Android is a desolate wasteland when it comes to games - Wired.co.uk

This feature has been written by Owen Faraday, the editor of mobile games blog Pocket Tactics

There's an elephant in the mobile gaming room. Games writers try to avoid mentioning it for fear of inciting the loyalists on either side. But the elephant remains: let's just talk about it, shall we?

Android gaming stinks.

Pitchforks down, please. It gives me no pleasure to say it, but it's true. Compared to iOS, Android is a desolate wasteland when it comes to games.

We are now five years into the touchscreen smartphone revolution, and Google's Android operating system is by many measures ahead of its only significant rival, Apple. Most of the smartphones in the United States are Android devices -- Nielsen estimates that Google's devices make up 51 percent of the American smartphone market, with Apple's iPhone holding a comparatively modest share of 34 percent. The UK market has a similar stratigraphy. Android enjoys the backing of Google, a company that is synonymous with the internet itself -- as well as dozens of mobile technology giants the world over. Whereas Apple is the sole manufacturer of the iPhone with new models being released once a year or so, more than 600 different Android devices have been released in the last four years.

So why then isn't the status of the Android gaming scene commensurate with its lofty market position? For some reason, Android's significantly larger base of users doesn't attract game developers the way Apple's iOS does.

Angry Birds, the household name franchise that elevated mobile games into popular consciousness, and claims David Cameron and Salman Rushdie among its many fans, made its debut on iOS in December of 2009. Developers at Rovio didn't make the jump to Android until March 2011. The Angry Birds were a global entertainment brand selling plush dolls and velcro wallets before ever appearing on an Android device.

More subjectively, the arthouse mobile titles that pique the interest of game critics have all been iPhone and iPad games. Sword & Sworcery EP, which won the 2011 game of the year award from a number of mobile gaming blogs, including TouchArcade, is exclusive to iOS. Sword & Sworcery devs the Superbrothers have stated unequivocally that they have no interest in porting it to Android. Top-flight indie developers like TigerStyle, Rocketcat, Coding Monkeys, and Nimblebit either don't develop for Android at all, or outsource their Android development to third parties long after their iOS versions have launched. Of the twenty games that were nominated for Best Mobile/Tablet Game at the Golden Joysticks this year, only eight are available for Android -- and not a single one is an Android exclusive.

This is not a phenomenon restricted to the hip ivory towers of indie gaming. None of the top-selling Android games as of this writing are Android exclusives, whereas three of the top 15 best-selling games on the iPhone paid apps chart are only available on that platform. Even comparing like for like, games sell better on iPhone. "Android has huge numbers of users, yet from the sales figures I've seen from developers who have put games on both Android and iOS, the iOS version always receives far more purchases than the Android version," Mike Rose, UK editor at games industry magazine Gamasutra told me.

That's the width, breadth, and general demeanour of our elephant. If you accept that it exists, we can move on to a much more interesting question: why is it there? Why aren't the most creative, innovative game developers creating content for Android?

Android users don't buy games
There's a perception among developers that Android users are cheap penny-pinchers, like the guy who comes into the newsstand and leafs through the sport pages but never walks out with a purchase.

Rocketcat Games' Kepa Auwae, the maker of App Store hits such as Hook Champ and Mage Gauntlet voices a typical opinion. "Sure, you have a huge install base. But then you have a disjointed storefront and customer base that seems to generally prefer completely free games."

The games Rocketcat tend towards are fast-moving platform action games, which are the blockbuster crowd-pleasers of the gaming world. Makers of more niche titles know that their games have a narrower appeal, shrinking returns-on-investment and making Android's reputation for freeloading users that much more worrisome. "Android users expect to get apps for free or at least very cheap, but priced at $4.99 our game is more of a premium product," Sebastian Palkowski, the maker of baseball simulation iOOTP told me. A cult hit on PC and Mac, the iOOTP games are extremely labour-intensive to produce, and Palkowski fears he couldn't ever make a profit on Android. "We can't sell it for less, so I'm not 100 percent sure we are a great fit [for Android]."

There's hard data to back up the developers' fears. A survey conducted by Android app makers Swiftkey in 2011 found that 39 percent of iPhone users had more than 20 paid apps on their device, compared to just 10 percent of Android users with the same tally. A remarkable 12 percent of Android users had no paid apps at all -- four times the proportion of "paid-app refusers" on iOS. Swiftkey repeated the survey in 2012 and found that the gap was closing, but still present.

What accounts for this difference in attitudes towards paid apps is a matter of conjecture. Veteran tech blogger (and admitted Apple partisan) Jon Gruber hypothesises that most iPhone buyers are buying into the Apple smartphone ecosystem with their eyes wide open -- apps are part of the core selling proposition for iOS devices. A big part of Android's enormous lead in market share, Gruber contends, is unsophisticated consumers who aren't interested in apps at all. "Customers go to their existing carrier's retail store to buy a new phone, listen to the recommendations of the sales staff, and buy one of the recommended phones. Tens -- hundreds? -- of millions of people have done this and walked out of the store with a new Android handset."

If Gruber's right, Android's larger userbase could be akin to Microsoft Internet Explorer's long-held lead in the browser wars. Once a technology goes mass market, most users of it will by definition be un-savvy late adopters.

How Windows 8 beefs up security - ITProPortal

Each iteration of Windows has featured improved security – it's necessary to withstand the constant barrage of attacks aimed at the popular platform – and Windows 8 is no exception.

In Windows 8, Microsoft expanded its support for embedded hardware security, bundled a full-blown security suite into the operating system, introduced Secure Boot and signed applications, and enabled alternate authentication schemes, to name a few measures. Some of the latest innovations are aimed specifically at enterprises, but there are plenty of improvements that end-users will notice right off the bat, too.

"After reviewing the layers of technologies used by Microsoft to protect Windows 8, it is our opinion that it is the most secure version of Microsoft Windows to date," Aryeh Goretsky, a researcher at ESET, wrote in a whitepaper examining security technologies in Windows 8 released earlier this month.

Microsoft is offering three main versions of the new operating system. Windows 8 is the vanilla "home" edition, Windows 8 Pro includes features for businesses, such as support for Hyper-V, BitLocker, a virtual private network client and group policy support, and finally Windows RT is for ARM-powered devices.

Secure Boot

Microsoft designed Secure Boot to protect the computer from low-level exploits such as rootkits and bootloaders. A security process shared between the operating system and Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI, replacing the BIOS), Secure Boot requires all the applications that are running during the booting process to be pre-signed with valid digital certificates. This way, the system knows all the files being loaded before Windows 8 fires up have not been tampered with.

If a bootloader has infected your computer and it tries to load during the boot-up sequence, Secure Boot will be able to undo all the changes and thwart the attack. Having Secure Boot means it is that much harder for attackers to try to compromise your PC's start-up sequence.

While PC makers must have Secure Boot enabled in the UEFI firmware by default if they want to be able to slap the Windows logo on their box, the feature can be disabled within the UEFI interface. Anyone who wants to install a non-Windows operating system on Windows 8-certified hardware would first have to manually disable Secure Boot.

Windows Defender

Microsoft decided to release Windows 8 with built-in antivirus. This is a much more robust application than Microsoft Security Essentials, the free anti-malware software that users could download and install manually in previous versions of the OS.

Windows Defender (Microsoft repurposed the name for the anti-malware product) is enabled by default, right out of the box, which means users have some form of security protection as soon as they turn on the machine. While it can't be uninstalled, it can be disabled if the user wants to install a different security product from another vendor. In fact, Windows Defender must be disabled if you want to install a third-party security suite.

Loading the AV first

Regardless of whether you are using Windows Defender or a different anti-malware product, Windows 8 has tweaked its load process so that security software runs first. Early Launch Anti-Malware (ELAM) ensures that the first software driver loaded into Windows 8 is a driver from the user's anti-malware software.

In previous versions, if the malware executed and was loaded into system memory before the operating system and the antivirus, it was difficult to detect and remove. Secure Boot prevents rootkits from interfering with the OS, and ELAM ensures that pre-approved anti-malware software drivers are loaded before any other application.

For now, whether or not it is effective is unknown, but Goretsky noted in the aforementioned whitepaper that the concept was "fundamentally sound."

