a classic look.
The recent blockbuster Iron Man clearly needed to use huge elements of CGI, but for certain passages of the film it's hard to tell what is composited and what is real life footage. The Iron Man's cybernetic costumes started life as hardware, but Stan Winston Studio built practical versions of all the suits, along with those worn by Iron Man's nemesis, Iron Monger. These suits were used during the live shoot, but the physical props were replaced with digital versions when needed.
Visual effects giant Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) did the bulk of the compositing and animation for the film, including building the virtual suit. Because ILM was also responsible for Transformers, it had experience of rendering metal objects. But Iron Man was a different kind of movie: "The designs needed to be believable," says digital model supervisor Bruce Holcomb, who moved onto Iron Man from Transformers. "For Transformers, we constructed alien robots with lots of parts, and the visual confusion added to the enjoyment. Iron Man was more about design. The suits didn't have ambiguous parts moving for no reason."
Creating by removing
Just as it can add elements, CGI can also remove them. The 2007 release I Am Legend needed to depict a post-apocalyptic New York City. Director Francis Lawrence didn't want an obviously computer-created set, so he blended CGI with the motion capture.
Special effects were used to dilapidate NYC, remove stray New Yorkers from windows and stall moving cars seen in wide shots. "We didn't want to make an apocalyptic movie where the landscape felt apocalyptic," said Lawrence. "There's something magical about an empty city, as opposed to it being dark and scary."
Whether adding fantastical characters and scenery, removing human elements or simulating epic battles, CGI is now a staple element of modern movie making. It may seem odd that the common tools of the trade are commercially available software packages, but this only goes to show that the real skill of special effects lies in the artistic expression used rather than the sheer processing power of the technology.
The Best Visual Effects Oscar, established properly in 1996, sets out to reward "the artistry, skill and fidelity with which the visual illusions are achieved". As a result, even in today's world of super-powerful computers, the award is still won by skilled creatives rather than nimble programmers.
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First published in PC Plus Issue 280











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See new photos of BlackBerry's upcoming Android handset

Despite just having a sliver of market share to its name, BlackBerry isn't done yet with the smartphone market yet, and the company evidently thinks that Android is the way to solve its platform's crippling lack of modern-day apps.
Enter the BlackBerry Venice, an Android-powered phone with a QWERTY keyboard that we've been hearing rumours of for some time. There's been no confirmation from BlackBerry yet but there's a growing pile of clues that the handset is indeed on the way.

And you can add to that pile a new batch of photos leaked by Vietnamese website Tinhte.vn. They show the front and back of the new slider device and leave little to the imagination.

Back in business?

Specs-wise we're probably looking at a 1.8GHz hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor paired with 3GB of RAM. A 5.4-inch QHD screen will feature apparently accompanied by a microSD slot for adding extra storage.
If the latest version of Android isn't enough to tempt punters, this could be the last BlackBerry smartphone you see - CEO John Chen went on record this weekend to say that if BlackBerry can't make money from mobiles then it will get out of the business.
"There is a timeline; I won't tell you when," he said. "If you really want to play in the bigger market, you are going to have to be cross-platform. You are going to have to have partners; otherwise you go away."

• BlackBerry's Android phone could be here before the holidays

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Have we got our first look at the Nexus 8 tablet?

We always had something of a soft spot for the Nexus 7 but Google obviously didn't feel the same way, killing off the iPad mini rival earlier this year. Now it looks like there's an all-new, slightly larger slate on the way.
There were a few whispers about a Nexus 8 earlier in the week and now we have a shot of a dummy device that purports to be very similar to the real thing in terms of dimensions and looks. We don't have any clue yet who the manufacturer is going to be.

Is Google ready for another go at the tablet market? This isn't conclusive proof but 8 is one of the few numbers still left that has never had a Nexus label attached to it. This year's smartphones are expected to keep the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 monikers.

Slate to the party

Even Apple struggles to shift tablets in numbers that are high enough to keep shareholders happy, but we're hoping that Google keeps the Android tablet dream alive, even if the Nexus 9 hasn't proved particularly successful.
Based on the benchmarking leaks we've already seen we're expecting the device to feature an octa-core 1.3GHz CPU made by MediaTek. It's a good bet it's going to come out running Android 6.0 Marshmallow too.
The sources on this one aren't the most well-known in the tech world but last year Google launched a Nexus tablet at the same time as a Nexus smartphone so we're going to keep hoping for a repeat this time around.

• Best tablet 2015: Our top 10 ranking

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The physical web: A hidden world that will change things forever

Introduction and Eddystone vs iBeacon

A hidden world is being constructed that will change the way you access information forever. Beneath your feet, in the walls of offices, on streetlights and underneath the products in stores, tiny beacons are being secreted that broadcast a Bluetooth signal. Some get online, others talk to each other, but all will soon communicate with your phone. This is the 'physical web'.
"Beacons are a tiny Bluetooth radio that have a fairly short-range signal – on purpose because you're trying to determine proximity – and every beacon broadcasts its own unique string of characters," says Trevor Longino, Head of PR and Marketing at beacon maker Kontakt.io. "Your phone recognises each particular beacon and it takes either a simple or a complex action."
A simple action would be for your phone to 'see' a beacon and receive an alert, perhaps a voucher for the shop you're standing outside, or to unlock a door, or even change the music in your house as you walk from room to room.
However, most are 'beacon with internet' and offer monitoring, mapping and transactions using the web connection on your phone. By studying where you go, how long you stay and who else is with you, you could be accurately billed for using a karaoke booth, a gym or even for watching a movie in a multiplex. Beacons can record how often you walk past a particular store, while your phone can perform simple trigonometry to calculate exactly where you are while indoors, where GPS doesn't exist.
"Beacons broadcast about three times per second," says Longino. "They're small, last for a relatively long time, and are capable of relaying a unique piece of information constantly, and in a manner that's usable by virtually every smart device produced in the last three to four years. As such, they give a context to the real world that's readily available to almost anyone."

How important are Bluetooth beacons?

Beacons help to provide what a user needs, in the right location, and at the right time. "Beacons help to connect physical objects and spaces with digital devices," says Mike Crooks, Head of Innovation, Mubaloo Innovation Lab, who calls them 'assistive technology'. "Used properly, the technology is able to dramatically improve the way in which people interact with the things and spaces around them by providing context."
Beacons have been described as 'transformational' for some businesses, potentially saving millions in efficiency costs – and making a customers' life much simpler. "Beacons mean that apps are able to open in the right place, helping users reduce the number of screens they need to go through to get to what they need," says Crooks.
So a shopper can stand in front of a product and be prompted by their phone to open either an app or a web page with more information. The same thing can happen at museums, in warehouses, at bus stops and in airports to help people find location-specific information.

How important is Eddystone?

