Apple TV is now much smaller and much cheaper.

Apple TV has gotten a much-rumoured upgrade, though in a far more interesting way than many predicted.

The device is now 1/4 the size of the original version, fitting comfortably into the palm of Steve Jobs’ hand when he showed it off today. Its price has shrunken too, down to €119 (or just $99 in the US).

The way the whole thing works has changed with that, of course.

Apple TV no longer has a hard drive built in and instead streams content from iTunes or a user’s computer. TV shows and movies can now be rented rather than purchased, with Netflix, YouTube and Flickr all accessible through the device.

Changes to the AirTunes system – which is now called AirPlay – also mean content can be streamed through Apple TV from any iOS device, such as the iPad or iPhone.

Pre-orders can currently be made for the device on Apple.com with a shipping date set for late September. Expect that to slip in Ireland, though, like most other Apple launch dates have this year.

Ping is a social network for music built in to iTunes 10

The newest version of iTunes (10 for those who lost count) will include a music social network called Ping.

The service will allow users to ‘follow’ their favourite artists and friends to see what music they are listening to or gigs they are attending. It will work very much like Facebook in that it offers a feed of people’s latest updates, which Apple obviously hopes will remain music related.

The service also shows a personalised chart based on what a user’s friends are downloading most, meaning people can easily pick up on trends amongst their peers.

There is clearly a lot of inspiration for Ping coming from Facebook but if anything it is likely to threaten what’s left of Myspace more. If bands and artists set up interesting pages they can more easily convert them into song sales on Ping than they might elsewhere.

Of course whether the world really needs another social network to follow is the real question in all of this.

iTunes 10 also sees the end of the programme’s iconic logo, with the CD now being dropped (though the musical note remaining). This is because iTunes sales are due to out-strip CDs in the next few months, said Jobs.

The new touch-based iPod Nano

Apple has refreshed almost all of its iPod line-up, with a new shuffle, nano and touch all announced by Steve Jobs.

The new iPod Shuffle goes back to the 2nd gen design and sees the return of buttons, though the device is now smaller than it was before. The voice-over feature remains, however.

The shuffle has 2GB of storage and a pricetag of €49.

The iPod Nano is arguably the most overhauled of the lot, however. Gone is the click wheel and in its place comes a cubed multi-touch screen, with the device seeming to run on iOS.

Like the shuffle it now has a clip on the back too. The new Nano will come in both 8GB and 16GB flavours with a pricetag of €159 and €189 respectively.

Last but by no means least the iPod Touch has been made slimmer, given a retina display screen, a camera on the front and back and HD video recording.

The design overall has been kept the same as before, however, instead of mimicking the new-look iPhone 4. The iPod Touch will set you back €229 for 8GB, €299 for 32GB, and €399 for 64GB.

The iPod Classic remains untouched, it seems.

According to Steve Jobs all will ship from next week – in the US at least. The Apple online store seems to suggest that will be the same for Ireland but time will tell.

A stream of today's Apple event will be available at Apple.com

Apple is offering a live stream of today’s media event… assuming you’re a Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPod user.

In an unusual move for Apple people with one of the company’s fancier products will be able to go to Apple.com at 6pm (Irish time) to see (assumedly) Steve Jobs take the stage to show what new and shiny things the company has for us all.

The general consensus is that the event will see new iPods – including new iPod Touches – get debuted as well as a refresh of the Apple TV (expected to be renamed the iTV).

All rumours will be confirmed, or otherwise, in about an hour…

Microsoft's new and allegedly improved Xbox 360 controller

Microsoft may claim to have its heart set on a controller-free future but it has not stopped researching the “old-fashioned” input system just yet. The company’s own Major Nelson has confirmed that a new Xbox 360 controller is on the way, with the accessory gaining a new D-pad and a sleeker look.

The console’s controller has long faced criticism for its D-pad and the re-design attempts to address that, with a twist now giving a bit more depth to the up, down, left and right buttons.

Other than that the analogue sticks have been made a bit more concave, the X, Y,  A & B buttons have been made black, white and grey (which could prove confusing for games that use the old colours on-screen when directing users) and the body itself has been given a nice silver matte sheen.

Before the twist.... and after.

It is due to hit US shops in early November for $65 and will only be bundled with the play and charge kit. According to Nelson it will replace the old wireless controller so expect this to become the de facto 360 controller fairly sharpish.

When it makes its way to Irish shores is currently unknown but given the company’s apparent love of global accessory roll-outs there is nothing to stop it getting here before Christmas.

Microsoft is not a complete stranger to controller re-designs in the middle of a console’s life cycle. A far more significant overhaul of the original Xbox’s controller was made after the first proved to be unpopular with users, largely due to its significant size.

At that time the smaller Controller S, which was originally designed for the Japanese market only, was rolled out internationally. This quickly became the standard controller and is the basis of the one still used with the 360 today.

Google are rolling out a Priority Inbox feature to make mail more efficient

Google is rolling out a new feature in Gmail which it says will save users hours of time a week currently wasted browsing unwanted mails.
The ‘Priority Inbox’ setting will automatically filter mails according to their importance, meaning users should only see the mails they want or need to while working.

According to Google the filter will adapt to the user’s own behaviour, for example marking a mail as important if it is from someone the user regularly replies to.

Users can also tick a plus or minus box on e-mails to manually indicate if something is important or not, meaning the filter should improve after regular use.

For those who activate the feature their inbox will be split into three categories with ‘Priority’ mails at the top, ‘Starred’ mails in the middle and everything else at the bottom.

The feature is currently being rolled out across all Gmail accounts and should be available to everyone by next week.

Apple have sent out media invites for a special event due to be held on the 1st September – which is this day next week.

Going by the various rumours that have done the rounds in recent weeks many are expecting the event to feature a new line of iPods – including a FaceTime-enabled iPod Touch, i.e., one with a camera. A refresh of the Apple TV device is also a distinct possibility with the new name of iTV, a new OS (said to be based on the iPhone/iPad’s iOS) and 99c TV show rentals all potentially part of the deal.

