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Microsoft tops global online property charts

Phil Muncaster — 2009-11-07T12:10:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Saturday 7 November 2009 at 12:10:00

Redmond beats Google and Yahoo to first spot

There was good news for Microsoft in its battle for the hearts and minds of internet users today, as new figures from market research firm comScore found that the firm was the most engaging global property online in September.

Data from the comScore World Metrix service found that Microsoft Sites captured nearly 15 per cent of time spent online worldwide in September, putting it into first place ahead of Google and Yahoo.

Facebook.com in fourth continued to show impressive growth, however, with visitors spending 1.4 billion hours on the site in September, up a massive 193 per cent from the previous year.

Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger represented nearly 70 per cent of time spent on the property during the month, while for Google, YouTube was its most popular site, accounting for nearly half of total time spent (1.2 billion hours) on the property.

While Microsoft remained top dog in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East – Africa regfions, however, Yahoo triumphed in North America.

“With the U.S. economy only now emerging from a recession, many multinational corporations have shifted the focus of their growth strategies towards developing markets and the internet represents an important aspect of those strategies,” said executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix, Jack Flanagan.

“Understanding the global internet landscape is the first step towards executing effective marketing strategies in these growing markets.”

Twitter rolls out retweet feature

Phil Muncaster — 2009-11-07T12:04:00.000Z

Phil Muncaster, V3.co.uk, Saturday 7 November 2009 at 12:04:00

Service will be available to limited number of users at first

Popular micro-blogging site Twitter has announced it is rolling out an automated retweet feature on a limited number of accounts to see how it works in the wild.

In a blog posting, co-founder Biz Stone explained that the retweet button would make “forwarding a particularly interesting tweet to all your followers very easy”.

“In turn, we hope interesting, newsworthy, or even just plain funny information will spread quickly through the network making its way efficiently to the people who want or need to know,” he added.

Back in August, Stone wrote that his team were working on a way to formalise the process of retweeting in order to enable smoother and more comprehensive access to information across the micro-blogging site.

The idea behind sharing these plans a few months ago was to get developers on board so they could think about how to incorporate the functionality into Twitter applications. However, the plan appears to have been held up somewhat, considering Stone promised in August that the automated retweet functionality would be available “in a few weeks or so”.

“Now we're ready to start trying it on Twitter,” wrote Stone. “The plan is to see how it goes first with this small release. If it needs more work, then we'll know right away. If things look good, we'll proceed with releasing the feature in stages eventually arriving at 100 per cent.”

Mossad laptop hack behind nuclear strike reports suggest

Iain Thomson in San Francisco — 2009-11-07T08:31:00.000Z

Iain Thomson in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Saturday 7 November 2009 at 08:31:00

Schneier warns against hotel maid attack

Reports in Der Spiegel suggest that the Israeli air strike against claimed nuclear facilities in Syria were targeted after Mossad successfully hacked a laptop left in a London hotel bedroom.

The report says that in late 2006 a senior Syrian diplomat staying in London left his laptop unattended in an London hotel, giving Mossad the chance to install a Trojan on the computer that allowed communications to be monitored.

On September 6 the next year the Israeli air force carried out a strike on the Syrian Al Kabir complex in the east of the country. Syrian government media gave little details of the attack, other than to say that Israeli aircraft had dropped munitions on an empty portion of the country before being seen off by local air defences.

In 2008 the International Atomic Energy Agency analysed soil at Al Kabir and found it contained uranium elements not included in Syria's nuclear inventory. Sources in Syria suggest the material was dropped by Israeli planes to justify the attack.

Security expert Bruce Schneier highlighted the case in his blog, saying it was similar to an attack carried out in 2009 where an outside party could install malware on a separate bootloader segment on the hard drive so that it would access any files, even if encrypted. He calls it the 'evil maid' attack.

“Remember the evil maid attack: if an attacker gets hold of your computer temporarily, he can bypass your encryption software,” he said.

The physical security of laptop computers is an increasing important issue for those travelling abroad. The US government has warned visitors to China to keep their laptops under constant surveillance while in the country.

Thunderbird 3 out this month

Iain Thomson in San Francisco — 2009-11-07T07:53:00.000Z

Iain Thomson in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Saturday 7 November 2009 at 07:53:00

Open source email system gets a makeover

The Mozilla Foundation has announced that the latest version of its Thunderbird email system will be out this month.

The release candidate version of Thunderbird 3 will be out next week and the company expects the final version to be released by mid-November, although it hasn't set a firm launch date in line with Mozilla's long-standing policy of releasing software when it's ready and not before.

Mozilla is claiming that 2,000 individual improvements have been made to the Thunderbird. Chief among these are a new search tool that uses and SQL back end but a Mozilla-developed algorithm.

Users can search multiple email accounts and then filter research by the date the email was sent or received, by whom it received for or directed too and by keywords.

Other improvements include a host of new skins for the platform, tabbed email to allow for multiple displays simultaneously and improved archiving.

Mozilla is also expecting a boost in takeup from the recent launch of Windows 7.

“The fact that Windows 7 was launched with no native email client is very encouraging,” Mozilla's director of marketing told V3.co.uk.

“It'll give a lot of users more of a chance to try out Thunderbird and see for themselves.”

Top 10 technologies in a death spiral

Iain Thomson and Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — 2009-11-07T07:31:00.000Z

Iain Thomson and Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Saturday 7 November 2009 at 07:31:00

Soon to be departed technologies

Earlier this week, people in Mexico and the US recognized Dia De Muertos (Day of the Dead), a holiday which recognizes friends and loved ones which have recently departed.

So this week we have decided to recognize some technologies which have recently or will soon be leaving the technology mainstream. Unlike other recent lists, this was fairly easy to construct and there was limited, if occasionally spirited (no pun intended), debate about its order.

Some technologies didn't make it onto the list. Dial-up connections were squeezed out because they are still used by the majority of the world to access the internet, and are still a last ditch method for those of us in the West.

Similarly dot-matrix printing also didn't make it on here, because it is still widely used in certain key vertical markets. My garage still uses dot-matrix printers because the printing head will punch through three layers of paper at a time and they don't mind the noise as it's drowned out by the lathe and buffing machines, and Randy's tuneless singing.

Still, with so many technologies falling by the wayside, we almost certainly overlooked a few so feel free to contribute additions in the comment section.

Honourable mention: Power Cables

Iain Thomson: Shaun was a little sceptical about this one but I think the power cable is going the way of the dinosaurs thanks to growing interest in wireless power.

Palm Pre owners will already be familiar with the concept of wireless power. The Pre sits on a power block and recharges wirelessly with no need for a dedicated power supply. It’s a great little system in a lot of ways.

And who would really mourn the lack of power cables? Most computer users who go on the road have suffered from forgetting to pack power cables at the last minute and had to either buy a replacement or get the unit shipped to their destination. In the last year I’ve had to buy a power cable for an iPod (£10) and have a laptop power brick shipped to me ($100 in customs and shipping charges).

There are problems with wireless power however. It’s not terribly efficient for a start, but manufacturers are recognising it’s the wave of the future and are devising common standards for so that the power brick could be a thing of the past.

Shaun Nichols: I'm still not completely sold on this one, but there is no doubting that cordless power systems are emerging in a big way, and for certain areas the switch can't come soon enough.

Just about anyone who has ever owned a notebook computer can tell stories about people or pets walking past and tripping over a power cord, often with disastrous consequences.

There's also the convenience factor. Who hasn't had to wander around an office or public building searching for an outlet with which to recharge your phone? Wireless power systems can go a long way to relieving the pains of having to charge up electronic devices.

Honourable Mention: Disk-based storage

Shaun Nichols: One of the most popular new technologies in recent years has been the solid-state hard drive (SSD.) Once only offered in the highest of high-end computers and servers, the SSD is increasingly making its way into everyday consumer PCs and enterprise workstations.

SSDs have a number of advantages over disk-based storage. For starters, Flash memory is much faster, cutting down on startup and seek times. Additionally, SSDs are becoming as reliable as the conventional drives. As a result, the market for the old platter-based hard drive is shrinking.

