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Medal of Honor: First Look!
Why Facebook privacy problems are your problems too
Turn your netbook into a desktop with Q-waves TV streaming
Q-waves explained: how to back up your PC wirelessly
Q-waves PC to TV streaming: gaming without a console
Sony launches PSP Essentials: cheap classics ahoy!
Samsung Wave preorder open now at Mobiles.co.uk
iPad Supreme Edition: £130,000 Apple tablet breaks the bank
Sony NEX-5 sequel planned? Sony NEX-7 bringing 1080p video
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sequel names nabbed by Activision

Posted: 14 May 2010 12:41 PM PDT

Medal of Honor returns in an all-new reboot of the war franchise, this time ditching the tired WWII landscape for a more modern Afghanistan setting. It’s not out in shops across Europe till October 12, but we’ve bypassed the velvet rope to get a look at it in action. Read on for our eyes-on impressions.

In an attempt to refresh the Medal of Honor franchise EA Los Angeles made clear its intentions to rebuild from the ground up with a re-boot for a new generation of gamers. See, they’ve even ditched the tagline. It’s just called Medal of Honor now.

Where previous Medal of Honor games, like so many other shooters found WWII a cosy battleground, EA has made its latest Medal of Honour title set up camp in the dangerous rock-filled territories of Afghanistan to do battle in a war that’s happening right now. It sounds like risky business, but EA claims to know what it’s doing. The developer even liaised with real-life soldiers during development in an attempt to accurately recreate and reflect upon what’s really happening out there right now.

At a secret preview in London, Executive Producer Greg Goodrich told us how the Medal of Honor team took heaps of advice from all sections of the military, even recording individual soldiers real world accounts of what it’s really like to go to war. One such example of the authenticity we can expect is different dialects and languages used by different enemies. Most of us won’t even notice it, Goodrich said, but all those details feature. Medal of Honour is “based on authenticity” not over the top silliness, Goodrich reaffirmed. He told us how moving some of the soldiers stories were.

The EA man said this was best demonstrated by the recent ‘Leave A Message‘ trailer the publisher recently released. In it a soldier leaves a voicemail message for his wife and kids, before the helicopter carrying him is set upon with rocket launchers by the Taliban.

Medal of Honor will set a different tone. It will make gamers think “That guy has a family – I’m going to help him get home”, Goodrich claimed. It’s about the people as much as it’s a story about war, if not more so.

From the demo we saw, it’s clear that EA has deliberately trimmed down deliberate action set-pieces in favour of a more realistic battleground. As in real-life enemies make full use of the terrain, hiding behind rocks, peering from caves with their rifles and attacking from all angles. The level we saw was littered with boulders and makeshift rocky hideouts – a cross between being desert-like and mountainous.

From time to time players will have to call in air support to take out enemy insurgents hiding in the unfamiliar terrain. Likewise you’ll occasionally find yourself getting told to fall back to a safe distance during heavy gunfights, as we saw in a scene where the U.S Army Rangers attempt to hold off a gun turret. The aim was to get close enough to throw throw a flare nearby to signal for an airstrike. Take too many hits and the screen gets bloodied and the sound becomes muffled. The enemy turret is soon vaporised in a thick smog of dust and debris. “That was sick”, one of the soldiers declared.

It does have its fair share of tension filled moments. Often you’ll find yourself, along with your squad ambling cautiously as they scope the scene around them, before finding themselves ambushed. It’s yet another example of the stop start suspense-filled nature of war. Thankfully your squad members are extremely helpful. They’ll let you know if they spot an enemy within sniping distance.

The demo came to an end when the U.S Army Rangers located an enemy hideout behind a locked door. A cellphone starts ringing behind it. It’s a detonator for a bomb that explodes and ends our first look at the game in action.

Speaking about why EA went for a modern setting Goodrich told us that EA wanted to reaffirm Medal of Honor as one of the top franchises in its genre. Will it succeed? There was much to be pleased about. It looks and sounds great. If EA lives up to its promise of making Medal of Honour different from other current war games it could have a winner on its hands.