The actual invite (pictured to the right) makes clear overtures to the event being at least somewhat music-related. Exactly what that means… well we will only know for sure at 6pm Irish time on Wednesday the 1st of September.

It was one of the worst-kept secrets in the gadget world but Samsung has finally taken the wraps off its Galaxy-branded tablet.

Due to be unveiled in Germany next week Samsung’s 7″ tablet device has been teased by the company in a new video available on MobileBurn‘s YouTube channel.

The 20 second clip gives plenty away in terms of spec, though the fast cuts make it hard to see the device itself in action for more than a split second.

What is now certain, however, is that the device will:

• run on Android 2.2
• Have a front-facing camera for video calls
• Have built-in GPS
• Have other essential features like web-browsing, movie playback etc.

As the last frame of the video suggest the Samsung GalaxyTab will be unveiled properly at the IFA consumer electronics conference in Berlin, Germany next Thursday.

Chip-maker Intel has snapped up security software specialist McAfee for a tasty €5.97bn ($7.68bn). The unexpected deal will see McAfee operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intel, though the latter will clearly seek to use the expertise to improve its growing portfolio of products.

Intel has been on the acquisition path lately, buying up Texas Instrument’s cable modem unit just days ago. It has also been expanding its ‘Software and Services’ division, not least in the development of the MeeGo OS along with Nokia.

As for McAfee the company has long been a leader in computer security alongside Norton. The fact that more and more devices are becoming internet-enabled (and Intel are trying to develop chips for each of them) should make its software all the more important in the years ahead.

Steve Jobs unveils the iPad in January 2010 - rumours suggest he'll do the same with a 7" version in January 2011

The internet is a-buzz with rumours of a 7″ iPad being on the horizon – as soon as the end of this year. The latest spate of suggestions stem from an article in a Taiwanese newspaper which says LG and Chi Mei will join forces to produce the new hardware.

This follows the discovery of code in the latest version of iOS that points towards a new device of some description.

However besides this the case for a 7″ iPad is quite thin and the logic behind it equally so. Apple made a big deal about the 10″ screen on the iPad being just right for practical portability and would have a hard time justifying something so much smaller (but not so small as to make it a pocket device).

In other words, take this one with a fist-full of salt.

Even if the rumours are true a late 2010 release would be unlikely – Apple are not known for releasing new product lines right before Christmas and supply issues would be a huge problem, just as they have been with the 10″ iPad.

An early 2011 release would make more sense – it would come a year after the current iPad was first showcased by Apple and could happen alongside a 10″ iPad upgrade, fitting with the company’s preference for annual line refreshes.

Games for Windows Phone 7 have been revealed

Microsoft has unveiled details of the first games for the new Windows Phone 7 operating system at this week’s Gamescom 2010 conference in Germany.

The OS’s gaming credentials are based around Microsoft’s own Xbox Live infrastructure, with over 60 titles being made available for it in its early stages.

The most notable of these titles include Assassins Creed, Bejewelled LIVE, Castlevania, Frogger, Guitar Hero 5, Halo Waypoint, Splinter Cell Conviction, Star Wars: Conviction and Star Wars: Battle for Hoth.

Microsoft has been gearing up its Windows Phone 7 for some time now, with a tough battle against Apple’s iPhone and the Android OS ahead of it. Gaming is hoped to be one of Windows’ big selling points as it integrates with user achievements on PC and Xbox 360 amongst other things.

Details of the first Windows Phone 7 device to come to Ireland are still thin on the ground – though it is expected at some stage in October.

Microsoft's Kinect will arrive in Ireland on the 10th November

Microsoft has given an official date for the arrival of the Kinect in Ireland (and the rest of Europe); Wednesday, 10th November. The motion-sensitive accessory for the Xbox 360 will launch with a price-tag of €150, including the Kinect Adventures game, and will have 15 first party titles available for it in the run up to Christmas.

The Irish release is slightly behind the US’s – almost a week in fact – but overall it is not the worst delay the country has had to face in getting a major release.

Microsoft has said it will showcase more of the Kinect at Gamescom 2010 which takes place in Cologne, Germany. This will include details of new games as well as previously unseen levels and features of games already announced.

The new SE phone may nook like the PSP Go, according to Engadget

Mobile phone-maker Sony Ericsson is developing a mobile gaming platform based on Android, according to US tech site Engadget. Details are sketchy at the moment but the report says the platform will offer 3D graphics and will run on Android 3.0, the next major version of the OS which is scheduled for a late 2010 release.

Android has been mooted as the perfect foundation for a new mobile gaming platform but so far has fallen short of its promise. As a result it is not surprising to see a dedicated Android gaming platform being developed, however it is a little odd to see Sony Ericsson do it considering its connections to Playstation (and as a result the PSP).

However according to Engadget the first Sony Ericsson gaming phone could even carry the Playstation brand and will look somewhat like the PSP Go, creating the potential for one to cannibalise the other.

Engadget has more details on the rumoured hardware being used to spearhead the platform; keep watching teic.ie for more information on the device in the coming weeks.

RIM's new Blackberry Torch

Blackberry-maker RIM has taken the wraps off its latest smartphone device, the Torch. The phone boasts a 3.2″ touchscreen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, making it more like the Palm Pre Plus than the likes of the iPhone.

The phone also runs on Blackberry 6 OS, the latest operating system for the brand, which was officially launched alongside the device itself.

Other than that the hardware is fairly standard – there is 4GB of internal memory with an SD slot expandable up to 32GB, a 5mp camera, media functionality, n-standard WiFi and what RIM promises to be a long-lasting battery.

The Torch is due to launch in the US on the 14th August on the AT&T network but there is currently no details for an Irish release.

Samsung has been one of the most enthusiastic adopters of Google’s Android operating system but the Wave sees the company run a phone on its own Bada software for the first time. So is it a strong competitor in an increasingly competitive space?

