TechRadar: Portable devices news

Tablet popularity kicking E Ink where it hurts

Marc Chacksfield — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:16:00 GMT

Latest figures in from E Ink, makers of ereader screen technology, show that interest in the company has waned and the blame is being put squarely on the popularity of tablets.

The Amazon Kindle proves that there is definitely still life in ereaders – the device is consistently the best-selling thing on the store, but E Ink's financials show that it's not good news for component manufacturers.

According to E Ink, its revenue for January stood a shade over $48 million (£30 million), which is a whopping 63 per cent down year on year and 11 per cent month on month.

E Ink has yet to post its yearly results, but it is hoping to show a 5 per cent rise overall in revenue – so it is not all bad news.

But if January's significant percentage drop is a sign of things to come, then E Ink may have to think hard about how it can make its technology compete with the tablet sector.

Low sales

If you look at sales figures, then it is even more depressing as in January E Ink's sales were down 84.62 per cent – there was obviously going to be a dive after Christmas but the figure is still a worrying one.

Analysts are all for E Ink technology, however, with a new study having nothing but praise for the company. Lux Research puts E Ink's display at the top of a list of technology most likely to be chosen by display developers.

It's not much but at least it's a little bit of sugar to swallow with E Ink's bitter financial pill.

In Depth: Kindle self publishing: Free but at what cost?

Marc Chacksfield — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:30:00 GMT

The news today that an independent author managed to top the UK Kindle charts in 2011 by self-publishing his work on the Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service seems to show that if you play it right, you can beat the big publishers at their own game.

No doubt the story has given hope and inspiration to aspiring authors everywhere, but the fact remains: no matter how you sell your book on a Kindle, Amazon is the real winner.

Kerry Wilkinson managed to top the UK charts with his self-published novel Locked In, with Amazon and his own site stating that hundreds of thousands of copies have been sold through the Kindle Store.

This is a fantastic achievement for an unknown author and shows that when you price something right, people will click on it and download it.

Because Locked In was sold on the Kindle Store for the bargain price of 99p – aside from being free, that's the most enticing offer you can have on any platform.

Emotional difference

There have even been studies into the allure of the 99p figure, with many a university paper published on the subject.

Robert Schindler, professor of marketing at Rutgers Business School in the US describes the '99' effect like this: "It is like when a 39-year-old turns 40, the birthday feels like a big deal. Or when 1999 ends and 2000 starts. It feels like an emotional difference."

And this is exactly what Amazon banks on with its 99p Kindle Daily Deals, much like iTunes with its micro-payment scheme. If it's under a quid then most people click and don't care because their bank account isn't exactly taking a beating.

But the 99p price has bigger repercussions for authors using Amazon to sell their books. If you go much higher, then the profit margin increases which is great news on the surface. But the problem is that users of the store usually dismiss books they haven't heard of before if they are over the 99p price point.

This is something Gary Marshall, long-time TechRadar contributor and author of Coffin Dodgers, has found publishing his work through Amazon.

"The big problem with 99p pricing is that there's very little money in it: Amazon's cut leaves you with about 34p per book, so you need to do enormous numbers to get an extra night in the pub, let alone make any proper money from it," he explained to TechRadar.

"As an experiment I tried upping the price recently from 99p to 1.53 so I'd move into Amazon's higher royalty rate bracket - £1.02 per book rather than 34p - and sales tanked. It was unbelievable.

"If I were a traditional publisher that'd scare the willies out of me, especially when so many name authors are experimenting with cheapo prices to shift their back catalogue and/or promote new titles.

"99p per book is ace for punters but, if it sticks, it'll be disastrous for firms that actually employ people."

Free but locked in

For Wilkinson, the 99p price point has worked wonders, though. He has sold thousands, hit the top of Amazon's charts and also showed that the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) service can indeed work for some.

Marshall agrees that KDP is a great resource but it does come with caveats: "To be in KDP Select and go free you need to make the book Amazon-exclusive for 90 days, which is crappy for sites such as Smashwords that help indie authors publish to Sony, iBooks etc."

But going free did offer Marshall more exposure than ever before for his novel. Earlier this month, he gave away Coffin Dodgers on Amazon Kindle for 24 hours only and found he massively increased his visibility on the service.

"What's happened is that by giving away 3,516 ebooks in 24 hours, I've become much more visible: the book hit number six in the free charts, and when the freebie period ended sales started to climb: I went from 400-something in the overall chart to number 38 and topped both the 'technothriller' and 'humour' charts.

"My gut feeling is that freemium can work - I think when I've written the sequel I'll make the first one free again as a special offer but charge more for the new book - but there's a huge amount of luck involved.

"And the more people who do it, the less effective it'll be."

Given that Amazon doesn't really care if your books do well on the site – even if you only sell a few dozen, you are one of the thousands of authors who are selling a few dozen and giving profits to Amazon in the process and this soon adds up – it's no wonder it is welcoming all writers to its site with open arms.

Just don't expect to make millions out of the service - unless your name is Kerry Wilkinson, that is.

TomTom sat navs now reward you for good driving

Marc Chacksfield — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:06:00 GMT

TomTom has announced it has teamed up with Motaquote to reward good drivers with lower premiums on their car insurance.

Both companies have come up with something called Fair Pay Insurance, which works with data taken from your TomTom and offers up a bonus scheme for those who stick to the Highway Code – so speed racers need not apply.

The scheme means that policy is controlled by how you drive and not tied to risk factors outside of the drivers control – ie, postcode, gender, age and vehicle type.

