How to Run PlayStation 2 (PS2) Games on Your PC with PCSX2

There has always been a gap between computer gamers and console gamers. Generally because of the impossibility of a console gamer to play computer games or a PC gamer to play console–only games. Luckily for us, some people just don’t understand when to quit and keep on trying to create a bridge between consoles and computers as far as gaming is concerned.

Those people are the ones behind console emulators for the PC allowing PC gamers to play titles that appeared in a console-only format. This is how emulators such as Chankast for the Sega Dreamcast, Dolphin GameCube emulator, ePSXe PlayStation One emulator and many more appeared. Next generation consoles, however, seemed to be impossible to emulate on a modern computer mainly because their architecture is pretty different from that of a computer. Although it is said that console manufacturers have created emulators, there are no real facts confirming these speculations.

There are numerous teams working on Xbox360 and Nintendo Wii emulators, and one has just succeeded in making the first emulator to play PlayStation 2 video games. Starting with version 0.9.6, PCSX2 can play most console games on your computer at acceptable speeds. I will continue by showing you how to configure your PCSX2 emulator.

For more info :

http://gadgets.softpedia.com/news/Unleashing-Console-Fury-on-Your-PC-With-PCSX2-1976-01.html

PS3 Gets High Precision Mouse and Nunchuck

There's always been a problem with playing certain types of games on platforms that weren't meant to support them - beat ’em up games on the PC or first person shooters and real time strategy titles on consoles such as the PlayStation 3. One can get a wide variety of joy pads or joy sticks for the PC, but it's been pretty hard up until now to bring the keyboard and mouse to a console such as the PlayStation 3.

A while back, I wrote about the mLani PS3 Controller. Well, Splitfish seems to have been disappointed with the mLani controller, since it has decided to make its own FragFX PS3 mouse and Nunchuck. It turned the regular controller into a mouse and Wii-like Nunchuck. The mouse has a wide variety of buttons, since it's the right half of the controller, it has the four “square,” “circle,” “triangle” and “X” buttons and the mouse acts like the right analog stick.

A pretty interesting contraption, especially if you love playing games such as Killzone 2 but can't get that special “playing a first person shooter on the PC” feeling. By the way, this controller looks fantastic. Beautiful and slick, optimized for navigation of the PlayStation Home virtual world, with a menu mode that allows it to function as a regular mouse during menu selections, not to mention the “FragChuck” (as the Nunchuck is being called), the FragFX v.2 for the PS3 is a god amongst controllers and the mobility it gives gamers is a blessing from God!

The FragChuck features what is called “the Frag button,” which slows the mouse movement down to incremental movement for those millimeter-perfect sniper shots. Mouse precision and Wii Nunchuck for the PS3. All I need now is the console.

Be Impressed by the Nokia 7205 Intrigue

Although I normally don't cover mobile phones created for only one network, the Nokia 7205 Intrigue for Verizon Wireless is cool enough to make me want to write about it. Not quite state of the art (Nokia has definitely done better), this handset distinguishes itself with its price (180$ with a two-year Verison Wireless contract) and absolutely fabulous appearance.

The phone has A2DP Bluetooth, a 2-megapixel camera, PMOLED display on the back, microSD slot of up to 8GB and a great-looking home screen. It has a shiny, all-black sleek exterior and is dashboard-capable. It uses a standard Li-ion battery to recharge and is available in Silver and Pink. You all know how I hate pink. However, the cool pink to black blending effect makes even me think about getting the pink version of this phone (my wife would love it).

Too bad I'm a GSM user and also a European. But knowing Nokia, it is probably planning something just as good looking for Europe, too. This phone is intriguing to say the least. But the feature I like most is the Habitat Mode, a cool-looking user interface that allows the phone to assign nature-inspired icons displayed in chronological order. The icons can also be replaced by photos of your loved ones and friends.

Your phone's background picture changes colors in accordance with what time of the day it is but the possibility of selecting a non-cycling color theme is also present. The Nokia 7205 Intrigue definitely deserves its name, wouldn't you say?

Oh, and for all you eco-friendly people out there, this phone comes packaged in eco-friendly materials, with an eco-friendly literature bundle and environmental theme. Add to this a downloadable Captain Planet ring tone and you're set (there has to be a Captain Planet ring tone somewhere)!

Windows 7 Is Great for Gamers, Forget XP or Vista, Says Microsoft

PC gaming has almost always been tied to a generation of Microsoft's Windows operating system. Whether it was 95, 98 or the more recent XP or Vista, the Redmond giant was responsible for the main platform on which developers brought their video games. Windows XP has been and still is the preferred platform for gamers around the world, due to its low requirements and high degree of compatibility with almost all the titles that appear on the PC.