Until Google unveiled its own effort, Eddystone, Apple's iBeacon was the only game in town. While iBeacon is all about apps and works best on iPhones, Eddystone is designed to be an open format, supporting multiple frame types and versioning to make introducing new functionality easy. Its beacons are more flexible, allowing cloud-control of the content they contain. They're also able to broadcast a web URL to mobile browsers; iBeacons rely only on apps. Eddystone also allows telemetry data, such as updates on the temperature and the battery status of beacons, which should make it more popular for industrial use, such as in warehouses.
The major beacon makers, Kontakt.io, Estimote, Bluvision, Radius Networks and Onyx are all on-board, and ABI Research has forecast Eddystone to become the dominant standard in the BLE Beacon industry by 2020. "It's not so much about rivalling iBeacon, it's more about providing a framework that provides a standardised way that devices can read beacon IDs, across iOS and Android," says Crooks. "While iBeacon will work slightly better for proximity awareness on iOS devices, Eddystone means that developers or companies can use a single SDK in their apps that delivers enhanced functionality."

Eddystone vs iBeacon

"Apple can go on the defensive and try to limit iOS engagement with Eddystone and the physical web or it can look to evolve the standard in areas such as accuracy, range, and hybridisation," says Patrick Connolly, Principal Analyst at ABI Research. "This battle is far from over, but Google has looked at where the market is going next and produced a standard that can catalyse growth."
Eddystone beacons should also be more secure than iBeacons because they can't be cloned, thanks to the use of Ephemeral Identifiers (EIDs) that change the ID regularly.

Smart cities and indoor mapping

How are beacons making cities smart?

A project by Future Cities Catapult, Guide Dogs and Microsoft used beacons to provide contextual information to people with vision impairment. "This was done via a bone-conducting headset, providing information about the user's surroundings and, for example, information on when the right bus was coming," says Crooks. There are also beacons deployed in London tube stations and train stations. "It's easy to see how beacons could be used across a smart city to help provide not just people with accessibility issues, but also tourists, with information in a way that helps them navigate around a city, in their own language."

It's already happening in museums. "Museums are using beacons for audio guides, for telling visitors more about the exhibits, and for navigating, including the Imperial War Museum in London, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, and the Warsaw Uprising Museum," says Longino. "Beacons provide an enriching experience, and they're so much cheaper than traditional audio guides – you just download an app." Even Elvis Presley's Graceland in Memphis uses iBeacons to trigger location-based content within a new multimedia tablet tour on iPads.

Navigating and indoor mapping

Another such example is the Detour app, which provides audio guides of eight world cities (including Berlin, London, New York, Paris and San Francisco) using an augmentation of GPS and beacons to trigger stories as people walk around. "Beacons mean that users don't have to follow a pre-set route and can discover different areas with better granularity than would be possible with GPS," says Crooks. "It also means that the inside of buildings can be added, providing an enhanced user experience."
Indoor mapping is one often overlooked area that the beacon is about to revolutionise, making shopping malls, airports and offices fully navigable in 3D and in terms of people, too. Meeting a colleague in Terminal 1 to catch a flight? Not only will your phone help navigate you around the building, but it can also tell you when your colleague has arrived at the airport.

Beacons at home

The same goes for the home, too; imagine if your phone know that you'd just gone upstairs? Automated lighting, heating and music could follow you from living room to bedroom to bathroom, but leave the music playing in the living room if there's someone still there.
Beacons can be attached to streetlights, signage and other public infrastructure that needs maintenance. "The intelligence can be used to identify when assets are at risk of malfunctioning and help a council assign maintenance workers to address issues before they become problems," says Crooks. "We think there will be an augmentation of IoT technologies, including beacons and other sensor-driven devices."
By adding context and proximity to create a truly physical web, Bluetooth beacons could become the backbone of the smart city, the smart store, the smart office and the smart home, where the digital realm awaits us at every turn.

• Apple vs Google: The battle of the beacons

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MOVIE WEEK: Edgar Wright: mash up movies, don't pirate them

Every so often, the internet takes a break from trolling tech sites and complaining about celebrities to create a beautiful mash-up of movie bits, be it a montage of brilliance, like the 100 greatest movie threats of all time, or a trailer remix that adds new meanings to the same old shots.
These bring delight to us all for five minutes on a Friday afternoon – but this year videos such as these faced a threat in the form of anti-piracy measures like the controversial SOPA bill which would have curbed all that creative reworking of films and music by legally lumping it in with full on movie piracy.
It's hard to know what actual filmmakers think about you taking their work and making it into something else – real live directors and creators, who put months and years of work into a film before you even hear about it let alone see it.

You've got red on you

So we asked Edgar Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, where he stands on the online remix culture that has borne such fruits as Scott Pilgrim vs. the Matrix and the tear-jerking Shaun of the Dead Island.
Understandably, he's not exactly in favour of anyone reproducing whole films and making them available online for anyone to watch for free.
"There's a weird thing online - people expect to get everything for free and you maybe don't think about the fact that the people who make these things do need to get paid. There are crews that make these films and TV shows and they have families and stuff. It doesn't just happen for free.
"People kind of think that they're stealing from a corporation but [individual cast and crew members] all work hard and want to get paid for that," he added.
But if you're a movie mash-up maestro, Wright doesn't have beef with you. In fact, he's a bit of a fan:
"With that kind of thing, for me it's pretty cut and dry," he told us. "But I don't mind if somebody does a mash up of bits of my films and stuff, I don't mind about that at all.
"I think that's really creative when people take something like that. There was that short the other day when somebody had reconstituted Rear Window into one shot – it's amazing. That kind of stuff I think is brilliant.
"I think it's as simple as that - there's a big difference between people reconstituting material for art's sake than there is about people just pirating a movie and putting it up online so everybody can watch it for free. There's quite a distinct line there."
Wright is putting his money where his mouth is by working on Brandon Generator, an interactive, collaborative comic book backed by Microsoft, which allows users to submit ideas and artwork to become part of the story. Perfect for those who fancy honing their creative chops or showing off in front of the man who directed Spaced.











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Review: MOVIE WEEK: Fetch TV

Introduction

Update: With the arrival of Netflix, we've gone back to the Fetch TV review to see whether access to the streaming service helps or hinders the upstart Pay TV platform.
The options for pay TV in Australia have always been somewhat limited. You can either opt to go with Foxtel and get a PVR like the Foxtel iQ3 or, if you live in a slightly more regional postcode, Austar. Fetch TV is bringing its own unique take on pay TV to the Australian television scene.
But the problem with both Foxtel and Austar is that historically neither of their PVR recording options offer a lot of support for the free-to-air channels that make up a significant percentage of most Australians' viewing habits (although Foxtel is trying to change that with the iQ3).
Well, that and the fact that they are both relatively pricey for even the most basic starting package. They also require installation, either through HFC cable or by the installation of a satellite dish.
Fetch TV is a completely different approach. Instead of basing the service around pay TV, the Fetch box is first and foremost a traditional PVR for free-to-air television.

