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Frankly, we weren't sure what to expect when we pitched up in Brighton at the tail end of August for the opening of Apple's 21st retail store in the UK.

Of course we'd been to the opening of the first – the flagship Regent Street store in London – and had been caught up in the enthusiasm and excitement of staff and punters alike, but surely the fact that a shop is opening somewhere that already sells Apple kit is hardly something to get het up about?

Boy, were we wrong. We set off from Bath at 5:30am in order to arrive in time for a preopening press briefing with Nye Wright, the store's Manager, but when we rocked up to the new store in Brighton's Churchill Square shopping centre just after 8am, there was already a queue forming.

(And while this isn't in the same league as the camping-out-for-days-beforehand stunts that we've seen at the opening of, say, the Regent Street and Fifth Avenue stores, we were nevertheless impressed that as the store opened – and even half an hour after it did – the queue was easily a couple of hundred strong.)

• 69 really useful OS X timesavers

Hugs and high-fives

For the traditionally reserved Brits, California-flavoured Apple events are often a little awkward.

You could never accuse an Apple Store employee of being surly or pessimistic, but it has to be said that, in the build-up to the opening – with the team inside the glass-fronted store hugging, swaying around in a ring, and high-fiving – that there were a few raised eyebrows and muttered, puzzled accusations of oddly cult-like behaviour.

The whole morning was one of an odd mix of passion and confusion; most of the folks in the queue, by dint of their very presence, would probably say they were hardcore Apple fans, and they were rightly excited about the opening.

And yet for the rest of the world there in Brighton that day, the whole event was anathema. When people learned that the whoopin' and a-hollerin' that accompanied the doors opening marked nothing more than a store opening – and, worse, that the little boxes being given out to the first few through the doors contained not 'free iPhones' as the rumour was but mere T-shirts – we were treated to the full gamut of emotions from bafflement to scorn by way of pity.

Just before the doors opened – after being given their final pep talk by the Store Manager – all the T-shirted employees broke out of the store and did a lap of honour around the top level of Churchill Square, high-fiving all the folks in the queue.

THE BOSS: Nye Wright, the store's Manager, is American, but tells us he loves Brighton

And when the doors did open after an excited countdown, the staff, lined up inside the store on either side of the door, applauded wildly and high-fived the folks in the queue as they streamed into the shop. And for many this was no mere pilgrimage; within minutes of the store opening, people were walking out carrying iMacs, MacBooks and more.

Some told us they'd wanted to buy a Mac but had been waiting until Apple opened a store nearby.

And yet as you might expect for such a creative part of the world, the Mac using populace was already well served, with existing dedicated Apple shops on the high street in both Brighton and Hove.

Martin Mayr, Managing Director of Cancom, told us: "Obviously it's not the best Christmas present we've ever had. However, we've known for quite a while that there would be an Apple Store here."

Indeed, another company that has long served the Brighton community, Solutions Inc, had been even more proactive: "Solutions Inc has always supported the notion of a retail Apple shop," Richard Furber, its Retail Operations Manager, told us. "We produced a film back in 2000 for Apple UK management highlighting the potential four years before the Regent Street store opened. We filmed it in Churchill Square, Brighton, right where they now have their own store."

THE GOODS: In typical Apple Store style, all the kit is laid out on blonde wood tables

Surely, though, Apple opening its own store in Brighton is bound to have a detrimental effect on the businesses of Cancom and Solutions Inc? Not so, according to Solution Inc's Furber:

"The first week really affected the sales in our Brighton and the Hove stores, but we have already seen a great bounce back in week two. The Hove store has free parking on-site – if you are buying an iMac, Mac Pro or even a laptop, do you really want to carry it through the shopping centre back to your car? Our Brighton Store has seen a huge increase in its sales of third-party goods, and with Apple Store increasing the market share of Apple goods in the town then our sales of all digital lifestyle accessories will just get better and better."

Different league

Cancom is more guarded, however. "[While] we respect greatly their absolute professionalism in the way they developed their retail offering," Mayr says, "Apple's huge financial muscle means they are in different league to us when it comes to these kind of investments."

We were reassured to see both companies recognise the strength of the Apple retail experience. "Apple Stores are the new benchmark for retailing worldwide," says Furber, "a real blessing compared to the Dixon's shopping experience of the past."

THE PUNTERS: Apple fans young and old flocked to the new store, which will offer free summer camps

Cancom's Mayr seems to speak for many of the high-street Apple specialist we speak to when he says: "For us, we wish they'd stayed at Regent Street and nowhere else."

Nevertheless, third-party stores have their own strengths. "Apple retail stores are good at what they do, but they fall a long way short of being a one-stop shop for everything. They don't sell servers or network systems, or support business users with visits to the client. The same is true for schools interested in Macs," says Furber, and Mayr is keen to stress the long-term relationships companies like his can develop with the community.

It's a sentiment that's echoed by Farpoint in Bath, MacFormat's own local Apple Premium Reseller. "Our offer to businesses includes free consultations, full IT support, replacement machines during repairs, on-site training and support packages tailored to suit each business's individual needs and budget," says Liz Hyde, its Marketing and PR Manager.

"We also have a rental service for businesses that allow more flexibility for our clients and the chance to try before you buy for new users. And you don't have to be a business to reap all of these benefits. We are also an Apple Authorised Service Provider and carry out repairs on-site here at Walcot Street. Our customers don't have to book their machines in first like you do at an Apple Store."

THE RESULT: High street stores let you get hands-on with new kit

There's little doubt, though, that no matter how solid the service and broad the range of products offered by the traditional high-street Apple specialists, they just haven't got the magic touch that Apple seems to have when it opens a store itself.

Through a strange alchemy of stellar products, peerless stage management and just a soupçon of wide-eyed cultism, there's nothing quite like the opening of an Apple Store. See you at the next one?

The internet has gotten out of hand and the problem is one of inboxes. Even just a decade ago, you were less likely to receive electronic mail as frequently as actual letters through your front door.

Today, though, email floods in, and most of us have more than one address. (Just counting those that I check regularly, I have four email addresses.)

But here's the thing: email addresses tell only part of the story.

You have other 'inboxes' too – if we accept that an inbox is something you check to see if there are new messages.

If you use Twitter, you can think of Mentions and Direct Messages as two discrete inboxes (that's my total up to six); Facebook adds its own inbox (seven), and your Wall is another (eight). Flickr has its own messaging system (nine), plus notifications of comments, favourites and the like (10).

eBay and LinkedIn have mail systems (12), forums usually feature thread notifications and private messages (taking my total to 16, when I add my regular forums), and banks lock correspondence with you away behind logins (20).

Even just looking at services I use regularly, I've managed to get my total inbox count to 20 – and that's an astonishing figure when you consider both how long you'll spend logging into these services over your lifetime, and how much brainspace you'll use up mentally corralling and digesting the information they contain.

I realised I was suffering from a background 'inbox stress' after doing this exercise. There are some ways to mitigate these concerns; many sites allow alerts to be pushed to email, where they can be managed with rules and Smart Mailboxes, and apps such as EventBox and services such as PeopleBrowsr help to aggregate social networking sites in increasingly useful ways.

But it's still a heterogeneous mess. In the meantime, though, here's a public safety announcement: your mental tranquillity decreases with every inbox, so beware. And stop signing up to new social networking sites…

This week saw Sky launch its service on Xbox – and then launch it again when the first attempt didn't go especially well, and phone speculation pointed at an imminent Orange iPhone launch and Google launching a branded mobile.

Our guide to Sky on Xbox proved popular as did our Windows 7 tips, while bargain hunters loved the selection of laptops for under £500.

