3D Technology: six of the best

From TVs to camcorders, 3D technology is coming down in price and growing in prominence 

 

 

Samsung's 3D TV is being bundled with a Blu-ray player for less than £900

Asus 3D Laptop

As if to demonstrate how ubiquitous 3D technology is becoming, Asus’s laptop will soon be followed by a 3D Sony Vaio, too. So if you really can’t bear to be without video gaming on the train, you better put your glasses on. Best Buy; £1,699 

Samsung TV and Blu-ray combination package

It makes sense to think about buying a TV and a new Blu-ray player together, both financially and technologically. This superb set-up is a £899.98 and includes a pair of glasses for viewing, too. With integrated Freeview HD, it is also able to make the most of the majority of TV programmes and films you’ll actually be watching, which are likely to continue to be in 2D for several years to come. In that sense, it’s the best of both worlds at a cracking price. Comet; £899.98

Sony PlayStation 3

The PlayStation is best known for being a video games console, but it’s increasingly becoming all the home entertainment system you need. There’s access to the BBC iPlayer, 3D Blu-ray playing and of course the minor matter of some top video games. It’s not the best Blu-ray player on the market, but it might just be the best value for money. Various; £249.99
Philips PFL8605 TV
Philips’ 40” TV is stylish but also an impressive set to watch. The company’s ‘Ambilight’ projects a glow around the frame’s edge that produces an experience that is initially distracting but becomes a genuinely enhancing part of viewing. It needs a 3D upgrade kit, but for now that is true of a number of other sets as well. Once the technology is more comprehensively built in, 3D will take off even faster. At the moment, this set is a good all-rounder – it’s well worth shopping around online for the best price, too. Various; £1299

Panasonic 3D Camcorder

This is the first mainstream, consumer 3D camcorder, and it’s a remarkable piece of kit. It makes a real difference to record occasions you know you’ll want to remember forever in 3D, but be warned – it only works on objects the right distance away. Panasonic is, however, at the cutting edge of the technology. John Lewis; £1,495

Sony NX813 55”

The new range of Sony Bravia TVs offer exceptional performance on the picture front, but they’re also impressive to look at, and beyond that “Monolithic Design”, they also come with a wealth of additional features that make them particualrly attractive. Sony’s “Bravia Internet Video” service, for instance, offers an increasing range of on-demand entertainment over the internet – this is an area that all major manufacturers are rushing into, but Sony major clout. Again, however, a 3D transmitter is required. £2,999
 

 

Razer Mouse Bungee promises to let your corded mice roam freely

 

Mouse bungees may not be the most popular gaming accessories around, but we're sure there's at some dedicated gamers reading this that wouldn't think of using a corded mouse without one, and Razer is now hoping to increase that user base with a mouse bungee of its own. Developed in partnership with Mouse Bungee -- the company itself -- the contraption simply promises to keep your mouse's cord off your desk and not impede on your freedom of movement in any way thanks to suitably springy suspension mechanism and a sturdy, non-slip base. No word on pricing just yet, but you can look for it to be available sometime in the fourth quarter of this year. Full press release is after the break.

Recompute cardboard PC in the flesh: it's real, it boots, it's made of cardboard

We took delivery of a Recompute recently. This doesn't sound like a stunning statement: we get fancy new tech to play with all of the time, some of it stamped with the "green" moniker for better or worse. But the Recompute is just so far fetched: an entire desktop PC... built with cardboard! Sure, the internals are standard off-the-shelf PC components, but from the outside Recompute looks like nothing we've ever seen, and that's really saying something for a desktop industry that's tried just about every look twice. Check out our impressions of the green machine after the break.

For those of you unfamiliar with headless desktop computers, we'll walk you through the process real quick:

1. You take the PC out of the box.
2. You find the power cable.
3. You plug one end of the power cable into the wall and the other end into your PC.
4. You plug a "monitor" (that's like an iMac but without the built-in computer) into the PC.
5. You turn on the power supply.
6. You push the boot button.

Alright, it's familiar territory, to be sure, but again Recompute surprised us in being completely unsurprising while looking so totally other.

Unfortunately, we uncovered our only -- and non-trivial -- problem with this computer while following step three of our above instructions. While pushing the plug into the Recompute's power supply we heard the distinct crackle of tearing velcro or loosening adhesive. Somehow the simple act of plugging the computer in seemed to be ripping the computer apart internally. In fact, we noticed that the other plugs coming off the motherboard -- USB, DVI, etc. -- were separating from the metal grid of labels that are attached to a different external layer of cardboard.

Fragility and sound fitting seem like natural issues for a computer built out of cardboard, which is why we would've thought they would've been the first things Recompute would've solved when building this thing. Perhaps we're just abnormally strong, but we find the way the motherboard assembly (which is nicely bolted to some structural material inside) and the power supply seem to be separate from this rear panel of cardboard is just a little disconcerting. Of course, it's nice that you can actually flip open the whole real panel and get at the internals, but it's still a bad first impression.

Otherwise we actually find there to be something reassuring by the cardboard build -- we wouldn't do a drop test or anything, but thanks to the sort of padded structure, it seems pretty likely that the machine could live through decent smack against concrete. Also, while there's the typical fan noise from the computer's power supply, the sound seems slightly deadened (or at least lowered in pitch) by the enclosure, and happily the air flowing out stays nice and cool.

We can't comment authoritatively on the "green" aspects of the computer: Recompute claims to be addressing the entire life cycle of the machine, and we don't have any reason to refute those claims. There's certainly a bit of a premium cost here for what you're getting: you can get a Linux-based 2.2GHz Athlon X2 for $500 (about double what you might pay for a regular version of these specs), or a 2.8GHz Athlon II Quad Core-based Windows 7 system for $1,000 (again, about double), or you can go for the $200 DIY kit with a 400W power supply. Still, you can't argue with the aesthetic statement and the "greener than thou" cachet.

Rising browser powers: Chrome, iOS

14diggsdigg

In September, IE dipped back below 60 percent share and Chrome gained 0.5 percentage points of usage.

