GTA IV smashes sales records
GTA IV broke the UK one-day selling records for a game when it launched on Tuesday this week, Chart Track has revealed.
Early estimates say a total of 609,000 copies were sold in the first day, whizzing past the previous record of 501,000, held by GTA: San Andreas in 2004.
Xbox 360 version sold 335,000 while the PS3 version racked up 274,000, both one-day records themselves for their respective consoles.
GTA IV could go on to break many other records, since an analyst at Wedbush Morgan has reportedly predicted 13 million sales worldwide are achievable by the year's end.
I was one of the many punters who queued for the game; but first I had to buy an Xbox 360. My only option was to buy the console bundled with three games because standalone copies of the game were sold out. And once I had added an extra controller, I was £290 out of pocket.
Now, realising my 15 year-old TV can't handle 60Hz Pal (needed by some Xbox360 games), I'm also going to have to buy a new TV. And since buying anything with less than a native 1080p mode and 1:1 pixel mapping (so I can use it as a big PC monitor) seems a waste of cashola, GTA IV is, in essence, going to cost me around £1,000. Great game though.
Posted by Emil Larsen on May 2, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Irony of the skeletons still rattling in Microsoft cupboards
Microsoft simply can't shake off its past. The US Supreme Court has denied a request by the company to drop an anti-trust suit filed by Novell in 1994 alleging anti-competitive behaviour by Microsoft 10 years previously. Curiously, Novell is now under fire for cosying up to Microsoft over reconciling the competing ODF and OpenXML formats.
Whatever the merits or otherwise of this claim, WordPerfect's problems began far earlier. Its glory days were when PCs were largely text based, and its hotkey-based interface became a de facto standard, rather as the classic Word formats are today.
WordPerfect's formats were actually better, in that they were more understandable by non-specialists; and to this day Word has not managed to match its old rival's Reveal Codes feature (though this could easily be implemented with Word 2007's new Open XML formats).
The Word Perfect Office suite was phenomenal, running a personal information manager, spreadsheet, word processor, and macro editor back to back in 640KB of RAM.
That simply could not be done when graphical interfaces came in. Some people still swear by the first pre-Windows graphical version of Word Perfect – version 5.0, as I recall. Personally, I stuck with the text-based version 4.2 because it was far faster. The fact is that PCs (and Macs) of those days did not have the legs to run a graphical interface comfortably.
The first Word Perfect for Windows, which I reviewed, was flaky as well as very sluggish compared with Microsoft Word. There were claims at the time that Microsoft was using secret programming 'hooks' to allow its own applications run faster in the Windows environment.
But even without such chicanery, Microsoft was bound to have had an edge because its applications programmers were, so to speak, working on home territory. And Windows itself eliminated two of WordPerfect's great advantages: the familiarity of its hotkeys, and its vast array of printer drivers. In pre-Windows days, remember, each application needed its own drivers.
So the irony is that any Microsoft skulduggery over WordPerfect would have been pointless. Word would probably have won anyway.
Posted by Clive Akass on March 19, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
PCW on Facebook
Fans of social networking phenomenon Facebook will be happy to learn that Personal Computer World now has its own dedicated Facebook page. You'll find RSS mini-feeds for all our latest news and reviews, plus new announcements and updates, so head on over there and join our fan club!
Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on November 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Build a virtual BMW
At the recently opened BMW Welt showroom in Munich, prospective buyers have been shown a system that uses the latest 3D visualisation systems to help them configure their dream autobahn muncher.
Using a system developed by Realtime Technology, visitors chan choose trim, colour and wheel options on a touch-screen console and see the results in real time on a 3D image of the car projected on a high-resolution 8 megapixel screen by a Sony SXRD 4K projector.
Processing the massive amount of 3D data requires some serious horsepower. RTT's Powerwall system is a clustering solution using 5 Fujitsu Siemens R40 computers each with 16GB of Ram and an Nvidia Quadro FX5600 graphics card.
Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on November 21, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Steganos launches new free encryption product
German software company Steganos has today launched a totally free data encryption utility designed to let you securely store sensitive data. Safe One lets you store files in encrypted 'safe' partitions on a hard disk or USB storage device, such as an iPod. The free version is limited to 2 x 1GB partitions, and you can download it right now from the PCW Downloads site.
Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on November 19, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Windows Home Server 120-day trial now available
Microsoft has in the past couple of days made a 120-day trial version of Windows Home Server (WHS) available via the WHS website. UK users can't download it but can order up to 5 copies of the DVD for a nominal shipping sum of £4.58.
OEM versions of Windows Home Server have been available online in the UK for some time now, and cost around £90.
Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on November 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
When a reinstall could mean you pay twice for the same copy of Windows
It is a fact of life for anyone interested in computers that they become IT troubleshooter for friends, not to mention friends of friends. Nothing wrong with that, except when what seems like a simple job turns into a major hassle – and expecially so when the hassles come from the PC or software vendors or both.
