Crave Photo Features
The 6 worst video game samples in rap music 
Hip-hoppers are a shameless bunch who will literally rap over anything. The Fugees' Ready or Not borrowed Enya humming, Kanye's Diamonds from Sierra Leone sampled Shirley Bassey, and Cypress Hill's Insane in the Brain is actually built around a braying horse noise from a Mel & Tim track.
Some artists, however, take things too far, sampling audio from their favourite video games in the hope they'll supplement their meagre fanbase with a glut of music-obsessed gamers. Occasionally this practice leads to things you could actually class as music, but more often than not, the resultant songs make you want to do a Van Gogh and chop your ears off. Here are six of the very worst. Continue reading...
Phone love: When an iPhone meets a Hero
They say the course of true love never runs smooth. But imagine if you were from two different worlds. One from a protective family who only let you out with certain people it had pre-approved. The other from a hippy commune who let their offspring see whoever they want, and enjoy a full range of life's experiences.
Imagine if these two youngsters met in a coffee shop one damp winter morning and fell instantly in love. Imagine their story, told on a technology Web site in full colour, with ravishing and graphic detail of their romance. Now imagine they're phones. Continue reading...
Snow Leopard vs Windows 7: How the Apple has fallen
Apple's products are universally acclaimed for their wonderfulness and gorgeousness -- except in the real world, where people use computers for actual work and not just for messing around.
Just ask The Onion, and when you're done, have a butchers' at the latest market-share statistics. Apple's Leopard operating system failed to make significant in-roads against even an ailing Windows Vista, and we're not so sure Snow Leopard, despite its claimed improvements, has what it takes to topple Windows 7.
Continue reading...
Netbook showdown: The top 10 mini laptops rated
So you want a tiny laptop, but you're not sure which one to get? It all seemed so clear in the beginning -- you had your mind set on an Eee PC 701 or 900, but then half the laptop manufacturers in the world suddenly went and made copycat machines.
Fear not, be-puzzled reader, Crave has seen nearly all these Eee-type machines and we're pretty well-placed to tell you which one might be best for you. We've locked ourselves in a room, gorged ourselves on Red Bull, analysed the pros and cons of each, and can now bring you the fruits of that labour. Continue reading...
Best iPhone bicycle mounts: Bracket and bike it
Phones make trusty sat-navs, MP3 players and cycling computers -- as well as handy phones -- so they can replace a pocket full of gear on your daily commute or monthly trek. But short of lashing them to the handlebars with duct tape, you need a decent way to keep them front-and-centre, without them flying off to become the puck in a horrifying game of car hockey. You'll be needing a mount.
With all the mounts we tested, we were surprised how much we enjoyed having our phone at our fingertips while pedalling. Not only did our sat-nav apps benefit from having a clear line of sight to the satellite-soaked sky, but we could answer calls and see texts as they came in, while a quick switch between podcasts was much easier without having to root around in our pockets. Continue reading...
How to install Windows 7
This may sound like it could be the shortest tutorial ever, but if you were planning on just sticking the Windows 7 DVD into your PC come 22 October and hoping for the best, it's a good job you're reading it.
The Windows 7 installation isn't complicated, but limited upgrade paths do add a few wrinkles to the process. You can't upgrade a PC running Windows XP to Windows 7 -- you need to do a clean 'Custom Install' that does away with your old applications and settings. Windows Vista users can perform an 'In-Place Upgrade', but only with certain Vista/Windows 7 combinations -- it's a Custom Install otherwise. Continue reading...
iPhone sat-nav apps tested: On your bike
We're potty about cars, but with Crave Towers located in central London, even we're not crazy enough to actually drive one to work every day. Instead, we brave the mean streets on buses, Underground, trains and bikes, and while we rarely get lost down the Tube, we do sometimes need a little help when we're walking or cycling somewhere new.
We strapped on our helmets and took three of the most popular sat-navs for a test run around the concrete jungle to find out which was the best -- or at least the best of the worst. We tested the apps in the same 5-mile route from central London. We used an iPhone 3GS, although all these apps should work the same with the iPhone 3G, and we made sure the phone always had a clear view of the sky by using a handlebar mount. Continue reading...
Crave goes Diving with Dolphins: UK start-ups fly the flag for tech innovation
This week, Crave headed for the hothouse of technological experimentation, world-class innovation and ill-advised floppy hair that is Cambridge. We met with a selection of start-ups based in the Silicon Fen at showcase event Diving With Dolphins. We're not sure if we're the divers or the dolphins in this metaphor, but let's jump in anyway, with interactive paper, an unfortunately named phone charger, an online banking security system that actually works, plus many more -- and they're all British. Continue reading...
Samsung Galaxy vs HTC Hero vs HTC Magic vs Motorola Dext vs T-Mobile Pulse vs HTC Tattoo vs LG GW620
Google's open-source operating system for mobile phones, Android, is gaining momentum, rolling like a snowball and accreting new handsets as it goes. HTC showed how it could be done with the first Android phone, which it released with T-Mobile as the T-Mobile G1. But at the souped-up speed of the mobile market, it's practically a museum piece already, as a heap of new phones have sprung up with their own flavours of Android.
Three new manufacturers have just entered the fray with the Samsung Galaxy, the Motorola Dext and the LG GW620. For the robot-lover on a budget, HTC has come up with the entry-level HTC Tattoo, while pay as you go is now an option thanks to the T-Mobile Pulse. The force is still strong with the HTC Hero and HTC Magic. Continue reading...
Sony's 3D PlayStation 3: Hands-on photos
We heard Sony was showing off a 3D PlayStation 3 here at IFA. Curious, we headed over to the enormous Sony stand, where we discovered a young boy -- DualShock controller in-hand, 3D glasses mounted on his visibly excited face -- playing the PS3's Wipeout racing game on a massive 3D television.
Naturally, we had to kick him off so we could have a play. For the next five minutes we blazed through the game's futuristic raceways with a perception of depth we've never experienced before, all presented in 1080p high-definition and vivid colour. And in just over a year, Sony told us it expects to be selling the same experience in Europe.
Today, our experience involved a standard PS3. All the three-dimensional horsepower comes not from a modified PlayStation, or even special versions of its games -- it's all down to some ingenious picture-processing technology inside a new Bravia TV. Continue reading...