(Credit: Net Applications)

Browser usage statistics for September provide a look at who's gaining clout on the Web: Google's Chrome, twin mobile powerhouses Apple iOS and Google Android, and Microsoft's IE9.
Google's Chrome browser continued its steady rise in usage on NetApplications' network of thousands of Web sites, which get tens of millions of visits monthly, increasing from 7.5 percent in August to 8 percent in September, the analytics firm said.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer remains the top-ranked browser, but its share dipped back below 60 percent, sinking from 60.4 percent to 59.7 percent. Second-place Firefox was essentially flat at 23 percent. Apple's Safari rose a tenth of a point to 5.3 percent. Opera kept its 2.4 percent share.
Chrome is a rising force, a fact that's very useful for Google's ambitions. Not only does it help spread the Google brand, but it also serves as a vehicle to disseminate Google technologies. For example, on Thursday, Google said it will add support for its new WebP image format to Chrome in an effort to speed browser graphics. And it's working to improve the browser: Chrome 7 is getting Google Instant search abilities, some hardware acceleration, and WebGL 3D graphics support by default.
Net Applications' September statistics gave a look at how widely used IE9 is now that it's in beta: with a share of 0.25 percent for the last two weeks of September, that's a respectable 1 of every 400 Web pages.
Microsoft, after a long dormant period, is back in fighting shape for the browser wars with IE9, which in beta form features more extensive hardware acceleration than Chrome. IE9 is notable for its support of Web standards, including a host of newer standards that Web developers are eager to implement.
But standards support isn't an easy matter for Microsoft. For years, Microsoft's IE, not Web standards, was the technology for which developers coded their Web sites. To deal with this legacy of non-standard Web pages, IE uses a "compatibility mode" by which it renders pages using its older rendering rules.
The Net Applications statistics show just how often IE must call upon the compatibility mode. For the IE9 beta, this compatibility mode is used for about one of each eight pages. Clearly it will be a long time before the Web is fully modernized for the post-IE era.
Some of the most interesting trends in the browser market are with mobile devices, a much less mature market than browsing on personal computers.
Mobile browsing is exploding in usage with a new generation of devices coming to market. In October 2009, it accounted for 1.1 percent of all browsing, but by September 2010, that figure grew to 2.8 percent, Net Applications said.
A new class of smartphones and mobile devices is dominating that usage.
Apple's iOS devices--the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad--account for 1.2 percent of browser usage. That's up from 0.4 percent in October 2009.
Google's Android operating system, which is chiefly used in mobile phones but is beginning to arrive in tablets that compete with the iPad, lags well behind but is growing. Its share of browsing rose from 0.02 percent in October 2009 to 0.24 percent in September 2010.
The statistics don't reflect a large element of mobile Net usage through applications, however. Although iOS and Android browsers outclass the mobile browsers that came before, they're still slower than on PCs and hard to use with small screens in many cases. Many companies therefore choose to make their Net-connected services accessible through applications rather than just Web sites.

Aiming at Android, Microsoft sues Motorola

Microsoft today sued Motorola, alleging several of the cell phone maker's Android devices infringe on Redmond's patents.

Microsoft both sued Motorola in U.S. District Court in Washington and brought a complaint before the International Trade Commission. Microsoft alleges Motorola infringes on nine Microsoft patents related to key smartphone experiences such as syncing e-mail, calendar, and contacts, and notifying applications about changes in signal strength and battery power, Microsoft said. The complaint cites Motorola's Droid 2 phone as an example.

"We have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year in bringing innovative software products and services to market," Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said in a statement.

The suit comes as Microsoft is trying to line up phone makers to use its Windows Phone 7 operating system. Although Google-developed Android can be used free of charge, Microsoft has been trying to make the case that phone makers should consider the potential intellectual-property issues and related costs before going with Android.

Earlier this year, Apple sued HTC--which makes both Windows Phone and Android phones--over patent issues. Apple expanded its suit in June, adding two additional patents. Then HTC responded with a countersuit, alleging Apple infringes five of its patents. Microsoft provides those using Windows Mobile and Windows Phone operating systems with patent protections, something that Google has yet to commit to.

Motorola was once a significant licensee of Windows Mobile, but in recent years has shifted largely to Android.

Motorola had no immediate comment on Microsoft's suit. A Google representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a blog posting, Gutierrez defended Microsoft's need to take legal action.

"The rules of the road are long-established in the software industry, and fundamental to the industry's growth and economic impact is respect for others' intellectual property rights," he said. "Our action today merely seeks to ensure respect for our intellectual property rights infringed by Android devices; and judging by the recent actions by Apple and Oracle, we are not alone in this respect."

A copy of Microsoft's District Court suit is embedded below:

Micrsoft Motorola Patent Suit

Early this year, photographer Luke Geissbuhler and his family set out to send a camera to space. The aim was to attach an HD video camera to a weather balloon and send it up into the upper stratosphere.
Geissbuhler spent eight months fine-tuning a miniature spacecraft that could withstand the extreme conditions of the edge of space. He also had to get approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration.
In order to be able to retrieve the footage, the device would have to survive extreme weather conditions, sub-zero temperatures and a potential water landing.
At the heart of the device was the Go Pro Hero HD camera, encased in a Styrofoam box that provided insulation and buoyancy. The box also contained an iPhone so that they could track it wherever it landed via GPS. There was also a chemical hand-warmer to ensure that the cold did not stop the batteries from working, and a hand-written note offering a reward if found. A parachute was attached to the outside of the box to ease the fall back to Earth.
On a calm day in August this year, Geissbuhler launched the device (attached to a helium-filled weather balloon) in Newburgh, New York. It took seventy minutes to reach 100,000 ft -- around 19 miles above Earth. At that point the weather balloon had stretched to measure 19 ft in diameter -- thanks to the low atmospheric pressure -- before bursting.
Once the balloon had burst it plummeted to earth, reaching speeds of 150 MPH on the way down. Thanks to favourable winds, the capsule landed just 30 miles north of the launch site and was recovered.
The resulting video features some stunning footage of the ascent and the curvature of the Earth:



He is not the first amateur to generate footage of this sort. Yorkshire-based Robert Harrison created a similar device in March this year. Last year Oliver Yeh wanted to see Boston from above, so he attached a camera to a helium balloon and filmed some footage.