But ever since Microsoft introduced Vista, by saying that it would be perfect for any activity, including gaming, players have been somewhat reticent to upgrade to the company's new OS either because a lot of titles weren't compatible, or the system took up too much of the PC's resources, or due to the fact that it was filled with a lot of bugs or glitches that rendered games unplayable. But it seems that for gamers Windows 7 will be the best operating system, at least according to Microsoft's VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business for the EMEA region, Chris Lewis, who talked with GamesIndustry.biz about the future operating system. He went on to say that the resource hog that was Vista would be replaced with a much more robust and compatible OS, which would make the transcendence from XP to it almost seamless, while offering a lot of new features, including the hyped-up DirectX 11. “Windows 7 will be great for games, undoubtedly,” he said. “It's all good news - it's even more robust, it's quicker relatively, and the early testing cycles are proving very promising overall. I think it'll be nothing but good news for PC gamers, but we'll have more to say on that later on this year. Ultimately we're a Windows and PC company at heart, and that's not going to change, and the development on both platforms will remain central and important. The business ebbs and flows, and there will be times when we do more on one platform than the other, but they do co-exist very nicely, and as a company we're in a pretty unique position that we have a strong legacy on PC.”

Small yet Powerful

Sony VAIO VGN-UX1

When we first laid eyes on the imported Vaio UX50, bells, horns, whistles and fireworks formed a crescendo in our gadget-hungry heads. It was, quite simply, the most breathtaking portable computer we’d ever seen. As the first UX-series model to officially hit the UK, the UX1 has enormous expectation placed on its rather slim shoulders.

Look, don’t touch

Physically it’s an almost identical beast to the UX50, albeit with a cool all-black livery. The 4.5in touchscreen is still there, and it’s simply awesome. Slide it up to reveal the tiny QWERTY keyboard – this time with all the correct English symbols, of course.

The display resolution is an astounding 1024x600. It’s a touchscreen, but you’ll hardly bother using the stylus, because the control nub is so good. Should you have problems with the size, try the zoom in/out buttons on the right to help read small text.

Has to have Vista, baby

The real changes, though, are inside, with the hard disk being replaced by 32GB of flash memory – which must be the reason for the huge price tag – and Windows XP getting bumped off in favour of the new Windows Vista OS. The processor’s also been beefed up a little and the RAM’s been doubled, but thanks to the extra strain caused by Vista, you don’t notice the difference.

The New PALM PRE

The Buzz is all about the new OS !

To say Palm has struggled to keep up with the smartphone big boys is like saying the UK’s economy is going through a rough patch.

But the maker of the classic Pilot and Treo handsets is nothing if not a tryer, and the new Pre looks every inch a contender for the iPhone’s crown.

Shiny new OS

The curvy Pre isn’t just a shiny new piece of hardware – Palm has also come up with a flashy new OS, making it a real bundle of hurt for smartphone pretenders like the BlackBerry Storm and T-Mobile G1.

With a 3.1in touchscreen, 3G, GPS, 3MP camera, and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, it’s certainly got a strong feature arsenal. But where it’ll really live or die is on the quality and power of that new operating system.

Classic Palm DNA

As you’ll see from our hands-on video and report, early samples are running unfinished versions of the new WebOS, so we’ll refrain from giving a final verdict on the user experience. But it seems to have captured the simplicity of early Palms, and that’s got us excited.


The OS has all the eye candy that makes the iPhone such a joy to use, and it’s clever too. All your online calendars – whether they’re on Facebook, Google or Outlook – are pulled together in one place thanks to Palm’s Synergy tech, and the same convenience applies to messaging, letting you group together conversations with ease.

Multi-tasker

It’s built for multi-tasking too – we saw it running several applications simultaneously without breaking into sweat – and all apps can be minimized as cards on your desktop, like the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1’s tile system.

But it’s impossible to ignore the iPhone’s influence on the Pre – it has the same tilt sensors, multi-touch controls and full web browsing, though the 3.1in screen is much more cramped.

Keyboard concern
Unlike the iPhone, the Pre has a 3MP camera with flash, removable battery, copy-and-paste function and, of course, full QWERTY keyboard, which is easy to type on but perhaps a little small and cramped for extended use.

We’ll bring you our final verdict as soon as we get a full sample, but the Pre certainly looks like a real smartphone contender. See for yourself in our hands-on video and CES blog preview.

