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'Look - no PC' web phones unveiled
Philips and Netgear have unveiled the first home cordless phones capable of making free Skype web calls without using a PC.
As we pointed out when we previewed them two days ago, the launches at the Berlin IFA consumer electronic show could help to take Voice-over-IP calls into the mainstream for the first time.
The Philips VOIP841 and Netgear cordless phones can also be used to make standard dial-up calls, including 999 emergency calls - a facility not available in pure web telephony.
"We are broadening our reach to mass consumers by offering them the opportunity to communicate via Skype without having to be tied to the computer," said Stefan Öberg, hardware general manager at Skype.
Users with cordless handsets will be able to make both Skype and dial-up calls simultaneously.
People already using Skype users can download all their numbers to the new handsets. They can also use the phone to search for Skype contacts.
The new handsets use the same Dect technology used on standard home cordless phones and so do not require a home Wifi network; neither will they conflict with one.
UK laptop vendors lack imagination
This week we've reported on the release of Core 2 Duo processors for notebooks. Since the launch we've had a number of different Core 2 Duo notebooks from UK companies in the PCW labs. The processors and the computers themselves have performed well in our testing but what hasn't impressed us is the lack of imagination on the part of the vendors.
Because the Core 2 Duo T-series is compatible with the motherboard that the Core Duo uses many vendors have opted to just drop the new chip into an otherwise unchanged notebook. We do feel that PC companies could make their offerings more appealing and add some more value beyond just changing the processor.
Come on guys: imagination plus innovation equals realisation.
Commodore's new PET project
The Commodore brand is undergoing something of a revival of late and this is most evident at the IFA conference in Berlin this week where new Commodore Gravel devices are on display.
The model pictured is the Gravel In Pocket. It's a portable music and movie player and has Wifi capability to connect to different media sources. Upon release it'll come with storage capacities of either 1 or 2GB. Movie playback will be at full rate of 24fps and the TFT screen's size is a relatively large 2.8in.
The Commodore name has bounced around among various owners since the original company went bankrupt in 1994. But for die hard fans the proliferation of trendy Commodore branded mp3 players will never dilute the powerful appeal of Commodore's early PET.
Resurrecting a defunct computer brand isn't a new idea: Acorn began selling computers again earlier this summer.
Microsoft Vista pricing update
Following our blog yesterday on Amazon US posting Vista prices on its web site, Microsoft has got back to us and pretty much confirmed the company jumped the gun.
So, even though you can still read the prices on Amazon, Microsoft won't officially confirm them. It told us it was "still too premature" and that pricing would be announced once Release Candidate 1 ships later this quarter.
It also wouldn't confirm an exact release date for the final version of Vista, saying: "We are targeting Windows Vista availability for volume license customers in November and general availability in January 2007, although the exact delivery date will be subject to achieving quality metrics based on customer feedback."
Microsoft has been notorious for missing deadlines in the past, although UK Office 2007 product manager Darren Strange recently posted a reply to an earlier blog saying that both Vista and Office were still on track.
If you want to keep up with Office developments, he posts regularly to his own blog, Office Rocker. Although his blogs are Microsoft-friendly, he lets democracy rule when it comes to posting replies, which can make interesting reading. And it's a good way of keeping up with new features and developments.
Vista pricing unveiled as David Brent gives Microsoft Office values
Amazon has published pricing for Microsoft Vista, taking pre-orders for the new operating system due out next January.
Prices start from $90 for a Home Basic upgrade, up to $400 for the Vista Ultimate DVD-Rom. You can check the full range of pricing here, but be warned - there's loads of them.
We phoned Microsoft and asked about the UK pricing, but haven't received a reply yet. We're hoping it will be a straight dollar to pound conversation.
While on Microsoft, for any Ricky Gervais fans that haven't seen the Microsoft training videos he filmed as Office character David Brent, they're worth a look. Especially for his views on Microsoft employees, and how they should use their work time.
Ricky Gervais - Microsoft 1
Ricky Gervais - Microsoft 2
Prevent notebook meltdown
In recent weeks both Dell and Apple issued recalls for Sony batteries supplied with their notebooks. Any notebooks fitted with affected batteries were branded a 'fire risk'. Beyond the health and safety issue it wouldn't do to have any more photographs of exploding computers popping up on the web!
