The ambient sensor will allow just enough brightness in the TV as the ambiance of the room demands.

Sony KDL-40EX600 – 40″ BRAVIA LCD-TV

For the size you’re getting and the picture quality included, this high-definition television really is great value at €799, down by a huge €140 in our sale. Sony uses ‘edge LED’ backlight technology in this series helping with both contrast levels and achieving “energy excellence” as the company puts it.

As one review we caught noted, the screens are also much thinner than previous series owing to the backlight, while several commented positively on the fact that on this model Sony didn’t go for the controversial ‘new look’ that it favours on higher-end versions; ie it preserves the same flat rectangular stand instead of the fancy four legged stand of the newer models.

On the downside, you can’t connect to the Internet and access content; however, other connectivity options are great with 4 HDMI ports and a USB one to boot. Another interesting feature is the ambient sensor which will allow just enough brightness in the TV as the ambiance of the room demands. For those of us who have witnessed that bright orange glow from older TVs (particularly when older people are watching them… what, it’s true) this will be a welcome addition.

Price: €799

Full specs here.

Philips is very proud of the ‘HD Natural Motion’ feature included here.

Philips 42PFL5405H – 42″ 5000 Series LCD-TV

Philips has done an excellent job here, and at €689 for a 42-inch TV there really is a lot to love. Alongside the Pixel Plus HD feature, viewers will be very happy with the 100Hz LCD refresh rate which creates “extreme motion sharpness” as it increases the sharpness of motion reproduction to more than twice that of conventional LCD.

Philips is also very proud of the ‘HD Natural Motion’ feature included here. “Philips invented HD Natural Motion to minimize juddering effects that are visible with movie based picture content. The award winning algorithm estimates motion in the picture and corrects juddering movements in both broadcast and recorded movie material (such as DVD and Blu-ray Disc). The resulting smooth motion reproduction and excellent sharpness take the viewing experience to a higher level,” says a company statement.

Audio wise, there’s the standard ‘Clear Sound’ audio technology and Virtual 2.1 speaker system. “This virtual 2.1 speaker system manages power intelligently to deliver twice the original power supplied and produces an excellent bass,” added Philips, “Enjoy the purity and detailed sound with the additional dome tweeter which delivers uncompromised sound in a slim invisible speaker design.”

In addition we have a USB connector, integrated DVB tuner, PC Input, 3 HDMI inputs and an Easylink feature to allow you to control operations on your TV, DVD, Blu-ray, set top box or home theatre system from one remote control. Packed with great features, it may not have absolutely everything that other models its size possess but Philips has certainly taken care of all the essentials and for this price it’s hard to argue with their logic.

Price: €689

Full specs here.

Sony brings families together don’t you know. Its TVs will cause rows over the remote eventually though.

Sony KDL-40EX40B – 40″ BRAVIA LCD-TV

Not a million miles away from the 40EX600, the 40B Series HDTV features an integrated Blu-ray disc player, alongside a Bravia Engine 3 video processor that “delivers superior, life-like images with amazing contrast and colour”. Elsewhere, Bravia Internet Video lets you instantly stream a wide-variety of movies, TV shows, music and more.

As with the EX600, there’s the Ambient Sensor, while this time around there’s three HDMI inputs. In addition you can connect your digital camera, USB-enabled MP3 player or USB flash drive directly in to this TV’s USB input and view your photos on the big screen, or you can also listen to the tunes stored on your MP3 player. The 40B also includes the Bravia Internet Video feature, allowing you to instantly stream a wide variety of movies, TV episodes, videos and music from a large selection of entertainment apps. A bucket load of features and great value at €799, down from €899 for this sale.

Price: €799

Full specs here.

The figures mark a huge turnaround from this time last year, when the 360 outsold the PS3 by 1.5 million units in the preceding 12 months. The full figures show that Microsoft sold 10.3 million consoles in its last financial year, which ended June 30. However, Sony confirmed yesterday that it sold 14.3 million PlayStation 3s in the same period, pushing the machine’s total sales to 38.1 million.

When taking all sales numbers since the battle between the pair for the hearts and minds of gamers began in 2006 though, Micrsoft still leads by 3.6 million units overall.

This all sets things up nicely for an interesting 12 months for both consoles. As TechRadar noted, both are close to releasing motion-sensor gaming (PlayStation Move and Kinect) which should stretch out the life of the machines.

“So it is not clear cut that Sony will actually ever overtake Microsoft in terms of console dominance – although it does have an extra card to play and that is 3D gaming,” notes the TR report.

The term "zombie cookie" was coined after the issue of traditional browser cookies being undeleted by Flash was brought to light in 2009.

A legal challenge has been launched across the Atlantic against a number of websites – including Hulu, MTV, and Myspace – claiming that they were engaged in “covert surveillance” of users. The site are said to have used a Quantcast Flash application to restore deleted text files used by web browsers to store user data, or ‘cookies’ as they’re more commonly known.

Quantcast issued a statement to BBC News saying that it was “aware of the lawsuit”, and that the company was  “reviewing this matter carefully”. The term ‘zombie cookie’ was coined after the issue of traditional browser cookies being undeleted by Flash was brought to light in a 2009 paper by US researchers.

The study found that more than half of sites surveyed used flash cookies to store information about the user, with some using it to “respawn or re-instantiate cookies deleted by the user”. “Flash cookies often share the same values as browser cookies, and are even used on government websites to assign unique values to users,” the paper read.

