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- Nokia C3 review: Ultimate buyer’s guide
- Apple Magic Trackpad adds new multitouch gesture
- Apple battery charger sneaks out. “Magic” branding mysteriously absent
- Global PAYG directory will save you a ton
- Apple 27in LED Cinema Display revealed but not hitting the UK yet
- New iMac debuts: Magic mouse still standard, trackpad optional
- Apple Magic Trackpad unveiled: multitouch for any Mac
- Kane & Lynch 2 Dog Days single player: First Play!
- iPhone 4 Jailbreak: now legal says US Govt.
- iPhone 4 jailbreak: why Apple should leave those coder kids alone
| Nokia C3 review: Ultimate buyer’s guide Posted: 27 Jul 2010 07:56 AM PDT  Did you see our Nokia C3 review? We were quite taken with this little device – it may only be running Symbian S40, but it packs quite a punch for the price. Want one? Check out our Nokia C3 review: Ultimate buyer’s guide.
Read the rest of our Nokia C3 review now Well, normally we would give you a full breakdown of the best deals on different networks, comparing paid-for handsets to those free on 18 month contracts, etc. etc. Thing is, the Nokia C3 isn’t available on contract, well, anywhere.  If you do want one, then, you have two options. Either buy from Vodafone for £80 or direct from Nokia for £119. While this may seem lke a no-brainer, the Vodafone deal is locked to that network – they want you to sign up with them on a Pay As You Go or SIM-only monthly deal. Going direct to Nokia will get you an unlocked phone that you can move to any network you like. Assuming you go with Vodafone then you have the choice of one of the better and more flexible SIM-only providers around. Vodafone offer 12-month contracts and also 30 day contracts. If you don’t like the service you are getting, Vodafone will let you break a 30 day SIM-only contract by giving them a month’s notice. You get slightly less miutes for your money on 30 day deals, but the flexibility may be worth it if you are unsure. Vodafone’s PAYG tariff is even simpler – just 20p per minute and 10p per text. They don’t offer much in the way of data, though. If you choose the Nokia route and pick up an unlocked handset your options broaden considerably. Almost every UK network offers some kind of SIM-only or PAYG deal. 3 offers a choice of £25/month for 200 any-network minutes/ 5000 3-to-3 moniutes and 1GB internet on a 12-month contract or a rolling monthly contract for £15 which offers considerably less. O2 do some interesting deals that will let you select different PAYG usage types ad pay different rates – e.g. their Text & Web deal lets you pay less for 500MB data and texts and slightly more for calls. A newcomer worth checking out is GiffGaff. GiffGaff is a ‘user run’ PAYG service that piggybacks on O2’s network. They offer competitive rates, discounts for introducing new people to the service and are currently operating a half price top-up deal during the summer and – best of all – free 3G internet until October. On October 1st data usage settles down to a flat 50p a day, although if you only use a little data GiffGaff say you could be charged less. Read the rest of our Nokia C3 review now Related posts:
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| Apple Magic Trackpad adds new multitouch gesture Posted: 27 Jul 2010 07:03 AM PDT 
Out now | £59 | Apple (via Engadget) Related posts:
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| Apple battery charger sneaks out. “Magic” branding mysteriously absent Posted: 27 Jul 2010 06:52 AM PDT  Planning on buying a Magic Trackpad? Got a Magic Mouse? How about a magic Apple Keyboard? Then you'll be gobbling up batteries like a kid at Christmas, which is why Apple's just launched its own battery charger. It might not be branded as being “magic” but Cupertino reckons it's super efficient, and of course, it looks lovely. The Apple battery charger is a nice touch, if you ask us, although at $29 (and seemingly not available on the UK store) it's a little pricey. It comes bundled with six AA batteries, and charges two of those at any time. Apple reckons its rechargable batteries have a lifetime of 10 years, although it doesn't say how many charging cycles that equates to, or how many hours