Future of the Xbox: Part 1

With Robbie Blake leaving Microsoft, the future of the Xbox must look bleak. He was the pioneer of the Xbox and surely, without him, it'll lose innovation and turn into... well, the PS3: a device that was once ground breaking but now just isn't that exciting. Microsoft now don't have a prolific character who can be decisive for the future of the Xbox. Now, without Blake's presence, one could argue that the Xbox will be doomed.

With senior officials at Microsoft now reporting to Ballmer directly, the middle man - who was needed at Microsoft - is now gone and Microsoft may pay the cost. Despite the success of the Xbox 360 and games like COD Modern Warefare 2, the fortunes could change very quickly (remember Windows Mobile?) and this could spell disaster for the Xbox.

Ballmer can't possibly keep the Xbox progressing, so without Blake, the Xbox is certainly doomed for failure. In Part 2 I'll look at how the Xbox could possibly achieve greater things.

How To: Improve Laptop Battery

There are a number of ways that one can improve one’s battery life on a laptop. Many things are basic, but there are also some more intricate methods which can boost battery life and therefore productivity if you’re out and about or just not near a power source. One of the easiest ways to improve battery life is by decreasing screen brightness. Different versions of Windows and Mac use different commands, but it is often a function key which enables you to darken your screen which saves a surprising amount of battery life. Also, turning off WiFi will also increase battery because, let’s face it, it’s often on when we don’t use it. Other methods of increasing battery life are closing down applications, just go into task manager and shut some down you’re not using. For Vista users, there’s another, more intricate way, that you can increase the battery life, and this is probably similar on Windows 7 although I can’t remember because it’s a while since I used the RC and I don’t have the full version. Now, for a Vista user, go into Control Panel, then Mobile PC and Power Options from there. Once you see your power plans, click on change plan settings, then click on change advanced power settings, and do the annoying Vista confirmation stage then get clicking on how to save battery. It’s very easy and self explanatory, and I reckon it’ll be similar for Windows 7. So, now you can use your laptop on the go for that little bit longer now.

Google Desktop

I am quite a Google fan. I use Gmail, blogger, Picasa, and now Desktop. As a Vista user I could use Microsoft's own but that just isn't appealing and I thought I'd give Google's version a try. It has a one distinct advantage: less is more. Microsoft's version has loads of plugins which bombard you when you visit the site, whereas Google's offering just has a few pages of plugins. This is so much easier as it has everything you'd want from it. For me, I've got an internet data counter, an RSS feed, weather, CPU statistics and the annoyingly ever-present search icon. However, I have it off for when on other pages, otherwise my 15" screen would be made into 13.5" which I can't see the point of. I like Google Desktop, and recommend it thoroughly over Microsoft's version of a similar free product.

Apple you Bastards

When the iPhone was released we all saw the news filling up with rival companies trying and failing to battle against Apple's innovative touchscreen handset with their own iterations. Of course, the first iPhone had a whole load of holes. So the rivals had plenty of potholes they could pour cement into and for a while they had devices superior to what had fallen from the Apple tree.

But not for long...

Apple has this crafty way of releasing a product with more features missing than you shake a bar of Ether at, but filling in all of these holes with the next iteration, and slowly but surely adding new innovations with each stage of a device's life.

Why?

When you consider the way the iPhone took over you can begin to see a pattern of hype building up and people collapsing with disappointment when they find that features they hoped for didn't arrive. But then Apple does something amazing. They manage to maintain the upbuild of hype for an entire year until the following iteration of said device is unveiled and brushes away all those complaints.

The same is happening with the iPad. It lacks a whole load of features such as multitasking, a camera, widescreen video capabilities, Flash etc. But people still buy it despite it's flaws. But over time they grow annoyed with the flaws.

Then the new version comes along and they're so annoyed with the flaws that they buy it. So Apple is constantly making more money. All by making the first version of a product in a range of devices with a load of features missing.

This is a very clever trick which most people miss. But it's far too late to do anything about it. Nowadays it's essential to have at least one Apple device or you're simply lacking style. Or so the world seems to think...

Well done Apple, you crafty bastards.

Four Epic Things About Google Chrome's New Release

Google just announced a brand spanking new release of their Chrome browser with a whole load of new features. Most of the changes are under the bonnet but here are four very epic things every Chrome user will love!