The issue was caused by a Quantcast system that retrieved deleted user data and re-created the cookie. Critics said this was a serious breach of privacy, because if a user had made a conscious decision to delete a cookie, it should remain deleted.

After the problem was highlighted, Quantcast released a fix, saying that restoring deleted cookies it was an “unintended consequence of trying to measure web traffic”.

However, the new lawsuit, brought about by US privacy activist Joseph Malley, states that the practice of re-creating deleted cookies continues and that users were “victims of unfair, deceptive, and unlawful business practices” and “their privacy, financial interests, and computer security rights were violated”.

We’ll try and keep you up to date on how this develops though a lot of this may have to do with user settings rather than any great invasion of privacy.

The new software studio will first appear on Asus mainboards including the ROG Rampage III.

Anyway, all this is achieved via features such as THX TruStudio Pro audio technology (which “creates unprecedented levels of audio realism, adds dynamics and punch to every gunshot, explosion and gaming sound”) and Creative EAX Advanced HD 5.0. The latter of which features “state-of-the-art multi-environment rendering and reverb modelling, delivering an amazingly realistic and immersive 3D gaming experience”.

The company press release goes on to promise gamers that they can look forward to being blown away by the “amazing realism from the unrivalled headphone surround and gaming sound enhancement technologies” delivered by the Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2.

The new software studio will first appear on Asus mainboards including the ROG Rampage III and Gene Series boards. Other key features of the Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2 suite are:

* Creative VoiceFX technology, which allows users to morph their voices into other personas to help players stay in character and add flair to their online role-playing experiences;

* Creative Alchemy – a powerful tool that restores EAX effects and 3D surround audio for legacy, DirectSound 3D game titles running on Windows Vista and Windows 7, re-enabling that same great gaming experience;

…and…

* Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2 comes with native OpenAL support, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of PC games developed with OpenAL for an incredible 3D audio experience.

A good 12 months for AMD evidently.

Mercury Research tracks graphics chip shipments globally, and when looking at their figures from this time last year it shows that AMD has boosted its share of the market greatly over 12 months. At the same point in 2009 Nvidia had about 59% of sales and AMD just under 41%.

As TechRadar reports, AMD revealed last month that it had shipped 16 million DX11 cards in the past nine months and the company’s successful 5800 series “tapped into the latest DirectX11 technology offered by Microsoft Windows 7 and has reaped the benefits of getting to market first”.

Meanwhile CNet notes that Nvidia had yesterday warned investors that revenue would fall short of earlier projections, with that news coming a day after Apple moved its iMac and Mac Pro lines to AMD graphics chips, dropping Nvidia.

The file that’s causing a lot of headlines today.

It was widely reported this morning that campaigners who wanted to highlight the “terrifying” privacy policies of Facebook had made the file – which contains the URL of every searchable Facebook user’s profiles, plus their names and unique ID – freely available online. In reality though, nothing of any great magnitude has happened to 20% of the Facebook population at all.

The list itself was ‘leaked’ to the site by Ron Bowles, an online security consultant, who reportedly used a simple piece of code to collect the data from the site. He told the BBC that he published the data to highlight privacy issues.

On Wednesday, the list was rapidly spreading across the internet being distributed and downloaded by more than 1,000 users according to the Beeb. The social networking company has hit back though.

“People who use Facebook own their information and have the right to share only what they want, with whom they want, and when they want,” a spokesman said.

“In this case, information that people have agreed to make public was collected by a single researcher and already exists in Google, Bing, other search engines, as well as on Facebook. No private data is available or has been compromised.”

He added: “It is similar to the white pages of the phone book, this is the information available to enable people to find each other, which is the reason people join Facebook.

“If someone does not want to be found, we also offer a number of controls to enable people not to appear in search on Facebook, in search engines, or share any information with applications.”

Simon Davies, of Privacy International, a campaign group, said: “Facebook should have anticipated this attack and put measures in place to prevent it,” he said.

“It is inconceivable that a firm with hundreds of engineers couldn’t have imagined a trawl of this magnitude and there’s an argument to be heard that Facebook have acted with negligence.”

Did they really though? Overall, this sort of feels like a storm in a teacup – a great way for a security expert to get his name out there without doing that much in reality.

Clubbing together a bunch of ‘personal’ details in a file may have taken a little time but thus far there hasn’t been any reports of anything untoward happening to the supposedly private details leaked in the document.

If someone it outraged by all this; just sort your privacy settings out and you’ll be fine.

Bertie Ahern enjoys 3D TV coverage in between the odd pint of Bass.

A press release from the company tells how 3D TV demonstrations will be available in 13 Sky shops across the country over the coming weeks (full list below). The channel is very excited about showing the overblown nonsense that is Ryder Cup in three dimensions, while 3D movies like ‘Bolt’ and ‘Monster vs. Aliens’ will also get their “international 3D TV debuts” on the channel as well.

“Sky’s ground-breaking service will launch with an exciting line-up of movies and live sport.  It will be available to any Sky+HD home that has invested in a 3D Ready TV,” reveals the company statement. Sky 3D will be compatible with all of the 3D TVs being introduced by Sony, Samsung, LG and Panasonic, and works with both ‘active’ and ‘passive’ 3D formats.

Having watched sport in 3D earlier this year I have to say it’s a thoroughly uninspiring experience, though to be fair it was a nil-all game involving Blackburn so that might not have been the best place to start. Premier League 3D coverage does however make up an integral part of Sky 3D, with games being shown each week from the time the channel launches in just over two months time.