That doesn't mean that disk-based drives will disappear entirely. Despite falling prices, Flash memory is still far more expensive than platter storage. For large-scale storage systems, the conventional hard drive has a stable future.

Iain Thomson: Hmm, I'm sceptical on this one. Disk storage has one major advantage over Flash – what gets written stays written, barring proximity to a major magnet. Call me a curmudgeon but I don't trust Flash for long term safe storage.

Nevertheless it can't be denied that the SSD is the wave of the future. The advantages in speed and power savings are hard to argue with, certainly on desktop and laptop computers. I don't think datacentres are going to buy into Flash in a big way any time soon – the cost would be prohibitive – but storage manufacturers are already bringing out Flash/disk hybrids for use in servers.

But the disk system will survive for the foreseeable future in my opinion, because it provides data security, sometimes a little too much. I got into a conversation with a UK computer police expert about the safest way to wipe data from a disk drive and she said that the technology for retrieving data had now got to the point that the only way to be sure your data was irretreivable was to use a sledgehammer, petrol and matches.

10. The operating system

Shaun Nichols: No, the OS isn't exactly disappearing any time soon, but it is becoming less relevant by the day. As web-based applications become more popular, the locally-stored operating system is becoming less of a factor.

This is also making the OS a much weaker selling point for new systems. While consumers used to be bound to one operating system or another because of the need to run specific applications, web apps are increasingly making that a moot point, much to the delight of the Mac and Linux crowds.

A shining example of this was the release of Windows 7. While Microsoft as much money and effort into hyping Windows 7 as any other version of the OS, the response from the general public wasn't too much out of the ordinary.

Iain Thomson: Oddly enough this was the most argued point in the entire list. Shaun makes a good case, but I still maintain that the operating system will be around as long as there are computers.

That said, Shaun does have a point in that the operating system is becoming less and less important. What I hope we'll see is a plethora of operating systems for individual devices and computers. Yes, this won't be great for developers but it will put a considerable roadblock in the way of malware writers.

However, if certain common standards can be worked out developers won't be too hampered too much and we'll get a bit more security in the IT world. Unfortunately I suspect malware writers will adapt. Those gits are like the flu virus, they just evolve and make life even more of a pain for all of us.

9. Landlines

Iain Thomson: Landlines are in many ways a 20th century hangover. Go to any developing nation and suggest they lay down copper cable all over their countries for phone or internet services and they’ll look at you like you’re mad.

Wireless technology has the potential to reach a wider pool of people for less cost and with greater efficiency than landlines will ever be able to do. Yes, dedicated fibre links are very useful for high bandwidth needs but Wi-Fi, and increasingly WiMax, will remove the need for landline altogether for 90 per cent of the population.

Data cabling was a necessity in the early days of computing and is still required for most broadband connections today. When the move to mass home broadband in the West came it was natural to use the existing copper infrastructure as the conduit.

But technologies such as WiMax are rapidly making the need for dedicated wired connections redundant and with any luck landlines will be seen as a quaint anachronism in the future.

Shaun Nichols: Like many people my age, I do not have a landline telephone connection in my apartment. In fact, aside from the cable lines running into the living room and a few power cords, my whole dwelling is almost completely cordless.

It's not too crazy to suggest that the landline will completely disappear in the coming decades. And conventional cable might not be too far behind, with fibre-optic lines and wireless systems increasingly finding their way into the greater consumer market.

One question which may arise, however, is that of interference. The 802.11n standard is built to automatically reduce its spectrum use when other wireless devices are detected, and as more and more people switch over, similar systems may have to be developed to prevent the vast array of wireless devices out there from interfering with one another.

8. The portable media player

Shaun Nichols: Oh MP3 player, we hardly knew thee. After less than a decade in the market, it seems that the portable media player as we know it is beginning to fade from general public consciousness.

It's not because the products didn't have a market, or didn't develop, or were just a fad. The problem for the dedicated media player is that it is being pushed out of the market by the smartphone. As handsets become more powerful and Flash memory becomes cheaper, more and more people are choosing to load their music onto their phones and leaving their portable players at home.

The most interesting example of this is Apple. While the iPhone has been wildly successful, the iPod remains a huge cash cow for the company. The increasing sales for the smartphone have to be a little bitter-sweet for the company, as each new iPhone sold increasingly suggests that an iPod will go unsold as a result.

Iain Thomson: Apple really made the media player industry. I used media players from the start and they were uniformly awful. Lousy menu systems, clunky sync software and stunningly poor design were the norm. Creative even brought out a 6GB media player that was the size of a CD player, was considerably heavier and had the battery life equivalent to a snowflake in a blast furnace.

It was the iPod that changed all that. As an avowed Apple sceptic I held off on getting one for a long time but I have to say it's my second most used bit of kit, after my laptop. It was easy enough for anyone to understand, looked fantastic and the initial few versions of iTunes were a joy to use - although that application went downhill like the Nepalise bobsleigh team.

But now Flash memory is so cheap that increasingly phones are the new media players. The first attempts, like the Motorola RokR, were dire but things have come on apace and the dedicated media player will die out over time.

7. Tape storage

Iain Thomson: It’s remarkable that tape has lasted as long as it has. The only reason that I can see is that it is very cheap.

Other than that tape has few real advantages. It is slow to write and retrieve when it comes to data, particularly when you take into account the time needed to physically shift over tapes from storage to the reader and back again. It’s also relatively flimsy, as anyone from the age of the video or cassette knows only too well.

Tape is a relic from an earlier age when we had to make do with the technology that was available. This is no longer the case and tape should be consigned to the dustbin of history as soon as possible.

Shaun Nichols: Unlike most other areas of the technology world, the storage market doesn't progress at a break-neck speed which makes the latest and greatest innovations completely obsolete in less than ten years.

In almost every way, a computer from the early 1980s bears little to no resemblance to modern systems and the technology it uses would be more or less useless today. There is one exception, however. The magnetic tape drives used for storage three decades ago are still in use today, though in far larger capacities.

Tape storage hits a sweet spot of sorts with the storage market. It is cheap and is well-established. This makes it ideal for use in very large capacity backup purposes. Until platter-based storage becomes equally cheap and dense, I suspect that tape storage will continue to have a market in the enterprise space.

6. FireWire

Shaun Nichols: It's not always the bad technologies that fall by the wayside. FireWire was a solid system, but it never really got off the ground.

Originally, Apple developed the IEEE 1394 interface to be a high-speed serial connection to compliment the emerging USB specification. The idea was that USB would take over the low-bandwidth connections previously served through the serial port, while FireWire would replace the high-end peripheral market which was at the time dominated by SCSI.

Then USB 2.0 came along and messed everything up for FireWire. Rather than adopt the new standard, most vendors and consumers opted instead to go with the USB interface. As a result, FireWire didn't spread much beyond the high-end digital video market and the Macintosh models of the early and mid 2000s.

Iain Thomson: FireWire built itself a highly profitable sector in the digital video market but has been outpaced by USB and is finally being abandoned by its last allies.

The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, as Shaun has pointed out, the data capacity of USB 2.0 and now USB 3.0 first matched and has now surpassed that of FireWire. USB really came from behind at FireWire but has caught up admirably quickly.

Secondly IT standards are in many ways a numbers game. There are huge numbers of USB ports out there and they are the de facto standard for device connection. If you wanted FireWire, and you weren't an Apple owner, then you had to order it as an extra in most cases and that additional cost wasn't something many people were willing to stomach.

5. Peripherals cables

Iain Thomson: When I survey the wreckage of my desk one thing is immediately obvious. Among the half-drunk mugs of tea, crumpled press releases and semi-consumed lunch is a snake’s nest of cable. I can count eight sets alone, all of which knot themselves together when no-one’s around. Doing without these will be a blessing when it happens. And happen it will, one day.

We thought the nightmare of cabling was going to be over long ago. When Bluetooth was first coming out the manufacturers promised that cable would shortly be a thing of the past. Instead the technology has only worked in the last few years because manufacturers stuck their own software into the stack and ruined compatibility.

Currently it’s really only mice and keyboards that are wireless in any large-scale way, but once the standards are worked out we’ll be able to get much higher speed data communication between devices wirelessly. That day is sorely needed.

