Gold Moto 360 smartwatch teased by Motorola

Motorola has teased its future smartwatch plans, with the manufacturer teasing the upcoming arrival of a gold Moto 360.

With the round faced smartwatch set to be made in both silver and black metal frames at launch, a promo image has prematurely popped up on the company’s official website showing off a third, gold, colour scheme.

Although the teasing image has since been replaced by one lacking the gold timepiece, the premature unveiling is a sign of intent from the Moto G maker. The gold Moto 360 (top centre) has been shown alongside the existing colour options.

While yet to officially discuss plans for a gold Moto 360, following the leak, Motorola told AndroidPolice that it is “exploring new materials”.

“Although we can’t comment on gold specifically, we’re always exploring new materials and we intend to provide Moto 360 in a selection of styles in the future,” an official Motorola spokesperson stated.

Last week Apple announced its first entry into the wearable space, the eagerly awaited Apple Watch.

Set to launch in 2015, the Apple Watch will land in three distinct styles, including the Apple Watch Edition which will be crafted from 18-Karat gold.

The Moto 360 will launch in the UK in the coming weeks. The Samsung Gear S rival will set wannabe owners back £199 and come running Google’s Android Wear OS.



Read More: Moto 360 vs Apple Watch

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Apple CEO Tim Cook attends local iPhone 6 launch

Eager Apple fans in California were yesterday treated to a surprise as CEO Tim Cook was spotted in a local Apple to celebrate the release of the iPhone 6.

With both the iPhone 6 and larger, iPhone 6 Plus having been made available for purchase yesterday, September 19, large crowds queued up outside Apple stores around the world.

Those snapping up their new handset from Apple’s Paulo Alto store were rewarded with more than a new phone. Company CEO Tim Cook was in attendance, greeting those in the queue and officially opening the doors when sales kicked off.

Cook has been spotted in the Paulo Alto Apple store on previous occasions, with yesterday’s iPhone launch seeing Steve Jobs’ replacement meet store staff and talk with early smartphone adopters.

Those meeting Cook had a better iPhone 6 launch experience than Jack Cooksey, the world’s first iPhone 6 owner.

Cooksey, who having bought the iPhone 6 in Perth, Australia, dropped his new iPhone while talking with local media.

The iPhone 6 has already proven a consumer success. Prior to the phone’s in-store release Apple confirmed more than 4 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models had been pre-ordered.

Featuring near identical internals, while the iPhone 6 boasts a 4.7-inch display the 6 Plus is Apple’s first foray into ‘phablet’ territory. The larger phone runs a 5.5-inch panel.

With a number of retailers and networks offering the phone, you can find all the best iPhone 6 deals right here.



Read More: iPhone 6 Plus vs Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Via: GeekyGadgets

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Amazon Kindle Voyage: 6 Features to get excited about

It might be time for an e-reader upgrade...

After the Kindle Paperwhite, comes the Kindle Voyage. Amazon's latest flagship e-reader was unveiled alongside a whole bundle of Kindle Fire tablets and was definitely the pick of the announcements.

Launching in the UK on November 4th, the Wi-Fi Voyage is priced at £169 while the model with built-in free 3G is unsurprisingly more expensive at £229.99.

It's the priciest e-reader Amazon has launched but here's why we think Kindle fans could be persuaded to go for the Voyage when it lands.

Sharper text

Thought text on your Kindle Paperwhite looked as good as fine magazine print? Take a look at the Kindle Voyage's screen and you'll be forced to think again. Amazon has boosted the resolution dramatically, to the point where it crams 300ppi (pixels per inch) into its 6-inch screen. By way of a comparison, both the Paperwhite and the Nook GlowLight manage 212ppi.

It even beats the previous standard bearer for text sharpness, the 265ppi Kobo Aura HD.

Brighter screen

The Kindle Voyage's screen isn't just sharper - it's also much brighter than before. And we don't just mean that its front-lit display is physically brighter, though it is indeed 39 percent brighter then before, and with superior contrast to boot.

It's also brighter in the sense that it's cleverer. There's a new ambient light sensor that adjusts the brightness according to immediate light conditions. This actually goes beyond quickly dimming in dark conditions, like your smartphone or tablet does. Rather, on such occasions the Voyage's screen will gradually dim to the appropriate level, matching the rate at which your eyes adjust to darkness.

Read More: Kindle Fire HDX 7 review

No more plastic

This is the first Amazon Kindle to come with a glass screen instead of a plastic one. It reflects the Voyage's position as a distinctly premium e-reader, but there's a practical reason too.

The screen now sits flush with the device's bezels, which has obvious aesthetic benefits, but it also means that it's more exposed to general wear and tear. By switching out soft plastic for toughened glass, the Voyage's display should survive the additional scuffs and scrapes that will inevitably come its way.

Of course, one of the biggest downsides with glass screens is their tendency to glint and reflect light - a particular problem when much reading is done outside in the garden or on a beach.

Amazon has countered this by micro-etching the screen so as to diffuse any light that hits it. Clever.

Thin and light

More than any tablet device, e-readers need to be comfortable to hold for long periods. The Amazon Kindle Voyage excels in this regard, too.

At just 7.6mm thick, it's 1.5mm thinner than the Kindle Paperwhite, and 3mm thinner than the Nook GlowLight. As we've just mentioned, Amazon has helped achieve this by making the glass display sit flush with the bezels.

At 181g, the Voyage is also a fair bit lighter than the 206g Paperwhite, though it's 6g heavier than the Nook GlowLight.

Buttonless design

Amazon has made a bold move and done away with its functional, tactile, yet somewhat inelegant and bulky page-flipping buttons.

In their place, the Voyage has a clever PagePress system that hides pressure-sensitive sensors under the side bezels. A slightly squeeze, and the page will turn accordingly, accompanied by a subtle dose of haptic feedback (a little vibration).

Double the storage

The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite only had 2GB of storage, which is good for about 1,000 books. The Kindle Voyage matches the Nook GlowLight with double that.

And carting more books around with us is what we're here for, right?

MORE: Best tablets to buy 2014

Do you like the sound of the Kindle Voyage? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below

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Misfit Flash Review

Here's how to do activity tracking on the cheap

When we are being flooded with activity trackers, it’s easy to forget about something like the Misfit Shine. A small, sleek, tracker, it started life on crowd-funding site Indiegogo and raised its $100,000 goal in just over a day. More than a year later, it’s starring in Apple ads.

Aiming to build on the success of the Shine, Misfit has announced the Flash. It’s a plastic version of the activity tracker that offers all of the same features as the Shine, including a fully waterproof design, six month battery life and the ability to track multiple activities including sleep tracking and all for half the price of the original.

One of the main reasons the Shine is so appealing is that the all-metal disc is one of the most elegant ways to monitor your data. While plastic is rarely ever as attractive as metal, the Flash proves it can be done.

