The Sony Tablet S has an elegant UI, but takes time
to switch from landscape mode to portrait

My initial reaction to the Sony Tablet S design was, "Wow, someone at Sony has really thought through the design." Working on it for four days did not dampen my enthusiasm. Its curved edge, which makes it look more like a notepad with its pages folded, is unique in every sense. Admittedly, the iPad is still top of the charts when it comes to design, but Sony definitely beats the more humdrum Samsung Galaxy design.

But the thing is, a tablet is not just about design (although it matters a lot because it is, after all, a mobile device). And in several aspects of pure functionality, there are still issues with the Sony Tablet. For starters, it is sluggish compared to the iPad (and even though comparisons are often odious, in this case it is not because the iPad still has close to 90 per cent of the tablet market) and the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Sony's two biggest competitors. This is surprising because speed, one would have guessed, is possibly the first thing a product designer would worry about.

The other big problem, and to me this was possibly its biggest annoyance, is that the tablet does not go smoothly from portrait to landscape and back. Certainly not as smooth as, well, the iPad and the Galaxy Tab. In fact, it is so slow, that it I stopped rotating it, and fixed the position to just landscape. This is seemingly ridiculous for a tablet, but there you are.

Having said that, however, the home screen interface is elegant and the navigation across the various screens is quite intuitive. More intuitive than the Samsung Galaxy Tab, but not as easy as an iPad 2 with iOS 5. And yes, Sony's designers have made the Honeycomb operating system come alive, and the screen resolution is sharp and just about bright. When I typed using the on-screen keyboard, a wave of joy swept through my mind. The keyboard is by far the best in the business, better than iPad's and Galaxy Tab's by a long margin. It even has a numeric keypad while in landscape mode. Pretty nifty, I'd say.

Clearly, the brains-bench at Sony has made the product count despite being late in the market by close to two years.

Another example of Sony's foresight: it is PlayStation3 certified. Which makes this a phenomenal gaming device. And even though there is only limited choice of games, it won't be long before Sony offers more. But the screen resolution is so good that playing games on the Sony Tablet S is a pleasure. It does not have the same native audio quality as the iPad 2, and you'd need good headphones to listen to music, watch movies or play games.
But the scene is not all rosy. Sony's tablet has entered the market really late, and it possibly may pay the price for its lethargy. And it is mostly in the software end of the battle.

The Android Marketplace is littered with great apps, but Apple's apps are simply too far ahead in terms of quality and sheer innovation. Plus, iTunes, which connects to movies and music as easily as it does to apps, puts it way ahead of the competition even though there are online services for Android that give access to music and movies. I'm not sure of its Indian usage, but international users of Sony's Movies Unlimited service can choose from more than 1,000 movies. That is just too meagre a choice.

Which is really the problem Sony will face in the initial months. If it has to breach the iPad's market share in terms of sales numbers, it would have to do something extraordinary. That extraordinary is not evident in the first version of the Tablet S.

Rs 29,990 (16 GB Wi-Fi).
16 GB Wi-Fi + 3G to be launched in January 2012 for Rs 33,990.

Sony has a history of great design; not quite in the same league as Apple or Bang and Olufsen, but in terms of pure practicality and ease of use, there was not much at which you could beat the Japanese electronics giant. Therefore, it is not surprising that the sleek tablet it recently introduced is not only sexy, it is functional and could work as a good alternative to Apple's iPad.


The Sony Tablet S has an elegant UI, but takes time to switch from
landscape mode to portrait

My initial reaction to the Sony Tablet S design was, "Wow, someone at Sony has really thought through the design." Working on it for four days did not dampen my enthusiasm. Its curved edge, which makes it look more like a notepad with its pages folded, is unique in every sense. Admittedly, the iPad is still top of the charts when it comes to design, but Sony definitely beats the more humdrum Samsung Galaxy design.

But the thing is, a tablet is not just about design (although it matters a lot because it is, after all, a mobile device). And in several aspects of pure functionality, there are still issues with the Sony Tablet. For starters, it is sluggish compared to the iPad (and even though comparisons are often odious, in this case it is not because the iPad still has close to 90 per cent of the tablet market) and the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Sony's two biggest competitors. This is surprising because speed, one would have guessed, is possibly the first thing a product designer would worry about.

