We had 60 minutes with the HTC Legend, time enough to fall in love

Alright, on first impressions, the Legend is sleek, silver and yet somehow also a bit bulky. The touch screen isn’t as big as those of some of its competitors, but has a very good resolution and colour depth for its size. The phone also has a back-mounted 5.0 megapixel autofocus colour camera with an LED flash. The device sports four handy buttons for control, a dual press volume button and another one for powering on or off. Seems pretty basic, but prepare to be surprised, as the Legend is absolutely perfect for an on-the-go user who wants to both make calls and browse YouTube, social networking sites and check their e-mail.

First off, the reason most people buy a phone, making calls. On the HTC Legend, this is pretty easy, all you need to do is unlock the phone by sliding your finger down the screen(Apple Lawsuits # 1) and press the phone button. Making calls on the Legend is simple and easy to do, with a responsive touch-screen number panel and clear sound quality in your ear. Which is good, since most of today’s web/smart phones tend to be a bit lacking in the phoning department.

Now, on to the good stuff. When you get a good 3G connection, the internet feature on the Legend will cycle through webpages at lightning speed, with Facebook being probably the quickest I have ever seen on a smartphone. Oh, and Google too, no surprises there, since the Android phone operating system on the Legend is their baby.

Moving right along, my success with video was a bit mixed, with YouTube videos going great while others such as Four on Demand and BBC iPlayer either crashing or just not buffering at a bearable enough rate… maybe the speed of YouTube can be explained by the simple fact that Google owns YouTube too. However, once the video was loaded, the playback quality on both the screen and speakers was great, most likely because YouTube videos are loaded with an HTC branded Flash Player built into the operating system. Also, you can zoom in to any video by using multi-touch on the touch screen. (Apple Lawsuits # 2).

Other features of the Legend’s home screen, which along with the rest of the phone’s user interface is displayed as Object-Oriented Graphic System (Apple Lawsuits # 3), these are application icons, which display the different apps, sorry-( think I got away with that by using a lower case “a” phew!,  err..) WIDGETS on the phone’s homepage. These widgets can also be displayed by pressing a button on the bottom-left of the touch screen which opens a whole library of installed widgets (I call it the Widget Bin =3).

Additional widgets can be bought (Although there are many free ones.) from the Android Market at www.android.com/market.

On text messaging the Legend totally excels, showing a messaging conversation in a stream similar to an instant messaging chat, and also lets you simply compose and send messages in a similar way, in fact, to an instant messenger. Oh, and did I mention that to get texting going I simply slotted my SIM card from my  old Sony W810i into the Legend’s SIM slot. Once inside it works fine, and also accommodates my bolt-ons and tariffs! (Please flame me if this is blindingly obvious, as this is really exciting for me, as I haven’t had a new phone since roughly 2006…)

On a final note, the phone’s internal GPS radar, which I have, literally, only just read about in the product specifications on HTC’s website. It’s an awesome feature and is always eerily present, especially on the home screen, where it displays your location, the current time and the weather, as well as enabling a GPS system widget in the Widget Bin.

As well as all these loverrrrrly features, the phone also includes, for your enjoyment:

• Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States. (Apple Lawsuits # 4)
• An Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods.(Apple Lawsuits # 5)
• And a System And Method For Managing Power Conditions Within A Digital Camera Device.(Apple Lawsuits # 9000!)

That can’t possibly be right…!

So to wrap it up, the HTC Legend is a capable and useful smartphone for the savvy consumer not necessarily wishing to be involved in a lengthy contract with their service provider (you can even have it on Pay as You Go!) and who wants to browse various media sites AND download widgets to their trusty Widget Bin.

So, to all you people who want to buy an iPhone but suck at having large amounts of wallet food, THERE IS ANOTHER WAY. It’s called the HTC Legend. And it kicks some serious b-hind.

So here it is kids….. our final score is:

The Legend first hit stores and the web March 23^rd, but is becoming more widely available (and cheaper) as time goes by. You can pick one up on a deal from various service providers from as little as £1.99 on a £25 per month contract (this deal is from Vodafone).

