Twitter announces List functionality
Twitter is to roll out its List feature soon, which allows you to group your followers into certain categories.
Announce this week in a blog, Nick Kallen (@nk) said about the new feature: "The idea is to allow people to curate lists of Twitter accounts.
"For example, you could create a list of the funniest Twitter accounts of all time, athletes, local businesses, friends, or any compilation that makes sense."
Mouse clique
So, which list would you be in? TechRadar can see this turning into a Mean Girls style bloodbath, where you have a list of cliques, ranging from: 'annoying workmates' to 'stupidly smug celebrities' to 'I really don't know who you are but you keep sending me links to naughty pictures so I keep following you'.
Frequent requests
Kallen does point out the main benefit of lists, and that is organising the website – something that is welcomed.
"We started working on this feature because of the frequent requests we received from people who were looking for a better way to organise information on Twitter," he explains.
"Of course, that means not just Twitter.com – the Platform team will follow up in a few days with information on the Lists API. This will allow developers to add support for Lists into your favorite Twitter apps."
There's no word on an actual launch date, but TechRadar will keep you posted.
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O2 reconsidering locked iPhone stance
O2 has announced it is looking into its current lock-in contract for the iPhone, after the news that that the telco is no longer the exclusive mobile operator for Apple's handset.
Currently, all those in an iPhone contract with O2 do not get their phone unlocked at the end of the tenure.
This is because Telefonica, the company behind O2, had sole rights to supplying the phone in the UK.
Situation changed
Now that both Orange and Vodafone have announced they are to stock the phone, O2 has said it is to take another look at the situation, saying in a statement to the Register: "We did not offer unlocking at the end of a customer's iPhone contract as we had the exclusive contract for the iPhone in the UK.
"Obviously, that situation has changed... and we are currently working through what will happen."
If O2 do slacken its lock-in rules, this will good news for O2 iPhone users who may want to switch allegiance once their contract has expired.
If they decide not too, though, then it looks like O2 has got you in for the long haul.
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Novation Launchpad wows e-music community
The recently announced Novation Launchpad is a hands-on, interactive controller for Ableton Live's music creation software, already causing much excitement amongst the electronic music fraternity.
The Launchpad is made up of a rather basic seeming 8 x 8 grid of backlit buttons and has been jointly designed by Novation and Ableton, "to bring the features of Live to the fingertips of the modern musician."
So if you fancy yourself as the next Aphex Twin, or just like to meddle with bleeps and samples in the studio (shed) in your spare time, then read on.
"Flip from launching clips to tweaking mixer settings in a stroke. Launch your song into a heavy build-up, then switch to a synth or a drum machine for an impromptu solo at the touch of a button. It's all possible on Launchpad, and all without touching the mouse or keyboard!" claims Ableton's press release.
Mac and PC compatible
The Ableton Live 8 controller is bus-powered from a single USB connection, has sturdy rubber feet to make sure it doesn't slip around the desk, works with Mac and PC and comes with 1GB of sample content from Loopmasters and Mike The Drummer.
The guys at MusicRadar are the first to get their mitts on a finished, boxed version of the product, having posted an intriguing video of their first hands on play with the Launchpad and already declaring "we get the feeling that it's going to make a lot of Ableton Live users very happy."
Launchpad will be on sale as of 1st of November 2009 and will set you back آ£149.99
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Zotac embraces HD-only graphics cards
Graphics card manufacturer Zotac has announced that is moving to high-resolution only outputs.
Zotac has insisted that the future lies away the legacy TV output port, and will now only include HDMI, dual-link DVI and VGA outputs on its GeForce GTS 250, 9, and 8400GS series graphics cards.
"Zotac is always leading the way with our graphics cards," said Zotac Marketing Director Carsten Berger
"As new displays are shedding old connections, it's the perfect time for us to move ahead do the same."
Forward thinking
It's almost certain other manufacturers are likely to follow suit as consumers increasingly look for HD television outputs like HDMI in their graphics cards.
"Zotac was the first graphics card manufacturer to include DVI-to-HDMI adapters and S/PDIF audio input throughout its entire lineup in the early days of HDMI connectivity," added Berger.
"Now that HDMI is becoming a default standard for monitors and televisions, it was an obvious forwards-looking move."
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In Depth: 95 websites you should totally bookmark today
Google is the internet surfer's best friend and worst enemy. If you know what you're after, just type it into the search engine's famous little box and – hey presto – you'll be given a list of related sites in order of relevance.
Such is Google's dominance that its name has become a synonym for search. And rightly so. When was the last time you Yahooed something? And good though Bing is, it's not ringing our bell just yet. There's a problem, though.
Searching for something implies you know what you're looking for. Gold prospectors search for gold; they don't scour the earth on the off-chance there's something which may or may not be of any value knocking around. So what happens if you don't know what you're looking for; if you just want to be amazed?
How do you ask Google for some brilliant sites, sites which will feed your mind, soul or just let you waste time in style? If you're in that kind of mood, you're in the right place. Welcome to PC Plus's directory of the best websites on the internet.
Our experts have put their thinking caps on and come up with a list of their favourite sites. So, do yourself a favour: forget Google for a while and put your trust in us.
Best sites for learning
Martin Cooper uncovers the best sites for discovering amazing facts and figures
When you're after something to feed your mind, body or soul, you'll be sure to find something on the internet that will make you think. From recipes to help us geeky types boil an egg to sites that help you track down the origins of slang, amazing discoveries are always only a few clicks away.
eHow
If you're ever in doubt about how to do something, visit eHow. As well as helping with everyday tasks such as how to polish your car or change ISP, the site isn't shy of difficult topics. You can learn how to politely turn down an amorous suitor, for example. The breadth of topics is staggering and the content sensible. Just be aware that it's an American publication, so don't follow its legal advice too closely.
Cooking for engineers
If you're scientifically minded, endless drivel about organic chickens, rustic honesty and sun-dried tomatoes can leave you nonplussed. This site is a great antidote to foppish gastronomic pomposity. Its instructions for soft boiled eggs are a triumph of analysis, and the end result looks tasty too.
The CIA World Factbook
If you're looking for a glossy travel guide with indulgent photographs, flowery descriptions of views and lists of chic little boutiques, look elsewhere. This site is all about hard facts. All nation states are profiled, and data about everything from infant mortality to population size is quoted.
www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
Wikia
Even though printing out the whole of Wikipedia would result in a stack of paper about a kilometre high, it is somewhat exclusive in what it contains. If you're after outrageously detailed guides to popular culture, Wikia's various sub-sites will suck you in and never spit you back out. Take a look at Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki, for a perfect example: it features a whopping 70,000 articles, and all of them are obsessively maintained.
Dictionary.com
No prizes for guessing what Dictionary.com is. As the old clichأ© goes, it does exactly what it says on the tin. If you're looking for a dictionary definition of a word, it certainly returns a more detailed definition than Google's 'define' function. Dictionary.com does more just define things for you, though – it also has a Word of the Day feature. Sign up, and you'll receive a new word, gift-wrapped and delivered by email, every day.
Newsmap
You can't beat Google's news homepage when it comes to getting a snapshot of the most important stories in the world. Or can you? It turns out you can. Newsmap presents Google's news feed pictorially, giving the most important stories proportionally more prominence on the screen.
Genuki
Genealogy has become something of a national obsession in recent years. If you fancy tracking down your antecedents and finding out whether your heritage is tied up with agriculture or aristocracy, Genuki is the place to start.
Brainy Quote
Only read a few Dan Browns but want people to think you've had your nose deep in tomes by Proust and Tolstoy? Just drop the Quote of the Day from this site into conversation to give yourself some instant intellectualism.
