The browner side of Cebit

Despite the headlines, the Green Village only accounts for about 1/50th of Cebit this year, perhaps not even that.

One of its biggest contributors, Fujitsu Siemens, is trumpeting its energy-saving credentials inside, while fuelling a dozen quad bikes outside.

Climate Savers Computing also sits in the Green Village and is recommending 80+ per cent efficient power supplies for PCs and the proper use of Windows’ power management settings.

Big companies like Microsoft, Intel and HP donate cash to Climate Savers and in return its website advises you to buy Microsoft’s, Intel’s and HP’s products. They have to meet various Energy Star targets, but heaps systems not on the list do in some way.

Barbara Grimes from Climate Savers said it would be too costly for manufacturers to calculate their carbon footprint per unit sold, forcing the price up for end users and forcing smaller companies out of the market due to the resources required. Greenpeace, on the other hand, announced yesterday it thinks carbon dioxide is a relevant issue.

If quad biking is too dirty for you then there are game booths, where you can play a bit of Counter-strike or Call of Duty 4, in every other building. Intel has the best one though, with five racing car simulators side-by-side so you can see who is best.

Posted by Emil Larsen on March 6, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Don’t mention the HD DVD!

Aside from a brief Q&A session, HD DVD was strictly off the menu at Toshiba’s annual product tradeshow in Hertfordshire earlier today.

Journalists present were told Toshiba representatives at the show would not be commenting on the company’s decision to drop its HD DVD business, which was formally announced on Tuesday.

During the Q&A session a spokesman denied recent HD DVD player price cuts were an attempt to shift stock before the announcement, insisting they were simply trying to make high definition video affordable.

Indeed, many of the Toshiba representatives appeared just as surprised as we were about the company’s decision. As you can see, the DVD player room at the tradeshow looked very empty with just a few upscaling DVD players on show.

Toshiba says it will continue to support those who have bought HD DVD players (700,000 units have been shifted), but it added that it would cease all HD DVD shipments by the end of March.

Unsurprisingly, Toshiba confirmed there were no plans to manufacture Blu-ray drives, but it did say it was still reviewing its PC drive strategy for HD DVD.

Posted by Will Stapley on February 21, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Needless irritations with Nokia's E51

Despite a T-Mobile store telling me it was an old model and about to be discontinued, I've finally got hold of my Nokia E51 - a phone I previewed last year.

I was impressed with the preproduction model and am equally pleased with the finished article.

There are, however, some annoyances - not least that it comes with preinstalled email accounts for AOL, NTL World and Yahoo installed as default. I wouldn't mind so much if I could actually delete these, but there appears no way to get rid of them.

It's the same story for the internet bookmarks section. Does T-Mobile really think permanent bookmarks such as Download Graphics and Download Themes are going to persuade me to one day pay for this stuff? Infuriatingly, once again, there is no way to delete them, leaving my own bookmarks (the ones I actually want) sitting down at position 11.

Another irritation is that despite a variety of ridiculous ringtones preinstalled, there wasn't a single standard 'ring-ring' tone (i.e. one that doesn't make you look like a complete fool when it goes off on the train). This left me to scour the web looking for a free one - a task that proved harder than you might think. Perhaps T-Mobile hoped I'd buy one using its helpful internet bookmarks...

Despite these grumbles, I am still very impressed with the E51. Despite coming from Nokia's business range it sports a good mix of business and entertainment features and, most importantly for me, will happily keep going for over four days on a single charge if I go easy on it.

Posted by Will Stapley on January 7, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Is the HD DVD Xbox 360 imminent?

With the Consumer Electronics Show just around the corner, the latest rumour is that Bill Gates, who will be making his last CES keynote speech, will announce an HD DVD version of the Xbox 360 console.

The Xbox 360 Elite wasn't released that long ago, but aside from more storage, HDMI and a new black chassis, little had changed from the original version.

An HD DVD update would certainly make sense, but with Sony's PS3-lite shipping with a Blu-ray drive for just £299, Microsoft will have to make sure the addition of HD DVD doesn't push the price up too far.

Posted by Will Stapley on January 2, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

McAfee wants to pay you to read spam

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you actually replied to all the spam and unsolicited emails you received? Well, McAfee is looking for five volunteers to spend 30 days doing just that as part of a 'Super Spam Me' research project.

The challenge is part of an academic study into the potential dangers of responding to those ‘great offers’ which pop up in your inbox from completely unknown sources (usually scammers and cyber crooks). The study aims to highlight the scams and risks web users across the world are exposed to everyday living their lives online.

The five participants will be paid £300 in return for letting a team of academics read all the spam they receive for a month.

If you are interested in taking part, please send an email giving details of your age, gender, occupation, daytime phone number and the average number of hours you spend online to superspam@redconsultancy.com

Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on December 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Twin-tuner PVR for under £50 - while stocks last

Those still using VHS tapes to record TV shows will be interested in Goodman's latest offer.