Developer creates Asteroids in HTML5

A developer named Kevin Roast has created a slick demo of the arcade classic Asteroids using the Canvas element inside HTML5.
Use the arrow keys and the space bar to control your ship. Also highly recommended: Press “R” to switch to the retro-styled graphics. The complex polygons of the modern graphics are harder to see (sorry, Kevin).
Canvas is the part of HTML5 that lets developers create 2-D animations -- you can draw polygons on the screen, then manipulate them with JavaScript, or the mouse and keyboard (usually both). It’s one of the technologies that intrepid web authors are using to replace Flash for simple animations and games like this one. Granted, Canvas has a long way to go before it can replicate what’s possible today in a Flash game, but we’re seeing the baby steps happen. And as browsers get faster, the baby’s stride grows.
Originally developed by Apple, Canvas is now part of the HTML5 draft specification and is supported by most major browsers. IE8 is lacking native support (it works with this add-on) but IE9 will fix that when it reaches the beta stage later this month.
Kevin’s demo has been around for a couple of months, but we’re revisiting it because the author has taken the original code and created a brand new Canvas benchmark tool to test how quickly and smoothly your browser can render HTML5 animations. Run his new test code and you’ll see a game simulation with more asteroids than your browser can handle.
Also, when playing the actual game, you can re-create this effect by pressing the “A” key as you fly around. This adds new asteroids to the playing field, so you can test your browser and your skills.

REVIEW:GTA: Chinatown Wars HD for iPad

Grand Theft Auto creator Rockstar Games has decided to jump into the world of iPad gaming with its latest title, a direct port of its DS game, GTA: Chinatown Wars. The title was granted a PSP release, then an iPhone release in January, 2010, but the company's just rolled out a iPad edition, promising "HD" graphics and a few other tweaks.

Originally released in March, 2009, Chinatown Wars tells the story of the son of a murdered Triad boss, who visits Liberty City to deliver a family heirloom to his uncle but gets caught up in the city's criminal underworld. It's full of the usual organised crime shenanigans and rags-to-riches storyline that characterises the entire GTA series.

It differs, however, from recent releases in the series by the fact that it's not true 3D, returning instead to the game's top-down roots. This has the unfortunate effect of making it difficult to see where you're going, particularly when driving at speed. Other than that, however, the cel-shaded art style lends a comic-book feel to the game, which is enhanced by static cutscenes with subtitles.

Liberty City in Chinatown Wars isn't quite the living world that you might know from GTA IV. It's populated by drone-like pedestrians and cars, and the occasional scripted sequence when you're on a mission. One thing you will come across a lot are touchscreen minigames -- unscrewing a panel to hotwire a car, filling molotov cocktails, or drawing tattoos. I'm torn on whether these are a tedious detraction from the game world, or a fun addition. Some aren't too bad at first, but get tedious after a while, and the molotov-filling game in particular is a pain from the very beginning.

But more broadly, Chinatown Wars is a lot of fun. It ticks all the traditional GTA boxes -- dealing drugs, accidentally murdering innocent passers-by, and evading the police (which isn't too much of a challenge). In tone, too, it's much closer to the more arcadey GTA and GTA 2, rather than the grittier, story-heavy San Andreas or GTA IV.

Perhaps this is Rockstar trying to offer something to long term fans of the series who've been turned off by the series' trend towards stark, urban realism, or perhaps it's just to appeal to a younger, more casual audience that doesn't want to have to deal with a complex story? Either way, it's always good to have options.

The iPad version is pretty much identical to the iPhone edition in everything except graphics. Texture depth and lighting have been improved, but framerate appears to have suffered. There were a number of times during play that the screen became visibly choppy, particularly at night when the game's pretty lighting effects are out. Away from presentation, the iOS versions both gain extra music functionality over the DS and PSP editions.

Standing in the way of control

The biggest issue with GTA Chinatown Wars HD on the iPad, however, is the controls. The flat glass touchscreen means that you've got no idea where a button ends and another begins, and you'll frequently find yourself trying desperately to steal a car in a tense situation and failing a mission, losing several minutes of play, because you don't know where the on-screen hotspots are without looking down at what your fingers are doing. It gets a little better over time, as you get used to the positioning, but never remotely approaches the tactility offered by physical buttons.

Another iPad-specific pain point is that when you're playing using headphones, the headphone jack is located underneath where one of your palms is. No problem, you say -- you can rotate the screen 180 degrees. However, if you do that, then your other hand is over the lock button, and accidentally locking the iPad in the middle of a police chase is a tad jarring.

Finally, I should make clear that the iPad edition of Chinatown Wars is a different app to the iPhone/iPod touch edition. It's exactly the same game, but exists as a different app, meaning that if you want the game on both your iPod touch and your iPad, you're going to have to pay twice. Not cool. Why couldn't it have been a universal app?

Conclusion

Now that the DS edition has been knocked down in price so much, there's very little to choose between the two. If you want the best control experience, get the DS edition. If you want a bigger screen and slightly fancier graphics, then, opt for the iPad one. Either way, Chinatown Wars is great fun, and it's one of the best iPad titles that money can buy.

GOOD: Full of the usual GTA magic, complete with a graphic revamp for the larger screen

BAD: Touchscreen controls are imprescise and rage-inducing

SCORE: 7/10

MMO shooter APB shut down after three months

Only three months after its catastrophic launch, following negative reviews and financial woes, troubled online game APB has been shut down by its Scottish creators.

Ben Batemen, APB’s community officer, wrote on the game’s now-shuttered forums, “Today we are sad to announce that despite everyone's best efforts to keep the service running; APB is coming to a close.”

The game, a massively multiplayer online shooter that pitted heavily armed cops against street-racing robbers, a little like an online variant of GTA IV, met financial failure upon its launch on PC, in June this year. Said to cost over $100 million (about £63 million) to create, and with a lengthy development period of five years, it was a risky game to put out in a troubled economic period.

Worse still, reviews lambasted the game for being plagued with broken systems, outdated play mechanics and being generally unfinished. Gamers, too, weren't impressed with extra-money making systems, on top of the monthly fee, like audio adverts over the voice chat.

Realtime Worlds, the Dundee game studio made famous by Xbox 360’s Crackdown and headlined by Grand Theft Auto creator Dave Jones, went in to administration just weeks after releasing APB in shops, and made 60 staff redundant.

Now, with the game’s servers switched off, the developer's office has been emptied of its last few staff members. Only seven employees, out of the 250 who made the game, remain on a temporary basis to completely close down the game and studio, then turn the lights out and shut the door.

