In Depth: What on Earth is Sony doing with its smartphones?

A few years ago, Sony Ericsson was one of the main players in the mobile phone market. Cybershot- or Walkman-branded handsets were everywhere, offering premium brands in desirable packages.

But then came the smartphone revolution and Sony Ericsson faltered. Sony knew it needed a big change to keep up with Samsung and LG, so bought out Ericsson and set about trying to claw back some ground – with an interesting strategy.

You'd have thought the brand would have played safe, but instead it decided to carpet bomb the market with flagship handsets.

The Xperia Z. The Xperia Z1. The Xperia Z2. The Xperia Z3. This many headline phones took Samsung four years to launch, and yet Sony has managed the same feat in under 24 months – and the trend doesn't look like stopping any time soon with the Xperia Z4 hotly tipped for an appearance at MWC 2015.

However, this must look really confusing to consumers, especially as many buyers only dip into the market when their contract is up for renewal – who would buy a new phone when it could be obsolete in under half a year?

We talked to Pierre Perron, Sony Mobile's President for North West Europe, to find out why the brand thinks it can topple Samsung and Apple from the top of the smartphone tree by doing something so alternative.

"It is a challenge but the return on investment - when it comes to brand positioning and visibility - you get is far more important than the internal challenge we have in moving from one product to another," said Perron.

"We always make sure that the other product, the older phone, can continue on sale in a different price segment… The rest is just an internal challenge and we can cope with that."

The innovation point is an interesting one. Ignoring the fact this must be costing Sony enormously in terms of resource and money, being able to launch new phones constantly means consumers looking for a high-end smartphone always have access to the latest innovation from the Sony labs.

If the brand had followed the same pattern as the competition, it would have had to wait until March or April next year to unveil PS4 Remote Play compatibility, by which time it would have missed the chance to tie-in with the inevitable Christmas rush to buy a new console.

But the constant changes would have had a much bigger impact if offered in a new phone every 12 months, allowing the rumour mill to spike and get consumers excited in the same way they do with a new iPhone or Galaxy handset.

What? Why?

So why miss out on that hype? Why not save time and resource and just make a new phone each year, leaving the six month cycle for the mid- to low-range phones? Why risk confusing consumers or invoking their wrath when they find their fancy handset is outdated months, or even weeks, after purchase?

Perron disagreed that this would happen, and pointed to the fact this aggressive strategy allowed Sony to keep control of its profit margins as well as being able to offer consumers a phone no matter how much they wanted to spend:

"[This strategy] helps us from a tactical point of view, to avoid too fast price erosion," he said. "If we had one single product [retailers] could say this one needs to be at a lower price point as it brings more volume. But we have older phones for that price segment.

"It's not an addition for the sake of having a product, each [phone] needs to play a role at a certain price point – this is where our market share will be built."

It's a strategy that doesn't seem to be bearing fruit just yet, with losses announced for Sony's smartphone unit in the last quarter and a 15% reduction in headcount to help it streamline and launch a renewed attack on the higher end of the market.

The person who bought the Xperia Z at launch will still be locked into a contract with that device (although nearly free), looking longingly at the PlayStation power the current phone packs. Admittedly, Sony finally brought PS4 play to the Xperia Z2, but older phones are still being shown up for their lack of new gadgetry quite quickly.

Perron confirmed that newer phones forced older ones off sale – while Samsung is still selling the Galaxy S3 from two years ago, you can't buy the Xperia Z1 any more.

That makes sense, but those customers need to feel loved – and Sony's upgrade cycle has previously been a bit confusing, Android updates coming to older phones on a very ad-hoc basis, mirroring much of the Android manufacturers.

Compare that to Apple, which has brought the latest iOS 8 to a three-year-old phone, and you can understand the trepidation a consumer might feel about handcuffing themselves to a the latest phone only to find it's the forgotten child in under a year.

However, Sony's taking a stance on Android upgrades now: it wants to be more agile in offering new software treats to users, and the launch of Android Lollipop seems to have allowed it to even support the Xperia Z.

As to when Sony will start rolling out the update to its main line of devices, the manufacturer has said "the update for Sony Z Ultra Google Play Edition will hit over-the-air and should be with you soon – next up, we're looking forward to bringing Android 5.0; Lollipop to the entire Xperia Z Series starting from the early part of 2015… so stay tuned for the latest!"

• Android Lollipop upgrade: when can I get it?

So, how should Sony fans feel? The bad news is you're probably never going to be more than 6 months from your special new smartphone being outdated, which may irk some. On the other hand, if you're OK to wait, that phone will be discounted pretty soon.

Is Sony's strategy sustainable? If it keeps lowering sale targets (it recently slashed it twice for the current financial year, several millions below the original 50 million target set by March 2015) then it's hard to see how the strategy will bear fruit – there's a high cost to constantly bringing phones out.

But there's one shining light: Sony's smartphones are actually rather good at the moment. The Z2 was a brilliant phone pitched at a decent price, and while the Z3 didn't really add a lot to the predecessor (and the camera quality doesn't quite match up to the level you'd expect from a dedicated technology team) it's still one of the better options.

Will we still be talking about Sony in the same way this time next year? If the brand comes up with a perfect smartphone, complemented with a viable budget option, and sticks to those models, then we could well be – but that's a big ask for any brand.

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Review: LG G Watch R

Introduction and display

The Motorola Moto 360 was hotly anticipated as the first circular Android Wear device, but its screen isn't actually a full circle. The display on the LG G Watch R however, is.

The G Watch R finally sees the fusion between the new wave of smartwatches and the tried and tested design of traditional wristwatches - but does the combination work?

It's still relatively early doors for the smartwatch revolution, and Android Wear is certainly still in its infancy. This has been clear as the early wave of devices we've seen have been a little half baked.

At £220 (around $300, AU$280) the G Watch R isn't cheap, it's comfortably more expensive than the square-shaped LG G Watch (£159, $229, AU$250), Sony Smartwatch 3 (£189) and Samsung Gear Live (£169, $199, AU$250), so if you've just splashed the cash on a new handset it's a considerable additional payment.

That said the price has dropped slightly since launch, and you can now get it for £199.99 if you shop around a little in the UK.

As with all the Android Wear devices the LG G Watch R will work with any Android handset running Android 4.3 or above - and there's even rumours suggesting Google may open up compatibility to iOS devices too, so watch this space.

In terms of specs the G Watch R is relatively well equipped with a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage and a 410mAh battery.

Compared to the Moto 360 that's a better processor and larger battery, plus you also get a barometer, heart rate monitor and 9-Axis (which includes a gyro, accelerometer and compass).