As for movies, well any big screen outings that were meant to be viewed in 3D will no doubt benefit from a dedicated 3D channel on the small screen. However, non 3D titles – which, let’s not forget, still make up 99.999% of movies out there – may not be overly wonderful experiences when shown on the new channel. Griping aside though, for those who have invested in 3D-ready TVs this is very welcome news.

All Sky+HD viewers with a 3D TV will be able to receive Sky 3D, as no set-top box upgrade is required, and there is apparently no extra charge either for customers who subscribe to Sky’s top channel and HD pack.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s Chief Executive, said:  “As with High Definition, 3D is set to transform the way TV is enjoyed in homes nationwide.   Following hot on the heels of the success of 3D cinema, Sky homes will now be the first anywhere in Europe to have the opportunity to experience 3DTV from the comfort of their living rooms.  Our customers can look forward to a fantastic mix of live sport, blockbuster movies, and innovative entertainment and arts shows.”

3D Sky Shops include:

1 – Stephens Green, Dublin

2 – Blanchardstown, Dublin

3 – Liffey Valley, Dublin

4 – Mahon Point, Cork

5 – Crescent, Limerick

6 – Scotch Hall, Drogheda

7 – Omni, Dublin

8 – The Square, Tallaght, Dublin

9 – Douglas Court, Cork

10 – Fairgreen, Carlow

11 – Merchants Quay, Cork

12 – Manor West, Kerry

13 – Wilton, Cork

The butterfly botnet (hey, you try and get a picture of a botnet) has infected nearly 13 million computers.

The botnet, one of the world’s largest, was dismantled earlier this year after infecting 12.7 million computers. It was designed to steal personal financial details and was also found in the PCs of banks and major companies.

Jeffrey Troy, deputy assistant director for the FBI cyber division told reporters that, “To use an analogy here, as opposed to arresting the guy who broke into your home, we’ve arrested the guy that gave him the crowbar, the map and the best houses in the neighbourhood.”

It wasn’t just the FBI that was after this bloke though. The BBC reports that “officials from around the world” have been working together to capture the criminals behind the massive malware operation. Indeed, in December 2009 three people believed to have been running it were arrested in Spain.

Security expert Rik Ferguson told the BBC that the mariposa botnet had got out of control. “They guys behind it said it was more successful than they had intended to be,” he said. “As is the case with most botnets, the more widespread they are the more likely they are to be discovered. They were a victim of their own success.”

Nobody has yet been arrested in connection with the Conficker worm, a similar virus which is currently running on six million Windows PCs and is believed to peaked at up to 12 million, Ferguson added.

I hope that robot washed its hands.

The team responsible has previously developed the EcoBot-III (also known as the ‘Bread-Bot’), a robot which can power itself by digesting waste, and now they want to build a similar model powered by urine.

Dr Ioannis Ieropolis – whose team received a £564,561 grant to complete the research over the course of four years – is leading the project and he told local press: “Over the years we have fed our MFCs with rotten fruit, grass clippings, prawn shells and dead flies in an attempt to investigate different waste materials to use as a ‘food source’ for the Microbial Fuel Cells.

“We have focused on finding the best waste materials that create the most energy. Urine is chemically very active, rich in nitrogen and has compounds such as urea, chloride, potassium and bilirubin, which make it very good for the microbial fuel cells.”

He added, “We have already done preliminary tests which show it being a waste material that is very effective.”

Researchers are already in touch with “a waterless urinal company” who have seen the potential of the technology. Quite brilliantly, Dr Ieropoulos continued that although it is early days for this research, they hope to work towards producing a prototype portable urinal which would use urine to create power from fuel cells. “We envisage that this could be used, for example, at music festivals and other outdoor events,” he said.

So, the ‘robots’ in question won’t be humanoid figures asking members of the public to use their urine to power up, but instead far more functional robotic creations. One day though. One day.

The Cruzer Blade – great name and good value. If you don’t lose the tiny yoke.

How small is it? Well, it’s about the size of a paper clip and weighs about the same as a penny.

The ‘thumblet’ drive is only available in the US and Canada for the minute, with prices ranging from of 2GB to 16GB and prices going from US$14.99 to US$77.99. Hopefully though we’ll see them on this side of the Atlantic soon enough.

Believe it or not, the Cruzer Blade isn’t actually the smallet USB on the market. As The Register points out, Traxdata claims to have the world’s smallest thumb drive (the MICRO USB), while the Pico USB flash drive is hardly a behemoth either considering is the size of a finger nail, fits in a thimble and has a ring for key-ring attachment as well.

Personally, maybe it’s just years of being used to ‘bulkier’ models but I don’t like these tiny options. Easy to lose, not particularly sturdy and awkward to use if attached to a key-ring with more than one key on it, a stronger, two-inch-ish model wins out for me every time.

Playdom, Zynga and Electronic Arts-owned Playfish have all held talks with Google according to well placed sources.

While starting from scratch against a company with 500 million registered users seems like folly, the short but colourful history of social networks tend to prove that people get sick of one site as soon as something better (or generally easier to use) comes along. Whether Google and the collected brains trust of Playdom, Zynga and Electronic Arts-owned Playfish can create something to challenge Mark Zuckerberg (or that woodchip salesman who claims to own 84% of Facebook) is another matter.

There’s no indication from the report as to when any new service would arrive and whether it would involve any element of Google’s current effort at social networking – Orkut.

