Which High-End Smartphone Offers The Best Battery Life

When considering a future smartphone purchase, few take into mind the importance of a decent battery life. Bamboozled by the megapixels, dots per inch and multiple core processors, it’s amazing how little regard folk give to the battery life, which has to go down as one of the most important features because without it, any exciting hardware is basically useless. Which.co.uk, a prominent observer of the mobile industry, has thrown together a rather interesting infographic on the battery retention levels of the foremost handsets on the market and, suffice to say, the results may shock you.

Trine 2 hits Steam for $14.99, offers three-player co-op

Frozenbyte has unleashed the much-awaited sequel of 2009's indie sidescrolling platformer today, with digital copies for PC and Mac readily available through Steam. Pricing is set at $14.99, while a $24.99 "Collector's Edition" includes a digital artbook and soundtrack. Although professional reviewsare still pouring in, the few that are around have praised the game's lighthearted action, fairytale visuals and stimulating physics-based puzzles.

Trine 2 has improved upon one of its predecessor's most attractive features: co-op gameplay. While the original was strictly an offline two-player affair, today's release can support up to three players online or locally. You shouldn't have any problems convincing a buddy to join you, especially considering the meager $15 admission fee. In fact, we're surprised Steam isn't taking the opportunity to sell a slightly discounted three-game bundle.

Naturally, there are plenty of other improvements over Frozenbyte's initial project. Based on the launch trailer below, there seems to be much more creative and challenging puzzles, not to mention the characters' new abilities, which includes frozen arrows and monster levitation. To complement the trickier sequences, you can now save whenever you want. The original had predetermined checkpoints that set you back if you died.a

Spec-wise, virtually anyone with a halfway competent PC should be able to play. Frozenbyte specifically calls for a 2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 1.5GB of storage, and a Radeon HD 2400 or GeForce 7600 or better (Shader Model 3.0 needs to be supported). Even Sandy Bridge's HD Graphics 3000 IGP is invited, though the developer warns that the game might be a bit much for most older integrated solutions to handle.

Going forward, Frozenbyte plans to release Trine 2 on the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network on December 21. Beyond that, the developer has promised to follow-up with a fair amount of downloadable content. From what we've heard, there's about four hours of extra gameplay in the pipeline for PC players, which equates to roughly 50% of the base install. There's no word on how much the DLC will cost, if anything.

Charter upgrades its speeds for free, offers 100Mb/s plan

Charter has drastically increased the speeds of its most popular Internet plans in DOCSIS 3.0 markets (95% of its total coverage area). The boost comes at no additional cost to customers. The Charter Internet Express offering has been bumped from 12Mb/s to 15Mb/s downstream and 1Mb/s to 3Mb/s upstream. Charter Internet Plus has been increased from 18Mb/s and 2Mb/s to 30Mb/s and 4Mb/s, while the company's premium residential offering has been elevated from 60Mb/s download to 100Mb/s with 5Mb/s upload.

"The Internet is changing the way we watch TV, communicate with our friends and family, and engage in social and professional networks. When you're posting content online, we know it's important to have a fast, reliable connection, and we're committed to enabling the rapid sharing of content," said Charter VP of Product and Strategy Rich DiGeronimo. "With multiple connected devices in your home, you don't have to make tradeoffs with Charter Internet. You can use multiple gadgets simultaneously, and enjoy a rich experience with each one," he continued.

Although you'll have faster speeds, it doesn't seem like Charter has adjusted its Acceptable Use Policy, which outlines various data caps for the different packages. Lite and Express customers are limited to 100GB per month, while Plus and Max subscribers are afforded 250GB -- the same as Comcast's residential cap. Ultra100 (the new name for Charter's best consumer plan) are given 500GB per month. If you overstep those boundaries, you can expect a call prompting you to reduce your consumption or upgrade your package.

This boost comes as experts warn about the coming rollout of usage-based billing. Analyst Craig Moffett claimed last week that Time Warner, Cox and Charter are eyeing metered bandwidth planssimilar to mobile providers. One could argue that the faster your connection is, the more data you're inclined to consume and ultimately, the more revenue ISPs are likely to generate. In other words, Charter's move could be a precursor to lining its pockets with usage-based billing. Naturally, we have no proof of such accusations, but it's food for thought.

