Ever since Sony unveiled its motion controller at E3, the world has been waiting to see what the final incarnation of the product would be and the company has finally shown off the product at the Games Developers Conference.

Now called the PlayStation Move and complete with a sub-controller (basically a nunchuck), Sony’s motion controller will take on both Nintendo’s well established Wii and the forthcoming Xbox Natal.

“The combination of the PS3 system and PlayStation Eye camera detects the precise movement, angle, and absolute position in 3D space of PlayStation Move motion controller, allowing users to intuitively play the game as if they themselves are within the game,” explains Sony.

“PlayStation Move motion controller delivers unmatched accuracy through its advanced motion sensors, including a three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer, and a terrestrial magnetic field sensor, as well as a color-changing sphere that is tracked by PlayStation Eye camera.

“Through PlayStation Move system, both fast and subtle motion can be detected, whether the user is swinging a tennis racket, or painting with a brush.

“With PlayStation Move motion controller, users can provide direct input through action buttons and an analogue trigger, while receiving physical feedback from rumble functionality and visual feedback from the sphere’s ability to display a variety of different colours.

“Furthermore, PlayStation Eye camera can capture the player’s voice or image, enabling augmented reality experiences.”

But more importantly - what does it look like. Here are the official product shots of the Sony PlayStation Move.

All images are copyright of Sony and the design could be changed at any time.

Lucid Imagination, the startup that commercially distributes the open source Apache Lucene and Apache Solr search technology, has raised $10 million in Series B funding from Shasta Ventures with Granite Ventures and Walden International participating in the round. This brings the company’s total funding to $16 million.

Lucid powers enterprise search technologies using the open source Lucene/Solr search. Customers include Zappos, Nike and Netflix. The new funding will be used to accelerate the adoption of Lucene/Solr search technology.

Launched in 2009, Lucid is seeing revenue in the “millions,” and counts Google’s enterprise search product as a direct competitor.

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz is the HD-video-shooting successor to the Swedish-Japanese firm’s flagship Satio model.

With an 8.1MP camera that can also record 720p HD video, it is designed to thrill YouTube-rs with its easy video upload features as well as the bundled 8GB memory card for ample storage.

The touchscreen phone has been ergonomically designed to fit the contours of the hand and with social networking and multi-media features galore, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz is set to give the likes of the Nokia X6 and the LG InTouch Max GW620 a run for their money.

The handset itself has been ergonomically designed and does feel really nice to hold.

The curve of the back fits nicely into the palm and although it’s a light handset, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz doesn’t feel insubstantial. It has an abundance of very smooth surfaces, so we did find we dropped it quite a few times.

Aside from the LCD display, the handset is very plastic-heavy and does leave something to be desired in the design department.

Available in four different colour combinations, we tested the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Moon Silver with silver back panel with dark blue sides.

The touchscreen is resistive, unfortunately, but it’s probably one of the best we’ve seen and gives the LG InTouch Max GW620 a run for its money.

Although it’s not as smooth or accommodating as the capacitive screens found on handsets like the iPhone and HTC Legend, it is still quite responsive and swiping through menus doesn’t require much pressure on the screen.

There is a sensible number of buttons on the Sony Ericsson Vivaz. The call, end and menu buttons are on the front of the handset, with volume/zoom and two camera buttons on the right side panel, and power/lock on the top.

However, the latter can be a little fiddly to hit when holding the Vivaz in one hand, with some juggling needed - this means you run the risk of dropping it.

We’re glad to see a 3.5mm headphone jack and microUSB port, given Sony Ericsson’s previous love for its proprietary Fast Port connector instead of a basic headphone socket.

In the box

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz comes with the basics a plug, separate USB to microUSB cable to connect to the plug or to your PC, a pair of Sony Ericsson headphones and a standalone stylus.

The headphones don’t come with sponge ear buds, nor in-ear fittings to accommodate different sized ears, but do double as a handsfree kit thanks to the built-in microphone.

Given the HD recording function of the handset, Sony Ericsson has also seen fit to include an 8GB microSD card - we would have preferred some inbuilt storage too, but at least this is a generous addition.

