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Relax, Android Honeycomb is only a beta build
ITV player for Android released, battles BBC iPlayer for streaming crown
New Apple Time Capsules start at £249 and offer up to 3TB of storage
Nokia promises Symbian Anna by July plus 10 new Symbian smartphones
Final Cut Pro X launches: 64-bit, £179.99 and available now via Mac App Store
Best Android apps of the week
Enough patent panic, Apple will not censor your photos
How to stream Wimbledon live, wherever you are
Black MacBook Air experiment ruined by body oils? Yuck!
Grand Theft Auto 5 out next year? Five locations we’d love to see

Relax, Android Honeycomb is only a beta build

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 09:00 AM PDT

This weekend the first wave of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 reviews were released. Despite an overwhelming appreciation for the hardware, build quality and design, the slate carved out ho-hum scores due to its OS, Android Honeycomb.

As a firm believer in software's ability to wield better performance from existing hardware I'm perplexed by the Honeycomb situation. Developers are not flocking in droves like I'd expected and in three months we have just a handful of Honeycomb-optimized apps.

The progress is quite unsettling when compared to the original iPad which added nearly 5,000 iPad-specific titles to the App Store in its first 30 days. If apps alone were the measurement of success, Honeycomb would be on the brink of failure. Thankfully that's not the case, not by a long shot.

It's not possible to compare Honeycomb to the transition from iOS on the iPhone to iPad. Apple transplanted its OS to a larger screen with only minor adjustments to the UI. Meanwhile, Google built Honeycomb from the ground up as a tablet OS. In time the paths of Gingerbread and Honeycomb will meet with the launch of Ice Cream Sandwich.

The important takeaway for Honeycomb is the browser, email client and multi-tasking are quite refined for a new software build. Google has proven its commitment to the OS by releasing an Android 3.1 update less than two months after the Motorola Xoom launched. A second update, Android 3.2, is scheduled for later this year.

There's no arguing the slow acceptance of Honeycomb by app developers. Maybe they're waiting for Ice Cream Sandwich so they can develop with the one-and-done approach. Or maybe they want to see a minimum number of Android tablet owners on the market ready and willing to buy their apps. Whatever the case may be I can promise you that without wide-scale support of the platform through early adopters, Android innovation will come to a grinding halt.

The good news is that apps will come, albeit slower that expected. As a mobile OS, Honeycomb is in a far better position than Android 1.0 was after three months. The best way to approach Honeycomb is to take a deep breath and evaluate the OS for what it is — a fresh build. In that regard the strides are remarkable. With or without apps, Android Honeycomb packs a strong foundation and the bloodline for success.

ITV player for Android released, battles BBC iPlayer for streaming crown

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 08:15 AM PDT

There's a new catch-up TV service in town for Android users. ITV player for Android is now live in the Android Market, offering unlimited access to seven days worth of past programming from the network's four channels.

Unfortunately, just like the BBC iPlayer app, ITV player does not offer live streaming. In order to use the app you'll need to be running Android 2.2 Froyo or higher, Adobe Air 2.6 or higher and be connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Now for the fine print. In order to stream content you'll need to reside in the UK and certain regions will be restricted to ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 programs. Despite the restrictions the app is priced right, even for the most frugal of users.

Out Now | Free | Android Market

New Apple Time Capsules start at £249 and offer up to 3TB of storage

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 07:26 AM PDT

We've spotted two new Time Capsules headed to the Apple Store. The upgraded units come in your choice of 2TB or 3TB capacities and are priced at £249.00 and £399.00 respectively.

Interestingly both units are not live while searching the Apple Store from within the UK, but here in the US we've got both in our sights. Compared to the previous generation 1TB and 2TB units (£173.00, £326.00), the new price points are much more competitive.

Other than the new price, the listings looks identical to its predecessor. Automatic backups, dual-band Wi-Fi, wireless drive sharing, wireless printing and iOS connectivity are all standard. We've included direct links to the respective units below, but just in case the links aren't working here's a screenshot to hold you over. Both units are listed as “dispatched within 24 hours” and in stock.