Mac n' Linux Beta = Gone!

Whereas Google Chrome was only in beta on the Mac OS X platform and various Linux distrobutions at the last release, it's now a fully-fledged browser. To the victor there's not a lot of spoils, bar massive leaps ahead in the stability department.

Syncin' 'Cross PCs!

Last time on Google Chrome, investigators found the same bookmarks scattered across several different PCs. This time, what will they find? A whole lot more, and that includes themes, homepage(s) and startup settings.

Rumour has it that even web content, preferred language settings, and page zoom settings can be synced across multiple PCs!

That's incredible.

Incogxtension

Once you've downloaded and installed the new Chrome, pop into the Extensions Manager and you'll see something pretty awesome: extensions can now be optionally activated under Incognito mode!

HTML High 5!

Those aforementioned investigators are now using Chrome at the scene of the Chrime, sorry, crime. Thanks to incorporation of HTML5, they can easily geolocate the location of the crime scene and send it back to headquarters.

Meanwhile, another investigator is geeking out over the fact that App Cache and web sockets are now fully supported.

And a third investigator is using HTML5 to drag and drop top secret files from an Explorer window directly into online email clients within the browser.

Incredible, Chrome, simply incredible.

Technologically Speaking...

As soon as I fix a problem with my laptop another one seems to arise. For a couple of months now I’ve been having issues with my laptop crashing over and over again. At first I blamed it on running too many applications. Then I thought it was a faulty pirated copy of AVG Pro. But I finally located the real cause of the problem a few days ago. My laptop was overheating due to overuse and bad maintenance.

So I bought an Orion Notebook Cooler. I’ll be writing a full review soon with pictures but for the time being I’ll just say that it’s a silver slab which sits at an angle and propels air upwards. Sit your laptop on it and the components will be kept cool.

After the laptop cooler was set up, the crashing stopped instantly. But twice today I’ve had a blue screen of death abruptly shut down my system. This laptop may be only a year old but it’s gone thru a lot of formatting. It started with Windows Vista OEM before being upgraded to Windows 7. Then I downgraded to Windows XP, before migrating to Linux Mint 8, and then coming back to XP. That’s a lot of formatting.

Whether the formatting has lead to some sort of corruption or wearing out of the hard disk or various other internal components is beyond me. I’m far too scared to take a peek inside lest I cause further damage.

But I think I can live with one or two BSODs here and there.

Meanwhile, my Skypephone S2 seems to enjoy receiving text messages twice and this is making my inbox fill up, in turn, slowing down Amoi. Why, oh why, technology, do you always fail so badly?

Move Over, Stuff

There was a time when stuff.tv was my number 1 spot for technology news. However, times are changing and now engadget is my favourite for a number of reasons. First, the reviews are better because they are in more depth and are unbiased, whereas stuff gives their Hot Buy to just about every device which means it is basically worthless now.

Also, the journalism is better in engadget with people like Joshua Topolsky, Chris Ziegler and more. Stuff.tv has people who aren’t that great to listen to and don’t present podcasts very well.

Engadget doesn’t have a forum, but stuff’s isn’t great with few posts and many spammers on it. Despite being one of the top posters on the forums, I don’t like it very much any more and I’m not going to put the effort in if I’ve got better stuff… like tumblr!

Engadget also coverages the latest news fantastically well, whereas stuff doesn’t report on everything and often is late to report by a day, which is quite a lot. Stuff also seems to be unsure of itself. Its news feed is filled with stuff I’d put in the blog section, but then they’d have nothing in the news. Engadget just reports on news and does reviews. Simple.

Stuff wasn’t always like this. Go through the news archive and there were times when there would be a plentiful number of posts per day on news specifically and decent posts in the blog section. But times have changed and so has the quality of the site so now engadget is my favourite.

Before I went to the zoo today I began thinking of ways I could solve some overheating issues with my laptop which continuously led to crashing. I asked my father if it would be okay to take a brief visit to PC World. So we walked in and the first thing I see are laptop coolers. I ended up purchasing the Orion Aluminium Notebook Cooler for £29.99.

Definitely a bargain because it looks nice and stopped my overheating issues!

Google Doodle with Interactive Pacman!

