Get ready with those new year resolutions. If one of them is going to include trying for a fitter, healthier you in 2012, Jawbone is here to help. Jawbone is best known as the maker of excellent Bluetooth headsets and a great portable speaker, the Jambox.

Its latest innovation is a wristband with built-in motion sensor. The idea is that if you’re trying to be healthy, just being conscious of your daily activity is likely to increase how active you are. The Up aims to be your fitness assistant.

What is it, exactly?

It’s a light, comfortable rubbery band that flexes open to put it on and off your wrist. To make the most of it, you need a smartphone. Right now, there’s an iPhone app, with Android to follow. There’s no Bluetooth on board this doohickey, so you connect it to your iPhone by popping off the little silvery Jawbone cap that sits on one end of the band.

Inside is a headphone connector that plonks into the phone so you can synchronise the Up’s data. You see, every step you take is noted by the Up, and recording the number of daily steps you take is one of its main functions. You can decide to start off low with a 5,000-steps-a-day target, or aim higher with 10,000, say. Synchronise the Up with your phone at the end of the day and it’ll give you the good or bad news. Manage 100 per cent of your target and the screen shows the achievement bathed in sunbeams.

If you’re going cycling, where your arm may not move much at all, you can use the iPhone’s GPS to measure your exercise accurately. And you can create challenges which other Up users can contribute to – walking to the moon (or the equivalent distance, obv) seems a big ask but if there are 1,000 of you, it’s doable. The idea is that communal challenges inspire you more.

Keeping track of sleep and food

There are two other elements Up manages – food and sleep. Food is average at best: when you have a meal, take a picture of it on the phone’s camera and a couple of hours later the phone will ask you to judge whether you’re energetic, stuffed, tired etc. The plan is you’ll get a clearer idea of what makes a good and nutritious meal.

Better is the sleep element. Press the end of the bracelet and it’ll switch to sleep mode, measuring your movements in that context. It knows when you’re awake, lightly asleep or deeply asleep just from the motion sensor. This gives you a clear analysis when you transfer the data the following morning. It’s excellent, confirming that you really did have a good night’s shut-eye or that you have good reason to feel bleary-eyed if you didn’t.

Wakes you up gently

And there’s another neat wrinkle: you can set a smart alarm. The best time to wake is when you’re coming out of deep sleep into lighter sleep. So if you set your alarm for, say, 7.30am, it’ll start monitoring your movements for the half hour before that. As soon as it senses you’re going from deep to lighter sleep, the bracelet starts vibrating. It has woken us with utter reliability, and has the advantage that if your significant other is waking later, this is a silent wake-up call that needn’t disturb everybody.

The problem is that in reality, it has almost always woken us 30 minutes before the alarm time, so we now set it 15 minutes later than we need to get up.

You can only set the smart alarms at 15 minute time differences: greater precision would be better. On the other hand, there have definitely been times when it has woken us at just the perfect moment, sleep-cycle-wise. If you have problems feeling lively in the morning, it may help.

A few little niggles

It’s a very cool device that has a lot going for it. But there’s one big downside and that’s the band itself. The silver cap that hides the earphone jack pops off easily. We’ve already lost one, and nearly lost a replacement cap about 20 times. It’s just not secure enough. Sure, it’ll work without the cap but it doesn’t look so pretty.

And the other end of the band has four sharp edges to the tip which scrape down the lining of your sleeve as you take a jacket on or off. It’s not hard to remember to take it off before you make this movement, but a less abrasive end would have been better.

Tags: Fitness Health Jawbone Jawbone Up

Jawbone Up originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0000

"Friends and fun in one place" is Packard Bell's appealing promise on the EasyNote TM. Incidentally, we're not writing trademark there, TM is the model code, though it is a little confusing. Anyway, the promise is to do with social networking. Like the earlier-reviewed LM model, this one has an extra key, just under the power button. It's of three smiley faces and pressing it takes you direct to your chosen social networks. A window appears which will log you in to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. It's not a big window but big enough to watch your updates come and go.

And there's plenty of room on this 16:9 ratio 15.6-inch screen which shines impressively (yes, it's glossy, so you may need to adjust it to avoid reflections). It's spacious and high-resolution (1368 x 768 pixels) and looks great, set in the gloss white plastic frame.

This gloss white surrounds the white keyboard, too, and the whole thing has a snazzy, classy feel to it. The keys, which are pleasingly comfortable to use, sit on top of a matt white background, which is some way below the keys and give the keys the effect of floating. Super-white keys can sometimes be hard to read easily but this one is very clear.

The wrist rest is patterned blue, matching the chic lid, with a self-patterned touch pad and contrasting mouse button rocker. There's a chrome strip across the top of the keys, with a chrome power button nestling on the right, with a cute blue circle light that glows when it's switched on. Above it is a speaker strip. All of it is contained in a reasonably light (2.5kg), impressively slim machine which has neat curved corners to add to the class.

If you're getting the impression that we're taken with the way this computer looks, you're right. Packard Bell isn't always the company one thinks of when it comes to pre-eminent style laptops, but this model can hold its head up next to the smartest Sony Vaio. Other colour options are available, too.

The trackpad is multitouch-enabled so you can scroll down a document with two fingers, though there isn't the same versatility of movement that an Apple trackpad delivers and the little scroll bar icon that appears next to the pointer always seems fussy to me.

Anyway, the TM is a performer as well as a looker. Beyond the highly usable keyboard and smart screen, the brains of the laptop - 2.13GHz Intel Core i3-330M - is swift enough to make this a fast and responsive computer, backed by 4GB or RAM. It also has good, high-speed connectivity - n series Wi-Fi and Ethernet. There's also an above-average quality webcam - 1.3 megapixels instead of the usual 0.3 version.

Three USB sockets and a multi-card reader round out the package, along with an HDMI connection, although the TM's on-board graphics solution won't cope with more demanding graphics.

Tags: Laptops Packard Bell Hardware Packard Bell EasyNote TM

Packard Bell EasyNote TM originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:48:42 +0100

Bamboo is a cool material: it looks good, reduces our use of plastics and is ecologically sound because bamboo is a sustainably renewable source. It's used for the lid and wrist rest for this new 15-inch display laptop from Asus. Asus has made laptops with bamboo before and this return gives us another chance to take a gander at the eco-friendly material.

At first glance, there's something slightly outdated about the smooth wooden-looking covering, like a half-timbered house. At least the mouse pad is styled to match the rest of the wrist rest area, complete with one long bambooish strip that works as left and right mouse buttons. A neat chrome ridge defines the edge between the trackpad and mouse bar. Outdated or not, the laptop looks good: strikingly different and pleasant to touch, though the manufacturer's claim that it is reminiscent of designer furniture may be a little rich.

