I’ve been reviewing these little HTPC boxes from Zotac for a while now and every few months, a new model lands on our desk. These pizza box shaped computers are targeted towards the home theater enthusiast and, honestly, if the model from last year played full HD 1080p movies just fine, is there a need for a a newer model? Thats what we’re here to find out today with the Zotac Zbox ID-80 Plus.

Packaged in the very familiar box that we have seen with most Zbox PCs of late, the ID-80 comes with the usual power charger and VESA mounting kit that can be attached to the back of your PC to completely hide the computer. Also finally included is an iR receiver and remote- something I’ve been asking Zotac to do through my reviews for quite a while. One thing that I would like them to change is to provide all the drivers and applications on a USB key instead of a CD as some of the Z-BOX PCs, including this one, don’t have an optical drive.

Coming to the design, the ZBOX ID-80 looks pretty much like most of the older ZBOX models that I have reviewed- which is not abad thing. The square shaped flat PC is fairly simple looking with a shiny black finish. The look for ZBOX is getting a bit old but I can understand why Zotac hasn’t focused much on the looks because it comes with a VESA mounting kit which means that it might even be totally hidden from the user.

On the front side, you have audio ports along with an SD card reader, a USB port and the power button with Wi-Fi and Hard Drive LEDs. The top side has another USB 2.0 port while the back features connectors for power, a Wi-Fi antenna, wired LAN, two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports as well as HDMI, DVI and Optical S/PDIF outputs.

It’s a crazy world we live in and considering this is 2012 then why shouldn’t you expect the world to come to an end? Don’t fret though, there’s an app to help you prepare for the apocalypse! Well not really. Crazy Survival World Trip is a game about surviving what clearly must be the end of the world and seeing the world.

Your hero is a stick figure that you control via a set of four buttons on the screen (tested with a BlackBerry Torch 9860), right, left, jump and crouch. The goal is to score points by avoiding a myriad of falling objects such as meteors, rocks, missiles and fiery objects from the sky. You gain points by jumping over or crouching under these obstacles and grabbing health points and stars that make you grow to twice your size. You get to travel to all seven continents and in each continent you have 15 levels of difficulty to overcome.

The gameplay is quite simple and straightforward and you get a free version to try before considering paying for the premium. The thing that annoyed me about the free version was that in between the controls are advertisements and I found myself accidentally touching those while trying to play the game. The advertisement opens up a window in the browser that interrupts your game and you can see why that would be annoying. The controls themselves sometimes get stuck if they are pressed for too long and you cannot press two buttons at once so you cannot run to one side and jump over something, you have to run there, stop then jump.

The levels are quite challenging and it certainly gets much harder nearing the end of your visit to that continent. The graphics are nothing to write home about- you can’t expect a Crysis-like game with superb graphics for a measly $1.50. I reckon Crazy Survival World Trip is a decent game to keep you busy on a short flight or when you’re heading home from work on the bus or metro. It has nothing flashy like outstanding graphics or sound but you don’t need those in a game to make it decent enough to play. Give it a go, but be warned about the free version, the ad in the middle of the control buttons is just inexcusable.

I remember when Apple announced the iPhone 4S some time back and how “disappointed” many of the users on my Twitter timeline were. I kept insisting that it was actually a pretty decent upgrade and even though it looks identical to the iPhone 4- the new internals justified the new iPhone. Thus, I was amongst the first people in line to pick up the new iPhone 4S when it was officially announced for the UAE market. It’s been two weeks since then and I figured that was enough time to write about the device.

Lets start with the pricing and plans for the iPhone 4S- the iPhone 4S is available in capacities of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB in black and white. You can purchase the device from either Etisalat, du or directly from Apple.  The following table lists the price of the buying the device outright from the carriers or Apple.

If you don’t want to commit to any data packages, the Apple Store deal is the cheapest, however, du gives you 1GB of free data per month for a year (as long as you spend over 100 Dirhams per month with them) while Etisalat gives you 500MB of data for the first three months with no strings attached. Other than purchasing the unit outright, Etisalat also offers a discount if you sign up for an annual commitment on a post-paid line. While du also offers something similar, it is only for business users and not the consumer so I’m not going to go into that, however you can click here and find more on that if you’re interested. The following table lists plans by Etisalat.

