« November 2006 | Main | January 2007 »
Full Nintendo Wii review now live
After posting a sneak preview back in October, we can now bring you our full, in-depth review of Ninendo's Wii console.
The graphics can't match what the Xbox 360 is capable of and we were left a little disappointed Nintendo hasn't sorted out the online channels (live news, weather reports etc.), but as a source of amusement it's hard to beat.
At £180 it's an absolute bargain, but if you haven't already got bought one, you'll be hard pushed to get a Wii in time for Christmas - although Amazon did, for a very brief moment, have some in stock this morning.
Read the full Nintendo Wii review and leave your comments below.
Dubious claims by ntl Telewest
I’ve always hated crap research dressed up to be meaningful, and the latest that falls into the category is from ntl Telewest.
It sent out a press release screaming “Parents stumped by presents lists - what kids wheely want this Christmas!”, which went on to claim that anyone with kids was no longer with it enough to understand a Christmas list.
“Gadgets such as Heelys, Wiis, PVRs and Robosapiens feature high on kids' Christmas wish lists this year, but new research shows parents are struggling to decipher them. Research commissioned by ntl Telewest reveals today's most desirable 'toys' have such confusing names that parents are turning to their children to translate,” said ntl.
Clearly, all parents are too stupid in ntl’s eyes to work out what most of these toys are, but it only takes a brief look down the list of examples to see ntl doesn’t know what kids want for Christmas.
Among the list of tech toys children want – and only 15 per cent of parents understood the term – is VoD. Now, ntl, show me just one child in the land that has asked for Video on Demand this Christmas. And frankly I’m dubious about the PVR and Blackberry claims. What child or teenager asks for a Blackberry for Christmas?
With few exceptions, over half of the parents questioned did understand the tech terms.
Clearly ntl is just trying to push some of its services and of course it has got it’s cheap publicity – because I’ve slagged it and its research off here.
The full table of parental horror - % that understood the terms:
Term Percent
PVR 23.53%
Set top box 79.76%
Wii 62.12%
HDTV 82.12%
VoD 15.29%
MP3 87.06%
Xbox 360 86.59%
PS3 79.76%
Heelys 22.12%
Blackberry 77.88%
Cranium 54.12%
Bratz 76.47%
Geomag 30.35%
Robosapien 70.82%
Bop It Extreme 40.00%
Double the aerials, but still no signal
We've been giving Terratec's Cinergy DT USB TV tuner (as announced last week in the Test Bed) a run through and, as expected, it failed miserably when it comes to picking up a signal via the portable aerials.
This is despite it housing two separate aerials - something that Terratec claimed would boost signal strength.
That said, we've only tried it in one location so far (just south of the M25). We'll be giving it a go in a variety of locations before we publish our full review.
ADSL switching rules too little too late
Getting a MAC code so you can switch internet providers could remain a drawn out, desperate and despairing process for users if the small print is anything to go by.
The welcome news that Ofcom is making ISPs provide MAC codes free and compulsory is too late for people affected by the E7even scandal and disgruntled customers like me - I had to pay PlusNet £84 for my MAC.
Anyone who's had dealings with regulators like Ofcom and Ofwat may have some scepticism and I wanted to see what kind of teeth Ofcom claims now to have.
ISPs have five days to issue MAC codes to customers. But how long could it really take?
Simon Bates from the regulator told me "if there is any evidence a company has broken the rules" Ofcom would do the following things in the following order:
- issue the company with a warning
- ask it to remedy the situation
- possibly request that it pay refunds to the customer
Finally, should all else fail it would issue a fine of up to 10 per cent of the company's turnover to the naughty ISP.
But, to the crux of the matter, how long does it take Ofcom to deal with unfulfilled MAC requests? Bates said it hopes to close any investigation into ISPs breaking the rules "within six months of opening it". So even if Ofcom does have some balls, it's still a fat bureaucracy…
mp3s, pure and simple
eMusic, the World's largest retailer of independent music and the World’s second-largest digital music retailer overall, recently announced that it has shipped over 100million mp3s.
