HTC HD2 given early price and UK release date
HTC's just-announced phone, the HD2, has been given a price and release date by online retailer Expansys.
Users can pre-order the massive phone for the princely sum of آ£549.99, with آ£30-worth of vouchers for the site thrown in too.
Although HTC told us the phone would be released around three weeks away, the online retailer is stating the expected release date for the new HD2 is 11 November.
Tip-top-end
While that's a pretty top end price for any phone, the HD2 does have some industry leading features, such a massive capacitive 4.3-inch touchscreen.
It also brings HTC's Sense UI to Windows Mobile 6.5, meaning Facebook integration and a frankly awesome full screen weather widget.
Head on over to the Expansys site to see whether it could be the phone for you – we're still awaiting details of the networks planning to stock the HD2, but if you'd rather get it unlocked then this is the route for you.
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Glove-friendly touchscreen tablet tech announced
Some revolutionary multi-touch display technology has been announced, which allows you to work the screen with gloves on.
Created by Getac, the new tablet displays have all the functionality of a normal multi-touch, including the ability to move and edit documents, rotate maps and photos, zoom in and zoom out all with a series of gestures, but it can now be done without the need of skin to screen contact.
The first batch of tablet PCs to come equipped with the glove-friendly display is the Getac V100, which has a display of 2048x2048 resolution, a 100 points per second report rate, and less than 35ms response time.
With or without gloves
Speaking about the launch of the new multi-touch display, Peter Molyneux, Business Development Director, Getac UK, said: "Our customers work in some of the most extreme environments and weather conditions where touch screen technology and flick gestures are faster, safer, and more convenient than using a keypad.
"As a leading innovator in advanced rugged computer technology, it is only fitting that Getac is the first to offer multi-touch technology that can be used with or without gloves."
Personally, TechRadar is just happy that we will be able to use a Tablet PC outside without our delicate fingers getting cold.
A price and release date of the technology for the rugged Getac V100 has yet to be announced, but as it's Windows 7 compatible expect it to launch around 22 October.
Go to www.getac.com for more details.
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Google says Mac users are douchebags and Ballmer is an idiot
Some people believe that eventually computers will become smarter than humans.
We reckon it's happened already.
It turns out that Google Suggest, the little pop-up box of search suggestions, holds the answers to some of the burniest burning questions of our age.
So what can it tell us about the world of tech?
Google's no fan of fanboys
Mac fanatics, you appear to have an image problem: your kit might be shiny and your operating system smooth, but it seems that the owners aren't loved quite as much as their computers are.
Google isn't a gamer
To some, World of Warcraft is the pinnacle of entertainment, an online extravaganza that repays the massive amount of time and money players put into it. To Google Suggest, it's crap, boring and for losers. We couldn't possibly comment.
Google can't get a 3G signal either
It seems that Google loves third generation mobile phone networks as much as we do. 3G, as we can see, is slow, is not working, is not working on the iPhone… you get the idea.
Google hates right back
When it comes to Google haters, few people are more hatey than Microsoft's famously hot-headed boss. But it looks like Google's throwing the love right back at Mister Monkey Dance: look what pops up right at the top of the Google Suggest box. Don't tell us that isn't entirely intentional.
Google likes open source
Searching for software-related terms tends to bring up loads of support-related queries, and Firefox is no exception - but what do we have here at the bottom? Yep, it's the pure, unvarnished truth: Firefox is, indeed, better than Internet Explorer.
Google is on top of the tech news
Mere moments after Amazon announced an international version of its Kindle e-book reader, Google Suggest was on the case. As hardware reviews go, it's hardly a glowing endorsement.
Google knows the answer to life…
If you'd asked us to bet on whether Google would know the answer to life, the universe and everything, we'd have gladly taken your money. Of course it knows, because everybody does: the answer is 42. As every good Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy reader knows, the answer's easy. It's the question that's hard.
…but it doesn't know what the question is
If the answer is 42, then the question must be "who owns the fish". We're not feeling that one. And "the question is the answer" doesn't do it for us either.
Google knows that privacy matters
If you do the "X is" trick with any famous person, you'll get loads of results - unless you do it with a certain Larry Page, or Sergey Brin, or Vint Cerf. Google would no doubt claim that the lack of Google Suggest results for key Google people is because nobody's searching for "Larry Page is", "Sergey Brin is" or "Vint Cerf is". But they would say that, wouldn't they?
Google says that Google is good
It's not just Google executives that seem to be protected from the awesome power of Google Suggest: Google itself appears to get away scot-free too. There's no doubt which answer Google wants you to take away from this one, as "Google is your friend" gets an incredible 353 million results. Google is your friend? All together now: they would say that, wouldn't they?
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Hands on: Samsung Omnia II review
At the recent Microsoft Windows Phone event we got the chance to play with a good few mobiles, and one of the most interesting was the new Samsung Omnia II.
It's very similar in style to other recent Samsung releases, namely the Galaxy and the Jet, with a rounded back and a slightly plasticky chassis.
The whole thing fits fairly well in the hand, with easy thumb access to most of the features, which have a decent response time (although not class-leading).
The central cubic key is present once again, giving access to the menu and a range of applications when pressed.
The phone uses Samsung's TouchWiz UI, meaning the home screen is full of draggable widgets to extend the Omnia II's functionality, although there's always the option to switch to the upgraded Windows Mobile screen.
The screen is a 3.7-inch OLED, which looks tip top compared to comparable LCD screens. Some people say it looks too saturated, but we think OLEDs give great vivid colour, and Samsung is once again championing the technology on the Omnia II.