Pay less

Speaking about the new initiative, Nigel Lombard, Managing Director of Fair Pay Insurance, said: "We've dispensed with generalisations and said to our customers, if you believe you're a good driver, we'll believe you and we'll even give you the benefit up front.

"This is unlike some other telematics-based schemes where you may have to prove your ability over a number of months. So if you think of your insurance as your car's MPG - the better you drive, the longer your fuel will last.

"It's the same with Fair Pay Insurance, good drivers get more for their money and in that sense they will pay ultimately less."

Now, the cynic in us suggests that if it rewards decent drivers, then it may well penalise bad drivers so it may be worth checking the small print, but those who sign up to the Fair Pay scheme will get a specially-developed TomTom PRO 3100 navigation device, which includes Active Driver Feedback and LIVE Services.

Now all we need is a TomTom HAL voice to say softly to us: "Slow down your driving, Dave. Watch out for that pedestrian, Dave. Your insurance company isn't going to like that speed camera flash, Dave..."

Indie author takes Kindle best-seller spot

Kate Solomon — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:07:00 GMT

Amazon has chosen such a time as this to reveal to the world that an independent British author has took the bestseller slot on the Kindle Store in the final months of 2011 having published his book using Kindle Direct Publishing.

It's almost as though Amazon wants to remind the world that it has a publishing platform for ebooks too, what with Apple's iBooks Author taking the spotlight in recent weeks (for some of the wrong reasons).

Locked out

But let's not be cynical, and instead celebrate Kerry Wilkinson's great successes on the platform with his Jessica Daniel detective series:

"This time last year, I hadn't even started writing Locked In and now I have a number one bestselling book in the Kindle Store, outselling many authors that I have grown up reading," said Wilkinson.

"It has been terrific to be able to utilise Amazon's KDP platform and engage directly with readers."

Yes, terrific. Locked In also hit iBooks' top five, with Wilkinson's second and third books out now and two more to come in the series this year.

While staying wooly on exact figures, Gordon Willoughby, Kindle EU director, added, "Kerry Wilkinson's series of detective novels have sold hundreds of thousands of copies in the Kindle Store and we look forward to helping many more independently published authors achieve similar levels of success in 2012."

So it seems that self-publishing is here to stay - and while that's excellent for the many thousands of would-be novelists devoid of a book deal, it's another nail in the coffin for the publishing industry.

Explained: WHDI: what it is and why you should care

Gary Marshall — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:43:00 GMT

WHDI: what you need to know

The Lenovo IdeaPad S2 tablet, shown off at CES 2012, has an interesting trick up its sleeve: wireless HD streaming courtesy of integrated WHDI.

WHDI, which is short for Wireless Home Digital Interface, promises to deliver wire-free HD streaming without lag, hassle or unnecessary expense - so does it work? Will you want it?

And how does it compare to the other four hundred wireless HD standards currently competing for the hearts, minds and living rooms of the world? Let's find out.

WIRELESS WONDER? WHDI promises to cut the cables from your home entertainment kit

WHDI is designed to make your life easy

The idea behind WHDI is simple enough: HD home entertainment without the hassle of home entertainment cabling or drilling through walls when you want to stream content to other rooms.

With WHDI, you'll be able to connect your Blu-Ray player, tablet or any other device in the same way you'd add Wi-Fi kit to your home network.

The current WHDI standard is the second generation of the technology; the first generation got lots of press coverage in 2009 and 2010 but didn't really amount to much.

WHDI does HD and 3D TV

Operating in the 5GHz frequency band, WHDI can stream uncompressed HD at up to 1080p resolution, with support for 3D TV and 5.1 surround sound too.

WHDI isn't Wireless HDMI

That's a different standard altogether, from the Wireless Gigabit Alliance. Inevitably, the two technologies don't talk to one another.

WHDI isn't WIHD

Guess what? That's yet another standard!

WHDI isn't WiDi

You can probably guess where this one is going. Yep, that's different too: WiDi is Intel's short-range wireless telly tech.

WHDI range is reasonably short

WHDI isn't designed to chuck HD video over huge distances: it's a short-range technology that runs out of puff at around 100 feet (30m). It doesn't require line of sight connections, though, so you can hide any adapters behind the TV.

WHDI tablets are pretty nifty

Lenovo's WHDI tablet isn't noticeably different from other seven-inch Android devices, so adding WHDI clearly doesn't add any bulk. It's not a huge battery hog either, and the demo shown off at CES 2012 appeared to work well without any noticeable lag. Lenovo's WHDI tablet mirrored its display, so anything you did on the tablet - not just video, but games and apps too - appeared on the TV.

WHDI TVs aren't out yet

If you're waiting for us to mention dongles, wait no more: as yet there aren't any commercially available TVs with integrated second-generation WHDI - they're coming, but you can't buy them yet - so for now you'll need an adapter such as HP's Wireless TV Connect with WHDI. This $199 device uses WHDI to stream HD content from your PC to your TV.

WHDI says DEATH TO ALL CABLES

We're quite taken with Belkin's Screencast AV4 Wireless, which uses WHDI to connect four audiovisual devices to your TV without any of the usual spaghetti junction stuff.

WHDI prices are reasonably low, but they'll get lower

We've already mentioned the $199 HP kit, while the Belkin Screencast is $249.99. That's not bad for a brand new technology, and of course like all other tech you'll see prices fall the more popular and established WHDI becomes.

WHDI has lots of pals

It looks like WHDI is gathering momentum: WHDI members now include not just creator AMIMON but also LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, HP and Hitachi, and products have been announced by the likes of Belkin and Asus too.

