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Latest PSP and PS3 firmware updates detailed

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:11:00 GMT

Sony has added a number of new features and a few improvements on current PSP and PS3 features with its latest firmware updates, due for release in the very near future.

Firstly, PSP v5.00 update adds the PlayStation Network icon on the XMB, enabling users to sign up, manage their account and access the PlayStation Store (and, more importantly, buy games and download free demos) directly from the PSP via Wi-Fi.

You can use your PlayStation Network account details on both your PS3 and PSP. Finally, PSP update v5.00 adds a sleep timer option to be used while you are playing music on your PSP and a full screen keyboard option for text entry. Stay tuned for release details on this directly from Sony very soon.

PS3 firmware version 2.5

Sony has also released details for the next PS3 firmware update - version 2.5, which will allow gamers grab in-game screens, then upload them to a server to show off to their mates.

Sony's PSN director, Eric Lempel, lists the full details of PS3 firmware update version 2.5 over on the PlayStation blog, which are as follows:

Support for the PS3 Official Bluetooth Headset

- we've told you about the upcoming Bluetooth Headset and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation Bundle on the Blog. This latest firmware installment enables High-Quality (HQ) mode, which delivers clear and wide-band online voice chat. On top of that, an added on-screen indicator shows battery status, volume level and use of HQ mode.

PlayStation Trophies interface enhancements - I know that many of you are busy collecting trophies and raising your PlayStation Trophy level. This update makes sharing and comparing your trophies with your friends even easier. On 1st part of the profile page you'll see a symbol under level that represents level and the actual percentage towards the next level along with the existing level meter. The level symbol carries over to the trophy comparison screen where you will now be able to see your level, your friend's level and the percentage towards the next level for both users along with all of the game by game comparison information you see today.

Friend status - Offline friends on your Friends list will have information below their avatars that will indicate how long it has been since they were last online.

Video - This update adds the Scene Search feature similar to the feature on the PSP. Activating this feature while viewing a video on the PS3 will break the video up into scenes that you can quickly access by pressing the X button. You can break the videos into one, two or five minute intervals. In addition, you can now choose to have all of the videos under the video section of the XMB play in sequence. Go to Settings then Video Settings to turn this option on.

PlayStation Store - We've added a redeem codes option right on the store to make it easier to redeem your PlayStation Network Cards and promotion codes. In addition, PlayStation Network Sign Up and Account Management have been redesigned. Power Save Settings - You can now set your PS3 and wireless controllers to turn off automatically after set periods of inactivity. Go to Settings then Power Save Settings to turn on these features.

Background Downloading - You now have the option to set the PS3 to turn off automatically after a background download or installation of content has completed (at long friggin' last). This option is available when you turn off the system from the button under [Users] while content is being downloaded or installed.

In-game Screenshots - this tool will allow everyone to capture, share and in other words, immortalize their favorite gameplay moments. This will be supported on a game by game basis. Please check back to find out which games will support this feature.

Firefox for Mobile on Nokia first

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:44:00 GMT

For those of your craving more info on Firefox for Mobile, here it is: it's coming very soon for developers, and will land on the Nokia N810 internet tablet first.

Codenamed Fennec, it will also be released in an alpha version for Windows Mobile in the next few weeks.

Jay Sullivan, Mozilla VP of mobile, says an interim solution might be for an emulator running on a PC, so developers can learn what the news system will be capable of.

Alpha, alpha, alpha beta

Sullivan also adds there will be two or three alpha versions over the next few months, prior to the beta release later in 2009.

Using the same core HTML rendering tool as found in desktop Firefox, the mobile version will be fairly similar.

It will pack the 'Awesome bar', an innovation that has been universally popular among users, where a few choice keywords, such as 'BBC' and 'tech' will take you straight to the relevant page, rather than navigating through a search engine.

It will also support touch interfaces too, so it seems this will be a browser available for nearly all devices in the near future.

Virgin Media trials targeted TV adverts

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:43:00 GMT

Virgin Media is aiming to show targeted adverts in its video on demand (VOD) over a three-month trial period – dynamically altering what is shown depending on geographic location, programme type and time of day.

The trial – which will take place in North London – has already attracted interest from the likes of Kellog's, John Lewis and Royal Mail, who have signed up for the quarter.

The ads will be inserted using SeaChange's AdPulse system, and will only be on VOD content from Virgin Media, Channel 4 and Warner TV.

Pioneer

"Virgin Media has pioneered on demand TV in the UK and we continue to innovate with new content, interactivity and functionality, said Mark Schweitzer, chief commercial officer at Virgin Media.

"As consumer usage of on demand continues to build, this trial will help us explore the best ways to reach a large and growing audience with engaging and relevant advertising."

Advertising is becoming increasingly targeted in modern society as it becomes easier to track what people are watching and likely to be interested in.

