Windows 8

Windows 8 is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablets, and home theater PCs.

 Development of this operating system started before the release of its predecessor in 2009. Its existence was first announced in January 2011 at Consumer Electronics Show. During its development and test phases, Microsoft released three pre-release versions: Developer Preview (September 13, 2011), Consumer Preview (February 29, 2012), and Release Preview (May 31, 2012). On August 1, 2012, Windows 8 graduated from the development stage and was released to manufacturing. Windows 8 is scheduled for general availability on October 26, 2012


Windows 8 introduces significant changes to the operating system's graphical user interface and platform, such as a new interface design incorporating a new design language used by other Microsoft products, a new Start screen to replace the Start menu used by previous versions of Windows

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Ipad Mini-Review

The iPad Mini is a design shift from the iPad, and perhaps the biggest one in the iPad's entire history. Despite how popular the iPad's been, it's not really a device that's very comfortable to use when you're not sitting down or at a desk. It's a use-when-you-get-there device, or use-when-comfortably-seated. An iPhone or iPod Touch is truly mobile, and the iPad is only halfway there.

In fact, the iPad Mini feels very much like the new Touch, even down to the curved wraparound aluminum shell and flat back. It lies down far more flatly than the fourth-gen iPad, more like a wafer. The headphone jack at the top and Lightning connector and speakers at the bottom are carved into less tapered, more curved side edges. Around the front glass is an angled aluminum bezel like on the iPhone 5.
The white model, which I reviewed, has a standard aluminum back. The black model has a slate-colored anodized aluminum, giving it that same "stealth" look as the iPod Touch.

The iPad Mini's extremely whittled-down side bezels are much less conspicuous than the larger iPad's bezels, which always made it resemble a MacBook screen that had floated away from its keyboard. The Mini truly feels like a large iPod Touch, which is exactly what we used to call the iPad back in 2010. It's far more apt now.

This 7.9-inch display isn't 16:9 like the iPhone 5 or most Android tablets. That means the screen width is wider, more like a page of a book. It's the same as on the iPad, but on this smaller screen, with the iPad Mini's shrunken-down side bezels like an iPod Touch, it feels extra-wide. Web pages fit more across the screen, allowing the text to be bigger. More importantly, digital magazines and illustrated books can be rendered without squishing down too much.

Apple's made a big deal of this, but let me tell you the real killer apps here: the future of digital publications. Textbooks. Basically, any layout-sensitive graphically intensive e-books. The iPad Mini doesn't squish that content down like what often happens to it on 16:10 7-inch screens.

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iPhone 5-Review

The Apple iPhone 5 is finally here, with the latest arrival boasting a 16:9, 4-inch screen, new smaller port, thinner, lighter design and 4G LTE.

Last year's iPhone 4S always felt like an incremental upgrade rather than a true step change, and although it sold wonderfully for Apple and brought some interesting additions, few would argue against the suggestion that it opened the door for competitors.

As a result, this year's launch was perhaps most important for Apple since the very first iPhone arrived back in 2007.

The 4-inch screen keeps the retina resolution despite the added length, which Apple has brought in to make the iPhone 5 more movie-friendly.

The added real-estate is welcome, especially given the growth of its rivals, and apps will apparently be easy to move onto the new screen size for developers.

In the hand the Apple iPhone 5 certainly feels comfortable. You can see why Apple decided to keep the width the same, since it fits the hand nicely – just as its predecessors have.

The move away from glass is a welcome one, and the aluminium manages to bring a premium feel in a notably lighter device.

A new chip definitely brings a snappier feel. Many people with an iPhone 4 will be all too used to the lagginess when trying to do anything even slightly complex with the devices, and the Apple iPhone 5 manages to take things on as far as you would expect in more than two years.

What is perhaps more suprising is just how much snappier this feels than the iPhone 4S. The A6 chip clearly has significantly more grunt under its smaller hood – but what is surprising is that you can immediately tell when you use the device alongside its predecessor.

Practically speaking, this probably isn't enough to make you want to leave a 4S unless you are a hardcore fan, but it will convince many iPhone 4 users to stick with the Apple ecosystem for another generation – and you get the impression that this is goal number one for the company.