Shaun Nichols: As someone who uses a notebook as my primary work PC, I'm a huge fan of wireless peripheral devices. Even when working at a desk, cables can clutter things up and be a nuisance. When covering a convention or having to work in a crowded press room, however, they can be a major problem and even a safety hazard.

The emergence of Bluetooth has, thus far, been a bit of a disappointment in that sense. Though many vendors have been using it for wireless mice, keyboards and printers, there are still too many peripherals that are bound by the cable.

With new devices comes new threats, however. It used to be that you could protect your computer from outside attack by simply not attaching it to a modem or network. With Wi-Fi, however, any system connected to a wireless network is subject to attack. While Bluetooth isn’t nearly as insecure, it still raises a bit of a concern.

4. Handheld GPS

Shaun Nichols: Much like the portable media player, the handheld GPS system is a technology being killed by the smartphone.

As the smartphone becomes more powerful and new features are added, we're going to see more and more technologies being pushed out of the market. Fortunately for many of the vendors, the same companies that build many of those GPS handsets also make smartphones.

For the other vendors, there's still the auto market. One place where dedicated GPS hardware still thrives is in cars. Automakers are increasingly embedding GPS systems in their cars, and older models are being outfitted with the dashboard-mounted models.

Anyone who has ever been lost can understand why. GPS systems are one of the most useful and convenient technologies to emerge in the last decade.

Iain Thomson: For about a decade one of the hallmarks of a true geek is that they had a handheld GPS device. A certain journalist on ZDNet even used to give the location of his annual summer picnic via GPS coordinates, so that the geeks could find it while everyone else chased around Hampstead Heath trying to find the party.

But GPS is now a mature market and, like many technologies, is being subsumed into other devices. What got GPS so high on the list was the news that Google is to add GPS functions to Android 2.0. That's going to basically kill the handheld market stone dead and the smart money is already moving out of firms like TomTom and Garmin, which have massive investments in the market.

And I'd say you're wrong on the car front Shaun. Given the choice of being charged for a GPS add-on by a car company or just plugging in your phone to the cigarette lighter (now there's a dying technology if ever there was one) it's a simple choice.

3. Floppy discs

Iain Thomson: You might think that floppy discs are dead already, but computer manufacturers are still being asked to put them in new systems amazingly enough.

I nearly spat my drink out when a Dell representative told me that a few years ago over ten per cent of PCs were still shipping with floppy drives but apparently some companies like them. I suspect there are a few procurement staff who really haven’t moved out of the 1990s. Either that or canny salespeople are better at selling useless add-ons than we thought.

Back when Shaun was just a glint in the milkman’s eye whole desktop systems had floppy discs as the sole method of storage. Even the most ‘advanced’ 3.5 inch floppies can only hold 1.44MB – a laughably small amount by today’s standards.

There is however one small problem. I suspect there are are millions upon millions of floppies sitting in boxes of junk around the world and the amount of landfill needed to handle them all is going to be huge.

Shaun Nichols: As a Mac user, I've presumed that the floppy disc disappeared from the planet in the late 1990s shortly after the first iMac was shipped.

Joking aside, the floppy disk did hold on a lot longer than some PC vendors may have wished. Not long ago I was a college student working at an on-campus convenience store to make ends meet. Next to the cash register we kept a small rack with floppy disks. It's amazing how many nights we had where a frazzled student would run into the store and gratefully reach for one. Turns out that when you've spent the last five hours in the computer lab frantically typing up a term paper and you desperately need to save and transfer the document, the lowly floppy disc becomes the most important thing in the world.

Granted, USB thumb drives have gotten a lot cheaper since I graduated, but I like to think that in that little snack shop that small rack of floppy discs is still there, waiting to save someone's semester.

2. Compact Disc

Shaun Nichols: Really, the CD got a bit of a bum deal. The record album was the standard for several decades, the cassette tape had a good two decades. The CD had maybe ten or fifteen good years, only a bit better than the eight track.

The undoing of the compact disk was twofold. First, there was the emergence of the DVD, which took over much of the data storage and distribution market due to its increased capacity.

Then there was the emergence of the online music market. Just as the CD was settling in as the dominant medium for delivering music, the online services, both legitimate and otherwise, started popping up. When broadband costs dropped and high-bandwidth connections became commonplace, the writing was on the wall for the humble CD format.

Iain Thomson: I'm not a huge fan of the CD format for a number of reasons and will be happy to see it go.

When CDs came out they were billed as high quality recording media that would last for ever. Instead what we got was an expensive replacement for records that produced lower quality sound turned out to have a depressingly short shelf life.

This latter part of the equation is most worrying from an IT standpoint. If you have information backed up onto CDs then you might want to put it on something more permanent. The format was described by one manufacturer as virtually indestructible on launch but repeated test have shown a sharp drop off in readability after a few short years. From my personal experience around 20 per cent of CDs I burnt at the turn of the century no longer work.

While the capacity of the DVD is ultimately what has done for the CD in data storage terms that format suffers from similar problem and if you are storing mission critical data you will need one, or preferably two, sets of backups.

1. Desktop PC

Iain Thomson: The desktop PC is a dying breed for most people, but it has served us well.

They are still hanging on in the corporate sphere because they are cheap and get the job done. But laptops are not outselling them and I suspect our children will look on them in the same wonder as we do today at early vacuum cleaners the size of a truck.

Some PCs are still in demand. Really high end gamers really like them because they can get the ultra-fast graphics systems that shave seconds off reaction time, and can handle the massive cooling systems needed to get that kind of performance without setting fire to their bedrooms.

Some corporate verticals also like them, as they are solid and can be physically fastened down to protect the data they contain. I know more than a few parents who like them too, so that the family computer can be installed in the living room where everyone can see what it being viewed.

The fact is that the laptops used to suffer a performance penalty over desktops but this is no longer the case. You can now do pretty much anything you want with a high end laptop, with the added bonus that you can take your computer with you.

Shaun Nichols: A part of me misses the day when a geek was judged by the size of his (or her) PC tower. It used to be that having a huge enclosure on top of your desk was something to brag about. Back then notebooks were reserved for road warriors and those who didn't need much more than a word processor and a spreadsheet app.

Since then, however, the notebook has gone from being an underpowered, overpriced machine to the dominant form of personal computer. Everyone from home users to students to professionals now prefers the notebook over the desktop. As battery life improves and components get smaller, I suspect that this will only continue.

At least two groups, however, will likely keep the desktop market alive for quite some time.

Gamers for one still scoff at notebooks for the most part. First off, the screens are too small to deliver the size and resolution to get the most out of the latest titles. There's also the limits of the small enclosure. Many high-end gaming and hobbyist systems require very large fan or liquid cooling systems that would not come close to fitting in a laptop.

Similarly, graphics professionals aren't likely to switch over to notebooks any time soon. They also love the large, accurate monitors that are all but impossible to integrate into a notebook design.

Google unveils commercial site search

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco — 2009-11-07T02:12:00.000Z

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, V3.co.uk, Saturday 7 November 2009 at 02:12:00

Commerce service aims for online retailers

Google has unveiled a new service designed to improve search efforts for retail sites.

The company said that the new Commerce Search tool would allow online retailers to offer better search functions for their sites and make it easier for users to find items.

The new tool allows vendors to offer a search service based on the Google search engine within their sites, providing users with more accurate results when looking up items. The company hopes that the tool will be adopted in time to meet the holiday shopping rush.

"To date the technology powering retail website stores has not kept pace with innovation in search," said Google enterprise president Dave Girouard.

"Google Commerce Search will help customers find accurate results extremely fast, to the benefit of retailers and customers alike."

Google said that the service has been fine-tuned for commercial search and customer queries. The Commerce Search tool will carry built-in features such as spell-checking and suggestions to help customers find items.

Additionally, the service is designed to integrate with Google's other enterprise tools, such as the Google Analytics service and the Google Product Search inventory tool.

Pricing for the tool starts at $50,000 will be based on the number of items on the user's retail site.

