What is it?

The HP Pavilion dm1 laptop tries to bridge the gap between tablet and fully fledged laptop.

In a world where Ultrabooks are now posing a very real threat to laptops while also being portable and tablets are capable of satisfying most users’ needs while too being extremely portable, the day of the Notebook could be getting shorter every day.

How does the Pavilion dm1 fit into this ever growing and crowded laptop/tablet market?

Hardware

The Pavilion dm1 is a real looker, its matte black (Glossy on the screen bezel) style with silver trim is sure to turn many heads as it actually looks more expensive and premium than it truly is.
With the dimensions of 29.2 x 21.5 x 3.2cm, and a weight of just 1.6kg, the Pavilion dm1 is ideal for students, writers or anyone on the go really. Even for couch surfing it’s perfect.

Don’t let the size and weight put you off the dm1 however, inside it’s still powerful enough to perform most tasks you could throw at it. It combines portability with power fairly well.

Connectivity-wise we have a HDMI port, SD Card slot, headphone & mic jack, VGA, Ethernet and three USB 2.0 ports. Again, given the size this is quite an impressive array of connection options – suitable for almost any device or display.

Along the front-bottom of the laptop are the speakers, powered by Beats Audio (more on those later) while the bottom contains the battery and intake fan.

Build quality is solid overall, the laptop feels well-built and sturdy, although there is a noticeable amount of give on the lid and on the G & H keys along with audible creaking.
Not enough to mar the entire experience but if it’s definitely not in the same league as a MacBook Air in terms of that reassuring sturdiness – then again, it’s nowhere near as pricey.

The trackpad does the job, but won’t win any awards. It supports two finger scrolling and pinch to zoom gestures among a few others but these can be somewhat finicky to use. The dedicated left and right mouse buttons are quite loud and plastic-ey, they feel very cheap.

Typing on the keyboard isn’t the most pleasant experience either, the keys feel hollow and again we’re forced to use the word cheap.
There’s a nice amount of travel on them given the laptops size and they’re well-spaced, but they’re quite sharp on the corners which makes it somewhat hard to slide your fingers across them – not what you want when trying to type.

Software & Performance

The Pavilion dm1 contains a 1.65 GHz AMD Dual-Core E-450 processor which according to AMD has been specially designed to work in laptops, in order to make power consumption lower while still maintaining performance.

This is on a much lower level than Intels i5 or i7 chips, they run the price up much more than the cheaper AMD chipset.

Don’t expect to be playing Crysis on this thing, but some graphically light games aren’t completely out of the question – we managed to play Portal just fine.

Be warned though that in order to keep the size and weight low, this laptop doesn’t have an optical drive – not a deal breaker these days as they are dying out in laptops but just know that you’ll be using USB drives/cables for all your data needs.

The dm1 handles most of what the average user will throw at it on a daily basis, it was capable of tabbed browsing with music playing in Zune while transferring files to and from SkyDrive without any noticeable slowdown.

Try to open up too many programs at the same time however and the strain does start to show, just like if you throw more and more tabs in your browser or more file transfers it will eventually struggle – sooner than we would have liked.

Overall though it’s more than fast enough for most users, anyone who wants more should be looking at higher end laptops to begin with.

The 11.6 inch screen has a resolution of 1366 x 768, which is great for the size. Movies look crisp and clear in HD, we have no faults here. Viewing angles are great and the hinge actually folds down parallel to the keyboard – a bit unnecessary but not a complaint.

Wrap Up

The HP Pavilion dm1 is a great machine for its size and class, the lack of an optical drive and sub-par keyboard shouldn’t deter you from this hidden gem.

With the inclusion of Beats Audio that produces impressive sound, a really nice design and good range and number of connectivity options, the Pavilion dm1 is the perfect laptop in its price range.

You can contact the author of this post, Luke Hoare Greene at Luke@TechTV101.com or Follow him on Twitter.

Don’t forget IO Interactive will be making a “major” Hitman: Absolution announcement tomorrow, Thursday the 10th of May.

IO Interactive  posted a image on its official Hitman Facebook page earlier in the week teasing a “major” Hitman: Absolution on the 10th.

“Heads up! A MAJOR announcement is coming up on MAY 10th. Don’t miss this!”

We’ll let you know exactly what the “major” announcement is, as soon as we hear but if you ask us it’s the multiplayer aspect of new game getting a shout.

What is it?

The Phillips HMP2000 Smart Media Box is Phillips’ answer to Apple TV on a budget.

With the ability to use Netflix, YouTube along with streaming content from a USB Drive, Phillips are definitely aiming for the consumer who wants to get into the ‘Smart TV’ revolution but doesn’t want to break the bank.

Is this little glossy box filled with a world of entertainment, or should you save your cash?

The Hardware

Design is the first thumbs up for the Smart Media Box, we would have preferred matte black over the glossy black chosen due to dust and fingerprints but only the top is glossy so it’s not a major problem.

The top of the Box is angled downwards from the back to the front which makes for a strange shape that works well, while the back-top angles the opposite direction until about halfway down when it changes into a flat back.

These angles give the Box a kind of triangle shape towards the back yet a slim, almost tapered edge at the front, again it’s a strange but nice design.