We didn’t come away with too many reservations. Our biggest one was perhaps the amount of bullets enemies appeared to soak up before dying. How many bulletproof vests were they wearing? We found ourselves asking. Love it or loathe it, this is one area that Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare has nailed. For now, it’s a minor quibble and one we’ll explore further once we get our virtual warmongering hands on it.

Medal of Honor will be arriving in shops on 12 October. Expect lots more Intel to drop before then.

Out 12 October | £TBA | EA

Why Facebook privacy problems are your problems too

Posted: 14 May 2010 09:00 AM PDT

Facebook privacy problems may bother you but it seems for Facebook they're just a business issue. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year that "privacy is no longer the social norm" and the social network has been working pretty hard to chip away at the idea of personal information ever since. But why should we let Facebook decide that it's time for privacy to die?

Facebook began as a pretty private place. When it launched to universities in 2005, it promised not to share your information with anyone you didn't approve. But after a raft of Facebook privacy changes, it now often slings your data out to other sites through the Facebook Like button and through actions by your friends and Facebook apps.

Elliot Shrage, Facebook's Vice-President for public policy told the New York Times this week: "If you're not comfortable sharing, don't." And while Facebook has held a massive staff meeting to discuss the criticism it's facing over privacy issues and is set to cuddle up to Congress in the US, that seems to be its mindset.

In January, Facebook privacy changes opened up a loophole that meant someone with a list of email addresses could peer at your profile. Earlier this month, a bug led Facebook chats to be exposed. Where Facebook isn't actively eroding privacy, it's seems to be making mistakes that do that anyway. If Facebook can't keep a handle on all the information it already has about us, the future for Facebook location updates doesn't look rosy.

Facebook makes it hard to delete your account. It's relatively simple to deactivate it but to truly purge the web of your Facebook details takes hard graft. Facebook even shows you a selection of your friends and tells you they'll be sad to see you leave. That's a social network engaging in emotional blackmail.

The European Commission's Data Protection Working Party wrote a letter to Facebook this week saying recent changes that have made previously private information public by default are "unacceptable". It's absolutely right. Facebook drew us in then bit by bit pulled down the walls to reveal what we do to the world.

Facebook says: "We already enable users to exclude themselves from being indexed by search engines and recently introduced granular data permissions for applications." But those "granular" controls are the problem. Facebook privacy settings are deliberately perplexing.

Facebook privacy controls aren't even all in the same place. Some reside on the Privacy page but others like how much information Facebook advertisers can discover about you are controlled from the My Account panel. Users are searching the web in droves to discover how to sort their Facebook privacy settings – that doesn't suggest a simple system.

With over 400m users, it's unlikely that Facebook is going to fail anytime soon. But savvy users should be asking what price they'll have to pay for the social network's success. Google Buzz had similar privacy issues but the search giant soon stepped back from the changes it had made. Don't be surprised if it takes a lot more pressure to change Mark Zuckerberg's mind.

Let us know what you think: do the Facebook privacy problems worry you? Or are you happy with the methods Facebook offers to control what the world can see?

Turn your netbook into a desktop with Q-waves TV streaming

Posted: 14 May 2010 08:40 AM PDT

Beige boxes begone! Using Q-waves' PC to TV streaming technology, we're about to put your desktop out of commission, once and for all. If you're not into PC gaming or editing high def video, all you need to word process and hop about online is a lowly netbook, and Q-waves' Wireless USB AV Kit to hook it up to a big screen and make that hulking PC tower redundant. And because no cables are needed, it's ready to stash in your bag when you head on out too. Our guide explains how to set this hassle free solution up, in short and simple steps.

Install
Hooking up your netbook to a high definition TV (Or any monitor with an HDMI port) couldn't be simpler using Q-waves's kit. It works with Windows 7, Vista and XP, so no matter what your dinky computer is running, it'll work, and you can install the drivers from Q-waves' website, skirting the need for a CD drive. When you're done, plug one receiver into your netbook, and the other into your sharp, makeshift desktop screen, and you'll see your desktop pop up on it. Q-waves' technology can output resolutions higher than your netbook's actual screen, so regardless of how old it is, browsing the web will look extra clear on your TV.