Inside there is a terabyte hard drive, plus three terrestrial tuners for recording two channels and watching a third simultaneously. 1GB of RAM ensures the box responds without lag.
But where Fetch really shines is by the addition of a properly integrated IP entertainment service. This takes the form of a pay TV subscription service that includes a heap of channels at a pretty decent price (more on this later), plus the ability to rent movies directly from the box.
Fetch also incorporates its own EPG solution, and has integrated catch-up TV platforms like ABC iView and SBS On Demand to not just work with the box, but to match the user experience.
And with the arrival of Netflix earlier this year, Fetch was quick to jump on the bandwagon, adding the global streamer to the platform for launch.
The rollout of Fetch has so far been fairly subdued. The company initially partnered with ISPs like iiNet and Optus to offer the box and the service, allowing the telcos to offer unmetered streaming for the entertainment services, while making it an appealing value add for bundled broadband services.
This finally changed in late 2014 though, with Fetch TV launching a version of the box direct to retail. The unlocked box will set you back $398 for the box and requires a one-off $1 activation fee for the Fetch TV service to work.
That one-off fee isn't an empty payment either – for your buck you get three movie rental credits on any three movies, which means up to $20.85 value.
While this means that Fetch TV is opening itself up to mass market adoption, you'll need to ensure you have a robust internet data plan to stream the content.
Also worth noting is that anyone buying the box outright doesn't get any unmetered content, even if they are an iiNet or Optus customer.

Design

Unlike traditional PVRs like the TiVo or the Foxtel iQ2, the Fetch TV box is small. Measuring in at 260 x 252 x 50mm and with no obviously visible buttons on the front of the boxy design, the Fetch TV isn't an eye-catching device that will form the visual centrepiece of your home entertainment setup.
In fact, the entire device is designed to vent heat out, and thanks to an external power supply, it doesn't get too hot in the first place.
Obviously this type of minimalistic industrial design is somewhat subjective, but I can say that the box does appear to be a little bit lost in a traditional component slot of home entertainment furniture. That said, it's so small you might be able to whack it on top of another device and save yourself a slot.

Our test unit was black, but there is a white unit exclusively available for iiNet customers, which could potentially be slightly more pleasing aesthetically.
There are a couple of lights that pop up when the device is powered on or recording, as well as when there's an internet connection, so you get some visual insight into what the device is doing.
The back of the box houses all the connections, and herein lies the first concern we had with the device.
While an antenna input and HDMI and optical audio outputs (plus composite options for older devices) are all standard, the inclusion of the ethernet port does pose problems. Not that it is there - everyone knows that wired connections give you a much better connection - but because it is essential to the box's functionality.
Yes, that's right, the Fetch TV box does not offer integrated wireless, or even a wireless dongle.

Instead, you have to either run cable across your house from the router to the Fetch box, or work around it by using powerline adapters or wireless range extenders.
The Fetch folk explained that there is, actually, a technical reason for this. According to Fred Hopley, COO of Fetch TV, the biggest issue is the fact that Fetch uses a technology called Multicast to essentially broadcast its paid channels over the internet.
Apparently, most routers don't play well with Multicast technology, either not forwarding the data over Wi-Fi at all, or instead pushing Wi-Fi across the entire network and bogging it down with excess data.
There is hope that as the 802.11ac standard becomes more prevalent, Fetch will be able to look at introducing a wireless dongle to connect to the net, but until then it's a case of sucking up powerpoints with range extenders.
There are also two USB ports on the back, which allow you to connect external storage for playing back your own content.
You can't export recorded files out onto storage though, which is less of an issue than you might think when you consider the mobile app solution Fetch has integrated, which we'll talk about a bit later.

The remote

Like every PVR ever made, the cornerstone of the Fetch TV box is the remote.

And the Fetch TV remote is a solid offering. With an overall design that feels strikingly familiar to Foxtel's iQ2 remote, Fetch has managed to squeeze plenty of important controls onto the remote itself without making it too confusing for novice users.
The all-important paw button in the middle of the directional arrows mostly acts like an OK button, but can also pull up the menu when you're just watching TV.
The dedicated EPG button at the very top of the remote is the other button you'll be pressing lots of, as it acts as a shortcut into Fetch's (frankly excellent) electronic program guide.

The EPG is immediate and up to date, with a convenient white line that tracks the current time against the schedule of shows on air, giving a quick look at how long until the next program.
The recent 2.1 update introduced real-time EPG data, which takes a feed from the free-to-air networks to offer up to date programming data. So when the networks are running well over time, the EPG will automatically adjust so you don't miss the end of your show.
As expected, there is also a traditional number pad at the bottom of the remote, as well as four colour-coded buttons that shortcut to different features; a play/pause, fast forward and rewind section for recorded playback, and dedicated record and stop buttons.
The remote can also be programmed as a universal control that can rule over your television and DVD/Blu-ray player as well.
That needs to be manually set up, and can pose problems for less tech-savvy family members as you need to press dedicated TV/STB/DVD buttons to control the different units (with the Fetch box being the STB).
This compares to a generic universal remote like a Logitech Harmony Touch, which uses macros to control all your devices at the same time to achieve different results.
Other dedicated shortcut buttons include a direct link to your ISPs portal - provided you've got the box through your ISP - including a link to messages, a shortcut to your recorded programs via a PVR button, and also shortcuts to change the language, view subtitles and access the main menu.
But for anyone that's ever lost a remote into the black hole that is the side of your couch, the ability to control pretty much every aspect of the device from the Fetch TV app on iOS and Android will be an even more alluring feature.

The service

Fundamentally a free-to-air PVR, Fetch TV stands above traditional PVR rivals by offering its own pay TV option, delivered over your internet connection.
For an extra $15-$20 a month for ISP subscribers (although that price will be different if depending on your ISP), you get 36 pay-TV channels streamed through the net in the shape of the 'Entertainment Plus Pack'.
Outright purchasers will get the Fetch Starter pack, which includes video recording and catchup TV, as well as YouTube access and movie rentals.
The starter pack used to include 30 free Movie Box films, but now users are required to add the Entertainment Plus pack ($15) for the Entertainment channels and Movie Box service, while the Ovation ($4.95) and Setanta Sports ($14.95) packs are an additional cost.
The channel lineup in the Entertainment pack is fairly extensive: TV Hits, MTV, E!, Style, BBC First, BBC UKTV, BBC Knowledge, HGTV, The Food Network, NBC's Universal Channel, SyFy, MTV Music, MTV Classic, MTV Dance, ESPN, ESPN2, National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo People, Travel Channel, Fashion TV, Disney, Disney Junior, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, Baby TV, BBC World News, CNBC, Bloomberg, France 24, Euronews, NDTV, Channel NewsAsia, Al Jazeera, CCTV News, the Australian Christian Channel and the SyFy channel.

