HTC One X Review

HTC One X. PHOTO COURTESY HTC

HTC One X is one to watch for

The smartphone is a great camera, entertainment centre and phone

by Hiranand Sunny Naresh 

 

04:45 AM May 09, 2012

 

The brand HTC may not immediately come to mind when you think cool smartphones. But a redesign with its latest flagship handset, the One X, may change your mind.


The ergonomic curved corners on the HTC One X's casing looks and feels superb to the touch, while a change from icons with rounded corners to square ones gives it an updated look.

However, it is the protruding silver lens on its back that points to its star - an 8-megapixel camera. Starting up in only 0.7 seconds, the intuitive camera autofocuses in a mere 0.2 seconds so you'll get to document every magical moment before it vanishes.

Shots taken in low light conditions turn out amazing due to the HTC Smart Flash. A panorma feature overlays the screen with consecutive frames to help you stitch together a beautiul horizon easily.

And the camera's burst mode shoots up to 99 frames in succession so you can pick the best one out of the basket and delete the rest with a click of a button.

A nifty integration with Dropbox, the file sharing site, expands its onboard 32GB space by letting you archive photos on-the-go with an additional 25GB for two years.

The One X comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with a quad-core 1.5GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor for one of the smoothest performance I've seen.

The battery life proved to be decent with about half left after a 24-hour test, which included phone calls, emails, texting, listening to music and watching around two hours worth of videos. Strangely though, a 30-minute run on games depleted the battery by a third.

With the Beats Audio Technology inclusion and high 720p resolution display on its 4.7-inch Gorilla Glass panel, the One X could be the one to raise HTC's profile.

The HTC One X is available at S$898 (without contract). Hiranand Sunny

Source:  www.todayonline.com

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Sony Xperia S

Sony Xperia S. PHOTO COURTESY SONY

The Sony Xperia S is born to entertain

This Android phone is a entertainment portal on the go

by June Yang 

 

04:45 AM May 09, 2012

 

The Xperia S is Sony's latest offering in the pedigreed Xperia line of smartphones.

It comes with a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 1GB RAM, and 32GB internal storage. The phone ships with Android's Gingerbread platform, but can be upgraded to the latest Ice Cream Sandwich platform.

A 12-megapixel, rear-facing camera with a Sony EXMOR R sensor shoots full HD (1080p) video, panoramas and 3D stills/video. The front-facing camera is a 1.3 megapixel 720p unit. The 4.3-inch, 720p display is large enough for viewing pleasure, but not so its cumbersome. The display is crisp and made viewing media and browsing websites a joy, thanks in part to the mobile BRAVIA engine. The HDMI port means you can hook it up to your TV for the big screen experience. Gamers take note: It's also Playstation-certified.

At 128mm by 64mm by 10.6 mm and weighing 144g, the Xperia S is a slim, light phone that fits nicely in the hand. I have an iPhone that slips from my grasp a lot, and I find the larger Android phones too unwieldy to use with one hand, but this phone strikes a nice balance between them.

There are a few cons, however.

I found the message notifications too subtle; while you can't miss them when you're using the phone, it's easy to overlook them if the phone is in screen lock mode, particularly when it's silent. I ended up missing a couple of urgent text messages that way.

I also found the camera flawed. There's no tap-to-focus function, which I found to be a huge shortcoming. Photos are taken in a strange dimension to fit the phone's screen, which resulted in the strangest cropping ratio on Instagram.

Overall, it is a good phone. None of the flaws really eclipse the overall experience of using it. Unfortunately, being an Android phone means it has to compete with all the other Android phones on the market.

The Xperia S has no one feature that lets it stand out amongst all the excellent top-of-the-line Android phones that are already out there, or on the way. Sadly, it seems that just being good overall is not enough these days. The Xperia S suffers not from being bad, but from being unexceptional.

The Sony Xperia S retails for S$898 without contract.

Source: www.todayonline.com

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The HP EliteBook Folio 9470m

HP unveils a thin and light future

 

by June Yang 

 

Updated 09:38 PM May 14, 2012

 

SHANGHAI - Thin and light was the order of the day at the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Global Influencer Summit 2012, held over two days in Shanghai last week. Many of the highlighted products in the more than hundred shown were sleek, lightweight PCs, including the budget-friendly Sleekbooks and the business-ready ultrabook, EliteBook Folio.

But there was a glaring omission: Tablets.


After the sudden death of the TouchPad last year and the quiet burial of WebOS this year, the future of HP's mobile computing strategy was on the minds of many. It was the first question asked of Mr Todd Bradley, head of HP's newly merged Personal and Printing Systems (PPS) Group, during the Q&A session at the closing ceremony of the event, and repeated no less than three times during the course of the session.

Mr Bradley was quick to emphasise HP's commitment to developing a Windows 8 tablet with its partner Microsoft, with "probably an enterprise and small business focus rather than a consumer focus".