However, it's worth pointing out that many of the same names are also supporters of Wireless HD too. With multiple technologies promising much the same thing, it might be an idea to sit back and wait for a victor - or at least, interoperability between rival standards - to emerge before committing any of your cash.

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Apple backtracks over iBooks Author book ownership row

Kate Solomon — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:35:00 GMT

Authors' books are their own again, as Apple has changed its iBooks Author end user licensing agreement (EULA), now allowing users to sell their books elsewhere.

The clarified terms now state that although you can't distribute the .ibooks file anywhere but through iBooks, you can still tout your actual words around elsewhere.

"You retain all your rights in the content of your works, and you may distribute such content by any means when it does not include files in the .ibooks format generated by iBooks Author," the terms now say, accepting at last that we don't all exist solely to make Apple money.

Cheque book

Previously, the EULA demanded that any books being sold for money be sold only via Apple, saying, "If your work is provided for a fee… you may only distribute the work through Apple."

Writers understandably took affront to such over-zealous terms – after all, who wants to slave away for years on their opus only to hand the rights to it (and 30 per cent of the income from it) over to a Californian tech company?

Now you can slave away for years on your opus and hawk it via iBooks as well as through Kindle, Kobo, self-publishing and by selling snippets on your internet weblog. Good luck.

Gary Marshall: Tablets are no longer just idiot toys

Gary Marshall — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:25:00 GMT

From time to time even jaded tech hacks get a "wow!" moment. I had one last night when I saw that Avid had launched an iPad app.

Avid? The high-end video and ProTools firm? An iPad app? Yep, yep and yep.

Avid reckons the iPad makes a great wee video editor, and its Avid Studio plays happily with the firm's high-end desktop software. It's right, and it's not the only firm thinking along the same lines. Apple, of course, already does Garageband and iMovie, Adobe has Photoshop Touch, and there are stacks of digital audio products such as Auria and the tasty-looking Bitwig music studio.

Not bad for toys, eh?

Getting better all the time

What's really great about this is that we're still in the very early stages, both in terms of technology - we've gone from single core to dual core to quad core tablets already; imagine what horsepower tablets will have in five years - and in terms of what's possible for our tablets to do.

Take music, for example. You can use your tablet as a quick and dirty composition device, or as a controller for a desktop music production program, or as a fully-fledged studio, or you can slot it into another bit of hardware such as Behringer's utterly brilliant/completely demented iAxe or its faintly frightening iPad mixers.

This isn't about whether tablets are better than PCs or vice-versa; it's about people, and what they can do, and the ever-expanding universe of possibilities today's technology delivers and tomorrow's promises.

We've only had iPad-y tablets for two years. What on earth will we be doing with them in ten?

Next iOS may feature real-time, 'competitive' fitness app

Chris Smith — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:00:00 GMT

Apple is plotting a souped-up Nike+ style application for future versions of iOS, which would allow athletes to compete against each other in real-time, according to a recent patent filing.

The application would link up with specific pieces of gym equipment to write data to an iOS device in real-time and then share the results with another user to provide a competitive environment.

So, for example, if you're running on a treadmill in London, you could race against a bloke doing the same thing in San Francisco as if you were on the same running track.

iOS devices would link-up with each other and display stats like time, distance, heart-rate, calories burned and even blood oxygen levels.

Providing a competitive environment

The filing, entitled Interfacing Portable Media Devices and Sports Equipment says that information would be communicated between users via a third party website.

The abstract for the filing at the US Patent Office reads: "Circuits, methods, and apparatus that allow sports or other equipment, such as gym or other cardio equipment, to write data to a media player.

"Examples further provide the uploading of this data to a computer and third-party website. To monitor progress, the third-party website can be used to track workout data over time. The third party-website can also collect data from other users, which is particularly useful for providing a competitive environment.

"This data can then be graphically displayed in various ways to provide encouragement."

Nike+ in real-time

Apple has featured the Nike+ software, in various guises, on iPhone and iPad models down the years, but the suggestion here is that Apple thinks it can perhaps do better and turn iOS devices into essential fitness gadgets.

Nike+ currently uploads your workout data after you've finished exercising, but this innovation would allow head-to-head competition in real-time.

The app would, of course, require gyms to upgrade their machinery to be compatible with such a system, which is probably more of a reach than Apple creating the software in the first place.

You can read the full USPTO filing here.

Hands on: Pure Music review

Marc Chacksfield — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:05:00 GMT

Hands on: Pure Music review

Radio manufacturer Pure has announced Pure Music.

It's a new subscription-based service available in the UK through the company's Wi-Fi capable DAB radios, smartphones using the Pure Lounge app and via its website.

Taking a leaf out of Spotify's book, the service is all-you-can-eat, with a monthly subscription of just £4.99 giving you access to millions of songs.

Given this is half the price of Spotify Premium – the top version of Spotify which allows music streaming to phones – it's certainly enticing price-wise, but how does it compare when it comes to usability?

TechRadar has been playing with the service for a good few weeks now and, on the whole, we're impressed with it.

We've been trying it out using the iOS app - an Android version is also available - the website and through a Pure One Flow. And, while the experience on each platform do differ quite significantly, the service is easy to use as long as you can forgive the rather fiddly set-up process.

Before you can use Pure Music on your DAB radio you need to make sure it is registered to your Lounge Account. This does take a few minutes but once it was done we never had any problems with the service not recognising our devices.

We had to do the same thing with our iPod touch – once the app was downloaded, our device then had to be registered to our Lounge Account.

It's easy to keep track of the devices you have registered as they all appear on the favourites section of the Lounge website.

