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I hate AMD
Not me, you understand. Intel.
During a security presentation talking about Intel’s vPro platform, senior VP Pat Gelsinger was asked to type in his name and password for his ‘bank account’. And in it he typed ‘I hate amd’.
So, anyone needing a boost to their funds now knows where to look.
In an earlier presentation this week, CTO Justin Rattner commented: “Wait a minute. It looks like there’s an Opteron in there”, as he looked into his Dustbin of Obsolete Technology.
Quad core but not for laptops
With Intel announcing quad core desktop and server processors at its Developer Forum in San Francisco, the obvious question is what about a quad core for notebooks? When will we see that kind of processing power?
The short answer is you're not in everyday laptops anytime soon. Quad core will attract niche markets such as gaming or mobile workstations, but not the average user. For them the hit such performance will have on battery life will be too much. But it also doesn't think most people will get much benefit from four cores in a mobile device.
The move from single core to dual core systems made a huge impact in laptop performance, but the step change when moving from two to four cores will be less so for most people. The thought of four cores diligently working away while you surf the net, or update a spreadsheet may seem attractive, but right now it's a waste of whoever's money bought the machine.
Gamers is the obvious exception, and although Intel gave no further details or timelines, we can safely assume that quad core mobile processors will appear and go into high end laptops, perhaps even in the second half of 2007. But there is also the argument that as high definition video grows, those that need to edit them will also be attracted to quad core notebooks, and may even accept the shorter battery life if they can work easier.
Ultimately though, you can be sure that Intel will be shouting about its 'energy efficient' quad core laptop as soon as it has cracked problems around power, heat and battery life, and can produce them at an attractive price point. And at that time it will be explaining in detail why the average user very much needs that kind of processing power.
No love lost between Intel and "the others"
As seasoned readers and followers will know, not only is there no love lost between Intel and AMD, but they rarely if ever mention each other's names.
Here at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, I was beginning to think AMD's name had been changed to "the others", as it has typically been referred to. But today we saw AMD's first mention - on a slide. It was during a demo set up by Intel to 'prove' how much faster its current top of the range Xeon and the quad core Xeon scheduled for release in November is compared to AMD's Opteron.
As you'd exect, the Xeon won hands down in Intel's demo. But there's some dispute as to whether we actually heard the word AMD spoken. I think the tech guy handling the demo did, but colleagues here disagree.
But what all do agree on is that Intel CTO Justin Rattner took a cheap - if funny at the time - swipe at Opteron yesterday. Looking into his Dustbin of Obsolete Technology, Rattner commented: “Wait a minute. It looks like there’s an Opteron in there.”
Confucian confusion could establish brands in China
Today's story about Chinese police raiding a factory in Shenzen seems to show that the authorities are beginning to take trade laws seriously, as they will have to as their economy matures. I got a flavour of the local attitudes to such matters when I visited the astonishing instant city about four years ago. Our group arranged to meet at a cetain restaurant and our guide advised us: 'Don't just give the taxi driver just the name of the place. You also have to give the street and the number of the building.'
The reason, he explained, was that as soon as a restaurant became a success in Shenzen, others of the same name sprang up. 'If you don't give the precise address, the driver won't know which one you want.'
Perhaps the Chinese will simply confuse themselves into respecting the law.
Devolo launching fastest Homeplug yet
Devolo is launching the first 200Mbps Homeplug AV device next week, allowing for the fastest streaming of data around electricity cables in the home yet.
Although the standard is classed as 200Mbps, as ever with networking devices, data never moves at that speed, so you can expect to see peaks of about 90Mbps when moving data solely around the home network and around 60-65Mbps if going out over the internet.
The AV standard streams audio and video around far faster a network; its high speed meaning that images will be far smoother and that products are better able to cope with noise. Proponents also argue that data moving over electricity cables is more secure, plus homeplugs require no set up.
Two addition Homeplug standards under still under development, including Broadband over Powerline – which should be ready early next year - plus members are exploring faster bits rates for the future.
The Devolo dLan200 AVdesk will cost €129 for a single unit or €229 for two. The next version of the product will return to Devolo’s usual design of an enlarged plug.
Latest reviews: Core 2 Duo PCs and Apple's iPod& Mac Mini
You can't fail to have noticed the impact Core 2 Duo has had on the PC market. Previously ignored by gamers, Intel has pulled out all the stops to kick AMD to the sidelines with its new processors.