That puts it some way behind Apple's 1.5billion downloads but what's special about eMusic's approach is that it doesn't constrain how you use your music once you've bought it.
Digital rights management (DRM) limits the number of devices you can listen to the track on along with constraining the ability to make back ups of your music.
iTunes uses a system called FairPlay that has a host of limiting features, the most prevalent being you can only play iTunes music on an iPod.
eMusic's mp3s can be listened to anywhere, anyhow and for as long as you like. The fact that it only has 'independent music' shouldn't deter people too much because big names like Keane and Marvin Gaye can be found in its arsenal.
With the news of iTunes suffering a slump in sales you might think consumers are heading in a less restricted direction, but eMusic still has one big failing: you can't buy individual tracks. Instead the service is subscription based and in my opinion, eMusic will never truly compete with iTunes.
How their lordships fenced with banks over web security
For journalists accustomed to being stonewalled by banks about security and other issues, there was a certain pleasure yesterday in watching representatives of the industry being grilled by a House of Lords sub-committee inquiring into personal internet security.
But even their Lordships could not get anything out of the witnesses concerning the security records of individual banks. If you'd like to hear their lengthy refusals, without actually saying the word No, to a series of exquisitely barbed questions from the Great and Good, there is a recording of the hearing here
Yesterday's hearing was only part of a broader inquiry, headed by Lord Broers, set up by the House of Lords Science and Technology committee. It is looking the nature and scale of threat to individual users but it does not cover national threats, such as whether terrorist bombs or cyber attacks could shut down Britain's internet infrastructure.
It is looking at whether software and hardware developers could do more, and whether legislation is needed, and will report some time next year.
Lord Errol, a member of the sub-committee carrying out the inquiry, told me one question would be whether banks could and should do more to counter fraud. He suggested that criminal use of cash cards at ATMs could be avoided by measures such as fingerprint scans.
The committee would also look at whether companies or other organisations that compromised people's personal data, such as the recent case of a stolen laptop containing details of millions of Nationwide customers, should be obliged to inform them as soon as possible.
The issues are not always straightforward, as answers at yesterday's hearing made clear: sometimes publicity might alert thieves to the fact that they have valuable data. But it was also a shock to discover that all banking records are not routinely encrypted.
"I'm a hereditary. I know nothing about technology," Lord Errol said when he introduced himself to me at a reception the evening before the hearing. It turned out he was joking.
It seems that peers who gain their position from birth tend to be dismissed as asses compared with those appointed because of their expertise and achievements. Where those who buy peerages stand in this rarefied hierarchy I did not manage to find out.
Crazy method to Skype out
I am going to suggest a long-winded way you could use Skype from your mobile phone.
1) Plug a mobile phone into your computer
2) Leave you computer on all day long
3) From a second mobile phone, call the first one (which is plugged into the computer) and then let the first mobile phone Skype Out to another telephone number
Alternatively:
1) Let someone call you on Skype
2) Let Skype talk to your first mobile phone (connected to the PC) and then it will call your second mobile phone
3) The original caller pays nothing whilst you pay the bill for calling from your first to your second mobile phone
Confused? Well that's exactly what a Norwegian company called IPdrum is trying to do.
It has launched a product called the IP Voicelink. It is a GSM device, or a mobile phone without buttons and speaker/microphone, that interacts with Skype and theoretically lets you use Skype anywhere you have signal on your mobile phone.
An IPdrum spokesperson describes it as a "cost-cutting device", but when you combine the £139 cost of the box, having your computer turned on continuously and the fact that you will have to pay for mobile to the IP Voicelink box (referred to as the first mobile phone in the situation above) and vice versa we think the cost is astronomical.
A very small number of business people who continually call abroad from their mobile phone will save money, however 3's X-series, which has Skype built in, may be a cheaper and simpler option.