Display

The LG G Watch R sports a full circle P-OLED display measuring 1.3-inches in diameter, making it slightly smaller than the 1.56-inch offering on the Moto 360 - but did I mention, it's an circle!

While the 360 only has a resolution of 320 x 290, the smaller G Watch R is slightly higher at 320 x 320, giving you a clearer, crisper display.

Putting the two round watches side by side there's a clear difference between them and the G Watch R certainly looks better.

There's no question that the circular displays are more aesthetically pleasing than the square design of the Gear Live and G Watch, but those have the advantage of working with a wider array of apps, as some aren't built for round devices.

The always-on screen means there's no waiting for it to wake when you check the time, and the fully circular design can be mistaken for a traditional timepiece from afar if you've selected a watch face which suits.

During my review time with the G Watch R I never had an issue with the screen in direct sunlight, and I tended to keep the brightness on its lowest setting, which seemed to suffice in most lighting conditions.

That's good for battery life, as I rarely needed to raise it up, and I never required the full brightness setting.

Design and comfort

I've not been the only person to bemoan the design of smartwatches and the fact that they generally don't have the style of a traditional timepiece - so much so you'd question even slapping the Samsung Gear Live or LG G Watch to your wrist.

Thankfully though with the introduction of the LG G Watch R and Moto 360 there's a sign manufacturers are cottoning on to the fact that a device with subtle, stylish design will be looked on more favourably in this market.

The Moto 360 is certainly an attractive piece of kit, and it's probably the nicest looking smartwatch currently on the market, but the G Watch R takes the award for looking most like a traditional watch.

If you're already accustomed to wearing a normal timepiece - and I'm not talking about a slimline Casio digital affair - then the size of the G Watch R will be natural.

It measures 46.4 x 53.6 x 11.1mm, making it slightly thinner than the 11.5mm Moto 360, and at 62g it's lighter than the majority of mainstream analogue watches.

The LG G Watch R only comes in the one size, there's not a series of sizes, colours and straps like Apple Watch, so if you're not a fan of black and your wrists are on the more slender side this may not be for you.

It doesn't look quite as premium as the Moto 360 either, with the watch bezel looking like plastic rather than metal which cheapens the appearance of the device.

There is a crown on the right side of the G Watch R, but it doesn't spin round, instead it acts as the power/wake button. You're unlikely to really use it after initially turning the watch on, but its inclusion provides the illusion that this is a watch rather than a mini computer strapped to your wrist.

Then there's the leather strap which, when you first take it out of the box, neither looks nor feels like leather. It appears cheap and doesn't feel particularly nice.

After a good week or so of use though the leather softened up and the strap felt more natural to the touch and on the wrist.

Luckily you can swap the strap out for any other 22mm offering, allowing you to bring some customisation to the G Watch R, and possibly some class as well.

On the rear of the watch itself you'll find a centralised heart rate monitor and five gold connector pins to one side which connect with the charging dock. While the main case of the G Watch R is metal, there's no mistaking the plastic backing.

It's not an issue and against the wrist it feels fine, plus with IP67 dust and waterproofing you'll be able to hop in the shower with the LG G Watch R without having to worry. In fact the G Watch R can be dunked into fresh water (no swimming in the sea or a pool, then) at the depth of up to one meter for 30 minutes.

Interface and performance

The LG G Watch R runs Google's Android Wear platform, and the on-screen experience is pretty much identical to all the other smartwatches using the same software.

The G Watch R has been upgraded to Android Wear 5.0.1 since launching, bringing it inline with Google's Lollipop update for phones and tablets.

It comes with an emphasis on watch faces, so you get a couple of extra stock ones and the ability to download a host of others, from Pacman to Santa.

The choice will grow as more and more developers get behind the platform, and you can now change the watch face from the Android Wear app on your phone - something I found easier than having to cycle through all the options on the G Watch R.

There's not a lot manufacturers can tweak here to give you a unique experience, so you're stuck with the familiar information cards which appear as and when Google Now decides.

For example, travel times and routes to and from work will display in the morning before you leave the house and before you finish at work in the evening, while the step counter is one of the most persistent cards available.

You can swipe vertically from the bottom of the screen to flick through the available cards, a swipe from left to right will remove a card from the list while moving you finger in the opposite direction will take you to more options.

The G Watch R provides you with an easy to follow tutorial when you first fire it up, and it shouldn't take you too long to get used to the basics.

'Settings' has been made easier to access with the 5.0.1 update, with the option being moved to the top of the list when in Google Now mode - saving you from having to scroll all the way to the bottom.

In settings you can access screen brightness, power off, restart, reset and about - the latter of which has an option to check for software updates, although you'll usually get notified with a card on the watch if there's a new version of Android Wear available.

The 'Start' menu meanwhile shows you all the applications installed on the G Watch R, but more about them on the next page.

There are a welcome number of watch faces pre-installed on the G Watch R, with some traditional timepiece lookalikes mixed in with some modern designs too.

Just hold down on the clock face to see the selection on offer and tap on the one that takes your fancy.

You can download more watch faces, I was particularly partial to 'Secret Agent', which will be familiar to anyone who's played Goldeneye.

Flick your wrist and the dimmed display with light up, alerting you that the G Watch R is ready and listening for an 'Okay Google' command from you.

The voice activation works pretty well, from setting alarms and taking notes to sending emails and making calls - the G Watch R had little trouble understanding what I said and putting my words into action.

It's no perfect though, and on several occasions the G Watch R didn't service me with the right words, which adds considerable delay to your message composition and makes you wish you'd just got your phone out and typed it.

It also still feels rather odd talking to your wrist, and I rarely found myself barking at the watch in public places.

The voice commands certainly come in handy when you're driving or if you're out on a run. At home I used the voice recognition more, but it's still quicker to pick up your phone and bash out a text if you're hands are free.

The Moto 360 disappointed in its full review when it came to performance, but the good news here is the LG G Watch R sports a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, providing a decent slug of power to your wrist.

It comes with 512MB of RAM, the same as the other Android Wear devices, and I was able to move around the interface easily. Performance seems to have taken a bit of a hit since the 5.0.1 update though, with load times noticeably longer every now and then.

I'm hoping another quick update will solve this, but for now it's a little annoying.

Apps and fitness

Before you can get to grips with your LG G Watch R you'll need to visit Google Play on your smartphone and download the Android Wear app.

You'll then be instructed on the watch face and within the app on pairing the two devices together, once paired you're good to go.

There's nothing particularly ground breaking pre-installed with Android Wear, the standard compatibility with Google's apps (calendar, Gmail, Hangouts, Maps etc) is present along with the likes of Weather and Fit - the latter of which you'll use to monitor your steps and heart rate.

