Besides the obvious differences of size and price, notice the different angles Amazon and Apple take when promoting the features of their respective tablets. Here’s the most recent television commercial for the iPad:

For Apple, what’s special about the iPad is tied up in its apps. In the space of 30 seconds, they showcase eight different apps used for a variety of purposes. Most of the depicted apps were built by third-party developers and may not appeal to more than a fraction of iPad owners. Not everyone wants to practice calligraphy, play the piano, or learn about the human skeleton. But that’s fine – there are over 100,000 different apps.

The company’s own iBooks app makes an appearance, but only to showcase the dictionary feature of the app itself. Apple doesn’t even mention its e-book library or iTunes store for content. Content exists within, and is subservient to, the app. You can see the same theme present in another ad from earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Amazon hasn’t run any television ads for the Kindle Fire yet. But they have released a promotional video:

“Enjoying your content should be simple and easy. One touch gives you instant access to Amazon’s massive content library, including over 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, apps, magazines, and books.”

Did you catch the difference? Amazon portrays apps as ‘content’ equivalent to other downloadable entertainment. And if you look closely, the video shows off a tablet interface in which ‘Apps’ is just another tab side-by-side with ‘Newsstand’, ‘Books’, ‘Music’, ‘Video’, ‘Docs’, and ‘Web’. Compared to Apple’s approach, in which all other content is bought, viewed, and manipulated within apps themselves, this is a somewhat radical departure.

And it’s a re-thinking of the device that might actually work. The horde of Android manufacturers aren’t making headway against the iPad with similar designs and app stores that can’t compare in breadth of choice. By differentiating the Kindle Fire away from its relative weakness in apps, and toward its strength selling videos, music, and books, Amazon might be able to stake out its own sizable chunk of the tablet market.

The Atrix is a dual-core Android phone running 2.2 (Froyo). Some of the key features include an extra-long life battery, aGPS with Google Maps, a 5 megapixel camera with HD video recording, every kind of connectivity including Wi-Fi and DLNA, 16GB of on-board memory and even a fingerprint scanner. An optional docking station turns the phone into a powerful laptop (who needs the Xoom?), or you can purchase the HD Multimedia Dock and combine it with the Wireless mouse and keyboard to turn your 40inch LCD TV at home into an office.

With prices hovering around the £400 mark, the Atrix needed to bring a lot to the table to justify the cost. It gives us a lot to play with and think about, but seems to leave us feeling a little cheated. For starters it comes with Froyo 2.2. This I don’t get especially as 2.3 (Gingerbread) has been around for 8 months or so now. Reskinning Android is a pet hate of ours, but the Moto Blur UI isn’t actually that bad. It does what it says on the tin and helps you keep up-to-date on your social networks with a ‘Latest News’ feed, amongst other useful tweaks Blur includes. The thing I like about Moto Blur is that it isn’t as intrusive or extensive as the HTC Sense UI. And as with any Android phone you can customise most things in any case. Motorola have promised an update to Gingerbread later in 2011 – probably just as other phones upgrade from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich.

Physically, the Atrix is more plastic than metal and although the back case feels flimsy and delicate, the overall feel off the device is quite sturdy. Weighing in at 135g it is only slightly heavier than the BlackBerry Bold 9900(130g) but much lighter than the newly announced HTC Titan on Windows Phone 7 which weighs in at 160g. Smaller than the Galaxy S2, but hardly petite, the Atrix is a very good size. The display isn’t as big as the 4.3 inches on offer from Samsung and HTC, but at 4.0 inches it’s not small by any means. The resolution is very high too with 540 x 960 pixels and the screen also packs punches in terms of its Gorilla Glass display, touch sensitive controls and the other usual offerings of accelerometer and proximity sensors.

There is one feature that I am still confused as to whether it is a gimmick or a stroke of genius and the sign of things to come. I’m talking about the biometric fingerprint reader you can enable to lock your phone. Motorola claim it’s more secure than a password?

The Atrix is supposed to be fast, after all the advert claims it is the most powerful in the world, the ugly truth is however that even with a Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor with Tegra 2 chipset; it does seem to struggle under pressure. Luckily it does have 1GB of RAM up its sleeve to call upon to help it out. But all said and done it is just not as quick as we would have liked or expected.

Some other noteworthy features are the 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash and image stabilization which can takes great shots and can record video in HD 720p format. The dual-core processor shows its power here, with near-instantaneous image capture and judder-free video capture.GPS works very well indeed, with full support for all the Google mapping tools including Street View.