Fetch is also targeting the massive number of Australian homes that speak a language other than English with a range of World TV channels. Starting at $9.95 a month, users can opt for a selection of channels in a number of languages, including Chinese, Korean, Indian, Filipino, and more.
There are also add-ons for the sports lover, with beIN Sports costing $14.95 a month and offering heaps of European rugby and football games.
Once you've signed up, the channels are seamlessly integrated into the free-to-air EPG. You can scroll through the entire channel list, or select your favourites and limit what you want to see. As you channel flick, the Fetch device seamlessly transitions between broadcast channels and IP channels, with practically no delay regardless of the delivery mechanism.
In fact, the only way to really know which channels are broadcast and which ones are streamed is a tiny little icon on the info box that comes up when you change a channel.
The TV menu has also introduced a "Top Shows" option in the 2.1 software update, which curates some of the most popular programming from both free to air and Pay TV services, and allows you to browse the better shows in a simple, convenient fashion.

Movies, catch up and YouTube

The pay TV element - while important to the overall performance - is but a tiny portion of the services on offer.
Fetch TV also doubles as a movie rental service, offering the ability to hire both standard definition and high definition movies without ever having to leave your seat. Films cost the same as they do through services like Apple TV, with an easy to browse mechanism that pops up on the main menu.
Rotten Tomatoes reviews are integrated into the hiring process, giving an immediate insight into a film's quality and helping users select their movie of the night.
Fetch also introduced a new "Specials" tab in its movie rental service, where 18 films will be available to rent for $2.95 at any given time.
But for viewers who want more than just the latest blockbusters, Fetch also provides the Movie Box service, which includes 30 movies to stream for free. Every day a new movie is added, which is available for 30 days before being taken off the service.

The movie selection doesn't include any new releases, and the quality of films vary, but there are plenty of watchable (and award winning) films on offer. While we tested, you could watch The Last King of Scotland or Independance Day as two out of the thirty films.
All the Movie Box offerings are only available in SD, so despite the variety there is obviously a quality question. But given they don't cost any extra, it can hardly be considered a viable complaint.
While Moviebox offers plenty of value, from a simple convenience standpoint, it's hard to go past the catch-up services.
Both ABC iView and SBS On Demand are integrated into the box itself, saving you the hassle of having to access them via a separate device.
Also in the catch up service list in the latest update was Channel 10's TenPlay app, so Masterchef and Neighbours fans are now officially catered for, while Yahoo!7 Plus7 means Home and Away is never too far away
What's more, all these services have been customised to mimic the Fetch TV's user interface, which makes the whole process of navigating and selecting which catch-up programs to watch so much easier.

Compared to the iView app on devices like the PlayStation 3, this is a much more enjoyable way to experience the catch up service.
But the most recent addition to the Fetch TV box – Netflix – is one of the device's biggest selling points.
The Netflix app is available at the top of the Apps menu, and is immediately familiar to anyone who has used Netflix before, with plenty of suggested content across the screen controllable via the Fetch TV remote.
The inclusion of Netflix is a boon for the set top box, but Fetch TV has long celebrated its openness to include as many streaming services as possible.

Whether StreamCo's Stan will come to the service is still to be seen, but given Presto's affiliation with Foxtel, it's unlikely we'll see it on Fetch any time soon though.
If you still can't find anything to watch via the subscription channels, or catch-up TV services, there's always YouTube.
Fetch TV integrates YouTube leanback, which has videos optimised for a big screen experience. Obviously, watching a video encoded at 240p will look absolutely rubbish on your big screen, but watching a Full HD movie like Red Bull's The Art of Flight is a very enjoyable experience.
You can also partner the YouTube experience with your phone or tablet, allowing you to type and search much easier than manually working through the remote's T9 keyboard.
Finally, Fetch has incorporated DLNA into the box, introducing the ability to watch your own content directly from the box. Accessing your local network content is found in the same section of the user interface as your recordings, which is a pretty intuitive place to put it, really.
It also works really well, streaming content from our smartphone effortlessly.

Performance

The overall quality of broadband in Australia is pretty rubbish really, which was always one of the justifications for the NBN rollout.
With that in mind and the fact we were using an ADSL2+ Telstra connection located about 4km from the local exchange, we had some serious concerns over the Fetch Box's ability to deliver on such a low quality connection.
For the most part though, Fetch's streaming quality was impressive. The box would happily push the subscription channels to the TV over a wireless bridge with little to no lag when flicking channels.
In fact, the responsiveness of the box is hard to fault. For anyone who has ever used a PVR that doesn't have an IP delivered EPG like IceTV or TiVo, the Fetch TV is a revelation, responding to your control immediately.

From a streaming standpoint, there were only a few moments when the connection wasn't able to deliver. When streaming a video to another device over the same internet connection, the box popped up a message informing that the connection speed had dropped and to maybe stop watching that other video.
The connection also struggled one night during a storm, when the rain and thunder was upsetting not just the local dogs, but also those of us trying to stream video via Fetch TV's IP channels.
Truth be told, you're unlikely to get a worse connection than the one we used to test outside of capital cities and suburbia, so if you're wondering if your connection is up to the task of streaming to a Fetch TV box, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised.
You'll just need to ensure you have a large data plan if you're not getting unmetered data through your ISP. Streaming all that video will chew through the gigabytes pretty quickly.
The video quality is also just standard definition at this point in time, with Fetch admitting it will expand into HD soon.

When that happens, it's unlikely a really average ADSL2+ connection like the one we used will be able to handle the load consistently. This is not the fault of Fetch, but something to consider when signing up.
Also worth noting is that while the subscription channels stream and start playing without skipping a beat, hiring an HD movie isn't the same.
Just like the Apple TV, if you're renting an HD movie for a Saturday night and you have a slightly sketchy connection, it's better to plan your viewing hours in advance to allow time for the film to download.
Like most digital rentals, you have 7 days to start watching the film once you've hired it, and 48 hours to watch it from the moment you first press play.

User interface

It's pretty clear that the team at Fetch has spent a fair amount of time working on the user interface of the box as it is a genuine pleasure to use.
Hitting the menu button brings up an opaque menu, with large images of potential movie rentals above a simple menu that drops down different sub menus based on the category.
The opacity of the menu is a key feature, meaning you can easily browse through the different content on the device during an ad break and know exactly when to switch back to your show.
From left to right, the menu categories available include My Stuff, Movies, TV, Apps, Manage and Fetch TV, although that last one will vary depending on where you get your box from – our review unit said iiNet instead.
We've mentioned it a few times, but flicking around the menu system with your remote is practically instantaneous thanks to the high-end hardware inside. There's an absolutely minimal amount of lag, with menus changing over immediately.
There's also some intuitive features in the menu systems, like the fact that recordings aren't organised into a massively long, random list. Instead, they are organised into folders of programs, which are then organised into sub-folders based on season.
Given there's a terabyte of storage on board, having a well-organised recording archive makes the process of finding which show to watch significantly easier.
The introduction of season breakdowns is amazing, although it appears that the service can't detect when you've already recorded a particular episode. After a few months use, the hard drive in my unit had five versions of a single episode of Dora the Explorer, which is obviously not the best usage of the storage.
In addition, if there was one thing we'd love to see implemented, it's the ability to set automatic recordings or alerts for specific programs or genres.