The menu system looks and feels like Samsung's proprietary OS until you delve a bit deeper – the only difference being the Windows Start Menu icon in the upper left.
The Windows 6.5 menu screen, as we said in our hands-on review earlier this year, is a decent enough upgrade, making it much easier to scroll through with a simple touch.
We're happy to see 3.5mm headphone jacks are becoming standard, even on Windows Mobile handsets these days – it makes the label 'consumer friendly' a lot more believable.
Dig a bit deeper and you'll see that the old Windows Mobile ecosystem is still alive and well though – with messaging still a bit tricky to use.
Thankfully the screen is accurate enough that typing isn't as much of a problem, but we're still hoping that Microsoft sorts out messaging with incremental firmware updates, rather than having to wait until Windows Mobile 7.
The camera is of a similar power to recent Samsung efforts, although with a dual LED effort rather than a single it will at least have a better throw and more even light distribution for photography, which will be up to Samsung's usual high standards.
Unlike recent Android phones, the Omnia II brings a front-facing video camera for video calling – it's a phone that's geared towards giving the full gamut of business functionality after all, so some business suit-type people find this feature useful.
Overall, we liked the Omnia II – it's very much evolution rather than revolution, but it seems well-built enough and Samsung is working hard on getting its touchscreens right at the moment.
Check back later in the month when we'll be bringing you our in-depth multi-page review of the Samsung Omnia II.
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Cyberspace the battleground "for next world war"
The telecommunications arm of the United Nations has been discussing the future of cyber-security, asking nations to batten down their internet hatches and prepare for an online war.
Speaking at the ITU Telecom World 2009 conference, the boss of the UN International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Hamadoun Tourأ© explained: "The next world war could happen in cyberspace and that would be a catastrophe.
"We have to make sure that all countries understand that, in that war, there is no such thing as a superpower."
Cyber-sheriff
Outlining the seriousness of a web war, Tourأ© noted that the "loss of vital networks would quickly cripple any nation, and none is immune to cyber attack."
One way that nations can prepare for cyber-attacks, explains Tourأ©, is the most obvious one – better online security. "The best way to win a war is to avoid it in the first place," he explained to delegates at the conference.
It seems the message is getting through, as according to the Associated Foreign Press, US Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has ordered 1,000 cybersecurity bods to look after America's online security.
Other nations bolstering their security for the web include South Korea, who are to begin training 3,000 'cyber-sheriffs'.
Cyber security has been highlighted this week after it was revealed that thousands of Hotmail accounts had been hacked into. Google, Yahoo and AOL have also had their security compromised.
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Exclusive: Opera responds to EC's ballot page decision
Opera has responded to the EC decision to allow testing of Microsoft's ballot page proposal for the default browser on Windows 7, with a senior figure insisting that it is the implementation that worries him.
Opera was the company that raised the issue with the EC, and the decision to allow Microsoft's proposal for a ballot page is not as welcome as you might expect.
"Opera Software supports the concept of a ballot screen to give users easy access to better browsers," said Opera CTO Hakon Wium Lie.
"The important question is how this ballot screen is implemented."
Studying
"We are still studying the announcement from the European Commission and will have further comments at a later stage," he added.
Matters such as the decision to supply the ballot page to Europeans via Windows Update will no doubt prompt further comment from Opera, which is combing though the EC statement.
Among other issues, rivals are concerned about the order in which the browsers will be listed and whether years of connecting the IE logo with the internet may give Microsoft an unfair advantage on a ballot page.
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Microsoft: Ballot page provided by Windows Update
Microsoft's ballot page to choose a default browser will not show up in Europe until a user runs Windows Update for the first time.
Speaking about the way in which its ballot page proposal will be delivered, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith confirmed that the EC was to allow the company to push on with its Windows 7 proposal.
This will see all European customers offered the choice of a different default browser through a ballot page.
Windows Update
TechRadar can reveal, however, that the ballot page will not be present in the original software. Instead, it will be activated by a code sent out the first time someone in Europe runs Windows update.
"This announcement means Microsoft will continue to be able to ship the same version to all consumers," said Smith in a conference call.
"This is a significant step for us and certainly something many PC manufacturers made very clear was important to them."
Benefits?
Smith believes that consumers will benefit from getting a "vanilla" or unaltered version of Windows 7.
"[It] means the European consumer has all the benefits that consumers elsewhere get but... in addition, shortly after they get a new PC, an update – which will be delivered via Windows Update – will launch code which will show the consumer choice or 'ballot' screen.
"That's an important part of this proprosal.
"It's a creative and important step to come to together with the European Commission and focus on Windows Update as the delivery mechanism.
"By using Windows Update it will simplify life for PC manufacturers, who can continue to configure PCs how they want to configure them, with another browser if they prefer, or they can turn IE off.
"If it's not the default then code will display the consumer choice or ballot screen when update is run."
The benefits for Microsoft are also clear – the company can ship its preferred option without worrying about European versions with the ballot screen present.
It remains to be seen if the proposal works out in the way in which the EC believes it will.
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RIM plans to make BlackBerry apps more awesome
RIM has announced the BlackBerry Widget SDK for developers, enabling a wider range of options and greater integration with the smartphone operating system.
Using the new SDK, developers will be able to code using HTML, CSS and JavaScript too – the usual suspects when it comes to creating applications for mobile phones.
They will also be able to integrate these applications more deeply into the BlackBerry range, as the new SDK enables access to email and calendar applications, as well as files and documents for apps like file viewers.