APB has been pulled from both retail and digital shelves but Paul Dounis, joint administrator of Begbies Traynor (the businesses rescue agent dealing with Realtime Worlds) said that disappointed players should contact their retailer for a refund.

However, the latest chapter in this dismal saga offers a faint glimmer of hope. Epic Games, creator of Gears of War and Unreal, has hinted at snapping up the MMO and continuing to develop it. UK spokesperson Dana Cowley said that Mark Rein, Epic's vice president, absolutely loves APB, but said any talks would be confidential.

APB follows in the footsteps of a long line of unsuccessful MMORPGs to be killed off within a scant few months of opening, following dismal sales and failing to capitalise on the success of MMO behemoths like World of Warcraft. The Sims Online remained online for about six years, Tabula Rosa got a couple of years in and Auto Assault barely scraped a year. None have closed as fast as APB.

Michael Jackson MMO in development

In early 2011, a massively-multiplayer online game based on the life and work of Michael Jackson will launch on the PC. It's going to be called "Planet Michael".
Yes, really. It'll be published by a company called SEE Virtual Worlds, which previously worked on an MMO named Project Entropia. According to the company, the game will centre around "Michael's music, his life, and the global issues that concerned him".
Planet Michael will be free to play, but there's going to be microtransactions for certain aspects of the game, described as "occupations" by the developers. You'll be able to "engage in collaborative in-game activities with people worldwide", too -- which begs the inevitable question of how the game will protect minors. There's a million tabloid headlines just waiting to be written.
"Entire continents will be created that will celebrate Michael's unique genius in a way that underscores his place as the greatest artist of all time," claim the developers.
Martin Biallas, CEO of SEE Virtual Worlds, told CVG: "When we first approached the Estate and talked about creating Planet Michael, one of our primary goals was to build an interactive environment where fans from all over the world come together to affirm Michael's life-long dedication to fostering global friendships."
It's not the only Michael Jackson game in development either. Ubisoft has a dancing game in the works that'll arrive just before Christmas on the Wii, DS and PSP, and on Kinect and Playstation Move next year.
The biggest question, however, it whether it comes anywhere near close to this:

Photo Credit: CC-licensed: Tipoyock

 

 

Nintendo 3DS to arrive in the UK in March

 
The 3DS will hit shelves in America and the UK in March 2011, Nintendo has announced at a press briefing in Tokyo.

The newest iteration of the portable games console pumps out 3D visuals without the need for special spectacles. Thanks to its tiny display and stereoscopic technology, the upcoming device lets you leave behind the goofy 3D goggles, while still offering graphics that appear to leap out from the screen.

Nintendo announced that the 3DS will arrive in Japan on February 28th, at a cost of 25,000 Yen (about £189). Information for gamers in the West was a little more vague: we’ll get our hands on the console sometime in March, and no exact price was given.

The gaming giant also announced that the system will let players download older games from a back catalogue of retro machines. Much in the same way that the Wii’s Virtual Console contains a treasure trove of vintage titles from consoles like the NES and Turbo-Grafx 16, the 3DS will pack the store with games from the Game Boy, Game Boy Colour and Game Boy Advance. You’ll also be able to get some carefully curated classics that have been updated with 3D visuals.

More was revealed about the system’s ‘tag mode’ too. It’s a way for the system to share data with other 3DS players, even if it's turned off. Saunter down a busy London street with your 3DS in your pocket, and you might find, when you next boot up the machine, that you’ve transferred scores with another Ridge Racer player or won an automated Street Fighter match without even knowing.

The 3DS will also be getting the Wii’s cute avatar system, Mii. However, unlike its big brother, you won’t have to mess around with sliders and menus to make your perfect digital recreation. Simply snap a photo of your face, and the console will construct a virtual photo-fit for you.

The console already has an impressive and exhaustive list of top games, franchises and developers lined up to make games for it. Hideo Kojima is recreating PS2 stealth game Metal Gear Solid 3 in 3D, Capcom is bringing its most popular franchises Mega Man, Resident Evil and Street Fighter, and Square is making games based on Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.

AmpiApps

How quickly can you design, test and launch a cross-platform mobile phone app to the world? A team of coders and designers at app developer Grapple gave themselves the challenge of seeing what could be completed in just 24 hours, working through the night with the intention of launching a finished app by 12:00pm BST on 1 October, 2010.

The app is called Ampi Apps -- a soundboard aimed at teens. Its function is -- as most soundboards are -- to play sounds that are in some way entertaining, from three categories: 'Animals', 'Annoying' and 'Celebrations.'

The challenge was to create a cross-platform application within -- one piece of code translated to work on simultaneously on three competing mobile platforms. The Grapple team developed the application for Android phones, the Nokia N6, Nokia N97, BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Curve simultaneously using its own technology. Usually, says Alistair Crane, Grapple's CEO, this would be a process completed over four weeks.

The team worked through the night over the past 24 hours to build the application – based on a focus group of shoppers on London's Oxford Street who were interrogated about their favourite types of mobile app. Apparently they like soundboard apps. Who knew?

Since Grapple was involved only in the design and build process, leaving the idea to its focus group. The first four hours were taken up with Photoshop work and user interface sketches. The rest of the time was used to code, test, code, test, code and test -- in that order, mostly -- until a finished product was produced for all three platforms.

Speaking to Wired.co.uk during the build process, Crane said he hoped the project would yield between 5,000 and 10,000 downloads across all platforms in the 24 hours that the app will be available. It'll be removed from the web at midday on 2 October, 2010.

You can get hold of the app by clicking this link from your phone's browser, or by texting the word ampi to 60066. Standard network rates apply.

Street View arrives in Antarctica

Google's Street View software is now available for all seven of the Earth's continents, with the introduction of imagery from Antarctica.

Google Maps' VP of engineering, Brian McClendon, visited an island in Antarctica earlier in the year, and took a Street View camera along with him to snap a few 360-degree panoramas. Half Moon Island was the destination, which can be found in an archipelago off the tip of western Antarctica, south of Argentina. It's home to a colony of Chinstrap penguins, who can be seen waddling around in several of the shots.