While the box does a really good job of setting up a Series Tag, at present it's not possible to set an alert for a particular actor or movie genre and have the box automatically record it for later viewing.
This is a function that works exceptionally well with the TiVo, and is something we'd love to see integrated into the Fetch box one day.
Fetch tells us that TiVo has some patents that make rolling out a feature like that problematic, but it is planning on introducing a curated list of suggested shows based on your Series Tags.
Since our last update, the service has also added the ability to browse content by cast or crew, allowing you to go on a Spielberg binge.
In any case, Fetch has also introduced a "Top Tips"s service in the Apps menu that offers regular tips on how to get more from the service as part of the 2.1 update. It's a useful addition, especially for the less tech-savvy users.

Going mobile

While the Fetch TV box itself is a pretty solid effort, what makes the platform a success is the ability to stretch beyond the television via iOS and Android applications.
In the settings menu on the Fetch TV, you can pair up to five mobile iOS or Android devices. Each of these apps can then be used to both control the Fetch TV box as a supplementary remote control, allowing you to browse the EPG using the device's touchscreen, change channel, adjust volume and more.

But where the apps get really good is the access to content.
Through the mobile app you can also watch any of your subscription TV channels live - although sadly not the free-to-air channels.
Movie Box films are available through the mobile app, as are movie rentals. These films are streamed through the internet direct to your device, no matter where you are, giving you the ability to keep yourself entertained on a commute for example (so long as you have the data limit, that is).
The app also lets you watch your Fetch TV recordings on a mobile device, although you'll need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network to take advantage of that.
While that doesn't offer the same flexibility of catching up on TV series on the road that say a TiVo does, it still allows you to let the better half watch Masterchef on the iPad while you watch Speed on the big screen.

Verdict

The Fetch TV has aspirations for greatness. It aims to bring the humble PVR into the 21st century by giving it the tools to take advantage of the internet as a source of content.
For the most part, the box is a resounding success. Top of the line specifications packed into a small, almost inconspicuous box complete with a robust subscription TV model make it a realistic competitor to the likes of Foxtel and TiVo.
Of course, the reliance on a solid internet connection could prove problematic to some customers, which is why the decision to partner with ISPs for its rollout is actually a stroke of genius.
But for a service that effectively amounts to $25-$30 a month, it gives an enticing alternative for people looking to get more from their TV viewing habits.

We liked

The user interface - and in particular the responsiveness - is truly inspiring. Being able to quickly browse through dozens of channels in a simple EPG, without waiting for programs to load or experiencing lag when you change pages is the height of convenience.
The remote is robust, and the versatility when it comes to on-demand content is also welcome. Seriously, you will never have to worry about having nothing to watch, and the stuff that you record for later viewing is also conveniently categorised for easy discovery.
The mobile apps add an extra dimension to the service, offering a convenient way to watch away from the television. While it does have some limitations, it's a solid experience that anyone can take advantage of.

We disliked

It's a short list here, because the platform is very robust. The lack of integrated Wi-Fi - while understandable from a technical point of view - is nonetheless a pain when it comes to actually setting up your Fetch Box.
We'd also like the ability to pre-emptively schedule programs based on actor, genre and other metadata like the TiVo does. There have been some improvements in this area around cast-based browsing, but being able to automatically record would be a really useful addition.
The only other potential concern is the quality of your internet connection impacting performance. It was far from ideal having viewing interrupted by someone else watching a video on YouTube on their computer on the same connection. That's not the fault of Fetch, but it will undoubtedly impact customers who struggle with their broadband connection anyway.

Final Verdict

This is one of the most impressive PVRs available on the Australian market today. The team at Fetch has combined an exceptionally well conceived EPG and recording functionality with a lovely user interface and a top-class pay TV service.
Given the expense of a Foxtel subscription and iQ3 box, and the question marks over TiVo's very existence in Australia these days, there's no question that this is one of the best alternatives for Australians looking to get more out of their TV viewing habits.
We're keen to see how Fetch improves this year, with the arrival of Foxtel's iQ3 PVR, as well as video streaming services like Netflix and Stan. On the whole though, we think the service will continue to succeed as Australian internet connections improve.











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Movie Week: The cars of James Bond

The cars of James Bond

In the real world, secret agents and spies draw as little attention to themselves as possible. Drab clothes, dreary locations, and unremarkable cars. The aim is to be entirely forgettable.
Fortunately, fiction leaves more room for the exotic, which is why James Bond (the world's greatest secret agent, in case you hadn't heard) can drive cars that turn every head on the street, making it impossible to maintain a low profile.
From the classic Aston Martin DB5, to a dalliance with BMW in the '90s, and the infamous invisible car of 2002's Die Another Day, James Bond's ride is never dull.

Aston Martin DB5

The Aston Martin DB5 first appeared in Goldfinger (1964), and while Bond's had many cars since, that original silver dream machine has never been bettered.
Appearing in six Bond movies over the years (Goldfinger, Thunderball, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, Casino Royale and Skyfall), the DB5 has also had its share of Q-approved upgrades.
The Goldfinger incarnation came packing gun barrels behind the front indicators, a bullet shield behind the rear window and a 3-way revolving front number plate. Pierce Brosnan's Bond enjoyed more subtle upgrades in Goldeneye, with a teleprinter disguised as a CD player, and a champagne cooler (for drink driving convenience).
The Goldfinger DB5 was sold in 2010 for US$4.6m. Money well spent.

Toyota 2000GT

With You Only Live Twice set primarily in Japan it was only natural that at some point Bond would find himself in Japan's first supercar, the Toyota 2000GT.
Belonging to Japanese S.I.S. agent Aki, only 351 of the Toyota 2000GT were ever produced, and the film's car was unique due to its open top – the regular car's hard top was too restrictive for the 189 cm Sean Connery to fit comfortably, so Toyota customised two cars for the film.

Lotus Esprit S1

On the road, Bond's ride from The Spy Who Loved Me may not look like much – especially when compared with that glorious DB5 – but this little white number comes with a big surprise.
Having taken a dive off the end of a pier, you'd think the S1 would at the very least need a session with an industrial blowdryer. Instead, its wheels folded away, transforming the S1 into a sleek submarine.
And the underwater incarnation of the S1 wasn't a model. It was a completely functional submarine build into the shell of one of Lotus' cars.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage

After an 18-year break, The Living Daylights saw Bond return to the brand in which he belongs – the Aston Martin.
One of Bond's more gadget-packed cars, the Vantage was equipped with spike-producing tires, missiles, and a self-destruct function. The car also featured outrigger skis, wheel-mounted lasers and a rocket booster.
Bond clearly likes a bit of variety, and the Vantage indulges him by switching from a convertible to winterised hardtop later in the film.

Ford Mustang Mach 1

While Bond was not actually the owner of the Ford Mustang Mach 1 – that particular privilege fell to smuggler Tiffany Case – he certainly put it through its paces while behind the wheel in Diamonds Are Forever.
007's had his fair share of near misses and miraculous escapes throughout the years, but perhaps his greatest achievement as a driver comes when he balances the Mach 1 on the car's two right wheels in order to fit down a narrow alley.
What's remarkable about this particular piece of wheel work is that when exiting the alley on the other side, Bond's managed to switch the Mach 1 to balance on its left side. That's some skill.