A friend's Dell Dimension, perhaps three years old, had gone on a go-slow and, as it was used mostly for emails and had little software loaded, I offered to do a quick clean reinstall as the easiest way to fix it.
If he had got a Windows XP Home Edition disk with the PC, he had lost it. But I had a copy, and could use the licence number printed on the side of the Dell system box, so there was no question of stealing software if I used it for the reinstall.
Accordingly I reformatted the C-drive and began. There was no problem until I was asked for the licence number, which was promptly rejected. Microsoft told me it was Dell's problem.
Dell told me that the machine might have recovery code in a hidden partition, accessible by clicking Control-F11. This did not work; there was indeed a hidden partition but it appeared to contain only a hardware diagnostics utility.
Dell's support man told me the only alternative was to buy another copy of XP… in effect to pay a second time for the same code.
Dell's support staff in India (of whom, incidentally, I have had good reports) are supposed to be ringing me this evening to take me through the recovery procedure again but I don't hold out much hope. I've already had hours of unnecessary hassle, which appears to be a case of anti-piracy measures acting against the interests of legitimate users.
Posted by Clive Akass on October 15, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Now Tesco sells Halo 3
First Argos was selling Halo 3 early, now Tesco in Chelmsford's guilty, according to my colleague who completed it last night.
The game isn't officially launched until this Wednesday, but Microsoft let Argos off the hook so perhaps Tesco thinks it will get away with it too.
An art designer at PCW completed it on 'Legendary' mode, which took several hours and is apparently awesome. Cooperative mode works too (online play with just two people) but he couldn't access Microsoft's multiplayer servers.
Posted by Emil Larsen on September 24, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Drivesentry living Symantec's dream
It was interesting to see Symantec announce the future of anti-virus software lies in categorising everything that's good on a white list, rather than what's bad.
It's not just that there are more bad things than good, but viruses, spyware and other baddies can be encrypted a thousand different ways or embedded in other files so a signature file can't detect it anymore.
This means the combination of customised malware eluding detection could be limitless, whereas white lists are more manageable.
While Symantec is planning this for the future, Drivesentry is already using this technique now where every application you run is checked against a known good configuration on a white list on Drivesentry's servers.
There's also a traditional black list and finally a community response that pops up every time you encounter an unknown file. By viewing community trends you can make an informed decision on whether the file is good or bad.
For example, a homemade game might not sit on any black or white list but if 2000 people in the community have let it run because they think it's safe and 5 people have blocked it, you'll probably be ok executing it, according to Drivesentry.
Alan Jones, CEO of Drivesentry labelled products like Norton360 "antiquated antivirus products based on methodologies over 10 years old". White lists can better cope with threats that spread like wildfire on the day they are released.
The product works by monitoring all hard disks writes, which also provides an insight into the mysterious writes that constantly occur in Vista. John Safa, chief technical officer, claimed his software also spotted the unprecedented Windows update that occurred without users consent last week.
Drivesentry 3 launches on October 1st in a free guise and a subscription option which gives you full access to the community features. Pricing has yet to be announced.
Posted by Emil Larsen on September 20, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Try out Google Earth's flight simulator
Google has incorporated a hidden flight simulator in the latest version of Google Earth - to try it out, launch Google Earth (the new version that also gives you Google Sky) and press the Ctrl + Windows Key + A keys simultaneously. This brings up an options panel that lets you choose one of two aircraft and your starting point. You navigate using either the mouse or the keyboard arrow keys. It's great fun for a freebie. Full details at the Google Earth user guide site.
Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on September 2, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
The easy way to keep your software patched
Secunia, the software security specialist, has just launched a free downloadable tool that automatically monitors the vulnerability of software installed on your PC. The Personal Software Inspector is based on Secunia's very useful web-based inspection service, which informs you of updates and patches via email. The new tool sits in your system tray and alerts you to critical security updates for installed programs.
It's a simple but handy tool, especially when programs don't themselves alert you to new patches and updates. Direct download links to updates are provided if available. It's currently in beta and is a free download for personal use only.
Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on August 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Google looks to the skies
It's hard to deny how mind-blowing Google Earth can be - I've spent many hours simply flying round the world and getting close up satellite images of random places.
Now Google has launched an add-on to Google Earth that lets you shift your gaze skywards and glide around the millions of stars and galaxies.
As with Google Earth, various layers can be applied to the images. The Backyard Astronomy layer, for example, points out those stars you should be able to see on a clear night - all you have to do is pinpoint your current location using Google Earth first.
Combined with services such as Heavens Above - a site where you input your location and it will provide you with details of visible passing satellites and the like - home astronomy has never been more accessible.