It is however likely that Google will try to develop a product quite different from Facebook’s model as Google CEO, Eric Schmidt recently said “the world doesn’t need a copy of the same thing”. Too right, it would make a hard sell even harder.

Of course, it would be in the interests of all the social gaming companies to have another major stream of income outside of Facebook so expect something to come from all this over the next year. Disney, who is planning to acquire Playdom for $563 million this week, sees social networks as a huge source if income over the coming years, and such a major company backing Google’s ideas could make this into something quite big indeed.

The 27-inch iMac has the option of a 256GB SSD as a primary or secondary drive. The iMac SSD supports up to 215MB/s data transfer rates for faster startup and application launch times. An SD card slot on the iMac now supports the SDXC format to handle the latest high-capacity storage cards.

Full specs are as follows…

21.5-inch 3.06GHz Intel Core i3 iMac, €1,229

• 21.5-inch 1,920 x 1,080 LED-backlit display;
• 3.06GHz Intel Core i3 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache;
• 4GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 discrete graphics with 256MB GDDR3 SDRAM;
• 500GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7,200rpm;
• slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort for audio and video output (adaptors sold separately);
• AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• iSight video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet;
• four USB 2.0 ports;
• one SDXC SD card slot;
• one FireWire 800 port;
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• Wireless Apple Keyboard, Magic Mouse.
• Configure-to-order options include up to 8GB of RAM

21.5-inch 3.2GHz Intel Core i3 iMac, €1,529

• 21.5-inch 1,920 x 1,080 LED-backlit display;
• 3.20GHz Intel Core i3 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache;
• 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
• ATI Radeon HD 5670 discrete graphics with 512MB GDDR3;
• 1TB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7,200rpm;
• slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort for audio and video output (adapters sold separately);
• AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• iSight video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet;
• four USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire 800 port;
• one SDXC SD card slot;
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• Wireless Apple Keyboard, Magic Mouse.
• Configure-to-order options include a faster 3.6GHz Core i5 processor, 2TB hard drive and up to 8GB of RAM.

27-inch 3.2GHz Intel Core i3 iMac, €1,729

• 27-inch 2,560 x 1,440 LED-backlit display;
• 3.20 GHz Intel Core i3 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache;
• 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
• ATI Radeon HD 5670 discrete graphics with 512MB GDDR3;
• 1TB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7,200rpm;
• slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort for audio and video input and output (adapters sold separately);
• AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• iSight video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet;
• four USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire 800 port;
• one SDXC SD card slot;
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• Wireless Apple Keyboard, Magic Mouse.
• Configure-to-order options include a 3.6GHz Core i5 processor, 2TB hard drive, 256GB solid state drive (SSD) and up to 16GB of RAM.

27-inch 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 iMac, €2,029

• 27-inch 2,560 x 1,440 LED-backlit display;
• 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache;
• 4GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
• ATI Radeon HD 5750 discrete graphics with 1GB GDDR5;
• 1TB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7,200rpm;
• slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort for audio and video input and output (adaptors sold separately);
• AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• iSight video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet;
• four USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire 800 port;
• one SDXC SD card slot;
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• Wireless Apple Keyboard, Magic Mouse.
• Configure-to-order options include a 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 processor, a 2TB hard drive, 256GB solid state drive (SSD) and up to 16GB of RAM

Source: TechRadar and Apple Store.

The Samsung LE32B450 4 Series LCD-TV: "great level of depth in the pictures with some subtle shading".

Samsung LE32B450 – 32″ 4 Series LCD-TV

Called a “perfect blend of style, performance and value” by one review, this 32-inch model is down from €399 to €349 for this week’s sale. This Samsung model has ports and connectivity both in the rear and the left side of the unit, while in terms of picture and sound the LCD-TV-Reviews rundown of its merits says:

“Samsung has included the Wide Colour Enhancer 2 engine which is a unique feature of Samsung that offers more of natural and convincing colours by strengthening the primary colours of red, green and blue. Samsung has also given it a high contrast ratio that gives LE32B450 32-inch Widescreen LCD TV a great level of depth in the pictures with some subtle shading. DNIe+ Engine technology performs to optimise overall picture qualities.”

With regards to sound, they point towards the built-in SRS Tru Surround system as an “excellent boon to the audio quality of the TV”. Adds the review, “The spacious audio created by the hidden speakers is well complimented by the SRS Tru Surround sound system. With Samsung’s Down-Firing Speakers, now you can fill your room with deeper and clearer sound levels.”

In addition, the Samsung LCD TV series B450 is ‘Energy Star certified’, which means that both you and your TV are doing your part to protect the environment. Give yourself a pat on the back… don’t whack the TV over after that though.

Price: €349

Full specs here.

Bravia models may cost that little bit more but they tend to be worth the extra outlay.

Sony KDL-32EX40B – 32″ BRAVIA LCD-TV
The second most expensive 32-inch model in our sale this week, the Sony KDL-32EX40B has however has dropped in price by 10% to €649, and like nearly all of Sony’s Bravia offerings it’s a superb piece of work.

Another model with Energy Star certification, the 32-inch full HD LCD HDTV is ideal for use with HD sources like the integrated Blu-ray disc player, HD satellite, and HD gaming consoles. There are four HDMI inputs for optimal HD connectivity, and a USB port for access to video, music, and photos on a laptop, thumb-drive or MP3 player.

