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Taps into Lightroom's catalog and image cache to run a screen saver Nir Dremer has announced the release of LrSaver, a screen saver application that uses Lightroom to select images to display. Selections "can be simply a specific rating and above, or based on Smart Collections with the flexibility to create a slide show from practically any metadata available," Dremer said. FEATURES Highlights of the application include: A simple dialog box contains options...
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LG has announced the arrival of its first-ever 1GHz smartphone – the LG eXpo, which comes packing a optional pico projector add-on.

The eXpo features a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a 3.2-inch touchscreen, 5MP-megapixel camera, a microSD slot, and a removable projector courtesy of Texas Instruments.

While it's not quite an integrated projector phone as Samsung is promising, it does point to which way the smartphone market is moving, now that cameras and camcorders on handsets are now ten-a-penny.

Although the eXpo is only slated for a US launch at the moment (AT&T has snapped up the distribution) the phone has also been announced as the LG IQ in Canada, so it will be interesting to see what catchy moniker the company give the device when it eventually reaches UK shores.

Future proofed

The optional pico projector allows projection up to a distance of eight feet, with LG hoping that the addition of the technology makes the device into a "future-proofed smartphone."

Other features include Smart Sensor finger-print recognition and support for up to 16GB memory, via microSD.

Out in the US 7 December, the LG eXpo will set you back $199.99 (plus contract) and the optional pico projector add-on is $179.99.

Via Gizmodo

A new utility allows jailbroken iPhones to get multi-tasking in a similar fashion to the Palm Pre.

The Multifl0w project has managed to make things super-simple to allow multiple applications to co-exist on the iPhone, all displayed in an easy to swipe set of windows.

Of course, it doesn't have the Palm Pre's 'swipe up to exit' functionality, but we still like it a lot.

Simples

Simply put, you choose an application; hold the home button and it will add it to the 'background'. Then double tap that same button to see all your open applications all in a row... how pretty.

Of course, Apple is making the point that this will drain the battery, kill the processor etc, but given every other phone can do (and with Flash as well, while we're on the point) and it would be nice to think the next iPhone will be able to multi-task.

But a video makes things a lot easier, so check out this little set of moving images to see how it works (although we don't know why so many examples have to be set):

Via Engadget

Enters Second Year Partnership with Icograda to Expand Global Reach SAN JOSE, Calif. Nov. 30, 2009 Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the call for entries for the tenth annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA). This premier competition honors the best student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers and computer artists from accredited higher education...
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When Sky first showed off its efforts at screening 3D TV back in December, TechRadar was there, feeling impressed but a little concerned that, with no firm commitments, it amounted to little more than a publicity stunt.

3D, after all, has been the 'next big thing' for decades, and although the latest round of polarised stereoscopic 3D is a world away from the anaglyphic coloured lens disappointments of the past, nobody would deny that it's going to take a massive push to convince the public that 3D is more than a gimmick.

But then Sky backed up the sports footage that it had shown that day with a commitment to bring a dedicated 3D channel to its satellite platform by the end of 2010, and continued spending huge amounts of money learning just how to take the lessons learned from the new raft of 3D movies and take them to the sport and arts coverage that has established it in the UK.

Next big step

It is a decision that many would describe as brave, and some as foolhardy, but as we watched the company film the ATP Masters tennis at the O2 with modified 3D rigs, and then beam that footage live through one of its boxes, it's difficult to deny that Sky may just have a point; 3D could well be the next big step for television.

The intent of everyone within Sky to make 3D TV a success is clear; special permission was required from the ATP just in order to allow a television in one of the executive boxes so that the service could be shown to journalists. An entire second outside broadcast (OB) van was present so that the action could be filmed and shown live.

Within that OB van was not only the usual suspects – all bedecked in 3D glasses – but also three convergence experts, people just responsible for manually adjusting the field of vision, backed up by three specialist 'stereographers' that are in place to make sure that it's all working.