Developers can also easily create applications that run in the background, allowing push notifications built on RIM's inherent ability to receive information constantly.
Always on
"BlackBerry Widgets open up a world of opportunities for developers to build and bring to market web applications for BlackBerry smartphones that offer advanced, integrated functionality and an always-on user experience," said Alan Brenner, senior VP of BlackBerry platforms at RIM.
"We are very excited by the prospects of this new widget development platform, which combines the ease of development of standard web languages with the rich functionality of Java development."
All the applications will be available through the BlackBerry application store, the non-theme park BlackBerry App World.
If you want to pick up the SDK, point your browser to www.blackberry.com/developers/widget, or if you just want to know what you could do as a developer, go to www.blackberry.com/developer.
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Google 'is powered by the truth'
A new study has found that children aged between 12 to 15 believe that Google's search engine ranks websites in terms of truthfulness, rather than the messy business of links, click-throughs and relevance.
The report was conducted by Ofcom and revealed that 32 per cent of those in the 12 to 15 age bracket believed that the more truthful a website's content was, the better ranked it would be. This is compared to 37 per cent of those who knew the real truth that relevance and usefulness was the key.
Safety first
The report also explored children's safety online and found that the majority of kids have become savvy about strangers on the internet, and will protect their social-networking pages, rather than let them be free to view online. This figure is now up 10 per cent from last year to 69 per cent.
Interestingly, the report also suggests that while the internet at home is on the whole monitored by parents (78 per cent for those with children aged between five and 15) when it comes to internet on a mobile phone there is little monitoring taking place, with just 15 per cent of parents taking a vested interest in what is viewed on a phone.
If you want to read more on the report, then point your browser to the Ofcom Advice page, found at www.ofcom.org.uk.
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Review: Sony Reader Pocket Edition
Compare the pain of dragging three thickset Booker Prize candidates to the south of France with you with the 220g weight of the Sony Reader Pocket Edition and you're halfway to understanding the appeal of eBooks.
But with Amazon's Kindle arriving in the UK imminently, should you burn your bookshelves just yet?
Small, light and very good looking are three ways to accurately describe Sony's gorgeous device. It's just one centimetre thick and the screen is a pleasure to behold.
It measures 5 inches diagonally, and despite the low sounding resolution of 800x600, text displays much more crisply than it does on the finest LCD.
Better yet, because the Pocket Edition uses E Ink, it only draws power from the battery when it's asked to refresh the screen. That means you can leave it on the same page almost indefinitely and the battery won't die – Sony claims the battery lasts up to "nearly" 6,800 page turns.
The Pocket Reader is easy to use. Ten buttons arranged down the side of the screen allow you to make menu choices.
You also get shortcut buttons to return to the main menu, bookmark a page and, usefully, choose from three levels of zoom.
You can also scroll through the menus using the four-way direction pad at the bottom of the device, but this brings you up against one of the Reader's inherent problems – the time it takes to redraw the screen.
Flipping to a new page takes a little under a second. This isn't too bad if you're simply turning the page. Eventually we found ourselves instinctively pressing the 'Next' button before we'd finished reading the last line of the page we were on.
The real drawback comes when you try to flick back a few pages to check something – it's utterly impractical. You can flip to specific pages by typing in the page number with the menu buttons, but that assumes you know exactly which page you're after. Overall, navigating a book is tricky. You can't search your texts either.
That's not the only problem. Although the E Ink screen is initially spectacular, after a while it becomes clear that it doesn't have the high contrast of a normal paper page, and you need more ambient light to read it.
SOFTWARE
When you first plug in the Pocket Edition, it installs Sony's eBook Library software, a kind of iTunes for books. Unfortunately that's where the parallels end – click on the store and all you get are a set of links out to Borders, WHSmith and Waterstones.
Actually buying a book from Waterstones proved fairly easy in itself, although it's disappointing that the 304kb download cost only around آ£1 less than buying the physical book. You can't take it to a charity shop when you're done, either.
Bizarrely, once we'd paid for our book, we were prompted to download Adobe's Digital Editions software and informed that it was the only software that would work with our download.
In fairness, Adobe's software works well and detected our Pocket Edition straightaway – dragging our new book on there was simple – but it seems odd that the Pocket Reader comes with software that booksellers don't use themselves.
You don't have to buy books, though. The Pocket Edition is compatible with PDF, RTF, TXT and Microsoft Word files, and has 512MB of internal memory.
Assuming 400kb per book, you could easily fit a few years' worth of reading on, and its compatibility with non-DRM formats means it could serve a few other practical purposes, such as being a highly portable reference device.
And there are plenty of public domain titles around, many of them available at http://books.google.com.
Reading on the Pocket Edition Reader isn't quite as stress-free as we'd like. Our main complaints are the length of time it takes to turn a page and the low contrast of the screen compared to normal paper books.
We liked:
Cracking design and easy to use. There's a huge amount of material to read on the device as well.
we disliked:
Turning the page takes too long and navigating books is an exercise in frustration. Sony's choice of software seems a little random, too.
Verdict:
If you take so many books on holiday that you rack up excess baggage charges, the Pocket Edition is an excellent compromise, thanks to its high capacity and low weight. But if you only flip through a few pages per night your bank balance will thank you for choosing paper over plastic.
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3M announces autostereoscopic 3D gaming for mobiles
3M is developing a new optical film that lets you view 3D images on a mobile phone or mobile device, without the need for using 3D specs.
