Review: Dirt 3 - The concept of flow can be described as a "single-minded immersion where the emotions are not just contained and channelled but positive, energised and aligned with the task at hand." It occurs when a higher-than-average challenge is met by your slightly-above-average skills, skills you apply wholeheartedly and without a sense of self. It's a feeling most surfers know - a joyous escape from self-awareness that challenges, excites and rewards. Many games include elements of flow in ...

The Playbook is many things to many people: an iPad competitor; a desperate attempt at relevancy; a RIM fanboy's wet dream; just another tablet. Blackberry's first foray into the tablet market comes some time after their competitors had flooded it. Can the QNX operating system make the Playbook a viable competitor to the iPads and Samsung Galaxy Tabs of this world? Can its other features make up for the paucity of apps on RIM's app world? Roger Hislop tests this ...

The Jabra Extreme bluetooth headset -- mystifying. To go to so much effort to engineer such a device, make it look nice and put it in a smart box. A pair of $5 ‘buds with one side chopped off will do much the same job. So much technology, so little point. It sure looks the part. All black Cylon hi-tech styling with a range of different clips to suit every cranny of every ear. But then you use it, and deep ...

Facebook friends will be able to conspire together to rule the world in a free version of blockbuster "Civilization" strategy videogame crafted for the online social network. 2K Games on Thursday released a "Sid Meier's Civilization World for Facebook" application online at apps.facebook.com/civworld. "Our team set out to create an exciting 'Civilization' game for Facebook where for the first time, players can join with their friends to build a powerful empire and rule the world," said Sid Meier, director of creative ...

Apple announced on Thursday that more than 15 billion applications for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch have been downloaded from its App Store with more than 425,000 free and paid applications for the 200 million iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches in use worldwide. Over 100,000 applications have been developed for the iPad alone, said Apple. "In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen," Apple senior ...

Review: Native Union Moshi Moshi 01, 02 and possibly 03 - Desiring something that you want for no good reason needs some explaining. Perhaps it is beautiful and honest, doing only what it says. Perhaps it makes your desk look hotter. And it definitely looks hotter to cradle a retro modern soft-touch handset than hold that tiny little cellphone to your ear to talk into like a chimp. The Moshi Moshi telephone handsets are a whole new class of cellphone ...

This week I take a look at Expensify, a powerful, functional and incredibly good-looking expense reports app. No, not another personal finace tool, this is for the travelling business person, and it's a must-have. With a powerful desktop based web app to support it, Expensify is fast becoming the standard for recording business expense reports whether you’re out for lunch with an important client, or opening another office on the other side of the world. I travel a lot for work, ...

Italian police have detained 15 they believe to be members of an international hackers cabal called "Anonymous" blamed for several major online attacks, says La Republica newspaper. At the same time, beleagured Sony has got its PlayStation Network and Qriocity distribution network to its home turf in Japan back online after more than two months of hacks, patches, obloquy and taunting from hacker groups styling themselves as challengers to big corporate and big government power, or merely anarchist. The suspected Italian ...

Not a Review: Listening to music on vinyl – Gearburn is all about the latest and greatest – but to be sure we’re not missing the gorgeous old forest for the shiny new trees, we also look backwards to see if we’re moving forward. LP vinyl records were what your parents listened to, not because they had greater presence and deeper, fuller soundstage with darker blacks between the notes, but because that’s pretty much all they had. Now we have ...

Hewlett-Packard rolled out its new TouchPad tablet computer on Friday, seeking to get a bit of the iPad tablet action and revive its slumping fortunes. Better late than never, eh HP? The TouchPad went on sale in major US retailers such as Best Buy and Walmart as well as on Amazon.com, HP said. It is expected to go on sale shortly in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and Canada, and later this year it will become available in Italy, Spain, Australia, Hong ...