PowerHouse for Gamerzz !

An innovative, noise-reducing design makes this minitower system a great choice for offices. Dell offers the OptiPlex 740, a system from its business desktops line, in minitower, desktop (horizontal orientation), and ultracompact versions. The inexpensively configured minitower we tested ($1024 as of 05/09/2007) had an inoffensive design, using mostly matte-black plastic but also a few shiny black pieces. The ultracompact version (which we did not look at) takes up about one-third the space of the minitower, and with an adapter, you can mount it on the back of Dell's 17-inch LCD monitor to save even more space.

Hard drives mount perpendicularly to the side of the minitower OptiPlex's case, in plastic sleds with rubber mounts to reduce vibration (though the mounts use less rubber than we used to see in Dell systems). If you pinch the sides of the mounts, the drives slide out easily; I had a slightly harder time getting them back in, however. Clips on the side of the air scoop route the SATA drive cables neatly, and the cables are precisely the right length for their connectors to reach the drive bays. If you were to premount drives in the sleds, you could probably have a new drive installed in less than a minute.

Slots cut into the interior of the OptiPlex 740 case let you slide optical drives in without screws; you simply press a button to pop the front bezel off and release a drive. You can install or uninstall an expansion card rapidly, thanks to a fairly good quick-release adapter; the power supply comes out without tools, too. The case's side panel pops off when you pull a lever (with a hefty integrated lock) on the top of the case. The Dell's side panel is much easier to reattach than those of the other two systems: You simply insert the panel's bottom edge into the side of the case and then tip the panel up and slam it shut, instead of sliding it on.

The system we reviewed did not have a chassis-intrusion-detection mechanism installed, but Dell offers it as a no-cost option. You can buy a security sleeve for mounting the desktop or ultracompact versions under a desk or on a wall, but with the tower system, you'll have to rely on a cable lock.

The OptiPlex 740's motherboard has an embedded Trusted Platform Module security chip; you can use this chip along with the included software to encrypt passwords and document folders. The chip works with Vista's Bit Locker security feature, which lets you encrypt your entire hard drive.

The configuration we tested had integrated graphics, and it allowed only a single, VGA-monitor connection, though Dell sells an internal DVI adapter card for $10 that you can use to connect dual displays. But if you're willing to spend a bit more money, you might as well opt for discrete graphics: Dell charges just $64 for a 128MB ATI 1300 card. Our test configuration also included Dell's low-end 20-inch wide-screen monitor, the E207WFP; we didn't subject it to a formal evaluation, but it had no obvious visual flaws. The monitor does not allow height adjustments or swiveling, however.

Adding a discrete graphics card might help the system's overall performance, if only because it wouldn't steal from system memory. Our test system had plenty of RAM, but in our WorldBench 6 Beta 2 tests, the OptiPlex 740's score of 70 only barely beat an identically configured Lenovo 3000 J115. But while the OptiPlex earned a Superior rating for performance, it was competing only against the J115 and an HP Compaq dc5750--these three are the first Vista value systems we've tested. Compared with the power Vista systems we've tested, all of these systems are quite slow--the fastest Vista system we've tested to date scored a 129 on our benchmark.

You can opt for the base 24/7 tech support and next-business-day on-site warranty service, but Dell also offers same-day on-site service for an extra $154 on a three-year plan. Dell trumpets that its OptiPlex tech support lines are based in North America (unlike those for its Dimension products). The company offers a special deal that guarantees access to tech support in 2 minutes or less for $69 extra--but Lenovo promises 1-minute-or-less access at no extra cost with its systems. Dell scored average in nearly all areas of our most recent reliability and service survey, except for a below-average mark for its phone hold time (so perhaps that 2-minute deal is worth buying).

The OptiPlex 740 is far from the fastest Vista system you can buy, but its innovative, quiet case design makes it a top choice among business systems, especially if noise reduction is a priority for your office.

When to buy a PC

Three of the four best times of the year to purchase a laptop or desktop computer come around like clockwork. The fourth, however, is less predictable.

There are four best times of the year to buy a laptop or desktop PC. The first three are the holiday shopping season, the back-to-school period in August and September, and inventory clearance time in late January and February.

The fourth time is variable from year to year and involves product transitions. "When a new technology is introduced, the channel typically tries to flush the older stuff," says technology analyst Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates. "That's not predictable as a time of year, but has to do with when products are launched."

The larger issue is this: How much computing power do you need? "If you're just doing word processing [or Web surfing], for example, you might do very well with an older computer," says Richard Doble, editor of Savvy-Discounts.com, an online shopping guide. If modest performance is unlikely to be a stumbling block, a close-out model may be a good choice.