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Htc Wildfire S Review

Design

HTC is a company that's no stranger to great design, with iconic devices such as the Nexus One and the HD2 under its belt. The Wildfire S sticks firmly to HTC's 2011 design ethos, with a sleek, classy and appealing look, with curved edges that make the device sit kindly in your hand. There's even a little chin at the bottom of the Wildfire S, which brings back memories of the HTC Hero.

The casing of the device is plastic, but it doesn't feel cheap and nasty; instead, it gives you a nice, grippy feel — so don't think that you're going to drop this one easily. There are chrome accents around major features, such as the display, front speaker and rear camera (there's no front-facing camera), as well as the volume rocker and power button.

The screen is 3.2 inches in size, with a resolution of 320x480 (HVGA), which doesn't look too bad when you're holding the device a reasonable distance away from your overly attractive face. Colour reproduction is quite good, and it's nice and responsive when the CPU isn't bogged down.

The four capacitive buttons below the screen — in home, menu, back and search order — are placed a little bit too close to the screen for our liking, as we found ourselves accidentally hitting them instead of on-screen options near the bottom of the screen.

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Samsung Galaxy S3 Specifications

Dimension	136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6 mm
Weight	133 g
Battery	Talk time Up to 21 h 40 min, Stand-by Up to 590 h
OS	Android OS, v4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
Memory	16/32/64GB built-in, 1GB RAM, microSD card (supports up to 64GB)
Processor	Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9 + Mali-400MP GPU, Exynos 4212 Quad
Connectivity	Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, EDR, USB, WLAN (Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot), GPRS Class 12 (48 kbps), EDGE Class 12, 3G (HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps), NFC
Display Size	720 x 1280 pixels, 4.8 inches, Corning Gorilla Glass 2 Sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, RGB sensor, proximity, compass & barometer
Display Colour	Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, TouchWiz UI v4.0, Multitouch
Operating  Frequency / Band	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 (HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100)
Browser	HTML, Adobe Flash
Colors	Blue, White
Entertainment	Stereo FM radio with RDS, 3.5mm audio jack, MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player, MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player, Dropbox (50 GB storage), TV-out (via MHL A/V link), SNS integration, YouTube, Google Talk, Image/video editor, Games (built-in + downloadable)
Camera	8MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, Simultaneous HD video & image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, Video (1080p 30fps), 2ndary (1.9 MP, 720p 30fps)
Other Features	GPS + A-GPS support & GLONASS, MicroSIM card support only, S-Voice natural language commands & dictation, Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic,Smart Stay eye tracking, Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF), Google Search, Maps, Gmail, Predictive text input (Swype), Speakerphone
Ring Tones	Downlaodable, Polyphonic, MP3, WAV
Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS
Price	Price in Rs: 62,000    Price in USD: $691

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Samsung Galaxy S3 review

The Samsung Galaxy S3 is, according to Samsung anyway, 'inspired by nature – it sees, listens, responds, and allows you to share the greatest moments'.

Brushed polycarbonate – you've got a choice of 'Marble White' and 'Pebble Blue' – adorns the large device, which runs in with dimensions of 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6mm, despite still having to pack in a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD screen.

However, it's exactly the same sensation as we found on the Galaxy S2, and given the silly numbers of sales that had, we think there's more than a market for a phone that you'll barely notice in your pocket most of the time.

However, despite being made of similar material, there's no doubt that the One X feels more premium in the hand thanks to being a touch more weighty… there's something about something so large being so light that some will find disconcerting.

Amendment: the HTC One X is actually 3g lighter than the S3, but despite carrying both around at once, the S3 still felt lighter, which shows the way texture can affect the way a phone feels in the hand.

There's no doubt in our minds that the Pebble Blue offering is the much more attractive option, as the Marble White looks similar to a low-end Galaxy Mini or similar – the brushed effect is really necessary.

Compared to rest of the Galaxy line, the S3 has more in common with the original Galaxy S than the S2, with curved edges the theme in the design language. The home button has also been elongated, although the same menu and back buttons remain from the prequel.

The microUSB slot is placed at the bottom of the phone - easy to find with a charger but it will be interesting to see how it's used when placed in docks and car cradles.

Sure, there are stats that say only 10% of users regularly go over 16GB of storage, but there's always the lower end version of the Galaxy S3 for that... but with HD movie downloads becoming far more prevalent, plus the influx of HD apps, we're thinking more space is an excellent idea.