Unpopular

This has spawned unpopular scenarios online with Phorm becoming hugely controversial over its method of viewing surfing habits to serve relevant adverts.

But adverts that are based on geography, time and programme type would appear to be a little less invasive for the public (assuming no records are kept).

The viewers may, however,be more concerned that what was previously ad free will now carry sponsors' messages.

Acer Extensa 7620Z

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:32:00 GMT

Acer creates a wide range of laptops for both the business and consumer markets, with the Extensa brand being its budget business range.

The Acer Extensa 7620Z (£349 inc. VAT) is made from tough and durable plastic that has a grey ﬁnish.

This cheap laptop is a 17-inch model, which makes it relatively unique at this price point. It may have a large screen, but the resolution is a relatively average 1440 x 900 pixels. That said, it does offer more space onscreen than its rivals.

The design of the Extensa isn't new and has been available for 18 months in a variety of conﬁgurations. However, it remains a solid and reliable machine.

Low performance

The large screen allows for a larger than usual keyboard, which is near full-size and comes with a separate numeric keypad, which is ideal for number crunching. The keys are of a good size, but we found them sluggish to respond. This is due to the membrane nature of the keyboard, which forces you to strike quite hard in order for the keystroke to be registered.

To the left of the keyboard is a row of media buttons that quickly load your favourite applications. The touchpad and mouse buttons are on the small side, but we found they responded well.

Desktop replacement laptops are often built on cutting-edge components but, being a budget machine, you'll ﬁnd the performance here rather basic. Powered by an Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor, we found performance was satisfactory for daily tasks, but the system quickly slows down if you have multiple windows open.

Weighing 3.5kg, portability will be a secondary concern for anyone using this laptop. This is compounded by a battery life, under test conditions, of 107 minutes. This limits it to ofﬁce or home use.

Basic features

Acer has kept extra features down to a minimum, despite the large size. You won't ﬁnd a webcam or digital outputs. This latter fact is due to the relative age of the design. However, you will ﬁnd the standard array of features. The 802.11g wireless LAN connection can be switched off and, being a business-orientated machine, you'll ﬁnd Gigabit Ethernet ﬁtted as standard.

With its minimal price and business design, this laptop lacks little in the way of usability. You'll ﬁnd a DVD rewriter, along with four USB ports, as well as ExpressCard and PC Card slots.

The Acer Extensa 7620Z is a big and well-built machine that makes the most of its 17-inch screen. Sadly, it isn't as powerful as we were hoping, but as long as you place screen quality above processing power, you'll be happy with what this machine has to offer.

OLED lighting on the market in 2010

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:22:00 GMT

OLED lighting could be available on a commercial scale within two years if General Electric's recent manufacturing ideas go to plan.

Anil Duggan, head of GE's OLED research team, says the panels the company is creating using a printer could be ready for the market by 2010, though he agrees this is "very aggressive".

"We're trying to be as low-tech as possible," he added, highlighting one of the major problems of OLED manufacture.

Roll to roll

GE is currently working with roll-to-roll OLED printing, literally running the organic lighting material through a printing press in the same manner as a newspaper, a process which could lead to OLED lighting at around 60p per square foot.

However, sizes are currently limited to 8in panels, but GE will be building a machine over the next year that can run to much larger sizes.

"It's not going to be competitive with fluorescents in 2010," Duggal said, which added to the initial high cost of manufacture means the technology will be limited to high-end architectural areas.

But economies of scale will drive that down, as will improved techniques learned from display manufacture, where OLED is set to compete with LCD and plasma in the TV and monitor stakes.

"In the 1950s, people were talking about electroluminescence the way we talk about OLEDs today," Duggal said. "It's humbling."

Limited edition Olympus Crystal camera launched

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:19:00 GMT

Olympus has teamed up with Swarovski to bring you a camera with added bling factor.

Although the camera itself isn't new – it's essentially the Olympus mju 1040 – the model has been given a glamorous makeover, emblazoned with 98 Crystalised Swarovski Elements.

While these do absolutely nothing to improve images, they do, ahem, improve your camera's image.

Crystal clear

The crystals themselves have been placed on the protective sliding lens barrier, so shouldn't impede in shot-taking.

The Olympus Crystal comes with 3x optical zoom, shoots to a 10MP sensor, and has Intelligent Auto Mode. There's also face detection, so perfect for those with prosopagnosia.

The Olympus Crystal 1040 will be out at the end of October for £175.

Asus touchscreen Eee 'Top' pre-orders open

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:55:00 GMT

The touchscreen Eee PC rumours kicked off earlier this year way back in March, with Asus finally releasing information on the machine this month and Play.com in the UK already taking pre-orders.

A penny shy of £400 will get you Asus' cutting edge Eee 'Top' touchscreen-based desktop when it launches, later this year.

The Eee Top is by far the most advanced digital Etch-a-Sketch yet developed by humankind!

