A filing for a Samsung Galaxy camera trademark has sparked rumours that Samsung is about to launch (or at least is working on) a new OS based camera.

The news comes just weeks after Polaroid revealed its Android "smart camera" at CES 2012.

At present, no other camera companies have models with operating systems installed, which gives the benefits of being able to download apps to customise the way the camera works.

It would make sense for companies such as Sony and Samsung to develop app based cameras, as both already have smartphones in the market.

Coming soon

Last week, Olympus told us that apps were "on the list" of things that the company is working on, but a spokesperson for the company revealed that the culture of secrecy meant that giving people the option to change and alter their cameras would be difficult.

Samsung's trademark application was filed under the "Cameras and camcorders", suggesting that it's not just another product under its existing Galaxy line-up of mobile phones.

The new tablet features a 7-inch screen to cater for the smaller tablet lover, but more importantly is running on Ice Cream Sandwich (or Android 4.0) and may well be the first from the company to bring the next generation platform.

The rest of the technical specs are less exciting: we're looking at a 1GHz dual core processor running under the hood, with a 3MP camera on the rear.

Samsung has overlaid the Ice Cream Sandwich platform with its own TouchWiz UI too, and video calling will be supported through a VGA front-facing sensor.

Fuzzless front

The screen might not be too shabby it seems, as while it's 'only' LCD (rather than the fancy-pants Super AMOLED offerings from the Korean firm) the resolution of 1280x600 should be enough to keep users complaining of fuzzy displays.

Intriguingly, Samsung is referring to the device as the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) in its press materials, so it seems likely we'll be getting larger variants of the same device in the same way as the Motorola Xoom 2 has been offered.

Thomas Richter, Samsung's director of portfolio management, told TechRadar: "Since 2010 we have been bringing the Galaxy Tab range. In 2012, we believe that people want to experience more on the go."

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 UK release date has been set for March, so expect to see our full review up any time soon.

Images of the LG Miracle have surfaced along with a possible retail name for the phone, the Fantasy E740.

The photos appeared on a Romanian trading site and were quickly removed but not before a GSM Arena tipster was able to save them.

The handset in the pictures is a working unit running Windows Phone 7.5 and clearly has "Not for Sale" on the back – suggesting this is a prototype and not the finished product.

Image Credit: GSM Arena

Windows Phone opens its arms to NFC

Specs and a render of the proposed LG Miracle were already in the wild before these images appeared on the scene.

The Miracle/Fantasy is expected to come with a 1GHz processor, 4-inch WVGA NOVA display, rear facing 5MP camera capable of capturing 720p video and a front facing VGA snapper.

NFC (near-field communication) looks set to feature in the Miracle, but isn't currently supported by version 7.5 of the Windows Phone OS.

This may well tee us up for a joint MWC 2012 launch of the LG Miracle and Microsoft confirming support for NFC on Windows Phone.

Apple has patented a 3D interface that detects and responds to the movements of your eyes to trick them into perceiving depth.

The patent – spotted by The Register – has been granted to the Cupertino outfit and deals with the use of sensors to create a false 3D effect on your device.

False 3D can be generated if the device can work out exactly what angle you are looking from, rendering an image that looks like it has depth.

It's a similar concept to the brilliant head tracking using a Wii remote that was a YouTube hit a few years ago:

Apple's patent talks about determining a 3D frame for the device "based on the received positional data" and it is the way in which this data is received that is the key difference it seems.

Tracking the eyes, dotting the 3Ds

"The techniques disclosed herein use a compass, MEMS accelerometer, GPS module, and MEMS gyrometer to infer a frame of reference for a hand-held device," says the patent.

"This can provide a true Frenet frame, i.e., X- and Y-vectors for the display, and also a Z-vector that points perpendicularly to the display. In fact, with various inertial clues from accelerometer, gyrometer, and other instruments that report their states in real time, it is possible to track the Frenet frame of the device in real time to provide a continuous 3D frame-of-reference.

"Once this continuous frame of reference is known, the position of a user's eyes may either be inferred or calculated directly by using a device's front-facing camera.

"With the position of the user's eyes and a continuous 3D frame-of-reference for the display, more realistic virtual 3D depictions of the objects on the device's display may be created and interacted with by the user."

It's certainly a fascinating idea – and one that definitely has some interesting potential in the way in which we use our devices.

Just don't expect it to feature in the iPhone 5 or iPad 3.

Rumours of MySpace's death have been greatly exaggerated – at least, that's what the company is expected to announce today with the news that it has signed up one million new users since December.

The reasons for the renewed interest stem from a new music player, which was launched in December and puts the site in competition with streaming services like Spotify and Last.fm.

MySpace's chief operating officer Chris Vanderhook also reckons the integration with Facebook and Twitter has helped.

What does it say about a social network that it relies on two other social networks to drive its growth? That it's not trying to be a social network, we'd wager.

Correct

The New York Times reports that this does seem to be the strategy, with Vanderhook adding that MySpace isn't out to compete with Facebook (something it has already failed at) but to "be the conduit for music and other forms of entertainment that can be shared through other networks".

Tim and Chris Vanderhook worked with Justin Timberlake to pick MySpace up for a song last year, paying News Corp $35 million for it just six years after Murdoch's empire bought the network for $580 million.

So it may not matter that MySpace tumbled out of the top social networks in December, given that it's no longer trying to be one.

In January, it emerged that the MySpace still garners more unique visitors a month than Google+ and Tumblr – it may not be time to crack out the bubbly, but it looks like there could be life in the old MySpace dog yet.

It's roadmap time at AMD and the big news is the promise of mobile chips that should give those snazzy new Ultrabooks powered by Intel processors a run for their money.

A little further out, AMD also hinted that ARM processor cores, currently the architecture of choice for smartphones and tablets, might find their way into its chips.

But first, Ultrabooks. A little like Intel's Centrino effort of the naughties, the Ultrabook is a simple but deceptively clever idea that has gained traction with astonishing speed. And jolly nice they are too, with their slim proportions, strong performance and excellent battery life, largely courtesy of Intel's latest Core-i-whatever mobile processors.

There's just one problem. Pricing. Intel's original pitch for Ultrabooks involved slick, super-slim computing for $1,000 or less. Just the thing to give Apple's pulchritudinous but pricey MacBook Air a beasting.

The reality for punter's wallets has been significantly less salubrious, especially in the UK. Retail stickers well above £1,000 have been common and to date only a handful have hit the shelves for under that figure.