SmartScreen

Originally an Internet Explorer security feature, Microsoft added SmartScreen to Windows 8. When a user downloads a program or a file from the Internet, the SmartScreen filter checks to see if other people have downloaded the same file as well. If so, there is a rating for the file based on its popularity and whether it was considered malicious.

Users trying to download something with a low rating while SmartScreen is enabled will see a warning message. This can be good for detecting fake antivirus and other rogueware programs.

Since SmartScreen is now part of Windows 8, the filter will kick in regardless of what browser the user is running, not just Internet Explorer.

Alternate passwords

Picture Password is one of my favourite bits of Windows 8. The idea is that instead of relying on alphanumeric passwords, you can use pictures. When this feature is enabled, you select a photo from your image library and then define three gestures on the photo using any combination of circles, straight lines, and taps (using either touch or the mouse). It's possible to switch to PIN-based authentication.

Apparently, the alternate authentication methods still need some tweaking, though. Earlier this month, password experts Passcape Software claimed that it was possible to recover passwords from Windows 8 systems with Picture Password enabled.

The problem was related to the fact that users need to have an account with a regular password before switching to the alternate authentication scheme. It turned out that when the switch was made, the regular password remained in the system and what's more, it could easily be decoded to the original plaintext form by a user with administrator-level privileges who could access the Vault where the information is stored. Here's hoping that Microsoft has fixed this issue, or a fix is imminent, as this seems a rare misstep for the new operating system's across-the-board security improvements.

AppContainer

One of the invisible-to-the-user changes in Windows 8 is AppContainer, the more secure application sandbox environment where Windows 8 apps will reside. Designed to prevent apps from disrupting the operating system, AppContainer decides which actions are available to which apps.

Following the same logic, all Internet Explorer plugins run in their own sandboxes under Windows 8.

Apps will also be available through the new Windows 8 app store, which means Microsoft will be able to check beforehand for malicious applications. Only time will tell whether Microsoft will manage to successfully keep dodgy apps out of its store. The restore feature will at least make it easier to return to a previous safe state if malware does somehow manage to infect the machine.

Enterprise-specific security improvements

Samara Lynn, our networking expert, pointed out some of the enterprise-specific features in Server 2012 which would flow into Windows 8 and Windows 7 systems. Dynamic Access Control (DAC), which expands access control to include a wider list of attributes, is one of them.

In previous versions, administrators could define who had access to files and folders on a per-user basis, or by creating groups and assigning permissions specific to those groups. In Windows 8, DAC allows administrators to use any of the data stored in Active Directory, such as personal information, device ID, log on method, or even location, to define access control rules.

Here is an example: Documents marked "confidential" or "private" are only accessible to members of the Human Resources division. In this case, in Server 2012, the administrator would create a claim that "confidential" and "private" would be accessible to people with the "Human Resources" attribute. There is no need to create a specific group for HR and add individual users to it. So long as the user in the Active Directory is defined as being part of HR, the access control rule would apply.

This definitely makes managing users and permissions much easier within the enterprise.

Microsoft also added a few new Group Policy settings in Windows Server 2012. The settings could prevent new accounts from being created on the computer or lock a session if the machine is inactive for a specified period of time. Another policy automatically locks out users from accessing volumes that use BitLocker encryption after a certain number of failed login attempts.

Hardware-based security

Windows 8 will really push the hardware-based authentication capabilities of the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to the forefront, Steven Sprague, the CEO of Wave Systems, noted. TPM makes a lot of sense if you stop to consider the increase in sophisticated rootkits and other malware that increasingly targets the hardware layer such as the Master Boot Record. TPM stores sensitive configuration data and credentials, making it possible to implement single sign-on and access to VPN. Device-based security could be used to log in users to the network, Sprague said. No passwords required.

Windows 8 machines can optionally ship with self-encrypting drives, which provides businesses and security-minded end-users with hardware-based encryption that can never be turned off. SEDs are ready-to-go out of the box, protecting data right from the start. Hardware-based encryption also has less of an impact on performance as well.

Speaking of encryption, BitLocker also has a new feature that will allow users to encrypt only the parts of the disk that are in use, instead of encrypting the whole volume at once.

And there you have it – these are just some of the more obvious security changes Microsoft has made in Windows 8. There is plenty more under the hood that we will never notice, but that's the way it should be, with these features chugging away in the background keeping users safe from attackers.

For more on Windows 8, see our full review of Microsoft's new OS here. You might also want to check out our tips on dealing with the operating system's Metro/Desktop minefield.

Published under license from Ziff Davis, Inc., New York, All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2012 Ziff Davis, Inc

Nokia: Lumia 920 is Windows Phone 8 'flagship' - Telegraph.co.uk

Conor Pierce, a Nokia vice president, said "We see the Lumia 920 as one of the most exciting phones we have launched at Nokia, it includes some truly groundbreaking innovations: wireless charging, a screen that automatically adjusts its color and brightness, depending on sunlight and a touchscreen that even works when you're wearing gloves."

One insider at a rival company said Microsoft was "risking their goodwill" if it was encouraging Nokia to claim that the Lumia 920 was the "flagship" device on the market for Windows Phone 8. Analysts expressed surprise at the bold claim.

Last night, at a combined launch event in San Francisco, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said Windows Phone would allow users to personalise their devices to make them "as individual as they are".

Announcing devices that had already been teased by Nokia, HTC andSamsung at their own individual press launches, Microsoft repeatedly stressed that Windows Phone 8 integrated seamlessly with its new Windows 8 operating system and that it allowed users to easily access the things that were most important to them, such as contact details and information about family members.

The news came on the same day as Google announced its new mobile phone and tablet, the Nexus 4 and Nexus 10, as well as a new music service.

Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's head of Windows Phone said the new devices were "a phone made for you – the most personal smartphone operating system you can get; the perfect companion for your Windows PC and your Xbox." He said that each Windows Phone could become "a unique reflection of who you are, like a fingerprint".

Among a small number of new features unveiled in the new operating system, Microsoft included a 'Kids Corner' feature that provides a walled garden for parents to select which apps, games and settings that children can use when they ask to play with an adult's phone.

Microsoft also emphasised that its apps, which it dubbed 'Live Apps', would integrate with its operating system more deeply and be allowed to show limited information on a device's lock screen. The company emphasised that it would have 46 of the world's 50 most popular apps available at launch, including improved versions of Twitter and Facebook. A new data sensor will allow people to monitor their data usage and American users will also get a year's free use of music service Pandora.

Miniature social networks, called Rooms, would also allow users to share, for instance, family photographs easily and solely with family members, backed up by integration with Microsoft's cloud storage system SkyDrive and its note software OneNote.

Android apps hit 700000 mark says Google, same as iOS - CNET UK

It looks like Google's app store may be squaring up to Apple's own -- at least in terms of pure volume. Google says it has about 700,000 apps in its Google Play store, the same number that Apple touted earlier this month.

Google now sports 'about 700,000' apps that are available to download onto smart phones and tablets, Bloomberg reports, while Apple boss Tim Cook claimed that Apple's iOS had that number just one week ago, at the launch of the iPad mini.

Of course, these are raw numbers, so it's hard to calculate exactly who's winning in terms of apps, and a single number doesn't give much indication of the quality of available applications. Apple forces apps through an approval process before sticking them on its App Store, whereas those Google apps could have come from anywhere.

In terms of getting new apps first, I'd cautiously hazard that Apple is still ahead -- for now. The fact that there are only a few different types of iOS devices is appealing to would-be developers, and large corporations and magazines appear to be better at releasing and updating apps for Apple gadgets.

Recently I spoke to the BBC about why the iPlayer Android app lags behind the Apple equivalent in terms of features. Fragmentation -- the issue that there are Android devices of all shapes and sizes out there -- was one of the primary reasons it gave.

Whether or not you think that's a reasonable excuse, it still feels as if many developers prioritise iOS. These numbers suggest that may be starting to change, however.

Finally, it's worth noting that we don't know how many of Google's 700,000 apps are tablet-specific. A lack of desirable Android tablets up until recently has left Google lagging when it comes to slate-designed apps, especially compared to Apple, which recently crooned that it has 275,000 apps specifically built to run on the iPad.

Apple's keen to keep developers sweet, also revealing that to date it's paid out $6.5bn to app-makers, presumably hoping they'll stay on side.

Android celebrated a total of 25 billion app downloads in late September. Apple claimed last week it had hit the 35 billion download mark.

