The Federal Aviation Administration is planning to take a closer look at the use of electronics on passenger planes in a move that could ultimately see rules relaxed.

If you’ve ever flown, you’ll be more than a little familiar with the take-off and landing procedures, which include switching off all personal electronic devices (PEDs), a source of frustration among many nervous flyers who would rather listen to some calming tunes on their music player than the roar of the engines as they hurtle down the runway in an aluminum tube laden with highly inflammable fuel.

Likewise, taking a few photos of the landscape below with your digital camera as you come in to land will, if you get spotted, result in a few stern words from a member of the cabin crew.

Interference?

Can it really be the case that all PEDs have inner workings that, if switched on, are going to bring the plane down? Despite people discreetly using their iPods or e-readers during take-offs and landings, has there ever been a report of an aviation accident caused by a PED? Aren’t airplane crashes usually the result of pilot error or catastrophic mechanical failure rather than Mr. Smith in seat 43A using his music player?

With a Reuters report on Monday about Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans to take a closer look at the use of PEDs on flights, perhaps things are about to change for the better for passengers with a bag of gadgets under the seat.

Study group

The report says that starting in the fall, a new study group will examine the procedures airlines use to discover whether a gadget or gizmo can be safely used during a flight, or parts of a flight. However, the group will not be considering whether to allow passengers to make calls using mobile phones.

As things currently stand, airlines have to show that a device doesn’t cause potentially dangerous radio interference before they can be given the green light for use during a flight.

Acting FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said of the plans: “We’re looking for information to help air carriers and operators decide if they can allow more widespread use of electronic devices in today’s aircraft,” adding, “We also want solid safety data to make sure tomorrow’s aircraft designs are protected from interference.”

Speaking to Forbes about the FAA’s plans, Steve Lott, a spokesperson for industry trade group Airlines for America, said: “The safety of our passengers and crews remains our top priority and our members will work cooperatively with the FAA on opportunities to evaluate personal electronic devices to ensure customers can use these products safely during flight.”

Troublesome passengers

Though there have been reports of pilots suspecting PEDs as the cause of some mysterious happenings on the flight deck, no link has ever been proved.

Indeed, the biggest PED-related problem appears not to be interference with an aircraft’s flying instruments, but stubborn passengers who cause trouble by refusing to switch off their device – remember the incident late last year when actor Alec Baldwin was kicked off a plane for refusing to turn off his phone during what must have been a particularly exciting game of Words With Friends?

With more and more people dumping paper books in favor of e-readers, and with other PEDs gaining in popularity, it would be great if the airlines discovered that actually many of these devices are safe to use during any part of the flight. We await the study groups’s decision….

[Image: Dimitriy Shironosov / Shutterstock]

When the victim of a phone theft reported the incident to cops in San Francisco on Monday, they probably didn't expect that a cop chase, shooting, school lockdown and eventual arrest of the suspects (with one found in the trunk of a car) would be the result.

A stolen mobile phone usually, at the very most, results in a visit to the cop shop, the filling out of a few forms and then a trip to the phone store to sort out a replacement. But, evidently, it doesn’t always work out that way.

In San Francisco on Monday, for example, a smartphone stolen in the city’s Ocean View neighborhood resulted in a police chase, a school lockdown and an officer firing their gun.

According to a San Francisco Chronicle report, it all started at around 6.30am when two men stole a pedestrian’s iPhone at gunpoint. Using the phone-locating Find My iPhone app, officers discovered that the device was somewhere in the Noe Valley neighborhood in the center of the city.

After pinpointing the suspects, officers approached them but – surprise, surprise – they both scarpered.

During the pursuit, one of the suspects turned towards an officer with their hand concealed close to their body – of course, a move like that in such a tense situation rarely ends with a friendly shake of the hands and the exchange of a few pleasantries. No, in this case, the pursuing officer, believing her life to be in imminent danger, took out her gun and fired at the suspect, who subsequently managed to escape unharmed.

As the chase continued, police locked down nearby St. Paul’s Catholic Church and its adjoining elementary school for around half an hour to secure the safety of those inside.

