OS X Mountain Lion

Apple has released a preview of its next update for the Mac operating system, dubbed Mountain Lion.

The revamped OS mirrors several features of the flagship iPhone and iPad, including a new messaging app and Twitter integration.

"The Mac is on a roll, growing faster than the PC for 23 straight quarters, and with Mountain Lion things get even better," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing.

"The developer preview of Mountain Lion comes just seven months after the incredibly successful release of Lion and sets a rapid pace of development for the world's most advanced personal computer operating system."

Mountain Lion will introduce popular iOS apps such as Messages, Notes, Reminders and Game Centre to the Mac for the first time.

The new operating system will be compatible with iCloud, Apple's cloud-based storage system for music, films and other media. It will also introduce AirPlay mirroring, meaning Mac owners will be able to stream video content from their computer to a TV using Apple TV.

Apple said the Messages app will replace iChat and will allow users to send unlimited messages, photos and videos from their computer.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook said the latest release brings the Mac software closer to the iOS system on the iPhone and iPad.

"We see that people are in love with a lot of apps and functionality here," Cook told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Thursday. "Anywhere where that makes sense, we are going to move that over to Mac."

Cook did not rule out the possibilty of Apple using the same microprocessor chips in its iPhones, iPads and Mac computers, saying: "We think about everything. We don't close things off."

Microsoft is expected to release its new operating system, Windows 8, later this year. Like Apple's Mountain Lion, Microsoft has borrowed features popular on smartphones running its Windows Phone system.

Cook denied to the Wall Street Journal that Microsoft was keeping the heat on the world's most valuable company. "I don't really think anything Microsoft does puts pressure on Apple," he said.

The new software will go on sale from the Mac App Store in late summer this year, Apple said. The California-based company sold a record 5.2m Macs in the quarter ending in December, up 26% from the same quarter in 2010.

Megaupload Closed

American officials have closed down popular filesharing site Megaupload, accusing its owners of breaking copyright laws. Kim Dotcom (oh yes, pic above) and Mathias Ortmann, founders of Megaupload, were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand, at the request of the FBI, and accused of $500 million-worth of piracy. The US Department of Justice issued a statement saying "This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime."

Charges brought by the FBI include: "engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement."

The prosecution alleges: "The conspirators’ content hosting site, Megaupload.com, is advertised as having more than one billion visits to the site, more than 150 million registered users, 50 million daily visitors and accounting for four percent of the total traffic on the Internet. The estimated harm caused by the conspiracy’s criminal conduct to copyright holders is well in excess of $500 million. The conspirators allegedly earned more than $175 million in illegal profits through advertising revenue and selling premium memberships."

Boomphones Review

The first thing you'll notice when you receive your Boomphones is the fancy carrying case they come in. It's mainly for storage as most of the time when you carry headphones with you, they'll be, ya know, on your head, but it still does set the tone that your getting something upscale. The Boomshell as it's called is durable and well structured, something you wouldn't expect from just a case. But through this measure you can tell that the producers of Boomphones expect that you'll want to keep your product safe since you'll obviously value it that much.

Boomphones are noise cancelling headphones that allow you to listen in a standard fashion with the headphones over your ears. Nothing exactly groundbreaking there. But once you turn on the switch, post charging through USB, the bass amps up and there's even less noise coming in from the outside. Again, nice feature but nothing awesome there. It's almost expected. But what sets Boomphones apart is where these over the ear headphones get their name.

You can tap the Boomphones icon on your ear and the headphones will essentially convert to speakers or a Boombox as they like to call it, giving the headphones their name. While there is no evidence as to whether it can save the world and there doesn't appear to be an option of Turbo Bass (which is probably a good thing), it does function fairly well as a set of speakers. The sound is just as robust as when you have the headphones on over your ears. It's not merely that it's louder, but the sound is being emitted from the outside of the headphones as opposed to the inside which gives it that boombox effect.