Eee Specs R Us

We expect to hear more on confirmed launch date for the UK from Asus later this very week.

Play.com claims that the specs on this white beauty include a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 15.6-inch LCD, Windows XP Home, a 1.3-megapixel camera, built-in stereo speakers, WiFi and a bunch of ports and integrated graphics set.

It pencils the release in for November 20 (tbc, as noted above) at a price of £399.99 (again, to be officially confirmed later this week). TechRadar will, of course, have a full review of the Asus Eee Top as soon as we get one in for thorough testing.

Sign away your soul

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:29:00 GMT

Disney's lawyers must think they are pretty clever with their 57-page, on-screen EULA that comes with the Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray disc. I can just imagine them giggling hysterically into their Martinis as they sit around in the bar after work, congratulating themselves on this master stroke. The idea that anyone - I mean literally anyone on the entire planet - will actually read through 57 pages of small print displayed on their TV screen is of course risible.

That's the whole point. The number 57 was decided on by extensive focus group testing as being precisely the number of pages required to ensure that no one will read to the end. And in fact pages 3 to 56 are probably just cut and pasted from various random legal documents culled from the net. Their purpose is to act as a buffer, to place soothing distance between the inviting convenience of the "I Agree" button and the crucial page 57. Which says this:

"By reading this document, you agree to upgrade your entire collection of Disney movies to Blu-ray, within six weeks of them being released and to similarly upgrade your library to each and every new format as and when they become available. This shall occur regardless of the fact that your youngest child is now 27 and you have seen Aristocats approximately 860 times."

Well, it probably doesn't say that. But it might, who knows? The point is that whatever it does say, you'll agree to it anyway.

I should probably point out at this point that, by reading this sentence, you are deemed to have agreed to my EULA, which requires you to "accede to my every whim, however unreasonable". No, it's no use looking away quickly. I know you read the EULA. That means you agreed and now I own you.

RIM finally releases Pearl 8220 'Kickstart'

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:09:00 GMT

Reports are surfacing of the new BlackBerry Kickstart, aka the Pearl 8220, being released in the US, which means a UK launch can't be too far behind.

Berryreporter appears to be living up to its name, by reporting the new BlackBerry flip phone, the first of its kind, has been released in the US, two days ahead of the commonly believed schedule.

Over the pond

T-Mobile USA will be handling the device over the pond, which, as we know, brings Wi-Fi, microSD storage, dual-light sensing displays and the good old SureType keyboard.

The UK's official launch date is still 'autumn', so if you're holding your breath you won't have too much longer to wait it seems (though it's unlikely to debut in the next eight minutes, so if you are holding your breath we'd suggest you exhale in case you die.)

LG's hidden secret: The Prada II

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:40:00 GMT

It's not often a handset will be dubbed as 'almost identical' to the original, but that's the way LG has projected its latest Prada phone, the catchily titled Prada II.

Essentially, it's a Viewty with a metallic QWERTY keyboard bolted to its behind, and a bit of cosmetic surgery to the front three buttons, switching to metallic options rather than 'commoner' plastic.

Fashionistas

Phones like this, such as the Armani II from Samsung as well, are not designed to be innovative technology leaders, but still appeal to a mass market that doesn't really care how many megapixels the camera has.

Still, LG has decided to be generous and whack a 5MP sensor in there, along with 7.2 HSDPA. A full HTML browser and Wi-Fi connectivity are a step up from the Viewty as well, but pale in comparison to the 8MP KC910 Renoir also recently announced from LG.

This handset will be coming later in Q4 this year for selected European markets, including the UK, for around £475.

Five AIs fail Turing Test

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:24:00 GMT

Five computers competing in a Turing test at the University of Reading used tricks and jokes in order to fool the judges – but ultimately failed to win a pass mark.

The Turing test, created by Alan Turing, posits that for an AI to be recognised as such it must fool a human in a conversation into thinking that they are talking to another human.

The University of Reading attracted six contestants – reduced to five after one could not be set up in time – and although the most successful entrant walked away with a cash prize – its 25 per cent success rate was not enough to get the Turing seal of approval.

Elbot

The winner was Elbot – created by Fred Roberts – winning the Loebner Artificial Intelligence Prize's bronze medal for an impressive showing in which it convinced three of the 12 judges that it was actually the human.

How did it manage this? Well is appears that an impressive opening gambit of joking about being a machine lured produced a fine double bluff.

"Hi. How's it going?" one judge began. "I feel terrible today," Elbot replied. "This morning I made a mistake and poured milk over my breakfast instead of oil, and it rusted before I could eat it."

Genius.

UK games devs face potential market failure

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:05:00 GMT

A new market report of the UK games development industry claims that the government needs to offer a 20 per cent tax credit to help developers avoid bankruptcy.