Chip pricing to blame

Part of the problem, ironically enough, is Intel's chip pricing. AMD hasn't exactly been snapping at its heels of late. Whenever Intel's only significant competitor for PC processors falls behind, the same thing happens. Intel's prices go up and its thirst to innovate dries up.

Enter, therefore, the long awaited AMD Trinity chip. It's AMD's second performance-orientated APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) after last year's Llano model. And it looks rather promising. On the CPU side, it gets an updated version of AMD's new Bulldozer architecture, known as Piledriver.

As regular TechRadar readers will know, the Bulldozer architecture didn't deliver on the desktop. However, updated to Piledriver specification and inserted into an APU that also contains one of AMD's absolutely excellent graphics cores, now that's a different box of CPUs altogether.

We won't know for sure until we get our filthy mitts on Trinity-powered laptop PCs. But AMD recently showed off an early Trinity system developed in partnership with Compal. It's just 18mm thick and will allegedly sell for under $900.

Moreover, AMD is making some pretty startling claims for Trinity. For starters, it's said to pack double the performance per watt of the existing Llano APU along with 50 per cent better graphics performance. And Llano already has the fastest integrated graphics core of any PC chip.

But the real killer is that AMD claims Trinity will deliver all this along with better battery life than equivalent Intel mobile CPUs. What we're promised then, is a chip that goes harder and lasts longer than Intel but will also bring prices down on Ultrabooks.

Supernote, anybody?

Of course, any system powered by an AMD chip can't actually be called an Ultrabook. That's an Intel-only gig.

But if I was AMD, I'd be thinking hard for a snappy name for mouth-breathing PC shop salesmen to bandy about. Would sir prefer an Intel Ultrabook or an AMD Supernote?

Whatever, the arrival of Trinity will almost definitely be a good thing for everyone, even Ultrabook buyers. If it's any good, it'll bring down prices across the board.

But what of that tantalising prospect of an ARM-powered AMD chip? Well, AMD has been dropping bigger and better hints in recent months about its willingness to consider use ARM cores in its processors. And people have been getting excited.

In truth, there's really not much reason to do so. There's no shortage of competition and innovation in the ARM processor game. The addition of AMD to the battlefield won't make much difference. At most it'll force everyone to up their game in graphics a little. No, it's x86 why AMD can make the most impact. Fingers crossed for Trinity, folks.

Samsung is set to baptise yet another handset into its Galaxy range with the re-imagining of the Galaxy Mini, the Galaxy Mini 2.

A tipster has leaked details of the Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 S6500 to GSM Arena, apparently codenamed Jena.

The refreshed mini will pack a 3.3-inch HVGA display, a faster 800MHz processor and 3GB of internal storage which are all improvements on the original and the internal memory is impressive for a budget phone.

The Galaxy Mini 2 is also reported to feature a 3MP camera and run Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) but with a small screen we reckon basic stuff like using the keyboard is going to be tricky.

Another Galaxy phone? Really!?

With shipping rumoured to start in February, we expect to see the Galaxy Mini 2 feature at MWC 2012 in Barcelona and we will see if it offers something uniquely different to Samsung's other budget devices.

Lacklustre naming regimes aside, does the Korean giant really need to plunge another device into the budget market which will see it line up in direct competition with other Samsung devices such as the Galaxy Y and Galaxy Ace? Let us know your thoughts.

Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky has defended the Windows desktop, as the company looks ahead to a vital year for the grand old Operating System.

Speaking to TechRadar last week, Sinofsky outlined one of the key new Windows changes: the transition to work on ARM chips.

Windows on ARM (WOA) is a huge departure for Microsoft – it has previously focused on Intel's x86 platform – but the transition to new chips will not see a move away from the now familiar Windows desktop.

Touchtop?

In a blog post, Sinofsky outlined just why the Windows desktop would not be sacrificed any time soon, insisting that it was a compromise too far as touchscreen devices become widespread.

"Some have suggested we might remove the desktop from WOA in an effort to be pure, to break from the past, or to be more simplistic or expeditious in our approach," he blogged.

"To us, giving up something useful that has little cost to customers was a compromise that we didn't want to see in the evolution of PCs.

"The presence of different models is part of every platform. Whether it is to support a transition to a future programming model, to support different programming models on one platform, or to support different ways of working, the presence of multiple models represents a flexible solution that provides a true no-compromise experience on any platform."

Considering the considerable interest in Windows tablets there is clearly still a desire for a desktop, and Microsoft is aware that familiar user interfaces are as much about serving up what a consumer expects as clinging on to the past.

TechRadar's hands on: Windows 8 review discusses the difficulties in balancing a traditional desktop and the touch-friendly modern Metro UI that runs over the top of it.

And even if that transition is still a little clumsy, it seems that ditching the desktop would be a step too far for many - including the team at Microsoft.

Sony is looking into ways of porting its Vita OS software onto its mobile devices according to a Japanese website.

According to the Japan based site AV Watch, soon-to-be Sony President and CEO Kazuo Hirai has hinted in a Q&A session with reporters that Sony is exploring how its Vita OS could make its way onto devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Sony's Senior Vice President Yoshio Matsumoto went on to say: "if you're asking if we've made it [the Vita OS] in a way that's expandable, so that it's possible to apply to smartphones and tablets on top of achieving the high responsiveness we need for gaming devices — it is possible"

Gaming with a side of phone calls

Sony has already brought PlayStation gaming to a mobile device with the Xperia Play allowing us to get to grips with original PS One titles.

If Sony did bring Vita gaming to mobiles and tablets we could see the premature death of the PS Vita console if the devices offered the same display quality and gaming experience. Controls may not be as ergonomic, but users may sacrifice this for mobile phone features.

Sony is looking to get its mobile division back on track in 2012 after poor results last year saw it make a loss and lose ground in the market to the likes of Apple, Samsung and RIM.

Apple is not pulling any punches with its latest patent attack on Samsung, seeking a ban on the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the US.

This latest move is being seen as a clear attack on Android as a whole, given that the Galaxy Nexus is the flagship Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) device and covers a number of features present in the Galaxy Nexus software.

Patent expert Florian Mueller describes the four patents that Apple is basing its case on as "the patent equivalent of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" because they all relate to patents Apple has recently been awarded or disputes that Apple has recently won against other manufacturers.

I-scream-about-patents Sandwich

The Californian court case sees Apple claim that the Galaxy Nexus infringes on patents including the ability to unlock a phone screen by sliding an image and voice-based search.

