How to Use Windows

Francis Ford Coppola has signed on the dotted line with SIM2 to help the projector manufacturer come up with the perfect solution for projectors in the home. Italian manufacturer SIM2, known for its premium range of home cinema and professional DLP projectors, is hoping that working with the director of The Godfather , and his tech team, will bring the kind of quality Hollywood producers need when viewing movies to the consumer market. Although Coppola will feature in the company’s marketing campaign, it seems the Hollwood honcho is a bit more engrained in SIM2, other than having his face plastered over promo material. Since 2008 he’s had his own SIM2 projector and has used the device to edit his latest movie Tetro on

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

At first glance it’s hard to believe that the TX-P54Z1 is a plasma TV: the chunky, dour looks that tend to define the technology are conspicuous in their absence here. Pleasingly, the TX-P54Z1 has more in line with slinky LCD models. Particularly remarkable is that this TV is just 25.7mm deep, even out-slimming Samsung and LG’s recent edge-LED TVs. Some of this remarkable slenderness can be explained by the fact that the the set’s three tuners – Freeview, analogue and Freesat – are built into an external tuner/multimedia box, ideal for wall-mounting

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

MAINGEAR, which touts itself as “award-winning builders of custom computers for PC gamers and enthusiasts”, has a new multimedia laptop to drool over, the mX-L 15 . The mX-L 15 is powered by Intel’s Core i5 or i7 mobile processors, has an integrated memory controller, and support for up to 8GB of dual channel DDR3 memory. The graphics engine is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570, with 512MB of memory, which drives a back-lit LED screen at resolutions of 1355 x 768 or 1600 x 900. Options exists for 7200RPM 2.5-inch SATA hard drives, from 160GB up to 320GB, or solid state drives, from Kingston or Intel, ranging from 64GB up to 512GB. The mX-L comes stock with Windows 7 Home Premium, 32-bit or 64-bit–your choice.

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

Motorola’s Android release-a-thon is showing no signs of slowing at the moment, with one of the latest devices packing some pretty serious multimedia tech. The Motorola Motoroi has only been released in Korea, but word is it’s making its way to other shores, with Europe hotly tipped to be one of them. The Motoroi is running Android 2.0 at the moment, meaning its pushing the boundaries of the Android tech out there at the moment.

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

Everybody is talking about 3D TV . This year’s CES was buzzing about it. Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba and LG all showed off 3D-capable HDTVs , some with 2D-to-3D video conversion technology that claims to add depth to existing content on the fly.

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

Google’s latest update to its phone OS – Android 2.1 – has finally arrived in the UK, courtesy of the Google Nexus One handset and with it a number of new UK-specific features. One of the more interesting things is that now you can get direct access to the Amazon MP3 store from the phone, something the US has had since the G1. The service comes preloaded on the Nexus One and offers up information on the latest songs and albums and how much they cost. App-reciation In all there are 9 million tracks available on the store, plenty then to plug the music gap which has been bugging Android users in the UK. The launch of the UK-specific Amazon MP3 store on Android – something which still needs to be confirmed by Amazon itself – may well be the killer app needed for Google to challenge Apple and its iPhone as the multimedia handsets of choice.

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

Samsung is set to update the firmware for its expensive-but-cool i8910HD handset, with a number of decent upgrades thrown under the hood. The i8910HD is one of very few Symbian handsets for the firm ( and may even be the last ), and while the others appear to have fallen by the wayside, this one has been given the upgrade treatment. Top of the pile is kinetic scrolling, so users will be able to ‘throw’ menus up and down in a similar way to the iPhone and Android devices. Throwing it around There’s also an improved web browser, thanks to upgraded Webkit software, and an improved graphics engine for better access to all the multimedia stuff the phone is famed for (HD video recording for instance). We’re not sure when it’s going to land, but word is it will be hitting Italy before 2010 and the UK early next year – which will please all those users who have been forced to crack their handset to lever in upgraded software already.

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

We’re loving Windows 7: it looks great, performs well and is packed with so many small improvements that we’ll soon forget Vista ever existed. But at the same time, it’s important not to get carried away by the hype. Windows 7 isn’t perfect. In fact, it’s not even close

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

Reindeers don’t like to carry flatscreen TVs on Christmas Eve, but with some stunning bargains on the high street, Rudolph and Co. may have to invest in some extra-large sacks this December. So why not find yourself a flatscreen without spending all your Christmas cash?

The full story can be found on Tech Radar

The Lenovo IdeaPad U450p is a strong proposition. While performance and build quality are good, there’s also the inclusion of an optical drive – relatively rare in a CULV laptop – which will prove a selling point for some. The disc drive enables you to read and write DVDs without issue and saves you the hassle of carrying an external drive. This makes watching films and backing up data, for example, easy when on the move.

The full story can be found on Tech Radar