Plug in a keyboard and go
While Q-waves' kit handles the PC to TV streaming, you'll want a full size USB keyboard and mouse to get you typing at desktop speeds not possible on a netbook's cramped QWERTY. You could plug them in every time you walk through the door, but where's the simplicity in that? Stock up with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo instead: the receivers they use are so small now that you can comfortably leave them in your netbook around the clock, wherever you take it. Now you've cut all the cables, you can leave the little laptop and move the peripherals next to your big screen to start web surfing as if there was a big, humming desktop tower in the room.

Set up your screens
To use your HDTV as your PC monitor, there's just one more thing you need to do: bring up the settings menu from the DisplayLink tab in your netbook's system tray, and select it as the main monitor. Q-waves' Wireless USB AV Kit gets even smarter too, letting you mirror your netbook's screen as well, or even extend the desktop from one display to the other: you can power through your work and the web on one, while leaving your inbox or chat client open on the other. The options are all just a click away, and take just a few seconds to kick in.

Take it further
If you've got a more powerful laptop or PC than a netbook, you can unlock the full HD video, wireless networking potential of Q-waves' PC to TV streaming set up. Just install and pop the Q-waves receiver in, and you can stream fullscreen online movies straight to your TV, or even play games without the need for a console. And if you're worried about losing all the precious photos stashed on your machine, be it netbook or gaming behemoth, you can back it all up, automatically and over the air with the Q-waves Wireless USB Data Kit. It's all possible with Q-waves' easy wireless USB gear, and our handy guides to walk you through.

Find out more about Q-waves

Q-waves explained: how to back up your PC wirelessly

Posted: 14 May 2010 08:33 AM PDT

Q-waves' wireless USB gear doesn't just grant you instant TV streaming from your computer: it'll let you chuck files over the air and use USB gadgets from the other side of the room, as if they were plugged right in. It's simple, seamless, wireless networking, and it means you can backup your computer, be it desktop, laptop or netbook, automatically, wherever you leave it lying around the house. Now there's no need to fear your PC taking a tumble and losing all your holiday snaps: our Q-waves guide shows you how to back up all your media, work and more in just minutes.

Get set
Rigging up Q-waves' Wireless USB Data Kit couldn't be simpler. Because it runs on Windows 7, Vista, and XP, it'll work with any PC you've already got: you just load the drivers from the provided CD, and plug in the dongle into a USB port on the side. Once that's done, just slot the receiver into the mains somewhere out of the way, and any USB gizmo you slip in will appear on your computer, just like it was hogging a slot on the side of the machine. You can even plug a USB hub in, to have more than one device active at a time.

Hook up a hard drive
For the easiest, speediest results, you'll want to pick up an external hard drive with a USB 2.0 connection: one with a terabyte of storage will be more than enough to back up all the computers in your home, and can now be had for under £70. Any decent brand will come with a backup scheduler, letting you choose what folders are copied and buried away for safekeeping, as well as how often. Then when you're done, just carry on as you were. So long as you've got line of sight, all your crucial photo albums, music collections and saved files will be stashed using Q-waves' wireless networking skills at the intervals you set. It's all automatic, and everything will be ready to restore with a click, should the worst happen and your PC's hard disk conks out.

Do it on the cheap
Because the Q-waves Wireless USB Data Kit works with any USB plug-ins, you can even save on the cost of an extra hard drive, and make use of memory sticks you've already got lying around the house to stash your all important files and folders. Just pop one in to the Q-waves receiver (Or a memory card reader if you have a spare SD card) and instead of fiddling around writing a complicated script, give Microsoft's free SyncToy software a quick install. You'll be able to schedule folder backups to a USB stick over the air this way, as if it were a hard drive. For full restores, you'll want a dedicated hard drive still, but if you just want to secure photos and documents, it's ideal.

Take it further
It's not just hard drives that work with Q-waves' Wireless USB Data Kit. Any peripheral with a USB plug on the end will slot straight into the station, ready for use sans cables, so if you want to rig up an impromptu wireless network for any device you need, be sure to check out our guide. Once you've got backup sorted for your laptop, you'll also want to check out Q-waves' Wireless USB AV Kit, for some scorchingly fast PC to TV streaming action. Large screen Skype chats, gaming and internet video on demand: it can all be flung to your flatscreen quickly and easily using Q-waves' clever tech.