On the bottom-back is the power socket and one HDMI port, the right side contains one USB port while the left side remains bare.

Overall it’s a minimalistic design that works very well, there’s one LED light on the top of the device that glows green when on or red when in standby.

The Software

The menu presented to you upon start up is pretty basic, Netflix, YouTube, USB, Internet Services and Settings.
Netflix is the bread and butter here while it feels as if YouTube and USB support was thrown in only to justify the price.

Netflix has a very Metro feel to its UI, much like the Xbox 360 dashboard and the upcoming interface in Windows 8. The shows and movies are presented in a cover flow style which is quite nice on the eyes and easy enough for anyone to use.

YouTube is a bit less straightforward on the other hand, offering some sort of ‘tabs’ on the left hand side with seemingly random videos loaded into each one, it’s not the worst use of YouTube we’ve ever seen but it’s by no means the best either.
Quite simply put, it gets the job done – just.

USB support is a very welcome addition but again an addition that’s quite bare-bones and feels it.

It does support a wide array of video types and allows playback of music and photos also, but the menus are just very slow and clunky.
It’s a very useful addition nonetheless and one that’s lacking on Apple TV.

Verdict

If you’re looking for a nicely designed and attractive device to help you turn your TV into a Smart hub of sorts, where Netflix and YouTube can become a common sight in your living room then the Phillips HMP200 is aimed squarely in your direction.

Solid Netflix and YouTube support combined with a bland but simple to use interface and a good USB support option make this an attractive purchase at a decent price.
We also would have liked to see more features such as 4OD, VEVO or RTÉ Player and DLNA support for smartphones.

It’s sadly let down by its frustratingly small and cheap-feeling remote control along with the lack of an Ethernet port, but if you’re looking for much more at this price point then you’re not Phillips intended buyer to begin with.

The Nokia Lumia 710 is the lower-end model in Nokia’s Lumia range (not counting the Lumia 610 which isn’t available just yet) and Nokia are hoping will appeal to first time smartphone buyers or consumers less worried about specs or big brand names.

Nokia need Windows Phone to survive and it could be said that Microsoft need Nokia for Windows Phone to be successful.
We love Windows Phone, despite its shortcomings and we loved the Nokia Lumia 800, so how does a weaker and cheaper Lumia fare in the big bad mobile world?

Hardware

It’s inevitable that we’re going to compare the Lumia 710 to the Lumia 800, as although they’re in a different price range they are in the same family of devices. The Lumia 710 definitely does feel cheaper than the 800, it’s noticeably lighter and has a more plastic feel to it, but when the cheap, plastic feel of the Samsung Galaxy range is factored in, the 710 can be excused.

The screen is a 3.7” TFT LCD screen with Gorilla Glass protection, a stark contrast to the ClearBlack AMOLED screen found in the 800.

Whether or not you consider LCD better or worse than AMOLED is a matter of personal choice, AMOLED screens produce much more vivid colours and extremely deep blacks, the Lumia 800 in particular sometimes makes it hard to tell where the screen actually ends, however they have trouble displaying whites properly, often resulting in a whites with a green or blue tint.

LCD screens can display whites much more efficiently, but the colours can appear washed out or dull, although they arguably produce sharper graphics.

The 710s’ screen quality is really nice, as expected, we would love a higher resolution but as mentioned in our HTC Titan review, Microsoft restrict every Windows Phone device to the same resolution, until the Apollo update later this year.

We did notice a strange flicker on the 710 when scrolling or typing and usually only with a white background, we’re not sure if this issue is wide spread but there seem to be some folk on Nokias’ Support Forums complaining of the same issue and it has been noticed in other reviews.

Build quality overall is quite good for a lower-end device, but as previously mentioned does feel quite cheaper than an iPhone 4s or the Lumia 800.
This is partially due to to the back cover being changeable to different colours, almost as if Nokia can’t let go of the past.
It’s a nice touch all the same, and should satisfy folks who want something other than dreary black found in almost every device we use on a daily basis.

Below the screen on the bottom of the phone are the mandatory back, start and search (Bing only, naturally) but unlike the Lumia 800, or indeed most Windows Phone devices, they’re physical keys rather than touch capacitive buttons.

This took some getting used to on our part, the keys are a bit too hard to push with one hand and have you straining to hit them properly, imagine the iPhones’ home button if it were almost completely glued down – not pleasant to use.

However they do protrude from the face of the phone which makes them easier to find and press, and one small upside to them being so hard to push is no more accidental Bing searches while in the middle of an app or a game.

Also strangely absent is the ability to wake the phone up by using the physical start button, iPhone users will find this especially frustrating.
The voice mic is below these buttons.

On the right side is the camera shutter key, which when held down can wake the phone up from lock and go straight to camera – really handy when you need to snap something ASAP.

Higher again is the volume rocker which has two small, separate ‘nubs’ that make them extremely easy to find and press when the phone is in your pocket or simply without even looking.

Down the bottom we have a small loop for attaching phone charms or wrist holders or the like.
Nokia kept the left side clear, the same as all other phones in the Lumia family.
Up top is a micro USB slot, 3.5mm headphone jack and the power/lock button. The latter is where we find a fault in the 710s’ hardware.