Coming Soon | Apple | 2TB, 3TB

Nokia promises Symbian Anna by July plus 10 new Symbian smartphones

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 06:59 AM PDT

Nokia Connect is in full swing and first on the agenda is redefining the company’s mobile strategy. The Nokia C2-02, C2-03, C2-06 and N9 are just the tip of the iceberg for the Finnish giant.

Nokia's new strategy begins with its commitment to Series 40 through the trio of C2 launches. In July, Symbian Anna will debut as Nokia N8s, E7s, C7s and C6-01s will ship pre-loaded with the latest build. By the end of August existing owners will be able to download the update.

If three handsets and a launch date for Symbian Anna were not enough, Nokia will release 10 new Symbian-based smartphones over the next 12 months. Arguably the N9 stole the show at Nokia Connect, but the bigger story is Qt framework.

The launch of the N9 will help drive new innovation and inspire developers to build more powerful Qt apps. There's more than 100 million Nokia Qt devices worldwide. Realizing this massive install base, Nokia believes this will make Qt core to building applications that connect the next billion users to the Internet.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering Nokia is still on track to release a Windows Phone device in 2011 and promises large scale production in 2012.

via Nokia

Final Cut Pro X launches: 64-bit, £179.99 and available now via Mac App Store

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 06:24 AM PDT

The next generation of video editing is but a click away. Apple has announced Final Cut Pro X, the software that will reinvent video editing thanks to a magnetic timeline, is live in the Mac App Store.

Priced at £179.99, Final Cut Pro X has been completely rebuilt from the ground up as a 64-bit app. Doing so allows the software to take full advantage of the latest Mac software and hardware, resulting in faster edits even when working with 4K video.

"Final Cut Pro X is the biggest advance in Pro video editing since the original Final Cut Pro," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "We have shown it to many of the world's best Pro editors, and their jaws have dropped."

Unlike past Final Cut releases, Final Cut Pro X will not be sold in a 'Studio' bundle. Instead, the new version is all inclusive, allowing video editing as well as audio editing and color correction. By combining all three software titles in one, the only two add ons are Motion 5 and Compressor 4, both of which will be £29.99 in the Mac App Store. In total you’re looking at £239.97 for all three titles. While expensive, this is a bargain compared to the launch of Final Cut Studio for £834.00.

Out Now | Apple | £179.99, Motion and Compressor 4 £29.99/each

Best Android apps of the week

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 06:02 AM PDT

Apologies if you missed our best Android apps of the week feature last week – it was rained off thanks to the quite frankly awesome Android Keyboard replacement piece we put together (if you haven't checked that out already, we suggest you do so without hesitation). Never fear though, as this week we've got five amazing downloads that more than make up for the forced absence.

Just in case a week without an Android apps update has addled your brain, here's how you can obtain these digital delights. Using the QR codes shown below – and the trusty Barcode Scanner application that is available for free on the Android Market – you can use your phone's camera to take you directly to the respective app's page. Luddites will be pleased to learn that clicking the link on each app's title will achieve the same result.

Burn the Rope

Free

With a name like that you get no prizes for guessing which massively successful iOS game Burn the Rope is trying to emulate, but putting aside the shameless name-copying for one moment, it's clear that this is a thoroughly addictive puzzle title. You're presented with an arrangement of ropes which must be burned away to complete the level. Tapping anywhere on the rope ignites the flame, and to keep it burning you have to make sure it's always moving upwards. To do this you have to frantically tilt your phone – sometimes moving it through a full 360 degrees. Burn the Rope is one of those games that just seems to soak up all your spare time, and therefore effortlessly makes its way onto our Best Android apps of the week list.