In physical dimensions alone the Samsung Wave is an attractive and impressive phone. It houses a 3.3” screen in a solid steel body and is quite slimmer and lighter than other devices on the market. The aforementioned screen is a “Super AMOLED” display and gives extremely sharp picture quality without being too much of a drain on the battery; it is also a very responsive touchscreen.

As far as the rest of the specs go it is all fairly standard. A 5mp camera with flash sits on the back, it has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth and its standard headphone jack allows it to double-up easily as an mp3 player or FM radio.

The operating system itself will be somewhat familiar to anyone who has used a Samsung phone with its TouchWiz interface; such as the Tocco. The Wave appears much the same, albeit with a far more polished finish and greater depth to the customisation options.

Just like Android users are able to have multiple screens which can be populated with different widgets. There are three static buttons at the bottom – the default being shortcuts to the keypad, contacts book and messages folder – but all of this can be moved around if users so wish.

The main menu also has multiple pages and can be edited to a user’s heart’s content. There is also a neat notifications tab at the top of the screen which can be pulled down to quickly switch WiFi, Bluetooth and Silent Mode on and off. Users can also access new messages quickly from there much as they can in Android.

All of this is executed extremely well. The phone has a very simple feel and takes a lot of its leads from Android OS without copying it too much. The keyboard and predictive text on messaging is also extremely responsive and accurate – something that will make this far more attractive than most touchscreen handsets.

There are flaws, however. The e-mail interface is quite lacking and awkward to use – it fails completely when compared with the iPhone’s system and Androids. There are also a few quirks that make it harder to jump from one SMS to the other.

The Samsung App store is also quite lacking at the moment but this is something that will right itself eventually, assuming Samsung give proper support to Bada and developers see a market in writing code for it.

Overall, however, the Samsung Wave is a very enjoyable phone to use and it certainly holds its own against much of its competition. It is not the best smartphone out there but it holds a lot of promise. Most importantly Bada also has the potential to be a very strong operating system, though it will take other manufacturers to get behind it and a few of its tweaks to be ironed out for that to ever be realised.

The Samsung Wave is available from O2, Vodafone, Meteor and Three on pre-pay and contract.

The Asus EeePC 700. The original, not the best.

Having shown potential to be the next step in mobile computing the netbook now appears to have been a mere stop-gap. Adam Maguire wonders where does the device-type go from here or whether it is destined to decline.

When the Asus EeePC first appeared it was a revelation. The idea of having a functional laptop with the footprint of a small book – and the price-tag of a mid-market phone – was appealing for so many reasons.

Of course the original EeePC; with its 7″ screen, minuscule keyboard and 2GB hard drive, was less than perfect. It was, however, ideal for a number of niches and soon developed in a far more practical piece of hardware.

Pretty quickly the netbook grew into a device with appeal far wider than Asus and other manufacturers anticipated. Not only was it good for brief bursts of browsing or as a starter PC for a child, it also suited travelling businessmen as a secondary device and students as a college computer.

Within a year the market segment reached maturity and – thanks to the simultaneous growth of the 3G broadband market – it became far more than the almost throw-away device Asus originally designed.

It was at this time, however, that the netbook began to lose the run of itself.

Originally intended to be small, light and cheap netbook makers began on a path of escalation as they tried to out-do each other. Hard drives were suddenly as big as 250GB, screen sizes began to creep above the 10″ sweet-spot and RAM size began to grow too. All of this put more demand on the battery – which needed to offer at least 3 hours to keep the ‘portable’ selling point in tact. Pretty quickly netbooks were far less light and compact than they once were.

Most importantly, however, their price tags crept up from sub-€200 to over €400. In some cases netbooks became more expensive than more powerful – although far bulkier – laptops.

Then came the iPad.

Much like the netbook this device is light, portable and offers (near) full internet connectivity. It is also far more stylish – and expensive – but it is the mark of what trend is to come next in the world of portable computing. While the netbook began life as a toy and developed into something more serious the iPad has come out of the traps as an item of desire, one that people will pay a premium to own.

It is only a matter of time before there is a quality office suite for the iPad and it becomes a logical secondary device for business users and students. It is only a matter of time before rivals become available too, offering more functions at a lower cost.

Can the netbook compete? Not really, especially not against a far more stylish and functional device that can do everything it can. At present the only thing the netbook really has over the iPad is its USB inputs, an advantage that will end sooner or later.

So is this the end of the road for the netbook? If so, it should hold its head high.

For a device with such a short life span it has had a huge impact on computing. All manufacturers – with the exception of Apple – rushed to try to compete on the new battlefield and companies like Asus and Samsung made a fortune from it.

It also extended the lifespan of Windows XP at a time when Microsoft were desperately trying to migrate users over to Vista. In the end Microsoft gave up trying, instead developing a netbook iteration of its latest OS (Windows 7 Starter Edition) to try to kill XP with kindness.

Besides that it also introduced a lot of normal users to Linux and other open source software for the first time, something that all the fanboys in the world had failed to do.

Perhaps most importantly, however, it has accelerated the move away from optical media, forcing companies to offer digital downloads and USB-based versions of software. This arguably has made it easier for netbook haters like Apple to push forward disc-less products of its own, namely the Macbook Air and even the iPad.

However the netbook may still escape death, but only if manufacturers are willing to take it back to its roots.

As regular laptops continue to get cheaper and tablet devices take over the portable professional niche there will still be a need for that simple, almost throw-away device.

It will have to be cheap, small and have plenty of battery life but it will also have to be stream-lined and simple to use. What the netbook needs to do is almost embrace its ‘toy’ image and be proud of being a machine for the young and computer illiterate.

This type of netbook may also still be of appeal to students, but it needs to forget about the professional user once and for all. They are going and will soon be gone.

If it does that it might have a fighting chance. If it continues to be an amorphous segment that tries to be everything for everyone it will soon be crushed by tablets and the resurgent laptop.

