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iPad multitasking hits early with new browser apps
Acer AT2356 Freeview display unleashed: photos
Asus 3D laptop follow up prepped
Foursquare Snackquare directory: find free food near you!
Toshiba Camileo SX900: super zoom HD camcorder unveiled
Best Windows Mobile 6.5 apps: top 10
Nokia C3: first video
Apple’s war on Google: Steve Jobs’ secret weapons
Toshiba Portege M780 twisting touchscreen laptop outed
Splinter Cell Conviction review: Overall verdict

iPad multitasking hits early with new browser apps

Posted: 16 Apr 2010 09:30 AM PDT

True iPad multitasking may not come until iPhone OS 4 arrives in the Autumn, but two new apps have quietly hit iTunes offering the next best thing: a browser, with separate, in screen windows for web apps. Want to run Twitter, Facebook and chat clients while surfing the web? Now you can.

By sheer coincidence, two new iPad apps have hit the App Store on the exact same day, offering a near identical premise: letting you run useful web apps in pop up panes, sidebars or windows.

The first app, Multitasking for iPad, only lets you run Twitter and Facebook streams in the background, but you can have both running in windows at the bottom, or set to make noise alerts when updates come through on your iPad.

The second iPad app, Multitasking Browser, won’t allow for three windows in view at once, but will let you run many more web apps (More than 20, including Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and Google Talk), and even open them as pop up panes. In landscape mode, this iPad multitasking app can show a side app in a separate sidebar, which disappears when tilted into portrait mode.

iPad gets multitasking in iPhone OS 4

Many iPhone apps have offered in-app browsing to achieve similar effect while iPhone OS still prevents multitasking with third party apps, but the ability should prove much more useful on the iPad with its larger screen, which can make use of windows in windows.

Both iPad multitasking apps are available on the UK iPad App Store now at an identical £1.79, so if you’ve already imported Apple’s tablet, you can try them out right now. If not, alas, you’ll have to wait until late May due to Apple’s latest iPad delay.

Out Now | £from 1.79 | Apple (Via Mobile Entertainment)

Acer AT2356 Freeview display unleashed: photos

Posted: 16 Apr 2010 09:00 AM PDT

The Acer AT2356 is no mere flatscreen PC monitor: it’s a TV. Acer’s styling it as “home display”, but it’s one with a Freeview tuner and all the requisite ports and pixels needed to stick it in your lounge. Read on for the details and photos.

The 23-inch Acer AT2356 is a pleasant enough monitor for your computer, but the computer cobbler’s thrown in a few extras for anyone looking to combine desktop and telly into one. The Acer AT2356 is packing a full HD LCD panel with a 5ms response time, plus two HDMI ports around the back for your set top boxes and consoles. Acer’s also boasting about its gamma correction and noise reduction features, for more vibrant and sharper images, but we’ll wait to see it in the flesh .

Conveniently though, the Acer AT2356 also packs in a DVB-T tuner, so it’ll pick up Freeview channels straight out of the box. It’s not going to match the latest LG LED backlit boobtube for quality, granted, but it’s a nice and cheap solution for anyone in a pokey flat or student halls to get a TV and a big computer screen in one.

Acer D241H Display+: Wi-Fi monitor with widgets

Acer claims that the tuner insider the Acer AT2356 can actually receive HD broadcasts, but we wouldn’t get our hopes up in the UK, as Freeview HD requires a DVB-T2 tuner – we’ve asked Acer for clarification.

Alongside the Acer AT2356, a 20-inch model has also been unveiled, the Acer AT2356, which packs the same specs and tuner. The Acer AT2356 display gooes sale from 1 June, priced at £249.99, while the AT2056 hits on the same day for £199.99.

Out 1 June | £from 199.99 | Acer

Asus 3D laptop follow up prepped

Posted: 16 Apr 2010 08:30 AM PDT

A new Asus 3D laptop is in the pipeline: Asus has only just shipped its first 3D laptop, the Asus G51J, but it’s already working on a second, bigger version, according to sources. Read on for what’s known so far.

Taiwanese tech insider DigiTimes reports that a new Asus 3D laptop is being prepped, with a view to launch in the third quarter of the year, so between July and September. The machine will come with a 17-inch screen, and several manufacturers including Samsung and LG Display are bidding to provide the panel for it.

Asus G51J 3D laptop hands on photos

We’ve only got “market sources” to go on for now, but Asus plans have a habit of leaking out early, almost every time, so we’ve no reason to doubt the report. We liked the first Asus 3D laptop when we tried it out late last year, although we’d love to see the external 3D transmitter built in this time around. It’s worth remembering though that Nvidia’s 3D Vision kit will let you achieve similar effects with supported games and graphics cards.

We’ll bring you any more news on an Asus 3D laptop sequel as we hear it.

Out TBC | £TBC | Asus (Via DigiTimes)

Foursquare Snackquare directory: find free food near you!

Posted: 16 Apr 2010 08:00 AM PDT

Foursquare is powering Snacksquare, a newly launched site that pulls together all of the free deals for mayors and customers on the social location app near you. You can see any deal going down anywhere in the world right now, so read on for the details and how it can help you.

Snacksquare is a new site, just launched this week, that uses Foursquare’s APIs to place deals on a Google Map. It’s a lot more helpful than the current implementation on the Foursquare iPhone app, which only lists nearby deals, and lets you find out exactly what Foursquare deals can be had at any venue on the planet with a Google Map.

Foursquare: political campaigners make MP Downing Street Mayor

Although Snacksquare looks a bit too much like Ryanair’s website for our liking, it works superbly, letting you drill down by location and category to see what’s on offer through Foursquare. For instance, it shows where in London you can find Mayor specials at restaurants and bars for free food or drinks by checking in the most and earning the title of Mayor (or free truffles just for checking in at Paul A Young Fine Chocolates).

Currently, most Foursquare deals in the UK are limited to a few locations in central London, but that’s to be expected from a small, US based start up service initially. Expect plenty more deals to pop up though as Foursquare takes off, and keep track of them at the link below.

Out Now | £free | Snacksquare (Via TechCrunch)

Toshiba Camileo SX900: super zoom HD camcorder unveiled

Posted: 16 Apr 2010 07:30 AM PDT

The Toshiba Camileo SX900 high defy camcorder has just been ushered into officialdom by the Japanese gadget giant, along with a little brother, the SX500. What should pique your interest over the latest Sanyo and Flip models? Read on and we’ll tell you.

The Toshiba Camileo SX900 may not be quite as powerful as Panasonic’s latest HD shooter, but it’s a tad more svelte, and its full HD, 1080p video recording skills at 30 frames per second, or 60 interlaced, should keep most home movie maniacs content.

Toshiba Camileo S10 hands on photos

The Toshiba Camileo SX900 also squeezes in an HDMI connection for hooking up to a TV, a 2.7inch fold out LCD display, a 9x optical zoom and support for the new, spacious SDXC memory card format. The Toshiba Camileo SX900 also doubles up as a handy stills shooter with its 14 megapixel CMOS sensor, as it’s got facial recognition focus with support for up to 12 mugs in one frame.

Alongside the Toshiba Camileo SX900, a lower spec SX500 model has also been revealed. It shoots in the same resolution, though you’ll only get 10 megapixel stills, and a 5x optical zoom, so it’s not one for peeping Toms.

Both the Toshiba Camileo SX900 and SX500 are out in July, with prices still to be confirmed.

Out July | £TBC | Toshiba

Best Windows Mobile 6.5 apps: top 10

Posted: 16 Apr 2010 07:00 AM PDT

Windows Mobile 6.5 apps are still worth grabbing even though the OS is soon to be superseded by Windows Phone 7 Series but with shedloads of Windows Mobile apps out in the wild it can be sometimes be hard to seek out the best.

If you've got a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone and want to make the most of the mobile you're carrying around right now rather than waiting for the first wave of Windows Phony 7 Series phones, we're here to help. Here's our pick of the best Windows Mobile 6.5 apps to super-charge your smartphone.

Coreplayer, $29.95
If you've got SD cards stuffed with DivX and Xvid files, Windows 6.5 Media Player just won't do the job. In fact, it doesn’t support lots of formats you might find floating about on the web. Grab Coreplayer though and you'll be able to watch files created with almost any video codec as well as all the most popular image and audio formats.

Evernote, free
Evernote is one of our favourite apps. It's great on whatever platform you plonk it and the Windows 6.5 app keeps up the standard. You can create text, picture and voice notes and search through notes you've created on your Mac or PC. All your notes are stored in the cloud meaning you can get at them wherever you are and use the web interface to access them if you ever lose your phone.

CoPilot Live 8 UK and Ireland, £26.99
CoPilot Live 8 turns your Windows 6.5 phone into a fully features sat-nav. You just need 512MB of storage for the maps and you get speed limit alerts, tunnel guidance so directions continue even when you've got no GPS signal and lane information so you don't end up trapped by traffic and missing your junction. There's also brand named points of interest so you can find you favourite restaurant or hotel chain.

YoMo Media Reader, free
YoMo Media Reader is an RSS reader which will grab feeds, video and podcasts as often as every five minutes or as infrequently as just once a day depending on how gluttonous for new media you are. The Windows Mobile 6.5 app suggests new feeds and downloads the content to your phone so you can read it even when you don't have signal or WiFi.

WinMoSquare, free
If you want to get in on Foursquare's location aware social networking fun, WinMoSquare brings it to your Windows Mobile 6.5 phone. As with other platforms, the Windows Mobile 6.5 app lets you check in to Foursquare, find out where you friends are and add venues. It'll also show you the badges you've earned and search for interesting venues nearby.

Bing, free
While there is a Google Maps Windows 6.5 app, Bing may actually be a better choice. The maps are arguably a little clearer and it's simpler to get a new route if you get confused while following directions in the app. There is also a range built-in searches to help you find common places like garages or coffee shops which saves time on tapping out searches.

Facebook, free
A smartphone almost isn't a smartphone without the time wasting delights of Facebook. The Windows 6.5 app gives you all the most obvious functions from sending messages and calling people in your friends list to updating your own status and uploading photos and video.

Skyfire, free

Get one up on smug iPhone owners with Skyfire which gives you a Windows 6.5 app that will handle pretty much all of the web's video sites include Youtube and iPlayer with Flash and Windows Media support baked in. There are also some other nifty features including the ability to add updates from Facebook and Twitter and RSS feeds to the homescreen for quick reference. You do need a touchscreen Windows Mobile 6.5 phone to make it work though.

TouchTwit, $1.99
If you've been glaring jealously at Android and iPhone owning friends as they tweet up a storm, TouchTwit is a good Twitter app for your touchscreen Windows Mobile 6.5 phone. It shows tweets in the timeline in full, lets you manage multiple Twitter accounts and showsphotos and videos in full screen within the app as well as giving you the option to upload your own snaps and clips.

PowerSMS, $0.99
If you spend most of your time tapping out texts, PowerSMS is a Windows Mobile 6.5 app which will save your aching fingers. It gives you the option to auto-reply with a text missed calls, groups numbers you text regularly and has a simply "Notes To Self" function. It uses your standard SMS folders but also lets you schedule texts to send at a particular time and gives you stats on how many texts you've sent and who you text most.

Let us know in the comments: what are your favourite Windows Mobile 6.5 apps?

Nokia C3: first video

Posted: 16 Apr 2010 06:30 AM PDT

The Nokia C3 super cheap messaging phone was announced earlier this week, but the first video showing the phone off in the flesh has just hit the interwebs. It may not have the smarts of a new BlackBerry, but what we’re looking at here is a seriously affordable INQ Chat 3G rival.

We were impressed by the Nokia C3 when it was revealed on Wednesday, and now being demoed on by Nokia’s Lars Lellstrom, it looks even more attractive. The Nokia C3 may only run the lowly Symbian S40, so you won’t get much in the way of 3D gaming going on, but it promises absurdly lengthy battery life and super quick messaging with what would appear to be an absolutely rock solid QWERTY keyboard. We’re also surprisingly smitten with the Nokia C3’s shades, especially the cream flavour.

Nokia E5: budget E72 rival arrives

The Nokia C3 should go on sale before July, and while the final price you’ll pay on a network is still unknown, it could be next to nothing. It’ll cost just €90 (£79) SIM-free, so combined with network subsidies, we’d be very surprised if it didn’t undercut the social networking focused INQ Chat 3G by some margin – and that only costs £99.99.

Check out the Nokia C3 on video below and stay tuned for plenty more news from Espoo: we suspect the Finns have a busy few months ahead.

