The best high-def games and movies for Xmas

TechRadar's pick of HD entertainment for the festive break

Christmas isn't what it used to be. A few years ago we'd have been satisfied with a fat slice of Christmas pud, some mint Matchmakers and an afternoon Bond movie.

But then we didn't know any better. We didn't have a high-def TV, a brand-spanking new Blu-ray player or an HD games console. Forget about watching Diamonds Are Forever (for the 25th time), just give us The Dark Knight on Blu-ray and then join us online for a game of Gears of War 2.

Here's TechRadar's guide to having a great HD Christmas...

The best of Blu-ray

Rather than watching the umpteenth re-run of Back to the Future, It's a Wonderful Life or something cheery from Pixar, why not abandon the scheduled programming for a top-notch movie on Blu-ray?

The Dark Knight tops the TechRadar Amazon wishlist this year, closely followed by WALL-E, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army and Iron Man. And, if you play fast and loose with the definition of 'top notch', you could add Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to the list. For the OTT action pieces, obviously.

The best HD games

Gamers are spoilt for choice this Christmas, with triple-A titles landing on all formats. Yes, it might be anti-social to spend several hours wandering through post-apocalyptic Washington DC pumping Feral Ghouls full of hot lead. But Fallout 3 looks stunning on a widescreen monitor, HD projector or high-def TV. As will this little lot:

If you're a PS3 owner, then your HD urges should be satisfied by the likes of Fallout 3, Bioshock and Resistance 2. The new Prince of Persia game is also getting some good press, while Little Big Planet has the capacity to amuse your house guests (once you've spent several days building a level that is). And if you really must 'play with the rest of family', SingStar: Abba will be an absolute riot.

Xbox 360 fans should look no further than the semi-nuked beauty of Gears of War 2, the ruined wasteland of Fallout 3 and the gloomy menace of zombie shoot-'em up Left 4 Dead. In contrast, Fable II can provide some much-needed fantasy prettiness, while HD visuals get pushed to the limit by every copy of Far Cry 2. Again, for multiplayer hilarity, take SingStar wannabe Lips for a spin, play quiz game Scene It or embarrass yourself with the webcam-equipped You're in the Movies.

PC devotees, meanwhile, can argue that they've been playing games in HD for years. This Christmas is no different and GTA IV, Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2 top the list of games that look luscious on a big screen. The oddball World of Goo is also worth a look and, should you give the gift of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King to a loved one, don't expect to see them again until January.

The best HD shows

If Christmas is about anything, it's about eating too much and then sitting around complaining about it. Some might also say that Christmas is about family and there's nothing more festive than watching an HD movie together. This year's high-def offerings are as follows:

If you're a Sky+ HD subscriber, then prepare to be wowed by HD versions of The Golden Compass and Transformers. Elsewhere, Ray Winstone will be shouting "I am Beowulf!", while a star-studded cast (including Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer) bring Neil Gaiman's Stardust to life. Sky's HD content is still the most comprehensive. Sky1, FX, Discovery, National Geographic, History and Channel 4 are also broadcasting in HD.

As far as free HD is concerned, the BBC released its high-def line-up in November. The BBC HD channel (available on Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat) will be showing Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Toy Story 2, The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe and Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm in glorious HD.

Other BBC HD highlights include: a new Wallace and Gromit feature, entitled A Matter Of Loaf And Death, an adaptation of The 39 Steps, Lark Rise to Candleford and a range of Xmas specials such as Strictly Come Dancing and Doctor Who at the Proms. Keep an eye on the BBC HD schedules for more info.

Freesat early adopters can also get exclusive access to ITV HD, which will be showing a number of big films in HD over the Christmas holidays – I.e. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and True Lies.

Phone and communications News- Lenovo trumps iPhone with Android device

Sleek, shiny and running Google's service... we like

Lenovo, a company far more renowned for putting together decent computers than phones, has revealed an iPhone-busting handset, at least in the design stakes.

OK, it might be taking a few cues from the iPhone, but the fact that it also runs Google's Android OS is something that should definitely work in its favour as well.

We only have the single shot to go on, but first impressions hint at a handset that's dinkier than the iPhone but with a similar screen size.

OPhone

We would prefer it if the comparisons between the iPhone and this handset ended there, but the fact it's called the OPhone and is merely a prototype of a China-based Android device doesn't help matters.

Still, the gadget world is crying out for a beautiful handset that properly shows off Android (the G1 might be powerful, but looks like the Desperate Dan of the mobile world) and this could be that handset.