The small disc is going to be available in a series of different colours depending on how much or little you want to show it off as well. It’s thicker than the original and in black still maintains its discreet, minimalist look. It replaces the sleeker, anodised finish on the Shine with a plastic that is not too far off the feel of the sportband. It doesn’t feel as cheap as I initially feared. The same versatile wearing options still apply plus Misfit is adding another alternative so you can keep it on your keys if you don’t fancy having it around the wrist or on a necklace.

It's still based around the same simplistic dotted LED display, which can switch between giving you an indication of progress and telling the time in the same slightly unconventional way. Those white lights are now replaced with a series of brighter red ones, which is definitely going to make it easier to read the display. Misfit has been working on making the transition between the two modes quicker, although it’s not something I really noticed in my short time with it.

One of the biggest changes is the way you interact with the Flash. Gentle taps make way for a surface you can now press like a button. It’s not as fiddly as the Shine and is a more responsive way to quickly monitor progress. It also makes it easier to tag activities simply by pressing the button before and after a session.

There’s further good news with the battery life. It uses the same watch battery as the Shine and you no longer need to prise it open with that small metal tool to replace it when it has run out of power after six months. All it takes is a dig with a fingernail in the small gap on the disc and you should be able to get inside.

Misfit Shine (left) next to the new Misfit Flash (right)

From personal experience, I remain unconvinced about the main sport band most will probably opt to wear. The Shine fell out numerous times and even ended up being run over by a car. Thankfully, Misfit is addressing this with the Flash, securing the tracker by pushing it from the bottom of the band as opposed to squeezing it in from the top where the lip should prevent it from falling through. It feels more secure than the Shine, but until it’s been more thoroughly tested I remain unconvinced.

From a software point of view, we were told not to expect anything drastically new from the Misfit app. You will still be able to set goals, view progress and irritate friends with updates through Facebook. That means it’s likely to lack the sort of data analysis to help make improvements, which is something the Jawbone UP 24 and the Fitbit trackers do such a great job of. Misfit has confirmed there that an upcoming update will add support for yoga and dance, although I’m hoping recording other activities other than walking or running will not just simply be tagged under intense running sessions.

First Impressions

For £50, the Misfit Flash gives you plenty. While it is disappointing it loses the more attractive metal design, it still offers a comprehensive set of features more expensive alternatives lack. Elements like long battery life, the ability to wear it all the time and a discreet design are the basics activity trackers should always have covered first. Disappointingly, there’s so many that fail to deliver on all of those fronts.

Launching in November, it arrives just in time for Christmas and should be a dedicated tracker to consider especially when it does pretty much what the Shine can do for much less.

MORE: Best Fitness Trackers to buy 2014

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iCloud for Windows launches, PCs ahead of Macs

Apple has released iCloud Drive for Windows, but you can't yet use the feature on a Mac.

One of the key features of iOS 8, and the whole Mac ecosystem as a whole, is iCloud Drive. This is basically Apple's take on Dropbox, a slightly more flexible take on cloud storage than the original iCloud system.

That's great and you can activate iCloud Drive on your iOS 8 device right now. But there's a catch, you can't use it on a Mac unless you're running the Yosemite beta.

Yet you can access iCloud Drive on Windows thanks to the newly released app. iCloud for Windows isn't as advanced as it is (will be) on Macs, but you can still access all your documents from various applications such as Keynote, Numbers, Pages and more.

The features you don't get on Windows include the iCloud Keychain password system and access to Notes, but it's still a useful way to access your iCloud documents from your Windows PC. And if you get the chance you can show any Mac owners you know what it looks like.

If you're Mac owner, your best bet is to try the Yosemite public beta. We've been using it for weeks without any problems, so there's little to fear from trying it out.

Next, read our Google Drive vs iCloud Drive vs Dropbox vs One Drive comparison

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Best iPhone 6 Apps: iOS 8 download essentials

What’s the best iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus apps to download first? Whether it’s for the big new iPhone or the regular size one, here’s the first round of iOS 8-friendly apps to try out first.

Apple surprised everyone, just like it did with the iPhone 5S and the 5C, by announcing a new 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the bigger iPhone 6 Plus, saving the Apple Watch for its iconic 'one more thing' moment.

Along with bigger screens, improved cameras, a new A8 chip and features like NFC to be used with Apple Pay, both new smartphones will run on iOS 8. Among the features, apps will be able to play nice with the Touch ID fingerprint sensor and add smarter notification support, which means you are not having to constantly open apps.

Once you've got your hands on one and delicately removed or ripped it out of the box, we've picked the iOS 8 and iPhone 6-friendly apps you should be packing onto your new-look homescreen first.

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Why David Cage should play The Last of Us

OPINION: David Cage has been banging on about emotional engagement with players for years. Nick Cowen shows how The Last of Us achieved this even though it’s standing on the shoulders of giants.

David Cage. Oh, David Cage. David Cage the studio head of Quantic Dream whose driving goal in life is to make players form an emotional connection with their chosen medium of choice. David Cage, who in his quest for this admittedly high-minded ideal has produced some of the most befuddling and unique video games of the last ten years.

His first big splash, Fahrenheit – or Indigo Prophecy as our American cousins knew it – was a mind-jolting head-job. Players woke up in a restaurant toilet with a fresh corpse in the room with them and the character they controlled held a knife, their hands covered in claret.

Making a splash: Cage hit the big time with his second game, Fahrenheit, a gripping psychological thriller with a rather weird ending

From there they entered a paranormal mystery in which they had to unravel the events that led to these unfortunate set of circumstances, while dealing with head-trips and shadowy forces intent on driving them towards bloody and clandestine activities. The final third of the game, as anyone whomever player it will remember, was completely cock-eyed, but you can’t say the game as a whole wasn’t both compelling and one-of-a-kind.

Then came Heavy Rain, a game that borrowed heavily from the films of David Fincher in both its plot elements and atmosphere, but sported mechanics that for the most part felt like a series of Quick Time Events (QTEs). That having been said, its story – which involved a destitute father, Ethan Mars, being toyed with by a serial killer who held his son in his clutches – contained raw emotional punch. Even though it contained a plot-hole big enough to drive the entire story through, by the end, players couldn’t help but be swayed by Ethan’s reunification with – or his failure to save – his son.



See also: Xbox One vs PS4



More mood than story: Heavy Rain had atmosphere to burn but its plot had a hole in it big enough to drive the entire game through

Cage’s last outing, Beyond: Two Souls, was a failure. While it starred the likes of Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe and was centered on an undeniably compelling premise – a woman who shares the same space as an incorporeal spirit that both torments and aids her – its ropey mechanics and disconcerting story alienated both players and critics alike. Even using A-list Hollywood talent and state of the art motion capture technology, Beyond: Two Souls failed to achieve Cage’s stated aim – to engage emotionally with its audience.