Out Q2 2010 | c.£79 (ExVAT) | Nokia (Via Nokia Conversations)

Apple’s war on Google: Steve Jobs’ secret weapons

Posted: 16 Apr 2010 06:00 AM PDT

Apple and Google used to be firm friends with Google CEO Eric Schmidt sitting on Apple's board. But since he left and Android arrived, the enmity between the two firms has been growing steadily.

Steve Jobs slammed Google's unofficial "don't be evil" mission statement and all traces of Google branding have been wiped from iPhone OS 4.0. The cold war between Google and Apple is about to heat up and Steve Jobs has a range of secret weapons ready to deploy. Here's our guide to the ones you should watch out for…

iAds
For all the cool products Google makes, most of its cash comes from one thing – search. iAds are a direct attack on that business with Apple angling to get advertisers hooked on interactive ads in apps. Steve Jobs addressed this battle with Google directly during the iPhone OS 4.0 launch: "We tried to buy AdMob but Google snatched them up because they didn't want us to have them, so we bought a smaller company, Quattro."

With Google facing the threat that US regulators at the FTC will block its deal to buy AdMob, it could struggle to compete while Apple motors along with the introduction of iAds. Steve Jobs was also pretty cutting about the worth of search advertising on mobile devices anyhow: "On a mobile device, search is not where it's at…[people are] using apps to get data on the internet, not generalised search."

Lala
While Google gobbled up AdMob to stop Apple from having it, Apple did much the same thing with music streaming service LaLa. Google had wanted to grab Lala to further bake its music streaming skills into Google Music Search and potentially Google Chrome OS.

With Lala, Apple is getting ready to put iTunes up into the cloud and offer a service that will combat the threat from rivals like Spotify. By grabbing Lala for itself and stopping Google from getting its hands on it, Apple staved off the threat of a Google branded streaming service for the time being.

Maps
During the iPad launch, Steve Jobs was careful just to talk about maps in general and avoided any reference to the fact that both the iPad and the iPhone currently use Google Maps. We may find soon that Google Maps is ditched altogether from the iPhone OS as Apple has its own mapping firm waiting in the wings.

Apple acquired mapping software developer PlaceBase in September 2009. PlaceBase's mapping solution, PushPin, didn’t cover as many locations as Google Maps but offers a higher level of customisation and more layers than the search giant's solution. Apple is bound to be beavering away on a new mapping app and Google Maps' days on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad look like they're numbered.

MobileMe
Google has colonised the cloud with Google Apps and Gmail but Apple has its own cloud-based suite of services in MobileMe. While it has failed to make much of it so far with the growing numbers of iPhone and iPad users out there, further MobileMe integration makes sense. Apple could even make MobileMe free to fight Google's grip on iPhone owners’ email accounts.

Google fired its own shot in the email battle with Apple in February when it snapped up reMail, an iPhone app that let you store your entire email account on your phone to speed up searching. The reMail app was pulled from the iTunes App Store and looks likely to be reborn as part of an Android email app.

Apple TV
The next big battle ground in the Apple vs Google battle looks likely to be your living room. Apple has long called the Apple TV "a hobby" but with the news that Google plans to launch Google TV with a coalition of firms including Intel and Sony, that's likely to change.

Apple has long been rumoured to be planning iTunes Replay, a cloud film and TV service for iTunes. Buying Lala and it's own huge data centre make that look pretty certain. Rumours of the iPhone OS heading to Apple TV are also point to Apple’s designs on your gogglebox.

Bing
The idea that Microsoft's Bing search engine could replace Google as the default web crawler on the iPhone and iPad would once have seemed unthinkable. But today, Microsoft is no longer Apple's biggest foe. Apple makes cash from every search via the iPhone and iPad as Google shares ad revenue with it.

Bing has already made its way onto the iPhone with the Bing iPhone app but with references to Google gone from iPhone OS 4.0, it could slide into the gap. For that to happen though, Microsoft would have to be willing to share even more of its ad spoils with Apple and cope with the inevitable wailing from fanboys.

Toshiba Portege M780 twisting touchscreen laptop outed

Posted: 16 Apr 2010 05:00 AM PDT

The Toshiba Portege M780 twisting touchscreen ultra portable laptop has just been unveiled. It’s the sequel to the 2008 Portege M750, and this time it’s rocking one of Intel’s latest, speediest processors.