Unlike the Moto 360, LG hasn't provided its own management app for the G Watch R and there's no dedicated heart rate application which monitors your pulse throughout the day.

You have to manually navigate to the app on the watch and have it check your heart rate that way, which is a little clumsy.

If you can't be bothered to navigate with your fingers you can always just say "Okay Google, show me my steps/heart rate" which does make the process easier.

For those of you who want you text messages on the G Watch R your phone's stock SMS client will ping new message notifications to your wrist, but for full functionality including the ability to reply and read message chains you'll need to use Google's Hangouts app.

That's not a huge issue, Hangouts works pretty much the same way as any other SMS app, and you won't have any trouble getting to grips with it.

Being able to read a message stream on your wrist is useful, as is the ability to reply with a pre-determined stock message such as "Yes", "I'm running late" or "I'm in a meeting" - or for a more personal touch you can speak your response.

The Google Maps integration is handy, giving you turn by turn directions on wrist - I found this particularly useful when walking round London looking for an office, as I didn't have to get my phone out and hold it in front of my face as I strolled down the road.

As part of the Android Wear 4.4w.2 update Google enabled a Play Music function which allows you to store music files directly on your smartwatch.

Fire up Play Music on your smartphone and enable 'Download to Android Wear' to get your tunes sent across to the G Watch R.

You can then pair a set of bluetooth headphones with the watch and listen to your tracks without the need for a smartphone.

You've got to keep in mind that G Watch R only has 4GB of internal storage, so it may not be able to store your whole music collection, plus you'll want to keep some space to download other apps.

The number of available apps for Android Wear is increasing, and you can jump to a selection via the Wear app on your phone.

This will take you to a dedicated are of the Play Store where most of the big names who have committed to the platform so far (Facebook, Twitter, RunKeeper etc) can be found.

There are many more ready to go though. Download the Wear Store app and it gives you access to hundreds of apps and games which have been crafted for your wrist wearable.

You'll need to check that the app you're downloading has been built with the G Watch R's circular screen in mind, as a fair few have only been developed for the square screens of the Smartwatch 3, Gear Live and G Watch.

Quality varies wildly, and there's a fair amount of duplication, but expect the selection be become more varied and increase in quality as more and more developers jump aboard the wearable wagon.

When it comes to fitness the LG G Watch R is relatively rudimental in its functionality. The step counter is handy for a quick glance at your daily progress, but the lack of any real analysis makes it difficult to gauge performance over weeks and months.

You can adjust your step goal from 1000 all the way up to 20000 per day and there's a bar chart to show you your weekly steps, but that's it.

LG decided against including GPS in the G Watch R, so Sony's Smartwatch 3 remains the only device with the location function which has just been unlocked in the 4.4w.2 software update.

The heart rate monitor adds another metric to the fitness side of things, but like the pedometer there's little functionality for analysis with a history of readings the only insight you get.

There's certainly the chance to expand these functions and we could always see Google build on them in future software releases, but for now they'll be little use to those serious on tracking their fitness.

Battery life and connectivity

One of the biggest sticking points with smartwatches is battery life, and unfortunately things are no different with the LG G Watch R.

First up, the good news. The G Watch R sports a 410mAh battery which is bigger than the 320mAh power pack stuffed into the Moto 360.

The G Watch R then, delivers better battery performance over its rounded Motorola rival as well as the square faced options, but don't get too excited. I found that the G Watch R could last two days on a single charge, but no longer than that.

So while the nightly charging ritual isn't required, having to charge it every other night is just as frustrating.

I still look in envy at the likes of the Pebble and Pebble Steel which can get seven days from one charge, but that's understandable with black and white displays and fewer functions.

Still, having to charge your watch as well as your smartphone on a bi-nightly, if not nightly, basis is counter productive and it will put off a number of people.

LG provides a similar magnetic charging cradle to the one bundled with the original G Watch, only this time it's round to fit the shape of the G Watch R.

It's easy to plonk the G Watch R down on it at night, but there were a few times I forgot and then had the watch die on me in the middle of the day with the charging cradle back at home.

Without that there's no way to recharge the watch and thus it's ultimately useless if you go away and forget this vital piece of kit.

The Qi wireless charging cradle for the Moto 360 is a lot more stylish in its implementation and useful as it doubles as a bedside/desk clock while it sits on the stand, but again you're constrained by the need for the cradle.

The Sony Smartwatch 3 has a microUSB port on the side, allowing you to charge it using a standard smartphone cable which is far more practical, but adds additional bulk to the device.

In short the charging solution for the G Watch R isn't terrible, but it's also not the best and the fact it can't go more than two days on a single charge is still a huge irritation.

Connectivity wise Android Wear smartwatches are still pretty limited. The LG G Watch R sports Bluetooth 4.0 and that's about it.

There's no GPS, NFC or cellular connections available and as I've already mentioned it's also devoid of a microUSB port.

You also can't build on the 4GB of internal storage with a memory card, but hey, at least it has a barometer.

Verdict

The LG G Watch R has got one thing right, it actually looks like a watch. While it may not appear as premium as the Moto 360, it's personally my favourite looking smartwatch to date.

There's still a long way for Android Wear to go to become truly useful, and justifying the G Watch R's price tag is difficult.

We liked

The design will always be subjective, and while some people told me the G Watch R looked a bit cheap and plastic, I am rather taken with it.

It's unassuming and that's what I want. People catch it out the corner of their eye and instead of recoiling in horror at the ugly computer strapped to my wrist, they gloss over it thinking it's nothing more than a simple time piece.

The display is also worth shouting about. While the Moto 360 had a larger screen which made text a little larger and easier to read, the higher resolution display of the G Watch R is easier on the eye, while the P-OLED screen delivers strong colours.

Performance wise the Watch R holds in own in the market, and it bests the 360 which suffers from an underpowered chip inside.

We disliked

At two days the battery life is better than most of the Android Wear competition, but considering you don't have to charge a normal watch ever, every two days is still pretty annoying.

Add to that the fact you have to have the charging cradle with you to charge it and things can get very frustrating if you've left it at home.

The price is very steep. The LG G Watch R doesn't really offer anything additional over the G Watch, Smartwatch 3 and Gear Live - all of which are a good chunk cheaper.

Android Wear in its current form is still limited. I'm sure more functionality will be added in future software updates, but for now it still feels rather half baked.

There are certain use case scenarios which highlight the benefit of a smartwatch, but most of the time it really isn't that much effort to pick up your phone and check your notifications.

Verdict

The LG G Watch R is one of the best smartwatches on the market, but it's still far from a polished device.