What Should I Read Next
Enjoyed a particular book or writer and want to find something similar? This site will recommend a good follow-up read for you to get your teeth into. Its suggestions rely on the magic of user-generated content, and the site isn't in the pocket of any publishing houses, so you should get a fairly unbiased recommendation.
Nation Master
This site is a statistician's dream. It's bursting with all sorts of numeric data about hundreds of nation states, from Burundi to Belgium. Did you know that 1.1 out of every million people in Turkmenistan is a chess grandmaster, for example? Didn't think so. Dive on in and see what else you can find out.
FFFBI
Cute and clever, The Fin, Fur and Feather Bureau of Investigation aims to teach kids about problem solving and critical thinking. Both are essential for life in this computer rich age, and what better way is there to learn such skills than by becoming a spy for a detective agency run by a plethora of friendly animals?
NASA TV
If you've got a curious mind, a look at NASA TV is a must. You can watch space walks and all the rest live, giving us on Earth an insight into the life of an astronaut.
www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
Acronym Finder
There's nothing any industry likes more than an impenetrable acronym. If you're presented with a particularly cryptic one, Acronym Finder will decrypt it for you instantly.
Flash Earth
This fantastic site lets you explore Earth using multiple sources of mapping data, all controlled through a single interface. A must for all geographers and high-altitude voyeurs.
PopURLs
PopURLs gives you a snapshot of what's being said on the biggest social news websites, neatly displaying a grid of headlines in (almost) real-time. If you have to be cutting edge, this is for you.
All play and no work: Richard Cobbett lists his favourite media sites
Hulu
It's not yet in the UK, but it's definitely one to watch. The only shame is that once it does arrive in Blighty, we won't get the same shows as our cousins across the pond.
Magnatune
Almost endless music to listen to. Whether you want to buy it for your iPod or recreate the soundtrack of a motion picture, you're only one click away from the perfect licence.
Riff trax
This site makes movies even funnier with downloadable commentaries to play alongside your favourite movies. Make sure you download the PAL versions, though.
That Guy With The Glasses
The hub for almost every YouTube reviewer and comedian you've ever heard of, plus plenty of top-quality comedy you haven't. Specialises in gaming, movies and sketches.
Revision3
Hours of geek-friendly programming, from meeting the weirdos behind the strangest websites around to full Photoshop tutorials and advice on defeating padlocks.
4oD
It's not as hyped as the BBC iPlayer, but now that Channel 4 has released huge chunks of its back catalogue for free, it's the perfect place to waste some time.
The Agony Booth
One of the best places to see bad movies and TV shows get what's coming to them. Full of snarky, detailed recaps of everything the original creators got wrong.
Last.fm
The best way to track your listening habits and find out which artists you should be checking out next. The site's huge archive of free tracks and music videos on tap doesn't hurt either, and with one of the biggest music communities around, even the most obscure tastes should be well covered.
Demoscene.tv
See the best demos – programs written to show off what top-grade programmers can do – without having to download them. It's not quite the same as seeing them for real, but it's good for browsing and finding those worth downloading at a later date.
12Seconds
Proof that online video doesn't always have to be polished to be engaging, the idea behind 12Seconds is in the name – short, bite-sized comments about anything and everything. It's mostly intended for friends and family rather than mass audiences, but you never know how things might take off in the future – just look at Twitter.
WeGame
There's plenty of places online to upload videos, but not many provide a downloadable client to help you record your finest gaming moments and share them. WeGame is also useful for seeing how the experts play, enabling you to learn some great new moves in your favourite games by their example.
Justin.tv
From one man lifestreaming his day-to-day happenings to a full video portal where anyone can set up a channel, Justin is well worth exploring. If you decide to try it for yourself, though, a word of advice: turn the camera off in the loo.
Podcast Alley
One of the best sites for finding podcasts you might be interested in before downloading them, Podcast Alley covers a vast range of subjects.
Netlabels
What do you do if you want to make your own podcast, but don't have any musical flair? That's where 'podsafe' music comes in – tunes that you can use for the cost of a shout-out to the artist. Netlabels is a great place to start hunting for the right theme.
SecurityTube
If general video content doesn't appeal to you, don't forget that the internet always has something for every niche. SecurityTube is a YouTube-style site that's specifically for computer security videos, with uploads offering a level of depth you simply won't find elsewhere.
Apple Trailers
If you're looking for trailers for the latest movie releases, you rarely need to look further than this site. Apple Trailers is especially good if your bandwidth can handle the highest resolutions.
PC misbehaving? Mike Williams delivers a collection of the best online tech resources
You've mastered the Windows basics, and that's great. To really optimise your PC, keep it secure and quickly troubleshoot problems, you need to go further: learn how Windows works, discover the best free software and fully understand the threat from hackers. Here are 16 essential sites to help you along the way.
MakeUseOf
Tired of tech sites that just aren't updated frequently enough? MakeUseOf has around 20 experienced contributors, so every day sees several new posts recommending essential new software and websites, along with interesting articles on ways to improve your PC and internet life. The best are compiled into free guides on topics like networking, iTunes, Linux and Photoshop.
Black Hat
Black Hat Briefings are the most substantial security conferences in the computer world, where top researchers deliver fascinating demonstrations on the very latest vulnerabilities. Can't get to one? Don't worry – the site includes an archive where you can download each speaker's presentations and materials, usually within a couple of weeks of each event.
Freewaregenius
Freewaregenius trawls the freeware world, and regularly comes up with extremely useful programs that similar sites miss. The selections cover a very wide range: Windows extensions, full apps, games, specialist tools for small businesses, web developers and more. There are also regular articles on interesting topics, such as the best free antivirus software.
Bruce Schneier
Security expert Bruce Schneier's site, blog, books and newsletter provide important and highly readable insights on everything from basic techniques you can use to protect your network, to high level discussions on political power and national security. Don't miss the Essays and Op-Eds section of his site, where you'll find articles of his that have appeared in major publications around the world.
VistaX64
The hundreds of straightforward tutorials at VistaX64 will help all Vista and Windows 7 users speed up, customise, troubleshoot and generally get more from their PCs. Each guide is easy to follow, thanks to a step-by-step approach and frequent use of screen grabs. And despite the site name, most of the advice works just as well on 32-bit Windows as its 64-bit big brother.
Sysinternals forums
Even Windows experts get lost occasionally, but the Sysinternals forums will quickly point you back in the right direction. They're packed with helpful people who are happy to cover technical topics beyond Sysinternal's own utilities. They're knowledgeable, too: ask about processor affinity masks, DPCs or paged pool memory and they'll know what you mean and exactly how to help.
Ask the Performance Team
This Microsoft blog regularly posts detailed advice on how to tune your PC, manage memory properly and troubleshoot crashes. And unlike similar sites, the authors don't assume you're a software developer – most of their articles are easily accessible to knowledgeable home users.
http://blogs.technet.com/askperf
4sysops
Don't be put off by the banner saying this site is for Windows administrators. Its mix of reviews, recommendations on useful free Windows tools and news on the latest security issues will appeal to any knowledgeable PC owner.
OSNews
There's more to the computing world than Microsoft. This busy news site will keep you up to date with the latest on Mac OS X, Linux, Palm, AmigaOS, the iPhone and more, as well as all of the big Windows, PC and hardware developments.
CyberTerrorists
Learn about the latest bots, keyloggers, trojans and other nasties by paying regular visits to this site. Be careful, though: don't download any malware samples to try out unless you know exactly how to protect yourself.