The company is selling its GHDD1785DVBT PVR, which includes two digital tuners and an 80GB hard drive, for just £49.99. There is, however, a catch - there are only 50 of the half-price PVRs available.

An 80GB hard drive isn't great for a PVR and will only store around 40 hours of TV, but at this price you really can't grumble that much.

Head to the Goodmans site at 10am on Monday morning (10th December) to be in with a chance of buying one at the cut-down price - they'll go on a first come first served basis.

Posted by Will Stapley on December 6, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Should I upgrade to Nokia's N95? Orange doesn't think so

After months of anguish, I finally decided to upgrade to the Nokia N95 - a phone I reviewed back in April.

The only real stumbling block for me is the battery life, but having lived with the power-hungry N70 for a year or so I decided I could cope with having to charge it pretty much every day.

What I wasn't expecting was for Orange, my network operator, to basically tell me not to get the N95. The customer services assistant first asked me why I wanted to upgrade to the N95 specifically - which I though was a little odd - then proceeded to say that Orange has had some "very negative feedback" on the N95, including bad battery life, sat nav that keeps losing its connection and regular application freezes.

Just to be sure, I asked whether Orange was recommending people don't upgrade to the N95, to which the answer was "yes".

I ended up finishing the call without getting my N95 and in a slight daze that Orange is so critical about the flagship phone of the world's biggest mobile manufacturer.

Posted by Will Stapley on September 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Skype crippled by Windows Update and the nature of peer-to-peer

Considering its many millions of users, there's a good chance most of you experienced Skype's two-day blackout at the tail-end of last week.

Skype's own Heartbeat blog explains the problem was linked to the latest Windows Update release, which prompted thousands of restarts and, consequently, a similarly huge number of simultaneous Skype Log-ins.

A self-heal feature of the Skype network failed to rectify the situation, and the internet phone service was left paralysed for approximately two days.

Unlike VoIP clinets, Skype's service is peer-to-peer, with the user directory distributed in much the same way as you might download one of the many legal movies using BitTorrent.

While this allows the Skype service to grow quickly without the need for massive investment in infrastructure, it also leaves it open to the kind of problems experienced last week.

Skype's blog posting continues: "We would like to point out that very few technologies or communications networks today are guaranteed to operate without interruptions".

While this is true, I can't remember the last time my BT line was inactive for more than a couple of hours.

That said, it's difficult to knock something that offers free calls and despite this rather unfortunate affair Skype's massive and loyal fan base is unlikely to be diminished as a result.

Posted by Will Stapley on August 20, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Stream MP3s from your mobile phone to your car's stereo

If your mobile phone doubles up as your MP3 player, a new device called the Venturi Mini lets you wirelessly listen to your tunes while on the road.

Sitting in a standard 12v car cigarette lighter socket, the device hooks up to your mobile phone (providing it's got A2DP Bluetooth) and will then stream the music to your radio via its built-in FM transmitter.

The Venturi Mini also streams calls from your mobile and, using RDS, will display who's calling on your car radio's display.

Other nice touches include a lock to ensure it doesn't spring out of your car's cigarette lighter and audio input for an MP3 player.

Priced at £79.99, the Venturi Mini will hit the shops next month.

Posted by Will Stapley on August 17, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Nokia issues product advisory - 46 million phone batteries affected

Nokia has released a product advisory for its BL-5C battery saying that "in very rare cases the Nokia-branded BL-5C batteries subject to the product advisory could potentially experience overheating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge"

And if you think it's a small problem, think again.

Nokia's press release continues "This advisory applies only to the 46 million batteries manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006" - only 46 million potential problems then.

So how do you know if your phone's battery is affected? First, turn your phone off, remove the battery and check whether it is the BL-5C, then head to Nokia's site where you can see which phones are affected. If your phone is in the list, enter the ID number found at the bottom of the rear of the battery.

Interestingly, the ID check doesn't appear to know whether you've entered a valid ID number - so as long as you enter 26 characters it will assume you've typed in the ID correctly. Since it's incredibly easy to accidentally enter a wrong character, surely Nokia should ensure any entered ID is actually a valid one.

As it stands, if you enter any random 26 characters you'll simply be told your battery is not affected - which is a bit of a concern. As anyone who has installed the likes of Windows Vista or XP will know, the chances of inputting a single wrong character in a 26 character string is pretty high.

Posted by Will Stapley on August 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Endeavour shuttle project on Photosynth

The excellent Photosynth project from Microsoft's Live Labs has just launched a  new collaboration witb NASA to display images of the preparations for the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour.

Photosynth is a unique way of viewing collections of 2D photos in a simulated 3D environmnent. It requires the installation of the free Photosynth viewer application.

Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on August 8, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Apple announces the 'most incredible desktop computer' it's ever made

In typical brash fashion, Apple supremo Steve Jobs described his new iMacs as "the most incredible desktop computer we’ve ever made". Built using "professional-grade" aluminium and glass, Jobs also said the new computers are "highly recyclable".