The lock/power button is almost perfectly flush with the phone and thus makes it incredibly hard to find at the best of times, making a simple task such as unlocking the phone more of a chore.

This would be but a minor gripe if the physical start button could wake the phone up but as previously mentioned it doesn’t, the power button up top is the only way – annoyingly.

The phones’ rear houses a 5mp shooter with an LED flash up top and the speaker down the bottom.

Overall the design of the Lumia 710 is nice, easy to hold and although it’s clear that Nokia has put far more TLC into designing the Lumia 800 and 900, the only faults we have with it are minor.

Inside

There’s not much to say about the inner workings of the Lumia 710 that haven’t already been said in our previous Windows Phone reviews, especially the Lumia 800. Both phones have the exact same amount of RAM (512MB), the same Snapdragon CPU – 1.4 GHz Scorpion processor although the 710 only has 8GB of internal storage while the 800 has 16GB.

The entire Windows Phone experience is the same as what you’ll find on other devices rocking Microsofts’ mobile offering, although included here (as with other Lumia devices) are Nokia Music, Nokia Transport, Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive and App Highlights to name but a few Nokia exclusive apps.

We love the entire feel of Windows Phone in general the animations and design are stunning, our gripes with it remain relatively unchanged from previous reviews - the multitasking again isn’t the most comprehensive solution to multitasking.

That’s not saying it’s bad but it could definitely be better, another thing we have hope for in the Apollo update.

Internet sharing is said to be on its’ way to all Lumia devices in a coming update too, so you’ll be able to use the Lumia 710 as a personal hotspot before long.

Camera

A 5 megapixel shooter on the 710 is partnered with a single LED flash but sadly there’s no sign of the infamous Carl Zeiss Tessar optics that Nokia love to talk about so much.

The camera here is nothing to write home about, the lack of Carl Zeiss innards and the fact that it’s a now-industry standard 5MP instead of 8MP, gives the Lumia 710 an average image quality.

While it’s not an amazing camera by any means, the pictures it produces can be quite impressive. They don’t seem to suffer the same slightly washed out look that some shots from the Lumia 800 can be.

The Lumia 710 also shoots 720p HD video which as you can see from our sample video, is more than adequate for a lower end device.

Software and Apps

Windows Phone hasn’t changed from our review of the Lumia 800, apart from some small Nokia-only updates, what you get in the 800 will be the same here, and indeed the majority of the software will be the same as all other Windows Phones, sans the Nokia exclusive apps.

We had nothing to say on Nokia Music in the past, but since then it has become available here in Ireland and the short answer is – it’s really good.

There are set playlists inside the App called ‘Mixes’ that are updated and changed by Nokia on a regular basis and the app allows you to skip 6 songs an hour due to radio licensing laws, but we’ve found that this just makes us discover amazing bands/artists that we would have otherwise missed.

Nokia Music alone is enough to warrant getting a Nokia Windows Phone over other Windows Phone offerings.

The Windows Phone Marketplace has recently reached over 80,000 apps – up 20,000 from just back in February. It’s officially the fastest growing smartphone app store in history.

This means that while some big apps such as Draw Something or Instagram are still missing from Windows Phone, essential apps like Netflix, Sky News and even Dominos Pizza are here.

Battery

We were a little disappointed with the battery life to be quite honest, the HTC Radar would be the equivalent mid-range Windows Phone device and we were really pleasantly surprised with how long that could last without a charge.

The Lumia 710 averages a day, give or take.

As we always like to do, we’ll stress that you most likely will have to charge all smartphones on an almost daily basis anyway.

Call Quality and Antenna Performance

We have no complaints with call quality or performance here, calls on speakerphone could get a bit harsh-sounding but otherwise it’s spot on, we had no dropped calls or major loss of signal.

Issues

We don’t have much in the way of issues with the Lumia 710, other than what we’ve already mentioned, such as the bare-bones 8GB of storage and annoying physical front buttons.

Wrap Up

Nokia may have put far more love and attention into the Lumia 800, but the 710 is still a fine piece of hardware containing an extremely fresh and fluid OS inside.

If you can look past the cheap, plastic feel and lack of front facing camera, the Lumia 710 is a really good choice for those who want a cheaper alternative to an iPhone or Android device.

Nokia Music is a great bonus, which helps put the 710 on a higher platform than the HTC Radar or any other similarly specced devices.

Did we mention that you can change the back cover to 5 different colours?

That nostalgia counts for a lot.

You can contact the author of this review, Luke Hoare Greene at Luke@TechTV101.com or Follow him on Twitter. 

After Mark Zuckerberg asked his employees to help in decorating their new headquarters at 1 Hacker’s Way, some bright sparks decided to think outside the box, and outside the building! A group of employees went to the roof of the new building and decided to paint a 42ft wide QR code that would link people to a new Facebook page.

The new page entitled ‘FB QR Code Page’ (which appears to be still under development) is likely to host puzzles and jokes and some other cool things in order to show a softer, more playful side to the international company. Right now, the only way to access the page is to scan the above image or take to the skies above the new campus but the satellite images from above the building should be uploaded to sites such as Google Maps soon enough.

