ViewSonic and NVIDIA have already delayed the announcement several times, but it's finally arrived: the first 120 Hz monitor will be the VX2265wm, measuring 22 inches and with a 3ms TN panel.  Gamers everywhere will certainly want to upgrade.
It heralds the beginning of a small revolution.  Why just a small one?  Because we could very well be on the brink of a major shift in our relationship with our computers and their screens.  Doubling the frequency with which the screen is refreshed will allow two different approaches:

• Instead of showing 120 images per second in the usual way, the screen will be able to alternate 120 time a second, showing 60 images for the left eye, and 60 images for the right eye, with a pair of specially designed glasses separating the two.  It’ll be up to your brain to take the final step and produce the impression of 3D images.  The peripheral you’ll need is a pair of NVIDIQ glasses connected directly to the graphics card.  For the time being, we haven’t seen the price or the glasses themselves.

• Alternatively, the press release also suggests that the 120 Hz could be used continuously, showing 120 frames per second.  This will ‘eliminate afterglow and all trace effects in movies,’ according to the press release;  We’ve already tested televisions which ran at 100 or  even 120 Hz, a task at a which some them performed very well.  On the very best, the amount of afterglow is effectively halved by comparison with a 60 Hz monitor with a similar response rate.  We should find that these 120 Hz monitors are as good for playing games as the best CRT screens.

The ViewSonic VX2265wm will be brought to market before the end of the year, although their price has not yet been announced.  According to our sources, Gateway and Samsung could also be on the verge of announcing similar screens.  The same source also warns that when they first appear, these screens could be very expensive and destined only for the most dedicated of gamers.

PS: the Viewsonic roadmap suggests that a VX2268wm will follow, although it has not yet been unveiled.

Canon is updating the Powershot collection, its classic range of compact digital cameras, in time for the start of the new year.  The manufacturer is replacing the A580, the A720 and the SX100 and is also launching a new line aimed at particularly at women.  The E range, which for the time being only features the E1, features pastel colors and rounded forms.



Canon Powershot A1000 IS and E1

Despite the lack of physical resemblance, these cameras are in fact the same on the inside.  Only their cases differ, with the A1000 IS (above) in a muted black/grey combination with a square frame and the curvaceous E1 (below) in a series of pale, washed-out shades.

Everything else, though, is the same, including the positioning of all the buttons.  The sensor has 10 megapixels, combined with a stabilized 35-140 mm lens.  Unfortunately, the screen is the same as that found in the A580, and while its size is reasonable (2.5 inches), its resolution of only 115 000 pixels is hardly reasonable.

On sale at the same price (199 euros), they will be available from mid-September.  They will, however, face stiff competition from the Panasonic LS80, amongst others.  The Panasonic has a less powerful zoom and a mere 8 megapixels, but its lens is stabilized and its screen boasts 230 000 pixels.  More importantly, though, it costs less than 120 euros!


Canon Powershot A2000 IS

The A2000 IS is intended to replace the A720.  Its case is extremely flat, without the handle that has become the hallmark of the A series, and we look forward to seeing how this will affect the camera's handling.   The form is otherwise without surprises, and the screen has increased in size to 3 inches and a resolution of 230 000 pixels, leading to the removal of the manual viewfinder, a feature which is still useful in bright sunlight.
It uses the same 10 megapixel sensor as the earlier models, but benefits from a more powerful zoom, an all-new 36-216 mm, but less bright than that of the A720.  Naturally, the lens is stabilized. 


A Single Criticism

This is already a very pressing problem with Canon's new range, however.  Both the A1000 and the A2000 have succumbed to the trend for entirely automatic cameras.  The manual mode, present in almost every one of the A range of cameras ever since its launch (with the exception of one or two A4xx) has inexplicably disappeared, leaving room only for a very basic program.

Canon was the only manufacturer to offer affordable cameras with a manual mode.  Even though most users preferred P mode or the automatic settings to manual mode, the ability to learn a little about shutter speed and exposure without spending a lot of money was very valuable.  It even went a long way to pardon the sometimes flimsy construction or out-of-date screens.

The only thing left on the A1000 and the E1 now to distinguish them from the crowd is their manual viewfinder, which is hardly a major selling-point.


Canon Powershot SX110 IS

The SX110IS is, unsurprisingly, the successor to the SX100 IS, and is now the only compact with a 10x zoom, apart from Panasonic's TZ range.

Save for a few details on its frame (a new handle, a few millimeters of nip and tuck here and there), only two new features are worthy of comment: the new 9 megapixel sensor and an enlarged 3 inch screen with 230 000 pixels.