However, the iMacs run off Core 2 Duo processors (2GHz up to the 2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme) and not, as many had hoped, Intel's newer quad core chips.

Graphics performance will disappoint those interested in playing a few games. The top-of-the-range 24in iMac (£1,459) houses a lethargic ATI Radeon 2600 Pro, while the cheapest 20in version (£799) has to make do with the HD 2400 XT.

No doubt the thought of having to increase the iMac's size and add noiser fans to take care of the extra generated heat made Apple turned its nose up at the much faster HD 2900 XT - considering the relatively small Apple gaming market it's probably not a bad decision.

The new models are also a fair bit cheaper than previous iMacs, but UK consumers are still getting a raw deal. The 20in version costs just $1,199 in the US - that's over £200 cheaper than here in the UK.

Along with the new iMacs, Apple also announced 2008 versions of iLife and iWork, as well as enhancements to its.Mac online service.

We'll be posting a full review of the new iMac imminently...

Posted by Will Stapley on August 8, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

HD-DVD vs Blu-ray - just enjoy it!

DSGi (think Dixons/PC World/Currys) had its Christmas preview event last night in London. As expected, home networking is getting a big push with manufacturers such as Belkin getting their updated Draft-N routers (now with an LCD display) ready for launch in stores by September.

However, I was more than a little surprised to read in the press pack that one of the highlights of the festive season will be consumers being able to 'enjoy' the high-definition format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray.

Quite how anyone is able to enjoy the possibility of splashing out a large amount of money on one format, with the possibility of the other one dominating and, in turn, making their expensive kit redundant is beyond me.

Surely the only way to enjoy the battle is to simply watch from afar, leaving your credit card tucked safely inside your wallet - which is probably something DSGi won't be too happy about.

Posted by Will Stapley on August 1, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Will Cisco regret dropping Linksys brand?

I find it odd Cisco has chosen to ditch the Linksys brand after buying the consumer networking company in 2003.

Whenever someone mentions Cisco to me, I immediately think of servers, corporate networks and difficult certification exams. Linksys, however, sat nicely with the other big-name consumer brands such as Netgear and D-Link.

No doubt Cisco wants people to think industrial-level quality when buying their wireless router for the home, but unless they spend a fortune on marketing I suspect consumers will end up plumping for more recognised home-user brands.

Posted by Will Stapley on July 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Who needs fantasy bombers?

Tactless announcement from Microsoft about a new game for the Xbox 360 games console. Bomberman Live is said to deliver unparalleled excitement in a grid-like arena avoiding opponents and their bombs. Those of us who run the gauntlet of demented suicide cultists on the grid-like London Tube each morning and evening might be forgiven for feeling than we already have excitement enough.

Posted by Clive Akass on July 16, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Artifical Intelligence forces engineers to face the Big Questions

There has been so much happening at PCW Towers over the past couple of days that I have hardly had time to write anything up. But I should mention a wonderful afternoon yesterday at a Royal Academy of Engineering seminar called AI and IT: where engineering and philosophy meet.

The title says it all: engineers talking about philosophy. Of course, science as a whole has never really divorced  the subject - it used to be called "natural philosophy". Darwin, in spite of himself, sent Christianity into a spin; cosmology found itself crashing into theology; but engineering was supposed to be about nuts, bolts, and applied mathematics.

Computing changed all that, and in my humble it has yet to have the impact it deserves on public discourse on the great questions about who and what we are. Darwinism, after a sensational start, took the best part of a century to filter through into the mainstream and then only with the help of brilliant evangelists like Richard Dawkins. I suspect that the implications of computing are similarly too broad and challenging for a single human generation to take in.

Anyway much of the afternoon was about the possibility (ot not) of machine consciousness, and I'll be writing more about it in our next edition.

Posted by Clive Akass on July 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Microsoft caves in and extends Xbox 360 warranty

Faced with increasing numbers of '3 flashing red lights' failures on its Xbox 360 games consoles worldwide, Microsoft today extended the warranty for all Xboxes that fail for this reason to 3 years from the date of purchase. Any that fail for this reason will be repaired free of charge, including shipping costs. This will cost the software giant over $1bn. Ouch.

Even better, anyone who's already out of pocket for any such repairs will be reimbursed by Microsoft.

Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on July 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

iPhone doesn't work as a USB storage device

According to a tip-off we've received here at The Test Bed, it seems that there's a large amount of doubt about whether the iPhone  - due to launch on 29 June, just in case you hadn't heard - will work as a USB2 mass storage device. If not, you won't be able to carry around your data files with you like you can with an iPod. So at least there might be something this wonder-phone can't do...although no doubt the corporate types will be very happy you can't use it to slurp up the contents of the departmental server.

Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on June 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

DPreview bought by Amazon

Popular digital photography website Dpreview has been bought for an undisclosed sum by Amazon. Dpreview was started in 1998 by Phil Askey as a hobby site. It now reportedly has over 7m unique visitors per month. Whoever said black was an unpopular background colour for a website?

Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on May 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Creative dance to the iPod Shuffle? Not Likely! Oh, go on then...