AMC Hornet

Perhaps second only to his miraculous feat in the Mustang Mach 1 is Bond's stunt while driving the AMC Hornet in The Man with the Golden Gun.
Desperately in need of a car to pursue a fellow M16 agent's kidnapper, Bond steals the Hornet from a nearby dealership – we suppose he has a licence for that, too – and then engages in a long chase that finds him on the wrong side of a river with a broken bridge.
Naturally, an obstacle like this is no match for 007, and he soon performs the 360-degree barrel roll jump that was the film's landmark stunt. A customised version of the Hornet was used for the stunt, with a lower stance and larger wheel wells helping Bond (well, a stuntman) land the jump perfectly.

BMW Z8

Arguably the best-looking car from Bond's BMW period, the Z8 armed Pierce Brosnan with a seamless blend of '60s styling and '90s gadgetry.
While not overloaded with tech, 007 was able to control the car remotely. And an attacking helicopter came to a fiery demise thanks to the vehicle's surface-to-air missiles.
Sadly, the car was finished when a second helicopter arrived and used hanging circular saws to cut it in half. An end made all the more tragic by the fact that BMW only produced 5,703 of the Z8.

Aston Martin DBS

A new Bond calls for a new Aston Martin, and Casino Royale's DBS must have been a very pleasant welcome gift for Daniel Craig.
While not boasting much in the way of gadgets, the immaculate styling we've come to expect from Aston Martin made it all the more difficult to watch as *spoilers* the car was totalled towards the film's climax.
The stunt actually broke the world record for the highest number of rolls in a car – the previous record was had been held by a Top Gear stuntman – turning seven times before coming to rest. The car wouldn't flip by itself, so a compressed air cannon had to fire a cylinder into the road to achieve the desired result.

• tech​r​adar's Movie Week is our celebration of the art of cinema, and the technology that makes it all possible.

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Updated: 10 best smartphones in the US

Number 10: Nexus 6

Update: The LG G4 has entered the Top 10, we're making room for the newly reviewed Galaxy Note 5 and OnePlus 2 in the next revision.
Knowing the best smartphone you can buy right now is more than just a hunch for us. We test out the latest and - sometimes - greatest phones in comprehensive mobile phone reviews.
To drill down to a list of our 10 favorites in the US for 2015, we based the updated rankings on a lot of geeked-out factors: design, performance, battery life and camera quality. iPhone 6S and Samsung Galaxy Note 5 will get the same treatment in September.
Sure, your personal preference among iOS 9, Android Marshmallow and Windows Mobile 10 could sway you to another device besides our top-ranked phone. Likewise, availability via AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile is an outlier. The best phone for AT&T may not be available on-contract on Verizon, and vice-versa.
But that's why we have more than just a No. 1 pick, which, spoiler alert, isn't Apple's iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus. We're not that predictable. Before you lock into a binding contract or spring for an expensive unlocked, SIM-free smartphone, consult our best phone guide, updated regularly.

10. Nexus 6

OS: Android 5.1 | Screen size: 5.96-inch | Resolution: 1440p | Memory: 3GB | Storage: 32GB/64GB | Battery: 3,220mAh | Rear camera: 13MP | Front camera: 2MP
The biggest smartphone on the list is the Nexus 6 from Google and Motorola. At a whopping 6 inches, it has room to compete with other flagships almost a year later: a Snapdragon 805 processor, 3GB of RAM, nearly all-day battery life, QuickCharge 2.0 and the latest Android 5.1 Lollipop update with the ability to handle the Android M beta right now.
Nexus 6 has a nearly bezel-free display, so the finger-stretching dimensions actually manage to be not too far off the size of the iPhone 6 Plus, which includes Apple's physical home button. The size of the phone is comparable, yet the screen size happens to be much bigger.
Of course, its bumped up cost isn't as budget-friendly at $650 full price - more than double the $300 starting price of the now discontinued Nexus 5. It's $249 through AT&T, but now $199 on-contract through Verizon - while it still has contracts until August 13. Just make sure you can properly hold this two-handed phablet before entering into a binding two-year commitment or opting for the very pricey no contract option.

• Nexus 6 review
• See the best Nexus 6 deals

Number 9: Sony Xperia Z3

9. Sony Xperia Z3

OS: Android 5.0.2 | Screen size: 5.15-inch | Resolution: 1080p | Memory: 3GB | Storage: 16GB/32GB | Battery: 3,100mAh | Rear camera: 20.7MP | Front camera: 2.2MP
Skip the on-contract Sony Xperia Z3v and forthcoming Sony Xperia Z4v, both of which are only available through Verizon, and opt for the infinitely better Sony Xperia Z3. Its the true upgrade to Sony Xperia Z2 that's already outdated by the Z3's aluminium frame. Plastic is out and metal-and-glass design are in.
Thankfully, Xperia Z3 keeps the dedicated camera button for its 20.7-megapixel snapper and Sony's IPS LCD screen technology makes it easier to read the 5.2-inch display, even in sunlight. The biggest beneficiaries are going to be PS4 consoles owners who can take advantage of Remote Play, a feature it shares with the Z3v, Z3 Compact and Z3 Tablet Compact.
Z3's internal specs are a small step up from the Z2 and matched by the Z3V, but this is the best of what Sony has to offer in design. That is, until the currently Japan-only Sony Xperia Z4 launches everywhere else as the Sony Xperia Z3+.

• Sony Xperia Z3 review
• See the best Sony Xperia Z3 deals

Number 8: iPhone 6 Plus

8. iPhone 6 Plus

OS: iOS 8.4 | Screen size: 5.5-inch | Resolution: 1080p | Memory: 1GB | Storage: 16GB/64GB/128GB | Battery: 2,915mAh | Rear camera: 8MP | Front camera: 1.2MP
iPhone 6 Plus is the only phablet-sized smartphone that runs iOS 8, so if you're tied into apps and services like iMessages and iCloud, this is your best and only bet for going big with Apple. It got even better at WWDC 2015 thanks to the reveal of the new iOS 8.4 update and downloadable iOS 9 beta.
Its 5.5-inch Full HD display makes it almost as multimedia-friendly as the iPad mini 3. All of a sudden, there's even less reason to check out that tablet. Simply put, it has the best specs within the iPhone lineup: a killer camera with optical image stabilization, a crisp 1080p screen and a bigger battery.
This means that it's a tad expensive and harder to hold than the simultaneously launched iPhone 6 that we like slightly better. It may be a little too wide (but not too pricey) for what Apple fans are used to, when the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 is cheaper and just as powerful.