Each week we’ll be highlighting one stand-out app per smartphone OS that we feel is worthy of your attention, whichever of these phone platforms you own – you owe it to yourself to check out these apps.

iOS – CodeRunner
Developer - RocketChicken Interactive

CodeRunner is a GPS-enabled game iOS devices and offers plauers the chance to live out their James Bond fantasies.
The game starts with you being contacted by a mysterious operative who informs you that you are under surveillance and must get away from your current location.
Once you’ve moved about 40m the operative explains that the player is being recruited by the governmental Department of Privacy.
From there on in you’re into the shady world of espionage and are tasked with hacking in to a secure network to look at a hotel’s security camera footage, listening in on a private telephone call or uploading evidence to a waiting reporter hiding in a nearby restaurant (all simulated but sometimes carily realistic).

So as you travel the streets playing the game, you barely remember that you are actually exercising.
CodeRunner is wonderfully presented and the perfect companion game for when you’re out running errands or walking the dog.

CodeRunner is available on the App Store now and is currently on sale due to the Game Developers Confrence for this week only.
Download it here.

Android - Any.DO
Developer – Taskos

We need a To Do list, if we don’t write stuff down or put it in our calendar, then our brains don’t remember it.
We use Google Calendar to keep track of our appointments and we use Any.DO to keep track of our To Do’s.
Simply put, it’s the best To Do app on Android.
It has a super slick User Interface (which you can choose either to be in Black or White) and also sync’s with Google Tasks which keeps it all  backed up with Google. This also means it syncs across phones/tablets and computers.

ATo use Any.DO, add a task (you can also if needed, add notes too). You simply drag the tasks to the day you want to complete them on (Today, Tomorrow, This Week or Later)  and you can add tasks the “normal” way by typing or you can add via voice control.

To mark a task as compete, simply swipe over it to strike through it.
To move the task to the “Done” list, just shake the phone to clear the complete tasks.

We know, sounds too simple but that’s what you want in a ToDo list.
Quick, easy access to add, read and mark your tasks as done.

Any.DO also supports 2 widgets so you can keep track of your task from the home screen.

Any.DO is free from Google Play.
Download it here.

Windows Phone – Toshl
Developer – ThirdFrameStudios

Toshl is an extremely popular and well designed expense tracking app.
Toshl allows you to add tags to each of your expenses so that at the end of the month you can see exactly how much you’ve spent on coffee, food or anything else you decide to tag.

The app also uses GPS for seeing not only what you’ve spent your cash on, but where.
Toshl syncs with Toshl.com to allow you to further track your expenses and see graphs in order to better manage your spending, along with providing interesting stats – the entire Toshl community has tracked $317.7 million worth of expenses so far, for example.

Toshl is an incredibly useful app and can really open your eyes as to how much you spend as opposed to how much you think you spend.

The app and website also have a really clean, fun and cute design complete with funny quotes and little characters.

Toshl is available free from the Windows Marketplace with an optional paid upgrade to support more tags.
Download it here.

This year’s competition will incorporate more athletes and more chances to vote as the field has been expanded to battle royale of 64 NFL players, putting even more control in the hands of the fans. Beginning today until the 21^st of March, fans can visit the SportsNation Facebook page  to choose among the 64 players in a play-in round (each matchup features two players from the same NFL team) to advance to the official 32-player next round.

To give your chosen one a chance to make it through to the next round EA suggest you:

Vote daily and tweet their picks using #MyMaddenCoverVote on Twitter.

As told you there are now 64 players to choose from and the star-studded list of candidates participating in the play-in round features past Super Bowl winners, perennial Pro Bowlers and some of the most popular players in the NFL including Drew Brees, Arian Foster and Rob Gronkowski. The full list of matchups featured in the play-in round are:

AFC

• Ravens-Terrell Suggs vs. Ray Rice   Jets-Mark Sanchez vs. Darrelle Revis
• Steelers-Troy Polamalu vs. Ben Roethlisberger   Bills-Stevie Johnson vs. Ryan Fitzpatrick
• Browns-Joe Thomas vs. Joe Haden   Dolphins-Reggie Bush vs. Brandon Marshall
• Bengals-Andy Dalton vs. AJ Green   Patriots-Wes Welker vs. Rob Gronkowski
• Texans-Arian Foster vs. Andre Johnson   Chargers-Phillip Rivers vs. Antonio Gates
• Colts-Dwight Freeney vs. Robert Mathis   Broncos-Tim Tebow vs. Von Miller
• Jaguars-Maurice Jones-Drew vs. Blaine Gabbert   Chiefs-Dwayne Bowe vs. Derrick Johnson
• Titans-Jake Locker vs. Chris Johnson   Raiders-Sebastian Janikowski vs. Shane Lechler

