As mp3 playing phones become more common we're seeing an increase in the quantity and quality of the accessories available for them.

Some have caught our eye and manage to enhance the functionality of mp3 phones beyond that of dedicated music players. An example of such a peripheral is the bluetooth headset which now plays audio wirelessly as well as handling calls.

Unlike most phones, it's unusual for an mp3 player to have bluetooth capability. Jabra's BT620s Bluetooth stereo headphone is one model we've reviewed recently.

Another feature of mp3 mobile phones which is uncommon in conventional mp3 players is the expandable memory slot (an exception being Sandisk's Sansa e260). Mobile phones generally don't have a lot in the way of on-board storage so rely on removeable media such as microSD cards to store mp3s.

An advantage of this storage method is the sheer ease with which music can be moved between devices - no PC or cables needed.

With Sandisk releasing a 2GB microSD card (pictured with the SD adaptor) earlier today, this market is set to grow and grow ...

Posted by Marc Delehanty on July 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

In case you missed them, here's run down of our latest PC and notebook reviews:

Sony Vaio TX3
Small, stylish, but also rather sluggish, the new TX3 from Sony is an expensive notebook for those on regularly the move.

Wired2Fire Pyro 64 FX
No, it's no a Core 2 Duo PC. Instead, Wired2Fire has stuck with AMD to produce this gaming system. Thanks to recent Athlon price drops, it's only £1,699 for the whole package.

Evesham Solar Plus
Looking for a Core 2 Duo PC but don't want to break the bank? Evesham manages to keep the price down to £1,399 with this system.

Rock Xtreme CTX T2700
With a 17in screen and Nvidia Geforce Go 7900 GTX graphics, this is a powerful desktop replacement for gamers.

Acer Aspire 9410
An impressive Core Duo notebook at a good price, but Core 2 Duo for notebooks is just round the corner.

Posted by Will Stapley on July 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple's highly profitable Ipod and Itunes player/service combination has finally attracted the attention of tech behemoth Microsoft.

Over the last week details have been emerging of Zune, Microsoft's mp3 (or more likely wma!) player which will no doubt integrate tightly with the next version of Windows Media player.

While Apple surely has contingency plans in place, what of the smaller manufacturers like Creative and Sandisk?

Despite releasing some pretty cool portable music players recently, their lack of a direct tie-in with a download service (something we like by the way) does mean that fickle consumers can move between brands when they upgrade to newer models.

Without a consolidated base like Apple has they're the likely losers in an Apple vs. Microsoft war. Ultimately, if these big two use their financial might to sell at very low margins, we'll see lower prices in the short term but possibly less in the line of competition and innovation in the future.

You only have to look at Microsoft's entry to the console market to see how big of a splash they can make.

Posted by Marc Delehanty on July 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microsoft has tweaked the ribbon bar in the beta of Office 2007 to make it more usable. The bar has been criticised for talking up to much screen space, though you have always been able to toggle it off by pressing Control-F1, leaving a thin strip of tabs giving access to different ribbons.

In the early Beta versions if you press one of these tabs, the ribbon remained visible even after you had taken your choice of its options. Now it disappears, making the ribbons visible only when needed.

You also now get an option to minimise the bar by right-clicking it.

This looks like quite a good move, though I still have reservations about the interface. I often have twenty or thirty documents open at once and in the old menu system it was fairly easy to switch between them using the Window menu.

This operation needs two extra clicks in Office 2007, as you need to click the View tab, then the Windows option, and then the Home tab to get back into edit mode. Microsoft could argue that you can cycle through your documents more elegantly using the Vista graphical interface,  but with a very large number of documents it is easier to pick from a list. 

Posted by Clive Akass on July 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Power cuts are not something you expect to get used to in the UK, but in our offices in Soho in London, we’ve had (possibly) two four hour outages this week.

