The “first real Windows Phone” – that’s what Nokia’s call to the world when it announced the phone back in October. Now, we have the flagship device for Nokia and Windows Phone in our hands. However, is it all that it is hyped up to be, or will it show that Nokia made a mistake signing a pact with Microsoft? Will this show to the world that Windows Phone has some future?

Nokia is gambling its future on the success of the OS, and Terence Huynh evaluates if the Lumia 800 is worth that gamble.

Design & Hardware

The Nokia Lumia 800 features the same body as the Nokia N9 – and probably was because the fact that they had to release something, so they got together the parts of other phones to produce a new one. However, I love the Nokia N9 body, and I still love it on the Lumia 800.

The polycarbonate unibody is slim, minimalistic and looks beautiful. It’s comfortable to hold, and doesn’t use faux metal brushes to attract the eye. It simply stands out in its Finnish-ness. The body comes in a few colours – magenta, blue and the traditional black and white. Like the Nokia N9, you can change the colour by getting a skin over it. So if you felt that you wanted blue, you can buy a skin over it.

Other the traditional Windows Phone buttons, it also has a volume rocker, a camera button and a power button on its side. On the top, it has a microUSB port, headphone jack and and a microSIM slot.

The screen is a 3.7-inch display, and colours are vibrant. The screen resolution is only 480×800, but it’s not really much of a problem due to its smaller screen (and the fact it doesn’t try and fit over 200 pixels per inch on a display – unlike the iPhone). The screen is also protected by Gorilla Glass, so it won’t crack if you drop it from a desk.

While phones are now bumping their specs up – from dual core and quad core processors – the Lumia 800 has a 1.4GHz single-core Qualcomm processor. Yes, this is because of Microsoft’s stringent restrictions on what you can put in your phones – one of the big problems that Microsoft needs to address for Windows Phone’s future. However, despite not having two or four cores in its CPU, it runs like a charm. There wasn’t any sluggishness or problems when running on Windows Phone 7.

The Lumia 800 basically shows that big numbers don’t necessarily mean big performance. It runs like a charm on a single core processor.

The phone also features 16GB of storage, but doesn’t have a microSD card slot for people to store additional music, files or apps on. The battery life of the phone, however, is alright. Because of Windows Phone 7′s constant need for data for live tiles, you’ll most likely see it using a bit more than half of the battery of it during an average workday.

The Camera

The Lumia 800 has a 8-megapixel camera, and the image quality is decent but not outstanding like the camera on the rival iPhone 4S. The lens is provided by, as usual, Carl Zeiss and has a fixed 28mm focal length and F/2.2 aperture – and the colours of the images do look amazing when you look on it on the screen. However, looking at through a monitor, it does have a paler look. The colours are more muted or even washed out.

So, don’t expect this to be a total replacement for an actual camera. But if you want to take a quick snap and post it on Twitter or Facebook; or you’ll be sticking them on your phone only, then it’s not much of hassle. If you want to print them out, on the other hand, then  you will have a problem – but who prints photos taken by their phone?

Also, yes I do know the picture is sort of depressing. It was raining heavily when I took it – and being Melbourne, that’s a common occurrence.

So, Windows Phone?

I was really critical of Windows Phone 7 when it came out. I gave it a 6.4 for having several key features being omitted, the lack of customisation and some confusing aspects, especially in settings. This time, however, I can safely say that most of the issues are no longer bugging me as they had when I first gotten my hands on version 7.0.

I, and everyone else on the TECHGEEK.com.au team, really do love the Metro interface. It is beautifully designed. The start screen was one of the things that I loved on Windows Phone 7, with the Live tiles (now accessible to all apps) giving you reminders or upcoming events. It wasn’t static, it was full of activity. And, if I may confess, the calendar design – while may not be all that important – is brilliantly designed and makes it easier to see what’s next.

If only they could do the same for Outlook’s calendar.

The People Hub is one of Windows Phone 7.5′s best features out there. It manages your contacts and merges their social networking profiles into their contact listings, so you’ll never miss a Facebook or Twitter update from them. You do have to connect them to each other manually, but they do offer suggestions on what to link. You can also choose to have your own links as well.

The main criticism has always been the lack of applications in its marketplace. That is a fair critique of the operating system and one that won’t be going away for a long time. It is third, and there hasn’t been much interest in developing for the platform as Microsoft would like. It does appear to change as we see some good quality applications come out – in with the thousands of crap that is present already, sadly.

Though, that said, most of the time I found the apps that I was looking for – Twitter, Facebook, public transportation for Melbourne, among others. Most of the good ones, however, will see you having to spend a bit of cash to get (though MIcrosoft does let you try the app before you fully purchase it – something that is good, so at least you know you’re not buying a dud).

Internet Explorer Mobile for Windows Phone 7.5 gets a big improvement. The browser’s bar been simplified to one bar, at the bottom of the screen and only shows the address bar and stop/refresh. You can see more options by pressing the three dots at the right-side of the screen – whee you’ll be able to add it to your favourites, share or add it to the start screen.

However, while it does now support HTML5, Javascript rendering is far from the best – and this is evident with Twitter. Twitter’s mobile website didn’t work properly and Twitter has now resorted in pushing WIndows Phone users to its feature phones versions, meaning that it won’t get the same features such as pull down to refresh.

The Nokia Touch

Nokia has packed this with some exclusive applications that you’ll most likely never see on any other rival Windows Phone device. Nokia Music is its music service and while it is basically a music store like iTunes, it does have something called Mix Radio. That service is like Pandora – a ‘radio’ service that plays songs randomly based on genre. That is free to all Nokia users – something that pushes them ahead of the game from other manufacturers.

As well, you have Nokia’s crown jewels – navigation. Since making their navigation services free, it makes your Lumia 800 the perfect GPS device. Nokia has two map applications installed – Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive. Drive is, as what it says, used for your car and the interface has been designed with big buttons and large text so you can see the information without being distracted. As well, you get turn-by-turn directions for free.

Nokia Maps is more for walking about the city – and it does offer suggestions on where to eat. Nokia doesn’t rely on having it constantly pump maps via your mobile signal, it preloads the entire map, and then uses your GPS signal as a pointer – that’s all good to avoid bill shock.

We should also point out that these services don’t replace similar services from Microsoft – Bing Maps and Zune. Interesting for Microsoft to allow them to do it, but it’s possibly a price to get Nokia to sign up to Windows Phone.

Is it worth getting?

The Lumia 800 is a pretty good phone – especially for a Windows Phone. The camera is alright, and it is really snappy despite being on a single core processor. It goes to show that size does not really matter in this race – despite what the Android manufacturers have displayed – but the experience and how it runs. It’s no point in having a dual core processor when it keeps freezing all the time.

What lets it down is predominantly the OS – however, this is not a call for Nokia to go to Android. The OS has improved tremendously when I got my hands on it for the first time, and it does have some way to go. The main problem is the apps – or lack thereof. Nokia’s future lies in the hands of Windows Phone – it’s just that Microsoft is now proving to be a hurdle with its restrictions.

However, putting that all aside, the Lumia 800 is a phone I would wholeheartedly recommend. But the phone is up to you. Not everyone wants Windows Phone, but the same can be said for Android and iOS – not everyone want’s either of them. Windows Phone, however, is a good stepping stone towards getting a smartphone.

The phone is available on all three major carriers.

Check out the full review after the break.

When designing your home theater, it can sometimes be hard to have all your equipment in the same place. If you’ve got a lot of gear, it can take up valuable space as well. This is where the Belkin ScreenCast AV4 comes in. It’s great for situations where you want all your AV gear (set top box, gaming console, blu-ray player etc) in a cupboard at the back of the room and simply have the TV wall mounted at the front. The Belkin ScreenCast AV4 allows you to stream up to 4 devices from anywhere in the house (up to 30 meters) to your HDTV. Utilizing the 5GHz Wi-Fi spectrum, the Belkin ScreenCast AV4 is able to stream your devices in high definition 1080p and provide superior video and audio quality. It work’s with Blu-Ray protected disks and even 3D.

Setup

The setup of the Belkin ScreenCast AV4 is easy. You’ll receive a Transmitter and a Receiver, both quite small in size (the receiver being smaller than the transmitter). The transmitter includes 4 HDMI ports, a USB port for future updates (USB cable included!) and the IR blaster port. The receiver should be placed with the TV and includes a single HDMI port which should be plugged into your HDTV (HDMI cable included).

During my testing, I plugged in my Xbox 360 console, set top box and computer into 3 of the HDMI ports at the back of the Transmitter. I haven’t changed any settings on each of the devices, I’m just expecting  each device to behave normally. The only real struggle is attaching the IR blaster kit to each of the devices. In my case, I only had to attach it to the set top box since the Xbox 360 doesn’t use IR and my computer doesn’t have a remote. I just used a small piece of tape to attach the IR blaster to the set top box.

I then went ahead, turned my HDTV on and turned on the receiver. Using the extremely small remote, I had to go through a small setup and then I was up and running. I had clear, 1080p content streaming to my HDTV from over 10 meters away. I then used the Set Top Box remote to change channels which worked as it should. Changing the source is usually quick and only takes a few seconds, however, in some cases it did take up to 15 seconds for the source to change. I changed to my Xbox 360, picked up the controller and started playing a game. I was extremely surprised at the quality being streamed to the TV. It’s as if the Xbox 360 was directly plugged into my HDTV. I then switched input to my computer and attempted to play a 1080p movie and the Belkin ScreenCast AV4 was able to handle it flawlessly.

Interference

Being driven by Wi-Fi you would think that interference would be a huge problem. However, it wasn’t. While watching video I decided to fire up my laptop and start browsing the internet – the Belkin ScreenCast AV4 was able to continue streaming in 1080p quality without a single break in video. I also had a long conversation on my mobile phone (over 2G and 3G) to see if that interfered with the transmission and it didn’t.

Conclusion

The Belkin ScreenCast AV4 is a very easy to setup solution to people who dislike having to run cables between their AV gear and their TV or have a difficult  setup they wish to use. Setting up the Belkin ScreenCast AV4 is no different to setting up your HDMI devices normally and there is absolutely no difference in quality of the picture and audio. The Belkin ScreenCast AV4 will work with any HDMI device including computers, tablets, HDMI enabled mobile phones etc. Overall, a fantastic device.

Check out my review after the break.

The NETGEAR N600 provides the ability to simultaneously run two wireless 802.11n networks side by side, which has been terrific in my house, as I let my family have the 2.4GHz network and I have the 5.0GHz network. The N600 isn’t just capable of the dual-band wireless, it also includes four Gigabit ethernet ports on the back which provide high speed transfer to any wired device in the house.

When the router arrived, it was extremely easy to set up, the hardest part was probably taking it out of parcel bag that it was shipped to me in (Thanks Terence…), after about 5 minutes of getting it out of the parcel bag, it was as easy as plugging it all in, switching it on and it was online instantly. Because the N600 is just a router, I didn’t have to go through and configure any internet service provider settings, or check for any line syncs.

I was quickly blown away by the speed and performance of the router, like anything you and technological, you want to test the limits and the boundaries of it, so I quickly jumped on and transferred a 1GB test file to my NAS over the 5GHz wireless. To my amazement it took just under 10 seconds. Now I sit about 4 – 5 meters away from the station of technology that powers the house, and I was shocked at how fast the transfer was. I tried it on the 2.4GHz network as well, this was just a little bit slower at about 15 seconds to transfer, but that was still incredibly quick, much quicker than by Billion router.

In following, I love the NETGEAR N600 Dual Band Gigabit Router; It was actually the router I was looking at buying before I won it in the holiday giveaway. The clean interface makes it easy to manage and navigate around the administration panel, the high performance and speeds are great for streaming our movies, TV shows and other media to any of our devices in the house, as well as playing games on the XBOX or PlayStation. This is a great all round router, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who streams or plays on the PSN or on XBOX Live.

Hardware

The hotspot is actually quite small in size (96 x 57 x 16.5 mm) and only weights 100 grams. The small form factor of the hotspot allows you to store it in your bag, pocket or really anywhere. The device features a smooth black plastic casing with a button and a switch at the top of the device, which allows you to mute the device as it can beep when a user connects/disconnects. On the bottom, you’ll find a Micro USB connector used for charging the device and two external antenna connectors. On the front, you’ll find an LCD screen and when turn on, it will show signal strength, the number of users connected, battery left and the amount of data downloaded. The SIM card slot is at the rear of the device behind the battery so if you wanted to change the SIM card, you’ll have to power off the device.

Featuring 802.11 b/g/n almost any Wi-Fi enabled device can connect to the hotspot. Your laptop, Xbox 360 console, PlayStation, you name it! You can only have up to 5 users connected to the device at any one time and the coverage was around 45 meters. So you could easily have the device stored in your bag and have a laptop or phone connected to it. You could possibly situate the device in the middle of your house and the Wi-Fi signal would reach (most houses). I would of loved to see a bigger connection limit but it may be a hardware thing at this time, although, 5 users should be enough!

The battery life is said to be 3.5 hours under continuous use. We actually found it to last 4 hours with continuous use or around 6 to 7 hours of sporadic use during the day. It has a standby battery life of around 100 hours, which we experienced (could be a little lower if you use it during the day).

Software / Setup

The hotspot actually doesn’t come with any software you install on your computer. Since you just hook the device up by Wi-Fi there isn’t any need for configuration – it just works. However, if you’re one of those people who likes to tinker with settings or change the configuration of the device, a web based manager is available by going to http://ultimate.telstra in your web browser (see left). It allows you to configure almost anything with the device as well as send/receive SMS messages and change the SSID and password of the device.

Performance

The advertised speed for this modem is anywhere from 550kbps to 20Mbps. You should observe 1.1Mbps to 20Mbps in Ultimate coverage areas and 550kbps to 8Mbps in Elite coverage areas (just about everywhere else). I did a number of speed tests within the Sydney CBD at an average, I received 10.18Mb/s and it peaked at 15.65Mb/s.

I also performed a speed test in the Wollongong CBD which received 8.9Mb/s which is a really impressive result.