The Symbian S60/S^1 operating system is traditionally associated with Nokia handsets, found on devices like the Nokia 5800, N97 and X6.

Despite this, the look and feel of the Vivaz interface is still very ‘Sony Ericsson.’

The menus are well laid out and easy to navigate, but because the Vivaz is limited to just one menu screen, some sub-menus are packed with options.

You can avoid venturing into the menus too often if you invest some time customising the homescreen.

The default set up offers a row of five widget tabs across the top of the screen. These can be assigned different functions depending on your preferences.

For example, we had tabs housing our favourite contacts, social networking apps, menu shortcuts and a favourite image acting as wallpaper.

Scrolling between the tabs is easy and satisfying, but is slightly less elegant than the traditional Android homescreen set up.

The tabulated layout of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz is much tidier than the more crowded approach taken by the X6 and N97 Mini, although there is less information available at a glance.

For those craving a simpler life, fewer home screen options can be set using the Standby Themes in the settings menu.

There’s a nice level of customisation on the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, but it’s more constrained than some of its contemporaries, particularly the Android-toting HTC Tattoo and LG InTouch Max GW620, where a plethora of widgets are on offer.

Making and taking calls is very straightforward thanks to the dedicated call and end buttons, but we wish we could say the same for locking and unlocking the screen and keys.

Locking the keys should be a one-button affair, but not so with the Sony Ericsson Vivaz.

After hitting the power/lock button you have to either select the lock option on the screen, or hit the power/lock button again.

This might not sound like a chore, but the power/lock button is not particularly easy to press as it’s almost flush with the panel it sits in.

When you’re not sure if your press has been registered, it’s all too easy to press the power button too hard and switch the handset off.

What makes that even more annoying is that the Sony Ericsson Vivaz takes its time closing down, and starting up again isn’t exactly lightning fast.

The other danger was forgetting to choose any option from the menu and leaving the keys and screen active in your pocket or bag, from which anything can be tapped and accessed thanks to a resistive screen.

Even after several days of use, this was still grating on us.

Speed of use is an area where the Vivaz also lets itself down. Aside from being slow to start up, the temperamental auto-rotate takes a second or two too long to kick in.

We also had issues with the handset’s multi-tasking although we definitely welcome it as a feature and had no problem switching between applications, it’s a little too tricky to close things down entirely.

Simply using the menu or end buttons keeps them open in the background, so you end up with several unnecessary things running, slowing the handset right down and taking away all the advantages of the Vivaz’s fast processor.

It is possible to download new apps for the home screen via the PlayNow app store.

This provides music, game and wallpaper downloads as well as apps, but they’re generally not cheap and there are very few free options, unlike the wildly successful Apple App Store and Android Market.

Searching through the store is a bit of a chore as it isn’t hugely intuitive, but downloading is fairly straightforward direct to the handset - perhaps we’re just spoilt by the plethora of much better portals on offer.

One of the things we really like about the Vivaz is the quick and easy access to the dial pad something that is often hidden away on touchscreen phones.

On the Sony Ericsson Vivaz it sits at the front of the home screen as a grid - you won’t know what it is the first time you take the phone out the box, but it’s handily placed.

There are also various simple ways to access the contacts book - through the menu, dial pad or by hitting the call button.

Sound quality when making and taking calls with the Sony Ericsson Vivaz is fair, we didn’t experience any major issues.

Both the caller and the recipient’s voices were clear and comfortable to hear, although there was some occasional buzzing on the Vivaz’s end.

The contacts book is pretty basic, just an alphabetical list of names, but there is the option to segment them into groups.

The individual contact entries are a bit more exciting, with room for multiple numbers and email addresses as well as company information, job title and photo to help you remember who’s who.

Favourite contacts can be saved to one of the five homescreen tabs for quick and easy access. But unlike the INQ Chat 3G and other phones of this calibre, there is no option to synchronise your phone book with your social networking profiles.

The messaging menu features a dazzling array of options, from regular SMS, to an email inbox, an SMS conversations view (which shows your messages in threaded conversation format) and a range of granular message settings.

It may seem like a bit much at first, but once you are used to the layout, it’s really convenient to have all that messaging paraphernalia in one obvious place.