If your computing needs aren't too demanding--consisting primarily of word processing and Web surfing, for example--close-out models may be a good choice. Vendor outlet sites, such as Dell Outlet and HP Business Outlet, are good online destinations for finding closeout, overstocked, and refurbished laptops and desktops. At press time, for instance, Dell Outlet was selling a refurbished Vostro 1700 laptop for $700; an identically equipped new model at the main Dell site cost $1,363 (or $900 during a limited-time sale).

Sony Vaio P Series review

Ever noticed that extravagantly wealthy movie characters have those extra-long wallets, just to keep their notes pristine and crease-free? When pulled from a tailored coat with the mandatory leather gloves, it leaves you in no doubt that they’re a highly minted individual.

Sliding a Sony P-Series out of a jacket has exactly the same feel and significance. Its improbably slim chassis and mica-flecked casing instantly mark you as a man or woman of wealth and taste. It’s ludicrously likeable, one of the few computers able to elicit gasps of speechless envy from onlookers.

Not just a pretty face

Good looks alone can't justify an £850 price tag, mind, and while 'value' isn't in the P-Series' lexicon, it's a comprehensive collection of everything a portable PC should have.

On the networking front there's Wireless-N, 3G and Bluetooth, while cabled ethernet is through a combined RJ45/VGA adaptor to keep the chassis size down.

It's even capable, like the iPhone, of accessing GPS data from the cell network. There's no bundled software for turn-by-turn navigation, but it certainly adds a dimension to Google Maps.

Perfect keyboard

Sony gets the basics right too. The keyboard, for example, is an example to all other mini-notebooks of how it should be done. It's large and, although the low profile keys don't feel very responsive, easy to type on.

The unusually proportioned screen doesn’t have the best dimensions for web and document viewing, being very long and low, but it is obscenely high resolution for a machine of this size. The 8in diagonal contains a massive 1600x768 pixels, and while tight viewing angles can make the backlight look occasionally patchy, it's very bright and sharp.

If you're worried about text being too small, you can increase the font DPI in the Windows control panel. The only real issue is that to earn its narrow lines the P-Series has forgone the luxury of a mousepad, and stabbing at tiny icons with the oversensitive cursor nipple can be more frustrating than making a pixel perfect jump in an early 2D platformer.

Just too slow

There is one more compromise that's harder to bear, though. The tiny size means no processor fans, and that means Sony has fallen back on a 1.33Ghz Atom CPU that's slower than the one found in a typical netbook. Worse, it's been coupled with the most demanding operating system currently available - Windows Vista - and enough bloatware to cripple a fully-specced dual core laptop.

Not even the P-Series' gorgeous looks can blind you to the frustrating inconvenience of a three-minute boot and complete system hang every time you open a new window.

There's a quick boot option into a Linux-powered version of Sony's XrossMedia Bar controller, familiar from the PSP and PS3, but even this chugs a little when web browsing or playing back video thanks to the slow CPU. And don't even try watching the kinds of HD content that screen was made for unless you're a stop-frame animation fan.

Like the giant pocketbook, then, the P-Series suggests entrance into a higher world of sophistication and power, but most of us will want something with a little more practical purpose. Love it, lust after it, but think carefully before you actually buy one.

The 01 Phone - Oled New Tech

Of course, our own beloved concept handset wouldn't be living its life on the sharper end of the cutting edge if it wasn't rocking the latest and greatest OLED screen tech. Or it could be e-ink, we haven't decided. But, er, anyway, OLED makes the customisable contextual keyboard possible and that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to exciting ideas the 01 will rock.

10 Life-saving reasons to buy the iCEphone

Originally designed for military medics, the essential emergency mobile can now survey the health-related needs for the man on the street.

Priced at £650, the iCEphone is out in July - but in the meantime, we've got ten reasons why you should go out and buy one in a heartbeat

1) The iCEphone’s software, approved by the British Red Cross and

St John’s Ambulance, guides you through life-saving procedures on screen

2) You can wrist-mount it, allowing you to work on injured folk with both hands and still view the on-screen instructions

3) The iCEphone records your actions in emergencies, so when the proper medical services arrive, they’ll know how many chest compressions you’ve administered, for example

4) There’s a three-meg camera for taking pics of dismembered limbs and uploading them to Facebook

5) Like a real medic, it’s waterproof, dust-proof and will survive a drop of over a metre