Europe's browser wars heat up again

Rosalie Marshall — 2009-11-06T17:48:00.000Z

Rosalie Marshall, V3.co.uk, Friday 6 November 2009 at 17:48:00

Mozilla and Opera demand changes to Microsoft's proposed ballot system

Complaints about Microsoft's anti-competitive browser bundling are still in full swing, even though the company said in July that it will no longer shield Internet Explorer (IE) from competition in Europe by bundling it with Windows.

Three competing browser developers have been working with the European Union's Competition Commission on the investigation into Microsoft's browser practices, and have now said that Microsoft's proposal to offer a ballot system for Windows users to select their default browser from a list is not good enough.

One of the problems is that Microsoft will offer the browser ballot from within IE, which Opera Software argues makes the other browsers look less important.

"The proposal on the table could work, but it needs some changes," said Håkon Wium Lie, Opera Software chief technology officer.

"We think it's important that the ballot screen is impartial. Therefore, we ask that the ballot screen is not run inside an IE window that has IE logos on it. In an election, you wouldn't accept that one candidate has his logo in the corner of the ballot, and it shouldn't be accepted in the ballot screen either.

"Likewise, we don't think voters should be warned against their candidate of choice when they vote. We are therefore asking that warning messages should not be shown to users who request non-IE browsers."

Opera Software initiated the European Commission's (EC's) investigation into Microsoft's practices almost two years ago. Google and Mozilla joined the investigation in February.

Mozilla has put forward additional changes that it believes should be made to Microsoft's current proposals.

"A few specific changes would bring the ballot much closer to the EC's stated goals of eliminating bias," said a Mozilla spokesman.

"In particular, we believe that rotating browser placement so that no browser has an advantaged or disadvantaged position, and reducing the many references to IE on the ballot page, are each important improvements."

Google declined to comment on whether it wanted further changes to Microsoft's proposals, although reports suggest that the search giant agrees with the points raised by Opera Software.

The Microsoft proposals gained EC approval early last month, which was thought at the time to signal that the investigation was drawing to a close. However, now that Mozilla and Opera Software have raised more complaints, the battle could continue.

Under the agreement, all Windows PCs sold in the European Economic Area for the next five years will contain the proposed ballot screens.

EBay settles court case with Skype founders

David Neal — 2009-11-06T16:20:00.000Z

David Neal, V3.co.uk, Friday 6 November 2009 at 16:20:00

Zennström and Friis to take a 14 per cent stake

As expected, Skype has settled its court action with Joltid, the company set up by Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis.

Skype president Josh Silverman called the result "exciting", explaining in blog post that the firm now had control over the P2P software at the heart of the battle.

"I have some very exciting news to share with you today. In the past couple of days, we and eBay have reached a settlement with Joltid regarding our dispute with them," he said.

"This has extremely positive implications for us on three critical fronts. We will now have ownership of the software previously licensed from Joltid, so we'll be in control of our technology future.

"All litigation against eBay, Skype and the investor group ends, so we'll be free to concentrate all our efforts on building the world's greatest communications software."

Zennström and Friis will join Skype's board of directors, and have a 14 per cent share in the company in return for a "significant" cash investment.

EBay said that it is glad to continue focusing on its core business. "Skype will be well positioned to move forward under new owners with ownership and control over its core technology," said eBay president and chief executive John Donahoe.

"At the same time, eBay continues to retain a significant stake in Skype and will benefit from its continued growth. We look forward to closing the deal and focusing on growing our core ecommerce and payments businesses."

Paint.NET 3.5

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-07T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Saturday 7 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Powerful & modern paint program

Jointly developed by Washington State University and Microsoft, Paint.net is intended to be a replacement for the free MS Paint software provided with all Windows operating systems.

It offers many of the powerful features found in commercial editors, including the ability to work on multiple layers, full transparent PNG support, unlimited history, and a plethora of visual effects.

An interesting feature is the way each tool window becomes transparent when covering the image. This enables better implementation of effects and is something the big image editors are currently lacking.

New v3 features include a multi-document, tab-based interface, so you can open and edit more than one image. An improved and more powerful toolbar and user-definable colour palette are some of the other highlights.

Super Flexible File Synchronizer 4.78

Tim Smith — 2009-11-07T00:00:00.000Z

Tim Smith, V3.co.uk, Saturday 7 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Synchronise documents between different locations

If you regularly transfer and work on files in different locations it can often be difficult to make sure that you are always using the latest version. Super Flexible File Synchronizer takes care of that for you by updating the contents of different folders.

Each synchronisation is set up as a different profile that you can run when you want or update if your needs change. Files can be synchronised over networks or with internet sites.

There is a wizard mode as well as an advanced mode that can schedule synchronisations to happen automatically.

Nero Free 9.4.12.708

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-06T14:34:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Friday 6 November 2009 at 14:34:00

Burn basic data & audio discs with this free tool

For most people, simple burning software is all we need on a day-to-day level. Some of the popular burning applications have migrated in to multimedia production suites over the last few years, which means they ship on a DVD-based installer, rather than a simple download to burn data and audio CDs.

Some software developers have recognised this and there are now many smaller simple burning tools that do a few things well – burn data, audio CDs and produce disc labels. Nero have also recognised a need for this market and have released a free basic version of their burning suite.

Nero Free is a simple cut-down version of the full burning package and enables you to burn discs, quickly. Quite a few features are missing. With any free burning software, you won’t be able to work with MP3 files or burn a DVD, due to the lack of an MPEG-2 codec. If you need these features, you’ll need to upgrade to the full version.

There’s no time limit on this application and it’s completely free.

Mozilla Firefox for Mac 3.5.5

Lee Collins — 2009-11-06T12:20:00.000Z

Lee Collins, V3.co.uk, Friday 6 November 2009 at 12:20:00

Minor release of the popular web browser

Some users were disappointed with the release of Mozilla Firefox 2.0. After months of betas, release candidates and previews, the new features weren’t as spectacular as people expected. However, there is only so much you can do to improve a web browser.

With the release of Mozilla Firefox 3, Mozilla decided to work hard on speeding up the rendering engine, so the web graphics has received a completely new upgrade. Dubbed ‘ Cairo’, the new graphics rendering engine should improve the output across different platforms, as it’s being developed as an open-standard.

With other improvements in the way that pages are ‘painted’ on screen, improved SVG support and CSS enhancements, the general improvements for Firefox 3.0 are based around the way it will render web pages through the browser. The new browser also ships with a new user-interface, improved bookmarks and many other new features.

This is the major new long-awaited v3.5 release with features such as private web browsing, speed improvements and much more.

VirtualBox for Mac 3.0.10

Lee Collins — 2009-11-06T12:00:00.000Z

Lee Collins, V3.co.uk, Friday 6 November 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.

VirtualBox for Windows 3.0.10

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-06T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Friday 6 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Host a virtual operating system

This is the software publisher's description.

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.

Mozilla Firefox 3.5.5

Chris Wiles — 2009-11-06T00:00:00.000Z

Chris Wiles, V3.co.uk, Friday 6 November 2009 at 00:00:00

Minor release of the popular web browser

This is the major new long-awaited v3.5 release with features such as private web browsing, speed improvements and much more.

Oregon Scientific WMR100 Advanced Weather Station

Simon Williams — 2009-11-06T17:26:00.000Z

Simon Williams, Computeractive, Friday 6 November 2009 at 17:26:00

Compete with the Meteorological Office with this complete local weather station

It’s common to see desktop weather monitors that include a thermometer and barometer and predict fine or stormy weather based on changes in air pressure.

This Oregon WMR100 Scientific weather station goes further. Although its base station has the same type of screen display, there is a lot more on it, as it connects wirelessly to two external sensors to monitor wind direction and strength as well as temperature and rainfall.

These sensors took some assembly and careful mounting, with staples and guy ropes in the case of the wind sensor. All the kit is well made with – for example, a three-piece steel pole to mount the wind monitor on and a mesh gauze to filter detritus out of captured water in the rain gauge.

The electronic set-up was made particularly easy by the automated nature of the system. The wind and rain sensors connected automatically and were calibrated with minimal intervention, though we did have to use a compass to tell the wind sensor which way north was.

The base station picks up the time from the atomic-radio clock at Cumbria and adjusts its calendar and moon phase display as soon as it gets an accurate time.