So, thanks for reading, and please leave comments below. Your feedback is appreciated.

According to news from Channel Register, a number of users who have upgraded their laptop PCs to Windows 7 from Vista have complained that they have seen a radically shortened battery life when using their new operating system.

During Window’s 7 beta cycle last summer, a few users did report similar problems, however since the launch of the Microsoft new OS in October this has triggered even more cases.

The website reported that the issues seem to be coming from a set of drivers that are designed to notify the users when their battery requires a replacement. However, users have complained that this alert is a recurring issue, even when there is nothing wrong with the battery and can even cause the computer to shut down.

So what have Microsoft done to fix the problem? Well, it has been reported that Microsoft are looking into the problem and they are working hard to try and find the root cause of the problem and will update once this issue has been resolved.

The immensity of the problem is still unclear, however Microsoft’s TechNet forum, dedicated to Windows client issues revealed that they had over 100 posts during January and many received the error that said “consider replacing your battery”. However, with Microsoft announcing it has sold approximately 60 million Windows 7 licences (Q2 results), there could be yet more consumers who may be affected by this problem.

Have you been affected by this Windows 7 error? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think?

The new Vuzix Wrap 310 is essentially a pair of funky-looking shades equipped with a small television screen in each eye. Fresh from America and recently released to the UK market, the Wrap 310, under the re-tinkered with alias of the Wrap 280, sold out pretty soon after it appeared on Vuzix’s site, with each pair selling for a hefty 180 pounds a pop.

To summarize, the 310, or 280 in Britain, offers movies and video on the go, and with the iPhone attachment you can freely roam your various iPod video libraries at your leisure. As well as this, glasses do offer privacy, letting you watch your more dubious videos away from the prying eyes of co-workers and other passengers on the tube, giving the user complete exclusion from the outside world. Is this a good thing though, as you may miss important announcements or not notice when the local kids are about to perform a prank on you as you sit aboard the tube.

While the 310 offers an incredibly large screen ahead of your eyes, the quality of the video output sadly falls a bit short, the picture polluted with horizontal lines and the image itself feeling very far away, described as ‘Like watching the biggest TV in the world from ten miles away while standing at the other end of a huge corridor.’ I get that Vuzix are a company whose other applications include military and medical usage, and that the quality is probably adequate for those applications, but the average user might be a little put off. No matter, as the screen, no matter what problems might arise, is more than large enough to satisfy those with the largest LCD TV sets waiting at home. The sound quality isn’t half bad either, with high-end in-ear headphones that minimize the amount of flex used to keep tangles or getting caught to a minimum.

While rooting around in the 310’s box looking for something to write about, I came across a mysterious cable, consisting of a jack that apparently connects to the glasses, and three mysterious other cables. On closer inspection, they turned out to be a set of red-white-yellow RCA input, so not only does the Vuzix connect to the iPod family of products, but it can also connect to… well, everything. For example, a hardcore gamer, equipped with a bandolier of AA batteries to keep his trusty 310 glasses going, could in theory plug his lightweight and portable (And decidedly retro…) Nintendo 64 console into his 310 and play privately wherever a plug socket is to be found. This also applies to compact DVD players or even the Playstation 2 slimline. Wow.

So to recap, the Vuzix Wrap 310 offers a huge screen, quite decent playback, good sound and the ability to bring along fond favourite games consoles to anywhere with a plug socket. Next time I’m in the airport, I’m bringing some AA batteries, my PS2 slim and the trusty Vuzix Wrap 310s for some departure gate gaming!

If you live in the USA the Kindle PC application is great news. The Kindle store offers over 360,000 books, including most of the New York Times Best Sellers for just $9.99 (about 5.99). You can also get newspapers like The Washington Post or even UK papers like The Times. There are also hundreds of free Kindle books like the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and so on.

But if you live in the UK, the Kindle PC software isn’t so good. First of all not all the books are available. But worse than that, the free books are no longer free. Having installed the Kindle software, naturally the first thing you want to do is download a book and see what it is like to read it on the PC. There is a nice little “Shop in Kindle Store” button on the tool bar which opens a browser in the Kindle section on Amazon.com’s web site. But when I searched for free books I discovered that for me they cost $2.30.