Well-rounded personality

Some of the lessons learned in the past 12 months are immediately obvious; in the original footage we were shown a year ago the 3D suffered greatly from feeling like a load of 2D pictures on rails – like flattened sprites in a computer game.

But, this has now been adjusted to allow for a much improved rounded feel; it adds a level of solidity that really helps make the 3D less tiring on the eyes because, we felt, your brain settles down and accepts this much quicker.

When we interviewed Sky's 3D guru Brian Lenz earlier in the year he suggested that filming live sport in 3D changed the game in a way that past improvements never really had.

For instance, when HD first arrived on the scene for Sky, people suggested that it would fundamentally change the way that sport was filmed, but the truth is that – aside from the cameras – much of the expertise and knowledge that had been honed over years was still entirely relevant.

With 3D that is not necessarily the case; new angles, new techniques and the abandoning of old tried-and-tested practice is necessary.

Take something as simple as the DOG (digital on-screen graphic) – the graphic displaying the channel name that traditionally sits in the top right corner on all Sky Sports channels. In two dimensions it is largely unobtrusive, but we happened to witness one of the first tests of the DOG on the tennis and it's, frankly, a little odd because it sits well forward of everything else on the screen; it literally stands out in a way that it shouldn't.

The setup used to film the tennis included three 3D rigs, which have been greatly improved in the past few months – not least to make them a little more robust and suitable for outside broadcasts rather then the controlled environments of the movie sets where 3D cameras have more usually been used.

These cameras were backed up by 2D cameras – but transitions between the two were perfectly palatable because the flatter pictures could be processed in real time by a computer chip which created the impression of depth.

Perhaps the biggest lesson that has been learned, at least from TechRadar's perspective, is subtlety. As the first 15 minutes of Avatar footage showed, overwhelming camera movement and gimmicks such as having things flying into the camera (and towards the viewer) are not helpful – and Sky's Tennis coverage was a study in restraint.

The majority of the action was kept from the traditional camera position behind one player, and although the line judges occasionally felt a little more imposing than is ideal (they are, of course, positioned at the back of the court nearest the camera) this made it much less tiring to watch.

Some issues

Of course, there are still the age old issues with glasses and the occasional jarring transition or, at this still early stage, malfunction that makes it sometimes difficult to watch – but this was the first extended 3D session on a smaller screen that TechRadar had gone through without ending up with a headache.

One of the most enlightening moments actually occurred in the tennis when there was one of the problems with the main camera (camera one in television parlance).

This left us for a few minutes with all the action coming from a 3D camera that was sat half-way down the court on one side looking diagonally across the net.

It should have been a horrible few minutes, but a wonderful rally and missed drop shot that bounced past the field of vision was genuinely fabulous. Much more visceral than the traditional view and far closer to how it feels watching a tennis match from courtside.

The future

It was a small part of a big day for Sky – but it is becoming increasingly clear that this is not a technology that is going to disappear if the likes of such a major satellite broadcaster are prepared to commit this kind of effort to perfecting it.

With Avatar on the 3D horizon, a dedicated Sky 3D channel on offer in late 2010 and CES in January likely to bring a whole new raft of 3D televisions that will launch through next year – this is a very, very interesting area of entertainment and technology.

After the HTC was confirmed as not getting the 1.6 Android firmware upgrade, it appears the phone has been jumped up to the cutting-edge 2.1.

While these numbers might not mean a lot to some people, essentially this is all about what the phone is capable of doing.

Android firmware version 1.5 is the OS you'll get out the box when buying the Hero, and many assumed the phone would automatically get the 1.6 update, which brings elements like a faster camera and detailed power meter.

Leapfrogging

But HTC has confirmed it wouldn't be going to the 1.6 upgrade, instead optimising the Sense user interface for Android 2.0, which brings even better features like integrated social networking for contacts.