While the image is technically stereoscopic, the special overlay means you can ditch the specs and not look like a right royal plonker when playing games on the Tube.
The new optical film goes into your phone's backlight unit, using two rows of LED lights to project left and right images one after the other into your eyes.
The tech focuses on each eye, meaning that there would be no need for the viewer to wear unsightly 3D glasses, as with traditional 3D technology.
No compromise on image quality
Erik Jostes, LCD business director of 3M's Optical Systems Division, noted that the tech "can switch from 3D mode to 2D mode and back and you don't make compromises on the original display".
Just as with 3D ready TVs and PC monitors, 3M's new 3D mobile screen technology works at a 120Hz refresh rate and will work on screens up to 9 inches wide, with the company looking towards the games industry in particular to develop mobile entertainment content to really show off the tech.
The new 3D film from 3M will be unveiled to the public at the Korea Electronics Show next week.
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Microsoft ballot go-ahead: The EC statement
The EC has explained that it believes Microsoft's ballot proposal is an adequate measure to address concerns about anti-competitive bundling of the IE browser.
In a statement from the Commission, it was made clear exactly what the ballot page would consist of and that it would continue to have the right to review the practice in future.
"The improvements that Microsoft has made to its proposal since July would ensure that consumers could make a free and fully informed choice of web browser. Microsoft has in particular agreed to present users with a first screen explaining what web browsers are.
"'Tell me more' buttons for each browser would also enable users to learn more about the web browser they may wish to install. The user experience would be better and the choice screen would better represent competing browser vendors.
"Finally, the proposed commitment would now be subject to a clause allowing the Commission to review it in the future to ensure that consumers would continue to have a genuine choice among browsers."
Five years of choice
A time frame of five years has been put on the browser ballot page by the EC, with the European body insisting that its primary goal is to ensure a "an effective and unbiased choice between Internet Explorer and competing web browsers to ensure competition on the merits and to allow consumers to benefit from technical development and innovation both on the web browser market and on related markets.
"Under its revised proposal, Microsoft would make available for five years in the European Economic Area (through the Windows Update mechanism) a choice screen enabling users of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 (Microsoft's next version of its PC operating system) to choose which web browser(s) they want to install in addition to, or instead of Internet Explorer.
"Likewise, in future versions of Windows, including Windows 7, PC manufacturers would be able to install competing web browsers, set those as default and disable Internet Explorer.
"The Commission's concern has been that PC users should have an effective and unbiased choice between Internet Explorer and competing web browsers to ensure competition on the merits and to allow consumers to benefit from technical development and innovation both on the web browser market and on related markets, such as web-based applications.
"The Commission's preliminary view is that Microsoft's commitments would address these competition concerns and is market testing Microsoft's proposal in light of these requirements."
The full statement can be read at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/09/439&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
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Microsoft given EC green light for browser ballot tests
Microsoft has been given a tentative green light by the European Commission to move forward with its still controversial browser bundling plan in Europe.
Microsoft's original reaction to the EC's investigation into browser bundling was to announce a European version of Windows 7 which would ship with no browsers at all.
However, after lengthy talks, this was changed to a ballot page allowing you to choose a browser – something which rivals suggested did not go far enough.
Green light
However, Microsoft has now been given the go ahead to "move forward with formal market testing" of its ballot page.
"The improvements that Microsoft has made to its proposal since July would ensure that consumers could make a free and fully informed choice of web browser. Microsoft has in particular agreed to present users with a first screen explaining what web browsers are," said the EC's statement.
"The Commission's preliminary view is that Microsoft's commitments would address these competition concerns and is market testing Microsoft's proposal in light of these requirements."
Microsoft is understandably pleased with the decision, which effectively allows it to move its plans on in Europe.
"We welcome today's announcement by the European Commission to move forward with formal market testing of Microsoft's proposal relating to web browser choice in Europe," said Microsoft's General Counsel Brad Smith.
"We also welcome the opportunity to take the next step in the process regarding our proposal to promote interoperability with a broad range of our products."
22 October
It's a big moment for Microsoft, who have been accused of years of benefiting from shipping IE with Windows.
The row over browsers in Windows 7 has been going on for a huge amount of time, and on occasions threatened to put a dark cloud over the release of the OS.
However, with a matter of weeks left until the October global release of Windows 7, Microsoft appears to have been shown the path that the EC believes is fair to consumers and rivals alike.
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WIN! A Samsung YP-R1 MP3 player and speaker worth آ£160
Going on sale on 15 October, the YP-R1 is the latest touchscreen MP3 player from Samsung.
Packing up to 16GB of flash storage and a 2.7-inch WQVGA (400 x 240) touch display, the Samsung R1 is just 8.9mm thick, supports DivX videos and runs Samsung's TouchWiz user interface.
The YP-R1 also comes with a TV-out port for playing videos on a big screen, Bluetooth 2.0, FM radio, an ebook reader and some basic arcade games.
Samsung reseller Samsung Connect has teamed up with TechRadar to give away one of these آ£140 MP3 players to one lucky reader. And they'll also get a Linx B-Tube portable speaker worth آ£20 for good measure.
To be in with a chance of winning, head over to the TechRadar competition page.
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Review: Monitor Audio AirStream 10
The smart and compact Monitor Audio AirStream 10 looks futuristic and classic in appearance, is actually one of the most all-round capable audio devices we've come across in quite some time.
It receives DAB and FM radio and thanks to the wonders of wi-fi (or, if you prefer, a wired Ethernet connection), it receives Internet radio and accesses music on your home network, via any suitable router – we used a BT Home Hub for review purposes.
