Hulu’s subscription service, Hulu Plus, is a right step in direction of a la carte viewing. But in technical terms it’s not yet up to snuff.

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Image © Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Lego Group

[Note: The author reviewed Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 for the Nintendo Wii. It is possible that some elements of this review may not apply to versions of the game for other platforms.]

I’ll freely admit it: I was just as anxious to get the Lego Harry Potter video game as my kids were. I might even have been more anxious, since I’ve been a fan of the books since before either of them was born. I was hoping it would be able to capture the magic of the Potter-verse, with enough of the trademark Lego video game silliness to cut through the stories’ seriousness.

Now, I haven’t been able to play the game all the way through yet, because I’ve only had the game since Tuesday (no review copy for me this time), but I’ve seen enough to know my hopes have been fulfilled. From the opening cut scene, which takes care of the beginning of the first book all the way to Hagrid and Harry entering the Leaky Cauldron, it’s clear the game’s makers have a great eye for detail and a great sense of humor. I never cease to be amazed at how funny they can make the cut scenes without any actual dialogue.

I was concerned that there would be too much find-and-kill-the-bad-guy action, and not enough immersion in the world. I needn’t have worried, though: the game shows you the path you’re supposed to take, in the form of Nearly-Headless Nick’s trail of ghostly Lego studs and big glowing arrows, but doesn’t stop you from wandering around Hogwarts. Of course, if you wander, you’ll run into some places you can’t go until you solve certain puzzles, and you may not yet have everything you need to solve them, but it still works very well to give the game the right ambiance. You even have to attend classes to learn new spells or the recipes for new potions. And of course you can zap pretty much anything with your wand, at any time, with all sorts of amusing effects.

As you’d expect, you’re able to switch between Harry, Ron and Hermione (unless you’re in a scene with just two of them). Each of them has (very character-appropriate) talents the others don’t: Harry is the best at broom-flying (which is very well-implemented, by the way); Hermione carries a book with her, allowing her to open certain panels; and Ron has his pet rat Scabbers, who must be used to solve certain puzzles. I haven’t made it to year four, yet, where I can only assume Scabbers will no longer be available, but perhaps Hermione’s pet cat Crookshanks will make an appearance.

In keeping with the stories, you need to rescue “students in peril” at various points along the way, and solve mini-puzzles to earn a gold brick or unlock a character or a red brick for an extra ability (you have to send the bricks away by owl after finding them). And of course you can use the studs you collect to buy things in — where else? — Diagon Alley, where you return after every level. You need to use Polyjuice Potion for some puzzles, temporarily transforming into a different character, a practice made that much easier by inhabiting a Lego world in which a minifig’s hair can simply pop off. Another very nice touch is the ability to interact with certain (moving) paintings, just as in the stories. As with the second Lego Indiana Jones game, this game automatically activates split-screening if two people play at once, so that you’re not restricted to always being close to each other.

The only thing I’m not thrilled with in the game is the frequent puzzles where you must arrange several strange-shaped Lego pieces into something — usually a staircase. The game provides you with a painting for each one, displaying what the final result should look like, but, at least on the Wii, manipulating the pieces in three dimensions is cumbersome and can quickly become frustrating — and that’s for me; my kids got frustrated even more quickly.

Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 is available for the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows, PSP and Nintendo DS (price varies depending on the version).

Wired: Does an excellent job of immersing the player in the world of Harry Potter without sacrificing any of the trademark Lego silliness.

Tired: The Lego piece-arrangement puzzles get frustrating rapidly. I’d be happier if there were a shortcut built in that would allow you to manually arrange them if you wanted to, but that would do it for you if it took too long.

Summary: An excellent addition to the Lego video game lineup. If you like Harry Potter and Lego, you’ll like the game, I promise. I can’t wait for the new Lego Harry Potter sets to come out later this year!

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The Currency Converter Plus Android App by halmi.sk is a currency converter for the Android platform. When the app first loads you will come to a blank, black screen. From here press the menu button on your Android phone. From here you can convert a currency by pressing the new button, update the app from the update button and search from the search button.

The app is easy to use if you already know the currency code for the country to your are converting for. One feature I would suggest would be to add a list for the user to select a country from. While checking out this app I could not get the update feature to work but other than that not a bad app. It could be very useful to someone who needs a quick reference to currency conversions with the ability to get the most current, up to date numbers.

Overall, not a bad app, it just needs the update feature to work. At the time of this review the Currecny Converter Plus Android App is £0.79 which is approximately $1.15. Needs some work.

Screenshots:

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T-Mobile USA is the first carrier in the US to start to model their available plans after the European market and this makes sense given that they have global owners. With T-Mobile you can choose Even More (fairly standard) or Even More Plus (no annual contract and lower monthly rates) plans. The T-Mobile Nokia E73 Mode will be priced at $69.99 with a compatible Even More plan. Today, we learned that the full, unsubsidized price with the Even More Plus plan will be $299.99 or payable as $15/month over 20 months. I was hoping it would be priced like the Nuron with the same subsidized price, but understand the E73 Mode offers much more value and device than the Nuron so the higher price makes a little sense. However, as a reader points out, over 4x the subsidized price is a bit out of hand.  About 3x the price ($199.99) seems to be a much more reasonable cost.