The company has also added content from Brazil and Ireland, covering landmarks like Copacabana beach, and Ireland's Ring of Kerry. You can see them by navigating to the relevant location in Google Maps, then dragging the little orange figure above the zoom bar onto the map. In Antarctica, wonderfully, the little orange figure is replaced with a penguin. Blue sections will appear, denoting images that can be viewed, and any large blue sections (rather than just dots) are Street View sections.

It's also possible to view Street View content in Google Earth. You need to switch on the layer in the bottom left, and then zoom close into an area with Street View content available. You'll see a series of orbs, and zooming further into those will give you access to the images.

What are your favourite sights in Google's new Street View imagery? Drop us a link in the comments below.

Update: It appears that people are already coming across interesting discoveries in the new Street View data.

Why TV will outlive newspapers?

In one vision of the future, the question is not if, but when, content gets revolutionised. Viewed from this perspective, the contemporary history of Big Media is a sequence of car crashes involving first the music business, then newspapers, followed by the book industry, Hollywood, magazines and television.
But what if technology affects content not just at different speeds, but with very different end results? What if different media evolve in very different ways? What if newspapers die and television lives?
That’s one of the possibilities that came bounding forth from Ofcom’s latest Communications Market Report this week. This 377 page exercise in trend-spotting (if you’re feeling lazy, you can peruse a 373-slide deck of graphs instead) maps out in minute detail how we consume media for up to seven hours a day. From the time we spend on landline calls and Facebook to our peak-time viewing habits, Ofcom has measured our activity and asked us what we think about it.
Free from commercial influence, this is research that slows down our expectations, suggesting that digital media still plays a minority role in the life of the nation. Instead, more than ever, one traditional medium sits close to the centre of the swirling mosaic of consumption outlined by Ofcom. We’re talking about old-fashioned, linear, one-to-many, non-interactive broadcast television.
In how many ways does Ofcom confirm the supremacy of telly? Through the peak of boom and the trough of bust, the amount of money flowing into the television business has continued to grow. In 2004, television was a £10bn industry. Today, the medium gets by on £11.1bn. That’s the value of the whole caboodle in revenue terms: licence fee (25 percent), advertising (28 percent) and pay TV subscriptions (41 percent).
Ofcom’s research also suggests that the small screen is becoming highly efficient in industrial terms. The amount of money broadcasters spend on content has remained roughly constant for the past three years (at approximately £5bn a year). Yet last year, broadcasters pumped out content like never before, transmitting 1.7m hours of content into our homes. That represents an increase of 22 percent on transmission hours during 2008.
Have we turned away from a medium that spreads its static investment ever more thinly across more channels and more hours?
Not a bit of it. Two-thirds of us believe that the quality of television “improved” or “stayed the same” last year. According to Ofcom, the average Briton watched 3.45 hours of television a day last year. That’s 3 percent more than in 2004.
Ofcom does a good job of illuminating numbers like these. As we were told repeatedly this week, we do a good deal of multitasking. We watch television with our notebooks on our laps; we listen to online music while messing about on Facebook.
In messy scenarios like this, it makes sense to ask two questions. What level of importance do we attribute to rival media and how much attention do we pay to them?
These are subtly different things. For example, we tend to pay relatively little attention to text messages, but regard them as relatively important. Gaming is close to being the opposite: it demands a lot of our attention, but in the grand scheme of things, we consider it relatively unimportant.
When it comes to mainstream media, older Britons (those aged 50 or above) behave as you’d expect. They rate print media as very important, yet only moderately deserving of their attention, despite the best efforts of headline writers. Here, the cultural obligations of an earlier era are still visible. News isn’t always enjoyable, but it’s important. Reading it is something that we ought to do in order to become better-informed citizens.
Adults aged 16-24 think very differently. They rate print media as far less important. Yet interestingly, they’re willing to pay more attention to to newspapers than their older peers -- when it appeals to them.
Dutiful high-mindedness is on the way out. Attention-seeking coverage is the defensive tactic that will prolong the life of print. Predictably, this is bad news for broadsheet newspapers. It also explains why the average circulation of weekday broadsheet newspapers in the UK fell by 13 percent YOY in July, while tabloid circulations fell by only four percent.
Opinions differ about newspapers. Yet when Ofcom asks us similar questions about television, a very different picture emerges. Young and old, natives and immigrants, we tend to think alike about telly. Both 16-24s and the over-50s pay attention to it. Both consider the medium relatively important. In fact, television sits close to the centre of both camps’ consumption patterns.
What is it that makes television different from newspapers? Perhaps there’s a clue in the ad campaigns with which Sky promotes its HD channels. No doubt the last time a newspaper proprietor ran a creative like this was during the 15th century, when paper was replacing animal skin as the medium of choice for ink-based communication.
It’s far more exciting to consume content on platforms that improve on an incremental basis. The arrival of digital television, PVR technology and HD transmission gives marketers the opportunity to hype the experience of consumption. It gives us the pleasure of shopping for new hardware and services.
In a world of fragmentation (and rapidly declining print circulations), traditional telly stands out as a no-nonsense route to the mass market for advertisers. As we emerge from recession, ITV is posting bigger YOY rises in ad revenues than the vast majority of traditional media organisations, some of whom are still seeing their ad revenues shrink. This, it’s worth remembering, is a company whose quasi-monopolistic sales operation is regulated by government.
Piracy? For broadcasters, it remains a peripheral concern. Most of the television we watch is still free to air. All of it can be time-shifted in a variety of ways. And when it comes to content and rights, broadcasters remain in a stronger position than the newspaper proprietors who have grown accustomed to seeing their exclusives ripped off and regurgitated within seconds of publication.
Broadcasters are surrounded by higher barriers to entry. If Five likes something that Channel Four has broadcast, it cannot simply record and re-transmit the content free from the threat of legal action. Broadcasters have held on to what makes them unique more effectively than the newspaper publishers, book publishers and music executives who went before them.
Whether they are sufficiently different that they can finance their expensive content with the dimes generated by digital advertising remains to be seen.
If not, like Rupert Murdoch, they can always ask the audience to pay up. Judging by Ofcom’s findings, many of us would do so.

Next launch own brand tablet

Surprise launch is low cost, low spec

In a move that nobody really saw coming, highstreet brand Next has launched an own brand tablet pc, imaginately called the Next 10" Tablet.

