Computeractive! Latest updates

Microsoft unveils Office 2010 and takes productivity software online

Dave Bailey — 2009-07-13T14:24:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, Computing, Monday 13 July 2009 at 14:24:00

Office 2010 reduces number of packages, adds new features and provides Office Web applications option

Microsoft has announced that some of its Office applications will be delivered over the internet in the next version of its productivity suite, Office 2010, codenamed Office 14.

Office Web applications, as Microsoft has tagged the online version, will include Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint and Word "with reduced functionality to that experienced by users who have Office installed on their PCs," according to Chris Adams, Microsoft's Office client product manager.

The cut-down online version of Office 2010 will be available to more than 400 million Windows Live account users, as an on-premises version to 90 million Office annuity (volume licensing) customers, and through Microsoft Online Services, which is available to customers who purchase a subscription as part of Microsoft's hosted Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) offering.

A technical engineering preview of Office 2010 will be made available next month – the first time that a large number of enterprise customers and partners will get access to a pre-release version of the software.

Office 2010 and the new Office Web applications will be formally released in the first half of 2010, said Adams.

Microsoft has also cut down the number of packages from eight to five:

For enterprise customers – Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 and Microsoft Office Standard 2010 will only be available via volume licensing, with both including usage rights for on-premises web applications.

For consumers – Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 will be licensed for non-commercial use, along with Microsoft Office Professional 2010 and Microsoft Office Home and Business 2010 for smaller businesses.

New features in Office 2010 will include an image-processing tool and an enhanced cut-and-paste function for Word, a video-processing tool for PowerPoint, and tools to deal with email management in Outlook.

All Office 2010 applications will be delivered in 32- and 64-bit formats, and Office 2010 will be installable on Windows XP with service pack 3, Vista, and the yet-to-be-released Windows 7 operating system.

NHS security blunders put patients at risk

Phil Muncaster — 2009-07-13T13:15:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Monday 13 July 2009 at 13:15:00

New investigation finds over 8,000 viruses infected NHS computers last year

NHS devices in England were infected with more than 8,000 computer viruses last year, 12 of which affected patient care, according to a new investigation by Channel 4's More4 News.

The TV programme wrote to every NHS Trust in England requesting information on successful attacks, and had responses from 75 per cent. The results suggest that IT networks in these organisations are not being properly managed, and are putting patient care at risk in some cases.

Several trusts told More4 News that their networks had been attacked because anti-virus protection had been turned off or not properly applied, while in other cases staff had actually turned off automatic Windows updates.

Around 800 PCs in Sheffield were infected after one computer in an operating theatre had its anti-virus software switched off, More4 News said. And on 18 November last year, the Mytob worm overloaded systems at Barts, the Royal London and the London Chest Hospital, affecting access to blood tests, X-rays and patient administration.

The NHS told More4 News that the new records system being implemented will have better levels of security than is currently the case at many local trusts.

"Electronic patient records systems are protected by the highest levels of access controls and other security measures," said the NHS in a statement. " These levels of security are far higher than any which can be imposed on access to paper records or the majority of local NHS IT solutions."

Rosetta Stone sues Google over trademark violation

Angelica Mari — 2009-07-13T10:21:00.000Z

Angelica Mari, Computing, Monday 13 July 2009 at 10:21:00

Software firm claims AdWords policies are misleading potential clients

Software firm Rosetta Stone is suing Google for selling the right to use its trademark to third parties under the search firm's AdWords advertising programme.

The trademark violation suit was filed on Friday and concerns the use of terms such as "global traveller", "dynamic immersion", and "adaptive recall", which the company claims to have registered.

The filing also states that "many of Google's sponsored links draw people away from Rosetta Stone web sites".

"Google's search engine is helping third parties mislead consumers and misappropriate Rosetta Stone trademarks by using them as 'keyword' triggers for paid advertisements and by using them within the text or title of paid advertisements," said Michael Wu, Rosetta Stone's general counsel.

In a similar case in the UK, flower delivery firm Interflora decided to sue Marks & Spencer and online florist Flowers Direct last year, over the use of its brand name and sponsorship of misspelled occurrences of its name on AdWords to lure customers to their web sites.

Commenting on the Interflora row, Alex Weston, a specialist IT and intellectual property lawyer at Langleys Solicitors, said that while trademark owners should be alert to how their brand is being used, prospective keyword buyers should also tread carefully.

“Until the European Court of Justice makes its ruling, trademark owners should regularly monitor use of their trademarks to see if competitors are using their trademarks as sponsored links,” said Weston.

“If trademarks are being used as sponsored links then, in my experience, a solicitor's letter to the competitor will usually result in the sponsored link being removed. It can also be possible, in certain circumstances, to make a complaint to Google or other search engine operators,” he said.

“If you are considering purchasing a competitor's trademarks as a sponsored link then I would advise you to proceed with caution and to ensure that you do not use the registered trademark in the sponsored link – either in the hyperlink or in the text.”

118800 mobile number directory crashes

Phil Muncaster — 2009-07-12T12:51:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Sunday 12 July 2009 at 12:51:00

Controversial service overwhelmed by users rushing to go ex-directory

The controversial 118800.co.uk mobile phone directory service has crashed, after thousands of users flocked online to remove their numbers from the site, according to reports.

The site, which launched last month, now displays a holding page which reads: "Service suspended while we make improvements."

The firm obtained up to 16 million mobile numbers from market research firms and online businesses that require customers to leave their contact details, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Although it does not hand out phone numbers to those who pay to use the service, it will connect a caller to the person they are looking for, leading some campaigners to complain that it is an invasion of privacy.

However, UK data protection watchdog the Information Commissioner's office (ICO) has given a green light to the service, which includes a simple ex-directory opt out on the web site. Connectivity, the company behind the service, said that it only bought customer information which was already in the public domain.

The Twittersphere has been awash with posts from angry users who are unable to get on the site to make themselves ex-directory, some calling for either Ofcom or the ICO to reappraise the fairness of the service.

The message currently displayed on the site says that it is undergoing major developments and will be "back as soon as possible with the new improved service ".