Unfortunately the sound is what we were left underwhelmed with at CES and continues to do that. The sound quality is not worth the $199.99 pricetag. All our audio experts agree (including the namesake of the website which equals big business) that you can do better for your money with products from companies like Sennheiser for that kind of price tag. It's just not as robust as you would expect for something that expensive. I have many pairs of earbuds that exceed it in sound which simply shouldn't be the case.

It seems that they focused on having equal speakers on the inside and outside of the headphones instead of investing their effort into the actual sound quality. It's unfortunate since there is so much potential within these headphones with their unique features and according to the company, out of the box listening ability, which is questionable at best.

Acer introduces new Ultrabook, measuring 15mm

Acer has unveiled thinnest Ultrabook with the Aspire S5, an ultra-slim device that measures only 15mm at the maximal point, weighing less than 1.35 kg and is built with a 13.3-inch LCD.

The Ultrabook features the Acer Green Instant On technology for fast boot and resume, and Acer Always Connect, which lets users manage their multimedia and data on all their devices at anytime, anywhere.

Acer Green Instant On and Acer Always Connect technologies enable data upload and retrieval anytime, anywhere and deliver power-saving features as well.

Acer Green Instant On provides instant-resume functionality (in 1.5 seconds) and ensures battery life that lasts several weeks and Acer Always Connect gets users online faster than conventional connections for better productivity and infotainment enjoyment.

In addition, Acer Always Connect can wake up the Aspire S5 from a remote device like a smartphone. Access to all documents, music, pictures and video files is fast and always available.

Aspire S5 features a smartly designed MagicFlip I/O port panel concealed just below the hinge, which enhances the overall slenderness and streamlined form of the S5.

When needed, a press of the MagicFlip key opens the panel to reveal a selection of I/O ports: HDMI, USB 3.0 and 20 Gbps Thunderbolt.

The Aspire S5 features include, an Intel Core processor, SSD storage for speed and increased shock resistance, professionally-tuned Dolby Home Theater v4, long battery life via the PowerSmart battery pack (with a 3X longer life cycle1 than traditional batteries), and is equipped with a chiclet keyboard.

How to Maximize Your Android Phone's Battery Life

Android phones are powerful little devices capable of helping you with many tasks. If you're lost, you can use GPS, if you need information, the browser is fast and allows access the entire web in a second, and if you still make calls, you can do that too.

You may have heard or noticed that the battery life on many droid phones is not nearly as long lasting as the phones of the previous generation. The problem with these incredible machines is that they pack a lot of computing power in a small space. There are physical limitations to powering the device without losing a lot of current. With the new Droid bionicthe battery life has improved, but if you have a different phone with a lower batter life, these tips will be very useful.

In any case, let's move on to the first battery life saving technique. First, always keep your phone on airplane mode when you are unable to use it. If you take the subway or enter a location where you can't get a signal, turn on airplane mode. A little trick is to personalize your main screen to have an airplane mode button on it.
Second, always keep your phone on a low brightness setting. I know one of the great features of these phones are their beautiful bright screens but if you want it to last, lower it as much as you can. This strategy can save about 5 hours of battery life on its own.

Finally, make sure all unnecessary programs are closed. If you click on links while using the browser you may have extra windows so make sure you close them. If you use Pandora or other apps, they will not turn off until you manually turn them off. Check your active programs often in the settings menu in order to see if you have any programs draining your battery.

Using these strategies will allow you to improve Android phone batter life. If you want a high level of brightness and use your phone often, always carry your charger with you. These days many schools, restaurants, and coffee shops have outlets so you can recharge on the go.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S Review

You’d be forgiven for not noticing the arrival of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Arc S in the smartphone market when it was launched a few months ago. After all, it’s becoming harder to differentiate between the phones that carry the “Xperia” name as the branding is used on more models every quarter.

The last time we took a look at a Sony Ericsson device was back in September 2011 when we reviewed the Xperia Neo and although it felt like anXperia Play without the ‘Play’, it definitely hit the mark for its price point.