Google Doodle's are edited alternations of Google's regular logo which appear on special occasions such as holidays or commemorations of various events commencing or even anniversaries of random products. A few months ago Google broke the boundaries of static Doodles by commemorating the 100th birthday of St Isaac Newton with an animated logo portraying an apple falling from a tree.

Now Google has decided to go one step further and commemorate the 30th anniversary of the birth of Pacman with a totally interactive alternation of the classic digital passtime in the shape of their logo!

Here are some photos:

NOTE

This game can be played using the directional keys or by clicking where you wanna go. If you're heading towards a ghost, click behind yourself, for example, and you'll turn around!

The New TweetDeck

Here are a few screenshots of the new TweetDeck update in action:

Allow TweetDeck access to Google Chrome to access web location services.

TweetDeck will find out where you are and set your location.

TweetDeck now knows where I am.

Choose from a range of previous locations or add new ones.

Record videos directly from your webcam and upload them to TwitVid.

New

Here are a list of the new features:

• Support for Foursquare and Google Buzz. The location-based services from your desktop are also new. TweetDeck for iPhone or iPod Touch were the only versions of this third-party applications which could tweet your location but now you can do it from the comfort of your own home.
• Scheduling tweets to be automatically post themselves in the future instead of posting themselves immediately after you hit Return.
• Some people you may wish to follow as not to be rude but their updates may get a little bit annoying, and with Global Filtering, it's now possible to hide updates from people you follow, by filling in a form within TweetDeck, choosing to filter out tweets based on username, hashtag, or even service, so if you don't wish to see '#justinbieber', Global Filtering will eject her from your TweetDeck stream, permanently.
• Pasting a URL into the tweet composition box results in it being shortened, but now, clicking the link will toggle between original and shortened URLs!
• Privacy is an important matter so your location will only accompanying regular tweets. If you send out a tweet in reply to someone, they won't be able to see your location. The developers obviously built this feature with privacy at it's core.
• Tweet translation is now easier to access and does a better job.

See the full list on the TweetDeck of new features on the TweetDeck download page here and grab a copy while you're there! It's the best third-party application available for PC and Mac without a doubt. Thanks for reading :)

PSP Game Review: Football Manager Handheld

Ok, so we know that Football Manager has made its way onto the iPhone, but what about the PSP version? After all, the PSP is an out and out gaming device, whereas iPhone isn't. Anyway, I've been playing it, and this is my review of it.

Ok, so you start the game and you're prompted to enter your name for the manager:

This isn't great on a PSP with having to move the buttons and it takes a while so this would be easier on the iPhone. So, you've done that, what next? Well, the game initialises itself. This takes but a moment. Once you've done that you choose your team:

Ok, so Portsmouth aren't Okay in finances any more. Now, I choose Manchester United, but I've restarted with a rubbish team because it's more fun that way. So you've chosen your team, the game now sets itself up:

You are then set to play. Now, you might not think it'd be much fun to play this game, but I've found it hugely addictive. When you're playing, you just see a commentary and stats:

This game is huge fun, despite appearances. Now, I'd recommend it for the PSP, however, I think the iPhone version would be better because there is a lot of clicking and touching the screen would be so much easier. Now, if you have an iPad, this is the game for it, whether it's scaled up or specifically for the iPad (whether that'll come or not remains to be seen). But, this is a smidge under £13 from amazon which is a great deal for a PSP game, even if it is more than an iPhone app.

Official Twitter App for iPod Touch and iPhone Review

The official Twitter app for iPod Touch and iPhone just hit the App Store with a loud bang and has caught the attention of those across Twitter via the trending topics as well as Twitter themselves tweeting about the release. Here is a quick review outlining some of the neat features and providing a series of quick screenshots to help you visualize the application before you come to use it.

The first thing you will see when you first install and launch the application are two buttons, a search box, and the trending topics themselves. From here, you can sign in, sign up, search for users or tweets, and look at trending subjects.

Click the 'Sign in' button and you'll be greeted with this screenshot, from where, in portrait or landscape modes, you must enter your details. I have used a dummy username and a dummy password here for security reasons.