"All ex-directory requests made by people in our directory to date are being processed," it adds. "There will be no need to resend these requests. And we will take further ex-directory requests when the service resumes. We will not be taking ex-directory requests by phone or text whilst the service is not operational."

Ofcom consumer panel raises concerns over 'broadband tax'

Dinah Greek — 2009-07-10T16:08:00.000Z

Dinah Greek, Computeractive, Friday 10 July 2009 at 16:08:00

Care has to be taken to ensure the vulnerable and people on low income are not adversely affected says Ofcom

The Government must carefully assess the impact that the proposed broadband levy may have on people on low incomes, warned the head of Ofcom’s Communications Consumer Panel (CCP).

Anna Bradley said the Panel had already heard rumblings of discontent from consumers about the proposed charge and believed that, to avoid paying, some people may disconnect their landline phone.

Speaking at the Westminster Media Forum yesterday, Ms Bradley voiced her concerns about how well the levy had been thought out. She told Computeractive that: “We haven’t seen the Government’s assessment of this yet and want to examine it to understand how it reaches its figures.

"It may be the only way to raise the funds but there could be other means, so it has to be carefully investigated; especially with the current economic problems. Some people may be badly affected by such a charge; even though it is a small amount.”

The charge Ms Bradley was talking about was proposed in last month’s Digital Britain report headed by Stephen Carter. In the report Lord Carter suggested a £6 per year ‘tax’ on the phone lines to people’s homes.

The aim is to start a fund that would help pay for the infrastructure necessary to deliver next-generation broadband to areas of the country internet service providers (ISPs) feel are commercially unviable.

The report said it could raise about £150- £175m per year, for the Independent Next Generation Fund. This will be administered by Ofcom, the telecommunications regulator and operators could bid for to roll out super-fast broadband - with speeds of up to 100Mbits/sec.

Ms Bradley said that the CCP would be looking carefully at the proposal over the coming months.

Government replies to EU legal challenge on Phorm

Tom Young — 2009-07-10T10:44:00.000Z

Tom Young, Computing, Friday 10 July 2009 at 10:44:00

Two ISPs have abandoned the technology since the EU's move

The government has replied to a legal challenge from the European Commission (EC) over the online advertising technology Phorm.

Phorm provides a model that allows advertising to be targeted at users online.

In April, the EC told the UK to ensure there were procedures in place to ensure clear consent from the user for his or her private data to be used in this way.

"Technologies such as internet behavioural advertising can be useful for businesses and consumers, but they must be used in a way that complies with EU rules," EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding said at the time.

Two ISPs – BT and TalkTalk – have since dropped plans to use Phorm.

Although the government did not disclose the text of its response to the EC, David Hanson, a junior minister in the Home Office, wrote to Parliament this week.

"The Home Office expressed an informal view about targeted online advertising and RIPA [Regulatory of Investigatory Powers Act] in response to a number of requests. That note concludes that targeted online advertising systems might be lawful if consent was expressed appropriately," he wrote.

The Information Commissioner has said that the technology does not infringe privacy as long as consent is given on the basis of an opt-in system – which means that people must agree to use it.

The EC is now considering the government's reply.

The European Union Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications requires member states to ensure the confidentiality of communications and related traffic data. States must, it says, prohibit interception and surveillance unless the users concerned have given their consent.

EU calls for consumer-friendly approach to file sharing

Rosalie Marshall — 2009-07-10T16:12:00.000Z

Rosalie Marshall, V3.co.uk, Friday 10 July 2009 at 16:12:00

EU Commissioner says regulation of internet content requires fresh thinking

EU Commissioner for Telecoms and Media Viviane Reding has called on governments to be pragmatic and innovative in their approach to regulating internet content and piracy.

While the digital economy has the potential to help reverse the current economic downturn, this will only happen if Europe’s next generation feels included in the strategy and remains interested in the internet, said Reding.

The warning came during her Ludwig Erhard Lecture at the Lisbon Council in Brussels yesterday, where she outlined what she called The Digital Europe Strategy.

“Europe will need to create the right framework for ensuring effective competition and sound regulatory conditions in a well-functioning single market as well as incentives for innovation,” said Reding.

“We also need to make sure that in the end, consumers benefit from the digital economy. This is particularly important if we want to convince the digital natives to become the drivers of our digital economy,” she added.

Reding set out the need for a progressive approach to internet piracy.

“My first and most important priority for Digital Europe is to make it easier and more attractive to access digital content, wherever produced in Europe,” Reding said.

“In my view, growing internet piracy is a vote of no-confidence in existing business models and legal solutions. It should be a wake-up call for policy makers,” she added.

The issue has been hotly debated in the European Union in recent months.

The French tried to introduce a 'three strikes' measure that would kick file sharers and illegal downloaders off the internet for up to a year if they were third-time offenders, but the policy was aborted after the French Constitutional Council ruled against the legislation.

Meanwhile, last month’s Digital Britain report in the UK outlined plans to reduce illegal downloads by 80 per cent over the next two years by giving new powers to Ofcom that enable the body to work with internet service providers (ISPs) to target individuals sharing files with peers, and send them written warnings or help copyright holders take legal action.

The debate in Europe has been extremely polarised, with rights holders insisting every unauthorised download from the internet is a violation of intellectual property rights and therefore illegal, and others stressing that access to the internet should be viewed as a fundamental human right.

When Europe tried to reach a final conclusion on the matter in early May, the European Parliament voted against individuals' access to the internet being restricted.

Because the Parliament did not agree with the Council, the proposals recently entered the EU's conciliation procedure whereby the two bodies try to reach a compromise.

”I call on both sides of this debate to come to a very swift agreement,” said Reding in her speech.

Reding also called for a modern set of European rules that encourage the digitisation of books and the end of the ideological debate about Google Books.

“I do understand the fears of many publishers and libraries facing the market power of Google,” Reding said.

“But I also share the frustrations of many internet companies that would like to offer interesting business models in this field, but cannot do so because of the fragmented regulatory system in Europe,” she added.

“Let us be very clear: if we do not reform our European copyright rules on orphan works and libraries swiftly, digitisation and the development of attractive content offers will not take place in Europe, but on the other side of the Atlantic."

