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Review: Updated: LG Optimus GT540

The LG Optimus GT540 is LG’s latest shot at an Android smartphone, and the company’s second to hit the UK. The last Android offering – the inTouch Max GW620 – came with a slide-out keyboard, but this time the keyboard has gone.

Aimed at the middle range market, the Optimus GT540 comes in at about £150 on PAYG and we found it free on contract for as low as £15 a month.

Can it do enough to show Android off to the best of its powers, do the platform proud and please its intended market at such a low price?

In terms of look and feel, the LG Optimus GT540 punches above its weight. The curvature of the top and bottom edges, and the faux brushed-metal finish look rather good.

We like the waved panel where the Call, End/Power and Home buttons sit, too, as it’s noticeably different from the norm.

When it comes to internal specs, it is worth pointing out that the LG Optimus GT540 runs Android 1.6. That makes it very out of date in terms of the Android OS, and cuts out a whole swathe of potential goodies for users – although the core of Android is here, of course.

The LG Optimus GT540 is fairly small for the hand, weighing in at 109 x 54.4 x 12.9mm, and it shouldn’t be a challenge to reach all the way across the 3.2-inch screen one-handed.

The screen is clear and bright, but sadly it’s resistive, and far from being the best of its type to come our way. We didn’t have to press too hard to make a connection (although it is annoying having to remember to over-press, although we guess that will become second nature eventually).

The same can be said for the two touch buttons under the screen – the Android back and menu buttons are touch sensitive, and can be a little inaccurate at times.

LG has kindly added a 3.5mm headset slot in the top edge of the phone, where it sits surprisingly comfortably in the curvature of the chassis, and the bottom edge is clear of any ports or connectors.

On the sides you’ll find the usual array of buttons in the shape of a volume rocker on the left and a camera button on the right. The micro USB connector is also on the right.

One oddity is that the right side also contains the Android search button. Tap this to get context sensitive searching options. We can sense that its positioning might irritate some users, but we didn’t find it a problem at all.

Where the LG Optimus GT540 will either wow you or irritate you beyond all understanding in its offering of two different skins.

Android has its very own look and feel, and many of the phone manufacturers who choose to use it opt to skin it, adding their own tweaks, twists and turns in a bid to personalise things in their corporate image.

LG has tried to offer users the best of both worlds by allowing you a vanilla Android or a liveried LG skin. You can flick between the two by choosing the Home Selector app in the main applications menu.

Choose LG’s own skin option and you get the ability to decide how many home screens you want to play with – three, five or seven. You can also decide on a theme. How about Pink Coco or Modern Silver?

We’d have liked the home screens to automatically grow in number up to seven, as we add new widgets rather than have to make a physical choice, though.

The 600MHz processor is surprisingly nippy for a phone of this price – it’s the same spec as the one used in the iPhone 3GS and although it lags, it generally reacts to the gestures you ask it to perform.

It can be slow to run apps, and slow to manage data too. It isn’t a big enough issue to be a deal breaker, but we would suggest that you shouldn’t expect lightning speed from this phone at times.

Also the resistive screen is a real problem when trying to drag down the top notifications bar. You see you’ve got an email to look at and what a quick glimpse of it, but trying to pull the relevant section of the screen down is nigh-on impossible with the LG Optimus GT540.

Another tweak LG offers is to group applications in the main menu. You just need to hit the menu button when you are in the main apps menu to add new categories, and then move applications into them by dragging them. You get between categories by vertically scrolling.

When it comes to widgets, LG has some rather nice offerings. We especially like the note widget, which can be used to store all kinds of information. You flick through different notes with a horizontal finger scroll. We can see it being used for shopping lists, short to-do lists and all kinds of quick-fire information gathering.

LG Optimus GT540 is a perfectly adequate handset for managing contacts and making calls. When you choose the LG skin for Android, there are tiny icons for the dialler and for messaging hardwired onto the bottom of every home screen you set up, so the dialler is only usually a single tap away.

When you aren’t on the main screen, a tap of the physical Call button opens up the usual Contacts menu so you can access your friends easily.

If you’ve logged into a social networking site, you can pull in contacts from there. Three are supported – Twitter, Facebook and Bebo – and you login using the SNS (Social Networking Services) button that is on the main screen by default.

Adding friends from your social networks in the contacts app is as simple as tapping the menu and choosing to import friends, although we did have a little bit of an issue with this, as for some reason our review handset didn’t want to import from our Twitter account, despite being quite happy to download tweets from and upload tweets to it.

Call quality is fine, although it can be a little quiet at times. We found that the connection speed was generally pretty good, although if on a bus or train the 3G signal could be slow to update.

The 3G/HSDPA signal icons are actually a little overbearing at the top – if someone wasn’t sure what they all mean, then it might be a little disconcerting to see the signal letters changing so much.

With the LG Optimus GT540, what most people are going to want to do with an Android based smartphone, regardless of its price or overall specifications, is text-based messaging. Primarily we mean SMS, email and social networking. The news is not that great on this front, unfortunately.

We’ve already noted that the screen is resistive, and not the most responsive under the fingers for sweeping, swiping and making menu selections.

The problem gets compounded when you enter the messaging arena. The unresponsiveness of the screen follows through to the keyboard, which is mighty small on the 3-inch screen.

When working with the screen in portrait mode, we found it almost impossible to hit keys accurately using the miniature QWERTY option.

It is usable if you slow down enough, but don’t expect to type at iPhone-like speeds as the auto-correct is pretty poor too.

The X9 keyboard, which functions like a standard predictive text effort, is much better – we got some pretty slick speeds when using this, but it feels a bit alien doing so on a touchscreen.

Landscape mode was somewhat better, with larger keys to act as targets for our fingers. But we still had to slow down to get a high accuracy rating.

The social networking apps range is adequate but not wonderful. We wonder how many people there are actually using Bebo these days, though Facebook and Twitter are obviously more popular.

There’s a good range of settings – the Twitter and Facebook apps even have the ability to set an auto updating schedule for a set number of hours only, so you can save battery power by not auto-updating when you are usually otherwise engaged.

Web browsing is another activity which suffers on the LG Optimus GT540 because of the small screen size. The resolution does it no favours either.

At 320×480, the screen resolution is fine for many activities, and is on a par with that of other lower-end Android handsets. But you simply can’t see as much on the screen as you can with bigger-screened, higher resolution Android handsets, like the top-end Motorola Milestone XT720, Acer Stream or HTC Desire.

With no pinch to zoom support on the resistive screen, you are limited to the old Android 1.6 zoom bar. However, there is a massive ray of light with the LG Optimus GT540, and that’s the fact text reflow is supported when zooming in.

This means that although the overall view is a little low-res and skewed, if you’re trying to read an article on a website you can choose the size of the text you want, with the letters jiggling around to fit your desired column size.