But overall, in the hand, the Samsung Galaxy S3 feels superb. The design contours well against the palm, and while the screen size may be a little big for some (you'll need a bit of shuffling to reach the upper section of the screen) it's definitely useable in the hand.

So in short: if you don't mind a slightly lighter-feeling polycarbonate shell and you like big HD screens in your pocket, this is a phone definitely worth checking out.

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Htc One x Review

                                                                                                   Design

Looking at the One X, it's clear that HTC strayed a bit from tried-and-true design playbook. Instead of the aluminum unibody construction the company's handsets typically sport, the One X is crafted from a single piece of polycarbonate plastic. Believe it or not, that's a good thing, since the plastic material HTC selected feels high-grade, not the cheap stuff I've seen in other phones. As a result the One X's chassis has a pleasingly premium quality similar to the Nokia Lumia 900, another handset that opts for pricey Lexans over metal.

Here's a closer look at the HTC One X's camera. To the left of it sits the phone's micro-SIM card slot.



A flat slab that has smoothly rounded edges and a gently curved back, the HTC One X definitely flaunts an ultramodern aesthetic, especially the chic white-hued version I reviewed (HTC also makes a soberer black model). You'll want to be careful how you tote the One X since its white surface attracts smudges easily. Measuring 5.3 inches tall by 2.75 inches wide by 0.36 inch thick, the One X certainly is a handful. Still, its 4.6-ounce weight lends the plastic phone some solidity.








At 0.36 inch thick, the HTC One X has a slim profile considering its large screen.



Gracing the front of the device is a massive 4.7-inch (1,280x720-pixel) super LCD screen. It gets very bright, brighter in fact than the HTC One S' qHD AMOLED screen, and has viewing angles that are nice and wide. Of course the One S' high-contrast display produces more vibrant colors and darker blacks, which I prefer.





Above the screen sits a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats and vanity shots. Below the display are three capacitive buttons for back, home, and recent apps. On the phone's right side are controls for volume, and a Micro-USB port sits on the left. Up top are a tiny power button, a micro-SIM card compartment, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, while around back are the 8-megapixel camera and LED flash. Two big drawbacks, though, are the phone's lack of an SD card slot for extra memory expansion and its nonremovable battery.





Features

In addition to the phone's cutting-edge components, much of the HTC One X's real power lies in its robust software. Not only does this smartphone run the latest version of Google's Android OS, version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but also HTC has gingerly grafted its revamped Sense user interface on top. HTC says that Sense 4 meshes seamlessly with ICS' new abilities and strives to stay out of the way. Indeed, much of Sense 3's fancier eye candy, such as the endlessly spinning 3D carousel of home screens and over-the-top weather graphics, is absent.








A tab at the bottom of each home screen has shortcuts to basic phone functions but they can easily be reconfigured to your tastes.

There are two ways to unlock the phone; you can either flick a virtual ring from the bottom of the screen to the center, or slide icons into the ring to quick-launch major phone functions. For instance, dragging the camera symbol into the ring fires up the One X's main imaging sensor to snap pictures and video in a flash. Other standard lock-screen shortcuts bring up the Web browser, text messaging, and phone dialer.

Just like on T-Mobile's HTC One S, you can choose from seven screens that you can populate with application shortcuts and animated widgets. By default, HTC places its iconic weather clock front and center on the main home screen. Tapping the widget's digital readout launches a world clock complete with a slick 3D globe visual, and hitting the weather portion of the clock pulls up a detailed forecast. Another boon to weather nerds like me is the engaging graphics displayed on the lock screen that correspond to current atmospheric conditions. I was even able to choose them as my live wallpaper.





At the foot of each home screen is a tab containing the same four quick-launch icons shown on the lock screen. I particularly liked being able to swap these icons for others or even create and add folders holding multiple app icons. Any changes here are reflected on the lock screen and placing application shortcuts on top of one another creates a folder.


Sense adds some neat tricks to the browser, such as a Pure Content Reader view that removes all ads and displays just the basic text of a selected Web page. You can also choose pages and video to bookmark for later perusal offline.


As you'd expect on a modern Android device, the One X comes with the usual Google services onboard, including Gmail, Google+, and Navigation, along with the Play Store, from which you can download apps from a catalog of over 500,000 titles. Play also provides digital books, movies, games, and music to purchase. If that's still not enough entertainment, HTC's Watch app hawks TV shows and movies for rental or purchase. For example, I could rent "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" for $3.99 or buy it permanently for $14.99.









