How Sony is trying to save the world

Sony is famous for a lot of things.

Most recently it's been the launch of the PS Vita and some disappointing financial results that have been getting the headlines.

But one thing Sony hasn't had much coverage over is its work to reduce its impact on the environment.

Of course, any manufacturer of oil-based plastic products creates a sizeable carbon footprint but Sony has become a shining example to other electronics manufacturers by committing to completely eliminate its negative effect on the environment by 2050.

The road to zero

The story starts at Sony's 25-storey, 124,041 square metre Osaki Home Entertainment HQ in Tokyo. Unbelievably, it only took a single year to build.

It's the very first building of its kind to use a natural 'bioskin' cooling system, and TechRadar was lucky enough to be invited to visit earlier today.

The bioskin is made up of a network of porous ceramic pipes that are made using soil. Rain water is collected from the roof of the building throughout the year and during the hot Japanese summer, the water is pumped back up through the pipes on the outside of the building.

The water penetrates the ceramic and evaporates from the pipe surface, which cools the surrounding air by around 2 degrees. This shields the building from the sun's intense heat and reduces the load on the CO2-producing air conditioning systems inside the building.

It's the kind of cutting-edge green-thinking that Sony is applying to many of its consumer electronics projects.

TVs made from old DVDs

Sony has also recently developed a new material for its products which is made from 99% recycled plastic. The material is called SoRPlas and is made from recycling old products.

Discarded DVDs are blended up and the metal film from their surface is peeled away. The optical sheets from discarded LCD TVs are also shredded and the resultant shrapnel is blended with the DVD fragments. The strength and stiffness of the recycled plastic can be manipulated according to the proportions of the mix.

This mix is then added to some dye and a very small amount of flame-retardant to make the plastic fireproof, and the resulting material is a plastic that's every bit as good as more 'fresh' plastic.

Using this method, Sony is now able to build products like earphones and its packaging from 100% recycled plastic. It's also now being used to build the bezels of some of Sony's TVs, while 80% of the plastic used in the HDRTD20V 3D camcorder is made from this SoRPlas material already.

Using this material means 77.3% less CO2 is produced compared to conventional plastic, and the aim is to use SoRPlas to replace as much plastic as possible across all of Sony's many factories.

The first step in Sony's 'road to zero' is to harness the environmental benefits of SorPLas to reduce the company's resource consumption by 30 per cent and its CO2 emissions 20% by 2015.

Life cycles

But the goal extends beyond manufacturing. Sony's ultimate aim is to include product life cycles into the zero-emissions plan, which means building energy efficient, environmentally friendly products and packaging.

That means recycled materials wherever possible, eliminating the use of hazardous mercury, developing more efficient solar cells, increasing power efficiency in products, reducing the size of packaging and developing more environmentally friendly battery technologies.

Sony has already ceased production of old-style LCD TVs, with 100 per cent focus on more efficient LED tech. This also means sets can be thinner, using less materials - and has the further effect of requiring smaller boxes.

The bio batteries are also very interesting - they feed renewable glucose and oxygen to natural enzymes to generate electricity. This tech is a way off being used in your everyday smartphone, but it's being developed and looked at very optimistically.

While the zero emissions goal is still very far away, it's initiatives and innovations like these that will make future generations wonder what kind of barbaric tree-hating gas guzzlers we really were.

Canon has said that even though compact camera sales are experiencing a general downturn, people are investing more in individual cameras purchased.

According to industry analysis, 2011 saw a 30% drop in the number of compact cameras sold, with smartphones with ever better cameras being pinpointed as the cause.

However, Canon, which though probably best known for its DSLRs, also manufacturers a wide range of compact cameras says these figures aren't worrying.

Canon UK's David Parry told TechRadar, "People are looking for different things in cameras now, a different design, a different look.

"They're looking for big zoom lenses in small cameras, that's what we're seeing and that's what people are asking for - they want big specifications, but they want them in tiny bodies."

Long zoom

We've seen a speight of compact cameras recently announced with huge optical zoom ranges. Where once the megapixel was king, now it seems marketeers have a new high number to push.

Canon's own IXUS 510 slots into its "stylish" range of cameras, but still manages to pack an impressive 12x zoom into its slim body.

Parry believes it is cheaper compacts that are really suffering. "What we're seeing is that people are investing more in digital compact cameras, the quantities might be going down, but the quality of what people are buying, the higher end cameras, isn't."

"At the moment smartphones aren't the answer to a good quality compact camera. They don't have the low light capability, they just can't capture the motion and they don't have the added features that you get from a quality compact."

"Canon plays in the higher end of the market, and we're still producing what we think are market leading cameras. There is nothing else like an IXUS camera out there, and that's where we're seeing the growth and the interest in the market."

Samsung has hinted that it may sell off its LCD TV making arm in order to focus on the more lucrative world of OLED TVs.

The news jives nicely with Samsung's earlier public mulling over the possibility of bringing its OLED display business, Samsung Mobile Display, in-house.

Play it off, keyboard cat

If you're staring sadly at your Samsung LCD TV and wondering where it all went wrong, we'll tell you: money.