Reading about the Zen Stone, Creative's latest mp3 player (see Clive's blog post), reminded me of an email sent out by Creative when Apple's iPod Shuffle was launched back in January 2005, entitled "Dance to the iPod Shuffle? Not Likely!"

The email basically rubbished Apple's miniature player due to its lack of a screen.

Creative's stance was: "Whether people choose to buy an iPod Shuffle comes down to whether they want control over their music or if they want manufacturers to do that for them.

"In the three years we’ve operated in the flash market we’ve learnt that people want to be in control of their music. Years ago the original MuVo was launched without a screen; it did well at the time but we had to redevelop and offer more as the market evolved."

As it happens, I'd much rather a Zen Stone than a Shuffle. I'm not a fan of iTunes and absolutely detest the way you're tied into using it with an iPod. With Creative's players (and, indeed, most others), it's possible to simply drag and drop tracks direct onto the player or pick from a range of media players to do the job for you.

And disconnect an iPod from your PC/Mac without first seeking permission from iTunes and you'll most likely be requested to format it and reload your music, which is utterly infuriating.

Perhaps most importantly, it's almost half the price of the 1GB Shuffle at £27.99

But to see Creative release a new player without a screen after totally rubbishing Apple's Shuffle is something of a surprise.

Posted by Will Stapley on May 4, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

In Dublin's speedy city...

We've all heard about the Celtic Tiger, and how Ireland has moved from bog to bonanza in two decades, but even the Irish must have been surprised to discover that their capital is the world's fifth speediest city - way ahead of London, which comes twelfth.

Someone has gone round measuring how fast people walk, which is taken to be a measure of how much activity they pack into a day, according to The Times

It seems Singapore is speediest, part of a trend which has seen the East speed up 20 percent since the nineties. Copenhagen is second; Edinburgh, weighed down by sporrans, is twentieth; and Cardiff is 31st.

Personally I would have put in a vote for Calcutta, at least as it was back in the days when it had hand-drawn rickshaws. Its speed had nothing to do the number of activities, and everything to do with these surprisingly large vehicles. The biggest effort for the wretched drivers was in starting and stopping, which they would avoid until absolutely necessary. Even so, reputedly, they worked themselves to an early grave.

There would come a point when the city centre became one vast people jam in which the rickshaws, the rickshaw pullers, and the seething mass of humanity around them, all jogged along in the sub-tropical heat at the same insane pace. No wonder Calcutta built itself an Underground.

The latest figures come from a Professor Richard Wiseman, of the University of Hertfordshire, and appear in his new book Quirkology. No information is given on how the speeds were measured. But Kevin Mills, chief executive of Socket Mobile (see below), had his own theory today on how laid-back Dublin scored so high. "I think someone must have announced that the pubs were about to close," he said.

Posted by Clive Akass on May 2, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Chris Taylor, supreme commander of the Supreme Commander development team, speaks to PCW

We've spent some time speaking to Chris Taylor, the top man at Gas Powered Games and one of the most respected figures in the real time strategy (rts) gaming world, about Supreme Commander, how to get to a position of power inside a computer game company and his future.

Notably, he also told us DirectX 10 would probably be a feature in expansion packs, and not the current game.

In many people's eyes, from the avid gamer to the lay-about, he has the ultimate job; he directs, overseas and storyboards a computer game and although he comes from a technical background, he doesn't think that's the quickest and easiest way to get to his position of power.

So young, creative people might want to read his words and see how you too can 'create games'. By the end of the interview though, one thing was made clear to me. Chris, who can fire off words like a tommy gun, obviously got into his position simply by being a nice guy. It also helps that he's very excited by his work…

Q. After chatting to gamers, and not technical people, we discovered people want to know how you got such an amazing job; perhaps you could give me a little background into how you get into your position in the gaming world.

C.T. I'm an open book; if you know me I'm happy to tell you everything since I first got into the business. I was a teenager and I'd heard about computers through friends and this was back literally in the late 70s.

I got my first computer because I bugged my dad like crazy and he got me the TRS 80 Model 1 with 16k Ram in 1980 and I started programming that and I just loved it and everyone kind of looked at me and said wow you're really, really, really excited about this computer and the concept of playing computer games.

I was 14 years old and I went crazy, literally crazy for computer games and the industry was really, really young so when I got my first job professionally at 21 I think a lot of people - my family and my friends - were a little amazed that I actually found a paying job doing what I love so much.

It's very, very rare for people to have a goal like that and be able to fulfill it. You know, if you told me you want to be an actor in a Hollywood blockbuster movie, I'd be really surprised if you called me up and said there I am, I've done it, because I don't think people can fulfill their dreams quite so quickly, but I did and I started 19 years ago this May. I've been in the business ever since and every year I always go forward a step, somehow, someway.

And here I am 2007, every step incremental, just building, building, building. It was what I was on this earth to do.

Q. I was under the impression you didn't have a hands on role at Gas Powered Games and don't come from a technical background. Is this not true then?