As well as the unlock and search patents, Apple is also making waves over data tapping, a patent that the company had success using over HTC (data tapping is when information from one app can be used to call up another - like when a phone number is included in an email and you have the option to call, text or save it in a different app), and a predictive text patent which the company was recently granted.

Although Apple and Google haven't come out shooting directly at each other, a Cold War situation is emerging where each takes pot-shots at the other via manufacturing partners.

Apple is also a bit narked at Google's BFF Motorola over a patent licensing dispute in which Moto is after 2.5 per cent royalties on every iPhone and iPad sold.

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Google has a "next generation personal communication device" in testing, according to a document held by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Google is asking for permission from government regulators to break with convention and test its new device outside its labs.

Instead it wants to put the prototypes through their paces on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks in the homes of 102 Google employees.

The testing, which is for the purpose of assessing the "throughput and stability of the home WiFi networks that will support the device" will be done by employees in Mountain View, Los Angeles, New York and Cambridge (Massachusetts).

Google's own

The document submitted to the FCC says that Google itself is the manufacturer of the device which is "in the prototyping phase."

It may be something that never makes it into our own homes, but Google has been steadily diversifying its efforts in a way that could see it in every corner of our lives.

For instance, it has been increasingly making steps into the world of physical rather than virtual product offerings, firstly with its takeover of Morotola, but also with its futuristic AR Glasses project.

It's also expanding into the world of the ISP, laying its own fibre-optic network in Kansas City.

Acer will reportedly unveil the CloudMobile at MWC 2012, with the handset utilising the company's forthcoming Acer Cloud computing service.

Although we're at a loss as to how it came up with the name, Acer's cloud-accessing mobile phone, which will apparently called CloudMobile, will launch in the third quarter of 2012

According to the company the phone will bring Android 4.1, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and boast a 4.3 inch touchscreen and HSPA+ support.

Clouded judgement

Of course, the unique selling point of the phone will be it support of Acer's Acer Cloud service – which should allow you to access or stream files stored online.

Acer Cloud is due to launch in the coming months in China and North America and before Christmas in other markets - including the UK.

It remains to be seen if the Acer CloudMobile UK and US release date remains Q2, but in the case of the former the gap between the phone's arrival and the service which gives it its name seems odd.

Acer's phone offerings have yet to set the world alight, but the Taiwanese giant has kept plugging away and remains hopeful that it can begin to have as much impact in mobiles as its laptops.

India's online Microsoft store has been hacked, exposing the names, email addresses and passwords of its users, which were stored as plain text.

Chinese hackers Evil Shadow Team have taken credit for the hack, posting up a message saying: "Unsafe system will be baptized" and a link to the group's blog.

Microsoft Store India is not run by Microsoft, but by an Indian company called Quasar Media.

It appears that the Microsoft Store India stored user passwords as plain text, making it relatively easy for the hackers to get hold of sensitive information once they had gained access to the site.

Password refresh

The information released included the email addresses, passwords and full names of site members, so if you happen to be one of them it would be a good idea to change your password immediately.

The site's owners appear to have regained control, as the site now simply bears the message: "The Microsoft Store India is currently unavailable. Microsoft is working to restore access as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."

How 3D works

The third dimension is taking over your local cinema. It's assimilating your HDTV. It might even be popping out of your next smartphone.

And yes, it's creeping into PC gaming, too. It's the next big thing and it's 3D.

Of course, if we're talking PC gaming, then the term 3D is a little confusing. On PC Format, we've been soaking up the 3D gaming groove for nearly two decades, but that's 3D graphics painted onto a 2D screen.

When manufacturers hit the hype button regarding 3D today, what they are really referring to is stereoscopic 3D imaging. What this means is pictures popping out of the screen and poking you in the peepers, not the relentless quest for ever more photorealistic computer graphics courtesy of a games console or highend gaming rigs.

However, whatever you think about 3D (from now on, let's assume 3D means stereopscopic 3D), one thing it definitely isn't is new. 3D images have been knocking around for nearly 200 years and the technology involved in 3D movies dates back over 100 years. That's right – like so many things – the Victorians got there first.

It all started – probably - with a device known as the stereoscope, invented in 1838. It was the first gadget that keyed into the mechanics of human stereoscopic vision.

Humans, of course, have two eyes. The consequence is that each eye views the world from a slightly different angle and receives a slightly different image. The brain takes these offset images and composites them into a single mental picture with depth and perspective. You, therefore, see the world in glorious 3D.

So, that's exactly what the stereoscope does – show each eye a still image from a slightly different angle and allow the brain to work its magic. Cue endless fairground fun and a roaring trade in early 3D pornography.

Like many technologies, good old porn helped with the early cash flow. Of course, the stereoscope had some very serious applications, too. It was used by the military to view aerial photographs, for instance.

Ongoing 3D

Fast forward to the 1890s and British inventor, William Friese-Greene patented a system for capturing and displaying motion stereoscopic pictures and 3D movies were born. Friese-Greene's technology turned out to be too unwieldy for commercial use, but the seeds were sown.

Several variations on the stereoscopic 3D movie riff were tried with the first known paying audience recorded in 1922. Further dabbling followed in the next few decades. Even the Nazis made a few propaganda flicks in 3D, but the golden age of 3D cinema was probably the 1950s.

A number of revivals have since rebooted the 3D revolution only to fade into obscurity. All of which brings us to the present day.

Indeed, after that potted history you might be tempted to disregard the latest 3D resurgence as another blip on the graph before an inevitable return to the historical flatline. This time, however, things are different.

This time, 3D is about much more than cheap cinema thrills. It's spreading into a wide range of platforms courtesy of many different technologies. That includes the promise of less unwieldy, more comfortable 3D viewing. Combine that with the interactivity of games and the result might just be the most immersive leisure experience yet. This time, 3D might be for real.

So, what are the different 3D technologies available today, how do they compare and where's it all heading?

In one sense, they're all the same. Generally, it's all about exposing each eye to a different image. Exactly how that is achieved, however, is where things get interesting.

The heyday of 3D cinema was based on so-called red-green analglyph technology. This involves a single picture containing a pair of merged, colour-shifted and spatially offset images. The viewer is required to wear colour-filtered lenses which effectively allow each eye to view a different offset image. This works pretty well in terms of creating the illusion of depth perception. It's a little more problematic when it comes to colours, however.

Inevitably, each eye is viewing the scene with radically different colours. While the brain is capable of compositing the image to generate the correct colours, it's a lot of work and perhaps contributes to the eye strain many viewers of 3D movies experience.