Gaining a 9/10 ranking on TestFreaks, definitely take a closer look at this one, a superior offering from the good folk at Sony.

Price: €649

Full specs here.

The 32PFL5605H from Philips - down to €579 this week from €699.

Philips 32PFL5605H – 32″ 5000 Series LCD-TV

Philips has been gaining a bigger footprint in the LCD TV market over the last two years, with the impressive 5000 series – aimed squarely at the mid range consumer – being a particular success. This model – the 32PFL5605H – comes with a shed-load of “image improvement technologies”, which sort of sounds like a high tech way of saving someone’s media career after they’ve ran over someone or made a questionable home movie.

The actual image improvement technologies include Pixel Plus HD and 100 Hz clear LCD, which, according to Philips, means “you’re guaranteed clear, fluid video displays”, adding, “you can even enjoy digital channels in high definition via the MPEG4 tuner”. The 32PFL5605H has one USB port for MP3 and JPEG files as well as three HDMI sockets and this week it’s down by a huge €120 to €579.

Price: €579

Full specs here.

Samsung LE32C530 – 32″ 5 Series LCD-TV

The second cheapest deal on offer in this week’s Komplett TV sale, the LE32C530 is an excellent LCD option for just over €400. The PR bluster promises that viewers will be “immersed in a picture with incredible colour and crystal-clear detail when viewing the Samsung LE32C530, thanks to powerful image processing from Samsung’s HyperReal Engine”.

One of the Komplett office folk has one and in between cigarette breaks he’s confirmed that the aforementioned hyperbole is just about on the money.

There are three HDMI ports while thanks to the USB 2.0 Connect Share Movie feature you can enjoy your videos, photos, and music through the TV. Elsewhere, sound is provided by Dolby Digital Plus.

Amongst the versatile selection of connectivity options in the LE32C530 you’ll find a VGA port, which allows almost universal compatibility with PCs. While, yet again, eco concerns are shown off as the LE32C530 includes an ‘Eco Sensor’ which automatically adjusts screen brightness to suit ambient light levels – thus avoiding unnecessarily high power consumption.

Big, beautiful and bloody nicely priced.

Price: €425

Full specs here.

Samsung may pay some of this git’s wages but this week’s offers on the LE32C530, UE32C5100 and UE32C6700 are too good to let morals get in the way.

Samsung UE32C5100 – 32″ 5 Series LED-TV

One of the best value options in the 32-inch bracket, the high-spec UE32C5100 comes with a depth of only three centimetres, and a shed-load of superb features. Samsung is very proud of the EDGE LED technology which ensures light is distributed evenly across the screen, while a colour enhancer provides good contrast ratios for “deep, intense displays”.

As well as an MPEG4 tuner, the UE 32C5100 has four HDMI ports, two USB 2.0 sockets and a number of video entries, so you’ll be able to hook up loads of A/V devices. Our favourite from the whole sale to be honest. Another month ‘til payday unfortunately… and those loans seemed like a great idea at the time.

Price: €629

Full specs here.

Samsung UE32C6700 – 32″ 6 Series LCD TV

Check out the company bumf on this baby… “Inspired by designs from the automotive and fashion industries, Samsung’s moulding process eliminates the need for glue or screws to construct the television cabinets. The result is an LCD HDTV with a clean, smooth finish infused with a hint of a translucent colour. On the wall or off, these sets give the impression it is floating, with soft lines that complement any home decor.”

No pressure eh.

You have to admit though it is a beautiful machine – despite the grey colour. There are four HDMI ports; there’s a PC entry; ethernet connectivity; and a WiFi port. Plus, you’ll be able to hook up a range of devices to the UE32C6700 and enjoy online content on the big screen in HD. This fella – down by €140 this week – also has an HD digital TV tuner to boot.

Price: €859

Full specs here.

HTC has confirmed it with integrate SLCDs on certain devices, beginning with the Desire.

A DigiTimes report comments that Samsung Mobile Display (SMD) has been under fire of late as the supply of AMOLED panels have been running short of demand, leaving HTC with the easy decision to diversify its panel sources. The Taiwan-based mobile giants are also reportedly considering IPX panels from LG Display (LGD).

SLCD panels will initially be adopted in models including the Desire and Nexus One and HTC CEO Peter Chou has said that SLCD is “the latest in display technology with advantages in colour balance, clarity and power conservation”. Good news for those looking to invest in a HTC handset towards the end of the year then.

Chou continued, “HTC is experiencing high-demand for many of our phones, specifically our phones with 3.7 inch displays. The new SLCD display technology enables us to ramp up our production capabilities quickly to meet the high-demand.”

Indeed the decision to go elsewhere was pretty simple for HTC as the low yield of AMOLED panels it set to continue for some time yet, plus SMD will always prioritise its affiliate, Samsung Electronics, when supplying panels.

However, several reports point out that, much like an annoying couple in an annoying romcom, Samsung’s mobile division and HTC may only be ‘on a break’ rather than having split for good. “Industry sources” have apparently said that, depending on supplies in 2011, the smartphone vendor could return to AMOLED panels next year.

Though, with HTC’s sales figures continuing to rise rapidly, Samsung may live to regret not making sufficient AMOLED panels to satisfy the demand.

It’s not often that western kids would envy their Chinese counterparts but Chongqing has just passed a law banning adults from searching their children’s computers or indeed their phones.