Hardware

The Xperia Arc S has a slightly higher price point than the Neo, at around £300, but for the extra cash you’ll be getting a 1.4GHz Scorpion CPU running the show, as opposed to the 1GHz model which you will find present in the Xperia Neo. The phone feels nice to hold when you’re using it either indoors or when you’re out and about and it has a very thin profile compared to some of the more bulky HTC units that are available on the market right now, although it does have a lot of Sony Ericsson’s signature, cheap-feeling plastic casing holding it together. The glossy, black material is a fingerprint magnet too, so those of you who like to keep things spotless may need to carry a cleaning cloth around with you when you’re using this phone.

On the front of the device, you’ll find three physical buttons below the screen – there is no dedicated search button on many of Sony Ericsson’s Android phones like there is on many other phones from manufacturers such as HTC – for navigating back, going home and revealing the on-screen menu for whichever app you happen to be in at the time.

The screen on the Arc S has the same 480 x 854 resolution as the Xperia Neo, but the screen itself is half an inch larger, at 4.2-inches. This means that pixel density isn’t as good as it could be on the Arc, and it’s noticeable when placed side by side with newer phones such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which has a very high pixel density. That being said, for the price point of the Arc S you couldn’t expect a massive amount more. This phone isn’t one which is aimed at people who want the absolute best and will settle for nothing less than that, it’s an affordable unit for users looking to join the smartphone game.

As is the norm for most smartphones now, the Arc S charges using a standard USB connector, and the microUSB port is exposed on the right hand side of the phone. Not having a cover masking the port makes it significantly easier to access it for charging or data transfers, and it makes the whole process much less frustrating, as you don’t have to fiddle around with impossibly small flaps that cover the ports on many other phones.

Also on the right hand side of the unit, you will find the volume rocker, with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack being the only port on the left hand side. A physical camera button is present at the bottom of the right side of the phone, and it provides quick access to the camera functionality without having to navigate your app drawer to find the correct app. Speaking of the camera, you’ll find it alongside an LED flash to the rear of the phone. It can shoot still images at a resolution of 8MP (3264 x 2448) and, of course, supports modern features such as geotagging with the help of GPS. A feature which you won’t commonly find in many other smartphones which are currently on the market is the 3D panorama mode, which allows you to take a 3D image thanks to some clever software trickery built in to the phone.

In our camera tests, the still pictures taken were quite sharp, with a 6MP resolution. The 8MP camera mode will only allow you to take shots in 4:3 mode, so if you want to take widescreen images like you would on most smartphones, you’ll have to downgrade to the lower megapixel range. Although the images taken weren’t bad for a smartphone, the colours appeared washed out which made the entire scene look somewhat dull. Being in the UK on a cloudy day doesn’t help this at all, but when using other smartphones such as the iPhone 4S to take the same image and compare, you could tell the difference. For most people who care about image quality, this won’t be a huge issue as it’s easy enough to touch an image up using common photo management programs, such as iPhoto on the Mac, or even a free web service such as Google’s Picasa. Even with an auto-adjustment, the difference is noticeable.

A noticeable feature missing from the Arc S which is present in most other smartphones coming to the market at the moment is a front facing camera. With the explosion of video calling apps of late, most manufacturers are beginning to include front facing cameras on all of their mid to high range units, but there isn’t one to be seen on the Arc. Considering that the camera on the back of the unit is such a good quality one for the price point, this will no doubt come as quite a surprise for potential buyers.

If you’re more of a video fan, then you won’t be disappointed by the 720p video recording qualities of the Arc S. For a mid-range smartphone, Sony Ericsson has made sure you get quite a lot of bang for your buck, and the video quality on this unit is quite impressive. Again, it will struggle to compete with higher end models, but you get what you pay for when it comes to technology, and you could pick far worse phones than the Arc S for video quality. When viewed on a larger screen, you may get a few artefacts appearing, but you’ll be hard pressed to find phones at the same price point with better quality video capture.

Thanks to the 1.4GHz Scorpion processor and 512MB of RAM, the Xperia Arc S is a very quick device. Unlike budget smartphones such as the HTC Wildfire, you won’t find any lag when navigating between menus and different apps, and all of Sony’s widgets work without skipping a beat on the home page. Considering the faster processor that’s in the Arc S, the battery life doesn’t suffer for it. The 1500 mAh battery that comes with the phone is more than capable of lasting a full work day, and as long as you charge it before you sleep at night, it will be ready to go for the next day without you having to worry about it dying on you.