It's not light, mind, so although it doesn't sport a super-large display - it's a 15-incher - you might want to use it as a desktop replacement rather than a lug-anywhere portable. The display isn't especially high resolution at 1366 x 768 pixels.

The keyboard that sits above the bamboo strip is comfortable enough to use, with widely spaced keys and room for an extended keyboard - as a result the trackpad is slightly off centre, below the space bar.

The power button is a small chrome bar that sits (as you'd expect) at the top right of the keyboard. Top left, meanwhile, is the Express Gate option which loads up in around 10 seconds and gives you basic functions - internet access - for instance. This increasingly popular option is clever and a handy extra feature. Annoyingly, to power the machine down again requires mousing to the bottom right of the screen - couldn't the chrome Express Gate key default to instantly shut it off?

Connections are good, and even include one USB 3.0 for much faster data transfer speeds, to accompany the 2x USB 2.0 ports, VGA, Ethernet, and headphone and mic jacks. There is no sign of HDMI however. On the wireless front you get Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth.

The machine also promises to perform well - Asus claims CPU performance is boosted by 11 per cent and battery life extended to over 10 hours - because of its Super Hybrid Engine which aims to monitor processing loads and adjust the power used. The processor of choice is a 2.27GHz Intel Core i5, with 4G RAM.

Whatever the claims, it certainly feels nippy enough, helped along by a speedy graphics card, the Nvidia G310M. And in our tests the battery did go on and on, presumably because the engine is smart enough to realise that you don't need the graphics card working full tilt when you're just typing a document, say, thanks to Nvidia Optimus technology onboard. 

Tags: Hardware Laptops Asus Asus U53JC

Asus Bamboo U53JC originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:00:00 +0100

So, you know you want a computer with a big screen but you want to be able to move it around reasonably easily. So a desktop machine like the iMac 27-inch screen computer is right out.

Well, there are plenty of Windows PCs on the market, but the most stylish laptop is still the MacBook Pro which, of course, comes loaded with Mac OSX 10.6.4 Snow Leopard. If you're a Windows die-hard but want a better-looking laptop, you can splash out on the MacBook Pro and install Windows, since all Macs with Intel chips can run both systems. This is handy if you have some key programs which aren't available for Macs.

We've looked at the latest 15-inch MacBook Pro – this week we'll tackle its bigger brother. As handsome and well-built as you'd expect, the screen and base perfectly weighted so the bottom stays put when you lift the lid. The 17-incher weighs 2.99kg, so is on the edge of portability.

The keyboard is outstandingly good: comfortable, well-spaced and enjoyable to use. It is backlit so you can see it easily even in low light, which is useful as the lettering is white on black keys. There's the now-standard large, glass trackpad with multi-touch so it reacts differently according to whether you touch it with one, two, three or four fingers. Perhaps the next iteration will have a five-finger option, too.

The screen is great: glossy, with high 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution though you can opt for a matte screen instead if you want, but you'll pay extra for this. It's so big that you notice it not just because it takes up so much of your vision, but because dragging something from one edge to the other is a bigger movement.

Strangely, the 17-incher lacks the SD memory card reader of the smaller 15-inch and even 13-inch models. This is a shame as it's a handy addition and if the littler ones have space…?

Like the other MacBook Pros, this model has a built-in instead of a removable battery. A pain if you're on the road for too long and it runs out of juice just when you can't get to the mains. Still, it's a big battery so it'll give you most of a day easily. And of course, to be extra sure, you could also carry a HyperMac - the Mac laptop battery which gives peace of mind, looks good, and will even charge your USB gadgets, too.

Speaking of which, the three USB sockets are neatly in a line, as on the 15-incher, which can be a little too snugly placed if you have big thick USB attachments like 3G modems and some USB sticks. And none of the three is the useful recharge-my-gadget-while-the-computer's-off sort. Apple is sometimes late with these kind of enhancements, but can we have one next time, please?

Like its smaller-screened brother, this MacBook Pro has a speedy 2.53GHz Intel i5 processor and it shows, along with 4GB of RAM. It launches programs much faster than last year's model, and every bit of processing feels noticeably faster, which is highly enjoyable.

It also has the Nvidia GeForce GT 330M which takes care of the demanding graphics, whilst the in-built Intel HD graphics take care of lesser tasks. This uses Apple's auto-switching feature, so you aren't draining the battery running the graphics card when you don't need it.

Tags: Hardware Laptops Apple Apple MacBook Pro

Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch i5 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:37:57 +0100

Recent Samsung laptops have been stylish affairs, notable as much for their glossy red casing and matching keyboard and trackpad as for their computing capabilities.

This new 13.3-inch display model is a more demure machine, dressed in discreet gloss black, though with an eye-catching silver inside - the screen and keys are framed in matte silver plastic, with chrome trackpad keys. In keeping with the subdued styling, the large power button at the top right is silver and it's solid and well-built, too.

The keys stand out because they're black with white letters, widely spaced (not least because there's no separate number pad). The spacing is a great success - it's easy and comfortable to type at speed on this machine, although mind out for the trackpad which is all too easily brushed as you go, sending the cursor haywire.

But the Q330 aims to be more than a pretty face. It's reasonably slim and light (just under 2kg), but while that usually means low-power or high-price, Samsung is pitching this laptop as well-equipped and powerful, too. For instance, although this is a reasonably small notebook, Samsung still finds space for a multi-format DVD writer and that new favourite in the connectivity stakes, the USB connector that charges your phone, camera or other USB-chargeable device even when the computer is off.

You can play back HD content at 720p resolution - although it can't manage Full HD and there's no Blu-ray drive so your HD source won't be discs. Once you've found the content you can also view it on a suitable TV thanks to the HDMI out socket. This will be handy if you're having trouble angling the screen to avoid reflective glare or finding the viewing angle too narrow from the 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, 16:9 display.

The latest version of Bluetooth is another connectivity highlight, making it quicker to transfer data between the laptop and your phone or other device, along with Wi-Fi b/g/n.

And how does it perform? Pretty good, actually. With plenty of speed at the basics like word processing and internet surfing, but with enough grunt to cope with plenty of programs open at the same time. That's mostly down to the Intel Core i3-350M (2.26GHz) processor and 3GB of RAM which powers things along nicely. Gaming, however, isn't the laptop's strong point as the Intel HD graphics chip isn't designed for fast gameplay. There's plenty of space on the hard drive - 320GB - so you needn't worry about it filling up too fast.