NFC

• Bears-Jay Cutler vs. Matt Forte   Rams-Chris Long vs. Brandon Lloyd
• Lions-Calvin Johnson vs. Matt Stafford   49ers-Vernon Davis vs. Patrick Willis
• Vikings-Percy Harvin vs. Jared Allen   Seahawks-Marshawn Lynch vs. Earl Thomas
• Packers-Aaron Rodgers vs. Clay Matthews   Cardinals-Larry Fitzgerald vs. Patrick Peterson
• Falcons-Matt Ryan vs. Julio Jones   Eagles-Michael Vick vs. LeSean McCoy
• Saints-Drew Brees vs. Jimmy Graham   Giants-Victor Cruz vs. Jason Pierre-Paul
• Panthers-Cam Newton vs. Steve Smith   Cowboys-Jason Witten vs. DeMarcus Ware
• Buccaneers-Josh Freeman vs. LeGarrett Blount   Redskins-Brian Orakpo vs. Ryan Kerrigan

ESPN will unveil the winners of the play-in round with the official seeded, 32-player bracket on the 21^st of March a dedicated “Madden Cover Vote Special” .

Apparently EA Sports expecting to see more than 13 million votes cast before a winner is chosen, so you better get voting now.

By the way some of you may have guessed from the above who i’ll be voting for.

“Who dat gonna beat dem Saints!!!!!”

Following on from a seemingly unending stream of Mass Effect 3 trailers, news, screenshots and the odd leak, Bioware have finally released the official Launch Trailer today.

Epic space battles, dramatic operatic scores and Shepard telling Martin Sheen – sorry, The Illusive Man – to go to hell, what more could we ask for?

You’ll want find a nice, quiet area and turn up the volume for the next 2 minutes and 45 seconds.

Luckily we only have to wait until next Friday, March 9th.

Mass Effect 3 will launch on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. It will also feature online multiplayer, a first for the series, and the Xbox version will feature Kinect Voice Support.
Look out for our review next week.

You can contact the author of this post, Luke Hoare Greene at Luke@TechTV101.com or Follow him on Twitter.

Each week we’ll be highlighting one stand-out app per smartphone OS that we feel is worthy of your attention.

Let’s jump right in shall we.

iOS – Ghost Trick
Developer – CAPCOM 

The name doesn’t exactly leave a lot to the imagination but this little adventure does start quite uniquely as from the get-go your hero dies. Awakening as a “Ghost”, you don’t know who you are, who killed you or why you were murdered. Now time to start the game, you have just 24 hours to solve your murder before you pass into the great unknown. Ghost Trick has all the elements of a classic horror and as the protagonist you must solve murder after grizzly murder trying to shed light on your own demise. One of the most unique elements of the game is when you enter each of the victims, you gain brief insight into how they died and this just adds to the story and already head-melting puzzles.

Windows Phone – AppFlow App Discovery
Developer – Team Distinction

AppFlow App Discovery is, as the name would suggest, an app to help you find apps.
Windows Phone 7.5 is still a young and relatively unknown Smartphone operating system and although it reached over 60,000 apps this past month, the iPhone App Store and Android Marketplace have a thousands more to offer.

This is why a really solid app discovery app comes in handy, it not only brings the best and most useful apps to your attention but also does so in a really nice and easy way.
The apps’ Live Tile support even provides the current (unofficial) number of apps available in the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Every week or so the app will update with special categories too, such as New & Impressive, Most Popular Apps and even seasonal categories like the best Christmas Apps.

AppFlow App Discovery is free and we can’t praise it enough.
Download it here.

If you have any suggestions for an app to include in future App Highlights of the Week, don’t hesitate to Contact Us.

You can contact the author of this post, Luke Hoare Greene at Luke@TechTV101.com or Follow him on Twitter.

Itching to take the fight to the Reapers for one final time as Commander Shepard?

Today you can get a taste of what Mass Effect 3 will have to offer with the official demo now launched for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

From the official Bioware blog:

The demo begins in dramatic fashion with the spectacular opening attack on Earth, after which you’re thrust headlong into a mid-game section showcasing the groundbreaking interactive storytelling, adrenaline-pumping action, ruthless and intelligent enemies, and deep customization that make Mass Effect 3 the must-have title of 2012. Once you’ve finished the single-player section, jump into four player co-op missions with your friends – battle the enemies of Earth in two maps from the full game and earn a wide variety of perks and upgrades for your characters.

And while you’re waiting for the demo to finish downloading, why not check out the first official ‘FemShep’ trailer released earlier this week, the first trailer to showcase the ability to play the entire series as a female Commander Shepard.
We feel that it adds a whole extra level of class to the game, which Shepard do you play as?

We previously reported on Mass Effect 3′s purported DLC and its’ iPad-shooter tie in, not to mention that the game has been certified GOLD – meaning it’s finished and is ready for packaging/shipping.

Not long to wait now as Mass Effect 3 launches March 9th.

Download the demo from the Xbox Live Marketplace here and keep an eye on the PlayStation Network Store where the demo is set to go live later today.

You can contact the author of this post, Luke Hoare Greene at Luke@TechTV101.com or Follow him on Twitter.

Source: Major Nelson, PSN Blog.

The lovely guys and gals over at Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland have announced that they will be touring the country in their unique PS Vita “Vaults”. The “Vaults” will allow all you hungry Irish gamers to get your hands on the next generation handheld in a very unique setting.

In the “vaults” you and 10 other mates will enjoy all the handheld game station has to offer. The PSV Vaults will tour specific towns and city’s in Ireland from this week right into the month of March.