The box goes on sale next week and PCW will bring you a review soon.
Anti-virus for gamers
Bullguard is launching a security suite called 'Steel security' aimed specifically at gamers wanting anti-virus software that has a small footprint.
Bullguard says it's releasing this product for hard core games (who have loads of money) and it believes it can help parents, since their children turn off anti-virus software when they play games without their knowledge.
By turning off security software Bullguard thinks games will speed up (more frames per second resulting in smoother play) and gamers don't want to be interrupted by pop-ups telling them of spam or odd internet traffic.
One example of it reducing the amount of resources used by the firewall is that when you launch a game, it only monitors incoming data as opposed to outgoing data.
Additionally it doesn't notify gamers of strange firewall notifications when they stuck in virtual Worlds.
The software is tightly based on Bullguard 6.0 which has now been superseded by version 7.0. Because you get a one year licence you will be able to upgrade to the 7.0 technology underlying Steel security once it's made available (and Bullguard claims it will be made available).
The suite moulds together anti-virus from Bitdefender together with a firewall from Sygate (now owned by Symantec) and other anti-spam and online backup.
Two aerials better than one?
We've just got our hands on two new pieces of kit from Terratec - the Noxon iRadio and dual-aerial Cinergy DT USB XS Diversity digital tuner.
With the wealth of free internet radio stations available, Wifi radios such as the Noxon iRadio aren't hard to come by these days. However, unlike most other models, Terratec's latest offering is able to play podcasts as well.
We've had a quick play with it and, although a bit slow when browsing station lists, we're impressed with its ease of use. At £149 it's not cheap though.
Terratec's Cinergy DT USB TV tuner also tries to differentiate itself from the crowd. It houses a dual digital tuner and features not one, but two aerial inputs. Two portable aerials are included, which Terratec claims will boost the signal in poor reception locations.
We've tested many USB tuners with portable aerials and, despite a few successes, are usually left with a blank screen.
We'll be posting full reviews of both products in the coming days.
Is TV 'instant networking' too good to be true?
Consumer electronic devices like TVs will be networked simply by plugging them into the mains, if Panasonic has its way. The company has confirmed my rather rushed story from Friday, which followed the release of its data-over-the-mains kit into the UK.
It is working on implementing the technology at the circuit-board level of TVs and other devices, which will be launched first into Japan. The idea is wonderful, if only it would work. No messing about with Wifi, Ethernet jacks. or even mains Ethernet adapters. If a device is on, it will talk to its neighbours.
There are a number of caveats. Mains data is susceptible to interference from appliances like washing machines. And plug-and-play networks need standards: Panasonic is using a proprietary technology and so unless this is adopted by other consumer electronics companies it will only work with the company's own equipment.
Yet giants like Samsung, LG, Sharp and Sony belong to the Home Plug Powerline Alliance, which has a rival technology.
Then there are the concerns over mains data itself, which in radio terms is filthy: power leads were not designed to carry high-frequency signals and they act as transmitting aerials. Companies assure us that frequencies that might cause problems are 'notched out' and that the RF levels are too low to cause problems. But I am not convinced that anyone knows what the cumulative effects will be of millions of homes in a city using the technology.
At the very least it will raise the noise floor. And even low-power short-wave signals can cross continents because they bounce back from the ionosphere, which is how radio hams get to talk to the world. A capricious burst at a certain frequency in London could conceivably jam ambulance communications in Cape Town.
We are already suffering from Wifi noise. I don't think I have set up a Wifi link recently where there have been fewer than five installations within range; you can't have more than three 11b/g setups near each other without some contention. Yet the industry is talking about pumping up the range of Wifi and using it to shunt around HDTV. Is it really going to scale up?
My pet idea is to stick fibre into mains cable and network new houses at the time you wire them up. With 300,000 news homes due to be put up in Britain alone there would be plenty of incentive to develop foolproof interconnects and train people to install them.