Android Wear needs more work, it still feels odd talking into your wrist - especially in public places - and the price tag is a hard one to swallow - especially if you've just bought a new handset.

It's difficult to really recommend any of the smartwatches currently on the market as they're yet to carve a path which makes them really a nesscessary addition to your day to day life.

Sure the G Watch R is fun to show off to your friends, and its unassuming design means it blends far better into your wrist, but should you buy one?

Only if you really, really want to.

First reviewed: October 2014

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Your Kindle could be damaging your health

Reading that e-book in bed may seem like the perfect way to relax before sleep, but it might actually be harming your health.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA claim that reading back-lit ereaders before bed leads to poorer quality sleep. The is due to our natural body rhythm, which uses light to tell the time.

The blue light emitted from tablets, smartphones and LEDs disrupts this pattern, meaning we experience poorer sleep, less deep sleep, and awake in the morning feeling more tired.

Circadian

Researchers analysed the production of the sleep hormone melatonin in the 12 test subjects, discovering that the amount was reduced by reading an e-book.

"Overall, we found that the use of portable light-emitting devices immediately before bedtime has biological effects that may perpetuate sleep deficiency and disrupt circadian rhythms, both of which can have adverse impacts on performance, health and safety," Read the report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

So if you want to nod off faster, you're probably better off using an ereader that isn't back-lit, or just sticking with a paperback.

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How businesses can deal with the issue of employees surfing for pornography

Introduction

The reality of the workplace today is that employees are sometimes free to browse on any website, surf from the cafeteria or a private cubicle, and consume megabytes of data off the corporate Wi-Fi network. But what if they abuse that in one of the worst ways possible?

Surfing for pornography at work is one of the most controversial, least understood (in terms of actual data about the problem), and most technologically challenging issues facing IT admins.

Controversial matter

It's controversial because not everyone has the same definition of what constitutes "not safe for work" material, laws protect the freedom of speech, and it can be difficult to address web surfing violations in business (i.e. whether the employee really visited inappropriate sites).

The problem is severely misunderstood because most companies do not share any data about those who have been "caught" surfing for pornography. And, it becomes a technical challenge when web filtering products weed out malware and block sites commonly known to disseminate pornographic material, but don't prevent access to seemingly innocuous blogs.

Eric Cowperthwaite, the vice president of advanced security and strategy at Core Security (and the former CISO of Providence Health and Services), says the issue is multifaceted and IT admins, company heads, and other leaders have to be smart about their approach.

"There is a legal issue, a management and productivity issue and a security issue," he says. "Each one of those can, and should, be dealt with differently."

Blocking strategies

Of course, the best solution in any company is to deal with the problem of employees surfing for porn by blocking access to well-known sites entirely. This is mostly a security issue. Interestingly, most of the security companies who block malware and other harmful agents declined to discuss blocking strategies related to pornography because of the free speech issues and how people define the topic.

At the same time, many products exist that will block sites and filter harmful (and inappropriate) content, from the Cisco Web Security Appliance to products from companies like FireEye, Symantec, McAfee, and Sophos.

"It is a fairly well understood reality that many of the internet systems serving up pornography don't have good security themselves," says Cowperthwaite. "They are low margin operations run in locations and by organisations that really aren't overly concerned about good security. Their servers are often compromised by bad guys and are serving up malicious software, man-in-the-middle attacks, credit card breaches and the like.

"This is a significant threat to corporate security. However, the bottom line is that you deal with this sort of issue just as you would any other security issue. You put controls in place to prevent users from accessing known bad internet sites, malicious software, their session data being hijacked, and so forth."

Management and legal issues

Management and employee retention issues

The reality for most companies is that security precautions are not always 100% effective. In some cases, a site might contain "not safe for work" images and videos that sneak through the corporate firewalls or may not always be deemed pornographic. Yet there are serious management issues related to blocking this material that could still be considered offensive.

"If your users are accessing pornography at work, then there are a bunch of policy and productivity issues," says Cowperthwaite. "Even, potentially, issues involving a hostile workplace. I once dealt with a senior manager looking at porn in ways where his junior female employees could see it. That's a pretty hostile workplace.

"The issue is that security often gets pulled into (or puts itself into) the position of being the enforcer of behavioural policies that have nothing to do with good security. If an employee is surfing pornography at work there are productivity, policy, management problems. And that is who needs to deal with the issue. Security teams should run from being an HR enforcer if at all possible."

Outright violation of well-established guidelines for surfing the web should be enough to terminate an employee, says Rob Enderle, a well-known tech analyst. "Generally the best practice is that if someone is caught viewing porn in the workplace their employment is terminated and they are visibly walked out of the building," he says.

Privacy and legal issues

Lastly, companies have to deal with the legal ramifications of viewing pornographic material in the workplace. There's the more obvious violations – such as surfing for child pornography – and other issues related to surfing in a workgroup setting in front of other employees.

"The inherent problems of porn in the workplace are well-known and documented," says Charles King, an IT analyst. "It's disrespectful and divisive, often sparks and contributes to employee hostilities, and can also expose the employer to legal liability in a variety of forms. In other words, it's inappropriate on virtually every level so employers have the right and responsibility to protect themselves and their employees.

"Creating clear policies on the subject would be the first order of business, followed by ensuring that every worker understands the issues and consequences. Finally, it's critical for companies' HR and legal departments to develop fair, objective methods of enforcement in cases where employees violate those policies."

Cowperthwaite adds: "There have been cases, mostly not ever discussed publicly, where corporate resources have been used by people dealing in child pornography. This is one of the CISO's worst nightmares. The systems the CISO is entrusted with safeguarding have been compromised (usually by an insider) and then used to break the law. To make it worse, it is one of the worst forms of law-breaking in our society.

"The solution is straightforward, however. If you have good security controls that protect against your networks being breached and exploited by bad guys, then you have the right controls in place to deal with this issue."

In the end, technology can help, but most of the experts agreed the issue is really one that IT leadership has to confront and manage on a case-by-case basis.

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4GB RAM phones are coming, and Samsung's Galaxy S6 could be the first

A couple of months ago we heard word that the Samsung Galaxy S6 might have 4GB of RAM, but Samsung may have just helped confirm that rumour itself. Not only that, it might be more power efficient than existing RAM modules too.

Samsung has announced that it's begun mass producing the industry's first 4 Gigabyte LPDDR4 mobile DRAM modules for phones and tablets. Samsung's LPDDR4 chip is two times faster than a typical DDR3 DRAM used in PCs and can support UHD video recording and playback, as well as continuous shooting of high-resolution 20MP+ images, so it will be a real boon for camera phones.

But the upshot is that 4GB RAM smartphones are coming, and soon.