In reviews, the BlackBerry Storm 2 and Samsung Genio Touch were two of the hot handsets, and Apple's Magic Mouse proved that mice don't have to be boring.

Top five news stories

Sky tries again with Xbox launch

After an aborted launch on Tuesday, Sky and Xbox are hoping that they can finally allow the public onto the eagerly anticipated Sky Player for Xbox 360 24 hours later.

Orange to launch iPhone in UK on 10 November

Orange looks set to release its version of Apple's iPhone 3GS from 10 November, according to industry sources.

Nokia N900 UK release pushed back to November?

The Nokia N900, which many of use were hoping to be released in October, seems to have been pushed back to November. The news came from Peter Schneider, head of Maemo marketing for Nokia, when pointing out that the phone had been well received by members of the developer community.

Google to rival Apple with own mobile?

Analysts are predicting that Google is planning to create a branded mobile phone in the coming months. Ashok Kumar, an analyst from Northeast Securities in the US, says he has seen design plans between Google and HTC that show the search provider's new vision.

Tilera launches ultra-powerful 100-core processor

Semiconductor company Tilera is manufacturing a 100-core computer processor that offers four times the power of Intel's Nehalem-Ex, while using a third of the power. Tilera's new 100-core processor is set for a commercial release early in 2010, with the processor being based around 40-nanometer technology.

Top five in-depth articles

Sky on Xbox: All your questions answered

Sky Player on Xbox has arrived, and TechRadar has had plenty of time on the service, as well as speaking to the key people behind the streaming and VOD television service.

6 awesome laptops all for under £500

Tumbling prices have seen laptops becoming increasingly accessible, and this group test reveals just how much you can actually get for a relatively small amount of money these days. If you're in the market for a budget laptop, none of these machines will disappoint when it comes to performing regular home and office tasks, and they provide an almost unrivalled amount of choice at amazing prices.

10 brilliant iPhone apps for commuters

Commuting is undoubtedly the most frustrating aspect of working life for many people. Getting stuck in traffic jams or hit by delays to trains can be a major headache, but these things are avoidable if you have access to the right information.

62 Windows 7 tips, tricks and secrets

To celebrate the launch of Windows 7, we've updated our Windows 7 tips with a bunch of new ones. Here are 62 ways in which Windows 7 will make a real difference to your PC.

How to create your best website layouts ever

Ah, the blank canvas: probably my favourite part of the design process. What I love about it is the multitude of opportunities it represents: free rein to create without being encumbered by any of the restrictions that come into play further down the line. Anything can happen!

Top five reviews

BlackBerry Storm 2 review

RIM has rebooted its touchscreen range with the Storm 2 9520, featuring re-tooled clickable touchscreen technology and new, intuitive text input options. It's still going to be seen as RIM's attempt to rival the likes of the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre and HTC Hero, but are the updates on the Storm 2 enough to fix the issues that were so widely condemned on the original Storm?

Samsung Genio Touch review

Pull the Samsung Genio touch out of its packaging and you could be forgiven for mistaking it, at first glance, for the Palm Pre. The gentle curves, the 2.8-inch touchscreen and the rounded button in the middle of the face are all heavily reminiscent of Palm's new baby.

HTC Tattoo review

Alongside the T-Mobile Pulse, the Tattoo is all about catering for the more budget-conscious phone user who wants to utilise Android, but not pay over the odds for the privilege. We're not talking about masses of money saved – a tenner a month off a contract here, a £100 off a handset there – but the arrival of the OS on the HTC Tattoo does point to a bright future for mid-range devices sporting Android.

T-Mobile Pulse review

With the Android smartphone platform gaining momentum as the number of handsets available expands, T-Mobile has introduced its own-brand low-cost touchscreen alternative – the T-Mobile Pulse.

Apple Magic Mouse review

Let's be clear about this from the start - Apple does not have a good track record with mice. Fast forward to 2009 and Apple has re-invented the whole concept of mice (again) with the Magic Mouse.

In a classic case of putting on a brave show, Nokia has announced the death of its N-Gage gaming service by trying to persuade its few hardcore fans that the Ovi Store will be a more than adequate substitute for their affections.

The announcement came on Friday on the official N-Gage Blog, headlined "Mobile gaming evolves – Ovi Store is here", a post which was really all about the demise of the six-year-old N-Gage brand.

Activation issues

Buried in the fourth paragraph of the entry, Nokia admitted: "We will no longer publish new games for the N-Gage platform." Instead, games fans with Nokia handsets are encouraged to seek them out on the App-Store-like Ovi Store.

Although Nokia has promised to keep the N-Gage.com site open until the end of September 2010, there are concerns that purchased N-Gage games might be unusable after that, as reinstalling such a title can require online activation.

Bury the dead

In a particularly apposite response, one analyst at US firm MKM Partners said: "It's a sign of a more realistic approach [from Nokia]. It's time to bury the dead and focus on the future."

If it's not about iPhones and Apple these days, the vast majority of mobile news seems to feature Android and the multitude of companies involved with the Open Handset Alliance, making it a pleasure to report something a little different.

Word from Japan has it that NEC will soon be releasing its first Android-powered computer, a tablet-like device that appears to be real for once.

Android Slate?

According to the Nikkei newspaper – which has a spotless track record of printing only when it knows the facts – the unnamed device will has a touchscreen of seven or eight inches and will be a full-fledged computer.

Naturally, the Android 'slate' is tipped to rely heavily on 'cloud' storage, rather than anything more local.

Sales forecast

Otherwise, there's no information beyond that teaser and the notion that NEC hopes to sell up to 200,000 units a year. We should know what the reality is within the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

The downward price pressure on Blu-ray technology looks set to increase after the US Justice Department announced an investigation into some of the key players in the optical drive market.

Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi are all facing a probe to determine if they wield too much power in the market for optical drives, essentially meaning DVD and Blu-ray hardware.

Precedent set

The inquiry comes after a previous US drive to root out price-fixing by firms such as LG and Hitachi in the supply of LCD TVs and components. In that case, several companies admitted working together to manipulate the market.

While stakes are high for the businesses concerned, the immediate impact of a successful inquiry is likely to be cheaper price tags on Blu-ray hardware on shop shelves.

Given that we already know Netflix is bringing its online movie rental service to the PlayStation 3 in the near future, it's no great surprise to hear the Nintendo Wii is to get the same treatment sooner than anticipated.

The word had always been that the Californian film specialist would wait for the expected Wii HD to arrive some time next year, however sources say it could go ahead and stream content to the current-generation Wii.

Images doing the rounds

As for the timing, that could be before the end of 2009, although there's still no verification of that.

Instead, all we have is a claim from the Streaming Media website that they've seen "some images that showed Netflix streaming on a Wii console" and that it could all kick off "very soon".

The Nikon D3000 is the replacement for the Nikon D40 and D60 digital SLR cameras, inheriting some features from each, including a 10-megapixel sensor, a simplified control interface, and a small body. The Nikon D3000 kit includes a Vibration Reduction zoom lens in place of the older ED lens that shipped with the D40. The D3000's special Guide mode is designed to make shooting in special circumstances a little easier for novices, and the Nikon D3000 includes an 11-point AF system for better coverage of the image area. Small and affordable, the Nikon D3000 takes up the mantle of one of Nikon's best...
(read more)

Asus is planning another assault on the cut-price laptop market by using ARM's chips to help bring down the cost of the devices again.

CEO Jerry Shen has said the company will be launching a machine based on the chip manufacturer's architecture, bringing a device that bridges the gap between smartphone and netbook (although we can't stomach calling it a smartbook).

According to Reg Hardware, the CEO says the new device, which may launch for around £150, will help keep the company at the sharp end of the cut price laptop market, after the success of the early EEE PCs.