The Games Up campaign's Games Impact report will make for interesting reading in the Treasury, as it claims that UK games devs compete "on uneven international playing fields" due to the lucrative tax breaks available to their counterparts in Canada, France, Australia and the US.

"As a result, global companies are beginning to look at subsidised territories for their next partners or studios despite Britain's reputation as an industry-leading talent pool."

Games to follow film industry?

Games Up wants a 20 per cent production tax credit for UK games developers from the government, along the same lines as moneys made available to the UK film industry.

There are over 10,000 games developers currently working in the UK, with the industry in total employing 28,100 people and contributing over a billion pounds per annum to the UK's Gross Domestic Product and £420 million for the Exchequer in tax revenues.

The report adds that the UK's games industry "invests 14 per cent of its turnover in R&D, some of which spills over into other sectors; games developers are clustered around eight hubs in the UK, the effect of which is to enhance productivity within the industry; and the video games sector generates cultural spillovers, including strengthening the UK's brand image, its record for technological achievement and the promotion of tourism".

Shoe-friendly airport scanner launched

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:49:00 GMT

Trying to get past airport security these days is akin to taking part in the Krypton Factor.

First you have to empty your gadget-filled pockets into a plastic tray (iPod, phone, watch), then half-undress by taking off your belt – there's usually a very good reason why you are wearing a belt – and finally you have to surrender your shoes, and with them your dignity.

The need to de-shoe is now a thing of the past in Israel, however, thanks to a fancy new scanner that lets you leave your shoes on.

The step-on X-ray machine allows you to be scanned for weapons and the like fully clothed. The only people likely to take of their shoes are the dodgy looking ones, as the machine can't yet scan for bombs.

MagShoe

Called the MagShoe, the whole shoe-scanning process takes just two seconds and is positioned next to the walk-through scanners.

Unsurprisingly, the machine has cut down on waiting times. Nissim Ben-Ezra, security technologies manager for Israel's Airports Authority, said about the machine: "This innovation brings enormous logistical value as it significantly cuts down the discomfort and delays associated with standard shoe searches."

And the best bit about is that MagShoe costs just £3000. This is a small price to pay to cut down the smell of cheesy feet up and down airports in the UK in an instant.

Let's just hope Britain cottons on to these machines sooner rather than later.

In Depth: 20 Mac apps you can't live without

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:10:00 GMT

The selection of great free or inexpensive Mac programs on offer has never been better. You can now get amazing software designed by small or independent developers to cover practically anything you could ever want to do on your Mac.

Since the mass adoption of OS X, Apple has made it easier than ever for people to build their own applications, and as a result there's a flourishing community making everything from games and novelties through to office applications, web design software, video compression and iPod tools and much more.

Thanks to the developer tools provided by Apple, OS X shareware programs, unlike Windows versions, tend to be slick, well designed, stable and a pleasure to use so there's really never been a better time to be a Mac user on a budget.For every big, expensive program like Office or Photoshop, there's almost always a smaller alternative with a great feature set that costs a fraction of the price, or even costs nothing at all.

Read on to discover Mac Format magazine's 20 great Apple gems!

1. OpenOffice.org
Microsoft Office for the Mac is ironically regarded as being better than the Windows version, but it still costs more money than most can afford to pay. From the MacFormat disc this issue, you can download OpenOffice.org 2, and it's a remarkably accomplished program. The result of many years of open source development, it includes advanced word processing, spreadsheet, multimedia presentation, graphical planning and database applications. In short, everything that you get with Office, only for free. It is compatible with leading document format standards so exchanging files with people who are using Office won't be a problem.

2. VisualHub
iPods and iPhones both support video playback, but first you have to get your movies into the correct format. A cheaper and faster alternative to QuickTime Pro is VisualHub at $23 from www.techspansion. com. Not only will it crunch a movie to the right format much quicker than you expect, it will let you convert pretty much any video format into any other video format, complete with size and crop options. There are also handy presets for converting for specific devices. Even for video professionals, it's a very handy tool to have.

3. VLC media player
There are lots of video codecs in use across the web, and since many originate from the world of Windows, QuickTime isn't always able to play them back properly, even with something like Perian installed. VLC Media Player is a free video player that has support for just about any video you're ever likely to come across. It's usually able to open and play back videos that no other application that's currently around can do. In addition, it has advanced network features for playing streams and will get you out of a fix when you're struggling to open movie files.

4. Cyberduck
Transferring files to and from web servers over FTP can be a little hit and miss using Finder. A great free solution is Cyberduck, which is a powerful but easy-to-use program that supports all leading file transfer standards and protocols and makes transferring files as easy as dragging and dropping. With support for Spotlight, Keychains and iDisk, it integrates perfectly with OS X and is the perfect companion for iWeb if you're using your own domain. You can even bookmark and store settings to manage multiple FTP accounts easily.