To sum up, that 700,000 figure doesn't tell the whole story, but it's certainly a sign that Google is on the march when it comes to apps. Which operating system do you think is winning in terms of applications? Tell me in the comments or on our Facebook wall.

Skype for Windows Phone 8 has some smart moves (hands-on) - CNET

A Skype call acts like an incoming cellular phone. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Skype's VoIP app is "coming soon" for Windows Phone 8, but when it arrives, it'll be outfitted with more options than its Skype sibling for Windows Phone 7.5.

Written in native code, the app integrates into your address book and partially into the dialer, so you can receive incoming Skype calls the same way you would receive a cellular call. You'll be able to answer with a video chat in addition to voice. Skype contacts also integrate into your address book, so you can find your buddies from your contacts screen, not solely from the app.

To field your calls, Skype is always receptive, through a backend notification system that is designed not to drain battery.

There are some new features as well as old favorites. Like the version for Windows 8, Skype for WP8 adds a new screen for favorite contacts. Group chat also makes its debut. Skype emoticons are all there as well, and support for Skype Credit means you'll be able to call friends from overseas. If someone IMs you during a video call, you'll be able to respond, or move the bubble aside, without crashing your call.

You can receive incoming Skype messages while still on a call, without interfering with either. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

If you pin Skype to the Start screen and blow it up to its largest possible size, you'll be able to read your latest instant message.

There are two ways to get into the Skype app, from the live tile/app list or by selecting a contact's name from the address book. Entering the former way brings you to the Recents screen. The latter, however, doesn't launch any outgoing call, it lands you on the chat screen. From there, you can reach out via chat or just place the call.

I find this buddy-list-to-chat behavior unnecessarily circuitous, and it seems to serve Skype's agenda to forward its chat service more than it does people who just want to make a call.

How does the app itself look? Some screens look terrific: clearly tied into the Skype aesthetic, but simple and streamlined. Others strike me as overly sparse, unfinished, and very Web 1.0.

My assessment on how well Skype works on Windows Phone 8 will have to wait for the full version to land, but I will say that the demo calls went through without dropping, and while video was a little dicey over CNET's free public Wi-Fi network, it held on through the duration of a short demo call without skipping or freezing.

Microsoft opens Windows Phone 8 dev kit to world+dog - Register

Build 2012 Microsoft has officially launched the software development kit (SDK) for Windows Phone 8, delivering the final piece of what the company says is a common programming model across all of its latest OS platforms and devices.

"As you can see, we're combining an array of hardware, tools, and technology to deliver a fundamentally reimagined Windows platform," Kevin Gallo, Microsoft's director of program management for Windows Phone, said during his Tuesday keynote at the company's annual Build developer conference in Redmond.

Previously, Redmond had been unusually secretive about the developer tools for its latest smartphone platform, offering the kit only to a limited group of established developers as part of a closed preview program.

Microsoft had justified its clandestine approach by explaining that not all of WP8's features had been publicly announced when the preview SDK became available. Now that Phone 8 has been officially launched, however, there was presumably little reason to conceal the tools from the wider developer community any longer.

Gallo said that along the way, Microsoft asked for input on what coders wanted to see in the Windows Phone development platform. With the public release of the SDK, he said, Redmond has delivered at least 90 per cent of what they asked for.

The SDK, which was made available on Tuesday, is roughly a 1.6GB download, and it requires a 64-bit version of Windows 8 to run. It bundles a version of Microsoft's free Visual Studio Express 2012 IDE tailored specifically for WP8, plus a free version of the Blend 2012 UI design tool, though it can also integrate with tools from the full Visual Studio 2012 Professional Suite.

The kit also includes a selection of Windows Phone emulators based on Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization technology. To use these components, however, developers will need machines based on processors that support Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), which generally means AMD Opteron and Intel Core processors released in 2007 or later.

Developers don't strictly need the emulators to build apps using the SDK, but without them, the only way to deploy and test their apps will be to use an actual Windows Phone.

During his keynote presentation, Gallo explained that in addition to the much-discussed HTML5/JavaScript and XAML/C# app development models, the WP8 SDK also supports native C++ code and Direct3D-based hardware acceleration for high-performance applications – games, in particular.

"Over 75 per cent of the top-grossing apps are games," Gallo said. "With Windows Phone 8, Microsoft now has a common gaming platform across the entire Windows family."

Gallo explained that the common development platform Redmond has built across its various properties makes it easy to reuse code originally written for other platforms in apps for Windows Phone 8.

To demonstrate, he showed off an app built using code from a years-old third-party C++ library. The app package consisted of three Visual Studio projects. Two were frontend UIs; one for Windows 8 and one for Windows Phone 8. The third was a shared code library that contained the code for all the essential functions of the app, and that could be used to build a version for either platform.

As a further incentive to get developers on board, Gallo said Microsoft is slashing the fee for individual developers to register a Windows Phone Dev Center account from $99 to $8 for the next eight days only.

Whether the new SDK and the reduced fee will be enough to entice mobile developers to jump ship from other platforms is questionable, however. In many ways, Windows Phone 8 is the riskiest piece in Microsoft's new, more unified OS push, with earlier versions of the Windows Phone platform having failed to win many converts.

Still, in his own Build keynote on Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was adamant that the latest incarnation of the company's smartphone OS wouldn't stumble in the market the way earlier versions had, owing to its close ties to Windows 8.

"If you want the best experience with your new Windows computer – the best experience – you'll own a Windows Phone," Ballmer said. "If you want the experience that is most personal, you will buy a Windows Phone." ®

Apple iPad mini review - Telegraph.co.uk

The sacrifice in screen size from a 10-inch tablet is balanced out by the more convenient size. You can hold it in one hand, slip it into a jacket pocket or a handbag and still have all the power of an iPad at your fingertips. In practice the smaller screen size is not much of a problem and it is because of that 0.9-inches, which gives 35 per cent more screen area than the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HD.

All three devices are fine as ereaders - better suited to the task than 10-inch tablets, really, so it's no surprise that Apple emphasised iBooks when the iPad mini was unveiled. This is Apple's best ereading device.

But it's with tasks such as web browsing where the extra screen real estate counts. Viewing a full-width web page on the Nexus 7 means the text is uncomfortably small, for my taste, making it essential to zoom in and scroll to read everything. The iPad mini is just about as small as a screen can get without necessitating zooming and scrolling.

Of course, this depends to a large extent on your eyesight and the size of text that you're comfortable reading. For me, the 7.9 screen beats the 7-inch screen. Though, overall, I still prefer a 10-inch tablet for web browsing. Whether that changes after a few more weeks with the iPad mini, time will tell.

Where rival tablets have an advantage is in pixels-per-inch. The iPad mini screen has 162 pixels-per-inch, fewer than the 216ppi Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. The extra 54 pixels provide a slight increase in sharpness on the rivals but even then, not as much as I'd like. Having used a retina display iPad and iPhone for so long, the iPad mini screen just looks a little blurry.

Another area where the rivals have the upper hand is in HD video: the iPad mini doesn't have a high definition display. I'm not convinced that this is the tablet size you would choose if you planned to regularly watch films on it but plenty of people seem happy to watch films on even smaller screens.

This puts the iPad mini in the position of being able to shoot higher quality video than it can play back. Obviously, you can share these clips at their full resolution online or stream them to a television using AirPlay, should you be the sort of person who likes to use a tablet to take photos and shoot video.

While a retina display this would be a knock-out device but its unlikely that Apple could put one in a tablet this size at this point. The third-generation iPad has a retina display and it is thicker and heavier than the iPad 2. The battery needed to power such a display to the 10-hour battery life Apple insists on for its iPads would probably have compromised the mini's size too much.

Apple could probably have matched the pixel density of the 7-inch tablets if it had wished to but that would have changed the screen resolution, meaning that existing iPad apps would have run with black bands of unused pixels alongside them. As it is, the 1024x768 display means the existing library of 275,000 tablet specific apps are all available.

I tested a few more recent - and demanding - apps to see how the iPad mini coped and found no problems at all. The mini is powered by the same Apple A5 chip found inside the iPad 2 and apps didn't seem to run slowly, nor did the device get particularly warm.