Playing a song on our devices was a cinch – on both the app and the website, the service is fairly easy to get around.

There's a search bar in the top right of the site and this feature is also situated on the top of the app.

One other way to drill into the content when using the app is to use the A-Z quick jump feature. Unfortunately, the presentation of this leaves a lot to be desired. When we searched, we got plain old folder icons instead of album art. Hopefully this will be something that is ironed out when the service officially comes to market.

When we did find the song we were looking for, we found that buffering took quite a while. In the iOS app, it seemed that song choices lingered on 'now tuning' for quite some time. When tracks did eventually play though, the quality was decent.

Buffering is a lot quicker through both the Pure ONE and the website.

One of the great things we found with Pure Music is that we could use multiple devices streaming off of the same account.

We had the Pure OneFlow radio going, while a song was also streaming through our iPod touch. It's a nice addition, given the amount of devices you can have tethered to the service.

As for the content available, the majority of chart hits were at our fingertips and when we delved a little deeper, the archive content seemed plentiful – everything from Rihanna to the Wu-Tang Clan seemed to be catered for.

At the moment, there are a few things missing from the service that need to be added if it is to have any longevity.

For example, there's currently no offline access to tracks. Pure is promising this in the future. There also seems to be a lack of collaboration and social features with Pure Music.

Spotify thrives on its playlists and this doesn't feel like a service that will garner the same sort of collaborative community.

If you have a Pure radio with Wi-Fi connectivity then signing up to Pure Music is definitely a logical step. It may be a touch fiddly to search for content through your radio but once mastered it's great to know that pretty much anything you want to listen to is a knob twiddle away.

Pure Music UK release date is out now and the first month is free. Go to TheLounge.com for more information.

Gary Marshall: Apple's numbers have a story to tell

Gary Marshall — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:44:00 GMT

Anybody who stuck by Apple in its underdog days should be feeling pretty smug today: after yet another record-breaking quarter, Apple now has all the money in the known universe.

Apple's profits now exceed Google's entire revenue, and the world is its oyster.

Tim Cook could commission a helicopter made of cheese, a robot army and a selection of intercontinental ballistic missiles to point at Samsung without making the tiniest dent in Apple's cash mountain, but that's not the most interesting thing about the latest financial results.

What's interesting to me is that once again, reports of Apple's doom have been wildly exaggerated.

For much of the last year, we've heard that Apple's doomed (John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame has been collecting the predictions). 2011 would be the year that everyone dumps the iPhone for other smartphone OSes. 2011 would be the year that rival tablets give the iPad a wedgie. 2011 would be the year that Apple's bubble bursts.

It hasn't burst. And it doesn't look like it's going to. Even if you hate Apple with a passion, it's worth looking at the numbers, because they're not just figures on a balance sheet. They're tea leaves, or runes, or crystal balls.

They're in the money

The numbers are extraordinary. The "disappointing" iPhone 4S drove sales of iPhones to a record high - 37 million in three months - with the 4S far and away the most popular model.

Sales are up 128%, and given that many iPhone 4 owners - me included - are hanging on for iPhone 5 before upgrading, and that Apple has barely begun to sell in huge markets such as China, 2012's numbers are going to be even bigger.

Tablets? 15.4 million iPads, up 111% on the previous year. Whoever's buying Kindle Fires, they aren't buying them instead of Apple tablets. Maybe they're buying them instead of BlackBerry Playbooks, or sheds.

Macs? Up 26%. Even the Apple TV shifted 1.4 million units. The only thing that isn't doing so well is the iPod, which Apple predicted would be replaced by the smartphone.

To do those numbers at any time is incredible. To do it in the middle of a global recession is bordering on the miraculous.

Apple's numbers are telling a story, and the story is that Steve Jobs was right: the post-PC era is here. Whether you're an Apple fan or an Android one, the chances are that more and more of your everyday computing is taking place on a post-PC device - a tablet, or a smartphone.

It's personal computing, but we're doing less of it on PCs.

iTunes Store grossed £77m on Christmas Day

Chris Smith — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:59:00 GMT

iTunes users spent an incredible $120m (£77m) on music and apps on December 25th.

The company revealed the figure during Tuesday's first fiscal quarter earnings call for 2012 where it announced all-time record iPhone and iPad sales.

The whopping Christmas Day iTunes splurge is probably attributable to the masses of iOS devices and iTunes gift cards handed-out as presents over the festive season.

Apple said that the iTunes Store brought the company $1.7 billion (£1.09bn) in revenue for the quarter and also announced there are now 20 million songs to download.

More good news for Apple

Other noteworthy figures from the record-smashing earnings include news of 85m registered iCloud users, while there have already been 600,000 downloads of the iBooks Author app since last week's announcement.

Also, despite iPod sales falling 21 per cent year-on-year, the company still possesses more than 70 per cent of the MP3 player market.

All-in-all, everything remains spectacularly rosy in the Apple garden in the post-Steve Jobs era.

Audiobooks.com brings unlimited listening for $25 a month

Chris Smith — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:21:00 GMT

The first all-you-can-eat streaming service for audiobooks has arrived, bringing unlimited access to 11,000 titles for a monthly fee of $24.95.

Audiobooks.com allows members to stream as many books as their ears can muster via the web-browser or through forthcoming smartphone apps.

The service promises seamless listening between all devices and new users can sign up for a free 7-day trial now.

Audiobooks.com will rival the Amazon-owned Audible service which starts at $7.95 a month, but only allows access to one or two books per month.

