Interview: Video Games Live: Tommy Tallarico on 21st century sound

"It's the perfect meeting of the worlds. It's analog meets digital. It's nature and technology. It's tradition and future."

Videogame composer and world-record holder Tommy Tallarico was talking about a new album he's working on with EDM artist and pioneer BT.

We were sitting in the middle of an empty recording studio at Skywalker Sound and talking about this new cross-genre album - it's called Electronic Opus, by the way - but to someone just walking in who knows Tallarico's resume, the conversation could've easily been mistaken for Tallarico describing himself.

After spending some time with Tallarico, who's spent the last decade of his life working on his Video Games Live (VGL) concert series, which takes world-class orchestras from all over the world and has them perform the most widely recognized videogame tunes, and BT - an icon in his own right - the two seem like the perfect pair for the project.

Electronic Opus is a complete re-imagining of BT's most well-recognized songs from the past 20 years, performed with a live orchestra. It started as a kickstarter project in November 2014, and raised $250,000 (about £162,000, AU$320,000) in just over two weeks.

"Typically for a Kickstarter project the average pledge is around $40-$50. BT's was $120. That was the average [pledge]," Tallarico says.

The money they collected is going to two places: the record and a live concert set to take place in Miami, Florida on March 29.

This orchestral-meets-electronic mash-up show, believe it or not, will be number 321 for Tallarico.

"I actually own two world records. One is for the person who has worked on the most videogames in their lifetime - not just the music - but the most ever. [I've done] over 300. And the second world record is for the person who has performed the most symphony shows of the same show. We've done over 320 shows of the same traveling, touring symphony show. No one's ever done that."

Tallarico describes Electronic Opus as being in the same vein as VGL. It's a symphony for everybody he says, "not just rich, old white people."

Combining dance, electronic, pop and trance music - what you'd find in BT's repertoire - with a live symphony and thousands of dollars of electronics and special effects, the two have created a show that takes the whole performance, not just the music, to new heights.

"The incredible thing is that the visuals we're doing, from a technology standpoint, has never, ever been done before. Especially with a symphony."

Electronic Opus is Tallarico's latest project, and certainly one of his most involved, but his roots are in games.

Twenty years and over 300 games later, his career shows no signs of slowing down. Check out the interview below for his take on the games, the music and his ideology on breaking into an always-evolving industry:

TechRadar: What was it like creating Video Games Live?

Tommy Tallarico: Everybody thought I was crazy. They told me, "Look, people that listen to music and symphonies don't play videogames. And people who play videogames don't go to the symphony, so you're like totally screwed. No one's going to show up." But I took a risk. I put everything I had into it from my whole videogame career. I believed in it. They said, "At the Hollywood Bowl you'll be lucky if 500 people show up." Eleven thousand people showed up for that first show and all of sudden I wasn't so crazy anymore.

It's been incredible. We were on the cover of Symphony Magazine last year where they were saying that Video Games Live has helped to save symphonies around the world because we're out there ushering in a new generation of people.

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7 days in smartphones: The terror is about to become real: here comes MWC

Welcome back! It's been a while – and things are a little different around here. Firstly, 7 days in mobile is dead… long live 7 days in smartphones. And secondly, well… actually there's nothing else to tell you. That's it.

It's still going to be the same useless frippery about the phone industry this week, your one stop shop to read a pathetic attempt to bring a humorous angle on all things smartphone (with a smattering of smartwatch, tablet and ereader stuff in there too).

That's pretty much it. Please share it with your friends. Or print off a copy for your mum.

There's nothing else that's more important in the world than the launch of a new smartphone. Nothing. At all.

After all, if there was, why would people get so angry when anyone posts an opinion on any device on YouTube? That must mean it's something very important. Very important indeed.

So imagine the levels of hysteria that are about to be unleashed onto the information superhighway when Mobile World Congress (or MWC to you and me, cheeky phone fans) spews out not one, not two, but thousands* of new phones next week.

If you don't know what the big news is likely to be, following more leaks than a Welsh farm, then, well, you've probably been doing something else other than slavishly following multiple news stories on TechRadar.

