January 28, 2012

WP7 on a budget

The Nokia Lumia 710 is seems to be pitched as the poor man’s Lumia 800, but can that be right?

We’ve been testing the two Windows Phone 7?powered Nokia phones together for the last two weeks to see how the 710 really lives up to the flagship Nokia smartphone, and whether you really are getting second best if you go for the Lumia 710.

Design

If you like the rounded edges of the Nokia Lumia 800, the one piece design, the overall “different” feel and approach to the Lumia 800 then although it hurts us to say this, but this isn’t the phone for you. Get the Lumia 800 and be done with it. The 710 isn’t in the same league when it comes to design. That’s not to say it is an ugly phone, but it is more “traditional” in its approach.

Slightly bigger, although lighter than the 800, the 710 comes with the same size 3.7-inch screen that dominates the front of the smartphone.?Rather than touch-sensitive buttons, you now have one large physical button beneath the screen that is spilt into three buttons. The buttons are the standard Windows Phone offerings of back, home, and search.

The side features volume keys and a dedicated shutter button for the camera, while the top offers a power button, a micro USB socket – that isn’t covered like it is on the Lumia 800 – and a headphone jack. The micro SIM slot can be found inside, something you can access along with the battery because the Lumia 710 has a removable back cover.

It’s the removable back cover that will also appeal to those that like to customise the phone as, just like you did in the 90s, you can swap out the cover and change the colour of your phone on a daily basis, if that’s your thing.

Our review unit came with black, however there are a range of other colours available and planned including magenta and cyan. We’ve also seen patterned designs as well.

The Lumia 710 is by no means striking, nor is it the worst phone we’ve ever seen. It’s built well, is solid, and most importantly, comfortable to use.

Insides

Strangely, from a core spec point of view – the processor and memory – the Lumia 710 is identical to the only other Windows Phone available from?Nokia; the?Lumia 800. That means you get a 1.4Ghz processor and 512MB of RAM to power your Windows Phone 7 experience. In our tests and having used the Lumia 800 extensively for the last three months, this is more than enough to enjoy the operating system and all that you can throw at it.

Whether it is playing games, loading applications, or merely surfing the web (the browser is hardware optimised) there’s a plenty of power to go around.?On the connectivity front you get Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS.

So where have the corners been cut? Well for starters you only get 8GB of storage rather than 16GB as found on the Lumia 800. Then there is the screen quality, LCD over AMOLED, and finally the 5-megapixel camera instead of the 8-megapixel model found on the Lumia 800.

All that gives sucks the standard days worth of battery on a single charge, while we had no complaints or out of the ordinary praise for call quality either. As a phone the Lumia 710 acts as you would expect.?

LCD vs AMOLED

The single biggest difference you’ll spot instantly when looking at the Lumia 710 is that it uses an LCD screen rather than a AMOLED one. That takes away the stunning visual impact you get from the Lumia 800 and presents you with a screen that is rather flat in its colour. The viewing angle isn’t as great and in both the white and black themes of WP7, unless you are looking at it straight-on, there is a tendency to believe that the screen colours are somewhat under-saturated. It certainly isn’t as vibrant.

Again that’s not to say the screen is bad, it’s just not as good as other Windows Phone handsets like the Super LCD-touting HTC Radar. What is instantly noticeable, however, is that extra .2-inch over the iPhone 4 and 4S. It really does make the Apple smartphone screen look small.?

Camera time

The Lumia 710 might only have a 5-megapixel camera with single LED but we were very impressed with its performance. As long as you are able to hold the phone still at the moment you press the shutter, you’ll get good results regardless of light available. Failing to do so results in softer images, but then that’s normally the case with many smartphone cameras. Pictures are processed immediately with little or no lag.

The success of the camera is down to the f2.4 wide-angle (28mm) lens that gives you plenty of room to play with. There is a digital zoom, but we would advise against using it.

Sadly, unlike the HTC Windows Phone 7 smartphones you don’t get additional features like panorama or the ability to apply effects, but you can get panoramic apps like Pano and PictureLabs that will fill those gaps.

You also get 720p HD video recording.

App time, or not?

It’s fair to say that apps aren’t the strongest part of the Windows Phone 7 platform at the moment. But don’t panic, because not only are there plenty of apps coming, but interestingly WP7 isn’t as app-focused as the iPhone or Android. There are plenty of features built into the phone’s operating system that means you don’t need thousands of apps to let you do anything.