Engineering Windows 7
A must-read for anyone interested in Windows 7, this Microsoft blog provides regular, detailed and exclusive looks at Vista's successor.
Mark Russinovich
He's an expert programmer and true Windows guru, yet Mark Russinovich's blog on Windows troubleshooting is still accessible to experienced home users. It's an essential read if you want to know more about how Windows works.
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich
Istartedsomething
Long Zheng's influential tech blog delivers interesting analyses of the latest happenings in the PC world. And these aren't just reprints of other people's work: Zheng's posts often include original research, interviews and other information that isn't available elsewhere.
Nirsoft
Have you ever wanted to find your Windows or Office product key? Recover email passwords? List all the Windows shell extensions on your PC, and disable the ones you don't need? The Nirsoft website is packed with compact, useful free tools for carrying out a wide range of PC maintenance functions just like this.
Dancho Danchev
Security consultant Dancho Danchev regularly produces fascinating reports exposing the mechanics of malware and internet scams: what hackers are doing, how they're doing it and who's making money from their efforts. A must-read for anyone interested in security issues beyond their own PC.
NTdebugging
Microsoft's Global Escalation Services Support Team blog has invaluable advice on crash analysis and low-level troubleshooting that will soon have your PC running smoothly. Be careful, though: you'll need some expertise to keep up.
http://blogs.msdn.com/ntdebugging
Gary Marshall expands on how to find friends and advertise yourself
Vimeo
Upload video and share it or embed it in your blog. Free accounts give you 500MB of storage and one HD video per week, while paid accounts offer unlimited HD.
SmugMug
Best described as Flickr for professional photographers, SmugMug's service isn't free – it starts at آ£20 per year – but it's a superb way to showcase photography.
Scribd
Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org and PostScript files are reproduced online with formatting intact. You can then embed the results in your own site or blog.
Ning
Can't find a social network dedicated to your specific interests? Ning enables you to create and customise one in a matter of minutes without costing a penny.
FriendFeed
FriendFeed brings all your social networks together into a single feed. The service supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, del.icio.us, YouTube and various blogs.
Funny Or Die
Will Ferrell's site is YouTube for comedy: users upload whatever they think is funny, with everyone voting for the best comic clips. If it isn't funny, it dies.
SnagFilms
Designed for documentary makers and viewers, SnagFilms provides a portal for over 700 movies and the ability to create custom movie theatres for any website. Filmmakers who contribute get an equal share of the advertising revenue.
Issuu
If you've seen the embedded articles on our website, you'll know that Issuu does an excellent job of displaying print documents in a web browser. Basic accounts are free, and you can share your documents on the usual social networks or embed them in your own site.
Bit.ly
Long URLs can be a real pain when you're trying to share a link both online and via SMS. Bit.ly is a brilliant way of shortening internet addresses to manageable links. The site also features advanced options that allow you to do things like track how many people have accessed your bit.ly link.
Pipebytes
Pipebytes gives you the ability to send files of any size through your web browser. The real beauty of the service is that the recipient can begin downloading the file while you're still uploading. Speeds aren't guaranteed, but the service is free and delivers secure and private sharing.
Slideshare
If you're still handing out printed notes after presentations, it's time you checked out Slideshare. This presentation sharing website enables you to publish Powerpoint and Word documents and add audio to your files. You can also use privacy settings to make the presentation either public or contacts-only.
JayCut
JayCut enables you to edit and mix audio and video clips. You can then either download the results to your PC or share the footage on YouTube, Facebook or MySpace.
Digg
So popular it can bring down entire web servers when its users visit en masse, the social news site enables you to share interesting links and see what everybody else is reading. A great way to find interesting stories.
Google Docs
Google Docs isn't really a Microsoft Office rival: it's designed for quick and simple document collaboration rather than attempting to be all things to all men. It's a particularly good method of working on projects where inputs from many different people are needed.
Windows Live SkyDrive
The storage bit of Microsoft's revamped online offering is pretty decent, delivering 25GB of online storage for free. You simply drag and drop each file across, and each folder gets a unique URL so you can send the link for others to access.
DropSend
We're big fans of DropSend, a service that enables you to share files of up to 2GB via its browser interface or desktop icon. Free accounts also come with 250MB of online storage.
It takes a lot to get Alex Cox's attention. Here are a few sites that managed it
Uncyclopedia
Wikipedia's oft-questionable content has inspired a site that does away with the factual element entirely and instead goes directly for the fictional jugular.
Project Gutenberg
Set up in 1971, Project Gutenberg now encompasses over 100,000 public-domain titles. If you're hunting down the classics, this is the only place you need to look.
Cockeyed
Cockeyed is full of facts gleaned from creator Rob Cockerham's rudimentary science experiments. Just how much gold is inside the liqueur Goldschlager? Find out here.
The Easter Egg Archive
There are hidden extras nestling in a huge number of entertainment products. Named 'easter eggs', the directions to these secret nuggets of goodness can be found here.
Atlas Obscura
The Atlas Obscura, 'a compendium of the world's wonders, curiosities and esoterica' can take you from Lenin's Mausoleum to the Hanging Temple of Hengshan.
Text Files
Jason Scott has collected a ludicrous amount of old data, from an exhaustive collection of bulletin-board text files to whole CDs full of archaic shareware.
Kongregate
Playing Flash games online doesn't get much classier than this; Kongregate has a massive selection of great online games, and an Xbox-esque achievement system that will track your progress over multiple titles.
Kingdom of Loathing
This stick-figure-illustrated MMO-lite may be ugly, but it is a witty and altogether nutty take on the genre that gracefully expels keyboard mashers with a clever exam – you must complete the tasks set at the Altar of Literacy to communicate with others.
Quake Live
The seminal shooter goes browser based – sort of. There's still a hefty download involved, and it's only really playable full screen, so you may as well be playing a standalone app. But as the latest incarnation of what is still one of the best arena FPS around, Quake Live is not to be missed.
Off world
This recent spin off of venerable blog Boing Boing is already one of the cleverest and most respected gaming portals out there. If it's beautiful or clever, you'll find it posted here.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
No-one is closer to the cutting edge than the RPS boys; Rock, Paper, Shotgun sees four respected writers collaborating on a site dedicated to the best and quirkiest in PC gaming.
Virtual NES
Treat yourself to a little old-school gaming action with Virtual NES. The official homepage of the Nintendo Entertainment System emulator vNES has a selection of games available to play right in your browser, including the original Mario Brothers trilogy.
World of Spectrum
The mere mention of the ZX Spectrum sends us into nostalgic fits of glee – thank goodness the community has banded together and backed up what appears to be every single thing ever released for the venerable home computer, along with a bunch of magazines.
Let's Play!
Can't be bothered to play games through yourself? Need to virtually try before you buy? The community behind Let's Play often records full playthroughs of the most classic (and the most frustrating) games of all time with an amusing (and sometimes extremely coarse) commentary. It's just like being part of the action yourself.
Independent Games Source
This site does just what its title suggests – it's a blog covering the best games churned out by the best independent authors. If you're looking to keep abreast of the latest wacky Gamemaker masterpieces, this is the place that you need to be.
The Interactive Fiction Archive
You are visiting a website. The design is clean and functional, and all of the words around you appear to be delicately strung together with the finest thread. You can see here: thousands of text adventures. Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold.
Gary Marshall lines up his favourite sites for artists, snappers, designers and dabblers
The web is a blessing for creative types: instead of starving in a garret, you can discuss your work with like-minded people, discover new techniques and learn the secrets of getting your novel, art or movie out there for others to see.