Here’s where you can check out the Vita on the Vaults’ Tour:

• Dublin – South King Street
• February 15th – 19th
• Limerick – Arthur’s Quay & Cork – Mahon Point SC
• February 22nd-26th
• Galway – Eyre Square & Waterford – John Roberts Sq.
• February 29th-March 4th
• Kilkenny – Canal Square & Dublin – TBC
• March 7th – 11th

Not happy that you have go to the vault? Well fear not, SCEI are running a competition on their Facebook page, in which you can win the chance to get the PS Vaults to come to YOU. You could live in Dublin, Limerick or the middle of Tim-Buck-Too and the “Vault” will still come to you. Interested? Get all the details here.

Earlier today, the official Playstation Blog released a 12-minute “Welcome to Playstation Vita” video to help gamers know what to expect.

You can check out the video below.

Oh and if after playing the console and watching the video, you’re in love? The PS Vita launches on the 22^nd of February.

If these new rumours are to be believed though, we won’t have to wait that long. WPCentral reported yesterday that Carphone Warehouse in the UK had posted a pre-ordering page on their website for the phone and a couple of days ago, Nokia Portugal noted that the 900 would reach their country sometime this year.
However as of today, both of these sources have been taken down which could mean a number of things such as Nokia requesting they stay quiet until an official release or that they were completely false and simply a mistake.

If that wasn’t enough, today speculation is rife on a Nokia Lumia 910 being the European equivalent to the 900 in the States and that it will release sometime around May with a 12MP camera – a significant bump from the 8MP found in the 800 and 900 at the moment.

Unfortunately this is all just rumour and speculation right now and we’ll have to wait for official confirmation from Nokia on when or if we’ll ever see the Lumia 900.
For now though, remember that the Lumia 800 is releasing in Ireland on February 1st and will be available with Vodafone.

If you’re holding off on getting the Lumia 800, keep plugged in here on the site, and tune in to 98FM for our tech show on Saturday.
We hope to have our review up soon as possible to help you decide.

Via: Pocketnow.com

Source: WPCentral

You can contact the author of this post, Luke Hoare Greene at Luke@TechTV101.com or Follow him on Twitter.

We’re sure by now that most if not all of you are familiar with SOPA and PIPA, both of which are extremely dangerous to the future of the internet as we know it.

What you might not have heard of is the lesser-known ACTA, which stands for Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and is designed to protect intellectual property in a similar way to SOPA.

The main differences with ACTA are quite big once you dig down a little, for one thing – ACTA was negotiated in complete secrecy without providing any knowledge to the public.
ACTA doesn’t just aim to curtail freedom on the internet however, it also is designed to include counterfeit goods and generic medicines.

This means that ACTA has a much broader net in which to catch, sue and possible jail people for what are currently legal practices, not to mention harm patients who need vital drugs that will surely be held back by patents if ACTA is supported.

To explain ACTA in full would take a long time, as you’d imagine a proposal of this magnitude requires a hefty read of small print – but we’ll highlight a few points that worry us the most.

“Article 3611: This article creates the “ACTA committee”, and grants it the competence to review amendments to ACTA (art 4212). This paves the way for a durable bypassing of democracy, even after ACTA is voted.

“In article 27.42, ACTA will allow rights-holders to obtain private data regarding the users of Internet service providers, without a decision of a judge. This is a dangerous breach to privacy. 

In its article 27.31 the ACTA agreement calls for “cooperation” between rights-holders and the Internet service providers. The very same mechanisms are called by the European Commission as “extra-judicial measures” and “alternative to courts”. It means that police (surveillance and collection of evidences) and justice missions (penalties) could be handed out to private actors, bypassing judicial authority and the right to a fair trial.

Excerpts taken from La Quadrature du Net.

As it stands, ACTA is currently up for voting/debate in Europe and we will keep you informed on it’s status.

In the meantime, if you love the internet as it is and want to lend your support then follow the links below and sign the petition.

StopACTA

StopACTAnow! Petition

YouTube video explaining ACTA

You can contact the author of this post, Luke Hoare Greene at Luke@TechTV101.com or Follow him on Twitter.

Ever wanted to leave one last brilliant Facebook status update in the event of your death? Now you can! A new Facebook app, If I Die, lets you leave a final pre-written goodbye when you pop your clogs.

The app lets you record your goodbyes either by text or video message then asks you to appoint friends as the executers of that app in the event of your death. Once you have gone, they can post your update to your profile along with your final message/s to your friends. You can also send out your last wishes, post messages, share a joke, reveal a long-kept secret or even take the opportunity to tell people what you really think of them years after you’re gone!

Currently, three of your trustees all have to click the “Yes, they are really gone” button before the app’s makers will publish your last updates, although you can appoint more than three people as the guardians of your social self.

It might be a little morbid to start recording farewell messages, but Wilook, the Israel-based company behind the app, built the app because nobody really knows when death will come. “We all have things to say and don’t necessarily have the audience with the patience to hear us,” says Eran Alfonta, the app’s co-founder and CEO.

“Actually we all want to leave something behind, we all want to leave a stamp behind us.”