Connectivity is on par with other high end smartphones, with Wi-Fi (support for a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1, USB, a 3.5mm audio jack and even a DLNA connection. The amount of memory available can’t be faulted either, there is a generous 16GB onboard and the option to add microSD cards up to 32GB. The battery is a 1930 mAh Li-Ion cell, a rarity as most smartphones use 1500 mAh. The difference in battery life is quite apparent and I was able to use the phone for 7 hours heavy usage and then 12 hours standby before needing a recharge. Normally after 7 hours of heavy testing most Android devices are already begging for more juice.

Conclusion:
Although not the most powerful smartphone I have tested and reviewed, it isn’t too far behind the competition. Moto Blur isn’t as bad HTC Sense and the device does come with some great, albeit expensive accessories.

We love a cool new gadget here down on the Farmyard. Especially ones that can help us with the cows…

Which this isn’t. Instead what we have here is a all in one media gateway, and it looks impressive. Boasting a full HD 1080p-24 Network solution, the SlimBox, once connected to your television, allows you to enjoy a whole range of video, music and photographs in a wide range of different formats.

What is great about this little device is also the UPnP connectivity allowing effortless access to PC or NAS storage units. You can use the SlimBox as a all-in-one home entertainment system/portal. You can, once connected to the internet, access web-radio, Picasa and Flicker from the device and browse them on your living room TV. The SlimBox also has 2 USB ports for connecting external media drives and a SD/MMC card reader.

The best thing about all this? The Electronic Farmyard is going to be reviewing this little beauty especially for you. So keep your eyes peeled for updates soon!

Developer: Singhisoumya
Format: Windows Phone 7
Genre: Tool
Price: Free
Release Date: 01/02/2011
Website: http://www.pcremoteserver.com/

So, whats this app all about. The quote above from their website pretty much says it all, but what can it actually do?

Version 2.0 has the ability to;

Control your mouse: Your phone will act as mouse. You can move cursor and click from your phone. I personally havent found a good use for this yet, i use my laptop with an attached extra monitor but havent found a need, maybe i will one day

Control your Keyboard: Your phone will act as keyboard. You can type from your phone. This i love, especially when searchign for music in itunes

Adjust Volume: You can control PC volume from your phone. This feature is great if your lazy You can control the full volume of the system.

Audio and Video Player: You can control songs and videos running on multimedia softwares like Windows Media Player, iTunes, etc. I also found this works in several other players, still with its little bugs however (play doesnt yet work in spotify), but we have been informed it will be working in the next version.

Windows Media Center: You can control Windows Media Center from your phone. Now if your rich and have a 60″ television with your PC connected, and you do use Windows Media Center. Then this feature is what you need. WHy look around for the remote, or buy one infact for Windows Media Center, when you can use this little FREE tool!

Power Controls:You can shutdown, restart, sleep, hibernate, logoff PC from your phone.

“The next version of app (2.1) will add the following two major features apart from bug fixes. We have already completed implementation of this version and we are doing its testing.

PowerPoint: Allow user to control presentation using phone
Extend Media Apps: Add support for different media players – Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, VLC, Spotify, etc.

There is lot of scope in this app and we are looking for more ideas to improve this app. We can do anything remotely from phone which user can do at PC.”

This looks like the Remote PC app has lots of potential. I asked if it was on the cards to develop for blackberry or Xbox Kinect but at this time they arent, sorry BB fans.

So how did the developers come up with the idea?

How did you find the Windows application submission process?

Overall i rate this app very highly, its increasing potential gives it alot of room for development. Id love to see what else they can come up with.Visit their website http://pcremoteserver.com/

So for the ‘noobs’ of the world, what is Windows Phone 7? It is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft. With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft offers a new user interface with its design language named Metro.

WP7 Features

User Interface – The new ‘Metro’ interface is really quite interesting. The home screen, called the “Start screen”, its made up of whats called ”Tiles”. Tiles are links to applications, features, functions and individual items (such as contacts, web pages, applications or media items). Users can add, rearrange, or remove Tiles. Tiles are dynamic and update in real time – for example, the tile for an email account would display the number of unread messages.

Alot of the main features of WP7 and 3rd party applications within WP7 are organized into “hubs”, which combine local and online content via Windows Phone 7′s integration with popular social networks such as Facebook and Windows Live. An example is the pictures hub, it shows local content either downloaded via internet/usb onto the phone, or via the integrated camera.