Give Cage some credit: he’s certainly pushed the boat out. It’s one thing to lay an empathetic manifesto on the table. But, it’s quite another to attempt to back that up with mechanics and control structures that wrong-foot players and force them to use a control pad to engage with entertainment in new ways – especially when the biggest franchises in the industry seem intent on replicating formulas guaranteed to rake in cash. Who wants to twiddle with shonky controls in a gloomy whodunit when you can crash into Call of Duty’s online fragfest with relative ease?

Emotions: Even the talented Ellen Page couldn't save the mess that was Beyond: Two Souls

But Cage also needs to take stock of the industry around him. Sometimes it feels like the man is operating inside a bubble. There are more developers than Quantic Dream wishing to tease an emotional response from their audience. Even if they don’t pitch up at BAFTA with a readily prepared presentation to lay this aim out, their intentions are obvious from the games they put into the market.

The best and the most recent example of this type of developer is Naughty Dog because its last game was The Last of Us.

Naughty Dog shot to prominence with the Uncharted series. While the misadventures of Nathan Drake weren’t exactly packed with ground breaking mechanics or unique gameplay – it was and it remains a well-loved cover-based Third Person Shooter (TPS) series with the odd bout of puzzle solving tossed in for good measure. Their plotting, scripting and voice acting made players feel like they were the stars of their own high adventure movies. You were Indiana Jones’s scrappier younger brother without ever leaving you couch.



See also: The Last of Us Remastered review



Nothing new: The Last of Us doesn't break much new ground in terms of gameplay, but it's compelling nonetheless

With The Last of Us, Naughty Dog upped the stakes considerably. The game’s story was set in a post-apocalyptic world where a rather plausible pandemic had put paid to social order and the most dangerous foe one faced wasn’t the monsters out in the dark – it was their fellow humans.

This is a familiar aspect in most dystopian settings. The game’s mechanics weren’t exactly ground breaking either. The Last of Us oscillated between TPS cover-based running and gunning and stealthy survival horror scrounging. Players were faced a lot of the time between navigating rooms filled with armed human enemies trying to outflank them, or rooms filled with infected that they needed to distract, kill or avoid.

In other words, The Last of Us was standing on the shoulders of giants – Gears of War, Resident Evil, Silent Hill and more – and yet it was one of the highest rated and most successful games of the year of its release. This is because it told an absolutely enchanting story.

Joel and Ellie: As the relationship between its two protagonists blooms, players become more emotionally invested in The Last of Us's story

The hook in The Last of Us – the aspect that made it special – wasn’t its mechanics or setting or even its premise. It was the beautiful character-driven story at the centre of it. The relationship that began, blossomed and bloomed between its two protagonists – a damaged, grizzled smuggler named Joel and a bruised, wise-beyond-her-years teenager named Ellie. The story curled around players, drew them in and forced them to emotionally engage with what was really a collection of pixels.

As The Last of Us unfolded its plot, players came to care about the two characters at the heart of it, and the fact the game was running on a borrowed structure and rudimentary mechanics didn’t matter one jot. The Last of Us succeeded on David Cage’s playing field because it told a brilliant story – something neither Fahrenheit, nor Heavy Rain, nor Beyond: Two Souls managed to do.

David Cage’s stated aim – to emotionally engage an audience with the gaming medium – is certainly worthwhile. But until he realizes that telling a great story is the best way to do this, he’ll always come up short.



Read last week's TrustedReviews Gaming Column: How to make a great survival horror game

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Sony: ‘We’ve been a leader in experimenting with smartphone colours’

Sony is still a relatively small player in the smartphone space, but the company has claimed it has had a big impact on at least one area of the market.

According to Thomas Waldner, Senior Design Manager at Sony Mobile Communications, Sony has been a pioneer in pushing the smartphone space beyond the tradition of drab black and white handsets.

“When it comes to smartphones, we’ve been a leader in experimenting with colours,” Waldner said speaking exclusively with TrustedReviews recently.

While the likes of Apple, Samsung and HTC were persisting with monochrome handsets, Sony, with the likes of the Xperia Z1 and Z1 Compact was experimenting with purple and yellow devices.

Although the company might not have a colour pallet as vibrant as that of the now Microsoft-owned Nokia Lumia line, Waldner believes Sony has helped make networks and retailers more open to a variety of handset colours.

“When we came out with the purple Z, operators were like ‘this doesn’t sound like a good idea to us, everyone buys black and silver’,” he told us.

“We pushed them and some were more adventurous than others, but when they put them on the market they sold really well.”

Speaking alongside the introduction of the Z3, he added: “Then we redid that and now we are expanding those colour options beyond the high-end.”

With the smartphone space becoming increasingly vibrant, the latest wave of high-end handsets are following the trend.

There will be four Samsung Galaxy Note 4 colours available at launch next month, while today three iPhone 6 colours were introduced.

Read More: LG G3 colours

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iPhone 6 Plus teardown reveals 2,915 mAh battery, nearly double iPhone 5S

Smartphone repair experts iFixit have revealed that the new iPhone 6 Plus carries a 2,916mAh battery.

iFixit, who routinely take apart every big new tech product, discovered during its iPhone 6 Plus teardown that the 5.5-inch phone is rated at 3.82 V and 11.1 Wh of energy, which equates to 2,915 mAh.

This puts the iPhone 6 Plus battery capacity at nearly double the 1,560 mAh of the iPhone 5S. The Samsung Galaxy S5, meanwhile, clocks in at 2,800 mAh. That's slightly less, but then the Samsung has a smaller screen, too.

A more interesting comparison is the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 4, which the iPhone 6 Plus arguably aims to usurp in the battle of the gigantaphones. The Note 4 has an even larger 3,220 mAh battery. This should give it an advantage, though that doesn't take into account the variables of the two operating systems.

The iPhone 6, for the record, has a middling 1,810 mAh battery. Ho hum.

In further news, iFixit was pleasantly surprised by the repairability of the iPhone 6 Plus, awarding it a 'respectable' seven out of 10.

In its testing notes it said that while removing screen requires a "propriety screwdriver and knowledge of adhesive removal", it isn't hard to accomplish. It also praised the relocating of the fingerprint sensor cable, which makes the iPhone 6 Plus easier to repair than the 5S.



Next, read our iOS 8 tips, tricks and secrets guide


[Image courtesy of iFixit]

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Disney Infinity 2.0 Game Review

Introduction

Available on Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4 (version tested), Wii U

Khabam! Last year Activision's Skylanders was the 'toys to life' game to beat, but this year Disney's newcomer is back with a super-powered triple blow. Last year's model had its flaws - not least in its slight playset campaigns - but with its focus on creativity it made a compelling rival. Skylanders had the stronger gameplay, but it couldn't match Infinity's Toy Box mode, which gave players scope to sculpt and populate their own worlds, then turn them into playable adventures.