Full streaming

Whereas Audible forces users to download files to their device, Audiobooks will allow full streaming over the web.

The apps for iOS and Android are in the works, but those users with iOS 5 and Android Gingerbread will be able to stream directly from the Audiobooks.com browser site.

Support for BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices is also planned for the near future.

Audiobooks' offering will be seen as the Spotify of the book world, but with a selection of thousands, compared to the millions on offer from the music streaming giant, at more than double the price of a premium subscription, that's where the similarities end.

Sony Tablet S and Tablet P Android 4.0 update 'this spring'

Marc Chacksfield — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:34:00 GMT

Sony has told TechRadar that it will be bringing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to its tablet portfolio this spring – which is the first time the company has actually named a time frame for the update.

Before, Sony would only confirm a 'coming soon' but at an event in London, a spokesperson for the company said that ICS would be hitting both the Sony Tablet S and Sony Tablet P in the spring and at the same time.

This means that the tablets will be getting Ice Cream Sandwich around the same time as Sony's phone portfolio.

Cream of the tablet crop

Sony also said that both tablets would be getting a new update in the near future which would bring Microsoft Office functionality but the company didn't actually dwell on what this update would entail.

Sony also showed off its PlayStation Certified gaming platform on the Tablet S and announced that it has now made it compatible with a PlayStation controller.

This means that you don't have to use the on-screen controls for the games on the PlayStation Store.

This is something that OnLive has been trialling as well and by all accounts using a physical controller with your tablet makes the gaming experience a whole lot better – as long as you have a stand for your tablet that is.

At the event, Sony was upbeat about its rather late assault on the tablet market. It reckoned that it had the biggest selling Android tablet over this period but was reticent to give out any numbers.

CyberStep KDJ-ONE pre-order opens

Jools Whitehorn — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:33:00 GMT

After showing off the final version of its KDJ-ONE mobile audio workstation at NAMM 2012, CyberStep has opened it up for pre-orders.

Looking uncannily like a Nintendo Game Boy hopped up on growth hormone, the KDJ-ONE is a portable music powerhouse that includes a synthesiser, sequencer and other audio skills.

To look at, it's impossible not to compare it to Nintendo's first handheld console. The main offender is the four-way directional pad on the left hand side, across from a distinctly "gamey" button layout on the right.

There are also shades of the short and fat third generation iPod Nano with its landscape display and central jog wheel where the Nano's click wheel would have been. Meanwhile, not resembling anything in particular, there are 15 backlit rubber keys at the bottom of the unit.

It's what's inside that counts

Its spec sheet lands it somewhere in between netbook and tablet turf, with an Intel Atom 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM powering a 5-inch 800x480px multitouch display.

There's also 4GB of solid state storage on board, backed up by a MicroSD card slot and USB storage if required.

Designed for music creation on the go, and possibly for those with abnormally large back pockets, this six track sequencer only weighs 380g.

It's Linux-based and CyberStep plan to release an SDK to allow users to program new synthesisers and features for the KDJ-ONE.

For music makers with a passion for the portable and a nostalgia for the Game Boy, the KDJ-ONE is available in black or white for US$829 with Wi-Fi, or US$799 without from the KDJ-ONE site for delivery by July.

Supreme Court rules GPS tracking requires warrant

Chris Smith — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:48:00 GMT

Legal authorities cannot use GPS tracking devices on a person's vehicle without first obtaining a search warrant, the United States Supreme Court has ruled.

The ruling clarifies the Fourth Amendment right of Americans which protects them from unreasonable searches or seizures without a warrant and probable cause.

The Amendment references "persons, houses, papers and effects."

According to the new verdict, instances where "the government obtains information by physically intruding on a constitutionally protected area," includes an individual's car.

Massive ramifications

GPS tracking is often used by the police and other federal authorities to gain intelligence on the movement of suspects, so today's legal ruling has massive ramifications.

Monday's verdict stems from a case where a man was able to overturn his conviction and sentence of life imprisonment for drug dealing.

His legal team were able to prove to the court that police had installed a GPS tracking device on his jeep without a warrant.

The Supreme Court justices agreed that the police had violated his "reasonable expectations of privacy."

Sony Walkman B170 bombs the bass

Marc Chacksfield — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:46:00 GMT

Sony has announced a new bass-heavy addition to the Walkman brand, the Sony Walkman B170.

The B170 is ridiculously small in stature – it weighs just 28g and is 88.8 x 22.5 x 15.0mm – but Sony reckons this means that it has a number of features to entice people away from their iPods, including the fact that it can be charged in just three minutes.

It is also powerful when it comes to the low end, with a bass boost button that comes with a colour matching power illuminator – letting those around you know just when you have turned the beats up.

Going for a song

The Sony Walkman B170 isn't for those who like to carry round their whole music collections but with 4GB of space you will get around 400 songs on the device, all played back at 128kbps.

And when we say played back, Sony is quoting an 18-hour battery life which is impressive considering it only takes three minutes to juice the B170 up.

Sony has also combined the MP3 player with a USB stick so you can drag and drop files on to it and plug it into cars with USB functionality.

The Sony Walkman B170 UK release date is February and will come in 2GB and 4GB sizes. Pricing is yet to be announced.

Akai MPC Fly turns iPads into beat machines

Jools Whitehorn — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:44:00 GMT

Akai has launched the MPC Fly which combines 16 velocity-sensitive pads with an iPad 2 compartment for mobile beat making.

The MPC Fly gives users many of the functions available from Akai's MPC range, or "music production controllers", using the iPad 2 for display as well as sideline features that don't require a physical input.