of real world use. Likewise, the Mac-maker reckons its batteries have "an extraordinarily low self-discharge rate" which means that "even after a year of sitting in a drawer, they still retain 80 percent of their original charge." Inside, Apple says the Apple battery charger is designed to be super efficient, intelligently using less power once your batteries are fully charged. It explains the slight design tweak to Apple's wireless keyboard earlier this year, when it switched from using three AA batteries to two. The Apple battery charger lets you use two batteries in your keyboard, two in your mouse or trackpad and have two charging at any one time. The move to launch an Apple battery charger will also score Cupertino some brownie points with green campaigners, as Apple encourages customers to "finally break the cycle of buying and disposing of those toxic, single-use alkaline batteries." Us? We think it’s handy, and a logical extension of Apple’s quest to cut cables and make every Mac accessory wireless. We like the design, which features swappable mains connectors, so it’ll work around the world. The big question is, will you plump for Apple when it comes to snagging batteries for your tech? Out now | $29 | Apple Related posts:
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| Global PAYG directory will save you a ton Posted: 27 Jul 2010 06:45 AM PDT 
Pay as you go sim with data Wiki is the self-explanatory if somewhat less-than-snappy title of the site. Built using Wikia.com’s instant wiki site service, PAYGSWDW – as we have decided to call it – is a place for people to share the Pay As You Go SIM rates for different countries around the world. Seasoned travellers will know that using your phone abroad can cost a lot more than using it at home. This problem is further complicated by data-hungry phones like the iPhone and Android mobiles. International data tariffs can be exorbitant and many unsuspecting iPhone owners have been hit with huge bills when they forgot to disable internet access and email sync before going abroad. PAYGSWDW (seriously, guys, think about it) is a very simple wiki that lists countries and the PAYG options that are available in them. The site is geared towards users who want to data while they are travelling so most listings contain mention of how much you can expect to pay per MB or if there are flat-rate plans available. The wiki is nowhere near complete yet – the UK page only lists T-Mobile, O2, ASDA, Virgin and GiffGaff, for example – so there is plenty of scope if you want to contribute. We will definitely be keeping this site bookmarked for our next trip abroad. Available now | Free | Pay as you go sim with data Wiki (via Kottke) Related posts:
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| Apple 27in LED Cinema Display revealed but not hitting the UK yet Posted: 27 Jul 2010 06:40 AM PDT 
The new 24in Apple LED Cinema Display packs a 2560 x 1440 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio. There's the usual built-in iSight camera and microphone, a 49W 2.1 speaker system and a Mini DisplayPort connector with audio support. You'll also get the standard two USB 2.0 ports, two Firewire 400 connections and a Kensington security port to keep your new purchase locked down. Apple hasn't put a price of date on the 27in LED Cinema Display for the UK yet but it’s due to touch down in September. Given that the 24in goes for £649 and the 30in will currently set you back £1199, expect it to cost you a pretty penny. Apple's slapped a $999 price tag on the 24in LED Cinema Display for American Apple fans but that would be around £642. We'll keep our little piggy eyes pointed at the Apple Store and let you know when the 27in LED Cinema Display gets a UK price. Out September | £TBC | Apple Related posts:
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| New iMac debuts: Magic mouse still standard, trackpad optional Posted: 27 Jul 2010 06:32 AM PDT  The new iMac is here, following rumour, speculation and much salivation by feverish upgraders, Apple's all-in-one now packs the latest Intel Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 processors, as well as updated ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics.