French Revolution execution records go online

Dinah Greek — 2009-07-10T14:16:00.000Z

Dinah Greek, Computeractive, Friday 10 July 2009 at 14:16:00

Now you can seek them here, with the help of Ancestry

Records providing a harrowing insight into the executions carried out during the French Revolution have been put online by Ancestry.co.uk.

The genealogy website said the French Deaths by Guillotine, 1792-1796 will be of particular interest to the British descendants of the 32,000 French citizens who fled to Britain during that period; colloquially known as The Reign of Terror.

The list of more than 13,000 people not only includes the names of individuals sent to the guillotine but also those condemned to be executed by hanging, firing squad and even drowning; including their occupation, age, residence of the victim and the date of the execution.

Olivier Van Caster, Ancestry.co.uk’s managing director said: “The French Revolution was a brutal and gruesome period of history, with repercussions that were felt both in France and across the world socially, culturally and politically.

“The collection will be of huge interest to the six million Brits with French ancestry, who may be able to trace a severed link to an aristocrat or a revolutionary.”

Although between 20,000 and 40,000 ‘enemies of the revolution’ were executed between 1793 and 1794 alone, Ancestry’s details have been taken from a six-volume work – the ‘Dictionary of individuals condemned to die during the Revolution’.

This detailed record was compiled in 1796 by French journalist and newspaper publisher Louis-Marie Prudhomme; who, despite his outspoken views and imprisonment, managed to avoid the guillotine.

Included in the records are key characters from this period of violence that occurred for 50 months from the start of the French Revolution, such as King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Maximilien Robespierre.

WPanorama 9.4.1

Chris Wiles — 2009-07-13T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Monday 13 July 2009 at 00:00:00

Turn photos in to panoramic images

Most of us own a digital camera, but the majority of us use it in exactly the same manner as our old SLR cameras.

We ask our family to stand by a local structure and then take a picture of them in front of the object. We get home, put them up on our homepage, and we all see the same photos that everyone else has taken.

Our digital cameras enable us to take many photos without us requiring a new film roll after only 36 photos, so why not make better use of your camera?

WPanorama is a tool that will enable you to create a 360 degree panorama image from your digital photos. For instance, if you're standing in a middle of a room, use your digital camera to take shots of each section of the internal room and then use WPanorama to stitch these photos together to create one panoramic image.

Once you're happy with your panorama, you can choose to export as an AVI movie, which you could place on your homepage and enable friends and family to be part of your holiday experience.

Fresh UI 8.36

Chris Wiles — 2009-07-13T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Monday 13 July 2009 at 00:00:00

Optimise and tweak Windows

There are many options in Windows that are hidden and unavailable to the average user. Unless you know what you're doing, and are prepared to manually edit your Registry (not advised!), you'll never find the majority of these options.

Tweak UI is a simple application designed to get the most from Windows. The majority of the hidden options are included, along with many of the 'hard to find' options, such as the facility to turn off internal disc burning within Windows, or the autoplay option so CDs do not autoplay when you insert them in your computer.

This tool has been around for a long time so is tried and tested and safe to install, although it requires free registration.

EssentialPIM Free 3.04

Chris Wiles — 2009-07-13T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Monday 13 July 2009 at 00:00:00

Personal information & task manager

EssentialPIM is a free and multilingual personal information manager which includes three components: a calendar, note taker and contact manager.

It has a very usable interface, with things kept simple but extremely functional. This results in a small file size, and the use of few system resources.

The Calendar comes with day, week, month and year views, reminders and repeat options. The Notes component includes all the usual formatting options (bold, italics etc) along with the ability to insert images or tables.

Finally, the Contacts element lets you store work and personal details for individuals, along with IM details, images and birthdays.

If you're an Outlook or Outlook Express user, you can import existing data directly into EssentialPIM. Data can also be exported in HTML, RT, CSV and TXT formats.

Multiple databases can be created, so you can have separate PIMs for work and home, or for each family member. For security, each database can be password-protected and encrypted.

This release of EssentialPIM and now enables you to synchronise your calendar with Windows Mobile 5.x and smartphones, two-way Google synchronisation, a sticky notes option to post your 'to do' notes to your desktop and many other improvements and fixes.

EssentialPIM Free Portable 3.04

Chris Wiles — 2009-07-13T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, vnunet.com, Monday 13 July 2009 at 00:00:00

Take your diary & contacts on the road

Back in the 80s business people carried around a huge Filofax full of information. It stored their diary, ‘to do’ list, business cards and contact information. The thicker and more well used the Filofax, the more important you were perceived to be, to other people. People still carry around a diary or contact list, but they are not normally used for note taking and are not as prominent as they used to be, in the past.

The problem these days is that our contacts have all sorts of contact detail – multiple email addresses, ever-changing mobile phone numbers and so on. It would be far easier keeping this information on a dynamic device, such as your computer, mobile phone or PDA.

EssentialPIM Portable Edition is a version of the fantastic PIM that will enable you to take your data on the road. You can store all your ‘to do’ lists, track your calendar, store important notes and keep contacts within one user-interface. It works alongside Outlook and other PIMs too, so if you use this on your desktop computer, you can still transfer and import your contact information within EssentialPIM, when you want to go on the road.

If you store EssentialPIM Portable on an external USB key, any information you save back to the application is stored on the USB key, so nothing will be left on the host desktop computer. This means you can take your USB key with you, safe in the knowledge that your personal information is kept personal.

Note that there is a Pro and Free version of EssentialPIM Portable. The download here is for the free version which is feature-limited. For instance, the free version has no Outlook import option, no multi-user access, no contact groups and more.

Opera 10 Preview for Mac build 6550

Lee Collins — 2009-07-11T15:14:00.000Z

Lee Collins, vnunet.com, Saturday 11 July 2009 at 15:14:00

Take a look at the future of this web browser

Opera is a popular browser with some of the best support for standards. Opera 10 promises even faster web surfing, built in spell checker and HTML emails.

The faster web browsing is thanks to a new rendering engine, this is the software used to create the web pages. It also claims to support web standards properly including the Acid3 test (click the link to see how your current browser fares).