Quiet PC is jumping on the recall bandwagon by launching its new Zalman ZM-NC1000 Ultra quiet Laptop Cooler. It's being trumpeted as a way of preventing overheating but obviously if you've got a dodgy battery you should send it back rather than rely on the Zalman.
That said the cooler does have a nice feature set, including dual centrifugal fans and an adjustable fan speed. It's USB powered, doesn't discriminate between Mac and PC and costs £32.
The evolution of phishing
We reported on the emergence of vishing earlier in the month. It's a particularly nasty form of 'social engineering' that's been taking advantage of people's better nature.
As if that wasn't bad enough a new phenomena is now here: SMiShing. This involves scammers sending SMS messages to you telling you that you've subscribed to such and such a service which will charge £2 a day to your mobile telephone account unless you de-register at a specific website.
The scammer's idea is that you may think that you've been signed up by accident and to avoid being charged will head to the website where you unwittingly download a Trojan. Your computer is thus compromised.
McAfee has noticed this technique being used more and more and sees it as a threat to enterprise networks.
No matter how sophisticated defences are or how much training is given to PC users these hacking techniques keep evolving. Darwin would be proud ...
Intel launch Core2 mobile
Yesterday, Intel officially announced the latest batch of processors using Core 2 Duo technology. The mobile versions of the Core 2 Duo, previously known under their codename Merom, are now part of Intel’s Centrino Duo line-up.
As with their desktop siblings, there are 4MB (T7000) and 2MB (T5000) L2 cached versions, all are built on a 65mn process and feature a 667MHz FSB. The current line-up contains five CPUs, three with 4MB of L2 cache and two with 2MB, but expect to see Low Voltage and Ultra Low Voltage versions soon.
In theory the Core 2 Duo CPU’s should drop into any Core Duo notebook with a i945GM/PM chipset, and with a BIOS upgrade should work, but as always check with the notebook manufacturer before taking your notebook apart.
4MB versions: T7600 2.33GHz, T7200 2.16GHz, T7200 2.0GHz
2MB versions: T5600 1.83GHz, T5500 1.66GHz
Google aims for business users
Google has always had credibility among geeks who appreciated the alogorithms behind its search engine and casual users who appreciated its search power and the Gmail interface. Now Google is making a play for IT managers and professional business people.
Google Apps is a selection of Google's software tailored for businesses. There's no new technology here: Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar and Google Page Creator. The difference is that you can apply your company's branding to all the tools.
Companies are loath to use gmail given how unprofessional using a free email account looks. Google Apps will solve this problem by providing you with all the functionality of gmail while still being able to retain your own @yourcompany.co.uk addresses.
The cost? It's free for now. There's no premium service as yet but Google does plan on offering one and charging for it.
As an aside it's worth noting that Google Spreadsheets isn't considered quite ready for primetime.
Corel corrals video software
Corel has confirmed that it will buy Intervideo for £103m. The decision to do this was presumably taken in anticipation of the future high definition video market.
Corel already owns Ulead, software for creating and editing video content. The Ulead suite of products includes both titles for professionals and home users.
Intervideo is best known for its WinDVD program which is distributed widely with new PCs. Corel will now have access to Intervideo's relationships with large PC vendors as the roll out of HD-DVD and Blu-ray drives approaches.
This move will strenghten Corel's video playback and editing offering while posing a renewed threat to rivals Roxio.
Mogo just doesn't go!
We get lots of technology in to review each week and every so often something catches our eye, (for better or for worse ...)
One device we thought worthy of a second glance was the Mogo Mouse. It's a flat travel mouse for use with notebooks. You charge it via a PC Card slot and it's wireless (via Bluetooth). That's the plan at any rate.
Unfortunately our review model just won't charge. We'll get a replacement and review the Mogo properly but this just doesn't create a great first impression. Disappointing ...
Update: we managed to charge the Mogo Mouse with the third laptop we tried it on but thereafter it only worked intermittently. A replacement is on the way and we'll have a review up soon.
Panasonic Toughbook not so tough
Our drop test of the Panasonic Toughbook CF-74 surprised us this week, when it didn't - as we first thought - survive unscathed.
Despite being dropped from only 30cm (all Panasonic would allow us to do, and the height at which it will guarantee that all components will survive unscathed), a small piece on one of the plastic hooks that holds the battery in place snapped off.
We filmed the drop test, which you can watch via our review of the Toughbook. It still works, but does highlight a weak point in the design. For £2,500, we were disappointed that the Toughbook couldn't live up to its name from just 30cm.