HD-DVD shows impressive form
Back when Microsoft decided it would back HD-DVD instead of Blu-ray many might have thought 'so what, it's a software company, not a film or hardware manufacturer'.
Well, Microsoft is one of the 12 companies behind the MPEG LA which collects license fees from VC-1.
HD-DVD has pretty much used VC-1 exclusively, whereas Sony has stubbornly stuck with the inferior mpeg2. Perhaps Sony doesn't like the idea of paying its competitor cash in hand for VC-1.
Although it is no way conclusive, the website dvdwars shows HD-DVD clearly in the lead in terms of sales.
You might suggest the tides will change as Sony's inclusion of Blu-ray in the PS3 hits home, but then there's the '360…
'The Xbox360 only has a DVD drive' I hear you shout! But for an extra £129, the HD-DVD add-on makes it by far the cheapest way to get HD content into your living room.
Now we've gone a plugged it into various PCs. The results are promising and we'll post our conclusions online soon.
No more Wiing 'for a few weeks'
Brace yourself because there will be no more Wiis 'for a few weeks' according to the staff at HMV on Oxford Street.
Unless you have pre-ordered the console (and even if you have) there is no stock and definitely no pick and go Wiis at the UK's biggest HMV.
The store has stopped taking pre-orders too because they have yet to fulfil their commitments to those that pre-ordered prior to the launch.
As we previously reported there were no queues on Thursday (despite what the BBC reported) and we only witnessed people gathering during the evening.
At 12:01am HMV opened its doors to punters but only had 200 consoles to sell to people without a pre-order and the police feared fights would break out.
To avoid confrontation, HMV took the names of the first 200 people in the queue and let them pick up their Wii's this morning instead.
On a side note Nintendo painted Wii advertising on an old bus and drove it about central London to try and bring the hype up, but I feel this has been the quietest UK launch of a console for years now!
Medion's sub-£100 sat nav
All technologies crash in price once they've had time to establish themselves, and that's happening at the moment with sat navs.
But the falls we have seen in prices have now been trumped by Medion, which has sent in its £99 GoPal 210. For your money you get a lot of sat nav.
It's downsides - to get them out of the way first - are its small screen and limited set of points of interest. But it was fast, accurate, gave clear instructions and overall impressed me. Its Navteq maps are UK and Ireland - what more could you expect for that price - and more can be added for a price.
I reckon we'll see a few more sub-£100 sat navs hitting the shops pretty soon - and I don't just mean existing products at a reduced price or software to work on a PDA or phone - as other manufacturers fight back.
The GoPal 210 is only available from Dixons stores - but that covers Currys and PC World, both hugely popular and very visible. I wouldn't buy the GoPal if my GPS needs were big, but as a device only needed occasionally, £99 is taking is towards impulse buy.
New tech reduces blurring
BenQ is demonstrating a new technology that reduces blurring on monitors.
Dubbed black frame insert (BFI) the technology does exactly what it says on the tin, namely insert a black frame in between normal frames.
The human eye naturally blurs things together in day to day life. Some effects of an image are left behind (after the image has disappeared) whilst the eye picks up the next image. BFI compensates for the eye's natural blur effects by turning off the image in between each 'refresh'.
A demonstration pitched BenQ's £750 24 in FP 241W against an identical model with BFI added. BFI adds a £100 premium to monitors and I noticed a decent increase in sharpness when comparing identical video on the two. The BFI model will be called the FP 241WZ and will be on sale in January 2007.
Downsides to the technology include the screen is made visibly darker (because or extra dark frames being added all the time) and I noticed a slight flickering during the presentation. Even in the picture above you'll notice the BFI version (left) is dimmer than the panel lacking BFI.
The benefits and flickering won't be seen by everyone since every eye is different. Perhaps people with silly eyes will only see flickering and no benefits!