Find out more about Q-waves

Q-waves PC to TV streaming: gaming without a console

Posted: 14 May 2010 08:00 AM PDT

Q-waves' TV streaming gear isn't just for slinging video from your laptop to your flatscreen. It's perfect for gaming too, without the hassle, expense and endless software updates of a next-generation console. And we don't just mean a few blasts of Minesweeper: we're talking first person shooters and blockbuster titles. Using Q-waves' simple USB wireless networking set up, our guide will show you how to take your favourite games from your computer and play them on your telly, without the need for yet another set top box cluttering up your living room.

Set up
You'll first need to grab a Q-Waves Wireless USB AV Kit, a much cheaper, smaller set up than any home console. It takes just minutes to install from CD, and will work on any Windows 7, Vista or XP laptop: once that's done your computer will handle all the wireless networking automatically and seamlessly. All you need to do is plug the dongle in to the PC, the receiver into an HDMI port on the back of your telly, and watch your desktop appear in front of you. Then when you're ready, fire up a game and see it pop up in fullscreen on your TV.

Ditch the keyboard
There's no need to perch on the couch with a keyboard balanced on your knees. Pick up a USB gamepad, and you can replace any console once and for all, lean back and blast your way through a new game with dual thumbsticks, just like a PS3 or an Xbox 360, but via the magic of TV streaming instead. Top quality pads are available online for well under a tenner, and even offer vibration feedback, replicating the console experience completely. The only difference with Q-waves' kit is that when it's time to head out, you can take the laptop with you and carry on playing after a simple pause.

Expand your library
You don't just have to play Games For Windows titles this way. Q-waves' wireless networking tech slings the screen to your TV, so there's nothing stopping you from firing up any emulator you like and merging all the consoles from yesteryear you owned – so long as you own the original titles. And if you install the free XBMC media centre software, you can browse through all your games with a clean and easy to use design, far back from the screen and in the comfort of your armchair.

Take it further
If you're looking for something a little less frantic than a Call Of Duty multiplayer fragging session, the same Q-waves Wireless USB AV Kit will let you relax with online video on your big screen instead, straight from your sofa. You could fire up BBC iPlayer of course, but there are plenty more vast libraries of free, high quality movies available on the web too, and we've got the best video sites for them rounded up in our guide. And should you need to get some work done in between catching up on all those Corrie episodes, it'll even have your lowly netbook doubling up as a desktop machine with a much larger screen.

Find out more about Q-waves

Sony launches PSP Essentials: cheap classics ahoy!

Posted: 14 May 2010 07:30 AM PDT

Sony has just announced a range of cheap PSP games called PSP Essentials which are set to arrive this summer. The twenty titles in the first batch of budget PSP games will set you back just £9.99 each. So what tasty treats does Sony have in store?

Games included in the first wave of PSP Essentials include The Sims 2, FIFA 09, Fight Night First Round and Ratchet & Clank Size Matters.

Sony Europe's Isabelle Tomatis says the PSP Essentials range is to "make sure every PSP gamer – and younger newcomers in particular – can get their hands on the best portable gaming experiences at affordable prices."

It may also have more than a little to do with the encroaching threat of iPhone games and the iPad as well as the looming spectre of the Nintendo 3DS.

Will Sony's PSP Essentials range persuade you to pick up your PSP again or have other gaming distractions taken its place? Maybe the PSP 2 will turn the tide.

Due June | £9.99 | Sony

Samsung Wave preorder open now at Mobiles.co.uk

Posted: 14 May 2010 07:00 AM PDT

The Samsung Wave has caused quite a squall in the smartphone seas as the first handset to pack the bada OS. And if you're itching to get your hands on it we've got good news. The Samsung Wave is already up for preorder and will start shipping this time next week, on iPad UK launch day no less.

Samsung Wave registration on Vodafone is open now but Mobiles.co.uk has gone further, cracking open preorders for the bada apps sporting smartie.

It's over 24 month deals on the Samsung Wave starting from £25 a month on Orange with the phone free and £30 a month on Vodafone also offering the handset gratis.

The Samsung Wave comes packing the TouchWiz 3.0 interface and Social Hub to personalise your homescreens and get all your social media stuff together, a 3.3in AMOLEd screen and a 1GHz processor revving up inside.

