The News By Me

The massive 3300mAh battery inside the new Motorola Droid Razr Maxx gives users over 8 hours of continued 4G LTE web-surfing, smashing marks set by its competitors.

The Droid Razr Maxx was launched this week with a huge $299 premium on a two year contract with Verizon, leading many to question whether the extra battery power was worth an extra $100.

However, in benchmarking tests undertaken by Laptop Mag the Maxx destroyed all other 4G LTE phones on the market, which have traditionally suffered from web-surfing at the next gen speeds.

The magazine found that the Razr Maxx lasted for 8.25 hours of continuous web-surfing at 40 per cent brightness.

Double time

That's almost twice as long as the original Droid Razr, which only mustered 4.45 hours using the same screen brightness and conditions.

The extra time corresponds almost exactly to the respective battery sizes - the only difference - between the two devices. That original Razr has a 1780mAh cell.

The Maxx's nearest competitor was the Samsung Droid Charge, which lasted for 6.42 hours before it needed, well, a charge, while the Samsung Galaxy Nexus slumped to just 3.40 hours.

Facebook's long-awaited debut on the stock market could be underway as early as next week, as the company prepares to file IPO papers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Initial Public Offering, which is unlikely to take place until the autumn, will value the social network at anywhere between $75bn and $100bn, says the report.

The company hopes to raise $10 billion in cash from the offering and could file papers underwritten by Morgan Stanley as early as Wednesday.

If Facebook gained a $100 billion valuation through the offering, it would see the company draw level with McDonald's in terms of market worth, put it about halfway to overhauling Google.

In the works

A Facebook floatation would see the culmination of a long-awaited to journey towards the stock market.

If Facebook were to become a publicly traded entity, interested observers would glean more insight into the company's income, earnings, performance and strategy in quarterly earnings reports.

It would also mean, for the first time, maverick CEO Mark Zuckerberg would have to answer to shareholders. Interesting times lie ahead, it seems.

LG's indisputably beautiful 55-inch OLED TV will arrive in the second half of this year, the Korean manufacturer has confirmed.

The pencil-thin Smart TV-enabled set wowed the masses of onlookers and indeed TechRadar at CES 2012 in Las Vegas earlier this month.

While LG had been coy about when the Cinema 3D telly would land in homes, reports this week suggested the company may be going into production in July.

Pressed for comment by TheVerge LG said that although "it's really difficult to predict exactly when" that 55-inch beasts "will start rolling out sometime in the second half of 2012."

Breakthrough

The arrival of LG's 55-inch OLED TV at CES proved a breakthrough for the technology which has threatened to eventually eclipse LCD for the last few years.

Until CES, where Samsung also launched a living room-sized OLED display, the sets on offer had been far too small to be considered the number one viewing device in the home.

No news yet on how much LG intends to charge for this super-slim device, but one thing's for sure; it's not going to be cheap

In the meantime, check out our 55-inch LG OLED TV hands-on.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent a lengthy email to staff in response to reports on the alleged unsafe and oppressive working conditions at its Chinese supplier factories

The New York Times article claimed Foxconn employees work excessive overtime where they "stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk," amid scores of other damaging allegations.

The report also quotes a former Foxconn boss as saying: "Apple never cared about anything other than increasing product quality and decreasing production cost. Workers' welfare has nothing to do with their interests."

Defined by values

Cook has hit back at the NYT's report telling his "team" that the company cares about each employee in the supply line and that no company has striven to improve working conditions like Apple has.

He said in the lengthy email: "As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple's values today, and I'd like to address this with you directly. We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain.

"Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don't care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It's not who we are."

Workers rights

Cook claimed to be "outraged" by the allegations and said Apple has "raised the bar" for its partners by going deeper into the supply chain.

"We are focused on educating workers about their rights, so they are empowered to speak up when they see unsafe conditions or unfair treatment," he continued. "As you know, more than a million people have been trained by our program.

"We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues. What we will not do - and never have done - is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain. On this you have my word."

Apple's manufacturing methods in China have been called into question further this week as the company announced its highest single quarter revenue ever with record iPhone and iPad sales.

Jon Rubinstein, the former CEO of Palm and the man who spearheaded the development of the WebOS software, has left Hewlett-Packard.

Rubinstein joined HP when the company bought WebOS back in 2010 and has now completed his 12-24 month commitment to the company.

"I am going to take a well deserved break after four and a half years of developing webOS," Rubinstein told AllThings D.

HP followed up with a statement of its own: "Jon has fulfilled his commitment and we wish him well."

Pre-conceived ideas

After a term at Apple working on the iPod line, Rubinstein returned to prominence around the time Palm made a comeback with the Pre handset in 2008, which saw the debut of WebOS.

The Pre was not a success and the promising WebOS software failed to reach its potential under both Palm and HP's leadership.