6) GPS will ensure you know where you are, no matter how hel

lish the mountain you’re stranded up may happen to be

7) You can use the iCEphone’s touchscreen for text entry or rock the full QWERTY if you’re a professional-grade typist

8) It’s got Wi-Fi and 3G

9) Push To Talk allows you to use the phone like a walkie talkie and helps in areas where there’s poor reception – machine gun nests, for instance

10) Left and right mouse buttons on this section give full webtionality

Apple OLED notebooks, iPhone and netbook rumoured

Prototype netbook already in circulation

Like a well-carved jigsaw, the pieces are slipping effortlessly into place. After the iPhone price drop and rumoured new model, we now have some meat on those particular bones, from LG of all people. You see, LG manufactures screens for Apple, so it makes sense that someone in Korea would know if Apple was knocking up some new product. And Australian tech site Smarthouse has found someone in the know in the company. So what does the mole know? Well, the LG source claims new OLED notebooks, an OLED iPhone (and Touch) plus new flat panel monitors are lined up for 2009, along with a new netbook that's already doing the rounds as a prototype. We await the influx of blurry photos. Interestingly, the new LG touchscreens should feature an extra layer to eliminate 'finger marking' from greasy fingers, which sounds almost too good to be true. And of course, an OLED screen would seriously stretch your battery life, putting a very big cherry on this particular cake. It just might be a very expensive summer for Apple fanboys. We'll keep you posted as things develop.

Sony introduces an iPod Touch rival

Taking advantage of its participation in CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, which is the world’s largest consumer electronics trade show, Sony has announced the X Series Walkman, a device that incorporates a 3-inch panoramic screen and a noise cancellation technology, which apparently is more effective than those technologies used previously in other Sony Walkman devices.


One of the most outstanding features of this device is the inclusion of wireless Internet functions, becoming the first Walkman with this feature. Sony has announced that the X Series will include a direct access to YouTube and, although the Sony’s browser doesn’t support the websites with Adobe Flash animations or applications, it will be able to display normal pages with text and images.

The X Series Walkman will be available with storage capacities of 16GB and 32GB and support for standard audio files, including MP3, WMA and AAC. Also, it supports MPEG-4, AVC and WMV for video files.

News about the price of the device are not published (yet), but Sony announced that it should be available next summer.

Apple launches its new iPod Shuffle

Apple launches its new iPod Shuffle

The new iPod Shuffle has a VoiceOver feature, which gives the iPod the ability to “speak” song titles, artist names and playlists names. The device can “speak” in 14 languages, including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.


This tiny iPod has no playback controls on the player itself. Instead, the buttons of the device are positioned on the headphone wire. Those buttons allow user to play, pause, adjust the volume, open or switch playlists and hear the name of the played song or singer. The iPod Shuffle can also give information about the battery status (how much battery life remains).

According to Apple, the third generation of its low-end iPod Shuffle is significantly smaller than a AA battery and it can store up to 1,000 songs.

The new iPod Shuffle comes in black or silver. It has a thin, ultra-modern design and a stainless steel clip on the back. This device is now available for sale and costs around $79.

Sony's Plan for 2009

This year’s plans for PSP and PS3 have been revealed and they include really impressive games that will be released by Sony.

Even, rumors talk about the launching of Uncharted 2 in 2009. In fact, many people are waiting for this game and 2009 looks like a good year for its release (two years after the release of the original game). Also, rumors talk about the release of God of War III: some developers have seen videos about that, although they cannot confirm if the video was a sample of the game or just a presentation.

As for PSP, plans look good too. There are rumors about a version of MotorStorm for PSP Platform that would be quite spectacular, but even more interesting is the fact that the console could have another version of LittleBigPlanet, which is also an old rumor.

When Sony was asked about this, the company answered it doesn’t comment on speculation or rumors. We’ll see what happens next year.

A source reportedly leaking details from a recent annual staff briefing detailed a number of unannounced titles, as well as Sony's plans for the PlayStation Network.


Motorstorm is on the way to PSP apparently, with "target footage" shown. LittleBigPlanet PSP was also mentioned again, the source claiming it's been in development for four months. We were told back in April of Sackboy's PSP venture, which Sony has still to officially confirm exists.

Apple MacBook Pro Worth buying ??

Apple MacBook Pro 17- inch laptop

When it comes to laptops, netbooks are the current big thing. Low cost, low spec machines designed for low-end computing. But there will always be users with needs way above that which netbooks can offer. Video editors demand processing power, graphic designers need a large-format high-end display and naturally, Mac fans want Mac OS. Even in these credit-crunched times there will always be a market for quality, and that’s what Apple’s latest MacBook Pro delivers in spades…

The 17-inch MacBook Pro’s biggest innovation is its revolutionary battery technology. It offers a battery life of up to eight hours, giving you a whole day’s work on a single charge. It can be recharged around 1,000 times before wearing out too, which is approximately five years of normal use and three times the predicted lifespan of a standard notebook battery.