We can’t fathom why the standard SMS inbox does not just use the conversations layout, though - instead it makes you look at the ‘normal’ inbox and then scroll through the menus to view the conversation in the threaded view.

Setting up email on the Sony Ericsson Vivaz is basically painless. We set up a Gmail account and, after inputting the account name and password, the handset did most of the hard work for us, with the email list presented simply.

Setting up Exchange email was relatively easy too and didn’t take long to sync with the server, but does require you to input the settings manually.

Push email isn’t configured by default (although you can schedule the phone to update at specified times) so the inbox only refreshes when it is physically opened not ideal if you expect instant real-time email.

Typing isn’t too heinous a task, despite the resistive touchscreen which we’ve struggled with on handsets like the Sony Ericsson Satio.

The screen is quite slim, so it’s easier to opt for the landscape QWERTY layout - although the number pad layout coupled with predictive text does a passable job too.

There is no autocorrect function, which is a real annoyance for minor mistakes. Of course, you can opt to use the stylus - but sorry, we’re not in 1995 any more and this isn’t a PDA.

If you MUST use the stylus, there is a mini-QWERTY option which squeezes the whole keyboard into the width of the vertical screen position really too small to use unless you’re blessed with 20:20 vision or a really good magnifying glass (and third hand).

As with all stylus-bearing phones, we find it a fiddle to rummage around for another piece of equipment when all we want to do is send a quick message - we’re not sure why Sony Ericsson is persisting down this route on a high end phone.

As the Sony Ericsson Vivaz isn’t a smartphone to rival the likes of the iPhone 3GS or HTC Hero, it is fairly conscientious about its internet use and only connects when you open an application requiring the internet.

Great if you’re on a budget or don’t have an unlimited data plan, but quite annoying if you do.

The Vivaz asked what connection we wanted to use every single time we accessed any internet application, despite the fact that we had set post-pay internet as the default connection.

This got very frustrating very quickly, and the three dialogue boxes to go through made even a quick glance at Twitter a chore.

The plus side is that switching between 3G and Wi-Fi is really very easy.

Browsing web pages over the SIM card data connection was changeable at times it was very speedy to load image-intensive web pages, but at other times it took up to a minute to download all the images with seemingly the same levels of reception.

Wi-Fi, though a little slower, was much more constant.

To avoid using the stylus while browsing the internet, the zoom function (denoted by two magnifying glasses) is great.

It allows you to zoom right in on web pages, but not onto specific bits so you have to scroll around to get to the part you want to see.

Another helpful addition is the ‘find’ function so you can locate the relevant bit of the web page once you have zoomed in.

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz isn’t Flash compatible, so Flash-based sites will just render as plain text.

We were really impressed with the mobile version of YouTube, however as a widget option in the Vivaz’s video player, clicking through to YouTube was quick and the videos loaded without much delay.

We also applaud the in-menu BBC iPlayer web shortcut, although this requires a Wi-Fi connection to let you download content to your mobile.

Social networking apps generally work without a hitch, although having set Twitter as a tab on the homescreen we were disappointed to have to repeatedly enter log in information - in fact, it was a terrible way to work with a phone that offers ‘native Twitter’.

It also lacks access to DMs, @replies or anything else other than the last 20 or so updates in your timeline, so you tend to be better off using the mobile site.

The camera is where Sony Ericsson intends the Vivaz to shine, with 8.1-megapixels to play with on still shots and the ability to shoot 720p HD video.

There are separate buttons to launch the video and still-shot camera functions, as well as the on-screen option to swap between the two.

Despite the one-button process, the camera is a little slow to get up to speed.

Using the camera functions was a breeze, with on-screen icons showing the current setup at a glance and housing menus for swapping between different features.

There is a whole range of shooting options available on the Vivaz, on a par with a number of mid-range compact digital cameras.

Although there’s no manual focus you can choose between full autofocus, or specialist options for specific types of shots; macro for close-ups, infinite mode for landscape shots and portrait mode.