It also shows online content via facebook photo albums, and the People hub shows contacts aggregated from multiple sources including Windows Live, Facebook, and Gmail.

A great aspect of WP7 is its multi touch interface, allowing multiple touch points on the screen to be recognised simultaneously. Great for gaming, image and web browsing.

Contacts

Contacts are organized via the “People hub”. Contacts can be manually entered into contacts or import from Facebook. A “what’s new” section show news feed from facebook and a “me” section show the phone user’s own facebook status. This is what i love about WP7, i started with a new blank sim card, no contacts stored on it what so ever. After setting up the facebook app it grabbed all my facebook contacts, their emails, contact details, profile pictures and everything. Giving me a full address book. It only took me around 20min to add the extras which wont be on facebook. After all who has their doctor or local butcher as a friend :p

Media

WP7 uses microsofts Zune as its management and sync link between your phone and your PC. The multimedia experience is divided in to two distinct hubs, Music + Videos hub and Pictures hub, if youve ever had a Zune HD, its very similar.

Marketplace

So where do i get all these cool apps?! The Marketplace ofcourse! If you’ve ever had an ipod touch or iphone, its exactly the same. Not quite as full yet, the development platform for 3rd parties hasnt been live for long (about 9 months at current).

Now this doesnt mean there arent any apps, when i bought the phone i thought just that but when i found the marketplace the doors in my mind were open to the hours of pointless fun downloading apps that do nothing but entertain the mind. I think i can sum that up in one word…FartMachine.

What do i think?

Above has been just a quick summary of the OS itself. I purchased the HTC HD7 on a whim one day after new year. No reason in particular as to why i made the purchase. I upgraded from an O2 XDA running Windows Mobile 6.5; WP7′s predecessor.

First of all, i absolutley love the phone. As microsoft advertise it, it brings you so much closer to your online social life. Integrating facebook, windows live, twitter into the main features of the phone. Its ability to receive push notifications gives you real time updates on almost any app.

As its the only WP7 ive tested so far i cant compare it with other models.

I do plan on grabbing a HTC HD7 Pro in the coming weeks to give that a bashing.

Over the next few weeks i will be reviewing what i think are the best apps for WP7 and going into more of the features WP7 can offer.

What is Spotify?

“Spotify is a new way to listen to music

Music is everywhere. Any track you like, any time you like. Just search for it in Spotify, then play it. Any artist, any album, any genre – all available instantly. With Spotify, there are no limits to the amount of music you can listen to. Just help yourself to whatever you want, whenever you want it.”

Thats what they say anyway, and there right! Spotify is probably the best free music streaming tool out there. You can pick any song that they have in their extensive library, their search tool allows you to pick an artist, song and album.

“Think of Spotify as your new music collection. Your library. Only this time your collection is vast: 8 million tracks and counting. You can create as many playlists as you like from this collection – just drag and drop the tracks you want. And because the music plays live, there’s no need to wait for downloads and no big dent in your hard drive. You can listen at any time, no matter where you are. Through your computer or your mobile phone.”

Features

Playlists

Drag and drop your favourite tracks into playlists to save them until the next time you listen. The playlists are saved to your account, and accessible from wherever you use Spotify.

Share

You share music by copying the link of a playlist or a track and send it to your friends. They open that link and – voilá – Spotify starts playing your music on their computer. Another great sharing feature is the playlist which you and your friends can manage together. Simply right-click any of your playlists, select ‘Collaborative playlist‘ and then share it. Whoever receives the collaborative playlist is now able to add or remove tracks or even rename the playlist all together. Music made simple.

Mobile music

Or even better, with Premium you can also use Spotify with your iPhone or Android where music is streamed – or saved as an offline playlists – on your mobile phone.

Offline mode

Taking your computer outside where there’s no internet? Don’t worry. With Spotify Premium, you can select which playlists are to be ‘available offline‘, and you can keep listening.

Spotify is Available Offline

Top lists

The most popular music on Spotify is regularly gathered and displayed. You can filter by individual country or just display your own personal top list. All tracks have a popularity meter that measures its total amount of recent plays.

Music purchases

If you want even more freedom, we give you the option to buy individual tracks or albums by simply clicking the Buy button. From streaming to MP3 files in seconds.

Simple search

To dive into our huge music catalogue, simply type the name of an artist, album or track and hit enter. We’ll give you the results instantly, and our automated suggester will help you remember the spelling, all to make it easy to find the music you love. If you want to be more exact in your search query, check out the advanced syntax.