Now before you go away shaking your head at the $300 price of the E73 Mode that is modeled after a one year old device (the E72), let’s take a look at the full unsubsidized price of some other popular smartphones for a fair comparison:

• T-Mobile HTC HD2: $449.99
• T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9700: $449.99
• T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide: $429.99
• iPhone 3GS (16GB): $599
• iPhone 3GS (32GB): $699
• Sprint HTC EVO 4G: $449.99
• Verizon Motorola DROID: $559.99
• Verizon BB Storm2: $539.99
• Verizon HTC DROID Incredible: $529.99

As you can see the full, unsubsidized price of $299.99 for the Nokia E73 Mode may actually be a good price when you compare apples to apples. Then again, let’s take a look at some of the unsubsidized and SIM unlocked prices of Nokia smartphones available through Nokia USA that can even be found cheaper on Amazon and Newegg at times. All of the ones listed above are available at those prices with no contract, but the phones are still LOCKED to their respective carriers. When you buy a Nokia smartphone outside of a carrier you can use it on AT&T or T-Mobile or anywhere in the world with a SIM card and supported network.

• Nokia N900: $479
• Nokia X6 16GB: $349
• Nokia N97 mini: $479
• Nokia E73: $379
• Nokia 5800 XM: $259.99
• Nokia E71: $250 (on Amazon)

As I said, when you compare prices the Nokia devices are a great deal. Then again, people in the US rarely pay the full, unsubsidized price and we expect to pay the low subsidized price. In the case of the Nokia E73 Mode that is again only $69.99, which is a major STEAL IMHO.

T-Mobile USA is the first carrier in the US to start to model their available plans after the European market and this makes sense given that they have global owners. With T-Mobile you can choose Even More (fairly standard) or Even More Plus (no annual contract and lower monthly rates) plans. The T-Mobile Nokia E73 Mode will be priced at $69.99 with a compatible Even More plan. Today, we learned that the full, unsubsidized price with the Even More Plus plan will be $299.99 or payable as $15/month over 20 months. I was hoping it would be priced like the Nuron with the same subsidized price, but understand the E73 Mode offers much more value and device than the Nuron so the higher price makes sense.

Now before you go away shaking your head at the $300 price of the E73 Mode that is modeled after a one year old device (the E72), let’s take a look at the full unsubsidized price of some other popular smartphones for a fair comparison:

• T-Mobile HTC HD2: $449.99
• T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9700: $449.99
• T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide: $429.99
• iPhone 3GS (16GB): $599
• iPhone 3GS (32GB): $699
• Sprint HTC EVO 4G: $449.99
• Verizon Motorola DROID: $559.99
• Verizon BB Storm2: $539.99
• Verizon HTC DROID Incredible: $529.99

As you can see the full, unsubsidized price of $299.99 for the Nokia E73 Mode is actually quite a good price when you compare apples to apples. Then again, let’s take a look at some of the unsubsidized and SIM unlocked prices of Nokia smartphones available through Nokia USA that can even be found cheaper on Amazon and Newegg at times. All of the ones listed above are available at those prices with no contract, but the phones are still LOCKED to their respective carriers. When you buy a Nokia smartphone outside of a carrier you can use it on AT&T or T-Mobile or anywhere in the world with a SIM card and supported network.

• Nokia N900: $479
• Nokia X6 16GB: $349
• Nokia N97 mini: $479
• Nokia E73: $379
• Nokia 5800 XM: $259.99
• Nokia E71: $250 (on Amazon)

As I said, when you compare prices the Nokia devices are a great deal. Then again, people in the US rarely pay the full, unsubsidized price and we expect to pay the low subsidized price. In the case of the Nokia E73 Mode that is again only $69.99, which is a major STEAL IMHO.
The Even More Plus pricing for the Nokia E73 Mode is $15/month for 20 months (Full price is $299.99).

The WDTV Live Plus is a good choice for anyone looking for a single device capable of streaming Netflix as well as content on a local network or thumb drive.

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Mesh is based in the UK and offers a wide range of laptops, from affordable machines for the first-time buyer to high-powered media centres. The Edge15 Value Plus is an entry-level model and provides a strong specification and decent mobility.

Despite being a very affordable machine, the chassis is built to a pleasingly high standard. Resilient matt-finish plastics are used throughout, providing a quality that belies the low price. The slightly cheap-looking Mesh sticker on the lid slightly spoils this, though.

The keyboard utilises the currently popular isolated-key style and provides a firm and responsive typing action. The keys rattle ever so slightly during use, but not nearly enough to pose a problem.

While performance isn’t great, there is ample power for most tasks. The Intel Core 2 Duo processor is backed by an impressive 4096MB of memory, so applications load and run quickly. However, it is hugely outperformed by the Intel Core i3-powered machines.

Cool running

With a large cooling fan on the chassis’ left side, the machine stays comfortably cool at all times. We noticed no undue noise emanating from the fan, so you can safely work with this machine on your lap without any discomfort or interruption.

A real selling point of this machine is its excellent 15.6-inch screen. It’s not the brightest panel we’ve seen, but images are impressively sharp, with colours vibrantly reproduced. Striking contrast and deep black levels add to the picture, helping photos and videos come to life.

Unfortunately, the screen is slightly flawed by its limited range of movement. It only folds back 45 degrees from vertical, which can make it tricky to get an adequate viewing angle at times. There’s also no HDMI port for connecting to an HDTV.

Graphics performance from the integrated Intel graphics chip is average, but runs videos smoothly, and provides enough power for basic photo editing, suiting less demanding home use.

Weighing 2.6kg, the chassis offers average mobility. It is quite bulky, so isn’t the most comfortable machine to carry for long periods, though the 236-minute battery life provided by the bulk is pretty impressive.

Combining a resilient build and strong mobility with decent performance and a stunning screen, the Edge15 Value Plus is a really good laptop for the first-time buyer. The slight design flaws are a shame, but there is still plenty to like at this price.

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This all-in-one photo app delivers an impressive set of features. If you’re looking for something that lets you snap images, make some on-the-spot edit, and share photos with others, Camera Plus Pro is worth a look. But connoisseurs of good design — both in terms of usability and appearance — might find this app a little disappointing.

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