Battery life was more than decent - you'll get almost a full day's activity between charges, and easily over 4.5 hours.

Tags: Hardware Laptops notebooks Samsung Samsung Q330

Samsung Q330 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:01:32 +0100

This laptop is the bigger brother to the Samsung R580 that we reviewed a couple of weeks back. Its snazzy semi-transparent deep red casing caught the eye, and that's duplicated here. Samsung has also neatly mirrored the default wallpaper on the display with a similarly swirly design, though with a black background.

The display here is a whopping 17.3 inches, so you won't be carting this around all the time, one hopes - it is portable, but it's not light, so find a place for it and leave it there. It weighs a little less than 3kg, but not much. The glossy screen is high-resolution at 1600 x 900 which looks impressively sharp even if it's not the full 1920 x 1080 HD.

Since there's a Blu-ray playback drive you won't be getting the best resolution but even so, it looks good. For best movie playback results you'll want to connect your HD TV using the HDMI out connection, or an external monitor. Like many laptops now, the backlighting is LED so it's instantly bright unlike non-LED screens which take time to warm up fully.

The design strengths of the R580 are replicated here, down to the self-coloured trackpad and mouse rocker button which use the same smart red swirls, with the pad itself defined by a pinhead-tiny blue LED on each corner, fading out after a few seconds of inactivity. It feels different to the rest of the casing - matte instead of gloss.

The keyboard on the R580 was good but not outstanding and this is more of the same, though the large tile keys are certainly spread out enough not to feel cramped and have a springiness to make typing easier. And there's a full extended keyboard with separate number pad here on the R780.

Battery life isn't exceptional at less than 3 hours, but then you're mostly going to be using the mains to power this machine rather than lugging it about and is about par for the course in notebooks of this type.

The average sound quality on the R580 is repeated here, too with limited bass from the twin 2W speakers which sit just north of the keys: another reason why you might want to connect the laptop to a TV or home cinema for Blu-ray playback.

Connectivity is good - apart from the HDMI socket mentioned there are four USB connectors and one of those offers charging of your iPod or other USB-charged device whilst the laptop is in standby using Sleep-and-Charge, and eSATA. Wireless connectivity comes in the form of Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi b/g/n.

Overall, this is a great-value computer which for all uses - apart from the limited resolution on Blu-ray playback - and has more than adequate graphics from the Nvidia GeForce GT 330M. The model tested had the same processor as the smaller R580 (Intel Core i3 330M at 2.13GHz) but didn't seem to struggle, though it isn't the fastest computer in the shop either, with an i5 version available too.

Mind you, for this price, it performs well, even if the 32-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium it comes with means the 4GB of RAM isn't fully exploited. Still, the 500GB hard drive isn't too shabby and there's that above-average styling to admire too.

Tags: Hardware Laptops Samsung Samsung R780

Samsung R780 notebook originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:08:15 +0100

So the hectic fun and drama of DubDub DC is over for another year and, guess what, it produced another iPhone. One that Steve Jobs claimed would be as revolutionary as the first - hence the tagline: "This changes everything. Again."

So was it worth the wait? Well, despite those naughty things at Gizmodo trying to spoil Steve's party by showing pictures early, the announcements today really did make the new iPhone look much better than it had seemed from the leaked prototype. Once thing has become clear though: Apple's closely guarded secrets are finding a way out of late.

The iPhone 4 feels great in the hand. A good fit and a great tactile sensation. The glass on the back and front makes it smooth and appealing - no wonder Apple's own case is just a piece of brightly coloured rubber that covers the extreme edges, leaving the front and back exposed to the touch. And that stainless steel frame is pretty cool, too.

It measures 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3mm and weighs 137g. Average stats for a smartphone, although it certainly is thin. How these dimensions transpire into long-term use, and whether the phone is comfortable for calling, we'll have to look at when we get our hands on one for a full review.

But it's only when you try it out, as we did in the minutes that followed the keynote, that you get to see how fast it is. The iPad's speedy A4 processor does a great job, launching programs in a blink, whizzing you about impressively quickly. Will it work this fast when it's multi-tasking? We'll let you know, but initial impressions were very favourable, and of course, this phone launches into an existing eco system, with what we consider to be the best app offering currently around.

The screen makes iBooks look terrific - though whether you will really want to read anything more than a short story on such a small screen is another matter. The iBooks interface is as intimate and appealing as on the iPad. Just smaller, obviously, and now with PDF support.

The screen size is the same as last time at 3.5-inches. The suggestion from the leaked phone was that it had a smaller display but no. And that screen has to be seen to be believed, with a cracking 960 x 640 pixel resolution display. We've mentioned pixel density before and at 326ppi, the iPhone 4 really packs them in. Whatever the science (if anything) behind the Retina display, the pin-sharp images are startlingly, hypnotically, good to look at.

Steve's "one more thing" this time around was videocalling or FaceTime as he calls it. The iPhone is not the first to do video calling by a long shot and it's never taken off in Europe though, frankly, if anyone can make it work, it'll be Apple, and we'll reserve a chuckle if Apple once again make an existing, ignored, technology popular.

FaceTime looks tremendous - painfully simple to set-up and deeply effective in use. It's a shame it will only work on Wi-Fi connections at the moment (though maybe there's another use for the Mi-Fi dongles) but next year, maybe. Typically, Apple showed us why it's important in an emotional video with endless encounters between separated loved ones, culminating in a deaf couple signing to each other. Brilliantly moving.

All the connectivity you'd expect to find is here: HSDPA, Wi-Fib/g/n, Bluetooth. You get all the sensors including the three-axis motion sensor, proximity sensor and light sensor. You get the GPS and digital compass too.

Externally the design is squared off more than before, although the major controls remain the same. Around the back, however, you get a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash. You also now get 720p (HD) video capture, with the iPhone being one of a few phones that offers this option. A forward-facing camera, used for FaceTime will also offer 640 x 480 images and video. How these cameras perform will be put to the test when we get a full review sample - including things like the internal editing works.

The memory options come out at 16GB and 32GB and as we've become accustomed to, there is no option to add storage. Apple is claiming a longer battery life, but real-life testing will really show what the results are, and how well it handles calling and the like.

Related links:

• Photos - Apple iPhone 4

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Apple iPhone 4 iPhone First look

First Look: Apple iPhone 4 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:58:00 +0100

How pink can a laptop be? Take a glance at the VAIO M12 and you'll say: none more pink. It's a deep, rich colour that makes the chrome VAIO logo leap out. The underside of the lid, around the display, is similarly eye-popping, though the area surrounding the keyboard is a substantially paler hue.