Still, there’s a magnifier window that you can drag around on a page to help you decide what you actually want to home in on. Just pull it around, then lift your finger away from it to see your desired portion of the screen.

There’s a sidebar menu that you can pull out at any time to access features and settings, although some people might forget it’s there and keep trying to find the browser reload button from the Android Menu key.

Oh, and you can have multiple windows opened at once. It is easy to switch between them by hitting the double squares icon on that sidebar menu.

Just as you won’t buy the LG Optimus GT540 primarily for its Web capabilities, you won’t be choosing it primarily for its camera either, although in general we found photos to be reasonably good.

Before we go into how well the camera performs, it is worth noting that you need an SD card in order to use both the camera and video recorder – and none is provided with the device.

The camera’s maximum pixel shooting capability is 3MP for stills and 640×480 for video, and put it very firmly towards the bottom of the range. But there are some interesting and useful user tweaks.

Beauty shot, smile shot, blink detection and panorama modes are present, and you can set the ISO to 100, 200, 400 or automatic. You can geotag photos, and can alter the white balance. There is no macro mode, though, nor flash.

However there is the option for automatic Face Tagging – take a snap of a buddy and theoretically if you take another picture of them the LG Optimus GT540 will recognise and tag them accordingly.

In practice this only works if you take the picture head on – meaning you’re rarely going to get the face tags you so desperately want.

Click here for the full res image

The camera is not big on capturing finer detail, but it produced reasonable snaps. Just don’t zoom in too far on the PC or Mac if you want to avoid seeing your images pixellate.

Click here to see the full res image

There’s plenty of capability for taking general tourist type photos, which are good enough to share over the Internet. Colour reproduction is pretty accurate too, although shots do tend towards the pallid.

Click here to see the full res image

There was plenty of overhead lighting when we took this photo, and so it is passable – although not great. If we’d had to rely on the flash we’d have been stumped, as the camera does not have one.

The LG Optimus GT540 video footage was a little on the jerky side, but fine for capturing a memento or two.

It is a shame the maximum resolution is just VGA (640×480), but at least video duration is limited to the maximum that your media card can cope with, so you can knock your socks off shooting movies if you like.

However, it’s only going to be decent enough for YouTube uploading at best – don’t think you’ll be the next Tarantino with this camera.

With just 130Mb of internal storage, you’re going to have to use a micro SD card for your music and video storage.

The music player is a pretty bog standard affair. It failed to pick up album art stored in folders alongside the music tracks it found on our SD card, which is somewhat annoying, but at least you have access to good music playback controls and can easily make playlists.

LG did not send us its headset to test with this phone, but plopping our own into the 3.5mm connector on the top edge of the handset revealed that sound quality is decidedly lacklustre.

There is no equaliser, so the slightly treble-rich tones are going to have to suffice. At higher volumes, the sound becomes somewhat distorted.

Video is much better though – MP4, DivX, Xvid, H.264, H.263 and WMV are all supported, meaning the LG Optimus GT540 can actually play back more file types than the HTC Desire out the box.

Meanwhile the handset speaker doesn’t deliver enough volume to annoy fellow public transport users, and its output is decidedly tinny.

There is an FM radio with autoscan which stops every time it finds a station, and asks if you want to store it or skip it. If you store a station, only its frequency is recorded. There is no RDS and you can’t edit the station info later to include its name.

The LG Optimus GT540 comes with a 1500mAh battery. That’s quite a lot of power for a smartphone with this level of spec, and we found it coped quite well. We got a day-and-a-half of use that included some Web browsing and Wi-Fi, as well as a bit of music listening and a bit of time spent using the GPS.

If you like your smartphone to double up as your music player and you are a very keen music fan, or you use Wi-Fi or GPS a lot, you’ll probably find a daily charge is in order. But more frugal users might easily stretch to two days.

While this is a rarity for a smartphone, it is more likely to be seen at the lower end of the market where the LG Optimus GT540 sits, simply because such devices have less power hungry screens than those at the very top end.

Comparison

When it comes to the competition, there isn’t a lot that gives the LG Optimus GT540 a run for its money.

The already mentioned InTouch Max GW620, with its built in keyboard, might be a better bet for anyone really keen on keeping in touch via written rather than spoken words, and LG’s Cookie Fresh might also be an option, although it is not an Android handset.

There’s also the option of the new low cost ZTE F930, which is exclusive to Three – though again this is not an Android handset, and the ZTE Racer, which appears to be something of a rival.

Maps

Using Google Maps is an OK experience on the Optimus GT540, as while the GPS chip is quick enough to find you (although no earth shattering speeds) the resistive screen makes it hard to interact with the screen successfully.

Clicking a specific address from the map is difficult as you’re generally pretty inaccurate, and swiping through different categories is hard too. It’s not a terrible experience, but this is one of the applications where the resistive screen on the Optimus GT540 really lets it down.

However, at least it has Google Maps Navigation on board, meaning you’ve got a fully-fledged sat nav as standard – something which clearly adds a lot of value to a phone from this price level.

It’s easy enough to use, but the resistive screen’s foibles come into play once again – trying to manipulate the display when on the move is very difficult and should (obviously) never be attempted while driving.

We’ve been rather hard on the LG Optimus GT540, and not without good reason. Its specifications are very much at the lower end of the pile as far as a modern smartphone is concerned, and it is not going to be the kind of handset you’ll rush out and buy if you want the latest features.

But given that it’s free on £15 a month contracts, you don’t really have the right to expect top notch features.

And, taking that into consideration, we have to say that the LG Optimus GT540 is a nicely rounded phone. There’s nothing outstanding about it, but the features fit together well enough, rivalling those of a higher end handset thanks to the same Android experience (albeit Android 1.6).

We liked

The price is certainly very attractive, and that may well be a significant factor for many people in deciding whether or not to opt for this, rather than another Android handset – especially when most of the times the Optimus GT540 performs admirably.

There are plenty of shooting options on the camera, and while it is not great, it is good enough for everyday point-and-shoot use. It has no flash though, so beware of poorly lit indoor shots.

The physical design punches above its weight, and makes the LG Optimus GT540 look like a more expensive phone than it actually is.

LG’s skin for Android is not unattractive, and some people will find it preferable to the vanilla option. But whichever you prefer, it is pretty easy to switch between them.

Battery life is good, and we’d even go as far as to say it may stretch over two days for some users – which is a real plus point for an Android handset.

We disliked

The FM radio has to store each found station individually, which is a bit of a bore when you are initially scanning for finds.

The Web browser is lacking in features, so it can be slow and a little painful to use at times, which reflects throughout the UI with the processor seeming to lack any real grunt – although text reflow is a nice addition.

The resistive touch screen requires a fairly hard press, and is not always as responsive to finger touches as we would like.

Android 1.6 has to be a big downer if you are the kind of person who likes to have the latest kit in your pocket. Android 1.6 is serviceable, but you do miss out on the latest tricks and tweaks, like sat nav and Live Wallpapers.