Acid3 is an extreme test, a more visible effect will be the support for web fonts. Most browsers can only use the fonts installed on the computer. Web designers often give the browser a list of fonts. The font they would actually liked used, a similar but more common font and then let the browser choose its own serif or san serif font. Web fonts let the browser load the font from a website.

Auto-update is one improvement we are pleased to see as it is a simpler process than having to download a installer.

Note that this is Mac OS X version of the first public beta preview of Opera 10 and more information can be found from Opera Next, which is information about the new browser.

VirtualBox for Mac 3.0.2

Lee Collins — 2009-07-11T12:00:00.000Z

Lee Collins, vnunet.com, Saturday 11 July 2009 at 12:00:00

Host a virtual operating system

This is the software publisher's description.

Powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). See "About VirtualBox" for an introduction; see "innotek" for more about our company.

Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and OpenBSD.

VirtualBox is being actively developed with frequent releases and has an ever growing list of features, supported guest operating systems and platforms it runs on. VirtualBox is a community effort backed by a dedicated company: everyone is encouraged to contribute while innotek ensures the product always meets professional quality criteria.

On the VirtualBox site, you can find sources, binaries, documentation and other resources for VirtualBox.

Version 3.0 ships with major enhancements such as support for up to 32 CPUs per virtual guest OS, the ability to use DirectX 9 within a Windows guest, support for Windows 7 and much more.

Opera 10 Preview build 1631

Tim Smith — 2009-07-11T11:54:00.000Z

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Saturday 11 July 2009 at 11:54:00

Take a look at the future of this web browser

Opera is a popular browser with some of the best support for standards. Opera 10 promises even faster web surfing, built in spell checker and HTML emails.

Auto-update is one improvement we are pleased to see as it is a simpler process than having to download a installer.

Note that this is the first public beta preview of Opera 10 and more information can be found from Opera Next, which is information about the new browser.

Hannspree Hannsnote SN10e1

Anthony Dhanendran — 2009-07-09T09:00:00.000Z

Anthony Dhanendran, Computeractive, Thursday 9 July 2009 at 09:00:00

Monitor maker turns to mini-notebooks

Hannspree is a name better known in the world of monitors than notebook computers. In the past it has come up with some rather strange designs for its screens, too, including ones in the shape of elephants and footballs (designed for children’s bedrooms, naturally) and a memorable model that came with wood veneer panelling.

So it was disappointing to find that the company’s first mini-notebook computer doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary. The model we looked at used a plain white casing and didn’t distinguish itself in any way from the pack.

In fact, the Hannspree Hannsnote SN10e1 is actually an MSI Wind with different logos and labels pasted on to its case. That’s not uncommon – other computer makers such as Medion and Advent have also used the MSI Wind as a template for their own mini-notebooks, and it is a good starting point in many ways.

So the SN10e1 has an Intel Atom N270 processor at its core, with 1GB of memory and Windows XP home loaded onto the 160GB hard disk. The processor and memory were powerful enough for standard tasks such as web browsing, email and word processing, without being able to deal with video editing or big-name games.

The hard disk has plenty of room for storage of documents, music and videos, though.

The Hannsnote’s keyboard stretches across the entire width of the notebook’s interior, which is good, but the keys still felt smaller when we were typing than they did on, say, the Samsung N310.

As with many such computers it’s a shallow keyboard so if you type hard it’s going to be uncomfortable after a while. The trackpad is also very small, as are the mouse buttons below it, making it hard to use.

In addition to being able to connect to wireless networks, the SN10e1 has a socket for wired networks on one side. There’s also a VGA socket for monitor connection, headphone and microphone sockets and three USB ports, as well as a memory card reader.

As is the case with all mini-notebook computers, it doesn’t have enough room for a CD or DVD drive, so you’ll need to add an external one if you want access to such discs (in this day and age that’s less of a problem, though).

One of the big gripes we and others had with the MSI Wind and almost all the computers based upon it was the computer’s battery life, which was less than three hours in most cases. That’s not quite enough for such a computer, which is after all designed for travellers, so it’s disappointing to see that Hannspree has not included a larger-capacity battery with the Hannsnote.

It’s the same one as in the original MSI Wind U100, which gave a battery life of approximately three hours, a slight but not substantial improvement.

The Hannspree Hannsnote SN10e1 is not a bad computer as mini-notebooks go – it worked well and does its job. But it’s a shame that Hannspree didn’t take the opportunity to improve upon the MSI Wind, rather than just replicating it.

At £260 it’s a decent deal at the moment, so if you’re looking for an entry-level mini-notebook the Hannsnote SN10e1 should be on the list.

Nikon D5000

Tom Royal — 2009-07-08T09:00:00.000Z

Tom Royal, Computeractive, Wednesday 8 July 2009 at 09:00:00

Nikon’s cheapest SLR that can shoot high-definition video

We're a little surprised that Nikon's latest digital SLR wasn't called the D75, as it sits directly between the cheaper D60 and the more advanced D90. Its small body and kit lens are very similar to the cheaper model but, like the D90, it takes 12.3-megapixel images and can record high-definition videos.

As a still camera, the D5000 is easily as good as the D60 if not quite up to the standard of the D90. Although it includes the usual control modes found on any digital SLR, it's also packed full of scene modes that allow the user to select what they're photographing and leave the rest to the camera's electronics.

There are so many scene modes, in fact, that they won't all fit on the control dial, so others have to be chosen from a menu. The scenes range from the strangely technical (high-key) to the family-friendly (pet portrait).

Our test photos were perfectly exposed with pleasing colours, and an option in the camera's menus can attempt to automatically correct for perspective – this works surprisingly well and is ideal for those who don't have suitable editing software.

The optical viewfinder is significantly smaller than that of the D90, but still a better way to compose photos than on a screen, and an option allows you to overlay gridlines in order to get shots straight.

The nine-point autofocus system worked well, but we were disappointed by the autofocus on the kit lens: it's markedly slower than that on other Nikkor AF-S lenses we've tested and, unlike better models, cannot be manually overridden by simply grabbing and twisting the focus ring – a switch chooses between manual-only and autofocus-only.