The iPhone 4 in Apple's 'bumper' which solves the antenna problem

The iPhone 4 should be on sale in Ireland on the Friday 30th July, if Apple CEO Steve Jobs is to be believed.

Until now Irish customers – along with those in a number of other countries – have been given nothing more than a vague ‘end of July’ time-frame and this is the first time a precise date has been officially confirmed.

At the time of publishing there was no mention of this date on the Irish Apple Store or on the websites of the various networks that will carry the phone. As mentioned before some networks are already taking pre-orders, however.

Jobs made the date announcement towards the end of his press conference on the iPhone 4′s antenna problems, which has seen reception disappear when the device is held in a certain way.

At it he accepted there were issues with the phone but contended they were not unique to Apple’s device. He said the company would offer a free case (which would stop the antenna from being interfered with) to anyone who buys the phone before the end of September and a full refund to those still not happy.

With a date now set for the iPhone 4 in Ireland next week should see the call packages of each of the three  carrier networks – O2, Vodafone and Three – along with details of upgrade and purchases costs.

What is still missing is word of an iPad release date, something that was also promised in July. Given the high demand for that tablet, however, and the fact that there is still no word half way through the month, August is probably the earliest it will be seen here.

The iPhone 4 has gotten its first firmware upgrade

It’s not officially available in Ireland yet but the iPhone 4 is already getting its first firmware upgrade.

According to Engadget iPhone 4 users are being prompted to upgrade to iOS 4.0.1 right this second, just weeks after iOs 4 itself became available.

The main reason for the new software is to fix the apparent software bug which over-estimated the amount of reception a user had in any given area. This – according to Apple – goes a long way to explaining why iPhone 4 users could go from full to zero bars depending on the way they hold the phone… unfortunately no software fix will be able to stop the design issue itself, however.

Apple are also due to hold a press conference tomorrow to talk about issues people have had with the new iPhone. Rumours of a product recall have been circulating but so far this looks unlikely.

As far as Irish customers go this is all meaningless. Originally given a late-July launch date there is still no word on an Irish release for the iPhone 4 (or the iPad for that matter) and the reception issues are sure to be part of the reason for the delay.

Moves by both Three and Vodafone suggest there may be some progress, however. Both are taking pre-orders online and promising the device ‘soon’, though anything more precise than that is still anyone’s guess.

Non-codies will soon be able to make their own apps if Google’s latest beta lives up to its promise. Called the ‘App Inventor‘ the tool offers a simple drag and drop interface for mobile app creation, with no code necessary.

With the battle for app supremacy tougher than ever companies like Google are trying to make their creation tools as easy to use as possible. Until now, however, a fair knowledge of code was required if the user wanted to make anything they could offer or sell.

The App Inventor promises usability for those with no coding experience at all, however. The site claims users can create quite intricate apps too, such as games and quizzes.

Nokia also has a simple app creation tool for its Ovi Store – called the app wizard – however this only allows for simple programmes based around a handful of RSS feeds.

Users interested in trying out the Android App Inventor will need to apply for access first, with Gmail accounts the only addresses accepted when doing so. There are also video tutorials available on the site to make the app-building process even more simple.

Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10 - good but not great

The Xperia X10 looks and feels like a real smartphone challenger but the implementation of Android is lacking, stopping it from having the punch needed to compete with HTC and Apple.

Overview:

The Xperia X10 hits all the right points in terms of its specification.

Its decent-sized touchscreen, though not the sharpest out there, is of good quality. The 8.1mp camera gives decent results on shots and includes facial recognition tagging. It has a decent battery which – during trialling – could last up to 2 days without a recharge (though only with the help of an App Killer, as is a pre-requisite for all Android phones). There is also all your standard connectivity – WiFi, Bluetooth, A-GPS – and media playback functions.

All of this acts as a good base for an Android phone and Sony Ericsson have put some effort into customising the software for themselves but it is lacklustre in certain areas. This is most apparent in its ‘Timescape’ function (see below) which seems quite in-depth but proves to be impractical in practice.

Sadly the touchscreen itself is also not as responsive as it should be. For general usage it is fine but for certain things – like moving apps around or even trying to unlock the screen – it is far too easy for contact to ‘drop’, which can get frustrating.

The latter issue is the bigger of the two as Timescape can easily be bypassed if desired, however it should be stressed the screen is not bad – it is just lacking.

Overall the hardware and software combine well – something that is often a hurdle too high for Android phones – and the device looks slick enough to appease the eye.

What is Timescape?

Billed as the big draw of this phone, Timescape is intended to be a social networking hub, where all of people’s communications – from Twitter to Facebook to SMS – is pulled together and displayed in one stream.

In reality this is a bad interface to try to use, especially when you want to quickly scan through a long list of tweets or facebook updates. In reality, heavy users of both services would be better off downloading dedicated clients through the Android Market rather than relying on Timescape for such updates.

What is impressive is the phone’s ability to collate all communications with a single contact across various platforms into one place – including pictures you may have of them on your phone (there’s that facial recognition technology again). Unfortunately this requires a bit of messing around from the user’s end as the phone is not generally smart enough to connect Twitter accounts and phone contacts together by itself. When it does work it works well, however.

And Mediascape?

Sony Ericsson’s other bit of custom software – Mediascape – is far better. Here all the phone’s video, picture and audio content is made available in a handy grid interface, probably one of the better seen on an Android phone.

It is easy to navigate and even has a connection to online content via Sony’s own PlayNow service – though this obviously assumes the user has a connection and account here.

Verdict:

All this considered the Xperia X10 is a good but not great phone. It looks good and has a nice screen, while its software and UI flaws are minor enough to be easily avoided.

It is not the best advertisement for Android, however, and very much has the feeling of a phone-based experiment of sorts. But as a first real attempt at Android Sony Ericsson have done OK – hopefully future versions or even a software update will iron out the cracks.