Cops then tracked the stolen handset to a car with a person sitting inside. After apprehending the occupant, they also found someone hiding in the trunk, together with a stash of other allegedly stolen smartphones. Job done.

It might seem like quite a palaver for one stolen phone, but with smartphone theft on the rise, and more handset owners getting up to speed with enabling find-my-phone type apps, perhaps we’ll be hearing more stories like this in the future.

Security experts also recommend that handset owners enable the lock screen on their device and install a remote wipe app to prevent personal details being taken in the event of a theft – or loss – of a phone.

[via AppleInsider]

Low-cost laptops may look tempting, but the sacrifices you make to get there will often come back to bite you in the years of ownership ahead.

Sales figures from the last five years consistently show average laptop buyers spending about $600 dollars their new machines. This means that some people spend more, but it also means that a sizable number spend less.

Six Benjamin Franklins are not a ton of money for a laptop, although $600 may seem so when you’re at the store. For that money you’re limited to categories such as netbooks, multimedia laptops and a handful of ultraportables. Many of the laptops available at this price at adequate, but they’re just that. Adequate. OK. Usable. They are computers, and they will do computing stuff.

Cheaping out forces you to give up many tangible benefits, which means inexpensive laptops are often a poor value. You can’t get what you don’t pay for. Here’s why you should pay for more.

Durable goods

One of the first concepts you’ll learn in any basic economics or business class is that of durable goods. A durable good is an item that provides utility over a long period of time. Paying more for these items is justified if it can increase your productivity. A laptop is an example of such an item. A better, faster, more usable laptop can decrease the time you spend waiting for a video encode, increase your typing accuracy and eliminate wasting time waiting for programs to open.

This argument comes first because it’s the most important. Spending less money on a laptop can be tempting, but think about how often you use it. The American time use survey found that average computer owners use their computers for leisure about 25 minutes every day. If average users kept their laptops for just three years, they would use them for a total of 450 hours. And that includes no time working.

This is more time than an average American spends reading, relaxing or exercising. Suddenly, sacrificing a laptop’s quality to save a few hundred bucks seems like a poor value.

Eye on the warranty

One added benefit hiding in some expensive laptops is a better warranty. Asus throws in a two-year warranty against defects on its most expensive laptops. Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba and HP sometimes throw in an extended two- or three-year warranty to sweeten more expensive products. This is particularly common with business-oriented laptops such as the Lenovo ThinkPad, Dell Precision and Toshiba Portege.

Manufacturers don’t do this as a kindness. Squaretrade, a third-party warranty company, found that more expensive laptops have a small but measurable reliability advantage over their cheaper brethren. Netbooks, the cheapest of all laptops, have the highest failure rate by far. “Premium laptops,” defined as those selling for more than $1,000, are the least likely to fail.

Entertainment value

We’ve already established that average users will enjoy about 450 hours of laptop leisure time over three years. They will spend much of this time engaging in just-for-fun activities such as gaming or watching video.

Your laptop’s display serves as a window for all of this content, yet cheap laptops offer the worst displays among all modern consumer electronic devices. The resolution usually will be 1366 x 768, which is less than some modern tablets with much smaller displays. Contrast and viewing angles suffer as well.

You can do better only by spending more. Some cheap laptops offer a better display as an upgrade, but only premium laptops commonly come with high-quality displays as standard equipment.

The graphics processor is also a concern. Intel integrated graphics are fine for older games but work poorly with new 3D titles. You’ll want to upgrade to a discrete GPU from AMD or Nvidia to play new games, an option inexpensive laptops rarely offer.

Good on the go

Companies often slash battery life to make sure they can sell a laptop at a low price. Batteries are expensive, and no standards exist for validating battery life claims. This means a manufacturer can sell a laptop with a small battery while still advertising endurance that seems reasonable.

We’ve recorded this story time and time again. Almost every laptop we’ve received that seemed to be a great hardware value has achieved this goal by axing the battery. We rarely find a laptop under $600 that offers more than five hours of real-world battery life, and some will struggle to last a minute beyond four.

Spending for solid state

Dedicated readers of our laptop reviews may have noticed that one benchmark, PCMark 7, varies wildly between laptops that seem to have similar specifications.