Nokia understanding this give you Nokia Drive; a very good turn-by-turn satnav app that will easily get you from A to B, Nokia Music; A free music service that will have you listening to the latest songs in seconds, and Nokia Maps; which is really just a better version of the phone’s Bing maps feature.

There is also the promise in the coming months of Nokia Transport; a public transport planning app, Nokia City Lens; an augmented reality app to tell you which direction restaurants are nearby, and Nokia Pulse; a BBM clone that needs a few more people to sign up to Nokia phones to get it really work.?

That’s Nokia, but we also know that there are new apps coming from Skype, supposedly Instgram, and many others, meaning that it is a winning rather than losing battle.

But as we said there are many times that you won’t need a flashy app. Windows Phone 7 has been designed around hubs and those hubs do a good job of covering your basic needs.?The People hub is exceptionally good for keeping track of everyone be it via your own contacts, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, while the office hub will sort out your document needs.

So who is the Lumia 710 for?

There are three Nokia Lumia models at the time of writing, and this is the model that will appeal to those looking for a cheap phone with low monthly costs.

What makes the Lumia 710 so appealing is that you get a phone that isn’t sluggish, like the equivalent Android offerings. As well as one that comes with some great apps out of the box like satnav and music, without having to pay for extra apps. TomTom for iPhone is ?50, and while Drive isn’t as featured, it will certainly do for most.?

That should mean that the 710 does well when it hits the shops in February, and one that might help Microsoft lure those BlackBerry users away from their BB Curve.?After all we suspect that they won’t be able to afford an iPhone 4S and might struggle to understand or get frustrated by Android.

Verdict:

The Lumia 710 isn’t as nice as the 800 but then we know that it isn’t supposed to be. This is about making Windows Phone 7 affordable, and on that front the 710 is perfectly pitched.

With the Lumia 800 around the ?35 price point on contract, we suspect that you’ll be able to get the Lumia 710 for around ?15 – ?20 a month with the handset “free”. That’s a good price in anyone’s books.?

The Lumia 710 is perfect at showing that you don’t need to have powerful expensive specs to still get a phone that is enjoyable to use day-in, day-out.?It might not be as durable as the metal clad HTC Radar, but you won’t be disappointed.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Nokia Nokia Lumia 710 Windows Phone 7 Microsoft

                                                       

Nokia Lumia 710 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:43:00 +0000

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COMMENT: Where’s that unicorn?

The Lytro camera that allows you to focus well after the moment you press the shutter button on your digital camera might be one of the most exciting innovations to happen to the world of photography since the first digital camera in 1975, however, to say that it is going to be included in the next iPhone or iPhone after that is stuff of make believe and wishful thinking.

In an extract from an upcoming book by Fortune magazine’s Adam Lashinsky, called Inside Apple, Lashinsky talks about how the CEO and inventor of Lytro met with Steve Jobs before his death to talk about the new technology:

“The company’s CEO, Ren Ng, a brilliant computer scientist with a PhD from Stanford, immediately called Jobs, who picked up the phone and quickly said, ‘if you’re free this afternoon maybe we would could get together.’ Ng, who is 32, hurried to Palo Alto, showed Jobs a demo of Lytro’s technology, discussed cameras and product design with him, and, at Jobs’s request, agreed to send him an email outlining three things he’d like Lytro to do with Apple.”

That has immediately got the Apple blogs excited and desperate to write headlines along the lines of “Next Apple iPhone to get Lytro tech”.

We don’t deny that Steve Jobs met with Ren Ng before his death last year, but having played with an early prototype of the Lytro camera in San Francisco in 2011, just after the camera’s launch, it is fair to say that the technology is far from ready to make it into something as mainstream as the iPhone let alone any smartphone based on what we’ve seen.

One day, yes; within the next 3 years, highly unlikely. Why? Frankly there are just too many hurdles to make it a reality right now.

The first is the size of the sensor and the lens needed to take the photographs in the first place. The Lytro camera, a rather strange rectangular shape, is smaller than your traditional compact. However, it isn’t as small as a phone and it requires a large sensor shape and deep lens to garner all that information on fields of light. The shape and size just isn’t smartphone form factor friendly. That’s not to say it isn’t possible in the future but, if they were that close to creating something for a phone, then why make the Lytro camera such an unusual shape?