When it comes to tablet-specific apps, the iPad is still some way ahead. You won't find the amazing Touch Press apps, such as Shakespeare's Sonnets or The Waste Land, on anything other than an iPad, for example. Android will catch up, just as it has with smartphone apps, but for now the gap is significant enough that it should make you think twice about buying a rival.

On the other hand, what will make some think twice about buying an iPad mini is the price. Starting at £269 for a WiFi only model, this is £100 dearer than the Kindle Fire HD or the Nexus 7, which is now available in a 16GB version for £159.

Whether it's worth it depends on how much of a premium you put on great design and a vast ecosystem of apps. Apple will sell a lot of these little beauties, that's for sure.

Intel shows off Windows 8 ultrabooks from Lenovo, Dell and Acer - V3.co.uk (blog)

With Windows 8 now available, PC manufacturers will be hoping to see improved sales in the coming months after disappointing figures over recent quarters, mostly as firms and consumers awaited the launch of Microsoft's new platform.

Another firm that has plenty riding on this is Intel, which has thrown its weight behind the ultrabook category of devices now entering the market as it aims to boost sales of Windows device, and Windows 8 gives it another opportunity to do just that.

So it was no surprise that the firm held an event in central London on Tuesday showing off a raft of products from its partners such as Lenovo, Dell and Acer running the platform.

V3 popped along to have a look to try out some of the devices on show.

Certainly all the devices had something to recommend them, whether the novel combinations of display options such as the Lenovo Yoga (below) with four different viewing stances: laptop, tablet, 'tent' or as a single screen, with the keyboard used as the stand at the back.

The device itself was nice to use, with a good quality keyboard and the system responsive to both touch and mouse-based inputs.

We also had a chance to see the new Windows 8 version of the Acer Aspire S7 ultrabook (below). The device has been on the market for a while running Windows 7 and secured a four-star review when we looked at it last year.

Now it's been updated with a touchscreen system so it can run Windows 8 in full and is certainly one of the nicest looking devices on display, with a compact 13.3in screen and weighing a lightweight 1.35kg.

However, if we're talking lightweight then we should probably mention the NEC Lavie Z Ultrabook (pictured below).

Although this isn't available in the UK at present and doesn't run Windows 8 either, the device is hugely popular in Japan for one key reason; its weight. It's just 875g.

The weight of devices is always something touted by manufacturers and usually it worth nothing more than a "yes it's quite light" comment but the NEC device was probably the lightest laptop device we've ever seen; there are paperback books that are heavier.

While it's not set to come to the UK - a shame - it's a good indication of how light laptops could still become. With the portability of tablets often touted as a selling point over laptops devices like this undermine that argument to some degree.

Lastly, no product showcase would be complete without something from Dell, so Intel had brought along the Dell XPS12 Duo ultrabook which has a rather nifty rotating screen that can be swivelled within its casing to work as either a tablet or a laptop.

This mean it can also be propped up in the "tent" style akin to the Lenovo Yoga, as pictured below.

Overall, then, it's clear there's no lack of interesting, novel and quality devices from numerous manufacturers on offer for Windows 8, with Intel's technology an integral part of that.

Whether consumers take to the new system and this helps boost flagging sales, though, is another matter.

30 Oct 2012

Google announces Nexus 10 tablet with iPad-beating specs - The Independent (blog)

Look out Apple, Google just declared war on the iPad.

The Nexus 10 is Google's answer to Apple's iPad 4, complete with stereo speakers, front and rear cameras, 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 2GB Ram and either 16 or 32GB storage options. This impressive hardware sits behind a 2560-by-1600 pixel display, boasting the highest resolution of any tablet on the market with a pixel density of 300 pixel per inch, far greater than the iPad's 264 ppi equivalent. Apple's 'Retina' branding doesn't seem all that impressive anymore.

The Nexus 10 is encased in unibody plastic chassis, which Google say is an essential feature in order to ensure the device is as thin, light and affordable as possible. The tablet weighs in at just 603 grams, with a mind-boggling thickness of just 8.9 millimetres.

The only feature currently missing in the Nexus 10 is 3G or 4G LTE connectivity, meaning you'll need to tether the tablet to a mobile hotspot or internet connected smartphone whenever a WiFi connection is unavailable. It's possible Google will add 3G/4G models at some point in the future, like they have with the Nexus 7, but until then it's WiFi only unfortunately.

The Nexus 10 does however support MIMO WiFi, a new technology that can theoretically speed up web browsing up to four times faster than traditional WiFi speeds can deliver. However, this remains to be seen. It seems Google are more interested in targeting the Nexus 10 towards families, designed for use in the home, rather than out and about. Referring to it as "the perfect couch or coffee table companion".

The latest version of Android (4.2) will bring with it the ability to fast-switch between user accounts, making it possible for several people to share the same tablet with completely separate logins, all running side-by-side.

Google are pushing their Play store content heavily with the Nexus 10, as they want users to consume paid digital content on the device, such as apps, movies, TV shows, books, magazines and music.

For the first time we're seeing an Android tablet that truly competes with Apple's latest iPad. The Nexus 10 is thinner, lighter, faster and higher resolution tablet, but it takes more than a few impressive specs to persuade consumers to part with their well earned money. Google are well aware of the uphill battle they face against Apple's tablet dominance, which is why they have priced the Nexus 10 accordingly.

You'll be able to purchase a 16GB Nexus 10 for just £319, direct from Google's Play store. That's £80 cheaper than Apple's cheapest fourth generation iPad. At £389 for the 32GB model, the price difference increases even further to £90.

When you combine the Nexus 10's price, power, technology and multi-user support, Google really have built a tablet that goes toe-to-toe with iPad in almost every way, and in many cases outshines Apple's offering altogether. It will be fascinating to see how well the Nexus 10 fares against the iPad this holiday season.

The Samsung Nexus 10 will be available to purchase on Tuesday November 13 direct from the Google Play Store.

Tagged in: 4G, Android, apple, google, ipad, iPad4, LG Nexus, Nexus, Nexus 10

Dell launches multiple Windows 8 devices in India - NDTV

Dell had announced its Windows 8 tablet, ultrabook and All-in-One back in September. The company has now officially launched the Latitude 10 tablet, Latitude 6430u ultrabook and OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One devices in India.

In addition, Dell has also announced the XPS 12 convertible that can be used both as a laptop and a tablet and the S2340T Win8 multi-touch monitor.

All Windows 8 devices are targeted at enterprise users and come with various security features.

Commenting on the occasion, P. Krishnakumar, Executive Director, Marketing, Dell India said, "The combination of new Dell hardware and Windows OS will allow customers to create and consume content in new and exciting ways which makes technology more accessible and intuitive."

He further added, "The new products launched today are all about maximizing the balance between end user preferences, productivity and IT control, backed by robust customer service, aimed at helping users and IT departments navigate the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) landscape."

Latitude 10 tablet
The Dell Latitude 10 Tablet features a 10.1-inch IPS wide-angle screen with a 1366x768 resolution. It is powered by Intel's Clover Trail processor and comes with 2GB RAM, up to 128GB of storage and a swappable lithium-ion battery as well, which is rarely seen in tablets.

The Latitude 10 tablet is 0.4-inches thick and weighs about 1.5 pounds. It features a 720p front camera and an 8-megapixel rear snapper. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The tablet comes with an additional metallic productivity dock featuring four USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port and an HDMI port as well.

With this tablet Dell is targeting markets such as healthcare, education and government. The Latitude 10 tablet will be available beginning November end, starting at Rs. Rs 42,490.

Latitude 6430u ultrabook
The new Latitude 6430u ultrabook is 33 percent thinner and 16 percent lighter at 3.7 pounds than the current generation 14-inch Dell laptop. The ultrabook meets military testing standards and Dell claims it can last an entire day on a single battery charge.

It comes with a  3-cell battery. The ultra book also features Intel's vPro management technology and has a uses an Intel's latest generation Core processor (i3 onwards to i7) with up to 8GB RAM and it comes with Intel HD4000 integrated graphics.

The Latitude 6430u ultrabook will be available mid November at a price of Rs. Rs 69,990 onwards.

OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One
The 23-inch all-in-one desktop, called the OptiPlex 9010 is compact in design meeting space limitation requirements and takes advantage of Windows 8 since it has a touchscreen interface. It also uses Intel third-generation Core processors, an Intel Q77 Express chip set, Intel integrated graphics and a variety of security features. It also comes with a stand for a comfortable working experience.