The hard drive is the culprit. PCMark 7 tests all of a system’s components, and in the storage section of the test, laptops that have a solid-state drive dominate those which don’t. Equipping an SSD can bump the combined score by 1,000 to 2,000 points.

This is not merely an artifact of our benchmark. Systems with SSDs feel much more responsive because the drive responds more quickly to user input. These computers also enjoy much lower load times for both the operating system and the software.

You’ll only find an SSD in an expensive laptop, but it’s well worth the extra cash. Alternatively, you can buy a solid-state drive and upgrade it yourself. This will be cheaper but requires that you partially disassemble your laptop and re-install the operating system.

Conclusion

Our laptop reviews tell a consistent story. Expensive laptops often receive high scores. Only a few cheap laptops have ever managed a 9/10 or higher, and most laptops in such esteemed company sell for $800 or more.

We remember value when reviewing premium laptops. Our scores reflect that expensive laptops provide more for your money. For example, buying the 11.6-inch MacBook Air ($999) instead of the 11.6-inch Acer Aspire V5 ($549) will net you a better display, a much better user interface and slightly better battery life.

Some will argue that you could almost buy two Acers for the price of the Apple. That’s true, but we’re unaware of anyone capable of using two laptops at the same time.

We think that the $800 to $1,000 range is where you’ll find the best laptop value. This amount of money can’t buy you everything, but it can buy you a laptop that’s excellent in important areas. You only have to spend more if you want a gaming laptop. In that case, we recommend budgeting at least $1,500.

We don’t recommend buying something you can’t afford, but for most people, the difference between a great laptop and an OK one is just a few hundred dollars. That’s a couple nice dinners, a single weekend vacation or a couple months of going to Starbucks every day. If you need perspective, open your calculator and multiply the daily time you spend on your computer by 1,095 (the number of days in three years). The result should remind you why spending more on a laptop is worthwhilesmart.

We take a look at the best apps for students on the iOS and Android platforms in this back to school app roundup.

It’s back to school time for students across the country. Technology is playing a bigger part than ever before in classrooms and even teenagers have smartphones nowadays. According to a Pew Research Center study from March this year, 23 percent of 12 to 17 year-olds own a smartphone, and 54 percent have a regular cell phone (or don’t know what kind they have). That percentage has probably gone up by now.

Why not take advantage? Instead of filling that phone with games, claim a place for some useful apps. You can ease the transition back to school for your kids with the right apps. Here’s our guide to the best back to school apps on iOS and Android.

Life360 Family Locator (Free, $5/mo subscription)

Being able to check where your children are can provide real peace of mind. Enter Life360 Family Locator. It lets you track your family members and check in with them. You can start group chats or VoIP conference calls. You can also find local safety points or potential threats. The service is cross platform and it even allows you to track feature phones. If you’re feeling anxious about packing the kids off to school then this service might just calm your nerves.

Life360 Family Locator for Android

Life360 family Locator for iOS

Dropbox (Free)

It may be an obvious choice but there’s a good reason for that – Dropbox is extremely useful. You can use it to back up photos, documents, and notes in the cloud and then sync them across your computer, laptop, tablet, and smartphone. No more forgetting to take that homework assignment into school, or losing those biology notes.

With Dropbox, everything is safely stored online and you get a basic account offering 2GB for free. You can get an extra 500MB every time you refer someone else to the service and some smartphones come with special Dropbox tie-ins, such as the HTC One series and the Samsung Galaxy S3.

Dropbox for Android

Dropbox for iOS

MathStudio ($20)

This is a seriously comprehensive math app. You may be put off by the price tag, but consider that it includes everything from basic calculator abilities to algebra, 3D graphing, statistics, and beyond. It doesn’t require an Internet connection to work and it makes a lot more sense than splashing out on a standalone graphing calculator (which would cost you a lot more).

MathStudio for Android

MathStudio for iOS

Evernote (Free)

Being able to create notes using photos, text, and voice recordings is always handy and Evernote is a great app for exactly that purpose. Use it to make detailed class notes or to-do lists. You can also sync your notes with your home computer, tablet, or laptop and you can tag them to make finding the right ones quick and easy. Evernote is a powerful study tool.