Three will have iPad packages... soon.

Three mobile has announced that it will announce dedicated iPad price plans in the coming weeks – though it has so far given no indication on what they will look like when they do.

At present there is no exact release date for the iPad in Ireland with Apple saying nothing more than ‘late July’. This is later than originally intended but the new time-frame may still be missed if some reports are accurate.

When it does arrive the iPad will be unlocked – meaning any network can offer a data package for it – but due to Apple’s legendary secrecy the various networks have been unable to announce anything specific about the product (or the iPhone 4 for that matter).

It is even unclear whether networks will be able to sell the iPad directly – though SiliconRepublic reports Three will be selling the device from August.

(Update: Three has clarified that it will not be selling the iPad, just offering iPad tariffs when the iPad is eventually released in Ireland.)

The result is a lot of customers asking networks for details and a lot of networks anxious to get their details out there first… but no information available to truly say anything.

That said Vodafone is already selling microSIMs with packages from €19.90 per month. Though not sold exclusively as iPad packages, it and the iPhone 4 are the only upcoming consumer devices that use them. So these are iPad data packages in everything but name.

O2 is understood to have its stock of microSIMs ready to go too – though it has not yet started to sell them to customers.

The Nintendo Wii has helped make gaming more acceptable but it still has a long way to go.

Much has been made of gaming’s move to the mainstream but in reality the hobby is as frowned upon as ever, says Adam Maguire.

Roger Ebert has admitted he was wrong to say gaming could never be art; but not because he has changed his mind. Instead the legendary film critic has said it is an opinion he still holds, albeit one he should have kept to himself. He admits ignorance to the industry but makes clear he has no mind to remedy that.

There has been a lot of disbelief and hand-wringing about this online – a place where you will always find plenty of gaming’s defenders. However Ebert’s views are not unique, in reality they are part of a wider view on the hobby that is still held to this day, despite the recent encroachment of gaming into the mainstream.

For example, how many people feel uneasy at the thought of a child sitting playing games on their own for a few hours a day? How does that compare to their thoughts toward the same child spending the same amount of time in front of the TV?

How many parents categorise games as violent or aggressive enterprises? How many of them actually pay attention to the games their children buy and, most importantly, the ratings warnings displayed on them?

In reality gaming is going through the same thing that film and television endured upon their infancy. The older generation shows a general mistrust and the artistic community a certain amount of distain.

Of course some producers in the games industry should take some blame too. Many seek out notoriety in order to generate sales – think Postal as the perfect example. When it comes to artistic chops many more are still too keen to mimic blockbuster films rather than do something unique, not that they should be trying to be “artistic” either, whatever that means.

However gaming is slowly becoming more respected – or even just trusted – and that is in large part thanks to the likes of the Wii. The problem here is that many non-traditional gamers probably do not see the Wii and its cute games as real gaming, an ignorant piece of logic that is also felt by many ‘hardcore’ gamers.

There is a shift happening here but it is taking some time. The main reason for this is because gaming has failed to offer users any apparent benefit beyond recreational enjoyment.

Gaming – for the most part – does not educate or inspire. It just entertains. It does not allow people to see anything new like pictures or video did, nor does it enlighten us to anything tangible.

Whether it ever will – or should – is a whole other argument. However critics will always have an easy time criticising a medium that just entertains and proponents will always have a hard time defending it. So for the time being at least gaming will still be seen as a most anti-social pastime than post, even if in reality the opposite is increasingly becoming the case.

Symbian is just one of Nokia's two OSs

Microsoft’s attempt to juggle two mobile platforms – the Kin and Windows Mobile – failed this week with the merging of the former into the latter. The sooner Nokia realises it needs to do the same the better says Adam Maguire.

When Microsoft unveiled the Kin in April of this year a lot of people asked how it fit into the upcoming launch of Windows Mobile 7, the company’s flag-ship mobile operating system. It did not, said Microsoft, it stood alone as a new platform with a social media focus.

The folly of this was apparent from the get-go.

In an increasingly competitive space it is never wise to dilute the market further by competing with yourself. As apps become more central to a phone’s appeal creating two sets of standards and two separate platforms also damages any attempt at a company gaining a foothold in the space.

Finally, and most obviously, having two competing platforms makes it very hard for you to be truly supportive of one or the other; be it in resources, support or even marketing.

Sure enough, Microsoft’s bizarre experiment failed and yesterday we found that the Kin was to be killed, or rolled into the Windows Mobile brand at the very least. However Microsoft are not the only company that had the idea of a dual-OS strategy; Nokia is trying similar.

Symbian is the best-known Nokia OS. It has been used in one form or another on Nokia phones for many years now and was bought by the company in 2008, only to be spun into an open source, not-for-profit foundation.

It is fair to say that when you look at Symbian you see an uninspiring OS. Even in its latest iteration Symbian fails completely when compared to its main rivals of Android, iOS and even the so-far-under-used WebOS. It is clear that in the last 3-4 years – particularly since Nokia took ownership of the brand – the OS has fallen way behind the pack.

Even its most devoted supporters agree, as highlighted by the closure of fan site Symbian-Guru which has done so because of “Nokia’s consistently piss-poor hardware choices and Symbian’s lack of ability to even remotely compete in terms of features”.

Nokia’s other OS – and one that is far less known – is MeeGo. MeeGo has its origins in Maemo, the OS used most notably in the Nokia N900, which has since merged with Intel’s mobile platform attempts to create a totally new system.

According to the website MeeGo is more than just a mobile phone OS – it is also supposed to be for netbooks, in-car entertainment systems and other portable devices. Much like Apple has done with iOS and Google is doing with Android, this will be a cross-device system.

So far, it looks like it could be a good one too.

Yesterday, just as Microsoft were quietly smothering Kin with a pillow, MeeGo released a preview of its handset iteration. It is likely to appear on a commercially-released phone before the year is out.