The other big problem, and to me this was possibly its biggest annoyance, is that the tablet does not go smoothly from portrait to landscape and back. Certainly not as smooth as, well, the iPad and the Galaxy Tab. In fact, it is so slow, that it I stopped rotating it, and fixed the position to just landscape. This is seemingly ridiculous for a tablet, but there you are.

Having said that, however, the home screen interface is elegant and the navigation across the various screens is quite intuitive. More intuitive than the Samsung Galaxy Tab, but not as easy as an iPad 2 with iOS 5. And yes, Sony's designers have made the Honeycomb operating system come alive, and the screen resolution is sharp and just about bright. When I typed using the on-screen keyboard, a wave of joy swept through my mind. The keyboard is by far the best in the business, better than iPad's and Galaxy Tab's by a long margin. It even has a numeric keypad while in landscape mode. Pretty nifty, I'd say.

Clearly, the brains-bench at Sony has made the product count despite being late in the market by close to two years.

Another example of Sony's foresight: it is PlayStation3 certified. Which makes this a phenomenal gaming device. And even though there is only limited choice of games, it won't be long before Sony offers more. But the screen resolution is so good that playing games on the Sony Tablet S is a pleasure. It does not have the same native audio quality as the iPad 2, and you'd need good headphones to listen to music, watch movies or play games.
But the scene is not all rosy. Sony's tablet has entered the market really late, and it possibly may pay the price for its lethargy. And it is mostly in the software end of the battle.

The Android Marketplace is littered with great apps, but Apple's apps are simply too far ahead in terms of quality and sheer innovation. Plus, iTunes, which connects to movies and music as easily as it does to apps, puts it way ahead of the competition even though there are online services for Android that give access to music and movies. I'm not sure of its Indian usage, but international users of Sony's Movies Unlimited service can choose from more than 1,000 movies. That is just too meagre a choice.

Which is really the problem Sony will face in the initial months. If it has to breach the iPad's market share in terms of sales numbers, it would have to do something extraordinary. That extraordinary is not evident in the first version of the Tablet S.

Rs 29,990 (16 GB Wi-Fi).
16 GB Wi-Fi + 3G to be launched in January 2012 for Rs 33,990.

New releases
Blackberry turns porsche
What: Porsche Design P 9981 announced



What's cool: Forged stainless steel frame, hand-wrapped leather back cover, sculpted QWERTY keyboard, and crystal clear touch display, to begin with. The phone has a Porsche Design UI, a bespoke Wikitude World Browser (augmented reality app) and includes exclusive PINs that identify another P'9981 smartphone. It works on BlackBerry 7 operating system and possesses a Liquid Graphics technology to aid touch experience. The Porsche Design P'9981 has a 1.2 GHz processor, HD video recording, 24-bit high resolution graphics, and sensors to enable augmented reality applications. It has 8GB of on-board memory, which is expandable to 40GB.
What's not: Our only gripe with Blackberry has been its somewhat iffy Wi-Fi functionality and the lack of Radio, or even apps that support streaming radio. What are the odds this one will have FM?
How much: $1,500 to $2,000
(tentative price range)

Eyebrow RAZ-ing
What: Motorola RAZR
What's cool: Its sculpted glass face, diamond-cut aluminum accents and hyper-vibrant 10.9 cm (4.3-inch)

SUPER AMOLED Advanced display, KEVLAR fiber splash-guard coating, and scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass screen make sure that isn't a screen that'll crack too easy. It has a memory of 1GB with a dual-core 1.2GHz processor and Android 2.3 OS. IT is preloaded with the Motorola MotoCast app to download content from your PC . It has a front-facing 720p HD video camera and 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p HD video capture.
What's not: Motorola isn't the best when it comes to processing speed and general durability of the device. This one may just be the game changer.
How much: Rs 35,990 (MRP)

The researchers have developed a new form of light-emitting crystals, known as quantum dots, which can be used to produce ultra-thin television sets, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The tiny crystals, 100,000 times thinner than a human hair, can be printed on flexible plastic sheets to produce a paper-thin display, or on to wallpaper to create giant room-size screens.