Manga University
The distinctive visual style of Manga is everywhere, from comic books to adverts and videogames. If you fancy creating your own manga-style creations then Manga University is the place to start. You'll find tutorials on drawing hands, bodies and clothes, as well as a dedicated section showing you how to draw manga eyes.
www.howtodrawmanga.com/howtodraw/tutorials.html
Shooting People
Morgan Spurlock of Supersize Me fame describes Shooting People as "a necessity for anyone who works, loves and breathes independent film". More than 37,000 members share advice and information, recruit cast and show off their films on this enormous movie-making website.
Digital Webbing
Digital Webbing isn't just a great site for comic book fans: its talent search section is where writers, artists and publishers look for work, while its forums are an excellent resource for anybody who's interested in creating comic content. Whether you're trying to break into the industry, recruit collaborators or just discover what inspires your favourite writers and artists, you'll be able to satisfy yourself here.
I Love Typography
As the name suggests, I Love Typography is a website for people who really care about type – both in print and on-screen. Here you'll find free fonts, interviews with designers, advice on type design and articles covering subjects such as whether Arial is something more than just a Helvetica clone. The site has spawned www.welovetypography.com, a spin-off which is a kind of Delicious for type-related content.
Arts & Letters Daily
Literary criticism, sociology, philosophy, essays, opinions, blogs and columns: if it's interesting and it's been written down, posted or published, you'll probably find it somewhere in this regularly updated collection of the world's best brain food. Arts & Letters Daily comes from the Chronicle of Higher Education, and its mission is to find and link to anything interesting. Just bookmarking the site increases your IQ by 50 points – or so we've heard. On Arts & Letters Daily, funnily enough...
Anne Mini
She goes on a bit – deliberately – and repeats herself a lot – again, deliberately – but if you're an aspiring novelist, Anne Mini's blog is one of the best resources that you'll find online. It's particularly good when it comes to the business side of writing, covering everything from finding a publisher to avoiding the clichأ©s that guarantee nobody will ever buy your book. Take a look to get your novel rolling.
National Novel Writing Month
They say everyone has a book in them, and every November the National Novel Writing Month encourages people to get it on paper in just one month. The site's a great resource for would-be writers, with interviews, Q&As and advice.
Screenwriting.info
All kinds of websites offer screenwriting advice, but few of them are as straightforward as this one. Here you'll find step-by-step advice on creating and formatting a film script, including the rules you must follow if you want to be taken seriously.
Art Crimes
There's more to graffiti than teenagers tagging trains, as fans of Banksy will tell you. Art Crimes is an online gallery of graffiti art from around the world that also links to upcoming events and interviews with top graffiti artists.
Authonomy
The selling point here is that the most popular writers will get their books read by HarperCollins publishers instead of languishing in the slush pile. Even if you don't catch the editors' attention, Authonomy is a kind of MySpace for novelists, with writers submitting their work, critiquing each other and offering advice on all aspects of fiction writing.
MusicRadar
If you're performing or recording music, MusicRadar is a must: it's a huge resource site featuring technique tips, gear reviews, interviews with musicians and extremely busy discussion forums. It's not a luddite site either: electronic music making gets as much attention as guitar, bass and drums.
DeviantArt
DeviantArt aims to provide a place for any artist to display and discuss their work. You could spend weeks browsing it: the site has more than 10 million members, many of whom are incredibly talented.
ArtGraphica.net
From pen and ink to acrylics and charcoal, ArtGraphica's free online tutorials take you step-by-step through the processes of sketching, drawing and painting.
RolandLee.com
Acclaimed landscape artist Roland Lee is a generous man: on his site he provides lengthy tutorials showing exactly how he takes a blank page and turns it into something superb.
Watercolor Painting and Projects
It looks like it was designed in 1991 and the navigation is appalling, but the tutorials provided on the Watercolor Painting and Projects site are excellent. If you're new to using watercolours, this is a good place to learn the essentials.
www.watercolorpaintingandprojects.com
Photo.net
Part social network and part how-to guide, Photo.net is an enormous collection of articles, galleries and forums where amateur and professional photographers share advice and critique each other's work.
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Exclusive: Samsung: CULV will offer something different
Samsung believes that Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) laptops that sit between netbooks and notebooks will enhance their range, but profess that they will have to work hard on explaining it to the public.
Consumer Ultra Low Voltage is one of the buzz terms in the mobile computing market at the moment, bringing the longer battery life of netbooks but with less of a performance hit.
Samsung is now one of the powerhouses in the UK laptop and netbook market, and Phil Brown – who is the General Manager of mobile computing for the company believes that there is a niche for their X-series.
Telling the full story
"We think CULV enhances our range even further," said Brown
"We're trying to make sure that the netbook has an end to end story from an entry level product right through to the N510 and then CULV will take on another story.
" Netbooks are about viewing content on the move and CULV is for people who want to create content on the move – then the story moves on into notebooks."
Clear purpose
Brown acknowledged that manufacturers must make it clear exactly what purpose CULV laptops will serve.
"In terms of the marketplace, we as a manufacturer have a responsibility to work with Intel to make sure the consumer understands what the proposition is
"We can work with our retailers to make sure that when someone walks into the story there is a journey through what their requirements are and how they are led through the store and our range.
"We're working really hard with all of our partners to ensure that we are presented in the right way and the consumer understands our story."
Price point
Pricing for the CULV range remains a key point, and Brown points out that it starts where the new premium netbook – the N510 stops.
"Our range will start at آ£499 and then we'll proceed upwards, he said. "That gives you a clear differentiation from where the N510 will stop and CULV will start.
"We're really proud of what our CULV range is going to bring to the market – offering something different to consumers."
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Is Bing's impact beginning to wane?
Two separate surveys appear to show that the precious gains Microsoft made in the search market are beginning to slip.
NetApplications' September figures suggests that Bing has fallen to 3.39 per cent of the global search market.
And StatCounter has that market share down at 3.25 per cent of the total global market for search.
Early success
Bing is Microsoft's latest attempt to win back share from Google, and the newly branded search received both critical praise and a decent start in the market.
However, with despite a deal to provide the engine for Yahoo's search in the future and a continued marketing campaign, Microsoft may need another push.
The fall cannot come as a surprise for the UK market which has seen no advertising campaign as yet because the search engine has not been 'localised' for Britain and is still considered a beta product.
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Facebook brings in the fraud squad
Facebook has decided to put its online foot down and close accounts which have been set up to scam people on the social-networking site.
In a blog post, Facebook admitted there's been an increase in fraudulent accounts being set-up for phishing and 419 scams, but promised it was on top of taking the perpetrators down.
"Recently we have noticed an increase in scams where people's login information is collected through phishing sites and then their accounts are accessed without permission to ask friends for money," said Facebook's Alok Menghrajani.
"While the total number of people who have been impacted is small, we take any threat to security seriously and are redoubling our efforts to combat the scam."
Working with law enforcement
Some of the ways the site is doing this is tightening its security belt and informing the police wherever possible.
"We have improved a number of our automated systems to better handle this unique class of scam and are taking efforts to ensure that we adapt our response to the scam as it changes," explained Menghrajani.
"At the same time, our security team is working with law enforcement and collaborating with email providers and other industry experts to identify and catch the criminals responsible. Western Union also is working closely with law enforcement on scams such as this one."
If you want to know more about Facebook's security, then point your browser to www.facebook.com/security.
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In Depth: 10 worst ways to spend your time in a game
Outside of games there's this thing called work.
Work tends to be done in the form of a job and it can often be menial, demanding, dangerous and a hundred other kinds of no fun whatsoever.