5. OnyX
There are many parts of OS X that you can normally only access using the command line. Unless, that is, you use OnyX, a free system cleaning and maintenance utility. It's able to perform important system maintenance and cleaning tasks like clearing out logs, caches and temporary files that build up over time, can become corrupted and can even slow down your Mac. It also gives you access to hidden OS X settings via the Parameters tab, including customising the appearance and behaviour of the Dock, Finder, Dashboard, Safari and Exposé amongst others.

6. iStat Pro
iStat Pro is a great free system monitoring widget for OS X, comprising nine sections which can be hidden or shown. It will display detailed information about your Mac's CPU, RAM, hard drives, network addresses and data transfer, battery, current uptime and the temperature inside various parts of the Mac. It does this by hooking into the many sensors that your Mac has but doesn't allow access to through Finder. It's a good way to keep an eye on your Mac's insides and troubleshoot any problems.

7. AppCleaner
Removing unwanted applications from your system is rarely quite as simple as dragging the app to the Trash. Programs tend to place library and support files in other places you may not know about. AppCleaner is able to find the small files deposited around the system by apps during their install and remove those at the same time as the main app. It's possible to protect some apps from being deleted so you can use it with confidence and stop your Mac becoming cluttered with unwanted support files.

8. Chocoflop
This curiously-named image and photo editor from www.chocoflop.com is an interesting alternative to Photoshop and iPhoto. Well designed, it is able to work with RAW files and export and import in many file formats. It also has tools to retouch images and paint on them, and dozens of filters, layer support and more. Unlike iPhoto it can work with rich text layers, and has a feature-set that is significantly more advanced.

9. AppFresh
Software Update handles OS X and Apple programs, but keeping track of updates for your many installed applications can be tiresome. Some have check for updates options but they all work separately from one another. AppFresh checks osx.iusethis. com to notify you of new versions of all your programs, widgets and preference panes. It lets you download them, too, though as it's currently in development you could simply use it as a notifier until it's thoroughly tested with all applications.

10. Adium X
iChat is a great instant messaging program but not compatible with all the many instant messaging account types in use around the world. Adium supports just about every protocol in existence and is available for multiple platforms, so however obscure someone's setup, you should be able to talk to them. It's also highly customisable so you can change its appearance in minute detail. With great features like tabbed chats and file transfer, it can manage multiple account types in a single window so you'll never miss an online chat again.

11. Carbon Copy Cloner
For those without Apple's Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner is a great free way to create byte-forbyte copies of your hard drives for backup and restore purposes.

12. MacLoc
MacLoc activates Leopard's Fast User Switching function, making it look like you have logged out when you leave your Mac, even though all apps and documents will still be active.

13. coconutWiFi
Use coconutWiFi for free to scan for wireless networks when out and about with your laptop, and see if they are password protected or open.

14. Dock Spaces
Use the fabulous Dock Spaces to store up to five different Dock configurations and switch between them from the menu bar.

15. Pingus
Pingus is a free clone of the ultra-addictive classic Lemmings game, available from the Apple website games section or from this issue's disc.

16. SnapNDrag
SnapNDrag is a simple but useful screenshot utility that lets you click and drag to take grabs and select different image formats as you do so.

17. NeoOffice
NeoOffice is a port of the excellent and free OpenOffice.org suite of office applications that runs natively on OS X and can exchange documents in Microsoft's Office format.

18. Hide Folders 2008
Use Hide Folders 2008 to conceal your files and folders from others to keep them private. If you do wish to share them, they can be made visible again by setting a password.

19. Skim
Skim is a free PDF reader and editor with advanced functions like the ability to annotate and edit PDFs and extract data with more flexibility than OS X's own Preview application.

20. YouControl: Tunes
This program sits in the menu bar and gives you quick access to all aspects of iTunes playback, including artwork without you having to leave your work.

First published in MacFormat, Issue 200

Microsoft in DHL rift

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:03:00 GMT

Microsoft is suing the US arm of courier service DHL after a vast quantity of its consoles were damaged.

In total 21,600 Xbox 360s were allegedly damaged, due to a train derailment in the US state of Texas. The train was carrying two containers filled with Microsoft stock.

In total, Microsoft is looking to recoup $2 million of damages because of the crash, citing that the consoles were subject to "impact damage, wetting, pilfering and shortage".

Negligent

The incident occurred last August, but it has taken over a year to land in the courts. This is because DHL is refusing to take the blame for the damages.

According to court papers, DHL "negligently breached its duties as a common carrier, handler, bailee, warehouseman, agent, or in other capabilities." The case continues.

Hackers account for just 1% of data loss

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:25:00 GMT

Hackers account for only a measly one per cent of companies lost data according to a survey in the United States – with negligence bar far and away the largest problem.

Although it is the ability of hackers to steal important data from companies that attracts the most media attention, a Compuware survey found that it was the smallest contributor to data loss.