I chose to go with Etisalat’s plan 2 which I think offers a pretty good mix of data and voice at a decent price. Having owned the iPhone 4 in black, I chose white for iPhone 4S simply to have something a little different and while I like the white iPhone 4S, I think black still looks better- but that is just my personal opinion or maybe I need time for it to grow on me

Looks-wise, the iPhone 4S is almost identical to the iPhone 4 and you would need a really sharp eye to spot someone carrying one from the other. It has identical dimensions and is just 3 grams heavier which is something you won’t notice even if you’re holding both phones together. Apple has slightly lowered the position of the volume buttons and the mute key on the iPhone 4S while the surrounding antenna has more partitions and in different places- probably to fix the antenna-gate issue that popped up in the iPhone 4 for some. Some of my colleagues carrying the iPhone 4 are happy that Apple hasn’t change the design on the 4S as it doesn’t make their device look like last year’s model, which I think is fair to the consumer and so much better than a companies that replaces their top-of-the-line device every quarter.

Even the packaging on the iPhone 4S is identical to the previous model- with the exception of 4S written on the box instead of 4. You get the USB plug, the iPod cable and that pin to remove the micro-SIM tray from the iPhone along with the usual warranty and quickstart guides.

Zombies are just plain evil, they’re relentless and they never get tired of eating brains. Fortunately in a post-Zombie apocalypse, you had come to the struggle prepared. Armed with a catapult and an endless supply of fireballs and stones you take on the entire zombie horde to save humanity.

Now onto the actual game; if you’ve played Angry Birds then you can easily get the gist of Zombie Attack. The concept is pretty straightforward; you own a catapult and are given a set number of stones and fireballs on each level that you use to fling at the zombies. Actually they’re not zombies but more like zombie heads laid out on piles and bricks. With each level it gets more challenging and harder to knock all the heads with the ammunition you have. If you get stuck on a level and can’t get through, you can drop a nuclear bomb on them. The caveat here is that while the game is free right now, the bomb will cost you $0.75 to use. I suppose the bomb has its merits as it does help if you’re stuck in a level but you could still get by without it. However, I wonder if there might be at least one level in the 200 or so they’ve included where you would simply be forced to either stop playing or buy a bomb to get through to the next level.

The controls for the catapult are rather awkward and while the game supports touchscreen phones, I found it was easier to just use the trackpad. The graphics are not exactly fluid and seem rather sluggish in comparison to Angry Birds. You can control the angle of the catapult but not the speed of the object you’ve thrown or maybe I just haven’t been able to master that part yet. The game is also somewhat of a resource hog with the traditional Blackberry hourglass showing up on occasion and I am running this on a 9860 Torch.

I don’t know why Angry Birds isn’t available for Blackberry phones since you can get it for the Playbook. Zombie Attack is a pretty decent clone with some twists of its own to set it apart from the game that inspired it but it does have its issues and I hope they’ll work on making this game run smoother. I would like to see better touchscreen controls at least. For a game that has 200 levels and is free though, Zombie Attack is a good game to pass the time while commuting on the Metro or on a plane. It certainly has the number of levels to keep you occupied for hours.

The Ultrabook is the latest initiative from Intel and power players in the PC industry to bring a MacBook Air like of machine to the PC World- something that is extremely thin and light, yet quick enough to be used as a daily machine. One of the launch partners for the Ultrabook is Acer. In fact, in the UAE, Acer was the first company to get the Ultrabook out the door and they managed to sell every single unit they had during GITEX earlier this year.

Acer was kind enough to send an Aspire S3 to me and that is precisely what I am writing this review on. My primary machine is an 11” MacBook Air that I have been using for a good six months so I should hopefully be able to offer a fair comparison. Lets find out how Acer has done with their Ultrabook that came packaged in a slim green and white box with a small sized charger, a quickstart guide and warranty information.

Looks-wise, the Acer S3 is definitely striking. Measuring 13mm to 18mm and weighing just 1.35kgs, the Aspire S3 will definitely make heads turn. The brushed Aluminum lid certainly gives it a premium feel and finish. The rest of the laptop is made up of magnesium alloy which is a big step-up from the plastic chassis that we see many laptops equipped with. However, it is not a Unibody design that is constructed from a single slab of metal like the MacBook Air which tends to give the machine better protection as well as a better finish.