LCD TV prices have steadily fallen over the past few years thanks to a flooded market and falling demand for LCD – it means that Samsung makes a loss on each LCD TV sold.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Samsung's LCD unit sales fell 10 per cent in 2011 due to lacklustre demand as well, so selling the entire unit off would make a lick of sense.

Much more enticing is the brave new world of OLED displays. Currently the darling of the smartphone and tablet world, OLED TVs are slowly but surely infiltrating the living room.

Samsung itself has a very lust-worthy 55-inch OLED TV heading to the UK in the second half of this year.

However, it is worth mentioning that Digitimes thinks Samsung will keep the LCD business and pump $6 billion into it in a bid to make it work. But, you know, Reuters v Digitmes. Who do you believe?

Now watch our video of the Samsung 55-inch OLED TV in all its glory while you mull that conundrum over:

Zynga, creator of the addictive FarmVille and Words With Friends games has released its Q4 earnings report showing huge growth, but also a net loss.

Q4 revenue hit US$311.2 million, a 58.9 percent increase on the same time last year.

Revenue figures for the entire year were even more impressive, showing a whopping 90.8 percent increase from 2010 to 2011 of $1.14 billion.

However despite this, the company posted a net loss which it attributed to expenses involved in the company's IPO and investment in new game development.

Pushing FarmVille, gaining users

Not that it's a cause for concern, as monthly active users hit the 240 million mark, up 23 percent from last year, and "monthly unique payers" climbed to 2.9 million.

It was recently discovered that Zynga is worth $445 million to Facebook which earns a cut of the Facebook credits used to buy items in games like Farmville.

Zynga is understandably optimistic about 2012, predicting yet more growth, although weighted towards the second half of the year.

Apple CEO Tim Cook took to the stage at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference last night to deliver the keynote speech.

During the speech he covered topics from Apple factory working conditions, to how he intends to run the company in the absence of late CEO Steve Jobs.

Company direction

When asked what he was determined to maintain now that Steve Jobs is no longer around, Cook said: "Steve grilled in all of us over many years that the company should revolve around great product, and that we should stay extremely focused on just a few things rather than try to do so many that we do nothing well. We should only go into markets where we can make a significant contribution to society, not just sell a lot of products.

"And so, these things, along with keeping excellence as an expectation of everything at Apple, these are the things that I focus on because I think those are the things that make Apple this magical place. We're always focused on the future. We don't sit and think about how great things were yesterday. I love that trait. I think it's the thing that drive us all forward."

Price competition

Responding to a question about tablets, Cook went into why Apple isn't in a hurry to start a price war with competitors, saying: "Price is rarely the most important thing. A cheap product might sell some units. Somebody gets it home and they feel great when they pay the money, but then they get it home and use it, and the joy is gone.

"The joy is gone every day that they use it until they aren't using it anymore. You don't keep remembering 'I got a good deal!' because you hate it!"

Factory working conditions

Working conditions at factories manufacturing Apple products has been a hot news topic recently, and Cook gave a statement about the company line during his speech.

Addressing a question on the issue, he said: "Apple takes working conditions very, very seriously, and we have for a very long time… Our commitment is simple: Every worker has the right to a fair and safe work environment, free of discrimination, where they can earn competitive wages and they can voice their concerns freely.

"Apple suppliers must live up to this to do business with Apple. If we find a supplier that intentionally hires underage labour, it's a firing offense."

This tallies with Tim Cook's recent email to Apple staff assuring them that he was taking the matter in hand and his invitation to the Fair Labor Association to inspect working conditions for itself.

The price of calling mobile phones from your landline will fall by a whopping 85 per cent by April 2015, a legal tribunal has confirmed.

Following years of arguments between phone companies and regulators, the Competition Appeals Tribunal (Cat) has decreed the scale of the cuts, knocking up to £800m off Britons' phone bills.

The cuts, which will continue to happen progressively over the next three years will see the cost-per-minute rate fall from 4.18p to 0.65p. Costs have been falling since April last year.

The final figure is even lower than the recommendation made by Ofcom, who welcomed the ruling, saying it would "reduce significantly termination rates which will bring competition and consumer benefits".

Wrangling

In the wake of the tribunal's verdict, Vodafone itself has warned that landline providers BT and Virgin may not be so keen to pass the savings onto its customers.

In a statement, the network said: "The fixed-line operators have merely pocketed previous reductions in mobile termination rates, instead of reducing prices for customers. BT, meanwhile, has actually increased its line rental prices three times over the past year and a half."

The company, which called the cuts "Draconian" says poorer customers will lose out as a result.

It says it will have to compensate for lost revenue by removing subsidies for pay-as-you-go handsets.

A new television service called Aereo will give viewers the opportunity to watch live broadcast television networks over the internet on devices like the iPad and laptop computers.

Aereo will begin a trial in the New York City area on March 14th and will allow live HD streaming of major networks including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, PBS, CW and a host of local channels.

The $12 a month service aims to help people end dependence on expensive cable contracts and free network television from the 'closed circle' enforced by cable providers.

It is able to legally stream the live TV over-the-air directly to your devices thanks to tiny thumbnail-sized antennas (one per user), which are stored together in a company data center.