The 12.1-inch Toshiba Portege M780 sticks with the same casing as the M750, which beat Asus to the folding tablet touchscreen form factor by months, but adds in an Intel Core i3 processor, plus 2GB of DDR3 RAM and a 250GB hard drive. The screen on the Toshiba Portege M780 is a touchscreen of course, and can be used with fingers or a special stylus.

Toshiba Portege M750 power packed tablet

Inside the Toshiba Portege M780 you’ll also find three USB ports (Not sadly, the new and speedy USB 3.0 type), N standard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but the big selling point is of course the ability to fold down the lid and use the Toshiba Portege M780 as a tablet for poking around the web. Who needs an iPad right?

The price for the Toshiba Portege M780 is still to be confirmed, but it’s expected to ship by the end of the month.

Out April | £TBC | Toshiba

Splinter Cell Conviction review: Overall verdict

Posted: 16 Apr 2010 04:45 AM PDT

Splinter Cell has come a long way since it first appeared as an Xbox "killer app" way back in 2002. Now Sam Fisher is back – sans night-vision goggles – but can this haggard old soldier give titles like Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company a run for their money? Consult our classified review for the answer.

Read the rest of our Splinter Cell Conviction review:

Splinter Cell Conviction review: multiplayer modes

Splinter Cell Conviction review: combat strategy

Splinter Cell Conviction review: key features

Splinter Cell's central protagonist wasn't in the best of shape when we left him at the conclusion of 2006's Splinter Cell: Double Agent. With his daughter murdered and his once-beloved government turning on him, rugged secret agent Sam Fisher was forced underground. Splinter Cell Conviction picks up where the previous title left off and marks a slightly different experience when compared to previous titles in the series.

Fisher is still as attuned to darkness as he ever was and is positively deadly when lurking in the shadows; just like the Dark Knight in the recent cross-platform hit Batman: Arkham Asylum he can leap from cover and to subdue his enemies or use stealth tactics avoid them completely. However, Fisher's arsenal of combat techniques has been expanded in Splinter Cell Conviction, giving the player even more possibilities when it comes to taking down the various bad guys which populate each level.

Firstly, Fisher isn't afraid to get stuck in and use his fists. Getting in the faces of Splinter Cell Conviction's thugs may sound a little foolhardy but it unlocks the ability to "Mark and Execute" targets, another significant new feature introduced with the game. Best described as "killing on auto-pilot", the player can tag a certain number of targets and effortlessly dispatch them with one button-press without arousing the suspicion of nearby units.

That's not the only unique element on show in Splinter Cell Conviction. Fisher’s thoughts and emotions are cleverly projected onto walls, removing the need for distracting on-screen text. From a combat viewpoint, the appearance of a marker which shows the enemy's perception of Fisher's last known location is incredibly handy, allowing you to plan room-clearing attacks on the fly.

It's this inventive nature which makes the game so compelling and helps it stand out from other similar titles on the Xbox 360. It also takes the sting out of the fact that Splinter Cell Conviction's solo mode only lasts around six hours – painfully short for a game of this type.

Thankfully this is mitigated by the fact that Splinter Cell Conviction's multiplayer choices – which include an absolutely fantastic co-operative campaign which takes place before the events of the main story – are as reassuringly robust as Fisher's military-grade Y-fronts.

Splinter Cell Conviction is certainly one of the most impressive third-person shooters currently doing the rounds on the Xbox 360 but there are moments when the package doesn't gel as well as it should. Falling somewhere in-between the original game's penchant for stealth and Modern Warfare 2's overblown gunfights, Fisher's latest adventure is trying to be all things to all men but hardcore fans of the series are likely to be disappointed with the jarring change of pace.

Splinter Cell Conviction remains a fantastic action title regardless; the inventive gameplay elements are likely to be copied by imitators and the co-op multiplayer is practically worth the price of admission alone. It's just a shame that the solo mode couldn't have lasted a little longer, because Sam Fisher certainly deserves a lot more screen time.

Read the rest of our Splinter Cell Conviction review:

Splinter Cell Conviction review: multiplayer modes

Splinter Cell Conviction review: combat strategy

Splinter Cell Conviction review: key features