If that's all a bit too new-fangled for you, you can always plug in a portable music player or other source via the auxiliary input.
Some of this is easier to set up than other bits, but if your computer has at some point in its life been set up to belong to a network, then it should be pretty straightforward to get the AirStream to connect and recognise music files.
Connecting to Internet radio is effortless, though the delay in 'tuning' in to a station can be a bit trying – this isn't a function of the AirStream though, it's caused by the need for buffering data which takes some time.
The AirStream 10 can sit on the long thin face opposite the control buttons, or on the largest face so that the speaker faces downwards, about 2cm from the supporting surface. In the case of the latter, treble is bound to suffer a bit, but the buttons are more accessible – certainly if you are using the unit as a bedside alarm or radio.
Operation is simple and, in fact, the automatic sorting of Internet radio stations by genre, location, and name, is just about the best way we've found yet of trawling through them. Some of them have a distinctly ropey quality and 24kbps MP3 is obviously nothing remotely to do with hi-fi, but we did find some perfectly sonically acceptable examples from Azerbaijan and The Philippines, to name but two.
The fun is, pretty much literally, endless! Given the point already made about treble with the speaker facing downwards, we did most of our listening with it facing out, on or reasonably close to its axis.
Under such conditions the sound is fairly clear, though not quite as neutral or punchy as the best Tivoli and Vita Audio radios can offer.
On the other hand, there's a decent amount of power on hand and the lack of rattles within the unit makes it a good choice for playing loud. The mono loudspeaker is not such a huge drawback as the stereo of most one-box units is nothing to get excited about and headphone and auxiliary outputs are stereo.
With the speaker facing downwards, the most obvious drawback is in the reduced comprehensibility of the spoken voice. Music is a little dulled, but one still gets the gist. It's tempting to compare FM, DAB and Internet versions of the same station.
FM performance is a bit so-so, tending to sound rather grainy, however meticulously one fiddles with the antenna, but Internet radio is catching up fast with DAB – in some cases sounding noticeably better.
Interestingly, the AirStream's display tells you what bitrate and codec is in use for each station. Internet radio is still in its infancy, but has taken off like a rocket.
Dedicated hardware like this lags a little, but we look forward to more appearing. The attraction of Internet listening without needing a computer to be switched on is obvious and this product fills the need well.
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50-inch Panasonic Full HD 3D plasma demoed
Panasonic teased the AV world about its 3D technology at this year's IFA trade show in Berlin, but it didn't actually show off any new technology.
The reason for this is clear, as it kept the announcement of its brand-new 50-inch Full HD 3D plasma for CEATEC in Japan.
While all of us in Europe shake a fist at not being able to view the technology (and are too stingy to cough up for a plane ticket for the show) those who have seen the plasma screen in action are impressed: Engadget felt the panel was "strikingly thin" and that "viewing angles were excellent".
The big news is that Panasonic is assuring punters that its 3D technology for the home will be affordable, with Mayuki Kozuka from the company explaining: "We are targeting volume so [the technology] wouldn't be that expensive."
This is surprising as the technology behind the TV is pretty advanced, with Panasonic pumping a 1080p Full HD stream to each eye, something that has yet to be achieved in 3D circles. Also, the sets will be compatible with the upcoming 3D Blu-ray standard, so the company is very much preparing itself for the long three-dimensional haul.
Before the 50-inch TV, Panasonic was merely touting a 150-inch screen, something that the average consumer would never be able to afford. It's likely that 50 inches is going to be the norm when 3D technology does hit homes sometime in 2010.
Panasonic also showed off its 3D camera, which incorporates two lenses which record two different video tracks, with this information writing to P2 memory cards. This is a proprietry system which differs from Panasonic's main rival in 3D, Sony. Recently Sony released details of a single lens 3D camera, which uses mirrors to split an image.
Both Sony and Panasonic are using active shutter glasses to bring their 3D visions to life, but it now seems that Panasonic is staying true to its word and will be releasing its 3D displays to the market first.
Sony still haven't shown off a full working model of its 3D Bravia range – its CEATEC showcase features the same prototype models which TechRadar saw at IFA 2009.
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Xbox 360 Twitter and Facebook imminent
The next public beta for the Xbox 360 launches later this very month, introducing a number of new features including full Last.fm, Twitter and Facebook integration.
Only a limited number of users will initially be invited into the public beta test, along with members of the press.
"People are excited about the new services coming to Xbox Live, such as Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm," said Craig Beilinson, director of marketing for Entertainment and Devices at Microsoft.
Console or mobile?
Expect more details on the beta soon, which we currently know to be kicking off around the "middle-towards-end of October".
Initial criticism of Facebook on the 360 seems to suggest that the only real appeal to users will be the option to view all of your photos on your TV and finding Facebook friends that also have Xbox Live gamer tags.
This, of course, may still prove to be a good enough draw for many Xbox gamers to start using Facebook on their telly, in addition to on their mobile phone on the bus and on their PC at work.
Also stay tuned for the arrival of the Sky Player on the Xbox 360 later this very month.
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Hotmail leak: Most popular password? 12345
A security blogger has combed through the phished Hotmail details that have hit the web to discover the most popular password is, wait for it, 12345.
The news, which can't help but remind TechRadar of a scene from sci-fi spoof Spaceballs, comes from Acuntetix blogger Bogdan Calin.
Calin found that, of the 10,000 accounts, 82 used 12345, and other popular candidates included 12345678, 1234567 and 111111.