Google backpedals: offers Google Videos to YouTube transfer option

After hearing from users that the migration off of Google Videos was unnecessarily difficult, Google has decided to eliminate the April 29, 2011 deadline. Google Videos users can rest assured that they won't be losing any of their content as the company begins to shut down the service.

Last week, Google sent an email to those who had uploaded content to Google Videos, telling them of two new deadlines. After April 29, 2011 they would no longer be able to watch any more videos. They had until May 13, 2011 to download their videos. Google encouraged them to re-upload their videos to YouTube but didn't offer users an option to transfer their videos to a YouTube account.

That changed this week when Google realized users were not happy with this decision. The company has decided to automatically migrate content from Google Videos to YouTube. For those who want to do so themselves, Google is now offering an Upload Videos to YouTube option on the Google Videos status page. To use this function, you'll need to havea YouTube account associated with your Google Videos account.

Google Videos was launched on January 25, 2005, but Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in October 2006. Google announced on June 13, 2007 that Google Videos search results would begin to include videos discovered by their search crawlers on other hosting services, including YouTube. In May 2009, Google Videos stopped accepting uploads. Although previously uploaded videos were still available, the service remained as a video search function, and now the search giant wants to finish the transformation by (eventually) deleting all remaining videos.

"Last week we sent an email to Google Video users letting them know we would be ending playbacks of Google Videos on April 29 and providing instructions on how to download videos currently hosted on the platform," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. "Since then we’ve received feedback from you about making the migration off of Google Video easier. We work every day to make sure you have a great user experience and should have done better. Based on your feedback, here’s what we’re doing to fix things."

Google offers person finder tools for Japanese natural disaster victims

Google is interested in helping those affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. As such, the search giant is offering two tools to help victims reunite with their loved ones: the Google Person Finder and the YouTube Person Finder. The former has been used by the company in previous times of need while the latter appears to be a new endeavor.

The first Person Finder service acts as a directory and message board so people can look for lost individuals or post a note saying they are safe. It is embeddable; meaning that you can include it on your website. The service has already logged thousands of records and is still growing.

The second Person Finder service is a channel that aggregates video messages shot at the shelters by TBS, a major TV station in Japan. Google is trying to increase the number of videos by adding more content from other TV stations and news networks, as well as videos shot by the individuals impacted themselves. Users can search for videos via the search box within the module in Kanji, Katakana, or Hiragana letters: enter the names of a missing person, the name of the place they lived, or the name of the shelter location.

"Our hope is that this channel will help victims and their families to establish each other's safety, and that the video messages will reach many viewers and motivate them to contribute to the recovery and restoration of the disaster-stricken areas," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. "Please watch the message videos and pray for their safety and reunion of families and friends involved in the disaster."

HP refreshes enterprise notebooks, offers 32-hour battery life

HP has overhauled its enterprise laptops, adding new processors and a sturdier, more power efficient design. HP's new EliteBook and ProBook models are constructed with the company's "Forge" framework, which includes aluminum-alloy hinges, titanium-alloy display latches, a magnesium-reinforced ABS chassis, a bottom-case drain in case of spills, and an HP "DisplaySafe" frame.


The EliteBook 8460p (14-inch) and 8560p (15.6-inch) appear to be the premium offerings, boasting an HP DuraCase that meets the MIL-STD 810G military standards and up to 32 hours of runtime with an HP BB09 Ultra Extended Life battery. The ProBook line carries many of the same hardy attributes while offering more flexibility with configurations ranging from ultra-light to desktop replacement.

EliteBooks start at $999 and can be outfitted with Intel's latest Core i5 and i7 Sandy Bridge processors, a 1GB Radeon HD 6470M discrete graphics chip, up to 16GB of RAM, mechanical or flash storage, as well as Windows 7, SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 or FreeDOS. Meanwhile, the new ProBooks start at $579 and have cheaper options such as Intel's Core i3 and Celeron, and Windows Vista.


Connectivity on the upper-end models includes two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports (one eSATA combo), VGA and DisplayPort outputs, an ExpressCard 54 slot, a multi-card reader, and various Wi-Fi/WWAN/Bluetooth options. Budget systems have less I/O, but HP has covered the important bases. All of the new enterprise machines should be available in the US on March 15.