On first impressions it seems to take a lot of what is available on Android and put its own spin on things, combining the Nokia Ovi Store for good measure. In other words, it is an operating system designed for smartphones and touchscreens, unlike Symbian.

Of course once it goes commercial Nokia are going to have a very hard time explaining why MeeGo is great without bashing Symbian and vice versa. The idea that each OS is suited to different uses is instantly dismiss-able too, due to MeeGo’s flexibility and the similiarities of the two (from their open source nature to the execution of their functionality, albeit somewhat differing.)

What Nokia will soon realise, just as Microsoft has, is that there is no logic in the dual OS approach – one will always find more favour with users and prove to be the one worth backing. The longer Nokia sits back and hopes both might succeed against the odds, the more money it wastes and handsets it cripples with under-achieving software.

If it has any sense Nokia will begin to sunset its support for Symbian very rapidly after MeeGo becomes a viable piece of phone software. Bar in the business market Symbian should cease to exist on new devices almost immediately, with even that market segment being transferred across fairly rapidly.

It may be hard to turn for Nokia to turn its back on the money already invested and there is sure to be a fear that such a change will alienate users. But when no-one else – not even the software’s biggest fans – can support what you are already doing any more it is clearly time for a dramatic change.

If Nokia is not bold enough to kill Symbian, Symbian will very likely kill Nokia.

The Kin One and Two, RIP.

Unveiled in April and on sale in the US for just six week, it appears the Microsoft Kin is no more.

Separate to regular Windows Mobile phones the Kin brand was intended to be a platform of social media-centric handsets, with Kin One and Kin Two being the first out the blocks. Its genesis is in the Sidekick, a popular series of handsets produced by Danger, which Microsoft bought in 2008.

However after poor sales – rumoured to be as low as just 500 units – Microsoft looks to be pulling the plug on Kin and rolling the project under the Windows Mobile 7 umbrella.

The official statement goes as follows:

We have made the decision to focus exclusively on Windows Phone 7 and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones.

What it effectively means, however, is that the Kin is no-more. Although some of its features and functions may re-appear in the shape of a Windows Mobile 7 device.

Zuckerberg took a lot of flack for changes to Facebook but they all have their reasons

Facebook’s success is purely psychological according to an Irish academic and it may be its undoing too. Adam Maguire finds out more.

Changes to its privacy policy has led some Facebook users to threaten to quit the site for fear of having their personal information made public without their permission. However many other users seem relatively comfortable with the idea of sharing their details online, or at the very least ignorant to the fact that they are doing so quite openly.

Research being conducted by Dr Ciarán McMahon, lecturer in cyberpsychology, is trying to establish what type of person uses Facebook and how open they are about private matters in doing so. Information that could help map the impact of social media on people’s lives and predict what the next big shift in online activity will be.

“What we’re trying to do with Facebook and social media from the outset is to try to get a handle on what’s actually happening and it’s very tricky to do,” says Dr McMahon, who lectures in the subject of cyberpsychology at the School of Creative Technologies in Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technologies (IADT).

“In any other aspect of psychology if you have a paper that was published in 2007 that’s fantastic because it’s pretty new and it’s current; something on Facebook published in 2007 is by now out of date as it’s changing so quickly.”

Dr McMahon says one of the biggest questions hanging around social media – and the internet in general – is whether people will eventually get used to it as a part of their every day lives or whether its transience will stop that from happening. He believes people are coming to terms with the technology but many do not yet realise just how permanent and public their accounts are.

The research is also hoping to establish what kinds of people are drawn to social media sites and what way they interact with it, with different personality traits being responsible for different usage patterns online.

“Some of the research that has been done in IADT already suggests that conscientiousness is a negative predictor of usage; the less conscientious users are the ones more likely to use it which is very strange,” he says. “One of the biggest predictors of Facebook usage is narcissism; I’m quietly confident that that is going to have a big correlation.”

Dr McMahon goes on to point out, however, that narcissism can be seen as a positive as much as a negative as it could also be used to describe someone with a certain amount of self-belief and drive.

While not an obvious match Facebook already benefits from trusted psychological principles. For example the changes it made to its ‘News Feed’ some time ago were unpopular at first but have since proved a hit because of the addictive hit it provides, which Dr McMahon characterises as “variable reinforcement”.

In the case of Facebook this is where users get a reinforcing reward – such as an interesting message in their news feed – but at a variable rate. In order to get the reward they must keep returning until they happen upon one once more.

However Dr McMahon also believes psychology could be the undoing of Facebook, especially as its membership expands more and more.

As he sees it human brain’s ability to interact properly with a limited amount of people means that a list of ‘friends’ beyond a certain number becomes pointless. As the noise level increases people begin to share and communicate less – and what they say gets noticed less by others – and so the rewards of being on the site decrease.

Mix this in with a growing unease over privacy and you may have a potent combination for a mass exodus from the site.

“Facebook doesn’t recognise that people’s lives are compartmentalised and what I want to share with one group of friends I may not want to share with another,” says Dr McMahon. “If a site can come along that can offer that in a very user-friendly way as well as strong privacy options I think it could do very well.”

Dr McMahon reckons that understanding the motivation of the average Facebook user will help him to predict when this is going to happen, although he says he is beginning to believe that Facebook is here to stay even if it does become less popular in time. He also points out that it could be a lucrative thing to know what the ‘early adopters’ – those who tend to use services or devices before they become mass-market – want as it will make it easier to see where they are going next.

So is there a challenger to Facebook’s crown?

Well MySpace is still trying hard to regain its lead but the site was never a strong player in Europe and has a lot of ground to make up even in the USA. A new start-up called Diaspora is creating some buzz, however, as it promises to have privacy at its heart and will be open sourced allowing a greater degree of transparency than anything Facebook offers.

Diaspora is being run by four New York University students and recently raised $100k in funding to get the project started. They hope to have an early version of the site up and running by September of this year.