You can't zoom into planets, such as Mars and Venus, and scour their surfaces in the same way as Google Earth, but it's still a fascinating service.
Posted by Will Stapley on August 22, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
ShrinkMyTunes does wobbly magic
A new piece of software promises to cut mp3 file size in quarter without a noticeable hit in quality.
The software's called ShrinkMyTunes and is being sold for £20 by compression experts Zgroup, who also sell Onspeed, the software that compresses websites for faster browsing, in particular across dial-up connections.
Like Onspeed, Zgroup claims ShrinkMyTunes was developed by Nasa scientists. Mp3s are blown up to a large (50MBish) file size before being analysed and certain bits of the music being stripped out.
The resulting file size is reduced to as much as a quarter of the size of the original mp3, letting you store more tracks on an mp3 player like the iPod Shuffle. Additionally any tags the mp3 has remain the same and there's a setting to replace the original mp3 so that Itunes' playlists and the like don't change.
When it came to crunch time though, ShrinkMyTunes faltered. Jamie True, joint CEO for Zgroup, claimed another journalist and I wouldn't be able to hear the difference between a ShrinkMyTunes encoded track and the original mp3.
True was confident because he claimed the editor of a rival publication was unable to tell the two apart, despite using a set of £300 headphones. Using a less expensive, but still seriously good, £80 pair from Bang and Olufsen, both of us could tell which the ShrinkMyTunes track was.
Without a shadow of a doubt the sound is duller and with less treble definition. However, it's quite possible that this type of compression is much better than regular 32Kbit/sec and 64Kbit/sec audio tracks, which are of a similar size to the variable bitrate mp3s produced by ShrinkMyTunes.
Posted by Emil Larsen on July 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Free backup software with a twist
Paragon has created some backup software which is free to use until you need to restore a partition.
This essentially means it's free until something goes wrong on your PC. Customers will be able to get some peace of mind knowing they have a backup though and it's a great way to get hordes of people using it.
I wonder if a similar possibility could arise in the anti-virus market, where a company offers a free product until you get a virus. Then to clear up the infection, you'll have to pay for the full product.
No word on its release date, but Drive Backup Express will be available here if you want to backup you system in one fell, free swoop.
Posted by Emil Larsen on July 24, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Linux on a stick
Fancy a complete Linux-powered computer on a USB key? Look no further than Calao Systems' USB-9260, which uses an Atmel system-on-a-chip incorporating a 190MHz ARM processor. There's 64MB of Ram and 256MB of Flash memory for storage, plus a 10/100 Ethernet port. An advanced version with VGA is also under development. The USB-926 will be available 'soon', but there's no indication of pricing.
[thanks to Linuxdevices via Slashdot]
Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on June 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Windows Home Server gets closer to release
One of the products we're most looking forward to this year, Windows Home Server (WHS), got a step closer to release recently when it entered the release candidate (RC) stage. We're currently installing this on Vitual PC 2007 to see how it looks.
If you want to see how other beta users are getting on, there's now an open Microsoft forum for you to browse through.
WHS is based on Windows Server 2003, and is intended to work as a dedicated home storage server that automatically backs up all your home PCs and allows easy file and media sharing. You can also access it from anywhere via the internet. It's a NAS with knobs on, if you like.
Hardware requirements aren't too onerous, with a minimum spec of a 1GHz Pentium III and 512MB of Ram plus 65GB of hard disk space. Obviously, the more storage you have the better, and one of the good features is that you can keep on adding as many internal or external disks as you wish, since it's not a Raid-based solution. You can set up folder duplication, though, to protect against hard disk failures.
We don't know a firm release date yet, but it's supposed to be sometime during the second half of 2007.
Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on June 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Native Openoffice.org for OS X available
An early alpha version of Openoffice.org for OS X has just been made available for download. As befitting an alpha version, many features don't work, such as printing and copy & paste, but the Mac community will no doubt be happy that progress has finally been made on this port of this popular free office suite.
Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on June 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Goodbye to the Office ribbon
An enterprising bunch, Addintools, has obviously been listening to disgruntled users of Office 2007 and come up with a 'Classic' menu bar replacement for the new 'ribbon bar'. We remember suggesting to MS that this should be an option, but we were ignored..
Read the full story over at the main PCW site.
Posted by on April 11, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morphing software
Ever wondered what you'd look like if you were a woman. Or perhaps an animal, or carrot?
Well now you can, sort of. Using Morpheus Photo Animation Suite you can morph two images together.
It costs £40 and the test images looked fantastic, however in practice, this software gives very poor results.
The morphing software originally gave me two sets of ears, so I lopped off the tiger set (probably the wrong decision).
Posted by Emil Larsen on March 20, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bullguard suite has an advert
Having installed, reviewed and then forgotten about Bullguard's 3GB online backup product in February it has rudely awoken me again.