If you're in the market for a new PC, why not check out the models in our Core 2 Duo group test? Ranging from £1,399 to £1,499, these PCs really pack a punch and all come complete with 19in TFT.
We've also just posted reviews of both the new iPod and Mac Mini from Apple - watch out for a review of the Nano in the next couple of days.
Sanyo's weatherproof Xacti difficult to get to grips with
Our review sample of the new Sanyo Xacti VPC-CA6 weatherproof digital camcorder/camera has just arrived and first impressions aren't great.
We first tried to hold it like past Xacti models we've reviewed (i.e. in the same way you'd hold a gun).
But, thanks to the LCD screen opening out towards you instead of away, this isn't possible since your thumb pushes it shut.
The way Sanyo say you should hold it is by curling your index finger over the top and keeping your thumb in line with the rear over the control buttons.
We've tried this (both using the strap and without) and it's not a comfortable experience.
Try filming a one-hour video and you'll really be struggling.
We've only been playing with it for a couple of hours, so our final opinion might change, but as it stands it'll have to do a lot to redeem itself.
Samsung targets disgruntled inkjet users with latest colour laser
We were given a hands-on demonstration of Samsung's latest colour laser printer yesterday evening.
In an attempt to persuade home and small-business users to ditch inkjets (and their expensive replacement cartridges), the CLP-300 has an RRP of just £179.99 - for a colour laser, that's pretty darn cheap.
To further entice those who see lasers as expensive, replacement toner is available for around £27 per cartridge.
However, the in order to make them so cheap, Samsung has kept the life of each cartridge (black, cyan, magenta and yellow) to just 1,000 pages at 5% coverage.
As ever, colour prints are way off what you get from an inkjet (even a cheap model), but fine for colour PDF printouts.
We'll be giving the CLP-300 a full test in the coming days.
Intel to demo hybrid laser
Intel will be holding the first public demonstration later today (Tuesday) of an electrically pumped hybrid silicon laser, enabling terabit per second optical links over a network.
Described as a major breakthrough in being able to build cheaper integrated lasers, the company said it would play an important role in future tera scale computing (TSC) environments.
Kevin Kahn, senior fellow at Intel, said: “The future is in tera scale computing and computing is going to be heavily parallel. This will be achieved by having many cores that are working together. In the past we talked about [TSC] in terms of the processor, but the problem is bigger than that – it extends to the platform and the network.”
The company is working on problems around getting the lasers onto silicon die, and Kahn said he was optimistic that the work would come to fruition in four to six years.
Intel developing 'physical holograms'
The video below shows Intel's vision of dynamic physical rendering, easiest exlained as a touchable hologram.
It's not a hologram, but instead made using silicon that can create any shape you wish. The link takes you to the full story with more details, and the video, although computer graphics, illustrates what Intel hopes to achieve.
Freeware now copies TV programmes when installing a bigger Sky+ hard disk
A few months back we wrote a workshop showing you how to install a bigger hard disk in your Sky+ PVR, enabling you to record far more programmes than possible with the 40GB drives the older versions come with.
It's a pretty easy process, but the one downside we found is that you lose any TV programmes you haven't watched.
A company called Copy+ has now developed a free software app that copies TV programmes from your existing hard disk to your PC, which can then be copied onto the new, bigger hard disk. We haven't had a chance to test the software yet - but will.
Having read through the process on their web site, you'll need to be pretty confident with your PC and need an XP machine using a Pata drive rather than Sata (you can't put a Sata disk in the Sky+ box) to connect the two disks to IDE connectors on your PC. Alternatively, you can use external hard disk cases, such as the Enermax Laureatte, but that involves additional expense.
In theory it sounds like a good idea, but first impressions suggest it's really only for those that absolutely must copy existing programmes to the bigger disk, because it does make the upgrade more complicated.
Once we've tried it, if it works, we'll update our workshop on how to upgrade your Sky+ hard disk.
Video review: Panasonic Toughbook CF-74 drop test
Panasonic claims its Toughbook can withstand a rugged enviornment better than the average laptop.
We drop tested the laptop as per Panasonic's specs, which was that all parts would survive a drop of a disappointly low 30cm - the height of an A4 sheet of paper.