Apple's calling its newest iMac "The ultimate all-in-one" and "turbocharged" and it's not wrong. The 21.5 inch version now offers Core i3 processors up to 3.2Ghz, or a 3.6Ghz Core i5. The 27 inch iMac goes further, with the option of a 2.93Ghz Quad-core i7 processor. There's a minimum of 4GB memory inside each new iMac, upgradeable to a whopping 16GB, and hard drives now start at 500GB, upgradable with solid state 256GB options or up to 2TB of spinny disks in 27 inch iMacs. The new iMac's SD card slot has received a quiet upgrade too, letting it gobble cards in SDXC format to handle up to 64GB of removable storage. As you'd expect, there's all the standard Bluetooth, N-standard Wi-Fi and one Firewire 800 port, and Apple's now standard-issue LED backlighting for each new iMac's screens. What do you think of the new iMac spec? Will you be ordering a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad? Shout up in the comments below. Out now | From £999 | Apple Related posts:
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| Apple Magic Trackpad unveiled: multitouch for any Mac Posted: 27 Jul 2010 06:11 AM PDT  Apple has unleashed the Magic Trackpad we'd been hearing whispers about. The Bluetooth trackpad is a enlarged version of the same multitouch tech nestled in the Macbook Pro but will play nice with any Mac with Bluetooth. Read on for all the details… The Magic Trackpad is 80% larger than the multitouch trackpad built into the Macbook Pro. The whole surface is a button and Apple promises you'll be able to use it in the same way as your current mouse. It runs on two AA batteries which slot into the bump at the back which keeps the Magic Trackpad at the same height and angle as the current Apple Wireless Keyboard. Apple's packed the same set of multitouch gestures into the Magic Trackpad as you currently get through the Macbook Pro trackpad so you can swipe to flick through pages and there's inertial scrolling. You'll need OS X Snow Leopard to make use of the Magic Trackpad and it'll set you back £59. It's shipping now but the question is: do you want one? Let us know in the comments now. Out now | £59 | Apple Related posts:
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| Kane & Lynch 2 Dog Days single player: First Play! Posted: 27 Jul 2010 06:00 AM PDT  Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days doesn’t break out across Europe till August 20th, but that hasn’t stopped us getting our hands on the criminally cool follow up to Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. More than a month ahead of release how’s it shaping up? Read on to find out. Following the events of its prequel Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days revolves another catastrophic turn of events. This time around from the perspective of Lynch. We paid a visit Square Enix HQ to get hands-on with the single player campaign set in the grimy Shanghai underworld as Kane and Lynch feel the effects of what happens when a shifty job goes wrong. It’s a story developer IO Interactive describes as “48 hours of hell.” As you pick up the pad the look and feel of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days immediately hits you. It’s sometimes grainy visuals and topsy-turvy camerawork is heavily inspired by the YouTube generation. Every second looks as if its been shot on a bargain-binned camcorder. Gone are carefully choreographed camera angles and in comes lots of shaky cam over the shoulder voyeur style viewing angles. It’s superbly executed, particularly when things get heated, which they soon did. Kane, on holiday, decides to pay Lynch a visit in his new Shanghai hometown, but things soon take a turn for the worse. They enter a squalid flat to discover a girl being held at gunpoint. She’s half naked, with a carefully placed blur effect hiding her assets – another example of the reality TV influence at work. A chase ensues, with Lynch and the reluctant Kane in pursuit through dark corridors, flat stairwells and on corrugated rooftops. Here the visual style really kicks in, with the camera bobbing and weaving nauseously as it attempts to keep pace with your movements. Those who’ve played the original won’t notice a marked difference in combat: left stick to move, right stick to aim, right trigger to fire and ‘A’ (it’ll be X on PS3) to take cover. Cover remains an integral part of the gameplay. Some scenes had us peering out from behind brittle wooden structures as our cover soon became obliterated by bullets, forcing us to find somewhere else to hide. It really does affect how you can play as you duck and weave between cover or face getting killed in action. Players can take shelter behind tables, boxes and other objects entirely before popping out and opening fire or peer their gun over to blind-fire behind cover. Ammo is limited, the only way to replenish it is to grab leftovers from felled enemies, or look elsewhere. Objects littered around the settings, such as fire extinguishers can also be used as makeshift explosives. As Kane and Lynch catch up a stray bullet comes seemingly out of nowhere, killing the girl we were attempting to catch up with. The bloke who was with her proceeds to commit suicide. There’s a reason for that we’re told – the unfortunate girl was the daughter of a Triad boss. He’d rather kill himself than face the Triads. Another level we got to play had us