The OptiPlex 9010 All-in-One will become available from November 10th at a starting price of Rs. 49,990.

XPS 12 convertible
The XPS 12 convertible features a flip hinge design that allows easy transition from laptop to tablet and vice-versa. It comes with a 12.5 inch LED backlit touch display with True Life and FHD resolution coated with Corning Gorilla Glass and is made up of aluminum and carbon fibre that makes it sturdy and durable.

The Windows 8 device features Intel third-generation Core processors, an Intel QS77 Express Chipset and Intel integrated graphics. it is powered by a 6-Cell Lithium Ion battery, has a 1.3MP webcam and a spill resistant standard full-size keyboard. Ports include 2 USB 3.0 ports, one mini-display port and a headphone/microphone combo port.

The XPS 12 convertible is now available at starting at a price point of Rs. 90,490.

23-inch S2340T multi-touch monitor
Dell has updated its line of computing peripherals with the 23-inch S2340T multi-touch monitor and notebook hub designed specially to extend the Windows 8 experience.

It is the company's first multi-touch monitor and comes with a 90-degree articulating stand that allows the display to be tilted for as per the user's comfort. The monitor is optimised to take advantage of Windows 8 features and it comes with a Full HD display (1920x1080) resolution.

Dell's Image Enhance feature sharpens images and creates more colour contrast to produce images that exploit the Full HD screen. The machine comes with In-plane switching technology and has an ultra wide viewing angle of 178 degrees. The S2340T comes with integrated camera, microphone and speaker and display port, HDMI, USB 3.0 ports and an Ethernet port.

The S2340T multi-touch monitor will be made available early next year.

Forgetting Microsoft: How Steve Ballmer's Surface could win - Register

Open ... and Shut In a Windows world we bought the product. In Google's world we are the product. Judging from market share trends, we apparently don't mind being bought and sold. At least, so long as the price is right.

Yes, Apple gets all the news (and profits), but it's Google Android that is set to displace Microsoft Windows by 2016, according to Gartner. So much of the media's focus is on the battle between Android and Apple's iOS for the heart and soul of the mobile industry that we forget the meta-battle between both iOS and Android against yesterday's desktop market, still owned by Windows.

But owning the desktop is like being the sexiest nun in the convent. Microsoft put on a good show last week at its Windows 8 launch, but the only thing that really matters is how well Windows performs in mobile device markets.

Given Microsoft's continued reliance on an outdated, licence-based revenue model, Microsoft may have an uphill battle winning in mobile.

Consider its competition, as Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin does:

For many years, I've been predicting that hardware will soon be free, subsidized by service providers who use open source software to build low cost devices optimized for their services. Amazon, for instance, is reported to lose money on every Kindle Fire sold. And at $250 for a decently powered laptop, I can't imagine there is much profit in the Chromebook either. The profit comes in the services you purchase or experience while using the device. As the senior vice president of Chrome at Google says in the New York Times:

"Above all, it brings all of Google services, built straight into the device."

In Google Land, in other words, the hardware and software is going to be cheap and free, respectively, with money being made through advertising or other services, largely invisible to the cost-conscious consumer. Yes, there are premium buyers happy to pay for Apple or Microsoft devices, but the majority of the market is heavily trending toward "cheap and free."

And when that happens, Microsoft (and, eventually, Apple) can kiss goodbye to the developer ecosystem critical to winning over users. Developers go where the volume is, and that volume is Google's to lose.

Microsoft could pull an Apple and sell a consolidated device like the Surface. I mean, really pull an Apple and dump its hardware partners. In Apple's world, there is no distinction between iOS and the iPhone or iPad. You buy them together or not at all. Microsoft is flirting with this strategy for Surface, but it's unclear whether it will have the stomach to continue. Working with partners is perhaps too deeply ingrained in its DNA.

It might not be enough, anyway. Apple is happy to occupy the premium segment of the market, even as Google's Android takes the mass-market lower-end. Where does this leave Microsoft? It's unlikely to be able to beat Apple at the top and its strategy ensures it has no chance of beating Android at the bottom. Even suing Android into oblivion (or fat patent royalty fees, which raise the cost of Android for users), is unlikely to succeed.

Apple has been setting the terms for competing in the new world of mobile for years. But the mantle of market leadership is shifting to Android, and the rules are very different in a Google-dominated world.

Fortunately, Microsoft has plenty of experience playing Google's online game, what with Bing and Hotmail and its other online services, coupled with associated online advertising. Unfortunately, Microsoft still doesn't know how to pay for these services effectively, bleeding $2.5bn from its Online Services Division last year.

Can Microsoft turn this ship around? Of course. Google's dominance is not set in stone, any more than Apple's was. But there's a lot of hard, painful work for Microsoft to do in a Google-dominated world, much of it Microsoft un-learning most everything that made it successful.

That's a big, big ask. ®

Matt Asay is vice president of corporate strategy at 10gen, the MongoDB company. Previously he was SVP of business development at Nodeable, which was acquired in October 2012. He was formerly SVP of biz dev at HTML5 start-up Strobe (now part of Facebook) and chief operating officer of Ubuntu commercial operation Canonical. With more than a decade spent in open source, Asay served as Alfresco's general manager for the Americas and vice president of business development, and he helped put Novell on its open source track. Asay is an emeritus board member of the Open Source Initiative (OSI). His column, Open...and Shut, appears three times a week on The Register. You can follow him on Twitter @mjasay.

iPad mini vs Google Nexus 7 vs Kindle Fire HD - Pocket Gamer

We now have three major players on the mid-sized (7 to 8-inch) tablet scene, each with its own design philosophy and distinctive approach to user interface.

In no particular order, they are, of course, Apple, Google and Amazon.

Unusually for Apple, it's playing catch-up with its newly announced iPad mini. To many observers, The Big A has entered this mid-sized tab market as a direct result of the great success the Google Nexus 7 and (in the US, at least) the Amazon Kindle Fire have enjoyed of late.

For its part, Amazon has just brought its own brand of 7-inch tablet to the UK and beyond with its new and improved Kindle Fire HD.

So, what do these cut-price mid-sized tablets have to offer? What are their relative strengths and weaknesses? We take a closer look.

Design

You won't be surprised to read that Apple wins the design round hands-down. The iPad mini is astonishingly thin (7.2mm) and light (308g), and it looks the business - more like a larger iPod touch than a smaller iPad. The other two don't even come close.

No such svelte design for the Google Nexus 7. It's far from ugly, but its utilitarian body is just what we've come to expect from the majority of Android devices. It's square, solid, and plasticky.

The Nexus 7 weighs 340g and is 10.56mm thin. That makes it a tiny bit tubbier than the Kindle Fire HD, but also a bit lighter.

Yep, the Kindle Fire HD is pretty similar to the Nexus 7 from a design standpoint. It's got that same slightly soulless black slab design so beloved of tablet designers outside of Apple's, Sony's, and now Microsoft's HQ. But, that doesn't mean the Kindle Fire HD is ugly or unpleasant to look at.

Amazon's 7-inch slate is the heaviest of the three at 395g, but it's thinner (10.3mm) than the Nexus 7.

Display

Apple would have you believe that the iPad mini isn't even competing in the same league as the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD. A large part of that is down to its display: at 7.9 inches, it's almost a whole inch bigger than the other tablets' displays, and the screen's aspect ratio is 4:3 (like the iPad) rather than 16:9.

Of course, the iPad mini's display is also less sharp than the other two's (163ppi versus 216ppi).

So, which of the other two comes out on top? While both the Kindle Fire HD and the Nexus 7 sport 7-inch 1280x800 IPS LCD displays, the former's would appear to have the edge.

Reports suggest that the Kindle Fire HD's display has a bolder, brighter, clearer picture thanks to Amazon's polarising filter and anti-glare technology.

Power

The iPad mini's dual-core A5 CPU is a bit of a blast from the past - it's the same unit as the one in the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2, though it's unclear how fast it's been clocked at. The point remains that this A5 processor, while still a very capable chip (especially when it comes to graphics), is decidedly last gen.

Of course, Apple's last-gen CPU is a fair bit better than competing last-gen dual-core CPUs - including the Amazon Kindle Fire HD's TI OMAP 4460, which is clocked at 1.2GHz. It's fine for general usage, but when compared to the other two, it comes up a little short.