Like the other models in the MPC range the FLY features a four by four grid of velocity-sensitive pads used to trigger drum sounds and samples.

Drop beats, not your iPad

The double hinged case allows the MPC Fly and iPad 2 to be used in an upright laptop format, laid out flat or even folded back on itself.

The MPC Fly app allows users to sequence four tracks simultaneously and has a sound library of samples and drum kits built in.

There are also built-in effect to play with, including delay, bit crusher and master compressor/limiter.

You can add new samples with the iPad's mic or 3.5mm socket, as well as from your iPod library using a turntable interface.

Designed to be portable the MPC Fly has a rechargeable battery and weighs in at a very reasonable 0.92kg – much lighter than a cello.

If you want to see what can be done on the MPC Fly's bigger brother with a set of nimble fingers (and a woolly hat), watch AraabMuzik at work.

The Akai MPC Fly is out now for £159. Ba-dum-tshhhhh.

Nike+ FuelBand exercise monitor announced

Chris Smith — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:49:00 GMT

Nike+ gadgets have been inspiring us to, literally, go the extra mile for years now, but the new FuelBand wants to keep you on the move for the whole day.

The Nike+ FuelBand, announced on Thursday, is designed to be worn throughout the day and monitors your calories, steps, time and NikeFuel.

What's NikeFuel you ask? Well it's the points that you acquire with your movement, based on the goals you set every morning.

The NikeFuel meter has 20 LED lights and it's your job to turn them from red to green as you tick off your targets.

Boot in the rear

The wristband syncs-up wirelessly with an iPhone app, via Bluetooth, or can be plugged into your Mac or PC via USB.

The app congratulates you on achieving your goals and gives you a pleasant boot in the rear end if you need to push a little harder.

Cycling legend and Nike ambassador Lance Armstrong said: "What's great about the idea of NikeFuel and the FuelBand is the way it provides real information and numbers to show how much people are doing all day, every day. That's what will get people challenging themselves to do more and better their own scores. It's a tool to get people more active."

The release of the Nike+ FuelBand follows the launch of the Jawbone Up wristband, which offers similar always-on functionality. It's getting harder and harder to be lazy. Thanks, a lot tech.

The Nike+ FuelBand will be available in the UK from May 1st and will cost £139.

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtfJAyjkkGs

HMV Listening Post app wants you to buy CDs

Marc Chacksfield — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:02:00 GMT

HMV has announced a new app for iOS which allows users to take a photo of a CD cover, listen to the content of that CD and then buy it online.

Nope, we don't really get why you would want to do this either but you now have the option.

HMV has been struggling to find its footing on the high street for some time now, with many an online retailer snapping up its customers with tax-free discounts on physical media.

Now it seems that HMV is branching into the app world to entice people back to the company, with its HMV Listening Post app.

The listening post is one thing that HMV is renowned for and you can still find the posts in the bigger stores – they are made by TouchVision – but HMV seems to want to give you this feature even when you haven't stepped foot into one of its physical stores for some time.

Put your listening ears on

The problem with the app, though, is that you can only buy actual CDs from it – so this isn't the portal to online that you have been waiting for from HMV, just another way to buy their CDs online.

"Listen to music previews by taking a photo of a CD cover or searching for an artist," explains the listing on the App Store.

"The HMV listening post recognises albums from a photo or search and enables you to listen to preview clips from the track listing."

Besides apps, HMV has been busy creating an online film portal called HMV On-Demand.

Currently the service can only be viewed from a computer – we're thinking that maybe it should have focused on making an app for this than offering a glorified link to its online site.

Amazon Send to Kindle gets documents to your reader quicker than ever

Jools Whitehorn — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:58:00 GMT

Amazon has released an application that allows users to send documents directly from a PC to their Kindle.

This will come as a relief to many Kindle users who have been using the less convenient method of emailing documents to a Send to Kindle email address.

The new software means that PC users must simply right click on Word documents, PDFs, text files and images and select the "Send to Kindle" option.

Multiple files can be sent in this way, meaning it's potentially a big time saver for Kindle power users.

Think before you print

There's also the option to send documents from the print menu by selecting "Send to Kindle" from the list of installed printers.

At the moment, Send to Kindle is Windows-only, so Mac users will have to keep doing it the hard way for the time being.

Documents can also be stored in the Kindle Library cloud service for downloading later, or across multiple devices. Currently the only reading application supported is the Kindle App for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Send to Kindle for PC is available to download free from Amazonnow.

Samsung: Connected devices can replace books in schools

Patrick Goss — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:07:00 GMT

Samsung believes that its technology can revolutionise UK schools, with the electronics giant claiming that the likes of its Microsoft Surface toting SUR40 along with tablets and laptops are powerful tools for education.

Samsung's vice president of IT in the UK, Graham Long believes the poor humble book can be consigned to the past, with 3D monitors and connected devices taking the lead.

"Imagine schools without books, but with 3D displays, connected devices for every student in the classroom, and homework submitted online via the cloud," he said.

"This can be a reality with Samsung's range of AV and computing products."

BETT on it

Samsung is exhibiting at the BETT 2012 conference, where it will showcase the SUR40 interactive table alongside the SDP-860 Visualiser, the 700T Slate PC and ranges of laptops.

They will be featured alongside Samsung's "Power over Ethernet Cloud Computing" technology with Thin Client Displays compatible with Citrix and Microsoft and Zero Client displays compatible with VMware.

Long added: "Samsung is leading the market in cloud displays, and with its broad range of products for the education sector will open up virtualised learning for classrooms all over the UK."