Then there is the resolution of the photos themselves. Snap a picture with the Lytro and you get a 1.2-megapixel (1,080 x 1,080) snap and that is far below the current offering phone users are used to. That’s a big drop in the quality stakes and one that many would unlikely want to opt for.?The Lytro’s pictures are fun but they certainly aren’t up going to be up to scratch with the 8-megapixel offering in the current iPhone 4S.

Even after you’ve got over all the technical difficulties, there is the social issue. Currently you can only share and edit Lytro pictures with the company’s own software and own editing app.

That means no uploading to Facebook, no uploading to Twitter, no uploading to anywhere unless you created the dedicated software to do it. Now that’s not implausible, but can you really see that happening overnight with the support of companies like Instagram, Flickr, and others? Here at Pocket-lint we can’t see it until Lytro starts to become a force in its own right and more people have had a chance to use the system and for it to prove its worth.

Finally there is Apple itself. One of the biggest reasons we don’t believe Lytro will be on the iPhone 5 or iPhone 6 for that matter is the simple fact that Apple does not embrace new technologies.

Don’t get us wrong, the iPhone is an amazing piece of kit, however nothing in the iPhone is new bleeding edge technology. There are faster processors, better cameras, better screens, better almost everything available on the market elsewhere and that’s because the iPhone isn’t about specs. It’s about experience and it is about letting people enjoy the current tech in a great way rather than becoming a guinea pig for new, unproven technology.

Sadly Lytro, while amazing, is too new, is too untested, and ultimately too much of a pipedream at the moment.

Sorry Apple fans, waiting for Lytro to make it to the iPhone any time soon would be like waiting for scientists to create the unicorn.

Tags: Phones iPhone 4S iPhone 5 Apple Lytro Comment Features

Lytro in the iPhone, not so fast originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

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Kristen Stewart teamed up with her Snow White and the Huntsman costars Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron for a photo shoot in LA today. Kristen arrived in a casual hoodie and later changed into a plaid shirt to pose with her leading man, Chris. The trio wrapped the film just before the holidays and since then they’ve all kept busy with new projects and well-deserved vacations.

Earlier this month it was announced that Kristen will be the new face of Balenciaga perfume while Charlize scored the February cover of W magazine. Meanwhile, Chris and his wife Elsa Patakay announced they’re expecting their first child later this year and also vacationed off the coast of St. Barts with Matt Damon. Chris and Matt let loose during their stay in the Caribbean, and even partied with George Clooney‘s ex Lisa Snowdon. Snow White and the Huntsman hits theaters June 1 and we can look forward to seeing a lot more of Chris, Kristen, and Charlize in the upcoming months.

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The chain gang

Taiwanese bicycle manufacturer Pacific Cycles is bringing its full-size folding bikes to these shores for the very first time, after opening a new European office in London. For all intents and purposes, the iF Mode and iF Urban 700 bikes look like their non-folding equivalents, with full-sized wheels and form factor, yet feature the company’s proprietary Integrated Folding Technology.

Designed by British engineer Mark Sanders, both bicycles sport a?patented hinge system with three-dimensional 4-Bar linkage allowing the frame to fold and the head stock to pivot. The wheels are guided together during folding. The company claims that this system allows anybody to collapse and rebuild the bikes easily and without the need for specialist tools.

The iF Mode is more for the inner city worker, being made of a lighter?aluminium monocoque frame. While the iF Urban 700 has a conventional, rigid aluminium frame, and apes a more conventional bike. It is aimed at the more serious cyclist who place a priority on performance, yet can benefit from its folding properties.

When folded, both bikes can also be wheeled along – handy if the weight is too much for you to carry them over long distances. The iF Mode’s 26-inch three-spoke wheels can also be detached, for storage or in order to place the whole bicycle in a suitcase. It features a?two speed enclosed transmission with gear selection enabled by the push of a heel.

The iF Urban 700 has an?8 speed Sturmey Archer hub transmission, front and rear disc brakes and 700C lightweight wheels (hence the 700 suffix, presumably).

Both bikes will shortly be available to buy from Firebox.com and Fudges Cycle Store. The iF Mode weighs in at ?1,699, while the iF Urban 700 will cost ?1,199.