I did manage to cheat the system for about 4 and a half minutes. I told Amazon that I lived in the USA and I was able to start downloading the books that are free to US users. I got seven books downloaded and then on the eighth Amazon had worked out that my IP address isn’t in the USA and told me that I was downloading stuff from another country and now I would have to pay the $2.30 if I wanted any more.

In desperation I went to Google and searched for “free kindle books”. Two sites which actually offered free Kindle books (mainly from the Gutenberg project) are http://www.freekindlebooks.org/ and http://kindle.sinshoppe.com/

Since the majority of the Project Gutenberg books are also available in other formats, like PDF, I don’t need the Kindle. Also having to pay for books which our distant cousins in the USA get for free means that I am not inclined in anyway to start using the Kindle PC software and therefore I guess I’m never going to a buy a Kindle device either.

If Amazon want me on board, they are going to have to bribe me. Give me free books, make me want to buy a Kindle device and sure after that I will start to spend money. But I am not willing to try out a concept, a new idea, to see if I like it and have to pay for it at the same time.

If you want the Kindle software you can get it here. It runs on Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later, or Windows Vista or Windows 7.

The nVidia ION is a chipset which works with the Intel Atom processor to provide full 1080p high-definition video playback with 7.1 surround sound. The graphics processor behind the nVidia ION is the 9400M which is found in, among other things, the Apple MacBooks.

The Samsung N510 has an 11.6″ LED backlit screen with a resolution of 1366 x 768. This gives it a 16:9 aspect ratio which means it is just great for watching HD content. Also the LED backlight uses less power (compared to more traditional LCD displays), so you can be entertained for longer.

When TrustedReviews.com tried out the HD capabilities of the N510 the “playback was flawlessly smooth, with CPU usage hovering around the 25 to 30 per cent region. Attempt to play back such files on a vanilla Atom netbook and you’ll get nothing but judder and dropped frames.”

Samsung is claiming that the N510 with a 6 cell battery, delivers up to 7 hours of power which is helped by the energy efficient LED display and optimised processing technology. It is probably that for tasks such as continuous video playback the battery life will be a bit less, but you could get around 6 hours, long enough to watch a couple of movies on an trans Atlantic flight.

Other features of the N510 are:

• 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM – 800 MHz
• 160 GB HD
• 1.3 Megapixel webcam
• 3 USB 2.0 ports (including one that can charge portable devices even when it’s turned off)
• HDMI port
• 3-in-1 memory card reader
• Wireless (b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Internal microphone

At the moment the N510 comes with Windows XP Home Edition but it can almost certainly handle Windows 7 if you wanted to independently buy the upgrade.

You might think that when you install Windows you get everything you need, well in reality you don’t. Want to watch things on YouTube? Then you need Adobe Flash. Want to sync with your iPod? Then you need iTunes. In fact when you think about all the major tasks we perform on our PCs including browsing, instant messaging, creating documents and spreadsheets, watching films, listening to music and burning DVDs then there is lots of stuff that needs to be downloaded and installed.

With Ninite it is simple. You go to the website, tick the boxes next to the software you want to install and then download the installer. Once saved on your PC you just double click it and Ninite will do the rest. It will download each of the programs you wanted and install them. All you see on the screen is the progress bar.

Having installed Windows 7, I took Ninite for a spin and it works as advertised. I clicked on what I wanted and then downloaded and ran the installed. It just worked. I guess it probably saved me at least 3 hours of hunting around the net and installing programs.

The Ninite selection is quite large (59 programs) and it is probable that you won’t need all of them… Here is my personal picks from the Ninite list:

• Firefox
• Skype
• iTunes
• VLC
• Audacity
• Spotify
• Paint.NET
• Picasa
• OpenOffice
• Adobe Reader
• AVG
• Flash Player 10 (for other browsers)
• Flash Player 10 (for Internet Explorer)
• Java Runtime
• Microsoft .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1
• Microsoft Silverlight 3.0
• Dropbox
• Google Earth
• 7-Zip
• PuTTY (helpful if you are using FreeNAS)

You preferences might be different but on the whole EVERY PC should have the above list installed!