The best Android apps of all time: Top 100

Molome

Free

Previously a favourite on Nokia handsets, Molome is a photo-sharing application which allows you to apply cool filter effects to your shots and then share them with friends, family and other members of the rapidly-expanding Molome community. The filters are pretty varied, and the whole app is covered in a deliciously twee aesthetic – there's even a cute owl mascot to guide you around. With notifications to tell you when someone in the community 'likes' your work and the challenge of earning badges from your uploads, Molome is a pretty neat and innovative way of rewarding you for being creative with your Android phone's camera, and the perfect stop-gap while we wait for Instagram for Android.

Grand Prix Story

Approx £3.05

From the creators of the insanely popular Game Dev Story comes this highly addictive take on what it must be like to step into Frank Williams' shoes and run your own F1 team. Starting from the back of the grid you have to build up your marque's standing by winning single races before moving onto full seasons which place incredible demands on both your cars and your drivers. A slow drip-feed of unlockable vehicles, parts and mechanics makes it a genuine struggle to put down your phone, and even when you've seen everything the game has to offer, there's the challenge of beating your previous high score. Absolutely essential – we demand that you download it immediately.

Contract Killer

Free

Ever wondered what it's like to kill a man from hundreds of yards away with a powerful sniper rifle? If you answered yes to that question then remind us not to walk anywhere near your apartment late at night, and download this harmless digital replication instead. In Contract Killer it's your job to rid the city of bloodthirsty criminals using a wide range of weapons and a network of informants who supply you with prospective hits. You only have a limited amount of energy to use each day, and this slowly recharges over time. You can use in-app purchases to overcome this limitation, but to be honest, it lends the game a long life span as the challenge is spread out over weeks instead of days. With its brilliant graphics, intuitive controls and neatly-paced action, Contract Killer hits the mark as one of this week's Best Android apps.

eBay (Update)

Free

After what seems like an eternity, the official Android eBay application has received a significant update. The most obvious change is the fact that it has undergone a complete visual overhaul, and consequently looks a lot less like the back end of a particularly grubby badger. As well as being pleasing to the eyes, this revised app also sticks in the long-awaited listing support, allowing you to sell items on eBay using nothing but your phone. It even allows you to scan barcodes to list your goods even faster. We're not entirely sure we'd want to do all of that through our humble phone's touch screen, but it could prove very handy for those moments when you're away from a computer and desperately need to make some cash.

Enough patent panic, Apple will not censor your photos

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 05:22 AM PDT

Apple submits a lot of patent applications. Mountains of paper work go from Cupertino to the US Patent & Trademark Office every year and it seems like almost every idea Apple idly toys with gets picked up and analysed with the false assumption that it will end up in some future product.

Companies apply for patents for a variety of reasons including to store up a stash of them to use in lawsuits like the current Apple/Samsung brouhaha. Not every sketch or schematic will one day take physical form.

Still that hasn’t stopped the activists at The Save The Internet Coalition, which makes it sound as if the Internet is up there on the endangered species list next to the panda, from slapping up an anguished open letter to Steve Jobs.

The cause? A patent that while discussing ways to send information to your phone depending on the object you point it at also raised the spectre of institutions or government facilities hitting it with an infrared signal to block you taking photos. Cue the panic and paranoia…

The Save The Internet Coalition letter worries that were Apple to make the patent a reality it would be creating a tool for dictators:

“Thousands of people across the Middle East have used cellphone cameras to document violent government abuses. This technology would also give tyrants the power to stem the flow of protest videos and crack down on their citizens with impunity…if this tool fell into the hands of repressive regimes or malicious corporations, it would give tyrants and companies the power to silence one of the most critical forms of free expression.”

It would, if Apple was intending to do such a thing. But I suspect that its future strategy doesn’t rest on chasing the totalitarian bastard market, however lucrative. The language in the patent is indulging in the hypothetical, a common habit of engineers and lawyers.

I don’t think Apple has any intention of building features to censor photos into its devices. Not because I’m some rabid fanboy who believes it can do no wrong but because it would simply be bad business.

Beyond that, the actual technique described in the patent would be pretty much useless in bright, outdoor environments. It seems like nothing more than a exploration of what might be possible if you went down the road of trying to block cameras from playing a part in bootlegging films.