Following the TouchPad tablet fiasco, HP decided to release WebOS to the open source.

Another couple of juicy rumours about an impending new Canon 5D Mark III, this time emerging from the Facebook page of an accessories manufacturer.

On the Aquatech Facebook page, the company claimed that the new camera, which it referred to as the Canon 5D Mark III, featured 7.5 fps shooting and a 22 million pixel sensor.

Other names that have been mooted include the Canon 5D X or possibly the Canon 6D.

After several people asked to know the credentials of the new specs, Aquatech claimed that it had come directly from Canon.

Cashing on all the extra attention the Facebook page has been receiving, Aquatech has taken the opportunity to point out its range of products - it's therefore worth taking any comments about specs with a pinch of salt.

Canon is notorious for keeping extremely quiet about upcoming models, indeed when we phoned to ask for comment they confirmed that they don't discuss upcoming models.

CP+

Some are hoping that the camera will make its debut at the upcoming CP+ photography show in Japan, which the company told us nobody from Canon UK is attending.

It is also rumoured that Nikon will be announcing a new DSLR at the show, possibly a Nikon D800, so it would seem like a good time for Canon to unveil something.

Stay tuned for news of any new camera announcements, as and when they happen.

The X-Rite Colormunki Display calibrates monitors and projectors, and comes complete with a friendly software package which contains step-by-step guides and video tutorials.

Ambient light is swiftly measured while display flare may also be taken into account, and the process takes under 10 minutes from start to finish.

The results appear accurate, and the various image samples allow quick before and after comparisons post-calibration. It's not the cheapest or fastest device, but it's ideal for those new to the process.

The X-Rite Colormunki Display is an inexpensive monitor calibration device, which promises advanced control with ease of use. Capable of profiling wide-gamut displays and even projectors, the package contains a colorimeter complete with a diffuser panel, together with software and a Quick Start Guide.

Following the latter enables even first time users to quickly get to grips with its operation, while the profiling process may be run in either Easy or Advanced modes, depending on the user's skill level and desired control.

Once the software has been installed, an ambient light reading may be taken and calibration can begin. Everything is explained clearly and diagrams are provided, although video tutorials are also on hand should the user get stuck.

The software takes around two minutes to adjust the display's luminance using a series of patches, before the remainder are displayed and measured over an additional five minutes. Approximate timings are given throughout the process, and once complete it's possible to view before and after comparisons using a range of images.

The advanced controls enable you to measure flare from your display and to take this into account, along with white point specification and other options.

Overall, there's very little not to like: the results appear accurate and no obvious colour biases can be observed, and reminders can be set up should the lighting conditions change or if a large period of time elapses between calibrations.

The only minor niggle is that although it works in much the same way as the i1 Display Pro device, it's considerably slower (although around £50 cheaper too).

Verdict

Still, for the novice user performing occasional calibrations, it's pretty much spot on, colour casts will be banished and all your future image adjustments accurate and worth while.

BANGCRASHCREAK *coughcough* We're free! 7 days in Mobile, TechRadar's alternative and mostly fictitious look at the week's events, has freed itself from its prison under the disused BenQ Siemens HQ and has returned to find the world is a wholly different place.

We won't tell you how we came to be entombed in a coffin made entirely of Windows Mobile handsets - but let's just say a certain unicorn was pretty unhappy with certain people 'censoring his words on the beautiful BlackBerry Storm'.

When we last spoke, the Palm Pre was still a device that caused us to quiver with excitement, Nokia was still chucking out a new phone every day and Vodafone was happily chatting about DRM-free music. How things have changed eh?

So - we've had a quick look over the last week and we were shocked... no, flabbergasted by what we saw. OK, we weren't that amazed, but it was enough for us to work out that perhaps some of the stories could be better served by extreme embellishment.

Oh nO2!

O2 though the worst was over when it finally apologised to the UK for accidentally leaking mobile phone numbers to any website that requested then while a user was browsing the net on their handset.

But it appears that the company has also leaked Jeff McNultyParson's unfinished novel, where he describes his experiences as a fast food delivery man in a high class area of Hertfordshire.

Called 'Where's the beef?' the novel was meant to be an exploratory and defaming look at the way food couriers are treated by those with so much money they sometimes wake up laughing.

But when Jeff began receiving angry emails from horse fanciers the world over, Jeff has decided to scrap the project and will instead be suing O2 for 'the billions of pounds he would have made had the book been kept secret'.

"I mean, it's so obvious," Jeff told TechRadar exclusively. "One minute I'm browsing an erotic horse-jumping website on my Palm Pre, and the next thing I know, my novel is all over the internet. It can't be a coincidence."

O2 has responded curtly to the news, saying simply "We have no idea that such a book exists. Although we did all go home on Thursday and leave the doors unlocked with wild geese running around. Sorry about that."