C.T. God no, when I was 14 I got that computer and I started programming basic and basic sucked bad. You couldn't animate anything with any speed. You couldn't do anything quick. Games were never written in basic. So I learned Z80 assembly. Well in those days there wasn't even an assembler. I had this thing where you had to hand code the assembly instructions in actually instruction code.

I was writing games at 14, 15 and 16 but not professionally, just for fun at home and showing my friends and I thought "oh, this is great". But I knew nobody in the commercial video games business - it was very grass-routes. People were making games and putting them on cassette tapes, sticking them in baggies and selling them in very rare, hard to find specialty stores.

I got my first job as a video game programmer when I was 21 years old and I did that until I started my own company and then I was running the business. Then I was the lead designer and I was doing all the legal work. You can only do so many jobs so I had to give up programming. But I like to think I was actually quite good at it up until the day I stopped.

Q. Would you recommend that kids go down the programming route if they want to do what you do? Is it the only way to get your foot in the door?

C.T. Erm, no there's so many easier ways to get your foot in the door. If you’re a good people person, you're smart, you're a good communicator and you're good with planning then go the producer route.

You can get your foot in your door in Q and A, you can get your foot in the door as a junior level designer person or content person of some kind. You don't have to do it through engineering. Engineering is a very complex skill. It would be like saying if you want to become a hospital administrator should you become a surgeon. There are probably easier ways to do it. Running a hospital is less about surgery and more about business.

Q. So that's what you'd say you do now, you administrate?

C.T. Well I certainly did for many years, but now, for the last couple, I've re-architected my world so that I'm now in creative role again, which is what I enjoy the most. I enjoy coming up with new game concepts, new fictional universes, new gameplay mechanics, taking technology and thinking about the market and then coming up with ideas that plug in to that.

So I've returned to my favourite part of what I've done in the last 20 years, which is the creative.

Q. We've been playing Supreme Commander on our magazine and one of the things we've noticed is that it takes a really high powered system to play the game. Is that because you've got Supreme Command with the future in mind? Will it be played for many years?

C.T. Absolutely, one of things you need to have is market differentiation. If you create something that will run on everyone's three year-old computers you will have a hard time differentiating it.

We've created something for the hard core gamers.  So you'll go to your friend's house and you don't have a machine that can run it and you'll be like: "gosh, I think I need to upgrade my machine". You'll upgrade it and you'll have this really sexy powerful game that will exploit the power of your dual-core, your quad-core or your fancy new video card. It will be a game that will last. We've categorically have developed this game to be around for the next 10 years. We did not create this as a little flash-in-the-pan game.

Q. There was talk of a patch coming in late March to enable DirectX 10 functionality; is it still on target?

C.T. Well there's two parts to DX10. There's DX10 compatibility and there's DX10 features.  We're still on track to deliver a fully compatible DX10 version of the game, but what has become the most recent snag is that when you do patches or updates you can't make them very large.

In order to support a DX10 feature you have to provide a lot of content – actual textures and art type content - so your patch size can be quite huge. So we really haven't quite figured out how to deal with that. I think it could mean that any content heavy features we try to do for DX10 will go into an expansion pack, because the medium is delivered on disc.

Q. And that brings me nicely onto my next question: are you working on expansion packs?

C.T. I'm not going to tell you that I'm not. I can't talk about them.

Q. Is this where you're going stay in the future – rts gaming?

C.T. I have a lot of gaming design ideas that are in development right now. They span multiple genres. More than ever I'm excited about exploring other genres but it doesn't mean we're going to stop doing rts. We've got more rts stuff in the pipeline.

As a game designer, Peter Molyneux doesn't stick to one genre. He's certainly a mentor of mine. If you look at directors in Hollywood or novelists, they don't stick to a single genre. I don't know what's happened in the world in the last five years but the question never came up before about being a single genre designer.

Now it's like: "oh, you know you want to break out of your genre now?" I'm quite honestly confused by it. Go to paint, go to the poetry and ask do all artists in the world need to stick to their genre?

Q. Do you ever get together with the other big names in the industry; the other big designers?

C.T. We don't go out of our way to get together, like we don't go to retreats and say lets all going skiing on some mountain and talk into the night; nah that doesn't happen.

But I'm friends with virtually all the designers in the industry. We have a relationship that's almost entirely professional. We see each other at trade shows, we might run into each other at the bar and chit-chat but I don't have game designers over to my house for a bbq.

When I see Sid Meier, when I see Peter Molyneux, when I run into Will Wright, we always have a great laugh. It's always friendly, we always chit-chat. I might shoot them an email, congratulating them on shipping a game but that's the extent of the amount of schmoozing we do together.

PCW. Ok, thanks Chris.

Posted by Emil Larsen on April 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Fujifilm releases S5 Pro firmware update

If you caught our review of Fujifilm's excellent Finepix S5 Pro digital SLR and then rushed out to buy one, you'll be pleased to hear a firmware update has just been released.