At first we thought all was fine, but further inspection after the video revealed there was a breakage.
Group test: HDCP compliant monitors
We've uploaded a group review of HDCP (high bandwidth digital content protection) compliant monitors. You'll need one of these new displays to watch protected high-definition video on your PC.
These aren't by any means the only monitors capable of displaying high definition content but we're sure that the movie industry will press hard for HDCP given the ease at which current DVD movies can be ripped and then distributed online.
We've reviewed five models, including ones from Dell, Samsung and Sony. You can view the group test here.
AMD lift the lid on Quad Core
We got a glimpse of the future, when AMD held a briefing concerning their Quad Core Opteron CPU’s, due for launch in 2007. Built on a 65mn process, the native quad cores (coded K8L) are going to be direct pin replacements for Socket F Opteron’s with the same power and thermal envelopes as Socket F dual core CPU's.
They will use a Silicon-on-Insulator process which allows fast transistors with low power leakage to be used which helps reduce wasted power and heat, and to further improve energy savings each core can be run at different speeds or turned off completely by using the new Enhanced Power Now feature. An enhanced Crossbar Switch will enable different parts of the cores to be accessed at the same time.
The integrated memory controller (DDR2) and the new Direct Connect Architecture 2.0 will allow for faster HyperTransport speeds and is already able to support 8 core processors.
At present each core will come with 64KB/64KB L1 cache, 512KB of L2 cache and the new shared L3 cache (2Mb+) can be expanded.
Although the server based Socket F based CPU’s will be the first to arrive, AM2 desktop and mobile versions are in the pipeline.
The future of the Internet Protocol
The move from IPv4 to IPv6 is underway. Version 6 is capable of supporting orders of magnitude more IP addresses than v4 can with its conventional xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx format. It's expected to take some years before the migration is complete. Combine this switchover with the surge in VoIP technologies and you can see why IP is generating a lot of interest.
There's a webcast at 1pm (UK time) tomorrow discussing these issues with two experts in the field, Luke Mellors, CIO Expotel, and Graham Whitehead, Futurologist BT.
You can catch the webcast live here.
Bidders eye AOL and Tiscali in UK broadband shakeup
BT is among companies thinking of bidding for the UK division of broadband supplier Tiscali, and BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse have their eyes on AOL UK, according to a report in today's Times.
It also says Orange has pulled out of bidding for the AOL unit, which is expected to fetch much less than the £1billion asking price.
Netgear's new storage central: turbo
Netgear is readying its new network storage device, the Storage Central Turbo SC101T, for release in the UK this October.
The SC101T connects to your router via a Gigabit Ethernet port thus providing shared access to the two hard disks you insert into it. It supports serial ATA and IDE drives and backup via mirroring is possible.
Design improvements on the SC101, include a fan at the top to dissipate heat and an easier to open front panel.
Beware of robots bearing offers of greater road safety
'Intelligent traffic light could save lives,' proclaims a headline in today's Times over a story about technology that can delay a green signal when it detects that a vehicle is about to jump the lights. The same 'co-operative lights' system would also minimise hold-ups by adjusting the timing of lights to the traffic flow in either direction, according to research commissioned by the Department for Transport.
The news will be welcomed by anyone who has been held up at red lights when there is no cross traffic but you have to wonder about that jump detector. Obviously, when drivers become aware of the system, there will be some mad or bad enough to speed up at lights to force them to stay green.
The Road Transport Laboratory, which wrote the report, has thought of that. Cameras installed at lights would take the vehicle numbers of drivers deemed to be abusing the system, it says.
Cameras might get drivers who abuse the system prosecuted but they won't stop the abuse. And what about the drivers in the cross traffic, poised impatiently on red-and-amber...are some of them not going to start off prematurely, expecting a rapid change to green? What sounds like a safer system might turn out actually to be more dangerous.
The system could warn drivers how many seconds they have to wait before a light change, the report says. Even more effective would be to allow road technology to control the vehicle, braking if it is approaching lights too fast or exceeding the speed limit.
Some of these ideas sound good, but there should be carefully monitored pilots before they are introduced. It is impossible to predict exactly how this sort of scheme will work out in practice: what price robot brakes on those occasions when the best option is to accelerate out of trouble?