When you pay for and install Bulldog Backup it offers you a free trial of its anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall products. I chose not to install these free trials, but now they've 'expired' my PC gets a large advert telling me to buy it every time my box boots up.
I eventually got rid of this by uninstalling Backup. In summary this is a great way to put users off a company altogether.
Posted by Emil Larsen on March 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Using a Vista upgrade CD as the full version
We got our hands on a retail copy of Windows Vista Ultimate upgrade and have successfully tested the way you can do a full install with a Vista upgrade key, without owning a previous version of Windows.
This directly violates Microsoft's terms and conditions, so isn't legal, however the end product is a fully licensed and authenticated copy of Vista. Current indications suggest Microsoft has no way of knowing whether or not you used this method to install Vista.
The benefits of this method are twofold. In the UK, where we suffer Microsoft's wrath over pricing, the Vista upgrade packs are 55-68 per cent cheaper than the full versions.
Secondly we've found the upgrade process from Windows XP a dirty affair with programs often given the wrong security permissions so they won't run. Unlike previous Windows upgrades, you can't insert the old Windows CD and enter a valid licence number during the upgrade process of a formatted hard disk. A clean Vista install lets you start afresh.
Although there are many other guides detailing how you do this, many of them use RTM instead of retail copies of Vista and none of them appear to have tested an Ultimate version.
The whole process takes just over an hour and is astonishingly easy to do:
- boot your PC from a Vista upgrade CD
- skip over the step where it asks you to type in your licence key by pressing next
- select 'Clean Install'
- once installed, let your PC boot up Vista
- run 'setup' from the Vista CD from within Vista
- go through the install process again
- this time enter your licence key
- select upgrade, instead of clean install, when prompted
And voila. Vista will then authenticate with Microsoft's servers and you have a clean install of Vista using only an upgrade licence key.
Posted by Emil Larsen on February 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Office 2007 reviewed
We've just posted our Microsoft Office 2007 review. Like the wait for Vista, Office 2007 development seems to have to have gone on forever.
I could do the popular thing and sound the death knell for Microsoft Office by claiming excellent Web 2.0 office software will end its dominance (Google Docs lets you do your work in a web browser and save it online so you can access all your documents and files from any computer) but I won't. Despite valiant advances by OpenOffice, Microsoft Office remains the best (and only) option for most white-collar workers.
The reason I say 'only option' is because of that contentious issue of document formats. Microsoft is using a document format called Office Open XML, which is different from the one used by OpenOffice, and one which Microsoft controls. The main fear remains: a Microsoft Office document won't display correctly in competing products.
So, until Microsoft uses a 100 per cent open document standard, which it won't change willy-nilly and can be viewed as universally as, say, an ASCII .txt file, we'll be tied to the product.
A small feature, one we as journalists really appreciate, is the new running word-count. It counts the whole document or a highlighted section and sits in the status bar. Students will like it too if they're trying to hit a target word count.
Finally the licensing scheme appears to remain the same. I delved into the license agreements for the different versions and found that for retail versions of Office Basic, Professional and Small Business editions:
- "You may install and use one copy of the software on the licensed device."
- "You may install another copy on a portable device for use by the single primary user of the licensed device."
The license agreement is more generous in the "Office Home and Student" edition (since home/student users have got the least to lose going to the free OpenOffice or Google Docs):
"You may install one copy of the software on three licensed devices in your household for use by people who reside there. The software is not licensed for use in any commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating business activities."
For OEM copies, i.e. those bundled with new PCs, all the licenses state the software can only be used on the computer it ships with.
Posted by Emil Larsen on February 16, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Get painting on your UMPC
If you've rushed out and bought a Samsung Q1 or are tempted by our review of the Sony Vaio VGN-UX1, you'll be pleased to hear UMPC-specific software is starting to hit the shelves.
OK, so ArtRage 2 from Ambient Design might not be what everyone's been waiting for, but it's good to see developers taking notice of UMPCs.
This latest version of ArtRage sports larger buttons (so you can use your finger instead of the stylus to navigate), while menus collapse down when you're busy painting so as not to get in your way. What's more, with a single touch of your UMPC's 'enter' button all controls and panels will disappear, leaving you with a glorious blank canvas to work on.
Artrage2 UMPC is available now for $19.95 (approx £10.95) direct from the Ambient Light website.
Posted by Will Stapley on February 15, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Moduslink responds to Vista criticism
Moduslink has denied delays in getting Windows Vista upgrade CDs to customers is its fault, instead claiming computer manufacturers are responsible for the 4-8 week delivery time.
I asked Moduslink why eligible Vista express upgrade customers haven't been receiving their CDs and Christine Pothier, marketing and communications manager for Moduslink said: "There seems to be some confusion in the market as to the delivery date.