Apple-powered RIM

We all know that Apple has more money than has ever existed, so it's no surprise to find out that the firm has actually installed a robot it created at the head of RIM.

Thorsten Heins was described as a 'little known company insider' before being promoted to lead the new firm, but TechRadar has been sent blueprints proving he's actually a cyborg created from the composite parts of ex-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.

Uncovered: This robot has been heading up Nokia's design studio for 12 years thanks to Samsung

Several sources believe that the action is being taken ensure that RIM never manages to release its next-gen phones and instead keeps releasing the same phone with a different name for the next three years, insisting that "This one, NO, REALLY, this one is going to be a winner for us."

To the past-mobile!

You're probably bored of all the touchscreen smartphones on the market at the moment - but imagine if we still had rotary dials instead - playing Angry Birds would be a nightmare.

Well, here's the past looking at the future (which we call today or yesterday, depending on when you read this) on Tomorrow's World in 1979... including one of the world's first wrong numbers on a mobile phone.

The SMDV Flash Wave III is a wireless system for triggering flashguns and studio lights, as well as for tripping a camera's shutter.

The system comprises a transmitter and receiver: for flash use the former sits on the camera's hotshoe, while the latter either connects to studio lights or accepts a flashgun inside its built-in hotshoe.

For remote shooting, the receiver simply plugs into a camera's remote port, leaving you free to operate the transmitter from wherever is necessary.

The system supports 16 channels, which are selectable via four small switches on the side of both units; these are painfully small and can only really be moved with the protrusion from the battery cover, as suggested. Both units have LEDs to indicate power and status, although once a flashgun is mounted on the receiver it obscures the power LCD.

The models promise a greater range than previous versions, and working on radio frequencies means that they don't require line of sight to communicate. Indeed, the two work just as well through a series of walls and on different floors as they do when right next to each other.

The SMDV Flash Wave III's receiver has a hotshoe on one side and a tripod thread on the other, meaning that it can be mounted securely when used in conjunction with a flash.

The size of the unit means that it can happily support a flashgun even without a tripod, although on some surfaces it can be easily knocked over - small rubber feet on the opposite side would be welcome for this reason.

While the pair work as well as expected, the one thing which may put some off is the lack of TTL metering support. For this, you would need an alternative set up such as some of the more recent PocketWizard models.

Verdict

Still, if you're on a budget and you don't require TTL compatibility, the SMDV Flash Wave III is a perfectly capable choice.

Ah, Friday – the day of the week favoured by Ice Cube, Rebecca Black and Crunchie enthusiasts the world over.

Yes it's nearly the weekend, but before you go celebrate in the nearest public house, here are snippets of the news which didn't quite make it as fully fledged TechRadar articles on their own but make for lovely if slightly schizophrenic reading when bunched together in this post.

Polishing up on politics - Politicians in Poland decided to don Anonymous-style Guy Fawkes masks in an anti-piracy protest this week. Makes us think that our very own Prime Minister might have been wearing a Mr Potato Head mask all this time. [SlashGear]

Getting you Lego-ver - A bunch of Toronto teenagers have decided to send a Lego man into space and film the journey. We are already prepping plans to sell our Meccano to the moon. [Phys-org]

Sony targets the great unwashed - The Sony Xperia S is to have 'dirt-repellent coating' and 'fast charging' – great for tramps on speed then. We aren't sure this will make Sony's advertising campaigns for the phone though. [Android Authority]

Newzbin2 bins its .com - Newzbin2 is feeling the heat from MegaUpload's closure and has decided to lose its dotcom address and in turn its affiliation with the US. Sounds like it won't be long before Newzbin becomes Hazbin. [TorrentFreak]

Bang, and the dirt is gone - Fancy pants audio company Bang & Olufsen wants you to be its next designer. We are not sure what its current designers feel about this, but you can apply now through its Facebook page. [Facebook]

Hacked off - Antivirus firm Symantec was hacked in 2006 and has admitted it didn't know if anything was actually taken. If the company's protecting us from hackers can't help us, then this whole internet thing is essentially screwed. [Gizmodo]

Earth Song - Google has taken time out getting to know everything about you and has tinkered with its Google Earth app, releasing version 6.2. This new edition comes complete with Earth-destroying mode where you can summon Godzilla to do damage to your local neighbourhoods. Well, it does in our dreams. In reality, it has made its images of Earth look a little bit more realistic. [Digital Trends]

Fast show - Boffins at MIT have created the world's fastest camera which can capture a trillion frames per second. It's still not quick enough to see if Han shot first though. [Gizmodo]

NewTube - YouTube has refreshed its video editor, giving it a similar makeover to the rest of the site. So, now you can trim your Hitler parody videos in style. [The Verge]

No longer the Mac Daddy - Macworld is here, but there's nothing much to see. Unless you like cases. Lots and lots of cases. [CNET]