Version 1.06 lets you lock additional settings (including Noise Reduction and file tag options) as well as improving on the S5 Pro's barcode scanning capabilities.

Read our Fujifilm Finepix S5 Pro review
Download the firmware update

Posted by Will Stapley on April 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hotmail, why hast thou forsaken me?

Hotmail has, for some reason, taken a sudden dislike to my Pop3 email account.

For the past couple of weeks it's been bouncing mail I try to send to any Hotmail addresses, including my own.

As usual, I got a fairly quick response to my first email to Hotmail customer services. And, as usual, it followed the cringe-worthy Hotmail template reply - "Hi Will, I understand how important it can be to properly receive the messages sent to your account" etc. etc.

I was instructed to email a separate Hotmail department who dealt with bounced messages. This was over two weeks ago and I've had no response. In fact, Hotmail now appear to be blanking me altogether since I'm not getting any response to my follow up emails - perhaps they can't find a suitable template reply for my query.

Of course, the fault could lie with my hosting company, but I've been with them for years and never experienced this sort of problem. And they haven't had any similar complaints from any of their other customers.

Interestingly, the problem appears to have cleared up over the past couple of days. But it's done this before, so I fully expect to have another infuriating email conversation with Hotmail support in the not to distant future - I guess I'd better draw up a few templates of my own.

And after visiting various forums, it looks like I'm not the only one with a Pop3 account that appears to be blacklisted by Hotmail.

Posted by Will Stapley on April 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Freeview at 156mph

Digitimes reports that Taiwanese mobile TV chip specialist Asuka Semiconductor has just announced a new mobile DVB-T (Freeview) tuner called Frigate. This uses diversity antenna techniques to enable uninterrupted reception in cars at speeds of up to 250km/h (156mph). Most ordinary handheld Freeview tuners won't work at motorway speeds or in fast trains.

Posted by on April 3, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Adobe's online store buckles under the pressure of CS3 rush

It would appear Adobe underestimated the excitement the launch of Photoshop CS3 would cause.

Although the homepage works fine, try to access the online Store and it all goes horribly wrong.

Update: The Adobe shop appears to be working now, albeit very slowly

As you'll see in our screenshot, the IE title bar states "Scheduled maintenance" as the reason for the site being down. We can help thinking it odd that Adobe should schedule maintenance on its site on the same day it launches its biggest money-spinner.

Of course, it's all academic. As you'll see in our post below, CS3 won't actually be available to buy until next month - hopefully Adobe will have sorted its site out by then.

Posted by Will Stapley on March 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Commodore aims to recapture gaming market

80's gaming giant Commodore is looking to re-enter the UK market with a range of high-end PCs. Aimed specifically at gamers, the cases are garish to say the least.

Various models were on display at CeBIT, with the top of the range Commodore XX housing a quad-core Intel QX6700 processor (although gamers will probably want to stick to a Core 2 Duo with its superior overclocking opportunities) and two Geforce 8800 cards.

With brands such as Alienware and Chillblast already established in this field, Commodore will no doubt be hoping C64 aficionados owners help drive initial sales.

Pricing is yet to be announced, but you can expect to see them on sale in April.

Posted by Will Stapley on March 16, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

LG's dazzling new display

LG is upping the whiter than white and blacker than black stakes with it's new L1960TR TFT.

Its contrast ratio of 3000:1 is currently the best you're going to get - although we expect similar models from rivals to appear soon - and it's 2ms response is up there with the best of them.

It seems a little odd LG opted for a standard 4:3 aspect ratio. Considering high contrast ratios are best demonstrated when watching movies, we expected it to be a widescreen model. That said, gamers still tend to stick to 4:3 monitors since most titles don't support widescreen.

LG tells us widescreen models will be arriving next month.

We've had a brief demo and the 3000:1 contrast ratio does appear to have a big impact, but we'll reserve final judgement until we're ready to publish our full review.

Pricing sits around the £250 mark and it's available now.

Posted by Will Stapley on March 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

An IT journalist's desk - part I

With the amount of kit that gets sent in to the office each day it's impossible to keep a tidy desk.

To illustrate this, we're taking photos of desks in the PCW office and annotating the interesting and not-so-interesting stuff. I drew the short straw, so my desk is up first...

WILL'S DESK:
Click on the pic to enlarge it

1- No, sadly it's not a tin full of Corel paint, but just a marketing gimmick for the newly released Painter X.

2- A Bluetooth GPS receiver from Keomo, which I really should get round to testing since it's been here for almost 8 months now. However, we did review this Keomo one.

3- Yet another Sims review game through the post this morning. This time it's The Sims 2 Seasons Update - great.

4- A Terratec remote control that perhaps should have been sent back with whatever it came in with.

5- Standard issue PCW Dell PC, although the integrated graphics has been replaced by something Nvidia forgot to pick up.

6- Hercules Blog Webcam. According to the box it's travelling zoom gives the impression of being filmed by a cameraman - make that a drunken cameraman. Review coming soon. Honest.