If coloured filters tend to be less than ideal, the most obvious alternative is polarised light. Again, the viewer is presented with a single picture frame within which two images are interleaved. The most common method is to use a pair of projectors, each with an orthogonally opposed light polarising filter. The viewer then wears glasses with similarly opposed polarising filters and Bob's your spear-poking, eye-popping uncle.

3D gaming

Smoke and spectacles

Originally, polarised 3D technology relied on linear polarisation and thus required level-headed viewing. More recently, circular polarisation has been used, allowing a degree of head-tilt without losing the 3D illusion.

However, if it's perfect colours and freedom to thrash your head about like a lunatic you desire, one solution is active shutter technology. Active-shutter 3D involves a pair of glasses, the lenses of which contain liquid crystals that can be alternated between transparent and black. At the same time, the display flips between the offset images for each eye. With a sufficiently high frame rate, the result is motion 3D.

Like polarised 3D, active-shutter 3D results in a dimmer image and along with the need for a shuttered glasses, it means active shutter requires specialised display technology supporting a higher frame rate (typically at least 100 frames per second).

However, a monitor with a higher refresh rate is cheaper and simpler than running a pair of polarised projectors. So, it's active-shutter technology that is currently the weapon of choice for PC gaming, with Nvidia's 3D Vision platform perhaps the most successful to date.

That said, what Nvidia 3D Vision long with all analgyph, polarised and active-shutter 3D tech share is the need to wear glasses. This, along with a feeling of eye strain, is probably what has so far prevented 3D from becoming a properly big deal. What we really want is 3D viewing without glasses. What we want is autostereoscopic 3D.

The trick here is to create a single display surface that can somehow send a different image to each eye. There are several different types, but they ultimately split into two groups – those that use head tracking technology to make sure each eye is seeing the correct image and those that simply kick out a different image based on the viewing angle.

Glasses-free 3D

As if chucking out silly glasses wasn't enough, autostereoscopic 3D also makes possible movement parallax. For the uninitiated, that means getting a different view of a scene or object depending on your vantage point. In other words, move your head around and you'll get a different look at things, just like in real life.

However, there is one final problem that even autostereoscopic technology can't avoid. In the real world, objects at different distances have different focal points. But a simulated 3D image is generated from a uniform distance. And that confuses the hell out of your eye muscles, eye lenses and ultimately your poor brain.

It's more problematical on a big desktop display than, say, a handheld device with a puny screen. But it's something that's not going to be going away short of using true holographic 3D technology.

Touch in Windows 8

Ubiquitous access to touch-enabled devices is going to mean every Windows game developer on planet earth will be looking to integrate touch features into their latest release.

So we can take a look at how touch-enabled systems will run Windows 8, enhance your gaming experience and generally make the world a better place.

There's simply no arguing that Microsoft – publisher of the single most important OS on the planet – has been utterly routed by the more nimble Apple and Google.

It may have released touch-enabled systems years ago with Windows Mobile and Windows Tablet Edition, but in its usual blinkered this-is- to-sell-more-Windows way managed to kill the market dead for these and many other innovative products. Anyone remember Microsoft Smart Display? Or project Courier?

This time around touch will be different. Microsoft doesn't have to innovate, phew, as Apple and Android has done all of that for it. We can just sit back, relax and wait for the touch-enabled, app-store-integrated, widget-brandishing, button-sliding progeny of Windows to make its appearance.

The odd thing is, it's really rather exciting. For the first time we're going to have the chance at a genuine ecosystem of Windows devices to choose from: moving from Windows phones, to Windows tablets up to netbooks and laptops and then desktop systems. All touch-enabled, all interconnected via Windows Live and all offering the same touch games and applications.

Next generation hardware is already appearing so let's take a look at how touch-devices work with Windows 8, existing and future games.

The gloss-black MSI all-in-one flares into life. The remnants of an ancient BIOS briefly shows itself – still infecting even this most modern of machines – before a Metro-style pale-blue OS boot menu presents itself. Its uber-modern fine sans-serif type couldn't be more removed from the chunky fixed-type on BIOS screens of old.

Tap the extra options and you see a selection of recovery and boot features, before going back and tapping the frame-less Windows 8 button to start it. Within seconds a widescreen HD mountain vista is displayed, the date and time boldly displayed in that stylish new Segoe typeface.

A swipe up reveals the Windows user accounts, ideally tied to Windows Live accounts they will take your preferences, avatar images, email, documents and apps with you to any device you use. Tapping one brings up the visual lock-screen – a personalised picture that requires you to motion over areas you've previously selected to gain full user access.

Security passed, the new Windows 8 Start Menu springs forth; this living breathing menu emanates life, as individual app cards update and refresh themselves. Feeds show real-time posts and games show online players stats.

The expansive, horizon-style Start Menu can be effortlessly scrolled through, with a tap here you can check your tweets, a tap there you can scroll through your latest news streams.

Media Center makes it a simple job to flick through menus of media and choose the music, photos and films you want to view. Tap the latest Windows Store, grab a game and enjoy gaming in a new way.

Hands on with Windows 8

The release of Windows 8 will simply solidify this touch journey but for now models, such as the MSI Wind Top AE2210 or the Dell Inspiron 2320 – both all-in-one models – elegantly show the touch-enabled future that awaits as they can have the Windows 8 Developer Preview installed on them.

We know the Developer Preview was really a beta version but even so, the semantics of a number of gestures were a little unnecessarily obscured. Using it you get a better idea that the demo at last year's Microsoft Build conference while live had been well practised and orchestrated.

We regularly ran into issues trying to switch between apps and the dock system seemed limited and frustrating to use. But it's hard to complain about something that hasn't even been released in an official form. Even guessing, there's no chance of a Windows 8 release until summer 2012. Microsoft has a lot to sort out before then beyond just getting a swanky touch-interface working correctly.

The Windows Store is probably the easiest, cross-device migration of settings and is another easy thing to sort via Windows Live accounts.

But it's the often overlooked elements of life where pleasure can really be taken, like reading on the toilet or removing an annoying bogey from your nose. Our old-friend Windows Media Centre is an excellent touch-enabled bit of software.

Whether that's through luck or flaw we can't say, but flicking through films, music and photos is a lovely experience. One we're sure could be made even better if a little style and thought was put into it.

The Media Center photo screensaver is still one of the worst experiences we've had besides hiding under our bed covers as children listening to our parents fight.

Windows playtime

Where our real interest lies is with gaming. Touch on mobile devices has ushered in a new way to game. While we're not expecting the same paradigm shift on the desktop, access to casual mobile games will always be a good thing, but we do expect touch elements to start drip feeding into triple-A titles.