Tags: Bicycles Sports Fitness Pacific Cycles Pacific Cycles iF Mode Pacific Cycles iF Urban 700 Firebox

     

Pacific Cycles iF Mode and iF Urban 700 full-size folding bikes hit UK for first time originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:40:42 +0000

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The Buzz Out Loud team gets together for a special episode to discuss and debate CNET’s end-of-the-year CNET 100 list of lists. Are the winners really winners? Are we being fair to the disappointments? Will 3D TV ever get it right? Watch the show and join the discussion at http://cnet.com/cnet100

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-CNET 100 list

-The winners

-The disappointments

-The sleepers

-The maybe-next-years

-The ones that keep us up at night

-CNET 100 in 100 words-ish

-Celebrity entourage

-Beautiful ones

-The forgettables

-The 1-percenters

THE WINNERS
Putting fanaticism aside (from both sides) I cannot see why the iPhone is “”hands-down”” one of the most “”important tech products of the year.

Yes it is a great device, yes it outsold any other phone model. I know a few people that have one and love it. But that does not make a device an important tech product, it just makes it a successful one. Excluding Siri, which is a great advancement in voice assisted interfacing, the device itself was nothing more than a hardware refresh with no major innovations.

At least the Droid Razr (second mentioned) accomplished something by making the lightest, lowest profile phone without sacrificing (actually improving from what I can tell) durability, functionality, or performance.

Read more:
http://www.cnet.com/2300-33506_1-10010530.html?tag=epicStories#ixzz1gRajiPaF”

Expanding on my previous post, I also do not see how ICS was able to secure a spot when it hasn’t even seen launch on any device in the US and is too young to truly understand its impact.

Read more:
http://www.cnet.com/2300-33506_1-10010530.html?tag=epicStories#ixzz1gRatszsv”

You missed one. I think the HP Touchpad was a winner. Not because it was a failed product, but because it helped to push tablet prices down and show the world that tablets are indeed a viable product when the price is right. It also showed that to compete with Apple you have to offer a lower price, because like it or not and true or not, Apple products are perceived as being better.

Read more:
http://www.cnet.com/2300-33506_1-10010530.html?tag=epicStories#ixzz1gRbBioez”

THE DISAPPOINTMENTS
It didn’t live up to the hype”” – Who’s hype??? Apple didn’t hype 4G, teardrop design, larger screen, a maid to clean your house – it was the MEDIA. The rumor mill in it’s attempt to churn up stories before the competition set the consumer’s expectations, NOT Apple. And heck, as an iPhone 4 owner I’m glad a game-changer that would tempt me to buy out my contract wasn’t released less than a year into my current phone. I’m content upgrading every other iteration and keeping some $ in my pocket.

Read more:
http://www.cnet.com/2300-33506_1-10010531.html?tag=epicStories#ixzz1gRbZHFT0”

—–

http://bol.cnet.com, 800-616-2638 (CNET), buzz@cnet.com

Follow us on Twitter: @mollywood @brian_tong @stephenbeacham

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When I Look At You

• Artist: Miley Cyrus
• Label: Hollywood Records, Universal Music Spain, Vale Music
• Director: Marc Roussel

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As if launching her ‘OWN’ network is not enough, Oprah can add another prestigious title to her legacy. She has been chosen to be the godmother to Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s newborn daughter.

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Take the weather with you

What are the best iPad news and weather apps? The tablet is just about the perfect form for consuming stories as most have a big enough screen for pictures and video to play nice with the rest of the text. But proper news wouldn’t be right without the weather at the end. Hence why we have thrown the two in together here.

The included weather app with the iPhone doesn’t ship on the iPad, leaving a nasty gap where your weather prediction once was. So, don’t expect to be dodging any raining picnics should you be an iPad only kind of guy. Then again, you could always just download some of these brilliant weather apps to fix things.

BBC News app

The BBC’s app is a must for news hounds and an essential for any iPhone. Everything is jolly clear and is categorised into UK news, world news, politics, business, technology and sport. You can also stream the BBC news channel, which includes any news clips which have been embedded within stories.?Once you’re in a story you can scroll left to right and vice versa to navigate – all of it feeling pretty snappy. Whilst there’s also the option to share content through Facebook and Twitter if you should so wish.?

Using the edit function you can customise content and the clever chaps have also integrated a way of enlarging text if you’re struggling to read anything.?Altogether then, a decent all-rounder and for free it’s definitely worth a go. Read More

iTunes: Link

Price: Free

Rating: 5/5

?

Weather HD

There may be better apps out there in terms of weather forecasts. There are probably apps with a lot more detailed and accurate satellite imagery. But you can bet your bottom dollar that there aren’t any weather apps that look as stunning as Weather HD.?After setting your location you can get weather forecasts in daily or three hourly intervals with the forecast displayed with a superb, crisp looking video. The best of which has to be this rain forecast – the video is so crystal clear and is shot in such a beautiful way that the grass and rain drops almost look 3D.

If the forecast is for night-time then the videos are all shot at night. There’s also various different videos for each scenario, so you won’t always see the same one for cloudy etc. The time is displayed as well, so if you set your iPad on a frame, and left it on when you had friends over, then you’d have the sexiest digital clock/barometer going.?It’s a simple but very effective app that kind of shows off everything that is good about the iPad. It’s web connected, it’s real time, it’s easy to use and it just looks so damn cool. Read More

iTunes: Link

Price: 69p

Rating: 4/5

?

Newspapers

News addicts have been begging for something like this for quite some time. The application acts like an equivalent of iBooks for just about every newspaper in the world. You can dip into filtered content selections from broadsheets and tabloids and pick at the front page content or delve deeper into stories.

The brilliant thing is being able to follow different news around the globe and see how each country covers it differently. At ?1.49 it is an incredible resource, even going as far as including local news. If you can speak more than one language, then we don’t think Newspapers can be beaten.

iTunes: Link

Price: ?1.49

Rating: 4/5

?

The Weather Channel

What could be better than real life sunshine? Virtual sunshine of course, in all its animated glory. Enter the Weather Channel’s app, which grabs the crown for the most overboard meteorological coverage we have ever seen.

This is something you could evade hurricanes with, or charter a flight to Timbuktu. You get a world map full to the brim with data, animated vistas for every type of weather and even hourly lists of every minute change.

iTunes: Link

Price:Free

Rating: 4/5

?

AP News

Reading through Associated Press’s normal news feed, no matter how current, is not a particularly enjoyable experience online. The new wire’s website lacks a decent user interface, partly because those using it need only the info in the stories.

The AP News app on the iPad changes this, creating a rich experience that allows you to interact with all of the wire service’s global coverage. Video plays smoothly and the location based news is a nice twist. The sticky note style front page is also a good effort from AP and makes it easier to navigate the heaps of stories posted every minute.

iTunes: Link

Price:Free

Rating: 4/5

?

Flipboard

Flipboard is your personal magazine. Even the front cover is unique for you. Because, as well as gathering news from a number of prominent sources, it also scours your Facebook and Twitter data and presents that info as well.

And we’re not talking about pages and pages of your friend’s monotonous updates, we’re talking about a personalised magazine where the pages are made up of articles, videos and pictures already fetched from you from any links that appear in your social media streams. Read more

iTunes: Link

Price:?Free

Rating: 4/5

?

Reuters News Pro

Like Associated Press, Reuters suffers from a fairly boring website but all is cured with its iPad app. Nothing is lost in terms of content quality when transferred from online to tablet, it is just a much nicer thing to browse. The app is also very responsive and speedy, which is what you want when looking through the kind of content Reuters sends out.

If you’re a banker that likes to bank all day, then the Reuters app also has all sorts of stocks and markets tickers sitting on the home page. Photo fans also get a nicely updated stream of shots which come in from Reuter’s top snappers.

iTunes: Link

Price:Free

Rating: 4/5

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Apps Features Apple iPad

           

Best iPad news and weather apps originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

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WARNING: Kelly Rowland’s new video “Keep It Between Us” includes some of the most romantic scenarios you could ever imagine. (DO NOT WATCH if you are recently post-breakup!) Intro scenes include a gorgeous montage of classic Paris moments — swooning over the Eiffel Tower, sauntering down charming cobblestone streets, sipping café in a cafe, and [...]

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Swinging through the south of the border locale to do a little promotional work, Vanessa Hudgens joined Josh Hutcherson and Dwayne Johnson in Mexico City, Mexico on Friday (january 27).