The new regional law outlaws snooping into their emails, text messages, web chats, and browser history. The Chongqing Evening Post described the new regulation, adopted over the weekend by officials in Chongqing, as the first of its kind in the country. However, there have been some doubts that it will have a real impact.

Lu Yulin, a professor at the China Youth University of Political Science, told China Daily that children were unlikely to take their parents to court. “Parents who habitually check such information won’t stop due to the regulation,” he said.

Elsewhere, you have to love a quote from 11 year-old Song Jingbo, from Xi’an who told the newspaper he did not think his mother and father would be able to access his data anyway, adding: “I am far more internet savvy than them.”

The whole thing is pretty hard to get your head around seeing as the law is designed to protect the rights of children, but – as The Guardian quite rightly notes – it comes in a country where there is widespread concern about excessive internet use among young people and their access to unsuitable material.

One suspects that much like the Victorian legal hangovers that remain in Irish and British law, this will be a regulation that’s totally ignored and soon forgotten about. Still though, fair play to Chongqing for trying.

The latter referred to an agreement between the game publishers, to combine Namco’s classic ‘Tekken’ title and Capcom’s ‘Street Fighter’ series into two new games – ‘Tekken X Street Fighter’ and, you guessed it, ‘Street Fighter X Tekken’.

Noted TG Daily, “One of the biggest things that has distinguished these two mammoth video game franchises is that each has a very distinctive gameplay mechanic, so instead of compromising on one style of play, Namco’s version of the game will use Tekken controls while Capcom’s version will use Street Fighter controls.”

There’s no confirmation of release dates as yet but we’re pretty sure a lot of romantic old souls who still remember the 8-bit versions of these games, along with all the sequels that followed, will gladly step over relatives to get their hands on both games.

Meanwhile BioWare, who were one of the biggest gaming presences at this year’s convention, told those present  at the official launch of the ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic’ MMO that “space combat” will be implemented into the game.

The company is now only saying that the space combat elements will not be mandatory and that players will be able to choose which adversaries to engage, however more details should leak in October with the game coming the following month.

An official post on The Old Republic forums adds that, “Space combat is an alternative gameplay experience to the primary game of storytelling, questing, and ground-based combat. In space combat, you fly your personal ship to various “hot spots” on your galaxy map. From there, you will blast your way through asteroid fields, enemy fighters, frigates, destroyers, and a variety of other obstacles that will evoke memories of some of the great Star Wars space battles.”

The Mac Mini is at the centre of Apple's latest blunder.

Last Friday, Apple’s online store priced its Mac Mini with 8GB DRAM at about €480, a massive drop from the original price of around €1,135. The price quoted for the mini desktop is believed to have been a mistake, though customers across the globe took advantage of the error and placed their orders.

Taiwan-based DigiTimes noted that the deal attracted a number of orders from Taiwanese consumers; however, some of those who bought the Mini have since reported that Apple has unilaterally changed their orders back to the original price. “Some customers are already preparing to file lawsuits against the company,” revealed the report.

Commenting on the issue, the Consumer Foundation in Taiwan noted that a company should fulfil its contracts and deliver products once an order has been paid. The Foundation is urging Apple to reply to customers as soon as possible before the issue turns into lawsuits. As The Inquirer points out though, this whole thing could turn into a legal minefield for Apple as its web-store is worldwide and different countries have different consumer laws.

Considering that the company recently celebrated its best quarter ever, and is slowly but surely, addressing the iPhone 4 antenna issue, a bit of humility in this situation from Apple really wouldn’t go amiss. A ‘fair play to them’ attitude to the customers who grabbed the Mac Minis should really prevail, though the chances of that happening are pretty slim.

Apple has not yet made any official comment over the issue.

There’s €140 off the Samsung UE32C6700 in the sale at Komplett.ie

We’ll be having a proper run through the merits of some of the TVs on offer – from industry stalwarts such as Samsung, Sony and Philips – on Monday, but for now have a gander yourself to see if anything takes your fancy.

Have a good one!

Minister Kapil Sibal with the cheap and cheerful device.

Designed for students, Sibal said his department had started talks with global manufacturers to start mass production. “We have reached a (developmental) stage that today, the motherboard, its chip, the processing, connectivity, all of them cumulatively cost around $35, including memory, display, everything,” he told a news conference.

A Reuters report on the device tells how Sibal said the touchscreen gadget was packed with Internet browsers, PDF reader and video conferencing facilities but its hardware was created with sufficient flexibility to incorporate new components according to user requirement.

Sibal said the Linux based computing device was expected to be introduced to higher education institutions from 2011 but the aim was to drop the price further to $20 and ultimately to $10 (that’s €8 if you’re listening Ministers Ryan, Coughlan or O’Keefe).

The device was developed by research teams at India’s premier technological institutes, the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science.

Those who downloaded ‘Handy Light’ can keep enjoying its benefits.

Lee designed a ‘Handy Light’ app which at first glance appeared to allow users to change the colour of their screen. It was charged at less than a dollar to upload on App Store. However, the app contained a hidden code that allowed people to use their iPhone as a 3G modem.

As Gizmodo explained, “’Handy Light’ allowed you to make your iPhone’s screen go blank with a color of your choice. You opened it, clicked a swatch from a simple palette, and that was it: Life in technicolour. Another stupid flashlight application like a hundred others. Or so the App Store team thought. Inside, the app contained hidden code that made it a full tethering application—a program that allows you to use your iPhone as a 3G modem.”