That returns for the second version (Wham!) accompanied by revised and stronger gameplay (Bam!) but its killer blow comes with the content. No longer reliant just on Disney/Pixar properties, it now features The Avengers, Spider-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy, giving Infinity not just some of the biggest names in comic-books and movies, but the nearest thing to the licensed game of this year's biggest family-friendly blockbuster movie. Khabam, indeed.

SEE ALSO: Best Upcoming PS4 Games

Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes - Design

Up to a point, this approach works incredibly well, and the Marvel Super Heroes starter pack makes for an impressive bundle. Inside you'll find the new USB Power Base, new figures of Iron Man, Black Widow and Thor, plus a clear Avengers playset piece based on Tony Stark's Manhattan HQ. You'll also find two Power Discs, which replace the playset piece and unlock additional mini-games (more on these later).

Owners of the original product might spot something immediately. In Disney Infinity only characters tied in to a specific franchise could play in that franchise's campaign, which meant that - with only one character from each franchise in the box - you needed to buy additional figures for co-op play. Now, however, we get three Avengers in the pack, so co-op play now comes, as they say, in the box.

Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes - Gameplay

There are many things that Infinity 2.0 nails in the Avengers campaign, and that includes the spirit and style of the three bundled heroes. Partly it's a question of good character design and voicework; Each cartoon Avenger looks and feels spot-on, and while only Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury has the original actor's voice, the stand-in cast do a great job of filling in.

More importantly, each character has the moves and the abilities you'd expect. Iron Man fights with a combination of fists and repulsor rays, while Thor batters his way through enemies with his mighty hammer. Mjolnir returns when thrown, just as it should, and even smashes any foes hapless enough to be standing in the way. Black Widow, meanwhile, has the acrobatic and martial arts skills to deserve her deadly name.

Despite first appearances, flying is included. It might seem that Iron Man and Thor can only hover, but squeeze the left trigger and they'll fly off into the screen, speeding through the streets of Manhattan until they slam into anything big - usually the ground. On the one hand, this makes a mockery of a few missions where you're expected to ride around on a motorbike or sky-bike (it's Thor - he can fly already) but at least Infinity 2.0 obeys the first and most important law of any superhero game; your protagonists feel like proper superheroes.

What's more, their powers get stronger as the game goes on. Villains smashed and missions completed mean experience. Experience equals levels, and levels give you skill points to distribute. With these you can buy spectacular and devastating special attacks or upgrade the attacks you have already, making each of Earth's mightiest heroes that little bit mightier. The combat has a nice flow from the start, but the introduction of the special attack gauge and special attacks adds just a hint of strategy, and it can be incredibly satisfying to fire off a volley of rockets or a lightning strike on a bunch of Ice Giants on their way to do you harm.

Marvel's fantasy Manhattan makes a bigger and more exciting open world than any of the playsets in the original Infinity, and the plot, which sees Loki causing chaos with fiendish TV-headed villain Modok and a bunch of ice giants, is more engaging too. The core gameplay is stronger and more polished, and all that upgrading gives you a little extra payback as you play.

Unfortunately, the campaign still falls slightly flat. It's a bigger open world, but not really any more convincing. We get traffic and pedestrians, but no real interactions with them, and the area is bound by artificial limits, so that you don't have to fly too far before the screen fades and you're returned to a central point.

More seriously, there's just not enough imagination on display. Nearly everything you do involves fighting ice giants, with just the odd drone thrown in for good measure. The ice giants come in several different flavours, but master a few tactics and you'll thrash them all. The most challenging missions are (sigh) the escort missions, where the difficulty comes in making sure that whomever or whatever you're protecting doesn't get smashed up while you're battling on. Those exuberant superpowers ensure the action never gets boring, but a little more invention and variety would have made for a vastly superior game.

That's a problem in a game which - unlike its predecessor - doesn't have two more playset campaigns to entertain you. Instead, we get two smaller-scale mini-games; one a Guardians of the Galaxy-themed Diablo clone set in the notorious Kyln prison, and the other an Agardian-take on Tower Defence, where you set up turrets and traps to halt a steady stream of ice giants while tackling any stragglers yourself. Both are fun for a while, while proving how versatile Infinity 2.0's creative tools can be. Neither, however, is a serious replacement for a lengthy, well-paced and interesting campaign.

To get one of those, you'll have to splash out some more money, and at £30 for the Spider-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy playsets (both including just two figures) they don't come cheap. On the plus side, figures are no longer quite so segregated into discrete franchises. Collect tokens hidden in the city and you can introduce Rocket Racoon or Nova into your Avengers adventure, and we believe that the same is true with specific Avengers heroes in the other sets.

Overall, we're still a little disappointed by the playset content. Though it holds up better this time around, it still doesn't hold a candle to the mayhem of Lego Marvel Super Heroes, which allowed you to play with the whole range of Marvel heroes against an impressive rogues gallery of Marvel villains, and without charging you more than the price of the disc. Of course, you don't get the toys or the whole 'toys to life' thing, but wouldn't you rather have a better game?

Luckily, Infinity 2.0's real staying power is in the same place as the first edition's: the Toy Box mode. You can still lose hours building sandbox worlds to mess around in, placing buildings and objects where you like, putting roads together, dropping vehicles on the roads and driving around. You can scatter enemies into the world and beat them up, or construct your own landscapes, buildings and weird Marvel meets Monsters U theme parks. And if you're patient and prepared to get your head around Infinity's mechanisms and logic controllers, you can still turn a toybox into a game, which might be anything from a 2D platformer to a 3D space shoot-em-up.

As in the first edition, you'll need to unlock many of the various elements in the playset then purchase them in Toy Box mode, using Infinity's currency: blue sparks. This time, however, you're choices aren't randomised, so you can buy whatever unlocked content you want as soon as you can afford it. I know several poor mums and dads who were reduced to farming for sparks and items to provide for their offsprings' demands. Bad news, ladies and gents; it's happening all over again.

The biggest problem with Infinity's Toy Box was that, while you could produce something incredible, there was a steep learning curve between the basic building, sculpting and dropping-in stuff, and the more complex background logic stuff that had to be in place before it all worked. In a way, you were learning how to program stuff, and while the game did its best to simplify, it didn't do a great job of explaining how everything worked.

Infinity 2.0 has features to take some of the hard work off you, including little helpers who can generate cities, racing tracks or forests while you watch, or templates which give you some basic game mechanisms in one pop. All the same, there's still a lot of trial and error and confusion involved in producing more sophisticated efforts, and it's one area where there's still room for improved tutorials and clear advice.

Yet for all that, Toy Box mode is brilliant, giving kids a place where they can create something cool, and bring in whatever figures they want to. It's also now complemented by a Hall of Super Heroes, where you can admire your various heroes and their upgrades, and by a new INterior feature, where players can build and furnish a home and receive cute little visitors, some of whom might have tasks to complete.