High performance, low power

Yet despite all that performance the voltage is just 1.1V, making it the lowest power memory option available for large-screen smartphones and tablets. So it should simultaneously boost the performance of devices and be kinder on their batteries.

Given that it's faster than DDR3 DRAM and designed with tablets in mind it could also feasibly find its way on to computers, ushering in super laptops. Wherever it ends up it's likely to arrive soon, since Samsung is already starting to mass produce it.

We could feasibly see it in the Samsung Galaxy S6 and will almost certainly get it in the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, not to mention lots of the other flagships and tablets that will be launching next year.

• The Galaxy S6 might have a metal frame too.

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First USB 3.1 products to launch at CES 2015

Taiwanese company Adata will be releasing a number of USB flash drives that will use the brand new USB 3.1 technology (Type C OTG) at CES 2015.

There are no details about the storage capacity, but we can expect Adata to offer anything between 128GB and 1TB models. Adata also mentioned that it will leverage Bluetooth pairing with your smartphone to enable protection at user level by using Bluetooth as an additional security level.

Announced back in July 2013, the new interface promises to deliver up to 10Gbps, twice the transfer rate of USB 3.0 and on par with Intel's Thunderbolt.

Other notable advantages include universal reversible ports (replaces both USB and microUSB) and the ability to deliver up to 100W of power, which should be enough for a laptop and a couple of monitors (like the AOC E1759FWU which uses only 10W).

USB 3.1 will be backward compatible with current USB devices. It will be interesting to find out how swift will the rest of the market adopt USB 3.1 as it seeks to federate both mobile and desktop audiences.

• Will USB finally kill the desktop?

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Microsoft confirms Onedrive will keep files 'forever' if users want it

Microsoft has confirmed to TechRadar Pro via its OneDrive Twitter account that its cloud-based storage service will save files on OneDrive forever or until the user decides otherwise.

To the question "are the files on OneDrive saved forever?", OneDrive's team answered "You'll still be able to view, share, and download files, but you won't be able to upload files until you buy more storage."

This means that you can upload as many files as you want over the course of a year, allow your subscription to lapse and still access them later without limits.

Google also allows you to do that on Google Drive although if you're over the free storage limit, incoming messages to your Gmail account will be returned to the sender.

Will Box and Dropbox follow?

Microsoft removed the 1TB storage limit on all Office 365 subscriptions, although the rollout has been staggered and likely to reach non-business users early next year.

A 10GB limit on individual files and a 20,000-file limit for OneDrive for Business still hold although you will be able to upload as many files as you want if you compress them.

The cheapest way to get unlimited OneDrive storage is to get a one-year subscription to Microsoft's Office 365 Personal which costs less than £50 at CCL.

Check out our review of Microsoft Office 365.

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Downloads: Christmas crackers: Skype

Christmas is all about family and friends, but it is often not possible to get together with everyone you would like. If you're missing someone and want to keep in touch over the festive season, there's no better way to do it than with Skype.

The program shows just how far communication tools have come in recent years, making it possible to conduct not only text-based chats online, but also phone calls and video calls.

The best experience comes when you connect with other Skype users, as this opens up the opportunity to conduct multi-user video chats; this gives family spread around the world the chance to get together in a single conversation window.

But Skype can also be used to place calls to regular landlines. Whether you want to chat with a friend in the next town, an uncle at the other end of the country, or a sibling on the other side of the world, making calls through Skype is usually significantly cheaper than placing a regular landline call.

With versions of the software available for desktop Windows, Windows 8 and a host of mobile devices, Skype makes it easier than ever to keep in touch with the ones you love.

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Critical flaw forces Apple to push automatic Mac update for first time ever

Vulnerabilities in the ubiquitous Network Time Protocol (NTP) service have forced Apple to issue its first-ever automated security update for Mac OS X, a process that is common on Microsoft's Windows platform.

Apple has included that mechanism in its last three operating systems and is using it as a last-resort intervention.

The weaknesses were unearthed by Google researchers last week and have since been published by the US Department of Homeland Security as well as the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute.

The Mac OS X update, which a spokesperson said is seamless and doesn't require a restart, will roll out on 10.10 Yosemite, 10.9 Mavericks, and 10.8 Mountain Lion.

Time splitters

NTP is used primarily to synchronise time on devices across networks and is a fundamental component of any connected operating system.

While there is no risk of data being compromised, it allows any remote attacker that uses a particular payload to execute malicious code, something that might be particularly useful to mount DDoS attacks.

NTP-based attacks usually cause more havoc because of a so-called amplication factor where a query sent by a device gets a response that's 1000x larger.

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Oracle acquires offline marketing specialist Datalogix

Oracle has announced that it has acquired offline marketing specialist DataLogix which will become part of the company's Data Cloud offering, improving its CRM portfolio.

Details of the transaction were not revealed although it has yet to close; the Denver-based company has raised more than $87 million (about £55 million, AU$107 million) since its inception and counts Pepsico, Ford, Twitter, Facebook and Google as its clients.

Datalogix allows marketers to link offline purchasing data to digital media, allowing them to deliver purchase-based targeting, thereby increasing the opportunities to sell across channels (digital, mobile, offline and TV).

The company crunches data amounting to $2 trillion (about £1.3 trillion, AU$2.5 trillion) worth of consumer spending and delivers insights to more than 650 customers worldwide.

Its network include 1500 data partners across 110 million households. Eric Roza, CEO, Datalogix, said in a statement that the company's mission was to "help the leading consumer marketers connect digital media to the offline world, where over 93% of consumer spending occurs".

Shares of the company jumped by more than 11% on Thursday after the company beat estimates after releasing its earnings report for the second quarter of fiscal year 2015.

• Here's why Oracle could buy AMD tomorrow

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In Depth: Best Blu-rays 2014: 10 discs to hi-def your Christmas

Best Blu-ray movies 2014

The world may have gone streaming mad in 2014 but Blu-ray is still king when it comes to delivering home entertainment - at least for those who still like collecting real, malleable things.

With that in mind, here are the 10 best Blu-rays of 2014. These are the discs that offer up the best picture quality, awesome audio and extras that rival the main feature. There's a mixture of retro and new, fantasy and futuristic but they all have one thing in common - they are essentials for any movie lover's collection.

1. The Hayao Miyazaki Complete Collection

The announcement of Hayao Miyazaki's retirement early this year was a massive blow not just to cinema but to the future of Studio Ghibli, the most important animation house since the one run by a mouse.

This comprehensive retrospective is a fantastic showcase of the beautiful animated movies that Ghibli has made over the years with the boxset housing 11 feature films.