"We are sending out the product; the delivery time frame is 4-8 weeks - that was a timeframe set by the individual OEMs [original equipment manufacturers]. Our customers should receive the product 4-8 weeks after the general date [Vista launch date]."
When asked about customers being charged multiple times Pothier said "we don't charge any monies until the product ships to the customer" and she said that taking credit card details was just a "reservation" until shipment.
So in a nutshell, Moduslink claims to be not charging customers until 4-8 weeks after January 30th, the Vista launch day, which should mean the very first express upgrade customers should start getting their Vista CDs between February 27th and March 27th.
On the issue of customers being charged multiple times Pothier said "there's nothing wrong with the system; the system is fine" and she went on to say: "What we have seen in some instances that if customers use the wrong address, different from what's held by the bank, then the authorisation process will fail."
When asked why the Moduslink telephone line went down in the first couple of days Pothier responded: "I don't have any specific information on that going down. We are aware that we have had extremely high volumes of calls following the launch. We regret obviously any delays to customers."
Moduslink denied it was ill-prepared for the launch Pothier said: "The volume is extremely high. The volume itself was anticipated but there were some specifically high spikes."
She went on to say additional support staff have been hired and blamed the high volume of calls on customers ringing up about maters unrelated to the ordering process, but still regarding Windows Vista.
When asked about some customers having their Windows XP certificate of authenticity (COA) rejected by Moduslink's system, Pothier said: "At one point some customers were having a problem. The COA was temporarily locked if there was an interruption in [internet] connectivity - the COA would have been locked before the application process was complete."
However she went on to say "we did make some adjustments there" and that it is not a problem for customers anymore. She agreed that customers should try Moduslink's website again if their COA was rejected.
Customer complaints have been widespread following Moduslink's European telephone lines crashing for more than 24 hours following the Vista launch. Dell and Toshiba also had problems but Dell went on to apologise for the difficulties.
Update 8/03/07: Microsoft has apologised for the delays customers have been experiencing over this fiasco. In an interview with PCW Microsoft wouldn't say if Moduslink had done a good or bad job distributing Vista disks. It is also happy about the fees retailers are charging for the 'free' upgrade.
Posted by Emil Larsen on February 15, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (293) | TrackBack
Symantec to rate websites
Symantec visited PCW today and told me about its new security product, Norton 360, and its plans to rank websites according to how trustworthy they are – a completely different angle to anti-phishing.
Any website can be rated by Symantec's software and this ranking will happen in two ways:
1) data from official bodies that oversea selling complaints, for example Trading Standards in the UK and the Better business bureau in the USA, will be collected for ranking websites
2) a community rating will be given to websites, where all Symantec users can give their opinion on websites
This feature will be a part of the next Norton Internet Security version and Norton 360.
Norton 360 includes everything in Norton Internet Security 2007 (NIS2007) but adds PC Tune-up, which does basic defragging and cleans up temporary files, and Back & Restore software, which provides 2GB of online storage and scheduling for backing up files and folders to external devices etc.
The new security suite will arrive in March priced £59.99, £10 more than NIS2007, and like NIS2007, Norton 360 comes with three licences so it can be legitimately installed on three different PCs for 12 months, a really positive step in my opinion.
Symantec is also currently trailing heuristic malware detection (finding spyware and adware based on traits rather than a signature which takes longer to develop a response to), which will be an enabled in NIS2007 via a live update soon (and come with Norton 360).
NIS2007 users are currently guinea pigs in this trial, with their computers logging and uploading data about suspected malware to Symantec's servers to help Symantec develop the software.
On a separate note I asked Tom Powledge, a senior director at Symantec, why Norton Internet Security 2007 slows down Windows XP boot-up times so much.
Powledge said Symantec's own findings were that it is quicker than the average for most anti-virus solutions during boot up but admitted its testing is based on fresh installs of the operating system.
Symantec claims it takes 33 seconds to boot into Windows XP on a Pentium 4 system, however in our NIS2007 review we recorded a time of 2 mins 23 secs to boot up on a Pentium 4 system with an old install of XP with several programs already on the hard disk.
Posted by Emil Larsen on February 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dell Vista CDs not shipping until late February
Dell has said it won't be sending out Vista upgrade CDs until late February. The delay will affect customers who bought 'Vista capable' Dell PCs with Windows XP installed after October 26th 2006.
The news comes after a series of failures, previously reported by PCW, owing to a massive uptake of the Vista upgrade CD which saw Moduslink, who handles most manufacturers' Vista upgrades, telephone line go down and Dell and Toshiba's websites halt for more than 24 hours.
In a statement to PCW Dell said it "expects to begin shipping the upgrade in the latter part of February. The upgrade availability for some systems like the XPS 710 and 710 H2C will take longer. We're still validating some drivers for high-end graphics cards and gaming peripherals, and still testing compatibility with some gaming software.