The HTC One X comes preloaded with the company's Watch app. There you'll find TV shows and movies for download to make downtime more fun.





Other compelling third-party software that's preloaded on the One X includes the Kindle eBook reader, the MOG music subscription service, and TuneIn Internet radio (a personal favorite). AT&T sprinkles the device with its own selection of apps, such as U-verse Live TV, which serves up both live programming and full TV episodes and movies (for an extra $9.99 per month, and you can't use it over Wi-Fi), a bar code scanner, and FamilyMap for locating family members ($9.99 per month for two family members, $14.99 for up to five).

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Portable D-roll Laptop Review

D-Roll Laptop is a same concept as the Rolltop was. It is designed by Hao Hua and can be considers as next generation laptop design, as it does away with the book-like form factor in favor of one mimicking an artist's scroll. 

Notebooks and tablets already offer pretty convenient computing on-the-go solutions, but Germany's Orkin Design proposes rolling up both devices into one ultra-portable package. The Rolltop concept will take advantage of advances in flexible OLED and touchscreen technologies to create a cylinder-shaped laptop computer that can be rolled out to form a notebook, a tablet, or display monitor. The concept has been floating around for a while, but has recently received a few tweaks to the design. Although specifics are in short supply, read on for what we do know ...

Rather than carry around a notebook in a laptop bag, full to the brim with all manner of cables, the Rolltop concept proposes bringing everything together in a flat panel display that's wrapped around a central cylinder. The top of the column detaches and acts as a power plug while the carry strap doubles as a power cord (presumably some sort of battery technology is also included, although this has not been mentioned). The central column also contains speakers, a camera, USB ports, and a LAN port.

As you might guess from the name already, can be rolled up on itself due to its modular structure and carried on the shoulder with a comfortable belt that will also serve as the power cord.

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Mordern Warfare 3 Trailer

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Modern Warfare 3

It would be easy to dismiss Modern Warfare 3 as just another iterative update to the massively successful shooter series. After attending a preview event this summer, I left with concerns that the Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games collaboration shelved the multiplayer innovation Treyarch introduced with Black Ops in favor of more minor, underwhelming updates. Some of my early concerns proved valid, but many of the incremental tweaks are smart additions to the multiplayer experience. Modern Warfare 3 does little to fundamentally change the well-known franchise formula, but it offers enough enhancements to recommend it to any fan.
On the surface, this Call of Duty experience is similar to the other Modern Warfare games. If a casual fan sat down for a few rounds of team deathmatch or domination, it would be easy to forgive them for mistaking this for a map pack. Its visuals are familiar, most of the weapons are recycled from previous games, the tight gunplay feels similar, maps are still fairly cramped affairs for the most part, assembling a party operates the same, and many of the killstreak rewards return. Modern Warfare 3’s most noteworthy tweaks may be smaller changes, but they add up to contribute in a big way.


Custom classes are as crucial to online play as always, and players can choose between three new strike packages for their loadouts. Assault is for offensive-minded players, as its rewards are mostly death-dealing instruments like remote control assault drones, devastating air strikes, and the proximity-based I.M.S. (Intelligent Munition System). If you’re outfitted with this package, your killstreak progresses as always – it builds as you rack up kills, but resets to zero once you’re taken down. Considering I’m usually heavy on offense, I stuck with the assault package for my first few hours of multiplayer.


The Support package killstreaks are defensive in nature, like SAM turrets, recon drones, and counter-UAVs. They don’t have the flash of the deadly assault rewards, but they’re still helpful. Unlike the assault package, this package’s killstreak count doesn’t reset upon death. You wouldn’t normally reach one of the crazy 18-kill assault rewards without dying, but now it’s feasible to earn the most valuable support items in a single game. This package was even more appealing to me when I unlocked a few offensive rewards, like the remote sentry turret, the B-2 bomber, and the recon juggernaut suit. Once I realized the value of this package, it became my default for the majority of my future rounds.

The final package, Specialist, is for tacticians who strategize formulas for specific game types. Specialist allows you to unlock a specific order of perks as you rack up kills. For instance, let’s say you want to create a specialist package for use in Domination.