• iPhone 6 Plus review
• See the best iPhone 6 Plus deals

Number 7: Samsung Galaxy Note 4

7. Samsung Galaxy Note 4

OS: Android 5.0.1 | Screen size: 5.7-inch | Resolution: 1440p | Memory: 3GB | Storage: 32GB | Battery: removable 3,220mAh | Rear camera: 16MP | Front camera: 3.7MP
Samsung is on the best smartphone list three times starting with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. It's simply a better phablet than what Apple and Google have to offer out of their own labs.
The 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display dials up the pixel count with a Quad HD resolution and it's sharper and brighter than other two-handed phones. And it comes with the handy S Pen stylus.
Note 4's camera exhibits punchy colors, and for the most part works flawlessly. In fact, some scenes look more dramatic than real life due to Samsung's image processing. Under the Gorilla Glass 3 and Super AMOLED is a solid Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM and a user-replaceable 3220mAh Fast Charging battery.
Samsung's support of microSD cards as well as its removable battery is also laudable, something that didn't carry over to the new Galaxy S6. The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 just launched, and we're about to throw it into our top ten, but the new phablet will cost you. It's $250, and that's with a carrier's strict two-year contract in the US. Otherwise, it's pricier at nearly $700 off-contract.

• Samsung Galaxy Note 4 review
• See the best Samsung Galaxy Note 4 price

Number 6: Sony Xperia Z3 Compact

6. Sony Xperia Z3 Compact

A small Android phone packed with big features
OS: Android 5 | Screen size: 4.6-inch | 720p | Memory: 2GB | Storage: 16GB | Battery: 2,600mAh | Rear camera: 20.7MP | Front camera: 2.2MP
Less powerful with a lower-res screen than its bigger brother, the Z3 Compact still uses most of the high-end specs, fuses them with things like Remote Play and the 20.7MP camera, and does it all at a low, no-contract cost for a phone of this power.
The 4.7-inch display makes this one of the best phones to hold and use in day-to-day life, and it's also got a brilliantly long-lasting battery, so if you're not a fan of the gargantuan models on show, there's a lot to love with Sony's mini flagship.
Its best of Sony in a smartphone, with ergonomics and a contract-free price that impresses. Don't let the specs sheet fool you. You just won't find it discounted through a carrier, as it has to be bought outright.

• Sony Xperia Z3 Compact review
• See the best Sony Xperia Z3 Compact deals

Number 5: HTC One M9

5. HTC One M9

Not quite up the 5-star standard, but HTC still has the most beautiful phone around
OS: Android 5 | Screen size: 5-inch | Resolution: 1080p | Memory: 3GB | Storage: 32GB | Battery:2840mAh | Rear camera: 20.7MP | Front camera: 4MP
HTC's been used to living at the top of our charts for the last couple of years, and while it's not quite managed it in 2015, it's still a phone with the best build quality out there.
None of the old favorites are missing, so BoomSound enhancement still really turbocharges the audio and the Sense overlay remains one of our favourites, thanks to being sophisticated and really powerful.
The camera has been boosted to 20.7MP, although it doesn't have the impressive snapping power of some of the other phones on the market, and the design language still means this is one of our favourite phones to stick in the pocket.
It's a touch more expensive than before, and doesn't take a huge leap forward from last year's model - but then again, that was nearly perfect, so where was HTC to go?

• HTC One M9 review
• See the HTC One M9 deals

Number 4: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

4. Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

Curving into the future with impressive specs
OS: Android 5.0.2 | Screen size: 5.1-inch | Resolution: 1440p | Memory: 3GB | Storage: 32GB/64GB/128GB | Battery: 2560mAh | Rear camera: 16MP | Front camera: 5MP
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has all the power and features of the table-topping S6, but does it with a little extra flair thanks to the curved edges on each side.
They're pretty much aesthetics, as they don't add a huge amount of functionality, but if you're going on looks alone, the S6 Edge has them in spades.
The price is $100 higher though, making it $300 on-contract and $700 for the full price option. That's is why it doesn't join its twin (non-identical) brother at the top of the chart. But if you're after something that's wildly different from anything else, with a great feature set and tip-top camera, this is your best phone choice.

• Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge review

Number 3: LG G4

3. LG G4

Luxury leather on a smartphone that tries to please everyone
OS: Android 5.1 | Screen size: 5.5-inch | Resolution: 2560 x 1440 | Memory: 3GB | Storage: 32GB | Battery: removable 3,000mAh | Rear camera: 16MP | Front camera: 8MP
LG has tried to focus on what everyone actually wants out of a smartphone, a great looking design, color rich display and the great camera for photos - but it doesn't quite deliver as impressively as we'd hoped.
Don't let that put you off though. There's a lot going on with the LG G4, and for the most part it's rather positive indeed. The leather back is much nicer than the plastic option, and it will make your phone stand out among the swath of glass and metal offerings.
Its large, expansive screen is one of the best on the market, the 16MP laser auto-focus camera takes some cracking shots and the rear buttons are easier to hit on a handset this size.
As a complete package, it offers more than the Xperia Z3 and One M9, but it doesn't quite match the slickness and design of the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6.

• LG G4 review
• See the best LG G4 deals

Number 2: iPhone 6

2. iPhone 6

Bigger, better, sleeker and faster than the iPhone 5S
OS: iOS 8.3 | Screen size: 4.7-inch | Resolution: 750p | Memory: 1GB | Storage: 16GB/64GB/128GB | Battery: 1,810mAh | Rear camera: 8MP | Front camera: 1.2MP
iOS 8 is so easy to use that you can operate an iPhone with one hand. That's why we like the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 the best among Apple devices. It's almost the best phone on the list. Sure, it doesn't excel in any given part of the smartphone recipe, but it just works, promoting simplicity over complicated menus.
Case in point, the camera has a lower megapixel count than others, but it's fast, bright and easy to use. Its screen is low-res compared to the phones around it, but pops and fizzes with color and brightness. And that design - we have to keep coming back to it as it feels beautiful in the hand.
iPhone 6 is easy to hold than its bigger brother and easier to pay for. It puts everything at our fingertips reach without requiring that "reachability" feature (though, it does have it just like the larger iPhone 6 Plus), and it's $100 cheaper than Apple's phablet at $200 on-contract and $650 at full price. It's the best bet from Apple, at least until the iPhone 6S launched on September 9.

• iPhone 6 review
• Best iPhone 6 deals

Number 1: Samsung Galaxy S6

1. Samsung Galaxy S6

A brilliant phone that shows Samsung still has what it takes
OS: Android 5.0.2 | Screen size: 5.1-inch | Resolution: 1440p | Memory: 3GB | Storage: 32GB/64GB/128GB | Battery: 2550mAh | Rear camera: 16MP | Front camera: 5MP
While last year's Galaxy S5 was nothing special, this year Samsung's started from the ground up to make a truly wonderful smartphone.
The camera is superb, the audio and video quality brilliant and the QHD display crammed into the 5.1-inch screen is the sharpest on the market - although it does suck down the battery rather a lot. The longer lasting, though ugly, Samsung Galaxy S6 Active is a fine alternative that's waterproof.
The design here, however, is finally something we're pleased to hold in our hand, rather than the plastic cheapness of last year, and the refined TouchWiz overlay is a lot nicer to use. Not perfect, but nicer.
It's pretty expensive, so make sure you're after a truly A-grade experience before buying as you'll be paying handsomely for it - but if you do take the plunge, you've got the best phone on the market.