7- A second, rather shabby looking CTX monitor. Despite being hooked up to my PC, I simply never switch it on, which is odd.

8- You can't see it, but my Pret Hot Salt Beef Wrap exploded and dribbled a cheesy substance into my keyboard today. Thankfully, Cherry visited us yesterday and left a gaggle of replacement keyboards.

9- A free-sample jar of Lloyd Grossman Tomato & Chilli sauce thrown in my face at Victoria station last year - unused.

10- A page for the next issue of the magazine that needs proof-reading and sending back to production - something I'd best sort out this afternoon or I'll be in trouble.

11- Two Blu-ray discs sent to me from TDK as a rather bizarre Valentines gift - shame they couldn't have stretched to an actual Blu-ray drive to use them on.

Posted by Will Stapley on March 2, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Nikon updates its Coolpix snappers

Nikon has given its Coolpix cameras a shake up with the release of no less than six new models.

Top of the list is the Coolpix P5000, a 10megapixel snapper with 3.5x optical zoom. Nikon is also making noise about the P5000's "incredible" 2.5in LCD monitor.

The camera comes with an in-built image stabilisation feature. Although it won't be of huge use when using the 3.5x zoom, it will certainly come in handy if you purchase the 378mm (35mm equivalent) telephoto converter. Nikon says the image stabiliser will also improve movies shot using the P5000.

We're doubtful many will actually need the 10megapixels on offer (or the ISO 3200 setting for that matter), but it's good to see another camera with a face detection feature. You can see Fuji's rival technology in action in our video review of the Fujifilm Finepix F31fd.

The P5000 will be released in March for around £330.

Posted by Will Stapley on February 20, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Microsoft Home Media Server beta could run on your old PC

Microsoft has reached the Beta 2 stage with the Home Media Server product that it announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The idea is to have a box for sharing digital content around the home, and eventually the software will sell with dedicated hardware.

But, judging from a blog from the project's general manager Charles Kindel, the hardware requirements are fairly modest and you could probably adapt an old PC for the purpose - though you may need to upgrade to USB 2.0.

He says he has run it on a 550MHz Pentium III but recommends a processor of roughly the same power as a 1GHz PIII, with at least 512Mb of Ram, 100Mbit Ethernet, minimum 80Gbyte hard disk, and "some sort of cheapo" graphics processor - you won't need a monitor when the machine is set up.

Kindel warns that many motherboards with integrated graphics use system memory so that "if you only have 512MB of RAM you might need to change the BIOS settings to use the minimum amount of system memory."

You also need an internal or external DVD driver and a BIOS that supports booting from a DVDs. 

You may have to wait for the software, though, because Microsoft is currently inviting you to register for notification when the software is available. The link is not yet active but may be by the time you read this.

Posted by Clive Akass on February 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Please help me...my mouse mat is not plugged in!

We frequently get complaints about the cost and standard of support lines. But spare a thought for the poor Help Desk workers who have to answer stupid questions. Those with BT's Home Adviser service may have to cope with people paying £25 for a one-off call (the monthly rate is £9.99), and they can hardly charge that for calling someone an idiot. Anthony Vollmer, head of home IT propositions at BT, has listed some of its quirkiest calls:

Customer: "My mouse mat isn't wired up"
Advisor: "I'm not sure I understand, your mouse mat shouldn't have any wires."
Customer: "Well how does it know where my mouse is? Is it wireless?"

Advisor: "Press any key to continue."
Customer: "I can't find the 'Any' key."

Customer: "I keep getting inappropriate pop-ups on my computer and don't want my wife to think that it's me."
Advisor: "I will remove them for you."
Customer: "How do I get them back when she is not in?"

Customer: "How do I change channel on my monitor?"
Advisor: "Your monitor won't have channels like a TV."
Customer: "But I was watching the internet channel the other day and now I just get the word processing channel."

Advisor: "Can you click on 'My Computer'?"
Customer: "I don't have your computer, just mine."

Customer: "My internet isn't working"
Advisor: "What modem are you using, is everything connected up?"
Customer: "No I haven't taken the computer or the modem out of their boxes yet!"

Posted by Clive Akass on February 1, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Olympus announces crush-proof digicam (plus six other models)

It must be a busy day in the Olympus press office with no less than seven new digicams being announced.

The new range includes two new models in the stylish Mju range, the FE-250 with its whopping 15x optical zoom, and the rugged SP-550 UZ, which is apparently waterproof up to 10m, shock-proof and even crush-proof - something that's simply begging to be given a thorough test.

Here's a brief list of the new models - expect to see full reviews online over the coming weeks.

FE-210, £100 - £7.1megapixel, 3x zoom
FE-230, £150 - 7.1megapixel, 3x zoom
FE-240, £180 - 7.1megapixel, 5x zoom
Mju 760, £200 - 7.1megapixel, 3x zoom
FE-250, £200 - 8megapixel, 3x zoom
Mju 770 SW, £300 - 7.1megapixel, 3x zoom
SP-550 UZ, £375 - 7.1megapixel, 15x zoom

Posted by Will Stapley on January 25, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Deadline day looms for Vista drivers

As Microsoft prepares to unleash Vista to all and sundry on the 30th January, it appears some manufacturers are still struggling to get their Vista drivers ready.