It seems that things have gone one step further now, with an HTC Hero being shown on Be Geek as having the 2.1 upgrade, which hasn't even been released yet.

So if you're a Hero owner, (or probably a Tattoo user as well) you can hopefully expect the latest and greatest Android update to land on your device - just don't hold your breath.

Canon U.S.A., Inc. will be hosting a Canon Live Learning seminar in the Seattle area in early December (see schedule below). Learn More & Register at: www.usa.canon.com/canonlivelearning Canon Live Learning is a new education program targeted towards photographers who are interested in Canon's popular line of EOS photographic products. Canon Live Learning seminars offer high-quality classes and workshops conducted by a number of the industry's leading professional photographers, Canon's Explorers of Light. CLL attendees will learn how to get the most out of their gear while also having...
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Nikon has recently announced Capture NX 2 2.2.3 and Camera Control Pro 2.7.0. Both updates add support for the new D3S, as well as other enhancements and fixes. Capture NX 2.2.3 update summary Windows: Support for RAW images captured with the D3S has been added. When RAW (NEF/NRW) images with GPS information embedded were saved in JPEG format, GPS information was modified in some rare cases. This issue has been resolved. An accurate flash compensation value was not displayed for images captured using Advanced Wireless Lighting. This issue has been resolved....
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The DRDB (Digital Radio Development Bureau) is reporting that sales of digital radios have hit the 10 million mark, with 5 million of those devices sold after 2007.

Digital radio manufacturers seem to be laughing in the face of the recession at the moment, with sales of the devices outperforming the rest of the consumer electronic market both in 2008 and 2009.

The industry has seen a 12 per cent increase in home audio systems being sold and a whopping 60 per cent increase in digital radios for the car. The market is now said to be worth around £170 million a year in the UK.

Delivering firsts

One manufacturer who seems to be reaping the benefits of the digital audio upturn is Pure, who has announced that it has sold three million units worldwide.

Being that it's a British company this is great news for the UK, with Paul Smith, General Manager at Pure explaining: "Pure has consistently delivered firsts in the digital radio market. We were the first manufacturer to sell half a million digital radios, then one million, and now we're the first to sell three million.

"We'd like to take this opportunity to thank the thousands of retail stores that stock Pure radios and, of course, all Pure radio owners. Pure's drive in the growing digital radio market continues with an ongoing strong roadmap for 2010 and beyond."

Digital disappointment

Not everybody is happy with Scott Taunton, UTV Media (GB), Managing Director, pointing out that despite the 10 million sales mark reach, DAB digital radio sales are in decline, with a mere 1.3 million sets sold this year, compared to 2.2 million sold last year.

"Today's disappointing DAB sales announcement is a resounding 'no' vote for the government's proposal to switch off analogue signals in 2015," explained Taunton.

"While cumulative sales of 10m digital sets prove that DAB is here to stay, there are 120 million analogue radios currently in circulation in the UK. At this rate of sales, it would take up to 60 years to convert them all to digital."

Google has announced the biggest trends in UK search for the year, with celebrities, and swine flu joined by Facebook, Ebay and Spotify in the British search zeitgeist.

Bing has just released its US-centric search trends, but Google has published UK searches to give us a more British look at exactly what has caught our interest.

"Britons had mixed feelings as they headed online this year to search for their favourite online tools, to learn about celebrities new and old, and to find a good bargain," said Google spokesperson Anthony House.

"People searched about new sensations like Lady Gaga and Susan Boyle, but they also turned to the web to learn about the deaths of Stephen Gately, Jade Goody and Michael Jackson."

Top searches and fastest rising

The top searches for 2009 are dominated by websites – with many people using the search engine as a quick way to get to the sites that they love.

Thus, the top searches for 2009 included Facebook, BBC, YouTube, Hotmail, Ebay, Google itself (which is just strange), Yahoo and Bebo – along with 'games' and 'news'.