Apple’s engineers achieved this feat by making the battery non-removable. It’s fitted inside the MacBook Pro’s glorious unibody casing, which is machined from a single block of aluminium for strength and lightness. By removing the housings and mechanisms demanded by removable batteries, Apple is able to use a much bigger and more powerful unit without taking a toll on the thickness and weight of the laptop. Sure, having to get it replaced professionally when eventually it wears out is a pain, but the cost will almost certainly be offset by its lasting three times as long as its user-removable cousin.

At under an inch thick and weighing just 6.6 pounds, the new MacBook Pro is described as ‘the world’s thinnest and lightest 17-inch notebook,’ but not at the cost of processing power. In our benchmarking tests, the new notebook performed incredibly well. Although performance increases over last year’s 15-inch MacBook Pro are incremental rather than revolutionary, the new high-end laptop does enough to justify Apple’s claim that it’s ‘the most powerful Mac notebook yet’.

The machine’s NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics processor is impressively fast. Using the frame-rate test contained in the popular first-person shooter Doom 3, running at a 1024 x 778 screen resolution and with all graphical FX options set to their highest levels, it ran at an extremely impressive 56.1 frames per second. If you’re not carrying out GPU-intensive tasks such as playing Doom 3 or rendering graphics, you can switch to its NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor for a better battery life.

Apple displays have enjoyed a step up in quality over the last couple of years, and the 17-inch MacBook Pro has reaped the benefits. Its ultra-thin, widescreen glossy 1920 x 1200 display offers 78% more pixels and a 60 percent greater colour gamut than the 15-inch version. Its LED-backlit display gives it an instant-on performance, while using up to 30% less energy than standard fluorescent tube-powered backlights.

Its colours are rich and even, though there’s a little shadowing in the bottom corners. Nothing you’d notice in real-world use, but a smidgen shy of absolute perfection. It does a great job of reproducing shades of grey, with our black-to-white gradient test showing virtually no banding. It acquitted itself very well when offering near-black and near-white shades too, something many displays find difficult.

Apple’s 17-inch MacBook Pro gives us few causes for complaint. An optional Blu-ray drive would be a boon for those who need one, and is certainly something Apple should consider now the format war is over. At almost £2,000 it isn’t exactly cheap either, but nor is it overpriced given its quality.

The netbooks may hog the headlines, but it’s great to see a new performance laptop that’s been put together with real care and attention to detail. Many will baulk at price tag of £1,949, but if you’re after a real top-of-the-range notebook – and you can afford it – the 17-inch MacBook Pro could be right up your street.

Battle of the Cam-Phones !

High Mp camphones ..... those that digicams hate !!!

SONY ERICSSON IDUO

Sony Ericsson has launched a new camera phone. The anticipated phone is the Idou, which features a 12.1-megapixel camera with auto focus and an array of advanced camera touch features such as true 16:9 widescreen format and a xenon flash. The ‘Idou’ is one of a number of projects that will be launched this year under the umbrella of Entertainment Unlimited. Idou encapsulates the future of mobile entertainment in the palm of your hand delivering visual communication like never before. Based on what will become the Symbian Foundation operating system, thousands of applications are available online letting you install new applications and download exciting content from PlayNow™ to make the Idou truly yours.




SAMSUNG OMNIA HD

Samsung Mobile unveils its ultimate multimedia cell phone with HD brilliance. Omnia HD is Samsung’s first Symbian full-touch handset, and features the world’s first 720P HD video recording and decoding on mobile, as well as the world’s largest AMOLED screen on mobile. Samsung has launched the Omnia HD at Mobile World Congress, as part of its portfolio of innovative mobile phones that incorporate the latest multimedia features and fastest data communication, to offer a complete media solution for consumers. Allied to the industry-leading 8 Megapixel camera which allows you take digital camera-quality photographs on your phone, the Samsung Omnia HD ensures you capture the best possible photographs.