It is perhaps a sad reflection on the progress of games towards simulating reality that this drudgery is no longer confined to our working hours.
Here are some of the worst offenders for when games just forget to be fun.
10. Living in the Zone
Though buggy it is hard to deny the quality of both STALKER games, Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky, although both offer a somewhat unique gaming experience; that of eking a living in a miserable and hostile radioactive wasteland.
There is no happiness in the Zone. No joy. Soon you get so used to the misery and squalor that the moment after a kill when you get to rummage through your foe's meagre possessions feels like Christmas morning.
MISERY: Home sweet Zone. Don't worry, if the monsters don't get you the radiation sickness will
9. Social networking
Although GTA 4 brought with it some excellent characters they are a needy bunch if ever there was one. Want to go for a beer? Can you take me to a show? Want to play darts?
It seems ironic that in a game where you can kill practically everybody you encounter the people you can't kill are the ones you most want to.
WHAT NOW? Ah, Cousin Roman, please, be more needy
8. Building a base
The staple of real time strategy games for so long was base building. Thankfully it has fallen somewhat out of favour recently, but the history of the genre is littered with rubbish bases.
Build this rectangular thing so you can create that, upgrade that so you can get this bonus, build a generator of some sort and so on.
This is not a problem in some games where the decision of what to build in what order can determine strategy, but for many, when base building is just an arbitrary process that does nothing but delay a good scrap, it's a chore.
BASE BUILDING: Woo! I've built a base. That was a lot more fun than killing bad guys
7. Level grinding
A great many games have a level based character advancement process without diminishing the fun - usually these games are single player RPGs where the completion of the story is the goal. Online RPGs, particularly MMORPGs, tend to focus on the character as the goal.
A good MMORPG will give you a story, quests, plots and other players to kill and by the time you have exhausted these you find yourself at maximum level, a bad MMORPG will make you stand in a field clubbing monsters while the minutes turn to hours, the hours turn to days and your soul withers and dies like a prune.
THE GRIND: Levelling up was so much fun in Hellgate London they had to shut the game down
6. Harvesting
This is another staple of the MMO genre; running around the countryside gathering things to use for crafting. This is pretty much the sort of thing that so often in the real world gets done by illegal immigrants because most people consider it demeaning. Done for free, in a video game, it's all part of the fun.
5. Sewer levels
They crop up so often. Games are a chance for players to fulfil their ambitions, to experience things they would never do in reality, to see the world, to be a hero, albeit safely within the confines of a game.
So with that in mind where does chasing baddies through rivers of sewage feature? If it just happened in one game it'd be an interesting twist, but no, sewers are a top choice for a level setting.
Sewers are added for plot reasons. of course - it's nothing to do with the fact you can use a small amount of textures to pad a whole lot of game time. Oh no.
GOING UNDERGROUND: Typical examples of sewer dwellers: dead people
4. Playing the bass
Insult and injury combine for one member of a Guitar Hero co-op team.
3. Rare spawn collecting
This practice dates back to the golden age of Ultima Online. Every day the server reset at about six in the morning and when it did several rare items would spawn that would not spawn again until the next day.
Players would set their alarms, and soon as the server would come up players would pile in to collect the items. Fun on a bun.
2. Mining asteroids
If you want something in EVE Online it has to be built and this means that somebody has to build it, and for that to happen somebody with a big spaceship has to zoom out to an asteroid field and dig some minerals out of a rock.
Combat with non-player enemies in EVE is not very exciting; combat with large pieces of floating rock is even less exciting.
ROCKING: Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go
1. Working
Released on the PSP, Work Time Fun is a collection of minigames which offers a nightmarish insight into exactly what gamers are willing to put up with.
Each minigame is based around some menial job, from picking up golf balls to putting on pen caps, you complete them, earn money, buy meaningless rewards. That's it.
As a game it ranks on the fun scale alongside punching yourself repeatedly in the crotch.
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LG's 'simple' GD510 touchscreen phone outed
LG has decided that the recent raft of touchscreen phones are overburdened with superfluous options which are unnecessary for use every day, so have released the streamline, simple-to-use LG GD510. Or to give it its simpler name: the LG Pop.
The phone comes packing an impressive 8GB of internal memory, 3-inch full WQVGA touchscreen interface, and a 3MP camera. The phone also includes an MP3 player.
Powered by the sun
The biggest sell here is the simplicity of the device. This is shown in the phone's navigation system: a single button is used on the interface which functions as the 'menu', 'end' and 'cancel' keys. This is coupled with a slim strip of light around the button shines either green or red indicating the handset's function.
Also, the phone has a fair few eco credentials as well, most notably the use of a solar panel on its back, so it can be charged by the sun.
Inevitably, simplicity means that there's no big features to write home about – and that includes a lack of 3G and Wi-Fi.
What you do get is a multimedia device which plays music and movies in several file formats. Oh, and it also makes calls too.
The handset has a UK release date in November and will be available from the Carphone Warehouse. Contracts and pricing are still to be confirmed. Go to lge.co.uk/mobile for more details.
Search for the best mobile phone deals at Omio
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Review: Cocomot Pagehand 1.0.6
Although Mac OS X doesn't have the 'luxury' of 50 billion word processors, it does have a handful of very good ones. Nisus Writer (both in Pro and Express flavours) and Pages are MacFormat favourites, and Scrivener and WriteRoom are fantastic tools for bashing out text prior to formatting.
Therefore, anything new in this space needs to be seriously good and perhaps offer something unique and exciting to retain our attention.
Quirky hands
Pagehand somewhat fumbles the ball and comes across as a mixed bag. The developer calls his creation "an elegant little word processor," but although we found it usable, we'd sooner describe Pagehand's interface and workflow as 'quirky'.
That said, it's clear that plenty of thought has gone into the application: you can show multiple views of a document via excellent split-pane options; tabs enable you to work on several documents without windows peppering your screen; installed fonts are available as a huge list or in handy groups; and the interface aims to ensure your work is never covered by dialogs.
In some cases, these things are done in a somewhat jarring way – for example, click the Columns toolbar button and its options replace the existing toolbar until you click your document content again; and although document tabs are arranged in a manner similar to Safari, Pagehand's interface isn't nearly as smooth.
Generally, though, the app feels pleasant – if odd – to work with.
As for the creation of content, Pagehand is hit and miss. General text editing is fine, and the application has a fairly robust styles editor and import system.
STYLED UP: Pagehand enables you to import certain styles from other documents
It also supports columns, tables and document sections, and it's helpful when it comes to more specialised typography, making it straightforward to adjust hyphenation, ligatures and smart quotes.
However, we felt somewhat restricted by a general lack of versatility in the way Pagehand deals with imagery and text flow, and the omission of a live word and character count is irksome. We're also not convinced by one of the developer's main arguments for buying Pagehand: the use of PDF as its file format.
There's a certain untested logic to this, and we get the theory – PDF is near-ubiquitous, therefore if you send someone a document created in Pagehand then they'll probably be able to read it.
However, any Mac OS X app can print to PDF, and Pagehand documents can't be easily edited elsewhere; worse, PDFs from Pagehand revised in the likes of Acrobat can't then be opened again in Pagehand.
For collaboration, export options are available (to DOCX, RTF and so on), but you then lose your document hierarchy information (although Pagehand exports are at least fairly accurate regarding the visual appearance of your text).
Not quite there
It's a shame to be so negative about Pagehand, because the more we worked with the program, the more little things we found to like about it.