Like the D60 the D5000 has no lens focus motor, so some older Nikon lenses won't autofocus at all – look for AF-S models when buying to be safe.

One notable new feature on the D5000 is its flip-and-swivel screen. This is hinged at the bottom, and can be used at various angles or folded inwards to protect the screen when in transit.

The D5000 has a live-view option, so images can be composed on the display, but in this mode the autofocus was tediously slow. It's handy when shooting at awkward angles or from a tripod, but if you want to compose snapshots using a screen we'd suggest saving some of your cash and buying a compact camera rather than a DSLR.

Once in live-view mode, pushing the OK button starts the camera recording video. Like the D90, the D5000 can record 720p high-definiton video clips and there's a built-in microphone for recording sound.

The main limitation of this mode is that the camera cannot autofocus while shooting, so you'll have to either fix the focus beforehand or focus manually.

This is more of a problem than on the more expensive model, though, as the D5000's kit lens was obviously not designed for manual focus use: to focus you must grip the very end of the lens, and the gearing means that a small adjustments are tricky. Add on a lens with a proper focus ring, however, and things become far, far easier.

We've placed some example video online so you can see for yourself – note that this was shot with a 50mm lens that could be easily focused rather than the kit one.

All things considered we are sure the D5000 is a good camera, but we’re less sure it’s a good buy. With the dozens of scene modes Nikon is clearly marketing it at families and less technical users, but the manual focus limitation of the video mode means that anyone who wants to take snapshots and video their kids would be better off with a proper camcorder and a cheaper camera.

Anyone who wants to take creative photos or videos, on the other hand, will probably want to trade the D5000's scene modes and folding screen for the advanced options and better lens support of the D90. This is a decent, sturdy-feeling camera that'll take great photos, but we're just not sure who should buy it.

Gyration Air Mouse Go Plus

Paul Lester — 2009-07-07T09:00:00.000Z

Paul Lester, Computeractive, Tuesday 7 July 2009 at 09:00:00

Control a PC remotely using this motion-sensing mouse

The Air Mouse Go Plus is the latest in the line of portable wireless mice from Gyration, using motion sensing to manipulate a mouse pointer on screen, rather than moving a mouse on a desktop.

It was originally designed for presentations, but the versatile software, which allows users to allocate specific actions to any of the five controls, eight swiping movements and eight areas of a desktop display, means it is useful for lots of other tasks.

Despite the device being able to respond from 100 feet away from the USB receiver (which plugs into the PC), it’s not much use unless you’re close enough to see the screen.

This does limit the mouse’s use but, in addition to presentations, it has distinct appeal for photo slideshows, media control and other situations where a mouse and keyboard aren’t practical.

The device was responsive, easy to configure and use and, provided its limitations are taken into account, is an effective way to control a PC if you’re not sitting with it at a desk.

Medion Akoya E1312

Anthony Dhanendran — 2009-07-06T09:00:00.000Z

Anthony Dhanendran, Computeractive, Monday 6 July 2009 at 09:00:00

Twelve inches of notebook

The distinction between full-size notebook computers and mini-notebooks is a fine one, and Medion’s Akoya E1312, available exclusively from Aldi shops from 12 July, is more confusing than most.

It has an 11.6in widescreen display, uses an AMD Sempron processor, but runs Windows XP Home. That puts it in-between the two camps: it’s a touch more powerful than other 10in mini-notebook computers, but it’s still fairly light and portable and, like those computers, it can’t handle video-editing or big-name games.

It’s a thin unit with a glossy black case and a rounded hinge at the rear which gives it a stylish look. There is an Expresscard slot for expansion, along with three USB ports, headphone and microphone sockets, a memory card reader and both VGA and HDMI ports for connecting to either a computer monitor or a flat-panel TV.

It can connect to both wired and wireless networks (even the newest 802.11n networks) as well as Bluetooth devices such as phones.

The screen was clear and very bright – it was turned down by default but there are buttons on the keyboard to turn it up.

At 11.6in it was easy to read text on the screen and the keyboard stretches across the full width of the case so it’s easy to type on without making errors. It was a bit shallow, though, so keyboard-bashers might be in for some pain, and the trackpad below was a little smaller than we’d have liked.

As with all Aldi’s Medion computers, this one is likely to be highly sought-after once it goes on sale on Sunday 12 July, so if you’re after one it’s worth getting down to your local shop early. The battery lasted for a little over three hours.

Comparing the E1312 with the similarly priced Acer Aspire One D250 it’s not much bigger, and offers a larger, more useful screen along with a larger and more comfortable keyboard.

Performance-wise there’s not much in it between this and Intel Atom-powered mini-notebooks, but the E1312 is otherwise impressive.

Asus Eee Box B204

Simon Williams — 2009-07-03T09:00:00.000Z

Simon Williams, Computeractive, Friday 3 July 2009 at 09:00:00

Can this small PC be a useful home entertainment computer?

Having created the mini-notebook with its Eee PC Asus followed up with the Eee Box, a tiny desktop version.

Surprisingly successful as a general-purpose home PC, the original Eee Box format was also the ideal candidate for a sitting-room media centre computer, except that it wasn’t powerful enough to handle High Definition (HD) video.

Now Asus claims its B204 and B206 computers (the B206 has a built-in battery backup) – have been improved enough to enable them to handle HD video. To achieve this there have been two major component changes: the main processor and the graphics processor. The models still use Windows XP Home.

The central processor is now a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 and the graphics chip is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD3450, which should in theory work together to provide HD video support.

We were disappointed to find that the B204 still can’t really handle HD video. Even using the lower resolution 720p format, playback was jerky with dropped frames in standard media software.

This is mainly because the ATI chip offers its hardware boost only under Microsoft’s DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) and some video player programs don’t support this.

The freeware player MPC-HC does support it, however, and when we loaded this, 720p videos played without problem. With the higher-resolution 1080p material, though, there were more playback problems.

The B204 offers other improvements such as 1GB of memory and a 160GB hard disk. The only video output is an HDMI socket for connection to the flat screen, but there are still four USB sockets and an analogue audio socket, which comes with a converter for digital audio output.