stranded on a motorway with angry gun toting goons for company as we had to protect a gangster named Glazer. Think Bricktop from Snatch and you’ll get the idea of this guy’s psyche. He’s stuck in a car and it’s down to you to drag him to safety while dodging and returning fire. It’s just one of the set piece excuses for all out bullet play, as we’re chased by gangsters, bought cops and attack pooches before ending up in a multi-storey car park. It’s just another of the urban Shanghai settings you’ll find yourself in throughout. The entire game’s set in Shanghai. No detours to Havana here. And if that means a tighter more intense experience than the original, then all the better. In all Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is coming along reassuringly well. It already looks a clear improvement on the original. Our main concern is whether Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days will be able to deliver enough variety in its gameplay to make it step up and stand out from the growing crowd of third person shooters, and how the shooting mechanics grate after a proper sessions play. We look forward to finding out. Out August 20 (Europe) | £TBA | Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days Related posts:
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| iPhone 4 Jailbreak: now legal says US Govt. Posted: 27 Jul 2010 05:45 AM PDT 
A little over a year and a half ago, digital rights campaigners the Electronic Frontier Foundation petitioned the copyright office of the Library Of Congress to ask them to make an exception to the DMCA that would allow users to modify the software of devices they owned without contravening the Act. In particular, this affects Apple’s ability to control the apps you can install on your iPhone or iPad, although similar controls exist on other devices and can sometimes be added to mobile phones by phone networks. Apple has always maintained that an iPhone 4 Jailbreak (or one for any other iOOS product) to install non-App Store apps or remove carrier locks was forbidden by the DMCA (although admittedly it never explicitly went after the people making jailbreaking tools). The new ruling now clearly states that trying to invoke the DMCA to prevent jailbreaking or similar fiddling is not acceptable. “While a copyright owner might try to restrict the programs that can be run on a particular operating system, copyright law is not the vehicle for imposition of such restrictions,” the ruling states. It is important to note that this does not require Apple to just start letting you install any random app you like – they are still going to be able to modify future iOS versions to prevent iPhone 4 jailbreaking and rooting, but it does mean that they can’t stop everyone from playing just by invoking their lawyers. Out TBC | £free | iPhone Dev Team (via Wired) Related posts:
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| iPhone 4 jailbreak: why Apple should leave those coder kids alone Posted: 27 Jul 2010 05:15 AM PDT 
The case for leaving the iPhone jailbreak community to it rests on the question of who actually owns your phone and the software on it. While you might think that once you've got the iPhone 4 in your mitts, it's yours to do with as you wish, Apple's licence says you can't go messing around with the software. Apple lists its reasons for not jailbreaking your iPhone in an article on its Support pages. Its five points are: your devices and apps could become unstable, your voice and data connections could become unreliable (which may seen ironic to some in the wake of the iPhone 4 antenna brouhaha), services like email could be disrupted, security could be compromised, battery life could be shortened and you might not be able to install future software updates. That long list of potential pitfalls is likely to be enough to dissuade most users from jumping for the iPhone 4 jailbreak when it arrives. But if you want to take the risk, why shouldn't you? By jailbreaking your iPhone, you lose the right to support from Apple if your phone goes wrong but that's your choice. And when it comes to the iPhone jailbreak creators, the vast majority are simply enthusiasts. The iPhone Dev Team doesn't charge for its jailbreak tools. The reward for those coders is the challenge of outsmarting Apple's attempts to stop them. As I wrote in my last iPhone 4 jailbreak opinion piece, tinkering by the unofficial iPhone developer community has offered up features and solutions that have found their way into official Apple releases. Unless it's faced with piracy, Apple should leave the iPhone 4 jailbreak coders to it – the vast majority of iPhone 4 owners will never know they exist anyway. I think the intense desire to unpick, tweak and improve iOS speaks volumes about the fanaticism that surrounds the iPhone. Comex, the brains behind the Spirit iPhone jailbreak, was 17 when he created it (he turned 18 a few months back) and is now hard at work on the iPhone 4 jailbreak. He's doing it for fun, not profit. It's understandable that Apple is frustrated by the iPhone jailbreak community. It works hard to create products that it has total control over. But the number of people actually using the iPhone 4 jailbreak will be minor. To nick a tune from Pink Floyd: hey, Apple, leave those coder kids alone! Related posts:
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