However, this release just has too many omissions and problems for it to pick up a recommendation. In its present incarnation Pagehand feels unfinished, and against the likes of Nisus Writer Express (which is five dollars cheaper) it doesn't strike us as particularly great value for money.
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Exclusive: Samsung not ruling out more AMD laptops
Samsung has not ruled out using AMD chips in its laptops, but its netbook range will use Intel chips for the foreseeable future, according to the company's UK General Manager for mobile computing Phil Brown.
Samsung has been one of the big success stories in the mobile computing sector in recent years, becoming a major player in the market.
Speaking at a round-table event for journalists, Brown stated that, although the company had traditionally used Intel, that a small foray into AMD laptops could serve as a precursor to more use in the future.
Historically Intel
"Historically we were Intel, said Brown. "This year we had two products on the AMD platform…and whilst we never progressed that range any further, we have worked with AMD and could do so again in the future.
"Our current range doesn't have AMD in it but that doesn't mean to say that AMD might not resurface on our products."
In terms of the netbook division, Brown confirmed that there were no plans as yet to move away from the successful Atom processors from Intel.
"At the moment Intel is our chosen partner for netbooks for the foreseeable future," he said.
A decent choice
Samsung is hoping that its latest range of netbooks – the N-series – gives consumers a full range of choices in the small form-factor sector.
Brown believes that consumers do want choice for their netbooks, despite the limitations of the hardware.
"Netbooks have caught the imagination of consumers in various different guises and by offering wide variety we've seen positive results, said Brown.
"So we believe that consumers do want variety. Customers are asking for it and we're happy to deliver it.
"We've always had smaller number of SKUs than some of our competitors and we think there is a clear differentiation through the range from the N130 to the N510."
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O2 trialling Super 3G 'LTE' broadband
O2 is trialling a new 'Super 3G' mobile broadband tech, with a view to a release to consumers later next year.
The news will come as a relief to the many iPhone users in the UK who are daily wasting whole minutes of their lives while waiting for websites to appear on their phones!
O2's parent company Telefonia has begun of Long Term Evolution (LTE) tech trials, which looks like it is set to be the next-gen 3G broadband standard.
Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Nokia Siemens Network and ZTE are all providing devices to be used in the trials, with a mass rollout looking likely at some point in 2010.
"At Telefأ³nica we are working with the conviction that we can only offer our clients the maximum levels of quality and innovation," O2 said in a statement.
"To do this, we are defining our strategy and the rollout of LTE with the objective of driving mobile broadband and offering the best service from the moment that the equipment and terminals can support the new standards and are available for sale."
Mobile broadband faster than home?
LTE should provide upto 140Mbit bandwidth in its first rollout next year, with 340Mbit likely for the following version due 2011.
"LTE is however only a 3G technology (it doesn't meet the ITU's requirement for 4G which includes peak data rates of 1 Gbps), and as such, work is already under-way for it's 4G replacement - LTE Advanced - which will support these," notes ThinkBroadband.
"Even in the non-advanced form, LTE has the potential to be a fixed-line broadband killer as the speeds available will rival those of fixed broadband services which are likely to stay around a maximum of 24Mbps for many users for several years to come."
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Weird Tech: Jack Thompson turns on Facebook
Long-time anti-gaming lunatic Jack Thompson, the man who very, very unsuccessfully tried to turn the world against Grand Theft Auto and all manner of other violent video games, is now suing Facebook.
Claiming the social network has been giving users a platform to harass him and enabling the issuing of rude threats, Thompson wants an astonishing $40 million in damages.
The group 'Jack Thompson should be smacked across the face with an Atari 2600', for example, which has a modest 312 members at time of writing, is one target of his complaints and a group he's demanding Facebook closes. Membership has risen since Thompson's complaint, of course.
ICONIC LUNATIC: Also wants آ£5 from man who looked at him in a funny way (Image credit: The Gazette)
It's worth remembering what happened to poor Jack in 2008 - he was struck off by the Florida Bar, resulting in him no longer being able to practise as an attorney. The reason? His endless submission of ludicrous legal cases.
...and the messages of insignificance
Author JK Rowling, whose childlike ramblings about magic and playing pretend are oddly popular, has joined Twitter - the conversation portal full of childlike ramblings about playing pretend and, at the current time of writing, Google Wave invites and Freeview boxes not working any more.
"Pen and paper is my priority" she says, no doubt hoping some publishing bigwig will offer her آ£500,000 to serialise her forthcoming Tweets to make it worth getting out of bed for.
LIES: Surely she's got enough money to afford a PC to write with?
While the country reverberates to the angry sounds of people trying to retune their Freeview boxes, it's worth remembering exactly what's in it for us – pretty much nothing. 500,000 people will get channel Five (that's "get" as in receive, not as in understand why it exists), but, in return, 400,000 people lose ITV3 and ITV4 in the switch around.
BLAH BLAH BLAH: In return you get to watch Five News with Natasha Kaplinsky
The promise is that the digital reorganisation frees up bandwidth for future high-definition telly, but you'll need to buy a new digibox to make that happen. In reality, all it's doing now is annoying 500,000 people by giving them another channel full of primary-coloured quizzes to skip.
Give an arm and a leg for one
The must-have toy for Christmas 2015 is going to be the Dual-Arm Power Amplification Robot. Also known as the Power Loader, this monstrous combination of fake robot arms and fake robot legs empowers the feeble-bodied end user to lift 220lbs, or the equivalent of two small ladies or one fat man.
It's real, is being made by a development "arm" of Panasonic, and the plan is it'll be commercially available for factory owners and bored millionaire sci-fi cosplayers in 2015. If you're reading this on a platform that lets you play YouTube clips, here's a YouTube clip.
GET AWAY FROM HER: Now hold my tea and carry me to the toilet
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Review: ABBYY FineReader Express 8.0 for Mac
Nobody loves doing OCR: it's just a chore that obviates the need for an even more tedious one. So the ideal tool is an app that accepts multiple image formats – scans, screen grabs, PDFs – without complaint, doesn't require you to perform gymnastics with a complex interface, and delivers accurate results in a usable format.
On most of these counts, FineReader scores. FineReader copes adequately with extracting text from harder-to-decipher files, too.
Given a JPEG of a page from a 19th-century book, it made about half a dozen errors in 300 words – certainly preferable to re-typing it from scratch. Presented with a complex newspaper page in JPEG format, FineReader made a few mistakes.
However, its conversion to HTML was pretty good, and oddly its text recognition was better when converting to PDF.
But FineReader's performance with TIFF images was so poor as to be effectively useless. (We tested it with the same image saved into different formats, and it was just TIFF that caused problems; happily, exporting TIFFs to something else – even just using Preview – meant that FineReader coped fine. We asked ABBYY why, but didn't get an answer before we went to press.)
Still, that might be a relatively minor issue to circumvent. There's also good help and solid multilingual support. Its price means that FineReader isn't a casual buy, but for those who use OCR regularly, it'll make the chore a little less miserable.
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Panasonic announces UK 3D Blu-ray roadshow, full tour dates revealed
UK AV fans will get a closer look at Full HD 3D this month when Panasonic embarks on a nationwide 3D roadshow.
The brand is deploying three mobile Full HD 3D theatres to shopping malls and other locations, to give hungry consumers a taste of the tech that it will be arriving in UK stores next year.
The 3D Roadshow will take place in nine cities across the country, and will feature clips and movie trailers – James Cameron's Avatar certain to be one of them. Panasonic will also be demonstrating its latest Neo PDP TVs, along with VieraCast internet streaming.