Verdict

There is no doubting that the LG Optimus GT540 is attractive in pricing terms, and LG has done a good job of making it look attractive both physically and in terms of its own Android skin.

The resistive touchscreen lacks responsiveness at times though, making you feel like you’re swiping through treacle, and the screen itself is a bit too small for media rich activity like Web browsing. We’d have liked to see a higher resolution for video capture too, although video playback is well thought-through.

But battery life is good and for the price it’s a phone that might make inroads into the under-populated mid-range Android market.

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Packard Bell to show EasyNote LX86, Maestro range

Packard Bell has outlined the new products it will show off at IFA 2010, including the EasyNote LX86 laptop, Maestro LED HD monitor/TVs and a PB Go mobile hard drive.

Packard Bell is beginning to move away from the judgements of the past, and it is hoping a raft of new products and extensions to older ranges will boost its wares.

The refinements include a new selection of colours for its well-received Dot s netbook, and the latest EasyNote – with the LX86 offering a 17.3 inch screen and the promise of ‘smooth multimedia performance.

Screens

The Maestro LED HD Stereo series are billed as ideal PC monitors, but are also HD ready and offer both DVI and the expected HMI connector.

There is also a Maestro TV offering a ‘slim and stylish’ display with a TV tuner and the possibility of computer input as well.

Last, and probably least, is the PB Go –an external 250GBV hard drive.

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Review: BlackBerry Curve 3G

The BlackBerry Curve 3G looks like yet another BlackBerry handset. Its full QWERTY keyboard sits below a 2.4-inch screen, with the 2-megapixel camera on the reverse.

Offering 3G connectivity as well as Wi-Fi, the handset promises fast internet browsing while apps and themes can be easily downloaded from the BlackBerry App World.

There’s not much new to see on the BlackBerry Curve 3G. That famous physical QWERTY keyboard sits in a sensible-looking chassis with rounded corners and textured back, while the chrome-effect border panel houses the 480×360 LCD screen and a series of flush buttons alongside the optical track-pad.

The microUSB port nestles alongside the 3.5mm headphone connection and the left-hand convenience key, whose default option is the voice-dialer shortcut.

If you find yourself getting frustrated by repeated orders to “Say a command”, you can easily change this in the settings. The camera button is housed on the other side of the handset, just below the volume controls.

The top panel features the BlackBerry Curve 3G’s media controls – play/pause, skip forwards and skip back.

With BlackBerry’s distinctive QWERTY keyboard and optical trackpad, the Curve 3G is almost identical to the earlier Curve handsets like the BlackBerry Curve 8900, as well as posing as the younger sibling of the popular BlackBerry Bold 9700.

Connectivity is the name of the game, and the BlackBerry Curve 3G offers Wi-Fi and GPS along with its namesake 3G network.

It’s no secret that RIM is keen on showcasing the media features of its handsets, and the Curve 3G is no exception.

With dedicated media buttons on the top of the handset, the BlackBerry Curve 3G is clearly intended to be used as a media player, just as you would the iPhone or a Sony Ericsson W395 Walkman phone.

To this end, it’s also reassuring to see a 3.5mm headphone jack giving you the freedom of using whatever headphones you like.

The 2-megapixel camera is nothing to write home about, and lacks the flash and autofocus found on the higher-spec BlackBerry Bold 9700.

As you’d expect from any handset in the BlackBerry family, the Curve 3G features enviable email capabilities, and BlackBerry Messenger for instant messaging other BlackBerry users for next-to-nothing.

If you’ve ever used a BlackBerry OS 5 handset before, then you’ll be at home on the BlackBerry Curve 3G. Homescreen icons can be customised to whatever your most-used apps, functions and web shortcuts are, while the full menu is easy to organise into folders.

The interface shares a number of similarities to Windows desktop PC software, but although the menu is made up of rows of icons, there are webs of text-based menus to navigate through within applications.

These contain the options to adjust settings, carry out functions and kill applications. These menus can be intimidating for those lacking in confidence, as it can be confusing to be faced with an endless list of options when all you want to do is write a new text message, for example.

Because of these menu webs, it’s not as easy an interface to get to grips with as those of iOS devices like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3G, but there are comparisons to be drawn with Android handsets like the HTC Wildfire.

The level of customisation is lower, but the basic principle of easy access to your favourite applications is the same.

It’s worth noting that the OS will be updated in the near future, so you’ll have greater homescreen customisation to play with, while multiple homescreens will give you more space and you’ll be able to assign widgets as opposed to app-launching shortcuts.

The BlackBerry App World, which you can launch from within the phone’s menu or by finding it in the browser, gives you access to hundreds of downloadable apps.

BlackBerry themes are also available to customise the BlackBerry Curve 3G even further. You can purchase themes from designers or build your own, using different fonts, background images, ringtones and the like.

Most standard functions of the handset are very easy to launch. To make a call you can either hit the call button, or simply start typing a number or name of a contact from the homescreen.

One thing that is a little overly-complicated on most BlackBerry handsets, though, is when you launch a new email or SMS message.

Rather than just going into your inbox and being presented with an obvious option to compose a new message, you have to launch the internal menu by hitting the BlackBerry button, then scroll down through the list of options until you reach ‘Compose SMS’.

This just seems like a couple of steps too many, especially for such a straightforward task.

We should note that you could also launch an SMS to a specific contact from within the address book – although this might not come as naturally to anyone making the leap from a dumb-phone to smart.

Because the BlackBerry Curve 3G has dedicated call and end buttons, it’s very easy to both make and take calls.

It’s also easier to hang up a call, as you don’t have to wait for the sometimes-slow proximity sensor to kick in and give you the option – something that we have occasionally found on the HTC Hero and Google Nexus One.

We were really impressed with the BlackBerry Curve 3G’s sound quality. Voices were clear and easily audible to both parties, even with a grizzling child in the background.

Lower-cost mid-range handsets do tend to suffer on sound quality – the Nokia X6, for example, is atrocious – and even high-end handsets like the iPhone 4 (predictable, we know) can suffer on mobile-to-mobile calls. So it’s great to see that RIM hasn’t skimped on the BlackBerry Curve 3G.

The reason for the good sound quality might have been down to great reception. For the ultimate signal test, we took our BlackBerry Curve 3G review sample out on a train journey across the British countryside.

It held up pretty well. We had 3G reception and full bars for the majority of the journey, despite being in the middle of nowhere with only fields and their resident cows for company.

Unfortunately in areas where networks were weaker, we had a lot more trouble – reception disappearing where just moments ago it had been super strong, very slow connections and the like.

The phone book is a very serious affair. Although you can assign photos to contacts, these don’t show up in the phonebook’s list view, so it’s very text-heavy.

We couldn’t find an easy way to sync our Facebook contacts with our BlackBerry contacts, which is a little remiss in this day and age – particularly for a youth-orientated handset.