The first, yesterday morning, took us by surprise. So, already at work, we found other ways to continue. I found a local Starbucks that still had electricity, paid for a wifi connection and a cup of tea (well it is summer and I am English!), and enjoyed the change.

Today (Friday) we were warned, so I’ve taken the easy option and worked from home. It saves me the hassle of travelling on a sweltering train into London and I have everything to hand – PC, mobile phone, IM. And electricity.

Except, so far, the electricity hasn't been cut, making it more confusing, because everyone who is in the office is waiting for it to go down at any moment.

Anyway, it has hit our labs. Testing of graphics cards and PCs ground to a sudden halt yesterday, although laptops were ok, provided you sat under the emergency lighting.

We'll still be putting reviews live - luckily we had a few completed and going through the editing process. Hopefully, normal PCW and Test Bed service will be resumed next week.

Posted by Rob Jones on July 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Do you use WPA encryption and scoff at those poor fools still using WEP or even worse leaving their wifi unencrypted?

Well laugh no more. We've always known that wifi wasn't particularly safe and secure but our eyes were opened to its glaring vulnerabilities yesterday.

We reported on Foundstone's highlighting of wifi security issues earlier today. Ken Baylor and Martin Pivetta (both of Foundstone - a division McAfee) gave us a live demo as they hacked a wireless network in the PCW labs.

Their laptop, which was set up to sniff packets made pretty short work of the 128-bit WEP cipher when there was a steady flow of network traffic.

WPA was smashed in less time but only when packets were sniffed while a computer was connecting to the network.

Roll on the next generation of network encryption ...

Posted by Marc Delehanty on July 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've just posted our review of the brand new ultraportable Vaio from Sony - the TX3HP.

With a 1.06GHz processor and integrated graphics, it's certainly no speed demon. In its favour though, it's incredibly small and light (just 1.25kg).

We're still getting posts from disgruntled Vaio owners on our PCW Interactive blog. The main complaint is build quality - it's therefore a real shame Sony is still only offering a rather pathetic 1yr return to base warranty with this Vaio.

Read the full Sony Vaio TX3HP review.

Posted by Will Stapley on July 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the wake of AMD's purchase of ATI we've taken a moment to look back at one of the bigger takeovers in the IT industry:

The Peoplesoft versus Larry Ellison

In 2003 Oracle began making overtures to Peoplesoft with a view to buying it out. Peoplesoft weren't happy and snubbed the offer. You don't want to snub the CEO of a company whose ego spawned the joke: 'What's the difference between God and Larry Ellison? God doesn't think he's Larry Ellison!'

To make a long story short Larry and Oracle won in the end. Oracle is flourishing now but the transition wasn't exactly smooth.

When companies merge there's often a clash of cultures which leads to the new, bigger company taking a while to find its feet. Such culture clashes are even more pronounced in the IT world.

So how will the newly merged AMD and ATI fare? Only time will tell, but we suspect that there will be an overlap in expertise which at some stage will lead to job cuts.

A positive aspect is that this was not a hostile takeover unlike the protracted Oracle transaction. A processing powerhouse?  Watch this space ...

Posted by Marc Delehanty on July 25, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's a common dilemma: do you opt for the Tesco Value pork mince with its packaging leaving you doubting the amount of pig contained within, or the Tesco Finest alternative with its reassuringly posh label?

Now you're going to have the same problem with the megamarket's broadband options.

In a complete revamp, six new packages will be offered. The cheapest, Tesco Value Broadband, is a 512k service with a 3GB cap for £13.97 per month.

Tesco Finest Broadband costs £24.97 per month and a 20GB cap. It's a 2Mb service, with free speed upgrades are offered when available in your area.

The other options are £17.97 for either an unlimited 512k connection or 1Mb and a 6GB cap, and £19.97 for unlimited 1Mb service or 2Mb and a 10GB cap.

All packages are subject to a one-year minimum contract and you can see the full list on Tesco's website.