Elsewhere, there's no need to change a winning formula: the 36-360 mm lens with good lighting is back, along with the different modes, including manual, and the ingenious system combining a four-way directional control and a selection wheel.



> Our comparison of digital compacts

In France, and most other wealthy countries, the arrival of the iPhone 3G in July was highly-anticipated by consumers.  In the US, the lines which formed a week early were a touch fanatical, but the hysteria was only too real on Day 1.  Here in France, the one thing that we didn't need to wait for was the phone selling out.

In Poland, though, public enthusiasm was slightly more muted.  So much so, in fact, that Orange, the local distributor of the iPhone had to take action.  To be sure of having impressive looking lines, the operator hired actors to queue outside its stores.

An Orange spokesman, quoted by Reuters, said, 'we installed twenty of these fake queues at different locations within the country to stimulate interest around the iPhone.'

The idea, it seems, was to spread the news by word-of-mouth, attracting curious customers to come and see the cause of the excitement.

Meanwhile, on the French market, the shortage from the end of July has yet to be totally solved.  At the time of writing, the 16GB version of the iPhone 3G is only available from Orange in white. 

As announced, the Acer Aspire One is now available in two new versions.  We've already seen an introductory model with a small SSD (8 GB), and there are now two more, this time with 'big' hard drives on board.  They now ship with 120 GB drives in place of the 80 GB that had previously been rumored.  As for memory, the two laptops in question have different specifications, the first with 512 MB of RAM and the second 1 GB.

If you're interested, be careful not to mix these two laptops up.  While the processor, an Intel Atom N270 (1.6 GHz) is found in both systems, other features are different while the model number differs by just a single letter.  Here are the names of the two computers and their specifications:

Aspire One A150-AW	Aspire One A150-Bw1
120 GB Hard drive   512 MB RAM   Linpus Linux Lite 3 cell battery	120 GB Hard drive 1 GB RAM   Windows XP 3 cell battery

As you can see, the BW1 comes with Windows XP and not Linpus Linux Lite.  According to our friends at Cowcotland, installing Microsoft's operating system on the basic 8 GB SSD version with only 512 MB of RAM had the machine on its knees.  Does the addition of a hard drive and 512 MB of extra RAM make things any better then?  A review in Laptopmag suggest it does, in fact.  The major speed problems seem to have been solved.  In their tests, they were easily able to run software like Office, use e-mail and even play World of Warcraft.

It's a piece of very, very, very hot news that we've just stumbled across: in 2009, Philips plans to launch a 23 inch screen, the 230CZ9FB, with Full HD, 1920 x 1080 pixels.


Beyond the monitor's looks, which you could quite reasonably call pretty, this model should also have two other advantages:

• a price below that of 24 inch monitors because it's in 16/9 format instead of 16/10

• films should look a lot better on it, also thanks to the change of format.

As for the rest, and in particular the monitor's technical specifications and contrast it's too early to tell.

1080 lines instead of 1200?

Moving to a height of 1200 pixels instead of 1080 might be noticeable in films.  For office users, on the other hand, there has been a steady loss since the 4/3 format was left behind (or even 5/4 on many CRTs.)  Shaded grey is the section of our site that will disappear on 16/9 screens:


And the 22 inch?

The other interesting question is whether 22 inch monitors will survive.  The pressure on the price of 24 inch models is already very strong.  You can already find some that are no more expensive than 22'' screens.  What will become of these in a few months when the new 23 inch monitors arrive and are even cheaper than those at 24 inches?  Whatever happens, it will be an interesting fight to follow ...

From the very first 8086 through to today's Project Fusion, AMD has been making processors for a quarter of a century.  Their story is marked by successes as well as failures, and their reputation is that of an alternative supplier with a good relationship between cost and quality.

Our friends at Tom's Hardware have been looking back at this story, revisiting the evolution of x86 architecture along the way.

'After looking at Intel's processors a few months ago, let's check out AMD's x86 models.  From the very first 8086 clone in 1982 through to Project Fusion, still in development, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) has always been in competition with Intel.  Sometimes technically superior to its competitor (as with the Athlon), and sometimes in difficulty (as with the Phenom), AMD has always managed to keep a part of the x86 processor market within its reach.'

Following on from the 42LG6000, Korean company LG is preparing to launch a new television in its Scarlet range.  The 42LG61's strongest feature will be that it is only 4.5 cm thick, but let's hope that this compact size hasn't prevented the manufacturer from including an HD-ready digital tuner, whose absence was an earlier model's major flaw.