However while privacy is expected to be a divisive issue for Facebook users as time goes by – and possibly something that draws many people away – Dr McMahon says he sees the next big thing as being build around geo-location technology similar to what 4Square currently does. This is where people log their location via mobile, letting followers know where they are and what they are doing.

“If someone can figure out how to put that on a basic phone and create a way to give people real rewards for using a service like that I think it could really work,” he says.

Whether the average user would feel as comfortable with everyone knowing their exact location remains to be seen, however.

The Three MiFi - a wireless 3G modem

With thanks to Three Ireland, teic.ie is giving away a Three MiFi dongle and a Three SIM to two lucky winners.

The MiFi combines the mobility of 3G broadband with the versatility of a WiFi hotspot, allowing users to connect multiple computers and devices to the one connection at the same time.

The MiFi is small and easy to use, so it is no hassle to pop in your pocket and take around for use throughout the day. Best of all it has an internal battery so it can run completely wirelessly – it does not even need to be tethered to your computer. If you wish you can also leave the device plugged in to the wall and use it like a normal WiFi modem.

Please note this prize includes a Three SIM. The MiFi modem is not compatible with SIMs from other operators.

A MiFi modem costs €89 on pay-as-you-go from Three or from €9 if bought on a contract. Visit Three.ie for more details.

To be in with a chance of winning this handy little gadget just answer the following question:

The Three MiFi modem is manufactured by Huawei, which is a company head-quartered in:

A) Taiwan

B) Russia

C) China

E-mail your answer to competitions[at]teic.ie (replacing the [at] with an @) before midnight on the 7th July 2010 to be in with a chance of winning. Please also include your name and contact details.

Winners will be contacted via e-mail and announced on the site by the 9th July 2010.

Entries are open to residents of Ireland only; entries from overseas will be excluded. Employees of Three Ireland are prohibited from entering this competition.

The desktop is in trouble but it may not be facing death just yet.

Desktop computers are being squeezed out of homes and workplaces by laptops – but they can survive as a niche player, writes Adam Maguire.

As an increasingly rare sight on retailers’ shelves, in people’s homes and even around the office, it is clear that the desktop computer is dying. So what is driving the demise of this once ever-present machine and does it have any hope of survival?

Once expensive and unwieldy, the laptop is now the dominant player in the computer landscape.

According to both manufacturers and retailers this is because of two distinct trends which, between them, are working to squeeze out the desktop – ever-improving miniaturised technology and changing customer behaviour.

“The price points [on notebooks] have come way down and the market has caught up a lot with desktops in terms of performance,” said Aaron McKenna, country manager for online retailer Komplett.ie.

Just a few years ago, money spent on a laptop would give users far less power than the same amount spent on a desktop. However, cheaper and smaller components mean this gulf has all but disappeared at consumer levels.

Lisa Holmes, client field product manager for Dell’s commercial division, echoes this, saying the price gap that used to exist between laptops and desktops is now all but gone.

“You can definitely get a fairly mainstream laptop that would be quite close to the desktop in terms of spec and performance now. They’re fairly comparable.”

As a result, laptops have become an obvious fit, particularly for college students and professionals, especially as battery capacity and mobile broadband access continues to improve.

However, for the standard household the creep of the computer into the living room has also modified what users are looking for. A desktop, which requires the computer itself, a monitor, keyboard, mouse, desk and chair in order to be functional, is less appealing and more obtrusive than a simple laptop.

“When people buy something now, they go for a laptop so they can sit on the couch and use it,” said Holmes. “This is especially true for those living in an apartment as space is an issue and desktop requires a lot of that.”

All of this has combined to create a market hugely skewed in favour of laptops. HP, the biggest computer manufacturer in the world, currently sees 79 per cent of its sales going on notebooks in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia) region. Ireland trumps that average with 86 per cent of HP machines sold here being portables.

Things are more balanced on the commercial side, however, where HP records a near-50/50 split in EMEA. Interestingly, Ireland is lagging behind here, with a 58-42 per cent split in favour of desktops.

“We’re slower to move on the commercial side and faster on the consumer side,” says Stephen McDonald, head of corporate, enterprise and public sectors at HP.

“Commercial would be more conservative for a number of reasons and no organisations within the public sector have moved whole-scale to mobile computing yet which has a huge effect in the island of Ireland.”

However, while desktops lack mobility, they do retain one crucial selling point over notebooks – their ability to be easily tweaked and upgraded. This has kept desktops as the tool of choice for so-called “power users”, be they hardcore gamers or professional designers.

“Power users is where the desktop still thrives and this is where the laptop still has not caught up,” McKenna says. “Notebooks are not as customisable; with a desktop you can change your graphics card or upgrade the processor and so on. With a laptop, you can change your memory and hard drive but that is about it.”

Not only are they less customisable, gaming laptops also suffer still from the large price differential against desktops that has been all but eliminated at the lower end.

The other deficiency in this market is that the main benefit of the laptop over a desktop – its mobility – is also wiped out.

“You can buy gaming laptops from Dell and so on, but they’re bulky and they’re heavy to carry around,” said Mr McKenna.

So what is the desktop’s fate? McDonald feels it does have a future, although as a far more niche machine than it was before.

“The likes of engineers, designers, broadcasters and so on – they will all stick with desktops for what they do,” he said. “In the consumer space, I cannot see the tower machines surviving though. What is happening now is a move towards the all-in-one devices that effectively look like a monitor with a keyboard and mouse attached.”

These types of machines – perhaps the most notable example of which is the Apple iMac – fit into the idea of an aesthetically pleasing and space-saving device that the traditional desktop is not.

There is also a growing market of media centre desktop machines – minuscule devices that are intended to act more as components for a HD television than as standalone computers. What these all have in common is that they are secondary computers, built and used for very specific tasks and not general browsing or working.

“These devices become more a media play rather than a desktop and that seems to be the direction the consumer desktop is going to,” said Mr McDonald. “Besides that, if you’re not looking for a pure ‘media play’ it’s very hard to see why you would buy a desktop over a notebook.”