London is infested with robot eyes catching people out and they do not inspire confidence. Call me bitter but I have been done four times by them, three of them completely unfairly, including one to the level of absurdity. This was when I stopped, in accordance with the law, when my car was struck by another vehicle. The other motorist drove off, completely ignored by the robot surveying the scene. It did me for pulling over into a bus lane.
Some judgements are best made by humans, and we leave them to robots at our peril.
Rechargeable AA USB battery
Moxia Energy unveiled the world's first AA battery with a USB connector for recharging. We've had a play around with some USBCELLs this afternoon in the PCW office and think they're pretty cool.
For £12.99 you can get a pair of the batteries which have about 40% less capacity than conventional rechargeables (a third of their volume is taken up with the USB connector and associated circuitry).
There is also a significant environmental aspect to using rechargeables like these.
Initially they're on sale online for UK delivery only. Moixa (axiom backwards, in case you're wondering!) is in the process of ramping up production for the US and European markets.
USBCELLs are nickel metal hydride and take about five hours to charge fully (working in regular chargers too). Rated for 500 full charge cycles you're unlikely to wear them out.
A quick twenty minute charge is good for using a wireless mouse for a day but they do run very hot when charging and we haven't tried them out on low powered laptops.
Core 2 Duo and Crossfire
Taiwanese manufacturer MSI has released a motherboard today, the MSI P965 Platinum, which is the first based on the Intel P965 Express chipset to support Crossfire, ATI's dual graphics card setup.
The P965 is designed for dual core processors and while it supports Pentium D is clearly intended for use with Core 2 Duo. The 965 family was launched in June and there are two other variations, the Q965 and G965 which form part of Intel's vPro and Viiv platforms respectively.
This MSI board has two PCI Express x16 slots and supports Crossfire directly. Gamers looking for maximum performance will look towards an Intel Core 2 Extreme as processor and those who favour ATI will now have the opportunity configure a dream system.
Acer reveals new Ferrari models
Acer has launched two new models for their Ferrari range of notebooks, one a replacement for a current model and the second a brand new addition to the family.
The Ferrari 5000 is the replacement for the current 4000 model and as with the previous model it supports AMD’s Turion 64 X2 mobile processors. It has a 15.4in screen available in either in WSXGA+ (1,680 x 1,050) or WXGA (1,280 x 800) resolutions, both having Acer’s CrystalBrite coating and 16ms response times. It comes bundled with an Acer VoIP BlueTooth phone.
The new kid on the block is the Ferrari 1000, an ultra portable (1.55 – 1.70kg) with a 12.1in CrystalBrite (1,280 x 800) widescreen. Like the Ferrari 5000 it is built around AMD’s Turion 64 X2 mobile processor and uses ATI’s Radeon Xpress 1150 chipset which provides the graphics sub system as well. The 1000 has an external FireWire optical drive but Acer did say that future models will have integrated optical drives.
Acer outgrows market
As well as playing host to Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s and other assorted mobile exotica, the Principality of Monaco also played host to Acer this weekend for their 2006 global press conference.
While the worldwide PC market showed a poorer than expected 12.3% growth in the first half of 2006, Acer shone, outperforming the market with growth figures of 27% in the desktop market and a staggering 50% in the notebook sector, which together gave it a firm handhold on fourth place in the global PC market.
It was a similar story in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) with a 32% year on year growth (2005) in the desktop segment and 27% in Notebooks, maintaining their number one position in the EMEA notebook market and third place in desktops.
Apart from all the figures being banded about, a lot of new products were announced amongst which were new additions to the Ferrari, TravelMate and Aspire notebook ranges, new small form factor Aspire desktops and the Aspire iDea, a new media center.
Apple lock-ins could burst the Ipod bubble
Figures from Jupiter Research indicating that iPod owners buy only five percent of their tracks from Apple's ITunes online store seem on the face of it to provide the company with a good defence against accusations that it is abusing its market position by locking its users into its products.
It is not clear from reports of the research whether the 5 percent figure merely reflects the proportion of new downloads to the average size of users' existing record collections, ripped for use on the Ipod. The Ipod will import unprotected tracks, in formats like MP3 or Wav, but not tracks using rival digital-rights-management systems such as that used by Microsoft Windows Media Audio.
Neither will the iPod work with any online music store other than Itunes, which is rather like a CD player being restricted to playing disks only from the device's manufacturer.