Once you've signed in and had your account automatically authenticated, you'll finally come to the home stream, where you can view tweets posted by those who you follow, and scroll up and down using swipes of the finger. You may notice that there isn't a refresh button to see anywhere, but fear not, for simply dragging the stream downwards until you hear a click will automatically refresh the page.

Tap the '@' symbol icon on the bottom navigation bar to filter tweets down to your replies. You'll notice a blue glow if there are unread responses waiting. Tap a tweet to access 'retweet' and 'favourite' buttons.

Tap the magnifying glass if there's a specific term you wish to search for.
Searches can be saved by tapping the 'Save search' button after searching.

Tap the ellipsis to access miscellaneous stuff like your favourites, drafts, account management and general settings, or simply to peek at your profile. This is the place to go to if you wish to switch from using one account to another.

My profile, showing my location, my website URL, my biographical paragraph, my followers, those who I'm following, how many times I've tweeted, and how many tweets I have listed under my favourites. Each of these pieces of information can in turn be tapped to bring up a more details report, for example, tapping '33,130 tweets' would list all of my tweets, as shown here:

Here is the tweet composition screen in portrait orientation...

...and again in landscape orientation:

Here is the advanced tweet composition options, including photos, URL shortening, geo-locating and other such frilly niceties, which can be accessed by tapping the small button which by default reads '140', in portrait orientation...

...and shown a second time in landscape orientation:

So now that I've got down the basic facts and shown you some screenshots, is the app worth it? The advantage of the entire app being free instead of split into Lite and Full versions is an obvious advantage. It's also very easy to use and includes all the features you require for mobile tweeting. The ability to view most of the app in landscape mode is a third added bonus. It's also light on resources which means you won't see your battery life suffering as a result of using it. It's generally superior to the majority of other Twitter apps for iPodTouch and iPhone.
I'm using this long-term and I highly recommend you do the same.

Wireless sync now possible for iPhone

This isn't official though. You need a jailbroken iPhone and the app is from Cydia. Still, it shows what can be done if Apple weren't so tight with their trousers.

Vodafone 360 App review: Four in a Row

Connect 4 is one of those classic games that will live with the human race for decades. Now, it's taken to mobile devices such as the iPhone, Android, and now Vodafone 360. It's free, so you stand to lose nothing if you download it. Now, I shall justify if you should or not.

One reason to get it is because it will provide short bursts of fun. However, I've found that it isn't very fun at all. In fact, it's quite boring. So, you're not going to get this game for fun, so why download it?

Well, I did because it was free and at the time I was new to Vodafone 360 so wanted some free apps quickly. However, this one isn't the best and I don't see why you should get it because it's not fun or amusing. If you're desperate for apps, go ahead, but it's not worth the bother, honestly.

First Person Tetris

I'm sure you've all heard of Tetris, and this brings it a step further. The controls are simply, but the game does take some time to get your head round it, literally.

Seems easy?

No, that is not a rotated image.

Game over...

Vodafone 360 App review: Noughts and Crosses

Noughts and Crosses is a free game from the App store. It has the bonus of being a 2 player game, which is so far the only one I've come across so far in the 2 months of downloading games for this device. It's a pretty fun game, you just tap the screen and it goes there and friendly battles are easy to occur with this game. I'd recommend it any day, just don't go looking for an amazing game though, a few minutes fun with a friend is all this is, and it does it perfectly.

Read on for more photos

How I Found Apple

I have been interested in computing, software, hardware, gadgets and technology for about two years now, but I’m still not particularly advanced in that area. It was a year before I really started getting into things.

At first I only knew of Microsoft.

One day, something changed all that.

I launched Internet Explorer (because I didn’t have a clue about other browsers back then) and decided to type in a random URL/web address. The first which came to my mind was ‘apple’, so I typed:

www.apple.com

As a result I ended up on Apple’s website. I clicked a load of stuff and soon I was finding out about Macs, iPods, iPhones etc. From that day forth my interest in technology rocketed into the clouds. Thank you Apple.

If you had chosen a different web address I wouldn’t be so passionate about tech.

a year later.......

A couple of days ago I did something similar, that is to say, I got so bored I typed in a random web address. (I’m now using Chrome by the way). Because I was thinking about my own personal life the first thing I thought of was me.

So…

www.me.com

…is what I typed.