From there you can use the HTML5-designed Aereo.com website to view content on tablets, smartphones and even on the big screen with devices like the Apple TV and Roku set-top boxes.

Remote DVR functionality included

The service will also give users the opportunity to record 40-hours of shows from the TV guide with their own personal remote DVR that again doesn't require a set-top box or a cable subscription.

The service is primarily aimed at the casual TV viewer who has no desire to pay over-the-odds for cable channels like HBO and ESPN and is happy with the network offerings.

"If you have this and you have Netflix, you absolutely have the ability to not have a standard cable subscription," said Chet Kanojia, Aereo founder and CEO.

So, instead of paying over $100 a month for a cable TV package, viewers will soon be able to take advantage of Netflix, Hulu Plus and Aereo for around $30 a month.

One of the key backers Barry Diller told the New York Times: "Anyone will tell you, whether it's Amazon or Hulu or Apple, that they can't get enough programming that people want to see to – so to speak, 'break the chain' — because all of the programming is controlled within the circle.

"[Aereo] pries over-the-air broadcast television out of that closed system," he added.

New Yorkers can register their interest in the service at Aereo.com.

HTC will be the first manufacturer outside Sony to gain PlayStation certification for its Android phones and tablets, according to reports.

Pocket-lint claims it has been informed by sources that the announcement will come during 2012, possibly as soon as this month's Mobile World Congress expo in Barcelona.

The PlayStation certification scheme brings classic PSOne games to Android devices and was planned as a cross-platform initiative.

However, until now only Sony-branded devices like the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play have the nod.

Among the PlayStation Certified games already available are Crash Bandicoot, Bruce Lee, Asphalt Adrenaline 6, Splinter Cell: Conviction.

2012 boost for HTC

An announcement would be a major boost to the Taiwanese manufacturer as the 2012 mobile landscape begins to unfold.

The company endured an underwhelming 2011 which it attributed to flooding the market with too many devices and confusing its customer base.

After acquiring Beats Audio in 2011, it looks like the early Android pioneer will have an improved gaming, as well as listening, experience as the year progresses.

HTC itself has not commented on the story.

Lovefilm's days may be numbered as speculation rises about Amazon creating a global video service.

Lovefilm is also shedding management. Last week, Lovefilm's CEO Simon Calver stepped down, while today it emerges that the company's chief technology officer, Mike Blakemore, is leaving to join the Guardian.

That might not sound like much, but two of a business's top brass ditching Lovefilm within a week is pretty dodgy going for any company.

Two step

This staffing shuffle has led some to speculate that Lovefilm's days as a stand alone brand may be numbered – it has already been bought by Amazon and the latest thinking is that the retail behemoth will completely absorb it in the near future.

Amazon has already been bolstering its US streaming service as it steps up the fight against Netflix and adds to its Kindle Fire media arsenal. And you can bet that it'll want to bring all its streaming products under one banner at some point.

At that point, Lovefilm would cease to be. The question is, is that point coming soon?

A spokesperson for Olympus has said that he believes the number of lenses available for its range of Micro Four Thirds cameras gives it the edge over competitors.

Olympus announced the Olympus OM-D EM-5 last week after weeks of speculation and rumour, bring the total number of mirrorless models currently in the Olympus range to four.

Last year, its PEN series of cameras updated to its present three models, which includes the Olympus PEN E-P3.

Speaking to TechRadar, Mark Thackara, UK marketing manager for Olympus said, "Now the OM-D is out, we've got the advantage. We give people a lot of choice and there's a lot of lenses to choose from."

Thackara believes that customers for the OM-D will be both existing Olympus users and those looking for a "serious" compact system camera.

"Up until now the serious lenses [in the Olympus range] hadn't really had a camera to go with them, it's fair to say," Thackara explained.

"While the E-P3 is a good partner for some of them, a lot of people who buy that don't want to buy extra lenses, but I think the new camera will do a lot better for us in terms of accessory sales."

Sales figures

Thackara said that lens sales were generally good, but admitted they could do better. "We need to produce lenses at prices that are very attractively priced, and that will make a big difference."

Most of the major camera manufacturers have a compact system camera in the market now, with some providing more lens choice than others.

Nikon's 1 system has a fairly limited range to choose from, but it does allow (via an adapter) for Nikon DSLR lenses to be used with the camera. Sony's NEX range is in a similar position, although it did announce its NEX lens line-up for the next 12 months at the CP+ show in Japan last week.

The E-M5 is thought to be the first camera that Olympus will produce in an ongoing OM-D line up. "The biggest clue is the lens line-up," Thackara told us.

"Some of the other compact system cameras have a very limited range of dedicated lenses, whereas we have now offer a choice of around 20, it's a very good range of options and some of them are pretty serious."

As Olympus cameras come under the Micro Four Thirds banner that was developed in conjunction with Panasonic, OM-D and PEN cameras are also compatible with Panasonic's lenses.

The OM-D E-M5 was announced last week and will be available to buy from April, with a retail price of £1149.

New rumours are suggesting that the upcoming replacement for the EOS 5D Mark II will be split into two lines, with one featuring a 45 million pixel sensor.