Sunday's going to be the big day in the mobile calendar, with HTC launching the new One M9, shortly followed by Samsung's unveiling of the Galaxy S6.

HTC One M9 - you don't need to know anything that's not written here.

Thanks to the internet's army of leakers, we pretty much know all there is to know about these handsets… I'll let our excellent hubs fill you in on what's going to appear with those massive flagship phones.

But the big news this week from the two headline phones is very simple: HTC's One M9 has been leaked in a lovely long video and Samsung looks likely to have a smaller battery than last year's Galaxy S5.

HTC's forthcoming phone being leaked is almost not worth writing, if it wasn't for being able to point you in the direction of lovely phone info – it's like the brand doesn't care who knows what about its future plans.

But Samsung… there's another story. Dropping the power pack size? Really?

Ooh, the Galaxy S6 looks nice - we've got all you need to know about it here

That seems like a very, very stupid idea when battery is such a hot space to be brilliant in, but if the rumours that Samsung isn't using the Qualcomm 810 chip are true, then it means it will be doing its own thing on the CPU front and therefore could make things a lot more efficient.

Or the South Korean brand has spent so long on making the thing out of metal that it forgot to put a battery in there, and 2600mAh is the biggest it can manage. One of the two.

*Actual number may vary

A special nod to Motorola for trying something different – rather than having a press conference in the bun fight of MWC to launch the new Motorola E, the brand decided to send the press conference to us.

This meant a lanyard attached to a small box, inside of which was a little depiction of the standard press conference shenanigans: a little press desk, a cardboard man presenting the phone, and then right at the back the Moto E itself.

I'm not crying, it's a press conference for one

The Moto E is actually a pretty decent phone, although it's no longer the sub £100 offering we loved last year. However, with a stronger processor and qHD screen, it's not a bad phone for the price. High fives for Motorola.

"What happened to him?"

"I… I don't know. I found him under a pile of BlackBerry Storms. I think he was crushed by them."

"Is he breathing?"

"Barely. He's badly hurt."

"Quick… get him into the theatre."

The unicorn's eyes flutter open long enough to see the words 'Mobonia General Hospital' above the door he's thrust through, before passing out again.

"Can you help him?"

"We can rebuild him. He won't be the same again. But we can make him better. Faster. Less obsessed with ancient phones that nobody really gives a toss about."

"You mean…?"

"Yes. He's going to become Winston the Smartphone Unicorn".

Tune in next week to read the next exciting instalment, as we discover whether our four-legged hero can ever recover from the crushing pain of the BlackBerry Storm.

While this section was largely added in thanks to coming up with the pun one sunny afternoon in Baker Street, it's always worth revisiting one of the greatest launches to ever emerge from the world of phones.

Take a bow, Asus chaiman Jonney Shih, for winning the award for 'Most committed to the part' in a press conference during the launch of the PadFone in 2012.

Let's all take a moment here to discuss what's possibly happening in this shot. Those fixed smiles seem to be saying 'quick, distract him with the fancy front display on the LG Trax while I call the police.'

Apologies for the dismal quality of this video, but it's from the past. You remember the past, right? That thing that happened before the past but is kind of close to the present?

Also sorry for the loud sting at the start. But it's worth it, promise.

It's Apple o'clock – the Watch is going to be given its own event on 9 March, so perhaps the reviews won't be far away?

There's a secret love story behind the launch of the LG Watch Urbane – and our friends on T3 have uncovered it.

LG has gone a little bit bonkers at MWC – it'll be launching a quartet of phones that are 'selfie stick ready' (urgh) and an LTE version of its Watch Urbane, but one that won't be based on Android Wear, and will have a much bigger battery.

But you can use it was a walkie talkie and make calls with it. That's a win right there.

Come back next week to see whether we made it through the madness… and of course to find out what happened to Winston.

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Updated: Swatch's Apple Watch rival is aimed at beach volleyball players

Update: Swatch is done teasing, having fully unveiled its new smartwatch, the Swatch Touch Zero One - and, oddly, it's aimed at volleyball players.