Under its bonnet, the Nexus 7 has a Tegra 3 CPU, which powers a good number of high-end Android smartphones and tablets. It's the only quad-core CPU here, and it's clocked at a respectable 1.2GHz, which means it's likely quicker than the iPad mini's processor. However, the Tegra 3's GPU performance isn't as good.

OS

This hardware talk is all well and good, but the software a device runs is just as important in this day and age. The iPad mini's OS is a strength as well as a weakness.

It runs iOS 6 - just the same as the iPhone and iPad - which means that those familiar with and fond of Apple's mobile operating system will be right at home.

Of course, others find it to be an overly restrictive, conservative, and even dated mobile OS, so it depends upon your past experience with the platform and what precisely you look for in a modern OS.

The Nexus 7 is arguably the strongest of the three when it comes to the OS. It runs on Android Jelly Bean, which takes the massive leaps forward Google made with Ice Cream Sandwich - a distinctive UI, flexible widgets, polished native Google apps - and adds an extra dollop of buttery smoothness. It's arguably the finest mobile OS around today.

Finally, we have the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, which is built on what those in the industry call a 'forked' version of Android. No, we're not being rude. This means that while Android forms the base code for the Kindle Fire experience, the OS has been heavily modified and separated from the Android ecosystem.

It was obviously designed with the not-insubstantial Amazon ecosystem (ebooks, downloadable MP3s, videos, and now games) in mind. Amazon's UI is heavily cloud based and pushes the content front and centre, but it's not everyone's cup of tea when it comes to general browsing.

Apps

You could argue that apps form part of the OS experience, but we think they are an essential component in their own right. Especially when we're talking about gaming apps. On that front, the iPad mini wins by a mile.

The App Store has a far greater range of games and depth of gaming content than the other two tablet pretenders.

While the number of overall apps appears to be close - iOS's 700,000 apps versus Android's 675,000 apps, by one estimate - Apple devices are still the first ports of call for mobile game developers.

The Amazon Kindle Fire HD is barely even in this fight with somewhere around 50,000 apps available on the Amazon Appstore. Sure, the Kindle Fire HD can boast a few timed exclusives on the game front, but its overall range is much more limited than its Android cousin.

HTC One X Jelly Bean update starts in Asia, also brings Sense 4+ - Phones Review

The team here on Phones Review try and keep our readers up to speed with the latest news regarding the updating of Android hardware to newer versions of the operating system. Users of a variety of handsets are waiting for later versions of Android to be released, and today we have news of the HTC One X Android Jelly Bean update, which has started in parts of Asia and brings with it HTC Sense 4+.

HTC had previously promised to begin updating the HTC One X to the newer software this month according to GottaBeMobile, and it seems this is actually started to happen via an OTA update but currently only limited to the home of HTC, Taiwan.

The XDA Developers forum has stated that the version of the software is 3.14.709.16 with a file size of 352.87MB, which is quite a size so it will take a while to download and actually install it and will bring the device up to Android 4.1.2 the latest version of Jelly Bean, at least until next week when the company is set to announce Android 4.2.

Meanwhile HTC has said the One S will also see Jelly Bean at some point this month, but so far nothing has been revealed and with only a few days to before the end of October the company may have missed its original date.

Obviously there will be owners of the HTC One X in other parts of the world wondering when they will see the new operating system, but the company will be staggering the rollout and it may take a few days before it gets to most other regions, the update is reportedly also bringing with it the HTC Sense 4+ Android overlay to the handset.

Hopefully it won't be too long before users start seeing the new software reaching them in other parts of the world, and with any luck it will only be a matter of days.

Apple iPhone 5 to retail in India starting Rs 44500 - Business Today

We have already confirmed that Apple iPhone 5 will be launched across India on November 2. We now have some details about the pricing as well.

BGR India has posted that Redington - one of the two official distributor partners for Apple products in India - has confirmed that the iPhone 5 will be priced starting Rs 44,500 for the 16 GB variant. The iPhone 5 32 GB version will retail at Rs 52,500 while the 62 GB version will be priced at Rs 59,500.

Since the iPhone 5 will be available across the country, those interested can also book the device before the launch . Online shopping sites and retailers like Infibeam and Saholic have starting taking pre-orders for the iPhone.

Infibeam.com has listed the iPhone 5 - 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB, all black variants for pre-order with the note - 'This item will be released on 2 November 2012' and 'Ships within 1-2 business days from the release date'.

Similarly, Saholic has put up the white and the black variant up for pre-order but it will take longer to deliver the iPhone. The website states 'Receive in 8 business days'.

Even Airtel has started taking pre-orders for the 16 GB iPhone 5 and says it will be available from the November 11, ships in 15-16 days.

The iPhone 5 features a 4-inch capacitive touch display, runs on iOS 6 and has got the A6 chip onboard. Apple iPhone 5 measures 7.6 mm thin and weighs 112 grams, 18 per cent thinner and 20 per cent lighter than iPhone 4S.

Pandora app for Android, iOS gets major redesign - NDTV

Internet radio company Pandora is adding more functionality to its mobile apps showing lyrics and artist information and making it easier to share self-crafted stations with friends as companies intensify efforts to lure mobile advertising dollars.

Pandora is essentially bringing the features of its website to users of its apps for Apple and Android mobile devices. The app for iPhones is being released Monday, while an Android version is expected to follow soon. Pandora also said it is releasing a version for Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 early next year. It will allow ad-free listening for a year with the Windows app.

Mobile use of Pandora's streaming service is growing quickly. In the quarter that ended in July, mobile listening nearly doubled from a year earlier and made up more than 75 percent of its 3.3 billion listener hours.

Pandora is the leader in free online radio, where listeners can pick genres or styles of music but not specific songs or albums. It has 175 million registered users, including 58 million who use it in a given month. It claims a 73 percent share of the market for free online radio.

Pandora competes for listeners with services such as Clear Channel's iHeart Radio and has apps on phones, tablets, computers and car stereo systems. Apple is the leading online seller of song and album downloads, while a whole host of paid subscription music services such as Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio and MOG offer unlimited track selection and playback for a monthly fee of $10.

As a free service, Pandora relies mostly on advertising revenue to make its business work.

Investors of Internet companies that offer free services online have been concerned about their ability to make money from mobile advertising as usage of mobile devices has skyrocketed.

Pandora's mobile ad revenue has been growing almost as quickly as mobile listening, and its revenue from mobile ads was up 86 percent at $59 million in the last quarter, making up over half of the company's total revenues. The company, which is based in Oakland, Calif., is expected to report its third-quarter results in late November.

Other companies are making headway generating money from mobile ads.

Facebook Inc. said this month that 14 percent of its revenue came from mobile ads in the latest quarter, causing its stock price to jump, while Google Inc. said mobile ads were on track to generate $8 billion in revenue for the company this year.

Tom Conrad, Pandora's chief technology officer and executive vice president of product, said the revamp was not purposefully designed to boost mobile ad revenue although the update will see some advertising partners get more involved.

"Our motivation for doing this was to connect people with the music they're discovering in a fundamental way," he said.

Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 for the UK start shipping today - WPSuperfanboy

Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 for the UK start shipping today

October 29, 2012 at 21:27 | By Darlington Moyo

The wait is almost over for UK consumers as the world's most innovative smartphones, the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820, start shipping today. Nokia today announced the Nokia Lumia 920 and the Nokia Lumia 820, the world's most innovative smartphones, and the first devices in Nokia's Windows Phone 8 range, are now on their way to the UK.

The Lumia 920 will be launched exclusively on EE and Phones 4u in the UK, making it available on the UK's first 4G network from launch - allowing customers to enjoy average speeds five times faster than 3G. EE will also be ranging the Nokia Lumia 820.

Paul Jevons, Director of Products and Devices, EE, said, "We believe the best smartphones deserve the best network, so the new Lumia 920 and 820 are perfect additions to our four device range. By combining Nokia's innovative hardware with the power of our super-fast 4G network, we're providing consumers with an amazing mobile experience that will enhance their digital lives. Whether watching videos, social networking, browsing the web or working on the move, 4G allows customers to do everything faster - allowing customers to make full use of the power the Lumia 920 and 820 provide," said Paul Jevons, Director of Products and Devices of EE.