The splendid thing is we can already try some of these features out on existing titles, that have been either knowingly or unwittingly enabled for touch gaming. The richest area of gaming for touch-aware titles is the hated casual game, you can stop making hissing noises. Some people – we imagine a few of those that have racked up over half a billion downloads of Angry Birds – actually do like what we deridingly call 'casual' games.

With many Flash-based browser games designed for easy mouse input, or more likely for touch-aware input, these are all able to work flawlessly with a touch PC. We've already mentioned the most obvious casual game: Angry Birds. This has a free PC version online at chrome.angrybirds.com that works on any HTML5-aware browser and plays beautifully on touch-screen equipped PCs and on a much larger scale than any tablet or phone could hope to manage on its own.

We did run into a few odd instances with Internet Explorer, it has its own touch-controls built in and a wrongly-placed finger can have you browsing off to other locations. Equally well-equipped are the flash-based games to be found over at www.popcap.com the likes of Bejeweled and Plants Vs Zombies, these Flash games again work perfectly on a touch-enabled PC.

It's also worth pointing out the browser add-in Swiffout.com that enables you to run embedded Flash games full screen. It's a bit hit and miss, as in it'll sometimes seem like the game isn't doing anything.

If you think there's a big selection of casual games available online now, just you wait until Windows 8 hits the streets. We'd expect most Windows Phones games to be quickly ported, that's if they're not natively supported from day one, while dedicated Windows 8 Tablet games are going to quickly appear.

If casual gaming is your thing, if nothing else children gobble them up like space-dusted cake, then expect a flood to come in from Android and iOS devices.

Touch in mainstream games

Fortunately, touch is coming to mainstream gaming too. Well, it's actually already here but it's either surreptitious or else it's accidental, but we're still claiming it's real.

The formats that are going to gain the most outside of the casual arena are adventures and strategy games. You may have spotted that both of these have the advantage that they're not necessarily the fastest paced of games.

The big issue, particularly for RTS games but can even affect adventures too, is that a quick-tap is equivalent to a left-click and a long-tap performs a right-click. This effectively eliminates the ability to do quick right-click actions.

Most dedicated touch devices have developed alternatives, such as the two-finger tap or hold one finger down and tap second. Unless a game is developed with touch in mind, you're stuck with what Windows 7 has to offer, and that's limited.

Even with these limitations many adventure games and less hectic strategy games play wonderfully on a touchscreen. If anything we love the switch you can make between active moments using the mouse and more contemplative sections using the touchscreen interface.

The same type of system goes for some RPGs as well, though many tend to lean heavily on mouse and keyboard. Non-combat areas such as inventory management, spell casting or crafting can all take advantage of touchscreen input.

One genre of gaming that we're not expecting touch to have an impact on is first person shooters. This a PC genre that is very much going to stay a realm of the mouse and keyboard. That's not to say touch systems aren't able to run them, and in a similar way to RPGs we can see room within FPS titles to add extra interactivity into the game world by using touch within environment.

Take Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which has a world littered with supposedly interactive elements from touch newspapers to hackable door locks. To make these mouse accessible the game almost has to cut away from the world so you can click on the right parts with the mouse, with a touchscreen they'd be no need and you could directly interact with the game world.

The same goes for any games with in-world elements, while touch could be used for physical game-world interaction. So picking up and manipulating items via touch to complete physics puzzles or just completing a weapon loadout.

None of this in itself is going to change the world, but it's certainly going to change how you play in your gaming worlds.

Touchy me, touchy you

Like us, many of you will be thinking 'I'm never going to lean forward and touch my screen'. You're probably right, it's a lot of effort and not entirely natural thing to do, especially when sitting down.

We're sure touchscreens will appear but direct touch could well be limited to tablets and all-in-one systems. However, Kinect and the Acer Aspire Z5xxx range, with their front-facing cameras, show a way of interacting that cuts out that bacteria filled touching business with seemingly reasonable precision.

We used the Windows 8 Developer Preview and those two up-to-date all-in-one touch panel PCs mentioned previously: the MSI Wind Top AE2210 is a lovely Intel Core i3 2100 Sandy Bridge graphics, 20-inch unit, which sells for a little over £650.

The Dell Inspiron 2310 is more up-market with an improved Intel Core i5 and Nvidia GT 525M graphics chipset. This has a little more muscle but is also a little more pricey, selling at around £799.

Interestingly both use what we suspect is the same two-point touch sensor. We suspect this is an IR-based system as they both detect finger movement before contact is made and there was vague issues with accuracy at the extreme edges of the screen.

That aside both worked flawlessly with the Windows 8 Developer Preview OS indeed they were both as fast as when used under Windows 7. Tablets and phones are going to continue to be the main focus for touch, but we're waiting to see what trickles down to the PC.

The beginner's guide to Linux Mint

Linux Mint has just released its latversion, Mint 12, and has now become the last of the big three distributions to switch to a radically new desktop interface.

We found that it's an impressive compromise between Gnome Shell's new fangled way of doing things and the more traditional desktops of the past.

If you're intrigued by this and want to investigate for yourself, get a copy of Linux Mint 12, this guide, and see what you can do with the new Mint.

We'll begin by taking a quick tour of the default interface, and then move on to cover how you can customise it. We'll also take a look at Mint's package manager so that you know how to add and remove applications.

Choosing your desktop

Before we even begin to examine the new desktop, however, let's start by taking a look at Mint's new login screen. This screen is quite different to past Mint releases, since, along with Ubuntu, they've switched away from Gnome's default login manager to the more customisable LightDM.

At the top-right of the screen, you can find some basic controls, including some (limited) accessibility options, volume control and the option to power-off the computer. The centre-left of the screen is where you log in.

By default, one user or another will be highlighted by a grey box, with a password entry field at the ready. Other users and guest sessions can be selected by clicking on their name above or below this.

The most important thing to know about this new login screen is that you can use it to select which desktop you want to use. So, if you decide that you don't like Mint's new desktop, you can use it to switch to Mate, its port of Gnome 2, which faithfully recreates past Mint desktops.

If you want to install something entirely different, such as KDE or Xfce, you'll also be able to select those from the login screen. To do this, select your username from the list and then, before typing your password and pressing enter, click the small cog in the top right of the box.

From this menu, you can select between all available desktops. Whichever desktop you choose will remain the default until you change it again.