It's another day, and so another Canon 5D Mark III rumour emerges. Disappointed from the lack of an upgrade at last week's CP+ show in Japan, the rumour mill is now suggesting that it will in fact be split into two cameras.

We've been waiting for a new 5D, ever since, well the 5D Mark II was unveiled. Canon's biggest rival, Nikon, unveiled the Nikon D800 last week which would be the most obvious competitor to any 5D upgrade.

The D800 features a 36 million pixel sensor, while most rumours up until now have suggested that a 5D Mark III (or 5DX) would only be around 22 million pixels.

Now there are suggestions that the line will be split in two with one variant featuring a whopping, Nikon-beating, 45 million pixel sensor.

It has also been said that the pixel size would be similar to that of the Canon G1 X, the company's recently announced premium compact.

Specifications

Other suspected 5D X specs include a 61 point AF, 3.4fps shooting, ISO 100-6400 (expandable to 50-12800) and both a Digic 5 processor and Digic 4 processor (as seen on the 1DX).

Meanwhile, the 5D Mark III is believed to have a 22 million pixel sensor, 61 autofocus points, 6.9 fps shooting and ISO expandable up to 51,200.

It seems likely from those specs that the 5D X would be aimed at studio and portrait photographers who are looking for the huge megapixel count, but aren't so bothered about fast shooting. In other words, the same people that would be looking to buy the new Nikon D800.

Only time will tell if either, or both, of these rumours turn out to be true, but one of the latest rumours suggests that a new DSLR will be unveiled at the end of the month.

Canon announced it was working on a new full-frame camera back when it announced the 1DX. With Canon appearing at Focus this March after last year's no-show, perhaps we will have something to look forward to.

A mystery Motorola handset has snuck out of its pre-MWC 2012 holding pen and on to the web today, revealing Ice Cream Sandwich and Intel hardware as well as a neat new look.

At first glance, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this unnamed handset is an HTC affair, given the rounded corners at the base and overall look – it certainly makes a nice change from Motorola's regular boxy affairs.

But the big news is on the interior of the phone, with the handset said to be Motorola's first Intel phone running the Medfield platform as opposed to the company's usual TI OMAP processors.

Tasty treat

Software-wise, it's set to be Motorola's first Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) phone, and we're very much expecting to see it launch at MWC 2012 in a couple of weeks.

There isn't much more to report on the spec front, but looking at the handset you can see that it's lacking in the button department, opting for soft keys instead of physical ones.

PocketNow, which got the Moto scoop, suggests there'll be a hefty camera on board too, possibly with 15 fps burst capture.

We'll find out all there is to know about this intriguing new Motorola phone at MWC 2012 – stay tuned for our hands on review.

Which laptop should I buy?: Laptop types

Choosing a laptop can seem like a complicated task, as there are so many models on offer, and a huge range of prices.

Can you get away with something cheap, you might wonder? Or will you have to spend more? Should you focus on the CPU first? The screen, the laptop graphics card, battery life, portability - something else?

• Top laptops: the 20 best laptops in the world

When buying a laptop, though, you should start by focusing on your own needs. How will you want to use the new system? Understand your own requirements and that will automatically give you a much clearer idea of exactly what you're after.

Consider the applications you'll want to run, for instance.

If you really only want to browse the web, send emails, write a simple letter or two, play music and watch DVDs, then just about any laptop (as long as it has a DVD drive) will do the job, and spending £300-£400 or so will give you an acceptable system.

FIRST TIME: The Acer Aspire 5749 is a solidly built, quality laptop, a good system for first-time buyers

• Read our Acer Aspire 5749 review

If you'd like to edit video, though, or run other resource-hungry apps, then you'll need a laptop with a faster CPU, more RAM and storage space. Expect to pay considerably more, perhaps £600 and upwards.

And if you're after a laptop than can handle the latest games, then your system will need even more power and storage, and a dedicated graphics card, the faster the better. Prices may start at £600 or so, but if you're after decent performance then you might have to spend three times that amount, perhaps more.

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK: The Lenovo Z570 offers impressive performance for the money, thanks to its dedicated graphics card.

• Read our Lenovo Z570 review

Think also about how these requirements will affect the portability of your laptop.

If you're planning to edit video or play games on the system, then you'd probably also like a large screen, maybe 17 or 18-inch.

But that makes for a large, heavy laptop, and will shorten your battery life considerably - as will the fast CPU, large amount of RAM, and so on.

• Check out our guide to the best Core i3 laptops

And, unfortunately, powerful laptops tend to be larger and have a shorter battery life, just as a general rule. There are exceptions, if you're willing to pay a lot of money, but otherwise you shouldn't expect a gaming laptop to be something you can carry around and use anywhere, for hours on end - because it's not going to work like that.

CHUNKY POWER: The Asus G74SX has a huge 17.3-inch screen - but weighs a chunky 4.6kg

• Read our Asus G74SX review

Put this all together, then, and the best laptop to buy for you should fall into one of three possible categories.

"Home" systems start with the basic browsing, email and media setup. You can extend them to handle image, audio and video editing tasks if you like, even game playing at a push, but performance won't be great: these laptops are more about value for money.

And while you can take them from room to room, or to school or work if you like, they're not designed to be hugely mobile. Expect to pay £300 to £800.