Very poor passwords
"As we can see and conclude from the list above, a big majority of users still use very poor passwords: 42 per cent (lower alpha only) and 19 per cent (numeric only), while only 6 per cent from all the passwords had ones which use a selection of alpha numeric and other characters."
It's become increasingly apparent that phishing has been responsible for the leaked data – anyone care to draw a comparison between people who fall for phishing scams and people who use idiotic passwords?
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Future features for Photoshop revealed
Adobe isn't making any announcements about the next version of Creative Suite at its MAX conference but it is showing 'sneak peeks' of future features for Photoshop – including realistic painting that simulates real brushes and paint, and tools for invisibly removing stray wires, road signs and other eyesores.
Using a 3D Wacom Intuos pen and tablet, Senior Vice President of the Creative Solutions business John Loiacono demonstrated not just the kind of simulated natural paintbrush you get in Corel Painter, but a 3D paintbrush that you can rotate to get a different angle on the brush head.
As you turn or twist the 3D pen, you see a live preview of the brush – and of the pattern of bristles on the brush head that you'll get on the canvas.
3D BRUSH: The 3D brush preview, showing the outline of the brush head in the corner as a realistically complex shape and texture
Using the 3D brush, he mixed oil paints on an artist's palette and showed the colours mingling and spreading realistically, like real paint would.
"What we've done," says Loiacono, "is analyse the properties of the liquids that this represents and modelled how they merge as chemicals and when they dry, what the drying pattern would be."
He also showed off paint effects for turning a photograph into a painting much more effectively than the current artistic effects filters in Photoshop, creating what he called "photorealistic" effects in a few minutes.
PHOTO REALISTIC: Artistic brush effects applied to a photograph using the new simulated paint feature
The touch-up tools come from Adobe's Creative Technology lab, so they might be quite some way away from making it into Photoshop. Researcher Dan Goldman called the technique "intelligent hole filling"; instead of just copying the surrounding area to replace what you're erasing, he said the tool "looks for patches outside the hole that match and stitches them together so they fit, stitching together multiple regions for a better match".
It looks similar to the Smart Erase tool in Microsoft's Digital Image Pro but Adobe claims that randomly sampling patches across the image makes its 'PatchMatch' technique 20 to a 100 times faster than previous algorithms.
BEFORE PATCHMATCH: Here Goldman is erasing a road sign with the spot healing brush
AFTER PATCHMATCH: The road sign patch leaves some extra detail but removing the tree works extremely well, leaving an uninterrupted cloudscape
Goldman demonstrated the technique with the Spot Healing brush and the Content Fill tool. He cut out trees and a power station from the skyline and erased power lines running in front of a building.
In some cases it was hard to tell that anything had been removed, though in others the tools sometimes introduced extraneous background detail.
Goldman did emphasise that nothing shown is guaranteed to be in the next version of Photoshop but it's a good indication of the latest image editing research that Adobe is involved in.
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Review: Wharfedale Diamond 10.5
The Diamond 10.5 loudspeakers are just one product in a new line from the well established hi-fi manufacturer Wharfedale.
Founded way back in the 1930s, Wharfedale has one of the longest histories in hi-fi, though 75 years has seen several changes in ownership and downs as well as ups.
The company that ruled the UK market for the best part of half a century might no longer enjoy its earlier dominance, but IAG (the International Audio Group), its owner since 1997, is in for the long haul and has every intention of re-establishing its previous pre-eminence.
Alongside Wharfedale, IAG owns Quad, Mission and Castle Acoustics (plus Audiolab and Leak). IAG itself is owned by two Taiwanese Chinese hi-fi enthusiast brothers, Bernard and Michael Chang. Their operation is based on a huge factory complex with around 2,000 workers.
This operates a policy of 'vertical integration', which means that virtually everything needed to build a loudspeaker – drivers, cables, enclosures, crossovers etc. – is made in-house
Three months ago, Peter Comeau took over as Director of Acoustic Design at IAG's hi-fi Division.
The first fruit of Comeau's involvement is a brand new Wharfedale Diamond 10 range, which includes no fewer than eight stereo pairs, plus numerous home cinema extras. Eight models does seem a trifle excessive – most manufacturers make do with four or five, but we were told it was needed to cope with the wide variety of tastes across a global marketplace.
Chinese consumers, for example, like speakers with a lot of drive units. There might be some Chinese influence in the styling too: plenty of bling is visible when the grille is removed, with a glossy black front and super shiny finish on the plastic driver frames. A much more demure black grille is available, which neatly fixes onto the hex sockets of the driver woodscrews.
The Diamonds have been Wharfedale's entry level hi-fi models since the early 1980s, so high perceived value is an essential part of the agenda. Whatever one's reaction to the bling, this three-way floorstander is a lot of loudspeaker for آ£480.
Probably inevitably, finish is vinyl woodprint, but the catalogue lists no fewer than seven options. Our samples came in 'Roswood Quilted', whatever that means: they certainly looks pretty good, even though touch betrays the synthetic origins.
Despite the low price, the Diamond 10.5 ticks many of the boxes. Curved sides should help stiffen the enclosure and distribute internal reflections and standing waves. A composite front panel provides a secure driver mounting platform.
A separate plinth is fitted for secure spike accommodation, though regrettably this doesn't extend the stability footprint one iota and the spike lock-nut arrangements are very difficult to tighten properly. The rear panel has twin terminal pairs, linked by brass strips and fitted to a fairly tough-looking moulding and there's also room for a port.