The keys themselves are much more mundane, with black letters on silver keys. The trackpad, however, has jauntily joined in the pinkness with a mottled pad and block colour keys, which don't match any of the other colours on board. It is a tiny pad, in common with most netbooks, and loses points for having trackpad keys which need a bit of force to make them work.

Anyway, you shouldn't - and you'll be getting the point by now - buy this netbook if you don't like pink. None the less, it's cute enough and is certainly easy to find - and probably there won't be any other computers in the room this colour. You can also get the VAIO M12 in other colours, so don't despair.

The M12 is light (1.4kg) and slim, dinky enough to fit in a slim briefcase or a large handbag. The on/off switch is a sprung-slide switch on the edge nearest you: don't make my mistake of pressing the on/off sign, that's a light which obligingly glows green when you slide the switch.

Launch a program and start typing and you'll find the keyboard, though small, is agreeably usable. You can type at speed, though it's never especially comfortable, despite the pleasing springiness of the keys.

The 10.1-inch screen is reasonably bright, thanks to its LED backlighting and if you're using it in an office (though you know it's bright pink, right?) the matte screen means you won't be struggling to avoid reflections at every moment. Of course, as a result the colours lack the punch of a glossy screen, though they're not bad at the 1024 x 600 resolution, average for this type of netbook. 

Sony's VAIO Gate sits unseen off the top of the display. Rest the mouse in the upmost area and a black bar drops down to show you a series of icon shortcuts. These will take you straight to eBay, say, or launch the excellent Evernote program to save your ideas and more. There's also a bunch of VAIO specials such as Transfer Support, alongside icons for Norton Online Backup and McAfee Internet Security. If you need more shortcuts, and maybe you don't, this is a neat way of showing them. And if you move away from the Gate it disappears leaving only a discreet RSS feed.

On a netbook, screen real estate is precious, so this is a great way of maximising space and adding convenience - a world away from the shoddy software some netbooks push at you. This VAIO M12 comes with Windows 7 Starter Edition.

The Intel Atom processor has been upgraded on this new version of the M series, from N450 to N470 - an increase in speed from 1.66GHz to 1.83GHz. Every little helps. And there's plenty of storage space for a netbook - 250GB. Needless to say there's only 1GB of RAM.

In terms of connectivity you'll find the usual array of physical connections: 3x USB, VGA, Ethernet, SD/MS card reader and 3.5mm jacks for headphones and mic. A 0.3MP webcam sits above the screen. Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth are both included. 

Still, it all trots along nicely enough, and while it lacks outstanding sound, despite the stereo speakers, this is a decent enough machine for easy, portable computing.

Did we mention the colour, by the way?

Tags: Hardware Laptops Netbooks Sony Sony Vaio M Sony Vaio VPCM12M1E/P

Sony VAIO VPCM12M1E/P notebook originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:00:14 +0100

Say what you like about Apple, without the Cupertino company we'd probably still have been using beige computers until that other style-conscious company, Sony, entered the fray.

But thanks to the greater attention paid to design these days, we're rewarded with laptops like this distinctly snazzy model from Samsung. It won't suit everyone, but it's certainly eye-catching, using the same semi-transparent red patterned plastic on its lid that Samsung has pioneered on many of its tellies and the Jet mobile phone. It looks good, with its bold Samsung white logo sitting off-centre and its sculpted edges. The makers claim it's a durable, scratch-resistant finish, which we're inclined to believe, even if it does show finger marks and smudges pretty easily.

Less successful is the way the machine is weighted. Stick your thumb under the lip to open the laptop and you'll find you need to hold the lower part of the case down with your other hand to stop the whole thing tipping up. This is a shame, but once you've lifted the lid, things get better. The same subtle swirly pattern covers the entire surface. Well, not the keys, obviously, or you'd never see what you were typing, but including the mouse rocker button. Not every manufacturer of colour-chassis laptops includes the mouse buttons and it looks a lot better here. There are other cute details like the big Pocket-lint symbol, or power switch as we used to call it, in the top right corner.

The touchpad blends in pretty easily, but is slightly more matte than the glossy surround. And to make sure you can find it, there is a tiny blue light at each corner, which isn't as tacky as it sounds. The lights are discreet and only stay on for a matter of seconds after you've finished using the touchpad which, by the way, has the multi-touch feature that makes it easy to scroll through a document by swiping two fingers up, down or across the pad.

This laptop has a 15.6-inch screen, a curious in-between size if you ask me. It's certainly big enough for desktop use, but if you're not going to move it around much, you might prefer a bigger display still. On the other hand, it's just too big and heavy to be comfortably carted about a lot. The glam styling may make you feel it's worth the lug. The size does mean there's room for an extended keyboard, which you'll be glad of when you're using a spreadsheet.

Those plentiful keys are well-spaced and well-sprung, though decent rather than outstanding for extended typing.

Speed is great, thanks to the 2.13GHz Intel Core i3-330M processor which launches and runs programs very happily and is good enough for gaming, too, not least thanks to the Nvidia GeForce N11P-GE graphics card with 512MB is dedicated graphics memory and 4GB of RAM. And you won't run out of space too quickly either - the hard drive is capacious enough at 500GB to please the most demanding user.

Mind you, you'll need to angle the screen just right before you start. The widescreen glossy model is highly reflective and while the LED-backlit picture is perfectly adequate, it won't blow your ocular socks off, with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels.

And Samsung didn't stint on connectivity, either, including the now commonplace HDMI out socket and four USB connections including eSATA and a chargeable socket to refuel your phone or other gizmo, without having the computer on. Plus VGA and the other usual suspects.

Sound is decidedly average, even if the little speaker grilles look neat with their chrome central bar. Sound is probably the weakest link, though, in what is a stylish, effective and speedy machine. What's more, it's very good value.

Tags: Hardware Laptops Samsung Samsung R580

Samsung R580 notebook originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 24 May 2010 13:56:02 +0100

Toshiba's Qosmio desktop replacement laptops are big machines. Large, strikingly-designed and with lots of features. Add in Toshiba's exceptional build quality and you have a potentially winning series. This latest machine is the snazziest yet, with its gloss-black casing which Toshiba calls Precious Black. This will please Gollum. It comes with scarlet detailing (like on the Harman Kardon speakers, mouse buttons and - seriously - fingerprint scanner).

It looks great, though it's a bit like people with 60-inch TVs: it looks like you don't have a life beyond this massive object dominating the room. Still, the joys of all this screen real estate are evident. The 1920 x 1080 resolution is the same as on many a 60-inch TV, in fact and the 18.4-inch display looks pretty big when it's only a keyboard's distance away from you. Your hand can get tired repeatedly moving the cursor from one screen corner to the other.