Ultrabook laptops start with more compact systems, without a DVD drive to save on weight and size, so they're very easy to carry around. Battery life will be good, allowing you to work just about anywhere. And at the high end you'll also have a powerful CPU, lots of RAM and storage space, although this can be very expensive. Expect to pay anywhere from £300 to £2000 and more.

• Check our guide to the best Ultrabook laptops

"Power" laptops meanwhile concentrate on features above all else. You'll have a dedicated graphics card, a 17 or 18-inch display, a Blu-ray drive, and a similar level of CPU, RAM and hard drive power that you'd find in a desktop PC.

So game playing won't be a problem, but these systems will also be heavy, and have a poor battery life. Prices in this category start from around £800, but if performance is vital then you can expect to part with £1,500 - £2,000, perhaps more.

If you want ultra-portability and a very low price then you could look at netbooks as an alternative. They're low-powered, have tiny screens and don't come with DVD drives, but they're also very easy to carry around and can have a battery life of five hours or more. We're more interested in laptops in this article, but if a netbook would better suit your needs then take a look at our reviews.

• Best netbook revealed: the top 15 in the world today

If you're still not quite sure which laptop will suit you, don't worry - it should all become more clear on the next page, when we look at the options available within each category.

Which laptop should I buy?: Power or portable

You should now have a general idea of the sort of laptop you want: either a Home, Ultrabook or Power system. But what does that mean in practice? Focusing on each category in turn will give you a better idea of which laptop to buy.

Power laptops

If you need a system that will do just about everything you can do on a desktop PC (play games, edit video or run other demanding applications), and you don't mind having a heavy laptop with a short battery life as a result, then opt for something in the Power category.

You'll want something with at least an Intel Core i5 processor, maybe a Core i7.

4GB of RAM is a must; a 500GB hard drive is probably a sensible minimum, 1TB better if you can afford it; and opt for a Blu-ray, rather than a DVD drive. Remember, you'll be looking to keep this system for 2 or 3 years, so it's wise to buy more than you think you'll need right now.

A 17 or 18-inch screen will give you plenty of room to work. And if you're looking to play games then you should ignore slow integrated graphics - that's anything with a name that starts "Intel GMA", "VIA" or "SiS"), and opt for a speedy dedicated graphics card instead.

Which means picking a laptop with a Mobility Radeon HD product perhaps, or one of the better GeForce chips. Nvidia's product range is more confusing, but you'll find more details on its site.

Great examples of Power laptops include the Toshiba Qosmio X770, which features an i7 CPU, 17.3-inch 1920x1080-resolution screen, a 1TB hard drive, 8GB of RAM and Nvidia's phenomenal GTX 560M graphics card with 3D support, all for around £1700.

GRAPHICS POWER: The Nvidia GTX 560M gives the X770 enough power for serious mobile gaming

• Read our Toshiba Qosmio X770-107 review

And the fabulous Alienware M18x uses a powerful i7 CPU and AMD's Radeon 6900M graphics card, giving it incredible gaming performance. It weighs a hefty 5.7kg and has an 18.2-inch screen, so you're unlikely to want to carry it around with you too much, but you'll get an incredible gaming experience for your £1850.

AMAZING GAMING: AMD's Radeon 6900M graphics card produces astonishing results

• Read our Alienware M18x review

Ultrabook laptops

If you'll mostly be using your laptop on the move - in the car, on the train, nowhere near any recharging points - then it'll need to be light, something under a couple of kilograms, and with as long a battery life as you can manage.

There are some great Ultrabooks around that offer speedy performance with light frames and small size. Look for something with a screen size of 11 to 13 inches, and you'll see plenty of Ultraportables running new low-power Intel Core i5 and i7 chips. They also use flash memory instead of hard drives. This also helps to save battery, but it actually helps to improve performance too, though it means you get less storage for the same price.

The Asus Zenbook comes in 11- and 13-inch models, with a choice of i7 and i5 processors and 125GB or 256GB of storage.

ART OF ZEN: The stunning Asus Zenbook is slim and fast

• Read our Asus Zenbook UX31 review

These Ultraportable machines are great for working on documents, or for generally basic computing tasks. They can handle some powerful applications thanks to their multi-core processors, but they only offer basic graphics performance, so no hardcore gaming on them.

• Check our guide to the best Ultrabook laptops

If you're not wedded to Windows, than you should absolutely look at the Apple MacBook Air line. They offer excellent battery life, extremely fast performance and are some of the best-made portable laptops around. The 11-inch version starts from £849.

MAC CHOICE: MacBook Airs offer a huge battery life in an extremely light and slim chassis

• Read our Apple MacBook Air 13-inch review

If you want portability without sacrificing features, then check out the Sony VAIO VPC-Z21V9E. It's a thin, light laptop that offers a higher-resolution screen than its contemporaries, as well as a docking stations that adds an optical drive, more ports and even a better graphics card. Of course, you'll pay for these features, to the tune of as much as £2,699.