The 42LG61 has been advertised as a Full HD panel, with a contrast of 600 000:1, 120 Hz technology and 4 HDMI ports for connecting peripherals.

Despite the commercials that have already begun, both on TV and in cinemas, there has yet to be an official announcement concerning the product's availability or price in France.  We've not found a single stockist, and it's not listed on LG France's website.

> Ongoing product test: televisions from 40 to 49 inches

ComScore has published a survey of online video for the month of May, and, surprisingly, France shows noticeably different trends from the four other countries studied.

Google's domination, in France and elsewhere, is well-known.  The search engine now owns YouTube, the biggest site for uploading video, and supplied 28% of the videos watched online in France.

By comparison, Google's market share is 45% in the UK, 44% in Canada, 38% in Germany and 34% in the US.  The weaker performance in France is mostly caused by the strength of a local competitor, Dailymotion, which supplied 15.5% of the videos seen in France.

The study's other key finding is that, while Google and Dailymotion have the largest market shares, they do not have a complete majority.  So, while the third player in the market, French television channel TF1 only has 1.5% of the audience, the combined share of the two giants is only just above 43%.  This means the majority of clips are available here and there on a host of different sites.  It seems that even if users plump for YouTube or Dailymotion to find something to watch, they prefer to go directly to a specific site if they already have a video in mind.

More surprising, though, is the sheer number of videos watched in France: 2.3 billion.  That makes 93 videos per user, and 25 million people (81% of French Internet users) have watched a least one clip online in the past month.  The average user watches three per day.

It is important to remember that these statistics do not take into account downloads to mobile phones, although ComScore estimates that 3.2 million subscribers have watched at least one video on their phones.

> ComScore press release

The HTC Touch Pro is the professional version of the Touch Diamond.  It takes most of the other model's strong points (GPS receiver, FM radio, 3 megapixel camera, VGA screen, 3G/WiFi/Bluetooth connectivity ...) and adds several new features:

• the camera now features flash
• a micro-SD port has been adde
• most importantly, a slide-out alphabetic keyboard is featured underneath the camera.

The addition of a camera will certainly be appreciated by e-mail lovers, especially given that it's a full alphanumeric keyboard, unlike, for instance, some BlackBerry or Palm models where a single keyboard mixes letters, numbers and punctuation.

The keyboard is joined by an all-new touch screen interface, called TouchFlo 3D, which struggles to hide Apple's influence.  Underneath this cosmetic layer, however, the system is still running Windows 6.1 Professional, which allows for the installation of extra software, including GPS tools.

What's more, battery autonomy has been improved. From 5 hours 30 minutes of calls and 285 hours of standby time on the Diamond, this model has been upgraded to 6 hours and 40 minutes of calls and 400 hours.

This does mean, though, that the Pro is 7 mm thicker and 55 g heavier than the Diamond, with dimensions totaling 10.2 x 5.1 x 1.8 cm and 165g.

Advertised at 699 Euros, Touch Pro will be available at the beginning of September.

The HP Touchsmart IQ500.fr is a computer that's entirely integrated into its 22 inch screen - its 22 inch touch screen, that is.  It has just arrived in shops, and we've got one here in our labs which we will test soon and add to our Product Face-offs.

This is a superb computer, whose useful touch-screen interface seems to work well with the platform provided by HP.

An office PC built like a notebook

Nevertheless, power users might well be disappointed, because the computer is mainly built with components designed for notebooks.  It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (2.16 GHz) with an NVIDIA graphics card (GeForce 9300M).

Everything else is much more “normal”: a 500 GB hard drive is combined with 4 GB of RAM, as well as WiFi b/g/n compatibility.  And as for ports, there's everything you need, with 5 USB, including 2 on the front, an RJ45 and Firewire.  Still, eSata would have been a useful addition.

We did have one nasty surprise as we were unpacking, however.  Although HP has taken care to make an outstanding combined computer/monitor, they have made do with very poor quality peripherals.  They haven't put any effort into making a stylish product, or even physically solid ones.  The keyboard is very loud and the mouse feels cheap.  In our opinion, neither of them belongs next to such an attractive computer.

Oh, and one last thing: the screen itself is truly incredible... 

The arguments in its favor are rather seductive: this is a 20 inch monitor whose ergonomics are much better than average and which doesn't look too bad either. 

But the arguments against are pretty stunning: is a 20 inch monitor at the price of a 24 inch really that tempting?  How can Nec justify itself?

> Product test: LCD Nec LCD205wxm, the end of the 20''?