Verdict

If the playset campaign was all there was to Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes, then it wouldn't be a product we could hand-on-heart recommend. Put it together with the enhanced creation features, the mini-games and the INterior design features, however, and it's a fantastic bundle that most families will love. If you just want a game with Marvel heroes, save your money: Lego Marvel Super Heroes is still the one to beat. If, however, you want a game that lets your kids create - and even program - while they play, then nothing else does it anywhere near as well.

Next, check out our pick of the Best Games of 2014

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iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy Alpha

Which metal phone should you buy?

They've fought it out in the courtroom, poked fun in adverts and now Samsung and Apple have two new phones to intensify the rivalry even further. Everything from the screen size to the nano-SIM support suggests the new Samsung Galaxy Alpha is aiming to directly take on the 4.7-inch iPhone 6.

The question is, has Samsung finally cracked it with the Alpha and built a better smartphone than the new iPhone? We compare the specs to find out if you should go Apple or Android.

iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy Alpha: Design

iPhone 6: Rounded aluminium backs and sides with plastic trim, gold or light dark silver, 6.8mm thick, 129g

Samsung Galaxy Alpha: Soft dimpled plastic back with aluminium metal frame, blue/gold/black/white, 6.7mm thick, 115g

If you want more metal there’s really only one phone to go for here. The iPhone 6 features a solid aluminium frame and back that’s gently curved to fit more snug in the hand. It’s curved glass up front as well. It's not the Sapphire kind everyone expected but something Apple is calling 'strengthened ION glass'.

The chemical process to create the toughened glass involves dipping the glass into hot potassium salt, where the sodium ions in the glass migrate and the larger potassium ions squeeze themselves into the vacant holes in the glass to create the more durable structure. If that sounds familiar, that’s because it’s basically the same process used for Gorilla Glass, which just so happens to appear on the Alpha.

The Alpha is by no means shabby-looking and is by far the most attractive phone Samsung has come up with along with the soon to be released Note 4. It uses the same dimpled back as the S5, albeit it’s even softer to touch and now replaces the metallic-looking plastic trim with a real aluminium metal one. Unlike the iPhone 6, the corners are slightly raised to make it more nicer to grip in landscape mode. At 115g, the Alpha is a supremely light handset to use. The more premium materials provide a nice balance for what is still a predominantly plastic phone.

iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy Alpha: Screen

iPhone 6: 4.7-inch, 1,334 x 750 IPS Retina HD LCD display (326 ppi)

Samsung Galaxy Alpha: 4.7-inch 720p HD display (312 ppi)

While the Alpha doesn’t get the same Full HD screen as the S5, its 720p display is a good match for the iPhone 6. It’s the same 4.7-inch size as the Apple smartphone and offers similar screen resolution although the iPhone 6 has the more impressive pixel density so on paper should offer more impressive clarity.

The Samsung phone also uses different display technology packing a SuperAMOLED panel, which offers bright, vibrant colours, strong contrast and the kind of black levels that make it great for watching video. Apple opts for an IPS screen so you can expect high top brightness, similarly impressive sharpness and natural looking colours.

As we’ve found with the Alpha, the Super AMOLED displays can be slightly erratic out of the box although Samsung includes a calibration mode in the settings to help fix those issues.

The iPhone 6 promises better sharpness than the Alpha, but both phone displays are great performers for a 4.7-inch screen, though it is of course nothing that several rival handsets offer a 1080p resolution at the same screen size.

SEE ALSO: Best iOS 8 keyboards to download

iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy Alpha: Camera

iPhone 6: 8-megapixel main camera with TrueTone flash and FaceTime HD front-facing camera

Samsung Galaxy Alpha: 12-megapixel main camera with LED flash and 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera

On the megapixel count, the Alpha wins, but then everyone knows it’s not all about megapixels. The Alpha uses virtually the same main camera as the S5 although it drops from a 16 down to a 12-megapixel ISOCELL sensor. Crucially though, it still includes the new zippy phase detection autofocus and can shoot 4K video, which is something the iPhone isn’t currently capable of. From our time with the Alpha we know it can still take sharp, colourful photos and has a great HDR mode that doesn’t overdo it with the processing.

Where the Alpha struggles is low-light shooting and the iPhone 6 has the tools to do a better job. Like the Alpha it doesn’t include proper image stabilization you find in standalone cameras and now includes something Apple is calling ‘Focus Pixels’. This is essentially the same phase detection autofocus the Alpha uses to improve focussing speed and prevent those blurry, out of focus night time shots. There’s also Apple’s TrueTone flash to help improve capturing faces when things get gloomy as well although that’s not new and has appeared on the iPhone 5S. We’ve not had time taking pictures with the iPhone 6, but it’s clear that both are very capable shooters.

iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy Alpha: Software

iPhone 6: iOS 8

Samsung Galaxy Alpha: Android 4.4.4 KitKat with TouchWiz

Going iOS or Android is going to play a major part for most when deciding between the Alpha and the iPhone 6. On the one side, you have iOS, which is one of the easiest mobile operating systems to use and in the latest update introduces a raft of new features. Many of those have been available on Android for some time like third party keyboards, as well as improved cross-platform compatibility, widgets and smarter notifications.

There’s new iOS 8 features the latest version of Android doesn’t have like a more comprehensive Message client, more interactive notifications and the interesting Family Sharing so you can share iTunes content without having to pay for it again.

Samsung’s Android approach has come a long way in recent years staying much closer to the pure version of Android you can find on the Nexus 5. There’s less of the bloatware and it’s simply a cleaner, more intuitive place to get around than previously. The TouchWiz UI doesn’t add a whole lot of features on top of Android but Samsung is making a big push on fitness with its S Health platform.

Much like Health on iOS 8, you can collate activity tracking data including support for third party app support. With Android 4.4.4 KitKat rolling out recently it also adds the ability to track weight, sleep and stress. Apple also has its own Health platform, which does work in a similar way.

Apple appears to have stepped its game up with iOS 8 and is the one we’d slightly favour at the moment. Should the Alpha get the Android 5 L treatment, that could level things out, but arrival times for these updates are always sketchy.

SEE ALSO: iOS 8 Tips and Tricks and Android 4.4 KitKat Tips and Tricks

iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy Alpha: CPU and RAM

iPhone 6: Apple A8, 64-bit and 1GB RAM

Samsung Galaxy Alpha: Exynos 5 5430 Octa-core CPU and 2GB RAM

As we found in our Galaxy Alpha review, it’s an Android phone that’s not short of power and in the benchmark tests even surpasses the S5 for performance. There’s more RAM on board than the iPhone 6 to take care of multi-tasking and while the Octa-core CPU doesn’t use all eight of the cores at the same time, it’s very zippy.