On a side-note Royce Lye, marketing manager for BenQ, told me that the UK may not see BenQ's 1080p projectors, the W10000 and W9000, due to a lack of demand on these shores. Unlike the Germans and the Yanks, when Britons want a cinema experience in their homes, they don't think of buying a projector!
Anti-piracy tips
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has released 10 tips for buying software on auction sites. Some are very valid especially as 49% of the software sold on eBay is illegal, according to IDC.
'1) Trust Your Instincts'
Do like Spiderman does.
'2) Make Sure It’s Authentic'
A good seller will use authentic photos anyway...
'3) Read the Label'
If it doesn't look genuine, then it may not be.
'4) Beware of Back-Ups'
Do'h
'5) Steer Clear of Compilations'
Dance Mix 97 and Now 42 should definitely be avoided – you have to worry when Boyzone and Vengaboys turn up on the same disc.
'6) Get the Seller’s Address, if Possible'
So the BSA can sue the seller!
'7) Keep Receipts'
For a refund.
'8) Be Careful When Crossing the Border'
Free trade is a double edge sword for big software/hardware companies. They hate it but can't grow without it. Also, those Texans WILL shoot you.
'9) Look for a “Trust Mark”'
Tattooed.
'10) Do Your Homework'
Check feedback – like any eBay pro… don't buy from the chap with less than 95 per cent positives.
Queues yet to emerge for Nintendo's Wii
With reports of gamers queuing up as early as Tuesday for a Wii (we challenge you to post a previously unheard Wii-based pun below), the Test Bed headed down to HMV on Oxford Street to find out what all the fuss is about.
Far from Mario mania, HMV was eerily quiet. At the back of the store a Wii is hooked up to HMV's big screen but, aside from a couple of confused punters grappling with the motion controller, there was very little interest.
We'll be popping back a little later this afternoon to see if the situation changes.
Update: The photo above was taken at roughly 3:30pm and, as you can see, there was still no sign of a queue.
AMD chases Intel
AMD has launched four processors manufactured using a 65 nanometre process as part of its frantic chase to catch up Intel.
Intel rolled out CPUs based on a 65 nanometre (a nanometre is one-billionth of a metre) process more than a year ago and is readying 45nm processors for autumn 2007, giving it a substantial lead over AMD in terms of manufacturing costs.
All AMD processors will be manufactured at 65nm by late 2007. For now the only 65nm processors available are the 5000+, 4800+, 4400+ and 4000+. These dual core processors are also available in 90nm versions and pricing for the 65nm AMD Athlon 64 dual-core processors remains the same as their 90nm counterparts.
The new technique means smaller transistors can be drawn closer together and make more processors per silicon wafer, thus reducing costs. The advancement is also essential for AMD to keep increasing the frequency and complexity of future processors.
Separately AMD recently demonstrated its first quad core part, codenamed Barcelona. What 'demonstrated' means is that it showed the processor being capable of booting into Windows. We're still at least half a year away from seeing a quad core part from AMD in the shops.
Unlike Intel's quad core this is a native piece, which means all four cores are made from one bit of silicon (Intel's puts two side-by-side). Intel's quad core uses two separate dies (pieces of silicon) which means it consumes a few more amps.
A load of old codswallop
Being old enough to be irritated by patronising attitudes to old people, and having read enough nonsensical market research over the years to feed a paper-recycling centre, I was doubly infuriated by today's story implying that silver surfers lack the savvy to download.
I have not read the original report, so I have no idea to what extent it has been spun by the PR people and journalists, but there are clearly flaws in the assumption that just because older people don't download as much as the young they are not capable of it.
They don't go out to the movies or buy as many records as much as young people either, but this does not mean they are too daft to walk round the corner. They are simply not so obsessed with chasing the latest entertainment, most of it targeted at adolescents on heat.
Old people were young not so long ago, and they invented the technology that their children and grandchildren are now using, whereas as many of these supposedly tech-savvy downloaders wouldn't know one end of processor from another.