Artist radio

Top artists have a dedicated radio stream (that you control using the ‘next’ button). The stream plays songs that are similar to the songs of that artist.

Use from anywhere

Your account can be used from any computer; just login with your existing username. With Premium, this works even if you’re abroad.

Biographies

The top artists include biographies from the All Music Guide and we’ve got cover arts and images for thousands of available albums.

Similar artists

Each of the top artists contain a list of other artists that are similar, giving you the ability to surf around between artists and discover new music.

So How Do i Get Spotify?

Well… there are three ways, free, day pass or premium.

Spotify Account Types

Free

“Financed by advertising, the free version of Spotify is the place where most people start. Simple to download and install, in no time at all you’ll enjoy having all the music in the world at your fingertips, instant access to whatever song you want with no restrictions, and the ability to create and share playlists with friends.”

Unfortunatly Spotify free currently is an invitation only platform where members with a premium account get so many invites for free accounts, up until recently there was a loop hole around this invitation only system but this has since been rectified and invites are a must.

Day Pass

“No recurring fees. No advertising. Just you and your favourite music. You might be planning a romantic dinner for two, or partying with friends into the early hours of the morning. A day pass is ideal for the casual Spotify user who decides that all they want right now is music.

Day pass does not give access to premium features such as mobile and higher bit rate.”

I did trial the day pass, personally it wasnt worth the 99p i paid for it at the time, all it meant was that i had no adverts dueing my listening times, the adverts play for about 1:30 and come on very 5-8 songs, now personally that isnt an issue for me, they are quite often entertaining or informative so from my point of view just dont ;P

Premium

“Spotify in its purest form. As a Spotify Premium member you’ll enjoy unlimited access to a world of great music without advertising. Plus the ability to take your music with you anywhere on your mobile phone.

With Premium you can also make your precious playlists available offline, and stream at a higher bit rate of 320kbps – so you can listen to all your favorites in hi-fidelity. You’ll also hear new albums before they’re released, get entry into exclusive ticket lotteries and VIP competitions and take advantage of unrestricted travel access. To listen to your music whenever and wherever you want, just go Premium.”

Now ontop of the free spotify platform you receive the following

Mobile music – Use Spotify on your mobile phone (iPhone, Android and Symbian devices).

If i had an iphone this would be perfect for me, unfortunatly i dont so i havent had the opportunity to test this app, maybe ill find someone who has

Offline mode – Make your playlists available for those times you don’t have an internet connection.

When i purchased a months subscription this is why i did it, its perfect, i listen to music on it at home, make a playlist, switch offline mode on then jump on a train for 2 hours and i have my music right there!

Higher sound quality – Stream music in a higher bitrate, up to 320kbps.

For those music buffs who notice the bad sound quality then Premium would be for you, instead of streaming at 128kbps Premium gives you 320kbps. Personally, not a clue what the difference is and as long as it sounds good im happy.

Travel access – Go anywhere in the world and listen to your favourite music.

Now some of the music on Spotift can only be played in certain countries with the Free and Day Pass Platforms, Premium gives you the ability to listen to the complete Spotify library with no restrictions.

Spotify Interface

Spotify Interface

Overall Opinion

Spotify is a great tool, if you can get it. With it being invitation only is is very restrictive and unless your willing to pay for premium your going to have to wait until it becomes open access. The music on there can be outdated at times, it can take upto 3 or 4 weeks before the latest UK chart songs are put on there but then again si that really an issue? Spotify has opened me upto a new world of music with its suggestions and it is almost comparable to Itunes Genius which does a similar job.

I really cant wait until i get enough money to pay for a years worth of Premium, maybe one day ill buy a monthly subscription or ask for one as a gift, at £9.99 a month is it really worth it? would it be used Would i rather have the music on my PC?

You can download Spotify From spotify.com and can either get on the waiting list for a free account or pay for premium.

An advanced lighting system delivers instant response and reaction as the game happens. Imagine your room lit with over 16 million colors that sync with your games through the multiple hi intensity RGB LEDs. You’re no longer in front of the action – you’re in the middle of it!   Simply plug the system into one of your PCs USB ports and your PC will take care of the rest.

Features:
Wall washer light with controller unit
The wall behind the PC set-up can be flooded with light according to pre-scripted amBX instructions. It is also the central controller unit to which all other components connect.