We've already come across two products that won't work with Vista - Lexmark's X2350 all-in-one printer (in fact, a number of Lexmark printers are in a similar situation) and HP's new G4050 scanner.

What's even more frustrating is that there's no indication of when these drivers are likely to be ready.

Lexmark has a release schedule for its Vista drivers, but many models are simply listed as "coming soon".

Meanwhile, HP's driver download site says " If what you were looking for is not listed, then it is not available for downloading from the web in this language", which isn't particularly helpful.

Hopefully all will be sorted by the end of the month, otherwise there could be a fair few disgruntled Vista owners who can't use their old XP peripherals.

Posted by Will Stapley on January 16, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Hitachi ready to roll out 1TB drives

If Western Digital's 500GB hard drive left you wanting more, you'll be pleased to hear Hitachi has just announced two gigantic 1TB drives. Both are due to be launched at CES next week with the Deskstar 7K1000 model expecting to retail for around £205.

You can read more about Hitachi's announcement in our news story. But whether you'd be happy piling 1TB of data into a single drive is another matter. If the drive failed, you could end up with a distressing amount of data loss.

Posted by Will Stapley on January 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by Will Stapley on December 7, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by Clive Akass on December 5, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Digital people to inform deaf train passengers

Train announcements will be accompanied by digital sign-language people in the future.

UEA's 'Applications of Virtual Human Signing' should end up on public displays in train stations across the country within a few years time.

Because deaf children leave school with an average reading age of nine signs and text announcements aren't enough to convey a train's been cancelled or delayed.

Perhaps synthesized signers (digital people) will join the automated voice at stations so rail authorities can deal with angry passengers even less.

On a personal note I also tested the Food Detective at St. John's Innovation Centre.

This £50 package involves an uncomfortable pin prick on the end of a finger and a mad wrestle as you squeeze out enough blood to fill a small vial. The test takes 30 minutes and reveals the 50 most important food intolerances that can lead to migraines, stomach and bowel problems.

This test should have a wide appeal because a lot of people live with food intolerances without ever realising it.

Apparently I'm slightly intolerant to wheat and chocolate, so no chocolate sandwiches for me anymore.

Posted by Emil Larsen on November 10, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Vote in the PCW Awards 2006 and win great prizes!

Voting for the PCW Awards for Excellence 2006 is now open. It's your chance to tell us which companies make the best computing products, whether it's because of the technology, design, support or simply great value for money they offer.

Just follow the link above, follow the instructions and enter your votes to be included in our great prize draw. And to show our appreciation for your input, we've got prizes worth £1,933 up for grabs, including a superb Shuttle XPC G5 8300H PC and monitor bundle, a Tiscali broadband package, 2GB Crucial Gizmo drives, a Crucial Ballistix memory kit and more!

Don't delay - voting closes on 15th December 2006.

(Note: the prize draw is only open to UK & ROI residents - full terms and conditions are available at http://www.pcw.co.uk/awards/tandc)

Posted by on November 3, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Intermittent artefacts prompt concerns over Nvidia's Geforce Go 7950GTX mobile graphics

As you may have already read in our news story, Nvidia has been busy hyping up its new Geforce Go 7950GTX mobile graphics cards.

We've currently got two notebooks housing this graphics card in the PCW Labs (a Rock and an Evesham) and both have been exhibiting some rather concerning artefacts.

As you can see from this screenshot of the Rock Xtreme CTX Pro in action, it's by no means a small problem and if you'd just spent over £1,800 on one you'd presumably be more that a little upset.

Interestingly, the problem seems to be intermittent. The Rock only suffered from them once (cured by a reboot), but the Evesham (which is being tested as we speak) is currently having a field day in terms of displaying rouge squiggly lines.

We suspect the problem is down to the Geforce Go 7950GTX simply being an overclocked version of the 7900GTX. We've asked Nvidia for a comment and are waiting to hear back.

Read the full Rock Xtreme CTX Pro notebook review.

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

ITN News channel joins the Virgin Moble Lobster 700TV

In our review of the Virgin Mobile Lobster 700TV we didn't hide the fact that the limited channel line up was disappointing.

Making a step in the right direction, Virgin Mobile today announced ITN News is to join BBC One, ITV1, E4 and Channel 4.

Like the Channel 4 "Short Cuts" service, ITN News will be specifically made for mobile, providing 24hr rolling news. According to Virgin Mobile, Channel 4 will soon be providing a simulcast to fall in line with the BBC, ITV and E4 channels.

Although it's good to see an extra channel, our concerns over image quality and reception remain. We're also still doubtfull as to whether people actually want TV on their mobile.

Read the full Virgin Mobile Lobster 700TV review.

Posted by Will Stapley on October 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack