Electricpig.co.uk - tech news fast!

BT hiking line rental, unless you pay up front
HTC HD2 review: Ultimate buyer’s guide
Lunchtime Lowdown: Darth Jobs, Jailbreaks, Strange Aircraft, Multiple Plants and Zombies
LG: first 3D notebook R590 3D
Steve Jobs claims Nokia stickers show signal weaknesses: can you find them?
Plants vs Zombies: multiplayer modes uncovered
iPhone 4 jailbreak: yes you will
iPhone 4 antenna controversy animated: Steve Jobs as Darth Vader!
Parrot AR Drone review
Tech Sonar: Xbox, iPhone 4 jailbreak, Samsung Wave

BT hiking line rental, unless you pay up front

Posted: 19 Jul 2010 05:20 AM PDT

BT will be hiking its monthly line rental by 50p this autumn, in a move which is likely to disgruntle broadband users who are tied into line rental as a condition of getting a broadband connection. The only way to avoid BT’s increase will be to pay 12 months up front, a massive cost that most of us are unlikely to be willing to pay.

BT has 12.5 million customers, meaning the hike could bring in as much as £6.25 million for the company.

A spokesperson for BT says: "Like many businesses, we have to review our prices as we seek to cover costs and emerge from recession in good shape." Other than this though, BT are declining to comment on what the extra dosh is going to be used for.

The big cash ask is being touted by BT as a "Line Rental saver plan" which offers a saving of £45.60 for paying up front for 12 months line rental.

Charges that are rising are line rental, which goes up 50p, Call return, which leaps 4.2p to 16.5p. The set up fee is also up 1p and the daytime geo rate is up 0.5p.

Will you pay up front, or is this enough to push you to another provider?

HTC HD2 review: Ultimate buyer’s guide

Posted: 19 Jul 2010 04:53 AM PDT

The HTC HD2 impressed us when we saw it last year. Easily the best Windows Mobile phone we have seen, and a solid use of HTC’s Sense skin comparable with the company’s more recent Android phones. Fancy picking one up? Our HTC HD2 review: Ultimate buyer’s guide will help you seek out the best bargains.

Read the rest of our HTC HD2 review and hands on coverage now
HTC HD2 review
HTC HD2 unboxing
HTC HD2 hands-on

Best for SIM-free

The HTC HD2 has been around for a while now but it will still set you back a fair bit compared even to some newer phones. If you want to get one unlocked, though, you will need to pay up.

Expansys have the HTC HD2 for £434.99, unlocked but the cheapest we have found it is at Simply Electronics, who offer the phone for a paltry £389.95.

Best for Data hogs

Internet Explorer may not be the most joyous mobile browser, but that big screen does make for a better web browsing experience than most Windows Mobile phones. Switch to Opera and you are in for a treat. Of course, you’ll need a decent data tariff to go with it.

Orange offer 500 MB of data plus 300 minutes and unlimited texts on their Dolphin 25 deal if you shell out £9.99 for the phone through Mobiles.co.uk.

Best for Chatterboxes

If you sign up via E2Save, O2 can do unlimited minutes and unlimited texts on a 24 month contract for just £37.81 if you factor in cashback equivalent to half price for 15 months.

If you fancy something less complicated and don’t quite need infinite talk time, T-Mobile offer 1200 anytime minutes and unlimited texts for £40 on an 18-month Text 1200 contract.

Best all round deal

Eighteen month contracts are hard to come by for the HTC HD2. If you want to avoid lock-in for 2 years, you will almost certainly need to pay something towards the cost of the handset.

The best we found was £49.99 for the phone, £25/month for 300 any network minutes and unlimited texts on O2, via Mobiles.co.uk. You can of course add O2’s usual bolt-ons to get the appropriate data allowance.

Read the rest of our HTC HD2 review and hands on coverage now
HTC HD2 review
HTC HD2 unboxing
HTC HD2 hands-on

Lunchtime Lowdown: Darth Jobs, Jailbreaks, Strange Aircraft, Multiple Plants and Zombies

Posted: 19 Jul 2010 04:30 AM PDT

Its time for lunch, so unpack your sandwiches or fire up the portable rotisserie as we take you through some of the stories your missed this morning. Mmm, tasty, tasty news.

This morning we terrorized the pigeons of London’s Regents Park while reviewing the Parrot AR Drone and rubbed our hands with glee at the prospect of Plants vs Zombies multiplayer modes.

Steve Jobs’ made some rather bizarre claims that Nokia phones sometimes have stickers on the back saying ‘Don’t touch here’ and we challenged you to find them. Steve – do get in touch if you can clarify.

Meanwhile, you responded to poll to discover if you will jailbreak your iPhone 4 by practically screaming YES! at us. A whopping 79 per cent of you say that you will be jailbreaking as soon as a stable tool becomes available so you can make the most of underused features like the gyroscope.

We also saw a frankly mental animation from Taiwanese news people NMANews which depicts the iPhone 4 antennagate in terms of a lightsaber and force energy duel between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and shows Jobs using a Darth Vader-style crushing grip to take out Gizmodo blogger Jason Chen. This may not have been exactly what happened but – as is so often the case – fiction can reveal a deeper truth.

Finally, we goggled at the first 3D laptop from LG – the LG R950 3D, which uses the same Real3D technology as your local cinema but much smaller and without the need to pay a fiver for popcorn.

Still hungry for news? Hit up the Homepage and we shall dispense tasty facts.

LG: first 3D notebook R590 3D

Posted: 19 Jul 2010 04:03 AM PDT

LG's 3D notebook, the LG R590 3D is being launched in Korea as we speak. It'll be launched internationally in the weeks to come, and comes complete with 3D polarising glasses, meaning you don't have to shell out all over again for pricey Sony/other manufacturer’s versions.

The glasses are the plastic Buddy Holly style specs given out at the cinema, and as such don't need batteries or have any electronic gadgetry inside. It's also carrying HD sound, and there's an optional Blu-ray drive. TriDef software (included) will convert 2D video to 3D in real time.

The LG R590 3D notebook has a 15.6 inch dispay, and a speedy Intel Core i7 processor with NVIDIA, plus 1GB of video memory.

LG is also introducing 3D monitor for gaming, and a 3D projector along with the notebook. The projector will give an image of up to 200 inches, and will ship with six pairs of glasses.

This isn't the first laptop we've spotted with 3D capabilities, Acer also has a 3D laptop, the Acer Aspire 3D (also known as the catchily titled Acer Aspire AS-5738DG-664G50Mn), and Toshiba, Asus, and Samsung also have 3D ready laptops too.

Steve Jobs claims Nokia stickers show signal weaknesses: can you find them?

Posted: 19 Jul 2010 03:35 AM PDT

Steve Jobs said the signal drop shown by the iPhone 4 is a problem shared by plenty of other phones during the iPhone 4 press conference on Friday night. As well as showing videos featuring phones from RIM, HTC and Samsung, Jobs also took a swing at Nokia.

Jobs said: "You can go on the web and look at pictures of Nokia phones that ship with stickers on the back that say 'Don't touch here'." ??We've been scouring the web to find photos or videos of these stickered up Nokia phones and have drawn a blank. Read on for Nokia's response and hit the comments with any links that might help us in our hunt for the Nokia signal stickers…

Nokia put out a statement in response to Steve Jobs's claims and pointed to its history of developing phones with internal antennas. It says the venerable Nokia 8810, which launched in 1998, was the first consumer phone to come packing the feature.

But Nokia doesn't deny that how you hold your phone can affect signal: "In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That's why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases…"

In a jab at Steve Jobs, Apple and the aesthetics of the iPhone 4, Nokia says: "We prioritize antenna over physical design if they are ever in conflict."

While we've found some Nokia user manual instructions warning not to "avoid touching the antenna area unnecessarily", we haven't been able to uncover the stickers Steve Jobs referred to. Can you?

Hit the comments to let us know if you've had a Nokia phone with a signal warning emblazoned on the phone. Even better, point us to pictures or videos showing a Nokia phone with a "don't touch here" sticker.

Out now | £free | Apple

Plants vs Zombies: multiplayer modes uncovered

Posted: 19 Jul 2010 03:02 AM PDT

A Plants vs Zombies announcement is due next month with rumours staggering around and moaning that we'll see Plants vs Zombies 2 unveiled. Now a list of achievements uncovered by the incredibly focused folk at Xbox360 Achievements seems to have revealed that multiplayer modes are coming to long-awaited Xbox Live Arcade version of Plants vs Zombies. Could the iPad and iPhone incarnations be getting the same treatment?

The list of Plants vs Zombies achievements is predominantly made up of single player tasks (like survive 40 waves of zombies or blast 10 zombies at once). However, two achievements point to new multiplayer modes. The first ZFF's 4 Evr is for "winning with a friend in co-op Wall-Nut bowling" while the second Versus vs Versus is for "a 5 game winning streak in VS. mode."

That makes it pretty plain that Plants vs Zombies on Xbox Live Arcade will include a Co-Op mode (at least for the bowling mini game) and a Versus mode which could even mean one player actually gets to take on the role of the zombies.

We've seen plenty of multiplayer iPhone and iPad games using Bluetooth to hook up players or hopping online to find foes . It wouldn't be too surprising to see Co-Op and versus modes coming to Plants vs Zombies iPhone and iPad editions too. And just when we thought we’d knocked our addiction on the head!

Out TBC | £TBC | PopCap (via Xbox360Achievements)

iPhone 4 jailbreak: yes you will

Posted: 19 Jul 2010 02:40 AM PDT

The iPhone 4 jailbreak has been hanging by a thread for what seems like weeks now. Every titbit is leapt upon like jackals to scrap meat. So last week we asked you, our readers, whether you'd be getting the jailbreak for your iPhone 4. You answered enormously, almost unanimously, in the affirmative.

An epic, concordant 'yes!' flew out over the battlements at Electricpig towers, as 79 per cent of you said that yes, you would definitely be getting in on the jailbreak for your iPhone 4 as soon as it was possible, and said you wanted to make proper use of the iPhone 4's capabilities, such as the gyroscope.

The other 21 per cent of you were split over the jailbreak. Five per cent said you had no idea that your iPhone 4 was even imprisoned, and three per cent said that you would definitely not be jailbreaking your iPhone 4, as you didn't want to be slurping up your own data allowance FaceTiming over 3G.

Only 12 per cent said that you would be holding back and waiting to see what treats emerge from the jailbreak.

In short, you're all waiting with baited breath to jump right in, without waiting to check if Apple will be throwing a spanner in the works. Is this in reaction to Apple's dictatorial control, or is it more about the jailbreak allowing you to make the best of your iPhone 4 sooner rather than later?

What's the key appeal of the jailbreak for you? Tell us in the comments!

iPhone 4 antenna controversy animated: Steve Jobs as Darth Vader!

Posted: 19 Jul 2010 01:55 AM PDT

If our iPhone 4 antenna controversy coverage hasn't been enough for you, try this video from the frankly barmy animators at Taiwanese news outfit NMANews. Rather than a realistic retelling of the iPhone 4 press conference, it offers up Steve Jobs in a lightsaber duel with Bill Gates, Apple responding to the iPhone 4 leak by getting Gizmodo's Jason Chen in a real death grip and the reality distortion field visualised. Click through for some mind-bending Monday morning viewing…

We've seen some interesting iPhone 4 signal solutions before but the video features the most extreme solution to the problem so far: lopping off two fingers with a lightsaber. Thankfully, the real life version of Steve Jobs stuck to offering free iPhone 4 cases instead.

Let us know what you make of Steve Jobs’ Vader makeover. Are you among the tech fans who really think Apple is the new evil empire of tech?

Out now | £free | NMANews

Parrot AR Drone review

Posted: 19 Jul 2010 01:45 AM PDT

The Parrot AR Drone pretty much stole the show at this year’s CES expo in Las Vegas, simply by taking off. Just look at the thing. It’s got four blades! The iPod touch controlled quadricopter is finally going on sale in the UK next month though, and we got to put it through a thorough test flight well ahead of schedule. Just how thorough? We pushed its skills and industrial design to the limit, and er, actually broke it. Don’t worry though – read our full Parrot AR Drone review right here and you’ll see that it’s far from delicate.

What you may be surprised to find if you’ve only seen the Parrot AR Drone flown indoors, is that it’s almost two different vehicles in one, by way of the two different hulls it uses (and which come in the box). It comes with a light, flexible polystyrene bumper to protect the blades, and it doesn’t feel like it can be torn in anyway. A simple tap of the launch button on the app, it floats up to a metre, stabilises and then you’re off. That’s enough to have you pestering everyone around the office, hovering above their heads while they try to file that report, and that’s a blast in itself.

Indoors however, you’ll never build up any speed before a wall, filing cabinet or litigious employee gets in the way. Outdoors, with the bumper off, the Parrot AR Drone is a speedier, scarier, beast altogether. It looks like something else entirely (The Starbug from Red Dwarf, actually), zipping around in every direction at a frightening pace. You don’t need to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot either – the Parrot AR Drone creates its own. And yes, outdoors, it’s even more fun.