There is a mini-USB socket on the side of the base station which connects to a PC and, once you have downloaded the display software from the Oregon Scientific website, it’s possible to feed weather data through to this program for logging and display.

From a usability point of view the software is the weak link as it has a much more complicated – and rather untidy – design and little of the automated setup that was such a strong feature of the rest of the package.

The users have to determine arcane settings such as which Com port the base station is connected to (not obvious with a USB connection) and the latitude and longitude of your location, together with its height above sea level.

If you get around this lot, the software is pretty thorough. It can log readings from the weather station so you can see how weather events progress over time. It will not necessarily help with prediction, but the whole station is more about monitoring and recording than guessing tomorrow’s weather.

Elonex iGame

Paul Lester — 2009-11-06T16:35:00.000Z

Paul Lester, Computeractive, Friday 6 November 2009 at 16:35:00

A fun and innovative new take on the iPod dock

The release of an iPod dock may not appear to be very exciting – there are already plenty of them available – but in the iGame, computer maker Elonex has added appeal.

In addition to working as an iPod dock, the device doubles up as a simple games console that attaches to your television set.

The iGame is built into a white and silver oval-shaped casing that looks good against Apple’s devices and is designed to connect to a TV to offer access to either the player’s music, video and photos or any of the 20 games included.

Elonex has taken a leaf out of Nintendo’s book by providing a motion-sensitive controller, similar to the one supplied with Nintendo’s Wii console. In keeping with this approach the majority of titles supplied with the console are based around sport and puzzles.

Up to four players can compete at once, although this requires additional controllers that have to be bought separately for £20 each - it comes with a single controller in the box. Other accessories such as dance mats are promised in the future.

In truth the ‘console’ behaves rather like a simplified version of the Wii, and it’s worth clarifying that although the controllers offer vibration feedback, they are not as accurate and do not have the same range of motion as the Wii’s.

That makes the gaming side of the iGame much more suitable for kids than older gamers, and in this light it works well as a family product, with the adults more likely to use the iPod connection.

This was again rather basic but worked very well, giving quick and easy access to iPod-style menus. It works with all current players but it’s not fully compatible with the iPhone, which you will need to put in aeroplane mode to reduce interference.

It’s possible to browse and view videos and music directly from any connected iPod and Elonex says photo support is on the way in a downloadable update.

The iGame can be updated regularly to add features, which should increase its appeal. Elonex has made the console available for software development on an open-source basis, which means anyone can create programs for it.

The company expects future software to be available at prices ranging from £1 to £5. It also promises refinements and tweaks to the interface and features through future updates.

The biggest factor that makes the iGame appealing is the price. At £79 it offers good value and even if it will have limited appeal for adults as a games machine, the iGame is a good idea for a Christmas present, particularly for families with younger children.

Netgear XAVB1004 Homeplug AV adapter kit

Kelvyn Taylor — 2009-11-05T12:37:00.000Z

Kelvyn Taylor, Computeractive, Thursday 5 November 2009 at 12:37:00

High-speed networking for up to four devices – without wires

Netgear’s XAVB1004 kit plugs straight into your mains electricity wiring to network up to four devices using the Homeplug AV technology.

The package contains a single grey Homeplug AV adapter (model number XAV101), a small black Homeplug AV switch (XAV1004), two network cables and a mains lead for the switch.

The kit is simple to set up. Plug the single adapter into a mains socket (extension sockets can disrupt the network) and connect the network cable to a spare port on your router.

Plug the switch into another mains socket, wait a few seconds and that’s it. You can connect up to four devices – computers, consoles, printers and more – to the switch so they can be accessed over the network.

It’s a great alternative to using a wireless network. The 200Mbits/sec connection, shared between four network ports on the switch, is fast enough to stream high-definition video.

Available speeds depend on the kind of devices you have plugged and how many there are. Wiring quality and electrical interference will also affect performance.

The ports are colour-coded to prioritise certain devices. The two green ports are used to connect high-speed devices such as games consoles and the yellow ports are used for slower devices such as printers.

You do not need to configure the device and a software utility is included in the package for troubleshooting and changing advanced network settings, although this is probably best left to experts.

If you don't like blinking lights, the status LEDs on the adapters can be switched off and the network is automatically encrypted to prevent unauthorised access.

More adapters can be added as needed, but watch out for two rival standards - Homeplug and UPA. Netgear sells both types, so if you already have another adapter, check first that it’s a Homeplug one.

The XAVB1004 kit is great if your wireless connections don’t work well or you don’t want to run network cables around your house.

Samsung N510

Anthony Dhanendran — 2009-11-04T17:19:00.000Z

Anthony Dhanendran, Computeractive, Wednesday 4 November 2009 at 17:19:00

A large-screen netbook that can play HD video

Samsung’s N510 computer is halfway between a netbook and a laptop. It uses an Intel Atom processor, but it’s an Atom N280 model, a step up from the N270 found in similar computers.

Like a netbook, it is missing a CD or DVD drive, instead using the space saved to reduce its overall size. It’s a slimline device and easy to carry around, but it’s larger than most of its rivals as it has a 12in widescreen rather than 10in.

It’s similar in size to the Packard Bell Dot m/a computer but its graphics capabilities account for the price premium.

Most netbooks are designed for office work, mobility and to play basic video, but the Samsung N510 uses Nvidia’s new Ion graphics chipset so it can play video much better than other computers.

We tested it with a few standard high-definition movie clips in the 720p format, something that would be fine on many desktops and larger notebooks but without would usually tax a netbook to its limits, resulting in stuttering, juddery playback.

On the N510 our sample clips played back beautifully and looked superb on the reasonably large screen.

The computer comes with a HDMI connector to attach it to a flat-panel TV or a high-definition projector and has three USB sockets and a wired network port (it can also connect to wired networks and Bluetooth devices).

The design is nice and flat without the rounded curves of its brother, the N310, and there is a slight jut at the bottom of the body from the large battery, which gave four hours in our tests.

Despite the large screen, it’s still a slim laptop and easy to carry around.

The N510 comes with the Samsung power-management software to control the brightness, processor power and more to conserve the battery when the computer is not plugged in.

The keyboard size is reasonable, with keys big enough to type on and comfortable enough for long periods of typing. The trackpad also benefits from the larger size of the N510, as it’s a bit bigger than most.

For simple office and internet tasks the N510 is overkill. A smaller, cheaper device such as the Samsung N310 is more than adequate for this and even for playing standard video.

For those who want to do a bit more, though, or those who just want a mobile laptop with a bigger screen the N510 is an excellent choice.

Review: Samsung P410 LED projector

Will Stapley — 2009-11-04T09:00:00.000Z

Will Stapley, V3.co.uk, Wednesday 4 November 2009 at 09:00:00

LED projector offers firms a portable big screen for presentations

Aimed squarely at business users who need a portable big screen for presentations, LED projectors such as the Samsung P410 are lighter and smaller than traditional lamp-driven projectors. And thanks to the use of LEDs, they also don't require expensive lamp replacements.

Of course, there are some drawbacks, the major one being performance. Rated at 170 ANSI lumens, the P410 falls way behind traditional projectors in terms of brightness. However, as with the 160 ANSI lumen LG HS102 projector we reviewed earlier this year, it performs admirably, even in a reasonably well-lit room.

At a distance of 2m, we managed a projection size of 55in. Naturally, the picture looked far better when the projector was closer to the wall, and at a distance of 1m we achieved a bright projection at a size of 30in.

Colours are vibrant, which makes PowerPoint presentations look particularly good. It's also capable of video playback, although movie watching isn't recommended as detail is lost during darker scenes.

Menu options, including vertical keystone correction and aspect ratio, can be accessed using the touch-sensitive controls on the top of the device; these are slightly raised from the surface, which aids usability.

At the rear, analogue audio inputs are joined by a choice of two video inputs: VGA and composite. There's also a USB port, allowing for video, audio and photos to be played back direct from a USB key. It's a shame Samsung hasn't fitted an HDMI port. Of course, the projector's native resolution of 800 x 600 means it can't handle high-definition video but, with most laptops now home to an HDMI port, it's a neat way of carrying audio and video through a single cable.