As with the other Eee products there is no CD or DVD drive so any video you play will have to be downloaded or taken from an external hard disk, or you will have to buy and plug in an external disc reader.

The Eee Box itself looks much the same as it did before: a box about the same size as a large broadband router, which can be laid flat on the desk, mounted vertically on its slightly shaky stand or fixed directly to a flat-screen TV using a standard Vesa mounting bracket.

The stand and mount are supplied, as are a wireless network aerial and a remote control, complete with an infra-red adapter.

So, this Eee Box is better on the video side than earlier models, but is still not the ideal vehicle for a small-format media centre.

Power Traveller Solargorilla

Tom Royal — 2009-07-02T15:55:00.000Z

Tom Royal, Computeractive, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 15:55:00

Charge your laptop or phone anywhere with this solar panel

Packing for holidays isn’t as easy as it used to be. As well as a passport, sun cream and clothes, many of us want to take a mobile phone – and that means taking a charger, and probably a foreign plug adapter to make it work. If you have an MP3 player, that’ll need a charger too. Oh, and if you’re travelling for work you’ll need a laptop and its charger. Pretty soon the bottom of your suitcase can end up filled with a spaghetti-like mess of power adapters and wires.

One neat solution is the Solargorilla: a foldable solar panel that can be used to charge all kinds of electronic products. Its two panels are fitted into a plastic case that measures around 27x20x2cm when folded shut, and feels impressively rugged – we would have no concerns about chucking it into a rucksack.

The Solargorilla has two sockets. One is designed to charge laptops, and there’s a USB socket for charging smaller devices. A selection of power adapters is supplied in the box, and others can be ordered from the company for a few pounds each.

The only problem we found with the Solargorilla was finding enough sunlight in the UK. Small devices such as a Nokia mobile phone and Nintendo DS games console charged easily, but even on a brilliantly sunny day we couldn’t quite get enough power to properly charge our Medion laptop. If you’re heading somewhere really sunny, of course, this shouldn’t be a problem.

Alternatively the company sells a rechargeable power pack, the Powergorilla, that can be charged from the solar panels and then used itself to deliver a steady charge to a laptop.

All in all, the Solargorilla won’t be ideal for everyone: it’s fairly expensive, and to charge a laptop directly you’ll need very bright sunlight. If you’re travelling somewhere hot and off the beaten track, though, it could prove invaluable.

Nokia E75

David Phelan — 2009-07-02T10:00:00.000Z

David Phelan, Computeractive, Thursday 2 July 2009 at 10:00:00

This ‘business phone’ is neat enough to appeal to everyone

Nokia’s range of E-series phones are aimed at business users, which means they’re great for things such as email.

This new model is the first E-series one with a proper keyboard - it harks back to the company’s Communicator phones, which were always great for typing on but were very hefty.

However, on the E75 a spacious keyboard slides out sideways from behind the screen. The design of this phone was clearly important, and it’s elegant enough to stop it looking like a business phone at all.

It’s reasonably slim like a regular phone, and the gleaming metallic back looks very stylish. Overall, it feels like a classic Nokia that happens to hide a keyboard.

A motion detector means that when you slide out the keypad the screen spins around automatically and quickly so that its orientation matches the keys below.

The benefit of the keypad is obvious – why send text messages using annoying predictive text input when you have a full keyboard available to type on?

It worked very well, although there’s no room for separate number keys which instead occupy the top row of the keyboard - it is odd to have to press a Function key to select them.

Even though it’s sleek and cute, this is a phone that will attract more business-minded users who don’t want to go down the Blackberry route.

The E75 includes a subscription to Nokia Mail – a mail delivery service, free apart from data costs. Setting up a Googlemail account on the phone took just a couple of minutes and was simple and effective.

Like the earlier E71, this phone is designed to work in different ways according to your needs – it can be up for business and personal use with separate, customisable home screens.You can set it so business emails pop up only in the work scenario, for instance.

Internet access is good, with wireless network access built in so you can find a signal in a hotspot, but although the PC software is good for backing up and more, the absence of Apple Mac compatibility is a shame.

There’s a decent 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus, mirror and light, and a standard headphone jack. Battery life was decent rather than exceptional but this is a great phone with nice styling and strong features, including the very useful slide-out keyboard.

Konica Minolta Magicolor 1600W

Simon Williams — 2009-07-01T17:17:00.000Z

Simon Williams, Computeractive, Wednesday 1 July 2009 at 17:17:00

A relatively cheap colour-laser printer

Inexpensive colour printing used to be the preserve of inkjet printers, but as prices have continued to drop, it’s now possible to pick up a colour laser for under £150.

Konica Minolta’s Magicolor 1600W is compact for a colour laser, but is still big – microwave oven-sized – compared to an inkjet.

It’s bigger still when in use, as the front cover pulls down to make the paper feed tray and part of the top cover hinges out to make the output tray.

There’s no cover for the paper when loaded, so you’ll probably want to close the machine up when you're not printing so it doesn’t attract dust.

The control panel consists of two buttons and six indicator lights, four of which tell you when the toner in each of the colour cartridges is low.

This printer uses a carousel-style print mechanism, which means each colour in a print is built up separately, before the complete image is transferred to the paper.

This is a slower technique than inline print, which is now more common and produces a colour page in a single pass, but is more expensive.

The Magicolor 1600W only comes with a single USB connection – the USB socket sticks out of the right-hand side of the printer, rather than being less obtrusive at the back.

Konica Minolta only supplies drivers for varieties of Windows – there's no support for Mac or Linux.

Print speeds suffered a bit from the carousel print system, but we still saw a top black print speed of 17 pages per minute (ppm) and a top-colour speed of over 4ppm, both of which were close to the claimed figures.

Print quality was good for both black and colour prints, though black text isn't quite as sharp as from other entry-level laser printers we’ve seen. Colour graphics were bright and attractive, but the range of available colours made photo prints a little over-vivid.

In its intended market of homes and home offices the drum or fuser units, which have lifespans of 45,000 and 50,000 pages respectively, will probably never need replacing.

The only other consumable is the toner itself and this gives a cost per page of 2.6p for black print and 11.7p for colour. The black print cost is good, though the colour is a little on the high side.