Apple does similar tricks with the impressive iLife package of 'digital lifestyle' applications it gives away with Macs, which can lock users into the company's online services to a degree Microsoft could never get away with. Apple could argue that it does not dominate the market to the extent that Microsoft does, but neither is it a minnow in the fishpond.
There have been moves in Europe, particularly France, to try to force Apple to open the iPod to rival services. But the Jupiter figures could be interpreted as a sign that competition could do this without legislation and that users are getting wiser about the technology.
The iPod bonanza, which has seen Apple sell 1.5 billion tracks online, is not going to last forever. There are countless rival players that do not carry the same restrictions, and Apple has been slow to bring a portable video player or musical phone to market. The company could come badly unstuck if it tries to lock people into its video downloads when there are plenty of other sources available.
Perhaps even more dangerous for Apple is the risk of tarnishing its image as a somehow more virtuous alternative to the Great Satan Microsoft. Defects in iPods, and Apple's unsatisfactory response to them, have already dented its reputation for reliability. If it starts to be perceived generally as being guilty of anti-competitive practices, it could lose some of the momentum it has gained over the past five years.
Apple's biggest, perfectly legitimate, restrictive practice is to prevent other manufacturers from making and selling Mac compatibles. The bean counters might argue about whether the company would benefit from allowing its hardware to go the way of the PC, with Apple making money purely from the software. But the move would cause some fun and games in the PC world, and it would certainly have Microsoft watching its back.
Youtube: broadcast yourself (and Warner music!)
Youtube had been living off venture capital, throwing huge sums of cash at its ever increasing bandwith costs.
Now, it's signed a deal with the Warner Music group to distribute its music videos and split the advertising revenues.
Youtube users will be allowed to use integrate Warner content in their own video clips.
Youtube has also agreed to vet uploaded clips for infringements of copyrighted Warner material.
It's normally been pretty compliant in taking down offending material but now will apply technology which can scan files automatically and determine if it's not legit.
While Youtube moves towards profitablity we welcome this effort at co-operation rather than confrontation when it comes to the issues surrounding protection of copyright online.
Adobe and Quark do well out of InDesign desktop publisher
Desktop publishing powerhouse Quark seems to have bounced back since the launch of Adobe InDesign gave the company's flagship Quark Xpress product its first serious competition for years. Company insiders admit Quark had been getting complacent, with a large proportion of the world's magazines and newspapers using its software. It was slow to innovate, slow even to catch up with the new webbed world, and very slow to incorporate some of the little usability features that had been common in other programs for years.
It is of course a huge decision for a publishing house to switch software - the training costs alone would be huge. But a lot of companies did move to InDesign, forcing Quark to get its act together. Quark XPress 7, the latest version of its publishing package, was its biggest upgrade for years and it has been getting a lot of good feedback, according to UK marketing director Gavin Drake.
He claims Quark's market share is still between 60percent and 80percent, depending on country and market segment.
The company has the classic problem of the software developer in that it faces competition not only from rivals but from its own older products. Conservative publishing houses, on the basis of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", are still clinging to earlier versions.
So Quark is putting about what it says is an independent report, by Ross Roszkiewicz and Erica Kendra, comparing Xpress 7 productivity with earlier versions as well as with InDesign. It put Quark just ahead of InDesign in a multi-user magazine office, but a full 300 percent ahead of Xpress 4.11.
The report put Xpress 7 well ahead of InDesign for ad-agency work, claiming it completed 'moderately complex' jobs 50 percent faster.
Even if you take these figures at face value - Quark is not going to push a report, however independent, saying its products are worse - they are not the whole story. Productivity is not everything in design, though the bean-counters might think so: one of the reasons InDesign got converts was that it was supposed to have better typography. The product is doing very well for Adobe, and it has been for Quark Xpress too. Who said competition was not good?
Video review: Mogo Mouse
A travel mouse like no other, the Mogo mouse is flat and fits into the PC card slot on you laptop.
You can watch our video review, or read the full review at PCW.
Zune steals iPod's thunder
No sooner had the dust settled on Steve Jobs' announcement of improvements to the iPod range than Microsoft replied with details of its Zune portable media player.
The Zune has been subject to much rumour and speculation over the last few months when news of its development leaked in July.