Meet the Shell

Now that you're familiar with the login screen, let's take a look at Mint 12's default interface. Make sure you've selected Gnome as the desktop to use and then enter your password and log in.

The first thing to note is that, unlike past Mint releases, there are two panels on the desktop – one at the top and another at the bottom. Looking at the top panel from left to right, there's:

The infinity icon, which launches the Overview mode – more on this later.

The system tray, where applications can store alerts or quick access controls.

The indicator area, where you can control the volume and select which network you want to connect to.

The clock applet, which expands to a calender when clicked.

The status menu, which lets you log out, shutdown, control your availability in chat and access system settings.

All of this, with the exception of the infinity icon, should be fairly self-explanatory.

Clicking on any of the icons to the right-hand side brings up further information and options for you to change. Clicking on the speaker icon, for instance, will allow you to adjust the volume of your computer's speakers and access the sound settings.

Of these icons, the Status menu provides the most comprehensive set of options. The only one of these that requires explanation is Notifications.

When you insert a DVD, or someone contacts you via instant messenger, Gnome Shell will usually alert you by raising a black rectangle at the bottom of the screen. These notifications are useful since they allow you to take further actions in response to the alert, but if you want to focus without any distractions they can also be annoying.

The designers of Gnome Shell recognised this, so put the Notifications option in the Status menu. This way, you can turn off all notifications when you don't want to be disturbed. Just remember to turn them on again later.

The bottom panel

Almost everything in the top panel is standard Gnome Shell; the bottom panel is all Linux Mint's doing. On the left-hand side of the bottom panel is a menu for launching applications, the spiritual successor to the Mint menu.

This menu is split in to three main columns. The left most one shows your favourite applications, which can be set in the Overview mode; the middle one shows categories of applications to make browsing easier; and the right most one shows the applications within those categories.

If you prefer a keyboard to a mouse, you can use the Search bar at the top to quickly find the application you're looking for by typing its name.

Next to the menu is the show desktop icon, which will minimise all your open windows. Next to this is the window list. If you have no windows open, it will look like a big, empty space; otherwise, it will be filled with buttons representing your open and minimised windows – it works just like the window list in Gnome 2 did.

At the other end of this panel are the desktop switcher and Mint's new notification toggle. By default, Gnome Shell creates only a single desktop, but automatically adds a second as soon as you open any applications and so on; if you remove all applications from a desktop, Gnome Shell will then remove it. Mint's switcher will immediately mirror Gnome Shell's changes to the number of desktops.

The notification icon is a clever addition. By default, after you dismiss Gnome Shell notifications without doing anything, they disappear in to a small black bar at the bottom of the screen. You would ordinarilly raise this by moving your mouse to the bottom right-hand corner, but with the new taskbar, you would often accidentally cause it to appear and interfere with what you were trying to do.

Instead, Mint has made it so that you need to click this exclamation mark to get access to the notifications.

The beginner's guide to Linux Mint

Overview mode

Phew! Our tour is nearing its end. The final thing we need to show you is the Overview mode.

Although Mint hasn't made any changes to the Overview mode, which is a key component of standard Gnome Shell, if you've never used it you'll be grateful for a quick introduction.

To access the Overview mode, you need to click the infinity icon in the top panel, or quickly through your mouse in the top-right corner; you can also use the Windows key to access it. As soon as you do this, you'll see the desktop turn grey and some new elements overlaid on it.

The large space in the centre of this screen has two functions. By default, it will display thumbnails of all your open windows. This is a convenient way to find that window you know is somewhere amongst all the clutter, but keeps evading you.

It can also be used as an application launcher, however, by clicking the Applications button above it. You can then browse applications by scrolling through the icons with your mouse. You can narrow the selection by choosing one of the categories to the right, or by typing its name or function with your keyboard.

To the right of the Overview mode is the Favourites bar. This is exactly the same as what's in the Mint menu, only from here you can adjust its contents. Right-clicking on any of the icons will give you the opportunity to remove it from the Favourites bar. To add anything to it, switch to the Applications view and then drag the application you want on to the Favourites bar.

Oddly, this Favourites bar also doubles as a dock and stores the icons of open applications as well – something the Mint menu doesn't do.

Finally, there's also a desktop switcher built in to the Overview mode. It's hidden by default, but if you move your mouse to the far right of the screen while in the Windows mode, it will appear. You can use this to drag open windows between desktops, and to switch to different desktops.

Now that you know where everything is by default, let's take a look at how you can customise it to your liking, beginning with extensions.

Installing new extensions

The Gnome team are trying to encourage the creation of an entire ecosystem of extensions for users of the Shell to enjoy. As a user of Linux Mint 12, you'll be able to install and enjoy these as developers create them.

Installation used to be a bit tricky. It involved either downloading a file archive and unzipping it to a specific directory in your home folder, or using Gnome Tweak Tool to automate some of this process. In the past month, however, the Gnome team has launched a new website, extensions.gnome.org, that lets you easily browse and install new extensions directly from within your web browser.

To install extensions using this website, launch Firefox and visit extensions.gnome.org. Once there, you can browse through the extensions displayed.

After spotting one you like the sound off, click its name. This will take you to that extension's information page, at the top of which will be an on-off toggle button. Toggling this to on will then install the extension; toggling it back to off will remove it.

We think that the Pomodoro timer extension is a great way to avoid procrastination, and the Window Navigator extension makes the window section of the Overview mode much more convenient.

Theming Gnome Shell

Most people aren't content with tweaking the way their desktop works; lots of us also want to customise the way it looks. It's not yet as easy to install new themes as it is extensions, but there are plenty of nice themes for the Shell that you can install with a bit of effort.

The first thing to do is download some new themes for the Shell. We've discovered that a great place to find them is gnome-shell.deviantart.com, so go ahead and browse their selection of shell themes and then choose one to download as a zip file. We like Faience.

Once it's downloaded and saved in your Downloads folder, open up Gnome Tweak Tool. This is available on the Favourites bar as the square icon with cogs inside – it will display Advanced Settings when you click it.

After it has launched, click the Theme entry on the left-hand side, and then click the box that says (None) next to Shell Theme. In the file browser that opens, head to the zip file of the theme you downloaded, and then select and open it. This will install the theme, and you can then select it in the drop-down menu next to (None). And that's all there is to it.

In this tutorial, we've focused on Mint's implementation of Gnome Shell, but as we've alluded to through our references to Mate and the default applications, there's a lot more to Mint than just this desktop.