The movie studios would love it but Apple is much more interested in getting iPhones in the hands of consumers. Turning them into little electronic secret policemen would be a surefire way to lose their trust.

Analysing patent applications is a terrible way of working out a company’s intentions. And before we jump back into the old argument about Steve Jobs keeping porn out of iTunes, as inevitably happens when the words ‘censorship’ and ‘Apple’ come together, that’s a very different situation. In that case, Apple has made a decision about what it believes customers want from its platform. One they are free to disagree with and circumvent in all manner of ways.

Allowing others to decide when and how you use your phone camera would be a titanically stupid move on Apple’s part. Its rivals could instantly put themselves forward as the champions of freedom regardless of their own vices and the Apple brand would be incredibly damaged.

If Apple ever puts that patent into action and starts allowing others to censor your photos, I will eat any number of hats you wish to send to me.

How to stream Wimbledon live, wherever you are

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 04:30 AM PDT

Wimbledon is upon us again. It’s the time of year when everyone pretends to like Pimm’s, suddenly takes an interest in tennis and cheers for a sulky Brit who’d steal your gran’s overpriced strawberries and cream for a chance to win a major.

We kid. We do love tennis and we do love Wimbledon, and to prove it, we’ve served up an indispensable guide for watching the action live, wherever you are, regardless of phone, tablet, computer or resolution. Read on to get your fix on the go.

On your computer
Want to watch Andy Murray crash out at work? BBC iPlayer on the desktop only plays host to catch-up, but you can stream live TV channels from Auntie, assuming you’re a licence payer – for some reason, the Beeb keeps them tucked away quietly elsewhere on its website. Head to Watch Live and you can stream every BBC channel if you have Flash installed.

If you’re on a Mac and you have admin rights, you could also install TellyBox, which lets you stream BBC channels in a OS X window, and choose your station from a drop down men in the taskbar.

On an iPhone
Despite the BBC’s recent native app craze, the iPhone still lacks a BBC iPlayer app, and you can’t stream live channels through the iPhone web app. Your best bet is TVCatchup, which has been designed specifically to work on iOS. Just register (it’s free) and stream any Freeview channel for free. It works over Wi-Fi and 3G.

On your tablet
Watching on an iPad is easy: just download the free BBC iPlayer iPad app to watch live TV over Wi-Fi. It’s a no go on 3G however, so you’ll again have to resort to TVCatchup.com’s iOS friendly web interface.

Android tablets meanwhile have a few options. Those that support Adobe Flash can watch live channels through the official BBC iPlayer Android app, but if you have any problems downloading it as we have on Honeycomb slates, you can simply visit the BBC website if your user agent is set to desktop (Dolphin Browser HD provides this option and is free).

Those without Flash on their Android tablets may still have some luck using the mobile-optimized version of TVCatchup, m.tvcatchup.com, but we’ve not been able to test this.

On an Android phone
The BBC iPlayer Android app will play nice on any Android 2.2 or 2.3 phone that supports Flash, but as we noted in our original review, that’s not every phone, not by a long shot. m.tvcatchup.com should fulfil your needs – it works relatively smoothly, even on handsets with low power 600MHz processors.

On a BlackBerry
Oddly, the mobile-optimized BBC iPlayer site for BlackBerries does allow you to watch live TV channels, so to get your fix just head to bbc.co.uk/iplayer through the stock BlackBerry browser. It works just fine on our BlackBerry Bold 9700 over Wi-Fi, which is just as well as m.tvcatchup.com proved to be a bit more patchy here, often not loading.

On a Windows Phone
Things aren’t so easy here. You’ll basically need to use the SlingPlayer Mobile app, but that’s not cheap: it’s £22.99 on the Marketplace, and requires you have a Slingbox installed already. On the plus side at least, you’ll be able to do everything you can on an actual TV, and even press the red button to other matches being broadcast by the Beeb. Which is nice.