In real world terms, you’ll be able to browse websites very quickly and download very quickly. It will take under 5 seconds to download a 3mb file and just under 25 seconds to download a 35mb file. Which is most likely faster than your home internet connection (well, it’s faster than mine)

Closing Thoughts

Targeted at business users, the Telstra Ultimate Mobile Wi-Fi will be able to tackle anything you throw at it. It will allow you to connect to your businesses portal or quickly download important PDF files for a meeting across the City. Home users who don’t want (or can’t get) an ADSL service would also benefit from this service. I loved reviewing this as it shows how solid the Telstra NextG network is and how their network is miles ahead other competing networks.

The AVerMedia DarkCrystal HD Capture Pro card allows anyone to directly record any HDMI or component/composite input to your computer. Perfect for gamers that wish to upload their gameplay to YouTube, the capture card uses PCIe for a high bandwidth connectivity to your computer. Recording in 1080i, the capture card can record almost anything and export to almost anything with the included software. Check out the review after the break.

Features

The capture card has a wide range of features. It can capture video up to 1080i which is super high quality (blu-ray quality), the included software can directly upload to YouTube when recording has finished, Real-time HD H.264 encoding, 4:3/16:9 Aspect Ratio Conversion and it’s compatible with Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder meaning you can directly output the video to a streaming service in full 1080i quality. The capture card also comes with CyberLink PowerDirector 8 HE & CyberLink PowerProducer 5 BD, allowing you to edit your captured videos easily. It also comes with a low profile plate, so you can easily use the capture card in a low profile computer case.

Connectivity

The capture card has two input slots. The first one is a HDMI port allowing you to plug in any HDMi device (eg Blu-ray player, gaming console) and the second one (which looks like a HDMI port but isn’t) allows you to plug in the multi-connection cable provided (see picture to the right). It has S-video, component and composite allowing you to plug in things like video cameras, DVD players, older gaming consoles etc. It’s hot pluggable meaning you don’t need to shut down your computer or close the software to change devices or plug in new ones. We would of liked to see multiple HDMI inputs but i’m sure that will come in another version of the card.

Quality

During testing, I was astounded by the quality. I had an Xbox 360 hooked up by HDMI and was playing a number of games and not one time did the capture stutter, freeze or drop quality. A 1080i 10 minute recording was around 300 mb in size, so if you don’t have the disk space, it might be a good idea to switch to a compressed codec or record in 720p. Unfortunately, I didn’t save any of the recordings but I did find a perfect example of the quality on YouTube. See the video below:

TECHGEEK.com.au CES 2012

During our CES broadcast, AVerMedia provided us with three of their capture cards for the purposes of broadcasting and recording our shows. We were very impressed by the quality of the broadcast and the capture cards did a fine job. You can check out recordings of our shows at our Justin.TV channel.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a cheap and easy solution to record almost anything in super high quality, then the AVerMedia DarkCrystal HD Capture Pro is for you. We were so impressed by the quality, we will continue to use AVerMedia products for our video capturing needs.

The Kindle Touch was announced back in September, and finally Australians can now get it through Amazon. However, is it a nice upgrade from the latest generation Amazon Kindle, and is the inclusion of the touchscreen a good or bad idea? Better yet, is the Kindle Touch worth the extra $30 compared to the Kindle?

Terence Huynh reviews the Amazon Kindle Touch.

Design & Features

The Amazon Kindle Touch has the same thin shell as the latest-generation of the popular eBook reader (the one that has no keyboard whatsoever). It’s lightweight, sturdy and just perfect to hold when reading at night. As well, it’s pretty simple. You have a home button at the front, and at the bottom, you have an audio jack, microUSB port and the power switch. As well, the model still retains the 6-inch screen.

There are speakers, at the very bottom of the device. However, while there is an MP3 player on board, it is not designed for that. Actually, they are not really that good sounding, and are suitable for reading text aloud by the Kindle (Amazon has included its “Text-to-Speech” feature on this model). But adding the Text-to-Speech feature is brilliant for those who find it tough to read, but prefer it to be spoken to them.

If there was a gripe about the product, it would be the implementation of the touchscreen. Yes, they kept the E Ink screen, which I prefer on eBook readers because of its similarities with printed text, the speed between recognising the gesture and showing up on screen isn’t as fast as you would want it to be. As you can see, there isn’t the physical keyboard. It has been replaced with a virtual one. However, unlike the fourth-gen Kindle, you don’t have to use navigational keys to maneuver around. There isn’t a considerable amount of lag between key presses, so you’ll not be waiting long. The touchscreen is a good addition to the product, and while it isn’t perfect, it’s something that does not feel a bit gimmicky.

The international model, however, does not have 3G support despite being featured in the US version. In fact, if you want 3G, the model that supports it is the third-generation Kindle (also known as the Kindle Keyboard). In addition, the International version does not have ads – unlike the Special Offers versions sold in the United States. That is understandable since Amazon does not have any plans to expand its deals service.

Like I said, this model does look the same as the latest-generation Kindle. The only main difference between this version and the fourth-generation Amazon Kindle is that this model has a touchscreen. As such, there is no buttons for the next page or previous page; all that is done by simply tapping on the screen. In addition, it has 4GB of storage rather than two; and up to two months of battery life (with wireless off) in comparison to one month.

But why get this than the others? One of the biggest reasons is the fact that Amazon has pretty much the largest catalogue of books for sale. In fact, you’ll find a wide range of publications – from newspapers and magazines, to even books no longer protected under copyright. That means you’ll be able to buy books such as Frankenstein for free via Project Gutenberg. If you do get the Kindle, you should read Frankenstein.

Software

As usual, the software is pretty easy to use. There is no major differences between the previous generation and this generation of Kindle readers. You still are presented with the books you have read, you still have a menu and you still have the “Experimental” section with its wacky tidbits like a web browser (why you need one is anybody’s guess, however) and a very basic MP3 player. The interface is still simplistic and basic. Black on white text, little progression bar on the bottom of each ‘page’, and no fancy graphics. If you have used the Kindle before, nothing has changed. If you are new, you’ll find it easy to use.

But this has a touchscreen. This means you’ll have to learn new gestures – but it isn’t a steep learning curve. Much of the screen has been given to move to the next page; while tapping closer to the left edge of the screen will take you back. Swiping up and down will move between chapters, while tapping closer to the top edge will activate the menu. If you need to zoom the text in or out, then you do a simple pinch-and-zoom.

Other features include, like others in the Kindle range, the New Oxford American Dictionary. Simply hold onto a word, which is then highlighted, and you are offered the definition. You can even add a note, or share it to Facebook or Twitter (again, don’t know why). The new Kindles – not the DX and Keyboard – have expanded this further with “X-Ray”, where you click on a city or character and it gives you lots of detail like its biography, and how often it appears. Good thing is that there is no Internet necessary to access these files, these are stored alongside with the book – but it would also mean that hopefully data is updated sometimes.

You can also read your PDFs and personal documents on the Kindle – but you cannot simply drag and drop them onto the device. You have to email it to them, and that is annoying because its a highly unnecessary step. But the main reason is because they have to convert it to a readable format on the Kindle. This could have been done on the software side and then transferred across, but Amazon wants to control it.

The Kindle Touch also supports Whispersync – which is used to keep track of your reading, bookmarks and annotations across any Kindle device, and reader on any mobile device or computer. So, if you were reading on the bus, found something interesting and annotated it, you can simply launch your computer and see it there as well.

Conclusions

The Amazon Kindle Touch is a brilliant addition to the Kindle family. With or without the touchscreen, the Kindle is still the number one in its market – the touchscreen seems to be an added bonus. A big library of books and publications available, and the fact that its interface is simple to use and just focuses on the text, not on apps, is made it become the king.

However, the problem is whether to get the Kindle or Kindle Touch? Well, it really just depends on if you are willing to pay an extra $30 for a touchscreen, 2GB of more capacity and one month of more battery life. (the Keyboard is only if you want the 3G)

The product is currently available on Amazon, but will soon be offered in Woolworths outlets.

All images: Terence Huynh/TECHGEEK.com.au

The Samsung GALAXY Nexus (Image: Samsung/supplied)

The flagship phone for Ice Cream Sandwich – Android 4.0 – is on our review desk. However, does it live up to the hype what Google and Samsung have produced, or will it fall flat like many Android phones? Plus, is ICS an improvement to the Android ecosystem?

Terence Huynh reviews.

Design & Features

As we may have noticed, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is a slim touchscreen phone – not as slim as the Motorola RAZR, but is pocketable. The phone also features a unique curve, mainly because of the 4.65-inch curved Super AMOLED display. Speaking of the display, the colour reproduction is good and are vibrant (and it should, especially since it is considered the flagship phone for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich). The phone also features a dual core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM; and 16GB storage that is not expandable via a microSD card.

As well, you have the standard headphone jack and a microUSB port at the bottom; a volume rocker at the left side; and power button on the right. You also have a camera – 5 megapixel that can record 1080p video – with a LED light at the back; in addition to a front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera.

The body, typical of Samsung’s high-end smartphones, is perfection. It is beautifully designed. However, playing with the phone longer than anticipated, I started comparing it to the other phones I had to review, and the phones I previously reviewed – and it has a problem.

The body feels bland. It’s perfectly designed, but just doesn’t excite me as much – and it’s because of the colour, or lack thereof.

After playing around with the Nokia N9, you do sort of miss the bright and screaming colours of magenta and blue (I did have the Black version to review, but I did also play around with the two colours).The shade of black and/or grey and a mesh pattern at the back of the phone just gets boring when you see it on every single phone.To be fair, it’s not Samsung’s fault. Every single phone manufacturer is guilty of simply sticking to a monochromatic colour scheme.

Being the flagship phone of Android by Google, it does have to add hardware features that developers will be (hopefully) using for their apps. This phone includes Near Field Communication (NFC) and is one of the few phones that supports Mobile High-Defintion Link (MHL) – where you can connect the phone (via microUSB) to your HDTV. It is also sort of a way to reproduce 1080p content since the phone lacks a microHDMI port.

The Camera

The camera touts “zero shutter lag”, and the claim does stand up. The photo is taken and saved instantly when you press the on-screen button to shoot. However, while it does have continuous auto focus – meaning, it will constantly readjust to make sure the image is mostly clear -  you can get a bit of blurriness in the photo. It also comes with a panorama mode, so you can take 360 degree shots at ease.

In all honesty, the photos could have come out better. The camera’s weak spots are in low-light conditions. The flash when doing close-ups over-saturates, and does kind of make a person look like he or she has jaundice. Not a great look.

But the big improvement has to be the interface. It’s clean, simple and the settings are not hidden through menu, after menu. It has been a bit simplified, and stripped down to the basic features of zoom, changing the white balance, turning off or on the flash and changing the quality of the photos. It doesn’t have the weird oddities such as effects – like HTC has done; but who cares about the effects. All of us want simple snapshots.

Ice Cream Sandwich also lets you have quick access to the camera in the lock screen. So now, you’ll never miss a moment.

Ice Cream Sandwich

Now, let’s get straight to the main business – it is currently (at the time of writing) the only smartphone running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich that is available in Australia. Combined with the dual-core processor, it runs smoothly in comparison to the heavily customised versions from manufacturers – I still have bad nightmares from Motorola’s MOTOBLUR.

It pretty much takes Honeycomb and slaps it onto a smartphone. However, ICS ditches all physical buttons on the front of the phone, instead relying on the static buttons on the bottom of the screen – representing back, home and a way to see currently running applications. Also new to ICS is the ability to now close apps in the background, a new data usage manager, screenshot capture and the ability to create folders. Widgets now are in its own tab with the Apps menu, and like Honeycomb, you can now resize them.

But those are considered minor to Google. It is touting two things – Android Beam and Face Unlock. Unfortunately, we couldn’t test Android Beam since we don’t have another phone with us on our review desk that has NFC, but its a new way to share contacts, web pages, YouTube videos, apps, etc without using the cumbersome pairing process of Bluetooth.

Face Unlock, however, isn’t all that great either. The ads somewhat blemish the uselessness of this feature. In fact, Google admits that it is “less secure than a pattern, PIN or password”. So why put it in there? Because simply, iOS and Windows Phone 7 doesn’t have it. To its credit, it managed to unlock my face instantly – after tying to get it to angle correctly in the circle so many times; but it didn’t work in different lighting conditions (it could be because parts of the face were obscured). So, if I was you, I’ll stick with the traditional pattern or PIN.

However, back to ICS – in its purest form, it is brilliant. Perfectly designed (and as a typography nerd, the font Roboto looks really good for the display) and its complexities mostly simplified, it is the best version of Android yet – despite the gimmick known as Face Unlock.

Conclusions

Calling this phone the best Android phone might be a bit over-the-top, but definitely is one of the better smartphones in the market – if you ignore the gimmicks. The camera does let it down a bit, but most of the hardware doesn’t. The processor makes ICS run smoothly; and ICS itself makes me want to convert to an Android fanboy simply because of its design.

But of course, Samsung will create a better version for its Galaxy line, like every other manufacturer – so I’ll be eagerly awaiting what manufacturers will release with ICS at this year’s Mobile World Congress.

Okay, it’s now our turn to review HTC’s 3D phone. It records, takes pictures and plays 3D content without the need of those awkward and annoying glasses; and it also touts some top-of-the-range hardware specs. However, does it stand out from the crowd with its 3D, or is it just a gimmick? Terence Huynh reviews.

Design and Features

The HTC EVO 3D is unapologetic in being ‘bulky’ in comparison to the iPhone 4S, and moves away from the trend of slimmer smartphones with beautiful designs. A rubber back and an assortment of buttons everywhere, the phone feels very manly. And it’s heavier, weighing at 170g. It is wrapped in a dark-grey body with just a bit of red where the camera.

However, packed inside is a 1.2GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, 1GB of internal storage that is also expandable via microSD, and support for 3D with two 5-megapixel lenses. I’m guessing the second camera is adding to the thickness to the phone. As well, it features a 4.3-inch qHD display – one of the biggest screens from HTC – where the colours are vibrant.

The phone is one of the few 3D phones out in the market, and will let you play 3D content, take 3D pictures and even record 3D video in 720p video quality. And don’t worry, you will not be wearing any glasses to get it working. The company uses something the Nintendo 3DS uses, and it’s called parallax barrier technology. Downside is that it does cause some eye-strain if you are using it for too long, and that you’ll have to get it in the right angle or else the effect disappears. However, the effect is really good for video and games.