Apple were duped by Lee’s app and for a brief period, those in the know were able to get online without charges – around $20 a month in the US – though it has since been taken out of the App Store. However, as The Telegraph notes in its report on the matter, those who downloaded it, however, can keep enjoying its benefits.

One online commenter who downloaded the app before it was removed said: “I’m going to use this little gem of an app to my heart’s content. I’m typing on it now, and I’m going to see just how much data I can use all afternoon. I was able to get download speeds of roughly 2.5 MBps.”

“Are you seriously defending the new phone by saying that it almost performs as well as the old phone? Is that what the plan is?”

Yep, Darth Vader’s complaints echo those of millions of iPhone 4 users – while there are also a few digs at the Droid X, HTC Evo, AT&T as well as a porky rank and file Empire guard. Enjoy!

Zuckerberg will be appearing in a 'Lisa episode'. Can't win 'em all eh.

Following in the footsteps of Alan Moore, Alec Baldwin, (Fat) Ronaldo amongst others, Zuckerberg’s appearance will come in October, which is around about the same time that the aforementioned Facebook movie – ‘The Social Network’ – hits our screens.

An LA Times blog on the story tells how Zuckerberg will appear as himself in an episode entitled ‘Loan-A Lisa’ (bah, he got a Lisa episode, so it’s not all good news). The plot sees Lisa decides to help fund Nelson’s new bike company. While attending a convention for entrepreneurs, the two meet Zuckerberg, who reminds the kids just how many famous billionaires like himself have dropped out of school.

Zuckerberg is in good company. Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos made a cameo last season on an episode called ‘Billionaire’s Retreat’.

Hopefully this is one of the better of the new episodes of ‘The Simpsons’ (seriously there are some good ones buried in the dross of the last few years), and the whole thing will be a nice break from courtroom battles and worries about user privacy for Zuckerberg.

Did I just feel sorry for a billionaire? I think I did. Time for a strong coffee while humming ‘Spider Pig’ I think.

Okay, the pages used in this image are slightly out of date but you get the idea.

The news backs up the accepted wisdom that MySpace has long since stopped being a social network for Regular Joes. At its peak MySpace had more than 100 million registered members, but its audience has been declining rapidly over the last two to three years.

The figures come from ComScore – a major market research company who do a lot of work in the social space – and the company’s data reveals that nine out of ten of the 38.2 million UK internet users over the age of 15 used social media in May 2010. Twitter was found to have 4.3 million users in the UK but unlike MySpace, has grown its audience by 62% over the last 12 months.

Facebook is used by 30.4 million people in the UK, which worked out as 79% of the country’s online population (one the subject of which, for a per capita look at Facebook usage you should check out this map over at the Guardian, Ireland comes in at around 36% of the online population).

As The Telegraph notes, MySpace’s decline is in spite of a revamp of the site’s functionality and renewed focus on music and entertainment content. The site also launched MySpace Music in May 2010, a new streaming and subscription service, which has faced stiff competition from the likes of Spotify and We7.

The site was bought by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for $580 million in 2005 in what may turn out to be one of the worst deals in his storied business history. So, ya know, every cloud…

A Guardian report on the matter notes that although net sales were 1% higher at just over €10bn, the profitability of its handset and service division slipped as the company cut the prices of its higher-end phones to make them more attractive to consumers.

The average selling price of a Nokia handset dropped to €61, from €62 in the previous quarter. For smartphones, average prices fell 8% quarter-on-quarter to €143, and are down 21% over the last year.

For several years the company has been searching for its iPhone killer, with a growing suspicion out there that the failure to even come close that will see chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo removed from his position with the company badly in need of fresh blood.

Defending his position in an appearance on CNBC, Kallasvuo said the company needs to move on one way or another and that things still aren’t that bad, especially when you take into account that Nokia makes roughly four out of every 10 phones sold worldwide

Apparently, the company is only aiming to maintain its share of the mobile device market this year. “The global handset market has continued to grow at a healthy pace, led by some of the less mature markets where Nokia is strong,” he said.

The company is now pinning its fortunes on the new Nokia N8 smartphone, although its release has already been delayed until later in the year. You’d have to suspect that things will only get worse before they get better though.

Clearly hoping that this might get a few employees to ditch the iPhone – there are plenty of them swimming around Microsoft’s Irish offices anyway – some feel the move looks a little desperate but overall, we think the (mostly) good press it creates will be worth it.

All signs coming from Microsoft have indicated that they are delighted with the new mobile phone OS – though they are in something of a race to get as many apps developed for its October launch as possible.

Being delighted with it doesn’t mean that all Microsoft employees were going to go out, buy a new smartphone and ditch their iPhone contract though. Indeed, how many adopt the new devices and how many stick their freebie on eBay should be interesting to note.

As a Cnet blog on the matter notes, this all echoes something Apple did back in 2007 when the iPhone was first announced; Apple called an all-hands company meeting, where Steve Jobs announced that all full-time employees who’d worked at Apple for more than a year would be getting free iPhones.

No details have been released yet on when or exactly which models will be available.

Slashgear reports that  Panasonic is yet to provide details about the new model, but has confirmed a Tokyo press event on July 28th and that it will be far more in line with their current, 2D range in terms of bulk, than their existing AG-3DA1 professional 3D camcorder.

The new model will also, thankfully, have a far lower price than the pro version, as the AG-3DA1 has generally goes for around €16,300.