Evernote for Android

Evernote for iOS

The iOS version seems to have more issues than the Android one so if you’re an iPhone owner you might want to use Notability instead. It can also be synced with Dropbox.

Notability for iOS

Wolfram Alpha ($4 for Android, $2 for iOS)

Apple’s popular virtual assistant, Siri, uses Wolfram Alpha (amongst other sources), but if you’ve got an earlier iPhone or an Android smartphone you might consider investing in the app. It is capable of providing you with a huge amount of information and, as a computational knowledge engine, it can make calculations too. The knowledge base is huge, so students of all subjects should find this app useful, though it may take a while to learn how to get the best from it.

Wolfram Alpha for Android

Wolfram Alpha for iOS

Class Buddy: Student planner ($2)

This is an in-depth planner app to help students schedule everything. It’s easy to use and it can keep track of classes, exams, assignments, grades, and anything else you deem important. You can also sync it with Google Calendar and there are plenty of import and export options. The ability to set up reminders makes it ideal for busy students. Unfortunately it is only available on the Android platform.

Class Buddy: Student planner for Android

Student T.A (Free)

Here’s a student planner that offers a load of customization options and useful features. It is a time management tool so you can keep a schedule of all your classes and assignments and get alerts when you need them. It also offers a nice range of customizable themes so you can choose the look you want. This app is only available on iOS and it’s also free.

Student T.A for iOS

Dictionary.com (Free)

It’s always handy to have a dictionary and thesaurus for reference and you’ll struggle to find a better option than this. It’s packed with definitions, you can get audio pronunciations of words, and it supports voice search. In addition to definitions, antonyms, and synonyms, you can also find details of a word’s origin. This is a fantastic free app for students of the English language.

Dictionary.com for Android

Dictionary.com for iOS

Other apps

You’ll find a lot of specialized options in Google Play and the App Store that are supposed to be designed specifically for students, but not all of them are worth bothering with. The reviews should give you a general sense about what’s worth your while. You could also try checking out a resource like Teachers with Apps which provides independent reviews of educational apps for different age groups.

If you have any favorite apps for students that you’d like to recommend, then please post a comment and tell us what makes them worth downloading.

Kenji Kaido, producer of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus has retired from Sony. Will it effect the troubled production of The Last Guardian?

Producer Kenji Kaido announced on Twitter on Monday that he has retired from Sony Computer Entertainment. Kaido joined Sony back in the late ‘90s, with his first gig working as a designer on Ape Escape, but he rose to prominence as Fumito Ueda’s partner in Team Ico, acting as producer on both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. While Ueda is credited with fostering those games’ distinctive ephemeral style, it was Kaido who was instrumental in convincing Sony to give the team the time needed to reach their high level of quality.

What’s next? “My plans for the future are undecided for now, but for the time being I’m going to continue my summer vacation,” said Kaido. A good plan.

As for how this might effect Team Ico’s next game The Last Guardian, it’s unknown. Only a select few Sony employees have ever even discussed the game publicly. Beyond director Fumito Ueda, Sony Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida, and SCEA head Jack Tretton, no one on the inside has publicly talked about the game.

The Last Guardian is still in production, whomever might be producing.  Sony swears that the Ueda directed follow up to Colossus and ICO is still in production, some 3 years after it was officially announced (and a rumored 6 years after it went into production.)

LG ups its game with Game World, a digital video game marketplace and network for its line of Smart TVs. Will it help LG overtake Samsung?

When it became clear a couple of years ago that 3D television wasn’t going to pan out for Sony, Panasonic, and the other television manufacturers watching their businesses wither due to an indifferent consumer base, they started to switch focus from tech to content. Smart TVs, with access to streaming video like Netflix, social networking tools like Facebook, and other connected content built into the television without needing a set top box at all, would renew industry vigor. Video games have naturally been a part of this plan. Korea’s LG opened its own video game network, Game World, on its Smart TVs on Monday. LG’s hope is that the service will even get people buying those pesky 3D televisions it invested so heavily in developing.