In terms of multimedia, you’ll not going to be impressed. Despite having some big specs, for some reason, it only can play out 720p files not 1080p files – which you would want if you were going to play these on your phone. Granted, it’s a minor issue. There is no HDMI output on this phone, but you can always buy an adapter for its microUSB port to HDMI (again, that feels like another hurdle).

The Camera

The quality of both picture and video is great, though not excellent. You can switch between 3D and 2D modes with a mechanical switch, and there is a dedicated physical camera button – which is something that I would love to see on phones. It does have auto-focus, so it’ll constantly adjust the lens – the sound does get a tad bit annoying. However, it doesn’t adjust to compensate for the dual LED flash when taking photos in a short range. So, you should be accustom to your flash options.

The camera also comes with some effects – including some effects that you can find in Instagram or Camera+ for iOS. The effects vary in effectiveness – such as the soft-focus feature. You can see one instance of the effect below.

Making your own 3D content, however, is another story. The pictures look alright, but you can’t really tell the difference between taking the same photo in 2D. And as well, staring at the screen for a long time, especially for video, does hurt your eyes – so you’ll not going to get a good video to share to your friends.

Performance + HTC Sense

The phone performs really well with no lag issues, and this is because of its 1GB of RAM and 1.2GHz dual core processor. The phone runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread with its HTC Sense UI – and of course features its own applications. I should point out that its own applications – including its own Twitter application Peep is not a good replacement for the Official Twitter application. So I suggest you go and download that app first. Other novelties you may find on this phone include a Flashlight, which is using the dual LED flash from the camera.

I personally felt the keyboard to be awkward to use and that could be because of its size, but also the sensitivity of the keys. Pressing the right key I want shows me another key next to it sometimes.

Battery life on the phone is okay, but better than some other HTC phones. Heavy users can expect this phone to last them around a day. Lighter users can expect to see this phone’s battery life expand to two or three days.

Conclusions

The phone may be fat – in comparison to other smartphones in the market – and 3D is a bit of a gimmick (one that can hurt your eyes), the phone still proves to the phone with the required features we want – a camera that works, a phone that does not lag and it is usable. The iPhone 4 and 4S encompasses all of these qualities that what every consumer wants in their phone, so the HTC EVO 3D does not fail to impress.

2011 happens to be a big year for us. I personally set up a goal of getting more reviews on the site. And guess what, we did just that. So, we’ve decided to go back and look at those reviews – just in case you missed any, or want to read again.

Of course, next year, we’ll be (hopefully) ramping up the number of reviews we do. All reviews are scored out of 10 by our very own editors based on their own opinions.

BigPond Ultimate USB Modem / 8.5
“For people on the go, students or traveling workers, the Ultimate USB modem allows you to browse the internet in speed which is on par with such results you get at home.” – Stewart Wilson

Apple TV (2010) / 7.5
“The Apple TV is a great device which allows you to watch movies when ever you want… and it also allows you to stream movies and music from YouTube and your home shared iTunes computer” – Stewart Wilson

BlackBerry Torch 9800 / 7.5
“It pretty much does the same things that Android can do, and probably an Android phone can do better. It still, however, has a long way to go in order to prevent Android and Apple taking more market share.” – Terence Huynh

Red Dead Redemption / 9.5
“The game is so big that I’ll probably have to leave some of the elements out of the review because it would take me all day to show them to you and I don’t want to spoil any of this amazing game” – Chris Southcott

JAYS t-JAYS Three Earphones / 9.5
“The sound quality is excellent and could even rival the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones… as one of the best sounding earphones.” – Terence Huynh

Telstra T-Touch Tab / 5.0
“It retails at $299 on prepaid, but is it really worth you spending the money? No, it’s not. I would save up the extra few hundred dollars and get a Galaxy Tab or an iPad. Sorry Telstra, but it just doesn’t do it for me.” – Stewart Wilson

Windows 7 / 8.5
“I really love Windows 7, and even though it’s not yet as simple as Mac OS X, it’s getting there. My biggest complaint is that it’s very expensive and it’s really just fixing up Vista… Everything works well, and anybody with basic computer experience will find it a piece of cake.” – Chris Southcott

Logitech Laptop Speaker Z305 / 9.0
“If your tired of your tinny, under powered, crappy built-in laptop speakers, then go for these. They are simply fantastic for anything you need to do and I bet you could even use them at a party.” – Stewart Wilson

Windows Phone 7 (Pre-Mango) / 6.4
“It’s a great beginning for Windows Phone 7 and for Microsoft in terms of mobile strategy, especially for the hardware specifications. But it now has to fix the bugs before we can whole-heartedly accept it as an OS as in comparison to Android and to the iOS.” – Terence Huynh

HTC 7 Trophy / 7.5
“The phone is pretty much a cheaper version of the HTC Mozart, carrying similar specifications with the exception of the camera and the design; and because of the non-differences between Windows Phone 7, it makes it harder to distinguish which one is good” – Terence Huynh

HTC 7 Mozart / 8.0
“However, while it may be argued that it is a waste of time to develop for a lackluster OS, the phone helps push the idea that Microsoft has started to change. So it is a good introduction phone for the OS, and hopefully the OS continues to change to make this even better.” – Terence Huynh

TEGA Tablet V2 / 8.0
“This tablet was fantastic. It is a huge improvement over the 1st generation tablet and the thing I loved the most, the fan exhaust is on top of the tablet!” – Stewart Wilson

Fable III Traitor’s Keep DLC / 7.6
“The Traitor’s Keep DLC is a great addition to the game with including a storyline after the initial plot. With additional playtime and collectibles the DLC gives the player an excuse to play Fable III again.” – Gabriel Huynh

WD TV Live Hub / 8.5
“The WD TV Live Hub is a great addition to the range of media players from Western Digital. It’s a great improvement from the WD TV Live. It’s an extremely powerful device, extremely easy to use and very portable.” – Stewart Wilson

iMac 27″ / 8.5
“The iMac 27″ may look huge and intimidating at first look but once you get to use it, you will love it for everything it can do.” – Stewart Wilson

Pokemon Black and White / 9.2
“Well fifteen years have affected the Pokémon franchise dearly, but not a negative way. For you devoted Pokémon fans you will feel a slight challenge with the increase of AI intelligent.” – Gabriel Huynh

Parallels Desktop 6 Switch to Mac Edition / 9.0
“All in all, I believe Parallels Desktop 6 is a great product for the mac to virtualise your guest operating system. Whether you transfer your old PC to your mac or you simply install a new operating system, Parallels Desktop 6 caters for any use.” – Stewart Wilson

Halo: Reach Defiant Map Pack DLC / 8.9
“I applaud the creators for their magnificent work. Not only does it show off their creative, map designing skills, but also shows how Certain Affinity and 343 Industries have done a great job in making maps as good as Bungie” – Adrian Cajili (w/ Gabriel Huynh)

Nokia E7 / 7.5
“The phone takes several cues from the Nokia N8. Despite the above-average features and excellent hardware, the phone is still let down by the operating system’s performance and usability… Nokia still has a long way to go” – Terence Huynh

Sony Handycam HDR-CX700VE / 6.9
“Overall, with a price tag of $1,799, you’re not getting very much – other than a bigger capacity and GPS… It’s alright, but can be better – especially for that price.” – Terence Huynh

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX7 / 8.0
“This camera is, despite its thin body, is packed with features that make it one in a few good cameras in a crowded market. With its price tag of $329, it makes this a must buy for those who simply want a camera that just works, with a little bit of extra stuff in between – like the 3D.” – Terence Huynh

Norton Internet Security 2011 / 8.5
“Norton Internet Security 2011 is a great improvement from previous versions and offers a full suite of tools to keep your computer protected from nasty viruses. With impressive results, NIS 2011 is a great security option for users.” – Stewart Wilson

Xbox 360 Kinect / 8.9
“With this latest accessory for the Xbox 360 the Xbox 360 Kinect adds a new perspective to games for the future. From many genres for games Microsoft have made the Xbox 360 a causal gaming console, similar to the Nintendo Wii” – Gabriel Huynh

Jawbone Jambox / 9.0
“A great sounding speaker which continues to impress us every song. It has an extremely high quality build, great sounding speakers and portable design.” – Stewart Wilson

Nintendo 3DS / 7.5
“While I absolutely adored the Nintendo 3DS hardware, a lack of quality launch titles, the small battery and the headaches I received from the 3D effect left me underwhelmed.” – Chris Southcott

LA Noire / 8.8
“Gamers who were expecting a Red Dead Redemption or GTA game will probably be a little disappointed but the epic storyline and detailed Los Angeles city, makes this a truly enthralling game.” – Ashton Bernard

Acer Iconia A500 / 7.5
“The Acer Iconia A500 is a great tablet for browsing the web and playing games, with moderate battery life and a fast processor. We recommend this tablet if you are looking for one, however, there are some better alternatives out there.” – Stewart Wilson

Telstra Smart Touch / 7.5
“The Telstra Smart-Touch is a fantastic phone in the under $100 range and it offers features that an expensive smart phone would. At only $99, it’s a great buy.” – Stewart Wilson

Jawbone ERA / 9.0
“The Jawbone ERA is a new and funky Bluetooth headset with a built-in accelerometer, great noise cancellation features and automatic volume control. Even though it’s a bit pricey, i’ll be recommending this to anyone who needs a Bluetooth headset.” – Stewart Wilson

Portal 2 / 10.0
“This is honestly my game of the year (so far). And I seriously doubt that will change. It’s witty, original, challenging and 100% entertaining. It’s a must have game. And I don’t throw that around all too often.” – Chris Southcott

Nokia C7 / 7.0
“Compared to other Nokia phones, this phone feels somewhat of the middle. It has improvements from other phones, including a screen that is actually responsive. But its camera, normally Nokia’s strong suit, is not on par with its fellow siblings.” – Terence Huynh

Choiix Power Fort / 9.0
“The Power Fort is a fast, powerful USB charger that is aimed at your traveler more than your city hang-around boy. If used carefully you will be able to charge your phone twice from around 30% to full.” – Tom Solari

Motorola XOOM / 7.5
“The Motorola XOOM is a good competitor around Android tablets, and most likely one of the better ones coming to Australia… the iPad still dominates because of its simplicity and apps – something that Android and Motorola XOOM somewhat struggle.” – Terence Huynh

iStorytime – Transformers and Smurfs / 8.0
“These applications are simple, easy-to-use and fun. They bridge the gap between the centuries-old tradition of retelling stories with modern technology and allow the user to learn new words.” – James Wilson

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron / 9.0
“For games of this genre, the mechanics are usually important and graphics is just icing on the cake. El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, despite the confusing game mechanics and controls a bit off-putting initially, is a simple game to play and quite fun.” – Gabriel Huynh

Forza Motorsport 4 / 9.0
“If you are hungry for a serious car simulation game, then Forza 4 is for you. It’s packed with amazing detail, a buffet of settings and fine-tuning options, it looks beautiful and can be enjoyed by anyone. Hardcore and casual gamers can easily have fun playing it as well as a challenge.” – Chris Southcott

NETGEAR DGND3700 N600 Wireless Modem Router / 7.5
“If your looking to upgrade your home network to Gigabit and Wireless N, this router would be great upgrade. The features and connectivity provided are speedy and easy to use but we aren’t too fond on the modem’s performance.” – Stewart Wilson

Nokia N9 / 8.0
“If we disregard the dead-on-arrival situation of this phone, it is one of the better Nokia smartphones for the past five years. The MeeGo OS solves many of the gripes of Symbian, which was one of the big let downs for Nokia’s smartphones” – Terence Huynh

Dance Central 2 / 9.0
“With its wide range of tracks, professional dance moves and amazing game mechanics, Dance Central 2 is arguably one of the best dance games to ever be released.” – Adrian Cajili

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary / 8.9
” You are constantly reminded of how large the Halo universe is, how far it has come, and seeing the craftsmanship and dedication that 343 Industries put into this game gets me personally excited of what else they can bring to the fore.” – Ashton Bernard (w/ Adrian Cajili)

WOWee One Slim Portable Speakers / 7.5
“Despite the novelty factor, it is a great sounding speaker and is perfect for those who want to travel light and listen to music without the headphones and not use the crappy speakers on your iPod touch or any smartphone speaker.” – Terence Huynh

Assassin’s Creed Revelations / 8.5
“This is quite possibly the best game in the franchise and is a truly great game. However… although it is a great game, one cannot help but to feel that the changes are just too small to let it stand out from the crowd.” – Nicholas Munro

Motorola RAZR / 8.0
“The phone’s camera is disappointing at best and the size may be a bit too big, but for those wanting a design-conscious phone like everyone did for the predecessor, then this one should be considered.” – Terence Huynh

Zune Pass / 7.5
“I love Zune Pass as an unlimited music service for such a tempting price a month, especially for me because I spend at least $10 a month on iTunes or Bandit.fm. But it’s so locked down to the Microsoft ecosystem” – Chris Southcott

A few weeks ago the Zune Music store finally arrived in Australia. But while we have enough online music stores, the big part of the announcement was Zune Pass. For $120 a year you get unlimited on-demand streaming music. But are there some hidden problems?

Chris Southcott reviews the Zune Pass, after the jump.

Introduction

A few weeks ago the Zune Music store finally arrived in Australia. But while we have enough online music stores, the big part of the announcement was Zune Pass. For $120 a year you get unlimited on-demand streaming music. But are there some hidden problems?

I’m going to go through the experience on all supported platforms, including the browser, Windows 7, Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7, and then the general problems I had with the service that were shared with every platform.

On Windows Vista/7

Firstly let’s start with the Zune desktop application, which is available free for Windows from Zune.net. Not only is the software beautiful, looking much better in my opinion than anything else at the moment thanks to its simplistic, colourful metro style, but it works well too. As soon as you’re subscribed you can download whatever you want from the marketplace. Any music is available under your $10 subscription fee. So you just search, press download and it’s instantly available on your computer and when you sync it onto your Windows Phone (or Zune, if you somehow have one of those). It’s seamless, addictive and really cool. Whereas with iTunes/anything else I’d be hesitant to download my desired songs, because albums can range from $16.99 to upwards of $22.99, with Zune Pass I just download and listen and know that, for that $10 a month, I am legally enjoying whatever music is available. And the whole catalog of Zune can be downloaded for that $10 a month. You can also stream it too if you’re light on storage. And it’s truly addictive to have so much music at your disposal. Hear a song on the radio, get it now for, apart from the $10, free. Having that ability is awesome and has made it hard for me to leave.