Of course, if you’re playing games a lot during the day and using a lot of CPU intensive applications, then battery life will be reduced accordingly; 4 hours straight of Angry Birds may just be enough to kill of most smartphone batteries, so don’t get your hopes up too much, because this phone is in line with the rest of the market when it comes to the amount of juice it can hold.

Software

The Arc S is currently running Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread), but Sony Ericsson has shared its plans to upgrade the phone to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) at some point in the future. Unfortunately, we have little idea when this is going to happen, as with most Android software upgrades, so it’s just a waiting game for current owners and potential buyers at the moment. When I first received the review unit, I was excited to see that a “4.0″ upgrade was available, but it referred to Sony Ericsson’s software, not Google’s Android version numbers, so I was left even more disappointed after the excitement of witnessing the phone upgrade to something I still haven’t utilised.

That’s not to say that the experience on the Arc S is a bad one with Gingerbread. On the contrary, thanks to the 1.4GHz CPU everything is as fast as you could expect from a smartphone. That being said, the Sony Xperia line is starting to look a little tired, both in terms of hardware and software. Every time we review an Xperia unit, it’s running the same software under the same skin that Sony insists on applying to Android.

Like the Xperia Neo and the Xperia Play that came before it, you will become familiar with Sony’s Timescape widgets very quickly if you purchase the Arc S. A number of default widgets are scattered across the home pages, and only one of them is a stock widget. Personally, I remove most of Sony’s widgets as soon as I turn on the phone, as they take up a lot of space that could be used for other, more crucial pieces of information. In many ways, Sony’s Android skin fails to impress, but it does have a nice little feature that allows you to store a folder on the launcher at the bottom of the screen, which gives you quick access to a number of applications without scattering their icons allover your home screen. By default on our review unit, Three used this feature to show off some of its applications outside of the app drawer, but it is a nice proof of concept for what you can do with your own apps.

If you pinch inwards on the screen with two fingers, you are presented with an “overview” of all the widgets that occupy the various home screens, but curiously you can’t view the home screens themselves. This is typical of Sony’s widget-centric attitude, but it’s still a very nice feature to have handy if you want to quickly access a widget but can’t remember which screen it’s currently sitting on. This will work not just with Sony widgets, but also stock widgets and custom ones that you can buy from the Android Market as well, so it could prove to be quite useful if you have a collection of well chosen widgets on your phone.

As with the Xperia Neo, Sony Ericsson’s own Android skin makes one thing much nicer when compared to stock Android; when you’re in the app drawer, you can choose the order in which you want your applications. You can keep them organised alphabetically, or by which apps you have used the most, or you can even choose your own random order for the apps to be in so that you know where everything is without even thinking about it. It’s incredible to think that even after 4 major versions of Android, we still can’t organise apps the way that we want to in the app drawer, so this is a very welcome addition to the software.

Wrap-Up

Although the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S isn’t the best phone we’ve ever reviewed, it does a solid job for its price point. Considering that it costs just £300 off contract, you’d be hard pressed to find better value for your money, especially as it packs a 1.4GHz processor and there is a planned future upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich at some point this year. The camera is solid, and although I’d have liked to see a higher pixel density on the 4.2-inch display, the resolution is pretty standard for units at this price.

Those wanting to take advantage of some of the newer video chatting applications which are available in the Market will want to look elsewhere, however, due to the lack of a front facing camera. Even the Xperia Neo, which is available for £100 less than the Arc S, has a front facing camera built in, so this remains to be somewhat of a mystery.

To wrap-up, if you’re looking for a device that’s affordable and runs a recent version of Android, then the Arc S is a great phone for the price point. Obviously, the more money you spend the more tech you’ll be able to get, but if you don’t care about having the latest and greatest technology as soon as it comes out then this will be a good purchase for you.