It is, however, good to see that Samsung has included two built-in 1W speakers. They sound particularly tinny and won't help out much when watching a movie, but at full volume they're powerful enough to fill a reasonably-sized meeting room. They will, however, have to complete with the rather noisy built-in fan which Samsung rates at 28dB.

As far as portability goes, the P410 weighs 950g and is one of the heavier LED projectors on the market. That said, it's far lighter than a traditional projector, and is also more compact at just 148mm wide, 66mm tall and 146mm deep. There's no battery option, though, so you'll need to cart the rather bulky power adapter around with you.

In terms of performance, the Samsung P410 is one of the most impressive LED projectors we've seen. And, with its curved edges and chrome-style lens cover, it's also one of the most attractive. The obvious drawback, however, is that it costs a rather hefty £499.

If you need a projector that you can take with you while travelling, the P410 would be a good choice. The Acer K10 is an alternative that's £100 cheaper but, at just 100 ANSI lumens, it can't match the P410 in terms of brightness.

PC Specialist Vortex i5 750GTS

Anthony Dhanendran — 2009-11-03T15:29:00.000Z

Anthony Dhanendran, Computeractive, Tuesday 3 November 2009 at 15:29:00

A fast desktop PC with an Intel Core i5 processor

The ‘i5’ in the name of PC Specialist’s new Vortex i5 750GTS refers to the computer’s processor, which is one of the new Core i5 models from Intel.

It’s the company’s newest range of quad-core processors, and while the i5 750 processor in this computer is not top of the range it’s still extremely fast.

The Vortex i5 750GTS has 4GB of memory and an Nvidia Geforce GTS250 graphics card that has 1GB of its own memory.

For storage there is a 750GB hard disk and a DVD burner that will read and write all kinds of discs except Blu-ray. This can also etch labels onto special discs using Lightscribe technology. It also has a memory card reader.

The computer comes in a heavy all-metal case with a stylish door on the front that conceals the drive bays, DVD writer, memory card reader and one of the 15 USB ports (there are four more on the side of the front door and ten on the back panel).

It also covers the power and reset switches. There is lots of room for expansion inside, with two of the four memory sockets free and plenty of space for extra disc drives (Blu-ray, for example).

The graphics card has both DVI and VGA outputs for connection to monitors and a 22in Acer model was supplied with our review unit, with cables for both kinds of connection.

It was a good-quality screen with decent colour reproduction, sharpness and brightness. The computer also has a HDMI output so it can be connected to a suitable flat-panel television screen.

In addition to the ports and sockets we talked about above, there are eSata and Firewire sockets, a wired network connection, keyboard and mouse sockets and sound outputs and inputs (including an optical sound output).

As a desktop computer it cannot connect to wireless networks or Bluetooth without adding extra hardware but that is no great loss given that the Vortex i5 750GTS isn’t designed to be mobile.

The keyboard and mouse supplied were reasonable Logitech wireless models, with batteries included so you can get going straight away.

It comes with a one-year warranty and the Windows 7 Home Premium operating system, as well as Nero and Cyberlink software for creating and playing discs.

PC Specialist helpfully supplied all the manuals for the various components, along with a friendly, easy-to-follow quick start booklet. Impressively, PC Specialist supplies a full Windows 7 CD in the box, not just a system restore disc.

At just under £800 the Vortex i5 750GTS is not cheap, even when it comes to gaming computers.

However, the components in this computer are top-notch, with a processor and graphics card that are well capable of playing recent games at high levels of detail.

For tasks such as video editing, which are similarly hard on the computer’s processor (and sometimes the graphics card) it’s also a superb choice of computer.

If you are more of a light user, with email and word processing in mind, we would not recommend a computer this powerful.

But as a family workhorse, say, that can handle lots of different tasks, and with its enormous amount of storage space and expansion options, the i5 750GTS is an excellent choice.

For more information about the computer, and to buy, click here.

Packard Bell Dot m/a UK020

Simon Williams — 2009-11-02T17:22:00.000Z

Simon Williams, Computeractive, Monday 2 November 2009 at 17:22:00

A great small notebook that includes a variety of software, ideal for office tasks

Netbooks have been growing in size since the first Asus Eee PC hit the streets. The original was almost pocket-sized, with a 7in screen and a processor only powerful enough for simple browsing and office tasks.

Packard Bell’s new Dot m/a, available from Tesco Direct, is much more like a notebook in miniature, with an 11.6in widescreen display, 2GB of memory and an unusual combination of processor and graphics chipset.

The Dot m/a uses a 64-bit AMD Athlon processor, with a graphics chipset from ATI. The two work well together to give performance in our tests that was a touch above the netbook standard (they tend to use slower Intel Atom processors).

For normal office tasks and even for graphic editing and some video work, the dot m/a felt in control, and was even up to the performance of some of the mid-range full-size laptops we have seen.

Although, as we expected, the Dot m/a had problems playing most kinds of high-definition video, normal (standard definition) video handled well and was supported by the supplied Dolby headphone software, which simulates surround sound through just about any headset.

The computer comes with a good bundle of software, including a full version of Microsoft Works and a full copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 6. It uses Windows Vista Home Basic, but current models on the shelves come with a voucher for an upgrade to Windows 7 (note there may be a charge for this).

The netbook includes support for the small webcam set just above the bright 11.6in screen, though other applications supplied, such as the Nero burning software and PowerDVD 9, would have been more useful if the computer came with a CD or DVD drive.

The flat keyboard has keys that are larger than those normally found on netbooks, and was light and comfortable to use, though the small cursor cluster is marred by dark-red secondary lettering on the keys that was hard to read. The case itself has no clasp, so opening the lid was fiddly.

It’s available in black or bright red, and while the high-gloss lid shows fingerprints very clearly it comes with a soft, padded sleeve, which helps protect it even if you have a carrying case.

The Dot m/a is available with a hard disk capacity of 160GB, 250GB or 320GB, and has three USB sockets, a VGA connection for a monitor, wired and wireless network connections and microphone and headphone sockets. A memory card slot is also included for SD, MemoryStick and XD cards.

The main fault is its battery which is unlikely to last the length of a movie when playing a DVD and even under less arduous use gives barely three hours. There is an optional larger battery, but this costs an extra £120.

Olympus Mju-7010

Laurence Gunn — 2009-11-02T16:39:00.000Z

Laurence Gunn, Computeractive, Monday 2 November 2009 at 16:39:00

A quick and compact camera, ideal for capturing fast-moving moments

The Olympus Mju-7010 is a 12-megapixel compact camera. It is available in pink, grey and silver, has four easily accessible shooting modes and can be used to shoot video as well as still images.

With a 7x optical zoom lens, the Mju-7010 is designed with point-and-shoot in mind. The start-up time was about two seconds, ideal for capturing those fast-moving moments on holiday or a night out.

The 2.7in screen on the rear is clear, providing a good setting for the picture-heavy menus typical of Olympus cameras. The screen must be used for composing photos, as there is no optical viewfinder.

Overall, the Mju-7010 was easy to use. It has four modes accessible from the slightly stiff rear-mounted scroll wheel: Video, Scene (a selection of 15 optimised presets), Beauty (which smoothes skin imperfections) and iAuto which chooses one of five settings automatically to suit the given environment.

All of these options performed well and the beauty mode in particular did a decent job of reducing small spots, under-eye bags and crow’s feet.

The scene presets were well thought-out, offering a wide range of presets from sports to portraits to pet photography that we were able to access quickly.

There are also some on-board effects that can be used to stylise photos, including a pin-hole camera effect that darkens the edges of your images and a loud pop-art cartoon-style effect.

Our favourite option was the impressive and easy-to-use panorama setting, which directs the user to take three shots that the camera then stitches into one.

Conversely, the video was disappointing: the resolution of 640x480 pixels is not good given what the similarly priced competition can offer. Also, in low light our pictures produced too much noise.

The Mju-7010’s image stabilisation was effective at combating camera shake while the face detection was effective for recognising up to 16 people in a shot.

The lack of options for manual fine-tuning will put off more experienced snappers but the Mju-7010 is a better camera for beginners – it’s a shame about the high retail price.