On Windows Phone 7

But who listens to music just on their computer? Like iTunes, Zune lets you sync all of your downloaded music, including music downloaded with Zune Pass, as well as your own music (downloaded or ripped legally I hope). And it works really well, much better than other music streaming/unlimited services because it’s all local.

If you’ve downloaded it on your PC then it’s local on your Windows Phone. Songl, which is the only other streaming service in Australia that I know of, forces you to listen to the music on your phone while online before it caches it for offline play, which means that if you don’t have much data then you’ll have to leave your phone playing that new album over Wi-Fi before you leave. And while that can be fixed, Zune Pass right now is superior in that regard.

The player for Windows Phone 7 looks really, really nice, with pictures of the band in the background, a nice “live-tile”. As well as looks, even though the files have a lower bitrate than most downloaded music, sounds incredible when compared to iOS. The music just sounds 10X better, at least on my device. The layout of the homepage of the Music application is great too, with recent plays and new music in a graphical interface which is really nice, as is the rest of Zune. It’s a simple idea, but a great one. As well as listening to synced music you can download anything you can download on the desktop software. Zune Pass is fully integrated and the music can be streamed or downloaded and synced back to your PC. Think iTunes, but unlimited. Again, the addiction to this rises. The main problem is the Windows Phone part. Getting a phone just for music isn’t a good idea, and I personally prefer Android and iOS compared to Windows Phone. I was actually looking for an old Zune before writing this review, just because I want Zune Pass but not Windows Phone. But if you already own a Windows Phone or want one then it’s great. Just don’t even dare try out Zune Pass if you own an iPhone, Android phone or, in my case, Palm Pre 2.

On The Web

This is where the negatives start showing themselves. The website, while allowing you to stream anything you can in the desktop and mobile apps, uses Silverlight. And there is nothing worse than Silverlight, not even Flash. It’s slow and pointless. In a world reliant on Flash and soon HTML5, the only reason to use Silverlight is Microsoft’s DRM. And never mind that everything else uses Flash, Microsoft must use Silverlight to “protect the music”. Sigh.

The website looks fine, but Silverlight means Linux users can’t use it, Mac and PC users have to suffer through laggy software and it’s just another plugin you need to install. There are social features, which feel a little undercooked, but it’s basically Last.FM with recommendations and profiles, so you can see what you’re friends are listening to and what you should be listening to. You can post status updates and follow artists too but it’s nothing to write home about. It’s good, but unless all of your friends own Windows Phones and love Zune and Zune Pass it’s basically pointless. And it doesn’t hook into anything like Last.FM.

On Xbox 360

The interface, as usual, is very nice but I would never listen to music on a console, except for in-game which this doesn’t support. And you can’t sync it. You can have a “queue”, but it’s pretty basic. I can’t just tell it to download everything on my phone or PC as far as I’m aware and if I couldn’t find it, I doubt anyone else would (let me know in the comments if it does).

Also you need Xbox Live Gold. And even if you’re paying $10 a month you’ll still have to lay down $80 a year. Yes, even though you’ve already payed for Zune elsewhere. I understand why Microsoft charges for online gaming, sort of. But paying for something I should already have access to is stupid.

Universal Problems

The Closed Ecosystem

Image: Max Klingensmith/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Now, let’s go into my setup and one of the biggest negatives of Zune Pass. I’m currently borrowing a Windows Phone (for an unrelated reason) from Microsoft, use a Windows PC almost full-time (but not for much longer) and own an Xbox 360. So I’m almost the perfect consumer, at the moment, for Zune Pass. But the problems for me started cropping up almost instantly with this part of the service.

What will I do when I give back the Windows Phone and go back to my Palm Pre (sadly) or what if I’d never had a Windows Phone? What about when if replace my PC with a Mac, which I’m doing this Christmas? It’s problems like these that are only apparent in Zune, whereas services like Spotify, Rdio and Songl work on devices out of their parent company’s ecosystem. And streaming music ecosystems are a lot different than actually buying music, mainly because most music websites are DRM-free and this isn’t. And you don’t ever own the music you’re streaming. If I wanted to switch from Bandit.fm to Bigpond Music to something else, I could simply walk away because I own the MP3′s and MP3′s are open and work with almost everything. But with Zune, if Microsoft doesn’t put an app on my phone or computer (running Linux or Mac) then you’re locked out. And all of these services require the maker to make apps and support different devices, but Microsoft looks like they’re going to stay inside their little universe instead of opening up Zune. And if I walk away I will loose all of the music I downloaded. In the end, you don’t own any of the music you download under Zune Pass, so that $10 is basically a rental fee.

Streaming Quality

Zune Pass streams at 128kbps WMA and downloads at 192kbps DRM-filled WMA’s. That’s a major downside, especially when the standard iTunes format is 256kbps DRM-free AAC and Bandit.fm and Bigpond offer 320kbps MP3.

Available Music

Let me tell you about my music habits. I don’t really like mainstream music, not because I’m some hipster but because I prefer other genre’s. So if you like that genre of Pop music, then you’ll probably be able to find it on Zune, if the artist isn’t a snob. But the problem I had was that many smaller bands are only on iTunes or other services and weren’t on Zune. And the thing is that Microsoft wants you to stay entirely in their ecosystem, but I couldn’t. About 1/4 times I wouldn’t be able to find some new music whereas it was on iTunes. Sure, it can be seen as a niche problem and as I said many people probably won’t face this problem. But if you have different music tastes then what’s playing on popular radio you might not find everything you want. And for $10 a month, or $120 a year, this is a problem.

Final Thoughts

Don’t get me wrong. I love Zune Pass as an unlimited music service for such a tempting price a month, especially for me because I spend at least $10 a month on iTunes or Bandit.fm. But it’s so locked down to the Microsoft ecosystem that it’s basically dead in the water if you don’t abide by Microsoft’s rules of only using their hardware and software.

Still, despite its flaws and low bit-rate, it is a totally addicting music service for Microsoft lovers. But it’s dead to people who don’t live entirely in the Microsoft ecosystem. And in the end, you don’t own any of the music you download under Zune Pass, so that $10 is basically a rental fee. You can try it for 14 days free on Zune.net but for me? I’ll be waiting for Spotify.

The RAZR name is back, and this time running Android and upgraded hardware to combat rivals Samsung, HTC and Apple. However, with such an iconic name, Motorola has a lot of expectations to fulfilled. Can it deliver, especially in a highly-crowded market? As well, how does its thin form factor affect the phone?

Terence Huynh reviews the Motorola RAZR, which can be found after the jump.

Design & Hardware

Like its predecessor, this Motorola RAZR continues the tradition of a thin yet beautiful design. However, it isn’t a flip phone like the older namesake device – which, incidentally, became a curse as Motorola phones were then compared to the old RAZR. This phone is a standard candybar phone; and the phone has had an upgrade in terms of hardware.

The phone is proudly declaring itself the “World’s thinnest” smartphone out there – only at 7.1mm thick (a slight bulge is present due to the camera). And its undeniably a beautiful design in a somewhat geeky fashion. It also features a KEVLAR fibre back, which is something a phone has never claimed before. However, the size may be a bit too big for people to hold in their hand and could prove to be a bit uncomfortable.

The screen is a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display that is also protected by Gorilla Glass, and does reproduce colours vibrantly.  It also features a 1.2GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory (that can be expandable via a microSD card). It also features two cameras: an 8-megapixel camera that can also support 1080p HD video recording, in addition with a second 1.3-megapxiel front-facing camera. The phone also runs the latest version of Android, version 2.3.5 – also known as Gingerbread.

The new form thinnest, however, means that there is no removable battery, and the SIM card slot is now on the side of the device. The latter is common now on phones these days, so it’s not a big hassle. However, it supports microSIM only, so you’ll have to ask your carrier for one if you want to use this device unlocked (it’s an exclusive to Optus).

Interesting thing to note is that Motorola has also made this phone waterproof. It is apparently coated with a “water repellant”, but I wouldn’t trust it. The ports are not insulated – in fact, they are exposed – so a tiny bit of water could damage it.

Camera

The phone’s camera is alright. It’s not the best compared to its Android rivals, but it is not the worst camera I have ever seen on the phone. The colours are a bit bland and are not as vibrant as what we wanted, and there is a tendency to place your finger over parts of the lens because of its placement on the top of the phone, rather than somewhere in the middle. The camera does not do well in low-light situations and you can see there is a bit of noise in the photos.

Video recording is a bit better, but don’t expect it to replace your camcorder. However, it seems to work better in some lighting conditions than still photography.

The interface for the camera, however, is pretty good. It is clear and pretty clean. As with all Android phones, you have a wide variety of options to play with, including changing the flash and have several modes. However, the phone appears to not have a dedicated camera button on the sides, so you’ll have to use the touchscreen button.

Performance

I have said this before – I hate the Motorola skin for Android. The RAZR, however, does make a huge improvement to make the UI more faster and responsive. While it doesn’t jitter as much any more and is much more responsive to my touch, I do find that it does start to have problems when there are a lot of applications running – including the crapware that comes with the phone.

As well, for some unknown reason, the phone restarted on me three times consecutively. I think it could be the constant inability to connect to the mobile network and the phone trying to update the status messages, but I can’t back that up. However, it was a one-time occurrence and could be from my review unit and maybe not on your unit.

Despite that, the phone does really well most of the time. It has a lot of animations, and the entire UI has been revamped with a brand new design. It also provides some new widgets which makes it easier to perform tasks without going through menu after menu after menu in order to find the actual option you require. One of the best features I love is that you can now access the camera from the lock screen, rather than going through it and then finding the camera app. It makes it easier to take photos at any time. And for many, that delay can ruin photos.

Battery life is pretty good, we’ve had around a day and a bit. We’ve tested with a standard Twitter account and using the browser, and set the notifications on. Again, it really does depend on how you use your phone. If you’re going to be playing games a lot such as Angry Birds and watching movies on YouTube, then you’ll drain the battery faster.

However, if you need to extend your battery life, it has also included a “Smart Actions” application, which allows you to set automated tasks for your phone. This means that, for example, you can turn off your Wi-Fi or Bluetooth when you hit 30% of battery life. While not new, especially when you can download it in the marketplace, the fact it is so easy to use and is pre-installed and ready to be used make this a bit more desirable than the ones in the marketplace.

Conclusion

The Motorola RAZR is a fine-looking phone with the hardware specs that would make you drool over. While it is in a crowded market, it does stand out as one of the highlight phones because of its unique design that rivals the iPhone’s attempts to be slim. The phone’s camera is disappointing at best and the size may be a bit too big, but for those wanting a design-conscious phone like everyone did for the predecessor, then this one should be considered.

The latest game in the Assassin’s Creed series – Revelations – is here. Featuring all three major characters from the earlier games of the series – Ezio, Altair and Desmond. However, does it better its predecessors or does it fall flat? As well, as it is the last game to play as Ezio, does this serve as a fitting farewell?

Nicholas Munro reviews Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, which is after the jump.

Warning: this review may contain spoilers.

Story and Graphics

The story in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations follows much the same structure as the previous game with Ezio Auditore and the Assassins in their war against the Templars (a mysterious group intent on world domination). This time round Ezio is striving to find five keys to the ancient library of Altair, the protagonist of the first game, before the Templers.

These keys are artefacts of an ancient civilisation known only as “the First Civilisation” so one may assume that the library holds more than just books. Much like previous titles in this all takes place in the head of Desmond Miles who through a device known as the Animus (which allows an individual to view the memories of their ancestors). This time, however, Desmond is not there by choice. After the events of the last game left him in a coma, he has hooked up to the Animus to keep his mind from shattering, and with the help an individual known as “Subject 16” Desmond must work to unravel his ancestors memories before they all begin to collapse together.

Graphically you will notice little graphical improvement from the previous game. However, that’s not to say that this is not a beautiful game. Yet again, Ubisoft have constructed a rich, vibrant world from the ground up. As with the previous game, this is set in three locations: Constantinople (or Istanbul, it really depends who you talk to), Animas Island (the land where Desmond may wander between memories) and the Assassin’s stronghold from the first game (both in the time of Altair and in Ezio’s time). All these locations have been beautifully crafted to fully immerse the player into this world.

Gameplay

To be honest, ACR has not changed a lot from the previous title in the series, Brotherhood. So let’s just look at what is new. One of the most obvious new features is bomb crafting. Bombs are used in much the same way as smocked bombs in Brotherhood; however this time, they may be customised to serve the player’s purpose. Bombs may be customised for assault or stealth by adding items like shrapnel that can make them deadly or adding sheep’s blood to make a non-deadly bomb that will cause the target to believe they have been hit.

The hook blade is also new. This changes things up a little – it is designed to compensate for Ezio’s age and to make climbing somewhat faster (much like the climbing gloves from the last game). The blade also allows Ezio to use the zip lines that connect many of the buildings throughout the city. This allows for greater ease whilst travelling along the rooftops – the only true way to travel in the Assassin’s Creed series. ACR again lets you recruit and train assassins (like Brotherhood), however their missions have been somewhat tweaked so that their goal now is to take control of the cities around the Mediterranean away from the Templars. A tower defence-styled game has also been added, now Templers will seek to regain lost area within Constantinople and Ezio must use an assorted selection of assassins to defend the base that controls the region of the city.

It is not with Ezio that the player experiences the greatest amount of innovation. This is also found within Desmond’s storyline with Animus Island. As Ezio, you collect various “Animus data fragments” throughout the city; and these can be redeemed when playing Desmond. This allows the chance to travel deep inside the Animus as raw data. Here, the game switches to first person and removes the ability to climb. Instead, you are presented with an alternative to move up levels. Though, you’ll have to find out by the playing the game.