Belkin's Skype Wifi phone previewed
At Belkin's product extravaganza today, we also saw a demo of its new Wifi Skype phone. It's a neat black unit the size of a mobile phone, and designed to look as much like a mobile phone as possible, complete with annoyingly tiny keys. It's Skype-only, so you're going to have yet another device to carry around in your pocket.
Still no firm launch dates or prices, although Belkin did say we should be able to get our hands on one 'soon'. At the moment it's on pre-order in the US for around $170-190. Battery life is expected to be fairly standard (i.e. poor) for a Wifi device - perhaps a couple of hours talk time, although Belkin weren't sure of the actual figures - apparently it's only us rebels in Europe who worry about such mundane details.
As an aside, we got to wondering why standalone Skype phones that don't need your PC to be turned on are taking so long to appear. Perhaps it's something to do with Skype being a peer-to-peer service that relies heavily on utilising the PCs of Skype users for call routing and user directories. If every Skype user fired up a standalone Skype phone and turned their PCs off at once, there wouldn't be much left for it to work with...
UPDATE: We've just noticed that Belkin and Netgear have been pipped to the post by the Edge-Core Skype Wifi phone, which is now on sale from Expansys for £129.95
Belkin N1 draft-N wireless kit arrives in UK
After launching recently in the US, the Belkin N1 draft-N range of wireless kit has finally made it to the UK. Promising link speeds of up to 300Mbits/sec and a maximum theoretical throughput of 150Mbits/sec, it's targeted mainly at those with heavy-duty multimedia streaming demands, such as high-def movies.
There's also a companion N1 PC card for notebook use and a desktop USB adapter. The N1 range will go on sale in September priced of £149.99 for the ADSL modem/router, £129.99 for the router, £69.99 for the notebook adapter and £79.99 for the USB desktop adapter.
We've got samples of the router and notebook adapter sitting in the labs and will be bringing you a full review as soon as we can, and we certainly hope they perform as good as they look.
A $100m chunk of Apple
Apple has paid $100m to Creative to licence patents for use in all its products.
This is a fair chunk of change and settles the ill feeling that was brewing between the two tech companies. In May Creative asked the US International Trade Commission to investigate possible infringment of its patents by Apple.
The patents in question centre around the menu navigation on portable audio players like the iPod Nano. Not content just to deal with the matter at hand, Apple countersued. It claimed that Creative had infringed on its patents.
More countersuits were thrown about until today's announcement. It now seems that the bitter wrangling is water under the bridge as Creative is to join Apple's 'Made for iPod' program and begin producing its own line of iPod accessories!
However in a parting shot Apple's CEO Steve Jobs said "Creative is very fortunate to have been granted this early patent."
Canon announces EOS 400D digital SLR
Canon today announced a new digital SLR to add to its EOS range.
The EOS 400D features a 10megapixel sensor, 2.5in LCD monitor and a fast 0.2 second startup time.
The camera is also the first to sport Canon's EOS Integrated Cleaning System - a feature similar to that seen on the Olympus E500.
As well as being compatible with Canon's EF and EF-S lenses and EX Speedlites, the EOS 400D uses the same battery and grip as the popular EOS 350D, so Canon is obviously hoping the lure of more megapixels will prompt 350D owners to upgrade.
The EOS 400D will be available complete with a 18-55mm lens in late September with an RRP of £719.99.
A body only version will retail for £649.99.
We're getting a model in soon and will bring you a full review in the coming weeks.
Slingbox media player gets smokey
We've been playing with the latest version of Sling Media's SlingPlayer software since its release a week ago, and are impressed with the improvements.
Version 1.3 boasts a number of updates, including a new smoked glass media player by default for watch the TV using your Slingbox (see our review).
It looks a lot better than the previous default player, which you can still get. You can also better scroll remote control when using a smaller display (eg a laptop). Read a fuller list here.
And we'd like to suggest a change for a later version. Please make the TV picture fit the SlingPlayer size when watching Freeview channels - right now, some do, some don't.
ATI Radeon X1950 unveiled
Nvidia recently released drivers to enable Quad SLI and ATI are now hitting back. Quad SLI hasn't performed as well as expected and many blame this on poor initial driver revisions from Nvidia.
ATI is taking advantage of this misstep and is releasing the Radeon X1950, which will become its flagship graphics card when launched in early September. This is ATI's first major announcement since being bought by AMD.