But he also stressed the difference in the way HP looked at tablet products and ultrathin, ultralight PC products. Tablets, he said, are "very much about how people consume data. It's not so much about the creation of data, which is why we have separated them from a launch perspective".

This need for separation was echoed by HP's senior vice-president for the Asia-Pacific region for the PPS group, Mr Dion Wiesler. For him, it is not just about the size and the weight of the device, but the seriousness of the tasks performed on the device. "If I were writing a note to my parents I might do it on a tablet or a smartphone. But I'm certainly not going to write a memo to the CEO on that kind of device," he explained.

To that end HP has sought to better its ultrabook products by giving them some of the same benefits consumers have come to expect from tablet PCs.

"I think what we've learned about tablet devices are that they benefit from three key things. Always on, always connected, thin and light, long battery life," said Mr Wiesler.

Far from cannibalising each other's market share, however, Mr Wiesler believes that ultrabooks will benefit tablet sales, and vice versa. "I think there is a lot of growth in both technologies, and frankly I think it is going to fuel even more growth."

And HP appears to be fully invested in the future of tablet PCs. Even as he affirmed HP's desire to bring a Windows 8 tablet into the market, Mr Bradley dropped hints that there may be more to its tablet strategy that the world has yet to see.

"That's not to say that (our stated strategy) is forever. I think it's clear that the market's evolved, the market's changed," he said. "I think when we announce the roadmap for tablets you'll see a very compelling solution set that the tablet becomes part of." JUNE YANG

Source:  www.todayonline.com

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Max Payne 3 Review

Max Payne wakes from a nine-year hibernation, and it is good

by Hiranand Sunny Naresh 

 

04:45 AM May 16, 2012

 

Nine years is a long time in the world of gaming. And instead of spending that time coming up with a "revolutionary" first-person shooter to rival the Call of Duty or Gears of War series, Rockstar games decided to go with what the fans wanted: Modernising a cult classic.

Max Payne 3 has kept the core that made the previous two Max Payne titles so revered but bumped it up with advances to keep up with modern gaming technology. The result is a game that could possibly be one of the best this year.

The storyline: No longer a cop, Max is washed-up, drunk and addicted to painkillers. Along with friend Raul Passos, Max has left New York, and finds himself in Sao Paulo, working as private security for a mega-rich family.

What I love about the game is that it actually discourages you from taking cover - which is almost unheard of in shooters these days.

You will be given a chance to catch your breath, plan an attack and maybe pop a few bad guys before flinging yourself back into action, but clearing a room filled with trained paramilitaries from behind a wall is next to impossible.

So rather than picking off goons as they peek over cover, you will have to rely on that staple of Max Payne - Bullet Time.

Press down on the right stick and time will slow to crawl as the screen washes out in a flourescent glow. Watch your enemies drop like flies while you take on minimal damage, Bullet Time is what you want in a real firefight.

However, take a one slug too many and Max will tumble to the ground. The screen will turn bright save for a flashing light from the guy who shot you last. Finish him off and, as long as you are packing painkillers, you'll be back on your feet.

The additions and tweaks to Max Payne may be spectacular but it is what's not changed that makes the game refreshing. After almost a decade of playing games with regenerating health, playing May Payne without it can be, well, a pain - sweet, delicious pain.

Max is restricted to a single life bar that can only be replenished by gulping painkillers. And in the midst of a firefight, that health bar can run out startling fast.

This forcees you to plan your firefights so you make it out with a decent sliver of health and your painkiller stock intact. Hiranand Sunny.



Verdict: Max Payne 3 looks fantastic, handles beautifully and the depth of content in its in-game design and settings offer a ton of replay value.

Rating: 4.5/5

Source:  www.todayonline.com

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Aztech PlayXtreme 2 Review

Give your TV the power of the Internet

by Nicholas Yeo 

04:45 AM May 16, 2012

Too late to the Smart TV party? Here's a solution to get Google onto your gogglebox without ripping a hole in your pocket.

Introducing the PlayXtreme 2 from Aztech, a plug and play device to turn your television into a wireless Internet TV Hub.

With it, you would be able to surf the Internet, update your social networks, watch the latest Korean, Chinese streaming videos off PPTV Internet TV.

Over 200,000 applications such as iTODAY, Whatsapp and Flipboard are also available for download from 1Mobile. However, download is a hassle as you first need to download it on your PC then transfer them to your TV.

The apps I tested were generally stable but, when viewed on a big screen, takes a little getting used to.

It comes with three USB ports and a microSD slot, and is a credible media player so you can watch movies via flash or external drives.

The device is a dimunitive 12cm x 12cm x 3cm (thick), runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread (no word on Ice Cream Sandwich) and comes with a wireless QWERTY remote control-slash-keypad.

The Aztech PlayXtreme 2 may be a little excessive for people who own Smart TVs but if you don't have one and are hooked on the Internet, you might want to look into this.