Tesco might be renowned for its cheap groceries, but these broadband packages look decidedly expensive.

Posted by Will Stapley on July 24, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

News that Apple has patented a 'proximity detector' for use in a pen interface inevitably prompts speculation that it may be developing a Mac tablet to rival Microsoft's Origami ultra-mobiles.

The patent describes a smart surface that can sense the presence and position of a nearby object, allowing as a finger or stylus to control an electronic device without actually making contact with it.

There is nothing new in proximity control, which is possible on many existing tablet computers. Apple seems most likely to use its implementation on some kind of music player, seeing the Origami either as a dead end (as do a surprising number of industry insiders) or as a format that will take some time to establish.

Apple might be advised to hold back, learning from Microsoft's successes and mistakes, and waiting for the power-efficient processors and fast links like UWB that that will finally give us truly portable computing.

But a Mac ultra-mobile with the design flair of the Ipod would undoubtedly be a winner, even using today's technology, and it could kick-start adoption of the format.

If Apple waits too long, not only will it have to suffer the indignity of flogging 'portables' conceptually decades behind those of its major rival, but it risks being pre-empted in the market.

A basic Origami at the right price (sub-£400) could sweep the world, and consign all Apple's beautiful Ipods to history. And there are plenty of companies, like Samsung, with the money and market clout to do it.

Posted by Clive Akass on July 22, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a quick update on my article highlighting two wildly different prices for an HP 12A toner cartridge at PC World in London's Tottenham Court Road. The gist of the story was that the business catalogue gave one price, and 12a cartridges placed strategically next to new LJ1020 printers, which use them, were priced 50 percent higher - only no pricing was shown.

Read the piece if you want to know HP's explanation of why it sells laser printers like the LJ1020 with only sample levels of toner. I am concerned here with PC World's response to what may well have been a mistake at its store, but which could also just happen to lure LJ1020 purchasers into buying a spare cartridge at an inflated price.

The one fault PC World admitted was that the pricing should have been marked, and it promised to 'address the store' on the issue.

Well. I was passing by a couple of evenings ago and went in to check. Things had indeed changed. There were no LJ1020 printers on the shelves, for some reason I did not bother to ascertain. But the 12A cartridges were still on sale and, as the picture above shows, they were still unpriced.

And the business catalogues, through which customers might have discovered about the 50 percent markup? They were nowhere to be seen.

Posted by Clive Akass on July 21, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

After recently announcing its NV-series digicams, Samsung has now updated its ‘point and shoot’ S-series with the S700 and S1000.

As you’d expect, the S700 features a 7megapixel sensor, while the S1000 pushes this up to 10megapixels.

Both models boast high sensitivity right up to ISO1000; we suspect image noise will be rife if you take shots at this setting.

Samsung has decided to price both very competitively, with the S700 sitting just £150 and the S1000 at £200.

Precious little else has been made public about these cameras at present, but we’ll be getting review models in soon.

Posted by Will Stapley on July 21, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mediaman HVX-3500
This nifty box turns any 3.5in hard drive into a high-definition media player. Sadly there's no form of networking (wired or wireless), instead it hooks up direct to your TV.

Matrox TH2Go
Like the idea of a 30in screen but can't afford the £1,500 asking price? Matrox's TH2Go lets you hook up three screens to a single PC - laptop or desktop.

£1,599 laptop group test
If you want the portability of a laptop but also demand the power of a desktop, check out our group test of the latest high-end notebooks.

Posted by Will Stapley on July 20, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the rather neat Bluetooth web phone bundled with Acer's latest Ferrari notebooks, which the company unveiled yestyerday. The device fits into a PC Card slot, where it recharges itself when not in use. It can be used as a standard wireless phone, but also the low panel pushes back so that it can be stood on a desk and used as a speaker phone. he device allows you to make free or cheap calls if you have Skype or some other VoIP software installed.