Microsoft launched the reboot of Windows Mobile OS last year and the response it received wasn’t exactly stellar. So far, I really haven’t seen anyone use Windows Phone 7 devices outside the Microsoft circle but that could possibly change within the next few months as Nokia starts selling smartphones based on the latest Mango update from Microsoft. Lets find out what makes Mango special and does it have what it takes to compete with Android and iOS.

Microsoft hasn’t changed much in terms of look and feel with the updated OS which is a good thing as it still looks very fresh and un-iOS like that everybody else seems to be copying. The live tiles continue to look elegant and beautiful while offering you notifications. My only complain is that you can have too many of them which makes scrolling through them quite a long process. This is also something that you also notice in the main menu once you start adding more applications to the phone so adding folders will be a welcomed change in a future update.

One of the first thing I noticed about Mango is that you can now integrate your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts into the OS and populate the “People” section with contacts from those networks along with previously present Facebook and Windows Live networks. Adding my Gmail account also synced my contacts and calendar entries from Google without any issues whatsoever.

Once you have all your contacts synced, the People tile starts showing pictures of your contacts and you can tap it to get recent updates from your contacts as well as a list of of ones you’ve been in touch with recently allowing for quick communications between your frequent contacts. You can also create groups from contacts such as one for your family or office team and then with just one tap, send a message out to everyone in that group- which is pretty cool.

On the flip side, you have the “Me” tile which allows you to post status updates to your social networks or check in and change your chat status message. Along with that this section also shows you of any notifications you have from Social Networks. Although this is great in concept, it doesn’t work with everything. For example, it wouldn’t notify me if somebody sent me a direct message on twitter. Also, quite often, the notification came in quite a bit late- sometimes hours after it should have so clearly, Microsoft has some work to do in that area.

The next thing I noticed about Mango was the “Local Scout” tile present on the home screen. This option basically gathers points of interests around you such as restaurants, shops and touristy stuff. It is based on Bing maps which sadly does not have any such information for the UAE. I tried in in Dubai as well as Abu Dhabi and all lists came up empty.

One feature that did work is Bing Vision that lets you use your camera to recognize things like books and DVDs and then bring up information on them such as where to buy them from. Speaking of Bing and search, one of the things sadly lacking in Mango is Universal Search. The search button always takes you to Bing to search the web and you can’t, for example, tap it in contacts or messages and search for a contact or message. Sure, you have shortcuts within each of these apps for searching but it would have been nice to simply press the search key and start typing with the phone recognizing all databases on your device as well as giving you the option to search the we.

Microsoft has also updated the browser on Mango with IE9 taking the center stage. Like most modern mobile browsers, IE9 works well and besides one site (Google login page in Arabic), everything else I tried worked fine. Like the iPhone, Flash is not supported on Mango either and honestly speaking, I can’t remember the last time I needed flash to work on my Smartphone. Scrolling through the page and zooming in and out proved to be no challenge at all for Mango- everything worked seamlessly. In fact, the entire UI flows brilliantly and creates a stunning user experience. Another thing that works really well is voice recognition. I generally have a hard time getting the iPhone or an Android device to recognize what I have said but with Windows Phone 7, it worked almost every single time I tried.

Last and certainly not the least, Mango now supports background tasks and task switching, allowing you easily selected one of the running or paused app by simply holding the back button. This displays all the apps in a card sort of view that you can move between and select. Sadly, the background pausing and push notification features feel like what we saw when this was first introduced in iOS. I installed WhatsApp and more than once, I only got the message when I went back into the application, instead of the application informing me of a new message on the home screen- kinda defeating the purpose of instant communication.

I would like to add that the Market Place is yet to be properly supported in the Middle East- you can download free apps as well as trial version of paid apps but you cannot purchase them as of yet. Arabic is also not completely supported and my guess is that both of these features will make an appearance together- hopefully with the next major update.

Other than that, I think Microsoft has done a brilliant job of upgrading Windows Mobile to what it is with Mango. There is still some more work to do, but if you live in a Microsoft environment- such as on an Exchange Server or using Office 360, then nothing else comes close. With Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Skype and the patent disputes related to Android, I see a very bright future for Windows Phone.