Let us know what you think? What are your favourite Ninite applications? Please add a comment below.

The users hoping for a slightly smaller recreation of the Nokia N97 may be slightly disappointed when they get their mits on the mini version, not much has changed. Little changes can sometimes make a big difference though!

 The N97 mini will cost around 430 GBP and will have similar specs to its larger brother. Nokia has reduced the structure size by replacing the navigation pad with precision keys and done away with the camera lens cover (we guess everything helps). Apart from that the N97 mini is very similar to its larger brother. The handsets display is slightly different and still no signs of a capacitive screen, – choosing to stick with the resistive screen so a good old “poke” will be needed.

The main changes are under the skin, the mini being loaded with Nokia’s new version 2.0 of the OS. Nokia say this will improve the problems with the resistive screen but we think it will need to be seen to be believed!

 User functionality of the mini’s bigger brother still remains here, Nokia state the device is a “portable computer” and not a mobile phone. Along with reducing the size of the handset, the on-board memory has also been reduced, axing the 32GB from the N97 to just 8GB for the mini! However, this can be expanded by addition of a MicroSD card, expanding the memory capacity up to 24GB. This seems very poor compared to the mini’s bigger brother, but sacrifices have had to be made to reduce the size.

The other eye catcher is the mini’s support of the new life casting feature in connection with the Ovi suite which would appeal to the Facebook fanatics. The feature allows you to update a status exactly wherever you are, enabling you to add your location and pictures straight from the handsets home screen.

Adding to the mini’s location facility Ovi Maps, joined with A-GPS Support gives the handset the ability to offer voice guidance for walking and driving. Thousands of POI’s are available (with thanks to Michelin and Lonely Planet) straight from the handset.

To sum up, the mini looks to be a good addition to the Nokia fleet. The new OS and reduced dimension can only attract more buyers. Its just disappointing that the memory has been reduced so dramatically and the screen has still not been brought forward to match newer technologies.

The little device measures a tiny 12.5×8cm and 2cm deep, so roughly the same sort of dimensions as the Nintendo DSi.

The Archos 5 boasts amazing features such as original games, GPS Sat Nav, e-mail, television, internet, videos, music. The device is mostly screen as well, which, by the way, is fully touch sensitive and very shiny, and the back of the tablet is wrapped in a slip-free rubberized coating to minimize dropping. It also includes the ubiquitous and highly useful metallic kickstand to keep the screen upright on flat surfaces.

The Archos 5 also is compatible with some neat and highly useful accessories including a digital TV receiver to receive Freeview broadcasts, a DVR station to record television programs and a helmet-mounted camera for all your Blair Witch projects. This is a cool piece of kit, and I personally really want the helmet camera. I learned all this just from the manual and box, so the product is probably fantastic.

Now I’m going to turn the thing on. The power button proved elusive, but on pressing it a familiar humming noise ensued from Archos 5’s internal hard disc. The interface is really quite good-looking, but I would feel more comfortable using some sort of stylus, as the finger marks would mar the screen somewhat after a while. As a pathological gamer, my instincts forced me to check out the games section. Empty. Archos does not supply free games. You have to buy them.

Anyway, so then I received a tip that someone had put some movies on the Archos 5 I was testing, which seemed like something cool to check out. Upon navigation around the various menus, I checked out the movies section. Nothing. Then I selected the media club section and tapped movies. The device then tried to connect to the internet, but then reverted to a blue screen with a sand-timer in the centre for about 5 minutes. The Archos 5 instruction guide may have been concise, but really didn’t say anything about this. I gave up.

I would have made a comment about the screen quality of the Archos 5 right now, but it seems I can’t test it out. Oh well, all in all, the device is still quite cool, despite not being able to find the movies, I give the Archos 5… like, 4 stars.