In fact malice, including insider action (26%), accounted for only just over a quarter of the problem, with social engineering garnering another two per cent

Human error

Given the amount of civil servants who have hit the headlines for leaving laptops, discs and USB sticks on public transport or flogging old computers with the HDDs still crammed with important info, it was negligence that topped the survey.

An extraordinary 75 per cent of those surveyed pointed to human negligence as the biggest contributor to data loss.

So there you have it, why bother with all that hard work hacking into somebody's system when you could just wait for them to hand you the keys to the company database?

Philips HTS8140

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:08:00 GMT

The Philips HTS8140 SoundBar is a seductive choice for anyone with a small apartment and an eye for style.

It combines all of the speakers and electronics you need for a home cinema inside one package that can be mounted on the wall beneath your ﬂatscreen TV – an equally smart subwoofer takes care of bass and messy cabling.

With a DVD player on board and virtual 5.1 surround sound, it's certainly the least conspicuous way of sneaking a home cinema into the front room.

Sleek speaker

This Philips package could almost trade on its looks alone.

I was impressed by its predecessor, the HTS8100, but this reﬁned product looks even nicer, with a crisp white LED display, elegant curves and clean lines. It's styled to match the brand's own 42in ﬂatpanel TV, but it'll look great underneath any screen.

Even the big woofer has sex appeal, and it cleverly manages the AV cables so that just a single umbilical lead conveys audio and power between itself and the main unit.

iPod dock

The HTS8140 has an iPod dock thrown in, giving you convenient access to your MP3 collection via the
onscreen graphics and the handsome Philips remote control.

A USB slot grants access to storage devices; it can read almost any audio and video ﬁles, including DivX. The system is a doddle to use. One cable runs to the subwoofer, which in turn plugs into the mains, while an HDMI cable runs to the TV.

Tap the glass panel at the centre and it springs into life. Tap the eject button and the panel glides open to reveal the DVD player.

Bold pictures

Selecting video preferences is easy, and an onscreen wizard helps you set the Ambisound levels to best suit your room. This is an important step that shouldn't be skipped.

From the picture quality, it's immediately apparent that this is a quality DVD player. Either on 576p
or 1080p, the image from my Iron Man reference platter looks bold and clear with good contrast.

Sonically, though, the results are much more mixed.

Ambisound illusion

The SoundBar uses a virtual surround algorithm to create the illusion of being encircled by speakers. But like David Blaine, it's only partially convincing.

The ﬁrst-gen HTS8100 made a brave stab at distributing effects, but ultimately it failed; this time the DSP has been improved and the Ambisound mode really does create wraparound FX, at least with some material. In fact, the ﬁrst time you hear Ambisound you'll deﬁnitely be impressed.

However, it's still far from natural, and the heavily-processed sound grates when you turn the volume up. Keep to a moderate level and you'll better appreciate its detailed tone and delicate bass. The unit suits dialogue and music, but it can sound a bit harsh with explosions – specifically when Tony Stark ﬁrst dons his Iron Man outﬁt.

I'd rate the Philips SoundBar as a technically fine product with admirable design, build and features. It does its main job of improving on your TV's output, but ultimately it doesn't really cut it in home cinema enthusiast circles.

Ultimo PC Scudo GI-01 SLI

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:45:00 GMT

There's a split between the two multi-GPU camps.

Both offer options for the manifold use of graphics cards to bump up framerates in your favourite 3D spectacular and yet substantially more rigs run NVIDIA's SLI than AMD's CrossFire.

Indirectly, UltimoPC's SLI rig gives us a little insight as to why this might be the case. But how do the rivals' top-spec graphics cards stack up in multiples?

Stalled CrossFire

Originally the idea was to have an SLI rig with twin GTX280s (here well demonstrated by the Scudo) up against a CrossFire rig with dual 4870X2s.

Sadly, after almost a month of building, testing and rebuilding our friends putting together the AMD rig still couldn't rely on it functioning in any reasonable state. That should give you an idea about how much more reliable AMD's CrossFire drivers are these days.

So it's all about SLI then? Well, that's still a bone of contention as some companies, such as Beast Computers, are having reliability issues, shying away from building multi-GPU machines with the offending 790i boards.

UltimoPC has opted for the excellent Asus Striker II Extreme board, packing its high-end features, DDR3 support, energy efﬁciency and serious overclocking potential.

Impressive gaming scores

The overcooked BFG GTX280s purr away happily under the hood of the Scudo with SLI enabled straight out of the box with no perceivable problems.

Taken in comparison with the single-GPU Scudo the extra performance of the added card is impressive, giving at the very least another ten frames per second at the highest resolution we can muster. Playing Crysis at 2,560x1,600 at 34fps, and World in Conﬂict at over 40fps, really is nothing to be sniffed at.