As SG notes, “Beyond that, specifications are unclear; we’re guessing Panasonic will be aiming for as close to Full HD video as possible for the budget, given their 3D-capable VIERA range of HDTVs support such resolutions.”

Seems about right to us and you’d have to imagine that Panasonic won’t be the last major company to step into this market this year. Videos of family holidays in Courtown presented in 3D, who could resist!

Sood claims that Microsoft is burying a project that would allow Xbox and PC gamers to play against each other, and the reason they’re doing so is that console players would be beaten most of the time.

“There was a project that got killed at Microsoft. This project was designed to allow console gamers and PC gamers to interact and battle over a connected environment,” Sood wrote in his blog.

“Personally I wish it would have stayed the course. I’ve heard from reliable sources that during the development they brought together the best console gamers to play mediocre PC gamers at the same game… and guess what happened? They pitted console gamers with their ‘console’ controller, against PC gamers with their keyboard and mouse. The console players got destroyed every time. So much so that it would be embarrassing to the Xbox team in general had Microsoft launched this initiative.”

He added, “Is this why the project was killed Who [sic] knows, but I’d love to hear from anyone involved — what happened?”

Sood went on to say that “You simply don’t get the same level of detail or control as you do with a PC over a console”, adding that it’s a “real shame that Microsoft killed this”.

The obviously annoyed CTO said that the “scale of the PC” would have allowed Microsoft to get away from the hardware business and focus on their core, software. “Perhaps we could have finally integrated the Xbox into the PC. Perhaps not, all of this is over now, there is no looking back.”

There’s no doubt that Microsoft look upon PC gaming as a secondary concern (at best) to consoles but killing a project like this seems a rather petty step if what Sood says is true. Then again, Sood has his own vested interests here so his views can’t exactly be taken as gospel without some response from Microsoft. Whether they’ll even bother coming back at him is doubtful though.

Some of the concept work for the PR2 Robot which can fetch your favourite beer.

First up the surgery-bots, and research at Duke University in North Carolina has shown that a robot can locate and operate on a human organ and even take samples – all without a surgeon’s intervention. A robotic arm combined with ultrasound was used to carry out test procedures on a section of raw turkey breast.

Turkey is often used in medical research because its texture is similar to human flesh and it scans in a similar way during ultrasound. The robot used ultrasound to scan the tissue and locate the section that needed to be removed, reported the Daily Mail.

It was then able to take real-time 3D information and give the robot specific commands to perform. After which, the robot arm then manipulated the same biopsy device used by human surgeons to reach a section of tissue and take samples.

Now, the robot guided a ‘plunger’ to eight different locations on the simulated prostate tissue in 93% of its attempts so we can’t get that excited just yet. I don’t think anyone would want to wake up and hear their surgeon say ‘well we got 93% of the operation spot on… and you didn’t use that arm much anyway’. Still though, nice work.

But Professor Stephen Smith, who led the team, believes that routine medical procedures will be performed in the future with minimal human guidance. He said it will be more convenient and cost far less than using human surgeons.

Professor Smith said: “We’re now testing the robot on a human mannequin seated at the examining table whose breast is constrained in a stiff bra cup. The breast is composed of turkey breast tissue with an embedded grape to simulate a lesion. Our next step is to move to an excised human breast.”

On the beer-getting-bot, well that comes from a company called Willow Garage who aim “to lay the groundwork for the use of personal robotics applications in everyday life”. And here’s their latest offering in action.

My favourite feature… the ‘Beer Me’ button. Nicely done.

The cold numbers for O2 go as follows:

3G Data Plans for iPad Wi-Fi + 3G:
Data         Fee
500MB    €3.97 a day (for 24hrs)
5GB         €19.90 monthly (for 30 days)

While over at Vodafone, the 5GB 30-day plan will cost an even €20, and the 500MB one will come in at €3.99 per 24 hours. In between talking about how the iPad is the greatest thing since Ghostbusters, the full O2 statement on its data pricing tells how:

“O2 today announced it will offer dedicated data plans for iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G in Ireland. The iPad data tariffs will be available without a minimum term contract and include free access to Bitbuzz Wi-Fi hotspots in Ireland.”

“The O2 micro SIM pack for iPad will contain full set up and registration details and customers will be able to check data usage, top up their account and purchase a new broadband pass for their iPad using O2’s My Account service.”

Continues the statement, “O2’s prepay broadband micro SIM for use on iPad will give customers the freedom and control to switch on or off mobile data, as best suits their needs, directly on the device. iPad compatible O2 micro sims are available in O2 stores and Apple Reseller Stores for use on iPad at O2’s daily and monthly prepay broadband rates.”

That Bitbuzz Wi-Fi feature is actually the only place we can see how the O2 offer really differs from its rival.  Anyone tempted? I posed the question on Twitter and Facebook yesterday and the response was, eh… not overly positive. Looks like it could be a hard sell lads.

The survey, commissioned by email provider Intermedia, questioned about 2,000 American adults last month and it posed the email threshold query to roughly 340 employees of small businesses. Only 6% said they could bear more than 50 emails a day.

“We certainly see email as having replaced the phone as the most important business tool,” said Jonathan McCormick, COO of Intermedia. But “one in five are feeling like they’re under pressure.”

ABC News chatted to McCormick who added that the situation gets even worse when it comes to smart-phone users. Though just 38% of the people surveyed said they use smartphones, 37% of that group said they experienced email overload, compared to only 12% of the less connected group.

Any email ninjas out there who can handle more than 50 a day?