“Game World is a wonderful source of games—especially 3D games—which are suitable for everyone,” LG president Havia Kwon told Venture Beat, “Many popular titles will be available along with games developed exclusively for LG Cinema 3D Smart TVs. By making the most of LG 3D TVs, Game Wolrd will allow us to push the boundaries of 3D gaming and expand the market.”

That market expansion is the real juice LG is looking to squeeze in introducing the Game World service to its consumers. It’s aggressively pursued the Smart TV market looking to maintain its second place standing in the world television market. LG trails Samsung with a 13 percent share of the global market. Partnerships with Google to develop early Google TV-equipped televisions and set top boxes failed to help LG grow.

Game World is promising but right now it doesn’t have much to distinguish itself from existing digital gaming retailers like Apple’s iTunes or Microsoft’s Xbox Live. Electronic Arts properties like Plants vs. Zombies and Chilingo’s Cut the Rope are front and center on Game World, but those games can be purchased on anything. Right now Game World is little more than added value for LG’s televisions, not a draw in and of itself.

Services like Game World are only going to proliferate. Rovio is already supporting the world’s leading television manufacturer, Samsung, with its games including a motion controlled version of Angry Birds. Since casual games will be ubiquitous in most televisions, the real question is how that will impact console makers reliant on televisions being game free. Why would anyone buy Plants vs. Zombies on their PlayStation 4 if it’s already in their Samsung TV. Why would people buy an Ouya when Android games are already built into Google TV-ready LG TVs? 

Some games serve a greater purpose than just entertainment. We interview the creator of GoSum, a game that turns math into a competition.

Have you ever picked up a game and started playing only to stop midway through the experience to think, “Wait a second, am I learning something from this?” That’s the goal of GoSum, a math-centric mental challenge that hit iOS devices this month. The game was developed by Colin Thompson as a way to help tutor his sons in the early 90s. 20 years later and the title is being brought back to life on Retina screens.

After sitting down and digging into GoSum, a few things are clear: The game does a good job of making you really think and occasionally shaming you for math knowledge you clearly should possess, and Colin’s kids are probably very smart. The board will conjure up thoughts of Scrabble, but there are no triple word scores here–though there are triple numbers. This game is based solely off math equations. 

You start out the game by creating a simple equation, eventually branching off across the board. The more intricate the numerical sentences you create, the more points you’ll net. It’s a game that mathletes the world over will sure to find appreciation for. The game can be purchased from the App Store for $1 on the iPhone or $3 on the iPad. You can even give it a shot for free, which is less than $3 for those of you who aren’t strong with numbers.

We sat down with Colin Thompson, the game’s creator, to talk about the release of his long-time tutoring game on to iOS devices.

Question: How long did the actual board game take to reach the form that we see today?

Colin Thompson: The board game was first created in the late 80′s to help teach my 2 young children math and times tables. It then took two more years to make it the app that it is today. 

What was the reason you decided to turn the game into an app?

To be honest, I didn’t know what an app was when I first heard about them a few years ago. After becoming more familiar with them, I saw the potential for GoSum as an app. Math transcends language barriers, making it the perfect fit for the mobile world. We now have players in China with no English language skills, already expertly playing others around the globe, which is truly amazing.

Was creating the app a completely hands-on project for you, bringing your game to life on iOS?

It certainly was an amazing learning experience. Fortunately, my skills as a Tool designer along with my fastidious attention to detail stood me in good stead. 27,000 lines of programming with 14+ million permeatations was not without its headaches.

GoSum is obviously a game, but a learning tool as well. Do you think apps like GoSum have a future in educational settings like class rooms?

I have had tons of comments regarding its educational benefits, and I think the following Apple reviewer sums it up quite well:

“Never thought I would see the day my 10yr old was wanting to do sums. Brilliant app!!!” -Apple review by Liam on Aug 09 – 2012

You also have a physical board game version of GoSum coming out. Is there a different experience that is had on the the board as opposed to on the screen?

Not everyone has or can afford an iPhone or iPad in this world, so we still believe that there is a place for the traditional family board game and will pursue this over the coming year in an effort to have GoSum reach everyone.

Any plans to add a single-player vs. computer element to the game?