Phones 4u will exclusively stock the full colour range for both the Lumia 820 and 920, with red, black, white and yellow versions available. The Lumia 820 will be available from O2, Carphone Warehouse and Tesco Phone Shop from early November. Further availability announcements will follow.

Want to keep up to date with the latest Windows Phone news, rumours, apps, games, etc? Just like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our feed and we will do the rest.

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Microsoft Surface popped open, poked, prodded - Register

Teardown The teardown-happy folks at iFixit have taken their Torx wrenches and spudgers to Microsoft's new Surface notebook tablet, but found few surprises inside.

They did discover, however, that the Surface is more easily repairable than either the iPad 2 or its follow-on iPad 3 – aka "the new iPad". iFixit gave the Surface a repairability rating of four out of 10, handily trouncing the iPads, which received embarrassing two-out-of-10 ratings.

Not that four is all that great a score – the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, for example, was rated six out of 10, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 a full eight out of 10.

It's clear, in fact, that Microsoft wants you to know that it has no desire for you to muck about inside its new tablet. After prying open the plastic cover hiding the torx screws holding the Surface together, iFixit's tinkerers found a tamper-tattling label sealing the body together, one that breaks apart when removed.

Not that such a warning would stop any self-respecting hardware geek with a teardown in mind.

Once iFixit got the Surface open – 17 Torx screws, 10 under the kickstand and another seven under the camera-covering plastic tab – they discovered a Samsung-manufactured 7.4 V, 31.5 Watt-hour lithium ion polymer battery, which means its power source nestles comfortably between the 3.8V, 25Wh battery in the iPad 2 and the 3.7V, 42.5Wh battery in the iPad 3.

Behold the Microsoft Surface, Redmond's latest gamble in its year of living dangerously (click to enlarge)

That battery, by the way, is glued down, but iFixit pronounced it far easier to remove than the battery cells in Apple's fondleslabs.

The 10.6-inch ClearType display, on the other hand, won't be easy to replace should you crack it. "LCD and glass are fused together and strongly adhered to the case," they explain, "increasing cost of replacement."

Attached to the Surface's logic board are two 720p cameras – one front-facing the other facing the rear – were "almost identical" in size and shape, iFixit reported in an email.

"The exclusion of a multi-megapixel rear-facing camera either means cost was a big concern," they opine, "or that Microsoft's designers don't expect you to use the Surface as your main camera. Perhaps they too realized how goofy you might look when taking pictures with a tablet.

Just a single ribbon cable connects the two halves of the Surface, and it's easily detached (click to enlarge)

The logic board's brains are all on its top surface, with the bottom reserved for microphones, antennas, and an ambient light sensor, along with what iFixit identifies as a "precarious wire running most of its length."

As we explained when reporting iFixit's teardown of Apple's upgraded Mac mini, the tools-and-parts-and-repairs-and-teardowns folks at that website color-code their logic board chips for identification – a capability we at The Reg can't easily replicate. For the Mac mini, we attempted to describe those colors somewhat whimsically, an effort that some of our dear readers didn't appreciate.

So for the Surface teardown, we'll overcompensate with not only plainer language, but also by using Apple's Digital Color Meter app to determine iFixit's color coding's RGB values, then firing up Adobe Photoshop to convert those 0-to-255 specifications into hexadecimal values.

Here's the top of the Surface's logic board (click to enlarge) ...

• Purplish-Blue (R26, G48, B231; #1a30e7): Marvell 88W8797-BMP2 wireless MIMO SoC
• Greenish-Yellow (R228, G230, B74; #e4e64a): Micron 2RE22 D9QBJ 2 GB DDR3 SDRAM
• Greyish-Red (R163, G50, B25; #a33219): Nvidia quad-core 1.4GHz Tegra 3 ARM-based microprocessor
• Bluish-Green (R97, G171, B162; #61aba2): Texas Instruments TPS659110 power management IC
• Brownish-Orange (R198, G112, B36; #c67024): Samsung KLMBG4GE4A eMMC 32GB NAND Flash
• Pale Violet with a Trace of Mauve (R181, G92, B227; #b55ce3): Wolfson 8962E ultra low power stereo audio codec

... and here's its underside (click to enlarge)

• Bluish-Green (R97, G171, B162; #61aba2): Wi-Fi antenna labled Antenova A10416-WIFI-A2
• Brownish-Orange (R198, G112, B36; #c67024): Microphones
• Greyish-Red (R163, G50, B25; #a33219): Ambient light sensor
• Purplish-Blue (R26, G48, B231; #1a30e7): Wi-Fi antenna labled Antenova A10416-WIFI-A1
• Greenish-Yellow (R228, G230, B74; #e4e64a): the aforementioned "precarious wire"

Now its time to reassemble this baker's dozen of geektastic goodies (click to enlarge)

All in all, the Surface is a rather straightforward piece of kit. To examine its innards further, you'll need to point your browser at iFixit's full teardown, replete with 42 photos and the teardowners' characteristically impudent commentary. ®

Nokia slips ahead of Windows Phone 8 launch as Samsung & Apple continue ... - ITProPortal

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Smartphone shipments grew 35 per cent annually to reach nearly 162 million units in the third quarter of 2012, according to new data from research firm Strategy Analytics.

IDC reported similar numbers, estimating that smartphone vendors shipped 179.7 million units during the third quarter, up from 123.7 million units last year for 45.3 per cent year-over-year growth.

Samsung was the undisputed star of the market, shipping a record 56.9 million smartphones worldwide during the third quarter — the largest number of units ever shipped by a smartphone vendor in a single quarter — to capture a 35 per cent global share, Strategy Analytics said. Apple came in second, shipping 26.9 million smartphones worldwide to nab a 17 percent market share.

"Despite tough competition in stores and courtrooms, Samsung continued to deliver numerous hit models, from the high-end Galaxy Note phablet to the mass-market Galaxy Y," Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement. "Apple had a solid quarter in the important United States market and this helped to strengthen its global performance."

The success of Samsung and Apple was not a good thing for Nokia, which slipped from the top three global smartphone rankings "for the first time in history," Neil Shah, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement. Nokia shipped 6.3 million smartphones worldwide, grabbing a 4 per cent market share in the third quarter, slipping from 16.8 million units and 14 per cent share a year ago.

"Nokia will need to ramp up sharply its Windows Phone volumes if it wants to recapture a top-three smartphone position in the next one to two quarters," Shah added.

ICD reported that Nokia was replaced by Blackberry maker Research in Motion. Nokia's transition from Symbian to Windows Phone-powered smartphones "has left ample opportunity for rivals to steal share away from Nokia over the past 18 months," Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC, said in a statement. Even so, there is still room in the market for Nokia and other vendors to find success, he added.

Meanwhile, the larger worldwide mobile phone market grew by 2.4 per cent over the last year, with vendors shipping a total of 444.5 million mobile phones during the period, compared to 434.1 million units last year, IDC said. The firm expects long-term mobile phone and smartphone shipments to grow even further thanks to the important role mobile phones play in people's lives.

"At the heart of mobility is communication," Ramon Llamas, research manager with IDC's mobile phone team, said in a statement. "Mobile phones and smartphones play a critical role in keeping people connected, regardless of location. In addition, their utility beyond communication — productivity, entertainment, and multimedia — continues to add to their value."

Image credit

Published under license from Ziff Davis, Inc., New York, All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2012 Ziff Davis, Inc

What Microsoft should deliver at its BUILD developer conference - PCWorld (blog)

Microsoft's annual Build conference starts Tuesday, post Windows 8 launch, post Surface RT launch, and even a day after a big Windows Phone 8 event. You might think the boys in Redmond would have exhausted any shiny, new stuff by now.

Build is a developer's conference, so Microsoft will be hosting a host of sessions on how to develop applications across a range of Microsoft operating environments that keeps getting more numerous. There's Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Phone 8 and even the Xbox 360 environment. Yet they've also played very close to the chest about the agenda, not revealing anything about the technical sessions that will be the heart of Build.

Still, there's a lot of stuff I'd like to see at Build. I'm not looking for shiny new toys, but hard information on what developers need to know, with some hints at how Microsoft sees its ecosystem of applications building. So here's my wish list, in no particular order.