• high power RGB LEDs
• over 16 million additive RGB colors
• instant response and continuously variable intensity

Left & Right Lights
The color and intensity will change in reaction to events on-screen creating mood and capturing emotion. amBX-enabled lighting helps to bring the game experience out of the screen into the whole room.

• low power RGB LEDs
• over 16 million additive RGB colors
• instant response and continuously variable intensity

Configure
An easy-to-use configuration manager enables a stress free set up. Simply indicate where you’ve placed the products around your room and the configuration manager will set the perfect level for each product.

Customize
The more adventurous can customize the settings to create a bespoke system. Tune and balance light to your specific needs to create the optimum experience for any room.
Create
Be bold and create your own lighting creations with a palette of over 16 million colors. Create unique lighting designs that suit your mood or entertainment. Combine your lighting choice with music and you have your very own light show in the privacy of your own home.

You can find a list of compatible PC Games here.

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Never miss your home TV shows, regardless of where you are. With the Slingbox® SOLO take your TV with you on the road. Easily connect the Slingbox SOLO to practically any one of your home-theater devices and watch your standard-definition (SD) or high-definition (HD) TV shows, sporting events, or special programs on your computer or mobile phone over the Internet from anywhere in the world.

Slingbox Solo

Slingbox Features

FULL SET OF PASS-THROUGH CONNECTIONS

Easily connect to one of 5,000 compatible standard-definition or high-definition devices. Component, composite, S-Video and ATSC connectors.

SLINGPLAYER EPG AND REMOTE CONTROL

View your TV programming schedule with the electronic program guide (EPG). Change channels, pause, fast forward or rewind, and set up DVR recordings with the on-screen virtual remote control.

WINDOWS AND MAC SUPPORT

Access your Slingbox via any high-speed Internet-connected Windows or Mac laptop or computer.

Requirements and Specs for Slingbox Solo

1. Windows or Mac Based PC
2. High-Speed Internet Connection
3. Home Network Router

Getting Started with Slingbox SOLO is Simple

1. Connect the Slingbox® to an A/V device, such as a DVR, a cable set-top box, or a satellite receiver (there are over 5,000 Slingbox-compatible devices).
2. Connect the Slingbox to your home network (if your router is too far from your Slingbox for a direct connection, use the SlingLink or other Ethernet bridge for connectivity).
3. Fire up your home network-connected desktop, Mac, or laptop computer, complete the Slingbox set-up, and enjoy your very own home theater via the Web.

Slingbox Solo Back Connectors

What Devices Can i Connect?

• Basic Cable TV Set-top Box
• Digital Cable Set-top Box
• Digital Video Recorder (DVR) such as Comcast, ReplayTV, DISH or one provided by your cable/satellite provider
• DVD Player/Recorder
• HD component input support with resolution up to 1080i (down-converted for streaming)
• Satellite Receiver such as DIRECTV or DISH
• Video/Security Camera
• Apple TV
• Windows Media Center

Ive been looking at buying a Slingbox myself for quite a while (Still haven’t got around to it). Being able to watch TV content over the internet on a laptop, mobile phone or PC would be a good way to reduce costs, especially when you need to buy a TV licence to watch Live TV in the UK. Slingbox do a variety of different products for different purposes, Slingbox SOLO, Slingbox CLASSIC and Slingbox PRO are a few of these products. HD support is now also available.

You can find out more info on the Slingbox product range at their Website

The PrintBrush™ A4 is the next step of evolution to Print Dreams recently launched PrintBush 4X6 and will be by far the smallest printer device in the world that can print full size formats (A4 or letter size)

As its predecessor, it will be able to print directly onto any type of surface. It will also be completely silent allowing you to print during ongoing meetings, etc. As the PrintBrush is Bluetooth compatible this gadget is perfect for working on the go. Need to print out a contract to sign, PrintBrush it!

On top of all that, no wires, no cables, no mess!!

PrintBrush Random Movement Example

Watch here a movie of a fully functional prototype.

Preliminary product specifications

Resolution: 600dpi monochrome
Print technology: inkjet and RMPT™ Full
Max. speed: 400mm/sec
Volume: Approx. 200cc
Weight: Approx. 250gm
Interfaces: USB 2.0, Bluetooth, IRda
Power supply: rechargable Li-Ion battery

As of now the PrintBrush™ isn’t a concept, its a real product that is due to enter the market in Quarter 3 of 2010.

Read more about the PrintBrush™