Be sure to investigate the Linux Mint website and forums, where you can find lots of other avenues for exploration, including different desktops (KDE, Xfce and LXDE are all supported) and even different base distributions (the rolling release Debian edition is particularly interesting).

Most importantly, experiment and have fun.

Week in camera news

This week has been all about the big numbers in the photography world, with Nikon unleashing a 36 million pixel DSLR, Pentax revealing a 46MP compact and staggering number of superzoom compacts.

It's been the CP+ photography show in Japan, which usually doesn't mean quite so many releases. But, with 2011 hitting Japanese manufacturers hard, it seems this year they wanted to save some of their goodies for their own home-grown show.

After weeks, months, nay years, of speculation, rumour and gossip, the headline release is the Nikon D800, the company's new semi-pro DSLR.

Also making their debut this week are new cameras from Olympus, Sigma, Pentax and Canon. Read on to find out all of this week's big camera news, each with links to the full story.

Don't forget to let us know what you think over on our Facebook page.

Nikon news

Many of the headline specs of the D800 came as no surprise as it seemed that most of the details had already been leaked online. However, it still impressed us when we went to see it at the beginning of the week.

It features a 36 million pixel sensor, 6fps shooting, 51 autofocus points and many of the same features as its bigger brother, the D4.

Read our Hands on: Nikon D800 review to get a clearer idea of what the new camera is all about. We spoke to Nikon about that huge resolution sensor, who told us it was all about 'choice.'

Some may be disappointed that the D800 doesn't have an articulating screen, but if you're a pro, according to Nikon you won't be. Do you agree that pros don't want articulating screens?

Rod Lawton, one of our friends over at N-Photo magazine, argued that the D800 could take on the might of the hugely popular Canon EOS 5D Mark II. With Canon declining to announce a 5D upgrade this week, will the D800 be a Canon 5D Mark II killer?

Olympus news

We've guessed it was coming for several weeks now, but the Olympus OM-D E-M5 was finally revealed on Wednesday. Featuring a 16 million pixel Live MOS micro four thirds sensor, it's styled after the classic OM series of film cameras.

If you're a little bit confused about the differences between the OM-D and Olympus' other highly specced camera, read our Olympus OM-D E-M5 vs Olympus PEN E-P3 comparison piece and find out which one is for you.

Does the OM-D mean the end of Olympus DSLRs? The company is refusing to rule it out, but it hasn't released a new one for years. We take a look at the likelihood of them making a comeback.

This week also saw Olympus reveal some new compact cameras, including a new 24x optical zoom model. Mark Thackara, the company's UK marketing manager believes that mobile phones will never replace compacts - what do you think?

Sigma news

Nikon wasn't the only one with big numbers this week, Sigma has also unveiled the Sigma SP1 and Sigma DP2 compact cameras which feature a whopping 46 million pixel sensor.

Fovean X3 sensors that are used in these cameras are actually constructed using three layers of 15.3 million pixels, and are shared across Sigma's other cameras, including its flagship DSLR, the Sigma SD1 which also got an update and price reduction this week.

Canon news

A lot of people will be left disappointed that Canon didn't introduce a new DSLR (or compact system camera) at the CP+ show this week.

However, they have introduced three new EF lenses, an underwater compact, a duo of stylish IXUS compacts, two new superzooms and a range of new Powershot A cameras.

Although a CSC isn't forthcoming from the company, a representative told us in an exclusive interview that compact system cameras are a good idea because they bring more people into photography.

Introduced a few weeks ago at CES, Canon's G1 X is what many believe will eventually morph into a mirrorless model, especially with its large sensor. Its biggest rival Nikon was shocked by Canon's decision to produce the camera with one spokesperson telling us the G1 X was for "fanboys" only.

Also this week...

Kodak announced it was going to stop making cameras in order to cut costs, Sony revealed it's NEX lens line-up plans and Pentax unveiled two new tough cameras.

BrowserID: what it is and why you should care

BrowserID is a method, presented in July 2011, to use email addresses to prove an identity and sign in to a website quickly and safely.

The system was developed by Mozilla Labs.

It's designed to be easier and faster than the esisting method of a site sending you an email and you clicking a link to verify your true identity.

So why is it important and how will it work? We decided to find out.

Q. How would it work in practice?

A. In order to log in on a website that supports BrowserID, you would only have to click on a Sign In button and then select from a menu what email address you want to use. Your browser and the website would take care of everything else.

Q. What about logging in via Facebook, Twitter or Google? That would be even faster and simpler, wouldn't it?

A. Yes, when you're browsing while logged in to any of those portals, you don't have to do anything, since any website connected with them will immediately know who you are. And that's the problem. Outsourcing these tasks to giant private providers creates lots of lock-in and privacy protection issues.

Q. That's surely true, but wait a second! Wasn't OpenID supposed to provide (more or less) the same service?

A. Indeed it was. In practice, it looks as if OpenID failed to reach critical mass for several reasons. Probably the biggest one was the need to temporarily go to another website to gain access to the one you wanted to visit.

Unless someone really understands the value of reliable online authentication services (and cares about it) that's much more cumbersome than just telling a browser to remember all passwords, or click on the Remember Me boxes provided by most log-in web forms. BrowserID tries to provide the same level of security and trust as OpenID, but in a much more transparent way.

Q. Tell me more about privacy protection in BrowserID, please.

A. First of all, unlike other sign-in systems, BrowserID does not force the user to share or transmit online personal, sensitive data, such as date of birth. In addition to this, BrowserID is designed not to pass to any server data about which web pages you visit.

Q. Why is BrowserID based on email addresses?

A. First of all, because everybody using the web on a regular basis already has at least one email address and knows it's already used as an identity and authorisation token. Next, because email addresses are not controlled or controllable by any single organisation.

Finally, because practically all websites that require their users to log in already store their email addresses to handle direct communications, password reset requests and other services: therefore, BrowserID gives them a better way to use for authentication some user data that they have already.

Q. Would BrowserID prevent me from using my favourite nicknames on those websites?

A. Not at all. The email address is used only for the initial authentication. BrowserID doesn't limit in any way how a website lets you configure your local account.

Q. Could I have multiple BrowserID identities then?

A. Of course. The only requirement is that each of them is associated with a different email address.

Q. What about other applications, such as chat clients? Could I use BrowserID with them too, or is it a browser-only thing?

A. Yes you could, as long as those programs implement the protocol, and provide their users with an interface to log in to their identity provider to get the keys. These may then be stored in Kwallet or any other desktop-based password manager.