TEST SHOT: Infinite focus for landscape shots the colours here have come out slightly washed out

TEST SHOT: The panorama function is really nice to use, with instructive on-screen motion detection helping you get a seamless shot

TEST SHOT: The camera didn’t fare so well on moving objects, even in sports mode, with images coming out fuzzy and, in some cases, pixelated

TEST SHOT: Direct light was not handled brilliantly, with the whole image coming out much darker than it should have

TEST SHOT: Macro focus is useful for close-up shots, although we found on other shots that it tended to focus on the wrong things like objects further from the lens

TEST SHOT: Using the camera’s light in low light was very effective, although the ‘low-light’ mode came out slightly grainy

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz 8.1MP camera also has built-in effects. These are the solarise and sepia effects - although the latter is not as rusty as we’d like it to be.

The camera also handled colours well, even in incandescent light.

Sony Ericsson Vivaz HD Video

Click here to see the full resolution video

Sony Ericsson Vivaz SD Video

The sound quality is better in the HD recording here, as is the image which is much crisper and doesn’t suffer from the visual noise in the SD clip (QVGA 320 x 240). While the SD clip looks like it was taken with a camera phone, the HD clip does not.

Click here to see the full resolution video

This was shot indoors in low light using the camera light which washes the van out a little as it’s close to the lamp. You can also see the camera trying to auto-focus throughout; this is a nice touch in the right circumstances, but can get a little annoying.

On a number of separate occasions, recording would begin but get stuck on a single frame sound would continue to record but the images wouldn’t.

This was frustrating when filming one-off occurrences like a couple of randy squirrels frolicking through the park, and happened more than three times rendering it really quite unreliable.

On other occasions however, the video function would work without a hitch.

Comparison to Samsung i8910HD

It’s hard to work out which of these phones is better - on the one hand, the price of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz is around 70 cheaper than the older Samsung i8910HD - but the latter offers a lot of extra features.

On the media front, both can capture 720p video, and both can do so at 24fps. We’re tempted to say that the Vivaz looks slightly better on the PC screen, but once you run them both through a TV there’s very little to choose from.

Add in the fact that the 8MP camera on the i8190HD is, we think, a touch better than the Vivaz’s, and the fact it has a massive OLED screen to watch media on, and we still believe Samsung’s media behemoth is the better option.

With a heritage in music-playback devices like the Walkman, we always expect Sony-branded products to have an advantage over other handset manufacturers on the media side of things.

Usually we’re a little disappointed, with previous Sony Ericsson handsets using the proprietary Fast Port headphone connector, last seen on the Sony Ericsson Satio.

We’re glad to say that Sony Ericsson has done away with the Fast Port connection on the Vivaz, which houses a 3.5mm headphone connector flush to the left-hand side of the handset, bringing the brand squarely into 2010.

The music player interface on the Vivaz is also much more user friendly than older Sony Ericsson offerings like the clunky W205.

With a slick interface complete with animated background, the monochrome player plays host to all the traditional options artists, albums, playlists, audiobooks and podcasts, as well as your own voice recording files.

Artists are arranged alphabetically, and while it’s a shame that artwork doesn’t appear in this list to give it a bit more colour, the artwork is available in the album list view and during playback.

Creating playlists on the fly is also very simple if you fancy a compilation approach. We did find the music a little bass-heavy at times sadly there is no equaliser function to try and remedy this.

A handy widget on the homescreen keeps you up to date with track names and offers easy access to skipping tracks when you have music playing in the background.

The media player makes switching to video playback or the photo library very easy as it’s all part of the same application. Going to a video simply pauses the music playback, so you can return to the same place later.

Sound quality when playing music through the handset itself is less tinny than we’ve come to expect from phones at this level, although it is still a little crackly and no substitute for headphones.

Using a pair of Sennheiser in-ear headphones gave audio playback more depth and less audible noise.

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz also has an FM radio player located in the Apps folder. You can set this to play either through the headphones or the phone’s loudspeaker but you have to have headphones plugged in throughout as they act as the antenna.

It’s not the most intuitive radio player we’ve used, with radios on even very basic handsets like the LG Brio proving easier to use.

You can leave the radio playing in the background while using other functions on the Vivaz, but it’s not possible to record the sound, as is offered on the Samsung Jet.

The onboard memory is around 75MB, but that won’t store much alongside an HD video file, so the Vivaz can support up to a 16GB microSD card and comes with an 8GB card in the box.