"[Dell will] focus on shipping orders based on when they are processed. If customers are not sure whether their order was processed, we suggest they visit www.dellvistaupgrade.com and click on Order Status. If their order was not processed, they should return to the home page at www.dellvistaupgrade.com and resubmit the order."
A disgruntled PCW reader first gave an indication of delays when he was told by Dell that it wouldn't begin shipping the Vista CDs until 'late February'.
Dell apologised on its blog and said it will extend the period for cashing in the Vista Express Upgrade voucher until March 31st instead of the 15th.
We have been unable to get a comment from Moduslink about the similar problems it has been suffering.
Update 15/02/07: We've published Moduslink's response, denying that delays are its fault, here.
Update 8/03/07: Microsoft has apologised for the delays customers have been experiencing over this fiasco. In an interview with PCW Microsoft wouldn't say if Moduslink had done a good or bad job distributing Vista disks. It is also happy about the fees retailers are charging for the 'free' upgrade.
Posted by Emil Larsen on February 8, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack
Steve Jobs: DRM is Europe's fault
In a lengthy article posted on the Apple website, Steve Jobs has posted his "Thoughts on Music", much of which is a rant against the evil European music companies that he says have forced Apple's iTunes to implement DRM on digital music downloads.
"Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries. Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free. For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company. Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly."
Well, glad to see that's been cleared up then.
Posted by on February 7, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Apple gets more out of Vista
Apple is telling Windows users to put off upgrading to Vista until it has a compatible version of its iTunes software ready, according to the BBC.
Apparently music and video purchased from the online store can fail to play. Other problems supposedly include poor animation and other media, contact and calendar synchronisation problems.
The announcement comes as Bill Gates added fuel to the fire by slating Apple's amusing 'get a Mac' ads. No news is bad news and, like every other Vista story, Gates has given Apple credence by commenting on OS X.
On a side note, type in Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs into Google and you get a fascinating array of articles criticising Jobs for doing so little for charity, despite having a $4bn fortune. As a show-man I'm sure he could stir up hysteria about a charity in the same way he made Apple fan boys go crazy for iPhones... think iCharity.
Posted by Emil Larsen on February 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Vista express upgrade on hold
We've just reported the news that the Vista express upgrade programme has ground to a temporary halt following a massive response.
This is just a drop in the ocean because when we rang up all the big manufacturers we found none of them, apart from PC World, appeared to know anything about the Vista Express Upgrade scheme, repeatedly telling us someone else will call us back.
PC World's succinct answer (surprisingly for their poor customer service record) was marred by them telling us March 17th is the last day customers can cash in their Vista coupon when it is, in fact, March 15th.
Have you had problems getting hold of your Vista express upgrade? Give us your feedback below…
Update 15/02/07: We've published Moduslink's response, denying that delays are its fault, here.
Update 8/03/07: Microsoft has apologised for the delays customers have been experiencing over this fiasco. In an interview with PCW Microsoft wouldn't say if Moduslink had done a good or bad job distributing Vista disks. It is also happy about the fees retailers are charging for the 'free' upgrade.
Posted by Emil Larsen on January 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (221) | TrackBack
6am start as PC World doles out 21 copies of Vista to waiting 'crowd'
Despite Overclockers selling Microsoft Vista for over a week now, I, PCW staff writer, headed on down to Tottenham Court Road at 5:50am to see the first legit copies being sold (since OEMs should really only ship out with new PCs/system integrators).
With Bill Gates still jetting in to the country on a private jet for the official launch party at the British Library, it was here Microsoft execs and PC World staff tried to pull off a Vista launch of their own.
Despite four amusing models (including a strong-man and Marilyn Monroe look-alike) and a lot of hype on the radio, this was a glamour-less affair falling long short of any Apple, Sony or Nintendo launch by a significant margin.
PC World had promised the first 10 people to walk through its doors would get a free copy of Windows Vista Ultimate Edition but at 6:02am there were 21 people in the queue and PC World decided to give everyone a free copy, although there was some confusion when two customers got a full version and the rest only got an upgrade.
Leo Mazur was the first to get his copy. He claimed to have queued since 12:50am and when I asked him why he had been there so long he replied "I didn't have anything better to do."
One of the last people to get a free copy, who worked for Dixons (same company as PC World) according to a Microsoft rep, only had to stand in line for 20 minutes.
The store currently has 31 XP laptops and 12 Vista laptops on sale and Hamish Thompson, director of media relations for PC World, said XP systems will still be sold in its stores for the next six months and the store manager, Nick Stanton, added "there will be some price action them".
Posted by Emil Larsen on January 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
OS X is a rip-off
In response to Apple's excellent ad campaigns to switch Windows users to a Mac I thought I'd look at the price of XP and OS X.
XP Home launched in October 2001 for 179.99. From the start it offered inbuilt CD burning and added free security updates like a firewall and other software like Windows movie maker and (eventually) got it right with tabbed, clean browsing in Internet Explorer 7.