Smarter than nets

A smartbook would traditionally have an even smaller form factor than a netbook, which nowadays packs a 10-inch screen on average, but would need smaller batteries thanks to processors sucking less power.

The company has been seen demoing such a machine at Computex in June running Android, which would make sense as the mobile OS has obviously been optimised for chips that were created for phones.

The likelihood is we'll get a UK release date of Q1 2010, so the next year could herald a year of even smaller and cheaper netbook - who would have guessed that?

Nokia's forthcoming N97 Mini, which was tipped to launch on 23 October, now seems likely to be pushed back to November.

The official site is stating that the device has a 'tentative release date' in November, meaning that those that have pre-ordered it will be waiting up to a month longer.

However, Vodafone's N97 Mini landing page has removed the 'coming soon' tag, so perhaps November is as close as Monday morning.

Delays

Either way, it's another mobile delay for Nokia, with the N900 recently also being pushed back for release beyond the expected launch at some point in October.

The Nokia N97 Mini is a confusing device as well, given that it sheds a lot of functionality of the larger model, but doesn't come with a much lower price tag, making it hard to see whether customers would be willing to buy a phone simply because it's smaller.

It will be using the updated version of the N97 software, which will also be coming to larger version, which brings a faster UI and elements like dynamic scrolling.

Fallout 3 picked up the 'ultimate game of the year' at the 27th Golden Joysticks, with the Call of Duty series also picking up multiple gongs from the video games awards.

The Golden Joysticks, from the same publisher as TechRadar, celebrates a gaming industry on the up, despite the difficult financial climate.

£2.7 billion was spent in the UK on gaming last year, and this was reflected by a 47 per cent surge in Golden Joysticks votes this year.

CoDsticks

Call of Duty picked up three awards, with CoD: World at War claiming the MSN Multiplayer Game of the Year and Nintendo Game of the Year and CoD: Modern Warfare 2 grabbing the ShortList One to Watch.

Killzone 2 was the PlayStation Game of the Year, Gears of War 2 won the Xbox Game of the Year and Metal Gear Solid Touch was mobile game of the year.

But the ultimate accolade deservedly went to Bethesda's post-apocalyptic Fallout 3, which also picked up the PC Game of the Year.

Winners:

Family Game of the Year: LittleBigPlanet

Bliss Handheld Game of the Year: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Retailer of the Year: GAME

Mobile Game of the Year: Metal Gear Solid Touch

Nintendo Game of the Year: Call of Duty: World at War

MSN Multiplayer Game of the Year: Call Of Duty: World At War

The Rampage Soundtrack of the Year: Guitar Hero World Tour

Xbox Game of the Year: Gears of War 2

PC Game of the Year: Fallout 3

Amiqus Games UK Developer of the Year: Jagex

PlayStation Game of the Year: Killzone 2

Publisher of the Year: Activision Blizzard

Online Game of the Year: Left4Dead

ShortList One to Watch: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Ultimate Game of the Year, together with Zavvi.co.uk: Fallout 3

We all want new tech and we want it at the best price.

This is the mission of TechRadar's weekly bargain round-up - to save you time and save you cash.

Some of these deals run for the next week, while some expire later on today - so if you want to take advantage, be quick!

Here are our 10 recommended bargains for this week.

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1. MSI X600 Laptop with FREE MSI Wind U100 netbook - £799 - Micro Anvika (instore only)

MSI's X600 is a super-slim laptop capable of gaming. We thought it was a bargain when its pricing was announced at under £800, but now Micro Anvika has sweetened the deal by chucking in a Wind netbook gratis. An amazing deal.

Read more about this deal

• Read: MSI X600 review
• Read: MSI Wind review

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2. Acer Aspire One A150B (B Stock) - £169.99 (11AM - 5PM today only) - expansys.com

We love the Aspire One, and Expansys' ludicrous deals mean it's become a firm favourite of the bargain hunt. Expansys has knocked a further £20 off its stock of the netbook, making it a bargain not to be missed.

Buy the Acer Aspire One A150B

• Read: Acer Aspire One D150B review

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3. Scosche Earphones with Tapline Control - £34.99 (11AM - 5PM today only) - expansys.com

One of our biggest beefs with third-party iPod headphones is the inability to remotely control our music. These Scosche earphones include a tiny inline remote, as well as a very good quality sound.

Buy the Scosche Earphones

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4. STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl - £3.50 - steam.com

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl wowed us with its intensely scary pre-Fallout 3 post-apocalypse adventures. It's on Steam until Monday at the bargain price of just £3.50, so that's your weekend sorted. Just remember to stay away from those underground lairs...

Buy STALKER

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5. HP C5380 - £69.99 - amazon.co.uk

We often feature cameras in the bargain hunt, but printers are omitted. This HP multi-function printer is too good a deal to pass up, though: Amazon's is the lowest price in the UK.

Buy the HP C5380

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6. NU Dolphin Waterproof MP3 Player- £79.99 - amazon.co.uk

Often, the daily swim to work can get a bit boring: you spend most of your time looking at the same dead fish and abandoned shopping trollies. Brighten up your aqua-commute with this MP3 player, which can work underwater. Amazon's knocked £10 off the asking price.

Buy the NU Dolphin MP3 player

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7. Kitvision Digital Photo Frame - £24.99 - play.com

Just in time for Christmas, this photo frame will display all your favourite shots on its clear 7" screen. Perfect for confusing granny on boxing day.

Buy the Kitvision digital photo frame

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8. Wii Sports Pack - Black - £164.99 (pre-order) - game.co.uk

A couple of years ago, having a black Wii would have been a sign of bladder problems. Now it's one of the most popular things in the world, and the newest release is in fetching black. Includes Wii Sports Resort - which packs in 18 games - and £15 off at Game.

Buy the Black Nintendo Wii + Wii Sports Pack

• Read: Nintendo Wii review

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9. SanDisk Cruzer 16GB - £17.99 - play.com

USB drives have dropped in price so dramatically that soon you'll get one for 50p with a pound coin taped to it. Case in point: this whopping 16GB drive is less than £18, and just over £1 per gig.

Buy the SanDisk Cruzer 16GB

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10. Western Digital Elements 1TB Hard Drive - £63.13 - pcworld.co.uk

Increase your storage by a massive 1TB with this easy-to-use USB hard disk drive. If your hard drive's nearing capacity, it's well worth the investment.

Buy the WD 1TB HDD

The PC's got a phenomenal, unparalled history as a gaming platform – a good two decades of wonder and weirdness.

The trouble is half it a) looks like ass on high-res displays b) plays like ass due to ancient interfaces c) flat-out won't work on our fancy modern operating systems. Crazy fans to the rescue!

Pretty much any game with even a trace element of cult status retains a fiercely dedicated community striving to keep it alive into infinity.

From the silent devotion of artists making sharp new textures to the modern world-sucks, hyper-defensiveness of oldschool Fallout fans, there's a vast world of tech-curates keeping their cause celebre in perfect working order.

Here's just a few of the most fascinating and/or accomplished attempts to do the Lazarus thing on your favourite games…

Bold/insane attempts to rebuild classic games from scratch

UFO 2000

UFO: Enemy Unknown (aka X-COM: UFO Defense) is basically the greatest game ever made, and if you don't agree you're a big dumb poohead. Many others do agree, and are working on a bunch of projects to bring the old strategy/roleplaying/management/alien-shooter kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

UFO 2000 is the current leading light, though unlike its noble forebear, it's solely a multiplayer game. There's also no Geoscape/base mode at present, but the team are actively looking for help creating one – fancy a crack yourself?

On the other hand – online multiplayer in X-COM! This is dream come true territory. It's also worth keeping an eye on another (but as yet unreleased) remake project, Cydonia's Fall.

Freeciv/Freecol

Sid Meier's turn-based strategy babies Civilization and Colonization have both enjoyed official sequels, but a certain degree of feature creep for the former and compromise for the latter have understandably irked the purists.

Freeciv and Freecol intend to recreate the original games to a tee, only augmented by modern interface values and online multiplayer. While the community-made graphics might lack the cartoony charm of their DOSian predecessors, the remakes are impressively slick and otherwise complete, and both enjoy regular updates. Also: free. It's hard to overstate the importance of that.

Freesynd

Rumours of an official Syndicate remake by Starbreeze, the Chronicles of Riddick chaps, continue to swirl, but let's be honest – given their FPS tendencies, it's highly unlikely it'll be a top-down squad-strategy game like its parent.

Step forward Freesynd, an early but hugely promising attempt to recreate the original satirical, sadistic, dystopic squad game. It's only a couple of levels for now, but it does include almost all the sound effects of the original game, as well as the intro and nostalgia-inducing Bullfrog logos.

Thief: The Dark Mod

Half remake and half sequel, this aims to bring the values of the original two Thief stealth games into the e'erimpressive spooks 'n' shadows of the still robust Doom 3 engine. The team are very careful to avoid copyright infringement, so don't expect to see master tea-leaf Garrett namechecked as such, or any borrowed assets, but it's definitely Thief.

A whole new Thief game, which is probably more exciting than a mere remake. It's very early days for it, but a beta release is due soon (there's a small alpha one already available) and it's already impressively unrecognisable as being Doom 3-based. (Thief: The Dark Mod homepage)

Dune II

The firm-chinned granddaddy of real-time strategy has never been bested in terms of out and out thematic appeal (three intergalactic houses warring over spice, on a planet infested with giant worms and crazy nomads who drink their own wee. Come on!) but its interface has aged horribly. No group select, no hotkeys, no building rotation…

It's genuinely, tragically a chore to play now. In a strange piece of ironic resonance, three fan remakes are vying for the right to be its heir.

Choose from Dune Legacy, which uses some of the original game's art and sound assets, Dune II: The Sleeper Has Awakened, a ground-up attempt to incorporate modern RTS interface/UI values, and Dune II: The Maker, eight years in the making but still in demo stage.

FreeOrion

If you prefer your strategy a little more galactic, then you'll doubtless dig this free open-source space trading/colonisation and combat game 'inspired' (yeah, right) by the venerated Master of Orion series.

Its current v.03 release is deemed "essentially complete", but there are a ton of fixes, polishes and incidental features yet to come. Keep an eye on its progress at freeorion.org.

Freerails

Railroad management games are thin on the ground in these days of hi-def manshoots, but this java-based remake of Railroad Tycoon might just scratch that itch of yours. It's even got online multiplayer built-in. Give it a whirl.

Original code playing nice with Windows XP and beyond

The Doomsday Engine

The original Doom's a curious game. At the time it was released, it was scary and pacey, but at some point in the last 15 years, as graphics have improved, it has became a high-speed, cartoon action game that feels endlessly fresh.

There's good reason why its community aren't prepared to let it fade away. Doomsday is huge, ambitious project that a) ensures it runs just dandy on modern operating systems and with modern controls b) optionally sparkles up the graphics into hardware accelerated, sharp edged 3D, dynamic lighting and, optionally, replacement character models and c) makes online multiplayer easy-peasy.

That said, the current king of deathmatch Doom is Skulltag. Doomsday has the added benefit of supporting Heretic, Hexen and Doom 2.

ScummVM

A virtual machine that's probably a little worried about itself now that Lucasarts has gradually begun remaking and re-releasing its classic early 90s adventure games, but until the likes of Sam & Max, Day of The Tentacle and the later Monkey Islands get an official spit 'n' polish, this is hands-down the best way to revisit them.

It's the beloved comedypuzzlers as they originally were, but with zero-compatibility problems and a raft of upscaling options for our gigantic contemporary monitors. ScummVM has lately expanded to support non-Lucasarts games of the era too – the likes of Beneath A Steel Sky, Gobliiins and Simon The Sorcerer are very much at home in it.

There are also ports for PDA, iPhone, DS et al, get it here.

Exult: Ultima VII

1992's seventh in Richard Garriot's high-fantasy Ultima series is still considered one of the role playing genre's highest watermarks, so its fans are resolute that it not be lost to history.

Exult doesn't do anything flashy, it simply gets this olden DOS game running as well as possible on today's PCs. It also fixes up a few bugs and back-ports new features from Ultima VII Part 2 to the first part, as well as introducing support for mods. You'll need the original Ultima VII date files to use it, but it's well worth an eBay-scour to discover quite how phenomenal a game it was. Get it here.

DOSbox

This is essentially a catch-all generalist project for any and every old DOS game that grumbles at modern Windows operating systems.

Unlike the new engines above, it doesn't do anything to the games bar run them well (most of 'em, anyway. it has a few blind spots, which are gradually being fixed), but that's enough to keep PC gaming's vast archive alive and playable to this day.

It does require a spot of command line action, but worry not - graphical frontends are available if you're an idiothole. Anyone with a genuine interest in PC gaming absolutely has to have this installed.

Doom 3

Slightly underwhelming sequel to beloved first-person-shooter series? No problem! Modders have addressed almost every annoyance of Doom 3, from the ridiculous inability to use a light at the same time as a weapon, to sorting out textures that have aged pretty terribly to adding the co-op mode that was so mysteriously absent from here and here.

Half-Life 2

Fake factory's Cinematic Mod performs wonders on the old Source engine. It manages to improve the lighting, bump up the visual detail and, a little controversially, replaces the Alyx character model with a more a realistic version, based on a choice of real-life models.

Rather tragically though, one of these does appear to have a see-through top. Simply leave that option off and enjoy a far more believable City 17.

Diablo II

Oh how we've waited for this one. Just a few weeks ago, our prayers came true: a mod that allows the definitive hack 'n' slash RPG to be played at resolutions above blocky, blurry 800 x 600. It looks crisp and lovely at high resolutions, but if the expanded world (and the limited light your character's sight radius casts over it) feels a bit too at odds with Diablo II's nature for you, what you will enjoy is being able to play the game in a window at last.

The bad news is that Blizzard's Battle.net system currently sees it as tampering with the game code and forbids online play while it's running. For single player fun though, it's perfect. Grab it from here.

Nips, tucks and retextures for gaming's recent past

Morrowind

A far more expansive, imaginative and, frankly, batshit-crazy RPG than its sequel Oblivion, but its spindly puppet-men and myopic draw distance have not aged well.

The modding community has done incredible things for it; replacing almost every texture in the game, new character models, the option to run it any resolution, add HDR and draw essentially the entire world at once. With a bit of legwork, Morrowind can be made to look as good as Oblivion in most ways, and even better in others.

Essential: the Morrowind Graphics Extender.
Optional: any of the hundreds of minimods.

Oblivion

It may not be quite as mad as its prequel, but Oblivion is still one of those games that can draw people back in time and again. The big problem for most people though was the levelling system.

Possibly designed to appeal to everyone, the system of levelling everything in the game to match your level meant that at the same time as being able to complete any quest or dungeon at any point in your character development it also meant that if you reached a high level, then so did all the little bandits, goblins and guardsmen.

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul though takes care of this by going through every NPC in the game and giving them a specific level cap. At the beginning this makes things double-hard, and you'll find yourself having to run away a lot, but it makes you pay more attention to the minutae of your avatar.

There's a whole host of other third-party mods built into the latest version of OOO, including a full worldwide economics system as well as a raft of cosmetic enhancements. Check it out here.

System Shock 2

Two complementary mods have kept the spiritual precursor to Bioshock alive and well. System Shock 2 Rebirth replaces the blocky character models with smooth modern version – including, controversially, a monster with oversized ladylumps – while the Shock Texture Upgrade Project repaints walls and items with pin-sharp new textures.

Shock 2 remains an astonishing game, and these mods mean its peerlessly creepy atmosphere is relatively undiminished by the march of technological progress.

Also worth a look is System Shock Portable, which gets the first Shock to play nice with XP et al, and can even run from a flash drive – ideal for netbooks.

Planescape Torment

One of the finest single player role playing games ever made, at least in terms of narrative and emotional clout. What can change the nature of a man, it asks? Well, staring at pixels the size of baby's heads will probably drive any man to violence.

Fortunately the curiously understated Widescreen Mod changes all that. When this 2D game's hand-painted backdrops are stitched into hi-def versions, what its artists created becomes jawdropping.

The interface suffers a little at monster resolutions, but it scarcely matters when the landscapes are quite this imaginative and beautifully created. This mod also supports Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and as well as both Icewind Dales.

Similar projects also exist for the original Fallout and Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magic Obscura.

Deus Ex: Invisible War/Thief 3

Some might claim that Deus Ex 2's graphics are the least of the immersive sim/FPS' problems. They might have a point. However, there's no denying that freeing the troubled sequel's visual technology from the constraints that were imposed on it by the original Xbox (the system it was primarily made for) helps make its world a whole lot more palatable.

John-P's vast collection of new textures comes to around 790 in total, and the effect upon the game is startling.

Thief: Deadly Shadows was perhaps in less need of a visual overhaul than most of these games (you spend most of the time in the dark, after all), but it definitely makes for a better-looking game overall, and will keep you busy until the Dark Mod is finished.

Protagonist Garrett in particular looks much more realistic, and the scarring around his false eye is impressively horrific. Grab both upgrade packs from here.

Samsung's follow up to the moderately well-received Galaxy Android phone, the i5700 Spica, has now popped up in Scandinavia.

First available in Russia last week, users in Finland and Denmark are now able to buy the new device later in November.

Prices vary between the two countries, but the phone is still expected to cost around £400 when converted.

Teach the world to speak

The phone itself is the same one released for launch in Russia (although with a different language pack obviously, unless Samsung is trying to force every customer to learn a new language).

This means an 800MHz processor (fast), a 1500mAh battery (long lasting) and a 3.5mm headphone jack (audio-y).

It also has diminutive dimensions of 115×57x13.2mm, so although it has a pretty high price tag it still qualifies as 'lite'.

We're interested to see if / when the phone gets a UK release date, but just working it out based on the speed its traversing the globe, it should make its way here at some point in December.

A group of developers has exploited a hidden element of Windows 7 to turn any PC running the OS into a Wi-Fi hotspot with an application called Connectify.

Nomadio, consultants for military networks, used some software (known as Virtual Wi-Fi) buried within the OS, left over from a MS research group project, but apparently discontinued in 2006, according to TechWorld.

"A year ago, Microsoft talked a lot about this as a big feature in Windows 7. But driver support didn't get finished. The low-level code is in there, but the driver-level stuff isn't," said Alex Gizis, CEO of Nomadio.

Filling in the blanks

Nomadio used its software from its work into networking to complete the necessary functions, creating the new Connectify software.

The possibilities of this free (but beta) download are pretty interesting - it means you can pay for one connection but stream it out to multiple devices (or friends if you're feeling like helping out freeloaders).

However, Gizis has stated that he expects the software to eventually carry a cost when released as a full version in a few weeks, with a free, ad-funded option possibly available as well.

Either way - if you're one of those that has multiple Wi-Fi devices but can't afford to pay time and again every time you're in Starbucks, perhaps this is something you should check out.

Motorola appears to be ready to capitalise on the demi-success of its Dext and forthcoming Droid phone by releasing another 20 handsets in 2010.

After what seems like years in the mobile wilderness, Motorola is now claiming that 2010 will be a big year for its smartphone push, with CEO Sanjay Jha quoting 'multiple tens' when asked on how many phones Moto is planning next year, and firming that to at least 20 when pushed.

Interestingly, the company is well documented in having said it will be focusing only on Android and Windows Mobile in the future, so how the split will be made will give us an idea on which customer segment the firm is after.

With Google already stating that it expects 18 Android phones to be released by the end of 2009, a target that seems like it will be hard to hit with only eight or so released thus far.

Android effort

Which means a bigger push is likely to happen in 2010, and Motorola could be a main component of that Android effort.

And on the Windows Mobile front - is the brand developing WinMo 6.5 phones or will it wait until the next version (Windows Mobile 7) comes out in 2010?

Speaking to other manufacturers this year, we've heard that some would have preferred to wait until WinMo 7, but the delays forced them to jump in a little earlier.

However, given Motorola's baby steps after its re-birth, could it wait until the next version (which is supposedly pretty awesome)?

Either way - 20 new phones means lots more choice for the consumer, and we can only applaud that (unless they're rubbish, of course).

This weekend it's Halloween. A time for those of us without children to turn all the lights off and hide under the bed, in case surly teenagers come knocking on our door demanding "treats" with menaces.

Yes, it's all very cute when it's six-year-old kids ringing your doorbell, covered in bedsheets wearing fake vampire fangs, but when it's happy-slappy ringtone-downloading hoodie wearers, Halloween can lose some of its sparkle.

So here's something you can do this weekend to cheer you up while you're avoiding the trick-or-treaters: see if there's a zombie lurking in your house.

I'm not talking about the zombies of 28 Days Later or Shaun of the Dead, but zombie computers - the infected PCs that hackers hijack in order to silently send out spam, steal identities and distribute malware.

It's estimated that over 99% of all spam is sent from innocent compromised computers which, unknown to their owners, have been commandeered by cybercriminals to send out adverts for Viagra and fake FedEx delivery notices.

Hackers control networks of hundreds of thousands of zombie computers, known as a botnet, from a single point - enabling them with one click of a mouse to start a new spam campaign or spread a new computer worm. So you can see that it's essential that computer security starts at home - and everyone does their bit to make sure that they are not adding to the problems on the internet.

So, here is my advice if you want to turn Halloween into International Kill-A-Zombie Day.

1. Scan your computers, and those of your friends (remember to ask permission!), with an up-to-date anti-virus which can detect the latest malware and rootkits. Remember that if your PC is a zombie it won't be announcing the fact by displaying images of skulls dripping gore - announcing that they have infected your computer is not going to help them make money after all.

2. Ensure that your computer is up-to-date with the latest security patches. I don't just mean for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X (although those are, of course, essential if you want to run a tight ship). What I mean is that you also need to update the security of your web browsers, your PDF reader, your internet plug-ins, and other software that could be exploited by hackers.

3. Always be suspicious of unsolicited email attachments and web links. You shouldn't blindly install any program on your computer without being confident of its nature. You wouldn't pick up a sweet in the street and pop it in your mouth - so why would you trust a website you've never heard of before when it suggests you install a codec to watch the latest nude video of Vanessa Hudgens?

4. Keep abreast of the latest security threats. Follow security blogs and sign-up for notifications of new threats that are emerging. Keeping one step ahead can stop your computer becoming one of the zombies.

You can find out more about International Kill-A-Zombie Day at http://www.sophos.com/killazombie or join the Facebook group.

Have a happy, and safe, Halloween.

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Graham Cluley is senior technology consultant at Sophos, and has been working in the computer security field since the early 1990s. When he's not updating his blog on the Sophos website you can find him on Twitter at @gcluley.

The one thing everyone knows about the next version of Windows Mobile is that it's late.

Back in September, Steve Ballmer told the Venture Capital Summit that he wished Windows Mobile 7 had already launched but that the team had been "completely revamped"; "we've pumped in some new talent" and "this will not happen again" two VCs tweeted him as saying.

Originally, the big feature in Windows Mobile 7 was going to be better web browsing, along with zooming; both of those were pulled forward into Windows Mobile 6.5. So what will Windows Mobile 7 bring and when?

Motorola CEO Sanjay Jhawas the first to let slip that Windows Mobile 7 wouldn't be around until 2010 and Microsoft confirmed that. A Windows Mobile presentation on the Microsoft site (in Danish) talks about Microsoft finishing the Windows Mobile 7 OS in November 2009 and devices appearing in April 2010; the same slide gets the 6.5 software date right as April 2009 but predicts 6.5 devices arriving in September, not October, so even if April is the planned date it could slip.

The April date was confirmed on an Office 2010 presentation to partners found by Microsoft Kitchen; if that's the date it goes to phone makers, you can expect the actual launch a few months later when phones are finished (an interval Microsoft is trying to shorten). Expect Microsoft to announce a public date at Mobile World Congress next February.

Fewer partners, not fewer phones

The problem for Microsoft is that when it finishes a version of Windows Mobile, that doesn't mean it's done. Windows Mobile 6.5 was finished on 22 April this year but instead of handing it over to phone manufacturers to tweak and customise for their devices (which ends up with multiple incompatible changes that can't be supported in the next version because they aren't in Microsoft's version of the code) the team stayed involved and delayed the launch until phones and upgrade versions were ready.

To make that stage shorter and easier, Microsoft has said it wants fewer high-value partners for Windows Mobile in the future: Director of the EMEA Mobile Communications Business Alfredo Patron told TechRadar "any new phone means a new development cycle" and "we're really focussing on the top brands".

One rumour says that in an effort to reduce the amount of incompatible customisation that goes on with Windows Mobile 7, Microsoft plans to only have it run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform (currently there are multiple phone platforms based on the Arm chip, from TI, Nvidia and others).

If Windows Mobile 7 switches entirely to Qualcomm, where would that leave phone builders who have bet on TI (like Motorola) or the Nvidia Tegra chips in the Zune HD?

The matching rumour is for a Tegra-based Zune Phone platform for the consumer market, built on Windows Mobile 7 but marketed separately. This might be the same as some of the Pink consumer phone rumours, but none of them would be Microsoft-manufactured phones; at most, Microsoft would work on a hardware reference platform for partners to build on.

Microsoft has gone back and forth on the plan according to our sources, and as with all rumours nothing is certain.

ZUNE PHONE: There may or may not be a Zune phone, but Windows Mobile 7 will have Zune features

Steve Ballmer has said repeatedly that the next version of Windows Mobile will have Zune services, one Nvidia engineer's Linked In profile (again, according to Microsoft Kitchen) mentions Tegrafor platforms including Windows Mobile 7 and the chassis spec tracked down by ZDNet specifies any Open GL ES 2 hardware, including TI and Nvidia as well as Qualcomm.

The same spec has a minimum screen size of 3.5" and WVGA (800 by 480) or FWVGA (854 by 480), and multi-touch, so there must be a different specification for non-touch Windows Mobile Smartphone. The 'chassis' terminology could also be behind rumours that Microsoft would make its own phone.

Multi-touch in Windows Mobile

When we asked Greg Sullivan about capacitive touch screens and multi-touch gestures for Windows Mobile and in particular the HTC HD2, he picked his words carefully when discussing how much of the gesture support came from HTC and how much from Microsoft and settled on saying "We did a bunch of work in our platform to enable the improvements in the user interface and we'll continue to iterate on that".

That means the HD2 multi-touch support probably builds on what Microsoft has been working on for Windows Mobile 7, but that we might see it in other Windows Mobile 6.5 devices, like the Toshiba K01.

The Windows Auto Gesture Interface introduced in 6.5 makes programming touch gestures for apps, like swiping your finger to scroll, easier but the app still has to redraw and update the scrollbar when you use the pan gesture.

"The WAGI API was originally designed to go the extra step and take control of content drawing and scrollbars as well," says Marcus Perryman of the Microsoft UK Developer and Platform team; "but there wasn't time in the schedule to implement this for 6.5." That sounds like Windows Mobile 7 will do more of the work for apps.

As well as touch gestures, there have been rumours of 3D gestures (where you move the phone) and camera gestures (where you move your hand, or use the camera to do 3D gestures without an accelerometer). We've seen these in research projects at Microsoft and Telefonica, but it's not certain they're robust enough for general use.

MULTI-TOUCH NOW: You won't have to wait for Windows Mobile 7 for multi-touch – the HTC HD2 gets it first – but it will have multi-touch throughout the OS

The 'chassis' spec also talks about sensors: a light sensor, an accelerometer and a Hall-effect compass. These are common in high-end smartphones (including HTC Windows Mobile models) but they've been hard for developers to use because there hasn't been a single API.

Microsoft might copy the sensor framework it's put into Windows 7, making it easy for apps to work with whatever sensors the phone has without having to control them directly.

Blogger Peter Mohr spotted a job advert for someone to work on 'firmware over the air' updates for Windows Mobile 7 and the Danish presentation also refers to this.

That would be a big change to the architecture, allowing operators to send updates to the phone setup to add features and fix problems, as well as possibly enabling OS upgrades over the air rather than by plugging the phone into a PC.

Windows Mobile 7 user interface

What's under the hood won't matter if Microsoft doesn't make the user interface compelling.

There have been plenty of mockups and leaked shots (some of the earliest featuring the red couches of the Windows Mobile studio office, which argues for their authenticity) but they could be out of date.

Brian Goldfarb of the Silverlight team has been telling us that Silverlight would come to Windows Mobile at some point, and last month he confirmed to the Seattle PI that Windows Mobile 7 will have Silverlight 3, in the browser, for apps and for the UI as well.

That makes sense now that Silverlight is in Windows CE 6 R3, the latest version of the operating system Windows Mobile is built on.

We're also expecting changes to My Phone. MobiletechWorld predicts that MyPhone storage will go up to 5GB instead of the current paltry 200MB.

That would take a lot of negotiation with mobile networks uncomfortable with the idea of users sending that much data around, but MyPhone will migrate onto the Live Mesh platform (soon to be renamed something like Windows Live Devices) and that would make it more efficient.

Microsoft has already filled the position (spotted by Mobiletech World) for a program manager to design a mobile social platform: the ad claims that "the Windows Mobile 7 Communications group is building experiences on the phone that present your content – friends, pictures, messages, events – to you in immersive and engaging ways". It also notes that "there are several WM7 teams developing social experiences".

Part of the problem with Windows Mobile is how many different teams are already working on different mobile devices and experiences at Microsoft (Zune, Danger and Pink as well as Windows Mobile). Another is that the Windows Mobile team goes through a regular cycle of believing it can tell mobile networks and manufacturers what to do the way it can PC manufacturers. For Windows Mobile 7 to really succeed, Microsoft has to make sense of both those tensions.

LG has put together a mini site for the forthcoming GW620 mobile - its first Android mobile offering.

Bringing a full QWERTY keyboard and access to all manner of social networking integration, it's clearly aimed right at the Motorola Dext.

Also codenamed the Etna, LG has taken its time to compete with the likes of HTC, Samsung and Motorola in releasing an Android device.

The GW620 has a three inch touchscreen, 5MP camera and a 3.5mm headphone jack for media listenings.

Mount Etna - not literally

It's set to launch at some point this year, but it seems that date will be sooner rather than later if this new site is anything to go by.

LG has taken the unsurprising step of creating a load of crazy CGI characters to show off the phone's capabilities (we enjoy the QWERTY monster) and has published a video of all of them having fun in the magical Android world.

UPDATE: LG has clearly jumped the gun on this one, as it's pulled the site already. But thankfully the video is still working, so you can still see the Social Butterfly in action.

A lot of the talk in the HDTV market revolves around a so-called battle between LCD and PDP plasma technology. But there really isn't much of a fight in terms of volume - LCD TVs sell in far bigger quantities than Plasma ones - and the market share is only going to get bigger for LCD over the next few years.

Likewise, LCD manufacturers often quote wide viewing angles but don't mention that although the picture is still visible at a wider angle, the quality of picture often decreases dramatically off axis. Plasma viewing angles are comparable yet maintain the full picture quality at all times.

And ironically, most existing LCDs can actually only hold a 1080p resolution with a static image. When the image moves fast, the perceived resolution your eye resolves from a 1080p LCD picture is actually less than standard definition because of the motion blur.

So what's the best LCD TV?

Despite this, technological improvements in image processing, higher resolution and contrast ratio - partly through the use of LEDs as backlighting - have helped LCD to increasingly become the preferred technology for flat panel displays.

And the high-end ones coming out this year have made great strides in overcoming the traditional drawbacks of LCD tech. So today, the only area in which plasma can truly claim to be the stand-out choice is in very large screen sizes.

So which HDTV is right for you? Luckily, despite all this credit crunch business, 2009 has been a massive year for TVs. We've seen some truly breathtaking LCD and plasma TVs being released, and this summer alone we've seen fit to award no less than 15 new TVs five-star awards.

And here they all are...

Sony Bravia KDL-46X4500 46-inch LED LCD TV

The first true LED Bravia is a remarkable, though pricey, full HD performer

So far Sony hasn't delivered the same sort of consistency with its flat TV picture quality that it achieved - to world-conquering effect - with its CRTs.

But with the KDL-46X4500 LED LCD TV, the firm finally gives its Bravia TV name some mouthwatering quality to go with the dazzling ad campaigns and marketing spin.

As you'd expect of a 46in TV costing £3,500, the 46X4500 is packed with technology and tweaks. The fun starts with the set's design, which niftily has an expanse of clear glass to each side, into which have been inset some very swish silver 'pole' speakers.

The set is extremely well connected, too, with highlights of four HDMIs, two component video inputs, a port for playing various multimedia file formats from USB devices, and even a DLNA-enabled ethernet port for streaming files from a connected PC.

Read: full Sony Bravia KDL-46X4500 review

Samsung UE46B8000 46-inch LED LCD TV

The Samsung 8 series LED TV offers good looks and decent performance

The Samsung 8 series UE46B8000 LED TV is currently being backed by a huge TV advertising campaign in the UK. Viewers are instructed to simply search for "Samsung LED".

Clearly, Samsung is trying to create some buzz around its new LED TVs, and it's working.

Just like many other strong eco TVs, Samsung's green efforts extend right back to the UE4646B8000's core construction.

This deeply gorgeous 46in TV uses an edge-mounted LED lighting array that's claimed to consume 30 percent less energy than a typical direct, rear-mounted LED model (mostly because it doesn't have to work so hard to produce a uniform light level) and 40 percent less than a conventional LCD TV with a CCFL backlight.

To reinforce this point, press in the Info button on the 46B8000's extravagantly sculpted remote calls up a dial showing how little energy you're currently using compared with a normal TV. Although this feels more like an in-store marketing tool than anything mathematically accurate.

Read: full Samsung UE46B8000 review

Panasonic TX-P46G10 PDP plasma TV

Proof that plasma loves the planet as much as LCD

Conventional wisdom - of the pro-LCD persuasion, at any rate - holds that plasma requires far more power than liquid crystal. Panasonic is out to contradict this theory with its latest generation of NeoPDP gas flatscreens with the introduction of theX-P46G6G10.

The manufacturer has taken a 'year zero' approach with its new panels, developing new structural techniques and control systems, new phosphors, new drive systems, and new cell designs with enhanced discharge efficiency.

All these factors result in a huge claimed power saving of 50 per cent versus the company's conventional sets.

With the P46G10, Panasonic provides two ways of benefiting from its NeoPDP design, enabling you to either enjoy twice the brightness of Panasonic's normal plasma TVs while using the same amount of energy, or else get 'normal' Panasonic plasma brightness levels from half the 'normal' energy use.

Read: full Panasonic TX-P46G10 review

Sony Bravia KDL-40E5 40-inch LCD TV

Sony's first dedicated EcV breaks the 100W barrier

Generally speaking, the various large numbers bandied about on TV spec sheets should be taken with a handful of salt. But there is one quoted by Sony's eye-catchingly white KDL-40WE5 that we just can't ignore - a power consumption of just 97W while it's in use.

This figure is lower than those claimed by most 32in - and even some 26in - TVs and more than 50 per cent lower than the manufacturer's own 40W4500 40-incher.

The main reason for this power saving is newly developed backlight technology, which uses Hot Cathode Fluorescent lamps (HCFLs), rather than the usual CCFLs.

Another key green innovation is the Presence Sensor. It uses body heat and motion to assess if anyone is in the room, turning the TV's picture off and leaving just the sound running if it detects the room is empty. When it detects you have re-entered the room, the picture comes back on.

Read: full Sony Bravia KDL-40WE5 review

Philips 32PFL9613 32-inch LCD TV

A lovely 32-inch LCD with Ambilight and tons of connections

A well-specified contender, Philips' 32PFL9613 has got the price tag to match, but unlike some premium wannabes, this one is worth every penny.

The love affair begins as soon as you look at the set: that slender, gloss black screen surround, offset by a transparent fin that curves forward around its outer edge, it really is gorgeous.

Its aesthetic appeal is further enhanced by Philips' Ambilight technology, where pools of coloured light spill from the TV's sides in a display that's been proven to make viewing easier on the eyes.

The positive impression grows as we set about cataloguing its enormous set of connections, of which the USB can play multiple file formats, including MP3s, JPEGs, slideshows and MPEG video, while the ethernet port can import files from your PC. Note, though, this port is not internet-enabled.

Read: full Philips 32PFL9613 review

Panasonic TX-L37V10B 37-inch plasma TV

Panasonic's TX-L37V10B is a feature-rich, full HD panel with limited internet ability

The TX-37V10B may not be the first TV we've seen with internet connectivity, but few of its peers can match the well-rounded nature of its spec sheet.

Leaving the Viera Cast web access aside for a moment, we note the 1080p panel and four HDMIs, one of which is located on the bottom of the chassis away from the main cluster, presumably for wall-mounting purposes.

The panel is driven by the fourth generation of the company's much-envied V-real Pro processing suite.

Panasonic has dispensed with the increasingly obsolescent S-video input and criminally cruddy composite inputs, neither of which could be gainfully employed on a set of this calibre.

An optical video jack channels digital audio to external amplification if required, while an SD Card slot accommodates photos and other mixed media.

Read: full Panasonic TX-L37V10B review

Philips Cinema 21:9 56PFL9954H LCD TV

A super-wide, ultra chic and devastatingly effective 1080p LCD TV

Widescreen is dead; long live Cinema 21:9. The Philips 56PFL9954H is a daring experiment in screen dimensions, designed to maximise the cinematic potential of hi-def discs while rewriting the rules on home entertainment.

There's a gunwale-bursting array of features at your disposal, the most obvious of which is that extra-wide screen. It is 21:9 (or 2.39:1, if you prefer), enabling it to display movies in the true-cinema aspect ratio in which most will have been shot, as opposed to the 16:9 compromise that has been the norm on standard widescreen televisions.

And, being wider than widescreen, the 56PFL9945H has an unprecedented horizontal resolution of 2,560 dots, which combines with a full HD vertical count of 1,080.

All those dots are marshalled into line by the Dutch firm's Perfect Pixel HD processing Engine (with 200Hz scanning) and fed by no fewer than five HDMI inputs.

Read: full Philips Cinema 21:9 56PFL9954H review

Samsung UE40B7000 40-inch LED LCD TV

This LED TV takes slim TV design to new extremes

At just over an inch in depth, the UE40B7000 is one of the thinnest HDTVs I've ever clapped eyes on.

Most flat panel televisions are fairly skinny to start with, but Samsung has succeeded in making this 40in LED eye-poppingly, supermodel thin.

But don't for a second think that the company has stripped out the features and compromised on performance in order to achieve this pancake-like profile; the UE40B7000 comes with all the gubbins you'd expect from a top of the range LCD.

Behind the 1,920 x 1,080 resolution glass is a range of image enhancement technologies, including 100Hz scanning for smoother motion, and a full suite of digital media and networking features, including web-connected Yahoo! Widgets and DLNA compatibility for photo, music and video streaming.

Which doesn't sound like a bad little lot for £1,250.

Read: full Samsung UE40B7000 review

Philips 32PFL9604 32-inch LCD TV

A superb HD LCD with Ambilight and web widgets

Having produced some of the best TVs at this size in the past year, Philips is making the most of its glowing reputation with this feature-packed, aluminium-clad 32in TV.

While the inclusion of Ambilight and wireless web browsing are the headline acts, the 32PFL9604 has got much more up its sleeve.

It's exceptionally well connected, with Net TV being Philips' first foray into internet features. Unlike most sets that offer a ring-fenced platform on a wired ethernet connection, the 32PFL9604 can access the Net TV portal using Wi-Fi and even browse the internet at large.

Further digital niceties come in the form of DLNA networking (wired or wirelessly) from a PC, a USB port that plays video files and a stunning five HDMI inputs.

It all helps create a unique TV, but the engine room is elsewhere. On board is Philips' Perfect Pixel HD processing, which includes separate circuitry to improve contrast (Perfect Contrast), get rid of blur (100Hz Clear LCD) and lose judder (HD Natural Motion).

Read: full Philips 32PFL9604 review

Samsung LE32B650 LCD TV

Samsung brings great pictures and network connections to your living rooms

Samsung is usually pretty good at pushing the boundaries of value, so the LE32B650 32-inch LCD TV's price tag initially looks surprisingly high. But once you see what the set can do, it's really not bad at all.

For starters, this screen can provide an instant exotic design highlight to any room, thanks to its glorious 'crystal' glass-like finish, delightful curves and elegant lines.

Then there are its prodigious connections that include four HDMIs, along with two USBs and even an Ethernet port, with which you can access files stored on a networked, DLNA-certified PC.

Widgets

The latter port also enables you to access Samsung's specially designed and rather good 'Media 2.0' internet portal, with its YouTube, Flickr, news and Yahoo Widgets service options (among others). You can even access Media 2.0 wirelessly via an optional (£50) Wi-Fi USB dongle.

Read: full Samsung LE32B650 review

LG 42SL8000 borderless 42-inch LED LCD TV

This ultra ultra thin TV is packed with features, and all in all it's really rather good

If there's one word that immediately sums up LG's 42SL8000, it's slim. For as well as being 45mm deep, its bezel extends barely an inch beyond three sides of the TV. Even the slightly wider bottom edge is still much smaller than we see with most LG sets.

This all-round svelteness, together with an ultra-glossy finish, angled top edge and subtle blue tinge infused into the bottom extremity ensures that the TV really does look stunning. But is its beauty more than skin deep?

Features

There are certainly more features than you might expect to find inside such a slender body. For a start, all the TV's connections and tuners are built in, rather than being housed in an external media box.

Those connections are pretty prodigious, too, including as they do four HDMIs, a D-Sub PC port, and a USB slot, through which the TV can play a variety of multimedia file formats – including DiVX 1080p HD, HD .mkv, and WMV.

Read: LG 42SL8000 borderless TV

Panasonic TX-P42G15 42-inch PDP plasma TV

A feature-packed 42-inch HDTV that delivers top class pictures

Those looking for a 42" plasma with a full HD resolution aren't exactly spoilt for choice at the moment.

However, the TX-P42G15 from Panasonic shows that there's plenty of life in gas yet, as alongside that all important full HD support, it also manages to pack in plenty of useful extras including a Freesat HD tuner, Viera Cast internet connectivity and an SD card for viewing photo and video files.

Features

Panasonic has thrown everything at this TV, with the result that its one of the most feature-packed sets in its current lineup.

For starters, the panel is one of the new NeoPDP types and is driven by Panasonic's highly regarded V-Real Pro 4 processing engine so it promises deeper blacks, smoother motion control, more light output and faster response times (there's even a Game preset that's tweaked for fast refresh rates when used with the Xbox 360 and PS3).

Read: full Panasonic TX-P42G15 review

Sony KDL-22E5300 LCD TV

Is Sony's frame a picture-perfect small HDTV?

Most small TVs are either really basic, or really rubbish, but not so this Sony 22E5300 that's so packed with features and, yes, quality that it humbles many TVs twice the size.

You can tell at once that the KDL-22E5300 is something special, because in place of the usual shiny black or plasticky grey rectangle is a gloss white main bezel, offset to eye-catching effect by a slim outer black frame.

The design resembles some kind of high-tech digital picture frame. This is undoubtedly deliberate, and reflects the TV's really quite remarkable multimedia affinities.

For instance, there's an Ethernet port you can use to access multimedia fodder on a connected DLNA-certified PC.

Read on: Sony KDL-22E5300 review

JVC LT-42WX70 42-inch LCD TV

JVC has unveiled its flagship flatscreen with 'mix and match' media box options

With the credit crunch still biting hard it seems a bit crazy for JVC to be launching a 42in LCD TV costing £2,000. But the company is confident that its LT-42WX70 has got enough going for it to justify such a lavish price tag, and we're inclined to agree.

The most immediately obvious feature is its slender design. Its leathery covered frame is just a few centimetres wide, and the whole set doesn't protrude much at the rear.

Intriguingly, though, the optional desktop stand holds the TV quite a long way forward from a rear pole mount, seemingly running counter to the slender chassis concept.

The reason for this becomes clear when you realise that the set doesn't carry a tuner inside. Instead, JVC is making optional, ultra-slim external tuner/media boxes to accompany the screen, and these are designed to slot neatly between the screen and the recessed mount and stand.

Read: full JVC LT-42WX70 review

Samsung LE40B550 40-inch LCD TV

This 40 incher is packed with plenty of picture tweaking goodness

Despite not having the same ultra-slim looks of Samsung's iconic B7000 and B8000 LED models, the LE40B550 LCD TV is still very easy on the eye with its subtle curves, 'crystal' finish and transparent outer border.

Its array of connections is gratifying too, as it joins the Toshiba contender in offering four HDMIs, as well as a USB port for playback of MP3s and JPEGs.

There's no sign of the Ethernet port found on Samsung's higher spec flat TVs, though, so you can't jack into a DLNA-certified PC or Samsung's online service. But this is fair enough for £580. Slightly more concerning is the lack of any 100Hz processing.

But the TV does sport the maker's multifaceted Digital Natural Image engine, an edge enhancement mode, and various tricks for boosting black levels and colour gamut while reducing noise.

While not achieving the giddy picture quality heights of Samsung's LED and B650 LCDs, the 40B550 certainly delivers way better pictures than you'd expect for the modest price tag.

Read: full Samsung LE40B550 review