The X1950 Crossfire has two GPUs onboard (Crossfire with a single card). It and the X1950 XTX are the first consumer graphics cards to feature GDDR4 memory. Changes in the cooling system provide further scope for overclocking.
The XTX model should come in at around the £300 mark with the Crossfire card around £550.
Ask or Google? Well it depends ...
Just over a week ago I posted about giving Ask a go as my primary search engine to see how I'd get on.
I've tried it out, used it when I'd normally use Google and if I couldn't find what I was looking for I reverted to Google to compare results from both engines.
I was surprised by how far along Ask has come in the development of its engine and how clean its previously ad-laden results pages now look.
I found the real benefit of using Ask is its automatic presentation of options to narrow or expand your search if you're dissatisfied with the initial results.
This makes searching easier and there's no need to keep retrying searches by tweaking keywords over and over again.
Its interface rivals Google's but where it falls short is in the depth of its database. The further you stray from the beaten path of common searches the more you find Ask returning irrelevant results or none at all. Performing identical searches on Google is far more fruitful.
A perfect example was a recent image search of mine for "Thinkpad T60". Ask returned no results at all (yet still presented ads!) while Google dug up dozens of images of the T60.
I think it's a case of a lot of work done but more to do as far as Ask is concerned.
Between a rock and a hard place
According to a story on Nature, astronomers have upset geologists by trying to nick the word 'pluton' to describe dwarf planets like Pluto. But the most bizarre part of the story is that, according to the chairman of the committee that came up with the idea:
"Since the term is not in the MS Word or the WordPerfect spell checkers, we thought it was not that common"
Good grief - are scientists really relying on Word's spell checker to determine common usage? Well, if they'd just looked down the list of alternatives in Word (see picture), they might have realised their error - the adjectival form 'plutonic' is sitting there quite plain to see. In geology, the word is the opposite of volcanic, and refers to intrusive igneous rocks. Pluto was the Greek god of the underworld.
Portable audio market heats up
We blogged last month about Microsoft's new audio player: Zune and how its entrance to the market might put the squeeze on other manufacturers like Creative, iAudio and Sandisk.
It now looks like they're fighting back with some aggressive pre-Christmas price cuts. Sandisk is slashing the price of its Sansa e200 range of players. We reviewed one model earlier in the summer and quite liked it: Sansa e260.
It's now expected to cost under a hundred pounds (UK prices have yet to be confirmed), which is a pretty huge drop from its review price of £149.
Also announced today is the new 8GB Sansa e280, which makes it the largest flash based player out there.
Bonnie and Clyde of spam nabbed!
A married couple from America have been charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange (SEC). They preyed on naive internet users' trust by sending out spam promoting shares in a startup company which they had invested in.
The spam worked. The share price of the company in question, Websky, rocketed 300% and the couple cashed in to the tune of a million dollars!
They began their spam campaign in September 2004 and it only took a week to achieve the goal of hyper-inflating the share price.
Email users should be wary of anything that gets sent to them from unrecognised sources. Acting on anonymous stock tips can be just as financially damaging as identity theft.
Spintronics: smarter circuits
Computers these days are often power hungry beasts, despite the move towards more power efficient processors. Well while Intel and AMD engineers slave over the their chip blueprints it seems that some physicists are coming up with a cleverer approach: replace electronic circuits with spintronic ones.
It's reported in Nature this month that using magnetic fields instead of applying electrical current can power the kind of circuitry that we find in all kinds of devices. Using such spin-based circuits would see a drastic reduction in power consumption and heat generation along with giving engineers the ability to make faster and smaller devices.
Spintronic circuits are still a long way off but, given that ever shrinking conventional circuitry is fast approaching its physical limit, this is something worth keeping an eye out for.
Musical Maxtor hard drive takes a death plunge
My trusty Maxtor Onetouch II Firewire 800 took a tumble at the weekend.
It wasn't a bone-crunching fall, rather a tame one in fact, but ever since the 300GB hard drive emits an annoyingly playful three-tone tune and refuses to spin up.
It didn't help that, at the time of the fall, the disk was busily whirring away.
Fortunately I make regular backups on my Iomega Rev drive and was able to restore the majority of my data.
However, the last backup I made was a good few weeks ago, which means there's a lot of data sitting on that drive I might never see again.
I've tried freezing it, shaking it, hitting it and even pickling it, but to no avail.
Back in October 2005 I reviewed the very same drive.
My recent experience doesn't change my overall opinion of the drive (it was, after all, working perfectly well for over a year before this incident), but I was a little disappointed that it threw in the towel quite so easily.
I'm also now questioning wisdom of the option to stand it vertically. It might look good, but it leaves it extremely susceptible to a death plunge, especially when sat precariously close to the edge of a desk.
It all highlights the importance of regular backups. If you've never suffered data loss, consider yourself fortunate, but certainly not invulnerable!
Backup options:
Lacie Brick Desktop Hard Drive
An external hard drive with a sturdy chassis
Stardock Keepsafe backup utility
Automatically create backup copies of documents as you work
Logmein Backup review
Perform simple backups by spreading data around multiple PCs
Buffalo Terastation Pro NAS
Advanced plug-and-go data protection that's simple to manage
Thin time for handsets but solid-state ultra-mobile PC eclipses all
Thin is in for mobile handsets this year, judging from the latest crop being shown off operators. This cool 3G design (left), called Ice, is exclusive to 02 and will be available from next month. It includes an MP3 player, Bluetooth, USB, and packs a 1.3 megapixel camera. And it weighs in at just 92g.
The Ice was one of the models being shown off by O2 at a party last night to demonstrate products that will be available next Christmas. It was also showing a new service designed to help people trying to lose weight. So you buy your new phone at Christmas, and then dial-a-diet to lose the weight you have put on over the holidays.
02, recently bought by Spanish operator Telefonica, is being slow off the mark launching HSDPA services which currently offer mobile access at up to a rated 1.8Mbit/sec – going up to 3.2Mbit/sec perhaps as soon as next year. T-Mobile already offers HSDPA in spots areas and 3 is about to launch a service.
Which makes the news that Samsung is packing HSDPA into its latest ultra-mobiles, including the very interesting solid-state Q1 Origami, not to mention its new slimline Q40 (right), all the more exciting. It means that broadband on the move is becoming a reality for the emerging class of truly mobile PCs.
It must be less than ten years ago when a mobile data communications system was demonstrated at the Networks Show in Birmingham. It was so big it had to be packed into a Land Rover, bristling with aerials.
Crash test for Panasonic's latest Toughbook
We like to put products through their paces, particularly when manufacturers make grand claims.
So with Panasonic's new Toughbook CF74, it was obvious that we had to conduct drop tests, as the company claimed it could withstand falls of up to 90cm. We checked with Panasonic's PR, to be told that it would only guarantee that the notebook would still work properly from a 30cm drop.
That's the height of an A4 sheet of paper, nowhere near the height of a desk, so very disappointing that they back-tracked so rapidly. From 90cm (slightly higher than our desks here in the office), Panasonic only guarantees that the hard disc will work.
And 30cm is all it would let us test. Which naturally we took on board.
You can hear it crashing to the ground in our latest Product of the Week podcast. And just to be sure, we dropped it again during the podcast. In the interests of proper testing for readers you understand, not because we liked dropping a £2,500 notebook.
When less is more: USB flash drives
Flash memory manufacturers are competing fiercely with one another in the race to produce smaller USB drives with ever larger capacities.
We come across new drives all the time but the one pictured with the keys, a Lexar Jumpdrive Firefly, really stands out. Well it doesn't actually stand out physically because it's so small but considering it can pack up to 4GB of data we think it's impressive.
Not quite so small is the new 8GB Swivel flash drive from Imation. Its 8GB capacity is just below that of a dual layer DVD. Sony has taken a slightly different direction and gone for even smaller form factor drives rather than aiming for such huge capacities.
The Jumpdrive Firefly launches at £79.99 while the Imation Swivel drive now comes with a free Trust Micro USB 2.0 Hub.
Internet in the air: boeing, boeing, gone!
The Connexion service offered by Boeing is to be axed. Connexion was its high speed internet service for in-flight use.
Passengers had to pay per use and connect to the plane's router via wifi. A connection to the internet was established via satellites with most of the Northern Hemisphere covered.
Boeing however was unable to convince enough airlines to setup the service on their planes and consequently it just wasn't generating enough revenue.
Connexion was aimed at business travellers and while the idea is sound in principle American carriers preferred to sign up with local cellular companies to provide the internet access.
It's not going to be much of a disappointment to UK air travellers though, they can't even bring their laptops aboard these days!
Latest reviews: £1,299 PC group test and more
Intempo iDS-02 iPod speaker system
On of the more unusual Ipod speaker systems currently on the market, this Intempo model is shaped like a bowling ball. It's no good for parties, but is fine for lounge and bedroom use.
Netac A200 portable media player
Not only is this a great value portable media player, but it also comes with an FM transmitter so you can listen to it on a nearby radio.
Acer Aspire 5652 notebook with Vodafone HSDPA
Thanks to its built-in HSDPA module, this Acer notebook can access the Internet at 1.8Mb, but it's not particularly small and the battery life is disappointing.
Group test: £1,299 PCs
In the market for a new PC? As our group test shows, for just under £1,300 you can pick up some powerful Vista-ready systems. We also show you how to safely install the Beta of Vista on your PC.
Check out the new Otterbox at check-in
The laptop carry case on the left is the new Otterbox 7030. It looks to be solidly build and is designed to protect against crushing and dropping. It's also waterproof and dustproof.
There are shock absorbing bumpers inside along with other protective features. It is heavy though, weighing over 3kg, so it's not ideal for carrying around a large laptop in.
Rugged Peak, the case's manufacturer, in another case of cashing in on London's recent terror threat, thinks people should use it as a means of protecting your laptops in the luggage hold of aeroplanes.
While this is a good idea, we can't help thinking that the case looks tough and futuristic enough to house some sort of sophisticated weaponary. It might raise a few eyebrows at check-in!
Avoid HD cable mess but welcome to remote control hell
High definition televisions and devices producing HD output for them are becoming more common. In order to watch and listen to HD content you'll have to hook your Sky HD Box, for example, up to the HDMI port on your television, monitor or projector.
Most televisions have only one HDMI port so if you've got an DVD player alongside your set top box you're going to have to change input cables every time you want to switch between the two.
This could be a bit of a pain and Lindy electronics has recognised this and released a remote controlled three port HDMI switch. It supports up to HD resolutions of up to 1080p and will help avoid messing around with input cables. It doesn't come cheap though, costing £149.
It won't however solve the problem of having another remote control in the living room and this one is certainly thin enough to get stuck down the back of the sofa!
Update: Over on the Activehome blog Martin Lynch reports on Toshiba's plans for a television with three HMDI input ports.
Linux gains more business credibility
Lenovo is releasing a Thinkpad with Linux pre-loaded in a move which strengthens the open source OS's business credentials.
The Thinkpad T60p will ship with Suse Enterprise Desktop 10. This distribution of Linux is put together by Novell who have collaborated closely with Lenovo and Intel for this release.
Linux's main commercial use is in running servers but this is an attempt by Lenovo and Novell to grab a slice of the mobile computing market too.
Business users, more concerned about stability and reliabilty, are wary of using Linux as earlier versions weren't all that easy to configure on notebooks. The big names behind this release should help quell their concerns.
Key to the success of this venture will probably be the quality of support offered by Lenovo for its Linux users.
Google hoovers up
Google doesn't seem happy about becoming a verb, according to a recent article in The Independent. The search engine company has apparently sent legal warnings to media companies warning them against using 'google' as a verb. We certainly haven't received such a warning here at the Test Bed, so since it's now officially an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, we'll just carry on goooooogling.
More on 3's HSDPA mobile broadband demo
Details revealed yesterday of data rates available on the rival Wimax and HSDPA mobile broadband technologies give only the haziest indication of their relative merits. Only when the services are actually in operation will we know what kind of speeds can be achieved in practice.
HSDPA will be available earlier and even if you take the lower estimation of the kind of data rates you can expect on the street, around 500Kbits/sec, it will be as fast as an entry-level ADSL line, which is seriously useful. In fact a real 500K throughput would be faster than a 500K DSL link, because that too is subject to contention and line noise and will generally deliver considerably less than its rated performance.
Intel-backed Pipex Wireless has to get regulatory approval for mobile use of the spectrum it owns before it can offer any kind of rival service using Wimax, though it plans to roll out services for fixed access in areas where wired access is poor or non-existent. It is likely, initially at least, to cherry-pick areas such as city centres for any mobile services it offers.
So Wimax mobile access will for some time be available only in hotspots, rather as Wifi is now but with base stations covering entire neighbourhoods. And, despite promising trials, it is not at all clear whether Wimax will be faster in practice than HSDPA - though users will be offered different speeds for different prices.