One surprise was that there were no  Tablet PCs, nor an Origami, among the new products. This was odd the company has been enthusiastic about the format in the past, despite poor sales. Acer's man presenting the new products to the press informed me that market research showed there was no demand for the product.

I spot someone who will be eating his words when the format matures.

Posted by Clive Akass on July 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here at PCW we love technology, relish the future, and...ah, what the hell..as if we needed any excuse to post some pics of the funky concept cars on parade at the British Motor Show...enjoy!
The Motor Show runs from 20th-30th July.

Aston Martin

Mazda

Posted by on July 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fed up with having your car trashed in the supermarket car park? Fit the Truscene vehicle accident camera and find out exactly who did it - it's a mirror-mounted camera that records a 30-second video loop. A built-in motion sensor detects when your car's been hit and fires up a GPS sensor to record the location, time and date of the incident. Videos can then be uploaded, via a USB connection to your PC, to Truscene's servers for forwarding on to insurance companies or the police for investigation.

You can also fit a second camera at the rear of the car which will act as a slave to the front camera. The front camera has a small 1in drop-down LCD screen that you can use to manual start recordings. The cameras cost £499 each.

Posted by on July 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

  Due to launch on 20th July, the NextBase SDV1102-B is a combined portable DVD player and digital TV with a massive 10.2in TFT screen. Perfect for the car, around the home or on holiday. A variety of car mounting kits are available, or you can use any VESA-compatible mounting bracket. It's also got a single USB port for uploading your own movies, pictures or audio files. It has an RRP of £349.99. According to Nextbase, the current model won't pick up digital TV on the move, but the manufacturers will soon introduce a DVB-T tuner capable of picking up signals at speeds of up to 200km/h.

Posted by on July 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hobbyists have been building PCs into cars for years, but now you can finally buy a ready-made solution. For between £1,400-2,000 inc Vat, Derbyshire-based company Karputer will sell you a mini-ITX 1GHz Via C3-powered Windows XP PC system called ICEPAC that's ready to install into pretty well any car.

Various installation options are available, depending on your car's layout. The first picture shows the DIN-standard PC controller and a motorised TFT display option. Below is a picture of an in-dash screen mounted in a Subaru Impreza, and the bottom picture shows the actual PC unit mounted below the seat.

The PC is fully featured, with a USB hub, DVD writer, Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS navigation built in. Internet access is via a Bluetooth-connected mobile GPRS phone or via any wifi hotspot. A separate power supply and stereo audio amplifier module is provided. Additional displays can be hooked up via a VGA splitter.

DIY installation is possible if you're keen enough, although professional installation can take from 2-12 hours depending on the car model and the type of setup you want.

Posted by on July 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sky has just announced free broadband for its customers, regardless of what TV package is being subscribed to.

With Sky’s broadband coverage currently sitting at just 28% of households in the UK, the vast majority won’t be able to take advantage of this offer. However, Sky is planning to widen its reach and is planning 70% coverage by the end of 2007.

As expected, the free 2Mb service comes with a fairly measly cap (2GB), but if you opt to pay an extra £5 per month you get an 8Mb service with a 40GB cap. An unlimited (subject to Sky’s fair usage policy) 16Mb service is available for £10 extra per month.

Interestingly, there’s no mention of what happens if you’re on the 2Mb package and go over the 2GB cap (which won’t be hard). We’re seeking a comment from Sky on this and will post an update later today.

An installation fee applies to the 2Mb and 8Mb services (£40 and £20 respectively).

Sky is also offering a phone service (Sky Talk) for £5 per month, but you’ll need a BT line to take advantage of this.

For those who live in a Sky Broadband area (you can check coverage on Sky’s website at noon today), this will certainly be a tempting deal. But it remains to be seen as to whether Sky can cope with demand and provide decent levels of service.

Posted by Will Stapley on July 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (16)

We have had a number of complaints from readers about not being able to contact Leeds-based system builder Panrix. We could not raise the company by phone today, though the web site is still running. We tried to reach the company late last week too, without success. 

The company is still listed as trading, according to the local trading-standards office.

We'd be glad to hear from anyone who can tell us more.

Posted by Clive Akass on July 17, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

On Friday, we wrote about the fastest PC we'd seen in our labs -  the Hi-Grade Ultis Tachyon PC, based around Intel's Core 2 Extreme desktop processor.

Well, a weekend's a long time in computing, and today, we've posted our review of the Chillblast Fusion Hardcore Crossfire, which has now taken top spot in our PC performance league. It uses what on paper looks like the slow E6700 Core 2 Duo CPU, but has overclocked it, giving the computer enough grunt to surpass the normal clocked X6800 Core 2 Extreme.

The PC uses ATI's Crossfire graphics, rather than SLI - there's no retail motherboard at the time of writing that supports the Nforce 590 chipset and the new Intel processors. But Chillblast told us they'd have an SLI version as soon as the boards are out.

Intel's two new processors are the subject of our Product of the Week podcast, plus we've arranged  with Intel a competition to give away an E6700 Core 2 Duo CPU as a prize. This is its top of the range mainstream processor, and you'll find the answer to the question in the podcast.

Posted by Rob Jones on July 17, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Ultis Tachyon sounds like something from Star Trek and this PC certainly has something approaching a warp core at it's heart.

The rather mundane case on the left houses the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor and boy does it fly!

We've got a full review of Hi-Grade's Ultis Tachyon system online. Do read it but make sure you're sitting down and suitably calm before checking out the benchmarks!

Posted by Marc Delehanty on July 14, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Once you’ve gawped at Core 2 Duo and Extreme benchmark results, take a look at our full review of the two processors.

We’ll be posting more Core 2-related reviews throughout the day, inculding a Core 2 Extreme PC and a Core 2 Duo/Extreme motherboard, so watch this space.

Review: Core 2 Duo/Extreme review

Posted by Will Stapley on July 14, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Formally known as Conroe, Intel latest family of processors now called Core 2 Duo have taken back the fastest desktop CPU title from AMD.
The Core 2 Duo lineup ranges from the E6300 (1.86GHz) up to the mighty X6800 Core 2 Extreme clocked at 2.93GHz, all have a 1066MHz FSB and L2 cache’s range from 2 to 4MB in the higher end chips.
To see perfomance results from the E6700 (2.6GHz) and the X6800 click here

Posted by Simon Crisp on July 14, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Earlier this year we reported from Cebit how German researchers are trying to use brain waves to allow handicapped people to control aids like artificial hands simply by thinking about a required action. It seems that you get very similar electrical activity in the brain whether you imagine an action or physically perform it. The German system uses relatively crude EEG sensors stuck on the scalp.

The brain-computer interface has taken a step forward of sorts with the direct implant of a 4mm-square chip called a Braingate onto the primary motor cortex, which is the bit that controls the arms and legs, The Times reported this morning.

The 25-year-old recipient can now move a cursor and an artificial arm simply by thinking about them. He does not even have to be conscious of the process, allowing him to multitask by going on automatic for some routine operation while doing something else - just as healthy people can listen the radio while driving.

The disadvantage over the German system is that you need an implant. Less intrusive sensors could  have mainstream uses.

It happens that I was talking yesterday to experts at Nuance, which is the new name for Scansoft, which owns many of the key patents for speech recognition. I was trying to get their views on how far improved hardware and signal processing could go in separating a speaker's voice from random ambient noise - something our brains do very well.

Would it be possible to do this by monitoring the electrical activity that speech causes - presumably consisting mostly of muscle control signals? The analysis engine would not need to 'understand' the signal, any more than speech-recognition software understands language. It might not even have to be that accurate if it is being used only to identify out the speech.

I have always been a little sceptical about  physical links between computers and the brain, except for medical reasons; but it does seem that brain waves could have some uses in computing.

Incidentally, Nuance says a combination of improved algorithms and better hardware is making it easier to filter out noise. But no-one seems to have tapped into the brain to do it.

Posted by Clive Akass on July 13, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Toshiba is delaying the release of its HD-DVD recorder, which is bad news for HD-DVD in the HD format wars, bad for consumers and come to think of it, bad for Toshiba too.

Seems that the main proponent of HD-DVD is blaming third parties on not delivering components on time. What was that saying about a bad workman and his tools?

Any further slips and it'll look like an attempt to emulate Microsoft with all its Vista slips ...

Posted by Marc Delehanty on July 13, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

People in Britain spent an astonishing £1.6 billion last year on premium-rate lines, equivalent to £35 for every UK adult - though you may question whether adult is the right word to describe anyone daft enough to pay good money to take part in some pointless TV poll. Voting in reality-TV shows has become very profitable, according to an article in today's Guardian, based on a report from Icstis, the government body regulating premium-rate lines.

But Icsis cast doubt on the article's claim that computer company helplines are the biggest money earners. 'I don't know where the writer got that from. We don't break down our figures into sectors,' a spokesman said. 'But perhaps 30-40percent [of premium-rate revenues] come from competitions.'

You have also got the filth lines, which must rake in a good proportion. But even if helplines represent just a small percentage of £1.6 billion, that still amounts to a lot of business.

There is no reason in principle why companies should not make money like this. We do not expect car companies to teach us how to drive for free: why should computer companies be different?

Some helplines are ripoffs and it is particularly galling if you pay for 'help' that doesn't help. But premium-rate services are not the only culprits on that one. My boiler stopped working last Christmas, and when after four days we finally managed to get a plumber he stayed 40 minutes and charged me £130 (ie £65 per half-hour) to tell me he could not fix it.  'You need a new boiler mate,' he said.

He even had the cheek to ring the company's premium-rate helpline on my phone.  It was lucky for me that he did. I spoke briefly to the help desk, where the man said that the problem was probably a circuit board in the boiler.  I did a quick phone round after the plumber had gone, found a source for the board, and replaced it for around £90. The boiler has been working happily ever since.

Posted by Clive Akass on July 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's nothing more frustrating than being delayed at work and, as a consequence, getting home late and missing your favourite TV show.

Actually, in the grand scheme of things the above scenario probably isn't the most frustrating thing that can happen to you, but it's still pretty annoying.

And now, thanks to new Remote Record service from Sky, it's a thing of the past for Sky+ subscribers.

As you'll find out by reading our review, Remote Record works by sending record requests from your mobile phone to your Sky+ or Sky+ HD box.

At present you can send requests via text message or by using the Sky by Mobile site, but Sky is in the process of offering Remote Record on its standard website - the advantage being you won't have to pay for text messaging or 3G/GPRS data charges.

Read our full Remote Record review then sign up for it via Sky's website.

Posted by Will Stapley on July 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

First there was Jajah's offer of free web-activated landline calls, then Babble came along with its FreeB free calls offer and now, in response to these smaller players the big guy has hit back ...

Skype announced its "Days of Summer" promotion yesterday. The offer allows you to call landlines or mobiles for free over the three remaining weekends in July. Unfortunately the offer is for US and Canadian users only.

It's worth noting though that the raft of competitors in the VoIP marketplace continues to help drive prices down ...

Posted by Marc Delehanty on July 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hardware manufacturers and content providers have been busy lining up behind either one of the two competing HD media types: Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

Rumours abound that Ricoh is planning to release a drive with a laser capable of reading from and writing to both Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs. Both technologies are based around blue laser technology operating at 405nm.

We're not sure whether Ricoh is fence sitting on the whole HD-DVD / Blu-ray issue as a corporate strategy or if it's trying to push technology to its limits for the good of the consumer ...

Posted by Marc Delehanty on July 10, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two news stories today illustrate a trend towards using auxiliary low-drain processors in notebooks and tablets to provide basic access to email and other features without draining the battery by switching the machine fully on.

Via says its one-chip VX700 chipset, packing 2D/3D graphics and designed for ultra-mobile PCs using the low-drain C7-M processor, is to be used by Dual Cor's cPC, a  mini- tablet that that pre-dates Microsoft's Origami models.

Posted by Clive Akass on July 10, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our latest PCW Product of the Week podcast is now live.

We discuss Sony's LocationFree TV streaming device and how it squares up against the stiff competition from Sling Media's Slingbox.

Listen to the podcast now and then read both the LocationFree and Slingbox reviews.

Posted by Will Stapley on July 10, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

News that Microsoft has done a u-turn over support for the Open Document Format (ODF) has tended to overshadow the startling detail that the company will as a result be backing an open-source project.

The translations between ODF and OpenXML, the new Office 2007 formats, will be done as an open-source project sponsored and, initially, directed by Microsoft. There will also be translators of legacy Microsoft formats.

The code will be posted on sourceforge.net, leaving people free to contribute to the development like any other open-source software, says Microsoft’s Office 2007 UK product manager Darren Strange.

Is there not a danger of helping to build open-source credibility? ‘That’s the kind of judgement we have to make,’ said Strange.

Both formats use Extended Markup Language (XML) but translation is not necessarily straightforward, even discounting differences in the feature set supported by each format. XML languages are remarkably like human ones, in that there can be cultural differences.

The word ‘home’ can mean anything from an igloo to a palace, depending on who you are and where you live; an XML tag ‘Home’, say, might be interpreted identically as an address by two different systems, but each may differ in what it considers to be the components of an address and in the processes triggered by the tag.

Posted by Clive Akass on July 7, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the weird world of hackers and IT security experts it is not unusual to see both sides attending the same conferences and swapping notes. Or it used to be in the pre-9/11 world in which most hacking (or cracking, as the perpetrators insisted on calling it) was done for the notoriety or, well, the crack.

Hacking has become more professional and the terrorist threat has added a new urgency to moves to combat it. Still most hackers are simply irritating, causing hassle for idiot reasons. 

Hard as it is to admit, these hackers can be useful in showing up security flaws that might be exploited by less benign intruders.

Nothing about the case of Gary McKinnon, who faces extradition to the US, suggests that, though reckless and naïve, he was not in this category when he got into a number of US military establishments in the year up to March, 2002.

A poll of security experts carried out by security firm Sophos found that slightly more than half believed he should be freed, and these are not a breed likely to have sympathy for hackers.

The US authorities have a history of over-reacting where they believe nation security is involved. Yet McKinnon, who says he did nothing particularly clever to hack into the US systems, appears to have done them a favour in showing that their systems were wide open in the months after the September 11 attack.

He broke the law, but his growing band of supporters believe the four years he has spent fighting the case has been punishment enough. McKinnon has 14 days to appeal to the High Court; if he does go to the US he could be jailed for decades. It is not easy to see what good that would do for national security, McKinnon, or the battered reputation of the US in Britain.

Posted by Clive Akass on July 7, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

On July 11, the day that it ends support for Windows 98 and ME, Microsoft will release a slew of patches for its other products.

Seven of the updates are security related, four for Windows and three for Office. Presumably Microsoft is keen to ensure that Windows users upgrading from 98 and ME are indeed moving to a "more secure Microsoft operating system" as promised.

Some of the updates have "critical" severity ratings. Welcome to the post-98 world!

Posted by Marc Delehanty on July 7, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember the old Internet meme about Microsoft-powered cars? Well, according to a press release from the FIA (the world motor sport governing body), it's no longer a joke. From the 2008 season onwards, Microsoft will be the official supplier of ECUs (Engine Control Units) to the Formula 1 teams. The deal will continue through the 2009 and 2010 seasons.

2008 will bring some major (and controversial) changes to the technical regulations for Formula 1. We hope that spontaneous engine rebooting through the Eau Rouge corner at the Spa Francorchamps circuit isn't one of them.

Thanks to Autoblog for the heads-up.

Posted by on July 7, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)

We reported on the launch of Google's online payment service, called Checkout, last week.

It saves you the hassle of entering payment details into every e-commerce store you use by remembering your credit or debit card details.

A great proportion of internet purchases are made on Ebay and unfortunately the giant auction site won't allow sellers to accept payment via Google Checkout.

It's clearly a strategy aimed to protect Ebay's own Paypal system. Although Paypal dominates the online payment marketplace, Ebay is clearly wary of the threat Google's entrance poses.

Perhaps it's a bit naive to expect it but I'd prefer it if Ebay members had the option of using Google Checkout. Paypal and Checkout could then compete on the relative merits of the services.

A bit of sportsmanship between online competitors? Going, going, gone ...

Posted by Marc Delehanty on July 6, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (90)

We’ve just posted our review of Casio’s Exilim Z1000 digital camera.

Although we’re a little disappointed Casio has stoked up the megapixel war even further (this pocket digicam packs 10 million pixels), it’s still a decent camera and is capable of taking reasonably good photos.

Considering a single shot at the highest resolution is 4MB, the 8MB internal memory is next to useless. There’s also no SD card included so you’ll have to factor that into the price.

Read the full Casio Exilim Z1000 review.

Posted by Will Stapley on July 6, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

On the left you can see a specimen of Sony's new Micro Vault Tiny USB storage key. It's small, very small. In fact it measures just 30mm x 14.5mm x 2.7mm and weighs a mere 5g.

Why would you want one of these guys? It's got to be the cool factor associated with their size. Yes, smaller is better especially when you consider that Sony can pack up to 2GB of data  on the high end models.

Think about it, up to 2GB of important data lost down the back of the couch ... great.

Posted by Marc Delehanty on July 5, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The satellite navigation market is becoming very crowded, but the latest entrant due over the coming weeks is MyGuide, a company that has been designing and manufacturing GPS systems for others up until now.

But it wants to push forwards its own brand and is ready to battle the biggies such as Tom Tom for a piece of a fast growing market, especially as there’s a feeling that consolidation in this sector is not far off.

They came into our offices yesterday to show the five family ranges they have, most of which has several models, and left one (the SilverGuide Edition) behind for review.

MyGuide uses Tele Atlas maps, although in some regions, such as eastern Europe, it integrates these with local maps, which it believes improves accuracy.

On paper, its products, which cost from £199 for a UK maps model, up to £379 for its Windows Mobile 5 PDA that includes west and east European maps, look good. But we won’t know until we have fully tested our review unit, which will be online in a week or two.

And, argued Dirk Heindörfer, MyGuide’s business development director, in future the differentiator between systems will be the additional content they offer, such as the ability to get dynamic data such as available hotel rooms, as well as points of interest, speed limits, and so on.

Posted by Rob Jones on July 5, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Plenty of emphasis has been placed on secure internet communications, but now experts are warning that we've been neglecting attacks on that office workhorse, the printer.

Jon Huber, multifunction printer security expert at Hewlett-Packard cautions that, on the issue of printer security, manufacturers have only become "more active over the last one to two years."

Printers can be exploited if malicious hackers sniff network traffic to and from the printer queue. They could then potentially retrieve sensitive documents that are sent to print without ever gaining direct access to the files themselves.

Encrypting a document as it's sent from a user's PC and providing the printer with the tools to decrypt it when it arrives in the queue can help avoid this scenario.

Despite attacks on printers increasing and becoming more sophisticated, Huber assures us that HP is "planning for, rather than reacting to printer security issues."

Posted by Marc Delehanty on July 5, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)