CES 2012: Sony announces new Walkman Android range

Gareth Beavis — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:47:00 GMT

Sony has launched a new range of Walkman-powered personal media players in the Sony Walkman Z1000 series.

The Walkman Z Player runs on Android 2.3, and features Sony's noted S-Master MX digital amplifier to balance noise levels and reduce distortion.

There's also a large 4.3-inch LCD touch screen on offer, and will come in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB variants depending on how much you want to watch video or store every single song you've ever liked ever.

Sort of like a phone… but not…

The Walkman Z Player is Wi-Fi enabled to give full access to the Android Market, but also allows users to stream content to a bigger screen using DLNA (or connecting it up using a micro HDMI lead instead).

The dedicated W button gives instant access to your music from any point within the device, and SensMe technology is still alive and kicking and automatically categorising music based on BPM to suit your mood.

So imagine this is like a phone, but without all the phone-based bits, and you're pretty much there. It'll cost between $250 and $330 if you're Stateside, but no word on wider prices.

Apple patent hints at Thunderbolt for iOS devices

Chris Smith — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:50:00 GMT

Apple is preparing to integrate Thunderbolt I/O connectivity into a future generation of iOS devices according to a newly-unearthed patent filing.

Three new filings made to the US Patent Office show that plans that would speed-up data transfer between Apple iPhones, iPods and iPads and Mac OS X computers.

It could also lead to a much faster charging solution for iOS devices.

In the filing Apple says: "The present invention, connection may also be a new type of connection. … a connection may be provided between a portable media player and a display, a computer and a portable media player, or between other types of devices."

Who owns Thunderbolt?

Apple debuted Thunderbolt in an early 2011 iteration of the MacBook Pro and followed it up by including it in new Macs and MacBook Air laptops later that year.

The technology was developed by Intel in collaboration with Apple, although it's unclear who has ownership over the invention.

Clearly, Apple believes it has enough sway to file for new Thunderbolt patents, which Patently Apple has explained in tremendous detail.

In Depth: Year in tech: the highs and lows of 2011

Gary Marshall — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:00:00 GMT

Year in tech: the highs and lows of 2011

It was clear back in January that 2011 was going to be the year of the tablet.

Indeed, if 2011 had a shape it was definitely rectangular with rounded corners, but of course there was much more to 2011's tech than that. In 2011 we saw some extraordinary things, said hello to some extraordinary kit and waved goodbye to an extraordinary man.

Where's Windows?

Microsoft didn't unveil Windows 8 as rumoured in January, but it spent most of the year bigging up its forthcoming operating system. A developer preview was made available in September, and by the end of the year we knew pretty much everything about Windows 8 on tablets and Windows 8 in general.

When it wasn't banging on about Windows 8, Microsoft spent most of 2011 jumping out from behind things and shouting "boo!". The first shock was a multi-billion dollar deal with Nokia to make Windows Phone the new OS for Nokia's high-end kit, and the second was when Microsoft plonked down a staggering $8.5 billion for Skype for no other reason than to annoy Google.

It was an odd and arguably overpriced move: as we said at the time, Microsoft "started with an opening bid of 'all the money in the world'."

Rise of the robots

The big news in 2011 was the rise of the robots: Android smartphones. By November, Android accounted for a massive 52% of the smartphone market.

However, while the newly unveiled Ice Cream Sandwich - which unifies the Android codebase so there aren't separate versions for smartphones and apps - is really rather lovely, Android tablet sales have been relatively titchy. ICS promises to change all that, but it'll be a while before it's widespread.

Android also powered success of another kind: Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble's Nook Tablet both have Android underpinnings, albeit heavily customised ones that don't include the standard Google Apps or the main Android Market. Launched amid much hype towards the end of the year, the two non-techy tablets are expected to become big sellers.

More tablets than Moses

When Apple unveiled the iPad in 2010, rivals hooted with derision - but by 2011 they were desperately churning out tablets to try and get a bite of the enormous tablet money pie. Many of them failed, and failed spectacularly: by the Autumn, Apple's rivals were hiding behind shipment numbers to disguise the fact that once their devices had reached shop shelves, they stayed there.

As the year progressed and the mountains of unsold tablets reached terrifyingly large proportions, some firms cracked. HP was first, canning its TouchPad and promising to quit the PC business before changing its mind, selling TouchPads for a packet of sweets and a few shiny beads and promising to stay in the PC business forever and ever and ever.

A question mark now hangs over WebOS, the rather excellent mobile OS HP was/wasn't/was/wasn't going to can. The latest: it's going to be open sourced.

Meanwhile over at RIM, top execs did their best impressions of the Titanic's captain. "The PlayBook is a huge success!" they yelled over the sound of dump trucks unloading thousands of unsold tablets. "We're cutting its price by nearly half because it's so awesome!" they added as RIM shareholders hurled themselves from high buildings.

Even when RIM got lots of free publicity it was the wrong sort: RIM's BlackBerry messaging service, BBM, was widely blamed for being the tool of choice of UK rioters.

In September, we predicted that the combination of the iPad 2 and Kindle Fire meant that "as far as the oh-so-lucrative Christmas shopping period in America is concerned Motorola, RIM, HP and the rest might as well pack up and go home."

We didn't expect any of them to take our advice so quickly.

Apple ascendant

March's iPad 2 launch illustrated three of the key trends of 2011: Apple making really nice kit, Apple kit flying off the shelves, and people being disappointed that Apple didn't make products to meet the specifications invented by a bored man on the internet.