Review: C2C ArchiveOne Express

Alan Stevens — 2009-11-06T09:00:00.000Z

Alan Stevens, V3.co.uk, Friday 6 November 2009 at 09:00:00

An affordable and easy-to-use message archiving tool

Developers often add 'Express' to product names to signal that that they're cut-down or simpler versions of an enterprise application, repackaged for the small business. This is exactly what C2C has done with its popular Exchange archiving add-on, now available in a fat-free Express edition aimed at companies looking for basic message archiving for up to 200 users.

Based on the same core technology as enterprise versions of ArchiveOne, the new ArchiveOne Express includes the ability to archive public folders, plus local message stores (PST) discovery and management. However, according to C2C, it's a lot quicker to install and much easier to manage.

Like other versions it can also be used with any release of Exchange from 2000 upwards. It took no more than 15 to 20 minutes to install using one of our test servers, in our case, running Exchange Server 2003.

Installation

The speedy install was largely down to wizards that stepped us through the installation and subsequent configuration required to get started. However, another factor is that, instead of having to set up complex archiving rules, you start out with a simple choice between archiving based on message age and mailbox size, an approach that really does reduce the amount of work involved. We tried both in turn; from the MMC plug-in used to manage ArchiveOne Express, we simply selected the mailboxes we wanted to manage and scheduled the pre-set archiving jobs created during the setup process.

For the most part we took the offered defaults, which further speeded up our deployment. Plus, unlike a lot of other archiving programs, there's no need for a supporting database, as any accessible network storage can be used to hold the archived files, including network-attached storage shares.

On the downside it did take a while to get to grips with some of the terminology, and the accompanying documentation didn't explain everything as clearly as we would have liked, particularly how to go about including users' PSTs in the archiving process. A separate agent needs to be run on each client to facilitate this, but it took a lot of time, and trial runs, to work out exactly how to get it working.

Zero training?

Another claim is that ArchiveOne Express users need "zero training". This is because you carry on accessing mail in the normal manner using either Outlook, Outlook Web Access or a mobile client such as a BlackBerry or Apple's iPhone. More than that, archived messages are still listed but, instead of the normal content, you get a link to the archived message in the associated repository. Click on this and the content is displayed via a browser and, if wanted, can be taken out of the archive and moved back to the normal Exchange mailbox store.

New folders are also added to the Exchange mailbox to enable users to browse and search the archives for information and, on the whole, we found it all pretty self-explanatory. Whether or not that justifies the "zero training" claim is debateable and, in our opinion, users are likely to need some hand-holding, at least to begin with.

Exchange administrators, on the other hand, should have little difficulty working out how to use the software and, having got the basic archiving to work, we found a lot more that we could do with ArchiveOne Express. For example, it's possible to specify more detailed criteria when deciding what to archive, including who messages are from or addressed to, and whether or not there are any attachments, their size and so on.

Public folders

Archiving messages in public folders is another option, together with the ability to use ArchiveOne Express for regulatory compliance with legal hold and so-called Bates stamping (where each message gets a unique date/time stamp) built-in. However, you need to be using the Exchange journaling option to automatically keep copies of all incoming and outgoing messages, and fully exploit these capabilities.

Another benefit with ArchiveOne Express is that, as with other archiving tools, the C2C software can significantly enhance Exchange server performance. It can also help to reduce storage costs as older messages get moved out to cheaper disks. Backup is still required and isn't included in the product, although C2C does offer a hosted disaster recovery service called ArchiveOne CloudDR that can be used to protect archive repositories against local outages, data corruption and the like.

We were very impressed with ArchiveOne Express, which is priced to appeal to small business buyers, but still employs proven enterprise technology to archive messages in a straightforward and seamless manner. It's quick to install, lives up to most of the claims made for its ease of use, and represents good value for anyone looking for basic yet robust Exchange archiving.

M-Audio Pro Tools Keystudio

Cliff Joseph — 2009-11-05T11:55:00.000Z

Cliff Joseph, Computeractive, Thursday 5 November 2009 at 11:55:00

An affordable music keyboard-and-software package

M-Audio is well known in the music business for its music keyboards and other recording devices used in studios around the world.

Its new Pro Tools Keystudio is an attempt to make a more affordable music product for home users and less-experienced musicians.

The Keystudio package is good value. For just £79 it includes a music keyboard that plugs into a USB port on your computer (PC or Mac) and a powerful piece of recording software called Pro Tools Essential.

The keyboard is excellent. It has 49 keys covering four octaves (groups of eight notes), and it has an Octave button that raises or lowers notes by an octave at a time to cover a much wider range.

It’s also pressure-sensitive, which means that, like a piano, the keyboard produces notes more loudly or quietly depending on how hard the keys are hit (cheaper keyboards play at the same volume regardless).

If you don’t want a keyboard there is a Vocal Studio version for the same price that includes a high-quality microphone instead, or the Recording Studio package that provides a gadget for recording guitars and other instruments.

Unfortunately the software is not as attractive. The Pro Tools Essential program is very powerful but it’s also complicated.

When the program opens you are presented with two overlapping windows that contain an intimidating selection of controls and menu commands.

Matters are not helped by the half-a-dozen different manuals included on the disk in PDF format and people who have not used recording software before may struggle.

You also need to attach a special adaptor into a USB port to use the Pro Tools Essential Software. If you lose or damage this you will not be able to use the software.

We like the idea of combining music hardware and software into an affordable package, but the complexity of the Pro Tools Essential software and the need to plug in the adaptor before running it means that Keystudio is not user-friendly enough for newcomers to digital music.

Norton Internet Security 2010

Cliff Joseph — 2009-11-05T10:15:00.000Z

Cliff Joseph, Computeractive, Thursday 5 November 2009 at 10:15:00

A new approach to eliminating internet threats

Anti-virus companies such as Symantec employ large teams to monitor new viruses and other types of malware as they appear on the Internet.

However, Symantec says the virus threat has now reached the point at which it’s almost impossible to keep up with the thousands of new viruses that appear every day.

So, for its Norton Internet Security 2010 suite, the company has developed a new system called Quorum.

In effect, this is a huge database compiled using information drawn from the PCs of millions of people who already use Norton software

This information is provided on a voluntary opt-in basis, so users don’t have to provide any information if they don’t want to.

Whenever you download a file from the Internet, or open an email attachment or load a file from anywhere else, Norton 2010 checks the Quorum database to see if the same file has been found on any other users’ PCs, and whether or not the file has caused any known problems.

If the file has a bad ‘reputation’ on the Quorum database then the security software will automatically attempt to remove the file before it can do any harm.

If there is no record of a particular file on Quorum then it can use another new feature called Insight to analyse the effect the file has on the computer.

The software can remove files that appear to be slowing the computer down or taking up large amounts of memory.

And to avoid affecting the computer’s performance, Norton 2010 uses less memory for itself – just 10Mb – and can scan the computer’s hard disk more quickly to ensure it doesn’t slow you down while you are trying to work.

The Quorum system may take a little while to prove its worth, but Norton 2010 ran very efficiently on our test PC. Its quick scan took just a few seconds to run and managed to pick up a few worrying cookies that were attempting to store information about our web browsing habits.

As with most modern security software the £50 price includes a licence for protecting three separate computers, making it good for families or small businesses that need to protect all their computers.

Apple OS X Snow Leopard

Cliff Joseph — 2009-11-03T14:35:00.000Z

Cliff Joseph, Computeractive, Tuesday 3 November 2009 at 14:35:00

The latest Mac update adds little gloss but plenty under the bonnet

Sometimes, as the saying goes, less is more.

Like the new Windows 7, the latest version of Apple’s OS X operating system for Macintosh computers focuses on better performance rather than the eye-catching features we normally expect from Apple.

After you install Snow Leopard on your Mac the display on the screen will look the same as it did before – in fact, you might be wondering why you bothered to pay £25 for the ‘upgrade’ at all.

But while it looks the same on the surface, Apple has completely rewritten the Finder, the part of the operating system that displays the contents of the hard disk on the computer screen, in order to make it run much more smoothly.

The main area in which we noticed an improvement was when using the Quicklook option that allows users to quickly peek inside files and preview their contents without actually opening them.