The transfers are impeccable, remastered and brought to life for a Blu-ray audience. Unfortunately the extras are moribund, but you won't care as you will be, ahem, spirited away by each and every movie regardless.

• View on Amazon

2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Extended Edition

No, the Hobbit didn't need to be stretched over three movies but with director Peter Jackson at the helm he has at least made a(nother) movie trilogy that sparkles in high definition.

As with The Lord of The Rings, the Blu-ray release of The Hobbit movies has been given an Extended Edition. This means nine hours of special features, 13 minutes of extra footage, stretched over five discs. A phenomenal amount of love has been put into the creation of this edition, which is essential viewing for anyone who loves all things Tolkien.

• View on Amazon

3. Stanley Kubrick: 8-Film Masterpiece Collection

The movies of Stanley Kubrick have been well loved on Blu-ray, so much so that this is the second collection of his movies to hit the format. What you get is eight movies, 10 discs and a multitude of new documentaries. This is all topped off with a stunning 78-page hardcover book.

We do wish that some of the movies had a new transfer but these are the best-quality versions of Kubrick's classic movies that you can buy at the moment.

• View on Amazon

4. Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery

David Lynch's mesmerising television series has finally been given the update it deserves. It comes to Blu-ray with a 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, an HD picture upgrade to many of the shots and a whole host of new material.

Also included is a new transfer of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and an archive of deleted scenes. The only thing missing is your very own log... and screaming BOB.

• View on Amazon

5. Her

Spike Jonze divided opinion with Her. Some, including this writer, was wowed by the beauty of a movie that puts a human voice to the cold nature of technology. Others found the whole concept of a man falling in love with his computer's operating system a little too far-fetched - yes, even the ones who spend their lives glued to their mobile phone screen.

What won't divide opinion is this Blu-ray release. The visuals are crisp, while the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track performs extremely well. Given that Scarlett Johansson's voice is central to the movie, the audio track needed to perform perfectly - and it does just that. The disc also comes with an Ultraviolet digital copy.

• View on Amazon

6. Guardians of The Galaxy

Given that the Guardians of the Galaxy was a little-known Marvel comic, it's amazing just how well the story of a ragtag group of space cowboys actually transferred to the big screen. It's all down to the perfect casting, great script and putting faith into a director who started off his career knee-deep in B-Movie schlock.

You will be glad to know that Galaxy works just as well on Blu-ray as it does on cinema. The transfer is vibrant and the sound mix perks up the '80s soundtrack perfectly. A decent trough of special features rounds of this release nicely.

• View on Amazon

7. Gravity

Yes 3D is still a fad but Gravity proves that if you use the technology properly then you can create a brilliant immersive experience. The Blu-ray version of Gravity makes space look spectacular and the prolonged dread throbbing throughout the movie thankfully transfers well in the home.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track also puts your home cinema system through its paces, bringing to life the soaring score. A word of warning, though: if you really want to hear the movie in the home in Dolby Atmos, then maybe hold out until the Gravity: Diamond Luxe Edition which is set to released in 2015.

• View on Amazon

8. Dawn of the Planet of The Apes

While the Dolby Atmos track that was present in the cinema isn't on the Blu-ray release, this is still one of the best sounding and looking Blu-rays in recent years. The transfer is pitch perfect, meaning you will fall in love with Caeser and the rest of the ape ensemble all over again in the home.

The Blu-ray comes complete with a 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix, which nearly makes up for the lack of Atmos. Extras include a smattering of behind-the-scenes features and a captivating look at how the filmmakers brought these damned dirty apes to life.

• View on Amazon

9. Edge of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow has gone through more name changes than Snoop Dogg - Live. Die. Repeat. seems to be the en vogue one at the moment. This usually signifies a movie that can't find an audience but it's simply not the case here. Edge of Tomorrow is a superb slice of sci-fi that's both funny and thought provoking - it's a mash up of Starship Troopers and Groundhog Day and is Tom Cruise's best film in years.

The Blu-ray edition houses a great production documentary focusing on director Doug Liman, as well as deleted scenes and some great behind-the-scenes tidbits.

• View on Amazon

10. Transformers: Age of Extinction

There's not much to say about this film other than it is yet another movie that massively fails because of Michael Bay being Michael Bay. But it needs to be on this list as it is the world's first disc to use Dolby Atmos, the audio encoding system for those who like their sounds to come from above.

It's too early to tell if Atmos will actually win in the home but it really is impressive - even if it doesn't quite live up to how the technology sounds in the cinema.

• View on Amazon

• Find more Christmas articles on XmasRadar. Supported by LG

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Review: Sony SmartBand Talk

Introduction

The Sony SmartBand Talk SWR30 is an experiment, a way to make wearable tech that goes against the grain a little. While Samsung, Motorola and LG are all battling to make the ultimate Android Wear watch, this little wrist tracker takes a few more cues from the Pebble smartwatch.

It doesn't have an interface shared with loads of other smart devices that'll get richer and richer as the months pass. You will never play games on the thing, unless someone hacks the feature in.

It's simple. And maybe that's OK. For some people, maybe that's more than OK: great, even. What Sony's out to do with the Sony SmartBand Talk makes sense in a market where we're still seeing what we actually want wearable tech to do in our lives.

Only the price is a bit of a sticking point. At £130 (US$169.99, AU$199) it's more than the latest price for the original Pebble or LG G Watch. Sure, it can take calls too, but for most people that's a side attraction at best. This band is pretty expensive for what you get.

The SmartBand Talk looks more like a fitness tracker than a watch until you notice the great big time read-out on its screen. It looks like a gadget, that's certain, but it's otherwise a pretty innocuous presence.

At 24g it's so light I actually forgot it was on my wrist at times, this coming from someone who doesn't wear an ordinary watch day-in, day-out.

There's no real high-end feel here as the strap is rubber rather than leather or metal, but it's very comfortable. It's not just because of the light weight, but also the way the back of the SmartBand Talk is lightly curved to match most people's wrists. It certainly matched mine.

The Sony SmartBand Talk comes with two straps as well. That you can remove the strap isn't too obvious from the start, as it fits in near-seamlessly with the core plastic part that holds the screen, hooked in place with plastic anchors on the back.

This sort of a design is a good thing, even if it did have me wondering whether I had the slender arms of a young girl when having to use the tightest setting bar. Instead, there are small and larger straps and, sure enough, I had the larger one attached.

It uses a clasp-style mechanism to keep the band attached to your wrist, with little metal mushrooms you push through the strap's holes to secure it. It's nothing fancy, but is also very low-fuss, even compared with a standard watch strap.

How little you have to think about the SmartBand Talk is one of its great strengths. It's water resistant, and I wore it in the shower on a daily basis without any issue.