The driver line-up is certainly distinctive. Dome-type midrange drivers are usually only found in much more upmarket speakers, so the 50mm dome used here is rather unusual.
There are pluses and minuses: the main advantage is that its relatively small-diameter diaphragm helps maintain consistent dispersion as frequency rises. The disadvantage is relatively modest sensitivity, due again to the small diaphragm and large (hence heavy) voice coil.
The bass and treble drivers are a little more conventional. The former is a 165mm device with a 130mm woven Kevlar cone and a 'diamond patterned' surround, while the tweeter has a 25mm soft dome diaphragm and short horn loading. Both mid and treble drivers are separately protected under metal mesh covers.
Auditioning was carried out in a heavily furnished and somewhat irregular 4.4x2.6x5.5m (WxHxD) room.
In-room measurements make it quite clear that the Diamond 10.5, with its port tuned to 50hz, is best kept well clear of walls – if anything there's some mid-bass excess on this occasion, though that will help balance out the lack of deep bass output. The speakers were, therefore, positioned 2.2m apart with their backs 0.8m from the nearest wall.
Most of the listening was done on a system with a Naim CD player; a hybrid Rega/Linn vinyl player and a Magnum Dynalab MD 106T tuner, all of which were amplified by a Naim NAC552/NAP500 combo.
The overall tonal balance here is progressively down-tilted from the bass to the treble, so that the overall character might well be a little too warm, rich, and laid back for some tastes and systems.
Male voices consequently do have a touch of chestiness, and the high-level 20hz sinewave signal used for response testing also showed audible harmonic distortion. One consequence is that although the presence band is nicely open, it's also a little laid back.
This might sound a bit of a contradiction in terms, but it's actually rather effective. Voices are very convincing, yet consonants and sibilants rarely, if ever, sound aggressive, even when played loud, though the volume may have to be turned up a little to maintain good intelligibility.
The restrained top end does somewhat restrict the impression of air and transparency, but it might also be regarded as a positive benefit when viewed in the context of an inexpensive system.
Over and beyond these tonal balance factors, and in fact much more important in the overall scheme of things, the voice band in particular is notably well projected and reveals a very good coherence. That in turn leads to believable and informative music making, albeit within certain limitations.
Although enclosure colorations as such seem very well controlled, there's also a lack of midrange transparency and some associated 'pinched' coloration that becomes progressively more intrusive as the volume level is increased.
Lateral stereo images are well positioned and focused, but show little in the way of depth and while the midband is certainly impressively communicative, subtlety, delicacy and dynamic expression are a little weak. Turning up the wick also tends to make that mild bass excess rather more obvious, both in terms of rather too much warmth and a slight tendency to thump, presumably when the music, the port tuning and a prominent room mode all coincide.
The Diamond 10.5 is a much less expensive loudspeaker than the overwhelming majority of models that come into our offices for review. Some performance compromises and consequent criticisms are therefore inevitable, but shouldn't detract from the fine value for money and interesting engineering solutions.
In particular, the use of a 50mm midrange dome to cover the vital presence zone with one driver (roughly 800hz-3.8khz) is surely responsible for a voice-band integration that is clearly superior to the norm. And from a musical and communication point of view, that coherence is clearly more important than the minor balance anomalies.
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Nokia E72 now ready for pre-order
Nokia has announced the successor to the popular E71 – the E72 – has gone on sale as a pre-order.
Currently only available on its website, the phone will cost you آ£359, although there's no word on an exact release date as yet.
This is an interesting case as it was announced back in June as costing only آ£300, meaning something has happened in the intervening period to hike the price up.
Cheaper across the pond
And despite Nokia stating it's only available for pre-order on its website, Amazon US is offering it too, for only $469 (آ£295).
Admittedly, it won't work over here in the UK, so it's not the most useful, but still it's frustrating to note our international cousins get better deals on the latest mobile phones.
Still, it's a pretty decent model for a business-centric phone, with a 5MP camera (with flash), a 3.5mm headphone jack (unlike the pretty pointless 2.5mm one on the E71) and an optical trackpad for easier scrolling through messages.
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Gnome 2.28 released
Yes, a brand-spanking-new version of the Gnome desktop is now available for your downloading and compiling leisure (although for most of us, it's easier to wait for the next round of distro upgrades). Various new user-facing features have been rolled into the codebase, but also of interest is the stuff that's removed. As part of the progress towards Gnome 3.0, the developers have ripped out crusty old code - there are no longer any applications that depend on esound, libgnomevfs, libgnomeprint, or libgnomeprintui. Hurrah for that. You can see the full release notes here, or read on for a quick summary of the changes.
- Epiphany browser has switched from Gecko to WebKit for better performance
- New utility for managing Bluetooth devices
- Empathy IM client has reorganised GUI
- Media Player can navigate DVD menus and resume playback from last position
- Cheese webcam app has "burst" mode for taking multiple pics in a row
- Volume control supports channel fading
- Menus do not show icons by default
- Power Manager now supports laptops with multiple batteries
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Review: Pioneer PD-D9 Mk2
The Pioneer PD-D9 Mk2 is instantly recognisable to anyone who ever saw the original D9, not least from the unusual front-panel design, but also from the display (which has actually changed slightly, being a different colour and rather easier to read off-axis) and the unusually small number of front-panel controls.
Yes, you'll find just two buttons here. One opens and closes the tray, while the other alternates between Play and Stop. We complained about this last time and we'll say it again. No means of selecting tracks from the front panel is horribly, damnably irritating.