You start with whatever three perks you normally have available, but you could then unlock Extreme Conditioning after a few kills to help you sprint from flag to flag. If you live long enough to capture a few flags, you’ll probably be running low on ammo. Not a problem – you can set your specialist package to unlock Scavenger to help you pick up more ammo. To reap the rewards of this killstreak package, you have to analyze how you play and where you’d benefit from the unlocked perks most. For the hardcore crowd, this is an ideal pick.

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HTC Evo 3d Review

Pros: + Dual LED flash
+ Dual core processor is fast
+ Call quality has been excellent
+ Slightly slimmer than the original and feels great in the hand
Cons: - Much of the hype is on the 3D feature
- Screen would be more vivid
Summary: When the Evo 4G came out, it was a beast like nothing before it. Even a year later, the Evo 4G isn't too shabby. It just received Gingerbread, the latest Android update and is one of the few Android phones right now that can stream Netflix.


A little history on myself, I've generally had the top Sprint smartphone since the Mogul, then to Touch Pro, Palm Pre and in the last year, I've used mainly the Evo, with a few months of the Epic.


Onto the 3D: HTC's follow-up to the blockbuster Evo 4G is to give us a feature that nobody was asking for: a 3D capable display with stereoscopic cameras. The 3D effect is pretty cool. You do have some blur until the camera adjusts. While it's something you've probably never seen, short of the Nintendo 3DS, it just not something most people will find impressive.

At no point have I thought wow, I'm really glad my phone can do this. You do have the option to turn it off and take regular pictures. The 3D has dual LED flash, just like the first Evo and the standard pictures come out sharp. Speaking of the LEDs, it is missing the flashlight app, but I'm sure HTC will add that in for a future update.


Ok, that's out of the way. What else does this phone have? Speed. The dual core processor is fast and you will notice it from the first boot-up. Subsequent boot-ups take about 12 seconds to get to the home screen. My Epic Galaxy S, not a slow phone by any means, takes over 30 seconds to boot to the home screen.




  Even when downloading my 30-40 apps from Market, there was no lag. You have 1.15GB of internal memory for apps, so you won't have to worry about running out of space like the first one. HTC is still only throwing in an 8GB micro SD, but it's class 4 speed this time. 16GB cards are cheap, so that's a worthwhile upgrade for those that want to put a lot of media on their phone.

HTC's Sense interface has been a popular feature and with Sense 3.0, a lot of improvements are made and there's a lot to love here. I don't care for the carousel effect when flicking screens and you still don't have an option to remove screens (I don't need 7). 













The notification bar has a quick settings tab that let's you toggle all your data widgets. I will eventually go back to Launcher Pro, but for now I am enjoying the new Sense. The lock screen has the ability to go to certain apps, and to display weather or other items that you can personalize. It's a welcome integration and you no longer have to rely on a third party app for this function. You will notice other little things like the segmented app drawer pages.

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Android Ads Cloud Attack

  
  To guard against malicious behavior, apps that run on Android smart phones must ask politely for permission to do things like access your personal information, track your location, or transmit data via the Internet. 


But once they have approval, these apps can share the permissions with the advertising libraries they use to serve up ads, creating serious potential privacy and security vulnerabilities, researchers have found.Combing through 100,000 apps selected randomly from Google Play (the erstwhile Android Market), a team of researchers at North Carolina State University found that 48,139 of the ad libraries used by these apps tracked the user's GPS location; 18,575 tracked the identity of the phone (its IMEI number); 4,190 let advertisers track the user via GPS; and 4,047 accessed the device's phone number. 


 Dozens of such "ad libraries" exist, generating on screen ads with the associated apps. When you click on an ad, the app maker gets a fee. One of these libraries, called energy source, uses an insecure method of loading code from the Internet, says Xuxian Jiang, the North Carolina professor who led the study, released as a paper to be presented at a conference in Tucson next month.
 Though the researchers did not detect malicious behaviour from the app, they did say it poses a security threat simply by allowing code to be downloaded and run.  Of the 100,000 apps, 297 contained ad code that allowed the phone to run code downloaded from the Internet, providing a potential path for malicious software to get inside the device. "If your app has permission to access personal information, the ad library also has permission to access your information," Jiang says.    
[Image]The North Carolina research is only the latest evidence of gaping security and privacy holes in smart phones. In April of last year, iPhones and Android devices were found to track users' locations automatically. 
Then, in December, these and other smart-phone devices were found to carry diagnostic software that also tracks a wide range of user information. More recently, it was discovered that both iPhones and Android devices share users' address books and other information with apps. 