Microsoft has told us that the Zune will be a 30GB player with a 3in screen. The main attraction of Zune is its wireless capability enabling two players to interact with each other.
Carefully laid plans for digital rights management are in place. You can share songs between Zunes but will only be able to listen to a protected track you've received three times over three days. After that you can highlight the song to purchase at the Zune Marketplace online music store.
Surely Apple has something like this in the works themselves but even if not it'll take an awful lot of effort to dislodge the iPod from the top.
Yahoo and Acer team up
We've just gotten word that Acer is to configure all its notebooks to have Yahoo as the default search engine and homepage. The Yahoo browser toolbar will come pre-installed too for good measure.
Hardware vendors tying software in with their products is nothing new. Just look at how Microsoft has managed to get every major PC manufacturer to supply Windows as standard.
Acer is generally well regarded, we think it's a good value for money brand. (Our most recent review was the Acer Aspire 5652.) Of course you can avoid Yahoo taking over your browser on a new Acer by simply installing Firefox as soon as you get your notebook!
Wikipedia in your pocket
Webaroo has created a novel way of cheating at pub quizzes: carry the entire Wikipedia database around with you in your mobile device.
Fast fact fans will delight at being able to access articles on just about anything without having to connect to the internet.
Webaroo makes software which downloads large swathes of the web and enables you to surf without being connected to the web. You can't, obviously, interact with websites to book tickets or purchase things when using Webaroo but searching Wikipedia seems like a good use of this software.
The Wikipedia pack for Webaroo is 6GB in size (although you can break it down by category) and is just a recent snapshot of the constantly changing online encyclopedia. Webaroo is available as a free download.
eDonkey put out to pasture
File sharing software eDonkey has succumbed to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). Its website has been shut down and it will no longer be distributed.
MetaMachine, the company which developed the eDonkey2000 client, has agreed to pay $30m to the RIAA as part of a settlement.
Users can still access the eDonkey network using independent client programs such as eMule but the userbase may dwindle as people move away to other filesharing platforms or use BitTorrent instead.
A number of such networks have been shut down in the past, with Napster and Grokster among the biggest. Grokster fought the hardest against the RIAA, losing in a case that went all the way to the US Supreme Court.
Smallest mp3 player in the world
Apple has unveiled what's now the smallest mp3 player in the world: the second generation iPod shuffle. Details were announced yesterday along with other changes to the iPod range.
This thing really is tiny, measuring a mere 4.1cm high, 2.7cm wide and 1cm thick. It makes the iPod Nano look positively huge. It's thinner than, but not quite as compact as, the Q-Be. To prevent it getting lost among the chewing gum, keys and tissues in your pocket it has a clip on the back. This is part of the emphasis on "wearability" for this ultraportable iPod.
The battery life is 12 hours, there's 1GB of storage and it's expected to sell for £50 when it ships in October.
Viewdock: LCD displays with iPod dock
Viewsonic has announced a new range of LCD displays called Viewdock. They are the first displays to come with a dock for an iPod incorporated into the design.
This dock will provide the USB connection to your PC for charging and data transfer but also will enable you to control your iPod with the menus displayed on the much larger widescreen display.
As is common with Viewsonic's other monitors they will have good audio capabability: built-in speakers, subwoofer and microphone. So the quality when playing music through the monitor should be better than some of the cheap speaker docking systems for iPods.
Viewdock monitors have a number of other extras: several USB ports and an 8-in-1 memory card reader. They are part of the "Made for iPod" line of approved accessories.
Nero entertains while media burns
The next release of Nero is just around the corner. Nero 7 Premium Reloaded will be released on the September 18th.
Nero is pretty keen on developing its reputation beyond just being a competent media burning platform. With that in mind it has added two new programs to this already huge package: Nero Sipps and Nero Mobile.
Mobile is a slimmed down version of Home and serves as a media centre for mobile devices.
Sipps is Nero's VoIP service (as if there were a shortage of them!) for PC-to-PC calls.
From what we've seen so far it looks good but it is a very ambitious package, branded by Nero as "the Ultimate PC and Home Entertainment Solution". Well we'll see about that! We hope to have a review up soon.
Sony stops making LCD displays
Sony is going pulling out of the European PC LCD monitor market, shelving production of any display under 24in in size from December.
They told us as we neared the end of our tests on one of their latest models...