As soon as the MobileMe website launched I became somewhat scared. On the two occasions in my life where I’ve typed random URLs, both are Apple-related. Is Apple stalking me? Do they cleverly choose domain names so that I wind up on them?

Scary people.

Living with the latest Spotify

I have had the latest Spotify for just over a week now and I thought I'd tell you how it's been like to live with.

I personally love how I can play my iTunes library (well, most of it) with my Spotify playlists. This means that my library has gone from around 2000 to millions.

The social feature isn't great for me, since very few of my friends use Spotify. However, for those who use a lot of Spotify it should be a great feature.

Playlists is handy, but playing friends' playlists is hard because sometimes it's their local tracks which you can't listen to, and annoyingly Spotify doesn't stick it onto a Spotify song, you just get silence.

However, I'm nit-picking, because this is a thoroughly great piece of software which has matured excellently and is now, arguably, top dog in the music services. Anyway, get Windows or Mac versions but you'll need an invite if you're cheap.

Bullethead or Bullet to the Head?

Nitrome is renowned for exploring new ways of using just the mouse and the keyboard of a basic computer system to open up a realm of exciting and innovative new styles of gameplay. Either that or Nitrome, which began several years ago as a two-strong team consisting of a single artist and a single programmer, are hard at work developing their own take on various classics, a move which tends to anger purists.

Now they've gone and released their own take on Space Invaders.

Nitrome hasn't totally ruined the legacy of a game which all geeks across the world love, adore and cherish, but 'Bullethead', as their new game is called, gives off a positively unoriginal stench. The game itself is fun but there are no original ideas, which gives off a negative vibe and makes the player wonder whether or not Nitrome's generally innovative approach to games development is dying away.

Perhaps they're in need of some new ideas?

I would love to see Nitrome continue developing games in the future but what I truly want them to avoid is falling into the pothole of resorting to other's ideas when they can't immediately concoct their own.

Nevertheless I must congratulate the company on recently starting development of their first game for the iPhone or iPod Touch platforms, a truly remarkable move from an ever-expanding team of developers who I can't help but commend.

Keep it up guys!

Play Bullethead here or visit Nitrome itself here.

Vodafone 360 App review: Swap Colours

Swap colours is a free app for Vodafone 360 which is just designed for amusement. The aim of the game is to align up the coloured rows before the time runs out. Sounds simple, and is!

You just tap the boxes to highlight them and make them move and this makes the game very intuitive to play. It isn't fantastic at passing the time on long journeys but it is great for a short blast on the train, rather than a long, sustained play on a plane. I thoroughly recommend this app for anyone on Vodafone 360.

Triple App review for Vodafone 360

So you'll have seen my first review for Apps on Vodafone 360 and that's going to be what I post in the near future. So, in this post I'll be quickly reviewing three apps: Twitter Trends, LifeCounter and the Mercedes E-Class Coupé App. I'll start with Twitter Trends.

It's rubbish.

All it does is show trending topics, Social Whale does that and so you don't need to bother clogging up your homepage with it. Don't download it.

Ok, so Twitter Trends isn't good. What about LifeCounter? Well, it was in Italian until I realised how to change the language. What it does is similar to the iDie app (I think that's its name) for iPhone. It works out how many days old you are. It's pretty basic but what it does it does well and doesn't mimic other apps. I wouldn't call it rubbish, but you'd probably only use it once and then forget about it and delete it soon after.

Now for the Mercedes E-Class Coupé App. You might think it's a game like Volkswagen sometimes does with its Apps for iPhone. However, it is basically the car brochure in digital form. I like the reading, so once I've read it all I'll delete it but unless you're a real car enthusiast, I don't recommend this app. In fact, I don't really recommend either of the 2 Apps reviewed in this post. I'll be reviewing more apps over time, so stick around for them.

Vodafone 360 App review: Social Whale

As a Vodafone 360 user, I have been struggling to find a decent twitter app. I tried "Twitta" but my tweets came through as "From API" so it looked like I was spamming. I also tried "Tweetit" but it also had the same problem. However, I was looking through the store last night and I came across Social Whale. I thought it looked promising with decent reviews, and I'm pleased to say it is great.