To make up for it, you have approximately a thousand contact options when setting up new contacts, from nicknames, job titles and home and work addresses, to birthdays and relevant webpages.

This might be information overkill for the casual user, but if you’re syncing the handset with your Outlook account, then much of this data may be automatically saved by the BlackBerry Curve 3G

Grouping contacts into relevant groups is easy enough, one of which can be your favourite contacts if you like. It doesn’t make them any easier to access, but if you regularly email or text the same group of people, it could save you a bit of messing about.

There’s no need to enter the contact book at all if you don’t fancy it. Simply typing in a name or number from the homescreen will bring up the relevant contacts or numbers, and then it’s simply a case of selecting the one you’re after and hitting ‘Call’ or the BlackBerry button to bring up the menu of options including SMS, MMS and email.

The other handy option for the time-strapped super-caller is to assign speed-dial keys. With a full QWERTY keyboard at your disposal you have over 26 buttons to play with, although A, Q and W are already assigned to essential handset functions (lock keys, change profile to vibrate and call voicemail respectively).

When it comes to messaging, the BlackBerry Curve 3G has its bases covered. As well as the traditional SMS and MMS options, email is very easy to set up and is integrated into the handset at every opportunity (you can set the default option for each contact to be email rather than calling, if you wish).

BlackBerry handsets have always excelled at email. Setting up a webmail account is as easy as inputting your address and password (we used a Gmail address, but options include Yahoo! and Windows Live addresses).

As you set up your email addresses, you can opt to have your contacts for each synced with your BlackBerry address book.

As with other BlackBerry handsets, including the BlackBerry Bold 9700, you can have your SMS and MMS messages routed to a universal inbox that also receives emails from each of your accounts. This makes it easy to check all your accounts at once, although it can be a little annoying if you’re not sure which account has received which messages.

The other killer messaging function that all BlackBerry handsets offer is BlackBerry Messenger or, as the kids call it, BBM.

It’s a real boon, especially for the cash-strapped user – you can save your text messaging pennies for non-BlackBerry owning mates and BBM other BlackBerry users for no charge if you’re on a BlackBerry plan.

If you’re moving to the BlackBerry Curve 3G from another BlackBerry handset using the same SIM, the Curve 3G will set up your existing account and disable the one on the old handset.

Keyboard

The BlackBerry Curve 3G’s physical QWERTY keyboard is good, but it’s not the best.

Although its raised buttons are preferable to the flat slide-out QWERTYs found on the likes of the Motorola Milestone and Samsung Genio Slide, and it’s more spacious than the slider on the new BlackBerry Torch 9800, the Curve 3G lacks the sharply angled keys of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and is a little easier to fudge.

We found we had to be quite careful to hit the right keys, although in time this will become easier as you get accustomed to it.

Automatic text correction was generally intuitive, saving us the frustration garnered by the iPhone, for example, which militantly corrects intentional mistakes and doesn’t allow for context when correcting punctuation.

Potty mouths will be glad to hear you can swear away to your heart’s content on the BlackBerry Curve 3G. All you’ll have to contend with is the disapproving underlining of the more offensive curses rather than automatic corrections.

The internet browser on BlackBerry OS 5, which will be running on the BlackBerry Curve 3G at launch, is notoriously rubbish. It’s slow to open web pages, even slower to render images, only offers one tab at a time and is generally a bit of a pest to use.

Although the screen puts in a valiant effort to display as much of the webpage as possible on non-mobile sites, it ends up offering you a birds’ eye view. By which we mean a view of a load of coloured blobs on a screen.

You really have to make good use of the zoom function in order to see smaller images and read any text. Zooming in to get a better view of text tends to be quite smooth, although we were often left with extremely jaggedy pixellated images after a zoom-in.

In fact, some websites rendered very pixellated, and even dedicated mobile sites suffered this same fate.

The optical track pad gives you more freedom to move the cursor around the web page than a D-pad would, although it did tend to be overly responsive, making selecting that tiny little link a real hassle.

It also comes in handy when you want to select text to copy and paste on the BlackBerry Curve 3G, as you can grab massive chunks of text in one quick swipe.

Sharing links is very easy, and is given as an option in the browser’s menu. You have the option to send the link in an email, via SMS, MMS or BlackBerry Messenger. The other standard feature is the inclusion of bookmarks, and you can organise these by named folders to keep things tidy.

The camera on the BlackBerry Curve 3G is a pretty poor affair. When you launch the camera app, the only options you’re offered onscreen are to zoom in or out, and take the picture.

To fiddle around with the (admittedly limited) options requires you to click the BlackBerry button and enter another of those text-heavy menus. Here you can play around with the white balance, picture size and picture quality, as well as opt for monochrome or sepia options if you’re feeling a bit old school.

It’s nice to have the sepia and monochrome options, we suppose, but they do smack of being token options, and almost highlight the limited amount of features the camera offers.

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

To zoom in and out, you simply roll a finger across the optical trackpad – easy enough, but a mixed blessing.

If you want to take an image using the handset in a landscape position, then you can use the shutter button on the side of the handset, but if you’re after a portrait shot then you must click the optical trackpad to take the picture.

Unless you’re really quite firm with the button, you’ll find yourself zooming when you already had the shot nicely framed up – something we found to be a real annoyance on several occasions.

Zoomed in images lose a lot of quality. Here you can see the same flower from three different zooms; the first is zoomed completely out, the second 3x and the third is zoomed in the full 5x.

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

As you can see in the zoom images, the camera isn’t too bad at handling colours when there’s a big difference between them. But the red of the flower still comes out a little glassy, despite being taken in average daylight – bright but a little overcast.

Where the camera struggles with close-up shots (in the image below we hadn’t even zoomed in – the fuzziness comes from a lack of autofocus) it handles long-shots much better.

Click here to see the full resolution image

Click here to see the full resolution image

The images aren’t massively crisp, either, which is no more than we’d expect from a 2-megapixel camera. Suffice to say, this isn’t the ideal handset for shutterbugs.

The BlackBerry Curve 3G doesn’t do too badly handling a lot of light. As you’d expect, it seeps into the whole image, but the dark areas do retain a suitable amount of contrast.

Click here to see the full resolution image

It’s also worth noting that the 2-megapixel camera lacks the flash of the BlackBerry Bold 9700, so low-light photography is very much miss and not a whole lot of hit.

Click here to see the full resolution image

Like the still camera mode, video recording on the BlackBerry Curve 3G offers the most basic customisation. The only options here are between two sizes (normal or a smaller MMS size) and colour effects (normal, black and white or sepia).

One feature we did appreciate, however, was the ability to pause recording then continue. Rather than leaving us with a bunch of little video files needing editing together on a PC, we had one handy video file with several shots in (like the video clip below).

Like the still camera, the video camera’s ability to handle bright colours is not bad, but you do still get that unreal gloss over objects like flowers.

Differentiating between similar colours is a bit of a struggle for the BlackBerry Curve 3G. In real life, the greens of the leaves in the video above were noticeably different, but here they merge into one Kermit-like mass.

You’ll notice that the wind fluttering through the leaves looks a little jaggedy and jumpy, and we can assure you it was the handset not nature that was at fault here.

It’s a shame that you can’t zoom while filming. You have to decide on your zoom before hitting record, otherwise you’ll have to manually move closer to your subject.

Emailing videos works fine as long as the file size isn’t too big. Any video clip over about 30s will need to be transferred by USB instead.

BlackBerry OS 5 is not known for its brilliance in the media arena. While the BlackBerry Curve 3G does display track information and album artwork, the music player is very basic. It does offer you the option to shuffle or continuously play albums, artists and tracks, however.

The other notable features is the ability to either build your own playlists or command the BlackBerry Curve 3G to create an automatic playlist featuring artists of your choosing. There’s no FM radio on board, so you’ll want to make sure you have plenty of music tracks to listen to.

Sound quality is average – even through quite high-quality Sennheiser in-ear headphones – but at least it’s better than the BlackBerry Curve 3G’s built-in speaker, which is tinny and awful.

Of course you can also control the media player by using the buttons on the top of the handset. This controls both the audio and video players.

The following audio files are supported: MP3, AMR-NB, AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, Flac, Ogg Vorbis.

Video playback isn’t particularly brilliant quality on that 320×240 pixel screen, but the video player is quite nippy, and it skips happily between clips.

If you don’t have much stored on the handset, you can visit YouTube within the mobile browser – we’d recommend sticking to the Wi-Fi to do this.

MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV9 video formats are all supported on the BlackBerry Curve 3G.

The image gallery displays all your photos in a pleasing thumbnail layout, but viewing them on such a small, low-quality screen is not exactly satisfying.

Uploading images to Facebook and other social networking apps is easy – you just do it through an option in the internal menu. There’s no such option for sending videos to social networks though, although you can share them via email or Bluetooth.

Suffice to say, this isn’t the best handset for anyone looking to video-blog on the go – we’d point you in the direction of the iPhone 4 for its front-facing camera, or the Sony Ericsson Vivaz which records in HD and makes sharing videos super easy.

The headphone jack is located on the side of the handset, just above the USB connector. It’s often a little easier on the headphone connection if it’s located on the top or bottom of the handset – particularly if you’re going to be storing the handset in a pocket.

You’d think, given the location of the media playback controls on the top pane of the BlackBerry Curve 3G that this might have been a sensible place for the headphone jack too. It’s a 3.5mm connector, so you’ll have the freedom to use a wide range of headphones.

We managed to get the BlackBerry Curve 3G to last two full days on one full battery charge, although it was getting very touch-and-go towards the end of day two.

During this time, we were taking photos, using email, web browsing and downloading apps, as well as making several calls.

This is just about in line with what RIM has stated for the handset’s battery life – it offers 4.5 hours of talk time, 29 hours of music playback or 19 days of standby time.

Physically speaking, the battery is tiny – which no doubt helps the BlackBerry Curve 3G retain its low weight.

The native Google Maps app on board the BlackBerry Curve 3G is not the worst we’ve seen – the Sony Ericsson Vivaz‘s poor efforts could well take that prize.

A recent update has vastly improved matters. Getting directions between locations has suddenly become much easier – a matter of simply filling in clearly marked boxes with your destination and locations.

Although accurate and much nicer to use post-update, the maps could still be a little slow to load when you’re out and about and relying on the 3G network. The compass, however, is brilliant – quick, accurate and easy to navigate by.

It’s just as well that Google Maps comes pre-loaded, given the monstrousness of BlackBerry’s own native maps app, which is clunky, confusing, slow and generally makes life difficult for the user.

Gone are the days when you couldn’t use BlackBerry Desktop Manager with Apple Mac computers – now you can quite happily back-up, restore and sync your BlackBerry Curve 3G, even if you’re completely PC-less.

The software is pretty straightforward to use – much easier than the complicated, non-intuitive efforts from the likes of LG and Samsung. You can pick what playlists to sync to your BlackBerry Curve 3G in an iTunes-like interface – likewise with calendar events, contacts, notes and tasks.

Creating a backup file is a two-click process, and if you’re in the secret service or just a bit paranoid, then you can encrypt your essential data from within the Manager.

It’s a shame that the Desktop Manager doesn’t include a quick and easy way to import your images and videos, though, and there’s no overview of your applications already stored on the handset.

Using the 3G in areas of good reception is a breeze – we tested ours using a T-Mobile SIM and found that most of the time we were pretty happy with the level of reception we were getting.

These were the glory days, when downloading was a quick and easy matter, browsing the web was not too painful, social networking apps updated quickly and emails were in and out of our inboxes like hipsters to a Starbucks.

Too bad then that as soon as signal dropped a notch, the handset became a little unstable. We’d find ourselves spending frustrating minutes watching a blue progress bar cross the screen at slower than snail’s pace, and often lost signal altogether where moments before there had been plenty. Very frustrating and unreliable.

Luckily the Wi-Fi fared better. We had no problems maintaining a signal, and web-based services were notably quicker.

The Bluetooth connection was also fine, and the BlackBerry Curve 3G does offer A2DP connectivity, so you should be able to use wireless headphones with no problems.

Applications

BlackBerry’s App World is not as well-stocked as the Android Market or Apple’s App Store, but there is a range of useful, good quality applications. You may find these a little more expensive than on other platforms, however, and there are a lot of rubbish apps.

Downloading applications and themes is very straightforward. Once you’ve found an app you like the look of, just simply select it in the App World and hit download.

You’d be wise to do so over Wi-Fi rather than relying on the 3G network, which can be a little slow and unreliable, particularly when downloading large files.

The BlackBerry Curve 3G does come well-stocked with onboard apps though. As well as the traditional calendar, notebook, clock and calculator apps, you’ll be able to get going with Windows Live Messenger straight away.

There’s also a suite of office-based apps – Word To Go for reading and editing word processed documents, Sheet To Go for spreadsheets and Slide To Go which, unsurprisingly deals in slideshows.

If you’re sentimental about your text messages, then you may appreciate a handy little app called ”Saved Messages” to which you can, er, save messages that matter to you separately from your inbox.

Of course, you’ll also get an array of BlackBerry games on board the BlackBerry Curve 3G. From the illustrious BrickBreaker to the frustrating WordMole, they’ll keep you busy on the commute if you forget your book.

Like its fellow Curve handsets, the BlackBerry Curve 3G is one of RIM’s highly capable handsets aimed at a more youthful, fun-loving consumer than the traditional business customer.

It’s pretty similar to the rest of the Curve range, including the BlackBerry Curve 8500 with which it shares its external media controls. The design is slightly updated, though, and the 3G connectivity gives it an edge.

The BlackBerry OS 6 update, on its way to the handset in the coming months, will set it apart from older models like the rest of the BlackBerry Curve range.

What it shares in looks with the BlackBerry Bold 9700, it sadly lacks in specs – the screen is a lower resolution, the QWERTY less well-angled for speed-typing and the connectivity and processing powers leave a little to be desired.

The optical trackpad is a little more skittish than that of the BlackBerry Bold 9700, however. We found it a bit unwilling to make small movements, which meant we often had a difficult time selecting the options we wanted.

The Curve 3G doesn’t purport to be all things to all people, unlike it’s newest BlackBerry cohort, the BlackBerry Torch.

That said, the BlackBerry Curve 3G is definitely a step up from the candy-bar stylings of the BlackBerry Pearl 3G, and despite the similar functions and connectivity, that full QWERTY keyboard really sets it apart for serious emailers.

Having forgone the touchscreen route, the BlackBerry Curve 3G shares little in common with many mid-range Android phones like the HTC Wildfire and Sony Ericsson X10 Mini – at least in terms of hardware.

Many will prefer the candybar-like keyboard positioning, preferring it to the slide-out QWERTYs found on the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro and LG GW620.

In terms of apps, the BlackBerry Curve 3G can’t really compete with the likes of the iPhone and Android handsets like the HTC Legend. Quite aside from the issues of stock, the hardware lacks the additional functionality – like a gyroscope, a high-res screen or a touchscreen – that often make or break a good app.

However, it’s at least on a par with the Nokia E72 that features a similar hardware layout and uses the Ovi Store’s stock of applications.

Because of the BlackBerry Curve 3G’s looks, it’s all too easy to compare it to the BlackBerry Bold 9700. But these comparisons are unfair, as the lower-spec BlackBerry Curve 3G will always come off worse.

There’s no camera flash, a lower-res screen, less powerful processing power and a lower-quality keyboard.

Still, the Curve 3G retains many of the great features we loved on the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Its design is svelte and attractive, the optical trackpad is incredibly (sometimes a little too) responsive and both handsets will enjoy the benefits of BlackBerry OS 6 when it’s released in a few months.

But forget looks – the BlackBerry Curve 3G is very much a Curve handset. Low-cost materials and build place it squarely in the Curve range, even though we prefer the more grown up, slimmer looks of the Curve 3G, compared to earlier iterations like the BlackBerry Curve 8900.

To be honest, there’s not a great deal between the Curve 3G and its range-mates – the main difference is its connectivity, and the 3G is a real boon.

The BlackBerry Curve 3G’s physical QWERTY keyboard is great for text-happy users, and this is what will set it apart from other budget social networkers like the HTC Wildfire and Samsung Monte.

Having said that, if you’ve used a touchscreen in the past, you may find yourself missing the additional app functionality and multi-touch web-browsing that’s present on most higher-end Android smartphones like the HTC Wildfire and HTC Legend, as well as the iPhone 3G and all its more recent iterations.

It’s been difficult to judge the BlackBerry Curve 3G as a handset in its own right, so similar is it to the other members of the Curve family. But it has held its own, and despite a spec sheet not necessarily as chocablock as most smartphones, the Curve 3G isn’t a handset we’d be completely ashamed to own.

We liked

During our time with the BlackBerry Curve 3G we grew to love that QWERTY keyboard, even though it’s not quite as good as the BlackBerry Bold 9700‘s effort.

As usual, BlackBerry’s email and messaging tools are top notch, and we were impressed with the call quality and great reception that was generally offered by the handset.

With the BlackBerry OS 6 upgrade imminent, the interface can only get better, and we’re looking forward to advanced media features, meaning we can take full advantage of the physical media buttons atop the Curve 3G.

We didn’t like

As people who’ve spent a lot of time with more powerful handsets, it was impossible to stop ourselves getting frustrated with the elements of the Curve 3G we wanted more from.

The screen’s comparatively low resolution is one of the ways that RIM is able to keep the cost of the handset down, but for media fanatics it just won’t cut it. The 2-megapixel camera is woefully restrictive. Similarly, the clunkiness of the menu system and the onboard browser will frustrate until you can upgrade the software.

Verdict

For a mid-range handset, the BlackBerry Curve 3G stands up well. If you’re after an email-machine with occasional web browsing and a spot of media playback, then it’ll suit you down to the ground without costing you a fortune – and with BlackBerry OS 6 just around the corner, things can only get better.

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Canon announces XF105 and XF100 camcorders

Canon has announced two new additions to its high-end camcorder, with the XF105 and XF100 apparently the smallest models ever to include the broadcast quality MPEG-2 Full HD recording codec.

Canon has designed the two camcorders, which are aimed at the professional and prosumer markets, to offer what it calls highly portable Full HD recording at 50Mbps and 4:2:2.

The two camcorders both take many cues from the XF300-series, but are much more compact and weigh in at around 1KG.

Uniquely adaptable

“The XF105 and XF100 are uniquely adaptable camcorders that offer maximum image quality from a small, lightweight body,” said Canon’s release.

“Weighing just over 1kg , with advanced ergonomics designed to be comfortable for extended shooting, they benefit from a series of features adopted from the XF300-series.

“The much-praised design principles of the existing XF camcorders have also inspired the build of both models, with easy-to-reach, customisable controls, an outstanding LCD and XLR inputs built into the handle.”

The cameras will go on show at IBC in Amsterdam and Photkina in Cologne, and have a UK release date of the beginning of 2011, with no UK price yet confirmed (think: not cheap).

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In Depth: How to buy the right CPU

Whether you’re buying a new PC, or upgrading an old one, perhaps with a new motherboard, then your choice of processor will be critical. But there’s a lot to consider.

Will you opt for AMD, or Intel, for instance? How much performance do you really need? How many CPU cores will it take to achieve that? What might you be able to achieve for overclocking? And how much is all this going to cost? The list goes on, and on.

Fortunately, while there’s a huge list of processors available, it’s actually not that difficult to reduce the selection to more practical and manageable levels. You just have to take the process step by step, analysing your needs and looking at the best candidates to fulfil them, and this begins by thinking about the age-old question: Intel or AMD?

Intel vs AMD

You might well already have chosen your preferred CPU manufacturer, of course. Maybe you always go with one particular company. Or perhaps you have your motherboard already, in which case the decision has been made already: you’ll have to opt for whatever is compatible.

If not, though, selecting Intel or AMD will pose an interesting dilemma.

Right now, Intel is the performance king. Its Core i7 range is blisteringly fast and, initially at least, outperform anything that AMD has to offer.

This comes at a price, though – if you’re looking for value, then AMD offers a much better deal. As we write, for instance, the quad-core AMD Black Edition Phenom II X4 965, one of AMD’s fastest processors, can be yours for around £130. Intel’s core i5-680 delivers roughly equivalent performance, but will cost you maybe £230. And becoming a speed king via something like Intel’s Core i7-950 will virtually double the figure again: you can expect to pay £450 or more.

(These figures change day to day, but AMD will remain the value choice for the foreseeable future. If you already have a few CPUs in mind, check our processor section for reviews and more up-to-date price comparisons.)

It’s also worth factoring in the price of the motherboard. Spending just £60 to £70 will give you plenty of possible homes for a high-end AMD CPU; opt for the best that Intel has to offer and you’ll probably spend at least twice as much. (But again, visit our motherboard pages for up-to-date prices.)

If you want and need Intel’s performance then things aren’t quite as bad as they seem. Intel CPUs are generally a little more overclockable than AMDs, and something like the i5-750 (priced around £150 as we write) can be pushed a very long way.

But if you don’t require that kind of high-end power (or you just can’t afford it) then an AMD processor is the way to go. You’ll still get plenty of speed when you need it, and will save a pile of cash, too.

Intel Core i7-930 review

Processor features

These days the CPU features that attract the most attention are the number of cores, and its clock speed. Both are simple concepts to understand, but you still have to be careful how you interpret them.

AMD’s Black Edition Phenom II X6 1090T, for example, contains six cores, individual processors, which means the CPU can work on six separate tasks at the same time. And each of these runs at a very respectable 3.2GHz.

Meanwhile the Intel Core i7-860 has only four cores, and runs at a mere 2.8GHz. So you might, not unreasonably, expect it to be slower. However, it supports Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology, providing an extra four “virtual” cores, and thanks to this, and a few other design decisions, it actually outperforms the Phenom II X6 1090T. So you can’t rely solely on these figures to determine which CPU is best.

Still, as a general rule for processors from the same manufacturer, the more cores a CPU provides, the happier you’re going to be. You won’t see large speed increases from all programs – the popular LAME encoder is still single-threaded, for instance, so upgrading from a dual to quad-core CPU won’t deliver any noticeable changes – but most apps that could benefit significantly from multithreading, now do so, and will take advantage of the extra processing power. And just about everything else will be upgraded over time.

Cores should be your first priority, then: you’ll want a quad-core CPU at a minimum. After that, opt for the highest clock speed you can afford, or need, but don’t worry about that quite as much. You can often ramp that up later with a little judicious overclocking.

GOOD BUY: Quad-core i7 CPUs are excellent performers, easily outpacing the AMD competition

Intel Core i5-750 review

Socket set

Every processor comes sized to fit a particular “CPU socket”, a component that connects the CPU to a motherboard. If you’ve chosen your motherboard already then you’ll know what this is; if not, then now might be a good time to think about it, as your processor will need to be compatible.

If you’re opting for an AMD CPU then there a couple of options. The cheapest is to go for a Socket AM2+ motherboard, but choosing Socket AM3 instead will get you support for faster DDR3 RAM. AM3 boards will typically also come with USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps, and prices are so affordable that it makes little sense to go for anything else.

If you’re choosing an Intel Core i5 CPU then there’s even less to think about: you’ll want an LGA1156 motherboard.

But if you’re splashing out on a Core i7 then it’s a little more complicated.

You could buy a Core i7 CPU that also fits the LGA1156 motherboard. These are known as the 800 series, so they’ll all have product numbers that are 800 and something: the Core i7-860, say. This will save you a little money, but the LGA1156 boards have some limitations, and for example are often lacking in PCI Express lanes, cutting your expansion possibilities.

The alternative is to buy a Core i7 CPU designed for LGA1366 motherboards, which means 900 series chips like the Core i7-930 or -940. Not only is the board more powerful, but it’s also reasonably future-proof. High-end Intel releases like the 6-core i7-975 are already available in the LGA1366 format only, for instance.

If you’re building a power system, need plenty of PCI Express power (perhaps to install multiple graphics cards) or want to ensure your system’s future upgradeability, then, an LGA1366 board is the way to go.

But if a Core i7 CPU already feels more expensive than you’d really like to pay, and you’re just building a regular system, then an LGA1156 board and processor will be fine. Avoid the PCI Express issues and there’s little difference in performance, and you can put the money you save towards enhancing another area of your PC.

CHOOSE WISELY: Your choice of motherboard will define exactly which CPUs you can install

Intel Core i7-980X review

CPU options

We’ve reduced the original mountain of possible CPUs to just a handful, then, but to choose the right model from these you’ll need to understand just a few more processor-related terms.

As we’ve mentioned, many Intel CPUs include a feature called Hyper-Threading, which allows each core to run two sets of instructions simultaneously. It can be a very effective technology – Intel Core i7 CPUs are essentially i5′s with Hyper-Threading enabled – and you’ll want to get it if you can.

Every Intel processor also contains an amount of embedded memory called a cache, which is used to hold regularly-used information. If the CPU needs this again then it can be fetched from the cache, which is far quicker than accessing system RAM. Look for descriptions like L2 (Level 2 Cache), L3 (Level 3 Cache) or “Intel Smart Cache” (which means L3) – the more your processor has, the better.

And it’s a similar story with AMD CPUs, although less dramatic. Opt for a quad-core Phenom II X4 and you’ll find they all have the same cache amounts, 2MB for L2, 6MB for L3. The 6-core Phenom II X6 increases L2 cache to 3MB, though, while will provide a useful speed increase in many situations.

What you might want also to consider, though, is the Phenom II’s “Thermal Design Power” (TDP), the maximum amount of power it’s likely to consume when busy running applications. This ranges from 65W (Phenom II X4 905e or 910e) to 125W (Phenom II X4 955 and higher); the low TDP CPUs are slower, but use less electricity and run cooler, making them better choices for media centre PCs where you want to keep fan noise to a minimum.

You should now have a better idea of what you want from a CPU, then – but you’ll still need to find confirmation of exactly which model is best for you. And our processor reviews are a great place to start. There are over 100 reviews online, all filterable by socket, CPU type and more, and with instant price comparisons to hand you’ll soon locate the best CPU deals around.

NOT THE BEST: It’s a great CPU, but the Intel Core i5 750 lacks Hyper-Threading, reducing its performance a little

Intel Core i7 875K review

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Google’s Schmidt to provide closing IFA 2010 keynote

Google’ CEO Eric Schmidt will provide the closing keynote for the IFA conference in Berlin, further testament to the increasing power of the European electronics show.

IFA 2010 is perhaps the most influential consumer electronics offering outside of CES, and has become a key launchpad for many major manufacturers in the run up to the festive period.

And this year’s IFA will close with the CEO of the most powerful internet company – Eric Schmidt – an indication of the increasingly connected world of the electronic device.

Innovations

“Google and technological innovation are synonymous,” said Jens Heithecker, executive director of IFA.

“We are delighted that Dr Schmidt will join other thought-leaders in IFA’s International Keynote program to define the technologies and innovations that will move our industry forward.”

Schmidt is the most vocal of the senior figures at Google, with founders Sergei Brin and Larry Page happy to avoid the majority of the limelight.

He has courted controversy at times, most often over privacy issues, but his presence in Berlin shows just how far Google, and IFA have come.

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Review: CyberPower Liquid i7 Charybdis

Sat inside this fairly non-descript, squat little case is one monster of a PC. Seriously, I’ve never wanted a pre-built computer more. Kudos to CyberPower, then, for bringing us a rig for under £2,000 that puts everything else we’ve tested previously to shame.

And that’s including machines costing well over a grand more. So what makes this jumble of silicon and wiring such a desirable beast?

In short, CyberPower has made some astute choices in the make up of the unpronounceable Charybdis’ componentry.

The Bloomfield combo of the brand new Core i7 970 and fantastic Asus P6X58D-E motherboard gives you 12 threads of the most advanced CPU cores available. And thanks to CyberPower’s water-cooling nouse, it’s also upped the clocks from the (still pretty damned quick) 3.2GHz mark, right up over and above 4GHz.

Sure, that’s nearly £1,000-worth of processing power in itself, especially when you factor in the 6GB of DDR3 memory, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that to hit that sub-£2,000 price point you’re going to be sacrificing some gaming performance.

Well, kinda. CyberPower has opted for the cheapest 1GB GTX 460 currently on offer so that’s almost a compromise, but then when you realise it’s dumped two of them in there, and overclocked the pair, it’s plain to see you’re losing nothing in-game.

As you can see from the SLI review, these Inno3D cards scale very nicely indeed, to the point where the previous multi-GPU combo of choice, twin HD 5870s, is now effectively redundant. And with that extra overclock on top this bargain GPU bundle can oust the big boys from the benchmark table.

Seriously, when you can hit nigh-on 100fps at 2,560 x 1,600 in any modern game, you’ve got to stand up and take notice.

The only real issue isn’t anything to do with the rig’s performance. It’s in the thermal and aural areas that we have a few reservations.

Heat and noise

First off, it’s loud. Because of the overclocked pairing of top-end CPU and SLI graphics cards, the little NZXT PanzerBox chassis has to work pretty hard to keep things cool in there.

The CPU is water-cooled, but the large radiator still has two fans pushing air across it. There’s also a chunky fan in the front that has a bit of the wind-tunnel about it.

The heat of the graphics cards too is a cause for concern. The way the PCI-e slots are positioned means there’s nothing in the way of clear air between them, and to compound matters, the warming presence of the PSU is pressed up against them thanks to the odd way the PanzerBox is laid out.

Under load, the primary card tops the 80ºC mark, and the secondary can easily top 70ºC too. Over time, that might not do good things to the GPUs, especially with the Nvidia reference cooler doing the work.

They’ll probably still keep running long after DX11 is a footnote in history, though, so it’s no biggie.

£2,000 is a massive amount of cash to drop on a rig, especially one without a screen. But you get way more for your money than in systems asking more than a grand extra.

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Corsair HS1 gaming headset unveiled

Corsair has announced the Gaming Audio Series HS1 USB headset, with the memory giant taking its first step into audio.

It’s been a big few weeks for gaming peripherals, with the usual suspects finding new players arriving in the marketplace.

The Corsair Gaming Audio Series HS1 features noise-isolation, multi-channel audio and 50mm drivers.

Circumaural

The circumaural (which means round your ears, duh) design has a closed back that ‘helps reject ambient noise’, which the more cynical would suggest most objects do.

There are also replaceable memory foam earpads and a uni-directional microphone.

“We set out to develop a headset with the performance that gamers demand, while also providing the pristine audio reproduction required for multi-channel movies and high bit rate music,” stated Jim Carlton, Vice President of Marketing at Corsair.

“The Audio HS1 easily meets both these challenges.”

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Review: Mad Catz Cyborg R.A.T. 7

The first Cyborg mouse we looked at, over two years ago, was quite well received despite the irrelevance of the motorised adjustable length.

Despite this pointless gimmick it was a functional, multi-buttoned rodent, though not in the same class as the Sidewinders or G9s. The R.A.T. though is a much more competitive beast.

There’s no comparison at all with the previous Cyborg; sure there’s still length adjustment, but that goes along with a host of other tweaks to suit your hand and your grip. And none of them need plugging into your PC to get it going.

Instead there’s an Allen key screwed into the end of the chassis that allows you to adjust the shape of the mouse to suit. You can even replace a number of the grips to change the shape and tactile sense of the rodent.

Physically, this is a mouse that’s bound to polarise opinion. It’s all sharply angular shapes, cut-out plastic and exposed bare metal innards. As it sits on my desk it looks more like an exploded schematic of the Chris Nolan Batmobile than a functional control device.

But it’s more than functional and the more I’ve been using it the more it’s grown on me. With the supplied weights and the solid, rigid metal chassis, it’s a heavy mouse, but I like that. It’s reassuringly well designed and built, rather than moulded from the same ol’ mouse chassis we’ve seen a thousand times before.

Frankenstein’s ugly sister

When you first clap eyes on it you’d be forgiven for thinking it would feel like Sarah Jessica Parker’s bizarrely-angled chin, but it’s surprisingly comfortable in the hand.

My only real concern with the R.A.T. is the fact the back thumb button is located so close to the palm rest. Even with all the adjustments available you still can’t move that button into a more comfortable position.

But then as a gamer you might be more interested in the precision aim button that sits perfectly under the thumb. This instantly cuts the DPI setting to a percentage of the full settings – ideal for those camping snipers, or for long-range exchanges in ArmA II.

The Cyborg profile manager is powerful too, allowing all the buttons to be changed, and macro’d up to within an inch of their lives. Sure it’s a pricey mouse, but it works hard to justify that outlay.

The difficulty though, as ever with new mice, is that the Sidewinder and G9 are now far cheaper by comparison. The R.A.T. though offers more customisation for your cash, though unfortunately there aren’t enough Allen keys in the world for all you sinister left-handers.

It’s solid, responsive and has got more buttons than your finger-tips could possibly cope with. The only real downside is that freaky-ass robot rat on the box art.

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All IT projects needs a bug tracking (or issue tracking, or defect tracking) system. Sure, we need a bug tracking system for a software development project. But, what about a sysadmin team, dba team, network team? They all need some help to track their work, and issues of their system, database and network. I’ve listed [...]

Read More: Top 10 Open Source Bug Tracking System

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cpio command is used to process archive files (for example, *.cpio or *.tar files). cpio stands for “copy in, copy out”. cpio performs the following three operations. Copying files to an archive Extracting files from an archive Passing files to another directory tree cpio takes the list of files from the standard input while creating [...]

Read More: Linux cpio Examples: How to Create and Extract cpio Archives (and tar archives)

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