In short, Wimax can't compete on coverage, it can barely do so on speed, and it will come late to the mobile broadband market - and then only if Pipex Wireless comes up with the cash to roll out the infrastructure. The one thing going for it is Intel, which has talked of making Wimax standard on Centrino notebooks rather as Wifi is now.
This would enable Wimax and HSDPA to coexist as people could choose whichever is the cheapest or fastest way to get a link.
Mobile operator 3 would give few details of charges for its HSDPA mobile broadband service, though if you buy a video or audio track from the company's own servers the bandwidth charge will be included in the price of the content.
The technology has considerable advantages for the operator itself as HSDPA, by cramming more data onto the same carrier waves, makes far more efficient use of the three mobile channels for which 3 famously paid billions in Gordon Brown's 3G auction. 'We can choose to increase the number of users or have the same number using higher speeds,' technical solutions director Gordon Baxter said.
He also previewed some of the HSDPA phones that will become available from late this year. The one pictured at the top of this article is HTC MTeor, which uses Windows Mobile 5.0 and supports HSDPA at 1.8Mbits/sec. It has a 2.2in QVGA transflective screen andf packs a 1.3 megapixel camera.
Pictured right is an LG Electronics design with similar connectivity, a 2 megapixel camera and a 2.2in QVGA TFT display.
Motorola's 3G Razr (left) supports HSDPA at 3.6Mbits/sec, tri-band GSM and GPRS/EDGe and also has a 2.2in QVGA TFT screen. All three are due to go on sale late this year. These pictures are scanned from printouts of PowerPoint slides, so the quality is poor.
Intel tries to steal AMD's ThunDDR
Intel hopes to have a new chipset capable of supporting DDR3 RAM and quad core processors out by the end of 2007, sister-site the Inquirer says.
This info comes out hot on the heels of AMD's announcement of the upgrade path to quad core which will only support DDR2. A bit of one-upmanship at play, we suspect!
DDR3 has a prefetch buffer width of 8-bit compared to the 4-bit of DDR2. This will allow RAM modules to store more data in temporary cache just before it's required for use. DDR3 will also be far less power hungry and run at a higher clockrate.
Tough to the Core: Panasonic incorporates Centrino Duo
Panasonic is the manufacturer of the Toughbook range of laptops which are designed to be used out and about. To balance the cost of the extra work and materials necessary to 'ruggedize' (Panasonic's term, not mine!) them, the laptops themselves aren't at the high end in terms of performance.
To address this Panasonic is finally bringing the Toughbook CF-51 in line with the rest of the industry by announcing the CF-51 MK3 powered by an Intel Core Duo processor. This chip, coupled with the Intel designed motherboard and wirless allow it to be labelled as Centrino Duo.
While we welcome this, we can't help feeling that there is another motive for this move from Pentium M to the Core Duo. Perhaps it's because Intel is eager to dump its stocks of the Core Duo in anticipation of the impending release of the mobile Core 2 Duo (previously codenamed Merom).
Chinese checkers cause another embarrassment for Dell
The exploding laptop horror is not Dell's only problem at the moment. The Ars Technica website reports that the company faces a class action by Chinese purchasers of a laptop that used a Core Duo T2300E processor rather than the slight more expensive T2300, as advertised. The only difference between the two is that the T2300 supports virtualisation, whereby the computer acts as two or more logically separate machines.
Virtualisation is far more likely to be used on desktops and servers, so few users are likely to be seriously affected. But as with the exploding laptop story, which was broken by our sister site The Inquirer, a single web posting ballooned into a major legal and public-relations problem. The Chinese checkers who spotted the downgraded T2300E processor demanded - and got - an apology from Dell.
No laptops in hand luggage? Remote access it is then ...
With all the air travel restrictions in place people won't be able to bring laptops on aeroplanes as hand luggage. Certainly not any dodgy exploding Dells! If you're concerned about the safety of your computer you may well opt not to bring it on your trip at all. But what about accessing your files and data when you get to your destination?
This is where remote access software comes in. If you have your home or office PC connected to the net you can access it with software like GoToMyPC and LogMeIn (there are many others).
Taking advantage of the situation with flights out of the UK right now, GoToMyPC has been plugging a free 60 day trial of its software. It may be a good excuse to try out the service but it should be noted that there's nothing new about the trial offer.