Conclusion

This is quite possibly the best game in the franchise and is a truly great game. However, it is also the sought of game that probably would have benefited from coming out a different time of year and not come up against titles like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Uncharted 3 and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary -  all of which offer ether a high level of innovation or nostalgia. So although it is a great game, one cannot help but to feel that the changes are just too small to let it stand out from the crowd.

The WOWee One Slim promises to deliver high-quality sound despite its slim form factor. However, compared to the other cheaper speakers, it is pretty expensive and has high expectations to meet. But does it meet these, or will it fail to deliver what it promises?

Terence Huynh reviews, after the jump.

While headphones are nice and all, I sometimes want to listen to my music out loud in open air rather than it blasting to my ears – and that could be a way to maybe save my very own hearing. Most portable speakers tend to be crap because of the cheap parts, however with a price tag around the $100 mark, this device had high expectations to deliver. And it did – depending on where you placed it.

Design and Ease of Use

The WOWee One Slim is, as the name suggests, a much slimmer version of the WOWee One. It is around the size of an iPhone (but not as thin), and its design is simplistic: coming in only black or white and both having chrome on the edge. The body is made out of plastic but it does not feel flimsy and is not cheap. There is also gel at the bottom – which is used to power the audio (more at the bottom). It is sticky and is prone to get dust. However, a simple wet wipe will clean it.

It is pretty easy to use. There is no on or off switch – the device simply turns on or off depending if there is a device attached to the WOWee One Slim. It only features two ports – a 3.5mm audio jack and a microUSB port which is also used for the recharging the battery.

Performance

The device features something called Gel Audio Technology, and it produces high-quality sound if the device is placed on some material – such as glass, plastic or wood. This gel – found on the base of the device – essentially makes whatever surface you use as a subwoofer. The bass levels are nice and the volume is really good and loud, though it won’t replace a traditional iPod dock speaker or your entertainment system.

However, again depending on the surface, your music can sound good or heavily distorted. I found that the best material to use is wood and glass, and on a flat surface – but even that, there is some distortion but it is not as obvious.

The maximum battery life for the speaker is ten hours (though, that decreases it as you increase the volume), which is pretty good for those wanting to use it while they are studying. The device does indicate the battery life by a changing light on the body.

Conclusion

Despite the novelty factor, it is a great sounding speaker and is perfect for those who want to travel light and listen to music without the headphones and not use the crappy speakers on your iPod touch or any smartphone speaker. It isn’t cheap, but the sound definitely is worth the cost and its simplicity makes this a perfect speaker.

This is one gift you should consider to give for Christmas.

343 Industries, the new owners of the Halo franchise, with the help of Certain Affinity and Sabre Interactive, have released a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved. Dubbed “Halo Anniversary”, it also comes with new features that will excite many Halo fans. However, with Halo 4 coming next year, will this show 343 Industries is the right group to handle the franchise?

Our gaming editors, Ashton Bernard and Adrian Cajili, give their verdict after the jump.

As this is a dual-review, Adrian with be in red and Ashton will be in blue. The score is an average of what the editors have provided. Their scores can be found in the Conclusion section of the post.

Campaign

Adrian: Being a massive Halo-fan, I remember the first time playing Halo and experiencing a new , mysterious universe. From getting off the Pillar of Autumn onto Halo, encountering the flood in 343 Guilty Spark, and the drive to the Longsword in The Maw. 343 has done an amazing job in trying to stay true to Halo CE’s gameplay and physics.

For people who played the original campaign at an early age, Anniversary helped explain certain moments that were a bit confusing 10 years ago. Also, the inclusion of skulls and terminals makes Halo Anniversary greatly appealing to the core Halo fans with a back story of 343 Guilty Spark and the Halo Array.

Ashton: I, myself, am also a huge fan of Halo, but ten years ago I did not play the original game and so Halo Anniversary was a great means for me to experience the campaign that started it all. From breezing your way through on normal difficulty in the beaches and tunnels of Halo to defying devilish foes on Legendary, Halo Anniversary sucked me in with breath-taking visuals and a musical score that left me thinking nostalgically of my own Halo experiences.

However many levels on “classic” and “remastered” graphics seemed very repetitive (more likely a trademark of games of that era) this did somewhat make the campaign at times quite tedious. However co-op over Xbox Live is heaps of fun, whether your buddy is trying to stop you from getting a skull or you teabag a dead hunter for a solid 10 minutes Halo Anniversary encapsulated all things Halo. Nice one 343! 

Graphics and Gameplay

Adrian: Being able to change from Classic to Remastered graphics is the key feature to Anniversary, which shows how far technology, as well as Halo, has come in the last 10 years. With these new graphics, levels were more easy to navigate, and showed how enemies, levels and enemies should have looked like. Although the level designs got a bit repetitive in the classic and remastered version, just being able to switch from the two was very nostalgic.

Ashton: Hitting the back button in most games is usually just a menu (if it does anything at all) yet in Halo Anniversary, you experience much more than that, you see how far Halo and games in general have come in the past 10 years. Finding a real scenic spot and just switching up the graphics is pretty damn awesome! Gameplay is a huge plus. Who needs recoil on a sniper rifle when you’re the Chief right? Not to mention tearing up terrified enemies and anything else stupid enough to stand in your way with the pistol. It is incredibly enjoyable and a great way to satisfy your “grunty-thirst.”

Multiplayer

Adrian: Multiplayer was a bit odd, playing on the reach engine, aside from the 7 new maps available, including my all-time favourite ‘Hang ‘em High’, 343 brought back the overpowered pistol. After a few hours of gameplay, the pistol seemed to overpower the Shotgun, Energy Sword, Rocket launcher and DMR, as it was greatly used from close to mid-range, or even long-range. Also, it took 3 melee attacks to kill and enemy. But overall, the only thing that drew me in were the Multiplayer maps, and seeing how Certain Affinity can remaster a simple Halo CE level into something visually amazing. 

Ashton: Jumping back into Halo Anniversary’s multiplayer with the Reach engine is a peculiar experience. Immediately I forget that I could no longer sprint and that the DMR is weaker than my side arm, but after a bit of practice the controls become more user-friendly and no sooner does this occur that you get absolutely destroyed by the pistol. Get a bad spawn? Well then say good-bye to your health bar because you are gonna die very, very quickly. In contrast, if you manage to get a jump on an opponent delivering death with the surprising, yet familiar strength of the pistol, can lead to some rewarding killing sprees. Except on High Noon (Hang em’ High remake) cause on that map you cannot hide my friends.

Kinect Functionality

Adrian: Kinect was a new feature that was announced days before the game was released. With Kinect, you can ‘Analyse’ and ‘Scan’ objects to add to your Library. The Library includes all the items you have scanned, Enemies, Weapons, Vehicles, and lets you look at them in detail, as well as learn about the object, or its history. There were a few problems with the Kinect implementation as it would randomly pick up noises and randomly throw a grenade, or go to the start menu, as well as having a few seconds of delay. 

Ashton: The Kinect functionality in the game is at times quite enjoyable, waiting that half a second after you say “reload” and seeing your TV give into your commands tend to be quite magical. But unfortunately the technology is not perfect, sometimes common expressions like “its lagging” can be interpreted as “library” and then would open up your library of scanned items. Or sometimes a grenade is accidentally thrown which is extremely frustrating especially when afterwards you say “I didn’t throw a grenade” only to see you waste more grenades and possibly kill your friends in co-op. Thanks a lot Adrian!

Conclusion

Adrian: Halo Anniversary is a present to the Halo fans, and shouldn’t really be compared to the games that have been recently released. Celebrating 10 years of Halo, 343 Industries have shown us how dedicated they are to the Halo franchise, as well as their upcoming game Halo 4. The elements of the game really did make me remember the times playing Halo CE and I applaud 343 Industries for their magnificent work. Although there could’ve been a few minor adjustments, this game should be in the hands of all true Halo fans, so they can experience the ‘campaign of the decade’ in a remastered version, and see what it was like to play Halo 10 years ago.

I give this game an 8.9/10

Ashton: This holiday season was jam-packed with games, but if you loved the original Halo or are huge fan of the series like myself or Adrian, then you should certainly get this game. There’s not much in gaming that can match the nostalgic feeling of Halo. You are constantly reminded of how large the Halo universe is, how far it has come, and seeing the craftsmanship and dedication that 343 Industries put into this game gets me personally excited of what else they can bring to the fore.

Bravo 343, keep it up! 8.8/10

After the release of Dance Central, and being critiqued as not only the best Dance game but the best Kinect game of 2010, Harmonix has released Dance Central 2 with amazing new tracks and features. With new Crew Challenges and refined Break it down mode will Dance Central 2 be as good and successful as the first game?

Warning: Spoilers!

Storyline & Characters

Dance Central 2 has a new story mode titled ‘Crew Challenge’ and focuses on the various dance crews in the game. By earning their respect, you will be able to challenge more difficult crews as well unlock alternate outfits. There are 7 dance crews in the game and includes 6 returning characters from the first Dance Central. Despite the fact that some of these characters are heavily stereotyped – Bodie a ‘surfer dude’, Angel the cocky Spaniard, and Glitch an Asian B-Boy – the characters’ personalities bring a new feel to the game. As some crews are there to support you, there are crews like the Glitterati, who just annoy the hell out of you.

The Crew Challenge mode encourages dancers to 5 star a song in order to receive crew points to unlock alternate outfits as well as earn a Gold Card for that crew. The storyline is a bit odd and includes a creepy old man named Dr. Tan, who ’watches your every move’ and plans on dominating dance crews with his unstoppable robots.

The Storyline overall is fairly interesting as you gradually learn about each crew and the members, as well as the type of music and dance styles in the game. Crew Challenges help players to progress in difficulty in dance moves and motivates players to perfect each track.

Gameplay & Graphics

Dance Central 2 is a more helpful way of learning how to dance, even though these dance moves maybe not as crazy as some games, the choreography is amazing and definitely suits the song being danced to. Dance Central is also very enjoyable whether it is having dance battles with friends, or playing solo and trying to top the leaderboards, the game allows you to learn challenging choreography that you see from music videos, whilst having fun.

Similar to Dance Central, flash cards appear on screen, and the player must dance the certain move to earn points. This goes on for each move unless you come across a gold flash card, which multiplies your score for that move by 4. With more advanced and challenging routines, Dance Central 2 has a lot of dance moves that include jumping, crouching as well as ‘the running man’, and has more energetic dance moves than the first game. Although there are a lot of new dance moves, most of the moves I encountered were a bit ‘feminine’ and a bit awkward to do, but other than that, the moves were more challenging than the first game.

Break it Down for Dance Central 2 has been refined to let the player learn specific dance moves, or the entire song like the first game. With Kinect functionality, the player can say “Xbox, Skip” or “Xbox, Record Video” to enhance their learning experience. Also, being able to slow down the move as well as see a recording of yourself, greatly help in learning those difficult hip hop moves. The game includes 4 modes when you choose a song, Perform It, which allows players to perform solo or co-operatively, Dance Battle, in which 2 players verse head-to-head for the highest score, Break It Down, and the Leaderboards, which compares your scores between your friends and the world.

In Dance Battle, there are certain parts of the song where a little minigame pops up. this minigame greatly increases your score as you try to complete the various moves on screen in any of the four columns. Also including an improved fitness mode, players are able to do a pre-set fitness playlist, each focusing on different workouts, or alternatively can create and save their own playlists of songs.

Dance Central 2′s graphics are quite similar to the first game, but includes a variety of stages to dance to. Each stage includes 2 different backdrops which change frequently throughout the song, for example, Riptide’s stage includes a bonfire party at the beach, and changes to a dance battle at the basketball courts. As players complete the moves flawlessly, the backdrop also turns into a nightclub with the neon lines and flashing lights.

Music

Having popular tracks from Usher, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Bruno Mars, as well as those classic songs like ‘What is Love?’ and ‘Hot Stuff’, the tracklist in Dance Central 2 is truly amazing. From these songs, you learn certain types of dance moves, for example in ‘DJ Got us falling in love’ by Usher, you’ll mainly learn popping and b-boy type moves, whereas in songs like ‘Bad Romance’ and ‘Toxic’, you’ll learn more feminine and complicated dance moves.

Giving you about 40+ songs as well as being able to transfer Dance Central songs for 400 Miscrosoft Point and DLC, there will be about 100+ songs in the library, giving players a wide selection of songs to dance to. To name a few, there are song like:
Like a G6 – Far East Movement
Yeah – Usher
Born This Way – Lady Gaga
Grenade – Bruno Mars
Sexy Chick – Akon ft. David Guetta

Dance Central 2 gives players the option to toggle Freestyle mode, which includes a freestyle section in the middle of a song, or can toggle it off and dance a couple more moves instead of freestyling. This doesnt apply to Dance Central songs, and automatically has a freestyle section.

More than 30 songs were available for download for DC, and are also available for Dance Central 2, keeping in mind that Harmonix have a lot more DLC tracks to come, such as the recent announcement that they are releasing new DLC tracks from Lady Gaga and Rihanna.

Bottom Line

With its wide range of tracks, professional dance moves and amazing game mechanics, Dance Central 2 is arguably one of the best dance games to ever be released. Even though it doesn’t bring as much ‘fun’ as other dance games, Dance Central 2 helps players to learn complicated moves and give them a sense of satisfaction as well as enjoyment when playing with friends. Break it Down and Dance Battle were the two features that stood out the most, Break it down, giving players multiple ways to learn specific dance moves, and Dance battle which allows two players to dance simultaneously.

If you enjoy party games, especially dancing/singing games, then Dance Central 2 is just for you. Even if you’re shy or really uncoordinated, playing the game with friends can be really enjoyable and can help people to feel more confident in a way. With a wide selection of song genres, features to help improve your dancing, Dance Central 2 greatly outweighs the first game and can possibly be the best dancing game to date.

After waiting for so long, and getting a little sneak peak in July, we get our hands on the Nokia N9. It has a glorious design and an intuitive way of navigating. However, it is the first (and now, only) phone that will run its MeeGo OS. Does MeeGo fix the problems of Symbian, or will it make Nokia still irrelevant in this age of the Android and iOS platforms? In addition, with a single-core processor, can it outperform the dual-core processors of its rivals?

Terence Huynh reviews the Nokia N9.