The screen's resolution means video playback looks great including Blu-ray which, for obvious reasons, Toshiba had long resisted. This model has a Blu-ray recordable drive, so it's great for backing up your data. For video playback, the viewing angle is good enough to let two people watch side-by-side and those branded speakers sound pretty neat.

Start typing and it's immediately noticeable how comfortable the extended keyboard is - springy, solid and enjoyable to use. This is another of Toshiba's advanced skills and the company hasn't lost its touch, so neither will you. You won't lose your place, either, as the keyboard is backlit. Left of the keyboard is a series of red backlit icons. These are the media buttons to play, pause and so on. Touch them in regular keyboard use and they make a shrill beep, which is unfortunate.

The trackpad is not especially big and is just a flush matte oblong on the glossy surround. If you've ever found that brushing the trackpad sends the cursor jumping while you type, you'll know that turning the trackpad off is a right old faff, requiring digging down into software menus. In a stroke of genius, Toshiba has placed a dear little recessed button into the keyboard which switches the trackpad on and off. Excellent.

This laptop isn't cheap, so you can expect a fair amount of power for your money. The Qosmio has a speedy Intel Core i7-720QM 1.6GHz processor which performs well, an Nvidia GeForce GTS 360M graphics card gives you 1GB of dedicated graphics RAM so it all looks good and the generous helping of RAM (8GB) means multi-tasking is no problem.

Toshiba's hard drive protection system is efficient, perhaps too sensitive - move the laptop even slightly vigorously and the warning message appears. Better safe, of course, but it can be a little too insistent.

Toshiba has plenty of its own software to make the most of the computer. Along with the media capabilities, there are shortcuts for using the webcam, health monitors and more. Even so, there's no multi-touch trackpad.

This laptop will exceed most people's needs, but if you want a small HD monitor and decent gaming capabilities, this is a splendid-looking machine.

Tags: Hardware Laptops Toshiba Toshiba Qosmio X500

Toshiba Qosmio X500-116 notebook originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 17 May 2010 11:11:18 +0100

The EasyNote LM is a desktop replacement. Its large screen (17.3-inches, so not just a 17-incher, Packard Bell boasts) would dominate any desk, though it is not as heavy as you'd think at 3.3kg, certainly not so heavy that you'd need to anchor it to one place for ever.

Close the lid and the LM looks like a large sheet of shiny metal, set off by a Packard Bell logo at one side. Open it and you find that to move the lid most easily you need both hands, holding the base down with one as you lift the lid with the other. A minor thing, but the sort of detail Apple wouldn't let slip by, for instance.

Now then, how do you turn it on? The metal strip at the top of the white-out-of-black keyboard has a smaller strip at the right edge. Touch it and a blue light glows as Windows 7 Premium cranks into life. To the left of the blue glow, delicate lights show that the hard drive is doing its business and Wi-Fi is on.

The large screen looks impressive, with plenty of space for all the programs you'll want to launch. Around the keyboard, a black glossy frame is set off by a lower area that matches the lid, with an integrated trackpad. This has raised bars to show you the edges and usefully a smaller bar so you know just where to touch to scroll up and down - on most trackpads this is a trial-and-error affair. Beneath the trackpad, the mouse buttons appear as one long rocker strip, lacking the subtle pattern of the rest of the silvered area so it stands out. A little too much, you might say.

Because the screen is glossy, it suffers from the annoying problems faced by using a notebook on an office desk. Overhead office lighting, as you know, means you have to angle the screen to avoid reflections. All well and good, there'll be an angle that will work. But it may not be the one that works for using the webcam, say, whose chrome-ringed lens sits just above the display.

But the screen is certainly invitingly sharp and bright, and gets that HD tag at 1600 x 900 pixels, but not the whole Full HD hog, which some will complain about. You get the option of Nvidia or ATI dedicated graphics offering 512MB or 1GB of dedicated graphics power, so it is worth checking the specs before you part with your cash.

The keyboard is big, and even includes a number pad, which is great, but it's not especially comfortable, perhaps a little over-sprung. There's something a little weird at how off-centre the letter keys are because of the extra space the numbers demand on the right-hand side. The multi-touch trackpad is directly beneath the space bar and it's annoyingly easy to brush it as you type so the cursor jumps around crazily.

Oh yes, just under the power button there's an extra key on the keyboard! It's a smiley-faced fellow with two chums peeping out from behind and it signifies one of the series' USPs - a direct link to social networks. Press it and a window appears which will log you in to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. It's not a big window but if you want something more discreet, one click and the cheery chaps icon appears again, with logos for the sites below. It's quite a neat gimmick, and other makers may copy it.

The LM comes with 3GB of RAM, and it skipped along nicely in our tests, thanks to its Intel Core i3-330M processor. Battery life was good, though not outstanding, managing 3.5 hours when not connected to the mains - not bad for such a big display. You'll find a 320GB hard drive in place as well as all the normal connectivity, including HDMI.

Tags: Hardware Laptops Packard Bell Packard Bell EasyNote LM

Packard Bell EasyNote LM notebook originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 12 May 2010 16:19:35 +0100

Sony's Y-series laptop is good-looking and light. The case is brushed aluminium all over apart from the plastic undercarriage and parts of the edges. Still, with its chrome VAIO label on the lid, there's enough metal to make it a snazzy machine.

While this absolutely isn't a netbook - the screen at 13.3-inches is way too big for a start - part of the 1.8kg lightness is down to the fact that there's no optical drive. So no Blu-ray, DVD or CD playback here.

And given that absence, you might have expected something super-slim as well as light. While it's certainly no fatty, the depth would have been enough to easily fit an optical drive if Sony had chosen to. So it seems that weight was a factor - leave out the optical drive and you can beef up the battery without weighing you down too much.

Certainly, Sony's claimed 9 hours of use, enough for a solid day's work without worrying about running out of juice, is attractive. The battery is well-designed, plumping up the underside of the laptop rather than poking out at the back. Even so, the keyboard is not noticeably angled.

It's a comfy keyboard to use, thanks to the large and generously-spaced keys. The effect of the spaciousness is enhanced by having black keys on a silver base, but it's genuine: the space at the sides of the keys is narrower than on a MacBook, for instance, which is the same overall width.

Sony's power button is in its trademark place: on the right-hand edge. Press it and the button glows green, as does a green strip light at the north of the keyboard. Just underneath this is a speaker grille with two buttons on the left-hand side. One is the VAIO key, which takes you to the computer's media gallery. At first launch this invites you to transfer stuff from another computer and then suggests getting cover art and info from Gracenote.