Controlling the Parrot AR Drone is utterly intuitive on an iPod touch (or iPhone) – though we’re not quite so sure the same is true of the larger iPad, as we weren’t able to try this out. The first few tries will end in crashes as you adjust to the concept, but a few goes in, something will click, especially if you’re a gamer. A Parrot rep told us that the aim is to get so good at flying the Parrot AR Drone that you only need look at the screen. We didn’t get to that stage – he admitted even he hadn’t yet either, but we can certainly see that being possible with practice, on calm days when the wind isn’t likely to abruptly place it over a highway without you noticing.

The app itself is impressive, if very functional looking. Text and menus are ugly, but that’s besides the point when you can see out of the Parrot AR Drone’s two cameras on it at all times – we tested to see how long the delay was in the stream and it was only a few fractions of a second. Controls work by holding down the left side of the screen and tilting to push forward or back, or tilt left and right, while the right side of the screen brings up a thumbpad you can use to rotate the Parrot AR Drone. It takes a bit of getting used to, but is definitely easier than the X and Y axis controls you might have used on other remote control toy choppers.

We found having to reconnect sometimes by having to turn the Wi-Fi on and off on the iPod touch was a bit of a chore when the Parrot AR Drone needed restabilising, but naturally this becomes less of an issue as you get better and fly for longer continuously. The app will available for free on the day of launch, along with an augmented reality game, but it’s not available to test yet.

Of course, that it uses an iPod touch could itself be seen as a drawback. It’s the only way you can control it, so if you don’t have an iOS device, that’s at least another £150 you’ll be spending in order to play with the Parrot AR Drone. It’s a shame as back in January, Parrot was talking up potential Android integration for the quadricopter – that’s not come to pass sadly, and the company has nothing to announce on that front.

The range of the Parrot AR Drone was impressive, and as advertised: around 50 metres or so. We decided to see if that was true going upwards as well, and reached about 20 metres up – which is much, much higher than it sounds. We were testing the Parrot AR Drone in Regent’s Park in central London, and to see the view above the skyline appear on an iPod touch was utterly fantastic.

Then we hit a slight hitch when a gust of wind blew the Parrot AR Drone into a tree. It crashed to earth, and one of the plastic rotors broke in half, ending our flight session.

To be clear though, this is far from a flaw. We flew the Parrot AR Drone into a massive tree, it fell the height of a seven storey building to solid earth, and the only thing that snapped was half a plastic cog. Which you can replace. That’s it, and given the model we tested is the only one in the country right now, it’s already notched up its fair share of Parrot staff crashes. The Wi-Fi was still working and we could still see out of the camera. You can even set a height limit on the app to stop it from soaring up to the heavens.

The point is, you’ll struggle to break the Parrot AR Drone unless you really, really try, especially on a calm day, and with the plastic bumpers, we’re pretty sure it’s nigh on impossible to bust indoors.

The real obstacle is the price. For the power, ease of use and sheer enjoyment, the Parrot AR Drone is reasonably affordable at £299, but even if you have an iPod touch already, you’re going to run up against the battery issue. There’s just one in the box, and it lasts as long as Parrot claims – 12 or 13 minutes of flight time, with 90 minutes or so’s charging needed to go again. Realistically, to get maximum enjoyment from the Parrot AR Drone, you are going to have to buy yourself a couple of batteries (Price TBC but they will be sold separately, as will all the parts, from day one).

But if you can slap down that much cash for what is essentially the ultimate boy’s toy, you’ll be strapping yourself in for the ride of your adult life.

Tech Sonar: Xbox, iPhone 4 jailbreak, Samsung Wave

Posted: 19 Jul 2010 01:09 AM PDT

Electricpig this week will be keeping our ear to the ground about the iPhone 4 jailbreak, getting demos of earphones, 2D to 3D conversion, and some nifty gadgets. Ben Sillis is away this week and next, so watch out for Toby Knight who'll be testing the latest gadgets and games in his place. Got an idea, or a tip? Let us know. Read on for more details about what's coming up in the tech world this week…

Monday
Today we'll be following the continuing backlash against Steve Jobs roping everyone else into his signal woes. We'll also be having a gander at some Jura coffee machines.

Tuesday
We'll be staying in our pyjmas for a morning to try out Sound Asleep's latest sound system for the bed (yep, not bedroom, bed), and meeting the Etymotic earphone team, who make custom fit earphones and hi fidelity earplugs. We'll also be getting a demonstration from Cyberlink, who'll be showing off their 2D to 3D software conversion software.

Wednesday
Wednesday this week we've got reviews of Dragon Quest 9 and the Samsung Wave ultimate buyers guide.

Thursday
Oregon Scientific will be showing off its niftiest gadgets for outdoors and indoors, including a new collection of 'wellness' gadgets…