• Samsung Galaxy S6 review
• Best Samsung Galaxy S6 deals

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HTC One M8

A stunning phone with very few flaws
OS: Android | Screen size: 5-inch | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | RAM: 2GB | Storage: 16GB/32GB | Battery: 2,600mAh | Rear camera: 4MP dual | Front camera: 5MP
The HTC One M8 has tumbled dramatically out of the top 10 after holding onto top spot for the best part of a year, so why the demise? Well it's now pretty old compared to the handsets making up the top ten, and there's a new kid on the block in the shape of the One M9.
It's still the same perfectly design handset though, with impressive BoomSound speakers and the short-live, yet innovative Duo Camera on the year - but the One M9 is almost identical, and just a bit better all round.
There's been a small price drop too since the arrival of the One M9, and you certainly won't be getting a poor phone if you choose to pick it up - but for just a bit more you can have its up to date successor. Your call.

• HTC One M8 review
• See the best HTC One M8 deals

Samsung Galaxy S5

A year old, but still very capable
OS: Android | Screen size: 5.1-inch | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | RAM: 2GB | Storage: 16GB/32GB |Battery: 2,800mAh | Rear camera: 16MP | Front camera: 2MP
If Samsung's latest duo of flagship devices (the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge) are too rich for your wallet then you can always consider last year's Galaxy S5.
Sure it doesn't have the same premium design as the current generation, but the plastic body means it's dust and water resistant as well as giving you a removable battery and microSD slot - all things not available on the S6 range.
The drop in price also makes the Galaxy S5 more attractive and it's stuffed full of tech and sports a fantastic screen to ensure you still have an enjoyable mobile experience.

• Samsung Galaxy S5 review
• See the best Samsung Galaxy S5 deals

Moto X (2014)

OS: Android | Screen size: 5.2-inch | Resolution: 1080p | RAM: 2GB | Storage: 16GB/32GB/64GB | Battery: 2,300mAh | Rear camera: 13MP | Front camera: 2MP
Moto X is the most stylish and customizable smartphone within our best of list. That's thanks to Motorola's sophisticated Moto Maker website that made its debut with the Moto X 2013. You can outfit this new 5.2-inch Android device with accent colors and different backs, like leather and wood.
Truth be told, our leather back choice got beat up within a few days, making iPhone 6 Plus' notorious BendGate look pretty by comparison. But the new powerful specs bump held up. Its 2.5Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM, enough for a one-handed smartphone.
Motorola's flagship for 2014 is cheaper than its direct rivals, including the better-marketed Samsung Galaxy S6. Add the fact that it has pure Android and the handy infrared-sensing Moto Display on board, and Moto X seems like the ideal combination: fashionable, functional contract-free if the right deal is found.
Just be warned, it's about to be replaced by the newly announced Moto X Style with a better camera and larger 5.7-inch display. Some people like the smaller display, but no one likes the old, inferior camera. Chose wisely in September.

• Moto X 2014 review
• Best Moto X 2014 deals

Nokia Lumia 930

Hey Nokia, (now Microsoft), nice flagship phone!
OS: Windows Phone | Screen size: 5-inch | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | RAM: 2GB | Storage: 32GB |Battery: 2,420mAh | Rear camera: 20MP | Front camera: 1.2MP
The Lumia 930 does lack compared to the competition, but only in a couple of areas. Windows Phone is still a sub-par operating system for most people, thanks to the poorer apps and lower amount of control. But then again, for a lot of people the improved Office functionality and simple interface is a boon.
It's strong in both design and power, although a little last-gen on the latter element, and coupled with a very capable camera, is a phone that's easy to recommend to those looking for something different.
Windows Phone aside, there's a great deal on show here to make this a top-rated smartphone. The build quality is excellent and iconic, and the camera is powerful and results in mostly great snaps. We like that 32GB is on offer as the base model, and wireless charging built in is perfect.
This is your best Windows Phone option while we wait for the newly renamed Windows 10 Mobile to launch later this year, likely in November.

• Nokia Lumia 930 review
• See the best Nokia Lumia 930 deals

OnePlus One

OS: Android | Screen size: 5.5-inch | Resolution: 1080p | RAM: 3GB | Storage: 16GB/64GB | Battery: 3,100mAh | Rear camera: 13MP | Front camera: 5MP
OnePlus One was the surprise smartphone of 2014 thanks to the Chinese manufacturer that no one had ever heard of a few months ago. It's fast, large and, importantly, inexpensive.
It has super-customizable software, derived from the popular CyanogenMod, is backed up by still-powerful specs: a 5.5-inch 1080p display, a 2.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM and a healthy 3100 mAh Li-Po.
There's no microSD card slot or removable battery, and the 13-megapixel camera quality finishes in the middle of the pack with the same "pretty good" sensor as the new Nexus 6. That's okay. At $300 unlocked, it's more than half of the starting price of Google's new 6-inch smartphone that is a more serious $650 without a contract.
That's a good deal, if you can't wait for the now-delayed One Plus Two launch at the end of the month, or if you can't snag one of those hard-to-come-by invites for the new edition.

• OnePlus One review
• See the best OnePlus One deals

iPhone 5S

Perfect for fans of the smaller screen size
OS: iOS | Screen size: 4-inch | Resolution: 1136 x 640 | RAM: 1GB | Storage: 16GB/32GB/64GB |Battery: 1,560mAh | Rear camera: 8MP | Front camera: 1.2MP
Remember this? After the furore with the iPhone 6, it's easy to forget that the Apple iPhone 5S is still alive and kicking at a discounted price of $100 on contract and $550 with no contract.
It's still a bit expensive, but that said it's sucked down the iOS 8 software pretty well, and is still pushing on as a decent option for a slightly cheaper iPhone, especially if you like the smaller sized screen.
Plus, you can use it with the Apple Watch and pay for things on the go using the cunningly named Apple Pay - although for some reason Touch ID won't be enabled to work online, where it will be for the iPad Air 2 and friends.

• iPhone 5S review
• See the best iPhone 5S deals

BlackBerry Classic

Physical keyboards FTW, right?
OS: BlackBerry 10 | Screen size: 3.5-inch | Resolution: 720 x 720 | RAM: 2GB | Storage: 16GB |Battery: 2,515mAh | Rear camera: 8MP | Front camera: 2MP
Come again? BlackBerry is still going? Well yes it is, and in the past year it's launched both the Passportand the Classic.
They certainly won't be to many people's taste, but those unable to drag themselves away from a physical keyboard on their phone have the Classic to fall back on.
It takes the best bits of design from the firm's much loved Bold series and brings them into the 21st Century with the BB10 operating system and improved specs. Great for those always emailing and messaging on the go, just don't try and play games or watch movies on its 4:3 display.

• BlackBerry Classic review
• See the best BlackBerry Classic deals

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