The worse thing about this kind of publicity is that it intimidates old people from using computers. They come from a generation that was led to believe that computers could be understood only by geniuses. This is little short of tragic, because the dispersal of families means they are more isolated than the aged of previous generations, and the internet's potential to link people up cheaply could enhance their lives far more profoundly than being offered yet another way to watch a teen movie.
2006, the year HD and IPTV kicked off
And then there were three.
Sky, NTL and now BT are all vying for your living room like never before. As you can read from our news story, things are hotting up with each providing telephony, broadband internet access, a range of TV channels and an option to use a PVR to record content.
I would suggest a fourth option. The do-it-yourself road; get broadband, buy your own router and PVR, like the Evesham iPlayer (Freeview HD - review online soon!) and plug it all together and then use IPTV providers like TVMax, Real or hold out for Microsoft's offering.
I am sceptical of BT's offering because it's not really that cheap and there are bandwidth issues.
Most people will laugh at me and claim their 8Mbit/sec line is way higher than the 2Mbit/sec minimum Vision needs. But 2Mbit/sec at peak hours is a squeeze due to contention. Add to that the many poor-quality broadband lines in the UK and that you may be downloading on your PC whilst trying to watch TV and real quality issues may arise.
Sky is streets ahead of BT in terms of content too. Rupert Murdoch has a controlling stake in Sky and Twentieth Century Fox, which distributes the Simpsons, Borat and Star Wars to name but a few. Who expects him to cave in to a fledgling service from BT? Besides, BT already dipped its toes into IPTV before (via OpenWorld)… and failed.
Danish broadband penetration
I just got a press release in my inbox saying:
'According to a quantitative analysis conducted by Qmars Safikhani, Danes are less responsive to broadband price decreases than the Germans.
'The analysis based on broadband penetration is measured in the number of subscribers per inhabitant.'
As a Dane, I can sympathise with this; a typical 2Mbit/sec connection costs about £35/month in Denmark alongside the obligatory £55 connection fee. Compare that to your £20/month 8Mbit/sec line in the UK and you're laughing.
But does anyone else give a hoot? The Danes don’t, which is of course the point of the report (probably since we're the happiest people on Earth). It painted a comical picture for me though:
[Large German man]: 'I am very sensitive to the price of my broadband'
[Dane]: 'I'm sorry, what was that about penetration?'
50m USB lead
This £49.99device from Lindy allows you to extend a USB lead up to 50metres – ten times the maximum length of a standard cable.
You plug one half of the Cat5 USB Extender into a USB port and the other into the linked device – a securirty camera, say, or a printer. You can then link the two using standard Ethernet cable. An optional adapter lets you deliver power as well as data over the same cable.
NEC's smallest and brightest projector that isn't
NEC is claiming its new NP range of projectors are the smallest lamp based projectors in the World. They measure 246x72x178 mm, or just over 3 litres.
However, a quick Google search reveals the BenQ CP120 has since February 2006, and continues to be, the World's smallest lamp based projector. It measures 218x172x61 mm which results in a 2.2 litre box.
A recent NEC, press release was full of misleading statements, including: ' NEC UK LAUNCHES WORLD'S BRIGHTEST, SMALLEST LAMP-BASED PROJECTORS'. Yet it is neither the brightest or smallest lamp based projector.
It's important to distinguish between lamp based and LED projectors since the difference in brightness is huge. The lamp based projector from BenQ is 1,500 lumens, with NEC having 1,600 to 3,000 lumen models. Another BenQ projector we recently reviewed has with 3,200 lumens bulb.
Sony rightly owns the title to the World's smallest projector but it is based on LED technology which is dim, only managing a paltry 58 lumens.
When I challenged NEC on the false claims, a spokesperson admitted 'there's been a mistake made' but refused to alter either the website or press release.
Anyone who buys an NP projector would be protected by legislation called 'control of misleading advertisement regulations' and could contact trading standards and stir up trouble.