The iPhone 6 builds on the 64-bit architecture present in the iPhone 5S sticking with a dual-core Cyclone processor to accompany the 1GB RAM. Apple claims it’s going to be 84 times faster than the first iPhone and make big improvements in CPU and graphics performance over the previous generation.

The A8 also aids camera improvements and should make the iPhone more efficient in the battery department. During the iPhone 6 announcement, Apple talked up the GPU improvements in the new iPhones although early benchmarks suggest there’s only a slight improvement on the 5S.

Working alongside the A8 is the M8 co-processor, which is dedicated to tracking movement and continues to enhance the iPhone 6’s fitness credentials making it more suitable to take to the gym or out for a run.

iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy Alpha: Storage

iPhone 6: 16GB (£539), 64GB (£619), 128GB (£699), no micro SD card support

Samsung Galaxy Alpha: 32GB (£549) no micro SD card support

There’s really only one winner here. Apple has more model options and that’s a good thing when you consider it’s still seemingly opposed to adding micro SD card support. It has however left out a 32GB model this year and when you consider there’s an £80 difference between the 16GB and 64GB models, that’s disappointing. On top of physical storage you do get iCloud support where you get 5GB of storage for free to kick things off.

The Alpha is only available in one model and of the 32GB on board storage, there’s actually only around 25GB to play. That’s due to the system software needed to run the Alpha taking up around 6GB of storage. Samsung doesn’t really have its own dedicated cloud storage service, but you do of course get access to Google Drive, which is also available for the iPhone 6, and there’s an initial 15GB of storage up for grabs for free. Samsung can normally rely on the addition of a microSD slot to claim more storage options but not here.

MORE: Google Drive vs iCloud vs Dropbox vs OneDrive

iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy Alpha: Battery Life

iPhone 6: 1,810mAh

Samsung Galaxy Alpha: 1,860 mAh with Ultra Power Saving mode

There’s very little between the two when it comes to power. The Alpha as we found in our tests will make it through the day and you can push it to a day and a half especially when you take advantage of the very useful Ultra Power Saving mode. This basically turns the screen to black and white and will limit the number of apps you can use.

The iPhone 6 moves to a new 1,810mAh up from a 1,560mAh on the iPhone 5S, which managed to hit around the 9 to 10 hour mark with mixed usage. While the battery is bigger, so is the screen it needs to power and while the new A8 CPU aims to make the iPhone 6 more efficient, we will be surprised if it beats the Alpha for going the distance.

Early verdict

We’ve spent more time with the Samsung Galaxy Alpha so it’s easier to form an opinion about Samsung’s metal phone than it is of the new iPhone at the moment. What the specs comparison shows is that the two phones have never been closer. On paper, core features like screen quality and camera are evenly matched.

Design purists will no doubt favour the more metal iPhone but Samsung has made great strides getting the Alpha to look as good is it does even if there's still some plastic there. It's going to be close but changes to iOS and the more flexible storage options have us siding with the iPhone 6 for now but we'd be curious to know how well the battery holds up and whether the new A8 processor is as impressive as Apple says it is.

MORE: iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy S5

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Toshiba shifting away from consumer PCs

Toshiba has revealed its intention to shift its focus away from the consumer PC market.

The Japanese hardware manufacturer has announced that it will "accelerate the restructuring of its PC business" to focus on the business market.

This means that the company will release less consumer-focused PC hardware, which is sees as "volatile and over-dependent on sales scale and volume."

Indeed, Toshiba has revealed that it will withdraw from certain unprofitable consumer PC markets altogether, dropping its number of sales bases by more than half.

As part of this sweeping plan, Toshiba will relocate some of its PC head office functions outside of Japan, and will shed around 900 jobs - that's more than 20 percent of its non-manufacturing PC workforce.

This is all part of a long-term cost-cutting plan that has seen Toshiba return to profitability in recent times. The company notes that "as a result of measures initiated last year, the PC business reported positive operating income in the first quarter of this fiscal year."

However, it also observes that "the PC market is expected to see a continuing trend to modest growth rates, and these transformation measures are necessary to support the business in securing consistent profit."

Flatlining computer sales have affected the wider PC market in recent years. Last year, Dell experience a huge drop in profits, resulting in the company being bought back by founder Michael Dell. HP has also struggled in recent years, while earlier this year Sony sold its VAIO laptop arm.



Read More: Best laptops 2014

Via: WSJ

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Samsung’s iPhone 6 Plus jibes prove it still fears Apple

Samsung gets defensive on phablets

Opinion: When you’re number one, you don’t waste your energy mouthing off about number two because it’s rather unbecoming.

Instead you crow about your supremacy to anyone who will listen, while acting like the competition doesn’t exist.

Unless you’re Samsung, that is.

The Korean company’s unhealthy obsession with Apple continued this week with a series of ads that are, in theory, designed to promote the Galaxy Note 4. Except they’re not. In at least one of the TV spots, the Note 4 is not mentioned until the last few seconds. In reality, they are designed to troll Apple.

In the build up to the iPhone 6 Plus release this week, Samsung has gone to huge lengths to ensure everyone knows they’ve been “excelling at phablets for years,” while Apple is the Jonny-Ive-Come-Lately.

In another commercial aired in the United States, the firm rips into the hypocrisy of some in the technology media for calling the original Galaxy Note “an unwieldy beast,” in 2011, while heralding Apple’s “imitation” in 2014. That’s fair enough, but tastes and trends change.



SEE ALSO: Galaxy Note 4 vs iPhone 6 Plus

In both commercials, the firm is practically jumping up and down waving its arms, yelling “we did it first!” That’s pretty ironic for a company that launched into its current period of exorbitant wealth by copying the iPhone (Don’t take my word for that. Take the word of seasoned judges in courts around the world) and leeching off Google’s operating system (Remember those hideous pre-Android Tocco phones?).

Right now Samsung reminds me of the fabled little brother who clawed and fought to surpass the achievements of the older favourite son, yet can’t let go of that inferiority complex.

In case Samsung didn’t realise, it’s their world now. According to IDC it has more than double the global smartphone market share of Apple (24.9% to 11.7% after Q2 2014).

The Galaxy Note series is widely accepted as the standard bearer for the phablet sector Samsung pioneered. Consumers agree too, the devices sell in huge numbers and have become almost as anticipated as the flagship Galaxy S series.

SEE ALSO: iPhone 6 Plus first impressions

So why is the Korean firm wasting its energy on Apple’s efforts to, in Samsung’s words, “imitate” the Galaxy Note series with the iPhone 6 Plus?

Well, deep down, I’ve got to believe it’s because the company is still intimidated by Apple.