How to beat the bedroom snoopers
Further to my blog last week wondering about how much hi-tech voyeurism is going on without being discovered...The Times published a letter from a reader who had discovered his rented holiday cottage had been bugged by a network camera. I can't find the letter online, so apologies for not giving you the link. The reader laughed the incident off but wondered if he should have taken the matter further.
Hard to see what you can do about preventing this happening to you, short of testing every room you go into. As it happens, though, there is a device that claims to allow you to do just that. Spycatcheronline says the £117.50 product can spot any camera lens.
Some of us have natural immunity to Peeping Toms, of course. Unless there are people out there perverse enough to be turned on by the sight of a portly male old enough to claim a bus pass.
Piracy doesn't pay
The stock of the pirate has risen in recent years, mainly due to the popularity of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. The life of a pirate was pretty adventurous but these days it's rather more boring.
One modern day pirate, Nathan Peterson, was jailed on Friday for seven years for selling copyrighted software on the cheap from his website.
Internet savvy users can find warez sites and peer to peer networks on the web to download pirated material from (should they so wish) but run the risk that the software they find has spyware implanted.
The 27 year old Peterson offered clean downloads at a cheap price and seemed to be doing pretty well, selling $20m worth of software. Pretty well, that is until the FBI began investigating him a few years back and subsequently prosecuted him.
It's clear that the US authorities are getting quite serious about this (and not just music and movie piracy). He's got seven years in prison and for what? I bet he didn't get to sail the high seas, fight hand to hand with a cutlass, bury treasure or even lured by sirens ...
Product of the Week podcast: Philips SLM5500 wireless media streamer
This week's Product of the Week pod cast looks at the Philips' SLM5500 wireless media streaming device.
Media streaming is still an uncertain affair, with some devices being relatively easy to set up, others very difficult. This one falls into the former bracket, and although not without its issues, was an impressive product overall.
Download product_of_the_week_34.mp3
New Mac Pro has some nice touches but watch those lock-ins
Apple evangelist Tim Bogel was in London today showing off the latest iMac skews and the new Mac Pro, which supersedes the old G5, and it has to be said that they look pretty good. Apple has always been good at introducing neat little tweaks to less glamorous parts of its systems - a good example is the MagSafe power connector on the MacBook. The Mac Pro has two or three little touches like this. It has four easily accessible pull-out drive trays (above left): to add a disk you pull one of these out (above right), bolt the drive to it, and slide it back. No fumbling about with wires and plugs, banging your knuckles on the power supply, inside a cramped system box.
We will be reviewing them, so I won't rehearse all the specs here, except to say that the Mac Pro uses two of Intel's new dual-core Woodcrest-class Xeon server chips, giving a total of four cores, and should have Apple's many professional graphics users drooling.
This allows you to trip over the power lead without bringing the laptop down with you, because it simply disconnects itself. It means that if you break your neck, at least you have your computer there in hospital to keep you company.
The four PCI Express slots each has a captive thumbscrew that allows you to secure a card without recourse to a screwdriver - or the usual ritual of dropping the screw into the depths of the machine and spending the next ten minutes trying to dig it out.
And the 667 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered memory sits on its own pull-out daughterboard (right)for easy upgrading. 
You do get this type of innovation in the PC world, of course, but it is often slow to take off because so many components are de facto standards. Apple can create its own standards, which has disadvantages, include the fact that you tend to get locked into its hardware and software. Bodel says Apple 'does not support in-the-field upgrading of processors' on its iMacs and he was no sure about the Mac Pro
Apple used its own form of heat sink on the Mac Pro memory and could not guarantee that all third-party memory modules would work with it. But he said generously: "Typically when you open up the system box you do not void your warranty."
Video on demand from Amazon
Amazon really has diversified since it first started selling books in 1995. It's one the internet's biggest brands and has begun leveraging this recognition by offering video on demand.
Amazon Unbox, as it's called, will have movies and television shows available for download and playback in Amazon's own media player. You can choose to rent or buy the videos. Rented videos will be time limited.
You will need a speedy broadband connection as an hour of playback will take up 1GB but you can watch films as they're downloading. The files are in wmv format with an accompanying .amaz file for copyright protection. The Unbox player is not compatible with the Apple's operating system.
Videos may be transferred to protable media players that are Plays for Sure compatible.