First bonus is that tweets from it don't say "from API" but "via Social Whale mini" which doesn't make me look like a spammer. Also, the layout is much better than the m.twitter site and even dabr which I'd use occasionally. There is a menu bar at the bottom where you can go to normal tweets, mentions and compose. There is also a settings bar which can even let you use GPS to see who's tweeting nearby. Handy.

One downside is that it doesn't run as a widget like Twitta but I'd happily sacrifice that for the benefits it brings. So, I'd definitely call it the best twitter platform for Vodafone 360. Download it from the shop for nothing, and you won't regret it.

Blogger vs Wordpress vs Tumblr

Ok, I've been blogging for just over 9 months now and I think it's time for a bit of reflection. You see, I started using Blogger's service only for this blog and my own blog (which I have discontinued). I love blogger. I love its layout and the fact you can edit just about everything in a professional manner yet also use it as a complete novice. However, I have always wanted to have my own blog elsewhere, so I tried wordpress. I didn't like it. There was no html editor like on blogger, and I felt uncomfortable with the dashboard. So, after a short spell of a few weeks with wordpress, I switched to tumblr for my personal blog and it is with tumblr that I have felt most comfortable.


However, wordpress isn't totally useless. Wordpress is the only service that shorts posts down to a wp.me/My-Post link whereas blogger does nothing and tumblr just has a post link which you can customise. So, wordpress wins in the URL department with tumblr coming second and blogger failing miserably.


Wordpress is also the only one to offer its own statistics about visitors, whereas for the others I use a statcounter. However, the wordpress one is nowhere near as good as a statcounter so, despite its first place, I still think I'd still install a statcounter in the long run. However, in other services, tumblr lets you reblog posts as well as like them. Blogger and Wordpress don't have this but Blogger has its own stuff. In the layout section of blogger, you can choose from over a thousand sidebar widgets for your site which is unmatched by Wordpress and Tumblr. You can also put 3rd party HTML codes in, but tumblr also allows this to a certain extent.


However, tumblr does have an advantage for storage. Blogger limits you to 1GB, Wordpress to 3, but as far as I can tell, tumblr has no limit. This is great, because I can upload images on the go and at home all I want, whereas for blogger and wordpress I'd use yfrog as it is unlimited and works well with twitter.


Tumblr also has something else going for it. Different types of post. On blogger and wordpress, you make posts. Whereas on tumblr, you can make photo posts, text posts (which you can add photos to), video posts, quotes, chats and audio posts! This is great as some of my posts are just funny images.


Also, tumblr is incredibly easy to use. I have also set up mobile for it, although I can't put captions on a photo post, or a photo on a word post, so I can only do either or. However, that's fine by me as I can put text in later or just do 2 posts.


So, the best service for online blogging is: Tumblr. It is just so easy to use, so well engineered and also well integrated with other blogs. I love it, and use it all the time. So, see my tumblr here and don't worry, I'll still use blogger for technokratos.

Everything Everywhere: rubbish name, great potential

So, Orange and T-Mobile have merged to make Everything Everwhere. It isn't an amazing name, I'd say it was rubbish in fact. However, with two of the largest names in the business merging, suddenly they've got 35.9% of the UK revenue and 36.6% of the customer share! Also, they'll have a total of 713 stores across the country and a mind-boggling 16522 employees. The merge will begin on the 1st of July, with the companies trying to cut costs by a staggering £3 billion. Was that costs of the phone contracts? However, they'll still act as Orange and T-Mobile to those who are on their networks now but hopefully, with Orange having the iPhone, T-Mobile will have it as well. Anyway, keep it locked here for the latest news and we'll bring you more on this riveting story as it unfolds.

iPhone 4G/HD Unveiled!

Kinda.




The last we saw was a Gizmodo editor playing around with an iPhone HD prototype after a drunken Apple engineer left it behind at a bar. Post-party. Since then that particular Gizmodo has had his house raided and a lot of equipment stolen.
<sarcasm> Apple didn't send those people around to raid his house of course </sarcasm>
Now we've got a Vietnamese bloke toying with it. And there's one main difference between this model and the one Gizmodo found: this one doesn't have two horrible screws at the bottom of the front face of the handset.
If those screws had made it to the final retail edition of the iPhone HD Apple's reputation for premium design would be, well, screwed.
How do we know that this is the official handset or prototype, and not some block of curved rectangular wood, painted black? Simple. That Vietnamese bloke tore open the device and found a chipset with marking identical to those printed all over the iPad's A4 processor.