Best get that petition over to Lenovo to bring it to European shores quickly... or get the number of a good importer and a handbook for Mandarin.

By Gareth Beavis

10 things that Apple should make right now

Gear and apps we want Apple to apply its magic touch to

Apple likes to think it's the oracle of technology; rays of light shining forth from its Cupertino offices, Steve Jobs with a halo around his head.

But oddly, while its products are angelic, its press office is more secretive than the USA's Homeland Security.

Apple has a strict policy, which it repeats ad infinitum: it won't discuss unreleased products. In the world of tech journalism, this presents a problem. So we've resorted to a tried and tested practice: we decided to make them up, starting with the most obvious and ending with the slightly less obvious...

1. Mac Touch
While Apple won't discuss unannounced products, it will steadfastly deny rumours. Jobs has said the company is not working on a touch computer, but he said something similar about the iPhone. A touch Mac would support gestures for every activity; painting in Photoshop, opening Finder windows, adding some flair to an iChat session with a finger swipe. Most of the research and coding has been done for the iPhone - which runs on a modified version of OS X - so this is not a stretch. Unlike quirky Tablet PCs that support touch - such as the Dell Latitude XT - a Mac Touch would actually work.

2. A-Book
Okay, it might be a dorky name, but Apple really needs to make a high-resolution e-book reader, similar to the Amazon Kindle, the CyBook Gen 3, and the Sony Reader. Gestures could mimic those on the iPhone: flick to turn a page, pinch to zoom in on a word and look it up in the dictionary, spread fingers to see the table of contents. To crush the competition, the A-Book would be in colour, yet support the same 120DPI quality of the grayscale electronic readers.

3. Its own version of Flash
Could we also see an Apple version of Flash? After all, why won't it allow Flash on the iPhone otherwise? Apple is both a hardware and software company, but its foray into Web 2.0 and the interactive web has been hit and miss (but mostly miss, if you have ever used MobileMe). Some would say iTunes is a powerful Web 2.0 application, but it's decidedly desktop bound. Web 2.0 sites from Apple would be amazing: a music app that runs on the Web and syncs with your iPod from anywhere, video editing that uses back-end servers for post-processing but has a front end that looks like every other Mac app.

4. Apple Touch Table
The natural iteration of a Mac Touch and the iPhone is an OS X-powered touch table that you can use in the kitchen or living room. Avoiding comparisons to Microsoft Surface, the Touch Table would support more physics so when multiple users play a card game or racing simulation, there would be force feedback from the whole table and objects that collide would cause a visceral bump.

5. OS X in a browser
And, if Apple can't deliver a few Web 2.0 sites, can they at least make a Web OS? What I mean by that is not an enterprise-class cloud infrastructure - let's leave that work to Google and Amazon. What we mean is an OS that literally runs in your browser, houses your Web apps and data, allows you to configure users to access the OS, runs the Dashboard and widgets, and looks and acts just like OS X.

6. Apple Watch
Distant memories of the abysmal Microsoft SPOT watch have now faded into oblivion (although MSN Direct lives on and may even be updated next year). Apple should steal the market with a watch that supports about 4GB of music storage, includes Bluetooth stereo earbuds, and speaks the time.

7. Mac Dashboard
No, not that dashboard -- we're not talking widgets here, but a hardware dashboard for your car. The iPod would - of course - plug into the stereo system, while speed and fuel indicators would be customisable (perhaps even mimicking the look of a BMW one day and a Mercedes the next). Add in multi-user support - meaning, the passengers in the back seat - and we could see personalized seat warmers and position settings.

8. Mac House
Here's where things get interesting. A Mac House would be powered entirely by OS X and bring full home automation. Too cold? An LCD screen would show the current temperature. Front door security breached? It would be linked to all of your computer passwords. Sprinkler controls? They could be synced with the local weather automatically. And the best part is: no viruses or system crashes.

9. Mac Goggles
Visual products have faltered of late - many of them cause eye strain and dizziness. Yet, Apple can get this one right if they throw enough hard science into it, creating a virtual environment with stationary objects, very high resolution optics, and plenty of connection options (such as HDMI and DVI).

10. Mac Transit
Once your house is run on OS X, you have a touch table for playing games and wear your Mac Goggles everyday to work, it's time for Apple to start taking over the rest of the world, starting with mass transit. Terminals for gaining entrance to a train station that run OS X would be just the beginning. Next, airplanes would be equipped with iPod listening stations, cars would mimic iPhone gestures, and even road signs on the way to a picnic would be Mac powered. Microsoft Windows? Non-existent.