It's certified to the IP68 standard, meaning it's totally dust-proof and can be submerged in water. As ever, you're only meant to dunk the Sony SmartBand Talk in fresh water: so no swimming in the sea, or swimming pools. The salt and chemicals in those bodies of water are enough to rule them out: do so at your own risk.

The little part that's crucial to this waterproofing is a little rubber cap that plugs up the microUSB port used to charge the Sony SmartBand Talk. The rest is already primed for the wet stuff.

Fairly small, light and comfortable, the design isn't flashy but it works. You can also get more colourful straps, if the choice of a black or white watch just isn't jazzy enough for your tastes. It's the screen that you should really take note of though.

Unlike big-name smartwatches like the LG G Watch and Motorola Moto 360, the Sony SmartBand Talk uses an e-ink display. It's just 1.4 inches across and offers resolution of 296 x 128, which is pretty low.

Low resolution matters much less in an e-ink screen than an LCD one, though. E-ink uses tiny little white and black microcapsules that are raised and lowered to form a monochrome image, and as such you don't get the 'bitty' look that low-res LCD screens can have, as their displays are actually made of dots of red, green and blue with black bits in-between.

What results is a screen that, while a bit jaggedy, is very easy on the eye. E-ink doesn't use a screen backlight or any form of lighting, meaning you're at the mercy of ambient light to see the screen.

The Talk only needs a little bit of light to be clear, but in pure darkness you're out of luck. You can also invert the display, although I found the standard view clearer.

Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite uses a clever light cast over the front of the screen to make its e-ink display visible at night, but I guess we'll have to wait until the next incarnation of the SmartBand Talk.

Why e-ink when it's monochrome and not lit? It's all about battery life. E-ink only uses significant power when changing what it displays. Keep the image the same and it drains virtually no energy.

In this case, that change occurs every minute, once a minute, when the time changes. It seems the screen is still one of the main power draws as battery stamina didn't change too much depending on my level of activity. Over two of weeks of use I got three days or slightly over, each time.

That's a lot more than the day and a half you might get out of an LG G Watch R, but is ultimately quite disappointing still. The Sony SmartBand Talk has just a 70mAh battery: absolutely tiny. The Pebble watch lasts for five to seven days, which is what I'd have like to have seen here.

It's not just watches the SWR30 has to compete with either. Fitness trackers generally last for longer, such as the five day Fitbit Flex and the Garmin Vivofit, which lasts a whole year.

The screen is not touch sensitive in the manner of a smartphone either, but you can alert the phone by giving the Sony SmartBand Talk two strong taps, which sets off the accelerometer.

For the most part, though, I ended up using the metal buttons on the side of the band. There are three, a 'power' button and a volume rocker. When you're out and about pressing the power button takes you to the info screen, where you can see your day's activity, which is in my book the main point of the SmartBand Talk.

Interface and fitness

There's so little interface to the Sony SmartBand Talk it's almost comical. There's the screen that tells you the time, your activity screen and that's it, at least when it's first taken out of the box.

While you can take calls and pipe through notifications to the band from your phone, these pop up as and when needed, only to disappear without a trace, never to be dredged up again.

Like most fitness trackers, you need to hook the Sony SmartBand Talk up to a phone or tablet to use it properly. The two communicate using Bluetooth 4.0.

There's a dedicated SmartBand Talk app that lets you tweak the sort of settings you just don't have access to in the band itself. These include choosing whether to receive notifications and calls, whether to use the alarm and the mini watch apps you want to see on the Talk. I'll look into exactly what's on offer in the next section.

However, what about fitness? The band is designed to hook into the Lifelog app, which tracks all of your activity. Not just exercise either, but how many photos you take, how much music you listen to, how many games you play. The Sony SmartBand Talk is just a part of it.

Its tracking is also pretty limited. At the time of writing, it's designed to track walking and running, using cadence detection.

In other words, it's an accelerometer-based pedometer with enough smarts to know that the jogs of your body will be a bit snappier when you run, compared to walking.

There's no GPS and, more pertinent among this crowd of trackers, no altimeter. This measures how high up you are, and in some Fitbit fitness trackers is used to see how many flights of stairs you've climbed. Clearly Fitbit think we're more likely to trudge up buildings than mountains. A fair assumption.

You can set a goal for each day, but that's the extent of the fidelity to the tracking here at this point.

There are a few disappointments in this. First, it doesn't support sleep tracking, yet. Sony says this will be implemented in time, but it's not there at present. This is pretty disappointing when a great many rivals have offered it for a while. It's a bit late for a tracker like this to offer 'coming soon' extras as basic as sleep tracking.

You also can't farm out your tracking data to other fitness apps, as you can with a great many rivals including Android Wear trackers. If you don't like the way Sony Lifelog works, you're done for at this point.

I can hope that the Sony SmartBand Talk API might open up, but it seems a bit optimistic when Sony's focus is going to be on building up Lifelog, not offering alternatives.

The Sony SmartBand Talk isn't going to satisfy regular runners who'll want a GPS watch either, or those who want to compete with their fitness band owning friends on the Fitbit or Endomondo platforms. It doesn't have a heart rate sensor, either, which is becoming more common in fitness trackers by the month.

I also find wrist-worn trackers to be far less accurate than ones worn on your belt. It's the nature of the beast, as you move your arms when not actually moving around far more than the rest of your body. This is what leads to trackers like the Fitbit Flex to offer fairly poor accuracy.

The Talk isn't absurdly generous with its steps in the way some rivals are, though. Plenty of wrist trackers over-report your figures.

I do also like the way the screen lets you check out your daily steps figure and your time of walking/running for the day with the press of a button. Screen-less fitness trackers don't get you this and it takes away much of the fun of using one.

Features and competition

What can the Sony SmartBand Talk do apart from tell you how many times you've put one foot in front of the other? Fresh out of the box, not too much.

By default, you'll get notifications to the band, much the same as you'd see in the notifications bar of your phone or tablet. You just get that, though: notifications. Don't expect to read through your emails, even the ones the notification refers to. Only the first bits of information are available.

Of course, a lot of the time that's exactly what you'd want on a device like this. You get to know who your emails and texts are from, a pretty good indication of whether you'll want to check them out on your phone or not.

If you want a smartwatch that can do virtually everything your phone can, though, the SmartBand Talk is not what you want.

The other basic bit of extra functionality is, as the name suggests, phone calls. You can have calls patched through to the Talk. It has a little speaker built-in, and a microphone. You can see the outlets for these on the band's underside.