And instances of mobile malware have been rising.  The new findings point to a flaw in the business model behind apps, Jiang says. Developers rely on revenue from ad libraries to support free apps, but they have no control over what those libraries do. "The current model of embedding ad libraries in mobile apps for monetization purposes poses security and privacy risks. These ad libraries will essentially have the same set of permissions granted to the apps that enclose them. And certain ad libraries may abuse them for other unwanted purposes."  Mobile device makers should provide ways to isolate the two, Jiang says, so that the ads run separately from the host apps—and require separate explicit permissions. "There are fundamental concerns in the way mobile apps are being monetized," he adds.

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HTC Explorer Review

The Explorer is a budget handset aimed at first-time smartphone users, with a focus on keeping things simple and easy to use. It's a small but chubby handset which fits nicely in the hand, with a rugged plastic casing that feels sturdy and has a rubbery surface that helps with grip. Despite its budget price, the Explorer comes with all the usual smartphone features, including a 3-megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and access to the Android Market.

Our first worry was the small 3.2in screen, which has a small 320x480 resolution, but in practice we found it bright and colourful, with very little noticeable pixellation. There's not a lot of room, however - widgets on the home screen feel far more cramped than we're used to, and web browsing requires landscape mode. You'd also need to scroll around a lot to look at Office documents, but there's no document viewer installed as standard.

The phone is powered by a 600MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon system-on-a-chip, and despite its low clock speed the operating system still felt fast, even with a few applications running. The phone could also play HD video files, although of course they're downscaled to fit on the lower-resolution screen.

One major problem is the small 85MB of free storage space for apps. Most apps range from 3-5MB in size, whereas games can be 20MB or more, so you'll be very limited in what you can install. You do get a microSD card slot, so if you're careful you can stretch out your storage space by moving some apps to the SD card.

A major surprise is the camera: despite its lowly 3-megapixel sensor, it produced crisp, bright shots with very little noise. This was most evident in our low-light test, where we managed to capture reasonably detailed images, even though the camera doesn’t have a flash. Videos were crisp and colourful too, with much less jerkiness when panning than we've seen from other smartphone cameras. The low 480x320 video resolution is the only downside.

The Explorer runs a later version of HTC's Sense interface than the larger Sensation XE, but we didn't notice any major differences. You still get all the social networking features, such as merging your contacts across a variety of services such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, although not all Sense apps are installed by default - you can choose to install the missing ones through the HTC Hub app, which gives you more control over how much space is taken up with apps.

One small but important addition is the inclusion of a data monitor, which gives first-time smartphone users more control over their data usage and allows them to get an idea of how much surfing or YouTubing they can get away with. This is especially useful as many people interested in such an inexpensive smartphone may want to pay for their data as they go; in fact, most of the contract deals we saw for the Explorer came without data.

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Mobile Watch

LG has finally launched the GD910 Watch Phone to the UK public, for the far-less-than expected price of £500.

The question we want to answer in our LG watch phone review is as it's packed with a touchscreen, Bluetooth and even a camera, is it still just a gimmick or the start of a real life Dick Tracy era?

The phone/watch (we'll go with phone) is a sleek number, given the amount of technology packed under the hood.

It features a leather-like strap, which adjusts through a simple 'tug to fit' system, which loosens fairly regularly, so you'll need to keep tightening it up.

The SIM slot is located with the battery at the back of the phone, removed with a fair amount of force using a coin. The phone will still work without a SIM card, but unless you're desperate to use it as a music player on the wrist, it's a little redundant.

The unit itself is a sleek design, and the touchscreen is much better than others on the market (but then, a 1.4-inch touchscreen must be easier to work with than a huge 3-inch plus effort).

The three buttons on the side are a little fiddly to operate, with arm hair often pinched when using them. Similarly, when using it on your right arm, the screen is also obscured by the hand trying to work the phone.

LG has been clever in the design of the GD910 Watch Phone though, with the call button opening up a number of menus, and the hang up button taking you back to the top screen, with the middle button simply navigating back and forth.

It feels very light on the wrist, with the chunkiness far less than we were expecting. It's no stretch of the imagination to see this being used as a 'normal' watch.