The app has attracted several thousand followers, and we think this number is going to increase.

In an effort to squash bugs and stomp out security exploits, Facebook has begun handing out Visa debit cards to white hat hackers–or “security researchers”–for any bugs and/or exploits they’re able to find.

Researchers can receive a “White Hat Bug Bounty” Visa debit card that acts just as a credit card would. The more bugs and exploits hackers are able to sniff out, the more Facebook will refill the debit card, with a minimum payment said to be $500.

Interestingly, it doesn’t look like there’s a maximum payment, so security researchers could potentially be looking at a significant reward if a serious vulnerability is spotted. There is, of course, a catch to all of this however.

In order for white hat hackers to receive their payout (and not be sued), they must agree not to leak the vulnerability within a “reasonable amount of time” (leaking vulnerabilities is a common last resort method among hackers to force a company to address any vulnerabilities they’re able to find), and must make a “good faith effort” in avoiding privacy violations.

ZDNet reports that the highest bounty paid so far is $5,000, and has been paid out several times. To date, Facebook says that they’ve received help from 84 different researchers.

Microsoft had an interesting way of building up hype around Windows Phone at CES this week, it bet attendees $100 that Windows Phone could beat their phones in a range of real-world tests.

Needless to say the event was a bit controversial, with fans of other smartphone OS’s being vocal on Twitter about the whole thing. Losers had to pose with a sign and admit to the camera that their phone “just got smoked by a Windows Phone.”
Things went well for Windows Phone in the end, out of 30 challenges it only lost 3 – to an iPhone 4s, Motorola Atrix and Samsung Galaxy Nexus, although Windows Phone did beat many iPhones and Galaxy Nexus phones in the entire contest.

The tests were a little too controlled, you could only compete in ways Microsoft had set out already such as posting pictures to Twitter or updating your Facebook status. Microsoft was fair through it all, they payed up and accepted defeat graciously when lost as did the many users who lost to Microsoft.

A good marketing move by the Redmond giant and perfect timing to coincide with the announcement of the Nokia Lumia 900, if you want to see more, head over to the Official Windows Phone Blog.

You can contact the author of this post, Luke Hoare Greene at Luke@TechTV101.com or Follow him on Twitter.

The third in the Modern Warfare timeline and eighth in the entire Call of Duty series launched this past Tuesday or for those really eager, Monday night.
We previously mentioned that GameStop, Tesco and GAME stores were opened for the midnight launch and fans queued up in their thousands to be the first to get their hands on the game.

Activision released impressive figures about the launch, stating that over 6.5 million copies were sold in North America, the UK and Ireland in its first 24 hours, netting them over $400.

Last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops sold 5.6 million copies in its first day on sale which means it made around $360 in its first day. Compare that to Modern Warfare 2’s 4.7 million copies and $310 made two years ago and a clear trend is visible.

“We believe the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium, and we achieved this record with sales from only two territories,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard, Inc. “Other than Call of Duty, there has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records three years in a row. Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise exceed worldwide theatrical box office for “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings,” two of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time.”

On the subject of companies blowing their own trumpet, the head of marketing at Xbox Live Robin Burrowes was speaking at the London Games Conference and said that over 15 million users have joined the online service in the last year. This equates to a brand new user every two seconds and has over 35 million users in total.

This is quite the leap from just 50,000 users when the service launched way back in 2002.
Burrowes went on to say as many as 75 percent of Xbox 360 owners in Europe watch DVDs and 72 percent download content. A further 42 percent use their consoles to access social networks and chat services.

He also said 42% use the social networks accessible through the console, and they chat and message one another while watching a video or TV show.

Just for nostalgia’s sake here’s the tutorial video that came on the Launch disc for Xbox Live – it’s as cringey as you remember/ expect.

The rest of the week was light on news but next week is already shaping up to be a busy one.

Tuesday the 15^th sees the release of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Assassins Creed: Revelations while on Friday the 18^th Need for Speed: The Run goes on sale alongside Saints Row: The Third.

You can also catch up on our Dance Central 2 review right here if you’re on the market for a new Kinect game.

You can contact the author of this post, Luke Hoare Greene at Luke@TechTV101.com or follow him on Twitter.

Out of all of the launch titles for Kinect, Dance Central stood out from the crowd even before its launch and garnered the best critical reception, often being cited as the main reason to own a Kinect. This was High praise to live up to for any game, let alone one with the weight of a brand new accessory on its shoulders.

Dance Central 2 lives up to the reception of its predecessor and then some, (at time of writing) Dance Central 2 has 86% on aggregate site Metacritic while the original game has 82%. But scores aren’t everything and mean nothing if the game doesn’t actually build on and improve the first game’s strong points while fixing it’s low points. That is (in theory) the point of a sequel, to fix the previous game’s flaws while improving its pros.

It’s safe to say Dance Central 2 hits the nail on the head in those respects, the gameplay is similar to the first game as would be expected.
You mimic the actions of the dancer on screen as though looking at a mirror and as you do, there are a handful of indicators to let you know if you’re doing the moves correctly or not such as: a ring of light at the dancers feet change colour (Red for bad, right up to green for good and purple for flawless) and the limbs on the dancer will glow red if you’re not moving a certain arm or leg properly.