Marketing Director Andrew Denham says: '2010 will be the year that the 3D experience will be available in the living room, and Panasonic is at the forefront of these technological innovations. Our Panasonic 3D plasma technology is the only one to provide 60 full frames per second for each eye, which is the best 3D technology currently available. The 3D Roadshow will demonstrate our commitment to continued innovation in this area, and will showcase the way these technologies will revolutionise the way we experience entertainment in the home - from movies to television to gaming.'
Panasonic UK MD Keith Evans adds: 'We are really looking forward to getting out there and showcasing the future of home entertainment directly to the general public. By visiting so many cities, we hope to engage with consumers from across the country and demonstrate not only the potential of these technologies but also the incredible 3D content that is being created.'
Via HomeCinemaChoice
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T-Mobile Pulse Android phone hits the shops
T-Mobile's pay-as-you-go offering has hit the shops today (well online at least), marking the first time a non-contract Android phone has gone on sale in the UK.
TechRadar were lucky enough to get hands-on with the T-Mobile Pulse at this year's IFA, and while it's never going to compete fully with the more expensive HTC Hero and the Samsung Galaxy, the Pulse is a more than competent handset.
Contract free
The phone (real name Huawei U8220) sports a 3.5-inch HVGA touchscreen, on-board memory of 2GB, a 3.2MP camera and GPS functionality.
Price-wise, you will have to pay آ£176.61 upfront for the handset – this includes آ£10 top-up) and آ£5 a month if you want access to the web.
If you really wanted to opt for a contract, then you will be able to pick the handset up for free then pay آ£20 a month (for 24 months) for your calls and what-not.
Got to www.t-mobile.co.uk for more details, or you can drop into your local T-Mobile store.
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Sony makes wireless TV charging breakthrough
Sony's research and development unit in Japan has made a breakthrough in highly efficient wireless power transfer systems based on magnetic resonance for TVs and other devices.
Sony's latest wireless tech can shift 60 watts of electrical power across a space of upto 80cm, promising the dream – a fully wireless entertainment system for the lounge.
"Sony Corporation today announced the development of a highly efficient wireless power transfer system that eliminates the use of power cables from electronic products such as television sets," reads the Sony Japan release.
"Using this system, up to 60 Watts of electrical energy can be transferred over a distance of 50cm (at an efficiency of approximately 80 per cent, approximately 60 per cent including rectifier)."
Magnetic resonance tech
Sony's contactless electrical energy transmission tech is based on magnetic resonance, via which "electromagnetic energy is only transferred to recipient devices that share the identical resonant frequencies as the energy source, so energy transfer efficiency is maintained, even when misalignment occurs."
Sony's new wireless power transfer system boasts a transfer efficiency of 60 per cent. What's more, Sony is developing "passive extender units" that can extend the transfer distance to be extended from 50cm to 80cm, without any efficiency losses.
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Review: Harlequin Computer Solutions VelOCRaptor
While the wisdom of naming an application after an unfriendly dinosaur may be questioned, VelOCRaptor is an interesting project.
Based on the OCRopus engine developed for Google Book Search, it's a simple drag-and-drop tool that the makers acknowledge is a "work in progress". You can even use its website to vote on the new features you'd most like.
In other words, this software doesn't claim to be your all-powerful OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tool, which is probably a good thing, because in our tests it didn't emerge as terribly powerful.
It converts scanned images to PDFs; you then copy any text it has recognised out of the PDF, or from within the app itself. Unfortunately, results are very mixed, even at the 300dpi resolution that the producers recommend.
With our most complex document – a newspaper page – VelOCRaptor scored reasonably on textual accuracy, but the multicolumn layout was completely lost in the transition to PDF format.
With a page of an old book, there were so many mis-recognised characters that the output was useless.
And with a PDF document, VelOCRaptor perversely converted the text within an embedded image fine, but turned the text itself – selectable in the original – into an image!
VelOCRaptor only works with Mac OS X 10.5; as MacFormat went to press, it wouldn't play with Snow Leopard either. VelOCRaptor shows promise, but further evolution is sorely needed.
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TechRadar Choice: 5 best soundbars to improve your TV's audio
Slim and sexy they may be, but when it comes to sound, flatpanel TVs usually fall flat on their full HD faces.
Those wafer-thin chassis don't leave a lot of room for powerful audio circuitry and, as a result, movies can end up sounding thin and weedy.
The obvious remedy to this problem is to get yourself a home cinema system, but not everyone has the space or the budget – and that's where soundbars come in.
These units provide a happy medium between your TV's speakers and a full-on 5.1 setup, packing all the necessary audio technology into a single 'bar' that can be mounted on the wall or placed on your AV stand. Most come with built-in virtual surround technology too, saving you the hassle and messy cabling involved in rigging up rear speakers.
So if you want to be part of the soundbar revolution, the five one-box wonders on test here are a good place to start. Let's find out which one deserves your hard-earned cash.
B&W Panorama - آ£1,500
+ Exceptional sound quality; immaculate build
- Expensive; unconvincing surround effect
So can B&W's Panorama high-end soundbar offering set a new standard for one-box cinemas? There's no denying the convenience of the systems.
Essentially an entire speaker system in one submarine-shaped cabinet, they are designed for wall-mounting underneath your flatscreen TV, with many offering technologies that simulate a 5.1 soundfield.
But while they are certainly practical and increasingly popular, they also usually involve a sonic compromise, and we've found the results are patchy at best.
But despite the paucity of features in this model (no radio tuner, iPod dock or HD audio support) Bowers & Wilkins' Panorama is a formidable soundbar debutante.
Read: Full B&W Panorama soundbar review
Crystal Audio SSB-1 - آ£250
+ iPod dock; connections; solid sound
- No Dolby Digital/DTS decoding; some harsh sound
Renowned speaker brand Crystal Audio joins the soundbar party with the SSB-1, which belts out 200W of home cinema sound from a single unit. Its debut effort sits at the budget end of the market, but steals a march on both with the inclusion of an iPod dock.
The SSB-1's sound quality occasionally betrays its price tag, particularly when high-pitched effects, screeching creatures or clashing metal are played at loud volumes. They have a tendency to sound overly hard.
Midrange frequencies are a lot more assured, as demonstrated by clear, crisp dialogue, while the subwoofer inside offers a surprising amount of depth and punch.
Read: Full Crystal Audio SSB-1 soundbar review
Monitor Audio Radius One HD - آ£450
+ Build and sound quality
- Needs to be heard as part of a system
Monitor Audio's debut soundbar differs from the rest in that it's not designed to replace a 5.1-system, but to form part of one.
Inside this sleek, compact unit are left, right and centre speaker drivers, but no rear ones, sub or pseudo surround sound processing. To complete the setup you can buy other Radius speakers separately, including R45HD rears and the R360HD sub, but that sort of defeats the object.
Inevitably, when listening to Radius One HD on its own, it does feel lacking. It's designed to be teamed up with other speakers in the Radius range, which bumps up the cost and means you'll have to hook everything up with cables – the very thing soundbars are normally designed to avoid.
It's not a criticism as such, it just means that the Radius One HD isn't aimed at your typical soundbar buyer.
Read: Full Monitor Audio Radius One HD soundbar review
Samsung HT-WS1G - آ£250
+ Design; wireless subwoofer
- Lacks oomph; limited connections
Samsung's HT-WS1G is one of the few soundbars that comes with an external subwoofer. But if you don't like the thought of ugly wires trailing up the wall, fear not – this one is wireless, so you can place it anywhere in a room no matter where the soundbar is installed.
While build quality isn't the best, it's the most visually arresting system around. Samsung's platinum black finish and translucent edges are once again used to stunning effect, plus it's also incredibly slim and unimposing.