On the eve of the launch we predicted that "all over the internet, people will write about how much of a disappointment it is, how Steve Jobs has lost his touch and how the Motorola Xoom / BlackBerry PlayBook / a piece of wood with a face drawn on it in biro is the new tablet king."

We were right, and the reaction was even more pronounced when the rumoured iPhone 5 turned out to be the iPhone 4S. The only difference between the rumoured device and the real one was the name, so of course half the internet piled on. "Rather than unveil an iPhone 5, Apple merely made the world's most popular smartphone much better," we said. There's no pleasing some people.

It was a busy year for Apple. In addition to a new iPad and new iPhone there was a new version of iOS, iOS 5; a new version of MobileMe, iCloud; a new MacBook Air, and a new OS X, Lion.

The last few years have seen Apple do extraordinary things: in 2011 it was the most valuable technology company on the face of the planet, worth almost as much as Google and Microsoft combined.

The four way fight-fest

In many ways 2011 resembled a tag-team wrestling match, with Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon taking it in turns to put their tanks on one another's lawns. We've already mentioned Amazon versus Android, but the bookseller also launched a cloud-based music service - as did Google, Apple and (via Spotify integration) Facebook.

Google has a social network and now owns a phone and tablet manufacturer, Motorola Mobility; Facebook's encouraging us to forget about Google and live inside its walled garden; Google's making YouTube more like a broadcaster while Apple and Amazon stream TV shows... if there's a market and there's money in it, the big four are fighting it out.

What we've seen this year is a distinct change of emphasis among the world's most valuable tech firms: they're no longer content to stay in one sector, such as making nice bits of kit or running a social network.

If there's a pie, they want a finger in it, whether the filling's music, movies, social networking, books, newspapers, magazines or anything else that can possibly turn a profit.

Freedom fights

We like tradition here in Britain, and we appear to have a new tradition of idiotic attempts to regulate the internet.

In the aftermath of the London riots the Prime Minister seriously considered shutting down social networks in any future unrest, because clearly "the trouble wasn't spreading because of the close-ups of burning buildings shown continuously on the news channels. No. It was spreading because of tech."

Sadly such idiocy was rather common. A great deal of time, effort and money was wasted drawing up plans for widespread web censorship that were subsequently abandoned on the grounds that they were completely sinister. As we explained at the time, "The process, it seems, goes something like this:

BIG COMPANY: Oi! Judge! This website's made of villains and evil!

JUDGE: Blimey, what a well-researched and argued case, with lots of supporting evidence! Let's block it forever!"

While the government changed its mind, organisations such as the BPI are now using the courts to make ISPs block individual sites. The first successful such action ordered BT to block Newzbin2, and it took, oooh, about ten seconds for the site's users to find a way around the block.

There was some good news - in November the EU Court of Justice ruled that ISPs couldn't be forced to install expensive, indiscriminate monitoring and/or filtering systems on the grounds that such systems broke more laws than a London rioter looting JD Sports - but calls for censorship do have worryingly widespread public support. We aren't saying goodbye to this issue as we say goodbye to 2011.

Bye, Steve

We lost a giant in 2011: Steve Jobs, who died in October. As we wrote following Jobs' resignation from Apple in August, "If you were to pitch his story as a script, it'd be rejected for being too far-fetched: a man starts a firm in his garage, changes the world, gets kicked out of his own company, gets into the film business, becomes a billionaire, comes back, changes the world a few more times and ends up in charge of the most valuable company on the face of the planet."

Bill Gates was one of the first world figures to mourn Jobs' passing: "The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

"For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely." So will we.

Buying Guide: Best iPad and iPhone car charger: 5 tested

Tap! — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Best iPad and iPhone car charger

There's nothing worse after a long journey than arriving at your destination with a flat battery in your iOS device.

So to ensure you can still make calls and browse the web when you've parked your car keep your batteries topped up with one of these in-car chargers.

01. Belkin Micro Auto Charger - £15

URL: www.belkin.com/uk
Lights up? Yes
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Unlike the similarly-sized Gear 4, below, the Belkin comes with its own charging cable. It has a green charging light, which doesn't change colour when charging. It's not listed as iPad compatible, but we found it worked fine for charging the iPad, too.

Verdict: 4/5

02. Gear4 Roadtour Micro In-car USB charger - £15

URL: gear4.com
Lights up? Yes
Works with: Everything

It's small, comes in stylish Apple white and has an ice-blue LED that glows when something's charging. Shame there's no cable - all you get is a USB port to plug things into - but that means it can work with more devices. It's also well-made and ultra compact.

Verdict: 3/5

03. iLuv Dual USB Car charger - £13

URL: i-luv-uk.co.uk
Lights up? Yes
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Why settle for one USB port when you can have two? That's the message of the iLuv. It doesn't officially support the iPad, but we found that ours did charge. The charging head can rotate to make the USB ports more accessible, and a big blue light tells you when it's charging.

Verdict: 3/5

04. Griffin PowerJolt Plus - £13

URL: griffintechnology.com
Lights up? No
Works with: Everything

This well-made charger comes with its own springy cable and is a nice size to make connecting easy. Unplug the rubber cap at the top of the device and you can pop in a second car-charging device, so you could charge two things at the same time!

Verdict: 5/5

05. Philips Car charger for iPhone and iPad - £20

URL: philips.co.uk
Lights up? Yes
Works with: Everything

The Philips is an uncomplicated solution, but we like it. It comes with its own cable, so you don't need to bring another, and glows white when plugged in and orange when charging, making it easy to know if your device is charging properly in the dark. It's big enough to easily plug in without looking.

Verdict: 4/5