The good looking trio posed for pictures, offering solo takes and group ops during the session which preceded a scheduled press conference so that Vanessa, Josh and Dwayne could present their upcoming motion picture “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island”.

Hitting theaters on February 10th, the action/adventure flick was directed by Brad Peyton while also starring Luis Guzman, Michael Caine and Kristin Davis.

With a brand new trailer having just been released (watch below!), the film sees “Sean Anderson partner with his mom’s boyfriend on a mission to find his grandfather, who is thought to be missing on a mythical island.”

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Teen superstar was spotted with new hairstyle in Los Angeles over the weekend.

By Jocelyn Vena

Justin Bieber

Photo: Getty Images

<P>About a year ago, <a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/bieber_justin/artist.jhtml">Justin Bieber</a> made headlines when he <a href="/news/articles/1658412/justin-bieber-haircut.jhtml">lopped off his famous locks</a> in favor of a shorter do. Now, almost 12 months later, he's once again making some hair-related headlines.

</p><div class="player-placeholder right" id="vid:667806" width="240" height="211"></div><p>

So, what has Bieber done now that has everyone <i>buzz</i>ing? Well, over the weekend, the Biebs was <a href="http://www.eonline.com/news/justin_biebers_hair_goes_dark_side/286863" target="_blank">spotted in Los Angeles</a> donning much darker hair than his trademark sandy blond.

When Bieber cut off his hair last year, MTV News spoke to his <a href="/news/articles/1659195/justin-bieber-haircut.jhtml">hairstylist, Vanessa Price</a>, who told us about his new look, noting that it had a lot to do with Bieber's growing pains.

"We knew it was going to be a big deal," Price explained. "We knew it was going to shock fans, but we also knew it was going to be a change in terms of growing up. I think that's something that people adjust to.

"We'd been talking about it for a while and shared some ideas, but literally the day of he was adamant about the haircut. He amped himself up for it," Price continued, before describing his momentary hesitation. "The minute we started cutting, he was like, 'Wait, wait, wait.' He loves it. He's enjoying it."

The new hair color coincides with his girlfriend Selena Gomez's hairstyle changes. She recently <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/selenagomez/status/157224232835760130" target="_blank">tweeted</a> a photo of herself sporting multi-colored highlights in her hair.

Bieber's new look may be part of a makeover for his upcoming album, <i>Believe,</i> slated for release later this year. He confirmed last week that <a href="/news/articles/1677263/justin-bieber-will-i-am-believe.jhtml">Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am</a> will appear on the album.

Not only does Bieber want to <a href="/news/articles/1675015/justin-bieber-new-album.jhtml">grow up</a> when it comes to his look but also when it comes to his music. "The only conversation we've had about Justin's album that we're about to do is it's really important that it's the proper transition, because we've seen him [with] 'Baby,' now we're watching him grow up," Bieber's longtime vocal producer Kuk Harrell told MTV News in November. "And we can't just throw him into the adult game right away. It has to be the proper transition."</p>

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Back to basics

HTC’s UK boss Phil Roberson has admitted that the Taiwanese company has perhaps lost focus by trying “to do too much”, instead of focusing on the killer handsets that once made the brand the darling of the Android community.

Like the HTC Hero in 2009 or the Desire HD in 2010, Roberson wants the company to make waves with big product launches and to adopt a more qualitative approach.

“We had a fantastic year [in 2011], with 65 per cent growth year on year in the UK,” he told Mobile Today. “But in Q4 we delivered a lot more products than in the past. Now we want to create more of a ‘Hero’ approach. We make great phones, but it is hard to do that when the portfolio is spread too much.”

In Q4 2011 we saw no fewer than five new Android devices from the company, added to the 14 other Android HTC phone launches that year. Throw in three Windows Phone 7 handsets and you’re looking at a barrage of HTC handsets.

“We have to get back to focusing on what made us great – amazing hardware and a great customer experience,” added Roberson. “So 2012 is about giving our customers something special. We need to make sure we do not go so far down the line that we segment our products by launching lots of different SKUs.”

It’s fair to say that Samsung now holds the title as the Fandroid’s champion but it is also a company that seems to announce a new handset every other week. Where Samsung differs though, is it is always clear what its star player is.

HTC, if it is to regain its crown, will have to take a similar approach.

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Tags: Phones HTC HTC Hero

HTC to focus on quality, not quantity as it searches for new Hero originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:49:00 +0000

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Manager Scooter Braun tweets from studio where singer is working on Believe.