The Aztech PlayXtreme 2 is available now for S$219. NICHOLAS YEO


Source:  /www.todayonline.com

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The Samsung Galaxy S III

Samsung unveils a new star

The Samsung Galaxy S III is poised to go supernova

by Alvin Chong 

 

Updated 08:55 AM May 04, 2012

 

LONDON - More than a year after the debut of the Galaxy S II, Samsung unveiled the next iteration of their flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S III, at the Samsung Unpacked event London earlier this morning.


Powered with a 1.4 GHz quad-core processor, the Galaxy S III comes with a 4.8" Super-AMOLED screen with 1280x720 resolution. The phone is available with 16, 32 or 64GB of on-board memory, with a micro-SD slot that accepts up to an additional 64GB. It has a rear-facing, 8 megapixel camera that shoots full HD (1080p) video, and a front-facing 1.9 megapixel camera that shoots 720p video. Likewise, it can also playback full-HD (1080P) video in a variety of multimedia codecs. The quad-core processor even gives the phone enough power to view a HD video in windowed mode while other apps are running at the same time.

The Galaxy S III is 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.55 mm and weighs 133 grams, which makes it bigger and heavier than the Galaxy S II, due to its larger screen and additional hardware. It will be available in two colours: Marble white and pebble blue.

Samsung introduced a feature called S Beam with the Galaxy S III, which combines near-field communications (NFC) technology with Wi-Fi. Galaxy S III phones which are tapped together will connect with each other through NFC, but data transfer between the phones is carried out over Wi-Fi. This gives S Beam transfer speed of up to 300Mbps, as compared to 400kbps speeds for current NFC technology.

The Galaxy S III runs on the latest Android platform, Ice Cream Sandwich. Samsung has tweaked the software to suit its "Inspired by Nature, Designed for Humans" philosophy. It comes with a nature-inspired UI, with features such as a lock screen where the screen ripples like water when you drag your finger across it.

Some of the key phone features include "Smart Stay", which allows the smartphone's screen to stay lit, as long as it detects that someone is looking at it. Other smart features include auto-dialing when the phone is raised to the face, and updating the user on missed alerts when the phone is picked up for the first time after a long interval.

While the S II was powered with Vlingo's voice talk app, the S III comes with "S Voice", Samsung's own version of a voice-controlled solution that is packed with both Samsung's and various third-party technology, and allows voice-activated access in various apps.

The 8 megapixel rear-facing camera also comes with upgraded software, zero shutter lag, and other upgrades. These include "Burst Shot", which takes up to 20 shots at a rate of 6fps, comparable to that of some DSLRs, and "Best Photo" where the phone selects the best photo from those just taken. The camera is also capable of capturing still photos at the same time as it is filming video. Photo tagging has been simplified to just tapping on faces in the photo, which the S III will try to match with faces stored in the contact list, Google+ and Facebook.

The recommended retail price and release date for the Samsung Galaxy S III for Singapore is currently unknown, but it will go on sale in Europe on May 29. The release will start in Europe before being rolled out to other markets.


Source:  http://www.todayonline.com

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Gamers rage as Diablo III servers collapse

CALIFORNIA - The servers supporting long-awaited role-playing game Diablo 3 went online on Monday night, but then promptly crashed under the sheer weight of global demand.

Players found themselves unable to access the game, many repeatedly receiving the now notorious "error37" message, informing customers that their connection had failed.

The hashtag #error37 immediately began trending on Twitter, attracting a mix of furious complaints and ironic comments. "Man, Diablo 3 is super hard. I've been playing for 30 minutes and haven't even defeated the login screen," tweeted one gamer.

The dungeon exploration game is set to be one of the biggest releases of the year, and fans of the series have been waiting more than a decade for the latest instalment, reported The Guardian.

However, in a controversial bid to combat piracy, the title requires players to log on to developer Blizzard's servers before they can enter the game - even if they only want to try the single-player offline campaign. This has created a bottleneck that the company's online infrastructure has so far struggled to cope with.

In April, Blizzard "stress tested" the Diablo servers with an open beta, and reports indicated that error37s were cropping up at this stage, too.

However, as Activision discovered with the stuttering global roll-out of its Call of Duty: Elite online service last year, controlled tests don't always prepare for the sheer weight of worldwide demand.

In fact, Blizzard had already warned gamers in its online Diablo 3 launch guide that there might be delays with logging in on launch day.

Blizzard has released the following statement: "Due to high concurrency the login servers are currently at full capacity. This may cause delays in the login process, account pages and web services. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience while this is being resolved."

It is expected that, over the next 48 hours, as demand settles and the infrastructure is improved, the log in process will become much smoother.

However, the situation will no doubt put the whole issue of online authentication back into the spotlight. AGENCIES



Source:  http://www.todayonline.com/TechandDigital/Digital/EDC120516-0000149/Gamers-rage-as-Diablo-III-servers-collapse

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