Samsung OmniaHD handset is the newest, high performance full-touch screen cell phone that brings together style, multimedia and business performance in one device. The new Samsung mobile phone follows on from the phenomenal success and heritage of the Samsung Omnia last year and extends Samsung’s market share of all-in-one full-touch phones.
GPS with integrated compass makes Omnia HD suitable for both pedestrians and drivers, and the navigation touch control and voice guidance via dual stereo speaker provide drivers with easy and safe navigation. The generous internal memory (available in 8GB and 16GB capacity options), with the addition of a 32GB microSD card, allows you to store up to 48GB, which translates to 35 DVD-quality movies or 18,000 8MP photographs.


LG KC910 RENOIR

LG KC910 Renoir represents the latest and greatest of the cameraphone breed. It tops latest connectivity technology such as HSDPA, Wi-Fi and GPS with serious image and video capabilities. Xenon flash, face tracking and blink detection, geo-tagging and touchscreen focus are combined with XviD and DivX video playback and high-res recording.

The LG Renoir is also equipped with a 3-inch TFT display and the latest version of LG own Flash-based full touch user interface. It's simple, intuitive and functional, and is further enhanced by automatic screen rotation and landscape on-screen QWERTY text input.

Today LG announced that they are starting shipments of the LG KC910 to the European market. We however got an early start with a pre-release unit and we'd like to share with you our first enthusiastic impressions. We hope to push a detailed review somewhere in the near future, but until then this LG Renoir preview will keep you warm.

NOKIA N96

The Nokia N96 has a pretty hefty reputation to live up to. The N95 was a true powerhouse, and the finest converged device of its time. With a 5 megapixel camera, 3G data, the powerful S60 UI and eventually 8GB of internal memory there were few devices that could compete with it, and arguably no one could do it as well. Then along came a little device out of Cupertino and the cellular landscape changed. Not one to be reactive, Nokia has stuck to its guns with the retooled N96 and delivered an upgraded device that once again aims to sit atop of the mobile industry; improvements include 16GB of internal memory with microSDHC expansion and an integrated DVB-H tuner for mobile TV.
Though definitely inspired by the dual-sliding N95, the N96 is a much more modern and sleek device. Like the N81 everything on the device is flush with the exception of the directional pad and Multimedia key, giving the N96 a much more modern and minimalist appearance than its predecessor. The sharp corners of the N95 are now smoothly rounded, and the keys are only apparent when illuminated.
The front of the phone is comprised mostly of the 2.8” QVGA display. At 16 million colors, the same as the iPhone, the display is extremely vivid and colorful. It is easily readable in any lighting conditions, though oddly enough colors tend to wash out in direct sunlight. At the top is a pinhole front-facing VGA camera and earpiece. Below is the navigational cluster, which features right and left soft keys, the five-way d-pad, send, end, menu and clear keys and a multimedia key. Also hidden are multimedia playback controls, which sit outside the four corners of the d-pad and illuminate when the keypad lights up. The menu and clear keys, which are on the corners, can be a bit cramped and awkward to press.

The phone slides up to reveal a standard 12 key dialpad. The keys are all flush, and while they offer sufficient feedback navigating without looking is all but impossible. As is often the case with sliders, the overhang can interfere with the top row of keys. The keypad is also a bit too wide for our liking, and on the whole we weren’t too crazy about tapping out messages on this thing.

A downward slide changes the screen orientation to landscape and reveals four media keys- FF, Play/Pause, Stop and RW- that can also be used for gaming controls. N-Gage is also on board, and there are a few pre-loaded demos as well as plenty of downloadable content for the user. Like the keypad, these keys are dark at rest but illuminate white when being used.

The black face of the phone is offset by the silver housing surrounding the N96. Unfortunately it is plastic, and cheep feeling plastic at that. It’s not incredibly cheap, but cheap enough that we’re ashamed to see it in such a high-end device. The right side of the phone features stereo speakers at the top and bottom corner, which sit at the top of the phone when watching TV in landscape mode. It also houses the volume rocker and camera key. On the left side is simply the covered microSDHC slot. The card sits a bit too deep in the phone for our liking, which makes it hard to both press to remove and to physically take out of the phone once it is pressed in.

MOTOROLA MOTOZINE ZN5

Motorola announced the results of its long-anticipated collaboration with Kodak: the MOTOZINE ZN5. Motorola’s Motozine ZN5 is a collaboration between Motorola and Kodak featuring a 5 megapixel camera, built-in Xenon flash, anda 2.5-inch 320 x 240 pixel LCD viewfinder and an expansion slot up to 4GB. Other features include WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio, Windows Media Player 11 and a full fledged Web browser. One feature missing is the 3G which should be addressed in next models. It seems very strange to put out such a high featured device and not put 3G in it.