Editor’s Note: our First Look video was recorded before this review, in July.

Design & Hardware

You have to give it to Nokia., they know how to design a phone. The polycarbonate unibody is one of the most impressive things I have ever seen, and it does not feel cheap. Slim, lightweight, minimalist and looks beautiful in all of its simplicity. It is probably the reason why Nokia has decided to use this body for their new Lumia 800 phone. The phone is comfortable to hold, and fits perfectly on the palm of your hand. The phone comes in three colours – black, blue, and magenta.

The phone has very few buttons. There are only three: the power/screen-lock button, and the volume rocker; and these are on the side of the phone. It also features some basic essentials, like the headphone jack and the slots to access the microSIM card and microUSB slot, but they are also hidden from plain sight, located at the top of the phone.

The screen is a 3.9-inch Super AMOLED display that is also protected by Gorilla Glass. However, while we have seen screens go larger than 4-inches, this screen is perfect to use for a touchscreen. You can use it with a single thumb, and the screen’s colour reproduction is brilliant. Readability isn’t a problem, especially on a bright sunny day – which lasts like 5 minutes in Melbourne.

It has a 1GHz processor from ARM, the traditional Carl-Zeiss 8-megapixel camera at the rear with 720p HD video recording and a VGA front-facing camera. The phone also includes NFC, but it does not support cashless payment. The NFC chip is to make it easier for people to share or to pair devices via Bluetooth via a tap-and-go system. The phone comes with 16GB and 64GB capacities – though the 64GB is only in black, while the 16GB comes in all three.

MeeGo – is it any good?

I have said this before, and I’ll say it again. MeeGo is one of the better internally-designed OS by Nokia in recent years. While Symbian has a long history of having things buried in menu after menu after menu and a confusing navigation, MeeGo does away with the complexities with a simple user interface. Granted, it may take some use to especially when users from iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7 would expect some sort of, well, button to take you back go the menu. The learning curve, however, isn’t that steep and you would get it in a jiffy.

Let’s explain the gestures – just in case you may not get it. You can swipe up and down within the app to go up or down. There are no exit buttons, and the way to close the application is to simply go from the top edge of the screen and swipe down. Switching between applications is also easy when you swipe from the left-edge of the screen to the right-edge. It is not perfect, however. We found it sometimes not recognising the gestures because I put my thumb on the screen while swiping, or just exiting an application by mistake. But it is innovative.

The home screen is split into three screens – the first is simply the apps menu where you see your downloaded apps and core items such as phone calling, contacts and a calendar. Swipe to the right and you see the running applications, and a swipe to the left will let you see your social stream of Facebook and Twitter friends. And of course, Nokia has integrated its own Facebook and Twitter applications onto this phone, and it does work.

Nokia is also appearing to heavily focus more on the social features. In addition to supporting the traditional MMS and SMS, it also lets you communicate via Skype, Facebook, Google Talk and your SIP box if you have that in your company. In addition, the contacts listings will merge all the information of one person – such as Twitter and Facebook – so you have a one-stop shop of trying to access them.

The Web, the Camera and the Multimedia

Camera-wise, the photo quality is decent. We did test it in our recent coverage of Armageddon, because I forgot to recharge my actual camera. However, compared to some of the better cameras available on phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S II and the iPhone 4S, it does pale in comparison. The quality of the photos also are not going to serve as a replacement to a standard point-and-shoot, despite the amount of customisation, which you have to hand it to Nokia as it allows some degrees of control. You can change ISO settings, and do basic photo editing functions. It does suffer when encountering bright conditions and in low-light situations. Video recording quality is also decent.

The phone’s multimedia options are excellent. Easy to use navigation and the interface is pretty sleek. The phone supports a wide-variety of music, including AAC, MP3, WMA and FLAC files – the latter will make audiophiles happy since it’s one of the better file types to encode music. The speakers are alright, though we much prefer to use the headphones to listen to music.

One thing that you can say about MeeGo is that the web experience has definitely improved. Pages load faster and it is responsive to your gestures. Swiping and resizing are smoother than other Symbian phones, but the interface falls a bit short. There is no tabbed browsing, but Nokia has compensated this by allowing you to open a new window, then you’ll have to swipe left or right (from the corner of the screen) to go to the multitasking array then press another window. Yes, it’s a bit complex compared to other web browsers. The browser does hide the back and forward buttons, but only when it is at a new window, or at the very first page or the very last page visited. It does reduce the clutter on the screen, making more easier than before.

Mapping

One of Nokia’s strengths is its mapping tools, and it is no different here. What is different is that you have a map preloaded on the phone. It does not wait to get the map images from Google, unlike Android and iOS. All it sends out is your mobile tower location to find where you are on the map. What is also interesting is that it also shows you the transportation networks – and living in Melbourne, it shows the tram stops, which is pretty important when travelling around the CBD.

Nokia has also a free navigation system installed on the phone, again using preloaded maps, in order to get to your destination. The design is similar to how any other GPS system works and it is optimised for use in the car with large buttons and text.

Performance

The phone is definitely a huge improvement from Nokia’s other Symbian phones. Apps load faster and the system does not overall suffer from lag in the menu system. However, there is still some lag, but that is mainly due to the social stream from the Homepage, where it keeps constantly updating for new Twitter and Facebook status updates. While you can clean it, it would be nice if it would automatically perform this in order to make it a bit quicker.

Battery life isn’t good on this phone, and this could be because of the constant amount of data that is going through this phone. Always-on communication, and social streams are great, but it does drain the battery. I found that I was using half my battery life within a day, and that is just connecting it to my Twitter and Facebook profiles and light web browsing.

Conclusions

The phone is a brilliant phone. But already, we saw at Nokia World the future of Nokia. It isn’t with MeeGo, but with Windows Phone 7. While both are perfectly designed mobile OS platforms, and both have their own flaws, it is a shame to see such a promising OS (MeeGo) killed in the process. But why Nokia is releasing this phone despite the Lumia 800, the Windows Phone 7 version, is coming soon next year? I don’t have an answer for you.

If we disregard the dead-on-arrival situation of this phone, it is one of the better Nokia smartphones for the past five years. The MeeGo OS solves many of the gripes of Symbian, which was one of the big let downs for Nokia’s smartphones, despite the pretty good hardware. With MeeGo, we finally saw a worthy competitor to the Android and iOS smartphones.

The Nokia N9 is available on Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.

Check out the full review after the break.

The Netgear N600 Wireless Modem Router combines two major network devices, a modem and a router. It’s a common thing these days but you still find people having both a modem provided by their ISP and their own router providing wireless and connectivity. The N600 has a built in ADSL2+ modem and a WAN port, allowing you to use a cable modem (or the NBN Box if you have it). It has 4 Gigabit LAN ports available to plug in your computers or networkable devices and two USB ports which allow you to plug in your external USB drives and share them over the network through DLNA or normal SMB sharing.

The N600 has dual-band Wireless 802.11n which sends two streams to your computer which doubles the speed of which you transfer at. This is handy for gamers who play games that require a fast, reliable stream or if you watch HD videos over your wireless connection. The N600 allows you to setup a guest network, which separates your normal network into a secure environment. Any guests connecting to the guest network will be able to browse the internet but not be able to access shared devices on the network or even computers. This is handy in a business environment but is also handy at home if you have people connecting that you don’t trust.

Setup

The N600 does not come with a easy setup CD like other Netgear or other brands come with but the setup through the interface is easy. You need to plugin the N600 into power, ADSL connection and ethernet to your computer, navigate to the routers web based configuration page (details are included in the routers documentation) and follow the steps. You can either follow the automated setup which can automatically detect your connection type, apply settings etc or you have choose to do it manually. I tried both ways and in the end, the router was setup the same.

Performance

During our testing, we found the N600 had very good performance compared to some other routers on the market (We really need to review more routers so we have things to compare to!). I had the router hooked up to a media server with gigabit connectivity and transferred a 4GB file (three times) and averaged the results. During my testing on the 2.4 GHz band, I received the following speeds:

Performing the same tests but on the 5 GHz band, yielded the following results:

Personally, I was pleased with the results from our wireless tests. However, we did have some performance issues with the modem side of things. The modem was unable to hold sync for longer than an hour and there was significant drops in my sync speed. At the time, my Billion modem would sync at 4600 Kbps, however, the N600 would only sync at around 3000 Kbps. This is a disappointing let down as the rest of the router is great! Since the N600 offers a WAN port, you could buy this just for the router features and use another modem.

The built in NAS feature for allowing you to share files from a USB stick or USB hard drive was a great performer. Thanks to the N600′s dual-core processor, the files where transferred quickly through both gigabit Ethernet and dual-band wireless. I have no complaints, it was easy to setup and delegate different permissions to different users.

Conclusion

If your looking to upgrade your home network to Gigabit and Wireless N, this router would be great upgrade. The features and connectivity provided are speedy and easy to use but we aren’t too fond on the modem’s performance. Check out the WNDR3700 which is just the router (without modem) if your looking to upgrade everything but the modem. But all in all, great!

Now, in 2011, a new Forza is in my hands and, with a new Gran Turismo unannounced, has little competition.  Forza 3 innovated on the tired car simulation genre and now the series is back for more. But does the latest outing deserve to dominate? And does it change enough to warrant a purchase? Read on for a full review.

Gameplay

Forza 4 is one of those rare gems when it comes to gameplay. The racing can be fun and challenging and it has a great amount realism when it comes to turning and handling. The cars each have a different, real weight, which doesn’t always come across in other racing games. But the game doesn’t force you to be great at racing games. There are heaps of difficulty settings and that means it can be fun for anyone who can game. It’s still a simulation, but that doesn’t get in the way of the fun and, while serious, it doesn’t feel as full-on difficulty-wise as Gran Turismo can. It’s more accessable, with plenty of helpful assists turned on by default. But if you’re a car nut you have an option to turn whichever ones off that you feel you don’t need. Traction control, stability control, anti-lock brakes and automatic brake assists are included and make it easier for beginners, but with them turned off the game can become quite complex. But the easy difficulties don’t mean it becomes an arcade game though, sticking to its simulation roots. As said before, it’s serious, like Gran Turismo, but also fun, like DiRT.

Forza 4 has plenty of new environments and Season mode, which is now called World Tour Mode, is now a collection of racing locations from around the world. It feels a lot more like a real driving season, unlike the previous game which felt like a bunch of races glued together on a calendar. It’s fairly linear, but you still have options for which races you will do inbetween the big final races. The locations are now plotted on a map, which again makes it feel less like a collection and more like a real season of racing. And outside World Tour Mode you can look at every possible race in the game, just like in Forza 3.

Forza 4 also mixes leveling up with racing in a very smooth and rewarding way that is more fun than competing games. As you level up you get rewards and also Xbox Live achievements, which makes it feel less grinding than other leveling systems. The longer the race, the bigger the XP. And while racing games have had this RPG-style leveling system, Forza just feels like it does it better. You don’t start with a terrible car either. While you have to wait a while before amazing sports-cars, you aren’t left with the traditional garbage car that other games have. And as you collect driver and car XP you’ll find the game much more satisfying.

The lower the difficulty becomes, the more obvious the infamous racing game slingshot effect becomes. The slingshot effect, where the player will be coming last and then suddenly the game will make it easier, is really obvious. And this isn’t a difficulty problem. It’s the way it happens. If you play on Easy, cars will suddenly swerve off the road and sit until you drive past. It’s so obvious that it makes winning less rewarding for casual players. And it is rather embarrasing for whoever made the AI in this game. It’s better than Gran Turismo, but not perfected.

The game also includes the rewind feature from Forza 3. This really does help you in those situations where you’ve been in a race for 10 minutes and crash on the last lap. Instead of needing to restart the entire race you can simply rewind a couple of seconds. Some may say this is cheating, but I think it’s a great way to stop people losing interest and rage-quits. If you want to show off your skills you can simply not use it. It’s optional but a great feature for people who don’t like to be frustrated to the point of anger at the game.

Also in the game is a great integration of Top Gear, the popular BBC television series. If this integration is familar to you then it’s probably because Gran Turismo 5 also had Top Gear gameplay. But unlike Gran Turismo 5, Forza 4 does a really good job of adding the show to the game. Instead of searching menus for Top Gear races outside of the main game, they’re included in the World Tour Mode. The Top Gear Test Track is in the game too and there are some fun and silly challenges to complete. But, a warning. Some of these may frustrate non-fans of the show. The game also has some narration from Jeremy Clarkson and Forza really feels like a good choice for Top Gear. I had fun with it but, as I said, non-fans of the show may be frustrated by the inclusion of the, at times, controversial show.

Another new feature of Forza 4 is Kinect integration. I was unable to try it, due to lack of a Kinect, but I doubt it can compete with a controller. Still, I’m sure if you want to use it, you could finish the whole game with it. But you might want to look at some videos of it if you intend to use Kinect with this. Microsoft doesn’t have a good track-record of hardcore Kinect games. There are features like Head Tracking, where the camera view pans as you move your head and also full game control but I still don’t like this new technology. Maybe it’s because I’ve gamed with controllers all my life, or maybe it’s because it’s inferior. I’m going with the latter. And the Achievement that requires Kinect is cheap.

Kinect also features in Autovista mode, where you can walk around and go into a car in a virtual showroom. I wasn’t at all interested except for getting the achievement, but car fans will surely be with all of the cars working with Autovista mode.

The game features plenty of multiplayer modes and other social elements. There is the regular multiplayer modes where you can race against friends, even when they’re offline, and get in-game rewards from winning. There is also matchmaking, which I don’t like (but, I don’t like it in any game). It’s going to be great fun with friends but I’m not a big fan of playing with randoms in any online game. Split screen is in and, I must say, I should’ve bumped up the score for that. I love split-screen and games that have online but not offline multiplayer are quite stupid, unless it’s technologically impossible (GTA IV).

You can also join or create a “Car Club” on Forza 4′s online service where you can make a group of drivers and customisations, such as paint-jobs or car tuneups. The Club can then be shared with friends and it can compete with others. It’s an interesting idea and while I haven’t spent much time with it, due to a small amount of people playing online, it works well and I did create a Club with ease.

The marketplace is also included, as in Forza 2 and 3, and there is still just as much customisation options as before and plenty of fun to be had. You can sell vinyls, car designs and tuning setups in the marketplace and buy other people work with in-game credit. There is, as before, also video and photo modes and you can share these online.

Presentation

The game menus have been reskinned, with the clean white menus being replaced with clunky, dark and not as soft menus. It doesn’t hurt too much, but I liked the more minimalistic menus from Forza 3. Apart from how they look, the menus are better for finding what you want. Multiplayer, for example, is easier to find, but there are still confusing items and it’s hard to find the settings page because it’s hidden.

Visuals

Forza 4′s car models are phenomenal. If you compared in-game vehicle models to real life vehicles I doubt you’d be able to tell too much of a difference. It’s just incredible work. And even with these photo-realistic graphics the entire game can still run at a buttery-smooth 60 frames per-second. Gran Turismo also featured amazing models, but they didn’t look as good in-game in my opinion. Forza’s look amazing in motion and the screenshots look great too.

There are also reuses of race locations from Forza 3. It’s frustrating that they can just copy and paste old environments into a new game, but there are still plenty of new tracks. Don’t be surprised if a track is instantly familiar from Forza 3 though.

One of the few problems I had with Forza 4 was the new, cleaner HUD. During races, especially with the shine of roads I mentioned earlier, it’s hard to see the all-white with small shadowed HUD. It’s clean but regularly hard to see behind white clouds or other objects.

The games damage system still relies mostly on changing the look of a car instead of performance and 3D physical car destruction. For example, to actually cause anything more than visual damage you will have to hit another car or object extreemly fast. Don’t expect DIRT or Burnout style vehicle distruction but still expect some visual and occasional physical damage, so your car doesn’t completely feel like a dodge-em car.

Overall the game models and lighting looks fantastic, but a few problems are still apparent, as with almost any game.

Sound

The car sounds are fantastic in Forza 4, with ultra-realistic audio. If you blast it up full-board on surround sound your neighbours will probably call the police. It’s so good.

There is narration from a smooth british man, as well as some by Jeremy Clarkson. It’s alright, but I don’t like the delay between when he’s talking and when I can skip the narration.

The soundtrack isn’t as good as the other sound though. There is a lot of Gran Turismo style house music mixed with contemporary music. And while this house sound is fine in menus, leave it out of the gameplay. You’ll occasionally get a good song in-game, but the other music is overused. Still, overall the sound effects are great, but the music lets the overall package down in my opinion. But music is a subjective topic.

Final Thoughts

If you are hungry for a serious car simulation game, then Forza 4 is for you. It’s packed with amazing detail, a buffet of settings and fine-tuning options, it looks beautiful and can be enjoyed by anyone. Hardcore and casual gamers can easily have fun playing it as well as a challenge.

Remember, though, that this game is more of a simulation than an arcade racer. It’s not NFS: Hot Pursuit and it definitely isn’t Mario Kart. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a lot of fun.

And while there aren’t extreme changes from Forza 3, this new game is still filled with enough new content to be worth the money.

I loved Forza 3 and played the crap out of it. The same feeling comes across to me while playing Forza 4. Now excuse me while I have a drive around the Top Gear Test Track.

Never heard of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron? Well, that means you been living under a rock for the last couple of months. The latest game from little known developer Ignition and distributed by Konami is out in Australia, after being first released in America and Japan. But is this game actually any good?

Gabriel Huynh reviews the game after the jump.

Please Note: The review is based on the Xbox 360 version of the game. The PlayStaiton 3 version may differ slightly.

Story & Graphics

The story is a bit interesting, and is based on the Book of Enoch – and for those not in the know, its a religious text that is considered as part of the Bible by some minority Jewish and Christian groups, but not the mainstream counterparts.

In brief, the main story is that you are the writer Enoch, descending from heaven to aid God in seeking and recapturing seven fallen angels from destroying mankind. The character is aided by via religious figures such as Archangels (yes, really, archangels), as well as mystical creatures.

Graphics in the game are pretty good. It uses a pretty interesting combination of traditional and modern art styles in its graphics, such as Feudal Japanese art and religious stain glass images. The 3D graphics, usually in action scenes, were also okay – using strong pastel colours to make them stand out against the background. I did, however, see the rare occasional lip-sync screw up over the dubbed script, but that’s a minor annoyance.

Gameplay

First seeing the default button layout, we were confounded that some buttons did the exact same action, such as there were two buttons for attacking and two for jumping. Initially, I was confused and felt that it was unnecessary; but as I further progressed into the game, the confusing controls became simple and easy to use.

In other words: get ready to be annoyed for a few hours of gameplay.

With many action games the player is usually given a main weapon which they use throughout the game. This game is an exception. The player begins with nothing but his own bare hands. To compensate, the game allows three different types of weapons to be stolen from the enemy at various points of the game: a close-mid range blade, mid-long range arrows, and close range gloves. Like other action games with various weapon choices, these weapons do degrade by ‘breaking’.

In between the action, it shifts into a traditional 2D platformer. These platform segments includes minor combat sequences and changing environments. It’s an interesting contrast, but doesn’t detract much from the overall game.

Music

The main background and opening music has a feel of a church choir which expresses the main storyline of the game, combining classical and opera vocals. However the mood of the music changes depending on two factors: the environment and if a battle sequence has occurred. For the environment, the music will complement the new environments, such as in a depression and eerie area, the music will become deeper. For battle, the music changes to a traditional battle sequence with an up-tempo beat.

Conclusion

For games of this genre, the mechanics are usually important and graphics is just icing on the cake. El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, despite the confusing game mechanics and controls a bit off-putting initially, is a simple game to play and quite fun.

James Wilson takes a look at two of their applications, the iStoryTime Transformers Mix and Match, and iStoryTime The Smurfs Audio Book.

Editor’s Note: this review has been slightly edited from its original publication to meet within our style guide.

If there is one thing that Apple has proven its that iOS is a great platform for people of all ages. iStoryTime is a company that produces great, interactive story books for young-to-middle aged children. Recently, I was tasked to review two of their apps: iStoryTime Transformers (Mix & Match) and iStoryTime The Smurfs (Audio Book)., I’ve decided to break them down into two distinct sections.

Transformers: Mix and Match Book

Based on the movie “Tranformers: Dark Side of the Moon”, this application is an interactive way for children to mix up characters and create their own stories. I myself was amused as to the fact that Ratchet (the green Transformer) could easily brandish the Energon Sword and take on Sentinal Prime who is attacking some NEST soldiers.

Interface

When you first start up the app, the menu is simple enough: a giant play button is present, with Optimus Prime (mixed with Bumblebee’s body) standing next to it. The (I) button simple flips the app to show a “Read to Me” option that, when toggled on, means your mix-up is read to you. The (GET GAME) button flips the app to reveal the shoot-em-up arcade style Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon game available from the App Store.

The Normal Part
When you first hit that play button, the initial scene of movie appears. The screen is comprised of three sections: top, middle, bottom. You change each part by swiping left or right. Each section lists the location and a noun (top), the verb (middle) and conclusion (bottom). The pictures are detailed and very artistic in presentation. Each textbox has a colour around it to reference it to a particular character. As a four-year-old, that part doesn’t matter: its simply a mixing of colours!

The Mix-n-Match Part
To left is a mixed up story – and let me tell you kids LOVE IT! Die-hard (can kids even be that?) fans of Transformers will relish in this clash of roles and scenes from the movie. The colours are all now mixed up, indicating a change in characters and actions. In this instance, Ratchet now has Mirage’s body and Cybertron’s legs. The story is also mixed up, saying that Ratchet becomes a sports car and has killed the serpentine drill.

Character Info
Clicking the Autobot or Decepticon icon in the previous screen will reveal information on each Transformer. This information is also read out to you. It lists the function, vehicle mode and weapon.

Verdict

This application is fantastically and skilfully built. It teaches children the simplicities of mixing and matching to make a story that does make sense and provide young children with a very, very long time of entertainment. I recently was seeing younger cousins of that age range and let one of them test the Transformer’s Mix and Match app on my iPhone; needless to say I didn’t see that iPhone for a good twenty minutes and always heard the “whooahahahaii” sound of the transforming Tranformers. If you’re thinking twenty minutes is not long, for a four-to-six year old child, it is. This application also allows simple assimilation of words that helps build up the vocabulary by exploring the relationships between nouns and verbs as each strip is changed. The “Read to Me” setting (which is on by default) greatly enhances the learning of new words as the parent (or technically abled user) can turn this off and read to themselves.

I only have one con: no language (or accent) specification. Being Australian, the distinctly American accent may confuse young children learning new words (in terms of articulation). However, as an adult, it provides a simple way for the app to be read out and enjoyed.

The Smurfs

These little creatures never seem to stay out of trouble. Unlike the previous application, this application is a simple picture-to-text linear storytelling app that does its job well. Upon first launch, the screen to the left is given with three options: Read It Myself; Read To Me; Auto Play; and, Spot the Difference Game

Each option does exactly what it says. If you choose “Read it Myself”, there is no narration – simply text and picture. If you choose “Read to Me”, the application narrates for you but does not advance the pages, allowing you to continue at your own pace. “Auto Play” simply means the story is read to you and automatically turns the pages.

The Interface. Let’s walk…

The interface is easy enough: a picture and text. The text is situated on a blue ‘wavy’ background is very easy to read. Above, there is a scene from the movie in relation to the text. The picture stays over three-four different ‘pages’ of text.

This simple approach means that the child (or older person) can absorb the text more readily instead of being distracted by changing picture’s (although more pictures would be nice). To manually change the pages, you simple flick right-to-left to go forward or vice-versa for backwards: just like you would for any other iOS app.

Spot The Differences

Perhaps the best part of this app is the ‘Spot the Difference’ game. The user can pick from three photo’s and then tap on the screen to find the differences. When you get one right, a Smurf goes “Smurf-xactly!”, a cloud fills up and the difference is outlined in white. The photo on the left took this reviewer a very VERY long time (around 10 minutes) to find that last difference (without Googling the answer). So, I’ll leave you find the last one.

The Review Part

This application was very entertaining and well-narrated. It was a very simple and easy-to-use application. The pictures were of excellent quality – clear, crisp and vibrant – and the application is a worthy contender of any child’s time. Much like the previous application, The Smurf’s successfully teaches children new words and expands their vocabulary in an easy and intuitive way. The game was a welcome addition to the storybook, taking it the interactivity level just that bit-further. Needless to say, younger children who liked the Smurf Movie (or the Smurfs in general) will be entertained for a very long time and learn a few new words along the way. The Smurf’s were also voiced superbly and are a credit to iStoryTimes attention to detail.

I have two problems with this app: no language (or accent) specification, like the first one.The second is that addition of picture would have been nice to assist with the parts of the storyline where lots of pandemonium or action occurred.

Conclusions

These applications are simple, easy-to-use and fun. They bridge the gap between the centuries-old tradition of retelling stories with modern technology and allow the user to learn new words. iStoryTime have a wonderful collection of apps, of which these two interested me the most, that can positively entertain and contribute to any persons day.

The Motorola XOOM came out at CES this year as one of the hyped tablets of the year, especially since it was seen as the Honeycomb tablet that could compete with the iPad hardware wise. Now its rival Android makers also getting their tablets out, does the Motorola XOOM stand out from the crowd of many Android tablets? The most important question, however, should be: is this an iPad competitor or not?

Terence Huynh reviews the Motorola XOOM, which you can read after the jump.

Editor’s Note: the tablet is the Wi-Fi only version. If you get the 3G version, performance and quality may vary.

Design and Hardware

The Motorola XOOM looks brilliant. The body is slick and thicker at the edges – and I feel it’s a bit more sturdy than the pencil-thin iPad 2. In fact, the body does make it appear smaller despite the fact it has a much larger 10.1-inch display. The body is heavier compared to the iPad 2 – at 730g, but not that heavy to be annoying. It is, however, slightly noticeable when holding it in landscape mode but not in portrait mode.

The XOOM lacks a dedicated button to take you back home, and when you come straight from an iOS device to this, it is a minor nuisance but you’ll learn over time. Motorola opts to use the on-screen keys on the bottom of Honeycomb. The power button is actually on the back, instead of on the sides – again, if you are used to an iOS device, then you would find that a nuisance. Around the sides, you’ll see a volume rocker, several ports for microUSB and micro HDMI connectivity – pretty good for transferring and connecting up to your television – and the usual standard headphone jack.

It also has a microSD card slot, which means that you can have more storage if you already used up your 32GB of data, or just want to easily transfer music and videos to play on the device. For some reason or another, when it was originally released, the tablet was not able to read the microSD card slot, but now – with version 3.1 – it works.

Camera-wise, it has a 2-megapixel front-facing camera and a 5-megapixel rear camera with a dual LED flash. The 2-megapixel camera’s photo quality isn’t that great, but we think it’s primary focus is to be used for video conferencing. The 5-megapixel camera takes better quality shots, but it’s not the same as point-and-shoot, and some mobile phone cameras these days. The video recording quality is pretty decent, and able to record up to 720p HD. However, I would still take a digital camera or camcorder, as it does feel a bit weird using a tablet to record such moments. But at least its there, ready to be used when you need it.

Accessories, Accessories, Accessories

Remember when I said that you have a micro HDMI port and you can plug it in your television? You’ll need to get an additional accessory in order to do that since we could not get it to work – the speaker dock, which will set you back AU$149. Yes, in order to hook this tablet on your television, you’ll need to buy a speaker dock – very annoying at the very least, especially when you could have just offered a cable to do the same thing, but alas they do not.

And yes, I did check the internet in order to make sure it wasn’t just my television playing up. If you do have a different story, do tell me!

It also features several other accessories, such as a Bluetooth keyboard, a charging dock – which is just a slim-down version of the speaker dock, minus the support for a micro HDMI port – and a “portfolio” case. The case just protects and acts as a stand when you’re watching videos. They are also pretty expensive.