The Sony SmartBand Talk's speaker is way too quiet to cut through much ambient noise, and because of the less directed way you'd take calls with the band, a multi-mic active noise cancellation layout wouldn't really work too well here. That'll be one of the reasons why there's just a single mic.

There remains the most important problem: why on earth would you want to take calls on the Sony SmartBand Talk? Not only is the clarity worse for both parties, you'll look pretty silly too.

The alarm function feels a bit more suited to the band. A vibrate motor and the little speaker let the SmartBand Talk piggy-back off the alarm settings of your phone to wake you up. Being woken-up from your wrist takes some getting used to, but it'll make the Talk the full 24/7 package once sleep tracking has been implemented.

There are other features available, but you need to add them in the SmartBand Talk app. It's available for just about all Android 4.4 phones, not just Sony ones.

Calling these little extras apps might be overstating it though, although I imagine Sony may add more extras to the Sony SmartBand Talk in the coming months.

The most useful of the lot is the music remote. Working much like a single-button remote on the in-line controls of your earphones, a solid tap on the band works like a play/pause button, and you can switch back and forth with multiple taps.

I did find this much less responsive than actually using an in-line remote, but this comes with the territory most of the time when using a Bluetooth controller rather than a wired one. Latency may not be drastically awful with Bluetooth, but it does result in a noticeable delay most of the time.

You can also add a bunch of others, again fairly basic things but all-important to the SmartBand Talk's being able to offer more than just a fitness tracker with a clock. You download these as apps from Google Play, but you can see the listing of what's available from within the SmartBank Talk app:

Smart Camera: tap to take a photo, with your phone/tablet, not the band (which has no camera).

Weather: Display temperature and weather stats for your chosen city.

Smart Control: Toggle a selected feature on your phone (Wi-Fi, phone speaker, radio) or show the phone's battery level.

Voice Control: Lets you talk to the SmartBand in order to issue basics commands to the phone, such as 'Call X', 'What is the weather' and 'Read last SMS message'. You need to be quite specific in the wording of your questions, but otherwise it works reasonably well. As with any voice assistant, though: will you use it?

Voice Recorder: Lets you talk to the SmartBand Talk like Captain Kirk emoting away to his tricorder. The files are then saved on your phone/tablet.

If the SmartBand Talk is capable of all these extra bits, why are they not packed in from the start? Well, the more you pack in, the more sluggish the band feels. It's not that the actual device slows down, but that you need to cycle through these mini-apps in turn in order to use them, by pressing the button on the side repeatedly. Thanks to the slow refresh rates of the e-ink screen, this is not a terribly slick process.

It's best to keep as few of these mini apps on-board as possible. For my uses, for example, I chucked out everything bar the fitness tracker, the media control and the weather 'widget'. This sort of app load-out gives you a good balance of features and speed. Actually using the Talk with even just eight applets feels depressingly leaden.

Sony has done its best to work with the limitation here, though, giving you control over the order of these apps.

A fair number of smart-style features are on offer here, but each is very basic by design, and the SmartBand Talk simply doesn't work too well if you embrace too many of them.

The Competition

Samsung Gear Fit

The Samsung Gear Fit offers a much snazzier-looking colour OLED screen and has a heart rate sensor, while getting you fairly similar smart features.

However, it doesn't really compare to the Talk in terms of sheer immediacy when you pare the Sony down to its basics, and the lighter Sony band 'disappears' on your wrist much more easily. Battery life is around the same for both bands: about three days of solid use.

• Read our full Samsung Gear Fit review

Fitbit Charge/Flex

Fitbit offers several wrist-worn fitness trackers, including the Fitbit Flex and Charge. The main difference is that the Charge uses a full (but tiny) OLED display while the Flex just has little pips that tell you how close you are to reaching your daily steps target.

You don't get the notifications and smartwatch features with a Fitbit, but both offer better third-party app support and the Charge has an altimeter.

• Read our full Fitbit Flex and Fitbit Charge review

Pebble watch

There are two Pebble watches, the original and the Steel version, but thanks to its lower price the original is probably the fiercer rival for the SmartBand Talk.

It offers a similar style and similar hardware, with a slightly chunkier design. Smart features are similarly simple, but the slightly greater four to five day battery life and cheaper price are big wins for the Pebble. Those feeling flush may want to try out the seven-day-stamina Pebble Steel.

• Read our full original Pebble and Pebble Steel review

LG G Watch R

How about an Android Wear watch like the LG G Watch R? It'll let you participate in the smartwatch revolution to an extent that the SmartBand Talk simply won't.

You'll get far more advanced integration with your phone than the Sony provides. However, watches like the G Watch R can seem like work-in-progress efforts, mostly because of their battery life.

With around 1.5 day stamina, current Android Wear watches won't actually outlast your phone.

• Read our full LG G watch R review

Sony SmartBand SWR10

Sony also makes a much more affordable band, the SWR10. This takes out most features, and doesn't have a display.

Instead, you get fitness tracking that syncs in the background with your phone, and a vibrate function that pipes-up whenever you get a call or text. It's basic and sadly doesn't replace a watch. However, it does cost £50 (around $75, AU$95) making it a bit of a bargain.

Verdict

The Sony SmartBand Talk SWR30 is very easy to live with. It's incredibly light and I didn't suffer from any skin irritation issues during our tests. It's not for people after the very latest smart features, but as a clock plus fitness tracker, it's pretty neat.

However, it does feel a little overpriced. At £130 (US$169.99, AU$199) you're paying a fair bit for technology that is less than cutting-edge. I have a sneaking suspicion the price will drop before too long, though, which should make the Talk easier to recommend.

We liked

The light frame makes the SmartBand Talk very comfortable to wear day in, day out without discomfort. I noticed no irritation caused by the rubbery band either.

The e-ink display looks a lot nicer than a low-res LCD in daylight, and suffers from none of the view angle problems conventional displays can suffer from.

When tasked with light duties, the Talk feels quick and convenient, switching between roles and a basic notifications pager, watch and fitness tracker with ease.

We disliked

Three-day battery life is acceptable, but nothing more. Taking into account the use of an e-ink screen and the tiny 70mAh, it seems a missed opportunity that the SmartBand Talk doesn't have at least 5-7 day stamina.

This is not a serious fitness tracker, with no altimeter, no GPS and no heart rate sensor. For a wrist-worn device accuracy doesn't seem too bad, but it's not going to be top-notch either.

The more smart features you plug into the band, the more sluggish it is to operate. Keep your smartwatch expectations low in order to have the best experience with this band.

Verdict

While a bit expensive the Sony SmartBand Talk is pleasantly simple in hardware and interface. It offers a smartwatch and fitness combo for those not too bothered about experiencing everything the smartwatch revolution has to offer.

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