Apple, on the other hand, charged for OS X updates; sure they had new features - DVD playback, better CD/DVD writing capabilities and interface goodies like gui dpi control, but only a minority of people took advantage of v10.3's "fast user switching"...
A look back reveals average UK pricing for new versions of OS X was:
Mar 01, OS X 10.0 = £99
Sep 01, OS X 10.1 = (free)
Aug 02, OS X 10.2 = £84
Oct 03, OS X 10.3 = £84
Apr 05, OS X 10.4 = £89
So, keeping up to date for five years cost Mac addicts a grand total of £356.
Windows XP Home could be had for £164 at launch and all the updates have since been free (although not as many of them, or as thorough).
Overclockers is selling Vista Home Premium OEM (full version) for £73 inc. VAT and if Apple goes and releases another 5 versions of OS X over the next five years, so another £356, then Vista is five times cheaper – in my opinion, a relative bargain!
My point is Microsoft could have charged for Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2 in the same way Apple charges for its yearly updates...
Posted by Emil Larsen on January 29, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (49) | TrackBack
The first DirectX 10 game is…
Supreme Commander if all goes to plan.
Despite speculation that it could be many, many months before we see DirectX 10 games that take advantage of Vista systems with 8800GTS/GTX cards or ATI's upcoming R600, Gas Powered Games' Supreme Commander, a massive real time strategy game, could steal first honours.
The game launches in the third week of February and Greg Jones from THQ told PCW a patch enabling DirectX 10 support (or Shader Model 4.0 for much more detailed pictures) will be a free download "within a month of the game shipping", so mid to late March.
This real time strategy game is claimed to be the spiritual successor to the highly praised Total Annihilation that was released 10 years ago. The software developers are once again led by Chris Taylor but don't have the legal rights to call it Total Annihilation 2.
It looks like an advanced and massive Command and Conquer – with 4 players you could have an astonishing 16,000 units on the battlefield.
Support for multi-display setups, a fine-tuned zooming ability and mathematical ballistics simulation (rather than set paths for missiles and bullets) means a powerful system is a must, even before DirectX 10 support is considered.
Posted by Emil Larsen on January 22, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBack
New Nvidia Vista drivers next week
We've had word from Nvidia suggesting a new and improved Vista driver will be released at the beginning of next week.
Current Nvidia drivers (Forceware 97.46) for Windows Vista are dire, showing a 10-65 per cent performance decrease in computer games.
By launch day the outlook should be a lot rosier since there will be a rush to upgrade computer systems.
Although Vista is extortionately expensive (£219.99 for Vista Home Premium, the one you'll want to get because it has the fancy aero glass interface, DVD playback and media center) users have been waiting for it and manufacturers who don't have good Vista support won't be able to sell as much kit in new Vista systems.
Posted by Emil Larsen on January 19, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Nero will have Blu-ray and HD-DVD playback
Nero could be facing hard times in 2007 since Vista will ship with DVD burning in Home Basic and DVD authoring and playback in Home Premium, providing some of Nero's core features for free.
To counter this Ahead, the parent company of Nero, is emphasizing other features in its Reloaded suite, not just its internationally recognized burning rom. However even Nero's peripheral tricks like UPnP media streaming will be free in various guises in Windows Vista.
For more advanced DVD playback, PowerDVD and WinDVD can be had for £17 and £10 on Amazon, much less than £30.97 price tag Nero asks.
Where Nero might be able to throw a spanner in the works lies is in HD DVD and Blu-ray support.
In Q1 2007 Nero will release a plugin to allow you to watch HD DVD titles and in Q2 another plugin will be released so you can watch Blu-ray titles in Nero.
Currently PowerDVD 7 Ultra is the only software that supports commercial titles on HD DVD or Blu-ray discs and it charges $99 (£51) for the privilege. If Nero can price its plugins attractively it might become famous for something other than CD burning.
If Nero doesn't succeed in doing new things then it can take stock in that it didn't collapse when XP arrived with an inbuilt CD writing feature. Ahead went on to sell 240 million copies of Nero, possibly because XP couldn't write to DVDs.
Windows Vista can write to DVDs so Ahead stockholders will be hoping HD-DVD and Blu-ray succeed – Nero can write to burning both types of blanks.
Patrick Peeters, Nero's manager for EMEA told PCW "we saw a very flat Christmas season" but he thinks 5-6 million customers will upgrade to Nero 7 during and immediately after the launch of Windows Vista since older versions are not Vista compatible.
Posted by Emil Larsen on January 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Free antivirus rivals AVG
Antivir is an anti-virus package that's recently taken the top virus detection spot, despite being a free product.
In Virus Bulletin testing – independent and thorough, repeated every month with the viruses that are out in the wild - it scored higher than Symantec, McAfee, AVG and Panda.