On a Nokia
Your mileage will vary since Symbian/Symbian S60 phones have been around since the dawn of time, but m.tvcatchup.com is your best bet here, since the Symbian BBC iPlayer app doesn’t allow for live TV streaming. It runs fine on recent Symbian 3 phones such as the Nokia E7 and Nokia N8, and support should go back a couple of years at least. S60 phones without Wi-Fi, such as the otherwise superb Nokia C5, could run up bills quickly doing this.

In HD
If you can get BBC One HD on your TV, it’s possible to stream the tennis to wherever you are in HD – though of course you’d only see the benefits on a laptop or desktop monitor. You’ll need something like the Slingbox Pro-HD to do this remotely, while Elgato’s elegant Netstream DTT does the same for both PC and Mac on your home network.

Photos via yvettemn, vic15, basegreen

Black MacBook Air experiment ruined by body oils? Yuck!

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 03:10 AM PDT

The black MacBook Air rumour that began earlier this week may actually have some truth to it but don’t expect to pick up one too soon. An anonymous tipster claiming to be an Apple engineer told Mac Rumors that a black powder-coated MacBook Air was created but failed to make the grade.

The email claims Steve Jobs rejected the black MacBook air because the coating showed a tendency for soaking up body oils. Yep, we think that sounds fairly grim too. Head through to see what the alleged insider had to say about the issue:

Here it is with the odd grammar and wayward apostrophes intact:

The rumors that the next iteration of the MBA’s will have an optional black finish is grounded in truth. We tried to powder coat the Air’s (and Pro’s for that matter) in black as a test run. There are more than a few floating around campus.

The coating looks good and holds up well, but it also soaks up the body oils, making the palm rest look pretty gross. Ultimately that is the reason the top brass (Jobs) killed the idea…it was just too easy to make the computer look like crap. At some point we may offer a black coating, but it won’t be a powder coat and it won’t be anytime soon.”

Mac Rumors says this source hasn’t tipped it off in the past but says it believes the story checks out. The poor quality of the English in the email makes us more than a little suspicious but we could certainly see how powder-coating a MacBook Air might be more trouble than its worth.

Would you buy a black MacBook Air if Apple offered one?

Out NA | £NA | Apple (via Mac Rumors)

Grand Theft Auto 5 out next year? Five locations we’d love to see

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 02:36 AM PDT

Yes, we know Grand Theft Auto 5 has been rattling around the rumour mill for ages now but it’s back on the cards again. With Red Dead Redemption and LA Noire out of the gate, Grand Theft Auto 5 is on the slate again. The chatter says it’ll be released in 2012, development is “well under way” and that “it’s the big one”.

While we don’t know quite know what the “big one” for Grand Theft Auto would constitute, we do have a wishlist of locations we’d love the next game to be set in. Read on for our pick of the five most perilous place to drive GTA to next…

London

It’s been the most requested location for a Grand Theft Auto game since the original games' GTA: London expansion packs. With a messy combination of organised crime outfits to choose the plot could be packed with double and triple crossings. Plus: London is stuffed with great looking landmarks for set pieces.

Rio de Janeiro

Think City of God. GTA: Rio would see you play your way up from a street urchin to become a major crime boss. The vast statue of Christ The Redeemer would give the game a strong visual at its heart and a healthy dose of religious overtones.

Tokyo

Sure GTA: Chinatown Wars revelled in fairly crude stereotyping but Tokyo seems like an ideal city for a Grand Theft Auto game. Of course there’s the Yakuza angle but also plenty of supercars to hijack and lots of crazy tech for the protagonist to get their hands on.

Moscow

After sending Niko to the US in GTA 4, giving Eastern Europe its time to shine would be a great idea. Just think of the slippery car chases through the snow and the nasty business you could get wrapped up in with the Russian Mafia, corrupt oligarchs and ex-KGB spooks to work with.

Milton Keynes

Yep. GTA: Milton Keynes where the challenges you face would be more existential. How do you navigate the road system? Will you be able to steal a concrete cow without being apprehended by the cops?

Got a better suggestion? Hit the comments and share you ideal location for GTA 5.