Performance

The tablet features a dual-core, 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor and it is fast. There is very little lag and I pretty much ran concurrently a music player, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, Google’s applications for its services and Feedly, switching back and forth between those apps and it handled it fine. The screen is pretty good too and images and text are vibrant and smooth. Viewing angles are excellent (we couldn’t find an area where you couldn’t see it). That said, it is a tad dim and it does become an issue when exposed to sunlight outdoors (though if you live in Melbourne, it wouldn’t be a hassle in ten months of the year because it’ll be gloomy)

Battery life is pretty decent, we got about three to four days use with medium use. Though, again, we have the Wi-Fi version on hand. Battery life does change when you add 3G to the mix, and should drain more than what the Wi-Fi version did.

Android 3.0/.1 Honeycomb

Turn on the Motorola XOOM, and the first thing you notice is that you see the stock-standard Android 3.x Honeycomb home screen. Motorola has opted to change the background rather than pushing Motoblur on the tablet, which I am thankful for because personally it would just not work. Honeycomb does support previous Android applications, like the iOS devices, but the UI is a huge departure from Android phones.

Honeycomb’s home screen follows its counterparts in which there are widgets, where you can glance on your Facebook stream, Twitter feed and even YouTube channels. Of course, you also have widgets for Calendar, your email and the clock. And of course, you can put links to applications. It is rather nice and a bit of a merger between desktop and just listing apps like the iOS does.

However, the ease of the home screen is one thing, the rest is another. Honeycomb’s biggest problem is a substantial learning curve – even previous Android users will need to relearn the tricks. It isn’t a big learning curve, but all you need to know are four keys and the occasional contextual or notification icon on the bottom bar. Plus some of the features are hidden away, in some distant menu in settings or something like that.

Also, what bugs me is there no way to close an application without going into settings. I much rather have it on a little corner, or a gesture, so I can just close it without going to applications and force quit.

The Motorola XOOM supports Adobe Flash, and with the Tegra 2 chip, it runs somewhat smoothly. You can’t really go outside of a Flash container unless you touch outside of it and then touch it again, but these are slight oddities. Plus, some design ideas made in Flash, such as a hover player controls for video, do not necessarily work on a tablet.

The web browser is pretty good – and how it handles multiple tabs is innovative and non-intrusive. Similar to Chrome, you also have an incognito tab, meaning that you can browse the web without it storing in your cache. Important if you want to hide shopping a present for your partner.

Android 3.x is great for tablets, but it does have some flaws it still needs to work out.

Conclusion

The Motorola XOOM is a good competitor around Android tablets, and most likely one of the better ones coming to Australia – since the Samsung has been banned. However, while these Android tablets  get things right and do things that the iOS does thanks to Honeycomb, the iPad still dominates the tablet realm not because of its buzz, but because of its simplicity and apps – something that Android and Motorola XOOM somewhat struggle.

The Motorola XOOM is available in retailers. The 3G version is a Telstra exclusive device.

Don’t you hate it when you are just about to make that important call, or need to add something to your calendar and your phone’s battery dies? The Choiix Power Fort is a new range of a power backup battery packs from Choiix, made by Cooler Master which can save your device when it is about to run out of battery. They are also up to 3 time faster at recharging your USB powered device. Check out the review after the break!

Design

The Choiix Power Fort is around the size and weight of your average mobile phone. The Power Fort has four LED lights that indicate the internal battery capacity. Next to the LED’s there is a power button which pressed once charges the connected device or twice turns on the flashlight at the rear of the top of the Power Fort.

This device is more aimed at the travelers among us who know that they won’t be near power for a day or two and need to keep their phone alive. This is because when you are charging your phone, PDA, etc. you have to use the cable provided with your phone to charge it from the host USB port on the Power Fort meaning that if you were to use it while on a day out in the city, it would be very bulky and annoying. It is meant to be slipped into a laptop bag while on a plane or train to charge your flat phone.

Since the Power Fort charges other devices through its USB port, you can only charge devices that are compatible with USB charging, counting out many 1-2 year old Nokia phones. The Power Fort charges though the mini-USB port on the back of the device.

The Power Fort comes in 4 models, two black and two white. In both colors there is a ‘Standard’ package which is comprised of a Power Fort, a fabric carry case, a mini-USB cable and a micro-USB cable. The ‘Advanced’ package is made of a Power Fort, two fabric carry bags, a mini-USB and a micro-USB cable, a car charger and a wall charger with four adapters for certain countries.

Hardware and Usage

The Power Fort has a 2700mAh battery inside which is able to provide a 1A / 5V output. This means that devices can be charged using the Power Fort up to 3 times as fast as conventional USB. The Power Fort also has many protection features built into it including over charging protection, over discharging protection, over current protection, over temperature protection and of course, short circuit protection, to make sure that your child doesn’t decide to connect a cable between the two ports of the Power Fort.

The Power Fort also has a safety pass through which means when you are charging a device using the Power Fort and you plug the Power Fort into a computer to charge, the Power Fort directs all the power it receives to the phone connected to the USB port, totally by-passing the internal battery preventing it from any damage.

When charging the Power Fort, the LED’s describe the capacity of the battery as follows:

• 1 LED means less than 15%.
• 2 LED’s mean between 15% and 45%.
• 3 LED’s mean between 45% and 70%.
• 4 LED’s mean between 70% and 95%.

When the Power Fort is charging connected devices, the LED’s describe the capacity as follows:

When charging the Power Fort, it will take around 3-4 hours to reach 100%. We tested the Power Fort by charging letting it charge a Motorola DEXT overnight. The Power Fort was able to charge the DEXT from 10% to 100% but as a result of leaving it overnight, the DEXT has drained all the power out of the Power Fort enabling it to be at 100% the next morning.

A speed test of charging the Motorola DEXT is as follows:

Conclusion

The Power Fort is a fast, powerful USB charger that is aimed at your traveler more than your city hang-around boy. If used carefully you will be able to charge your phone twice from around 30% to full. The Power Fort has many safety features ensuring that it will not ruin your favorite device but still being up to 3 times faster than conventional USB at charging that device.

This device is great for those who need power and portability while roaming through different countries and airports but not as much when on a day trip.

Nokia looks like to get most of its Symbian phones out there just before the release of its first phone running Windows Phone 7 and MeeGo – the latter already revealed as the Nokia N8. But now, we have the Nokia C7 phone in our reviewing hands. But has Symbian improved since we last saw it? As well, with Nokia tweaking this camera, does it perform like the other Nokia phones?

Our verdict on the Nokia C7 is after the jump.

Design

Nokia’s design for its phones have been excellent, and this is no exception. The phone has a slick, thin body that has a mixture of plastic and stainless steel with curved edges. It is also pretty slim, only 10mm thick

Of course, there are the usual side buttons – dedicated camera button, volume rocker and mechanical lock switch – but also a dedicated button for voice commands, which is pretty handy if you don’t want to go through a long list of contacts (though, like usual, it is a hit or miss).

The usual ports are there – such as the headphone jack and USB port at the top. For some reason or another, Nokia has also put in a 2mm port on the side for recharging the phone. However, in our review package, we did not get a 2mm port to recharge the phone – but looking through Nokia’s accessories, it has to be included in your actual set. Don’t fret, Nokia still lets you charge the phone via a USB cable attached. It is not going anywhere for a long time.

However, that being said, there is no dedicated USB-to-power connector so you don’t have to rely on the laptop to recharge your phone – again, we didn’t get that from our review pack.

Hardware and Features

The phone features a 3.5-inch AMOLED display and supports multitouch and has an accelerometer to switch the screen’s orientation. The display is bright and colourful and does respond well with the OS, Symbian^3.

In terms of the phone’s network support – it supports Wi-Fi (even 802.11n compatible) and Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP support. In addition, the sound from this phone is excellent like the Nokia N8 (and other phones recently released). Like I said before, Nokia really loves your media, and video playback is pretty good – and supports both Xvid and DivX videos.

The phone also features an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash. However, Nokia has decided to dump auto-focus for its new fixed-focus lens. An 8-megapixel camera without any auto-focus? That, well, makes no sense, and yes the photos we have taken weren’t in focus. Well, if you’re looking at the upside of removing auto-focus – it does process photos faster. However, the phone does allow you to adjust a lot of settings from the phone – though it feels counter-productive to change settings in each time you want to get an excellent shot on the go. In addition, don’t take close up pictures. You’ll essentially will find yourself not able to get it in focus – mainly due to the fact that the camera will not adjust anything within 50cm of the phone’s focal length.

The camera is pretty much a let down from the king of cameras. However, video recording seems to redeem the phone’s camera – though, you’ll not get natural colours.

Yes, it’s another Symbian^3 Phone

Yes, I know it is almost a criticism of any Nokia phone, but believe me, the OS is almost like a love-hate relationship. Just more leaning towards the hate. Shall I refer you to what I said about the Nokia N8 with Symbian^3 in relation with the homescreen?

The home screen also feels cluttered, with some of the space dedicated to carrier applications. [...] As well, you are defined to six blocks per page – and only three pages. Compared to Android, where you have some sort of freedom to place your applications, and iOS’ simplicity – this is not a really good home screen. However, that being said, it is at least better than Nokia Series 60′s home screen where changing the home screen was a pain.

Suffers the same problem. However, unlike the Nokia E7, it does not suffer from the crapware of applications installed. In addition, the web browser lacks support of HTML5, CSS 3 and supporting outdated web standards and loading pages is still a problem Nokia still hasn’t tackled yet – there was a noticable delay in loading TECHGEEK.com.au.

Also, another big critique is that the onscreen keyboard. When you are in portrait mode, you use the standard keypad you see on phones, while turn it in landscape mode and you get a QWERTY keyboard. You don’t get the other keyboard layout when you switch modes. It is pretty annoying (also when, for some reason, it will only activate landscape mode when you turn the phone left). One positive, however, is that the phone’s keyboard is pretty responsive.

While we continue to bemoan the OS, credit has to be given to Nokia for actually making this phone work really well. It is, in a huge shock, responsive and actually performs better than its other phones, especially the Nokia N8. In fact, on top of the brilliant support it has for multimedia such as music and video, and its Nokia Maps application; you could almost tolerate or even love the OS because of the performance, though we’ll suggest you go a little light when you browse the web.

Conclusions

Compared to other Nokia phones, this phone feels somewhat of the middle. It has improvements from other phones, including a screen that is actually responsive. But its camera, normally Nokia’s strong suit, is not on par with its fellow siblings. I see from Nokia’s perspective that you should continue releasing these Symbian phones as like nothing has happened – but my eyes are fixated on your Nokia N9 (running MeeGo) and your upcoming Windows Phone 7.

It’s a great phone, let down by its camera and (as usual) operating system and overshadowed by the hype from upcoming phones from the Finnish maker.

In 2007, Valve released Portal and became a huge success. And while it was part of a collection of other games developed by the company, it was announced that a sequel to the popular game. Now in 2011, we see the results of their hard labour.

Read our review on Portal 2, by Chris Southcott, after the jump.

Presentation

Portal 2 has some of the best writing I’ve ever seen in a puzzle game. The characters are hilarious and literally had me laughing out loud. The story is also brilliant, with twists and turns which make it entertaining from start to finish. The games presentation is top notch, with almost everything feeling polished and big budget. Also, Valve has had no trouble transforming a downloadable game into a full game, something that had fans of the original worried. The story is bigger and the characters are even more enthralling. It is an awesome game.

Gameplay

Portal 2 features the same original yet simple premise from the previous game. You have a gun which shoots two portals. Those portals connect to each-other and give life to an abundance of physics-based puzzles. New to Portal 2 is gels, which give a new challenge to later puzzles. Blue gel is bouncy, orange gel is fast and white gel allows portal’s to be placed in a number of usually uninhabitable locations.

As in the last game, the puzzles are hard to finish but, once finished, you’ll be left feeling quite smart and very satisfied. Although I did find a couple of the puzzles to be cheap, I could solve all of them after a short break/rage quit. And while this wasn’t a big problem for me, I can see people giving up and putting the game into their own “pile of shame”.

As you progress through the test chambers, you will have to use the available companion cubes; new reflective cubes that reflect the light from lasers as well as deal with cute yet deadly turrets. And the pacing of the game felt really good in this regard; whenever it would start to get boring, the game would throw a new element to the puzzles.

I haven’t been able to play co-op thoroughly, but I can say that you should really play with a friend. The puzzles are just as hard, if not harder, in co-op. So if you’re stuck with a noob you’ll probably regret it.

In all honesty, Portal 2 is a serious breath of fresh air in the crowded FPS and Puzzle genre and the game-play, while hard, is rewarding enough to have me finish the game and still be salivating over the recently announced DLC. It is truly fantastic.

Visuals

While the visuals of Portal 2 aren’t amazing, it doesn’t mean they’re not good. The animations are smooth and full of personality, which gives the characters a breath of life. There is occasionally a rough texture or animation and sometimes a major slowdown, but all up the visuals are great. It all looks great, but it’s a shame some of the visuals can occasionally look last-gen. That rarely detracts from the overall experience though.

Sound

The music in Portal 2 is fantastic. It’s consistently awesome from start to end. The voices for the game are also brilliant. Ellen McLain reprises her role as GLaDOS and, as usual, her lines are very funny and delivered perfectly. The robotic, electronic effects added to her voice are also pitch perfect. A new addition to Portal 2 is Steve Merchant, who plays your robot companion Weatley. And his character is hilarious too with great one-liners that will honestly make you LOL. Seriously, I haven’t laughed like this or had a song stuck in my head from a video game in ages. It is the definition of perfection.

Now, there is a limit on Portal 2’s re-playability. Because the game is story and puzzle-driven, playing it again won’t be very satisfying. There is so much to do in this game, so you’ll still be playing this for a fair amount of time and I think it’s still worth the money. There is an entire Co-Op game which can be played split-screen and online with Steam. And this adds to the already large campaign and makes it surely worth the dough.

Steam Integration (PlayStation 3)

Portal 2 on PlayStation 3 (shockingly!) has Steam integration. This means that every PS3 copy comes with a PC code for Steam on PC. It also means co-op can be played between PC and PS3. Steam also backs up your save game data (and other tidbits) to the cloud, yet for some reason that save data can only be used on your platform of choice. This integration is definitely cool and it’s amazing Sony would let Valve do this.

Final Thoughts

This is honestly my game of the year (so far). And I seriously doubt that will change. It’s witty, original, challenging and 100% entertaining. It’s a must have game. And I don’t throw that around all too often.