Having no search facility is annoying enough, but it's so common we've got used to it. But needing a remote to find a track is beyond the pale. As you have to walk up to the player to insert a disc, you are likely to use front-panel buttons to start play.
But quite often, you'll want to start by playing a track other than Track 1, so you might as well do that from the front panel, too. Minimalism is all very well, but not when it impedes handling. All right, enough whining.
STANDARD CONNECTIONS: There are no surprises on the back panel of the PD-D9 Mk2
The player's build and specification is otherwise very good. It's a heavy unit, thanks in part to a reinforced base that should help reduce unwanted mechanical vibration. The sides and top are also strong and non-resonant.
The transport is brisk and responsive for an SACD-type and reads discs in about eight seconds. Internally, there is a well-specified power supply with two R-core transformers, one for analogue and one for digital circuits, plus a much smaller standby transformer.
There's also plenty of screening around to keep digital signals and mains hum out of harm's way. The digital outputs are placed alone on copper-plated screen between them and the audio parts.
If that's not enough, you can switch them and the display off entirely with the 'Pure Audio' function engaged.
The audio functions are achieved by an impressive array of recent integrated circuits, starting with a sample-rate converter chip, which upsamples CD audio to 176.4khz. Conversion to analogue is carried out using a pair of Wolfson's latest and highest performance parts, operating in parallel mode to give a small improvement in distortion and signal-to-noise ratio.
Analogue filtering and output buffering is done by high-grade op-amps, for which Pioneer has selected through-hole parts. All the others are only available as surface-mounted.
Passive component quality is good, too with through-hole resistors in key positions and the power supply has been fitted with low noise Schottky rectifiers and unusually large reservoir capacitors. Pioneer's own slow roll off digital filtering scheme, 'Legato Link Pro', is included, but switchable. The alternative is a conventional near-brickwall filter.
We had quite a long review period with this player, which gave us a chance to try it with tracks familiar and unfamiliar on both CD and SACD. By and large, we had a thoroughly enjoyable time with all of them.
This is a player that enjoys its music and isn't unduly fussy about what kind it is asked to deal with. It's not entirely devoid of opinions, though... It's at its best with recordings that could be described as 'civilised'.
Classical, of course, is the obvious example, but plenty of jazz, pop, country and even rock recordings have been made with an emphasis on clarity and cleanliness. With recordings that are more inclined towards blatant overload and sheer noise (think punk and anything in that direction), we found the D9 to be a shade timid, as if embarrassed to replay such an aural assault.
Since a replay device is meant to be neutral, this counts as a limitation, but given all the other things this player does so well, it's not a huge drawback.
For a start, there's an excellent sense of involvement in the music, a feeling that the musicians are getting stuck in and, moreover, are right there in front of you. Not, we hasten to add, any closer than they should be.
Imaging is natural in both width and depth and extends to a considerable distance. Tonally, the player is very close to neutral, though we felt the bass may be just a touch more present than the ideal. It's not so much that its level is lifted – rather that it isn't amazingly well controlled and can, thus, sometimes seem slightly overdone. Then again, most listeners will probably prefer that to lean and thin – we certainly would.
Pitch definition is excellent at low frequencies and the upper bass has plenty of kick, so it's never less than enjoyable. Midrange is lovely, with a beautifully even handed approach to the tonal qualities of different instruments and voices.
That said, the 'Legato Link' filter seems to have some effect on this, slightly favouring the higher midrange so that bright instruments and female voices are a little more present. At the same time, Legato Link brings with it a slight veiling of detail and also a subtle reduction in the scale of images.
Overall, it may make the sound more immediate, but we were unconvinced and preferred the sound with the normal filter-in service. As for treble, it is open and nicely balanced between sparkle and control.
Funnily enough, given that the most obvious differences in technical performance between digital filters are found in the treble, we found it much the same with either normal or Legato Link selected. Perhaps the latter is ever so slightly more delicate, but it's a very close call.
We've mentioned detail briefly, but that's perhaps the most appealing aspect of this player. With good recordings, it is unusually adept (within its price range) at finding detail and presenting it coherently as part of a bigger picture. As a result, there's more than a hint of that classic high-end trait, the ability to hear just as much or as little detail as one wants, without any effort on the part of the listener.
Detail can be something of a double-edged sword for some listeners, as in some cases it seems to come at the expense of overall integration. We didn't at all feel that to be the case here, though. on the contrary, the D9 always keeps detail in proportion to the musical whole.
We listened to a few opera tracks and were struck by the way this most complex of musical forms was always homogenous and dramatic, but still clearly composed of individual voices and instruments. It's a bit like the ornate front of a cathedral – you can admire its outline from a distance or walk up close and appreciate the details of the stone-carvers' art.
We wouldn't suggest that the D9 is without peers in this regard, but for the sheer technical brilliance of its performance, it is one of the best we've encountered short of the expensive high-end. As such, it clearly makes a strong case for itself and we welcome it warmly.
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10 Ways Google has made Android even better
As the latest version of Android (1.6 or Donut) nestles in the palms of avid Android developers everywhere, with it comes the hope that the Google OS can be more desirable than it already is.
While Google isn't calling it a major change, there's certainly enough to make the OS far more compelling. So in the hope of making your Hero/Galaxy/Magic experience a much more fulfilling one, we run down 10 reasons why Android 1.6 is going to make your Android-powered smartphone the love of your tech life.
Launch the gallery for our 10 Ways Google has made Android even better
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