According to Michael Edelman, the chief executive of Nanoco, a spin-out company set up by the scientists behind the technology at Manchester University, the firm was working with "major Asian electronics companies",

It is believed that Sony, Sharp, Samsung and LG are working on the quantum dot television technology.

Scientists have debunked the popular belief that technology overload from computers and mobile phones is eating into our sleep.

According to Nicholas Glozier and his colleagues at the University of Sydney, there has been no significant change over almost 20 years in the average amount of sleep that Australians are getting.

For the study, the researchers used figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics to compare sleeping patterns in 1992, 1997 and 2006.

"Public health concerns over declining sleep duration do not appear to be warranted," the Herald Sun quoted the authors as saying.

"The time allocated to sleep by Australian adults appears to have withstood the challenges of societal and technological change during this period," they said.

The authors found that sleep duration was associated with higher education, higher income, longer work and having two or more children in the household.

The researchers found that their findings were positive, as sleep deprivation is associated with health issues including premature death, heart disease, obesity, accident and injury, and mental health problems.

The study has been recently published in the Australian Medical Journal.

FIFA 12 is the latest iteration of EA's superhit football simulator and offers the most complete experience yet. Every year fans expect improvements in graphics, gameplay and added features and FIFA 12 doesn't disappoint.

The new 'tactical defending' feature is tougher and more involving than the old 'pressurise' system, your defenders no longer home into the advancing forward but stop a few feet away, closing off angles much closer to the actual game.

Connecting with a full length tackle is difficult, rightly making it an option of the last resort. The new 'precision dribbling' for added control and 'player impact' simulating crashes on the pitch increase the realism further.

Longtime fans will have to adjust to the slower and more natural feel of this game, but spend enough time and you will grow to appreciate it.



The career mode has you play as a player and / or a manager and this time the 'team management' game is more fleshed out with player morale, youth academies and extended trading seasons.

Online multiplayer options are fleshed out your exploits, in head to head and tournament games are tracked and you can compete in weekly tournaments.

In an added feature, your performances contribute to the score of your favourite football club in worldwide rankings. The new Challenge mode promises recent real world storylines that can be downloaded as custom scenarios for you to win.



The game presentation and graphics are flawless you still choose from a list of teams from all over the world, or even create your own. Stadiums, players and uniforms are detailed thanks to the official FIFA license.

Sound is good with better crowd chants though the commentary hasn't improved too much. Ever closer to the real thing, must-have for every football fan.

Quick Take
Graphics: Greay
Overall Gameplay: Great
Worth it? Yes
Final Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The fourth edition of what many consider the "king of racers" is a bit of an anti-climax. While Turn 10 Studios has done a fantastic job of improving the already near-perfect gameplay, in many ways Forza Motorsport 4 feels more like an annual update rather than the full-fledged sequel fans were expecting.

Unquestionably, when it comes to simulating a realistic and wholesome driving experience, nothing on the Xbox comes close to Forza 4. The responsiveness and handling of cars is better than ever before. With over 500 cars of all types to select from, the roster is as deep as they come.

Hatchbacks, sedans, SUVs, racing cars and more Forza has all bases covered. And every single car is lovingly and painstakingly rendered, inching closer to true photorealism. The customisation options are endless decals, paints and vinyls help you spruce up your ride, limited only by your creativity.



Forza 4 restructures the career mode into a world tour format, as you race in various competitions all over the globe while racking up XP and credits to unlock new cars and bonuses.

The Top Gear challenges are a welcome addition, providing some much needed diversity to the gameplay. A new Rival's mode allows you to race against an opponent's ghost car based on leaderboard rankings, challenging you to work your way up.

But then come the disappointments. Although there are some neat new additions (the Swiss Alps being by far the best), many of the race tracks have been recycled from previous editions.



And even though the tracks look good, they aren't quite at the same level as the ones in Dirt 3 visually. Sadly, the Porsche lineup is completely absent because of licensing issues. Weather conditions and night time racing are glaringly omissions, and crash physics are still not quite convincing.

And so what we have on hand is the best racing simulator -- the Xbox, but one that is just a baby-step up from its previous iteration.

Quick Take
Graphics: Good
Overall Gameplay: Excellent
Worth it? Yes
Final Rating: 4 out of 5