A win for NVIDIA though is sunk by the sheer performance of the 4870X2, as shown by Yoyotech's Warbird from PCF219. True the Scudo adds 10fps to the Warbird's Crysis score, but in WiC and GRID the twin GPU offering – even with NVIDIA's ﬂagship cards – can only just about keep pace.

The AMD box is around £700 cheaper than this SLI rig and is offering more-orless equivalent scores.

Powerful spec

One of the many positives of the single-GPU Scudo is the boot drive: the speedy WD Velociraptor.

To keep the GI-01 SLI below two grand, that's been replaced here with the slower Caviar. This makes no real difference to gaming speeds, but loading was seriously improved with the faster HD.

The pre-release version we tested came with a bog-standard 2.66GHz clockspeed on the Intel quad-core CPU, but the ﬁnal units will all come overclocked out of the box at 3GHz. This OC will boost the performance ﬁgures slightly, but still not enough to put daylight between it and the 4870X2 rig.

Future imperfect

The Scudo does hold its own against the Warbird in future-resistance. With DDR3 memory likely to make 2009 its dominant year then do you really want to put your money into a brand new rig with last-gen memory? But still, with Nehalem so close, do you really want to bet on a last-gen processor/mobo setup either?

Once Intel's brand new combo arrives – with the X58 boards now ofﬁcially supporting NVIDIA's multi-GPU platform as well as AMDs – then we should see prices on these sorts of rigs plummet.

So if there's two thousand pounds in your pocket begging to be spent on a gaming rig, should you throw the lot at this SKU of the Scudo? With the performance of AMD's 4870X2 it's hard to recommend putting your wallet behind NVIDIA's top SLI pairing.

There is Yoyotech's Warbird, although in the last month the resurgence of the US Dollar has meant the price has leapt up £100, and if you're in need of a pre-installed operating system for it, that's only going to bump the price closer to £1,200.

The Scudo SLI is a decent machine, well specced and well made, but simply can't compete on the GPU front. UltimoPC's similarly priced P45-based, twin 4870X2 rig though should ultimately blow this machine out of the gaming water, leaving SLI for the NVIDIA fan-boys alone. So long as the drivers play nicely, that is.

Nokia confirms N-series touchscreen phone

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:43:00 GMT

Nokia has sprung something of a, well, obvious statement by announcing that it will be bringing an N-series branded touchscreen phone in the coming months.

Devinder Kishore, director marketing, Nokia India, said: "We will have lot of touchscreen phones coming up,including an N-series device very soon."

Speculation about what the device might be has led to the inevitable belief the new phone will be the N97, with an 8MP camera truly making it the flagship device to bring Nokia into the touchscreen fight.

Losing appeal

But it's more likely that Nokia will look around the N85 mark, not wanting to cannibalise the N96 handset's appeal after releasing it so recently.

Word is the new handset will be launched in the latter part of Q4 2008, but given the delay on the 5800 XpressMusic until 2009 in developed markets, don't be surprised if nobody has heard anything by February.

CBS starts broadcasting on YouTube

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:42:00 GMT

CBS has become the latest US broadcaster to offer full length programmes over YouTube – but UK viewers will not be able to beat the crowds as the service is limited to over the pond.

With HBO and CBS already experimenting with the popular video site, CBS are now content to offer classic shows like Star Trek and more modern fare like Ghost Whisperer online.

UK broadcasters have certainly been no slouch in this area, with a huge array of online content available – including the hugely popular BBC iPlayer, but those viewers hoping to skip the wait for new American series by watching them legally are out of luck.

Blocked

The YouTube channels currently filter by geographical location and block non-US visitors accessing the programmes – leaving people with a long wait or moral decision on whether to access the content illegally.

This is obviously because of the huge revenues generated by selling the programmes to foreign broadcasters.

However, the writing appears to be on the wall for lengthy waits for television series, with stations catching on to the fact that the longer they leave it, the more people seek alternative options.

Many UK broadcasters are now airing programmes on our televisions just days or weeks after they are first broadcast in the US, such as the new series of Heroes, which has less than a month's lag on our stateside friends.

ISPs could cut illegal downloads by 75%

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:15:00 GMT

A report on the music downloading habits of UK consumers has found that a warning issued by ISPs would be enough to stop three quarters of illegal downloaders.

The report surveyed 1500 consumers, and found that while illegal downloading is still rife, a large number are also going 'straight' and accessing their music from legitimate sites.

Around half now use paid-for download services, like iTunes, or visit as-funded sites.

Bite

"It is quite evident that an ISP-led strategy has bite, because illegal downloaders are fairly convinced that ISPs are currently monitoring their activities and are more likely to act against them than the courts," said Russell Hart, chief executive of Entertainment Media Research, which conducted the study.

The move is encouraging for the music industry, although most of the legal downloading activity comes from over-35s; the 13-17 age bracket is still the biggest culprit for music piracy.