Nokia held the launch party for the highly publicised N9 handset that is supposed to be releasing in the next couple of weeks. Like most Nokia parties, the event was glamourous and at a posh location- the Address hotel in downtown this time around. The event was introduced by Tom Farrell, General Manager Lower Gulf at Nokia who passed the microphone to Alessandro Lamanna, VP Sales MEA.

Alessandro provided us with a general overall picture for Nokia in the Middle East citing Gartner that Nokia smartphones continue to be market leaders in MEA, claiming 41.9% of the category market. However, looking around me, the only people I found carrying Nokia were either promoters or employees of Nokia so I’m not sure where these people hang out.

Following Alessandro, Marko Ahtisaari came up on stage to introduce us to N9. Marko talked about how we are in the same era of design that cars were before the steering wheel was finalized- basically an era of experimentation to see what works. I’m not sure I agree with him as the iPhone has pretty much set the standard as an all slate design with a capacitive touch screen that almost every high-end phone follows- including the N9. If you remember the glory days of Nokia, you will remember them pioneering the two soft button navigation structure that evolved into a d-pad before the era of capacitive touchscreens kicked in that they were a bit late to join into.

The impact of iPad has certainly been strongly felt by notebook and netbook manufacturers like Acer and ASUS and thus, it comes as no surprise with many of them jumping on the tablet bandwagon- which they can thank Google for with it’s Honeycomb OS. Joining in on the party today is Lenovo with their K1 tablet today- an area that Lenovo wants us to know that they are serious about.

Packaged nicely is a black box with separate and numbered red boxes for cables and manuals. Interestingly, Lenovo separately bundles USB and charging cables- most manufacturers just bundle a USB cable that attaches to a plug. A quick-start guide is also included but you can ignore it if you want as a video tutorial guides you with the same information when you power up the tablet for the first time.

Looks wise, the Lenovo K1 can very easily be mistaken for an original iPad. It has a similar sized black bezel around the screen as well as a “home” button on one side- something that I haven’t seen in any other Honeycomb tablet as I thought Google didn’t allow it. More on that below. The dimensions for the Lenovo K1 are 264mm x 13.3mm x 189mm which makes is slightly larger than some of the Honeycomb tablets, however it’s weight of 750g is on the lighter side.

Holding the unit in a landscape mode, you have all the switches and buttons on the left such as power, volume keys and a rotation lock. Built-in mic input is on this side as well along with a MicroSD slot that requires you ti insert a pin to pop it out- I wonder where have I seen that before?

At the bottom, you have the 3.5mm jack along with the HDMI output connector and the proprietary Lenovo power/USB connector. A front facing camera sits above the screen while another 5MP camera is housed in the red back cover. Below the red back cover, you can see a set of speakers. The construction quality of the Lenovo K1 is not like some of the Lenovo laptops that we have used of late. If feels a bit on the cheap side and the back cover bends which produces spots on the screen- you’ll see what I mean in the video later.

Coming back to the front side, you have the home button on the right which can not only be pressed for actions, but also takes swipes for navigating around the device. So, you slide your finger towards the top to pop out the options menu that usually sits on the top right of an application or you can swipe down to go back- the same function that the onsceen key on the bottom left does. This certainly makes navigating the K1 a bit easier than other honeycomb based tablets. As an added functionality, you can hold the home button down to take a screenshot.

Let’s make a list of ingredients for an affordable sports-car recipe. You’ll need – a spirited & occasionally angry engine, looks only a mother could love, an even weight distribution, a quick transmission, low ground clearance, razor sharp rims, a throaty exhaust note, a dash of impracticality & finally – rear wheel drive.

Sarah Connor?

Now let’s make a list of what the 2011 VW Scirocco offers – Front Headlamps that look like something Skynet would make? Check. Turbo Charged Engine? Check. Looks only its mommy would love? Check. Throaty exhaust note? (that pops, on gearshifts!!) Check. Double-Clutch transmission? Check. Slight impracticality? Slight-Check. Rear Wheel Drive? Mafi-Check. (that’s a poor Arabic-mashup for No)

You see, all 210 horses & 280Nms of torque the car is blessed with, hit the tarmac with its front wheels only. Conventional driving wisdom would now point & laugh at the Scirocco. The Scirocco would probably respond by running over conventional wisdom with its 18″ front wheels. You see, despite being FWD the Scirocco suffers none of the deficiencies associated with front wheel drives and handles surprisingly well. It has a 0-60 time of 6.9 seconds, a top speed of 238 Kmph and its exhaust note is grin-inducing. It is a bit of a driver’s car.