Our Samsung Wave review will be up next week and if you've got questions you want it to answer, click the next link and tell us: Samsung Wave questions.

Out May 28 | from £free with contract | Mobiles.co.uk

iPad Supreme Edition: £130,000 Apple tablet breaks the bank

Posted: 14 May 2010 06:30 AM PDT

iPad UK prices had some people rolling their eyes but the cost of a gold and diamond encrusted iPad from UK luxury gadget maker Stuart Hughes will probably make them faint. The 64GB iPad WiFi + 3G would normally set you back £699 but after adding diamonds and gold, the price of the iPad Supreme Edition rockets up to a bank balance obliterating £129,995.

The iPad Supreme Edition replaces the standard iPad back and surround with a single piece of solid 22ct gold with a similarly golden Apple logo encrusted with 53 individually set diamonds. Bolting all that bling onto the iPad Supreme edition changes the weight from 730g to a gargantuan 2,100g.

If you've already put your iPad UK preorder in, don't worry about cancelling it in the hope of remortgaging your house and grabbing an iPad Supreme Edition. Stuart Hughes is only making 10 of the gaudily dressed Apple tablets.

Want to find out what to expect from your move modestly dressed iPad? Try our iPad UK review and check out our rundown of the iPad UK 3G data plans. And feel free to hit the comments to let us know what you make of the world's most expensive iPad.

Out now | £129,995 | Stuart Hughes

Sony NEX-5 sequel planned? Sony NEX-7 bringing 1080p video

Posted: 14 May 2010 05:30 AM PDT

The Sony NEX-5 grabbed our attention earlier this week with its HD video skills but it seems Sony already has a sequel in the works. The Sony NEX-7 will apparently bring 1080p HD video recording to the party, upping the ante from the Sony NEX-5’s 1080i HD video recording.

According to whispers that found their way to the eager ears of the photo fanatics at EOSHD, Sony will drop the full HD capturing Sony NEX-7 later this year.

The Sony NEX-7 is rumoured to pack a slightly different chip to the 14.2MP APS HD CMOS sensor in the Sony NEX-5, giving it the ability to grab 1080p clips at 60fps and 24fps as well as 720p footage at 120fps and 60fps which will deliver super slow-motion footage.

The other big difference between the Sony NEX-7 and the Sony NEX-5 (and its sibling the Sony NEX-3) is said to be a bigger body. It'll have an electronic viewfinder, use the same E-Mount lenses as the NEX-5 and NEX-3 and pack an adaptor to support the A-Mount versions used by current Sony Alpha DSLRs.

Sony is apparently aiming to show the Sony NEX-7 at the Photokina exhibition in September with a plan to battle the follow-up to the Panasonic Lumix G2 and outgun Olympus's Micro Four Thirds plans.

Is Sony making a good case for ditching your DSLR in favour of the more compact NEX models? Or are you committed to your current camera? Make sure you take a look at our Sony NEX-5 photos and Sony NEX-5 first impressions.

Due TBC | £TBC | Sony (via Slashgear)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sequel names nabbed by Activision

Posted: 14 May 2010 05:00 AM PDT

Call of Duty is set to return with Call of Duty: Black Ops but Activision is already looking to the future…literally. The game giant has gobbled up a new bunch of Call of Duty domain names including Future Warfare. Are we set to see sequels to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 rocketing into space?

Superannuation, the blog that first spotted the Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood domain, has dived into Activision's recent registrations and revealed some interesting additions.

While there's been upheaval at Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward, Activision is clearly setting up for the future by grabbing "Call of Duty: Future Warfare", "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare", "Call of Duty: Secret Warfare" and "Call of Duty: Space Warfare". It’s also snapped up variants with "2" and "3" added.

We know that Sledgehammer Games is working on a Call of Duty game that Activision says will "extend the franchise into the action-adventure genre". Perhaps one of this new clutch of Call of Duty names will end up pinned to that. It's possible that Activision won't use any of them and is making sure no one else can either.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is taking us back to the Cold War. Would you be up for a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 follow-up that went in the other direction and ditched the present day for the far-off future? Or is that just a step too far?

Due TBC | £TBC | Activision (via Superannuation)

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Saturday, 15 May 2010

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