These kids also laugh in the face of the law: around two thirds of them believed their internet habits were being monitored by the ISPs, but they just carried on downloading the Cheeky Girls' hits anyway (that is what kids listen to these days, right?)

Survey: gadgets in cars distract us

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:14:00 GMT

A survey has discovered that two thirds of us believe that car gadgets are distracting.

Motors.co.uk's amusing survey suggests that 30 per cent of people believe that a sat nav affects their concentration.

Even more people suggested that fiddling with the CD player, iPods and, believe it or not, steering wheel control buttons was distracting for them and other drivers.

"Many modern cars are filled with gadgets and gizmos and for many drivers are seen as not only confusing to use, but also a major cause of distraction for both themselves and other drivers," said marketing manager Katie Armitage.

Back to basics?

"On the back of these findings we are urging manufacturers to 'Go back to Basics' and to consider the safety of drivers and how they use the add-ons with the emphasis being placed on not losing concentration."

Of course, a second hand car dealer urging people to go back to simpler times may be accused of having a vested interest in steering people away from new-fangled gadget auto-nirvanas.

And if fiddling with steering wheel controls is confusing people, we can only imagine that motors.co.uk is urging a return to the times when cars didn't even have tape players – as we can't imagine that fiddling round in the glovebox for that omnipresent copy of Queen's greatest hits would help at all.

So you heard it here first – let's all go back to basics and put a man with a flag in front of the cars. Or even better let's just all go back to bikes.

Unless the bell proves too much of a distraction…

Third of UK TVs not ready for digital

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:55:00 GMT

Digital UK is warning that one third of the UK's 60 million TVs are not ready to receive a digital television signal ahead of the analogue switch off.

With the first large scale regional switch taking place on November 6, Digital UK, the body set up to oversee the region by region switch, believes not enough of us are ready.

Apparently 18 million televisions are still accessing the analogue signal with equipment that will no longer work when the television channels are moved wholly onto digital.

Patchy Freeview

Digital UK Chief Executive David Scott said: "While nearly nine out of ten homes have switched to digital on their main TV, it's no coincidence that many of the places lagging behind in the conversion of all sets are those where Freeview services are currently patchy."

The figures suggest that nearly 90 per cent of homes do have at least one of their household's televisions either receiving Freeview, Freesat, satellite broadcast, IPTV or cable – but a small percentage do not yet have any access to digital broadcasts, and many people's second sets are not yet converted.

Yorkshire, Anglia and STV are the main culprits – but with Digital UK still battling to educate people on how to convert their equipment, the time will come when some people will find Coronation Street is even less informative than normal.

Washington DC drops Microsoft for Google

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:23:00 GMT

Washington DC is the latest organisation to decide Microsoft Office isn't worth the cash, moving to Google's suite of cloud products.

Instead of Word, Excel and Outlook, 38,000 employees in the district will now be using Google Docs, Google Mail, Google Video for business and Google sites for intranets and the like.

Impressive uptake

The deal is estimated to be worth around $500,000 (£292,000) according to Bloomberg, and consolidates an impressive uptake for Google Apps, launched just over two years ago.

Google claims around 500,000 organisations currently use its Apps products in one form or another, with 3,000 being added each day.

However, Microsoft is still turning in decent user numbers for its Office Live Workspaces applications, but these require the Office suite to be of real use, thus negating the real benefit of cloud working.

Zuckerberg: Facebook to further enable sharing

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:33:00 GMT

A key part of Facebook's focus for the future is to keep pace with its users' increasing desire to share personal information, said Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, speaking at the Future of Web Apps conference in London.

"When we first started, people were relatively less comfortable sharing a lot of information. Early on there were a lot of questions, like 'should I put my full name on Facebook?' and 'should I put my mobile phone number on Facebook?', and a lot of what got people over that hump were privacy controls so they were sharing that information with just the people they wanted," said Zuckerberg in an on-stage chat with conference host and organiser Ryan Carson.

"When there was only a little information that people could post, people would update their profile maybe once a month or every couple of months. Then we added things like photos and groups and the updates became more regular like once a week, once every couple of days, and now with status updates and all the different applications that people are using, the rate is increasing so much. Now most people probably update stuff on a daily basis."

Zuckerberg believes sharing is growing exponentially: "One of the things that we have thought about at Facebook - we don't have any conclusions on it yet - but an interesting historical analogy is Moore's Law." (The Law stated that the speed of processors would double every two years.) "And I wouldn't be surprised, although there's no definitive link yet, if something like that exists with the rate of sharing."

Facebook's recent redesign was in response to that idea, Zuckerberg revealed, and there's more to come in future versions of Facebook: "Part of the redesign that we did was to reorganise the display of things to support the growth in sharing, and more and more parts of the site will start to be reorganised in terms of that."