Kinect for Windows

The Windows 8 touch interface integrates significant gesture recognition. But Kinect offers gestures without the need for touch (though you do need a Kinect for Windows sensor.) In addition to being a camera, Kinect also integrates depth information and has a microphone.

More than one user has complained to me that touch doesn't seem natural in a desktop PC environment, where you need to lean forward a bit and lift your hand off your mouse or keyboard to interact with your screen. Kinect, properly implemented, would still require you to lift your hands, but the gestures would be in your "user" space, without needing to break the plane between keyboard and display.

I'd love to hear and see what developers might be doing with Kinect for Windows.

Xbox updates for Smartglass integration

Smartglass, the Windows 8 app that enables two-way streaming and lets you interact with your Xbox 360 via a Windows 8 tablet or PC, is still more a promise than a reality. As it stands today, Smartglass is more a toy than a real application. It works well enough, but what it does is pretty limited. Yes, you can watch Xbox videos on your tablet, but not much else.

The promise of Smartglass will be when Xbox games can use a tablet or phone running Smartglass as a gaming accessory. Or when Smartglass on a tablet enables better integration between the PC and the console. I'm hoping we'll see some hints of what Smartglass will really do going forward.

Desktop app integration with Windows 8 apps

As it stands today, Windows 8 apps and traditional desktop applications might as well live on separate systems. Windows 8 apps have their own way of communicating with other apps through the contracts mechanism. Desktop apps use Windows APIs. Even Office 2013 runs only as a set of desktop applications.

In theory, nothing prevents a Windows 8 app from communicating with a desktop application or with the underlying Windows environment. One tool conspicuously missing, for example, is a Windows 8 app that handles file management chores. I'm hoping Microsoft will be encouraging more integration between the two parallel universes the company has built into Windows 8.

Cross platform development issues and techniques

Microsoft is trying to bootstrap itself into multiple operating environments. It's attempted this in the past, with little success. But given the increasing mobile nature of modern computing, the company can't rely on desktop Windows and desktop Office to remain competitive.

Microsoft's developers have seen some success in the past with cross platform development between the Xbox 360 and Windows PCs, in the form of PC games. As the distinction in users' minds between tablets, smart phones and PCs becoming increasingly blurry, applications that can run cross-platform will be critical to Microsoft's success. One measure of potential success will be how enthusiastically Microsoft's cadre of developers embrace the cross-platform message.

PC gaming and touch

I'm sure we'll see plenty of lightweight, Windows 8 game apps that use touch. I'm more interested in how larger, desktop enabled game titles might embrace touch. Eugen Systems created R.U.S.E.several years ago. R.U.S.E. is a real-time strategy game that enabled multi-touch in a Windows 7 enviromment. Firaxis is readying an update to Civilization V that will enable multi-touch support in the game. Hidden Path Entertainment will be adding touch to its popular Defense Grid: The Awakening tower defense game. But other game developers have been pretty quiet about Windows 8 and touch. I'd love to see how game developers might integrate touch and gestures into the PC games, particularly role-playing or action titles.

Final thoughts: applications beget users

At some level, this year's Build conference will be anticlimactic, since the event is going on after the Windows 8 launch. In some ways, though, that make Build even more important. Windows 8 is more of a known quantity among developers now.

The secret to Microsoft's success has been in vast array of large and small developers building must-have applications for the company's operating system. If developers don't embrace Windows 8 in large numbers, and instead take up other platforms, the boys in Redmond may find themselves on the margin in an era of Android, the Web and Apple. That's not a position it wants to be in. Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows 8 Phone need to appeal to developers who create the applications that users will want. What happens at Build will give us clues as to whether those developers remain loyal, or start looking for other opportunities. Either way, it's going to be an interesting conference.

Microsoft aims to herd 70% of enterprise onto Windows 7 by mid-2013 - Register

Exclusive Microsoft has set an aggressive target of 70 per cent of enterprise PCs running Windows 7 by the summer of 2013.

The Reg has learned from sources close to Microsoft that the goal set by Redmond HQ is for an additional 20 per cent of enterprise PCs to move to Windows 7 by the end of its current fiscal year – on 30 June 2013. That would build on the disputed 50 per cent of enterprise PCs that Microsoft claimed during the summer of this year that were on Windows 7.

Windows and Windows Live chief financial officer and marketing officer Tami Reller claimed the 50 per cent stat in July, at Microsoft's annual global partner conference.

It looks like the kinds of organisations Microsoft's field must target during 2013 will be those running some of the biggest and hardest application migration projects – the kinds Microsoft shied away from last year and which couldn't be included in the 50 per cent number.

And Microsoft's field must operate in an environment where Redmond's corporate attention is 100-per-cent focused on Windows 8 rather than Windows 7.

A source close to Microsoft's field told The Reg: "Microsoft doesn't have a coordinated worldwide effort to get Windows 7 deployed."

The Reg asked Microsoft if we could speak to somebody leading the 70 per cent charge, to discuss what strategy is planned and how last year's 50-per-cent stat was compiled. However, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company was not able to comment.

Whether Microsoft can hit the new 70 per cent target is questionable, because the baseline 50 per cent stat Reller gave is in dispute and is increasingly being discredited.

Browser-management startup Browsium questioned the 50 per cent stat at the time in a blog, and claimed Microsoft had included non-enterprise operations in its numbers. Browsium claimed at the time that Microsoft had thrown in small and medium businesses and education users, and those running apps that are "easy" to migrate.

Browsium said 80 per cent of big companies – banks, healthcare and insurance companies, and government organisations with 10,000 or more PCs – are still clinging to Windows XP, with just 20 per cent on Windows 7. The company called Microsoft's numbers "optimistic."

And Microsoft partners The Reg has spoken to are telling us that only now – three years after Windows 7 launched – are they experiencing a rush of work as customers jump off Windows XP.

BDNA this month told us it's working on five of the seven largest Windows migrations in the US with two customers on 450,000 and 250,000 PCs each, all running Windows XP. The projects are new, with the 250,000 migration, a financial institution, only two-and-a-half months into its life.

Desktop management specialist SmartDeploy told us of another major government customer with hundreds of thousands of PCs also only now going to Windows 7 from Windows XP.

Should Microsoft's field fail to hit the 70 per cent target, then it will be marked down under chief-operating-officer Kevin Turner's infamous red, amber and green traffic light system, so there's is a huge incentive for employees to push Windows 7 upgrades hard and fast.

There's also another incentive, and that's the date for the end-of-support date for Windows X: 8 April, 2014.

Organisations still using Windows XP after that April date will be left naked by Microsoft - they will no longer receive code updates or security fixes, with Microsoft so far holding out against extending the deadline. Instead, Microsoft can offer individual, paid support re-deploying engineers and dedicating them to the customer in question – but it comes at a price.

Extended support is a pain for Microsoft, because it diverts people from building new versions of Windows. It's a problem for customers, too, because it's expensive.

Gartner in May said you'd pay $200,000 for the first year if you are on Microsoft's Software Assurance and $500,000 if you aren't on SA.

One Microsoft partner told us "there's no chance" large enterprise customers – those with 500,000 PCs or more – would migrate more than half of their PCs to Windows 7 by the April 2014 deadline.

"It's too hard, and the economy sucks and people aren't throw enough money at it," the partner said.

The difficult part is moving in-house apps and apps dependent on the Windows XP browsers, IE6 and IE7, to the browser in Windows 7. It's these kinds of customers that have not been included in the migrations that Reller was boasting about during the summer.

Aaron Suzuki, SmartDeploy chief executive, told us he reckoned customers that are big enough – those with hundreds of thousands of PCs – could eventually force Microsoft to support them if they are still on Windows XP after April 2014.

"People are seeming not that anxious to get off Windows XP," Suzuki told us. "Customers are content to run multiple generations of operating systems concurrently because of the application dependencies."

The Reg asked Microsoft what plans it is drawing up to support customers who miss the 8 April 2014 date, whether it would extend support and how much it would charge organisations.

A spokesperson instead referred us to Microsoft's support lifecycle policy FAQ here.

The policy states: "Microsoft offers custom support relationships that go beyond the Extended Support phase. These custom support relationships may include assisted support and hotfix support, and may extend beyond 10 years from the date a product becomes generally available.

"Strategic Microsoft partners may also offer support beyond the Extended Support phase. Customers and partners can contact their account team or their local Microsoft representative for more information." ®