CLAMPED: The charger holder sits snugly on the side of the LG Watch Phone

The charger is a novel design, with a clamp holding the phone to a metal plate, which then connects to a USB charger for computer compatibility as well. It took a couple of goes to get this snugly fitting, but when we did we had to admit it was pretty cool.

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IPad 3 Review

As the Cupertino brand's latest tablet, the new iPad (which didn't get the Apple iPad 3 moniker that we were all expecting) is set to go head to head with top-tier Android tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. But is the new device worth trading in your Apple iPad 2for? T3 went hands-on to find out...

Apple new iPad: Build

Apart from the new camera optics the new iPad feels identical in the hand when compared to the Apple iPad 2. It features the same dimensions, button placements and weight, with the only discernible difference being the bigger camera optics at the rear.

The solid, industrial finish still wipes the floor with most competitors, many of which suffer from a plastic complexion. If you've held the iPad 2, you should know what to expect.

Apple new iPad: Screen

Apple calls it 'resolutionary', we call the 9.7-inch screen that supports a 2048 x 1536-pixel resolution at 264 pixels per inch (ppi) the best screen we've seen on a tablet (perhaps bar the Samsung Tab 10.1).

The addition of the Retina Display really does boost colours and make text pin-sharp on web-pages and in iBooks. In fact, wherever you see text you can't discern the pixel. It's impressive. Apple says that the screen is higher resolution than some HD TVS and, while the maths seems to add up, the close-up experience goes some way to proving the claim.

When looking at 19-megapixel photos (the highest supported by the new iPhoto app), definition is superb. 1080P video captured by the device itself is also impressive, while downloaded HD video from iTunes looks stunning. A real improvement from the iPad 2.

We're not huge fans of Downton Abbey, but the demo given showed off the smoothness and detail that higher resolution video offers.

Games also look great. We tried Namco's new Sky Gamblers Air Supremacy and were impressed with the smoothness. Graphically, Apple says the new iPad is 'better than console', although we'd want to try out a greater range of titles. In essence, the improvement in screen quality from the iPad 2 to Apple's latest is akin to the jump from Apple iPhone 3GS to Apple iPhone 4.

Apple new iPad: Features

The main improvement here is the A5X chip, which provides a quad-core GPU but dual-core CPU – so not a true quad-core tablet. The interface looks slick, especially on the new Retina Display, but we didn't notice any speed increase when switching between apps. 

The camera has been lifted straight from the iPhone 4 and offers 5-megapixel stills and 1080p video (with 30fps) recording. AirPlay Mirroring is supported up to 1080p on the new Apple TV (£99) with this third-gen iPad.

The optics on the back are noticeably bigger and, even in the dark surroundings of the demo area, we could see a greater amount of light being allowed into shot. Storage options range from 16Gb to 64Gb on both the Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi 4G models.

However, we'll have to wait for a UK carrier to offer HC-HSDPA or LTE connectivity before being allowed to experience the super-fast internet speeds demoed at the launch.

Apps also got an overhaul with the brilliant iPhoto – replete with multi-gesturing – being added and GarageBand and KeyNote getting upgrades. iWork will cost £6.99 and iLife, £2.99. Both can be downloaded for free if you've already paid for them.

Apple new iPad: Battery

Apple claims a battery life of 10 hours in normal use and 9 hours when using 4G. We'll look forward to testing those claims when we get our own sample. Watch this space.

Apple new iPad: Verdict

The new iPad looks and feels almost identical to the Apple iPad 2 at first glance, but it brings a fair bit more to the table, not least the impressive Retina display with that massive screen resolution. The result is pin-sharp images and huge improvements in video playback from the Apple iPad 2.

The inclusion of 4G tech is also interesting, although not that useful to us UK dwellers just yet.

On first impression, the new iPad certainly offers enough compelling new features for you to consider an upgrade from the iPad 2, but we'll let you know more as soon as we get our hands on a full review sample.

Apple new iPad availability: 16 March 2012

Apple new iPad price: 16Gb Wi-Fi - £399, 32Gb Wi-Fi - £479, 64Gb Wi-Fi - £559. 16Gb Wi-Fi + 4G - £499, 32Gb Wi-Fi + 4G - £579, 64Gb Wi-Fi + 4G - £659

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