When a user hits the space bar to activate Quicklook the preview window pops up more quickly, even with complicated files such as video clips.

It can also browse through long documents containing multiple pages, which is handy when you are looking for specific information. Other options, such as Exposé, which neatly organises all the open windows on the screen, also respond more quickly and smoothly.

There is one big new feature but it’s mainly suitable for business users. Snow Leopard now allows Macs to work with the PC-based Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail system that is used by many businesses.

Its new ‘autodiscovery’ option allows the Mac’s Address Book, Mail, and Calendar programs to automatically connect to Exchange Server running on an office network.

That means people can take their Macs to work – as long as their IT departments allow it – and easily exchange emails, contacts and calendar details with PC-using colleagues.

Snow Leopard requires at least 1GB of memory before it can be installed and it will only run on Macs that use Intel processors rather than the old PowerPC processors that Apple used until about three years ago.

But if you have a Mac that fits the bill then Snow Leopard is a worthwhile upgrade that will make your Mac run more smoothly and efficiently.

Review: Bento 3 personal database

Stewart Meagher — 2009-11-03T12:09:00.000Z

Stewart Meagher, V3.co.uk, Tuesday 3 November 2009 at 12:09:00

An easy-to-use database tool aimed at home users and small businesses

Bento is named after the Japanese lunch box which keeps various bits of food neatly contained in separate compartments, and is a perfect choice for Mac users who need to keep every aspect of their lives organised.

The personal database is now in its third revision, and takes the familiar feel of Apple's OS X and applies it to keeping neatly organised just about anything you could make a list of. If you're the kind of individual who can't sleep unless your CDs are in alphabetical order, or needs to know exactly when and where every snap in your iPhoto library was taken, or craves a neater wine cellar, then Bento is for you.

Databases can be dizzyingly complex beasts, and those of you who like to footle about under the bonnet of your organisational tools are well served with the likes of Filemaker Pro, Bento's complex and infinitely adaptable elder sibling. But if you just want to get on with keeping every aspect of your life in shape without having to worry about creating your own relational database, then this £29.95 option could be the solution you've been looking for.

It's true that there are a panoply of cataloguing programmes for the Mac out there, many of which are cheaper than Bento, and some even free. A quick search on Mac Update will return hundreds of database applications, which will keep track of your DVDs, CDs or Star Wars action figures, but none of them offers the kind of seamless integration with a host of core Apple applications as Bento.

Start Bento up for the first time and, at the tip of your mouse pointer, you have full access to your iCal calendars, Address Book entries, and entire iPhoto library. The only application conspicuous by its absence is iTunes, which seems to be a bit of an oversight, considering that one of the most popular uses for Bento is cataloguing music collections.

Out-of-the-box templates

That aside, Bento presents even those users who would normally run a mile at the mention of the word 'database' with a user-friendly, familiar and intuitive interface, which will soon have your Beanie Baby collection in regimental order. Bento supplies a broad spectrum of genuinely useful templates straight out of the box, grouped into Educational, Work and Personal categories. These range from set-ups for keeping your digital media, user names and passwords, and customers in order, to party planning, time billing and expenses.

All of these templates can be tweaked and customised should you wish to add an extra field, or a new drop-down menu. Or if you want to go it alone you can start a new custom database from scratch, adding as many data and picture fields as your heart desires.

In addition, Bento has set up Template Exchange, a web-based depository for new templates created by the application authors and those uploaded by Bento users. These range from the somewhat mundane 'Books I have Read', to the rather more esoteric 'Lab Antibody Database' which, according to its author, is "an easy way to catalogue primary and secondary antibodies in a laboratory environment. Includes URL and image fields for quick access to the antibody web site and all the essential information to make searching easy." Phew. Our search is finally over.

Drag-and-drop data import

Importing data is a doddle, and you can drag and drop entries from Mail or iCal straight into data fields. Your entire photo library is accessible from the handy sidebar, and is organised in exactly the same way it is in iPhoto. Again, pics can be dragged and dropped into database entries without fuss, as can short video clips.

One feature which does seem to be missing, however, is the ability to import images directly from a scanner, although it is possible to grab frames from a webcam. Not a lot of use if you have a shoebox full of receipts you need to catalogue, especially as you only get three seconds to get the item in frame and in focus before the snap is taken, and the default setting provides a flipped mirror image.

Creating templates from scratch is a simple procedure with basic pallets of useful drag-and-drop items provided, all of which can be customised and repositioned at will. If you have data you don't want to share, individual entries or entire libraries can be password protected by adding an encrypted field.

Libraries can be easily shared across your local network, but any form of web sharing has been omitted as Apple would obviously like you to buy its Filemaker Pro software for £260 if you need that kind of functionality.

If you need to carry your data around with you, however, there is a solution in the form of the Bento for iPhone app which, at £2.99, is a cheap alternative to full web functionality.

F-Secure Internet Security 2010

Anthony Dhanendran — 2009-10-29T13:04:00.000Z

Anthony Dhanendran, Computeractive, Thursday 29 October 2009 at 13:04:00

Comprehensive security and parental controls

Keeping a computer secure online is an ever-more-complex job.

The days of merely needing a firewall and anti-virus program are now over – with its various components F-Secure Internet Security is a good example of these changes.

The main screen is fairly simple with a large icon showing whether the computer is safe or not, accompanied by shortcuts to three main sections – status, tasks and statistics – and smaller icons for updates and settings. The large green tick denoting a safe computer still appears if scheduled virus scanning is disabled, although we would recommend running regular scans.

The Status screen gives an overview of the different kinds of protection offered. Virus and spyware protection are bundled together, while the firewall keeps an eye on what programs are trying to talk to the internet as well as keeping hackers out, and dial-up protection prevents modem users being scammed into dialling premium-rate numbers. A toolbar in Internet Explorer gives a warning of anything untoward in websites and checks search engine results and webmail, there is email spam filtering and, finally, parental controls.

The Deepguard protection is an interesting solution to the problem of malicious software being released much more often. Deepguard decides whether or not software should be allowed to run based both on lists created by F-Secure and on what the program is trying to do. Behaviour such as trying to change the Windows Registry would trigger an alert unless it is on a list of approved software, in which case there is no interruption to the user. Likewise, if the software is on a list of known miscreants it is blocked without question.

The parental controls have two levels of protection, for small children and teenagers. Each has separate limits for time spent online, though the restrictions don’t apply to chat or online games. Children are only allowed to browse sites in an approved list, whereas teenagers are restricted the other way round with full access except to some blocked sites.

There are free security tools available, but the full-on F-Secure package keeps everything simple and working properly. F-Secure Internet Security 2010 includes some useful tools and is easy to use.

Puzzle Kingdoms

Jonathan Parkyn — 2009-10-25T09:30:00.000Z

Jonathan Parkyn, Computeractive, Sunday 25 October 2009 at 09:30:00

This genre blender proves that looks aren’t everything

Take a spot of Bejeweled-style puzzling, then tack on an element of role playing and, by rights, you should end up with some kind of hideous hybrid aberration.

In fact, the relatively recent trend for mashing up these genres has produced several enjoyably addictive games such as the supremely popular Puzzle Quest.

Though not a direct sequel, Puzzle Kingdoms proudly professes to come from the same development team as Puzzle Quest and shares several characteristics with its forebear.

There’s a familiar fantasy setting, for example, and a similarly massive map to explore. More importantly, Puzzle Kingdoms has a similar focus on puzzle-based ‘battles’ against the computer’s AI, with the objective here being to match three coloured tiles on the board by moving rows to line up the colours.

Kingdoms goes one further than its predecessor, though, by adding elements of another genre: real-time strategy. It does this by providing simple army-building and troop-management features. The cash earned in battle pays for extra troops, while uncovering new areas unlocks different troop types and hero characters, both of which can use their unique skills to help you win in battle.

The battles themselves take on a strategic element too, since you need to try and prevent your opponent from amassing resources. Different colours represent power-ups for troop attacks – as well as powering up your own army.

Relatively crude graphics and low presentation values are the only things that let the game down. But what it lacks in visual finesse, Puzzle Kingdoms more than makes up for in originality and playability.

PEGI age rating: 3+