The STZO can track your health and do other smartwatch-y type stuff, but it has a leg up on the competition when it comes to detecting volleyball maneuvers like spikes, bumps and dives, reports A Blog to Watch.

And, just like Swatch promised, the wearable's Swatch battery will go months without needing to be replaced, no charging required.

The volleyball-focused Swatch Touch Zero One may not be what you had in mind when you first heard that Swatch was taking on wearables, but it could be a genius move - what better way to carve out a niche than by doing something so weirdly specific?

The Swatch Touch Zero One will retail for $160 (about £100, AU$200) when it launches, likely by summertime.

Original story follows…

When Tim Cook announced that the Apple Watch will ship in April, we felt the collective panic of every other smartwatch maker who realised they were suddenly up against the clock.

We'd consider Google's Android Wear to be Cupertino's biggest competitor right now, but another name has entered the arena. After decades of creating wrist timepieces, Swatch has confirmed that it will launch its first proper smartwatch.

The company told TechRadar that "Swatch will launch a new generation of its Swatch smartwatch in the next two to three months" after the company's chief executive officer Nick Hayek confirmed the same information to Bloomberg.

The Swiss company has an obvious head start when it comes to design, but its wristwear will hit the Apple Watch where it really hurts: the battery. Swatch's device will communicate with the internet "without having to be charged".

The watch will include "communication" (whatever that might be), mobile payments, and apps that are compatible with Windows and Android, said Swatch in a statement. No mention of iOS compatibility.

It will also launch just in time for the Apple Watch, possibly just before. While Swatch calls this the "next generation" of its smartwatch, the first-gen device, the Swatch Touch, is really only as clever as its touchscreen.

In addition to the smartwatch news, Swatch also told us that it will launch a new Swatch Touch at the end of this month.

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HTC One M9 Plus specs may have leaked in full

Word is HTC will release an HTC One M9 Plus alongside the standard HTC One M9, and today the (possibly) larger phone's specs appear to have leaked in full.

The specs, revealed by upleaks, include the fingerprint scanner that's rumored to be coming on the M9 Plus and the 5.2-inch display size we learned of previously.

The M9 Plus will also reportedly come in two variants: one with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 chip, and one with an MTK MT6795 octa-core chipset for some Asian regions.

Other than the processor both versions will apparently feature the same specs: 3GB of memory, 32GB of storage, voice over LTE support, Android 5.0.2 Lollipop (not the rumored Android 5.1), BoomSound front speakers, a 2840mAh battery, dual main cameras with 20.7 and 2.1 megapixels and a front camera with either 4 or 13 megapixels.

Finally the M9 Plus will also reportedly come in three color variations: one with dark gunmetal on both sides, one with gold, and one with a gold face and a silver back.

Based on the many leaks and teases we've seen recently, the HTC One M9 and HTC One M9 Plus appear to be good and ready for their March 1 debut at MWC 2015.

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Lenovo responds to Superfish with anti-bloatware promise

Lenovo has made a long-term commitment to change the way its PCs are configured after the Superfish adware debacle revealed last week, one that dented consumer confidence in the firm.

The manufacturer has become the first company affected by the scandal to develop a new strategy that will completely remove "bloatware" from its PCs going forwards in order "to become the leader in providing cleaner, safer PCs."

It will kick off this plan immediately and has promised by the time Windows 10 is released its machines will only include the OS and related software, software to make hardware work well, security software and Lenovo applications.

Lenovo will also disclose information about all software it preloads onto their PCs that explicitly explains what each application does.

As an extra sweetener it is offering PC users affected by Superfish a free six-month subscription to McAfee LiveSafe (or six-month extension for existing users) and it will provide more information on its site in the next seven days.

It will be worth keeping an eye on other companies that admitted to loading the bloatware into applications and seeing whether they make a similar commitment to the one that Lenovo has made.

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10 Best Pebble Apps 2015

Having recently sold its millionth smartwatch, original Kickstarter darling Pebble is doing all it can to battle off the Android Wear invasion and hopefully sway those on the fence about the Apple Watch.