The device includes a 10" WXGA LCD touchscreen display, 2GB Storage (internal) and an 8gb Micro SD card , 1ghz Arm 11 processor and 802.11b/g WiFi, 2 x USB ports, microphone and headphone socket. The device is clearly aimed at casual home users rather than dedicated techies, however. It only boasts a three hour battery life, which pretty much restricts it to sofa browsing and home use. Additionally, the screen is single rather than multi touch.


One upside to the basic specs, however, is the price. At just £180, it’s by far the cheapest tablet available- and if you fancy it you can pick up one of the tablets now at the Next Directory.

HTC Mondrian: official shot leaked

HTC Hub on board, but still no final specs.

Microsoft’s 11 October event is edging ever closer. But if you can’t wait a couple of weeks for your Windows Phone 7 fix, then this new pic of the HTC Mondrian should tide you over.

Unearthed by BestBoyZ over in Germany, the shot shows the Mondrian striking an official pose for the first time. It’s still unclear whether Mondrian will be the final name and where this fits in with stablemates such as the Mozart and HD7, both of which are set to rock Windows Phone 7 too.

HTC Hub is shown on the front screen, but that aside there’s still no news on what specs we can expect

Samsung drops Symbian

Sammy's Symbian forum to be shut down by December.

Samsung has followed Sony Ericsson and confirmed that it will no longer be supporting Symbian. The Korean giant is planning to shut its Symbian forum for developers in December, before deleting all Symbian content.

The move, announced in an email to devs, is hardly a big surprise. Sammy’s focus is very much on its own Bada OS, as well as Google Android and Windows Phone 7, the latter set to play a big role in the coming weeks.

Samsung has said, however, that it will remain a member of the Symbian Foundation, but with no new phones being developed, it leaves only Nokia flying the flag for its recently rejogged OS.

The timing couldn’t be worse for the Finns, coming as it does in the same week when the flagship Nokia N8 starts shipping, loaded with the all-new Symbian 3.

Google Street View Brazil photographs corpses

Google removes images of bodies from Street View in Brazil.

Google Street View launches never go quite according to plan. After catching a Shoreditch local vomiting, revealing the location of a secret SAS base and being run out of town by an angry mob in Buckinghamshire, the service has always been entertaining in equal parts for the technology itself and the speed bumps it hits along the way.

But the service's rollout in Brazil took a grisly turn when, just two days after launch, photos cropped up revealing two dead bodies that had been snapped by the Street View car.


The images first appeared on Brazil's mirror of Gizmodo, and shows one of the bodies just lying by the roadside. Google have since removed the images from Street View, and replaced them with a black screen, and have asked that anyone who discovers such images while using the service inform them immediately by using the 'report a problem' button.

Apple iPhone 3GS gets HDR photo update

iPhone 3GS users get a much-need camera upgrade

Whatever your stance on the Big A's line of iPhones, one area where they've never "changed everything" is in the camera department. Even the latest incarnation, the iPhone 4, only packs a decidedly average 5MP sensor, lagging far behind upcoming competing products from HTC and Nokia.


iPhone 4 owners got an update last month that improved the situation somewhat, letting them switch on a new HDR mode while using the camera, sprucing up dodgy photos and correcting lighting balance. And now the same upgrade is filtering down to 3GS owners and their 3MP cameras.

HDR (or High Dynamic Range) imaging on iPhone works by taking two photos of a scene one after the other. One photo is overly dark, the other overly bright, and the resultant photos are then merged together, cherry picking the best lighting from both originals. The result is more balance in light levels in the photo, soving the problem of a taking photos with pronounced areas of light and darkness.


iPhone 3GS users will need to update their phone's operating system to iOS 4 through iTunes before they can use the HDR feature, which will also give them all the other benefits like folders and fast app switching, Apple's version of multi-tasking, but if you don't mind a slight drop in speed as the 3GS struggles with the higher-powered OS, this upgrade is definitely worth a punt for snap-happy Apple customers.

10 Must-Have Apps for the New iPad Owner

The iPad has finally made its international debut, meaning that thousands and thousands of new users will be enjoying Apple’s latest device over the coming weeks.

With the launch of the iPad comes the international launch of the iPad App Store (), making it possible for us to play Words With Friends with our friends in Australia (). There are already thousands of apps available in the App Store, and with the exception of apps focused on media services like Netflix, ABC or Pandora (), most are also available internationally.

We’ve been fortunate enough to have the iPad in our screen-smudging paws for the past two months and in that time we’ve surveyed well over 100 apps and games for the new platform. While this list could easily be four or five times as long as it is, we wracked our brains and decided to pick ten of our favorite iPad apps for the new iPad owner.

---

1. Air Video

---

The iPad is a great media player. The size of the screen coupled with the quality of the display really makes it a great way to catch up on lots of content. Although you can use iTunes to transfer movie and music files to your iPad, converting and transferring can be a complicated and tedious process. This is why Air Video is so great — it makes it extremely simple to stream video from your Mac or PC to your iPad.

Just install the free Air Video server client on your PC, tell it what folders to watch or include and then fire up the app. Now select your computer and feel free to go through your lists of available content and watch it in great quality on the iPad! Air Video does a really terrific job of “live conversion,” meaning your video is converted as it plays, which saves time and makes it really easy to enjoy your video collection on the couch.

---

2. Real Racing HD

---

Real Racing for the iPhone was a great racing game. Real Racing HD is even better. The use of the accelerometer for turning and maneuvering might make you look a little weird to your friends, but the graphics, sound, controls and gameplay are all top-notch.

Seriously, this is a great racing game and its a great game to really show off the power of the iPad!

---

3. GoodReader for iPad

---

We’ve written about our affinity for GoodReader both on the iPhone and the iPad in the past, but it bears a repeated mention. Simply put, GoodReader is one of the best document readers/file managers out there. Period. You can connect to Dropbox (), Box.net, Google Docs (), FTP servers, and local computers, and download files directly off the web.

More than just a PDF viewer (though it is a great PDF viewer), the app can read a variety of different file types and can even let you open documents inside other apps to make editing a breeze.

---

4. Mondo Solitaire

---

Mondo Solitaire was one of the apps we highlighted in our early roundup of iPad video previews. In practice, the app is extremely addictive and extremely entertaining.