The other is the Assist key which when the computer's on helps to troubleshoot issues. Press and hold the key when the laptop's off and it launches Recovery Mode. There's no denying this is a useful feature, though a little bit of me feels it's a bit like admitting there are going to be problems, so get used to it. Since we've never felt any troubleshooting options have routinely solved problems, we're also slightly sceptical about how vital it's going to be.

Sony has included what's happily becoming increasingly common: a multi-touch trackpad. This includes not just two-fingered document scrolling and web-page back and forth, but the pinch-and-zoom magnification familiar from the iPhone.

The Y-series has good connectivity, including HDMI and VGA outputs so if you have HD content on your hard drive you can connect to a suitable display, and 3x USB2.0. Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 will take care of your wireless connections.

The laptop's screen is impressive enough, a decent resolution at 1,366 x 768, bright and colourful behind the glossy finish, but you'll have to consider reflections if using when mobile.

And the Y series laptop trots along happily enough thanks to a brisk enough Intel Pentium SU4100 processor running at 1.3GHz and 4GB of RAM. Storage, at 320GB, is good though not exceptional. In fact, that's a good description for the whole machine.

The feeling you get with the Y series is that it's a neat, quick laptop which does its job efficiently but in these days of snappily designed machines it doesn't quite stand out as it once would and though it's not bad value, it's not cheap either.

Tags: Hardware Laptops Sony sony vaio Y Sony VAIO VPC-Y11M1E

Sony VAIO VPC-Y11M1E notebook originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 26 Apr 2010 08:48:26 +0100

The Dell Studio 17 1747 is a hefty beast. You'll want to use it as a desktop replacement rather than a portable to carry around with you. Still, the glossy black case with subtle patterning and red edging looks pretty neat, so it won't be out of place on your desk, whether that's in the office or bedroom.

It's aimed at satisfying all your multimedia needs, thanks to its high-definition screen and dinky JBL speakers promising "Premium Sound". Usually these are quiet or tonally bland, but despite the small size, the results here were reasonably impressive, boosted by the built-in sub-woofer.

The music player was one of the apps included in the Touch Zone Lobby, a carousel of touch-friendly programs on the screen, with others such as sticky notes, internet browser and webcam. Choose between a straight line or funkier curvy arrangement of icons, which shows more shortcuts at a time.

Creating Post-It style notes is easy enough, and because this screen is capable of multi-touch these can be resized using the pinch-to-zoom manoeuvre familiar to us from the iPhone. Trouble is that although it's good, it's not quite as seamlessly effective as we're used to. Nor was it perfectly accurate - some notes were hurled into the recycling bin when that really wasn't what was intended.

One of the pluses of a computer this size is a bigger keyboard. This one includes a number keypad as well as full-size Return and Enter keys. Even so, the keys bounce around a little too much for it to be efficient. A backlit keyboard is available as an optional extra for £30.

Battery life was more than decent, though frankly you're likely to have this machine plugged in most of the time, just as you did the desktop PC it's replacing. The battery pokes out from the machine downwards, which angles the keyboard slightly. Personally, we think that's fine, but some people prefer their laptops to sit flat on the table.

The 1600 x 900 pixel high-resolution screen is impressive-looking, and the sprightly 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 560v graphics card means video playback is highly enjoyable, though as with any glossy screen, angling the display to avoid reflections takes careful management. An HDMI is present for playback on a larger display. And of course the problem with touchscreens is they can easily smear with fingerprints which you might notice. We found finger prints took more than a quick wipe to remove.

The machine is certainly fast - which shouldn't be surprising given the system's speedy Intel Core i7-720QM 1.6GHz processor and generous 4GB of RAM. Overall, it's all pretty responsive, from launching programs to performing tasks.

In fact, the only noticeable slowdown comes from the touchscreen itself where you may find yourself poking an icon a couple of times before it responds, which can be irritating and drive you back to the keyboard and trackpad.

The computer's look is only let down by little glitches like the way the pattern on the lid, touchpad and around isn't carried over on to the trackpad buttons which therefore don't quite match. It looks like a mistake. The trackpad, by the way, is big and allows for some multi-touch input like two-finger scrolling.

You'll find a DVD writer in place, along with a card reader, 3x USB (one doubles as eSATA port), HDMI, 2-megapixel webcam, DisplayPort, ExpressCard, Ethernet jack, and the whole things runs on Windows 7 Home Premium. An upgrade to a Blu-ray drive will cost you £90, or £200 if you want a Blu-ray rewriter.

Tags: Hardware Laptops Dell Dell Studio 17 Touch

Dell Studio 17 (2010) originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:50:00 +0100

Last year Samsung released some cool-looking coloured netbooks which stood out in the crowd. For its latest model, the Korean manufacturer has gone for a more demure look with its gloss-black N210.

The new netbook has a 10.1-inch screen, though the frame around the display looks oddly wider than normal, making the screen look smaller. An optical illusion, we're sure, but the combination of glossy edge, matte main frame and gloss inner frame looks busy and space-grabbing.

Unlike most netbooks, the N210 has a matte rather than a glossy screen with consequently muted colours but at least it means there's no problem setting the computer up on an office desk trying to avoid the reflections shiny screens create.

The display is sharp and bright, thanks to the up-to 1152 x 864 resolution. Stick with the default 1024 x 600 resolution for best results, though. Below the display, the keyboard looks pretty smart and spacious. The keys and all the space around them are black with white lettering. The whole thing is framed with a narrow chrome edge which looks good from above and the side, defining the N210's design neatly when it's shut. Also on the edge is the power switch - a spring-loaded slider on the edge nearest the user.

Of course, you need to touch those keys, not just gaze at them. And though it looks spacious, it's still quite cramped and takes a little getting used to. And, as usual with netbooks, that trackpad is titchy enough to be awkward, though Samsung is hardly on its own in this regard. And at least it includes easy navigation: swipe a finger down the right-hand edge of the trackpad to move down the screen. You can also achieve the same effect by swiping anywhere on the trackpad with two fingers.

The N210's speed is unexceptional thanks to the standard Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz processor and 1GB of memory, though at least the hard drive is capacious - 250GB.

Other standouts on this netbook include battery life, promising over 11 hours of life and in our tests the battery was certainly impressive, especially as the battery, though protruding downwards at the base of the unit so the netbook is slightly tipped up, doesn't poke out in an ugly fashion at the back.

Then there's HyperSpace Instant-on to take you to a Linux online environment if you can't wait for the time it takes for Windows 7 to boot. We had some problems here because the software didn't automatically install when the netbook was first launched. To get to it we had to restore the PC and delete a partition (which may not suit all users).

When it was finally working it was simple enough to invoke - pressing F6 during Startup and the customisable screen appeared complete with weather, BBC World News, Share prices and Twitter feed. It was certainly quicker than a full Windows boot and cute looking, though the description of instant-on is pushing things. The weather was loyally fixed to Samsung's home capital Seoul until we changed it. How much use this configuration will prove is another matter, but it's cool enough to have the option.

Tags: Hardware Laptops Netbooks Samsung Samsung N210

Samsung N210 notebook originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:44:45 +0100

The iPad is not the only tablet. Of course, Microsoft had invested in a touchscreen laptop interface way before Apple did, it just never took off. Maybe now the iPad is rolling out, interest in Windows touchscreens will flourish. Mind you, at £999, this computer's more than even the priciest Apple iPad configuration.

Before the iPad launch, all Windows Tablet PCs came with keyboards - sometimes detachable - which added to versatility, and to the weight. The keyboard here is firmly attached, though you can spin the display round and fold it back to interact via the screen.

Like the iPhone, the touchscreen on the Lifebook T4410 supports multi-touch, so that familiar pinch-to-zoom manoeuvre can be used here, and it works pretty smoothly, too. Obviously this only works using two fingers rather than a finger and the stylus. The stylus is a good size and thickness, easily gripped and with a suitably placed button to effect a right-click.

The inclusion of Windows 7 Touch Pack makes the most of the touchscreen capabilities with games to familiarise users new to touch. These include a surprisingly addictive garden pond game where you splash paper boats to collect flowers, but avoid candles and a physics-based blackboard game.

As this is a business computer, it comes with a matte rather than a glossy screen (12-inch, 1280 x 800 pixel resolution) with consequently muted colours that wouldn't suit DVD playback. Anyway, a resistive touchscreen never makes graphics look quite their best.

The laptop is built into a serviceable rather than a glam case. Actually, it's pretty dull-looking and quite a weight at 1.79kg. It's certainly solid and sturdy, lumpy rather than svelte, with unexciting colouring: dark grey with a light grey surround on the keyboard, with matching trackpad and mouse buttons. At least it has curvy corners.

There's no graphics card, opting for an onboard solution instead - this laptop is here to help you work, remember. Mind you, it has an HDMI socket so you could output content on a separate screen. At least there's a decent processor (2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8700) and reasonable memory with 2GB of RAM. The hard drive is surprisingly small at just 160GB and a DVD rewriter rounds out the hardware package.

There are buttons on the screen (they are here instead of on the keyboard because you may have the screen folded over) for extra functions like scrolling documents or spinning the orientation of the display, plus a fingerprint reader for extra security. The keyboard is big and comfortable to use: black keys with large, bright white letters set at the top left of each key. It's one of the most usable keyboards we've come across, beaten by the excellent MacBook Pro's, but not by much else.

Oddly, the trackpad is rather puny - not unusable but a comparative disappointment. Still, this is a touchscreen, so you can interact by touching the display, too. You can use your finger or the stylus which slides out of the base of the laptop. Both work well, and the handwriting recognition Windows 7 includes on tablet PCs is decent enough, managing to decipher our frantic scribbles with acceptable though not perfect results. Good enough for taking notes which you can tidy up afterwards and, frankly, the PC was regularly better at working out what we'd written than we were at reading back our own writing.

Battery life was okay, but not exceptional, easily managing 5 hours with moderate use, but not much more.

Tags: Hardware Laptops Fujitsu Fujitsu Lifebook T4410 Tablet PCs

Fujitsu Lifebook T4410 notebook originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:00:00 +0100

Last year's NB200 netbook from Toshiba was a neat, effective performer from a manufacturer known for its reliability and strong build quality. Now, the successor, wittily titled the NB300, has arrived. This is the NB305 variant, most noticeably differing from the NB300 through choice of colours. The NB300 is black, while the NB305 comes in a tempting Mocha Brown or Snow White (seven dwarfs not included). Both versions are decidedly better-looking than the already-decent NB200.

This model also includes Bluetooth and has raised tiles for keys where the NB300 has a flatter keyboard. The NB300 comes with either a 160GB or a 250GB hard drive, the NB305 automatically features the larger-capacity storage.

The battery protrudes less now because it's slung underneath the casing rather than poking out the back. This tips the laptop forward slightly, giving a comfortable, slightly angled keyboard. It means a beefy battery can be included without adding to the bulk or weight significantly. The NB200 had strong battery life and here it's even better, delivering over 10 hours life at moderate usage with ease. This is one of the NB305's standout features.

The netbook's lid has a gleaming Toshiba logo in the middle of its slightly ridged finish. This finish is pleasantly tactile and the chrome hinge has a central power switch that glows white when you turn the computer on.

The inclusion of Windows 7, even though it's only in the netbook-friendly Starter Edition, means it launches quickly, and the 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600 pixel screen, though not HD resolution, is a bright, LED-backlit affair that looks decent enough. It has a glossy finish though so is prone to reflections.

Those tiled keys are easy to use. They're slightly weirdly shaped - oblong in landscape orientation with dollops of space in between - but work well, allowing speedy text input with minimal effort. Just beneath is the trackpad.

The trackpad is almost always the Achilles' heel on any netbook and although this one is a little more spacious, we'd still say you'll do best to invest in a wireless notebook mouse (hey, you can choose a Bluetooth mouse). It's less portable to cart a separate mouse around but it's always worth it for the greater comfort it offers than tapping at a tiny trackpad. Still, the fact that in some programs you can swipe down the trackpad with two fingers to scroll down a page (just like on a Mac) is a welcome feature inclusion that makes navigating documents and websites that much easier.

Toshiba has mounted its webcam shortcut on the left edge of the screen, nearly out of sight unless you scuttle your mouse near it when the options spring into view. It launches the webcam instantly so you can take a photo, shoot video or just check how good you're looking today.

In terms of speed, the Tosh is decent but not outstanding. Of course, there's only 1GB of RAM, but the Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz processor does its best to move things along with average-to-good results.

The hard drive has Toshiba's HDD Protection system so the head is moved to a safe position if the computer detects a sudden movement (like toppling from your desk or lap). In our tests this was very efficient, perhaps too sensitive: the slightest move and the protection came into play. Better safe than sorry, of course, but you'd be wise to switch the notification dialogue box or you'll spend all your time clicking it as you try to get back to work after you've sneezed, say.

There's an external monitor port, Ethernet cable socket, and three USBs, one of which features Sleep and Charge so power is supplied even when the laptop is off - handy when your iPhone needs an overnight charge and you don't want the laptop's screen glaring in your sleepy eyes.

Tags: Hardware Laptops Netbooks Toshiba Toshiba NB305

Toshiba NB305 notebook originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:30:00 +0100

Since The Sims and all its sequel editions add up to the most successful PC game franchise ever, it’s no surprise that the publisher, Electronic Arts, has major plans to keep the series fresh. You may have sniffed at recent releases such as the Ikea add-on pack, but the newest additions promise originality and fun.

British-born Rod Humble is now in charge of The Sims empire and has come up with ideas to lead the games in a new direction. These are more than a holding pattern until next year’s release of Sims 3 and have a greater focus on consoles, especially the Wii. Console Sims games have had mixed success, though the MySims spin-off released last year on Wii and DS have captured the imagination with their anime-styled characters and greater emphasis on tasks and rewards.

The latest in this series, MySims Kingdom, is based around themes of fairytales and to be frank it all looks a bit too jolly for my tastes, but there we are. It’s available later in the year.

More interesting, by a long way, is Sim Animals, where there are no humans on view and where you can play as a raccoon, rabbit, owl or a bear. Let’s face it, you’re going to be the bear. He’s cute, big and powerful – a recipe for success in life as well as games, surely.

Animals are initially wary of the hand icon you use to interact with the game, but can be slowly encouraged to trust you. Of course, you can later betray this trust by smacking the animals, but please don’t, it’s traumatising. Mind you, as Rod Humble exclusively told us, "There is pushback – although we want you to create a happy environment, you could craft a horrible place if you want". You just won’t progress to the next stages until the animals are happy.

The creatures can play together, scrap, and even have babies, though there are no inter-species relationships, before you try. There are 25 species of animals and 50 plants and trees which you can use to sculpt the environment. So you can provide something for a squirrel to climb to avoid a fox, say.

What’s interesting is the style EA has plumped for, steering a steady and successful course between realistic and Disney-cute. The game has a great look to it, and in a rare backstage tour of the game, we saw why. The designers had plenty of sources to inspire them, and although they were reluctant to expand on them we saw notes revealing how crucial certain films had been. So Bambi, Open Season and even Peter Pan had played their part - the last used to show how colour and contrast can be used to make characters stand out against backgrounds, for instance.

We played it on the Wii and it looked great, its charming style making the most of the Wii’s limited graphical capabilities. The controls are subtle – approach a wary animal too fast and he’ll run away, but tempt him with berries and he’ll soon look contented when you pick him up (if he’s not happy, you won’t be able to get close enough to pick him up).

Sound effects included a wide range of calls and grunts for different species and matched the not-photo-real but not-cutesy-cartoon either middle of the road graphics. The look was simpler, of course, on the DS version which made good use of the handheld’s innovative interaction mechanisms. But it’s the console version, for Wii only, that will capture the attention.

This game is due out early next year, and is the most exciting Sims title in production. If you can’t wait for it for your virtual animals fix, though, handheld gamers can look forward to The Sims 2 Apartment Pets for the DS, which arrives next month. Story-wise, you’ve inherited an apartment and pets grooming parlour by your uncle (is it unusual for a videogame to begin with death?), and it’s your job to run the parlour. Wash a pet by wiggling your stylus crazily over it and see how the dog, cat or snake (yes, snake) loves it.

Tags: Gaming Nintendo Wii Simulation games EA Sim Animals

Sim Animals – Nintendo Wii – First Look originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:00:00 +0100

So what do you want from the new iPhone? Do you want 3G, so you can surf the net faster when you’re not in Starbucks? For sure. Push email, so you don’t have to go searching for your mail all the time? Natch. A lower price? Are the Kennedys gunshy?

Well, Steve Jobs has obliged and the new model, iPhone 3G will be subsidised when it’s out on 11 July. £99 on the lowest-priced tariff, free on the others. And 3G is among ten antennae built-in to the handset and which have necessitated a plastic instead of aluminium back to the phone. Like the MacBook Air, the new iPhone’s back has tapered edges, so it’s a touch wider than the original. Otherwise, from the front, you can barely tell the difference.

After all, although it’s 3G, there’s no front camera for video calling. Apple says it doesn’t want to do video calling until it delivers something special. Fair enough, but couldn’t we have had a better camera on the back in the meantime? You see, to that wishlist above you could add better camera, better texting and video recording.

And to those three the answer’s no. The texting in particular could do with an upgrade, even if only to allow you to use the fiddly virtual keypad in landscape orientation so the keys are bigger. Sure, the error correction makes up for it pretty spectacularly but there are still improvements to be made.

At the San Francisco Apple keynote – ruthlessly restricted to just five UK press including Pocket-lint – the whooping was loud and sincere. Afterwards, though, some were more muted.

Did we want GPS? Well, maybe, but Maps was fine as it was, although the demo, where you can watch your car’s progress down a street was a mixture of Big Brother eerieness and undeniable cool.

And although the significance of a flush headphone socket – now you can use any headphones you please – was not lost on the crowd, the option to shoot video and upload it to YouTube would have been neater.

In use, the new phone is as simple, intuitive and addictive as the first with improvements across the board. Contacts is now fully searchable instead of just the first letter of the surname. The camera software has been tweaked. Lots of extra languages have been added and you can change on the fly. That push email can be configured to check when you want it to.

Critics can justly point out that some phones have had these features for some time, of course. But, and it’s a big but, it’s rare for a phone company to so comprehensively upgrade its phone software, and this isn’t the first upgrade, not by a Cupertino mile.
The iTunes delivery mechanism is a great way of updating the phone and a potent argument against hacking. Since O2’s tariffs are appealing, if you’re someone who’s going to surf the net and download stuff, many people will switch, and existing iPhone owners can upgrade early at no penalty.

The new software from third-parties ranged from the fun to the spooky. Fun included Super Monkey Ball from Sega. Spooky included Loopt, where you could use the GPS and your friends’ details to find out if someone’s in the area and crash their lunch date. Hmmm. MooCow Software’s Band was a big keynote success as it showed its rough-and-ready program to turn you into a blues musician effortlessly.

Our early First Look wasn’t comprehensive enough to test Mr Jobs’s claims for extended battery life, or to see how much GPS would eat into that. But we’re happy to recommend it on the basis of its remarkable predecessor and the addition of HSDPA data transfer at speeds of up to 7.2Mbps. Especially since O2’s 3G network is more advanced than its EDGE coverage.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Apple iPhone

Apple iPhone 3G – First Look originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:44:26 +0100