Q. Sorry, what protocol and keys? Is BrowserID based on some sort of proprietary technology?

A. No. Technically speaking, BrowserID is an application of the Verified Email Protocol; a decentralised authentication system based on public/private key cryptography, through which users can prove to a website that they own an email address.

Q. Does BrowserID work on all browsers?

A. BrowserID can work on every modern browser, including mobile ones. The only requirement is that those browsers be compatible with the BrowserID JavaScript API. This said, even if you were forced to use a noncompliant browser, it would still be possible to use an equivalent web-based service.

Q. What should I do to start using BrowserID?

A. You should log in the old way to the website of your identity provider. That server will then tell your browser, through a JavaScript API, to generate a public/private pair of cryptographic keys.

Right after that, the browser will send the public key to the identity provider and get back a signed identity certificate. The browser will then store the private key and certificate as it would do with traditional passwords.

Q. What would happen next, when I visit a BrowserID-compliant website?

A. That website will tell your browser to run a JavaScript function that asks you if you want to log in and with which identity – that is email address.

Q. And when I accept...

A. The browser will send to the website the identity certificate, signed with the private key. At that point, the website will download your public key from your identity provider and verify that the signature is authentic.

Q. And that's how I'll prove to that website that I really am who I say I am?

A. Yes… and no. What this procedure provides is a third-party confirmation (unlike what happens with cookies!) that the authentication request comes from a browser that has the secret key associated to the provided email address. Which means that…

Q. I should never let other people use my browser!

A. That's absolutely true. However, that's the same risk you already face with every other authentication system that doesn't force you to enter a password every time, isn't it?

Q. I suppose that's true, but this also means I won't be able to authenticate from other browsers, right?

A. It depends. That's really up to you. In and by itself, BrowserID does allow you to have one certificate for each computer or smartphone you use, including borrowed or public ones such as internet kiosks. Of course, in those cases you would have to delete the private key and certificate as soon as you're done!

Q. Let's go back to identity providers. You keep mentioning them – who are they?

A. In the simplest and most natural scenario, your BrowserID identity provider would be your email provider.

Q. What if it doesn't support the system?

A. You could still use, without problems, a trusted, secondary identity provider that offers the same services. The Mozilla Foundation, for example, has set up a website called BrowserID.org for this very purpose, in order to speed up testing and adoption of BrowserID.

Q. Ah, yes, adoption. What is the current status of BrowserID? Is anybody already using it?

A. At the time of writing this piece (late November), BrowserID is still in its infancy. Most browser developers haven't announced any official plans to integrate BrowserID support in their software. That's not the main problem, though.

Q. Really? What is it then?

A. The real open issue is if and when the major email providers and online communities, such as Facebook and Twitter, will support BrowserID – that is become identity providers. Especially when, like Facebook, they have their own in-house alternative.

Besides, all these providers would need to agree on a standard way to make public keys accessible. Luckily, none of this makes it impossible to try BrowserID or implement it on your website.

Q. That's cool. How can I try it today?

A. For the moment, the best way to see how using BrowserID looks is to visit the official demo site at Myfavoritebeer.org.

Q. What about webmasters?

A If they use popular open source software, such as WordPress or Drupal, they're lucky: BrowserID plug-ins for those content management systems already exist.

Alternatively, they'd have to follow the instructions for developers published at browserid.org. Even in that case, though, they'd be able to use BrowserID without having to write any authentication code by themselves.

How to get started with Apple Mail

Despite the popularity of social networks, no computer is complete without a great email app to help you keep in touch with friends and loved ones.

It's no surprise, then, that all Macs come with Apple's Mail program built into OS X. It makes it easy to set up your email account and browse and sort your messages, as well as write emails to others.

You'll need to have an email account. And for many email types, including Yahoo!, AOL, Gmail and Windows Live/Hotmail, Mail can set up your account using just your email address and password.

You can set up other kinds of accounts, but you may need to know the details of your incoming and outgoing servers, which your provider should be able to supply you with.

Once your account is set up, you'll see the Mail interface, with a list of emails on the left, and a preview box on the right. There's a Show button just above the messages list that enables you to see your list of account inboxes, which is handy if you have more than one set up, have created multiple mailboxes, or if you want to browse messages you've deleted from your inbox.

From the toolbar along the top of the Mail window, you can check for new messages, compose a new email, create a new note, delete emails, mark emails as junk mail, forward and reply to messages, and flag emails for your attention later.

There's also a search bar here, which enables you to find text anywhere in any of your emails, so you can easily search for its subject, or the person who sent it, for example.

In this walkthrough, we'll talk you through the basics of using the Mail app, including getting set up, reading your emails and writing messages, but once you're more confident with Mail, you can do a lot more.

For example, you can set up Rules such as having incoming messages sorted into different inboxes depending on the sender, you can change the default font and size that messages are displayed in, and create multiple email signatures.

Of course, if all you want to do is send and receive the occasional hello from family members, you can stick with just the steps on the opposite page and enjoy the full email experience.

How to get to grips with features in Apple Mail

1. Set up your account

When you first open Mail, or when you add a new account, it will ask for your name, email address and password. For many types of email, this is all you'll need to enter, but if Mail is unable to find the information it needs automatically, it'll ask you for more details.

2. Read a message

With your account set up, and email flooding in, select one in the left-hand inbox list to display it in the window to the right. Or, you can double-click on an email to open it in a new window. From here, you can click the arrow buttons at the top to reply or forward emails.

3. File attachments

If an email sent to you has an attachment, you'll see a paperclip next to the sender's name. A file icon will be displayed beneath the email text. You can click a file's name to open it, open it with Quick Look for a brief check, and save it by right-clicking.

4. Photo attachments

Attachments, such as photos and PDF files, are handled slightly differently. They are displayed in full under the email's text. Again, they can be opened or saved, and if there are several photos, you can view them in a slideshow with Quick Look.

5. Search through emails

In the top-right of the Mail window is the search box. Mail will search all emails for anything you type in here. Results appear in the inbox pane, and below the search box. You can use this list to search for emails from certain people, or by subject line, for example.

6. Compose a message

Click the paper-and-pencil icon to create a new message. In the To field, you can enter the email address of your recipient.

If they're stored in your Address Book, you don't need to type out their email address in full – start typing their name, and Mail will offer their email address. Add a subject line and type a message in the blank space below that.

To attach a file, click the paperclip icon at the top of the windows and browse to the file you want. Clicking the icon that looks like a mountain will open a photo browser, so you can insert a photo from your iPhoto library.

To the right of this icon is a button to open the stationery pane, which enables you to send colourful emails.