The HT-WS1G's main drawback is volume. Despite an impressive-sounding power rating of 260W, the unit doesn't go loud enough for our tastes, even with the volume level turned right up.
The result is a performance that feels restrained; compared with some of its rivals there's not enough punch. Another drawback is the ineptitude of the virtual surround in the 'Cinema' setting.
Read: Full Samsung HT-WS1G soundbar review
Sharp HT-SB200 - آ£130
+ Modestly priced
- Limited connections; harsh sound
Sharp's debut effort is definitely at the budget end of the spectrum, a fact reflected in its comparatively limited feature list, but if you want a no-frills way of boosting your TV's sound quality then this might fit the bill.
It doesn't offer any built-in audio decoding for Dolby Digital and DTS, but it does provide 32W of built-in 2.1-channel amplification and some sound processing modes.
But despite its lack of refinement the Sharp's sound is generally loud and gutsy, and it certainly offers a more exciting listen than any flatpanel TV we've ever heard.
Plus, the same over-emphasis on treble that causes harshness on loud effects actually helps the Sharp to excavate lots of sonic detail from background ambience and effects during quieter passages.
Read: Full Sharp HT-SB200 soundbar review
There are no real surprises in the final pecking order; the old adage that you get what you pay for is once again applicable.
The Sharp HT-SB200 is the cheapest and sounds like it, too. Its discomfort with high frequencies at loud volumes coupled with its ineffective virtual sound mode are enough to earn it last place, while the low connection count makes it an unsuitable choice if you've got lots of AV kit you want to listen to.
Next up is the Monitor Audio Radius One HD, a passive front and centre array that delivers fantastic
sound quality, but is not a self-contained system in itself; to make the most of it, you'll need to add an
AV receiver, subwoofer and rears, which isn't what most people look for in a soundbar.
However, the Samsung HT-WS1G does boast all the features you need, chief among which is Dolby Digital and DTS decoding. Also, the superb wireless subwoofer provides extra bass power without a cable in sight and the surprisingly low price makes it a good value proposition.
On a more superficial note, the soundbar itself is gorgeous and covered with the sort of snazzy embellishments that'll make it a real focal point for your living room. But the main reason it's lying in third place is its lack of puff when it comes to large-scale action scenes.
Even at maximum volume we felt it should go louder and we'd have also liked a few more connections.
It's pipped to second place by the Crystal Audio SSB-1, the rich feature list, comparatively generous
connections and affordable price tag make it the best-value model of the bunch.
Music lovers will love the built-in iPod dock, while movie fans can enjoy the expansive sound quality provided by the VSS technology, although the latter camp may be aggrieved by the lack of Dolby Digital and DTS decoding.
Coming out on top is the B&W Panorama, a beautifully built and staggeringly talented unit that offers
the best sound quality bar none.
The solidity and power of the bass it musters is unbelievable, putting even the Samsung's external sub to shame, while the rest of the sound boasts the smoothness and control that you only get from an experienced audio brand at the top of its game.
The three digital inputs and Dolby Digital/DTS decoding are further reasons to be cheerful.
But despite all this, we have reservations over the price. آ£1,500 is a lot to fork out for a soundbar – even one as good as this – and for that sort of cash we'd have expected HDMI sockets.
But if you do splash out on one you won't regret your decision for a second.
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Top 10 console to iPhone crossover games
FIFA 10 hits stores today across all platforms and makes a highly anticipated debut on the iPhone to boot.
- 15 most cinematic gaming moments
To mark EA's footy general stepping out on hallowed smartphone turf for the very first time, we've scoured the entire App store to find the gaming icons that have successfully leapt from console to Apple's all-conquering device.
Launch the gallery to see the top 10 console to iPhone crossover games
Via T3.com
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Review: Parallels Desktop Switch to Mac Edition
Since shortly after the arrival of Intel Macs, it's been fisticuffs at dawn for Parallels and VMware, with each company claiming to have the best virtualisation product.
With Parallels' Desktop 4.0 Switch to Mac Edition, they throw a curveball – rather than this pseudo-update offering new features within the main application, it bundles in a single box everything a Windows user might need to switch to a Mac.
The bundle comprises three main components: tools for switching, tutorials for switchers, and Parallels Desktop itself.
It's a good solution for running Windows in a window (and, during testing, seemed fine on Snow Leopard), with excellent device support, although we still think VMware Fusion is a more Mac-like app. That said, it has less of an edge than it could boast 10 months ago.
Switching to Mac
But do the other elements within Switch to Mac Edition enable Parallels to grab the lead?
Migration comes in the form of a bundled high-speed USB cable and Transporter software, which makes it relatively painless to clone an existing PC to a virtual drive.
However, it's worth noting that this might breach Microsoft's EULA for OEM copies of Windows; Parallels suggests checking with your PC manufacturer and Microsoft, and reading the OEM Windows Migration document in the support section of Parallels' website, before trying this type of migration.
The Switch to Mac Edition video tutorials come with no such concerns. Taking the form of Learn your Mac – a whopping half-gig Flash application – this aims to get Windows users up to speed with Mac terminology, teaching the basics of Finder and a handful of important Mac apps.
The tutorials are universally friendly and extremely straightforward, and direct comparisons between Windows and Mac equivalents are made throughout. The interface is functional enough, given that it's trying to ape a complex operating system, but the tutorials occasionally prove slightly suspect when it comes to typos and Mac terminology.
Useful but limited
We understand what Parallels is trying to do. This box is an all-in-one solution, comprising quality software, reasonable tutorials and excellent documentation – all for the price of its rival (or its own standard version) plus a decent book on Mac OS X.
However, we wish the videos had been braver and proved more integrative, encouraging a fuller transition to Mac's operating system, rather than the effective lock-in of having users mostly work with a PC within a Mac.
We also question the cost of this solution. Had Parallels decided to more aggressively price Switch to Mac, it would have undoubtedly gained a competitive advantage and probably got the nod from us.
As it stands, a decent book might lack interaction, but will potentially be more encompassing than Learn your Mac; in tandem with VMware Fusion, this might prove better value in the long run than this box from Parallels.
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Twitter Labs announced
Twitter will soon have its own Labs – enabling developers to create new add-ons and functionality for the popular micro-blogging service.
The announcement – made at the Future of Web Apps conference in London – was made by Britt Selvitelle the User Experience and Front End Engineering Lead for Twitter.
No details were given by Selvitelle, although everyone at the conference was told they would be granted access.
Many people already produce applications that use the Twitter API, but the arrival of labs will no doubt help formalise that process.
Google model
Google Labs have been a big success for the search giant, who uses the service to beta trial new tools and functionality for many of its services.
Selvitelle was speaking about the future of front end engineering at FOWA, one of the most renowned conferences for web developers.
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UK injunction to be served by Twitter
An injunction has been served over the micro-blogging network Twitter, a first for Britain.
An unknown Tweeter has been ordered to stop posing as Donal Blaney, a right-wing political blogger.
The real Mr Blaney told the BBC that messages in his name were 'mildly objectionable'.
Breach of copyright
The order – handed down by the High Court states that the Tweeter is breaching copyright by producing messages in Blaney's name.
Because of the legal difficulties in ascertaining who the Twitter user is, the injunction can be served via 140 characters.
Unlike the US, the UK allows injunctions to be served through various means rather than just in person.
Emails and faxes have been used in the past, but this is the first time that Twitter has been used as the server.
The injunction – which will be known as Blaney's Blarney Order is due to be served – with a link to the full text – at 7.30pm BST.
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