AT A COST: Sony proves you can have both performance and portability - if you're willing to pay for it

• Read our Sony Vaio VPC-Z21V9E review

Home laptops

You probably don't need a tiny laptop, of course. Or one with the power of a desktop. You just want something basic, which offers good value for money, and that means you're better off with a system from the Home category.

If you need to do little more than run Windows, visit your favourite websites and send emails, then you can get by with something very basic . An Intel Core i3 will offer all the performance you need when paired with 4GB of RAM and a big enough hard drive for you documents – 250GB or so.

So, for instance, the Sony VAIO VPCEH2F1E won't break any performance records, but it has a bright and clear screen, along with welcome extras such as 802.11n Wi-Fi. The battery life is average at around 3 hours, and it's a really good deal at around £450.

GREAT VALUE: The Sony VAIO VPCEH2F1 offers great features for the price

• Read our Sony VAIO VPCEH2F1E review

For around the same price, you can find some other really well-specced machines. Samsung's RV520 offers good performance from an Intel Core i3 processor, but packs in 6GB of RAM, so will be great for those who like to edit their HD movies on their laptop. The screen isn't quite as nice as some out there, but for around £450, you get no small amount of muscle.

PLENTY OF RAM: The Samung RV520 can multitask with the best of them

• Read our Samsing RV520 review

If you want something that won't take up the whole sofa when you're using it, the 14-inch Dell Insprion 14z is a great-looking, speedy laptop that offers really superb battery life, and though it's a little more at £579.99, it's absolutely worth every penny.

RUBY RED:The Dell Insprion 14z offers excellent battery life and good looks

• Dell Inspiron 14z

There's no need to feel you're somehow being short-changed by opting for a basic Home laptop, then. This is a highly competitive market, and there are plenty of powerful systems to be had at absolute bargain prices.

General tips

You should now have a better idea about which laptop to buy, then, but there are just a few more general tips you can follow to ensure the purchase goes smoothly.

Think about how you'll need to use your laptop over the next two or three years, for instance, then decide how much you can afford to spend to achieve all that. You won't then get tempted to pay out "just" another £50 or £100 more, and if you have a set budget then it'll be easier to go shopping later: you can just ignore everything that's too expensive.

Then keep an eye on our laptop reviews and ratings, where you'll find the best laptop reviews which will quickly point you at the models you must take seriously, and the ones you really shouldn't.

When you find a likely candidate machine, try to locate one - or a similar model from the same range, at least - in a local PC store before you buy. This will let you try out the screen, test the keyboard, the track pad, maybe hear the sound quality of the speakers, all the vitally important elements that you really can't understand from a spec sheet alone.

And when it's time to buy, always use a credit card, if at all possible. Hopefully the laptop will arrive, on time and in fully working order, but if there are any issues then the Consumer Credit Act may mean the credit card company is equally liable, so giving you another way to recoup costs in the event of any problems.

You may think we're a heartless bunch here at TechRadar but we're really not. And what better day to prove it than this, 14 February, St Valentine's Day?

We've rounded up the cream of the romantic tech crop for today's One More Thing, so prepare to be dazzled, amazed and ready for some business time by the end of it… Enjoy.

Music to watch girls by – Facebook and Spotify's deep and meaningful love for each other reaches heady new heights today as they reveal two playlists based on the songs people are listening to when they hit 'in a relationship', and what they listen to as they hit 'single' again the next day. Jason Derulo for the former, Mumford and Sons for the latter. Ick. [LOVE | HATE]

Modern mixtape – You'll have to have left things pretty late to find this useful, but We7 and Match.com have come up with a highly impersonal Valentine's messaging services that sends a relevant pre-built musical mix to someone you fancy, your cheating ex or the one that got away with one of six pre-written messages. Ick. [We7]

But will it? - Today might not be the best day to actually try this out, but Love Will Conquer is a nifty new web app that collects geo-tagged tweets mentioning 'love' and 'hate' so you can see just how sappy/bitter each country is. The name's a bit of a spoiler though, eh? [TNW]

One for next year – There's no time to set this up for 2012, but V-Day 2013 could be a corker if you start plagiarising this slightly rapey Rube Goldberg machine now. Mindless giggling, creepy backward walking and rohypnol not required. [The Sun]

Sex-E-book – The Joy of Sex is now an ebook so you can – and this is a direct quote from the press release folks - "read it on the train without raising any eyebrows". And you wonder why you're spending Valentine's Day alone. Taster ebook is free, while the full Joy can be yours for £4.99 from the Kindle, iBookstore, Kobo, Waterstone's and Google ebookstores. [PR]

Wud I lie 2u? – Depressing statistic of the day: 18 per cent of 18 to 25 year olds have ended a relationship by text message. Meanwhile, 31 per cent of Acision's 2,000 survey respondents admitted they like to flirt by SMS. The other 69 per cent are liars. [PR]

If you seek Amy's Valentine's gift - The most searched for colour of Valentine's lingerie online is black, followed by red, pink and white according to Hitwise. And how long did your lover spend online choosing those really thoughtful flowers and or gifts? 7 minutes 25 seconds. Don't you feel better knowing that? [Hitwise]

DON'T LET YOUR HOT DATE GO UP IN SMOKE THIS VALENTINES DAY – So suggests our favourite Valentine's Day press release of the year, which implies that the best Valentine's Day gift is the gift of life, also known as a smoke alarm. Jewellery is also good. [LFB]