Wallace and Gromit: Grand Adventures - The Last Resort

Tim Smith — 2009-07-11T09:15:00.000Z

Tim Smith, Computeractive, Saturday 11 July 2009 at 09:15:00

The dynamic plasticine duo take to the streets in a new adventure: The Last Resort

There’s something delightfully English about Wallace and Gromit and The Last Resort captures the spirit of the animations without missing the chance for some amusing jokes.

Wallace, the hapless cheese-loving inventor, decides to make the best of a typical English summer plagued by torrential rain by making his own beach resort in his cellar.

Naturally nothing goes to plan, with problems from finding enough sand to placating unhappy tourists. Everything comes to a head when one of the guests is hit on the head during dinner. Police Constable Dibbins decides that no-one can leave until the case is solved.

The graphics and music are good and the controls are easy to learn. Wallace and Gromit can be moved around the screen using the arrow keys and the mouse is used to select objects, either to discuss or take them to use later. The inventory system is designed so that the next step in each puzzle is clear.

The game feels a little short; none of the puzzles had us stuck for long so don’t expect to spend more than five hours or so playing it through. But this is just one episode of five, and it’s cheap at $9 (around £5.50), or you can buy all five episodes for $35 (£22).

PEGI age rating: N/A

Corel Videostudio X2 Pro Ultimate

Simon Williams — 2009-07-10T09:00:00.000Z

Simon Williams, Computeractive, Friday 10 July 2009 at 09:00:00

Corel’s video editor adds some fun features

Video Studio X2 Pro Ultimate is a video suite based around Corel’s latest incarnation of the video editor which started life as a Ulead product, often bundled with video capture cards.

Having got through to version 12 (called X2 in Corel’s numbering system), you can probably guess that most of the video-editing basics are covered. You can import video clips from camera, disc or hard disk in a variety for formats, edit them on a timeline with captions, overlays, picture-in-picture effects, narrations and soundtracks, and export to disc, media player or even Youtube.

The main new feature is Painting Creator which not only lets users add paint effects overlaid onto videos, but also to have any sequence of painting actions recorded as a macro so they can be added to the timeline themselves and played back automatically. This adds a lot of scope for customising the look and feel of finished videos.

Most of the other improvements are extensions rather than fundamentals, things like an increase in the number of tracks where you can overlay graphics and captions, from one to two. You can now also add transition effects to the overlay tracks as well as to the main track, making overlays more flexible.

There are three other programs in the X2 Pro Ultimate suite: WinDVD 9 Plus Blu-ray, DVD Copy 6 Plus and Steinberg WaveLab LE 6 Audio Editor.

WinDVD needs little explanation, as it’s already one of the best-known DVD players for Windows. As the name suggests, the latest version handles Blu-ray disc playback and reproduces HD movies with no noticeable artefacts. It can sca le up standard DVDs to somewhere near HD quality, too.

DVD Copy 6 Plus handles DVD and CD copying, as long as there’s no Digital Rights Management (DRM) on the files. It can handle HD content and can convert for iPod, iPhone, Zune and other players and consoles.

Often underrated, Steinberg’s WaveLab LE 6 audio editor can take audio tracks from many different sources and produce multi-channel audio. With a suitable input, such as a USB pre-amp for your sound source, it can be used to resurrect audio from cassette or vinyl disc, too.

Anno 1404

Jonathan Parkyn — 2009-07-04T09:00:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Computeractive, Saturday 4 July 2009 at 09:00:00

A strategy game full of eastern promise

Many historical strategy games take the historical part extremely seriously, trying their hardest to maintain a high level of accuracy at all times – occasionally to the detriment of the gameplay itself.

Not so Anno 1404 which, despite the very specific date in its title, doesn’t actually place the player in a real-life country or try to shoehorn a game around genuine historical facts or figures.

Instead, at the beginning of the game you’ll find yourself in the outer reaches of a generic medieval European-style empire.

To start with, you’re commissioned to construct a small settlement and carry out a few simple errands for a benevolent nobleman. Fairly early on, however, you’ll be encouraged to venture east to ‘the Orient’, whereupon you’ll be treated to an entirely new set of buildings, technologies, transports and challenges.

This is no command-and-conquer-type game, though. Anno 1404 belongs very much to the ‘build it and they will come’ end of the strategy spectrum.

Gameplay focuses on creating and growing cities, starting with a few basic hovels and turning your modest community into a sprawling metropolis with a thriving economy, busy trade routes and diplomatic relations with other cultures.

Whether you play the main campaign, the individual scenarios or the fully customisable Continuous Play option, Anno 1404 is a highly engrossing experience that will probably have you hunched in front of your PC for several hours at a time. It helps that the game’s production levels are very high.

Graphics – particularly the water effects – were extremely pleasing on the eye and a lot of attention has clearly been paid to the finer details.

Anno 1404 also benefits from a simple interface and a pleasantly breezy pace, which made it very easy to pick up the game and keep playing.

Free from the shackles of historical realism, the creators of Anno 1404 have produced a highly addictive city-building strategy game with a sharp eye for detail. The only thing that’s missing is an online multiplayer element. It’s possible to upload achievements and screenshots to the web, but you can’t currently compete or co-operate with other players in any way.

Pegi age rating: 7+

Berlitz Mandarin and Japanese Premier

Tom Royal — 2009-06-30T17:22:00.000Z

Tom Royal, Computeractive, Tuesday 30 June 2009 at 17:22:00

Learn a new language - or two

Learning a language can be rewarding, but it also tends to be expensive.

Even if you don’t fork out for a tutor, the textbooks and software on offer are often costly, so we were surprised to see this Berlitz package, which claims to teach two languages, selling for less than £20 online.

There are several language versions available – we opted for the Japanese and Mandarin Chinese version.

The main program in the box, Berlitz Learning System, was disappointing. Its ‘immersion environments’ offered plenty of photos, audio and text, but the interface was confusing and despite knowing some Japanese already we were baffled as to where to start in the Survival Phrases for Japanese environment.

After some confused clicking we found that each includes some handy conversation practice lessons, but the Theater screen that appears first is so lacking in guidance that we can imagine many users giving up before they even work out how to use the software properly.