This article originally appeared in The Irish Times.

O2 customers will be able to walk away from existing contracts; just in time for the arrival of the new iPhone

Bill-pay customers on O2 have a rare opportunity to leave their contract without penalty thanks to some little-known European legislation. The network recently announced call tariff changes and, under EU law, it is required to give customers the option of leaving their agreement as a result.

The rule is part of a 2003 regulation on electronic communications networks and covers the entire telecoms industry. It requires networks to give customers one month’s notice of contract changes and a chance to walk away if they disagree with them.

Customers who wish to leave their contract with O2 need to notify the network before 12th July.

“It [the regulation] is industry-wide for a start; even for a change in terms and conditions this has to be done,” said Fiona Dowling, representative of O2 Ireland. “We’ve done it before and traditionally it hasn’t translated into many customers leaving the network, we’re naturally very keen to retain our customers.

“We do get a lot of queries, though, as there is a certain amount of confusion about changes and some clarification is required.”

The opportunity may be of particular interest to customers signed up to 18-month contracts as part of the network’s iPhone deals, some of which may have been taken out shortly before the announcement of the new iPhone 4.

At present it is not known how existing iPhone users will be able to upgrade their handsets and how much it will cost to do so. However Ms Dowling said this fact has not appeared to translate to a higher number of cancellation requests than usual.

“In the past we have not experienced a pattern of increased calls on this subject when a new smart phone enters the market, and iPhone 4 is no exception to this,” she said. “Things like this are often an opportunity for us to talk to the customer and ensure they’re on the right price plan for the way they use their phone.”

O2 in the UK, which launched the iPhone 4 this week, has offered existing iPhone-owners an upgrade if they pay a flat rate for each month left on their existing contract. This translates to £20 (€24) for each full month remaining, regardless of the amount the customer would normally pay per month.

Ms Dowling said O2 was still waiting on details of iPhone 4 availability in Ireland before it announced its own upgrade plans.

Apple fans queued overnight in their hundreds outside shops in Europe and Japan to snap up the latest iPhone, as the technology giant set a new benchmark in the fast-growing smartphone market.

The iPhone 4 makes possible video calls, can handle multiple tasks simultaneously and has longer battery life than previous versions – adding specifications that some rivals already have to its iconic design appeal.

It sold a record 600,000 in pre-orders in a single day last week, and BGC analyst Colin Gillis expects Apple to set a record for being the first company to sell a million smartphones in a single day.

Apple’s latest salvo in the battle for the smartphone market, which IT research firm Gartner expects to grow 46 per cent this year over last year’s 172 million units, comes as rivals based on Google’s Android software gather steam.

Analysts estimate that Android’s 4 per cent of the market last year will grow to 11 per cent this year, while Apple’s share is seen steady at 14 per cent.

This article originally appeared in The Irish Times on the 25th June 2010

Pre-pay Three phones will now be sold in Gamestop

Games retailer Gamestop have announced a deal with 3 Mobile, which will see them stock handsets from the phone network in its 50 Irish stores.

Gamestop has recently spread its wings somewhat, taking phone and CD trade-ins on top of its traditional market of games and DVDs.

This agreement means the retailer will now also stock pre-pay phones from 3 Mobile, namely the Samsung Acton, Nokia 2730, Nokia 5230 and INQ Mini. Pre-pay broadband will also be sold in-store.

Customers buying phones from Gamestop will be able to trade-in their phones for a €20 discount on new handsets, meaning the likes of the INQ Mini will be available for just €30.

The Samsung Wave

As a debut for Samsung’s Bada operating system and app platform there is a lot of expectation behind the company’s new Wave smartphone, so does it stand up to scrutiny?

Here’s a first impression run-through from teic.ie with a full review to follow soon:

The device

Physically speaking the Samsung Wave makes a good first impression. It is slim, light and solid, with a casing design reminiscent of the Tocco Ultra (though without the slide-out keyboard).

Far from the more “plasticy” feel of previous Samsung handsets, like the Jet or Galaxy Spica, this device has a metallic body hosting a handful of neatly-placed buttons. It also does a good job of tucking away the various inputs – the 3.5mm headphone jack sits on the top, beside the microUSB port that is hidden behind a sliding cover.

The screen

The Wave’s screen is easily one of the most striking aspects of the phone when first turned on. It’s a 3.3″ ‘Super AMOLED’, which translates to an extremely crisp and bright display.

Perhaps most importantly it is solid and very responsive – easily one of the better touchscreens used on a smartphone and up there with what HTC and maybe even Apple offer.

The operating system

A lot has been made of Bada – Samsung’s open source attempt at competing with Android, Windows Mobile and Apple’s iOS. However for people who have used other touchscreen Samsung devices using the TouchWiz interface this will seem fairly familiar, albeit slightly more polished.

That is not necessarily a bad thing and the polish applied has made it all the better, for example the pull-down bar is a very handy way to read notifications and chance WiFi, Bluetooth and Audio settings. The keyboard is also decent, as is the ability for the OS to know what you meant to type even if you mis-hit keys, this is helped in no small part by the aforementioned responsive screen.

However there are still a lot of weaknesses in the design too, for example the e-mail interface is still weak and navigating from one place to another is not always as logical as it should be.

The apps

It’s still early days for Samsung Apps so unsurprisingly there is very little to chose from at the moment. The fact that there are no paid-for apps available – in Ireland at least – limits this further.

At first glance there are no real stand-out apps available and no big-name developers doing anything of interest at the moment.

The battery

Battery life has been a major sticking point of touch-based smartphones but Samsung seem to have struck something with this device. Despite having a sharp-looking screen the battery seems to hold up fairly well.

Exactly how long it lasts will take a bit more time to gauge but on a first charge the battery seemed to last with ease for well over 24 hours, even as much as 48 even with WiFi on constantly, Bluetooth on intermittently and plenty of 3G-based browsing and calls/texts made during that time.