Literal phone sex – Spending Valentine's Night apart from your lover? This could be the app for you (but please please don't tell us about it). An ex-Microsoft employee hacked an Xbox controller to vibrate to music (Barry White, presumably). Microsoft wasn't too keen on the X-rated potential of such a hack so he went rogue and created an app along the same principles. Download it for iOS and Android and let your long-distance Valentine control the vibrations of your phone. [Mashable]

Hard to please – Google has got in on the V-Day action through the medium of the Google Doodle. If you haven't already schmalzed your way through the lovely little animation today, we've embedded it for you below. Anecdotal evidence we just made up suggests that the sale of skipping ropes went up 6,900% after it hit the web. [Google]

Tesco, the supermarket chain that appears to own everything, has a special offer to beat all special offers: Tesco Value Broadband.

It isn't called that, of course, but at £2.50 per month for a year it clearly isn't aimed at the money's-no-object market.

So is this the Finest deal around? First up, the good news. Tesco Broadband doesn't give you a Tesco Value Internet, making you use WeeBay instead of eBay, Friendster instead of Facebook or Bing instead of Google.

There's no set-up fee on the 12-month contract, you can pay using Clubcard vouchers or earn Clubcard points on your bill, and you'll even get a free router.

The bad news? It's a broadband product, so of course the marketing blurb is FULL OF LIES!

Seeing stars

To be fair, the lies are little fibs of the kind most other broadband ISPs also use. As with most ISPs the promise of unlimited downloads has a wee asterisk next to it, and if you go exploring you'll see there's a traffic management policy that slows things down at peak periods and expects you to use less than 100GB a month.

So that's "unlimited" in the sense of "it has limits", then. Tesco does say that it doesn't want to limit "time-critical transactions" such as iPlayer or Skype, though, so if you sign up do let us know how that pans out.

The main fib, though, is the price: it doesn't include line rental (£13.75 per month). Tesco isn't the only offender here.

ISPs are getting a bit too asterisk-happy for my liking, so for example TalkTalk is currently advertising broadband at £3.25 per month plus "free connection***" and "line rental from £9.50 a month**" or "unlimited*" broadband for £7.25.

It turns out that "unlimited*" means there's a fair usage policy - 40GB a month, fact fans - while "£9.50 a month**" is "the effective line rental price per month when you take Value Line Rental by making a non refundable upfront payment of £114.00 (by debit/credit card)."

Meanwhile "free connection***" means that you'll be charged for connection in the first bill and get a credit in the next one.

I don't know about you, but I'm not thrilled to see ISPs adopt the budget airline approach to price transparency: it's like going to the pub, paying £3-whatever for a pint and then being told that the price didn't include the beer, or like handing over £100-plus for fancy new shoes only to be told that the left shoe isn't included.

Whether it's the price of concert tickets, cheap flights or budget broadband, hiding the real price behind a galaxy of stars is a crappy and anti-consumer thing to do.

* No it isn't
** No it doesn't
*** No we're not

Lensbaby has announced a new 80mm Edge 80 Optic to be added to its current line-up of Optics.

Compatible with the Lensbaby Composer Pro, Composer, Muse, Scout and Control Freak, the Edge 80 can transform existing lens bodies into a tilt lens which delivers a section of sharp focus through an image.

Like the Lensbaby Sweet 35 Optic, the Edge 80 has an internal 12-blade adjustable aperture - other optics use interchangeable aperture disks.

Sharp

The Edge 80 provides a flat field of focus and when the lens is pointed straight ahead it produces images which are sharp from edge to edge.

By tilting the optic, vertical, horizontal or diagonal slices of focus can be created through the image. The size of the slice of focus can be controlled by changing the aperture size.

Aperture can be altered from f/2.8 down to f/22 by using a rotating dial on the front of the optic.

Lensbaby expects the product to be popular with different types of photographers, including those specialising in food and portraits. It can also be used to give landscapes a "miniature" type appearance which is usually achieved via an expensive tilt shift lens.

Lensbaby Edge 80 specs:

• 80mm focal length
• 12 blade internal aperture
• f/2.8 - f/22
• Compatible with other Lensbaby lens bodies
• Minimum focusing distance approximately 17 inches
• 5 multi coated glass elements in four groups
• 46mm front threads

The Lensbaby Edge 80 UK price has not yet been confirmed, but it expected to retail for around $300 (c. £190) in the States.

Apple held a press conference on Tuesday 4 October, where the company unveiled the iPhone 4S. Until that point, rumours abounded that we were going to see the launch of the iPhone 5.

Now that the iPhone 4S has broken cover, we can turn our collective eye to the the iPhone 5 release date - when is it?

Given the pattern of Apple's iPhone launches, we're expecting the next-gen iPhone 5 to debut in mid to late 2012. We reckon it's most likely to be shown off at Apple's Worldwide Developer Event (WWDC), which usually takes place in early June.

On 18 October 2011, we reported on sources who claim that the revised iPhone 5 release date is now set for summer 2011, after the anticipated handset hit delays back in February which stopped it from being ready for the October event.

Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw, claims the iPhone 5 was "the last project that Steve Jobs was intimately involved with".

Below are the earlier rumours we reported on leading up to the iPhone 4S announcement.

Update: The Japanese Apple site has outed the iPhone 4S, giving a release date of 14 October. No confirmation of an iPhone 4S UK release date but we're betting it won't be far off.

The CEO of France Telecom, parent company of Orange, has given a pretty clear indication that the iPhone 5 release date is set for mid-October, going as far as giving an actual date when he thinks the iPhone 5 launch will be,

Speaking to French media, the chatty Stéphane Richard (who, lest we forget, is quite happy to wax lyrical on Apple's plans), said that his network had heard word of Apple's iPhone 5 coming soon:

"If we believe what we have been told, the iPhone 5 will be released on 15 October," said the CEO, declining to give further details on who or why had told him that

So could the iPhone 5 release date really be 15 October?

What is more curious is that date lands on a Saturday – once again making it look like we've got misinformation over the iPhone 5 release date, as Apple prefers making everyone skive off work to go and queue up outside its doors to be among the first to get the new device.

The International Business Times reports that the iPhone 5 release date

Store closures for 5 October iPhone 5 release date?

MailOnline reports that some stores in the US have been closed "for renovation" ahead of an iPhone 5 release date on 5 October. "A voicemail at one of the San Francisco stores simply said that the store was 'currently closed while we undergo a minor update to the Apple store. We will reopen on Wednesday, October 5" says the paper.

Staff at Apple Stores in the UK have been told not to take any holiday in the first two weeks of October, prompting even more speculation that the iPhone UK release date will be around this time.

Likewise Beatweek reports that AT&T has demanded that employees can't take holiday in October and is bringing in mandatory overtime giving further sway to an October iPhone 5 release date.

Whenever the iPhone 5 release date is, be sure to check out our rumour round up video:

PayPal is working on its own solution of contactless transactions after it said Near Field Communication (NFC) would be left behind in a wave of new payment technology.

NFC is set to feature heavily in mobile devices launched this year and more and more shops are expected to support contactless payments via mobile devices. PayPal, however, has other ideas.

PayPal's VP of Mobile David Marcus told All Things Digital: "By the time NFC catches up, we'll be in a world that will move away from the point-of-sales terminal."

What's the big idea?

The eBay-owned company has instead created its own system which links your PayPal account to your mobile phone number and a pin code.

The idea is that when you go to pay in a shop all you need to do is enter your mobile number and your pin code. An electronic receipt is sent to your mobile phone and you don't need your credit card or phone to complete the transaction.

A key advantage of PayPal's system for retailers is that the software can be integrated with a shop's existing payment system, where as NFC requires new hardware to make payments possible.

This allows shops to use the same system for both cash and card payments as well as the new PayPal system.

There is stiff competition in the market with Google already offering its Wallet function and a joint venture in the UK between the main networks working on their own NFC solution set to launch later in 2012.

NFC is a key technology to watch this year - will it change the way we pay forever or fail to make an impact?

Nokia's forthcoming Lumia 610 is set to tread new ground for the Windows Phone platform and enter the market as a pay as you go only offering.

Three new phones are expected to debut from Nokia at Mobile World Congress 2012, and sources close to the matter have confirmed to TechRadar that the budget model will be priced very aggressively in UK shops.

With the Nokia Lumia 710 already only costing £199.99 on PAYG with O2, and further price drops anticipated in the near future, it's not a great leap to think that the Lumia 610 will be cheaper still if we follow Nokia's numbering strategy.

Cheap, cheap and cheap again

Now this has been confirmed, it also seems pretty much nailed on that it will be running the super-cheap version of Windows Phone, named Tango, which is expected to be launched at MWC 2012 by Microsoft.

The new OS is heavily rumoured bring support for lower end hardware (such as fewer pixels, slower processors and perhaps no dedicated camera shutter) and fits perfectly with a cheap-as-chips handset appearing on the market.

Definite pricing for the Nokia Lumia 610 has yet to be confirmed for the new phone as yet, but the idea of a Windows Phone handset for under £100 should surely start getting the budget Android manufacturers a little hot under the collar.

Samsung will bring its impressive 55-inch Super OLED TV to the UK this spring, the company has revealed.

Update: Cool your jets, people. Samsung has backtracked on the spring release date, now saying that we won't be getting our mitts on the delicious TV until the second half of the year after all.

The Korean tech giant confirmed to CNET UK that the set which caught the eye of the tech world at the recent CES expo last month, will soon be making an appearance in Blighty.

The super high-end display, fashioned from a single sheet of glass, will come loaded with Samsung's Active 3D tech and the Smart TV connected apps ecosystem.

There's also a HD webcam, which will pack motion-sensing and facial recognition tech.

Head to head with LG

A spring launch for the Samsung OLED solution would likely beat LG's similar offering to the market.

Reports last month suggested that LG's own 55-inch OLED TV, also announced at CES, would launch in the UK in the second half of 2012.

There's still no word on an exact release dates, or how much they'll cost when they do arrive, but neither the Samsung or LG sets are likely to be affordable for the majority of us.