Fortunately, the rest of the contents was far more useful. Best of all is the Before You Know It flashcard program that allows learners to practice simple words and phrases using on-screen flashcards and spoken examples. It’s simple, effective and easy to use – everything, in fact, that the main program is not.

And there’s more, too. One of the discs includes flashcard software for Palm and Windows Mobile handheld computers so you can take the same flashcards and practice them on the move – smartphone versions would have been handier for some, but this is a nice extra nonetheless.

There’s also a short audio course that can be copied to a portable music player. This concentrates on teaching useful short phrases, and although some of the teaching methods are a little daft – picturing the state of Ohio at sunrise to remember the Japanese for ‘good morning’, ohayo gozaimasu – we did learn a few new phrases.

All in all, this package is a really mixed bag. We don’t like the main program at all, and it seems daft to pay for two languages at once, but at less than £20 it’s worth buying for the flashcard tool alone.

Anno: Create a New World Nintendo DS game

Tom Royal — 2009-06-27T10:00:00.000Z

Tom Royal, Computeractive, Saturday 27 June 2009 at 10:00:00

Create a colonial empire in this pocket strategy game

The Nintendo DS's touch screen is ideal for strategy games and, in particular, 'God games' in which the player uses a bird's-eye view to build a miniature civilisation.

The latest title in the Anno series allows you to rule over a fledgling empire in the 15th century.

The plot sees you, the son of an ageing king presiding over a kingdom in trouble, sent out to find new lands to supply hungry subjects back at home. After landing on a small island you must build houses for your small band of pioneers, and clear fields for them to work. They pay you taxes, allowing you to build new facilities: a chapel, for example, or a dairy farm.

Creating more municipal buildings will attract more wealthy citizens who, in turn, are able to pay more taxes. Over time your cluster of shacks with hardy owners that require only food can grow into a city of stone houses whose patrician inhabitants need food, milk, linen clothses, herbs, spices and much more, but who pay you a fortune in return.

One island alone can't provide all the raw materials for such a city, so you'll have to spread out, colonising other islands that are suitable for growing particular goods. To find enough islands you need to acquire maps, which can be gained by meeting certain requirements such as colonising a number of islands or building a city with so many hundred inhabitants.

Fail to provide any one type of goods and your citizens will stop paying taxes – fatal when you have a few plantations to support and you're trying to save up for a cathedral. Similarly, an island left undefended can be stormed and occupied by pirates. The game's combat system, which involves moving troops around between forts and ships, isn't as polished as the rest of the game, but it works.

The game includes a story mode, which serves to introduce the key concepts of the game at a decent pace, or you can go it alone and start building a colonial empire. It's not an action-packed rollercoaster of a game, and the combat sections are a little clumsy, but the rest is strangely absorbing: with your frontier empire always perched on a knife-edge, it's hard to save the game and step away.

Fuel game

Jonathan Parkyn — 2009-06-21T16:15:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Computeractive, Sunday 21 June 2009 at 16:15:00

Let’s off-road

The idea of an open-world racer is not a new one. Several recent games, including the excellent Burnout Paradise, have offered similar worlds with no set routes, in which players can drive around to find new places to race.

Fuel promises 5,000 square miles of virtual environment to explore, making it by far the most expansive game of its type so far – something that works both for and against this ambitious racing title.

Set in an alternative near future, you and your initial vehicle are airlifted by chopper to the Wastelands area, where you can carry out a series of career races.

But once these dry up, it’s up to you to track down your next dose of high-octane racing excitement.

You’re free to cruise around the vast map looking for further career-advancing races. Exploration will also allow players to discover various challenges and secrets, such as liveries for their vehicles, fuel canisters (the game’s currency) and collectable backdrops.

Races vary from shorter on-and-off-road circuits to longer checkpoint-based rally-type events, over a remarkable variety of terrain and extreme driving conditions.

The number of available vehicles grows throughout the game, up to a maximum of 75 Mad Max-style motorbikes, dune buggies, trucks and quad bikes.

In total, there are more than 70 career races to discover and a further 190-plus challenges to take on, and that’s before we’ve even started with the multiplayer possibilities or the built-in race editor, which allows you to create your own custom tracks and races to share with your fellow petrol heads online.

The racing physics aren’t particularly realistic, but then Fuel is not intended to be an accurate driving simulation. The game’s emphasis is on arcade thrills rather than naturalism, although the pacing isn’t quite as enjoyably frenetic as with some similar titles, such as Pure.

In truth, the open-world aspect can be a bit frustrating at times, particu larly during the earlier portion of the game, when it’s easy to feel a little daunted by the huge expanse of game universe at your disposal.

But, while other similar games may do a better job of the racing itself, Fuel’s impressive, varied environments certainly make it stand out from the crowd.

Pegi age rating: 7+

Plants vs Zombies

Anthony Dhanendran — 2009-06-20T16:15:00.000Z

Anthony Dhanendran, Computeractive, Saturday 20 June 2009 at 16:15:00

Good games don’t have to be complex

Plants vs Zombies is a ‘casual game’ that bucks the trend towards ever-more-complex games with harder-to-fathom controls, featuring incredibly simple gameplay and lots of fun.

The premise is that you have to defend your house from marauding zombies, but being zombies they maraud very slowly. They can also be stopped by your plants, which fire deadly pellets, blow open or stop the creatures in other ways.

You can place a certain number of plants at any time, but sunlight is required to grow new ones, so you have to wait before putting down another. It’s also possible to plant sunflowers which generate more sunlight. All the while, the zombies approach.

It sounds easy, and it is for the first couple of levels, but there’s a good difficulty curve, with new plants becoming available each level. There are also different scenarios so things don’t get too repetitive. Graphics are good but unspectacular, and the sounds entertaining enough.

In addition to the 50 main levels there are also mini-games and puzzle modes, plus other sections that break up what might otherwise become monotonous. There are lots of different kinds of zombies, too, which helps to maintain interest levels.

This isn’t a game that requires a lot of thinking, and nor will it last those several-hour-stretches like more in-depth titles, but for the price and for regular short fun fixes, Plants vs Zombies is superb.