Sony Ericsson states that the Vivaz can delivery up to 5 hours 20 minutes of 3G talktime, 2hours 30 minutes video call time and up to 430 hours of standby life.

We reckon that talktime estimation is probably a little optimistic but not way out. After an intensive day of use, including watching and filming HD videos, the Vivaz was about ready to give up the ghost.

But we also managed to get a good two to three days of more casual everyday use out of it before it needed recharging.

Organiser

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz has a whole folder dedicated to organisational apps and functions, but don’t look for the calendar here that has its own menu option.

It’s nothing to write home about, but allows you to set reminders and tasks with alerts and deadlines as you’d expect.

In the organiser folder you’ll find the clock and alarms function where you can set recurring alarms, like a weekday alarm that doesn’t go off at weekends.

There’s also a fairly standard note-writing app, calculator, file manager and document readers although the document readers require licences and therefore payment.

Other handy features to keep you ticking over are the converter app which can tell you plenty about how many kilocalories are in a kilojoule, but only has ‘Home’ and ‘Foreign’ options when it comes to currency.

This means you have to set your own rates we’d have liked this to sync with current conversion rates online, but you can’t have everything.

You can, of course, download more apps from the PlayNow store, offering apps from web-publishing through to weather forecasting, although as we said earlier there’s not a huge amount of choice there.

Location-based services include Google Maps and GPS positioning. Symbian-based Google Maps is pretty good (although not up to the speed and feature-base of the Android range) and the GPS found us fairly quickly.

Directionally it wasn’t too bad either - we navigated between tube stops in the outer reaches of London without getting lost, which is something that still happens far too often due to our rather addled brains.

Media-wise there is an onboard music identification programme called TrackID which works in a similar way to Shazam, as well as a sound recording app for vocal notes-to-self or for recording interviews and so on.

Finally, for the DIY enthusiast, there is an onboard spirit level - good luck getting an accurate reading using either edge of the phone though, there are too many protruding buttons on each.

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz connects to a computer via USB cable. Installing drivers onto a PC is very easy as the necessary software is stored on the handset.

This means no messing about with CDs or going to websites to download executable files. The PC companion suite lets you move files quickly and easily between your phone and computer, but it’s not essential.

The software doesn’t work on Mac computers, but transferring files between the phone and computer is still possible using the handset as a mass storage device and if you know your way around a computer file then you shouldn’t find it too taxing.

Setting up the Wi-Fi connection was easy enough, but assigning a default connection proved difficult. In the end we were forced to select a connection option manually each time we connected.

We also had trouble maintaining a data connection while out and about, even around central London. We often had to just abandon attempts and seek out Wi-Fi.

The phone’s GPS fared a little better on-the-go, with the onboard compass proving handy when our feeble sense of direction let us down.

Comparison

Like the Sony Ericsson Satio, this phone puts all its eggs in the camera basket; but the Vivaz manages to keep its other functions up to scratch somewhat better than the Satio, thanks in part to its faster processor.

We were sorely disappointed that the Satio didn’t have a 3.5mm headphone socket, so it’s a very welcome addition on the Vivaz, and the touchscreen has certainly improved.

It’s a shame Sony Ericsson didn’t opt for a capacitive screen, but it does keep the costs down.

The ergonomic design of the Vivaz also puts it ahead of the Satio and will feature on all of Sony Ericsson’s upcoming handsets.

Given the Vivaz’s superior camera, sleek design, ergonomic build and user-friendly music player, it wipes the floor with Nokia’s X6, despite the X6’s capacitive screen.

The resistive screens of the HTC Tattoo and LG InTouch Max GW620 don’t quite measure up to the Vivaz’s screen which is surprisingly responsive.

Despite this we’d have welcomed a physical QWERTY keyboard in the style of the GW620, although we can cope without. It’s the range and quality of apps we miss most though, with the Tattoo and GW620 both privy to Android’s superior marketplace.

This is Sony Ericsson’s second effort at a touchscreen phone after the disappointment of the Sony Ericsson Satio, so there’s a lot of pressure riding on it.

HD video recording is the headline grabber, but the rest of the phone needs to impress as well in this smartphone-heavy age.

We liked:

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz is lovely to hold that ergonomic design really does pay off and the near-HD screen also plays a part in making it look and feel like a quality phone.

The touchscreen does a great job considering it is resistive, and the camera quality is high not solely for recording HD video; still shots using the 8.1-megapixel camera come out very nicely too.

The clean and tidy homescreen pleased us, and the tabbed functions were handy for quick access to our favourite apps and media.

We disliked

For all its nice design and screen, we couldn’t help but feel the chassis was still a bit too plastic, particularly the back panel which gives it a slightly cheap feel.

The Sony Ericsson Vivaz also has quite a few little glitches and niggles not least the frustrating screen and key lock mechanism.

Also having to constantly reassure the handset that yes, we do want to connect using the default internet connection made our techno-hackles rise.

The Android-esque interface lends itself to apps, so we’d have liked to have seen more good quality, low-cost apps in the PlayNow app store, but these may come with time.

And, although it may have been one of the best resistive touchscreens we’ve seen, it’s still not a patch on a capacitive screen.

Verdict:

For a mid-to-high range feature phone, we were pleasantly surprised by how much we liked the Sony Ericsson Vivaz.

As a phone it performed well and we were impressed with the music player and camera functions the main features of the phone.

Such a shame, then, that little things let it down; we were constantly annoyed by the key lock function, the temperamental auto-rotate and the schizophrenic internet settings.

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No wonder Apple is suing HTC for patent infringement over its Android phones. In the three months between October and January, Android’s overall share of smartphone subscribers in the U.S. rose 4.3 points to 7.1 percent, according to mobile market share data released by comScore. Android showed the biggest single gain of any of the top five smartphone platforms. Apple’s share was virtually flat at 25.2 percent (up 0.3 percent), while RIM’s Blackberries saw a 1.7 percent gain to 43 percent.

Overall, 42.7 million people in the U.S. owned a smartphone during the period, up 18 percent. So even though Apple’s relative share didn’t go anywhere, it still grew with the market. But watching RIM and Android phones take share cannot be pleasant for the folks at Cupertino. The iPhone still rules the mobile Web, but again here Android is catching up fast. Time to release a new iPhone.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Palm saw drops in their shares. Windows Mobile was down 4 percent and Palm was down 2.1 percent.

Photo credit: Flickr/svensonsan.

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With the PowerShot A3100, it’s fair to say Canon has the entire spectrum of compact cameras covered.

From the excellent - and very cheap - Canon A490, all the way up to the top-end Canon G11, anyone in the market for a new compact camera will be able to find something they like.

The top and bottom ends of the price spectrum are easy, though. If you want DSLR-style performance and quality, prepare your bank manager and buy either the G11 or the excellent Nikon P6000. There are only a few truly decent cameras under 100, so that choice is easy as well.

Things get sticky in the middle, though. If you’ve got around 200 to spend the competition is fierce and the choice bewildering. Manufacturers know that’s the sweet spot for consumers and so for a camera to succeed it has to be excellent.

The Canon A3100 wades into the fray with a formidable specification list. Its 12.1MP sensor is a good start, and its 4x optical zoom, stabilised lens and big TFT on the back all make it a serious contender. But cameras like the Ixus 105 are just as serious.

The A3100 doesn’t actually make the best first impression.

Call us spoiled, but we’re used to cameras at this price being a little sleeker - the A3100 has slightly tubby dimensions and we can’t say we’re fans of how it feels in the hand.

The screen on the back protrudes inelegantly from the back of the camera, and while we agree that looks aren’t everything, the A3100 isn’t overly charming for a camera that costs the better part of 200.

It atones elsewhere though. The 2.7-inch TFT has a resolution of 230,000 pixels, and is excellent. It’s crisp and bright, and we had no trouble using it outside. And, while the menu system will be familiar to anyone who’s used Canon’s compacts before, it’s easy to pick up and use from scratch.

You choose the camera’s mode via a dial on the top. All the usual suspects are here, including a fully automatic mode, and a scene mode offering nine settings for tricky situations such as bright snowy landscapes or night shots.

There isn’t exactly a surplus of manual modes, although you can at least set white balance manually, or set your own exposure compensation from plus or minus two stops.

But for more complex effects, such as blurring light trails on a night shoot, you have to select the closest scene mode to the one you want and trust the camera to get it right.

One unexpectedly effective addition is the A3100’s face detection mode. This offers a fairly negligible advantage over the standard mode for portraits you take yourself - it makes sense to simply frame and focus a shot yourself - but the addition of the self-timer is a stroke of genius.

Set the A3100 up and set it to face self-timer mode and the camera will take a picture when it thinks a new face has entered the frame. If you’ve ever wreaked merry havoc attempting to navigate a tripod trying to include yourself in a timer shot, the A3100 has the answer. The system worked effectively in our tests.

Luckily, trusting the A3100 is something we were happy to do during our time with it.

Images taken at ISO 100 were the match of any compact camera, with excellent colour and detail reproduction.

Moving the ISO up through the range inevitably reduces image quality, and the A3100 treads a careful path between giving image noise free rein and detail-destroying noise reduction.

See full-res image

At its top setting of ISO 1600 our images are clearly suffering from a marked softness, but with a little care it should be possible to get printable images as long as you don’t crop too heavily.

At lower ISOs there’s plenty of potential for zooming in after the fact - the A3100’s 12.1MP sensor produces 3,000 x 4,000 pixel images.

See full-res image

Impressively, the lens showed very little chromatic aberration, even in typically difficult high-contrast situations.

It’s not a spectacular piece of glass, offering a focal range of 35-140mm (35mm equivalent). That’s fine for most standard situations, but will offer frustration if you want to get up close to a building, or take decent pictures at a wildlife park.

See full-res image

On the plus side, the lens’s conservative specifications mean there’s no distortion to speak of.

The movie mode is nothing special, unfortunately. 30fps and 640 x 480 is the top setting, which means budding Spielbergs will need to rein in their aspirations somewhat.

See full-res image

It’s something of a shame, particularly when cameras such as Canon’s own Ixus 120 IS cost around 30 more but throw in 720p, 30fps video recording.

Some of Canon’s compact cameras, such as the top-end G-series, are the stuff of legend.

The A3100 doesn’t make quite the same impact, but that doesn’t mean you should discount it.

At just 150 (at launch), there’s plenty to like. It doesn’t lack resolution, or image quality, and while the features list might not be a mile long, nothing important is missing - although it would be nice to see HD video filtering down the line to lower-end compacts.

We liked:

The A3100 offers enough resolution to allow cropping and re-framing of images, while the screen on the back is an excellent example of the type. It’s also extremely easy to use.

We disliked:

Did we mention the lack of a decent video mode? We’re also not wild about the A3100’s design, which while inoffensive is hardly going to turn many heads. It’s also not spectacularly comfortable to hold, although for 150 we’re willing to overlook these quibbles.

Verdict:

If you’re unbothered by the lack of HD video, the A3100 is a superb camera for the money.

Spend around 30 more and you’ll get a more impressive lens and HD video, but for most casual snappers the A3100 is all the camera you’ll need.

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With SXSW starting Friday in Austin, Texas, every location-based service out there is right now finalizing updates that they hope will be the one that gets them used more than all the others. Loopt, is betting on events integration.

The latest version of the app, due to hit the App Store tomorrow will feature a new Pulse tab. Here you’ll find events populated from a ton of sources including the live music tracker SonicLiving (SXSW is first and foremost a music event, after all) and most notably, Facebook. This pre-population is important, because it means the events will already be in the system so users won’t have to do anything other than share it with friends, or check-in if they’re going.The feature also uses you current location to show which events are happening around you at any given moment that a lot of people are at.

As you might expect, you also also tell who is already at the event, and which of your friend is supposed to be going. The later feature works with Facebook Connect. You can RSVP to an event right from within Loopt and see who else is scheduled to go.

Calling it the “best event ever from an app,” Loopt founder Sam Altman believes they’ll have every single event taking place at SXSW in their system. A newer startup, the recently fundedPlancast (started by TechCrunch alum Mark Hendrickson),may have something to say about that statement as they’ll be debuting their own events-based iPhone app at the festival as well. And like this new Loopt feature, a key Plancast component is Facebook event integration.

Loopt was one of the original hot players in the location space, launching an iPhone app alongside the App Store launch in 2008. However, their initial bet was on always-on location updates, which the iPhone cannot do because it will not allow third-party apps to run in the background. Loopt found a loophole (see what I did there?) to that through AT&T, but by then the momentum has already swung to the check-in based location services like Foursquare and Gowalla. Last year, Loopt pivoted its app to be more predicated around check-ins.

Look for the latest Loopt app tomorrow in the App Store.

Disclosure: Loopt offers a TechCrunch branded version of the servicehere.

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British technology entrepreneur and inventor Sir James Dyson has laid out his plan for making Britain a great tech innovator after being asked to help out the Conservative party ahead of this year’s general election.

Dyson perhaps best known for his vacuum cleaner was asked by leader of the opposition David Cameron to come up with a way to bring Britain to the forefront of technology, and his plan deals with five ways in which the UK can fight its way back to the cutting edge.

The report says:

• Culture: The UK’s science, engineering and manufacturing base has been neglected for decades. As result they are undervalued and misunderstood. Government can change attitudes through encouraging research, delivering skills and backing significant infrastructure projects. It must make early and bold decisions on large scale engineering projects to demonstrate Britain’s high tech ability.

• Education: Science, Design and Technology in schools have been marginalised and the UK is not producing enough scientists and engineers. We need to encourage more people to take up these subjects - and produce the best teachers to inspire them. Government should make teacher recruitment more flexible and encourage independent schools to share there expertise and experience with state schools.

• Universities: Globally, the UK excels at university based research, but a disjointed system means that little of our blue skies research is shared or used commercially by UK companies. Government should seek to reform how universities are funded and assessed to give them the flexibility to provide what students and companies want such as shorter courses with industry experience.

• Financing start-ups: There is not enough entrepreneurial finance available to fund innovative UK companies. This has been exacerbated by the global recession. Government must use the power of government guarantees to encourage lenders to extend credit to small, inventive businesses.

• Supporting high tech companies: If the UK is to compete and prosper as Europe’s leading technology exporter, we need to increase R&D investment. Tax credits must be refocused onto high tech companies, small businesses and new start-ups in order to stimulate a new wave of technology. When the public finances allow, the rate should be increased to 200%. The claim process must also be streamlined. These changes need not necessarily lead to a higher overall cost to the exchequer.

Among Dyson’s recommendations to the Tories are the need to back projects like high speed rail and nuclear power, a return to teaching the three sciences separately and changes to the way University research is shared and companies are backed through the research and design stage.

Exciting and ambitious

“James Dyson’s report represents an exciting and ambitious step forward in our desire to make Britain Europe’s leading generator of new technology,” said Conservative leader David Cameron.

“In it are the ideas that will help us create new, high-paying jobs right across our country. Dyson is one of Britain’s biggest success stories and Sir James Dyson knows better than any bureaucrat how you start a business, build it up and start selling to the world and he’s put that knowledge into this blueprint for creating a generation of innovation and enterprise.

“And the bigger picture of these plans is a real gear change in the make up of the British economy. I want us to be the country that moves forward, that really starts making things again, that sees a world full of opportunity, a world covered in new markets for us to sell our goods and products and services to.

“I want us to be a country that stops just borrowing and buying from China and instead really starts selling to China.

“I’m excited about this future and I’m impatient to make it happen. From day one of a Conservative government we’ll encourage the entrepreneurs who will start the businesses which will drive the industries which will create the high-paying jobs this country needs.

“The talent and the ideas are out there in Britain, the opportunities for trade are out there in the world now we just need to get Britain open for business.”

Existing investors Blue Chip Venture Company, CID Equity and Spring Mill Venture Partners also participated in the round.

Scale Computing sells storage hardware – actual machines with a proprietary software layer – to mostly small and medium sized businesses. The low end product is 3 Terabytes of usable storage for around $10,000, and additional storage can be purchased and added to the cluster from there. The company, which competes with HP’s Left Hand Storage, Dell’s EqualLogic and others, now has over 100 customers, says Gurley, and is growing fast.