It’s much more of a full-fledged camera than most camera phones in the market, with auto focus, low-light settings, as well as panorama, macro, and multi-shot modes. Kodak’s EASYSHARE make it easier to send them from phones to computers and printers. Kodak Gallery integration allows owners to upload their photos with the option to print, buy and frame the snapshots.

Kodak imaging technology is used for a range of motorla mobile devices. Kodak says it’s talking to to leading cellphone makers and mobile service providers to improve the quality of camera phone pictures. The ZINE ZN5 will be available in China from July.We have to wait and see whether the ZN5 start of beleagured Motorola’s recovery. Will it be enough to save the company’s mobile phone business?

SONY ERRICSON C905 Cyber Shot

One of the largest mobile phone manufacturers in the world, Sony Ericsson has officially announced its two new camera phones - Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot . According to the company, the new and awesome Sony Ericsson C905 is the first Cyber-shot slider phone which features an impressive 8.1 megapixel camera.

“The C905 Cyber-shot have been developed to make us all better photographers! That means making it easier to take great shots and never missing that magic moment,” said Sven Totte, Head of Imaging Marketing at Sony Ericsson. “Although both have photography at their core, the phones are very distinct; the 8.1megapixel C905 is a viable alternative to a digital camera ”
Complete digital camera experience on a phone – true digital camera styling and an 8.1 megapixel camera with Xenon flashOutstanding picture quality – complete with face detection auto-focus, smart contrast and image stabilizerFrom baby’s first steps to an amazing sunset; store them all on the 2GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) includedThe USB adaptor (CCR-70) provided in-box allows for easy transfer of your photos to-and-from your PCView high-quality pictures on the phones impressive 2.4-inch scratch-resistant mineral glass displayShare your memories – send your photos wirelessly from your phone to your TV via Wi-Fi (using DLNA), or connect with wires using the TV-Out Cable ITC-60Upload photos to your own online blogsite or print your photos with fantastic resolution up to A3 sizeMuch more than a camera phone - GPS-enabled for geo-tagging of photos and navigation support

Windows or OS X on the PS4?

The PS3 has the ability to install a Linux OS on its HDD, turning it into a home computer. This offers great flexibility to the system, which some love and others don’t care for. We here at PS4Talk see this as a possible step towards one of the more popular OS’s being available on the PS4, that the regular consumer will care to use. Linux is a massively popular OS, but ask the general person what is is and they just shrug their shoulders and think you’re an uber geek.

With this in mind, is Sony best advised to try obtain permission from MS or Apple to offer the ability to install their OS on the PS4? Sure there are issues with Licenses, but by the time the PS4 is released the license for XP or perhaps even the failing Vista will be cheap enough to justify this. Offering a much more publically known OS will no doubt be another factor to help sell Sony’s next console. I know that the ability to install Windows on the Macbook is what was the deciding factor for me. The ability to dualboot is essential for me. And we all love machines capable of doing multiple things. Just look at our mobile phones, they now feature cameras, wifi, radios, tv tuners…and the list of extra features keeps increasing. The PS3 is a real media machine, and I can only see the PS4 becoming even more versatile.

Of course, this is purely pipe dreams and speculation, but thought arousing non-the-less. What are your thoughts regarding the matter of 3rd party OS’s on the PS4? Perhaps even the rumoured Google OS will make a show on the PS4.

PS4 to focus on 3D ?

Is 3D the Way Forwards?

We have mentioned 3D recently a couple of times. The first time was speculating on the PS4 having 3D capabilities built in, and then shortly after news was announced that the PS3 should receive a firmware update to allow 3D to be used. With an update possibly arriving for the PS3 it is pretty certain that the PS4 will follow this same route right out of the gate. This speculation is also held up by the way the movie and TV industry is going with 3D.

At CES a few weeks back in Las Vegas, Sony were showing off some 3D demo’s of games. These games were not planned for being released, but were simply just demos (according to Sony) although if they were patched for CES then maybe updated versions will make it to the PS3 soon. The idea behind the 3D demos was to show what is possible with 3D and where things are going. IGN then went on to speculate that the PS4 when released will primarily be a 3D device capable of 3D games and 3D Blu-ray video. As 3D TV’s are making their way in to the market (some require polarised glasses, some require no glasses at all) I expect that in 3 or so years time that 3D TV’s will be more common place enough to justify a console focused on this technology.


But what about other content? Will every (or even just some) PS3 games get a 3D viewing option? Could a firmware update bring the content to everyone? Maybe, maybe not. But it seems to me that it’s likely that the PlayStation 4 will be built from the ground-up for 3D content, including Blu-ray discs for movies.