Mondo Solitaire comes in two varieties, a pack of the most popular games or the whole shebang. If you like card games, we recommend getting the full package and then having a blast playing through tons of variations of Solitaire and Freecell.

I have personally spent many hours playing Mondo Solitaire that otherwise could have been spent sleeping or being productive.

---

5. Wired Magazine

---

Released earlier this week, Wired for the iPad has already sold over 24,000 copies. For good reason too: Wired for the iPad is a great example of what publishers and content creators can do when they really fire on all cylinders.

While we aren’t sure if we would buy Wired every month without some sort of better subscription plan, the first issue, which includes a look at the making of Toy Story 3, is really worth checking out.

---

6. Kindle for iPad

---

Apple’s iBooks application is fantastic, but when it comes to content selection, Amazon still has the lead. Kindle for the iPad is a really good e-reader app, and makes it easy to browse through books. It seamlessly launches the web-based book store to make purchasing a snap.

We think Apple has the edge in overall presentation, but you can’t beat Kindle in price or selection. Also, while not as utterly beautiful as iBooks, Kindle for the iPad is still great to look at.

---

7. Epicurious

---

Even if you’re like me and cooking consists of re-heating take-out and making reservations, there is something to love about the Epicurious app. There are so many recipes and ideas, not to mention gorgeous pictures, that this is a great app to have on hand before hitting the market or just to gaze at while waiting for the pizza delivery guy.

---

8. Dropbox

---

If you are a Dropbox user, you owe it to yourself to get the Drobox app for the iPad. It brings all of what makes the iPhone app great and makes it even better. You can save content directly to your device, you can upload content off your device and you can view and playback media content all in the app.

Dropbox is a great way to stay connected to the documents on your computer no matter where you are.

---

9. The Guardian Eyewitness

---

UK publication The Guardian released a really terrific iPad app that features its stunning photography. Visually, this app is one of our favorites. The form factor of the iPad makes it perfect for really enjoying and studying the art that accompanies news stories.

---

10. NewsRack

---

NewsRack is our current pick as the best newsreader available for the iPad. It syncs with Google Reader () seamlessly, so if you add a feed, it is added to Google Reader — if you remove it, it’s removed there too. However, you can selectively sync only certain feeds or categories, which can make news reading on the iPad more manageable.

The iPad is a terrific way to browse the web, and that includes RSS feeds. NewsRack is a top-notch app that also works on the iPhone, if you want to keep everything in sync across devices.

Sky 3D tees off

Official launch includes 3D Ryder Cup and two 3D flicks.

Sky 3D has teed off this morning, ending months of waiting for the UK’s first complete 3D channel. The new offering, which has already aired 3D football games in pubs across the country, is showing the Ryder Cup from Celtic Manor right now.

On top of being able to feel like you’re right there in south Wales, getting drenched with the world’s top golfers, you’ll also be able to immerse yourself in two movies over the weekend too: Monsters vs. Aliens and Bolt.

Of course, to play nice you’ll need a 3D TV, the requisite specs and a Sky+HD box with the best package available. If you have, then best hope the US wives don’t rush the green on the 17th, Brookline-style. Their 3D visages will be realistic enough that you’ll probably go berserk and end up destroying your pricey new boobtube.

Google's secret blacklist, crazy scary people

Never let it be said that technology is boring...

The more eccentric side of tech's last seven days:

Next offers low-cost tablet
High street brand Next, best known for polo shirts, coats and the like, is selling its own tablet computer. Pretty baffling stuff, but the could the company's low-spec, low-cost approach actually work for casual buyers?


The UK's first next-gen broadband going to... Cornwall
Call us narrow minded if you must, but this confused us somewhat; Cornwall isn't the first place we'd build a super powered internet network. Cue 'surfing' the web jokes aplenty


Google Instant: Not so instant
That is, of course, if you're being naughty. Turns out Google uses a crafty blacklist of words associated with the grimier corners of the interwebs, to stop innocent passersby being accidentially exposed to the nasty stuff like porn and certain notorious videos.


Samus Aran doing burlesque
Not something you necessarily expect to see every day, but now we have...it seems so right. Pay atention, Nintendo. This is how it should be done.


Woman drives 200 miles to kill a guy who was mean to her online
This is absolutely terrifying. From now on, T3 promises to be very, very nice to everyone online. Forever.


Android robot becomes self-aware, enslaves mankind
Alright, not true. It did hobble around an expo for a few days though. It's the mark of a successful company when you can afford to have a little robot built of your mascot, as Google's Android duly proves.


Mark Zuckerberg has some money
£4.4 billion, to be precise. The social netowrking king, who's about to be immortalised in film (see the trailer below), now has more monies than Apple's Steve Jobs. And he's probably younger than you.

Entertainment Takes Center Stage on Bing

Bing has sharpened the way it presents results for entertainment-related queries. Top results for searchers looking for songs, movies, TV shows and games will include lyrics, channels for streaming music, trailers, showtimes and more. Some results will also include links for buying content through Microsoft and other online download services.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has introduced several changes to the design and content of its entertainment results on Bing, including ways to link searches to the content they're looking for more directly.

The changes are ultimately intended to make this portion of its search engine far stickier. That, of course, is hardly the traditional goal of a search engine, which by definition serves as a temporary conduit between content and consumer.

However, creating stickiness -- and possibly some new revenue streams -- appears to be the strategy that Microsoft has adopted with Bing as it continues to build incremental traffic, explained Rick Munarriz, senior technology analyst at The Motley Fool.

"The overall impression of the changes is that this is very much an AOLish move on Microsoft's part," he told the E-Commerce Times, referring to AOL's portal-like approach to the Internet.

In short, Bing wants users to view its Entertainment section as a trusted source to find information about movies, TV shows, music or casual games, as well as a spot to watch, play or listen to that content, according to Yusuf Mehdi, Bing's senior vice president. Search queries recognized as titles of popular entertainment content will result in ways to listen to streamed music or watch previews.

Bing has added an e-commerce element to many of these new features, giving consumers the ability to purchase the content they have found on the page from providers both inside and outside of Microsoft.

What It Offers

For example, Bing has added a lyrics search feature and the ability to listen to full-length song streaming for more than 5 million songs through Microsoft's Zune music service.

Consumers get a single play of every song in the catalog. "When it's time to buy, we'll offer you the ability to purchase and download songs from Zune, iTunes and Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) MP3," according to Mehdi.

The page also now offers detailed information on more than 35,000 games, including reviews, cheats and walkthroughs. Nearly 100 popular casual games can be played within Bing along with social features that allow players to invite friends to the game.

The page has also gathered a collection of 1,500 full-length TV episodes to watch online. For movie lovers, it offers up reviews and real-time Twitter and Facebook sentiments. For those who want to catch a show in a theater, it offers traffic information as well as directions, nearby restaurants and parking information from Bing Maps.

"It's the four horsemen of entertainment," The Motley Fool's Munarriz commented.

That Bing would move to a portal approach so early in its development is interesting but also a reality of the marketplace, he said.

Bing is never going to catch up with Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) barring some completely unforeseen development with Google, Munarriz noted. "Bing has been positioning itself as a catch-all for search content from the beginning and now is developing this model even more."

The move might also help with advertising revenues, he added, as such content tends to favor display advertising.

Been There, Seen That?

In many ways this move to a portal model is a replay of what Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) attempted when it lost its lead in the search market to Google several years ago, said Stephen Woessner, business education outreach coordinator at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse Small Business Development Center.

Google's response was to maintain a relentless focus on providing the best search platform, which is why Google still owns the majority of the search market, he said. "If Bing wants to displace Google in the search market, they need to focus on being the best search engine and not a multimedia company. And search is what powers the advertising model."

Facebook Phone

Facebook on Monday denied a weekend report that it is preparing to launch a branded phone designed to make the mobile phone experience more social, Facebook style.

Although rumors spread following an anonymously sourced report that first appeared on TechCrunch purporting that such a phone is coming, the company said that while it is working on spreading its presence in the mobile space, it is not getting into the hardware business.

Facebook Denial

Even Facebook employees sometimes call the project the "Facebook phone," said Facebook spokesperson Jamie Schopflin, but she dismissed the term as a nothing more than an "attractive soundbite." Facebook is working on everything from HTML 5 version of the site to apps to "deeper integrations with some manufacturers," she said.

"Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems in a good way to enable this," Schopflin noted.

Questionable Approach

If Facebook really is thinking about building a phone, it might want to think again, suggested Michael Morgan, an analyst with ABI Research. The idea strikes him as similar to retired basketball legend Michael Jordan's brief and lackluster dalliance with baseball.

"When it comes down to it, stick with what you know," he told TechNewsWorld.

IDC analyst Al Hilwa was more blunt.

"Facebook phone sounds like an absurd idea," he said.

Why It Makes Sense

However, short of going all in and building its own phone from the ground up immediately, Facebook may be on to something if its initial goal is simply to become more integrated with the mobile experience.

Facebook, Morgan said, could make a case for developing a "super Facebook app" and deeply integrating it with a handset's operating system so that it could take better advantage of location-based services, augmented reality and other features increasingly prevalent on smartphones. After all, mobile is widely seen as the hot growth market, and companies that want to get in on it need to move aggressively to capture market share.

"Maybe they'd want to do this as a no-profit business, to draw people in," he said.

If the integration between the app and the handset were tight enough, Morgan said he could see a point at which Facebook might want to stop negotiating with a handset maker about how the phone would be made and simply have it designed for them

selves.

And Why It Doesn't Make Sense

But the potential pitfalls of such a route are legendary.

"Remember the Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Kin?" Morgan said.

Microsoft pulled that phone series off the market after just a few weeks of what were widely reported to be abysmal sales numbers. If Facebook were to build a phone that similarly went over poorly, it could do more harm than good to the company's brand image.

Even if it did well, the idea of a phone dominated by a single app flies in the face of conventional smartphone wisdom -- that a large and healthy constellation of applications and developers supporting the phone are critical to a smartphone's success.

A Facebook-branded phone wouldn't do much for helping the company expand its already formidable presence in the mobile space, Hilwa said, because it would likely be restricted to one or two carriers and limit potential penetration.

"I'm not sure it's going to get them a lot more reach than it has already," he said.

Jailbreak Could Boost Apple TV's Wow Factor

The Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Dev Team has proven that the Apple TV, just out of the starting gate, can indeed be jailbroken.

Generally, jailbreaking a device means developers can gain the necessary root access to develop their own apps or customizations. This particular jailbreak, via the SHAtter exploit that was first used on the iPod touch 4G, is not ready for prime time, according to the developers.

It will take more iterations and development work before consumers can being installing third-party apps on Apple TV, Rob Walch, host of Today in iPhone, told MacNewsWorld. "Right now, this is a story of 'dog catches car.' Now that he has it, what does he do next?"

That said, it is not surprising the jailbreak succeeded so quickly. The new Apple TV box runs a full version of iOS, noted Walch, which is vulnerable to the SHATtter exploit. The tool the Dev Team built for SHAtter -- Pwnage -- apparently can trick Apple TV into removing its firmware image and allowing a jailbroken image to be installed.

Jailbreakers Lead, Apple Follows

One way or another apps will be coming to Apple TV, Walch predicted. Either developers will learn how to install them via the jailbreak or Apple will allow consumers to use them on the device, or both.

It's noteworthy that iOS 4.0 contained many of the most-desirable features that users were able to add after jailbreaking 3.0, such as the customization of background images and themes, and the ability to share the iPhone screen with a Mac computer.

"I think Apple is going to allow people to run certain niche apps, like ABC or Hulu," Walch predicted.

One problem could be the interface -- Apple TV doesn't have a touchscreen, and a remote is not sufficient for what would be required. However Apple TV specs do include Bluetooth, Walch pointed out, which would support Apple's multitouch Magic Trackpad.

Google TV

Much of Apple's thinking will be influenced by what Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) does with Google TV, Walch suggested. "The hardware Apple has put in there will allow them to make a wide variety of responses to Google TV, depending on the features they release."

If competition really steps up -- either from ambitious third-party developers or Google TV -- Apple TV could become a very robust unit at only US$99, he said.

The best-case scenario -- from the perspective of the consumer, at least -- is bound to unfold, said Laura DiDio, principal of ITIC.

"Consumers are hungry for apps on a variety of Apple platforms," she told MacNewsWorld, and they don't want to wait for Apple to come through."