By Jocelyn Vena

Justin Bieber performs during his "Home for the Holidays" concert special in Toronto

Photo: George Pimentel / WireImage

<P>With <a href="http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/bieber_justin/artist.jhtml">Justin Bieber</a> in full-on album recording mode, his longtime manager, Scooter Braun, has heard just what the teen star is up to and wants everyone to know that <i>Believe</i> is a game-changer for the singer.

"Wow!! In the studio with @justinbieber and #Believe is going to be ridiculous!!!" he <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/scooterbraun"
target="_blank">tweeted</a> about the 17-year-old's 2012 release.
Braun's message came the same day that Bieber announced that he's officially working on the project.

"Start recording full time for #BELIEVE today. let the fun begin!
#newMusic," he <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/justinbieber"
target="_blank">tweeted</a> on Tuesday, hours later adding, "#studio."

<center><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:714678/cp~id%3D1672718%26vid%3D714678%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A714678%26instance%3Dmtv" width="460" height="260" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="." flashVars=""></embed></center>

But it seems that he'll take a break to hit up the Consumer Electronics Show, which is currently under way in Las Vegas. "Gonna see what is coming next. #gadgetNERD," he proclaimed.

While Bieber has said that he wants his next release to recall <a href="/news/articles/1672847/justin-bieber-my-world-new-album-justin-timberlake.jhtml">Justin Timberlake's <i>Future Sex/Love Sounds</i></a> sonically, in a recent interview with <i>V</i> magazine, he noted that what he'll be singing is a bit more PG than the topics Timberlake covered on that album.

"I'm not going to try to conform to what people want me to be or go out there and start partying, have people see me with alcohol. I want to do it at my own pace," <a href="http://newsroom.mtv.com/2012/01/10/justin-bieber-talks-sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll/">Bieber says</a> in the issue. "I don't want to start singing about things like sex, drugs and swearing. I'm into love, and maybe I'll get more into making love when I'm older. But I want to be someone who is respected by everybody."

Bieber may not want to get too graphic on this album, but vocal producer <a href="/news/articles/1675015/justin-bieber-new-album.jhtml">Kuk Harrell did note</a> to MTV News that he will be maturing on it in his own way.

"The only conversation we've had about Justin's album that we're about to do is it's really important that it's the proper transition because we've seen him [with] 'Baby,' now we're watching him grow up," said Harrell, who also worked with the singer on <i>Under the Mistletoe.</i> "And we can't just throw him into the adult game right away. It has to be the proper transition. There's a record in between."

<center><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:702340/cp~id%3D1672718%26vid%3D702340%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A702340%26instance%3Dmtv" width="460" height="260" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="." flashVars=""></embed></center>

<i>Are you looking forward to Justin's next album? Tell us on our <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mtvnews" target="_blank">Facebook</a> page!</i></p>

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DLNA 1.5 compliant too

Audio specialist Pioneer has announced that its latest network audio players; the Pioneer N-50 and the Pioneer N-30, have landed on UK soil.

Both of the players come rocking Apple’s AirPlay wireless streaming magic right out of the box and they are both DLNA 1.5 certified as well.

There are apps available to control the setups too, for both Android and iOS – that’s if you don’t want to get busy with the supplied remote control and the onboard 2.4-inch QVGA colour display.

These players will handle most music that you chuck at them, including top-end digital audio files such as 192kHz/24-Bit FLAC and WAV files, and they’re both packing a high-accuracy master clock, “which minimizes time-axis errors resulting in highly precise clock performance”.

Direct USB playback is available on the front and the N-50 also packs an asynchronous USB DAC, allowing direct connection with your PC, eliminating the need to fire up your home network. The N-50 also ramps things up with gold-plated RCA jacks and a tougher casing designed to reduce noise, as well as boasting hi-bit 32 audio processing skills too.

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi aren’t standard though unfortunately – you’ll have to shell out for additional adaptors for these features.

The?Pioneer N-30 and Pioneer N-50 are available now priced at ?349.99 for the former, ?150 more for the latter.

Tags: Audio Pioneer N-50 Pioneer N-30 Pioneer Streaming

       

Pioneer N-50 and N-30 network audio players steam in the AirPlay fun originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:16:20 +0000

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