It’s a simple yet effective system and helps you to keep on track without having to look away and lose focus from where your eyes should be – the right side of the screen for the upcoming moves. Here is where you’ll see what moves you’ve got to ace and prepare for them.

Again, it’s almost identical to Dance Central and that’s fine as it works as intended.
Similar to the original game, the biggest flaws we could find with Dance Central 2 was in the Break It Down mode; the game’s training mode.
In Break it Down an instructor talks you through a dance routine, move by move and for the most part it’s helpful and you genuinely can master some of the more difficult moves easier than if you just had a bash at them yourself.
Occasionally though it can get frustrating, you will be completing a move perfectly, by your observation at least, while the game keeps telling you that you’re wrong.

Developer Harmonix have tried to fix this problem from the original by including the option to record yourself attempting the move and then playing it on screen beside the in-game character. IT’s a neat touch but not incredibly practical.

Another flaw we found with the game, depending on your own view is that most of the dance routines felt very feminine and quite embarrassing for men to do. Again, this is more of a personal preference but still an annoyance.

Multiplayer has been improved this time around to our delight, dance battles now don’t force each player to take turns while the other stands aside idly but instead both players now dance at the same time, side by side.
It sounds like a tiny change but it really should have been that way all along, forcing players to take turns felt very archaic and broke up the fun of making a fool of yourself while your friend done the same.
Now you can both embarrass yourselves at the same time, everybody wins.

One addition that’s very welcome is voice commands through Kinect that work in the menu’s and in Break it Down mode. It works the same way voice commands work on the Xbox Dashboard (Most Irish Xbox owners wouldn’t know as Microsoft has made voice unavailable in Ireland for now) which is by saying “Xbox” and then a command, i.e. “Xbox Dance, Song – followed by a song title, difficulty – followed by easy, medium or hard and then Xbox Dance. It sounds long-winded when spelled out like that but it is quite useful and a bit of a no brainer too.

The real star of the show here is the choice of songs included on the disc, a massive step up from what was included with Dance Central. It feels a lot more diverse while still having enough mainstream music to keep almost everyone happy. 44 songs are available to you right off the bat with a potential for 32 more if you import the songs from the original Dance Central. To do this however it will set you back 400 Microsoft Points or free if you pre-ordered the game, we feel it should be free but such is the way of DLC etc. these days.

The game features a kind of story mode in the new mode called ‘Crew Challenge’ which loosely features you as a newcomer to the city/dance scene and you have to dance to impress the 5 dance crews, each with their own style of music and fashion.
It’s a nice addition if a little hollow but it does help to lend some personality to some of the 10 characters, 5 of which are new, 5 returning for more dancing since last year.

Facebook.com

A shocking 91 percent of recruiters screen applicants via social networks, according to online reputation manager Reppler.

Reppler includes that data point in an infographic (scroll down to see it) created in time to plug the latest upgrade of the vendor’s reputation monitoring service, which has expanded to include LinkedIn and Twitter in addition to Facebook profiles.

Reppler evaluates profiles based on the tone and appropriateness of their content, as well as the consistency of their information across social networks.

With the new version of Reppler coming out just days after Facebook introduced a host of changes, including its new timeline profile, we wondered if the tool was obsolete before it launched, but marketing consultant Perry Mizota explained:

It is a bit early to know how we will exactly deal with timeline. However, it seems as if the innovation around timeline has more to do with the visualization of one’s information, rather than the information itself. As a result, we expect that we will be able to grab, monitor, and analyze users’ information in much the same way we do today.

Reppler founder Vlad Gorelik stressed the need for online reputation management in today’s difficult job climate, a fact that doesn’t change because of timeline:

Getting a job in today’s economic climate is difficult, which means that job seekers need to make sure they are doing everything they can to present themselves in the best light possible. With hiring managers relying heavily on social networks to screen potential candidates, it is more important than ever for job seekers to maintain a clean and professional online image.

 

So Facebook Covers offers Facebook users who have the timeline profile the options of creating their own cover images, choosing from already-created images in several categories, or creating a photo collage of people on their friends lists selected by the user.

The myFBCovers.com site and Cover Creator app were created byGraphicFlash, which was also responsible for Facebook banner creator myFBBanners.com. Banners will no longer be part of Facebook profiles after the switch to timeline, so the company turned its attention to cover images.

Facebook Covers allows users to choose their own image and resize, flip, or rotate it to create their cover images.

Categories listed for the premade cover images are: abstract, anime, cars, celebrities, companies and websites, drinks, games, holidays and celebrations, humor, love, movies, music, nature, pets and animals, photographs, quotes and sayings, random, schools, sports, support and causes, and TV shows.

And the Create Collage Cover option incorporate friends chosen by the user into a photo collage that can be used as the cover image for their new timeline profiles.

Considering how early Cover Creator has come out, and the fact that it’s first in the space, the app is pretty decent.

Further down the road, we’d expect to see a lot more customizability. For now, GraphicFlash’s early entrance into the cover image space seems like that ought to help the vendor take leadership of this particular product category.