As a small independent developer, we had to prioritize our resources, and with the added support from the full version we would like next to release the wifi/bluetooth version. These we hope will proceed the release of a further 3 games, already under design.

A roundup of the best BlackBerry games available in the App World.

It might not be the first device that springs to mind when you think about gaming, but there are some great BlackBerry games worth downloading. If you’re looking for the top picks from the BlackBerry App World then look no further.

Be sure to also check out our list of Best BlackBerry apps and Best BlackBerry Phones.

Bomberman vs Zombies (Free)

The zombie apocalypse is upon us in this addictive blast of action gaming. You need to blow up all the shambling undead or find the key for the escape hatch to progress from each level. You’ll face off against three types of zombies and find a range of power-ups and bombs to help or hinder you. It’s a fun twist on the classic Bomberman-style game.

  

Angry Pigs – Free (Free)

Believe it or not, Angry Birds is not available for BlackBerrys (just the PlayBook tablet). Luckily, you can have similar fun with Angry Pigs. This clone challenges you to catapult pigs at structures containing wolves. You need to dispatch all the wolves to progress and you’ll earn extra points for maximum destruction.

Cut It! ($1)

Another classic mobile game that you can only get on the PlayBook is Cut the Rope, but Cut It! manages to emulate the gameplay and strike a similarly cute visual style. The dog wants his snack and you have to guide it into his waiting jaws by cutting the thread. The simple premise builds to create some serious puzzles and you have the added challenge of collecting the stars.

Brain Cube Reloaded (Free)

Just like the original Brain Cube, your aim is to guide a rectangular character through a grid layout to reach a specific exit point. The simple controls work well on the BB and the sparse levels ramp up in difficulty as you progress. It starts out deceptively simple and turns into a real puzzler.

Dark Galaxy (Free)

Fancy embarking on an intergalactic battle for domination? This is a massively multiplayer online game of sorts which casts you as a space marine. It is text-based, a bit like Mafia Wars, and the focus is on completing missions and destroying enemies by spending your resources wisely. It is surprisingly addictive and the battles and alliances with other players give it an extra edge. There are a lot of variations on this so if you prefer military, modern-day styling, or a fantasy setting, you can find them in the shape of Forces of War and Age of Legends.

 

Guns’n’Glory Free (Free)

This is an addictive twist on the tower defense genre which throws elements of real-time strategy into the mix. Each map features a unique layout and your task is to assemble a gang of varmints and ambush anyone who tries to make it through. You can recruit Mexicans with dynamite, Indians with flaming arrows, and Desperados with six-shooters. Making the right choice and placing them well is crucial if you want to earn big gold which you can use to recruit and upgrade your men. For some reason, the premium version is $8 but all it does is remove the ads.

 

Tiny Bird ($1)

If you’ve heard of or played Tiny Wings then you’ll recognize this as a knock-off straight away. The aim is to keep your bird from getting sucked into the approaching storm and to do that you need to use the hills of each island to your advantage. The one-touch controls make this really accessible and it will hook you immediately. Visually, it has a colorful cartoon style which should appeal to the whole family.

Plumber (Free)

The imaginatively named, Plumber, casts you as a plumber and challenges you to get the water flowing. In order to do that you’ll need to rotate the pieces of pipe to create the right path from one side of the screen to the other. It’s familiar puzzle gameplay, but it still has an addictive hook.

Playtomo (Free)

How about a wee compendium of simple puzzle games for your BlackBerry? Playtomo includes more than 25 games. You’ve got a choice of Tetris clones, Sudoku, word puzzles, solitaire, and a few others that you’ll recognize. There’s easily enough addictive gameplay on offer here to keep you amused for a few hours.

 

Fightin’ Words Free (Free)

Another smash hit game that has yet to make an appearance on the BlackBerry is Words with Friends, but this is the next best thing. It is basically multiplayer Scrabble. You’ve got in-game chat, you can get push notifications or emails when it’s your turn, and you can play against friends or strangers. It even works cross-platform, so you can play against people with Android phones.

That’s it for our BlackBerry game roundup. Got a suggestion for another BB game worth trying? Post a comment and tell us.