But, to take pride of place on our wrists it needs to impress in the app department. Now, we're not talking about games or overly intricate apps here, the Pebble only has a small monochromatic display, what we want is useful tools and add-ons that extend app functionality from our phones.

Whether it's tracking our steps and ditching the fitness band or changing tracks in Spotify, all these apps do just that, and they have become part of our daily routine.

Our wrists simply aren't big enough for both a smartwatch and a fitness band, but thanks to Misfit's Pebble App we no-longer have to decide whether it's our steps or the time that we track. Due to the built-in sensors on the watch and phone, the accuracy here is pretty impressive – definitely on-par with Misfit's dedicated Shine wearable – and there's sleep tracking too, so you can keep an eye on your slumber. You can scroll through your stats for the week, or beam the data back to the app for more in-depth perusal. It currently only supports iOS, but we're told Android compatibility is on the horizon.

iOS | Free | Misfit app for Pebble

One of the major annoyances we have with the current Pebble hardware is that it can only store eight apps at once, leaving us with the unenviable task of choosing which one to delete when we download something new. Cards for Pebble is worth it, then, because it bundles in several different functions. Alongside an information-laden watch face, you can use it to view your synced calendars, check on the weather and even delve into the latest stock prices. We especially like the travel time updates, which gives you an overview of how long it'll take you to get to your next appointment.

iOS and Android | Free | Cards app for Pebble

Navigating around busy streets with just a tiny monochromatic display for support when our 5-inch smartphone is sitting in our pocket may seem like a borderline stupid idea on the face of it, but there's something about Pebble Nav that sees us constantly fire it up. It only shows your next action, turn left in 30-yards for example, so the screen isn't bogged down with information and the maps have all been specially built for the black and white display. You don't even need to keep an eye on the watch, as it'll buzz your wrist just before you need to turn - handy. It's especially useful when you're on a bike. Just strap your Pebble to the handlebars and it'll make sure you're on the right route.

iOS | £1.49 | Pebble Nav

If you've been dreaming about paying for your dinner just by having the waiter scan your watch for as long as we have, you'll need to download PayPal's new app. Striking a blow at the Apple Watch and Apple Pay, before they've even launched, the Pebble and PayPal combo doesn't even need a smartphone connection, as it dives directly into your account. Anywhere you can pay with PayPal – GBK or Pizza Express for example both accept it – you can use this app. It generates a QR code which, when scanned, deducts the money from your PayPal account. The app will also search for local spots where this payment method is accepted.

iOS and Android | Free | PayPal app for Pebble

We've been disappointed with the way the Pebble handles music track switching. Basically, you can only set one app that the watch will recognise, so if you use a combination of Spotify and PocketCasts you need to manually change it in the settings app before you can use the remote function. But fear not, forMusic Boss corrects this, automatically switching to the app it can see you're using. You have a full set of media controls, the ability to rate songs on the go, if that's your bag, and it works great as a Chromecast remote, too.

Android | £1.21 | Music Boss

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Apple Watch will replace your car keys, charge faster than an iPhone

We still have plenty of questions about the Apple Watch, and although we'll have to wait until March 9 for most of them to be answered Apple CEO Tim Cook has let slip some new info about the wearable slip.

It seems the Apple Watch will have the capability to replace users' car keys and key fobs, Cook told The Telegraph.

Android Wear watches are capable of the same thing, although the feature requires cooperation from car makers as well and hasn't seen wide adoption yet.

Cook didn't say exactly how it would work on Apple Watch, or whether the feature will be available when the wearable launches or some time later, but nice to hear about a new Apple Watch feature even without the details.

Cook also touched on the Apple Watch's much-discussed battery life, saying that it will last a full day - something we've heard before - and that it will charge more quickly than the iPhone does thanks to a new magnetic charger designed by Jony Ive.

Unsurprisingly, Cook has been wearing the Apple Watch every day - and even less shocking is how much praise he had for it, telling the site that can't go back to living without health and phone notifications on his wrist.

With the Apple Watch hitting wrists in April, we'll soon find out whether consumers will agree.

Samsung's Gear S is a standalone smartwatch

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