In fact, it took the top two places in the form of rebadged WebWasher and its self-branded Antivir with 99.89 per cent and 99.86 per cent respectively.
In comparison Symantec picked up 99.08 per cent of viruses, AVG 95.25 per cent.
It only uses 3.8Mbytes of Ram, much less than its competitors, and the company's director of business development proudly states this is because 65 per cent of its revenues go into software development and only 35 per cent on everything else like advertising. Most software houses do it the other way round.
After some gentle digging I was told it’s a German family run company with 15m German speaking users and now it's pushing into the English speaking market.
Many people may be confused as to why a free antivirus product can have a higher virus detection rate than Symantec's and McAfee's paid for anti-virus products.
Well, it's 100 per cent family-owned which makes a profit and has zero debt. Perhaps it has a refreshingly different outlook to profit-driven security companies?
Their CEO and founder is described as a modest man who is focussed on technical excellence. Both of his sons are also involved with the company.
Adding to the good guy image, if you buy the paid for version which includes firewall, support and pop3 filter for €20 (£13), Avira (the parent company) donates €5 to a charity.
With the complaints we've had regarding AVG's free version (due to their massive push to get you to buy the full version), this could become "the next AVG".
Posted by Emil Larsen on January 15, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
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.
Posted by Emil Larsen on December 12, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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.
Posted by Emil Larsen on December 7, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Remember that thing called a defragger…
It seems a lifetime ago that I used to worry about defragging my computer.
Back in the days of Windows 95 and 98 I used to defrag my computer religiously, desperately trying to speed it up.
The climate of fear means we've been pushed to worry about spyware and having our identities stolen instead. Today computers are plenty fast and I literally haven't thought of defragging my hard disk in years.
I had a chat with the CEO of Raxco Software, Robert Nolan, this morning who set me straight. Raxco sells a Windows Disk Defragmenter called PerfectDisk. Nolan claims an average computer 'will boot 15-30 seconds faster' if it's been properly defragged.
The defragging software bundled with Windows is limited and PerfectDisk goes further by defragging your hibernate file, page file, NTFS metadata, directories and will finally consolidate all your free space into one lump. This should all result in decent performance gains for computers and we will be following up on the claims.
Posted by Emil Larsen on November 13, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Use IE within Firefox
Our New Media manager Chris Wiles is very enthusiastic about a little utility he's found called IE Tab 1.1.1.4 that allows you to open Microsoft Internet Explorer within a Firefox tab. This allows you to use Internet Explorer without leaving Firefox, and take advantage of the latter's security measures. And it's free. For Chris's review and a download link see here.
Posted by Clive Akass on October 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Onshare launches free file sharing service
UK software developer Zgroup has just launched the public version of Onshare, a free secure peer-to-peer file sharing service. The service consists of a client application on the PC and a secure web service that enables Onshare users to share any type of files over a VPN-like direct connection. Users can choose who they want to share files with via a 'friends' list. Friends get read-only access to files you choose to share with them.
All traffic uses 2048bit encryption and uses a proprietary technique to 'hide' transfers in normal HTTP packets. This means the standard HTTP port 80 can be used to avoid the need to configure firewalls, and it also gets around common methods used by ISPs to control or block P2P traffic. At the moment there's no charge, but Onshare says that a charging system will eventually be put in place, although there will always be a free version. According to a greyed-out advert in the software, unlimited transfers will cost £2 per month.
Secure live chat between friends is also included, and Onshare integrates into Windows' context menus for easy sharing of any files, folders or drives. We'll do a full review when we've played around with it for a while, but so far all we can say is that it's certainly easy to install and use.
Posted by on October 6, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Tesco eschews open standard for rival to Microsoft Office
Office suites tend to get bundled with PCs these days, so it is hard to see what kind of market there will be for one sold off the shelf at Tesco's, even if it does cost only twenty quid. But Graham O'Reilly, of the sales team at Formjet, which has developed the software, is confident that the Tesco Office suite will find a market.
"Microsoft Office is one of the biggest retail software products in the world. People buy it off the shelf, so there is not reason whyt they should not buy another suite," he said.
He agreed that many people felt they had to buy Microsoft's product because it is a de fact standard. The Tesco product will open and close Word and Excel documents, but no non-Microsoft product is going to do this with 100 percent reliability, if only because it would have to match the Microsoft product's feature set down to the last sub-sub-menu item. And of course one reason people buy rival products is because they believe Microsoft forces them to pay for features they don't want.
But the Formjet suite will be largely compatible, O'Reilly said. "Is everybody going to pay £300 or more for the Microsoft product when they can get something that does the same thing for a fraction of the price?"
O'Reilly stresses that the suite is not the same as the Ability Office suite, which Formjet also developed. "But obviously we will