Swine flu, Britain's Got talent winner Susan Boyle, Stephen Gately and Google Maps all made it into the most searched for news items, along with the likes of the tragic deaths of Stephen Gately and Michael Jackson.

Interestingly, in among the fastest rising searches was Microsoft's new search engine Bing – which stole ninth spot – although 'Facebook Login' was the top of that particular list, followed by Jogos, Ebay UK and Yahoo Mail.

You can check out the lists in more detail at anytime through google.com/insights/search but we'll repeat them below anyway.

Top searches 2009
Facebook
BBC
YouTube
Hotmail
games
Ebay
news
Google
Yahoo
Bebo

What was hot this year (fastest rising search queries in 2009)
Facebook login
Jogos
Ebay UK
Yahoo mail
Hotmail
BBC iPlayer
Hi5
Stephen Gately
Bing
Spotify

The biggest stories (fastest rising news searches in 2009)
swine flu
Susan Boyle
Jade Goody
Robert Pattison
Rihanna
Michael Jackson
Google Maps
Twitter
Stephen Gately
Iran

How is Britain feeling? (top searches for "i feel..." in 2009)
I feel love
I feel alone
I feel fine
I feel good
I feel sick
I feel fat
I feel ill
I feel pretty
I feel ugly
I feel free

The hottest tickets (fastest rising ticket searches in 2009)
Lady Gaga
Michael Jackson
Taylor Swift
Whitney Houston
pixies
JLS
Beyonce
Green Day
Tinchy Stryder
U2

Windows Marketplace for Mobile has generated the expected rash of cheap apps from the useful (TubeRun shows live departure boards for the London Underground, Calendar To Map opens a map of the next appointment in your calendar) to the pointless (do you need your phone to test your stress?) to the questionable (there are two fart apps already).

With so many great free apps for Windows Mobile, are there really apps worth spending your money on? Actually, yes.

1. Co-Pilot, £27

You can get it for iPhone and Android but Co-Pilot for Windows Mobile is the original and best. Detailed maps (in multiple styles, including night mode so the screen doesn't glare at you) with full route planning and turn-by-turn directions in your choice of voices with street names.

It also provides all the other features of a dedicated navigation device such as lane assist and real sign display. The walking directions know about footpaths as well as roads while you can save favourite places and navigate to addresses from the Windows Mobile address book.

Plus, as well as searching for thousands of points of interest (near you, along your route or in a specific place) you can Bing for local businesses and attractions, get petrol prices for nearby garages, look up the weather or turn on traffic alerts, get warnings about speed limits and speed cameras and send your location to friends as you travel. If you've got a geotagged photo, Co-Pilot can navigate you to it.

The only drawback for this excellent app (which is fantastic value at £27) is that the on-screen keyboard in this version is alphabetic rather than QWERTY (and Co-Pilot says its working on that).

2. Voice Command, £31

Some Windows Mobile phones include this full voice control software; if not, buy a copy to launch programs, play music, change the ringer volume, open your calendar or a specific contact and yes, make calls, including redialling and returning the last call.

You can ask Voice Command to tell you your next appointment or what you're doing tomorrow (or just the time); it can read out new text messages and the subject and sender of incoming email. And it does it all without any training and with remarkable accuracy. You have to assign a button to it, so it won't try to recognise random conversations and it works with Bluetooth headphones so you don't even need to get your phone out.

3. Callligrapher, £18 ($30)

Apart from the HD2, every touch Windows Mobile phone works with a stylus; make it useful by adding real handwriting recognition with Calligrapher. You can write anywhere on the screen, rather than just in a tiny box, and you can teach it which letter shapes you use most to improve recognition.

You can't teach it new letter shapes, though, and it takes some time teaching it shapes and making your handwriting tidier to get good recognition, but you can get there with patience.

4. PhatPad, £24 ($40)

PhatPad on its own is an excellent note application that lets you sketch, handwrite, create voice notes, add reminders to notes – and sync it all to and from the almost-identical PhatPad application on your PC, so you can have one to-do list and take it with you. But if you use it with Calligrapher (above), you can write notes in ink like jotting things down on paper in a hurry – and turn them into text when you have time, giving you the best of both worlds.

5. WMWifiRouter, £18 (£22)

You can use your Windows Mobile phone as a modem with your notebook by turning on connection sharing, but if you want to share that connection with multiple PCs, or with something that's not a PC, WMWifiRouter does that and more.

It can share out your mobile data connection over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB; that gives you much wider range than Bluetooth and it means you can connect any device – so you could upload photos directly to Flickr from a digital camera with an Eye-Fi card via your phone. Obviously it takes a lot out of the battery (so plug your phone in) and if you share the connection with multiple devices they only get a share of the bandwidth, but it's both easy to use and has plenty of advanced configuration options.

6. Kinoma Play, £18 ($30)

When you're listening to music or watching video on your phone, you're more likely to be interrupted; Kinoma Play remembers where you were, in everything you've watched or listened to. That's especially handy because Kinoma gives you the same friendly interface for content on your phone and content online; you can browse camera phone pictures and your DSLR shots on Flickr with the same interface, and restart podcasts and YouTube videos where you left off.

Kinoma has a lot of extra features, from streaming Internet radio, playing Last.fm, reading RSS and playing media from Box.net or your desktop computer via Orb to reading Facebook, sending tweets and checking flight times (it even has its own App Store). At heart, it's a good media player and a great way to explore media on your phone and online.

7. Evernote Premium, £3 ($5) a month

The free version of Evernote is excellent; pay $5 a month and you get 500MB of storage. You'll need it because you can upload audio, video, PDFs and Office documents so instead of copying files to your phone you can put them online and access them from anywhere, including your phone. You can search PDFs and you can share notes with a friend, so you can both work on the same note. If you use Evernote extensively, the Premium option is excellent value.

8. RDM+, £24 ($40)

You can get some great apps for Windows Mobile, but how about using the ones on your PC or Mac from your phone? The official Remote Desktop client is one of the optional programs you don't always get on Windows Mobile devices, it only works with Windows and it assumes you know how to set it up and get connected. RDM+ works with Macs as well as PCs and it makes connecting very simple, even through a NAT firewall, by typing in the number it assigns your computer.

You do have to run the RDM+ client on your computer and navigating Windows on your phone screen can be slow and finicky, but you can run your apps, zoom in so you can read them, browse files in a simple file manager or send shortcuts like Start and Paste directly instead of tapping buttons and menus.

9. SPB Mobile Shell, £18 ($30)

Microsoft keeps changing its mind about the Today screen and most phone manufacturers have their own interface on top; if you prefer Android's three desktops side by side, check out the extremely popular Mobile Shell which replaces the Today screen with a short-cut packed layout (swipe left for a desktop and search bar, swipe right for the calendar) plus a custom contact picker, a Start menu with recently-used icons at the top and a 3D carousel interface for switching between all the different screens. It's a little complicated but if you want to put everything in Windows Mobile at your fingertips, Mobile Shell will do it.

10. Shazam Encore, £4.69

Like Evernote, the free version of Shazam works fine but the pay-for version gives you more; instead of five songs a month you can tag and identify as many songs as you like and get suggestions for similar songs you'll like. It's virtually the same app you get on iPhone and BlackBerry so Windows Mobile users aren't left behind. Want to find new music? Shazam makes it easier.

For the first time ever in the UK a 3D movie has been given subtitles, allowing those with hearing loss to enjoy movies in the third dimension.

The technology has been added to A Christmas Carol, which is currently playing at IMAX's up and down the country, and is all part of Disney's bid to make their 3D content accessible to those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

"Disney recognises the fact that as we age, loss of some hearing or sight is inevitable. Access to film via subtitles and audio description is something that we all may appreciate, eventually.

"So we are working to ensure that every future Disneyfilm is accessible to people with hearing or sight loss," said Disney Studio's Technical Executive Director, Saul Mahoney.

Same opportunities

Speaking about the addition of subtitles to 3D Disney movies, Ian Noon from the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS), said: "The National Deaf Children's Society believes that every deaf child has the right to the same opportunities as their hearing friends, and this includes being able to enjoy films at the cinema with subtitles. It is great news that deaf children and young people will now be able to enjoy 3D films with subtitles and we thank all those involved for this achievement."

To find out if your local cinemas is showing A Christmas Carol, complete with 3D subtitling, go to http://www.yourlocalcinema.com/christmascarol.html.

For the first time ever in the UK a 3D movie has been given subtitles, allowing those with hearing loss to enjoy movies in the third dimension.

The technology has been added to A Christmas Carol, which is currently playing at IMAX's up and down the country, and is all part of Disney's bid to make their 3D content accessible to those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

"Disney recognises the fact that as we age, loss of some hearing or sight is inevitable. Access to film via subtitles and audio description is something that we all may appreciate, eventually.

"So we are working to ensure that every future Disneyfilm is accessible to people with hearing or sight loss," said Disney Studio's Technical Executive Director, Saul Mahoney.

Same opportunities

Speaking about the addition of subtitles to 3D Disney movies, Ian Noon from the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS), said: "The National Deaf Children's Society believes that every deaf child has the right to the same opportunities as their hearing friends, and this includes being able to enjoy films at the cinema with subtitles. It is great news that deaf children and young people will now be able to enjoy 3D films with subtitles and we thank all those involved for this achievement."

To find out if your local cinemas is showing A Christmas Carol, complete with 3D subtitling, go to http://www.yourlocalcinema.com/christmascarol.html.

It's already been a good year for the PlayStation 3, but yet more great news has arrived for the console ahead of Christmas with the hint that software giant Bioware will bring development for Sony's platform in-house.

Bioware is one of the biggest names in gaming, and had previously at least partly outsourced PS3 development, but the sales of recent hit Dragon Age: Origins appear to have convinced it that this should change.

Bioware did work on the PS3 version, although they did call in Edge of Reality in producing it.

"We think it's one of the key platforms, obviously, so we're definitely going to be doing PS3," Greg Zeschuk told Joystiq.

Mass Effect too?

Obviously this begged questions of whether stand-out Xbox hit Mass Effect's sequel would be available on the platform.

"You know, I can't say anything about Mass Effect in that regard but you know, I can definitely say Dragon Age and other things we do will definitely be on PS3.

"It was great going through the experience of making Dragon Age, getting familiar with and understanding the PS3. Again, every platform is different, but now I think we're at the position where future PS3 stuff will be really solid," Zeschuka added.

Motorola's UK version of the Droid - the Milestone - looks like it could land on T-Mobile after it was offered on contract in this country for the first time.

Expansys is offering the phone for £35 a month, with the phone costing £50 to purchase as well.

Unsurprisingly, there's no estimated release date for the phone as yet, which makes sense seeing as Motorola refuses to confirm it will be releasing the Milestone in the UK at all.

T-No-bile

And the fact it's landing on T-Mobile only adds to the mystery - the network has already told us that it won't be offering the Milestone in the UK, so unless it's changed its mind then this an online-only deal.

But for £35 a month with 700 mins and unlimited data, it's a pretty good deal for a phone that's running the latest version of Android, even if it is sans Google Navigation.

We'll be plugging away at trying to discover a release date for the Milestone in the UK - don't be surprised if it's not this side of Christmas though.

On the face of it, DirectX 11 is just the latest in a long line of multimedia APIs.

Great if you have a fetish for fragment shaders, moderately interesting if you're a keen PC gamer, but otherwise a bit of a niche subject.

DirectX 11, however, is a bit different. There are several reasons to think it will not only be the biggest ever step forward in entertainment tech on the PC, but also properly shake up the way desktop computers process data.

Undoubtedly the biggest change is the introduction of Direct Compute, also known as the compute shader. The idea is to broaden the scope of DirectX – or perhaps more accurately the Direct3D pipeline subset – to general computing rather than just graphics rendering. The only caveat is that a given task must lend itself to parallel processing.

In hardware terms, the target component here is the GPU. Despite the recent rise of multicore CPUs, it's by far the most parallelised PC-compatible computer chip. It's also theoretically the most powerful – if only its resources were harnessed for general computing.

If that sounds like a familiar refrain it's because I've preached the virtues of using graphics for general processing, otherwise known as GPGPU, on several occasions. It's a well established concept, complete with several ongoing initiatives, most obviously Nvidia's CUDA platform.

So far, GPGPU has failed to live up to the hype. I'm convinced DX11 will finally change that.

Graphics chips "30 times faster" for general tasks

Crucially, it sets out common standards for both hardware and application developers. Unlike with CUDA, you won't to need to worry about the make and model of your graphics card beyond ensuring it's the real DX11 deal.

Just as importantly, software developers can begin to get their teeth into the challenges posed by coding for GPGPU, safe in the knowledge that there will be a healthy installed base of fully compatible PCs a year or two from now.

Of course, Direct Compute isn't just about guaranteeing cross-vendor compatibility. It's also about laying out the minimum hardware requirements to ensure compliant graphics chips actually have the computational chops to handle general-purpose tasks.

While previous graphics cards have packed immense theoretical processing power, they've also been hobbled by architectures optimised for graphics rendering. Up until the introduction of DX11, for instance, GPUs have only been required to make 256 bytes of internal memory available to each software thread. With Direct Compute in DirectX 11, that balloons to 32kB.

The net result of the combined efforts of Microsoft, Nvidia and AMD should see a huge increase in parallelised application performance. Graphics chips could turn out to be 30 times faster for highly parallelised software such as media encoding.

For the record, the first fully DX11-compliant GPU is already on sale. It's AMD's new Radeon HD 5870 and it really is a piece of work. Thanks to no less than 2.15 billion transistors, it packs a ludicrous 1,600 stream processors and is claimed to be capable of nearly three teraflops of raw computational heft.

To put the latter figure into context, that makes it faster than the world's fastest supercomputer circa 1999. That was a machine that filled a 230m2 room. Not bad for a single chip.

Multicore support

Direct Compute aside, there are one or two further features that mark DX11 out from its predecessors. For starters, support for multicore PC processors has been much improved. The introduction of hardware geometry tessellation should also make a huge difference to the quality of PC graphics. The sheer number of triangles the new Radeon HD 5870 is capable of processing simply beggars belief.

But most significantly, Microsoft has done a much better job with backward compatibility than it did with DX10. You can already upgrade Windows Vista to full DirectX 11 support with a couple of mouse clicks.

Naturally, I would recommend that everyone takes the opportunity presented by the arrival of Windows 7 to go all the way and dump Vista altogether. But I also realise the reality for many is that there are some rather off-putting cost and technical barriers to doing so.

It's also nice to know that existing Vista licensees can get all the benefits of DX11 without upgrading to 7. Truly, it's not often you get something for nothing from Microsoft.

We might not be in 2010 yet, but as we're learning all too painfully, that doesn't stop the 'what the next iPhone will be' rumours, and we've now been treated to the latest.

Macrumors is reporting that the iPhone 3.1 has begun appearing in usage logs, according to app developer Pandav.

The developers can see which handsets are accessing its applications, and the company has noticed that a new model has surfaced.

The iPhone 3GS was coded as 2.1 during its development, which the site points out was also first seen in usage logs eight months ahead of development.