What else is there to know about this prototype? For a start, the design has totally changed, replacing a bevelled rear with a flat surface. Then there's the front-facing camera and the fact that the display appears to be of a resolution much higher than that of previous iPhone models.
That's why I'm calling it the iPhone HD. If there's been an increase in screen resolution so fierce that individual pixels cannot be recognized, it's likely that the main camera will receive a similarly sudden burst in quality.

The most expensive iPad

So, you've got the best Mac and all that. However, you want to treat yourself to an iPad. So, you think, "Well, I can afford to spend many thousands on a Mac so I'll just tick every option and have myself the most expensive iPad". Well, that's the theory for too-rich-for-sense bloke who was on the site. Now, once he's ticked all the options, it comes to a staggering £1099.60!

However, that does include 3 Micro-SIM cards, but no contract. Anyway, you can pre-order (up to 2) iPads for the UK at the Apple Online Store.

Are phones susceptible to scratches?

Modern phones are made out of all sorts of durable and tough materials such as metal, plastic and sometimes even rubber, so you would expect them to be able to withstand common everyday knocks. However, I am led to believe that they are not as tough as you might expect. I'll give you an example that I have to live with. My Samsung H1 has been kept in a case since the day I got it about 7 weeks ago and already it has managed to get a couple of scratches!

I find this amazing since it's been kept inside a case for over a month. Still, with pocket objects such as keys hitting the case, maybe it's no surprise one of them got through.

0 Followers, 0 Following

Twitter is experiencing one of the worst crashes of all time after a celebrity pointed out that it’s possible to force any other user to follow you with a simple glitch exploitation. Twitter has followed this issue up and as it stands nobody has any followers. Or rather, nobody can see how many followers they have. And you won’t be able to see how many people following either, or who they are.

Standby, Twitter will be back soon.

iPod Touch App Review: Waterslide

Waterslide is a game which puts you in the trunks or bikini of a male or female character sliding down a long blue flume, surrounded by a range of skyscrapers, in a surrealistically amusing cityscape. Playing requires one finger or thumb and a wrist capable of tilting the device from side to side, allowing the integrated iPod accelerometer to pick up motion, thus controlling your on-screen avatar.

Waterslide is not a paid-for application, there is no separation between a ‘Lite’ and ‘Pro’/’Premium edition, the entire game is available completely free of charge. As soon as it’s installed and launched you’ll see two company logos followed by the main menu.

Dare:

And Fish Labs:

Once those two company logos are out of the way you’ll be asked whether or not you wish audio to be activated:

After you have chosen, behold, the main menu! Either ‘Play’ the game, look at ‘Instructions’, check out ‘Top Scores’ or change settings via ‘Options’. And, look, a Barclaycard logo!

Head into ‘Options’ and you’ll see three more buttons which will take you to various sets of settings. ‘Steering’ offers the ability to calibrate your accelerometer, alternate between two methods of braking, and even increase and decrease accelerometer sensitivity. ‘Audio’ simply includes sliders for sound effects and musical volume. ‘Display’ is a little more interesting with screen orientation, brake pad location and camera view options.

When the time comes when you wish to begin playing, just go back to the main menu and choose whether you wish your avatar to be male, or female:

And then you begin. The default view is first-person but this can be changed to third-person under Display Settings. Look at these two screenshots and choose your preference:

As you slide down the plume towards the finish line you should take note of the on-screen information. There’re two handy indicators on one side of the gameplay hub displaying points and the number of lives you have remaining. Shift your gaze to the other side of the screen to check the timer, which level you’re on, and how many gems you’ve yet to collect. In the bottom left corner (by default, can be changed to bottom left hand corner) is the brake button.

Tilt the device from left to right and your avatar will follow suit. Tilt the device towards you if you’ve activated accelerometer braking method to slow the character down. Collect as many gems as possible, don’t fall off the sides of the waterslide and avoid enemies. That’s it, really.

Once you’ve finished playing you’re able to submit your score to a leaderboard.

Waterslide is free, fun, and an innovative idea wrapped in wonderful graphics, so have a…

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