It is worried that Apple, with its slick marketing, fancy design language, awesome industrial build and better-than-ever software, is going to arrive late to the party and steal the Note 4’s thunder, like the archetypal college quarterback showing up at midnight in his Ford Mustang to whisk away the girl you’ve been chatting to all night.

In a way I get it. It must be so satisfying to see Apple follow its lead into bigger screens after years of shouting “the Next Big Thing is already here” into the face of Apple fans it believed were missing out by lining up for the iPhone every year.

Samsung has spotted an opportunity to score points from its lofty position, a position it has a right to defend. However, correct me if I’m wrong, but do any of you recall Apple mocking Samsung or accusing it of imitation in its advertising campaigns during its time as the mobile overlord? No, it left that stuff to the lawyers, who did a pretty good job of proving it and securing billions of dollars in compensation.

Samsung’s entire advertising strategy seems to revolve around disparaging Apple, which was funny and cute when Samsung was a plucky up-and-comer, but now it leads the way, Samsung should be above all that.

SEE ALSO: Galaxy Note 4 vs Note 3: What's new?

I’m not even backing the iPhone 6 Plus’ merits over the Galaxy Note 4, both are too unwieldy for me, especially as someone who is a little disappointed to be giving up his 4-inch handset. Plus, I wear Levis 511 jeans and neither of them will fit in those skinny pockets.


Hand on heart, I think it’s great that Samsung’s bet on the future of display trends is paying dividends and that, because of its trailblazing foresight, smartphone owners finally have a choice of a brilliant phablet on both of the major operating systems.

Samsung is setting the agenda now. It is the king of the mobile world. Someone should tell maybe Samsung that. Perhaps then it’ll start acting like royalty, rather than a jealous, insecure usurper who can’t shake the legacy of the old monarch.

Next, read a photographer's perspective on the iPhone 6 camera

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New OnePlus One pre-order system opens October

OnePlus has announced a new pre-order system for its high-value smartphone, the OnePlus One.

If you haven't been following events surrounding the OnePlus One, then you should know two things: 1. it's a great high-end Android smartphone with an unbelievable lower-mid-range price. 2. buying one is stupidly difficult.

Up to now, in order to be in with a chance to obtain one of these tasty handsets, you'd have to have been given an exclusive invitation. How you obtain one of these invitations is a bit of a dark art, combining appealing to the good graces of existing owners and hanging around the OnePlus forums and social media channels like a virtual stalker.

Now OnePlus has announced a new pre-order system, which will go live in late October. The trouble is, it sounds as if it will only be marginally less annoying than the current system.

Periodically, the young manufacturer will open a brief pre-order window during which you can put your name down for a OnePlus One handset. If you miss this, well, you'll have to wait for the next one to arrive.

Even if you do get in, there may be a bit of a wait. If there's any stock free (which we feel is unlikely), it will be shipped immediately, but if not the company will give you its best approximation of when it might ship (with payment being held until it does).

In fairness, OnePlus explains its reason for this approach, and it sounds perfectly fair. Because the company is in the unusual position of operating with pretty much no hardware margins - hence the phone's low price - it can't afford to have excess stock on its hands.

In other words, in order to give you a cheap, high quality phone, OnePlus has to essentially make each One handset to order.

Hey, it beats queuing around the block overnight for a £600 smartphone, right?

Read More: OnePlus One vs Nexus 5

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Alienware X51 PC Review

What is the Alienware X51?

The Alienware X51 will look familiar to PC gamers, as its exterior hasn’t changed for a couple of years. Instead of altering the aesthetic, Dell’s designers have upgraded the Alienware’s internals with a host of new components.

The £949 price draws the eye, too. Alienware has a reputation for selling systems that cost too much and deliver too little, so we’re intrigued to see how its latest effort stacks up in the competitive arena of sub-£1,000 gaming PCs.

Alienware X51: Design & Build Quality

Alienware designs are never subtle. The X51 has a glossy front panel with a glowing, metallic logo and a shining power button, and its sides glow with meshed panels between two curved, indented lines. It’s a striking machine, and more distinctive than most other gaming systems – those tend to use cases made from matte metal and look far more subtle.

The X51 is several times smaller than most gaming PCs. Its 95mm width and 349mm height make it only a few centimetres larger than the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. The X51 won’t take up much room in an office or bedroom, and it could fit beneath a TV – ideal for living-room gaming.

The small size improves the X51’s versatility, but it restricts what upgrades can be made to the interior. The components are shrouded beneath various slabs of metal, and some are easier to access than others.

The processor is only hidden beneath a plastic cover and a standard case-fan, but the graphics card is trickier to remove. It’s attached to a daughterboard and clasped to a metal covering, and the whole unit needs to be pulled free in order to get to the GPU beneath. The two memory slots are easier to get at, but they’re both occupied.

Alienware X51: Connectivity

There are no surprises when it comes to the X51’s connectivity. The front has two USB 3 ports and a pair of audio jacks - the minimum we expect from any desktop PC, let alone a gaming system.

The situation is the same at the back panel. Six USB 3 ports is decent for peripherals, but top-end motherboards often have more.

There’s serial and co-axial S/PDIF connectors, a single Gigabit Ethernet socket and six audio jacks. The only connections missing are PS/2 and eSATA, and they’re of limited use anyway – only those with legacy kit will feel left out.

On the inside there’s Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.0 and dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi – a standard selection.

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SwiftKey racks up a 1m downloads and iOS 8 app bundles arrive

The SwiftKey keyboard app has amassed 1m downloads from keen iPhone and iPad owners less than 24 hours after becoming available on iOS 8.

The British-developed application takes advantage of Apple’s acceptance of third-party keyboards with the launch of its new mobile operating system.

SwiftKey, which allows users to type words by sliding their finger from one character to the next has been a huge hit on Android and now looks set to repeat that success on the other side of the smartphone isle.

The company is offering the app for free, while competitors like Swype are charging, meaning iOS 8 users can try out the new typing style without committing any pennies.

SEE ALSO: Best iOS 8 Keyboards: SwiftKey, Swype, Minnum and more

Meanwhile, in other iOS 8 news, the first App Bundles have hit the App Store.

Users can save money on titles like Android Birds by obtaining four games in the series for just £1.49, while the Cut The Rope trilogy can be nabbed for £2.99.

Apple is also touting an Readdle Ultimate Productivity Bundle for £13.99, a 25 per cent saving on buying all four apps separately.

There are a host more gaming, productivity, cooking and photography bundles to be had in the new bundles section on the App Store.

Up to ten apps can from a single developer can be placed in a bundle, all of which will be downloaded simultaneously.

Read more: iOS 8 download: Should I upgrade my iPhone and iPad

Via: MacRumors | The Verge

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EE to honour the iPhone 6 pre-orders Phones 4U cancelled

The UK’s largest 4G network EE has pledged to fulfil the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus pre-orders made through bankrupt retailer Phones 4U.