One more thing

This means that we're set to be treated to another 'and one more thing' in June (which is hardly the most outlandish prediction we're ever going to make) but with the glut of new contracts for iPhone users on Vodafone and Orange coming up, that's going to irritate them when it lands.

Of course, with such a leap in product code this could be the fabled Apple iTablet - but we're hoping if we stop talking about that the rumour will die.

And what will it look like? Multi-core, OLED screen, longer battery... we've made these predictions a million times before.

So we're sticking out necks out here - the iPhone 3.1 will be called the iPhone Newton Crosspad 2010 and will be able to fly. You heard it here first.

Johnston Press, the second biggest local newspaper publisher in the UK, has announced it is to conduct pay-wall trials on three of its papers.

The publisher owns around 300 newspapers in the UK and in a bid to stave off low advertising revenues, it is looking into asking readers to pay for the news it puts on the web.

The newspapers which are to be put behind a pay-wall are the Northumberland Gazette, the Whitby Gazette, the Worksop Guardian, the Ripley & Heanor News (all based in England) and the Southern Reporter and the Carrick Gazette (based in Scotland).

Charging for content

It is just a trial at the moment, with Johnston Press looking to charge £5 for three months of complete web access. If you're against paying such a fee, then you'll be directed to a site to buy the newspapers.

The idea of a pay-wall for news content seems to be gaining momentum. This is mainly due to the announcement that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is to erect its own pay-wall for the Sun and the Times as early as next year.

Confusion reigns over 'Mega Monday' the day the UK's online retailers sell the most amount of goods, with Visa suggesting that it's today and Play.com plumping for next week.

Online giant Play.com is gearing up for next Monday – 7 December and the first Monday in December – to be its busiest.

"Online shoppers are spending more money than ever this Christmas, despite the doom and gloom of the recession – and look set to splash record amounts of cash on Monday 7 December," said Play.com's release

"Known as Mega Monday, this is the day the UK's leading e-retailer, Play.com predicts will be its busiest of the year, as the festive shopping season gets into full swing."

Or today

However, Visa has other ideas, with the Daily Mail stating: "According to the card company, Visa, there will be almost 2.4 million online sales today which is the highest figure on record. The busiest period will be around lunchtime with a second peak around 7pm."

We contacted Play.com to get to the bottom of things, and they answered: "Play.com believes that the seventh will be Mega Monday; however other retailers may feel differently."

So there you have it, it's Mega Monday today, or next week. Whatever turns out to be true, we can't see any retailers too unhappy at having two major sales days.

Credit Crunch? Meh

David Smith, Director of Operations at IMRG comments, "Despite the credit crunch, the online retail sector is still growing, with an increasing number of consumers appreciating the ease and efficiency of shopping online.

"Consumers have become much savvier and cost conscious in the current climate; we are seeing a growing trend of online price comparisons so customers ensure they get the best deal for their purchase.

"We are expecting approximately £350miliion to be spent online on 7 December which is up 10 per cent on the corresponding Monday last year. We are also expecting online shopping sales in December 2009 will reach up to £5 billion."

Nokia has said it needs to improve its mobile internet offering, and to that end may even consider selling its handset manufacture division.

The likes of Apple, RIM and especially Google have been working on utilising the mobile internet, and Nokia's Anssi Vankoji has told German publication Wirtschaftswoche that it would even consider selling its handset division.

But don't panic, Nokia fans - this doesn't mean that the N-Series is doomed (although the longer the N-Gage stays dead, the better) it just means the Finns would likely outsource production like most other firms.

Buttons + screen + microphone = profit

Nokia currently considers the ability to make its own handsets a 'competitive advantage' but as it looks to extend beyond the simple 'put numbers near a screen' to also focus on the likes of Comes With Music and Nokia Money.

Either way, we doubt it will happen, as Nokia loves being all vertically integrated - but when we all have mobile chips sewn into our livers and contact lenses with screens pushed into our eyeballs, what use will it be then?