If you look real hard, you’ll see some Conventional Wisdom stuck under its front wheels.

Our review car came with a decent tech loadout that included VW’s standard SatNav system, USB/iPod connectivity built into the front arm rests, a panoramic sunroof that filters out UV radiation, HID lights & 18inch Interlagos wheels. Standard equipment on all cars includes 6 airbags, traction control, height-adjustable front seats, leather steering wheel and sport chassis.

That’s the good news. The bad news is the car’s insides. I’m not a huge fan of VW interiors – they’re painfully simple. The Scirocco, despite its flat-bottomed steering wheel and large triangular door handles suffers from a slight case of interior-blandness-syndrome. Which is surprising, because the VW Group enjoys a close relationship with Porsche and actually owns Audi, Bentley, Bugatti & Lamborghini – these are marques with stunning, jaw-dropping interiors. So there’s no reason why VW’s own lineup should not have trend-setting interiors.

It’s a bit Interior-ly Deficient

On the road, the Scirocco has got a good dual personality. That means you can live with it as your daily driver & turn it into a turbo-charged go-kart should the boy (or girl) in you want to come out and play. Its also comfortable, has rear seats that fold down giving you extra boot space (755 liters to be exact) and is easy to park with its rear-camera system. The rear seats also offer decent leg space, but may give the passengers at the back a case of claustrophobia – due to its tiny windows.

VW Middle East offers the Scirocco in two variants – there’s a 160BHP 1.4 liter version that comes with a 7 Speed DSG transmission and the more powerful 2.0 liter 210BHP version with a 6 speed DSG transmission. Both transmissions also feature Dual Clutches. A Dual Clutch gearbox has two advantages – it eliminates “the jerk” you feel when cars shift from one gear to another, and it leads to super-quick shift times.

Should you not prefer the Golf GTI’s boxy looks; the Scirocco is a great alternative. Its a fun-to-drive, slightly better looking & practical car.

One of the biggest strengths of a BlackBerry device is it’s keyboard. There is no denying that RIM makes the finest keyboard for a Smartphone. However, RIM is also forced to compete in a market full of iPhones and other Android based slates. That is the reason the Torch 9850 exists. It’s not RIM’s first full touch device- in fact, I’m sure many people would very much like to forget the debacle that the click screen based BlackBerry Storm was, myself included. Thus, I am heading into this review with a bit of caution, especially since I’m coming from the BlackBerry Bold 9900 which, in my opinion, is the best BlackBerry to date.

I received the device from RIM last without any packaging as the official release date in the Middle East is a few weeks away but expect the usual assortment of accessories inside the packaging- a charger and a headset. At 11.5mm, the Torch 9860 is just a tad bit thicker than the BlackBerry Bold 9900 but still thinner than every other BlackBerry. It’s weight of 135g feels just about right in your hands- neither too heavy nor too light. The following table compares the dimensions and weight of the Torch 9860 to some of the other devices from RIM and competition.

As you can see from the table above, the Torch 9860 is quite a bit tall and even though it’s as wide as the Torch 9800, it feels narrower because of it’s shape and contours around the edges. From the back, the device feels very symmetrical with the same chrome-like shiny edges that you saw on the older Torch hugging the 9860 from both the sides. In between sits the battery cover which I found extremely hard to open due the very tiny lock area that is not very easy to press into. Once you get inside, you have a SIM card and a MicroSD slot that you thankfully don’t need to remove the battery to access.

Coming to the front side of the Torch 9860, it’s one that I personally didn’t find particularly appealing. Starting off, the standard four buttons on the bottom of the device are raised and not flushed like the other Torch or Bold models. This gives the 9860 a somewhat cheap look of a knock-off phone from China. On the other hand, I’ve heard stories of people and their messed up front buttons on the original Torch 9800 which should hopefully not be an issue with the 9860.

The left side of the device has the micro USB connector while the top has a lock switch which is hard enough to not accidentally unlock the device. On the right side you have a 3.5mm audio jack, volume rockers with a mute switch in the middle and a convenience key towards the bottom. Thankfully, this convenience key is two-step key which always helps when using the phone as a camera.