The third-party retailer went into administration earlier this week after EE decided to ditch its partnership with the firm.

The collapse meant Phones 4U would be unable to fulfill pre-orders for the new Apple smartphones made just a few days earlier.

Assuming EE feels a little culpability for the situation, the network has stepped in and said anyone had ordered an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus on through EE will be able to pick it up from EE retail locations around the UK on Friday.

The network assured Engadget it had reserved enough devices to account for the pre-orders, but the devices will be spread out across its UK outlets.

Visitors who bring along the Phones 4U pre-order confirmation will be able to get an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, but will have to sign up for an EE contract directly, rather than keep the rate they were getting through Phones 4U.

There’s currently no news from other networks who’s customers who have been hit by the high street retailer’s collapse.

Phones 4U has vowed to refund all customers who had pre-ordered the devices, although that'll be scant consolation to those now facing a wait to get their hands on the new models.

Read more: iOS 8 download: Should you update your iPhone or iPad?

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PS Now public beta opens to PS3 owners in North America

Sony PS3 owners in the US and Canada can now test-drive the PlayStation Now cloud-streaming platform.

The open beta, which features an ever-growing library of around 150 games, begins today on the last-gen console following its release for the PlayStation 4 in August.

The PS Now platform, announced in January at CES 2014, allows users to rent games for periods of four hours, one week, 30 days or 90 days from $2.99 (around £1.80) right up to $50 (around $30).

The cloud-streaming technology allows users to jump right in on the action without downloading the game to their PlayStation first.

However, Sony has taken some criticism for the pricing structure, given that it costs more to rent some games for a week than it does to buy them outright from the PlayStation Store.

The four-hour option, rather than a 24-hour period has also, incurred the ire of some beta testers. Currently there is no Netflix-style subscription option that allows gamers to take their pick from the library.

Sony has reiterated that the service, which is partly geared towards solving the lack of backwards compatibility on the PS4, is still in beta and will continue to develop prior to the official launch.

Currently Brits remain unable to sample the PS Now service, but a launch is expected early next year.



Read more: Sony PlayStation 4 review

Via: IGN

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Apple pulls iOS 8 HealthKit apps after discovering major flaw

If you’ve downloaded iOS 8 for your iPhone in the last 24 hours, you’ll have probably noticed that awkward-looking new heart icon on the homescreen.

The Health app has been touted as a major part of the new operating system, but as of right now its functionality is extremely limited.

An apparent serious flaw discovered within the HealthKit platform has forced Apple to pull all third-party applications from its App Store that had planned to offer day-one support for the health and fitness platform.

According to Carrot Fit’s developer Brian Mueller, HealthKit is “broken and isn’t ready to launch with “no ETA for when a bug fix will go live.”

The retraction has left apps like Carrot Fit and MyFitnessPal floundering to create a HealthKit-free version of their apps that can be re-submitted to the App Store while Apple resolves the problem

Apple has released a statement claiming the full launch of HealthKit apps should come by the end of the month.

“We discovered a bug that prevents us from making HealthKit apps available on iOS 8 today. We’re working quickly to have the bug fixed in a software update and have HealthKit apps available by the end of the month,” an Apple spokesperson said.

The idea behind HealthKit is to collect data from all of the third-party fitness applications and store them, securely, in one central repository. The platform will eventually allow users to store their heart rate data via the sensors within the Apple Watch.

Read more: iOS 8 Battery Problems: How to extend your iPhone's battery

Via: MacRumours

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Toshiba 42L6453DB TV Review

What is the Toshiba 42L6453DB?

The 42L6453DB is a 42-inch full HD Smart TV sitting one level below Toshiba’s recently tested ‘premium HD’ L7453DB series. Key features include MediaGuide Replay, which automatically records programmes the TV thinks you’ll want to watch; other Smart TV features including numerous video streaming apps; and an aggressive price tag of just £429.

Toshiba 42L6453DB: Design and Features

There’s a pleasing mix of minimalism and on-trend glamour to the 42L6453DB’s design. The bezel is fashionably slim, and enjoys an eye-catching gloss-black finish, while the reasonably heavy-duty silver stand looks attractive with its open frame style.

SEE ALSO: Best TVs

When lifting the 42L6453DB out of its box you can’t fail to notice that it’s rather flimsily built. But it doesn’t look cheap or nasty from a normal viewing distance, and we’ve seen other TVs in recent times deliver plenty of performance thrills despite feeling like they’ve been built out of the cheapest materials possible.

Connections on the 42L6453DB’s rear and down its side are perfectly acceptable for its £429 price point. Its four HDMIs are as many as you could expect from a high-end TV, while its two USBs are enough to cope with both a permanent USB hard drive attachment and swappable USB hard drives for playing back more ‘temporary’ multimedia content.

The set also readily jacks in to your network either via Ethernet cable or built-in Wi-fi. And once you’ve got it on your network you can either stream multimedia to it from other networked devices or head into Toshiba’s online Smart TV platform.

We’ve covered this ‘Cloud TV’ system at length in a dedicated review. So we’ll restrict ourselves here to just mentioning the important stuff, namely that it lacks a few key catch-up and subscription video services, runs slightly sluggishly on the duo-core processing engine employed on the L6453DB series, but enjoys a major attraction in the form of MediaGuide Replay (MGR), which learns the sort of programmes you like to watch and automatically records them.

The only unfortunate thing about MGR is that the TV doesn’t carry any built-in memory, so using the feature is dependent on people going to the trouble – and slight extra expense – of adding an external USB hard drive. Which experience suggests many users probably won’t bother to do.

The 42L6453DB’s pictures, meanwhile, draw on the same dual-core processing engine that drives the Cloud TV interface. Processing features available include AMR 200 (which emulates a 200Hz motion performance), noise reduction, and an adaptive backlight control that adjusts the panel’s luminance to suit incoming pictures.

The set is well stocked with picture calibration features too, including extensive colour, white balance and gamma management tools.

Toshiba has even put some effort into the 42L6453DB’s audio courtesy of a DTS Premium Sound system for getting a surround effect out of mere stereo speakers.

Please note, finally, that the 42L6453DB doesn’t support 3D playback.

SEE ALSO: Best Value TVs

Toshiba 42L6453DB: Set Up

As with a disappointing number of TVs this year, the 42L6453DB struggles with dark scenes. So certainly when watching this TV in a darkened room you should reduce the backlight drastically – to below its 40 setting, in fact.

You may want to experiment with the dynamic contrast feature, as without it black levels are very uninspiring. However, as we’ll discuss in the picture quality section the adaptive backlight system works very clumsily, so even if you decide you want to use it you should definitely stick with its low setting.

Other suggestions we’d make are turning off noise reduction for HD viewing, and keeping the contrast somewhere between 70 and 80, for anything higher can cause pictures to look noisy and slightly ‘bleached’.

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